"You sure have some BALLS!" roared Lucian, pulling a climbing Padishah down with a water whip. But two Padishahs next to their ally cut with it easily with a blast of fire towards Lucian's direction, hurling a shaved piece of metal down to his face.
Claudia deflected it in time.
"MAHA damn it, they've got the second level and the first!" Lucian growled, banging the metal frame.
But whether by fortune or a turn of the tide, the mist was beginning to clear; they could now clearly see who and how many clambered from the north side of the ziggurat. Judging by only five, most of the others were climbing the other slopes.
"TRIDENT WEST TO HQ, HOW ARE YOU HOLDING?"
"They're about to take the third level too! The forge! After that it is –"
After the third level was the fourth and the final level where the temple sat, and atop the temple their grand banner, and Lucian knew it well.
"TRIDENT WEST TO TRIDENTS NORTH AND EAST! WHERE ARE YOU?"
"10 MINUTES! 10 MINUTES TO ARRIVAL!" shouted Robert.
"10 MINUTES ISN'T GOING TO BE ENOUGH! GET YOUR LAZY PIECES OF WORK OVER HERE, RIGHT NOW!" Lucian ranted, taking the armonion machine off his back.
"Cassius. Hold this. Don't you let me down," he cautioned, flexing his arms. He was going to clamber the slope himself with his life to plant his flag, even if it killed him.
"You know me. I won't," he replied.
"Follow the openings I make. We're going to climb to the top, and make a path for Elwin and Robert by the time they arrive! On my mark!" Lucian exclaimed, circling the last of the dissipating mist to draw two long whips of water, adjusting their rhythm in his hand to make them behave like viscous honey.
"CLIMB!" Lucian commanded, latching onto a ledge on the first level with his whip, and retracting it, propelling himself forward. The same three Padishahs tried to melt the whip, but it was too late; Lucian flew into one with his elbow, and kicked the other down as furiously off the ledge as he could, and leaving the third one to his friends, latched onto a higher ledge, ripping the potted plants and ivy out, climbing higher and higher with steaming fury. But there was still 200 feet to go.
In the south quartier, on the very rooftop that had the oculus which looked down into the spiraled rotunda, a lone Padishah was waiting, waiting for her chance to take the flag. The flag was guarded by twelve members, Rafia included; what was more was that the shaft of the flag was stuck into the floor of marble and schist. She alone could not go up against Rafia's squadra the conventional way. But...
As soon as Rafia was momentarily distracted by what seemed like a boy's furious speech through her machine, the lone Padishah soundlessly opened the maintenance latch to the oculus right above – and motioning a blade of frost to materialize from the floor, cut clean the shaft of the flag – and as Rafia turned her head and grabbed onto the shaft, the Padishah enwrapped the top in ice, and pulled it upward. Rafia and the others immediately shot at the oculus, melting the ice for the flag to plummet – but this time, the Padishah caught it with a steel lasso from her bag; finding the grip, she pulled it through the oculus hatch, and raced immediately away, firing a firework of yellow.
You've got to be kidding me, thought Rafia, her head reeling with disbelief.
But it was no time to lament.
"AFTER THEM! FOLLOW ME!" she said, as she practically tumbled down the spiral staircase with her squadras in tow, blaring into the armonion machine, "SOUTH FORT TO HQ! WE'VE LOST OUR FLAG!"
"WHAT?" shouted Isaac in disbelief.
Just a minute after the yellow firework from the southern quartier met the sky, two red fireworks from the Circuleum and House SUNNA rose into the air; the flags there were also taken.
The Padishahs now also had 3 of the Celendirs' flags.
Elwin and Robert had to get to the ziggurat and fight their way up faster than the Padishahs could bring their flags to the Tree.
"LUCIAN! LUCIAN! WE LOST OUR FLAGS!" cried Cassius over the cacophony of screeching metal.
Lucian made no reply, and instead accelerated his pace. Bah! Not even a single one in my faction can do their job properly!
He swerved around to the western face of the ziggurat to come face-to-face with an entire Padishah squadra – each launched a coordinated assault of fire, water, metal, and air at him. But Lucian dodged it all, somersaulting in the air, and hooking a Padishah by the torso with the ends of his whip turned to scythes, threw her off the side of the ziggurat, making their Eagle Watcher chase after her to save her from the fall.
"GET OUT OF MY FREAKING WAY!" Lucian bellowed, driving his knees directly into the remaining two Padishahs upon the ledge that led into the second level, hitting one but missing the other; the remaining other punched Lucian in the face hard with a gauntlet of metal, nearly breaking his nose, but Lucian, with murderous fury, improvised a buckler of ice around his forearm and rammed himself full force into his assailant, smashing her through the door. Without sparing even a second, Lucian dashed back out of the second level to clamber the slope that led to the third – the forge of TERATANIS – he saw his trusty mates were some way below him, but managing to climb nonetheless with the path he'd made.
Cassius clambered to his side with the armonion machine.
"LUCIAN TO ISAAC!" Lucian exclaimed, almost tearing the talkie-cone out, "WHAT LEVEL ARE THEY ON NOW?"
"THEY'VE TAKEN THE THIRD! THE FORGE IS OVERRUN!"
"WHICH SIDES?"
"ALL SIDES!"
"LUCIAN TO RAFIA! DO YOU HEAR ME?"
