Infinite Morass Swamp

Our little airship trip wasn't so eventful for Quincy's group however for me it was quite painful as Remi attempted to beat me up. I still remember it quite vividly, mostly because said encounter ended really awkwardly.

2 Hours Ago…

"Nazuko, Will, come back here and face my fury!" an angry elf girl yells as she chases both me and Nazuko around the airship.

"Nazuko, scatter! She can't get both of us," I say desperately.

"Ok but she'll probably choose to chase you though," Nazuko tells me.

"I know that, I'll do something about it," I respond hastily.

We both split up and run in opposite directions.

Unfortunately Remi hears this and sends her wolf after Nazuko while she chases after me.

Ah poop, I forgot she could do that. I gotta find a way to get her off my tail.

Suddenly I pass by Ryder and get a brilliant idea.

"Ryder. Flashbang. Now!" I command.

"You got it!" Ryder says as he hands me one and I start running again.

I pass by the corner and bump into Adam.

"Ah Adam, no time to talk, I'm being pursued by an angry elf girl. Please hold this, thanks," I say as I hand him the flashbang.

"Wait What! What do I do with this?" Adam says all confused.

Suddenly Remi comes around the corner and bumps into Adam causing the flashbang to go off.

"AHHHH MY EYES," yells Adam.

I should feel bad about what I just did but I think my situation is more dire, plus Adam can heal. Apparently Remi must have closed her eyes before it went off because she's still chasing me.

"Oh I am going to punch you even harder now!" she yells.

Oh no it only made her angrier.

I turn to another hallway into the common area where I see Remi's wolf sleeping on top of a defeated Nazuko.

"Will go on without me. Tell our kids I love them," she says before passing out.

"Oh no they got Nazuko! Also we don't have kids!" I yell.

I need another plan, maybe using portals. No, that would make her even more furious. I'm looking around the room frantically for someone to help me. Then I hear a familiar voice.

"Ah first hero, what seems to be causing you so much distress?" Luther asks.

"Umm, umm, I'm having woman problems. I am not so sure you're the best person to ask about this, but how do you calm down a woman who wants to beat you into a coma?" I ask him.

"Hmm, woman problems. Tell me what type of girl is your aggressor?" he questions.

"She's self-conceited, prideful, mostly kind but has no regard for her or anyone else's safety," I tell him quickly.

"Ah I know just the type, my third girlfriend is exactly as you've described. Here's what you shall do..." Luther says as he begins to instruct me on how to escape this situation.

"Are you sure that will work? That's insane and perverted."

"Positively, she may even fall even more in love with you."

"Fine I'm desperate and I have no choice."

I turn into an empty hallway and await Remi's arrival. She turns around the corner to face me.

"So I see you have decided to not run away and accept your punishment," Remi states as she cracks her knuckles.

"Wrong! I shall defeat you in one move!" I claim.

Luther, I hope to Vienna that this works.

"So you are prepared to fight then. Okay then bring it on."

I begin to charge in Remi's direction and she prepares to wind up a punch. Remi throws a right hook, but I dodge it and initiate my special attack.

"Okay Remi take this, HUUUUUUGGG!" I yell as I hug Remi very tightly.

"W-W-W-What are you doing? S-S-S-Stop this at once!" Remi says all flustered.

I remember what Luther said to me 2 minutes ago.

"Young man, these prideful types of girls are weak to sudden physical embrace. You must follow up the act by giving her many compliments. If you can manage a confession of love then even better. When two people are in conflict it is actually an opportunity for them to become even closer," Luther's words echo in my head.

"Remi, I really like you. I appreciate everything you've helped me with. I would have died in this world within the first hour if you weren't there for me. I'm really happy to have such a beautiful, amazing and talented person like you in my party," I say, spouting a bunch of bullshit like Luther told me to.

"I-Is that what you really think about me?" Remi asks nervously.

Not entirely, but I've already gone this far. Let's see how far I can take this.

"Y-Yes, umm I know let's go on a date after we take down this Bartrem fiasco. Just the two of us. We'll go anywhere you want and Nazuko will pay for it," I tell her.

"O-ok sure it's a date. Don't you dare forget. And Will stop hugging too tightly I'm gonna..." Remi says before she passes out.

