While much focus has been paid to the more prominent heroes of the battlefield (and even then, the definition of what qualified as prominent in those cases were likely more due to my own personal bias than any objective standard), they were ultimately only a few out of countless battles. Both sides had their heroes and cowards, great victories and crushing defeats, although admittedly, the mouse kingdom was falling a little bit short in the 'victories' department.

While the early surprise attack had been incredibly effective, not just for offering an early advantage, but lasting benefits throughout the conflict, the more time that had passed, the more the augmented mice were able to push forward. They just had too many factors working in their favor. Weaponry, for one. Not only were their armaments far more advanced than the plastic and wooden swords and clubs which were used by the bulk of our forces, but they also covered a far wider range, and were much easier to use. The technology wasn't without its hiccups, of course, and it was certainly dangerous in the wrong hands, but the skill floor of their use was incomparably lower than the lifetime, if not more, required to master either sorceries or the longbow.

As such, it wasn't only the true soldiers, those who were trained to fight as a core profession who wielded them. The citizens bore such items as well, with only the oldest, youngest or most infirm as exceptions. They might not have had the expertise of the green robed, augmented mice, but they knew which direction to point a rifle, and in some cases, the heavier explosive launchers. They could even wield melee weapons when needed, as was often required, since guns could pose as much of a liability as a benefit at close range. These common citizens were not entirely untrained in their use, but naturally had minimal skill with them, and the tools that they used for this were significantly more conventional. In this regard, they were comparable to the average kingdom fighters. A little better geared, but also a little less skilled in combat.

More than weaponry, there were also tactics. They were organized, compared to the mouse kingdom which were a disparate group of mice without any real core leadership. Jebediah could certainly have been considered the commander of the force, but even if he were qualified in troop movements and the like, he was in no position to communicate those orders over the vast battleground. Communication was also a bit of an issue for the augmented mice, but significantly less so. Not only did many of the mice have machines which allowed them to speak over a great distance, they also had varying degrees of training. The common citizens in their clean, white attire weren't experts but they were drilled on the basics of troop formations, with a clear hierarchical structure. In some small ways, the chaotic and unplanned tactics of the kingdom mice had actually worked to our advantage, but more often than not, when it came to controlling the battle, it was the more advanced rodents who commanded the field.

Then there was technology. Not weapons, and in fact most of those implants weren't even designed with any sort of combat purpose in mind. Like most of the kingdom mice, Mollenoch's citizens had largely considered this war to be a minor, inconsequential skirmish, a single step towards their bright future. While certainly a warlike society, they didn't exist for the sake of war, instead it was merely a means to an end, and a lot of their modifications reflected this. There were implants to help regulate breathing, to enhance reflexes, and to dull pain. There were enhancements to the eyes and ears, making them far more perceptive and adjustments to limbs, from partial to complete replacements which could increase both strength and speed. Even the exo-suits that the elite soldiers wore weren't expressly designed for combat, being equally useful for moving heavy objects and engaging in other difficult tasks while both pushing a body far beyond its natural limits, and reducing the strain on it in the process. There were plenty of modifications designed to simply make their lives better and their people healthier (which was more than mildly ironic when one considered the dangers involved in their installation), but few of them were expressly designed for war. Still, the ability to run faster, hit harder and resist fatigue are an invaluable resource in a situation like this. Not everyone had all of these sorts of implants, of course, but everyone had at least some of them, and while none of these had miraculous effects, they all helped.

The augmented mice had a clear edge, and even their smaller population wasn't by as significant a margin as one might hope. This practical, physical advantage quickly turned into a morale advantage as well. Not that they were ever lacking in that department to begin with. All of the citizens believed in both their leader and their cause, whereas so many of the kingdom mice had simply joined the battle on a whim or in search of personal glory. They weren't the types to fight to the bitter end when things started to look bad.

Our allies also had no real defensive lines, either, which meant that while we could continue to press the attack from all sides, the gates of the city, itself, were largely unguarded. This did not go unnoticed by our enemies.

"Once we seize the city, the battle will be ours!" A masked, robed soldier called to his subordinates, as the small group rushed towards the suspiciously open gate.

They all stopped dead as their commander rushed forward, only to be thrown back, sent tumbling onto the earth by an unseen force. A single mouse stepped forward, even if he were the size of three, covered in light blue tattoos, and largely ungarbed, aside from a comically small royal cape draped across his back, barely reaching past his broad shoulders, and a crown which constantly threatened to fall off of the top of his head.

