I'd already known Hylla was somewhere, fighting. But my brain hadn't exactly registered that she could be on this very battlefield.
Just how long had she been out here fighting?
The last time I'd seen her at Camp was about a day and a half ago.
If she'd really been fighting since then…
Now she was barely standing straight, throwing her axe in reckless swings but somehow keeping the enemy army at bay.
It was like defending the tiniest island from thousands of enemies.
Even a second of hesitation could spell death.
I was almost immediately overpowered by the enemy hoard when Abel dropped me. Although I was standing in an already cleared spot, thanks to Hylla, the pressure from the army was still too overwhelming.
I hacked and slashed at the horde with my sword and that was all I could do to keep my head from being torn off.
I'd barely cut down the first line of the enemy before about fifty more Skyraxes took over their place, bearing down on me with their sheer numbers.
Unlike the attack on camp, this army couldn't seem to thin out no matter how many I cut down.
"You can't be here. You shouldn't be." She said, as she sliced through the horde, monster slime splashing everywhere. "And push the line and stop staring!" she warned as a monstrous fist from the crowd slammed into my side.
I'd been standing and staring for half a millisecond, still a bit stunned she was right here, in this battlefield.
"Sorry." I stuttered and pushed back at the rowdy horde.
A weird beefy toddler sized creature with a wolf-like head suddenly flew from the crowd, like it was thrown, straight towards my face.
Hylla immediately stepped in front of me and sliced it in a clean half with a deadly swipe before it even landed.
"Those damn demon babies." She spat. "They are called Mnueei. They'd fly at you straight from nowhere and claw your entire face off."
"Oh."
"Don't stop cutting them down!" She warned again, as she sliced off the limbs of a screaming Skyrax and then beheaded it.
"How long have you been fighting?"I asked.
Normally it's super difficult trying to have a conversation with your crush. It was a billion times more difficult in the middle of a battlefield while fighting for your life.
"How long?" She wondered. "Dunno. I've spent two nights here I think."
Beneath us, the ground rumbled and swelled, putting me off balance.
"Aw, not again!" Hylla said, "We have to move!"
"What do you mean move?" I asked, bewildered. "We are literally surrounded!"
"Another outbreak is about to happen. Right beneath us!"
"What? More Skyraxes?"
"I don't know! It could literally be anything. Come!" She said and casually leaped to the top of the nearest street lamp and perched on it like a ninja.
She stretched out her hand, "Jump!"
Jump? I couldn't just jump!
"Come on!" She urged, "I'll catch you!"
The army was already closing in on me, like ants to sugar.
I had to make my decision quickly.
I remembered how I'd jumped on the Ourodrakon's back at camp.
I had the strength.
I just needed to push off the ground really hard. Like really really hard.
The army surged at me, arms ready to rip me open.
I launched myself into the air at Hylla's outstretched hand.
And then things got complicated…
Just as I was about to grab hold of Hylla's hand…I gained acceleration, flying straight upwards, the wind whistling in my ear, past Hylla and up into the sky.
I didn't know much about physics but I was pretty sure that's not how jumping worked.
I just kept going up like gravity forgot to exist.
I thought I'd miscalculated and overjumped.
But then I looked up above me and my heart nearly stopped.
A massive bird thingie had somehow caught me by my vest. The creature looked so much like the one that attacked our school, with its scary bird of prey look—three beady red eyes on either side of its head and a curved black beak.
Maybe they were related?
The monster took me upwards with an alarming speed through the smoky skies.
Was this what Abel had been hiding from? The thing that had been chasing him through the skies?
The monster didn't seem interested in gulping me up immediately. It was more interested in flying me somewhere else.
Its lair?
Perhaps for small demon baby birds?
I didn't want to find out.
I swung my blade behind me and managed to slice off a talon.
The monster screeched in pain and dropped me.
Good news: I was free.
Bad news: I was falling hundreds of feet to my death, either to be torn to pieces by the horde below or just become a blood splatter on the sidewalk.
As I tumbled down towards the chaos below, the entire battlefield heaved from underneath and imploded as another Armageddon Bringer emerged from beneath the surface.
The roar of rage from the new monster shook the entire city.
