Chapter 68: The Golden Dawn (Part 1)
Lucas was slowly descending the air with the enemy he had just captured in tow. His squad uniform was lighting up against the setting sun's bright light in the faraway distance. A gentle breeze started to flow through Kiten and made his long, flowing, teal cloak rustle and wave because of it.
Daisy stared up at him, jumping and waving as it had been almost a month since they last spoke. "Thanks for the save", the Blue Rose Knight said with a smile.
"No problem but I was hoping one of Captain Charlotte's top Magic Knights would be ready for something like this", Lucas said with a sly grin.
"Oh, come on! The attack just came out of nowhere…". Daisy's face became red as she pouted, folding her arms across her chest.
Lucas waved away his joke as he laughed. "I thought I'd try a bit of teasing this time since you usually do it with me!"
"Wow, really? Hm, I guess you really do want to be like me – your idol?" Daisy span around on one leg with her blue skirt rippling as the breeze hit.
"My idol? You're far from it!" Lucas winked.
"Ooh, you've got a bit of a cheeky tongue now, haven't ya?" She said, poking him in his side.
A silent pause filled the air between the two before they calmly smiled at each other. At the end of it, they walked up to each other and high-fived.
The enemy who was floating behind Lucas rolled her eyes and sighed. "What on earth even is this?"
"It's good to see you! How have you-", Daisy tried to ask but a familiar shout from behind stopped her from talking.
"Daisy, what on earth happened out here?! I heard the sounds of screaming outside and then the walls of Ethan's house started shaking!" Emilia ran up, her arms resting on her knees as she gasped for some air.
Daisy face-palmed but it was more because of what she realised. "Yeah… all that screaming was me", she shook her head. "As you can see, everyone else didn't even realise what was going on…". The Ice mage pointed her arms at the various groups of people around the streets who were just walking about as if nothing had happened.
"Huh? Then what was the shaking?" Emilia asked, still confused.
Lucas took a step forward and answered. "Oh, I think that was my m-!" He tried to explain but a surprised shout from the silver-haired Magic Knight startled him.
"Lucas?! How come you're here?" Emilia repeatedly pointed at him, confused.
"Hi, Emilia", he waved. "Um, like I was saying, the shaking was probably through this enemy's…", he pointed to the bound Diamond soldier behind him. "… and my exchange earlier. Oh, and the rest of the Golden Dawn are here as well. There are more Diamond Kingdom soldiers around so I probably can't stay for too long".
The recently arrived Blue Rose finally calmed down as she understood the situation. She had just acted more like Daisy with her surprised expressions and whatnot but perhaps it was good for her to be like that considering what she was going through.
"I get it now…", she sighed as she wiped some sweat away from her forehead. "Hi, Lucas", she managed to add as she didn't say it before.
"How is Ethan and her mother?" Daisy asked, worriedly.
"Who are they?" Lucas asked, wondering who these people were.
"Oh, long story", Emilia replied. She was about to reply to her squad mate when Lucas suddenly pushed both of their backs, causing them to fall to the ground. "What was that for?!"
Lucas didn't turn around to reply but just stood in front of the two, his arms in the position to protect them. "Sorry about that, Emilia. It was all I could do or that guy's Flame Magic would've hit the both of you!"
Emilia squinted her eyes as she couldn't really believe it but turning towards Daisy and looking at the shocked look on her face made her think otherwise.
"It's true… I saw it in the corner of my eyes but it was already too late for me to react. Lucas-san must have seen it before me. It was a-", Daisy was about to explain but the words were taken right from her mouth.
"My magic bullet wasn't enough?!" A male enemy suddenly presented himself in front of the three Magic Knights. "I was behind a building, making sure you couldn't see me. Yet, you seem to be quite good", he praised Lucas in front of him.
The Light mage took a step forwards, still defending the two girls behind him. "You would've killed both of them!"
"Well done. That was kind of the point, sunshine", the enemy rolled his eyes. "If you're done stating the obvious, I'd like my girlfriend back by my side", he said with a gruff voice.
