Chapter 184 |
So just to recap: Josh and company infiltrated the castle of House Ninhursag caught up in a coup d'état, got discovered, broke into their Mana Well chamber, straight up stole said Mana Well, then they got pursued by a Chimera, ran away with a whole gaggle of Abyssal nobles, and as of right now…
"Aaaah! It's too fast!"
"M-Motheeer!"
… those aristocrats were in the process of sliding down the winding ice slide Snowy created for them to escape the castle, all the while screaming from the top of their lungs.
I couldn't make this stuff up even if I tried. I also wondered if the previous incidents I planned around were just as nonsensical as this one, and I just never had the chance to realise it because I was too busy trying not to lose my mind under the pressure and the rapid developments. Was this that 'outside perspective' privilege I've often heard about?
Whatever the case might've been, the dignitaries and Ninhursag family members were steadily emptying out of the hallway while Josh and company were in quite the pickle.
"Get off me, you goddamn—!" Josh roared while hacking at the creature's sinewy arm trying to get behind his shield, its jaw snapping closer and closer to his face.
"Hey, catch!" Hareng exclaimed from behind, and the Chimera let out a pained whine as a life-size marble head hit it squarely on its snout.
"No!" the patriarch supporting them from behind roared and pointed at the guy. "That was my great-grandfather's bust!"
The Chimera narrowed its multiple eyes and leapt, and while Josh tried to get its attention by smashing its flank with the rim of his shield, it only mildly imbalanced its gait as it let out a gut-rattling roar and lunged at Hareng, its jaws open wide.
"Look out! Duck!" Ammy yelled from the back, and he instinctively obeyed, throwing himself onto the floor and completely ignoring the rubble and glass shards on it.
A moment later, a piece of rock the size of a basketball flew past him and right into the open mouth of the creature. It reeled back in surprise, but when it bit down on the intruding projectile, it suddenly lit up with red-hot light from the inside and exploded, blanketing the hallway in crimson flames.
"Hey, careful!" Josh yelped, barely managing to duck under the wave of fire.
At the same time, Hareng rose to his feet and beamed at her with a chipper, "Thank you, my fair maiden! You saved my life!"
"And destroyed all the ceiling stuccos!" the Ninhursag man cried out in what sounded like genuine despair, but then, when the flames settled and the Chimera stuck its head through the billowing gray smoke, he immediately waved his hands and let loose a series of lightning bolts any evil space monarch would be proud of. "Back! Back, I tell you!"
Despite being fed enough voltage to power a small village, the creature completely ignored the electric sparks dancing across its singed fur and coughed like a cat with a furball trapped in its throat. Once it expelled the rock shards from its mouth, it unceremoniously whacked its own face to set its dislocated jaw back in place, followed by yet another furious roar.
"We're not doing any damage!" Josh yelled even as he was busy repositioning himself and raising his shield again.
The patriarch retorted with an irate, "Of course we aren't! It's a Chimera! What were you expecting!?"
"Focus!" Ammy cried out from the back, and she waved her staff to summon a couple of stone spikes from the floor and ceiling. "Leave killing Chimeras to Leo, and just focus on staying alive!"
"For how much longer?" Hareng cried out in alarm, seeing that the creature was tearing through the class rep's thorny barrier like it was made of Styrofoam. "We're on the back foot here!"
As if to answer his question, Snowy's voice rose over the commotion, sounding understandably strained.
"E-Everyone's down on the ground! Come, quick! I don't know how much longer I can maintain this!"
The four in the ruined hallway glanced at each other, then back at the Chimera, and then immediately beelined towards the hole Josh blasted into the wall. On the other side, Snowy was still busy performing her interpretive dance magic routine mid-air, doing her best to keep the U-shaped ice slide snaking between the castle's architecture and the town's rooftops intact as long as possible.
"W-Wait, is this safe?" Hareng blurted out as soon as he could take a closer look, and he hastily raised his palms. "Actually, I think I might've recovered enough to bring out my wings. Just give me a second to—"
"We don't have time for this!" Josh roared and deadass kicked the guy into the slide.
"Uaaaaaah!"
Seeing him slip down made the portly Ninhursag man consider his options for a moment, but realising that the Chimera was almost through the barricade, he threw his dignity to the wind and practically jumped onto the clear blue ice construct.
"Go!" Josh yelled at the class rep, and even though she could also fly (or at least levitate), she was so caught up in the moment that she automatically hopped into the slide and sped away with a terrified 'Eeeek!' kind of scream, leaving only Josh and the Chimera in the hall.
By this point, the beast got rid of the obstacle and, lacking other targets, it focused all of its attention on him. He, on the other hand, flashed a cheeky grin at it and unfurled his wings with a smug, "Adios!". He took to the air, and while the Chimera tried to lunge after him, it couldn't make it in time and teetered on the edge of the broken wall. It gazed after the rapidly retreating golden streak in the air, but then its six eyes locked onto the ice slide, and it jumped onto it without any hesitation.
"Oh, no you don't!" Josh bellowed mid-air as soon as he saw what was happening, and after just a moment of vacillation, he braced himself with his shield at the front and went into freefall.
As he descended, streaks of red and gold coalesced around him, blurring his shape and turning him into a bright falling star. His target wasn't the Chimera, but the midpoint of the ice slide. His impact created an enormous golden-red flash that painted the streets in his colours and tore a huge chunk out of the magical construct. I couldn't help but feel that Snowy might've overengineered it a bit, since the rest of it remained standing even after such a ridiculous impact, and so the Chimera kept skidding towards the gape at breakneck speed.
Sensing the danger, it planted its claws into the ice to slow its approach, but realising that it wasn't enough, it instinctively switched tactics and streamlined its body instead, gaining even more speed as it approached the gap. At the very last second, it flexed its whole body, releasing all the pent-up energy in its muscles like a spring, and it leapt towards the second half of the slide.
I'm not going to lie, it looked unexpectedly majestic as it soared through the air, and if this were a movie, this would've been the point where the footage would've slowed down with some dramatic music in the background to drive the awesomeness of the scene home even harder.
…
And then there would've been a sudden record-scratch as a block of ice the size of a small car fell right on top of the creature, and they both disappeared through the broken roof of a warehouse building, followed by an earth-shaking thud and a pained roar.
My Abyssal sister, heaving and drenched in sweat, was floating nearby with her hands pointed towards the ground. She remained in that position for a bit longer, eyes trained on the aforementioned hole, but when she saw no motion, she finally exhaled and assumed a more relaxed posture. It only lasted for a moment though, as she anxiously glanced around and then beelined towards the end of the slide.
She arrived just a few seconds after Josh landed, still surrounded by a rapidly dissipating yet still crackling red-gold aura.
"Did you get it?" he asked as soon as her foot touched the ground. "Is it dead yet?"
