Firstborn of the Frontier

Book Three - Chapter 152


It all unfolded exactly as Ao Tian envisioned, so perfectly it was as if the Heavens Above were watching over him and guiding his steps.

Though they'd long since lost the traitor's trail, Ao Tian's team followed his last known trajectory for only ninety minutes before almost stumbling across his camp in the darkness of night. Their Scouts had disappeared after all, so the rest of them were travelling more or less blind, and it was pure happenstance through which they avoided such a blunder. One of the sharpshooters suggested they circle around the dried riverbed to avoid the possibility of waking more slumbering Yao Guai who might be hidden underneath. A most fortunate coincidence which meant they were more than a hundred and fifty metres north of the traitor's camp when they spotted it, and thus had likely inadvertently avoided any Alarm Wards set up to detect intruders.

There was still a chance they'd stumbled across one in their meandering, but if so, the camp showed no signs of it, nor did the patrolling milk mother making small circuits around the wagon appear all that concerned as she moved about with lackadaisical disinterest in her surroundings. Typical lazy Americans, always cutting corners and slacking off wherever they could. Even though there was no immediate threat, one should always be on their guard when standing watch, and doubly so out here in the badlands with so many Yao Guai threats roaming about.

No matter though, for Ao Tian intended to make use of every advantage he could. A lion used all its strength even when hunting a rabbit, so he would not hold back against the traitor just because his milk mother was incompetent. Turning to the sharpshooter who'd made the suggestion to circle around the riverbend, he gave his orders in hushed whispered. "Take one sharpshooter and three more comrades with you to retrace our steps back over to the other side. The rest of us will lay here in wait for twenty minutes, then approach from behind while our sharpshooter provides overwatch from behind. Once you and yours are in place, engage whatever target you have available and draw the traitor out towards you so that we can take the others by surprise."

The sharpshooter frowned, then said, "Best to wait until we engage before setting out. We may come across Wards which may slow us down."

Or give their presence away, thereby ruining all their plans and leaving them all exposed and wholly at the traitor's mercy. Better to sacrifice half the team than the full team is what the sharpshooter was saying, as they were all eager to bring down the traitor who'd threatened the Republic. Though eager to do battle and put this all to rest, Ao Tian simply nodded and accepted the older man's suggestion, as you should never overlook the experienced advice of an original Vanguard. Glancing around at the rest of his team, Ao Tian reiterated their target priority. "The milk mother is too dangerous to keep alive, but if possible, merely wound the other two so that we may put pressure on the traitor. They can die once he has been dealt with, but until then, they are more useful as hostages to keep our target from running."

A deplorable tactic to use against one's countrymen, but the traitor had threatened them first, so turnabout was fair play, and not a single member of Ao Tian's team showed any sign of complaint. There were a few other items to discuss, like keeping the horses and ox alive so that they could return south with the traitor's wagon and weapons in tow, a prize that would have even the General salivating for the wealth of knowledge they represented. Especially the large Pressure Wave Cannon installed on top, as too much of the Republic's knowledge had been lost after passing through the Gate. Most of it had been classified as top secret and thus carried over by only a select few, mostly old-blood scions and their trusted supporters who guarded their knowledge jealously and made exorbitant demands of the Council to fund their various projects. Or that knowledge had been lost, as it had with the General's younger sister, who was a veritable prodigy of the arcane arts and a treasure trove of information that could have been of great use to the Republic as a whole, or more likely just been used to further the General's cause and cement him as a figure the Republic could not do without.

Well today, Ao Tian would deliver him a blow from which he might not recover, or at the very least would set him back enough for the Council to perhaps wrest away some of his control over the military elites of the Vanguard. Soldiers respected the strong, so it was only natural for their strongest soldiers to seek service under the strongest warrior of the Republic, but strength did not mean he had the qualifications to lead. The General was too shortsighted, too fixated on the past and maintaining the status quo to understand that the people were the Republic, and the Republic its people. Not the old blood, or its politicians even, but the people as a whole, from the highest Elder to the lowliest sweeper, every member of the Vanguard was equally valued, and as such should have equal consideration in every decision moving forward.

Not necessarily equal say, because doing so would slow their progress to a crawl with all manner of bureaucratic nonsense, but those who made the decisions should always do so with a mind to the people first. Like Elder Chang Sang, who's policies reflected this even though he spoiled his children so, but no man could be perfect, and a love for one's family was hardly grounds for impeachment.

