The two dozen shadows of Oboreru, equally emerged from the earth, would descend upon Eld at once. With scythes out to their sides, some holding them up over their heads, they charged at Eld, likely with every plan to cut into him rapidly. They ran at the pace of an average man's sprint, and could swing just as quick. Eld had a full gauntlet ahead of him, coming at him from all sides, all at once targeting him. Akizets felt horrible for leaving him alone in that situation, but if she could possibly take out the real target, the drones might fall.

Akizets appeared somewhat above the hand, at a comfortable distance, but not too far for her ranged attacks to mean nothing. The first thing she took into account was that the hand was comfortably connected to the lake, and could therefore be "healed" in some sense. She'd need to fix that, first.

One swing for the wrist, to send a powerful wind straight into it, had a very similar effect to Eld's earlier attempts at blasting through Oboreru's reverse waterfalls. A mass of water sunk in, half severing the hand, spilling gallons upon the sand, but filled up just as quickly. Akizets furrowed her brow and pouted disapprovingly. She hadn't the opportunity to do this for the entire fight, and she didn't really enjoy it when she had to, but so be it. Overkill it was.

Akizetsumei planted herself in one place, feet firmly set flat upon the air-- set as if she were standing upon a diagonal surface, one that would inevitably lead down to the hand itself. It gave her a good angle. Remarkably, the woman didn't seem off balance at all-- as if this was a perfect flat for her, and gravity didn't matter in the least.

One swing-- it happened fast, and just as she planned, half-severed the hand at the wrist. Just as it started to refill, though, Akizets smashed into it with a second attack with the left fan; she stepped forward, and again struck out with the right, another forward step, left, another forwards step, right-- and then, with both fans over her head as one, she swung them both simultaneously, bending down all the while, as if prostrating herself upon one knee, with her forehead upon the lifted knee.

It was a barrage, for all intents and purposes, and just as she planned, it severed the hand at the rapidly regenerating wrist. The arm, twitching rapidly, lifted from the hand, swayed violently, and collapsed into the lake with a monstrous splash.

He'd been slightly worried that he'd need to convince Kaze to leave him, but she hardly hesitated in taking after the hand. Which was good, but he couldn't but wish she'd protested a little. But getting to it swiftly was more important than his ego, even if it left him facing down two dozen Oboreru clones by himself.

Just think of them as slightly transparent bandits, he told himself. In any case, he wouldn't survive long at all with them coming from all sides, so the first thing he did was charge the ones in front--but just before he got into range he suddenly drove the pole down into the ground with all his might at the same time as jumping.

If all went well, he'd sail over the group and at least be able to face them all coming from the same direction. And if he felt short...well, his only choice was to lash out with circular attacks and try and clear enough room for him to defend himself.

They swung up at Eld as he sailed over them, scythes barely brushing under his body. Dozens of them, there were, dozens of attacks all swinging for his life. It would seem, though, that he was in the clear-- that he would manage to get past the bulk of them, and instead face them down from one front, rather than all around him.

It was a great plan, but there was something wrong. While there may have been many, the situation wasn't quite as overwhelming when it was raining. One might claim that Oboreru's strongest power source was cut off from him, but then again, he still had the lake . . .

Eld would be taken out of the air with concussion force. Someone-- or, rather, something --would him him out of the air. He might not realize it initially, but with much of the mud cleaned off of him, he might inevitably come to terms with what happened. Not that it would matter too much, as he'd be put right back at square one again-- except with nearly a dozen more forms risen and walking the rear of the lines.

All that was left was the hand, now. The arm was the only thing connecting it to the lake, something Akizets had a feeling would cause her problems.

Knowing that Eld might need her help soon, Akizets lifted both hands simultaneously, holding them with her arms outstretched as far as she could stretch them, both out by her sides, both partially behind her, as if she were charging an attack of her own. Without hesitation, and with the utmost rush, she swung both of her arms at once, merging two gusts of wind into one doubly powerful attack.

