Incrementum

by Nuclear Pigeon One

After the gum war, everything has calmed down, and new adventures are rare to come by. So when Finn and Huntress Wizard go to investigate a strange energy reading left behind by GOLB, they find a whole new load of adventures greeting them. (Chapter one has been remastered!) (Discord (spoilers beware!): TwJ2bMH)

52. Chapter 52 Hunted, past, reactors

Sorry for the wait! But I decided to write three times more than normal.

Fionna grins as she stares at her handy work. The men of the Ice Kingdom were all lined up before her with weapons in hand, their gaze nervously set on the wide entrance before them as they twitch with uncertainty. All they had were some ice spears and a pathetic little snow mound as cover, not much in the face of an onslaught of robot minions. The heroine nods in approval, and spins around to walk back up the curved ice ramp to the others, a slight hop in her step as the men curse silently at the heroine who failed them in the past, and was doing so once more.

She makes it to the others where: Cake, Stephen, and Butterscotch were standing around Gumball as he sighs, a hand to his forehead as he stares questioningly at the feline, "So let me get this straight, neither you nor Fionna found any spell that could free them?"

Cake shakes her head, "Nothing, we found nothing. But! Fionna said she'll put the guys in those houses on guard!" She explains, while flicking her gaze to the approaching thirteen year old. Gumball twists around to glance at her, flashing a small grin at her mere appearance in these… annoying times, the heroine returning it in kind as she hops up to him.

He stares at her, "They set up down there? What do they have?"

She blushes, yet beams, "Well, there isn't much, so spears and a snow wall." She informs the royal with excitement at her work.

He blinks. Then sighs as he runs a hand through his gum hair, "Is… is that all? Is that all they had? Is that all we have?"

Butterscotch shrugs, "They were just starting out, and to be honest, I think Finn, Huntress, and Ice Queen were meant to be the main security. They took care of our Bubblegum Guardians and the army at the arena just fine by themselves." The prince nods in understanding, yet still sweeps his gaze across the environment, searching for anything that could help them. All he discovers is the scared wives and children staring down at the doomed men standing at the front gate.

He tuts, and glances upwards at the security rooms above them, just brimming with fire power, yet just out of reach. His maid had informed them of their weakness when they went up to probe it, of how they can't leave the finite range of life their summoning spheres were giving them. And they had all refused to reveal their weaknesses to people who were once foes. Only two were able to move: The Winter Wraith and the Ice Dragon. They are free to join the group down here in battle, and were planning to do so soon if they did not get a response from Ice Queen about orders.

Gumball huffs as he glances about at everything, or more accurately, practically fucking nothing, "This is it? This is all we have to repel a relentless, merciless army of metal? A small group of people, two easy to kill giant targets, and Stephen? Who we can't even use without giving out the element of surprise." The prince bemoans angrily.

Butterscotch immediately snaps at him, "Gumball, calm yourself. You're not going to think of something like this."

He takes a deep breath, and releases his anger and rage in a huff of air, glancing at Fionna, "Please tell me you have something in mind?" When she blinks at him and then others give him a confused stance, he explains, "You're the one who usually somehow beats impossible odds where victory seems to be impossible. How would you do it?"

All eyes drift to her, and she freezes up, "Erh… erh… ooh! I would usually just punch the evil dude in the face after going through their army, buuuut…" She taps the tips of her fingers together, "Well, Finn said the peaceful route is better, so… maybe I should just talk to him?" The candy royal gives her a dead stare, "I mean, he wants me right? If he's a metal you, then he should have feelings for me too? I could use it to let him talk to me, and ask him to stop."

The others just blink at her. Gumball puts a hand to his forehead, "That's not happening. That puts you in way too much danger. What if he says yes, lures you in, and kidnaps you? What if he refuses to back down even if you ask? No. I won't send you in. Besides, he's a robot! He doesn't feel emotions! So there's no way he loves you. He's likely just using you."

The heroine pouts, and the candy prince goes to continue, but then freezes up. Why was Robot Gumball still after her? Why was he trying to marry her like he shouted back in the candy streets if he's a robot that can't feel emotion.

What does that say about his own relationship with the girl?

He shakes his head and focuses back on task, turning his head to the others as Fionna stares at the ground, "Any other suggestions? Remember, we can't leave robot me alive, or any of his army. They'll just bite us in the butts later."

Butterscotch steps forward, "Magic." Gumball scowls, yet as he opens his mouth to give the affirmative no, the butler raises an hand and silences him, "Hold on, let me explain: we saw how effective Ice Queen's magic was against the Bubblegum Guardians. We saw how effective it was in the arena with that giant ice skeleton summon she had. Magic is something you're admittedly lacking knowledge in, what applies to the robot version of you as well. We know it's effective against hordes, we know it can be strong enough to take on the Unwavering Guardians, and that Robo Gumball has no knowledge or counters to it." She stared fiercely at Gumball, "We. Need. Magic."

The royal throws up his hands, "No! They're just all crazy folks who're barbaling about stuff they don't understand! You're right, I don't know magic, but I do know science! And that's what magic is! It's science!" He sighs and glances about, "I see it's going to have to be me to save everyone as per usual…" He blinks at an idea, then suddenly smirks, "Fionna, we're going on a dungeon crawl, with a very specific place in mind."

The heroine immediately perks up at that, a massive beaming grin glistening from her face, "Seriously!? Where!?" She excitedly inquired, springing on the spot as she stared at him in the eyes, while the others sigh in annoyance.

He smirks, "There's a cave nearby, and if my scanners and analysis were correct, which they always are, it has a massive chamber in it. Square chambers." He informs with an excited smile, "They're rooms! And they match the reported location of an old human war facility, plus the structure does match the size of their standard constructions."

Fionna goes wide eyed, yet at the same time she loses the bouncing energy she just had as they stand still, "Seriously? You want to go there… alright! Let's do it! I could find some awesome death ray!" She dreams with a glint in her eyes.

Cake huffs, muttering, "Sure, you can criticise our plans, but we can't complain about yours," Raising her voice, "What are you even expecting to find? Really old tech that's likely rusted away? Computers that don't work? Mushroom bombs that could go off at the slightest touch?"

Gumball gives her a cold stare, then shrugs nonchalantly, "I don't know, but it's likely to be useful in stopping Gum-bolt. Besides, for some reason really old, abandoned tech always works perfectly upon being found! You should know that."

She shakes her head, "Well, you can have fun touching spider covered scraps, I'll go see if I can get a dragon and a giant wizard skeleton to come down stairs already." She informs, twisting around to walk away. When Fionna's phone rings. The heroine jumps at the sudden noise from her backpack, and swiftly takes it off to grab it, yanking it free while her feline sister returns.

She clears her throat, "Hello-"

Flame Prince's desperate voice suddenly screams through, "Fionna!" Everyone flinches at the voice, when they hear a mechanical groan and thump from the other side. The heroine goes wide eyed, yet before she could say anything the man continues, "I'M BEING ATTACKED! HELP ME! THEY'RE TAKING ALL MY FRIENDS!"

She yells back, "Where are you!? Who's being taken!?"

"My friends! All the fire cats! They're just taking them and putting them inside giant lamps! We're at the fire grotto! Where I live!" A loud mechanical screech comes through, then a war cry from the fire elemental, "PREPARE TO BURN!"

With that, the call cuts out, going silent as Fionna stares down at it. She blinks. The spins around and rushes away! Cake was right behind her, sweeping her up into her arms and stretching herself ridiculously large. She takes humongous strides towards the large exit below with the guards, glancing back at Gumball, "We'll be back in a bit! Use Ice Queen's guards if need be!"

With that, they quickly shrink and dart out of the exit, before growing and rushing ahead full speed towards where the fire kingdom should have been if it existed in AAA. Gumball stares gobsmacked, then slaps a hand to his head, sighing in annoyance. "... Wait. Use Ice Queen's guards?" He glances up at the security room, the ones that can't move. "... Butterscotch, tell those guy guards to bring them and their families to the upper levels." The living food bows, before then darting away, rushing down the ramps as Gumball glances at his melting grenades, then the elevator.

While chaos was beginning to unfold in AAA, Finn wears a small grin as Ice Queen touches his necklace, her eyes closed. After a few seconds, it glows softly, and the royal let's go while she backs away, her eyes opening as she smirks at the hero, "There, it's recharged. You have another ten goes before it runs out." She informs him, taking a glance at Huntress Wizard as she meditates.

They had rested for now, their training coming to a halt when light fatigue started to come in and the guards started to calm down outside. Finn glances out of the air vent again, watching the soldiers as they clean up the simpling mess with a slight smirk, "You know, I just realised something."

They snap their heads up to him, Huntress peeking an eyelid open to give him an inquisitive stare, "What?"

His devilish gin only grows, "Most of the bad guys are now crawling around in the hive," He explains, jabbing a thumb behind him, then moving his robotic metal one before him, typing on it as he brings up the map again, "Which means… they won't be here!" He explains with a rise of excitement, pointing a finger directly at the security room. "I mean, think about it! If they're all searching the hive, they can't be attacking us. We can shut this down with minimum trouble!"

Ice Queen beams as she approaches the knight again, grabbing his arm and gaining a very large smirk as she scans the map, "Yes! But why just stop here? If we can cause more chaos, create distractions and diversions away from us, then we could have even less heat on us! We could remain cool and unseen as they rush to deal with some other problem."

Huntress perks up at that, "Maybe, but how will we achieve that? We were lucky to escape unnoticed last time, and Martin is on borrowed time, we have to keep 'diversions' to a minimum." She then jabs a finger towards the royal's injuries, who tries to cover them, "That's not even mentioning the fact it will likely be very dangerous for us to do so."

Ice Queen freezes up, blinking at the thought of her duo being injured. "... Alright, nevermind! Let's go straight to the security room and not take any detours!"

Finn sighs at their words, "Fine, but let's keep it in mind. I mean, if we spot something on the way, let's do it, but let's not go out of our way to do so. However… I think our first major problem should be solved: how are we getting out of here undetected? I mean, that's a whole army outside, all armed and ready," He jabs a thumb back towards the guards currently cleaning out a whole hive, "Don't know about you two, but I don't want to mess with them."

Huntress nods her head in agreement, then glances her head about at the upper engineering level they were in, "... This place doesn't have a pipe, there's no paths elsewhere." She informs them with a grimace, "We're going to have to travel the corridors, and only hop up into these upper levels when we need to." She explains, grabbing her ice sword and checking Finn's bow was in an easy to grab location on her back, while Ice Queen sighs.

Finn grimaces, "Right, more fighting then…" He actually glares fiercely at Ice Queen, "This time! I'm leading the charge! No ifs or buts! No doing it anyways! You have no sword experience!" He glances at Huntress, "And neither do you. I've got the tech shield, I can survive being at the front lines while protecting you two as well, I've been doing that all my life."

Ice Queen grumbles, "Yeesh, fine, I learnt that lesson from the bullet my knight." Raising her voice again, "Well, what path are we taking? What are we going to face?"

Finn blinks, then stares at his map, "Well… I'd say this path," He points at a plain rectangular corridor that takes a massive L turn towards the security control chamber, a diverting side path, "Because I don't need to say anything about rushing down the main path." He hums, "Though I don't know what we'll meet on the way… I mean, there has to be a reason for the path."

Immediately they all start scanning down the long corridor, trying to spot something that was connected to it, yet they find nothing, causing Huntress to raise an eyebrow, "There's got to be something there, or why else would they add it?" She stands up and readies herself, rolling her joints as she idly swishes her sword in her hand, "That map has too little detail to show what's inside of it, so we need to prepare for anything that could be hiding inside of it."

They nod in agreement and understanding, then they all shift towards the ladder that would lead back down to the guard infested area below. Finn sighs, "You know, it kinda feels super weird to be running from prison guards… and busting criminals out."

Ice Queen smirks, and leans forward, planting a kiss on his lip as her tongue invades his mouth, then pulling back with a pop, licking her lips as she stares at him, "Oh don't worry, you get used to running from guards, trust me~ I have a lot of experience… being a naughty girl~" With that, she drops down the ladder, thumping as she hits the floor, before rising menacingly as her eyes sweep the area for anyone that could see them.

Finn merely chuckles back in the engineering level, dropping down as well with Huntress right behind him. They walk down the small corridor that connects up to the main one, and halt, the hero taking a deep breath and poking his head out. No soldiers were looking their way. Immediately they rush away from the Citadel Guardians' holding facility, charging deeper down the corridor.

A crossroads quickly approaches ahead, and they once more prepare, slowing down and carefully peeking around all paths. Huntress spots two guards staring straight at her. Immediately she lunges at them and stabs one in the gut with her ice blade before it could yell. Her sudden movement alerts the other duo, who hurriedly slashes at the other just as a yell escapes his mouth.

They remain still, listening to it echo down the halls with worried glances. Nothing charges at them. No reinforcements come.

They sigh, and rise while thanking Glob for their good fortune, the knight bringing up his arm to glance at the map again. Nodding, he points further down the corridor they were in and they rush away, leaving the bodies behind. By the time they're found, the group would be too far gone to be tracked, it will only alert the guards of them still being alive.

As they rush down the hall, the human war machine processes thousands of codes a nanosecond, watching them as they sprint. It was analysing every angle of the hero, every swing of his blade to find his technique, and plugging it all into a simulation. It needed to find the perfect human hunter. But it needed more data. "Troops are aplenty. Sacrificing a few for the progression of science is acceptable. Providing more test subjects… problem, they are heading towards the security room, must protect this program. Activating traps and deterrents. Rest in hell."

Immediately for the trio they knew something was off. Loud clunks and sounds of objects being powered up fills the air as the atmosphere seemingly changes. They skid to a halt, flick a scrutinizing stare about, then proceed ahead with caution, taking nervous steps as Finn readies his shield arm. They slowly crawl along, taking tiny steps as they slowly approach a door, silence now reigning supreme. They did not like this.

They shuffle to the white door, seemingly a mechanical one of two slabs of metal like the automatic ones used in shops. They approach it, and sure enough it splits apart, Huntress jumping slightly at the technology that detected her. They gaze inside the next room. And about thirty guards strolling around inside.

They immediately go to back peddle, but then the room starts to shift inside as hidden slabs move on the walls, parting to reveal light blue, see-through orbs. They suddenly fill with electricity as a painful screech fills the air, then a sudden pulse of lightning lights up the room. Instantly everything within is disintegrated, atomised by pure electricity as the guards all died.

The group just blink.

Finn recovers first after a few seconds of silence, "... Oh." He takes a step back. "Oh, alright then." He then hears another clunk.

Instantly he locks onto the source, discovering it to be the doorframe they were standing on. It goes ballistic, slamming the door again and again like a brutal masher as the squad backs it up, weapons ready as the deep robotic voice speaks up, "Foes near the security room. Defences activated, forces inbound. Rest in hell."

With that the corridor they were in becomes filled with rapid pounding of rushing feet, as the knight glances about. Locking onto the door, he swiftly holds his blade out length wise, and jams it in mid mash, jamming it open as the mechanism groans. The others rush inside, then Finn joins them as he yanks his blade free, the door slamming shut behind them just as the soldiers fill the corridor.

The machine speaks once more, "Traps activa- Negative. Priority target in AOE. Deterrent designated." The door at the other side of the room is suddenly filled with electricity, making Finn grimace, 'I can get through just fine, but the others can't.' He snaps his head about, and discovers an air vent above them. "Bingo." He gets the other's attention and points at it, causing them to nod and start climbing atop one another's shoulders.

Ice Queen goes last with her gut and leg wound, reaching the air vent and prying the cover off with her sword using her weight. She clambers inside, and it hisses as it is filled with gas. She scrambles back out and Huntress catches her from atop Finn's shoulder's, the group backpedalling as an infernal is released with a fire's roar.

Finn bites his lip, and watches as the red lasers sweep through the tunnel, scanning for life. He glances at the electricity barring the door. He flicks his gaze to the orbs that had killed the guards in the room. He listens as more troops are brought in behind them. And he blinks in realisation.

He snaps up to Huntress, "The power room! We attack the power, and they can't use all the traps! Security will be cut out, everything!"

The nymph stares at him, "... Right, you know tech stuff better than me… how do we do that?" A clunk fills the air as they jump, snapping to the door as it unlocks and begins to open for the troops on the other side. Ice covers it instantly, sealing it shut as Ice Queen acts quickly.

She grimaces, "Seeing how they already know we're here, I saw no problem with using magic…" She glances at her knight, "But before we can shut down the energy cores, we first need to get out of this room. Suggestions?"

Finn sighs, "We're going to have to fight. It seems that in the engineering decks is where they can't see us, because they certainly seem to be able to down here." He holds his sword out offensively as it squints at the door, "We need to get through them.'

Huntress nods, "And we need to stick to the upper levels as much as we can." She explains as she swaps her sword for Finn's bow, taking aim as the ice receives heavy thumps, something trying to smash it down from the other side.

Ice Queen smirks, "Heh, we're the aliens here. Aliens that are hiding in the upper decks and can kill anything we see. All we need is acid blood." The other two stare at her in confusion as she ignores them, spraying some ice down onto the floor.

Her soldiers rise once more, three swordsmen, three spearmen, and three archers standing before her. They take positions in front of everyone, protecting Huntress and Finn as the royal grins at her people, 'It's time I learned to lead!'

