As Hera and Vash approached the humans, they were finally able to take a good look at the team members. It was a group of five in total. Three of them radiated an energy that clearly came from strength mana. Their almost glowing red skin, unsuccessfully hidden by their clothes, was just a confirmation of their abilities. But the other two people were a bit strange. One of them was a man carrying an odd-looking backpack. It was white and seemingly made of a hard kind of plastic. There was a visor indicating temperature, but what made her freeze was the Red Cross on the side.

There was a rule of war followed for centuries, if not longer. A Red Cross always indicated medical equipment. It could also be used to mark a healer who focused on civilians, people who under no circumstance were participating in the battles. The rule dictated that no one could use that symbol for anything but its intended purposes. No one should hide as one of them or try to pass a weapon or any kind of item as something meant to heal.

All that care was because of a simple reason. People dedicated to saving lives, and only saving lives, should never be suspected of being spies. If that were to happen, then any attempt at helping would be met with aggression and suspicion, which would only increase the casualties of war.

Yet, if the humans truly wanted to give some sort of supplies or equipment that could help heal the civilians, they wouldn’t have come in the dead of night, hidden by a tunnel. Even more proof that this was not a friendly visit was the fact that the three Soldiers of Strength were walking alongside these people.

"You lot are going that low, and we’re the monsters?" Vash shook his head, having a similar train of thought as Hera.

"No. We came here to deliver these supplies to someone in the city," the man carrying the backpack replied.

"And why are you here in the middle of the night while the humans are attacking our camp?" Hera asked. She had dismissed the Court before getting here in order to make the group lower their guard and catch them by surprise.

"We took advantage of the attack to sneak by. Our people were not okay with us delivering these supplies," the man continued.

"That's fair. Give it here, and I’ll take it back so you can go home without raising any more suspicion," Hera gestured to the man.

"No. You don’t know who our contact is. The supplies have a specific need, and we can’t afford to mix it with anything else," the man shook his head, his eyes darting between the Empress and his group.

Vash landed on Hera’s shoulder. It was something they’d agreed to do a long time ago. If they ever needed to talk without speaking, the harpy would just land on someone and press the right or left back claw of his foot to say yes or no.

"Oh? So you’re like double agents working with us?" Vash asked.

"Exactly. We need to give this to a specific person. They know what to do with it," as the man replied, Vash pushed his left claw slightly on Hera’s shoulder. But he really didn’t need to do that. The Empress also caught the lie. If they really were spies, they would never refer to humans as "our people." Much less would they say they were spies outright. Since the Harmony Guardians worked with the intelligence agency, they knew the specific code phrase to answer a question like that.

"That’s even better, then. We’re also part of the agency. I assume your contact is expecting you, so just let us take it, and we’ll give it to them," Hera nodded and continued, holding her hand out, waiting to receive the backpack.

"Fuck that. Let’s just kill them and stop wasting time," the last member of the human team said—a woman with a black scarf covering most of her face. The only things visible were her eyes and a red bindi in the middle of her forehead.

The Empress felt that was strangely familiar. The eyes seemed to be the same as the woman she’d seen earlier today, pulling a Soldier of Strength out of the battle. But there was only one person she’d met who had a bindi, and saying it was her just because of that was the same as saying 'all elves look the same.'

"Yeah, we kind of figured you weren’t spies," Vash sighed. "Honestly, you’re pretty bad at lying."

Hera was about to complain about Vash talking during a conflict when a notification appeared in front of her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You have been Observed

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She turned to the woman and answered in kind, "Rude."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Anaya Varty - Level 38

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‘Holy shit. It really is her,’ Hera thought to herself.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"I don’t need to be polite to a snake pretending to be a person. Especially one with the bounty on its head. One that I’ll be more than happy to claim," Anaya spat her words.

Since the woman, if she could even be called that, hadn’t changed, Hera decided to answer the way she should have done all those years ago. "That’s what this is about? You’re jealous because I’m more famous than you?"

Anaya’s eyes flared up. "I’m not jealous of some monster pretending to be something else. And by the time I kill you, everyone will know my name."

Hera smirked. "Could be. But even if you do, there’s one thing that’ll always be true. You’ll only be famous because of me. Because I was so famous that killing me mattered. No matter what you do here, you’ll always be an afterthought."

The human screamed and rushed towards the Empress, swinging a pair of double daggers as she tried to attack her. But the difference in levels, attributes, and skills was too big. Hera barely had to make an effort to dodge the attacks. Anaya was an assassin, someone who should focus on sneak attacks and a stealthier approach. Going for a frontal assault made most of her abilities useless. The human swung wildly, clearly letting her emotions get the better of her. After the third missed attack, the Ophidianite swiped the woman’s leg with her tail, causing Anaya to fall flat on her face.

