After spending the last few hours walking and fighting Fie could tell that the other students were starting to tire a bit. Even if she wasn't quite there herself the idea of a nice long break sounded pretty good. Or at least a brief cat nap somewhere with some nice shade.
Rean was unwilling to offer that much, but he did at least promise a quick lunch break once they delivered the fish and herbs, something which seemingly mollified Juna and Altina.
Completing the fish delivery was a simple affair, and while the maid responsible for the meal seemed far too flaky to cook an actual good dish out of it, it had stopped being their concern, so whatever. With that finished they cut across to the Cathedral District. Fie had hoped the herb delivery would be just as simple, but the sound of music from their destination made her suspect it would be anything but.
Entering the cathedral they discovered the place was packed. Nearly every pew was filled as a large crowd was watching a young musician playing up front. Even Fie – who had admittedly very little knowledge of music – could appreciate the violin sounds coming from the orange-haired musician.
According to Kurt he was a rising star from Heimdallr. The real surprise came when Rean introduced him as Elliot Craig, a member of the original Class VII, just like Millium had been. Giving the boy a second glance she could confirm that while he didn't look the part of a warrior, his movements – even when doing something as mundane as playing a violin – had the same confident flow of a veteran fighter. Given that Class VII has by all accounts played a pivotal role during the civil war she could only assume he had seen his fair share of combat in the past.
Of course this news meant that they were forced to stand and wait out the concert. While Fie would much rather have been somewhere secluded and peaceful she couldn't deny how melodic the music was. If nothing else the guy lived up to his reputation as an awesome musician and the wait wasn't bad.
Eventually the concert finished and the crowd dispersed, allowing Rean to usher them forward. Elliot seemed nice enough, she supposed. Definitely nothing like her teacher or Millium. Still, anyone who survived a year with Sara as their teacher was deserving of her respect.
The reunion was cut short as the musician was scheduled to teach music to a bunch of kids. He bid them farewell, but Fie had a suspicion they would be meeting again before the end of these exercises. With him out of the way they were free to deliver the herbs and complete the request.
After a quick lunch the group of five were back in business. According to the reports the nearest confirmed location of the strange monsters was a little distance north of the city, so that was the direction they headed. Juna's complaints about more walking were more funny than annoying, thankfully. She was also thankful that their destination wasn't actually all that far from the city.
In fact just a few minutes after leaving the city they found the clearing that was their destination. She kept her gunblades ready. While she had never fought an archaism before, from all accounts they were pretty dangerous and some of them even possessed stealth capabilities. Rean and Altina seemed just as wary as she was, which made sense given their pasts.
Sharp ears were the first to pick up on the sound of approaching metal joints, but before she could call out a warning she froze. For the briefest of moments her instincts were screaming at her that someone was watching them. Glancing around revealed nothing, but for some reason she was struck by a melancholic feeling. So much so in fact that she barely heard Rean warning about what she had initially planned to.
Despite whatever it was she was feeling, at the end of the day she was a veteran first and foremost so it was easy for her to focus solely on the enemies now in front of her. These archaisms were odd to say the least. The way the large machines waddled up to them would have been comical were it not for the machine gun pods on each side of it. Belatedly she heard Altina refer to the enemy model as a Phalanx.
As the three enemy machines approached, Fie was quick to accept a combat link from her fellow quiet girl before darting towards the nearest machine. Maybe holding back to assess these unusual enemies would be the smarter move, but she was a firm believer in being active instead of reactive, using her speed to force opponents into mistakes that can be easily capitalized on.
"Fie!" Altina's warning – both verbally and through their shared link – warned her of an incoming threat and she was quick to abort her assault. She could only watch with a nervous smile as explosions rocked the area she had been heading. Apparently these Phalanx archaisms had missile launchers too!
That each of these little machines had the same firepower as an armored car was a little disconcerting, but at the very least they seemed to lack the coordination and spacial awareness to fully utilize their strengths. Already the machine that had taken the cheap shot at her was struggling as her distraction had allowed Kurt to close in, while the third was folding like a blanket under a combined offensive from Rean and Juna. All that was left was her original target...
"Brionac!" The laser beam struck it square in what counted as its face, rocking it backwards but failing to disable it. That was perfectly fine for Fie, who took advantage of the opening to rush in close. Realizing the peril it was in the Phalanx tried to hit her by sweeping around and clubbing her with its guns, but it was a feeble effort compared to what it could do at range. With practiced eased she leapt away from the attack before finishing it with a single thrust of her gunblades.
This time she grimaced upon realizing she was the last to finish, but Altina had been right. This wasn't a contest. Plus, the others cheated by taking that cheap shot at her, so it didn't count anyway.