"Vile invaders..." King Theos growled, his large, shaking paws balled into fists, head lowered, "You come to my kingdom, threaten my people and dare to march on our very gates?"

The augmented soldiers all backed up a step, weapons raised. Sure, he was just a single, ordinary, unaugmented mouse, but even the elite leader couldn't help but feel intimidated by his mere presence.

"All that I can say... is..." the king raised his head, revealing a wide, dreamy smile, his eyes wet with tears of joy. "Thank you."

The attackers looked to one another with confused expressions.

"Every single day, every hour, more wretched paperwork to be filed... just when I would think it was finished, it turned out it was just the beginning. There was always more and more. New laws to be signed in, new budgetary reports, new positions to be filled, new judgments to be made. It was pure hell. An endless nightmare with no possible escape. Until now." he smiled wider still with his broken teeth in a manner which, despite the happy look in his eyes, put all of the enemy mice on edge. As for King Theos himself, he had become somewhat more eloquent during his time as leader. I also simply had no interest in trying to write out his rather crude pronunciations. The change in his depicted diction was a combination of both.

"You have saved me from a fate far worse than death. I know little of where you come from, or the sorts ideals your people hold, but I do know one thing for certain." he raised his massive, balled fists, "I will never forget what you have done for me, and I promise to forever honor your brave sacrifices!"

I somehow doubted that the augmented mice appreciated the sentiment, as our royal highness dove into the group, ruthlessly pummeling them with his wrapped fists. He might have been outnumbered and maybe even outclassed, but he had more than enough pent up frustration to make up for that, and based purely on his blissful expression, even surrounded by the pained screams of his enemies, it was clear that he had never been happier.

<3~

While Samuel had barely survived the last direct strike, he had significantly less expectation of enduring the next. The magical barrier of wind and electricity did a lot to disperse the intense wave of energy, with the fact that there was anything left of him being proof of that, but like all magic, it was still quite limited. When the dull warbling sound once more filled the air and the space in front of him turned bright white, he raised his hands once again to try to deflect it, but dove to his right at the same time, hoping to both adjust the course of the beam, and to escape the lethal zone that it would impact. The one-eyed mouse had little chance to celebrate when he had succeeded, instead rolling and bouncing back to his feet, charging the silent general.

Even if momentarily pushed off course, the continuous beam was quick to turn back towards him, but he again ducked down, paws raised over his head to try to hold it away, as he rushed in with a diving tackle, taking Vania down to the ground.

"Give it up!" he panted, holding the woman's arms at her sides, but he knew that it was a pretty idle threat. Perhaps if he still had his sword on him, he could have put it to her throat, as little of it existed, and ordinarily, pinning a foes arms is a good way to end a fight. That only works against an opponent who is actually using their arms, however. Samuel immediately realized that all that he had managed to do was to put himself at point blank range of an energy beam that was easily capable of obliterating his entire body.

As one might expect, it immediately flashed to life once again, shining up at the mouse above her. With no time to dodge, and at far too close range to hope to truly shield his own body, he instead did all that he could: He placed both of his paws on the now red-hot crystal surface, activating his protective shield, hoping to contain the mighty blast, rather than covering all of his own body with the barrier.

The effort was a complete failure, or so he had assumed. All of his world had become light and noise as he was thrown up into the air. Of course, he quickly realized that the fact that he was even capable of assuming things, that his entire upper body wasn't reduced to ash was probably an optimistic sign. He had no idea how high up he was thrown, only becoming aware of how just close he was to the ground when he landed, hard, upon it.

Lying at the rim of a new bowl-shaped indentation in the earth, he worked up his little remaining strength and will to crawl over and look down from the top of it. There he saw his opponent, lying prone, her fur singed but body looking more-or-less intact, minus the head, of course. Hardly a piece of the strange mesh of technology and crystalline substance remained, with only a few exposed, sparking wires left as evidence that she had ever had anything above her shoulders.

As for Samuel, formerly Samson... well, maybe he still goes by Samson, it hasn't been made clear which name he preferred to go by now, he had little time to appreciate his victory or even feel relief, as his battered and bloodied body lost consciousness.

<3~

Gwendolynne stared in shock. Her mechanical eye was now a mess of crushed metal and circuitry, with no hint of organic flesh visible within the new hole, but she neither felt pain nor concern over the damage. Instead her one good eye was watching Meryll who had noticed the rather hideous wound at the center of her chest and was now awkwardly turning in circles, looking over her shoulder, trying and failing to see if there was a matching one on her back. One of the rat's paws was also bloodied from the strike, but, like the general, if she felt had any pain from the injury, she certainly didn't show it.