The door shatters, the ice shard being launched at them by the force of the blow. The royal stops them mid air and returns to sender as the bulky four legged beast that destroyed Ice Queen's barrier back in the factory continues its charge. Right into the ice spears. They pierce through its body with ease thanks to its momentum, and they lift its corpse up to rip it apart when they yank their weapons free.

The citadel's guards right behind it all get the brunt of ice shards from Ice Queen, their bodies getting shredded as she grimaces in pain. Holding herself back, Finn and Huntress continue the fight, Finn leaping in the air and plunging his sword into a shotgunner's chest. His momentum brings him to a crouch as the body hits the floor, allowing the wood nymph to shoot over his shoulder.

Her arrow pierces into a riflemen's head, shooting into its visor as it begins to fall over dead, yet Finn snaps his arm up. Grabbing it by its chest, he charges forward with his new meat shield and collides with the six other soldiers taking aim. They all fall to the ground as Finn slashes his blade at the closest one's neck, killing it as it clutches it wound in instinct. He receives back up however as Ice Queen's swordsmen start clumsily joining the slaughter, slashing and hacking with basic attacks.

The fallen guards raise their weapons with bayonets and start countering their blades, their weapons dancing in the air as they clash. Finn uses the distraction to go on the assault, his blade faster than light as he guts and stabs his foes, swiftly slaughtering them all.

As he ends the last one, more clunks fill the air as he snaps his head up, discovering more soldiers dropping in from the wall. They snap their weapons to him, and he retreats while shooting his arms out to grab the ice swordsmen. He rushes back into the room with the others as they unleash a storm of plasma, lighting them up as they retreat around the corner.

Strangely, Finn notices something odd, 'Are those bullets twisting!?' Sure enough, they were doing arcs around the door's corner, attempting to home in on the group as Finn waited at the door frame. The guards march along, never stopping in firing their weapons at the group in case they score a lucky hit. Yet just as a squad of three go to step inside, Finn swings his blade at the nearest guard's gut.

Huntress unloads an arrow into the middle one's skull, and the third gets peppered by ice arrows thanks to the archers. Finn yanks his blade free and boots the body back, then swiftly peeks inside the corridor while swinging his sword for precaution. Good thing too, for his sword instantly bites into the arm of a heavy gunner, throwing his aim off and unleashing his plasma into the floor.

Finn's eyes widen, before he acts quickly, ripping his sword free and jumping atop the machine gun, rearing his sword arm back. He rockets his sword through the gunner's visor, causing it to stumble back from the momentum as its life leaves his form. It falls over with a thump, causing Finn to snap his head up and spot another four legged beast charging at him.

Suddenly Huntress jumps over him with an animalistic growl, leaping atop its head and slamming it into the ground. It flips ass over as Huntress lands on her feet and lets go, letting it fly over her head and slam into the floor behind her. She spins around and whips her ice sword free, the blade diving into its soft underside while it squirms in an attempt to fight back, before going still.

They glance down the hall, finding it suspiciously empty, causing the hero to flick his gaze at the wood nymph, "Run?"

She nods, "Run."

With that, they got up and immediately rushed away, Ice Queen and her soldiers right behind them as they sprint madly down the hall. The white corridor remains calm, no more hostiles leaping out at them, no traps springing, causing Finn to scrunch his face up in confusion, 'What are they planning?' He shakes his head, and rushes into a side path, spotting another ladder to the upper engineering level.

He and the others scramble up, packing together in the cramped environment as the hero growls, "I should of thought this out better! I'm sorry guys, I... was rushing. I don't know how long Martin has until that punishment she was talking about is inflicted, and I just wanted to get there as fast as possible..." He shakes his head with a grimace, "And my rushing led to a mistake. This did not go to plan."

Ice Queen gives him a puttying look, resting a hand on his shoulder, "No. No it did not. We failed to think about traps, and paid the price." She huffs, "Of course the security room would be protected! We didn't even get close…" Her face scrunches up in thought, "Because they can see us. I don't remember seeing any security cameras, but they can somehow see us. If we send the citadel into emergency power however…"

Finn nods, "It might bring them down, or at least other security systems… I mean, that's what Bubblegum told me when I touched the Candy Kingdom's reactor." He smirks. He remembers her panicked cry at seeing him touch it.

Huntress huffs, "Then let's do it, a quick divergence to the reactor… where is it? And how do we break one?"

Finn shrugs as he brings up his arm and projects the map again, squinting as he searches it, "I don't know, I think we should just hit a whole bunch of buttons, that got to do something." He suddenly points at a humongous block just below the security room, grinning as the label pops up, "That's the reactor" They all lean in close to examine it, Finn groans with thought, "But how do we get close to it?"

Huntress points at a tunnel, "There's another gas vent-"

"No." Both Finn and Ice Queen reply in sync, causing her to shrug.

Finn sighs, then after staring at the map for a few seconds, simply shakes his head and points at a main path leading straight to the reactor, "Let's try to use this, I would suggest the engineering levels, but..." The others nod with a grimace at what they see before them, "... There's too many to trace." The massive wires were at this point a blur with how many main lines were coming off the power room, something they simply could not follow.

The royal however merely shrugs, "I mean, that makes sense. You know, with it having to get power to the whole citadel, of course there would be wires everywhere."

Huntress nods, "Yeah, however..." She gestures to the mess, "They are still upper levels, what as we know, don't have cameras. The only way they could detect us if we use magic." She stares the hero in the eyes with a stoic expression, "We can use them to hide and move about, confuse the living daylights out of the security forces."

Finn smirks, "So we're playing whack-a-mole, popping up in different locations every time security is on us. That computer voice is going to have a hard time tracking us."

They rise, and quickly take note of the path, before preparing to drop back down the ladder as they all wield their sword. They hear clanking beneath them. Finn sighs, "I hate diversions."

Ice Queen nods, "No plan survives first contact. And I've already told you we should of done this from the start."

He doesn't respond, just dropping down to face the foes awaiting him below. Only to discover two tall, lanky soldiers that were honestly more machine than person at this point. He blinks, and they twist to face him with a metal clicking noise, their neon green eye locking onto him. They were tall, twice the size of the hero, and were black with small green lights dotting their form. Their chest was filled with organic vital organs, yet that was it, the rest of the body, limbs, head, all of it were slim, angled machine parts. And in their hands they clenched a long, double tipped spear, ready to slash and stab from any side.

They both thrust at him as he leaps back, sword shooting up to block the weapons in a show of sparks. Huntress suddenly lands on his shoulder and lunges over the weapons locked with his blade, slashing her sword. Her blade bites into the hard metal of the left machine, yet does no damage as it ricochet off with a splash of burning sparks.

Its spare other hand snaps out to grab her at lighting speed but she flips over it, then hurriedly grabs it before yanking it to stumble the guard. It loses its stance, and the pressure on its spear, allowing the hero to push the other one off with ease. He moves forward, creating room at the bottom of the elevator for Ice Queen to jump down, who lunges forward to support him.

Their swords slash at the cyborg as it easily holds them off, its weapon shrinking in size to fit in the corridor as it swings it about. They dance as Huntress attempts to handle her one solo, bending around the long weapon with every jab and swoop. She growls as she honestly just swings her sword about, lacking technique and finesse thanks to her lack of teaching.

Thus, against a robot whose swings are perfect every time, she begins to lose, the blade coming closer and closer to hitting her. She is forced to retreat backwards as she evades and flips over the weapon by millimetres, her cape getting snipped occasionally. She eventually growls and snaps to Finn as he offensively slashes at his, "Could use some help here!"

He grimaces, then glances at Ice Queen, "Double team it! I've got this one!" He orders as he blocks another attack, angling his blade to make it slip away and strike the ground instead. He goes to boot the giant in the chest, yet its other hand catches it, then swiftly lifts him up by it. With a cry he slashes his blade upwards, just barely missing its body as it hurriedly lets go and backs away for its safety.

Ice Queen grimaces, but rushes to assist Huntress, the two novices stepping up to the professional war machine. It shows no mercy as it brings the staff fully in front of it and spinning it like a fan, forcing its attackers to back off as they analyse.

Finally Huntress rushes forward with a silent glare, jabbing her sword at its hand as it swiftly moves to block. The royal turns around behind her as her troops finally climb down, and with a mental command orders them to attack.

They charge the lanky guard on her behalf, the royal letting her wounds rest as the tall giant starts to get overwhelmed. With so many foes and threats filling its optics, it starts to become confused and overwhelmed, retreating in haste. It does massive swoops as it backpedals, creating room and space for it to strategize.

Until Huntress grabs and holds its weapon mid air. It has just enough time to release a scared metal screech before the ice soldiers plunge their weapons into its fleshy core. Organs and fluids spill while it stumbles back, arms twitching as it goes to grasp its wounds, before falling over dead. The wood nymph nods at the successful hunt of her foe, and glances at Finn.

He was soloing his soldier, their weapons slashing and dancing through the air, their collisions causing small sparks at the force of the blows. Their gaze was locked on one another as Finn slashed at the spear's head, trying to cut it off, but whatever it was made off was tough.

Suddenly three ice and one green arrow pings into its heavy armour, doing no damage as the tall soldier becomes distracted. With a robotic groan, it suddenly rolls towards them, everyone jumping out of harm's way. It stands by its brother's corpse, and swiftly picks the body up with its bird-like feet, booting it at the group. While the ice soldiers get hit and Finn rushes to free them from under its body, the lanky guard picks up its comrade's weapon.

Now wielding two weapons, it stares the group down. Finn chucks the body off the ice men, then charges the still living guard, his blade shooting for its organs. It spins the spears in its hands, like dual massive blades as it blocks off the entire corridor, ruining any flanking plans. The hero's sword strikes the spinning weapons before he could stop himself, his arm snapping up his sword is launched.

It becomes stuck in the ceiling as he grimaces, then rushes back before he could become mince meat. He glanced about for a solution as his foe slowly approached, then locked onto the body again. With a grunt he picks the massive corpse up, lifting it above his head and turning to face the guard. With a yell he lobs it at the spinning spears, the soldier stopping to stab forward, impaling the corpse to stop it.

Instantly everyone was on it, Huntress sliding under its arms propping up the corpse and pouncing on its belly. Whipping her knife free, she plunges it into its gut as it screams in pain, while Finn jumps atop its comrades' corpse. Using it as a platform he reaches up and grabs his weapon, before yelling as he rips it free from the ceiling.

Climbing over the top of the corpse, he drops down on the guard blade first, plunging it inside its gut. He falls, his sword acting as brakes as it cuts a line through the giant, the human landing beside the wood nymph. They both punch their fists into its insides, then rips it all out as it releases a mechanical glut in pain, dropping to its knees.

As it flops over dead, the duo glance at each other's hands holding some sort of vital organ, then look up at one another's face, smirk, and drop the flesh as they stroll to Ice Queen together. She shakes her head at them, before strolling forward, "Elevator is that way." She informs them as she points a finger.

Finn blushes but Huntress acts nonchalant as they both spin around, and rush towards the elevator, the royal right behind them. Strangely, nothing else attacks them as they sprint, much to the hero's confusion and concern, 'What are they up to?'

Meanwhile, back with the human war machine, it was crunching numbers. It now has more details about the fighting style of its target, thanks to the sacrifice of those two animal guards. It was running more simulations of the fight necessary to capture the human, and the design of the soldier to do so. Finally, a design was predicted, and orders were given to the factories below, plus an emergency order for the head security members to arrive sooner.

It wasn't sure it could handle these three alone.

The group meanwhile squeeze inside the alien elevator, and with a plug into Finn's arm, they press the required level. A few minutes later, they burst free of the doors, snapping their gaze about for threats, before then rushing down the corridor. They hurry to the side path they wanted, and rush down to find the ladder to the engineering levels.

Climbing up, Huntress's eyes locked onto a worker with a blowtorch, who halts his work upon seeing her. She swiftly rips its mask off and punches it in the face, sending it down and out as she shakes her fist in pain. Finn suddenly calls up, "What was that!?"

She rolls her neck as he rushes up the ladder, "Some worker, they're unconscious now." She grins at his sigh of relief.

He joins her in the upper level, and reaches down for Ice Queen, helping her up while Huntress squints at them, "It's been too quiet. I don't like it, and that's coming from me."

He nods in agreement, "I was thinking the exact same thing. They have something planned, but what, I have no idea." He shakes his head, "Regardless, I think destroying the reactors, or at least some of them, ought to throw a wrench into their plans."

Ice Queen hums as she lets her soldiers join them, "I'm guessing when we're at the reactor, we can go crazy with magic?"

He shrugs, "Depends. I mean, if we can do it from the safety of the shadows, we'll do so without any magic, but if not then yes you can go crazy if your wounds can take it… though, can we be far away from the cores when we do? I don't think we want to be near them if we cause them to explode." That gets a chorus of agreements from the group, causing him to sigh, "Why couldn't this be simple?"

Ice Queen shrugs, "Because we're attacking someone super powerful? And they learnt from last time with you wrecking it completely?"

He only grunts, and stands up tall, "Well, let's get this thing on the go. Security already messed up our plans once with those traps upstairs, we better get going before they have time to plan another." He stands at the ladder, then drops down.

Luckily, this time nothing was awaiting them as the others swiftly followed, causing them to hurry down the corridor. They eye a door far ahead, causing them to slow in caution as they approach it with Finn leading the charge. Raising his sword in preparation, he approaches the double door as they part to reveal… nothing. It was just a large, completely open room.

Finn grimaces, "Why are these always worse than a room full of dudes?" Still, he enters cautiously, Ice Queen and Huntress close behind him in case the door slammed shut. It doesn't, and once the ice soldiers are inside, it gently closes, leaving them completely alone in a silent, massive room. Finn doesn't lower his sword for a moment, holding it steady in a defensive manner close to his chest.

Something was off, and they were all feeling it.

As they predicted, a hole that was the size of a large pickup truck opened up in the floor, and an elevator slowly raised up with a metal groan. Everyone rushed it immediately, hoping to catch whatever troops there were with a surprise attack. Then something massive came into view.

They skid to a halt, and back it up instantly, Finn propping up his tech shield as he analyses the behemoth. It was as large as a van even if it was scrunched up, an incredibly bulky machine that appeared to move on all four with claws that were at least half a metre long. The hero grimaces, and backs it up as it begins to power up, several ball cameras activating all over its lion like body.

They seemed to be its eyes as they all locked onto the man, the metal black beast rising up to its full height in the massive boss room, revealing itself to be the shape of a lion. With a burst of robotic static, what appeared to be a head stared at him, razor sharp teeth filling its maw as it spoke in a deep voice, "Target acquired."

A crane claw rises from its back, the long metal limb snapping out at Finn as it opens up to grab him. He rolls to evade, letting it snap at the ground as everyone else goes on the assault. The archers and Huntress fire their arrows, letting them shoot towards the target with a whistle. Only to bounce off harmlessly off its super tough armour.

It charges, every thump of its bounding feet from its incredibly heavy body shaking the ground, stumbling everyone. It swipes its huge claws at two stunned ice swordsmen, the one paw killing them with ease as the super sharp claws go through them like a hot knife through butter. While it does that, half the camera eyes on its body remaining locked on Finn, and the claw atop its back snaps out again.

This time he counters, using his shield to tank the blow, holding it back as his sword swung at the metal limb. It bounces off harmlessly, causing the claw to retreat again as he grimaces. Still, not surrendering he charges with a yell, pouncing on the beast and slashing at its armour, stabbing at joints. Nothing gives, nothing breaks, nothing severs.

It violently shakes its body with horrid metal screeches, dislodging Finn as he pushes himself away, the hero glancing at the others. They were having as much success as he was, unable to even scratch the machine as it twists to face him. Finn targets its face this time, plunging his iconic blade into its robotic eye this time, yet only for it to get bounced off with a show of sparks.

It head-butts him before he could even move, sending the hero sprawling backwards with a painful thump, groaning in pain. His eyes snap open to find the claw on its back shooting for him. Ice Queen gives a scream of rage as she slams a massive ice boulder into it, sending it flying off course and smashing into the floor next to the hero.

With a war cry he scrambles to his feet, and jumps onto the metal limb just as it retreats, getting whipped onto its back. Rearing his sword arm back, he plunges into the arm's joint, once again doing no damage, yet he still locks the limb up. The motor inside the beast strains to shatter his sword to allow its claw movement once more, but it was simply too strong.

Exploiting its new weak point of not being able to hit him on its back, he lays down on all four for better grip, before aiming his robot arm, "Drill." His arm transforms and gets to work, creating a shower of sparks as his metal limb struggles to bite and claw away robot's exoskeleton, the hero grimacing.

The mechanical beast meanwhile goes ape shit, wildly whipping and snapping its body about as the others attempt to attack still. Huntress lands on its face and jabs her ice sword in its maw, hoping to exploit jamming up some more gears. It simply bites down and shatters it in her hands, the weapon not being as strong as the hero's enchanted gear. She simply flips off it as its massive paw goes to swipe her off, the wood nymph landing by the dead ice soldiers.

Grabbing both their blades, she charges at the behemoth with Ice Queen assisting with a pained yelp. Huntress targets a limb just as Finn had explained in those tunnels, the priority target in close combat of disarming your foe. She hits it hard and fast, the royal and her crew joining in as they focus on the front right paw, pounding it with attacks.

