5 days later the 23 person cohort was walking through a large forest. One of the evolved had scouted out where the enemy camp was located.
The journey took longer than Sera had initially anticipated. The directive which claimed the camp was 328 kilometers north from New Athens, was wrong. It was actually closer to 400. Luckily they found the trails of their patrols, tracking them back to the camp was fairly easy.
Currently Sera was waiting for the scouts to make an exact headcount of the enemy combatants. It took them a few hours, but soon they came back.
There were three scouts, one female and two male. Each went down on one knee before Sera, then the woman standing in the middle spoke in a bit nervous, but otherwise professional tone.
"The scouting was a success my Lady. We have counted ten ascended, 113 evolved and at least 2000 regular soldiers and civilians!" Sera looked at them for a few seconds, then made a small nod of acknowledgment.
Slowly they stood up from the forest ground. They made a quick salute, then moved to where the rest of the evolved stood.
They waited for Sera's command. She on the other hand was just staring into the distance, towards the camp which they wanted to destroy. Her eyes seemed to pass through trees and foliage, as she pictured the camp grounds in her mind.
After minutes of standing in silence, she turned her head and looked at Melinda. Suddenly Melinda's posture changed and she looked much straighter. After watching her for a few moments Sera just said, "Are you ready?"
She and Percy already knew the plan. They had done this exact same strategy multiple times over. It was nearly impossible to defend against.
"Understood my Lady! We won't disappoint!" With that both Melinda and Percy moved towards the camp. After a few seconds they were already gone. Sera stared after them for a while, then looked at the twenty evolved behind her.
"You should get ready. The fun is about to begin." Even though she was talking about having fun, her voice stayed emotionless. The best she could manage was a small smile towards the cohort which looked more threatening, then comforting.
...
It was night in the United Front camp. The people were still walking around, heading towards their makeshift homes, or running a few nightly errands.
Wayne was currently on guard duty. He was about 23 years old, at least that's what he thought anyway. After becoming an evolved, he was conscripted into the United Front Army nearly immediately.
The pay was good, if nothing else. He didn't really understand what either side fought for, there was only one person he was concerned about... himself.
Before evolving about a year ago, he had no friends or family. Now at least he had a few friends in the army, but nothing else. After a year of war he lost many of them, which made him realize that he should only care about himself.
That's why he was in this camp. They had been here for a few weeks and everything seemed to be alright. Only another day or two and they will finally head back to home base.
Finally the woman stopped. The purple magical light still danced around her. From below the cloak came a warm sounding female voice.
"Do you really want to see me?" Wayne could hear the smile in her voice and he quickly started to second guess himself. With a small nod he gave her permission to do so.
She giggled a bit, then lowered the hood just enough for Wayne to see the camp's light catch on her eyes. They were different colored, one was azure like the sea, the other green like the leaves in the summer.
Suddenly Wayne fell to his knees. Something was wrong, he could feel it. His whole chest was in pain and he began coughing blood. Without him noticing the woman slowly walked towards him.
After another moment he lost all his strength and fell on his back. He was staring up at the starry night sky, when something blocked out his view. From above a beautiful woman was smiling down at him. It wasn't a nice smile, but not cruel either. She just simply didn't care about him.
Gradually his vision went blood-red, then totally blank. His mouth tasted of iron and he smelt it too.
From above him the woman's hand gently touched his head. She weaved her fingers through his hair and whispered to him in a gentle tone, "Shh... It will be over soon..."
And just as she said it finally Wayne's heart couldn't take it anymore. Melinda slowly stood up and looked at the brightly lit camp with a small menacing smile.
She closed her eyes, then focused her mind. While fully concentrating she released a large blast of invisible wave of disease. The purple light around her seemed to burn brighter as well. Percy using his magic increased the blast's power even further.
Throughout the camp people began falling to their knees coughing up blood. Every single regular human soldier or civilian was dead within seconds.
The evolved's constitution was stronger though. What she had done with the guard was a concentrated attack, but this time the more she affected the better. Slowly the evolved became dizzy and the weaker ones even fell to their knees while bleeding from their noses, but none of them died.
The ascended on the other hand didn't even feel a thing, except for the unseen wave passing through the camp of course. Quickly every one of them ran towards the source where Melinda and Percy stood.
They stopped near them, then with a few silent orders from their leader, they began making a circle around the two ascended.
While they were in a lot of trouble, Sera and the rest of the cohort was just about a hundred meters away, hiding in the tree line.
The twenty evolved were looking in wonder at all the people dying for seemingly no reason, but they also started to get anxious. When the ten ascended showed up, they began to forget everything they had learnt. Now, they were waiting for their leader's order to either attack or retreat.
Even they didn't believe that Sera could defeat so many on her own. To their utter surprise though, when she turned towards them there was only a small smile on her face. This time it didn't confuse them, its meaning was clear...
It meant death...