Chapter 225 – Aterian Jägers

Savri - Team “Demon Furry” - Day 16 - 105 Days Remain

Each step I took made the pain in my hip worse. At first, it was just small pangs here and there, but eventually, I had to start asking the furball for breaks. I was tempted to try my patented [Soothe Pain] and heal trick, but I knew I would pay for it the next day. Or the one after that.

The breaks only carried me so far and after I let out a particularly loud hiss of pain, Lilyth stopped me and with concern clear on her face asked:

‘What’s going on, Sav?’ she asked with concern on her face.

The furball's eyes immediately shifted to my leg.

‘Is it -’ she began to ask, but I quickly interrupted her.

‘Yes,’ I said and bit my lower lip, as waves of shame flooded my body.

Lilyth did something I didn't expect. She hugged me and helped me sit down against a wall of one of the buildings. She then sat next to me and took my hands into hers.

‘Take as much time as you need to rest,’ she said. ‘Then we can go back to the inn and you can lie down.’

‘What about you?’ I asked.

‘I can join one of the other teams. Or stay with you and keep you company.’

More hot shame filled my body.

I am supposed to be the strong one! Not the stupid reckless furball!

‘We all sometimes need help, sweetie,’ I heard Nyxie's voice. ‘You can't be strong all the time and sometimes the real strength comes from admitting weakness.’

She was right, of course, but the knowledge still stung.

‘What is it that Terrans say? “Pride goeth before the fall?”’

FUCK!

I felt tears welling in my eyes, but I did my best to choke them back.

‘I now regret telling Persephone to give Nevahl his swordcane back,’ Lilyth sighed. ‘We could detach the magical bauble for her to play around with, and you would get the actually useful part.’

She then chuckled and continued.

‘You know, back home all the fantasy stories and games portray adventuring loot as exciting magical artefacts and tons of gold, and yet the +15 Zweihänder of Something or Other would be utterly useless to us right now.’

‘Yeah,’ I laughed, finding black humour in the situation. ‘You would get pissed if all that dropped from the bonus boss was a glorified stick… and yet…’

‘Maybe we’ll find another old guy to rob on the way back. Or a store carrying goods for adventurer has-beens. “Took an arrow to the knee? We offer affordable knee replacements so that you can pursue that career in the town guard you always dreamt about.’

‘“Hey… You are finally awake,”’ I laughed.

‘The constants in life: Death, Taxes and Skyrim re-releases, eh? Did the eight hundredth anniversary edition have any nice goodies?’

‘The collector’s edition had this nice dragon statuette, but I couldn't afford it.’

‘Don’t I know the feeling,’ Lilyth sighed.

Then something hit me. The street around us got very, very quiet except for the sound of heavy boots approaching us in lockstep.

Lilyth noticed that too and her gun materialised in her hand. I summoned mine as well.

‘I wouldn't recommend that, ladies,’ a woman said in a commanding voice. ‘We would hate to kill you as you are worth more to us alive, and you would, probably, hate to be dead.’

We both looked in her direction and saw a tall black-haired elf in a dark olive double-breasted uniform with golden epaulettes that had those dangly bits. She was accompanied by a group of ten men and women, a mix of humans, elves and dwarves, wearing the same uniforms and carrying some sort of lever-action rifles.

‘I dunno,’ Lilyth responded to her with a smirk. ‘Having been dead before, it wasn't that bad. At least not the first time around. The second time, it turned out I ended up in Hell and that place kinda sucked, but, hey, I am in charge of there now, anyway. So you know… been there, done that.’

The soldiers were completely unperturbed by her statement, which wasn't a good sign. The officer, I guessed, smiled sourly and took out a revolver from a holster on her hip. She cocked it and aimed straight at the furball, her men following her lead.

‘We have heard such claims from adventurers time and time again,’ she sneered. ‘And yet… their supposed might never materialised. They all died screaming.’

‘Of course,’ Lilyth sighed. ‘Some idiot always has to ruin things for the rest of us. Listen, I don't know who you clowns are, but…’

‘Oh, I apologise,’ the woman replied in a mocking tone. ‘Lieutenant Daiyza of the Second Battalion of the Aterian Jägers, Company C. Now that we have handled the introductions…’

She didn't get to finish, a common experience for her I assumed, as several layers of magical barriers flickered into existence around the two of us. Lilyth then flicked her wrist up and shouted:

‘[Sea of Darkness: Drowning Tentacles]!’

The temperature around us dropped by several degrees, and a black spot began to spread beneath the Jägers. Those caught in it actually began to sink into the ground. Like previously, four tentacles burst out of sludge, but instead of dissipating, wrapped themselves around four Jägers outside of the spell area and began dragging the screaming soldiers to the unknown depths below.

Instead of rushing to help their friends, the Lieutenant and three of her subordinates, who were unaffected by Lilyth's display opened fire. The shots shattered the barriers and one round buried itself deep inside the furball's shoulder.

The soldiers had to reload, but Daizya didn't. She cocked the again and fired into Lilyth's stomach, she cocked it again… and a magitek bolt from my gun turned her face into a gory mess. I cast [Thorny Vines] on the other three, and, as barb-covered vines burst out of the pavement and began wrapping themselves around their bodies, I took them down with a barrage of shots to their chests.

