Infinence: Continuation

[XxKiraYamatoxX]

Chapter 18

I woke up on a soft... plushy bed, with Scotty lying beside me. The question was... why were my proportions blown a little out of size? My bust and butt were a little bigger than normal... ah, it was most probably Scotty. Learning about that ability... he was most probably dreaming about it or something. "Scotty," I tapped him gently. He rolled over and opened his eyes. "Ah damn, it even happens when I dream about it?" he sighed.

"I forgive you. Just turn me back."

My body shrunk back to its normal size, and I heaved a sigh of relief. I was plenty big enough already... without all those enhancements. "By the way, I said I'd tell you what I kept from the dragon form, right? It's this," I put his hand on my bust. His face turned red. "Just... try sliding your hand down," I tried to hold back my embarrassment. He... had wanted to see it after all.

"Hey..."

"Yeah. All slippery. It's just my bust and abdomen though, and there's dragon muscle underneath my skin there."

"I get the point. Now you can either let me go, or I could start getting perverted thoughts again."

"Ah... sorry..." I withdrew my hand quickly and made my armour reappear - I never slept with it on, I always slept naked, just wrapped up in a blanket to cover myself. It was far too uncomfortable sleeping with all those weapons on.

Right now, we were in the captain's quarters behind the Operator's bubble. Artemis had insisted that we take it, because it was more important for me to stay close to the bubble so that I could enter it quickly in case of an emergency.

The Leviathan had livened up quite a bit since our last visit. People walked to and fro along the corridors, and the canteen was always livened up with hearty chat from the patrons. Some people lounged around the ship's digital library room, studying some manuals and even reading ancient texts. The techier people studied the ship's systems, weapons and defensive armaments. The recreational rooms and gyms were filled with people as well. It was like... the whole ship had come alive now.

So today, I was to meet the new bridge crew. Artemis was already waiting outside the door when I opened it. "How long were you waiting here?" I asked. "Few seconds. I had the computer tell me when you woke up," she replied.

"So we're setting sail in?"

"Sometime in the evening. Did you have a good night's rest?"

"Yeah. We don't have a soft liquid-suspension bed at home."

"The crew's all happy about it too. Come, let's meet the bridge crew."

Artemis walked past the Operator's bubble and down the staircase that led to the bridge's lower levels. I followed behind, and was a bit surprised to see 2 few new faces on the middle floor - one female, one male. "We've managed to figure out that this is the command deck, so Ares will be setting up here as general coordinator once he arrives. In the meantime, we've got Freya and Vermillion working here as assistant coordinators. Don't worry, they know their stuff even though they're assistants, and they'll have a hero working here with them to boot."

We descended to the main deck. The consoles all around the place were totally filled up now. "We've got a full team of gunners manning the stations near the front. At the very front, your friend Clara's keeping her position as helmswoman, and we have Zephyr working with her as a navigator, but he can take over if Clara needs to head out. There's also the defense network operators just in front of us, and then we have the radar and sonar operator, Bakeley and the communications officer, Rune at work behind us."

"Anything else I should know about the command structure?"

"Naturally, Ares is at the very top, and three assistant coordinators answer to him, but they can make decisions without him present. Two have to agree on the decision before we go ahead with it. I'm the third assistant coordinator, but I also answer directly to Ares as his secretary, and I do a lot of stuff on the side. The rest of the bridge crew work under the coordinators, and so do the leaders of the individual SF teams, like Lana, who leads the logistics team."

"So the coordinators are the most important?"

"Yup. They coordinate everything on the ship. The command structure is actually just temporary for now, we'll probably change it over time."

"What are the individual teams?"

"We've got the 1st to 12th Combat teams, but we've just added the 13th. That's your party, plus a few. Including me. I may be superior on the ship, but in the field, I'll be under you guys' care. Scotty's the team leader, and you're the assistant. I'm really looking forward to seeing you guys in actual combat."

"Thanks..."

"The Combat teams are usually evened out in terms of specialties for use in all missions, so we have flyers, ranged combatants, melee combatants, healers and magic users in each team. Yours is already pretty balanced, I just added some members to optimize it."

"Who're the others?"

"Melissa. She's a Witch that can take to the air on a broomstick. Pretty powerful too - watch out when she uses Meteor. There's Nu, no one knows his full name. He's a Mounted Knight, but he can ride and tame just about anything he finds in the wild, so he doesn't need to bring his own horse. That's all."

"Sounds interesting."

"Besides the Combat teams, there are also the 1 to 5th Mobile teams - they're the teams we call on when we need to move fast. They control and maintain all the vehicles we have stowed away in the Leviathan's cargo bay. We have vehicles for all purposes, for all terrains. We've also recently formed the 1 to 9th Wings, to make full use of the Leviathan's aircraft. They're training in simulations as we speak. Besides that, the large Logistics team controls some transport helos, and is in charge of getting us whatever important supplies we may need, very quickly. There are also a lot of smaller support teams stationed all around the ship."

"Quite organized."

"The Brigade is huge. Of course we need to be organized. How are we going to get anything done otherwise?"

"By the way, where's Lute?"

"She's hanging around on the observation deck with your mother and brother, Traya. By the way, she's in your team as well."

"Good to know. I was wondering why she wasn't beside us."

"She actually woke up earlier than you two. Must be excited about all the stuff going on around her, the kid."

"So why are we waiting a few hours to leave?"

"Some paperwork. Looks like Thomas is trying his best to stop us from leaving, so we're getting all bogged down in lame paperwork. Don't worry, we're coping."

"I thought he wanted us out."

"That's what's making me feel weird... It doesn't make any sense. First, he scolds you guys over parking the Leviathan here, and now he doesn't want us to leave. Sounds like he's got something planned. Or maybe it's just that he's trying to mess us up. It could be, considering what the Brigade's put him through. But I heard that his father has gone missing."

"Missing?"

"Nobody can find him anywhere. If you ask me, it's possible that he's already lying dead somewhere. Thomas might've fed him to the sharks or something. He's not the type that is all for loving the elderly."

"No evidence?"

"Exactly. We can't do anything until we get evidence, and this is only my own hunch. I can't act based on my own hunches. We can only wait to see what happens."

It was a bit vexing thinking about Thomas's grudge, indeed. I just hoped we wouldn't encounter any more trouble.

"I received a bit more news about our mission by the way. We're heading to a large island off the southern coast of Faelis, the Eastern Magical Continent. There are two large countries fighting over ownership of the island, and they just won't settle down. Casualties are extremely high, and the inhabitants of the island are too scared to even leave the caves they've taken refuge in. They have it real tough, those civilians. We'll be working with the 7th Fleet."

"Isn't Faelis awfully far?"

"Sorta. It's a few weeks journey from here with the Leviathan. It would be under normal conditions, but the Leviathan can turn into a sub. We can take a shortcut through an underwater passage underneath an island chain with waters too shallow for the ship to pass through. We've scouted ahead - it's just the right size for the Leviathan, and will shave 2 weeks off our trip, plus a few days if we use the Leviathan's boosters. We'll have to bring the 7th Fleet along for the ride. From what I heard, they didn't believe they'd be able to make it to Faelis in a week. We'll show them."

"Artemis, it looks like there's a bit of a commotion in the port," Rune suddenly turned around.

"Show us," Artemis went into business mode and walked around to Rune's terminal. She stared at the screen for a moment, and then motioned Scotty and I over. "Pause. Magnify the image here. Doesn't that look like the crest of the Reindall family? Judging by the clothes, I'd say it's a butler..."

The Reindall family was a family of wealthy traders that lived here in Sarena...

Artemis turned towards us. "We've got a Reindall butler being chased by what appears to be a pirate gang. The guards aren't doing anything to help, so why don't we? It's unlikely that he's being chased for some lame reason - he might have some information on the MEA and Thomas. He's one of their butlers after all."

The MEA and Thomas were members of the Reindall family? That made sense... "How fast can we get to the port by ship?" Artemis asked.

"Too long. We're flying. I'll call my hawk."

"You have a hawk?"

"Yeah. She's fast enough to get us there in minutes. Let's go to the observation deck."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

I put two fingers into my mouth and whistled loudly. Within seconds, Reena's dark black silhouette had appeared in the sky and landed. "Big..." Artemis breathed. "Big enough to carry four. Lute, you want to come along?"

"I'll go! I can take care of myself!"

"Hop on."

"Heading back to Sarena?"

"Make it quick. We've got someone to save."

"Got it."

As Reena rose up into the air with Scotty, me, Artemis and Luticia seated on her, I raised a conical Shadow Barrier in front of her. She sped off towards Sarena, almost jolting off the unprepared Artemis. "Whoa!" she grabbed on even tighter to the grips on Reena's armour.

We had arrived at the port area within the minute, leaving Artemis visibly shaken by Reena's incredible speed. "What... kind of steroids are your bird on?" she asked, wobbling a bit. "Magic. It's a little magical scroll we picked up on our travels," I explained as Reena began to descend. Curious onlookers watched as we quickly got off Reena's back and dashed off.

"We'll split up to look for that butler. He can't be too hard to find. Luticia, you're with Scotty. I'll be with Traya. You two don't need a radio to talk to each other, right?"

"Yeah."

"Let's go."

We split up at the next junction, with Artemis and I taking a side road. Thankfully the trade only really started to pick up in the afternoon, so the traffic wasn't too bad. I closed my eyes and concentrated to increase the power of my Shadow Sense, but I couldn't find anyone that resembled the butler or the pirate gang chasing him. We continued running onwards.

"Think I picked up his trail. There's a bunch of half-destroyed stalls around this area. It looks like they were headed east, somewhere in your direction. We're heading to the eastern market district. He'll probably want to find guards for help, so he'll head for the busy areas."

"Scotty thinks he picked up his trail, and he also says it looks like they were headed in our direction. He's headed to the eastern market district now since he thinks the butler wants to find guards for help in busy areas." I told Artemis.

"Let's just hope he gets saved - I don't care by who. Let's pick up the pace."

We were now dashing through dark side streets that were usually deserted. I was surprised Artemis had taken this route. The city's usual delinquent lots hung around here often, and I wouldn't be surprised if we encountered one or two.

"Hey, hey, what are you two hot stuffs running around for? Come and join us for a beer!"

Like those types.

We ignored them and just kept on going. Suddenly, I picked up something at the extreme edge of my Shadow Sense - a human huddled up in the middle of a haystack. As we got closer, I could sense other humans searching for something. He was... to our left, but the way around to him was too far... No choice. "How high can you jump?" I asked Artemis. "Two storeys. Is he nearby?"

"Yes, in fact he's on the other side of this building."

"Scotty, I've found him. He's near the eastern wall of the city, before reaching the market. It's about... 120-"

"Your extra senses are somehow linked to me - I know where he is by looking at your Shadow Sense image. We're on our way."

"Somehow, Scotty can see the results from my Shadow Sense."

"Not surprising. There are a lot of dragon abilities I don't even know about yet. The few I told you yesterday are only the ones I know about."

"Let's just jump over the building and save our butler."

"Right."

I knelt down and kicked my feet hard against the brick pathway to send myself flying up into the air. I landed on the other side of the building, and so did Artemis half a second later.

The place was a dead-end - no wonder the butler had been forced to hide. All the pirates had turned to look at us the moment we entered. A ferocious bunch, judging by their looks, their weapons and their clothes. About 18 of them - against two women. "What are two pretty wenches doing here?"

"More than just wenches. What are you looking for?" Artemis countered.

"None of your business. Why don't you come with us after we're done? We could use women like you two..."

"Hardly likely. We're here to get in your face," Artemis shook her head.

"Get in our face? How? Pole-dance on us?"

"These guys are disgusting," I felt like puking.

"All right, we get it. If you give in, we promise not to kill you. In fact... we'll treat you VERY nicely..."

"Like that's gonna happen. We'll fight," Artemis said defiantly.

"So how are two sluts going to fight us? With your boobs? Haha!"

Well, Artemis really was dressed in very revealing clothes. She wore a black band around her chest that revealed her cleavage and underbust, and she wasn't even wearing a bra to boot. Her minis exposed the full length of her long legs as well. "Nope."

Artemis reached to her back and drew her monochrome bow. The dragon's head on the grip looked even more imposing now, with its red eyes appearing to glow.

"Are you going to fight us with that black and white bent piece of wood alone? You don't even have any arrows!"

"I don't need any," Artemis promptly produced a black arrow on the bowstring out of nothing.

I threw back my hair to show the pirates my full arsenal. Some of them shrank back a little as I drew my dual handguns, along with the two silver katanas on my side. I attached the katanas onto the barrels of the handguns to create two gunblades of sorts. "Interesting," Artemis noted as I aimed for the pirates. "Let's dance," I smiled and started blasting away.

Two pirates fell immediately, but the rest were smart enough to run for cover. They fired volleys of bullets at us from behind buildings, but I stopped firing to raise a Shadow Barrier to block them. "Can I shoot from inside this?" Artemis asked. "Yup. Fire away," I nodded. She aimed for a pirate that was spraying bullets everywhere and fired an arrow at his head, which was poking out just a bit over the low stone wall he had been hiding behind. It struck its target perfectly, and the guy moved no more.

"I pride myself on accuracy," Artemis grinned. "So do I," I opened a small hole in the Shadow Barrier, threw my handguns high up into the air and took Lucia from my back. A black arrow formed on her string as I drew it, and I fired it at a pirate that had been hiding behind the corner of a building. It curved to the left to hit him in the head, and I stood still as the gunblades split apart in mid-air and the handguns and katana parts came falling back down right back into their holsters and sheaths respectively.

"Showoff," Artemis pouted.

"Like you weren't just now," I laughed.

"The rest are good though. We can't hit them like this."

"Can you hold your own in melee combat?"

"Sure, no problem," Artemis lifted up her bow, and it promptly morphed into a longsword. Still with the same colour scheme and dragon head though.

"Cool bow you got there."

"It's the Archaeion. A Lost Exceed, which is an ancient magical weapon."

"I actually have one with me as well."

"Really? Show me!"

I put Lucia on my back and drew Forsaken Destiny from my back. Artemis immediately started to study the sword. "I like the pattern... what does it do?" she asked.

"This," I slashed open a hole in space-time and reached in to pull one of the pirates out of it. He met his end when I rammed my boot heel into him and used the launcher inside to fire a penetrating dart through his head. "Warping?"

"Nah. It's a hole in space-time. Forsaken Destiny cuts open a hole in space-time, and that function can be used to warp myself somewhere else, drag someone to me, or attack."

"Cool..."

"Okay, enough showing off. Let's kick their butts."

I let the Shadow Barrier around us disappear and spun Merylynn's sheath around on my left hand to grab her grip. Holding her in my right hand and Forsaken Destiny in my left, I charged forward, using Merylynn to deflect bullets while I charged up my mana inside Forsaken Destiny. Once it was done charging, I aimed it at one of the pirates hiding in a filled-up well and fired a small, concentrated beam of energy that pierced through the rock wall and eviscerated the pirate.

Next, I threw a handgun into the air towards another pirate and ran up to him quickly, closing the distance easily and practically stunning him when I suddenly appeared beside him. "See ya~" I clobbered him in the face with Merylynn and sheathed Forsaken Destiny, catching the handgun I had throw into the air before and using it to gun down one of the pirates that had been trying to line up a shot at me with a single bullet.

I spun around on the spot, firing at any pirate that I could see from here. Once the spin was done, I had run out of ammo, so I ejected the magazine and smacked my bust to make one fly out from inside my bosom. I had taken to storing my gun magazines in it recently - because it was so big, it could hold quite a lot. And the magazines somehow managed to stay in my bosom even though it was so slippery now... I caught the magazine in mid-air with the gun's stock - it slid right in without me ever having to touch the magazine. I knocked it so that I heard a clicking sound and then jumped over the wall and tumbled into a roll.

I came to rest seconds later upside-down and started firing just like that, downing another 3 pirates. There were no more live ones in sight, so I climbed back up and looked around for Artemis. "Flashy fighting there, pardner," she remarked behind me. She was waving a radio. "I found it in one of the pirates' pockets. The last call was a few seconds ago - so I do believe we may have more company coming."

"Traya, get out of there now!"

"Why? What's going on?"

"There's a big army of pirates headed your way! I'm estimating about two hundred!"

"That many!?"

"Either this was a trap and we fell right into it, or somebody doesn't want that butler escaping. The pirates are raising hell everywhere around you, and Sarena's guards are all nowhere to be seen! I'm going to join up with you soon. Hang in there!"

"Company indeed. Two hundred strong," I told Artemis.

"... Actually, I don't think they'll be much of a problem."

"Are you serious? We're talking about two hundred pirates here!"

"Two hundred giants."

"What?"

"Two hundred pirates is nothing compared to two hundred giants."

"You mean..."

Just as the first bunch of pirates appeared out of the street leading to the dead end, a large cloaked figure flew out of nowhere and landed heavily in front of us, sending a shockwave flying outwards that knocked the pirates off their feet but surprisingly left us unharmed. As the dust from the shockwave cleared, I could see that the figure was holding a... massive greatsword, almost twice as big as anything Scotty could carry... I was stunned into silence - no warrior should be able to move like that while holding such a big weapon! But... Artemis... two hundred giants... oh.

"Sorry I'm late, Artemis."

"Ares! You're here!"

[fanficl0ver]

I have returned(from the shadows)..!!

Funny how it is that when I look back, I realize how far from the starting point this story has flown. Really, really amazing..

