Chapter 12: Oroboros, the third time

The next morning they left Elyisa, saying their goodbyes to the village and then went through Aroundight forest. On the road back towards Lady Lake they ran into Sergei completely out of breath from running and looking like he might collapse.

"Hi Sergei." Said Rose crossing her arms. Her only reply was his heavy breathing. "Did you really run all the way here in heavy plate armor?" She asked.

"Yes…" He wheezed. It took about ten minutes for him to recover from sprinting in heavy ass plate armor, but he was still sweating.

"So, you apparently finished some work and got my note." Said Rose.

"Sorry, I tried to get to you as fast as I could but I was busy trying to assemble reinforcements to try to help out with the Marlind situation." Said Sergei.

"I don't know if that's such a good idea." Said Mikleo. "I mean sure you can send in military medics but sending in soldiers to a plague town might make it worse."

"Is it for quarantine?" Rose asked.

"Yes, the plague has gotten so bad that we need to deploy soldiers to quarantine the city. On top of that I had to make more arrests for gel powder as well as burning a bunch of dead bodies." Said Sergei.

"Sounds … lovely ..." Said Rose.

"Oh and I got into a fight with one of my superiors over our gel powder policy so any chance for a promotion anytime soon won't happen." Said Sergei.

"Ask him if they're concerned about you yet." Edna ordered.

"Has anyone gotten any concerns over me yet?" Asked Rose.

"No, they only thing anyone has heard about you is that you saved a guy from drowning, other than that you just seem like a benign idiot to them." Said Sergei.

"Keep it that way." Said Edna.

"Well … that's honestly demeaning, though Edna seems to think that it's a good thing for some reason." Said Rose.

"Hey, I hear it's a bad thing for shepherds to get too involved with humans and gain attention from some rather unsavory politicians." Said Enda.

"Did you get that from what little you may have gotten from this Eizen fellow?" Mikleo asked. Edna didn't respond.

"I see, but anyway I managed to get some time off so I went after you to see if I can still get you at the Galahad ruins." Said Sergei.

"Oh we've already been there." Said Rose.

"You did?" asked Sergei sounding shocked with a hint of sadness to his voice.

"Yeah, we found this bow on a pedestal with dicks drawn all over it, which gave me a new armatus and we found another Iris gem. So we went to Elysia to find a Lord of the Land with, as you can see, no success so we're heading back to Falkewin." Rose summarized.

"I missed it?" Sergei complained.

"Well not all of it, like I said, we're heading to Falkewin to try again with the Oroboros, wanna come?" Rose asked.

"Sure." Shrugged Sergei.

"Great let's go!" Said Rose. "Uh Edna is Sergei's squire pact still intact?" She then muttered to Edna.

"Hold on." Said Edna going up to Sergei. She ran her finger down his spine, he shivered. She scratched her chin then jabbed him in the back with her umbrella.

"Ugh ow!" He cried.

"Now it is." She said.

"Edna?" Said Sergei turning to her.

"Wait you can hear her?" Rose asked.

"Yeah."

"Sweet now we don't have to be touching to have you hear the seraphim! Not that touching is a bad thing it's just-" Rose rambled.

"Rose, stop before you hurt yourself." Said Mikleo.

"Hey!" Rose snapped.

"Can we get going already?" Edna moaned.

"By the way, while I was working I did manage to find Father Bruenor."Said Sergei as they started traveling.

"Oh, yeah … he's a thing." Said Rose.

"You completely forgot didn't you?" Said Sergei.

"Yep." Said Rose. "So what did he say about the Seraph and prop sword situation?"

"He agreed to help and worship whatever seraph we got." Said Sergei.

"Well that's good news." Said Rose. "So we can get Father Bruenor as soon as we get a seraph and hope we don't die."

"We're not gonna die Rose." Said Mikleo, "You've gotten stronger in the like five days we've been around this area."

"Which would be a big difference for most Shepherds." Said Edna.

"Most shepherds didn't take down a behir that happened to be their best friend on the first day." Rose said. A couple days later they were at the river bank at of the still raining Falkewin hillside again. This time with a crowd of people by the now broken bridge. Sergei went up to a soldier.

"What's going on here?" He asked.

"Oh, captain Sergei." Said a female soldier. "These people were about to go over the bridge when it suddenly collapsed so we had to try to save as many as we can. Unfortunately some folks were lost to the river."

"It's all because of the water spirit." Murmured a civilian. Rose and Edna looked to Mikleo.

"I was on top of a mountain- oh you're just giving me a hard time." Said Mikleo.

"I'm just doing this to appease the Edna." Rose muttered, followed by Edna jabbing her in the side. "Ow!"

"Hey stop spewing nonsense!" A soldier snapped at the civilian.

"He's actually pretty right you know." Said Rose. "I've ran into this water spirit a few times I can confirm this."

