Chapter Ten (Warcraft)
The warriors rushed forward roughly, without any skill or practice to their movements. Within seconds, the first Troggs took notice of their noise, and howled in return lifting their clubs high in the air to smash into the shields brought to bare by Fuuka's summons. The blows sent the valiant knights backwards, making them disappear in shattered Aether as the rabbits instead pounced on the Troggs, distracting them more than once from an otherwise lethal follow-up.
As blood sprayed on the ground from the deep wounds upon the living creatures, slowly but surely Fuuka's army made progress along the maze-like structure of pipes and corridors that seemed designed to give headaches and let people get lost. I kept reading my book, even as a Trogg howled, nearing me with his large club spinning over his head. The club landed with a dull thud by my side, the Trogg stopping midway as he suddenly ended up sliced in tiny cubes, twin-bladed Slivers hissing as they disappeared back in the shadows without a second wasted.
"It's not hard!" Fuuka exclaimed gingerly, a smile on her face. "I was more nervous singing at the Budokan!"
I said nothing, and Fuuka returned to her task at hand. Her troops' advance was halted the moment she came into the sights of the first Alam-O-Bot, a stocky construct made of a large red light-bulb-like head and two trumpets for hands.
"Intruder Alert! Intruder Alert! Intruder Alert!" as the noise blared across the tunnels and corridors, I most calmly moved a few steps back and pushed my body against the nearby wall, waiting patiently as the trembling ground announced the arrival of the Mechanostriders and the Mechano-Tanks, against which Fuuka could but stare in disbelief.
The Mechano-Tanks had spider-like legs, and thundering engines on their backs. The front of the tank had either a flamethrower, tiny flames sparking into existence seconds before they erupted into infernos of fire upon those unlucky enough to be in front of them, or machine guns, which rattled and pierced through the warriors' shields with ease. The Rabbits died first, their forms dissipating as the area was cleared in a matter of seconds, purified by fire and metal. Fuuka's summoning was slower than the destruction caused, and it was clear she was going to retreat as quickly as possible.
The Mechanostriders however blocked the way back for the warriors, having flanked them in the time it took for Fuuka to come up with the idea of retreat, and delivering massive and murderous pecks into the armored summons, killing them on the spot.
I flipped a page of my book nonchalantly, and then waited as Fuuka's body soon became riddled with bullets, blood leaving her frame as she cried out in pain. She fell down on the ground limp, gurgling and groaning as the robotic enemies turned to glance in my direction, only to then ignore my presence entirely.
"Threat Neutralized! Threat Neutralized!" they beeped, before slowly moving back to where they had come from. I walked away from the wall, and came to a stop by Fuuka's side. The young woman was moaning from pain, her eyes half-closed as she gagged and gasped for air.
"If you want," I said calmly, "You can let yourself go and die right now," I continued. "Or if you don't want to, then you can simply call forth White Mana to heal your body," I crouched down by her side. "Make your choice," I said as I watched the blood pool by her side, drenching her clothes as her eyes slowly closed. "Though in that case, your soul will stay in this plane forever," I added as an afterthought, and suddenly, Fuuka's breathing grew shaky and raspy, her fists clenched as her will to live returned to her, the wounds closing rapidly as White Mana sailed across her skin and wounds.
She breathed deeply as she slowly rolled on the stomach, before pulling herself up from the pool made with her blood. I smiled at her as she turned her definitely not amused gaze in my direction.
"Welcome back," I said, standing back up. "Slept well?"
"You...you could have said something-" Fuuka croaked out, spitting a bullet that hit the ground with a satisfying ding sound. "I was just about to...to..."
"To die?" I quipped. "Well, it is an alternative, but you'd need help to do so, and not everyone actually wants to die. Even as we cry about those we lost, when it comes time to take the plunge, many change their minds." I closed the book and allowed it to disappear in thin air. "Now, let me show you where you went wrong." I snapped my fingers, and the Alarm-O-Bot suddenly realized there were two new intruders in his sights.
