The two found themselves in the middle of a medieval castle hallway. They were immediately approached by knights with giant swords and halberts. Yoshi came up behind the two of them, staring down the knights.
"This anomaly is aether class." said Yoshi while drawing his katana. "Also, it seems it relies more on numbers than sheer power."
"So, it's like comparing 1 lion to 20 cats?" asked Alice.
"Yeah, something like that. We should find the core quickly because this place focuses on overwhelming the target over a period of time."
"Ok, but before we engage..." Belle said while grabbing Yoshi's hand. "Tell me why you rejected Alice."
"Not now, Belle. You can go off on me all you want once this anomaly is dead."
One of the knights rushed over to them and swung his giant long sword down on them. They dodged out of the way and the sword struck the ground, causing the ground to shatter. The knight had overwhelming power behind his heavy strikes.
The Knight rushed over to Alice, who blocked with the end of her scepter. She activated the buzzsaws and they sliced the sword into pieces. She then thrusted the end of the scepter into the knight's throat, allowing the buzzsaws to remove his head from his shoulders.
Another one jumped behind Alice and she didn't have time to dodge. The knight's sword was coming down on her. Belle saw this and pulled out her pistol, firing 6 rounds at the knight and knocking it down. Yoshi slid behind Alice and slashed the knight in half before it had time to get back up.
The three were surrounded by nearly 30 knights.
"This is a problem." said Alice who held up her scepter. "It's like a zombie shooter."
"What do we do, captain?" asked Belle.
Yoshi looked around the hallways. It was very tall and they were surrounded by stone walls. Another knight ran at Yoshi. He ducked under it and Belle kicked him into the brick walls. Outside, they saw a castle surrounded by a 90-kilometer-wide kingdom.
"Is this whole kingdom the anomaly?" asked Alice concerningly.
"No." Yoshi responded. "If it was, it would be zenith class from size alone, and we'd all be dead."
The knights continuously ran at them and tried to pierce and slash at them repeatedly. Yoshi entered into his dragon keeper form and slashed apart all the knights with his claws and his wings effortlessly. He then quickly transformed back to preserve his powers.
"Hurry, we need to find the core."
"This is a castle, right?" said Alice while sniffing the air. "I think I got the core. Follow me."
The 3 ran down the hallway. They eventually came to the outside of a giant door to a room. Belle kicked the 10-ton doors down. It was an empty throne room. The 3 stepped inside the room, and suddenly, they were all hit by a burst of wind from the back, sending them all flying into pillars around the room.
They turned around to see a cloaked figure holding a spell book with a wind sigil on the cover. He got ready to fire another attack but was tackled by Belle. She punched him through the castle wall and knocked him down into a garden inside the castle. She jumped down to continue fighting him.
"Ok... don't know why she chased him down instead of just killing him here."
Alice walked over to the throne. It was golden on the outside with a red cushion on the seat. She felt Yoshi gaze at her back and she sighed.
"Yoshi... what are you thinking about?"
"Sorry... I just..."
"Look, we can focus on what happened earlier when we finish killing this anomaly."
"Yeah. You're right. Sorry, I'm supposed to be the leader and here you are, telling me what to do."
"Well, all good leaders should listen to their teammates... Hmm?"
A figure suddenly walked into the room they were in. It was a young woman with long blue hair in a ponytail and red eyes. She had on full metal armor covering everything but her face and she had a giant battle axe. She also had a crown on the top of her head.
"That's the anomaly." said a worried Alice.
"She's strong. Alice, focus on damaging the head. I'll attack her wrist and knees to give you an opening."
"Got it."
Belle was outside with the wizard, who was throwing wind blades and gusts of wind at her. The attacks were extremely fast and very hard to dodge. Belle tried to kick one of the wind blades, and even though it shattered, her leg was slashed in several places as well.
"Ugh... I'm not a tactical or ingenuitive fighter like Alice is... but-"
Belle transformed into her minotaur keeper form. The mage continued to fire wind blades at her. Although the blades cut her deep, and she was losing copious amounts of blood, she still rushed at the mage. She barely felt the pain of the attacks. The minotaur's passive skill didn't just give the user inhumane strength, but endurance as well.