Without anything to refuel its form, the hand exploded as many water forms had in the past. Akizets experienced an initial feeling of victory, but when she discovered there was nothing upon the ground beneath the hand, and that the forms of Oboreru were still moving upon Eld . . .

Eld's jump was nearly complete, and he was ready to resume his defense, but the next thing he knew he was rocketing backward and tumbling on the ground. He quickly rolled to his feet, staff up at the ready. If he had time to glance himself over, he could probably have figured out what happened, but now he was surrounded without the room to try that again.

He decided his new philosophy was "keep moving." Since the scythes acted solid, he could only assume the clones could potentially hurt each other with them, so his best bet was to keep himself in positions that made if difficult for them to attack without friendly fire. Assuming that even stopped them.

Spending most of his time parrying blows he couldn't dodge, he only struck them when he was sure he could afford to without getting hit in exchange.

Friendly fire worked strangely with them. None of the shadows of Oboreru seemed to experience any amount of pain, so a small or slight blow did very little to them. A downward attack did little more than cut through another shadow, a long cut that was easily mended. That shadow would merely step back, unable to attack for a short period of time, as its wound mended. Likewise, a horizontal slash, unless it cut another's body clean off at the stomach, would result in the same situation.

Eld had a bit of an edge on them-- specifically for lack of an edge. The quarterstaff, due to the blunt force trauma it carried with each strike, could rip them apart. A blade, a precision instrument of any type, had to be swung at just the right angle, at just the right distance, to be remotely useful.

Akizetsumei needed to get back to Eld, but at the same time, she also felt that she needed to put an end to this as soon as possible. It genuinely hurt her to do so, but she did all she could to turn a blind eye to Eld's situation. If she could find Oboreru himself, they'd be fine. She'd defeat him, stop the clones, and it would be over. They could return to their lives as they knew them, after Akizetsumei retrieved the scythe from her brother. She couldn't understand why, but she felt a genuine need for the scythe.

Eld's predicament worsened as more murky hands crawled out of the water, just as infested with dirt, but now with debris and pollutants that had infested the lake for some time, sitting on the bottom and collecting-- boots, knives, hooks, rope, cans, and other such objects, old, rusted, and weak, would begin to appear throughout the bodies of newly risen shadows-- shrapnel objects that would fire off upon their destruction, likely to harm Eld just for being near them. The heads of these shadows quickly emerged from the water, and began to pour onto the beach at a much faster rate than those that came from the earth . . .

He sidestepped a vertical swing, blocked a horizontal one, sidestepped another vertical one, jumped over an attack aimed as feet and swung, taking out the heads of a few nearby clones, before being forced to block another overhead swing. He pushed the weapon away, lashing out with his foot to kick and destroy one of the headless ones...

This is endless! Even if he can't create them fast and nearby, he can have practically an army of them!

...another parry, a nick taken to his side where he couldn't quite get out of the way of a horizontal swing, but it allowed him to retaliate and take out several more clones. He wasn't paying much attention to what direction he was moving overall, but he must have been heading toward the lake, as behind some of the more immediate foes he could see perfectly clear ones, if just barely.

And an army he had . . .

If Eld could have seen from Akizetsumei's vantage point, he'd see it all. They were crawling out of the ground, fueled by groundwater, all soaked in from the lake and the previous rain, and they were crawling out of the lake itself, ones much more volatile than before. They were easily destroyed, yet they packed a potentially lethal punch. One with a fish cleaning knife stuck inside of it, when destroyed, would force the contents of itself out. Had Eld destroyed one of them, that knife would likely pierce through him, and depending on where, it would potentially end the battle for him immediately.

From a bird's eye view, there were nearly a hundred of them, now. Each second, more crawled out, never giving a moment of reprieve. It was a matter of overwhelming force. They couldn't come to be in the blink of an eye, and weren't as fast as Akizetsumei, but under a slightly grayer sky, they could keep coming-- a continuous spawning, an army amassed at a regular speed, and though the ones from the water were easier to destroy, they seemed to be coming the fastest.