No matter though. Whatever imbalance in power there might be in the current moment, Ao Tian would address them during his rise to power after accomplishing his goals here tonight. There could be no distraction, so he put all other thoughts out of his mind while envisioning how this fight would play out. Poorly if they tripped over any Alarm Wards on their way in, that much was certain. However, time and circumstances meant the traitor had likely only thrown up a handful of cursory Wards close to his campsite, giving him at most a few seconds of advanced warning. Perhaps 10 at most, meaning Wards out at a 100 metres from the campsite, but a lot could happen in 10 seconds during a firefight. The riverbed had next to no cover to speak of aside from a few twists and turns to offer some shallow obstruction, which meant it would be best if they approached from above the embankments. They'd have no view of the campsite, but if all went to plan, then their foes would be focused on the team to the south, and perhaps even exposing themselves to Ao Tian's sharpshooter who'd picked his perch atop a rocky outcrop just to the north of where they first spotted the camp.

Each piece of the puzzle came together in perfect order, and so long as they all did their jobs, the traitor would fall tonight. The milk mother would die first, shot by the Dragunovs of the other team to announce their presence and send the traitor into a rage. Even if he was able to keep a level head, his typical approach to battles was to separate from his allies to draw attention away and present two threats to manage as opposed to one. Little would he know that they too had followed suit, leaving Ao Tian's team in reserve to strike from behind. Speed and stealth, these were the keys to their success, because if Ao Tian's team could take control of the blonde and silver haired Aberrants, then they could force the traitor to put down his weapons and accept Ao Tian's challenge of single combat.

Of course, no plan survived contact with the enemy, and as the minutes passed in stifling silence, Ao Tian could not help but imagine all the ways this battle could go disastrously wrong. It wouldn't take much really, because not only was the traitor's marksmanship deadly as could be, but the blonde Aberrant also had 4 semi-automatic pistols with plenty of ammunition to spare, whereas his sharpshooters only had 60 Bolts apiece. Second Order Bolts with 135 Grainage of Aether behind them, but still only 60 shots in total, while the Mao Box Cannons equipped by the rest of the team had even less each. This meant they had to make their shots count, or better yet, render the traitor's guns worthless by taking his family hostage, but even then it wouldn't be simple.

Without their weapons, their enemies were still quite formidable after all, whether it be the traitor's daunting Fireball or the silver-haired Aberrant's Psychic Scream. A Silence Spell could handle the latter, but the traitor was far too mobile to be locked down so easily, and the last report from Qian stated that the traitor had used minimal Spells throughout the day. As for the blonde, she favoured Mirror Image, so her Spells could be ignored, but not so much the person herself considering the rate of fire and speedy reloads of her Aetherarms. What's more, if they failed to take out the milk mother before hand, they would have to deal with her Spells too, whether it be the fearsome Phantasmal Force or her Major Illusions to confuse and beguile any who entered into the Spell's range.

All issues best dealt with by denying the enemy the use of their strengths while playing to their own. In this case, it was the element of surprise alongside their teamwork and coordination, for every Vanguard was trained to fight alongside their fellow comrades no matter what specialization they might possess. That's why the sharpshooter made his suggestion, because he knew good and well how quickly Ao Tian and his comrades could cross the 150-metre distance to the campsite without being spotted, and he wanted time to move into position and set up for the fight. There was more to it than setting his rifle down of course, as it was best to do all the math required for a long distance shot beforehand, in the calm quiet without any pressure or need to rush so as to avoid making elementary mistakes. For that same reason, Ao Tian waited 15 minutes, then set his team to casting Spells in preparation for the fight.

Not that he expected any issues, as these were all Spells that were familiar to them all. He was once again the recipient of Aid, Barkskin, and Cat's grace, but he held off on his Gift of Alacrity by readying the Spell and holding it in preparation of the fight, so these last few minutes would not pass so slowly. As such, he was ready and waiting when the first shot rang out from almost 400 metres away, one that was soon echoed by a second from its twin rifle close by it.

The Dragunov did not bark like most rifles; it roared to signal the start of the fight, and Ao Tian unleashed his readied Spell without hesitation. His mind sharpened and thoughts focused as he took his first step and lead his team out of the riverbed to charge forth and execute his perfectly laid plan, though he spared a moment to glance over and take in the results of his countrymen's good work as he ascended.

