Emma had not, unfortunately, been able to prove that Kruger was a nazi, not before his subordinate had stormed in and brought news—rather conveniently timed news, for an interrogated fascist, she had to observe—that the Nocturnae's forces were mobilising, and mobilising fast.
She actually giggled upon hearing it, boys and their military terms. It would've been rather cute if they weren't big enough to rip your arm off.
For the second time since coming to this new world, Emma found herself dragged into a war room. This one was a lot more reasonable than the last, of course, given that it was occupied by people who didn't believe the height of battle tactics to be "get 'em". Kruger ran something of a tighter ship, more orderly and far more measured.
It was, Emma thought, probably diagnostic of something how scrutinous he was about keeping everything recorded and known. The entire table was littered with so many notes that she could barely see the map under it. Probably, he had the thing memorised anyway.
Emma definitely didn't, she didn't even have the names of the two countries memorised. The more she tried to think about anything other than Isolde, the more her thoughts strayed back to—
—"Are you listening?" Aexilica asked her, sharply.
"Suckling on massive vampire tits."
Of course I am, keep going.
Oh, shit, wrong way round. Aexilica glared at her in much the same way that had become habit of late.
"We're talking about the prospect of moving onto the offensive," Krummer said with only a vague distaste. "With you joining our side, the balance of power between us and the Nocturnae has shifted somewhat."
"Has it?" Emma found that hard to believe.
"You're worth easily a dozen tanks," Kruger explained, "used in the right place, that means something."
Emma took a moment to consider that.
"Are you going to make me fight a dozen tanks?"
Everybody ignored Emma's question, which did about as much to reassure her as would an unexpected stab wound.
"With your…Explosive abilities, and small size, we can attack far more rapidly than before, using you to dismantle the artillery that's been keeping us from taking the left flank of the enemy's front."
"How do you figure that?" Emma frowned, crossing her arms and making a show of meeting his eye.
She didn't really follow what Kruger said next, and was somewhat suspicious that he was making at least a tenth of the words he used up, but by the time he finished speaking everyone else looked pretty convinced of his wisdom.
At first, Emma had found herself competing with Kruger for the attention she was owed. Okay, sure, maybe this wasn't literally her own personal isekai story, but the powers given to her when she made the leap from earth to Aethiq should have left her swimming in praise all the same. Yet here was someone who'd done without even a tenth of her struggles, and enjoyed just as much power with a fraction of the effort. He wasn't even Untethered.
"Nice plan you have there." Emma growled. "But I can't help but notice that I am completely vital for it to work."
"My initial plan would have already brought us a victory, if you hadn't attacked me mid-fight."
Emma held his gaze for all of ten seconds, then lowered her eyes.
"Sorry."
He continued speaking, but another thought occurred to her quickly.
"It's still a lot to ask that I risk my own life on this endeavour, as far as I'm concerned my people can just fuck off away from here and we'll be fine. You are the one stuck in a war with a pack of weird sex-freak vampires. We're volunteering to bail you out and getting essentially nothing from it in return."
Kruger looked at her long and hard at that, silent. At first Emma thought she'd left him speechless with her retort, then wondered whether he was hoping to intimidate her. Then the thought crossed her mind, despite his youth, that he may have been having some sort of brain aneurysm. It finally dawned on her that he was waiting for her to continue, assuming she had more to add.
"You might want to say thank-you," she spat after the rest, weakly and feeling her face burn.
"Thank you." Kruger replied.
Emma stood there trembling for a few seconds, trying to think of a suitable come-back while everybody stared at her as if she were the one at fault. Eventually, apparently, they decided she would say nothing more, and got back to discussing what they had been.
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Soon enough it was all decided, their attack, their backup-plans, the precise calculation of how much damage and casualty was permissible given the circumstances. She waited to feel some sick realisation, perhaps to have her perspective thrown out as she viewed human lives from the position of a pen etching them down as numbers onto parchment.
She was too hungry for that though. Men had been running around shooting each other for years, and Emma didn't feel any sudden awareness of that fact now. Being in the war-room, it seemed, was not so different from reading about it fifty years later. Hm. Brad Pitt really had looked good in Fury…
"Then it's just preparation?" Aexilica asked the room at large, turning to Emma in particular. "Anything new you can bring out?"
Emma was about to say no, then thought about it. Was there anything new?
"Potions," she said after an embarrassingly long pause. Emma really needed to start remembering what her own powers were. "I can make potions, remember the ones I brewed for us to fight Groygar?"
Aexilica's face lit up at that, as did Vari's.
"The same ones as before?" Vari asked, stepping forwards as one hand moved to his hammer. Emma paused. Could she make anything new? Maybe, but she'd already tested old reliable too.
"Perhaps, I might experiment with a better alternative."
