[Nightmare]

"S-Suicide approach!?" Elsa cried.

Marie started bawling and rubbing her eyes with her palms.

"Yes… Its mindset seemed to say that it would take its [real] enemy with it if it were dying." She explained.

"Real… do you mean our group?" Elsa asked with trembling eyes.

"Yes…." Marie whispered.

Elsa hugged the young woman and pulled her red hair from her eyes.

"It… No one attacked its legs since they were already crippled, and we couldn't land lethal strikes by attacking them.

That included us after our initial attacks." Marie continued.

"As a result, almost two hours had passed between the legs being injured and the point…."

Elsa hugged Marie again.

"It's okay to tell me, sweetheart." She whispered.

Her arms were wiped off but still covered with blood.

However, Marie could care less, and she knew that.

"The point when Tyrene was… hit." Marie cried.

"The Stalkwalker cleverly used that time to recover by pretending the legs didn't work.

As a result, when it was on death's door, it flipped over its body to the west where Helix and I were…."

Elsa took a deep breath.

"Elsa… it knew who we were, where we were and didn't care about attacking anyone else but us."

—

"No! No-no-no no, no, FUCK!" Helix screamed in panic.

Less than a minute ago, the Colossus' vision started to blur.

The constant blood loss from its neck and legs, burns on its back, and various wounds had added up.

Helix used his vantage point and a considerable reserve of his spirit particles to recreate the titan falling.

As a result, the soldiers could see the titan falling backward before it fell.

The aggressively-taxing illusion saved over two-hundred lives in an instant.

Once the Stalkwalker fell, a massive earthquake hit the ground and sent everyone flying.

A dozen fighters flew into the chasm and fell to their deaths.

Another two dozen were killed, and fifty were wounded with rock shrapnel or blunt-force trauma from a fall or debris.

Almost everyone was choking from the dirt they inhaled.

The entire battlefield was a massive dust cloud.

However—

The attack turned out to be a sacrifice play.

The beast allowed itself to fall onto its heavily wounded back to kill the three hundred soldiers surrounding it.

Worse, it was clever and used the adrenaline and shock to turn itself around in the dust storm.

By the time Helix understood the strange fluctuations in airwaves, the Stalkwalker had already flipped around.

BOOM! BOOM!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Helix's eyes widened in terror when he saw the Colossus crawling on its hands and knees towards the west.

It was facing—

"Marie! Take cover!" He screamed at the top of his lungs.

It was too late.

A massive boulder shot from the dust cloud in Marie's direction.

The twenty armed guards with shields stood in a line, and the boulder hit the barrier.

BOOOOOOOOOM!

The Level 3 barrier shattered instantly, and the boulder hit the twenty guards fifteen feet in front of her.

They were blown away like ragdolls.

A massive rock bounced from the position and shot at Marie.

However—

A beautiful pink light surrounded Marie in a split second.

The rock smashed into the light and shattered into dust.

Marie looked down.

Her necklace was glowing.

"[Love's Protection]...." She whispered in disbelief.

The necklace created the barrier that he gave Marie in the woods.

It created a barrier if someone shot projectiles at Marie.

Her eyes welled with tears and emotions when she realized Helix had saved her life.

She should have been trying to flee, however.

Marie was in shock.

She had almost died, couldn't see, and was in a trance that she was still alive.

It didn't occur to her that the Colossus may have targeted her specifically or that it might again.

She'd know that the Stalkwalker could smell that she was alive if she did.

Helix couldn't see what had happened to Marie.

She was on the lowest part of the hill, and all he saw was a massive cloud where she was originally located.

He, too, was in an erratic emotional state of disbelief, thinking that Marie had died.

[Love's Projection] wouldn't have saved her from the blast, and he didn't know that a Level 3 barrier and 20 shielded guards broke the boulder's momentum.

BOOM!

BOOM!

Helix snapped out of the trace he was in.

When he looked up, he saw the Stalkwalker on its hands and knees approaching the chasm.

After getting in range of Marie, it lifted its hand high.

Above him, the Stalkwalker's massive arm cast shade on the entire area.

Helix's mind started racing in a panic.

He jumped down from the hill in an instant.

If the Colossus was striking the area again, it meant there was a chance Marie was still alive.

"Helix! It's a trap!" Tyrene yelled across the battlefield.

She was running to the position when the Stalkwalker turned to the west.

Unlike Helix, she knew that Marie was heavily guarded, and there was a barrier spell in front of her.

However, Tyrene regretted watching the battle from a high vantage point.

She could warn him of impending danger by watching from the north and Helix to the south.

It was a wise move.

Thanks to that decision, she was able to see something that Helix couldn't.

However, what she saw wouldn't have mattered if she had thought about her students first instead of the battle.

Tyrene was a general for most of her life, and while she taught regiments, she had never had apprentices.

Like everyone else, she believed that the Colossus' legs were nearly paralyzed.

With its body facing away and Marie protected by the guards and barriers, she felt Marie was safe.

She was wrong, and now there were [two] people in mortal danger.

"I don't care! I'd rather die than let her get hurt again!" Helix barked back in anger.

"Don't! That mindset is going to get everyone killed!" Tyrene cried.

"Pay attention! You're both going to get killed if you don't!"

Tyrene couldn't communicate well.

The Colossus turned around and attacked within a few seconds.

Then it started a second attack, and Helix jumped off the top of the hill a second later.

She needed to communicate.

Her heart was pounding.

While the Stalkwalker lifted its right hand in the air, its left hand held a massive boulder.

It was winding its arm to throw it.

Helix closed in on his target location.

Its hand was as high as possible, preparing for a slap attack.

Helix dropped an earth pillar circle in front of him.