"What part of 'It's a Chimera' you don't understand?" the Ninhursag patriarch scoffed as he was trying to get his facial hair under control. He looked left and right, and it was only at this point that he grasped that they were standing on the flat roof of a different warehouse building, just a stone's throw away from the harbour. "Where are we supposed to go now?"
"Over there," Ammy, looking slightly dishevelled, pointed her staff towards the docks, and when one squinted hard enough, a familiar steam paddle-boat could be seen rolling into the waterfront.
"That's our ride out of here," Josh noted with just a hint of relief in his voice, and everything would've been fine if he had stopped there.
No, I mean that. If he just stopped talking there, everything would've been fine, but he couldn't help himself and just had to add, "Unless something goes horribly wrong again, but I think we're in the clear at this point."
And then the boat exploded. No, I'm not joking, or being over-dramatic, or even just cheeky, because let us be honest here; that was about as clear-cut an example of 'tempting fate' as it could get. If there was one thing I'd learned over time, it was that the rules of dramatic and comedic convenience were easily the most deeply embedded, hard-coded rubrics of the Simulacrum's underlying narrative structure, superseding anything the Narrative or the scenario could throw together on a moment's notice… yet it was the first time I've seen it take effect this fast.
"Oh, no!" Ammy cried out in alarm, seeing the plume of smoke rising from the rapidly sinking boat. "What happened?"
As if to respond to her cries, a grating laugh sounded from above as a tall, wiry Abyssal flew over. His long blonde hair fluttered with each beat of his large leathery wings covered in blue scales. He crossed his arms and threw his head back with another triumphant cackle.
"Kahaha! You old fool! Did you think I wouldn't realize what you were up to!?"
"You!" the patriarch on the roof below bellowed and stepped forth. "How dare you show your face in front of me, traitor?!"
"Kahaha! You talk like you could do anything to me down there! Why don't you come up here and… Oh, right. You don't have wings! Kahaha!"
"I'll kill you!" the Ninhursag noble roared so hard it was a wonder he didn't pop a vein, much to the floating Abyssal's glee.
"Oh, that's my line!" He unfurled his arms and spread them wide, summoning a large fireball over each palm. He looked at the people on the rooftop with a deranged grin and was just about to let loose his spells when his eyes suddenly met with someone's, and he blinked, with a confused, "Hold on. What are you doing over—!?"
Then he was gone. Poof. Just like that.
Well, okay, it was a bit more involved than that, but to explain it, I first had to point out the rapidly approaching golden streak of light flying over the town, drawing a brilliant line across the red sky. Nobody paid it any attention, because they were too startled by the sudden appearance of (whom I presumed to be) the Ninurta patriarch. At least until they couldn't ignore it any longer, as a pair of sandaled feet dropkicked him right in the side of his head, sending him flying right into the harbour and kicking up a huge wave.
Ouch. Barrier or not, that was still nasty. But more importantly, after delivering the high-flying wrestling move (though in a more literal sense than usual), the golden streak made a full circle and rapidly descended next to Josh and company, cracking the roof with her touchdown.
"Boy! Are you all right?" Deus called out as soon as she stood up from the customary three-point hero landing. She was in her full Celestial getup, with all her wings on display, plus a dozen or so summoned flame swords following right after her. Despite sounding worried, she didn't let Josh respond, but instead she angrily pointed at the sinking ship out on the water. "That Abyssal son of a b-barn animal blew a hole into our ship!"
"I can see that," the guy responded a tad morosely. "Where are the others?"
"Over there." This time, Deus pointed at the center of the town. "We drew everyone's attention as planned. Or so we thought…" She glanced back at the capsized boat and sighed. "I liked that ship."
It was at this point that Hareng wedged himself into the conversation with an audibly alarmed, "Excuse me, my scary but still fair maiden, but… does that mean that the Fauns of House Ninhursag are in the town?"
"Yes," she responded, sounding just a tad annoyed, but he didn't let up.
"Meaning that the rest of the Ninhursag family are also there?"
"What? My wife came back?!"
Ignoring the shocked patriarch, Deus nodded again, and while that made Hareng pale for some reason, all eyes were focused on Josh.
"What do we do now?" Snowy asked, sounding rather tired, and after some thinking, he pointed towards the harbour.
"Please go to the boat and help the… survivors ashore."
My sister nodded and got ready to take to the air, but then the class rep readjusted her glasses and decided to play the role of the wet blanket on this occasion by saying, "Yes, we should do that, but it doesn't change the main problem. Our escape route was literally sunk."
Josh responded with a slightly miffed, "We just have to figure out another way to get out of town, okay? One thing at a time." He glanced at Deus and added, "Can you go with Lili? The sailors probably need healing."
Her eyes abruptly switched blue, and Angie gave Josh a clumsy salute with an "Aye, are, sir!" in tow, then turned to Snowy. "Let's go!"
The two took to the air towards the docks, while Josh stepped up to the edge of the roof and looked over the horizon. On their right, the docks. On the left, the downtown of Digirmah, where the girls and what remained of the Ninhursag loyalists were making a whole lot of noise fighting the Ninurtas. Behind them, the castle where they came from, its outer walls blocking both their vision and path. Finally, right in front of them, the warehouse district, buildings full of barrels and makeshift shipping containers as far as the eye could see.
"So?" Ammy stepped up to Josh, her tone audibly impatient, and she swept her arm out. "Any idea of how to get…" She paused to quickly count the people on the rooftop, then asked, "How many people are with Team B?"
"Idunno. Lots," Josh said a tad morosely, and I was kind of tempted to check. However, I didn't want to leave them mid-conversation, especially when the class rep confrontationally tweaked her glasses again.
"Okay, so how are we supposed to get, let's say, a hundred plus people out of this town before we get fully encircled? Any ideas?"
"Right, boss," Hareng chimed in with only mildly obvious forced enthusiasm. "Hit us with your Plan F! I know you can do it!"
Josh snapped at them with a harsh, "Don't rush me!" followed by several seconds of silence as his eyes kept darting around, trying to find the optimal way out of the settlement. Then, just as he was starting to look crestfallen, his eyes suddenly opened wide, and he had an expression. The kind of expression that said its wearer had a crazy idea they thought was just crazy enough to work. "Say, Ammy?"
"Yes?"
The class rep's response was guarded, no doubt because she also recognised the expression, but Josh paid it no heed and jerked his head towards a particular set of buildings at the other side of the warehouse district.
"You said you wanted to try lighting up a steam engine, right?"
And that, ladies and gentlemen, was how we somehow went from 'infiltrating an underground vault' to a literal 'train heist'. Seriously, I couldn't make up this stuff even if I tried…
Things happened pretty quickly after this point. Josh's group got off the warehouse rooftop and rushed through the streets to rendezvous with the girls and their newfound reinforcements, who were still causing havoc on the road leading up to the castle in the middle of the town.
