Rebirth {Book One}

Chapter 19

It was going pretty well, if I do say so myself.

The never-ending wave of people was finally thinning out, and I finally had some decent visibility; The relatively small number of Element corpses were getting overwhelmed by the soldiers on duty, the raptor packs and a few civilians that took up arms. Drake corpses were scattered everywhere, deep bleeding gashes across their bodies caused by Argentavis talons were evident.

There were a more than a few casualties on our side, though. There was the occasional dead soldier body, about four fallen Argies and seven raptor bodies on the ground, and about four hundred citizen deaths, some corpse-caused, most stampede victims.

I pulled out my PDA and contacted the Pod.

"Hey." I muttered into the mic.

"About time." The Pod scoffed. "Something going on, and you don't even bother to pull out your Trump Card."

"Shut up, just, put me on speakerphone."

"Done."

I cleared my throat. "Bennett, into the village, now."

Heavy footfalls from the speakers confirmed that he'd heard.

"Pod, you too."

I turned off the call and jumped into the fray myself, except there was nothing left to kill. Every Element corpse was lying on the ground decapitated, the pieces scattered far from each other to prevent the Element from repairing its host body.

"That's it?" I stood there unbelieving, sword hanging in my hand.

"Seems like it." From behind me came the sound of wings and something thumping onto the ground. I turned and saw Larry walking towards me.

"It was a bit anticlimactic, to be honest." He muttered. "Seriously? The Amphibians struggled with this?"

"To be fair, they had less space to fight in and since they're water based, they probably struggled with the Drakes." Carla joined the conversation, her armor splattered with glowing pink, an equally Element-stained sword in her hand and a snapped spear shaft in the other.

Emily was running over and waving, a bow and half-empty quiver strapped to her back. She doubled over for a bit and caught her breath before straightening up and joining the conversation too. "I heard you and Mumei trying to warn Chief, I'll make sure he doesn't find any way to spin this invasion as your fault."

"No need." Came Chief's voice. He lumbered over to our little group, Jean in tow, and he looked like he was struggling to say something. "I was... wrong to overly doubt you."

I raised my eyebrows. "Me and..."

He exhaled sharply, but obliged. "You and the girl. I should've at least considered it when you went and blabbed to me, considering what happened with the neighbours."

"I'm sorry too." Jean muttered. "It's just that-"

Larry hit her on the shoulder, chuckling good naturedly. "You were so obvious about it too!"

"I'm a little lost." I interjected. "What are you talking about?"

Emily shook her head at me. "Dense as ever."

"She likes you, dumbass." Larry deadpanned as Jean turned so red that she looked like she had a serious fever.

I blinked stupidly at him. "What?"

That was when Bennett and the Pod arrived, and I was saved. Bennett marched over to the group and lay down as usual, and the Pod set down on a Drake corpse, squishing it. Muttering something that vaguely sounded like I was excusing myself, I walked over to the Pod and opened the hatch to get my rifle, but I was met with Irys' tear-stained face.

"Woah." I said, taking an involuntary step backward. "What happened to you?"

"I'm sorry!" She cried, placing both hands on my shoulders.

"What are you talking about..?" I looked past her, and saw Mumei passed out on the Pod's chair, her breathing shallow.

"Bae called me back to keep Kronii in check and when I got back, I couldn't-"

I took Irys by the shoulders and shook her. "Couldn't what?!"

"She was fighting Thomas in the Nightmare state but got incapacitated! When I got back, she almost got-" Irys' choked at the last few words, but I knew what she was about to say. Mumei almost got absorbed.

"It's fine." I whispered. "The village is still a thing that exis—"

"Leo!" Irys yelled as I was pulled backwards. I blindly lashed out with my sword and felt it sever something and the force yanking me disappeared. I turned around to face uuhh iiimy assailant and saw more Element corpses. Didn't we mop them all up already?

Bennett's bellowed his loud, creaky roar. My head snapped to the direction of the noise and saw that he and the Elders and a few civilians and soldiers standing in a ring, completely surrounded by corpses. Where the hell did those come from?!

Larry was above, on his Argy, but some of the other Argies seemed to be going for him. One passed low over my head, and I spotted bright pink on its body, the same color of molten Element. I looked around and noticed the lack of corpses on the ground, human or animal. My focus shifted back to the corpses surrounding the Village forces, and I noticed that the clothes and armor and weapons they were holding and wearing were the stuff the villagers used, and suddenly, it hit me.

The Element had discreetly traveled from the corpses we'd killed and revived every dead body that was scattered around the place, outnumbering us about a hundred to one.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit, SHIT!" I yelled, each word punctuated by a slap to the side of my head. It was extremely stupid of me. I should've known that the dead bodies were a problem, they're literally zombies!

Above, the Drakes seemed to have been revived too, and Larry and his fourteen remaining Argies had to deal with the Drakes gliding at them and ex-members of their own flock attacking them.

I clumsily sidestepped an Element corpse that was running at me and sliced its legs out from under it. Damn this leg wound. I beheaded it once it fell to the ground.

"Okay, we have Bennett." I said to myself, assessing my options. "If we play this right, we could probably survive, as long as Thomas doesn't magically appear-"

Of course, I just had to say it.

The man himself marched into the scene from the direction that the evacuated villagers had ran toward. His frozen arm was almost entirely covered with gore and the rest of his body was covered in gashes and stab wounds that the Element on his body was working overtime to fix.

From halfway across the area, he locked eyes with me, then marched into the sea of corpses on the fastest trajectory to my location.

I turned back to the Pod. Pushing past Irys, I put the rifle's strap around my shoulders and loaded the last of my bullets into it and took all of my swords. I stood back up and walked towards the Pod's exit, trying to ignore Mumei shivering on the chair.

"Irys, keep her safe, please." I tried to stop my voice from shaking. "I'll... try to fix this."

With that, I stepped out and shut the Pod.

Taking a deep breath that was probably gonna be one of my last, I walked forward.

a/n:

holy shit next chapter might actually be the last, plus an epilogue

I've said this time and again, but i can't fucking believe it