Regards to Licoriceallsorts for reminding me this existed.

Skulker

Despite not much liking the officer's tone, Zephon knew he wouldn't get away with a lie.

"That's me, sir."

"Why Thunder? Why not Fire?"

"Fire's a line of sight attack. Someone sees it coming and dodges. People aren't as inclined to look up..."

"And if someone is crouched behind...a chimney, say, you'd be able to hit him?"

"Probably."

"How're your stocks?"

"Twenty nine Thunder, Three Fire."

"Should be enough to raise some hell. Stay here, I'll scrounge up a squad and let the other commanders know what I'm doing. Get something to eat upstairs."

"Um...what are you doing, sir?"

"You're going out on the rooftops, make those Dollet snipers sweat. Good luck."

I hate you.

He went upstairs. The captives had been moved to the building's cellar, and the upstairs lounge was full of soldiers. Mostly blue armoured infantry, but more than one red officer. A pair of green elites stood guarding a door which, if Zephon remembered correctly, headed to the catwalk outside.

The lounge's card tables had been set with paper plates, piled high with standard bar food fare. Zephon moved towards an unoccupied chair.

"Hold it!" He looked up, to find himself the focus of the room's attention. He saw teeth under several visors, upturns in mouth corners. An officer had spoken, and now continued. 'I wouldn't touch that if I were you."

"What, it's reserved for Major Biggs?"

The officer smiled. "Nope, just laced with a few choice emetics. You want to spend the next hour puking your guts out, fine by me."

"Not poisoned, sir?"

"Poisons have antidotes. Plus there's always the chance that some green Galbadian kid on his first campaign wanders in and takes a mouthful..."

"Thanks, sir."

Dell, you bastard.

"You're thanking me? If you had taken that mouthful, we'd have to take you out of the city..."

"..."

"Stupid kids, eager for the frontline," someone muttered in the crowd of soldiers. Covering his serial number, Zephon went back downstairs.

He eventually did get something to eat, albeit nothing as appetising as the treats arranged in the lounge. Still, the nutritious but tasteless army rations replaced some of the energy he'd lost in the first assaults, and his next objective wasn't likely to be quite so strenuous. He'd ascended from the bar's catwalk to the rooftops along with four other soldiers stocked with Protect − not a full squad after all. They had orders to traverse Dollet's rooftops –in itself not an easy task- and disarm or disable as many Dollet sharpshooters as possible. And he, who had never been in a real engagement until this evening, had been given command. Somehow.

He'd never met his bodyguards prior to their introductions, and given that their assignment relied on stealth, there would not be much opportunity to get to know them better. There was Tess, who was about his age, had a very light step, and shiny teeth. Ezetian, who was utterly indistinguishable from any of a thousand other G-Soldiers. Miranda was about twenty five or six, and was either experienced at these kinds of missions or just bossy by nature. And Matthew, yet another teenager who periodically produced and shuffled a Triple Triad Deck, a habit which made Zephon instantly warm to him.

That was the sum total of Zephon's knowledge of the people he was trusting his life to. The five of them, crouched between dormer windows on the roof of the Galbadian command post, did not inspire confidence. Zephon glanced from visor to visor, then at his watch. It was close to midnight, which meant he'd been in Dollet close to five hours, but opportunities to rest would be thin on the ground.

"Suggestions, anyone?" He took care to speak softly.

"They'll be watching the streets, probably more of them on buildings' upper floors than actually on the rooftops." Are you sure, Miranda? Maybe the Dolletians anticipated strike teams. "Anything else?"

"Stay alert, maybe?" Tess.

"Hm –good advice. Let's go ... and keep conversation to a minimum." All four of them turned to look at him. At a guess, they were probably rolling their eyes.

"Okay, sorry. Time to g− what is it, Ezetian?"

"You want to be Protected, sir?"

"Don't call me sir, I'm not even a corporal. And no, not yet. We're right outside the... uh...in the middle of Galbadian territory, if we were in Dolletian crosshairs we'd be dead by now." I sound certain, don't I? Let's hope I'm right.

Deciding to gamble on his hunch, Zephon moved in a crouching run towards the building's gutters, and took a leap towards the command post's nearest neighbour, clearing the distance easily. His landing jolted a few tiles loose, subsequently shattering on the street below. With an audible crash.