She totally wasn't changing the rules to suit her own purposes or anything.
With the threats eliminated Fie once again scanned the surroundings. She was almost certain that someone had been watching them, but no matter where she looked she couldn't see any sign of anything out of the ordinary. Either they were too skilled – which meant a lot considering Rean seemed to have some good senses too – or she had simply been mistaken. But that wouldn't explain that weird feeling...
"What are archaisms doing out here anyways!?"
Surprisingly Fie had an answer to Juna's question, "I've heard that some have ended up in the black market and with jaegers..."
"Yeah. It's also possible that these are remnants from the civil war." Rean hummed thoughtfully before shaking his head, "Regardless, you all did quite well in handling them. Let's search the area just in case there are more."
The swordsman seemed concerned about something. Maybe he had felt whatever it was she had too? Either way his advice was good and the group walked around the clearing as one looking for anything out of the ordinary.
The area was small, but Fie noticed plenty of fresh tracks. The majority were obviously from the machines they had just fought, but there were a few that looked very human. Clearly someone had been here, and recently. Were they the ones responsible for the machines, or-
"What!?"
"Juna?" Her cry drew all attention. The pinkette was standing at the edge of the clearing looking down at something she couldn't see. Curiosity compelled her and the others to follow her lead.
What they discovered was a bunch of ruined archaisms, freshly destroyed and still sparking. Someone had definitely been here recently, and whoever they were had to have been quite powerful to handle this many machines. Not to mention escaping from their detection.
It was a pretty steep drop, made all the more treacherous by the broken machine parts scattered about, but Fie was a veteran leaper. With a single hop she descended down to the ruined archaisms, ignoring Rean's protest in the process. This allowed her to take a closer look at the destruction.
Most of the Phalanx's had been cleaved in twain by a blade, but anyone capable of doing that would require both a massively large blade and the strength to use it effectively. The few that had not been cut to pieces had been taken out by gunfire, and not the standard issue orbal rounds one would expect from a normal military, either.
"Fie?" Rean's voice sounded from above, "Did you find anything?"
Still, as surprising as the damage was, there was one group Fie knew of that used weapons like that. Maybe that had changed, but her gut was telling her that she was right, "Yeah. Whoever did this was using an illegal weapon. I think it was an elite jaeger."
"How would you know something like that?" Crap. She had said too much and now Kurt was giving her a very suspicious look from his perch.
"Don't worry about it." Luckily Rean was quick to deflect the other swordsman's attention, "This is good information to have."
She wanted to comment further, but a thought struck her like a lightning bolt. The presence of elite jaeger combined with her earlier feeling... Could it have been someone from Zephyr? Xeno and Leo certainly fit the description of a heavy blade and powerful rifle and they were skilled enough to evade her detection. There were also a few other possible candidates, including-
No. He was dead.
Tearing her gaze away from the destruction was enough to refocus her thoughts. While she was confident it was a jaeger, there were plenty of candidates that didn't involve Zephyr. The Red Constellation was a big fan of wanton destruction, obviously. What remained of the Northern Jaegers after the annexation had to have been pretty skilled too to evade capture. There were at least a dozen other jaeger corps that she knew operated in Erebonia.
So why were her hands shaking?
Fie steadfastly refused to look at Rean or the others as she ascended the hill knowing that she wasn't in the right state of mind at the moment. She thought she had done a good job of it as none of the other students had any further questions as the group returned to Saint-Arkh. And yet even as the rest of Class VII chatted quietly to themselves she couldn't help but feel the concerned gaze of a certain instructor who was taking up the trail position. Something which she did her best to ignore.
As they approached the ancient city Rean announced their next destination. With everything finished in Saint-Arkh they would be taking the train south to Parm for the second half of their missions. That seemed simple enough considering they only had one optional request, but two of the archaism sightings were in that area and if they were anything like the first...
Upon entering the city those priorities changed as they bore witness to a bunch of people crowding around the train station. One of them she recognized as Rean's old schoolmate, Vivi, and that was the one the teacher approached for information. According to the older pink girl there had been a derailing accident on the line towards Parm and until that was fixed the railroad would be down.
Fie wasn't sure if the accident was in any way related towards their mission or if it had even been a deliberate attack at all. There was one thing she grumpily understood, however: With the trains down that meant their trip to Parm was about to get a lot more messy.
...Or at least that was what she thought until one of the Marquis' butlers approached and offered them an alternative means of transportation. The servant was vague, but given how few cars were in the town there was only one possible answer what it could be. A horse.
She still would have preferred the train, but the horse offered one blatantly obvious advantage – Since they would be passing by the camp Rean decided they would stop in and make a report first before heading to Parm. Thus when the teacher asked if anyone needed to do anything before making their departure she decided that now would be the perfect time to fulfill Sandy's request and find some food.
