/monster/ - The Last Bastion of Romance★

“Sure. Let’s take a look at the submarine. I am kind of curious now.” Bernsen nodded and turned around before walking toward the bored looking Order guard.

“Uh, boss, what are you-“ The wizard began to speak but Bernsen was already standing before the entrance to the docks.

“Special agent B. DSS. I need to see the Galmathorian vessel that you have captured.” Bernsen straight up said to the guard and whipped out the DSS badge out of his beard before presenting it.

Everyone held their breaths, struggling not to scream out in shock or yell profanities at the warrior’s actions.

“Sheesh, I figured there was something weird about you.” The order soldier eyed Bernsen up and down. “I mean, the shining armor and everything makes you look like a member of the king’s guard.”

The hero then turned around and yelled over the wall that an agent of the crown was here. A few moments later, a knight in a gallant armor and flowing red silk cape showed up. It was the one who had yelled at the guard earlier.

“DSS? What the hells? We have everything under control here. An Order sorcerer is examining the vessel as we speak.” The knight protested weakly after seeing the warrior’s badge but his voice was not as strict as before and was in fact, cautious, even a little fearful.

Bernsen remembered the words that Anderson told him, about how wherever the crown has reach, the doors would be open there for him. Looks like it extended to Cair as well, now that the ruling elite was dead and the city itself was under a military occupation.

“It’s been a few days already.” Bernsen pushed harder with his bluff. “Why is there no progress? You’ve already moved the magic suppression device to the fort, why wasn’t the vessel been transported there as well?”

“We can’t help it!” The knight captain shrugged and scowled. “All the surviving captives that are still here are refusing to say anything about how to operate it, even under threats of violence and torture.”

“You’ve been torturing prisoners?” The warrior narrowed his eyes threateningly which made the knight start to sweat.

“H-hey! I said threats! We are abiding the code of ethics here, alright!? You know what, you want to examine the vessel? Fine! Go ahead, but I am telling you, there is not much to see. We can’t even get it to open.”

“Uh, sir, if I may. Why did you approach me under a guise of a civilian earlier?” The order guard suddenly asked, making the knight in the red cape narrow his eyes suspiciously before responding to the hero. “It was him who you were talking with earlier?”

“I was just checking how seriously the matters of security are being taken care of here.” Bernsen calmly responded. “I see no problems here in that regard, the person in charge here clearly knows what he is doing.” He then nodded at the knight in approval. “I’ll be sure to mention this in my report.”

“Ah, well that’s obvious. I know the docks are not exactly a glamorous post to be stationed in, but I do everything I can.” The knight swallowed the bait for his ego and gestured Bernsen to come in. The order knight was harder to fool and the warrior felt like he didn’t buy his bluff completely, but he was not about to break the chain of command so he returned to his post with a small suspicious frown.

“These people are with me. This is agent W and a few contractors acting as muscle.” Bernsen moved his hand at his allies dismissively while simultaneously gesturing them to follow him. They struggled to maintain neutral expressions, still unable to comprehend how easily they were getting access to the docks.

“Okay but what about the…” The knight glanced at the lion and scratched his head under his helmet.

“Zapp is trained to sniff out illegal substances, explosives and dangerous magical enchantments.” The warrior immediately responded.

“Explosives? Wait you don’t think the vessel is rigged to explo-ohhhhh.” The knight suddenly went pale in the face.

“May we see the vessel now?” The warrior hurried the man on and he nervously nodded. “Y-yes of course, follow me.” He then began to walk forward at a brisk pace and everyone quickly followed suit.

As soon as they passed the makeshift fence around the docks however…

“Daaaaamn.” Kenzie let out a surprised whistle and fluttered around overhead with a look of surprise on her face.

It was not apparent from outside, but the entire shore looked like a warzone. Almost all of the warehouses located in here had crumbled entirely or were partially destroyed. The ground had been cracked and broke in multiple places, creating little chasms full of rushing water over which, hastily build wooden planks were placed to act as bridges.

Craters littered the area, some of them still containing cracked and broken cannonballs left from the order navy’s initial bombardment during the uprising.

“It’s a bit of a mess I know, but we are focusing on rising exterior defenses before starting any real cleanup here. Civilians aren’t allowed here either so we can’t use the indentured servants for the job.” The caped knight explained.

“It’s fine. These priorities are understandable.” The warrior nodded, noting that although the exterior side of the docks was under lockdown, the interior was mostly devoid of security. Probably because there was not much left to guard besides the area where the ships landed and the warehouse where the submarine was stored in.

His attention was suddenly focused on something else though, as he spotted an unusual part of the scenery. It was a huge footprint of some reptilian creature, deeply embedded into the ground of the docks almost five feet deep. And at the bottom of that hole was a smaller humanoid shaped indent that he instantly recognized based on its body silhouette.

“Richter…?” The warrior spoke out in surprise.

“Hmm? Ah yes, that’s the spot where that weird dragon monster stomped down on him. I wasn’t there to see it myself but it was apparently quite a massacre. You can see it from the aftermath.” The knight captain explained.

The warrior studied the footprint closely, imagining what that must have been like.

~~~

“Huff, huff, huff.” The tarasque breathed in and out heavily as she ran down the street leading down to the docks. “Outa my way!” She snarled and swatted an escaped wolf girl servant that tried to jump her aside with a single swat of one of her quartet of arms.

“Y-your highness wait!” Camilla cried out while descending from the air next to her while riding her broom. “Our soldiers are having trouble keeping up with your enthusiasm!”

Bellatrix glanced back in surprise to see that indeed, the group of lizardlike kobolds and tortoise monsters were having trouble running at the pace that she was setting. She narrowed her eyes in annoyance and exhaled two short bouts of smoke from her nostrils.

“It’s that stupid old man and his shoal of fish that’s slowing them down! Move it you lazy bums! Put your back into it!” The tarasque roared loudly. This made her entourage that was lagging behind jump up in surprise and increase their pace.

“This is humiliating. Why are we following the orders of some filthy half dragon? We have helped the civilians get to safety, the collars are active again. Why are we about to engage the foreign military commander of Galmathoria? This is beyond being a good neighbor, we have no business involving ourselves in Deleor’s external politics.” One of the sahuagins bit on her lower lip and glanced sideways in annoyance

“Marina.” Baha sighed as he lit up his pipe again and inhaled some smoke while lagging behind the group of various lizard monsters ahead due to his old leg injury. “Our people can’t hide away under the ocean forever. The world is rapidly changing. You’ve seen yourself what the surface dwellers have built in the past twenty years. Vehicles that can traverse the entire continent in a matter of days. Weapons that can suppress magic, weapons that can kill at range with a single strike by conjuring bolts of lightning. Elaborate metal golems that can act as soldiers with no mercy or remorse.”

He then exhaled the smoke and frowned.

“The ocean has kept our people safe for millennia but soon even it won’t be enough to protect us. This. Everything that happened today is a show of power. Galmathoria is ready to fight and threw the first stone, and that single stone nearly destroyed one of the country’s major cities in but a few hours. We have to pick a side now, otherwise once this conflict is over, the victor will come after us eventually. And my money is still on the old guard of Deleor holding down their own.”

The sahuagin wearing an elaborate orichalcum scale mail frowned.

“Her majesty is going to kill me if something happens to you sir.”

“She won’t.” Baha snickered. “Or are you implying that a surface dweller would be able to beat the elite queen’s guard?”

This made the fish woman crack a small smile. “You are horribly irresponsible lord Baha. How did her majesty ever fall for such a person?”

“Who knows?” The old man shrugged and picked up his pace as they nearly reached their destination. “Probably because I was the only person brave enough to say no right to her face.”

With a deafening crash, the locked gate was blown apart as the tarasuqe charged right through it with the force of an enraged wurm. She panted loudly, stopping in her tracks to look around while small gouts of smoke and embers escaped from her mouth and nose.

Camilla gently descended from the air to float next to her and looked around tensely. The rest of the Blackfire reach remnants quickly arrived as well, followed by Greybeard and his sahuagin bodyguards.

Before the tarasque could even catch her breath however, the spectacled kobold floating next to her cried out and pointed upwards.

A large black sphere was rapidly descending down on the tarasque but the witch next to her swiftly raised her rod and thrust it upward, conjuring a blast of colorful magic that made the cannonball explode in a shower of sparks.

However, it was only one many. The entire docks area was under fire from the armada of ships that was rapidly approaching from the north. It carried the Order’s sigils on its sails. It was the fort Carlsbad navy.

Fortunately, they were not being actively directed at the Tarasque and instead were aimed at the colossal wall made of a bunch of debris that was somehow erected next to one of the warehouses to protect it from the fire.

“Ricky! Stop! We need to get inside!” A terrified feminine voice cried out from next to the shielded building. It belonged to a massive spider woman with green fuzzy hair that covered her arachnid body.

Next to her. At the bottom of this makeshift wall, stood the person who Bellatrix was tasked to break. General Richter Stahlherz, the wall of Galmathoria. Just like Big Bear said, he was not in the best shape. One of his arms was covered with gauze while he held the wall with the other, clearly using magic to keep it stable and simultaneously repair the damage caused to it by the volley of cannonballs.

“Wall!” The tarasque roared and stomped hard on the ground, making it shake slightly as her clawed foot dug into the stone.

The general slowly turned his head around, seeking the source of the sound before meeting the lesser dragon face to face.

His head had several bruises and deep cuts on it, but most of them had already healed, most likely through the consumption of a healing potion at some point.

“Ah, if it isn’t Bellatrix!” The general responded in an upbeat tone and smiled rather inappropriately. “Have you decided to take me up on my offer after all!? I admit, having some backup would be great right about now!”

“Forget it!” The tarasque snarled and sharply cut through the air in front of her with one of her clawed hands. “I don’t need help from a bastard like you! I’ll rebuild my kingdom by myself!”

“Ricky, who is that?” The ushi glanced away from the tarasque back at her betrothed.

“…Nobody dear. Just a stubborn relic from an age long past.” The scarred bald general responded after a brief pause and shook his head. “Why are you here then Bellatrix?” Richter added after seeing the rest of her servants group up around her.

The tarasque smirked in a threatening feral fashion and raised her top row of arms to start popping the joints in her knuckles loudly.

“Ain’t it obvious? I am here to break the wall.”

This made the black knight let out a sharp hiss followed by a bellowed laughter. “Oh gods, you are serious, aren’t you? And pray tell, why do you want to do that? You think killing me would win you favors from the rotten people who rule this country?”

“Nah. I was paid to do so. Fifty thousand gold to be precise. And I am not here to kill you either. The person who gave me the gold was very specific about capturing you alive.” The tarasque stepped forward which made the ushi let out an angry hiss but Richter gestured her to stand down.

“That so? And what about you Greybeard? I can see you back there, no need to be shy.” The general pointed behind the tarasque and the blue coat wearing man stepped out, making clacking noises with his peg leg as it struck the stone ground of the docks.

“Oh don’t mind me.” Baha smiled and blinked with his one remaining eye. “I am just here for the ride. I have some moral objections about the way you handled things here, that’s all.”

“I see. Well it appears we are a bit at an impasse.” Richter announced with a shrug and let go of the wall which made parts of it collapse. The volley of cannonballs had stopped temporarily while the crews were reloading the cannons. “I have no intentions of dying or being captured for that matter.”

“Don’t be a fool Richter.” Baha stepped forward as well to stand next to the tarasuqe and brandished his harpoon. “The entire river is under lockdown, you would have nowhere to run, even if you had a ship, which I see that you don’t.”

“That’s what you think.” Richter smiled and winked at the old man. “I have my escape plan right here, it’s just that we encountered some hardware problems. As soon as they are taken care of, it won’t matter how many ships the order sends after me, they won’t catch up to the might of the Galmathorian war machine.”

“Then let’s not wait any longer.” Bellatrix bared her razor-sharp set of reptilian teeth and charged forward.

“Still you have learned nothing! Charging into battle head on! Completely disregarding my perfect defense and becoming its victim just like countless men and monsters of Deleor and the Monster nation!” Richter shouted and then whistled.

At once, the doors of the warehouse flung open as a few dozen of black and gold armored men and women charged out from it while brandishing their rifles and taking aim at the group of enemies before them.

“Fire!” Richter ordered but before his soldiers could pull the triggers of their weapons, the group of sahuagins suddenly moved forward and stabbed the ground before them with their spears. In but a few moments, walls of ice sprung in place, covering the attackers and shielding them from the volley of lightning bolts that struck the ice with futility, making their charge diffuse uselessly inside the frozen water barriers.

As soon as their charges were spent and the weapons entered the cooldown state, Bellatrix’s soldiers charged around the ice barriers with a series of battle cries, led by their lesser dragon leader.

Richter’s eyes widened in surprise as the Tarasque crossed the distance between them within a blink of an eye.

“Gno-“ he shouted in panic but before he could invoke his summon spirit, a green and black shape intercepted the Tarasque with a furious scream.

Bellatrix grunted in surprise as her course was suddenly shifted when the massive cow spider monster rammed her, making the two of them roll sideways along the ground until stopping by smashing into the wall of one of the standing buildings.

“Don’t you dare touch my husband!” The ushi cried out and grabbed the tarasque’s throat with both of her claws while her usually calm yellow eyes glowed with anger.

“Midori! No! Get back!” Richter exclaimed in fear but then noticed that the group of Sahuagins raised their spears while Bellatrix’es forces engaged the galmathorian soldiers in melee combat.

“Ngh! Gnome! The wall!” The general shouted just as the fish women launched a volley of javelins at him.

The earth in front of him rumbled and part of it erupted, forming a perfect square slate the size of his body. The javelins smashed it into uselessly, bouncing back.

“Gnome! Return to sender!” Richter shouted next and the wall that he had erected shook menacingly and suddenly charged forward at the group of kobolds. His own soldiers, obviously knowing what was coming, quickly spread out and the massive stone slate smashed into the attackers, scattering their formation and making them cry out in pain while the Galmathorians regrouped and trapped them in a circle.

But instead of using this opportunity to strike down the weakened enemies, he quickly turned away to search for Midori and Bellatrix.

“Raaagh!” The tarasque drove one of her massive muscular arms into the ushi’s face with enough force to make the spider’s skull cave in. “Get off me already!”

Bellatrix was struggling to breathe with the ushi’s death grip around her throat, to make matters worse, her opponent was damn near impervious to her attempts to shake her off. She could obviously hurt her but the spideress was healing from the damage caused to her almost instantly with no apparent consequences for her regenerative abilities. She heard of these monsters before but this was the first time encountering one firsthand.

“Okay you asked for it mommy long legs!” Bellatrix finally snarled and all four of her clawed arms grabbed the spider’s right claw that was wrapped around the tarasque’s throat.

Before Midori could realize the magnitude of danger she was in, the powerful dragon monster tugged as hard as she could. As resilient as an ushi oni’s flesh was to damage, it was hardly more durable than normal.

“Ah-“ The ushi’s eyes widened in surprise as the powerful grip of the tarasque tore her arm straight out of her shoulder socket, making vicious smoking dark green blood splatter everywhere.

With another powerful roar, the tarasque drove her foot into the ushi’s abdomen and finally tore her off her throat, making Midori slide backward a bit before she regained her footing.

“What do you think about that, huh!?” Bellatrix chuckled as she addressed the ushi with a cocky smirk.

But Midori merely looked at her stump calmly as it slowly began to grow back. “This pain is nothing. I can endure it for my love. But will you?”

“What are you-ah, hnnn, what the?” The tarasque hissed in pain and looked down at her body in shock to see that the area where the Ushi’s blood had splattered was starting to turn red and warp as the top layer of the skin began to peel off and melt away.

“Your majesty!” Camilla cried out in shock as she descended down to the monster to help her.

“Gnome! Diamond shot!” Richter yelled and a piece of rubble suddenly floated up next to him, as if held by some invisible force and was launched at the kobold at blinding speed.

Although the spectacled woman was fast on the uptake, the range at which the projectile was launched from prevented her from reacting in time. The piece of rubble drilled itself into her body, tearing apart her sky-blue robe and then her flesh as it pierced her body through.

The broom landed on the ground with a clatter followed by its master who laid sprawled on the ground next to Bellatrix while choking on her own blood.

“C-camilla…?” The tarasque’s eyes widened in shock as she froze in place, momentarily forgetting about her own flesh which was rapidly melting away.

“Midori! I told you to not to fight!” Instead of finishing the downed enemies off, the general once again, approached the ushi, grabbing her in a tight hug. “Get inside the building! I can take care of things here!”

“No! I will not leave you alone! You are hurt!” The pale green skinned monster protested as tears welled up in her eyes.

“It is a man’s job to get hurt in the battlefield for his comrades! His woman has no place in here! She should be waiting for him to come back in safety! I can’t focus on my duties while you are here!” The scarred man broke the embrace and placed his good hand on her shoulder.

His warning was quite appropriate as while he was distracted, the advantage that his men won over Bellatrix’es forces was quickly stripped as the Sahuagins closed in around their circle, forcing them to break formation and back away closer to the warehouse.

“Kid! What the hell are you doing!?” Baha yelled at the stunned Bellatrix and gestured for one of the Sahuagins to move closer to her. The fish woman sharply swung her spear and suddenly some water from the river shot out at the dragoness and splashed against her.

“Gah! What was that for old man?! Can’t you see that my advisor is hu-“ She suddenly realized that the burning sensation over her body was almost gone. The blast of water had washed the acidic blood away.

It was not all good though, a series of loud explosive pops reverberated through the air. The order navy was launching their next volley.

“Marina! You are the fastest swimmer here! Get to those ships and tell them to cease fire before thye kill us all!” Baha shouted and the sahuagin nodded quickly before saluting her lord and diving into the water without objections.

“Damn it!!” Richter looked back and tried to run at his barrier but it was too late. Without Gnome’s geomancy feeding into it to keep it stable, the first few cannonballs tore right through it like paper and the makeshift structure began to collapse on the warehouse and his own men who scrambled in panic.

“Gnome! Greatwall!” Richter roared and struck the ground with his good hand. Before the structure could shatter entirely, it’s collapse stopped to a halt and pieces of ruble around the area began to slide along the ground towards it, jumping up to fill the holes in it.

This did not come without a price though.

“Ricky!” Midori cried out in panic as Richter collapsed on one knee and suddenly spat out some blood while struggling to remain conscious as he was forced to feed his summon spirit even more of his mana that was already near damn depleted after his fight with Bernsen. He was starting to tap into the reserves he needed to live at this point.

“Get inside.” He gritted his teeth while struggling to smile for his beloved. “They should have fixed the sub by now. Hurry, I’ll move right after you.”

Meanwhile, the commanding officer of Carlsbad was looking at the docks through his spyglass. Unfortunately, the one building he needed to get a good look at was completely obscured by an ugly barricade made out of a bunch of rubble. He was sure this next barrage would bring it down this time but Stahlherz was as skilled as the rumors said, being able to maintain such a large barrier for so long was impressive.

“Stop!” A commanding female voice suddenly shouted overboard and the captain of the fort blinked in surprise, tearing away his gaze from the observation device.

Some of the lightly armored heroes around him looked around in confusion before realizing that the sound was coming from the river below.

They hastily ran up to the railings and looked down to see a lone figure poking out of the water. A sea dwelling monster known as a Sahuagin. Finding them in freshwater was quite unusual, seeing as how they were native to the Southern Ocean and its shores.

“Who are you? This section of the river is off limits to commercial and civilian travel!” The captain shouted down in annoyance.

The sahuagin opened her mouth again while looking him in the eye. Her voice was not heard as another volley of cannons firing drowned it out. He did read her lips though and what she said made his eyes widen in shock as he suddenly realized what kind of armor the sahuagin was wearing and who her master was.

“Hold your fire! All ships! Hold your fire!” The order hero began to yell and his command was quickly spread to the rest of the river bound navy along the lesser officers and the bombardment was abruptly cut off.

Just in time too, as the cannonballs that succeeded in tearing through the barrier kept going straight into the attacker’s formation, injuring several of them. The defenders likewise were caught by some of the blasts and unlike the sahuagins and the reptilian monsters, the galmathorians straight up burst into flames from the slightest amount of damage caused to their armor.

“I am… fine your highness.” Camilla choked slightly after her breathing returned to normal when Bellatrix fed her a health potion from their reserves.

“D-don’t scare me like that!” The tarasque breathed out in relief. Unfortunately, despite their initial success, the attackers were being forced back. There were almost twice as much galmathorians as them and each one could fight in melee range as good or even better than the best of Baha’s and Bellatrix’es soldiers.

They seemed to poses an uncanny agility and completely disregarded blunt trauma, as long as their armor was left intact. The orichalcum lined armor they wore made attacking them with magic a bad idea as well and with their rifle’s cooldown complete, they began to press back against the kobolds whose magic talents proved to be ineffective.

“Your majesty.” Camila spoke out firmly. “I usually do not approve of this but may I cast the spell?”

Bellatrix smirked in response.

Seeing as how his men had regained their footing and that the bombardment had stopped, Richter let go of the barrier breathing in and out heavily as he regained his composure with Midori’s support. Truth to be told, this was an awful situation, probably one of the worst ones he was ever in. He was banking so hard on this getaway tool and despite all the testing back home, it still failed them when they needed it most.

Then again, this entire operation went bad from its early forced start when he had found out that the DSS was onto his plans to assassinate the heads of the noble families of Deleor. Then he nearly got killed by said agent who not only managed to learn the secret of his summon spirit but also to escape with said knowledge. Their advanced mana suppression device was shut down shortly after and now their submarine was malfunctioning and unable to move out.

And lastly, he was forced into a fight with a giant dragon.

The galmathorian soldiers scrambled for cover as a massive scale covered foot crashed down in the middle of the docks while it’s owner flung her head back and released a powerful primal roar that made the very air around her shake.

Midori tensed up and hugged him closer in a vain attempt to protect him but he firmly stood up and pushed her away before kissing her deeply on the lips.

“Get inside.” He ordered her firmly and she did not protest anymore besides giving him a long and pained look.

The black armored knight took a deep breath and touched the barricade again.

The earth near the river shook again as the barricade collapsed on top of him in a shower of rubble that made the massively grown tarasque take a step back in surprise while the Galmathorian soldiers quickly moved inside the building and locked the front doors.

The massive pile of rubble began to shift and move around, changing form as it rose out of the ground, taking on a vaguely humanoid shape. Finally, it stopped and stood at the same eye level as the lesser dragon who chuckled in amusement.

“Oh, a statue made out of trash, how quai-“

The stone giant’s fist crashed into her face with speed that should not have been possible for something that size.

“Ara! Ara! Ara! Ara!” A deep female voice came from within the stone giant as it unleashed a barrage of punches upon the surprised tarasque followed by sharp elbow blow. The stone giant then grasped her horns firmly and pulled her down to knee her in the face before finally letting go.

The tarasque reeled back before smashing into one of the buildings, leaning on it for support while her allies cheered her on.

“Your majesty! Please be careful!” Camilla slowly floated next to her head and Bellatrix opened her eyes with a pained groan.

She saw that the stone giant was standing across from her and taunting her with a come get some gesture which annoyed her. Looks like she wasn’t the only one who could grow in size here. But then again, she had better backup.

The dragon straightened out and stomped forward at the figure with her head held low and limbs outstretched.

The giant threw both of its fist to strike at her, but her own claws moved to intercept the blow and the two were caught in a contest of strength, who would overpower who?

Bellatrix smiled confidently and flailed her lower pair of arms in front of the giant mockingly. Richter who was buried deeply inside this makeshift construct spoke out.

“Oh crap.”

While the dragon’s top pair of hands held the titan in place, her lower pair began to furiously pummel on it. Each blow was so colossal and overwhelming that it stripped the rumble from the figure, piece by piece, rapidly reducing its armor to nothing but dust. Suddenly the titan kicked her in the stomach and his arms broke away while it backed off, closer to the river shore to reconfigure itself. This was the general’s second mistake.

“Go! Go! Go!” Baha yelled to his entourage that already moved in closer to the river and bouts of water began to splash against the stone giant’s feet. It did not have any effect at first but that’s when the water began to freeze.

Richter attempted to move but suddenly found his feet frozen in place near the shore.

“Fire!” The order navy captain shouted and the freshly reloaded canons began to bombard the massive stone figure that suddenly appeared on the docks. It was a no brainer of who it was and the Order’s response was immediate.

Richter was forced to use all of his concentration to strengthen his armor to prevent it from falling apart completely. But try as he might, he was through when he looked back at the dragoness rushing toward him with her fist outstretched.

He gritted his teeth and poured all the strength that he had left into keeping this stone giant upright. It was not enough.

The dragoness’s fist smashed into the torso of the giant, completely breaking it apart and sending massive pieces of ruble to rain down everywhere. Among them was Richter himself who landed on the ground with a crash, sliding along the docks until coming to a stop.

He shakily tried to stand back up while reaching for his summon spirit but then he looked up to see a massive foot looming over him and sighed.

With a colossal crash, Bellatrix stomped down, nearly making the docks split in half from the impact.

The wall was broken.

~~~

Well it was probably nothing worth seeing, the warrior concluded and kept moving past the massive footprint.

The group was allowed into the warehouse, which had a large group of soldiers stationed around it. The interior was rather sparse, only housing a massive pool of water. In the middle of said pool a black metallic contraption was floating. It took almost the entirety of the space in the water.

It was long, shaped like a pill and equipped with tiny round windows that ran over its length.

They were not alone here though. One more person was walking along the vessel’s length in annoyance, prodding it or trying to cast various spells.

And on the edge of the pool was something else. It was an automaton, but not the ones that the warrior had encountered prior. This one was crude and large, less humanoid in shape. It was clearly designed for combat but right now, it merely stood idly while the blue and white robe wearing sorcerer mussed around the submarine.

“As you can see, there are no clear entrances to it and we have no way to transport it outside this building.” The knight captain explained. "Do you really think it might be rigged with explosives?

The warrior nodded then turned to Skorne with a quizzical look on his face.

“It’s there.” The balrog gestured to the middle of the vessel where a small pillarlike protrusion poked out. It held a round disk shaped handle on it.

“We need to examine the vessel physically.” The warrior explained and stepped forward.

“Commander Brandon!” A surprised voice suddenly called out from outside and walked into the warehouse.

“What is it, report?” The knight snapped back at the soldier who saluted him before starting to speak.

“Members of the DSS are outside the docks sir! They are requesting that they get access to the facility immediately!” The soldier responded.

“What? But they are here already.” The caped knight blinked in confusion and turned to the warrior.

Had they been tracked somehow already or was this a coincidence? Surely even the secret service wouldn’t be able to see past their disguises. But then why were they here?

>What do you do?

Oh look, it's the fight scene had to be cut due to budget constraints!

I am so sorry about the schedule slips. I'll try to get better.

Do we know what happened to Midori? I'm sure her code of honor commands her to avenge her husbands death or even end her own life for failing him or something like that.

Did she get captured? killed? If she is still lurking in the docks or hiding in the sub things could get kinda awkward.

>What do you do?

We could try to improvise and hope we'll run into Agent L and just play it off in front of the guards. If we do try to engage with the agent however Anderson will know we are still alive and in Cairn which will complicate things.

But even if we try to get out of there just from the description from the heroes alone Anderson will be able to tell who we are.

So either way looks like we have to deal with the DSS now.

>>291114

tell them we were reassigned to provide support but tell them not to inform the other agents and to keep them out of our way because we have a reputation for not playing well with others weve been told to keep away from other dss agents unless absolutely necessary and it wasnt deemed necessary in this case or just say its classified need to know and not to inform the other agents because of internal affair's

>>291151

if they doubt us use intimidation to add credibillity to our bad reputation story

>>291114

Ask Commander Brandon if they showed the DSS badge.

Bersen and co. don't know if these are real DSS members or Al-Sabbath or/and Galmathorians trying to get the sub back. The DSS maybe infected (but don't tell the Heroes that, only they maybe Galmathorians).

If Bernsen has to meet them ask them questions that they should know the answers to. And throw in a few that are wrong to see if they pick up on them. (Ask to see their scribble bowl and the message sent by Anderson).

>>291151

That is a very weak excuse for a cover story…

No member of a secret service organization will admit to that level of weakness in front of an outsider!

>>291351

>sercret service dosent have internal disputes and it not being a pluasable plan

cough cia fbi cough

we could spin some other bs about our orders getting mixed up or our chain of command being overworked due to the attack and being unable to inform agents of other agents wherabouts due to being unable to accomodate for the workload

>>291114

Maintain the charade. If they start questioning throw our rank around and simply state that those agents have their mission and we have ours. non-lethal CQC if things go tits up

>>291368

>orders getting mixed up or our chain of command being overworked

No. Do not do this. Never admit to incompetency of any form during an event as it removes the element of mystique and prestige from our bearing which altogether lowers the respect and fear; it will make these goons unpredictable by placing them on guard.

If you want a real-world example simply take a look at the CIA. Sure, they fuck up a lot, but never do they own up to the fact until AFTER everything is said and done with years of non-stop prodding by organizations internally and externally; and most times it occurs only after a leak. Here's a little mental exercise: when you think of CIA do you think "Super secret boogeymen agents that can anthrax you and your family no matter where you live" or "G-men who have near unlimited funding and still commonly misallocate resources, subvert the nation they are sworn to protect, lose track of their targets, torture and murder innocents, and are headed by sociopathic child-molesting war-mongers"? Or maybe something else?

One reason intelligence agencies, and by extension most secretive groups, maintain this aura of mystery is so that the imagination fills in the gaps.

>>291367

Of course sercret services have internal disputes. But, they don't broadcast them to outsiders and reveal weaknesses to their rivals and enemies!

Smartass idiot.

>>291114

I should have said this before but, we would trick the prisoners into thinking we're undercover kebab agents, with Korne's help, they have no way of knowing that Korne switched sides and we can just get her to give us information and have her hide somewhere anyway.

“Do they have identification?” Bernsen frowned as glanced at the rest of his group who looked rather nervous, Skorne in particular.

“Yes, they have presented their badge of office.” The soldier affirmed.

So they were not Al-Sabbath agents either, the warrior concluded.

“It might be another group on a different task.” The warrior turned his head to the knight captain and gestured with his gauntlet covered hand at the door vaguely.

“Escort them here.” The commanding officer ordered.

As the soldier left the warehouse, the warrior heard Zapp’s voice in his head come through their familiar connection.

{This could turn ugly really fast. Perhaps we should retreat while we have the chance?}

The warrior subtly turned his head to the rest of his team and shook his head quickly.

{No. Let’s see what’s going on. This might be important.}

Not even two minutes later, the doors flung open as a group of black suited men and women forced their way into the building, wielding various magitek weapons on their persons.

“Commander Brandon. I am Special Agent K. DSS.” The magitek glasses wearing man in the lead spoke up and introduced himself to the CO in a dry professional tone while showing off his badge. Bernsen immediately recognized his straight face that was almost impossible to read and his neat brown haircut. This was one of the people who had captured Mousier L’argent during his first mission with the DSS.

And unfortunately for him, agent K had recognized him and Webster as well. There was only a barely noticeable frown on his face as he paused to look over the warrior and the rest of his group.

“This is the second time today you government spooks force your way into my post.” The knight frowned and pointed behind him at the fully armored form of the warrior. “If this is about the enemy vessel, agent B is already examining it.”

“Agent B?” Kay’s left eyebrow slowly rose. The other agents seemed to realize something at that point as well and their eyes locked toward the warrior.

There was a tense pause as K and B studied each other. Bernsen had the advantage of wearing a helmet that concealed his face but somehow, he doubted it mattered, since Kay’s shades were subtly glimmering in the dim light of the warehouse. A sign that the magesight enchantment on them was active.

“Is… something wrong?” Brandon narrowed his eyes suspiciously as he glanced between the participants of the staredown.

“Agent B.” The black suit wearing man addressed the warrior formally this time. “Why are you out of your uniform?”

The warrior expected many different outcomes to this situation but this question took him completely off-guard and he froze in place, stunned in confusion.

“This is highly unprofessional. Same goes to you agent W.” Kay continued and turned his head at the beret wearing man.

The wizard swallowed so hard at that moment that it was audible.

“I uh…never received mine.” He stuttered.

“What the hells are you talking about? I thought there was something important!” The knight suddenly exploded in anger as he addressed the lead agent.

“Indeed. I am here to inform you that the Galmathorian Navy had set out three hours ago and will be arriving here within two to attack Fort Carsbad and Cair.” Kay then adjusted his mage sight goggles. “I suggest you take the necessary precautions and spread the news along the chain of command.”

This announcement made everyone stop in their tracks, breaths caught in their throats.

“W-w-what!? What the hells? Why didn’t anyone say this sooner!? It takes days to travel upstream from there! And why are you delivering it in person instead of through the leyline?!” Brandon’s eyes widened in shock.

“Under normal circumstances, yes. Unfortunately for us though, the Galmathorian navy is deploying their new line of vessels here like the one over there. They can travel underwater very quickly and quietly and the order to deploy them was given twelve hours ago. Due to classified circumstances, this intel could only be spread through verbal communication channels. Their force is being led by the Galmathorian army’s naval general, Calisto. I suggest you begin appropriate preparations.” K said matter of factly and walked past the CO to address the Warrior.

“You and agent W were announced to be missing in action last I heard. Why haven’t you reported back to the HQ?”

“Had to kill a Dullahan to stop her from causing a volcanic eruption under the city that would kill everyone. Was trapped underground for a while. Lost my scrying bowl.” The warrior explained in a casual stone, hoping to psyche the agent out.

But Kay instead nodded in understanding in a vague fashion, as if what the warrior said was business like usual in their line of work.

“I see. Agent A had suspected something like this. Sometimes our members tend to go off the grid because of such unpredictable circumstances. However, I must ask, why are you here, acting on your own accord and using your authority to enter heavily guarded military outposts?”