Fuuka hastily raised her guard, but I simply patted her shoulder and gestured at her to move back.
"First, you must be like water, not stone," I twisted my fingers into complex forms as I summoned forth both a warrior and a dwarf, "You should have studied the dwarfs, especially the patrolman," I continued quite calmly, even as the incoming mechano-tanks were met with an ax-wielding dwarf who rushed for them, and rather than stick to the defensive actually roared in frenzy, jumping up high to slam home against the camera-like visors of the constructs. "Also, you must fight with your summons, not let them deal with it all alone," I conjured a whip of fire, letting it twirl and spin to grab the neck of a Mechanostrider, pulling him towards me in order for the warrior to slice the creature's neck with ease.
"Finally, you must learn to move." I began to hop back as a dozen of Mechano-Striders rushed for me, only to be slowly but surely dismantled by a small group of warriors and dwarfs, which as I moved backwards stopped the metallic flock's advance allowing my bolts of sizzling lava to do the trick. "When you combine the three things, then, and only then, will you rule the battlefield, or at least not make a horrible mess out of yourself," I finished speaking as the last Mechano Strider fell down beheaded, a small contingent of dwarfs and human warriors standing by my side under my command, before slowly dispersing one after the other.
"Now, you do it," I said as I gestured at the newly incoming wave of robotic enemies.
Fuuka stared at the incoming horde, and then nodded as she steeled her gaze. She thrust her left hand forward as a sizzling bolt of lava left her fingertips, a warrior springing into existence by her side to rush forward in turn.
It was crude, slow, and she had yet to channel mana of both colors together for an effect, but this time she entered the battlefield with sizzling bolts to deal with the Mechano-Tanks before they could open fire, letting the constructs explode as the dwarfs took care of the attacking, the warriors holding back the flanks.
Once more, we began to progress down the corridors that came to an abrupt halt into the upper level of the hall of gears, crumbled and destroyed mechanisms everywhere, giant drills dropped against walls and neon lights shining brightly from high above. Filth littered the corridors, maddening lurching noises echoing from deep below, where twirling churning creatures made of filthy water and disgusting waste lurked about.
Fuuka hesitantly walked all the way to the edge, glanced down, and then took a step back.
"Aren't there stairs?" she asked, only for her to stiffen as I placed a hand over the middle of her shoulders, at the base of her neck.
"Right hand on the small ring," I said, gesturing at her parachute's only strap. I smiled, even as her eyes widened. "Now, off you go."
And with that said, I threw her off the edge. Her powerful voice emitted an equally powerful scream as she sailed in an arc upwards, attracting the attention of pretty much every single living creature in the hall below. Standing high above, I flipped my book open once more, and turned a page as the rest of Fuuka's troops jumped down.
They, unfortunately, were not instructed by Fukka to pull the strap for their parachutes and thus landed face first against the floor, dying abruptly in flashes of Aether-like energies. Fuuka's falling form had the time to cast a few bolts of fiery lava, even as the firework-like texture of the attacks made me think she was blindly channeling Red Mana without truly thinking about the magic she wished to craft. Still, more than a few oozes and Troggs found themselves burned or dying, even as the largest among them simply lurked in the background, attracted by the noise, and yet not stupid enough to simply draw near to it.
I stared as Fuuka's feet touched the ground, my book forgotten on my lap as two Troggs neared her, only for her to nimbly jump back and slide on the remains of an ooze. Holding on to her balance she spun, delivering a sharp and fiery kick bathed in flames, which melted the face off the Trogg that had drawn too close. Fuuka's noises of disgusts were clearly audible even from high above, but even as she made eww noises and groaned, she still summoned Dwarfs clad in full armor and warriors ready to defend her as snakes of fire left her fingertips.
The Viscous Fallout waited, carefully making its way to the corpses left behind to devour them and grow in size.
I placed my chin on my open palm, and then waited patiently.
Mud fight.
Mud fight.
Mud fight!