Act 5: Sacrifice

Silveria slowly drowned inside her own mind, the physical damage done to her body simply broke her. Still, she was aware of her surroundings. She knew the girl who beat her up and there was no doubt why that happened and what will follow. She could not resist.
Kill me, be done with it.
Soona was an attractive girl, well aware of her beauty and what she could do with it. And she did all things possible to keep it that way. But this time all that stood aside. Her own skills and determination brought her to a point where she would take someone’s life for the sake of others and quell her frustration at the same time.
The blade was ready to strike. It never reached the girl’s throat. Somebody grabbed the weapon-wielding hand and brought it right behind Soona’s back, conjuring a painful grin on the girl’s face along with a cracking sound.
A gush of blood burst from her mouth only seconds later after the blade emerged from her chest.
She gasped for air and in the last attempt to see her killer she turned around. Jonas let go of the body and the blade and let her lifeless corpse smash the tall grass.
He knelt before Silveria.
“Can you hear me?”
Holding her head he tried to look into her eyes, for a second hoping he could tell whether she’s conscious or not.
“Your mother saved my life in the past. I thought I could repay her by being a good soldier. As long as she lived it kept me happy. But when she died I broke down. Maybe now if I save your life I’ll give my life some meaning again.”
Silveria stared blankly at his face. She tried to move and he could feel it, he helped her stand up.
“T-thank you,” she let out with one breath, still leaning at him for support. “We found the ships, the ships they came in. We can take them home.”
“I’m sure they’ll be happy to hear that. Let’s...”
Suddenly he froze in place. She felt him slowly turning his head around.
A terrifying roar sent chills all across her body. A following noise of ground thumping and branch breaking told her to run, only a second before Jonas himself do.
They ran across the meadow, swaying from side to side like a drunkard, Silveria kept stumbling over her own feet but Jonas always kept her up and in the right direction. She had no idea what they ran from but deep inside she knew it followed them.
They descended the slope fast, sometimes sliding their shoes on the dirt, always trying to keep the balance. But as they were half way down the entire world shook around them and they both lost balance.
In the whirling chaos of motion Silveria could not tell where was up and down or where she was headed, only the pain from hitting the trees and rocks along the way.
The landing was painful and yet it somehow brought relief to her, making her finally realize her current situation. She immediately picked herself from the ground, picking Jonas doing the same just in the corner of her eye.
The roaring noise closed in, still concealed among the dark shapes of the nightly landscape. Still, the creature followed them all the way and right now landed somewhere very close, close enough for Jonas to grad Silveria’s hand and pull her away without and hesitation.
Whatever the creature was, it lacked their speed. Silveria had enough time to think about it but Jonas had to know it, perhaps even if they managed to outrun the thing it would still follow them, no matter the distance.
By the time they saw the lights of the camp Silveria already felt her stamina drained, it made Jonas’ guidance even more painful as he had to pull harder to keep her near.
As they drew near Jonas started shouting something. It scared her so much she could not understand it. But then her heart froze once she understood.
“Hapoleyh! It’s coming!”
Silveria heard that word only once before - the creature known as the bladed terror or thorn beast. It had humans on its food list as well, a relentless predator on top of it.
“It’s already here!” sounded Kolor’s voice from afar.
“How is that possible?” said Jonas to himself.
Her lungs burned as Jonas sat Silveria down only steps away from the camp.
Now they could see it, three students all lined up against a harassing predator, keeping it at bay with their weapons. There, in the light of the crystal lamp it was with its brown carapace covered with sharp jagged edges and red eyes searching for the best place to strike. Besides its canine-like legs its round body was carried on two scythe-shaped limbs used for attacking and slashing the prey to pieces. Like a pair of saws they swung towards the students, trying to confuse and intimidate them enough to strike.
When Jonas finally arrived her could see Arena lying on the ground with a large open wound in her thigh severely bleeding while Key and Kolor did their best to evade being shredded to death.
“You better hurry, little man,” shouted Key at Kolor, “or that thing will come to you!”
Kolor stood on top of the hovercraft, holding his newest construction, a jet engine mounted on a stand like a gun.
“I can’t get it to work yet! If I don’t dumb down the power it will blow up!”
“The bigger the risk the bigger the gain!” shouted Sehun back at him.
Hapoleyh noticed a temporary waver in the defenders’ focus and used it to its advantage. It lashed out with its cutting limbs at Key, hoping for a lucky strike. The boy used the weight of his great weapon to strike against it and cut a piece of the limb away.