It was a bit of a chaotic scene, with the loyalists and their Fauns holding a chokepoint against an equally numerous Ninurta rebels, all of them trading blows in the form of a colourful array of magic projectiles, plus the occasional physical ones in the form of lamp-posts and pieces of the scenery. What can I say? The princess developed a bad habit of just chucking whatever big and heavy she could get her hands on, but it was effective, so who was I to judge? All was fair in love and war and all that.
"Team A is en route," Judy declared as she pointed at the Abyssals clustered around the adjoining street. "Distract them so that they can hit them in the back."
"Roger!" Penny exclaimed and hefted her sword, and she wasn't the only one eager to heed my dear assistant's orders.
"[Follow the commands of the Star-Eyed Maiden!]" the lead Faun from before declared with gusto, holding his spear up to signal a charge.
Meanwhile, the wife of the Ninhursag patriarch yelled, "G-Go men! Rout the rebels! Make them p-pay!", sounding both incredibly hyped up and yet terrified while hiding behind the backs of her fully armoured Faunish bodyguards.
While that was happening, my sister broke into a mad dash towards the Ninurtas' position with a thunderous (yet somehow still cute, though it might be just my big brother instincts talking) war cry, and my draconic girlfriend wasn't far behind her. I had a feeling that just the two of them should've been enough to scatter the hapless Abyssals clustered around the street corner, but they were still joined by a whole squad of Fauns, plus a few angry Abyssals of unknown pedigree but clearly loyal to the deposed Head of House Ninhursag.
Their charge caused the rebel forces to dig their heels in and pour everything they had into stopping them. They prepared their spells with the usual dance-like motions, and the ones who were already in the middle of casting threw their newly created fireballs, lightning bolts, and lumps of concentrated whatevers at the incoming formation.
If they focused their fire into a proper volley, it could've caused quite a bit of damage, but the ragtag bunch of Ninurtas engaging the group on short notice weren't exactly professional soldiers. Most of their attacks were off, whizzing past the girls' heads as they weaved through the incoming storm of destruction with graceful steps. A few unlucky Fauns in the back caught the brunt of it, yet they were still standing in the aftermath, if a bit charred and bruised.
However, just as the rest were about to unleash the second hail of attacks, an alarmed yelp from the sidelines made them all falter.
"They're coming from behind!"
It was at this point that Team A slammed into the back of the Ninurta formation like a runaway train. Josh, of course, was in the front, shield held high, and he crashed through their ranks, bowling over several of the more lightly built Abyssals in the process. He then slid to a halt, turned on his heel, and swung his sword in a wide, glowing arc, forcing the rest to keep their distance.
"It's the murderers! They're here!" a Ninurta man, seemingly of some noble standing based on his outfit, screamed at the top of his lungs. His eyes were wide with panic as he yelled, "Where are our reinforcements?!" right before a fireball hit him in the back and sent him flying.
Ammy didn't spare a second look at the felled Abyssal, and while she was breathing heavily, she still conjured a few more of her trademark fireballs that she promptly sent flying into the group. They were big and loud, but the hastily woven spells caused little damage to the Abyssals protected by their Barriers. I figured they were probably meant to disorient and separate the Ninurtas, allowing the two teams (and their native allies) to merge and form a single, much larger pocket of resistance.
I had to give it to them; they were doing pretty well for themselves. With the two groups joined together, they actually outnumbered the enemies by pure numbers, though it meant little when they had a whole lot of non-combatants in tow. Despite the threatening display they put up in the Mana Well chamber, I hadn't seen the dignitaries throw a single spell so far.
Not that it mattered much. The Ninurtas were already in a state of complete and utter disarray, their forces in a full-on panic as they tried to regroup and form something resembling a united front, but without any leader or plan present, all they managed to do was stumble over each other.
All in all, it was a fairly textbook example of a successful pincer attack.
Meanwhile, in the middle of the tumultuous group, a surprisingly heartwarming scene was unfolding, as the portly patriarch and his wife found one another and literally ran into each other's arms, completely ignoring the chaos erupting around them. It would've been a sweet moment, if not for... well, all the bloody chaos unfolding around them.
Unsurprisingly enough, Josh was sharing my opinion, as he bellowed, "We don't have time for this! We need to get to the train station, now!"
"Train station?" the matriarch repeated after him, and once the initial joy of their reunion wore off, she pulled back and stared at him. "But why?"
"It's our way out of here!" Josh roared back, but then Elly's voice rose over the chaos as she pointed at a newly formed group of Abyssals pouring out of one of the side streets.
"Reinforcements! And they've got a big one with a hammer!"
"Let me see, let me see!" Penny, sounding just a tad too enthusiastic for my liking, pushed past a few of the Fauns to get a better look at the approaching group. "Has anyone called dibs on the big guy yet?" she asked, and seeing that nobody answered, she promptly raised her hand and exclaimed, "Dibs!"
She was probably riding on an adrenaline high, or something.
"We don't have time for that either! We need to gather everyone and get to the trains, or we're gonna be in a whole lot of trouble!"
"Joshua is right," Judy moved over to back him up, one hand on her communications artifact. "I just contacted Neige. She and Angeline rescued most of the sailors, and they're already on their way to the station. Some of them are injured, and they can't hold the site by themselves."
"You heard her," Josh doubled down and started handing out orders. "Ammy, Judy, stay in the middle with the non-combatants. I'll take point. Elly, Penelope, you bring up the rear."
"What about me?" Hareng called out, looking expectant, but by drawing attention to himself, he only made the matriarch and her Fauns eminently confused.
"What is he doing here?"
"Oh, don't mind me, my taken fair madam. I'm just a hostage!" he declared with an ear-to-ear grin, then turned back to Josh. "So? Where do you need me, boss?" he asked with a disarming smile, only to be met with a deadpan glare from the guy.
"You're the worst hostage ever, you know that?"
"No way. I'm at least in the top thirty percentile!" the blonde Ninurta argued back, only to be ignored as Josh turned back to his team.
"We're not here to win a war. We just need to create a path for everyone to the station and retreat safe and sound. Understood?"
"But... the big guy!" Penny moaned, and I had no idea why she was so fixated on that Abyssal. Maybe because he was the first proper weapon user they encountered, and it tickled her knightly competitive instincts?
Anyhow, Josh's plan was pretty sensible, and so long as nothing went awry, I had a feeling that it might just work out pretty well, unless...
"Kyaaa!"
There was a sudden explosion of bricks and debris as the whole facade of a building toppled over, burying half the approaching Ninurta reinforcements (including the nondescript hammed dude) under a pile of rubble. Then, as the startled screams died down, there was a rumbling, guttural roar that all too clearly identified the culprit.
"Oh, you've gotta be kidding me...!" Josh exclaimed with clear frustration. "Not this thing again!"
Meanwhile, the Chimera shook the dust and plaster off its body, now a bit more humanoid than before, kind of resembling a werewolf. A big, scaly, six-eyed werewolf, with a long tail and fur in odd places, but still, close enough. It rose onto its hind legs, letting out another throaty roar that made the whole street fall into stunned silence.
