Escaping An Insect Stampede

Elyonari had just taken her first full breath after torching the ghost village to ash when the ground beneath her quaked.

At first, she thought it was just the aftershock of her own Nature Energy reacting with the mountain, until she heard something massive and then her pointed ears twitched. The forest trembled. Trees were toppling like matchsticks.

"DON'T MOVE!"

Before she could turn, two strong arms swept under her legs and back, lifting her like she weighed nothing, and she barely managed to let out a gasp before her entire world became a blur.

Vastarael.

His sapphire armor was shredded, half his body soaked in blood, his long snowy hair sticking to his face. Without missing a beat, he was sprinting across the tree line, barreling through the thick snowfall with impossible speed.

Behind them were thousands of Exo Beetles, humanoid in form but moving like a singular swarm, their obsidian carapaces clattering against each other, their legs striking ice, creating a chorus of screeches and tremors that seemed to shake the very mountain apart.

Some were climbing on others, flinging themselves forward.

"I hate bugs," Vastarael growled under his breath, leaping over a fallen log and nearly stumbling as it cracked beneath his feet.

"V-Vastarael?!" Elyonari struggled to orient herself in his arms. "W-What the hell—?!"

"No time to explain,. But short version? I blew up their nest and killed the most powerful of them. Took me five damn hours."

"...You what?!"

"They didn't take it well."

"NO SHIT!"

"Language," he teased, dodging left as an Exo Beetle lunged from the side, landing where they had just passed and immediately charging after them with the rest.

"VASTARAEL!"

"I am regretting it, yes!" He shouted back. "But on the bright side, I got their core crystal. Can't let them keep it. It was causing the illusions on the mountain."

"YOU COULDN'T WAIT TO TELL ME THAT INSTEAD OF BLOWING UP A NEST?!"

"It was glowing, Elyonari! Glowing things are always important!"

She wanted to punch him, and also kiss him, and also scream but mostly, she held on tighter.

They skidded past a rocky ledge and dropped into a steep slope, snow spraying into the air in sheets around them. The Exo Beetles weren't far behind. They were moving too fast and worse, some had started crawling on all six limbs, using their long clawed legs to slingshot themselves across the slope with insectoid fluidity.

"I don't have Biolumine to fly us out of here! Shit! I miss Biolumine!"

"THEN WHAT ARE YOU—?"

"Improvising."

He leapt midair, twisted his body, and slammed his hands into the ground as his sapphire essence erupted beneath them. Within seconds, a curved sapphire board wrapped around his boots, forming a sleek, aerodynamic surface.

They were skiing now straight down a mountain.

Snow blasted up around them as they gained velocity, his feet locked into the sapphire board that shimmered with Heat Runes to melt and smooth the path as they slid. The world became a blur of white and shadow.

Elyonari's legs instinctively wrapped around his torso, her arms clutching his neck as she flipped herself backwards, now facing the stampede as they closed in.

Her eyes glowed green with intense Nature Energy.

"You better not fall," she muttered, pulling her bow off her back.

"Oh, I won't," Vastarael smirked, gritting his teeth as they angled around a curve at horrifying speed. "Not when you're pressed on me like this."

She blinked, scowling. "Really? Now?"

"Come on. You know you missed me."

"Shut up, or I'll use your face as my stabilizer."

"I am not even mad when you say that."

She rolled her eyes but there was a twitch at the corner of her mouth. Despite the absurdity, she felt the relief. He was alive. And in one piece, mostly. He called, turning slightly as they hit a sharper curve.

"Hold on! If I go left, we hit a steep ravine. If I go right, we hit a giant boulder field."

"Why are those our only options?!"

"Because I pissed off the gods, apparently!"

She muttered a curse in Elven language, then narrowed her eyes.

"Then I'll make a third path."

She notched an arrow, focused her energy, and aimed at the highest snow banks near the top of the slope behind them.

"Elyonari—what are you—?"

"Triggering an avalanche."

"Wait, WHAT?!"

She released the arrow.

It exploded in a green burst, slamming into the snow pack and unleashing hell.

A roar of thundering snow exploded above the Exo Beetles. Dozens of them were swept away, crushed or flung aside like ragdolls as trees and debris came with it. The ones still charging didn't even look back.

"They're not stopping," Elyonari said through clenched teeth, already firing two more elemental arrows that triggered additional blasts. "They're too angry. They want you dead."

"Figures," Vastarael muttered, then smirked. "I have that effect."

"Veneri, I swear to the gods—"

"If we die," he interrupted, veering left around a boulder, "just know, I'm glad I died with you clinging to me like a fire-warmed blanket."

Elyonari's ears turned red, even in the freezing wind.

"...Shut up."

"Did you miss me?"

"Yes."

"Say it louder."

"Shut. UP."