Yet even with the blows coming down like rain, they once again achieve nothing, causing Ice Queen to scream in annoyance as she back steps an attack, "We can't hurt this thing!... They're adapting. They were doing it when you were in the pipe Huntress, they're adapting to our attacks!"

The wood nymph simply rolls her neck before rolling to evade a slam, "Then we need to do something new, a brand new tactic or technique."

Upon hearing their words, their mechanical foe suddenly pounces at a wall, and digs its four paws in. Despite its weight, it hangs from the vertical slab with ease as Finn's sword finally slips free, the massive metal limb on its back moving once more. The hero lunges for his blade while also evading the claw as it reaches out to grasp him, rolling as he holds the weapon to his chest.

From the shoulder of the giant, slabs slide apart to reveal missile pods on all four limbs. Immediately rockets shoot out towards Ice Queen and Huntress, the duo leaping out of harm's way as they explode behind them. Ice Queen curses, "I hate not being able to use magic!"

Finn grimaces, "They know we're here obviously! Go crazy if need be!" At his words, she grunts in effort as her hands glow bright blue, aiming at the beast on the wall. Apparently, that made her a priority target as it lunges from the wall and bounds towards her at a terrifying speed. Huntress swoops into the rescue, tackling Ice Queen out of the path of the charging beast as it barely storms past them.

It spins on its heel to face them again, and charges at the duo as they get up, yet Finn was there this time. He projects his tech shield as it slams into him, the electric barrier halting the beast completely in its tracks. As its jaw snaps and bites uselessly at the barrier, its limb atop its back lunges for the hero by going around back and flanking him.

If an enraged Ice Queen and Huntress using magic didn't stop it. A constant stream of ice slams into the arm, throwing it off course as Huntress leaps atop the metal lion and unleashes vines down its body. Grunting, she begins an attempt to wrestle with the machine as she begins to rapidly wrap up its body with the thick plants.

She pins its limbs in place, the strength of her vines equalling out to the motors hidden within as they stand completely still. While she groans in effort, Ice Queen aims her hand at its body, and with a magic glow unleashes a humongous bolt of ice. She gasps in pain at the stress, but the humongous icicle slams into the beast, sending it flying as Huntress flips off.

The robot smashes into the wall, the icicle lodge in its metal body as the wall breaks, flinging up dust and pebbles with a crack of reinforced concrete. Huntress and Finn leap to Ice Queen as she clutches her wounds, glaring at her foe, "Yep, definitely shouldn't do any big spells."

Just as she utters that, the mechanical lion jolts back to life, struggling in the wall for a second before breaking free. It and the car sized icicle stagger forward, before it paws as the frozen water lodged inside its head, pushing it free with a screech of objects grinding against each other. Finally, it slips free and drops to the ground, shaking the area slightly with its insane weight as the unrelenting machine starts to wander around it.

There was a massive hole in the front of it now, yet it magically begins to heal, sealing up as Finn throws up his arms, "Oh come on! The fight with Marshall and his healing was annoying enough! You're going to do it too!?"

It simply leaps at him, "Target acquired." The hero evades to the side as it slams down next to him, before leaping onto it as to dodge any follow up attack. Huntress was swift to carry the royal away from its fight as Ice Queen took aim again over her shoulder, then groaned in pain before she could unleash another spell. With a sigh, she instead orders her men to assist the hero, letting them all take hold of the grabbing crane arm and holding it down for him.

She glances at Huntress, "I can't do anything big."

The wood nymph nods in understanding, "That's alright…" She places her on her feet, then starts walking towards Finn, "I don't have infinite magic like you, but I've still got it aplenty. I'm not soft…" She smirks at her only friend, "... You had the fun last time in the night-o-sphere, it's time for me to show off."

With that she lunges towards the beast, clenching her fists that glow with magic for a second, before opening her hands to reveal some seeds. With a grunt she lobs them towards the metal lion as it violently swings Finn about on its head, the seeds hitting the floor and suddenly gaining roots. They explode into three tall plants with mouths, filled with shark like teeth as they sit positioned like a hydra's head.

They turn to lock onto the metal beast, and lunge out at it, biting into its metal hull and violently shake in an attempt to rip it to shreds. The plants' mouths practically cover half of the entire machine as Finn sits on the other side still stabbing and slashing away. His drill arm does nothing, his sword does nothing, his words will do nothing, but he won't give in.

Huntress suddenly joins him with her hands glowing, suddenly throwing some mushroom spore at themselves and Ice Queen. They explode into a yellow mist as they cough, before suddenly going wide eyed at the sudden adrenaline boost they just got. His pain senses die as he goes ballistic with all his might, fatigue fading as the wood nymph grimaces.

Leaping off, she watches as the massive plant she summoned nibbled on the beast, analysing it as she summons her arrows. She isn't like Ice Queen, her magic is limited, she has to use it sparingly. She doesn't want to hurt them with her madness. She silently launches her arrows at full speed, letting them slam into the armour as it once again holds strong.

She snorts in anger, 'There has to be a weakness! Everything can be hunted!' She charges again and alters her attacks, jumping on the beast and placing her hands against the metal hull once more. Her hands glow, and not a moment later there was a light sizzling as she smirks, pouring some sort of acid onto it. Sure enough, she finds some sort of weakness as the corrosive liquids begin to bite through, melting the behemoth.

Shame it will take too long. Its missile pods open up once more, and fires at the plants currently eating it. The mouth chomping on the legs getting blown up from the inside, while the one chewing the middle gets double whammy from the other two. Green plant matter is splattered everywhere as the wood nymphs creations are obliterated, yet she doesn't care.

She continues her own hunt as the beast drops a short distance onto its feet, and it's back crane lunges for Finn again. She grabs him as he is lost in a killing frenzy, diving off with her precious cargo as the claw snaps at where they were. They both hit the floor and roll instinctively onto their feet, skidding as they rush back at it with all their strength that Glob can give them.

Finn tackles a front leg, then with all his might begins to lift it up, giving a cry of rage and power as he attempts to flip the machine. As the claw discovers a blind spot with Finn hiding underneath the metal lion in an attempt to flip it, it instead lunges for Huntress. They meet mid air, yet she smoothly grabs the top of the crane claw and flips over it, running atop the arm instead.

Just in time for the human knight to flip the lion with a cry of rage. As the arm she runs on spins, she flips herself upright, using her agility to her advantage as she leaps off just as it crashes into the ground. She lands on its belly, and begins pouring in more acid, hoping to find some weak spot eventually as the machine spazzes out.

Its paws and claws go to gut her, but she rolls away while chucking more seeds at its steel gut. They land in the acid, and absorb it, becoming huge massive plants that begin secreting the stuff as it hisses away. The giant begins to right itself just as Finn pounces on its head, and pushes it down with a slam.

The acids begin biting away as Huntress hums in thought, then begins throwing some more seeds about all over the place. Very swiftly plants grow all around her, before she slams her open palm on the floor, and a wave of thorns flow out away from her. They cover everything, and once they reach the struggling robot, they immediately pounce on it and start crushing it with its spikes.

A few even begin whipping at it, doing everything they can to break the citadel's little toy. She then suddenly stops, rising up as the vines continue their work, and walks up to the metal machine. She grimaces as she glances over it, 'I'm more specialised for creatures! For flesh, not metal!' Still, she wasn't completely useless.

Stepping up to it, she places her hands against its head, then letting wooden roots and tendrils escape her palm. They crawl around the form of the struggling beast, and seek out the cracks and gaps in its armour, where joints and motors combine. They seep inside, finding their way deep inside the machine from all angles, every nook and cranny being filled by the roots. They eventually find a way fully inside with the cores and important parts, then begin to grow, fanning out more roots.

They wrap around and snap chips and mechanical parts, yanking out wires and pipes as the machine spasms. Slowly, it is snuffed out as critical parts are disabled or destroyed, its final view was Huntress's green, glowing eyes as they stared mercilessly, before its camera feed blacked out. The body twitches as damaged computer chips and crossing wires send out false commands, but eventually, it all halts.

The watcher of the forest huffs as she disintegrates the roots, glancing at Finn panting heavily, his eyes twitching. She frowns slightly, and kneels down to some of the plants she had grown, placing a hand against it. It changes species, becoming another type of flower as she swiftly cuts it open with an arrow head, gathering some liquid oozing out. As Finn marches around, she gains a small palm full of the stuff, then carefully and silently makes her way to him, yet standing tall and proud as ever.

She strolls up to him as he spins around to face her, and she presents her gift, "Drink it." She simply orders, her eyes flashing softly as she enforces her title of the watcher of the forest. Finn growls slightly, yet steps forward, and does as he is told, sipping the sticky liquid from her hands. Then his eyes suddenly widen as he back steps away from her, coughing violently as he spits out the sweet yet unknown taste in his mouth. He snaps up to her smirking expression, "What was that!? What happened!?"

She sighs, "I gave you some powder that kinda… well, the best way to explain it is feral or crazy. You didn't care about your own health or making plans, you ignored your pain and fatigue, and just thought about killing what was before you." She shrugged, "Sorry, but we needed every bit of strength we needed, until I thought of this, that is." She explains, flexing out some roots from her hands again as an example.

He sighs, "Right, it's alright… just don't do that again."

She nods, "I know, I wouldn't dare do it to you really, and I hated that I just did, it was just…" She sighs, "... Something I did in the middle of battle." She shakes her head, "I want you, not some puppet I can control. I like your mind and spirit, not your body."

He nods as they make their way towards Ice Queen, where she sits with her men, letting them attend to her. He raises an eyebrow, "So you have complete control of someone in that state?"

She shrugs, "Not really. I can say orders, it's up to you to listen." She smirks, "Which means even lost to your primal instincts, you still care enough about me to listen to my words."

He chuckles, "Told you I love you." He then glances about at the environment, staring at all the plants she had summoned just before she killed the beast, "So what's with all of this?" He inquires as he gestures to it all.

She shrugs, "Back up plan." Her eyes harden, "I never risk anything, I always make sure I have a way to get out alive."

He puts a hand on her shoulder, making her jumps, 'And you did it, you killed something I had no chance in doing. You're tougher than the hero of OOO.'

She shakes her head with a very light blush, 'Okay, let's not be stupid. Thank you for the compliment, but we both know you would have found some way to kill it.' She beams at him, a rare emotion for the stoic woman, 'One of us isn't better than the other. You're my equal, that's why you're my hunting partner.'

He blinks in surprise, then grins as he leans down to kiss her, planting it on her lips, "And I look forward to doing it again when we get back." He however glances at the plants again, "... So, how were these the backup plan?"

Huntress smirks, and suddenly sinks into the ground, then pops up next to Ice Queen not a second later, raising eyebrows, "You don't remember our hunt for the Thunder Boar? I would have used this to travel all around it harmlessly. It might of brought me into magic madness since it isn't an easy spell…" She simply ends it with a shrug as he catches up to her, and attends to the royal.

Ice Queen sighs, "Well, these wounds are officially the worst." She complains, shaking her head before grinning at Huntress, "At least you were awesome though!"

The wood nymph blushes, then shakes her head, "Come on, get up now, we can't stay here too long as they're bound to send more after us." The royal huffs, yet with a flap of her eyebrows lifts herself up before glancing about the massive room, hunting for a way out. She locks onto a door, and after making sure it wasn't the way they came from, wanders over to it as the others hurriedly follow her. Only for it to not open up at her presence.

She blinks, then grumbles as she sidesteps to allow Finn to walk up to it, gesturing for her knight to do his work. He cracks his neck, pulls his sword back, then jams it into the gap between the doors with all his might. It slips between the doors, and with a groan the hero leverages the doors apart, before their safety mechanism kicks in and remains fully open. They start to slip out, then rush down the corridor, their gaze locked onto the side path to an engineering level which they quickly disappear into.

Scrambling up the ladder, they discover this tunnel was another long line of pipes, a grin forming on their faces as they begin to crawl along. If they're lucky, they can stay up here until it is necessary to come down, which will hopefully be an area the security wasn't watching them for. Funnelling themselves inside, they begin to walk along the floor of wires and pipes, Finn chuckling, "You know, I'm pretty sure that thing was after me solely, yet it didn't last anywhere near as long as that Simpling worm queen."

Ice Queen shrugs, "You know what they say, it's better to live like a lion for an hour than a full life as a worm."

Huntress snorts behind them, "It doesn't matter, in the end you die either way, might as well live longer than everyone else in the room."

Finn shakes his head with a smirk, "Is it weird I like to do both? Live like a lion for my whole life and get to experience more?"

The watcher of the forest transforms into a snake and slithers by the royal, pouncing on the knight's leg and wrapping up and around his body before perching on his shoulders. She transforms back to her normal self while leaning forward as to make sure not to whack her head on something, smirking at him as he struggles not to fall at her sudden weight, "Well, you're definitely a lion in bed."

He stumbles, tripping up in slight shock as she slips off him with a grin, leading the way as he recovers behind her with a slight blush. Ice Queen giggles yet stares over Finn's shoulder at the wood nymph, "Easy you two, but do you think we should stay up here for a bit and recover? I think that fight might have drained your magic supply a bit…"

Huntress sighs, "I'm a little low after all the combat we've done, but there's no way I'm sleeping here, not with magic being a huge risk… I'll meditate, I won't gain as much but every bit helps." With that, the group comes to a halt, and the wood nymph assumes a lotus position, closing her eyes as she focuses her spirit while Ice Queen keeps on guard. Who knows, maybe gathering magic like this will alert them?

She shakes her head and simply keeps her eyes open, while Finn sighs, sitting calmly next to the nymph as he watches her with a small smile. However, as the minutes begin to roll by, he admittedly begins to get bored, though he doesn't express it while he patiently waits for Huntress to recover. He won't bother her for his needs like that. He does however begin trying to find ways to entertain himself, you know, the usual stuff, reading the deadly warning symbols on the pipes, unintentionally taking deep breaths, staring at things in the environment. The stuff that annoys the heck out of other people.

Huntress smirks, "You really need to steel your mind better." She remarks, causing him to blush and rub the back of his neck in embarrassment.

Chuckling nervously, he replies, "Sorry honey, I'll try to cut it out. You can go back to meditating."

She sighs, "I can talk and meditate at the same time Finn. It's harder, but I can do it. And besides, when we meditate, we go to a higher form and connect with the environment as our senses enhance… I can hear everyone breathing constantly. I won't be able to relax well with either of you two around"

He coughs, "Right, right… well, got any interesting stories to tell? I mean, someone as hard of you must have something cool happen in your life~!" He teases, prodding her arm that was actually hard with tensed muscles.

She beams as she releases her inner teasing side, finally poking an eye open to glance at him, "Perhaps… though I don't know if they're cool, just… stuff that I've been through that made me a wizard, that made me mad and sad."

He goes to respond excitedly, yet freezes up, his face twisting in thought for a second, "Wait, mad and sad," He sighs, staring at her with a stare of uncertainty, "You don't have to tell it if you don't want to. If it makes you uncomfortable, I'm sure Ice Queen has some interesting things to tell!" He nudges the royal, who swiftly nods at him.

Huntress however swiftly cuts back in, "No. No, I think I should tell it. Maybe I'll get some pressure off my chest… I mean, that's what people say when they talk about their problems, I've never done it so I can't really say anything… well, let's start a few years back, back when I was just sixteen...

A much younger, a much colder Huntress stormed through the busy streets of Wizard City, her eyes practically locked in a thousand yard glare. She huffs as she stares at the cosy residential areas that the mad people lived in, her scowl becoming even harsher, 'Stupid Shusandjly, living comfortably like that… where's the dirt? Where's the pain meant to harden them? Where's the love for one another? Where's the sense of duty? Where are the trees? Where are the plants?' She simply tugs her gaze off the buildings, locking onto a woman instead, using seduction magic to lure male customers in, causing her to growl in disgust, 'Where's love in a place like this? I don't see anyone making a Crivingnuh for their beloved!'

She shakes her head as she continues her aggressive walk, darting between the fluttering capes and robes of wizards being whipped up by strong breezes, faint memories of moving through plants flashing in her mind. She hates this place, yet with all this magic she can't help but feel like she belongs here, that this is where someone like her belongs. 'Maybe this is a punishment, to be in this wretched, twisted place for getting everyone back home killed...' She felt a tear wanting to drip free from her eyes as the memories returned. Her younger self might have let them slip free. But current Huntress won't. She won't be soft, that just gets everyone killed. Stupid things like heroic sacrifices and protecting people just leads to an early death.

Just like it did for her dad.

She grunts as she glances at a shop to her left, discovering a variety of edible food laid on display through a window, ranging from meats to plants. Who knows, maybe she'll find some nice soil as well. She twists around and swiftly makes her way inside, wasting no time in scanning at the lines of food before her with slightly wide, hungry, desperate eyes as her mouth salivates at the scent of raw flesh. "HOW can I help you!?" She jumps at a sudden male voice booming into the air, snapping to her right to stare at an obese bald man with dark green skin, the colour honestly soothing her slightly with the weak sense of familiarity. She rises from an agile combat stance she had instinctively thrown herself in, and stops baring her razor sharp teeth in a threatening manner.

She doesn't soften her piercing gaze, still keeping a hard, near hateful stare on him and the environment, one that did not suit a young girl of her age. "Food," was her blunt reply, snapping back to the meat on display.

