Fog lazily flowed out around Avalon, as he activated his fog of war skills. After I had explained the skills to my allies, it had been decided I would play the role of scout. While I couldn’t use the skill to detect things personally, I could read Avalons body language and wait until he gave a sign that our opponents had been found.

Heading out with me was Muld and Silver. It had been decided that Cleopatra and Scale would stay behind, as their monsters would likely be the best for adapting to whatever attacks were made on our flag.

That left Muld, Silver, and I to attack. My role was obviously to find the enemies flag, as well as to play support using Avalons strength skill, as well as our healing skill. Once the flag was found, Muld’s golem would steamroll over whatever defenses they had and either take the flag itself, or depending on the situation, Silver’s fox would take it and retreat back to our flag as fast as possible.

It was simple, which was for the best when you don't fully understand what you are up against. Too many moving parts would just cause a plan to collapse as soon as it encountered a complication.

I'd have liked to have said I was the one to come up with it, but to be honest Cleopatra had taken charge for most of it, being what seemed to be a naturally talented strategist. Considering that the main ability of demon lords was to create armies, I would need to improve as well.

“Hey Gem, could you slow down a little?” Muld called out to me.

He and Silver both were sitting on his golem, riding its broad shoulders. Silver’s fox was even being carried in its arms, letting them all save their energy since golems were tireless.

On the other hand, I rode Avalon. It was hard not to go too far ahead since as much as the golem was tireless, it wasn’t coordinated enough to be able to run without dropping everyone, and besides the sound of a golems loud stomps as it run would paint a huge target on us.

Then again, we were walking out in the open on the edge of a plain, so we were hardly that hidden. I could have possibly hidden us with my fog, except then we wouldn’t be able to see where we were going either, and Avalon didn’t seem to have the fine control over the fog that would be required to make it thicker at a distance and thinner closer to us.

I noticed Avalon focusing on a point in the distance and slowed down. Patting him on the neck, I tried turning him to the side but he whinnied and kept looking at the same point.

“Hey guys, I think Avalon’s found em.” I called out behind me.

“Who is Avalon?” Muld asked.

“It’s the horse.” Silver said, with a sigh.

“We won’t have too much of a surprise advantage, as I’m sure they realize this fog isn’t natural.” I said.

“How many are there?” Silver asked.

“I have no idea. I can’t exactly ask Avalon to hold up fingers.”

“The snark wasn’t necessary.”

“Guys, shouldn’t we be getting ready for a fight?” Muld asked nervously.

“Not quite yet. We should stay cautious, but the fog got pretty far out before Avalon noticed anyone, so we still have at least a minute or two of walking left.” I said.

“Only a minute? How come he can’t see them yet?” Muld asked.

“They must be in the forest itself. See where the trees sort of curve around that hill ahead of us? I think they are right behind that.” I said.

“If that’s true, they’ve probably already seen us. They’d have to be idiots not to have a scout in one of those trees.” Silver pointed out.

“Shit you’re right. Then… what should we do? We can’t let them set up an ambush for us.” I said.

“We wouldn’t be able to get over there fast enough to stop them from setting up one if they really do see us.” Muld said.

“Store your unicorn and hop on the golem with us. I’d love to see them try to ambush this walking boulder.” Silver said.

I quickly use [Store Monster] on Avalon and climbed up on top of the golems head. Not the greatest place to sit, especially as I had to make sure my feet weren’t blocking the golems eyes. Apparently they did in fact rely on normal sight.

“Aren’t we kind of easier targets sitting this high up?” I asked no one in particular.

“It might be a good idea to get off once we get closer to the enemy flag, but I don’t think they will be able to reach us from-” Silver was cut off as the golem hurriedly dropped Silver’s fox to the ground and lifted up a hand.

The golem rocked backwards as flashes of light struck its arm. Muld, Silver, and I jumped off the golem and I summoned Avalon. I only just climbed up there dammit, couldn’t they have let me sit up there for a few minutes at least to make the climb worth it. Seriously, it’s hard to find handholds on a stone humanoid…

More flashes of light struck out from atop the hill. Seeing small chips of rock flying off the golems arm, I made Avalon cover the golem with fog and activate [Fog of War - Strength]. Healing wasn’t an option as it only worked on living creatures I realized after attempting to use [Healing Hands] as well.