The moment it touched the earth, a massive rock pillar shot out of the ground.

It was twenty feet in diameter, making it a massive force that would at least slow down the slap attack and buy him some time.

Marie watched the scene with horror in her eyes.

She stood up and scanned her surroundings after Tyrene said the word [trap].

However, the few seconds necessary to identify the trap was all it took for the Colossus to put it into action.

Marie began to rush forward to pull him out of the way.

Helix turned his head to turn around and make a dash backward.

Tyrene made it in front of him at lightning speed and kicked him out of the way as the Stalkwalker's left arm passed to the other side of the chasm.

Before he crashed into the ground and began rolling, time slowed to a crawl.

Blink.

He saw Tyrene standing in a kicking position.

She had tear-filled eyes and a look of relief on her face.

Blink.

A fraction of a second later, a boulder smashed into her side and sent her flying outside his realm of vision.

Blink.

His body crashed into the earth, and he rolled over and over again.

Blink.

"Helix!" Marie screamed.

—

"What's going on!?" Elsa yelled as a group of people burst into her tent.

"What happened!?"

The men in the group placed a body on her table.

"It's Tyrene! She's badly injured! You need to save her!" Marie cried in a panicked state.

Tyrene was groaning with her eyes closed.

She was losing a lot of blood from her arm.

It was shattered and distorted beyond salvaging, and blood spurted out in waves.

"Her ribs are severely broken!" Elsa yelled out.

"Fido, contact the best surgeon in the area!

Tell them that he'll be operating on a person under the official directive of General Lackbolt!"

The young man's eyes trembled in fear.

"This isn't the time to worry about trivialities!" Elsa roared.

"Take this, don't ask questions, and go!"

Elsa threw a metal she was wearing around her neck.

It was a medallion that gave her the official authority to order military personnel under the directive of General Lackbolt.

"Y-Yes!" The man affirmed before running out of the tent.

"Tyrene! Stay with me! We're going to get you breathing again soon.

So don't you dare give up on me!" Elsa yelled at full volume.

The woman quickly created a tourniquet on the top of the woman's arm.

"What the hell happened!?" She yelled to Marie.

"That idiot!" Marie yelled between sobs.

"What idiot!? Speak clearly, child!" Elsa demanded.

"Helix! That fucking idiot!" Marie screamed between sobs.

She fell to her knees and covered her hands with a broken expression.

…

"What… do you mean everyone almost died?" Elsa asked with trembling eyes.

"That idiot! He tried to save me even though I messed up!" Marie cried between tears.

"Even though Tyrene told him he was running into a trap, even though he knew his earth pillar wouldn't hold, even though I stayed for frivolous moral support!"

Marie broke down into tears.

"A-As a result, T-Tyrene had to save him, and we [all] almost d-died!" She screamed.

"T-That… idiot almost k-killed himself, and T-Tyrene is dying because of m-me!"

Elsa's eyes welled with tears.

She hugged Marie tightly and ran her fingers through her long red hair.

"I-I'm… grateful, Elsa. So… so grateful.

I-I'm… grateful to be… a-alive and… that he s-saved me." Marie sobbed.

"I… love… Helix… s-so much, a-and… I'm just in p-pain… knowing he… a-almost d-died because… of me.

I-I'm… so… grateful… f-for T-Tyrene… and hurt b-because… of… my mistakes."

"Hush, child. It's okay." Elsa whispered.

"You're young and make mistakes."

Marie sobbed into Elsa's chest.

"You've been thrown into a world of war you never belonged in.

We brought you to fight this beast for training without knowing what we were getting ourselves into.

This tragedy is our fault, not yours." Elsa whispered.

Marie cried into her chest and let out her frustration.

"Now hush and calm down." Elsa whispered.

"You need to go see Helix; he needs you right now."

—

[A/N: I'd appreciate it if people don't blame Marie for being human, or call her incompetent.

You can dislike her in general if you wish, but doing so over this isn't fair.

Helix and Tyrene wouldn't have let Marie casually sit in that location if they thought she was in danger.

Things aren't as they appear, and the full story hasn't been told.

Additionally, being a leader means potentially leading people to their deaths.

Helix just led countless people to their deaths; Tyrene has led ten thousand or more.

Every mistake can cost lives and it's easy for leaders to blame themselves.

That is what leaders face that others do not.

So Helix and Marie will naturally make more mistakes than the others because they have countless more opportunities to fail.

Marie also has the hardest fighting job; she's the only person that can defend against shockwaves.

She's also a [leader] with skills only she has.

While you don't see it, her implied leadership role is [equally important] to Helix's.

You read how her cafeteria speech led Helix to get stabbed and Emelia's death.

But what you didn't see is how Marie protected Helix and Emelia daily for three weeks, along with others.

Helix doesn't just love her for no reason.

He'd probably be dead right now without her.

People remember a leader's mistakes but never appreciate their value. It's sad.

Her speech also wasn't a mistake; Charlotte already threatened the same thing.

A demand tied to a serious legal threat would stop normal people in their tracks.

Walter had a mental breakdown because he's coping with a world [he thinks is more dangerous than it is]. It's sad.

No one can blame her for someone's insanity, but many will blame her.

That's what makes being a leader hard.

Helix doesn't blame her in the slightest, and that speaks volumes.

Lastly, she's human.

Marie isn't angry at Helix, she's angry at herself.

It's human to act like this; her honesty is rare and admirable, however.

Marie isn't the most likable character in this story, but she is the most human and relatable.

So please don't blame her for this situation or throw her character through the mud.

You can dislike her in general, but hating on her [for this] is unfair.

Thank you for reading my rant and reading in general!]

Power stones and grammatical errors = more content. :)