Swords clashed, and arrows were let loose against the experiments as Leonie and Judith battled the creatures. Judith slashed at the creatures' sharp pincers, cutting them off. The monstrous creatures shrieked in pain but quickly retaliated with a slash from one of its talons. However, Leonie was there backing up Judith as she let loose an arrow, puncturing through one of the creature's eyes, killing it instantly as the arrow lodged itself into the creature's head. What Leonie didn't see was one of the creatures had crawled up behind her and reared up on its back legs, so it was standing a good two feet above the archer. Leonie reacted just in time to protect herself as best as she could but could not stop one of its pincers from slashing against her back.
"AHHH!" Leonie cried out in pain.
"Leonie!" Judith called out to her as she stabbed one of the creatures through the head, trying to get at her friend.
"I-I'm fine."
The archer gritted her teeth as she managed to shoulder-barge the creature away from her. Just giving her more than enough time to grab one of her arrows and stabbed the arrowhead through the creature's head, killing it. This meant the room was now cleared of the monsters. Not given themselves a breather to catch their breaths, both Judith and Leonie gave chase to catch up with the Those Who Slither In The Dark Mage that was behind Lysithea's experimentation. Lysithea had already gave chased after the Slither Mage as soon as his monstrous creatures bought him enough time to make a run for it. Leonie's eyes darted in every direction in search of Lysithea.
I knew I shouldn't have let you go alone. Especially here of all places. Please be safe, Ly.
Leonie's worries were answered as she and Judith heard a small explosion nearby down a corridor. However, both Judith and Leonie were blown back by the shock wave, colliding against a wall. Their visions were a bit blurry from the blows to their heads, but still pushed through. As the smoke cleared, the two barely could make out a familiar figure approaching them.
"Leonie!" Lysithea called out as she ran to her lover's gritted her teeth and forced out a smile as Lysithea hugged tightly to her. Though what made Leonie take this more seriously was feeling Lysithea tremble in her arms. She quickly held onto Lysithea to ensure she was there for her.
"Hey, I'm fine. I'm right here. You're safe."
At this point, Judith had made it to her feet and headed down the corridor and saw the severely burned, but surprisingly still breathing Mage. Judith immediately attached one of those magical inhibitor bracelets that Hubert made onto his wrists and picked up his unconscious body to Leonie and Lysithea with the mage hung over her shoulder.
"I'm gonna take him back to camp. Are you up to tracking down Claude and Lorenz?" The swordswoman spoke.
Leonie and Judith looked towards Lysithea as she still trembled in Leonie's arms. Judith was about to open her mouth, but she was cut off as out of the corner of her eyes, she saw something like an acid spit coming their way. Without wasting a second, Judith dropped the Slither Mage and dove toward Leonie and Lysithea to shield them from this attack. However, her back took the brunt of the acidic bile as soon as it hit, she felt her armour melting. Quickly, she raced to pull her chest plate off of her as the acid quickly melted away her armour. While Judith was doing this, Leonie fired arrow after arrow toward the creatures. At the same time, Lysithea conjured a barrier around the group.
Unfortunately for Judith she was not quick enough as the acidic bile had burned through her shirt and was now burning her skin.
"AHHHHH!" Judith screamed out as the pain suddenly spiked as the acid burned her dropped her magical shield for only a moment to cast a quick yet devastating fireball that incinerated the remaining creatures. She then quickly turned to Judith with her healing hands. She pressed her hands onto Judith's burn to try and stop the acid from killing her.
"Slow breaths. Easy now." Lysithea spoke softly as she closed up the acid bile from spreading. However, there was nothing she could do for the burn mark that now cover the majority of her bare back.
"Haaaa. Haaaa." Judith breathed out unsteadily as she felt Lysithea's healing hands envelop her entire back.
Leonie ripped off a part of her armour so it could fill up the hole in Judith's armour. As Judith started to collect herself, Leonie quickly patched up the hole as best could. With assistance from Lysithea, Judith somehow managed to get to her feet. Leonie passed Judith her patched-up armour and carefully put it on. It offered next to no defence for a swordswoman of Judith's calibre, which worried both Leonie and Lysithea. They both glanced at each other and then glanced at the shape Judith was in before silently nodding their heads. Quickly, Leonie pulled Lysithea in for a quick embrace and pressed their lips on each other, before quickly pulling away.