Hapoleyh screamed in pain and in desperation moved in against its opponents with everything at once. It swung the wounded limb at Key to keep him busy while it’s double row of sharp teeth aimed for Sehun’s body.
Silveria could not see what happened with the others, she knelt on the ground, trying to gather strength to join the fight. Suddenly another roar from behind woke her up to full alert. Breaking of twigs and the noise of the fallen leaves confirmed it for her, there was a hapoleyh coming.
It took her a moment to realize that fact. There were two of those creatures, now all in one place!
She hurried with getting up on her feet but the whole ground shook so violently even everyone else had trouble standing up. Only Kolor held onto his construction, trying desperately to make it work.
The tremors didn’t stop and the noise mixed together with the painful screams of her comrades.
Jonas did his best trying to stab the monster enough times for it to let go of Sehun when Silveria bumped into him. Looking down at her face he could tell she was scared to death.
“There is another!” she screamed.
He only turned his head left to see another shape quickly walk into the light, the large scythes prepared to slash the girl to easily digestible pieces. He quickly pulled his sword out and charged against the incoming monster and pushed Silveria aside as he did so.
The ground broke to pieces and random cracks separated it to small islands of land. The quake was about to take the rest of the island too.
“Go! Get to the ships!” shouted Jonas as he wrestled with the animal.
Silveria did not believe in herself, the severe punishment she was dealt that day took away any confidence in her energy reserves. Yet still somehow she picked herself up and ran as fast as she could to put some distance between herself and the camp.
A familiar sound tore through the air, much louder than quake. She took a glance back to see a stream of red energy bursting from the top of the hovercraft. Kolor opened fire upon the attacking monsters, regardless of any friendly fire. He did not want to take any risks. Silveria wondered for a brief moment if she had done the same in his position but could not reach a conclusion. She only had to focus on one thing, to find the ships.
The ground broke down as the cataclysm claimed it, the whole island was literally collapsing into itself, sinking into a massive hole under it. She climbed the slope, grabbing onto the thin tree trunks, utilizing any adrenaline left in her.
Once on the top she saw an image that killed any of her hopes. A ring of dust and fire rose up all around the island, marking the border of destruction within which everything crumbled and died. It would seem hopeless but maybe, just maybe, she could jump into the ocean, away from all this.
She quickly crossed the meadow and headed down, towards the ships. Fire rained all around her, only by pure luck these were the smaller stones, mainly causing just small patches of fire in the grass and on top of the trees, giving her some light to find the way.
There they were! The ships still stayed in place but alas, set on fire as well. The ship crashed on the shore had its deck clean still and while leaning onto the side it offered Silveria an easy access. But she never made it inside. The land began to slide and all she could do was get a hold of a rescue circle, unfortunately tied to the ship with a strong rope. She cut the rope with her still holstered blade and held onto it tightly with her right hand.
With the ground crumbling under her very feet she ran towards the shoreline and jumped into the water. Now all the land sunk down and created a massive circular waterfall in a ragtag ellipse which roughly used to define the island. Silveria wanted to swim against the water’s pull but eventually succumbed. She dove as deep as she could before falling off the edge, being freshly broken the cliffside offered many protrusions upon which she could catch on. Silveria landed on one of such formations, tightly holding onto it, literally having her life in the grip of her hands. As she held on with the circle around her waist she watched the large shape of a ship fly over the top of the waterfall and fall down into the black abyss, missing her only by a couple of feet.
Anxiety ate on her soul, recent death and destruction have shaken her to the core. Once again, she came out alive from a world shattering catastrophe. She felt guilty for being alive. What has she ever done to deserve life over others? She was nobody, nothing special, just a confused and stupid mutant �" wasted space. Why was she even born? Her mother was dying and yet Silveria lived, her father saving her from a certain death, bringing her into the world, giving her the same care he gave to her normal sister. Kordon and Wealla, they were a good example of strong people, Silveria felt out of place among them. And yet nobody took her life, not even the nature herself. When will this end? When will the happiness begin?
The noise has just become louder, making her looked down below. The bottom of the newly formed crater has begun to rise again as the water filled it and hid any remains of the island. It would still take several minutes to reach the top and Silveria only spent that time crying over herself and all the people who should live instead of her.
Once the water reached the top the ocean has closed over the area that used to be the island and remained perfectly still and empty. She now drifted alone, lost and confused, her heart broken to pieces. The stillness of the scenery only kept her locked inside this depressing cage, leaving her stranded on the water of blackness, removing the island of hope and joy as if it was never there.