Beneath the Waves

For Us Part 1

Before they knew it the four of them were back to back, facing a circling swarm of Chayal. Ria was in the water, the rest of them were on the banks, backs to each other trying to stay safe from possible attack. Every now and again a Chayal would swoop closer and try and swipe one of them with her blade, which they either managed to dodge or block using one of their weapons. The dragons shot balls of fire into the circling swarm, and though the contact seemed to cause the Chayal pain, it did very little to deter them. Ria made her water spout, her wave, her whirlpool, but nothing seemed to do much to the Chayal. They were going to have to attack head-on with their weapons, but they knew they were out of their depth - all of them of course, except Chris, who was made for this.

Weapons at the ready, they broke formation, charging directly into the swarm of Chayal circling them. Ria dove underwater, knowing that she would be stronger and faster there, but also knowing her weapon wielding would be slower. She didn't mind though, if she could outmanoeuvre them, that would be the first problem down. She could feel more than one Chayal just above the surface, doing a much better job than she thought at keeping up with her. She felt the sharp pain of a blade pierce the skin next to her shoulder blade, but kept swimming, knowing that the water would heal her in no time. She made a quick 180 and started the opposite way swimming through her blood still present in the water.

Armin and Appo were back to back in the sky with about 10 Chayal surrounding them. It was a blur of flames and black obsidian flying through the air, Chayal being flung all over. It seemed like they were holding their own against about half of the Chayal, not backing down and not tiring regardless of how many times they came at them. The air was filled with roars and the sound of blades hitting each other.

Their most impressive warrior, Chris, was being, well, impressive. She was surrounded by 7 Chayal and did not let up. She was moving as fast - if not faster - than they were and meeting their hits blow for blow. It was then that the first death happened. Chris was facing a particularly nasty-looking Chayal, blades locked, other Chayal just looking on, when Chris pulled the knife obsidian knife from its hiding place and stabbed her opponent right where you'd imagine a heart would be. The Chayal looked at her for a moment, looked down and disappeared in a cloud of mist. All of them looked around, as if she would appear somewhere else as was the Chayal speciality, when nothing happened the remaining Chayal looked at Chris, still holding her knife they released a screech that echoed to the heavens. They doubled down, locking eyes on Chris again, and attacked all at once. Chris, in a sweeping circular motion, let her blade slice through all of the attacking Chayal. It stopped them for a second but didn't do much damage. It just gave Chris enough time to disappear and appear far behind them, giving her a second to breathe.

They were all overwhelmed, Appo or Armin seemed to be injured if Ria were to judge by the drops of blood that were falling into the crystal pool, staining parts of it red. It seemed like the circling Chayal around them were getting closer and closer. Chris was trying to fight all 6 remaining Chayal at the same time, but her movements were slowing down. Ria came up out of the water on a wave, weapons slicing through the air, trying to reach the Chayal that were after her. She saw that there were four of them. She dove underwater, making her whirlpool she managed to pull one Chayal underwater and run her through with the sword. In a moment, she disappeared in a watery mist, not reappearing anywhere else. The remaining Chayal dove swords first, headed straight for Ria.

It was at this moment, all of them overwhelmed and losing strength, injured, outnumbered and outranked, that in the distance out of a black mist appeared about 6 more Chayal. The four of them looked at each other for a split second, eyes wide, until they saw something off with the Chayal blades. They were not normal blades. They were made from what looked like a shiny black material. It wasn't until they got closer that Chris shouted "Rhesus!", letting them know she knew this Chayal and that they might be getting help instead of another opponent.

The group of 6 split up. One joining Ria, two joining Chris and the remaining three flying up to meet Appo and Armin, the swirling black mass having come to a standstill around them for now. The Chayal reached them just in time for everyone to see one of the dragons, by the looks of it Armin, falling from the sky and landing with a loud thud on the forest floor. Chris and Ria looked at each other, then at Appo, still surrounded but the cry of "Armin!" echoed through the air. The pain in his voice was almost enough to make you cry. Ria looked at her Chayal, she nodded at her, towards Armin. She quickly swam to the edge of the pool and, trying to cup water in her hands, she made her way towards where she saw Armin fall. She knew she didn't have much time, and if the other bad Chayal saw her, or realized what she was doing they would be after her in a second.

The thought had barely run its course when she heard one of the Chayal whisper scream "the Glitha is a healer" and almost as one entity, the Chayal left their current opponents and came barreling straight towards Ria. She couldn't do anything without spilling the water she was trying to keep in her cupped hands. All she could think of doing was screaming, so she did, a loud "help" escaped her mouth, and before the last note faded away, the others were behind her, forming a barrier. Chris was the closest so she arrived first, with her companion Chayal. The others came one after the other. They were ready for the incoming wave of Chayal, protecting Ria from their onslaught.

Ria made steady progress to where she could now hear Armin moaning in pain. By the time she reached him though he was silent. All she could hear was his labored breathing. She knelt down beside him assessing the damage, and honestly, it didn't look good. She wasn't sure if she was even powerful enough to save him. There was a great big gash in the center of his stomach, and one of his wings seemed to have taken a lot of damage too, it looked tattered like it had been run through with a sword one too many times. She decided that the wings could wait and turned her focus to the wound in his stomach.

"Don't... worry about me...child... go help the others..." Armin said, barely audible

"No... no I'm going to help you... just... don't move okay" she replied

She brought her hands to his wound, and exactly as she had done in all her practice sessions with Appo, she cupped her hands over the wound and focused all her energy on that one spot. It was a little harder to do with the sounds of battle cries and clanging weapons behind her. The soft light appeared, shining bioluminescent through her fingers and she raised her hand a little bit, once again letting it hover over the gash in Armin's body. The water formed a bubble around the cut, but since it was so deep, it seemed to take a really long time to heal. She tried to stay focused but was getting distracted by how much Armin was struggling to breathe. She moved one of her hands to his pulse point, trying to feel his pulse. He was bleeding out, even with the healing happening his heart rate was increasing, trying to get blood to his vital organs, his breaths were coming shallow now. Ria didn't know if this was going to work. She looked over her shoulder at Appo, and back at Armin. She couldn't let him die. Not like this.