Hell was a place without greenery. Blood and fire constantly rained down from the ceiling, as the souls of the damned lost themselves deeper and deeper into suffering. Screams and cries were as common as the wind, the scorching ambient temperature penetrated even the sturdiest of bones, echoes of better times flashed across every mind, reminding them of what could have been.
It was a place without hope, full of regret and unanswered repentance, where demons thrived and died only to be reborn and continuously torment the captives.
Baoba often wondered how it was down there. What exactly went through the damned's heads, which thoughts. Were they sad ? Were they angry ? Did they simply stop feeling ?
But now, he knew they did not have the luxury of feeling. Surviving, or at least avoiding annihilation, took priority. How did he know this ?
It was because the battlefield was hell's spitting image. He was basically there.
There were more beasts than he ever thought possible. Even some kinds he didn't know existed. And a fourth of them was on him, and him alone, to shoulder.
The ground had become a bloody swamp at some point. The stars in the night sky were not visible through the fire lights and the smoke. The smell was unimaginable. The sounds were disgusting. The view was horrible beyond belief.
The exhaustion was worse than all those combined.
Baoba's limbs felt like lead. His lungs were begging for a break, he had to mobilise all his spirit to draw in each breath. The headache from defining so many strategies and using his blessing all this time was like someone planting nails with a hammer directly inside his brain. Every muscle in his body was screaming in agony, they seemed to be just one wrong movement away from tearing.
You'd think all this agony would drown out the numerous small and medium wounds on his body, but it did not. It just kept adding up.
The situation was far beyond dire. Monsters kept coming like their number was infinite. For a while, at first, the assault kept becoming fiercer, with more and more opponents that were in better and better states. Now, at least, it wasn't growing anymore.
Because by now, the fire had stopped. If not for Capcsium's unrelenting attacks, the air would even be a bit chilly. And so, all of the beasts could get here freely and in peak state.
The tide was now fully upon them.
Boaba remembered how scared he was of it earlier today, it looked like instant death at that time. Now he realises he had still underestimated it. The sheer terror it unleashed was not something he could have imagined. This was truly a taste of hell.
But most of all, he had underestimated this team.
After all, they were resisting. They were only one wrong breath away from death, sure, but they were resisting nonetheless.
Every single one of them was showing strength and stamina he did not think were possible. He could have sworn by this time, they would either be victorious or, most likely, defeated. Especially Urtica : after hearing his story, Baoba had guessed the origin and purpose of the purple light in his veins. He knew how harsh this treatment was on his body, and how heavy the backlash.
But despite it all, all of them were still standing, still fighting.
Even Pando was still shooting arrows into the horde, thanks to Baoba's frequent resupply. By now, she had thrown a countless amount with ridiculous speed, enough to make her fingers bleed, enough to damage two bows beyond usability. She did not need to aim anymore. The monster density was so high, any shot was sure to hit. She still did, though, to make sure every arrow counted.
Meanwhile, Baoba was counting seconds. With a situation this desperate, he had been forced to find a new plan.
'20...21...22...Now should be good.'
Repressing the urge to curse himself out for having thought so many useless words, he forcefully took in a big breath and shouted loud enough to be heard over the clamor of the battle : "Now !"
Without skipping a beat, the four fighters doubled their efforts, gaining a bit of terrain, then quickly retreated inside their cave.
As she retreated, Capcsium took out a dozen strongly glowing iron spheres and threw them into the horde.
The wall of flame appeared once again.
Capcsium constantly threw things in it to preserve it a bit longer, as Baoba started to create a mountain of arrows and pebble-sized bones. While doing so, suppressing his horribly uneven breathing, he asked :
"How long will it hold ?"
"About thirty seconds." Capcsium was doing all she could, but without any additional fuel or time to charge, she couldn't do much more.
Baoba expected this, he immediately said : "How much of the entrance can you keep defending ?"
A few monsters came through the wall regardless, but they were weakened and quickly killed by Venus, Urtica and Pando.
"I can take two thirds of it somewhat confidently."
'Ok, we'll have to work with this.' Without turning around, he called out :
"Urtica, can others use your purple weapons ?"
Urtica had just killed an isolated hound, and he stopped, surprised, for just a moment. Thankfully, it didn't last, and he answered : "It will poison you just by touch in only a few seconds, and will kill you instantly if you cut yourself. I can only use them like this because I neutralise the toxins the moment they enter my system. Moreover, the enchantment only lasts for about ten seconds."
