6 Chapter 6: Return To Sender
Chapter 6: Return To Sender
"Dr. Halloway, get back inside the Albatross and close the door behind you," Sam said in a tone that didn't allow for refusal.
Regina tore her eyes away from the direction Shirogane and Ariana had left, looking over to see Sam staring into the treeline 50 meters away. Understanding that asking any questions about the situation out here wasn't in her best interests, Regina quickly made her way into the Albatross, shutting the door behind her.
Rushing to her tablet, Regina connected to the live feed from the cameras in Sam's helmet and his internal speakers to see what he was seeing while being able to communicate with him.
"Report," She asked.
"I detected someone looking in our direction. Motion sensors aren't picking up anything; however, I'm certain contacts are approaching. Orders?"
Regina thought in silence. She started to analyse all that she knew at the moment, piecing together different scenario's in her mind. Realising she didn't have enough information to make proper judgements, she finally spoke.
"Assess the situation as it unfolds. Weapons free; however, choose your targets selectively; we don't need to compromise our location further. Level of lethality is left to your discretion."
"Understood."
"Sigh… so much for no one finding us…" Regina mumbled to herself.
Understanding that they'd been discovered, a group of individuals wearing black cloaks and white masks revealed themselves after coming out of their invisibility spells. They spread out in a curved formation, facing down Sam and pulling out what appeared to be swords and daggers from beneath their cloaks.
With his keen eyesight provided to him after his augmentations, including the improvements the mana of this world had done, Sam could easily notice a substance coating the masked peoples weapons.
Pulling up a schematic on his visor, Sam decided to follow a 'less than lethal' route to capture and interrogate the assailants, causing what appeared to be a blunt one-edged blade to be made from his nanobot storage units. Despite it being blunt, however, the blade suddenly lit up and hummed with a neon blue hue along its edge, with electricity sparking off of it.
Both Sam and the assailants stood still, observing each other, waiting to see who would make the first move.
Sam's point of view suddenly slowed down to a crawl, allowing him to notice the tensing of each of the assailants' muscles even under their cloaks, betraying their attempt to make their move. Without giving them the chance, Sam's boosters fired as he pushed off the ground with all his strength, appearing in front of one of the masked individuals in the blink of an eye.
With his enhanced perception, Sam was able to see the pupils of his target constrict to pinholes, watching as he brought down his weapon in a diagonally downward slash, aiming directly for the target's neck.
To give credit, where it was due, his target actually managed to bring up his sword in an attempt to block Sam's strike. However, Sam managed to adjust his angle in the last second, allowing his weapon to slip past his targets guard and strike him at his collar.
With a loud thwacking sound, followed by a controlled burst of blue electricity, the masked assailant's collarbone was shattered on impact, sending him flying backwards as a result of the force behind Sam's attack, hitting the ground 20 meters away, rolling and tumbling before finally coming to a stop 5 meters further than his impact point.
The rest of the assailants were shocked at the speed at which Sam moved, as well as how quickly he took out their leader. Sam looked back at them, seeing their shocked states and promptly moved on to his next target without halting for even a second…
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(45 minutes earlier, back at the castle)
King Amarant was still seated on his Throne, watching the banquet proceedings while occasionally sneaking glances at his Wife listening in on Duke Westin's conversation with the delegates from the Alliant Theocracy. However, he suddenly received a ping within his mind, denoting that an agent within his Espion corp was trying to contact him. Allowing the communication to come through, Amarant ordered telepathically,
"Report."
"Your Majesty, Princess Ariana appears to be leaving the castle grounds alongside her dragon. A strange object fell from the sky, and it seems that the princess followed after it."
"What?! Preposterous! She's right here next to me."
Amarant looked over to see Ariana still seated next to him, doing her best to act like a perfect princess.
"Apologies, Your Majesty, but I swear that we're watching them fly away right now." The Agent replied hesitantly.
Amarant still had the telepathic connection open with Eleanora; thus, he quickly relayed what he'd heard from the Agent, to her.
Eleanora looked over in confusion, but soon realisation flashed before her eyes as they changed to glow with a blue hue.
"Sigh, I'm so stupid…" She sighed in frustration, realising that Ariana had copied her [Iro Iyipada] after seeing her perform it. It completely eluded her mind that Ariana had access to her bloodline abilities and would be able to see her, even if she hadn't designated her as someone who could.
"They're right; she's not here," Eleanora replied to Amarant telepathically.
With a sigh, Amarant connected with the Agent again.
"Send the usual squad to watch over her and give me a report about the fallen object." Due to the mischief Ariana would get into, Amarant had a specific squad of Espion agents watch over her whenever she went on her little adventures. They carried with them a set of magical items that made them more challenging to be discovered by Shirogane's senses, allowing Ariana to have her sense of freedom, all while being protected from the shadows.
"By your orders, Your Majesty."
20 minutes later, Amarant received another ping.
"Report."
"Your Majesty, we've located the Princess; however, there is no sign of the object… Correction, it appears as though the princess has discovered something. Apparently, the object is invisible, and there are individuals within."
"Are they hostile?" Amarant replied.
"Unknown at the moment, however, what appears to be a Dwarven automaton has exited the object and is approaching the princess. Moving to defend."
"Hold your position, Agent. Observe first. Just relay the events as they happen." Amarant ordered.
"Yes, Your Majesty."
The events played out with Ariana attempting to communicate with Sam, the misunderstanding between Shirogane and Sam due to Ariana's dizziness, which also nearly prompted the Agents to move forward, and Ariana entering the Albatross, disappearing from view of the agents.
