BANG!!
A wall of stone, measuring the size and width of a large bus appeared in protection of Macy, smashing a few of her assailants to a building flanking her side.
"You can't run forever!!" Shouted the man from the other side as Macy grabbed Veronica and slung her over her shoulders, "You're only delaying!!"
Macy's mind worked inexhaustibly in an attempt to form a plan while her body ran in full sprint ahead, a flick of her wand bore a hole through the buildings beside them as she made a turn and covered the breach. They were on foot, escaping the lower district that way wasn't simply difficult, it was impossible.
'Why did we have to do this again!?' She cried inwardly but knew the reason well, she glanced towards Veronica whose expression still seemed so calm and peaceful, barely perturbed by the dangerous events happening around them as Macy groaned in annoyance.
"There!!" Macy's thoughts were abruptly interrupted as a shout roused her back into reality, a flash of golden light struck the ground ahead as Macy hurled a piece of sediment their way.
She took glances while surveying their environment, the lower district was profound in its abundance of maize like alleyways and hiding area's, continuously fighting wasn't a viable option. Witches and Wizards indeed held a threshold when it came to the amount of spells they could do at a time, mana fueled every part of their magic and those of the fifth circle, although harboring a lot of it, weren't infinite. Macy felt she'd only last about an hour like this, she veered into a random alleyway and traversed deeper while avoiding the crowds of people now swarming the streets.
Her heart was pounding as she staggered to catch a breath, the reactions of the lower district were indeed radical but even for them, this was a bit extreme for no reason wasn't it? She thought.
The lower district acted upon the 'unjust' actions of the upper district, although seen as lunatics, their actions were in reaction to what they felt had to be changed…granted they bore none. This however was a massacre that had happened in their own home, was there any reason for such a reaction towards the middle district, interested in the case for whatever reasons and show such hostility?
Macy shook her head as these thoughts assailed her, she was neither a detective nor was she deserving of concern, being an assistant to Veronica and her role in all this was quite clear and being a member of the upper district and such pity could be seen as patronizing. She stood there in the alleyways for about a few minutes or so till her mind whirred once more for a way out of their predicament, hiding for a while would do the trick but she was dealing with a necromancer with a small army and a congested city of the hateful. If anything, contacting the Ludunhime household was an enticing offer but Macy knew where that'd lead her.
"Maybe we can just stay here for a while…" Macy muttered to herself, they were hidden behind a cluster of buildings that his them well so was there really any need to leave? She pondered and nearly went along with the idea till the sound of wandering footsteps came across her ears too little too late and Macy was flung into a wall from one of the corpses that the man had resurrected.
"Gah!!" She cried out, "how'd you even–"
Before her sentence could continue did she realize that it was three walking dead that had found them, the one that had flung her leapt in her direction as Macy dodged and parted the wall behind her to form a breach that the assailant fell into before closing it back up again.
Her eyes motioned the other two's way as they lunges for her at the same time, their movements were uncoor but fast and deadly, although missing parts of their bodily functions such things were secondary when enhanced by a magical spells. She dodged one, kneed the other in the stomach and brought the ground beneath it smashing into its face before whirling another direction as the second one's hands flung and clawed at the air at which her body had been just a few seconds prior.
She swept a foot beneath it as it quickly crashed onto the floor and a brought a crushing foot to its head, panting did Macy look back at Veronica and grabbed at her collar before sprinting through the maize like alleyways.
The lower district was bustling with activity, there were shouts and seemingly frustrated cries from beyond the buildings that Macy was traversing as quickly and quietly as she possibly could, it seemed the entire part of this region was aware of them now.
'Tch, it'd really be of help if you could wake up about now' She berated Veronica in her thoughts before dodging a clumsy tackle as she broke back into the streets again.
"I've found them!!!" The man shouted as Macy kept on her way.
"Can't run!! Can't run!!"
Macy grimaced as she looked back, others began piling towards her from the man's incessant shouting as she attempted at flicking a wall their way but her mana seemed to have considerably drained as the attempt was left with failure and an aching pain in her head.
'Not good, at this rate…' She didn't entertain the thought and kept moving, resorting herself to limit the use of magic.
