Rism was surprised when a group of lawless heretics suddenly appeared inside the hangar. He was more amazed at their steam guns that could shoot faster and further than anything he knew existed in the Old World. Within seconds of the ambush, almost half his party was down in their own pool of blood.

His Protectors stepped in and activated their magic shields, which flickered madly under the insane rate of fire of the heretics' weapons. He frowned as he stepped behind a large stack of crates thinking hard about the abilities of these heretics. He knew he had underestimated them greatly but he still could not understand why this particular group was so powerful.

"Why did they have not taken control of the entire New World if they had such weapons?" Rism stood there wondering without a care of what was happening around him. "How peculiar..."

"Lord Inquisitor General!" One of his aides called out, breaking Rism from his thoughts. "The- They disabled the engines of the Lord's Blessing!"

"We... we can't escape any more!" The aide whimpered in fear. Rism threw a glance of disdain at the group of cowering aides and he drew his steam blade out and without hesitation, he cut down the group of surprised aides around him. "W- why...?"

"Cowards!" Rism hissed with disdain. "You should give your lives for the Judgement! Yet all of you cower like sinners! Now be Judged by Him!"

"Go around and attack them from the side," He snapped an order to his Protector. "I shall distract these... heretics!"

The Protector gave a curt bow and he slipped off behind the stack of crates, circling around the parked flyers. Rism took out a handkerchief and started to wipe off the blood on his steam blade. His steam blade was similar to the Protectors, except his weapon uses small disposable canisters powered by magic crystals to create steam, instead of hooking to a steam tank.

As he wiped his blade clean, a dozen heretics surrounded him, their strangely powerful steam guns pointing at him. Rism eyed the weapons held by these lawless with great interest. He watched as a one of the lawless yelled something and two others in their full black attire befitting of a heretical godless nation dropped their weapons down and switch to a smaller version.

Time slowed as Rism cast a Speed Up and Focus Up spell. He could see every single detail of the two lawless from their gloves to the black and yellow rectangular muzzle that was slowly rising up as everything seemed to move in slow motion. A puff of smoke erupted out from the tiny steam gun's muzzle and a black blurry dart spat out towards Rism as he stared directly at it.

He took a step to dodge the darts flying towards him and out of the corner of his eye, he saw the rest of the lawless were digging out something from their vests. The two darts buzzed past him and flew off somewhere. He next stepped away from the black canisters that the lawless tossed at him but the canisters suddenly erupted in a blinding flash and a loud crack that left his ears ringing loudly.

For a moment he was confused and blinded by the attacks and he felt his magic shield taking damage. Rism could only stumble blindly backwards while he cast a recovery spell that managed to helped cleared his blindness and ringing in his ears. As his eyesight recovered, he noted that his last Protector had engaged the lawless, drawing at least half their attention away from him.

He raised his steam blade and aimed at the closet lawless and squeezed the lever on his grip. Instantly a puff of compressed steam burst out and a small wooden stake shot out. Rism gripped the back of his blade and pumped the lever which rotated a four round cylinder and at the same time charging the internal steam tank.

Rushing forward and dodging the shots from the lawless, he closed the distance rapidly. He fired another shot off at the lawless who got knocked back and swung his blade two handedly down at the next lawless. The lawless brought his weapon horizontally up to block his blade and Rism gave a bloodthirsty grin behind his mask as he cast a spell just as his blade impacted the lawless's weapon. "Wind Slash!"

His blade glowed blue for a split moment and a sharp hiss of wind erupted out from his blade. The razor sharp slash of wind split the weapon in half and dumped its remaining power vertically down on the lawless whose mouth was opened in a surprised 'O'. "Judgement be upon you!"

-----

Hitsu cursed as he saw Wolf being flung off his feet from the impact of the shot from the masked elf. The masked elf's movements were very fast and the next thing, Hitsu knew, the masked elf was in front of him and chopping his blade down at him.

In reflex, Hitsu raised his rifle up to block the chop but to his shock, he saw the blade glowed for a moment and heard the cast of a spell from the masked elf. "Oh, fark..."

A gust of sharp wind sliced his assault rifle in half and slash continued on, slamming in his helmet and chest, sending Hitsu tumbling back. The force and sharpness of the wind spell split his ceramic helmet and chest trauma plate in half. Blood spurt out from his wounded face as Hitsu laid on his back gasping for air as the spell had also knocked the air out of his lungs.

"F- arker..." Hitsu half blinded from the blood on his face, gasped as he drew his pistol out and took aim at the masked elf that stood arrogantly before him. He snapped fired his pistol with shaking hands, missing most of his shots but managing to force the masked elf back as he dodged the attacks.

"Wolf! Hitsu!" Young and Altied advanced towards the masked elf, their weapons up and firing as they tried to take down the masked elf who nimbly avoided their shots with ease. Loke and Tavel rushed forward and they each grab Wolf and Hitsu by their harness and dragged them to cover.

