The Order of Justice rose up to do battle.
{Justice Knights! This is a code omega planetary emergency! Foes from another World seek to attack our people!}
{Recall the White Knight from the frozen north! Send for the Son of Earth out of the deep south! Summon the Twins of the Red Moon from the East and West!}
{Kishin, hear my voice! Put aside your pilgrimage for a time! }
{Zoe, listen to my call! Leave the Secret Garden for just one night! }
{Sage of the Ancient Ways, our time of need is come! Would you not stand with us?}
{Come forth, O Seven Champions! }
{We are at WAR!}
***
Satrox left Colin on a remote island popular only for its crabs and joined the ranks of Knights rallying at Maro City.
Abby grabbed him the moment he set foot in HQ. "Geoffrey wants to see you."
Satrox nodded grimly. He followed Abby to the heart of their base, and entered the conference room.
Knight Lord Geoffrey, leader of the Justice Knights, was holding a council of war. Around him were the top tacticians and commanders of the Order of Justice on this world, as well as three of the strongest Justice Knights ever to bond Comrades.
"Satrox! Where's the Sage?" Geoffrey called to him the moment he entered the room.
"Frey, I don't think he's even on Nakama World any more." Satrox answered. "He {did} say he was done playing with animals."
Geoffrey growled. "We could really use his help now. For morale's sake, it's best we have all Seven Champions on our front lines. What about you, Satrox? Can you take your teacher's place?"
"You want me to play the Sage?" Satrox shook his head. "I've been Traveling light. Singular training style."
"I'll give you a Pegasus." A girl hooded in green offered.
"I'll throw in a Blizzard Owl." A knight in white armor added. "And an Albatross. It's not going to make up for the Comrades you've given me over time, but it's a start."
Satrox rubbed his head. "Compatibility issues. I'd be better off using Kishin's crew."
The third of the Seven Champions in attendance raised his head towards him, the first movement he'd made since Satrox entered. He glanced at Satrox and said nothing.
"Fine." Satrox threw his hands up. "I'll take the Sage title and the winged Comrades. I guess it's time I quit playing with mice."
"Thank you, younger Sage." Geoffrey relaxed a bit. "Abby, how are the others coming?"
"Cephas is almost here." Abby answered. "The twins could be anywhere."
"We can't wait." Geoffrey said. "Sunshine Town is almost done for, and they've begun a siege on Riverside."
"We can't hold any sort of air superiority." One of the tacticians with them grimaced, a short-haired blonde who looked like she had grease on her face. "Those flying saucers are too much. We can take down a few, but they're just too strong and too many."
"We'll take a land approach." Geoffrey said. "Satrox! Can you open the Ancient Ways?"
"I can get a small strikeforce across the mountains to the east, but that's about it." Satrox said. "Unless you want to go to the Forest of Legends?"
"I'll take that offer." The green-hooded woman said. "Maybe I can get the Forest Princess to join us."
"It's risky, Zoe." The White Knight mused.
"Worth the risk." Zoe replied.
"Zoe from the north, Kishin from the west, Satrox from the east." Geoffrey straightened. "I'll bring the main force from the south through the Granath mines. Abby, send Cephas and any late-comers after me. If the twins show up on time, send them to join Kishin.
"Justice Knights, move out!"
***
The short-haired blonde with grease on her face came with him. Satrox remembered her name. "Sandy, wasn't it?"
Sandy nodded. "I'm bringing four purple-badges and two reds. Can we get that many through the Valley of the Lost without attracting too much attention?"
"We can." Satrox confirmed. "Just tell them not to summon their Comrades until we're out the other side of the Chasm of Winds."
Zoe had two Knight Commanders with her, and all the Dreamers under their command at their backs. Kishin and Geoffrey had everyone else.
Satrox led Zoe and Sandy (and the Dreamers with them, though nobody had summoned Comrades yet) to the lake by their headquarters. He went to a rather round rock near to the spot Shinji had dropped Colin off earlier.
