Geron Yor

Year 1334

First phase of the major operation against the Green Deity of Geron Yor. Day one.

Deep inside the Green Line where it surrounds the Green Deity's last territory with the sole Beacon keeping the place together, seven figures clad in brown roamed between the dry trees.

Alicia, Aqua, James, Owen, Rin, Rose, and Will are now on the outskirts of the fortress of the Green Deity where a sickly green pillar of light shone through it.

"According to the Bell branch, the champion and the army will strike the fortress two weeks from now on. During the time, we will subtlely weaken the fortress' defense in which we will break it into multiple phases," Aqua explained. "Phase one will be reducing the number of enemies for the champion's party to fight against charging into the fortress."

"And to make sure the Green Deity doesn't notice," Will added, "we can only eliminate those close to the Green Line. That way, the central command wouldn't notice and if they do, it will be assumed to be a skirmish with the Yellow Deity's scouts and will be simply replaced. This is also a good way to reduce their numbers."

Rustling through the foliage, they reached their target.

Just outside the Green Line, the Green Deity's minions can be seen. They did not notice the Court Wizards' presence.

They were about the size of a fully grown man. They had basic armor for a foot soldier in this world - thin metal armor covering the torso and helmet - and each wields a spear while some use bows. What makes them apart from the humans of Geron Yor are their ghastly dark green skin and completely black cornea as if they had stones for eyes. Green tar-like liquid oozes out of their pores.

"Eew! That's a really disgusting guy!"

The pixie belched at the sight of the picture of the dark green figure.

"These guys are the army of the Green Deity," Aqua explained. "They are spawned directly from him. As such, the people of Geron Yor simply call them 'Spawns.' Our technical name for them is 'Acidic Green-Skinned Human' as the green tar they constantly secrete are corrosive, so be careful.

While they are a part of the Green Deity, they are fully autonomous and only the 'commander' Spawns are telepathically linked to their deity. They are also 'programmed' to be fully loyal to him, so persuasion would not work as the Green Deity himself is no longer opened to negotiations.

Also, Spawns are considered to be monsters as only the commanders have a shred of intelligence for leading lesser Spawns, but even then it is only very simple orders. So treat them as other beasts we regularly clean up in other worlds."

"A commander Spawn typically leads twenty-five to thirty spawns," Will added. "Under circumstances, we have to kill the commander first or the Green Deity will notice us."

He swiped the remote control from his Guardian colleague and pressed it to show a picture of a different Spawn.

He continued, "The commander Spawns are bigger and better equipped. It's to add more survivability since if they're gone, the rest are screwed. But that also makes them a huge target, so it's pretty easy for us to find and kill them."

They quickly identified the commanding Spawn among the thirty or so crowd. It was taller than the rest, wearing a full set of steel armor and wields a halberd.

I counted twenty-nine Spawns including the commander. There are five hundred and eighty-two Spawns equally spread out inner Green Wall outskirts. There are twenty Spawn commanders including the one in front of us, so that is twenty squads in total. (James)

Woah, how did you know? (Rin)

It is my only skill as a vampire hunter of the Crosdar family, my old clan. It was so weak back then and so I was deemed useless, - I am the weakest member of the family -but now I can accurately sense the numbers of every entity miles away and measure each of their threat levels which was how I deduce the number of commander Spawns. (James)

Wow! (Rin)

So you can smell girls kilometers away!?

Voice, that is inappropriate! Forgive her, James. Though I imagine such ability is invaluable for Court Wizards.

True. Similarly, the only extent of my skill as a vampire was only transforming my nails into sharp claws which I infrequently use and recently I was able to morph into a small bat but I could not maintain it for more than five seconds before leaving me in complete exhaustion. (Rose)

Enough mind talk, I'll kill the commander and you guys kill the others like what we discussed. Don't crash your Orders with each other. (Will)

Right. (Everybody else)

With their emotion suppression kicking in, the Air Guardian stood there for a moment, gazing at the commanding Spawn under his brown hood. And then...

SLASH

THUD

He formed his air maneg into an extremely pressurized air in front of the green monstrosity that flew towards its neck, decapitating it. Then, its corpse suddenly and is gradually liquified, even its equipment melted into a green liquid.

28 Spawns left.

BANG

At once, James and Rose ejected a large amount of maneg (which is still less than a fraction of a single percent of their Maneg Souls - it's used frequently so the Order has been adapted over centuries to use as little maneg as possible) launching themselves forward while materializing their Cherished Armaments.

Where Rose has her red parasol; James' Cherished Armament looks like a sickle with a crooked blade like a hook, the blade silver in color with a deep blue accent, and the handle has the same shade and was longer than your usual farming tool.

As the less intelligent minions of the Green Deity started to notice their commander's demise, the vampire and its hunter rushed in the diverging direction each towards a group of Spawns.

James lifted his weapon to behind his back and yanked it forward causing the blade to separate from the handle. A blue glowing string appeared between the grip and the blade as the latter goes further from the former. Manipulating the trajectory of the crooked metal, James swung his Cherished Armament flying towards a group of five Spawns.

SLASH

SLASH SLASH

STAB

YANK

SWING

STAB

In an unrealistic arc of travel, the blade sliced three Spawns into two uneven parts and stuck deeply into the head of the fourth Spawn. James pulled it out to spin it in a circular manner and landed into the fifth in the neck. Giving off a deafening scream, the Spawns melted into a green puddle signalling its demise.

