Tearha: Titan War

Chapter Thirty-Four: The Rescue

Adelle stood atop the sheeted roof under the cover of twilight. The dark hours in the south were short, with only a couple of hours a day. But it was enough for their goal. All she was awaiting for were the familiar orange over the horizon. She had seen the light of fire when she was younger, during the Grassplains' Rebellion. Longingly, she waited. As the lights of the Twins finally completely vanished over the horizon, a loud explosion erupted from her east. Smoke plumes rose slowly from the source of the blast. Was it Arnold's grenade? Or something else? Not too long after, bright red light flickered over the roofs of several buildings and the sound of ringing bells filled the air. Screams followed soon after and fire danced like grass in the wind over what roofs too short to cover them.

From the parapet of the fortress walls, silhouettes of the patrolling soldiers ran towards the commotion, leaving only half their guards behind on the other sections.

Adelle waited for the movements to finalise until no other guards in the area were being reassigned. She zeroed in on a single guard standing on a curved section of the wall where she wagered no one else would focus on. She drew her axes and spun them in her hands to reassert their weights. Then, with a blink, she teleported across the city and onto the top of the wall and above the guard. As she fell straight down onto her target, her heart skipped and beat. Instead of slamming the sharp ends of her axes down onto the guard's skull, she turned the axes' handles in her hand and smashed the blunt end into the guard's helmet instead.

The guard drops to their knees before they could even shout for help. Groggy from the surprise bash, they turned to face Adelle as their expression turned shocked when she backhanded them with the side of her weapon, knocking the guard unconscious.

She let out a tired breath. Her teleportation ability got her far, but long distances such as that had a tendency to sting her endurance. Squatting down behind the embrasure to prevent being seen, she took a moment to rest. Looking to the knocked out guard, she could only contemplate. If she had killed him, it would only have required a single strike. But because of the non-lethal method, she had to waste time and energy on three separate attacks. And it also meant the time she had to conduct her rescue was shortened by the soldier possibly waking up.

What an inefficient method to conduct fights. She wondered why Luce used it, and even more why Adelle herself was following the example. She put that thought aside and stood up. From her vantage point, she could see Josh, leaning out of his balcony attempting to find the source of the commotion.

Things were going too smoothly. They knew there was a trap somewhere, even if they didn't know what it was. But time was ticking. She decided to throw her fate to the wind and solve problems as they came. She teleported straight into Josh's room, weapons drawn.

"Ah!" Josh let out a scream, clutching his heart. "Adelle! I need to put a bell on you."

"Why?" she asked. "Like a slave?"

"No... like a ca-you know what? Never mind that. What are you doing here? Did you not receive my warning?"

"Yes, yes," she waved off his concern. "Trap. Need me to start end of the world. Bombs. Emps. Blah blah. Things change. Luce is stuck in Citi. Now, let's go destroy that emp thing and get this over with."

Looking around the room, she noticed the bed, or what was left of it. Aside from the mattress, the frame had been torn to pieces. In its place leaning against a wall was a wooden pavise shield made of the salvaged planks and tied together with the cloth of the beddings. A short makeshift wooden sphere with a scrap metal tip was next to it.

"You've been busy," she asked him.

"Yeah," he replied, walking over. He picked up the weapon and shield, ready to leave. "I've had some unsuccessful escape attempts."