As the week went on, Fog settled into his new life as a King. He began to ensure his nation would prosper for years and years to come. He slaved away behind the spruce desk, a quill his weapon of choice for today. By mid-morning, King Fog had signed several hundred documents with the help of several cups of coffee. As he took a brief break, he stood on his balcony which overlooked the Knight's training ground.
"Hopefully Atrocity and Astotle have made headway with them...."
In the training yard, the Knights had gathered and challenged their teachers to a battle.
"Are you sure you're up to the challenge of taking on both of us?"
"Yes sir. We wish to test our communication skills in the face of overwhelming odds."
Atrocity grinned as Astotle accepted their challenge. Once the two teachers had settled into their starting point, Atrocity spoke up. "You do realize what is about to happen right?"
"Don't go all out and kill them."
"Not to worry. Although, it'll be a massacre regardless."
As the training battle began, the two found themselves in trouble. The Knights had gotten the drop on them, and separated them. All of the heavy hitters however, got the short end of the stick as were up against the Republic's own Polar Bear, Atrocity Winters.
"So, how do you want to play this?"
"If we all hit him in turns he'll pick us off. Swarm Formation?"
With a nod, they rushed towards Atrocity.
"DO NOT MAKE ANY MISTAKES!"
Atrocity caught a massive hammer, then tossed its wielder aside. Even operating at a fraction of his power, Atrocity was still a force of nature to avoid. Knights went flying left and right as Atrocity did his best not to kill them. On the other side, Astotle had found himself in a bind. The his best chance was for Atrocity to come over to him, as he was a support fighter. Using his staff was a great way to ensure his survival on defense, but in terms off offense..... Suddenly binding rope was flung at him, restraining his legs. As he fell over, he knew it was now all up to Atrocity. As the two of the knights watched over Astotle, the others rushed to aid their fellow knights in taking down Atrocity. With the sudden influx of knights, Atrocity lost focus, allowing several knights to bind his arms and legs.
"HOLD HIM STEADY! WE CAN DO THIS!"
Atrocity pulled and grappled against the Knights, invoking all of his strength. "IT'S NOT ENOUGH! RUN HAMMERTIME!"
"ARE YOU SURE?"
"YES! DO IT!"
One of more buff Knights grabbed her hammer, and repeated send blows into Atrocity's chest. With every single blow, it became clear, this battle was over. After about fifteen minute of being beaten and stuck in place, Atrocity gave in. The Knights cheered in celebration.
"I-I bet we could even take on Wilderness's Heroes!"
The other Knights joined in with that notion. Atrocity and Astotle just looked at each other grinning. "Today is they day they'll learn a hard lesson....Come on you lot, let's go see if the Heroes want to come out and play."
Over at Fort Wilderness, the heroes had been seemingly able to relax. All except for Proxima. He was training a new hero.
"Alright Daytona, I think that's good for today. Excellent work."
"You really think so?" She said as she flipped her pink hair back.
"If this morning's training session with everyone was an indicator, I think you'll make a fine hero."
As the two went inside, the Knights came up to the Fort. With the Red-Net alert informing the Order they had guests, the Order greeted them outside. "To what do we owe this surprise visit from the Knights?" Asked Polaris leaning against the wall.
The Head Knight stepped up. "I am Head Knight Kuno, and I hereby challenge the Order of the Wilderness Remnants to a war-game. All the Knights against the entire order."
Polaris looked to the other members. "Well? Shall we oblige them?"
"Sir, yes sir." Said White walking over to them.
"The location will be the woodlands outside the Kingdom. We'll be on offense, and you lot..."
"Have defense. Got it. We'll be there by mid-afternoon."
"Better bring that A-game, the entire Republic will be watching."
As the Knights left, Polaris and the Order geared up. "Sir, won't we mop the floor with them?"
"We will, but important lessons can be only learned through defeat. Besides, it'll be a good idea for Republic to watch how we conduct ourselves. Everyone remember your training!"
As the Order left their Fort, citizens and King Fog had all gathered to witness the war-game. The crowd murmured amongst themselves. They had all seen the Knights training, but had never seen Wilderness in training and were betting against Wilderness. As King Fog stood up, the crowd fell silent.