"Excuse me," Kruger cut in, "I don't know what these potions are or can do, care to illuminate me?"
"Oh what, not smart enough to know already?!" Emma grinned. "Why don't you figure it out, dumbass."
He stared at her. Emma stared back. He stared more. She caved first, and explained it all without meeting his eye. Once she was finished, Kruger had a thoughtful look on his face.
"That's about right," Larry chimed in, "or at least as right as you can expect from a drooling monkey."
Emma dropped him, though Kruger just eyed the head.
"Do you have more information to add, Angel?" He asked.
"His name is Larry," she hurriedly told him, coaxing another round of swearing from Larry as she did.
Kruger stared at Emma, and it took her a moment to realise he didn't believe her.
"It is," she frowned, "he told me himself."
"She's lying!" Larry lied. Emma rolled her eyes.
"He's probably just confused again, poor dear."
Whichever of them Kruger decided was telling the truth, he obviously didn't care to make it known.
"My question still stands…Angel, do you have anything that she was missing out about her potions?"
Larry seemed almost hesitant to answer, apparently having taken Emma's slight against him as the fault of all humans—like he usually did. In the end, his personal interests won out over his spite. Like they usually did.
"They're not as limited as her other powers, or even as she seems to think. But they can be unpredictable."
Emma glared at him. "Why are you only telling me this now? I've been assuming I could barely do more than with Talismans, or something."
Larry glared back. "Because you're an inept moron and I didn't want you accidentally melting yourself before you could take me to another world. If you want a guarantee that you won't accidentally grow a cock then you can barely do more than with Talismans."
She hesitated at that, and Larry's eyes narrowed.
"Are you trying to figure out how to grow a cock?"
"Regardless, there have been times where that risk would have been worth it!" she snapped back.
"I made a judgement call, stop whining." Larry was smiling again, enjoying her irritation. Again. Emma made a mental note to do something very mean to him later. But for now Kruger the Asshole was still present, and would probably take exception to her torturing him.
"I will see what I can do with potions," Emma said at last, grinding her teeth as she did.
And so she did. They all took to one preparation or another, some more complicated, others less so. Vari and Aexilica did as they usually did by simply training—Emma offered them both healing tinctures but was promptly turned down. She found out shortly after. Within six hours they'd both more or less recovered fully, Aexilica having been substantially more wounded. Once again Emma was left annoyed by their effortless physical prowess, and how it seemingly extended to all areas at once. But she bottled that up like only a four-foot-nine women knew how, and focused on her own work.
The good thing about Curgundry was that their technology gave her a far wider variety of ingredients to play with. Strength potions didn't need blood anymore, not when she had cocaine. The quality of actual brewing aparatus was helpful, too, by shearing precious minutes off the practical time needed to actually set everything up.
"I can't make mana potions, I guess," she grumbled, and grumbled more as Larry confirmed with an eyebrow-nod.
"You could try thinking of something that isn't from a video game," he told her, with a tone that might have been mistaken for genuine helpfulness in anyone not called Larry.
"What…" Emma paused, grinned, "what about…"
Larry took in her suggestion, then started laughing. Then kept laughing for a good long while.
"Okay, fuck, that's a good one—holy shit the looks on their faces will…Damn, okay yeah I'll help with that. The ingredients'll be hard though."
"Got that figured already," Emma grinned wider, "I just need to ask Krugerfor some mercury and…Something solid." In the end, she settled on a bit of a clumsy pick. Photograph paper. Emma was pleased to see it work.
With her new weapon—and her customary strength enhancers—already complete and being completed respectively, her remaining time was spent on further perfecting the power of flight.
It was already a semi-workable technique, really. With her new Talisman—thankfully something Emma had had on her as she fled from vampire dommy mommy's castle—she had most of the mental element handled already in regards to holding herself off the ground and well balanced. The hard part was adjusting to using her other abilities at the same time.
There was not, sadly, a Talisman to automatically use her active powers as needed—such a thing would really be best compared to autopilot. That left Emma to figure out everything herself, the hard way. She hated learning, but didn't have much choice here it seemed.
Fortunately, this was more practice than mental labour. It meant Emma could let her focus drift—not that a semi-physical effort was pleasant, exactly, but it was at least something she didn't feel her entire mind rebelling against the very notion of.
So she tested herself, worked at it, tried her very best to hone the delicate art of multi-tasking levitating flight and combat magic. Even with most of the labour done automatically, it was far from easy. On the other hand, practicing didn't take much mental energy from her. She was, after all, fucking flying.
By the end of the day, Emma had a good few more hours under her belt. Probably not a great amount of experience in the grand scheme of things—how many thousands of hours did she have in practicing walking or running?—but a good deal better than how she'd started. Things had gotten a bit smoother, more instinctive. She was finally putting theory into practice.
And just in time to go and fight some vampires.
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