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[.:Blu:.]

OOC: http://forum.yugiohc...-not-accepting/

Project: 13
CHAPTER 1: WARFARE - THREE HOURS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD

Chapter 1 Synopsis

It is the third week of a full-scale invasion of the Kingdom of Arma by the Batillus Republic. Only a short amount of time remains before the absolute downfall of Arma, but an important item still needed to be retrieved from Arma's capital city, Lorica. The powerful and widely known Unit 13 has now been dispatched to recover the key item for the Batillus Monarchy.

"And so fifteen descended to purge the calamitous one
Two were cast out, thirteen were left
...
A vow was forged, imbuing his spirit with hope and determination
The two of them stood beside the thirteen
They then plunged into the abyss
...
The lost children's footsteps disappeared
Leaving in their stead a song of prayer
It will turn into a flame,
That will light a torch for the ones who will come after..."

- Passage of Celestia, Verse XIII

Early dawn and already an awe-inspiring spectacle can be witnessed by the people of Oresha: sunlight penetrating through the thick, greyish clouds that, for centuries, loomed without clearing. The beautiful golden light illuminated the sky, allowing people to see it as their ancestors saw it - vast, blue, and full of hope. An excessively damaged and abandoned cathedral stood basking in warm sunlight as it did when it was first constructed centuries ago. Its majesty is quite apparent as for all the time that has passed it, it still stands adamant and resolute despite its condition. The people of Oresha view the cathedral as a sign of humanity and what it has gone through over the past numerous years. Within the destroyed cathedral, rubble and remnants of its history lie in blissful and eternal tranquility. The rows of broken pews seem to know of their own boundaries as they are lined perfectly to the right and left sides of the cathedral as when they were still in use. Some of the pews were badly damaged by are still standing and could still support the weight of people. The dust on these particular pews had been displaced, a sign that they had been sat on recently.

The center walkway with its singular long carpet, red, dirtied, and damaged, led from the cathedral's massive wooden doors to the back of the church where all eyes would gather on a single religious authority standing atop a circular stone platform. Even today, the platform remains with minimal wear. The very back wall of the cathedral is essentially gone, replaced by a hole that swallowed almost the entire wall, allowing in beams of dispersing sunlight to illuminate only a part of the cathedral. The rest of the cathedral was bathed in a calming blue hue. Behind the platform is a grand statue of Celestia, the goddess of humanity. It is said in ancient prophesies that during a once calamitous time of Oresha, she was the one who created fifteen warriors armed with the power to purge evil and sent them from heaven in order to save all innocent human lives. Her statue is in immaculate condition. Not even now does the statue have any signs of damage. A miracle if one is so inclined to believe in it. Along with the allure and grace of the beautiful Celestia statue, a plentiful variety of objects were placed atop the aforementioned circular stone platform.

Lying flat on the platform is a longbow, a shotgun, two revolvers, a pair of cestuses, and a flute. Either stabbed into or propped upwards on the platform is a mace, a whip sword, a katana, a war hammer, a spear, a double-bladed scythe, a longsword, and a sabre. Beyond the weapons, there was one more object that towers above them all, a flag with the emblem of Suzaku, a mythical vermilion bird or phoenix. The cathedral was quiet, but then the sound of a cool breeze was heard entering into the cathedral through the hole in the very back wall. The breeze blew on the flag, allowing it to flutter silently in the sunlight...

[1 Year Ago]

The time of day was dusk, and instead of a night sky brimming with thousands of stars, this night was another night where the sky is murky and obscured by thick smoke that reflected the blazing red hue of fire. Even worse, it wasn't any naturally-occurring fire, but a man-made one, a one made by the Batillus Republic Grand Army and its ruthless soldiers. The scene was absolutely horrific and stomach-churning in the streets of Arma's capital. The dead and bloodied bodies of men, women, and even children no older than five years of age lined the city streets. Their blood flowed like a river and the stench of death could easily make any normal person go insane. Some bodies were charred black and stacked on top of each other with the Batillus Republic's flag impaled through the body of the deceased person stacked on top of the mound as a sign of dominance and power. But in reality, the flag was nothing more than the signature of a sick and murderous tyrant.

The cries of anguish and pain resounded through Lorica, deafening the roaring fires that plagued the once beautiful capital. Foot soldiers of the Batillus Republic Grand Army, known simply as the Grand Army for short, patrolled the streets of the city, killing any and all innocent and defenseless citizens as well as those brave enough to take a stand for their beloved kingdom. "For Arma!" one teenage civilian holding a crude sword shouted proudly before lunging towards a Grand Army soldier. Without hesitation, the soldier took his spear and plunged it through the armor-less boy's chest. Blood spurted from the boy's wound and landed onto the soldier's armor, specifically his helm to which the soldier showed no sign of fear or even shock. Grand Army soldiers were trained to be ruthless and merciless. For them to draw enemy blood is an honor. This one soldier has done himself and his country proud, at least to him.

Deeper within the city, war, or more correctly, resistance, was still occurring, but it didn't matter fore reality dealt the Kingdom of Arma a harsh hand. The Batillus Republic's full-scale invasion of the Kingdom of Arma began three weeks ago. No one expected Batillus to attack the major cities, especially since all of Arma's major cities have incredibly powerful magic infantries. However, Batillus' attack was so quick, brutal, and unnoticed that all the cities were wiped out in a matter of two weeks. And now it was Lorica's turn to fall. Once Lorica fell, Batillus will be in complete control of Arma. Fearing for their own country's safety, the Oriens Alliance and the Nox Empire immediately strengthened their defenses to be ready for any surprise invasion. Before the invasion of Arma, the war had fell into a stalemate. Now once again, the war has escalated with the invasion. "Quickly, we must defend the Peristylium!" one cloaked figure said as he and five others used their magic to create a transparent, blue dome around Lorica's central building which houses the throne room of Arma's king and all of the important documents owned by Arma's government.