"H-how?" the mechanical mouse stammered, her arm, complete with the bloodied mechanical saw sword hanging limply at her side.

"Heh, that was close. You almost got me there." The rat smiled, not only very much alive, but seemingly unharmed.

"What do you mean 'almost got you'?" Gwendolynne growled, "I completely destroyed your heart!"

"No way! You barely nicked me." Meryll shook her head, "It will take a lot more than that to stop me!"

The enemy general gritted her teeth, for the moment convinced that she was losing her mind before the reality of the situation finally dawned upon her. "You... you drank the waters from the sewer, didn't you?"

Meryll blinked in response. "What's a 'sewer'? Do you mean the Maker's tunnels?" she asked, tilting her head, earning a quick, stunned nod in response, "Well... yeah! When I woke up, I was hurting all over, and super thirsty. Sure, it was glowing green and tasted terrible, but, you know... beggars can't be choosers. It was worth it in the end, though. All it took was one little drink to perk me right back up again! I must have been pretty badly dehydrated."

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Both the fact that she could move at all in her injured state, and that she had happened to stumble onto the strange waters were quite surprising. As for the water itself, the source of the undead condition of the sewer mice, its formerly abundant supply had been drying out in recent days. That, along with the fact that a significant portion of it had been stolen by a clan of vampires, which are apparently a thing, meant that very little of it had remained. It's probably for the best, as the ability for anyone, at any time to attain immortality would have removed a lot of potential tension from future events. It was also rather strange that the mysterious immortality serum had worked on her at all. From what I had heard, all creatures aside from mice who drank from the waters died. Perhaps this information was inaccurate, or perhaps, and I'm well aware of just how absurd it sounds to imply that a random chemical spill could possibly care about such matters, in the end Meryll really was a mouse at heart.

"You idiot, that wasn't normal water, that was..." Gwendolynne said before sighing, shaking her head and actually smiling a little. "Nevermind. It doesn't matter if you're an immortal. I'll kill you as many times as I need to, and if that doesn't do the job, I'll simply cut you into a hundred pieces."

"Just try it." the now undead rat grinned, once again raising her sword in both paws, pointing it towards her opponent. "I'll admit it, I let my guard down earlier, but it's not going to happen again."

No more words were said, both fighters eager to end this as quickly as possible, as they rushed towards one another. It was an ugly and bloody affair, with Meryll seeking to avoid being trapped on the defensive, and the overclocked speed of the general dramatically enhancing her normally lightning-quick movements. The now lightly armored rat was cut repeatedly, but nowhere close to as dramatically or decisively as before, with most of the slices being fairly shallow, but not trivial. Had she still been a mortal mouse, even putting aside that first obviously mortal wound, she would have quickly fallen due to pain, blood loss and cumulative damage to her body. As it stood, however, the many wounds, while rather gruesome looking, bled surprisingly little. This isn't to say that the fight was one-sided, either. The platinum angel had taken quite a few blows herself, the heavy blade of the rat nowhere near as destructive as her own mechanical sword, but sharp, weighted enough, and swung with enough sheer muscle behind it to damage even her sturdy steel limbs.

After a particularly vicious exchange of blows, each of the fighters leapt back, both panting, covered in tears in their flesh and deep dents and gashes, respectably.

"I tire of this." Gwendolynne said, trying to sound calm, confident and collected, but even aside from the accumulated damage her torso and limbs had taken from the sword, the overclock protocol was clearly doing a number on her body. Her voice distorted as the digitized element grew inconsistent and out of whack. She raised her extended wrist blade, and with a whirr, the jagged metal teeth of it once more sprang to life, vanishing in a lethal blur which surrounded the rather conventional looking edge. "You've wasted too much of my time as it is. I'll tear you apart with the next blow."

"Heh. Sounds like a good plan." Meryll said. She felt no pain, but she did still have the strange sense of her body weakening. Hardly a surprise when you consider how many of her tendons had been cut. She raised her own sword, the blade covered in chips and scratches from the melee, gripping it tightly. She crouched down, ready to rush in, as her opponent did the same.

Both the mouse and rat ran past one another, and the untrained eye wouldn't think that either had even attacked. At least until Meryll fell to her knees with a spray of blood bursting from her side. Without going into the more graphic details, the slice reached her spine, and she dropped her sword, needing both hands to hold in her innards which threatened to spill out from the severe cut.

"Got you." Gwendolynne grinned back over her shoulder, deactivating the chain blade.

"Yup." Meryll chuckled in agreement. "Almost as bad as I got you."

