The walls of the earth construct Gayle made to shield himself and the others from Madam Rosaline's vines crumbled. Fortunately at the very last second and just before the vines could grab hold of them Gayle forced the earth beneath them to launch them upwards with so much force they crashed through the top floor and all the way to the roof of the building.
"Good thinking Gayle." Rashen said forcing himself up.
"Yeah but now what eh? What exactly is the plan here!" He asked breathing heavily.
But before he could get an answer the building began to collapse.
"Crazy vine bitch is going to destroy the building we need to-" The building collapsed as large vines burst through from beneath their feet. It didn't take much for Rashen to launch himself upwards with his flames.
For Rashen it was like time stopped. He was mid air, his flames dancing beautifully behind him,to his left was Macy keeping herself afloat with her wind taming and to his right was Gayle in his earth armour. They were his fellow Imperial Soldiers,his comrades and his friends. Below them were the vines moving dangerously towards them. Time sped up again,
"What's the plan?" Rashen yelled,
"Don't get killed and we don't let each other get killed." Macy replied
"Really?" Rashen asked incredulously,
"Yah,the not getting killed idea is probably for the best, it'd be a lot of papah work for Miss Marun and you know how much she hates extra papah work." Gayle said,
"Fair enough."
The three of them dove towards the vines without so much as a valid plan for other than avoid the vines and knock out Madam Rosaline.
Macy took hold of the air currents and forced them down towards the vines and to Rashen's surprised they sliced up the vines. 'Wind Scythes' as Macy would call them,compressed air shaped to perform a slashing attack,and right now they were the only things cutting through the vines. Her wind scythe gave them the opening to maneuver in-between the larger vines.
Rashen and Gayle maneuvered through the vines in an attempt to get to Madam Rosaline who was probably still below them. Macy kept using her wind scythes in an attempt to create an opening for them but the vines were getting harder and harder to cut through while she was getting winded.
One particular thick vine grabbed whole of Gayle in his earth armour,coiled around him all snake-like and crushed him.
"GAYLE!!!" Rashen screamed in disbelief and immediately, another vine grabbed him by the neck,Macy sliced up the vine with another wind scythe.
"Focus or you die here." She warned,
"But Gayle-"
"Over here Rashikins." Gayle called out. Rashen looked around to find him but instead saw multiple full body earth armours maneuvering alongside,Gayle was somehow manipulating multiple armours while being inside one himself. Rashen had never seen such level of control before, Gayle's skills were definitely on par with Raspin he thought.
He snapped out of his thoughts fast enough to dodge another vine aiming for his neck.
And as if it wasn't hard enough dodging the vines,now some of them held up debris from the collapsed building. Macy was nearly hit straight in the head but managed to dodge last minute,she was however sent off balance but Rashen caught her before the vines did.
"They're too much much." Rashen said,
"Well we've got to get to her somehow but I don't how farther we'll go,with every vines I cut she send two more,bigger and thicker."
"I have a plan." They heard from one of the earth armours close by,it was Gayle. "I have a plan but it's pretty crazy and we'll all need to go all out, and hell the chances of success are way lower than the chances of use getting caught by the vines and choked to death."
"Well there's nothing wrong with a bit of spontaneity." Macy said. Gayle smiled.
"Good because crazy vine bitch's given us the sauce we need to seal this victory and we're gonna take it."
"What are you talking about?" Rashen asked still maneuvering with Macy in his arms. As they maneuvered around the vines, Gayle explained his plan to defeat Madam Rosaline.
Rashen wholeheartedly believed that they were going to die tonight,but he still needed to put in maximum effort for Gayle's plan. As per his instructions Macy used her wind scythe to cut down every vine that held debris from the building,she did this while Rashen carried her and flew upwards instead of going down towards Madam Rosaline. Gayle climbed up after them still in his earth armour suit. Rashen flew far above the reach of the vines and flung Macy up even higher,he flew down to get Gayle out of the reach of the vines and flew up again.
The debris the vines held flew towards Gayle like iron fillings attracted to a magnet. With every debris available Gayle got to work stacking, combining and sealing everything into place like a potter molding a clay pot, only now Gayle used the earth debris and instead of a clay pot,it was an open ended rocky bullet,
"It's done! My masterpiece is complete" He said to Rashen and that was his cue, Gayle's work was done so he threw him as far away from the vines as possible and got into the bullet.
"Now for just one final push." Gayle whispered to himself. Macy,who had been gathering enough air currents began her descent towards the falling earth bullet and with everything she could muster,she sent a powerful blast of wind towards the bullet pushing it down even faster. Now Macy had done her part, Rashen knew it was all up to him now. He used his flames as extra propulsion for the already speeding earth bullet.
