Carl let out a breath, he had come to a decision. It was a gamble, literally rolling the dice and hoping for a favourable outcome, hells knew he hated that but sometimes there was just no other way. Too little information, too little time.
"Dreil, who else made it back with you?"
"Turtle and Ratcham, the others, they... they were all killed"
Kael, watched wordlessly as Carl wrote something down on a slip of paper and handed it to Elvyah. None this made much sense, of all the three groups the Staves were the weakest, a gathering of crooks that had come to Tenlight years ago to escape their enemies. If the stories he had heard were true they only still existed as a force because of an ambitious mistake on his father's part. They had to know that if they attacked the Demolishers, the Tenlight family would take advantage of both sides. Yet they did it, all without revealing themselves to his father’s spies. It baffled the mind, they had a plan, and something had changed but what? Kael's train of thought was broken when a young girl suddenly appeared beside Elvyah as if she had been there all along. He stared at her with some amount of wonder, he had always known that his father preferred for his deviants to be quiet about their gifts but he had never thought that he had one, no one was aware of. She had a ponytail of lush brown hair but he couldn't make out her face seeing as she was slightly shorter than him and had bent her head to read the note Elvyah had handed her hand her. When she was done she looked up at him and he was struck by the beauty of her pupils, they were silver disks that shone, her face would have been plain but for her eyes, they were striking. No he did not know her, he would have remembered eyes like those, a heartbeat passed and then without warning she was gone, the only the missing slip of paper gave away that she had ever been there at all. He looked around the only person who seemed to be as surprised as he was, was Dreil. She was obviously a well-guarded secret, that she had been revealed to a waste of space like him was not a good sign.
"Sitting here will do us little good now, let’s teach those idiots the difference between us" with that his father rose from his seat and began to head for the door. The people in the room -all but a dazed Kael- fell into positions around him. The wordless understanding with which they moved was something Carl drilled tirelessly into every member of the Demolishers, be they deviant or paper boy, he required utter efficiency from them. What had Kael been thinking, so what if the Blood Staves had managed to take down a fraction of the Demolisher's forces with their full might, even with superior numbers they would be hard pressed take on the trained and armed Demolishers on their home ground. Just then Carl lashed out, moving faster than Kael could follow, and the blow flung Dreil across the room and into the wall with a crash. His ribcage had caved in and fresh blood wet Carl's fist. What in The Void cursed cosmos just happened? Eleven deviants that was how many served Carl, if you counted the largely unknown maiden and presumed the second team leader from the garden to be dead. Each one of them was a symbol of might, the strength of the three factions was not measured by common men but with deviants and the power of the deviations they wielded. To strike one as Carl had just done right before a battle was lunacy. Sunken chest heaving, Dreil tried to get up, his arms flailed liturgically and he struggled desperately to lift his head but he could only seem to raise it a couple inches of the ground before dropping it in defeat. He did this repeatedly as if he was trying to escape some manner of phantom bonds but despite his efforts he remained bound. As calm as he'd ever been Carl walked over to Driel's writhing body. His eyes burned red and his right foot flashed with inhuman speed, there was an audible crack. Dreil was dead. His father was downright frightening, one minute he seemed a rage fueled idiot the next he appeared unflappable.
"We" Carl said, completely at ease in his madness "have been betrayed."
By whom, how did the old man even figure it out. After making a show of examining his pants for blood stains Carl took a seat on his desk. An action Kael had never once seen him do. Behind the unruffled exterior, Carl had to be disturbed by the mess they were in and it showed in this seemingly innocuous action. Kael was at a loss whether to be glad or scared. On one hand that Carl was not lost in is his head and was well aware that things were bad was good news, wonderful even on the other hand that he was visibly shaken by it meant things were worse than Kael had first thought.
"How? How did you figure it out?" Kael asked still not sure if Carl was entirely sane.
"All the signs are there really. The Staves were certain they could take us but did not have the Family's support. Our plants reported nothing because they were either in on it or revealed by someone in a position to find out who they were. Dreil and his 'friends' got here in time to give us practically no warning, even though it should have been easier for a smaller group to slip through the forest than the entirety of the Stave's forces, who would have had to detain captives if any. He really should have taken the time to at least injure himself properly. Once you figure it out the tells are rather obvious." Carl answered with all the sense of urgency of a person listing groceries.
The contrast between the stoic, unflappable man before Kael now and the irate little man from before was glaring. Right he might be but perhaps Carl was not so sane after all.
"Elvyah, I trust that your protégé can handle the task at hand?" Carl asked, passing a hand through his oily mess of hair. Another break in character, another slip.
"She can"
"Good then unless anyone has questions I would like you to follow me..." a pause to give others the chance to speak "Kozen you know what to do. Set to it"
The man nodded, flashing his signature grin and promptly exiting the room. At this point Carl finally rose again, eliciting a series of groans and protests from his desk and made for the door.
"Father, how will you know when you have caught all the spies"
A moment of silence passed.
"I most likely won't" Carl answered and then he left.