"Citizens of our Republic! Welcome to today's big unplanned event! I understand this was on short notice, and I have authorized the treasury to pay everyone for their lost hours. With that, we will be witnessing a war-game between our own Republic Knights of Wildereplains and the Order of the Wilderness Remnants! The game is capture the flag. Each team as their respective flag at predetermined locations. The rules are simple, there is only a single round, no killing each other and to score, teams must either capture their opponents flag, or capture the whole team. Imprisoned players can only escape when an uncaptured member of their team frees them. Good luck to both teams! Also, Polaris, along with Atrocity and Astotle are merely jail watchers! They cannot be captured nor can they participate."
As Fog took his seat, Dryads brought up a full battlefield view of both teams. Proxima and the Order of Wilderness had their backs to a small river running through the forest.
"Once we here the the horn, I want SBD, White, and Daytona to rush over to get their flag.
"Sir, not to question your judgement, but that's a third of us. Can we really hold this position with just us six?"
"Have faith in your training. We've all put time and effort into this. While we haven't had all the sessions I know Polaris wanted us to have, we are ready. Let's show everyone what we can do!"
"Right!"
As they ended their brief meeting, the horn blew. Daytona, SBD and White all vanished into woodlands.
"Plan Reaper." Whispered Proxima.
Meanwhile, White stayed in the mess of the forest canopy while SBD used his camouflage to remain hidden on the forest floor.
"Daytona, report." Stated White using their telepathy link.
"Their flag has plenty of defenders, although we were right. Seems they think attacking as all at once was a better plan after all. Still, it'll be tough to get past them.
"Good work, just stay put for now. We'll make good use of your skill soon enough. SBD, you're up. Stay camouflaged, but get close to their perimeter and knock down as many trees as you can. Once we notice them send an investigation, we'll notify you."
As the Knights guarding their flag waited, a smaller female Knightess ran up. "Hey! I intercepted a telepathy communication! Seems we may have company sooner than we thought!"
"Get ready, weapons up." Said the lead, guarding knight. As SBD smacked down trees, the Knights refused to leave their post."
"Shit... Wait, could they have known?" White thought a moment before realizing something Polaris told them before they left Fort Wilderness. He jumped down from the treetop and tackled Daytona.
"They can intercept our telepathy."
"Fuck... How do we tell SBD?"
"Don't worry about that, just get yourself ready. When you see an opening, run for that flag."
"What are you going to do?"
White jumped back up into the treetop, and reopened his telepathy link. "Run White Morning Wave."
As the Knightess intercepted that communication, the Forest went eerily quiet. Suddenly, animals rushed past the Knights , clearly running from something. "The hell is going on?"
Back with Proxima, the Knights had finally found their flag. Proxima seemingly was the only defender.
"What's your next move Knights? Think you have what it takes to move in past that tree line?"
The Knights nodded and rushed towards him. "RUN HAMM...." As they passed the Treeline, the other five members of the Order sprung into action, taking down the Knights heavy hitters.
"R-Retreat! Fall back! Don't get captured!" Yelled a Knight as he fled away from the Order's flag. By the time they'd all left, a large group of the Knights had been captured and hauled off to the makeshift wooden jail.
"H-How...." Started an out of breath Knight.
"I have no idea, but we can't go back empty handed." Said Head Knight Kuno looking to his men.
Back with the Knights defending their flag, a white cloud of fog had started rolling out from the treeline. "Hey, what is that?"
As one of the knights approached the fog, it wafted around him, causing him to writhe and shriek in pain. "IT BURNS! BY THE GREAT NAME OF KING FOG..... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
The other Knights began to back away from their flag, when White Phosphorus emerged from the dense haze of Fog. "What a pity."
"You won't take our flag!"
"You're right, I won't.... but she will."
The fog seems to form a while as Daytona leaps past White and lands directly in front of their flag. "Hey boys! I'll be taking this!"
"You think you can? There are more of us than there are of you."
"Trueeeee." Said Daytona coyly. "But you big strong Knights would have to do one thing first."
"Yea? What's that?"
"Catch ME." As Daytona said this, her eyes pulsed red, her pupils were shaped like speedometers. She grabbed the flag, and ran as fast as she could. The forest seemed to blur around her as she ran. As she looked back, White and SBD were chasing after her in slow motion.
As the three disappeared, the Knightess used her telepathy to contact Kuno. "Head Knight Kuno! Be advised, someone from the Order is coming towards you. Faster than the eye can see!"
"Can't be fast...."
"What Sir?
"Can't be fast if they have a broken leg." Replied Kuno
"Sir, that would be cheating!
"We're winning this thing! Now shut up and make sure you get over here! Ordered The Head Knight cutting off communications.
