Chp.25: Attacking the royal palace

"What do you think, am I quite unrecognizable?" Sisna asked looking in the mirror. The beautiful, delicate girl she had seemed before had been transformed into a tall, muscular woman with short black hair and a rugged face.

Her sisters, also unrecognizable, gave their thumbs up in agreement. "No one will guess it's you" Glausar confirmed.

Sisna nodded and stared at her reflection in the mirror. After careful consideration (well, in reality it was Haku's idea) they had all decided that they would use a different appearance to carry out their plan; that way, if something went wrong, they could use the cover they built for themselves again. Therefore, Sisna and her sisters had exchanged the delicate fairy bodies they had previously used for much better avatars, constructed from pieces of ogres and other very strong creatures. Even though the previous bodies weren't bad thanks to all the modifications they had made to them, those were definitely better. After that, using the invisibility rune, they had created a completely different appearance compared to the previous one, making themselves virtually unrecognizable. No one would be able to connect the female warriors who would soon storm the capital to the kindly girls who ran the city's most popular potion shop.

In the previous days, Sisna and her sisters had pretended that some of them were sick, and had even called a doctor to examine them (they had inserted some hot objects into their heads to make it look like they had a fever). As a result, no one could blame them if they decided to close for a few days. After all, with sick people in the house, how could they work? This way, they would also have an alibi.

Sisna inspected herself once again from top to bottom, she changed a few more small details, then she was satisfied. She turned to her sisters and said in a determined voice: "Here we are, girls. Tonight we will hug our brother again. It's time to teach the humans what happens if you step on the dragon's tail!"

Her sisters smiled back. All of them had a strong and determined look. They were ready to do anything to be able to save their brother. "Do you all remember the plan?". At their assent, Sisna raised her fist: "Good then! Let's go and free our brother! And don't forget, teach the humans who are the apex predators!"

"Yes, fuck! We have to kill them, we have to slaughter them!" Malchia exclaimed, making everyone turn towards her. She let out an embarrassed cough. "Sorry, I got a bit excited"

"A bit?" Finiar asked sarcastically.

"Oh, well, don't deny that you're euphoric too!" Malchia snapped even more embarrassed than before.

Sisna chuckled slightly as she saw her sisters bickering, then she returned their attention to her. "It's time to start. Each goes to the drawn place. And don't do more damage than necessary... unless you enjoy doing it"

It was supposed to be a joke, and indeed her sisters laughed. Then they all activated their invisibility rune and came out of the roof of the shop, each running in a different direction.

Moving between the houses was quite easy. Though the ogres' bodies were larger than a fae's, the dragons had added the supple muscles of a feline to their legs, and modified them to be extremely taut and movable for total agility. The tiger paws on their feet ensured a strong grip and they had conveniently shifted the position of their toes to allow them to grip any surface as if they were hands. More, although they still maintained a bipedal gait, they had improved shoulder muscles, allowing them to move like cats when needed, and to help keep their balance better they had added a tail to the base of their backs. Finally, on the back of their shoulders they had added fairy wings which, while not strong enough to support their current weight, still allowed them to glide easily.

On her way to her goal, Sisna passed the arena. She could see a large number of people entering it. Haku would soon be back fighting for their entertainment. The realization disgusted her even more, making her move across the rooftops faster and faster. She couldn't bear to have her brother treated like a toy again. It was time to remind humans what dragons really were!

She quickly reached the royal palace and entered the courtyard. Although the guards were all trained and experienced warriors, they took no notice of her thanks to the invisibility rune. Very ridiculous… a dragon would never be fooled so easily. But humans' limited senses were one of their greatest weaknesses. Sisna stood where she was, careful not to make a sound, looking at nothing but the sun in the sky and using her position to calculate the time. When she was sure the time was right, she broke her invisibility and finally showed herself to everyone.

As soon as they saw her, the guards reacted promptly, pointing their weapons at her and expanding their auras to make their strength clear. Based on them, Sisna determined that they must all be at least level mithril. No wonder: even if they were only in the courtyard, they were still in the royal palace, so it was impossible that the guards were not of the elite. If she had sneaked further into the palace, she would almost certainly have found some level adamantium. "Who the fuck are you? How did you enter here?" one of them yelled at her.

But Sisna showed no fear in the slightest. "If I were you, I'd save my strength instead of wasting it to move that useless mouth of yours. Believe me, you'll need it"

The guards looked confused, but they didn't have time to ask further questions: a huge roar resounded throughout the building and some of the windows exploded, while the light inside them indicated the presence of flames. The guards were speechless. "What the heck...?"

