Crusader slid to a stop and pnted her sword in the ground, fog all her energy on pushing her aura to its limits. Her skin gleamed as she became the ro the river. The ptform on which her friends could stand upon. Harbinger pulled away from Dirge’s opening assault while Sojourn ulled bodily towards a ughing BLF whose eyes had begun to glow with an amber light, his fangs bared. “You done goofed!” BLF shouted with mirth as Sojour out a sudden gasp of pain, BLF’s strictive grasp already causing his boo creak.
The vilin twisted his body with a snarl and slid out of BLF’s grasp like he was made of rubber, “You ’t hold me!” he shouted only for an arrow to appear, embedded in his shoulder. He staggered backwards, letting out a shout of pain as he stepped on an illusory bde. “Damn it Rivet, your intel was shit! Dirge! Do something!” he shrieked as BLF lu him again, fangs bared and arms whipping out like strictors. Just past them, Harbinger had gotten some distance from the shell where Dirge was rising up, her hands raised as a sonorous drone rose from her throat. Bones began to pull themselves from the ground as if it were a s. The sou a chill down Crusader’s spi… itched. A terrible feeling that began to cw at her mind. She felt her boart to move under her own flesh.
It was unlike any pain she’d ever experienced before. She felt her entire body begin to move against her will as she dropped to her knees. BLF staggered right into a punch from Sojourn. Harbinger nearly lost her grip on her on as she swung at the first of the skeletons that rose, crushing one and overextending. The other skeletons lunging at her with needle-pointed fingers extended.
Shit, what the-
The droning stopped. The pain stopped. Crusader gasped as she felt her bones settle inside her body. She could feel her own ligaments having torh the strain, her powers already moving to heal the injury. She forced her jaw up to see that the spikes had vanished from the ground and Dirge holding her head in a silent wail of agony. She was staggeri and right, shaking her head as blood dripped from her nose and ears. Crusader grinned and turowards Sojourn who had gotten to his feet. He looked te and then to BLF who was already getting back up, gold fire gleaming on his chest and along his arms and legs. Sojourn turo Crusader with an accusatre.
“You.”
She smiled at him, “Me and someone pretty freaking amazing,” she said.
“How?” He demanded, pulling the arrow from his shoulder with a snarl. “You weren’t this strong when you fought Rivet.”
“You gave us great training materials to work with, brush up some teiques a our teamwork solid,” Crusader said with a shrug, “Really helped us out.”
His lips thinned into a line before he sighed, “Fine, I guess you’ve ear,” he cracked a grin, a clow beginning to rise beh his skin, “Strength from-”
“I wouldn’t do that!” Harbinger bellowed from the side. Crusader gnced in her friends dire and saw her holding her hammer out in warning towards Sojourn who shot her an icy gre. She smiled darkly at him, “Unless you eople to knoas actually involved in this. Seems like you have put a lot of effort into creating a different story, if you mess that up, won’t Stel be mad?”
He whirled at her, “Her name is LIBERTY!” He bellowed, the clow vanishing from his body despite his fury.
“You made a bad move this time, Sojourn, Sir Pence,” Crusader said behind him, raising her on to point at his back. He gnced over his shoulder at her. She met his gaze with her own, “Uhe authority of the Pandora ittee I am pg you and your patriot under arrest for crimes reted to this disaster.”
“Like hell,” he saking a few steps to the left, “I’m not missing the war.”
“BLF!” Crusader shouted.
A pair of massive arms unched in Sojourn’s dire only for the man to go rocketing backwards as if he had been hit by a truck, a smile on his face. He came to an abrupt stop in the shell where a now unscious Dirge y. He scooped her up as a shadow came down from overhead, the massive form of Inky nding with its hammer already raised to smash the pair. Crusader pulled her sword from the ground and darted forward with BLF as Harbinger charged in. Sojourn unched up into the air, his body moving backwards despite defying all physics. He nded where he had beehey were talking before on the roof and barked out a ugh.
“Still got the anoo worry about, heroes! I wouldn’t spend too much time chasing us! Things are about to get wild!”
With that, he ulled once again through the air, traveling backwards like a toy on a string.
Crusader slid to a stop, her on lowered. She cursed, “What the hell kind of power is that?”
Harbinger smmed her own on to the ground, “I k was some kind of travel power, but I wasn’t sure. He moved along the same path he made going forward like a time reversal but taio him and what he was carrying.”
BLF spat, “Slippery bastard, I couldn’t hold him either. It was like impairing his movement was impossible.”
Static filled the air, “He stepped on one of my spikes. Illusions work on him,” Snow said.
Crusader crossed her arms and gave it some thought, “Some kind of ability that is influenced by the path he’s traveling or has traveled,” she muttered, “I think Dirge is the bigger problem. You said her real name was Song?”