Perhaps, a point should come where the characters realize, "What happened to our previous lives?".

[Food for thought]Reminiscence is an important factor in drawn-out stories, so readers would realize, "Oh, they used to be normal. A lot must have happened.". This is point where readers flip the pages(or click the links) and relive the old times..provided it is done properly, with lack of details.

A great fiction. Always was, always will be.

~ffl~

[XxKiraYamatoxX]

Chapter 19

So... this person was Ares? He turned around, allowing me to see his front. And man, was I speechless. His ornate, heavily decorated superheavy armour was made out of some kind of white shiny material that didn't seem to get dirty at all. He had no helmet, instead he wore a headpiece made out of that same material that allowed others to see his features. He had a gentle face... contrary to what I had pictured when Artemis described him. I had thought he'd be a gruff hero with features heavily roughened by battle. Instead, he was... gentle and caring.

His greatsword was about a whopping 3.8 metres long and around 0.3 metres wide. It was the biggest weapon I'd ever seen in my entire life... barring Merylynn's extended form. Ares himself stood about 1.9 metres tall in full armour, and that armour seriously looked thick...

Artemis hugged Ares tight, and the man returned the embrace with one hand, at the same time swinging the sword behind him with the other hand to decapitate a few pirates that had been trying to sneak up on them. He could even swing it one-handed...? That was... incredible... "How about we go kick some pirate butts, my love?" Ares smiled. "Sorry to trouble you, just when you got back too..." Artemis blushed noticeably. "Nah, it's fine. I'd beat them to a pulp even if I was tired anyway. People like these make me sick."

Artemis and Ares turned their attention back to the pirates still lingering around in the street. I guessed that they were probably thinking about how to deal with this new threat. Not that they were going to get a chance to do anything...

"I take it you're Traya, the Shadow Maiden?"

"You've heard of me?"

"It's not often you see a female hero. Plus, Artemis has been talking about you a lot. You'd think she was crazy about you or something..."

"Ares!"

"All right, all right. Traya, Artemis, can you two provide fire support? I can't exactly swing this big sword around without a good chance of hitting you two if you jump in with me."

"Right!" Artemis smiled

"Okay!" I nodded and holstered my handgun and sheathed Merylynn, bringing out the large Saga X9 on my back. It was time to bring out the big gun... I couldn't lose to Ares!

"The Saga X9? Looks like you modified it a little."

Ares could even recognize the gun!? Damn, he really was good.

"Well, don't accidentally shoot me in the back with it, all right?" Ares grinned at me.

"Just go already!" Artemis already had the Archaeion back in its bow form.

"Okay, okay. Some major wallopings coming right up."

Ares jumped into the crowd of pirates, landing with another big shockwave, this one powerful enough to actually fling the pirates up into the air, where one swing of his sword cut most of them down. I put my right eye to the scope and pulled the trigger. One pirate went down, shot in the head. The recoil was surprisingly light... I shifted up and pulled back the lever to eject the spent casing, and then set the lever back into its original place and fired again.

A minute or so into the fight, I realized that I was firing about two rounds per second and that the gun hadn't seemed to run out of bullets yet, despite supposedly depleting the bullet load. Well, maybe it was firing something akin to my Shadow Arrows now... all the better. No need to reload.

"I'm coming in!"

Another figure landed beside us, clutching a smaller one. This time, it was Scotty and Luticia. "About time you two got here," I kept firing. "Sorry, I had to deal with some... business. Anyway, who's that Warrior slashing away there?"

"Ares," Artemis replied.

"Guess I could learn quite a lot of stuff from him, eh?"

"Yup. He's the same as you in the way that he also uses a greatsword... just that it's much bigger than any ordinary one."

"I can see that. Should I join in?"

"He might hit you. His sword's way too big."

"I guess I'll just kick back here and watch then. I've already gotten a fair share of the fight anyway."

"You fought even though you told me to get out of here?"

"Well, you wouldn't listen anyway. Figured I might as well ease the load on you guys. Took out a good quarter of the group before they realized they were under attack from behind."

"Not bad... so you're Leon? The Volcanic Harbinger?"

"Not many people know me by that name. I'm impressed, Ares."

Ares had suddenly appeared beside us, his greatsword bloodied and resting on his back. Scotty had gotten that title after repelling the Frostfall Wyrm by forcefully erupting a dormant volcano under it using a supercharged Infernal Quake Blast. That was one of his grandest moments - though it had taken a lot of energy out of me to maintain a barrier powerful enough to stop the ash from escaping and causing a major environmental crisis.

"Very few people can put enough power into a dual-elemental attack to erupt a volcano, you know. Volcanoes can't be forcefully erupted with just fire magic alone - you need both fire and earth magic to boost the lava flow."

"You sure know a lot, don't you?"

"Well... I've always been interested in how the world works. It helps me to refine my skills by using knowledge derived from nature and understand how my elemental attacks work and allow me to control them to an incredible extent. But I never even dreamed of forcing a volcano to erupt. Kudos to you for thinking about the idea."

"It takes a lot of mana though. And the Frostfall Wyrm was already pretty beaten up, otherwise it wouldn't have gone to rest on a volcano."

"Not everyone can come out of a wyrm fight alive though. I gotta say, you guys are good."

"Haha, thanks."

"Well then, what should we do with these guys?" Ares looked behind him, at the whole bunch of dead pirates lying on the streets. The lucky ones were just unconscious.

"Let's just leave them like this," Artemis nodded, and then turned towards the haystack in the corner of the dead end to call out, "The butler hiding in the haystack, you can come out now!"

A shaking man climbed out of the haystack. He looked around and saw the dead bodies of the pirates, and then seemed to calm down a little. "Thanks for saving me..." he walked up to us and bowed down politely. When he looked up, he seemed to get a big shock. "Three heroes in a place like this? I can't believe my eyes... it is an honour to meet all of you!" he bowed again so hard that his head almost hit the ground.

"Jeez, you heroes always get all the attention," Artemis sighed.

"Mama is still famous?" Luticia asked.

"Not really. I thought my reputation would've died down by now."

"No, no, all the noble families still discuss your exploits, and more often than none elaborate tales are woven out of your journeys to entertain the nobles. Some of them are quite smitten with the idea of a sexy heroine, I must say."

"I'll take that as a compliment, but let's get down to business. Why were you being chased?"

"I... witnessed a terrible thing. Lord Reindall... he... he has been murdered!"

The information hit me like a concrete brick in the face. So the MEA was dead...

"By his own son, no less! What a disaster!"

Another concrete brick in the face. It looked like Thomas had far more to do with this matter than I had initially expected...

"Thomas? How did it happen!?"

"Yes, yes! I was on my way to serve Lord Reindall his dinner, but when I entered his quarters, his son was standing there with a bloody knife in his hand and the Lord was on his bed, dead! I dropped the food and ran for my life, and those pirates were after me once I left the mansion! I have been running for more than a day now, and am extremely tired..."

"You can rest now. Come onto the Leviathan."

"No, no, I must tell you more! Thomas... he plans to assume the position of the Lord!"

"So he's planning to become the MEA?"

"Yes! If he does, there's no telling what will happen to the city... Oh, what has become of this world!?"

"Just come onto the Leviathan. The Twilight Brigade will protect you."

"The gigantic warship in the port? Oh... thank you."

"Ares, Scotty, Luticia, you three go back with him. I'll summon Reena for you guys, though I don't know how she's going to handle that giant greatsword."

"It's fine, I can go myself. What will you two do, staying here?"

"We've got a rogue young Lord to assassinate," I lifted up my right hand and tested the hidden blade again. It still worked fine.

"Don't overdo it. If you draw too much attention, the Brigade might get implicated," Artemis pleaded.

"Who do you think I am? I'm the Shadow Maiden. Stealth is my forte. Besides, you'll need to watch out for me, that's why I want you to stay with me. If any form of light hits me when I'm Shadowmelded, I'm dead," I grinned.

"Are you..."

"We'll be staking out the Reindall mansion until night. Then I'll do the assassination. Thomas is a ruthless person who'd even kill his own father. I don't show any mercy for people like these. Plus, the longer he stays in power, the more trouble Sarena's going to be in."

"We won't be able to meet the schedule..."

"Thomas has most likely figured out that the butler's safe now. It'll force him to act, so the Leviathan is most probably blockaded again. We won't be able to meet the schedule either way," Ares said.

"Ugh... then I'll come along with you, Traya. As much as I hate to say it, Thomas needs to go down."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

It was night now... and we were hiding in a tree in front of the Reindall family's mansion. Indeed, the Leviathan had gotten blockaded again, this time with civilian vessels. Some smart aleck had figured out how to use the law to the advantage... if a military vessel destroyed or attacked a civilian vessel, then the military vessel was in the wrong and would be taken to court. So now it was stuck in port. Scotty and Ares were frequently talking to us using our telepathic abilities, updating us on the situation.

"The front door's too risky. Too many guards, and I can see a few security cameras," I mused.

"Yeah. You'll get spotted for sure if you go in there. Should I go?"

"My abilities are better suited for assassinations. Besides, I have these hidden blades. And if you want me to warp in using Forsaken Destiny, I can't without knowing the layout of the place. I could end up stuck in a wall or floor if I'm unlucky."

"The roof's not clear either because of all the gunners on it."

"I could assassinate a few. But the others would spot me. Damn tight security. But there's always a way..."

"Perhaps you could go in dressed like a prostitute and see what happens?"

"I don't have anything that would work. Besides, how do we know he's into prostitution?"

"That," Artemis pointed at a gaggle of skimpily-dressed women walking up to the front door of the mansion. The guards admitted them without question, even staring after them happily as they entered.

"So he's into sluts. I don't dress as a slut, and Thomas would recognize me far too easily."

"Maybe I should do it after all. I already have the clothes to boot."

"No. You don't have the abilities or weapons... unless..."

"Unless?"

"I have an idea. I'm going to use one of my special abilities called Spiritual Transfusion," I smiled. I trusted Artemis enough to use it...

"What does it do?"

"It allows me to enter the body of another person, and fuse my body with that person's. While I'm inside the other person, I'll essentially... be that person. I'll experience all of that person's feelings, thoughts, emotions, senses. But that person will have access to all my abilities and weaponry."

"Sounds like a 'ghost' kind of possession."

"It's much more advanced. Do you want to try it? It might work, and if it does, the both of us will be able to enter together."

"... All right. Be gentle, okay?"

"Scotty, I'm going to do a Spiritual Transfusion into Artemis. I don't know what'll happen to our telepathic link then... but if we do stay in contact, you might end up talking to Artemis."

"It's fine. Just make sure you come back safe."

"Spiritual Transfusion!" I placed my hands on Artemis's shoulders.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Right after Traya finished saying it, a black sphere engulfed the two of us, and when it disappeared... I found myself with a different body. Much bustier than my normal one, possibly bigger than Traya's alone. My black hair reached my ankle now, and all of her usual weapons hung on me... but how was I going to conceal them? Hopefully the hair would do that for me... My clothes had now changed to become something like a bikini, just with a near-transparent skirt together with the bottom part. Prostitute material all right.

"Hey Traya, can you hear me?" I asked, hoping she might answer. No reply. Pretty crazy skill... maybe I could get her to try and teach me sometime.

"So is the Spiritual Transfusion done yet?" a familiar voice sounded in my head.

"Leon? What are you doing talking to me?"

"Leon, why can I hear you too?" That was Ares.

"Traya warned me this could happen, that our telepathic link could end up linking to Artemis after performing the Spiritual Transfusion. I didn't think Ares would also be able to listen too..."

"What's this Spiritual Transfusion?"

"It's one of Traya's abilities that allows her to 'possess' someone in a way. It's hard to explain."

"So Traya is inside Artemis now?"

"Yup. She's not replying for some reason..." I sighed.

"She can't reply. It's one kink of the skill. You're on your own in there for now."

Ah damn, so that was the case. So I had to do the infiltration alone? I had to admit, it was exciting - this was my very first infiltration mission, and I was practically itching to try out Traya's powers. I took one last good look at the guards all around the place before leaping down from the tree. I landed surprisingly silent - my legs had apparently automatically adjusted to take the impact shock.

The guards at the front door were a bit surprised to see me when I walked into their view under a streetlight in front of the door. I blew them a kiss, and they practically fought each other to invite me in. Before entering, I hugged the winning guard tight, making sure my bust pressed against him. His face went extremely red as I waltzed right in. Bet they never expected an assassin to enter through the front door. I was really surprised they didn't notice my weapons. Then again, they were probably far too focused on my bust and hips to notice anything else.

"Master Thomas's room is on the third floor, my lady," a butler bowed at me. It was surprising... having a butler treat me like this.

"Right. Thanks!" I smiled and walked off up the grand staircase. The place was lavish... gold-lined red carpets, beautiful statues and other pieces of art all over the place. As expected of a rich noble family... they had way too much money to spend on stuff like these. Surprisingly, there were no guards patrolling the inner part of the house. Thomas probably never expected anyone to even manage to enter.

Somehow, I could sense other people moving around in some areas of the house. One of Traya's alternate senses, maybe? I noticed that the sense only extended to areas that were covered in shadows. Shadow Sense? Interesting ability.

I tested the hidden blade to make sure I could use it - it actually suited me pretty well. Maybe I could try getting one sometime. But for now, I needed to focus. For now, I needed to find somewhere safe to put the weapons. Just when I thought that, they all disappeared into my body, leaving just my armour and hidden blade behind. Talk about cool. Thomas was on the third floor... so I climbed up the stairs until I got there. In front of me stood a gigantic door half-made of gold. Talk about... lavish. Was there a limit to the amount of money these guys had? I walked to the door and pushed it open slowly.

As it opened, I could hear cheerful chatter - a lot of women, one man. Probably Thomas and a bunch of prostitutes. I walked into the room - oh damn, it was one gigantic bedroom. One corner was filled with golden coins, and another was taken up by a massive wardrobe - no doubt filled with lavish clothes too. Another corner had a large safe, and yet another had a really big bed - with the aforementioned people on it.

"Ooh, a new one has come to join us. Come, come," the guy smiled gleefully. I needed to act... now wasn't the time, when he was still surrounded by prostitutes. Already half-naked ones at that.

"So how long will you be staying?" he smiled as I sat down on the bed.

"As long as you want. How's that?" I put on the most seductive smile I could give.

"Right... great. C'mere."

I got closer, and he suddenly reached forward and pulled me towards him, rubbing his face in my bust while squeezing it at the same time. I started flushing, and felt a little weak... Damn, he made me sick. But I needed to bear with him for now...

"Ah! She's hogging him all to herself!"

"Come on girls, all's fair. How about I pay you all right now and let you go? I want... her."

Looked like I had succeeded... somehow... but I wasn't sure if I'd have the energy left to do it.

"Aww... we expected a good night."

"You get your money though, so it's a good night for you."

"Okay..."

The others all left, taking significant amounts of gold from the stash in one of the room's corners. Now the two of us were alone in here...

"Now... what's your name? I'd like to know before we... get it on."

"I'm... Rais," I tried combining a bit of my name and Traya's name. Ra from Traya, and -is from Artemis. It was the best I could do for now.

"Short, but beautiful name. One befitting a body as good as yours..."

"Thanks..."

He smiled and reached behind me to untie the straps on my top armour. I didn't have the strength to resist as he did so and threw them aside. "Truly exquisite breasts... such finesse..." he scrutinized my body closely. I needed to be really careful... this guy was a real sicko... "Now I really want you..." he slid off the bottom part of my armour. Thankfully my gloves were still on... but I just couldn't muster enough strength to do it.

Thomas himself started stripping - I felt almost ashamed to watch. It took a while since his clothes looked so complicated, and then jumped into bed with that fat body of his. I was sure he'd squash me flat if he did that... I averted looking at the organ between his legs.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"Is having sex all there is to your life?"

I already had my hidden blade at Thomas's throat from behind. Thankfully my position didn't let me see his... yeah. "What..." he stammered, and then turned to look at Artemis. She was still lying there - but back in her original body, naked. "Two... from one...?" he gasped. "I'd rather not explain how. You defiled my colleague's body, you worthless cretin. For that, I'll have you dead."

"Spa... spare me!"

"Why would I have a reason to spare someone who murdered his own father in cold blood!?"

"I'll give... I'll give you all the gold I have! All the riches of the Reindall family!"

"All the gold in the world won't save you. Bribing may work on others, but not on me."

"Just spaaaare me!" he cried out.

"Time's out. I'm tired of talking with you," I slit his throat. He collapsed onto the bed, red blood leaking out of his ruptured neck veins.

"Artemis, are you all right?" I bent down to help her up, but felt my knees weakening a bit... damn, guess the damage she had taken had passed over to me too. At least I had a higher tolerance for stuff like that, given my mixture of blood. "Yeah..." she grabbed my hand weakly. I pulled her up and passed her clothes back to her. My armour was still on me, thank goodness. So were all my weapons...

"It'd have been a better idea to sneak up into the vents above and shoot him through the cover when he's completely distracted," I pointed up above. The house was equipped with ventilation ducts, and the entrance to one of those ducts was directly above us. "I didn't think of that..." Artemis sighed, putting on her clothes. "It's fine, you're just inexperienced with these missions. Plus, I forgot to tell you what I can actually do, so it's partially my fault."

"Nah. As a commanding officer, I should know..."

"You need to get out in the field more often then. There's nothing like experience," I said.

"Yeah... thanks, Traya."

"I wonder if we can loot any of his stuff... but I'd rather not take other peoples' money. The safe looks valuable."

