Even knowing in theory how powerful avalanches could be did nothing to prepare Eilert for the sheer power he unleashed. The landscape for miles was laid bare, trees snapped and bowled over as though they were twigs. It was added by Icsorue's efforts, who took much pleasure in catching the closer shades that he had missed.

Had they been fighting any earthly force, Eilert would have joined in her cries of shouts of triumph. (Or maybe not, but he would have felt as elated as she was.) But as it was shades they were up against, he wasn't so sure they were finished. Even if they took out the entire force, would more just continue warping in?

He peered down into the dust intently, anxious to see what happened to the enemy army.

There was no chance of the dust clearing anytime soon--not in the next half an hour, not in the next hour. For an event of that magnitude to settle would wind up taking a half of a day, at least. Fortunately, if it truly took that long, and there were no signs of enemies until then, they could have considered themselves victorious with absolutely no casualties to count. Nothing would have been better for them.

Icsorue was the most observant of them all. Her entire purpose in the organization was tracking, hunting, and investigation altogether; trusting her as a soldier to attack enemy forces alongside allies was just asking for trouble. Because of this, she was the first to notice something . . . off, and it would become evident that her voice dropped from the cheers of the other operatives. Icsorue had narrowed her eyes and gazed down the side of the mountain, and she bit her lower lip, tightening up her fists . . .

There was a point in the dust that had separated from the rest. The smoke and debris clouded around it, but not within: a literal break in space, like an invisible wall become seen by smoke alone. As soon as the others caught wind to this, further conflict became unavoidable, as their enemies countered the onslaught with their own. Much of the earth had become a rock slide with a serious of boulders, and just as it seemed that the earth had settled, it began to tremble once more--a terrifying force, at least half of before, but frightening only because it wasn't their doing.

". . . GET DOWN!!" Icsorue shouted.

She was too far from Eilert to try and take him to the ground, herself, so she could only hope that he'd do like the others and duck down at her warning. There was no flurry to be had, as Icsorue had expected, but a light bombardment. The larger boulders, some of which were five to ten times the size of a normal person, launched from below, narrowly above their heads, to strike and shattered upon the forefront of the fortress. There wasn't a flurry, but there were enough of them coming from the enormous dust cloud to keep them on their toes--to keep them thinking more about defense and less of offense.

Something was wrong...that much Eilert was certain of, but what he couldn't put his finger on. He had moved right up to the edge to get a better view, but he couldn't make anything out. The dust didn't seem like it would settle anytime soon, either.

It wasn't until he heard Icsorue's warning that he was aware of any imminent danger. He threw himself back from the edge, and not a moment too soon. A large boulder passed through the space he'd just been occupying...one of many.

Whatever was down there, it was opting to bombard them from a distance. For the Orange Enigma at least this wasn't a good thing--his glyphs relied on the enemy advancing. At that distance there was nothing he could do.

What could have survived that rock slide? he wondered. He turned to look at Icsorue, now waiting for a suggestion from her. He was at a loss of how to stop the barrage.

"Shit, shit, shit . . ." Icsorue grumbled as she backed from the edge.

Icsorue had been trying to edge closer, to possibly see an image of the field again, but there were enough debris come their was to make that problematic. Unfortunately, she couldn't control earth when it was detached from the planet; airborne boulders could be detonated and changed shape, but she couldn't move them like a telekinetic or anything of the sort. In fact, amongst the list of all her rumored abilities, that was one that was not included. Telekinesis, the most useful psychokinetic ability--that was something that could really get to Icsorue sometimes, especially when it'd be more useful than the rest of her talents.

Each time one of them missed--which had been the entire bombardment by this point--the boulder hit the fortress. It was a hefty building, it could take a lot, but there was a threshold. It seemed that Silver was the only one interested in protecting it, though. The rest of them were far more concerned with their lives and the lives of their comrades.

"OI, YELLOW!" Icsorue shouted as loud as she could.

One of the other enigmas, a female body clad in a uniform coat, hood up, with yellow stitching marking her distinction, popped her head up from where she had been ducked down close to the ground.

"Yes . . .?!"

"You're s'posed to be telekinetic, roight? Return foire!" Icsorue shouted, "We gotta at least be able to see wot the fuck's goin' on!"

"R-right!" the yellow enigma exclaimed hastily--nervously.

With her arms out by her sides, the coat-clad operative demanded a silence amongst the group, as detached earth continued to pour over them. She couldn't stop them all, but a majority of them could be caught, so long as she could perceive it, and thrown back with half the force. Aiming wasn't at all possible; she was really just deflecting these to the best of her ability, throwing them back at whoever was capable of throwing them in the first place. The entire goal was to allow the rest of them to regroup and come up with a new plan, if they could. They'd already proven that victory was possible, after all. This wasn't a lost cause anymore.

