Chapter Forty-Five: Attack on Kiten (Part 1)

Hey there, readers, just want to remind you that I have a poll out asking about your favorite OCs in the story, I'll be taking it down next week, so please check it out if you haven't, and to those who have, thank you. With that out of the way, enjoy the new chapter. Cya.

"Ah, back on the surface," Finral said as they all exited his portal.

Finally returning our focus to the Black Bulls, just a few seconds ago, they had bid the Underwater Community and its residents farewell and entered Finral's portal, coming out through the other side, they set foot on the sandy shore.

"Damn, that was quite the mission," Kenos said gratefully as he then looked up at the sky, seeing that it was still fairly dark. "It seems that it's still early in the morning, the sun hasn't come up yet,"

Yami blew smoke from his cigarette. "He's right, our stuff is in the beach house, let's head there and get a little rest, Finral can teleport us back to the hideout once the sun comes up,"

Magna lightly yawned into his hand. "We were able to rest for five hours after the fight, but I wouldn't mind some more,"

"Same here, we were up all day and practically fought through the night, we deserve some extra zzz," Vanessa added.

"It's decided then, to the beach house we go!" Asta exclaimed as the squad walked up, making it to the beach house, upon entering, they saw the rest of their stuff, which only included their brooms and swimsuits.

"So, where are we going to sleep exactly?" Gauche asked.

The others nodded, they all looked forward, staring at the singular bed in the entire building.

"What kind of idiot builds a beach house, but only builds one bed?" Luck asked rhetorically. "If I knew where they lived, I would've gone there and beaten the crap out of them,"

"Okay, we wouldn't go that far, but it still wasn't smart, what if a large family rents this place, or a large group of friends," Noelle added.

"Well, we can all agree whoever did this was stupid, but that doesn't matter right now, because the person who's sleeping on it has already been decided," Yami stated.

"Who?"

The dark mage pointed at himself. "Who else? Me,"

"What?!"

"No way in hell!" Charmy screamed.

"I agree, no disrespect, Captain Yami, but you hardly did anything when we were down there, you already weren't going to participate in the Temple Battle Royale, and then when the Eye of the Midnight Sun came, you might've been trapped, but you were still relatively safe, meanwhile the rest of us were fighting for our goddamn lives against Vetto and his mages, so I'm sorry, but we can't let you do that!" Kenos explained.

"It appears that you all disagree with my choice...too bad I don't care, wait, on second thought, I have a better idea," Yami said as he drew his katana, a dark smile present on his face. "We can battle right now, no holding back, and the person that beats me can have the bed,"

At the sound of those words, the angry faces on his squad members contorted to looks of forced happiness. "You know what, you should take the bed, after all, you are the captain of this squad," Kenos spoke up, the others nodding, the dark mage was already scary enough when he wanted to be, but now he had an incredibly impressive, albeit equally dangerous spell in his repertoire.

The others sweatdropped. "His Dimension Slash literally cut Vetto in half, there's no way in hell I'm going to be on the receiving end of that nightmare," they thought together.

Yami resheathed his katana, the dark smile disappearing. "A sudden change of heart, aye? Smart move," he said, about to sit down on the bed, but then he turned around, looking at his squad members, one in particular.

"You know what, never mind, if anyone should sleep here, it should be Asta," he told them.

"Me, why?" the swordsman plainly asked.

"It's simple, both of your arms are broken, they probably won't heal in some time, and sleeping on the floor is a hassle without the use of your hands," Yami replied. "Besides, taking into account what Kenos said, you fought the most down there in the Underwater Temple, you deserve it,"

"I have no arguments there," Kenos stated, his eyes closed and his arms crossed as he nodded.

Asta looked around to see the others nodding too, he grinned. "Thanks a bunch, everyone!" he said as he ran and jumped onto the bed, positioning himself as he laid down on his back.

"Alright, as for the rest of us, let's find somewhere comfortable and get some rest," the captain instructed as they all did so, resting on different parts of the floor, before closing their eyes.

"Ah," Kenos tiredly yawned as his eyes slowly opened, he stretched his arm out, being careful not to hit either Noelle or Finral as they weren't too far from him.

"How long have we been asleep?" he muttered.