"Girlfriend?" Lucas wondered. "Oh, is it this person I captured?"
"Flame Creation Magic: Serpent's Blazing Acid!"
Without much of a heads up, the Diamond soldier had summoned a spell that caught the Magic Knights off guard. In front of the newly-arrived enemy, a flaming serpent had formed and shot out a breath of fire that quickly filled the entire street.
"Time Magic: Heaven's Time!" Instead of targeting the spellcaster, Lucas aimed his right arm towards the spell itself, stopping it in a dark-grey space. The fire attack was frozen in time and this shocked three of the four others that were present.
"Time Magic?!" Emilia, and two of the enemies shouted in disbelief.
"There was no intel about a Magic Knight like this in the Clover Kingdom. Of course, there's your Wizard King but he wouldn't show up to Kiten at such a short notice…", the man stated.
"He told me he had Light Magic so was that a lie?" Emilia wondered as she saw the spectacle unfold in front of her. Though, there wasn't much time to ask since Lucas did something else.
He clicked the fingers on his right hand which activated the secondary effect of the same spell. A beam of blue light came down from above and destroyed the frozen serpent and its spell. The greyed-out magic broke and shattered like it was glass, turning into dust on the floor. As the spell was over, Lucas started panting but it didn't look like it took much out of him compared to the last few times.
"I think… my body's getting used to using it. Heaven's Time is quite a powerful spell so it has its drawbacks but using this magic like this is okay. I just hope…", he thought as his mind went back to his out-of-control transformation in the Temple of Valchronos.
As Lucas took the few seconds to compose himself again, the Flame mage in front of him was already on the move.
"I don't know how strong you are so I'll just…", he said under his breath as his grimoire turned a page. "Flame Magic: Serpent's Blazing Grasp!"
Lucas's head turned to look at him but that was all he could do. Due to the drop in concentration, he couldn't react as he saw a smaller and thinner flaming snake form around the enemy's hand. It wrapped around the Light mage's Coils of Trapped Light, bringing the prisoner towards the spellcaster.
The man burned the Light Magic away, releasing his girlfriend.
"Oh, Jill!" The man shouted, clearly happy.
"Oh, Jim!" The woman shouted back, reciprocating the feeling.
Three pairs of heads started to sweat drop seeing this exchange.
"We're reunited and now it's time for you to pay, Magic Knight!" The two of them said in unison.
Daisy was expressionless really after hearing the two of them talk at the same time. "Two peas in a pod, aren't they?"
"That certainly is correct…", Emilia replied rather weakly. It was like she was cringing at what she saw.
"Lucas-san, we'll help you out!" Daisy shouted from behind.
"I'd join you but I really have to get Ethan and his mother to safety. I'll be as quick as I can!" Emilia added, running back into the alleyway she was at – a look of concern stretched across her face.
Jim and Jill didn't like the idea of fighting against the Blue Roses though. The teen from the Golden Dawn had wronged them in their eyes so they wanted revenge on him.
"Yeah, no. We only want that one there…", Donald pointed at Lucas.
Before anyone could respond though, all of their eyes started to water as the disgusting smell of something rotten suddenly filled the air. It started off quite tame but within a second it was so bad. Lucas and Daisy held their noses, but the Diamond duo were better around it as they didn't need to close their noses off.
Lucas recognised him as Yagos, one of the three Shining Generals that come here and had led the Diamond Kingdom soldiers into Kiten. The old man was wearing all black with a top hat but the main thing he noticed was that he was sitting on top of a slimy cloud.
With no need for an explanation, the two Magic Knights knew that the horrid stench was coming from that travelling slime Yagos was sitting on.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here, you bunch of weaklings?" Yagos spoke with a heavy and croaky voice. He was smiling as he got closer with his long, grey hair bouncing up and down behind him. "It looks like two Magic Knights".
"Yes, Sir! We were just about to fight the one from the Golden Dawn", Jill shouted, saluting her general.