"The Princess has entered the object, Your Majesty. Its cloaking spell is preventing us from keeping an eye on her. Should we move to engage?"
"Shirogane is with her, correct?"
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"Hold your position."
"Understood."
30 minutes later, Ariana exited the Albatross alongside Shirogane, Sam and Dr. Halloway, mounting Shirogane and flying off home.
"Your Majesty, we have confirmation of the Princess's departure, as well as confirmation on the individual within the object. She appears to be a woman, and the automaton is with her."
"Understood, move to capture the woman. I want to speak with her. You have permission to use the disruptor to shut down the automaton."
"By your order, Your Majesty."
The agents removed what appeared to be a metal device with a dial on it. They pointed their respective instruments at what they believed was an automaton and turned the dials. Waves of mana were released from the devices, which also slightly disrupted their cloaking, allowing some of their intent to alert Samuel.
Seeing the automaton turn to look at them, the agents frowned in confusion as it should have been deactivated almost immediately. They watched as it alerted the woman to enter the object before informing Amarant of the situation.
"Your Majesty, the disruptors failed to shut down the automaton. What are your orders?"
Amarant frowned slightly when he heard this. The disruptors had a 99% success rate during both the testing phase and field operations. Having all their disruptors fail was unsettling.
"Move to capture the woman. You have permission to use the [Oloro Apanirun] on your weapons. Destroy the automaton." [Oloro Apanirun] was a type of corrosive solvent the Kingdom's alchemists had created to destroy Dwarven Automatons. It had no effect on their weapons, but the unique metal that made the Automatons function would melt like butter when coming into contact with it.
"Understood, Your Majesty."
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(Present)
With their leader being knocked down, presumably dead, the other agents rushed forward to attack. However, when they looked back, the automaton had vanished. Before they could form up together, they heard another thwacking sound followed by another blast of electricity as another of their teammates dropped to the ground.
Looking to where he fell, they saw a slight shimmering of the air in that location, much like a heat mirage would appear. Understanding that the automaton was cloaked, the agents removed what looked like a pouch of powder and spread the powder in the air. This was a special anti-magic powder meant to reveal invisible enemies in the surroundings. However, it appeared to have no effect on the automatons cloak.
Sam watched as the powder fell around him, wondering what effect it would have. Seeing none, he rushed forward to attack once again. Due to the powder in the air, though it didn't serve its intended purpose, the agents could still observe the airflow and disruptions Sam's movements would make when passing through an area.
Because of this, an Agent managed to raise her weapon in time to block Sam's strike. The force still brought her to her knees, but she further reinforced her body with mana to try and push back. Seeing what he had correctly guessed as a woman blocking his blow and slowly managing to resist, Sam reacted quickly despite being slightly surprised.
A new schematic appeared, and his nanobots got to work, quickly completing their job and attaching themselves to his boot, just as Sam's left foot impacted with the woman's sternum. With a blast of electricity following soon after, the woman was thrown back, much like her leader.
Realising that he no longer needed his cloaking unit, Sam tapped his storage unit, causing the attachment on his boot as well as his cloaking unit to disassemble as he simultaneously moved to his next target, then the next, then the next. By the time 20 seconds had elapsed since the first engagement, all but one agent of the 18 man group remained standing.
Stopping around 20 meters away from the final agent, Sam stared her down as she looked left and right at her fallen comrades around her.
Seeing the automaton stop and stare at her, the agent took the opportunity to relay what was happening to the King quickly.
"Your Majesty, my squad is down; the automaton is unlike anything we've ever seen before. I don't think I can last much longer."
"Agent! Hold out as long as you can! I'll send reinforcements your way!"
"Negative, Your Majesty. I recommend further observation. Also, while this may be out of line, I believe having Princess Ariana here during the next confrontation a wise decision… she seems to be on friendly terms with the woman. Either way, it has been an honour, sir."
"Sigh... The Arcadian Kingdom is forever grateful for your service, Agent."
As the agent heard the Kings words, she smiled while channelling her mana into a spell she had been secretly preparing. The spell [Rogodo Ina] was an advanced version of a fireball spell, able to shoot faster and deliver a more significant explosive effect than a typical fireball. Though her fellow agents would be able to survive a direct hit, and she understood that the automaton would likely survive it, she had nearly run out of mana due to constantly reinforcing her body and eyes to keep up with it. This was her last desperate attempt before the automaton killed her off like it did her squad, or so she believed.
With a massive fireball spontaneously appearing before her, she quickly released it in the direction of the automaton.
Sam watched as the last assailant shot a massive ball of fire in his direction. He could have easily dodged it. However, he wanted to verify a suspicion he had.
Watching as it inched closer to him through his enhanced perception, Sam brought up a schematic that caused his nanobots to quickly construct a device on the outside on his left forearm.
With the device being completed around a second before impact, Sam quickly raised his left arm, causing the device to open and release a blue pulse of energy. As the energy came in contact with the ball of flames, something occurred that shocked the agent to her core.
The blue pulse managed to redirect her spell back at her. As she had just spent all of her mana, she didn't have the strength to dodge, resulting in her own spell slamming into her chest and detonating. The blast knocked her unconscious as she fell to the floor, much like the rest of her squad.
Sam observed the effects his device produced before curtly nodding his head.
"It seems the repulsor works on these Spells as well. It's nice to know that I can still 'return to sender'. Sam quipped.
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