Albion Garden was unlike any place Fie had gone to before. The indoor market was clearly designed to cater to affluent nobles and not former jaegers, but it was the best place to find everything Sandy had asked her for. And given the amount of mira they had available for club funds – straight out of the principal's pockets supposedly – there was little need for her to shop at a more thrifty location.
She had assumed the others would simply walk around and browse the other shops check out the displays while she went down through Sandy's shopping list, and for the most part she was right. There was one notable exception to that... "What are you doing?"
The teacher looked up from the acerbic tomato he was inspecting, "It's been a while since I've last cooked anything exciting." He admitted with a small frown, "Since the Civil War, in fact. Since we're here I thought now would be a good time to get back into it. Thinking about making a honey soda for you and the other students. Do you think the Cooking club will mind if I pitch in a bit at some point?"
While she didn't know the others well she had a sinking suspicion that both Sandy and Tita would be delighted to have him in the kitchen with them. She herself wasn't all that keen on the idea, but not even she could bring herself to speak against that hopeful look he was sporting. And she couldn't deny that honey soda sounded like something she might like. "Fine, whatever."
She did her damnedest to ignore the teacher who was happily humming along to some tune as he shopped next to her, but it wasn't easy, especially as she could hear the others around them. The silver-haired girl wasn't sure if the other shoppers recognized the guy as the Ashen Chevalier, but a lot of eyes were on the two of them. And from what she could make out of the muted whispers they didn't see the two of them as teacher and student, but something else entirely...
How utterly humiliating.
Still, as agonizing as the entire experience was she wasn't the kind of person to abort the mission she had accepted. Thus, after several minutes of pure torture she paid for her supplies before beating a hasty retreat away from the grocery store. Her annoyance at the entire situation only grew further as the others seemed to take their sweet time in finishing their shopping despite having less to do than she had, but eventually they did all arrive and together they departed the store.
With that painful detour now out of the way there was no reason to remain in Saint-Arkh. Taking the south exit out of the city they were soon reunited with the butler Celestin... and yup. Those sure were some horses alright. Three of them.
Rean glanced between her and Juna, "Do either of you know how to ride a horse?"
Both she and the Crossbellian shook their heads in the negative. Riding a horse was an admittedly useful skill to quietly and swiftly get around the battlefield, especially when carrying a lot of weight. Boss could do it, but that was one skill he hadn't had time to pass onto her before...
"No need to worry, Lord Hyarms instructed me to offer my assistance should you need it."
The butler's offer was nice, but the swordsman shook his head anyways, "We appreciate the offer, but I'm sure you are needed elsewhere. Hmm... Ah, I know!" He turned his gaze to the youngest of the group, "Altina, do you think...?"
It wasn't hard to figure out what he wanted, but the silent girl only stared back at him in return. This battle of wills lasted for many seconds until she relented. "...Claiomh Solais." She muttered sullenly as her combat shell appeared.
With Altina's ride secure that left two horses for the four of them. Both Rean and Kurt climbed onto their respective mounts. The black-haired teacher annoyed the hell out of her at the best of times, but at the end of the day riding with him was far more preferable than riding with the surly Vander. Decision made she hopped onto her mount of choice, leaving Juna to stare at her blankly for a second before seemingly deciding she would rather be with Kurt anyways.
Once all five of them were situated on their rides Rean gave the order to depart. Fie couldn't help but appreciate the feel of riding a horse. Sure at her fastest she was able to outpace the mount, but that entailed a lot of exertion on her part. Here she could simply hold on and enjoy the breeze as they sped down the road.
"Faster, Kurt! Faster! Yahooooo!" ...Juna too seemed to be rather enjoying herself.
Her good mood died in her throat as she felt a deadly gaze upon her. A worried glance showed the owner of said gaze to be Altina, who was flying alongside them on her combat shell. To an outside observer the rabbit's gaze might have looked little different from usually, but Fie could easily tell that the girl was glaring daggers her way. "...Yahoo."
O...kay. Altina was clearly unhappy with her. Did she want to ride a horse that badly? But why wasn't she glaring at Juna too? Maybe she just really wanted to ride with Rean? That would make sense given how close they were.
Either way, despite being a veteran of many battlefields the unflinching stare from the tiny girl was kinda unsettling. Personally Fie would much rather have been flying around on the combat shell, but she doubted that telling Altina that would do her any favors. Maybe she should get Tita and Sandy to teach her how to make pancakes? She seemed to like those and food always seemed to be the best way to get back on someone's good side.
Luckily for her being on a horse was a lot faster than walking on foot, so after a very brief but awkward horse ride she and the rest of Class VII were back at the camp. The others seemed to be hard at work with their own exercises so Rean ushered them straight towards the train.