"Yay, I'm so lucky. Remi… Remi?" I stutter before realizing she passed out.

I guessed I hugged a bit too tightly.

Suddenly Luther comes up and sees the outcome of our battle.

"Amazing! Now I see why you are the first hero. That technique was flawless. Securing your safety while guaranteeing future sexual intercourse after a date. Truly breathtaking. If only your friend could take after you in such measures. I must plan for this later," Luther says as he congratulates me.

I'm pretty sure I said nothing about wanting to do intimate things with Remi, but I guess that's how he interpreted it. Also I'm getting a bad feeling from whatever Luther's planning. Quincy I apologize in advance.

Back to the present

After we dropped off Quincy's group on their end of the swamp we flew above the clouds in order to cross the swamp undetected. Our enemies can't see us and we can't see them so we will have to guess or approximate where to stop.

At this speed I can calculate exactly when we need to stop in order to reach the boundary of the swamp. At a speed of 90 mph and about 10 miles before the swamp's boundary it would probably take around 6 minutes and forty seconds before we need to stop. The time I calculated elapses and I instruct Azura to stop the airship.

"Ok Azura stop. I think we are at the edge of the swamp now. Let's have the ship release a bunch of steam and start our descent," I command.

"Ok got it," she says as the windows of the airship start to become foggy.

"Hey Will just to be sure, can you and Remi go up to the top of the ship and manipulate the clouds to give us more cover. Just don't make it too obvious," Elisa instructs.

"Got it. Come on Will let's go," Remi says as she grabs my hand gently and drags me outside.

"Since when did those two start acting so close like that," Lilith wonders.

"Hmm, you're right. Something's fishy. We should investigate that later," Nazuko notes.

We go up to the top of the ship and Remi uses a combination of air and water magic to cause the swamp to become really foggy. I just end up manipulating the air around us so Azura can see when she lands the airship. The ship manages to land successfully and we start marching into the swamp.

"Here's the plan. There are only a certain number of routes to the meeting place where Bartrem and the ghouls will arrive. I've decided it will be best if we take out some of their troops while we are here. If we can find Richter and take him out before the meeting happens then good, but if not we ambush them at the meeting. After all, we are about 2 hours early so we have some time to scout. Just follow my lead and stay silent. Only engage after I give a signal," Elisa orders.

We nod our heads in response. Our not so small group ends up traveling through the swamp in hopes of cutting off any reinforcements. We stop by what looks to be a ghoul outpost and Elisa starts to move out while we just wait for her signal. Our group hides in a few bushes while we watch her do her work.

She jumps onto a rooftop and then onto the lookout tower. She sneaks up behind the ghoul and slits his throat with a small dagger. The guy never even got a chance to fight back. She then proceeds to jump back onto the rooftop of a building and throws a large rock that knocks over a barrel.

"Hey did you hear that?" one ghoul says.

"One of our guys probably knocked over our barrel of booze. Go give them a good scolding," another ghoul mentions.

The ghoul walks out of the building and starts looking for the cause of the noise.

"Hey, who did that? Is anyone here? Anybody?" he ponders.

Suddenly there's a small flash of light and a dart pierces the ghoul's neck.

Elisa makes her way back to us with a face that tells us her job is done.

"Mission accomplished, let's move to the next outpost," Elisa says, expressing her satisfaction.

"Wait, what about the other three guys inside that building?" Nazuko asks.

"Oh don't worry about that. I shot one guy with a berserker dart. He'll be filled with madness and attack his allies. In fact you should hear it any second now," she responds.

A few seconds pass and suddenly we start hearing screams coming from the building.

"W-What are you doing? Jacobs stop this at once, that's an order!" the ghoul from earlier starts screaming.

Unfortunately for him those words fall on deaf ears as the berserk ghoul kills his teammates in rapid succession, stabbing his commanding officer in the heart with his sword. In response the now injured ghoul stabs the out of control ghoul in the head with his dying strength. A minute later and there were no more screams left to hear.

"Holy sh*t!" Azura gasps as she watches the carnage.

Yep, that's pretty bad. I guess she's not called the ghost knight for nothing.

"It's a bit gruesome so try not to look at the dead bodies. It's unsightly," Elisa tells us.

