Number 100 Red Nova Sorcerer

Chapter 30: Unexpected Allies

~.Sapphire.~

My daughter shrieks to distract every one of the Humans, but some of the Numbers do cringe. We were pretty much the only family who came out here mainly because I wanted to see how well my son is since the last time I couldn't really see. We also feel like we still owe him because this war is still raging on. While they're all distracted, I shoot an arrow that pierces the Human right through the helmet. As soon as my arrow makes its home right into the insignia of the soldier's helmet and into his brain, I waste no time into my bow while Amber distracts them with her voice. The Number king looks my way with a cold, narrow, analytic gaze. Perfectly understandable.

I ignore his stare for now and fire three arrows at once to three different men. By this time, my daughter stops her screaming to allow everyone else to attack, which they do. The king, Black Mist, walks over to him.

"Why do you help us?" he asks. "You don't seem to have any business with us."

"We still need to repay Astral-"

"Nova."

"-for saving our mom," Amber says. "He didn't have to come along-"

"It was to repair your relationships."

"-but he did anyways. He put along with us."

"Still? I thought it was repaid last time."

"This battle isn't over, is it?" I ask, shooting another set of arrows at the enemies that were behind the king. He flinches and looks to where I shot, then he turns back to me. "As for me, I also wanted to properly see how well he is doing."

Black Mist scowls and shoots black tentacles right by my head. By the moist squelch that follows, I know he's hit another one. "He will not be happy to see you. When Amber and Bura first arrived, he flipped out on them."

"We'll just see how he reacts to me. For now, we have to finish this."

He nods, turning back to his Chaos form.

~.Astral/Nova.~

I feel the rumble of the ground from where I am. I look for the source, but everyone else blocks my view. Oh, well. It doesn't matter for now. I turn my attention back to the Humans, who are being thoroughly dealt with by my puppet. They come in with their tanks; I slick up the ground with ice since their tires are made to gain traction from the ground itself and not ice. With nothing but a sheet of slippery liquid, they are sure to lose control.

My plan works. I jump out of the way to avoid being hit while putting up a solid barrier so they crash, and crash they do. Giggling slightly, I watch the Humans scatter out of the area, getting stabbed by rogue scraps of metal that made up the majority of the vehicle. Some of them are much too slow to even escape the explosion, which wipes out most of the crowd of Humans. Grinning with satisfaction, I move on to another area with my puppet.

A gunshot sounds extremely close to me. I only notice the pain in my side a split second after the sound. Cringing and holding my pain in as much as possible while wondering why my puppet didn't warn me, my blurry eyes try to locate the source of the person who did this. I bring up my hands to heal the wound only to find that they're not there anymore!

When!? How did this happen!? My breathing quickens as the panic swells back in my chest. When did this happen!?

Suddenly, I see the other Numbers and Humans start panicking as well. That's when I notice gas lingering in the air. I look up only to see Acid walking around, blowing small bursts of toxic and hallucinogenic gas from his own breath. He walks slowly and calmly with his hands buried deep in hos coat and his eyes wandering like he's doing nothing happening.

It's a hallucination! I realize. Ignoring my distinct lack of hands, I somehow managed to cast a protection spell on the Numbers so that they do not fall prey to the gas. Everything goes back to normal instantaneously. My wound is no longer there, and my hands are where they're supposed to be. The other Numbers seem to calm down as well; however, the opponents still believe things are messed up. This gives us an advantage! I shoot a smile to Acid, and he gives a small wink and smile back, the only sign that he acknowledged my smile. I send my puppet over to get rid of the Humans while I do the same.

~.Crystal.~

I snap my whip at my rivals to bind them in the rose thorns, which are very painful and extremely toxic. They scream in agony as the sharp thorns break into their armor and embed themselves into their fragile barrier of skin. To the ones shooting at me from the side, my arm whips out with razor sharp rose pedals zipping straight at them at high speeds. To the untrained eye, it looks like they're spurting out blood and dropping dead from where they stand, but that's not really the case.

"And here I'd thought they'd be hard to deal with," I sigh.

By the time I finish, not one part of me is covered in bullet wounds at all because of the rose pedals. They're like armor. Sure, they don't look strong at all, but that's where the enemy underestimates me.

The Humans that are not dead yet groan in agony. They have toxins in their system; they'll soon die from that if not from another Number stabbing them to death. I don't really have the heart to kill them with my own hands, so I just let the toxins do their work.

I look to where Coal and Ichigo fight. They seem to be done with their battles seeing as though there's no one to actually fight around them, either because they're all dead, or they're too scared. The Numbers breathe a collective sigh of relief, but the enemy now knows better how we work. We need to be more prepared for that.

Suddenly, an excited squeal distracts everyone from their somber mood. A girl that isn't a Number or a Monster of any sort runs up to Coal and gives him a big hug. Does she know him? Come to think of it, she does look rather familiar.

"Coal!!" she shrieks excitedly. "What are you doing here!?"

"Hey, Amber!" Coal chuckles. "I'm just defending my home, is all!"

Amber looks up and sees the difference in his features, the same way I saw them when he had the dust covering his markings. She gasps, running her eyes over his face, his shortened hair (which is still pretty unruly), the lava-like lines running in a downward motion from the top of his face down, down, down like a leaking volcano. Her eyes finally settle on the 61 printed on his collarbone. "You're a Number?" she gasps in amazement.

"Never said I wasn't!"

A boy comes into view behind Amber. His white eyes hold confusion. "Coal? I didn't think you were one."

Coal pulls away from Amber and walks to the boy. "Well, if it isn't my little chinchilla," he laughs, ruffling his fluffy hair, which most likely sparked the nickname. "How have you been?"

The teen huffs, a small blush on his cheeks at the embarrassment of having such a nickname. "First off, my name's Bura and not chinchilla. Secondly, I'm fine." His voice is laced with such hostility that it's almost comical! I can't help but let out a small giggle!

"If we can wrap this reunion up quickly, then we can get to helping the injured!" the king snaps while he and his brother bring the injured to the tents. The rest of them help to get the job done quickly.

~.Astral/Nova.~

The moment we finish, everyone goes home to rest. Most people's houses have been destroyed; however, it's nothing that a little magic can't fix. Soon, the village is somewhat back to the way it was before apart from the various cracks with obsidian plugging them up and the lingering acid in the air. My puppet, which has been helping with the rebuilding, suddenly stops, refusing to come back to me when I call it.

This is strange. It's acting like it has a mind of its own, but it was never intended to have its own mind!

It speaks one word, clear and unafraid, but the danger it holds is enough to send shivers down my spine. "Mama."

I turn to the direction its eyes are fixed to.