Bernsen briefly glanced at commander Brandon leaving the building in haste to spread the news and get all the forces stationed in the city and the fort across from it ready for combat.

The sorcerer near the sub that has been keeping awfully quiet as he listened to the conversation began to move out as well, while the massive automaton accompanying him stood idly in place, not moving even an inch since the warrior had entered the warehouse. It did not move while it’s master was tampering with the sub and even after he had left the building. Was it ordered to guard the submarine?

Agent K and the other suited people behind him on the other hand were not making any moves to join the fight however. There was about a dozen of them in total, including K. Everyone wielded various magitek weapons and one of them was sporting the strange boxlike device that was used a few weeks ago by J to suppress magic and capture Web-

The warrior’s eyes widened under his helmet. Hold on, DSS had magic suppression devices too?

“Shouldn’t we be helping the soldiers stationed here?” The warrior gestured at the door.

“I have been ordered only to inform, not to participate. But what orders are you following? And whose?” Kay’s index finger twitched slightly as if on instinct but he wasn’t reaching for a weapon yet and his colleagues were keeping theirs pointed downward at the floor at an angle while studying him and the rest of his group through the filter of magesight built into their own shades.

All of them, despite their poor protection, had an air of expertise around them and most were in top physical condition. Knowing what agent L was capable of, it would probably not be a longshot to assume that they were trained in close quarters combat just as effectively as in the use of their magical weapons.

>What do you do?

>>291665

Easy

>we knewvat some point otjer agents would be here so our plan was to come here and wait

>now that you are here i need to use your comm to talk directly to agent A for classified reason

>after we get to speek with agent A we tell anderson

1. The enemy agents have infiltrated the dss to the point were he (Andersons) is being extremely likely to be misled or used by someone close to him to destabilise the situations further

2. All sides are heing manipulated by al sabab and since the war has already started or is extreamly close to starting it would be wise to inform the public at large that the three states have been manipulate by an extreamy advanced and active organisation whos intent is

3 use a war between the three states as a mass sacrifice to bring back into existence in the worse way possible whats her face

4. We also believe Al sabab has been using the agency's secret nature against it

Oh also they are after the integrate cores our recommendations is to hand them over to the union which just purged violently its members that have been working with the al Sabbath group

Trust only the king, and begin to giving false info to specific individual's to weed out who is compromised

We McCarthy era purges now home boys

Did i miss anything,

Basically what i said at the start

The best way to win a secrets wzr is make it not a secret

If he needs more proof of our claims let whats her face talk with him

Then after our quick report go back to the agents

Extend feelers and after we can feel all of them say

"Alright agent k we just got word one or more of your agents here is working for al sabith"

Then we feel out for

>confusion

>outrage

>interest

>shock

>fear

>nervousness

>and on ageny k's part relief (because hes not suspects)

We may not beable to read mind but we can get damn close

If non of them react to that then say

"We need to find and eliminate them before we retrieve the red integrity core from (made up location here)"

At this point their should only be

1. Confusion

2 excitement <enemy agent>because last lost core

3. anger

Our mission objective is to end Al-Sabbath activity in the area. We have reason to believe Richter was in some way involved with the cult. So looking for further leads we tried to inspect Richters vassal.

Should be easy enough to get that dude off our back. If he remains hostile do what

said and request talking to Anderson directly.

…Hang on a second. We haven't officially gone rogue from DSS yet, and I don't see any reason to just yet (if at all). Especially since we could kill several birds with one stone here. I think the one anon is on the right track with using Agent K's comm to contact Anderson, but we need to be careful about what we say. In particular, we need to inform him that while off grid, we've ran across critical intel about Galmathoria (NOT Al-Sabbath, we have to assume they're listening in through either the leylines or a compromised DSS officer close to Anderson, and they'll be after us if we mention "critical intel on Al-Sabbath") that needs to be discussed in person. NOTHING ELSE SENSITIVE OVER THE LEYLINES. In person (preferably with nobody else present), we do four things:

1) Inform him that we turned an Al-Sabbath officer, and provide recordings of what Skorne told us, particularly about their leader, goals, Richter, and especially that Cair was staged in order to cause the war. His interrogation of Richter will likely corroborate our information. Based on DSS's extremely poor/faulty intel, we can make the case that DSS itself may be compromised. Also tell him that Al-Sabbath may not be aware that their agent survived, giving him a time-sensitive chance to clean house. I'm hoping we don't need to turn over Skorne, but even if we do I get the feeling clean-house DSS is a much more valuable ally, particularly if Anderson can stall the war with Skorne's testimony.

2) We've just learned something. DSS has magic suppression devices too. Our mission here is moot if we can simply requisition one from Anderson, possibly citing its potential usefulness in the battle against the dullahan or their potential effectiveness on copies of Richter's spirit weapon thing. That will take care of that Union mission. (This does bring up a big quesion on our current situation, though. Why is a magic suppression device that is theoretically only effective on Deleorian automatons being deployed here?)

3) Request permission to investigate a "potential source of additional Al-Sabbath intel" out west. Basically, we're looking to have the DSS Stamp of approval on the escort mission by omitting some details (call the wizard a consultant). If we want to push our luck, we could request permission to set our own missions with the operational goal of hunting down and destroying Al-Sabbath. We did just give him an intel goldmine, and this'll let us pull off our Union activities without unnecessary DSS interference (though we'll have to make regular reports…).

4a) Either pull off the treasury heist while in Sanctifrond or

4b) Inform Anderson about the potential Al-Sabbath heist. If he prevents it, or better yet captures those involved, the integrity core will be put on hard lockdown. It'll be harder for us to get later, but we can deal with that once Al-Sabbath's out of the picture.

Either way, that will also handle the other Union mission (I still think we should give the red one to Hardinclouse as long as we can get it back later).

Union missions done, DSS purged, and we conceal our Union affiliation if all goes according to plan.

“My orders are to destroy the cult of Al-Sabbath. They were given to me by specialist Anderson.” Bernsen replied without missing a beat.

“Cult?” K’s left eyebrow slightly rose once more.

“I managed to convince one of their top agents to share some interesting intel. Al-Sabbath is apparently playing all the sides of the conflict to use the oncoming war to create a mass blood sacrifice that will fuel the creation of a perfect avatar of Dollora that their goddess would then personally inhabit, using the essence of her power stored within mystical objects known as integrity cores.” The warrior answered plainly.

There was a tense pause as everyone stared at him, including his own friends. It was quite apparent by their expressions that they were appalled at how casually he just revealed this bit of info, but he was planning on doing so at some point anyway. Secret plots were only dangerous while they remained secret after all.

“I see.” K’s expression did not change in the slightest at the reveal, even as some of the other agents backing him looked around and exchanged hushed whispers. “And you have not reported with this intel back to Anderson because…?”

“That’s classified. But while you are here, may I use your scrying bowl to do so?” Bernsen suggested.

“That excuse only works if you have more clearance than the person asking you.” K noted drily as the corner of his lip twitched into an attempt to sarcastically smile. “But alright, A will be interested in this for sure.”

The agent began to reach into his suit’s inner pocket when the warrior felt an immense sense of dread and danger come over him.

“Wait, something’s not-“ His head quickly shot back behind him just in time to see the construct that had been idly standing by suddenly thrust it’s right hand out.

A bright flash, followed by the deafening crackle of thunder blasted across the room as a lightning bolt fired past the warrior and right at agent K.

Even if Bernsen could have anticipated this, there would be no plausible way for him to intercept a lightning bolt that has already been fired. Fortunately, agent K was as skilled as he was professional and Bernsen’s early warning was enough to make him duck and roll sideways after dropping his scrying bowl on the ground.

K clearly must have read Pappass’es combat manual as well, or had some similar type of training because he recovered from his evasive maneuver almost instantly, while simultaneously whipping out a long metallic magitek rifle that he instantly pointed at the construct and fired within a blink of an eye.

This weapon was not like the ones used by the Galmathorian soldiers. It had a bulkier and more crude design, almost like it was not finished in its production. With another crackle of thunder, it fired and a white beam of light, traveling at an absurd speed struck the construct’s head.

And bounced off.

“Hahahaha! Fooooool!” An excited, almost childish female voice suddenly cried out from the massive feminine automaton after K’s shot ricocheted from it into the water. “Don’t you know what you are shooting at is a Darling mark six mobile defense construct?! It’s enchanted adamantium plating can withstand almost every type of-“

CLAAAANG!

The warrior charged forward and slammed the beidhander into the constructs side, making a loud noise. But unfortunately, this was all the surprise attack managed to do.

“Hngh!?” Bernsen grunted in surprise when he realized that his hit did not only fail to dent the armor of the tall construct, but to even make it flinch. This brief surprise backfired on him hard as the construct sharply swung the backside of its left hand at an angle, right into his temple.

“Bernie! Bern! Boss!” His allies cried out in surprise and shock when the force of the blow dented the helmet and sent the warrior flying across the pool, all the way to the other side where he smashed down onto the floor like a sack of rocks after landing on his right leg.

K whistled loudly and the agents began to rapid fire at the construct, but their attacks bounced from its armor in the same exact fashion as K’s initial shot did.

“Stuuupid! Didn’t you hear what I said!? This automaton is the last design that the ancient wizard order of Deleor had finalized before disbanding! It’s the pinnacle of their genius, an automaton that would give even a monster lady trouble!” As the person who was controlling the tall mechanical woman said so, she thrust both of her hands out, firing two large currents of electricity forward.

Trapped in a completely empty room with no cover, the DSS agents could do little, besides dropping down on the ground to avoid the blasts of lightning. But this was not enough and the passing currents had struck a bunch of them while they were on the floor, making them scream out in pain briefly before stopping moving completely as their bodies began to emanate an inky grey smoke and a sickening smell of burned flesh.

“C! Actiavate it!” K yelled to the agent that held the boxlike device on his chest.

The agent nodded and quickly twisted the knob on the device.

The warrior anticipated the strange ticklish sensation that came with the magic suppression field but instead, the box began to spark before a loud pop from within it confirmed its malfunction.

“What the? But I wasn’t hit!” C uttered in surprise.

“Oh? Are you having hardwaaaaare troubles?” The automaton leaned forward in a catty manner while her muffled voice that was coming from the automaton’s voice module mocked the agents.

“Get back! We are at disadvantage here! Move it!” K quickly shouted as he got back to his feet and began to run toward the exit while whipping out his rifle and pointing it at the automaton to shoot at it again. But when he pulled the trigger on the weapon, it instead sparked in the same fashion and died as it’s mana capacitor suddenly burned out with no apparent reason.

“Dumbass! You think I’ll let you go after you learned our plans and tried to warn the Order of the Galmathorian navy’s arrival!? Take this!” The automaton pointed her right hand at the remaining agents and electricity began to amass around its length. Just before she could fire though, a massive horned figure suddenly tackled the construct.

This time, the strength projected on it was enough to make the machine stumble and the discharge of lightning fired into the pool instead of at the door, making the water flash brightly for a moment as the current spread out into the river and faded.

Using this opportunity, the agents quickly left the building and the automaton turned around to look with her expressionless flat face at the person who attacked her.

“Skorne.” The childish voice remarked while dripping with malice.

The mechanically augmented balrog stood tall while facing the machine, her hood pulled back and letting her sideways curled horns out for all to see.

“So it was you who sold us out! What good luck! I can kill all of you here at once and ensure that our plans remain secret!” The massive automaton remarked giddily and sharply thrust her right hand outward, firing another lightning bolt forward.

“Boss! Boss speak to me! How many fingers am I holding up!?” The wizard shook the warrior and Bernsen finally snapped out of his contusion with a groan as he held the caved in part of his helmet. Was that what being hit with a leyway train felt like?

“What the hells is up with that thing? I don’t think even Bellatrix can punch this hard.” The warrior sat up and shook his head.

“It’s one of the ancient automatons that are used in the Order’s service. They are a cut above the rest. Everything what that person said is true. They were designed to combat dragons!” Webster quickly explained and nervously looked back.

The warrior followed his gaze and noticed that Skorne had entered combat with it and was doing remarkably well.

The lightning bolt sailed past the Balrog as she ducked and performed a masterful quick roll around it before striking at it with her arm prosthetic which made the automaton stagger forward.

“Tch, I barely felt that.” The automaton turned around and true enough, despite the overwhelming force of the balrog’s physical strength, the stone and metal plating on the construct did not even get scratched, let alone bent.

“Feel this then!” Sahra roared from above and the automaton’s face plate twisted upwards in surprise at the source of the sound, only to see the witch floating next to the ceiling on her broom who then quickly threw down a massive fireball at the construct.

The anthropomorphic weapon did not even flinch as the spell collided with her and engulfed her body in a column of raging flames the heatwave of which could be felt even on the other side of the pool where the warrior, Zapp, Kenzie and Webster were.

“Duuuuuuumbaaaaaasss!” The bratty voice droned on while casually stepping out of the inferno completely untouched and firing a lightning bolt up.

Thankfully, the training Bernsen gave her was producing fruits and the witch sharply moved sideways while performing a spin on her broom.

The dwarf quickly recovered from evasive maneuver, albeit looking a little dizzy but then was forced to keep moving around as the construct fired a lightning bolt after a lightning bolt upwards until Skorne attacked again.

“It’s okay.” Webster reassured the warrior. “Mark VI’s are very powerful but because of the advanced movements that the unit is capable off, it’s artificial intelligence can only move around slowly.”

But this was not the case. Skorne tried to grab the automaton in a hold while it was distracted with the witch only for the machine to twist around with an alarming speed and thrust her armored foot into her stomach.

The balrog grunted as she was sent flying backwards and rolling along the ground from the force of the punch. Her enchanted obsidian abdomen plate was still intact thankfully so she was still in the fight.

“W-what!? How is that possible! They shouldn’t be able to move this fast, even if they are remotely controlled! There is a massive delay for doing inputs like that!” The wizard uttered in shock.

“I need to hel-hnng!” The warrior suddenly felt a sharp pain in his leg and looked down to realize that it broke during his fall, something he did not even realize with all the adrenaline rushing in his veins.

“Hold on, I need to fix this.” The warrior concentrated, summoning his anger to enter his warrior trance only to be met with an unexpected result.

With a roar, the figure of Ursa Major suddenly erupted from his body and floated idly above him.

“Did it just get hotter?” The wizard blinked in confusion.

“What the, that’s not what I wanted to do! Get back!” The warrior yelled at the burning figure of the bear woman who quickly faded.

“Bernie, who are you talking to?” Kenzie looked up at him with a puzzled expression but he ignored her as he summoned his anger again, he needed the enhanced healing properties of his trance right now but once more, Ursa major appeared when he tried to use it.

“It’s clear that you can’t use it right now.” The lion spoke through his voicebox. “We need to get some light so we can use a spirit overflow to repair the bones in your leg.”

But the warehouse they were in was only illuminated by a handful of torches and had no windows in it.

“Hey assholes! What are you plotting over there?! You think I can’t hear you or something!” The bratty voice cried out and fired a lightning bolt right at the warrior’s collapsed form.

“OH SH-“ The warrior shouted in surprise but before the lightning bolt even fired, he felt a hand firmly grip his shoulder, followed by a bright flash of gold surrounding him.

He suddenly found himself on the first floor of the Union HQ and fell on the marbled floor.

“-IT!” he finished his shout but then looked around in confusion before with a second flash of light, he was back in the warehouse.

“That was close. But this makes no sense. How is she getting such short input delays for her movement and weapon activations? Did someone plant a revenant in it? But it would take a while to get accustomed to operating it if that’s the case.” Webster gritted his teeth and let go of his shoulder.

“Hey, did you just use [Blink]!?” The automaton shouted in annoyed tone. “That’s cheating you assho-“ Another fireball struck her form momentarily, cutting her off and enveloping her in an infernal shroud. Sahra quickly looked back and down at the warrior before yelling out.

>”Bern, what do we do!?”

>Careful, you’re bleeding!

>Your leg is Broken

I think I am back in the groove now. Thank you for being patient.

Well clearly we're outmatched here. I think a retreat would be advisable but I'm not sure if we'll be able to escape. Perhaps if we could get it into the water? It's a long shot but It may be possible it's own electricity will fry it.

>>291867

the answer is obvious

STAND BATTLE

Might as well start training our stand. But tell Webster to be ready for emergency evac and keep an eye out for Sahra.

That we lost our healing powers is a damn shame but a broken leg should be fixable with a healing potion right?

>>291944

We lost our highly accelerated healing factor

But yeah

Stand time

Return to battle unleach THE STARBEAR!

OH ALSO

Based on the voice

I think this might be a gremiln which would be cool but also bad

Submerge the automaton

One more thing

Do you think the sorcerer is in on it

Also sorry

The next time we need to discuss sensitive information well do it from the safety of the wizards closest

>>291993

Also

[Blink?]

I thought ace said teleportation wasnt a thing or it was illegal or something

If [blink] is a thing

The a wizard could study it, understand it

Improve it

It could be vary bad

THIS COULD BE VARY BAD

>>291996

It's just using gateway to El Dorito to quickly jump between dimensions as a clever evasive maneuver. Teleportation is still not canon, thrust me, I had to actually change some of the plot because of that.

>>292085

But why would she call it [blink]?

>>292088

Oh holy shit were fucking idiots

Bern is in the wizards realm right?

Call eatch his face and ask if he can put the automaton in the ground

Like

Way way in the ground

Like

300 km in the ground

Its strong but not stronger then 300km of solid fucking rock strong

Hardinclouse is not your personal assistant and if you try to deliberately bring danger into the realm of wizards and use him as an attack dog like that, you risk being locked out of accessing El Dorito permanently.

>>292092

oh… ok nvm

>>292103

Woops sage sorry lads its early

How is it that I go away for two days and when I come back. Anything goes to shit! This is the reason we can't have nice shit!

Who's smart idea was it to blurt out classified info? Is it the lit' shit that thought it was a good idea to tell people about being a DSS agent that got Tenma killed?!

Slavsan, I'm getting really tired of this deus ex machina.

“Sahra! Blast a hole in the ceiling!” The warrior shouted immediately and the witch turned her head up while conjuring a raging ball of flame in her outstretched hand that spun around for a moment before erupting into a wide blast of fire.

The stream of flames plowed right through the wooden beams and tore the roof apart, sending small pieces of burning debris to rain down into the water, but more importantly, it created a column of light that shone upon the warrior.

{Zapp!} The warrior ordered internally and the lion sprung to action, reading his master’s intentions through their familiar link and jumping from the edge of the pool, where the column of light shone on them, on top of the submarine and then on the other side where the automaton was already stepping out of the flames and raising its limb to shoot another lightning bolt.

With a savage roar, the beast landed on top of the machine, his weight causing its arm to be pulled back and fire wildly into the air. The construct dug its reinforced feet into the ground however and refused to get toppled and Zapp was forced to leap away from its form to avoid a counterattack.

The lion then slid along the floor, leaving gashes on it with his claws before coming to a stop near Skorne who charged forward while keeping her head low, intending to ram the construct with her horns while her body burned aglow with an infernal shroud.

“Tch.” The voice controlling the automaton spat out in annoyance and shifted its attention to the balrog. “Fine, I guess I can kill you first.”

With a mighty battle cry, Skorne dug her artificial foot into the floor and pushed her body forward. But the automaton merely stood there idly, not firing any lightning bolts at her for some reason, despite having a clear shot.

“Wait, Skorne watch out! She is planning something!” The warrior shouted from the other side of the pool while channeling spirit energy from the column of light shining down on him.

The balrog began to slow down in surprise at that remark but a high pitched childish laughter coming from the automaton’s voice box announced that it was already too late and Skorne suddenly stumbled, her artificial leg giving out.

“W-what?” The tall horned woman exclaimed in surprise and tried to stand up by using her artificial arm for support, only for it to suddenly spaz out as well and start to twitch and flail uncontrollably.

“Dumbaaaass! This is what happens to those who betray lady Dia! Now die!” The automaton pointed her hand directly at the collapsed balrog, ready to fire a lightning bolt at her form. The monster gritted her teeth while trying crawl away while simultaneously fending off her prosthetics that went out of control. But it was obvious that she would not be able to evade the attack under such conditions.

A sharp snarl could be heard behind the automaton as the lion jumped at her with his right claw outstretched and glowing with spirit energy.

“Yea, I am not even gonna bother with that. You don’t have enough strength to make me stagger unlike this traitor here.” The automaton responded to the noise in mocking tone without even turning around. The glowing white crackles of energy running along her arm started to concentrate as it charged a particularly powerful electrical discharge that was intended to kill Skorne in a single shot.

“Spirit…” The lion’s voice growled from his collar a split second before his claw impacted against the construct’s chassis. “OVERFLOW!”

The glowing golden mass of spirit energy lashed against the automaton, however it was all for naught, spirit energy could only harm living beings and this machine was made from cold unliving metal and rune inscribed stones.

“Hahaha! You dumb animal! You think a weak attack like that woul-w-wait what?” Her voice quickly shifted into a surprised tone as the electricity running along her arm suddenly started to go wild for a moment before the power was cut and the charge dissipated with a hissing noise.

“What the hells? What do you mean weapon safety protocols engaged? Primary weapon disabled to prevent critical overload!? What is this shit!?” The voice from the automaton shouted in anger before a series of strange cracking and shuffling noises along with annoyed grunts could be heard coming from the machine’s voice box.

{Good work Zapp.} The warrior noted and then took a deep breath before starting to move the air in and out of his lungs in rhythmic fashion to conjure some of his own spirit energy.

Within a blink of an eye, a flash of radiant yellow appeared on his leg as his body’s spirit energy amassed at that point to heal the injuries he suffered from. With painful sounding popping noises, his bones were forcefully set back into place and grew back into a solid form so he quickly got up to his feet.

“Webster, are you done?” The warrior quickly asked the wizard and the blonde eyeglasses wearing man sharply nodded, finished with the spell he was weaving.

The warrior rushed forward and jumped from the edge of the pool, barely making it to the submarine that was half submerged in the middle of it. Once more he noted the absence of his trance in annoyance. This jump would have been nothing if he could have access to it right now.

“Hey you shitty fleabag! What the fuck did you do!?” The automaton turned back and stomped down while facing the lion who was looking at her calmly while maintaining his distance.

“Me? All I did is share some of my body’s spirit energy with that machine. It seems like it was too much for it however. I am no magitek expert but if I remember correctly, the lightning cannons have a rather low power output compared to more elaborate weapons.” Zapp noted and raised one of his paws to taunt the construct by beckoning it to go get some.

“Oh you’ve fucking done it now! I’ll mount your head over a fireplace you shitty fucking lion!” The bratty voice swore in indignation and the construct moved forward in a straight line at an alarming speed, each of its footsteps so powerful that it dug into the stone floor of the warehouse and made it crack slightly upon impact.

But then something strange happened as the automaton suddenly lost all friction with the ground and fell down with a heavy crash, it’s body sliding while it spun around until something heavy landed on top of it and stopped it in its tracks.

“W-what!?” A surprised voice from the automaton spoke out while it’s head moved around, trying to figure out what happened. As it turned out, a puddle of ice suddenly appeared right underneath it’s feet.

“W-what? Ice? B-

“Your next line will be: But I didn’t hear it being cast? Right?” Bernsen finished the sentence and slammed his armored greave into the machine’s head, making its neck bend downward slightly. But the strength of its enchanted moving parts quickly overcame the warrior’s weight and its emotionless faceplate turned up to see the man himself standing on top of it.

“What? You, but your leg…! Wait…you are!” The machine suddenly began to vibrate as if enraged. “I knew it! You are the one lady Dia spoke of! The person who is ruining her plans! Bernsen!”

“Nice to meet you.” The warrior responded in a sarcastic tone and gave the wizard standing on the opposite edge of the pool a thumb’s up before jumping away from the construct to avoid getting grabbed by its mechanical limbs.

The Darling MK VI quickly jumped back to its feet, raising its hands up in a rather amateurish looking fight stance. “You are the one ruining everything! Because of you, Cair is still under Deleor’s control and getting reinforcements!” The automaton charged forward and thrust its fist at the warrior but he quickly ducked and rolled to the side at which point, the automaton feverishly turned it’s body to follow him only to be met with an empty space.

“W-what? Where did you-“

The warrior’s beidhander slammed into her temple, making the head flinch and the construct twisted its body around to hit him only for Bernsen to vanish again.

“What the? Again? How are y-ngh!” This time, the warrior’s artificial hand slammed into the machine’s temple and the force behind the augmented blow was far more significant and made the automaton spin in place before it could regain its balance.

“Sorry, did that hurt?” The warrior asked with a genuine concern in his voice which made the voice even angrier.

“Of course that hurt, you fucking asshole! How the hells are you doing th-“ The machine looked at where the warrior’s voice came from only to be met with an empty space again.

“Oh, it’s quite simple.” Bernsen began while the automaton feverishly spun around in place trying to find him. “I noticed it while you fought my friends, but your cone of vision. It’s very slim isn’t it?”

The machine froze in place at that announcement and the warrior continued.

“That’s right. I asked Web about it while Sahra and Skorne were keeping you busy. Darling models were designed for holding strategic defensive positions in mind long after the humans of old pushed the monster hordes far north into the frozen wastelands. Because of that, they are not equipped with wide peripheral vision lenses. Instead, they mostly operate on-“

The construct sharply turned around again and smashed its fist into the floor where it heard the voice coming from, it’s limb digging into the stone all the way to the elbow with its monstrous strength intended to face dragons in physical combat.

“…sound.” The warrior finished his sentence without missing a beat.

“W-where are you!? Where the fuck are you?!” The automaton’s voice cracked in anger.

“Right here.” Bernsen whispered into the automaton’s ear and it sharply twisted it’s head only to meet his adamantium power fist.

With a colossal crash, the prosthetic fist smashed into the construct’s faceplate and it finally took some damage as the stone mask covering it’s head cracked while the rest of the machine was launched backwards, finally losing its balance and fell on the floor with a clatter.

“Damn that hurts.” The warrior frowned while rubbing his elbow where his prosthetic was connected to the rest of his body.

It was too early to celebrate though, he managed to get a good hit in but this was not over yet as the machine scrambled back to its feet while whimpering and shaking in rather uncharacteristic fashion for a lifeless machine that could not feel pain.

“You are asking me how I am staying out of your range? Simple.” The warrior stomped down with his foot but instead of making a loud metallic clang, his greave did not produce any sound whatsoever. “I asked my wizard buddy to place a privacy barrier on my shoes. You can’t track me by footsteps and have to only rely on the automaton’s visual feed, don’t you? I just stayed in your blindspots all this time and moved out of the way before you could look at me.”

The automaton froze in place again, shocked at the simplicity of the trick before the sounds of teeth gritting could be heard coming from the voicebox. “You…! You! You asshole! Piece of shit! Faggot! I kept switching various filters on the magesight lenses, thinking that you were using some sort of light refraction magic to conceal yourself but you were just standing right next to me all this time!?”

An amused barely contained series of giggles could be heard from above and the construct angrily shot it’s head up to see Sahra covering her mouth and trying to hold the laughter in after seeing the rather comical “fight” the warrior had with the construct where he stood slightly to its side while it wildly spun around trying to find him.

Kenzie who was sitting on top of witch’s pointed hat did not have the decency to remain calm however and was pointing her little finger down at the machine and laughing openly at it. “Ahaha! Who is the stupid one now, stupid!”

The wizard who was on the other side of the pool could not conceal his amusement either and was covering his face with the back of his gloved hand and chuckling softly.

Even the lion was making strange snickering sounds, unable to help but laugh at the stupidity of this farce. Only Skorne was blinking in confusion at their reactions, unable to comprehend what was funny about it. The warrior was beating his opponent through clever positioning and abuse of this unit’s design weakness, what was funny about that?

The warrior could have sworn that the cracked faceplate of the machine started to turn red at that moment, did he damage a heatsink with his earlier attack?

“You think you are so clever, don’t you?” The bratty voice coming from the construct addressed the warrior, dripping with barely contained anger, but more than that, it was trembling, which made the warrior blink in surprise under his helmet and do a double take. It was a voice that was on the verge of breaking down into tears from frustration, a very inappropriate reaction for someone who was a member of a death cult.

But unbelievably enough, it was followed by ragged breaths and choking sounds as the automaton staggered forward at him while it’s limbs shook and balled up into fists like the machine was fighting back tears. Was she trying to psyche him out? No, he had to keep his guard up.

“Now that I…now that I” The voice hiccupped. “Know how you did it, I am going to kick your butt!”

The warrior took a step back, closer to the edge of the water and glanced back at the deep, gloomy waters concealing the tunnel underneath. Sahra quickly snapped out of her amusement and began to channel a spell but when the warrior subtly shook his head, she blinked in surprise and cancelled it, trusting that the warrior knew what he was doing.

And he did.

With an angry high-pitched scream, the construct began to run toward the warrior with incredible force and speed behind it. It was ready to mash him into paste.

“Alright Ursa.” The warrior took a deep breath and dug his heels into the ground before muttering out quietly. “Show me what you can do,”

The machine reached him in an instant and he quickly stepped sideways but the automaton’s reaction speed was incredible and she adjusted her course. Who the fuck did he think she was? Did he really think she would jump right into the water while trying to tackle him like some idiot? She would rip his face off and break all of the man’s bones for humiliating her great genius like that.

But oddly enough, when she tried to turn around and reach toward his helmet, something took hold of the unit she was operating first.

“WROOOOAAAARRR!” The figure of a burning grizzly suddenly burst forth into existence with a gout of flame where the warrior stood a split second ago and wrapped her massive claws around one of the automaton’s outstretched arm.

“H-huh? A summon spi-” Was all the voice from the machine managed to utter before the ghostly ursine suddenly performed one of the bear tribe’s famous grapple techniques. It was a simple shoulder toss instead of anything fancy, but it was one of the most reliable throws that the warrior knew. Ursa lifted the heavy construct with extreme ease and tossed it right into the water.

With a colossal splash, the machine began to sink but it quickly reacted and dug its limbs into the edge of the pool trying to pull itself out but…

“WROOOAR!” The burning grizzly thrust her burning claws into the water, making it sizzle and boil and grabbed the machine by the shoulders, pushing it back down into the water.

A garbled sound of static and bubbling noise was coming out from the voicebox now instead of whatever the person controlling it must have been saying. The machine’s arms wildly began to flail around, trying to smack whatever was keeping her down but it merely phased right through the figure of the burning woman that she could see but not touch.

“I bet you are wondering how am I doing that, huh?” The warrior noted while calmly standing at the edge of the pool next to his summon spirit. “I am not going to tell you that though. Instead I am going to contemplate out loud for a bit, do you mind?”

The only answer was a garbled shriek and something that sounded like an especially rude profanity, but it was hard to tell with the machine submerged in the pool.

“Good. My friend Webster here.” The warrior pointed at the wizard on the other side of the pool with his thumb. “Told me that you are moving way too quickly for an automaton, he said that such a thing would not be possible even if someone were remotely controlling it. So I thought, what about manually controlling it?”

A series of bubbles was rapidly escaping from the chassis as it struggled to get out of the water.

“He said, that something like that would be possible only if someone had installed a revenant into the machine. But then I asked him. Webster, do revenants feel pain if the construct they are possessing get damaged? Turns out, they don’t and yet, you have been grunting and complaining every time I punched you.”

The machine’s movements began to get more frantic as the trail of bubbles began to turn smaller and smaller.

“So that leaves only one option. Someone must be hiding inside it. So come out! Whoever you are!” The warrior shouted as the last few bubbles of air escaped from the automaton and it went limp.

There was a tense silence for a moment as the warrior stared at the still surface of the water.

“Huwwaaaaaaaghhh!” A sharp gasp followed by choking sounds was heard as the surface of the water was broken. But it was nowhere near where the construct was held.

“Huh?! Oh no! She is getting away!” The warrior exclaimed as a wet little figure jumped out of the water and began to hastily climb the submarine, traveling across its surface.

“Shit!” Sahra spat out and dived down with her broom, trying to intercept whatever just jumped out of the automaton, but she was a moment too late. The little figure jumped toward a particularly unusual pipe protruding from the hull of the vessel and the glass shell covering it was smashed, revealing a hollow space behind it.

The witch’s hand swathed at the empty air where the little figure was a split second ago before it vanished into the pipe.

“What happened, where did it go?” The warrior landed on top of the sub and ran up next to the witch. The wizard and the lion quickly joined him as well, followed by Skorne who landed on the hull with a particularly loud crash.

“Skorne? Your prosthetics are working again?” The warrior turned back at the balrog in surprise.

“Yes, I apologize, I have no idea what was going on with them but it seems like the enchantments on it were reset when that machine stopped working.” Skorne pointed at the discarded automaton that now laid in a crumpled head on the edge of the pool after Ursa dumped it there.

“Duuuuuumbasssss!” The familiar voice of their enemy came out from the pipe followed by childish laughter.

“Damn it! Come out of there you little bitch!” The dwarf angrily shouted into the pipe.

“Nuh uh!” The voice responded mockingly. “I am not gonna! You dumbasses were outsmarted! It sucks that I didn’t get to kill you for lady Dia, but I need to tell her that you figured out how to create summon spirits and that you have the red integrity core pronto! She won’t be mad that I lost since you were cheating and besides, my job here was to retrieve this submarine in the first place so that’s what I am going to do! Calisto is going to kill you all when she gets here anyways! So long suckers!”

The voice began to laugh while the warrior frowned and began to think of how to get his enemy out of her new hiding hole. Before he could even begin to think of a solution however, the Caith Sith sitting on top of Sahra’s hat suddenly hissed and flew right into the pipe.