Sisna moved slightly and kneed one of them into the body; the person in question tried to protect himself with his mana, but as soon as the woman's knee struck him he was thrown at least five meters away. When he stopped, everyone could see that his chest was completely caved in, as if a spear had struck him full, and the force of the impact had been such that his eyes popped out of his head. The brain had probably been crushed by the collision with the skull. "Mh... apparently I was right" Sisna murmured. "Transplanting a spur into my knees and elbows was a brilliant idea. Its destructive force combined with ogre muscles, feline tendons and the power of a level adamantium mana core produces truly satisfying results"

The guards blanched. They didn't understand much of what she said, but they understood enough. "She's a level adamantium!" they exclaimed. "Quick, use..."

Sisna went on the attack and started hitting all the guards one by one. Even though they were only level mithril, they still proved quite a challenge: they were quick to react and used their numerical superiority to keep them busy. Sisna could have used one of the many tricks she had prepared to defeat them in a second, but she certainly didn't want to waste them on such small fish.

The explosions continued for a few more minutes. That was obviously the work of Maleficent, who was doing everything to draw attention to the royal palace. Her sister was using some fire potions they had bought and combined with dragon blood to make them more efficient, and which thus could generate extremely hot flames which in turn compressed the air causing shock waves of high intensity. It was good for them: the more damaging the explosion would be, the more the attention of the whole capital would be on them. From time to time Sisna noticed some guards falling from the upper floors of the building, a sign that her other sisters were also fighting at the prearranged points.

Suddenly someone yelled: "Don't move, criminal!" and strong auras struck her. Sisna felt almost overwhelmed by their intensity and nearly dropped to her knees. Their pressure was so intense that she felt some tendons in her avatar snap.

At least twenty soldiers had appeared in front of her, but they weren't ordinary soldiers. These were clearly level adamantium soldiers. With their aura alone they were managing to keep her locked down. Even though Sisna was using a level adamantium mana core as well, they were still twenty to one and far more experienced than her. In a direct confrontation, Sisna didn't have the slightest hope, even with the powerful avatar she had built for herself.

"Just give up!" exclaimed what was probably their captain, judging by the gaudy armor he was wearing. "Submit and order your comrades to do the same, and at least your life will be saved!"

But Sisna laughed. "I'm afraid that even if you could defeat me, you wouldn't be able to kill me. I have no reason to fear for my life. But you..." and she touched her belly with her hands. "... you will soon be very afraid!"

An immense light exploded from her belly and struck full force on the group of soldiers in front of her. The light was so intense that for an instant they went blind and their bodies seemed to become transparent. They tried to use their mana to create protection, expecting an attack… but to their surprise, the mana in their body seemed to have vanished! "What is happ..."

Sisna closed the gap between them in an instant and she grabbed their captain's head, and with a single movement she ripped it away from his body. "I carved a nullification rune into my belly, and I amplified its light by implanting some reflective mirrors. Thanks to the illusion created by the invisibility rune, none of you noticed!" she said with a smile, then she moved quickly and killed all the soldiers one by one in less than a minute. Without their mana, these mighty level adamantium soldiers were just mere humans. Nothing more than flesh and bones barely held together, against which a little force was enough to tear them apart.

Finally, Sisna was alone in the courtyard, completely surrounded by corpses. After a few moments Glausar broke through a window and jumped beside her. "I've killed my share of guards" she said. Her hands were also covered in blood, a sign that she must have killed many people.

"Great. Where are the others?" Sisna asked.

"Finiar is on the road making sure none of the city guard interferes. Maleficent is…". Another explosion rang out inside the palace. "Well, I guess you can see for yourself. As for Jatara... by now she should be done her part too..."

Again a window was broken and Jatara leapt off and landed in front of them. "Sorry I'm late, girls" she said.

Glausar noticed that her sister was wearing a very fine necklace. "Where did you get that?"

"From the queen's chambers" Jatara replied with a smile. "I wanted to get something else, but unfortunately the guards interrupted me"

Glausar rubbed a hand over her face. "Jatara, do you remember that these avatars will be destroyed here today? You can never take that necklace out of here!"

Jatara froze, her smile still evident on her face despite the deepening blush. "Well... I don't care about the necklace actually! I just wanted to taste the thrill of robbing the queen!"

"Really?" Glausar didn't believe her at all. "And what would be the difference from robbing anyone else?"

"Well... the others didn't have such beautiful items" Jatara tried to say, using the first excuse that came to her mind.

"Which, let's remember, you won't be able to take away. So what's the difference?" Glausar repeated, making her sister blush even more.

Sisna ignored her two bickering sisters and looked towards the arena. She knew that this was where their real goal would come from.

Attacking at three different points, she, Glausar and Jatara had completely eliminated all of the level adamantium soldiers in the palace as well as many of the level mithril ones. Since adamantium level warriors were rarely talents, and many of them were located in the Baudonia City Alliance at the moment, in the royal palace there were just about fifty of them. Maleficent would take care of eliminating all the lower level ones and would continue to attract attention, while Finiar would prevent anyone from outside from interfering. Basically, now she and her two sisters there could turn the royal palace courtyard into the battlefield to face their real enemy… the legendary level Thornag.