Reincarnated Into A Dead Woman's Body In Another World-Chapter 277: Arc 4, Act II, - 122: Cindering March Part I
A morning breeze dry and coarse flew past in a single gust, rustling the short shrubs and flora. Across the chasm, in the west, a cacophony of marches rebounded till it reached back; they were here, and they were doing exactly as expected.
Carriages and steeds, bringing along countless troops and equipment; travelling side by side with tanks. The forces of Cravolta had moved lower south, leaving ample distance from which Trailon would arrive.
Just as she predicted, her eyes sided to the narrow bridge which Trailon avoided. However, the blonde’s gaze was forced to be fixated elsewhere.
While much of the Cravoltan forces had clumped in further south, she stood further north, alongside Fumeko, the Fragmenting Lightning, the Ashen Whisper and Asobi who stood a little further back.
The king’s guards were to help with the main fray; Hotaru and Feyan to stay back for the time. So those all who stood upfront, would not only hear the incoming march, but also see, gleaming armour of golds...
Layers that were bordered in black, golden bolts holding down the bright golden plates along the vambraces that shifted with the movements of his arms.
Trimmings of blue made its way around the armour, inlaid like broken crystals. Faintly beaked sabatons around his feet, that a kick to the chest could puncture the heart.
His gold and black helmet was closed off by a metal visor with slits for eyes and vents for breath. Atop the head were two horn-like attachments; space for wolf-like ears.
Intricately designed, each metal was layered upon the other and all together shimmered in enchantments.
Despite looking heavy, he was not hindered in his movements in the slightest. It didn’t feel like an enemy was approaching; rather, a living suit of armour.
Behind him marched the vanguard of Trailon, carrying dark magenta banners depicting a ship helm, surrounded by three five-pointed stars.
He unsheathed a longsword from his back in similar hues and slashed it loosely against the earth, scorching a blue crescent he stepped over.
The earth beneath glowed a dark ruby-like red before it shifted darker and darker till it was a bright dark blue. He dragged his sword as he walked, as embers of reds, oranges, whites and blues fluttered into the air.
There was no orange at all on his attire; it was merely the reflections of the sunlight and the embers that followed him. Jotou watched and watched...
She, alongside those upfront, were not too far from the narrow bridge. Everyone watched; watched as the Cindering Brimstone made his march.
No one had fired a shot, no one had taken a step forward. The blonde’s eyes would keep peeking glances to the right; nothing out of the ordinary, just some small brown stones.
Her gaze trailed the stones all along, drawing a line in her own mind across the field... Cinder kept taking steps forward, a few metres behind him were the soldiers of Trailon... He stepped onto the line Jotou thought of in her head.
’Time to shine Asobi.’
Asobi watched the stones as well and the immediate moment Cinder made it across that threshold, she held her wand up to her mouth like a mike and "SCREEEECHHHH!!!!!"
She screamed in the highest pitch she could, amplifying the sound in the direction of the enemy’s march and away from her friends.
The Trailonian soldiers halted in their march, flinching to the sound and furrowing their brows. Cinder paused one step but continued as if it was nothing.
However, one person was left unaccounted for; and she waited for the scream of a signal. Behind the pebbles, the invisible form stomped her foot down, "Stone Surge!"
Asobi petered out and let out a small cough to end her ruckus; just as she did, hundreds of Cravoltan soldiers appeared behind her out of thin air.
With the veil of invisibility dropped, Jotou and her allies were not standing alone. "CHARGE!!!" Cravolta launched its attack forward past the elf, two tanks and an arsenal of rifles forward.
Behind Cinder and ahead of the Trailonian soldiers- "CrrACk, TFFFF!!!" pillars of stone emerged from the earth, making a wall straight across, successfully separating Cinder from his forces as the invisible Daiyu reappeared.
Longsword engulfed in flame, Cinder raised his arm and aimed for the pillars- "CHFFT! BLAST!" Orange lightning reverberated, pulsed and rotated around King Akimitsu’s unsheathed blade and he whipped it forward to shoot into Cinder.
Cinder was knocked back a smidgen, but it barely made a dent in his armour, much less a scratch. "BOOM!" a tank shell from Trailon blasted a hole through the wall.
From afar, one of the Cravoltan soldiers looked to the wall and knew it was time to press the button in hand. "BOOM!" A chain of explosions went off on the other side of the wall, setting off the traps that the Cravoltan army had set up earlier.