Only to pause mid-step to drop his jaw and gape as the campsite blurred and shifted to the right by a full metre and a half.

The wagon. The riverbed. The patrolling milk mother. All of it was in one place, then moved to another in less time than it took to blink, so quickly that even his sped-up thoughts struggled to process what his eyes were seeing. It was as if reality itself had shifted and the recessed riverbed snapped back into place after being pulled to one side like the drawstring of a bow. The twin Bolts from the powerful Dragunovs sent up a spray of dirt and rocks as they hurtled into the empty ground, having passed through where the milk mother had been only for her to reappear some distance away, and he struggled to come up with an explanation for long tenths of a second. Then the answer dawned upon him even as the blood drained from his face, for though he had emphasized how she was too dangerous to let live, he'd still vastly underestimated the Aberrant's skills.

Everything they'd seen had been an Illusion, one cunningly crafted to offset the real location of every object in the riverbed by a fair margin. A Major Illusion no doubt, one held all throughout her watch because to do otherwise would risk the change being spotted. A difficult and demanding task, so was this a trap then? Some cunning ploy meant to lure them in so that the traitor could gun them all down from afar? No, it couldn't be. The traitor would have picked a better location, like a flat, open area with clear lines of sight in all directions to better spot and shoot intruders. If this was a trap, it was a poor one, because the riverbed provided plenty of cover to Ao Tian and his comrades, while targets outside of it could not be seen from shooters within, and vice versa except at very specific angles.

So this was merely a countermeasure against this very scenario, being shot at from afar by person's unknown. No matter though, because Ao Tian was committed to seeing this through, so he pressed onwards even as the sharpshooters shot a second time, once again targeting the milk mother who was frantically running for cover. Away from the wagon on her left rather than towards it, which was foolish because not only would that isolate her from the people sleeping inside, but the right side of the riverbed was also the farthest bit of cover available to her.

And yet, those second shots both missed, and so too did the third as she clumsily scrambled this way and that, arms flailing and body bobbing all about as she ran all about in a flustered panic. The shots continued to ring out as Ao Tian cleared the riverbed, but rather than move further away to conceal his silhouette against the night's sky, he opted to stay close and simply duck down as he advanced so he could watch events unfold. All the same, he signalled for the rest of his team to move aside in case he was spotted and shot by the traitor or his people, at which point Ao Tian's comrades would have to decide what they would do next. He paid them no mind however, as he padded forward while hunched over with eyes fixed on the firefight, only to realize as the sixth set of shots rang out that the sharpshooters were still shooting at an Illusion, and the milk mother was not where she appeared to be.

Because with Eagle Eye and Darkvision still available to him, and Gift of Alacrity to slow his perception of time down, he was able to watch as his comrade's Bolts passed straight through the Illusion of the milk mother as she ran from one bit of cover to the next like an untrained fool. It was all a ploy however, one to hold their attention and buy time for the others to wake up and arm themselves appropriately. With Spells and weapon both mind you, and already she'd bought a full two seconds of time with her show of fear and alarm. Unfortunately, both sharpshooters were too far out and not as adept with the Spells as Ao Tian, so they were unable to see through her tricks as they continued shooting at the Illusion again and again, pushing their semi-automatic rifles to their limit and achieving nothing aside from wasting precious ammunition.

Though nothing had gone right, Ao Tian pressed on because the plan was still sound. The traitor would undoubtedly engage the sharpshooters and get bogged down by the three standard infantry soldiers dispatched to protect them, while Ao Tian's half of the team could take out the milk mother and secure the hostages. The traitor might still run, but Ao Tian was prepared to make any threat necessary to keep him in place, and though he had never tortured anyone before, he'd been taught enough to know how to make a woman scream loudly enough to be heard from kilometres away. Yes, if the traitor ran, Ao Tian would give him nightmares to endure for the rest of his days, however long that might be. His death was only a matter of time, for Ao Tian was committed to avenging his father, and would travel to the ends of the world to hunt the traitor down.

