StarChaser: Another (18+)

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The Whales Party Sheet

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Ingrid, Cecil, and Philia were the first to emerge from the one-way portal, quickly followed by the mice.

“HTX, lights! Kiowa check those corridors!” Cecil said as he flew forward, stopping just short of the tunnel leading to the pitch-black promenade. As soon as he said “lights”, the flood lights mounted to the portal caddies came on, bathing the stone corridors with white beams of brightness.

Neith, Siria and Cuddly ran in next. 

“Cuddly, illumination now.” Siria said. 

The adorable Fae Hare ermm’d in assent, raising his wand and waving the now sparkling tip in circular patterns. A few seconds later, a swarm of glowing butterflies lit up the room. Individually each butterfly was only as bright as a candle, but their collective presence lit the room well enough for someone to read a book with small letters.

“Baseplate, Outlaw, come in.” Ingrid said as she tapped on her earpiece, watching Kvaris, Kinu, and Sammy run in immediately next after Siria and Co. 

“Loud and clear, Starchaser.” Zefir replied.

“We hear you, Starchaser.” Gwen replied as well.

“Neith, drones out now, get Aquila scouting out that corridor, hug the ceiling and walls.” Philia said as Ingrid radioed back home.

“Launching drones.” Neith affirmed. The four drones; Aquila, Falcis, Oberon, and Titania were docked at Cecil’s balcony, soaking up the 24/7 sunlight. Their rotors whirred to life and they flew into the Roof Deck where Cecil and the Iroquois mice were taking up battle stations.

“Overlord, requesting portal” the HTX drone near Cecil spoke up. 

“Standby…” Cecil waved a tendril and the small portal opened up, allowing the drones to exit from above the Dialog window. 

Selphie, Iohann and Viel came in a second later. Ingrid pointed at the direction of the Promenade corridor.

“Viel, get me a firebird down that corridor, and another later trailing behind us.”

“Alright, Ingrid!” Viel chirped. She briefly chanted a spell and a flame lit up from the tip of her staff. It grew until it was the size and shape of an eagle. The glowing bird then soundlessly took flight down the corridor and began orbiting the area.

“Neith, no lights on Aquila, stay high and out of sight and out of the light.” Ingrid said. 

“Affirmative.” Neith replied.

Meanwhile, Kvaris and Selphie quickly took their place near Ingrid, stopping to pet Cuddly who ermm’d in pleasure.

“Selphie, get Johnny out.” Ingrid added. Quickly, the dryad took a seed out of a separate neck pouch and tossed it to the floor. It quickly grew into a full-sized pumpkin with sunflower-like blossoms atop the body working as sensory organs. This “Johnny” was a seed of a special plant that the team found in Irons and one that Selphie had been working on for two days. The original was currently blooming in the sunshine at Ram Ranch.

“Johnny” was a mutated variant of the Mountain Duskberry plant. A completely mobile plant, they move around by quickly growing then retracting roots, gaining nourishment from the ground as they go. These plants head towards hills, cliffs, or high mountains, climbing as high as they can before dispersing their seeds, after which the plant continues to grow there to be eaten by birds. Part of its name is due to its seed dispersal taking place at night. This series of plants in particular, were a product of a combination of Selphie and predictably; Philia’s tinkering with Duskberry seeds; allowing the team to “tame” a Duskberry to act as a familiar.

As soon as the pumpkin-like Duskberry took form, it quickly scuttled to the back of the group to act as a first line of defense in case anything tried to attack the Whales from behind. Nearby, the Omega Team consisting of Sammy, Kinu, Charles and Oscar stacked up.

While this was going on, the Center Group organized themselves, with the gold mice forming the first perimeter around Neith, Siria, Viel, and Iohann. The gold mice’s simulacrums formed a second, outer perimeter.

It turns out however that the golden simulacrums of the mice weren’t tied to a duration and that these could take near-fatal damage before they could be dissipated. That said, these clones were also afforded the same protection as their original selves which mean that in order to “kill” these clones, one would need to breach a combination of their worn armor, the Rhokalian dressform’s carbon fiber-like vest, the pavise charm’s heavy wooden door forcefield, the blessings provided by both Iohann and the priests from the Antechambers above, all assuming one could hit these agile mice which were further protected by covering fire from the team. 

Siria and Philia stuck close to the Alpha team to provide an advisory role, while Iohann and Viel hung back near Neith’s spider bot. Above them, Iroquois Team then took their place above Neith, with Apache team facing forward and Kiowa currently still facing the passages leading to the sides. Once the party got moving, two of them would focus on the back. 

“Team, this is Baseplate.” Zefir said, conferring with the feeds that Neith was showing him. “If you want to move to the next level, take a right turn as you get to the Promenade corridor then take another right five intersections down.”

“Alright then, let’s go.” Ingrid said “Cuddly, get your decoy out.”

Cuddly ermm’d again a waved his wand, creating a very realistic image of a bird-folk hunter, a common sight in this homeland. It was a duck-like man in hunting attire that reminded Ingrid of a duster although in green to match the color of the marshes that Cuddly lived in. The hunter was armed with a bow and while it could not actually harm anyone, it was capable of inflicting the same amount of pain had an actual arrow struck. 

