Chapter 7: On to the Subjugation

There he was, on his borrowed ground dragon that he named Patarasche, he looked over to the many soldiers that were ahead of him, this eased him a bit as it gave him hope that he might finally break through this deadlock.

Then two he saw two people riding up to him, they were cat-eared kids, one was Mimi the other seems to be her brother.

"Hi there mister, remember me!"

"Oh hey there, Mimi right?"

Mimi had a prideful look while the other had a cheerful smile on his face.

"Yep that's right" "Hi, I'm Hetaro"

They wore white robes with orange linings, they weren't riding on ground dragons like Subaru,
they mounted on a wolf-like beast named Rigers.

"Hey, my names Natsuki Subaru, by the way, I kinda doubted it at first but you really are the second in command?"

"Well, of course, only someone as strong as Mimi has the power to be second in command"

"Heh figures, so, you two are siblings?"

"Yes, My big sister and I will-" "When I'm with Hetaro, no one can stop us, and since the captains with us we are unstoppable!"

She then goes on yelling about how strong they are, leaning from side to side,
almost falling if it weren't for her brother.

"Well, they are usually too hasty, so I normally give out the orders"

He says this with a sigh.

"I see, heh.."

His thoughts drift off for a moment until Ricardo pulls up beside behind.

"Hey there bro? you look kinda gloomy, you nervous or somethin?"

Having noticed him, he turns his head, with a troubled expression on his face.

"Huh, no its just this isn't the only battle that I'll be having"

"Oh yeah, there's that Witch cult thing as well"

"Wait, how did you know about that!"

Subaru was surprised by how he knew about the Witch-cult, not once has he
told Anastasia about them so there was no way they would have known.

"Never underestimate the Merchant information network"

"Oh, okay then"

While Subaru held his surprised expression, Ricardo comes closer and give him
a pat on the back.

"There's no use worrying about that now, you can worry about it when the time comes"
"For now, we gotta focus on beatin this thing"

"Yeah, your right!"

Subaru puts up a more cheerful expression with a smile.

"Yeah, that's the spirit! ok then I'll go on ahead"

He gave a pat on the shoulder and heads of on his Riger, he approaches a group of soldiers and seems to be cheering them up.
They ride off, Flugel's tree is visible on the horizon, with an orange sunset appearing to the side.


It was nightfall, Subaru was observing Flugel's tree.

"Woah that is one big tree... isn't... it..."

He turns around, expecting someone to reply to him, but realized that he was alone. No one was with him.

"Right she left a while back..."

Disappointed with his sudden realization, he sat down with the tree behind his back. He stares into the distance.

"Hmm, was that really the right thing to do? "

He fell deep into thought but shakes his head violently and sighs.

"Ahh, can't look back now... I've gone too far to turn back..."

He stood up and walks around.


As he continues walking around, he spots Wilhelm gazing over a field of flowers.

"Ah Wilhelm-san, I didn't know you liked flowers"

He approaches Wilhelm with a grin on his face, he stopped beside him and looked at the field of flowers.

"Hmm... well, I have grown to like them with time..."

He just observed the flowers as they sway with the night breeze.
Silence fell between them as they both gazed at the field.

Subaru was just about to leave to leave Wilhelm alone until Wilhelm decides to break the silence.

"My wife was a woman who loved flowers... seeing this brings back memories I had when I was much younger..."

Subaru quite surprised by this, he glances over to the side and asked.

"Oh... were they good memories?"

"Mostly, some bad memories, but mostly good ones"

A few more seconds of silence fell, then Wilhelm sighs, he turns to Subaru and bows.

"Subaru-dono, I have to thank you again for bringing this chance to me, now I just might be able to visit my wife's grave"

"Wilhelm-san..."

Wilhelm looks up and sees Subaru sticking out his fist forward.

"Lets beat the crap out of that whale..."

"Yes, lets"

He bumps it with his own fist, then they returned to camp, preparing for the battle.

It was almost time


The troops were lined up in two big groups, except for Crusch and Subaru who were farther in the front.

"Umm, Subaru..."

Crusch calls out to Subaru, looking quite anxious. All the troops held their weapons and the reins of the ground dragons and rigers.

"Should be any moment now"

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*riiiing*

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They were all on guard, frantically looking around, trying to spot the maebeast.

"Subaru-kyun?"

Felix calls out to Subaru, he held on tightly to the reins.

"Heh, think you can hide when I'm around smelling like this, I'd like to see you try..." He mutters, this it was only audible to Crusch.

"Hmm?"

"Let's go Patrasche!"

He whipped the reins and Patarasche let out a loud roar, and they accelerated forward.

"Subaru! Where are you going!"

Crusch calls him out, everyone else was startled by his sudden actions.

"Everyone! Get ready, the whale is coming!"

He yells back to everyone, with this everyone expressions was of utter confusion, but they were still on guard and were swinging their heads in different

directions.

"I can Return by D~"

A pain gripped his chest as he mutters these words...