The seconds passed in agonizing lethargy as he made all haste towards the campsite and watched his comrades open fire upon an Illusion. The loud roar of the weapons sounded out in a symphony of senseless folly, for no matter how accurate their shots might be, it would avail them nothing because they were shooting at a target which existed only in their minds. Three seconds passed, then four and five, and only then did the sharpshooters realize their folly. Perhaps they would have realized it sooner, but the milk mother's quick thinking tricked them into believing they'd already seen through her Illusion, but the scene of her initial Illusion shattering before their eyes was only a misdirection so that she could place another Illusion in its place.

All of which bought time enough for the traitor to cast his first Spell and emerge from his wagon, his signature jacket trailing out behind him in an almost theatrical display as he held his hat in place and leapt onto his Floating Disc before skating up the riverbed and out into the darkness

No, not out into the darkness, for his silhouette melted into night and disappeared as soon as it reached level ground. The sharpshooters on the other side stopped shooting at the milk mother as they frantically cast about in search of a target that wasn't truly there, for this was yet another Illusion created by the devious Aberrant to keep them off guard. Ao Tian realized it almost immediately, yet it took several precious seconds for his comrades to do the same and come to the conclusion that their time was better spent opening fire on the campsite.

Except they could not trust their eyes, for how could they know what was Illusion and what was not? As such, they took several seconds more to work things out between them, no doubt using hand signals since the shots showed they were stationed across the riverbed from one another. The night fell silent as they made their exchange and Ao Tian proceeded onwards towards the campsite, only to erupt in a roar of fury once again as a single sharpshooter took to putting Bolts into anything and everything they could see. The wagon, the cover around the Illusory milk mother, the opposite side of the campsite and more, the single shooter calmly and methodically shot at these targets and more while the other sharpshooter watched closely to gauge what was real and what was illusion. Ao Tian did the same, and almost stumbled forward in disbelief when he realized that nothing hit was actually real and the Bolts were passing harmlessly through it all to strike the ground and nothing more.

How could this be? The Spell only had an area of 6 cubic metres, yet the riverbed was clearly longer than 6 meters and still the whole of it was hidden within an Illusion. Metamagic would explain it, but with Illusions, more area to cover meant more variables to account for, a task which grew exponentially more difficult the more believable the Illusion, and Ao Tian had never seen one more believable than this. It took careful shooting and observation to uncover that it was an Illusion to begin with, and if the Aberrant milk mother was capable of doing this with a life-like recreation of her surroundings in so large an area, then he shuddered to think how deadly her Phantasmal Force might be if turned to nefarious means.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

He still remembered how those Swarmlings and Spitters had simply toppled over and died the first night they crossed paths, as they were so entranced by her Phantasmal Force that they believed they'd frozen to death and simply went along with it. How powerful and realistic must an Illusion be to trick the mind into killing the body? Incredibly powerful, and Ao Tian was wary of facing off against such a foe, for the Eight-Eyed Sword Saint emphasised speed of thought and acuity of vision in all his lessons, meaning two of Ao Tian's greatest strengths were rendered helpless before the Aberrant milk mother's Illusions.

Just as he considered giving the order to fall back and scatter to the winds, a shadow appeared out of thin air and hurtled headlong towards the two sharpshooters' position. There he was, the traitor himself, no Illusion this time and behaving exactly as Ao Tian had predicted, and his comrades responded with the speed and alacrity of shooters lying in wait. They opened fire on him almost as soon as he appeared, but he was clever enough not to move in straight lines directly towards them, and instead zipped off to the west and south to circle around and force the shooters to track him across the badlands. Clever that, because not only did it mean the sharpshooters had to reposition to fire upon him, but also calculate new headings on the fly as he moved towards them at speed. Not only that, but the traitor also returned fire while doing so, utilizing his princely weapon that spat flaming death out of its barrel and illuminated the sharpshooters enough for even Ao Tian to see that the shots were very close to their mark.

Incredible. The traitor was not only moving as he shot, but aiming at targets he couldn't possibly see all that well. There was no way he was using Darkvision, not unless he cared to blind himself with every shot, meaning he'd managed to spot and accurately aim at two hidden profiles nearly 200 meters away in less than 15 seconds flat using only their muzzle flash. That was from the start of the fight until now mind you, most of which was likely spent gathering his guns, gear, and jacket before casting whatever two or three Spells he might need. Mage Armour no doubt, and maybe another defensive Spell, with his powerful Mage Hands as the third option. If not, he still had time enough to conjure them as he zipped across the open grounds sending Bolt after flaming Bolt to light up the night's sky and come terrifyingly close to striking the beleaguered sharpshooters one after the other to keep them from returning fire.