That, however, would not be all. The first time, it knocked Eld out of the air in the midst of a jump. This time, it would strike the earth next to him, soon after he cleared a temporary space around him. It was a mass of water, roughly the size of a cannonball. This time, he might actually see it come from the lake; it erupted forth from nearest the shore, arched up into the air, and came down with explosive force; even being in the vicinity of its landing would render one shocked, hit hard, knocked away from the blow, and damaged-- perhaps a minor blow, but enough of them could cause a serious problem.

While things were not looking up, they were going about as well as he could hope for. Eld was still going strong, having managed to take down a good number of clones thus far, but it hardly mattered given how fast they were spawning en mass. Still, with a little bit of room cleared, he was able to put up a more consistent defense.

Unfortunately, just as soon as he was able to take advantage of it, he caught a glimpse of something blue flying through the air...and then it landed next to him, sending nearby clones tumbling back--and he had to quickly dig his pole into the ground to keep from being knocked over. The blast wasn't too damaging outright, but it rattled him, which shook up his head.

As he recovered from the dizziness, made worse by his earlier concussions, he took a few more scratches on his sides. They weren't very deep, but they would add up.

However, between his disorientation and the general chaos of the fight, he wasn't paying close attention to the composition of each clone, a mistake that cost him. When he punctured one of the pure water ones, pain crackled all down one of his arms, causing him to nearly drop the staff. He glanced down.

A knife stuck out of his shoulder--a small one, but he'd still been stabbed.

It was wound that started turning the tide of the battle truly against him. He was beginning slow down, and more and more often he started to take minor injuries--a cut here, a near-miss from a water cannonball there--and they were taking its toll on him. If Kaze didn't find the real Oboreru soon, or find some way to stop the clones, he was soon going to be overwhelmed...

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Akizets looked; she searched from one end of the other beach to the other. Had Eld been able to see over to the side of the lake, he'd recognize a likewise amount of shadows looming. There were primarily from the water, and under a grayer sky, ran much quicker than the ones Eld faced, but Akizetsumei was doing what she could to ignore them. She stayed in one spot for a moment, got their attention, and disappeared, moving to another that was further away. There, she investigated the shore, the water, anything and everything. The smallest detail might just make the biggest difference. She'd just have to hold onto that memory long enough to give it to Eld.

But no. There was nothing. By the end of it, she'd found the shore barren of clues. Even striking the ground on which the hand once covered did very little.

There was only one thing she could do.

Eld would feel a series of winds pass him by in an instant; a group of murky shadows surrounded Eld disappeared, then, in a quarter of a second.

He'd see her, then, standing before him, to wrap her arms around him, almost as if she were intentionally embracing him. Be that or be that not the case, it might not matter. There wasn't much time, and she needed to get Eld out of there before he was completely overwhelmed. He might not have the time to react immediately, but she'd squeeze him tight, holding him as close to her as she possibly could. With her arms about his back, she could even lock her hands together.

The reason why, of course, would come to Eld only if he were to look down. For a brief moment, he might even feel as if his feet were still upon the ground, but they weren't. A wind rushed up against them, a wind from beneath of them. It was a slow rise, oddly. Akizets had tried to rush up as quickly as she usually could, but it seemed Eld was too heavy. Even though she was using her control of the wind to lift him rather than her strength, holding onto him meant she couldn't make an instantaneous movement.

It was a slow rise, and Akizets would not be content with stopping until at last, a ball of water shot from the lake could not reach them; it passed under them harmlessly-- and then another, and another. Thirty feet into the air and they were safe. There, the shadows couldn't reach them, nor could the shots of water from the lake . . .

It took him a few seconds to figure out what was happening. One second he was raising his staff over his head to rip a clone apart head to toe, the next he was forced to stop short because Kaze was in front of him and hugging him. "H-Hey, w-what-" he started to protest. It wasn't the best time for a show of affection...