"I'll be back. I promise." Lysithea said before she placed a hand on Judith and the Slither Mage as a glow formed in Lysithea's hands.
"Lysithea N-!" Judith managed to say before she, Lysithea, and the Mage teleported away back to camp. With the three now gone, Leonie hurried to try and find Claude and Lorenz. She got to the only room that wasn't filled with corpses of men, women, and children. The experiments that failed, Leonie guessed as she gritted her teeth and clenched her hands in to tight fists.
No more. No more innocent lives will be taken.
Leonie was what looked like the main room that Those Who Slither In The Dark conducted their meetings. It was not until she spotted the familiar forms of Claude and Lorenz, she ran towards them. However, when she managed to catch up to the pair, she wasn't prepared for what she saw. A gasp erupted from her mouth as soon as she saw in the middle of the room lying dead was Erwin Gloucester, impaled with Lorenz's lance. Though that was not all, as off to the side Claude was nursing Lorenz's right arm. Well, what remained of it. From what Leonie could see, it looked like it had melted away to his elbow.
"Stupid! Why did you do that?" Claude questioned as he tried to stop the blood flowing from Lorenz's wound.
"Lorenz!" Leonie was immediately by his side. He was barely conscious and looked deathly pale, as she took out her bandages and quickly wrapped them around the stump.
Both Claude and Leonie then felt a small gust of wind as Lysithea appeared inside the room, she saw how panicked Leonie and Claude were as well as the critical state Lorenz was in, so she quickly got to work. Her hands started to glow as she closed the wound before more of Lorenz's blood could seep out of the stump. Next, she heated the wound to cauterise it, so it would not get infected. Even through this Lorenz did not make a single sound. Nor did his face move in any way. The only thing to identify that he was still alive was the shallow movement from his chest. The three let out a small sigh of relief as the healing light from her hands slowly ebbed away.
"I've done all I can here, but he needs to be moved back to camp so he can get more urgent care."
Leonie nodded her head, but Claude looked like he didn't hear any of it. He was just clinging to Lorenz's now only hand like it was his lifeline.
"Claude?" Leonie spoke his name but still, silence from the other archer. "Claude!"
This time Leonie nudged Claude with her hand, which thankfully brought him out of his stupor.
"We need to get him back to camp, there Lysithea and the other healers can see to him properly."
Claude shakily nodded his head. "R-Right." Claude turned his attention to Leonie and Lysithea. He then looked around frantically looking for Judith.
"Where's Judith? Is she alright? Is she? Did they?" Panic started to flow into Claude's calm him down Leonie placed a hand on his arm.
"She's fine. One of those things melted her armour with a sort of acid and managed to burn her back, but she's being seen to."
Claude felt relieved as he turned his attention back to the still-unconscious Lorenz. Claude carefully placed one of his hands under Lorenz's legs and the other around his back. Ever so slowly, he lifted Lorenz into his arms. Taking great care not to aggravate his wound even more.
"I'll take him back to camp. Lorenz's fath- I mean he was on that console when Thales called. Maybe there's something on it that can shut down this place."
Leonie nodded her head as she made her way toward the console with Lysithea by her side. It did not take long for the Gremory to notice an option on the console that would suit both her and Claude's request.
A grin settled over Leonie's face as she saw the Self Destruct option. "Why don't you do the honours, Ly."
A small smile appeared on Lysithea's face as she pecked Leonie's cheek and pressed to confirm the base's self-destruction. "Hope you all know Edelgard, and I lived. I hope you curse our names on your last breaths, knowing we lived. Knowing we are going to send you crawling back into whatever hell you all came from."
With a single press of a button, alarms started to sound around them and throughout the entire facility. Not wasting a single moment, Lysithea started to cast the teleportation spell as the small group heard explosions distantly. Though just as the explosions got close, the group successfully returned to camp, just in time for Lysithea to watch as the facility was consumed by fire.