Macy's paths grew more narrowed, the chase after had become more determined that all avenues of escape had began to swarm with the residents of the lower district as Macy made a pained expression of annoyance, clicking her tongue to open a hole through the slow encirclement even if it meant hurting a few them but was caught off guard by a emerald stream of phantasmal claws that sent her flying a few meters.
'Not good!!' she cried inwardly and groaned.
"We already told you we're leaving!!" Macy shouted between a pained hiss, she'd long lost the protection of the spell she'd chanted a few minutes prior with the reduction in her mana and was now riddled in scars and tears on her skin and clothes.
"Useless, we had an agreement"
"We're trying to help!!" Macy shouted but it was clear how little of it was being heard, she pulled herself from the ground and found that most of the small street they were on had been surrounded.
"Help? The middle district desires to help us?" There was a laugh that escaped his lips, "They send you down here after promising a few days worth of investigation as though trampling over our worth, this has nothing to do with helping us"
Macy quickly reacted to the insurging crowd, her mana was low but basic defense and attack spells that lacked the need of an affinity were still accessible. With the a small and concise chanting of words was a barrier made between herself and those ahead of them, she then made a last ditch effort at waking Veronica up as it wouldn't be long till the barrier crumbled as her mana reserves continued to drain themselves.
"Veraina, this is as good a time as any to wake up now!!" She shook Veronica's body to which there was little reaction but she wasn't unresponsive as before.
"Ru…" Macy heard her whisper.
"Ru..?" It was then that Veronica's eyes fluttered open with a start, a flicker of a gesture brought her wand to grasp as she pointed it ahead of them. She shouted something loud and clearly as a bright flash of golden light enveloped everything in front of them as Veronica quickly stood to her feet.
"I said run!" Before Macy could process her words did Veronica grab her wrists as they fled while their assailants were still blinded. Veronica led Macy swiftly while retracing the steps they'd made before.
"How long was I out for?" Veronica inquired as they kept running.
"Two hours maybe?" Macy hadn't been keeping track of time but it did feel like two hours, perhaps a little less than that but two hours nonetheless.
"Great, we've got a ride back then that'll be coming any moment now" Macy wasn't sure what Veronica meant by that but didn't inquire, Veronica was simply the better planner of the two.
Eventually their surroundings became much more familiar, Macy had been taking all sorts of turns and avenues that the lower district had become quite confusing to traverse but Veronica's memory was sharp not to mention that she'd spent at least a day in the area last time before she'd began her divinations.
They were by the sidewalk that the cab driver from before had dropped them off at and stopped, the crowd wasn't anywhere to be seen but it was obviously due to the blinding spell that Veronica had used that they were now taking a little time to track them but it wouldn't be long. Macy took this small opportunity to take a breather and hunched over as she flicked her hand and wand vanished from view before looking up to stare at Veronica, her gaze was sharp and Veronica seemed agitated.
"What did you see there?" Macy asked, referring to the divination of course to which Veronica's gaze became steely and even more agitated.
"Not something we can discuss right now" she answered, a tight grasp on her wand that Macy noticed.
"It was bad huh?" She shook her head, "I told you not to do this again"
"I had to…"
"To find something so trivial?" Macy stood straight and glanced around them, "Now we've made these lunatics mad…"
"Macy!!" Veronica scolded, her tone growing a layer of ice now, "They're not lunatics and this wasn't trivial!"
Macy clicked a tongue and looked away, her lips slipped and she noticed she'd said something insulting to Veronica's efforts. The people of the lower district weren't animals, just oppressed to such unprecedented degrees that their frustration had built itself into palpable anger and Ludmilla was Veronica's loving little sister; what about trying to understand what she saw about her was trivial? Yet an apology squeezed through her lips with much difficulty.
"I misspoke…" She finally said as Veronica sighed a breath of exasperation till they spotted movement in the distance ahead, a crowd of hundreds moving towards them.
"Damn, where is that driver?" Veronica readied another spell of lacking affinity, she was of the fate domain which largely held zero potent attack spells at the lower circles which although Veronica was a prodigy, she was still young.
"Can you still cast a few?" Veronica glanced at Macy who shook her head.
"All used up" she said with bitterness, she would've liked to still help if she could.
Veronica nodded as her eyes glowed a bright gold as her pupils became slits, the tip of her wand aimed in the direction of the ensuing swarm of people with the man from before at the forefront. This time it was not a flash of light that encased their vision but a dozen floating orbs of swirling golden energy that shot towards them with lethal force. Macy watched with a little shock as the spell struck the crowd with a bang and cries were heard from the other side behind a cloud of dust.
