Eostia: Harem Quest

by EostianScribe

The Gods have given mortals the power of The Gamer as a pass time. A hobby. A means to compete and relax. One goddess, however, sees it as a means of salvation; starting with one world. As such, she rolls the dice... (Harem, Citrus and Eventual Dark Content Warning)

83. Act III-Ch X: All-In

[ - Author's Note - ]

Well... a combination of a week long trip (That didn't give me a chance to write), a loss of a few paragraphs due to my own dumbness and a lot of Final Fantasy Fourteen grinding slowed this chapter down... but it's here now!

I think you know what this chapter is about; the tone will be a lot like the previous chapter 'Heroes of the Front' but a bit different...

So, rather then yak on let's start!

[ - Act III - Chapter X: All-In - ]

Fortune favors the bold.

~Unknown

Fortune favors the bold, but reality favors the prepared.

~Maxim Levantine

[-]

Olga's eyes narrowed as she looked over the opposing forces; it was the largest single army Eostia had fielded against them until now... and still it was smaller then her own. Somehow, it seemed that she underestimated her opponents as their ability to spy on her forces must have been exceptional as they had rallied an army large enough to counter her own; she had planned to just roll over the Eostian forces but she was under the impression that they'd be unable to gather like this. Still; she had the larger army and if they could defeat them here that would be it; the beginning of the end of the war on their terms.

Her army spread out and formed a half circle around Mooncast as the Eostian Army stood outside of and on it's walls. She was looking down across the field, sizing up her opponents when her eyes skipped over one segment of the field and snapped back. She saw a line of dark elves in the opposing force but standing under the old, destroyed Arblade flag; a nation she and hers destroyed ages ago that once corrupted her people who had, for reasons she was admittedly unaware of, left the great City State of Nidavellir. She had ordered all relics of that place destroyed and it's history erased... and yet, like a ghost of the damned it had returned... It was an unwelcome sight... and a suggestion there was more she was unaware of...

Once she regained control of her nation she could rebury that debauchery; for the here and now she needed to focus on the battle that lay before her. "My queen." She heard as Chloe moved to he side. "Everyone is nearly ready." Her aide let off as Olga nodded. Aberrant in the front. Conscripts framing them. Regulars framing them in turn. That was the usual; an effort to ensure that the conscripts didn't break by keeping them between more hardened units. Even if they did there would be more regulars behind them.

Calvary were placed to pincer the army from the sides; she had no doubts that the Eostians with their new aerial abilities knew of their position and composition, or at least suspected it's composition. Gargoyles were thick in the air already with more hidden within other numbers of their force, ready to take flight and challenge the Eostians in their new domain in the sky and to further ensure the flying wagons would go down a series of mages were using them as mounts under the command of Rubin Drakepyre; the now heiress to the High House Drakepyre. She shouldn't have been the heiress but the way the incursion went all between her and the title of Matron was the current Matron.

She brought out everything she could, even that... strange goblin and his device. Honestly, it's not something she was impressed with but given the situation she was currently in letting him join the battle in his bizarre contraption as thing stood couldn't hurt their odds at all. They were as ready as they could be and boasted the larger army; including many veterans and seasoned warriors and mages... although a very large percentage was made of of raw or mostly raw conscripts, more then she liked... It wasn't an idea she relished, but it was what it was and would be what it had to be...

As that thought finished she frowned as... something approached her from above and ahead; it was painted stark white and was, thus, fairly easy to see. Some eight inches in length and shaped like a flat, curved tear drop with the larger end facing her, it bore green spells stones at it's front and top on it's frame as it lowered before her and approached until it was just under eye level. She was about to demand an answer to what it was before the stone on the top came alight and projected the face of a blonde high elf she's seen across the field for centuries now. "Celestine." She hissed out softly.

"Olga." The projection let off as the device hovered before her. "We finally meet, in a sense." The voice was kind yet stern in it's tone... not unlike her own mother, at least when they were in private. "You cannot win. We are entrenched, we've the advantage in range and the Dread Field is no longer a factor in this war. It is time to end this foolishness peacefully."

"I've the larger army, Celestine, and we both know it." Olga replied firmly as she glared at the image. "And I've brought enough Aberrant to choke everything you can muster."

"A larger army yes... but how many have not tasted battle? A fifth? A quarter? A third?" The high elf replied calmly. "Everyone I'm fielding is now a combat veteran, forged and quenched in the fires of war. Our numbers are not so far apart that your advantage is absolute. Furthermore we've dealt with Aberrant before and have the means to do so once more. I will repeat myself; you cannot win."

"... The sun must be chased, regardless of the possibility to fail. Regardless if reaching it would burn and ail." Olga began to speak. "Pride demanded orders followed and the sun be caught..."

"...Even should me and mine be left to rot." Celestine sighed softly. "I can't recall the last time I heard that poem, least of all that section of it."

"Then you understand why I must." Olga said firmly.

"No, I do not." Celestine replied as she gave her a firmer look from the projection. "I would take that old story as a warning against blinding following pride and orders. You know you cannot win; even if you could gain victory here and now it would be too costly for you to do much after and our forces will recover and regenerate quicker. Your aims are over."

"No. They are not." She said before point her finger to the device before her and fired a Magic Missile into it; blasting the thing apart and sending it's stones flying apart. "Chloe..."

"Yes, My Queen."

"... Whatever may come we shall face it bravely."

"As always..."

[-]

Celestine sighed and shook her head. On the opposite side of the field from Olga she had one of her Dawn Templar bodyguards holding the voxlux up for her as she spoke to Olga. The Dark Queen's response was disappointing, but not unexpected. "That fool..." Both of them knew Olga couldn't win; a Pyrrhic Victory was the best Garan could gain now and they both knew it. Be it pride, be it disdain, be it zealotry or be it orders given to her by the Pure Council the fact was this; Olga Discordia refused to alter her course through words alone, regardless to the cost to her and hers. She sighed and looked ahead to the battlefield sternly.

They were as ready as they could be; heavy weapons like cannons including a truly impressive one called 'The Peacemaker' were set up and loaded to fire. Elite and veteran units were prepared for combat and set to lead seasoned forces to battle and guide the few, fresh forces they had to their first batch of combat. More over the Cloud Riders were prepared and set under the command of Baron Merlin Noxdecus; loaded with mages, archers and even riflemen. One was even loaded with a pair light ballista with bolts to spare and a second a pair of lighter cannons with rounds made of tightly packed small balls of iron and rock in paper balls and others made of tightly packed, paper wrapped darts of iron; promised to spread out and cause mass havoc in an area reducing the need to aim. It was a weapon of pure bloodshed that made her gut wrench thinking about... but in times of war such a weapon was required in the realm's defense and she would embrace them ungladly. Further bolstering the Cloud Rider's usefulness was that spell orbs were set on them that would erect a shield over them to add more defense to on coming attacks; they wouldn't withstand a continued assault but it would give the drivers a means to disengage.

Moreover they used what time they had to prepare well; the walls had been made defensible, at least to a point. It wasn't pretty, and it wasn't the most sturdy work ever done but it would give the men and women on the walls some defense. In addition long wooden stakes had been set up with points out and facing Olga's army and around the city which would limit the Garanians ability to charge. The idea of laying magical based mines were tossed around but she nixed the idea; proximity mines trended to have it's own issues and she also wanted to avoid killing the opposing conscripts both to spare their lives... and, more pragmatically, to drive a wedge into the opposing forces.

Given what Prostoy had told her and what they had learned of Garan over the course of their occupation she was well aware that the lower classes disliked their noble overlords and would form a weak point in the enemy forces; were they to break and run or attempt to run it wouldn't just be a loss of manpower in the form of the conscripts; their regulars might have had to attempt to contain their attempt to flee which would hinder the enemy further. More over she hoped this effect would be bolstered by their countrymen in the Ghosts of Arblade fighting on the side they were set to attack.

For the most part her forces were also standing in unison... or at least as much could be expected; the Lords of Eostia all had frictions with each other and that was before factoring in mercenaries, Church Forces and even local conscripts turned allies. Even so, regardless of aims and loyalties they all had the same goal; defeat Garan, be it for duty, religious fervor, revolution, glory or just coin in the pocket the collection of lords of the states, various sell swords, a mixture of two religious forces and smattering of local conscripts were all aimed in the same direction and prepared to be set to the same task.

Despite the differences within her forces they were united in one goal and whatever followed would follow. She would deal with the battle before her and any following troubles once the dust had settled. She would reach out to the held voxlux and touched it to connect it to a booster, brought in front of the Eostian forces. In a moment her projection rose high over the battlefield as the voxlux she spoke to projected back an image of her overall forces. "Defenders of Eostia! Hear my words and hear my voice!"

Once she was sure all had a moment to direct their attention to her projection she continued. "This may well be the final battle in this centuries long war! While nothing can ever be certain we can say this; more then any other battle until now the the Battle of Mooncast City will decide the future of both Eostia and Garan! Whatever may come after we shall succeed here and the sacrifices made to day will spare those who come tomorrow and after! If Olga Discordia wishes for a battle... then we will give her a battle that will echo throughout the texts of history!"

The bellows and cheers behind her showed off the effect of her words on the morale of her force as her projection was ended, the voxlux set away and the boost was moved off the field.

A roar from the opposing force signaled the coming attack; Aberrant, conscripts and regulars charging towards their lines.

The battle had begun...

[-]

White Peach squirmed a bit under me in anxiousness as I patted her neck with my left hand. I was getting used to waiting for large scale battles to start and I was thinking that was... not a good thing. I was at least hoping this would be the last battle of the war; I'm not sure if anyone would have anything left to fight with once it ended. That being said I didn't have a crystal ball so I could only hope. At the very least Olga was throwing so much into this battle that it was hard to imagine she had anything left to throw into the fray if she lost.

Of course the counter to that was the bulk of Eostia's active forces were thrown into fray as well. That's not to say we would have nothing left if we were defeated; in a pinch we could send Militias up north, drag men left behind to protect and guard the territories and build up maybe thirty to forty thousand more troops if we really had to. That being said that couldn't be done without a hefty cost; that would remove almost all checks against banditry as well as much of the protection from other nations. In addition to that the damage done to Eostia's demographics wouldn't be something to something to sneeze at; one doesn't just replace tens of thousands of people overnight and while we were able to cope with the normal incursions that didn't mean it was gentle.

I knew Celestine would use a modified, recolored Sky Eye to talk directly with Olga... and given that Celestine projected herself over the army for a speech not long after I'm guessing Olga didn't accept an invite to have milk and cookies with her; that meant the battle was on. I pulled the Shining Gemini out and activated the Halberd end and adjusted the grip before activating my glove's shield. Aeris was on her staff near me as well with Makoto ready to bodyguard (Now riding her own horse) while Gregory and my mother wer leading the combined Mungale/Lyran forces with Sulon Lyran assisting them. On the surface we were at a disadvantage; we were outnumbered by about one to one and a half but we had a large advantage of our own.

