244 CHAPTER 242(Battle Lines)

Please read the author's notes.

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CHAPTER START---

"Walking through an empty dungeon is weird, peaceful, but weird," Welf says.

"And boring," Yang adds. Seeing the entrance to floor eighteen ahead they can already hear voices beyond the cave exit.

As the trio step into the safe zone from floor nineteen, a deathly silence befalls the crowd.

Adventurers could be seen building walls and clearing patches of forest. The massive towering up from the middle of Rivera loomed in the distance as swarms of people busied themselves digging trenches and setting up supply tents.

All aimed toward the tunnel The Trifecta stepped out of, the only route down to floor nineteen, reasonably assumed to be where the monster would arise from.

While Yang was searching for any familiar faces in the crowd, noticing some members of the Ganesha and Loki familias, they were all staring in blatant horror at him. Now fully dressed and once again wearing his coat, he was relatively normal, but they couldn't help but stare at his destroyed metal hand.

Hearts racing at the thought of having to fight whatever did that to HIM of all people.

Seeing their fears Thalie chuckled, Welf frowned, and Yang gave a polite wave with his good hand.

"Uh...I fell and broke it," he says before quickly walking away, moving toward the main tent. Ignoring all the blatant stares.

"Why are we still here?" Welf asked.

"Just checking something," Yang said.

"He's worried about his other girlfriend," Thalie mutters, earning a low growl from Yang.

"Ahh, that makes sense, Loki familia is here after all," Welf says as they arrive at the main tent.

See the trio approaching one of the adventurers standing guard quickly disappeared into the tent, stepping back out before they arrived at the door.

Without a word, he parted the cloth dividers with a shaky hand for them to step inside.

Stepping inside the command tent felt like they suddenly weren't in the dungeon anymore. A large table with a map of this floor is set atop it. Finn and Gareth standing on opposite sides studying it. A large rug with their familia sigil covers the floor, wooden chests and crates at the far end of the large tent, and off to the side, Riveria and Tione stand at a smaller table. They seem to be studying a few stacks of papers. Likely sorting the logistics and resources that they have.

Riveria glances over to see The Trifecta, eyes lingering on Yang much longer than she intended before she and Tione walk over to the main table.

"Hey hero," Yang greets Finn with a polite wave. Giving Gareth a polite nod along with both women.

"Yang, really glad you're here," Finn says as they all now stand around the table. "Do---" Finn pauses as he notices something, and the relieved expression on his face turns to concern and horror. "What did that to your hand?!"

All eyes move to Yang's destroyed metal hand, which the man casually lifts and shows off, then shrugs. "I slept on it funny, you know how that is."

Riveria openly glares at him, Thalie and Welf watched her reaction closer than the others and could almost see a vein on her head bulging, clearly not appreciating him speaking so casually about a serious injury. The others just frown and accept that he doesn't want to talk about it.

"I see," Finn says. "So I assume you're on your way back to Orario?"

"Yeah, our expedition got cut short because of this whole mess," Yang says. "What do you know about it, what'd they tell you?" he asks, not wanting to say anything Ouranos didn't want the public to know.

"No as much as you do I'd imagine," Finn says, immediately understanding what was happening. Turning to Tione he gives her a nod and she quickly exits the tent, although reluctantly stepping away from her beloved captain. "Right, the guild told everyone that one of the gods who 'died' in the dungeon however long ago was imprisoned and corrupted by it, now it's a monster that can use Arcanum and is coming to the surface, we apparently need to kill it before it kills everyone on the surface."

Yang nods," yeah that's about right, and what's your plan? You're gathering a small army here."

"Not just us," Gareth says. "Everyone is doing their part, as adventurers of Orario, we have access to the only reliable source of Exelia, the dungeon. That makes it our responsibility to protect the world from monsters by preventing them from escaping, everyone in Orario understands that, so they're all helping."

"All?" Yang asks.

"Mhm," Riveria nods, trying not to look at Yang much. "Tione and I were sorting out the adventurers that will be joining us once the efforts up above are complete. After all available Magic Swords and other resources are gathered and sent down here, as well as evacuating the citizens to the secure districts of Orario, everyone above level two will be coming down here to join the fight. The logistics is a nightmare, especially when we have no idea how powerful most of them are and they aren't willing to tell us what they can fully do." She gestures to the stacks of papers on her workstation.

"What about Mikoto?" Thalie blurts out before realizing. "I mean, what about the level 1 and 2 adventurers?"

Riveria smiles knowingly, chuckling slightly. "They've been tasked with clearing North Main street and guiding the monster out of Orario along that route should it get past us, that will minimize property damage and set it toward the barren plains."

"Makes sense," Welf says. "That direction has to most warehouse-type buildings, they could more easily move product and rebuild afterward compared to the shops and homes in every other direction." But really he knows that this particular monster doesn't care about causing any destruction or death, it only wants Hephaestus.

"Exactly," Gareth says. "But that won't matter once we slay it down here."

"And what's the plan for that?" Thalie asks.

Finn gestures to the map of this floor, three lines are drawn, curved battle lines all set so the figures behind them were facing the tunnel to floor nineteen.