"Oh, no, I don't think you need to do that. I'll handle the little boy whilst you take care of that girl next to him", Yagos cackled.
"But… Sir". The two of them tried to speak up but a death stare from the Shining General was enough for them to shut up about it.
Yagos smiled once more and slowly turned his gaze back to Lucas. The Dual mage tensed up as he got ready but the Diamond General was already a step ahead.
"That won't be necessary, son. See, I have a bone to pick with you Golden Dawns…", Yagos smiled. The slime he was on grew bigger and a tentacle formed from it, grabbing Lucas and pulling him in. After this, Yagos travelled elsewhere, away from Daisy and the couple who were gobsmacked at just what happened.
"Lucas-san!" Daisy shouted but it was pointless. He was way too far away to hear and it looked like the Ice mage had to focus on her own fight. "He'll be fine…", she hoped.
Jim and Jill shrugged their shoulders. "Looks like we'll take the hand we're dealt…".
"Um, this isn't really fair, is it?" Daisy smiled at them with her eyes closed.
"Fair? No, not really but we have our orders", Jim explained.
Jill stepped forwards. "I guess I can make you pay instead. Your boyfriend captured me but his girlfriend can take the punishment".
Daisy poker-faced and then blinked every few seconds. "We're not dating". She waved away the suggestion, sighing afterwards.
"Oh", Jill replied.
"Oh well". Jim shrugged his shoulders.
"Our plan remains the same!" The two of them shouted, generating magic in the palm of their hands.
"There's only three Magic Knights here, guys. We can take them!" One Diamond Kingdom soldier shouted to five others who quickly grouped together. Eventually, there were six enemies all floating on their broomsticks in the sky, looking down at the trio of Klaus, Hamon, and Shiren.
The Golden Dawn three exchanged looks with each other and nodded as if they had a plan they were going to follow.
"What's with you staring at one another? If you aren't going to take us seriously then… We'll come to you!" One of the flying men shouted as the group descended.
Shiren's face didn't look worried at all as he summoned the first spell.
"Stone Magic: Rockfall Debris!" Shiren extended both of his arms forward and motioned downwards. As he did this, six individual rocks formed in the sky and fell downwards, following what the Stone mage was doing.
There were shadows being casted above each enemy and when they looked up they realised just why that was the case.
"Look above you! That tall guy is using Stone Magic to knock us down. Evade it however you can!" The enemy screamed. They tried to fly in and out of the way of Rockfall Debris but Shiren was just creating more and more large rocks to cover every empty space in the air.
The enemy stopped as they realised it was useless but instead of panicking, they seemed calm.
With a whisper behind, the Diamond soldier spoke to the other five in a hurry. "Use your magic to protect yourselves. When he releases the rocks, we'll protect ourselves but we'll also have him hit his own teammates!" He smirked.
A few seconds went past and Shiren dropped the tens upon tens of rocks that were in the sky straight down onto the floor. Just like the enemy discussed, they reinforced their bodies with their magic and were just waiting for Shiren's spell to backfire.
"Hm, you must think I'm stupid. Don't you think I was actually planning to hit my teammates?" Shiren said with a deep voice and then stuck a thumb out towards Klaus and Hamon.
"What?!" The enemy six all shouted in disbelief. Their vision of Shiren started to blur as they were being surrounded by the falling debris.
"Steel Creation Magic: Steel Castle's Armoured Dome!" Klaus shouted as a dark-grey dome covered both him and Hamon who was next to him. There were four towers, much like the ones around Kiten's border, albeit way smaller, on each corner of the dome. They dug into the floor to make sure the defensive spell was sturdy.
As Shiren's magic was in full effect, the other two were just waiting for their moment to strike as they were protected by the dome. Sounds of rocks were all around but Klaus's magic was more than strong enough. Eventually, when the noise stopped, Klaus got rid of the defensive spell. Outside, what they saw was just as they had planned.
"Ow…", was the singular word that was shared by all six enemies. "Just how strong was that… Stone Magic?"
