Three minutes later, after Servi had fired forty-five more arrows to be swallowed by the thick cloud of smoke, she received an order.  

“Back up! Skill Users, use Judas Shield!” 

All at once, a chorus of ten people all shouted as a mystical glow of yellow dust covered the floor they were on. The incoming skills and arrows bounced off the glowing substance as it instantly exploded.  

Servi and the others fell to the ground and braced themselves for what came next. When the gold smoke disappeared, a beautiful shield engraved with spears, flying horses, and a lone man sitting at a table enclosed them. It spanned the entire floor, multiplying itself over and over again until it covered them from all sides.  Then it spread out and started to cover the whole building. However, the process was slow, and it would take some time for the entire building to be protected.

“Now, prepare Fulgur Spike and the Lightning Fields! Everyone, shoot through the Judas Shield into the Lightning Fields and hit the Fulgur Spike. Don’t worry about the explosion! The Judas Shield will protect us!” the Elf shouted.  

Suddenly, it felt like the very core of the world shattered as the space above the battlefield distorted in a wavy pattern of energy. Servi steadied herself as the building rumbled, and she rushed to the splintered window. As arrows and skills bounced off the ever-protective Judas Shield, Servi stared in pure wonder as the sky folded away from itself. A few long moments later, a black object filled with spikes, as tall as two Kobolds and as wide as six Dwarves, exploded the atmosphere as a wave of air pressure blanketed across the battlefield and scattered the ever-growing smoke. 

For the first time since the battle began, Servi bore witness to the destruction she had caused. Countless bodies littered the few hundred meters of space in front of her. Women, men, children, and even animals made up the fallen as hundreds of red souls emerged from the corpses. Making a beeline for her, they rapidly made a home inside her ring.  

In a few areas, the filthy ground had been covered in so much blood it couldn't absorb any more. It was like a flowing carpet of crimson that whisked away whenever the wind blew. The narrow alleyways between the buildings were covered in soot from the fire, and bodies littered them. No doubt some of the people here weren’t warriors, and they tried to escape from the burning buildings by jumping from the windows. The poor Monotonia-drugged bastards decided that an instant death from landing on their heads was more preferable than the slow, agonizing pain of choking and burning to death.  

In the moments after the monstrous spike made itself known, anyone who was still alive had ducked for cover behind the ever-growing line of metallic walls. The top had curled into a sharp, soft arc, and it wasn't something an archer could just shoot around.

Behind the walls of metal, Servi saw a woman peek her head out as she shouted a single command. It was the same woman in shiny armor that protected the elderly man with the scrolls.  “TAKE OUT THE BUILDING!!! PREVENT THEM FROM USING FULGUR SPIKE!!! AIM FOR ITS SUPPORTS AND THE GROUND IT STANDS ON!!!  JUDAS SHIELD ISN'T FULLY DEPLOYED!!!!!! REINFORCEMENTS!!!!”  

Like moths to a flame, hundreds of people dressed head to toe in protective equipment poured out from the surrounded buildings. Most had kite or tower shields, and they stood next to each other with them at the ready to block arrows or skills. Those with staffs raised them high in the sky as a swirling red blast of energy grew from a spot a few centimeters in front of them.  

“NOW, USE EXPLOSION TO BRING IT DOWN!!!” the woman in shiny armor shouted as she raised her own spear.  

The Elven commander shouted the opposite and ordered everyone to shoot through the newly formed Lightning Fields. They were shaped like frozen lightning that had been fattened up, but it was blue and translucent.  “EVEN IF THE BUILDING FALLS, WE HAVE TO CHARGE UP THE FULGUR SPIKE!!!! JUDAS SHIELD USERS, DON'T FUCKING STOP!!!!!” After tossing his crossbow to the floor and picking up a spare bow, the Elven commander began shooting. The metallic tip of his arrows charged with electricity, and once it neared the rapidly descending Fulgur Spike, it exploded into a cobalt-colored mist full of charged particles.  

Servi joined in and fired as fast as she could as the building's base was assaulted by a plethora of skills. Greater Fireball warmed the filthy bricks and weakened them as Greater Iceball froze the bricks and tanked the surrounding temperature. Greater Lightning Bolt pierced through the more important support beams. Even with how powerful Judas Shield was, it still had a few floors left to go before the entire building was protected. 

