(Please don't get hurt), Haze thought as he looked at Ren's departing figure.
If Haze could help it, he'd rather not let Ren participate in the evacuations, but due to present circumstances, he can't refuse.
Especially because if Ren had come so far, Haze knew that he wouldn't quietly retreat, so it'll be better for Haze to look after Ren properly than letting him recklessly and potentially get himself and other people hurt.
...
Sensing a presence coming toward him, the Vice Commander turned around, thinking that it was a messenger from his leader, Haze.
"What are you doing here... kid?" The Vice Commander voiced out but turned confused as he muttered his last word.
Looking at the kid that was flying toward him, the Vice Commander's face contorted into annoyance, not at the kid but at his commander, who he assumed was the one who sent the kid toward him.
"My name is Ren Spark. Mr. Haze Clover sent me here. I-" Ren introduced him and tried to explain his reason for coming, but the vice commander cut him off before he could finish.
"No, no, no, I can't let you do this; it's too dangerous for a kid," the vice commander said in a speedy voice and turned away from Ren, going back to demolishing the building he was working on before Ren arrived.
Ignoring Ren, the vice commander launched pieces of the building away into the Slette, making it disappear and seemingly disintegrate .
"Plus, you're not in the right state to help," the vice commander snickered, without looking at Ren, after remembering Ren's bandaged hands and faded complexion on first glance.
The vice commander was about to continue dissuading Ren, but then a sharp and leveled noise interrupted him before he could continue.
*Sheeeen*
Looking at the source of that noise, the vice commander saw Ren holding a Node canister in between his two glowing light green fingers, absorbing the accumulated Node in it into himself.
"IF YOU'RE NOT GOING TO GUIDE ME ON HOW TO SAVE THESE PEOPLE, THEN I'LL JUST DO IT ON MY OWN." Ren shouted in frustration, making an unstoppable declaration.
Surprised by Ren's declaration, the Vice Commander's eyes unconsciously drifted to the crowd below them and then back at Ren.
*Haaaaah* The vice commander sighed and turned his sight toward another building.
"Make sure no one gets hurt," the vice commander said, vaguely.
Following that, the vice commander moved his glowing goldish-brown arms, as well as his fingers, like he was conducting an orchestra. However, even though the sound of his fingers conducting a scruffy but smooth sound was audible, there was no evidence that anything was happening despite his precision of control. That was until he arrived at the end of his symphony.
Suddenly, the building the vice commander had his attention on began to crack. Fine and symmetrical lines appeared all around the building, in the shape of squares.
*Booookk booook*
In the next moment, the whole building shook, and sand came pouring out the sides of the building. However, right before the sand could pour onto the people below it, whirls of wind surrounded it and gathered the sand into a singular point.
Once fully gathered into that singular point, a cacophony of flames surrounded the sand, melting it.
*Wuuuung wuung wun*
As the flames melted the sand, the weight of the material changed as it began to meld into molten glass. However, before the molten glass could drip onto the civilians below it,. A very powerful updraft pushed it back up while also cooling it down until it became a solid.
Finally, with a swish of a finger, the malformed glass ball flew up and landed onto a glowing, bandaged, light green hand belonging to Ren.
"It's not over yet; the most important part comes next." The vice commander said as he began to switch his hand/finger movements.
Strings of sand appeared like a ribbon, and in the next moment, piece after piece of that house was quickly carried away and pelted into the Slette like a very fast conveyor belt. After 3 seconds, when almost all of the house was nearly gone, all motions suddenly halted, leaving only its foundation that separated the crowd.
"Control the crowd so they don't crush each other." The vice commander said with a guilty heart,
The vice commander knew very well that there's very little margin of error for Ren. So, he set him up for failure, because one wrong move could lead to someone dying.
He wanted Ren to know how much was at stake and hoped to make him feel the weight of his mistakes in this situation if he were to screw up. Even so, he had planned to instantly fix it right away so that Ren doesn't get too traumatized by it after he drives him away.
"Okay..." Ren answered confidently, trying to hide his nervousness.
Hearing Ren's confirmation, the vice commander gave Ren a signal, furrowed his eyebrows, and begrudgingly removed the foundation all at once, causing the crowd to begin merging into the newly emptied space.
(Urg, I've wasted too much dealing with this kid; I need to pick up the pace.) The Vice Commander thought in irritation as he glanced at the horizon, looking at how big the crowd still was, despite all the work they had put into evacuating.
Looking back at the gap he left, the vice commander prepared himself to stop the crowd from crushing each other, confident that Ren wouldn't be able to complete the task on his own.
However, the sight that greeted him wasn't what he expected. In the middle of the empty space, what could only be described as a constant tsunami of wind pushed the crowd back.
Although the tsunami of wind was a good idea to try to prevent the crowd from collapsing upon itself, it was still unrefined and caused some people to tumble from the intensity of the winds.
The vice commander was shocked; he didn't expect Ren to come up with this idea while under pressure, and yet he managed to choose one of the best options to solve this kind of problem. It is imperfect, but after getting an idea of how Ren's train of thought worked, he instinctively smiled, indicating that he was satisfied with Ren's intuition.