"Weren't you that nut job at the festival?" A different civilian asked.

"Hey! I just took the sword and ran, it's back in the sanctuary." Said Rose. "And I'm the Shepherd, I deal with supernatural bullshit all the time! I got this!"

"Uh huh. Right." Said the soldier that was talking to Sergei.

"Well so much for trying to inflate your ego." Said Edna twirling her umbrella. Rose glared at her.

"Don't worry, like I said I got this, but you guys should still evacuate the area." Said Rose.

"Well at least she has some reason to her." Said a civilian.

"I heard that!" Said Rose. Just then they (as in Rose, Sergei, Mikleo, and Edna) heard a shriek and the Oroboros came out of the water once again. To everyone else it was one vicious water spout.

"Hi again." Said Rose to the Oroboros.

"Get everyone out of here now!" Sergei ordered.

"Yes sir!" The soldiers replied. They started evacuating the area when Sergei ran to her side and drew his sword.

"Are you sure about this?" Sergei asked.

"Not really, I think we're totally fucked regardless of if I'm sure or not to be honest." Said Rose taking out her knives.

"Let's get this over with." Sighed Edna.

"Right!" Said Rose. She and Sergei charged at the Oroboros only to get their ass handed to them very quickly.

"Oh for the love of …" Edna muttered.

"Rose! Armatize!" Mikleo shouted.

"With who?" Rose shouted back.

"Whoever!"

"Um … uh … fuck … Luzrov Rulay!" Rose shouted. When she armatized she started to charge at the Oroboros.

"No! No. Stop." Said Mikleo. Rose's body froze.

"Are you kidding?" Rose asked.

"Rose, What's going on?" Sergei asked.

"Sergei, let's go, we're covering them while they figure out their shit." Said Edna.

"All right." Said Sergei. He ran forward while Edna casted a Seraphic arte.

"Rose, what are you holding?" Mikleo asked.

"That's a stupid question." Said Rose.

"Just answer it. What are you holding?"

"A bow that we convinced you to steal." Said Rose.

"Now what does it do?" Mikleo asked.

"Shoot energy arrows whenever we're amatized." Said Rose.

"Yes. With this weapon you have to use it at a distance otherwise you're just wacking it with a glorified stick." Said Mikleo.

"So you're suggesting that I stand back." Said Rose.

"Stand back and shoot but yeah, we need Sergei and Edna to keep distance between it and us." Said Mikleo "That way we can be effective with what we have. After all we're not Edna, we won't do well up close."

"All right all right I got ya." Said Rose. "Sergei, Edna, keep it as far away from us as possible!" She ordered.

"Okay!" Said Sergei.

"Hmph, she's starting to strategize for once, not bad Meebo." Said Edna.

"Save it." Said Mikleo as he and Rose pulled back the bow string.

"Saint's arrow!" They both cried as they fired the energy arrow which stunned the Oroboros temporarily which left plenty of room for Sergei and Edna to bombard it with sword stabs and seraphic artes. Once the Oroboros got over its stun it glared over at Rose.

"Air pressure!" Edna shouted causing the air around the Oroboros to force it down then Rose shot at it with a couple more energy arrows at the snake while it was on the ground. The Oroboros got back up and hissed at the group. It then spiraled upwards knocking both Sergei and Edna aside.

"This is new." Said Rose summoning another energy arrow.

"The fuck was that?" Sergei asked.

"I don't know some sort of spiraling rising attack?" Said Edna.

"You're the prime lord shouldn't you know these things?" Mikleo asked.

"Can it Meebo." Said Edna. "I'm not an expert when it comes to these things."

"Just keep it down!" Rose ordered. "Or if a certain fucking wind seraph would like to join they are more than welcome to!" And once again no hint of Dezel, or any other wind seraph for that matter, showed.

"Why do you keep doing that when you know full well that he's not gonna come?" Mikleo asked.

"Shut up, you don't know that!" Rose snapped causing her to miss the Oroboros and nearly hit Sergei.

"Be careful with that!" He shouted.

"It's not like I want to punch him or anything." Said Rose pulling back the bow string summoning another arrow. "I just want to give him a piece of my mind for just running off like that and most likely having Sorey or Muse write that note for him." She released the bowstring with the arrow hitting the Oroboros.

"What note?" Said Mikleo. Rose didn't answer she just pull back the bowstring. "… We're talking about this later."

"Fine." Said Rose unleashing another arrow at the same time Edna and Sergei struck it. The Oroboros then whacked Edna and Sergei aside and started slithering towards her. 'Shit shit … fuck! We need to split, we need to split!' Rose thought in a mantra.

"Rose!" Mikleo shouted, before she knew it she somehow found herself on the ground with the hellion in the space between her and the water seraph. "Rose! Are you okay?"

"I don't know what just happened but I'm fine." Said Rose dusting herself off.