If all goes according to Gayle's plan, the bullet should provide the necessary protection for Rashen to get close enough to Madam Rosaline and knock her out once and for all.
Though the vines slowed the bullet down considerably, it still worked well enough for a while. The bullet itself began to fall apart but Rashen didn't stop,he released even more flames and went even faster and by the time the bullet had fallen apart, Rashen was already moving too fast for the vines to grab a hold of.
Madam Rosaline stood at the very center of the vines,she looked incredibly strained and quite reasonably too,it was taking a lot of strength and stamina to control the vines. She couldn't feel anything coming from the vines,she couldn't feel the vines getting sliced,ran on or climbed.
At that moment there was a great flash of red light and for her it was like time had stopped. She saw a dark figure coming down towards her, blood red flames shooting from it's back like wings and it's eyes glowing red with malice. It looked like something that crawled straight out the out of hell, like the demon parents told their children about at night. She saw in that figure the thing she had worked so hard to be,the personification of fear and for the first time in her life,Madam Rosaline felt fear and the last thing she saw was a glowing red feet.
Rashen kicked Madam Rosaline in the head so hard he sent her head smashing into the ground. He kicked her so hard that the impact of his feet on her face sent shockwaves throughout the compound. It was finally over,they had won.
More members of the Watch arrived to administer first aid to the injured be it others Watchers,the workers or the children. Hanabi supervised the whole entire affair. She could hear Macy's voice coming from the distance along with loud grunting noises.
"You can do it guys." She said, "We're almost there, just a few more steps."
"SHUT UP MACY!!!" Hanabi heard Gayle and Rashen scream in frustration.
They finally appeared. Macy had Gayle and Rashen carry Madam Rosaline's unconscious body,Gayle carrying her shoulders and Rashen holding her legs. The moment they reached Hanabi Gayle let go of her and there was a loud thud as her head hit the ground.
"Seriously?"
"Oh be quiet Rashikins, she's unconscious so she didn't feel it." Gayle said,
"And even if she did feel it,who cares?" Macy added. Rashen dropped her legs.
The kids that were present eyed Madam Rosaline's unconscious body,some of them moved back with only Lekan managing to ask,
"Is...is she dead?"
"Nah she's not." Gayle replied, "Do ya want her to be?" He added quickly. Macy smacked him on the head for that.
"Her being unconscious is all fine and good for now but eventually she's going to wake up and I don't think there's any prison in Grittshore that could hold her." Rashen pointed out, "Now if only we had-"
"If only you has this?" They heard a familiar voice. It was Miss Marun emerging from one of the carriages belonging to the Watch. She held in her hand a handcuff that gave a particular glow,a glow Rashen was all too familiar with.
"Taming Inhibitor Binds. TIBs for short." Rashen said eyeing the cuff. He remembered the effects the cuffs had on him when he was kept in the Dark Cells for allegedly attacking Raspin and Ngoko.
"I didn't think we had TIBs here in Grittshore."
"Did you ask?" Marun said bluntly smacking the trio on the head repeatedly with the cuff. "Did you ask me wether or not we had them? Did you cadets?"
"No." Rashen said rubbing the spot on his head Marun hit.
"We're sorry." Macy added,
"Have I mentioned how good you look today." Gayle blurted out,Marun hit him twice as hard for that.
"Well we don't have TIBs here in Grittshore." Marun revealed, "I 'borrowed' it from a headquarters in Lambrid a few months back." She said emphasizing more on the 'borrowed'.
"You know Miss Marun,we really should reach out to the Main Imperial Headquarters to request for more equipment." Rashen said and judging by the way she glared at him she was not interested in hearing that from him.
"Not only do I have to complete the report on Macy and Gayle's silly little adventures and write a report on ALL THIS." She said gesturing to the entire compound, "Now I have to write a request to the Main Hq? You three..." She pointed to the three of them, "Are pain in the asses."
She dropped the cuffs on the floor and walked away grumbling.
"She really does look good today." Rashen said cheekily.
They cuffed the unconscious Madam Rosaline and kept her at the trunk of the carriage.
The trio were receiving first aid from the Watch and discussing amongst themselves when another member of the watch came by with information he thought they'd be interested in hearing. Madam Rosaline was conscious again.
"So you really did come to huh. You really are strong,that kick should've killed you but you survived it. I'm impressed." Rashen said darkly to Madam Rosaline. Her messy hair covered her face but Rashen could tell that she was exhausted.
"I have a couple of questions for you regarding what Almyrah said about your operation, specifically about some dark hooded men you've been having contact with." Madam Rosaline flinched on hearing the words "..dark hooded men" and Rashen noticed.