The Whales now were on the move.

 

“Corridor’s clear.” Zefir said, looking into Aquila’s feed. As the party moved along the corridor connecting to the promenade, a second firebird spawned from a flame at the tip of Viel’s staff and flew to the rear of the group, lazily orbiting the chamber the party had warped into, and following only when the last of the team, which was Johnny, was just out of sight.

“The faerie lights aren’t broken.” Zefir observed. “Not sure why.”

“Powerful spells could gone off and interfered with the lights’ magic.” Siria replied. “Or, considering there was Red Moon recently, it could have caused the Rifts to unleash a mana wave that affects artifacts like these.”

“If you’re worried about some kind of magic EMP, that doesn’t exist. Ingrid.” Philia assured her. “I mean if there was a spell that could just kick off everyone’s mana I wouldn’t need Sarin, Anthrax, or Nukes. The most these kind of phenomena do is just short out stuff like Faerie lights, but even the most humble bacteria won’t be nuked by a mana wave, otherwise I’ve already had a magic hand sanitizer.”

“Be sure to brand name it as Chernobyl.” Ingrid joked, causing Philia and Zefir to snicker.

“What’s the joke?” Kinu asked. 

“Yeah, so Philia has as one of her world-ending weapons, a bomb that tears apart the fabric of reality? Remember that one?” Zefir said.

“Yes I remember that. Ludicrous, but it seems to make sense based on Philia’s explanations.” Kinu replied.

“Well, it can also be used for peaceful purposes… one of which is to use it as a source of power. One such power plant as we call it, had an accident and ended up corrupting the area on a large scale. To this day the ground is… as you could say, is cursed.” Zefir explained.

“Ouch, I can recall a few cursed areas due to spells gone wrong.” Siria remarked. “I’m actually quite surprised that Philia hadn’t already ‘nuked’ Elion-Nosco considering how much she’s brought in from your world.”

“I did spend almost half of my current life on study and research.” Philia said. “It’s a shame I didn’t think of smuggling some good spellbooks from there.”

“We could always leave that to our contacts in the underworld.” Gwen suggested. “The only problem is how we do so without them blabbing about us not being dead.”

“No dice on that idea yet, Outlaw.” Philia told her. 

As they spoke, the mice let out short squeaks on regular intervals. 

“Guys at the sides, keep an eye on those walls, there’s passages there that monsters could be waiting in ambush.” Ingrid said. “Stick to your pellet guns for now, those hit with the power of intermediate cartridges with hollowpoints.”

“She means they don’t punch through the body, the bullets expand, it’s like having a little explosion in there.” Zefir said over the radio.

“I’m still surprised the mice were able to pair a heavy warhammer to their pellet guns.” Iohan remarked, “but I suppose so long as it is something all the mice could carry with one hand, it counts.”

“Magic can be fun sometimes.” Siria said.

“In our world we say ‘it’s not a bug, it’s a feature.’” Zefir chuckled.

“Neith, keep Aquila and Falcis out of sight, no lights.” Ingrid said. 

“Affirmative.” 

 

“Intersection clear, four more to go.” Zefir said as Aquila’s cameras scanned around. “Keep your eyes, ears, and noses on full alert still, I only got so many cameras to check.”

“Copy, Baseplate.” Kvaris said.

Cuddly’s butterflies swarmed around the group in loose perimeter, making sure the area was amply lit without competing with the lights of the firebirds. Some flew low to the ground while others just a little above their heads so as not to obscure vision, quite a few also hugged the walls and flitted into the side passages to expose any potential ambusher but there was nothing laying in wait for the team. For now at least.

As each golden mouse clone got near a side tunnel, it stood in front of it, glaive drawn, and tac-cam flashlight shining down the tunnel while the real mouse stood close by, gun trained down the corridor, moving on only when Neith passed them.

On approaching the intersection, the Duck Hunter stood in the middle with his bow drawn, in an attempt to tempt anything that could be lurking to attack. 

Meanwhile, Johnny left behind trailing roots, small fruits here and there popped up along their lengths. These were the results of Philia’s genetic tampering and Cataline’s expertise with chemicals, which caused them to explode into a volatile spray or in other words, a biological proximity mine. These extended a good thirty feet before the moving roots regressed , causing the fruits to rapidly neotenize as it was reabsorbed into the body, only to regrow a short distance away.

 

As the Whales proceeded down the Promenade, the sounds of various creatures were becoming more distinct. Some sounded like territorial calls, or at least sounded like one considering how intimidating and booming a few of the calls were. Some of which promptly led to a response and then a few moments later, the sounds of a violent scuffle as the two or more listeners, not liking the idea of a neighbor, began to fight amongst themselves. Others went by unanswered, probably either too insignificant or simply too strong for anything else to contest their possibly outrageous stake.

“Those noisy ones are the least of our worries.” Siria reminded everyone “those are far away, pay attention to what could be much closer to us.”

But the first monster the team encountered were of all things…

“Huh, slimes.” Ingrid noted as she saw a colorful procession of various blob-like slimes moving along the walls. “Wonder if they just finished cleaning up or on their way to the next pick up?”