"I DO! SPEAK!" she hollered.
"FORGET GETTING THOSE FLAGS BACK!" Lucian ordered. "CLIMB THE ZIGGURAT FROM THE NORTH! MAKE A PATH FOR ROBERT AND ELWIN TO THE SECOND LEVEL, I'LL MAKE THE PATH TO THE THIRD AND UP!"
"RAFIA TO ISAAC, IS THIS OKAY?"
"DO WHAT HE SAYS! THAT'S OUR BEST BET!"
Isaac retraced his thoughts. If Rafia wasn't going to get the flags back, then they needed someone near the Tree to intercept the flags –
They had one! Daphne and her recon team! But there were only 8 of them...
"ISAAC TO ROBERT!"
"YEAH?"
"WHERE ARE YOU NOW?"
"HEADING SOUTH, EASTERN LANE!"
That was perfect.
"JOIN WITH DAPHNE, POOL YOUR REMAININGS SQUADRAS. GIVE THE FLAG TO ELWIN! DAPHNE, YOU CAN HEAR ME, INTERCEPT THE PADISHAHS BRINGING THE FLAGS AT THE BASE OF THE TREE!"
A distorted reply came through the bell-cone. It was obvious that both Daphne and Robert tried to reply at the same time.
"Leaving this to you. Go, go, go!" blessed Robert, as Elwin and his remaining 3 squadras raced with the two flags at breakneck speed, his armonion machine now upon Elwin's back. Robert could use Daphne's now.
Elwin and Katherine and Mirai, and the others in tow, had never run as fast in their lives up to this point – perhaps Elwin's speed up the summit on his first ascension last winter matched the velocity of his stride right now, but this time, everybody shared in that same speed, that same vision. What a moment it was, to know each other's presence and triumphs and movements with speech impressed upon invisible light! To think that it was the armonion machine that saved them from many tribulations against the Padishahs, who had the unfair advantage in terrain! Against all odds, they'd taken the flag from the summit – and now, all they needed to do was to take it to the top of the ziggurat.
Rafia was already there, fighting the onslaught of the Padishahs on the northern side of the superstructure, Lucian already having cleaved past the third level and to the fourth, sticking his flag from House MANASURA next to the grand banner, kicking the Padishahs down that were trying to clamber to the ledge to the temple at an attempt to destroy it; at the same time, the Padishahs that had captured the flags at the Circuleum and House SUNNA was converging from west and east; the stealthy rooftop runner had also raced breathlessly through the western lane, just a hundred yards from the foot of the Tree.
Elwin hurriedly handed the armonion machine to Mirai, holding the flags under his arm, freezing their poles in frost and sticking them to the metal plates of his armor.
"Take my hand!" Rafia shouted, as Elwin latched onto her and she threw Elwin upwards like a stone loosened from a sling – his Asha was awakened once more, and the world came alive in his vision like golden weaves. He sprinted up without rest nor even a sliver of breath, avoiding the attacks from the Padishahs, sometimes almost losing his footing amidst the steep slope, but still dodging them nonetheless –
At the same time, the base of the Tree erupted into a firefight, with Daphne, Robert, and their three-and-a-half combined squadras facing off against the desperate Padishahs.
"URA! URA! RIS!' One of them yelled, as a flag loosened from their hand and shot upwards to the Tree, caught by a lasso from a Padishah awaiting in the canopy –
Elwin passed the second level, and was clambering to the third, somersaulting his way above the Padishah who tried to grab his flag with a whip of water but failed, the tendril broken with a slice of Khan's card of metal that sung past from above –
Robert tackled a boy holding the flag from House SUNNA with all his might and knocked him over, the flag sprawling on the grass –
Elwin made it to the third level of the ziggurat – the forge – but just as he tried to clamber past the wide open-air window, someone from the inside grabbed his legs and yanked him down –
The stealthy rooftop runner at the base of the Tree threw the penultimate flag to the canopy above, but it missed and hit the trunk, leaving Daphne and the others to clamber over the roots to get it –
The Padishah that had pulled Elwin inside the ziggurat pummeled him on the ground, and Elwin rolled this way and that, dodging all the blows, lying on the flags so it wouldn't be snatched away –
The rooftop runner yanked the flag out of Daphne's hands, and threw it up for her ally to catch in the tree above, but Robert blasted the flag in its ascent down again with a fireball from afar –
Elwin froze the moisture on the soles of his boots into spikes of frost and kicked his feet as hard as he could into the armor of the Padishah, knocking him over; Elwin scrambled up and out through the window yet again, but another Padishah was right next to him, with a gauntlet of earth latching onto the shafts of the flags –
A Padishah by the Tree frosted a ball of ice near the tip of the flag shaft and hurled it from afar, up, up, and up, which their ally caught in the canopy – it was just one more flag to go –
Khan threw all his weight into the Padishah next to Elwin, both tumbling down and into the forge just below –
The last flag under the Tree was being picked up, it was –
"THROW THEM! THROW THEM UP!" bellowed Lucian, veins on his face popping, as Elwin hurled both flags up like javelins –
The flag under the tree was on its way –
And Lucian lassoed both of the flags with his whip, and cleaving the air, struck both poles next to the grand banner for all the world to witness, cracking the metal.
The fog-horn from the skycraft blared at last.
"CELENDIRS! YOU – ARE – TRIUMPHANT!"