"Don't let up!" Azimuth called as she quickly reloaded her crossbow, "Even if your bolts can't punch through their armor, we can at least distract them from the frontline men!"
"Incoming magic!"
"Scatter!"
At Azimuth's call, her rearguards dispersed in multiple directions as small fireballs blasted the space they were stationed at.
"Man it's not fair!" One of her rebels shouted in frustration, "They can arc their spells over the battlefield while we can't hit anybody past the frontlines!"
"That's the way of things." Azimuth scowled as she made a quick head count of her platoon, "There's a reason why they've stayed ahead of us for so long."
"Yeah about that..."
At one of her rebel's remarks an unconscious Starry Knight came hurtling through the air and smashed face first into the ground in front of them with a nasty skidding sound. Turning back to the battlefield, they could see the earth itself rising to smash unsuspecting Starry Knights into the air, the young mage responsible for this standing calmly in the frontlines as she directed her magic like an orchestra.
"I guess we've changed a lot too." Azimuth muttered.
"So...what do we do now?" Another rebel asked.
"Keep firing." Azimuth sighed. Advance forward a few meters and try and surround the point where the majority of the fighting is happening."
"Roger that."
Over where the majority of the fighting is happening, Malus kicked an approaching Starry Knight in the chest, sending him tumbling back with his feet flipping over his head.
"Weak." Malus sneered as he slashed right through a Starry Knight's armor, "Were they always this weak?"
"That just goes to show how effective Momo's training was." Argo grinned as he bashed his shield into an enemy's body then followed up with a slash across their chest.
"You mean how strong I actually am, right?" Malus smirked, "That woman made me do nothing but muscle training."
"So that's how you got so strong." Zhong noted, caressing his beard curiously, "Indeed, you were strong before so a bit of physical training was a pretty wise way of getting someone as stubborn as you to cooperate."
"Uh, hello? I said I was always this strong."
"He didn't even want to do the muscle training if you can believe it." Melia added, "Had to beat him into submission to get him to do it."
"Are you lot not hearing me?! The training didn't do shit! And I was not 'beaten into submission' that's ridiculous!"
"You were beaten into submission several times." Roswell replied.
"I can believe that." Zhong nodded.
"Right, after all this is over, I'm killing you all next."
"I don't believe you could do that." Zhong shook his head.
"To hell with you, old man! What do you know?!"
"Quite a bit believe it or not. For example, if you can't defend against something like this-"
Zhong disappeared and reappeared next to one of his men where the earth had begun rising underneath his feet. With a swing of his sword, Zhong shattered the rising spire and pulled his subordinate to safety.
"Then you're not at the level of your compatriots."
"...You're just trying to get me to turn on my allies." Malus waved his finger with a confident smirk, "I know how tricky you are, Zhong."
"Was that what you got out of it?" Zhong blinked.
"If you want to hire me then you're going to have to sweeten the pot."
"That's more like the Malus I know." Melia scoffed.
"For real, I thought someone had replaced him when he demonstrated an ounce of loyalty to us." Argo smiled.
"You know, I could just leave you all right now right?" Malus growled.
"Oh really?" Melia rolled her eyes, "And how much would we have to pay you to do that?"
"You are all either the best of friends...or you genuinely hate each other."
"I don't have any friends." Malus crossed his arms with a sneer, "I have no equal."
"We don't want to be friends with him." The rest of his fellow rebels said at once.
"Well that's...peculiar." Zhong blinked.
"No surprise if you ask me!" Malus said as he raised his broadsword, "Not that it matters since all the glory is mine to take to begin with!"
And with that, Malus charged at Zhong.
"Formation B." Zhong snapped his fingers.
At his orders a small platoon of Starry Knights gathered together in front of him and raised their shields, blocking Malus' sword swing without giving an inch.
"What?!" Malus' sneer disappeared when the soldiers he had cut through so easily before suddenly blocked his attack with ease.
"CA 4."
From behind the wall of shields, several spears lunged out between the shields and forced Malus to retreat quickly before he could get skewered.
"Mmm. Nice response time." Zhong nodded, satisfied, "Good work men."
"What the-" Malus wiped some sweat from his chin, "Some kind of mind control spell?!"
"No Malus, they're just highly trained." Melia replied curiously, "Very in sync too. Are all the Starry Knights like this?"
"We are not Sirius' elites for nothing." Zhong smiled.
"Could've fooled me." Malus rolled his eyes.
"Certainly, having you helming their strategy must have drawn out their full potential mustn't it?" Argo asked.
"No, they are always this powerful."
"Powerful, sure, but competent?" Melia frowned.
"What's going on?" Zhong frowned, "Has there been something regarding my men I don't know about?"
