Dragan slammed his foot into the knee of the enemy in front of him, sending him down to the ground before finishing him off with an Aether-infused punch to the face.
It was funny -- against a normal Aether user, one who'd had time to properly train themselves, Dragan would probably be at a disadvantage. He'd only been doing this for a month or two, after all. The only way he was getting by in a situation like that was through some kind of trickery -- or, to put it more honestly, cheating.
Against an ordinary human, though? Just the tiniest bit of Aether made him the strongest guy in the room -- or the swamp, in this case. It almost felt like cheating all by itself.
He stepped back as the Regulator soldier fell forward, their face landing on the film of swamp water with a wet squelch. As he moved out of the way, he bumped into the back of Lily, who was very busy with her own aggressive negotiations.
Ordinarily, Dragan supposed, possessing a Guardian Entity would have provided a similar advantage to Aether. However, having a magic ghost that could create electricity wasn't very useful in a situation where you couldn't make sparks no matter what. In the midst of these green clouds, Lily might as well have been a normal human.
She was still doing quite well, though. She'd pilfered one of the wooden spears from their attackers, swinging it recklessly and slamming the pole into the faces and bodies of the Regulator troops as they launched their attacks. She seemed loath to use the blade, however -- maybe she was worried it would get stuck in a wound, preventing her from moving for what could be a single vital second.
Since Dragan had shouted, they'd been joined by a few more of the surviving rebels -- shell shocked for the most part, covered in either swamp water or soot depending on how close they'd been to the initial explosion. Still, they were willing to fight. Dragan couldn't fault them for that.
His eyes flicked up to the sky -- Skipper was still occupying the attention of Aka Manto, weaving around it, so they didn't have to worry about any more explosions for the time being. In terms of missing people, then, that left Ruth and…
"Mr. Dragan!"
And the other two.
Serena burst out of the fog, a floppy green sword hanging from her hand -- obviously made from some kind of underwater plant. She looked through the collection of frightened rebel faces, blinking dirty water out of her eyes, before finally locking onto Dragan and grinning widely.
"Mr. Dragan!" she repeated. "You're not dead!"
"Not yet," he replied, wiping the sweat from his forehead. "Looks like you're doing okay, too."
Serena nodded -- before spinning wildly and smashing her whip-sword into the throat of an approaching ambusher. "Mr. Skipper went up to fight the enemy!" she cried out. "Did you see? He's flying around and everything! It's awesome!"
Dragan nodded. "He's providing a valuable distraction. Once we've got as many people together as we can, we need to start making our way out of here. Understand?"
Again, Serena nodded. She dropped the whip-sword from her hands, letting it return to its original form on the surface of the water, and picked up one of the fallen wooden spears instead. Immediately, the weapon began to transform, wood cracking as it was reshaped from a polearm to a longsword.
"So we just need to beat them up until we win?" she asked, cocking her head.
That wasn't what Dragan had said at all, but even he had to admit that she wasn't exactly wrong. He gave her a thumbs-up.
"We'll give it a couple more minutes," he said, turning back around to face the fog full of enemies. "And then we've got to go."
----------------------------------------
Nael clenched his fist as he watched the swirling clouds of the swamp, heard the sounds of battle erupting from within. Staying out here, waiting for things to resolve themselves… it felt wrong.
The main body of the army was stationed just on the border of the swamp, the explosive gases hanging in front of them like a giant curtain -- or maybe a wall. Apparently, those gases needed the specific plant-life inside the swamp to persist, so even just outside that area they were perfectly safe.
Well, as safe as they could be. At the very least, they didn't have to worry about an explosion occurring right on top of them.
He glanced over to Prester Garth, who was standing at the head of the pack, hands clasped behind his back. His eyes were fixed unblinking upon the fog wall, narrowed as if he could pierce through that veil with sheer force of will.
"My Guardian Entity is occupied," Nael heard him mutter to himself. "It appears one of our adversaries is capable of flight."
Despite the situation, Nael felt his heart lift at that. At least that meant they wouldn't be able to trigger explosions that could harm their own men anymore. Those waiting directly in the swamp had volunteered for that duty, to be sure, but the idea of launching attacks that could harm them still left a bitter taste in his mouth.
Garth was a great man, without a doubt, but his ruthlessness was -- his ruthlessness was necessary to defeat the enemy. It would be foolish to deny that.
Some messengers from the tertiary squad, sent to clear out the rebel's former hideout once they'd confirmed its location, had reported back -- apparently, Aubrisher's army had left behind the Regulator they'd previously captured. It made sense tactically: they'd be foolish to bring a pyrokinetic through these swamps -- but still, Nael was surprised they'd let the man live after all was said and done.
It was almost as if the rebels cared more about the lives of these men than the Prester did --
No.
That was beyond foolishness. It was a thought that must not be entertained.