Suddenly, several Batillus warships can be seen heading towards the Peristylium. Though in technical positioning the warships were quite a distance away from the Peristylium, their massive bulk makes them easily visible in the burning sky above. Also, their weapons can easily reach Arma in no time. The warships quickly opened fire, shooting huge, blindly fast ammunition at the dome protecting the Peristylium. As the rounds made impact, the explosions that occurred sent shock waves bursting through the capital. The cloaked magic users could barely stand their ground as they continued to hold up the barrier. The warships opened fire once again, but this time, aiming closer towards the ground. This time around, the rounds made impact with the stone walkway, exploding and killing the cloaked magic users. Once the smoke had cleared, not even a single trace of the cloaked figures could be seen. The powerful explosion had seared their flesh and clothing into nothing, not even ashes were left.

In the skies, Arma warships now arrived on the scene and quickly opened fire on the Batillus warships. Their magical canons were unbelievably powerful as each round ripped a massive hole through the Batillus warships, causing them to explode in a fiery blaze. However, the downside to Arma warships is that they have slow firing rates which mean it would take quite some time before the warships could fire again, and time was about the only thing they didn't have. Just as quickly as the previous ones were destroyed, more Batillus warships arrived and quickly bombarded the fewer Arma warships simultaneously.

Further away from the Peristylium, a large group of Arma soldiers successfully eliminated a group of Batillus soldiers. There were about thirty-nine of the Arma soldiers left after having ten killed by the Batillus group. These soldiers were mostly inexperienced civilians that had recently joined the army and their main method of winning battles is to fight with numbers. "Alright men, this war ain't over yet. There are still more Batillus pigs stretched out in Lorica and it's our honor-bound duty to kill them all." the commander of the group of soldiers stated. Suddenly, one of the soldiers noticed a figure in the distance. The figure stood upon the rubble of what was once a civilian home destroyed by the Batillus soldiers that were just killed. The figure wore a red hooded mantle with the hood on to hide his or her face. Only the lower half of the person's face could be seen. Surrounding the rubble were walls of flames. The hooded figure held something in their hand. Upon further inspection, the object the figure held is revealed to be a battle flag. Without speaking, the figure, with one hand, stabbed the flag onto the top of the rubble hill.

As the flag fluttered, the group of Arma soldiers saw the emblem imprinted upon the flag. It was a Batillus Republic flag. "Sir, an enemy soldier!" one Arma soldier shouted. "Open fire!" the commander stated. The group of soldiers quickly raised their rifles and began firing at the hooded figure. However, a large stone wall appeared from the rubble in front of the hooded figure. As the bullets from the soldier's rifles made impact, it seemingly caused almost no damage to the wall. The soldiers continued firing without relent, but soon ran completely out of ammunition. "Damn it, we're out and our rifles could barely penetrate that wall." one soldier said. "So that Batillus scum is a magic user huh? No matter, we have the strength of numbers on our side. There's no one that Batillus scum will be getting out of here alive." the commander said as he attached a long bayonet to his rifle which the others soon followed. By now the stone wall that protected the hooded figure had sunk back into the rubble, leaving the figure defenseless, or so the Arma soldiers thought.

The figure reached behind his waist and quickly drew a weapon, more precisely, a sabre. "That person's got a pretty nasty-looking weapon commander." one soldier said. "Humph, like I said, the scum's outnumbered. Now men, charge-" Just as the commander shouted that, he suddenly paused when he noticed something. Rising up from behind the cover of fire that surrounded the rubble was another hooded figure. "There are two enemy soldiers! Maybe that one is the magic user instead!" one soldier suggested. Suddenly, another hooded figure arose from behind the fire. "Another one? How many of them are there?" the commander asked in general. Once again another hooded figure arose, then another one, and then another one after that. One by one more hooded figures rose up, each one of them wielding their own particular weapon. Finally, all of the hooded figures have revealed themselves. There are thirteen in total. "So, thirteen of them ehh? No matter, they're still far outnumbered." the commander reassured his men.

"Chime the bells and sound the sirens to let us make the world tremble. When heaven meets earth and earth with hell, within the abyss something pulses. And when the seal is broken, a thunderous voice resounds, declaring we are upon you." the hooded figure wielding the sabre chanted. Almost immediately after, all of the hooded figures quickly grabbed their mantles and threw them high up into the air, revealing their faces and uniforms. As the Arma Soldiers saw the uniforms, they instantly knew who they had the misfortune of encountering: the fearsome Unit 13. "I-I-It's them... Unit 13 of the Grand Army!" one soldier said, awestruck with fear. The commander's eyes were wide within his helm ever since he saw their uniforms. However, as a commander of Arma and as a citizen of Lorica, he could not let his fear get the better of him. "Men, we can't fear our enemy no matter their reputation. We are Arma soldiers, proud and strong! We must fight for our country even if it means dying!" the commander shouted, instilling courage into his men. "Yes sir!" the soldiers quickly responded before rushing towards Unit 13. Suddenly, a young woman with long black hair and glasses walked to the front of the group.

"Well spoken... However, as soldiers of the Batillus Republic Grand Army, we are to follow the orders of our superiors and eliminate the enemy. Today, all of you will die deaths befitting proud soldiers." the young woman calmly stated. This woman is the leader of Unit 13, Elva. Holding up her longsword, Save the Queen, Elva gave a diagonal slash, brushing the flames aside and creating a path for her teammates to exit through. Just as the flames were pushed aside, the other members of Unit 13 rushed out to fight the Arma soldiers. "Three of you per one of them!" the commander shouted out. Following their orders, each member of Unit 13 now had three soldiers each to deal with.

