"Sooo... What's our plan now?" Hin asked as he gazed across the throne room at their new enemy.
"I'm not really sure." Bojohn replied as Wrottzen finished communicating with Hailstone and rejoined them in strategizing.
"I have Hailstone starting a push to get the rest of the raid inside but that might take a while since we don't want to lose any soldiers." The Guardian said as he inventoried his equipment for the next fight.
"So what do we do?" May asked. "Play defense and hope they make it in time?"
"We don't know how long that will take." Wrottzen replied. "Which means-"
"We get to kick his traitorous keister." Ayumi said with a sadistic smile
"Exactly. Now everyone stay on guard and let's take this sucker down."
"Yeah!" Was the unanimous reply before the small party charged into battle.
Ayumi was the first to reach Benedict and landed a solid hit on the general with one of her skills before continuing forward to open the lane of attack for the next person.
Bojohn was not far behind and hit their shared enemy with his Assertive Force, inflicting an Intimidate status and lowering Benedict's attack power slightly.
Stunned slightly from Bojohn's attack, the traitorous general was left defenseless as Hin jumped into the air and activated his skill: Fallen Moon. Light bent around the Fuyu no Tsuki and took the form of a small moon which the samurai then proceeded to launch at the enemy.
Benedict quickly managed to compose himself and blocked the powerful attack on the flat of his blade before knocking it away. While not quite as effective as the previous attacks, it did provide enough time for the slightly slower Guardian to make his approach.
"Aura Saber!" Wrottzen yelled as his skill activated. Benedict launched an attack of his own and the two blades met with a loud clang. As soon as the blades connected though, the Guardian knew he didn't stand a chance. The enemy's attack hit like a freight train and sent the Adventurer flying across the room, leaving only a small sliver of his health remaining.
"Oh my God! Are you ok?!" May asked nervously as she ran over and cast Heartbeat Healing on Wrottzen.
"I'm just peachy." He replied sarcastically. "If Bojohn hadn't hit him with Intimidate, I would've been a goner." The guardian turned toward the battle and yelled, "Ya hear that guys?! His attack power is off the charts!"
"Got it!" Bojohn replied, "I'll try to keep Intimidate on him as much as I can."
"Huge attack power won't mean a thing if he can't hit us right Ayumi?" Hin said confidently as he narrowly dodged a swing from the enemy.
"You said it Hin!" The assassin replied as she launched another hit-and-run against the general.
"Let's make it even harder for him shall we?" Hin said before jumping backwards and holding his katana horizontally in front of his body. "Stillwater Mist!"
The thin, ever present mist that clung to the Fuyu no Tsuki slowly began to expand across the battlefield. With this mist applied an evasion buff to party members fighting within it and decreased the accuracy of enemies.
"Why aren't you fighting with them?" May asked, noticing Wrottzen was slow to return to the fight. "The mist should make it safe for you to get back in there."
"It won't make a difference for me." The guardian said with a sigh. "My defense is my best stat and I can't even take a single hit from that thing. Any damage I do would be minuscule and I'd be too slow to dodge his attack in return."
"Why don't you just equip your bow and try to chip him down a little?"
"I don't have any arrows stocked and even if I did have some, my attack power would be way too low to do any damage to Benedict."
"So you're saying you need some stat boosts to fight that thing?" The druid asked for clarification.
"Yeah. I'd need a pretty big boost to attack and speed if I wanted to contribute."
"Well... I might have something that could give you those boost, but I doubt you'll like it."
"You have something that would help me fight?!" The guardian replied excitedly. "What is it?!"
"Its a set of armor that we got for saving one of those Lander villages on the way here. Its supposed to give a pretty good boost to attack, and speed but it'll lower your defenses significantly."
"I'm on the verge of getting one-shot by Benedict anyway. Lowered defenses won't matter for me in this fight. Trade it over to me so I can equip it and get back in the fight."
"The stat boosts weren't the part I thought you'd dislike, but you asked for it." May said before trading over the aforementioned item.
"Thanks a bunch May." Wrottzen said happily as he received the armor from his comrade. "Now that I have this I can definitely... rejoin... the battle..." The guardian's expression soured as he got his first actual look at the item in question. "I'm not wearing this." He stated firmly.
"Why not?" May said as she teased him with a cheshire grin, "I thought you were desperate to get back out there and help the team."
"I want to help the team but I'd also like to keep my dignity." Wrottzen countered. Although he was firm in his stance to not wear the armor, the temptation of the stat boosts and contributing were quite alluring.
"So what are you going to do then?" May asked, "Are you going to let Bojohn, Hin and Ayumi wear themselves out fighting Benedict or are going to man up and fight?"