I could already tell this thing was more massive than anything I'd ever seen. Probably even more than the Ourodrakon that attacked camp.
I couldn't get a full view of what it looked like because of all the smoke and lava coming from the crater that was just created, but I spotted a pair of massive curved horns.
Hylla was nowhere to be seen.
Had she escaped?
Just as I was about to become a stain on the sidewalk in front of an abandoned KFC, I got snatched again.
But thankfully by Abel this time.
"New orders." He said grimly as he whisked me away, "We are retreating."
That made perfect sense.
"We need to get Hylla first!" I said.
"Already did. She's the one that told me to come get you from Kaava."
"Who's Kaava?"
"Evil demon bird. Always chasing me. I told you about that before."
"Yeah…"
Another deafening roar shook the entire city, rattling the buildings still standing.
"What the hell is that thing?" I wondered aloud.
"You don't want to meet it." Abel said, "It's the main reason we are retreating. That thing…is like a commander."
"Really? Not the Scokytocles?"
"What's that?"
"Never mind."
"Well, no time to chat. I'll drop you off and circle back for any other survivors."
I had so many questions but Abel didn't seem to be in the mood to talk anymore.
Minutes later, he dropped me off behind the defense line and zipped off again into the sky.
The whole place was chaos.
END soldiers were already piling into army trucks for a hasty retreat.
A dozen soldiers in critical condition were being wheeled away in stretchers to waiting helicopters about to evacuate the zone.
I spotted Katie the teleporter, looking healthier than I'd last seen her, ushering other soldiers into armored vans and parked helicopters, preparing for retreat.
I rushed to her.
"Where's Meg? I demanded.
"Oh you made it back. Meg is already on her way out of here, she's helping with treating Hylla in that copter." She pointed at a helicopter about thirty feet above our heads, already flying off. "You should get going too. This place is going to be overrun in seconds."
In the distance, another roar echoed throughout the city.
She pointed at another aircraft still parked on the ground, "Go to that one and get the hell out of here!"
"Why that one? I need to get with Meg?"
"You'll meet her when you land! Commander Scuria personally ordered that you take that helicopter?"
"What about you?" I asked.
"I've got a ride already. Just go!"
I didn't know what she meant but I hurried towards the helicopter she advised me to go to.
It was already almost filled to the brim with other battle worn END soldiers.
The helicopter was one of those long slender types with double rotors at the front and one rotor at the back.
So inside we were sitting in rows facing each other like a public bus.
I felt a little ashamed sitting among soldiers that might have been in battle for days, fighting tirelessly. Real heroes.
I'd barely spent ten minutes out there before being whisked away. Literally.
As the helicopter lifted off the ground and took to the skies, I looked out through the window behind me and watched as the newly abandoned defense line barricades crumbled under the ever spreading army.
"At this rate, they'll nuke the entire New Jersey." The guy next to me muttered.
He looked about my age, though it was kind of hard to tell. His whole body was almost completely covered with the standard body suit; gas mask, helmet, vest and all. I couldn't even tell when I'd lost my gas mask
"I'm Steve." He said, offering a handshake, "from the California branch."
"Uh, I'm Zeph. From the Dakota branch." I took his hand. "So, you think they'll nuke the place?"
"I mean, why not? Every civilian has been long gone from the damn place. Dead or evacuated."
"Buildings are still collateral damage though." A buff asian girl sitting opposite us said. "Nuking would mean wiping out a century worth of history of art, craft–"
"Oh my God, Mei." Steve complained. "Nobody wants to hear all that! You nerd."
"Come say that to my face." Mei grumbled.
Steve turned to me again, "So what's your Ability?" He asked.
"Uh, I don't…" I stuttered, not expecting to be spoken to again. My mind was wandering to Meg and Hylla and Brody. "I'm strong, I guess. I've got super strength."
"Why'd you hesitate?" Steve asked.
"It's just complicated."
"How so?"
What were all these questions??
"Umm, I get possessed…" I said.
"So you too?" He said, beaming.
"Oh. You are…?" I asked.
"Yup. I got possessed because I managed to get poisoned by an Armageddon Bringer. Happened to Mei too."