Three soldiers quickly rushed towards Ace, the first hooded figure who wields a sabre in battle. All three attempted to attack Ace at once, but Ace's quickness allowed him to somersault over the three soldiers. As Ace landed on his feet, one soldier attempted to attack, but Ace quickly brought his sword up and slashed the rifle out of the soldier's hands. Ace then delivered a stab through the soldier's weak chest armor, impaling the soldier's heart, and killing him instantly. Ace pulled his bloodstained sabre from out of the soldier as one more rushed towards him. As the soldier neared Ace, he attempted a horizontal slash at Ace's head, however, Ace struck first as he slashed the soldier with a horizontal attack across his chest, rendering him bleeding on the ground. Death soon followed as the soldier quickly bled out. Two were already down and now only one soldier was left. The last soldiers hastily charged at Ace without thinking, a fatal mistake. Without speaking, Ace rushed at the soldier with his quick speed. In a zigzag pattern, Ace arrived at the soldier, cutting him down and ending his life. What Ace had just used was one of his special techniques. That one in particular is named "Sparrow Dart", alluding to the speed and maneuverability of a sparrow.

Two soldiers rushed towards Dis, a member of Unit 13 who utilizes a katana is battle. Once they got close enough, the soldiers attempted to stab Dis but in a sudden flash, their rifles were sliced cleanly in half. "What the-" the soldier was quickly killed right after he had talked. "W-Wait, what's going-" the second managed to utter before being dispatched as well. In was only a matter of a two or so seconds before the last soldier was killed by Dis, the fastest combatant of the entire Unit 13. "Sorry, but orders are orders..." Dis apologized to the three soldiers he had just dispatched. Suddenly, one soldier came up from behind Dis, ready to impale him. Dis let his guard down, and now he would have to pay the price. Dis quickly attempted to turn around but it was too late to react. "Ugh!" the soldier suddenly shouted in pain before falling face first onto the ground. Dis looked down and noticed an arrow impaled through his back in the location of his lung. Dis then looked up at Trece in the distance.

"Don't let your guard down." the archer told his teammate. "Sorry about that." Dis responded. Meanwhile, Eight, who uses a pair of cestuses, used his unique style of martial arts to finish off the soldiers that surrounded him. Despite his dislike for killing, there was no way around it for this particular battle. After knocking each soldier down, Eight would then deliver and final blow to the back of the soldiers' neck, severing their spinal columns and killing them. At least the soldiers felt no pain. One member of Unit 13 who goes by Dual walked gracefully around the battlefield playing a wooden flute. When the Arma soldiers saw this, they didn't know how to react. "What kind of person would play an instrument during combat," was the question going through their minds. Suddenly, about twenty or so shining, yellow spear heads appeared in midair surrounding the soldiers. "W-What is this-" Right as one soldier finished asking the question, the spear heads flew towards the group of soldiers, impaling them and killing them.

Elsewhere, soldiers were being smashed into a bloody pile by Cinque and her heavy mace. Then there was Kat, blasting soldiers left to right with her powerful sawed-off shotgun. Nine took to the battle with his impressive spear, slashing and stabbing his way through the Arma soldiers. His aggressive fighting style made the Arma soldiers quite fearful. From seeing how Nine fights, one would automatically think that he is some kind of sadistic murderer, however, the truth is far from it. The whole time that Nine was fighting, he had no smile on his face and his eyes even showed a hint of sorrow and regret. Even so, this is war, and killing enemy soldiers is a fundamental part of it. Elva quickly dispatched her opponents with a graceful yet deadly series of slashes.

After some time, all of the thirty-nine soldiers were dead. The group gathered, looking to Elva to give her instructions. "Alright, our mission here is to get to the Peristylium and find the central computer unit where the map of the locations of Arma’s Anima sources is stored. Then, you'll need to use the USB you received earlier to get the data. Unfortunately, since the Grand Army has no maps that can show us where to find the Peristylium, we'll just have to look for it on our own. Going as a large group won't help us reach the Peristylium any faster so we'll have to split up into smaller teams." Elva explained. "The teams will be as followed: Team 1 will consist of Ace, Nine, and myself. Team 2 will be Sei, Trece, and Kat. Team 3 will is Tolv, Cinque, Dis, and Eight. Finally, Team 4 will consist of Sheva, Trey, and Dual. Everyone clear on their team members?" Elva asked.

"Yeah." Ace simply said.

Nine gave a single nod in agreement.

"Gotcha." Kat responded.

"I understand." Trece responded.

"Alright." Cinque responded while Dual nodded at the same time.

"Got it." Dis responded.

"Noted." Eight responded.

After receiving a response from each member of Unit 13, Elva continued her instructions. "Each team will take a different route from here. Whichever team gets to the Peristylium first will contact the rest of us with the directions on how to get there. After contacting the rest of us, that team will make their way inside and find the central computer unit and collect the data. Don't waste any time, and be careful of soldiers and mechs. Finally, make sure to keep your headsets on at all times. Now then, let's continue the mission." Elva explained. After the teams were assigned, each team now took off in a different route to get to the Peristylium and to finish up this mission.

[Kyng]

As commanded, Trey's encounter was three soldiers from the Kingdom of Arma, and their initial reaction to the colossal titan was anticipated: when gazing upon an individual who towered over them, muscle bound from head to toe, with a hammer read to pulverize a boulder, let alone a human being, one cannot simply do much beyond tremble, however these men were soldiers, and regardless of their fears, they were fighting for their cause, if not their families, if not their comrades in arms. The life of a soldier, one littered from head to toe with bloodshed, one which Trey personally despised adamantly, yet he fought regardless of his pacifistic beliefs, and his firm ways of unwilling to harm, and he did so exceptionally well without question; how could he not with a body in such conditions as his own? Clearing his throat, Trey scowled upon the three as one of them smirked, taunting Trey as he informed the others about him, to which they decided to surround the gentle titan, one of them smirking as he went to say "He won't lay a finger on us, he wouldn't hurt a fly!" before going in to smack Trey's skull.