The solar mage tiredly got up and walked over to a window and peered outside, his eyes widening as he did so. "Holy crap, wake up everyone!"

His exclamation caused them all to quickly open their eyes in an abrupt manner, they immediately went into a simultaneous stretching motion, Asta got off of the bed. "What's the big idea, Kenos?" he asked tiredly.

"Take a look outside," he replied.

The others raised a brow, they walked over to the window and looked out of it, causing their eyes to widen too.

Outside the building was a huge amount of people, all playing around the beach and doing their own thing.

"What the, how long have we been out for?" Magna asked with surprise.

"Taking into account the number of people here as well as how bright the sun is, I think it's safe to say that we slept into the afternoon," Kenos responded.

"Well, if that's the case, then let's not stay here any longer, Finral, you know what to do," Yami said, turning in his direction.

Finral nodded as he took out his grimoire and placed his hand forward, making a portal right in front of the entrance to the beach house. "Alright,"

"Then let's get moving, Raquey has been fun, well, sort of, but I can't wait to get to the hideout," Noelle said.

"Same here," Kenos agreed.

"I-I can't w-wait to get t-there and g-go t-to my room, t-then I'll never c-come back o-out," Grey nervously stuttered.

Vanessa gently slung her arm around the transformation mage's shoulder. "No way I'm letting that happen,"

"Alright, enough chatter, let's get going," Yami told them as they all walked into the portal, appearing on the other side, smiling as the base was in view.

"Ah, it's good to be back, and it's just how we left it, that reminds me," Finral said, realizing something. "Didn't we leave Gordon and Nero here, I wonder how they're doing?"

"I say we just go inside and find out," Kenos replied as they walked forward to the entrance, opening the door and entering.

The first thing they noticed upon entering was Gordon, sitting on the couch, with Nero perched on his head, the poison mage immediately turned around once he heard footsteps, his face contorting into a creepy smile as he got up and ran to them, his notebook and pencil in hand.

"Hey there, Gordon, Nero," Asta greeted. "How have you been, good?"

Gordon nodded while Nero merely raised one of his wings, signifying a yes too, Gordon then began writing something on his notebook, once he finished, he showed it to the others.

They brought their heads down to read it. "Yay! My good friends have returned, please tell me how was the day at the beach, I might not like the open sea, but I want to know you enjoyed it, and tell me how the mission went to,"

"The beach trip was incredible, it also turns out that Kenos is some kind of beach enthusiast, he was really excited when we first got there," Asta replied.

"The mission part was a different story, however, while we were down in the Underwater Temple, we had a run-in with the Eye of the Midnight Sun, but we managed to beat all of them, even their big boss, Vetto," Vanessa added.

"Awesome, I'm glad to know they had fun, and that they completed the mission safely," Gordon thought to himself before noticing someone hiding behind Gauche, it was a girl with blue hair, and she was wearing their squad robe.

The silent mage quickly wrote something down on another page of his notebook, but this time, only Luck bent down to read it. "Who is that girl behind Gauche, and why is she hiding? I've never seen her before,"

The lightning mage quickly zoomed over to Gauche and pulled the target of Gordon's gaze out from behind him. "This is Grey, it turns out she's been a girl this whole time, and for some reason, she's super shy, that's why she's hiding behind Gauche,"

"Hey, Captain Yami, how did you let Grey into the squad, but you weren't aware of her actual gender, didn't you see it during the exam?" Kenos asked curiously.

"Oh, I didn't recruit Grey in the exam, I was just walking around and I noticed her in that disguise she's usually in, the big bulky dude that doesn't say anything, I just thought how it was hilarious how she was just standing there doing nothing, so I gave her a robe and welcomed her into the squad," the dark mage plainly replied.

The solar mage looked dumbfounded. "What? That's it? Don't you think that was sort of...irresponsible of you to do, you didn't even know her type of magic,"

"True, but I don't think it was irresponsible," Yami said, sounding just a bit more serious. "It doesn't matter who you are, or where you came from, I don't let anyone into my squad if I don't think they have what it takes, when I came across Grey, I felt her mana, and read her Ki, and I knew she had the potential for greatness,"

"He's right, when we needed to help Fanzell that one time, your plan to get him out of here was incredible, I was totally stunned at first, you never came off to me as the strategic type," Magna added.

