((Collab between [@Letter Bee] and [@Lewascan2] with help from [@Sniblet].))

[b][i]Chapter One, Desperation in Lingayen, Part Nine[/i][/b]

[b]Lingayen Beach, Municipality of Lingayen, Lingayen Gulf - 9/25/2022, 17:25 UTC+8[/b]

Those who had been under the dome may have witnessed two unusual sights: that of the remains of Ari’s barrier, glittering and drifting down around them like gold dust; and that of Ari herself dropping abruptly to her knees, the shape of her shield Adamantius blurring and then blinking away. Those perhaps inadvisably close might have caught the smell of her burning, charred clear through by a thin stream of colorless, odorless, primordial gas. She looked down at the sand before her, eyes wide, hands shakily climbing to her chest. She emitted a series of very soft choking noises.

Noel was at least close enough to see her fall. He spoke into his radio: “Our defensive barrier has been broken,” Noel was trying to keep himself calm, firm, not entirely emotionless, but projecting only a leader’s emotions; he needed to look fearless, and he looked to Nemo, “We need to get it back up; that means that Nemo and I have to go to where Ari is and heal her before she dies.”

Then he responded to Lotus Squadron’s transmission with one of his own, “Roger that, Lotus Squadron! Everyone else, including Volunteer Makri, [i]out[/i] of Huo Ren’s spot as fast as you can! It’s going to be a crater soon!”

The boy sighed, glancing at the setting sun, tired out from the constant fighting. Then he asked Qingshe, “Liason Lei, time for the final leg of the battle, right? I and Nemo will be going to try and heal our barrier mistress before she expires unless you have–?”

There was a loud, harsh, explosive sound from the hills.

-------

Even while reeling from Nico’s kick, the Dragon of the Zodiac switched all the way from a pained grimace into a hideous grin as he caught that sound. He dismissed his Noble Arm once again, and reached up to his ear with his remaining arm, brushing his hair aside with a slight flourish, scanning across all those in front of him - Princess Fuyuko, the brave white-haired flanker, the King, and the Witch closing rapidly…

His smile died a little, with regret that he was in no position to destroy them all himself.
“Zǒu ba, Cáo Bǎo,” he said.

And then Lotus Squadron’s cannon fire plummeted down from the clouds and plunged into the sands, a storm of dust and shrapnel, blinding and slicing and blasting into the melee, ignorant of friend and foe.

-------

To Nil, Callie, and Henri, the sound of that blast was deafening - head-splitting - and the cause of the sound was far worse than that.

The spires of glass that were once around them emitted a distorted, twisted cackle.

[color=ed1c24][b][i]“Nn-hnn-hnn-hnn… ahahahAHAHAHA!”[/i][/b][/color]

And then the hill buckled - deformed - all at once, [i]collapsed.[/i] As they escaped on the helicopter, they had the opportunity to see that the ground had quite literally escaped from under them. Like a living being awakening with violence in its heart, the hill, starting with the peak and going down, began flowing in a single direction: toward that section of the beach where there was once a dome to protect the main Philippine force.

-------

As the sun approached the horizon, one huge shadow lengthened over the beach faster than the rest. An amorphous roaring crashing monster, shedding stones and clods of earth in a perpetual malicious avalanche, pulled itself from the hills and began to rush for the Philippine army at a terrible speed, blocking the river’s mouth which had been in its way and thus putting Alain, who was still by the riverbank, in harm’s way.

At the end of the day, he would be presumed missing in action, not having gotten out fast enough as the glass and the sand, the earth, and the mud swept through his position.

[@SkyHresvelg][@The World][@Chiro][@Aisede][@MagusDream][@Lewascan2][@Sniblet][@Conscripts][@Gerlando][@Senhara][@Creative Chaos][@Nimbus]