Chapter 101 - Capital of Detas

The capital of the kingdom Detas named Rochdale consisted roughly of a castle with bands of walls that separated the city into zones for royalty, nobels, high ranked or influential citizens and peasants spreading out from the center with a slum up against the outermost wall. Being a reflection of Detas social etique class segregation was strongly favored and enforced with a strong belief that citizens could work their way to a higher class over a lifetime, and that members of the lowest classes deserved to be there. With such a social doctrine shared by the city's guards Rochdale was not a very tourist friendly city, and outsiders were generally not allowed further in than the normal peasant district.

"Boss, the food here sucks! Can't we find a better place to stay?"

But of course there were exceptions, inside one of the finest hotels designed for visiting foreign nobles and diplomats at the right next to the wall that separated the nobel and royalty zones an unsatisfied youth loudly complained as she stabbed a luxurious chiffon cake with steak knife and threw towards a nearby wall. In response to the youth's outburst the so called 'boss' spoke out in a calm and slightly annoyed tone.

"I've told you before Rebeca, this is the fanciest hotel there is. Put up with it till we're done with this mission or I swear to the angels I'll put you down myself."

"Ara~ Swearing to the angels are you Tom? Then please get right on with it, this brat has been a major headache since the beginning of this mission."

Fluttering her 3 raven black wings that extended out from her back as if trying to show them off, another member of the outsiders let out a haughty laugh as she pointed out her leaders strange expression of words.

"Who are you calling a brat Melisha you winged hag!? Wanna fight!?"

Feeling the luxury restaurant fill with strong killing intent while literal sparks of mana flew between the 2 women.

"Please go ahead and try brat, I've been waiting for a while for an opportunity to crush you."

Feeling the temperature around him rapidly dropping as large spearlike ice crystals formed behind Melisha the boss was about to stop the fight Rebeca said something she shouldn't have.

"Go ahead hag, maybe I'll do you a favor and rip off one of your wings so you'll have an even amount again!"

"Oh shit!"

Tom knew of about 10 people that had mentioned the fact that Melisha was missing one of her wings and for 2 of those he himself had been present so he knew exactly what was about to happen. Forget about the current mission, all Tom now cared about was surviving the iminent mana induced, local extinction level event that was about to unfold before him. Rushing to his feet with the help of strengthening magic Tom moved backwards away from Rebeca as fast as he possibly could, but after only 3 steps he was stopped by someone behind him.

"Move! Or-"

"Calm yourself, all of you."

Speaking out in a deep calm voice muffled behind a scarf as the sound of distorted bell rang out while mana in the area was violently disrupted and Rebeca's and Melisha's attack spells was completely broken apart.

"Gha!-"

"My head! Daniel you f.u.c.k.i.n.g idiot you know it hurts really f.u.c.k bad when you do that shit right!?"

As Rebeca fell to the floor in pain as she winced in pain holding her head Melisha acted like she suddenly had gotten a massive migraine out of nowhere as she complained loudly to the source of her sudden headache.

"Yeah I do, that's why I did it."

"Wha!- DIE!"

Answering the pissed off angel without any hint of emotion Daniel instantly attracted her rage, but he had already predicted her course of action. As Melisha formed small ice crystals around her in the air to sewer him alive Daniel's hands moved quickly as he threw out a metal bola engraved with mana disrupting runes that found its target without issue.

"Urg! What!?"

Suddenly unable to move her arms and channel mana into offensive or defensive spells Melisha flinced, creating a fatal opening for Daniel. In a matter of seconds he closed the range of 5 steps to the fl.u.s.tered angel and grabbed her by the collar as he pressed a serrated knife to her throat.

"As I said before, calm yourself. The only reason you're still alive is that you're needed for the current assignment, and that I will lose my bonus for serving your head and adding it to my collection."

"O-okay, I am calm now."

Proving that nothing sends cold water into the veins like a serrated knife specifically designed to course heavy bleeding being pressed to one's throat, Melisha surrendered, ending the short lived restaurant brawl.

"Good, now let's do our job. Intelligence suggests the targets are heading straight towards us."

---

A few kilometers from Rochdale's eastern gate laid a small hill that allowed perfect sight into a good part of the city, that hill was currently occupied by 3 figures that laid next to each other in the grass looking towards Rochdale.

"I really don't like this."

"Yeah me too."

"Well tough shit that I have operational command on this one, move out."

Judging the conversation to be over Lux rose to her feet as she inserted a fresh magazine into her standard issue Rex Apha 357 rifle and started walking towards the gate, only to realize that she was not followed by either Terra or Lilly.

"What?"

"Why're you the only one that gets a rifle?"

"And why exactly am I here?"

"Because I'm the bait, and because you're my super badass mega class mage backup and Dax will hate you if you don't. We went over all this already but do you girls have any more questions?"

Terra and Lilly that were trying to blend in both wore leather armor that hid bulletproof armored vests and were equipped with a shortsword and a mage's staff respectively. Lux on the other hand was outfitted in a way that no one would mistake her for a galactic marine. With a heavily armored ammo carrying vest outfitted with low gravity maneuvering thrusters over her ordinary gray bulletproof ERA vest and the hellwalker signature reaper's mask covering her face, in fact the only thing that differentiated her current outfit from a standard heavy assault kit was the black hunters guild tag hanging from her neck.

"Sure that makes sense but how come I only get a longsword and a backup Guardian 332 PDW and you get a rifle, a pistol, a PDW, multiple smoke, anti personnel, and anti tank grenades?"

"Because you're the backup, if all goes to plan then you won't be up."

Answering as a matter of fact Lux definitely didn't have an issue sharing her toys, definitely.

"Yeah right. No plan ever survives first contact with the enemy, both you and Dax taught me that."

In response to Terra's logic Lux sighed deeply as if she had expected her and Dax's pupil to answer in that manner as she grabbed a frag from her vest and tossed it to her.

"Touché.. Here have a freebie, now let's get going."

---

(This really does look like something straight out of fantasy RPG…)

Looking around once inside the city Lux couldn't help the child in her from trying to wait for a courier to deliver a cryptic note with a handprint, but alas the more mature part of her head prevailed as she realized how much attention she was drawing.

["I've drawn attention to myself, proceeding with the plan."]

["Sure, if you can call this a plan. We're at the hunters guild and ready to respond when you need us."]

With Terra's mostly sarcastic remark as motivation Lux stopped her idling and started moving towards the wall that separated the more successful and influential civ's from low class citizens and outsiders.

["Iris are you tracking me?"]

["Perfectly."]

["And without any issues"]

["You're in fact really hard to lose seeing how you basically part the streets wherever you go."]

["Don't insinuate that I'm repulsive and/or smelling terribly bad please…"]