Their Misery, Our Gain [Africatastrophe Act II]

In a flash of unprompted clarity, a thought blossomed forth in her mind. As far as her eyes could see, this was no war but a massacre. Any confidence that bore fruit moments ago seemed to vanish as each moment passed. From an observer's point of view, anyone was certainly free to decry her as a woman of lesser mettle, but the sheer pandemonium roaring across this hellish landscape was otherworldly in its madness, enough to strike her with the vicious blade of reality. A nightmare painted by the hands of their foes in the darkest hours of midnight. Indeed, Natasha was no fool.

She did not doubt the abilities of Liltotto. Such a thought hadn't even crossed her mind - a distant possibility, yes, but certainly no more than that. However, war was no place for uncertainty, no place for a false sense of confidence once the odds were stacked against you. From her point of view, those odds were stacking at an incredibly withering rate.

Liltotto struck a successful blow, but for some reason unknown to either of them, that only spurred the armored knight into a fit of rage, accompanied by a deafening roar that resounded across the area. In the blink of an eye, several more Garganta opened, welcoming a nightmarish array of dark bodies that finally drew out Natasha's flight or fight response. The gameplan changed. Victory was no longer a certainty. Survival was now pushed to the forefront - for her sake as well as Liltotto...

An insurmountable sea of hollows loosed several beams of destruction, raining indiscriminate death upon those who were incapable of proper evasion. No, to be more precise, proper evasion supposed there was a route to evade this unrelenting hellfire to begin with. Several veins of blue ran across her body as those beams of light crashed against her body, threatening to shoot her out of the sky. Remaining upright, she offered every iota of reishi unto maintaining her defense to survive.

Her ceaseless wave of reishi fire maintained, of course, but that was only to keep hollows from piling up on her companion. Swinging her fist back, she roared into the sea of hollow at high velocity, using the accumulated momentum to create a shockwave to blast the remaining hollow away in the aftermath of Liltotto's attack. Rushing over to her side, her body burned and bruised, her hair bloodied and disheveled, Natasha hovered about the woman as she cast a stern gaze in the direction of that blossoming energy, her eyes surveying the battlefield in search of remaining comrades, Shinigami and Quincy alike. If that bastard rose up from an attack like that, there was no longer any option but to live to see another day. She despised the thought that they couldn't make an impact here, but none of that mattered if they lost their lives here today.

"Liltotto... if that resilient bastard rises up again... I hate to say it, I reckon we might have to cut our losses here. Either we kill it or we drown in a sea of hollow."

There was no longer any point in worrying about the piling onslaught of hollow bodies. Any gunfire now would be focused unto felling Rey. Such an objective, however, was easier said than done. Precisely because she recognized the difficulty of such a feat, her body was prepared to soar in to pull Liltotto away and evacuate with anyone else that may have survived this tumult of destruction. For now, avoiding any indiscriminate attacks, Natasha laid on an assault of her own. Bullet after bullet, beam after beam, any gun that could be used to cull the numbers to open a path for Liltotto were brought forth... hoping, praying that he would not rise again.

What was it she said? Isn't it sweet to hear their cries for mercy? Isn't it wondrous when they kneel and worship the ground you thread upon? Why was he, of everyone, asked a question he could not possibly fathom? However, as blood rushed into his ears, as his vision turned red with unfathomable rage, something clicked. He has always served her, yet was never asked to be one of the ones falling at her feet, begging for mercy. He was never asked to uplift her name or praise her. He chose to, and she accepted that. Why? He finally understands. He's not meant to kneel. He's meant to bring others to their knees. Why? Because she understands that he is above the peasants around him.

Liltotto would find no mercy, for she deserves none. She wasted everything she had on a dream, a hope. He exists to show her that she lives in a nightmare, a world dictated by fact, truths. Unfortunately for her, the truth of the matter is that she is weak, weaker than him, and for that she must pay the ultimate price. The Hollow around her, storming her, were nothing more than a distraction. It's a shame that the other gNat decided to help the worn out Quincy. As the Hollow converged on them again, the ones behind them suddenly opened up.

Stepping free from the mass of darkness, a gnarled creature, his face a boney structure of decaying flesh and black tissue swarming to hold him together rose a giant sword, a blade held together by metal, bone, and ripped tissue. Rey had used the Hollow as a distraction, his body shedding its armor to jump into a Garganta and sneak behind the two women. Like announcing their death, he exerted himself, the Hollow around them dying instantly as his power pushed the very atmosphere down like a Satan's grip on an disobedient Christian. Everything was poured into his downward swing, believing it enough to kill two birds with one stone.

Even if he missed or was intercepted, his blade would bear itself against the ground, splitting the world like butter, sand crumbling as the ground split open into a chasm, a display of his power that seemed to feel as if it existed only to laugh at Liltotto's attempts of being strong. Let those who toil hear their end coming, that blade whistling like a dead man's lullaby.