Trying to find any excuse to get out of it, Wrottzen pulled up his party's stats and surveyed the battlefield. The traitorous general's Hp bar was down to about 40% but the effort was clearly starting to drain the three fighters. Although all three were at a fairly high level of health, Bojohn and Ayumi at full health while Hin was at 60%, each of their Mp bars were nearly empty. In addition, the previous battles against the mini-bosses were beginning to catch up with them. Hin, in particular, was breathing quite heavily as he tried to stay at peak performance.
"Rrrrr... Fine. I'll do it." The guardian grumbled as he scrolled through his menu to equip the gifted armor. "You stay back here and try to spread some Mp recovery around ok?"
"Why can't I get in their and fight? My attack power isn't that bad!"
"You're also our only healer. If things go south, we'll need you to resurrect people. Ok?"
"Ok. Good luck out there." May said as her friend walked into the Stillwater Mist.
"Thanks." Wrottzen replied as he disappeared from sight and used the menu to equip the armor. "I'll need it."
"I might... need you guys... to cover me for a few seconds." Hin said as he struggled to catch his breath, the effects of his imprisonment starting to show. "I'll need to recast Stillwater Mist."
"Anything for you Hin!" Ayumi replied as she activated a skill to draw more aggro to herself. Her blade glowed green as she yelled "Maria the Ripper!" and launched her best skill at the unwavering enemy.
The skill dealt a good deal of damage to the raid boss before Ayumi began to kite the general away from Hin.
"That's right. Follow me ya big lug!" Ayumi yelled as the General gave chase.
While Benedict did give chase as planned, he swung his sword to strategically block off the assassin's escape routes and slowly began to corner her.
"Hin! Not to rush you or anything, but is that mist back up yet?" She asked as she narrowly dodged a strike from Benedict's blade.
"Almost!" Hin replied as the mist began to once again expand from his blade. "Bojohn! Get in there and help her!"
"Already on it!" The swashbuckler replied as he charged in with a Whirlwind Slash. The skill managed to deflect one of Benedict's strikes away from Ayumi but trapped the swashbuckler in the same situation with her. Benedict continued on the offensive as the Adventurers were forced into an ever tightening corner.
"Get ready to block." Bojohn said as their enemy brought back his blade for a particularly powerful overhead strike. "If we can live this, the mist will be back up and we can get back on the offensive."
"Something tells me we aren't going to survive this." Ayumi replied as she brought her blade up to block. "But its worth a shot."
Both Adventurers closed their eyes and braced for impact, but it never came. Instead they were taken aback by the general's cries of pain as he was blindsided by an attack from the party's previously idle commander.
"What are you waiting for?!" Wrottzen yelled as he ran away from the general's counterattack. "Get out of there!"
"R-right!" Both Bojohn and Ayumi replied before escaping from the corner of the throne room they had been forced into and returning to the fight.
"So where did this outfit come from?" Bojohn asked with a smirk as he joined up with his friend, "Is there something you're trying to tell us?"
"Haha. Very funny." The guardian replied dryly. "May said it was a gift from one of the Lander villages we saved and I needed the stat buffs it gives to save your sorry butt."
The gifted armor was a far cry from anything the former male had worn up to this point in the campaign. Gone was his concealing metal armor, and in its place was a mixture of leather and metal that would have made any goth jealous. The guardian's long slender legs were covered by black thigh high boots attached to a garter belt at his waist via studded leather straps. The small black panties he wore hugged his frame tightly and were attached to the garter belt in a similar manner. As one continued up the frame, the garter belt tangentially attached to a pair of chains which supported the armor's bra, which was another piece of tight fitting leather. These chains continued upward and attached to a studded choker at Wrottzen's neck which held the entire ensemble together, including two black metal shoulder pauldrons which the guardian considered to be the only actual pieces of armor on the outfit.
"We can make fun of the dominatrix later." Ayumi said, slipping in her own jab at the outfit. "For now we need to focus on how we're going to finish this guy off."
"How are we going to do it?" Bojohn asked, "The mist has worked out so far but he's starting to figure out ways around it."
"We keep the mist up but we change our attack tactics." Wrottzen explained, "We have the numbers advantage so let's use it. We'll swarm like bees around him and wait for good moments to strike. While Benedict attacks one person, the other three can attack."
"That might work." Hin commented as he joined the conversation. "He's already below half health so just a few strong barrages might be enough to finish him off."
"Let's do it then." The guardian replied. "Everyone start circling around Benedict and prepare to strike. May! Start spreading some Mp recovery around. It would be best if we could all launch our best skills so the fight doesn't drag out too much longer."