Nael clasped his hands in front of him, a mirror to the Prester, and tapped his foot as he listened to the sounds of battle. His mind drifted to the other topic that gnawed at him: Grena had still not been found. Had the rebels captured her instead, perhaps, and judged her a safer hostage to transport?
In that case, a rancid little voice whispered. It's very possible you have already killed her.
Nael shook his head. No -- if the rebels had a new hostage to bargain with, they'd have made that known. A hostage was worthless unless your enemy knew about it. Besides, Grena wasn't the sort to allow herself to be captured. She would die before she allowed that to occur.
Perhaps that was what had happened. He swallowed shakily -- and as he did, he felt the firm hand of the Prester clap down on his shoulder.
"Stand firm, young man," Garth intoned, still staring straight ahead at the fog wall, the swirling mists reflected in his resolute eyes. "Warfare is an awful thing. I agree with you completely. The fact that fighting is necessary means that something has already gone horribly wrong. But we owe it to those suffering to at least witness their tribulations." He looked down at Nael, his eyes noticeably wet. "Without observation, all of this is meaningless. Do you understand?"
Nael quietly nodded. "Yes, sir," he whispered, voice hoarse.
Without observation, all of this was meaningless. Yes, that was true. That was undeniable. He would honour their sacrifice, and avenge their deaths. That was his role in all this.
His fist tightened.
He had to endure just a little longer.
----------------------------------------
Skipper grinned as he fired off another Heartbeat Shotgun as his opponent, the concussive blast barely missing as Aka Manto vanished into Aether once again.
"You're kind of a one-trick pony, huh?" Skipper yelled, flipping onto his back and firing off more continuous Shotguns to keep himself aloft in that position. "It's a good trick, I'll give ya that, but you gotta learn some creativity, yeah?"
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"Be silent."
The hiss of the Guardian Entity's voice was like melting steel -- and a second later, Skipper was forced to twist his body in the air to avoid the knife aimed for his spine. Aka Manto hovered below, the rest of its projectiles clutched between it's knuckles, sapphire eyes narrowed as it waited for him to make a mistake.
Skipper shrugged smugly in response. "Sorry, pal, no can do. Making noise is kinda my thing. You're doing a good job keeping outta my range, though. I'll give ya top marks for that one, yeah?"
The eyes narrowed further. "Be silent!" Aka Manto repeated.
"Hm…" Skipper cupped his chin with a cold metal hand, preparing a powerful Heartbeat Shotgun with the other hand concealed behind his back. "Again, no can do, pal! Just ain't my style! How about you, what's your style? You seem to have a funny way of going about things, you should --"
Aka Manto lunged forward, knives bared like claws. "Shut up!" it roared.
Heartbeat Shotgun.
This time, Aka Manto was too close to dodge: the concussive blast slammed into the Guardian Entity full force, sending it flying backwards -- and as it did, there was the sound of shattering porcelain. White fragments of its mask rained down out of the sky.
For a moment, Skipper leaned forward to try and catch a curious glimpse of what this thing looked like beneath its cosplay getup, but that was a futile effort. Aka Manto immediately covered it's face with its gloved hands -- and before Skipper could attack again, it once more vanished in a spark of red-and-blue Aether.
Skipper got the feeling it wouldn't be coming back any time soon.
----------------------------------------
“You know,” Dragan panted, looking down at what had just come into view. “When you said we had a way out of here, I was expecting something a little more intricate than this.”
Leading their little group through the pungent swamps had been an anxiety-inducing experience: even with Skipper distracting the main threat in the sky, Dragan half-expected a new explosion to rip through their group any second. All it would take was someone outside the fog barrier firing something like a burning arrow, and the whole lot of them would go up in smoke. Even with his little workaround, Dragan wasn’t sure he’d be able to evade it in time -- and those around him would definitely be goners at the very least.
Fortunately, it seemed the outside forces weren’t willing to do that -- or, more likely, they had no means of ascertaining their targets exact locations without Aka Manto reporting back. They’d had another flying Guardian Entity go after them when they were escaping from the Regulators camp, so did that mean Ruth had destroyed it after they had split up?
There was muttering from the rest of the group -- gathered behind him, Serena and Lily -- as the three of them looked down at the diminutive tunnel. Apparently, this ran through the ground beneath the swamp, and would exit a safe distance away. If that was true, it would be pretty convenient.
But the whole thing was just so thin… if this group tried to make their way through it, they’d be definitely going single-file -- and crouched down in the case of any of their taller members.
Lily clicked her tongue: “It’s better than trying to break through their entire army, don’t you think?”
Serena frowned as she crouched down, peering into the tunnel. “Well, maybe it won’t be so bad, Mr. Dragan. We’d sort of be like rabbits or moles digging through the ground! It’d be kind of fun, don’t you think?”
Dragan didn’t know what a rabbit was supposed to be, but the whole thing sounded like the exact opposite of fun. Still, it wasn’t as if they had much of a --
A voice whispered in his ear.