"I mean, if your Starry Knights were as competent as you said, we'd not have made it this far."
"I thought it was Roko's leadership that has countered my men's tactics so soundly every time."
"See, it's the tactics part that sticks out to me." Melia noted.
"Why? What kind of tactics have they been using?"
"Ummm...overrunning?"
"Overrunning?"
"Yeah." Malus scoffed, "You know when you got a rat infestation and you disturb their nest?"
"Is...is that it?"
"...Yeah?"
"...I'm going to have to hold a seminar after this war." Zhong frowned as the Starry Knights protecting him began to sweat profusely.
"That's assuming you're going to win this war!" Malus shouted as he charged forward once again.
"D 3."
At his command, the Starry Knights withdrew their spears and the shieldbearers shifted their formation from a line to a circular one, ready to defend against the heavy slash that Malus had wound up.
"Like that'll work a second time!" Malus grinned as he brought up a boot and kicked into the defensive formation.
This blunt attack worked better than even Malus expected as his foot landed on the central shield where corners of the other shield had been rallied around the edge of the center ones to support it. This forceful attack pushing the entire line back as the Starry Knights angled their formation upward as they struggled to hold Malus back. Seeing an opportunity, Malus shifted his weight onto the shield, pushing them further back until he leaped up, over the shields and bearing down on Zhong behind them.
"Gotcha old man!" Malus crowed.
"CA-7." Zhong replied, unimpressed.
And that was when the spearmen that Malus had forgotten surrounded Zhong and pointed their spears upwards to stab into Malus.
"Earth."
A disastrous attack was salvaged when the earth underneath the shieldmen suddenly caved in, dropping them forward and pulling Malus away from the spears, letting the large man fall back onto the ground in front of them.
"You're welcome." Melia said.
"I wasn't going to thank you." Malus scoffed.
"I'm surprised how competent they are when they have one competent person." Argo laughed nervously.
"Shame we can't do the same when WE only have one competent person." Malus scowled.
"There's a lot of people for that position and you're not one of them." Melia retorted.
"It's simple unity." Zhong replied, twiddling his mustache, "Something you all seem to be lacking."
"Roko was never really one to unite people under one idea. More...draw out individuality and let us develop as our own."
"Fascinating." Zhong nodded, "And how's that working out for you?"
"Well...I can move heavier rock now." Melia shrugged.
"Nothing changed for me." Malus lied.
"I never really got trained by Roko." Argo admitted.
"Same here actually." Roswell added.
"...Perhaps I was wrong about Roko." Zhong mused.
"Hey, let's not forget that no Planetary Stars have come to assist you yet." Melia replied.
"'Yet' being the term in focus right now." Zhong shook his head, "Whatever. I will admit, I haven't received as much reports regarding my fellow's situation as I was hoping. But if your method truly has any value then it'll have to triumph over my men's teamwork regardless."
Raising his hand, he snapped his fingers and shouted, "Surround! A-23!"
Immediately the Starry Knights fighting around them turned and pointed their weapons inward at Melia's group, instantly surrounding them at all sides.
"...Cute." Melia noted.
"What'll be your next move then, substitute strategist?"
"Well, you know what spell I can use right?"
"Earth correct?" Zhong scoffed, "Of course I've taken note."
"Well guess what your men are standing on right now." Melia said as she raised her own hand and snapped her fingers, "Earth!"
Earthen pillars erupted from the ground in front of the Starry Knights surrounding them and punched into their stomachs, sending their formation flying off in all directions.
"Form up!" Zhong demanded, "Hike-13!"
"God, those code words are getting worse by the moment." Malus scowled as he picked himself up.
"You can't keep them away forever can you?" Argo asked.
"Course not." Melia replied as she sent smaller pillars out from her larger pillars to punch the Starry Knights trying to climb over them, "The more they try to move around them, the smaller my attacks become in order to hit them. I've become a stronger geomancer but continuous churning of earthen material is still out of my league."
"Hack." Malus snarked.
"Oh Malus?"
"What?!" Malus snapped, annoyed that Melia didn't seem annoyed by his pointed insult.
"You want to hear one last lesson from Roko and Momo before you head out there?"
"What do you think?"
"Alright. Go out there then."
"Right." Malus said as he turned to Zhong only for the shieldmen to form up in front of Zhong again with the spearmen pointing her spears out above their heads, "… So what DID they say by any chance?"
"One easy way to get stronger." Melia snickered, "Use both your hands."
"What with my sword?" Malus looked down at his sword and gripped the handle with both his hands, "Can't make that much of a difference."
Still, he took this idea and ran it against Zhong's defenses once again. The first his blade met were the shields. With one swing from his two handed sword, Malus sent the first two shieldmen to meet his swing flying to the side, smashing one against his fellows while sending the other flying into the air.