Yet another display of skill from the traitor, but Ao Tian's confidence was bolstered by the realization that his plan could still work yet. The milk mother wasn't dead, but the traitor had been lured away, so if Ao Tian's team could play their part and keep at least one of the women alive as a hostage, then this day next year would be the anniversary of the Yellow Devil's death. With victory in his grasp, he redoubled his efforts and sped headlong towards the camp, drawing his sword as he went and hefting his pistol in his left exactly as he'd been trained to do.

The Mao Box Cannon was not the most powerful or accurate sidearm available, but that was hardly the point. It also only had a 20-metre effective range, and even then that was stretching it because there was no way for it to shoot true at that distance. It was the Aetherarm Ao Tian had trained with most however, because when a swordsman needed to close the distance without being shot, the Mao Box Cannon was the weapon of choice. It was simply a matter of raising the weapon, pointing it at your target, and pulling the trigger as quickly as you could while running headlong towards them to deliver a spray of Bolts that would have any sensible foe diving for cover. While it only held 10 rounds in the clip, that was plenty to cover the distance between 20 meters and 10, at which point Ao Tian would be well within his range to strike.

Despite all this, he would be doomed if he were fighting alone. Even the muddle-headed silver-haired Aberrant might well defeat him before he could close that distance, as Psychic Scream had a 10-metre range and instantaneous cast speed allowing the Spell to hit and wound him even as he closed the distance with Misty Step. As for the other two, they could simply befuddle him with Illusions and shoot him with their powerful Aetherarms, which made a headlong charge foolish to the extreme. He was not alone however, as he had three Vanguard trained in close combat alongside him as well as a sharpshooter hanging back to provide overwatch and take out the milk mother as soon as she revealed herself. More to the point, his comrades were armed with a plethora of Spells designed to help soldiers like Ao Tian make it into close quarters combat.

Not just Aid, Barkskin, and Cat's Grace. No, as vital as defensive Spells might be, the best defense was an unstoppable offense, because your foes could hardly fight back if they were already dead. While Barkskin and Cat's Grace required the caster to maintain Concentration, Aid required no such thing, so Ao Tian's comrade who had cast that Spell cast another as soon as was within range of a visible target. The Spell was far from as direct and confrontational as Fireball or Call Lightning, but it was an engagement winning Spell all the same as the area in and around the Illusory campsite was lit up by an eerie, purple Aetheric glow.

One which cared not for the Illusion and illuminated all the real objects contained within the Widened Faerie Fire's limits. Where the Illusory campsite was positioned closer to the right or the west and still visible, the real campsite was over on the east bank all aglow with purple, with the milk mother and her blonde daughter both turning about to catch sight of Ao Tian running up top of the bank. They were fast, he had to give them that, because even with his enhanced mind giving him more time to process and act, he still heard the telltale snap of a Bolt cracking right past his ear as he withdrew. A tenth of second slower, and he would have been shot in the face, but once again the Heavens smiled down upon him and had him move aside when he did.

Perhaps it was even the spirit of his father watching over him, having delayed his return home and on to the next life to safeguard his beloved son.

The thought emboldened Ao Tian even further, but not enough to risk revealing his profile over the riverbank's edge. Again, he was not alone however, as another one of his comrades unleashed his readied Spell, a crackling Orb of Thunder which he lobbed up high to come crashing back down overtop the heads of both Aberrants below. The Elemental Orb was often considered a poor man's Fireball, or worse, a primitive and inferior version of Bolt that required manual aim and did less damage than both the other Spells by a fair margin, but there were advantages to be had in exchange. For one, manually aiming the Spell allowed you to strike targets that were out of sight, which went against the grain for all things magical. The general rule was that in order to target a Spell, you needed to see the target, but Elemental Orb only required the caster to direct the motion of the conjured Orb itself, one which adhered to all the rules of physics.

Secondly, being an Elemental Orb meant one could freely pick and choose what Element the Spell would take, so long as you had the requisite Elemental Stone. In this instance, Ao Tian's comrade chose Lightning because they wanted at least one target alive, and the crackling energies would not only be safer to deploy than Fire or Acid, the clap of thunder which followed after would rattle and disorient anyone caught in its effect even if the target was using the Hearing Protection Cantrip.