I had no idea why they were so dumbfounded. I mean, they should've seen this coming. There's no way it was dead yet; spooky monsters never die when they fall like that. On the bright side, at least it had no concept of friendly fire, considering its dynamic entrance pretty much scattered the Ninurta reinforcements.
On the less-bright side, it was mono-maniacally focused on Josh again, and it immediately began lumbering towards their position on all fours, snarling like a dog that had just found its favourite chew toy.
"Change of plans," Josh muttered as he readied his sword and shield. "Judy, you take point. Take everyone to the station. I'll join Penelope and Elly and keep this fucker off your backs as long as I can."
"Does that make this Plan H, or Plan—" Hareng started, but seeing Josh's withering glare, he immediately backed off with a placating, "Never mind, boss! I'll go make myself useful!"
He hurriedly disappeared into the crowd while yelling, "You've heard the boss! Follow the fair maiden with the funny glasses!", all the while Josh, Elly, and Penny grouped up to face the Chimera.
The Ninhursag matriarch, bless her heart, seemed to momentarily forget her shock and called out, "You can't be serious! That's a Chimera! You'll die!"
"Don't worry about them, wife!" The patriarch grabbed her by the arm and pulled her along, following the flow of the group. "If anything, those cursed Ninurtas may just be out of a Chimera by the end of the day!"
Well, that was some optimistic thinking, I had to give him that, but he might not have been entirely off base. Unlike with the previous match-up, where most of the group were casters with poor effect on the magic-resistant hide of the Chimera, all three of them were melee bruisers.
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Josh, as he already demonstrated, could hold his own for a while. Penny had speed and agility on her side, so unless she got cocky, I probably had no reason to worry about her. Meaning, I was a little worried, but let's ignore that for now. And as for the princess…
"Catch this!"
She opened the fight by chuckling a half-demolished lamppost at the creature, forcing it to raise its arms and shield its face with a pained yelp. It was a good opening, and Josh didn't waste it. He charged in, shield held high, and slammed into the Chimera's chest with all his might, sending the monster stumbling back a few steps and leaving its flank wide open.
Penny wasn't sitting on her laurels either, and she used her superior mobility to get behind the beast. She performed a nifty (read: superfluous) spinning slash that sent a cascade of sparks into the air, and while it didn't cut deep, it still managed to make the Chimera yelp in pain.
"What is this thing made of?!" she yelled out in outrage, much to Josh's vindication.
"I asked the same thing before!" he shouted, only to hiss as the creature swung its fist at him. He managed to bring his shield up in time, though the sheer force of the impact still sent him sliding back a meter or two. Once he regained his footing, he added, "Just make sure you keep his attention! We must buy time for the others to escape!"
"But... how are we going to escape?" my princess asked the obvious question, and it made the guy stumble over his words.
"I'll... I'll figure that out later! For now, we just gotta hold the line!"
"I'm not sure this counts as a line!" Penny noted as she nimbly dodged a backhand swipe from the Chimera that could've taken someone's head clean off. She then ducked under its arm and came up with a thrust aimed at its armpit, where the fur was thinner. The blade sank in a good few centimeters this time, and the beast responded with a pained roar that made the windows of the surviving buildings rattle in their frames.
Seeing that the creature was now singularly focused on her, my knightly sister took the opportunity to somersault back and put some distance between them, allowing Elly to rush in and hit the beast's side with a fancy shoulder bash. It looked a bit odd, but I've seen her use that before, and she repeatedly reassured me that, yes, it was a proper martial arts move.
In any case, despite the major size difference, the Chimera stumbled back again, and while it didn't fall, it gave Josh enough of an opening to bring out his wings, leap into the air, and perform some sort of diving shield bash right on the creature's snout. It kind of looked like a much less powerful version of the move he used to break the ice slide from before, which made me wonder: did Josh have a move-set now? Was he finally graduating into full shounen battle protagonist status?
Idle meta thoughts aside, they continued to kite the Chimera to the best of their abilities. It was a slow, arduous fight, and while they managed to get a few more good hits in, none of them had any lasting effect on the creature.
Meanwhile, the rest of the large group was moving down the road as fast as they could. Judy was doing her best to keep the pace steady while making sure none of the non-combatants were left behind, but the road ahead was not looking great. The streets were narrow, and more Ninurtas were popping out of every side alley, trying to block their path.
Thankfully, they were still completely disorganised, so while they managed to get off a few potshots here and there, the Fauns surrounding the main group managed to shield them from most of the damage and then promptly subdue the attackers. They were a tough bunch; I had to give them that.
"We're almost there!" Judy shouted over her shoulder, the adrenaline rush of the situation pushing her usual monotone mien. She pointed at the grandiose Victorian-style station down the street, and then froze for a moment before changing the target of her finger and saying, "Fliers on the left!"
"Understood!" Ammy barked back and let loose a string of smaller fireballs towards the winged Abyssals attempting to get ahead of them. Her attack was joined by a series of lightning bolts, courtesy of the Ninhursag patriarch. Their combined efforts were enough to break up the attackers' formation, and the ones that managed to land were quickly overwhelmed by the Fauns.
"This is it! This is the main entrance!" the matriarch announced, gesturing at a pair of large, wrought iron gates. They were wide open, and the main hall of the station was visible just beyond, a large, cavernous waiting room with a high, glass-domed ceiling.
"Hold the entrance!" Judy commanded as soon as they reached the gates. "Make sure nothing gets in while we get everyone onto the train!"
"I have an idea!" Ammy yelled back and raised her staff over her head. With a chant and a weave, a familiar magic circle materialised on the ground, and from it emerged an equally familiar stone construct. "Petra! Sit there, and don't let anyone through!" she commanded, pointing at the entrance.
The large golem dutifully shuffled over and planted itself right in the middle of the entrance, its arms crossed. If nothing else, it made for a very effective roadblock.
"Good thinking." Judy's voice was off-pitch, probably because she was shouting quite a lot as of late. Being both frantic and yet still deadpan was apparently bad for one's vocal cords.
Meanwhile, there was another piece of good news.
"Look, everyone!" Hareng called out with undisguised elation, a finger pointed down the tracks. "Our demure and scary maidens are here!"
That referred to Snowy and Deus, I figured, and lo and behold, there they were, leading a small gaggle of bruised and drenched sailors along the railway platform. The trainyard wasn't just for passenger service, but also for cargo, and since the rails led all the way to the docks, it made sense that they chose to follow them to the station instead of trying to navigate the streets and alleys of the city.
They were all looking a bit worse for wear, especially the sailors who were still complaining about their lost ship, but nobody was seriously injured.
"We've gathered everyone!" Angie declared as she rushed up to Judy and Ammy. "Well, everyone except the captain. He went down with the ship."
"That's... tragic," the class rep noted in a sombre tone, but the Celestial girl only blinked at her and hurriedly shook her head.