I quickly surveyed the battlefield, but saw that the other Jägers were too busy bleeding out to death to be of any issue to us. It looked as if when the spell dissipated it took the body parts stuck inside the black spot with it.

I briefly considered putting them out of their misery, but healing Lilyth took priority.

‘Fuck,’ Her Royal Furriness spat blood out of her mouth after I was done. ‘I hoped the barriers would hold.’

‘Guns at point-blank range are difficult to stop with magic,’ I sighed. ‘Why not use [Shadow Form]?’

‘It drains mana like crazy and I poured most of it into the tentacle spell. I figured that even if it didn't work, the spell would prove a decent distraction for us to shoot them.’

‘They must have dealt with mages before,’ I realised. ‘Which means… We have a problem.’

‘A big one,’ the furball agreed and took out her radio.

Ren - Team “Sisters in White” - Day 16 - 105 Days Remain

‘Aterian Jägers are mercenaries,’ Kart explained after we heard “Demon Furry’s” report. ‘Some of the best on the continent. From what I have heard they have more than two thousand men split into two battalions. They are insanely expensive to hire. As in, a squad of ten costs a minimum of ten thousand Divines per month of service and that's before the actual job fee.’

‘So, assuming a whole company is here… that's a minimum of a hundred thousand a month,’ Lilyth whistled in amazement. ‘So I assume this is not Vikker’s doing.’

‘No,’ I agreed. ‘Probably the Ghosts. If even half of what I have heard about them is true, this is chump change for them.’

‘I don't get it,’ Aki said. ‘If they brought in an actual army here, why wouldn't the Ghosts take over the city?’

‘The Jägers don't take jobs like this,’ Kart explained. ‘Conquering a city for a criminal organisation would ruin their public image.’

‘Wouldn’t assassinating me cause the same thing?’

‘Not really, your Highness. The Jägers never reveal their clients, not that it isn't usually obvious, and I doubt any of the current rulers will be terribly bothered by your untimely passing. You threaten the Old Order. Hell… you already upset it by removing Wilhum from power.’

‘I hate my life.’

We agreed to reunite on a square near “Demon Furry’s” current position. Apparently, Savri had trouble walking so it would be the most prudent.

Deciding to keep out of sight, I activated [Spider Climb] and ran up the wall of one of the houses and onto the rooftop. Persephone soon joined me, having flown up.

‘Let’s -’ she began to say, but there was a crack of a gun firing and a bullet exited out of the sorceress’s forehead.

‘Good thing I activated [Ethereal Form] first,’ she sighed.

There was another shot and this bullet grazed me on the shoulder, causing me to yelp in pain and throw myself to the roof.

‘Fuck!’ I shrieked.

Persephone - Team “Sisters in White” - Day 16 - 105 Days Remain

Rude, I thought as two more bullets passed through my body. Time to teach them some manners.

I turned towards where the bullets were coming from and saw a squad of mercenaries huddled in a side alley. Their MO looked to be for a few of them to come out of cover, fire at us, and then hide again to reload. Others would take their place then and the cycle would repeat.

Well… I see your pretty smart tactics and raise you a [Fireball].

I infused it with Earth Arcana shrapnel and launched it towards the Jägers.

That's when one of them jumped out, and, his eyes glowing, shot out a weird large projectile that was attached to the end of the barrel of his rifle. It flew straight at the [Fireball] and collided with it mid-air, causing it to prematurely explode and the shrapnel to fly all around the area.

FUCK! I thought as I heard screams of pain from injured civilians.

My eyes focused on the sniper, who had already retreated into the alley and was attaching another grenade to the gun.

[Obsidian Tree]

His shrieks of agony as sharp rock pierced his body were music to my ears.

One of his squadmates simply picked up the sniper’s gun and resumed reloading it.

What the fuck is wrong with them?

[Rot Blossom]

The man fell to the ground and began to shriek in pain. One of his buddies pointed his gun at the rotting Jäger and shot him in the head. Then seeing the spreading rot he reached into his pocket, took something out and dropped it onto the corpse causing it to ignite.

Mage hunters, the reality finally clicked. They brought in actual mage hunters. Very well then. Block this, motherfuckers. [Garden of Flames: Hydra of Thorns].

That put a definitive end to the squad.

No half-measures, then, I thought as I put out and absorbed the fires I started. [Elemental Transformation: Queen of Hell].

That turned out to be a mistake. I felt searing pain enter my back and exit from my chest. It was a beam of bright light.

Fuck. They were prepared. HOW?

Pushing my way through the agony, I turned around and saw an orange-haired man hovering in the air, wearing an unfastened sleeveless white coat of some kind over his uniform. Light began to gather around his hand for another strike.

Trying to do evasive manoeuvres, let me tell you - dodging beams of light isn't easy, so I ended up with quite a few burns and an extra orifice in my side, I raised my right hand and pointed it at his throat.

[Rot… Blossom…]

The Light mage got out of the way of the magical energy before it reached him. That put him right in the path of Ren’s arrow which entered his chest and blew a massive hole in his back.

‘Took… you… long… enough…’ I croaked and fell to the rooftop, my transformation ending.