24 Spawns left.

There was a Spawn to his left who could skewer him if left alone. However, his Cherished Armament is still stuck in the neck of the fifth Spawn that was still clinging onto its life. So, James struck out his left arm towards it and water maneg sprayed out of his left hand.

SPLASH

"Greoaioaioa...!"

The Spawn shrieked as mist emanated from its skin where the water maneg hit. No, that is not mist, it's vapor that comes out when boiling water. That water maneg was near the boiling point and sprayed onto the poor monster.

If you don't know what boiling hot water does to your skin if it's spilled on you, then here's the simplest version: it is painful and could burn your skin like fire - of you don't treat it, it could be life-threatening.

Well, Spawns were discovered to not receive heat very well and could easily melt like ice cream if you set it on fire - the Geron Yor army and champion made sure to bring all the fire-related weaponry available.

As for this Spawn, it screamed painfully as its body breaks down from the scalding it received. Eventually, it was reduced to nothing but green paste on the dry ground. The other Spawn finally melted and James' weapon became unstuck.

22 Spawns left.

At the same time on the other side, Rose launched herself high in the air overlooking a mass of ten Spawns, still dazed at the sudden death of their leader. She formed ten [Javelins] as she vaults over the green monsters and sent it flying towards them.

STAB STAB STAB

STAB STAB

STAB STAB STAB STAB

STAB

Perhaps it was her 150+ years of experience showing that she was able to aim each and every javelin of fire maneg straight into between the Spawns eyes where their helmet did not cover. Even with her crippled leg being supported by her own loyal maneg, she has not lost her touch.

12 Spawns left.

About three archer Spawns got a hold of themselves and saw the brown-hooded figure that just sent long thin stakes of red straight into ten of their kin's head, instantly killing them without so much a scream. As they disintegrate into liquid mana to be absorbed and recycled by their master, the archer Spawns pulled their bowstrings and aimed it at their kin's slayer.

Seeing this, the parasol wielding Court Wizard simply opened her Cherished Armament. The parasol revealed its beautiful and intricate canopy of a red pattern of fire and flowers that resemble roses wide into the assailant's view, though everybody would doubt these creatures would even know how to appreciate it as they still let go of their bowstrings to send their putrid green arrows flying.

DING DING

DING

The canopy of the parasol blocked two arrows as if they were paper planes and one simply missed and landed into the hard ground and broke.

Not letting up the chance while the archer Spawns have no arrows in their bows, Rose closed her parasol and held it like a sword. Just mere inches before she steps the ground surrounded by the Spawns, the vampire spun her body along with her Cherished Armament in a three hundred sixty degrees angle and the long sharp ferrule slashed the abdomens of the three archer Spawns.

SLASH SLASH

SLASH

They were cut in half and fell to the ground with their bowels spilling out, and Rose backed away to prevent their acidic blood from touching her before they eventually melted in agony.

9 Spawns left.

DRIZZLE

As the leader of the water spirits in Spiri Raia, most of her powerful Spirit Arts comes from the help of her subordinates, lesser water spirits who don't exist in Geron Yor rendering the 'greater' water spirit the same as a lone water spirit. To make up for it, Aqua as the Fire Guardian had developed a Half-Order from Amelia Rickens' suggestion.

Catching up the two partners who launched into the battle first, she paused and struck both of her arms forward where circles of red appeared before her semi-transparent yet delicate hands. A high-pressure spray of water came out of her hands and passed through the fiery circles. Hot steam came out of it for this Half-Order is the result of the contradicting Element of her Maneg Soul with her species. The circle fire maneg formation acts as a boiler superheating the water that came out of her Spirit Art into a high concentration of steam of high-temperature.

While hot steam can be good for therapy, it can also cause first degree burns if it's like boiling water to your face.

And that's exactly what happened to the last nine Spawns that looked over the ground where their dead commander's watery corpse laid. The scalding mist penetrated deep into their skin as they shrieked in pain and suffering. For their flesh is so weak that the scalding even caused their bones and inner organs to be seen, quite grotesque. It wasn't long that they too shared the same fate as their comrades.

0 Spawns left. First Spawn squad defeated, 19 more to go.

Suppressions off, for now.

That... is very gory...

Alicia expressed in the global [Telepathy]. She looks to Rin, concerned with a child seeing the carnage caused by the senior Court Wizards and Guardians. Seeing these high levels of gore in real life was something else than what was shown in death montages - part of the training for Court Wizards was watching violent videos in order to be desensitized by it.

But the perceptive little girl had caught on to what she was thinking and answered with her [Telepathy].

Uhn, I'm okay. I guess you can say... I am already used to it since I'm little. (Rin)

Ah... That's right, according to her adopted grandfather (father technically), Daisuke Fujiwara, his adopted granddaughter had witnessed her parents' death and possibly more during the terrorist attack in the hospital she was in. And Rakarok, the fantasy world before it got merged with its 'Earth' had many horrible ways to die. Darcassan Erith, the Dark Guardian, and Ilezenya Erith, the Nature Guardian, can attest to that being natives there long before the merging.

Come on, we're going. (Will)

"Then, we will eliminate the enemies on the outskirts of the inner part of the Green Wall, we will split up and work our way towards the sides."