"...Can they be wrong for once in their goddamn lives?" Malus muttered as he began to hack away at the damaged defenses.
Commanding and thinking at the same time was a talent that kept Zhong ahead of his enemies. Even as he spoke orders to move men around the constantly shifting battlefield, Zhong was deep in thought. And deeply impressed. Not by any of their frontline defenders but by Malus. Actually not even by Malus specifically but the singular advice that Roko supposedly had left for Malus. Telling him to use both hands actually had more effect than just drawing out more power than before. Malus was well known among his men as a reckless braggart with an ego larger than his mouth can handle. He was certainly strong but he was always reckless and always worked alone so handling him was never really a problem. But this change to using two hands meant that Malus had to commit more to his attacks. More than he was used to which meant he was leaving even larger opening after his attacks. And even an idiot like Malus could see this problem in his style and to Zhong's surprise, he had decided to adapt to it. Malus's swings became...disciplined. His swings became less wide and he would always end his attacks by withdrawing into a more defensive stance before anyone could counterattack. This lead to him using the length of his sword to his full extent. An obvious lesson that most who pick up a sword, including Malus himself, missed out on. He was no longer charging in to dig his blade as deep into their bodies as possible but there was a space in front of him where blade met blade, keeping himself safe until he opened up an opportunity to take a single step into that space to strike past this zone of conflict to slash into his opponents.
This little piece of advice lead Zhong to assume the impossible. That Malus genuinely had talent. Roko's advice was simple, elegant even but Malus taking that advice and expanding on it to fit the battlefield was immensely impressive. And to give such a simple advice, possibly even a risky advice if Malus did not have the aptitude to develop it further, was a clear sign of the style of command that Roko employs.
"And that's what makes you a worthy opponent." Zhong sneered, "Men! Formation B-12!"
"We talking vitamins now?!" Malus snapped, "I'm so sick of this shit!"
"You're going to feel a lot worse!" Zhong crowed as even more Starry Knights began to show up and crowd around them.
"Is B-12 the swarming tactic?!" Melia cried as she struggled to break the formation with her earth spells.
"No! It's this!"
The line of soldiers in front of them all raised their shield, a common thread in their methods but this time instead of spears poking out around the edges of the shield...it was crossbows.
"Aw hell." Melia said.
And at once, the arrows began firing at them from all directions. In response, Melia raised the earth around them in a protective dome as arrows punched into and bounced off it's surface.
"I can't see anything!" Argo cried from inside.
"Quiet, I'm focusing!" Melia snapped.
"On what?!"
"Please give her some silence." Roland chuckled.
"What's going on in there!" Malus cried from outside the dome, eyeing down his own wall of shields with crossbows aimed at him.
"Ah. Hold on, I got you."
And then the earth opened up beneath Malus, dropping him underground before the earth closed back up.
"...Uhhh..." The Starry Knights looked around, confused, "What do we do now?"
But before Zhong could respond, a pillar of earth burst out of the ground, right in between him and his troops. And as Zhong quickly backed away, the earth pillar opened up like a strange elevator revealing all of the rebels he had been fighting.
"Going up." Melia smirked, "1st Floor."
With a roar, the men all charged at the lone old man. The Starry Knight all cried out in shock and tried to rush to support their commander but with a single word, Melia summoned a rock wall to block them.
"Got you now old man!" Malus crowed as he bore down on Zhong, "Can't ABC 123 your way out of this!"
"Hmph."
Zhong struck out with a hand and struck Malus somewhere on the neck. And like a stiff statue, Malus fell to the ground, unable to use his body.
"What...the hell?" Malus moaned awkwardly from the ground.
"Pressure points?" Argo frowned, raising his shield in front of Zhong.
"Yes, well, I'm sure none of you thought so but just in case any of you were thinking this would be easy..." Zhong kicked Malus in the head pointedly, "I am quite skilled in Jingzhi Hubo Zhixi."
"What?" Malus groaned.
"...Still Lake Suffocation." Zhong sighed, "It's a fighting style. A non-lethal one, mind you. It only stuns hence the name."
"You got this far without killing anybody?" Roswell asked.
"Not quite." Zhong smirked, "Sure I can only stun you but if I pierce deep enough…" He drew his sword, a long thin rapier, from his belt, "I can simply leave you to bleed out."
"How cruel." Melia grimaced.
"Yet that cruelty is what drew me into Sirius' service." Zhong sneered and charged at them.
Argo and Roswell immediately held up their shields as Zhong made two attacks right in the center of their shields. A hit so powerful that the two experienced warriors stumbled back three steps and held onto their shaking shield arm.
"My arm's going numb?" Roswell winced, "I even blocked it and all."