The building tilted, but it remained upright. Servi lost her balance and rolled backwards, but she readily recovered and let off three arrows in half a second. The misty blue field with electrified particles became bigger and thicker, but a panicked sentence from the Elven Captain forced everyone’s fears to come true.  “THAT’S NOT ENOUGH!!! WE NEED MORE!!! AND JUDAS SHIELD, HURRY THE FUCK UP!!!! THE BUILDING IS ABOUT TO FUCKING FALL!!!!” he shouted as one of the support beams exploded into icy dust. The building shook again. The skill users then focused on speed rather than defense, and the Judas Shield started to cover the building faster than it had done before at the cost of protective ability.

On the ground, one of the Skill Users decided to aim at the floor below where the Mafia was at when he realized what was happening. "AIM RIGHT BELOW THOSE BASTARDS!!! THEY'RE FOCUSING ON SPEED!!!! A few others joined in with him.

Thanks to Instant Cast, six back-to-back Explosions launched from their jewel-encrusted staffs continuously broke through the already formed Judas Shield. Before it had a chance to hastily regenerate, a few more Explosions snuck through, shattering apart stone and weakening the building even more. 

After releasing such powerful attacks, the users’ Skill Energy Reservoir were emptied out, and they immediately lost consciousness. As they were being dragged behind the iron-like walls produced by Metal Wall, the shiny armored woman glanced up and smiled. With nothing to support the floor, it collapsed, bringing the Mafia bastards down with it.  All it took was a quick second for a powerful skill to squeeze through while Judas Shield regenerated. If only her foes had separated into two groups, with one starting Judas Shield from the bottom and the other from the top, they maybe would have stood a chance. But she couldn't expect such sound strategy from stupid criminals.

“BRACE YOURSELVES!!!” the Elf Captain shouted as he fell to the floor below. The weakening foundation couldn’t take the sheer weight of thirty people and the floors above it, and it gave out like wet paper. What followed was a series of chain reactions in which the building gradually fell apart.

After a final wave of Explosion took out the last support beam on the bottom floor, the entire building rumbled down. People screamed, others prayed to the Gods Above, and a few even hopped out one of the broken windows as gravity accelerated the building’s tumble.

“Shit…” Servi silently cursed as she gathered her balance. With no time to spare, Servi leapt from the building and watched as the ground rapidly closed in. At the last second, she used Feather Fall to gently touch down. Feigning injury, she falsely cried out in pain and crawled away. The collapsing building produced a thick cloud of brown and black dust that provided enough cover for her to skedaddle behind a large piece of rubble.   

The Judas Shield became affected by gravity when it had no one to channel the energy it needed to stay airborne, and it collided with the ground, bouncing and nearly causing an earthquake in the process. When Servi realized her rubble wasn't behind Judas Shield, she promptly crawled behind a large rock protected by the shield and took out her dagger.

“WE NEED MORE METAL WALLS!!” a man yelled.  

“USE JUDAS SHIELD!” 

“THERE’S NO TIME! IF YOU HAVE IT, USE PROIECTURA CLYPEUS!!!” shouted another woman.  

The Fulgur Spike absorbed the remaining blue particles and glowed a terrifying azure. Spinning in place, it slowly descended towards the ground as the wind became charged with thick visible particles.  The lightning field in play was utterly destroyed, disintegrating into pure Skill Energy.

Fulgur Spike would impact and explode within ten seconds.  

Immediately, hundreds and hundreds of walls, both from Earth Wall and Metal Wall, created a dome around the line of Metal Walls, but that wasn’t all. Metal Walls upon Earth Walls upon Metal Walls almost reached the very sky as they continued to stack on top of each other.  

Five seconds from impact, sixty light shields produced by Proiectura Clypeus enclosed the falling spike in an attempt to slow it down, but that was useless. The light shattered and faded black as the Fulgur Spike accelerated.  

“GET DOW—” before the armored woman finished her command, the forthcoming black spike of certain death touched the ground. Instantaneously, a wave of lightning assaulted everything in a 200-meter radius. Stone turned to dust, dust evaporated, and both scattered for thousands of meters, covering a good portion of Arcton under a blanket of thick dust as lightning cackled about at the Fulgur Spike's epicenter.

