At the mountain summit I stood frozen in shock. I couldn’t remain seated, and I couldn’t scream. My mind went blank, my brain stopped processing. I just stood. I faced the crater, but I wasn’t looking at anything. My trance wasn’t totally complete, but about as close as you can get.
I was in a haze. Both literally and figuratively. Everything was white. Was it my surroundings… was it my mind… was it… me…
That’s the condition I was in, I don’t know for how long.
It felt like a very long time, but later I found out it was only for about ten plus seconds.
There was a sudden tear in the blank space.
I felt a shock push against my legs.
A wave ran through the ground, and the G-force felt like it might crush me.
An incredible boom sounded.
The next moment I was floating in the air.
I landed on my tailbone.
“!”
I couldn’t speak. An intense pain ran from my hips to the top of my head.
This was a truly agonizing scene.
I writhed, gasping for breath.
There—
A second shock came.
I was tossed up again. This time toward a neighboring mountainous slope.
Head first.
It would be instant death.
I frantically grabbed my knees to roll into a ball.
I landed on my back.
I had the wind knocked out of me.
My bones creaked an unpleasant sound. A spark shot through the back of my closed eyes, and a numbness spread through my entire body.
Oh, this is better.
The pain was so bad that in a way it felt good. I didn’t know I could feel that.
As I was thinking these stupid thoughts, my body started to slide. I was head down on a steep slope. I should have been able to grab something with my hands or feet, but since the ground was loose, anything I got a hold of just came down the slope with me. I wasn’t able to stop. Slowly but surely I went down the slope.
Eventually I made a conclusion about what was happening.
Was this not an earthquake?!
Tremors shook. The rocky mountain shook loosely. No, it was a strong shaking. That’s more accurate. It grew to a violent vertical shaking. I wanted to get up and stop sliding down the hill, but every time I tried to stand, I only slipped more. What was even worse, was now all the rocks and things were thrown about, so there was nothing I could use to slow my fall. The only question was how long and far would I go down the surface of the mountain.
“Gyaoan!”
Mugi roared. I rolled over. From the edge of my vision I could see Mugi’s jet-black figure.
He was coming to help. Over here! Bouncing with the rhythm of the tremors he jumped in great strides without slipping and falling, galloping closer to me.
Krrck!
The rocks were breaking. Right below me.
The mountain was splitting open. Kyaa! A chasm in the ground. The chasm would swallow me up.
I spread my arms and legs out as far as I could to fight from falling in. But, it was no use. Once I had tapped all my strength, I would crumble into the hole.
No! I didn’t want it to end like this.
Mugi flew.
He wedged himself between my back and the growing fissure.
His long tail reached my arm. I grabbed onto his tail and rolled onto my side. Pulling me onto his back, Mugi jumped.
The momentum forced me to lean forward on my stomach. Both hands hugged Mugi’s torso, and, straddling Mugi’s back, I clung for my life.
Stones, large and small, were tossed into the air all around us.
Mugi was struck several times in the abdomen. But Mugi never complained. He coolly made his way down the mountain.
Even though Mugi maintained his burden of me on his back all the way to the open space crowded with our car and the VTOL, it took a blink of the eye to get there.
I noticed a tunnel had formed at the front. Many fallen rocks were scattered around the tunnel’s entrance. Some had rolled as far as two meters. But it seemed the earthquake had finally stopped. The planet’s surface was no longer trembling and no new rocks were falling down.
I was swept with a wave of relief and I took a deep breath and pressed my face into Mugi’s fur.
The base of Mugi’s tail was there.
Mugi’s face wasn’t.
Just to be sure, I stretched my neck out. On the other side of Mugi’s tail was Mugi’s rear end.
I concluded that I was facing backward. I hadn’t even realized that when I jumped onto Mugi’s back that I was going the wrong direction.
This position did not fit into my beauty profile.
I tried to dismount as quickly as I could.
My foot got twisted.
I lost my balance and fell shoulder first.
Once again, sparks flew. This time it didn’t reach the weird pleasurable feeling. It just hurt.
“Ow, ow, ow, ow!”
I tried to get up as I moaned in pain. It was because Mugi wasn’t helping me up.
His shoulders raised up, and he scowled as he stared ahead.
I saw legs. They were strange-looking legs. It looked like they were dressed in thick tights for pants. The shoes, if that’s what you would call them, looked to be made of metal.
Had I seen this person before?
Wondering this, I tried to look up.
What I saw was someone wearing what looked like a medieval helmet and armor with a sword at his side. In his hand he held a narrow pistol of some kind.
That armor! That figure!
Unbelievable! Wasn’t this the same getup those “shadows” that had destroyed Damp Yu were wearing?
“Kei!” Yuri called out to me from somewhere.
“Yuri?”
I frantically looked around.
“Uwa!”
It was right when I looked up. Another armored warrior fell from the sky.
This one crashed into the one that was standing in front of me.
Both were laid out on the ground, broken.
There was no sound of metal-on-metal. This told me that these armored soldiers were the same as the “shadow” types we’d seen, and were wearing armor that only looked like metal. But these ones were much weaker than those “shadows.”
“Kei!” Yuri called again. I looked around for a second time.
There she was.
On top of one of the Pegasus’ wings. With her heatgun readied and her back to the white sun, she stood up confidently.
She sprang into the air.
She landed lightly, like a bird, just to my side.
Grr… That wasn’t cool. Not cool at all. Why am I falling off of Mugi’s back and Yuri is flying around like a gymnast?!
“Kei! Behind you!”
Yuri pointed behind the embarrassed and shrinking me.
“Wha—?”
And then right when I turned around…
“Hyaa!”
The armored warrior with the sword turned to me and thrusted his blade.
At the same time Yuri blasted a beam from her heatgun into his gut.
“Wha-wha-wha—?”
My eyes spun around like crazy.
“These are the guys that attacked us, once the earthquake stopped!” Yuri said hurriedly. “They got two men, but the mayor is safe. Hey! Snap out of it and get ready to shoot back! Without you we’re toast!”
Did she? What?!
I snapped my heatgun from its holster as I let out a deep breath. There was no time right now for tears and regrets.