"He isn't even holding his hammer right! How's he going to swing it holding it from it's head!" one bantered, to which Trey thrusted said head forwards into the skull of the charging soldier, consequentially breaking the man's nose causing profound bleeding as he collapsed to the floor, busted nose from Trey's hammer; turning around, and brushing Achilles Quake's head from the fresh blood, he went on to say "I don't want to hurt you." in his voice of thunder, to which the two soldiers took aim; sighing, Trey swung his hammer, smashing into the ribs of one soldier which, due to the momentum of his swing, launched him into the other, rendering him incapacitated for the time being. The second one had no chance, a blow as heavy as that to the ribs guaranteed lung damage, he'd cough up blood soon. Suddenly, the broken nosed soldier yelled "B*STARD!!!" as he proceded to open fire on the prone Trey, who immediately brought his hammer and smashed it into his face again, which with all current damage would mean his death without question. Unaware of the third, Trey sighed softly and rubbed his eyes, evident distaste in his actions as he watched the man scamper around his fallen equipment for a pistol to which Trey, swallowing, brought Achilles Quake overhead as he muttered "I'm sorry, to which he roared aloud as he smashed the hammer down.

Coming from his scrap, it'd seemed that Elva had paired up teams, and of course Sheva would be in his group simply because she co-operated best with him; sighing and scratching his head, Trey thrusted Achilles Quake into it's relevant fastener, the hammer upon his back, as he nodded in response to the commands of Elv, despite unsure whether separating Cinque from Dual was wise, but then again maybe it was for her own good? Whatever the case, Trey shied away from his urge to question Elva's intention, and instead made his way to his group, sitting down and gazing up at the sky, thinking that "I'd guess it would be on a basement floor. It'd be safest there, because if it was on a higher level, it'd be prone to heavy collision; does your headset work, Sheva? Does your's, Dual?"

[Hotaru987]

Sei charged into the battle, coming to a stop when 3 Arma soldiers surrounded her. "I apologize for this, but I promise you won't feel any pain." Unlike some of her comrades, she wasn't against or for taking lives. It was all the same to her, because either way some kind of pain was felt. Her double-bladed scythe held an eerie shadow as she leisurely twirled it over her head waiting for the three soldiers to attack. The soldiers wasted no time, wanting to get rid of her quickly, "Open fire!!" One yelled, as all three of them fired at her. Sei easily somersaulted over the bullets and the three men. As she did she swung her scythe down catching the unlucky man in the middle right in his back, the end of the scythe protruding through the other side. Sei didn't stop there, and drug her scythe all the up completely slitting the man's upper half in-well-half. Sei landed in a keeled position behind the remaining two.

"You m-monster!!" Another yelled running straight in, raising his rifle and bring it down over her head. Sei was quicker, spinning on the ball of her foot bring her scythe around slicing the man's wrists off. Before he knew he was hand less, Sei continued her motion and brought the bottom of her staff around, using her second blade to decapitate him. It was so quick, that his head, hands and torso all fell to the ground at the same time. Facing the last one he stood there trembling, his finger rigid over the trigger. She tilted her head to the side, "Don't be afraid. Pain only lasts a moment." The single soldier let out a shrill shriek, firing round after round. Sei expertly spun her staff, deflecting the bullets all the while moving towards him. The man ran out of bullets, but it was too late and he met the same death as the one before him; Decapitation.

Everyone was now finished with their own individual battles, and Elva began giving each of them instructions. Now that she wasn't using her scythe she attached it to her back. Sei spun - literally - over to her three man team of her, Trece and Kat. Once all of the instructions were given the teams split up. "I hope this doesn't take too long. I was in the middle of coloring when we left." Sei never spoke, only made small gestures or normal movement. Even so, the Unit 13 members could always understand her. She then grinned, "We should make it a race! I bet we can beat the others to the Peristylium if we hurry!" She threw her hands in the air smiling as if they weren't in the middle of a battle ground.

[6-Shot Finale]

Tolv let out a long sigh after Elva had given them their orders on dispatching the remaining soldiers. "You mean I actually sat through all that and I only get three? There's only like what? 39? I can handle that easily myself." Through his excessive chatter that was completely ignored the soldiers had already begun to charge towards them. The first soldier to charge at Tolv had no subtlety at all and just sprinted while screaming at the top of his lungs. The moment he got close a small barrier appeared appeared between Tolv and the rifle's bayonet. Upon coming into contact with the small barrier the force was sent back and the weak blade broke with relative ease. With a quick motion Tolv lifted one of the two guns he was holding up and inserted it into the soldiers still open mouth. "F*cking rookies. I'd give you a tip about how you shouldn't scream like a little b*tch when charging at an enemy who doesn't appear to be paying much attention but you have zero use for that now." He then pulled the trigger. Tolv didn't need to pull the gun out as the falling corpse seemed to do most of the work for him.

Tolv turned towards two other soldiers who were charging at him. "Damn, so I really only get three of you guys. Well, I might as well try to enjoy you two. Your buddy was so lame." The two appeared to have some strategy and intelligence which was severely lacking of the guy before them. They decided to take on a flanking manuever so that they could attack Tolv from both sides. As soon as they were close Tolv quickly jumped over the two incoming bayonets and landed right behind one of the two. He then leaned back against the soldier like he was merely just a wall. The soldier's ally turned around and attempted to stab Tolv with the bayonet. Tolv, in turn, hooked his foot around the leg of the guy whom he had behind behind and pulled him between himself and the bayonet effectively taking the brunt of the blade.

The soldier simply wouldn't let himself lose that easily. "He muttered to himself, "For Arma..." and stayed standing. With the bayonnet soon pulled out he was bleeding profusely and figured he didn't actually have much more in him.

Tolv smiled at the sight of the soldier's dedication and resilience. "You're definitely WAY more fun than the last guy." The wounded soldier weakly attempted to thrust his bayonet into Tolv but a simple knee to the gun had it flying into the air. The soldier in a last ditch effort grabbed onto Tolv's arm and raised one into the air with the other at the ground attempting to leave his weapon essentially useless and make him a sitting duck for his ally to finish off. The other soldier easily read the situation as any decent soldier would and lunged towards Tolv. Tolv on the other hand had an unchanging expression. Still smiling and enjoying the fight. Tolv fired off a shot with the revolver that was pointed in the air. Not even a second later a bullet hit the top of the incoming soldier's head. His body fell in front of the two followed by the gun previously knocked into the air.

