The Kalamina Front

Aisha woke up, and although her body ached from the uncomfortable military mattress, a pleasant feeling permeated her body, starting from her head, and a nice warmth radiated from the body next to her. Slowly opening her eyes, she was met with the sight of a sleepy-looking Aless, absentmindedly petting the back of her head as she cuddled close to Aisha.

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The little fey couldn't help but nuzzle close, enjoying Aless's firm body, that was still soft in some spots. She reminded Aisha of Kua, the amazon girl, with her toned stomach, but squishy chest and hands. She squeezed the woman tighter, laying her cheek on the woman's shoulder as she tried to draw more warmth into herself. The motion didn't go unnoticed, as Aisha felt the pets stop, and Aless climbed out of the bed.

.

"You're awake?" Aless said nervously, rubbing her hands together as she remembered the feeling of Aisha's ears in her hands. "Ah, uh… that's good."

"Mmmm..." Aisha mumbled sleepily. "Fuck. I want water..."

"Then go get water."

"But I wanna stay in bed..."

Aless sighed. "This bed is really uncomfortable. Come on."

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Aisha grumbled in displeasure, as she slowly rolled out of bed, every muscle in her body feeling like they had gone through a pasta roller. She crumpled to the ground as she slid off the ground, noting that her boots and armor had been taken off in her sleep.

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"Carry me." Aisha demanded childishly, and surprisingly, Aless obliged, slinging Aisha onto her back into a piggyback carry. Aisha quickly wrapped her arms around Aless's neck as the tall woman slid her arms under Aisha's knees, adjusting the small girl on her back.

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"What happened to being harder on me?" Aisha asked, smiling slightly.

"Don't push your luck."

"Ok."

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After getting her stitches taken out and eating a very disappointing meal, Aisha and Aless were left with nothing but time, waiting for Falo to show up.

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"What the hell is taking him so long!?" Aless said, irritated, as Aisha stretched out her shoulder and legs beside her. Her eye twitched, as Aisha accidentally hit her in the shoulder with a hand, turning to look at the fey girl, as Aisha started to stretch out her thigh-.

"Is that really the farthest you can go?" Aless said in disappointed surprise.

"Uhh… Yes."

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Aless pressed on Aisha's back, moving her stretch from touching her thigh, to just shy of touching her knee. Aless gave her a look of disbelief as she felt an incredible resistance, after just a slight push..

"This is terrible." She said, deadpan.

"I'm working on it."

.

.

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"Checkmate."

"Bullshit."

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A spark visibly flew between Aless's fingertips as she picked up her pieces, one by one, trying to figure out a way to prevent her inevitable loss.

.

"What if I..." She said, scratching her head in anguish.

"No."

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Aless sighed in defeat.

"Alright, fine."

"Wanna play again?" Aisha suggested, as a wall-mounted clock ticked by.

"No."

Aisha was silent, as she stared at the chess board in front of her, white and black pieces placed to the sides, facing the board, as if they were watching the now-finished game.

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Tick.

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Tock.

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Tick.

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Tock.

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"I'm bored." Aisha complained.

"I know you're bored." Aless said irritably. "I am too."

"Let's do something." The fey girl whined.

"Like what?"

"You wanna cuddle?"

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Aless gave Aisha a disapproving glare, but it definitely wasn't as harsh as it once was, when they had first met.

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Tick.

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Tock.

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Tick.

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Tock.

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"Why do we even have to wait for this Falo guy?" Aisha asked.

"Huh?"

"I mean, why can't we just deliver this to the science guy?"

"Because we don't know who the 'science guy' is, he doesn't know who we are, and we don't know where he is." Aless sighed.

"...Oh."

"..."

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Tick.

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To-

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"...Why don't we know?" Aisha asked.

"Because Falo knows." Aless replied simply.

"Why does he know and we don't?"

"Because communications is his specialty. Among other things."

"Huh?"

Aless sighed again, chest rising and falling slowly in a long breath. "Raxas chose each of us for a specific specialty. Something we did better, or could do better than all the other agents in the program. Falo's specialty is communications, research, and politics."

"Politics?"

"Two's specialty is information gathering, surveillance, and data analysis. My specialty is interrogation, infiltration, and combat."

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Aisha observed as Aless's face went sour as she described her own duties, her brows furrowing and mouth flattening out into a displeased pleat.