“K-kenzie! No!” Sahra shouted in alarm but it was too late, the little cat fairy was already inside, buzzing through the pipe while hissing even more.

“Kenzie! Come back! We don’t know what she is capable of! This is dangerous!” The warrior shouted as well.

“Huh? What are you assholes talking abouWAAAAAAAA~!” The voice of the Al-Sabbath agent turned into a high-pitched scream that was mixed up with Kenzie’s rather worrying feral snarls and furious meowls.

“W-what’s going on in there?” Webster stuttered and swallowed hard while leaning down toward the pipe and pulling his glasses down.

Everyone listened tensely, only able to imagine what was happening down in that pipe. Judging by the sounds though, a fierce battle was taking place inside. Finally, it quieted down.

“Kenzie?” The warrior asked quietly while sweating.

The pipe rumbled and vibrated slightly as a shadowy form appeared at the entrance. With a plop, a wet miserable fuzzy shape was kicked out of it and landed on the hull of the ship with a splat. Then the fairy casually walked out and spread her wings before floating up in the air while popping the joints in her neck and claws.

“I got her boss.” She responded in an amusing mockup professional tone and crossed her arms on her chest while maintaining a smug smile.

“Kenzie. I could kiss you right now. Actually, you know what, I will!” The warrior scooped the fairy out of the air and with a loud smack, planted a kiss at the side of her head which made the caith sith giggle and vibrate in his hand in delight.

“Man Kenzie, way to go!” Sahra blinked a few times while staring at the shape of their enemy under her feet and clapped twice.

“But… what is it?” Skorne narrowed her eyes and studied the fuzzy lump.

“Is it another fairy?” Webster pulled his glasses down and kneeled down to look at the deck.

“Hmm.” Zapp leaned down as well and sniffed the lumpy shape which suddenly let out a high-pitched screech and tried to crawl away but the lion firmly planted his paw on top of it before leaning down further to study it even closer. “A gremlin, huh?”

“A what?” The warrior cocked his head in confusion.

“L-let me go!” The little figure whimpered and the warrior squinted his good eye which activated the optical zoom in his artificial one.

In a moment, he had a clear look at what Zapp was holding down. It was in fact a monster, though not a fairy like Webster thought.

What must have thrown the wizard off were the pair of fuzzy catlike ears that sprouted from the sides of the figure’s head. It was the only obvious trait that revealed her nature besides her tiny form that was roughly as big as Kenzie. She possessed rather exotic fuzzy hair colored green that also covered her ears. She was wearing a miniature grey jumpsuit made out of latex or a similarly stretchy materiel that tightly gripped her body. It also had a bunch of little pouches and belts wrapped and spread around it.

The girl herself looked very winded and beat up though. Her face was badly scratched and the little suit she was wearing was torn in multiple places, revealing bleeding cuts underneath left from Kenzie’s savage assault. As far as endowments go, she was even flatter than Sahra was and unlike the dwarf, her waist was practically nonexistent as well. The reason for it immediately became obvious to the warrior.

“Zapp, she is-“ The warrior’s eyes widened and the zoom if his artificial eye snapped back.

“Just a child. Yes.” The lion nodded in agreement.

“Who are you calling a child you shit eating lion!” The green fuzzy monster snapped at the beast but he just looked down at her and shook his head without anger, making his glorious mane roll back and forth.

“A-are you for real?” The dwarf glanced at the warrior and the lion but neither of them were joking. Without a shred of doubt, this little monster had yet to enter puberty and it just tried to kill them.

The warrior gestured the lion to move out of the way and quickly grabbed the gremlin off the ground, holding her tight in his artificial arm. The little girl struggled in his grasp while glaring daggers at him.

“Tch, how embarrassing. I can’t believe I was captured. But you better let me go if you know what’s good for you! Lady Dia is going to rip your tongues out if you touch even a single strand of hair on my head!”

“We are already waaay past that honey.” Kenzie floated over to the gremlin and brandished her claws, making the gremlin let out a yelp and shake in the warrior’s power fist.

“You know Dia? What’s your name?” The warrior narrowed his eyes and gestured Kenzie to move away with his healthy hand. This made the gremlin tense up and hold her mouth closed tightly while starting to sweat.

Before the interrogation could continue however, the warrior’s attention was taken away by the sounds of magitek rifles being fired outside and screams of pain. While he was distracted, the Gremlin child suddenly grinned maniacally and something odd happened. Just for a moment, the gauntlet attached to his hand suddenly spazzed out and the little monster slipped out of his grasp with a triumphant high-pitched yell that was then promptly cut off with a much louder scream of pain coming from the same source.

“Ahhh! Hot! Hot! Hoooot!” The gremlin child cried out in distress as an invisible burning force suddenly grabbed her before she could land and then raised her back to the warrior’s eye level while he examined his power fist which had returned to normal and then grabbed her again, this time with his armored hand.

“Did you just do that?” He asked her but the Gremlin tightly held her mouth closed again, pulling her lips inward while glaring at him.

“Boss, there is something dangerous going on outside.” Webster noted and turned his head toward the exit. The warrior agreed with the notion and reached up to his helmet. With a single motion, he pulled it off, revealing his sweat covered, bearded face and then forced the Gremlin into his beard despite her furious protests.

“Kenzie. Keep an eye out on her but don’t rough her too much. We need to figure out what happened with K and the other agents.”

“You can count on me boss!” Kenzie quickly responded in the same mockup professional tone as before and saluted the warrior with a playful smile before jumping into his beard of holding.

>Bernsen obtained [Little fuzzy menace]

With that taken care of, the man promptly put his helmet back on and fastened the straps on it before walking outside, past the unconscious forms of the agents that were knocked out by the gremlin earlier and wordlessly gestured the others to follow him.

As soon as he was outside, the source of the noise became apparent. Agent K and the other agents did not even move a few meters past the warehouse and were hiding behind a bunch of wooden crates that had countless arrows sticking out of them.

“K? What’s go-“ The warrior began when an arrow suddenly flew at him, there was no way he would react in time to that, but it turned out that he didn’t need to, as Ursa’s fiery claw suddenly sprung out of his body and silently swatted the arrow away, making it burn into cinders and it’s mangled arrowhead landed on the ground with a jingle.

“We have been compromised.” The agent responded without turning around. “An order from the commanding officer was given to kill us. Someone has infiltrated the chain of command and spread disinfo that Galmathorian spies under the guise of DSS agents have infiltrated Cair and are trying to sabotage the captured vessel.”

“What?” The warrior and his friends quickly ducked behind the crates to avoid another volley of arrows coming from the group of soldiers and order heroes in front of the building. “Brandon-“

“We don’t know if it was him yet, I sent the word to Anderson already, someone from the fort should clear our names up soon and call the order off but right now we are sitting ducks.” K noted and fired over the cover, the bolt of white energy striking one of the Heroes who tried to get within melee range in the foot.

“No, I mean you are sitting next to him.” The warrior frowned, making K slightly tense up and finally look back at the warrior with a hard to read expression.

Bernsen responded by pointing down, underneath the crate where some of the ground was damp with blood. The agent followed his gaze before pushing the empty crate aside to reveal a corpse that the warrior’s trained nose picked out. It was stripped naked. A single stab wound could be seen in the back, under the third set of ribs where the heart was located. Besides the corpse there was also some clothes stuffed under the crate in haste. A set of modest blue robes, belonging to the sorcerer that the warrior saw earlier in the warehouse.

K realized this as well and raised his head to look him in the face.

>What do you do?

>>292151

>I regret the loss of Tenma as much as everyone

I'm still very bitter about that. Wait… if Bernsen Find pieces of Tenma and Iggy. Is it possible to make them into revenants? If so I'll drop the salt. Bernsen won't be able to waifu her but…

>>292116

Best I can figure is >>291672, since he's the one who went all "best way to win a secrets wzr is make it not a secret", but he only said to tell that stuff to Anderson on the [port-o-glass]. Also possibly pronoun trouble with >>291860, "Inform him that we turned an Al-Sabbath officer", I think the him was Anderson, not Agent K, since he talks about an in person meeting.

Regardless, FUCKING HELL THAT WAS A HUGE MISTAKE. If the sorcerer reports to Dia, things are going to get much harder. They'll know we know their goals so they'll probably accelerate the theft of the core in the treasury, they'll know we turned an officer giving them time to perform damage control, hell, they might even frame both sides of the war for heinous war crimes and shit to make absolutely sure the war happens even if they're revealed to be behind Cair.

FIND AND KILL THAT SORCERER. WE NEEDED HIM DEAD YESTERDAY.

It might not do any good if there's any infiltrators in K's group or if Dia could listen to the gremlin's automaton the same way Anderson listens to [port-o-glasses], but it's still possible he's the only one who can report this.

Also, our Agent 47 wannabe sorcerer could change his clothes but he couldn't change his face or voice. If he had magic to change his appearance and voice to the commander's, he wouldn't need to change clothes. How the heck did he give orders to this group?

Oh, and I just remembered that the Galmathorians are on the way. We need to get the troops back on our side after the sorcerer is dead. If we don't resolve this quickly, they'll attack while the troops are unprepared.

tl;dr, kill sorcerer, get troops back on our side, prepare them to repel galmathorians.

Dammit, sage!

>>292150

ok so get skorne to remove the sabotage shit she did get webster to try to figure out how to pilot the sub maybe force the gremlin to help by getting kenzie to scare her into assisting by saying that she can either help or be eaten by mr skeletal or just have skeletons dance around her

also establih a perimeter sahra makes a wall of fire zapp is on healing wounded and we can deal with mid or close range combatants agent k gets long range duty also inform him of our plan tell him he can book it with us or try and fight it out here his choicebut well fight with him till we can escsape he can come with us

>>292267

maybe we can also try a roar to intimidate the enemies haven't done that in a while

>>292258

Yeah sorry lads i thought i made it clear but i guess i didnt

From now on if we have to give sensitive info we give it in the safety of the vault

Also agreed find and kill the sorcerer also

Cast [amplify] and tell the troops to stop firing for 30 secs and naybe think aboutthe fact the person who gave the order is the actual compromised agent instead of a whole fucking squads of dss that just ran out of the fucking warehouse because they were getting shit at

And that holy shit the guards cant be this fucking stupid

Also i thought he dropped his comm device when he ducked and rolled

>Suddenly a bunch of replies are gone

Man, 8ch is acting up again. Let's see if posting in the thread fixes it like last time.

“This is bad.” K spoke out first. “This means that the soldiers garrisoned in Cair still don’t know that Calisto and the Galmathorian navy are coming. The border patrol won’t report anything either, since the enemy submarines went right under them, completely undetected.”

“We need to catch up to the person who killed Brandon then.” The warrior nodded and quickly shot his head around to face the Wizard. “Webster! Amplify on me, now!”

He then shifted his attention to the dwarf. “Sahra, set me on fire.”

“W-what!?” The girl’s mouth flew open in surprise.

“Just do it, hurry. It won’t hurt me.” He cut her off and got ready to move out.

The combined force of the Order heroes, royal guards and the mercenaries that were hired by the crown on a short notice to fortify its position in Cair were at an impasse right now. The majority of their force was patrolling the city and building fortifications while the rest were either operating the ships near the border or were stationed on the other side of the River in the fort itself.

These supposed Galmathorian infiltrators that they were facing were quite dangerous and armed with advanced magitek weapons, just like the intel they received was saying. Even though it’s been nearly ten minutes, they were unable to get any closer to the warehouse, as any attempts to close the distance were met with precise and deadly fire from the enemy’s weapons. It was only through sheer luck that they did not suffer any casualties yet: the enemy shots failed to strike any vital organs of the men and monsters surrounding them.

And so, the two groups were stuck, only exchanging fire from their respective long ranged weaponry while tensely hiding behind cover. Fortunately, reinforcements were already on their way. Commander Brandon personally set out toward the fort to bring them here. But it was not all well, the second half of the enemy group just finished dispatching the sorcerer stationed in the warehouse and moved outside, joining their allies on their side of the barricade.

However, something felt odd to one of the heroes. One of the people that came out was particularly tall, yet clearly masculine based on his body shape. It felt oddly familiar, like he saw it somewhere. Didn’t he participate in the arena championship a few days ago?

But before the hero could rise his concerns to his comrades, the barricade of wooden crates suddenly exploded.

Burning wooden planks and ash began to rain from the sky and the explosion was immediately followed by a noise. A noise so terrible that it made the hardened veterans of Fort Carlsbad tense up and take a step back in surprise while instinctively raising their shields toward the direction it came from.

The enemy fortification was gone and a single figure of a demon stepped out of its remains. A knight wrapped in flames like an infernal shroud, a menacing glowing red dot visible from the eye slit of his helmet. He slowly lowered the massive great sword that he wielded with one hand and pointed it forward while twisting his body in a creepy, unnatural way before making the same noise as before, now magnified to even greater heights.

“Ah…ah…AHHHHHHH!” Suddenly one of the royal guards dropped his bow and turned tail while screaming in panic.

“I am not getting paid enough to deal with this shit.” A sweating mercenary put his crossbow away and quickly began to run away as well. The two were joined by the remaining Cair guard force members who, likewise, had zero interest in dying like animals to whatever foul magic the Galmathorians used to conjure this abominations straight from the depths of one of Nerg’s hells.

“D-damn it! What are you doing! Come back! Come back you cowards!” One of the heroic brotherhood members, a lizardman wearing a scaled armor angrily yelled, but it was too late. This sudden appearance of such a powerful enemy made most of the fighting force turn tail and run, some barely managing to hold their composure while others just blacked out and collapsed on the spot right there and then with spit frothing around their mouths, as if they were struck with a seizure.

“Sergeant! What are your orders, ma’am!?” A hero next to her yelled. “Shall we retreat as well!?”

The lightly armored monster gritted her teeth in frustration. She could not entirely judge those people for running. The members of the Order of Heroic brotherhood were trained for millennia in fighting the most powerful and dangerous enemies of humanity. But these soldiers that were brought from the capital and inland cities never faced anything more dangerous than some rowdy people or some of the weaker feral monsters who still dwelled in certain forests of Deleor. As for the mercenaries? They would pick their lives over their money.

“Fall back to the city and retreat! We can’t approach this enemy while the enemy magitek weapon users are still in the field!” The hero ordered but the burning figure had other ideas and quickly ran forward at them, it’s single glowing red eye locked directly toward the person in charge.

“Shields up!” The sergeant commanded and in an instant, her battle brothers and sisters surrounded her with an unbreakable barrier with trained motions while the heroes standing behind them raised their spears and placed them on the shoulders of their comrades, assuming a protective formation.

This reaction seemed to make the demon hesitate for a moment but he closed in anyways and tried to force his way past the formation. The shield bearers stood strong though and stopped him dead in his tracks while the heroes standing behind them immediately drove their spears into the infernal knight.

The red-hot armor it was wearing proved to be rather ineffective. Softened by the heat enveloping its form, it failed to stop the spearheads from penetrating the demon’s body, making blood spurt out from the wounds. Using this opportunity, the shield bearers suddenly broke formation and surrounded the target, smashing their shields into its body to protect themselves from the fire raging around it while simultaneously trapping it in place before their comrades began to mercilessly skewer and impale the target.

“Good! Finish it o-Kh” The sergeant tried to yell out an order when she suddenly felt a painful burning and constricting sensation around her throat. It yanked her off the ground and began to choke her as he was held in place.

“Sergeant!” One of the spear wielding heroes dropped the spear sticking out of the demon and quickly brandished his shortsword while wildly looking around, trying to see what was attacking his superior. Before he could figure it out though, the massive figure suddenly let out a roar akin to an enraged bear and the spears began to rapidly snap one after another as if struck by some invisible force. Immediately after that, one of the shield bearers was forcibly grabbed by it as well and then thrown away which allowed the burning figure to break out of the encirclement and pull the lizardman closer who to her credit, immediately pulled out her rapier and tried to drive it into the eye slit of the burning figure’s helmet when he pulled her closer used his wicked telekinesis.

The demon was even faster on the uptake though and twitched his head with a surprised grunt, making the rapier slide over the surface of his headgear with a sharp metallic scratching sound before it’s wielder pulled it back and tried to strike again while she was still conscious.

Her weapon arm was grabbed by the same burning and squeezing sensation, preventing her from using it but she was not about to give up. She wanted to yell for the others to strike at the enemy despite it holding her hostage, but with how tightly the invisible force was holding her throat, all she could do was twist in its grasp and lash out her tail around the figure’s neck, which made it reel back in surprise.

The pain of the fire that was enveloping the demon’s body was very real, but the adrenaline pumping in the lizardman’s body numbed her sensitivity to heat and she tugged around the demon’s neck as hard as she could with her powerful muscular tail, twisting it around, trying to break her enemy’s neck.

Her second surprise attack was foiled as well when instead of pulling back its head, the demon leaned his upper body forward and stumbled to prevent his own neck from getting broken. That was when the monster kicked as hard as she could with both of her legs into the side of her enemy’s head, knocking him backwards and making him fall, dragging her down along with him.

The two collapsed on the ground and the lizardman felt the pressure around her throat and weapon arm weaken and she jumped back up to her feet while panting heavily, the flow of air was finally back in her lungs and they burned painfully from the strain they were put under.

She immediately drove her rapier into the knight who had stopped burning at that point, aiming at the less protected spot where his neck was. She tried to pierce it’s throat but the blackened night clapped both of his hands in front of him and caught the blade before driving his feet upwards into the lizardman.

Reading his intentions, the monster let go of the rapier and sharply leaned back on her tail to avoid the kick before performing a backwards somersault to get out of range and let her allies finish it off when the burning squeezing sensation returned.

The invisible force grabbed her leg and forcibly pulled her down, back on the ground, making the hero grunt in pain as the wind was knocked out of her lungs. Before she could snap out of her stunned state however, the blackened knight jumped on top of her twisting her arms and legs, binding them together with his own limbs until she found herself completely immobile, safe for her tail which she could only useless slap the back of the knight with while gritting her teeth.

“What are you doing!? Attack him, hurry!” The lizardman yelled to her comrades who were not daring to close in in fear of accidentally hurting her.

“Good grief…” The knight, whose armor had cooled down completely at that point, grunted and used his free hand to pull his helmet away, revealing a wild mane of black silken hair and a flowing black beard.

After dropping the helm with a clatter, he, oddly enough, seemed to reach into his facial hair and pulled out a peculiar object from it that he immediately shoved right into the lizardman’s face.

“Agent B. DSS. I demand you to stop attacking immediately, you fell victim to falsified intelligence. We are not enemy infiltrators, we are genuine agents of the crown.”

~~~

“Good work agent.” K nodded in approval while quickly composing a message on one of his colleague’s scrying bowls. “We can take care of things from here. You should retreat to a safe area and tend to your wounds.”

“I am fine.” The warrior spat some blood out and then pried out the last spearhead out of his body, making more blood gush out of the wound which was aglow with spirit energy that he was generating to heal himself. He just found that using it in advance before he gets hit would actually numb his body to the pain that the wound would inflict and allow him to maintain his focus even as he was under attack. It was a poor replacement for his tranquil fury but it would have to do for now.

>Spirit Overflow upgraded with <Spirit Analgesia>. While Spirit Overflow is in effect, the user is insusceptible to physical pain.

Zapp meanwhile was going from person to person, relieving them of their wounds which were, for the most part, only marginable.

“This is a fine damn mess we are in.” The lizardman rubbed her tender neck in annoyance and narrowed her reptilian yellow eyes. “I can’t believe we nearly killed each other like that. I apologize, I should have figured out that something was off about this.”

“Who gave the order to attack us?” Webster dusted his coat off and addressed the hero who was apparently known as Mercedes. She was the highest-ranking officer left on the pier after her superiors turned tail and ran from the warrior’s little show of power.

“It was commander Brandon. Or at least the person masquerading as him.” The monster frowned as her gaze traveled to the corpse of the real Brandon that was covered up with a blanket now and put aside, inside the building where the submarine was stored.

“Are you certain it was him? Was he concealing his face somehow?” K asked next and the lizardman shook her head.

“No. It was him, there is no mistake. He had his voice and everything, I am attentive to such things as are my brothers and sisters. It was no cheap disguise, he somehow assumed his form completely.”

“Webster?” The warrior turned his head toward the aesthetician who was rubbing his temples.

“Glamour magic is not really something that a sorcerer would be able to pull off. It is highly specialized and requires knowledge of multiple branches of magic to execute in believable fashion. And besides myself, there are only four other known aestheticians in the Union. I just confirmed that all of them are in the HQ right now so it’s not another wizard either.”

“A doppelganger then.” K muttered.

“Huh?” The warrior blinked and turned his head to the black suited agent.

“A type of monster. A fairly rare one too, almost to the point where it’s assumed that they are extinct. They are capable to perfectly imitate any person’s physical characteristics. Not even magesight can see past it. Back in the old days, monster nation used to deploy them as infiltrators and spies in human settlements. However, at one point, a particularly clever sorcerer from the Order found an easy way to reveal their true forms, so their population was nearly wiped out shortly after.” The brown-haired man quickly explained.

“Where is “Brandon” now?” Bernsen addressed the lizardman immediately.

“He boarded the only remaining ship on this side of the river.” The monster frowned again and glanced at the shore. “He was apparently going to bring back reinforcements.”

Bernsen followed her gaze and noticed that there were no actively sailing ships on the river. The Order navy that wasn’t at the border was stationed entirely at the fort docks. The infiltrator already succeeded in crossing then.

“Hey you, little green fuzzy thing.” The warrior pulled out the limp gremlin from his beard and squeezed her in his hand. “That person was paired with you? Wasn’t she? What is your partner’s goal? You said that yours was to steal the submarine, what about hers?”

“Don’t bother Bernie.” Kenzie floated out of his beard and sighed while shrugging in the air. “She is not talking. I tried to scratch her a lot so she would talk but all she does is cry when I do that.”

True enough, the warrior realized that the gremlin had a split lip and her body was even more beaten than before. Streams of tears were running down her face, making the blood smear all over it but the look in her eyes was defiant and angry.

“When-“ The gremlin shook in his hands in pain and inhaled sharply. “When lady Dia finds out what happened to me, she will kill you all! She will never forgive you!”

“Dia?” K frowned at the mention of the name.

“That’s the name of the leader of Al-Sabbath.” The warrior sighed and stuffed the gremlin back into his beard.

There was a tense exchange of looks between the other agents even though K maintained his stature. It was oddly suspicious and the warrior could not help but ask about it.

“Do you know something about Dia, K?”

“This information is clas-“ The agent was cut off when the scrying bowl that he recovered suddenly let out a high pitched buzzing noise. Oh, that’s right. Anderson was spying through every DSS agent’s scrying bowl. K briefly raised the device to his face and nodded.

“You have been granted extra clearance.” K snapped his fingers and one of the agents walked up to him. “Come over here, this is top secret information. We need to make precautions before I can share it.”

The warrior did as he was asked and the other agent began to weave some sort of multi layered privacy barrier around the three of them. When it was properly set in place, K nodded again and then turned his head toward the warrior.

“My team’s current assignment involves the infiltration of Galmathoria. Their nobility and military sectors to be precise. This is quite dangerous because all leyline traffic in Galmathoria is tracked and monitored. So I cannot send and receive updates from the agency without crossing the border. It requires careful planning, as every time I do so, the risk of jeopardizing my task increases exponentially. Even despite that, I had to return immediately when Calisto was ordered to set out on a short notice.”

“How does this relate to Dia?” The warrior impatiently asked.

“Very directly. Do you know who is the leader of Galmathoria?” K quickly asked.

The warrior stopped and thought deeply. He definitely did. He then recalled where. In the conversation that he had with sir Mathew back when he informed him about the current political state of Deleor as well as some of its recent history.

“Queen Diana…von Braun? Was it?” He finally remembered.

“Precisely. I am not sure if this is related but the queen of Galmathoria allows her most dedicated and loyal subjects to address her by a nickname. Members of her court, the highest military officers of her army. They refer to her as Dia.” K concluded his speech.

“Wait, you don’t really think..!?” The warrior’s eyes winded. “But that doesn’t make sense. That’s too easy! And Richter despises Al-Sabbath. They are apparently operating in Galmathoria as well and are believed to be a Deleorean funded terrorist organization intended to destabilize it.”

“Yes. This is what our interrogators in the capital got out from him as well. We have more pressing matters right now however.” K snapped his fingers and the privacy barrier popped. He then quickly walked up to the group of heroes. “My orders were revised. My task is now to make sure that the forces garrisoned on this side of the river and combat ready. May I request your assistance in this task sergeant?”

“I do not have as much authority as I like here. Especially not over the Cair guard force but with the crown’s authority that you have and my word to vouch for it being genuine, we should be able to scramble something resembling a defense if we hurry.” Mercedes pulled out an expensive looking cigar from her scale mail’s chest pocket and lit it up with a match before inhaling a mouthful of smoke. “You can count on me and the rest of the Order heroes under my command.”

K nodded in approval and then turned to the warrior. “We need to do something about the infiltrator that escaped to the other side of the river. Anderson already send word to the fort’s commanding officer about what happened, but if our target can change appearance as easily as I suspect, she will be in a prime position to assassinate more members of the chain of command and take on their appearance. All the ships are on the other side of the river. Do you or your contractors have a way to cross it on a quick notice?”

The warrior glanced behind him to study his friends.

“I can get there no problem.” Sahra kicked off the ground and began to float a few feet above it on her broom. “Four, five minutes tops. This thing is pretty quick when going in a straight line.”

“Me too! Me too!” Kenzie popped out of his beard to announce her presence. “I can’t watch that nasty crybaby while doing that though.”

“I can use my glaciomancy to swim at an accelerated rate, won’t be as fast as Sahra but, eight minutes if I give it my all maybe?” The wizard took off his glasses and studied the length of the river.

“If you had learned spirit climbing, this would not have been an issue. With it, I can run across the water as I would over a straight road. Eight to nine minutes for me.” Zapp spoke out.

“I…I cannot swim.” Skorne admitted and her face reddened slightly.

“Of course, your presence here could be useful too. This is not the first time that Fort Carlsbad has been infiltrated by someone who had took the guise of one of their members, there is a good chance they will successfully capture the infiltrator themselves, now that they know of her presence.” K continued.

“I know I said that Calisto and her forces will arrive in two hours but quite a bit of time passed already and I do not know the full extent of how fast the enemy vessels truly are and at which speed they are currently traveling. Your group’s direct combat skills are by far the highest among the agency’s ranks. If you were to engage the enemy commander immediately upon her arrival and assassinate her, we could gain a considerable upper hand in the upcoming battle.”

>What do you do?

Top priority right now is to ask the lizard if she has a cigar for us. Skorne and Bernsen are the most proficient in combat they should stay and help ready the defences. Tell Kenzie to stay and watch the gremlin (And maybe tell her to stop beating her up for no reason).

The rest of the group should go to the Fort and organize the reinforcements. Zapp can keep us updated of the situation there with our familiar link.

One main problem with the reinforcement part is that I'm assuming the submarines aren't equipped with any weapons. If they have some form of torpedos or anything sending reinforcements from the fort per ship could end in a complete massacre.

I'm not sure what the limits to Websters [Blink] are but maybe he can just put all the reinforcements into the wizards realm and teleport them out once he surfed back to Cairn.

Franklin did a similar thing after he entered the Black Forest in Barbarian Quest right?

>>292542

agreed these should be our priorites

>>292589

Forgot to sage

Dammit. We'll have to operate under the assumption that the doppelganger got the message out to Dia for now. Unless… does Anderson by any chance have a way to halt all or certain messages being sent across the border? Either way, I'm with >>292542 on how to split our party, though I do have one additional thing to add. Webster can probably use that sorcerer's technique that K mentioned to help find the doppelganger, but in addition to that, is it possible that Zapp could detect the doppelganger using [spirit sense]?

hmm i would send sahra and zap to the fort.

have zap find the doppelgänger with his spirit energy tenticles and then sahra can fry her.

while this happens bearson and the rest of the gang prepare an ambush where the enemy soldiers walk right into a overlapping fire killzone while bearson and skorn engage the enemy commander and other heavy hitters among them.

>stay and watch the gremlin (And maybe tell her to stop beating her up for no reason).

also this, sabotur or not she is just a stupid kid so lets stop torturing her.

“Excuse me, Mercedes, was it? Can you spare me one of those cigars?” The warrior addressed the lizardman hero who raised one of her eyebrows quizzically at the mention of her name.

“They are pretty expensive but alright.” The monster shrugged and handed the man a similar, tightly wrapped bundle of green leaf. They were of a different brand than what Dawg sold him. Apparently grown somewhere near the eastern border of the country.

When the lizardman tried to handle him a box of matches however, he just shook his head and the end of the cigar lit up by itself.

“Oh? I figured you were a sorcerer of some kind with that weird telekinesis and setting yourself on fire part earlier. Never saw one who actually had such extensive combat training before though. Almost reminds of the spell blade stories of old.” The lizardman put the box of matches away and shrugged.

He was no sorcerer though and his vision shifted to the figure of the burning grizzly before him that only he and Zapp could see without assistance from magesight. Her face was as expressionless and stoic as before and the spirit made no movements on its own after the warrior made her lit up his cigar.

{She moved by herself earlier, hasn’t she?} Zapp carefully asked the warrior through their familiar link to not draw attention.

{Yea, she blocked an arrow aimed at me without my command.} The warrior narrowed his eyes in suspicion but Ursa made no response to it.

“Is something wrong? B?” K noticed the shift in expression on the warrior and glanced at the direction the he was looking at. When he didn’t see anything suspicious, the agent instinctively raised his hand to touch the edge of his shades but by that point, the warrior made Ursa fade away back into his body. He would cross that bridge when they had more time.

“No. It’s nothing. I was just thinking.” The warrior shook his head and pulled the cigar out of his mouth to blow out a thick cloud of smoke. “Here is what we’ll do.”

~~~

The harsh wind blowing over the surface of the river was painfully hitting the witch in the face and eyes as she flew over the wide stretch of water. She let go of the broom handle with one of her hands to cover her face, briefly considering that maybe, she should get some protective eyewear of her own as the wizard surfing on top of a large oval ice platform below did not share her problem.

Pulling himself along the water by using his glaciomancy, he confidently stood on top of the ice platform with his legs spread out and facing forward, the rushing air making his blonde hair and coat flap in the wind.

Closely behind him was the warrior’s familiar who, just like he said earlier, was crossing the water by running over it like it was little more than a tiny puddle. Each of his bestial leaps made water splash around him.

The trio was tasked by their friend and team leader to find the “Sorcerer” or whoever it might have been, to stop him from escaping or sabotaging the soldiers garrisoned at the fort. But more importantly, to stop him from reporting back to his mistress, the mysterious leader of Al-Sabbath, Dia. If she and the rest of her allies were to find out that their plans have been discovered, then they would surely accelerate their execution. And while the Red integrity core was safely tucked away in El Dorito for now, there was no telling what the cult would attempt if it were to get pressed into a corner.

A loud explosive sound from the shore announced what the group was fearing. The cannons of the ships docked near the fort were being aimed at them.

“Shit!” The dwarf bit on her lower lip and sharply swerved sideways to avoid a round black projectile from tearing her apart. “I thought Anderson contacted them already! Why are they shooting at us?!” She yelled over her shoulder at the wizard and the lion.

“Something must have gone wrong. We need to get to the fort asap. I can reveal the doppelganger there once we are in range!” The wizard sharply pulled his ice platform sideways to avoid another cannonball which struck the water and made a huge splash as it whistled past his form.

The trio were forced to dodge and weave for their lives as the cannons began to fire a volley after volley at them with almost surgical precision.

“Gods damn it! What the hells is up with these cannoneers!? Aren’t these weapons intended for naval combat instead of shooting people?” The dwarf complained loudly again and then shrieked in surprise when after dodging one of the projectiles, a second one was directed right into her flight path. She tried desperately to adjust her course, but she was going at top speed and doing so too quickly would risk snapping her magical flying device in two, even if the maneuver succeeded.

Fortunately, a bolt of blueish white intercepted the cannonball and pushed it away while enchasing it in a block of ice. The metal sphere went off-course, slowed down and fell into the water with a splash.

“They are leading their fucking shots too!?” The witch yelled in disbelief, too shocked to even thank the wizard for saving her life properly.

“Don’t underestimate them!” The lion’s voicebox boomed at an increased magnitude. “The Order of Heroic brotherhood holds the most skilled warriors in all of Deleor among their ranks. And the ones stationed here were always the first response group in case the northern border were to get breached! They are the best of the best!”

“We need to slow down!” The wizard shouted back and made his ice surfing board jump to avoid a trio of cannonballs fired at him from all sides.

“But we aren’t even halfway there!” The witch protested but began to slow down despite that. The wizard was right, they needed more mobility to avoid getting torn apart.

Meanwhile, at the top of the deck of the largest vessel stationed near the fort, the Order heroes were discussing their next course of action.

“Captain, the target’s speed has dropped by thirty percent.” A fit looking human woman in an Order naval uniform lowered her spyglass and turned back to address her superior, a grizzled looking veteran in a similar set of clothes. It was worn much more casually though, the coat hanging loosely on the person’s shoulders.

“Good. Everything’s going according to plan.” The man then pulled up a hatch of one of the brass pipes leading to his seat and spoke in it. “Get ready for the coup de grâce. I’ll be damned before I let anyone else enter the fort. It’s embarrassing enough that we let one of the Galmathorian spies through as it is. Their backup or distraction, or whatever the hells this is can sink to the bottom of this blasted river.”

“Something isn’t right. Why did they stop firing at us?” Zapp narrowed his eyes as he tensely looked around the shore.

“Maybe Anderson’s intel finally came through?” The wizard noted with some hope in his voice.