But before that could happen she was forced to sit through a dull debriefing as Rean told Randy and Towa about the archaisms they had encountered. Both were understandably concerned and Fie had a suspicion that camp security was about to be raised accordingly. Good thing she and the others weren't gonna be sticking around long enough to get stuck on that boring duty.
Of slightly greater interest to the girl was when Kurt piped up, complaining that the work they had been doing was akin to Bracer Guild activities. Unlike Juna who seemed to hold the supporting gauntlet in high regards the student swordsman seemed very disgruntled by the revelation. Privately Fie agreed – Bracer work always seemed pointless to her, but she also realized that a lot of her opinion was clouded based on her jaeger history.
And while she couldn't say she had been a huge fan of the work they had done, finding the missing kitten for those tourists had felt pretty good...
Still, the former Zephyr member kept her mouth shut. Her opinion didn't really matter – This was her job now and so she would do it. Simple as that. That the blue-haired noble had a different opinion on the matter was interesting. Although her opinion of him was pretty low she didn't think he was the kind of person to see the work as beneath him, so why was he acting like that?
Could his attitude be a symptom of a greater problem with him? If so that might explain his hostile reactions towards her. Rean had hinted along those lines during their conversation a few days prior...
Bah. She was no expert on people. Whatever Kurt's problems were had nothing to do with her. Best to just leave that to the overbearing one.
Before they left, however, Fie had one detour to make. Sandy wasn't in the kitchen, but that didn't stop the former jaeger from putting her groceries away so they wouldn't spoil. After that she found the Alster native outside, unsurprisingly hard at work over a cook pot. After informing her about the successful delivery Sandy offered her and the rest of Class VII a quick bite before they left again. Even though they had had a light lunch back in the city all the riding and walking was taking its toll upon them, so they readily agreed.
"So those were archaisms..." Juna muttered between bites of her stew. It was a simple dish, not unlike that which would be served in a Zephyr field camp, but unlike the spartan mercenary meals Sandy had gone through a lot of effort to spruce it up with herbs and spices. A change Fie much preferred, "I've heard of them, of course, but this was my first time seeing them in person. I remember hearing that terrorists used them in Crossbell two years ago..."
"Ah, you mean the Imperial Liberation Front, yes? My brother mentioned how those terrorists used a lot of archaisms to make up for a lack of numbers.""
Their teacher nodded his head, "Yeah. Fighting against the ILF was my first real experience with them. The Noble Alliance made great use of them during the war, too."
"I commanded a great many of them." Altina's bland declaration caused some humorous reactions. Juna's eyes bugged out, Kurt looked at her as if she had grown a second head, and Rean merely slapped his head tiredly.
The scene was enough to cause Fie to laugh, drawing attention to herself. Both of her fellow students seemed annoyed, but the black-haired swordsman grinned tiredly as he must have seen the humor for himself. "S-Sorry." She replied without feeling anything of the sort, "So tell me, oh great commander of archaisms..." Altina merely nodded her head at the title, "...should we expect more of the same near Parm, or...?"
Her fellow silver-haired comrade tilted her head in thought, "It's possible. The Phalanx is the most mass produced combat model, used both by the Noble Alliance and the society. That said, there are many different combat models in circulation."
"That's an understatement." Their teacher muttered, "I've battled so many weird types that I can't even remember them all. There was even one robot we faced that was designed to mimic the Divine Blade of Wind."
"Nuh-uh! There's no way a dumb robot can match Arios MacLaine!"
"Definitely." Rean nodded in agreement with Juna, "It was a disappointing mockery of swordsmanship."
Kurt hummed thoughtfully, "No machine can understand the soul of swordsmanship. Still, even if they can't rival the deal deal it sounds like we could encounter anything out there. Best to make sure we are ready to face anything."
Eventually their finished with their simple - but filling – meals and were ready to resume their journey. Given that the highway to Parm lay parallel to the train tracks Rean suggested they detour briefly to check out the accident. Given that Major Michael was already on scene he seemed confident the detour wouldn't take long.
This time as Fie mounted up she steadfastly refused to look to her side where the combat shell was hovering. Whether Altina was still miffed at her or not was irrelevant – so long as she didn't look at her classmate she could continue living in blissful ignorance.
After a short ride the group came across the accident. As she had been raised as a jaeger and not a train engineer she couldn't be certain, but from her point of view the damage didn't seem all that bad. The front of the train looked pretty dinged up and was partly off the track, but overall it still seemed pretty travel worthy. The medium sized rock sitting peacefully in the path was the most likely suspect in everything that had happened.