Elvyah turned to face Kael, she looked into his eyes clearly amused by him.
"Well... unless you plan on hiding in a cellar, there's a fight to be fought."
Almost thirty minutes had passed since their look outs had first spotted the Staves. Approaching the aptly named 'Demolition Site' in the day unnoticed was impossible for mere men. It was divorced from the other buildings in Tenlight by large stretches of flat land in all directions. Any hostiles that approached would bleed for every meter well at least that was the idea. Reality on the other hand was a bitch, a volley of arrows peppered the encroaching men only to be deflected by an invisible pane of force. Kael watched with abject fascination as a single deviant made mockery of the guild's defenses, he knew fully well that the purpose of the opening volleys was to task the offending deviant's reserves and yet he couldn't help but find the sight beautiful in a terrifying way.
"I really am an odd one"
*Crank* *swoosh* the trebuchets sent their twin pay loads flying in unison. The two large boulders were further accompanied by a volley of arrows. The first boulder was knocked off course by a lance of light, the second though managed to break through a force pane but was stopped by a second invisible barrier. The arrows clattered harmlessly against the invisible wall moments later. Damn, Kael wasn't sure what he had been expecting but that was just disappointing, the trebuchets were the best the Demolisher's had to offer in terms of long range offense.
On the other side of the battlefield another mind mirrored Kael's sentiments though for entirely antagonistic reasons. How could the damned wench be so subpar? Was it so hard to form the shields at an incline so that they deflected projectiles rather than trying to stop them outright? The obscured malcontent was certain that if set at the right angle the shield could have parried both boulders without breaking, saving precious despair in the process. He clicked his tongue in distaste, her ineptitude was threatening to sour his earlier good spirits. Still the opposition had yet to capitalize on her mistakes so he supposed it was forgivable. Furthermore he supposed he had been warned of her lack of skill when she herself had said her ability had no direct offensive uses, he had nearly choked. Her ability truly was a defensive one, designed by the gods with no intent of causing harm but all it took was some creative thinking a bit of persistence and presto it was a lethal weapon. One could say that he had known then, that she wasn't an expert at her deviation's use or a particularly bright person but that such basic maneuvers eluded her was a bit of a suprise. Sigh, she was a friend now and that meant he wouldn't give up on her... even if she was an airhead. No even then he would treat her like the good friend he was. The female energy deviant's inadequacies aside he was deeply satisfied with his winnings. Soon the building before him as well as everyone in it would be his as well.
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Kael checked the straps of his leather armour. Despite the unfortunate procession of things he was excited more than anything else. What fears he had were that he would commit some rookie mistake, or that his helmet would slide of in the heat of battle, silly thoughts he couldn't really shake off but that failed to dent his desire to split skulls. He was studiously attempting to school his expression into a sterner one, befitting the situation at hand but he suspected that he wasn't being entirely successful, if only he had a mirror then he could be sure he was not smiling. His father was currently staring off into the distance, at... at well nothing, more flat land covered with overgrown grass as far Kael could tell. After a few moments of looking at nothing Carl nodded, appearing satisfied with his observations.
"Probably thinking the grass needs cutting."
Carl beckoned to a man Kael knew to be one of his deviants. The two exchanged a flurry of hand signals -to confuse anyone watching through eldritch means- then the man walked off and Carl directed his stare at the enemy lines. Kael thought he could see the faint outlines of a smile on his father's face but he couldn't be sure. Smiling, he turned to watch the deviant, his father had spoken to, curious about the man’s ability, and he knew it had something to do with lightning but little else. His father did not publicize such things, preferring the element of suprise to the attention it brought. With a thunderous bang the man erupted into thick brilliant forks of lightning, and bolted towards the enemy, literally. He split through the sky, closing in on the enemy in seconds, ripping through the multiple hastily erected force panes with contemptuous ease and striking the center of the enemy forces. With a single blow near two hundred men were flung apart, and charcoal black crater marked the enemy’s former position. In a ridiculously loud peal of thunder, the deviant flashed through the air a second time and made a rough landing in the training field, burning the grass where he landed but little else. He crouched there, stock still for a few moments, his clothes were gone and steam rose of him, exhausted? Not surprising, he just decimated a two hundred man strong team with a single attack! Eventually the man rose with unsteady feet, and started to make his way back to Carl. What Kael had failed to notice was that moments before the eye-catching lightning strike hit another less noticeable deviant struck by sending violent tremors through the earth, the attack had in fact originated from the point in the distance his father had staring at. It had obviously been unaffected by the panes of force and had rattled bones, shattering a few but largely serving to knock opponents of balance for the subsequent attack.
"We've won!” He thought, elation and disappointment flooding him all at once.
Surprisingly, majority of the Staves started to rise to their feet with jerky movements. Kael turned to look at his father to ask if is this was to be expected but the man's face, devoid of all colour told him all he needed to know. The enemy had countered the lightning strike somehow. Growling, Carl let out a large bark that drew the attention of his followers to him and in turn his outstretched fire at will hand sign.