"Are you serious? That safe is one of the latest models on the market - the armour is the thickest I've seen on any known safe, and it's locked with three individual codes. You can't just crack a safe like that with normal tools."

"I've gotten quite good at safe cracking. Most crime bosses tend to chuck all their important documents into their safes, thinking they're... safe. Not really."

"How do you do it then?"

"Like this," I drew Forsaken Destiny and cut open a hole in space above me. The contents of the safe fell out of the hole, which closed moments later. "Oh. Your Forsaken Destiny. I forgot," Artemis gasped, joining me as I filed through the contents. "Letters. A lot of them from the leader of a certain syndicate dealing in smuggling," I murmured. So Thomas WAS involved in stuff like these.

"I don't believe it. He's used his connections and his authority to smuggle so much out of and into Sarena..." Artemis was studying a shipment log.

"Yeah... humans, rare animals and creatures, ****s, and other contraband. He's the worst."

"But here there's notes on something he found..."

"What?"

"It looks like a satellite of some kind, judging from his description. He was trying to crack it open and find out if it had anything valuable in it. He failed."

"So where's the satellite now?"

"Hidden in the gold stash."

I walked over to the gold stash and started brushing the coins apart. It didn't take long for me to come across a silver object. I reached into the gold stash, grabbed hold of the object and pulled it out - hey, it was surprisingly light.

The medium-sized satellite was unlike anything I'd ever seen before - it had no solar panels, only a futuristic curved body and a satellite dish under it. What kind of energy did it operate off? Where had it come from? There were so many questions, but they could wait. "I think we should lug this off. It's not going to be useful to the Reindall family anyway, and I think we need to study it. Doesn't look like anything even Besalia could cook up."

"Yeah... I'll have our teams on the Leviathan study it... if we can get it out."

"No problem. Grab onto me."

Thomas's room was on the third floor, but it was at the back of the mansion, and our stakeout had taken us one round around the mansion. I had gotten a good look at the back, and my photographic memory recorded it perfectly. It was as good enough as an image I could use to Shadowleap, and the ground was in range as well.

Artemis held onto me, while I held onto the satellite. I closed my eyes and focused on the image I had recorded. I concentrated on it really hard until I started sweating a bit, and then turned on the spot. The smooth rush of the fresh air outside greeted me, and I opened my eyes to find ourselves outside.

"That was..."

"Shadowleap. It's a skill I can use to teleport into any shadow I can remember or see."

"Damn useful."

"Let's just get out of here before someone notices the dead body we left inside."

"Right."

[XxKiraYamatoxX]

Chapter 20

Scotty flew one of the transport helos out to take us and the satellite back onto the Leviathan, and surprisingly, we were greeted by the crew, some of which had gathered on the helo deck to welcome us back. "Good riddance to Thomas!" they cheered as we climbed out of the helo. They must've really hated the guy... "Word spread around the ship that you guys were out to go after Thomas. I couldn't stop it," Ares shrugged as Artemis ran to him.

"I guess everyone hates the guy, huh..."

"And now he's dead. The body was discovered by a maid, along with all the documents from his safe implicating him in cahoots with the Harborian Syndicate. Did you work some magic on the guards? They didn't even mention any particular woman that would look like you two combined entering."

"I think Artemis unknowingly erased their memories with my succubus abilities. The femininity she was radiating at the time was far too strong..."

"Eh, was it?"

"Yeah. I only know from my mother... but apparently succubi can overload their powers enough to erase a person's memories, and it doesn't even need skin contact."

"That's cool..."

"Let's get back to business. We can leave now, right?"

"The boats all scattered as soon as they heard Thomas was dead. We're free to go."

"Ares, I need the tech teams to analyze this satellite..."

"Right. Get it below decks, and bring it to the tech bay. Personally, I'm really interested in what kind of stuff it might hold..."

A pair of mechanics appeared to carry the satellite, but before they could touch it, a robed figure with long glittering hair walked out of a nearby door. Aurora walked up to the satellite slowly, as if in a trance... "Aurora, is there anything wrong?" I asked as she laid a hand on it. She didn't reply, but a long stream of computer data suddenly appeared all around the satellite. The data stream coiled around Aurora's hand, and she absorbed it into her body wordlessly before collapsing on the deck.

Ares was the first one to react, "Get a stretcher! Take her to the sick bay!"

A few of the medical crew present were quick to snap out of their momentary stupors to run off for a stretcher.

"What... just happened?" I blinked.

"I don't know... but I'm guessing there's much more to that woman than meets the eye. Who's she? You called her Aurora..." Ares asked.

"She landed on the deck of the Leviathan in a fireball before we reached Sarena. We don't know anything about her - she's an amnesiac."

"Is that so... but it's possible the satellite helped her to recover some of her memories somehow."

"Most likely that's what happened and she fainted from the shock. I think we should look and see if we can find more satellites. It'll help her recover her memories, and then hopefully she can tell us more about herself," Scotty nodded.

"I'm interested too. Let's just see what happens. For now, we'll meet up with the 7th Fleet a little outside Sarena, and then continue to Faelis."

"Yeah," Artemis nodded, slumping a little.

"I think you two should get some rest. You two are tired from what you've been through, right?"

"Yeah... a lot's happened."

"We could tell. Our telepathic link appears to send a distress signal to one person when the other is feeling very uncomfortable," Scotty patted me on the back.

"Just go rest for now. Artemis, you'll need to recover by the time we meet up with the 7th Fleet," Ares nodded.

"All right. Traya, you go rest too."

"Thanks."

Ares led Artemis off into the ship, and Scotty looked at me for a moment before entering too. The rest of the crew had already gone back to work, and Aurora had been hauled off to the sick bay on a stretcher. Maybe I should get going as well... I was feeling a little tired. It was almost midnight now anyway, and I had been off the Leviathan for almost the whole day since morning. I yawned and walked off into the Leviathan, following Scotty. The helo we had taken was now being transported down into the ship using the elevator, and would automatically return to its parking spot in the helicopter bay.

It was only a few minutes' trip to the bridge, where I climbed up to the highest level with the Operator's bubble and walked into the bedroom behind it together with Scotty. I yawned again - this time Scotty noticed. "Let's sleep together. It'll make me feel more comfortable knowing you're safe, because you worried my ass off for the whole day," he said.

"All right..." I made my armour fuse back into my body and tumbled onto the bed. I was asleep within the minute.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Somehow... when I woke up, my body was that of a young teenager's - except my bust and hips, which were still as big as ever. Scotty's fault again? "Scotty..." I shook him to wake him up. He got up groggily and looked at me. Even my voice was a young teen's... "What...?" he murmured, and then fell back onto the bed to sleep.

"Wake up already!" I practically shouted using our telepathic link. This time, he jerked fully awake and stared at me for a few moments. "Not again," he groaned. I slowly began to turn back to normal again. What the heck had Scotty been dreaming about? "What's gotten into your head lately?" I sighed. "I thought I could control it... my dreams. But I guess it's a bit hard at the moment. Every time I think about trying not to change your body, it just somehow does in my dream."

"Try to get it under control... if you want to see me in a certain body or position, just ask and I'll do it!"

"Try not to get me thinking..."

"Oh, sorry."

I sighed and sat down on the bed. What time was it now? A small digital clock was floating in the air near a wall - it read 8.13 a.m.. "Haven't woken up this late in a while..." I said, getting up again. Usually we woke up around 6 or 7 in the morning for our usual exercises and practice. "Yeah..." Scotty seemed happy to change the subject. Suddenly, I noticed that Luticia was curled up on a smaller bed beside our big one. I smiled and walked over to her bed to sit down on it.

I was just about to caress her head gently when her eyes slowly opened and she rolled upright, rubbing her eyes. "Mama... morning..." she moaned sleepily. I smiled and withdrew my hand. "Good morning, Lute. Had a good sleep?" I asked. "Yeah... I got lost yesterday, but a kind uncle showed me the way back... the ship is too big..." she was obviously still sleepy.

"Come on, get up and brush your teeth. It's time to start a new day!" I smiled.

"Okay..." she sat up suddenly and promptly smacked her face into my naked bust. "Mama is so soft..." she hugged me. I let her stay like that for a while until she was satisfied, and then I got off the bed and made my armour reappear. Luticia herself climbed up and walked off to the washroom through a door in a corner of the room. "So should you, Scotty," I said. I didn't need to. Anything to do with my outward appearance always stayed perfectly clean and fresh, even my own teeth. Even if I brushed my teeth, it would be just a waste of toothpaste. Somehow, Luticia hadn't inherited the ability.

The two were done within the minute, and Scotty started undressing as he pulled his own armour out of the armour locker in a corner of the room. We had transferred all our equipment to the lockers installed by the Twilight Brigade - they were bigger and could hold more equipment. Luticia sat down on the bed beside me as I started to play with her long hair, twirling it around my finger.

"All done," Scotty walked up to me, now fully decked out in his usual battle armour and with a greatsword hanging on his back. I noted that he had opted to use the Magnagaius this time - the long dual fire and earth-elemental greatsword that was his most powerful weapon yet. It was also the one that had forced the volcano to erupt under the Frostfall Wyrm several years ago. Magnagaius was also a Lost Exceed actually - we had found it stuck in the middle of lava in a dormant volcano. The weapon was 2.5 metres long, and 0.6 metres wide - the blade appeared to be made out of earth with lava coursing through it.

"Why use Magnagaius this time?"

"Hey, I gotta look my best, right?"

"You just want to show off to Ares, right?"

"Ah damn, you got me."

"It's pretty obvious. The Magnagaius is your strongest weapon, and also the only one you have which can match up to the size of Ares's greatsword."

"Haha... so what's on the agenda today?"

"I think we should go check out Aurora first. I want to see if she's conscious yet and ask her about what happened yesterday night."

"Alright."

"Mama! I wanna follow!"

"Don't get lost, okay?"

I got up, and so did Luticia. The three of us walked out of our room onto the bridge floor - and were greeted by the sight of the sea through the bridge's windscreen. The wide, open sea... and it looked like we were still moving. Maybe we hadn't met up with the 7th Fleet yet? We were behind schedule by a day after all... thanks to Thomas.

"Oh, hey, you're up. Good morning."

Artemis was at a desk on the 2nd bridge level - she rose up to greet us as we reached the level. Ares was nowhere to be seen. "Where's Ares?" Scotty asked. "Checking to make sure the 7th Fleet is settled in okay. Most of them are still in shock over the size of the Leviathan."

"Oh, we rendezvoused with them already?" I asked.

"Yup. We put them in the cargo bay - split it into three levels vertically using dividers and separated them from the area where we keep our vehicles and armoury. Each section holds about 6 ships each, except for the third level which has the fleet's aircraft carrier and two dreadnoughts. You wouldn't believe the look on their captains' faces. Some of their crew are walking around on the Leviathan now, so you might see a few unfamiliar faces."

"Thanks for the heads-up. How's Aurora?" I nodded.

"She's woken up already, and her condition is pretty stable. You guys going to see her?"

"Yeah. We want to ask her about what happened last night."

"Figures. She's one crazy woman. Oh, by the way, Leon, is that a new sword?"

"Not really new. I've had it for a long while now, but I just haven't brought it out in a while. It's the Magnagaius."

"Nice name. What's it all about?"

"It's a dual fire and earth-elemental greatsword. It's also the one that made me the Volcanic Harbinger." I could tell Scotty was pleased at getting a chance to brag about the Magnagaius.

"You mean this is the very same sword that forcefully erupted a volcano!? Incredible... It's a Lost Exceed, right?"

"How'd ya know?"

"No normal greatsword would be able to output enough mana to forcefully erupt a volcano. Plus, you're a Warrior like Ares. A normal greatsword would have far too much mana loss to be able to effectively use magical abilities, and you can't afford to waste much mana if you're trying to erupt a volcano."

"You know a lot..."

"Well, I do use a Lost Exceed myself. Don't let me keep you too long, go visit Aurora."

"Right."

When we got to the corridor, I could see that Scotty was visibly disappointed. "Ah damn, she knew it was a Lost Exceed," he sighed. "You DID tell her it was the sword that forcefully erupted a volcano," I pointed out. He sighed again and kept on walking. I remembered the sick bay was somewhere nearby... when I asked the computer, it turned out that it was two floors under the bridge.

It was equipped with medical facilities like any other sick bay - plus quite a few more. They even had an X-ray machine in here, along with some other high-tech stuff. I guess the Leviathan could supply the extra energy needed to run stuff like that. Aurora was lying on one of the beds in the bay, and the three of us walked over to her. "Oh, hi, Traya, Scotty, Luticia," she smiled as we approached.

"Hey. How're you feeling?"

"I'm fine, but these people say I have to stay in bed. I think I remembered a little bit of my past... but it's all fuzzy."

"It's fine. Take your time."

"The only thing I can make out is... 7 more satellites. That's the only phrase I can piece out..."

I looked at Scotty, and he looked at me. Guess our hunch was right - there were more of those satellites around. "Do you remember what happened last night?" I asked.

"No, unfortunately. The last thing I remember is... walking through the corridor. Then it's all blank from there."

"I see. It's ok then. How long do you think you'll be out in?"

"The people here say it'll take a day or so."

"Great! Then I'll see you out in one day!" I smiled.

"Yeah," Aurora nodded.

So now... we were outside the sick bay, pondering what to do. We didn't really have much space to do our usual morning exercises and training - most of the cargo bay was taken up by the 7th Fleet's ships, and the observation deck was a little too small. All other places were likely to be occupied... so we didn't really have much we could do at the moment.

"Mama... I'm hungry..."

"Then let's go to the ship's canteen, ok, Lute?"

"Ok!"

The canteen was in the middle of the middle forward section of the ship, in the middle of all the crew quarters on the ship. At this time of the day, it wasn't too full, but there were still people hanging around here. Again, they all stared at me as I walked in. Made it feel a lot like those typical inns I walked into - just on a ship.

The counter was staffed by a chef - it was easy to tell because he wore one of those chef's puffy hats. "Well, well, if it isn't the Shadow Maiden and her family. You've been the talk of the ship lately," he smiled as we approached. "Well, it looks like I'm more famous here than anywhere else. What's cooking?" I shrugged.

"We're trying to incorporate our own versions of the ancient foods into our menu - but it looks like they just don't like the way we cook, and they taste terrible fresh too. So now, all we have are stuff you'd find in a 5-star restaurant. Fancy, eh? Beven in the back there used to cook for a 5-star restaurant, everybody calls him Bev."

"Sounds delicious. Anything to recommend?"

"A lot. This ship really goes for all the luxurious stuff - we get all the materials we want from the synthesizer, and it can even replicate anything we cook. I'd recommend the chicken cordon bleu today - Bev just brought the recipe onboard yesterday. And it'll be free as well - the Brigade pays us well to cook for the members free-of-charge."

"Cool."

"Of course it's cool! You're eating 5-star stuff for the price of none! Make sure you thank Bev - he likes getting thanked about his food."

"Right," Scotty nodded.

"But won't I get fat if I take the cordon bleu?" I mused. So much fat in there...

"Oh, don't worry. We made sure to reduce the fat content. Can't have our members overstuffing themselves to the point of being unable to fight, can we? Haha!"

The chef walked over to a machine on the wall and pressed a button. A keyboard appeared, floating in mid-air, and he started typing on it. It disappeared after he pressed the 'Enter' key and he waited for a moment as the machine hummed. Three plates of the cordon bleu appeared inside it, and he took them out and put them on a tray and passed it to us. Really, it smelled delicious... "Bon appetit!" he grinned.

We took the closest empty table and sat down at it under the watchful eyes of everybody present. "Mama... it's a bit scary..." Luticia tugged at my left glove gently since I had no sleeve to pull. "Don't worry. Just eat," I smiled and dug in. Wow... this stuff was good. Seriously good. The flavour seemed to melt in my mouth... I hadn't tasted anything like this in years! "Lute, just dig in. It's good!" I smiled. Luticia still hadn't touched her plate and was still gazing around at the crew that were staring at us.

"Mama..." she tugged at my glove again.

"It's alright... just eat for now," I kept smiling. I was used to the staring already - poor Luticia wasn't.

"But there are so many people looking at us..."

"You get that when you walk around with me. Papa and I are used to it already. Besides, what's wrong with people looking at us? They're just looking."

"Mama..."

"Come on, just eat. You're hungry, right?"

"Okay..."

Luticia carved a bit of the cordon bleu off with a knife and fork and stuck it in her mouth reluctantly. The next thing I knew, she was half-wolfing the stuff down. I smiled and continued eating mine. Luticia could be a pretty big eater, but she never seemed to get fat. It looked like the fat all went into her bust and hips - which honestly, were really big for her age. I guess that came with having a mixture of blood from so many creatures focused on sex appeal... But then again, it was the same case with me too. As of late, my body had started growing again - just much slower compared to several years ago.

"Lute, how's the food?" I asked.

"Yummy!" she smiled, apparently having forgotten all about all the eyes that were staring at us. Didn't they get tired of staring?

I had already finished my food, so I stood up and looked around, trying to see what kind of eyes they were looking at us with. Most were looking at us with admiration in their eyes - the rest were obviously smitten by me, their faces had all gone goofy - most likely as perverted thoughts passed through their heads. I was surprised though. Most of the people I got stared at by were usually just smitten, but this time, they were admiring us...

"Um, are you, by any chance, the Shadow Maiden?" a shy woman walked up to me.

"Does everyone know me by my title here? I'd much rather be called Traya," I sighed.