"Wait, wait! Not that way! He can breathe underwater, or something, so he said he's gonna stay behind to make sure nobody loots his ship."
"Abyssals can breathe underwater?" Judy blurted out, her exhaustion once again showing in her voice, and this time, my belatedly landing Abyssal sister was the one who provided the answer.
"Um... Some of us can. Depends on our ancestry." She paused, and it was only at this point that they realised not everyone was present. "Where's Josh?"
"Right, I was just about to ask!" Angie followed her up, and I figured I might as well Far Glance over to see how they were doing.
In one word, not too well.
"How much longer?!" Josh yelled while trying his best to get out of the way of a giant, scaly paw. He managed to dodge, but not fast enough to fully avoid the impact, and was sent skidding across the cobblestones.
"I told you, just a few more seconds!" Elly barked back, only to let out a startled 'Awawa!' and resume her previous stance, arms spread out and mouth wide open, with a highly condensed ball of bright red light forming in front of her.
"You said the same thing a half a minute ago, too!" Penny complained, then did an acrobatic back flip to get out of the way of the Chimera's tail. It slammed into the ground with a thunderous crash, shattering the pavement and sending debris flying everywhere. As soon as she landed, she assumed a low stance, like a spring coiled and ready, and then she lunged forth at blinding speed, leaving a faint silvery afterimage behind.
Her blade, glowing with a transient white light, bit deep into the Chimera's flank, eliciting a pained roar from the creature. It tried to reach back and swat her away, but my knightly sister was faster, and she yanked her sword out, twirled around, and then dashed out of the range of a clumsy yet powerful counter-swipe. She didn't look hurt, but she was breathing heavily, and her movements were getting a bit sluggish.
In the meantime, Josh picked himself up from the ground and hummed a short healing aria, and while I couldn't see any visible effect from my perspective (he was wearing a Magiformer, and its Wards had my seal of guarantee after all), some colour returned to his face, and he moved a bit more freely now.
However, that small respite was immediately shattered when the Chimera, ignoring the fresh wound in its side, suddenly spun around and lunged at him again. Josh managed to parry the initial charge with his shield and stab at the creature's neck, but it disregarded the shallow cut and tried to bite down on his head in return.
"Oh, no you don't!" Josh roared and his blade flashed red, the prelude to a now-familiar sword-burst. I mean, it wasn't a sword-beam per se, so that name was as good for it as any.
In any case, he used it while the tip of his blade was still embedded in the Chimera's neck, and the result was… messy. The explosion of crimson light made the creature stagger back, clutching its throat and making gurgling noises, but it didn't fall. Instead, its eyes narrowed with fury, and it let out a high-pitched shriek that made my eardrums ache, even though I was watching through Far Sight and so, by definition, didn't have any eardrums at the moment.
"What the actual, literal hell?! That was at point-blank range!" Josh bellowed with undisguised indignation. "Why don't you die?!"
"Duck, you idiot!" Penny yelled, and before the guy could react, she flickered in and out of sight (from his perspective, I presumed, since she momentarily turned on her Concealment Sigil) and she quite literally slammed into him and tackled him off his feet.
He was understandably startled at first, but noticing the swelling red light in the back, he quickly put two and two together, and he leaned into it, holding onto my sister while the two of them rolled away. A moment later, Elly finally released her dragon breath, and a huge, ridiculously thick laser beam shot from her mouth, scouring a line across the street and then hitting the Chimera in the chest.
It was a direct hit, the crimson ray splitting like a jet of water hitting a solid surface, but the Chimera's resistance didn't last long. Before long, the creature was sent flying back as if carried by an unstoppable torrent, its flesh sizzling and burning all the way until it slammed into a nearby building with enough force to bring down a chunk of its facade on top of it. By the time the dust settled, the Chimera was compeltely buried under a small mountain of rubble, leaving the street in a state of stunned silence once again.
"... Okay," Josh wheezed as he lay on the ground with my sister on top of him. "Remember guys… Nobody dare jinx this. Not a single word about this until we're on the train."
"Yes, I've heard what Judy said too," Penny was quick to reply, looking a bit frazzled as she brushed the dust off her Uniformer.
"R-Right! No jinxing," Elly stammered out while wiping her mouth, looking a bit pale.
By the sound of it, my dear assistant must've warned them about the power of that particularly annoying trope, and while I was pretty sure Josh and Penny didn't get it, they were too mentally worn down to argue about it.
There was a long beat of silence in the aftermath of the battle, eventually broken by my knightly sister letting out a startled sound as Josh stood up while still holding her in his arms. It was a full princess carry and everything, and before she could start complaining, the guy unfurled his Celestial wings with an audible grunt.
"We're done here. Let's go."
He didn't wait for a response, and with a few powerful flaps, he took to the air, carrying Penny with him. Elly was still out of it, so it took her a second longer to react, but then she spread her draconic wings and followed him without another word.
The trip to the station was unexpectedly uneventful. They flew over the rooftops, and even though they occasionally saw groups of armed and armoured Abyssals running amok on the street below like a flock of headless chickens, none of them felt brave or foolish enough to engage the airborne trio.
By the time they landed on the platform next to Judy and the others, the main group had already finished loading everyone onto the only passenger train in the station. It was a massive, black behemoth with a sleek, aerodynamic design, and it looked like it was pulled straight out of a dieselpunk fever dream. The only thing it was missing was the characteristic smoke-stack of a classic steam engine, but since it ran on magic, that made sense.
Speaking of magic, there was a whistling sound coming from the front, and Ammy poked her head out of the cab of the locomotive with an elated, "Guys! I think I've got it! Just give me one more minute to warm it up!"
"Finally, some good news," Josh groaned as he let my sister down, only to pause when he noticed Angie looking at him funny. "What?"
"Nothing," she said, but then she sidled close to him and patted him down. "You're not hurt, right?"
"Just a few scrapes. I'm fine," he assured her, at which point she responded with a curt, 'Good!' and hugged him, much to his confusion. From my vantage point, it kind of looked like she was marking her territory, but maybe I was just overthinking it.
Meanwhile, the last of the Fauns lagging behind to secure the perimeter also finished boarding the train, and so Judy waved at Josh's group from the door of one of the passenger cars.
"Everyone, please get on, pick a seat, and sit down. We're leaving."
"You had me at 'pick a seat'," Elly mumbled in a daze as she ambled over to the steps below the same door. "I'm dead tired."
"It's lucky we weren't followed," Penny added with an equally exhausted voice. "I thought we would have to keep fighting until the train started rolling..."
Judy chided her with a quiet, "Hush," but while my sister heard it, the same couldn't be said for the guy poking out his head through the nearby window.
"You see, my fair maidens?" Hareng spoke up with a grin as he hung out of the train window like a golden retriever. "I told you everything is going to work out juuust fine! We're all together, all safe, and nothing can go wrong now!"
And then the classy glass and wrought iron canopy over the platform shattered as the head of the Ninurta family from before, still drenched and holding a pair of huge fireballs over his hands, appeared right over the train.
