"Go ahead! Finish off the stragglers, hold the openings to keep them flowing!"
Shouting orders with near millimeter precision after a few seconds of deliberation, a knight who is clearly female, stands on a raised slope and looks out over the battlefield below.
She wears a coppery gold colored armor, which has white and red strips on different sections of it, plus she carries a straight sword in her right hand.
"You heard her. Henrietta, Victor, help separate the groups of stragglers. Jeremy, Gabriel, give support to those who are fighting."
"Yes!" x4
Watching as his four followers jump into the conflict below with overwhelming speed, the leader of such a group is taken aback, though upon seeing who is behind him, he can only grimace in understanding.
Who stands behind the old man named Marcus is a mage, but not just any mage, but a rather infamous one and current leader of Leyndell's troops... The mage Sellen.
"I have already contacted Nepheli and Max, they have agreed to synchronize their efforts with us."
Speaking quietly as she reaches Finley and Marcus' side, she seems to let the latter's grimace pass, but most likely cares little for his opinion.
"Okay, we'll close the holes farthest from the center of the formation, so we'll avoid dispersion. On the other hand, we'll open the center hole a little wider to avoid bottlenecks... Marcus, extend my orders."
"Understood."
Disappearing after giving Finley a brief appreciative nod, the two women's surroundings fall silent, but this is quickly fractured.
"You need to refrain from doing that, Sellen. Or at least do it more discreetly, I've already gotten reports of the wildness of your experiments."
"There's more imagination than reality in that news, besides few can see through my barrier... Except for the five of them."
Implying that the troublemakers are actually the men under Marcus' command who spread the gossip among the troops, Sellen fixes his gaze on them fighting down there.
"Don't do anything too crazy."
"It's unnecessary, I already have more than enough experimental samples for what I'm currently interested in."
...Middle line...
The change in terrain was absurdly marked since they left Aldrich at the burning wall, for yes Caelid was an inhospitable blood colored terrain, Necrolimbo is marked by its lush vegetation and wide rivers running through it.
"Mrs. Nepheli, don't you think you should move from there?"
"What do you say, Máx - this is the best place of all!"
Turning her head with an uncontrollable grin on her face, Nepheli gives the stiff Máx a thumbs up and looks straight ahead again.
What lies in front of her is a wide stone bridge, this one has several statues, both broken and healthy, and was once being haunted by a pumpkin head.
Many will remember it as the bridge next to Grace Point:Bridge of Saints, although due to the change in world size it is larger and wider, so much so that halfway across it is covered by mist from the ravine below.
"The plan is to wear them down so that they are easily defeated by Mrs. Lansseax, not face them head on... This could easily end badly."
"Come on, don't you want to stand out, be better than average?"
Stretching out her brunette arms as if ready to paint a big picture for Máx, Nepheli's smile is forced to pause at Máx's next sentence.
"No, Captain Kristoff has been very clear about these things:Be better and they'll give you more work, you must only do what is fair and necessary... No standing out."
"What the most... Tasteless philosophy."
Quite savoring the word "Tasteless", Nepheli seems ready to make Max reconsider his stance, like a warrior holding back from standing out, but suddenly she falls silent.
One of the things Nepheli had learned during her tenure as Necrolimbo was to be more "flexible" in her thinking; she certainly still has her principles and boundaries clear, but these are now more... Free than before.
This has been demonstrated before, be it with the use of the seductive Branches, the less corrupt nobles, or the troops inherited from Necrolimbo, which are no small matter if we go to the true facts.
"It's not as bad as it may seem, thanks to this I can get home to my wife and son... Plus it avoided participating in the fight for posts in the newly restructured Leyndell army."
"Is there that kind of situation?"
Looking briefly surprised at Max's words, as there is a power struggle at the center of Leyndell, Nepheli turns to him for the second time during the conversation.
"Of course there is, Ms. Nepheli. Despite the reforms implemented by the Circle Lord, which have helped quite a bit, Leyndell's system is still full of holes... Both civilian and military, making for quite a bit of tension."
"Aghh, could he have jumped from the frying pan into the coals? Necrolimbo's troubles seem like nothing compared to Leyndell's... Cof, is that two queens thing for real?"
Approaching Max at superhuman speed, Nepheli drapes his arm over his shoulder in a "Brothers" hug and asks Max a question under his breath.
"Not another one... May I ask where you heard that?"
"From the troops obviously, Max. This is almost sounding like the trouble with the one or two-handed axe already, though I hope it doesn't end in fisticuffs like that time."
Smiling brightly, just as if remembering a good time in his life, Nepheli stands waiting expectantly for Max's response.
"I wish it were that easy... I'll just say it's a real thing, the people have split into two increasingly radical factions. On the one with the Lunar Princess Ranni and on the other with Queen Marika."
"Oh, oh, so where are Lansseax, Tiche, Finley, and ambsj left?"
Closing Nepheli's mouth with a quick hand, Max looks around at the surroundings with wide eyes, as if he feared some monster would come out of the shadows and devour him.
"You're crazy, there are things you don't say out loud... Thanks to Queen Marika, here they come."
"Hahaha, you seem to be full of fight now."
"Anything so long as we don't keep talking about this".
Letting out a sigh that still carries traces of fear, Max starts backing up to the troops surrounding the bridge, so he can start giving orders.
"Too bad, I wanted to get more information out of him for Finley... Well, a little is better than nothing."
Laughing in a carefree manner, Nepheli finally seems to agree to go along with the plan, so he stops blocking the bridge and follows Max's lead.
...Final line...
"That's amazing... Hump, it's not for nothing he managed to beat me."
Briefly poking her head out from behind the burning wall, a woman with long white hair, a scaly tail and horns of the same color, speaks with her voice full of pride and respect.
It was certainly contradictory, respect for someone and also pride? Something odd here, though knowing it's a dragon gets past you.
Everyone knows that such winged beasts are the epitome of pride, but also that they recognize the strong regardless of race, color, or creed.
"Grrrr."
"Mmm... Can't you see I was enjoying the view!"
Wiping away any flash of blush on his face instantly, red lightning begins to emerge from Lansseax's hair, and with a single fist he completely obliterates a huge crimson dog.
Well, it would be more accurate to say that it was the wind pressure generated by his fist that shredded the dog, turning it into a shapeless mass of flesh and spreading its blood around.
"They had to have listened to their senses, even if they were all half-mad."
Letting out a small laugh as he finished speaking, Lansseax holds out his hand and right there the red lightning begins to gather, then taking the form of an electric dash.
This was a red lightning enchantment created by Lansseax herself, a demonstration of her noble lineage as an ancient dragon and the control she has over her power.
"Awuuu!"
The grotesque howls of Caelid's beasts never come to an end, as Lansseax bored with such a noisy spectacle, cuts forward with her red lightning guja.
It was as if heaven and earth were connected through a pillar of red light, which was actually lightning, before expanding forward in the shape of an inverted triangle, ever increasing its range of destruction.
No matter whether it was flesh, bone, iron or feathers, wherever Lansseax's red lightning bolts will pass, everything is eradicated until there is nothing left behind.
"Job completed. Now it's time to move on... Admiring Aldrich's actions. What, because there's more!"
Snapping out of fantasies about "Admiring" Aldrich's actions, she fixes her eyes on the distance, a place from which a series of grunts and dark shadows come from.
It was a new wave of enemies, all of whom were tired, beaten and on the verge of death, all from having passed through the previous two fences.