She couldn't help but feel a slight surge of satisfaction when they found Major Michael and he confirmed each and every thing she had thought. Already repairs were underway and he didn't think it would be much longer before it would be able to depart on its own power. The officer already knew about the presence of archaisms, but didn't think they were responsible for anything.
After a brief call from Major Claire where they repeated the same info only for her fellow officer to wave off her support, Class VII got back on their horses and returned to the highway. According to Kurt, Parm wasn't all that far away. Given that it was only a little after noon Fie was hopeful they could wrap everything by a fairly early hour.
The armored woman let out a laugh as she watched the two horses and one combat shell advance down the highway, oblivious to her presence, "It's been a year and a half... Black Rabbit's changed a bit, but he looks completely different."
"So that's the Ashen Chevalier, huh?" The knight rolled her eyes as her 'partner' approached. Just great. "I wonder who's stronger... him or Dolphy? And even Sylphid's here too." She let out a dark laugh, "This might actually be fun."
That caused her to tilt her head in interest, "You know one of the fledglings?"
"Uh huh. Former jaeger like myself. We were actually hanging out together when Uncle Baldur and her old man offed each other. Heard she ran away like a scared kitten after that. Wasn't expecting to see her here. Wouldn't mind getting a little taste of her now..."
Great. The psycho was getting worked up, "Need I remind you that we're here on a mission?"
"Don't worry 'bout me. I know how to get the job done." The red-haired woman let out a deranged chuckle, "But there's nothing saying we can't have a little fun while we work, is there?"
The knight rolled her eyes, but as much as she wanted to disagree she couldn't. Her encounters with Class VII during the war had been galling in their outcome and her lost honor demanded retribution. If that meant letting Shirley have her fun...
So be it.
Riding on a horse was very preferable to walking. Still, as the group of five finally entered Parm Fie was pretty much done with riding mounts for a good long while. Everything felt stiff and it was difficult to dismount properly. Neither of the males seemed all that affected, but she was glad to at least see Juna at least doing some light stretches after getting off her own horse.
Parm sure was a town in her estimation. Others had mentioned how it was known as the Spinning Town due to its textile productions and given the number of brightly colored fabrics on display she had nor reason to doubt that. Outside of that however the place seemed completely unremarkable.
Still, quiet and unremarkable wasn't a bad thing. It was rather peaceful. Fie earned herself a few dirty looks when she yawned loudly, but she couldn't help herself. This was a prime nap town.
As this was Kurt's childhood home he was pressed into leading them around town while they investigated for rumors about any possible archaism sightings. Thankfully, unlike in Saint-Arkh, there wasn't much ground to cover so the task went fairly quickly. A few shops, a handful of residential buildings, and a supposedly abandoned Vander training hall which was quite busy based on the yelling and sounds of combat going on inside.
The last one was enough to draw her classmate's interest and with their teacher's permission the group of five entered the training hall. Fie wasn't at all interested in Kurt's reunion with his old training buddies, but she was at least a little curious about the teachings of one of Erebonia's most famed fighting styles. She could admit it was pretty impressive watching the students swinging around those giant swords like they weighed nothing.
...But at the end of the day she still thought her classmate had chosen the better style with his dual blades. Quick and agile beats slow and cumbersome any day.
Despite her lack of interest in the actual conversation she was aware enough to pick out the important details – Supposedly some master swordsman had arrived recently and was responsible for reopening the school temporarily. She wasn't there now, but given how small the town was Fie had a suspicion that they would meet this so-called master at some point.
Most of the residents of the town were pretty useless for their investigation. A few mentions of strange travelers in town recently, but nothing involving the archaisms. The only lead they got was that an apprentice engineer had seen something. Following up on that they headed to the church looking for this girl...
And the graceful Sylphid found herself stunned as their first meeting ended with the engineer falling off of a chair and landing on her butt. How could anyone be that clumsy?!
After recovering from her painful spill the mint-haired girl – conveniently named Mint – introduced herself as one of Rean's old schoolmates. Thors really turned all sorts of people out, didn't it? Suddenly she felt worried about her future prospects.
Still, as flaky as the girl was she did provide some useful intel. Mint claimed to have spotted three large flying monsters not far from the road heading out of town to the east. While she couldn't confirm for not if they were archaisms, it definitely sounded suspicious enough and Fie was certain that would be the first direction they headed once they left town.
But before they could do that they still had the one optional mission request to look into. The person responsible for the request wanted their help in creating some kind of crazy fancy fabric dye for an upcoming festival. He needed a special rock that could be found east of town – convenient considering that was already their likely destination – a bunch of sepith... and a plant that could only be found in the shopping center in Saint-Arkh.
After leaving the house they convened to discuss their next course of action. Well, most of them did. Rean excused himself to make a call on his ARCUS, "I do want to help him..." Kurt admitted unsurely. That made sense considering the guy was one of his childhood friends.
