Tenths of those insects ambushed us from one side and blocked the path of our supposed escape. If we wanted to get back to the previous track, we might have to break through walls after walls of those giant feral bugs. There was probably another path to run on the opposite side, but the woman for some reason decided to stay and fight.
Perhaps she couldn't manage to bring us all at once so she fought them head-on instead. I assumed she was confident or pressed enough for full extermination, but I highly doubted she would last long alone. She needed help and I couldn't even provide anything useful for her.
As she fought, her one palm was encasing a fire that acted as a torch while the other was going on the offensive by throwing winds.
There wasn't any massive damage done to those insects' figures, but their claws were dismantled little by little. She planned to immobilize a lot of those insects by removing their limbs until we were good to go.
Slashes of sharp winds were launched by her hands, severing the legs of the enemies and forced them to fall to the ground.
If those creatures used their remaining hands to crawl, she would make sure to hack their limbs again and again until there was none left. She kept on going like that while her eyes were also looking for the fire pack that she dropped earlier.
I held the fire pack in the safety in my arm while she was occupied with those bugs. She just didn't realize it yet because she was focusing more on the enemies. I felt useless for not being able to participate in the battle with this kind of body. All I did in these recent events was becoming a hindrance that needed to be saved.
I wanted to throw the pack at herm but I was afraid it would just rebound on that crowded horde and made her task even harder. Securing the pack for a crucial target was the thing that at least I could do.
When I was too focused on the woman's fighting, one insect approached me abruptly with a menacing posture. Its mouth twitched zealously, ready to munch any content that existed inside my puny body.
I was stunned by its presence as I had no method of defending myself. The fire pack was still unlit and it would be too late to search for a fire source. There was the candle that got dropped before, but I couldn't reach it in my current condition.
My hand mimicked the woman out of desperation, trying to blast out some wind like the ones she did earlier. However, nothing came out of my hand even though I used all of my arms' muscles. My hand swung back and forth producing nothing, making me look like a foolish person.
The insect descended all of a sudden and I raised my hands to guard the attack. It must have been a futile defense but it was my body that moved itself.
Just before the beast managed to plant its sharp teeth onto my head, a strong gash of wind hurled it to the side. I gazed to the source of the attack and found out that the woman threw an air slice to protect me.
I was astonished by her action for a while but then I realized it was my chance to help her.
I hastily held out the fire pack in my hand, grabbing it high enough for her to spot. When she noticed the thing that I was holding in my fingers, her eyes faintly glimmered with determination before she ran in my direction.
However, not even a short length traveled, another insect charged at her harshly and hindered her way onto me. If not for her quick response, she would have lost her head right there. The seemingly never-ending waves of insects almost surrounded her, decreasing her space to move even further.
I witnessed as her face was showing more distress and excreted more beads of sweat. The wound on her shoulder was also dragging her down by limiting the movement of her left hand. She seemed to be reaching her limit anytime soon.
But then, a shout from her was blaring through the air around us. She looked at the insects with disdain as she lifted her more functioning hand. Her right hand unexpectedly grew a bit larger and glowed with a brilliant shade of blue.
When she hit the enemies again with her deformed hand, the winds blew stronger although her motion was almost the same.
After she created some space for herself, a stream of floating water drizzled from her flushing palm and formed a long line of liquid on her hand. The line of water followed the movement of her fingers as she quickly swung it everywhere. She used her self-made water to slash and stab the insects as if she was using a blade.
Her position was getting better as the enemies' count was reducing faster than ever before.
On the sides, however, the other children were targeted by the insects that weren't attacking the woman. In my case, the insect that previously tried to assault me was starting to regain its posture and prepared for the feast again.
I gazed at my side to check on the state of the crying girl. She was the one furthest from my position. Her face was showing an unnerving fright when an insect began to walk to her. The girl's eyes were so tense they couldn't even produce any more tears. She avoided the beast by going to the corpse, hugging him as if looking for protection from that breathless man.
Another insect was getting interested in the baby and started to close its distance into the defenseless infant. The newborn's wails of agony were becoming more severe on that disastrous night and the woman was flinching from them.