"Then... you are... oh my..." she practically fainted.

"Wow... I never expected to see the heroine of the Shadow War here..." I heard someone say.

"Me neither... I can't believe it's really her. The Shadow Maiden!"

"So the rumours of her joining the Avalon Division were true? Damn, why didn't our people get to her sooner?"

"Hey dude, with her abilities, you think she'd get sent to us? No way, she'd obviously get picked for the SF divisions. And she did..."

Sounded like some of the people from the 7th Fleet. I sat back down to watch Luticia eat - she was still stuffing mouthfuls of chicken into her small mouth. She was eating slowly so as not to choke though, and her mouth was too small to eat any faster anyway. Scotty had also finished and was also watching her eat.

"Erm... can I have your autograph?"

I was surprised to see the shy woman who had fainted earlier get back up again, this time holding a small notebook and a pen. "Sure. Be a little more confident in yourself by the way. No need to be shy when talking to me. Just talk to me like you would a normal person. I'm not too different from you," I smiled, taking the pen and signing an open page quickly. "Ummm, right!" she nodded and ran off. Still totally shy, huh... but to be honest, she did have a pretty nice body she was hiding underneath the robe she was wearing. She was definitely a swordmistress too - I could see the bulge of twin swords underneath her robe. She needed to get on her own feet... she had the looks, she just wasn't willing to show them.

"I wish I had people ask for my autograph like that."

Artemis popped up beside us and sat down beside Scotty. Wait, she had been here the whole time?

"You saw that?"

"Hey, even I get hungry from time to time. I see you decided to try out the cordon bleu - Bev's is one of the best in the world."

"I can see why... who's that girl?"

"Oh, her? She's a pretty low-ranked swordmistress in one of the ground combat squads. Her name's Elvyna if I'm not mistaken. Anything wrong?"

"She's got potential."

"Really? Her captain said that she's an average performer."

"Nah, she's just too shy to stand out. It might change if we do something about it though..."

"So you want to take her on as your student? The Brigade does encourage that... and the student would be in the same squad as the master."

"I'll ask her first. If she agrees, then can you arrange it for me?"

"Sure. But she's your responsibility after that."

"It's fine. I just felt like... taking on a student this one time."

"Well, whatever floats your boat. I'll get the papers ready first. You go talk to her."

[XxKiraYamatoxX]

Chapter 21

I had already been tracking Elvyna since she left the canteen, so it was a pretty easy matter for me to follow her. She had gone to the media room, and when I entered, I was surprised to find her reading a book on ancient sword techniques. She didn't notice me until I was practically looking over her shoulder. "Wha!" she gasped and turned around. Some of the other people in the room turned in surprise, and were even more surprised to see me inside.

The media room was a large square room with terminals of varying size for different purposes all over the place. Most of them were big ones used for reading the books stored in the system. There were also a few large booths, probably used for videos. I knew there was an entire briefing room somewhere in the ship that had a 3D projector embedded in the middle of the circular table there.

"Is... is there anything... wrong?" Elvyna had managed to get over her scare.

"Well, nothing much. Have you ever thought of taking someone up as your teacher? You know... under the Brigade's mentor system."

"... No..."

"Pity. You have potential, but you just don't dare to show it."

"Do... you think I have... potential?"

"Yup. That's why... I'd like to take you on as my student."

"Your... student!?"

Elvyna fainted again. I sighed. Damn, she needed some serious work on that shyness of hers. In the meantime, I ran my eyes over her body. Sure, it was hidden under a robe, but I could easily tell what she was wearing inside. She wore light armour inside - implying she was more speed-oriented. Her long brown hair fell almost to her waist, covering part of her face as well. She wore glasses, surprisingly. She was relatively busty and her body was just right - one could almost consider her a succubus, in fact. If she didn't hide under the robe.

"Elvyna, I know you're awake," I sighed, poking her in the ribs.

She stood right back up and stared at me, apparently still shocked from my question. She had a surprisingly short recovery time... "Like I said, I want you to be my student. Will you accept?" I smiled. "Erm... student... yes..." she stammered. "Good enough. I'll help you train, and I'll see what we can do about that shyness of yours," I nodded. "Yes, ma'am!" she saluted me smartly. Surprisingly well-disciplined... good. "Don't call me ma'am. It makes me feel old, so just call me Traya," I sighed.

"Okay... Traya..." she went into shy mode again. I sighed. "First off, take off that robe. It's not going to do you any good in combat walking around with something like that obstructing your movement."

Elyna obeyed, taking off the robe to reveal the light armour she wore inside. To my surprise, it was a pretty rare piece - made for extreme mobility, yet without sacrificing too much protection... it was a two-piece that was open at the top to show her bust. And yeah, my assessment had been right - she did have a nice body. "But... it's so..." she squirmed uncomfortably. "It's all right. That's what comes with wearing light armour. But there's no point in wearing light armour if you put on a robe over it."

"I... I see."

"Let's go tell Artemis first. Oh, and try taking off those glasses for a change. You're not short-sighted."

"How'd you know?"

"It's easy to tell when people are wearing fake glasses," I smiled.

She sighed and took off the glasses. Yeah... her beautiful brown eyes showed so much better now. She looked completely different from when she was wearing the robe and glasses... "Now, let's see how other people look at you," I nodded, taking her hand and walking out of the media room with her in tow. Slowly, of course. I didn't want to startle her. "Don't drag your feet, and let your hands swing more naturally as you walk," I told her without even looking at her.

"Okay..." she said. Her voice was still rather shaky, I noted. But at least she looked more confident now.

"Walk straight too. It's best to show that you're confident, even if you're actually not," I added.

"Right..."

We kept turning heads as we walked through the corridor, but this time, most were directed at Elvyna. I overheard a few people talking amongst themselves, discussing whether she was a new member or not... did she seriously look that different? I turned to take a look, and yeah... she did look even more different when she was walking like that. Her expression needed some work, but it was still a big improvement.

We reached the bridge within minutes, and were soon up at the second level. Artemis stood up as I approached her desk there, and she was visibly surprised to see Elvyna with me. "Wow. I wouldn't be able to recognize you if not for your hair. Keep it up, and you'll soon be able to rise up in the world, girl," she smiled and sat back down to search for something in a stack of paper on her desk. Eventually, she dug out one piece. "It's pretty straightforward. Because the student must be in the same team as the mentor, signing here automatically gets you transferred."

"So it's just one piece of paper?"

"Yup. The two of you, sign here and here please," she indicated two blank lines on the paper and passed me a pen. I signed first, on the one higher up the paper. "Elvyna, your turn," I patted her on the back. She looked at me for a moment before taking the pen I had left on the paper and, with trembling hands, reached for the other blank line. She hesitated for another moment and looked at me again. I simply smiled and nodded. She turned back to the paper and signed.

"Well, congrats. Take good care of her, Traya. Elvyna, do tell me if she does anything bad to you, haha!"

"Like I'd do that. Elvyna, welcome to the group."

"Thanks..."

"How about we start off with a mock duel? I'd like to see how you use your swords before we do anything else."

"Alright..."

"Then I'll watch. Will the observation deck do? It's big enough if you guys are just going for a mock duel, the observation deck's big enough," Artemis nodded.

"Sure. Let's go."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

The observation deck was empty when we got there - thankfully, so we didn't have to clear out any people. Elyna walked over to one side of the deck and drew her swords, while I walked to the other end and drew my two silver katanas. In order to test her skill at using twin swords, I needed to use twin swords myself - and these were the closest I could get to twin swords. "P...please go easy on me..." she stammered. Her stance was good - positioned perfectly to take several more steps in either direction if need be. She just hadn't gotten the perfect feet positioning though - she wasn't in a good position to get on the offense or shift to defense quickly.

I sighed and took a perfected version of the twin sword stance Elvyna was using. Feet planted apart, with one katana held horizontally at waist level and another at eye level. Artemis was watching from the side - I wanted to show her as much of my skills and techniques as possible. She was probably... my second, unofficial student of sorts. "You make the first move," I nodded at Elvyna.

She shifted her feet for a moment to get into the perfect jumping position, allowing me to see what was coming. I lifted a katana to block the jumping downwards slash, while parrying the simultaneous side blow with another katana. Having both attacks blocked, she sidestepped and tried an attack from a different direction. Again, my reaction was quicker and I easily blocked all the attacks using one katana. Her attacks were strong though.

"Aero Divide!" she shouted, leaping back and slashing both her swords in an X pattern in the air very quickly. An X-shaped shockwave flew out of the slash mark, but I simply slid under it and rolled back onto my feet before dashing forward and swinging one single katana. She blocked it - wow, she wasn't half bad at defending herself. "Not bad," I smiled and backflipped. Upon landing, I lowered my body and performed a long jump that would've put a professional athlete to shame - it put me right in front of Elvyna, and I brought both katanas to bear on her from both sides.

Again, she blocked it, but just barely in time - both my katanas had nicked her skin before being stopped by her swords. "Good reaction," I nodded and flipped backwards again. This time, she took advantage of my flip to dash forward and unleash another Aero Divide at me - from near-point blank range. "Whoa!" I just managed to dodge it in time, but it still nicked my bust.

Wow... she was pretty good when she wanted to be good. I knew I had to end it fast. I ran in close - when she tried to fire off another Aero Divide, I did a hard sidestep that put me right beside her. She whirled around and brought her swords down on me, but I blocked - with both katanas this time, and performed quick twists with both that sent her swords flying. They stuck in the deck some distance away.

"I lost..." Elvyna crumpled to her knees, panting heavily.

"Well, you almost got me with that second Aero Divide," I pointed at the sides of my bust - they were still bleeding a little. A quick Heal solved that problem.

"You can Heal?" Artemis asked in disbelief.

"Yeah. The water-elemental version. Now, Elvyna, you need one too."

"Oh... thanks..."

I cupped my hands around her cheeks, where I had cut earlier. The bleeding stopped after another quick Heal, and the skin knitted back together. "You've got the speed, but you lack defensive strength," I assessed. She was fast - and she knew how to use her speed to her advantage in offense, but playing defense, she'd lose. "I don't need to know how to defend when I'm always attacking," she replied.

"Wrong. You have to be prepared for every single situation. What if you were forced into a corner? Or binded? Or got hemmed into a small, narrow area? You can't use your speed very well in those conditions, and that'll cause you to lose your only advantage, and your offensive power with it too. You need to learn how to block and deflect with swords - not just other melee weapons, but bullets, arrows and magic as well. You have the right eyes, you just need some training."

"These swords are too narrow to deflect bullets and arrows..."

"Nah. I'll demonstrate. My katanas are narrower than your sword, right? Artemis, fire an arrow at me."

"You sure?"

"I'll let you use Lucia," I took Lucia off my back and tossed her towards Artemis. She caught the living weapon effortlessly and stared at her for a few moments. She sighed and then nocked one of her black arrows to the string and fired. I swung one katana at the arrow, knocking it off course. "Hit the side of the arrow as it flies towards you. Done right, you can completely avoid getting even nicked by the arrowhead. Artemis, another one."

For this one, I held a katana in front of me, in the path of the arrow. The arrow hit the blade and sliced itself in half, flying off harmlessly to either side of me. "This one's more advanced, but you don't have to break a dash in order to deflect an arrow. It's harder to deflect an arrow when you're dashing towards it. There's also another one where you just let the arrow hit the flat side of the blade, but that's more risky."

"Even so... I can't hit something as small as an arrow mid-flight..."

"Have a little more confidence in yourself. You have the potential, you just can't use it without more self-confidence."

"I'll try..."

"Do your best, Elvyna. I'm looking forward to seeing the day you become a real heroine."

"Thank you... Traya..." Elvyna nodded and ran off to retrieve her swords.

I sighed and walked over to Artemis. She handed Lucia back to me, and I put her back on my back. "Why don't we try sparring some time?" she suggested. "Sure, I wouldn't mind," I nodded. I wanted to test her real combat abilities too, but now I was a little tired... "You have a really good bow by the way. Where did you get it?" Artemis remarked. "Lucia's an artifact weapon - I found her in some ruins. Oh, and... she's a living weapon."

"Living weapon?"

I put Lucia on the ground and stepped back a little. It wasn't long before a black shadow ball engulfed her and disappeared to reveal her in her human form. Artemis's jaw fell wide open. "You mean... I was holding her all the time?" she gasped. "Yup. I was a little surprised there - she usually doesn't let other people handle me. Guess it was a special case this time," Lucia shrugged. "Damn... there are so many surprises about you," Artemis shook her head.

"Well, actually, there are two more," I admitted.

"Oh my... I think I've seen enough for today. I'll pass on the other two for some other day."

"Sure. Lucia, do you want to stay like this for a while more?"

"Yeah."

"To be honest... she really looks like you. Even the armour is the same..." Artemis commented.

Come to think of it, Lucia's armour was now exactly the same as mine - minus all the extra weapons hanging on it. I wouldn't be surprised if Merylynn and Lynia had the same armour now. All three of them always shared the same armour anyway...

"By the way, the tech guys are looking for you down in the tech bay."

"Is it something about the satellite?"

"No, it's about something special. You'll see once you get there."

"All right..."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

The tech bay was somewhere near the cargo bay, on the lower levels of the ship. I was surprised to see what they were working on in there - lots of mechanical stuff I couldn't even work out. Robots and machinery were everywhere - even quite a few weapons the techs appeared to be developing themselves. I noticed a greatsword with two gun barrels built into the blade, and there was also a pair of daggers that elongated into a dual spear once connected together. Pretty impressive...

"Ah, Traya, Artemis. Good to see you two," someone ran up to us and bowed. Artemis was tagging along - I wondered why.

"So what's this about?" I asked.

"We just need you to try out some gear. You high-risk people get special gear while going into combat. We just need to make sure yours works out well."

"What kind of gear?"

"Artemis didn't tell you? Oh well. It's an exoskeleton powered by mana that enhances your strength and survivability in the field. We recently developed a new model using new technology found on the Leviathan, and we'd like you to have it."

"An exoskeleton? Sounds interesting," I nodded. I wondered what it looked like...

"Come on. We made it to fit you like a glove," the tech led us through a door into a separate room of the tech bay. There were several racks of exoskeletons - each one was styled in a different manner, some had sword sheaths built into them, and some had magnetic grips on the back. They appeared to have a personal touch to each one...

We just kept on walking - and I saw more and more of those exoskeletons. Guess the Brigade had a lot of people using them. We only stopped when we reached the end, and boy was I surprised to see what was awaiting me.

It... looked like a suit of armour. A futuristic suit of armour. The whole thing had a glossy black finish to it, and was made to fit a woman's body - mine, to be exact. It was amazing how they had gotten my sizes down exactly right... it was wide and narrow where it needed to be, and quite revealing as well - my style. The top of the chest part was completely open, and my butt would show completely - the armour there just covered the side and front of my hips, with a strip of metal going down in between my butt. The whole thing would cover my whole body once I put it on, except for my head. It came complete with gloves and boots, and weapon sheaths to match. Some parts of the exoskeleton had straight protrusions going out of them, like the pauldrons.

"Why don't you try it on now?" the tech suggested.

"Yeah, why not? It's yours after all," Artemis nodded.

"Sure... but can you look away?" I looked at the tech. He was a guy...

"Ah, sorry. I'll leave," he nodded and ran off back towards the room's entrance.

"Sorry about that. Maybe he just wanted to see his creation on the person it was made for," Artemis sighed.

"Nah, it's fine," I walked up to my exoskeleton and took it off the rack. Now... how was I supposed to put it on? I examined the whole thing for a moment, and noticed several clasps all around it. I tried opening the ones on the right glove, and it came free of the frame it was connected to. "I see," I nodded.

I paused for a moment and concentrated to make my current armour meld back into my body, leaving me standing there naked. "Can't you meld it in one at a time?" Artemis asked. "Nope. It's all or nothing," I shook my head and slid on the glove. The size was exactly right... and when I tried flexing my fingers, I found that my strength was already a little enhanced there. I returned to the task of opening all the clasps on the exoskeleton. It took a while since there were so many, but eventually I got them all open. The next part to come on was the back part - it was open just where my wings would come out in my Shadow Angel form. Someone must've known about it. The inside was kind of soft too.

The chest part came on later, and Artemis helped to close the clasps. I was amazed... it was almost skintight - no blank spaces left. Somehow, they had gotten the inside of the chest part to curve exactly right... no cramming needed. It managed to stay on with the help of the back part - otherwise it would probably slide off thanks to my slippery front torso. The rest came on without a problem, and we closed all the clasps again.

"How's it?" Artemis asked.

"It's... perfect..." I breathed. The whole thing fit me like a glove... there wasn't anything even a little undersized or oversized.

"It should be. The techs take pride in their work," Artemis smiled.

I tried walking around a little - hey, it was easier to move my whole body now. When I tried throwing a punch, I could practically hear the air whistling as my gloved hand flew through it. "By the way, what are you going to do about your armour? You can't use it with this exoskeleton on?" Artemis asked. Ah... I had totally forgotten about it... and its special ability.

Several black mechanical tentacles extended out of my body - hidden under the exoskeleton though. I started to feel the exoskeleton... melding into my body. The frame slowly seemed to melt away, followed by the armour plating all over it and the gloves and boots. The plating only melded halfway though - but it actually changed shape in some areas. The chest armour parted down the middle to open up my cleavage for full view - though my gun magazines and dagger stayed hidden inside. The pauldrons on my shoulders thickened slightly and a katana sheath appeared on the back of each one. My jet-black katanas appeared inside them.