"I do too, but do we really have time to go all the way back there?" Juna was the one to put forth the most obvious problem.
"It is still early enough in the afternoon that we can make the journey if we use the horses." Altina's matter-of-fact statement failed to hide the miffed look she shot towards Fie. Couldn't she glare at Juna for a change?!
Not wanting to ride a horse or subject herself to the bunny's fierce glare again, Fie could only groan in dismay. Luckily for the members of Class VII a savior presented itself, "Well, I applaud you all for your enthusiasm." Their teacher said as he rejoined the conversation, "I just got done talking to Celestin. He agreed to procure the plant and send it over on the next train now that the line is open again. We'll need to find the rest of the ingredients ourselves, but it should be here by the time we're finished."
"Oh thank Aidios..."
With that conundrum solved the only thing left for them to do was head out onto Agria road where both the rock they needed and Mint's possible archaism sighting were. They also needed sepith, but that could be acquired from any monster. As a matter of fact they probably already had enough considering how much fighting they had been doing, but she wouldn't know since the one who had been collecting it all...
"Um, is there something wrong, Fie?" Rean asked as he noticed her flat stare.
"...It's nothing." The guy better not be holding out on them or there would be hell to pay.
The trip towards where the machines had been spotted was a fairly uneventful one. The distance wasn't far, so it was a simple matter of walking down the road a fair bit, fighting the occasional monster, silently fuming while the so-called hero pocketed all the sepith, and climbing a decent sized hill at the end. During the walk they found the rock they needed – Once they got back to Parm the request had better be complete.
Reaching the top of the hill Fie and the others discovered... not much. There was a small animist shrine, but no sign of the three archaisms. The only thing of note was that as soon as they arrived Rean seemed to hunch over in pain for a second time – this was definitely no spider venom. A quick glance showed that both Juna and Kurt were just as confused as she was, but Altina... seemed to know something.
Perhaps one of them would have pressed the two on the matter, but before they could a sound from behind warned them of an impending threat. Turning rapidly Fie watched as two machines materialized out of thin air... stealth capabilities? These ones were way larger and more menacing than the Phalanx models they fought earlier. What they seemingly lacked in mobility they made up for in firepower.
"The base defense heavy-class archaism – Zephyranthes!" Yeah, Altina's warning definitely fit.
Fie's natural instincts were for her to dart in and overwhelm the nearest enemy with her speed, but the last archaism she tried that against ended with her getting missiles shot at her. Instead this time she opted to hang back and provide a little covering fire. If that ended with someone else eating a missile for their troubles well that was just an unfortunate coincidence.
Oh, look. Juna was charging in. As expected the nearest archaism turned upon her before opening up. Only this time it was a laser instead of a missile. Good thing Altina was there to block it with her shell.
Perhaps it was a little lazy of her, but Fie continued to sit back and use her gunblades as guns to support the others and impede the archaisms from acting with impunity. Class VII had enough front line fighters that she could get away with it. The Zephyranthes were powerful, mixing lasers, missiles, and even the occasional arts into their repertoire, but they were also effectively big stationary targets and the damage began piling up rapidly.
The girl couldn't help but let out a yawn once the archaisms exploded in a fireball. They might have been dangerous, but when it was five against two they had no-
Wait... Two?
By the time she realized her mistake it was already too late. The third archaism had already decloaked behind Juna and Kurt and was about to fire at the two unsuspecting students. There was no way she could close the gap between them in time and her bullets wouldn't be enough to stop it from taking such an easy shot...
"Raaaagh!" ...And yet Rean was somehow able to do what she could not and crossed the clearing in an instant, slicing through the large machine as if its armor wasn't even there.
Fie blinked. Was she hallucinating, or was his hair white and eyes red right now?
"Rean!" Even as the final archaism exploded Altina had crossed the distance towards the teacher who was now panting hard on one knee, no sign of her usually stoic expression present on her face. Awkwardly the former jaeger tried to make sense of the situation. Whatever power he used clearly had its drawbacks, but the boost was undeniable. In that moment his natural speed possibly exceeded her own and his strength seemed almost to Leo's level. Was it some kind of really weird war cry?
Silently she stood alongside Juna and Kurt as they watched the smallest member of their class fuss over their teacher. Once again she was struck by how different Altina was when with her teacher as she scolded him about using his power after 'that incident'. There was definitely some mystery there and despite herself she couldn't help but be bothered that she was completely out of the loop.
But mostly she was bothered with what had happened. So lost in her own recriminations she barely heard Rean rightfully dress her and the others down for her lapse in judgment. They had known the number of enemies from the start, but the easy battles had made her cocky, "Sorry guys. I let my guard down."
