Rangers Endgame

Chapter 100: Assault On Sotiri

Kakkona opened his palm to signal them in as he burst around the corner. Maeve followed close behind him with her team bolting out afterward while May covered the rear.

"Sentinel Vanguard! Down on the ground!" He demanded, rushing through a small field.

Frightened villagers stood frozen, while others shakily complied after recognizing the Sentinels' uniforms. The villagers barely had enough time to react when the rangers took quick action. Farmers dropped their tools with collective clattering and children cowered behind fences.

To cover more ground quickly, Kakkona and May split from Maeve's group. Kakkona watched from the corner of his eyes as Matoi, Akane, Masaru, and Koan ushered civilians to the platoon responsible for evacuating them, while Maeve and Toju kept watchful eyes for any danger. They moved with urgency, assisting the elderly and infirm while shaken children clung to their parents.

As the rangers reassured the passing villagers, movement on the rooftops jolted Toju's senses and wiped away his tired expression without a trace. Without being given an order, he brandished his tower shield that had the silhouettes of two men inscribed on its surface and snapped into a defensive posture. Maeve and the others were at his side in an instant, weapons drawn and spells humming readily.

Figures leapt from the roofs and barreled toward them, but Toju was prepared. Infusing his shield, gold raced along its designs. The human silhouettes took shape, and they stepped out of his shield, both brilliant with radiance.

Raising his shield, Toju created a twelve inch thick barrier above his allies. His radiant soldiers followed suit, raising their hands and conjuring their own barriers layered atop his.

The four hooded figures collided with the first barrier with distorted clangs, the combined strength of axes and swords shattering it upon impact, but the second and third barriers held firm. The figures, men in torn farmer's attire, glowered down at them, their bloodshot gazes rabid through the double transparent barriers. They forced more of their untamed radiance into their weapons, cracks snaking across the second barrier.

Terror rippled through the villagers caught in the crossfire, and Toju had to extend his radiance outward to form a dome, ensuring they couldn't run in a panic and put themselves in more danger. Koan sprung into action, shooting out his staff toward Toju as a river of radiance poured into their tank, allowing him to mend the second barrier.

Maeve drew her sword while Akane weaved patterns in the air with her gloved hands. With her palm outstretched toward Maeve, flames of amber embraced the clan leader. When Akane snapped her hand shut, Maeve vanished. With her other closed hand, she pointed skyward, then released her palm, and Maeve reappeared with a flash of flaming gold above the unaware Second Grades.

She hurtled toward her first unsuspecting target and plunged her thin blade through his back. He didn't have a chance to howl as blood rapidly filled his lungs and he toppled over. By the time her second target could process what happened, Maeve had already closed the distance in a heartbeat, her gleaming blade gliding cleanly across his throat before he could raise his sword.

The third Second Grade was already rushing toward her with a battle cry, axe raised high. Maeve shifted her unbothered gaze to him as Akane's hands worked to protect her. Closing her fist, she warped the space around Maeve again as a sphere of soft flames plucked her from reality. The man's axe met air as the flames dropped her off behind him. With no time to react to the jarring evasion, he lurched forward as a blade burst through his chest.

The last Second Grade charged at Maeve with dual swords crossing his body, but Akane just scoffed. With a casual flick of her wrist, amber fire ripped away his swords in a flash, stripping him of his weapons. Taking advantage of his dumbfounded daze, Maeve sliced through the tendons in his arms and legs with an elegant flourish, causing him to topple over the edge limply.

"Good work." Maeve commended her allies.

Toju released the barriers and she landed gracefully on the ground as they continued the evacuation.

The streets flooded with scared and confused villagers, and before long, panic quickly broke out as many attempted to flee, but they were quick to respond.

"Sokuba, we have runners!" Kakkona said into his artifact as he dashed after them through the fields and weaved around dense bamboo.

["Understood."]

The runners' forms became more obscured in the bamboo as Kakkona struggled to navigate until the canopy completely drowned his field of view. As the bamboo began to clear, a standing figure appeared just beyond the bamboo. Satisfied that they'd given up, he rapidly approached them but was startled when the detection artifact on his belt hummed an ominous red.

Looking back at the figure with realization in his eyes, he began sliding to a stop. The figure spun, his flapping cloak revealing a battle axe in his hands. Reacting on reflex, Kakkona threw himself low as a streak of gleaming silver shaved the fine hairs on his head and cleaved through the dozens of bamboo behind him as if they were paper.

The air erupted with crackling wood and hollow crashes as the madman seethed, his eyes bloodshot.

"I don't suppose you'd want to make this easier for yourself and surrender?" Kakkona asked, lightening his courtesy with a quip.

The man responded by raising his axe, unhinged radiance latching onto the shaft. Two more men with swords in hand joined his side, their weapons trembling with unstable power.

