Amiss
Logan turned his attention to the rest of the Frear Squadron. Lucius and Sophia were each dancing around a Naga, while Amar and Larry had teamed up on a third. That left Arasaka to handle the fourth, which she was doing with surprising ease.
She had some sort of bubble surrounding her, protecting Arasaka from blunt attacks while her armor stopped the Naga’s claws. Between the two forms of defense, Arasaka had rendered herself almost invulnerable.
Sensing this, her opponent backed up, only to find the other Naga with similar thoughts. All four of the remaining creatures grouped up, and looked to their former fifth. Their demeanor shifted slightly, but Logan was unsure what that meant.
“They’ll either go for the captives or the water, surround them, recruits!” Captain Frear shouted across the beach.
This was the first time Captain Frear had ever spoken to the Squadron during a mission, so Logan hurried to comply. Teleporting across, Logan started the circle on both sides, with the rest of his Squad quick to fill in the gaps.
Just as the circle was about to close, the Nagas made their move, two questing for the water, while two went for the hostages. Being opposite the water, Logan was forced to deal with the two massive Monsters barging towards him.
Logan was tempted to try and stand his ground, but that wasn’t his strength. Instead, he teleported upwards, his trajectory allowing him to land on one of the Naga’s backs. Angling the soul sword, Logan thrust down with gravity, and speared through the Monster, killing both it and its forward momentum.
Smiling as he rode its body down, Logan looked to the next Naga. It had continued its desperate rush despite the death of its compatriot, questing for the civilians. Unfortunately for the Naga, Captain Frear was standing between them. Unfortunately for Logan, she was looking straight at him, a singular eyebrow raised.
“On it…” He muttered under his breath, teleporting once again.
Appearing diagonally to the Monster, Logan swung his sword and allowed the creature's own force to remove its head. Hearing a now familiar thrumming of the air, Logan was satisfied with his progress. Now that Logan had the ability to go on the offense, his ability to teleport was absurdly powerful. Just another reason to be grateful for Remy.
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Once again, Logan had time to scan the battlefield. One more Naga lay dead on the surf, but the last was making its way into the water. Logan was going to make his way there with a teleport, but Aerie beat him to it.
Watching her Spark fluctuate, the cyan haired woman collected the water the Naga had dove in into a ball, and floated it through the air, Monster still inside.
“Hurry, I can’t hold this up forever!” She shouted.
Amar swung a massive Bear Claw through the bubble launching the Naga skyward. Positioning himself underneath, Larry brought his axe up to meet the descending Monster. The resulting spray was not pleasant, leaving the air stained with a copper scent.
Then the field was still, all the captives secured by the Captain, and the Squadron’s enemies slain. They regrouped by their leader, waiting for instructions.
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Captain Frear was staring at the water, pondering something. Then she voiced her query aloud.
“Why were the Naga coming from inland, if the Squad was assigned the mission this morning? They should have been back here long before us. Something about this is not adding up to me…”
Larry spoke up.
“We got the hostages, right? Why sweat the details? Ma’am.”
The Captain gave him a sour look for being direct, but otherwise considered his words. Eventually coming to agree with them, Captain Frear turned back to the path they had taken out here originally.
“Well then, let’s get a move on shall we? Head out!”
With that, the Squad started their march back, this time moving at a more sedate pace as they had civilians with the group. It was a sobering reality, an inescapable reminder of what failure would mean, and not just for them. People would die if they didn’t take care of these threats, even if it was just training for them.
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As they made their way back, Logan tried to spark up some conversation with the rest of the Squad.
“Hey we’re getting pretty good at this, huh?”
Logan got a couple of absent stares, but Amar at least agreed.
“We are, that was our swiftest battle by a margin.”
A couple of hesitant nods met that statement. Around the Squad Logan could see people letting some of the tension from the battle out of the bodies. It looked like maybe they would finally talk as a full Squadron. Pushing the envelope, Logan forged onward.
“I have to say, that water bubble at the end was pretty cool, Aerie. And the way you pulverized that thing Larry? Epic.”
Larry started flexing a little as Aerie started muttering something under her breath, and Logan knew he had won two battles today.
“Haha, epic it was, now? Epic, truly a perfect word to describe me. You all did epic yourselves out there. Good set up, Amar and Aerie.”
Logan, clinching it, said, “It really was. Also, what was that bubble thing you had going on Arasaka, that was pretty cool too.”
“It was as an enchantment to smooth out door hinges that I overlapped and amped up. Pretty nifty, huh?”
Soon after that, the whole Squadron, minus Captain Frear, was complimenting each other on their battle prowess. Even some of the quieter members, like Sophia and Lucius, spoke up. It really felt like the Squad was starting to bond as a whole, and the time began to fly.
Their march back to Marineford wasn’t filled with conversation, but even the silences were now companionable. Jerry even started whistling, and no one told him to shut up. Somehow, even their merry band of misfits was finding cohesion. Then, their time of merriment was over.
Coming back to camp, they found the place almost completely deserted. It was a ghost town, no one visible in the usually humming camp. Walking further inwards, they finally found someone to talk to, a young clerk of some sort.
When he spotted the Frear Squadron, he startled, no doubt at their bloody image, but Captain Frear froze him with her gaze.
“Speak. Now.”
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The young man was terrified, but managed to spit out the gist of it. Apparently, Major Micah had gotten reports of a huge abomination headed towards Langst Harbor. He had decided rather to be safe than sorry, and moved the whole Company to the docks. It seemed reasonable to Logan, but something about the situation was bothering his Captain.
“...Something’s amiss here, and I don’t like it. Not one bit.”
She looked towards the sky like it might split open at any second. For a long minute she just stared upwards, before returning her attention to her Squadron.
“Alright folks, we’ll deposit these fine civilians with this gentleman here, and then we are marching double time once again, to Langst Harbor.”
The clerk sputtered in protest, but another look from Captain Frear stopped him before a proper word could formulate. Instead, the young man resigned himself, and started taking care of the former captives, getting each of their names and where they resided.
Despite barely stopping for ten minutes, once again the Frear Squadron was off, this time making directly for the harbor town. Logan had never been to Langst Harbor, and was looking forward to seeing what the town was like, although he wished it was better circumstances. That seemed to be a recurring theme, with Logan and nearby towns.
As they marched towards Langst, the early cheriness was gone, replaced by an unease and tension stemming from the Captain. After all, if she was worried, what did that mean for them?
As such, hardly a word was spoken on the next leg of the Squad’s extended mission. They were all focused or focusing, there was no mental space for camaraderie. Still, Logan had faced Abominations before, and lived to tell the tale. Surely, even if it was a really big one, with the Captains and Major, the Legion would be able to fend anything off.
Logan didn’t quite get why they were so worried, but they were the experts and Logan hadn’t known Abominations existed more than a month ago, so he would trust their instincts. For now, at least.