"Right!" The druid replied as everyone got into position.
Just as Wrottzen had suggested the four combat members of the party began moving around Benedict in a large circle, waiting for the raid boss to make his move. The traitorous general eventually settled on Wrottzen as his first target, either due to the guardian's pitiful defenses or his previous attack. Benedict's blade began to exude a dark aura as he prepared to attack.
"Get ready everyone!" Wrottzen called as he prepared himself for the attack.
Benedict went for a killing strike as he activated his Luna skill, the same skill that had defeated General Howe and charged at the scantily clad Adventurer.
"And... NOW!" The guardian yelled as he narrowly avoided Benedict's attack.
Following Wrottzen's command, the other three offensive members of the party each activated skills of their own, taking a nice chunk of the enemy general's health bar away.
"Great job everyone!" Wrottzen called as he backed away from Benedict to get back into their formation. "Get back into formation and we'll have this battle won in a jiffy!"
"Right!" Was the unanimous reply as everyone returned to their large circle formation and waited for Benedict's next attack.
The party's new battle tactic worked wonders as the fight continued. Waiting for Benedict to launch an attack against one person left him unable to counter against the other three and the pauses between his attacks allowed each person to catch their breath and regain Mp for the next attack. So long as the initial attack could be dodged, the plan was flawless. It wasn't long until Benedict's health entered the red and the end of the battle was in sight.
"We're almost there guys! One more attack and we might actually beat this thing!" Hin declared as the party once again launched their tandem skills into the raid boss, reducing him to only a small sliver of health.
"Let's not get cocky." Wrottzen replied as he returned into formation. "We can celebrate once this thing is defeated. I think Stillwater Mist is starting to wear off as well. You might want to recast it."
"We'll be fine." Hin replied, "We still have 30 seconds left and one more salvo from the four of us should be enough to take him down."
"I hope you're right." The guardian replied as the battle resumed.
Unfortunately for them, Benedict seemed to recognize to recognize that the evasion boosting mist would be dissipating soon as well and was waiting to launch his next attack.
"Hin! He isn't attacking!" Wrottzen called nervously as the mist visibly began to dissipate around him.
"Hold tight for just a second and I'll get it back up!" Hin replied, hurrying to correct his mistake.
Recognizing this as his best chance to strike, Benedict activated his Luna skill as soon as the mist began disappearing and charged at the first target he could find: Wrottzen.
Crap! The guardian thought as he saw the traitorous general charging directly for him. Without the mist, I don't think I'll be able to dodge that strike. I guess I don't have a choice but to try and tank it.
"Castle of Stone!" Wrottzen yelled, activating his own defensive skill and bracing for Benedict's impact. Normally the Castle of Stone would allow the user to be impervious to damage for 10 seconds but for some reason, it proved ineffective against the enemy's attack and the guardian's Hp bar dropped rapidly to 0.
What was that? The guardian thought to himself as his body collapsed. He could vaguely hear Bojohn and May calling out to him as the words 'You are Dead' appeared before him, just as they had when he had been killed by Timitt the Valley Lord. His vision went gray as a 60 second timer began to count down to his true demise.
Still trying to stay attentive to the battle, Wrottzen noticed that Hin and Ayumi had successfully finished off the traitorous general as May and Bojohn rushed over to resurrect him. The timer eventually reached 35 before a blinding flash of light from May's staff brought the Adventurer back to life.
"Y-You really need to stop dying like that." May said, slightly calmer than the last time she had to resurrect her friend.
"Yeah. Remind me to put it in my to do list." The guardian replied as he slowly pulled himself off the ground. "Good job finishing him off you two."
"Well its the least we could do since I'm kinda the reason you got killed." Hin admitted, "I should've put the mist back up sooner. Sorry you had to miss out on that boss exp."
"Its not your fault." Wrottzen replied, accepting the apology. "I should've been fine when I activated Castle of Stone. Anyone have any ideas what may have happened there?"
"I have no idea." Bojohn admitted. "I've never seen Castle of Stone fail like that before."
"I wonder if it's learnable..." Ayumi commented, already thinking through a number of sadistic possibilities.
"Well for the sake of our tanks I hope it isn't." Hin replied, placing a hand on Wrottzen's shoulder. "How about we go out and announce our victory to the rest of the guild?"
"Sure. Just let me get out of this crazy outfit." The guardian replied as he began flipping through his menu to change back into his normal armor. "There's no way I want other people seeing me in this thing."
"It might be a little late for that." May said as she gestured toward the entranceway with an amused smirk.