“Bullshit, we never get this lucky. They must be reloading their cannons or something.” The dwarf spat out. “Should we speed up again?”

While the friends considered their options, their time of respite ran out as the thunderous sounds of the cannons firing from the shore announced that they were in danger again.

“Here we go again.” The wizard looked forward, getting ready to dodge again but strangely, nothing was flying directly at them.

“What the? What happened?” Webster tensed up and activated his magesight, but the cannonballs were not invisible.

“Up! Look up!” Zapp shouted and the other two quickly raised their heads to see a series of shimmering projectiles above.

“They fired them up? Doesn’t that imply warning shots? Are they telling us to back away now? After they nearly killed us earlier?” The witch scrunched her face in confusion.

The wizard narrowed his eyes even more, the filter of magesigth making the world appear around him in a plethora of funky colors. Something about these cannonballs was different. He could not quite make out from this distance but their appearance was almost clear. Like they were made out of glass and allowed light to pass through them, which explained the shimmering effect in the sky. As they got closer and he could make out the metallic bindings around them, the wizard’s eyes widened in shock.

“Crystal charges.” He muttered in horror.

“What?” The witch blanched but the lion seemed to realize the gravity of the situation and his fur bristled in stress.

“Three seconds until impact…” The young woman looking through the spyglass spoke out. “Two seconds, one. Impact.” She finishes talking in an even tone and put her spyglass away. It was no longer needed.

The center of the river suddenly lit up with brilliant white glow, as two dozen of electrically enchanted crystal charges, or “bitch balls”, as they were sometimes referred to by skilled practitioners, due to their crude nature, unleashed the powerful lightning spells placed in them.

It was like the water had been struck by several lightning bolts simultaneously. The powerful electrical charges traveled in a massive radius over the river as the currents spread out, frying everything in several hundred feet around the point of impact, the chain lighting traveling deep underwater and even high in the air over the water.

The captain raised his hand to his face and squinted his eyes as he was temporarily blinded by the lightshow. Using magical artillery was pretty wasteful, especially considering how small their target was, but he would rather be thorough than leave things to chance.

The water stopped boiling after a few seconds, leaving only a misty cover over the center of the river. A few seconds after that, dead fish began to emerge from the depths, killed by the discharge. Both the fish and the fading mist then proceeded to float west, carried by the stream toward the direction of Galmathoria, back where the enemy belonged.

“Kills confirmed?” The captain asked tensely. Nothing could survive such a blast of lightning but he did not reach his rank by taking things for granted.

“Yes sir. Three targets down.” The woman nodded and handed him the spyglass.

The man stood up from his seat and unfolded the device before taking a peek through it. True enough, the targets were limply floating in the water, their faces down. Judging by the burned state of their skin and hair, they were done.

“Okay, let’s send someone to pick them up to confirm that they are really dead and not just mostly de-“ The captain began but then stopped midword.

“Sir?” The woman standing next to him tensed up.

“Never mind, they sunk.” The captain muttered after seeing the bodies get dragged underwater along with some dead fish. “Must have been caught by a whirlpool or something. Good job on the spotting like usual Fleur.” The captain handed the spyglass back to the woman and returned to his seat, whereupon he leaned down toward one of the brass pipes next to him. “Good job everyone. Targets eliminated successfully. Continue to be on the lookout though, the infiltrator in the fort hasn’t been caught yet.”

The crews of the ships breathed out a sigh of relief and returned to their positions. The fort was still under a state of lockdown though and it was too early to relax. Until the commander of the fort would give an all clear, they had the active order to fire at will at anything that would attempt to approach the fort, be it monster or man. They were not allowed to leave their position under any circumstances as well.

After thirty minutes have passed, the mist and the dead fish were carried away completely and there was no sign left of any magical bombardment. At that moment, the water near the shore where the fort was located rippled as a blonde head carefully peaked out from it. After confirming that it was clear, two more heads joined it, one with short auburn hair tied in a ponytail and the other with long flowing mane and the face of a feline beast.

“Shit, that was close.” Sahra muttered and swallowed hard.

“Shh!” The wizard hissed and pushed her and the lion back underwater before diving himself as two soldiers walked along the docks, patrolling its length.

“Man, talk about overkill, am I right?” One voice spoke out and chuckled.

“Tell me about it, aren’t those things wickedly expensive too? All that just to kill a lion, a witch and a sorcerer?” The second voice agreed.

“Well to be fair, the lion was walking on water. There was something off about that.”

“A magical lion?” The second soldier suggested.

“At least it wasn’t a magical wardrobe.” The first guard began to laugh and the second one joined him for a few seconds, as they stood there while looking around the docks. Nothing was out of the ordinary thankfully.

“When do you think the lockdown will be lifted? My shore patrol was supposed to end nearly an hour ago. We can’t even go to the kitchens to grab something to eat while the main gate is locked.” The first soldier asked.

“Probably won’t take that long, like, an hour tops?” The second soldier replied.

“But how will they figure out who it is? Isn’t our clang loving sorcerer still in Cair along with his “love machine”?” The first hero chuckled again.

“Eh, there are other ways to check for it. I agree with your sentiment about the kitchens though, I wouldn’t mind having a nice juicy steak right about now. Maybe we could sneak in through the basement? There is a spot connecting the warehouse to the wine cellar and to the kitchens from there, right?” The soldier complained but his colleague hissed at him loudly.

“Are you stupid, dude? We’ll get court marshaled for this. Lockdowns are a serious business and besides, the basement entry is guarded too, remember?”

“That’s Jamie’s post though, isn’t it? I know that guy, he’ll turn a blind eye if we ask nicely and the few guys he is with probably won’t care.” The soldier insisted.

“Oh yea? What about our brothers on the walls, huh? What if someone sees us entering? Do you know those guys too?”

“Ehhhh…” The soldier shrugged. “Yea, you are right, not worth it. Let’s just stick to our route.”

The two men proceeded to walk away, along the length of the pier, chatting among themselves about various plain topics.

The trio raised their heads above the water after the guards were out of reach.

“Great, not only are we twenty minutes late but we can’t enter the fort like this either.” The witch frowned and the bubble around her head popped, no longer needed, now that they were not swimming underwater slowly to avoid detection. She then glanced down at her own reflection in the water and winced. “Ugh, I know this is not the right time, but can you get this off? This look is making me feel sick.”

“Right, right.” Webster moved his hand over her face dismissively and the grotesque burn scars and messy burned hair that he conjured up earlier returned to the girl’s prim and proper state.

“Thanks, where do I get one of these bags anyways?” Sahra glanced at the shoulder bag the wizard was carrying with envy. “It’s not really my style, but I want to be able to zoom in and out to safety like that too.”

“Sorry, those are for wizards only.” Webster plainly told her off and then sunk back in the water behind the cover of the pier with a sigh.

“Man, this is bad. Should we go back maybe? I don’t see how we can get in here. This place is locked tight. If I ever to hypothetically try to break into here to steal stuff, I would definitely wait until the lockdown was lifted and I don’t think this is happening soon.”

“The enemy must have already sabotaged the commanding officer.” Zapp contemplated out loud after draining the water out of his voice box and shook his mane, making a bunch of water splash on the wizard and the witch, much to their annoyance. “That is the only explanation for why we were attacked like that. But we have to pull through. Bernsen put his trust in us. Not to mention, the magic suppression device is located here, yes? That’s our primary goal as well. We need to recover it while we are here.”

This made the wizard and the witch take on more determined expressions. After a tense pause, the wizard finally spoke out again.

>”Alright, then what should we do?”

>>292983

alright have webster duplicate their uniform and disguise everyone sahra can be the unit commander because she's short and adorable so either no one will take her seriously or her cuteness will persuade people to do her bidding

webster will need business glasses

uh zapp an be a …..mount for sahra that she needs due to her size like those dog that blind people need but for short people

also have zapp communicate with bearson telepathically to update him bearson can then have agent k ask anderson with his communion matrix for an emergancy immediate troop request for the fort so the infiltration will look official make the troop request seem like sahra's a rising bigshot in the army who's a specialist in weeding out infiltrators who was luckily enough operating near the fort

>>292995

no way that would work the dudes working already know they've been compromised so they'll be on the lookout for anyone that is not part of the club, plus its pretty clear from the better everyone who is stationed here is vary familiar with each other the best thing to do is expose the doppelganger the best option is to try and us the wizards knowledge of Aesthetician to make some kind of active camouflage spell so they can stealth around the fort, and and than again expose the doppelganger , hopefully with a big crowd around

“It is plain to me that there is no easy way in.” Zapp continued. “The men stationed here have ways to see past invisibility and similar tricks. Avoiding detection is impossible under current circumstances.”

“So we are screwed, huh?” The dwarf frowned and started to chew on her lower lip in disappointment.

“No, I think I get what Zapp means.” Webster on the other hand gave the lion a long tense look, much to Sahra’s confusion. He then turned his head toward the girl briefly.

“We can’t infiltrate this fort without blowing our cover, but we can use this to our advantage.”

“How the hells is being found out an advantage?” The dwarf gave the wizard a look of sheer disbelief at his remark.

“By making sure that only one of us gets discovered while the other two use this window of opportunity to get inside.” Webster noted in a grim tone and looked at Zapp again.

“And the choice of who must become the sacrificial lamb is obvious.” The lion snorted in amusement at the irony of his statement. “I can’t exactly blend into the crowds here, no matter how hard you might try to dress me up with your tricks wizard. I will act as the distraction you two need.”

“Z-zapp, no!” The witch protested, looking worried. “Did you see what these guys are capable of? You said yourself that they are the best of the best! They’ll kill you if they catch you!”

“If. They catch me.” The lion pointed out and made a cocky smirk while his whiskers twitched in playful fashion. “I have been feeling particularly fit lately. They will have a hard time capturing me alive or otherwise.”

The girl did not know how to respond and just nodded, still appearing anxious at putting the lion in so much danger. She was starting to like him. His cool confident demeanor reminded her of Bern in a way.

“Before we do that though…” The wizard raised his index finger to his lips to make everyone go quiet.

“So I try to reach for that piece of fried lamb, right? And the lord commander’s wife snatches it right out of my hand and growls on me with her eyes practically oozing with a desire to murder because I dared to take it from her plate!” The two guards have returned and one of them was telling a story of some sort.

“Dude, you are making this shit up. I know she is a monster, but she has been married for like twenty years. I even saw hellhounds start to behave like ladies during noble family dinners and they are even fresher blood.” The second guard replied, sounding doubtful.

“I am telling you man, it was real. Anyways, that’s not what is about. As I was saying, she ripped it out of my hand and-“ The first guard continued before stopping midword.

“And?” The second guard turned his head toward his companion after a brief pause. “Come on man, don’t try to make fake tension like tha-URGH.” Suddenly he felt a powerful tugging sensation but before he could do so much as even scream, he was dragged over the edge of the pier and then underwater by something.

~~~

“Heeeyyyy Jamie, how is it going dude!?” The first guard approached the entrance to the basement of the fort where the various supplies and munitions were stored.

A group of twenty men was stationed there, all of them looking tense and nervous. But instead of greeting him, the hero’s brothers reached with their hands for their weapons.

“Whoa, whoa, what the hell people! It’s me!” The guard began to wildly gesticulate while the second, shorter guard next to him swallowed hard.

“Dean?” One of the guards suddenly narrowed his eyes and leaned forward, seemingly recognizing him. “At ease! I know him.” He then addressed his group and they returned to their idle but still clearly agitated stances.

“Of course It’s me Jamie! Geez, why are you guys so twitchy!?” The guard wiped some sweat off his brow and sighed in relief.

“You know damn well why.” Jamie shook his head and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Don’t you know we are under lockdown? We have orders to attack on sight in presence of any suspicious activity. Why are you even here? I thought your patrol route was covering the docks today.”

“Ah well, you know, my partner here was supposed to be relieved an hour ago but because of this stupid lockdown, he can’t go back to the barracks and have lunch.” The guard who was called Dane explained.

“Uhuh and this explains why you are here, away from your post, how?” Jamie’s left eyebrow raised slowly.

“Well….” The guard hesitated and shrugged. “I am pretty hungry too, so I thought, why not grab something to eat from the kitchen? I am not dealing with those super serious guys near the main gate but maybe you could let us quickly get in, grab a few drumsticks and be on our way?”

There was a long pause as the expressions of the heroes near the rear entrance shifted into sheer disbelief at the guard’s words. The only person who seemed to bitterly accept this was Jamie who only let out a shuddering disgusted sigh.

“For fucks sake Dean, you were always an irresponsible cunt but this is new heights of stupidity you are reaching for. We have an enemy infiltrator inside and the commander’s intel send to him from the capital suggested that there could be more trying to get in. I swear to god, if I wasn’t one hundred percent sure that only you could make a comment as retarded as this, I would have you apprehended for suspicious activity. Hurry up and get the fuck out of here before anyone sees you.”

“Aww come on Jamie, we are friends, right!? I am starving!” The guard complained and comically doubled over, as if suffering from stomach pain. This made some of the heroes snicker but their amusement was cut short when their superior officer glared at them.

“I am not surprised at his behavior, but how the hells did you agree to this?” The order officer pointed his finger accusingly at the second guard.

“Wha? Who, me?” The short guard looked around and pointed his finger at him. His voice was masculine but something about it felt off, as if the person was having trouble speaking properly.

“Yes, you. Identify yourself. What is your name and rank?” Jamie sharply continued.

“Oh come on man, don’t give him trouble. I was the one who dragged him here.” Dean hastily stepped in front of the second guard and waved his hands. “If you want to chew me out, I am okay with it but this guy doesn’t deserve it, leave him alone.”

“You both lazy maggots should be thrown into the dungeons for a day for leaving your posts while we are practically under attack.” The hero gritted his teeth. “I am telling you for the last time, get the fuck out of here.”

“But Jamie, I am hungry!” The first guard let out a pained wail and faked a collapsing from exhaustion. “Oh! I am seeing the light, here I come mama, papa!”

This made the guards start to openly laugh and give their commanding officer barely contained mocking looks while his face became more and more red from anger.

“Our parents are not fucking dead Dean. Stop clowning around.” He finally barked and sharply turned around to one of the chuckling officers.

“You, go inside and bring me some goddamn rations for two people and hurry the fuck up so no one sees you.”

“Hey Dean, did you and your buddy fell down into the river or something?” One of the guards suddenly stopped smiling as he studied the damp earth under the collapsed guard. The other heroes seemed to catch on as well, noticing that their armor was wet and even leaking water in some parts.

Oh shit. Sahra thought internally as she mentally got ready to start tossing fireballs around. Of course it would not fucking work, these guys were not some amateurs who grossly disregard their orders and they were perceptive enough to realize that something was off about their uniforms too.

Shadows of doubt began to creep up on the faces of the guards, including Jamie, their superior officer. But before he could open his mouth to ask something again, a loud booming roar made the crowd nearly jump in surprise.

Something was moving along the surface of the massive stone structure. It was a huge beast, a lion to be precise. Despite the walls being perfectly perpendicular to the ground and in near pristine shape due to constant maintenance, it was scaling them with great ease and at an alarming speed. It’s claws, glowing with faint golden light were digging into the stone, helping the beast pull itself up.

“W-what the hell is that!?” One of the guards pointed upwards.

At that moment, the lion moved sideways along the wall, vanishing out of sight. Another hero pulled up a horn from his belt and blew into it, making a loud noise and signaling an alarm.

“Hurry! Don’t let it get out of sight!” Jamie shouted and pulled down the bow from his shoulder.

Zapp’s diversion was working, the guards were leaving their position to pursue him. This is what Webster thought as he slowly got up from the ground but it would not be that easy.

“You three! Stay here and guard the doors to the warehouse! Everyone else with me!” Jamie shouted an order and ran counter clockwise around the building. As soon as he and the people accompanying him were out of sight, Webster sprang into action.

With a flick of his wrist, he launched an icy projectile at the first guard, encasing his head in an ice block, which made the hero lose his balance and fall over backwards.

“What the he-“ The second man spoke out and Sahra, disguised as the short guard thrust out both of her hands, launching a pair of fireballs at the two remaining figures.

The first one hit its mark and the order soldier was forcibly launched back and smacked into the heavy double set of doors before falling face down on the paved road leading up to them.

The last guard was quicker on the uptake and hurriedly raised his shield and the fireball exploded against it with a shower of sparks, leaving him unharmed.

“Help! We are under at-“ A blinding flash of lightning surged through the air, striking the shield. It did little to stop the current of electricity and it traveled along the shield and into the target’s body, making him rigid in pain and become numb before shortly falling over.

The second guard, struck by Sahra’s fireball was quickly recovering and tried to get back to his feet but the dwarf blasted him with another orb of fire, which stunned him long enough for the wizard to finish him off with another lightning bolt.

The first hero was still trashing around in panic as he was suffocated by the block of ice that his head was trapped in and Webster hurriedly ran up to him and with a golden flash of light, the guard was gone.

“Did you just…?” Sahra addressed the sweating wizard.

“I’ll let them out later when we clear everything up.” He quickly replied as he sent the other two to the Union HQ. “Okay, the coast is clear. Let’s go.” The wizard looked up to see if anyone saw them but the walls of the fort above were empty, as all the people manning them were busy on the western side of the fort.

“Zapp…” Sahra spoke out and peeked around the building. The sight made her heart skip a beat in fear. The top of the wall of the fort was thick with archers aiming down at the lone figure of the lion that was ascending the walls. The bottom was in a similar state, the guards there, likewise, pulling down the strings of their weapons while taking aim at the beast’s form.

Death above. Death below. The lion was trapped with nowhere to go. The building of the fort was massive, intended to hold an entire garrison of soldiers who would guard the northern border of Deleor. And Zapp was not even halfway up to the top, despite his impressive speed.

“Fire!” A powerful voice from above ordered and the archers let go of the strings of their weapons.

In an instant, a black line of projectiles, all moving toward a single target flew down. At the same time, the men on the ground shot their weapons. There was no nowhere to dodge. A circle of sharp edged arrows was closing in around Zapp in rapid fashion.

“No…!” Sahra was unable to hold her voice back and began to channel a spell. If she could hurry she would be able to intercept the bottom row of arrows and incinerate them before they would hit one of her friends. But what about the ones above?

The wizard’s hand grabbed her wrist and forcibly pulled it back before she could finish channeling her spell. “Sahra, no! We have to get inside! This is our only chance!”

No, this was wrong. How could she have agreed to something like this? This was not worth it!

“Let me go!” She nearly shrieked as she struggled in the wizards grasp while her eyes were locked onto the form of the warrior’s familiar. It was too late now, she realized, the arrows were out of her reach.

With a series of sharp whistling sounds as they rapidly passed through the air, the black cloud of arrows struck the form of the lion, momentarily turning him into a living pincushion.

And then they bounced back.

A powerful bestial roar that was amplified by magic erupted from the beast’s savage maw as the light surrounding his claws. suddenly expanded and covered his entire body. A shell akin to an armor made of gold was created that crackled with spirit energy. A spirit armor.

The arrows smashed into it but were unable to breach it even with their sheer mass and were instead pushed back, falling down from the lion’s form as he continued to climb, now at an even faster pace.

“Shields up!” Jamie shouted in surprise and his squad quickly followed the order, moments before the projectiles directed at the lion suddenly started to rain down on them. They lost most of their power after being knocked back and for the most part, just clattered down harmlessly against the raised shields.

“Now!” The wizard hurried the witch on and she quickly nodded and followed him inside the keep before locking the doors behind them.

Meanwhile, the soldiers tried to shoot the figure so boldly scaling their keep again but once more, the golden glowing shell around his protected him from harm.

“With only his hands…!” The figure scaling the walls suddenly loudly spoke out, making the soldiers briefly stop their assault in surprise. “With only his hands, my old master, Jordan Stern was forced to scale the great mountain of Zipangu from the bottom to its peak as part of his training under the order of the Celestial Lotus! You think your structure made of stone and build by mortal hands can stop me, his familiar and the person who he entrusted his dream to!? Keep firing your weapons all you like, but know this! No matter how much arrows you rain down on me, I will not stop my ascent until I reach the top!” The beast declared and his voice was carried far and wide, making everyone both inside and outside the fort’s vicinity hear it.

Even the most hardened of veterans stationed here felt a shiver travel down their spines from the lion’s bold declaration.

With furious angry snarls, the lion stubbornly continued to climb, shrugging off a volley after volley of attacks from the fort’s defenders which grew more and more desperate. He was feeling his spirit energy burning with newfound purpose and hope, giving him more strength than ever.

With one final push and a roar, he leaped over the edge of the roof and tackled several archers who screamed in terror, losing their nerve from the sheer intense presence that the proud king of beasts was emanating in such close proximity to them.

Not bothering with the those he downed, it instead rushed into the very thick of the order heroes, pushing them aside and breaking their formation before making a break for the roof access and running down the stairs, causing a fortwide uproar.

~~~

“Alright. That should do.” The wizard finished adjusting his and the girl’s appearance to make them look like two of the guards that were under Jamie’s command.

The warehouse ended up being completely empty thankfully and the duo was able to enter the kitchens easily enough by following the one passage leading out from the basement. Loud noises could be heard above, Zapp was causing one hell of a commotion.

“That damn lion is a hero.” The wizard swallowed hard after hearing a particularly loud savage roar reverberating throughout the fort.

“Let’s not waste any time then, who knows how long he can keep this up.” The witch nodded with determination as the two carefully pulled the door away. The hallway of the first floor was slim, only allowing a single person to squeeze through, a deliberate part of the design to allow the heroes to take on the powerful monster who would attempt to break in one at a time.

It was very clean and brightly lit at the moment. The mess hall located near the kitchens looked like it was left in a hurry, as a bunch of plates with unfinished meals could be seen on the long tables of the room.

“So where is the commander located? Top floor?” The witch inquired quietly as they traveled down the empty hallway.

“No, usually third floor, right in the heart of the keep. Allowing the commanding officer to stay near the top would make him an easy target for airborne monsters like harpies. Remember, the Order is a military organization specifically designed to combat various monsters. Traditional fortification logic does not always apply here.” The wizard explained as he peaked around a corner of the hallway.

“Makes sense, where did you learn the layouts of their forts though?” Sahra pressed the wizard on.

“Hey, I did my research before setting out. Our primary objective is to stea- I mean recover the magic suppression device that the Galmathorians used after all. Considering how valuable it is and that we didn’t see it in the warehouse, it is probably kept in the commander’s office for extra security.” Webster continued after confirming that the course was clear.

Their first obstacle didn’t take long to appear. Even though Webster was taking a lot of shortcuts through less densely populated parts of the fort, there was only a single set of stairs leading to the upper floors and they were guarded.

It made sense, since it was the first floor. Even during a state of emergency, the soldiers here were not leaving their posts, although at the moment, they were facing the stairs, as their role was to prevent anyone from leaving while the lockdown was in place. This made accessing the upper floors even trickier.

“Damn, we can’t go up while they are looking directly at the stairs like that.” The wizard frowned as he contemplated what to do.

“Hey W, what is an Order soldier’s directive during a fire outbreak?” The witch suddenly spoke after taking a long look down the corridor where the kitchens were located.

~~~

“Does anyone smell something burning?” One of the men standing by the main entrance sniffed the air loudly.

“Huh, you are right. That’s weird, there is no one at the kitchens right now, right?” Another person noted.

Suddenly, a thick glob of black smoke began to come out from the hallway to the left.

“Oh shit, the cooks must have forgot to turn off the stoves during the emergency assembly!” A third person shouted in panic and made a break for the hallway. As soon as he had entered the hallway, he began to loudly swear and quickly turned around.

“The kitchens are on fire!” This made the entire group frantically leave their post in panic, fires were not a joking matter and there was a strict code of operation to follow during them. While the group ran down the corridor, two figures descend down from the ceiling behind them. One sliding down the wall while the other floated to the ground on her broom.

They immediately made a break for the stairs, quickly running up while the guards fought the fire. It was mostly all smoke, Sahra was not going to seriously set the fort ablaze but it was enough to make a distraction.

“Nice thinking Sahra!” The wizard gave the witch a thumb’s up as the two ran up the stairs.

“Heh, making fires is what I do” The smiled.

“Hey! What are you doing he-“ A patrolling guard on the third floor shouted at them but the wizard who was wearing an order hero’s armor as well as a face of one of their members cut him off.

“Fire! A fire broke out in the kitchens!”

This made the hero’s eyes widen. “Oh for fuck’s sake, first the lion and now this? Hurry up and report this to the commander!” He spat out while running down the steps in a hurry to join the others in their attempts to put it out.

“Score.” The witch muttered quietly and smirked. The same trick even worked on the next set of stairs where an ornate door leading to the commander’s office was located. It was guarded by a pair of experienced high-ranking heroes armed with peculiar looking equipment. One had an enchanted shield of some sorts while the other held a curious looking spear with a head resembling a head of a snake from the mouth of which the actual blade of the weapon poked out.

When the news of the fire was brought to them, they quickly exchanged worried looks and the door was flung open. “Commander Creador! A fire has broken out on the first floor! What are your orders!?” The first guard shouted.

Peeking over his shoulder, the wizard noticed that the interior of the room was very well decorated and held a large wooden desk in the middle of it behind which, an old gentleman in an ornate armor was sitting.

He blinked a few times, seemingly unsure how to reply before his voice returned. “Ah… well have it put out then. Has the lion been taken care of yet?”

“No sir.” The second guard shook his head. “Our brothers on the upper floors are still engaging it.”

An object was set on top of the desk that the commander sat behind. It shone as the light from a torch reflected from it. It was the strange mechanical device that was used to suppress magic in Cair. Parts of it looked like they had been disassembled and were lined up next to it. The commander was obviously doing something with it and his left hand was resting on top of it.

“I see.” Creador replied slowly. “If that’s all then return to your posts. Report immediately when the lion gets killed so we can resume searching for the infiltrator.”

“Yes sir.” Both bodyguards spoke out in unison and began to close the door down. The commander briefly looked at the disguised wizard and the witch standing in the hallway and blinked once before turning his eyes back to the device on his desk.

He didn’t see past the wizard’s disguise? Uh, Of course he didn’t! The wizard thought.

Webster Logpick was the undisputed master of disguise in Deleor after all. Or was their enemy faking it? Some doubt creeped into the wizard’s head. One of the agents accompanying K taught him the necessary spell to revert the doppelganger to her true form. It required to be within close proximity, but was their enemy a doppelganger even?

The witch sniffed the air once, there was a metallic sweet aftertaste to it that felt familiar. Blood? She thought to herself curiously. In the last few weeks of her life she has become awfully accustomed to it but not to the point where it was background noise to her yet.

>What do you do?

hmm ok this is some shit.

the blood would be a dead giveaway and mimicing the co would be perfect to sow distrust und chaos among the garrison force.

but the soldiers seem in propper order.

and more importantly instead of working a communication device to contact her sabbath superiours about their plans being found out,

the commander plays with the nullfield generator.

yea this is bait

the duppelhänger knows we were comming for her and made precautions by "exidentaly cutting herself for the blood smell or something..

we need to keep searching most importantly the commanders nr 2 and the communications officer, both could have given the commander fals information about orders from santiford, wich explains why the garrison things a second wave of infiltraders is comming.

so lets search for the second in command and the coms guy.

Doppelganger or not, what we do know is that the infiltrator killed Commander Brandon before impersonating them back in Cair. And Sahra smells blood near or in the fort commander's office. That on its own warrants investigation. The guards here aren't stupid, if Sahra points out that something smells like blood in the most secure part of the fort they aren't going to just ignore it. And if it's something incriminating (like the corpse of the one they're impersonating), that will force the infiltrator's hand. Sahra and Webster need to be ready for that, but once the infiltrator is revealed, it's just a matter of killing them before they can disguise themselves again.

>>293676

You've got a point, but would a military commander ignore the smell of blood in their own office?

We should probably tailor our response based on the commander's reaction. If the commander or the guards do something rash, then they're probably (not definitely, but probably) the infiltrator, but if not, then further investigation is probably warranted.

Oh crap. What if there's more than one of them? Might be a good idea to keep looking around regardless of the commander's reaction.

>>293689

meant for

>>293686, not >>293676

forgot sage

also dem IDs, are you ME? ARE YOU THE DOPPELGANGER?

>>293690

>>293691

wait, I'm just a moron. need sleep. ignore these posts.

The funniest part about Fort Carlsbad Is that it isnt actually supposed to be abutting a major river, though its close to one of course. Distances on map hard for brain and hand drawn with markers. But its not like that section ever expressly said it WASN'T next to one either i suppose. Of course this is not reflective of Deleor's actual naval might which is woefully lacking, even out out Hudson. Without many threats from the sea in many generations it sort of… atrophied in favor of ground defenses from Monsters.

Yes. Something about this whole thing felt off, the wizard concluded. The commander looked rather calm and was not even contacting anyone through the leyline system. Perhaps the infiltrator took the place of the person responsible for communications? That would be a likely and less conspicuous place to take. But if that was the case, Webster was not quite sure where he or she would be located, as the communication officer position was a recent addition to the order of heroic brotherhood ranks. There was no standardized spot for them in their bases.

“Wait!” The disguised witch suddenly shouted, making the hero who was closing the door to the commander’s office stop and turn his head at her curiously. The wizard kept a neutral expression but he was starting to get anxious. {What is she doing?} He thought. They needed to avoid any and all attention at all costs and regroup.

“Don’t you smell blood?” Sahra explained once the two heroes shifted their attention at her. Webster blinked in response to her statement and smelled the air, realizing that it had a subtle sickly sweet metallic aftertaste to it.

“Huh? Actually…” One of the guards sniffed the air twice before his eyes widened in surprise.

“I smell it too.” The second bodyguard turned his head around repeatedly to find the source before realizing that it was coming from the office.

“Do you have something else to report?” Creador slowly took his eyes away from the curious construct on his desk when the door was flung open again.

“Sir, I didn’t even realize it earlier, but there is a strong scent of blood coming from your office.” The hero explained. “Is everything alright?”

There was a barely noticeable twitch at the edge of the commander’s jaw when the hero said that. Normally, no one would even realize that his mask briefly cracked but the wizard was the master of facial sculpting and to him, it stood out like a full moon in the night sky.

“Oh.” Creador responded after a pause and pulled his hand from behind the construct to show a deep, bleeding cut on his hand. “I got a little careless while tinkering with the device we had recovered. It’s nothing serious, don’t worry.”

{That son of a bitch!} The wizard thought while the hero slowly nodded at that. He or she must have deliberately cut their hand while it was out of sight to avoid suspicion. Either that or this was a big coincidence after all.

“Are you sure commander? Should we bring in a healer?” The hero inquired, sounding worried. Creador was getting pretty old and even a minor cut like that could be dangerous for him.

“I am fine. Return to your post.” The man waved his healthy hand dismissively at the bodyguard and he stepped back, getting ready to close the door to the office again.

“Say, commander.” The witch planted her foot in the doorframe and blocked it from getting closed before pushing against the hero who tried to close it. “Your office is pretty small, huh?”

“Excuse me?” Creador glanced at the rude soldier who addressed him so informally. “Who are you anyway? Shouldn’t you be helping with the fire downstairs?”

The witch ignored his question and took a step into the office, looking around. It was indeed quite cramped. There was not much else besides the desk, some drawers holding important documents and a couple of paintings on the walls.

“What are you doing!? Get out of my office!” The officer raised his voice when the witch began to circle the desk.

“Hey you are out of line! You need permission from a superior officer to enter the commander’s chambers!” The first guard reached toward the girl to stop her when her hand suddenly lit up aflame and she tossed a fireball forward, right at the commander.

The man grunted in surprise and ducked sideways, avoiding the projectile at the last second which exploded against the wall with incredible force, showering the room with orange sparks. But most importantly, the force of the blast knocked the desk over.

The heavy wooden piece of furniture rolled over and the magic suppression device on it fell down on the floor with a clatter. But despite how completely insane the girl’s sudden outburst turned out, it paid off. The two high ranked heroes standing in the doorway were not attacking her for what she did. Their attention was instead glued to the spot where the desk used to stand. Specifically, to the body lying there in a crumpled state, a puddle of blood growing underneath it from the single clean stab wound on the back that was identical to the one that captain Brandon suffered from.

To their credit, the stunned silence lasted for only a second before the two guards immediately sprang into action, brandishing their enchanted weapons and immediately seizing “Creador” who desperately tried to force himself through the doorway but was immediately grabbed and forced down on the floor, a sword held over his neck.

“You son of a bitch!” The first guard forced his boot down on the side of the infiltrators head. “You killed commander Creador!”

“Hold it! By the order of the crown!” Webster swiped his hand over his face, returning to his regular appearance and quickly brandished the DSS badge that he had borrowed from the warrior earlier. “My name is agent W, I am a member of DSS sent here to capture this person. I was lead to believe that it might be a doppelganger. Let me cast a spell to confirm this!”

Both the badge and what just happened gave the wizard the benefit of doubt and the heroes made some room while still holding the struggling elderly gentleman in place. The wizard leaned down and forcibly pressed his thumb down on Creador’s forehead which made him release an uncharacteristically high-pitched screech, before his face began to rapidly warp and shift, changing before the wizard’s very eyes.

After only a few fleeting moments, it snapped back into place, revealing an ash colored skin and large glowing yellow eyes. It was a monster capable of changing her form at will to perfectly imitate the characteristics of any monster or person. But she was awfully short, now that her true form was revealed. She had a small round head with long flowing white hair that possessed a strange rubbery texture to it.

“A, a child?-MMPH!” One of the guards muttered before the monster’s long white hair suddenly moved on its own and lashed against his face, quickly enveloping his head.

“Son of a-“ The second guard who was holding a blade over her throat tried to push down to kill her, but another strand of hair wrapped around his arm, forcibly pulling it back.

The doppelganger tried to straighten out with a snarl, no longer restrained when she was suddenly met with a fiery spell, held in Sahra’s outstretched hand.

“Stop. Move a muscle and I’ll fry you.” The dwarf threatened the young shapeshifting monster who stared at the fire for a moment before another strand of hair snuck around the witch and tried to wrap around her neck.

“Sahra, wait-“ The wizard shouted, trying to warn her but it was not necessary.

The witch shot her spell at point blank range and the doppelganger leaped back with a blood chilling screech while wildly trashing around the little room and striking with her hair at random. Her face was completely incinerated in a moment, now only the blackened shape of her skull visible with the contents of her eyeballs slowly leaking out of her eye sockets.

The hero who was holding the spear was no longer restrained and with a trained motion he thrust his weapon through the trashing monster’s chest, effortlessly penetrating the ornate armor of their late commander and pinning the doppelganger to the wall.

But even despite these grievous wounds, she kept screaming and screaming in fury or pain, it was impossible to tell. She still trashed, desperately swathing with her hair at random and flailing her limbs until the second hero finally jumped to his feet and cut what was left of her head off entirely.

“Holy shit.” The sword and enchanted shield wielding hero muttered and with a sharp swing of his blade, shook the doppelganger’s blood off before sheathing his weapon.

The body, even with its head removed, still weakly twitched for a few more moments until finally going still.

“This is my first time seeing one of these. I thought they were extinct.” The spear wielding hero pulled his weapon out with a sick meaty schlorp and the body fell on the ground with heavy thud, no longer able to stay upright without being pinned to the wall. As it did, a few objects rolled out of the pockets of the gambeson that was so large and roomy on the little form of the monster that it grimly made the people in the room think that it reminded them of a burial shroud.

The first item was a round glass object with a gray cloudy texture covered with runes and the other was a little cloth sack that made the witch swallow hard on instinct. When the first hero carefully tried to pick it up, it was revealed that it was torn during the fight and its contents began to slowly spill out on the ground. It was a mixture of several colorful powders.

“Spice.” The witch uttered, sounding mortified in realization of what just happened.

“Check the commander’s communion matrix.” Webster quickly spoke out. They had to move quickly, time was still of the essence even if the reveal that Al-Sabbath was using child soldiers was heavy on everyone’s minds. “There should be some recent orders from the crown directed toward the fort’s commanding officer, whoever it might be now.”

After returning the desk back to its upstanding position and pulling out one the drawers, the communication device was found and was thankfully still intact even after Sahra’s irresponsible spell slinging. The messages were not deleted and they confirmed Webster’s story. The Galmathorian navy was on its way. Unfortunately, it was too late by that point.