The towering man in white yet bloodied clothing scoffs, "Everyone wants food hun, you're going to have to be a twee bit more specific." He mocks lightly, lifting his hand and pinching his thumb and finger together with a smug smirk, his other hand flipping the butcher's knife with ease and experience.

She flicks her attention back to him, then simply points at a skinned pig, "That will last me a few days." She explains calmly, walking over to it and grabbing it as her eyes scan over the prize, until the butcher suddenly coughs, drawing her focus to the fat man.

He gestures an open palm to her, "That'll cost ya three gold, squirt." She freezes up, then raises an eyebrow as she backs away from the meat.

She fidgets nervously, "Gold?... That's the stuff you Shusandjly use… why does it cost?" She inquires in both distaste and a hint of confusion. Hunters would just pile the bodies together back at her village, and everyone else would just take food whenever they needed it, a system that worked on trust and common sense.

The man scowls, "Because I'm running a business here lady! Nothing in this world is for free!" He slams the butcher knife down with a thump, the blade sinking into the soft wood before he crosses his arms in annoyance, "Pay up or get out."

She glances at the food again, feeling a tightening knot in her stomach from the lack of food, "I don't have any 'gold'... How do I get some?"

He shrugs with a growl in his throat, "Get a job, not my problem."

"And how do I get one?"

"Search. Get out."

She stands her ground however, scowling as she glances at her only food again, muttering, "This is nothing like Eden, food was free there…" She shakes her head, "How about a debt? You give it to me and I'll pay you back when I have the money to."

He bursts into a deep chuckle, "You take me for an idiot? You won't pay me back, jobless freeloaders like you never can and therefore never will." His gaze however drifts towards the slightly singed quiver sitting on her back, "... I doubt your poor actually, scammer." His strolls up to her and grabs the quiver harshly as she flinches, her teeth baring as growl escapes her, "You can just sell a fine quiver like that-"

She suddenly punches him in the gut, sending him stumbling back winded as she jumps in the air. Using gravity to her advantage, she rears her fist back and slams it into his face, causing him to spin and come tumbling to the ground unconscious. She hisses with her pupils shrunk and feral, shaking her fist in light pain, "That's not for sale! Ever!"

She snaps to the skinned pork, and pounces at it, ripping it off the hook and slinging it over her shoulder, before darting out the door in a mad sprint. She may have no knowledge how a 'society' works, but she knows assault and attacks are never accepted. As she escapes with her meal, the butcher wakes up with a groan, notices the missing product, and leaps to his feet. He rushes at the door and points at the agile wood nymph as she disappears into the crowd, "THIEF!"

But by the time everyone snapped to where he was pointing, she was gone, lost to the crowd. Guards start searching the area while one starts getting details from the shop owner, all the while Huntress squats with her food atop a building. Her agility had allowed her to scramble up a bunch of items in an alleyway, remembering the important lessons her father had taught her, "Prey never looks up." She mutters.

They may see themselves as the ones on the hunt, but she'll never be prey, only the strongest, the predator. She begins to move, crossing across roofs of homes and shops whenever the officers aren't watching, slipping between their crossing views with ease. She eventually gains a proud smirk as she escapes the area, and ends up near the magic city's walls, immediately glancing about for an area to hide. She locks onto someone's garden, or more accurately the giant tree they've grown in it.

Fidgeting slightly to warm up her muscles, she suddenly leaps for it, disappearing into the branches with her prize in hand. She gets as tall as she can in the tree, just before her weight would prove too much for the thinning branches, and rests, sitting down as she rests the raw meat on her lap. She shrugs and digs in, her incredibly sharp teeth shredding the flesh with ease as she devours it like an animal, tearing chunks off with her hands and shovelling it into her maw.

She quickly scarfs chunks down, occasionally stopping to glance at her surroundings in case the guards had arrived, or some bird was here to steal her prey. She devours a large portion of its belly when her tree rustles unnaturally. Instantly she whips her bow free from her back and grabs an arrow, spinning around to take aim at her intruder. She discovers a thin man grinning at her, wearing ragged, grey clothes that honestly blended in with his grey fur, his mouth was filled with razor sharp teeth like her own, a dagger was resting on his hip, and had cat-like paws for feet.

She scowls at the intruder, arrow tense as it sits aimed at his heart, "Scram, this is mine." She warns, yet he only chuckles, causing her to growl again.

He shakes his head, "I'm not here for your food, I'm well fed," He smirks as he stares into her eyes, "And I'm inviting you to join me."

She cocks her head in slight puzzlement, yet doesn't decock her arrow either, "What do you mean? What am I invited to?" She demands, spitting up some blood from her meal.

He grimaces as some lands on him, yet doesn't seem all too bothered by the sight blood… "My crew, my partners, my friends of course! You see, I was watching you! You were like a rat, running with your meal from the cats hunting you-"

"I don't get hunted!" She growls out, causing him to emphasise his hands held in the surrender position.

He hurriedly spits out, "I get you! I get you!" He then sighs, "Anyways, I saw you, you were slipping about with ease! They wouldn't have been able to see you if you even were standing perfectly still! And I like it. And that act you just did? The one that got your blood pumping!? That gave you that rush!? Me and my crew do it daily~ And we're living just fine because of it." He flips out a gold coin seemingly out of nowhere, playing it with eases in his hand.

She scowls, "You're thieves." She says matter-of-factly. Her arrow still doesn't lower, something the man notices as his smile drops a little.

He quickly recovers with a chuckle, "I prefer to call us opportunists! But that's beyond the point, what I'm offering to you is gold! Luxury! Freedom! Friends and a family! And if you really want, maybe a lover or two~ Easy to spot a guy, or girl if you swing that way, that would be ripe for the plucking, even if they say no if you know what I mean~" His answer was an arrow right next to his head.

He jolts back in shock, and she snaps forward and snatches the knife off his hip just before he could grab it. Whipping it to face him, she points it at his neck as he loses any smirk he previously had, now frozen in a state of fear as she glares at him, "I'm not interested. That would only be asking for the law to be after me, what will increase my chances of dying. I swore to someone I would live."

She glances down and away as the living nightmares plague her mind again, causing the thief to lean forward in worry. And swipe for his knife. He slaps it from her hand and bares his claws, taking a slash at the nymph's neck that she easily avoids by leaning back. Then she slams herself forward, head butting the thief as her hands grabbed him by his shoulders, stunning him.

She pins him against the branches, snatching his arms and holding them against his chest as she bares her teeth. The noise and sight cause him to snap back to his senses, whimpering at the bloody mouth and teeth mere inches from his face. Huntress blinks, noting his reaction and flicks her gaze to the carcass behind her, hiding a smirk as an idea forms in her mind, 'I can finally make some way towards my goal and get out this stinking place!'

She growls in his face, then licks him with her bloody tongue, causing him to practically squeal in terror as she whispers venomously, "You've interrupted my lunch, and I do prefer meat fresh…" The desired reaction was acquired as he stares at her full of fear, squirming and wiggling as he desperately attempts to escape, mumbling begs as his stubborn will breaks. He's terrified of her. "So you have a few ways to pay me back, or you're done for, someone like you could last me a few days…"

He hurriedly answers in a scared desperate tone, his eyes wide, "Okay! O-okay! What do you want!? Money!? It's on my hips! Have it!"

She shakes her head, "No… well, I wouldn't mind it, but that's not the only thing I'm after, I want knowledge, it's why I'm here."

He nods his head frantically, "Yeah! I know people! The area! The law and criminals! What you want!?"

Finally, some hope flourishes deep inside her as she can't help but wear a small smile, "I want to know a priest or someone in magic that can handle demons! How to undo their summoning… and the costs that came with it."

He blinks, "That… that can't be done!" He receives one of the coldest, most violent stares in his entire life, and can't help but squirm underneath her, "What did you do? Is there a demon loose? You can get people to kill it no problem!"

She growls, "No! I want it undone! I want what it took, back! Besides, I don't even know magic, otherwise I would have found a way myself." She growls as she leans forward pressing her head against his, "And I don't care what you think, because I believe I should get an elders opinion on what can and can't be done!" She spits as he whimpers.

After discovering his face wasn't being ripped off, he nods frantically, "Yeah! There's a guy to the north! A priest in a huge building! It's white with a whole bunch of plants all about it! And a massive glass ceiling! Ask him! He'll know!"

She nods in acceptance, then harshly pushes herself away from him, snatching his purse of money and leaping to her semi eaten pig. Grabbing her unfinished meal, she carries it over her back, then with a grunt leaps away, escaping the tree and back into the rooftops.

She smirks, and takes one glance at the petrified thief, "Oh, one final thing: people don't tend to eat each other, including me. Doofus." With that, she runs away with a grin, as the furry man blinks, then face palms at his idiocy.

As she mentally giggles at the thought that someone feared she would eat them, her gaze swoops across Wizard City as she does her best to attach the purse of coins to her body. She would hunt this 'priest' wherever he may be, and find a way to undo what's been done to her people, this man must know a way how! She's come so far!

She continues to leap across roofs with ease, her attention occasionally snapping down to the streets below, watching as a guard or two were still on the prowl. She huffs, and fidgets with the skinned pig, 'I'm going to have to find a place to set up for a while, I can't carry this forever and it makes me look suspicious. Stupid society and stupid rules.' She glances about, and locks onto a bulge on the rock face surrounding that the magic city was built in, the canyon walls towering over any home here. She remembers her father's lesson once more, 'They never look up.'

She immediately heads over for the wall far in the distance, staring at her destined to be home for a while, a flat platform of rock harshly hanging off the rock face. She snorts as she arrives underneath it, 'It won't be here for much longer, it could decay at any moment and come crumbling down in a few months at most, not exactly ideal for a home.' She however beams as she pulls some rope free, then ties it around her waist and the pig, before grabbing some more protruding rocks to begin her climb with a grunt. She slowly makes her way up with a massive grin, 'But that doesn't matter! Because this will all be over soon! My family will be back, my people will be back! And I can just return to living with them in our home!'

Just as the hopeful thoughts and dreams fill the determined girl's mind, she reaches the top of her climb, and now crawls onto the slab of rock that will be her home. She scans the area, and discovers nothing unnatural in the area, causing her to shrug and immediately set up shop, dropping her meal for several days down before cautiously peeking over the edge. She can see the whole city, causing her to freeze up and just stare at the chaotic yet beautiful view of a mad, magic run 'n' made society. She eventually snaps out of it, though was forced to wear a grin by the view, and begins analysing the city for her target, for the priest, for her people's hero!

She hunts for the green trees that she was told to watch out for by the thief, though after a bit she begins to wonder if he had just sprouted out some nonsense to save his life. However, her fears are put to rest as she finally discovers the building matching his description, and gains a massive beaming smile as she hurriedly starts planning a route to get to it.

In no time at all, she was leaping across roofs once more, descending upon the desired building that never once leaves her gaze. She was practically a blur as she travelled, yet as silent as the night as her father's teachings of the hunt guided her every move. So it was to no surprise that when she finally arrived and had leapt off the buildings, that she had made quite a commotion when she suddenly landed in the crowds of people.

Of course, upon seeing that she was indeed alright, proven by her standing tall and brushing off some dirt off her clothes, that they all went back to their businesses. She smirks as she blends in an obvious location, hidden from any guards or people with the cover of busy bodies, allowing her to stand and gawk at the building before her. It was kinda reminiscent of old human places of worship, a structural mix of practically all of them, painted white, and guarded by trees growing all around it. She shakes her head, and steps up to the mighty closed oak doors, being nearly twice her size alone as she ponders on what she was meant to do.

Shrugging, she eventually just pushes on it, only to discover it was jammed or locked, causing her to huff and attempt again, violently trying to shake it open. When it still doesn't grant ingress to the young wood nymph, she huffs and glances about for a solution, locking onto a door knocker. With a scowl, she grips it, and bangs it against the oak door, only for it to open with a deep old groan as she blinks in shock, then mutters, "Magic. Right." Shaking her head, she makes her way inside, only to be immediately struck with the scent of earth and natural candles that seems to roll a wave of calming through her body.

She slouches, then casually glances about at the seats and artefacts that line the massive room she was in, remaining oblivious to the footsteps coming from her left. A skinny man covered completely in multiple types of robes and clothes, to the point of practically looking like a mummy, steps out of a side path, and gestures to her, "Greetings sister! Welcome to this righteous building!" He exclaims, though it was muffled by a white strap of fabric covering his mouth. Huntress turns sluggishly to face him, and stares into his purple cat-like eyes, especially since that's the only thing she could see of the man's face, the rest hidden by the clothes.

She shakes her head, "Hi… can you help me?" Was her blunt request, causing the man to chuckle, yet approach her almost cautiously, his gaze scanning up and down her body.

He eventually brings his eyes up to her own, and nods, "That depends, what is it you require from me, nature's hand?" She opens her mouth to respond but he suddenly puts up a hand, "Actually, explain as we walk, let's… get away from public ears." He explains, gesturing behind her at the still open doors, causing her to nod aimlessly and simply stroll towards him.

He spins around, and strolls deeper into the building as she stares in wonder at him, "There… there was a ritual, and some people were…" She sighs and shakes her head, bringing her gaze to the floor as the man hums.

He glances at the smaller person, "Let me guess, don't want to explain?" She shakes her head, causing him to sigh, "How about… you get to know me first? Would that make you more comfortable to open up to me?"

She nods, causing him to go silent in expectation. She quickly attempts to find something, "Erm… what's with the get up?" She inquires, gesturing to his clothes as he snaps down to stare at it.

"Well… in the stories of humans, they always talk about how they fought off demons, and banished them from this realm. We got interested in how, especially after hearing the tales of vampires and demons walking OOO after their grand war, and discovered they had communicated to 'gods'. So, we got into researching them, and discovered there were so many gods, and the humans had so many ways to appease them to get them to smite the demons." He shrugged, "So we decided we would do all of them. We collected all that remained of their holy artefacts, we dressed ourselves in all their clothes used for their all rituals, and remembered all their chants and lines!"

She blinks, shuffling nervously as they finally enter a new grand room, where a man in the same clothes was doing something in front of multiple statues, "Ok… has it worked? Have you communicated with any of these… 'gods'?"

He shrugs, "We… might have." She stares at him full of curiosity, yet he shrugs, "Well, we heard whispers, yet we couldn't understand them. We felt the powers of our beings like Glob get muscled out by something… stronger. Something older with more experience." He sighs, "It could be them, but we have no idea."

She doesn't reply, going silent again, causing the man with purple eyes to cough, getting his friend's attention who swiftly stares at her. The first man leaves Huntress's side to step up to his friend and begins whispering to him, the duo taking constant glances at her as she stands semi confused. Eventually, they halt, and the second man suddenly rushes off as the first steps back up to her, "Sorry about that, I had to ask him to do something…" He says cautiously, before shaking his head, "Now, explain what happened."

She shuffles nervously, "Well… some guys did a ritual on my town. A demonic one. They attacked everyone, did sacrifices with our blood, they levelled the place… they summoned demons and drew in dark power for themselves… it consumed them, I think. The power destroyed them as they sunk into the ground that was burning like molten lava." She shakes her head, "What I want is for you to undo it. I want you to bring everyone back, to undo the summoning ritual." She stares deeply into his eyes, "I want you to bring my family back. I want you to bring all my people back."

He blinks. Then chuckles, "Yeah, yeah that can be done, though it might take a few holy relics on our side to pull it off."

At his words, the wood nymph lightens up, her eyes wide as her mouth gapes in an absolutely massive smile, her heart pumping the fastest it has ever been before. She practically jumps on the spot as the previously cold, stoic girl is filled with life, "Thank you! Thank you thank you thank you!" She grabs his arms and tugs him back towards the main entrance in which they came with a massive grin, "Come on! You said those were relics in there! Are they the ones!? Are they the ones to save my family!?" She yells, tears coming to her eyes in sheer joy. 'Finally! After so long! I can see them again! I can undo what I caused!'

The man actually grimaces as he gets tugged along, his gaze becoming unfocused for a second, "Yeah. Yeah they're the ones kid, they're the ones we need to do this." He clears his throat as he is swiftly pulled along by the energetic teen through the corridors, yet he doesn't utter anything, simply keeping silent and his gaze off her.

Not that she notices as they arrive back at the entrance, the girl finally letting go of his sleeve and rushing to the ancient artefacts, tears now fully going down her face as she laughs in joy. She starts pointing, "Which one is it? Is it this one!?"

"No." Came his blunt reply, stepping up to the woman as he calmly waits beside her, his gaze on the holy artefacts and not her.

"Then-" Suddenly the entrance doors slam open, causing her to jump and snap around to face them, inly to discover that the second priest person was back. With a bunch of guards. She stands shocked, eyes wide as she stares in slight terror at them, the guards parting to reveal the butcher.

They point at her, "Is she the one who stole the pig?" He simply nods with a glare, a smug grin on his face.

"Yeah. She's the one."

At his words they all charge at her, the group of four yelling at her to surrender or she'll be turned into a stick. She panics, spins around and runs for the side path, yet the first priest grabs her by her shoulders and holds her still. They swarm towards her as she struggles in his grip, before screaming as she swings her leg up behind her and into his crotch, before scrambling away.