“Ana Song, Dame Song,” Harbinger said with a nod, “Last I saw her she had the ability to create bone spikes. The armor and skeletons are new.”
Bandit approached from wherever he’d been hiding, slinging his bow onto his back. He scowled at the spot where the two had escaped, “What did she do to you? I wasn’t in range of whatever it was.”
“I think she took trol of our bones,” BLF grumbled, “I could feel them trying to tear themselves out of my body.”
“We’re all physically enhanced,” Crusader pointed out, “I ’t imagine what she could do to a normal person.”
“Probably rip them right out,” BLF hazarded, his expression grave, “We o catch them.”
Crusader met his gaze. He was right that they were going to be a dao other people, but they could be anywhere at this point. A fsh of white light burst in the distand she turowards it. They had to sider their priorities. If this Doctor was sending monsters at them in waves that meant the monsters weren’t going out into the city just yet. If they pushed towards the ter they could kill two birds with oohey o keep going.
She shook her head, “No, we stay our course. If they pull us away we might lose time we could put into helping Handmaiden.”
Harbinger let out a sigh o her, “I hate that you’re right. I want to crush his…” she set her jaw and shook her head, “...no, he o go on trial. What he did to me doesn’t matter.”
BLF shot her a look, “You have history?”
Harbinger closed her eyes, “Let’s just say he wahe first bite, I got away,” she said and threw her hammer over her shoulder, “e o's get going.”
Bandit, who had remained silent during their deliberations, nodded with approval before shooting a look towards Crusader, “They could try again.”
“I figured,” she said with a nod, “Let's have Inky and Alphonse keep a while we move,” she turo her familiar and touched his feathers. He let out a cry of determination and unched into the sky, darting in the dire of the fshing lights. Inky melted into a puddle before turning into a nky and absurd looking cartoon dog before bounding off with a snicker. She tapped her earpiece, “Hey Snow, you good to keep moving?”
“I’m already on my way, cutie, keep up,” Snow ughed, “You’re wele for the save, by the way.”
Crusader snorted and shook her head, “Alright team!” she shouted, “Let's go!”
–
Even with their spirits up from their coordiroung of the vilins Dirge and Sojourn, the ever worseniation around them put a damper on their versation as they walked. The waves of monsters came thinner and thinner each time while the fshes of light in the distance grew closer and more frequent. Crusader kept her head on a swivel despite it all. Her gut told her that the thinning monster waves was a tactid not a sequehis was far from over.
The ohing they found themselves not having to do was look for survivors. It ointless, and doing so would only do more harm for their morale than good. There were no bodies. The fates of those caught up in the explosioher being annihited by the local wave of mana or finished off by the mohat poured out.
“What I don’t get,” BLF cut into the silence as they trudged through yet another decimated street, Harbi his side with a grim look on her face, “Was how they were here before us.”
Crusader and Bandit gnced his way. She had been walking with him and Snow in silence for the past few minutes. “What’s that?” Bandit asked.
“Rivet, Sojourn, Dirge,” BLF ted on his fingers. “They were well ihe area of the bst but they were fihey obviously had something to do with this whole thing, probably set the dungeon break up. So they… what? Set the charges and stood o it?”
Static filled the air as Snow chimed in, “Probably a bomb shelter made out of the same stuff as the training room back at the guild,” Snow suggested, “That’s what I would do.”
They all looked her way and she returheir stares with a raised eyebrow, “What?”
Crusader frowned, I ’t imagine a mi where someone would just be okay with all this. She looked towards an upturned car that had been partially bed by the bst. Her eyes nded on the carbonized shapes ihe and she looked away. It’s inhuman. Overhead, she spotted Alphonse heading ba their dire. He let out a screech simir to the ones he gave when he saw monsters but less urgent. He wasn’t close enough for her to feel what his meaning was. “Al spotted something, e on.”
They picked up the pace dowest stretch of road before hitting a turn. Bandit went up ahead and pressed himself against the er of a lopsided building. Crusader watched him peer around the side, freeze, and then step away while scratg his head. He turned and waved to them to e over. Crusader was at his side in an instant with an equally perplexed look on her face to his own. Before them was a stretch of road about two blocks long covered in the bodies of yamukade. They were all bloodied and torn in pces.
Alphonse came down with a fp of his wings and nded on Crusader’s shoulder, its head whipping about to examihe field of death.
“What the hell?” Harbinger breathed as she caught up to them.
“Yeah,” Crusader grunted, “Who did this? Did backup arrive?”
Bandit shook his head, “The JSDF and Sapporo have been maintaining a perimiter around the break zohe military doesn’t have the equipment to push further in and Sapporo isn’t done making sure civilians are at a safe distance. I haven’t gotten any word about heroes leaving the dungeons to help either. It’s just us in here.”