~~~

The captain of the head vessel stationed near the fort was impatiently pacing back and forth along the deck after witnessing the lion they saw on the river earlier climbing the wall as easily as it crossed water. There was not much that the ship’s crews could do to help unfortunately. They would not bombard their own headquarters with artillery.

Something was off though, when he suggested Creador to allow him to send some extra help inside to deal with the beast, he was rejected on the ground of the lockdown still being in place. While Creador was always a by the book sort of person, this behavior was strange even for him. And after seeing Brandon abandon his post in Cair to come running here alone with a ship manned by a skeleton crew to tell that someone had infiltrated the fort…

He has been feeling anxious all morning, as if some sort of danger was approaching like a storm but despite that, the river and the sky were calm and clear. There was no new intel from their border patrol either. The Galmathorian vessels were just sitting still on their side of the water.

“A-achoo!” The young woman standing next to him suddenly sneezed.

“Fleur?” The captain raised his eyebrow at his subordinate. “Did you catch a cold?”

“No sir, it’s just getting a little chilly.” The young woman’s cheeks blushed in embarrassment as she huddled inside her coat more snuggly.

“Hmm?” The man looked around. He was accustomed to lower temperatures, having been born in the highland mountains bordering the monster nation, so it didn’t bother him but it was summer and there was not a single cloud in the sky.

The man licked his index finger and raised it overhead. Strange. The cold wind was not even coming from the mountains but from the river.

White mist began to build up over the surface of the water slowly like it was early in the morning and the head marine officer actually started to feel the cold as well too, when the freezing wind began to blow from the water with enough force to make the water start to ripple.

~~~

“Brr.” Mercedes, the lizardman in charge of the heroes stationed in Cair shivered and rubbed her shoulders while looking around. “Is it just me or did it get colder all of a sudden?” The lizardman looked at the river from which the cold air was blowing.

K and the Warrior followed her gaze, noticing the wide stretch of water start to get covered with a misty veil that seemed to spread along as far as the eye could see.

“The river is not supposed to look like this during the middle of the day.” The warrior stated the obvious and reached toward his beidhander.

“They are here then.” K spoke out in an even professional tone before tapping his shades and raising his magitek enchanted rifle.

~~~

The Order river corps captain could only look on in horror as the surface of the water suddenly began to bubble up, as long black metallic shapes began to rapidly emerge from the water, each one an exact replica of the captured vessel staged in Cair. Twenty, thirty, fifty. Their numbers began to raise exponentially until a little over a hundred of them covered the surface of the river.

“To all ships! Enemy vessels spotted at twelve o’clock! Prepare to fire!” he quickly turned around toward the set of brass pipes connecting to the lower decks where his orders could be efficiently executed and passed along to the nearby ships.

The top it all off, the submarine closest to the fort made a screeching noise as its entrance hatch was opened. A single figure pulled itself out then, it was vaguely feminine in shape but it was hard to judge from this distance.

The captain quickly snatched the spyglass from Fleur and looked through it. The figure gracefully slid down from the submarine into the water but instead of falling into it, the woman’s feet firmly landed on its surface when it rapidly began to freeze over, creating a stable platform under her feet.

“Calisto.” The captain muttered.

The general of the Galmathorian naval forces was strange to see inland as Galmathorian’s navy was stationed on Deleor’s western shores but it looked like they were showing off their new advancements in magitek by bringing these underwater operating vessels with them.

“Hmph.” The captain lowered his spyglass and smirked at the casual stride of the enemy commander who was moving towards him over the river like she was on a leisure walk through the park. “These things are pretty dangerous but we already know that they are made from metal.”

He then turned his head toward the brass pipes again. “Load the lightning payload. We’ll cook them right inside their ships before they can even move out.”

The crews of the ships began to move around in haste, loading the weapons that their vessels were armed with and directing them up in the air. It did not take long before the volley was ready to get fired and with a final confirmation from their naval commander, the ships shot their enchanted payload for the second time today.

The crystal charges crackled with energy as they quickly moved through the air in a ballistic arc, their point of impact perfectly directed toward the many submarines that had surfaced from the depths of the river.

“My, my, captain Percival! Already blowing your load right off the bat? Tsk, tsk!” The gorgeous platinum blonde sorceress waggled her finger and smiled, completely obvious to the danger she was in. “This won’t do. We have a long day ahead of us yet.”

With a casual movement of her hand, she moved the long flowing locks of her hair behind her head and pulled out a scrying bowl from the pocket of her coat. “Activate it.” She whispered in it sensually.

A sound akin to rolling thunder reverberated throughout the area followed by a bright flash of light. But it was not the electrically charged payload fired by the order exploding. A powerful shockwave rapidly spread in all directions, pushing the water and the air back.

“W-what the hell?” The captain blinked repeatedly to make the temporary blindness pass just in time to see the enchanted cannonballs fall down into the river with a series of plops, some of them struck the enemy vessels but only produced clonking noises upon impact before bouncing back, every single one ending up being a dud after all mana weaving is the area began to get suppressed.

“Good.” Calisto’s expression twisted into a wicked and cruel smile. “My turn.”

The sorceress crouched down and looked into the water over the edge of the ice path that she had created, marveling at her own reflection for a moment with mirth before forcing her hand into the water.

~~~

“You can’t be serious.” Mercedes muttered in horror and the cigar she was smoking fell out of her gaping mouth.

In only a minute, the entire stretch of river spanning from Cair to Fort Carlsbad got flash frozen. A big fight had broken out on the other side, as massive pillars of ice began to erupt from the river, piercing and upturning the ships stationed there who were unable to perform any evasive maneuvers now that they were trapped in ice.

The Galmathorian soldiers quickly climbed out of their vessels after the massive expanse of water suddenly turned into a wide-open battlefield. The ones armed with the familiar rifles quickly took positions on top of their ships to gain the height advantage and began to fire toward the direction of the fort, picking off the escaping sailors.

But a new group of enemies had joined their side, sporting a similar black armor made out of layered dyed spider silk with golden ornate orichalcum linings, only thicker. They were armed with curious looking maces and partially see-through shields made out of enchanted obsidian glass.

The clubs looked rather brittle and the warrior wondered what was the deal with them until they began to alight with energy, crackling currents of electricity passing over them, ready to fry and kill anything that would come into contact with them.

And it did just that when some of the ship’s crew member tried to engage them. The order’s famous blocking and shield techniques backfired spectacularly when the lightning passing through the enchanted batons bypassed their defenses completely, making the brave heroes scream in agony before collapsing on the spot, their flesh burned beyond recognition.

That was when the warrior’s new communion matrix made a noise. He reached into his beard and realized that it was disabled just like his scrying bowl a few days ago.

Bernsen put the communion matrix away and retracted his spirit energy limbs that were thankfully unaffected before looking upon the frozen river. The men stationed in Cair had already moved out and began to cross it, trying to ambush the Galmathorian soldiers from behind while their attention was directed towards the fort. Screams and clashes of steel were heard ahead along with an occasional crackle when the remaining cannons on the Order’s side fired regular cannonballs at the enemies with varied results.

He was not one to give up easily but the difference in preparations was as clear as day to him. Although the numbers of Galmathorian soldiers was smaller, their batons bypassed all forms of defense all the while their rifle wielding countrymen picked off the Deleoreans from a distance in relative safety. And that was not even accounting the enemy commander who kept toppling over a ship after a ship by conjuring sharp ice spires underneath them, making the number of available cannons on the order’s side grow smaller and smaller by the minute.

“Any luck Skorne?” The warrior turned his head toward the collapsed Balrog who scrunched her face in frustration after her prosthetics suddenly gave out at the same time as the warrior’s communion matrix.

“No. I can’t move. They are completely disabled.” She spat out anger.

The warrior moved his own prosthetic arm around and then pulled out his trusty orichalcum axe from his belt. This was the metal that allowed the Galmathorians to use their advanced weapons even as all other sources of magic were being suppressed.

>What do you do?

Now we have two highly trained utterly devoted children fighting for lady Dia. Does she just pick up orphans and turns them into super soldiers? Do we even know what kind of monster she is?

Maybe she's an echidna and this are her actual children.

We should try to get the gremlin to talk about that once we cleaned this mess up.

We should fuck up their backline with Ursa Mayor to give the heroes the chance to regroup without getting shot at by riflemen. That should be enough to get the attention of their commander. Ursa hopefully will get us through the ice magic attacks into close range to her were we should be able to defeat her.

We don't have rapid healing anymore but I think we should be able to spirit heal now and if worst comes to worst we still have our [cannibalism] ability.

If it even comes to that. We still have to deal with the water paralysis bullshit and we also lost our leap ability which probably rules out just jumping from ship to ship. If we land in the water we're fucked.

>>294308

Can me move ourselves with Ursa Major? If so, can we throw ourselves behind enemy lines and start taking out the riflemen?

>>294327

>we can find a way to melt the ice, their troops will fall into the water, and their own lightning batons that should have won them the battle will instead fry them.

Simple and efficient. I like it. But the casualties would also include every order hero who's on the ice. We need to get them to fall back to the shoreline without letting the Galmathorians through.

And isn't Ursa hellfire incarnate? I think she should be able to melt some ice if we pour enough spirit energy into her and we also have Webster and Sahra for backup.

>100 supmarines

jesus both the imperial navy and the kriegsmarine dident have this many sups in both world wars, galmorie has one hell of a warindustry.

>>294327

sounds good tzeench

no idea what we can do with skorn without seriously endangering her, even if she has fire abillitys she would sink like a rock with all her cyberware weighing her down.

so lets just do that shit ourselves, what do we have a fire based stand for if we dont use it?

we should run as fast as we can towards the enemy marines, break their line with ursas strengh and engage calisto in melee.

during the fight reposition onto the hul of one of the supmarines thewir metal hull is a batter battleground with ursas fire power.

when we finish disabling or killing calisto pump every bit of spiritenergy bearson has into ursa major and fireblast the icesheet the enemy marines are on, their will be coleteral damage with the delenorien soldiers that are engaging them but that war shit happens.

after that im guessing the galmorian navy will eather retreat or use whatever ace up their sleeve they have left, this seems to be supposed to be the upening barrage to start the war, so the galmoriens will have a backup plan.

>>294307

>The sorceress crouched down and looked into the water over the edge of the ice path that she had created, marveling at her own reflection for a moment with mirth before forcing her hand into the water.

>>294327

>>294317

What if she has her own <Summon Spirit>? A Ive or Water based one.

>>294317

Keep <Ursa Mayor> a secret for now. Use her only at the best moment. And do remember to eat her heart… if Bearson eats a <Summon Spirit> user's heart will he gain that <Summon Spirit>?

>>294306

>Twenty, thirty, fifty. Their numbers began to raise exponentially until a little over a hundred of them covered the surface of the river.

Those numbers are rather ridiculous, slavsan.

Twenty: OK

Thirty: Still Ok, but…

Fifty: Ok that getting a little silly

One Hundred:…

A small state like Galmathoria couldn't design, produce and support/supply that many vessels. Unless your going for the whole: Galmathoria can only war for a limited time because of lack of material resources and man/woman power. In a similar way to Japan in WW2. That would explain Dia is only giving <Summon Spirits> to her Generals.

>>294317

Slavsan has said something of this on Ace's Thread.

>>294334

>what we can do with skorn without seriously endangering her

Keep her on shore to help out there.

Whoops, forgot my trip again.

>>294354

>how stupidly well equipped their enemies are.

not just well equiped but stupid in general, why would their admiral just surfec the fleet and not use them to engate the enemy navy?

even if thos supmarines arent armed with torpedos or cannons you can still weld a thick armor plate on the supmarines upper hull and use it to cut into the WOODEN ships.

i mean thats what capitan nemo in his nautilus did, because he dident have torpedos eather.

ok im guessing this is supposed to be a propaganda victory that shows extreme superiority just like what hitler did with the fucking bismark.

still calisto and her superiors are fucking retards.

they deserve to loose this battle and get counter invaded tomorow.

>>294365

Its almost like its some kind of blood sacrifice and the bad stratagies are being employed on purpose

Or did we forget?

>>294557

ohh i forgot about that.

well shit

Man.

These are some bigass rivers.

>>294350

>What if she has her own <Summon Spirit>? A Ive or Water based one.

>remember to eat her heart… if Bearson eats a <Summon Spirit> user's heart will he gain that <Summon Spirit>?

If Bearson does indeed get the Summon Spirit that froze the lake, this plan gets even better!

Once the ground troops are dealt with, the [Summon Spirit] can re-freeze the lake to prevent the submarines from retreating. After that, we're free to let the Order troops board as many vessels as they want to capture and sink the rest. Hopefully, the crews will surrender, minimizing blood sacrifices spilled. Unless they have something else up their sleeve, the Galmathorians will have lost the entire force they sent, including the general. Though that might not matter since it seems like they've got some Total Annihilation or Supreme Commander bullshit going on.

On taking down Calisto, it seems like their entire focus is on Fort Carlsbad. If that's the case, then it's possible a sudden charge from Cair's troops may catch their unguarded riflemen in the back by surprise, allowing Cair's troops to switch weapons to the captured guns. They can then shoot the troops guarding Calisto, maybe even Calisto herself. We know [Summon Spirits] can block arrows, but can they block a volley of 20 shots at once? Even if they can, the loss of her bodyguards will give Bearson an opening to engage Calisto.

Sorry about more schedule slips. Between shitposting on /v/ about E3 and looking for a new job I don't have much time to spare.

>>294918

Apology accepted,

“Then grab this.” Bernsen calmly ordered and threw down his axe.

The blade got stuck into the hard, frozen earth of the river’s shore next to the balrog and she gave it a long curious look before blinking in realization when she recognized the material.

“This axe, the one you cut my flames with… orichalcum?”

“Yea.” The warrior confirmed and felt his left hand go limp and heavy after a moment. Going into combat with a handicap like that was dangerous, but he saw firsthand what Skorne was capable of. Having her up and about on the offense would be useful.

The tall horned woman nodded, extended her healthy hand toward the handle of the weapon and pulled it out. As soon as she touched it, her prosthetics started to work again. She quickly pushed herself off the ground and straightened out before giving the axe a few practice swings.

“This is not really my style but I am not going to complain if I can move while using it.” She finally said, her confidence returning to her voice. “What are your orders Boss?”

Bernsen raised his hand behind him in a gesture that suggested the balrog to wait while he tried to reach toward his familiar. {Zapp. Zapp can you hear me? What’s going on in Fort Carlsbad?}

It felt distant and kind of hard to make out with the magic suppression field active, but the connection was still there and the lion eventually replied.

{Yes. We have succeeded. The infiltrator was found and dealt with. Webster recovered the magic suppression device too. It has already been transported to the Union HQ.}

The warrior nodded in approval, even though no one could see it before continuing. {Good work but it seems another one has been deployed. I assume it’s effect is covering the fort as well?}

{Yes.} The beast confirmed he warrior’s suspicions. {Sahra and Webster are unable to use their magic right now and the leyway network is being suppressed as well, just like last time.}

{I will deal with it.} The warrior responded. {Stand by in the fort for the time being, wait until I disable the emitter then act at your discretion.}

{Understood. But how do you plan to do it? The emitter could be in any of these vessels.} The familiar asked.

{That’s obvious, isn’t it?} Bernsen smirked and took a deep breath, feeling his body begin to fill up with crackling energy of his spirit.

{I see. You plan to locate it using spirit sense.} The lion muttered internally, sounding unsure. {I advise you to be careful however, the current weather conditions might make it difficult. There is something important I forgot to mention in regards of spirit energy manipulation during my lessons. Cold temperatures, especially extremely low ones can disturb or even stop the flow of spirit energy entirely.}

{That’s…} The warrior frowned as he glanced over the frozen river. {I see. Thank you for the warning. I’ll figure something out.}

{Good luck.} The lion sent a final message through their shared familiar link and the warrior turned back to Skorne.

“Sahra and Webster were successful but they are trapped on the other side and unable to help while their magic is disabled.”

“Should we find the emitter then?” The monster suggested.

“That’s what I was thinking as well. Hold on, let me see if this works.” The warrior began to breath in and out in careful rhythmic fashion, feeling tiny glowing tendrils of spirit energy start to grow out from his fingertips.

He then tried to touch the ice with them and Zapp’s warning was confirmed to be true. Even though he could freely expand the reach of his spirit sense even through solid walls of stone, this relatively thin layer of ice was like an unbreakable solid barrier for his spirit energy.

“We’ll have to do it the hard way then.” The warrior retracted his spirit energy with a frown. “Skorne, find K and help him and the other agents to disable the magic suppression device. He is smart, he must have thought of the same thing as we, but he and his allies are at a disadvantage combat wise with their magic weapons disabled.”

“Got it.” The balrog sharply nodded and broke into a sprint, moving forward along the frozen river to join the ragtag group of Cair guards, order heroes and royal soldiers trying to flank the Galmathorians while they were busy with fort Carlsbad.

“Oh! Oh! What should I do?” Kenzie’s muffled voice came from within the warrior’s dented helmet.

“Keep an eye on our prisoner. I suspect we might be able to get some important information out of her later.” The man told the fairy firmly and reached toward his sword before brandishing the long and rather plain looking blade he had earned from his misadventures in Cair. The beidhander of discord was not a true adamantium weapon. The alloy it was made form contained only about ten percent of it. But it had something else to it.

With a careful tap on its pommel, the blade of the weapon burst into flames, it’s fire enchantment roaring into existence like a wild animal and burning with the intensity of its original owner’s fighting spirit. It was time to put it to a good use again.

Bernsen took off his helmet and quickly reached into his beard, pulling out a clinking vial of some strange colorful liquid. He quickly popped the lid and downed its contents before throwing the empty bottle away. Immediately, his body felt incredibly light, almost weightless.

With a savage roar, Ursa Major appeared next to him and grabbed him from behind, lifting his body over her head.

So far so good, the warrior thought and straightened out in her hold, remembering how Richter’s Gnome managed to catch the general to save him from his fatal fall.

The burning grizzly woman slightly kneeled and began to breath in and out as her muscles bulged out from stress as she prepared to throw the warrior’s body. Her eyes searched the distant battlefield but the predator’s trained senses quickly spotted the destination that the warrior wanted to arrive in.

With another bestial snarl, the summon spirit leaned back and then threw her projectile forward as hard as she could with her very impressive strength that was able to hold down an adamantium construct under water for an extended period of time.

~~~

Scribble, scribble, scribble.

The lion finally finished writing the message and spat the pencil out before pushing the piece of parchment forward to his companions and the pair of high ranked Order officers.

“I’ll be damned. It really can write.” One of the lightly armored men noted in surprise.

“That’s what shocks you after it climbed a perfectly smooth vertical stone wall and then made us go on a wild goose after it?” The hero next to him made an amused expression.

While the two heroes quietly exchanged their opinions on magical lions, DSS and their employment of said magical lions, Webster and Sahra quickly scanned the message from Bernsen.

“Stand by, huh?” The witch clicked her tongue in annoyance. “That’s all we have been doing lately.”

“It can’t be helped.” The blonde man readjusted his sunglasses and tapped the edge of the roof with his fingers repeatedly. “We can’t use any of our spells besides my gate.”

“How come it works still anyways? You wizards get the best stuff, seriously.” The witch crossed her hands on her chest and glared at the man with jealousy.

“We don’t know and that’s why the HQ think thank decided that the research of these devices should be the top priority. Based on witness accounts in Cair, familiar links, alchemical potions and innate abilities of certain monsters are unaffected. It’s not enough information to go on yet, but right now we believe that whatever this thing is supposed to be, it does not suppress the flow of mana itself like more common short-range suppressors. Instead, it prevents it from being molded into a spell.” The wizard hastily explained while rereading Bernsen’s message again.

“Hmm. That does not sound like how a traditional nullstone works.” The witch nodded in understanding, having read a fair bit on the subject back when she wondered why she could not draw power from mana stones.

“These are all just conjectures for now though, hopefully now that our guys got their hands on it, they can tell something more concrete soon.” The wizard replied and shuddered when he heard a particularly loud crash near the river’s shore below.

The Fort’s division had already set out to help the crews of the ships, but it was a losing battle, even with the new reinforcements. Their archers were at a disadvantage against the near instant traveling projectiles of the Galmathorian Mjolnir weapons. Their soldiers could not even shield themselves from the shots by using their shields, as the currents of electricity passed right into their arms and there were only so many enchanted shields to go around in the fort.

Some of the better equipped heroes could be seen successfully breaking through the shock baton wielding Galmathorians but they almost always ended up getting swarmed from all sides.

“These stupid clubs of theirs are a real nuisance.” The witch noted after peeking over the edge of the roof of one of the fort’s towers that they were observing the battlefield from. “Did your guys make them too?”

“Unfortunately. The wizard remarked grimly as he watched a small squad of heroes quickly getting overwhelmed and killed on the spot when they tried to reach the riflemen on top of one of the submarines. “Those ones are also part of the Mjolnir series of lightning enchanted magitek weapons.”

“Isn’t there like a design weakness to them?” The witch suddenly perked up, an idea crossing her mind. “I remember that you said in Cair, that you guys dropped the rifle designs because of accuracy issues but what about the clubs? What was wrong with them?”

“Huh?” The wizard blinked and then scratched his chin, seemingly deep in thought. “Hmm. You know, I am not quite sure actually. I was not really part of the magitek weapon design crew. We occasionally had meetings together to throw some ideas to a wall to see what sticks, but I was not present during the discussion of this particular one. Hold on.”

With a flash of golden light, the wizard vanished, leaving the Witch and the lion to stand in an awkward silence along with the two guards who were ordered to protect them.

“So…” The first one began. “You DSS guys have like teleportation magic or something?”

“Teleportation magic does not exist.” Sahra narrowed her eyes in annoyance at the ignorance of the question. Zapp loudly snorted in a mocking tone.

“Did that W guy stop time and is moving at the speed of light then?” The second hero piqued up, sounding curious.

“Time magic does not exist either.” The witch’s eye twitched as she sighed deeply. She hated common folk so much.

Thankfully, it did not take long and the wizard soon reappeared but his expression was not a happy one. “I asked Horace just now. Turns out they were dropped after their glaring design flaw became apparent. Because it is a melee weapon that utilizes powerful lightning currents it is very susceptible to water.”

“Holy shit, but that’s great news! We are on a gods damned river!” Sahra pointed her hand behind her before suddenly realizing her early celebration was for naught. “Oh, it’s-“

“Frozen yes.” The wizard nodded. “If we could find a way to get them to fall into the water, we could fry half of the opposition in one fell swoop.”

“If only I could use my magic.” The witch bit on her lip in frustration. “I would melt all this shitty ice away in minutes with a few well-placed dragon breaths’.”

“Not to downplay your abilities but I don’t think you could do much Sahra.” The wizard shook his head sadly. “Look at how much space they froze at once. This was not a single person’s doing. They must have had prepared a bunch of ice spells in advance and activated them from their vessels when they surfaced in similar way to how the Order uses crystal charges.” Webster shook his head and sighed. “No, you would need an army of pyromancers to unthaw it on a quick notice.”

“Wait…that’s right!” Sahra suddenly froze in place as her face showed some kind of a realization and she quickly shot her head toward one of the heroes guarding them. “Hey you! You guys have a bunch of enchanted ammunition for your cannons, right?”

“Huh?” The hero blinked and then nodded cautiously. “Yes, we do but it won’t do us any good. Almost all of the cannons are already down for the count.” He gestured down at the shore where Calisto was making a short work of all the enemy vessels.