“Hard to say.” Cecil said “These guys seem as alien to me as you to a bug… they don’t seem that evolved yet, prolly some neander-slimes.”

“Wanna try absorbing one?” Ingrid asked playfully.

“Easy, Ted Bundy.” Cecil laughed. “I’m sure I already told you what happens if slimes merge, only the dominant one remains, the rest is reduced to just mass and prolly whatever abilities it had.”

“In that case…” Viel began. “The only slime that would definitely be worth partaking in would be an elder slime, but I doubt you will find any here, their magic power is extremely potent.”

“Elder Slime?” Ingrid asked.

“Really sparkly, looks like they got a whole universe in them, that’s how cool they look.” Philia said. “But yeah, those are out of Cecil’s league, Ingrid. Also they look nothing like our cute Cecil. For some reason the pictures I see tend to look like massive winged sauropods.”

“Better work on your parry and rolling, Cecil.” Ingrid joked.

“That’s also the reason Cecil draws so much attention.” Kinu spoke up as she walked backwards for a moment to watch the team’s back. “Quite a few people have wondered if he’s a lost graft of one.”

“Legends call them the First Ones.” Iohann quipped. “Ones who were around before the Gods forged the first men.”

“Anyway…” Cecil said. “We can’t be poaching off the dungeon’s cleaning crew.”

“Well, give it a try…” Philia suggested “Slimes here know when to cut losses and just split themselves, in case anything goes bad. Just shake hands with… oh I don’t know… this yellow guy over here.”

“Okaaaay…” Cecil said, bringing his Dialog Window close to a yellow slime. Before he could extend a tendril, it approached him and extended one itself. The two tentatively touched before the slime split itself and one half joined Cecil.

“Wh-whoa!” Cecil yelped “I uhhh…” he raised himself so everyone could take a look at him. “How do I look?”

“Shinier” Ingrid remarked, reaching over and petting him. “Prolly at the very least you’ll get a stronger enhancement lens.”

“Hope so,” the slime squeaked. “Anyway, let’s continue.”

 

As Aquila took up station at the third intersection, Zefir quickly spoke up.

“I have eyes on fifty-plus individuals making their way down the left-side corner. Humanoid, bipedal, armed…”

“Standby while I enhance image.” Neith said. “Check your phones.”

Ingrid and Philia quickly took theirs out, simultaneously Neith displayed the AI-enhanced image taken from a combination of infrared, nightvision, and other sensors.

“Dead Eaters…” Gwen and Siria chorused, the latter after Philia quickly sidled up to her to show her the results. “Riftworlders, they will hunt and kill us.”

Ingrid glanced at her phone, they reminded her of romanticized Neanderthals with their perfect muscular builds and gear that while primitive with the usage of bone, hide, and wood, were quite advanced with the techniques in making them… all in all they looked exactly like how an artist would try to make a cool-looking albeit anachronistic caveman, with the impressive bear pelts complete with the head locked in a roar, while others wore pelts draped over an impressive bull (if not minotaur) skull with long overcompensating horns. 

For their weapons, quite a few were holding what looked like a combination of an aztec macuahuitl, a club lined with razor obsidian stones, although these were more like the polynesian leiomano as they used not stones but the big sharp teeth of some unknown beast. Some of these clubs were long enough to be wielded two handed. Others wielded spears and quite a few had bows. Some of them also were wearing outrageous plumages, no doubt marking them in her mind as not a bunch of lost guys but a highly organized hunting party or strike force. 

At the mention of “Riftworlders” Philia spoke up. “Don’t even think about it, Ingrid. The sapient Riftworlders don’t see us as anything more than dungeon monsters to kill, butcher, and eat.”

“I won’t” she assured her. “I will protect my team.”

“Bone and hide armor, bone weapons, these guys are big… they’re stacking up on the left-side corner now, they’ve seen our firebird and Duck Decoy.“ Zefir reported.

“I’m keeping an eye on the rear.” Gwen said, she glanced at the monitor to her left, which showed a picture of the dungeon map. Neith had put an overlay showing the team’s location. “There’s a possibility some of them might try to go around, but it’ll take a while to run that distance.”

“Keep an eye out, Outlaw.” Ingrid said. “Valkyries, position up front. Cecil ready get an RPG on that corner.”

As Kinu, Kvaris, and Sammy rushed up front, Cecil quickly said “Chris, get on the RPG.”

The mouse squeaked in acknowledgement, quickly putting down his FN P90 and taking up the rocket launcher. 

“They’re peeking through the corner, sizing you guys up, no indication if they can see you guys properly but they’re piling up…” Zefir said.

“Patch me through the bullhorn.” Ingrid said. “We’re the Whales! This is your only warning! Stand down or we will attack!”

 

Silence…

“Get ready to shoot, Selphie. Fire as soon as someone pokes their head out.” Ingrid said quietly, stepping ahead of the group and flaring her aura. “Viel, bright up the birds. Aquila move back further into the darkness.”

Viel only needed a small bit of her mana to increase the brightness of the firebirds, illuminating the intersection ahead and the stretched of corridor behind them. 

An ululating war cry rang out as the firebird brightened up the promenade corridors.

“They’re attacking!” Zefir said.

“RPG now.” Ingrid called calmly. 