He tapped the rock. "Authenticate Bypass Authorization, user Satrox Kibou. Access to Forest Path."
The rock split open, revealing stairs into a gaping hole in the earth. Zoe nodded her thanks to Satrox and led her crew down those stairs. Bright light glowed from her badge.
"Careful of the Wisps in there!" Satrox called after her, then shut the rock. He turned to Sandy. "Ready?"
"Set." Sandy replied, gesturing to her strikeforce.
They took a shuttle, flying low over the orchards to the place they needed to cross, keeping wary eyes up for any sign of those dangerous flying saucers.
But none came over this side of the mountains.
The Chasm of Winds wasn't like that rock. This Ancient Way had different security mechanisms. "Remember, guys, once we're in there, you're completely without Comrades. Only the Wisps of the Ancient Way will be around. You'll need to rely on nothing but yourselves and each other."
Sandy drew a short sword, an item not usually found in Nakama World. She thumbed a trigger on the side, so that red light surrounded its edges. {Some sort of power sword.}
"Let's go." Satrox said and they dashed in.
***
Colin, meanwhile, officially bonded Gera and then trained his Comrades on giant crabs.
{It seems that I've been doing nothing but fighting tonight… he thought gloomily. Or rather, my Comrades have been fighting everything. I've mostly just been running.}
"Yip!" Shiro ordered, and Colin's Comrades waged the entire battle without him issuing a single order.
{But after all… what else can I do?}
{I always seem to get myself and those around me into a mess… I wonder how the J-Knights are doing with the war.}
{I wonder how Katrin's doing.}
***
Katrin was leaning over the side of the ship brooding away when the Scopic Pirates attacked.
She was still staring down at the waves when the fight ensued, still standing there doing nothing when the Pirates boarded.
"Give me your valuables!" one of them demanded.
Katrin kicked her whole backpack over, not really caring. The pirates went through it, found only food, and the few Clira she had left. They took the coins and pretty much left her alone in disgust. One of them took her chicken sandwich.
She didn't care. She just stood there, staring at the waves.
***
Satrox and Sandy led their strikeforce through the Valley of the Lost, exiting from the Chasm of Winds without incident.
"Well, {that} was easier than I thought." Sandy marveled.
"Too easy." Satrox agreed. "I've never gone through before without having to dodge at least a few Wisps. But tonight, there's absolutely nothing in there. At all."
"Maybe Nakama World itself is giving us a break, seeing how we're up against the Green Men. Maybe there is some natural justice in the world."
"Maybe." Satrox shook his head. "Let's move."
"We're going to be the first ones at Sunshine Town." Sandy warned him. "Zoe'll come down to Riverside, and Geoffrey will break through Granath, but Kishin's got a long way to go to Sunshine Town. Until he and the twins get there, we'll be on our own at the most heavily attacked site."
"And the most weakly defended of the lot." Satrox agreed grimly. "Have you ever fought the Green Men before?"
"Nope."
"Neither have I." Satrox said. "Let's see how well we do."
A pair of flying saucers swooped on patrol overhead.
"Noble!" Satrox tapped his badge and Summoned his new Pegasus. The winged horse appeared before him at once.
The ability to warp in Comrades was something Blue badge Dreamers weren't supposed to have... but Satrox's badge had been through many colors in his time, and retained the powers of the rankings he once had.
"Frost!" Satrox Summoned his new Snow Owl also, and his new Albatross. "Dynast!"
They came as he called, ready and willing to join him in battle. Most people wouldn't believe it possible, the ability to gain the immediate respect of new Comrades to the point of willing obedience even being newly transferred. It was a power most J-Knights never even dreamed of, a hint of Satrox's true ranking.
He leapt onto Noble's back, riding his Pegasus into the air after the flying saucers, Frost and Dynast at his back. He called his fourth Comrade, then. "Wraith!"