“Doesn’t matter. You don’t need a cannon to throw a bunch of bitch balls around.” Sahra replied and then quickly ran up to the lion before kneeling down to him slightly. “Zapp, can you tell Bern something else? We might not be able to act right now, but we can get ready to do so for when the field comes down.”

~~~

“Boop.” Calisto pointed her index finger at another ship and then sharply raised it, conjuring an icy spire underneath it that penetrated the hull and tore the ship asunder along with a bunch of unlucky heroes that were caught in its range.

A fierce battle cry made the sorceress turn her head and she saw an order hero suddenly appear close to her. He brandished his spear and charged at her but before he could take more than a handful of steps however, he was stopped in his tracks as his feet suddenly became encased in ice.

He tried to desperately struggle free but it was futile, the ice was rapidly building up and covering his entire body.

“Tarkus! No!” Another hero managed to break through the Galmathorian formation surrounding Calisto and fired a shot from his bow toward the sorceress who sharply snapped her head back, giving him a literal icy glare that made the arrow freeze over midflight and fall down before shattering into a thousand pieces.

“Tch, these new recruits can’t do anything right. They are supposed to prevent garbage like that form getting close to me” The sorceress scowled. “Begone from my sight, worm!”

Calisto snapped her finger sharply and the hero tensed up, ready to move out of the way of whatever she would fling at him. Unfortunately, the danger ended up arriving from his blind spot in the form of a large icicle that quickly grew out of the ice behind the hero.

“Bruford… w-watch out!” The first hero who was now nearly entirely frozen over struggled to warn his comrade but it was too late. The massive cone of ice tore through the bow wielding hero’s chest, rending his body asunder and making his hot crimson blood splash down on the surface while his body helplessly dangled on the tip of the frozen spire.

“You…bbbwwwiiit-“ The spear wielding hero moaned before his voice vanished entirely as his body became completely encased in ice.

“What was that?” Calisto playfully put her hand to her ear and smirked while leaning toward the newly created ice statue of the hero. “You think I am a bitch? My, my. And here I thought you Order heroes were supposed to be gentlemen.”

The woman straightened out again and casually walked away from the figure shortly before two ice spikes shot from opposite sides of it and it exploded into a shower of red ice chunks that scattered around with a clatter.

The noise seemed to be pleasant to her ears so much that she didn’t even realize when an arrow was shot at her. Even though her back was turned to the collapsed Bruford, his arrow that was aimed at the back of the sorceress’s head was knocked off course when a part of the ice nearby suddenly unthawed and turned into a splash of water that was flung at the projectile.

Instead of killing Calisto, Bruford’s final shot only managed to leave a sharp gash on her face that made her scream out in pain and anger before turning around to glare at the hero.

“You…you piece of shit! You are still alive!”

The unarmored man twitched weakly, no longer being able to breathe or speak after his lungs were torn out of his body by the icicle that struck his back. But with the strength given to him by his adrenaline rush and his desire to avenge his friend, his aching muscles tensed up again as he nocked another arrow on his lucky bow.

He was never able to fire a second shot unfortunately. The icy spear that his body was hanging from suddenly expanded into a cloud of spikes that spread out along its length that completely ripped him apart in a moment.

The blood covered bow clonked along the ice before sliding next to the pile of red ice chunks that were left from Tarkus.

Calisto touched her face, still enraged at how her beauty was besmirched by some lowly hero who attacked her from the back like a coward.

Fortunately, no more attackers were coming directly at her. The black and gold armored soldiers were picking up their pace and formed a perfect unbreachable circle around her while the numbers of their enemies were thinning out. The biggest threat were the order ship’s cannons and most of them were now in shambles thanks to her timely intervention.

“Tch, I can’t believe I am forced to clean up after that old fart Richter. If he didn’t mess up, Cair would already be under our control.” The sorceress spoke out in annoyance before shifting her attention to the remaining handful of ships. “Well I suppose as long as lady Dia is pleased this is fine.” She suddenly sighed dreamily and her cheeks reddened in a blush as her mouth turned into a wistful smile.

A sharp whistling noise interrupted her daydreaming and she quickly looked around. It sounded vaguely like an approaching cannonball but she did not hear any of the cannons firing. Nothing was coming at her from the fort’s side either, which confused her even further. Then she looked up.

This spur of the moment decision ended up saving her life as her expression twisted in shock when she saw the source of the strange noise. It was not a cannonball.

The warrior’s roar, though not currently amplified by Zapp’s magic was still blood chilling and made her body go rigid in shock. This sharply contrasted with the burning beidhander tightly clutched in his right hand that shone with the flames of the discord’s enchantment.

“W-what the hells!” The sorceress screeched and instinctively thrust both of her hands upwards, making two huge icicles quick form from the air moisture around her and shoot out from them, directly at the rapidly approaching man who was falling at her form the sky at an alarming speed while screaming like a wild animal.

The projectile’s aim was true, as if their course was adjusted midflight by an invisible hand and the person falling down had no way to dodge them in his state. So he didn’t.

With an ear-splitting screech, the metal of the blade sung as the rapidly traveling air passed over its fiery surface.

With two precise attacks, both icicles were split down in the middle, not even slowing down the warrior’s descent. His landing point would be directly on her face at this rate. So the sorceress did the wise call and began to retreat. The ice under her feet suddenly cracked and broke up, forming a platform that then hurriedly slid away, carrying her to safety.

Instead of smashing right through the cover of the ice and sinking underwater though, the armored figure landed down on his feet with a remarkably quiet clatter, as if it only weighted a few dozens of pounds.

“Who the hells…?” Calisto stared at the warrior in disbelief who quickly stood back up, completely unfazed by the landing.

The warrior pointed his burning sword at the enemy commander, the flames licking his blade glinting menacingly while the bright orange light it produced reflected from the frozen surroundings.

“Wait, that face…!” her eyes widened in realization as she recognized the eyepatch and the flowing black hair and beard. “You! You are the person who fought with Richter in the arena! Agent B of DSS! Well now!” She smirked and the warrior felt some vague movement behind him while she continued to speak.

“I heard of your deeds in Cair. You disabled the mana suppression emitter as well, haven’t you?” She asked while a spear of ice began to form behind the warrior, aimed to pierce his heart.

“So, do you have one of those too? Summon spirits I mean.” Bernsen asked absentmindedly and his gaze followed the liquid monster.

“Huh.” Calisto suddenly froze at the spot. “W-wait, Y-you k-“

“Haaaaaahhh!” Bernsen sharply turned around and slashed sidewise at the ice spear forming behind him with a powerful swing.

The ice shattered with a crash, sending chunks of it to rain down on the surface of the frozen river, some of them hissing and steaming from the contact with the fiery blade of Pappas Maximus.

Realizing that her stealth attack was foiled, Calisto frowned.

“So it is true then. Richter spilled his guts. So much for the unbreakable wall of Galmathoria. What a laugh.” She tried to scowl but then was forced to jump back in surprise when the warrior rapidly closed the distance between them and thrust his blade forward with the intention to impale her on the spot. Her expression shifted in fear when she realized that the distance was nowhere long enough and that was about to die.

“Ngh!” Bernsen grunted when something suddenly caught his foot and he fell down flat on the ice, unable to catch his fall with his single functioning arm tightly wrapped around the weapon.

He quickly turned his head around and noticed that ice had begun to form around his feet in rapid fashion, quickly spreading toward the rest of his body, covering his arms, chest and even neck.

“That… that was close.” The sorceress swallowed hard and took another step back after escaping death by mere inches. “I should not underestimate you. Richter might have been an honor obsessed fool but he was no pushover, if you survived an encounter with him then I can’t afford to hold back. I’ll kill you quickly while I have the chance!”

Calisto firmly planted her right hand on her hip, making her coat flare when she suddenly stomped with her left foot down and dug the heel of her boot sharply into the ice.

“Undine! Bloody Mary!” She shouted and suddenly a shimmering figure emerged from her body, separating from it. It was a beautiful woman but she had no texture to her skin and hair and was molded entirely out of water into a shape of a mermaid.

The summon spirit dove forward into the ice as if it was water and vanished out of sight. At the same time two large ice walls formed on the opposites sides of the warrior, each one covered with a myriad of ice spikes that would surely tear him apart. He struggled against his binds, but the ice was holding him firmly in place and he did not have enough strength to break out without access to his tranquil fury state.

>What do you do?

posting to update to see the post

>>295463

better idea

have our dear star bear claw a hole in her heart or better hear claw her head off

while she's acting all cocky

or use her fire aspect to melt the ice

(i think it be better to be done with this quickly though before the enemy knows we also have a Stand )

>>295464

yet not hear

i don't know what just happened

Well, if we're killing the anti-magic field we can hit the ships with lightning after fireballing the ice, and in the unlikely event that any escape the lightning, we can freeze them if we get Undine from Calisto. Is Skorne's balrog fire disabled too? I thought that might've helped with the ice, but it'd be handy against Calisto's ice magic.

Either way, we're in a bad spot. When the foxes had us encased, we might've only made it because of Bearzerking, which we now lack. The beidhander's fire might be able to free us. If not, we don't have Maxie to protect us, and none of the spirit abilities we have seem defensive or otherwise relevant, so Ursa had better pull through.

Afterwards, we've still got to deal with Calisto. She doesn't seem particularly strong. In fact, she seems extremely dependent upon Undine. Undine will make it very hard to hit Calisto directly, so while we're fighting (maybe doing what >>295463 said), we build up spirit energy to hit Undine with spirit overdrive. It'll take time in the cold, but if it doesn't kill Calisto, it should catch her very off guard and the damage will make it much more easy to finish her off. If the power fist wasn't dead, I'd say just shoot her instead. Doubt ice could block a beam of heat. Alas.

We could also be like

"You're a god damned puppet dancing on her little strings or do you enjoy being part of a genocide?"

Then ask her if shes working with al sabab as a way of distracting her, if she does keep going down the road about taking out the wizard union infiltrator and how hes D.E.A.D.

If she isn't working with them tell her about THE group and the planned mass sacrifice about how This whole thing is a farse about al sabith using children <and we can assume from the school> spice to brain wash them into some crazy ideological war

Then

we spill the beans about the what al sabbath tryed to do to the city ie pompay it

And if were asking questions… We ask her why her soldiers die if the armer is breached as well

This is all a way of detracting her and maybe buying time while we do our other things, for real slav we can talk and act at the same time dont bad end us please we feel enough as it is

Once again to win a "secrets war" make it not secret

At least thats the strat im going with

Maybe its the wrong one but its the best one i got

We info wars now suns of solos

>>295561

BAD IDEA. Didn't we learn our lesson after the doppelganger? If Calisto somehow gets away right now, she'll only be able to tell Dia that we know about summon spirits. If we blurt out all that, on the other hand, she would have so much to tell her. She'll tell Dia her pet wizard is dead so she can alter her plans as needed. She'll tell Dia we know about the spice operations, getting her to hide them more or relocate, screwing all the people addicted to it. She'll tell Dia we know her plans, so that Dia can accelerate them.

If you want to expose a secret war, you need to reveal it to as many people as possible at once, NOT AN ENEMY AGENT, and more importantly, you need evidence, rock solid evidence, or nobody will believe you. All the proof we have is Skorne's testimony (and Sahra's for the spice operations). It might be good enough for DSS since they can verify it, but it won't be good enough for most people. For all they know, it could have been forced under duress or even outright fabricated. And if most people won't believe it, why would an enemy agent?

I'd say you're doing it wrong, but this goes so many levels beyond that. At least when we gave Agent K and his agents sensitive info, we thought we were only telling allies. It was stupid, but not malicious. This, though? This is almost sabotage! Are you an Al-Sabbath agent?

>>295569

alright bud you make a good case

>>295561

SLAV BRO

I RETRACT MY IDEA

With a colossal, ear splitting crash, both spiked ice walls collided on the point where the warrior laid with a nasty sounding crunch.

Calisto breathed in and out a few times, making a few clouds of white vapor escape her mouth but did not approach the makeshift burial tomb made out of ice and instead moved even further back with a frown.

“Undine can still hear your heartbeat agent B. I don’t know how you pulled it off, but you won’t fool me.”

At that moment, the square block was split in half by a swing of a fiery blade from within and fell apart in two perfect pieces, revealing a hollow compartment within in place where the spikes were that hissed loudly when pressurized steam escaped from it.

The warrior stepped out from the swirling white cloud and readied his weapon to charge at the enemy commander again. “Well, it was worth a shot.” But before he could do so much as take another step forward he nearly slipped and fell.

Bernsen barely managed to keep his balance and looked down in surprise. The rough frozen river terrain around him had shifted and transformed into a perfectly smoothed out flat shape that was so pure that it reflected the sun’s rays from above and he could see his own reflection in it like inside of a well-crafted mirror.

“You fight primarily in melee range from what I remember, don’t you?” Calisto pulled some loose hair from her forehead behind her, displaying her beautiful pale face and turquoise eyes.

“Fighting you head-on would be suicide.” She continued. “Fortunately, I do not need to. You have yet to realize it, but you have no chance to win against me. Richter had obtained his summon spirit only a few months ago, but I? I had mine for years. I know all of its weaknesses and limitations and can adjust accordingly depending on the situation. And you chose the absolute worst environment to fight me at. With all this water around us, Undine can move around freely and merge with it to conceal her presence, allowing her to attack you from any angle that I want.”

The warrior calmly looked around himself, mostly seeing the reflection of the sky and the clouds. This was not good at all. His enemy would fall with a single blow from him if he could land one, but that was a very big if. His initial surprise attack had failed and her demeanor returned to a much calmer, almost chilling state.

She stood confidently with her right hand firmly planted on her hip while her blue eyes studied the warrior and occasionally flicked around quickly to see how the battle around her was proceeding.

“Worried about your men?” The warrior attempted to stall for time to figure out a way to attack.

“No. But it seems like Deleor already managed to arm a garrison of a considerable size in Cair.” The sorceress clicked her tongue in annoyance after her sight shifted from the approaching force from the opposite shore. “Our intel said that Richter, while having failed to seize it, managed to destabilize the city and caused major damage to its number of denizens. Looks like it was wrong, I need to adjust the formation of my forces. But first.”

She suddenly loudly snapped her fingers and a bunch of the lightning mace wielding soldiers in black surrounding the area she was in, turned around and approached her position, running over the ice like it was solid ground somehow.

“Deal with him.” The sorceress turned around and gestured casually behind her. “Undine! Return!”

Some of the ice near her quickly unthawed and turned into a puddle of water that then sprung out, forming a humanoid shape that splashed against the form of the sorceress. Instead of drenching her black coat however, the liquid looked it was rapidly absorbed into her body through her clothes, leaving the woman completely dry.

The warrior quickly tried to reach for his bow to strike but realized that the sword in his grasp was impossible to pry out without the help of his adamantium hand which was currently disabled. He would have to act with what he had.

The two dozen of black armored Galmathorian melee shock troops quickly surrounded the warrior with their shields and weapons raised.

Bernsen’s foot twitched slightly when he tried to move but once more, the near perfect surface of the ice prevented him from moving without falling over.

“How come you are not slipping around?” The man complained out loud while studying the movements of his enemies. They were not quite as well trained as the Order soldiers he had encountered earlier were, but their formation was still strong. Judging by the way they were approaching, they were not going to form a shield wall with their obsidian tower shields but would instead surround the warrior and try to beat him up with their enchanted maces.

His verbal comment did not get a response and the soldiers quickly closed in and raised their weapons, ready to strike. He didn’t want to reveal his trump card early on, but it looked like he had no choice now.

With a furious snarl, Ursa major appeared from within the warrior’s body, grabbed him and threw him forward at one of the soldiers and Bernsen plunged his blade into the closest person’s throat. The Galmathorian soldier’s flesh hissed loudly in contact with the fiery blade and a bunch of clear liquid splashed out.

Something suddenly twisted inside the warrior stomach, a memory that made his body tense up in response after he ripped his blade out and the soldier did not even twitch.

“You…!” Was all that he managed to utter in horror before instinctively rolling sideways along the ice to avoid a bunch of mace strikes directed at him. Because of a lack of friction, his evasive maneuver ended up being a stumble that then turned into a slide. It did succeed in knocking one of the soldiers over and creating an opening however. Not wasting any time, Bernsen swung his sword over the collapsed soldier’s legs and cut them off with a single blow, the fiery blade of discord burning the multi layered dyed arachnae silk and the orichalcum threads woven into them asunder.

This exposed the flesh within the wound that was reminiscent of a clear jellylike substance while the bones looked brittle, almost like they were made out of glass. But more than that, the surface of the cut started to slowly wobble as tiny little white needlelike protrusions began to grow out of from the wound, becoming longer and longer and starting to wriggle around like maggots crawling out of a disturbed rotten carcass that they were feasting on. But they were not maggots.

Just like last time, this wound did not even make the collapsed soldier scream, he only slowly turned his helmet covered head at the warrior and tried to swing his shocking weapon at him.

With another slash, his arm was separated from the rest of his body by the warrior and it landed on the ice after making a few flips through the air, the mace making loud static and crackling noises while the electricity uselessly discharged into the ice.

The rest of the homunculi soldiers quickly surrounded the warrior again but this time he was caught with his back flat on the ice.

“Ursa!” Bernsen shouted in panic while starting to hyperventilate and the grizzly appeared next to him to forcibly pull him on his shoulder to drag him away to safety. His mind began to get assaulted with horrible memories he had long suppressed and ones that were now flooding his mind. He had to get out. He had to get some backup.

“Aren’t you forgetting someone?” Calisto’s cocky voice spoke out.

An icy spike erupted from below the warrior and pierced his body through.

“Aaaaahhh! Ahhhh! AAAAAAH!” The warrior screamed and screamed while wildly flailing his sword around without any rhyme and reason, sometimes succeeding in cutting the homunculi soldiers that immediately surrounded him apart while other times, only uselessly striking their shields.

Bellowing like a cornered animal, he trashed around, unable to move with his body being pinned to the ground and becoming completely surrounded by the abominations of nature that should not exist anymore.

Why? He thought with the last remaining vestiges of his sanity. Why are you here? You should be dead. I killed you. I killed you with my own hands. Why are you back?

Another mace strike successfully hit him, sending a powerful surge of lightning through his body which made it go rigid and fall over facedown into the ice.

Smash, smash, smash.

More blows rained upon his body, denting his armor and sending more powerful currents of electricity through his body while his mind locked up from the terrible memories of his last days in the Black Forest of things that he was not supposed to ever see again.

The mixture of fear, anger and confusion in his heart was not allowing him to concentrate to plan something out or to even invoke his summon spirit. He moved purely on instinct, swathing and lashing out against the horde of black armored creatures who knew no fear, mercy or any other emotion and moved in systematic fashion with only one goal, to kill him while their commander laughed at his misery.

He heard a distant voice through his familiar connection, it was yelling for him to snap out of it, to fight and regain control but everything was swallowed up by the overwhelming sensation of horror and rejection of reality he was experiencing. His paranoia and panic attack only fueled further by the pile of corpses of the Galmathorian soldiers that he was half buried in, the white wormlike protrusions growing from their bodies reaching toward him, caressing his skin with their cold touch.

With a huge crack, the ice he was on was finally unable to support the rain of electrically charges blows anymore and broke apart. In an instant, the warrior was swallowed by the freezing waters along with a bunch of pale black armored corpses he was buried in. Their discarded weapons, released the rest of their charges into the water, making it flash white while currents of electricity blasted through it with loud crackling noises for a few seconds before finally stopping, making the water bubble up and hiss until everything became quiet again.

The circle of homunculi around the water split apart, allowing Calisto to approach the hole in the ice. After standing there for a minute and confirming that her adversary was indeed, death for good, she smiled wickedly and walked away without another word.

~~~

Skorne sharply stepped aside when a mace wielding soldier tried to strike her once more and with a sharp swing of her axe, she buried the blade into the skull of her adversary, making a bunch of clear liquid splash out instead of blood.

She and the rest of the Cair forces managed to successfully reach and flank the invaders who were attacking fort Carlsbad, but now they encountered a completely unexpected situation in the form of their enemies, who were refusing to die or to even stop moving without getting their heads either cut off or smashed in completely.

Unlike the ones who were wielding the rifles, these foes did not burst into flames when their armor was breached and were giving even the balrog who had seen plenty of horrors in her life, a weird vibe. Their movements were well practiced and they were cooperating with each other but none of them were making a sound.

No screams, no shouts of orders, not even a grunt of pain. But despite that, they were successfully covering each other, as if they could read each other’s thoughts in an instant.

Coupled with their devastating melee weapons, it made even their successful ambush for naught and in fact, they were getting overpowered and pushed back now.

“Damn it.” The balrog cursed and sharply moved back to avoid getting surrounded by the expanding mass of black armored soldiers. She was ordered to disable the magic suppression emitter, but she could not even get close to one of the submarines that were being guarded by these creepy soldiers in black.

Considering how even she was having trouble getting close, it was no wonder that the Cair forces who were supposed to ambush the Galmathorians were getting decimated.

“Fall back! Faaaalll back!” Mercedes, one of the order officers screamed out a command while stabbing in front of her with her rapier repeatedly and backing away from the enemy line. This situation was straight out of a nightmare of some sort. The lizardman fought plenty of tough enemies but it was like each one of these foes was an ushi oni, with how casually they shrugged off their wounds without so much as a hiss.

And while only absolutely lethal damage managed to bring a handful of Galmathorians down, all they had to do in turn was to strike them once. Even if the shock of electricity didn’t instantly make the person’s heart stop, it paralyzed them, allowing further blows to rain down upon them until their bodies turned into a bloody, cooked mush.

K and the rest of the DSS agents could do little more than to observe from the back of the frontline, their magitek weapons, their trump card disabled completely and turned useless.

“There is no choice. We need to pull out.” He finally concluded with a frown and with a few gestures, ordered his men to turn around and escape toward the city.

More and more of the enemies began to fall over dead once the balrog got into the rhythm and figured out their weaknesses. One got their skull crushed and splattered from the sheer pressure of the force behind her artificial arm. Another got his head cut clean off at the neck, exposing some disgusting wriggling pale tendrils that grew from its neck like worms. A third got his neck broken with a snap when Skorne picked up one of the discarded maces and smashed it into the side of his head. She tried to burn a few of them too using her innate immolation abilities but the thick spidersilk armor that they wore, offered a surprisingly good protection and did not catch on fire.

But no matter how many she killed, more just kept coming with the same quiet eerie disposition, uncaring of their comrade’s fates and casually stepping over their bodies like they were nothing but trash scattered on the ground before them.

The soldiers around her were also starting to lose their nerve after seeing their enemies shrug off more damage that should have been possible. But what broke the camel’s back and made them really start to outright flee was when a tall frozen pillar grew out from the back of the enemy line, carrying a lone female figure on top of it. Calisto sat upon the spire with her legs crossed, it’s top carefully carved into a shape of a throne of some sort.

“Huh. I thought there would be trouble, but these new super soldiers can take a lot of punishment at least.” Calisto muttered and rubbed her chin thoughtfully while casually observing what was going on at the backline of her forces from her seat of power.

A sparkling mace was flung at her which rapidly traveled through the air before getting smacked away by an icicle that suddenly grew out of the top of her ice throne and fired forward to intercept it before it could reach Calisto.

“Hmm?” The sorceresses’ gaze traveled at the source of the projectile, spotting a curious looking monster with curled horns that was wielding an axe. “Wait a minute…Skorne? The grand champion of Cair?”

The balrog backed away slightly to get some distance between her and the frontline and looked at the enemy commander again before shouting. “Are you Calisto!? The general of Galmathorian Navy!?”

“I am indeed. I am surprised to see you still here in Cair. If I am not mistaken, you were supposed to assist Richter in his task of liberating it. Seeing how you are not in one of Sanctiford’s dungeons with him though, I think it is safe to assume that you have betrayed him.” The woman responded in a bored tone.

“I have indeed!” Skorne shouted back and pointed her orichalcum axe at Calisto. “I have betrayed your countrymen for my own selfish goals and sold your colleague, general Richter out! Does that anger you! Then come down here and fight!”

Calisto raised one of her eyebrows and smirked. “Fight you? What for? I should be thanking you instead.”

“W-what?” This made the balrog hesitate at the display of genuine gratitude and the warm expression she was being basked with.

“Richter was the biggest opposition in the military against our expansionist plans. Lady Dia respected his opinion because of his loyalty and years of service and he had many supporters but now that he is out of the way, there is no one holding us back from claiming this land! The time for Galmathoria to be stuck in the far off reaches of the continent, scrounging for resources and land is over! Today I, Calisto will make this river run red with the blood of the pathetic people and monsters standing in the way of Lady Dia’s destiny to become the absolute ruler of Deleor and the Monster nation!” The sorceress threw her head back and let out a loud merry laugh before looking down at the balrog again.

“So no Skorne. I will not fight you. Not because I do not want to, but because I do not need to. My men do not need any directions on this front after all, they will have no problem taking care of you and the rest of the roaches that crawled from the other side of this river.” With that, the ice pillar rapidly shrunk back down and the figure sitting on top of it vanished out of sight.

The balrog frowned deeply. What was going on anyway? Didn’t Bernsen say he would try to engage Calisto earlier? Did something go wrong?

~~~

Somehow, despite the countless electric discharges sent through his body. Despite the fierce beatdown of his enemy’s weapons that broke every bone in his body. Despite the gaping hole in his chest carved by an icy spear conjured beneath him by Callisto, the warrior was still alive. But he could not see anything around him besides the pitch black abyss that swallowed him. It was cold. So cold. He could not move a muscle, no matter how much he willed his body to move. He must have been paralyzed by the electric currents. The only thing he could feel were the bodies of his enemies brushing against him while he sank down to the bottom of the river along with them.

He was not panicking anymore but he felt distant. This must have been the state of being between life and death that he had heard about. Where it felt like you were observing yourself from outside. He no longer even felt pain, only numbness brought by the chilling water currents that gently dragged him down into the abyss. The voice of Zapp was silent. There were no sounds around him in this watery grave that he had buried himself in. There was only darkness. Darkness and cold.

But even though his body was numb, his soul was writhing in pain, overwhelmed with regret. How did he mess up this bad? Did he bite off more than he could chew? Did he become overconfident, thinking that he could face any danger by himself? No, he remembered. He wanted to ensure that no one would have to risk their lives any more than they had to. And now he paid the price himself in turn.

But this was not the only thing bothering the warrior. It made no sense. How was this possible? There was not a shroud of doubt in his heart. These men, these “men”. They were her creation. The pale imitations of true life created by The Mistress of the Black forest. The person who made him loose everything.

But she is dead. She was supposed to be dead. He, Martel and Forsythe had killed her. There was not a trace left of the false goddess after the great forest spirit purged that parasite from her body and the gazer had burned away what was left of her with the black flames that she had conjured.

And now she was back and helping Galmathoria? Nothing made sense. Why. He had so many questions left unanswered.

A burning feeling of shame tore at his heart whose beat was becoming slower with no oxygen to feed his blood anymore. For his failure. For leaving his friends above to fend for themselves. He tried to muster his strength again to do anything. He tried to move his body but it refused. He tried to reach out with his spirit energy but it laid still, frozen by the chilling waters around him. Even his summon spirit refused to manifest, having been broken along with his body.

Slowly. Slowly, he was sinking to the bottom. There was no way out. He failed.

Something stirred on his face suddenly and a bunch of air bubbles burst out from his beard. He could barely see in the watery abyss around him, but he spotted the terrified looking form of Kenzie who tried to speak, only for a bunch of more bubbles to escape her mouth. She shivered from the cold and swam up to his face, trying to pull on it.

What are you doing Kenzie? The warrior wanted to say. Run. I have not sunk too deeply yet. If you swim up right now, you might be able to reach the surface and survive. But he could not speak. Run Kenzie. Please run.

The caith sith looked up, seeing a tiny dot of white light shining above. The hole that the warrior fell through. But it was rapidly shrinking by the second as his broken and dented armor pulled him down.

Instead of swimming up, the fairy’s terrified face suddenly took on a determined look and she stopped shivering from the cold and instead swam down toward his beard and crawled inside of it. That’s right. She should get as much air as she can before swimming up, the warrior thought. She was small and it was a long way up, but he was sure she could pull it off. She had survived so many horrible things done to her. She was a fighter at heart.

Some small cord of rope suddenly emerged from his hair with another torrent of bubbles. It was followed by the fairy who struggled to move through the water while gritting her teeth hard. She managed to reach the end of the rope and then pulled down as hard on it as she could to drag it down toward one of the warrior’s hands. After fumbling around with it, she managed to tie something resembling a cord around his arm and swam back into his beard.

This rope. What was it? The warrior’s thought. He could have sworn he saw it before but where? But more importantly, what did she think she was doing? He was moving deeper down below. She had to hurry, she would not reach the surface otherwise. He was a goner. She would not be able to pull him out. The effect of the feather fall potion wore off and even if he could drink another one, that still left the weight of his armor and weapon gripped in his right hand.

Another cord of some sort moved out of his beard and Kenzie repeated the process with it, tying it around his other arm before diving into his beard again. The light above was now barely a speck and Bernsen could barely see anything. But he felt his facial hair stir again twice more. He could make out the figure of the fairy who had shriveled from the cold. He knew that she could barely move her fingers now and it looked like she had hurt her hands while trying to tie the rope that was half the size of her body.

Finally, with one final push, a square wooden box of some sort was forced out from his beard of holding. The object to which the cords were tied to. The warrior’s eyes widened. It was a STARS unit given to him by DSS some time ago. The one he used to capture Blitzkrieg with. A special air recovery package that would send whatever it was attached to high into the air to be picked up by a trained harpy later on that would bring it to a DSS safehouse for recovery.

The fairy, despite the struggle she was forced through, looked livelier than before and swam toward the box that had a single lever on it. She pulled on it as hard as she could but it didn’t budge. Realizing that it was not working, Kenzie began to frantically pull on it repeatedly, trying to wedge it free.

Stop. The warrior felt some heat build up under his eyelids. Stop Kenzie. There is no time left. His oxygen deprivation was finally in its last stage. His vision was darkening and his limbs began to convulse weakly, the muscles within spasming violently.

The caith sith’s expression turned more and more desperate while she saw that the warrior was slowly dying and she kept trying to activate the machine. Finally, musing all of her courage and power, she hugged the lever with her whole body, bit down on it with her teeth and yanked it free.

With a hiss, the lever suddenly launched back from the force of the pressurized air stored within the box. Kenzie opened her mouth in surprise or perhaps pain, making all of the air stored in her lungs escape as the lever slammed into her stomach and pushed her away.

Within a moment, a large round balloon formed above the warrior and he felt a painful tugging sensation that began to rapidly pull him up toward the surface, toward the light that rapidly grew closer. But instead of crying in joy, the warrior’s mouth opened at last to let out a silent scream of despair when he saw that Kenzie was left near the bottom of the river. The lever that shot out form the box pushed her away from him. She must have known that this would happen, as she saw it used in action before and wanted to pull it free in a way that would allow her to grab the warrior during his ascent. But when it turned out to be impossible, she instead chose to pull it out in any way possible, no matter the cost.

While trying to save him, she wasted too much time. She was near the bottom and she would not be able to reach the surface. So why? Why was she smiling with such genuine happiness while looking up at him as he rapidly ascended, knowing that she was about to die?

“I love you Bernie.” The fairy mouthed silently while looking up at the warrior who was rapidly getting pulled away to safety and closed her eyes.

As the warrior rapidly moved to the surface, a horrible pain suddenly assaulted his head as he felt the blood vessels in his head pop in rapid fashion from the fast ascent. By the time his limp body burst from the water and flew into the sky, he had completely blacked out.

~~~

An annoying scraping noise awoke the warrior and he immediately groaned in pain. All around him was only whiteness. He tried to move his body but found it to be bound with rope that was attached to something above him. Then the memory hit like a speeding leyline train and he felt his heart sink into the depths of his stomach while a chill traveling down his spine made him shudder.

Without a warning, the whiteness around him suddenly disappeared and he found himself leaving the veil of mist he was in which was in fact, a cloud. Above was only the clear blue sky and bellow, far, far below was the ground. How long had he been out for?

The scraping noise made itself known again and he struggled to move his neck to look at its source. Standing on top of the wooden box from which a balloon was extending from was a beat down and scrawny looking person no bigger than the warrior’s thumb. The gremlin that they had captured whose name he had yet to learn. She held his silver dagger in her hands which was big enough to act as a great sword in her hands and was dragging it back and forth over the rope that the balloon was attached to.

“Hngh! S-stop!” The warrior grunted and tried to move his body but the terrible numbness from before was still there.

“Don’t move.” The Gremlin looked back sharply and spat out at him with a scornful expression. “And don’t try to use your summon spirit either.”

“What are you…doing?” The warrior breathed out with a lot more effort than speaking should have took.

“You should have died when Calisto dumped you to the bottom of that stupid river but because of that stupid fairy and this stupid clown balloon that you DSS bastards carry around with you, you are still alive. I am going to cut it off so you will fall down and die.” The child angrily explained and pushed the blade against the rope again, cutting a few more strings that it was made out of. It let out a dangerous creak and the warrior’s body shook.

“But…if you do that…” Bernsen gasped and swallowed hard. “You’ll die too.”

This made the little monster hesitate for a moment, her expression betraying a shadow of fear before she shook her head and looked back at him with a look of finality. “Yea. But as long as I get one of you with me, I don’t care. I know all about your equipment. Sooner or later this balloon will be picked up by a special courier and get brought to DSS. And once there, your friends will torture me until I tell you all that I know. I can’t do that. I won’t betray lady Dia. I’ll kill us both if I have to.”

>What do you do?

its time for the mother of all bellyflops were gonna fall at high velocity and have our stand cover our body in fire and shield our body we'll hit the ocean so hard it'll break all the ice and kenzie can make a break for it if shes alive at the very least it'll fuck shit up big time

>>295731

also tell the gremlin to get in our beard if she wants to go back down

>>295731

also have our stand shoot fire out of her hands so we fall at an accelerated rate like a fighter jet doing a nose dive

also quickly use some hamon to fix us up first

>>295741

im serious tho like can we use our stand this or is it a stretch

Kenzie will just return to the faggot gods realm and live happily ever after r-right guys?

>>295731

This sounds incredibly retarded lets do it.

>>295727

Can't we use Ursa to go save Kenzie ? Also while we can't use it to take her out of the rope since she might burn it, can we make her move bersen hands and shover the gremlin back on our beard?

>>295741

Dont you lie to us slavanon

>>295741

NO IT AIN'T!!

SLAVSAN, IS FINALLY KILLING OFF THE WAIFUS, SO BERNSEN IS STUCK WITH FIRE LOLI!!

ALL ANONS, ABANDON THREAD!!

>>295775

To be fair we chose to not waifu anybody in barbarian quest (or rather couldn't come to a consensus on who to waifu) we shrugged of Midoris advances we turned Kenzie down and everytime someone's mentioning Sahra there's at least one or two fags who try to turn it into a father daughter relationship.

Even when the slav gave us another shot at the Badger waifu we just complete ignored her and chose not to engage.

And let's not talk about what happened with the monkey.

Weather you like it or not we are well on the way on the wizard route if we keep our current attitude up. At this point our best shot at a relationship is if Ursa should develop a complex conscious like Gnome did since that would be the only person we can't alienate or let be killed off. But that would probably just count as masturbation anyways.

>>295727

I hate calisto

I hate the gremlin

I hate dia

I hate all of the kebabs

Get information from zapp, do we know where the magic suppression device is, can we aim ourselves there?

>>295792

More importantly… are we out of range of its effects

1. Deal with gremmkid

2. Locate (use negative force mapping) ice bitch fire god ray to ice the ice bitch

2.5 use spirit recover

3. Ursa cast "star fall" on battle "field"

4.bern activate fire sword and

5. Recover the fay

This is the list of things we should try and do

I will leave it to you faggots to come up with ways to do it all

>>295727

Ask her why she's so loyal to Dia, and where she got the idea that they'd torture her. We might be able to talk her out of this, especially if she doesn't know how ruthless Al-Sabbath can be. If she doesn't know about their spice operations, we can tell her Sahra's story. If all else fails, hopefully the talking will go on long enough for the numbness to go away and Bern can snatch her. Either way, we can use a featherfall potion to get back down.

Assuming we live through this, I suggest an alteration to the plan. The original plan was predicated on us melting the ice on our own. After all, if Calisto could flash freeze a lake while an anti-magic field was up using her water/ice summon spirit, surely a fire summon spirit or a monster with innate fire (Skorne) could undo it, as long as Calisto couldn't redo it. Problem is, fighting Calisto didn't go so well. But before, we didn't know the fort had fire bitch balls in stock, so now we have an alternative. Stealth. If we use the Hide ability and Spirit Sense to find the anti-magic device without being detected, we can disable it without fighting. Afterwards, it's just a matter of using the fire bitch balls to melt the ice, quickly followed by lightning bitch balls to kill the sub crews and the riflemen hiding on them. If Calisto bites it in those attacks, we eat her fried heart. If not, we track her down, kill her, and eat her heart.

On a side note, why didn't B just use Ursa to melt the ice under the troops moving to attack him? Feels like we could've avoided this very easily, but we didn't because of cutscene-induced stupidity.

>>295798

Meant to say we track her down, kill her, and eat her heart WITH THE REST OF OUR GROUP.

>>295795

6. forcefully remove Calisto's internal organs, then proceed to consume said organs.

>>295727

>I know all about your equipment.

The gremlin was briefed on DSS equipment.

We should get trained as a plumber, because we really need to deal with these DSS leaks.

At least it's more evidence that a purge is needed.

Our friend and lovable sidekick just died (you guys are way to optimistic about that) the homunculi are back and the rest of our allies are getting slaughtered down there.

This is not the time to grief or be paralyzed in fear. This is the time for rage and vengeance. This is the time to show our enemies what it means to face the boundless anger of a true Barbarian. Rip and Tear Bernsen.

Rip and Tear

>>295926

*Forgot to sage, and i agree with >>295795

>>295792

>can we aim ourselves there?

Actually, we should aim Ursla at it, like a furry, fiery cannonball

>>296342

>He can't break that promise now. He has to bring her back

Technically speaking, bringing someone back from the dead doesn't change the fact that they died to begin with, so he's already broken his promise.

Is Slavsan kill?

>>296425

Jesus, I forgot how low Star Platinum's durability decays by part six…

>>298024

Well, he is 40 years old by then.

also sage you fag

I just realised, we need to get so angry, that ursla gets so hot that she melts calisto's summon and melts into the ice, causing it to break apart.

RIP in peppers slavsan

Not dead, but my new job leaves absolutely no room for creative writing during the workweek.

Usually I sit down for around five to six hours a day to cook up something that I find satisfying to my quality standards unless I have to redo a draft because it turns out to be too autistic, boring or plain old retarded in which case I discard it and rewrite it the next day.

Deepest apologies, I'll try to cook something up this weekend. In the meantime, you can enjoy Wizardquest 2 by AceTheWriteFag which is also available on this board. It stars a Nazi general on an journey to liberate Africa from degenerate nomadic tribes.

Yea, no way around it seems. I am announcing an extended hiatus until I get a roomier schedule.

To make the bitter wait less painful and the unintended cliff hanger less crazy I would like to remind everyone that your fairy buddy is an amateur necromancer.

Until next time folks and sorry for the inconvenience.

>>299309

>fairy buddy is an amateur necromancer

>zombie fairy

wew lad

>>299309

>To make the bitter wait less painful and the unintended cliff hanger less crazy I would like to remind everyone that your fairy buddy is an amateur necromancer.

So, you show your true necrophiliac colors slavsan.

i thinki a nice long break is good for ya slav bro

after that last bit we could all use a break

hopefully when we do finally get back to the story we'll be able to deal with things better then we have been dealing with them

>>302052

Is this fan art? If so, you did a pretty good job anon.

>>296218

This but lets see if we can use our arm plasma fucking cannon I am tempted to say the we should overload the fucker like how we did it at the wizard HQ, but I have the feeling sadness and anger won't save us from our arm exploding, Still we need to do something with the cannon if it works and maybe destroy the or at least damage the bitches sub.

>>302224

>The warrior quickly tried to reach for his bow to strike but realized that the sword in his grasp was impossible to pry out without the help of his adamantium hand which was currently disabled. He would have to act with what he had.

>>302083

Yes, i'm kind of baffled at all the stupid decisions Anons had been making. As if they didn't even read the last story and know that slavsan will not hesitate if you do something stupid.

>>302245

Agreed. It gets rather annoying when one Anon makes a stupid suggestion without thinking the consequences through. It does not help with slavsan being so unforgiving and updating once nearly any day. Thus denying the ability to shut down some of this stupidity. Such as telling people he (Bernsen) was a DSS agent. Which ended up killing off one of the more interesting waifus. Because slavsan had to stike the knife somewhere.

I will admit, I've suggested and backed a couple of stupid things too. Such as Bernsen entering the tournament, rather then focus on the DSS work.

Sigh, but that is in the past now…

>>302244

you are right there, lets hope that our fake arm works soo we can have our hand back, we are going to need it

>>299309

So, would you like us to make suggestions while you're on hiatus

While the Gremlin spoke, the warrior kept breathing in and out steadily. His body was in shambles, his soul was weak from grief, but his spirit was not broken yet and with each cycle of inhaling and exhaling the clear air around him, he felt his strength slowly return.