Just a few seconds ago, they were in the air thinking their magic was enough to protect themselves, but they never accounted for the Golden Dawn's magic. Now, they were on the floor struggling to get up.
Slowly, they got up one-by-one but it was already too late to react. Klaus and Hamon were face-to-face with two enemies each whilst Shiren had the remaining two with him.
"Steel Creation Magic: Twin Drill Lances!" Klaus's arms disappeared and what replaced them were two, large, steel drills that were spinning at high speeds. Instead of stabbing, all the blue-haired mage had to do was whack the two enemies in front of him and they were down for the count.
"You Diamond Kingdom soldiers should never have underestimated us!" Klaus shouted, his Twin Drill Lances disappearing.
It was much of the same with Hamon but he had a bit of fun with his two opponents before going to defeat them.
"You two. Why do you have to fight us when you can just give yourselves up without the pain that comes from it?" Hamon chuckled, one arm on his stomach as he tried to contain himself.
Both soldiers ran forwards with angry looks on their faces. They started generating magic in their hands and were about to hit the Glass mage.
"Don't give us that crap, fatty! Give ourselves up? Who on earth do you think you are?!" They screamed as they fired their magic.
Hamon sighed and shook his head. He stopped laughing and looked at the two seriously. "Glass Creation Magic: Verre Fleur!" He threw his arms up in the air and a series of sharp glass spikes rose from the ground, piercing bits of the enemies' bodies, rendering them unconscious from the pain they just experienced.
"This fatty as you called it is a member of the Golden Dawn. Oh, my actual name's Hamon Caseus", he said as his usual smile slowly returned.
Back with Shiren, him and the two enemies in front of him were just watching the others beat down the Diamond soldiers with ease. The ones with the Stone mage were speechless as they trembled.
"Now, now. I thought you were going to defeat us. What happened to that?" Shiren mocked as his grimoire came up next to him.
"Please…",
"Stone Binding Magic…",
"No… Um, can you spare us, Magic Knight?"
"Prison of the Colossus", Shiren summoned as he ignored the desperate pleas from the two in front of him.
Two large stones came out of the ground with deep holes in the middle of them each. They came up from behind the enemies, pulling the two in and engulfing them. The holes then closed up, leaving a space for their heads in the middle so they could breathe.
Klaus and Hamon came up to Shiren after restraining their own enemies. The mage with glasses had his duo in coffins, whilst the latter had surrounded his two in thick glass.
"Looks like that plan worked to perfection", Hamon waved. He pointed behind him with his thumb over his shoulder so that the others would look.
"Good job, you two", Klaus nodded. He turned to the glutton and frowned. "Hey, I heard what they said about you. It's a good job you told them who's boss, ay?" The Steel mage nudged Hamon in the side.
The Glass mage waved away Klaus's thinking that he was upset. "By now, I've heard plenty of insults about the way I look. It's just funny at this point", he chuckled. "And you said it… looks like I am the boss, hm?"
Shiren walked forwards and gave a little smile but quickly returned to his passive self. "You don't want to be repeating that in front of the Captain or Vice-Captain, Hamon".
"Yeah, yeah, it was a joke, Shiren…", Hamon sighed.
"Good work though, you two". Shiren went to put his hands on their shoulders but hesitated. "Is this what… I should do to show my appreciation?"
Klaus and Hamon giggled at this.
Recently, Shiren Tium had been a bit different when it came to interacting with other people. Usually, he was only seen as stoic and not one for words but ever since the rest of the squad had returned from the Forbidden Forest, he had been acting out of character. Though it wasn't anything bad, it was just a bit unnatural.
"That sure is one way…", Klaus answered, accepting the pat to his shoulder.
"What's been up with you lately? We can tell you're not comfortable like this", Hamon asked with a puzzled look to his face.
Shiren's face didn't move an inch to show any sort of reaction as he was thinking to himself. His calm, green eyes looked blank so no one could really tell where his mind was going. "I… want to have friends…", he said with a bit of difficulty.