"You don't sound too happy about your duties."

"..."

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Just like that, the conversation was over, even though Aisha still had a question left. What were her own duties?

She had the feeling that Aless didn't know either.

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Tick.

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Tock.

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Tick.

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Tock.

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Tick.

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To-

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"You wanna spar?" Aless suggested desperately.

"Okay."

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Aisha cracked her neck side to side, pulling her hands into fists experimentally to test her strength.

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"Are you sure you're fully healed?" Aless asked in concern, as she stretched out her thigh, leg outstretched in a crouch.

Aisha grunted. "More or less."

"Alright, well, I'm still going to go a little easy on you… don't take it personally." Aless said.

"I am taking it personally." Aisha retorted. "Don't hold back."

"Okay." Aless responded, suspiciously quick. Aisha gave her a strange look as she tightened the straps on her boots. Did Aless have some pent-up anger against her?

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Aless took a deep breath, drawing her hands in and closing her eyes in a meditative gesture, before taking up a loose but guarded stance, with her hands not quite outstretched in firm palms, but certainly in an open grip.

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Aisha carefully observed her stance before taking her own. She had seen the stance before in her training. Aless was going to fight defensively, weaving her way through Aisha's attacks to slowly whittle her down with quick, but painful strikes to important spots. She took a stance of her own, low to the ground. She was going to keep the fight low, making sure Aless couldn't grab her.

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"Let's start." Aless said, before Aisha immediately charged towards her, fully intent on taking Aless's leg down and making the woman lose balance.

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Aless was far more ready than most opponents Aisha had faced, and easily sidestepped Aisha's grab, locking a foot underneath Aisha's back leg and making the girl trip over herself. Aisha stopped her momentum with her hands and legs as she stared at Aless, a smug expression on her face.

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(Grr...) Aisha growled. (Should have known that shit wouldn't work.)

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Aless attempted to kick at Aisha, but she rolled away, almost completely sitting on the ground, her head level with Aless's knee. She took a few seconds to catch her breath, before she charged again at Aless, this time stopping right in her tracks right before she was in range to attack, watching as Aless attempted to sidestep an attack that never came.

Aisha took the opportunity to attempt to sweep Aless's leg with her own, but it was easily jumped over, the woman leaping a good two feet into the air. An opportunity that Aisha took advantage of.

As Aless returned to the ground, Aisha took advantage of the fact that Aless couldn't move in the air, to land a punch on her shin. Aless moved her hands to try to cushion the blow or grab Aisha's hands, but she wasn't fast enough and she took the hit, nowhere close to lethal but still annoying and painful.

.

"Ow!" Aless said, furrowing her brows.

"First point goes to me!" Aisha celebrated.

"Why are you fighting like that?" Aless complained, pointing to Aisha's low position. "Fight me normally!"

"Why would I do what you want me to do?" Aisha pointed out.

"Because it's weird!" Aless said unhappily. "Nobody fights like that. I can't use my hands unless I get as low as you are!"

"It's not weird to adapt to your opponent's strengths." Aisha said. "It would be weirder if I just came at you exactly how you want me to."

Aless harrumphed. "Fine. But I'm not going to hold back anymore!"

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A deafening crackling noise sounded from around the compound, startling soldiers and attracting them nearby to watch the show, as Aless's arms lit up with a white electricity, arcing through the air and singing dirt and stone.

.

"Hey!" Aisha said in surprise. "That's a little too far."

"I'm sure you can handle it."

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Aisha just stared at Aless wearily as the crackling of lightning assaulted her sensitive ears. Observing the woman, it looked like she could only really channel it through her arms, so Aisha's strategy would be the same, but if she messed up and got grabbed…

.

She couldn't get touched by Aless a single time, or she would certainly receive a painful electrocution and get sent back to the hospital tent. A single hit would down her.

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Business as usual, really.

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Aisha approached Aless again, ready to try the same approach again, but one look at Aless's expression told her that she wasn't going to fall for it again. She ran up again, but this time Aless dropped low to the ground, ready to meet Aisha's sweep with a one of her own.

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Aisha took a deep breath, and with the adrenaline coursing through her body, time slowing down for her, she was able to move over Aless's leg and dodge the wild backhand that came shortly after. Her body twisted into a spiral as she leapt over the tall woman's leg, and then twisted her body upwards to watch Aless's upper body, propping a hand on the ground to make sure she didn't fall. A gloved fist, crackling with energy, flew at her face in a backhand, but Aisha was also able to dodge it, grimacing as she twisted her body a little bit more.