He bellowed, "I won't let you get away with this! I refuse to be humiliated any further!"
"Oh..." Hareng hummed, looking just a bit startled, but then he flashed a weak smile at Josh and told him, "Don't worry, boss. I'm sure you've got this!" Then he closed the window and, by the looks of it, hid under one of the train seats.
Well, at least it was just the Ninurta patriarch. Sure, he was dangerous, but it wasn't like—
"Could you please stop doing that?"
The sudden yell coming from my side nearly made me fall off my bed in fright, and when I opened my eyes, I found future-me glaring at me with his arms crossed.
"Uncle Antonio!"
The kid from the other room rushed over with an elated pitter-patter and caught his legs in a bear hug. My future self tousled his hair with an indulgent smile and a soft, "Hi, Beansprout. Let me talk to Uncle Polemos for a minute, and I'll be right with you." He waited until Ollie left my cell, then he turned back to me, his friendly expression gone. "Seriously, stop."
"Stop what?" I asked back, momentarily stumped, but then he pointed at Cal in my lap, and I hastily put it aside. "Hey, I was just..."
"Using self-suggestion to induce narrative influence," he said with a groan. "Listen, it doesn't work the way you think it does when you do it like this. Your imagination starts to wander, you start thinking of tropes, and then the Simulacrum responds to that, and you get a whole flustercuck. It's already hard enough to keep this retcon together without you pulling at the strings too. Stop it."
"... If it's a problem, then why didn't you tell me beforehand?" He gave me a flat stare, as if he couldn't believe I just asked something so monumentally stupid, so after wracking my brain for a second, I ventured an educated guess. "Timey-wimey bullshit?"
"Timey-wimey bullshit," he confirmed, and pointed a finger at me again. "In short, stop doing it, stop trying to get yourself involved until the time is right, and now, if you excuse me, I have ten free minutes, so I'm going to pamper the kid a bit."
And with that, he just turned around and walked out of my cell.
I whispered a quiet, "Dick," under my breath, but then he lurched to a stop and leaned back.
"I can remember that, you know?" he said with a cheesy smirk, and then walked out of sight, making me roll my eyes so hard they nearly popped out of their sockets.
Anyhow, that intermezzo aside, I quickly turned my attention back to Josh and company, and... the train was already barrelling through the outskirts of Digirmah at a hair-raising pace, Elly, Snowy and Deus were engaged in a three-to-one magical slugging fest in the air with the Ninurta patriarch, and on top of the final passenger car...
"Just leave us alone already, you big, dumb bastard!" Josh roared with a downright palpable frustration as he deflected a strike from... yes, you guessed it! The bloody Chimera was there too! Again! Somehow!
...
Okay, so was this actually my fault, or just the Simulacrum loving to throw everything at the kitchen sink at people during dramatic climaxes? Whichever the case was, one thing was for sure: Holy crap, this escalated quicky!
The afternoon sun of the Abyss shone red-tinted light onto a picturesque landscape. The mountain in the center, towering over the horizon. The rivers and woods of the island, full of serene natural beauty. The gentle wind making the growing wheat stalks weave and bob all around, creating the illusion of the great farmlands being covered by languid waves like the ocean.
…
And then a steam train just passed by them all at like a bazillion kilometers per hour, while a winged man in the sky was screaming, "I will not let you escape!" from the top of his lungs.
At least that's what he said, but by the looks of it, that was exactly what was happening, because he couldn't quite catch up to the speeding passenger locomotive. It was a bit surprising, considering that Deus, Snowy, and Elly were perfectly able to keep pace with it, but I digress. Maybe he was just a slow flyer.
He wasn't a gracious loser though, and he kept throwing bright orange fireballs at the train cars, so the girls were more concerned with trying to block those than properly fighting him. On the other hand, the same couldn't be said about the pair on top of the last passenger car.
"We need to throw it off!" Penny yelped as she tried to rush towards the Chimera. "It's tearing the carriage apart!"
The creature let out a gurgling sound and swept an elongated forearm, forcing my sister to jump back… which nearly caused her to careen off to the side.
"Look out!" Josh's voice was panicked, but his actions weren't, and he resolutely dashed towards her, grabbing her hand at the last second and yanking her back towards the middle of the roof. "Be careful! I can fly, but if you get swept off here, it's game over!"
"You think I don't know that?!" she snapped back, but then her eyes opened wide and she yelled, "Look out, on your six!"
Josh didn't hesitate and reflexively raised his shield, catching a downward slam that made his feet sink into the thin metal sheets covering the top of the passenger car.
He bellowed an understandably frustrated, "Fuck off!" and swung his sword, forcing the Chimera to pull its paw back, but that was it. It didn't move much, and the reason for that was as troubling as it was grotesque. The creature didn't escape unscathed from the princess's dragon breath, and even now, it was missing half its eyes, with its head in particular swollen on one side and burned to the bone on the other. Its left arm must have also been torn off, as it was currently in the process of re-growing, topped by a comically small three-fingered proto-hand.
However, that wasn't the biggest metamorphosis it underwent, as its lower body was outright missing, its legs replaced by a cluster of writhing, fleshy tentacles. Bright pink and purple and covered in shiny mucus, it was using them to anchor itself to the top of the train by grabbing onto the sides of the passenger car and the window frames. Without legs, it wasn't exactly moving fast, but it wasn't standing completely still either, and it continued to slowly inch forward by dragging its upper body with said fleshy appendages.
It was a rather bizarre (and gross) sight, but I was already aware of just how resilient these bloody bastards were, and… that brought my musings to a full circle. Was this my fault?
I admit, I tried to be a bit cheeky. Future-me didn't allow me to intervene directly, and communicating with Judy was an enormous hassle, so I figured I'd try to use my nebulous narrative powers to our advantage and gently nudge things in the gang's favour. It didn't sound like a bad idea on paper; I would have Cal do the mana circulation for the meditation technique I often used, and then sit back, relax, and watch the events unfold while focusing my attention on what I'd like to happen.
Kind of like one of those kooky self-help thingies preaching about how to 'picture your success, and it will come to reality, except my version demonstrably worked, and… maybe a bit too well? I mean, I was expecting things to go pear-shaped, because they always do, and I was waiting for all the shounen battle tropes to show up, even if only subconsciously, so… we're back to square one. Was this my fault?
…
Well, if it was, then nobody could prove it… But I figured I should apologise to the girls later for the trouble anyway. Just to be safe. Speaking of which, I Far Glanced over to the train engine cab, where Judy and Ammy were in the middle of discussing the finer details of locomotive operations.
"Can we go faster?"
"I don't know!" the class rep responded with a frankly concerning enthusiasm, her face lit ominously by the flame ball she was conjuring. "But I intend to find out!"
