Tales of Aria | Piercing Lightning

XII: Skies Engulfed

"I wanna be a hero!"

"Oooh...! That sounds fun!"

"Hmm... but, what do heroes do?"

"Let's see... they... theeeeey..."

"Oh, I know! They can fly in the sky!"

"But that's impossible, silly. Even your father can't do that."

"I know, but heroes can!"

...

"Ngggh..."

"H..huh...?"

The young girl woke up, lowered eyes, blurry vision. She gazed at the sky, or rather, where it was supposed to be, as it was nowhere to be seen, engulfed by the surrounding storm. She tried to look around, but it was only sand, black sand as far as her eyes could take her sight. She slowly shifted her body, supported by both her hands, hoping that she would wake up from the frightening dream, but the pain coming from her chest as she rustled around was real. She let out a pained grunt, loud, while it was then did she noticed that someone was right beside her, with strands of her long ponytail tickling her arm.

"M..Mavin...?!" Lyria quickly got up, trying to wake her unconscious companion. "Are you okay?!"
"Ugh... uhh... no...?" She barely managed to cough out those words. "Focus shattered, and some broken ribs, I think."
"Where's Eric?" Lyria questioned.
"I dunno. Pushed him into the hole where we came out from." She grunted, trying to get up. "Damn whale got us good."

"But more importantly...!" Mavin continued, clenching her fists hard. "You gotta go to the outpost and warn the others to immediately disperse and come up with another strategy! Orcal's targeting them from below the sand, you can get there faster than I can with whatever power you have, and I can't even move half of my usual speed."
"But what about you?" Lyria countered. "I can't just leave you here!"
"Don't worry; in the meantime, I'll regroup with Eric." Mavin shrugged her pain off as she got up to a kneeling position, another grunt. "Besides, we can avoid the whale if we're quiet."

"You can do this, Lyria." She patted her shoulder firmly. "Just like that time; under a second..."
"...Okay...!"

Lyria started running towards the outpost's direction. She started slow, but gradually picked up speed as blue lightning sparks started surrounding her body again. She glanced back for a second whilst running backwards. The place where the whalefish ballistae should've been was now a giant hole, undoubtedly punctured by the enraged Orcal.

"Run, Lyria...!" Mavin, who was still kneeling, holding her side from the broken ribs' pain, yelled, voice barely reaching the young girl's ears. "Make it in time or we will all die!"

Upon hearing the final order of her temporary leader, Lyria glanced back. What remained of Mavin was only a silhouette, before disappearing completely, lost inside the dark sandstorm. It strengthened the girl's resolve as she turned her running pace into leaping, forward strides, leaving behind lightning trails on her way.

Meanwhile...
Outpost.

"Ray! I need a medic here, now!" Jona quickly slid through the toppled tables and munitions to reach the bleeding Ray, supporting the unconscious boy by his two hands with Elliot beside him. "Stay with me boy! Ellie, get to the binoculars! We need to get a track on Orcal!"
"It's near impossible sir!" He shouted in between all the panicking. "Storm's impaired our visibility, but it seems like it's not heading towards us!"