Despite her shy nature, Grey was in total awe of the praise she was getting from her squadmate and captain, she removed her hands from her face and looked at the others adamantly. "Thank you,"

They all looked at her with surprise, Gauche was the first to speak up. "You, didn't stutter,"

The transformation mage was silent, but that only lasted for a few seconds before her face turned beet red and she ran towards a corner and crouched down, holding her knees. "W-What was I t-thinking d-doing something like t-that? I-I'm never d-doing it a-again,"

"Ah damn it, and just when I thought she was making progress," Vanessa said jokingly with a slight facepalm.

The Black Bulls once more saw Gordon writing something in his notebook, they all looked over to see what it said.

"If Grey has been a part of this squad from the beginning, that means she's one of my good friends too, I should get to work on her doll right away so it can join the group of dolls I made after my other friends,"

No one said anything as they finished reading what was on the notebook, but their minds came to one unified thought.

"He made dolls of us?! I don't know whether that's nice or creepy!"

Yami awkwardly coughed, trying to remove the thought from his mind. "S-So Gordon, did anything happen while we were gone?"

The poison mage perked up as he began writing again, this one took a bit longer, but he eventually finished and let the others see what he wrote.

"As a matter of fact, something did happen while you were gone, yesterday, I was looking for something for Nero when I wandered into the beast room, and the beasts managed to break out of their cages and wander into the forest, but Nero and I were able to find them and bring them back,"

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot we have a beast room," Noelle spoke up.

"Nice work, Gordon, you too, Nero, it's a good thing you two were here or they'd probably be long gone by now," Yami said. "I'm going to need someone to feed them, Asta-," he turned to the swordsman by habit as he's the one who feeds the beasts, but stopped midway as his gaze fell on his two broken arms.

"...Magna, I'm leaving it to you," he quickly turned to the flame mage.

"You can count on me!" Magna exclaimed, doing a normal salute before running towards the beast room.

Yami quickly sighed. "As for me, I need to head over to Magic Knights HQ to deliver the Magic Stone to Julius," he then realized something. "Hey, wait a minute, I know Vetto's dead, but what about the mages who came with him, are they still down there?"

Charmy raised her hand. "Nope, they're right here," she pointed to a small cotton cloud on her shoulder. "I used my Shrinking Cloud Containment spell to trap them right in here, I wasn't sure when they might regain consciousness, so I bound them as well to be safe,"

"Nice work, Finral, form a portal to the capital," Yami ordered.

"On it," the spatial mage responded as he was about to form a portal, but then a voice spoke up.

"Wait up, I want to come too!" Asta exclaimed.

"No way you're going with them Dorksta, do I need to remind you that both of your arms are broke," Noelle scolded him.

"Aw, but I wanted to see the Wizard King again," the magicless mage pouted.

Kenos walked up to him. "Don't worry, Noelle, I'll come too, and keep an eye on him to make sure he doesn't worsen his condition,"

The water mage crossed her arms. "Alright then, I trust you, if you'll keep him out of danger, he can go,"

"It would be good for the kid to come anyway, we need those broken arms of his looked at, and Magic Knights HQ has a ton of high-ranking recovery mages," Yami added. "Okay Finral, the portal,"

Finral nodded and formed the portal, Yami turned to the ones accompanying him before looking at the others. "We shouldn't be gone for too long," he said as the five of them walked into it, quickly arriving on the other side.

"Hey, Captain Yami, you won't need me to come with you to HQ, will you?" Finral asked.

"Um, no, if I need you, I'll just call you on my communication device," he replied.

"Great, because if you need me…," he began before running away from them, a cloud of dust in his wake. "I'll be picking up some girls!"

"You sure you should be letting him off like that?" Charmy asked.

The dark mage blew smoke from his cigarette, a small smile on his face. "Yeah, I saw how much he did during the fight in the Underwater Temple, he's earned it,"

"I'll say, I can't believe how fast we were going, who knows, we could even beat you, captain," Asta stated.

"Don't push it, kid, now let's go," Yami plainly responded as they walked through the streets of the capital, within a few minutes, Magic Knight Headquarters was in view.

They entered the building and started walking down the hall where Julius' office was located, but on their way there, they were noticed by a familiar mage.

"Oh, the Black Bulls, are you here to see Julius?" the mage asked.