N.B. Don't do that again.

While he waited for his comrades to negotiate a slower, less dramatic route to his current position, Zephon scanned his surroundings. Reportedly, the sharpshooter corps was one of the few competent units in the Dollet army. He'd need to be careful.

Zephon was currently on his hands and knees on one side of a V-shaped tiled rooftop. The command post was higher and was now shielding him from behind- though the bar/card lounge roof was itself exposed, there were enough indentations to make the soldiers crouching there a difficult target until they moved. In order to reach him quietly, however, his bodyguards would have to land on another flat roof, lower and more exposed, which would run from the bar's corner past the end of the V-roof, making it an effective bridge. He edged towards that end of his building, stopping just before losing the cover of the command post, and drew his sword. Thrusting the blade around the corner, he saw the reflection of a church tower, several windows of which faced the exposed roof-bridge.

It's virtually certain there's a few Dollet soldiers up there. The first guard across will probably get here, but the others? We shouldn't be wasting Protection this early in the mission.

...Damn it. The other soldiers were looking from the tower to him. Tess was slowly creeping closer to the corner of the bar's roof. He waved at her.

Now, how do I get them to understand me? He pointed at Tess, raised one finger, pointed at the bridge and then beckoned. Raising three fingers, he pointed at the other three soldiers, and then held up his hand, palm facing her. He took a casting stance (difficult in a crouch) and pointed at the tower, then raised three fingers and beckoned again.

I hope that made sense. The other soldier nodded, moved back to speak with the others, before all four of them moved back towards the buildings corner, ready to jump across to him. Tess took the lead, looked at him, and leapt at his nod. She hit the exposed bridge and took three short steps, moonlight glinting from her armour, before taking another short jump to Zephon's roof. He waited until she was past him, then stepped out from cover.

" Thunder!" The lightning bolt struck the side of the tower low down, barely damaging the structure but hopefully dazzling the snipers within. He heard tiles rattle as the other soldiers made their move, and then an arm wrapped around his neck as Miranda dragged him back into the shadow of the command post. Bullet reports sounded behind them as the five soldiers ran crouched along the side of the V-roof, stepped across a narrow alley into the gap between a conservatory and the main part of someone's house, and then paused for breath in the valley between another two Vs.

Miranda shook her head. "A thunderbolt from a clear sky...that'll draw the attention of every sniper in the city."

Zephon looked at her. "Think the ones in the tower'll report that we're here?"

"They'll probably send a carrier pigeon back to the Dukedom's fortress, but sniper units are isolated, there's no way they'll be able to inform them all. Most of the rooftop units'll just go by the flash."

"Ok, let's put some distance between us and it." The skirmish patrol moved on again, creeping from rooftop to rooftop. Then they saw their first Dollet sniper.

The man was facing away from them, perched on a flat extension to a warehouse, his rifle trained on the empty street below. Dressed in camouflage rather than the standard Dollet military uniform, he would have been hard to see in the mountains, but was only the more visible on the eaves. Further up the same building, the Galbadians glanced at each other again.

I could take him from here with a Thunder ... but that's a little flashy. "Tess, you're quieter than me, think you can get closer to him?"

She nodded. "If he doesn't look around. What do you want me to do?"

Um...good question. Stabbing isn't usually quiet. "Push him off the roof. He'll scream, draw attention to him not us."

Miranda tapped his shoulder. "You sure?"

No.

"I'm not sure I have the strength to throw an armoured man off a roof, especially if he notices me."

"Uh...okay. Matt, go with her, between you you should be able to tip him over. You need more help, we'll be here."

Ezetian spoke up. "I think this's where we start Protecting ourselves, folks."

"...He's right. Uh...three should do for now, I think? You two take one each, then if the others are standing close to me we'll all be covered."

They cast the spells, and Tess and Matt began crawling up behind the sniper, who was still facing the street. He didn't look around, and within feet of the man, the two Galbadians stood up. The sniper must have heard something then, beginning to turn, but a rifle was not a close quarter weapon, there would be nothing he could−

Bullets punched ripples in Tess and Matt's Protection, courtesy of the other sniper on the opposite side of the street, but the barriers held. The shockwaves from the impacts knocked them back steps, giving their target time to level his rifle. At that range, his rounds would punch right through the Protection.