Chris, who already was taking aim, fired. The enhancement lens not only sped up the rocket but also increased the explosion radius, causing an uproar of anguish, surprise, and fury to echo from the left side corner, the first few warriors that rounded out of the corner were caught by surprise and stumbled from the impact of the shockwaves of some with the others ended up catching shrapnel on their backs.

“RPG again!” Cecil ordered. Chris quickly got to work loading the next rocket.

 

“Selphie go!” came Ingrid’s next order.

The dryad stepped forward and took aim. The wooden beads flew out of her gun’s barrel, the floramancy taking effect as soon as it did so. Each bead sprouted two sets of leaves, one as stabilizing tail fins and the other other as rapidly flapping wings that increased its velocity. At the same time, woody vines burst out front, turning the blunt nose into a sharpened dart. 

The Whipcrawler Darts punched through the Dead Eaters’ skins and embedded themselves, quickly burrowing inside. In the space of five seconds, three screaming, and scrabbling hunters became a grotesque sight as hard, woody, thorny vines erupted from their body, furiously flailing about, cutting and whipping their surprised comrades.

“There’s more of them coming! They’re pressing the attack!” Zefir said.

Kinu and Kvaris channeled their mana and howled, wrapping the Whales’ with increased strength. Ingrid flared her aura menacingly, both to intimidate her opponents as she slowly stalked in their direction as well as to gather the ambient ether around her. The next wave were caught off-guard from a combination of Iroquois and the 189’s firearms picking them off from a distance and as well as three whipcrawlers intercepting them. 

“Shoot at the sides of the corridor, Selphie.” Philia said as Ingrid suddenly dashed towards the first wave of Dead Eaters that got past the whipcrawlers. 

The first macuahuitl-wielding bearskin warrior that reached Ingrid could barely raise his club at all before Ingrid got too close and struck with a body blow, her fist wreathed in Nemea’s lion-shaped aura. The resulting impact created an outward explosion of force in a cone, hard enough to send the Dead Eater and those behind him flying back at terminal velocity.

The rest further behind were bowled over, more than a few cracking their heads on the floor and keeping them down for good. Of the ten that got through only one was far enough to avoid the worst of the blast, but it was enough to stagger him. He had bones broken but had no opportunity to even notice it as one of the gold mice quickly plugged his head with a bullet between the eyes and blew open the back of his head. 

“It’s an army out there! There’s so many!” Zefir cried.

“I’m jumping in!” Ingrid said. “Guard the center!”

With that Ingrid leapt forward, easily clearing sixty feet and giving her enough room to kick off from a force field she generated in mid-air, enough room for Cecil and the drones to not get affected by the backblast as Ingrid dive-kicked her way into the intersection, causing an explosion of bodies as she struck the floor with bomb-like force.

“Come on!” Ingrid yelled, staying in the center of the intersection, her body awash in bluish battle aura and her fists flaring with Nemean lion-heads. She struck a stance, one foot stomping the ground hard enough to cause a tremor that stumbled those near her, while her fists were raised in optimal striking positions.

The Dead Eaters rushed her, Ingrid used her blinding speed; a combination of her Aegis Aura removing friction where needed and repelling parts of her body to propel herself forward… and her Automata Aura to move herself optimally, weaving through their strikes while retaliating at the same time. 

She kept her strength lower than before, baiting them into thinking that she had spent a considerable amount of power to do that explosive punch trick again. But her punches were no less lethal, they struck with the force of a car on full throttle, all that energy concentrated into an area the size of a lion’s head. 

The resulting pressure wave generated was also toned down, but still enough that it felt like a heavyweight boxer’s punch at full force as it propagated outwards. 

 

Zefir watched as Ingrid would dash forward, then dodge and strike in one fluid motion, courtesy of her Starchaser Aura’s Argus acting as her radar and her Automata precept making use of that information to optimally move her body so that she would not only dodge the strike and countered, but do it in a way that let her swing with maximum force.

The circle around Ingrid grew wider and wider quickly as her punches knocked each opponent back against their friends. Each strike was lethal and several were sent flying upwards, crashing into more bodies and breaking up the lines of reinforcement. 

“God damn, Starchaser… this is just awesome.” Zefir said, more to himself than to her as he watched Ingrid move and strike like it was one of those stylish action action games; those beat-em up games that incentivized players to fight thick crowds of enemies and rack up a high combo counter while taking no damage at all.

And Ingrid was taking no hits at all. She was always getting up close and unleashing a powerful punch that looked like in his eyes, struck with the force of point-blank grenade. A couple of times Ingrid would dodge an attack so fast she became a blur of black and red. Each time she did so she created a flare of energy around herself and she would then strike, either the attacker or another nearby opponent with massive force, as if she had somehow stolen the kinetic energy of her would-be assailant and added it to her next strike. 

And there was more, on other times Ingrid would use grappling attacks.

“No! What are you thinking!?” Zefir cried in disbelief as Ingrid grabbed a spearman’s arm and slammed him to the floor. Ingrid quickly leapt onto him, sinking her knees into his chest as she started to pound his face. Zefir thought Ingrid was going to be swarmed, but each punch created a shockwave that pushed everyone back, infuriating them further as they were forced to watch Ingrid pound their comrade’s head to a pulp in a few punches.