"Wait, so all three of us just happen to get possessed some time or the other? Isn't this…condition supposed to be something super rare?"
Steve shrugged, "I mean, yeah…but coincidences happen right?"
"I get possessed too." a red beared guy in the corner said.
I froze.
An uneasy silence fell upon us.
We all looked at him, now a little scared.
"Is there anyone else here that is also…a half possessed lunatic?" Mei asked, the whole aircraft now deadly silent except for the sound of the rotors and the monster army in the distance.
Everyone raised their hands, fear and confusion on their faces.
There were about a dozen of us here. All with the same condition. And it was the rarest of conditions.
This was no coincidence. A setup?
That feeling of kinship was now slowly fading into suspicion.
"Commander Scuria." The red head spat, "He's the one that sent me here. That old bastard…"
"Wait, do you think they are going to shoot us down?" Steve asked me, fear showing in his eyes. "Maybe END is trying to get rid of us?"
"I don't–" I choked on my words as that familiar cold feeling coiled up in me.
No, please. Not here.
And it wasn't just me. Everyone froze, eyes wide in fright and panic.
They were all feeling the same cold feeling too. We all had the same condition after all.
But what was triggering it?
Was there a Scokytocles nearby?
Or is it that Armageddon Bringer down there? That thing Abel called the Commander…
Could it be?
Steve doubled over beside me, shaking violently. He jerkily took off his gas mask.
It was one thing experiencing it myself. It was a completely different thing watching it happen to someone. It was like the devil itself had taken over his body.
And unlike me, most of them hadn't learnt to control the possession. Which meant they would actually lose control the way I did the first time.
"Steve! Fight it!" I grabbed his shoulder, trying to calm him down. "Don't let it–"
Suddenly his body stopped vibrating. His countenance had changed.
And when he raised his head, his eyes were completely pitch black. His expression had gone lifeless.
Oh God.
This doesn't just randomly happen. At least for me it never was…there had to be something nearby triggering this.
And then from that moment, what happened next was a little hard to explain.
Steve—now possessed, charged at me, drove his closed fist into my chest, knocking the breath out of my lungs and I felt something crack.
I spat blood.
I'd been hit where I wasn't supposed to be hit.
I dropped to my knees, as even more chaos unfolded before me.
Every END soldier in the aircraft had now all been possessed simultaneously and were now attacking each other, literally ripping each other to pieces.
I had no idea what the hell was going on or why I wasn't affected but I knew this was really bad especially because of the fact that a dozen extremely strong individuals were going ballistic in an aircraft.
Meanwhile in the midst of all these, that dark presence inside was laughing maniacally, thoroughly enjoying the chaos it was causing in their bodies.
From the corner of my eye, I spotted Mei pummelling someone's face to pudding and then, rip a hole through the cabin wall and tossed him outside.
In less than thirty seconds the whole place was already a bloody mess.
I had to get out of there. But then I couldn't just let them all die…
If each of them was as strong as me when I'm at my full strength, then I had no chance of stopping them.
Meanwhile Possessed-Steve was now approaching me again, a twisted ugly smile on his face.
There was no escape. The whole place was so cramped, I was already cornered.
"No place to run." Possessed-Steve gloated like I didn't know.
I really wanted to get out of this without having to fight but that was proving impossible.
Feast your eyes onthis chaos, the cold presence whispered to me, This is the future that awaits your precious taskforce. END will fall. Torn apart by its own allies.
I tried to block the voice out of my mind and find an escape.
I had to fight or be killed too.
For the first time since I first got possessed and attacked Hylla, I felt like a puppet again in having to fight my colleagues for this thing's amusement.
I balled my fist and readied to take out Steve in one punch when someone else came from nowhere, body slamming me so hard I made a dent on the wall of the helicopter and the aircraft tilted sideways from the impact.
At this rate, we'll all crash and die.
I crumpled to my knees again as the pain in my chest had intensified.
This was hopeless.
It was like being in blood infested waters during hungry sharks feeding frenzy.
I was going to die if I did nothing. No question about that.
So I ran.
As Steve charged at me, I backed up to the sliding door, wrenched it open and jumped out of the aircraft, tumbling out into the cold night.