That started as cannons roared in anger and sent shells to the enemy and I could see the early results as a troll in the opposing line have it's head turned into a mist in an instant; I heard the Peacemaker was accurate and clearly the boasts weren't empty. They weren't the only cannons firing either; standard ones were set atop the walls looking like they came off of a pirate ship and roared with fire and smoke. Others on the field followed suite which was followed by one of the Cloud Riders decloaking from overhead; firing smaller cannons with spread shot ammunition; like an over sized shotguns as dark purple, burning shot rained across the field and blowing past opposing mana shields. Yes, burning, purple shot.

The effect was devastating; during the meeting I sat in on I suggested taking some smaller, weaker spell stones and set them to the ammo that the Steel Lock cannons used and setting Shadowblaze Weapon onto them; enchanting the cannons directly wouldn't work given the sheer mass of most of the ammo so we had to enchant the ammo directly. Thankfully the aforementioned weaker stones (Much left over from the ones I was given to counter the Dread Field) were useful here and a slight tweak would increase the shield devouring properties of the spell; my use of Dark Flare in the last battle was noted and I imagined that by using the dark/fire bolstered ammo to ruin opposing shielding would let the weaker weapons punch through. And punch through they did; arrows were sent off in waves as the pop-pop-pop of rifles rang out and followed by spells of various types.

Celestine gave out the orders well before the battle; target the enemy Aberrant and slay as many as possible and, when possible, prioritize them as targets. There were a few reasons for this such as that they provided the backbone of the enemy's armies, doubly so the larger ones like trolls and goliaths and we knew they had deployed the bulk of the Aberrant reserves to the battle and given the masses of goblins, orcs and ogres who could breed much faster then the dark elves that meant crippling the Aberrant numbers here would hinder their ability to rebuild numbers after the war and dull the potential threat that Garan might pose post-war.

The second was she wanted to spare the opposing dark elves as much as practical; make no mistake it wasn't done solely out of the goodness of her heart as she was hoping to cause the opposing conscripts to break and cause trouble for opposing regulars. If that happened the numbers advantage they had would shift hard. More over if some of the regulars broke that was just worse for them. A mix of dark, burning death roaring down to open holes in their shields and numbers followed by scattershot, arrows and more slamming into their most fierce fighters in the opening moments of a fight was a hell of a sight to see close up and I imagine a few pants were being darkened on the other end of the field.

Frankly it scared me a bit and these guys were on my side.

A cry came from the opposing side as they charged out at us; to me it seemed to be a charge made before they were fully ready to do so and it was quite uneven. Opposing mages fired off their spells which was split between two things; blowing apart the wooden spears set up to allow them to charge easier without stabbing themselves (Of course they'd still need to mind the debris as they charged) while the rest would sail at our forces... save Celestine had took her staff out and casted a massive shield spell to block what was coming at us. Gargoyles took off from the enemy's rear and carried, interestingly enough, dark elf mages who fired at the decloaked, cannon-laden wagon with mostly fire spells... that would be blocked as two more Riders came into view; my father holding up a shield spell of his own to counter before his wagon sent off spells and arrows were sent back forcing the winged Aberrant to maneuver and dodge before the wagons flew forwards themselves and started to manuever. Mages and archers who didn't have an angle to fire on the airborne threats would fire down into the on coming army as someone (Olga I would note a moment later) fired off a massive darkness/fire spell off to Celestine's shield; I wasn't sure what it was beyond 'Dark Flare But Bigger' as a means to return the favor.

That would fail as an arrow laced with Breeze Weapon (Fired off the wall by my sister, I would later learn) would impact the massive spell and set it off before it could reach Celestine's shield and making it explode over the air; embers from the spell would softly sprinkle the shield and cause small hisses but, otherwise, did nothing. Commanders on our side were barking out orders; the bulk of which could be summarized as 'wait for it' as we were letting the foe charge to us, sit under Celestine's protection and then charge back once they were close enough. This was both to inflict attrition on the foe before the clash began and use up a bit more of their endurance before impact.

My orders were to more or less do what I did last time; get attention, pull some of the enemy towards me and out of position and let the cavalry counter them. They were somewhere hanging by the city wall under an illusion; a large force of our heavy cavalry ready to react. In addition we had other mounted units moving to counter the enemies; I was sure that fight began before the main battle had.

The oncoming force of enemies, Aberrant and dark elf both, charged and some slowed due to the debris on the ground from the spiked spears (Both intact and blown apart); mostly the dark elves as the Aberrant either tried to rush through it regardless and I could see a couple goblins and an orc trip up and get trampled before a ogre behind them tripped. Preparations paid off; in a sense.

Soon I opted to call it my time to act as I nodded to Aeris and moved White Peach to the side as Makoto brought her own horse (A brown mare) to follow me. I brought us to speed before Dual Casting a spell; one of the many things I was working on was a Holy/Fire version of Cluster Flare to make some real big boom without risking harming allies using the same means Prim made Holy Flare Spread but it was far from ready so I doubled up on a normal Cluster Flare and I didn't skimp on the mana; making two dozen explosive balls of force the fired off and fired off into the Aberrant mob save two; I let those drop in front of the opposing conscripts to see if I could spook them.

Upon contact Aberrant bits went into the air and several conscripts stumbled and slowed but soon charged once more; pressed by those behind them to do so. I could also see a segment of regulars turn and move towards my direction; one man in the front clearly leading the lot and pointing right to me. Awwww, look! An enemy commander looking to make a name for himself! So I threw a Thunder Lance at him.

To his credit he brought his shield up and blocked the spell to no visible damage; the physical mana turning to electricity upon impact and he likely had a wooden layer preventing it from really hitting him. Oh well; other parts of the line would rush to him first and he'd be too distracted to come at me.

I kept moving to the side with Aeris and Makoto following me along as the enemy split off their charge at another part of the line just to get at me; it still surprised me that they'd jump at the chance to rush me.

(Something I hadn't known at the time was when Olga was holding court and realizing just how bad the situation was for her side my name came up and she seemed to speak of me in a respectful tone; given how much the upper ranks of Garan hated humans that spoke volumes and I guess the idea I was a prime target was spread about. Hell, I got yet another nickname from this mess from the Garanian side; the Cerulean Dragon, based on my dragon scale armor. They had no idea just how fitting that one was...)

It didn't take long for our cavalry to make their move; from the corner of my eye I could see them flood out and towards the segment of the enemy that was now charging me and coming around the wall and shimmering into view as they left the illusion that was over them. They were angled to hit the foe from the side and, to their credit, enough Garnian knights noticed to turn and face the cavalry as a few arrows flew towards our unit as a wind spell came up to knock the missiles from the air; a moment later I noticed that someone with a house emblem on his shoulder casted the spell... the emblem of House Beardsley. I assumed that was the grandson of the old bastard Razon, Boaz Beardsley.

In brief, after Razon Beardsley was outed as a member of the Cloaked Crowns his house... didn't have a good time; the whole family was investigated and it was discovered two of three of his sons, one granddaughter and two of his grandsons were guilty as of treason against Feoh and Eostia along with the old bastard; although they seemed to have been in the lower ranks of the crowns save Razon himself. Razon's other son was estranged from his father and died a few years ago; as a result Boaz was adopted by his grandmother and taken back into House Beardsley as the old fart's wife wasn't aware of anything he was up to, nor did he include Boaz in on what he was doing. In the aftermath of the investigations and once the man was cleared of any wrongdoing King Aston demanded that Boaz be named the House's new head with orders to clean house.

And not with a feather-duster.

Honestly I felt bad for the guy; he did nothing wrong and now he has to redeem his house, root out any corruption still within it and fight in a goddamned war on top of all of that. Oh, and her was currently at the age of sixteen. He was barely considered an adult in Eostia. Yeah, dude was given a rough lot in life right now and all because of his bastard of a grandfather thought treachery would be a fine idea; here's hoping he pulls through.

Back to the here and now, however, I moved and cracked my neck as I readied; I inverted the Gemini to bring the inactive side to bear and used it to cast another Cluster Flare at the opposing regulars and this time one of theirs put up a shield; my spell was enough to break it but it didn't do much damage beyond staggering them somewhat.

It did however knock the ones facing our mounted knights off balance just before impact; I could see one man get impaled by a spear and he wasn't the only one as the fight started there. A glance over showed be that infantry lines were making contact now. I was about to charge toward the line when... I saw something odd coming my way... and I was having a complete 'What The Fuck Moment' as a... thing came this way.

The 'thing' in question was made of brass, shaped like a knight's helmet with an extended lower part on a flat, box like hull that was about the size of a covered wagon on four, large wheels with short spikes on the ends with the back ones twice the size of the front. Capping the top of it was some sort of turret with a barrel like a tank but it's back end had some sort of tube leading to a tank (As in 'holds liquid' and not 'armored vehicle') set to the back; it was almost as tall as the main body, nearly as wide and cylindrical looking like someone strapped an armored barrel to it, straight up and down.

Sticking out of the sides was four, arm like limbs that ended with spell stones; the 'biceps' were fairly thin while the 'forearms' were thick and cannon shaped with the spell stones seemingly plugging them. I was sure I knew they were mana cannons like to the ones Ivo Insidiae had hidden back in Xenera (That brought back uncomfortable feelings...) as the contraption... drove around our units and rode up to me, slowing down as it did. You could hear gears shifting as slowed to a halt; it was... a strange, brass, steampunk tank. Finally the top pulled up like the visor of a helm...

And showed off a goblin sitting on some padded chair with, like, six levers before him, two to each side and four handles above and to his sides. Interestingly this goblin was green as opposed to the red I had become accustomed too... (As it turned out like humans goblins came in several, if more colorful, tones of skin; red was the most common in central Sererus, green to the east, gray to west and blue on the northern continent. More interestingly there was some racism in there as well; greens and reds got along mostly well but both looked down on the grays and called them 'zygger'. Yes, it more or less means what you think it means.) "Ha ha ha! You! James Noxdecus! I, Tinker Gear, have come to kill you!"

(-)

Name: Tinker Gear
Title: Gearwerk Goblin
Class: Machinist
Level: 22
Alignment: Hostile
Reputation: 56
Status: Healthy, Proud, Cocky

Known Traits
[?]
[Gear Grinder] You know how gears fit together better then most and can craft them accordingly. Anything you make that has gears inside of it works 10% better then usual and said gears are 10% more durable to wear and damage.
[Mana Director] Maybe you cannot manipulate mana directly, maybe you can... but you defiantly can build something to channel it for you! Any device you make can draw 15% more mana at any one time from any source of mana.

[Metal Craft] You know how to work any sort of metal in any means; be it forging, casting or more. +5% resistances and damage to all objects, armors and weapons made by you.

A goblin that learned the craft of machining from books he found off an engineer's corpse he is a mostly self-taught mechanic and tinkerer. Despite this his talent for crafting tools and weapons is clear and he allied with Garan to build bigger and better weapons and devices.