"Slippery mother farker!" Altied cursed as he reloaded a fresh magazine and continued to fire at the dodging masked elf. "Bastard just won't stay still!"

"Box him in!" Tyrier ordered as he noted that Claymore Six had finished dealing with the last red Beetle Head. "Keep a safe distance and engage him from range! Deplete his shields!"

Young ran a quick check on Wolf, seeing a stubby bolt had embedded in his upper chest. He unfastened Wolf's armoured vest and found the bolt had been stopped by the mithril trauma plate and a big nasty bruise was on his upper chest. He pressed gently around the bruise and cast a healing spell before injecting painkillers into Wolf. "Looks like you have some broken ribs! Wait for the meds to kick in before you move! I going to check on Hitsu!"

Wolf grunted weakly in acknowledgement as he laid back on the floor, his breathing laboured. The blast from the enemy was surprisingly powerful. If it wasn't for the steel plate and strips of mithril inserts and tough spider silk, the wooden bolt would have punched through his chest.

Hitsu's injuries were not too serious either, most of the force of the spell had depleted itself against the mithril inserts within the trauma plating. The only serious injury was the cut on his face and collar that went to the bone. Young tossed a couple of healing spells that closed up his wounds, leaving behind a thin pale scar. "Now you look like a half breed!"

"Fark you..." Hitsu wheezed as he raised a middle finger at Young's teasing. "When I get my hands on that farking masked dude..."

"You stay down first and wait for the meds to work before you start moving!" Young hissed as he jabbed a syringe of painkillers in Hitsu's thigh. "Take it easy for now!"

"Grrr..." Hitsu growled as he sat up and wiped the blood off his face. "Mother farker!"

-----

Rism felt his shield draining as it flickered when the lawless's attacks hit it. A magic crystal slotted on his belt crumpled as the magic within was depleted. He took cover behind a stack of crates and dug into a pouch, removing a magic crystal and he inserted it into a groove in his belt. The complex runes on his belt of shielding glowed slightly as the mana from the magic crystal was absorbed into the spell formation.

Next, he twisted the gas canister off the pommel of his blade and replaced it with a new one before he flipped out the cylinder of his steam blade and started loading the empty chambers. With a jerk, he snapped the cylinder back into the steam blade and worked the lever, charging a fresh shot into the chamber.

"Stamina Up!" Rism crushed a magic crystal in his palm as he cast another spell, using the magic crystals to replenish his mana as his own reserve of mana had long depleted. "Ramuh's Blessing!"

His body glowed briefly as one after another enchantments spells were stacked on himself. He brushed the dust of depleted magic crystals away from his hand, his pouch of high quality magic crystal now lighter than before. Once he regained his mana and stamina, he stepped out confidently to face the lawless.

"Come! You godless heretics!" Rism laughed, not caring if they understood him or not. "I am Inquisitor General Rism Trett! It's Judgement time!"

Pops of the heretics' maddening powerful steam guns answered him as he dodged and weaved between cover, returning fire with his steam blade. Black canisters bounced towards him and he turned away from those annoying weapons as they erupted in blinding flash and noise. Despite his efforts to avoid those weapons, it still disorientated him when it detonated near him.

Despite his magical enhanced abilities, he was unable to gain any advantage against the heretics as they shameless kept at a distance from him while using their overpowered steam guns to peck away at his magic shields. Rism crushed another handful of magic crystals as he recovered his mana while considering his options. He couldn't escape with his private airship since the heretics had disabled the engines and the only other way was to escape the Aggressor was to take one of the troop carrier airships at the other side of the hangar.

He eyed the open hatch at the side of the hangar before he made up his mind. Rism knew he was outnumbered and outmatched and he needed more bodies to distract the heretics so that he could make his escape. And the only way lies in getting more bodies was to find out and that he needed to get out of the hangar first.

He rubbed the dust off his palm and rushed out again, tossing a spell at the heretics, "Fist of Heaven!"

A bolt of lightning crackled across the hangar and upon impact, balls of lightning burst out in all directions before fuzzing out after travelling a short distance. Cries of pain could be heard in the aftermath and Rism knew he had shattered the enemy.

Using the remaining of his mana, he blasted another First of Heaven spell out and taking the opportunity, he dashed with all his speed towards the exit of the hangar to find more troops and someone to crew his escape airship.

-----

The loud crackle of lightning made everyone's hair stand on ends as it erupted. Those too close to the point of impact yelled out in pain as the lightning spell overwhelmed their magical resistance granted from the mithril in their armour. Tyrier spotted the masked elf suddenly making a sprint for the exit and he persisted but another powerful lightning spells knocked him off his feet and by the time he recovered, the prey was gone.