With excruciating pain, his bones began to snap back into place. His twisted limbs straightened out but his head still swam from the blood loss caused by the gaping hole in his abdomen left by Calisto’s sneak attack. His muscles were spasming in pain from the countless shocks that his body was struck with but he gritted his teeth and forcefully tightened the grip on his sword hard enough to draw blood while simultaneously turning his head with a creak down to look below.

“Hey! Stop! Didn’t you hear what I ju-Ahh!”

Before the gremlin could finish her sentence, a fiery claw shot out of the warrior’s abdomen and seized the tiny monster, making her drop the silver dagger she was holding.

“W-what?! How!?” The gremlin shouted in disbelief at the warrior before glancing down at his body and blanching at the sight of it suddenly gaining a faint golden corona around it.

{Zapp. Zapp, can you hear me?} The warrior reached toward the faint mental connection that bound him to his familiar while studying the ground. Thank goodness, it must have been only a few minutes at most. He might not be able to supercharge his natural regeneration anymore with his trance, but even in it’s default state, Gorinja’s ability was enough to clear the blood clotting in his brain caused by the sudden ascension from water.

{Bernsen! Yes! Are you alright? I sensed a great turmoil within your spirit before the connection suddenly went out! What happened?} The lion’s hoarse voice spoke faintly through the suppressed familiar connection they shared and it was a great relief for the warrior to hear it.

{I engaged the enemy leader but it did not go so well. I was overwhelmed but… survived. I am about to go back down for a second attempt. What’s the situation on the ground? I see that the battle is still going, but the heroes from the city are being pushed back across the river.} Bernsen quickly answered while scanning the river from his elevated perspective, ignoring the angry protests from the gremlin held in the claws of his summon spirit.

The surviving heroes stationed on the now nearly destroyed naval force had retreated to the shore and locked themselves up in the fort with the help of their battle brothers who had begun to bombard the Galmathorian forces using the cannons arranged on top of the fort’s towers.

Those ones were not as easy to disable as the ones on the ships because they were out of Calisto’s range.

{Hmm.} The lion seemed to hesitate. {I am afraid I can’t help you with that information. I am currently in the fort’s basement, so I can’t see what’s going on.}

{Huh?} The warrior blinked in confusion. {Are you taking cover from something?}

{Not exactly.} Zapp responded with an air of mystery.

~~~

“Move it! Move it! Go! Go! Go!” One of the Order’s senior members shouted orders for the next group of aquatic monsters in their ranks who dived one after another into the small pool of water located in the basement while holding bundles of crystal charges loosely tied together.

One of the fortunate things that happened in the recent years was the large number of fresh recruits to the Order of Heroic brotherhood that came from the monster nation when the borders were opened up. Although the majority of them ended up being kobolds or lizardmen, the Order did not discriminate against the more exotic members of their species and right now, their ability to move underwater without the use of magic to do so was going to win this battle if everything goes according to plan.

The basement of the tower was practically wriggling as if it was alive with the number of people and monsters who were hastily moving the enchanted payload stored here to the underwater passageway after the magically skilled members of their group had stripped it of all the safety mechanisms that under normal circumstances would prevent the charges from going off at the slightest disturbance.

Doing that in such an environment would be suicidal at best, but with the Galmathorian magic suppression field active, the rune covered glass spheres were nothing more than duds and under the directions of agent W, they were being modified on a short notice to go off the moment the field goes down.

“Second squad has just returned!” Jaime, one of the senior officers shouted. “Are the payloads ready?”

“Geez, give me a moment!” The dwarf hastily wiped some sweat off her brow with her sleeve as she pried the last metallic ring from the charge that was intended to stabilize it under normal circumstances and rolled it along the table toward an Order soldier who quickly scooped it up and attached it to a bundle that held four more of them that he immediately passed to someone else who, in turn, hastily brought it to one of the frog girls waiting on standby.

“You sure, we are not overdoing it?” Sahra swallowed nervously and glanced at the wizard who was standing over another table that held a large piece of parchment on it that had a lot of calculations hastily written on with a quill pen over a crude map of the section of the river where the fort was located at.

“It was your idea.” The wizard quickly muttered and added a notch to one section of the map after the monsters who were sent to place the charges there returned.

“Yea, I know, but I just thought we could melt the ice so they all fall into the water and fry themselves with their own weapons!” The girl smiled nervously as she glanced on the map. “This seems like you are trying to change the river’s course with how much explosives we are setting up.”

“The allied forces on the other side of the river have been informed! They have begun to retreat!” An order soldier hastily entered the room with a fatigued looking harpy next to him who seemed to be out of breath.

“Good, so that leaves only the magic suppression device.” A gritty man in a naval uniform spoke out and turned his head toward the DSS agent. “Is there really nothing more we can do to locate it?”

Webster rubbed his temples in contemplation. “It seems to be the same design that was used in Cair a few days ago. It creates a bubble around itself that stops mana from being woven into an actual spell, according to what we learned.”

“But what if it’s underwater? How are we going to locate it then?” Another hero spoke out with concern as he approached the table.

The wizard hastily shook his head. “No, like I said, because of how the field is projected, the most efficient way of deploying it would be at an elevated platform.”

“So it must be on one of the enemy vessels that is floating over the river. Now the question is how do we tell which one? There are dozens of them out there.” The officer inquired.

“I am working on that.” Webster frowned in concentration and turned his head toward the lone harpy who seemed to had caught her breath by now. “So did it work?”

“Yes sir!” The bird woman hastily saluted with her wing and pulled out a scrying bowl from a shoulder bag. “It made a noise as soon as I was within the city, like you said.”

“So on the south side it only extends to the shore…” The blonde man nodded and made a notch on the map. “That’s one point of reference. Now we need three more.”

“Wait, wait, wait.” Sahra suddenly stood up from her spot and approached the wizard. “You are going to figure out where it is by using-”

“Yes.” The wizard nodded with determination as he raised his eyes from the map to look at the dwarf. “Math.”

Before the girl could respond to the wizards radical solution, the fort shook.

~~~

Calisto frowned as another frosty pillar uselessly shattered against the front doors of the fort. These gates were far more durable than they had any right to be and this was annoying her. After her soldiers sent the cowards running, the Order had immediately garrisoned themselves in their structure, afraid of engaging her army’s superior training and equipment.

This was something that was expected of course, but besides the granite walls, the fort was bound with enchantments that were ancient, possibly cast by the first order of Wizards millennia ago and were withstanding her direct assault with far grater success than the Order’s navy did.

She clicked her tongue in annoyance and looked back at her forces. The majority was remaining at the frozen river, even after sending the reinforcements from Cair running and she was circled by a few dozens of the new super soldiers backed up by the thralls created by lady Dia.

She had to admit that their offensive power was remarkable coupled with their apparent immunity to pain but they were not very… creative. They followed simple orders easily enough but when she tried to tell them to try to find an alternate way into the fortress, they merely stood there motionlessly to her annoyance.

The thralls were not any better. Despite the river not running anymore after Undine had frozen it over, it was apparently not enough for them to cross, so she was only able to bring the crews of the vessels who appeared right next to the shore.

She admired her lady for her desire to keep the Galmathorian citizens safe from getting their blood spilled, but she would really rather have her regular soldiers for this mission as opposed to the unfeeling husks created from their enemies and whatever these new troops were.

Well, looks like there was no way around. She was sent here specifically for her ability to cause destruction. While Richter was known for his defensive strategies on land, it was her overwhelming lightning offense tactics that reigned Galmathoria supreme in naval combat.

“Undine…” The woman with the chilling complexion began to channel her magic to her summon spirit to invoke it’s true and terrible form, making the water in the river shift and ripple underneath the thick cover of ice.

~~~

The warrior nodded after Zapp explained the plan that his tribe managed to scrounge up while he was out. It was going to be very loud and violent, something he greatly approved of, especially after what happened to-

Bernsen grit his teeth when he felt his anger flare up. This made Ursa manifest next to him with a snarl. Part of him really wanted to dive back down into the water, but he knew it was futile at this point. All he could do at the moment was to look forward, or rather down, at the enemy standing in his way.

With a practiced motion he slashed the ropes binding him apart with a single swing and plummeted down. The ground began to rapidly grow closer as he fell, but he no longer had any hesitations or fears. His mind was clouded with righteous indignation which was apparent by the figure falling next to him that burned so hot that the air around it’s body began to warp and shift from the heat it was projecting. Not even the muffled angry cries from the boundaries of his beard of holding could distract him right now.

Calisto blinked in surprise and stopped invoking Undine to briefly look up at the sky when she heard the familiar whistling noise from before.

“You can’t be fucking serious.” She muttered in disgust and confusion when she saw the figure of the warrior approaching her from above for the second time today.

This time, Bernsen was approaching much faster. She noticed that and immediately conjured a wall of ice in front of herself for protection while her entourage hastily encircled her and raised their weapons. The thralls took aim at the approaching figure while the bulky black armored soldiers put their shields in front of themselves while holding their electric prods back, ready to strike at a moment’s notice.

What he was about to do was very dangerous and he only practiced performing it once before and during that time, he was under effects of a feather fall potion. Even then, he felt confident in his success.

The rifle armed soldiers opened fire at him when he was nearly down on the ground and at that moment 【Ｕｒｓａ　Ｍａｊｏｒ】 reappeared next to him and with a snarl, forcibly grabbed his left arm that held the currently useless power fist and swung him sideways and slightly upwards at the wall of the fort.

He felt his arm nearly dislocate from the motion, but by using [Spirit Overflow] in advance, he numbed his pain while simultaneously lessening the chance of breaking his bones. The enemy’s shots missed him completely and Ursa vanished as soon as he was launched away from it.

With a loud crash, the warrior’s body smashed into the wall of the fort with great discomfort and he felt his ribs and shoulder bones crack from the impact, before immediately snapping back together from the overabundance of spirit energy that was flowing through his body. At the same time, his anger made Ursa reappear and it grabbed his shoulder with one claw to stop the warrior from falling while digging the other one into the stone wall with little to no effort.

The Galmathorian general glared up at the warrior in anger before speaking up, her voice cold and full of malice. “I knew I should have sent Undine down to make sure you were dead.”

Bernsen did not respond and instead kicked away from the wall as hard as he could, launching him down at his enemies while brandishing the beidhander of discord. The magitek rifle armed soldiers fired their second payload at him but once more, he redirected his fall by making Ursa throw him aside and he finally landed down on the ground. Immediately recovering from it by rolling forward, he slashed the air in front of him horizontally and stood with his weapon ready before his enemies.

A wave of heat passed forward from the fiery sword, awashing the group of Galmathorians ahead of him and making Calisto’s hair fly back slightly. She narrowed her eyes and glanced at the river which was a short distance away from where she was before looking back at the warrior.

“So? Did you come back to get killed again? I’ll be sure to double check this time.” She taunted him.

The warrior did not respond this time either and merely stood there calmly with his weapon out. The lack of a reaction seemed to annoy the woman further. “Not very talkative this time, huh? Let’s cut to the chase then. Kill him.” She ordered her troops who immediately disengaged from her and began to encircle the warrior just like last time while the ones armed with the rifles patiently waited for their weapons to recharge while keeping close to Calisto.

The general, meanwhile, invoked her summon spirit that immediately began to channel some spell which made the air around the warrior grow much colder and the grass around the fort began to frost over. It was time for round two and this time there was no one left to sacrifice is he loses.

>Pastebin updated

>What do you do?

>>324198

The prodigal son has returned! Good on you mate great update.

>>324198

Glad to see youre not dead

Kill them all

>>324198

>he's back

>>324198

SLAVSAN, THANK GOD YOU'RE HERE.

I was afraid I'd have to come up with what's going on in Deleor in your absence on my ow- I mean uh.

Glad to see Putin didn't put you down. Carry on.

>>324197

I don't remember exactly, but I think these warriors can't reattach their limbs Slavsan pls don't do this so if we can trick the water spirit into tearing them apart, they should be useless, we can also do the old "jump/duck to make them shoot themselves.

If we can get our stand to keep hers occupied, we can fight her head on, maybe even get ours to rip her head off before she gets hers to attack us, If we can burn her eyes out or remove her limbs she'll be significantly less competent **ripping her face off would be best because she'd be too overwhelmed by the pain to do anything, so if we can't outright kill her with our stand then do that.

That's all I can think of for now, aside from eating her heart after we win of course.

>>324198

Slavsan you faggot where you been all this time??

I'am happy you're back but you're still a faggot for making us think you were dead.

im glad your back slave anon

i'm not going to give any ideas on what to do / post any actions, because i feel like i was one of the anons that lead to bad end for fairy waifu

but its good to have you back all the same

good luck guys don't get anyone else killed

>>324197

IT'S BACK!

>>324292

I like having them kill each other. Last time Bern let himself get overwhelmed. Let's make sure that's not a problem this time. Maximize collateral damage, mop up what's left, and finish Calisto when she's isolated.

The warrior immediately began to move, the memories of consequences of holding his ground last time still fresh on his mind. A misty white veil began to spread along the ground as the air around him began to rapidly cool down with whatever magic that the shimmering mermaid figure standing next to Callisto was casting.

He quickly looked around, seeking a way to escape the encroaching group of enemies and get close to their leader, but the bulky figures moved in complete unison without even sharing a glance and the rapidly freezing grass crunched under their boots as they closed in on the warrior.

Ursa appeared next to him again and launched the warrior forward by grabbing his torso and throwing him over the group of enemies but that was when he realized his mistake.

“Undine!” Callisto shouted and the figure of a mermaid standing on it’s tail thrust both of her hands forward. The air around the summon spirit rapidly began to condense as the moisture was drawn from it to from a ball of water that quickly shifted and changed shape into a deadly looking needle that was as thick as a spear.

The warrior cursed and tried to conjure Ursa again but there was a small delay to being able to bring her out in full, which Calisto seemed to take note of when he initially used her to avoid the fire from the rifle armed soldiers.

The icy needle was launched forward at an abrupt speed that split the air around it as it moved with enough force to make a sharp whistling noise. With no way to dodge, Bernsen instinctively raised the most durable part of his body in front of him and the needle collided with his power fist, sending sharp ice shards flying everywhere, some of them cutting into his face. Even though he avoided getting skewered for the second time today, the force of the blow was great enough to launch his body back, right into the group of fungal abominations.

His heavy form slammed into one of them, making the soldier topple over but the rest immediately rushed in, ready to pummel the warrior with no care for their comrade’s condition. The crackling maces charged with electricity swung down at his downed form but before the moment of impact, his summon spirit reappeared with a burst of flames and began to viciously flail around it’s claws. It’s strength and more importantly, intangibility proved incredibly useful against the Galmathorian weapons and easily overpowered them.

At the same time, the warrior kicked himself upright and then forcibly stepped back through the opening that Ursa created and swung his sword horizontally. The Discord’s massive size and weight when coupled with it’s fire enchantment would normally eviscerate everything in front of him, but one of the black armored creatures raised his obsidian shield as soon as he noticed the warrior move and the sword smashed against it with a dull thwack as well as sending a sharp painful sensation into the warrior’s wrist.

He quickly backed away even further, causing Ursa to disperse while carefully glancing behind him every few seconds, expecting Callisto to execute a sneak attack like last time. But strangely enough, no danger seemed to be coming from his flank. He dared to shift his attention forward to where Callisto stood a few moments only to see the Galmathorian general and her summon spirit absent.

His only working eye quickly scanned the area and found that Callisto was… retreating? There was no doubt about it, the woman was hastily running toward the river in the most mundane way while glancing behind her every few steps until their eyes met.

“You have yet to realize it, but you have no chance to win against me» Her earlier words echoed in his head as Callisto quickly broke eye contact and began to move faster. It was not fear or worry in her eyes. It was concern. But for what?

“And you chose the absolute worst environment to fight me at. With all this water around us, Undine can move around freely and merge with it to conceal her presence, allowing her to attack you from any angle that I want.” He remembered her boast again and then it clicked.

{Zapp! The cannons! Have the Order heroes fire at the docks! Don’t let her reach the river!} He sent to his familiar in a hurry and tried to rush after Callisto only to get blocked off by her henchmen again. To make matters worse, the weapons of the more lightly armored soldiers had finished cooling down and were now aimed at him again, so he could not jump over without leaving himself exposed.

“I am getting real tired of this. How are you even alive?!” The warrior growled as he stepped forward while facing the grim and quiet group of homunculi.

{…beware…the dark priestess…beware…}

He did not expect to hear an answer, as he was mostly venting his frustration but when one came, speaking inside his head with the familiar wriggling and disgusting fleshy voice no less, he nearly dropped his sword in surprise.

“Wait, what?!” Was all he managed to utter but no more words came and instead the homunculi suddenly shifted their tactics and instead of making a wall that was cutting him off, let out a series of inhuman wails and rushed forward.

“Holy shit!” Bernsen shouted in response as the enemies suddenly went on a rampage, while swinging their maces and shields, bashing against each other and tripping in an attempt to get at him first like their life dependent on it.

He blocked the first blow aimed at his body with his sword and viciously swung his arm sideways to slap another homunculi on the head with the uselessly flailing power fist, snapping it’s neck and making it collapse with a wet gurgle. At the same time, the rest of them surrounded him again and he was forced to deflect and dodge a blow after chaotic blow. They were primitive, easy to see coming and vicious like the lashings of a cornered animal, but with the enemies so numerous, he was getting overwhelmed again. Fighting against large groups in a direct confrontation was clearly not something that he excelled at.

Fortunately, he had backup.

Controlling both his body and Ursa at the time was incredibly difficult but with Zapp’s spirit energy manipulation training to use a base, he managed to, at the very least, mirror their movements as they stood back to back striking against their foes with deadly efficiency. Limbs went flying, bodies started to get gored. Thankfully, while these specimens were sturdier than the hordes of what he encountered in the Black Forest, they did not share the blessings of the wild kings and went down easily enough, spraying vicious watery and cloudy liquid instead of blood as they died.

They were not the only ones he had to look out for however, a loud rumble of thunder shook the air around him and he instinctively ducked and dived to the side to avoid the trajectory of the magitek rifle’s projectile. He seemingly succeeded but then a sharp pain stung in his shoulder and he nearly stumbled, looking at his wound in surprise only to see nothing.

It was because the one who was struck was Ursa. The magical bolt of electricity did not seem like it paralyzed her but a smoking hole had appeared in her form which she was covering with her hand, imitating the motion that the warrior had made as well as his grimace of pain.

More shots began to ring out with rolling sounds of thunder and the warrior was forced to dispel his summon spirit to make it easier to dodge and simultaneously grabbed one of the bodies of his enemies and held it in front of him, using it as a shield. It proved to be very effective. The lighting bolts struck the corpse repeatedly, making it convulse and release smoke as it’s internal organs were cooked inside its body from the volume of electricity being pumped into it at once.

After the volley ended, the warrior forcibly threw the corpse aside and charged at the rifle wielding Galmathorians with a battle cry. With their melee fighters scattered and their numbers dropped, the soldiers were forced to put their long distance weapons away and instead pulled out rather nasty looking knives out of their belts.

Their skill in wielding them might have been impressive normally but against the enraged warrior who had five times the range advantage on them, they might as well had been a bunch of toothpicks for all it was worth. Unable to stop the momentum of his attacks with their own weapons, the knives bent or shattered from impact followed by the bodies of their wielders being sliced apart and then bursting into flames as they came into contact with open air.

With the entourage mostly taken care off, the warrior turned his sights toward the escaping Calisto who had nearly made it to the shore by that time when his ears began to ring from the sudden cacophony of explosions coming from above.

“Fire!” An officer in some expensive looking segmented armor shouted and thrust his arm forward. The cannons poking out from the tops of the fort’s towers began to bombard the shore of the river that stretched ahead of it immediately. Such an order, to demolish their own docks with a rain of cannon fire would normally be met with skepticism at best, but with majority of their ships destroyed it was no time for arguing.

The groups of black metal cannonballs began to rain down on the ground, specifically, the area around Calisto and she sharply looked up in surprise before reaching her hand toward the river which was only a hundred feet away now at most. The summon spirit Undine was forcibly ejected from her body and made a beeline towards the river before landing into the ice like it was water, instantly melding with it and then making it transform.

Instantly shifting the shape of the ice, a massive geyser of water erupted from the river and arced towards the shore, covering the woman in the blue naval coat. The next moment, it froze over and created a protective cover, seconds before the cannonballs began to impact against it.

The warrior ran forward as fast as his legs could carry him, hoping to reach the now defenseless Calisto who was trapped in ice, but his hopes were shattered when the form of Undine could be barely seen moving through the frozen arc and reunite with it’s master.

Calisto opened her eyes with a smirk despite seemingly being complete trapped in ice and spread her arms out. The icy arc that was rapidly breaking apart from the concentrated fire from the fort suddenly shifted it’s state again, becoming liquid once more and morphed into what vaguely resembled a serpent of some kind that raised it’s head toward the river and with a single bound leaped into the water.

“Son of a bitch!” The warrior shouted in anger and slammed the sword he was holding against the ground without letting go of it. If he only he had realized sooner what her strange behavior meant. Now it was too late.

The frozen surface of the river shook for a moment before Calisto reappeared, raising from the water while riding an icy platform that held both her and Undine.

“Fufufu… that was a bit too close for comfort. I should be careful about leaving my element in the future.” She cooed, sounding triumphant and smug,

The fort’s cannons had readjusted their trajectory and begun to fire down at the general but a bunch of icy pillars erupted from around her, blocking the shots or firing spears of the same material to intercept them in the air.

“Will you stop doing that already!” The general angrily snapped and her eyes began to glow blue, a light mimicked by the summon spirit standing by her side that held it’s hands together next to it’s mistress. A portion of the river began to shift as the ice there transformed into water and began to rapidly spin, creating a whirlpool that quickly grew in size before a blast of pressurized water was launched from it.

A tight column of muddy liquid blasted towards the top of the fort, directed at one of the towers and splashed against it, making the building groan from the impact as it’s ancient foundation shook from the force of the blow. A bunch of screaming people and cannons could be seen being washed away from the wall tops, unable to resist the powerful flow of water that crashed down on the roof.

The warrior watched the massacre in quiet awe before shifting his attention back to Calisto who called out from the river.

“Now then “agent”, why don’t we resume where we had left off?” The woman mocked him under the cover of her icy pillars and gestured the warrior to come forward.

Bernsen carefully examined his surroundings and considered his options. The fort looked in disarray. After one of the towers had been literally wiped clean, the cannons form the others had stopped shooting, either in fear or because they were ordered to escape back into the building to avoid sharing the same grim fate as their brothers and sisters just now.

Fighting Callisto in the river was plain suicide. If it was not obvious before when he had nearly died, it was certain now that her boast was not empty. With such large quantities of water around for her to control, she could attack him all day without leaving herself open. And that was not even taking into consideration the army that was now moving closer from behind her, now that it was no longer occupied by the Cair forces.

He noticed a small figure shoot out from one of the towers, vaguely resembling a bird. Was it a messenger of some sort? No, there was no time for distractions.

“Not going to come out here and play?” Calisto egged the warrior on before making a wicked smile. “Alright. Then I guess I’ll just do what I came here for. Watch closely. Only elite members of my army and lady Dia herself were able to see what you are about to witness and live to tell about it. You seem to have been able to obtain a summon spirit, but it’s power is truly pathetic. You can hardly manifest it and it doesn’t seem like it can even control the element it’s made from. Let me show you what a real summon spirit’s power looks like!” The woman laughed and spread her arms out while looking up, her eyes glowing with magic as her mouth began to wordlessly chant some kind of incantation.

The warrior’s body hair suddenly stood on it’s end as he felt a great surge of power concentrate ahead of him. Whatever Callisto was doing, it was very, very bad to the point where he would seriously consider a retreat and cutting his losses at this point if his friend’s weren’t currently trapped in the fort near him.

Should he risk charging straight ahead after all? All she would really need to mess him up would be to remove the ground from underneath him and even if she didn’t do that, the slippery ice would not help him fight in the slightest. He really should have learned spirit climbing instead of sense in hindsight.

But even if he gets to her, that still left her force, which was now closing in around her form, covering her front with a wall of shields while the ranged attackers climbed the icy pillars to use as superior vantage points.

No, this was it. The end of the line. He already lost one of his tribe members fighting this opponent. He could only hope to escape and save the rest of his friends now. The fort was right there and with luck, he will be able to reach Webster and then he would whisk them away to El Dorito. They already recovered the magic suppression device, whatever happens next be damned, he would not let anyone else he cares about die.

But just as he was about to turn away from the sight of Callisto channeling her invocation, something caught his attention. Even though the majority of her black armored soldiers were now staying still and looking ahead at him, one was still moving.

It’s movements looked strange, different from the rest. It was hard to discern at this distance, but it might have been related to the fact that one of it’s limbs was missing and that it was spilling water from the countless wounds on it’s body with every step. It was twitching and shaking, having trouble staying upright as it approached Callisto from behind instead of joining the others in front. It’s shield was missing along with it’s arm and the mace it held in the other did not have any charge in it and looked like it had malfunctioned.

Callisto's body twisted as if in pain and she gritted her teeth forcibly before lowering her head back to face the warrior again.

“Great invocation! Undine: Leviat-”

She never finished her sentence, as the black armored figure forcibly swung it’s mace at her temple and caved her skull in with a single blow.

~~~

«Hit me.” The player demanded and tapped her finger against the table.

“Oh? Very well.” The handsome looking man with a strange glint in his eyes and a silken top hat obliged her, sliding the next card out of the deck he was holding.

It was very late or perhaps, very early in the morning, as the casino that the duo were in was dark. Most of the lights were turned off, save for a single white column shining down on the blackjack table they were playing at. It was particularly odd, as most establishments like that worked 24/7, but it didn’t seem to bother the player who kept playing with little to no care about her surroundings. She was a special VIP after all, a daughter of the owner and as such, was allowed to come and go whenever she felt like it.

“Hmm. Sixteen against my twenty one. You lose again.” The dealer sighed and shrugged, pulling another chip away from the player. “You seem to be on a losing streak today.”

The player did not respond and merely gestured him to play the next hand while looking down at the table ahead of her without raising her head.

“Then again…” The dealer frowned slightly which looked strange on his near perfectly handsome face that was almost uncanny in it’s otherworldly beauty. “You were never particularly lucky.”

The player was given a ten and a seven. The dealer looked at her expectantly, awaiting her to call for another hit but the girl remained idle.

“Staying again, huh?” He murmured and revealed his hidden card along with the primary ace to reveal another twenty one. “Sorry, but looks like you lose again.” The dealer shrugged and pulled another chip away, leaving the player with only one. “Sure you don’t want to go home now? It’s clearly not working out for you. So how about it? Cut your losses and try again another time perhaps?” He suggested in uncharacteristic fashion for a casino dealer, sounding sincere and concerned.

“You have not been giving me strong hands exactly.” The fairy murmured without raising her head.

This made the dealer stop shuffling his cards for a moment. “I suppose I haven’t. I could say you are just a victim of chance but well… I have not been looking out for my clientele as of late. You in particular. I had reasons for it of course, business has not been so good for me until recently, but that doesn’t make you feel any better now, does it?” The man smiled sadly as he gave her two more cards. She did not reply and turned her hand over.

This time it was two sixes. Once more, the fairy stayed, worried about getting over twenty one and the dealer took her last chip. “Well. Looks like this is it. You are all out. Now you have no choice but to go home.”

“It’s not my home.” The fairy looked back at the open doors behind her that shone colorful light into the dim casino. It was bright and warm outside. Exotic flowers were in bloom and the trees were heavy with ripe fruits that pulled their branches almost to the ground with the overabundance of their bounty. Groups of little women with butterfly wings could be seen giggling and playing together, enjoying the bright summer afternoon outside.

“Don’t be silly. Of course it is your home.” The dealer chuckled and leaned down on the table on his elbows to get closer to the fairy. “You might not have been born here, but this was always your home. The road leading here was a long and difficult one, full of countless hardships and perils but here you are, with your family at last.”

“No.” Kenzie bit on her lip. “No, that’s not my home. I don’t want to go there! I want to go back! To Bern and Sahra and Webster and Zapp! They are my real family!”

“Hmm. To go back you say?” The dealer smirked as if remembering something humorous before his expression took on a serious tone. “Well you can’t do that. You just lost the last few seconds of your life.” The dealer made quick hand motion and the chips the house won from her appeared in-between his fingers. “The game is over. You have to leave now.”

The fairy glanced back at the glowing colorful exit again and sharply shook her head as tears began to build up in the corners of her eyes while her hands trembled.

“Then I’ll stay here!” She raised her head and glared the dealer with a defiant expression which made the man frown.

“You can’t do that. This place is only for players and if you have nothing to offer to play with, then you must leave.” But the fairy didn’t budge and continued to glare at him, despite the increasing pressure that the man’s presence began to project.

Finally it was the dealer who broke their eye contact as he looked aside, his expression trying to hide a shadow of regret and shame. “Well normally I would throw you out, but as much as I hate to admit it, I do owe you something for my actions or rather inaction in the past and for all ills people speak of me, I always pay my debts. Very well.” The dealer clapped his hands and in place of three white chips, a single shiny yellow one, seemingly made from gold, appeared in his hand and he placed it down on the table.

The fairy’s eyes widened in surprise and she instinctively reached toward the chip only for the dealer to quickly pull it out of her reach and waggle his finger at her.

“But if we are going to play one more time, then I have a condition! If I win, you will come along and be a good girl without causing a fuss. I am offering you a free game after all, so it’s fair. Deal?”

The fairy nodded without hesitation and the chip was placed in front of her, to act as her final bet. The dealer took his time shuffling the deck this time before finally handing out the cards.

Kenzie received a ten of hearts and nodded. This was safe. No matter what she gets next, it won’t go over twenty one, so she carefully requested to be hit which the dealer did with a smile. His own cards were a ten of clubs while the second card was concealed as per house rules.

She got a nine of hearts.

Her heart jumped in her little chest and began to beat faster. These were good odds. Much better than all her previous games against the dealer. She should be able to win this one.

“Hmm.” Jackor peeked under the face down card and smirked. “I think I will be staying.”

This made Kenzie’s excitement vanish in an instant. But why? Why was he staying? He couldn’t have gotten a twenty, could he? The odds of that were too low. The fairy began to nervously sweat and her hands started to shake from stress as her mouth felt dry.

“Will you be staying as well?” The dealer inquired in a casual voice.

“I…I…” The fairy’s voice was hoarse as her whole body shook. There is no way. He must be bluffing. That had to be it. He is trying to bait her into getting hit again and going over twenty one.

After waiting patiently for a few seconds, instead of asking again, the man in the fancy silk suit sighed, closed his eyes and leaned down on one of his elbows again. “If you want my personal opinion, it takes a certain amount of guts to put your life on the line. You clearly don’t want to go home yet, but your soul is still full of hesitation. How could it not, after all you went through? It’s perfectly understandable and yet…”

Jackor opened his eyes. “This is so greatly disappointing to me. You should know what it means to ratio risk against reward. Of course it is perfectly acceptable to fold too. After all, your life was not wasted, you managed to exchange it for something that you valued far more. But I personally always believed that you should always seek to maximize your profits. Of course, that brings certain risks and the fear of failure is very real, as are as it’s consequences. But this is the difference between stagnation and expansion. Those who do not take risks and become proactive never achieve greatness and obtain what they truly want because they lack the confidence in their success.”

The man shrugged casually and stood back up. “All I am saying is, sometimes you just need to double down and make your own luck.”

The fairy listened carefully, his voice somehow making her calm down considerably. She looked down at the cards again and thought about what she wanted and what she needed to do to obtain it.

“Hit me.” She finally said confidently after looking back up at Jackor.

“As you wish.” The dealer shrugged and slid a card forward.

It was a two of hearts.

“Blackjack.” The dealer spoke out in approval and revealed his concealed card which was a ten of diamonds. “The challenger wins the hand.”

~~~

Kenzie’s eyes shot open as her conscience suddenly returned. Her lungs were burning and her vision was blurry. Her body felt like it was filled with lead, but she forced herself to move. It was cold, dark and terrifying and she felt like every moment could be her last but she kept pushing forward to survive, even though she had no idea where up and down even were in this black cold abyss at the bottom of the river.

And then she bumped into something. It was large but soft and at one point, alive. Not wasting any time, moving entirely by touch by digging her claws into the black multi layered spider silk fabric, she dragged her body forward, seeking something, anything that would give her salvation.

Finally, she felt something different. Flesh. The fabric was cut up by something on this body and when she tried to pull on it, her face was hit with a stream of tickling air bubbles escaping from the body’s ruptured lung. Using the last vestiges of her strength as she fought the air current, she forced her little body into the opening and finally gasped as she finally inhaled air again.

~~~

«Yea! Take that bitch! No chance to win my butt!” The odd, black armored figure shouted in triumph with an unfitting high pitched childish female voice for it’s form, that was carried all the way to the shore.

“Gggh…huhhhrhh…guuaarr..” Calisto’s body convulsed on the ground, her left eye filling up with blood while the contents of her skull slowly began to spill on the ice surrounding her. Suddenly her mouth shot open and she began to vomit viciously as the right side of her body continued to twist and thrash on the ice as she continued to let out unsettling groans and growls. Her left appeared to be paralyzed and was instead laying still, completely unmoving.

“Lebuuergh….lebieeea…die…lebieeath…”She kept mooing and vomiting as her right hand began to twitch in more elaborate ways while the blue glow in her eyes kept rapidly turning on and off.

>What do you do?

>And I fucked up the hand giving our order too

Just fuck my life up fam.

>>324751

Obviously we should eat her heart. Searching for the stone on her person is a good idea too. After that, we should meet up with the rest of the party and get things back on track.

