Stage II, Chapter XXV: Reinforcements Have Arrived!

"Hurry the fuck up if you don't want to be Karman food! I know I don't want to be!" Fawkes, the Sergeant, was the one leading the retreat. Everybody was putting their backs into getting to safety.

The thought of Aurelia being an enemy did cross their minds briefly, but what choice did they have, anyway? It was better to follow the elf, which at least they knew was someone that lived in Krodoa, rather than get taken by the Karman and sucked off their mana.

And even if they were injured, they were confident that they could most likely beat the elf in a battle. Unless she was an apostle of a god. Nah, of course not.

Lasers grazed one soldier's cheek, once again reminding them how dire the situation was, giving them more motivation to put their strength into their legs and run.

Meanwhile Aurelia was rapidly firing arrows, each one successfully taking a Karman's life. Her marksmanship skilled could be compared to that of a professional.

Everytime she drew her bowstring, a swift arrow of death would penetrate the heads of a Karman. But this, of course, would not last forever.

Everybody runs out of ammo eventually. This also applied to Aurelia. Her constant fire rate soon began to slow down, as each shot was only fired sparingly.

"I'm running out of ammo! Hurry up!" Aurelia shouted to the soldiers, who ran even faster. Most of them were already taking life threatening fire, yet now the situation was taking a turn for the worst.

"We have a plan! Cover us for a bit!" The red haired one leading the group shouted back. Hearing this, Aurelia prepared multiple seeds in her hands.

These seeds were considerably larger than all of the ones from before. And that was because the plants they would grow to be would be, of course, larger as well.

Lining up her hand, Aurelia threw the seeds around the runners, before chanting,

"Forest Emergence!" And all the seeds began to crack, almost like eggs that were about to hatch. With the casting of Aurelia's spell, the seeds grew even larger, until the area was surrounded by trees, effectively creating a forest in the area.

"Great spell, elf! Now it's our turn! Vaporize!" The red haired took his place in the middle of a circle, surrounded by three magicians. The three began to form water spells in their hands.

The red haired one, on the other hand, was conjuring a massive fireball on the pit of his hand. Then, at the same time, the three magicians fired their water spells towards the air.

Next, the red haired threw the fireball towards the converging water spells. The heat from it almost made it seems like it would burn the whole place down.

Except, once the fireball touched the water spells, steam was instantly released, creating a mist that engulfed the whole forest in fog.

The whole forest was now shrouded in a thick mist; this was bad. Bad for both the Karman and the runners.

Their sense of sight was now rendered useless, as they all soon fumbled through the forest, taking care to stay as close to each other as possible.

"Don't worry! I'll send in one of my animals. You all should follow it, it'll lead you outside the forest!" Aurelia's voice echoed throughout the woods.

"Animals? Wait what?" One soldier questions.

"She's an elf, doofus. Probably in harmony with nature and all that." One answers.

"Stop bickering and get with finding that animal. Can't stay in here forever." (Fawkes)

They wandered through the dark forest, with some of them ever so often bumping into one of the many trees.

None of them had sensory enhancing magic, with the exemption of the few who possessed better than average hearing. These allowed them to navigate the area.

As they moved throughout the area, they were all extra careful about making as little noise as possible.

The slightest shriek or yelp had instantly alerted the Karman outside, prompting them to take cover behind multiple sturdy trees.

This, though, escalated the situation to an even worse one. During the process of scrambling to get to the nearest tree, almost everyone had let go of each others hands.

Thus most of them were now unable to find each other.

"I don't know if any of you guys can hear me, but listen." Fawkes spoke up in a very quite voice, taking care to not raise his volume. "Don't panic, and slowly follow my voice. The animal is on my side, and its a mouse. Keep your ears peeled for the occasional squeak."

No one responded, but fortunately for Fawkes, everybody heard him loud and clear.

For the first few minutes, no one dared to move an inch. Not a single muscle moved. Only the faint sound of breathing was the soldiers' only sound, if one didn't count the seemingly eerie noise echoing throughout the area.

Then it came, the first squeak. Slowly, they took one step. Then, they took another. One soldier almost messed it all up and stepped on a branch, causing her to yelp. Thankfully her mouth was covered by one soldier who acted quickly.

After a brief pause, another squeak echoed, this one sounding a bit closer. This indicated that they were indeed getting closer to the mouse.

After minutes of cautious movement, they could finally see the clearing! They excitedly exited the dense hell they were isolated in.