Fate and fortune favour the bold, so as soon as the clap of thunder rang out, Ao Tian blindly jumped off of the ledge and used his time spent airborne to study his targets. The milk mother was recoiling from the shock of the Elemental Orb and in no position to open fire, but she'd taken cover behind a bend in the riverbed and could not be easily targeted. As for the younger blonde, she was less experienced and had avoided the Elemental Orb by diving out into the open, a ripe and tempting target to be sure. She was also the most suitable target to take hostage, so Ao Tian held his shots and simply charged forward to engage, even expending a precious Second Order Spell on Misty Step to close in as quickly as possible and knock the girl out of the fight.

A back-handed blow with the hilt of his sword should be enough to render her senseless, and he was raising his Mao Box Cannon at the illuminated milk mother even as he delivered it. His aim was spoiled however when the hilt of his sword collided against a solid edge that was most certainly not the blond girl's head, and he found himself cast in the blue glow of a spectral Shield that had just appeared in thin air before his target. Who had recovered all too quickly and was glaring at him with indignant blue eyes, ones so round and fetching even as she raised her twin pistols to deliver death unto her foe.

Training dictated Ao Tian should stay the course and kill the milk mother, giving up his own life so that his comrades could seize overall victory in the exchange. Instinct however drove him to turn away from the milk mother to fully engage the daughter instead, because a dead dragon was of no use to anyone, especially not Ao Tian. So rather than kill the most dangerous target of the bunch and ensure victory for his team, he abandoned the shot to flick his wrist and turn his body to bring his sword about in an arc that would cut off both of the blond Abberant's hands and take her guns with her. A move he'd practice countless times before and could carry out faster than most eyes could follow, much less react, but with Gift of Alacrity driving his thoughts and cognition to levels unknown, he was both shocked and appalled to see the girl's clear blue eyes not only track the movement of his sword, but also react to it by pulling both hands out of harms way.

While bounding back a single step no less, and putting distance between them to raise her guns again. Fast reactions and faster hands, but Ao Tian was every bit as fast. Aborting his movement mid-flick, he transitioned into a scything slash aimed at her guns once again, because without them she was rendered completely helpless. The milk mother was a different story, but battle cries sounding out behind him told him his comrades were engaged with the woman and would likely bring her down soon enough. Not without sacrifice, because the metallic pop of the woman's Blastgun was like a death knell for his comrades, but he hardened his heart and thought that which he would never say out loud.

Better them than himself, for he was the hidden dragon of this generation, a man meant for great things who could not be sacrificed for the likes of anyone.

This time, the girl did not react in time, and his blade scythed through both her weapons before she could bring them to bear and fire. The Darksteel edge of his Mastercrafted sword carved clean through the polished silver frame of both guns, but not through her flesh as she hopped, skipped, and scurried away out of his range. Never one to let his quarry escape, he pursued with a probing thrust to keep her from drawing her other two guns, only to be blocked as she leaned forward to parry his blade with the edge of her spectral blue Shield floating about to cover the upper third of her body. An Artifact then, not a proper Spell, which only further compounded the vast gulf between them in terms of gear and equipment, for though Ao Tian's sword had once seemed a handsome gift bestowed upon him by his Sifu, he was fast realizing that the Americans were wealthy beyond compare.

Or at least the traitor was, equipping his harem of round-eyed Aberrants with all manner of weapons and armour. Ao Tian kept the pressure up and delivered a lancing thrust to her right hand which was reaching for another gun. She readily abandoned the effort to avoid harm, and as best he could tell, she used nothing but honed reflexes and natural acuity of vision to do so. Her movements lacked the erratic indecision that so often showed in users of Gift of Alacrity, and Ao Tian himself was no exception. It could be seen in the way the tip of his sword vacillated this way and that as he wavered indecisively on where to aim at his opponent without killing her outright. This led to him giving away his target before he struck, which was clue enough for the sharp-eyed girl to react accordingly. More to the point, she continued to dance away from his attacks with no regard for her mother behind him, her attention fully focused on her own fight as she strove to bring her Aetherarms to bear against him.