Time slowed down, the world darkened and was replaced with a dark, purple and black void as
shadowy hands were in his chest.

"~b~ ~ou"

He heard a voice, but he couldn't tell what they were trying to say.

He slowly felt his heart-easing, little by little. Time started to return to normal and the void slowly disappeared as the hands retracted from his chest.


"Hah, I'm back..."

He breathed ragged breathes as he regains his senses, he turns around to see everyone in utter shock and confusion, but his attention turns up to the moon.

A large shadow then covers the army, they all looked up... there it was... rushing down...

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OOOOOOAAAAAHHH!

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It wailed as it dived down towards the army.
Everyone immediately started rushing away from it.

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It was closing in.

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Many troops had fallen of their mounts as a result of their panic.

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It was approaching even closer.

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They were going to be finished with one whole swoop.

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But it didn't happen.

Instead, the whale rose up a bit and kept racing forward, towards the one that had all its attention, it was heading towards Subaru.

"Haha! There you are, you just can't resist me now can you!"

Subaru puts on a victorious grin on his face as he pumps his fist in the air, signaling the rest to attack.

"Everyone... follow that fool!"

Everyone got back on their mounts and with Crusch's order, they all rushed forward, their weapons in hand, yelling out their battle cries.

"Heh, we'll see who's the fool when this is all over, right Patarasche!"

His ground dragon nods and gives an agreeing grunt.

"Okay, Let's go!"

With that, the Subjugation has started.


Many mages stood by a large cannon, which was aimed directly above the whale. After loading it with several light gems, it was fired,
a bright light, one that can rival the suns brightness, was shot out to the night sky then.

"Huh, what the-"

BOOM (explosion sound effect)

"OOAH! That's bright"

A bright flash of light had made Subaru cover his eyes, they had just fired the Night Banisher, a miniature sun had formed, lighting up the night sky.
They continued sprinting forward, the whale hot behind them.

"Come on Patarasche! We can do it!"

He whips the reins again making Patarashe run faster.

As the whale closes in a giant green translucent blade appeared and sliced the whale at its side, effectively keeping it away from Subaru, he turns to the direction from which the blade came from, there was Crusch on her ground dragon, quickly approaching Subaru.

"That caught us by surprise, I was just about to doubt you for a second"

"Hehe, guess I should have given a better warning?"

"You probably should have... Anyway, Subaru... how did you make the whale appear so suddenly? It was hiding but you managed to bring it out as you rushed forward? I know you have the witches miasma around you but it shouldn't have approached so suddenly like that..."

"Well about the witch scent... I am able to increase it's intesity when I try to mention the curse, it also comes with a lot of pain and a bit of hallucinating..."

He shudders.

"Oh... I see... then we shall continue our attacks, you should stay back for now"

Subaru understands and nods.
Crusch comes approaches the whale, it was now on the air being sliced by many troops, Wilhelm and Ricardo included.

"Troops! Fall back!

Crusch calls out to the troops as she readies her sword for her famous Hundred man sword strike.
She fires it and the whale wails in pain, then...

"AL-GOA!"

Several fireballs are shot at the whale, bursting as it made contact.
The melee troops sprung back on the whale, slices away its skin, Wilhelm doing considerable damage as he tears through the whales hide.
Subaru watches in awe as the whale was bombarded with attacks left to right. As he was watching Felix came up next to him.

"Huuh, all we can do is watch as everyone does everything else, it's kinda boring actually..."

Subaru turns around and looks at Felix.

"Hey hey now, we'll have our time to shine, just need to be ready when the time comes. Your our armies lifeline Ferris,
if something happens we'll have to rely on you, so be ready okay."

Felix looks at him surprised, then he sighs a bit.

"Wow, it just been a day and you've changed quite a bit, did Rem-san so this?"

"W-well... I guess you can say that..."

He rubs the back of his head, Felix lets out a small chuckle.

Suddenly a yell can be heard, they jerked their heads to the direction of the voice, there they saw Wilhelm falling off the whale with one
of its eye's in the tip of his blade. He landed on his ground dragon and shakes the eye off.

"Disgusting"

Everyone else got off as Crusch fires another strike, the mages following up with several magic attacks.
Ricardo rushes towards them.

"We hit em with all we got right at the beginning, if that doesn't bring it down, this fight is gonna be tougher than we thought..."

They continued observing the whale as it gets bombarded by fireballs, its altitude slowing lowering but it shows no sign of giving up.
Subaru glares at it but notices something odd...

"It's eye..."

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"It's... turning red!?"

Suddenly it wailed dangerously loud, making everyone cover their ears in irritation, then suddenly an enormous
amount of fog came out from all over its skin, effectively blocking out the 'Night Banisher'.
They all were on guard and went back to regroup with the others. As they were regrouping they could hear
people screaming out of pain and fear.

"Hey! Whats going on!" Subaru calls out but there was no reply.