"Because of how many people will be participating we've been forced to keep it simple, not to mention we don't know anything about the enemy," Finn says.

"How many people?" Yang asks.

"Orario has millions of adventurers, over half of them are level 1, by the time it gets to level-3s we've still got two hundred thousand. We can't fit them all in here so we're sorting who we need into these roles," he points to the three battle lines. "Infantry will act as a wall and counter-offensive within melee range. Behind them will be ranged adventurers, spears, smoke bombs, and Magic Swords. Most of them won't be able to do any damage but they'll be acting as a utility to keep the monster off-balance and run supplies to the front if necessary. And lastly will be our main damage, the artillery mages. Everything will be about stalling for them to cast a barrage of spells, repeating this process until completion."

"Simple but effective," Yang says.

"And made so your team could fall in wherever you think necessary," Finn says.

"Hmm," Yang taps his chin and stares down at the map for a moment. "Thalie, Welf?"

"Won't work," Thalie says, earning a sigh from Loki's executives. "Frontline can't put a dent in the monster, aside from maybe Finn and Gareth but even then that's not certain. The mid-range fighters will be useful because of their non-damage-based role and use of Magic Swords to keep it confused and blinded. The artillery mages will definitely fuck up this plan. Between the massive number of mages, someone will cause an Ignis Fatus, and a chain reaction of spells going crazy and exploding will happen or someone will forget to mention the are of effect of their magic and hit the infantry.

Plus if this thing wants to skip the fight and get to the surface, you've got no way of stopping it short of Finn and Gareth giving it a bearhug, not that that would work. It's a good plan for the limited time and information you have, but you're either underestimating the monster or overestimating the competence of the bumbling idiots that make it to level three." Thalie says.

"Mhm," Welf nods in agreement. "Plus there isn't anything like a net that can pin Great Quest level monsters down. You lack mobility, that becomes a serious problem on the deeper floors, and the deeper floors are exactly where this thing is from."

"Alright," Finn says. "How should we fix this?"

"Thin out the infantry," Yang says, pointing down toward the map. "Move them back into the middle ranks until you confirm if you can touch the monster or not."

"Touch?" Riveria asks.

Realizing his mistake Yang looks between Riveria, Finn, and Gareth, weighing his options. With a sigh he waves his hand.

A thin Windwall appears around them. The green swirling wind was nearly solid, making a perfect dome and trapping them within. "Some privacy," he says. "This should mute us to anyone outside."

"I assume this is the off-record intel you have?" Finn asks.

Yang nods, "I recommend you keep the infantry back, anyone who needs to make physical contact to be useful may be completely useless in this fight, because of this," he raises his destroyed hand. "Magic will be the same."

"Are you sure you're alright?" Riveria asks, her voice soft and concerned. Any more and the love in her tone would have been obvious to Finn and Gareth, the main reason they simply would never consider this as a possibility being all the restrictions making that relationship impossible. They knew Riveria would never break such clear rules.

"I'm fine princess, but this is what happened when my hand touched Arcanum, which the monster has. I don't know how freely it can use it but if this is the result of anything it touches..."

"Melee is suicide," Gareth says with a sigh. "That makes me damn useless, I don't have the Agility to constantly avoid hits as Finn does, and even if I did our weapons won't work."

Yang stares down at the map for a long moment before speaking, looking directly at Finn, "look, I don't particularly care about you, or most of your familia, but having you wannabe heroes running around will make my life a lot easier in the future since I don't plan to leave Orario---"

"You're staying?!" Riveria asks with blatant excitement.

Yang turns and gives her a soft smile, "I'm staying." He turns back to Finn, "and my life will be a lot easier if the guild can call your familia instead of me to deal with every dangerous monster that shows up. So instead of just letting you throw yourselves at this monster, focus everything you have on stalling without committing to a fight. Distract it, keep it off balance, blind and deafen it if you can, just wait until we go talk to Hephaestus and come up with something solid. That way none of you have to really get hurt."

Finn smirks, "are you getting soft on me now?" he teases.

"No, I'm mostly indifferent to your whole heroic crusade nonsense. Adventurers should aspire to be free...also what you did when we first met was a dick move."

"Is there anything you do like?" Finn asks.

Welf chuckles beside Yang, "old women," he says.

Riveria gives him a death glare, knowing exactly what he was implying. Thalie barely holds back her laughter. Gareth and Finn just look on confused.

Yang turns toward Welf, "you realize so do you since Hephaestus and Freya are the same age, ancient."

"Nah, Hephaestus is the first and only for me, you've got two old women, that's a trend."

"He has a point," Thalie adds.

Yang tries his best to glare at Welf, "do you forget that I could throw you to the moon if I really wanted to?"

Welf chuckles," you could, but you love me too much."

Yang turns back toward the table, noticing Riveria one step away from fuming, still glaring at Welf. "More like I still need you to make me a new hand," he grumbles. "Besides, two hottest women in the world, you could hardly tell..."

Riveria immediately calms down as those words reach her, a small tinge of pink on her cheeks...

END CHAPTER---

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