Turning away from the attacker, mostly due to the lack of threat she represented, Hera asked, "I noticed most of the Soldiers of Strength follow orders from someone else when they fight. What's the matter? Being attached to a daemon makes you lose your mind? Or is it just because the guild doesn't want their dogs off the leash?"

"I have no reason to answer you," one of the Soldiers of Strength replied as he unsheathed a katana.

Hera nodded and glanced toward Anaya. "See? That's how you do it. You don't fall for taunts like a child." Following that, the Empress cracked her tail across her old classmate's face, knocking her out.

Before anything else happened, Vash turned to Hera. "You know, I just hate what you're wearing."

"Help me change, then," the Ophidianite replied before bursting into motion.

Between her and the rest of the humans, a small circus tent appeared. It was just a few centimeters taller than her and about two meters wide. Hera stepped inside, calling all of her Court behind her to allow them to also get the buff. On the other side, the humans only saw a red and yellow tent appear before five people emerged from it. All their weapons and armor were now covered in a dark red hue with vibrant crimson accents.

Lurize and Livy charged forward, passing the Empress and tackling two of the Soldiers of Strength. The impact sent the humans a few meters back. Hera aimed at the third one, summoning the rest of her Court while taking Eira in her hands. She had seen how powerful the ability of breaking the soldiers' defenses was. She started with an upward swing, already triggering [Permafrost Vortex] that forced her target, a woman, to block with her double sabers. Hera was now in the middle of the group, which meant that after the initial impact, she was surrounded by three people: the Ophidianite Empress, the Leviathan, and the Royal Tutor. Defending against a single strike wasn't enough.

Pulling their weapons, Livy and Lurize came at the woman from opposite sides while Hera kept her hands busy. Between impacts, they made large gashes on the soldier's arms. The unnatural shade of blood red that covered her skin became paler as the buff created by Vash interfered with the Strength mana inside her body. Seeing the effectiveness of the attack, the Empress ducked as Sun triggered his [Solar Flare] at the same time that Pyro fired an [Inferno Burst], both attacks hitting the woman in her face at point-blank range. Even with the increased regeneration of a Soldier of Strength, it was too much, and she fell to the ground, already dead, her face carbonized by the attacks.

"Hera!" Vash called, his voice full of worry.

The Empress glanced up and saw the remaining three members of the human team putting on gas masks before the man carrying the backpack moved to open it. She dashed forward, hoping she would reach him in time. The entire Court was moving to intercept him, but even Viper and Crimson, who were just a few meters away, wouldn’t be able to get there in time. If that was the chemical weapon being used by the humans, there was a good chance it could do some damage even from this distance. They couldn't allow that to happen. If it spread, both the Army and the city could be affected by this weapon.

Banking on her skills and her title, Hera yelled, "Make a tent around us! Now!" She had no idea if that would work to stop gas or mana, but it was the best plan she could come up with.

In a situation like this, Vash wasn't able to argue against the command. The Harmony Guardians had already discussed that if those on the front lines called for a barrier of some sort, they should all deploy it, no questions asked. The performer quickly created his stage, covering both Hera and her Court, as well as the human team. The only one left outside was the unconscious woman that the Empress had knocked out a few moments earlier. But he also created the "inverted tent"—one that trapped those inside, not protected them, with his teammates being the only ones able to move freely between the boundary.

The red and yellow tent materialized in an instant, just in time as the man holding the backpack turned a dial. In response, the backpack started to let out a green steam that quickly enveloped the entire area. It was such a thick liquid that it was hard to even see beyond it, at least through normal means. The Empress switched to her infrared sight, thanks to her Ophidianite eyes, which revealed the positions of the humans inside the fortification. They were already moving toward the walls, trying to find a way to escape.

But before she could do anything about that, she had to focus on the toxins. It was clear that when the smoke touched her body, it would try to sink into her skin. Something was stopping it from being able to do so, but even then, she didn’t trust this would be a permanent effect. The longer she stayed inside, the more likely she was to be infected by whatever it was. Maybe her attributes would be enough to fight off the disease and the poison, but there was a chance even her levels wouldn’t be enough to protect her from the attack.

She now had to figure out a way not just to get rid of the toxic mist, but also to deal with the humans inside the tent. In addition she had to do all that before she would succumb to this chemical attack.