Given the chance to peer over the edge, now, they were left to perceive the boulders as they shattered at a certain point--all at the same point, never before, never after. There just seemed to be a wall that they reached eventually, which destroyed them entirely.

"Fuckin' . . . 'ell . . ." Icsorue mumbled to herself. This . . . was definitely a problem . . . a big problem.

With the Yellow Enigma stopping much (but not all) of the fire, Eilert dared to peer down the mountain again. Nothing was visible still, except...all of the boulders being tossed back down invariably got destroyed. And though it was difficult to be sure from so far away, it seemed as though they were all shattering around the same height.

Frowning, he walked over to where the Icsorue and the others were regrouping. "It seems like our enemy has a barrier of some kind up," he noted. He didn't know what anyone was capable of, so he decided to ask. "Can anyone construct a barrier for the temple, break down a barrier from this distance, or blow the dust away?" he asked.

It was possible he could take the barrier down, as most barriers were only one layer thick and therefore susceptible to his glyphs, but that would mean getting down to it which didn't seem to be an option at the moment.

When Eilert started towards Icsorue, the green enigma followed behind, and so the others began to, as well. The yellow enigma remained where she was, holding off the pieces of earth as they came, while Eilert, Icsorue, and the others regrouped to discuss the change in situation, and what the hell they were going to do about it next. They had their defense, but that was only going to go so far; Icsorue, at the very least, knew that using psychokinesis in excess could become very tiring, and Icsorue was a master at most of her talents. The yellow enigma, on the other hand, was pretty new to it all.

"oI can blow the dust away," Icsorue replied, "But that's gonna take me out for awhoile . . ."

Unfortunately, she wasn't exaggerating. Icsorue could control wind currents, too, but the amount of dust they had on the field was immense. It'd take her a good ten minutes or so to get rid of it, and considering how dire the situation was at the moment, ten minutes was a good while. It only took a fraction of a second for someone to die, after all.

"I . . . don't think any of us can make barriers . . ." the green enigma noted, hesitant--feeling a bit discouraged by the current situation. It should have been expected from someone as new as him.

After a half-second of thought, Icsorue began to speak: "Well, yellow over there--"

The green enigma cut her off, "Sephia."

"Wot?"

"Sephia, that's her name," added an operative whose coat was marked with brown stitching.

No convincing was needed for Icsorue--she knew how important it was to be known by her real name, too. "Oh. Roight. Sephia--Sephia can hold 'em off for the most part. Eilert, think we moight as well rush 'em?"

Eilert shook his head--he'd been hoping a long range battle was something they could win, but it didn't sound like they could do much from here. Even so, rushing the enemy wasn't going to help if they had a barrier up.

"Forget it; I'll use the dust as cover and climb down to where those rocks are breaking apart. If there's a barrier, I should be able to destroy it or at least put a hole in it." If he could do that, then Yellow--or Sephia, rather--could start at least having a chance of hitting their adversary.

As for the other Enigmas...he didn't really know. He was no leader; he was doing his best to do whatever he could, but he wasn't great at working others' abilities into his thought process. He wondered what Silver was doing--he must know what they were all capable of, so surely things would have gone much smoother if he could coordinate things. That had been his intention with the communication glyphs they were carrying, but he apparently was still making preparations inside.

Assuming there were no great objections or someone with a much easier way to get down the mountain, he began to look for a way to climb down. At least he wouldn't need to climb back up--he could always draw a teleportation glyph down there and transport back up instantly.

"I'll come with you, then," one of the other operatives, a man with confidence in his voice, announced.

The man who stepped forward wore a coat marked with turquoise color--one of the lesser operatives. It was odd how people like him rarely got much play; the codename was obscure and they rarely saw much use as anything more than foot-soldiers whenever necessary. But still, they had their uses, and though a majority of them were not particularly rounded in power--and, in fact, comparatively weaker to most--they were still human beings.

Icsorue shook her head, "Eh? Nah, nah--oI'll 'elp, don't--"

But he cut her off. "No. Icsorue, you can't damage any sort of barrier with your power."

This, of course, had her slightly offended. "W-wot's that's s'posed to mean?!"

"I'm not trying to be mean or anything, it's just . . ." he visibly shook his head, "I'm just a better backup. You'll just have to believe me . . ."

Icsorue, however much she'd have preferred to be regarded as a person and not just some powerful war goddess worthy of being feared by all, was visibly irritated by this. She didn't know if they could trust something they didn't understand, but this guy was one of them, and he seemed confident enough--and no one else was volunteering. It may have been best if she was up there to defend the rest of them just in case, too. It was bothersome, but she had to agree with it, if only because she felt a large group of amateurs would fail more than a single amateur accompanied by someone experienced.