There was one strange long fringe-like rectangular piece of the armour pointing diagonally downwards resting on each side of my hips now - the silver katanas and handguns moved onto them, although the handguns were shifted up to my waist level. Forsaken Destiny was the next to appear together with its sheath, and the longsword that could project a mana blade appeared next. The whip soon followed, and my Saga X9 reappeared on my back, covered by my hair. Lynia, Lucia and Merylynn reappeared in their original positions as well - though Merylynn's sheath now featured a more futuristic design. The armour kept the black, glossy finish plus a few golden outlines, and all the clasps had disappeared. The gloves were now fingerless as well.

The gloves now had my original equipment built into them - my hidden blades, spinner and grappling hook. My boots also featured high heels that concealed the dart launchers from my original armour inside. I tried punching again - the whistling sound was louder this time.

"Wow," Artemis's jaw was wide open.

"I haven't had this happen to me in a very long time, so I totally forgot about it... Sorry, Artemis. I don't think I'll be able to take off the exoskeleton any more," I apologized.

"Well... I don't think the tech will mind as long as you put it to good use. You can still feel the effects of the exoskeleton, right?"

"Yeah... I think. All I know is that I feel stronger," I flexed my fingers again.

"Then it'll be fine. Plus, they'll be plenty happy enough just looking at you."

I had to agree with that. With the frame gone and my armour as it was, my midriff, cleavage and butt were completely exposed. So were the full length of my muscular legs and arms. But then again... that was just my style. I had the cool, futuristic look about me too now, instead of the scarier demonic look that my old armour presented, thanks to the claws around my bust.

"We should be submerging anytime soon. I think we're almost at the submerged passage," Artemis looked upwards.

"You said it'll be a week before we arrive, right? What'll we do before then?"

"Nothing much. Everyone gets their own free time, at least until we decide if there's anything we need to do. The guys from the 7th Fleet get a tour of the ship in a few hours, but we don't have anything planned for the Avalon Division."

"I see."

"I'm expecting the gym and pool to be fully occupied for the rest of the week. The media room... not so, since most people have their own music and video players. And their own books. There's also the game room... but that'll likely be full too."

"That leaves almost nothing to hang around in. And we can't go onto the observation deck while in submarine mode."

"Yeah. By the way, I almost forgot - the techs told me they added some extras into your exoskeleton."

"What kind of extras?"

"There's apparently a few rocket boosters installed around the armour, and they incorporated some kind of energy weapon from the Leviathan's technology into the exoskeleton itself. There are also small guns installed inside the gloves, and I heard the frame on the right arm contained additional weapons."

I tried thinking about turning the boosters on at very low power, and surprisingly... my butt and feet started feeling a little hot. I lifted my right foot up, and saw that there was a very small plume of flame coming from the back of my boots, out of a small thruster nozzle. There was a bigger nozzle coming out above my butt and several smaller ones coming out of the two fringes on my hips - no wonder it felt hot. So the fringes were actually boosters... I turned the boosters off and aimed my left hand at the floor. The top part of the glove with the grappling hook on it shifted upwards a little, and two small gun barrels popped out of it.

"Your armaments seem to be getting heavier and heavier," Artemis sighed as I made the gun fold back into my glove and lifted my right arm. A black canister melded out of my skin and extended a large barrel... looked like a cannon. I let it meld back into my body and thought about the energy weapon. What kind of weapon was it? I tried thinking about activating it, and... the armour covering my chest opened up to expose my breasts, and several strange bars extended out of the inside of the armour. A ball of energy appeared in between them and started to grow...

"Hey, hey, don't shoot me with that," Artemis stared at the weapon.

"Like hell I would," I sighed, deactivating it. The ball of energy disappeared and the bars retracted back into the armour, which closed back around my bust. What a weird weapon... but I noticed that my bust had become a lot pointier since I last checked. Plus, there were a few streaks of gold barely visible beneath the skin. Guess I was still suffering from the effects of that plant thing...

[XxKiraYamatoxX]

Chapter 22

It took quite a bit of explaining to get past the techs - I somehow managed, but they insisted on putting me and the exoskeleton through some operational tests. So now I was on the testing field of the tech bay, with all the techs watching me from a reinforced observation room high up. Down here, I could hear the dim droning of the ship's engines. Not that it mattered - it wasn't too loud so as to affect my normal hearing.

"We'll be testing the built-in guns first. Shoot the targets that pop up in the testing field," a tech said over the radio.

I stretched both my hands out, and the top parts of both gloves shifted upwards. Two small gun barrels popped out of each one, and I aimed forward as several circular targets fizzled into sight - ah, these were holograms. Pretty high-tech. I fired one round into each target, noting that the accuracy on these were near-perfect. I couldn't even feel the recoil at all...

"As expected... your accuracy is incredible. Now let's try moving targets."

More targets fizzled into sight - this time, they were moving around. Some fast, some slow. I roughly gauged the speed of the bullets I was firing, and aimed ahead of each target correspondingly. It didn't take long for them all to go down.

"Try using the cannon now. It can fire in both shotgun and bazooka mode."

I lifted my right arm and made the cannon meld out of it. More targets appeared - clustered together this time. Now how could I fire it in shotgun mode... ah, I noticed a mode selector on it. It was already set to shotgun anyway, so I aimed and fired. A spray of bullets burst out from inside the barrel and hit all the targets right on. I turned the switch to bazooka mode and took aim again - this time at a cluster of targets on the wall. The shell detonated on the wall, sending shrapnel flying in a large radius - but yet I still couldn't feel much recoil from such a powerful shot.

"Now try the boosters. Fly around the testing field through the rings. Don't worry, the boosters are powerful enough to allow you to hover. Do it slow if you're not used to it."

I let the guns return into my gloves and ignited the boosters, setting them to hover. I flew up into the air a little, and just floated there while I tried to get used to flying. It was a lot different from flying with wings... but I got used to them pretty quickly. It was all about the angle of my body. Once I was ready, I boosted up to the ceiling and easily flew through two rings. Another two reappeared behind me, but I didn't bother making a turn. Instead, I put on a quick burst from my bigger rear booster and performed a backflip, flying through the rings upside-down.

"Hot..." I moaned as I landed. I guess using the boosters did have that drawback... they were positioned too close to my body, and there was nothing covering my butt.

"You'll get used to the heat before long. Now, it's the armour test. Don't try to dodge, just let the bullets hit you. The exoskeleton is designed to take on some of the biggest bullets in the world and live through it."

I stood still as several big guns emerged from the wall. They started firing moments later - but when the bullets hit my chest armour, they simply bounced right off - even I barely felt the impact from the bullets, even though they were so big.

"Any impact shock?"

"Not much."

"It looks like the exoskeleton got more than just a visual upgrade... let's continue. Use the Orchis Cannon."

"Orchis Cannon?" I blinked. Oh. That one.

"We actually built it into the exoskeleton without knowing what it was like... so we're pretty curious as well. Can you use it?"

"Yeah," I nodded and turned to make sure the techs couldn't see my front. Then again, there were cameras all around... so it was rather pointless.

"Fire anywhere you want. Except at the floor - we have no idea how powerful the cannon is, and we don't want to run the risk of it breaking through the Leviathan's armour and breaching the hull."

I took a deep breath and activated the Orchis Cannon. My chest armour opened up like just now... and the bars extended out of it. Obviously the techs were surprised - I heard and sensed someone's nose half-exploding in a sea of red. The energy ball appeared again, but when I tried to fire, it wouldn't. Instead, I had to wait a pretty long while for the ball to charge up - until it was touching my bust... and making it feel really hot... I held it back as much as I could, and released all the built-up energy.

A beam of energy burst out of the energy ball and hit the wall. I felt my strength getting sucked out of me in the process... but thankfully the beam stopped after a while and the energy ball dissipated. My entire body started to feel hot all of a sudden, and my chest armour flipped back into its normal position. I couldn't see what had happened to the wall because of all the smoke...

But when it cleared, I was amazed. There was a 2-metre deep circular crater in the wall.

I crumpled to the ground, panting heavily... damn, it was too hot...

"We're stopping the test - we can't continue with you in this condition!"

"What happened anyway...?" I moaned as a door opened up and several techs came rushing in. The crater in the wall was already starting to repair itself...

"The Orchis Cannon overheated. Normally it would dissipate the heat into the exoskeleton, and since the exoskeleton is now fused into your body, you took all the heat."

"Traya, what's going on?" That was Scotty...

"Running a test on an exoskeleton in the tech bay... I forgot these kind of stuff fuse into me, so now the exoskeleton's part of me."

"You really should watch yourself more... but there's no danger to me if I use the exoskeleton, right?"

"You got one too?"

"I just got notified. I'm heading to the tech bay now to take a look at it. Luticia's tagging along. Should I tell her you're not feeling well?"

"Nah... it's fine... it's nothing major. It'll only take a while to recover."

The techs were blasting me with cold water right now - thankfully it was fresh, purified water, not sea water. I felt my body slowly cooling down as the water hit me. It took only five minutes to cool down completely, and I was soon up again.

"I wish we could do readjustments... but with the exoskeleton fused with you, we can't do that. You'll have to avoid using the Orchis Cannon."

"I'm actually powerful enough without it..." I sighed. Seriously, one of my amplified Ragnaroks in my Shadow Angel form could do the same amount of damage, without the overheating thing happening.

"We'll continue looking into the Orchis Cannon. For now, just don't use it. I get the feeling there's more to it than that."

I nodded and walked out of the testing field into a short corridor that led back to the tech bay. The room that the techs were watching me from was actually on the top floor of the tech bay - which meant it was easily accessible to all the techs who wanted to take a look. Pretty much all of them in the room...

They were all talking when I got back into the tech bay - mostly technical jargon I couldn't understand. A worried-looking Artemis appeared beside me together with the tech that had been in charge of the testing. "Are you ok?" she asked. "Yeah. I'm fine now," I nodded. "Sorry... we didn't know something like this would happen," the tech apologised.

"It's fine... it's untested technology anyways," I said, looking down at my armour.

"Thanks... we'll surely make it up to you somehow."

"Is there anything else I should know?"

"Well... the exoskeleton has several hardpoints all around it for mounting other equipment. We only recently started advancing into hardpoint technology, so there's not much you can put on now. For now, all we have are more boosters and various missiles launchers."

"More boosters?"

"Yeah. But these are weaker than the built-in boosters. The only use for more boosters would probably be for maneuvering."

"Lemme take a look. Where are the hardpoints anyway?"

"There are two on each pauldron - but your katanas are blocking the rear hardpoints. There are also three on each side booster - again, your weapons are blocking two of them. Four hardpoints on the boots, two on each side of your waist, originally on the frame, and six on the back. Also originally on the frame. And again, blocked by your weapons."

"That's quite a lot of hardpoints..."

"It all depends on how much the person can carry. Our older exoskeletons using the hardpoint system only had capacity for about four each, but using the Leviathan's technology, we made your exoskeleton stronger and more durable, so it can support way more hardpoints. I'll show you the gear, come,"

This time, we were led to a corner of the tech lab, partially obscured by a big wall. It appeared to be a store of sorts... filled with shelves packed with mechanical-looking objects.

"Our latest exoskeleton extension is this," the tech rummaged around on a shelf for a bit before pulling out a large, long object shaped like a clock hand that was wider near the blunt end. "It'll take two hardpoints, but it's a multipurpose extension, capable of carrying missiles, other secondary weapons the user might have, and even help maneuver using secondary thrusters."

I took it and examined it a little - the top part was open at the moment, revealing a row of missile launching tubes. No missiles loaded in it at the moment though. The front had several hardpoints near the base, and there were several nozzles on the bottom, near the pointed end of the extension.

"These hardpoints aren't made to provide any energy, but they can hold other extensions, just you won't be able to use them. They're mainly for weapon sheaths that we modify to fit on hardpoints."

"Can I try it on?"

"Sure. Take two," the tech pulled another one out from the shelf.

I set one on a table first, and reached to my left booster. If my weapons were blocking the hardpoints, there was a good chance that they were already adapted to fit on the hardpoints. I tried pulling off the silver katana on my left side, and it actually came off pretty easily. So did the handgun holster there. Now, I could see three circular objects protruding out of the booster. I placed the extension on two - the tech had to help me get it into the right position before it locked into place. The next one soon followed, and I tried walking around a little. The parts extended about 60 centimetres behind me from my waist.

"They make me a little unstable," I remarked. They extended too far out from my back...

"They're made for aerial combat, but can just as easily change to suit walking on the ground," the tech said.

"How?"

"They should be activating about now."

I looked down and saw the parts rotating to point downwards, following the orientation of the boosters they were placed on. My weapon sheaths also rotated for me to be able to grab them easily if needed.

"Pretty cool, eh? The main problem with these babies is that they're too heavy now, but we're working on it."

I took the parts off me and reattached my own weapons to the hardpoints. The tech took the parts and put them back on the shelf. "We're looking into using the hardpoints for mana-based equipment now - some of our techs are working on a mana barrier extension, and some are working on a mana cannon."

"I have a mana barrier of my own, and a mana cannon too."

"Then your hardpoints are better off reserved for other stuff. Don't worry, we come up with new stuff often. You're bound to find something you like."

I nodded and turned around, intending to leave the tech bay. Instead, I saw Scotty walking out of the door with all the exoskeletons inside, he himself wearing one.

Scotty's exoskeleton was extremely thick and heavily armoured, also sharing a similar look to mine. I had to admit, the techs had gone a little overboard though... there were two gatling gun barrels sticking out of each of his pauldrons, and there was even a second greatsword on his back now. The new greatsword looked pretty futuristic - it even had blue glowing tubes going around the inside. Flashy...

"Hey. You ok now?" Scotty walked over to me. The floor trembled a little as he walked. "Yeah, pretty much. How do I look?"

"Great. I wish I could wear this around all the time like you can - it makes hefting a greatsword so much easier. Plus, at the very least I have some basic non-magical ranged weaponry," he indicated the gun barrels and his back. His back? I stared as two large boxy objects extended above his shoulder on mechanical arms. Their front parts opened up and long, wide barrels extended out of them. Wow... heavy cannons...

"Papa looks like a robot!"

Luticia was following behind Scotty, but she stopped when she saw me. "Mama looks a bit like a robot!" she laughed, running to me and hugging me. I smiled and bent down to rub her head gently. "It's just our armour, Lute. Someday you might get your own too," I said. I really wanted to get one for Luticia... these things could really help her survive in a tough situation.

"We're actually working on hers too. It's a bit hard squeezing everything into a kid-sized exoskeleton, you know," a tech said.

"Really? Thanks!" I smiled

"No prob. Can't let a kid like her go out into the field without any protection. We specially designed hers - it can grow with her to a certain extent, while we can add and interchange parts as needed. Like a bigger booster... we've had to use a smaller, weaker one for her small frame."

"Mama, will I get one too?" Luticia asked.

"Yeah, Lute, you will. They're working on it."

"Yay!" she laughed and hugged me harder.

"It should be done by the time we reach Faelis. Not too long - we just need to work out some kinks in the modular system."

"So... how much ammo can I carry for these guns?" Scotty asked.

"Quite a lot. Your exoskeleton is made to handle very heavy lifting, so you can carry about... 20 mags for each gun and still not worry about the weight."

"That sounds cool."

"The greatsword on the armour is also made specifically to be handled by the exoskeleton - it weighs five times as heavy as normal greatswords, but it can transform into a mana cannon OR extend the blade magically or physically into a super-long longsword. Plus, it's coated with a special coating that allows it to negate adept-level magic. It won't be able to negate advanced-level magic, but adept-level magic will dissipate on impact."

"Damn, you guys have some pretty high-tech stuff."

"The equipment bases come from our branch in Besalia, combined with some magic from our guys in Faelis. The Brigade's Magitech equipment are second to none. Oh yeah, your armour has room for a lot more hardpoints compared to Traya's. You have twelve on the back, five on each pauldron, four on the chest, four on each side of your hips, and six on each boot."

"That's a lot of room..."

"Some of the extensions use multiple hardpoints. Besides, the exoskeleton can't generate enough mana to fully power each hardpoint. If you go into battle fully loaded, at least half your loadout will have to consist of extensions that don't run on mana or are low consumption-types."

"Is that the same case with mine?" I asked.

"Yeah, but I'm not sure. You might be able to power all your hardpoints using your own mana..."

"I probably won't be taking too much into battle anyway. My mobility is my best defense."

"We know - Lana actually set to work on a custom extension for you. I don't know what it is though."

"Lana's here?"

"The logistics department encompasses all the tech teams, medical teams and transport teams. The single largest team is the tech team, so the head of the logistics department usually hangs around here. Believe me, she's pretty good with tech stuff herself."

"Where is she?"

"Working in a lower level of the lab, where we do fabrication. This level is mainly for maintenance."

"You guys sure work on a lot of stuff, don't you..."

"You bet. We have to maintain all the Brigade's gear, vehicles and stuff. The Leviathan only maintains its own vehicles, so the ones we brought onboard have to be maintained ourselves."

"Well, don't let me keep you too long. I'm sure you're all very busy..."

"No, no, it's fine. We're honoured to have you here, actually. Plus, your... uh, stunt, earlier actually motivated some of them."

Oh. THAT stunt. "Well, it's fine if you guys can work better after all that," I smiled. At least it helped...

"You're welcome to hang out here anytime. If you're not busy, that is. I'm sure Lana would appreciate it."