The enemy general blinked and looked down at her own body, at the huge, sparking chunk torn from the side of her torso, just above the hip. It wasn't an organic portion, which was both good news and bad. Good news in the sense that her living tissue was generally much, much more vulnerable than the metal bits, but bad in the sense that while blood didn't drip from the wound, something else did. I'm no expert on cybernetics. Maybe it was coolant, as I know that overheating could be a significant risk for those mechanical parts. Maybe it was lubrication. Maybe it was fuel. Maybe it was something else entirely. All that I could say for certain was that it was very, very, flammable.

With a loud, digitized squeak, a massive explosion burst from the body of the general, sending the nearly prone Meryll tumbling across the earth. Her back slammed hard into a raised stone, the previously flat and grassy field hardly recognizable from what it was before the battle had begun. The rat panted heavily, lying back, still, thankfully feeling no pain, but still having the feeling that maybe it would be best if she avoided moving for a little while. Not an accurate assessment, as she no longer healed from injuries with time, but still probably not a bad idea, considering the ordeal that she had just gone through.

She looked across the field to her opponent, lying some distance away in a similar position. "You okay over there?" she asked, not exactly certain what answer she was hoping to hear.

"I can't feel my legs." Gwendolynne replied. Despite her furred and formerly shiny body being battered and completely filthy, she showed no signs of pain or general concern beyond a certain tired annoyance. All things considered, she was taking the fact that one of her mechanical arms and the lower half of her body were missing quite well.

Meryll blinked and looked about, seeing a large hunk of smoking machinery to her left. She reached over, one hand still holding her side, and repeatedly poked a finger against the metal thigh.

"Huh. I can." she replied.

"Oh. That's a relief." The mechanical mouse sighed, her voice having returned to its former tone and pace, "I guess they must be okay then."

<3~

As all of this was happening, the dark lord, sorry, dark overlord, Augustus continued to race across the battleground. I have to admit that I was rather concerned at first. No small part of me had feared that he was simply going to rampage out of control after what had happened to Tanzra. In truth, if he had, I can't really say that I would have blamed him. Instead, however, he moved with swift purpose, little more than a blur to the relatively few mice who had even gotten a look at him.

He didn't harm the enemy mice, and certainly didn't attack our own side, seeming to simply race past any augmented mice that he had seen, making no contact with them. Of course that would be about when those same enemy soldiers would look down to see that the weapons in their hands had, inexplicably, vanished. The kingdom mice could have easily pressed this advantage, but they were just as surprised. This didn't happen once or twice, either, it was a similar story for each and every one of the invaders. Whether they were moving in for the kill or falling back to regroup, their paws, whether mechanical or flesh, were suddenly empty.

From a nearby hill, the rainbow colored feline now stood, with a jagged, round metal orb sitting next to him, comprised of the bent, melted, warped or otherwise disabled weaponry of the enemy army. On another day, I could have well envisioned it as a toy that the cat would enjoy playing with, but, of course, his mind was elsewhere. He didn't cry or roar, he simply turned and walked away. I would have liked to have been able to offer him some comforting words, but to be honest, I have no idea what I would have even said. I'm sure that they would have just sounded empty, anyways. The cat was too far away when I had managed that quick, fleeting glimpse, however, and gone just as quickly. I would never see him again.

<3~

Shik.

With a single quick swipe, Jebediah had severed all four of the guns firing at him right down the middle of their barrels. This was enough to cause all of them to cease functioning, the repeated blasts ceasing and replaced with the steady whirring which had similarly slowed and stopped once the ruined mechanisms could no longer handle even that task. I don't really know how he had managed to do this, as they were well out of arms reach, but I imagine that wasn't the sort of thing worth dwelling on. The many pipe barrels fell away with the cut.

"I hope you don't mind." Jebediah said, "Those things were awfully loud."

"I have no more need for them anyways." Mollenoch grumbled. "They were mere toys. I suppose that it's only fitting that I finish you and this wretched army of yours myself."

"Really?" the farmer asked, sounding just a little exasperated. "It looks like those three dark lords of yours are gone, and, although I don't really know why, your forces are falling apart. Don't you think it's time to give up?"

"You really are a fool. Did you honestly think that I would depend entirely on the strength of others, especially non-mice, in order to achieve my goals?" the shadow king called, before looking down at the leg of his throne. "Claire. If you would."

"Heh. With pleasure." the mouse woman smiled, running to the back of the elevated platform, jumping into a padded seat, and striking a nearby switch. She frowned as nothing happened, forcing her to repeatedly hammer the large button with her fist.