(-)

"You want to take a number? I know a few who want to do that." I let off as I glared to him... but I was a bit worried. I had his measure to be sure but I wasn't able to do the same with his machine.. That was annoying; that tank could make him punch well over his weight class a bit. More over, unlike Ivo's stuff, it wasn't shielded against my senses and I could feel the spell stone powering it. It had to be a sizable grade three at least. Given that I had taken several weapons off my foes now it should be clear I don't mind beating someone and taking their stuff if they picked a fight to the death with me and I wouldn't mind pull that once more.

That said as I sized up his machine somewhat quickly; it was clearly a steampunk styled, mana powered machine. The halflings had tried to make something like this before and while they could there were a few reasons they didn't deploy them; it was easy enough to rattle the things and make it stop working. More over unless this thing had some means to deal with magic I had some options to open it like a tin can; helping that was the fact it was made of brass which while not the worst thing to use as armor wasn't a match for bronze let alone steel. I wasn't afraid but I was cautious as I felt I could handle it so long as I didn't do anything too stupid.

Needless to say the boss music started to spin up as my view changed to zoom in on his face as he sneered at me.

"Bah! I'll show off my genius to the snooty ones! Now! You die!" He cried out as the tank snapped shut with a loud 'clang' as my view backed up as the golden lettering came up once more

_Gearwerk War Machine_
Assault Wagon Mk.I

As my view returned to normal I could see the spell stones at the ends of the arms come alight.

Right then.

I brought up an Arcane Shield as I had Peach start moving to his tank's side as it turned; the helm section was able to turn like a turret (Well, it was a tank, more or less) as it fired what could be called a pulse of a laser beam at me (It was more or less just a Magic Missile in power and effect save in the form of a beam instead of a bolt) which impacted onto my shield to some effect but my defense held. I directed White Peach slower and swung with the halberd end of the Shining Gemini to see what sort of impact I'd have on the machine's laser spewing limbs as, one by one, they adjusted their aim. On the one hand I quickly picked up that each limb needed to be moved individually by him.

Then my weapon deflected off a shield; I felt it pop up just before contact. Well now, that was interesting...

As it turned out, Peach could run faster then it could turn and after a moment it turned the other way to bring me back into view as I used Shadowblaze Weapon on the Gemini and this time when I swung the tank's shield didn't matter and I cut into the metal. I didn't lob off the arm but as it slumped down it was clear I had disabled it; doubly shown when the stone in it's end no longer glowed as Peach popped the Physical Boost in her armor to go that little bit faster and fully dodged the next blast.

To the curious; Aeris was circling overhead not sure of what to make of this thing and Makoto directed her steed away as she drew the Kouzenken's mana blade, also unsure of what to make of it but watching the rest of the battle for any possible problems and keeping an eye on me. This battle was, in effect, one on one and I didn't mind at all; him and his crazy contraption against me and one good girl. I would follow up with a Dark Flare from my off hand, slamming into it's front and gaining a loud yelp from Tinker Gear; clearly there was nothing protecting him beyond the grates of his tank's cockpit and, as such, I caused some harm. That was noted.

Given his machine kicked into reverse and started to back away I could only imagine the damage; clearly not enough as the top barrel of his machine turned to me and a small flame lit under it. It took less then a second for me to figure out this was a flamethrower and I quickly casted an Aqua Stream to counter it; sure enough some form of substance (I would later learn it was, more or less, knock-off, low grade, not-quite napalm) shot out and was set alight by the pilot light as my own spell connected just in front of the tank causing steam to rise up from it as I heard a roar of frustration come from the machine. Makoto and Aeris followed but kept their distance as his attack ended... and mine didn't as I aimed into the cockpit through the slats he used to see through. He fired his lasers once more but couldn't aim that well, at least until my own ended. "You bastard!" He cried out at me.

"No, I know who my parents are!" I called back in a 'totally missing the point, even though I really do get it' response. His machine picked up speed as I gave a series of sharp whistles; a quick and concise warning. Who was I warning? Our cavalry. Why?

Because the idiot was driving backwards towards the mass melee. Yup... Needless to say as I readied a cast our mounted forces moved out of the way. The enemy regulars were a tad slower as he plowed into them; screaming sounded as several dark elves were crushed. Tinker Gear seemed to catch on quickly and hit the brakes... and his machine started to tilt back... My guess on why was that the tank in the rear made it very back heavy and stopping at such a high speed made the ghost of Sir Issac Newton take note and give a live demonstration of physics as it landed on it's fuel tank; a poor, armored dark elf cushioning the tank's fall at the cost of his life.

As soon as I noted the tilt I started a Dual Cast; firing an Arcane Lance first as I made sure Peach kept some real distance as it struck the tank's underside and opened it up. I was about to follow up with a Flare Spread but he reengaged the engine, bringing the machine down to all four wheels and drove it forwards as I guided Peach away to avoid being run over myself then turned her to give chase while firing Flare Spread. My aim was a bit off and fell short but still hit the trail of knock-off napalm it was now leaking and caused it to come alight. Sure enough the fire opted to follow the path of oil towards the tank of the fleeing tank and once it caught up...

Boom.

The explosion was suitably large, I'll say, as I brought up a mana shield to block the debris with bits of brass pinging off of it. The boom was loud and the fireball went up some ten feet as the back of the tank peeled open with the top half of the 'helmet' launching forwards some forty feet... and some how I heard the goblin screaming. I looked up and saw a chair spiraling in the air with said goblin hanging onto it as he ended up launched at least a hundred feet up (HOW!?) as a white cloth came out of his seat's back. Huh... he had a parachute in there... I didn't expect that...

Then a flaming piece of debris hit it as he sailed towards a forest... and soon sailing turned to slow falling then quicker falling as his parachute burned...

Needless to say our cavalry took advantage of the chaos to press harder into the enemy as I went to the burning wreckage and took a moment to dismount and, after using an Aqua Stream to quickly set out fires, examined it. You'd need someone like Lulu to understand it correctly but I didn't care about that; I wanted to see what was powering it. Once there I found the power source; a red, basket ball sized spell stone. I had no idea how he got something that pick... Then I examined it.

Grade two!

That was the same grade in Makoto's sword and several times bigger!

MINE!

I quickly reshaped it to a flatter size and to be more rectangular before moving to Peach's saddlebag and setting it inside. This might have seemed a bit greedy (It kinda was) but it A) ensured the enemy couldn't recover it, B) ensured a House like Bludhorn couldn't get a hold of it, C) made sure the Church couldn't recover it and D) made sure no one like the Black Dogs could recover it. Frankly I wanted to keep something like this out of their hands.

I had projects I could use this for, but I didn't even consider it in the moment as I just remounted White Peach; this battle just began after all.

[-]

Campbell swung her new blade in a long, diagonal arc at her foe; an ogre would lose his head and arm in that single stroke. She would have to thank James for the new blade as the additional physical power from it's enchantments were a major boon; doubly so as she could still use her own Blazing Weapon on it as well. It made her stand out on the battlefield and drew Aberrant to her which was not something that she minded as it caused them to ignore her closer allies; that would both protect them and give them a chance to ambush and blindside the Aberrant. That's what happened as she dodged an orc's axe swing before she drove her blade through it's belly and pulled it out to the side; two ogres moved to flank her on one side but one was stabbed from behind and the other took an arrow to the neck, staggered, tried to keep going and stumbled to a knee before a spear from someone handled him.

An angered roar made the Aberrant before her part as a troll stepped forth; there was some worry but once she saw it's left shoulder had a gaping wound (Likely from cannon fire) that kept it's arm hanging limply she was sure she could finish the injured beast off. It's right hand gripped an odd weapon; a now mangled bronze statue. Of who she didn't know beyond 'woman', that it was ten feet long and held by it's shins. An arm was once, clearly, sticking out but broke off at some point. It rushed to her and she could see it's wound start to close, although very slowly, as it pulled it's weapon back. She pulled her own back and low, waiting for the swing and, as it came, she used a Combat Art to swing; cleaving the statue in two and sending it's upper half to the ground behind her before she planted her feet and using a second Combat Art to rush between it's legs and followed with a hard swing to the back of it's knee.

The troll would stumble forwards but she felt her instincts tug at her as it hit the ground; leaping to the side before a spell slammed into where she was; exploding in fire and heat. She would turn and see something... unusual; an elf with a dusky gray skin tone with deep, red hair tied back in a neck length ponytail, golden eyes peering under a featureless, mythril mask that covered everything but the eyes. She wore a black, leather leotard that was likely Armor Weave of some sort, thigh high boots, elbow length gloves and a single handed saber in her hand that was likely mythril. What was more interesting was her left glove; it bore five spell stones set to the back of the tips that looked like fingernails and were even colored red. As she lifted her hand all five glowed and she realized they were likely one spell stone divided into five pieces and used as a focus.

It was amazing what you learned when one of your House's main allies had a leader and heir who were respected and talented mages.

She hadn't heard about a masked, gray skin (Likely mixed) elf on the opposing side who was dressed in such a manner, but one didn't stand out like this unless they were either A) nobility or B) very talented and given what she knew about how obsessed dark elves were about their purity she suspected the second. She glanced back to take stock of the wounded troll and saw one of the regulars with a sword cutting the troll's throat. Seeing the troll was dealt with she spun her burning blade once and moved to hold it over her shoulder with both hands as she took a combat stance as she focused on the gray colored elf. "I am Campbell of House Galeraven. Who are you?" She called out as the woman turned her off hand to be palm up as flames collected into a ball over it as the spell stones in her glove started to glow.

"I am Plamya the Firestorm." She let off, her voice deepened by her mask with a hint of an echo coming from it. "I serve House Nightsong and demand to know the fate of Zhenya Nightsong."

"I see. Forgive me; but I have not heard of him." Campbell replied curtly. "I am aware we took Pasha Nightsong into custody I have heard a few others of the clan were captured. Who is he to you?"

"My father." Plamya said firmly as her eyes narrowed under the mask.

"I see. You would best be served by surrendering if you wish to see him." Campbell let off, offering her foe a means to stand down that she didn't expect would be accepted or welcomed.

"I'll see him as I rescue him after this battle." Her foe replied coldly in a manner not unexpected. "And I will go through you, gladly, to do it."

"That's unfortunate." Campbell let off as her eyes narrowed. Both red haired warriors stood at the ready; Campbell with her blade held up and back, Plamya moving to point her saber forwards and holding her flame coated hand back slightly. Both women glared to one another, waiting for the other to move or something to happen.

An Eostian soldier's body slammed to ground next to them and acted as a trigger with Plamya throwing a blazing ball of fire at her and Campbell charging in, swinging her blade to slash the oncoming spell in twain in mid air where it dissolved to embers before turning the blade for a horizontal slash that Plamya deflected with her saber as she drew more mana to her hand for another spell cast.

Campbell's response was to cast her off hand's fist into her foe's metal mask, clanging her gauntlet to it and making Plamya stumble a step as the Galeraven heir moved to swing her blade downwards with a single hand, impacting her foe's shoulder and seeing a light, purple barrier block it; confirming she did indeed wear an Armor Weave. Plamya swung with her own blade as Campbell blocked with the armor over her left arm; made twice as thick with another strip added in the center of the back for extra protection to block blows with before the mixed elf slammed a hard, close range fire spell into her chest.