"'tch, wotever. But if ya get Eilert killed!" Icsorue shook her fist at him, "Ya better 'ope those shades get ya 'fore I do!!"

And she was telling the truth about that one, too. Eilert was one of the people she desperately wanted to remain in her life, after all. Risking his life was difficult for her, as the only constants that remained were Silver and Eilert--and Silver was far less dependable, regardless of being around more often.

The turquoise enigma nodded his head and stood up straight, accompanying Eilert to the side of the cliff. "I'll be accompanying you for this operation. My name is Urishval. I will do my best to support you."

"Alright." Eilert was a little uncomfortable that he was being treated like someone in command, as he was at best somewhat outside the normal rankings and at worst probably near the bottom. It hadn't occurred to him that his display would cause others to look to him for direction.

As he started his way down, one thing became immediately clear: it would take some time. The downside of creating an avalanche is that it wiped any paths that were in place, and left the footing treacherous. "Be careful," he informed Urishval, "the ground is very unstable."

Though given his average physical condition, he was most worried about himself. How much of a chance he actually stood of making it down in one piece he wasn't sure, but there weren't any other options; it sounded like he was the only one capable of breaking the barrier, though even that wasn't a sure thing.

"I'll be all right," Urishval shook his head, "I've traveled this mountain longer than I was ever alive."

They were practically moving under the volley, though. Despite the fact that Sephia and, as it seemed, Icsorue, as per many of the boulders bursting into pieces before they were too close, were defending the top, those within the shield were still using the boulders as weapons. They were still successful, though. While the enigmas were gathering their strength to destroy and deflect the assaults, one or two of them still passed through and struck the temple itself, gradually causing damage to the front of the fortress . . .

The journey down the mountain was treacherous enough. In the aftermath of the avalanche, much of the stones were loose, and a few times, Urishval had to be there to grab onto Eilert's arm to keep him from falling. There was still a decent path, though--it just had to be reached. A spiraling pathway down the face of the mountain, something to gradually get them closer to the barrier which they desperately needed to break, or at least cause extensive damages to.

Once they reached that path, it was fine. A steady, winding path progressing ever downward, almost as wide as a city street. There was no worry of falling, either. This route was a bit longer, but it was the the only way.

However . . .

. . . they weren't alone.

It wasn't much more than a minute of the two men walking the path that Urishval quickly leapt ahead, holding his arm out before Eilert as a means of demanding that he come to a halt.

"We've got company!"

The darkness crept forward, and with its tendrils of shadow, gripped the ledges and pulled itself forward: shades. A dozen of them. They had been creeping up the mountainside on a direct path that intersected with Eilert and Urishval's winding one. They were quick to adjust priority, too, as the creatures--no taller than waist height to the two operatives--came to a stop once they reached the road, and rather than passing the two operatives up, leaped into the road itself, surrounding them.

By the time they reached the stretch of relatively level ground, Eilert was quite winded. He was in no better shape than an average human and therefore the climb down was extremely taxing on him--sweat poured off his body, from both exertion and fear. If it hadn't been for Urishval, he would be dead a few times over. He just counted himself lucky that he could transport them back to the top when they needed to return--if he had this much trouble getting down, there was simply no way he'd be able to make the trek back up using conventional means.

He stopped abruptly at his guardian's command, and quickly noticed what he was referring to. Unfortunately, he couldn't prevent them from being surrounded, but it didn't overly worry him. He'd fought shades before and even with his lacking combat abilities they weren't much of a challenge for him, not to mention he was sure Urishval was much better at this than him...

Standing back to back with the Turquoise Enigma, Eilert prepared himself--when came within reach, he'd swipe at them and attempt to plant a Glyph of Eruption on them with his palm. Assuming they were no tougher than the shades he'd encountered before, it should be a one-hit kill on them.

Though, on a single shade, pretty much anything was.

With their backs to each other, the two men negated any possibility of an attack from the rear. Being flanked from the side was a possibility, but these were shades they were dealing with, basic shades--no stronger than any other living umbra, weak, but hungry. Tactics were not part of what little minds they had--they simply attack, and preferred to attack in groups.

Urishval had something going for him, though. In the dark atmosphere, it became the guiding light that attracted the attention of all nearby shades--all but one, who had leaped for Eilert, only to find itself degraded to nothing more than an expulsion of shadows, dark mist that clouded their surrounding and threatened to rend the oxygen from their lungs, were it not for the turquoise enigma--a man deemed with little specialty and rounded ability . . .

His right hand simmered with azure, an illuminated force that wrapped itself about his hand and shimmered forth from between his fingers. It brought forth an unpleasant feeling, truthfully, not the illumination of hope, but the underlying feeling of suffocation, the sensation of drowning--not in water, but something far more pure.

