Pink Gold - Ch.55 - Rescue & Refuge (Patreon)

** content warning: violence, injury, gore, death **

"Rosa!" my boyfriend's scream hit me like a jolt of adrenaline, and my eyes snapped open in time to see the Outsider coming at me with its jaws spread wide.

My left fist punched skyward as I summoned my halberd again, and it vanished from the floor where it had fallen to reappear in my hands. Then I brought the weapon down in front of me just in the nick of time. The wolf-like monstrosity ran itself onto the long thin blade at the top, but the damned thing just kept coming. This time I kept a tight grip on the rosewood shaft, and the charging Outsider shoved me backwards across the lunch room floor until my back slammed into the far wall.

That sent another wave of agony rippling through my body. I had no idea how bad I'd been hurt but my right hip felt like it was on fire. Then the beast's side lit up green as Peri hit it with a second arrow, followed by a third. It seemed so intent on finishing me off that it was ignoring her, but as long as I had it impaled on the end of my halberd the Outsider couldn't get any closer to me.

Then Peri's fourth arrow hit the beast square on the side of its head. Green light flared clean through the skull, and at along last the Outsider finally stopped moving. Its eight limbs went slack as it slumped down, and I quickly scrambled out of the way so I wouldn't end up underneath the crumbling hulk.

Fresh pain wracked my body when I tried to stand, and I ended up having to put my weight on my halberd to pull myself upright.

"Is everyone else ok?" I asked weakly, as I looked back towards the group of civilians.

None of them answered though. They were all just staring at me and the crumbling remains of the Outsider, with various levels of shock or horror on their faces. Meanwhile renewed sounds of sobbing and praying filled the lunch room. Ruby was already next to me by then, and she had a chair with her. She must have grabbed it from a nearby table on her way over.

She plonked it down behind me then ordered, "Rosa sit down before you fall down!"

"I'm covering the doors," Peri commented as she moved to a location where she had a good view of both entrances.

I bit back a whimper of pain as I lowered myself into the chair, but I had to keep my right leg sort of sticking out awkwardly while I leaned heavily to the left on my halberd. I ended up looking through the doorway that wolf monster had come from while Ruby did her thing. I knew there were more Outsiders in the building, I just hoped Azura Violet and Onyx were having better luck dealing with them.

"Hold still," my boyfriend stated softly as she moved the head of her sceptre near where I'd been hurt. The large ruby at the top of her weapon lit up with a warm red glow, and within moments the burning pain quickly faded.

I let out a sigh of relief, "Thanks Ruby. That feels better already."

She shook her head, "You're just lucky I was here to fix you up."

"Be more careful next time," she added in a whisper, before leaning closer and planting a quick kiss on my cheek.

Then she turned and hurried back to the civilians, while I tentatively stood up again. My hip felt stiff and it still ached, but I was confident it wouldn't slow me down too much.

"How are you doing Rosa?" Peri asked. "Ready to get back to work?"

I nodded, "Still sore, but I'm good."

The green magical girl turned towards my boyfriend and asked, "Ruby can we move these people? We need to get them out of here, and into somewhere safer."

One of the civilians spoke up, an older guy that looked to be in his fifties. He had a thick Irish accent but I could still understand clearly as he said, "There's a church in the village. If we can get to it."

"How d'ya know it's safe out there?" a younger woman asked in a frightened voice. "How d'ya know there aren't more o' them beasts waiting for us?"

I shook my head, "We tracked them into this building. That's why we need to get you out."

"What in the name o' God are those things anyways?" another man asked.

Peri stated grimly, "Trust me, God's got nothing to do with those monsters."

Meanwhile my boyfriend finished checking over all the civilians. There were a few more flickers of red light as she used her sceptre to heal some injuries, then she finally answered our archer's earlier question. "We can get them out of the building. I don't now how far away this church is but -"

"A quarter mile due south of here, straight up the lane," the first man said.

The green magical girl gestured towards the two people who'd been laying on the floor since we arrived and asked, "What about them?"

A stricken expression crossed Ruby's face, but a middle-aged woman responded for her. "There's nothing we can do for them. They're with God now."

"Alright," the green magical girl sighed. "Let's get moving."

I told her, "You should take the lead. You're more agile than me, and you've got longer range. Ruby can stay close to the civilians. I'll take up the rear and make sure nothing comes out after us."

Peri nodded once then moved towards the door where we came in, while Ruby organized the survivors. I felt a pang of sadness for the two people that didn't make it, seeing them laying there alone on the cold floor felt like we were abandoning them. I knew there was nothing we could do though, so after everyone else had filed out into the hall I moved in behind them.

Except I sort of had to walk backwards, so I could keep most of my focus on the hallway behind us. I knew how fast Outsiders could move, and there was no way I was going to let anything sneak up on our group as we made our way towards the exit.

The civilians were able to move at a decent pace, and despite how scared some of them looked nobody panicked. Instead it seemed like they were all helping each other and looking out for each other. Fortunately we made it back to the lobby without running into any more trouble, then Peri took a cautious look outside. Things were still clear out there so she motioned everyone else forward, and a few seconds later we were all out in the bright afternoon sunlight.

"There's the church," one of the men gestured.

It was less than half a kilometre away, pretty much straight down a road that led inland from the seaside parking lot.