Her armor bore enchantments of course (Hard earned during her time with the Steel Guard), including a Flame Guard spell but she knew the outer layer of her armor would be warmed from the impact and she was still knocked back two steps from the concussive force of the impact. The elf's weapon came alight with her own Blazing Weapon as she drew more mana to her hand while readying a stab. Campbell rushed in; feigning a swing and instead punching with her weapon's pommel while swinging her off hand to deflect the stab.

Her foe's head rocked back once more as the punch landed and it occurred to Campbell that the Armor Weave of her opponent didn't wrap up and around her head; either her outfit didn't come with matching head wear, it had been lost or it was destroyed. That was unusual and spoke to something about her opponent; what she wasn't sure yet but she swore to take her in alive if possible.

The Combat Art aided slash from said opponent with a burning weapon reminded her that said opponent wasn't planning to be as merciful as she felt a hard slash to her head; blue mana blocking it. Unlike her foe she did have full head protection in the form of her circlet; a single piece of Mana Armor recovered from a bandit's hideout. She was mostly unhurt, save that the force still rocked her head back but she was able to recover quickly, ducking the follow up strike as the elf readied a spell. Said spell, another Fireball, was tossed to the side and slammed to the ground as the Galeraven Heir used her own Combat Art to shoulder tackle the woman in the abs, lifting her up and then slammed her down onto her back, slamming her shoulder down into her in a somewhat sloppy spine buster. The woman grunted with her Armor Weave protecting her body from the impact but she still found the breath knocked from her lungs as her unprotected head slammed into the ground hard as Campbell leaned up enough to swing her weapon holding hand into a haymaker, slugging her foe in the jaw.

It was clear the mixed elf was knocked out as she panted, stood and grabbed her by the ankle and moved back into her line. Once she was clear of the melee she would use rope to bind the woman fully and handed her off to another solider with orders to slap mage binds onto her once he could and take her away to be imprisoned for the time being.

She would move back to the front right after; the fight had only begun...

[-]

Carmen deflected an arcane spell from the air with her rapier before inverting the weapon in her grip and firing back at the mobs before her and hers with a powerful Scatter Bolt as she minded her mana; it would likely be a long battle and she'd need to pace herself. Her loss to Halbert Oxford back during her mistress' birthday party was brutal to the bodyguard and forced her reevaluate herself before picking herself up and moving on.

Her old outfit was an well made Arcane Robe, aimed at making her magic as powerful as it could be and after having it literally carved off her she would (With Prim's help) recreate the outfit as Armor Weave; she couldn't protect her princess if she couldn't protect herself, after all. That also led her to learning more healing and defensive spells to ensure that in the event something like that happened a second time she could hold off a foe, no matter how much stronger said foe was. And then just training; focusing on becoming stronger, faster and tougher while deepening her mana reserves, her endurance, her everything.

She even had the pommel of her trusty rapier replaced with a spell stone focus to further bolster the power of her magical attacks; an inspiration taken from James' Unicorn's Horn (A weapon she well knew had changed hands) and the effect was worth the price and time invested. A glance up had her check on the wagons above the air; zipping around as gargoyles carrying opposing mages chased them while firing at them. Carmen well knew that shield orbs, concentrated tight around the Cloud Riders, would offer some protection but as she saw a chunk of railing blasted off by a powerful, directed flame spell it was important to note that 'protection' didn't mean invulnerable.

She would send a Scatter Bolt upwards towards a pair of the flying Aberrant; both monsters would notice and dodge the attacks but it did disrupt them for a moment and one of the gargoyle's dodge had him slow down in the air for a brief moment before the distant pop of a rifle went off as it's head snapped to the side as it fell; it's rider abandoning it as she used a Levitation spell.

She would follow up by firing another Scatter Bolt into the targets on the ground, knowing it would be a long battle, more then likely and she frowned as she saw something rushing her way; a smaller troll, some ten feet tall but one with a large, tower shield held before it with what seemed like randoms dresses, tunics, shirts and other bits of cloth on it that was either nailed or glued in place. She flung a powerful Fireball at it and she wasn't alone; several other mages fired off with spells ranging from the basic Magic Missile and Scatter Bolt to other fire spells and a Vortex Tunnel that caught two of the fire spells and bolstered them and slammed into the shield... that held with the cloth lightly scorched at most. It quickly occurred to her that the various pieces of clothing and cloth covering the shield was likely Arcane Robe, granting the shield a high resistance to magical damage. She was forced to admit; it was a clever idea if you were going to rush at them and the wood would still be enough to handle arrows and bolts.

The soldiers between the troll and the collection of mages and archers were unable to do much; even a small troll was massive compared to normal people and most were forced to move away or be bowled over; three men were in fact knocked over and away, with one man flung some fourteen feet by the massive monster's charge. More spells and arrows poured to the Aberrant as the soldiers tried to close the hole in their ranks. She realized that if nothing was done it would smash their rear lines and, as such, she charged to meet it.

She brought her blade to a normal grip and as she rushed in closer saw the troll pull it's main hand back; a massive club wrapped in iron and brass bands near the end being pulled out from behind the shield. It grinned to her and turned to meet her as she fired off a powerful Fireball at it which it pulled it's shield in front of it's face to block the attack... just as she had planned as she used a speed bolstering Combat Art to rush closer then leap upwards; feet hitting the massive defensive barrier as she ran up the front of it three steps then set her foot onto the edge of the top of the wooden shield before she pulled herself up and threw a weaker Fireball to the Aberrant's face, stunning it before falling over the edge directly with a soft flip, inverting her rapier's grip before slamming it down into it's skull. Even so the seven inches of steel planting into it's brain wouldn't be a sure kill against a troll.

The lightning spell she channeled through the blade that would cook it's brain inside it's skull would do the trick as the troll screamed out before she back flipped away, a Combat Art used to land on her feet as the dead troll slammed to it's back. She panted lightly before looking back to where it came from; an orc starting to push it's way through.

She used a Magic Missile to fix that, taking a moment to recover her endurance and mana before rejoining the fight once more.

[-]

Akanji Isikhulumi had expected to be involved in fighting when she left her home in the search for stories to bring home and share; the world was, after all, a dangerous place with dangerous things and dangerous people but it was worth walking it to see the wondrous places with wondrous things and wondrous people. As such it was always worth it to seek out new things, speak with new people and find new stories to tell.

She had a few to tell already; a war generations old that had finally turned thanks to one man's ingenuity and insight that had allowed the defenders to finally push back and seek an end to the battle with, by all appearances, one, last great battle to decide the land's fate. She could only imagine the looks of her countrymen when she returned to tell the tale; some embellishment would be had, of course, but only to make the tale grander and more impactful.

Of course she first needed to survive the war.

She was attached to the Mungale/Lyran joint forces and did what she did best; hold up shields to block spells and incoming missiles. She preferred the path of pacifism and peace but lived in a world where those that disagreed with that philosophy would do so violently; a pure pacifist could not exist outside of a well guarded home and would need to accept violence might be needed to defend said home. In the real world a velvet glove needed to be paired with a mailed fist or other weapon to ensure the glove was useful at all; and she had gained quite the mailed fist recently as she threw a Holy Flare into a batch of goblins in combat with her allies.

She had quickly come to adore the hybrid attack spell as it removed the issue of friendly casualties when she had to attack; it took more mana to cast but in her opinion it was worth it. A screech took her attention as she looked up, holding a shield, using her specially made bracers as magical focuses, as a gargoyle bounced off it; and not very hard. One of it's wings was wounded with large holes so it was likely he couldn't stay in the air but had enough control to less crash and instead slam down in a controlled dive attack. It snarled at her as she lowered her shield and held up both of her hands, awaiting an attack.

She didn't need to wait long as it rushed her; claws up as it snarled. She had a few options to deal with it, but given the moment was mostly one on one she opted to cast a shield before her... that was inverted, all but catching the Aberrant in a magical ball as it's face slammed into the inside as she set her other hand before it and focused; casting a second, airtight shield... around it's head.

As soon as the shield attached to it's head it moved to claw at the shield separating it and her, snarling and wasting energy. It was not a kind means of dealing with a foe but it offered her the option of disabling an opponent until they passed out or allowed her to kill them without placing herself or her allies in danger. Soon it would collapse; first to all fours, then it's side where it collapsed. She was soon able to remove the outer shield and cast one over her allies once more; keeping the shield over it's head in place for several minutes more before ending it.

An unkind death in the unkindness that was war.

[-]

"You keep dragging me into these things!"

"You didn't argue that much."

"Well it needs to be done... but still!" Andrei snorted at his friend's commentary as he braced his feet before side stepping and thrusting his spear down and low; tripping the horse of the charging lowborne and sending the rider flying off it's saddle. He had not time to check the damage dealt but he imagined a heavily armored man being flung in such a manner would dent the ground and himself rather well. Pavel would cover him in an odd way; using a small device at his hip to light a cloth. That cloth was stuffed into an old ale bottle full of lamp oil that he threw at another knight; the bottle broke on the helm and engulfed the lowborne in a ball of fire that clung to him, making him scream as his steed screamed and ran off to the side carrying him away.

How he came up with the basic fire bombs was something Andrei was curious about but he was more curious about where his friend got the Bag of Holding to hold them all in.

Neither knew the creation would be called 'Mooncast Cocktails' in the days to come, but it was a frighting weapon. "TRAITORS!"

The pair turned as they saw another, armored dark elf walk up to them; this one marked as a highborne, with the colors suggesting House Nightsong. She was dressed in full plate armor with a full helmet boasting a full mask that only showed a pair of glaring red eyes; one hand holding a three foot long shaft with a large, skull shaped mace head made of steel. Pavel and Andrei shared a look; she was well armored enough their spears wouldn't work unless they got the points into a gap in the plates. Andrei jammed the butt of his spear into the ground to plant it into place and drew his back up weapon; a flanged mace chosen as it would be more effective against plated armor then most other weapons he could find.

For his part Pavel pulled another bottle of oil out but didn't light it as he adjusted his spear to a one handed grip as they moved to spread out; watchful of their new foe. "You have no words for your crimes!?" She let off glaring to one then the other.

"To be blunt; fuck off toddlerborne." Pavel let off firmly at her. "No one liked liking your boots before; don't blame us for biting back."

"If you don't want to be a part of the proper order of things..." She let off with a snarl. "Then you can be buried by it!" She let off as she charged to Andrei as Pavel lit his fire bomb and threw it at her. The female highborne would, to their surprise, block it with her mace's shaft and was able to move with it to avoid breaking the glass before flinging it at Andrei, making him duck before he rushed her in turn; the firebomb exploding well behind him.