.

She could see as the expression on Aless's face went from stoic and determined, to a shocked and confused one, as Aisha weaved her way through a tiny gap between leg and arm, dodging Aless's technique in a way that nobody else had ever.

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Now fully behind Aless, Aisha pushed the woman to the ground in an undignified heap, having lost her balance from her wild movement. She glared defiantly at Aisha as she turned her body to face her, the girl smiling cheekily above her.

.

"What was that technique!?" Aless demanded, shocked.

"Huh?"

"How'd you weave through my attacks like that?! That type of movement shouldn't be possible for a human!" She said accusatorily. "You can't use magic, can't you?"

"Huh?"

"That kind of reaction time isn't natural. What did you do? If it wasn't magic?"

"I just… took a deep breath and focused. Can't anyone do that?"

"...No."

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Aless grumbled as she got up to her feet, propping herself off the ground with a hand and leaping to her feet, growling angrily..

"Again!" She demanded. "This time I'm not going to hold ANYTHING back!" She snarled, drawing a long staff from her back, the wood pulsing with magic. Aisha took a step back defensively.

"Um… I don't have a weapon-"

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"Hey guys!" A voice sounded from in the audience. Aisha thought that Aless's neck was going to snap off from how fast she whipped around to address it. "You're here early! How's it go-UURRGGFH!"

"FALO!" Aless shrieked, beating the aging man with her staff, pounding on top of his head over and over as the poor man tried vainly to protect his head. "DO YOU KNOW HOW LATE YOU ARE!!!?!??"

"Ow! Hey! Ouch! Cut it ou- I can't- Ouch! - I don't know what you're- Hey!- talking about!" Falo tried to reason, as Aisha watched the wood of Aless's staff physically splinter and begin to crack from the force that she was using. Eventually, her staff broke in two with a massive "CRACK!", and the woman took each piece in a hand, shifting her sight to each. Falo peeked up from under the cover of his hands, only to be met with another beating as Aless began to pound on his head again with the two broken pieces of her staff.

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It was a full five minutes before Aless stopped, tired out already from her sparring session with Aisha, panting and red in the face.

"You owe me five gold for the staff." She breathed out.

"I feel as if that beating was a little undeserved." Falo muttered.

"Undeser-!?" Aless sputtered. "You're an entire day late to Kalamina! Do you know how this will reflect on me!?"

"Hey, hey. Listen." Falo reasoned. "I... I'm really sorry you two had to wait so long, but you know Raxas didn't really expect you to get here in two days, right?"

.

Aless's brows furrowed, as her mind processed Falo's words, as if he had just told her that the tooth fairy wasn't real. After a while, Aless opened her mouth, but no words came out, as if they had been stolen from her.

"I don't get it." She whispered.

"It's just a test... kind of." Falo said carefully. "It's just to get Aisha used to his expectations."

"Bullshit." Aless barked. "He's never done that to me."

"He has." Falo sighed. "You're just an overachiever."

"I-"

"I gotta go talk to the commander." Falo interrupted. "Uhh… you two have fun for a bit."

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And just like that, the aging man walked off, rubbing the top of his head sorely. Aisha turned to the stunned Aless, still holding the broken pieces of her staff dumbly, as she stared at the spot at which Falo had stood.

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"Cool." Aisha said absentmindedly.

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.

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Aless and Aisha were still in the same place when Falo returned, Aless staring dumbly into the distance as Aisha kicked up a little bit of dirt with the toe of her boot. Falo scratched his head as he approached the two girls, tugging on his hood nervously a bit as he walked into speaking distance.

"Hey uh, so I have good and bad news." He said.

"Skip the good news." Aless muttered.

"..."

"Ok." He replied. "Doctor Vinderi is on the frontlines of Kalamina gathering data."

"...And?" Aless asked.

"And we have to go meet him there."

Aless swiveled her head to look at Falo with a look of disbelief. "You're kidding, right?"

"Well, either that, or we can wait for him to get back here." Falo offered. "But I know you don't..."

"Fine, fine fine." Aless muttered. "Come on Aisha, let's go."

