Chapter 13: Ones Bad Luck Is Another's Good Luck
As the disciples of the Mystic Puppet Sect made a hastily fighting retreat back to their camp led by Rasso, Ashura made a beeline straight back towards Kaladia City running over 90 miles per hour in a mad dash to save its prisoner who’s being only being kept alive by a device wrapped around her chest like a breast plate.
The disciples were bitter of their loss but more so at their own weakness. They already knew well who they are up against before fighting yet they made little preparations and that lapse of judgement costed them dearly and almost their very lives.
Their Sect’s weakness is not really hard to discover. Their puppets might be strong but the puppeteer themselves are more vulnerable than most people would realize, and ignoring the puppet army to attack the puppeteer just made a lot of sense as it was just that they forgot a crucial information…. where was the enemy puppeteer?
Because of this they were suddenly fighting an army that does not get tired or knew the fear of death, while they on the other hand the disciples are all sorts of color when they were put on the precipice and on the brink.
Eventually they managed to destroy the Knight Golems and the Skeleton Granite golems. Upon their return to the camp to which had caused quite a stir and were forced to made a detailed report to their superiors.
Inside the tent was General Yohmu looking at the battered and haggard disciples of the Mystic Puppet Sect. “now tell me again how this happened?”
The disciples were being treated of their injuries as lead disciple Rasso recounted the story from start to finish, but due to their embarrassing defeat they exaggerated some facts like the golem army were actually five thousand strong all in foundation stage, and ultimately they confirmed something that rumors that they have heard.
And that is the person that controls the golems where nowhere to be seen nor were anywhere close to the vicinity which greatly shocked the listeners, though they already have heard about the long distance control of the golem army they never really paid attention to such a ridiculous notion of manipulating an army over large distances.
But now they have actual confirmed reports about the fact of the matters. Now they have to reevaluate the already mysterious Sera Hawke.
Changing the topic General Yohmu then inquired about the dwarven fortress that was recently erected from an abandoned mine.
“how could you have allowed them to build a fortress without as much as contesting them!?” he shouted while slamming his hand of the table
“the commander of the peeled off army replied in shock “b-but General we did send a lot of scouts to map the area and the abandoned mines were truly abandoned 4 days after our initial scouting, when we tried to make another patrol over that region our patrol failed to return similar to the next group of patrols that we sent after the rest it was then that we sent five thousand soldiers to investigate, unfortunately it was already too late the Dwarves have completed the fortress in just a handful of days before our army even arrived”
After hearing the explanation General Yohmu could only sigh heavily as he shook his head. A good strategic opportunity vanished just like that. He was excited when he left the front lines to consolidate this position only to arrive in great dismay.
Such a waste of time and effort after successfully surrounding and isolating the front line castle we thought we managed to imprison 50,000 soldiers inside and create a new front. But now the Dwarves have finally shown themselves that leaves only the Elves which has yet to appear.
“G-geneeral what are your orders? What should we do next?”
General Yohmu just shrugged “What else can we do? What’s done is done, just fortify this position and await further orders I’m going to return back to the front lines and finish the business otherwise we are going to be stuck in a stalemate”
“get your injuries treated and tell the patrols to do it within eye shot of the encampment” the General said before leaving
“yes sir!” they saluted at the leaving General
As General Yohmu vanished outside of the camp a new set of discussion has happened to the disciples of the Mystic Puppet Sect and the Bone Forging Sect.
“so it is true? There really was no puppet master nearby but has been controlling them in great distances?” said the Bald man
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“yeah. We thought we can take them but in the end it was too late when we discovered that we might as well be fighting floating swords, without the wielder to kill how were we supposed to win?”
“hehe I don’t feel as bad as I was when we lost to that puppet army now cpmpared to how you have lost”
“hmp”
Kaladia City
While waiting for Ashura to return with her prize Sera Hawke is currently hosting a big banquet having several relatives of royalties from different kingdoms and even some generals and distinguished soldiers well decorated in the battlefield.
The occasion is simply the news that the Dwarves and Elves having formally join the alliance although these two races have always been keeping to themselves most of the time with the Eastern Continent bearing down on them their isolationist nature have to be broken and join the alliance once more like the wars of old.
Marianne Vi Kaladia even personally asked a favor from Sera Hawke to have the banquet at her place, apparently her past banquets have garnered attention of being better than some of the royalties could provide. In which case was false of course but that did not stop the rumors from flying around.
“and now here we are mingling and smiling at dozens of strangers instead of doing wok under the laboratory” sera thought to herself as she too a sip from her wine glass
Contrary to the usual dancing, flirting and loud noises the banquets usually does in this region and the nearby kingdoms Sera’s banquet is more like a musical show.
With a big screen on the wall she has been playing orchestra musical shows both classical and modern from her records where she also use to relax from time to time, and now the nobles and the royalties are also enjoying the “grand performance” which is a recording but Sera explained as if it was magic…. how convenient an explanation.
Though the soldiers also listened from time to time they are more focused on the food they have never seen or even heard of before. With the addition of soy sauce some foods went from good to great, frying was also a new thing apparently, with several addition of modern cooking techniques and spices Sera Hawke’s banquet have been solidified as being unique and having attended her almost divine banquet made it as a social status.