"I have nothing to say to you." She replied,her voice drained.
"What you did was unforgivable Madam Rosaline and you're going away for a long time...but if you're troubled or anxious about the dangerous people you have contact with then you don't have to worry about that because I'll protect you from them,you just need to worry about giving us any information you have on them."
Madam Rosaline let out a scoff. She turned to face him,her hair masking majority of her face,but Rashen could still see the burns on her face in the shape of his footprint.
"You have no idea what you've done here today. You think you're some kind of hero but all you're doing is meddling in affairs you don't understand. This doesn't end because you've beaten me,no. The issues of this godforsaken region precedes you just as it does me and soon enough... you'll come to find that not even you can stop what ever it is that's coming."
"We'll see about that." Rashen said not taking his gaze off her. She turned her back to him and never spoke again.
"Well that was intense." Gayle said breaking the silence as he slammed the doors to the carriage shut.
"We should take her to the holding facility back in Hq." Macy said,
"Isn't it like...really old? Wouldn't it be better to use the ones that Grittshore Watch use?" Rashen asked,
"No it'll be fine since she has the cuffs on. Besides the cells of the Watch are full." Macy replied as and Gayle climbed aboard the carriage. Before Rashen could even process how it was possible for the cells of the Grittshore Watch to be full already Macy asked,
"You coming with us or not?"
"You guys go ahead,I have to find Garle."
"Suit yourself." Macy said shutting the door. He watched them drive off until they were out of sight. With a smile on his face he left to find Garle.
"Head Watcher." Rashen called out to Garle after finally tracking him down within the compound,
"Oh,hello cadet."
"Evening. What's wrong with your hand sir?" Rashen asked after spotting the bandage wrapped around his palm.
"Oh it's nothing, just a little flesh wound." Garle said waving it off. "Cadet,may I ask if you've seen a rubber ball by any chance?"
"Well...no I can't say I have...want me to help you look?"
"I'd appreciate it very much."
"By the way sir,I really wanted to use this opportunity to thank you for your help. I wouldn't have been able to save those kids if it weren't for you." Rashen said sincerely,
"Don't thank me Rashen. Thank the brave members of the Grittshore Watch who came here of their own volition to help." Garle said,his eyes still searching for the rubber ball.
"It must feel good doesn't it? Receiving help from others?" Rashen was slightly taken aback by his question but he still nodded.
"I guessed as much. People tend to appreciate the help of others more when they've been through what you have. After all it must not have been easy being the abandoned son of the Goldenfire Family."
The smile on Rashen's face faded instantly.
"How did you know?" Rashen asked seriously,
"Shouldn't your question instead be 'how didn't your friends know?' 'how didn't the entire region of Grittshore know?'
"You see cadet,the fine citizens of Owellis, particularly Nottenam where you're from, don't seem to particularly understand that the rest of Ephyre don't really care about the affairs that go on there. Especially in a place like Grittshore where people are in a constant battle to survive we don't tend to care about what goes on outside, and even if the same couldn't be said for Lambrid, Vansheris and Hangeritch, your friends Macy and Gayle didn't seem particularly interested in the rumours. That's why your red flames are new to them, that's why it's new to the people of Grittshore."
"That doesn't particularly answer my question Head Watcher. How did you know?" Rashen asked again,
"Well Cadet unlike the others in the region, I've made it a priority to get as much information I can from the other regions."
"Who else knows? Did you tell anyone? Does Hanabi know?"
"As far as I know other than Miss Marun who doesn't particularly care much about your origins I'm not aware of anyone else who does. And I definitely wouldn't tell anyone because it is entirely up to you who you wish to tell." Rashen sighed with relief, something Garle had found amusing,
"But I assume you don't intend to tell anyone or am I wrong?" Garle asked with a wide grin on his face,
"No. I left all that behind in Nottenam, nobody needs to know. Although what's happened this past month wasn't really what I planned I'm happy here in Grittshore,I have new plans, a new goal."
"That's another thing I wanted to talk to you about..." Rashen said coming to a stop, Garle turned to look at him with curious eyes, "I wanted to say this to you back when we first met after the tour but I wasn't too sure about it back then...but I am now."
"And what it that Cadet?"
"I'm going to make the Grittshore Watch obsolete."
"Is that so?"
"Yes. I, together with Macy and Gayle,am going to make a Grittshore where innocent civilians don't have to risk their lives doing the job we Imperial Soldiers ought to be doing. That's a promise."
Garle had only ever seen the level of determination Rashen had in someone else a long time ago. He smiled,
"And to achieve that goal cadet,the Grittshore Watch will help you every step of the way."
"Thank you Garle."
"No worries. Now let's get back to finding that rubber ball shall we?"