The remaining soldier was shocked at the sudden death of his ally. Tolv didn't need this sort of distraction to break free of the hold with a headbutt causing the soldier to fall backwards onto the ground but it helped...maybe. The soldier attempted to get back up even with all the pain but was quickly slammed back onto the ground by Tolv's foot. The soldier couldn't even resist. The revolver pointed at his head was also a pretty good motivation to not even try. Tolv randomly just started walking away though. The soldier seemed just about finished from the wound and with all the heavy artillery something was pretty much bound to hit the area. Or maybe the small chance of living was a reward for actually being somewhat entertaining. Hard to say what's on Tolv's mind. Most likely the former though.

Tolv walked over to the rest of the group just in time for Elva to start talking. She briefed them on what to do and gave them teams. Tolv let out a long asigh. "Great. Three of the fastest of us plus the easily slowest. Well let's at least get going right away. Cinque, you go in front. We wouldn't want to accidentally leave you behind."

[Aisu]

Once the command was given for each member to take out three soldiers, Sheva instantly took off in a run, here eyes dead set on a trio way in the back that looked as if they were ready to run, "YOU THREE AIN'T GOING ANYWHERE YOU SCARED, BETRAYING MUTHARFAWKERS!" Not even to the second half of this post and Sheva's about ready to foam at the mouth from rage.. Anyways, as Sheva charged at the men, a few pulled up the bayonets, hoping she'd be stupid enough to run into it. "Y'all are dumb*sses," Sheva yelled at them before executed a mighty leap that sent her flying just above all of the soldiers' heads. Before they could truly react and have a stab at her while she was in mid-air, her comrades came in and started fighting with the rest of them.

Unsheathing Septyni from her back, she began to feed magic into it as she landed on the ground before the trio that caught her eye. Standing up, she was getting ready to unleash her furry when the soldiers before her began to laugh. "BWUAHAHA!" "She's soooo short!" "C'mon guys, lets step on this bug and go help everyone else." Three. Two. O-"What did you assh*les just say! I AM NOT SHORT!" Sheva exploded with rage as they mocked her height. "Uhh.." "Oh shi-" The second guy that began to talk was quickly cut off and cut up. Having brought her hand up, around her head and sharply down in front of her, Septyni easily clashed down on the soldier and sliced deeply into his right shoulder.

While the other two where getting ready to soil their pants, Sheva finished the middle off by yanking Septyni sharply to his left, causing the whip sword to slice across the man's chest and through his chest. Cutting off magic into her sword, it began to quickly pull back together as the remaining two began to recoup and fumbled to grab their guns. Just as they both aimed their guns at her, a quick flash of light blinded them as the sound of metal being sliced could be heard twice. With faces of disbelief, they watched as their rifles split in half and slowly began to slide apart before dropping to the ground.

Turning around, one of the two tried to make a break for it. As quickly as he turned around, he was just as quickly killed. Swinging Septyni horizontal at a slight angle, she had sliced through the man's back and severed his spine, instantly killing him. As for the third guy, he didn't stand a chance. With Septyni still in motion from the last attack, Sheva's sword wrapped around the third man, "Any final words, soldier?" After a moment's pause, he said, "I have no regrets.. Especially if I'm taking you with me!" With a flick of his wrist, he sent a grenade flying towards Sheva. Pulling on Septyni, she cut the soldiers into ribbon as she swung it upwards, cutting the grenade in two, the powder sent everywhere before the fuse could light it off. Retreating Septyni, she wiped off the blood before sheathing it and walking over to Trey as he sat down.

Having heard their commands, she really didn't a rat's ass at the moment. Patting his back twice she said, "There there Trey.. They're in a better place now.." Sitting besides him, she smiled to him softly, "Yes Trey, my headset is working. Thanks for checking! Now I dunno about you two.. But I wanna be done with mission already and doing what I want! I got a lead on a new haunted item for my collection and I'm eager to get my hands on it~!" Sheva hummed out with joy as she stood up, ready to hunt down this building.

[.:Blu:.]

The sound of weak footsteps tapping repeatedly against Lorica's street pavement filled the air. Despite the loud roaring of flames that has engulfed the area, the distinctly sharp sound of hard rubber boots clapping onto the sturdy concrete ground stood out greatly, especially since the sounds of anguish had diminished. The sound of footsteps were being made by an Arma soldier. This soldier seems to be an ordinary Arma soldier, as shown by the uniform he is wearing: the same as the ones worn by the group of soldiers who Unit 13 had just combated. He didn't have his helmet on however; rather, the helmet was being held in his left hand. The helmet was in rather bad shape, being riddled with damage that seems to have come from a rifle. It was fairly easy to conclude that this particular soldier had been in a firefight and his helm was badly damaged during the battle. The same could be said for the soldier himself due to the way he was walking. He walks as if he were about to collapse. His abrupt, heavy breaths are another good indication of the condition he was currently in. Hanging by a silver chain strapped to the soldier's belt on the left side of his waist is a gladius, sheathed.

As the soldier continued walking, a Batillus warship could be seen flying just above Lorica. The soldier slightly tilted his head to stare intently at the monster ship. "Ugh... D-Damn you Batillus..." the soldier uttered weakly. A little later, the soldier walked into a large alleyway surrounded by destroyed homes and pieces of burning wood, probably from those homes. There, the soldier saw three other Arma soldiers. One was lying dead on the ground, one was badly wounded resting against what was left of a wall from one of the houses, and one uninjured soldier was on his knees staring at his dead comrade. As the female soldier resting against the wall saw the soldier walking into the alleyway, she quickly addressed him. "Captain!" the female soldier exclaimed. The other soldier next to his dead comrade suddenly turned to see the captain and quickly got onto his feet. The captain walked towards them but then suddenly fell onto his knees. As he was about to fall face-first onto the hard ground, he caught himself by using his arms to support his body. "Captain are you okay?!" the female soldier asked worryingly.