"It's not your fault." Surprisingly those words came from Kurt, "You were the first of us to react when we all knew about the third archaism. If only I had-"
"G-Guys-"
"You all bear some share of the fault." Rean chided gently, inadvertently cutting off a worried Juna, "I know these aren't the most dangerous of opponents, but you need to remain vigilant at all times. Learn from this mistake and do better next time. It's that simple."
The Ashen Chevalier clapped his hands before continuing with a little more enthusiasm. "Either way, we can mark this task off as complete. Given the type of archaisms we just faced I'm confident we're on the right track. Let's get back to Parm, finish the other request, and explore the southern byroad for the final archaisms."
Nobody voiced their objections to the plan. Not only was it obviously the most effective one, but Fie was certain she wasn't the only one without the stomach for speaking at the moment. Fortunately the return trip was a quiet one and before long they were back in the Spinning Town. It seemed the butler had delivered on his word and they were able to finish the final optional request.
Unlike the road they had just been on, the Parm Byroad was fairly well traveled as it was the only way to go from the Empire to Liberl on foot. That didn't mean it was safe, however, as almost immediately upon exiting the town they were beset by a group of bee monsters. Their numbers and swiftness made them an obnoxious foe to hit, but fortunately she and Juna were able to gun most of them out of the sky before they could get close enough to bring their massive stingers to bear.
All in all an entirely unremarkable encounter. At least that was what she thought until she caught Rean looking at her with a sly smile on his face. She stared back in confusion, but when his eyes darted towards the enemy corpses her eyes widened in realization and horror. None of the others noticed the silent conversation and the jerk must have fed them all a lame excuse as they continued to progress down the road, leaving her standing alone among the dead.
Dead which contained the disgusting larva she had been volunteered into grabbing. The former jaeger let her body run on autopilot as she carried out the grisly task mindlessly. Her brain meanwhile was in an entirely different place as it ran a selge a minute plotting vengeance against the one responsible for this situation. She allowed herself a dark grin when a plan came to mind, but that grin died a quick death when she accidentally got a whiff of her handiwork.
They would all pay.
Luckily the task didn't take long and it only took a few minutes to catch up with the others as they were busy talking with some weird fishing lady. Another friend of their teacher, it seemed. Either way it was a good encounter as the woman – Annabelle – claimed that loud mechanical noises from a nearby plateau had scared away all the fish.
Doubling back they soon found a path that would take them up the hill, except it was completely blocked off with crates. Crates that had been there as long as Kurt could remember. Curious, but a few boxes weren't gonna stop them. Getting over the barrier would be a simple matter-
Or instead Altina could just use her combat shell to laser the barrier into ruin. That worked too.
With the path cleared Fie led the way ahead. This mystery path that had been sealed away for so long had piqued her curiosity. There could be anything ahead...
Like a big sealed gate barring their path. Lame.
Normally she would already have explosives on the door, but sadly for her Rean was the one in charge. Thanks to the intel saying the archaisms had been spotted on this plateau she knew there was no practical reason to advance further up this mysterious unmarked path. But she was really curious dammit!
The only clue as to what lay ahead rested with the sign on the gate that warned travelers of a high risk of landslides. The path ahead did seem pretty mountainous, but something about the whole situation didn't sit right with the former Zephyr member. Why the secrecy when-
The sound of a trig snapping forced her attention, "We've got incoming!" After her earlier mishap she couldn't help but feel a little satisfaction at being a little ahead of their teacher this time.
She could only stare blankly at the enemies as they moved into view. They were definitely archaisms, but they were the weirdest ones they had fought and it wasn't even close. While the other two models definitely looked like weapons, the two machines that rolled up to them on large balls looked more like weird clowns than anything, especially with the weird mask-like faces they possessed. Still, even if they weren't bristling with guns they were really fast, and each of their many limbs were tipped with blades.
"This model is made for surprise attacks and assassinations – Balancing Clowns!" Having Altina around to put a name to all these things was a nice convenience.
This time it was the machines who took the initiative, with one rolling towards Juna and the other straight for her. She got a first hand glimpse at why these agile robots were known for their assassinations and sneak attacks when it tried to strike out at her with a hidden blade, something which she only just dodged. And thanks to her jaeger background she immediately identified the strange liquid coating the blade as something best avoided.
Thankfully avoiding things was her specialty. It didn't matter how many weapons the archaism had she would not allow it to hit her – or so she would like to say. In reality the machine was really agile and some of those swipes were getting a little close for comfort. Not to mention the constant defense ensured she couldn't actually counter.