"Fire!" The word, from three throats, sent fireballs screaming towards the Galbadians' initial target, blasting him backwards off the eave. But there were three shooters on the roof opposite now, and they were not sparing ammunition. As Miranda and Ezetian summoned Protection of their own, Matt scooped up the man's dropped rifle and emptied it across the street. It was unlikely he hit anything, but it would make their attackers wary. Dropping flat, the two G-soldiers retreated towards their fellows, backed up against a wide chimney near the building's peak. Two more Dolletians opened up from either side, leaving Ezetian and Miranda to turn their Protection to face them and retaliate with Fire. Leaving Zephon with the sole responsibility of dealing with the three across the street.

A bullet bounced from his Protection, directly in front of his eyes. He raised a hand, aiming for the most central gun flashes.

"Thunder!" The bolt caused a hesitation in the gunfire, but it resumed moments later undiminished. "Shit. Thunder! Thunder! Thunder!" Jagged streaks of lightning stabbed into the roof opposite, to no tangible result. Tess and Matt reached him, turned, and took casting stances of their own. Twin Fires followed Zephon's next attack.

"Time to go, kids!" Miranda shrieked, and the Galbadians turned and fled, bullets sparking off Protection and armour. It was a costly retreat, Zephon unleashing eight more of his Thunder spells − wild strikes that didn't hit targets, distractions to cover their flight. He brought down an entire building to prevent pursuit from the sharpshooters, blasting holes in rafters, slipping on loose slates, running, running, running. They must have bolted across half the city, drawing bullets from every angle, before they calmed enough to slow down, and finally stop in a bizarre gazebo built into the roof of someone's house. After a headcount and status reports revealed that all five soldiers had survived the engagement without much more than bruises, Zephon sat down and closed his eyes, trusting the others to spy Dollet soldiers coming.

"Damn, that was messy." The Sniper Corps deserve their reputation. Or maybe I'm just a crap squad leader.

He opened his eyes. Miranda's teeth shone under her visor. "Don't worry too much. Everyone's alive. And you scared the shit out of them collapsing the roof like that. There's not a Dollet soldier on these rooftops that's going to rest calmly tonight."

"Yeah, because soldiers are known for being relaxed in warzones…"

"We've got to keep moving, the Dolletians will be here soon. Where now?"

Zephon looked around. "Everyone feeling okay? Tired?"

The others indicated that they would be capable of further action. He studied the skyline, but, having not been watching it before, the landmarks had no relevance. Scanning neighbouring buildings, pink flecks caught his eye.

"Oh, a Draw Point!" Draw points were wellsprings of natural magic deposits. Found all over the world, they bloomed and died and replenished themselves at will. They could appear anywhere, from battleships to volcanoes to hockey pitches, and not even the infamous Dr. Odine had been able to discover how or why before Esthar closed its borders. Zephon had been exploiting a Thunder Draw Point which had manifested in his wardrobe back in Deling City for some years.

This particular spring had manifested itself at the nearest edge of a pyramid roofed neighbouring building. The things were valuable resources, and it took Zephon only moments to make his decision. "I'm going for it. I'd like Protection on all sides, please. If I start drawing fire, you can try flanking them if they're close. If not, stay hidden." Aware that they would argue if he hesitated, Zephon left the roof garden and took a running leap.

He cleared the building's gutter, took the impact on his shoulder, and managed to gain his feet without rolling off the side. A single bullet sparked off his shoulder armour, before Protection slid into place. Shockwaves from further impacts stung, but Zephon was able to ignore them as he thrust one hand into the spring. Guardian Forces and monsters with an affinity for magic could draw from a distance, but Zephon had to actually be touching his source. He closed his eyes.

Blind! Not bad! Thanks, rooftop. The flecks of light snaked up his arm and into his forehead, creating a sensation of heaviness behind his eyes. Dollet citizens seldom crawled around on the rooftops searching for magic, and the spring had remained untapped for some time. At a rough estimate, Zephon had gained approximately twelve blind spells from his unwary leap.

The others had dealt with the two snipers by the time he rejoined them, but their armour was dented and they were breathing hard. Nonetheless, Zephon was feeling good. He was freshly stocked with a pretty useful battlefield spell, and his squad were battered but all alive after repeated engagements. He was about to direct them to move on when Ezetian was shot in the head.

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