"I'm fine... How many are left...?" the captain asked, referring to how many Arma soldiers are still left fighting. "Not much... We saw a large group not too long ago but since then we've lost all contact with them... We have no idea of their current status..." the female soldier explained. "Captain Gladios, it's too late for us but you can still make it out of here. We'll help you." the male soldier stated. "No... I won't leave you two here..." Gladios responded. "But you have a little brother don't you? What about him-" the male soldier was suddenly interrupted by Gladios who didn't wanted to discuss the matter anymore. "Enough... I don't want to hear anymore nonsense-" Just as Gladios said that, a massive fiery explosion occurred from behind the male soldier; the force of which sent Gladios flying back, away from the huge fireball. His male subordinate, however, wasn't as lucky as he rolled around on the ground, screaming in pure agony as he was being burned alive. The female soldier was barely conscious; her limbs pinned down and crushed by the collapsing wall.

Suddenly, two Batillus soldiers came rushing out into the alleyway from behind the burning male soldier. One of the Batillus soldiers walked over to Gladios' female subordinate and impaled her through her chest with the bayonet attached to his rifle. They did not kill Gladios' male subordinate however, they enjoyed the sight of watching an Arma soldier in agonizing pain. The two Batillus soldiers now turned to Gladios. Gladios, fearful for his life, began crawling away as quickly as he possibly could. However, one the Batillus soldiers shot him through the right side of his torso. "GAHHHHH!!!" Gladios screamed painfully before turning his body around. Gladios watched with wide, fearful eyes as the two Batillus soldiers casually made their way towards him, chuckling at his futility in trying to escape them. As the two soldiers advanced, Gladios continued crawling back. Suddenly, the soldiers stopped when they heard the sound of a horse neighing. One of the soldiers looked to his left and a blindingly quick blur rammed into him, causing the soldier to scream upon impact. It was then revealed that the blur that had rammed into the Batillus soldier is an Arma warhorse. More specifically, this warhorse, named Fade, belongs to Gladios.

Seeing Fade, Gladios watched with wide eyes, surprised to the point that his body refused to move. Fade neighed loudly as it reared up in front of the remaining Batillus soldier. Fade had the same effect on the soldier that it had on Gladios, mainly the soldier was unable to react to the huge beast. Snapping out of his surprised state, Gladios saw an opportunity and seized it, unsheathing his gladius and thrusting it towards the Batillus soldier, stabbing his torso and pushing him onto the ground. With his entire body operating solely on fear and the will to survive, Gladios hastily impaled the downed Batillus soldier through the chest, killing him and sending a minute amount of blood splattering onto his face. Breathing heavily and abruptly, Gladios fell onto his back with his arms stretched outward, leaving his sword still impaled on the Batillus soldier. Fade then brought its face into Gladios' field of vision, staring patiently at its owner. "Fade..." Gladios quietly uttered before reaching with his left hand to pet Fade's exposed chin, which Fade responded positively to by giving a soft grunt.

Gladios then stood up off the ground, supporting himself by leaning against Fade. Gladios pat Fade on its back and took a brief moment of silence. "Esu... Koga... I'm sorry..." Gladios said, apologizing to his female and male subordinate respectively before mounting Fade.

[Later]

Fade galloped across Lorica's destroyed streets with Gladios struggling to hold on. Everything began to blur for Gladios while he writhed in pain. The wounds that have been inflicted upon him were just too much, and then, Gladios plummeted from Fade, falling onto the hard concrete ground and rolling a couple of times before coming to a halt. Blood gushed down Gladios' face as well as the wounds on his body as he lied there motionless. Gradually, Gladios' eyes opened in a manner as if he has come to a realization. As Fade walked back towards Gladios, the sound of gunfire rang out into the air and what followed was painful neighing from Fade. Suddenly, there was a loud thud sound, prompting Gladios to turn onto his stomach and look in Fade's direction. Sure enough, Gladios saw what he feared to be a heartbreaking sight: Fade on the ground and critically wounded with a pool of blood beneath it. Without a single thought, Gladios hastily crawled his way over to his beloved companion, while the background, three Batillus soldiers slowly made their way towards the two of them.

Once he reached Fade, Gladios instantly reached out with his left hand in order to use magic to heal Fade's wounds. "Come on, come on, come on..." Gladios uttered repeatedly to himself as his hand began to glow in white with a green outline. However, Gladios' magic lasted for only a few seconds before vanishing suddenly. Gladios looked at his hand and once again attempted to use magic, only to, again, achieve the same results. Realizing his magical energy has ran out, Gladios punched his fist into the hard concrete with enough force to make his knuckles bleed. "Fade... FADE!!!" Gladios shouted miserably into the air, a trail of tears coming down both cheeks. While this occurred, the three Batillus soldiers were now just a several feet away from him before one of them pointed his rifle towards Gladios. Just as the soldier was about to shoot, a sudden voice erupted. "Stand down!" the voice shouted towards the three Batillus soldiers. As the soldiers looked up, they saw Ace in the distance, a serious and intimidating expression painted on his face.

Gladios looked in surprise at Ace. He recognized the uniform of the well-known Unit 13. Gladios was surprised, however, that Ace would tell the Batillus soldiers to not shoot. With quick pace, Ace made his way passed Gladios and Fade to arrive in front of the three Batillus soldiers. "You're Ace, of Unit 13...!" one soldier said, shocked to see someone of this high regard here, in Lorica. "Sir, we were just about to finish off this pathetic Arma trash. Please stand aside." another soldier stated. "Did you not here me? I said stand down." Ace repeated with a bit more resentment in his tone. "But Sir-" one of the soldier tried explaining but quickly found himself at the sharp end of Ace's sabre. "I won't repeat myself another time. All of you get out of here before you all end up as war casualties." Ace warned. "Y-Yes Sir!" the soldiers responded before walking off. After the soldiers left, Ace sheathed his sabre and walked over to the critically weakened Gladios resting his back against the barely alive Fade. Without speaking, Ace kneeled down and held his hand out towards Gladios. Seeing this, Gladios flinched out of instinct. "It's alright. I'm not trying to harm you." Ace stated as his hand began to glow white with a green outline, signifying his intention was to heal Gladios.