They were right on her tail, and with yells start blasting out magic as she leaps about to evade, jumping onto walls and springing off as they struggle to hit her. She pants as she starts diving behind pillars, using them as cover from their attacks as she was too afraid to face them. She doesn't want to hurt anyone! They of course swarm the pillar she was hiding behind, yet she dives between one of their legs and continues to sprint.

She makes it into the second room, where the priest had obviously snitched to his comrade about her, and snaps her head about. Dead end. She bounds to a bench, and hurriedly hides behind it, sitting atop the rug as the guards rush inside. They start trashing the place, flipping objects and searching around for her as she carefully listens for their footsteps.

They were all away from the door. She flips over the bench and dashes as fast as she can, the guards yelling as they give chase. She sprints back out the door and into the corridor, rushing into the first room with the priest and butcher still inside. They immediately lunge to catch her, yet the nymph darts between them all, even throwing another fist at the fat butcher.

He flops over unconscious, and the priests stop to check up on him, allowing her to dart for the main doors. She bursts out of them, tumbling into the busy crowd as they yell in shock as they all fall to the ground. She scrambles up as the people shout in rage at her, some even flicking their wands and hands at her as spells fly towards her.

She avoids them all as the magic officers charge out of the building, pointing a finger harshly at her, "CRIMINAL! STOP HER!" The once mostly passive group of civilians turn on her, all of them attempting to grab and light her up with all sorts of spells. She pants and screams as she shoves everyone out of the way, leaping over fireballs and lightning arcs as they strike at her feet.

Eventually, she becomes too scared, and whips her bow free from her back. Knocking an arrow, she unleashes into a robed wizard's heart before her, killing him as the others back off in shock. She starts spraying out arrows to clear her path, slaughtering them as she loses herself to her emotions of fear. She runs by their corpses, ripping her arrows free from their chests as she constantly reuses them.

However, as she becomes fully surrounded and all escape routes are blocked off, she becomes truly petrified, desperately firing off arrows as everyone closes in. Worse, she couldn't collect them back as the people snatched them away before she could reach them, leading to her ammo supply swiftly drying up. She fires her last arrow, and desperately attempts to whack a nearby guy with her bow, yet an anthro horse whips his wand at her.

A large tendril made of red magic slaps her, sending her flying with a scream of pain, the force sending her into the air and over the crowd. She crashes into a tree, then promptly flops down onto the floor, laying limply as tears of pain escape her. Still, she pushes herself up, body twitching and shivering as her injured muscles flair up and send suffering coursing through her veins.

She glances up and finds everyone closing in. Time seems to slow for her, her terrified eyes darting to the four guards firing their stick transformation spells at her. She flicks her gaze to the wizards before her, unleashing a fire spell at her. She glances to the left, and discovers her father's quiver on the floor, obviously coming off after being whacked, and was about to be trampled on.

Her vision goes red, yet her eyes glow white.

Her hands on the floor shoot vines at the tree she had hit, and the tree comes alive as it bends forward with a groan. It slams down like a hammer, completely enveloping Huntress in its branches as it shields her from the stick spell and fireball. Her arrows that she had lost shoot into the air, then with whistling screeches starts shooting everywhere.

They dart through heads and hearts, bouncing from one victim to the next as she slaughters the civilians and guards with ease. Her weapons focus on where her quiver was laying, bodies dropping all around it as they allow no one to get near. She bounds out of the tree, running on all fours as she pounces on the quiver, and breaths heavily as she tucks it to her chest, protecting it with her own body. In only a few seconds, her ten arrows had murdered everyone, in only a few seconds, magic madness had claimed her.

She weeps, sobbing as she lays as a ball on the ground as blood pools all around her. More guards come running in, magic at the ready to put her down. She screams and scrambles onto her feet, charging them as her eyes glow with the overflow of her new powers as she leaves her quiver behind. She actually bites one in the neck as her overflowing magic lashes out at everything around her, bringing plants to life all around her.

Vines shoot from the nearby trees, snapping to the guards and yanking them in the air by the neck, hanging them like a noose as they squirm. She rips her razor sharp teeth from the guards neck, and cries in agony as she clasps her head in suffering. She spins around and returns to her quiver, picking it up and holding it close like a teddy bear, finding soothing in its presence in the storm of her emotions. Her glowing eyes leak tears of blood, her chest burns as magic tears apart her structure from the inside out, while she screams in the middle of the piles of dead bodies.

Suddenly a loud stick slams into the ground, and she jolts to face it, her arrows hovering into the air. It was the Grandmaster Wizard. He simply waves his hand at her, and she freezes up, muscles locked as she tumbles over like a statue. She was completely immobilised, and the guards swarmed towards her as she screamed inwards into her echoing mind in terror.

However the massive magician slams his stick down again, and they all halt to stare at him as he does another hand gesture towards her. She floats up and towards him, remaining completely frozen with her quiver still held tightly in her hands, staring at the massive man hidden by white hair as he scoffs at her, "Good thing I was in the area, little wood nymph terror." He gestures a hand at the destruction and death behind her, "You've committed murder! Though I could tell you were lost in magic madness and it is slightly understandable, you are not pardoned."

He waves his hand again, and the world alters, twisting upon itself before reverting, and time begins to flow backwards. Everything begins to become undone, yet only for a few seconds, stopping just when she had burst out of the building. Then time resumes as normal before her, the guards bursting out the doors and glancing about in confusion, only to spot the Grandmaster Wizard holding their suspect with his magic. He jerks his head behind him, and they salute before strolling away, allowing him to glance down at Huntress, "You killed my people in cold blood. While we are lucky I arrived within a minute to undo everything, you're still getting punished… but what is suitable for you…"

He clicks his tongue as he thinks, before doing another hand movement, and she is freed from frozen prison, yet is still levitating in the air. She gasps at her sudden liberty, while the large man still decides, "You're made of wood, so a new tree could be poetic… but I think your kind see that as a privilege, to be 'one with nature' again… turn you into a torch?"

She remains silent, causing him to hum, "You know, most people beg for their life or mercy, but you're not…" He brought her up closer to his face, and he stares deep into her glowing eyes, "... Yeah no, there's potential in you, and the original crime you were here for…" His hand reaches forward, and he does a dance with his fingers before her face, streams of magic connecting his head to her own, "... Is stealing food. Partly because you don't understand society." He drops her, letting his magic go as she hits the floor with a grunt, "Alright, your punishment is labour. You're going to do some work for me."

She stares up at him, "What…What kind of labour?" She inquires, still holding her quiver tightly while the massive man hums.

"... Come to me in my home in a few hours, I will have found you something to do by then," He suddenly leans down, getting right in her face as his smelly hot breath washes over her, "However! If you don't turn up, you're dead!"

She nods frantically, causing him to rise back up and wave his hand, "Now be off, find something to do, heck go to your home and recover, you're more scared than one of my kittens!" She wastes no time in scrambling away from the man, snatching up her arrows from wherever they may lie and dashing off, leaping atop the buildings and charging towards her home.

She arrived a few minutes later a panting mess, throwing her arrows down and gently putting her father's quiver back on, before collapsing to her knees. Her hands snap to her face and cover her eyes from the world as she sheds more tears, sobbing into her hands. She was so close! She thought she finally had it! She thought she could finally have her family back! That she could save them all from damnation! But it was all a rouse… a stab in the back for her hopes and dreams.

And back there… in the fight…What was that? She was there one sec then everything was a blur. She pulls back her soaked hands, staring at them as they shake in terror. She had killed! Murdered! Her crime may be worked off by simple labour but the people won't forgive her! She became a monster. She became a wizard.

The pain of betrayal by the priests, the suffering of failing to save her family, the despair of watching her family and people die, the horror of killing, the terror of nearly dying when they surrounded her… it broke her. She laughs. She cackles at her life, the situation she was in, of the everything she lost and the nothing that she has gained. She's now even lost her sanity.

Tears stream down her face, haunting memories of the ones she failed, her mum and dad, her fellow seedlings, the wood nymph civilisation. Gone. She was all alone, and with nothing, no home or food or job or water. Just damning isolation. The rocks and arrows begin to float all around her, plants sprout out and grow, the pig's carcass begins to hover as she laughs with eyes full of tears. She's lost all joy in her life.

She was now a wizard.

She clasps her bow, her useless bow! It didn't save her back down there! It was too inefficient! Magic however was strong, magic protected her! It sheltered her! It helped her keep her promise. Her promise to her dying parents who sacrificed themselves for her, that she would live on, that she will always live on to see another day. She clenches her fist on her wooden weapon, then takes deep breaths, calming herself as the foliage stops growing about her, and everything stops floating.

If magic is the best way for her to stay alive, to keep her promise, then she'll use it. She'd go to any length to keep her promise. She rests, wiping her tears even though they were still flowing, and focuses on the madness and sadness swelling within her. It was like a dam, and it was about to overflow, filled to the brink with water, with the negatives of magic. Instead of trying to protect the massive wall holding back all the water, to stop it from flooding the village below, she instead attacks it.

Her mind crumbles, and with it the dam as well as the wall cracks apart, and unleashes a flood as the wood nymph screams in pain and terror. Everything is destroyed, swept away with the rush of the water as Huntress herself drowns in it. She panics, scrambling to stay above, before freezing up, and letting go of herself, letting herself sink into the water, into the destruction it causes as it wipes everything that used to be her away.

She drowns, choking on the liquid as it kills her, flooding her insides. In the real world, she cracks, light of magic arcing across her form with hisses and snaps, killing her as it prepares to rip her apart at the atomic level. She struggles in her mind, trying to wrestle in her own suffering as it envelopes her, before stopping again, and willing for something different. This was her mind, her domain. She decides what happens in it. Just like how magic will allow her to decide what happens in the real world. Suddenly, she takes a deep breath of the water, yet doesn't choke, able to breathe in the liquids now as she imagines more, the only limit of magic being the creativity of the mind.

A wreath of plants appears beneath her, and lifts her up, floating her up above the water like a safety raft, the wood nymph glancing about at the destruction all around her. Her memories torment her, everywhere she looked she saw her life torn to shreds by the event that caused this all, the slaughter of her family, the end of her people. She won't forget, she won't ever forget. She channels it, riding the flood of water and letting it destroy everything in its path, the very last things that keep her sane, the last of her joys.

Then everything blackened. She searched about in void yet the only things that would appear would be plants… just plants. The only exception was a white bear, but she was only able to get a glance at it before it disappears, not that she cares, she moves on and focuses back on her task. Eyes on the prize. Yet the bear appears a few more times, and every time a little bit longer, causing her to start to seek it out for answers.

Finally, she discovers it one last time, and it glows brightly as her hands cover her eyes for their own protection, until a few seconds later when it dims down. She cautiously brings her hands down, and discovers that where the bear once stood was now a bright glowing portal, framed in a mix of white and blue. She carefully approaches, and discovers it to be a vision into some other place… no, a different time. It was in the building with the priests, just before she had arrived, and lo and behold, there was the thief from earlier. The boy she had threatened to eat had got his revenge, whispering into the ear of the priests to warn of her coming, and to be ready to call the law enforcement.

She watches on, and anger swells in her, she may have deserved it for threatening to kill him but that does not soothe her rage. Her madness. Finally a whisper fills the air. It was Hekate's voice, "So my child, how does this make you feel?" She teases while Huntress clenches her fists. The cosmic being only laughs, before it all ends.

The wood nymph opens her eyes in the real world, and carries on the cackle. She's been betrayed, wronged, attacked, lost all that she owns and holds dear, and the results were showing. She's cracked. She stands up tall, her hands glowing with her new powers as she laughs into the air as the day begins to set. Her arrows shoot into her quiver as she swears to learn and to keep her promise. Showing emotions allowed her to be exploited, for the thief to lead her to the guards' trap. Her emotions of fear led to her killing. Her emotions only set her higher for her to fall harder when the knife of betrayal was twisted in her gut by the priest, who lied about helping in saving her family. She can't trust her emotions, they'll hurt her. She must get rid of them.

And those that wronged her? She'll get her revenge. She doesn't care about what the people think of her, she'll hunt those who wronged her, who took her people and those who thought they could use her. From this day on, she isn't Diana… no, all she is and all she'll do is hunt with her magic, the ultimate killing machine who won't let anyone close again, she'll live on as she had promised. From this day on, she's Huntress Wizard.

… And then, from that moment on, I started learning." The wood nymph shrugs as she finishes her tale, Finn staring at her full of worry. "I learnt basic society rules from watching others. I got a job of winning in tournaments and battles, becoming stronger and smarter after each one. I trained my magic, each day I was becoming stronger and stronger without anyone helping me, and thus, I became fully independent. Everyone else around me was leaning on one another for support and aid, yet they were all weaker than me. I took it as a sign."

Finn remains silent, for a few seconds, then inquires with a raised eyebrow, "So what about the Spirit of the Forest? Did he teach you anything?"

She shakes her head, "No. I had at that point cast him out. He didn't help me in my time of desperate need, so I cast him out of my life." She smirks, "In fact, I mocked him a little. Remember our home? And the one back in OOO?" He nods. "Well, if you haven't noticed but they are made of trees twisted together. It was a little spat at him, that I would use his precious forest that he wanted me to protect for my own needs, that I would 'twist' them to my will."

He nods in understanding, then gives her an uncomfortable stare, "What about the priests? Or the thief? You said you swore vengeance…"

She shakes her head with a grin, "Don't worry, I didn't kill them." Finn breathes a sigh of relief that his girlfriend wasn't a murderer. "That would have gotten the guards on me, decreasing my chance of survival. That's the only reason they're alive… if you count being turned into a dog as being alive." Finn jolts up and stares at her. To find her giggling.

He huffs in annoyance, "Don't pull on my leg like that. But seriously, what did you do to them?"

She shrugs, "I ratted the thief out to the guards and had his whole crew disbanded. The priest I annoyed the hell out of, turning away customers by just being there, giving him bad deals. Heck, once I learned to become an animal through therianthropy I became a bird so I could sit outside of their windows and wake them up at stupid times."

He smirks, "That sounds like fun. How long did you keep it up for?"

She groans while she stands up, stretching her muscles, "A month, since I then dedicated the time to training more and becoming harder." She rolls her neck, "But enough of that, I've recovered my magic, we can continue to the reactor."

He quickly responds, "Actually! One final question!" She raises an eyebrow, and he puts his hands on her shoulders, "You good? You brought back some memories I think you would have preferred to have forgotten…"

She shakes her head, "Yeah I'm fine." She smirks at him, "I'm hard meat, remember? It'll take more than some bad thoughts and memories to scare me."

He grins at her, then leans forward and plants a kiss onto her lips, pulling back with a slight blush, "Well, thanks for opening up to me. If anything bothers you, just tell me. I'm happy to listen."

Ice Queen giggles, "Do take that seriously! I can tell you he's a great listener." She blushes, but nods at them both.

She glances away, "I'll think about it…"

Finn chuckles, "Not going to lie, you being slightly embarrassed is kinda cute." Her blush only deepens, causing him to shake his head and gesture to path ahead in the tunnel, "Shall we?" She eagerly nods, spinning around and hurriedly leading the way as everyone else follows closely behind, Finn swiftly walking by her side.

She glances down at him, "Don't call me cute again or tell anyone that story or you'll lose your dick." She threatens with a very serious expression, her stare cold and unrelenting as Finn gulps.

However, that doesn't stop him from inquiring, "Calling you cute in general? Or can I call you cute in private?"

"... You can call me cute in private, I guess." He fist pumps, causing her to gain a grin.

He glances at her again, "Still though, it is interesting how you eventually became… you, I guess. Betrayals and stuff hurts, trust me, I know your pain." He rubs his metal arm, "Heck, my dad being a butt was enough for me to grow a magic arm strong enough to tear up the environment."

She nods, "Yeah, I know, I knew the forest spirit wasn't happy when he saw massive cubes missing from the forest, nor was I." She shrugs, "But there was more than that done to me to make me who I am now, it takes multiple droplets to make a puddle." She does however think for second, 'He was ridiculously powerful with that arm... And he's incredibly skilled with a sword as well... Why is he so strong?... And should I teach him magic- no. I shouldn't... but he'll more likely survive...'

They arrive at the end of the long tunnel while Finn nods in reply, the pipe they were following turning to go another direction. They stroll down the side path, and stare down the ladder back into the main corridors, discovering nothing awaiting them. Finn nods in approval, and pops up the map only for his eyes to widen, "Holy cow! This tunnel was a hell of a short cut!" He exclaims as the others peek at the hologram. Sure enough, they seemed to have walked over a few corridors, and were now on one of the main corridors leading straight to the reactors.

Ice Queen grins, "Sweet. Now, how are we doing this? I know we're going to try to do it stealthily if we can, but the security system always seems to spot us. What happens then?"

He shrugs, "Well, I guess we defend you as you create a massive blizzard that will shred the reactors, or can you not do that?"

She shrugs, "I likely can't, but I will at least try first. If I can't… we hit buttons?"

He nods, "We hit buttons." He glances at Huntress, and she nods as she holds his bow tightly, causing him to drop down the ladder. He lands, and glances about, grinning as he finds no security awaiting him and glances back at the other to give them a thumbs up. They swiftly drop down as well, before they cautiously move forward, if they're lucky, the security will be focusing on where it last saw them.