Outside was Aurelia, standing beside Fawkes, who seemed to have gotten their earlier. They were both conversing, with Fawkes donning an expression that screamed, "damn it!"

"Oh, you're all out. Good job. Take a rest, reinforcements should be getting here soon." (Fawkes)

Cries of "finally!", and "thank god!" followed up with some hopeful sighs only added to the now cheery tone in the group. They had survived a pit of death where one wrong move could've gotten them all killed.

"Testing, testing... one, two, three. You can hear me, right Aurelia?" Kenneth's voice appeared suddenly.

"Huh? Oh, yes! What seems to be the problem, my lord?" (Aurelia)

"Nothing. Just wanted to notify you that we'll be there soon." (Kenneth)

"Soon?" Aurelia asked, confused.

"Oh, no need to worry. You'll see soon. Till then!" Kenneth's voice trailed off, the Database Link cut off.

"My lord should be arriving soon." Aurelia tells the group.

"Who is this "lord" of yours anyway?" Fawkes asks, curious.

"He's my little brother." A bomb was dropped with that sentence. "Oh, don't worry. We're not related by blood. And even if he is young, I can assure you he is a better tactician than me and my other siblings." (Aurelia)

"Wait, so your brother is a human?" One soldier asks.

"Yes. I have four other siblings." (Aurelia)

************

"Get the fuck back!" Fawkes screams as he pushes away two of the soldiers, narrowly dodging the laser beam that was fired over his head, leaving two holes in front of them and behind, showing the destructive power of the weapon.

"That was almost three hundred meters away! Motherfuckers." Fawkes sighed.

"It seems like they have located us. Can you fight, err..." Aurelia asked Fawkes.

"Fawkes, miss. Sergeant Fawkes. And fuck yeah, I can still fight. Ay, what about you guys?" He asked his subordinates.

"Yeah!" "Of course!" "We'll follow you!" They all cheered.

"Heh, alright then. Let's get this show on the road!" Fawkes' long hair began to glow a reddish color.

**********

"Two on your right, Sergeant Fawkes. One is prepping up to launch an artillery shot!" Aurelia shouted.

The returners, along with Aurelia, were deep in battle with the hordes of Karman. They were given no moment to rest, as the endless gunshots and explosions fired at them did not allow anyone to rest for a single second.

At the moment, their main plan was just to hold on until reinforcments had arrived. To compromise on their low mana reserves, they would switch with each other the moment their Mana Core was growing empty.

Yet this was not as effective as it should've been. With their refined and trained Mana Cores, they could have easily restored their reserves back to full, given a few minutes or so.

Yet the air had already mixed in with the smoke, replacing the mana particles and taking its place.

Now mana regeneration was time consuming. Aurelia's Leaf Blowers had already done their jobs, clearing out the nearby areas of smoke, yet the constant incendiary rounds were fired nearby, rendering the clean areas useless again, as the smoke would once again gather.

"I fucking hate this. Fire Blast!" Fawkes chanted, firing a spell at the cannon.

The Fire Blast traveled far and wide, yet it was stopped by blue plasma-like shields that were propped up all around them. This effortlessly blocked the flame, leaving the Karman and weapons unscathed.

Some of the returners had already positioned themselves on strategic positions in the nearby buildings, firing long range spells that would occasionally take down a careless Karman.

Yet this could not be continued for long. Aurelia, knowing this, had given her all in saving as much mana as possible. From the Forest Emergence earlier, she had already lost a considerable amount of mana.

The forest was of course, still standing, as the more melee-focused returners would pick apart the impatient Karman who would lurk the woods.

The fog from earlier had disappeared though, but the dense trees had done more than enough to conceal the ones hiding within.

Minutes passed, and the enemies were showing no sign of retreating. At this point, Aurelia and the others began to question their reason for staying here for so long.

Indeed, what was the point? If one were to look from the outside as a bystander, they'd just see thousands of Karman effortlessly beaming down the area as they hurried to defeat the ones who had taken refuge in the nearby buildings.

Zoom! The sound of another laser beam colliding with the concrete walls of the building had already been implanted into their brains.

"Shit, this isn't working at all!" Fawkes retreated, after firing a few more spells and realizing none of them had affected the Karman at the very least.

"What else can we do..." Aurelia pondered. Her tone sounded hurried, as she panicked and panicked.

"Hey, no need to rack your brains for the answer. That's why I'm here, am I not?" Aurelia turned to the side to see a portal that had appeared, revealing the figure of Catalyn, carrying her lord.