On another, Ingrid quickly got behind another razor-club wielder, ducking under his swing aimed at her head, the next thing was Ingrid and her victim sailing high up in the air, the latter wreathed in lethal amounts of ether as Ingrid piledrived him headfirst in a big explosion of volatile energy, right into the thickest of the crowd.

There were also times when it looked like Ingrid took a hit. Zefir gasped in shock as he saw Ingrid stabbed with a spear, she froze suddenly but not like she was overcome with pain but rather froze as if someone had used a magic pause button on her. Ingrid would suddenly drop from the ceiling with a high-speed chop, creating a big dust cloud as she struck and landed with immense force. Her aura negating all the downward force on the floor and redirecting them violently in all directions. It was only after she had landed that the frozen afteimage of her would then fade from view.

And then, there were moments where Ingrid would parry an attack, and at the same time second Ingrid would step in and launch the attacker with an uppercut or sending bowling through the crowd with a decapitating roundhouse kick, with the parrying image of Ingrid fading from view only then. 

 

Focusing on helping out Ingrid was Cecil, he was using his M240 as a semi automatic, using it’s enhanced striking power and velocity to carve lines through the crowds and thin them out, while Eli and Brody used their pellet guns to great effect by shooting in bursts at the crowd further away from Ingrid. Ralph on the other hand focused on point defense for Philia who had set herself up as the next line of defense.

 

As Ingrid rumbled in the center of the crossroads, other Dead Eaters broke off to engage the rest of the team. Selphie always kept two Whipcrawlers active which gravitated towards the mob, causing chaos amongst their ranks as they ended up either blocking off the front row of attackers or suddenly cutting them off from reinforcements as their teammates were forced to deal with the parasitized warriors. 

 

“189, take the sides! I’ll take the middle!” Philia said. Her bracers glowed, summoning her weapons. 

On her right hand was a heavily modified FN FAL, a replica battle rifle she crafted herself from the summoned original, and the “Progenitor” of the heavy guns the 189 used. Like these 189’s SCAR-Hs and M14’s these were refitted with mithril metal for the parts that faced the most stress and the wood parts with enchanted treantwood. The result was a lighter, better balanced gun with an 800-round (the first ever drum mag that Philia worked on, hence it’s immense capacity), it also had a secondary barrel beneath the primary that shot not pellets but BB-shots. A large double-edged bayonet protruded beneath the barrels.

Philia wielded this gun one-handed, the butt stock heavily modified to unfold into a mechanical arm to grip her bicep

On her left arm was a shotgun, a Beretta 1301 semi automatic. Like the FAL it was a mythril-treantwood replica of the original and also sported enchanted ammo capacity. In her case, it carried 600 rounds total, for three types of ammunition with a maximum of 200 rounds reach. The first was the traditional buckshot, the second was dragon’s breath, and the third were FRAG-12 rounds, specialized slugs with stabilized fins and a mini-warhead. Like the FAL it also possessed a long bayonet, and its buttstock was modified into one that could also unfold into a mechanical arm for one-handed stability.

Glowing rings of light orbited her legs as Philia quickly glided/skated over the ground, opening fire with her BB-shots. Compared to the mice’s pellet guns, Philia’s BB’s struck with the force of a full-sized cartridge, and her full sized bullets struck with the force of a .50 cal round. The former she used in controlled bursts while the latter was used sparingly in single shots. Those that got close were struck with buckshot from her shotgun, which as she had previously tested after receiving Qhethar’s blessing, caused the buckshots to double in number.

She skated in and out of range, baiting the opponents to jostle and push each to try to reach her and strike, but Philia was too fast, and often, her enemies were hitting in the wrong direction.

That was because Philia’s capelet wasn’t just some hold-over to look like some rich aristocrat’s daughter. Aside from providing her thermal regulation as well as magical defense, it was augmented with a spell that made hostile viewers perceive her to be standing elsewhere within 3-5 feet from her true position. In addition, Philia’s bracers’ initial enchantment was to summon Guardians; simulacrums of her, armed with a rapier-like broadsword in one hand and a parrying dagger with the other. These Guardians added to her close-range protection as well as a reason for Philia to always practice her swordsmanship, as their fencing abilities scaled off of her skills. Unlike the golden mice however, they had limited mobility, as they were originally created by the Elion-Nosco mages to protect the wearer from an incoming attack.

Not that it stopped Philia from modifying the spell to make them attack so long as there was a target within their spawning range. Plural, as she could bring in two. She wasn’t even deemed important enough back in her days as a princess to be afforded this magic item, so she had to develop one herself which in turn led to her tinkering with Apport magic. 

Philia would dart in, and activate her Guardians then zip away. They were afforded the same protection as she had; the full body shielding generated by her outfit, the pavise charm worn on a tiny “useless” buckler strapped to one wrist, the capelet’s obfuscation spell that caused opponents to perceive them in the wrong direction, and the Rhokalian Dress Form’s carbon-fiber vest and Janus Blades providing her added protection with the vest, and blade’s ability to summon a phantom sword made these made Guardians very tough obstacles to defeat. 