Or perhaps not, because as he moved to deliver another strike, his sword was parried aside by a butterfly blade in her left. For a brief moment, he was almost overwhelmed with delight, because if his opponent thought him an easy target to engage in close combat, then she would be in for a rude awakening. He easily had the advantage in range and reach, as they were of equal height but his arms and sword were both longer and stronger. Their singular exchange had left a chip on her blade, one which held up slightly better than the Aetherarms because it had been designed to withstand such impacts, but would only hold together for a few exchanges more.

Even less if Ao Tian aimed his next blow at the weakness, and he was moving to do just that when he noticed her right arm had gone back for the gun on her hip, a movement obscured by her frame which she'd turned to face him directly. Another trick, though no Illusion this, merely sleight of hand at best, drawing his attention to the weapon in front of her and away from the real weapon she intended to kill him with. It was too late to abandon his strike however, so he did the next best thing. He followed through with as much speed and strength as he could muster to knock her off guard. The clash of sword and blade came out in his favour as he shattered the butterfly blade and sent razor sharp shards flying in all directions, most of which ended up piercing the girl's clothes and flesh to spread blossoms of red underneath.

The pain was enough to slow her in her tracks, to halt her movements long enough and delay the drawing of her pistol for Ao Tian to scythe her leg out from under her using the arch of his foot. Though not enough to knock her over, it unbalanced her enough for his subsequent shoulder charge to do just that, all while he brought his sword around and overhead so that he could aim a piercing thrust at her right hand and pin it to the ground. That would put an end to this fight, and once he removed the rest of her weapons and gear, he could turn his attentions to the milk mother and perhaps even use the daughter's Aetherarms to kill her before calling out to offer the traitor a challenge in exchange for the blonde girl's life. His sword plunged, and victory was in his grasp, with all the honour and glory to follow, and he could not imagine a moment tasting any sweeter than this.

"Stop."

A simple demand uttered in a bored and monotone fashion, one so quiet he wanted to ignore it out right. The word would not allow him however, worming its way into his mind and arresting all motion in his body. His sword was a handspan away from its target, victory mere centimetres away, yet try as he might, he could not drive his body into motion for it was as if all his muscles had cramped at once and was refusing to heed his orders. He couldn't breathe, couldn't blink, couldn't so much as move his eyes away from where they'd been fixed on target, because he'd been Commanded to stop and could not shake free of the Spell no matter how much he willed his body to move.

The silver-haired Aberrant. It couldn't be anyone else, not with gunfire still sounding out behind him, and he could do naught but watch as his target recovered before his eyes. Five seconds, that was the base duration of a Command Spell, one which allowed the caster to utter a simple command to one target that must be obeyed. There were ways to resist the Spell of course, pitting your will against the caster's and emerging victorious, and Ao Tian had trained for this very scenario. Enchanters were a fearsome foe to encounter on the battlefield, because deadly as guns and blades might be, they were only as dangerous as the user, a weakness Enchanters excelled at targeting.

One Sword Saints were especially vulnerable to, which was why Eight-Eyed Sifu had given his students double the mandated hours of resistance training. It was as simple as using a bucket to take sand from a full barrel and moving it to an empty one a few meters away while getting hit by Daze Cantrips cast in quick succession by no less than four comrades. It taught you to endure and shake off the stream of contradictory sensations threatening to overwhelm your mind and spirit both and continue on with the task at hand, and Ao Tian had excelled in training. Even a quartet of the best Enchanters of his age group couldn't keep him still for more than a half-second a piece, a tenth of the true duration the Spell was supposed to last, and Command was no different.

Except in this case, it was. Throwing off a Daze was like trying to focus on one object in a crowd of similar such moving objects, only they all differed in size, shape, and colour. So long as you focused on the target, your initial goal to do whatever it was you wanted to do, then overcoming the Enchantment was simple enough. This Command though? It was almost the complete opposite. This was a mandate from on high, a duty and responsibility from which he could not escape, a directive to hold fast and make no move which he instinctively wanted to obey even as his mind screamed at his body to move, shift, twitch, do something, anything to disobey. The weight of the Enchantment was otherworldly and all consuming, a burdensome mountain come crashing down upon him and leaving him no strength to do anything else but comply.

So there he stood, frozen in this moment of time while his opponent recovered from her surprise, scooted back a little bit, and drew the pistol he'd worked so hard to keep her from drawing. The barrel came up to point at his face, then his chest, but the gun did not bark nor did the anticipated pain as she held her fire and said, "Drop your weapons and put your hands on your head."