They enter the main corridor, then sprint madly down it, rushing as fast as they can as they eye the large door far ahead. They reach it, and it automatically opens wide to reveal to them the reactor room, the beating heart of the citadel. And about a hundred guards patrolling around them. Before they could get any details on the room's layout the main trio rushed forward, diving behind a safety railing and pressing themselves against it before they could be spotted.

Moving some barrels and boxes around them to hide them from the side, Ice Queen orders her troops to back up, heading deeper into the corridor to cause the door to shut. It was now only the main trio in the most important room in the interdimensional prison. Finn peeks out over the solid safety bar and analyses the situation they were in.

There were four, city sized reactors submerged beneath a deep pool of water, glowing a light purple, almost like a RBMK reactor but different, as some other type of reaction was generating the heat. All around the water were of course high walls, which then became platforms that they themselves were now on. They weren't alone however, as in every direction were guards of sorts, heavy gunners, shotgunners, snipers, and riflemen, all of them patrolling about in stiff walking patterns. Finally, there was a massive control room watching over the reactor, and already the hero could spot a swarm of engineers inside.

He and the other's lower their heads as the knight faces the women, "So, got any ideas on what we should do?"

Huntress nods towards the control room, "If we're going to break stuff, it's going to be in there. But I bet the moment we make a rush for it we'll be spotted and I highly doubt that your tech or Polar's ice shield will stop a barrage."

The royal grimaces, "No, that much at once would shatter a normal barrier, and I don't think I can make one strong enough with my wounds holding me back." She takes a quick peek at the water pool for less than a second before ducking back down, "And there's absolutely no way I can destroy the reactors through sheer magic either."

Finn nods in understanding, then glances about, "We need a solution, there has to be a solution." They joined him in the hunt, scanning every detail they could, even popping open the crate they were hiding against to see what was inside, only to discover it was a cleaner's supply. Finn bites his tongue as he searches, "I… I can't see anything we can use."

Huntress grunts in agreement, "Yeah, there's nothing, what makes sense. They would really iron out any weaknesses in an important place like this."

He sighs, yet Ice Queen hums, "Well, we can already tell things are going to get violent, there's simply too many workers in there for us to break the reactors without them noticing. A fight is imminent." She raises a hand, "I should be able to create an army again. Spray them absolutely everywhere before they could react and distract them while we make a sprint for the control room. Then… well, we have to hold them off until the reactors blow up."

Huntress nods in approval, yet Finn gives his queen a worried stare, "And what about us being caught in the explosion?"

She blinks. "Oh right, we have to get away… I can try to freeze the controls? If they can't get to the buttons or make them budge, then they can't stop the meltdown as we rush away to a safe area."

Huntress cocks her head, "Meltdown?"

Ice Queen sighs, "Worst case scenario for a reactor, and will completely destroy it… we don't want to be anywhere near it. Humans warned me of it back in the apocalypse when I was approaching an old one that was damaged by the war."

Finn nods, "Well, we know what we've got to do, now we just have to do it." He smirks at Ice Queen, "Ladies first~"

She grins evilly as she darts up with her hands glowing and sprays out snow in a quick burst, aiming nowhere and everywhere. The guards all jump and spin to face her as the snow lands all around them, and fire their plasma weapons. She was well back into cover by the time the rounds slammed into their cover, and she ordered her men back in the corridor to rush out.

They come out just as the snow Ice Queen had shot out transforms into more warriors, even though some of them were in the reactor's water. All chaos breaks loose as alarms start to blare, the room becoming lit in a very dark red as the soldiers spin to face their foes all about them. Ice warriors of all types start clashing with the guards as a slaughter begins, ice piercing into flesh, plasma blasting into the heads of the summoned.

The trio use the chaos to their advantage, bounding out of their cover and rushing towards the control room. It's doors however begin to close as the men inside desperately attempt to lock everything down, and start to scram the reactor. They needed to get in there before they hit the emergency button. Ice Queen gives a cry as she sprays more ice at the door just as it was about to close, blocking it and keeping it open.

Huntress lets her arrows fly as they dart inside the room and start hunting anyone alive in there, blood splattering against the viewing glass. They reach the door on their side and Finn grips them, before yelling as it forces them apart, the motors groaning. Eventually, they break and the door slides fully open, and the trio rush inside to discover everyone dead, massive holes where their hearts should be.

Finn walks into the middle of the room and just stares at the thirty odd control panels around him, before sighing as he plugs his arm in, "Cover me!" He cries as the women duo nod, and glance about to nest position themselves. The room was an isosceles trapezium shape, with two mirrored doors on either side that led to platforms that run the perimeter of the reactor.

They wordlessly split up and positioned themselves on one side each, and prepared to hold their ground against an onslaught. The royal creates a half wall of ice, and keeps herself in cover, while Huntress simply stands against the glass, and summons her arrows. The fight with Ice Queen's soldiers continued on, but they were quickly whittling down while more guards rushed in.

Eventually, the last few start to fall, and the royal orders any remaining troops to fall back to the control room. They immediately do so, abandoning their fights as they madly sprint towards the trio, yet the majority get lit up in the back. In the end, only a small handful make it in, including the original group that she had summoned in the beginning.

She glances at the originals, "You're the squad leaders! Hold down the door and only engage if they come into this control room." They nod, and she immediately pops up from her cover to blast an ice spell at an approaching foe, freezing them solid. They tumble over and shatter, their broken ice remains making multiple troops right behind it slip and fall as well.

As she plans on what to deploy next, Huntress throws some seeds down, and lets them explode into a sea of thorns. They reach out, covering the path and entangling the soldiers for a moment, before something glows behind her. She snaps around, only to discover four ice archers courtesy of Ice Queen, the royal herself having a squad backing her up. They unleash their arrows, piercing into the skulls of the stunned troops as the women glance at Finn.

He was still snapping between the board and his arm that was translating, hitting every button that increased power and turned off safety things. He glances at them, then at the power metre on his arm, "We're rising rapidly, but we still have a while."

Huntress grimaces as she throws out some more seeds, growing some more of the massive plants with the maws, "How long is a while? An hour?"

He glanced at her, "Don't know, fifteen minutes? But seeing how a fight can end in a second, and they're not exactly going to hold back on something this important…" She nods in understanding. This was going to be an intense fifteen minutes.

Immediately they hear an absolute barrage of footsteps coming from the multiple doors in the reactor room, and a swarm of clunks as they pop out of the walls. Huntress sends her arrows to work, remaining behind the glass as she directs them from foe to foe. Any that appear right by the door get chomped on by the giant plants, either being devoured whole or bitten in half.

Ice Queen meanwhile throws out multiple orbs, the spheres hitting the ground and becoming sentries. They spray out icicles like cold hearted machine guns, mowing down hordes of foes as they appear. Then the more heavy duty foes stroll up, their miniguns spinning as they take aim and unleash a load of plasma. They strike the orbs and knock them out of the air, yet the royal simply throws out more, including a mini blizzard that lands at the gunners' feet.

Immediately the blizzard got to work in shredding them alive and slowing them down, the giant's weapon locking up as they sluggishly moved forward. Their wounds grow before eventually falling over dead, blood pouring from their body as the sentries light up their comrades behind them. They struggle to move forward with the corpses in the way, especially with the blizzard slaughtering them as well, so they simply light up the doorway.

The plasma once again begins to arc, and seemingly bends around corners in an attempt to seek out the blood of the duo. Ice Queen just summons multiple ice soldiers, letting them confuse the bullets and strike them instead. Huntress however was having less fun, and was having to think of ways to handle this threat, resolving to simply killing them before they could shoot.

Her arrows split up and became a blur of death as they shot from one foe to the next, but she was admittedly struggling to keep up. Worse, a few actually let off a few plasma bolts, but were shooting at the thorns she put up instead, the plasma lighting them on fire.

A crackle fills the air as one of her key defences begins to fail, yet she simply grins as she touches the ground. Vines shoot out from her fingers that seek out the now burning plants, and upon contacting them, form as one. Then the nymph grows them. They shoot down the path as they increase in size, the burning plants now colliding with the soldiers.

She smirks as she watches them panic, rushing out of harm's way or attempting to put themselves out. As long as she kept on throwing on fuel, she would have a burning wall as a defence. However, her magic limits would not allow it, causing her to simply throw some more on and use it as time to plan. She glances about her doorway, 'Too close and they'll burn it again.'

She presses her palms against the floor and unleashes a path of roots that lead to just before the door, then shooting up into a small tree. Hanging off it were the deadly vines that choked its foes, yet she wasn't done yet. She admittedly hadn't tried this much, but she needed every advantage she could get, and began to mutate it.

She alters life, twisting it to her own advantages with a grimace, and causes a bunch of flowers to bloom on its branches. They release a yellow fog that covers the walls and floors, and immediately spores start to grow. In fact. The tree got stronger, and when it reached the three mouth plant outside, it became much more viscous as it grew in size and bit faster.

In fact she felt her own heart pump faster as her eyes narrow, and felt strength pumping through her veins. She stands up tall, and summons another five arrows as she grins like a maniac, and releases her ten arrows. They shoot around the burning pile of thorns that was slowly going out, and run a train through the hostiles there.

She stomps a foot down, and more plants of different varieties spawn all around her, some even coming alive as they crawl through the door. She was going to show them the wrath of mother nature. Finn meanwhile was watching her with a mix of pride and worry, but was ultimately focusing on the reactor. It was heating up fast, and there were so many buttons flashing at him, yet there seemed to be a constant supply of fresh water that he hadn't figured out how to turn off yet.

His answer was to slam a shit ton of buttons.

He can't help but smirk as the water levels rapidly drain as it begins to boil away.

However, he hears a clank behind him. He spins around and slashes his sword as he cuts down three soldiers in one swing, the girls glancing at him in panic. He yells to them, "I got these guys! Ice dudes help me!" The few remaining soldiers rush to his aid, staring at the wall with their swords and spears as the women focus back on their doors.

Ice Queen continues to throw out more sentries and blizzards, attempting to keep it to a minimum in case Hekate investigates. Yet, she still had to unload enough ice to slaughter her foes, forcing her to constantly strain on the delicate line. She summons a bunch more archers behind her, and ducks down for a bit, letting the blizzards, arrow, and sentries do the rest.

Huntress meanwhile was creating her living plants at an insane rate, the spores she was breathing in improving her abilities. The living green rushed towards her foes, wrapping them up in vines and roots, tripping them up and sending them tumbling over the barrier into the boiling water below. Some spray acid, some bite, some simply pin them down and let their brethren do the work for them. Huntress's ten arrows meanwhile were doing what they could to assist in the slaughter, darting from foe to foe as blood and parts went flying.

She huffs and rushes out! Leaping at a shotgunner and pinning him to the ground, before releasing roots from her fingers that pierce into its skin. Just like with the metal lion, she finds critical organs with it, and crushes it with her roots, ending its life in an instant. Then with a tug she lifts the body up, and lets the plasma round blast into it, using its corpse as a meat shield before dropping it to the floor with a splat.

She strolls forward, whipping out the ice sword from her back for safety as she throws out more seeds with her other hand. Vines begin to grow on the walls, which then shoot up and reach the ceiling, before spreading out a bit. Huntress then presses her palms against it, and begins to create another mutation, and sentient vines begin to grow off it.

They reach down against the swarms of soldiers rushing in, and wrap up their throats and limbs, dangling them as they struggle in the air. A few get lowered into the plants Huntress had summoned, who swiftly finish the job by tearing and crushing them. A few get dropped into the reactor's boiling water, and some get thrown at the three headed plant to chow down on.

She then begins to form trees, the massive wooden trunks creating hard shield barriers between her and the control room. She grows them in a zig-zag pattern, breaking line of fire yet still allowing mobility for when they have to book it. She grimaces as she starts to approach her magic madness limits, yet continues on with a careful watch on her magic supply.

Ice Queen meanwhile was forming a small army before her, sending out troop after troop into the fray. With the blizzard keeping them alive and enforcing their armour, they were a force to be reckoned with as Ice Queen grins smugly. She begins chucking down small ice discs over their heads, letting them land before their positions. An enemy steps on one, and is immediately sent sky high as it explodes like a mine, shrapnel shredding his nearby friends.

The trio grin smugly as they hold their sides as they succeed in creating an effective kill box. However, they hear a sudden mechanical groan, and worry sets in as they watch something massive move above them. To their surprise it was a massive crane, which swiftly moved a massive platform towards them. It fits between the T shaped paths, and connects them, covering the reactor and the water as their hearts skip a beat.

The once massive gap was now sealed, and the guards wasted no time on climbing atop it and around their corridor defences. Huntress falls back instantly to the control room, securing the door again as she creates more plants. As she goes to do so, a shotgunner rushes inside, somehow able to dart past the three headed plant. She ignores it as it aims its gun, only for the tree she had planted earlier to deal with it, lassoing its neck with a vine.

As it begins to choke the life out of it, causing the soldier to drop its gun to grasp at its neck, Huntress rises up and slashes with her sword. She guts it, causing the vines to drop its lifeless corpse to the floor while she stares outside at the troop rushing towards them. She's still low on magic, but if she could just absorb her plants… her ten arrows get to work as she rushes outside.

She begins touching all that she has summoned, taking their essence back as her ten arrows becoming a blur around her. Bodies drop dead everywhere as the ice archers poke out to help, covering Huntress with their own forms. She makes rapid progress, yet when the archers fall down next to her she spins around and rushes back to the door.

A plasma bolt singes her shoulder, but she ignores it as she enters the control room, and begins to grow more traps around the door with a grimace. They were pushing hard and were practically swarming in, so she needed something to slow them. She places her hands at the door edge and hurriedly grows a massive tree trunks that cover the top half of the door.

The flow of hostile forces now grinds to a stop as they attempt to duck or crawl under the thick logs, only to be slashed at by Huntress. So they go to the next step and shoot the wood, yet thanks to the tree the nymph had planted earlier, not only does it hold, it regenerates. As its spore buff every plant, Huntress begins to recreate an army inside the room.

She immediately makes a smaller version of the three headed plant that snaps at the heads of any that begin to crawl through the narrow doorway. She nods as it does the work for her, before spinning around to face Finn while he dances with another foe appearing from the wall. He cuts a gun in half then slices the soldier's head off, when she suddenly yells, "How much longer!?"

He glances at her, then the screen, "No idea! Won't be long since there's a bunch of warning signs up!... I think." He doesn't know, they're alien.

But he was mostly getting his evidence from the reactor itself out the window. The metal lid they put on top only worsened the situation, as steam was now squeezing out, even beginning to shake the platform. An explosion won't be long, they just have to hold everything off a bit longer. Huntress simply nods at him and focuses back on defence.

Ice Queen meanwhile was easily handling her side as well. Despite her limits to her physical health, creating medics and summoners easily solved the problem for her. They maintained the small army as they instructed, created, and healed from the back like generals overseeing the battlefield. Whenever a soldier was injured, they would fall back to get healed, while another would replace its spot.

This left her to maintain fortifications, creating barriers of ice, stands for arrows, and even some ice sentries. The turrets fired ice balls that would explode, and would target massive crowds, while her troops dealt with the stunned. She smirks as she stands in her miny ice fortress, and finally decides to halt on her magic. There's no point in testing if Hekate will come.

She watches the platform they were on buckle and jump, the steam below from the boiled away water desperately wanting to escape. Worry sets in, and she immediately abandons her disuse of magic. When that pops open, boiling hot steam will flood the room with explosive force. She needs to buff the room, and starts spraying out thick layers of ice everywhere, starting at the window. If that burst then that's a shotgun blast in the back of her knight.

That won't happen.

She begins to layer up a thick layer of ice, slowly building a wall, yet she had to constantly take breaks that impeded her progress. She'll have to trust her forces that they'll be able to hold the ground as she gradually fortifies the control room. Her men sure enough do their part, the swordsmen and spearmen jabbing and slashing whenever they could. They at times even 'engulf' their foes, faking a breach in the lines to let a few in to exploit the block of troops, only to encircle them and stab them in all directions.

Some even push some of the soldiers towards Huntress's door, letting them get funnelled in with the rest of the troops to her death trap. A heavy gunner stands before them and aims its minigun, the plasma bolts lighting up the close range fighters. The summoners at the back swiftly create archers, who let off a continuous barrage of ice arrows. They ping into its armour as it uncaringly continues the slaughter, the guards slowly pushing forward with that lack of resistance from the now dead creations.

As Ice Queen's side collapses, the floor suddenly buckles beneath them, shaking violently as everything stumbles. The royal in the room gives a quick, panicked cry as she hurriedly freezes over her door, and rushes to Finn. Huntress realises what's about to go down as well, and swiftly creates a bunch of trees to cover her entrance.

She rushes back to deal with the hostiles spawning into the room, when the room suddenly shook. Violently. There was no noise, the sound of the explosion being above the hearing range as they were thrown about in the room. Huntress dives at Finn while he covers Ice Queen with his body, the group holding together as they are slammed into the roof and ceiling.

In only a few seconds, it ends as the shaking stops, and the group glance about, only to discover it was pitch black. The red lights had gone out and the siren had stopped, though they quickly turned back on as the group groaned. They push themselves up, and Finn stumbles towards the control panels as the women deal with whatever guards remain in the room.

He hits the panel and looks over the damage report, "... Well, that was a steam explosion, though we haven't actually melted the core yet! We need to keep this up a little longer before we do that." He explains, checking the room for damage.