"Chrono Drive! Shining!" Thank the Goddess someone finally bothered to intervene. Why Rean was bothering to use arts instead of his tachi she was unsure, but she was grateful for the buffs regardless. What had been an increasingly dangerous situation suddenly became a lot easier as the orbal energy infusing her body enhanced her speed and agility beyond their natural limits.
Dodge. Swipe. Dodge. Parry. Shoot. The dance continued. While she was now overwhelming the weird clown she wasn't doing so at a quick enough rate. Eventually the arts would expire and it would be back to square one for her. But given how things were going she had a feeling that wouldn't happen.
A glance towards the others confirmed what she was already suspecting – The others were all ganging up on the other machine while she had been left effectively on her own. An effective tactic as the second clown self-destructed from the damage it had taken, but one that still annoyed her regardless.
The situation resolved itself a few seconds later when Juna and Altina turned their firepower upon her enemy while Rean used his Gale technique to cross the distance in an instant. By all accounts the right to the kill was hers, but after a long and very tedious day she was more than willing to relax and let someone else claim the machine – A gift that Altina ended up claiming for herself.
With both archaisms destroyed she glanced around. No more enemies present. The only noteworthy thing was that Juna was holding her arm awkwardly, "It only grazed me, but I can't feel my arm..."
Fie beat the others to her and gave a cursory look at the injury, "Hmm... Doesn't look like it was poisoned. Probably just a paralyzing agent. You should recover on its own in a few minutes."
"How do you know?" Her worry was understandable.
"Most paralyzing agents are designed to quickly incapacitate their foe while keeping them alive. Means it dilutes itself pretty fast." Perhaps she revealed a little too much, but Juna seemed too relieved to have noticed anything.
Rean – who had been silently watching the exchange – suddenly tensed up, "Looks like we don't have those few minutes. More are incoming!"
Shit. That was bad. A glance around showed that they were in no shape for another fight, especially against the three clowns that were now rolling into view. Juna was gamely preparing to fight with a single weapon, but she would be a liability in the fight. Both Altina and Kurt looked to be on their last legs and even Fie would readily admit that it had been too long since she put in a full day of fighting like this.
"Sorry, you four. It seems I've pushed you all too hard." The elder of the group must have noticed their plight as he stepped forward, "Just leave this to me." Was he about to use that weird power up again?
The answer was yes he was. It was as if she could see his strength rising, even as his hair and eyes changed color. It was so much like War Cry, except possibly even more ominous – and that's saying a lot when the jaeger's signature ability consumes their own life-force for energy! "Spirit Unifi-"
"That won't be necessary."
Were she not so relieved at the arrival of reinforcements Fie would have rolled her eyes at the cliché nature of it all. Instead she could only watch with interest as a blue-haired woman with a giant sword descended upon the unsuspecting clowns with a barrage of blows that completely shattered their formation. It would only be a matter of seconds before the woman destroyed them all.
"Scud Wing!" Perhaps it was impolite of her to steal a kill like that, but after passing up on the previous one Fie felt entitled to it and the archaism had its back turned on her – a big no-no, even for a machine. For her part the swordswoman spared her an amused grin after finishing off the other two.
The way the woman immediately hugged their teacher was pretty interesting. Was she his girlfriend? That he was a big national hero meant he probably had no shortage of girls interested in him, but as far as she knew he had never mentioned having one. That the girl – who eventually introduced herself as Laura S. Arseid – was a member of the Original Class VII answered some of those questions, but it was still definitely a little sketchy.
As they were walking back to Parm together Fie noticed that Laura had slowed her pace from next to Rean and was now walking alongside her. And not only that, but she was glancing towards her whenever she thought Fie wasn't paying attention, "There something on my face?" She groused at last.
"Haha... You are quite observant." The noblewoman looked surprisingly sheepish at being caught, "Should we get the chance at some point I would like to sit down and have a conversation with you."
"Huh? Why?"
"Instructor Sara told me about you. She said that you were someone I should acquaint myself with."
Wait... Was Sara going around and telling everyone her story?! Laura must have picked up on her consternation as she raised her hands placatingly, "She only told me the bare minimum, I assure you. Let's just say that I've lived something of a sheltered life and she thought that speaking with you would help rectify that issue somewhat."
Fie was able to read between the lines easily enough. Clearly this woman – despite her obvious skill – had little experience outside of her comfort zone of fancy sword training schools and jaegers were something entirely alien to her. At least she seemed to want to fix it, "Sure, I guess. But not now."
"Of course. It seems like you and your classmates have had a very long day." With that Laura afforded her a brief smile before speeding up to converse with Rean again. Huh. That was a weird conversation. But if anything Laura was right about one thing – they had had a very long day and she was ready to head back to camp and rest.
If only she knew that forces were conspiring to ensure she received very little rest that night.