The black Lynxmouse that had been with him since the flooding of Hot Sands Village appeared on his shoulder.
Sandy and her Knights also summoned Comrades. In moments, a whole flock of flying creatures swooped up at the saucers, all blasting away with long-range attacks.
{Let's see how tough these Saucers really are.}
"Wraith! Charge up a Grave Beam!" Satrox ordered, bringing Noble around to one side as the mass of J-Knight Comrades struck the saucers from below.
The saucers fired back with energy beams and Comrades started vanishing at a fearsome rate. Lighter green bolts sprayed out at shorter ranges, then a huge yellow sphere dropped down towards Sandy and the others.
Sandy and her knights scattered in every direction as that yellow sphere fell and exploded with a roar.
{So… they have three kinds of weapons. A medium beam, a light energy bolt, and a heavy bomb.}
Satrox saw some of the tougher Comrades survive a hit or two from the light lasers, but none of them withstood the beams for more than a moment, and nothing below, nothing, survived the explosion of that yellow sphere.
Sandy and her knights were using their watches, ordering their Comrades to spread out and strike from all sides.
Satrox kept a careful eye on Wraith, even as one of the saucers started firing at him and Noble. Frost set up an ice barrier in mid-air, but it shattered under a single blast from one of those green bolts.
{Wraith's ready…} "Fire the Grave Beam!"
The beam that erupted was more a ripple of shadow than light. It was a force of gravity, thus the nickname 'grave'. It hit the nearer saucer and tore a hole in its armor.
{Not that tough, after all.} Satrox let out a small smile. "Dynast! Throw everything you've got through that hole! Frost, Noble, pull back!"
Dynast tried, he really did, but the saucer blasted him with a beam and he vanished.
{Scrap.} Satrox shook his head. Dynast was one tough bird, capable of flying across continents without needing to rest. To see him blasted back to the home base so easily was proof of the saucers' firepower.
Long-range fire was coming up from the ground now. Sandy and the others had their ground Comrades in action providing support from below.
One of the saucers retaliated with a yellow sphere. The other one turned beams downwards.
{They can't throw out too many spheres. Whether it's to reload or energy cost, they do have limits to their firepower.}
"Time to end this." Satrox growled. "Frost! Take Wraith in through that hole! Wraith, do your worst! Tear everything up from the inside! I'll decoy!"
He tapped his watch. "Sandy! I'm sending a boarding party into my target! Concentrate all your fire on the other one!"
"Just be careful!" Sandy said, and cut the link.
{Careful? I'm sending in a mouse on an owl to attack something that can blow up a town. How careful is that?!}
"We need to distract that Saucer from Frost." Satrox told Noble. "Throw everything you've got at it, then run!"
{It's odd,} Satrox thought, {if they had this sort of firepower, they could wipe out all the towns at once. Why siege them?}
{They're after Colin and Katrin… and they want them alive. After all, dying here only means respawning back at base with a sickly feeling.}
{Colin and Katrin… these guys are willing to go THIS far just to catch them?}
Satrox had investigated. He knew who these Green Men were. But until now, he still couldn't figure out the most important question.
{Why?}
It took another minute to take down the flying saucers. The one targeted by all the other knights went down first, breaking in two by a combined assault from above and below. The one that Frost dropped Wraith in stayed in the air a while longer before it started trailing smoke and falling apart from the inside. That one exploded in mid-air and sent pieces flying all over.
{Wraith died too…} Satrox shook his head, left only with Noble and Frost. {I was hoping he'd jump out before things started blowing up. Guess he was having too much fun.}
{I'll give them an hour to rest before calling them back.}
"Not good." Sandy said, as Satrox landed. "We lost two thirds of our forces on these two saucers alone. We can't lift the siege on Sunshine Town like this. The most we'll manage is hit-and-run strikes, guerilla warfare tactics."