We were so vulnerable at the moment and our sole hope was for the woman to rescue us. However, I was grasping a tool that could give one of us a chance, just one. If I managed to hit a single insect that approached us, then the person targeted by said insect would be free from the terror. All I need were fire and also a miracle to pull this off.
First of all, a fire source.
My eyes were focused on the candle that was out of my reach since I was thinking to use the flame on its tip. If I wanted to do that though, I would have to move a short distance somehow with my condition. The woman was currently off-limits so I had to rely on myself.
But how?
My legs were not strong enough to stand and my body wouldn't rose from its position. After a brief moment of consideration, my mind found the only option left, crawling.
I was unsure if my hands were strong enough to pull my body, but now wasn't the time for any more doubt. Using my palms to clasp the ground, I dragged my heavy body through the cold dirt.
My body moved little by little toward the candle fire, never stopping for the others' sake.
When I was already so close to reaching the candle, I heard the woman's flinch on the side. I was intrigued about her condition and took a glance at her side. Her face indicated a sign of fatigue and she was clenching the glowing arm forcefully. Despite that, she was suppressing the obvious pain and kept on fighting the few enemies left.
My determination grew larger by seeing her and made my body rush to the candle. When I could finally extend my hand to reach it, I wasted no time by starting to burn the thing in my hand. As I lighted the pack, the decision was really on my hand now. But I was confused about whose attacker should I throw this pack to.
The best and the most ideal choice for me was to throw it onto the insect that pursued me. My survival would be prolonged and I would leave this place without damage if I was lucky. But if I did that, I would be responsible for killing two innocent children that weren't old enough to decide their way of living. The thought of that would haunt me for the rest of my life.
If I threw it to the others though, this would be the end of the line for me. No other chances, No promise made, no nothing. That would be the peak of my failure.
When my mind was having a quarrel inside, I inadvertently caught the glimpse of the insect that targeted the baby. Its fangs were raised upward, preparing to thrust into the newborn flesh.
At that moment, my reflex overtook my body.
My palm clenched harder and my body rolled to the side, forcing my back to touch the dirt. Without further thinking, my elbow swung and propelled the pack onto the air.
My vision locked onto the pack as it made contact with the insect. A burst of smoke occurred instantly, startling the target as it began to move in an awkward way. The insect then inhaled the flower fumes before having a spasm and dropped to the ground with a loud thud.
A peculiar silence was inhabiting my ears after all of that happened.
I couldn't believe it. I did all that. It was a perfect throw, yet my mind suddenly questioned my decision.
What had I done?
Did I really give myself to die in this place?
As my mind was dazed from the successful save, the insect that preyed on me presented itself. Its claw was aimed at me and ready to be shoved anytime soon. When that happened, I would be gone and every action that I made would amount to nothing. As the claw thrust downward, my eyes instinctively closed and I could only wait for my foolish death.
But it never happened, not a single thing struck my head at that time.
When I opened my eyes, I was suddenly in the clutch of the woman. She swept me away from the beast and ran away from it. Before I could process everything that happened in that short period, she approached the dead insect and picked up the baby onto her arm.
I was quickly brought back into my senses when this familiar position happened again. I thought the woman had finally found a way so the three of us would survive.
But just when we were about to reach the girl, the woman's strength was loosening and we suddenly fell onto the ground alongside her. She involuntarily picked the worst of all times to collapse on the ground.
At that moment, I had finally noticed her worsening body condition. She was abnormally hot as if she had a bad fever and her breaths were sparse. Her eyes were shut close and it would probably take some time for her to wake up.
My vision returned to the most crucial thing at the time.
The insect had reached the helpless girl who was still clinging onto the dead body. After looking at our state, she might have eventually realized how deep the trouble she was in. The fangs of the insect twitched again, and this time, I totally could not do anything else for her.
Her eyes were filled with fear, her legs trembled and immobilized. The one thing she could do was anticipating the pain.
Then, I heard her scream of dismay as the insect lunged at her.
That was the first time I heard her scream.
And it would be the last in my life.
Her yell was cut by the sound of stabbing and it was followed by the disgusting munches of its mouth. As my vision was filled with such an awful view, my stomach gave up on working.
With that, I vomited terribly.