"Thanks. I'd better be going now."

"Me too. Wait for me, let me put this exoskeleton back," Scotty walked off back towards the room with the exoskeletons stored inside.

I had to wait five minutes before Scotty came back out, in his own armour this time. After that, we left the tech lab together with Luticia. We just headed back to our room, discussing my new armour - but I seemed to draw more looks from the crew than last time... and I was pretty sure my previous armour had been a lot flashier than this one. I decided to take a nap - there really wasn't much to do...

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

It was a pretty uneventful week, most of which was spent at the pool - there were too many buff guys using the gym... and it was super-boring. But at least it did give us some quality time to spend together as a family... well, maybe not for long. We had passed through the underwater tunnel, and were now somewhere far off the shores of Faelis. The Leviathan had surfaced, and was now slowly unloading the 7th Fleet - it had to be done slowly and precisely, unloading each level of the cargo hold individually. This also meant that the Leviathan had to use the ballast tanks to sink itself a little to let each level of ships sail out of the cargo hold. The bigger ships needed to be tugged - but that was a simple matter with the Leviathan's heavyweight tugs.

It took several nerve-wracking hours to get the whole fleet out before the Leviathan got underway again. It would be another few hours to reach the island of Merian, our destination. The guys on the ship were already getting all hyped up - they were talking excitedly about the missions that lay ahead of us there. The logistics department was running equipment tests every few hours or so - even I wasn't spared - I had to go for checks myself since my exoskeleton was fused into me. They never seemed to be able to find any problems though. Scotty's exoskeleton had a few kinks in it that they hadn't spotted before, and they thought mine would have the same - but it appeared that it was working out the kinks by itself.

Unfortunately, Luticia's exoskeleton had shared the same fate as mine - she had absorbed it into her own armour during her first test. It actually looked similar to mine - just that hers was less open with her body. I preferred it that way, actually... and somehow, the modular system had managed to stay modular - Luticia could absorb the other parts into her body and they'd just automatically attach themselves to her armour. Just that the parts they were supposed to replace never seemed to come out - but instead her body grew.

Lana's custom extension for my armour had also been completed by now. It was a pair of custom-made weapon containers that attached to my hips - they were also outfitted with small but powerful thrusters that could be used for aerial combat without having to engage the boosters. They resembled two long canisters, attached to my side boosters. Problem was... my armour appeared to interpret them as a permanent attachment and had fused them into my body as well, so now they couldn't be removed. While they looked small on the outside, they used magic plus a bit of technology to store weapons in zero-space, whatever it was... It let me store a large number of weapons inside the containers, without having to use big containers. I could even stick my Saga X9 inside - though it was far bigger than the containers. And I couldn't even feel the weight...

But thanks to the containers, I had more room to store my weapons - though the three living weapons and Forsaken Destiny stayed in their original places. All my other weapons went into the containers, plus a few more. I now had a halberd in my right one - it was black, long and heavy, and originally belonged to a cursed knight before I took it from him. Of course, I had it thoroughly checked for curses and purified, just in case. There was also a shotgun and a chaingun in my left container now, plus a rocket launcher with some extra ammo and an assault rifle and dual submachineguns in my right container.

All the combat crew members were a little on edge now - they were spending even more time in the gym, and the ones that missed out trained on any free space on the decks around the ship. I could see why... a briefing Artemis had held earlier in the large briefing room had given us a better idea of what was going on on Merian. The fighting had escalated, and battles were now being waged over almost the entire island. Yveria and Berion, the two fighting countries, had broken out aerial mage divisions and large hulking land-based magical golems. The golems were reportedly new developments in magic - animated pieces of earth or rock, highly resistant to both physical and magical attacks. If we came across one of those golems, we'd be in for a lot of trouble. At least we'd have the Leviathan's air wings waiting to attack.

Our basic strategy for the battle involved jumping into areas where the fighting was the most intense, and attack both sides in an attempt to reduce their combat strength enough to force them to retreat. We were to keep casualties to a minimum - preferably none at all. Some of the smaller combat teams would perform sabotage missions targeted at vital supply bases and cut supply lines. That way, we'd take away their ability to fight. But still... we would be incurring the wrath of two sides, and we'd be heavily outnumbered. If we weren't careful, we could get caught in a pincer attack or get surrounded.

But each of the 3rd SF's combat teams were highly experienced, and some members were even powerful enough to be one-man armies. We'd be meeting the 13th Combat's two new members, Melissa and Nu soon. I wondered what kind of people they were like.

[XxKiraYamatoxX]

Chapter 23

Aurora would be staying on the Leviathan - she didn't seem to have any combat experience at all, and as such, would be useless in a fight. So now, Scotty, me, Luticia, Clara, Ben, Valis, Sapphira, Winnie and Kyle were waiting on the observation deck. Melissa and Nu were going to show up soon - Artemis had gone to find them. The air above us was clear, blue and a little cloudy, though it didn't look like it was going to rain anytime soon. The silhouette of the continent of Faelis was visible to our side, while ahead of us lay Merian's smaller silhouette. I could see some flashes in the airspace over the island...

"If anything, we'd need to establish air superiority first. We can't exactly fight very well if mages are raining spells down on our heads from above," Clara mused.

"The Leviathan's jets are far too big and aren't suited for fighting mages. So are the helos - they're only good for airdrops. Our best bet would be to take the skies with some aerial fighters. Traya, we can count on you for that, right?" Scotty looked at me.

"Yep. I don't even need to enter Shadow Angel mode to fly now anyway."

"Lute, you stay close to me when we go in, ok? It's your first time in the middle of a war."

"I'll be fine, Papa! You're there for me, right?"

"Good Lute..."

Well... even I had to admit, Luticia was becoming very good with her guns now. She could carry a lightweight sniper rifle into combat, and her small size meant that she was very good at hiding when she needed to. Although I hated to admit it, she had fighter blood in her. She'd definitely become a good hunter some day... though sometimes I just wished she could live a peaceful life.

"Sorry to keep you waiting so long!"

Artemis emerged from the staircase leading up to the observation deck, followed by two people... but one of them was someone I had REALLY not expected to see. "You!" Melissa pointed at me. "What're you doing here!?" I gasped.

Yeah... Melissa. Now I remembered. She was the one who had fired off a Meteor Shower at me in that tournament several years ago, only to have it smack her back in the face. "You two know each other?" Artemis was visibly surprised.

Melissa's clothing still hadn't changed much since I last saw her - she was still wearing a red robe with a short cloak on her back. The broomstick she was carrying now was different though... this one was a long brown broomstick with what appeared to be a spike on the stock and a wide section near the head. Melissa herself had wavy dark red hair that reached her shoulders, and red, almost flaming eyes. She was still shorter than me though.

"You humiliated me in that tournament years back!" Melissa shouted.

"Well, who decided to fire off a Meteor Shower while the arena's magical field was down? You could've killed more than just me!"

"It was only because you made me so mad with all that dodging of yours!"

"What do you expect me to do? Stand still and get hit by your big fireballs? I'd get torched!"

"You should have! You made me waste so much mana!"

"You should do some thinking next time. If you can't hit me, use a faster spell!"

"You dodged my fastest spell! How do you expect me to land a hit on you, go down and punch you!?"

"Would've done more good than seriously endangering other peoples' lives! Those meteors were no joke!"

"You two, stop squabbling," Artemis said in a low voice.

"She started it!" Melissa pointed at me.

"As if! You started shouting first!"

"But you humiliated me first!"

"Stop. It. Right. This. Instant."

Melissa stopped this time. So did I. The tone in Artemis's voice was unmistakably anger. "I don't know what kind of grudge you shared in the past, but don't bring it on the ship. Keep personal things personal. On this ship, you people are teammates. And I expect you to act as such."

"Teammates!? I refuse to be on the same team with this... this slut!"

I kept quiet this time. Artemis's eyes gave a clear message - don't mess with her.

"If you don't like it, go. Take a swim if you want to - we have plenty of replacements available."

"Take a swim?"

"Ever heard of the way pirates... ask people to take a swim?"

Melissa shuddered. Wow... Artemis seriously had a way with words. Even I shivered a little - the effect of her words was somehow amplified by the chilly sea air. Suddenly everyone here seemed to become a lot quieter.

"... All right," Melissa sighed.

"Good, then let's continue. You two, go ahead and introduce yourselves to your new team!" Artemis suddenly seemed to change back to her usual cheerful self.

Melissa and Nu walked up to us. Nu was a... pretty handsome young man, standing about 1.7 metres tall with black hair tied in a ponytail. His medium armour was brown in colour, with a few yellow highlights here and there. A brown jousting lance rested on his back, on what appeared to be a custom holder for it.

"I'm only doing this for her, ok?" Melissa whispered in my ear as she walked past.

"I'm Melissa, a Witch. Pleased to meet you," she said to all of us.

"I'm Nu, a Mounted Knight. Please take care of me," Nu said.

"I'm Leon, the team leader. Glad to have you on board," Scotty shook both their hands. Melissa obviously did it very reluctantly.

"I'm Traya, the assistant leader. Pleased to make your acquaintance," I nodded meekly. Again, Melissa shook my hand very reluctantly - though she did try to squeeze mine as hard as she could. Hers was the one that got squeezed hard - I was stronger than her. She walked off, taking care not to show any sign of weakness. Nu, in comparison, was far gentler.

"My, you are one fine lady," he smiled.

"I'll take that as a compliment," I smiled back as he walked off to greet the rest of the team.

"Mama, what does he mean by lady?" Luticia tugged at my glove.

"I'll explain it to you sometime else, Lute," I watched as the rest of the team introduced themselves.

"He's a bit of a womanizer, don't care about him," Artemis sighed.

"Really?" I gasped.

"He once proposed to four women in one night using all those beautiful... noble words. Nothing noble about being a womanizer though."

"Were you..."

"Yup. I was one of them. And I was already married at the time - he didn't know. I think he came to the Brigade to try and woo me - I wouldn't have had him in the 13th if the colonels didn't put him in here."

"Tough luck. Winnie doesn't take too kindly to being flirted with by these kinds of people."

"OWW!"

"Uhuh. Well, I'd like to say that I'm a little happier about this arrangement now," Artemis smiled.

Apparently Winnie had kicked him in the... uh... that place. Ouch.

"So... is there anything else we should know about our mission?"

"We just got word. We'll make landfall in one of the armoured landing craft in a few hours, right into the middle of a battle. From what we can make out, it's a force of about 30 mages on the Yverian side, and 20 on the Berian side. The Berians look like they have an ace in there - the Yverians are getting pummeled hard."

"We're meeting an ace so fast?"

"Yeah. Plus, it'll be just our team. The others will be landing all around the island, with some using the helos where it's less dangerous. The colonels have high expectations of us, that's why they're dropping us right into a hot zone. We're free to work out any strategy we need by ourselves, as long as they don't involve heavy casualties."

"So... what should we do?"

"You'll need to take air superiority together with Melissa. Can't have those mages bombarding us from above. I'll join you in the air as well."

"You can fly?"

"They made me an exoskeleton like yours too. So yeah, I'll be able to fly without transforming."

"Transforming?"

"Remember, I'm a half-dragon. I can assume my dragon form whenever I want to."

"Oh, I forgot. Come to think of it, where's Elvyna?"

"She said she'd be here soon..."

"Sorry I'm... late!"

Elvyna appeared out of the stairwell, panting hard. I noted that she wasn't wearing the robe anymore. "What took you so long?" I asked. "I was... deciding... whether to wear... the robe... or not..." she panted. Oh man... "If it's cheap, just dump it. You won't be needing it anymore. Otherwise, put it somewhere safe, but don't ever put it on again. You're better off wearing light armour only," I sighed. Why in the world was she still thinking about the robe anyway...

"Okay..." she was still trying to catch her breath.

"Well, keep it up. Deciding not to wear the robe yourself is a sign that you're making progress," I smiled.

"Thanks... By the way... nice armour, Traya..."

"Thanks," I smiled wider. Didn't expect her to compliment me.

"Let's continue the strategic discussion. The Berian ace is an aerial one, so expect to get your hands full. Remember, our goal is not to kill, but to disarm and incapacitate. The combat airspace contains far too much mana, so trying to suck it all up to stop the mages from using their spells isn't an option. Instead, Leon, put your anti-magic greatsword to use. All firearms will be loaded with non-lethal bullets that either paralyze their targets, drain their mana, or decrease their physical strength. We'll be going with mana-draining bullets this time."

"What about me?" I asked.

"Your built-in guns still consume ammo, right?"

I made the guns pop out of my gloves and tried issuing a mental command to eject the magazines. Two rectangular magazines dropped out on the back of each glove - one per gun. "Good. I'll have the techs get your magazines ready. Luticia, what about you?"

"Same!" she showed Artemis her ejected magazines - she had one gun in each glove compared to my two per glove.

"I'll go talk to the techs first. In the meantime, you people decide on some battle strategy."

"Got it," Scotty nodded.

Artemis walked off down the stairwell and disappeared from sight. I turned to look at Merian again. The island was visibly closer this time... and I could see the 7th Fleet's ships around us training their cannons on the island. Their aircraft carrier was beside the Leviathan, and - surprisingly had mages lined up on the launch deck, with some witches on broomsticks as well. I wondered why an aircraft carrier would carry those mages...

"We'll go with Artemis's plan. Take air superiority first by sending in aerial combatants - you, Melissa and Artemis herself. You guys keep their air occupied, while we guys on the land advance."

"Formation?"

"The usual. Mages in the middle row, long-ranged combatants in the last row, and melee fighters and close-ranged combatants in the first row. Ben's Vector Barrier should be able to keep the brunt of the attacks off us."

Ben's Vector Barrier spell was a special barrier spell of his own design that actually deflected attacks instead of blocking them. It worked on most attacks - including magical attacks. Dragon breath not counted - that was far too powerful.

"Sapphira will reinforce with a secondary Shadow Barrier inside Ben's Vector Barrier. If we ascertain that their attacks can't penetrate Vector Barrier, she'll drop the Shadow Barrier and engage using her stealth abilities."

"Winnie should be our primary mage for this mission, since we're dealing with aerials here."

"Yeah. Her lightning bolts won't have much trouble chasing aerial targets."

"Anything else?"

"More on the formation. I'll be taking front guard, while Kyle takes left guard and Nu will be on right guard. Winnie, Ben and Clara will be taking center guard, while Valis and Lute are fullbacks."

He lifted a hand - a projection appeared in mid-air, courtesy of the Leviathan. The projection detailed the placing of our formation - a traditional wedge. Scotty took the head of the wedge while Kyle and Nu were behind and on either side of him. Sapphira was directly behind Scotty while Ben, Winnie and Clara were together in the middle of the wedge, between the front row and the back row consisting of Valis and Luticia. Normally I'd be taking the position of fullback - but I was very flexible because I was a Weaponmistress, so I could actually assume any position in any formation.

"No wing guard?" I asked.

"Yeah. No wing guard. You guys in the air are already enough. Besides, I don't think we'll get flanked that easily."

"Good point. But where'll Elvyna be?"

"Ah, I forgot. She'll be... in the air with you."

"What... but she can't fly!"

"Actually, I was informed before - she got her own flight-capable exoskeleton as well."

"Yeah... You didn't know?" Elvyna asked.

"Nope. But can you handle aerial combat with those swords?"

"They got an upgrade as well, actually..." she showed me the swords. Their blades split into half to reveal small chainguns hidden inside. Wow... ingenious.

"So I'll be able to fight at range too..."

"Sorry I forgot to tell you - the techs only told me about it."

"It's fine... but can you fly well enough?"

"The techs say I'm all good... but I only completed the aerial course in 20 seconds."

"20 seconds!?" I gasped. I had taken 19 seconds to finish that course. If that was the case... Elvyna could possibly be a natural at aerial combat... "Do me proud, Elvyna," I patted her on the back. She nodded meekly and turned to look at the sea. I noticed a bit of sadness in her eyes...

"You know, I was born in a seaside village. My parents were fishermen... and I lived pretty happily."

"Did something happen?"

"When I was 14, the village got caught up in the middle of a war. I lost everything in the fighting... my parents, my home, my friends... all gone."

"That's harsh..."

"It's the reason I decided to join the Brigade in the first place. They came cleaning up sometime afterwards, but the village was already half-destroyed by then. They found me in what was left of my home, unconscious. I... was the only survivor."

"Ouch..."

"Yeah... I still see their faces in my dreams. I want to help stop wars, but the fighting scares me... I'm pathetic..."

"Don't think low of yourself. Use that resolve to stop wars. Use it to overcome your fear."

"You're a good mentor, Traya..."

"Believe it or not, this is the first time I've accepted a student. I think you really have the potential to be a great heroine in the future. There's no reason to waste that potential sitting at the bottom of a well."

"Sorry for asking... but what was your past like?"

I took in a deep breath and sighed. Maybe I really could tell her about my past...

"I'm actually a blend of several souls - I have part of a succubus's soul and part of a Shadow Angel's soul inside me. Of course, there's also the human part. If you ask me about my past, I really have three pasts - but I can't remember the Shadow Angel's. I'll tell you my human past though."

Scotty looked at me, slightly alarmed by what I had said. I only nodded at him.

"I used to be a princess. I was born into a royal family on a different continent."

"Princess!?" Elvyna gasped.

"Not so loud. Life as a princess was boring - just stuck in the castle all day, studying with not much chance to go out and play. Especially when I got into my 10s. The lessons really piled up then..."

"So what did you do?"