The crackling produced by the lightning was enough to severely injure everyone’s eardrums, and the god-like power of the sharp electricity zipped throughout the massive dome of Metal Walls. They weakened and crumbled, but new ones appeared in their place instantly.  

“AAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!” the terrified cries of fear were drowned out by the lightning, whose rage continued unrivaled for a total of thirty seconds as it blanketed everything in blue flashes. After that, the Fulgur Spike skill had done its job, but it was only a quarter of the way charged. And as it exploded into one final ball of lightning that splashed electricity on everything in a range of 200 meters, the black spike crumbled into dust and slowly floated to the ground below.  

Servi, hiding behind the fallen Judas Shield, peaked her head over and nervously chuckled at the destruction.  

“The buildings…the grass…even the ground… it’s fucking gone. It’s all gone…” 

The many buildings that used to stand tall and proud weren’t there anymore. There wasn't any debris, no traces of any stones, and even the furniture inside the buildings had vanished. It was like looking at the remnants of a war zone after it had been ravished by a force of pure destruction. The only thing standing was the dome of walls produced by Earth and Metal Wall, but even then, more than 95% of the defenses had been lost in the thirty seconds of pure chaos. The last five percent had faded and crumbled with the final explosion.  

“Itarr, now that there are no walls, I see what we were truly up against. Fuck Carmelo… We never could’ve done what he wanted us to do with only thirty men and a fucking decrepit building,” Servi said as she stopped counting at 168 people. The majority of them covered and nursed their ears, but quite a few had their weapons at the ready. Servi peeked back down behind the rubble she took cover, and the Judas Shield crumbled into yellow dust as it all floated to the sky. The impressive defensive shield had done its duty.  

Groans of pain quietly echoed from her left and right, and she discovered she was the only one in fighting shape. The Elven Captain hadn’t made it. His body, torn in half from landing on a sharp piece of rubble, laid a few meters away from each other. She saw other Mafia members with missing arms, crushed heads, and impaled chests. Some were utterly crushed underneath the larger pieces of rubble, becoming a fleshy pancake.  

“THAT’LL SHOW THOSE DAMN MAFIA MEMBERS!! WE’VE WON!!!” Servi’s scouting was interrupted by a shrill voice. Peaking over the rubble protected by the late Judas Shield, she saw a heavy-set woman with no hair. Twin staffs rested in her overgrown palms as her chest quickened from a lack of air.  

“Listen up! The battle over, and we’re the victors. Surrender to us now, and your death will be swift and painless! If you choose not to, then we'll agonizingly annihilate you all!” shouted the armored woman who protected the elderly man with the scrolls. Despite her best effort and healing, the burns and wounds were too much to come back from, and he perished a few minutes after the attack started.  

Servi’s ID summoned itself and floated into her arms.  

What are you going to do? Itarr asked.  

“Carmelo intended for us to die, but I plan to come back alive. However, if they know where Momo's at, then I’ll join them. I doubt they do, but it’s a chance I’m willing to take. Besides, if that doesn't work out, then I have to resort to what I do best.” 

What’s that? 

Servi grinned and retrieved a crossbow from her ring.  “Killing.” 

---

“Tammy, I know you’re sad about Elk, but he’s dead. Remember, he knew death was waiting for him,” a heavy woman said to the slim, armored girl. She had removed her glove, and her hand traced the ground. Thanks to the Fulgur Spike, the hard rocks had been tossed away. Only the smooth, sand-like particles remained.  

“I know, but he was like a father! He’s the one who took us in. Maggie, what do I do?” Tammy said, forming a fist and punching the ground. The dust scattered and flew away. The man she had failed to save was the one who saved her from a life of torture and abuse.  

Maggie slammed the two staffs into the ground and crouched until she was at eye level with Tammy. After winning the battle at the cost of Elk and Tammy's companions dying, it was all too much for the battle-hardened girl to take. Her eyes glistened with wet tears.

“I saw his will. He wanted you to lead us after he passed away.” Maggie smiled. She had fond memories of Elk since she was his blood daughter, but the heavy-set woman had made her peace with his death many months ago when she found out about his sickness. With a contract from the elusive nobles of New Arcton, he realized his frail old body didn’t have that much left to give. Elk also realized Tammy had to grow away from her dependency on him if she wanted to grow into a fantastic woman. Tammy and Maggie had been opposed to the Corner Bank mission, but Elk had a way with words. His gentle and baritone voice could soothe and calm the hearts of anyone.

