Saikoten Region
Sanjo Beach
"That should buy us a bit of time! Look, I understand your concerns, but I assure you my team can more than make up for your lack of manpower. As for whose behalf we're here on, I'll explain in due time. But enough of that, your strength is needed for another day! Escape while you can! As soon as I've collected the rest of my team I will join you."
Shizuka's words were met with silence as the remaining Shizuyama defenders looked at each other, unsure whether to trust this stranger or not. The sudden lull in the fighting gave them time to think, but the Varjans were quickly recovering. The defenders readied their arms to face them, or perhaps it was to begin preparing a full retreat? Falling back with these numbers would need a lot of cover, after all.
But there was no time to sit and wait for their answer,
Shizuka had to return to his comrades and tell them to retreat, that there was no winning this battle. He made his way back to the beach, weaving past the renewed Varjan charge towards the barricades. He heard some fighting, but it was not as intense as before. Perhaps they did flee in the end.
Kasseros was too occupied tearing
Nyla's slimy tendrils off of him to notice
Gringor coming at him with a mighty swing. He saw at the last moment what was about to happen, but it was far too late for him to do anything.
*SMASH*
The Varjan Champion was face down on the Shoggoth's mass, completely knocked unconscious. This fight belonged to the taskforce, although they did outnumber Kasseros three-to-one so did the latter really have a chance? Moments after,
Shizuka would arrive and behold the taskforce's handiwork.
With Kasseros defeated, the Varjans quickly cleared out of the taskforce's area and put as much distance as they could from the monsters. However, they then spot one Varjan waving a blue-flamed torch at the ships out in the bay before tossing the torch at the taskforce's vicinity. Not one moment later, half of the Varjan vessels launched their artilleries towards the taskforce's side of the beach.
The night sky lit brightly as flaming boulders rained down on the taskforce, spreading fire across their side of the beach. Thankfully, the taskforce were all quick enough to dodge all of them but the Varjan vessels were intent on saturating their area with their catapults until the taskforce were all either dead or nowhere to be seen. Thus, more catapult shots rose to the sky before hurling back down towards the taskforce.
With their area being bombarded and the Varjans having full control of the beach, there was no more reason for the taskforce to stay here. Heading to Sanjo Town to regroup with the other taskforce members was the first option, or they could retreat into the wilds and trust that their other other members would find them later.
Atsuha does have a wounded survivor on her and it may be wiser not to put him in further danger.
A survivor whom
Shizuka would recognize from the descriptions Lady Kyouko gave him, Takeshi Oja. The only son of Hideo Oja, The Lord of Shizuyama.
------
The horsemen riding for
Samael and the father did not see
Lunatea's wind attack coming, and so were thrown off their mounts by the sudden magical gusts. This allowed the father to finally escape with his son along with the rest of the surviving villagers.
Meanwhile,
Hinami's rampage tore through the Varjan advance. Suddenly, they were no longer in control of the village. Some of the invaders tried to challenge the berserk Jiangshi, and only found their demise.
Lunatea and
Wyndressa followed closely behind, with the former having the talisman to return
Hinami to normal, and taking down any Varjans the Jiangshi missed.
When
Hinami left herself open,
Lunatea used the opportunity to get in front of her and successfully plant another sealing talisman on her forehead.
As the effects took hold,
Samael joined up and the group was whole again save for Cambiel and Skarsneek. Ahead were the last line of Varjans pillaging the town, their murderous activities stopped completely by this motley crew.
But then, hooves thundered in the distance.
The Varjans looked behind them before moving to the side to make way for a tide of cavalry coming towards the taskforce. Javelins and throwing axes were hurled at the taskforce as the Varjan horsemen rode. The group could barely evade the projectiles, much less fight back. They would see that the stream of horses seemed endless.
It appeared the rest of the Varjan army had caught up, but the village was now also devoid of its original inhabitants. Those who were not dead had already escaped into the wilds of Shizuyama. There was no reason for the taskforce to stay here any longer.
-
The two Varjan horsemen were taken down, one more permanently than the other. Now only Na'kratz remained, and he did not seem bothered by the loss of his retinue. He stared back at the duo, scraping his claws together in anticipation of the inevitable showdown. "
Angels always side with monsters. Makes me wonder why the Order bothers with them. I guess they're pretty useful against the Alliance." He quipped before taking on a combat stance and prepared to fight.
But then, hooves thundered in the distance.
Both parties looked to the sound and a whole unit of Varjan cavalry came charging into Na'kratz's aid. A continuous line of Varjan cavalry streamed towards
Skarsneek and
Cambiel. Try as they might with their extraordinary abilities, the duo could not fight off the coming horses. They could only evade the axe and sword swings and the javelins hurled at them. Some hits even connected but the duo's supernatural natures meant that these hits only left bruises.
Na'kratz relaxed as he let his cavalry reinforcements take swings at
Skarsneek and
Cambiel. He knew that the duo could only retreat in the face of being overwhelmed. And he would be correct, they needed to get out of there. Their showdown with this Varjan lord would happen on another day.
------
Valeriya and
Kerry had come too late to join the main ship the taskforce took. But Lady Kyouko was nothing if not prepared, the Inari had smaller vessels prepared to take more taskforce members to Shizuyama. In fact, the two monsters noticed that there were a lot more of these vessels in the port of Otomo. Could she be planning to send more than taskforce members to the island?
Regardless, the two monsters were soon on their way. Their destination was the Sanjo Area where the Varjan fleet would be landing and where the main taskforce had gone to. They were told to rendezvous with the others and aid them as soon as possible. Their vessel could only take them near Sanjo though and so they had to walk - or more likely, fly - to their destination. Night had fallen when they came upon the Sanjo Area.
From their view in the sky, what they saw was a sight of pure carnage. The immense Varjan fleet was landing en masse upon a corpse-laden beach and the barricades resisting their advance were burning and overrun. The town nearby was also in flames and also overrun with horsemen and Varjans. The two monsters could hear the faint sounds of wailing and fighting from below.
The town was the most notable and there they saw people still fighting the invaders as best they could, but they also saw cavalry about to swarm them from all sides. On one side, they saw a boy and... an Angel being attacked by horsemen. On another side, several women in differing attires were in the same situation.
Valeriya and
Kerry were two monsters, they could very well split up to help.
Xaltwind