With incredible strength, the axe wielder drove his blade into the earth where Kakkona once was, shattering stone and uprooting nearby trees. However, the Sentinel was already behind him, his fist cocked and surging with power.

"Cluster Strike!"

Before they could react, Kakkona's arm blurred with flashes of gold toward the rabid men's midsections, cleanly drilling a hole through their backs. With their chests bursting with crimson and their lungs eviscerated, they crumpled silently to the ground.

Scanning the area, Kakkona spotted Maeve engaging two Second Grades, one armed with a spear, the other with a war hammer. Sharp bangs rang throughout the streets as she expertly navigated their feral movements and countered with effortless precision.

The spearman lunged forward, thrusting at her chest. Pivoting on her heel, the flat of her sword met the shaft with a screech. In one fluid motion, she redirected his momentum to force the spear skyward so his follow-up projectile would soar harmlessly into the air instead of striking the buildings behind her.

With a roar, the hammer wielder rushed past his staggered ally, his veins bulging further as his grip tightened. Ashen radiance gushed from his extremities as he raised his hammer. Repositioning herself, she waited until the last second to sidestep as the racing head crashed into the river's shallow waters rather than the mill.

Each calculated movement left Kakkona astounded. The way she danced around her opponents, deliberately guiding their attacks away from structures, served as a reminder of why he admired her. As far as he was concerned, she was the coolest woman he knew.

May was in the middle of escorting a family away from the battle when she signaled them to stop. Down the dirt street stood a tall man already armed with dual axes, his muscles threatening to tear free of his dark tunic, as radiance spilled from him like a veil. Confusion crossed his face as his reddened gaze fell on May.

"A child pretending to be a Sentinel." A twisted grin split his face as he dropped his weapons and began his menacing approach.

May's brow twitched. Gesturing for the family to back away, she set her doll down. Strands of light left her fingertips and slithered into the doll's back. It jittered, splitting open from the seams as its radiance-sensitive material expanded several times larger than its original size.

Its features elongated and its limbs stretched to impossible proportions. Amber flames leaking from the seams distorted the air around it and its once dead, hollow eyes now gleamed with a haunting gaze.

The inanimate beast of a doll responded to May's dancing fingers, each step it took sending tremors through the ground. But the man was unfazed, instead, barreling toward it with a challenging roar.

Flicking her finger, May ordered her puppet to charge forward as well. Their clash sent a wave of chaotic gold lashing out in all directions. The ground fractured beneath them as their interlocked hands wrestled for dominance.

The man's grin grew wider as he began bending the doll's wrists back, the scale of strength tipping in his favor. May sighed regretfully as she realized collateral damage was inevitable.

The threads connecting her to her giant doll thickened as she donated more of her radiance. The doll flared with borrowed power, the seams now raging with flames as its already large size grew more monstrous. The confidence in the man's face dwindled as the doll's hands completely enveloped his own.

He erupted into a pained cry as his hands were crushed before the doll's savage strength drilled him into the earth, shaking nearby buildings. When the dust settled, May breathed a satisfied huff as she looked down her nose at the unconscious Second Grade lying in the crater her doll had left behind. Withdrawing her radiance, her doll shrunk back to its normal size as she handed over the family to the S-ranks.

Maeve continued her scuffle. Eventually, the spearman's frustration reached its peak as he swung with reckless abandon. Using this against him, she caught his spearhead with her handle guard, the sudden halt of his strike causing him to jerk back, stunned. Guiding radiance into her handle, a second blade swirled into existence and thrust into the man's neck.

Enraged, the hammer wielder launched a wave of radiance. She leaned off her center as the wave roared past her, but struck the top of a building in the process. Below the crumbling debris was a small dog tethered to a post, whining as it desperately pulled at the rope.

Before she could think of a way to cross the distance fast enough, Akane appeared before the dog in a flash of flaming amber. Scooping up the canine, radiance embraced her and the flames ate through the rope as she disappeared again, the debris crashing into where they once were.

By the time Maeve returned her attention back to the Second Grade, he was already on her, winding up for a fatal blow. However, his soaring hammer stopped mere inches away from her head. She turned to find wires binding his arms and legs as he growled at her. In the next instant, he was yanked away to join the other tangled Second Grades struggling futilely within a web inside a farm of bamboo. Sokuba casually walked out of the bamboo.

"Thank you." Maeve said, dusting herself off.

Sokuba nodded then turned his attention to Kakkona who had just dispatched another Second Grade with ease. "The village is secured."

Kiyoshi walked out of the bamboo as his team of S-ranks left the area to escort the villagers away. After evacuating their side of the village, the rest of Kakkona's team gathered.

"Are we all here?" Kiyoshi asked.

"Yeah." Kakkona replied, whipping the blood off his hands.

After brief introductions, Kiyoshi gestured for everyone to follow. "Let's get a move on. The entrance is this way."