"W-Why are you helping me...? I'm your enemy aren't I...?" Gladios asked weakly. "Right now, you're a fellow human in need of help..." Ace responded. Suddenly, blood rushed from Gladios' mouth and down his face, slightly shocking Ace. "Stop it. You know it's too late to save him..." Elva said as she suddenly walked by Ace. Ace didn't want to admit it, but Elva was right. Gladios had sustained too many injuries. It would simply be a waste of magical energy trying to save him and nothing more, but Ace continued regardless. Ace refused to let go of hope, no matter how dire the realistic situation is. "Stop..." Gladios uttered, snapping Ace out of his train of thought. "She's right... It's too late for me..." Gladios said. The magic around Ace's hand disappeared after Gladios had said that. Ace stood off the ground and clenched his fists. "I'm sorry..." Ace said before walking towards Elva who was waiting for him up ahead.

Gladios slightly tilted his head to look at Fade's face and with his right hand, gently patted Fade on its snout. "Ugh... Looks like my time is up huh...? Funny... Just a while ago I did all I could to try and survive because I was so afraid of dying... But now that I actually am, it's not all that bad... Still... I wish I could've lived a little longer, at least to see my little brother one more time..." Gladios said to himself. Tears, once again, began rushing down his cheeks. "I'm sorry Machina¹... I'm so very sorry... I couldn't protect you; I'm such a worthless person... I just wish that from now on you can forget about me and live out your life happily..." Gladios, in a teary and remorseful slur of words, said. Ace stood there, a pained expression shown vividly on his face as he listened to the sorrowful cries of Gladios. Not long after, Gladios, along with his horse, Fade, passed on into the afterlife.

After a while of waiting, Nine appeared, walking towards his two teammates from within a deeper part of Lorica. "How is it?" Elva asked, referring to the enemy status in their path. "I saw a few soldiers here and there, and I've already taken care of them. But other than that, there doesn't seem to be any more enemies." Nine explained. "Very well, then let's get moving-" Elva's own sentence was interrupted by her as Ace suddenly began to walk back towards the now deceased Gladios and Fade. Elva turned around and watched Ace silently with Nine doing the same thing. As Ace approached the two, he kneeled down, staring at them with almost teary eyes. Ace reached out and gently petted Fade on its snout before turning to Gladios to place his hands on top of one another, giving Gladios and peaceful look. "I hope you two find a peaceful sanctuary from this point on..." Ace told the two before standing back up. Ace turned around and headed back towards Elva and Nine.

²This is war... This is the place we were born in... A land cursed and ravaged by death and despair. The children who are born in this time are thrown into a violent cycle, with no means of escaping their fate. They look towards the day where the war flags and the gunfire, and the charred earth will be put to slumber, knowing all too well that that day may never exist for them. Maybe down the line somewhere, a new generation will be able to awaken to the sound of chirping birds instead of roaring cannons and screams of anguish. By then the war will be forgotten. But sadly, we can never forget... We were here...

As Ace reached Elva and Nine, he came to halt. "Let's go." Ace said. "Right." Elva responded before the three of them walked away from this whole scene in order to continue with their mission.

-Meanwhile-

Hearing Tolv's comment about not wanting to accidentally leave her behind, Cinque blushed in embarrassment. "H-Hey! Stop being such a jerk Tolv! How about you try carrying my mace around with you!" Cinque responded. "Please Cinque, quiet down. We're still in enemy territory." Eight stated. "But, but, but-" Cinque attempted to point the blame towards Tolv for being such a wise ass, but was interrupted by Eight. "I know what you're going to say Cinque but that doesn't mean we should start fighting amongst each other as this moment. Wait until after we get home." Eight said. "Humph, men are always real jerks..." Cinque crossed her arms and pouted like a little kid before walking off first, leading the front of the party. "Tolv, you know she cries easily right?" Eight asked rhetorically before walking off as well. "Boy, you guys really need to take it easy." Dis said casually before following the others as well. The group decided on taking the eastern path to see if they could reach the Peristylium. However, the members of this particular group have been known to have a bit of bad luck when it comes to choosing the right direction.

[Later]

As the group continued, they soon arrived at a gargantuan black, steel gate. Beyond the gate was a long cobblestone path, stretching for several yards before leading to a large estate. A massive manor-like building was the centerpiece of the estate. However, contrary to its once presumable beauty, the estate the group saw now was tarnished with damage. "Looks like it's been badly damaged by some warships." Eight stated. "You guys don't think that's the Peristylium do you?" Dis asked. "I doubt it. The Peristylium is the most important building of Lorica where all of Arma's important secrets are held. It should be heavily guarded. Plus, if it's the Peristylium, the Grand Army wouldn't want to destroy it because it would endanger our mission." Eight explained. "What if it's Arma warships that destroyed the Peristylium?" Cinque asked. "That's not possible either. The Grand Army struck Lorica pretty early. They wouldn't have time to get all of those important documents." Eight replied.

"Then it looks like we hit a dead end." Dis said. "Yeah, let's go back and find another path-" Right as Eight said that, the sound of rocket engines began to roar. "What the-" Dis said as the ground started shaking. "It's right beneath us! Get away!" Eight said before leaping back. Dis did the same, all the while unsheathing his katana for what was coming. Cinque, however, was too slow to jump away; luckily, Tolv was right next to her. As all four of them got away from the space where the noise emanated from, two black blurs burst from the cobblestone surface and flew high up into the hazy sky above. As the blurs stopped their ascending, the four Unit 13 members now saw what they were dealing with: Arma war mechs. "War mechs!" Eight shouted out with a nervous sweat drop on his forehead. "Looks like we got our work cut out for us. Bring it on!" Dis confidently stated.

One of the war mech rotated its head towards Tolv and Cinque. "Target Locked." the war mech spoke in a deep, robotic voice. The war mech then pointed its machine gun at the two and began firing in rapid succession. Cinque quickly held her mace up, using the weapon end of her mace as a makeshift shield. Fortunately for Cinque, her idea worked as the bullets ricochet off of her mace and into different directions; some were even able to hit the war mech, dealing it some damage. "Tolv! Help!" Cinque yelled with her eyes closed a two small tear drops can be seen at the opposite ends of her eyes.