Once the mage realized his attacks weren't working anymore, he tried to fly away with his wind magic. But before he could take to the sky, Belle grabbed his leg and slammed him to the ground, shattering both his arms and tearing off his leg. Before he had time to recover, Belle crushed his head beneath her foot.
She transformed back. She looked off at the gates of the garden and saw at least a dozen more knights bolting towards her. "Geez." She pulled out her two pistols and charged at them.
Meanwhile, Alice and Yoshi were still in their fight with the anomalous knight. Their strategy was simple. Alice would charge in, trying to either rip off the knight's head with her claws or bash his head with her scepter.
However, the knight was extremely fast and it would often be able to block or even counter Alice's attacks. So, Yoshi would aim for both the knight's hands to stop her from hitting Alice or aim for her feet to knock her off balance.
The first time, Alice managed to greatly injure the knight with a scepter to the temple. The second time, the knight managed to counter and send Alice flying back into a wall. The knight tried to rush over to her to finish her off, but Yoshi managed to save her by deflecting the knight's blade. The third time they tried it, Alice managed to slit the knight's throat with her claws and the knight began to leak black blood. But even after all that, the knight didn't look anywhere near exhausted or finished.
"What now, chief?" asked Alice.
"If you can somehow tear open a spot in her armor, I could finish her off."
"Easy enough."
Alice blitzed the Knight, knocking her to the ground. She lunged her razor-sharp nails at the knight who managed to dodge it. She then grabbed Alice by the throat and began choking her out. With all her strength, Alice kicked the knight in the chest as she was being choked, breaking the armor apart.
Yoshi sheathed his sword once again. When he unsheathed it, water once again spawned at the end of it. He ran up to the knight in a blink of an eye. The knight barely had time to block, but she still managed to grab her sword to cover her exposed chest. However, she forgot she had Alice in her other hand.
Alice managed to kick her sword out of her hands right as Yoshi thrusted his sword forward. The knight erupted in an explosion of water from Yoshi's sword, making them both fly back into a pillar in the room.
"Are you ok?" asked Yoshi concerningly.
"Y-Yeah, I'm fine. Though, I can say with full certainty, I don't like being choked."
Yoshi couldn't help but let out a chuckle from hearing her say that. He gave her a hand up. The knight wasn't the core though. It was the chair. Alice originally couldn't break it, due to the forcefield around it. But now, all she had to do was walk up and crush it.
So, she walked up to it and did exactly that. The castle was destroyed and they spawned back outside. Alice was still in a daze. Yoshi asked her about what she saw, but she declined to answer.
"Geez, that was quite a nice workout." Belle said while stretching. "This also means we're closer to aether class."
"Belle, are you ok?" asked Alice concerningly. "You're bleeding."
"Yeah, I'm fine. What, are you worried about me?" she asked smugly.
"N-No!" Alice said while blushing and turning from Belle.
"Aww, she's so tsundere."
"Quiet you."
"Alice, Belle, lock in." commanded Yoshi. "We're still not done here."
"There's more?"
"According to Taiyo, this wasn't a naturally occurring anomaly. It was one created by Derozues."
"You mean the terrorist organization?"
"Yeah. Alice, do you smell anything?"
Alice sniffed around in the air. At first, she couldn't smell anything. But then, her senses started to kick back in and she caught a wiff of anomalous odor nearly a kilometer away.
"I got it! Follow me."
The 3 ran through the town at midnight. It was so dark, that no one could see them as they jumped from house rooftop to house rooftop. Alice followed the scent to a warehouse on the outskirts of town.
There were several dead people in the warehouse. At least 30. In the center of all the bodies was a woman with long pink hair, pink eyes, and a rook chess piece necklace. She was much stronger than the anomaly they just fought. She was at least the same strength as the moth they fought several weeks back. The 3 could tell from her aura alone that she was a problem. The woman turned around to face the 3 of them.