2249 Second Strike (Part 1)
Not only were the assailants faster and stronger than Phloria, but their casting speed was leagues above her own.
At Phloria's level, she was still learning how to weave tier three spells with her body. To make matters worse, Reaver was unparalleled when ambushing someone and terrible when its master was the victim of the ambush.
The assailant on her right blocked Phloria's slash with his Adamant-coated right hand while punching her in the side with the left. Years of experience told her the moment they made contact that the enemy wasn't human.
Yet it was already too late.
The hand on her blade weighed like a mountain while the punch was so heavy that it bent the Adamant of her Featherwalker armor. The impact broke her ribs and punctured her lung, sealing her breathing technique.
The shapeshifted creature took no risks and punched her left side as well.
Even though she had a healing spell in her magic holding ring, Phloria had taken so much damage that when she activated it, she fainted from exhaustion before her lungs recovered enough to use Invigoration.
At the same time, the assailant blocking Celbas' right arm grew in size, turning out to be a Seven Headed Dragon.
"Nothing personal, kid." Ufyl breathed Origin Flames from all of his mouths, burning the Griffon's body, mana, and the Life Maelstrom empowering him.
At the same time, the assailant blocking the left arm transformed into a Sekhmet, stinging Celbas' back with her tail. The acid dug a hole through the Adamant armor protecting the Griffon and reached his spine.
Celbas fell to the ground, his body paralyzed from the waist down as he screamed in agony from the violet flames that now ate at him inside and out.
"Target E acquired. I repeat, target E acquired." The creature holding Phloria's limp body said in a communicator amulet.
"Copy that." Thrud's voice replied. "One of you bring the package to the nest. The rest will remain on standby. Target V has yet to be acquired."
"What about him? Do we kill him?" Ufyl pointed at the agonizing Griffon who was still struggling to survive.
"And risk antagonizing an entire Griffon bloodline?" Iata replied with a sneer. "We already have trouble facing the joined forces of the Kingdom and the Council. The True Queen has no need for more enemies."
A wave of her paw extinguished the Origin Flames and healed Celbas enough to ensure his survival but not enough to resume the fight.
"I'm sorry, kid, but this is war. Unless you think that a woman you barely know is worth the risk, you'd better stay out of it." Then, she healed the Griffon completely and exhaustion made him faint.
"What if he's a romantic idiot and gets involved in the war anyway?" Ufyl hated leaving a witness alive but Iata outranked him.
"If he does, then it will be him attacking us and if we kill him, it will be out of self-defense." Iata sighed at the Dragon's hot-headed naivety. "This time he was an innocent bystander. If we killed him, his bloodline would have hunted us down.
"If he looks for trouble and dies in the process, instead, no one will care. War is a dirty business, Ufyl, but that doesn't mean we have to make it even dirtier."
***
Duchy of Essagor, outside the Yrfal school, on the way to Zogar Vastor's home.
Life at school was difficult for Zinya's children but especially for Filia.
She was older than Frey and she had always attended schools for commoners.
Compared to her schoolmates she was uneducated, crude, and painfully oblivious to many things that were supposed to be second nature to noble kids.
Filia had reached twelve years of age, the moment when a youth with great magical powers would enroll in one of the six great academies. Noble children with mediocre talent would get admitted into a minor academy but with her orange core, Filia couldn't do that either.
To make matters worse, she was Vastor's stepdaughter.
Everyone knew that her real father was an executed criminal and her mother an alleged gold digger. With no parent to be proud of and her family lacking a single speck of magic or blue blood, Filia was the perfect target for bullies.
At least until they met her pet, an odd red hybrid between a wolf and a fox. The creature was as big as a pony, but what terrified any sane person with a shred of survival instinct was his smile.
After looking Tezka in the fangs, no one wanted to repeat the experience. He had no need to talk or make threats. Anyone looking in his big, round eyes could see a whole graveyard filled with his dead enemies and a freshly dug hole ready to accommodate a new guest.
Vastor had gotten permission for the pets to follow Frey and Filia everywhere and take part in the lessons. The Headmaster wasn't really happy with it, but refusing a favor to the Archmage who was also the ruler of the land usually led to early retirement.
No noble or mage wanted to make an enemy of the Professor in charge of the Light Magic department of the White Griffon. Quite the contrary, they did everything they could to curry his favor, protecting his interests without him even asking.
Still, the parents still talked badly of Zinya in front of their children, which made the youths feel entitled to mistreat the social climbers. Tezka kept the bullies away, but the kids barely had any friends.
Isolation and loneliness were something even an Eldritch was helpless against. It was the reason the servants always brought Filia and Frey to their favorite bakery for sweets at the end of the school day.
It made their routine easier to tolerate but also predictable.
The Warping array hit them right in front of the bakery and the four Divine Beasts waiting on the ambush spot slaughtered the four servants accompanying them before they could even understand what had happened.
"I don't want to kill fellow beasts unless it's strictly necessary." Leari the Thunderborne said, her body bursting with bolts of silver lightning. "Give us the kids and no one will get hurt."
She was confident in her victory, yet pissed off for being forced to switch from the primary to the secondary target. The initial orders had been to kidnap Zinya, but she would rarely leave the Vastor mansion without her husband.
When she did, whoever came close to her, even the Forgotten, would find themselves paralyzed in abject terror. Thrud had conducted a full background check that confirmed the readings acquired with Life Vision by her field agents.
Zinya Yehval-Vastor was a human woman with an orange core and no magical training. She wore no cloaking devices and the only enchanted items she possessed were means for self-defense.
Everything from her backstory to her bearing fit the bill of a helpless woman until it didn't. Emperor Beasts, Divine Beasts, and mindless slaves alike would freeze the moment they tried to touch her and use Invigoration to study her.
After even Iata had collapsed in fear during a recon mission, the Mad Queen had been forced to kidnap her children instead.