The driver's cab was surprisingly spacious and clean, but most importantly, it was filled with levers and gauges and buttons and all kinds of other stuff that made me wonder how they managed to get this thing moving in the first place. Maybe the class rep was secretly into trains? I've heard that was a surprisingly popular hobby.
"Just a moment." Judy raised her hand and tapped her party glasses. "Attempt seven. Chief, are you listening?"
Oh. I scrambled to grab Cal again, and after forcefully starting the relevant enchantment arrays, I sent the message, "I'm here, Dormouse. I was distracted elsewhere."
"The Chief is here," my dear assistant whispered with just a hint of relief, then she asked, "We need some help. How do you kill a Chimera?"
"… Didn't I already explain in detail what happened back at the school?"
"Yes, you did, but we don't have any acid on hand," she explained to me a tad impatiently, and I was just about to respond when there was a knock on the door.
The girls looked over, and Elly was hanging onto the side of the cabin, gesturing for them to let her in. Since Ammy was still in the middle of making custom firebox-heating fireballs, Judy took it upon herself to step over and carefully open the door wide enough for my other girlfriend to slip inside.
Elly was drenched in sweat and she bent over, then took a deep breath and lightly slapped both of her cheeks at once. "Phew. Okay, I'm fine now." She shook her head and finally locked onto Judy. "Guys, I have good news and bad news."
That wasn't boding well, but Judy maintained her poker face and said, "Good news first."
"That Clan Head is no longer chasing us in the air."
"Oh, good," Ammy noted with a hint of relief. "So that's why there aren't any explosions anymore."
"Bad news," Judy instructed, and the princess's expression clouded over.
"He's now chasing us on the rails." She pointed toward the back of the cab, in the direction of the passenger cars. "They sent another train after us."
"Another… train…" Judy repeated after her, her voice flatter than ever.
"Yes, a smaller one. Without any cars, and it's gaining on us. Oh, and it's having a lot of really angry people riding on top of it."
I had to see this, so I shifted to Angie's mark for a better vantage point, and it was true. Jesus tapdancing Christ, the guys were now in a high-speed train chase. Was this also my fault? I couldn't have been! I didn't even know that was a thing!
Anyhow, the Deus and my Abyssal sister were lagging a bit behind and trying to harass the second locomotive, but it was covered in a semi-circular dome of interlocking pentagonal magical barriers, which weren't as cool as hexagons, but still shielded the machine from any icicles and arrows sent its way. It was generated by half a dozen Abyssals standing at the back of the engine and wildly gesticulating, like a pack of conductors trying to assert their dominance over the orchestra, while at the head of the locomotive, the Ninurta patriarch was standing defiantly, arms crossed and shouting (what I presumed to be) threats towards the sky.
So yeah, that was happening. Josh and Penny were still fighting the steadily octopussifying Chimera, but Judy already had asked me a question, so I didn't stay to watch them and returned to her side, just in time to catch her say, "… the Chief is listening. I hope."
"Yes, I'm still here," I messaged, then after a long beat, I added, "I still don't think I can provide much advice. You just have to hit it really hard with something big and solid. Like the ground."
"The Chief says we just have to hit it really hard," Judy interpreted my words to the others, making Elly's face turn cloudy with outrage.
"We already did that! I hit it really, really hard!"
"Yes, I saw it. It was a good hustle, but you need to do it without magic."
"The Chief says we have to hit it with something that doesn't involve mana-induced phenomenon," my dear assistant clarified on my behalf, and both Elly and the class rep looked at her funny.
"How are we supposed to do that?" Ammy spoke up first, then suddenly proposed, "Wait, the first Chimera was killed by dropping from the top of the school with Leo on its back. Can't we take it high into the sky somehow and replicate the event?"
"No way!" my draconic girlfriend denied while making an X with her hands. "It's grabbing onto the top of the passenger car really, really hard, and even if it wasn't, I don't think the three of us can lift it with our wings."
"Then why don't we just detach the last car?" Ammy proposed next. "I mean, if we did that, it would also stop the other train following behind us."
This time, it was Judy who shot down the idea.
"We can't. We don't even know how to do that, and those couplings are solid steel clamps."
"Yeah, that'll take some effort…" Elly started, but then quickly shook her head. "No, even if we did that, we only have two passenger cars. There's no way we can cram everyone into just one!"
"Oh, right… I didn't think of that…" Ammy conceded, and after a few long seconds, she threw her fire orb into the furnace, closed its door, and asked, "What does Leo say?"
"Nothing, as of yet," Judy whispered with just a hint of peevishness in her voice, so I gave up and decided to just speak my mind.
"You guys have a train, you know? That's both big and solid."
As soon as I said that, Judy's eyes lit up and she tapped on her artifact.
"Joshua, do you copy? I think we have an idea."
It really was just that, and a rather obvious one too, so I didn't feel great about having to point it out to them like this. But then again, when under pressure, evident stuff could just fly under the radar sometimes.
I also Far Glanced back to the pair on top of the train, with Josh hanging back and listening to Judy's explanation, leaving the front to my knightly sister. After a few seconds, he let out a soft grunt and yelled, "Listen, we have a plan!"
"Is it a good one?"
"Hell if I know!" the guy barked back and joined the fray, hacking at one of the tentacular appendages trying to pull the Chimera towards the middle of the car. "We're gonna hold the line for now, and wait for the other train to catch up to us!"
My sister nearly stumbled when hearing that and yelled out a confounded, "What? Why?!"
"It's hitting two birds with one stone!" he answered a touch cheekily, managing to do so even while ducking under a horizontal swing. "We're gonna need a way to dislodge this goddamn cockroach for it to work, somehow! Any ideas?"
Penny responded with a hesitant, "I… have a secret technique…"
"Can you cut its leg… tentacle-things with it?"
"Y-Yeah, but I never—"
"Good enough!" Josh yelled back and threw himself into the fray again, not listening to Penny muttering '—used it in real combat…', and she wasn't going to repeat it either, as she hurriedly adopted an odd stance, holding her large sword vertically, with its flat facing the enemy, and she began to silently recite something that almost sounded like poetry.
In the meantime, Josh weaved between the flailing arms of the injured beast, targeting its tentacles whenever it tried to inch forward. This stalemate lasted for a solid minute, and just as the guy was about to get impatient, my sister yelled, "I-I'm ready… I think…!"
While that didn't exactly inspire boundless confidence, Josh didn't complain and retreated to give her space. Just as he got out of range, Penny rushed in, surrounded by an oddly pink aura. Then, right as the Chimera was about to switch its focus to her and attack, she came to a sudden halt and yelled, "S-Seishun Dairin Zan!"
Whatever the heck that was supposed to mean, it was immediately followed up by a storm of pink, crescent-shaped somethings that rained down on the beast, targeting its tentacled lower body and outright shearing off about half of them in the first salvo alone. The weirdest part wasn't that, but the fact that my sister remained stock still while all of that was happening, still holding her glowing sword in the same pose as before.
