To say that Braden was surprised when they were suddenly confronted by a Chaos Lord was quite untrue. He had been expecting the worst ever since the entire ordeal happened and having another encounter with a hostile, murderous creature from beyond the boundary was just another mountain they had to climb.
Almost as soon as the Chaos Lord appeared, the huge boar calling itself Shillogu barreled down at it, brown tentacles springing from its back and lashing at the smaller figure. Leader Yoran pushed Braden into a building, the very same one that the first team had used for their campsite, while the rest of the squad arrayed itself protectively.
The two Warders threw out a couple of jade cubes that started hovering above their heads and gave out a harsh red light that covered a dozen paces around them.
The Chaos Lord laughed as Shillogu charged at him, bouncing off his heels in an impossibly distant hop that brought him out of the Avos' reach. He brandished his weapon, a thin rapier, and stabbed it at Shillogu though Braden didn't know how the attack could reach the other. His unspoken question was quickly answered when the Chaos Lord extended his arm to his full reach. A tiny dart of green light careened out of the tip, heading at the same trajectory as the stab. One of Shillogu's back tentacles swatted the offending missile out of the air.
That didn't stop the Chaos Lord from releasing a dozen stabs, each flinging a green dart. Thankfully, the missiles didn't seem to have a homing feature, unfortunately, Shillogu was such a huge target that it was easier to miss the broad side of a barn than the boar.
Braden couldn't keep his eyes on the monstrous fight for long. A horde of swarmlings charged out of the forest, accompanied by dozens of Wanderers. They towered over the dog-sized swarmlings and their blue eyes zeroed in on the Imperial squad.
"Jacqui! Go!" Armsmaster Byrne yelled and Leader Yoran faded from sight. The muscle-bound warrior easily handled his greatsword with a single hand and he charged over to where Shillogu and the Chaos Lord were fighting. "Time for a rematch, Seeker!"
The swarmlings faltered as soon as they entered the red light. They seemed to wither, shrinking ever so slightly, and their limbs didn't quite move with its previous grace. The two militiamen with Plasma Casters, one a rugged middle-aged man and the other a grim-faced woman in her twenties, started shooting bolts of different coloured plasma at the Wanderers.
Most of the bolts splashed against the creatures' Protective Fields but some inevitably penetrated and burned the Wanderers across their faces or torsos. Still, they did nothing to the nearby swarmlings. That was the job of the destroyers.
There were no insignia for Braden to look for so he could properly determine the role of each squad member. For all he knew, they could fulfill multiple jobs. In this case, a young woman with her brown hair in a bob cut pressed her hands on the ground.
The swarmlings in front of her toppled over and Braden could see three-inch spikes pop out of the ground, impaling the creatures through their feet and piercing their bodies when they fell to the ground. From the lack of Animus coating the spikes, he wondered how it could even affect the swarmlings but she kept the activity only within the red light, so he assumed it had something to do with that.
The other destroyer whipped out a rod from his backpack. It was the length of his forearm and as thick as a collapsible spear. He pointed it at the horde and it spat out a spray of brown liquid that sizzled when it landed on the swarmlings' carapace. After a couple of seconds' exposure, the liquid melted through the outer layer, evidently causing incredible pain from the way the critters writhed and screeched.
The sound was so bad that Braden had to plug his ears. Thankfully, he wasn't at all necessary for contributing to their defence. The other four members of the squad held themselves at the ready, thrusting spears or shooting bolts out of their Plasma Lancets at any of the swarmlings that came too close.
One of the Wanderers weathered through the strikers' bombardment and entered the red-light zone. Its Protective Field sizzled as it came under the cube's light, attenuating wildly. The plasma bolts from the strikers had an easier time punching through and in short order, the Wanderer collapsed, its face burnt to a char.
Off in the distance, Armsmaster's greatsword was enveloped in green light. He spun as he slashed, leaving wide trails of green in the air. Whenever one of Seeker's darts touched the green afterimage, it unravelled as it consumed the green shadows.