The other two didn't really know what to say but were confused by this. Surely he knew and realised that the people in the Golden Dawn were his friends, right?
"Shiren, do you-", Hamon tried to ask but was interrupted by a barrage of loud shouts coming from the end of the empty street.
They looked towards the source and saw many more enemies in the distance all charging towards the men.
"Should we enact the plan again?" Shiren asked as his grimoire came up beside him. There was no time to go into detail with what this large man was thinking. Whatever it was could be left until later.
"Plant Recovery Magic: Princess-Healing Flower Robe!"
Mimosa was busy healing the eighth person they found unconscious, laying in the middle of the street.
It looked like the Plant mage was near the busiest place in Kiten with how much damage there was around her. A lot of the buildings were broken or on the verge of collapsing and one of the outcomes of this was that the town's citizens were in a state of panic, leading to even more injuries.
All around her, there were more and more people in need of help and the royal was starting to get overwhelmed. Of course, the person she happened to be with didn't help things either.
"Mimosa, hurry up! You've been healing that one person for too long now!" Alecdora shouted in front of her. The Sand mage had another person on his shoulders and they were also in need of desperate help seeing as their wounds were quite bad.
"I'm t-trying my hardest! This is why I said to set up some sort of temporary base where I can heal properly!" Mimosa shouted back, not doing well under Alecdora's intimidation.
He lowered the injured person down slowly, all the while glaring at the Vermillion. "Hmph. If we did as you said, then I wouldn't be able to fight the enemies. Besides, it would take too long", he said rather rudely.
"Huh?" Mimosa furrowed her brow. "The Captain told us to stick to helping the injured though!"
"Isn't defeating the enemy helping them?" Alecdora protested.
Mimosa didn't bother going along with his reasoning as she had more pressing concerns. She finished healing the current person, putting them on the floor.
"Hopefully, this can help with protecting them…", she thought as she raised her arms in front of her. The royal used her Plant Magic to create a little barrier around the citizens, protecting them from the attack around them. After this, she got started on the next person.
"Sand Binding Magic: Sandbox!"
Mimosa turned to where the other Magic Knight was. Contrary to what he was saying, he wasn't actually being reckless by heading into a fight, but was using his magic to protect the people around the street. This time, he was using Sandbox to pick up the injured, taking them back to the Vermillion.
"I… kind of understand his frustration though. I learned an attack spell back at the Forgotten Forest but never had the chance to use it since coming back. But… even if that's the case, the squad and the people around me need me as a Support mage right now and I can't be selfish!" The royal shook her head and focused on healing.
A few minutes went past without much trouble at all. One-by-one, the injured around the street were being healed up and protected, reducing the number of people that both mages needed to care for. Though, as things quietened down for a few minutes, something in the distance drew both Alecdora's and Mimosa's attention.
"HAHAHA! More destruction… more damage… more everything!" A man with a large, brown afro shouted as he leaped from one broken building to another. It was Brocks, one of the Shining Generals that had come to Kiten. He was covered in his Red Clay Magic and looked like he was having a fun time being a menace.
Alecdora's grey eyes glinted as he saw an opportunity to showcase his skills. "Finally. With the work here done, I can use my magic to impress Master Vangeance", he smiled. The Sand mage went to turn to Mimosa to relay his plan but then saw another person rushing towards them.
"Oh! Hi, Melody", Mimosa shouted to get her attention. The purple-haired mage didn't see any of them initially as it looked like she was solely focused on something in front of them. However, another shout from the royal returned her back to reality as she stopped and turned.
Melody walked over to Mimosa who had finished healing the last person. With a huge sigh of relief, the Plant mage finally stood up and looked at all of the people laying on the ground, surrounded by her magic.
"H-Hi, Mimosa…", the young lady replied sheepishly.
"How is your task going? Have you found any people to help get out of the area?" Mimosa asked.
"Uh, y-yeah, I have. There were a bunch of p-people earlier that I helped get to a lake outside of the town that's completely safe. I've also captured one of the enemies and have them secured safely near one of the towers…", Melody answered, fidgeting as she did.