"I can tell. Do you really have to kill everyone you come across? Can't we just knock them out or something?" I ask her.

"Look there's no point if we just knock them out. They would wake up again and alert the others of our presence. You have to realize this is a necessary part of the job. Can you really call yourself a hero if you are not willing to do the dirty work like this?" she asks me.

I can't come up with a response.

"Yes he can. He's already saved plenty of people without having to resort to those methods," Lilith speaks up in my defense.

Oh thank heavens for Lilith. You are the one I really want to go out with.

"Hmph, sooner or later you are going to find yourself in a situation where you have to choose between life and death. Killing other people may be your best option to save others," Elisa retorts.

"Our group hasn't been forced into a situation like that, we've only been saving people from monsters and demons," Remi adds.

"Eventually you will come to understand who the real monsters are," Elisa mutters under her breath.

There's this uncomfortable silence as we travel from one outpost to the next taking out ghouls. Mostly it's Elisa doing all the killing while occasionally I'd push the remaining stragglers through a portal to who knows where, but at least they are not dead.

We've ambushed one outpost, but the ghouls there had no information on where Richter was at the moment. Even with our elevated position from the airship earlier we couldn't find anything besides these outposts. I guess that means he's already heading for the meeting location.

About 2 hours pass and we decide to stealthily head for the point where Bartrem and Richter are supposed to meet up.

"Let's wait for Quincy's group to signal if they haven't already ambushed Bartrem. Then we'll try to split up those two. Remember we need Bartrem alive for questioning," Elisa instructs.

"What about Richter?" I ask her.

"Kill or capture him, it doesn't matter. We only need Bartrem," she answers.

It's really foggy around here so it's the perfect cover for all of us to move up to a position where we can eavesdrop on their conversation. We decide to hide in a nearby ditch and cover it up with foliage. Through the bushes we can see what looks to be a guy with one arm in space-black colored thief armor.

I guess that's Bartrem. Definitely strikes me as the kind of guy who would be a part of the bad guys. There's also another guy I presume to be Richter who is donning a grayish-green cloak and holding a crimson colored compound bow. It also seems like Elisa's assassination spree has been effective as Richter only has like two other ghouls with him compared to Bartrem's group of eight.

"You must be Richter. You seem to be lacking a few men. Did you really come here so unprepared? What if an enemy attacks? You should request reinforcements, ASAP!" Bartrem scolds.

"Yes, I am Richter. Yu must be Bartrem. You should worry about your own situation. I'm sure some of my men are simply sleeping on the job. Be rest assured, we have outposts all over the swamp. There should be no intruders who were able to make it here without me being alerted of their presence," Richter informs.

"You can never be too sure. A few men fall asleep in their fart sacks and let the enemy slip by and we could have a huge charlie foxtrot on our hands," Bartrem responds.

"Shut it with the military-speak and let's begin this meeting already," Richter says, getting annoyed with Bartrem's unique way of speaking.

It would definitely be a lot more comprehensible if he were to talk like a normal person.

"Fine, we will proceed with our joint operation planning," Bartrem says, agreeing to put matters to rest.

Suddenly we see a flashbang get thrown into the mix and go off right in front of Bartrem.

"AHHH MY EYES. CURSES. WHO JUST ATTACKED US. IT WAS THE ELVES AGAIN WASN'T IT! WHERE ARE THOSE ELVES!" Bartrem starts yelling like a maniac.

"Sir it's not elves. The war with them ended years ago. We are under attack by someone else," says one of Bartrem's men.

"I know that, you fool. There could also be those nasty elves amongst the people attacking us. There's no need to tell me to GOFO. Quickly men, we must engage the enemy. Put your balls to the wall people!" he orders.

His men prepare to draw their weapons and head in the direction that the flashbang was thrown from.

"I guess that's the signal then?" Ryder says as he launches a large explosive into the air.

The artillery strike lands directly in the center of the group of enemies scattering them all in different directions. Ricther gets sent flying into the trees in the opposite direction of Bartrem. Everything's going according to plan.

"Ok move out you guys! Let's take down this ghoul quickly so we can go help Quincy's group with Bartrem!" Elisa orders.

It's time to initiate combat. Let's go!