“But why me?!” Tammy complained. Her sharp words brought Maggie out from a daydream.  

In retaliation, she raised a thick hand smacked the one she considered to be her sister. Immediately after, she embraced the shaking girl in a tight hug and exposed her heart.  

“Because he believed in you! Look, after he died, you took complete control of this mission. You barked out commands and gave orders like he did. In a way, it was a final task to see if you were up to the job. Commanding the Wind Zeppelins isn’t an easy task. Hell, you remember the mission back near Waveret a few months back, right? Remember the—” 

In between large tears, Tammy reminisced about those few days that changed her core way of thinking. She had hated guarding that chubby noble, but she and the Wind Zeppelins were rewarded with a memorable party.  

“Yeah, I remember… Hey, remember what Elk said he wanted to do? When all this shit was over with?” Tammy asked.  

Maggie howled with laughter. “Yeah, I do. He said, and I quote: ‘I’m tired of sleeping on these fucking rocks! I got dirt in my ass, dirt in my dick, and dirt in my fucking ears and mouth! I can’t even go two goddamn steps without breathing this shitty smell in. When we get paid, I’m retiring. I’ll buy a bar and fill it up with cheap liquor. That way, I can get drunk when I want, where I want.’ 

“You sounded like him,” Tammy quietly said. Her foster father was dead. She wouldn’t ever listen to his crude humor, his unexpected antics after downing two barrels of alcohol, and she wouldn’t smell the fruity cigarettes he’d puff on before each battle.  

And as her mind enjoyed the memories she shared with him, a stray question from Darn brought her back to reality.  

“Hey, isn’t it supposed to be in the afternoon? Then why is it getting darker?” he innocently asked as he looked up. The bright sun blinded him, which caused his fellow member to smack him upside the head.  

“Don’t look at the sun directly, Darn. Hold your hand like this, yeah?” The man raised his tanned arm and curled his hand.  

Darn wasn’t the sharpest tool in the toolbox, but he had a good heart. He couldn’t kill, but he could heal, and he was damn good at it. During the battle, he had been in command of one of the teams focused on healing and providing support. Three hip pouches full of empty potions proved that.  

“Thanks, man!” Darn smiled and held his tattooed hand above his eyes. Even with that, he didn’t know what had blocked out the sun.  

But then the mysterious object grew. And it grew. And it grew more and more until everyone alive had stopped and looked up at the growing dark spot.  

Tammy stood up and ran to Darn while putting on her glove. Maggie slammed both staffs into the ground and chanted. A short moment later, the crimson heads of both weapons glowed and unleashed a wide burst of flame that soared high in the sky.  

The red beast engulfed as many arrows as it could, and cheers and applause went around in celebration.  

But the cheering and clapping immediately stopped when the fire lost the fight to gravity and discovered the mysterious object still littered the sky. But more than that, it looked like it grew wider and taller, and the shadow it cast felt ominous and frightening, like it wanted to swallow everything it covered.  

“Tammy, what do—” 

“Those are…” Tammy began to say. As she took out a set of binoculars from her Dimensional Storage, she saw the familiar blue pulsing line of energy travel down the shaft of the faraway objects. “Nadrium arrows? Arrows?! Wha—” 

Maggie rushed forward and held both staffs high in the sky as the other members of the Wind Zeppelins took notice of the arrows that seemed as if they were frozen in the sky.  

From far away, Darn saw something move out of the corner of his eye, and he pulled a brown shield off his back.  

“Tammy,” he said, “Someone’s still alive. She—” 

“That’s right. You didn’t kill everyone!” From behind the few remaining pieces of rubble, one of the few survivors made herself know. With lavender hair and a single blue eye, a girl skipped over the rubble and slowly walked towards the group of mercenaries. All at once, the remaining Wind Zeppelins pulled weapons from sheaths, drew bowstrings, unhooked hammers and axes, and pointed staffs at the unknown girl.

Servi dropped her bow to the ground and held her hands up. “Look, I can clearly see I was on the wrong side of this fight. That’s why I want to make a compromise.” She pointed up towards the ever-growing collection of nadrium death that threatened to rain down upon them.  