"The next time I got a chance to leave the castle, I tried exploring the woods to relieve some stress. I'm the type that likes getting excited and stuff... and that was when I met Scotty."

"Scotty?"

"That's Leon's middle name."

"You wouldn't believe how surprised I was to see the princess of the Vanerian Kingdom out lost in a forest. I was a village boy then - I didn't really know what to do with her. All I could do was bring her back to the village and take care of her for a while until the king found her."

"It was really nice in the village... the people were all so friendly to me, despite knowing about my status as a princess. When I got back to the castle, I couldn't stop thinking about Scotty. I started to sneak out of the castle more often to pay the village a visit. When we hit 13, I decided to leave the castle to explore the big, wide world. I managed to escape and hide with Scotty and the village's help. After that, we decided to leave the continent to escape the frequent searches of my father."

"We got separated upon arrival, but we met up again 3 years later in Sarena. We've been together ever since."

"It's so... romantic. But as a princess, didn't you enjoy the privileges?"

"I like exciting things way better. Travelling, fighting monsters... They all provide a level of satisfaction being a princess can't even come close to."

"I see..."

"Hey, I'm back!"

Artemis walked into view, carrying a medium-sized bag. She ran up to us, put the bag down in front of us and opened it. Inside was a large number of magazines for me and Luticia's glove guns. "Take as much as you can carry. We won't be able to get resupplied very often in the field. And we're heading out after we're done with preparations, which is in about... half an hour. I'll need all your firearms as well, to load them with non-lethal bullets. I forgot to ask just now."

I looked at Artemis and opened my weapon containers. Out of them, I retrieved my Saga X9, dual handguns, shotgun, chaingun, dual submachine guns, assault rifle and rocket launcher. To add onto the pile of guns, Luticia put her sniper rifle on it, and Clara walked over to throw in her dual handguns and sniper rifle. Valis then threw in his sniper rifle as well. Artemis's jaw dropped wide open.

"I can't carry all that!" she protested.

[xdgr]

It is odd how I clicked on this fanfiction forum for this first time in a year and see you're still working hard on the story without a single post in between your horde of entries.


C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-COMBO BREA

[XxKiraYamatoxX]

Well, I guess I just can't let a project like this drop when I've gotten in so far. Plus, I really want to finish Infinence before I move on to some other fic. Hopefully I'll be able to break my ecchi project streak then. I'm really trying not to go too overboard like I did with my first batch of fics. =S

Chapter 24

We were done changing ammo just a few minutes before we were scheduled to depart - we had to rush to our landing ship in the starboard interior dock - on the right side of the ship. Thankfully it wasn't that far away from the tech bay, and all the stuff we needed was already packed in our pouches, so all we had to do was to enter the landing ship while Clara took the controls. The whole team save for the mages had exoskeletons now - they were all already on board.

Clara's exoskeleton resembled mine before it got absorbed into my body, just that hers was filled with hidden guns. Valis's exoskeleton was made with bulkier shoulders... and a huge sniper rifle on its back. No wonder it needed those shoulders. Sapphira's exoskeleton, again, shared a similar design to mine before being absorbed. Hers fitted her role as a rogue - light and fast, even including a knife cannon inside her right glove and a belt for storing throwing knives. Kyle's exoskeleton was also pretty heavy - but it allowed Kyle to carry four war axes on his back, with another two smaller ones used for throwing on his waist. Nu's one featured heavy armour as well, together with a huge lance on his back. Why all the upsized weaponry...

"Suit up, everyone," Artemis said, walking over to her exoskeleton. Her exoskeleton flaunted her body - the part covering her chest was open at the top, and it made no attempt to cover her legs, arms or butt at all. Her feet were enclosed in light boots, while there were also boosters attached to her hips, and also her back. The frame itself was slim enough and skin-coloured, so it was nearly unnoticeable.

It took a while for everyone to get suited up - Clara had to put the ship on autopilot to change. Problem was... because there was no partition in here, everyone had to change while trying not to look at the opposite sex. Thankfully nothing happened, and everyone was soon back in their seats, wearing their exoskeletons. Winnie and Ben appeared to be discussing strategy in a corner, while Melissa was looking out a window, sitting by herself. I was glad I didn't have to sit beside her.

"Traya, we need to brief the others," Scotty told me.

I nodded and got up.

"Okay, everyone, settle down," Artemis clapped her hands to get everyone's attention. Clara walked out of the ship's bridge and took a seat in the cabin as the lights dimmed and a screen lowered from the ceiling. It lit up to show a map of the beach area we'd be landing at.

"This operation is going to be called Operation Vanguard. The aim of this operation is to establish a beachhead on Merian, from which we can advance deeper into the island to continue peacekeeping activities. Our objective is to neutralise both the Yverian and Berian mages currently battling it out on the beach. So now, I'll pass the time to Leon, for the strategic meeting," Artemis stepped aside as Scotty walked forward.

"There are currently 8 aerial targets on the Yverian side, and 16 more on the ground. They lost 6 people since we last checked. The Berians have 4 airborne, including an ace, and 15 grounders - they only lost one person. To successfully complete this operation, we'll have to first gain air superiority in the combat airspace - that way, our people on the ground won't have to get bombarded by spells while fighting."

I had to admit - Scotty was very quick to adapt to these military-style briefings...

"So first off, the team division. A few people will be splitting off from the main group in order to take on enemy air. Traya, Artemis, Melissa and Elvyna will be in charge of gaining air superiority - their callsigns will be Angels 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively. The rest of us will be on the ground, but we'll go in 1 minute after the air team moves in."

"Our ground team's callsign will be Hedgehog. Hedgehog 1 will be me, 2 will be Kyle, 3 will be Nu, 4 will be Clara, 5, Ben, 6, Winnie, 7, Sapphira, 8, Valis and 9, Luticia. After the air team has been in the air for 1 minute, we'll rush the beach and commence our attack on the enemy ground forces. We'll assume a traditional wedge formation..." Scotty looked at the screen. It instantly lit up with a diagram depicting the arrangement of the formation.

"I'll be taking front guard, Kyle and Nu will take left and right guard respectively. Sapphira will be taking center guard, while Clara, Ben and Winnie will be on middle support. Valis and Luticia will be fullbacks."

"Mama, what do fullbacks do?"

"They support the team from the very back of the formation, Lute. They're usually the longest-ranged fighters in a party."

"Okay..."

"We'll advance up the beach in this formation, while Ben uses his Vector Barrier to protect us from any spells. Sapphira will reinforce the Vector Barrier with a Shadow Barrier inside just in case any attacks penetrate Vector Barrier. However, if we determine that the enemy cannot penetrate Vector Barrier, Sapphira will assume normal combat duties."

"Got it," Ben nodded.

"Do NOT break formation unless I order you to do so. And above all, try not to kill anyone. We're aiming to incapacitate or take away their fighting strength. Those with firearms, save your ammunition and make sure you can get a sure hit before firing. We don't know what we'll be going up against deeper into the island, and we won't be getting resupplied very often."

"Too bad," Clara sighed, checking the ammo of her handguns.

"Any questions?" Scotty looked around. No hands were raised.

"Air team, get ready on the deck first. We'll reach the shore in 4 minutes," Scotty nodded.

"Roger," Elvyna said.

"Finally, some action!" Melissa cracked her knuckles.

"Let's get down to it then," Artemis nodded.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

So now... here we were, up on the deck of the landing ship. We were now pretty close to the beach - I estimated around 2 minutes until arrival. Our exoskeletons had built-in radios, so we could talk to each other easily. The mages had headsets instead of radios since they didn't have exoskeletons - Melissa was wearing one now.

"Testing 1, 2, 3. Angel 1, do you copy?"

"Loud and clear, Hedgehog 1," I replied. That was Scotty...

"You're clear to go. Any later, we'll be sitting ducks for their spells."

"Got it. Angel Squad, taking off," I slowly turned on my boosters. They didn't feel as hot as before now... maybe because I had already adapted to the heat. Beside me, Artemis and Elvyna were activating their boosters as well - Melissa had saddled her broomstick. The fighting in the air over the beach seemed awfully close now... plus some of the mages had spotted us and were flying closer to investigate. They were using levitation spells, while a few were on broomsticks as well.

I blasted off into the air, carefully adjusting my boosters to make sure I didn't accidentally flip. The approaching mages stopped the moment they saw us in the air - they held position while a male mage wearing black robes approached. I noticed the Yverian emblem on it. "Whose side are you on?" he demanded as Artemis, Melissa and Elvyna flew up behind me.

"Neither," I replied.

"Then leave. This is restricted airspace."

"Actually, we can't leave. It's our business to get in your faces."

"What!?"

I fired the first shot - from both glove guns. The bullets hit him right on, sapping his mana. He immediately lost his levitation ability and fell to the ground. The sand would absorb the impact, thankfully.

"Scatter!" one of the mages shouted.

The mages immediately broke formation and scattered. "Let's go hunting," I said into the radio and flew off, opening my weapon containers to retrieve a handgun and a katana. The other three flew off as well - Elvyna appeared to be doing well. "Angel Squad, engaging targets," I reported as I started chasing after the nearest mage - he was on broomstick. Fast little bugger...

"Hedgehog Squad copies. Landing in 1.5 minutes - get ready for us."

The mage suddenly whirled around to fire off a fireball at me, but I easily knocked it away with Merylynn's sheath and put on a quick burst of speed that put me right beside him. He never even saw the flash of my katana as his broomstick broke apart and he fell to the ground. Again, the sand broke his fall.

"One down," I smiled, ducking under a beam of light from a levitating mage. A flip got me into an upside-down position facing him, and he was down the next second, an anti-magic bullet in each hand. "Make that two."

Artemis blasted backwards past me, rapid-firing off arrows at a pursuing mage. The mage was easily dodging everything and closing in on her. At the last moment, when he was too close, Artemis took a deep breath and made a really long arrow appear on the Archaeion - the mage just flew right into it as she fired. The arrow itself pierced the arm of a second mage before plummeting to the ground. "Nice shot," I gave her a thumbs-up. The second mage was desperately attempting to fly away now, while the first one had hit the ground. The arrow hadn't pierced any vital organs, so he wasn't dead.

"Angel 3 here. Can someone get these guys off my tail?"

I turned to look - Melissa was being chased by two mages. Talk about ganging up... I quickly blasted off on an intercept course for her pursuers. However, I saw another flash of light coming up behind them. Elvyna already had one sword in gun mode, and was firing off bullets... in single shots. Highly accurate ones too - she fired two shots, both of which hit their target. Maybe she deserved to have handguns instead of chainguns.

"Thanks for the assist, Angel 4!" Melissa said.

"No... no problem!"

"Angel 4, doing good there!" I smiled.

"Thank you!"

I lifted a hand to create a Shadow Barrier to block a mage's attempt to hit me from behind, and then pointed my handgun at him over my shoulder without looking and fired once. He fell - into the sea. Not as lucky as his buddies who fell on sand.

"Heads up. Berians approaching," Artemis warned. I looked around and saw a force of about 5 mages heading towards us. Again, they were wary on their approach. Three were on broomsticks, two were levitating. One was generating a particularly powerful mana presence... the ace.

"Well, it looks like we have some party-crashers here. You're not from Berion, are you?" the ace flew up to the front of the group.

"And how'd you know that?"

"Berion technology is more focused on magic rather than machinery. Besides, only the Twilight Brigade has this kind of technology."

"Well, you know, so let's get down to business."

"Right. I want to see how well Brigade aces fight. Isn't that right, Shadow Maiden?"

"You know about me?"

"Your exploits aren't exactly unknown to the rest of the world. Word spreads through trade... and it's not every day you see a heroine performing a feat like that. I'd like to see if you are truly what they say you are."

I lifted a hand, motioning the others to back off. The ace's mana presence was getting distinctively stronger... it would be dangerous if this kept up. "I'll take you on. One on one. How does that sound?" the ace suggested. "You sound pretty confident," I put my katana and handgun back into my containers and retrieved Lynia from her usual spot on my back.

"That's because you can't win. No matter how strong you are, your attacks mostly rely on magic."

"Care to explain?"

"My mana is special. It neutralizes other mana particles in the air and prevents their usage by anyone other than me. So even you can't use your magic in a condition like this."

I tried using Ragnarok. Sure enough, I couldn't exert my control over the mana in the air... damn, he was right. Without my magic, I had lost one vital part of my arsenal. But magic wasn't the only weapon I had...

"I don't need magic to take you down," I got Lynia ready.

"Let's see then, shall we?" the ace aimed his staff at me. A large magic circle appeared in the air - I immediately flew aside to prevent him from tracking me. But somehow... I found a long bending beam of magic following me. No matter how I dodged, it still tracked me... "Don't bother dodging. This is my special technique - it'll follow any target I designate until it hits," the ace was actually... sitting comfortably back in mid-air, smoking a cigarette. Damn, I really hated people like him...

But still, no matter what I did, the beam kept tracking. But maybe... if I used Forsaken Destiny... no, I needed to use mana to create a space-time hole. I dove low to the ground, skimming the sand - but the beam still stayed behind me. It wasn't gaining, but I couldn't keep this up for long. Now that it came down to this...

I put Lynia back on my back and opened a container to pull out my Saga X9. Sniping while moving at such a high speed was hard... but my target wasn't the mage. I whirled around, flying backwards and fired a single shot right into the beam. The beam instantly dissipated into thin air, thanks to the anti-magic bullets.

"Smart. But can you keep it up?" the ace pointed his staff at me once again. This time, he fired off two beams - and I was forced to start flying hard once again. Persistent guy... I stowed away the Saga X9 and just turned around, stopped and lifted Merylynn's sheath in front of me. The beams hit it - but their force was so powerful that they knocked me to the ground. I quickly recovered and was soon in the air again, but I knew that I couldn't take too many of those beams... I needed to finish this. Fast.

"Want to give up yet? I'll let you leave peacefully if you surrender. If you don't, I can't guarantee you the same."

"Shut up..."

"I'll help!"

"Angel 4, stay out of this."

"But...!"

"That's an order!"

This was a one-on-one fight. I had agreed to that, and I would stick to it no matter what... Maybe there was an alternative though. I hadn't entered my Shadow Angel form in quite a while... but would it be able to break his mana dominance? Wait... he said his mana neutralised mana in the air... meaning it wouldn't work on mana already inside me. I smiled. It was time to counterattack.

"Hey, hotshot!"

"What is it? Decided to give up?"

"Nope. What'll you give me if I win?"

"Hardly likely. But in the 0.01% chance that you win... I might consider giving you my staff. Haha!"

"You said it," I grinned. He fell for it. Overconfident people were always like this...

I stretched my arms out and concentrated on the mana inside me... bringing it forth. A sense of power filled my body as a black sphere of shadows engulfed me. Within seconds, I had emerged from it - with black draconic wings growing out of my back, blood red eyes and a long draconic tail. My armour had morphed slightly to make room for the wings and tail, and the usual blades on my hands were missing, apparently to allow the guns, spinner and grappling hook in my gloves to remain.

"Interesting..." the ace mused.

"... whoa." That was Artemis.

Did I need to enter my Queen Mode? No... I'd save that for when I got into trouble. And I couldn't use Ragnarok - it'd exhaust my entire mana supply if I didn't use outside mana. My best bet was to go in close and use highly-damaging attacks. With that in mind, I flew right behind the ace - he never even noticed until my blade was at his throat. Wow... I had gotten so much faster... "Wha..." he gasped.

"Let me tell you this. Nobody can beat me in speed," I smiled, opening a container and pulling out a handgun to fire several shots into his back. And then I let him fall... but somehow he managed to stay in the air. "Anti-magic bullets won't work on me," he smiled, firing off at least... 10 of those tracking beams in one salvo. I gasped and instantly flew off. Suddenly, the beams stopped tracking me... and dissipated. The mage was looking around for me... oh. Now I knew the weakness of the beams - they only tracked targets the caster could see...

But if anti-magic bullets didn't work on him... what could I do? I wasn't meant to kill anyone...

"Angel 2 here. I heard all that. You're... authorized to kill him."

"What?" I gasped.

"We just found out his identity. He's a member of the Berian Magical Assault Team, all right, but he's not a very good member. Not very good as in he lacks any apparent moral values - he's often involved in criminal cases, only the Berian court defends all soldiers no matter what so he doesn't get put on trial. His life isn't worth it. You're authorized to kill him. Only him."

That made things a lot easier. "Roger," I smiled and whipped out my Saga X9. Hey... the barrel had gotten longer. I took careful aim at the ace while ejecting the magazine and putting it in my bosom. I actually didn't need bullets to fire a gun. All I needed to do... was use my own mana.

One shot. What came out from the barrel wasn't a bullet, but a long narrow beam of magic. It hit the ace right in the chest and went through. But surprisingly... he turned around and fired more beams at me. He was unharmed!?

Again, I was forced to break his line of sight in order to make the beams miss. It wasn't easy - he knew my speed now, and was sometimes able to make one stay on me. But I didn't make it easy for him either. It was too bad I couldn't use Shadowleap in the air...

"Hedgehog Squad, moving in,"

Down on the beach, I could see that the landing ship had hit the beach and the front hatch had opened. A salvo of gunfire burst out of the hatch, hitting all the mages fighting in front of the ship as Scotty marched out at the head of the squad.

"Don't get distracted now!"