And then it finally clicked with me: it must've been something Mountain Girl taught her! It had her fingerprints all over it!
It also explained why it was so infuriatingly effective against the Chimera. While her previous slices and pokes barely managed to inflict surface-level lacerations, despite her best efforts, these ephemeral-looking slash.png effects swirling around my knightly sister managed to not only inflict deep cuts on the grotesque appendages, but ended up straight up severing them. Worst of all, it made sense; Rinne was a ninja in name only, while in truth she was a monster hunter, so of course her techniques, even if bootlegged to fit a great-sword, would do a number on something like a Chimera, magic resistance be damned.
It wasn't quite enough though, as while most of its limbs were cut and minced, the beast still clung onto the passenger car's roof with two tentacles, one on each side.
Penny was visibly pale and a bit woozy as she yelled, "I… I tried!" and retreated a few steps, yet in an unusual display of camaraderie, Josh reassured her with a pat on the shoulder.
"It was good enough. I'll take it from here." He stepped forth, and if I didn't know he was already taken, I would've suspected he was trying to look cool on purpose to impress my sister. He also reached into his belt pouch and took out a familiar red capsule, then after a moment of hesitation, he threw it into his mouth and muttered, "I wanted to save these for later…
As soon as he crunched the blood pellet between his teeth, his whole body flashed with the usual mixture of gold and dark crimson light. If I were a betting man, I would've put money on him breaking out his sword-beam attack… and I would've lost, because he put away both his sword and shield. The Chimera, in shock from the pain, was flailing wildly, so he brought out his wings and leapt over the wounded creature, landing right behind it.
Then, for my further shock, he grabbed it. I mean, the Chimera. He just straight-up grabbed it from behind, as if trying to get it into a hold. I knew he practised a bit of judo, but I was pretty sure there was no approved grappling technique for this situation. On this bet, I would've been right, because he wasn't planning to grapple with the beastie; he was going to throw it.
Josh's whole body surged with the same aura as before, and as he strained, the fleshy bottom of the creature's mangled lower half left the surface of the roof, but only barely. Its two tentacles, clamped around the frames of the broken windows below, were pulled taut, yet didn't let go. He grunted, then let out a roar as he unfolded his Celestial wings, all eight of them. Their semi-transparent, golden-feathered form was the same as usual, yet as his crimson-tinted aura flared, they became less radiant, with strange, swirling red lines spreading on their surface.
It didn't interfere with their function, and using them to increase the force behind his pull, he strained against the Chimera with all his might. Its remaining tentacles were stretched to the limit, literally distending like they were made of rubber, yet it refused to let go. For a moment, it almost looked like it would win this tug-of-war, but then…
"Josh!"/"T-Take this!"
Two voices called out from the sky in unison, barely audible over the racket of the train and the howling of the Chimera, yet their timing was impeccable. On the left, three fiery swords whistled by. On the right, a wide, sharpened piece of crystal-clear ice the size of a kneading board fell from the sky like a guillotine blade. Their targets weren't the stretched taut segments of the Chimera's tentacles, but the contact points between them and the roof.
The creature roared in pain again, followed by a surprised whine as his body finally detached from the train and Josh raised it over his head with a triumphant roar of primal fury. He didn't hold onto it for long though, as he continued the motion and slammed the charred, cut, and maimed upper body against the trailing edge of the passenger car, causing it to shake so hard it was a small miracle it didn't jump off the rails.
The impact broke off the overhanging roof at the end, and the Chimera plummeted with a pathetic bark, its many limbs and appendages flailing uselessly as it tried to grab onto the back of the carriage. It was all in vain, as just a couple of hundred meters behind them, another train was desperately blowing its horn, its brakes locked and trying to futilely stop the inevitable.
Then, collision.
The Chimera's magic-resistant bulk shattered the pentagonal barriers right in front of the locomotive, its battered yet still massive body falling right under the wheels. There was a cacophony of sounds. Bones snapping, metal shrieking, and then finally an enormous clatter as the chamfered metal wheels left the rails and the train engine hitched, then tumbled to the left and off the raised embarkment with a stomach-rattling sound that dwarfed all the previous ones.
…
"Well, at least it didn't explode, like in the movies," I whispered off-handedly to myself…
… and then there was a giant fireball.
"Me and my big mouth."
Or so I thought, but a second look showed that it was just the Ninurta patriarch venting his frustrations by throwing magic every which way. Which was still silly, but less silly than a steam engine exploding into a ball of flames.
In any case, I was pretty sure that the Chimera wasn't going to come back from that, so I shifted my point of view back to the gang, and I found Angie and Snowy landing on the battered roof of the last passenger car.
"Boy! Are you all right?"
Correction: Deus and Snowy landing. Not that it made much of a difference.
He responded with an exhausted, "I'm fine, but… Can you give me a hand?" and gestured to his feet, sunk knee-deep through the metal outer cover and only held up by the superstructure underneath. "I think I'm stuck."
Her words, while not strictly funny, still deflated the tension a bit, and the four of them all started chuckling. Once it started, it was like a wildfire that couldn't be stopped, and things soon devolved into a group hug (with Josh still embedded in the roof), so I moved along and returned to Judy's side.
"Tell Josh I'm officially welcoming him into the Chimera Slayer club," I messaged over, and my Dormouse let out a relieved sigh.
"The Chief just confirmed it. The Chimera is down."
Elly exclaimed a delighted, "Awesome!" followed by a slightly more restrained. "So, we're not being chased anymore, right?"
"I don't think so, no."
Judy's response drew a hum out of the class rep, and she asked, "Do we know where we're heading?"
"We turned south-west once we left Digirmah. According to the map Neige drew on the Abyss, we should be heading towards the territory of House Shamash."
"Really?" Elly perked up at once, with a relieved smile settling onto her face. "That means we're on the right track! Get it?"
Judy ignored her pun and turned to the class rep again.
"The carriages suffered some damage during the first. Since we're no longer being pursued, we should slow down and assess the extent of it before we continue."
"Right… About that…" The class rep turned at the control board of the train, with all its levers and gauges and buttons and whatnot, and admitted, "I don't know where the brakes are."
"Oh. That's a problem," Judy noted with the kind of measured tone that people used when they were a bit agitated but didn't want others to notice… which, considering it was Judy we were talking about, probably meant she was quite agitated by this revelation.
In contrast, the princess, ever the ball of sunshine she was, just beamed at them with an optimistic, "Don't worry, don't worry! Between the three of us, I'm sure we can figure it out before we hit something!" in tow.
"You're not helping…" my dear assistant grumbled, but still followed her advice, and the three of them began inspecting the panels.
That wasn't too riveting to watch, but then again, this was a major kerfuffle, so now that it was over, I figured they didn't mind the downtime. It was fine, really. After all, they stole a Mana Well, killed a Chimera, humiliated an Abyssal aristocrat, and yet somehow, they were on the right track. I'd call that a pretty good score for their first semi-independent adventure.