"Are you…sure you want to use that much
force?" Macy asked hesitantly, she'd intentionally held back such lethal attacks in aim of not angering Veronica later but the latter seemed unperturbed to use force.
"They're not dead and besides…" Veronica's words trailed off as the cloud of dust dissipated to showcase the large and firm appearance of a barrier that protected the crowd behind it, some people were a bit injured and groaning but for the most part fine.
"What a pain" Veronica conjured the same spell again but with the addition of more swirling orbs that shot towards the man and the barrier at blinding speed.
Explosions rang as the confrontation continued, the man taking a dual offensive reaction as streams of green energy then ghoul like creatures resembling skeletal figures on all fours, disfigured and unnerving shot towards her as Veronica conjured a barrier of her own. The beam was successfully defended but the ghouls were strong, with a single swipe of one of their arms and Veronica's barrier was shattered as she staggered back with a little shock.
"These are–!" She was given no time to collect her thoughts as the two skeletal beast's jumped for her, Veronica sidestepped from strike and flicked her wrist as one of the beast's were spent flying across the road.
She quickly formed a second smaller barrier around herself, much denser and stronger than one before that successfully blocked the second beast's attack although spiderweb cracks had already begun appearing across its surface. Using the pause in that blockage of its attack did she discharge the barrier and send a large swirling beam of Golden light through its chest which sent it flying into a wall opposite where they fought.
"Veronica, behind!" Veronica quickly twirled and swung her wand in a wide arc that sent the first beast crashing into the ground before it could reach her.
"Haa.." She panted as her gaze was brought back to the monstrosities and then the crowd and the man that were drawing nearer but they didn't seem in any rush to catch them, she was already struggling with the ghouls.
The attacks were relentless as Veronica split a portion of her attention from the ghouls to the ensuing crowd, slowing their movements than they already were while facing against the two ghouls that were becoming increasingly annoying to face. Her wrist flicked again as the two ghouls were sent flying into each other but one had opened its jaw which swirled with green energy towards Veronica as a beam of emerald shot her way, greatly surprising her.
She was slow on the reaction as she erected another barrier a second too late, the beam barreling her direction but before it made contact was she pulled timelessly out of the way as the beam made contact with something else.
BANG!!
Macy was struck square in the chest as she was sent crashing a few meters, she let out a pained cry as her hand brought itself to the point of impact where a warm and liquid touch met her.
"Macy!!" Veronica cried as her eyes went wide in her maids direction.
Macy was bleeding profusely as her clothes from the neck down were stained red while she staggered to her feet, a flicker of golden light flashing on her body and disappearing; she'd protected herself from most of the damage at the last second.
"I'm fine!" She managed through pained breaths but the task was arduous.
Veronica glared in the beast's directions but was left stumped for an answer, her own reserves weren't boding too well.
"That aura too…" she mumbled under her breath as she readied for a counter attack till the unmistakable sound of a vehicle approaching graced their ears.
Screeching noises ensuid as the car came to an abrupt halt, the driver now harboring a look of shock and horror as Macy quickly swung the door open and beckoned to Veronica who lightly clashed blows with the ghouls again before throwing them far enough to make a break for it.
"You dare run away!!" The man shouted as a stream of phantasmal hands and claws swarmed towards the vehicle that Veronica quickly stepped into and created a barrier around as the stream was met with a bang but the car unharmed.
"W-What's going on here!?" The man from before shouted in shock, turning towards the two as an object of burning golden heat at its tip was brought to his neck.
"Drive"
The man gulped and stepped on the gas as Veronica kept her wand menacingly in view while turning back to meet eyes with Macy, whose expressions were mixed in between laughter and winces.
"I'll be fine" she said, noticing Veronica's increasingly worrying gaze, "Just…tell me it was all worth it"
Macy spoke between batted breaths as Veronica sighed and glared at the man before retracting her wand to take a rest herself glancing back to make sure they were running out into the clear but it seemed as though they'd lost the crowd a long time. Her gaze narrowed but nothing much was as she sunk into the seats of the cab.
"Something about the preliminary Mage trials" she finally spoke as Macy's eyes grew wide.
"Huh!?"