Philia only needed to “refresh” her Guardians twice in the fight, their swordsmanship compounded with their protections and Janus blades allowed them to fence with multiple opponents successfully that the only time they were “defeated” was when they got surrounded; a difficult task considering The Whales had multiple ranged attackers. 

 

“Let’s keep them mad!” Sammy laughed as she and the Enthanas threw spears and axes and kicked Grand Caltrops at the onrushing attackers. The spiky metal balls upon impact exploded into a thick mat of caltrops that caused more than a few to fall over into the spiky annoyances, their bodies brutally ground into the floor as countless feet trampled on them by accident.

 

Siria quickly ran to the opposite wall so she could see the influx of Dead Eaters. Quickly concentrating, she raised her staff.

“Hailstone Fusillade!” The ceiling above the corridor where the Dead Eaters were coming from began to freeze over, creating razor sharp stalactites at an accelerated rate and dropping on them.

 

As the battle raged on, Neith was coordinating with the mice by speaking with them discreetly over the radio, giving them instructions on where to shoot, optimizing their curtain of fire.

 

“There’s more coming!” Gwen said, “From behind!”

“I’ll handle this!” Philia called. The combination of all the gunners and herself was keeping the assailants at bay.

“Let’s go!” Sammy told Kvaris and Kinu. They stacked up behind Johnny, who was wriggling impatiently, his vines on the floor lengthened, allowing him to grow more volatile fruits. 

“I’ll help too!” Iohann said. 

“Support, Iohann, don’t fight directly yet.” Sammy told her. 

“Of course!” the sheep cleric bleated. She began chanting a prayer, waving her thurible and causing divine smoke to pile up at the back of the group, obscuring the incoming horde’s vision.

 

“Kiowa! Focus on the back!” Philia called as she weaved around her Guardians while firing away. It was a disorienting sight to the Dead Eaters as they kept somehow running into the Guardian’s swords while at the same time never seeming to hit them. One managed to strike in the right direction, but the Guardian’s parrying dagger caught and redirected the warrior’s razor-club, allowing her to sink her broadsword’s blade into his gut before kicking him away. Another Guardian parried with her sword, throwing the warrior off-balance before summoning a Janus blade to decapitate him.

“Gold Team! Send two clones at the back!” She continued. Skating backwards and firing from her shotgun a few FRAG-12 rounds into the crowd. The enhancement lens of her gun gave it the destructive force of a grenade. With her other arm she fired a few, spaced rounds from her FAL’s main barrel, punching huge holes through a concentration of warriors trying to (unsuccessfully) overwhelm Ingrid before turning to the opposite direction to shoot a burst of BB’s into a group of warriors running at her (albeit in a skewed angle due to her obfuscation spell.)

The gold mice’s clones were faring much better than she thought. She saw one quickly scamper up one’s back and bury a knife in the neanderthal’s neck before jumping away.

The clones were mostly aiming for the legs rather than trying to hit the torso or head. They utilized hit-and-run tactics, running off the side before darting in, delaying the approach of the warriors deciding to abandon the fight with Ingrid.

 

Cuddly on the other hand provided direct assistance to Philia by using his Fae Harrier spell. A swarm of small winged balls of light that struck with bone-breaking force. They quickly flew around her Guardians, each harrier turning into a streak of light as it struck its target with vicious force before quickly flying away to regain momentum and pick another target. As a result, the Guardians became an extremely annoying target that inflamed the Dead Eaters more as they tried to kill these sword-and-dagger wielding Philias that seemed to always teleport just a few feet away every time and were now protected by these utterly obnoxious sprites.

 

“You sure I shouldn’t go full-auto, Starchaser?” Cecil said as he continued to shoot in disciplined single shots.

“Yes!” Ingrid replied on the radio. “Gotta make it look like they got a chance with me or they’ll send too many at the back. If it makes you feel better, focus on those trying to head towards Philia and the rest. Besides, there’s already a bunch of idiots heading towards our asses.”

“Alrighty, then I’ll do just that.” Cecil said. “Kiowa! You guys are on rear defense! Light them up!”

 

Sammy raised her halberd, pointing at the incoming horde.

“Open fire!” She yelled. Kiowa, Charles, and Oscar let loose with bullets this time to quickly cut down their numbers. Charles and Oscar stood on either side, flanked by two of their portal-riding Calicos. They were joined by Lionel and Darryl of the gold team. 

“Heh.” Kinu and Kvaris snickered in unison as they continued to throw axes. Johnny would the Dead Eaters clump up near the fruits then detonate them, showering the hunters with a potent acid.

“Stay in the center, warriors!” Sammy said as she charged the center lane which wasn’t being shot at.

 

Siria, still channeling power into her spell, pulled the wand from her back and pointed at the ceiling of the corridor where the second wave was coming from.

“Tempest Assault!” A black cloud formed above. And lightning began striking on regular intervals, hammering the Dead Eaters from above and forcing them to push against each other, causing some of them to fall over and get trampled in the chaos.

 

Sammy was a whirlwind of blades as she rapidly but precisely swung her Silent Storm halberd/greatsword, switching to the other whenever she found one’s nuances superior to the other in that given moment. As always, after every successful strike, the Guardian Swords would materialize and follow up her attacks with their own, with Sammy making sure they struck from unexpected angles such as coming up from below after she performed a downward slash. Her Janus Blade came up either to parry an oncoming attack or strike an opponent that got too close. 