"What a frightening power." Argo added, "We'll need to find someway to beat him without getting hit too many times."
"Good luck with that." Zhong smirked as he charged at the two again.
Argo and Roswell swung with their swords instead, deflecting the rapier to avoid getting stunned. But in their caution, Zhong was able to separate the two, placing himself in between the two. Seeing a pincer opportunity, Argo and Roswell made an impromptu coordinated attack on the old man. Zhong in response, ducked underneath the attacks and lashed out with both sword and arm, striking Roswell in the ribs with a finger and stabbing Argo in the shoulder. The two recoiled, Roswell falling to his knees as he felt his body seize up and Argo writhing on the ground as pain disabled his shield arm.
"Now." Zhong said, ignoring the knights to walk calmly towards an intimidated Melia, "I can't have you morphing the battlefield at your leisure all the time."
"E-Earth!" Melia called out summoning a wall of dirt and stone to protect her from Zhong. A mistake of her own doing as the same shield blocked her view of Zhong so she had no idea where he was when his rapier pierced the earthen barrier and stabbed her close to the heart. Thankfully the attack wasn't deep enough to draw blood but it was enough to paralyze the poor girl as her struggles against the growing numbness dropped her to the ground similar to Malus.
"There we go." Zhong said, slashing the earth wall in half as he stepped around it to look down at Melia, "All quiet now."
"Sir!"
The remaining Starry Knights rounded the alleys and streets around Melia's giant wall and quickly surrounding the paralyzed rebels.
"Ah, there you are." Zhong nodded, "About decent time rounding that barrier I suppose. Now..." Zhong looked down at Melia again, "Was this all within Roko's script as well?"
"…'Zhong's stats...are low...'" Melia recited from her memory, "'He should be easy to overpower...but if he's still in service at his age...he must have some sort of powerful ability I can't read. Not a spell...so perhaps a swordstyle. Without more time to research, keep an eye on him and fight cautiously.'"
"I don't know what stats are but that seems like a pretty accurate assessment." Zhong nodded, "If only Roko was here for me to test him further. Oh well. You ready, men?" Zhong raised his free hand, ready to snap his fingers one last time, "Deathblow 1."
"'So in order to gain the upper hand...'" Melia continued, "'We'll have to attack him from an angle he won't expect.'"
"Say what?" Zhong frowned.
And just in time, from a glint in the air, an ornate blade of ice came flying through the air and sliced Zhong's hand from his arm.
Zhong cried out in shock but mostly rage as he began to bleed profusely from his open wound.
"Hey Melia." Helena's drone said as it popped out of the earth, "Just reporting in that I'm in position."
"Just in time." Melia smiled tiredly.
"Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!" Zhong's screaming was livid, more in outrage than in pain even as she stumbled around, dropping his rapier as he held onto his handless arm.
"Sir!" A few Starry Knights ran over in a panic, "We have to get you treated back at base!"
"You have a SNIPER?!" Zhong roared, "You bitch!"
"Sir!" The Starry Knights had to grab onto Zhong and try to pull him away as Zhong moved to attack Melia with his barehands, "Sir, you're bleeding out!"
"GIVE ME MY PHONE!" Zhong boomed.
One Starry Knight reached around to pull the old man's phone from a pocket and quickly shoved it into his hand. Zhong typed a number in quickly and waited a short while for the call to connect, "Goemul! They have a sniper! You know where she is? GOOD! KILL HER! That bitch took my hand! ...Okay. Good."
Hearing a confirmation of his order seemed to calm Zhong down a bit.
"Sir, we need to get you back to the tents." his men continued to insist.
"Not yet." Zhong scowled, "Where is he?! Call him in!"
"Sir we will, just-"
A few other shouts drew attention to the other rebels as Roswell, Argo and even Malus finally recovered from their paralyzation, standing back up to attack the Starry Knights around them.
"Get the boss back to the tents!" One of them shouted as a few of them grouped together to cover Zhong's retreat.
"No! No, where is he?!" Zhong continued to shout erratically as he was dragged off by his men, "Where is he?!"
"Sad way to die, old man." Malus sneered as he fought back Starry Knights, "But a fitting end for a coward like you."
"Coward?!"
"What else do you call that fighting style?"
"How DARE you?! Where is he?! WHERE IS HE?!"
"What the hell is he talking about?" Malus frowned as he noticed someone approaching calmly from beside him, "Oh hey Gallus. You're la-"
In a heart stopping moment, the world seemed to pause as Gallus slashed with his sword, cutting a deep bleeding wound...right into Malus' chest.
The stunned rebel could only look off into the distance and shock seized him as he collapsed onto the ground. Roswell and Argo stopped fighting at the sight of this betrayal.
"G...Gallus?" Argo said, his blood chilled.