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Aless motioned for Falo to show them the way with an upturned hand, and the aging man obliged, walking towards the sunrise, creating a silhouette in the horizon. Aisha watched as Aless paused for a bit, and then followed, mouth twitching in displeasure.

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Falo and Aless were ants on the horizon before one of them turned around.

"You coming?" Falo yelled.

"Huh?" She said, breaking out of her stupor. "Oh, yeah."

.

"Coming!" She yelled back.

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"Um… you okay there?" Falo asked nervously, scratching his neck as he glanced at Aisha, dragging her feet behind him.

"Yeah, why?" She responded.

"You look kind of… out of it." Falo said. "Something wrong?"

"I'm just tired." She sighed.

Aless's brows furrowed in concern. "You got plenty of sleep, and you should have healed by now."

"No, I get it." Falo said, giving a small smile. "It's that kind of tiredness that comes when you haven't done anything exciting in a while, right!"

"It's been pretty exciting. Idunnowhatyou'retalkingabout." Aless mumbled.

"Hm?" Falo turned his head. "What do you mean?"

"We ran into a ninja." Aless said. "Aisha took care of him."

Falo smiled at the small girl, staring off into the distance. "Hey, good job!" He then turned to Aless.

"Did you get anything out of him?" He asked.

"No." Aless replied stiffly.

"Really? Nothing?"

"Yes."

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Aless clicked her tongue in annoyance, as Aisha started to drift away from their single file line, walking off in some other direction.

"Dammit, Aisha, we're walking in a straight line! Stop wandering off!" She chided.

"Huh?"

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Aless groaned as she walked briskly over to the fey girl, grabbing Aisha's hand in her own. Falo raised an eyebrow at the gesture.

"Come on. What's wrong with you?"

"Uuuurrgghh..." Aisha groaned, holding her stomach. Before Aless could even register what was happening to Aisha, her brows furrowing, the fey girl leaned away from her and retched all over the ground, the contents of her stomach pooling on the ground, sizzling slighty. Aless squeezed her eyes shut and turned her head away from the sight, and when Aisha was finished, she pulled the girl away with her, pinching her own nose shut before the smell could reach her.

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"Oh." Falo said. "I guess it wasn't boredom."

"My tummy feelz bad..." Aisha whined, as Aless dabbed at the corner of her mouth with a handkerchief, taking a flask from her side and pouring a bit on her face.

"Damn rations." Aless swore. Her face softened in concern for Aisha, as she stooped down to meet her face to face. "Are you okay?"

"Uuuuuu..." The girl groaned. "Kind of."

"You're better now, right?" Falo asked.

Aisha rubbed her stomach.

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"I'm hungry..."

Aless put a hand on Aisha's head, petting the girl and sending soothing feelings into her.

.

.

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"So what have you and Judge Raxas been up to?" Aless asked nonchalantly.

"MMmmm… I've been working on a new proposal to deal with the Nepenthe crisis."

"Nepenthe?" Aisha asked groggily.

"Uh, yeah." Falo said. "You know of it, right?"

"..."

"Drugs." Aless said simply. "It's a drug that switches the conscious and subconscious. They call it the dream drug."

"Oh."

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"Well..." Falo began to explain. "Chizen is not really known for its… uh… quality of life for the lower class, should we say."

"Thirteen percent of the population is unemployed." Aless said flatly.

"Er. Right." Falo said, scratching his head. "And anyways, the war started, and you know… a lot of those people lost family, and the army moved out of the capital..."

Aless rolled her eyes. "Why are you trying to coddle her? There's a huge drug ring in the capital, and their amassed forces are more powerful than the ones we have in the capital."

Falo sighed. "Yeah. So what I was thinking was that we could divert some of the policing budget to the commercial sector, since all the police are currently serving in the army… um… essentially, creating jobs to raise the domestic index, and..."

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"...She's not listening." Aless observed, as Aisha almost walked into a tree, zoned out.

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"Well, politics is boring." Falo sighed. "Rax-ass can't think of any proposals himself, so I gotta do it."

"I can't believe you call him that." Aless muttered. Falo smiled in response.

"It's a term of endearment." He said, chuckling. "Man, he got so angry the first time..."

"You have history with him?" Aisha asked.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. We used to adventure together. Hehe. We made it pretty far… "

"How far?"

"Hah. Emerald." Falo said proudly.