"Um, no, you need to turn the dial to your left all the way around, first." Mollenoch said to her, his voice sounding patient but still vaguely embarrassed. She quickly nodded.

"Look, I don't know exactly what this weapon of yours is, but enough is enough..." Jebediah sighed.

"You don't know what it is?" the shadow king called to the farmer, "What, exactly, do you think you've been standing on this whole time?"

The farmer reacted quite quickly, all things considered. It wasn't a true attack which came towards him, rather the assorted panels and pipes which had made up the mobile platform immediately sprang to life, rapidly shifting positions, not aiming for anyone in particular but very much indifferent to whether or not anything happened to be in the path of the sliding and shifting parts.

Jebediah had managed to get both feet back on the ground, and could only look up as the formerly largely flat, horizontal surface dramatically changed its shape, growing taller and narrower as it went. There was a heavy whirring of even heavier machinery as it rose into a great tower from which a pair of massive arms extended. The base split into a set of long, metal legs, the center of the mass forming the shape of hips and chest, within which the smiling Claire sat inside of her cozy looking padded seat, finally leading up to a white, painted plastic face, complete with a crude 'hat' of the folded legs of the mobile throne which sat at its peak. Mollenoch himself stood at the top, towering above the battlefield, casting a great shadow across it, the massive monstrosity catching the attention of every single mouse, rat or bird on the battlefield.

The towering form of a Maker, only made of steel and cables rather than flesh, the entire artificial body covered in a wide variety of terrifying munitions, all of which whirred as they turned upon their turrets, aimed at the very confused and incredibly small looking mouse farmer standing at its feet.

"Behold, the pinnacle of mouse technology! A weapon the likes of which even the humans couldn't hope to match!" the amplified voice of the shadow king boomed across the battlefield, "You, Bloody Hell Reaper, were a fool to think that you could stand against me! Against us! Against progress!"

"I never wanted to stop anyone from progressing." The farmer shrugged. "I Still don't, I don't think. As for... this..." He said, looking the massive machine up and down... well, up and up, really, and still not quite able to see the peak of it, no matter how far back he craned his neck. "It certainly is big. You're right, I can't really imagine what I, or anyone else would be expected to do against something like this."

Mollenoch folded his arms, looking down from his great height, but said nothing.

"I mean, I did cut this little piece out of it while it was shifting around earlier..." Jebediah said, raising a severed metal chunk with a connected bolt above his head with his free paw, "Hopefully it's something important?"

"Hah! Don't be ridiculous!" a new, amplified voice called, the voice of Claire, from her control seat. "Like that pathetic little bit could actually make a difference. Right Molly?"

"Umm..." the shadow king replied, but even with his voice so amplified, it clearly sounded nervous.

"Molly?" Claire asked once again, her own confidence falling dramatically.

"I'm trying to remember..." Mollenoch said, "Did I ever end up installing the safety harness in that control pod?"

"What?" the mouse woman asked, looking around her surroundings. "I... don't think so?"

"Ah, I see." He said with an audible sigh. "That is incredibly unfortunate."

The primary objective of the shadow king and his forces was to seize control of the car yards. The reason for this was quite simple: Proper materials were hard to come by, and they were experiencing a significant shortage of them. What were the odds that the one little piece that Jebediah happened to remove would be essential? Well, quite high, as it turned out. A lack of materials equaled a lack of redundancies. As a result, pretty much all of the pieces were vitally important.

There wasn't a series of dramatic explosions or a slow crumbling. The entire structure or the super weapon simply collapsed in on itself all at once in a cloud of dust and a pile of twisted rubble. Jebediah coughed and covered his mouth as the thick cloud passed, staring at the ruins in awe, having not expected that at all. He also didn't expect what happened next, barely raising the wooden handle of his scythe in time, as an unexpectedly small figure burst from the wreckage.

The shadow king was unrecognizable from his previous state, no longer a huge, broad shouldered, towering figure with an unnatural voice. Instead, he was just an ordinary, old mouse. His body was covered in old scars of battles, and ropey muscles which were once bulbous and menacing, now just withered remnants of his glory days. His metal mask was broken away, revealing a wrinkled face with tired, tired eyes. The once silver fur was now a lifeless gray, and aside from a series of vacant sockets visible upon his back, there were no clear signs of augmentation. His body was bloodied and his limbs shaking as he slashed his ancient, wooden sword at the farmer, but as weak as his body might have appeared, his mouth was twisted in a grimace of hate, and an unnatural strength, a product not of technology, but rather determination flowed through his aged limbs.