She was quicker to strike first but his response was to deflect it with a short, back swing of his own before punching at her with his off hand. Thanks to Pavel knowing where the armory was and how to get inside both of them bore better armor to guard themselves with; chain mail under a tabard, plated gauntlets and boots, pauldrons and helms with face guards. For both of them it was amazing to have quality protection, even if it wasn't on the level on their foe... Of course chain mail wasn't going to help versus the blunt force of a mace. To follow up his deflection he slammed the bottom of his weapon's pommel to her face, knocking her head back as she lifted her weapon up, eyes snapping back to him. He back stepped her swing before she swung to her side; deflecting Pavel's spear strike but unable to dodge the close range throw of another bottle into her face; a fireball engulfing her head as a lit cloth set the oil ablaze as the glass broke. She grunted and lashed out with a front kick to the man's chest; hitting with enough force to knock him off his feet.

She shook her head out as flames licked at her helm and shoulders; the burning oil clinging to her armor but as she turned back to him Andrei knew she would be able to at least partially ignore it. She cried out and charged him, forcing him to block with his weapon before he kicked out with a foot, hitting the inside of her knee; forcing her to one knee as he tried to swing down to her head.

She caught his arm at the wrist and thrust her mace up with enough force to catch him in the face and knock him back before lifting back for a heavy swing that he moved to block... and then a mere moment after she started her swing the skull head of her mace detached as steel chain spilled from the shaft before pulling taunt. He blocked the shaft of her now flail but the speed and energy of the swing kept the skull head moving to impact his shoulder; he was unable to stop the scream as his pauldron was caved in and something in his shoulder broke and attempting to hold his arm up caused searing pain as he backed up.

"Let treachery mark your grave!" She howled out as she gripped her weapon with both hands while the chain pulled back into the shaft as she lifted it over her head... before screaming out herself as Pavel's spear slammed into her armpit; lifting her weapon in such a manner had allowed the gaps in the plates to show more and while a layer of chain mail sat under it the point of Pavel's spear was able to force it's way in; popping three rivets holding three links closed.

The highborne backed up just as the sound of breaking glass sounded... before she yelped and fell to her back; an unlit bottle of oil slammed to the ground under her, slicking the grass enough to make her lose traction. She grunted and started to rise only to have a leaping Andrei drop his boot to her face; protected under the mask she took no damage from it-

"And let hubris mark your grave!"

-but it positioned her head in a perfect position for another spear thrust from Pavel to land under her chin, pushing up from under her jaw and up into her brain as Andrei snarled down to her. Pavel twisted the weapon and pulled it free of her as he looked to Andrei. "You okay, Andrei?"

"I'll live... but I'll need to have my shoulder mended before I can carry on..." The enlisted man admitted, wincing hard as he set his weapon away to cup his limp arm with his good one; taking pressure off the point of the break.

"I'll see about helping here; go to the back lines and heal up."

"Pavel..."

"Hey!" The roguish male let off, pulling another bottle of cloth-plugged oil out. "I have more assborne and toddlerborne to complain to."

"...Don't die on me, Pavel... You still need to build me a table."

"If you're making a joke about that, guess I have to."

[-]

Having lost her mother in childbirth and raised solely by her father it was little surprise that Kelly Conners grew up to be a tomboy. Being an Eostian girl who was saved along with her father by one Claudia Levantine, one of the shining examples of the Lady Knight Archetype that was well honored in the Seven Shields Alliance it was little surprise when she was inspired to take up arms and take the path to becoming a knight in her own right; starting with the path as an adventurer.

Her father offered her no help save to give her the steel, wood and leather to forge her own equipment to start herself out with. Of that equipment that she forged with her own two hands she still had one of them with her; her short sword which had been a trusty companion for years now. It had been repaired, reforged, rewrapped and more over the years but it was still the same blade she started with all those years ago before finding her way into the service of House Noxdecus.

She was used to fading into the background, even among her fellow soldiers; hell, it was hard to stand out with someone like Gregory Hammersmith as your commander but she wasn't there to be seen. Sure, things like duty, honor and doing the right thing were all important to her but she was there to better herself and become the sort of person she wanted to become, which was someone her father could be proud of... which had brought her here; to an ongoing war.

As much as she loved her trusty short sword it was too lacking in range to be perfectly useful so her main weapon right now was a spear with a leaf shaped blade that she would thrust and swing about to handle the goblins before her; slitting one's throat with a swing, turning and jamming the spiked butt into the eye of another and dropping two more with a wide swing as she turned back to a combat stance.

The line spread out and as a result more and more smaller fights were breaking out as she found another goblin rushing her before leaping into the air at her. She was able to stab her spear up and catch it in the chest as she moved with it's momentum, turned it about and flung it into another goblin's knee; the loud snap made it crumble to the ground. Before she could do anything to finish it off a howl came as something leapt up and landed twelve feet away from her... and she wasn't sure what to make of it at first.

It was a wolfman some six foot two in height, wearing black, leather pants, a pair of red straps over it's torso making an 'X' that attached to leather pauldrons. Only a pair of long, leather gloves were over the hands and no boots. In it's hand was a four foot long militia club with a foot long blade at the top, studded steel bands around just under the top and leather straps around the handle. What was odd, however, was it was hairless... and it's skin was stone gray. Indeed the stone part of that seemed apt as it looked more like the skin of a gargoyle then anything else...

She was reminded of one of the odd people James had met on his tour of Eostia that she escorted him on, even if she stayed in the background; Shara the Stoneheart who was magically fused with the skin of a gargoyle (In reality she was fused with several skins) and if she was correct in that the wolfman went through something like what she did then it could be his skin was now natural armor. She spun her spear twice and took a combat stance as the man-beast snarled at her and lifted it's weapon over it's head with both hands.

Another snarl was all the warning she had as it rushed her; swinging for her head. She waited until the last moment to lower herself and move to the side, turning and slamming the point of her spear to the back of it's knee; she felt the skin give a hint but it held confirming he likely was mixed with a gargoyle somehow, or at least it's skin. The wolfman snarled and spun with a swing of it's large weapon; the tip clipping her helm and deflecting off as she backed up. He stepped in and swung twice as she moved to avoid him before thrusting her spear at his bare chest; the very tip of her spear pressed into him and no more as he pulled back for a big swing. She dove and rolled over her shoulder, moving to a crouch before thrusting at him as he turned as she used a Combat Art; glowing a soft red as her weapon glowed with her with the tip brightest of all as she used her whole body from legs to arms to ram her weapon into his chest.

It was clear he perceived this new attack as a threat and moved to dodge; she predicted he'd move and was adjusting mid-thrust but rather then hitting her target of his heart she slammed to his shoulder, driving half the spear's blade into it. Before she could withdraw her weapon he grabbed it with his off hand before slamming the club down on it, breaking the shaft under the blade before tearing it from his skin. She grit her teeth as she hopped away before turning her spear and throwing it like a javelin at it's face; the weapon deflected off it's forehead but she noted that it still flinched defensibly. Regardless, with her spear broken she drew her old, trusty short sword along with the shield that was at her back to her off hand; she had an idea of what to do now as she braced herself for the next attack while bringing up her shield and holding her sword up by her shoulder, point aimed to her foe.

The fused wolfman snarled at her before he leapt to her through the air, weapon raised to strike; she would side step the strike and bring her shield up to block the follow up smash. She grit her teeth and braced herself as the impact rattled her, as did the follow up as the shield, painted with the Noxdecus emblem on a layer of steel that was dented by the hits. She took the third, forth and fifth hits, even as her arm strained under the impacts to become sore as she waited for the perfect moment as it pulled it's weapon back much further before she thrust her trusty sword forth; she knew it's balance perfectly well in it's weight, length, and strength and she could plant the point anywhere she wanted within it's reach.

Including her foe's eye.

The fused wolfman gave a howling screech as it dropped it's own weapon backing up and clutching it's face over it's destroyed eye as she adjusted her sword to a reverse grip and stepped in, arm tensed as she readied to strike like a coiled snake. The moment it looked ahead to glare with it's remaining eye she struck; stabbing into the other orb as it's fused, gargoyle skin did nothing to protect it's eyes. It would howl once more as she jumped away as it swung it's arms out; claws under gloves seeking flesh to dig into as she sheathed her blade and picked up it's dropped militia club. She would hold it with both hands and with a cry of effort she would swung it hard in a vertical strike, slamming it down onto the top of her foe's skull; a hard crack sounding as it whimpered, stunned from the impact.

A follow up with a second hit and would find it falling to it's knees as another crack was heard. A third strike finally caved it's head in and would find it collapsing to it's side as she panted for a moment Finally she would move her shield to her back once more, moving to find a new opponent with her new weapon.

And if worse came to worse she had her old, trusty short sword to fall back on.

[-]

For Merlin Noxdecus one of his favorite offensive spells was called Scatter Burst; an arcane spell that fired off three spheres of magic that would fire off to flank a target before bursting and firing off in several, smaller bolts of mana akin to Magic Missile either in specific directions or in all of them like a bomb of magical shrapnel. It was one he'd need to teach his son sooner or later; but only after teaching him Arcane Blast as the two spells could, visually, be confused for one another.

It was odd, the course of his life; he was a simple orphan found to have some magical talent, bullied by his peers in the academy, he moved to South Point after graduation to serve as a court mage for a time and then found himself in northern Ur during a Garanian incursion. Then he met the daughter of a baroness, saved her after some stumbling about, found himself in a relationship with her and becoming a baron in his own right... as well as something he was wholly unprepared for; a father.

While he was very proud of both of his children he would be lying if he said he didn't bear extra pride for his son; while he had not yet matched or surpassed Merlin in terms of magical prowess or power James did surpass him in all realms in physical ability, something likely taken from his mother. That being said he was very proud above all else of his enchanting abilities; creating ice cream and the device to make it was novel but creating long range, stable and instant communications was revolutionary... and then he decided to invent air travel on top of that while envisioning a new form of spell glass to make it possible.

And then Celestine charged his son with defeating the Dread Field, a task Merlin was sure he was equal to and imagined he would have results in a few months... that he found a counter to it in a little over a week was something even he couldn't have predicted and when he found out that it was by discarding all previous theories and pioneering his own it was clear his son had balanced intelligence with wisdom.

Honestly, it sometimes felt like his son had more life experience then he had... it was a thing of pride.

That wasn't to say he wasn't proud of his other child, Miria, of course. While not as accomplished as his son she was proving herself time and again as one of their premier archers; only recently matched by Cress. Even then her natural abilities as a Catalan made her one of their best trackers, hunters and scouts. While she was more relaxed then her brother she had been doing much to improve herself and her abilities; her sword skills had become more reliable and had coupled it nicely with new armor, new weapons and new Combat Arts. Of course neither of his children were valued solely on their abilities in combat (Any who would judge their children on such shallow measures were fools, in his opinion) and her true value was in an uplifting, honest and cheerful presence; often being the one to brighten up a room.

He never had a family growing up and finding himself with a lovely wife, two fine children and welcoming in-laws made it all the more important for him to survive this war; to enjoy his time with them for as long as he was able to and to that end he would do all he could to end this war. "Griffon, two gargoyles on your back. Harpie, don't stray too far from Eagle." He let off, using a modified voxlux that let him speak to any of the Cloud Riders in an instant. He was on the one, painted wagon (With a call sign that was, interestingly enough, Dragon) and calling out to others as he gave orders and directions. In spite of all their work, mages holding up shields and shield orbs on each flying wagon each one had taken some damage and one, Hummingbird, had already been shot down.

