That's the last of the chapters. Updates will slow down drastically from here on out. Possibly only once a week if I'm lucky. I got school, you know.
"Well, fuck. Take COVER!" Upon realizing that his subordinates could not ready a spell in the tiny amount of time they had, he gave up on deflecting it and instead just commanded everyone to take cover.
Hearing his order, the rest quickly stopped charging their spells and instead slid back into cover.
The shell, its size almost as tall as a human, would most definitely pack a ton of firepower.
And given how tightly packed Team Alpha was despite being behind cover, the incoming shell would only ever cause more harm.
The flame wall, which had been up until recently, had managed to hide the speeding bullet for such a long amount of time that by the time it had subsided, the shell was already closing in.
Team Alpha braced for impact as a loud boom was heard around the area, the blast causing everyone around the area to go deaf.
And yet, there was no pain. Everybody opened their eyes to find themselves inside a room, with Kenneth sitting right in front of the still bewildered group.
To his left, Catalyn was there. Her anguished expression helped Fawkes to piece together what happened.
"Did you teleport us out?" (Fawkes)
"She did. Clearly very taxing on her body, so she'll rest, along with you all. Take some time to replenish your mana." (Kenneth)
With looks of relief, everyone eagerly dropped down onto the floor.
Back at the previous spot that was used by Team Alpha for cover, upon scanning, the Karman were flabbergasted to find that there were no remains of the enemies after the blast.
Was the shell perhaps so strong that not a single sliver of the humans were left? Yes, perhaps that was it. The Karmans celebrated in elation.
After seemingly wiping out the cockroaches that hid from place to place, the Karman began to focus on other things now.
What they didn't know, was that as soon as they got back to their ships, they would be surprised to find them unoperational.
***************
"Everybody all rested up?" Kenneth asked. Most of the Team Alpha members were now eagerly running around.
"I'm ready for a counterattack, and I'm feeling powered up. I couldn't have felt better!" Fawkes laughed in anticipation.
"Glad to see you acting so eager. So here's the deal. The Karman are stuck. Yes, stuck." (Kenneth)
"What's that mean?" "Stuck?" Questions were raised among the crowd.
"Yup, you heard me. Stuck. Earlier on, I had two of my subordinates move separately from us. They're quite proficient in the inner workings of the Karman ships, so I've sent them to sabotage their aircrafts." (Kenneth)
"Great thinking, little baby." (Fawkes)
"I didn't need that last part, but I'll accept your thanks. Anyway, without their ships, they're completely stuck here, surrounded by the burning buildings. And this is perfectly to our advantage. We'll launch a coordinated assault on the stranded enemies." (Kenneth)
"Uh, right. I have a question." A hand raised from the crowd.
"Go ahead." (Kenneth)
"We're still outnumbered by them 20 to 1, perhaps even more. I know we could have an upper hand due to it being an ambush, but they've already experienced one earlier and they'll be much more ready for it."
"Right, you do pose a good question. The thing is, we're not attacking from the ground." Kenneh smirked.
"I'm...sorry?" The person asked, confused.
"You should be! I'm joking. Anyway, yes, we'll be attacking from the sky. Remember how I told you all about my two subordinates being proficient with the ships? I had them hijack one specially for us. We'll be using the thing to launch a full on aerial assault." (Kenneth)
Looks of ease appeared all over the crowd. Everyone was pleased that they probably did not have to fight as much.
"They should be arriving soon, anyway. Still, they're late." (Kenneth)
*************
Only Kenneth and his siblings would notice it, but Lucas was not actually there. As soon as he had returned, he was sent on another mission.
This one was to assist Sabik and Ciel in the taking of the Karman ship that they'd be using to launch the aerial assault.
Let's hope Lucas actually remembered what Kenneth said earlier. He had explicitly warned Lucas NOT to crash the ship down to the ground like he did with the other four Kuman ships.
At least for the moment, there were no thoughts of it running through his head. At least not for now, at least.
"Ah, Brother Lucas, you've arrived." His thought process was stopped as the voices of Sabik and Ciel brought him back to reality.
"Hey there. Let's get this ship ready for my little brother's use later on!" Lucas readied himself excitedly.
"Leader told us to remind you to not crash the ship. Just thought I'd let you know." Ciel chimed in.
"Oh, chill. I've had my fun. I couldn't possibly destroy this one." (Lucas)
"Yeah, I don't trust that tone." (Sabik)
*************
"I was right! I should not have trusted you! At this rate the ship will be destroyed!" Sabik screamed.
"Don't be such a pussy. It's clearly not gonna break." Lucas reply had a hint of worry in it, despite it sounding easygoing.
The three of them had silently boarded a nearby Kuman ship just as it was preparing to take off.
Successfully concealing themselves under some cargo, they waited in the dark, staying stationary.
After a few minutes, well, Lucas lost his patience. He began thrashing about as he ran into the nearby rooms and began to mercilessly annihilate the unaware Karman.
In the chaos, Lucas had trashed the place so much that it would look like the ship would break apart at any moment.
While Lucas was having an easy time wiping out the Karman, Ciel had split up from the group and began to move in the direction of the cockpit.
Sabik had chosen to follow the rampaging Lucas, as he tried to stop him from further damaging the Kuman any more than he already had.
After an exhausting amount of time, he was able to stop the battle-frenzied Lucas, as he looked around to find the entirety of the Kuman empty.
In the span of a few minutes, Lucas had completely destroyed all the Karman!
Maybe Sabik was too focused on chasing him down and stopping him rather than actually take the time to see how many Lucas was taking down.
"See? I didn't destroy it." Lucas said with a face that screamed, 'Ha! I told you so.'
"Right, right. But maybe do a better job next time. The ship is all battered up, and we'll need to fix some minor cracks before getting back to Leader." Sabik replied.
"It's a work in progress! Anyway, where's Ciel?" Lucas looked around the area, not seeing the pilot.
"He went on ahead to the cockpit. We should follow him." (Sabik)
"Gotcha. Let's go." (Lucas)
************
Ciel, while not being much of a fighter, had most of the time left the dirty work to his trusty goggles, the ones he would keep strapped above his forehead.
The glass from the goggles were made of a special material, one that the Karman called "Fluminum."
A fluid metal, brittle, and was discovered to be able to switch between two different states of matter at room temperature. The Karman further enhanced this ability by implanting a state-of-the-art A.I inside the metal itself.
And so the Karman who owned one could directly control and "mold" their equipment to be able to shift into various different objects, the primary users of these being the pilots of the Maya, who were not trained as much as the other Karman soldiers in terms of combat.
Strolling down the empty halls of the ship, Ciel took his time to scout out the area.
As he was walking, he suddenly stopped to take a look at the crack that had appeared on the wall. There were countless rumbles resounding through the ship just a few minutes ago, so he figured that that was probably the cause of it.
Tapping the goggles on his head, the glass soon began to melt to a liquid state, before flowing onto the palm of his hands.
Ciel then slapped his hand directly onto the crack. Now one would think that the loud sound that had accompanied the slam would've further induced the fact that the ship was breaking even further, but once Ciel took his palm off the wall, one could see that the crack was now being filled in by the Fluminum.
In just a matter of seconds, the crack on the wall was now barely noticeable, except that the wall around it was now colored a dark grey, mimicking the original colors of the Fluminum.