But he then noticed that rather than clones he was seeing the treeline past her, and he looked down to see that the ground was steadily getting farther away.

With a small sigh of relief, he wrapped lightly wrapped his arms around her and rested his head on her shoulder for a moment. "Thanks," he whispered; he wasn't sure he would have held out much longer without her intervening.

"Any luck?" he asked, though judging from how his own fight was going he probably knew the answer already.

Eld was held up in a way that his head was relatively level with Akizetsumei's. She couldn't really push him up much further than that without personally straining herself. This way, what little strength she had could be used to hold him up, just as the wind did, too. So long as she wasn't relying only on her body, it was perfectly fine.

"You're welcome . . ."

Eld embraced her. He didn't need to; she had him secure, but it wasn't the kind of embrace that entailed a want for security, it was the light, affectionate kind of embrace, one followed by Eld setting his head upon her shoulder.

He was allowed.

She leaned her cheek upon the side of Eld's head and took in a deep breath, followed by a deep sigh. Akizets felt that at some point, she would have been overjoyed if he did this, but then somewhere along the lines, she was much less enthused about the idea. Now, she wasn't repulsed by him; she was friendly to him, even. She just couldn't quell a confused series of emotions whipping through her heart. It was a sad kind of happiness. It didn't make any sense to her at all.

"No . . ." she sighed, "I couldn't find a thing. I-- I broke the hand apart and there was nothing under it. It didn't stop them all from coming, either."

The only thing she had in mind was that they stay up there like this and rest however long they needed. They were safe up here. The shots of water couldn't strike them, and the silhouettes were under gravity's thumb. The lake shuddered and swelled, but it could do little to them. They were up past the trees, they were up where they were safe. If they could have seen down to the ground better, they'd have noticed how the masses of still spawning shadows collected like a tight collage, leaving much space behind them. They couldn't climb over each other, but they certainly tried.

"I don't know what to do . . ."

After catching his breath, Eld raised his head again, though he was a bit hesitant to let go of Kaze; he was still a little worried about falling, no matter how much he thought it was unlikely she'd suddenly let him drop.

"Let me try something." He closed his eyes and focused. Accurately sensing spiritual power wasn't exactly his strong point; he was certain that Etsu could have done it no problem, but for him it might be impossible. Still, he had to try and search, see if he could find a location that stuck out, that might hint at what they needed to do.

If that failed, he had one other gambit, one that he was even less sure of. He kept his eyes closed and his mind focused, but let his sense of Qi fade away, and instead focused on an individual.

Kageko? Are you out there? Can you hear me?

While many of the shadows possessed spiritual energy, primarily those that came from the lake, they hadn't much. The ones that were mostly composed of murky water would feel the weakest, too. The reason, of course, was the lake itself. The more lake-water a shadow was composed of, the more Qi it might have. The lake, Eld would find, was a surge of spirit. No individual part of the lake had a stronger or weaker spirit; the entirety of it was simply massive. The feeling would have been overwhelming, in fact, had they been closer to it.

There was a sound in Eld's mind, yes-- but not words. It was the sound of a tempest, the sound of rushing water, of a hurricane out to sea. The churning water below Eld and Akizetsumei's feet was all Eld would hear, but much closer for him with the distinct proximity of sound allowed by the mind's deaf ear.

In the midst of Eld's concentrations, first on the local Qi of the area, and then upon the trapped within his lost scythe, the stirring lake became something much more . . . volatile. Somewhere along the lines, it ceased to fire upon them. Akizets didn't know when. She was waiting it out, that was all she knew. She barely heard the rushing water, even when it was nearly behind her.

A solid mass wormed its way upon the beach, a series of four long digits, leading the back of a hand, a thumb, and a wrist. Collections of drones separated themselves from its presence and crowded upon the shoreline away from it. It pushed upon the earth, sinking its water mass into the moist soil, but breaking nothing but the soil itself, as if the hand maintained the same roughness of the blades of mindless drones. It pushed with a might Eldridge Tsukimono himself would have found overbearing, tearing forth a bulbous mass from the center of the lake.

