Chapter 427: Chapter 427 – Tars War – Opportunity
Hedda felt a shiver down her spine that had less to do with the heat of the attack than expected.
By covering Lyanna with her body she had received the worst part of the fire attack, but her Corrupt Burnt-Wing Bee Queen had protected her back from direct heat, so that physical sensation wasn’t what had bothered her most.
What had disturbed her was sothing more subtle but equally unsettling: a sensation of purification that had accompanied the attack.
She couldn’t know it, but Director Ignatius’s contribution to the last bombardnt had imbued the fireball, result of combined effort from several fire and wind tars, with traces of purifying power that Ren had unknowingly injected into the director’s phoenix during their encounter, just as he had with Victor.
Being a small part of the general attack, the phoenix’s purifying effect wasn’t too strong, but sufficient for Hedda’s abyssal beast to feel uncomfortable and slightly weakened. The sensation was like having ice water poured slowly down her spine while standing near a bonfire… a contradiction that made her corrupted energy recoil instinctively.
But she found it a sowhat interesting feeling.
When she looked at Lyanna beneath her, she realized the girl had received burns on parts she hadn’t been able to cover completely.
When her beast appeared, it always generated an unpleasant sensation for most people, and this ti was no exception. Lyanna had been as close as possible, so surely that had also affected her.
The attack’s damage had impacted her considerably, but mainly she was in shock. The girl’s eyes held that thousand-yard stare that ca from experiencing sothing her mind wasn’t prepared to process.
Although Hedda decided not to bla herself entirely…
‘So, second battle for you, right?’ she thought with a bit of pity and so more exasperation. ‘How can it be true that you have real experience when the first hit leaves you this altered? Little liar…’
Hedda had seen this before, young tars like herself who confused training exercises with real life threatening situations, who pondered they were ready until the mont actual death ca calling.
Lyanna trembled, her eyes wide as she stared into space as if she couldn’t understand how they had gotten there. Her breathing was shallow and rapid, the classic signs of soone whose nervous system was overloaded by trauma.
But Hedda, always ready to find advantages even in the worst circumstances, imdiately saw an opportunity in this situation.
With the excuse of taking the girl back to be healed and cald down, she could perhaps go to the rear guard and escape enemy fire for longer.
If Lyanna was healed and recovered her composure, she could heal other soldiers who had lost regenerative capabilities, so she had real value in the back lines… unlike herself.
A healer, even a traumatized one, was worth preserving.
Then she could take advantage of Master Vex’s gift collar and pass as unnoticed as possible, avoiding them realizing she had a fire resistant abyssal beast so she could stay wandering in the rear line without attracting attention.
The only thing she had to achieve was obtaining permission from her squadron leader to take Lyanna to the rear guard.
Hedda searched for her while they remained under constant bombardnt. More wind and water users counter-attacked enemy strikes, it seed they had finally found the response tempo, but flas continued heating the environnt to dangerous levels.
When ice from counter-attacks t the barriers, it exploded into sharp fragnts that whistled through the air, creating a secondary hazard that forced everyone to stay low. And that purifying sensation in the fire appeared every three or four attacks, making her beast writhe uncomfortably within her each ti.
Anyway, Hedda was lucky not to be hit full-on again and finally found the squadron leader supporting defense with a wind wall.
“Sergeant!” Hedda shouted over combat noise. “The healer is in shock and wounded! She needs imdiate attention in the rear guard!”
The sergeant quickly looked toward Lyanna, evaluating the situation with experienced eyes that had seen too many young soldiers break under pressure. The assessnt was swift and professional… this wasn’t soone who could contribute to combat in her current state.
“Alright! Take her back! But bring her back as soon as she’s stabilized!”
“Of course!” Hedda responded, though ntally she was already planning how to extend her absence. There were dozens of ways to delay in a war zone…
Another tar approached, shouting: “I can take her! My beast is faster for evacuation!”
But Hedda was not dumb to let her chance go: “She knows ! She’s in shock… she needs soone familiar to keep her calm during transport!”
The reasoning was sound enough that the other tar hesitated, and in that hesitation, Hedda had already fixed Lyanna and begun moving toward the rear guard.
‘Don’t you dare “stabilize” quickly, idiot Lyanna.’
As she moved away from the imdiate front, Hedda could observe the result of the aerial confrontation that had dominated the sky during the last few minutes.
The confrontation between Victor and Maximilian had been impressive, even seen from below, a spectacle of power that had made both armies pause montarily to observe. It was the kind of battle that would be talked about for years from the survivors perspective… individual skill and power displayed on a scale that reminded everyone why certain tars were legends.
To the misfortune of Yino soldiers, Victor had managed to escape the encirclent, but Maximilian was still standing, so morale remained relatively high. Although the sacrifice of soldiers during the failed ambush hadn’t been too pleasant to witness, at least most could understand it from a tactical value standpoint.
♢♢♢♢
Hedda arrived at the rear guard dical treatnt zone, where more experienced healers imdiately took charge of Lyanna.
While observing how they treated the girl’s burns, she discretely touched the concealnt collar Vex had given her. The artifact was subtle, designed to make the wearer forgettable rather than invisible.
‘Ti to disappear into the background,’ she thought, subtly activating the talisman. ‘At least until I can better evaluate how things are really developing.’
Around her, the war continued with dium intensity maintained by leaders who knew this was only the beginning of a much longer and more complicated conflict. The bridge battle was settling into the kind of grinding attrition that could last for hours or days, depending on how quickly reinforcents arrived on the other side of the bridge and which side’s resources gave out first.
But for now, she had achieved exactly what she needed: a position from which to observe and evaluate, without being directly in the line of fire.
It was survival, and in a war where her true utility was questionable, survival was the smartest thing she could seek.
♢♢♢♢
Victor had effectively pressured the front, and the defensive “bowl” formation remained strong. Yino’s advance on the bridge had frozen almost completely, now they advanced super slowly, with progress mainly being the reinsertion of troops in places where they lost them, simply refilling the numbers of attackers occupying the bridge without gaining real ground.
From his position in the air, Victor finally felt comfortable with the situation. This way he could last fighting without much pressure for as long as Julius might need to complete his own objectives.
As long as nothing too wild or extraordinary happened.
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