Chapter 3 - The Fighting Starts, Painfully Done!

A flicker of bright light illuminates half of your vision in the sky for a second.

You chuckle, "What was that?"

"So we got 'that' bitch this time, huh."

"W-what do you mean by that!?"

Suddenly, a sharp shining object strikes down just one meter to the left near your skull and blasts every bit of yellow grain into your face. Shudders overwhelm your marrow bone, as your sweats begin to rise instead of streaming down.

"What in the actual fu—" You spray out some amount of blood before being able to finish your sentence.

Your partner stands on top of you.

"Can you stand up? We need to defend this vicinity and wait for the reinforcement to arrive." Said her while reaching out a hand.

"Ahahah, your help would be appreciated."

After you stand although wobble around quite a bit, throwing a question should clear up this situation. "Tell me what is going on." You continues.

She merely shrugs at you.

You look to your left, finding a huge flag pole prevailing firm as its blue fiber of white shield insignia waving around the soothe gale.

"What was that?"

"A defense order."

"So we're gonna hold out this place!?"

She gazes at you for a while, before throwing a glance at the surroundings. "So you really got amnesia, huh."

"Pardon?"

"Nothing, here! Catch this."

She throws you a vial, you couldn't catch it so you're now searching for it on the sands. She continues, "That is a painkiller, I hope your body still knows some of those moves, or else we would be in big trouble."

"Aren't we supposed to run away?"

"After sending that distress signal? Nah ah, we will hold the lane." She says while rummaging through the pouches. Something tells you that her actions towards you begin to change.

She makes a narrow opening on her mask and drinks her vial, you also do so with yours. "The giant sword is still here but I couldn't find the Calamity." She says after consuming the vials and then puts it again on her pouches.

"Isn't that bad?" You pry as you're wondering what to do with the flask of the bitter liquid you just took. She reaches out her hand, you then give her the empty vial.

Subsequently, out of all the items she gives you again, it was the very gas mask you sought. "It means that the distress signal is working out perfectly as it intended." She says.

You can see her snickers behind the gas mask.

After claiming it, you smash down the gas mask to the sands with every bit of vengeance in your heart after you get your hands on it. "Distress signal? More like a Distressing Signal!" You then stomp repeatedly at the given item.

"Aiya, you better start wearing it before you inhale enough gas and turn into a fetus."

You stop as you're told, and then start to put on your gas mask after digging it out from the deep sea of grains. "Why didn't you say so?" Some sands stuck at your nose and mouth but you couldn't care less.

Out of nowhere, the giant sword that was supposed to be on the ground is now accelerating at your position from the sky at high speed. In a blink of an eye, the sands then spew out a massive hand made out of stone as it holds the sword after taking the brute—protecting both of you.

A huge amount of shockwaves are also discharged, you shield your upper body with your hand. The tremendous pressure is supposed to be enough to send someone flying a kilometer away, but something is holding your stance, rooting you to the surface until it ends.

The giant arm radiates numerous hot pink substances in the pattern of a vein-like crack, holding the skewering sword to no rest. Furthermore, the Calamity tries to pull out its sword but the grips of the unknown savior might be stronger than it seems.

You look down and find out that two hands with the same material as the huge one are gripping your legs to prevent you from getting blown away.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit!" Together with a cough, you could hear your partner's anguish from her shaking body. There is a considerable amount of red liquid dripping down from her mask.

The clutching hands on your legs disappear, another medium-sized one spews out from the sand in front of you, cradling a black sword with numerous pinkish cracks. The judgment sword is now there ready for you to grasp.

"Take it! Without being aggressive, we will be overwhelmed!" Her gasping is reaching an extreme point, "Five minutes! Let's survive for five minutes—I'll be the support!"

"What can I even do with a mere sword!?"

Let alone fighting, you're just a normal human everyone can find in their daily life, wielding an object to protect is a foreign concept for you. Forget about your own life, the crack from the silent bell has changed you. The deep stillness has numbed the sinking heart, the abyss cessation from 12.000 years of being caressed by the void would dampen a normal person's urge to fight their fate.

You could only smile.

As you're not one of them.

The huge arm is still grasping the sword with the weight of a mere two undying individuals.

You take one step forward.

"Fine by me! You might have noticed that I'm not your old Long Leggy anymore, but that doesn't matter."

Two steps.

"Haaaaa, trying to blend with a mere gesture and act won't save me from dying again."

Three steps.

"I had enough of the perpetual silence, it's killing me."

Last step.

"If I may ask—Sweetie, how high is our chance to survive this?"

She takes a sip of another vial, presumably the same painkiller. "10%."

"Make that 1%, as I don't know what the hell I'm doing."

You could feel a smile behind that gas mask, "Sure do, partner."

To not be weak, you need to trample the top.

Violence is required.

You grasp at the handle of the sword, you watch as the cracks glow even brighter, changing from pinkish light into the deep sea blue.

"Hahaha, this is heavy." Probably due to your fatigues, you ignore the numbing pain physically, and mentally.

Violence acquired.