Flower's Tower

Being safe, away from the eyes of the winged knights, the leader of the rebels led us to a rather narrow path through two buildings. The infrastructure there was so precarious that it seemed like the buildings could fall any moment, but they remained still... When we arrived at the right door in this narrow path, he knocked on it... In a strange way, it was probably the rebellion's code.

"Well, look who's back... Why the rose lost its color?", a woman asked, opening the door while examining me up and down, as if doubting something.

"Because the evil was cut on its thorns... And don't worry, they are just friends we rescued them at the prison", the leader said, already heading inside while smiling slightly and gesturing for us to follow him, and so we did.

"I hate how easily you accept people into our rebellion... We never know when it's actually a spy..."

"Don't worry, I have a good feeling about her... Besides, you know that the Roseblood doesn't recruit women, calling it a 'desperate action of losers'. She wants a ride back to her continent"

"Tsk, you know that we haven't been able to get out of the Roseblood's water ever since they erected that stupid tower, you can't fake promise her that we will take her there", the woman opined and the leader scratched the back of his neck... Was he really the leader of the rebellion?

"I know, I know... But maybe, with her, we might just have a chance to take down this tower..."

"Don't be mad... You think you can recruit anyone in prison and believe that she's going to be able to take down wizards easily?"

"Well... Why don't we ask her first, she might have experience fighting", the leader said and suddenly, the eyes of the two, as well as the eyes of the other rebels in the room, all fell on me.

"Umm... What exactly should I tell you?", I asked, tilting my head to the side a little and the woman gave a long annoyed sigh.

"Come on, just start with your name..."

"Right, I am Dagger Everblade... From the-"

"Dagger Everblade?!", one of the rebels suddenly gasped in surprise, almost choking on whatever he was eating. "Dagger from Coventry?"

"Y-Yeah...", I said... It suddenly felt like it was the wrong move to reveal my identity. But to my surprise, everyone there seemed to have gotten extremely glad that I am who I said I am.

"If you're who you claim, then it's an honor to meet the legend in person...", the woman suddenly said, getting a bit less skeptical of me, but still doubting, apparently. "Well, I disapprove of your rape attempt, but this still doesn't change the fact you have inspired this rebellion..."

"I have?"

"Of course. We started recruiting women because we saw the work you did on your continent... Jumping on fire to save people, freeing two societies from the dragon's rage, facing criminals. God, was I happy when I heard the criminals were obliterated on the seas by Waterkill forces, supported by you", the leader said, suddenly grabbing my hand and shaking it up and down. "It really is an honor..."

"Alright, alright... I did it all with friends, though...", I said, trying to be modest but unable to contain my smile. "But look, I still have more work to do at my continent..."

"I know, thinking on giving the final punch on the criminals, right? Attacking them right in their core", one of the rebels guessed... And, he wasn't so off. After all, I am going to the criminal's fortress after I get back.

"Yeah, kind of... Still, it's urgent, Can't we find a way to take down this tower you spoke of?"

"Umm... I doubt... Well, do you even know what's this tower?", the leader asked me, with a hand on his chin.

"We definitely don't...", Jeffrey spoke and with a long sigh, the woman brought a map from somewhere... I wonder where... And spread it over the table. It seemed like a map of the city, it was all built around a bay, with a small inlet of water being the place where ships must go through to get in and out.

"The tower is here, in the middle of the inlet. You can say the tower is like a giant magic staff, with a crystal on the top, and the wizards who control it is all inside. If they coordinate their attacks right, they can create huge waves, freeze the whole bay... That's why we haven't been able to send ships outside lately..."

"Huh... So, we need to either destroy the staff or kill the wizards, right?"

"Yes, essentially... But I think it would be best to do both if we really are going to attempt it", one of the rebels suggested, approaching and placing a hand over the leader's and the woman's shoulder.

"Both? What do you have in mind?", the leader asked, confused a little.

"Look... If we kill all the wizards, they will just recruit more... But if we take down the crystal, they will have a hard time finding another as giant as this one. We should take down all the wizards so we can bring some heavy weapons..."

"I think I don't really follow you... We don't have any heavy weaponry to take down towers", the woman said, and the rebel just sighed a little, annoyed.

"Well, this isn't a mission just to take down the tower, right? We want to get Dagger out of here, as well as contact weapons sources that we have outside this continent... So we will need to steal a ship too..."

"That's a fact...", the leader spoke, thinking about the plan and guessing in his mind what the rebel was going to come with.

"So, here's the plan... We send Dagger disguised to the tower... She pretends to be one of the daily inspection soldiers of the tower. She will start her attacks here, killing the wizards..."

"What about the winged knights?", I asked, worried about them seeing what I was doing at the tower, but he shook his head."

"That's where we come into play... We gather all our forces and steal warships from the Roseblood, possibly the fastest ones with gunpowder cannons. Our attacks need to start before yours, this way the winged knights will be too distracted with us to realize what's happening at the tower. Then, we can approach the tower safely and take it down with cannonballs at the same time we get Dagger aboard"

"I see... If we do gather all our forces, we can certainly fight the winged knights, but if we lose our warship... Damn, it will all be gone in one shot", the woman said, apparently seeing the pros and cons of such a risky plan.

"Well... I am taking whichever chance I have to get back at my continent... But if I am going to do this, I will have my friends at my side... It's suicide to go alone... face wizards..."

"I suppose... Actually, just sending you three still sounds risky... But if we send a small force, we might not have enough remaining forces to capture a ship... Can you really take this risk for us?"

"I have just said, haven't I? I am taking whichever chance we have... What about Jeffrey and Beech?"

"Yeah... I think we don't have much of a choice if we want to get out of here anyway... So, count me in..."

"Alright then... I will send the message to the other hideouts... Tomorrow at midday, we start our plan", the leader said and walked out of the building. I started to get a bit nervous, this sounded like a major battle, that will probably be even more difficult than taking down the criminal's ships... But there's no backing down, I need to get back the fastest I can...