"Rivers of chaos, gather," Urishval began the chant: "The energy of disorder, scatter."

The shades were . . . cautious. They could show that, they had personal restraints, though far from extraordinary or otherwise unique amongst them. When they saw a threat, they attacked--when they saw a light, they pounced, but when they felt something overwhelming, they hesitated.

"Come onto me, and lend me your blade of madness."

Urishval held out his hand, a kick of wind erupting forth as the overwhelming sensation strengthened. The wind kicked back his hood, let it fall to his shoulders, and he paid it not attention. Urishval was a young man, Eilert's age at the very least, with hardened features, albeit a thin and youthful face. His dark hair was thick and long, his bangs at length of his nose, and in his face, but paid no mind, nor impeding his actions.

"Drown in chaos. Myech-utolaiushie," concluded Urishval's spell--

The shades before Urishval became nothing more than a fog of darkness, vastly overwhelmed by what appeared to be flames, far thicker than the "corpses" of the dark creatures. It was not a burning fire, however--nor a fire altogether. Energy. Pure, untainted, chaotic energy. The source was held within Urishval's right hand, a weapon set close to the ground. Nothing of it held a tangible existence; it was sketchy, flickering--a solid, azure illumination that could barely maintain form or function, but its shape was undeniable: a sword, a straight blade with no hand-guard, unable to keep physical shape for such a detail.

Raw power to shatter any field of magic that any may lay before him.

Panting, Urishval announced quietly: "More will come. We have to move, quickly."

There were still shades before Eilert, but they were not necessary to defeat: while the creatures were at their backs, they could keep them at their backs, and make distance through means of the earth itself. What worried Urishval was the possibility of hordes laying before them. If they only had them on one side, they were fine, but surrounded by too much, and they were doomed.

Eilert was ready for a somewhat drawn out fight...or at least one longer than what actually happened. Urishval annihilated all the remaining shades in an instant--if it weren't for the fact that he could transport them back up in an instant, he'd think his presence here wasn't even required.

"Understood," he replied, turning away from the shades to follow him. Given his ability, he presumed he'd clear the way if necessary. He knew enough about other magical phenomena to realize that Urishval cast a spell, but beyond that he was in the dark. He had no idea of how much power it took to use a spell of that caliber.

Now that they were on fairly even ground, he could keep up decently, but he was still winded. If Urishval moved with any sort of speed, he'd need to use one of his glyphs just to keep up--something he'd prefer to save for combat, if he could.

Running was a stark necessity. Urishval was no faster than Eilert, though--the orange enigma was not going to be outrun. Nonetheless, if they didn't run, they were going to be marked for dead, and there was no one there but them to ensure that it didn't happen . . .

As they raced forward, the shades became more and more evident. Before, there were only twelve creatures of darkness around them. Eilert had destroyed one, and Urishval eradicated six of them. Looking back behind them may have been a terrible idea, but at one point, Urishval did, and he was intimidated by the result. The creatures were clambering up the mountain at a fast pace, and with Urishval and Eilert as their closest potential targets, as soon as one shade was on the path, it was joining the chase. They kept pouring up the mountainside, numbers amounting greatly-- dozens--

Hundreds?

How could so many still be alive after that avalanche?! Urishval questioned, before turning his head to look before him once more.

Their "normal" speed was a bit of a problem. Many shades were faster than the two operatives, and as the darkness behind them continued to grow, the quicker beasts started to make progress upon them. Urishval had noticed this, too . . . and something had to be done about that.

"We need to slow them down!" Urishval shouted with a glance to Eilert.

There was only so much that he could do with his ability, though, and slowing the creatures down was not one of them. He could destroy many, but the ones that replaced them were in no way going to make any slower--and, in fact, would just have fewer obstacles in their path to Eilert and Urishval.

Easy for you to say. He didn't say anything, though--he assumed that for some reason, Urishval couldn't simply swing behind them and eradicate them all like he'd done with those previously surrounding them. Perhaps it only worked at a very close range.

Unfortunately, Eilert was extremely ill-suited to combat without time to prepare, and his options were very limited while on the run. He could imprint glyphs with his palm, but they'd only be palmed sized and therefore not large enough to do any significant damage.

There was one trick he had in mind, though--he wasn't sure how well it would work, but there was no harm in trying. Without breaking his stride, he crouched low and swiped a rock from the ground. He implanted his Glyph of Eruption on it with his palm curled around it, with the result that the glyph actually stretched around over half the surface of the rock.

And then he simply tossed it over his shoulder, activating the glyph when the shades got close. The result was the rock practically exploding, sending shrapnel every which way--which would hopefully slow down the mass of them, and take out some of the forerunners.

He repeated the process, as there was certainly no shortage of rocks around...