Huntress raises an eyebrow as she slits the throat of a downed soldier, "Isn't this enough?"

He shrugs, "Maybe, but these are advanced aliens. They might have a way to repair this quickly, so let's do as much damage as possible just in case." The last thing they need is them repairing everything before they're gone.

Ice Queen hums as she scams her troops, some dead from where they fell on their own weapons, "And how long until we have a full meltdown?"

He shakes his head, "I have no idea, I'm not PB, I'm no good with this stuff I'm just hitting buttons!" He check the screen, then grimaces, "Crab apples! Guys! There a second set of reactors right below these one! It's the reasons why the lights turned back on!" He strolls up to where the windows and doors used to be, only to find nothing but bending metal. It was strange…To see metal act as if it was rubber.

Outside there was nothing but steam and smoke rising up, disappearing into some fans he could hear had turned on. There were also sounds of water raining in, pipes all around them shattered, or maybe they were trying to cool the reactor? Regardless, the smoke doesn't seem to be coming into the room for the moment, too busy getting sucked away for it to suffocate them.

He swiftly backs away from the edge hanging above a burning reactor, simply praying to god it wasn't radioactive. The others stand by, waiting for his assessment. He was their leader after all. He bites his tongue, "Well… I guess we hold this room until the reactors below get hit with the melting fuel. That should put them out of action and send the whole citadel dark." He explained.

Huntress doesn't respond, and only throws out some more seeds before placing her hand on the ground to summon more plants. Finn nods at her actions and gets into position, holding his sword as he watches where the reactors used to be. Sure enough, rapid bangs and clanks fill the air as the Citadel not only loses power to critical functions, but begins to crumble a little.

He grimaces at what he has done, especially since there are some criminals that should definitely not escape, but it was too late now. At worse, that Hekate woman will keep the place running with her magic. Suddenly the clouds of smoke before him start to act abnormally, and he focuses.

A soldier comes flying at him. His eyes widened before he gets booted in the face, the hero going sprawling backwards as the guard aims its rifle. It suddenly gets ten arrows and a shotgun blast of icicles as it is practically atomised by the attacks. As its obliterated body parts flop over, Finn scrambles to his feet and backs away from the window.

Sure enough four more come rappelling in, swinging in with head-lights. They were completely black, covered in smooth and slick armour, with a rifle in their hands. They snap to the group then start blasting as Finn props up his tech shield, while Ice Queen protects both her and Huntress with a wall. The few remaining summons the royal had rushed in, six arrows pinging off the armour of three guards, but the fourth got a fatal blow to the head.

The other ones get slashed at by spears and swords, yet they flip out of harm's way. As two of them light up three spearmen, the third one enters hand to hand combat, slapping a sword away before whipping a free knife from its chest. It promptly stabs the swordsmen in the face, then throws its shattering corpse aside to yank a spear from another summon.

Of course Finn leaps into action at this point, and slashes his sword, cutting the ice spear in half before slashing at the guard's neck. It leans out of harm's way, then slams its head forward to head-butt the hero, who side steps while throwing a fist. The impact was hard, causing them both to grimace in pain but the soldier was stunned for a second.

That was more than enough time for Finn to swing his sword and cut his head clean off with a bloody splurt. He spins to face the other two, only to find them dead as well, one held up by six spears courtesy of Ice Queen's soldiers, the other being munched on by Huntress's plants. He blinks then snaps to the smoke as he hears more noises, "They're still coming! Hold off till the melt down!"

The women stroll past him with smirks, and wait at the window with hands glowing. He blinks, "Why are there fighters when we can just have magic and stuff?" He questions to himself as he spins to face the walls, just waiting for something to crawl free. Sure enough, after the failed window assault a hole opens and a heavy gunner drops in, barrel spinning.

Finn pounces on him, grabbing him by the leg and lifting with all his might as a groan of effort escapes his clenched teeth. He trips the massive soldier, causing it to fall over and hit the ground with a room shaking thump. He leaps at it and moves to stab it in the neck with his sword but is promptly slapped off by the gunner. He hits the ground yet rolls to land on all four, then charges at the giant before it could get up.

It promptly panics and reaches for its sword on its hip, but it was too late as Finn descends upon it. He slashes it's wrist off, then stabs it in the gut before twisting his blade, and yanks his sword free with a trail of innards. He spins to face more troops coming in from the walls and goes to engage. He thrusts his sword forward into the side of a shotgunner, then boots his body at a soldier.

It falls over at the impact causing the hero to rush at it, where he stabs it in the face to kill it instantly. Snapping his head up, he rushes a guard as it aims its plasma weapon at him, grabbing him by the neck and throwing him towards Huntress's plants. Then he spins and lunges at the sole soldier with a rifle, who promptly unloads its ammunition.

The hero is forced to do massive evasive leaps to evade becoming plasma Swiss cheese, yet he reaches it with only a singed arm. He punches the guard square in the face to stumble it back, then kicks its leg out from underneath it. It falls to the floor where the hero promptly beheads the soldier, the glances at the scenario. The two remaining ones from his wall were attacking Huntress, and more were coming in.

He yells at Ice Queen, "I need more dudes! Swords! Stabby things!" The royal herself was still repelling invaders from the window, but she spins and haphazardly sprays out some snow for her knight. They land by his feet and swiftly grow into an army for him, a few already rushing to help deal with the two guards harassing Huntress.

As he and his new allies engage the threats, another groan and rumble fills the station, shaking them slightly. The core was now rapidly building up heat as the exposed elements melt without the water to keep it cool. They just have to fight a bit longer, and they'll have a meltdown on their hands. The girls meanwhile were easily handling their window, even though it was the closest to the exposed core.

Ice Queen had created a small wall of ice to hide behind, covered in spikes in case they try to swing in at her. She occasionally creates orbs that handles most of the fighting for her, may they be explosive or a machine gun of icicles. Only rarely does she have to whip out the sword when a commando gets too close, what was seemingly coming more often.

They were learning with every failure, swinging in with new tactics and positions with guns blazing. However, they only met death every time. Ice Queen grunts as she swings her arm up, a massive spike forming before her and into the gut of guard. Then she suddenly has to swing her sword with her other hand at her feet as one suddenly bursts through the floor.

Huntress at this point was faring much better, her agility allowing her to evade surprise attacks with ease and counter as swiftly. She flips over one that comes flying in, stabbing it in the back as she soars over it, then lands on her feet as the body splats behind her. She has no real skill using a sword but she's a fast learner as she leaps back to avoid an explosion from the wall.

A soldier rushes through the fire, gun snapping to her, yet he suddenly catches five arrows to the face. More come behind him as they use this new entrance to enter the room, though the nymph was already set on plugging it up. She swings her hand towards them, and a vine shoots out that lassos the first in the line, then it grows to the others.

They become wrapped up in the plant, and Huntress gives a cry of effort as she tugs the line of struggling people out. Then she grabs the lead, and hauls him over to the edge of the room, then boots them off into the melting reactor. They scream in terror as the woman absorbs the vine back as the last one slides past her.

The area shakes again, and a bellow of black smoke suddenly puffs up from the reactor as she stumbles back. Ice Queen yells at her, "Stay away! It's truly starting to melt now!" Huntress nods in understanding, fearing another explosion at any moment may send her falling in. Beneath them, the melted sludge that was the reactor was slowly burning everything away, and heading towards the backup reactors underneath it.

A bit longer, and most of the emergency generators will be incinerated, and the Citadel will be plunged to its most basic functions. Factories will be disabled and the security systems will be minimal at best as life support and prisoner containment will become a priority.

Finn yells a war cry as he stomps in a soldier's head, crushing it beneath his feet, then slashes at a guards arm. The severed limb drops to the floor gun in hand, leaving it defenceless for a spear man to ram its weapon through the soldier's head. The hero spins and tackles a shotgunner as it takes aim at him, ripping the weapon from its hand with his might.

He gets booted off and pushed into the air for a split second, yet he uses the momentum of being pushed to raise his blade with him. He swiftly stabs it back down at the guard as he lands, plunging his blade into its gut, then slashing upwards.

The ground shakes again as he grimaces, watching the window as a sudden explosion of molten metal is flung into the air. He didn't have to fight for much longer, causing him to grin and turn to face another heavy gunner to the right of him. This time however, it had its flaming sword already out as it faced the human down, who charges it unflinchingly.

The behemoth roars at him as it lifts its weapon high and slams it down directly at the hero with an earth shaking thump. The man darts to the side to evade, then following the flow he springs back with a swing of his sword. The momentum assists the blade in hitting the gunner's shoulder, which was protecting the neck, and digging into the armour.

The giant barely notices as its hand darts out to grab the hero, who swiftly lets go of his blade to evade backwards. It rises from its position, yanking its massive sword from the ground to swing it at the foe, giving no time to plan or strategies. Finn of course has never used that in his fights, and hurriedly improvises by ducking under the blade, then leaping up.

He throws a fist mid air that smashes into the face of the massive soldier, stumbling it backwards as he lands. Then he pounces onto his sword in its shoulder, and rips it free, only to throw it like a spear mid air as he falls backwards. It pierces straight into the eye of the giant as Finn hits the floor, killing the heavy unit as it falls over dead with a bang.

Finn picks himself up, walks up to the corpse, rips his weapon free, then rushes to his next foe coming out of the wall. Ice Queen meanwhile was engaging with another commando, this time wielding two small sidearms that it swiftly blasts at her. She ducks into her cover with a smirk, and a second later pops up to find it dead, filled with icicles from her sentries.

She glances down to her left as she hears a bang from the floor, and backs away with her hands raised as they glow with magic. Not a second later the floor bursts open as a bunch of guards rush out the hole, with grenades flying. The royal's eyes widen, and she swiftly releases a large blast of freezing magic with a grimace of pain.

The wave of cold washes the soldiers and grenades, freezing them all solid as they all drop to the floor and shatter. Ice Queen huffs, then spins around to face the foot of an elite unit swinging in, getting booted in the face. She drops to the floor, yet snaps her arms up and shoots a spray of icicles with a cry of pain, killing the attacker instantly.

She groans as she picks herself up, cursing at herself, 'That's what I get for not having some soldiers to cover me!' She corrects her mistake, creating some piles of snow that transform into her summoners, who instantly get to work. By the time she applied some ice to her gut wound, there were several squads of sword wielding soldiers guarding her.

They of course were handling the reinforcements that decided to drop in, quite literally as they descended from the ceiling. Her men slaughtered them all as they stabbed their blades upwards, killing them as they came down to give no chance for their weapons to be drawn. Ice Queen simply finds her sword again, picks it up, and joins the fray. She will lead her people to victory!

She slashes at a trooper as they burst up from the ground, cutting its head clean off, before looking up to find a shotgunner. It was rushing towards her, moving to a position where it won't hit its teammates up as well, causing her to hurry. She swings her sword, letting it go as it rockets into the soldiers head, sending it flying backwards into Huntress.

The nymph grabs its body before it could collide with her without even looking, then snaps it before her to let it tank a plasma burst. She pushes the corpse into the soldier to stumble it, then throws a bunch of vines which swiftly wrap around its body and tighten. She turns to face the next foe as the snaps of bones breaking fill the air.

It was someone completely different, a new type of soldier that was squatting on the floor and fiddling with a black cube. It suddenly sprouted out three legs, turning into a metal turret with a single barrel and red laser pointer as it scanned for a threat. She instantly leaps at the engineer, ramming him into the floor and stabbing her sword in its throat, then kicking her foot out behind her.

She boots the sentry over, letting it rest on its side on the floor, still working perfectly fine but a whole lot less dangerous. She grabs it by its legs, and with a grunt picks it up and lobs it over the window edge into the reactor below. Yet just as she does that she hears the roar of an engine, causing her to snap her head up and ready her five arrows.

A gunship comes floating in through the smoke. It was shaped like a cross, with two rocket pods attached to its sides, a multi barrel minigun built into the nose. The end of its wings were two rotatable engines, with pipes attached to the top, feeding in oxygen for the engines from some tanks to allow traverse in the smoke. The back tail was completely designed for stability, and underneath the end were massive engines for propulsion straight forward.

Everyone has a second to stare at it in shock, before diving to Ice Queen as she creates an ice cocoon. The barrel spins to life, and with a roar lights the room up with actual lead as it ricochets everywhere in a shower of sparks. After ten seconds of pure hellfire, the spinning barrels come to a halt, leaving the room and anything inside smoking, bullet holes dotting the area.

Of course, the cloud that the bullets had flung up fades away to reveal the cocoon perfectly intact. It drops to reveal Ice Queen who groans at the sudden stress she had to do, but more terrifyingly an enraged Huntress. She fires her five arrows directly at the pitch black cockpit, creating cracks against the glass as the gunship backs away.

It shifts position and takes aim at the group, then the rockets launch from its pods on the side, shooting towards them. Ice Queen recovers in time to release a spray of icicles that clash mid air, exploding them in massive explosions of smoke. The gunship's view is obstructed, causing it to flick to thermal viewing, only to discover Finn rushing towards it on a path of ice.

He gives a cry as he leaps from edge and lands on the aircraft, causing it to begin to spin in an attempt to throw him off. Of course, he's received worse from large beasts as he keeps his grip, and begins stabbing the glass. The cracks worsen, causing it to suddenly burst forward towards the control room as the hero's eyes widen.

He lets go and falls, only to be lassoed by Huntress, who swiftly pulls the knight towards her, just as the ship rams into the building. It shakes violently, yet the nymph doesn't lose her grip, relentlessly pulling him to safety as the gunship pulls back. It was covered in metal and the glass cockpit had shattered, revealing the pilot inside who hurriedly flips a switch.

An energy shield swiftly turns on, though it flickers once or twice as the pilot curses about losing its interface. Still it turns the gunship towards Finn as the hero dives away from the ladies, propping up his ice bubble just as it fires it minigun again. The girls take the opportunity to attack, firing a bunch of ice and arrows at the aircraft. It takes immediate evasive actions, though doesn't stop firing.

Its bullets rip through the room as it sweeps its barrage through it, causing Huntress to barely flip over it to evade. Ice Queen ducks behind a thick, reinforced ice block, yet even then it becomes shredded as it barely protects her. Huntress curses as she throws out some plants at the edges of the room, hoping they are out of the danger area.

They sprout into trees, causing her to yell at the cold royal, "Distract it!" She rushes towards them, while Ice Queen pops up and summons a bunch of summoners. They themselves create archers, who begin to pepper the flying war machine with explosive ice arrows as it bobs and weaves in the air, trying to avoid taking any more damage. The woman then throws out some ice balls with a grin, letting them float up and become high explosive sentries that lock onto their flying target.

They fire, and the giant machine darts away, spinning around and blasting its back jets as it disappears into the smoke. Finn pops out of his cocoon, glancing at them, "Anyone hurt?" He immediately inquires, glancing at Huntress as she fiddles with her trees.

Ice Queen steps forward, "We're fine, though that gunship can be back at any second. I think the weakness will be the cockpit or the engines, but whichever one it is, we need to focus on it." The knight nods in understanding, twisting to face the wood nymph.

She flicks her attention at him, "One sec, I'm mutating these…" They suddenly grow vines, causing her to smirk, "... Because I have a plan." The other two hurriedly move to her to hear it.

A few moments later, they were all in position and awaiting for the gunship's return, and sure enough, they heard the roar of the engines. It swoops in, barrel spinning as it takes aim at them, and fires with blinding flashes and ear popping bangs. The group holds strong as the ice archers get shredded, Ice Queen and Huntress firing away at their own engines each.

It takes evasive actions, but it simply couldn't avoid all the attacks as it pings off the armoured thrusters. All it will take is one lucky hit to some important wire to knock them out for good. Its main multi barrel gun blares as it targets the priority targets of Ice Queen and Huntress, who both take their own desperate evasion tactics.

The ice sentries pick up the slack, only these target the rocket pods on the side in hopes of creating an explosive chain reaction. The blue orbs slam into the side of the hull, tearing a chunks off as icicles pierce into wires and shred the wings. The war machine just gives up, and blasts off some missiles that roar as they approach the group.

Huntress swoops in to stop them, ordering two of her arrows to intercept the explosive duo in a sacrificial charge. They collide mid air again, yet the remaining ice archers continue their attack on the cockpit, pounding the barrier. The emergency shield fizzles and flickers under the attacks as the pilot panics, and just fires all he's got at them.

Ice Queen creates a massive wall of ice, leaving her panting behind it as it blocks the attacks with heavy thumps. However they hear banging behind them, and Finn spins in eager prediction, grinning as he spots more soldiers rushing in. He was expecting them. He rushes at the guards with his sword out to his side, then slashes at the first soldier just as it snaps its weapon to him.

Finn cuts the gun in half diagonally, then swoops the arm back up to slash the head off the soldier. He swiftly grabs the body, and rushes forward with it as it blocks the attacks of plasma, before booting it at a former comrade. It stumbles it, before the hero rams his sword through its head and continues on with his charge.

He sprints into another with his brutal shish kebab, spearing its head as well before ripping his blade free of their heads. He turns to their weapons and swiftly grabs an assault rifle, chucking it to Huntress before turning to face the wall again. Not a second later, reinforcements came, though he was taking note there were only three, 'Power is down from the melted reactors, so the factories are running dry! Just a bit longer and we can bust out of this room!'