"I gotta pull my weight.... Show them I have value on this team..... MAX TORQUE!" In a blur and with a blast of wind, Daytona blew past the Knights moving towards Proxima's group, however, they were on the edge of the treeline, resulting in Daytona not seeing Knight Kuno's hammer strike her leg, hard, throwing her from off the ground. As the seemed to float across the ground, only Proxima's eyes could see here. He watched as she seemed to skip across the water before finally, time was running at normal speed. She skipped three times before slamming into a small sandbar behind their flag, not moving.
"DAYTONA!" Yelled Proxima attempting to hold off the Knights.
"She has our flag! Get it back!" Yelled Head Knight Kuno. Knights rushed into the water splashing towards her. Proxima, shoved Head Knight Kuno backwards for a moment before a load boom erupted from the water. Proxima smiled, "I knew putting him back there was a good idea. PUSH THESE KNIGHTS BACK REMNANTS!"
Behind Proxima, protecting Daytona, was none other than the Spectre known as Gauss. He fired spectral energy into the water, causing the water to explode in the places he shot. He picked up Daytona and the Flag, carrying them both into the water. The Knights that had chased after Daytona had been knocked over and had crawled out of the water. Gauss paused a moment to check on Daytona as she had woken up. "Can you walk?"
"No... I think my leg is broken."
"Use this ectoplasm krutch. Should get you to the capture spot. I'll cover you." Said Gauss helping her use the krutch. As Daytona slowly hobbled towards the capture point, Gauss fired spirit energy at the knights. Head Knight Kuno watched as she hobbled herself over towards the capture point.
"No, NO! YOU CAN'T WIN! I WON'T YET YOU!" He yelled as he spartan kicked Proxima into the water. He fired a holy magic lightning at her, knowing Gauss would be knocked out of the battle if he took the hit. However, he wasn't expecting his Knightess to take the blast for her. The Knightess lunged in front of Gauss and Daytona, crashing down into the riverbank as holy lightning zapped her.
"g-GO!" She yelled at Gauss and Daytona.
Head Knight Kuno gritted his teeth as he lined up another shot. "Say goodnight to the Ghost and the Runner." He said as he about finished his spell. However, before he could fire the spell, a canister slammed down at his feet. As his eyes moved downward, the canister erupted into a white gas, causing his skin to burn. As Head Knight Kuno stumbled backwards, White Phosphorus landed in front of him. The Fallen Angel grabbed the Head Knight by the chestplate, and punched into through several tree. As Kuno hit the trees, the horn blew. Daytona had captured the flag, and the battle was over.
"That's the game! Order of the Wilderness Remnants has won! What a thriller!"
As Polaris and his two other family members made their over to everyone, they came upon something unusual and unexpected. The Knights and the Order were in a full on fist fight. White had Kuno by the neck, a group of Knights were jumping Powerdrive, and Gauss was defending Daytona and the Knightess. Polaris, Atrocity and Astotle rushed in and broke up the fights.
"WHAT IN THE HELL IS GOING ON!?"
"That RAT BASTARD KUNO! He happened!" Yelled Proxima.
The Knights and the Order tried to pick up the fight again, but Atrocity stepped in between the two. "KNOCK IT OFF! SOMEONE PLEASE EXPLAIN WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!"
"Go on, tell them what you told us." Said Gauss lowering his arms.
"Tell us what?" Asked Polaris walking over to Gauss, Daytona and the Knightess.
"S-sir...."
"NOT A WORD JESS! OR THERE WILL BE HELL TO PAY!" Yelled Kuno.
Atrocity locked Kuno in a chokehold. Once he'd been restrained, Polaris turned back to her.
"Please, what happened?"
"Head Knight Kuno broke Daytona's leg on purpose. He called it... "Winning No Matter The Cost." He then tried to blast her with holy lightning and I took the hit for her and your Ghost hero...."
"YOU LYING BITCH!!! YOU AREN'T A REAL KNIGHT ANYWAYS! WHY WOULD HE...." Kuno was cut off by White grabbing his face and covering his mouth with his ungloved hand. Kuno's skin began to burn, as White's hand gripped him harder.
"For now, bring Jess and Daytona back to the Fort. We need to get them fixed up and fast."
"Yes, but why?"
"Tonight, we set out for the Summit of Nations. As tomorrow.... is Summer Solstice Eve." Said Polaris looking to King Fog who had overheard everything.