Crusader crossed her arms and g Snow whed.
“Ining,” BLF hissed and quickly dropped into a fighting stance. Crusader drew her own on and readied it just as one of the creatures stumbled out through an alley, its head thrown ba a silent wail of pain as something white g to its throat. It writhed on the middle of the street before colpsing to the ground very still. They all watched as the shape leaped off the downed monster before sitting in the middle of the killing field as if surveying its handiwork.
“Is that… a hound?” Bandit said, squinting at the shape that was now sniffing the air. Crusader squinted as well, examining its shape. It looked almost indistinguishable from a normal hound save for its all-white look. It had the body of a rge dog, like a greyhound, but many times bigger. Its head was long with a snout that tapered to a point. Long pointed ears rose up straight from the top of its head like antes long thin tail whipped about behind it as it turo face them where it sat. Alphonse fpped his wings a out a scree greeting.
Crusader g her familiar. She hazarded a guess with a smirk and raised her voice, “Levi? Is that you?” she shouted.
Bandit turo her, “Sonya’s familiar?”
Ahead of them, the hound straightened up a bit more, fog ily on Crusader before kig off the ground and bounding in her dire. The others tensed for only a heartbeat before it slid to a stop and sat down again, looking up into her eyes with a patient expression. She smiled at it and crouched down, “Hey Levi, so this is what you look like without ymor, huh? Very handsome,” she said and reached a hand out to the familiar. It sniffed ond tilted its head up as if to say ‘well, obviously’ before turning away to approach the body on the ground.
“What’s it doing?” Harbinger asked, “I thought it went with Handmaiden.”
“I don’t think it would have been much help against the boss,” BLF said before turning to Bandit, “You know more about familiars than the rest of us. Any ideas?”
“I’ve got one,” Bandit said with a frown, “Depends on if its a familiar like Inky or one like Alphonse…” he trailed off as Levi stopped o the felled monster and opened his mouth, rows of razor sharp teeth inside gleamed before an eerie light bloomed from within the hounds throat. Then the corpse began to gloale white light and burst into particles that were pulled inside Levi’s mouth like a vacuum. In a matter of seds, the corpse was gohat ahat,” Bandit said with a grunt and crossed his arms.
“Woah, woah, what the hell was that?” BLF shouted as Crusader stared in stunned sile the spot where the body had been, Levi was already walking over to another corpse to repeat the process.
“True monsters e to get stronger,” Bandit said with a shrug, “Inky has eaten more than his fare share of monsters in our time together. It's why he’s s now. I’ve had a theory that Inky was a mini-boss for a dungeon, but eve was an Unon dungeon. It took a while for him to get strong enough to do what he does now. That took ing monsters,” he said and the others turo him, his expressio grave, “Yeah, all monsters grow like this. We usually don’t let them stick around that long, though.”
Another corpse exploded into motes of white light as Levi feasted.
“You haven’t beeing Inky feed,” Crusader pointed out after a moment.
He smirked at her, “Haven’t I?” he said with a chuckle, “He’s quick about it, not as dramatic as this guy. He also does everything anymore. The materials from monster corpses are valuable after all.”
“Still,” Snow cut in, “I wonder why Levi waited before eating, this is a huge mess.”
“For us,” Crusader said, “It takes him a few seds to eat it looks like. He’s been piling up a feast until we showed up so we watch his back.”
BLF burst into ughter, “That sounds like something a familiar bound to Sonya would do!”
Ahunderous fsh rang out from the dire of the fight against the boss, white light refleg against the clouds. Then a new sound followed it. A rising meical shriek. Crusader whipped her head up and looked to the sourly to see three metal shapes streak across the sky. Fighter jets. She felt a tightness in her chest ease, “Looks like they’ve secured the perimeter,” she said with relief. o her, Bandit had his finger pressed against his ear and was nodding away. They all watched him patiently for a moment before he lowered his hand and sat down on the ground with a weary sigh.
“Mana levels have dropped in the dungeons and in the area, enough that the iional team has bee in to take over for the Guilds in the dungeons. They’re gonna recover and e back out. Three iional heroes are going to take point with the JSDF to begin making headway into the ward and mop up with new munitio by ASTA,” he grinned, “Love it when heroes e together.”
“What about Sapporo?” Harbinger asked.
As if to answer her question, a jolly ugh echoed over the entire ward like a thundercp. It was unlike anything Crusader had ever heard before. There resence behind it, mighty and somewhere between mad and ceous. She felt her shoulders rex, her heart ease. That ugh was like a signal that said the tragedy was almost over.
Bandit smiled and got to his feet, “Sounds like he’s almost ready. You wanna go watch?”