I stopped flying and let one of the beams fly towards me - but at the last possible minute, I backflipped over the beam. It flew off and hit the ground. It took very precise timing to execute such a move... but now I also knew that if the beam was somehow dodged, it would fly off. I put the Saga X9 back in a container and pulled out my two jet-black katanas. Since I already had the advantage in speed, executing him was going to be pretty easy.

The next few seconds were a blur - he fired several more beams, but I went behind him, breaking his line of sight. The next thing he knew, both my katanas were at his throat. "Checkmate," I slit his throat. He never even had a chance. His body went limp and fell to the ground - while I held his staff with my tail. It was actually a pretty nice one... it was a straight rod that had three blue orbs on the tip, arranged in the middle of a magical symbol - they turned black as I took it with my hand, stowing a katana back into a container.

Well, that had been too easy... or maybe it was just because I was too strong. Either way, the rest of the Berian aerial mages got terrified and just... turned tail and ran. I floated in the air there, studying the staff closely. It seemed to be made to be able to load several spells and fire them all at once - that must be how he fired off 10 beams at the same time. Well, it could come in handy - and he HAD said he'd give it to me if I won, so I stowed it in a container and floated down to ground level. Elvyna, Artemis and Melissa joined soon later.

"You girls took all the fun," Melissa pouted.

"Hehe..." I smiled, putting the other katana back into its container.

"I must say... I'm impressed. Your speed is just... incredible."

"Speed's my best weapon. Like you, Elvyna. That's how you use speed in actual combat."

"I... I see..."

I turned around to take a look. We had come down behind Hedgehog Squad, which was now practically pummeling the mages on the ground. I could see the air distortion created by Vector Barrier around them, but there was no black barrier underneath - guess these mages were far too weak to penetrate Vector Barrier.

"I think I'd better stay in my Shadow Angel form for the rest of our time here," I murmured. It'd save time transforming... and I was stronger in this form too.

"You should. With all those golems walking around, there's no telling when we might meet one."

"I just hope they're not as intimidating as they sound."

"Hope so... but we can't do anything until we see one. We're bound to see a few deeper in."

"Hedgehog 1, reporting all enemies either escaped or drained of mana or immobilized. You girls are all done, right?"

"Yeah. Operation complete, guys," Artemis smiled.

"So what do we do now?" I asked.

"We set up camp here and get some rest before we continue onwards. We've got supplies in the landing ship too - we'll need to carry them out. Hold on..." Artemis put a hand to her ear. After a while, she said, "Yeah, got it. All done on our end too - no losses."

"Just in. All combat teams have successfully landed. No casualties at all. But this is just the first step of this battle... the 7th Fleet will hold position on the other side of the island while the Leviathan sits out there. We can't have Yveria and Berion hemming us in with their naval power."

"Good to know we'll be having some friends looking out for us."

"Yeah. Ares says everything is going well so far. If we need to, we can call in offshore bombardment from either the 7th Fleet or the Leviathan, whichever is in range."

"The Leviathan's offshore bombardment would probably kill us too..."

"Uh, good point."

"Let's just hope we don't ever need to call in offshore bombardment from the Leviathan."

"Yeah... Let's go set up camp. It's evening already - we need to rest before we continue tomorrow."

[XxKiraYamatoxX]

Chapter 25

It was a very uneventful night. Although we took turns waking each other up to stand guard, nobody tried to attack us. All the mages we had taken out were tied together around a tree nearby using Scotty's special near-unopenable knot. That way, they couldn't escape and return to their countries. Of course, we still kept them fed - though some of them rejected our food. We ate it ourselves... it wasn't poisonous... why didn't they want it? Was it something related to their pride? Oh well.

This time, Scotty didn't have another weird dream, so I was safe when I woke up. It was pretty uncomfortable sleeping like this though... when I had a tail and wings, it was hard to find a good sleeping position, especially on a sleeping bag. I had to sleep on the sleeping bag instead of inside it since I couldn't fit inside. Not that it mattered... I didn't get cold easily anyway. Luticia was sleeping in the same tent as Scotty and me - she had her face in one of my breasts and had a golden liquid coming out of her mouth... ah geez, she really was still a baby. I made my armour reappear and left the tent.

It was a pretty fine morning outside... no disturbances in particular. The sky was light blue and a little cloudy - perfect for flying if I needed to. The seas were as blue as ever and the sandy beach was practically shining gold - the landing ship was nowhere to be seen. It had most likely returned to the Leviathan on autopilot. I looked at the tree where the captured mages had been tied up. They were still there, most snoring away peacefully while some were trying to undo their bonds. Not likely to happen. Plus, the rope was a special magic-resistant one so they couldn't use their magic to break free.

"Ah, you're awake now?" Artemis got up from her spot under a nearby tree.

"Anything interesting happen?"

"Nope. Unless you count one of the mages over there attempting to set himself free by fireballing the rope. Don't worry, I put him out."

I noticed that one of the mages had a singed robe.

"So what're our plans for today?"

"The other teams have already started to move inland. One hit a golem and had to retreat to find another way in."

"What should we do if we see one?"

"Best option would be to do what the other team did. Backtrack, lose the golem in the forest and find a way around. I don't want you people to risk taking one on."

"If you ask me, it's inevitable that we'll have to fight a golem. It's better to get the experience now than later."

"If you say so... but if things ever get too rough, we're pulling out. I'm not going to lose anybody."

"We've been through much rougher stuff. What's our main goal?"

"Our focus is on stopping the war. That means besides intervening in these conflicts, we also have to work on finding out why the war started in the first place. As they always say, cutting off the head of the snake."

"Why don't we ask the mages we captured?"

"They're all on the lowest level of the food chain. They don't know anything - they just take orders and fight."

"Damn."

"That's the word for it. We need to capture someone higher up. Preferably alive, so we won't have to use black magic."

"What?"

"I'm just joking. We need a live officer we can interrogate, or else we won't be able to learn anything."

"Uh, right."

"All the main camps are deep inland, so we don't have a choice there."

"I see. Is there anything else besides the golems that we should be worried about?"

"Yeah. I just heard about it from Ares. The Berian Aerofortress has just taken off from their capital. That thing's a massive airship armed to the max with magi-cannons that can fire from really far away. If it gets here before we're done, we're going to be in quite a bit of trouble. It can fire from outside the Leviathan's maximum range, so it won't be able to retaliate. We have a week before it arrives."

"A week!? That's too short!"

"We have no choice. That Aerofortress will decimate the 7th Fleet as well. They'll pull out on the 6th day and the Leviathan will enter submarine mode too. Once that happens, we'll lose all offshore support, and if we ever get caught out in the open by the enemy, we'll get picked off by the magi-cannons. That's why it's important to finish this ASAP."

"Can't the Leviathan shoot it down?"

"The Aerofortress is heavily protected by magical shields and the hull is heavily reinforced with magic. Even one full salvo won't be able to bring it down. The main gun might be able to penetrate... but it'd still need several shots, and it can only shoot ground targets."

"Damn. Let's go. Can't let that Aerofortress get here before we're done."

"The Yverians are pushing it up too. Last I heard, the famous Reinhardt Team is taking to the skies. They'll be here faster than the Aerofortress - 2 days or so. The Reinhardt Team's the strongest mage team the Yverians have - they're probably looking to gain dominance before the Aerofortress arrives. But I don't get it."

"Don't get what?"

"The Reinhardt Team can't take down the Aerofortress. When it arrives, they'll be forced to retreat whether they like it or not. There's no point dominating the island if they lose it days later. That's what I don't get."

"Could it be that there's something here that'll assure their victory when they get it?"

"Possible. Let's just stay on the lookout for now. We'll get to that when we get some info about it."

"Better get a move on then."

"What did I miss?"

Scotty was standing behind me...

"You nearly scared me!" I sighed.

"Couldn't help it. So what did I miss?"

"Strategy meeting. To sum it all up, the Berian Aerofortress is coming, and so are the Yverian's elite Reinhardt Team. We don't know the reason they're sending such powerful units, so we have to find out. In a week, because once that Aerofortress gets here, we're all doomed whether we like it or not."

"Time limit, eh? Let's get moving then."

"Yeah."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Once the whole team was up, we had a quick breakfast before setting off inland. It was troublesome dragging my tail around, so I just hovered in the air while the others walked. Melissa was also hovering on her broomstick casually. Every now and then, she cast a quick glance at me. Scotty's eyes were darting around very quickly- scanning for targets the way we had been trained to. Mine weren't - I had my Shadow Sense to warn me.

"Mama... How come you're so sweet?" Luticia suddenly asked.

"Sweet?" I blinked. Oh. That. "Shush, Lute," I hushed her up before she could say anything else.

Scotty suddenly lifted up a closed fist - the stop sign. I quickly started to scan around with my Shadow Sense, but there didn't seem to be anything nearby... was it just a wild animal?

"There's someone here," Scotty told me through our telepathic link.

"I'm not picking anything up."

"Use your eyes. I think he's magically shielded. Maybe a scout."

I looked around for a bit, and sure enough, I spotted a bit of a robe peeking out from under a nearby bush. Just a bit only - no ordinary person would've seen it.

"I see him. Should we take him?"

"Chances are he's already alerted the main force and is just tailing us to find out about our team. Take him. And make sure he doesn't notice you trying to take him while you're at it."

I sighed and sat down behind a tree casually, my right hand out of sight of the mage. Carefully, I reached into the shadow of the tree... and grabbed hold of a foot. It wasn't long before the whole body of the mage came out of the shadow. I immediately pinned him to the ground and had my spinner at his throat. "No observers welcome, thank you," I smiled.

"H...how..."

"I have my methods. Who're you?"

The mage's robe under his waistline was getting a little wet... oh geez, what a coward. He was shaking all over as he stared at the bladed weapon at his throat. "Talk. Before I lose my patience," I said calmly. Artemis seemed a little... uneasy. Scotty only nodded at her and knelt down to face the captured mage. "Don't make us do this the hard way," he said.

"I... I'm... Verion Arkos! From... t...the Ber... Berian... Expeditionary... F... Force...."

"What are you doing here?"

"I was... ordered... to... to..."

"I can't hear you."

"I was ordered to observe you! And report on your position to command!"

"Much better. Why were you people sent here?"

"To secure a special resource on this goddamn island! The Yverians also heard about it, but we got here first, so it's ours!"

"Everyone says that. What kind of resource is this?"

"I... I don't know..."

"My blades are thirsty for blood."

"It's goo! There's a really large supply of goo underneath the island!"

"Just goo?"

Goo was used in making a lot of magical items because it was so rich in mana. Most orbs were made using goo, and some magical systems also needed goo to function. In a way, goo was like magical fuel. As disgusting as it was, it was needed for any self-respecting magic-based country to survive.

"It's... special... in some way... that one I really don't know..."

"He's telling the truth. Should we let him go or tie him up somewhere?"

"P...Please let me go!"

"I say tie him up somewhere," Artemis said.

"Seconded," Scotty nodded.

"Thirded," Clara agreed.

"Fourthed," Winnie said.

"Just tie him up and be done with it..." Melissa grunted.

"We have a winner," Artemis announced and reached into her bag to retrieve a coil of the same magic-resistant rope we had used to tie up the mages earlier.

"Please don't! I need to change my robe!" the mage pleaded.

"If we let you go, you'd rat on us. Not an option we're willing to take."

"I wouldn't!"

"Leon, you do the honours," Artemis handed the rope to Scotty while I put the mage against the tree behind me. It took all of a minute to tie the knot, and we were soon on our way again, leaving the struggling and terrified mage behind.

"You'd think that soldiers would be trained not to fear their enemies..." I sighed.

"Or maybe it's just because you're intimidating. Glowing red eyes can be scary, you know."

"Really?" I had almost forgotten my eyes were glowing red.

"Yeah. Let's just continue on. We have a lot of ground to cover."

I looked back, and suddenly noticed that Nu was now riding a... wild hog. He had even gotten a saddle of just the right size to fit on the back and was whistling as we moved along. He actually looked kinda carefree... while the rest of us were all on edge. Even Luticia was moving along with her sniper rifle held at her hip and her finger on the trigger, ready to fire. I had my quickdraw techniques, so I didn't have to keep a hand on a weapon all the time. Besides, I was always armed when I was wearing my armour - my spinner was on my right hand after all.

It would be a few more days until we reached the centre of the island - and Artemis reported that three of the other teams had met golems already. They were safe - but it looked like it would be harder for them to advance if they kept hiding from golems like that. I was hoping we wouldn't need to hide from a golem...

We walked on for a few hours without any disturbances in particular. Most of the team was getting a little relaxed and were now chatting, whereas the rest stayed quiet and watched the surroundings. I thought we'd have encountered some enemies by now... or maybe I was just being paranoid. Either way, I kept my Shadow Sense active and watched the area with my eyes. After what had happened just now, I wasn't about to get too relaxed.

It was afternoon already, and Scotty decided to have the team stop and take a break to eat lunch. We had all the supplies we needed for two weeks stored away in our pouches - bullets, food, ammo for heavy weapons, everything. The food was mostly long-lasting stuff and some rations. Everyone agreed on one thing - the rations tasted bad.

We resumed our journey after an hour's worth of rest. It wasn't long before we came across a group of 4 mages out on patrol - we hid in the forest as they passed, and silently neutralised them after they did. A few anti-magic bullets, coupled with some attacks Scotty pulled off with the flat side of his blade, and they were out within seconds.

But I couldn't shake the feeling that there was... something here. I started having it a little while after the rest period. There was... something here. The strange presence felt like it was coming from all around us... and it really made me feel uneasy.

"By the way, did you notice something?" Scotty asked.

"What?"

"The forest is completely silent. Not even a cricket chirping."

"Hey... you're right..."

"The local fauna seem to be limited to the outer part of the island, near the shore. Is there something inland scaring them?"

I sensed something behind me and whipped around to look. Nothing. "Scotty... let's just get out of here before anything bad happens..." I clung to his right arm. This place was really starting to freak me out... this presence was... not alive, but yet it felt alive somehow. It was... scary...

"Mama is scared?" Luticia looked up at me.

"No... it's just that there's... something here..." I lied.

"I can't sense anything. But just to be safe, let's pick up the pace. You're more sensitive to magical things, so maybe we're dealing with some kind of powerful magic or something."

"Yeah..."

We kept on moving, but the presence wasn't getting any weaker. In fact, the further we got inland, the stronger it got... until I could almost see the energy from whatever it was in the air. The magical pressure was intense enough until I was having a bit of trouble breathing...

"Are you ok? I got that uncomfortable signal again."

"I can't hide it, huh... whatever this thing is, it's releasing a ton of magical energy - the pressure in the air's pretty high."

"Do you need to take a break?"

"No. Let's keep going..."

I landed and leaned against a tree to catch my breath for a moment... damn, sometimes being this sensitive to magic could be a bit of trouble... "Are you ok?" Artemis asked. "I'm... fine... it's just this heavy magical presence in the air..." I breathed. Obviously Artemis couldn't sense it - she just looked around with a surprised expression on her face.

"You think it's the goo that mage was talking about?" she asked.

"Maybe... it's definitely abnormal."

"Better try and get a sample of the stuff once we see it. If it's the reason the war started in the first place... there must be some kind of strange effect it has. Goo's so plentiful that nobody needs to fight over it."

"Yeah..."

It was a short break - just a few minutes. Then we got on our way again. But we hit a... really scary place later on. There was a... swamp in the way. The path continued on the other side of the rather... putrid-smelling swamp. Not only was it icky and gross... the trees here were all... varying shades of purple and blue. That was definitely not a good sign. Plus, I was feeling really bad thanks to the magic pressure. Even my hair had lost its usual shine and was no longer levitating in the air.

"I'm not feeling so well..." I moaned, sitting down and leaning against a tree. Oh my... even the bark's texture had softened quite a bit. When I leaned against the trunk, it sagged a little... "What in the world is going on here..." Artemis gasped, looking around at the not-so-beautiful scenery. The sky over this part of the island even appeared to be purple...

"I don't know, but I don't like it either. Traya, can you go on?"

"I don't know..."

"Mama..."

"I can at least... fly across the swamp... but I don't have the energy to carry you guys anymore..."

"What? Are you chickening out because things look so glum?" Melissa sneered.

"You're lucky you don't have a plank to walk out here," Artemis said.

"Eek."

"C'mon then. Let's get over there. I'll have someone stay behind with you once we get across."

"Thanks, Scotty..."

I slowly climbed to my feet, faltering a little. Scotty caught me gently and helped me up slowly. I sighed and slowly walked to the edge of the swamp. Damn I felt weak... stupid magic pressure... Maybe returning to my human form would help stop me from being able to sense this strange presence... my Shadow Angel form was much more sensitive to magic compared to my human form... I closed my eyes and concentrated. It took me a few seconds to realize I couldn't reseal my Shadow Angel powers somehow... ah damn.

I flapped my wings weakly, but it was still enough to get me in the air - though I could only hover just above the ground. Slowly, I hovered across the swamp. The putrid smell made me want to puke... but I held it in. Halfway over it, my strength suddenly... left me and I fell into the swamp. Ugh... but this swamp was really strange... the water was surprisingly sticky, viscous... and it was purple-coloured. The smell didn't seem to be so bad where I was though. Wait... this wasn't the smell of the water. It was the smell of the ground under it...

Ah... I was stuck. The ground had parted under me when I landed, and had now flooded back in again, so my butt was stuck in the ground. When I tried to push myself out, my hands sank into the ground as well. My boosters couldn't fire for some reason, and I was far too weak to use my wings...

"I'm coming!"

"Scotty..."

That was the last thought I had before I fainted.