Stage II, Chapter XXVI: Alpha, Beta...Lucas?

"My lord! You have arrived." Aurelia's suprised voice alerted the returners, who were suprised to see a toddler speaking in perfect sentences so easily.

"Indeed, indeed. You've done well. Take your mana stone and rest for a bit." After finishing the conversation, he signaled Catalyn, who was carrying him, to move towards Fawkes.

"Good day, fiery hair man. My name is Kenneth. What is yours?" (Kenneth)

"Uh, Fawkes, little baby. You this elf's brother?" The leader of the returners responded back.

While the two were conversing, Aurelia dug into her pockets and brought out a nature-affinity mana stone. All of the siblings had prepared this before the skydiving, and this helped restore Aurelia's mana back to about half of its maximum.

"So what's the deal, little man? I'm fucking beat, and I doubt even you can take on all those aliens." (Fawkes)

"Well I don't need to. I've got people to do it for me." Kenneth's eyes shone for a slight second as he stared back at the red haired man, almost as if he was saying he'd take his challenge.

"Well, alright then. Not much I can do since I'm fucking tired. Oy. You guys all right with little baby here leading us? He's told me he's a Mental magician." Fawkes called out to his subordinates.

A silence ensued.

"Well, if Sergeant Fawkes is willing to entrust it to him, I have no problems!" One soldier spoke up.

"Right! Me too!" Another joined.

This kept on going until pretty much everyone was on board.

"Well, you see that, little baby? Everyone is going to follow you." (Fawkes)

"Good enough. Everyone gather!" Kenneth activated Database Link, allowing everyone in the radius to connect with each other like a video call.

"Whoa! What powerful Mental magic! To be able to link us all together!" One soldier praised.

"This is nothing. Now everyone get ready, I'll be briefing you all on the plan." (Kenneth)

***********

The plan was now in motion. Everyone had split into small groups. The tactic of attack this time around was guerilla warfare.

Even if the Karman had invaded Krodoa countless times in the past, their knowledge paled in comparison to its natives.

Use the environment, Kenneth had explained.

"Team Alpha here, we've spotted a group of Karman. Should we engage, little baby?" Fawkes' voice came over the Link.

"No, not yet. Team Beta is still preparing to head into position." (Kenneth)

"Well fuck, what you want me to do?" Fawkes asked.

"Scout the area around you. The larger the area you cover, the easier this will all be." (Kenneth)

"Heh, I like easy, alright. Move out!" Fawkes commanded a few subordinates to survey the area, and they left immediately.

*************

"Teams Alpha and Beta have reached their positions. Everybody get ready. Once you see the light, engage immediately."

By light, Kenneth had meant Lena's Sunlight Flash. Its sheer blind could most likely cover the whole area, if not at least illuminate the surroundings slightly.

Team Beta was led by Aurelia, primarily a stealth-driven one, Kenneth had sent this team earlier on in order to scout out the wasteland.

While the endless fire from the Karman seemingly had no intention to end soon, Team Beta had noticed that the time between shots was going increasingly more vast.

Kenneth speculated this to be due to the Karman running out of sufficient ammunition, he threw out that idea the moment he thought of it.

Who would believe an entire galactic empire had run out of ammo during a single battle? Might as well give the title of the strongest race to somebody else.

Thus, this led to another speculation. That the Karman had decided to purposely fake their decreasing rounds, and draw out the stragglers.

And so Kenneth formulated a plan to go around this. They'd intentionally planned for Team Beta to momentarily reveal themselves and draw fire...

"One, two, attack!" A blinding light descended upon the area, and just as before it appeared, Kenneth had asked Team Beta to ready for battle.

In quick succession, Team Beta, which numbered about ten or so people, had unveiled themselves from the nearby buildings' debris, and opened fire at the blinded Karman.

The earth rumbled as countless spells, more noticeably the flashy ones, were sent towards their adversaries.

During this chaos, Team Alpha, which numbered the bigger part of the group, had split up into smaller ones, and hid themselves in preparation for the ambush.

At the same time,

"Look, you bastards. There's the flash. We'll be heading in soon." Fawkes' Team Alpha had already positioned themselves around the Karman forces.

The team waited for a few minutes.

Eventually, the quiet night sky was replaced by the sound of multiple spells and gunfire being directed towards each other.

"They're distracted! Go!" An intense flame blazed around Fawkes' hand, covering his hand entirely in a hot, almost aura-like flame. Charging, Fawkes conjured a large fireball, burning uncontrollably.

Taking it into his grasp, he threw it as hard as it could.

The fireball flew a short distance before it dropped down towards the unsuspecting Karman, like a bomb.

Boom! An explosion ensued. Hordes of Karman were knocked back, many had suffered drastic burns and were immediately unable to retaliate.

Fawkes' subordinates soon joined in the fray too, each using the mana they had accumulated to form massively destructive spells of their own, wiping out many more.

***********

Over on Team Beta's side.

"Aurelia, it should be good to disengage now. Team Alpha has already started the ambush." (Kenneth)

"Copy that, my lord. Everyone, fall back!" Aurelia shouted to everyone, announcing their retreat.

Despite being forced to retreat, no one was upset. Because they knew that they had done their parts, Team Alpha's members could now breathe easy.

Yet some of them expressed desire to assist in the attack against the Karman. Which was understandable. Their numbers were drastically lower than their enemies, even if Sergeant Fawkes was well known to be the strongest around.

This eventually spread around the members, who felt like they had not done enough to help.

The subject of conversation reached Aurelia, too. She notified Kenneth to express her concerns.

"That certainly is a dilemma. Tell you what, we'll wait for Lucas and the group, then we'll head over to assist Team Alpha." (Kenneth)

Earlier on Lucas, Tyrone, and two other magicians had boarded multiple Kuman airships. Kenneth had a slight tinge of worry earlier, but shrugged it off.

Hell, right at this moment, Lucas had probably already taken down at least three Kuman ships.

************

Well, four actually.