"Good." Said Mikleo going over to her and offering his hand to help her up. "Let's try to defeat this hellion."

"Yeah!" Said Rose. Rose charged forward jumped up and slashed down on it then stabbed into the hellion with one hand and waited for it to look at her so she threw the dagger at the hellion's eye. Mikleo whacked the hellion's side causing it to bend over so that Rose could retrieve her dagger from its eye. Sergei rushed forward and stabbed the hellion. It reeled back and glared at the three it started to coil up when a spire from the earth jabbed it at the side. It looked over to see Edna, now taking up the rear. It hissed at her and tried to worm around the other three but Sergei stabbed his sword into its tail preventing it from moving any more forward. "Hesphin Yulind!" Rose shouted amatizing with Edna, Mikleo backed away from the group and started using Seraphic artes. Rose knocked her fists together which caused the hovering gauntlets to sandwich the hellion. She then punched upwards which upper cut the Oroboros.

"Ice Reaver!" Mikleo shouted and a spire of ice shot from the ground and pierced through the snake. The Oroboros, started to perform another spiraling attack again.

"Sonic thrust!" Sergei shouted stabbing through the hellion, finally causing it to collapse. The group looked at the hellion. Rose's armatus didn't deactivate but everyone kept their weapons up to make sure the Oroboros didn't get back up. The hellion form faded into that of a Seraph in blue robes with blue hair. They all breathed a sigh of relief as it stopped raining.

"I'm going to check in with the soldiers and civilians." Said Sergei.

"All right." Said Rose with the armatus now managing to get off. She then turned to Mikleo. "It's later, we can talk."

"Rose-" Mikleo began when they heard a moan. They looked down to the Seraph waking up.

"Hey, you okay there." Said Rose offering her hand out.

"Uuugh … I think so …" The seraph groaned rubbing the bridge of his nose. "What happened?"

"You turned into a hellion and broke down the bridge." Said Edna bluntly. The Seraph froze for a second. He then got up and rushed over to the river bank.

"Edna!" Mikleo scolded.

"What? There's really no use in hiding it." Said Edna. The three went up to the seraph.

"So … so the wrecking of the bridge was my fault?" He asked to himself. He then turned to Rose and the seraphim. "I don't know what to say. I'm so ashamed with myself for even turning into a hellion in the first place. If you hadn't purified me I don't know what would've happened. Thank you."

"Don't mention it. I was just doing my job, um …" Said Rose putting her hands behind her head.

"I am Uno, Shepherd." Introduced the Seraph.

"Rose." Said Rose. "Uno, in exchange for saving you, I'd like to ask for a favor."

"That others have refused." Edna added in glaring at Mikleo.

"Shut it." Muttered Mikleo.

"Hm?" Said Uno.

"Can you bless Lady Lake?" Rose asked.

"Lady Lake?" Said Uno crossing his arms. "As things currently stand there …" He started.

"Fuck…" Muttered Rose.

Meanwhile with Sergei a fellow soldier ran up to him.

"Captain! Are you all right?" He asked.

"Don't worry, I'm just fine. Plus the water spout has dispersed." Sergei reassured.

"Well shit it looks like there's some truth with her being the shepherd." Said a civilian.

"Yeah, god it makes me kind of an ass for doubting that rumor that she saved someone from drowning." Said another civilian.

"That rumor is true!" Rose shouted.

"What really happened?" Asked Mikleo.

"A slime hellion was chewing on a guy so Edna and I beat to crap out of it to have it puke up the dude." Muttered Rose. "So we told him that he was drowning and since he was in basically the sewers he believed that he was drowning in shit water."

"Oh." Said Mikleo.

"You know the rain has stopped and the currents have calmed significantly." Said a soldier.

"Damn I thought she was just some crazy bitch that sole a sword." Said another civilian. "To think I would see an actual fucking shepherd."

"Hey watch your mouth!" Snapped a different civilian.

"The shepherd has a really foul mouth herself." Said Sergei. "Don't worry about offending her."

"You know it looked like she just cut through the water spout." Said the Civilian that mentioned a water spirit earlier. "Doubt anyone would believe me."

"Seriously?" Said the civilian that Rose shouted at for doubting that somewhat true rumor for saving a guy from drowning. "You're with a bunch of people that saw her pull some crazy shit, damn at this point I'd be happy if she'd punch me."

"Careful now, she might actually do it." Said Sergei and the group burst out laughing. Uno looked over and smiled.

"So there are people who still believe." Said Uno. He turned back to Rose. "Well you did get me back to my old self … very well, I'll become the Lord of the Land for Lady Lake."

Well it has been a while since the last update but I've been preoccupied with school and stuff, thought I push out the next two chapters before the month is over. I also have the next chapter in the progress of being edited so you can expect that to come up in the next few days, with tonight being the earliest possible time.