Basically if you have been invited in one of Lady Sera Hawke’s banquets you would be part of the “cool people” so to speak, but the mostly accepted rumor was that receiving an invitation to her banquet would mean of job opportunities, that being the steel wagons for example no one outside of her banquet invitee managed to land a deal with the steel wagons and those people became the retailers of Sera Hawke’s steel wagon which they have sold for a much steeper price but still managed to be sold out of stock in no time.
Another example would be the adventurers she have hired. The adventurer teams Inheritors and Tempest have gotten a lot of attention and received high paying jobs which they have gotten rare and unique treasures from the raids they were hired for.
As one can see Lady Sera can provide some of the much needed opportunities for success. And therefore multiple single men from noble families again wanted to extend their hands on Lady Sera Hawke for marriage proposals in which she politely declined.
Sera Hawke was never a people person not that she was too smart to understand them or anything but rather useless chatter and rumor mongering really just did not appeal to her, she found comfort in solace and her work and found it more tolerable to be with people through a camera rather than be with them physically.
The banquet lasted for 10 hours cycling from listening to the musical orchestra, eating food, chatting and making deals to one another and of course to ask Sera’s hand in marriage.
When the banquet was finally finished Sera just went straight to the shower and after a quick bath and passed out on the bed as soon as her head landed on the pillow due to stress.
The next day sera woke up late in the afternoon missing breakfast she went to the 2nd floor and called for Bellato.
In a few minutes Bellato was in front of her and said “how may I be of service my Lady?”
“I need you to do this” sera then passed a small note book to Bellato detailing her plans
“do you think you can do it?”
“of course my Lady. Though it may take a while with the war going on but only a week at most if we used more money on it” he said as he examined the note book in detail
“do it even if costs extra, I want it done before the week”
“by your will my Lady” he then bowed and left to complete the task given to him
Sera on the other hand sat still like statue thinking her next moves. This time she intended to create a tavern that would serve as both a restaurant and an inn, with this setup Bellato would no longer need to run around the city like a headless chicken hanging out in questionable places jus to get a whiff of rumors. Now the rumors would come to her.
Several days later a commotion was happening in the front gates of the city as Ashura just arrived very early while the gates are still closed and Ashura is cutting the lines of people wanting to enter the city.
Some newly recruited guards almost attacked Ashura but luckily there were still some of the old guards that monitored the situation and allowed Ashura to pass through as a special case, Lady Sera Hawke has been getting a lot of attention to the higher society after all and it would be unwise to incur her wrath.
After getting inside the city, again Ashura made a run for it towards Sera’s underground laboratory whilst moving at around 50 kilometers per hour and 20 tons of hulking Power Armour made the ground shake that turned heads everywhere luckily aside from the unexpected commotion nothing else happened.
Several more minutes passed by and Sera in her underground laboratory looked like child opening a present during her birthday and Christmas eve.
Gemini Doc was already on stand by beside her as the hatch opened revealing an unconscious girl around 25 - 30 years old dishevelled hair body full of injuries and of course her limbs amputated.
The Eastern Cultivator was then transferred to Gemini Doc in a intensive care unit like place
The breast plate device that kept her alive this long was removed along with her personal effects which was stored in a secured vault for decontamination and identification and all the while cultivator is now being full body scanned as she is getting IV liquids and other medications that should keep her alive even as a brain dead husk of a body… a body of an Eastern Cultivator no less.
Seeing her prize delivered and alive Sera Hawke could no longer contain in and laughed hysterically in her jubilation. She finally had a live sample of an Eastern Immortal going in a full body CT scan, blood analysis, DNA sample, mouth swap, urine sample, and even a batch of egg cells from her ovaries.
“if she dies I will just have to grow one myself… hmm maybe clone one? Well whichever comes faster I guess hehehehehehahahahahahaha!!!!”
Although the more in depth details would take longer days? Perhaps even weeks before being completely analyzed the initial scan shows that her bones are like reinforced steel and yet as light an aluminum or maybe perhaps titanium?
Despite her seemingly serious injuries her vitals are all surprisingly healthy, this only made Sera even more elated now she can perhaps have a body like one of those so called Immortals.
Originally Sera was planning to learn Wizardry or become a Magic Knight in Narud’s library but sadly her body simply cannot contain magic at all or risk herself in unknown dangers, according to the books the body that could not contain mana would deteriorate after having mana being forced on their body regardless of quantity or quality.
Sadly one of the nobles back then had an heir completely a what was called a magical cripple basically a normal person minus all the magical stuff, well when they tried to force mana on his body to “forcefully awaken” ….. yeah well it did not go well
“And until satisfactory results come in I would not taking the risk for my self” she thought to herself
As for her personal effects however her limbs with bracelets and bangles remain unscathed despite being in a battle that literally ripped her to shred became a point of interest for Sera Hawke.
The bracelets on her arms have a symbol of a shield with crossed swords, while the bangles on both of the foot have the symbol of a feather “hmph maybe its a magical item. I will have to ask around the mages circle to have them analyzed”