It was then that Alecdora regrouped with Mimosa and also started talking to the newly-arrived mage. He didn't look happy to see her with the sour expression he had on his face but, then again, when did he ever look anything other than angry?
"Where were you running off to in a hurry?" He asked, or rather demanded an answer with his expression.
Melody got the vibe he was giving and it wasn't a pleasant one at all. Her orange eyes kept darting all over the street until she caught the sight of something on one of the roofs in the distance.
"Red clay…", she pointed and the other two followed the direction.
"Oh, that was the Shining General that was her a few seconds ago. He was going in the direction of… I believe Yuno?" Mimosa spoke as she lightly tapped her index finger against her chin.
That was when Alecdora's eyes glinted again, remembering that he was going to chase Brocks down.
"Mimosa, I'm going off to fight that guy! Our work here is done so you should go and be useful somewhere else", he said, rudely once again.
The Vermillion wore a face of anger for a second or two but that quickly changed to a poker-face because of what she saw in the distance.
"What is it?" Alecdora asked before he turned around to see. "Huh?!"
Melody was already off, running towards Brocks. She resumed the chase she was giving right before meeting up with these two mages and it didn't look like she was going to stop this time.
Though, perhaps futile seeing her determination, Alecdora shouted as he started to chase after her. "Hey, stay with Mimosa and help her. I said I was going to fight that guy!"
Melody turned around but was jogging backwards, still not stopping.
"Sorry, um… Alecdora, was it? I th-think it's better if I go for him since…", she became hard to hear as she was too far away.
"Since what?!" Alecdora stopped. He started panting as he rested his hands on his knees. "How on earth is she so quick…?" He lifted his head up and saw that the Sound mage was waving her hands. "You cocky piece of…", he stopped, shaking his head.
Looking defeated, the man turned around and walked back to Mimosa. He didn't want to give up so easily but he had something in mind for it. After a few seconds, he got back to the royal who hid her face from him.
She was giggling ever so slightly but had her hand over her mouth to make sure he couldn't hear her.
"Serves him right for being so rude", she smiled. After calming down, her mind was on Melody and what she was like. "Melody is an odd one. I've spoken to her a few times and I know how timid and shy she is but just now… the look in her eyes when she chased after Brocks was something else. Sometimes she struggles to talk with others but then just now... it didn't look like that was the case", she noticed.
"Mimosa, we're going after her", Alecdora ordered.
"What? I thought you gave up chasing after her", the royal replied.
"I'm not giving up at all!" He shouted, crossing his arms as a puff of air came out his flared up nostrils. "Do you really think she can handle a Shining General by herself?"
Mimosa didn't even have time to think before Alecdora interrupted her.
"Actually, I'm just going by myself", he said before turning away.
"Wait, the Captain said-!" She tried to reason but Alecdora was too adamant in his ways.
However, when the mage took a step in the direction of Brocks, a bunch of Diamond Kingdom soldiers appeared all of a sudden, surrounding both him and Mimosa. The hooded figures were all in a line, ready to attack.
"We heard that loud one say he was going to go after Master Brocks… like that's ever going to happen!" One of them shouted.
"Dammit!" Alecdora cursed. He took a few steps back and brought his grimoire out. "I can't go against Brocks but at least I can fight!"
Mimosa tensed up, realising what these turn of events meant for her. She looked to the side and saw the people she had healed up and then looked back at the row of enemies.
"I'll get them to safety and then… I can really use my magic to attack!"
Melody ran ahead, ignoring both Mimosa and Alecdora who she left behind her. Her sight was fully on the red clay in the distance and she was determined.
"Hey, stay with Mimosa and help her. I said I was going to fight that guy!" Alecdora shouted from behind. It looked like he had started chasing her but Melody knew that wasn't going to happen.
Melody turned around but was jogging backwards, still not stopping.