The sound of cracking wood announced the second wagon going down; a female Dark Elf under the effect of a Levitation Spell (And perhaps another to grant her more speed and force) had used an oversized executioner's sword made from an Arcane Weapon spell to strike the wagon from below and the side and smashed it apart as one women that was on board fell to the ground limply; mages abandoned the wagon and grabbed those who couldn't fly as best able (Even then one mage was forced to abandon a dive for someone to bring up a shield to guard against a gargoyle) and he quickly noticed the dark elf about to attack someone holding two others.

Rather then allow it Merlin would Dual Cast two spells from his wand in tandem; the first being Shine Burst. To the naked eye it seemed like a Magic Missile was sailing at her face. She noticed the incoming attack and swung her blade at it... only for the bolt to shatter into over two dozen small shards that each exploded in a flash of bright, differently colored lights to blind her for a long moment as he followed up with a proper Magic Missile that he would guide in an arc to one side before arcing it back side of her head; her head snapped to one side but a flash of purple at the impact site told him she was wearing some form of Mana Armor or Armor Weave. He clicked his tongue and moved to press his voxlux to his current second in command, Nikita DeSagesse who was a bit young, but talented. "Take command, I need to see to this."

"With pleasure! Oh-ho-ho-ho!"

If only she didn't have that laugh...

He used Levitation to charge the woman as he Tri Casted a trio of Scatter Bolts; one aimed to the mob of enemies below, one arcing off to cut off a flight of gargoyles to guard his allies and one at the Dark Elf in the air who spun her mana blade in a circular arc before her to block and deflect the onslaught of attacks. As the attack ended she made her blade vanish and floated closer with a grin as he paused to hover. Rather then attack she stopped before him; some twenty feet away. "Three spells at once? Impressive." She let off as she grinned to him. Indeed; Tri Casting (Also known as Trip Casting, best known as Triple Casting) was a step above Dual Casting; charging and then using three spells at once... although it was much easier to do when you use the same spell for all three. "I am Rubin of the High House Drakepyre! Honored Foe, share your name!" She let off as he raised an eyebrow; it was odd to have a dark elf of Garan speak with respect to you... but he was aware of her; a foe of his son.

"I am Baron Merlin Noxdecus, Lord and Ruler of the Barony of Mungale." He replied as he lifted his wand up to a ready stance.

"You are related to one James Noxdecus then?" She asked as he nodded.

"I am his father." He let off as a grin came to her face.

"The father of my most treasured foe!? Wonderful!" She barked out as she reached forwards and used an Arcane Weapon spell and formed a poleaxe into her hand before moving to spin it about and point the weapon at him; a long spike capping it off. "This promises to be glorious!"

He was well aware of her from his son's stories so he wasn't surprised when she charged to come into close range. His reaction was a wind spell; both to halt her charge and gain more distance by pushing himself back before following up with a Feather Arrow; a tight, spiraling arrow of green tinted wind that looked like a spinning feather. Rather then dodge she opted to use one of her bracers to deflect the on coming attack... only for the impact to knock her back with the arrow deflecting off less then she expected; grazing her bicep as a crack sounded through the air, cutting past her defenses enough to leave a shallow cut on her skin.

She was surprised and looked to her arm before grinning and rushing at him, this time calling a knight's shield to her arm via Arcane Weapon; someone able to pierce her armor's barrier with a single spell was a rare talent, even though it would regenerate the breech quickly. He was mid-cast when she used a wind spell under her feet to launch herself forwards with more force and speed then he expected and closed the distance. Even so he was ready as he used a spell of his own creation to defend himself with; Shine Guard. He would summon a a bright shield colored a soft, golden color with shifting, slightly darker cracks traveling along it's surface. She grinned and smashed her weapon to it's surface... only for her weapon to shimmer, much to her surprise, before dissipating into sparkles of silver mana that traveled to the shield. "...eh..?" She let off... before she was blasted by a lightning spell of a matching color to his defensive spell from his wand; Shine Cracker. She grunted as she was pushed back, resisting the force... before she fell from the air, finding herself having to recast her Levitation spell.

In truth Merlin had been studying Hybrid Magic independently for years, although with some assistance from his peers and with some input from Klaus Curtis and, with time and effort, he had adapted a Holy Shield spell and Lightning Strike spell to be Holy/Lightning in nature and finding that they both had a curious effect; they drained mana from their targets; Shine Guard would drain mana from any spell that impacted it or from any enchanted weapon which would both weaken the attacks and reinforce his own reserves while Shine Cracker did the same to any target it hit along with any active spell... or enchanted armor.

Of course it wouldn't remove enchantments and such weapons and any form of Mana Armor or Armor Weave would recharge given some time... which made it important to strike before she fully realized how vulnerable she was. She was swift to charge him once more; creating a long sword with Arcane Weapon to thrust at him. He adjusted the grip on his wand, gripping it at the midpoint as he prepped a spell. He shifted to the side to dodge, swinging his wand up into her gut... and her weakened, magical armor cracked like an eggshell with ease as she let off a gawk; the point of his weapon breaking her skin and digging into flesh. To her credit she elbowed the back of her head and spun back and to the side before his Magic Missile fired off; saved by her reflexes as she cupped her wound with her off hand, looking down to the seeping blood with shock as she tried to work out what just happened more surprised then harmed.

He would recover swiftly and aimed to her before firing off a Vortex Tunnel spell at just beyond point blank range; her shock preventing her from fully responding as she was impacted and flung down towards the battlefield below with her body spiraling downwards within the spell. Once more he was impressed as she casted a shield spell while she was spinning within a his wind spell as it was driving her down towards the ground as she impacted roughly.

He would fly off back to his wagon to retake command, wincing as he saw a fireball impact Griffon; a wheel was blown off and a chunk of the wagon's rear left was broken off but it was still airborne. As he landed on Dragon he'd take back his voxlux; there was more fighting to do to see this war over...

He wanted to spend the winter holidays in peace with his family, after all.

[-]

The detonation of a powerful explosion sent bodies flying away; many burned or burning as they sailed in the air before crashing to the ground. Most were dark elves, some Aberrant and one or two Eostians.

As far as Alundra van Bludhorn cared it was just a few, unimportant cracked eggs to make a bigger omelet. In her right hand she bore her primary weapon; an orichalcum scimitar with a long clip point, D-Guard with several, bladed points along it that stuck out two inches each and a red spell stone set to the pommel; shaped into the form of a bladed point. The handle was black and paint sat along the sides of the blade was the image of a black viper; the bladed heirloom of her house, the enchanted blade Venom Fang.

Naturally as a mage near the front line she knew foes would charge at her in an effort to bring her down, doubly so given the amount of firepower she brought with her but they had to get past her main bodyguard; her own son and heir Kaiden. "Die! Die! All of you die!"

Despite the threat of on coming spells and missiles they would all be deflected off his Mana Armor or had the impacts absorbed by it, another family heirloom, as he swung his weapon about; another orichalcum weapon that was forged for him by a master, dwarven smith. The axe's head bore the head of a bull (Mirrored on the other side) with it's horns sticking upwards and tall, heavy blades attached to the horns. The shaft was made of the same metal, but wrapped with a blood red leather with a spike on the bottom of it that was five inches in length. It also bore a red spell stone; set inside a hollow segment of the head with each eye of bull heads showing a part of it.

A physical empowering spell assisted him as he swung the weapon about, hacking foe after foe with a wicked grin on his face as a combination of the sharpness, weight and force of the golden colored axe allowing him to carve past all armor that opposed it save the one woman in mythril armor; for her he just bashed at the side of her head until her neck snapped. He howled out with a war cry, turning about with a feral look in his eye as he swung for an orc; severing it's head from it's neck before turning to a female, dark elf knight and swung low, cleaving her legs at the knees and leaving her screaming in pain as her weapons fell from her hands as she clenched at her new stumps.

A Combat Art empowered stomp to the elf's head ended the annoying noise she made.

Alundra frowned a bit as she send off a powerful ball of flame that plowed into a crowd of dark elves, burning and knocking enemies aside before finally exploding. Honestly, Kaiden needed to calm down when he finally took over their realm; true she likely would remain as the Duchess of Anvil for another twenty years given her bolstered lifespan thanks to her elven heritage but he would assume the role of duke someday and likely for as long of a reign as he shared such blood. Even so, he needed to control himself; one could enjoy violence against foes and lessers alike and she would argue one should enjoy it (It was one of the reasons Alexander was her least favorite son; he preferred avoiding it. Madness...) but at the end of the day violence was a simple tool, something to be used to shape people and realms. It was not a thing to indulge in for the sake of indulgence, it was not a drug to partake of for the fun of it. You used it to set and make examples, you used it to instill fear and respect, you used it to gain power and prestige and you used it to ensure your position and security.

There was a time, however, to set violence aside or even hide it as words held their own power as did coin; violence, once more, was a tool and at times was not the best one for the problem at hand. It was here and now on a battlefield, of course, but that was beside the point. "Calm down Kaiden and focus!" She let off, sending off a Shadowed Arrow into a goblin that was about to flank her son; she didn't think it could have harmed him but something else doing the same could and she didn't want anyone getting ideas.

A harsh, piercing sequel was the only warning anyone had before Kaiden turned his head and widened his eyes before he reached out to grab an ogre by it's raised arm with his off-hand, weapon still in said ogre's hand, before yanking him around before him... just before a torrent of boiling, red liquid splashed into it's back like a water spell as it screamed in pain; the sound of sizzling flesh coming from behind the ogre. As the splashing ended Kaiden would drop the now limp ogre and note it's back was burned to the spine and ribs, but not with flame or heat... but with acid as he looked over to his new opponent; a hellpig.

It was an orc save the dark, blood red skin and eyes that glowed with a dim, red light. It snarled through black tusks as Kaiden took stock of it; it wore a breastplate, gauntlets and armored boots but a loincloth over it's groin with bare thighs and biceps; both clearly muscled through a layer of thick fat. That was enough of a showcase of it's strength but standing at a striking seven feet tall it was clearly a threat; a heavy, single handed axe in each hand, both with serrated edges.

It wasn't a normal orc, it was a hellpig.

Kaiden simply grinned and spun his own two handed axe once before stomping his foot and bellowing out a wordless warcry as the hellpig did the same; both charging one another, almost at the same time. The hellpig would use it's dual weapons to block the heavy swing and weapon strike of Kaiden, sneering back once the momentum was ended before pushing back with it's off hand's axe and lifting the other back.