The explosives blew apart through the previously marching Trailonian army, but it didn’t take out a large number compared to how many were there.
Meanwhile. "Crrrink!" Fumeko blinked in front of Cinder and made a small cut through his enchanted plate armour before she had to flee, "HAH!" the flaming longsword that crashed into the ground.
Like clockwork, Cinder was berated by crescent slashes of sand that pinged off his armour and caused dust to rise up in the area. Under Arabella’s cover came lightning of yellow hues, "Thundering Strike!"
"BLASSTTTT!!!!" The thunder blasted into him, chipping pieces off the stone pillars. Cinder slid across the earth, but stood with only a knee lightly bent.
He lifted his leg and gripped his metal encased fingers around the hilt of his sword. Blue flames gushed up like a firework charging up.
’No time to talk.’ "Shoulder-Charge!" "SPZZ!" Jotou slid forward and charged into Cinder, protecting herself in the spell and a layer of sparks.
Cinder hindered Jotou’s charge with the flaming blue sword, tanking her entire push as he barely moved a centimetre. The fire and electricity mixed for a split second- "BUFF!"
Jotou and Cinder were forced back, Jotou much further onto her feet. Fumeko blinked in from behind- "TFF!" Like an oven that spat out fire, the back of Cinder blasted out in blue flames, causing the brunette to shudder and blink away.
Fumeko stood aside to control her sudden hyperventilation; those fires got a little too close for comfort... She gulped her breath down and calmed herself.
From underneath Cinder orange nerves of electricity formed. "BZZT!" The king’s lightning netted across Cinder as it blasted up from the earth, staggering Cinder back a step.
Sand and dust swirled into gusts and blasted into Cinder’s helmet! Arabella kept her distance as she controlled. "FUSH!" Blue flames danced and churned around him, crystallizing the sand in an instant as the dust became smoke.
Through the nearly transparent glass, much purer and clearer than when Jotou crystalizes sand, Cinder saw the incoming blonde and huffed out a groan.
"Shoulder-Charge!" "CRASH!" Smashing through the glass, Jotou bashed her shoulder into Cinder. Her eyes widened to realize she had come to a complete halt and that Cinder had simply held a hand out to stop her momentum.
Jotou peered up to the figure that easily towered over her. Sand rushed up, obstructing her view and disconnecting her and Cinder, allowing Jotou to escape with a backstep.
In between the two came in another towering figure, who spun his sword in between his fingers; each spin rotated faster till a wheel of orange lightning fizzled and buzzed beside him, radiating immense light.
King Akimitsu revolved the blade forward with his steps and shot out arcs of lightning as he closed the distance, forcing Cinder to block for a second.
Once the king had gotten close, Cinder raised his right arm forward. "PWOOSH!" As the king’s rotating ring of lightning made contact, a shield of bluish flames buffeted the attack back, eliciting a groan from the king and Cinder.
Both slid back, the king having to avert his eyes. Cinder barely recoiled and swung back the sword in his left arm; fires engulfed his blade, the sound akin to a rocket about to launch, his arm flew forward!
"PHEW-BLAST!" "CRACK-CRASH!!" The blue flames extended well past his sword as he launched it into the side of the pillars of stone, smashing right through them.
The crumbled stone fell on either side, causing everyone on either side to retreat back. Daiyu released her concentration on the spell, allowing the bottom half of the pillars to disappear into the earth.
The chunks of stone that fell, crushed a few soldiers in the process in an instant. However, the entire battlefield was revealed to both sides once more.
"Blinding Light!" Asobi shot forward. The flash of white made hundreds of Trailonian soldiers wince and bring their arms up. "Everything’s gone to plan; good luck," Asobi whispered to herself as she went invisible.
The Cravoltan soldiers rushed forward, aiming their rifles whilst tanks on either side aimed their barrels. In between sprinted a purple-haired princess dragging a great sword behind her.
"It’s time!" Jotou shouted out.
Arabella swirled the sands and dust up and flung it into Cinder as a pressurized ball. Cinder surrounded it in flames, turning it into glass and smoke; even so, more sand kicked up from under him towards the vents and eyes on his helmet.
"SHUCK!" The sand clumped together, blocking the entrances. Cinder shook his head as flames blew the sand out into glass and broke apart.