There was no way that blast killed him, her gut lingered. A clean hole was bored in the ground where the hollow used to be, right as her Letzt burned out, wings returning to the Reishi they were formed from as Nat descended to give a hand. Panting and sweating, she tried to collect herself as the hollows were fended off, trying her best to pinpoint where their ringleader had fled to, but the smell was odious; she might as well have been trying to find a slightly different colored piece of hay in a whole stack.

Cut our losses? Some questionable part of her thoughts spoke up as she felt numb with adrenaline, keeping herself on her feet as she was prepared to lay into him the next moment she...

There he is! Behind her. Her gaze immediately shifted just in time to see the gnarled monster having appeared behind the two women, his grotesque form and spiritual pressure sending a powerful terror down her spine, creeping throughout her nerves. The visual of hollows all around them being crushed by the suffocating weight of his presence was more than enough to say one thing:

They would die if they stayed here.

Hardly a thought went through her mind as she'd shove Natasha with all her might out of the way of the blade with little warning, a desperate scream raking her throat as her final word before the impact hit:

"RUN!"

Even with her avoidance of the blade's direct contact with her movement, it wouldn't save her from the powerful, world-rending blast. Her body was thrown far, she couldn't tell as her perception of up and down evaporated, smashing against rocky surfaces and plummeting from the force.

Could've killed him, another irrational thought bubbled in her mind throughout whatever stretch of time it took for her to stop falling, Just going to be a coward and run away again?

She felt her head bounce against something hard, cringing in pain as she'd grit her teeth.

Thinking about running right now? You are a coward. The berating voice continued.

Her sword formed in an attempt to stop her violent descent, only for her grip to fail, feeling herself sliding down the newly carved rock face. She didn't want to open her eyes, between the pain racking her body and all manner of debris having gotten in, coughing and wheezing as struggled hands prevented her from falling down any deeper.

Though, she felt a weight upon her shoulders as she tried to climb up, as if some darkness wished to drag her down,

Hundreds of years, and you're still a sniveling coward. She ignored it as she grunted with each pull up. Her arms were shaking, threatening to loosen at any moment, but she pushed herself to keep ascending.

When are you going to amount to anything? Shut out. Shut it out, just shut it out. A small form of her spirit weapon formed in one of her hand, aiming upward to fire a bolt in order to give better leverage as she carefully formed Reishi platforms on her feet, a hacking cough shaking her shoulders as she held tightly to the makeshift rope, steadily rising.

You should've died alongside everyone, Her teeth were clenched so tightly she swore they'd break, Piece of the Soul King? More like piece of worthless sh-

A furious scream deafened her thoughts as she'd force herself to the surface, clasping at and finally pulling herself onto flat ground, collapsed on the ground and covered in filth. With the sound of footsteps rapidly approaching, her blurred vision caught the white uniforms of the Vandenreich. She could barely understand her colleague's words - her ears were still ringing, her gaze floating down.

Red.

It was all over her dusty skin, pain radiated like warmth paired with the cold sensation of moisture on various parts of her body.

Oh. She shouldn't have opened her eyes. It would've been better if she fell asleep and forgot about today. There was no struggle to maintain her consciousness, but she wished there was, feeling her wounded boy being moved and carried.

"..No good coward." She'd mumble to herself, closing her eyes and begging for a sleep that wouldn't come, as if to punish her.

Of course her luck would run out.

Run.

That was the only word that graced her ears before the blade of destruction tore the earth asunder. The worst outcome manifested into reality. Each attack might as well have been little more than a chink in his armor, negligible damage that hardly swayed his charge. Even with her senses operating at utmost capacity, Natasha hadn't even registered the harbinger of destruction as his earth-rendering blade cleaved through the air. The atmospheric effect of that otherworldly strike swallowed the two of them within its whirlwind.

Natasha proved the lesser damaged of the two, but that may as well have been inconsequential given the way her own body was swept backward by the tumult. There was no longer any doubt. As though humbled by the landscape that surrounded them, Natasha knew that victory was no longer a possibility. To think otherwise would have been the height of insanity, machinations of a maddened mind. Escape. That was the only option left to the defeated. They had to leave here. Now. Experiencing this nightmare was one thing, but to die here would be unforgiveable. Rising from the debris, Natasha's body cried out in pain. Fractured bones.

A swollen eye. A bloodied face. A body burned. Clothing left in tatters. A detestable sight, surely, but she wasn't one for pride here. The remaining energy was cast toward keeping her body upright, evident by the blue veins that maintained against her skin. Each step, against platform after platform of reishi rushing toward the survivors who remained, grateful to the heavens above that her beloved companion was still some semblance of alive.

Coughing up a pool of blood, Natasha held onto her rib as she rushed forward, heedless of her dire injuries. There was no longer anything to be done here. The battle had been lost. The only thing that mattered now was ensuring their escape, her attention placed wholly on Liltotto's condition. It was a shameful way to swallow defeat, but part of growing as a warrior was learning to live to fight another day. And so, with that in mind, she remained beside her colleagues as they hurriedly rushed away from this hell called a battlefield.