Rather then dodge or block he trusted his expensive, powerful Mana Armor to absorb it for him as he swung the bottom end of his weapon up; grunting as he was struck at the shoulder before catching his foe on the side of it's head before he jabbed the butt of it to it's face. The hellpig managed to deflect the jab before swinging it's blade down; the glow of a Combat Art coming to it's blade's edge. Unable to dodge he did his best to move with the blow to reduce it; pain flared in his shoulder despite that as it was struck a second time. His armor held but he imagined that Combat Art allowed some of the impact to bypass it... which was impressive for an idiot Aberrant to have learned.

It was time for his own.

He howled out, thrusting the shaft of his weapon at it's head as the hellpig blocked with both weapons but it allowed him to shove it back and gain a small amount of distance; enough to use his own Art as his eyes turned red before flames started to spill from them like torches and lift upwards before it seemed his skin came alight with flame, giving a roaring cry before glaring to his foe.

The forbidden art Berserker's Soul was known in several circles for the amount of instant power it could give a warrior as it was eminence and overwhelming; it was said it allowed a warrior to overpower a goliath in might. That said the drawbacks were well known as well; the strain on the body could be painful and if held for too long crippling. It was a useful skill to have but to rely on it was folly and therefore people attempted to find other means to empower warriors with several commissioned to the task.

The spell Physical Burst was one such creation of these efforts; it could be called a milder Berserker's Soul with less of the boost and less of the drawback that wouldn't cripple you by accident, although it could leave someone in pain for a long period of time. The main problem was it wasn't a Combat Art; it was a spell and, as such, unusable to those who couldn't use magic although Enchanting has given it some use to those unable to cast it.

Demolisher Rush was another result of this search; a ten second long boost to the user's might. It still didn't match the original in power and it's empowerment didn't last for long but it was usable. That, however, wasn't what some people wanted so attempt to create a new Combat Art continued on. Others similar would be made as well, such as Power Rise, Adrenaline Rush and Muscle Boost.

Oddly enough the thing that would spur the creation of Kaiden's preferred boosting Art was a monk from a rival house, Galeraven. Zelda Galeraven was something of a black sheep of the clan but one still loved; she despised dealing with nobility, the court, ambassadors, the military and royalty in favor of drinking in pubs with commoners, hiring herself as an adventurer and a mercenary as well as traveling Eostia to indulge in her passion which was unarmed combat.

As a child she sat in on a boxing match and was hooked, coming to learn the sweet science with a passion before expanding to other arts, some eastern but most western including wrestling, kick boxing and Catalan open hand styles. Her only weapons were fists, feet and what she wore over them; steel plated boots with inch high ridges and steel plated gloves with short rivets over the knuckles. Despite her more physical inclinations she still had some magical potential and she took to learning some spell craft for the purpose of boosting her physical abilities and she would use one over all others quite often set to her gloves and boots; Blazing Weapon. The effect would earn her the nickname 'The Fighting Firestorm' and even today, at the age of eighty-four she was still getting into brawls. And winning.

The effect of seeing burning limbs striking opponents would give Alundra's late cousin, Benjamin van Bludhorn, inspiration to a fire based Combat Art that would empower the user; Bull's Rage. The Combat Art used the user's mana to send empowered flames and fire through the blood and muscles of their body to the point it would leak from their pores, spill from around their eyes and even their orifices. As Kaiden grinned flames would lick from the corners of his lips. The flames would even move to coat his own weapon, like a weaker version of Blazing Weapon, as the Combat Art give him greater speed and strength overall coupled with a near immunity to any fire based attack, a limited resistance to ice and lightning attacks, a minor amount of physical resistance and a greater level of magical resistance in addition to the fact that the flames seeping from his skin would burn any foe who would grapple him. Only water spells could truly counter it and if one found a foe who used them regularly one could adapt and use other skills.

Kaiden howled and swung his weapon down with the hellpig crossing it's axes to block, this time struggling to hold the weapon back and unable to push it away like it had before. The hellpig glared for a moment before it started snarling then began to move it's head oddly; jerking it up over and over as if to induce something. Assuming an acid attack was coming he acted first; pulling in a deep breath and exhaling at the hellpig with a long, steady breath through puckered lips; blasting flames from his mouth in a tight stream, akin to a Flamethrower spell... just as the pig started to open it's mouth.

The acid hellpigs could spew were flammable and soon it squealed as what was gathered in it's mouth came alight, stumbling back before the Bludhorn heir kicked it backwards with a boot to the gut and back into a melee where three Eostian Conscripts were struggling with a standard orc and a goblin. The flames would be ingested by the hellpig, he knew, and in turn set what was in it's gut alight.

The explosion of flame, flesh and bone was enough to kill the goblin outright. The orc and men near it were blown back; each unmoving and one man missing part of a leg. He sneered before turning to his next foe. "Come on! I'm not done fighting yet!"

Aludnra, by contrast, sighed. She'd need to get him to calm down and focus. Still...

It was good to see him having his fun.

[-]

With a loud cry Alicia drove the spear she held forwards; smashing the opposing dark elf knight off her steed and to the ground before she turned her own horse about. The spear in question was well made; the end may have been mere steel but it bore a small spell stone to both make it stronger and keep the end sharp. She and members of the Knights of Iris (Backed up by other knights from Onglave and Arafe) were at the flanks of the battle; Eostian forces were, of course, trying to flank the sides of their foes and impact their rear lines with mounted forces. Of course they expected the Garanian forces to assume this could happen and that they would move to counter with their own mounted units and, thus, the Eostians aimed to counter the counter with additional mounted units.

She was well aware of the stakes the battle held for all sides; a loss for Eostia would mean more battles, more lives lost and more suffering. A victory, however, could mean the end of the war, an end to the suffering and horrors that came with such a conflict. She didn't delude herself; no matter what happened the peoples of the two nations wouldn't be frolicking down fields, hand in hand when the war ended but merely leaving one another alone would be a grand improvement.

The battle on her end was going... it was going.

They had accomplished the task of blocking the opposing counter attacking unit with the flanking unit hitting and running as they were meant to... but they were taking losses doing it and not insignificant ones either; maybe a third of the knights. Her own unit was doing better (They were the Knights of Iris and had a name to live up to) but were struggling clearly and additional Garanian reinforcements were rushing to them; some were devastated by a passing Cloud Rider... that in turn took a powerful fire spell to it's underside that broke it apart.

She ended up facing another foe with both of their shields and spears raised as they charged one another in a joust; Alicia would use a Combat Art to ensure a kill as she blocked with her shield (Her foe's spear would deflect off of it and into the side of her head but glanced off her Mana Armor) as did her opponent; her own weapon slamming past the shield and the dark elf behind it before the shaft broke. She dropped the now broken weapon as she drew the sword Skysplitter to her hand as she readied to take on her next opponent. She was about to flank someone attacking one of her knights before she sensed something and pulled back on the reins to stop her horse.

Her instincts were correct as a knife flew past where she was about to be that was covered in a purple glow; the attack spooked her horse and made it rear up hard in surprise. She saw what was coming and let go, flipping off the saddle and landing on her feet with her shield pressed to the ground before rolling to the side; her horse reared up so hard it fell and landed on it's back before it got up and started to take off.

It was annoying she wasn't able to have her personal steed with her due to injury.

She got to her feet as she looked to the person who attacked; a dismounted foe in what she assumed was Armor Weave given the skimpiness of it. Red eyes met her purple one as she walked over with an odd, curved sword with a d-guard and kukri knife in the other as shin length, blonde hair fell from her left side in a ponytail. "Young and talented. I see the reports weren't lying; Princess Alicia, I assume?"

"Indeed." Alicia let off as she stood fully and sized up her opponent. "I presume you're the one called Chloe then?"

The half dark elf blinked twice at her before giving a soft chuckle as the sounds of steeds and clashing steel sounded about them. "I wasn't aware I was known well enough to reported on like this." She let off as she sounded somewhat amused as she spun her knife in her hand before holding it up and pulled her sword back. "But enough of that; death or capture. Either way you'll be coming back with me."

"I think not." Alicia let off as she brought up her shield and pulled her own blade back as she looked to her new foe; most of the reports on Chloe came from James Noxdecus and the remainder from Victor von Blitzhaus; Chloe defeated the latter soundly and matched the former in a somewhat even fight which didn't bode well. Victor, for whatever faults he had, wasn't a slouch in combat and she knew he had participated in several arena tournaments in Maros and won more then a couple and James as a combatant was both highly flexible and adaptable to nearly any situation he was thrown in and had grown in strength at a prodigious rate recently; it told her that Chloe would be a formidable opponent for her.

As the dark elf aimed the tip of her blade forwards a deep and shadowy mist started to fill the battle area from the blade they were in Alicia quickly reacted with a Combat Art; her blade starting to glow before she slammed the point down to the ground. She was rattled by the impact made by her own attack as the ground shuddered under her as a shock wave echoed outwards and forced the mist away while, at the same time, knocking Chloe back two steps; the mist still shrouded her view but she could see enough to charge the half dark elf and swing her blade at her.

Chloe reacted swiftly; catching the strike with her off hand knife before slashing at Alicia who blocked with her shield as the mist fully vanished. The princess knight lifted her leg to deliver a knee only to wince as she connected with her foe's shin; both women having the same idea. The moment her foot was on the ground she shoved forwards with her shield; knocking Chloe off balance before swinging her blade once more; she would deflect with her sword before stabbing her knife down to Alicia's shoulder. Alicia merely adjusted her shoulder's position; the blade glancing off her Mana Armor and to the side as she lashed out with a haymaker with her shield.

Chloe would step back as her Armor Weave took the blow as she used her blade to deflect Alicia's follow up thrust with the Skysplitter before twisting and lashing out with a mule kick as she rolled over her shoulder to get a hint of distance as she used a Combat Art of her own, turning and rocketing at the princess knight; coupling the Art with another Combat Art, Piercing Strike, for extra power.

Her attack landed but Chloe would wince as her opponent used her own combat art in another thrust and both attacks had landed; Chloe's landing on her foe's shoulder and absorbed by her Mana Armor with a harsh wince showcasing that some of the impact transferred through and Alicia's thrust landing in the center of the halfborne's chest with pain flaring at the point of impact as she winced, unable to fully hide the impact of the strike with both armors holding. Alicia was the first to react to the dual attacks landing as her shield bashed into Chloe's temple with a heavy haymaker staggering her back before a follow up slash struck her chest as the feel of a 'crack' came from over her skin; a warning from her armor that it was failing under the attacks hitting her.

She caught a following strike with her kukri to deflect it to the side before swinging her weapon in close range; staggering Alicia back with a pommel strike to the top of the temple. Chloe was quick to follow up with a slash of her knife then strike of her blade but Alicia's shield was raised and blocked both allowing her to punch out with her weapon hand; something Chloe side stepped before hopping away to dodge a follow up shield strike.

Both charged with a swing of their blades; clashing and locking them as Chloe pulled her knife back to strike only for the human to shove hard and overpower her, pushing her back and giving a war cry to swing hard at her. Chloe crossed her weapons to catch the attack, blocking it full only to just see the glowing boot of the princess as it slammed into her gut. That would fully knock Chloe off her feet while shattering her armor's barrier, her body landing hard on it's back while the breath left her. She struggled to her feet but moved slowly at first; knowing well her foe could pounce and end her if she didn't recover quickly.