He couldn't even if he wanted to, not yet at least. The Command holding him in place had yet to cease its incessant demand, and would continue to do so for another half second more. One that passed slowly as he sweat from every pore in both fear and exertion both, but no matter how hard he struggled against the invisible chains that bound him, there was no reprieve to be had. There was only one hope for him still yet, the fact that the girl was out in the middle of the riverbank and glowing purple from the Faerie Fire, making her a perfect target for the third sharpshooter on his team who still had yet to reveal himself.

The shot roared out in the night to shatter the silence, and the chains holding him still fell away. Springing into action, he prayed that his comrade with the Dragunov was smart enough to shoot the girl somewhere non fatal, and that the girl didn't squeeze the trigger out of pain or reflex. She didn't, which was fortunate, but as he moved to take her captive, he stopped in his tracks as he watched the Bolt pass through the girl's leg only for her to blink and unravel at the seams before his very eyes.

Another Illusion? But how? He'd fought her, felt his blade make contact with her guns and heard the screech of metal on metal as he cut them apart. Felt the impact of his sword striking her butterfly blade too, and watched it shatter and injure her in a series of events too quick and unscripted to have been the work of an Illusion, not even a Major Illusion because the caster still had to direct the Spell to show everything that took place. Nor was he a captive within his own mind, imagining everything that took place, not unless his mind enjoyed playing tricks on him too and wanted to give him a spark of hope before shattering it to pieces before him.

"Last chance." The girl's voice sounded out from somewhere behind him, and he turned ever so slightly to see the blonde girl leaning out of the wagons with her goggles on and two intact silver steel guns in her uninjured hands aimed directly at him. "Drop the sword and gun, or I'll put two Bolts clean through your chest and a third through your head."

…So he'd been fighting an Illusion from the very start, had been startled into hiding and deviating from the mission by a simple trick of the mind. No, not just the mind, for the Illusion he fought had substance, marking it as an Echo or Shadow Clone, a Nipponese Ability and Spell that had been passed over to the Americans and learned by this Aberrant girl.

Though handily defeated, Ao Tian was not yet ready to give up hope just yet. Being sure to keep his hands still as could be, he turned his head in the other direction to see how his team fared, only to have the last shred of hope ripped away as he found two of his comrades kneeling with bleeding legs, vacant stares, and hands behind their heads, while the third was curled up in a ball on his side and sobbing like a child scared senseless by a thunderstorm. None appeared grievously injured as far as he could tell, though one had been clipped in the leg and would need aid soon enough, but the fight was out of all three as the milk mother stood behind cover nearby with her Blastgun at the ready to shread Ao Tian or his comrades to pieces if they should so much as twitch in the wrong fashion.

So he did what any sensible person would do. He dropped his sword and pistol both, then raised his arms in surrender. He followed the girl's directions, kicking his weapons away and walking backwards to approach her until he was close enough to be secured by lasso. Then and only then did he allow himself to glance back at the wagon again, where he saw the silver-haired girl poking her head out with an almost bored expression etched across her stony features. One which was wholly out of place with her body language, as she sat there with arms wrapped around her folded knees while looking this way and that with her round, pale violet eyes. Upon meeting his resigned gaze, she shrank back as if burned, and mumbled a soft, "Sorry," that was just barely audible, and the ridiculousness of this all struck him like a hammer to the chest.

What rising dragon? What meteoric advance? All this time, he styled himself as Hao Wei's rival, and yet he'd been easily defeated without so much as a chance to face the man himself. No, a trio of Aberrants had done him in, including one so poorly trained and taught she was little more than child in terms of development, because she felt bad for using a Command to stop him in his tracks. One which wasn't even necessary mind you, because he'd been fighting an Echo or a Clone, and the silly, silver-haired girl had probably just acted out on instinct.

And even that much was enough to defeat him. The realization made Ao Tian laugh out loud, because the only alternative left was to cry, for the Heavens had played a cruel joke upon him, one so hilarious he wanted to die.

"Sorry Father," he thought, laughing and crying as he gazed up at the starry night's sky. "Your disappointment of a son is no dragon, and has failed to avenge you. Perhaps we will be together again soon, and with luck, I can meet mother and disappoint her too."

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