"Sorry, um… Alecdora, was it? I th-think it's better if I go for him since…",
"... I'm much stronger than you!" She shouted but it didn't look like he could hear. As she said this, she held onto her sapphire ring for a few seconds before letting go. Waving as she left, she got closer to where the red clay was.
There were no more long streets as Melody ran through. There was some destroyed buildings and the floor was cracked and broken apart, but as for the amount of people that were injured or in need of help…
"There's no one here", she said to herself as she looked around.
"Sound Magic: Drumming Whisper", she summoned.
Out of her grimoire, a bunch of clear, translucent drums came out and scattered around as she ran. They went into buildings, towards empty spaces, and pretty much anywhere Melody instructed.
The Sound mage kept running and kept her eye out for anyone in trouble. Her ears also started to lightly move as they perked up. They were connected to her and it looked like they were picking up on sound but it was more than that.
"Come on… I really need to know if there's anyone to help. Hopefully, my spell can let me know if there is anything. If not…", she thought to the red clay once again. "I can fully focus on him".
A few minutes went by but she kept on running. Her Drumming Whisper spell followed her, picking up on every sound that she may have missed naturally. With any sound, there are sound waves to follow and Melody's spell was perfect in using them. As something made any type of noise, she could hear it through the drums as they acted like a microphone or a speaker. They picked up on the crackles of fire that were coming from demolished areas, and though it was sad seeing that, the first priority was knowing if there were any people.
Other than that, she heard the rustling of trees and grass to the side. There was the sound of an empty swing swaying in the distance, but still… there was no one.
Melody stopped running as she got to a larger street. It was open with much more space to work with if anything ever happened. Her spell also stopped and just stayed hovering around her. The only thing noticeable was five patches of red clay around the area, all scattered randomly. Apart from that, everything else seemed normal when it came to the eye, but her spell had something else to say.
Suddenly, in the direction of one of her drums, a shot of red clay came barreling forwards and almost hit Melody. However, due to the heads up, she dodged easily. Turning her head to see who it was, she saw the person she was chasing on a roof in the distance.
"Found you", she said softly.
"You FOUND me? HAHAHA! It's more that I wanted you to find me! It looks like a little birdie showed up and fell for my trap!" Brocks laughed. He jumped forwards, landing right in front of her.
"A trap?" Melody repeated, slightly worried as she saw or heard nothing of the sort.
"See, I knew there was someone chasing me. I figured it would be that hard-nose from the Golden Dawn. You know, that guy you were talking to, but what do I know? We got a little girl instead!"
Brocks was alluding to Alecdora but Melody beat him to the punch. It looked like Brocks was hoping to lure in a Magic Knight to his trap and Melody was the one who fell for it.
"I see", she answered. "But… I don't see a trap".
"That's because I haven't activated it yet!" Brocks laughed. With a click of his fingers, five pillars of red clay rose up from the ground. It turned out the patches she saw were actually more than that judging by what was happening.
"Red Clay Binding Magic: Clay Prison!"
As the pillars finished moving, they thinned out and revealed something inside each of them, angering Melody. There were hostages tied up to those pillars, fully conscious and aware of what was happening.
"Help us, please!" They screamed.
"So, this was why I couldn't sense anyone… they were in a situation like this?" Melody shook her head.
"HAHA! So, what will you do now? Focus on rescuing them or on fighting me, one of the Eight Shining Generals? Whatever you choose makes no difference to me since I… am going to attack you either way!" The large man charged forwards, inches away from Melody.
Melody was calm as she closed her eyes, spinning her sapphire ring around.
"Please save us, Magic Knight!"
There was a huge group of people crowded behind the Magic Knight in front of them. Instead of running away towards safety, they opted to stay which may not be the best decision from them. Though, they couldn't really go anywhere because of the amount of enemies around them so perhaps they stayed out of necessity.
Their backs were against the wall, looking at the Magic Knight in front of them for a spark of hope and that is exactly what he gave them.
"Wind Magic: Towering Tornado!"