After her first few swings, she brought up her Cataclysm Hammer and smashed the ground, creating a series of beams of lights that struck the ground with equal force, cleaving through a line of enemies in front of her.

“Tempest Lancer!” Sammy roared, summoning forth an enchanted jousting lance as she charged into the fray and literally drilling through the enemy lines as her lance glowed and was wrapped in a huge swirling ribbon of wind and light, becoming a massive drill as she continued to charge and all the way to the back of their ranks a hundred feet away in a swath ten feet wide. 

As she broke through their rear lines, Sammy closed in at the surprised warriors and slashed away with her Bloodreaver scimitar. The orc warrior felt time slow further and further around her as she drew blood from one target to the next as the enchantment boosted her speed and reflexes, allowing her to cut down so many opponents well before they could notice what was happening. 

Sammy continued to push forward into the enemy ranks, performing one lethal, flowing drawcut after another. Time then slowly began to wind back to normal speed as Bloodreaver’s enchantment began to fade, but before any of the Dead Eaters could overwhelm her, Sammy’s Valiant God Knife, which she had embedded on the ground back with the group, summoned her back to where the Enthanas were fighting.

 

In the tightly packed formations of Dead Eaters trying to push through, Kinu and Kvaris’ enchanted corsecas were working wonders. The longer blades combined with the soulstone installment that fired off a spike of energy five feet long punched through so many opponents in a single thrust, and the main target being finished off as the Companion Rogue Shillelagh’s hammer reducing their heads to a bloody pulp. Mixed with their spear thrusts were devastating overhead chops from their Meteor Axes, sometimes they would angle their strikes so that the ensuing diagonal slash would make the heavy, “rocket boosted” pole axes cut through three to five at a time. 

At the same time, Lionel and Darryl’s golden clones rushed low along the ground, squeaking loudly to announce their presence, they aimed for the legs and feet, aiming to disrupt rather than kill and ensure that Kinu and Kvaris were uninterrupted in their barrage of attacks. 

The sisters continued to push through rather than just let the Dead Eaters close in. They charged with their Tempest Lances, though not activating the wind drill like Sammy did, just using it as a ranged gap closer. These lances punched through their target and probably more behind them before unsummoning that weapon and switching to their favorite threshing flails.

Meanwhile, as the sisters charged, the golden clones focused on throwing their glaives, occasionally jumping up, easily clearing fifteen feet and throwing their razor-sharp pole arms into the crowd below.

Sammy had teleported by the time the girls were wailing away with their flails, the immense speed and power these wightstone-enhanced weapons made impossible to block or dodge and soon they had quickly accumulated enough mana from their enemies to release a small whirlwind of energy that tore through the crowds.

The release of the twin tornadoes prompted the sisters to jump back and throw their multiplying axes, not wanting to claw too deep among the enemy ranks. Johnny was behind them, gleefully wriggling as his roots not only tripped up the mob but continued to spawn explosive fruits.

“Let’s go again!” Sammy roared gleefully. The Enthanas howled once more. The five of them; Sammy, Kinu, Kvaris, Lionel, and Darryl fought as one. Sammy led the group, hacking away as she pushed deeper into the thinning enemy lines. Kinu and Kvaris were at her side, using their corsecas and Meteor Axes to keep the Dead Eaters from flanking her while Lionel and Darryl provided point defense and assistance to the garm girls.

As this was happening, Iohann followed the Enthana sisters closely, smoke continuing to issue from her thurible and obscuring the view and irritating the lungs of the Dead Eaters while her team faced no such disadvantages. 

Her Nyx Fish, which she christened “Yogzolom” sprung from the summoning orb to assist in the attack as well as feed on his summoner’s enemies. The earthling’s who had been socialized with him shortly after the team sojourned in New Gorspial due to the “botched” Sarin Strike remarked that he was “an elongated Siamese Fighting Fish twice the size of an arapaima.” 

Despite his size Yogzolom moved fast, diving into the horde of enemies and bringing up mouthfuls of Dead Eaters to quickly munch on, smashing and breaking the bones of many in the process as he repeatedly divebombed through the mobs to catch another meal and send many more flying. 

Iohann herself on the other hand assisted with the Valkyrie Squad via her Raptor Greaves which summoned a simulacrum of herself (and somehow cosplaying as Ingrid in her Drow Solenrala) performing various kicking techniques. While Iohann’s kicking strength even at her utmost, self-bone-breaking output hardly made any lethal blows, it battered shields, interrupted attacks and opened up enemies for the Enthanas to easily dispatch. 

 

The horde at the left and right lanes were being shredded by Kiowa’s submachine guns and the 189’s full-sized caliber rounds. By the time Sammy had used her Tempest lance to drill through, the Kiowa team switched back to pellet guns as the density had dramatically dropped due to a combination of their piercing shots and Johnny’s fruits exploding all over the place. 

Charles, Oscar, Lionel and Darryl also switched back to pellets, occasionally firing off a couple of bullets when they see the Dead Eaters clumping up. 

