Clearing the Walls
Your flight over the battlefield sends a ripple of silence spreading through the armies. But only for a moment, as the single-minded golems pay no attention to your majestic flapping wings unlike the other, more sentient combatants, and take this advantage to stab more human soldiers with their sharpened limbs. Soon the chaos of battle erupts once more beneath you.
“Master! Oh, my Master!” Runde runs towards you as you land, his wet eyes shining with amazement. “You’re back! You’re finally back! There is so much-”
“First things first,” you say, “Give me a report on our current situation. It is a terrible hassle but I suppose I do need to clean up this mess of someone else’s doing.” It wouldn’t be the first time.
“Oh, r-right!” Runde bows and stammers. “This is… the army is Methussian. After months of defending in their own lands, they launched a surprise attack on us. I don’t know how they managed to come so far into our territory without us noticing, but the bulk of our armies are tied up in battles at the front so we were caught off guard.”
“Numbers?” you prompt.
“I’m… not sure,” admitted Runde. “It’s more than I can count.”
“Oh, right.” You shake your head. “Where’s Rin?”
“The Dark Mistress… she was captured by the cloaked ones. It is terrible, Master! Will you be rescuing her?”
“Maybe later,” you say unconcernedly. That idiot. That explains things. The Methussians must have noticed her absence and decided to attack while she was gone. “Well, let’s start off with something light and easy. We will repel the human forces from our fortress, and make them pay for encroaching upon our walls.” Stretching your arms, you prepare to join the battle.
“Wait, Master!” calls out Runde in a hurry.
“What is it?”
“Y-you… you are not clothed. Is that alright?”
You notice for the first time that you are entirely exposed. It seems that your clothes had not recovered from the stone spell the same way that you did.
***
A. It doesn’t matter. There is nothing you have to be ashamed of, nothing you need to hide from the world. Both enemy and ally alike may partake of your magnificence just for today.
B. You grab the cloak that Runde offers and wrap it around yourself. You are no nudist.
***
Drawing your fist back, you drive it through the knight, the metal armour crumpling as easily as paper. “Haha!” cries Barbatos. “Too easy!” He seems to be enjoying it. You… not so much. It did not take much to remind you of why diving into the thick of the fighting during a battle was not enjoyable in the least. You are not some battle-minded maniac who particularly likes fighting. It’s tiring, it’s troublesome, and you usually find yourself surrounded by stinking, bloody, sweaty men, which is something that is never fun. There is a slight tingle of excitement running through you whenever you coat your fists and wings with the enemy’s blood, but that is something you chalk up to your angelic physiology. It is not a feeling you desire to encourage.
“Hey, Barbatos, do you have any technique that I can use to clear these walls faster?” you ask.
“Of course I do, boy! Why, you can-“
A sudden fireball splashes against your Spellshield, its force and heat entirely negated by the defensive magic. You sigh. “You know what, forget it. I don’t have the time for it right now. Teach me later.” You snap your fingers and cast a half dozen Whirlwinds. The swirling masses of wind smash into the enemy ranks and hurl them off the walls in all directions. You advance, single-handedly pushing back the Methussian soldiers. The rain of garden-variety Bolt spells from their mages expend themselves harmlessly against your shields. Cries of “carnage pigeon” and the occasional “angel” fill the air, and soon the panic gets so palpable that you can taste their fear. Soon they do not even bother putting up a fight.
Then, horns are sounded and you can see a variety of coloured flags being raised and lowered. The enemies on the wall gather themselves and shouting officers turn what was about to be a panicked rout into a somewhat orderly retreat. As you cast your eyes around the battlefield, you can see a similar sequence of flags being raised in their main encampment. Perhaps it is a form of communication. The slimes and bandits that have been attacking the enemy camp have been entirely repelled; you can only spot bandit stragglers here and there fleeing for their lives, while the slimes are nowhere to be seen.
***
A. It looks like the enemy armies are being coordinated from their main camp. You fly there to parlay with their leader. If he is smart and amenable to reason, perhaps you might be able to gain something out of this troublesome battle besides a lot of corpses and ruined buildings.
B. They just exposed their most important position to you. You prepare a large scale Gigadyne to scour the enemy encampment off the face of this earth. That should solve things quickly and easily, without putting yourself in harms way.
C. That’s enough effort for today. If they are pulling back, you have the upper hand and should be able to chase them off easily now. You order the goblins to lead the golems in a clean-up charge while you find the best place to rest and watch over them without lifting a finger.