Yuno summoned a large, spiralling tornado that sent the Diamond Kingdom's soldiers away from the area. It looked effortless with how he barely broke a sweat but that didn't stop a certain fairy from complaining.
"Yuno! I get that you're cool and all and you've gotten much stronger but here I was thinking you'd use some of my magic as well instead of only your own!" Bell pouted. The lively spirit was floating right in front of Yuno's face but it didn't look like her complaining was getting her anywhere.
"Bell. I'd like to use my own magic too, you know. Besides, you really think I'd use your magic on a bunch of random enemies?" The Wind mage replied, trying to reason with the floating fairy.
"That doesn't matter to me! I like to fight and if I do, it'll only make you look better!" Bell shouted, flailing her arms up and down.
"I'm not here to look good in front of people. It's just like the Wizard King said… merit is what's needed and that comes through achievements, not from looking good", he closed his eyes as he spoke.
"Okay, Mr Serious…", Bell said under her breath. Though, it was quite pointless since she was right in front of him and he heard what she said.
From behind Yuno, the group of people cheered for him as a way of saying thanks.
"We need to get them away from here but I don't really know the place well. I guess I'll stick to this area and wait for the others to come", Yuno said to Bell who was still pouting.
Suddenly, a chill in the air travelled through the place and Yuno and Bell noticed this change. They tensed up and saw the reason for the change up above them.
It was a man wearing a white shirt with a black and fluffy, half over-shirt that covered parts of his chest. He had two, blue diamonds right in the middle and some more across his black belt that held up his dark, cyan pants. Long, black boots covered his feet and went up until his upper thighs. One of the main things about this person was that he had a black, fluffy headband that kept his well-kept, light-blue hair in place and this item also had blue diamonds scattered along it. The other main thing was that he was floating on a bird, made entirely out of blue lightning.
"I heard that little lady screaming from across the skies and what she said makes perfect sense", he said with a calm voice.
"You. You're Lagus, right?" Yuno noticed. The man was one of the Shining Generals that led the army into Kiten.
"I'm honoured that you know about me", he smiled proudly as he lifted his right arm and pointed to himself. "But, as I was saying, beauty is everything when it comes to who you are. Your pet wanted to show it off so why don't you do just that as you fight against me?"
"Lightning Creation Magic: Thunderbird Warrior: Air-Splitting Magic Bow!" He exclaimed as a large bow formed right in front of the floating bird he was on. It was sparking heavily and it looked like it could fry anything and anyone of someone other than the user touched it. Lagus motioned his arm towards Yuno and six separate arrows fired towards him at a high speed.
"Yuno, if we don't react quickly the people behind us will-", Bell turned around but Yuno interrupted her.
"I know, Bell. It looks like you'll get your wish after all…", he smiled as he focused right in front of him. With a huge smile on her face, she knew what to do.
"Wind Creation Magic: Gale White Bow +...". Yuno summoned a bow made purely out of wind right in front of him. They were loaded with arrows but instead of shooting them himself, Bell took the honours.
"Wind Spirit Magic: Sylph's Breath!" She screamed as she blew out a huge amount of air from her mouth.
The arrows from Lagus were deflected out into the sky, dissipating into nothing.
"You… rendered my attack completely useless. An attack from a Shining General, no less. Just… who are you?!" Lagus shouted, losing his cool.
"I'm just a Magic Knight from the Golden Dawn. Yuno's the name", he said with an expression that didn't give anything of what he was feeling away.
"Yuno… it looks like I'll have to get a bit serious now!" Lagus smiled, regaining his cool.
NOTES:
The Golden Dawn are officially here in Kiten, ready to go against the Diamond Kingdom!
I've changed a few things when it comes to the canon elements like Yagos actively going for Lucas and Alecdora wanting to go for Brocks. I will be changing things up but the key elements will stay the same. (You'll see in the next chapter).
Lucas met up with Daisy and Emilia again but it was short-lived for now. He also has to go up against one of the Eight Shining Generals!
Melody also has her matchup with Brocks and we also have Yuno coming up against Lagus!
