Mabsuli Blood || txt

Thirty-Eight: Battlefield

Mabsulle was in absolute chaos.

Debris from buildings lay in the street, windows smashed and doors dangling off their hinges. Stalls from the marketplace were thrown over, the produce and merchandise scattered along the street. The stench of copper stung the air, clangs and screams ringing out as people ran, mothers holding children while others held weapons. All had a foggy look in their eyes.

Those eyes narrowed as Yeonjun ran past, shouting Soobin's name and looking around wildly. "There he is!" a woman shouted, pointing at him. "There's the cause of all this!"

Yeonjun tried not to pay much attention to the jeers, dodging their attempts to hit and trip him as he continued searching for Soobin. It was only when someone shouted, "Get him!" did he really pay attention to the citizens around him. People with children stepped back, cheering them on as others wielding weapons or spells began to surround Yeonjun. He looked for a way to escape, but saw nothing.

And then a strong wind pushed them all away, creating a gap just wide enough for Yeonjun to slip through. "Come on!" Beomgyu shouted, weaving through the outskirts of the crowd as he pushed everyone back. Yeonjun booked it to his side, and the two ran down the streets of Mabsulle with somewhat of a mob on their trail.

"How are we supposed to find Soobin?!" Yeonjun cried, ducking behind Beomgyu as he summoned winds and barriers, pushing the attacking citizens back. He feverishly glanced around, knowing there was no way they could find Soobin with the crowd around them.

Then his eyes landed on the clocktower in the center plaza.

"Can you climb?" he asked Yeonjun, changing direction.

"What?!"

"I'm going to assume you can." Tightening his grip on Yeonjun's hand, Beomgyu barreled through the crowd until they stepped onto the cobblestone circle in the plaza, where he lifted his green glowing hand up. The stone at the base of the clocktower cracked and shifted as a vine sprang out and travelled up the clocktower wall. "Hold on!" he called to Yeonjun as he summoned a huge gust of wind to lift them up and toss them into the air. His stomach flipped as he and Yeonjun flew towards the vine, screaming.

They both narrowly missed smacking face-first into the brick like cartoons as they desperately gripped onto the vine, clawing at it to keep from sliding down as they dangled high in the air. Yeonjun's heart dropped when he looked down and discovered the citizens had become blurry specs far below. "If we fall, we die!" he yelled.

"Just gives you more incentive to climb," Beomgyu retorted from below him. "Now go!"

They were more than halfway up the clocktower with the wind's boost, so they didn't have a long way to finish. However, the other Mabsuli bloods followed Beomgyu's example, summoning their own winds to fly up and reach the princes.

The vine swung as other people began to fly on, climbing up and swinging their weapons. Beomgyu was quick to push them down with more wind, and Yeonjun squeezed his eyes shut and held on tighter as he heard their screams as they fell. "Watch out!" he heard Beomgyu cry, and Yeonjun opened his eyes to see a woman flying at him, eyes wide with cold rage as she raised her knife towards him. In a panic, he kicked her away, causing her to fall back and all the way down, screaming.

But her knife didn't follow.

Yeonjun cried out as the knife dug itself into his left shoulder, tears springing to his eyes as he pressed his body closer to the wall. "Junnie! You okay?!" Beomgyu was still fighting off the horde of Mabsuli bloods that kept climbing up, and Yeonjun's eyes flitted to the knife in his shoulder. Gritting his teeth, he reached over and yanked it out, ignoring the blood and stinging as he handed it over to Beomgyu.