Also we should give Kenzie her "special head pat" for doing a good job

>>324791

>special headpat

>just a headpat

Kenzie just died, is that literally all she gets after that? We hug the fuck out of Kenzie and cry manly tears. Then we eat Calisto.

>>324791

>>324785

>>324794

That sounds like a solid plan. My slavsan lore might be a little rusty but are the stones only required to acquire the stand or do you have to keep it on you afterwards too? Also whats up with the stone that we ate? Is it still in there or did we squat it out at some point?

>>324980

>what if we feed the stone to Ursa

>what if the stand gets hit by the arrow

Ursa Requiem

Bernsen stared at the scene ahead of him breathlessly. A part of him was yearning to cry out in joy and then dash toward the so painfully familiar voice, whose owner he recognized immediately. But one thing was currently pushing that desire out of the way and that was the fact that Calisto was still alive.

“KENZIE! HIT HER AGAIN!” He roared. Even without Zapp’s amplifying cantrip to boost the volume of his voice, the message passed on loud and clear and the one armed black figure swung down again without a moment of hesitation.

“Le-” Calisto struggled to speak out again for the last time as the heavy metal weapon was brought down upon her head, this time, shattering her already punctured skull completely.

And not a moment too soon as it turned out, because the enemies around her snapped out of their momentary confusion and turned toward the traitor in their ranks.

“Wahhh!” A surprised yell escaped from the reanimated body as it was suddenly assaulted from all sides by the army of homunculi that was brought from Galmathoria.

The death of their leader did not appear to sway their morale, or even make the artificial soldiers think twice. While a group of them turned to focus on the traitor, the rest went into motion and began to move forward, toward the shore.

The puppet that Kenzie managed to salvage was already hard enough to control, because of the bizarre fungal growth inside that seemed to interfere with her magic, but when faced against a horde of enemies, she was overwhelmed almost instantly. Her weak attempts to defend herself only delayed the attackers for a brief moment before the reanimated homunculus was knocked down on the ice with a savage overhead blow that left a smoking mark on the multi layered spiderthread armor it wore.

But that single moment was more than enough. The warrior forcibly launched himself up into the air with his summon spirit’s incredible strength to aid his trapped companion. But the magitek rifle armed thralls standing on top of one of the nearby submarines immediately took note of this and opened fire.

The warrior knew it would come and had already began to mentally summon Ursa as soon as she vanished. This was going to hurt.

His summon spirit reappeared in front of him but instead of throwing him, it was the warrior’s turn to grab the normally intangible Ursa as she crossed her forearms in front of her to cover her face and chest while bending her legs to pull them closer to her body.

A volley of thunderous cracks reverberated through the air as Ursa roared in pain when it was forced to take nearly a dozen of direct hits. They struck it’s forearms and legs and the damage echoed deeply in Bernsen’s own body, with enough intensity to make him scowl and grit his teeth.

Even in his left arm, the one that was no longer there and was replaced with cold unfeeling metal, he could still feel the burning and throbbing sensations of a phantom pain that his summon spirit was forced to endure.

The warrior’s eyes shot open in defiance as he mentally commanded Ursa to disperse. While the damage did indeed transfer, as he felt wounds open up under his armor and start to bleed, the effect did not, as he did not get paralyzed from the electric currents.

“GET OFF HER!” He roared again and readjusted his body mid-flight to point his sword down while struggling to steady his breathing under his adrenaline and anger induced rush. His body started to glow and a faint corona of shining yellow light enveloped it as he redirected the flow of spirit energy back into his body to stop the bleeding from the multiple holes that opened up under his armor.

The soldiers underneath him paid no attention to his demand. It turned out to be their greatest and last mistake when the burning sheet of steel stabbed through the top of one of them. The force of the blow and the warrior’s weight completely skewered the body from top to bottom, like the helmet it wore was not even there and brought it crashing down on the ice.

The sudden impact forced the air out of the warrior’s lungs and the surge of energy contained in his body briefly went wild before flowing through the blade, directly into the person that he stabbed.

What happened next was not part of the plan. The body of the homunculus flashed from within with a bright yellow light for a moment before it was suddenly drawn away, toward the right arm that still clutched it’s weapon even after the wielder died.

The mace that was crackling with electricity went nearly white, as the light around it magnified nearly tenfold. And then, it exploded. The homunculi standing in a circle around the warrior could not even turn their heads toward it in time as a cloud of electrically charged shrapnel was suddenly launched in every direction. It was as disastrous and loud as it was brief.

The warrior squinted his eyes in reflex and shook his head to get the annoying ringing in his ears to clear before opening them again while pulling out his sword out of the body of his foe to get ready to fight. An unnecessary precaution as it turned out.

Laid in a nearly perfect circle around him was the group that previously assaulted Kenzie. Their armors and helmets managed to catch some of the smaller chunks of the exploding mace but the larger ones had easily tore them apart, causing devastating damage that made the warrior do a double take in surprise.

Cloudy white liquid leaked out of the cavernous openings in their bodies as small trails of smoke and a sizzling noise was emitted from the still red hot pieces of metal shrapnel sticking out of their bodies. Their weapons and shields laid scattered around them, still releasing their energy uselessly into the frozen surface of the river with a series of crackles.

“Whoa.” The warrior could not help but mutter. Clearly the Galmathorians did not take safety into consideration when manufacturing their weapons, unlike the wizards.

“Bernie!” A high pitched voice snapped him out of his stupor and he looked down at the collapsed body of one of the homunculi near him to see Kenzie climb out of it’s mouth with some effort. She looked miserable, wet and covered in a little more gore than the warrior believed to be appropriate for the situation, but she was alive and was smiling in joy.

“Kenzie!” Bernsen breathed out a shuddering sigh of relief as he hastily crouched down, trying to break his grip on the sword to grab his little friend, that he could see was still alive and well for sure now. There was no need for it, as the caith sith’s wings were still good, even in this condition and she managed to hover up to his face. She immediately grabbed it in a full body hug that slightly stung, due to her sharp catlike claws, before smooching him on the cheek and rubbing her face against him affectionally.

Struggling not to break down and cry right there and then, the warrior instead stomped down hard on his emotions internally. The fight was not over yet, as was apparent by the rapidly approaching reinforcements.

“Kenzie. I can’t put it in words how happy I am that you are okay but you need to hide. Go. We are getting out of here.”

The fairy let go of him and nodded with determination before quickly climbing into his beard while the warrior straightened out and made a flourish with his beidhander before putting it on his shoulder and summoning Ursa to throw him back on shore.

“Bernie, wait!” The fairy suddenly called out from inside. “You forgot to eat her!”

This made the warrior blanch, despite the danger around him, before he glanced at the body of Calisto.

“Umm.” He warrior struggled to make an appropriate response.

“You get stronger when you eat bad guys, right?! And that bitchy lady was suuuuuper strong! You should eat her!” The fairy insisted, completely obvious to the complex moral dilemmas involving cannibalism.

Calisto was indeed strong, possibly even invincible in her element and no matter the circumstances, Bernsen respected strength. He was glad that she was down for the count, but a small part of him felt regretful over her end being so abrupt and undignified. Perhaps it was poetic for her to die from a treacherous surprise attack, a tactic she herself favored greatly, even though her power was so great that she did not even need to stoop down that low.

“Oh to hells with it.” The warrior sighed, deciding to save these contemplations for a more peaceful time and directed Ursa to thrust her claws into the body’s chest. The ribcage shattered in an instant and the heart was torn out, before being tossed right into the warrior’s mouth.

He frowned in disgust at the taste and the fact that it was cold and bitter he but managed to keep it down. He instantly felt the fresh wound in his abdomen begin to itch something fierce, along with all the other lesser wounds on his body as they rapidly began to heal up. An ability that he inherited from one of the ghouls that accompanied Blitzkrieg during their encounter in the theater.

While doing so, he made Ursa quickly search the body for valuables, disrespecting it further but his hope of finding an integrity core on her person was a long shot. Nothing but some subtle jewelry was found.

When he heard the clicks of magitek rifles that announced that their cool down period had passed, it was decided that now was really the time to go. But before he could get into position to be thrown, the first attacker reached him.

Quickly directing Ursa, the warrior made it swing it’s flaming claw to catch the weapon that was being brought down on him by it’s metallic handle, only for something bizarre to happen.

He felt a sudden rush of heat coming from his body, that seemed to concentrate on his right hand, the same one that Ursa was swinging out with. The summon spirit let out a low growl and instead of swathing at the handle of the mace, like the warrior wanted, it thrust it forward, right into the soldier’s chest.

Instead of pushing the assailant back, the claw became briefly intangible and sunk deep into the body of the enemy before the summon spirit’s eyes flared in anger and she forcibly pulled it back with a savage roar. The layered spider silk armor was instantly ripped apart without effort, as did the homunculi’s chest cavity in a shower of blood and gore before it collapsed under Ursa Major. She raised the still beating heart that she ripped out above her head and roared again in triumph, before crushing it in her her claws with a loud splat, followed by a hiss, as the flesh rapidly burned in her grasp.

>Warlock level 2 obtained.

>Invocation: Rend obtained.

“Daaaaaaamn!” The warrior felt Kenzie poke her head out from under his chin to see what was happening. “She can do that!?”

The warrior could not think of a response, but suddenly realized that he was back in control and that Ursa was standing idly in place, no longer acting independently, even as more homunculi approached. Deciding not to tempt fate again, he quickly directed her to throw him.

He braced himself, once more defending his body using Ursa, before landing back on the shore with a crash. Struggling to get back to his feet, he quickly hobbled and then ran toward the fort while breathing in and out heavily to flood his body with spirit energy again to subdue the pain he was in and repair the cracks in his bones from his rough landing.

The good news were that the fort was within a walking distance. The bad news were that he was being pursued. The entire force, that was previously standing guard at the frozen river, was now moving toward the shore. The ones armed with the rifles made attempts to move forward, but showed a great deal of hesitation about leaving the vessels they were standing on for some reason. Some of them took shots at the warrior’s exposed back but, thankfully, none managed to hit him directly and only a handful of them struck Ursa who covered his escape.

The silent and menacing homuculi, on the other hand, had reached the shore and quickly began to move toward the fort, either chasing the warrior or attempting a full frontal attack against Carslbad, it did not matter. Bernsen, a man who usually loved fighting, had seriously had enough of it for today and all he could think of right now, was to get inside the fort and the front gate was finally within his reach.

{Bearson, stop! Move aside, hurry!} He suddenly heard Zapp’s voice warning him and he quickly adjusted his course to swerve away from the path leading to the front gates. Not a moment sooner, they were forcibly flung open to release a massive mob of fully armed and armored Order soldiers, who charged forward to meet the Galmathorians. Quickly spreading out in a line, they began to form a defensive wall using their expert skill and experience to protect the fort.

At the same time, the deafening firing of the cannons on top of the structure resumed. The progress of the Galmathorian force was suddenly forcibly cut off with furious bombardment of the shore. The thick ice, that Calisto had conjured, began to rapidly break apart and shatter from the cannon fire, cutting off their advance even further and trapping them on top of the river, now that their general was not there anymore to refreeze the water for them to traverse easily.

The ones who did manage to get through were met head on by the Order’s finest ground troops that were a cut above the crews of the ships. Their task was to protect the northern border from a potential monster invasion for millennia fter all. The electrically charged maces were still a major problem, but the superior skill of these elite troops allowed them to keep their distance while staying in formation by using spears or parry the blows by striking the handles, instead of the heads of the weapons. Their superior equipment included a good deal of their own enchanted weapons and armor as well, some of which made it much easier to engage.

The enemy numbers were thinned even further when the troops who weren’t manning the cannons at the top of the fort took up bows and arrows and began to rain death upon their foes from the wall tops. With Calisto’s monstrous presence and affinity for this specific environment as well as their ranged support in the form of the magitek rifles gone, it was very much clear that the Order’s training and combat efficiency was leagues ahead of the faceless black armored artificial soldiers. They had the superior discipline and near immunity to pain, but their movements were too monotonous and easy to predict.

It was uncanny how quickly the tables were being turned, as the people of Fort Carlsbad shifted from covering in their fort to creating a practical meat grinder at the shore for those unlucky few who managed to get to it, before the way was cut off with cannon fire.

The warrior marveled at the way they fought, their discipline and heroic will truly well deserving of their namesake but it was time to move. He did his part for this fight. He hastily moved around the massive stone structure, as guided by Zapp over their familiar link, until he found a much smaller set of gates near the back, that seemed to be locked as tight as the front ones.

Thankfully, as soon as he approached, they were quickly opened and a group of soldiers yelled and gestured for him to get in quickly, already informed ahead of his arrival and he promptly did so.

“I don’t know how you did it sir, but you have my respect, Calisto was everything the rumors spoke of her and more.” One of the men saluted him as soon as the back entrance was locked shut. The warrior seemed to be in a storehouse area of some, as various crates were arranged in lines inside this basement in large quantities. The air was slightly musty and the sounds of battle from outside were muffled by the impenetrable stone walls, that had withstood countless invasions from the north over the course of a millennia.

“Man, I thought you DSS guys were just some scrawny paper pushers with too much authority, but between you and that blonde guy upstairs, I am starting to suspect that your agency doesn’t get enough credit.” Another hero chimed in as he saluted as well.

“Web- I mean agent W is upstairs?” The warrior returned the gesture, not entirely sure what it meant and interrupted the conversation before anyone else could make another comment.

“Yes sir, all the payloads have been set, but we still can’t locate the magic suppression device to disable it. The other agent is on the fourth floor, awaiting for one of our couriers to bring back vital Intel for this task. Do you wish one of us to escort you there?” The first agent quickly answered in a professional tone while his eyes shone with genuine respect and awe.

“Hold on, shouldn’t he get some medical attention first?” Another hero butted in and gestured at the warrior before addressing him. “With all due respect sir, you look terrible!”

“What medical attention? All our healers can’t use their magic right now!” The first hero argued.

“We still have a stock of health potions, it’s not as good but it’s better than nothing!” The second hero explained.

While the two argued about his condition, Bernsen examined his body. The sturdy looking steel plate armor that Smitehammer made for him was in shambles, clearly not designed to combat the threats of the magnitude that he was forced to confront today. There was a massive gaping hole in the stomach area, where he was skewered through by an ice spike. The wound was thankfully closed up now after he had consumed another person’s heart. Countless bents and bangs covered the back and arm parts of the armor. One of his greaves was missing, along with his helmet, leaving his head and one foot bare and the armor itself was covered with several layers of dried blood, burn marks and other signs of damage and wear.

“I am okay.” He answered honestly. He was winded and fatigued but he was not in pain at the moment. Some food and sleep wouldn’t hurt but that was for later. “Lead me to agent W. I can handle it.”

Not arguing with a person who, although indirectly, had just slain one of the top enemy brass members, the heroes lead him through the underground warehouse passage into the kitchens and then the main portion of the fort, where after ascending several sets of stairs, he found himself standing in front a sturdy door, around which a crowd of high ranked officers were loudly discussing something.

«Bern! Kenzie!” The door was swung open, as the slightly frazzled form of Sahra met him with a worried expression. She was wearing a set the Order’s segmented armor instead of her usual crimson clothing but she appeared to be unhurt.

“Sahra!” The fairy flew out of the confines of the warrior’s facial hair and floated into the dwarf's extended hands to be pulled into into a loving embrace near her chest that made the witch sigh in relief.

A figure of a massive beast loomed over the girl, as the lion pushed his head out from the door frame and nodded at the warrior in a meaningful way before glancing back into the room that the two emerged from. {Good hunting there, but get inside. We still have a problem.}

The warrior returned the gesture as Sahra hastily approached him. “Thank goodness, you two are okay! What happened there? We could not get a good look of what was going on outside after we went down into the basement. Zapp said you two almost died, but it’s difficult for him to write too much text using his mouth.”

“I’ll explain everything in a moment.” The warrior answered. “Good job taking care of things in here.” He smiled at the dwarf and patted her head affectionately, which made the girl blush furiously and look away.

“Hey! I want one too!” The caith sith puffed her cheeks and began to buzz angrily until getting a head pat of her own, much to her delight.

“Webster?” The warrior entered the room and called the wizard out. This seemed to be an office of some sort and housed only a handful of people. Judging by their expensive looking enchanted equipment and grim looks that only a veteran combatant would possess, they were the highest Order officials in the building.

They quickly looked up from the map spread out on the table and glanced at the new arrival with a mixture of curiosity and respect.

“Good timing, boss. We are just about done in here.” Webster’s voice called out from the head of the table. He was wearing a set similar to Sahra’s and his current appearance was the one he took after getting his union membership restored: a middle aged, handsome blonde man with a short pompadour.

“Zapp gave me only a brief summary of what happened.” The warrior approached the table and looked down at the map that showed the fort and nearby locations: like the lake to the east and Cair to the south. “So Skorne wasn’t successful in locating the emitter?”

“Doesn’t seem that way boss. According to the reports, she had retreated along with the rest of Cair forces to reinforce their positions in the city.” The wizard shook his head.

“Think she chose to run?” The dwarf inquired quietly and looked up at the warrior from the side.

Bernsen contemplated on it briefly but then shook his head. “I doubt it. Under the circumstances, there was little she could do, since she could not go all out in the middle of the river in fear of drowning. She has probably regrouped with agent K and is awaiting further instructions back in Cair. Probably for the best, if your plan is as good as Zapp said, then no one currently located on the river will be left alive.”

“This better be worth it. We had to strip almost all of our enchanted ammunition reserves for this. Even if we win today, we will be at a massive disadvantage until more supplies get brought from the capital.” A man in a naval coat muttered while a young woman next to him quickly nodded in agreement.

“Oh don’t you worry.” Webster smirked in an unnerving way. “When this is over, I believe Galmathorians will be hard pressed about assaulting this position for a second time.”

“What are you talk-” The naval forces officer narrowed his eyes before the door was slammed open and a red faced harpy, who looked like she was on the verge of collapsing from exhaustion forced herself in. She shakily raised her wing to salute the officers but one of them cut her off.

“At ease soldier. Report.”

“The…” She gasped again before taking a few mouthful of air and raising her head again. “The northern limit of the magic suppression field ends around the edge of the woods h-here.” She shakily walked over to the map and poked a spot on it with her wing and Webster immediately put an x there before hastily grabbing a ruler and drawing two lines between the four marked spots on the map.

“You can’t be serious.” An officer uttered in disbelief.

“You sure your information is accurate?” Another quickly asked the harpy who also looked stunned.

“Y-yes sir, I am absolutely certain! I have been assigned to Carlsbad for years, I know the surrounding area better than anyone!”

“In hindsight.” Webster narrowed his eyes as his hand, clutching the quill however over the calculated epicenter of the magic suppression field. “We should have realized this might have been the case.”

The lines met over the northern tower of fort Carlsbad.

“Wait a second. That’s where we keep the constructs, isn’t it?” A lizardman officer’s eyes widened.

The warrior blinked in surprise. “You have constructs? As in, the automatons like the Union has?”

“Those things are nothing compared to what we have stored here.” The naval officer shook his head as he explained. “What we have here are restored ancient war models that were used back during the first monster invasion. It was a custom repair order that was issued years ago by lord Bordeaux for the Havenforth forge to the south. It was one of the most expensive contractor jobs that we ever offered.”

“Normally we would send them out right away in case of an attack of this magnitude, but with the magic suppression field up, they might as well be a bunch of junk.” Another hero chimed in.

“No time to lose then.” The warrior straightened out. “We need to locate it and break it as quickly as we can.”

A few minutes later the warrior found himself charging through the tight corridors and winding staircases of the fort, as he and his friends backed with a group of heroes rapidly ascended the north tower.

“There! Through that door!” A doglike kobold monster with a halberd barked out and rushed toward it before forcibly pulling on it with no effect. “Damn it! it’s locked!”

“Shit, doesn’t only our chief sorcerer have the key to this section of the tower?” A man with green eyes and a short sword on his belt turned back to the crowd and asked.

“It’s alright I got… I got Creador’s master key.” A man with an enchanted shield and sword muttered with some hesitation and regret in his voice and pulled out a shiny golden key that he inserted into the small opening in the door.

With a soft click, the lock opened and the doors were pulled open. The crowd quickly entered the area, raising torches over their heads, as the enchanted lights that normally illuminated this room were disabled.

“Son of a…” The naval officer growled as he examined the room.

The storage area had been ransacked. The countless automatons stored in here were overturned and were laying on the ground in heaps: their control gems missing or shattered. The leftover shards were scattered on the ground here and there next to piles of internal components that were forcibly ripped out.

“That doppelganger must have infiltrated a while ago to cause this much damage.” Webster clicked his tongue in annoyance before his gaze shifted to the far end of the room where a familiar sight greeted them.

“There it is.” The warrior spoke out after a moment of silence and stepped toward the humming contraption roughly the size of a night stand. It was the same model that was in the countess's mansion. An electrically charged field rippled around it to protect the magic suppressor from being tampered with.

“It was right under our noses. I can’t believe this.” A hero shook his head in disgust and spat on the ground.

“Well, what are we waiting for!? We need to break it!” Another officer shouted impatiently and tried to step forward while brandishing his sword before the warrior sharply raised his arm in front of him.

“Stop. It’s not that easy. If you get too close, it will fry you. Back in Cair, we only managed to disable it after breaking the floor underneath it to make it fall down.” As the warrior said this, the muscular figure of Ursa Major manifested next to him, though no one but Zapp could naturally see it.

The summon spirit growled and slashed it’s claws against the stone floor, leaving a small gash, but this would clearly not be enough.

“That’s not an option I am afraid.” The kobold with the halberd shook her head. “This fort stood strong for hundreds of years, thanks to whatever magic that was used in it’s construction. There is hardly any maintenance for it required and trying to restructure it was always an exercise in futility.”

“What a pain in the ass. I am really starting to hate those assholes and their shitty magic suppressing cheating bullshit.” The dwarf angrily spoke out and gritted her teeth in annoyance while clenching and unclenching her right hand, trying to conjure flames with no effect.

“Can’t we just poke it with a very long stick? Or maybe throw a rock at it?” Kenzie put her index finger to her chin and cocked her head while standing on the warrior’s shoulder.

“No we already tried throwing things at it last time, that electric shield around it is only the outer layer, it is also warded off inside against physical attacks.” The wizard frowned and crossed his arms, his face deep in thought.

The room went silent as everyone thought about how to tackle this task. Only the sounds of battle outside could be heard and the warrior peeked out from one of the windows that were just barely large enough to stick his head out.

It seemed like the heroes had things under control for the time being, but they had been pushed back slightly since the time he was outside. The reason for it was because the grim soulless soldiers in black began to swim. Or rather walk.

Casually stepping into the ice cold water, the army descended down into the depths, only to slowly raise out from it near the shore as they moved forward in droves, even as the fort’s cannons cut through their numbers. Holding their shields up as they stayed in boxlike formations, they easily traversed the kill zone created by the archers and pushed forward into the defense line, several large groups at a time, straining it with their superior endurance and disregard for their own lives and safety. Occasionally, they managed to break through, forcing the heroes to fall back and regroup to prevent a total breach in their line.

To make matters worse, some of the enemy submarines had successfully broke the ice around their vessels and had submerged into the water before reappearing near the shore. Leaving their transport, the thralls joined the primary force and covered them from range using their advanced magical weapons.

Slowly but surely, the Galmathorians were regaining their advantage even though their commanding officer was dead.

“Webster.” The warrior turned away from the sight and addressed the wizard.

“Hmm? Did you figure something out boss?” The man perked up as did everyone else in the room and quickly turned their heads toward the warrior.

Bernsen stood in the tiny pillar of light coming from the window and breathed in and out a few times, which made a faint glow spread over his body. “Remember that automaton we fought a couple hours ago? How Zapp managed to disable it’s weapon by overloading it? Would that technically work here?”

The wizard blinked at the suggestion. “Huh..? I mean, we still don’t know how the enchantments on this thing work but yea, it’s plausible!”

“Then let’s put it to the test!” The warrior inhaled sharply and spun in place, concentrating his spirit energy in his balled up fist. “Spirit Overflow!”

His glowing hand clashed against the barrier surrounding the suppressor with a deafening screech as the electricity and spirit energy collided, biting at each other like a pair of vicious vipers, sending a shower of sparks from the point of impact while each side tried to absorb and overwhelm the other.

It lasted for only a moment and after his spirit overflow was exhausted, the warrior felt a sharp pain in his hand and was suddenly launched back as the barrier shifted, striking back against him.

“Bern!” The witch cried out in fear but the warrior quickly raised his hand.

“It’s okay! I am fine! Just a little burnt.” The warrior reassured her and the rest of his team while the order personnel muttered among themselves.

“That’s not enough.” Webster shook his head. “As far as forcing wards open through sheer brute force, you would need a high grade spell to do it.”

“Darn, I was sure it would work too.” The warrior lamented while shaking his hand to get the numbing sensation out from it.

{Oh it will.}

The warrior turned his head toward the lion to see him step forward and walk up next to him while looking forward at the suppressor.

“Huh? Is your lion gonna try and take a shot at it too?” The lizardman inquired without a shred of irony in her voice. None of the other heroes seemed to be put off at the strange idea either. The images of this particular lion scaling the walls of the fort by himself and then running wild inside was still in their heads.

{Did you figure something out?} The warrior asked through their link.

{No, you just did. Your idea is good, you just lack finesse still. The power of your spirit is great and you have already taken great steps in refining it into a sharp and effective tool but you still lack the skill that comes with experience that I have.} The lion walked as closely to the shimmering electric barrier as he could and sniffed it before growling.

{Oh! So you will break it yourself then! Alright, go for it Zapp!} The warrior gave the lion a thumb’s up but the beast turned his head towards him and shook it.

{No. Just as you lack finesse, I lack something else. Raw power. For all my knowledge and experience, I am still an animal in body and heart. A proud and powerful animal but an animal nonetheless and there is no animal in this world whose spirit can compare to those of humans. And even among your brethren, your spirit stands head and shoulders above the rest.}

{So if you can’t and I am not good enough…} The warrior frowned and started to think of other potential solutions, like going back to the Union HQ to ask one of the other wizards there for advice.

{Then we must work together.} The lion flicked his tail playfully across the ground and bared his teeth in a peculiar smile that made some of the men in the room swallow nervously.

{Wait, together? How?} The warrior stood back up and approached the lion.

{While individually, the monks of Celestial Lotus were formidable foes and were able to stand up against the greatest of threats, but their true power shined when they worked together!} The lion’s fur suddenly bristled.

{A single stream of water can be stopped by a sufficiently large stone, but a river born from countless sources can cut through mountains and plains all the way to the ocean like a knife through paper! By synchronizing the flow of your spirit energy with others, you can combine your powers to overcome any hardship!} The lion let out a roar as little golden wisps of spirit energy began to float up from his body.

“W-what the hells!? What is it doing!?” The kobold asked, clearly unnerved but standing her ground just like her brothers and sisters.

“Should we be running away?” Sahra turned her head to the wizard curiously who just shrugged in response.

{Now Bearson! Synchronize your breathing with mine and repeat after me!} The lion snarled and dug his claws into the stone floor while glaring at the electric field ahead of him. The warrior leaped into action, feeling the lion’s incredible sense of determination through their shared bond.

{The fierce beating of our hearts! The burning fires of our spirits!}

“The fierce beating of our hearts! The burning fires of our spirits!”

The two spoke in unison and the warrior began to feel something new. A sensation both familiar and at the same time new. Tapping into the recently strengthened link that they shared, he could feel the words he spoke resonate within him as he suddenly realized he could feel both the lion’s heartbeat and very essence overlay his own, becoming indistinguishable from one another.

{The light of our resolve shines as bright as the sun in the sky!}

“The light of our resolve shines as bright as the sun in the sky!”

That was when the man felt it. The power, the staggering, true strength of his spirit, brought forth with the help of his partner by working together towards the same goal. Losing it’s original golden hue, he felt his… Zapp’s… no, their spirit energy manifest in the form of a pure white aura pouring from their bodies that raised above, toward the sky as they acted as a conduit of some divine will.

{Let it’s burning glow carve a path to a new dawn through the deepest night!}

“Let it’s burning glow carve a path to a new dawn through the deepest night!”

The two jumped forward, moving as one entity despite their vast differences in physique and brought down both their claw and fist against the barrier.

“{SHINING SPIRIT OVERDRIVE!}”

The energy of the ward lashed out against them to resist their assault, but did not manage to hold the combined power of their spirits for even a second and was instantly pushed back, folding and shrinking, shattering and washing away like a broken dam that was struck by a tidal wave.

When the light faded a few seconds later, the machine was toppled over and no longer hummed, now turned into a worthless heap of junk after it’s internal components were overloaded and burned up from the uncontainable flood of mana that it was struck with.

“Okay. Now we should hold on to so-” The wizard began before a crash louder than anything the warrior had ever heard blasted through the window along with a blast wave.

Everyone in the room screamed or shouted in surprise as the floor underneath them viciously shook while the walls groaned and dust started to fall from the ceiling.

What happened outside was difficult to put in words. The witness accounts would vary greatly from the survivors of the event. Some claimed that it was Sveth accidentally hitting his head against the ceiling of his domain, others theorized that some of the water in the river had somehow met an underground lava flow, creating a powerful and violent chemical reaction. Others believed it was whatever power source that the Galmathorians used for their high tech vessels suffering a meltdown.

Whatever the case, the army of invaders was destroyed, completely annihilated and obliterated in a single moment, as the river suddenly exploded in a cacophony of lighting, ice and fire, vaporizing the unlucky invaders who were still standing on the ice and sending them and their footing high into the sky. But this paled in comparison to what happened next.

A column of steam, as thick as the fort, blasted from the middle of the river and all the water was suddenly launched up after the ice that covered it, along with dozens of metal vessels it held that spun through the air like loose stones, sailing far and wide in every direction, some landing back down into the hole that was left, to meet the geyser of molten rock that emerged after the steam was expelled.

A few were forcibly thrown into the direction of the city, plowing through the buildings and getting mangled beyond recognition. Some bashed against the fort walls, the metals hulls shattering like glass and pouring the metal innards on the ground while one managed to penetrate it and get stuck inside. And the rest crashed down into the woods to the north, knocking down several trees and getting buried into the ground, starting several minor fires when the super heated metal came in contact with some of the dry brush.

All the while, the earth shook for nearly a minute, losing it’s stability and almost feeling like liquid as molten stone forcibly poured out from the hole in the middle of the river, the lava pouring out and forming a large round platform between Cair and fort Carlsbad.

Finally, the earthquake stopped and the flow of lava slowed down completely. The pressure was exhausted and the water flowing from further up the river came rushing down on it with a hiss, forming a massive cloud of steam that engulfed the entire area for several minutes.

After the wind carried it away it could be seen that an island had formed in the middle of the river and that the water was now flowing around it.

~~~

“So…how much collateral damage are we talking about here?” The naval officer idly padded his fingers against the desk he was sitting behind while looking out of the window. It started to rain shortly after the conclusion of the battle and there was no sign of it stopping any time soon.

“Based on initial reports, about a hundred thousand gold in the city. Several buildings were demolished almost completely, one of the forts wall’s has an enemy vessel stuck in it. The wall repairs won’t be too bad, but the enchantment in that section was dispelled and will be costly to reapply. It was probably on it’s last legs, since it’s the only point of impact that the launched enemy vessels actually managed to penetrate.” A danuki monster readjusted her glasses while reading off a piece of parchment. “That’s not counting the loss of half of our river fleet of course. That is on a separate sheet, would you like me to give you a rough estimate?”

“I’ll look over the complete report later. What about casualties?” He turned his head toward a man in a white robe bearing a sigil of Solos.

“Miraculously low, all things considered.” The hospitalier ran his hand over his beard in thought. “Somehow, all the expanding gasses from underground were launched into the sky, so the people in the city and near the fort only got mild first degree burns from the steam cloud that formed later. The biggest concentration of victims in the city seems to be in the Caroline trading house. It’s staff appears to had been wiped out when one of the enemy vessels landed on top of it and demolished the building completely. It is still being excavated.”

“And casualties on the enemy side?” The officer asked the last person in the room, his trusted advisor: Fleur. A young woman that wore a matching naval uniform like his own.

“We have yet to find any survivors sir. The survey teams sent to the forest and the city report finding a bunch of heavily damaged armor pieces left by the enemy, but nothing that suggests they had escaped somehow.”

“I see. Thank you everyone. You are all dismissed.” The captain nodded and the other Order officials bowed respectfully before leaving the office formerly belonging to commander Creador.

“What a fucking shit show.” The captain muttered and pulled out a bottle of brandy from the desk before chugging down.

~~~

“What. The fuck. Were you. Thinking?” Sahra held the palms of her hands in front of herself and thrust them at the wizard with every word for emphasis while glaring at him.

“Hey, it was your idea!” Webster nervously chuckled and glanced around the room.

“I thought it was cool.” Kenzie shrugged while chewing on a large piece of chokolate brownie.

“Kenzie! Don’t praise him! He could have killed us all!” The dwarf pointed accusingly at the wizard.

“In my defense.” He slowly raised his index finger. “My math was almost on point.”

“Almost?!” The dwarf shrieked.

“There only turned out to be a zero point six margin of error when it came to the blast radius of geyser.” He calmly explained to the stunned dwarf.

“Ease up on him Sahra.” The warrior sighed and smiled. “We are all alive and well aren’t we?” He leaned down and patted the witch on the head which made her frown and turn her head away.

“Yea, until Anderson gets to us and personally hangs us all for unorganized large scale landscape terraforming.” She muttered and glanced outside at the newly formed island in the middle of the river that was still faintly smoking even as rain poured down on it.