The unknown assailant grit his teeth, the blast had almost done him in and how embarrassing that would have been, to die in the middle of nowhere, tsk tsk. He honestly hadn't expected a blow of that power, heavy artillery types were rare and the Despair costs for their attacks were... well heavy. He wouldn't be surprised if that single strike had emptied the deviant's reserves, still had it not been for Cleaves who absorbed majority of the energy, he along with two thirds of his troops would have died. There was a palpable din as the inept deviant protected against a barrage of projectiles. Her personal failings aside her deviation was really top notch. Cleaves turned to him, asking for permission with a glance. He gave the greying middle aged man a nod. Enough playing around, it was time to show these bumpkins that he was the real deal. After that he would give them all a shot to befriend him. With the go ahead given, Cleaves fired a burst of yellow energy into the sky, the burst itself would go largely unnoticed in the bright day sky but the peal that sounded after would be heard clearly even at defending side. More importantly it would be heard by the second subordinate he had brought along, Genneris, who had long infiltrated the opposition with a couple of newly acquired deviants, if Cleaves was his hammer then she was a scalpel, he reduced the opposition to rubble and she devastated foes with perfect surgical strikes. Both of them were fairer hands at killing than capturing. His new followers were directed by their faux commander and sent a volley of arrows of their own at the general location of whoever sent the vibration attack. Cleaves the taken the brunt of that attack too and pointed out the source, what would he ever do without his shiny Warhammer. The man in question rose into the air, his body shimmering with borrowed energy.
Kael shook his head as the varying projectiles bounced harmlessly against invisible barriers. Only a handful of people seemed to have been affected by the lightning strike. A loud boom resounded and everyone with half a wit knew the enemy was about to show their hand. When arrows finally took to the sky from enemy archers, Kael was shocked to see that they flew off into the distance and not at the Demolition site. Wait wasn't that roughly where his father had been looking! Suddenly the arrows jerked, flying in opposite directions as if they were knocked off course by an impossibly strong errant gust. A few of them even shattered like fine china. It was then that Kael realized how little he understood of the game being played, rather than the messy tangle he had been sure battle was, this was an exchange. A give and take resembling more a heated debate between two parties than a messy brawl. That was when chaos ensued. The men began shouting and pointing at a weird cloud that was spreading from a corner of the building with the obvious intent of blanketing the ground floor and the training field with it. Another man was yelling something about a dead Fire deviant. Even Kael who knew comparatively little about the state of both sides understood what was happening. The leader of the Staves had a son who could emit and manipulate a whitish fog that sent people to lala land. He was normally combated by the combustive nature of his fog and the fixed speed at which he could release it. However the Fire deviant that countered him was found dead and the rate at which the fog was spreading was too fast, suggesting he had had time to amass it unnoticed before finally attacking. The earlier assault was just a distraction or perhaps this was the distraction, it would split the Staves attention allowing the Staves to close in on them.
A savage howl drowned out all other sounds. When it ended everyone was looking at Carl. For a moment he just stood there, calm, stern eyes berating every one of them for their stupidity. The men felt their confidence return along with slivers of shame. Heavens be damned they were the Demolishers, they fucking wrecked; they were not wrecked. Carl gave the fire at will sign, and so they turned their backs on the noxious sentience guided gas that threatened to reduce them to a senseless stupour and they resumed fire on the enemy.
"Kozen, deal with it."
The large bald man nodded, and ran off followed by a couple of men.
He grabbed an unlit torch as he ran to the lower floor. When he got down he passed the torch to his men and took stock of the spread. It was salvageable. With a smile he took the now lit torch from his men and tossed it into the centre of the gas, watching intently as it bloomed scarlet. He only relaxed when he was sure the building had not caught fire. Perhaps they were lucky and the little rat that did this had been caught in the explosion. Not likely, rats had a way of scampering free. As if to lend credence to his thoughts three more clouds of fog rolled out, blanketing the ground even faster than the first. The fuckers were toying with them.
"Wait here" he growled and with a burst of inhuman power he launched himself to the upper floors. Still moving freakishly fast with the power of his strength based War deviation he ripped torches from a scones and leapt back down. His subordinate hurriedly lit one of the torches but he was too late the fogs had fused, a blast this large might collapse the building and yet if he didn't the fog would collapse them all. Kozen gripped the torch and flung it but it was not to be, a blade slit his arm and caused him to drop the torch. Arms gripped him from behind, he tried to break free but his body had suddenly gone weak and the violent power of his deviation was suddenly out of reach.
"Aah" he screamed but it came out weak and wrong, around him he could hear the scuffles of his comrades. No doubt locked in futile struggles like himself. He lost all feeling in his limbs and dropped to the ground, limp. A woman he had never seen before stood above him.
"Sshh" she mocked "It will be over soon"
No no no no.
This could not happen, he would not let it. Drawing strength from his anger he tried to draw in the strength of his deviation but it was scattered as quickly as he could gather it. Whatever he had been drugged with was too strong, soon his vision lost its focus too and the world went black.