Vastarael only chuckled, then leaned harder into the slope, increasing their speed. Behind them, the beetles were getting fewer but larger. And the mountain was getting steeper.

"We've got maybe a kilometer left. There's a cliff at the end."

"A what?!"

"I'm going to jump."

"VASTARAEL!"

"Relax, I've done it before!"

"When?!"

"…Never."

She screamed. He laughed.

They were falling.

The air around them split with the shriek of wind and the deafening screeches of thousands of humanoid beetles descending. Bodies crashed against each other midair, chitin slammed on chitin, some shredding apart on the edges of the cliffs they smashed into as they tumbled. But still, most of them were intact, plummeting right along with them.

Vastarael didn't hesitate.

His arms wrapped tightly around Elyonari's frame as he twisted mid-fall, placing himself beneath her. His essence flared as his fingers snapped downward.

A massive sapphire sphere engulfed them both in an instant.

It was thick, densely woven with reinforced layers on every inch. The inside shimmered with radiant lines of raw essence as it locked into full form midair.

The sphere slammed into the slope of a snowy ridge below, bounced and rolled violently.

Vastarael grunted, his arms still around Elyonari as they were tossed like pebbles inside their protective orb. The sound of splintering ice and crushing chitin echoed outside as hundreds of beetle humanoids slammed into cliffs, stones, and each other. The sphere smashed through the path ahead.

They rolled a dozen times, slamming down another icy slope that spiraled into a narrow valley canyon.

"Hold on. This is gonna suck."

Vastarael flared his arm outward and shattered the sphere from the inside with a thought.

And right before the final fall, he threw down a Plasma Circle that burst into a column of anti-gravitational force. The air beneath them pushed back like a reversed explosion of fire and kinetic resistance. Their descent slowed drastically in a split-second, the burning circle of energy keeping them from slamming into the valley base at full terminal velocity.

They still crashed but it was survivable.

They slammed into the snow-covered earth, rolling forward through a tundra forest at a velocity far beyond comfort. Vastarael instinctively shifted again, his body hardening with layered sapphire armor as he acted like a living shield, crashing through branches, toppling trees, tearing through snow banks and slushy gravel, all while keeping Elyonari tight in his arms.

When they finally stopped, it was abrupt. They rolled one last time into a snowdrift so deep it swallowed them almost entirely.

"Ugh…"

Elyonari groaned, blinking snow out of her eyes as she half-sat, half-crawled out of the white mound. Her body ached, her braid was loose, and her bow was stuck in the snow a meter away.

She turned her head.

"... Veneri?"

From beneath another pile of snow, she heard a muffled laugh. Then coughing. Then louder laughter.

"BAHAHAHAHA! oh gods… oh no… oh that was STUPID."

Vastarael burst out of the mound, arms outstretched, flopping backwards on the snow as his laugh echoed into the twilight sky. His hair was a mess, a streak of blood ran from his brow, and his right leg armor was practically disintegrated. But he looked… relieved.

"Veneri!" Elyonari shouted, crawling to him. "You absolute idiot! What the hell was that?!"

He wheezed, wiping the snow off his face.

"That, my dear sweet elf, was one of the craziest things I've ever done."

"You blew up their nest, got chased down a goddamn mountain, slid on a sapphire board, fell off a cliff with THOUSANDS of those things above us, and somehow you managed to slow our fall with a Plasma Circle?!"

He raised a hand weakly. "Pretty cool, right?"

"No! NO, it wasn't cool! You nearly got us killed!"

"But did we die?"

"Hey!"

She smacked his shoulder hard, though there was barely any strength behind it. Her body was trembling, equal parts exhaustion, adrenaline, and relief. And when he looked up at her, still laughing like a man who danced with death and lived to tell the tale, she couldn't stop the chuckle that escaped her lips.

Then she groaned again, collapsing beside him.

"I swear… this mountain is cursed."

He raised his bionic hand triumphantly before it flopped back onto the snow.

"I swear this mountain's mine now. I took its core, blew up its nest. Killed its boss, crashed its beetle party and still looked amazing doing it."

"You look like a dying porcupine."

"You wound me."

"No, I should wound you."

Vastarael grinned, turning his head to look at her.

"You're not mad anymore?"

"Oh, I'm furious. But, I'm also glad I'm not being eaten alive by giant beetle mandibles, so… you get a pass."

"They're not following. We're clear."

Elyonari's lips parted in disbelief. "You're serious."

"I was bluffing the entire time, but… yeah." He smiled faintly. "We're safe."

She tilted her head toward him.

"You really are stupid."

"You still love me, though."

"Shut up."

Vastarael chuckled again, but this time, it faded into a slow exhale. His eyes drifted toward the sky,. showing glimpses of stars visible through the snowfall.

"We'll need to find shelter soon."

"Yeah. But for now… five minutes of rest. I can barely move..."

"…Deal."

They lay there together, bodies battered but safe.