Seeker kept out of reach of both Shillogu and Armsmaster Byrne, peppering them with small darts while he wearing a manic grin on his face. At one point, he lunged at Armsmaster on the man's right side and poked his sword towards the other man's bulging bicep, only to be foiled by a sudden flash of green. Shillogu continued charging at Seeker, making the earth tremble under his weight.
At one point, one of the Avos' tentacles brushed against Seeker's left hand and when it pulled away, it took a chunk of writhing flesh with it. Seeker's expression didn't change. Instead, he stabbed the tentacle as it withdrew and the limb visibly withered. Shillogu amputated the tendril before it could reach his back and a new one replaced it. It must have cost the Avos something though since he slowed down for a moment before snorting angrily and charging at the Chaos Lord again.
"Great Shillogu! Work with me here," Armsmaster cried out when he almost got sideswiped.
"You work with this Great One!" Shillogu bellowed.
Braden could see the Armsmaster's frustration but Byrne shifted from trying to control the battlefield and aimed to disrupt Seeker's attacks instead.
The back and forth between the monsters aside, Braden wanted to help as much as he could. But when he tried, the squad members just pushed him back inside the building.
"You'll just distract us," one man growled.
Sighing in frustration, Braden kept his Animus ready in case he could find an opening. The horde seemed endless. One of the light-emitting cubes ran out of juice and fell to the ground. One of the warders picked it up and threw an identical cube he fished out of his belt pouch.
"Three cubes left!"
Soon after, the second cube ran out of light and was swiftly retrieved. Nobody threw out another cube. Instead, they compressed their formation to stay under the light of the remaining cube.
The horde didn't just press against the squad though. In fact, most of them tried to get at Shillogu but the Avos summoned forest creatures--giant cats, stags, even smaller boars--to come to his aid and tangle with the horde.
Braden shot at a few swarmlings that came at them while he trying to keep an eye on the other battles around them. It was then that he spotted Yuriko, Orrin, and the other three members of their team emerging from the woods on the opposite side of the shore.
He could see them shouting but the noise around him prevented him from hearing whatever it was they were saying. All he was certain of was the relief he felt when he saw them all seemingly unharmed. He raised a hand and waved, puzzled as Krystal and Yuriko pointed frantically towards him.
The next second, something crashed on his back, and he felt a sharp pain. Then, he knew no more.
-----
Jacqueline Sayer Yoran kept the light wrapped around her body, staying out of sight, though this also meant she couldn't really see a thing. She could manipulate light into her eyes but that would defeat the purpose of her ability. She magnified her hearing and touch instead, allowing her to get a general feel for her surroundings but controlling her Facet and an Animus technique strained her mind. She had the option to inlay the patter for her sense enhancement but that would have meant her Facet would not evolve to gain that ability. She was very close to becoming a Knight and her third Facet advancement that she could practically taste it.
She hung around the battle between the Avos, Seeker, and Armsmaster, waiting for an opportune moment to strike and end this wicked farce of a Wave. But she had her hands full trying to avoid both Shillogu's wild charges and Seeker's indiscriminate darts. Worse, she couldn't concentrate light into a weapon without a halo of shadow to give her invisibility away, which was why she was clutching a Plasma Lancet in her hands. She wondered if the small side-arm could even penetrate the Chaos Lord's Protective Field but that was what Armsmaster was for.
She paid as much attention to their battle as she did to Braden, the sole cadet they brought along.
'He shouldn't have come with us,' she grumbled. But she also knew he would have headed out on his own if they left him behind. 'He should be safe in the group,' she decided.
Still, it took all of her willpower not to jump in and fight. Either contributing to the battle against the Seeker or in fighting the horde attacking the squad. But she had a job to do. So she hung on the tops of trees or hid behind boulders to remain out of the way.
The last time they tangled with the Seeker, Armsmaster lost an arm. But Trevor Byrne was determined to fend the Chaos Lord off otherwise they would all have died. Unfortunately, Seeker had easily recovered from the wounds they managed to inflict on him.