I nearly jumped as yet another volley of light rained down on us. Shit, what do we do next? Was this a bad time to realize I might not be the best under pressure? At least the strength boost seemed to be helping, as the golem seemed to be fully warding off whatever it is we were being hit by.

“We need to get up there. Gem ride whatever is attacking down, i’ll cover you!” Silver shouted at me, seeing me freezing up.

I didn’t respond, instead just hopping on Avalon’s back and nodding. Silver and her fox began to glow, and after a moment streaks of silver light shot out from them. 

[Silver Shot]

We had discussed all of our skills before leaving as part of our preparation for battle. This happened to be the one Silver had gotten from her fox after binding. We had tested it, and it seemed to be about as useful as a normal arrow, albeit you didn’t need a bow to use it.

I pushed Avalon to a full gallop, as we raced up the hill, my glaive at the ready. Silver streaks raced past my head, Silver covering me as promised. I looked over the hill but couldn’t see where our enemies were.

Should I keep going? Was I being led into a trap? Shit, shit, shit, why couldn’t I have gotten the battlefield temperament of that badass gnoll that appeared in my memories. I bet he would have known what to do. 

Forwards is the only option. Hesitate now and the long ranged attacker will only come back, easily taking you out where you stood in the open.

Instincts that weren’t mine urged me not to stop, and I stopped hesitating. I didn’t stop panicking of course, I had a feeling I would need to explore more of my inheritance before that happened, but this was already more help than I expected. Can’t deny the battle wisdom of a creature capable of slaughtering an army, right?

Of course, my initial fears were proven correct as I rounded over the hill and was nearly knocked off Avalon by a burst of light hitting my chest. Before I could even check the damage, I felt warmth wash over me as Avalon began to heal me. 

God, that really was a good skill. With that, plus a strength skill boosting me, I might actually survive this-

Three more hits crashed into me and for a moment my vision went fuzzy. Somehow I kept a grip on Avalon’s mane but fuck that hurt. He didn’t have an unlimited well of power to draw from though, so I needed to get out of this situation fast before the healing ran out.

Thankfully, Muld’s golem finally caught up to me, having ran as well, and stood in front of me as a human shield. Finally a bit safe, I examined the opposition.

The first thing I noticed was what was shooting at us… a small black cat? Balls of light congealed around it before being launched at the golem, confirming that the cat really was the one attacking us.

[Analyze]

Bonded

Cat Trait - Body

Wizard Trait - Role

Hurricane Trait - Affinity

Please, please, please don’t actually have the ability to create a hurricane right now. Our golem was holding up pretty well so far, and could possibly survive some pretty extreme winds, but I doubted it would be able to defend us from a hurricane.

Near the cat was the flag, as well as what I assumed were the rest of the defenders. Two demon lords and a bear. 

[Analyze]

Bonded

Bear Trait - Body

Cleric Trait - Role

Venom Trait - Affinity

Dammit, they had a healer too! Not only that, but there’s hadn’t already used up a bunch of energy healing. While examining the opposition, Silver and Muld caught up.

“We should just advance on them slowly, it looks like we have a major advantage here thanks to the golem.” Silver said.

Muld winced. “Not quite. That cat has started aiming at the head and is hitting the same spot over and over. I think it might actually get through and that will be able to kill it.”

“Then let’s just rush them?” I said, heart pounding and unwilling to stand still for long while we were attacked. They hadn’t made a move yet for some reason, but I doubted their passiveness would last and something in me told me not to let them take the initiative here.

“...Guess we don’t have a choice. How about the golem takes the bear, my fox will handle the cat, and you go grab that flag? Muld and I can also try dealing with the enemy demon lords.” Silver said. Muld and I both nodded, and braced ourselves.

“Ready? Go!”

The golem took out in a run towards the bear, and Silver’s fox released a volley of silver at the cat to match its volley of light. Trusting them to hold down our enemies, I charged towards the flag. At the same time, I had Avalon thicken the fog directly around us, hoping to make it at least a little harder to hit me. 