(Let's get those people to safety first.) The Vice Commander thought as he glanced at the people who tripped.
Turning serious, the vice commander chose a sequence from his repertoire and began moving his fingers to its rhythm.
*Shaa suuuu shaaang*
A fast-paced melody swerved and ramped up with each swing of his fingers, creating a hook attached to lines of sand.
Wasting no time, the Vice Commander concentrated his attention on the people who were pushed down, and after getting an idea of where each of them was, he switched the rhythm of his sequence, causing the sand hook to split and cling itself onto the unlucky few that were pushed down.
(Damn it, I need to save them!) Ren thought as he gritted his teeth, entering an abnormal state.
Ren didn't even notice that the Vice Commander had stepped in to help him; he just concentrated on slowly shrinking the circular tsunami of wind until the crowd eventually merged safely.
The Vice Commander didn't notice Ren's state either, which is lucky for Ren. Because if he did, he would've restrained Ren and forced him out of here without hesitation.
"HAZE, TAKE THESE GUYS OUT OF HERE!" The Vice Commander yelled to get Haze's attention.
After saying that, the Vice Commander instantly let go of the civilians he was holding, dispelling his sand hook. However, those civilians didn't fall; they didn't even move an inch off the spot the vice commander left them in.
"Your name is Ren, right?" The Vice Commander asked but didn't wait for Ren to answer before he continued.
"Try to disburse the wind after you blow back 4 rows of people. Think of them and use them like walls." The Vice Commander recommended, indicating that he accepted Ren as part of his squad.
Finally finished with his casting, Ren looked dazed for a moment until he realized what the Vice Commander said. But even after realizing what was happening, all he did was nod coldly in response.
(What's with that reaction?) The Vice Commander thought, irritated by Ren's lack of response.
Begrudgingly, the Vice Commander put his irritation aside and moved on, flying to a bigger and much taller building.
"Go support the earth musicians over there," the vice commander commanded as he began evacuating the people inside the building before he tore it down.
...
After about 5 minutes since Ren began helping the other musicians with destroying and evacuating buildings, the area now had significantly more space for the crowd to spread out in order to avoid being killed by the Slette.
However, even after that, the crowd still had trouble filtering out into the safe zone. More than half of the city was already destroyed at this point, so it wouldn't even be worth it, with how flooded the area right outside the danger zone is. Additionally, another team is already on duty there, so it would be best if all the wind musicians there joined up with Haze instead.
Since the earth musicians wouldn't be as effective at the front lines, the vice commander led them to the evacuation checkpoint to continue destroying buildings that were in the way.
...
"Good, you guys are here now." Haze looked relieved.
During the time Ren was gone, the number of wind musicians had increased again, from 10 to 15, and in accordance with that, Haze burnt through Node canisters like crazy.
Before, when Ren absorbed the Node from the Node canister Haze gave him, it only took about half of the canister to refill Ren's Node from 5% to 100%. But looking at Haze, he drains one full canister of it every minute just to maintain this form/technique.
"Spread out as much and as evenly as you can. You guys know the rest, now go!" Haze spoke quickly, clearly slightly anxious about the Slette catching up.
Haze's anxiousness wasn't unfounded, because even after clearing all those buildings, the Slette was still inches away from the people who were at the farthest back.
Knowing this as well, all the wind musicians, including Ren, immediately took action and spread out.
...
Now that they have 15 wind musicians on the field, Haze didn't hold back anymore.
So, once the last group of civilians was evacuated, the colors on Haze's body got more vibrant, and to match that increase, more than 5 thousand people were lifted up into the air, finally causing the crowd to visibly deplete, even if it's just by a tiny bit.
"Wow... It's like there's no end to his power," one of the wind musicians exclaimed, astonished by Haze's abilities.
Although some of the wind musicians were admiring the spectacle that is Haze's power, none of them let their guard down.
With familiarity, all the wind musicians, including the ones that just came back from demolition duty, slowly controlled the crowd, doing their best to stop anyone from toppling and being stomped on.
Wuuuuuu, wuuuuuu, wuuuuuu the whole area sounded like the inside of a tornado.
The process of evacuating more than 5 thousand people at once was slow but also significantly faster thanks to the support of all the wind musicians.
"I'M TAKING THE EVACUEES AT THE FRONT SINCE I'M FASTER" one of the wind musicians yelled out before flying in the direction he mentioned.
The wind musicians spread out and guided the evacuees to various different locations in the safe zone. From afar, the scene looked like a fairy tale, more specifically the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, as they led the evacuees like the children and rats in that story.
Right as they were ready to evacuate another batch of civilians, it suddenly felt like the air was vibrating, almost like it was a precursor to something mortifying.
*HUUUUUUUUUUOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNHHHHHHHGG*
The air and ground viciously shook as a raging, final, and violent wail howled out of the sky whale's gaping maw.
Every morsel in its vicinity vibrated, stunning everyone who heard it, including the musicians.
As the ground shook from the brunt of the dying wail, it cracked, causing the remaining buildings to fall and inevitably crush the people below it.