That was the trouble fighting Chaos Lords. They only had to return to the Tidelands and their bodies could recover. They could have cut his hands or legs off, carve off his torso, but as long as there was Chaos, their bodies regenerated. The only surefire way to defeat them was to gouge the Chaos core out of their bodies and destroy it.
Chaos cores acted as their heart and mind and it also housed their Anima. Damaged, they wouldn't be able to draw in ambient Chaos to power their bodies. Those were just shells, she knew. Easy to discard and replace. It was their true selves that must be vanquished or nothing they did would matter.
None of them had expected a full-fledged Chaos Lord to lead the Wave which was how they were caught with their pants down. Still, reinforcements in the form of the Imperial Legions should arrive soon. Before the end of the Full Moon, hopefully. Legion Vagaris was on furlough in Rumiga City and, with the Legion Agminis, Rumiga's resident Legion, the planar capital had enough manpower. Jacqui was sure at least one of the Legions could spare the time to help the poor militia especially since Vagaris was Commander Davar's old Legion.
The Drain Cubes were running out of power and those things couldn't be charged in the field. Only a Spellweaver or a Sorcerer could do that and those kinds were rarely allowed on the battlefield.
The earth rumbled as Shillogu trampled everything around him. Jacqui let out a frustrated snort. The Avos was too headstrong and easy to anger. But he did keep Seeker's attention on him. Or, perhaps, it was more accurate to say that Shillogu was the Seeker's target all along.
It was clear to her now. She thought they were after the Gemheart. The Watchtower, even undermanned, could easily hold out for dozens of weeks against a horde and if anything stronger came out of the Tidelands, the Legions would quickly come calling. But a single Chaos Lord wasn't enough to mobilise such a force.
"Chaos!" Jacqui cursed as Armsmaster was clipped by a dart, followed by a stabbing rapier. He managed to twist away at the last second, saving himself from being run through, but Seeker kicked his face in a second later breaking his nose in the process.
Shillogu was too far away to do anything and even then, his tentacles had grown timid after the first one was destroyed.
Seeker was moving in for the kill, a smirk on his lips. Jacqui couldn't stay still.
She dropped her invisibility field, activated a part of her Facet, and focused light into a burning beam. It deflected off Seeker's Field but only enough so that the focused light touched his arm instead of his face.
The spot started smoking and he jerked away. He found her almost immediately from the eye-catching halo surrounding her. He sent a couple of darts her way while she jumped and rolled away. Her reaction broke the light lance and Seeker created some distance between them.
"You fool! You should have waited until he stabbed me!" Armsmaster growled. "Argh!" He rushed the Chaos Lord with renewed vigour. Driving the other combatant towards the Avos.
"Sorry," Jacqui muttered, red-faced.
The melee continued unabated. Jacqui flung a light lance at Seeker every so often, both to interrupt his attack pattern or to nail him when he was otherwise occupied.
It wasn't long before all three of them were running over the lake and the airborne water droplets played havoc with her light lances. She shifted to using the Plasma Lancet but, as she feared, it barely penetrated the Seeker's Field.
Seeker had wounded both Armsmaster and Shillogu while he only took a few grazing hits. He was too agile and quick, dancing out of reach as easily as he darted in for a quick attack. But there was no way they could retreat. If they did, the monster would surely take the opportunity to corner Shillogu.
The Avos was doing worse than she thought he would. Why wasn't he using more of his power? All Shillogu was doing was ploughing up the ground and splashing water around.
It was then that she saw the first team coming out of the forest. Her eyes were immediately drawn to the golden weapon Cadet Davar held in her hands.
"Impossible..." she murmured, wide-eyed. Nobody had managed to claim that Anima Telum in the past two centuries, ever since Shillogu disclosed the location of the ancient sanctum.
As they approached, she felt a nudge that made her turn from the squad and Cadet Foster. A Hunter was jumping down from a treetop. She sent a light lance at it, but it was too late. Her beam took off the Hunter's head just as it stabbed its claws into Braden Foster's back.