"Why is... that?" The former male turned toward the doorway to see several male members of the raid party gawking at his new revealing armor. The guardian reacted with a dejected sigh. "I'm going to be hearing about this all the way back to Hudson aren't I?"
"Ohhh, you'll be hearing about it a lot longer than that." Bojohn teased, "I doubt I'll ever let you live this down."
"Great..." Was all Wrottzen could muster as a reply.
The trip back to Hudson went surprisingly quick without having to battle Redcoats every inch of the way. What had taken the raid party months to traverse was easily covered in a week's time. After a couple of days to rest and restock their supplies, Wrottzen, Bojohn and May were once again ready to resume their trip to Gotham.
"Are you sure you three don't want to stay here in Hudson?" Hin asked, as the group prepared to make their goodbyes. "You three would fit in perfectly with the rest of the guild."
"Thanks for the offer, but our journey down to Gotham is super important and we've delayed it long enough already." Wrottzen replied, eager to resume his search for an Appearance Changing Potion.
"Ok. Be sure to keep in touch with us ok?" The Atlas guild leader replied, having convinced the three travelers to add him and Ayumi to their friends list. "You three are honorary members of Atlas after all."
"We'll be sure to do that." Bojohn said with a smile. "Thank you for letting come along on the Redcoat campaign with you. I can't tell you how much experience I gained from it."
"You three are almost at a level where you could be considered elites." Ayumi commented. "But you've all still got a few more levels to go until you can truly match us."
"Speaking of experience, I have a couple of parting gifts for you all." Hin said before turning to Wrottzen. "I still feel a bit bad about causing you to die back at Fort Bifrost, so I would like you to have this." The samurai pulled an item out of his inventory and presented it to the guardian.
"That's..."
"The weapon Benedict was using." Hin said, finishing the thought. "I got it as a drop for landing the last blow but I figured you could make better use of it, especially since I already have a weapon of my own."
"T-Thank you very much!" He graciously replied before accepting the weapon. Once the weapon officially changed hands, the sword's info appeared before him.
Weapon: Traitor's Blade
Flavor Text: A mighty blade once wielded by the Confederacy General Benedict Arnold. The great power it grants its user comes at a deadly cost: the betrayal of their very self.
Skills: Luna
"This is amazing! Thank you!" Wrottzen replied, quickly equipping his new weapon. "I've never had a special weapon like this before."
"It gets addicting. Trust me." The samurai replied, "Also, while I was testing out the blade, I figured out why Castle of Stone failed."
"What was it?" May asked.
"Its the weapon's skill Luna." He explained. "Apparently it negates any defensive buffs on the enemy, which would include..."
"My Castle of Stone." The guardian finished. "Its good to know I can still use that skill without having to worry about whether or not the invincibility will work or not."
"I thought you'd appreciate that." Hin said with a smile. "I also have one more gift for the three of you."
"You've already been so generous." May said, "You didn't have to do all this."
"We take care of our own here in Atlas and as far as I'm concerned, you three are Atlas members already." He replied, before gesturing them to follow him outside.
After a short walk across town, the Adventurers eventually arrived at the waterfront where their final gift was waiting.
"Its a boat!" Bojohn exclaimed as the gift came into view.
"Apparently we weren't the only ones hard at work the past few months." Ayumi explained. "A bunch of the engineers and merchants who stayed behind have been working on designing some real world technology and adapting it to Elder Tale."
"Boats were one of the first things they were able to figure out." Hin stated proudly. "I know this is only a small rowboat but it should allow you to travel safely downriver without having to deal with enemies every step of the way."
"He's right!" Bojohn realized. "And this river runs all the way downstate to Gotham. Heck, we could probably be down there by the end of the week!"
We're almost there. Wrotzzen thought to himself with a determined expression. Appearance Changing Potion, soon you will be mine!"
AN: Hello again everyone! I bet you weren't expecting another update so quickly but here it is, the end of the Redcoat arc. Sorry if the end of the chapter was a bit dialogue heavy, but I wanted to make sure everything was in place for the next arc of the story. I know it has been a while since their character was introduced, but I want to thank xxolliea once again for the submission of Hin. He and Ayumi may be getting left behind in Syr but I might bring them back again at some point if the moment is right.
Next chapter our heroes finally reach Gotham and begin their search for the Appearance Changing Potion (It only took them 11 chapters to get there). Next chapter will also be when our rating change will take place. I have a bunch of cool things planned for this story and I hope you're all just as excited as I am for them. As always, feel free to leave a review with your thoughts on the chapter or your hopes for the future of this fanfic. I always love hearing from you all. Happy reading!