“Two paths lie before you.”
Dragan whirled around, infusing his body with Aether to speed up his movements, but from his perspective he still seemed so painfully slow -- as he turned, he could see Serena readying one of her swords for a swing, see Lily jump back in surprise…
… and see Aka Manto between the three of them, holding the bloody head of one of the rebels in its hand.
There was no more time for hesitation.
“Go!” Dragan screamed, and the rebels began to flood into the tunnel, as quickly as they could. Aka Manto made no move to stop them -- it was focused on the triumvirate surrounding it, blades glinting in its free hand. Blue eyes regarded them cautiously from behind a noticeably cracked mask.
“A path of blue,” it intoned. “And a path of red.”
In a blinding blur of movement, it twisted its body to avoid Serena’s strike and slashed its knives at Dragan -- but he was ready for it, ducking beneath the blow and rushing over to join Lily. The two of them exchanged a glance.
The plan they’d have to execute had only ever been a hypothetical, but it seemed in this case it was necessary.
As Aka Manto turned to face towards the two of them, Dragan glanced behind it to Serena -- who was still there, winding up for another devastating slash. He shook his head, and the blow stopped mid-air. It would have been dodged anyway.
“Go with them, you two,” Dragan said seriously. “We’ll deal with this.”
In the distance, growing closer, Dragan could hear the sounds of splashing water, of whispered commands. The ambushers were closing in on them. A severe sense of smugness seemed to radiate from Aka Manto as it adjusted its stance slightly -- and not without reason. No matter what else happened here, the Regulator forces could just pursue the rebels into the tunnels and finish them off with ease.
If the two of them hadn’t crazy, this would definitely be the end of the line.
“But,” Serena said, her face twisting into Bruno’s. “You’ll…”
“Nah,” Dragan grinned with confidence he didn’t feel, eyes locked onto the dagger pointing at him. “I definitely won’t die.”
Bruno hesitated for a moment -- and then, with a rush of Aether-infused movement -- blasted into the tunnel.
“The path of blue is to have your neck snapped with the pressure of a saint,” Aka Manto helpfully said, beginning to float over the ground. “The path of red is to be eviscerated by a demon’s blade. Which do you choose? Blue, or red? Red, or blue?”
“Remember what I told you?” Dragan muttered, readying himself. If the two of them were to survive this, he’d need perfect timing.
Subtly, Lily nodded. “I’ve been using this Aether stuff anyway, to summon my Guardian Entity,” she whispered, repeating his advice. “I just need to spread it through my body to protect myself.”
Aka Manto’s body tensed, muscles beneath the cloak clearly preparing to lunge at them with the speed of a bullet.
“Which do you choose?!” it roared, the pupils behind the mask dilating to feral pinpricks. “Blue, or red? Red, or blue?!”
Through the fog swirling around them, Dragan could see the silhouettes of their pursuers, on the very verge of finally surrounding them. A shaky gulp travelled down his throat, but he didn’t allow that to stifle the smug smirk he’d forced onto his face.
He jerked his head in Lily’s direction. “She’ll be answering this time, thanks.”
Aka Manto’s eyes flicked to regard Lily instead -- and, if anything, the fury in its gaze only intensified. “You!” it hissed.
Lily’s mouth opened, but she didn’t reply to Aka Manto in the least. Instead, she merely took a deep breath. As she did, teal Aether began to crackle around her -- subtly at first, but growing fiercer and fiercer until she seemed to be standing in the middle of a thunderstorm all her own. It clung to her, diffusing through her skin, her flesh, her bones -- reinforcing whatever it touched as much as it could be reinforced right now.
Dragan, for his part, prepared himself to use his new technique. If he didn’t do that correctly, this whole lightshow would be for nothing. He adjusted his stance slightly, moving his arm so that he was ready to grab Lily the second it became necessary.
Then Lily spoke.
“Guardian Entity,” she said, Aether erupting around her. “Raijū.”
Behind her, the vague silhouette of a massive creature appeared -- like some sort of cross between a wolf and a gorilla, wavering and flickering in and out of existence. Far in the sky above, barely visible through the tiniest gap in the fog, storm clouds were gathering, lightning flickering deep in their depths.
Faced with Raijū, Aka Manto seemed to hesitate a moment, blades almost slipping out of its grip. Its eyes were still wide as it looked up at the hulk, but it didn’t seem to be a result of anger anymore. Dragan couldn’t quite tell what it was a result of.
All the same, that moment of hesitation guaranteed their victory.
“Give it everything you’ve got,” Lily hissed -- and lightning upon lightning, like a hundred spears of pure electricity, lanced down from the sky, aiming directly for her own position. This was fire enough to burn a world down.
Three things happened at once, in that split second before the lightning reached the fog: Aka Manto hurled its knife at Lily’s skull, Dragan seized Lily by the wrist, and two victorious words passed Dragan’s lips.
“Gemini World.”