It was a blank, ovular form, a mass roughly the size of Eldridge Tsukimono's own home. As if unable to touch it, lake water beaded upon its surface and rolled off. The hazy azure mass lifted, connected to a round and thinner trunk, a trunk which lead, inevitably, to a wide form that drained the lake of nearly an eighth of its water supply. That wide form, with bulbs upon each end of the flat, lifted from the lake at the behest of the powerful hand and the arm attached, one which was stationed within the confines of the lake, yet attached to the body that rose from its depths.

Rushing water poured from its form as its torso lifted from the source, a mass of azure that drained the lake of most water it had left. It was thick, impossibly thick, and the entire form, one equipped with two arms yet only one hand, leaned forward with the physical expression of a heaving sigh. Under an even darker sky, its azure form held in it but one off color: red. Had they a chance to inspect it with any closeness, they'd at last find the source of all the water's twitching up to that point: a human heart, set within the center of its chest gargantuan, impossibly thick chest, beating at a numbingly slow pace.

The oval, the head, was the first piece to stop, fixed over the treeline, a hulking mass set directly behind Akizetsumei's back. She clung tighter to Eld, her arms already trembling-- not at the strain of holding him up, but with her knowledge of what was now behind her . . .

Again, all he could feel was the lake, and he was unable to make out any specific part that had more or less spiritual energy. And when he tried to contact Kageko, all he heard was the roar of the churning water. She was certainly in there somewhere, but he already knew that.

Before he could lament the failure of his attempts, he opened his eyes to see...well, he honestly couldn't quite define what was happening. It was a sight that was beyond anything he'd seen so far in his life, which as of a few months ago was saying something.

When all was said and done, the water of the lake seemed to take the form of a giant human, albeit missing a few parts.

"W-What did he just do?" Eld asked, noticing that Kaze did not seem to be having a good reaction to it. Not that he could really blame her.

Akizets was shaking, yes. Why wouldn't she? This wasn't a small target, now. She could feel it in the wind. When she looked behind her-- with the utmost hesitation, of course --she could see the mass that loomed before them. It was monstrous. What could they do against it? Without expending themselves to the very last ounces of their energy, what could they even do to this thing? Akizets had trouble just piercing its arm earlier-- an arm she recognized, as it appeared to be without a hand. Now, that makeup was its entire form.

"I- . . . I don't--" Akizetsumei was ready to say it all-- how she didn't know what was going on, how Oboreru did that, or what this meant for them, but she was interrupted before she could.

She at first let out the beginnings of a cry, a yelp, perhaps even a scream, but even that was interrupted. All she could do was cough loudly, once, before the world suddenly felt a lot closer.

Akizets couldn't dodge it; how could she? To hold Eld up there with her, she could only move slowly. Eld, in a jaunt, would have outpaced her then. Akizets hadn't seen what happened, but Eld would. It would be the last thing he'd see before the wind rushed around them in a descent to the earth. From the front of its face, there had been a brief churning of its azure mass, followed in short by an expulsion of one large mass of water. It struck Akizetsumei in the back with an audible crack, throwing her off balance, injuring her-- Akizetsumei, who wanted to cry when she experienced something so small as a bruise on her arm . . .

The was no stopping her fall. Akizetsumei felt a wave of pain throughout her body. Her ribs felt trashed-- shattered, empty, broken, bleeding, everything bad that could've ever happened to them. The sensation she felt and the reality of the situation were not too far off from one another. Tears streamed down her cheeks almost instantly. She clamped her eyes closed and bit down on Eld's shirt, not knowing if she was biting his skin or not. She didn't want to hurt him, but she had the urge to scream, an urge that could not be held back, and the only option was to suppress the sound.

Control required concentration-- concentration Akizetsumei could no longer muster, as they plummeted to the barren side of the beach, far from the shore, where the forest met sand . . .