Skyfall - Corruption Swarms

Cleo watches, dazzled, as a 'lon commands a group of other pouflons into The Rift. They walk dilligently through the intricate passage of the temple that guards it. Some march fiercely onto the Bridge, and others, while still following their leader's command, look like they're assailed by dread. 

She's just arrived at the temple. She's heard rumors of something new and corrupted inside of the Bridge - which is no surprise, honestly - so she came to investigate. That place is filled with dread, and the 'lon wonders what could it be this time. She feels nervous about interrupting one of the knights, so she just gives them the space to pass through. Another pouflon observes the action from the outside. When she notices that, the lon walks to meet him, noticing he seems to be a knight apprentice, by the way he's dressed. From that assumption, Cleo safely assumes the ones she's just observed must be knights themselves. 

The young, impressionable pouflon looks at the sight of his senior knights in admiration. Cleo approaches him, and he's almost startled when she quietly touches his shoulder with the tip of her hoof, after failing to deviate his attention by a bunch of 'excuse me's. 

"Sorry to bother you!" She quickly interjects, looking apologetically at his expression of mild confusion. "I was just wondering if you'd know anything about the group that just went into The Rift." She explains. 

The young knight-to-be quickly composes himself again, puffing out his chest a little and smiling. 

"Pleased to meet you - I'm Auster." He bows his head, and she does the same. "They're going in to fight the swarm." The lon clarifies, changing his tone to one of somber admiration. 

"The swarm?" Cleo confusedly pipes up. 

"Haven't you heard? The Bridge was never the safest place to be, of course, but the lons that tried to go into it quickly discovered a lot of corrupted gnuts shortly after entering. They must have been caught up when it all started, and now they pose a threat to whoever enters the Bridge." Cleo looks astonished by his explanation. 

"But how does one fight a thousand small enemies?" She asks him, a tad bit confused. 

"I'm not sure of it myself, but I'm fairly certain that Knight Marleau and the other knights can pull it off!" He proudly chirps back. "She's the one leading the attack. I'm just a knight in training, so Marleau didn't want me to accompany the party - said it's too dangerous, and she wouldn't want me to get hurt. I want to help, of course, but I wouldn't dare to disobey a direct order like that one." Auster wilts a little, sighing audibly. Cleo observes him for a moment before perking up. 

"So if she wouldn't let you join, why did you come to The Rift in the first place?" She raised an eyebrow. 

"I was hoping she'd change her mind when she saw how resolute I am about it!" He grinned, proudly. "She just told me to wait here, though." Another sigh. Cleo sympathized a little with his situation, of course. It wasn't like she was any different - she just acted independently. 

 

“You could just come in with me.” She suggested before she could really think about what she was saying. He looked up, staring at her, a little surprised by her proposal. “You’ve been into the Rift before, right? So have I. We can protect each other.” 

“Yes, but… I was told not to follow them.” Auster answered, hesitantly. 

“You’re not following them! You’re with me!” The bigger pouflon smiled, defiantly. 

“I guess… I guess you’re right.” The knight-to-be still seemed reluctant, but gave a step forward. Then, with a deep breath, he decided: “Alright! Let’s go!” 

Together, they entered through the Rift, crossing over to see the fragile, ancient look that the Bridge always seemed to maintain. This time, though, there was an incessant sound of buzzing, accompanying the yells of knights. 

Inside, it was a battlefield. An indefinite number of knights fought against the enormous mass of corrupted pippets, flying around them like a giant, amorphous shape. Sometimes, a bunch of gnuts entirely covered some of the warriors, only to be slashed at a few moments later, falling dizzily to the sandy ground, riddled with weapons. 

A blue vespire charged at the swarm with all his might, leaving a cloud of toxic pneumir in his wake. 'Axel', Cleo thought. The vespire spinned around the air, trying to avoid the insistent gnuts trying to bite at him.

“Damn things! There’s too many of them!” He screamed, looking down for a moment. Cleo tried to follow the general direction of his gaze, seeing a splotched pouflon try to repel a bunch of bugs. 

“We can’t let them win! I’m stronger ‘em a bunch ‘o bugsies!” The lon drawled, hitting a few more gnuts and stepping at the ones who’d fallen, disorientedly, to the ground. 'That must be Avalon, then'. Cleo watched as she kicked at some gnuts with her hind hooves, the impact sending some of them flying, only to collide against other pippets.

Close to them, Marleau lead the party of knights, while attacking the swarm herself. She bravely swung her weapon at the assailants, while sometimes yelling an order to the others. 

"Come on, knights! Show Skyfall what you're made of!" The pouf yelled in encouragement, stabbing at the swarm as if it were a solid mass. Avalon, Axel, and a few others let out a battlecry as well. 

Temporarily swindled by fear, Cleo took the opportunity to shake herself up, and quickly looked at a few other gnuts making their way to the newest arrivals. 

“Come on, Auster! They’re coming this way!” She screamed, ducking just in time to avoid a corrupted pippet colliding right into her face, ready to bite. She heard a strangled sound behind her, and sent forth a burst of magic that sent a gnut flying from the force of it. ‘Huh, I didn’t know I could do this.’ she thought to herself, swinging her head to hit a few more others with her abilities. 

“Are you alright, Auster?” Cleo screamed, swiftly looking back at the pixie. 

“As good as ever!” He huffed, charging at a few gnuts with his weapon.  

The pouflons viciously fought against the threat - the physical manifestation of Corruption, using those poor pippets to do its bidding - trying to expunge whatever trespassers it could from the cursed lands of the Bridge. From time to time, Cleo could see a flash of blue as Axel nimbly evaded the gnuts at his tail, yelling for Avalon to be careful. These two had just been caught up in the middle of it, as well. Fortunately, they seemed relatively well for two lons that had been through all that they had, and still seemed to maintain their fighting spirit mostly intact. 

All of them managed to do away with a number of gnuts, all fallen to the ground, a small quantity compared to the mass of pippets that loomed above them. Even as a collective, the swarm slowly but surely went further up in the fractured sky, high enough so that even Axel gave up from chasing them. The mass had decided to retreat, it seemed - for now.  

The group of ‘lons all drew a collective sigh of relief - a small breather, at least. But all of them - from fearless Knight Marleau to the less courageous of the poufs - knew this fight was far from over.