Alicia didn't, in fact, pounce upon her; instead she raised her shield and started to step back and to the side. Why she would do such a thing could only mean that assistance had arrived. "I know that blade..."

She didn't need to turn her head to know why the princess backed up anymore... having heard the voice of her queen. "Olga Discordia." Alicia let off, glaring as she kept her shield up as she faced the Dark Queen, even as her aide clambered to her feet.

For Olga she had been offering support to her people during the battle and was forced to assist in fending off flanking cavalry; the mess that the melee had become meant she couldn't be indiscriminate with her spells and, thus, needed to use several smaller spells as opposed to just using Annihilation Stream and sneak a mana potion when no one was looking and the enemy was fleeing from her might. She had snuck in the potion as she moved to check up on her aide when she saw her engaged in a fierce melee when she noted the blade of Chloe's opponent; the blade once used by one of her most notable foe's Aston Arcturus, the Skysplitter.

She well recalled that battle; she was acting to vanquish the Eostian flank when the man and his knights moved against her. He took her head on in a pitched battle and while she held the upper hand during the contest he just would not die, frustrating her as she opted to finish it all with an Annihilation Stream... except he had responded by using what she later learned was his sword's power to close the distance and swing his blade to knock her staff upwards and her attack up into the air, harmlessly; had she been a quarter of a second slower with her shield straight after she would have been cut down and her hand ached from gripping her staff hard enough to not have it fly away from the impact.

The battle didn't last much longer; she re-assumed the upper hand over Aston but her knights were being felled. She decided she couldn't take Aston and his knights at once by herself without assistance and used Dark Mist to help her knights retreat. That man gave her a valuable reminder; humans could be far, far, far more dangerous then her kin liked to admit. More over that was her at the height of her power and not in a state of sickness as she was in now. "I am Alicia Arcturus; Crown Princess of Feoh."

"The daughter of that man. It does explain the sword." Olga let off, stopping thirty feet from her new opponent as Chloe moved to stand beside her. "Tell me; he does not opt to come and face me once more? Where is the King of Feoh?"

She was a little taken aback as Alicia gave her a surprised look. "He is ill and bedridden. That is no secret; none of your spymasters never reported it to you?" The blonde human let off as queen and aide shared a brief, sideways glance. Olga had not heard of it... and while she was unsure of why her spies never reported on it she did know she made it clear all information of that man was to be brought to her. Which meant either a failure to find this information, the Princess Knight lied to her face or her spies were incompetent or disloyal.

Once more she was forced to wonder what was going on in her nation. Even so... Olga started to draw mana to her staff's stone, ready to engage in combat. "I suppose it does not matter. If I can not slay him then you'll do." She stated simply, ready to attack-

-before moving her staff to her side while raising a shield to block the sudden and hard impact of a Scatter Bolt that impacted upon it once it came up as all three turned to see the origin of the attack...

James Noxdecus, riding a steed towards them...

[-]

So a fair bit happened between beating the weird goblin with it's contraption (And stealing it's huge spell stone) and running into a possible two on one fight between Olga and Chloe on one side and Alicia on the other.

I, along with Makoto and Aeris, hooked up with a mounted unit mixed of mostly Anvil knights with some Forestside and Tyn forces and provided magical support for them as they counter flanked a force of knights trying to flank us. It went well enough... until one of the Anvil knights threw down a smoke bomb and obscuring things which muddled things up... and before I knew it the Anvil knight was leading his buddies away... and an illusion of myself going with them that Makoto and Aeris following along.

You know I have good reason to be suspicious of Anvil but I thought all their knights would have the good sense to not screw over someone in a situation like this and leave me holding the bag which had me riding White Peach into the nearby forest with some two dozen Dark Elf knights giving chase and these guys weren't lightweights being levels twenty to twenty nine; I didn't like my chances in a straight fight.

So I had no intentions of that. Instead I found a good spot where the trees tightened and I made sure they weren't moving to flank me; they instead opted to charge me in one, big group. How polite of them to do exactly what I needed them to...

Also lucky as my eyes came alight with a red glow as I turned Peach to turn her side so I could look over to them as I drew a lot of mana from my eyes and blasted out with a fully powered, fire elemental Dragon's Breath that must have looked like a wide, long blazing stream of lit napalm heading straight at them with a roaring impact as it washed over them. Naturally with a giant stream of fire in the way I couldn't see what was happening until after I ended the attack and even then I could only look over the aftermath; said aftermath was charred bodies, warped armor and weapons of both the Dark Elves and the horses they rode on with a few, light flames among the ashes and scorched flesh.

I almost threw up. Welcome to war where the horrors can be daily and you might be the cause.

Once I had recovered a bit I directed White Peach away and back towards the battlefield proper and using the voxlux to let Makoto and Aeris know what exactly happened (As it turned out they worked it out... and the knight was 'dealt with'. No elaboration was given beyond that) while I was doing my best to avoid too much trouble; I ended up in a couple of short skirmishes and sniped an orc in the back but there wasn't much of anything until I got out of the forest-

-only to see the battle ongoing, dead bodies and all.

I opted to blindside a few of the Garanian knights but soon I could see Alicia knock Chloe on her back and Olga walk to the field in their direction. I had to handle a knight first but soon I was able to fire off a spell to halt Olga's own spell cast. I stopped well away of the fight before dismounted, patting White Peach's neck before walking towards them; the position of Olga and Chloe relative to myself and Alicia would be some ninety degrees as I rested my left wrist on the Dragon Claw's handle as I stopped some thirty feet from them. Olga moved around Chloe to stand between myself and half dark elf as Chloe glanced back to Alicia. "Olga. It's been awhile." I said casually. Thankfully White Peach seemed to understand that I wanted her to stay back; I could hear her step backwards a bit, likely sensing how tense the mood was.

Olga regarded me coolly as Alicia looked to me and the Dark Elf Queen (As well as Chloe) with clear worry. She knew what I was going to do. We both knew it was unlikely to work. "James Noxdecus. Are you, as I think, the one to find a way to allow Eostia to enter my Dread Field without harm?"

"I am."

"I see." She let off to my curt response. "Do you know how much harm has been done by this? What level of disruption and chaos you just-"

"Oh shut the fuck up and stop sniffing your farts while calling it perfume." I shot back, firmly as I glared to her; the response being that both Olga and Chloe visibly recoiled at my response with Chloe glaring to me as the Queen of Garan composed herself quickly although with a firm look. "You've spent seven hundred fucking years leading a force to cause disruption and chaos; you do not get to whine about suffering what you've been willing to deal to others like an unruly child."

"... I do not find your tone amusing." She let off, a hint of a sneer coming to her voice.

"I don't find this war amusing." I shot back as I moved my hand back, my off hand gripping my parrying dagger. "If you're so upset about having to deal with what you used to deal out then maybe it's time to pull up your big girl panties and start talking peace."

She glared as she took two steps towards me, Alicia looking visibly concerned and shooting me a look that said 'stop pissing her off' which, to be fair, is a bad idea.

To also be fair I just overcooked a couple dozen guys and got a good reminder of how bad this shit gets. "I am almost willing to respect that you'd speak to me in such a manner. Few dare to insult me to my face and none have survived doing so. None have talked down to me in such a way; not even my family or equals."

"Well maybe that's half the problem; no one was willing to tell you when you were being stupid." I shot back as I glared to her. "Or did you think all the local, dark elf, 'laborborne' conscripts joined us because they thought it was going to be fun and games?" She glared but you could see a hint of a flinch in her body language. "Honestly; I knew some of my own fellow Eostian Lords could be a collection of petty assholes but by all the gods do yours put them to shame!"

(That wasn't a joke either; before it was outlawed House Bludhorn would make people into living statues by chopping off their limbs and putting them on display. Over my time here I heard rumors of members of House Nightsong taking someone they didn't like, skinning them alive, pouring a cement over them and carving them into a statue with only eye and breathing holes and a spell that would keep them alive for centuries, human or not, in a state of constant, unending pain. I never knew that House, fucking Bludhorn could be outdone in the atrocity category but there you go!)

Olga flinched, visibly, and for a moment there seemed to be a look over her face I couldn't place; guilt maybe? "You dare judge me?" She let off; her face composed after a quick moment as she glared me once more.

"Eostia judges you." I replied to her. "And as of now, you are found wanting Queen Discordia." I let off as we glared across one another as I saw her hand open around her staff before gripping down firmly. "Stand. Down. It's time to end this war; you know you can't win any victory worthy of the title."

"... As I told you last time; all are wood for the flames to keep lit the torch of need and politics." She replied firmly as she gave me a hard, determined look. "I grant you this; the tides have shifted considerably but this war shall only end on my wish and terms. That having been said the last we met I gave you a fair warning..."

I was already drawing the Dragon's Claw and my parrying dagger as her off hand reached up and grabbed her cloak by her right shoulder as a new sort of boss music spun up; one that spoke of pride and power as she pulled her cloak off and threw it aside before my view flashed then shifted to her feet before zooming up to her face. "That should we cross paths once more... that I would kill you... My words were not idle... I'll leave your ally to Chloe... you... will have the honor to die by my hand." She let off, lifting her staff up as the view panned back before she slammed her weapon's butt to the ground, a sudden pull back of the view bringing her fully into view as she glared to me.

_Queen of The Jagged Crown_
Olga Discordia

My view flashed white before it returned to normal...

Well... guess I was right that this fight was going to happen...

Let's hope I'm right about her state, otherwise it'll be a short one.

[ - Author's Note - ]

My initial plan was to end the chapter at the end of James and Olga's fight as well as give Celestine a section of fighting of her own but I opted to drop both; this chapter is over twenty thousand words long (That's becoming too common) so I wanted to cut it a bit short.

I wanted a moment to explore some characters we haven't really been able to focus on so far, like Carmen, Campbell and Kelly, as well as getting more of a focus on Alundra and her son to introduce him a bit more; Kaiden isn't going to be a major player yet, but he'll have his role to play. In addition I wanted to give Merlin a moment to shine and bring Rubin back for a moment... and letting him showcase how much further James can go by pimp slapping her away.

No, Rubin isn't dead. Unhappy but alive.

Andrei and Pavel get another moment to shine while Alicia and Chloe have ago at it; I wanted to write the fight as Alicia having a slight edge but very evenly matched. Hope that came through.

And of course we have a steampunk tank for James to deal with and showcasing his Dragon's Breath to a few dudes... who aren't able to report on it. Why give him a moment to use it once more?

No reason.

As a side note; I try and reply to comments but FFDotNet isn't sending notices to my e-mails at the moment and it seems I'm not alone. So, yeah, I might be a bit slower responding on that end.

Anyway, in the end of it we have what everyone expected; James vs Olga.

Well... Let's hope it goes as well as I hope it will.

As always please leave a review, tell me what you liked, didn't like, would like to see and which was your favorite fight in the chapter! Until next time then!

~~Eostian Scribe