Kenos looked at him, it was none other than Marx, the solar mage nodded. "That's right, we're here to deliver a Magic Stone,"

"Oh, that's great," Marx said.

Yami turned to Charmy. "You can give Marx our prisoners,"

"Prisoners?" the memory mage asked with a brow raised in confusion.

"On it," Charmy replied as she and Marx stopped walking, she carefully took the puff of cotton on her shoulder and tiptoed, Marx bent down as the cotton mage placed the cloud in his hands, Marx looked at it strangely.

"We ran into some mages from the Eye of the Midnight Sun during our mission, I used a spell to trap them in this, all you have to do to release it is to let it hit the ground, but be careful, they might be conscious by now," she explained.

"Alright, thank you, I'll gather some mages before releasing them," he said, quickly making his way to the dungeon.

Charmy quickened her pace to catch up with the others and soon, they were standing at Julius' door, Yami gave two quick knocks.

"Come in," they heard Julius' voice say from the other side.

They wasted no time opening the door and walking inside, being immediately welcomed by the Wizard King's smiling face. "Ah, Yami, I wasn't expecting you today, and you brought Kenos and Asta with you," he said before quickly noting the condition of the latter. "Oh, Asta, are you okay, did something happen to your arms?"

"It's nothing to worry about, I'll be fine," the swordsman replied.

"We came here to deliver this," Yami said, taking out the Magic Stone. "From our mission to the Underwater Temple,"

"Oh, I wasn't expecting you to come from that until tomorrow," the time mage stated as Yami gave him the stone. "Tell me, how did it go? I haven't seen your report of it yet,"

"It was pretty tough for these guys, the Eye of the Midnight Sun was down there as well, but we managed to win, not to mention we've all gotten stronger," Yami replied. "I'll fill out my report for it later today,"

"Great, and how are you doing, I hope you've been eating and getting enough sleep," Julius then said.

The dark mage took his cigarette out of his mouth and looked at the Wizard King. "Geez, where did that come from, I'm 28, you don't need to talk to me like I'm a kid,"

Julius chuckled. "Yes, I suppose you're right, I just started thinking about when you were younger," he said before looking down, seeing Charmy, the cotton mage looked at him with some awe.

"So this is the Wizard King? He's a lot taller up close," she said.

Julius picked her up. "And speaking of kids, is she yours?" he asked. "What's your name?"

"I'm Charmy,"

"What a nice name," he said, turning to Yami. "I wasn't aware you and Charlotte tied the knot,"

The dark mage looked at him with comedic indifference. "What are you talking about? Charmy's not my kid, she on my squad, despite her height, she's 19, and why mention the Prickly Queen, the two of us don't need to tie the knot, I'm perfectly capable of tying a knot by myself, I do wear boots,"

Julius' eyes were closed and a smile was on his face, but his throat immediately dried. "Oh yes, I know, just a joke to lighten the mood," he croaked. "Nice save Julius, if Charlotte ever found out I spilled her not-so-secret crush on Yami, not even my powers as the Wizard King could save me from her wrath. It's just that's Charmy's name is quite a coincidence, it has the char from Charlotte's name, and the my(i) from Yami's name, I was almost certain they named her after parts of their name, but it seems I was wrong," he then put the girl down.

Although Yami, Asta, and Charmy were oblivious to Julius' statement, the same wasn't true for Kenos, who began to think.

"Tie the knot? Doesn't that mean marriage? Why would Julius think Charlotte and Yami are married? But then again, he did say it was a joke, there are only two female captains, Charlotte and Dorothy, and the latter is always asleep, so it would make sense, man I'm smart," the solar mage thought.

"Well, good job on the mission, I was originally going to award you 5 stars for it, but since the Eye of the Midnight Sun got in the way and you managed to still complete the mission, I'll award your squad 15 stars instead," Julius told them.

"15 stars?!" they exclaimed.

"Now that makes me wonder," Kenos spoke up. "When was the last time we took a look at our squad's star count?"

"Not too sure, I guess it was during the early days of our time with the squad," Asta replied with some uncertainty.

"We can check once we get back to base," Yami told them as Julius handed him a bag of stars, he then looked the time mage in the eyes, a soft expression on both their faces. "Is there anything else you need?"