"We won't be able to do much." Satrox agreed. "We're better off at Granath, providing a distraction for Geoffrey and the main force to break through.
"Then we can all hammer down on Sunshine Town together."
***
Meanwhile, Katrin was nudged by a hungry Velvet.
{How long have we been on this ship? How long had it been since I've last fed them?}
{Too long, I think. I can't even remember. But I should at least take care of my Comrades.}
"Here." She said, taking out some fish. "Eat up."
She fed her Comrades, then returned to brooding at the railing.
***
Colin fed his Comrades too.
"I wonder why Crabs are considered Wilds and fish are considered food." Colin scratched his head. "Oh well."
Fish was cheap here, at least. Gera liked fish too.
{My Comrades all have one thing in common. Colin thought to himself. All of them eat fish. This island's a far better hideout than the Megants' Nest. It's safe. It's got cheap fish and reasonable Wilds to train my Comrades on.}
{Why do I feel so uneasy? Like I should be somewhere else?}
{Or… with… someone else?}
He sat there and said nothing, even as his Comrades ate and rested.
At around 2 a.m., it began to rain.
***
{Well… this is going to complicate things.}
Satrox saw the fire-types in the J-Knights army lose power while the water-types suddenly became stronger.
Sandy was busy changing orders to adapt to the rain while Geoffrey's forces surged out of Granath Town. Three saucers kept Satrox's force on the run, which was what he wanted, since this was a diversion attack, but the rain made it harder to spot them.
{They have sensors. Rain won't hinder those saucers much.}
Noble was breathing heavily. The Pegasus was looking very tired. Satrox got off her back, and waved to his Snow Owl. "Frost! Take a break!"
Frost, having a strong affinity for water, was enjoying the rain thoroughly. She was radiating cold, which made Satrox shiver. "Rest a while. Once you're ready to dish out your combos at full power, you can rejoin the fight."
"Hoo hoo!" Frost replied.
Satrox checked his watch. Another five minutes, and I can call Dynast back. A bit more, and I'll summon Wraith too.
Some people called their Comrades back at half strength, but that wasn't Satrox's style. He waited until they were fully recovered. They usually appreciated it and fought better.
{Then again, some of those knights don't HAVE any other Comrades left in the battle.}
"At least we managed to take down one saucer before the other three sent us running." Satrox said to Noble.
Noble grunted, shaking her head.
Geoffrey's force and the defenders of Granath Town were in full charge now, blasting aside the blockades set by the few Green Men sieging the place on foot.
Two saucers were headed back to the siege. Sandy was sending a few fliers to harry them, but they were practically ignored. Yellow spheres dropped on Geoffrey's forces.
{Scrap.} Satrox growled, but then Geoffrey's forces retaliated, and ice-elemental attacks froze one saucer in an ice cube. The thing dropped like a hailstone and was promptly pounced on.
Geoffrey himself took to the air riding the Grand Stallion called Reaver, the great horse's hooves ringing on the wind with the sound of steel striking steel. His forces sent up a mob of fliers as well.
The flying saucers nailed Geoffrey with four medium beams. He and his big horse disappeared like mist.
"Ouch." Satrox winced.
But his charge had bought the others time. Combined attacks from air and ground smashed the third saucer, leaving only the one chasing Satrox in the air.
Satrox thought it was time his target went down too. He checked his watch. Perfect. "Dynast! Wraith!"
They appeared before him, fully recovered and spoiling for a fight. Satrox charged. "Let's do this!"
A yellow sphere fell on top of Sandy and two of her knights. The blast left Satrox as the last of the strikeforce.
{Well, I hope we managed to accomplish SOMETHING before we got wiped out. He grimaced, and rode Pegasus to the saucer's height, all his Comrades unleashing their strongest attacks at it. If we can attack it physically…}
He saw the saucer stop suddenly and charge right back.
{No way! Is it going to RAM us?!}
Too late to dodge.
White light.