Fumeko blinked below him and stabbed her dagger into the back of his ankles. She gritted her teeth, her momentum caught as the dagger didn’t pierce far or deep enough.
Caught at his right leg, Fumeko dug the dagger in deeper to cut through the enchantments and metal- "Slick..." She finally met something soft, but before she could continue, Cinder had gotten rid of the sand and raised his leg.
Fumeko blinked away; met with too much resistance, she couldn’t take out both of his legs, much less one. Fumeko looked at her dagger to realize a mere drop of crimson.
"Thundering STRIKE!" Jotou spun herself forward, lightning coalescing around her blade. "BLASTTT!!!!" Cinder was forced to take a few steps back.
The king pivoted his blade up to Cinder. "Blast!" "Blast!" Like small bursts of lightning and thunder, each strike landed, chipping little fragments of Cinder’s armour.
"Quake!" Daiyu stomped forward, rumbling the earth beneath. The soldiers hunkered down, both sides using the fallen stone pillars as makeshift cover.
"PANG!" "SLAM!" Daiyu struck her sword against Cinder with a purple gem-like ripple in her eyes.
"BRRR..." King Akimitsu took over as Daiyu stepped back, charging his sword up to- "CLASH!" strike lightning forth into the blue fires that shielded him.
"Upheaval!" the earth beneath Cinder launched up- "THUMP!" Cinder stomped his foot down in blue flames, melting a footprint of rock into the platform before it came crashing down. "Fuck he’s heavy," Daiyu grunted.
Crescent slashes of ash tinged against his armour in rapid succession, not even scratching it. "Shoulder-Charge!" Jotou barged into him, this time sending him a little further before she was halted.
Cinder swung his sword around and slashed blue flames into the blonde. "SLASH-POP!" "GH!" covered in sparks, Jotou gritted her teeth and winced an eye as she was blasted back.
The soldered metal that ’fixed’ her adventuring attire glowed red for a quick second before Jotou covered herself in sparks again. "Ow," some parts of the hot metal stung her skin.
Fumeko blinked behind him and went for the same spot, but Cinder raised his foot and went to crush her hand in blue flames. Fumeko blinked upwards and stuck her dagger into the side of his neck.
He grabbed the brunette by the hair and yanked her off of him, only to realize he held nothing but the remnants of shadows as she blinked away.
King Akimitsu charged up lightning within his palm and shot it forward in a beam of orange that arced and reverberated towards Cinder, forcing Cinder back even more.
Smoke wisped into the air as the fragments and specks of lightning took a few seconds to fizzle out like fireworks. Cinder had raised a long shield of blue flames from head to toe.
The shield disappeared and Cinder felt something hindering to movement of his neck. He reached for and plucked out the gleaming purple dagger out of his neck; only for shadows to swiped it from his grasp.
"Quake!"
Fumeko blinked back, stabbing her dagger into the same spot she did before as she wrapped her legs around the tall form. Arabella lifted sand into his joints, around his helmet, solidifying it.
"Sand Grip!" Daiyu placed her foot down as the earth around Cinder swirled around his armoured boots and held him down. With a grunt, Fumeko used all her strength to cleave through and around the metal.
Flames grew bright around Cinder’s entire form, causing the brunette to wince; but she choked on her own breath and continued till the very last moment she could, before she blinked away with her dagger.
King Akimitsu had sheathed his sword and had his arms out to gather mana; lightning formed chaotically in his palms, the sound around him blurred and buzzed as everyone’s hair stood on ends.
Cinder was engulfed in blue flames that shielded his figure before his gaze met the king’s. Fragments of lightning gathered as he collected it into a scintillating ball of energy.
"Fweeooshh..." Everything went mute for a split second. "BOOOOM!!!!" The lightning blasted forth into Cinder’s head, orange lights split into the skies and across the field.
Blue flames rose up high, saving Cinder from the devastating blow- "Chink..." Fumeko had cleaved enough of a line, disenchanting through the tough metal, so that enough force would snap the helmet back regardless of magic.
The soldiers around ducked or glanced to the spectacle of light. "Daiyu! NOW!" Jotou ordered.
Everyone had directed their attacks towards Cinder from the right, moving him what little they could towards the left. And their assault had only now taken full force.
Right near the edge of the chasm, a few steps away from plummeting to your doom. "Rockslide!" "TFFf!" The earth slid out from underneath Cinder like a carpet...