Julius shook his head. "No, that will be all, thanks for dropping by, I'll see you-," he began saying, but was interrupted as Marx barged in.

"What's the matter?" Julius asked with concern.

"Master Julius, it's the Diamond Kingdom," Marx began, but stopped to quickly catch his breath before he continued. "They're attacking Kiten,"

Julius and Yami's faces grew tense, the same look was present on Kenos' face, but Asta and Charmy looked confused, the former speaking up. "Um, what's Kiten?"

"It's a town along the border of the Clover and Diamond Kingdoms, similar to that dungeon we went to a while back, Kiten usually serves as the first line of defense against Diamond Kingdom invasions," Kenos replied. "And not just that, the town is loaded with natural resources, something the Diamond is seriously lacking in, if they manage to capture, their kingdom will become stronger, not to mention they could attack Clover whenever they wish seeing how close the town is,"

"Thanks for the explanation, Kenos, that just means we can't let them succeed," Marx said as he took out a magic item and pushed a button on it, projecting a large screen, they were all able to see Kiten, they noted the wall and towers surrounding it. "These walls protect the town, but for extra defense, we have a barrier powered by 50 mages, but something tells me it won't be enough," he continued before he swiped the screen, letting them see a different image.

It was the Diamond forces, all moving by air, at the front of it were three mages, one looked very old and wore all black, the other two wore more traditional Diamond soldier attire, the first one had a brown afro and beard with three jewels fashioned on his forehead, the other had neat blue hair that was held up by a black headband embroidered with jewels.

Julius' eyes tensed even more than before. "Brocks, Lagus, and Yagos, three of Diamond's Eight Shining Generals,"

Asta was confused once more. "Eight Shining Generals?"

It was Yami who answered this time. "The eight strongest mages in the Diamond Kingdom, they're each roughly around the power of one of our Magic Knight captains, sometimes, even more powerful,"

A voice was then heard, they all looked up at the screen to see the blue-haired general, Lagus, take out his grimoire. "Once the barrier has been destroyed, this town is ours for the taking, for the glory of the Diamond Kingdom, Lightning Creation Magic: Thunderbird Calvary: Sky-splitting Magic Bow Armament!" he exclaimed as he formed a large bow of blue electricity, Lagus pulled his right arm back as six arrows appeared, he released them all, sending them crashing into the barrier, he grinned as his spell succeeded in destroying the barrier.

"Damn it, this is bad," Yami muttered.

"I know, if we don't move quickly, Kiten will-," Julius was saying, but was cut off by a beep, he took out the source of the sound, his communication device, he activated and saw someone on the other side. "William?"

Yami's eyes tensed at the sound of his fellow captain's name, his mind going back to his earlier suspicion back at the Underwater Temple.

"Don't worry about Kiten, Julius, the Golden Dawn have arrived," William said.

"That's a relief, thank you, William, and be careful," Julius replied as the transmission ended.

"If the Golden Dawn is there, that means Yuno is too," Asta stated, causing Charmy to perk up.

"Julius, I'm heading to Kiten too, they might need some help," Yami said. "That, and I want to have a talk with goldy,"

"I'll come too!" Asta exclaimed.

"No you're not, you can't do anything at the moment with your arms like that, I can't have you getting killed," Yami told him.

"Please captain, Yuno is going to be there, and I bet he's gotten stronger too, I can't let this injury stop me," the swordsman said with an adamant look.

Kenos stepped up. "Allow him to go, I already said I'd watch over him, I promise I won't let him get into danger,"

Charmy did the same. "I'll keep him safe too,"

Julius smiled, he was glad to see squadmates sticking up for each other.

Yami sighed. "Fine, I guess you three can come, but before we do anything, we need to find Finral, let's go," he said as the four Black Bulls ran out.

"Good luck," Julius and Marx said.

Meanwhile, in Kiten, the members of the Golden Dawn were all standing on the large roof of a tall building, letting them see the Diamond forces flooding into the town.

William stood at the front of the squad, a look of slight seriousness on his face. "Alright, Golden Dawn, let's show the Diamond Kingdom what we're made of, make them regret stepping on Clover Kingdom soil,"

"Yes sir!" they all clover-saluted before jumping down and scattering around, ready to combat the foreign invaders.