Having made enough projectiles, Baoba rushed to the other side of the cave and started producing bone swords.
"What if we don't touch them directly, don't cut ourselves and you keep giving us new ones ?"
Urtica glanced at the corpse of the hidon he just took care of. Its heart had stopped long ago, but the muscles still contracted wildly, making a few veins pop and ooze out a thick, dark purple substance. He shuddered.
"It's... It's still too dangerous !"
Capcsium, who was still frantically throwing as many thermal bombs as possible, shouted : "Only ten seconds remaining !"
Already, the wall was growing thin, more and more monsters were making it through.
Boaba, having made enough swords, went back to the projectiles pile for good mesure.
"We don't have any other choice ! I know you can't fight much longer, Pando is invalid, and Capscium will be busy ! You can only support us, and this is the only way ! Me and Venus alone won't survive for long !"
Urtica was clearly panicking. His eyes frantically looked around as he searched for any other way, any other solution that wouldn't involve his blessing in close proximity to his friends.
"I can, I can still-"
"No you can't ! This is the only way, or else we're gonna die in five seconds !"
At this point, Urtica was frozen. He has stopped killing the increasingly numerous beasts that came through the hellish curtain despite almost dying in it.
He didn't even notice the galopade that charged right through at full speed, right in his direction.
Only when it was already too close did he jump, caught off guard by the monster's speed. By then, it was way too late to dodge or defend himself.
Venus jumped in the way, blocked the massive horse's whole momentum, and with a loud groan, threw it back into the flames, on its side.
Then she turned to Urtica and put her hands on his shoulders.
With a confident smile, she reassured him : "Relax, I'm too good, remember ? You can trust me with this."
For a moment, he just stood there, panting, completely lost. He was sweating profusely, mainly because of the exercise and the flames, but the panic attack probably didn't help. However, he, too, was an elite.
After looking Venus in the eyes for half a second, he shook his head, like he was trying to shake water off, and calmed down.
He opened his eyes. "Ok !"
Running to the sword pile, he tossed his gloves to Venus.
"I'm guessing you were counting on them." He said to Baoba while grabbing two swords.
They immediately began to glow a dangerous purple, and his hands started shaking. Through sheer will, he calmed them down.
The wall was going down really soon now, so Baoba ran to the left corner of the cave, where the swords were, to get to holding the line. He unfortunately did not have gloves in his arsenal, so he could only borrow Urtica's.
"That's right, one glove each !"
Venus put one on her right hand and tossed the other to Baoba. Ah he caught it, and prepared to put it on his right hand too, he examined it quickly.
They were nice leather gloves, they looked quite expensive. On their back, there was a pattern of a cross made of bones in a detailed circle, probably the crafter's mark. So, you could always tell if the glove was supposed to go on the right or the left hand.
The one Baoba was holding was the left one.
'If it's such great craftsmanship, I shouldn't waste it and put that symbol in my palm, right ?"
After a quick pause, he smiled and put the glove on his left hand.
'It's been a while... At least this part should be fun.'
"Going down !" Capcsium could not sustain the wall any longer. Or, rather, she had calculated since the beginning that she would only hold until now, and had detonated her grenades in a delayed manner with this goal in mind.
Now she had run out, and could only sustain it for two thirds of the cave entrance at most.
She rushed to the huge pile of small bones Baoba had made for her and started chucking them on the right side after charging them up for a bit.
As the wall dissipated, Baoba carefully caught a purple bone sword with his left gloved hand and adjusted his posture in consequence.
Looking straight ahead, he swung a few times to get adjusted. "Are you going to be okay ?" He asked Venus.
On his right, she chuckled darkly. "We never really got to my own secret, did we ? I'll make it short then."
Boaba looked at her, he wanted to see the smile she always had, to reassure himself with it.
But he was very surprised to see that her face was blank. Her eyes looked deeply tired, as if she had been doing this for centuries. With all the sweat and the blood, her hair was clinging to her face, giving her an extremely unusual look. That plus the flaming backdrop made this view into an image Baoba was not going to forget any time soon.
Closing her eyes, she sighed deeply. "I'm way too used to this."
Baoba was shocked again, he had already lost count of how many times that happened today.
'I guess even she had demons in her closet.'
Now he really had to survive. He just could not bear to die with this question in his mind.
The wall was completely gone now. The beasts on the other side had not waited until then to charge, either. They were already upon them.
Smiling, Boaba got ready and forced his tired body to throw the first slash.
Then the battle started again.