A Valeween Night To Remember

Adult

The walls around Bonesbrough gave the wrong impression - They gave the impression that there was a single defensive line that would keep the Cherubim out of the city, and that that line surrounded the whole city perimeter. That all someone needed to do was be behind the walls, and they would be generally okay, for the most part.

Even to those that had read up on the history of Valeween - Like Luz - that feeling was present. It was hard to not feel like that was the case. On an intuitive level, the tall walls and defensive, protected installations would make anyone feel safe. It gave the air of a force that had been trained, and knew what it was doing. That there was a plan in place. That things would be okay.

It wasn't even close to being true.

In reality, the walls served two purposes more than anything else - One being to keep other monsters and demons out of the city whilst Valeween was underway. Throughout other times, they were a manageable threat, and the maintainability of a wall was too expensive and time consuming to warrant its existence. During Valeween, it was temporarily erected, to ensure that on top of the Cherubim, the residents didn't need to fear monsters like Snagglebacks or Land-Serpents, or anything else on top of the Cherubim.

Secondly, it was to hold back the swarms that would roll over regions like tidal waves. Behavioural patterns of the Cherubim weren't something that were even close to understood, in their logic or tactics. But they would always attack the walls if they were up, and completely cover the city in a blanket of themselves if it wasn't. It really was a mystery that no one could understand, and it was unlikely that they ever would be able to.

That didn't mean that Bonesbrough was free of danger - Not at all.

Cherubim, after all, could still fly. And thousands upon thousands didn't join the attacks on the walls.

They instead attacked the heart of the city.

"Above you!"

Luz reacted quickly to the warning, quickly throwing her hand into her jacket, and slapping a Glyph right against the nearest wall. As the Cherubim launched itself closer to her, it came into the path of the Ice Magic of the Glyph, and became encased in it, where with any luck, it would remain until the invasion was over.

A minor victory in the grand scheme of things, but it was better than nothing. One-million was a smaller number than one-million-and-one.

Boscha and Luz darted between alleyways, Luz following the Witch's lead - Boscha had lived on the Isles and in Bonesbrough her entire life. She knew shortcuts and passageways that Luz didn't even know existed. If she wanted to, Luz imagined she could get from one side of the city to the other in no time at all.

Glimpses of attacking Cherubim could be seen in the brief moments between alleyways that led to a main street or walkway. Witches were casting spells and slashing with weapons at whatever invaders came their way. Many had developed their own tricks for avoiding the Cherubim Rays that were shot at them, some dodging them, and others using their Magic to attack them directly and fight against them.

All that being said though, confusion had swept the Isles, and Luz saw plenty of people running in the opposite direction to her, heard plenty of screaming, and saw what she could only assume were people who had failed, and been hit by the Cherubim Rays. They were sort of wandering, or going up to the people they knew. Often times they were defended, to not allow any Cherubim to feed from them.

Not that she could hear or see much of anything specific from how far away she was. But people who were just freshly hit seemed to act differently. At least compared to the residents who were fleeing or fighting, that was for sure.