Charles squeaked, raising a paw to signal the rearguard team to start pressing forward. Soon, the Dead Eaters were starting to break and run, only to be picked off by the mice continued to shoot them at the back. 

 

Back at the front, Philia dealt with her last opponent; parrying his spear with her shotgun’s bayonet then delivering a stab to the throat with her FAL’s blade. Ingrid smiled as she saw Philia fight.

“That’s… just like the Star Lotus I remember.” she said fondly.

One Dead Eater managed to get up and swing his razor club at a seemingly unaware Ingrid, her aura violently redirected and amplified the force, causing an explosion of bone and wood splinters to hit him like a shotgun at full blast. Still he defiantly got up, but Arthur’s bullet put him out for good.

 

“Anyone hurt?” Ingrid called out.

“Nope.” Sammy said, glancing at the Enthana girls and the golden clones.

“Johnny’s hungry though…” Kvaris noted, watching the pumpkin waddle over some of the carcasses.

“A pretty good warmup.” Siria chirped excitedly.

“Same!” The Enthana sisters chorused. 

“Alright, dispatching and itemboxing time!” Ingrid said.

The Iroquois mice disembarked and got to work helping with the dispatching of the still-alive Dead Eaters, taking their submachineguns with them. The mice finished them off with their glaives, then hooking them with the spur at the back of the glaive and dragging them to a small pile for Viel to pick up, Sammy did the same with her halberd, the Enthanas with their corsecas, Iohann had Yogzolom bite off their heads, Philia used her bayonets, Siria conjured and energy blade at the end of her staff, while Ingrid delivered a quick blur of a kick to the head.

 

“What just…happened?” Gwen was breathless. She knew what the party members were capable but it was just so surreal that they came out victorious.

“Relax, Outlaw.” Zefir replied. “This isn’t even half of what a Starchaser could do.”

“Amarok and Anubis have been trained well by their father, their results in the physical duel test have been the same as Starchasers’. Sure they don’t have their blistering speed and strength but when it comes to raw talent they’ve pushed Zardos to unleash more of his skills… these girls know how to fight. Night-Rider’s been her clan’s banner which also gives her a lot of experience in combat. Now add in their newfound weapons and magic items then… if it were up to me then I would put them in upper Bronze Rank already as fighters.”

“Don’t forget our mice.” Viel said as she picked up another pile of fallen Dead Eaters. “Their guns and numbers helped end this fight pretty quickly and keep their numbers manageable… thought I’m confident that Night-Rider could have handled the whole rear attack all by herself. Only if she didn’t need to protect anyone though.”

“True.” Sammy said “but that doesn’t mean I should. I’ll work as a team.”

“Still…” Ingrid said, as she got started with dispatching the still-moving Dead Eaters. “What’s a whole army of warriors trying to do getting themselves killed here? They can’t be stupid, they were well organized…it’s like they’re on a suicide mission or something.”

“There was a theory…” Viel said as she got to work using her telekinesis to haul in the corpses over to a neat pile, her spell only worked on non-living things which quickly exposed those who were still alive, although barely. “...that the Dead Eaters see this world as a place to gain glory or to absolve themselves of a crime… some even think these were the vanquished of some war in their world.”

“Not that we’ll know.” Philia said as she dispatched the next survivor with a quick stab to the heart. “But what we do know is what they do to the adventurers they catch. Makes my vlog back at Autumnhollow look like a picnic.”

“Dammit…” Ingrid muttered as she peered at the left-side corridor in the intersection. “We got some dead adventurers here.” she returned to the group carrying trussed up bodies of adventurers. “Quite a number of them, looks like they’ve been keeping busy.”

Siria looked up at Ingrid with concern.

Ingrid shook her head “I won’t, don’t worry, I’d be doing them a great disservice if I did… what I’m thinking now is three options… we can either return to the surface now so we can have these adventurers laid to rest by the priests… we could track down if there’s a nest of these Dead Eaters so we can eliminate them… or we continue with our original itinerary, what do you girls think?”

 

After some silence, Zefir spoke up. “We should uproot the Dead Eaters’ lair. They could send another division at us if they got more. Some of them did get away.”

Philia chimed in “Machiavelli speaking here, but if there is a lair of them here, then we can claim whatever spoils they have. Goody two-shoes side of me says that we can’t afford to have a group of hunters stalking us, especially not if we run into something too strong later.”

“We root them out.” Kvaris said. “Kinu and I can lead the way.”

The surviving Whipcrawlers stumbled over to Selphie. Their vines stopped whipping around and went limp. The parasitized Dead Eaters collapsed in front of her, sprouting sunflower-like blossoms that quickly siphoned the mana off of their hosts to hastily mature and dispense more seeds, recouping her spent ammunition. Meanwhile the vines all grew small burls matching the size of her wooden beads before falling off.

“Neat.” Kinu remarked as Selphie grabbed a broom from the spider bot’s compartments and began gathering up the seeds and burls.

Cecil kept an eye on the group, his gun trained ahead, looking out for any interlopers or scavengers. Fortunately there were none.

 

“Neith, locate the nearest Redoubt.” Ingrid said. “We need a breather once we’re done here.”

---

INDEX: The Whales Party Sheet