Our enemies tried to stop us, but with their monsters being held back, as well as Silver and Muld engaging the enemy demon lords directly, they just simply didn’t have the manpower to stop us. Three versus two sure was nice, though if they were having trouble due to being outnumbered, I had to wonder how Scale and Cleopatra were doing…

I grabbed the flag and immediately had Avalon turn, now rushing back the way we came. Again, I made Avalon make the fog thicker, attempting to completely obscure my presence. I could no longer see my allies, but at this point it hardly mattered as all we needed to win was for me to get back to our flag area without our enemies stealing ours and getting back here first.

It was a race against time in a sense, as I had no clue how successful our enemies had been. I pushed Avalon forwards and he felt my urgency, giving it his all.

We hadn’t even walked that far, it had only taken fifteen minutes at most. At a full gallop it shouldn’t even take five.

How long had it been? Not that long. It felt like time was stretching as my world became nothing but grey fog.

It shouldn’t be that much longer-

“Please stop.”

Suddenly the fog thinned, Avalon tripped, and I was thrown from the unicorns back. I heard Avalon whinny in pain as he twisted an angle in his fall.

I rushed to his side, and started to heal him. What the hell had that been?

My question was answered as a short, black haired girl appeared from the fog. She held a ball of blue slime in her hands, which she cradled as if it were a puppy.

[Analyze]

Bonded

Slime Trait - Body

Steward Trait - Role

Psychic Trait - Affinity

Well this looked… troublesome. I met her eyes and she quickly looked away, blushing.

“H-hi. I’m Luna, what’s your name?”

“Gemstone.” The words felt forced out of me. Shit, did she seriously have a mind control skill?

“It’s, uhm, nice to meet you Gemstone. I’m really, really sorry about this but I can’t let you take that! Please drop the flag.” Somehow she seemed genuinely apologetic as she gave the command. 

I tried my best not to, but I couldn’t stop my hand from opening and letting the flag drop to the ground. Don’t tell me this girl was with the attackers. With her ability, she could have just asked nicely and taken the flag away from us. 

Did we just lose? Could we really not beat this skill? She couldn’t have gotten an ability that broken, could she? 

Mental abilities are rarely absolute. Narrow your mind and put all your focus into a single command. Force this command into your very being so that there can be nothing.

Calm down Gem, you can do this. Focus, focus. Grab the flag and ride Avalon back to our flag pole. Easy enough, right?

“Please don’t move. I don’t know what’s taking my team so long but they should be finished delivering your flag to our base. This is just a mock battle so wouldn’t it be best if we don’t fight?”

My body froze and suddenly all I wanted to do was give up. This was just a mock battle, whats the point in fighting-

Grab the flag. Just grab the flag. Don’t over complicate.

Grab the flag. Grab the flag. Grab the flag.

“Please put that back down! You don’t have to do this!”

Deliver the flag.

Deliver the flag. Deliver the flag. Deliver the flag. Deliver the flag. Deliver the flag.

“I- I really- Lazarus help me!”

Suddenly, the slime that had been sitting in Luna’s arms shot forwards, causing me to stumble back. I ran forwards ignoring the slime, focusing only on delivering the flag. 

“No- don’t- get away from me!”

While she focused on me running away, Avalon charged at her before she used her mind control skill to force him back.

“Please come back Gemstone!”

Deliver the flag. Deliver the flag. Deliver the flag. Deliver the flag. Deliver the flag. Deliver the flag. Deliver the flag. Deliver the flag. Deliver the flag.

I repeated the words in my head like a mantra. I ran and ran, not noticing as my breath breath grew ragged, not even noticing that our flag was gone by the time I returned to our base, focusing only on delivering the flag.

I thought I heard shouting, but everything around me was hazy. Finally, I place the flag down and the world around me came back into focus.

“...oh. We lost.” Luna caught up behind me, panting.

Out of breath myself, I wasn’t able to respond as fog surrounded our feet and we sank into it.

Myewphi

Im.... actually super proud of this chapter??? Im still nowhere close to where I want to be with my writing ability, but I also feel like this is 20 times better than my other chapters. Like maybe im patting myself on the back too much but I feel like I actually managed to add some suspense and tension and just... emotion into this chapter, and if i truly managed to im super happy cause combat scenes are s u p e r hard for me to do

That being said, I know I have lots to improve lol so feel free yall to point out any mistakes you see! Also another reminder to stick to the chapters that dont say (Unedited) in there titles cause they might not match up right with these newly edited chapters.

Hope yall are enjoying the story!