While he engages in the combat of bringing a sword to a gunfight, the rest are watching the ice wall slowly crumble away. The bullets were slowly shredding it away as the royal smirks, Huntress holding Ice Queen's side as she readies her new gun. The royal takes a deep breath in preparation, then shatters the ice wall, creating a thousand shards.

With a pained scream, she launches it all towards the gun ship as it takes immediate evasive actions. Unfortunately for it, it has nowhere to go as the ice slams into it, punching holes in the armour, and worse, stalling the engines. They puff out smoke as it spins out of control for a second, warning sirens blaring inside the aircraft as it begins to fall towards the molten metal below.

Huntress aims her plasma rifle. And doesn't fire. She lets it recover, the engines restarting as the previously damaged fans adjust to their new air resistances and stabilise. It rises up again, turning to face them as the barrels spin. Now! Huntress blasts at the gun, and the superheated plasma simply melts the minigun, the pipes becoming sludge underneath.

She smirks with its main weapon offline, and snaps to Ice Queen, "NOW!" The royal aims both hands and sprays out a bunch of ice at the aircraft's missile pods, freezing them solid as she covers them in a thick layer. The nymph twists to her human hero as he charges a rifleman, "FINN GET READY!" He abandons his fight to nod, rushing towards her.

The gunship moves to pull away with all its weapons offline, yet Huntress acts swiftly on her plan. The vines from the trees she had summoned shoot out at the aircraft, and wrap around the wings of the vehicle. They hold it in the air, even as it attempts to pull away with all its thrust, before beginning to tug it in towards them. The gunship is slowly brought towards the control room as the pilot inside panics, its gaze constantly snapping to the group.

Huntress launches her five arrows as the other three sit in her quiver, and the ice archer around her joins in. They strike at the barrier, pounding it as it flickers and starts to fail under the abuse, slowly wearing it down. Finally, the wood nymph stands aside as Finn charges past her with sword in hand. He leaps out of the window, arcs through the air, and lands on the nose of the gunship.

Immediately he moves up a little to position himself over the cockpit as everyone else stops firing, allowing him to start stabbing the barrier. It continuously flickers, fizzling coming from the dark blue shield as it slowly struggles, before the barrier finally collapses. Finn stabs the pilot, and swiftly lifts its corpse from its seat, throwing it over the edge to the burning reactor before.

He hurriedly sits in the seat and stares at all the buttons before simply shrugging, and grabbing the control stick. The girls rush over, jumping atop the gunship and sitting on all four atop the hull, before glancing at the hero. He clicks his neck as he gently pulls back on the stick, causing the nymph to order the vines away with a raised eyebrow, "You know what you're doing?"

He shrugs, "I've played on BMO." Before the now scared woman could take control, he pulls the gunship back and away from the control room. He slowly ascends while staring at the crane above them, the one that put the cover over the reactor, and glances at Ice Queen, "If you wouldn't mind?"

She shoots some strands of ice at the damaged machine, and with a pained grunt makes it expand. The crane with its already weakened state after the stream explosion can't handle the weight, and groans before breaking off. Ice Queen quickly absorbs her ice as she watches it fall before them with a grin, "Let's speed this meltdown up, shall we?"

The crane slams into the lava, and the momentum makes it go to the bottom, into the slowly melting floor with a massive amount of force. The enfeebled floor breaks at the impact, and molten reactor flood to the emergency one below, flooding them with the metal. The poorly designed reactors of course are destroyed practically instantly, and finally, the citadel goes dark.

Power shuts down to just puny, little generators dotted about the citadel, that can't even keep the lights on. The factories that were arming and building guards shut down, the machines that let them pop out of walls deactivate. Traps and security are practically gone, as the security machine hums in annoyance, "Systems failing, directing power to self preservation. Improved human hunter complete… move to intercept the path to me, they must not shut me down. Rot in hell."

Finn meanwhile grins in the dark, and gently begins to move the aircraft about, turning around as he uses the illumination of the lava below him to see about. However, Huntress swiftly steps in, activating her huntress vision and glancing about, "Go left." He nods, and gently moves forward, taking the gunship into some tunnel that was dotted with debris and unspent fuel.

Then he hears a storm of feet charging towards them from behind and some deep rumble that makes his hands stand on end. He pushes forward, going as fast as he can down the winding halls before the rushing guards could even shoot. The engines hum loudly as he swoops around paths, while Ice Queen lays down, watching their behind. A whole army was behind them, the ones that were to attack the control room rushing after their foes.

She grunts in annoyance, and glances about for a solution as plasma starts to fill the air, bouncing off the ship's armour. She scrambles down to safety and glances at Huntress, "What can you do against them?" She inquires casually as they start to sweat, the air becoming heated by the weapon's burning attacks. Another deep rumble, though this time it was louder.

The wood nymph shrugs, "I have nothing, not without us stopping to actually engage them." She glances at the functioning though frozen missile pods, "Maybe-"

Suddenly a loud explosion pops their ears. They all jump, causing Finn to almost crash the speeding gunship as the woman peeks over the too to see what happened.

They see a corridor fire. The royal snaps to her knight, "FASTER! FULL SPEED!" The boiling hot lava had met a pipeline of gas, and a horrid chain reaction was spreading through-out the citadel. A domino of explosions were roaring behind them as he floors it, pushing fully forward in the joystick as everything is wiped out by fire.

He shoots down the halls, Huntress yelling directions for him to go in the dark as she navigates away from corners and dead ends. However as the explosions approach the area starts to vibrate violently, the roof and floor slamming into the aircraft. Finn grunts as he attempts to keep the vehicle from crashing, when Huntress suddenly yells, "Massive room!"

They had reached the storage room for the fuel rods of the reactor. Highly reactive, fuel rods. The roaring fire behind him illuminates it enough for him to see he can go straight up. So he does so with a groan of effort, yanking the joystick upwards as the aircraft suddenly goes at a ninety degrees angle. Ice Queen gives a cry of shock as she slips at the sudden turn, and loses her grip, causing her to start to fall towards the fire now beneath them.

Huntress snaps her arm out to the royal just as she releases a scream of terror, catching the falling woman as she strains to hold on. The fire ignites the fuel below them, and it swiftly burns like hellfire, spreading everywhere as the air becomes superheated. Finn groans as he reaches the top of the storage room, and brings the gunship to a halt as he spins to face a wall.

He snaps to the women as the nymph helps Ice Queen back on, "Honey! Can you fly? And Polar, can you melt those missile pods free?" They both nod, causing him to squat in his seat as Huntress becomes a large bird, grabbing the royal. Ice Queen gets tugged into the air, and she swiftly frees the explosive weapons as the wood nymph hovers towards Finn.

He was staring at the buttons all around him, and promptly pressed one on top of the joystick itself. Two missiles roar out and slam into the wall, exploding violently as he grins. He repeatedly hits the buttons, rockets bursting out their holding cages and ripping a hole into the wall.

Finally, he gestured for Huntress to float above him, allowing him to grab Ice Queen by her feet. He pushes forward on the joystick just as he jumps, letting the aircraft shoot forward underneath him.

It smashes into the wall, causing a humongous explosion as fuel and bullets are ignited, causing the trio to swiftly back away for their own safety. After the deadly fireworks end, Huntress shoots forward towards the fiery hole in the wall it made. They enter some corridor that she barely fits in, to the point where her feather get singed by the fire as she releases a cry of pain.

She shapeshifts back to her normal self and clutches at some light burns, yet shrugs off the pain and pushes herself forward. Finn and Ice Queen were swiftly by her side as they rushed down the blacked-out corridor, relying on the wood nymph to lead the way by using her magic vision. They rush away from the fire and melting fuel behind them as they stick close to one another, yet they can hear more than just their own footsteps.

Panicking, lost guards were scrambling about, trying to figure out what was going on, and stumble before them. They don't stand a chance as the group rushes through them, Huntress sending an arrow into each of their heads, but not before they could yell. The shout echoes out as all the remaining guards in the area rush towards them, following the cry with weapons drawn.

Plasma lights up the corridors, similar to how a lightning strike will light up the dark night of a storm. It all slams next to the trio with loud bangs as they hold their ground, Ice Queen creating more spearmen that charge for them. They mostly get mowed down as they crumble to ice dust, yet a few make it as they promptly start stabbing away. Guards mount bayonets and get into close quarter combat, stabbing and slashing as they lock with hard ice weapons.

Of course, then Finn joined the fray, and it was practically over for the defenders. He starts by swinging his sword from over the shoulder down, diagonally cutting a guard in half as he cuts through their armour. He then swoops it back up to slash at the neck of another, the soldier clutching its bleeding throat as it collapses to the floor.

He then shoots his hand forward and grabs a guard's head, before swiftly chucking it towards an ice spear. While at the same time, his sword swings to the right of him, and bites into the side of a second soldier behind him. He spins to face the guard he just struck, stomping on its knees to bring it to a kneel, before ripping his blade out of its side.

He then slices its head clean off with a horizontal swoop, and continues the momentum to spin around. He faces his next target, and pounces at it as they aim their rifle at him, rearing his arm back to send his sword deep into its face. A spear from beside them stabs into the soldier's arm and throws its aim off as the knight descends onto his foe.

With an aggressive thrust, he plunges his blade deep in its helmet, shattering its visor and digging straight into its skull. He snaps about for his next targets, but discovers the last few being dealt with by Ice Queen and Huntress Wizard.

Huntress was rolling over the back of a soldier while holding its arm and at the same time kicking her feet out to boot another to stumble them back. Her arrows shoot under the guard she was on, and arc up into its gut just as she gets off, sending the body flying into the roof. She then tackles into the one she had stumbled and bit into its neck with her razor sharp teeth, ending it as she chucks her ice blade at Ice Queen.

She catches it mid air, and holds it in the other hand of her own blade, dual wielding as she blocks a bayonet stab. She shoves them back, and then starts swinging with both swords in the same motion, doing double attacks as she forces it to back up. The soldier snaps up its gun and takes aim at the woman, only for her to dart forward and stab the weapon.

It breaks and is split as the sword pierces into it, causing the woman to jolt her arm out to her side to fling the broken weapon away. She then thrusts both blades into its shoulders, and pushes downwards to force the guard to its knees. Then she swiftly lets go of her weapons for a second to spin around behind the soldier, grab the handles again, and hold it steady.

Her spearmen rush in with their weapons in hand, and seven freezing cold spikes dive into its body from the front. Then with a grunt, Ice Queen and her men yank their weapons apart, ripping the corpse apart in a show of gore as parts go everywhere. To finish it off, she strolls towards Finn and Huntress, and plunge her blades into the heads of two dead guards lying on the floor. She then, merely grins at the duo as she dusts off her hands, "Well! We did it! Mission complete."

Finn blinks, then shakes his head, "Yeah we did. The power source that was keeping this station alive is now gone, meaning that the prisoner could all be free and rioting right now." He then glances about in the dark, gaining a small smirk, "At least we'll be able to sleep easier now." After his little jest to keep positive, he glances at them in worry, his gaze scanning their forms, lingering on their wounds, "Are either of you two injured badly? I might have some tears left over, but I don't know…" He sighs and curses himself in his head, 'I should have brought more!'

Ice Queen was instantly by his side, "Easy my knight, we're fine for now, we're only suffering light scratches." She creates some ice in her hands, "And now that security is off… ish, I can probably do this without them noticing." She swiftly applies it to her wounds to soothe it, while Huntress nods as she glances about.

She eventually hums, "I'm not hearing anything, so I think you're right." She smirks, "Security is down, we can use magic." Her words get a whoop from the royal, who starts hurried summoning in more minions, causing the wood nymph to shake her and strolls up to Finn, placing a hand in him as they share emotions, 'You good? You ask about us and not enough about yourself.'

He grins at her, 'I'm fine, I've been through way worse.'

She gives him a dead stare, '... So you are injured, and you don't want to admit it?' At his silence she only shakes her head, 'One sec hero, you're getting healed, whether you like it or not.' She says sternly as she begins to create a plant on the floor, growing into a flower that begins to secrete a nectar.

Finn chuckles at her, 'I'm not going anywhere, I need to be in my A game if I'm to keep up with you in the hunt.'

She swoops up the sticky liquid in one hand, and promptly rubs it on his wounds as she remains silent for a second. Eventually she nervously flicks at his blue eyes with a slight blush, 'I… I would slow down for you.' She admits.

For a second time he takes a blink in shock, then beams as he leans forward to kiss her in the lips, "Thank you."

She nods and pulls back, causing the hero to glance about, "... You know, I'm pretty sure we just killed every guard in the area." He states, prodding one of their bodies as Huntress rips the two ice blades free, "We could probably sleep if need be." Huntress hums in thought at the suggestion as he stares at the bodies, '... So I've caused more death. I had to though, so… I'm learning? If this is when I meant to be violent, then when am I meant to be peaceful?'

The wood nymph brings him out of his thoughts as she strolls up to him with his bow in hand, "Yeah, we can find an area to sleep, probably in an engineering level, and away from these bodies. They're going to smell." She pushes his bow towards him, presenting it, "I don't need it anymore. You can have your sacred tool back, hunter."

He shakes his head with a small smile, "You'll need it more than I will, keep it safe for me at least."

She takes it back with a tiny smirk, "You do realise that trusting another hunter with your weapon is very symbolic, right?"

He merely beams at her, "Well then, I think you should definitely keep it then~" She blushes lightly with a grin, moving the bow to her back for whenever she may need it.

She however then glances behind the hero at Ice Queen, "What're you doing?" She inquires, causing Finn to spin around.

The royal stands before him with a whole bunch of troops behind her: archers, swordsmen, spearmen, summoners, healers, and a few flying birds. They were all staring at him as Ice Queen gazes deeply into his eyes, "I'm using my time of weakness to become stronger. I can't fight that well but my minions can, they can go all out. So…" She walks up to the hero and places her hands on his shoulders, a pleading gaze coming from the royal, "... can you teach me to lead?"

Meanwhile, in the land of AAA, Fionna and Cake rush over the rocky hills where Flame Prince was rumoured to live. Well, actually the heroine knew he lived here, she had been with the fiery, hot boy several times in the past, which she had attempted to not have… contact with him, yet always came home with burns. She shakes her head of the memories, and strolls around with a hint of caution, though she was still her in bold stance of being an unstoppable hero of AAA!

Unlike OOO, the fire kingdom does not exist in AAA, the fire giants had never fallen from the sky to cast the land in a red hue. Thus, all there was cold stone, with caves that dotted the environment that the royal lived within, using wood and other such burnable objects to keep himself alive. However, that was before Gumbolt struck. Now, the sister duo watch in horror as massive robots and factories defile the land, with several fire cats imprisoned in what appears to be massive glass lamps. Flame Prince could be in one of them. The sisters rushed towards the machines to face them head on, they won't let the fiery boy be captured or killed!

Chapter finished

Sorry for the long wait! I decided to make this chapter three times longer than usual other than why not. For those who thought I was dead, sorry (though I did alert everyone on discord).

So we've seen the machine that was meant to hunt and capture Finn. It was destroyed, but the war machine has learnt and won't make the same mistake again, the next one waiting to intercept the group has learnt from its predecessor.

We now have learnt a little more about Huntress. You see, I was actually planning to have her past revealed in one giant arc about the wood nymph, but I do need to have some bits sprinkled in to keep you interested in her character. I don't think it is in Huntress's character to be revealing her past or emotions to people until she gets REALLY close to them, what might apply to Finn but maybe not Ice Queen. But she has now, yet that of course isn't the full tale of Huntress, we are only just beginning!

Reactor is down, power for the traps and security is practically gone except critical functions. I hinted at the start that they should create more chaos as a distraction, but Finn had ignored it to worry about Martin's time limit. He has no idea when he will face some sort of punishment, so he wants to rush to him as fast as he can.

I will admit, a serious problem I have is Ice Queen. She's incredibly powerful, and honestly could solve most problems completely on her own no problem, what is not a good thing. With her around, it becomes difficult to create tension or worry, because its 'oh she can one shot the problem if need be'. Just think about the difference between the arena fight and these current fights. So, I had her injured for multiple reasons. First was to add a weakness and limit to her, so she can't just wipe out everything (for now). The second is to make her rely on minions, and as such, become a better leader for when she creates and leads the Ice Kingdom (when it grows.)

Shusandjly (shoo-sand-jly):

Means a non woodnymph

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The Book of Eli, on FF, chapter 51:

Yeah, sorry for another himt chapter. I'M WEAK IF I SKIP A WEEK FOR HEALTH! Yep, I know how Finn works in a fight XD hit things at every angle until it's dead. Well, here is a bit of Huntress's backstory, as I explained in the above writer's notes there was a bit of a reason why I was waiting to tell it nut you're right, I did need to start giving snippets occasionally. More IQ backstory I can do and I have something in mind, though I'm trying to think about when is the best place to do it. Think I should do it next chapter after they sleep or wait to have a backstory cooldown as to not slow down these fights and keep the aura of emergency? I've got serious positives to doing the back story now, though it could weaken this and another arc by drawing attention away from current problems, and solve problems meant for the other. The scheme involves the blue catalyst comet, if you get what I mean, it's that part the cosmic beings are interested in.

blacksteel387, on FF, chapter 50:

I'm glad you liked it! Although chapter 51 is already up ;) Don't worry, I'm doing fine in these times, so I hope YOU the best in life man.