"Can you people get there ok on your own?" Peri asked.

A woman responded, "What about you girls? Won't you come with us?"

Ruby shook her head, "We're not done here. Our friends are still inside, and there's more survivors we need to rescue."

"Who are you people anyways?" one of the younger men asked.

Peri replied, "We're just some friendly tourists who saw what was going on and pitched in to help. Now please get going ok? Get to the church, we have to help our friends and anyone else still left inside."

Several of the people thanked us as the group started heading towards the church. The three of us watched and waited for another minute or so, to make sure they were all doing ok. Our archer was ready to provide cover fire, incase any Outsiders popped up. I trusted Onyx though, she said they were all in the building so I knew there wouldn't be any more lurking out here.

After another half minute we saw the church doors open, and a few people came out and waved at the group we'd saved. I figured they'd had the same idea, to take refuge in the church, and now they were urging our group to hurry and join them inside.

"Hey Rosa?" Peri commented quietly as we continued watching the survivors' progress, "That was a pretty neat trick in there, re-summoning your weapon after you were forced to drop it. I didn't know we could do that. How did you know that would work, have you practiced that before?"

I grimaced and admitted, "That was the first time, and I just assumed it'd work. Honestly it never crossed my mind that it wouldn't."

"Damn good thing it did," she stated. Then she glanced at the red magical girl and asked, "Ruby? You said there were more civilians inside. Can you find them? And can you lead us to the rest of our team?"

My boyfriend responded softly, "I can only sense two survivors left inside now, and they're not together. I think they've both found places to hide and wait it out."

"The other magical girls are grouped together," she added, "I think they've been in the same spot for the last couple minutes. And I'm pretty sure they're still fighting."

The green magical girl frowned and turned back towards the entrance, "Sounds like they might be pinned down. Let's go give them a hand!"

Ruby and I nodded as we all headed back into the sports building together. Peri and I were up front, with my boyfriend a couple paces behind us. I held my weapon at ready, while our archer had her bow raised and ready to fire as well. The three of us took the hallway on the left this time, following the path our friends took earlier. As we moved further down that corridor Ruby quietly gave us some directions, so we'd quickly be reunited with the rest of our team.

Unlike Onyx, the red magical girl couldn't sense the Outsiders. So even though we knew where to find our friends we still had to move slowly and carefully. Both Peri and I tried to be prepared for anything, but that meant it took us a full two minutes before we located the others.

We passed through a wide set of double-doors and found ourselves on the edge of a big dimly-lit open space. It was like an indoor soccer field or something, and that's where we finally found the rest of our team. They were on the far side of the arena, and sure enough they'd been backed into a corner by a pair of Outsiders that were still fighting. I also spotted a couple piles of crumbling decay that marked the remains of two more of the monstrosities, so we knew our friends had been busy.

Azura and Violet were both fighting one giant Outsider. It stood at least two and a half meters tall, and was bulky enough that it probably weighed two hundred kilos. Despite its size it was quick on its feet. Its lower half was a pair of thick muscular legs, while the upper half looked like three different creatures had been crudely mashed together.

One seemed almost human, another reminded me of a great ape, and as it moved I also caught glimpses of the third one which reminded me of a lizard. The thing was completely hairless, coated in a slick slimy-looking dark grey skin. In total it had at least six arms, and three heads, and it was constantly turning and twisting. All of its limbs ended in vicious claws, and the way it moved made it almost impossible for either the blue or purple magical girls to land a solid blow on it.

As bad as that was, I was even more worried about my girlfriend. Onyx was a few meters behind the other two, and she was facing off alone against the last Outsider. It was about the size of a large dog, but instead of four legs it had a half dozen tentacles. And where the head should be was just a large maw full of fangs.

"Rosa help Azura and Violet!" Peri ordered. "I'll help Onyx. Ruby stay back, keep yourself safe!"

I really wanted to go help Onyx, but I didn't argue. I dashed across the wide open space as best I could after my recent injury, while raising my halberd in hopes that I could get a surprise hit on the giant Outsider. At the same time our archer ran diagonally, so she could get into a better position for a clear shot at the smaller creature.

We were both only halfway across the arena when Azura suddenly shouted at us, "Above you! Look out!"

I immediately swerved to the side as I glanced up, in time to see a large snake-like creature dangling overhead from the roof supports. The ceiling had to be at least eight meters above us, and the serpentine Outsider was probably even longer than that. Its body was way out of reach though, coiled around some of the metalwork just beneath the roof.

One end of its long segmented body was angled towards me, while the other pointed at Peri. I couldn't tell which was the head, but it turned out not to matter. Both ends seemed to convulse at the same time, and it spat out two steaming globs. One sailed my way while the other shot towards our archer.

I'd already started to dodge, which meant I was able to avoid the fist-sized blob. Not by much though, it sailed just past my shoulder then smacked onto the floor a meter or so away. And as soon as it hit it began sizzling as it dissolved the artificial grass surface.

At the same time I heard Peri let out a yelp followed by a curse, and I realized she hadn't been able to completely avoid the Outsider's sticky mucus. The green magical girl kept moving, but she changed course again and dashed for cover behind some seating at the far right side of the arena.

Just like that I was all alone and fully exposed in the middle of the indoor field, while the snake-like thing above me lined up both its ends for another shot.