"Yeah, you would never guess from how he is now..." Aless muttered, shooting a wry look at Falo, which the man responded to with his own flat look.

.

"Cool." Aisha responded. "How were the contracts?"

Falo shrugged. "They were alright."

"Alright?"

"Yeah." Falo said absentmindedly.

"That's not very descriptive or helpful." Aisha said in a flat tone.

"Yeah."

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Soon, the atmosphere blackened, and the sound of yelling, explosions, and clashing metal could be heard in the distance. Aisha coughed as she had the misfortune of breathing in an unfortunately dense cluster of charred dust, eyes blinking intensely as tears began to form in her eyes.

.

"Don't rub your eyes, your gloves have soot on them." Aless chided, blinking rapidly as well. "Gods, this damn dust-"

"I've got goggles with me!" Falo said cheerfully, pulling three pairs of goggles out from his coat. He gave Aisha and Aless a pair, strapping a pair to his own head, looking quite satisfied with himself, which didn't pass Aless's sight. The tall woman gave him a disapproving look.

.

"Those stupid goggles finally came in handy, huh." Aless observed.

"Yeah, I-"

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Falo was interrupted as a massive explosion shook the earth, the sound of yelling and screaming in the distance getting much, much louder as Falo toppled to the ground, the vibrations in the ground making Aless and Aisha wobble on their feet as well. The air became much hotter, and the soot began to burn Aisha's uncovered arms as Aless turned to Falo with a grim expression.

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"Yeah. We're getting closer." He muttered.

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Soon, the chaos was deafening, and Aisha was finding it harder and harder to breathe as the air became more and more toxic, the fumes of burning flesh and noxious gases poisoning the atmosphere, as the three black-clad figures made their way closer to the battlefield.

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Aless gasped as a figure fled from an explosion in the distance, running towards the group in a hurried limp, dressed in mottled green robes. She couldn't make out any details of his form, but as he got closer, she could make out more and more of his figure.

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(A deserter.) Falo thought sadly. (I can't blame him, when I look at what he's running from...)

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The figure ran up the group, panting, stopping in front of Aless and collapsing to his knees.

"Please! You gotta help me! I'm- *gasp* - you see what's happening over there right!? I-I-I-I got someone back home! Please, you have to help me!"

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The pleading man looked up and at the sight of horrified faces, was confused, even in his panicked state. He followed Falo's eye to the side of his face, which he raised a hand to touch, feeling something squishy.

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The reason why Aless and Falo looked so horrified was because half of the man's face had melted off in a gruesome amalgamation of flesh and blood, facial features distorting in the middle of his face. Falo's eyes bulged as he leaned over and threw up on the ground at the sight, as the injured soldier reached up to feel at his face, horrified, not even aware of his disfigurement.

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He looked down with his good eye and saw blood on his hands. Lots of it. As if the sight had reignited his nerves, he started to scream, collapsing to the ground in a panic.

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"Ew." Aisha said quietly, drowned out by the cacophony of war in the background. Aless quickly ushered her and Falo away from the deserter, swallowing down a load of bile herself.

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As they got closer and closer, Aisha was able to make out the sight of little lines in the ground in the distance. She squinted her eyes, and at a closer look she realized that they were trenches into the ground, about three meters deep, dug probably by an earth mage. In fact, each trench had a team of soldiers with brown diamonds on the back of their robes, concentrating heavily.

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She watched as a group of brown diamonds fell to a stray fireball, knocked over unconscious. The other soldiers looked at their bodies with horror, and Aisha couldn't figure out why, until the walls of the trench began to glow with a golden sheen, and slowly close in on the soldiers within. Some scrabbled out of the trench hurriedly, killed almost immediately after by a barrage of stone shards and balls of fire, while others prayed, as the trench became slowly thinner and thinner.

.

Aisha quickly looked away before the trench fully sealed up, the screams almost audible even amongst the sounds of flying projectiles and explosions. She ran with Aless and Falo, dodging stray magefire, vaguely hearing the yelling of the two agents next to her.

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"Where the hell is the scientist?" Aless yelled.

"I don't know!" Falo yelled back.

"ARE YOU FUCKING-"

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Aless's screaming was cut short by what sounded like a siren, so loud that it drowned out even the noise of explosions. Aisha cringed at the sound, ears flattening against her head as Aless stopped running, smothering Aisha's head in her chest and arms in a protective hug.