They kept on going as they heard the agonizing screams until suddenly.

"Somethings coming!" Wilhelm shouts out.

A thick blast of fog came from the side, everyone evaded, it left a trail as it dissipated, they barely made it out.

"That fog was different..."

Then a blast of wind neared them and the mist was blown off, it was Crusch, using her wind magic to make a small clearing for the groups to regroup in.

"How many are our losses." Wilhelm asks.

"Twenty-one total, it seems a whole platoon has been wiped off..." Crusch replies.

Everyones face grimaces.

"It seems like we won't be able to properly honor them..."

Suddenly out of nowhere, a high pitched screech was heard, many people started to scream in pain, holding their heads, smacking
it on the ground, their mouths foaming.

Subaru gets of Patarasche and holds one of them down.

"Move aside, the fog is attacking our minds, this isn't gonna be good... We'll heal them but it will take some time until everyones ready"

Felix explains the situation to Subaru and goes off to take care of the people who are affected.

Dammit, it will take a while, the whale could just scoop us up in one swoop and we'd all be done for.

He clutches his chest and mounts on Patarasche.

"Looks like it's our time to shine Patarasche!"
"Crusch-san! I'll buy us some time, get everyone rounded up!"

"What!? But-"

"Everyone who can hear me! Bring the injured away."
"Everyone who can't stay where you are!"

He rushes off into the fog, a few people following him, he takes a deep breath.

"Stay steady Patarashe"

She gives an assuring snort.

"I Can Return By Dea-"


The hands came for him again...

The world became a void...

Time stops at an instant...

And he heard the voice again...

"Sub... l..e. ..ou..."

Beside him, covered in shadows was a person...

It was calling out...


"GAHH!"

The void dissipated and the hands retracted. He looks around, the whale should be right behind him.
He felt a presence nearby, he grips onto the reins, Patarasche felt his grip and lowered, ready to dash into a different direction at any moment. He grabs out a fire gem from his sack and readies it on his free hand.

Suddenly in front of him, the whale appeared, this caught him by surprise but he immediately whipped the reins and makes a sharp turn to the right, he threw the fire gem and it made a rather big explosion, he nearly fell off from the sudden turn but was able to regain his posture.
The whale fled back into the fog, he gave a sigh of relief.

But shortly after, he felt that something was looking at him from the side, then he saw it.

"WHAAAAAT!"

Another whale appeared from his side, he was sure he shook off the whale but this tells him otherwise.
From his other side, Wilhelm, Ricardo, Mimi, and Hetaro came in to take care of it.
It shook them off and returns back to the fog.
They all regrouped near Subaru.

"Is it gone?" asks Subaru.

"No, it comes" Wilhelm readies his sword and pulls on the reins of his ground dragon.

Subaru looks up and notices another thick fog forms and yells out.

"ABOVE US!"

Everyone disperses as the fog came crashing down, blowing everyone off their mounts and leaving an enormous crater on the ground.

Wilhelm fell near a dandelion, his face filled with rage he starts to get up but then.

"WILHELM-SAN!"

The whale appears right behind him, he turns around but was already part way through its mouth.

"NO! YOU! DONT!"

Subaru quickly ran toward them, he grabs a wind gem from his sack and throws it at one of its teeth, it makes a big shockwave and Wilhelm was blown away from the whale's jaws.

"That was close..."

The whale returns back to the fog, everyone gathered together but Subaru was still catching his breath, he opened his sack and took out a few water gems, he faced where everyone was but then...

"LOOK OUT!"

Ricardo yelled as his riger sprinted forward. Subaru jerks his head to the right and sees a fog shooting for him, he jumps back, falls and drops the water gem, he blocks himself with his arms, Patarasche running up to him...

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"Huh?"

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Nothing happens...

He lowers his arms and sees an ice wall had formed in front of him, effectively blocking out the fog.
Patarashe runs up and nuzzles him, Ricardo still approaching but not as fast.

"We gotta be more attentive, can't risk any more losses..."

"Right..."

His breath was ragged, he looks over at the ice wall.

Must be the water gems he thought.

He came back with Ricardo, they all looked relieved that Subaru hadn't been caught in the fog, but they were still on guard
for anything to happen.
But something felt off to Subaru, how was the whale able to appear that fast.
Maybe it gets faster when it's in the fog? he thought
Then they heard distant wails from above. Everyone faces the wailing and notices something that twists everyone's face into terror.

What they saw...

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It wasn't one...

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But three whales...

'Just when you think you have hope, Despair strikes'


A/N

Before I start rambling, THANK YOU RogertheHomelessKing for Chapter 57, it was beautiful...

Anyway back to me rambling, hey there, Remember me? This Chapter forced me to watch episode 20 three times! I had to make 2 re-drafts and it was just... HARD AF! The next chapter will take EVEN LONGER! because it will be full-on action. Anyhow hope you guys enjoyed, please leave a review or just say hi cuz I get lonely sometimes...

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