We set our airship down behind the treeline, there was no way we could take over the fort with a head-on assault, especially since they still thought we were a dragon with its babies.
"Alright, we need to form a team of people with their own versions of shape-changing armor. Raise your hand and state your armor's name, weaknesses, and strengths. I'll start. Changeling Armor is fireproof and has one thick plate that protects me well against one attacker but can't protect against many enemies at once."
Dad raised his hand. "My Dragon-scale Armor is a little like Changeling, but instead of moving the plate around, the ryustitite is spread evenly until the moment of impact, where it all forms a plate at the attack. Mine is not immune to fire and will evaporate for a bit if it gets too hot."
Aunt Yandea raised her hand. "My Catskin Armor operates on a different principle lil yuet, it has two modes, armor and stealth. The armor mode moves the ryustitite into small hairs that act like springs to bounce attacks off like they're nothing." She did a little flex. "The stealth mode just evenly distributes the ryustitite throughout the suit and shapechanges to look how I want it to." She cycled through a few of her identities, a few of which I recognized as people accused of treason. "The biggest downside is piercing attacks, if any of them hit me and don't land directly on a spring, it'll be like my armor wasn't even there."
"Alright, next!" I said.
Mom raised her hand. "I have a set of Dragon-scale." She looked away as if she did something wrong.
James raised his hand. "I think I'm the last one, but my Rhino-skin Armor doesn't use ryustitite, instead I opted for a mithitite and selnatite alloy. The selnatite is what pulls around the mithitite in the suit and since they are both relatively light, so I have it inlaid into the armor with no weak spots. Unfortunately, since the armor is spread thin and mithitite is weaker than ryustitite, it ended up being more like normal armor with a disguise than special armor with weaknesses. I've made the same thing for my golems."
"Ok, all of you are going to be on the infiltration mission, it's basically impossible to do without the suits and you can't transfer the imprint of a forged item." Bella said, she had been promoted to the tactician ever since we found out she had a background in it.
"Yes General!" James tensed up and instinctively saluted.
"Truth damn you, James! I'm not a General anymore!" She facepalmed. "You will refer to me as Bella, our rebel cell isn't big enough to require real ranks. Got it?" James was quiet for too long. "Got it?!"
"Yes Gen- Ma'am!"
Something I had been meaning to ask popped into my head.
"Bella, what are those spectral chains that pop out of your sleeves every now and then?"
"Don't worry about it, it's just one of my sub-affinities: Spectral Conjuration. I can only make a few things right now because I just got it, but chains were the first thing I tried."
"Ok, so this might sound insane, but what if we brought you along? Pretend we caught you and all that."
"Nope, in fact, I was going to suggest it myself. This mission hinges on us getting as many people in the building as possible without being detected. The main problem is getting out, we can't use spatial mages or your Rift Garden because the walls are made of metal."
"I can create holes in their walls easily though, the main problem in my opinion is the mages that escaped when I released them. We need to save them."
"Why didn't you tell me sooner?! You're the one that freed us?"
She leaned down and gave me a hug. She stood up she brought me off my feet, exemplifying the height difference.
I shrugged and hugged back. "Eh, never came up."
She dropped me like a hot potato and spoke "Anyway, Jerod and I are the only ones who got out, so you don't have to worry about saving them. They all rushed the halls while Jerod and I followed your path."
"Ok, let's build our plan."
After about an hour of deliberation on specifics, we came up with:
"First, we will survey the outside for a patrol that is going to the target range. When we find them, we need to note their abilities so Ingen can mimic them when the guards ask for it." Bella explained.
I drew a line on the map depicting our path and the vantage point we would be watching the guards from.
"Next, Team A, made of Jordan, Ernest, and Yandea we will make a beeline to the cafeteria while Team B, made of James, Ingen, and myself will go to the cells and move the prisoners once their cells are open. If all goes well, Team A should be able to escape amid the chaos."
"We will meet back at the Dragon."
"You mean airship?" I asked
"You heard what I said. It's unnamed and it's dragon enough."
'This lady just named my ship from under my nose. That is so not cool.'
"That's cool by me, it makes good folklore." Dad contradicted my thoughts.
'If this keeps up the name will stick, I have to think of a name quickly!'
"I like Dragon, sounds intimidating." Mom put on an intimidating smile.
"I admit defeat. Dragon it is." I sighed. "Get suited up everyone, we're gonna clear this fort."
"Yes, boss." Everyone but Bella said.
I flew up onto the deck of the Dragon and got into the captain's quarters. Suddenly a wave of nostalgia hit me for no discernible reason. I brushed it off as a good feeling and took off my glider. For this mission, I would only have my armor, boots, spectacles, and grappling hook. They were the only ones that would be hidden under my Changeling Armor.
"I need a solution for the size of my spear, I find myself sneaking around far too often."
"Hmm, perhaps like this?"
I turned around to find Fabiru holding a spear that folded into three sections and looked like it'd snap like a twig if I hit it on the side.
"I don't want to be rude, but that thing looks a bit fragile."
"Yeah, that's because it is. This is for you to enchant, I'm sure you could do something with it."
"Hmm, I guess I could use my Eneru to keep it together for now until I enchant it. Thanks."
"No problem, I got weapons for everyone."
Fabiru left the tent and pulled his handcart behind him.
"Alright, I'm ready."