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"What's happening?" Aisha yelled.

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Aisha looked up at Falo, who was looking at the sky, mouth agape in a shocked expression. The fey girl followed his gaze, and her eyes widened at what she saw above her.

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A massive fireball, the size of a mountain, set down on the battlefield like a meteor, the heat melting away the air around it into plasma, and blowing away the dust on the battlefield. It broke through the ash-filled, poisoned black clouds, revealing the sight of the sky, as if giving those below a chance to see a glimpse of heaven.

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Aless and Falo were quick to respond, a solid bubble of green and blue mottled energy surrounding the three of them, thick enough to even block the sound of the battle around them. Finally able to hear herself think, Aisha whispered into Aless's chest.

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"What the hell is that?"

"It's a mage-shell." Aless whispered back. "The combined mana of over 1000 mages."

Aisha's throat was dry. "Are we going to live?"

"We should." Falo said grimly. "It's powerful, but it's also spread out. Me and Aless should be able to shield ourselves for long enough."

"What about the rest?" Aisha asked. "Isn't this an entire front? Going to get wiped out, just like that?"

"..."

Aless and Falo were silent.

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Aisha looked in wonder as a blue, see-through square appeared in the sky, a miniscule speck in the swaths of fire, but soon, another square joined it, a slightly different blue in color, connecting to the first.

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Another two shields joined, red and yellow, making a slightly larger square, a two-by-two grid of smaller shields.

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More and more shields joined the grid, and soon there was an almost equally large shield of connected squares, a solid barrier between the massive fireball and the soldiers underneath. Each square was the efforts of a soldier - the desperate cry for help of a single person - a shred of hope, pitiful in the face of oblivion. But connected together, each tiny little square created a blanket of protection, the hopes of each soldier linking together to protect them from certain death by incineration.

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It was beautiful, in a way. Falo shed a tear.

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But Aisha's awe soon faded as the fireball contacted the massive barrier, and it visibly strained under the force, the links in the center of the shield getting closer and closer to the mages in the trenches that had casted them.

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One shield shattered, and a burst of flame erupted from the hole in the barrier, hitting the ground and sending up a plume of dirt.

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Aisha quickly realized why Aless and Falo had created their own shield as more and more links in the barrier began to crumble, sending balls of flame shooting down onto the battlefield, incinerating soldiers and melting away the dirt into lava, oozing down into the trenches dangerously.

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Soon the battlefield was chaos again. The massive fireball dissipated, and a clear sky could be seen for a moment, but it was soon blotted out by smoke and clouds of soot, returning the sky to its previous ashen, dark state. Falo and Aless let down their shields, as Aless gripped Falo's collar in her hands.

.

"I'm risking my life here!" Aless hissed. "And you're telling me you don't know where the FUCKING client even is!??"

"Look, he just said that I would know it when I saw it!"

"That was good enough for you?" Aisha said in surprise.

"Are you fucking senile!??!?" Aless screeched. "You're going to get us killed!"

Falo shrank. "The guy-"

"I've had enough!" Aless yelled, turning around. "I have no intention of dying here!"

"ALESS!" Falo yelled.

The woman turned around just in time to see a massive barrage of earth and fire magic flying straight at her, eyes widening as she saw impending doom approach her. Adrenaline flooded her system, but she found that her limbs were frozen, as she was tackled down into a trench by Falo, the aging man saving her life. When she opened her eyes again, panting, she opened her eyes to see a concerned expression on the man's face, as he helped her up.

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"Never turn your back on the battlefield!" He chided breathily.

"Sorry." She muttered.

"It's fine."

"No, I'm… sorry for yelling at you." She said sheepishly. "You're my se-uh.. elder. You deserve my respect."

"It's okay." Falo smiled. "This is an awful place. Let's just get out of here, ok?"

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Aless nodded, giving Falo a hug as Aisha slid into the trench next to them, landing on top of someone's head.

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"Ow! What are you doing, you ape!? Can't you damn soldiers tell that I'm working?"

"You soldiers?" Aless said in surprise.

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Falo, Aless and Aisha all turned their heads to look at the figure that Aisha had trampled on. Indeed, the man had a white lab coat on, the same kind that the scientists at the research division had on, back at the capital. The man rubbed his head sorely.

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"...Doctor Vinderi?" Falo said, slowly.

"Yes?"