“What do you want?” Tammy asked. She held her arms towards the mysterious foe, and Greater Fireball was on the tip of her tongue. If she didn’t like her opponent's answer, she would vaporize her enemy.  

“Look, I’m trying to find a friend. She was kidnapped by the Mafia. Her name’s Momo. Have you heard anything?” 

“Why should we answer you?!” Darn yelled as tears flowed from his brown eyes. “You killed our friends, and now you want us to help you?!” 

“Darn, calm down,” Tammy barked at Darn, and he tearfully nodded. The poor souls he couldn’t save haunted him, and he hated the fact one of those responsible for so much death was standing in front of him asking for help. “But he does have a point. What do we get if you help us?” 

“Wow, you’re heartless, aren’t you? Here I am, standing all alone after I killed a lot of people. Well, I’ll answer your question. It’s a simple answer. You. Get. To. Live. Tell me if you know, and you can survive another day. Hell, I’ll even pay you.” 

“Look, lassie, you’re surrounded. We have an army. You just have one person. Besides, one person can’t be responsible for…all...of that!” Maggie swirled and pointed her staff at the frozen nadrium projectiles. “I bet my bottom dupla it’s an illusion skill. Probably Multiple Projection, if I had to guess. If you have a nadrium arrow, that explains it. You only copied its appearance, and those things are only astral projections meant to scare us."

“And she’s right, too. If you wanted to bluff, you should’ve come up with something better. Besides, you killed my father. Maybe not you specifically, but your side shot the arrow that ended his life. You have nothing you can say—” 

“What about if I give up Deset’s location?” Servi interrupted Tammy's sentence.

“Lassie, we’re mercenaries. We go to whoever has the money to pay us. Those stuffy nobles paid us a lot of money to protect that underground entrance to the Corner Bank. It’s more dupla that anything a young girl like you could provide,” Maggie said. She gripped the red wooden handles of her staffs and pointed them both at Servi.  

“Itarr, like I said earlier, I realized this didn’t have a chance in hell of working. Fuck it, release the hold.” 

Very well. Are you going to take cover? 

Twisting on her heels, Servi crossed her arms behind her back and whistled as she walked away.  

“Tammy, give the order!” Maggie smashed the head of her staffs together as her mouth chanted. A red ball, smaller than a pinhead, appeared, and it rapidly grew to a hellacious orb the size of a Kobold. Liquid crimson, hotter than even boiling water, rose in temperature until the outer red shell cracked. The red liquid hardened the moment it touched air and wiggled until it was a long spear in the shape of a snake. The spear's head had two snake-like tongues, sharper than even the sharpest sword, and the four fangs were at the ready to snap down.  

This was the Rank 2 skill known as Serpent Flame Spear. For what it lacked in area-of-effect damage, it made up for in the sheer destructive quality. Once the sharpened tongues pierced an object, the red head of the spear would bite down, and the liquid crimson, superheated to an unimaginable temperature, would be injected into whatever it bit.

In other words, they would almost be boiled alive via their bloodstream. It was a skill that was nearly impossible to survive and almost even harder to wield, but when something needed to die, like a criminal or a ferocious monster, Serpent Flame Spear was the go-to skill.  

“Surely that isn’t necessary! She’s a single girl!” Tammy yelled as she fired off two Greater Fireballs. They were aimed directly at Servi. The moment before they would’ve burned her back and head, Servi dropped to the floor and rolled forward, dodging the terrible flames.  

“Nice dodge, but how about this!” Maggie slammed the head of her staffs into the handle of her Serpent Flame Spear and used a series of Greater Fireballs to further accelerate her thrown spear.

“Not good enough!” Servi yelled as she turned on her heels. Dodging to the side at the right moment, she gripped the superheated handle and used the spear’s momentum to turn around. After three revolutions, she removed her grip and watched as the spear’s creator narrowly used Metal Wall to protect herself.  

The tongues of the Serpent Flame Spear pierced the metal, and the four fangs extended. After they latched onto their non-living prey, the shot liquid instantly melted the wall like an abandoned ice cube in a desert.  

“Tammy!” Maggie yelled. Her heavy chest breathed in and out, and adrenaline coursed through her very body. The fear of death would be with her for a while.  

Servi twisted on her heels while Tammy opened her mouth to give the order. After refolding her arms behind her back and whistling a tune, Servi heard Itarr apologize for the wait.