The other war mech began firing its machine gun at Eight and Dis. Dis quickly somersaulted back while Eight began to run around in a random pattern, causing the mech to focus all of its ammunition on him. "Dis!" Eight shouted, in a way saying, "This is your opportunity to attack." "Umm, I don't know if you notice but I'm not much of an aerial fighter." Dis replied, comically trying to jump towards the mech but only managing to get a few feet off of the ground. "Alright then, switch roles!" Eight shouted.

-Meanwhile-

Dual stood there quietly, attentively listening as Trey gave his thoughts on where the central computer unit may be located at within the Peristylium. Then, when asked if her headset is working or not, Dual smiled and replied in her soft, angelic voice, "It's working fine, thank you Trey." Sheva was the first to head out with the motivation of finishing the mission early so she can go treasure hunting, a hobby of her's. Dual gave a cute giggle seeing how eager Sheva was. "Let's go Trey." Dual said before following Sheva. The three of them headed directly north, figuring it would be the best direction to go in. For a couple of minutes, the three of them walked along the death-littered streets. Dual looked around with a sadden expression on her face. "(I feel for these people... They don't deserve this kind of fate...)" Dual thought to herself, gripping tightly on her flute with both hands. As they continued on a little longer, they soon were face to face with a large group of about forty Arma soldiers led by one soldier that stood out from the crowd. In the background of the forty soldiers were large stone barricades, placed there to prevent anyone from walking further into the vast city.

"It looks like they're blocking the way to the Peristylium." Dual suggested. The female commanding officer turned around to address Sheva, Trey, and Dual. Right away she notices their uniforms; she knew she would be dealing with members of Unit 13. "Well now, looks like I hit the jackpot when it comes to Batillus scum." the commander spoke through her metal helm. "All of you are Unit 13, the fearsome Batillus military group that is said to have never failed a single mission given to them. You're just a bunch of kids though, are you really that powerful?" the commander asked. "Humph, well it doesn't matter. You three never failed a single mission huh? Well congratulations, today, not only will you fail your first mission, but it will also be your last." the commander stated. Suddenly, a shining blue light appeared from within the hollowed out space on one of her short swords. "All three of you will kneel before the might of Arma's magic!" the commander exclaimed before slashing her sword vertically at the three of them. When this occurred, the blue light that had enveloped her sword shot out at an amazing speed and headed right for Sheva, Trey, and Dual.

Reacting quickly in order to protect her teammates, Dual began to play a melody on her flute. Activating one of her magics, Dual summoned a large blue lightning bolt that materialized instantaneously from seemingly nowhere. As the bolt struck the blue energy attack from the Arma officer, a large explosion occurred, creating a cloud of blue smoke. Without a single second to spare, the Arma officer burst through the blue smoke cloud and towards Sheva. As the officer got close enough, she began a series of acrobatic slashes and kicks, hoping to cut or knock Sheva down. Meanwhile, the forty Arma soldiers rushed towards Trey and Dual. Once the first thirteen of the forty soldiers arrived at a suitable distance, they raised their rifles and aimed their sights on Trey and Dual. In an instant, Dual shifted to playing a different melody on her flute which was followed by a huge gust of wind slamming into the thirteen soldiers, knocking the rifles out their hand and sending the soldiers themselves flying back. This created an opening for Trey while Dual stood back at a safe distance to buff her teammates with the magics Feroce and Brioso that raises their attack strength and speed respectively.

-Meanwhile-

After the groups were assigned, Sei made her way to her teammates and began motioning to them, basically telling them, "We should make it a race! I bet we can beat the others to the Peristylium if we hurry!" Kat smiled and nodded at the proposal. "Yeah, let's do it. If it's race then that means I can rub it all over Tolv's face when we win. I mean, it's already bad enough he lost our last game tournament, but now he's gonna lose a mission too." Kat stated, eager to get going as well. "Then let's not waste any time shall we?" Trece said before the three of them left the area. The three of them decided to take the western route to see if their luck will take them to the Peristylium first. Along the way, Trece began talking and he pretty much never stopped from then on, much to Kat's dismay. "So you see, it is very important for the body to maintain a balanced level of physical and mental attributes in order to remain in pinnacle health. Now, I theorize-" Finally Kat could take it no longer and swiftly intervened before Trece could "theorize" anything. "Shut up, shut up, shut up! I can't take any more of your explanations, it's actually killing my brain cells!" Kat exclaimed.

"Well that most certainly proves my point I believe. Imbalance, for your case Kat would be mental imbalance, no offense, causes stress." Trece stated. "Trece, just spare me your lectures, we're on a mission after all. Can't you be like Sei over here and just be quiet?" Kat said tiredly. "Speaking of Sei, you should see this artwork she has taken her time to illustrate for me. I have to tell you, it's astonishing. There is a certain air about it and the earthy tones complimented by light touches of brighter, airy colors are a wonderful symphony for the eyes. You see, I believe-" as Trece continued talking he suddenly bumped into Kat. "Hmm, why'd you two stop walking?" Trece asked before suddenly looking up. Standing resolute just a couple of yards down is a massive building of grandeur. Its ornate design and its four massive pillars emblazoned with Arma's emblem allowed Sei, Trece, and Kat to know what they have just luckily stumbled upon: the Peristylium.

"Is that what I think it is?" Kat asked. "I believe so." Trece responded. All three of them agreed that they have arrived at their desired destination. "Yeah! We did it! We won the race!" Kat rejoiced, throwing her hands high up into the air. "I say, Lady Luck sure has smiled upon us today." Trece stated. "Let me contact the others." Kat said before turning on her headset to a specific channel.

"Elva, you there?" Kat asked.

"Yes, what is it?" Elva replied.

"My group has just founded the Peristylium. We took the western path from our starting area and just continued along the street. After a while we just accidentally stumbled onto it." Kat explained.

"I see. Good work. What is the enemy status there?" Elva asked.

"Looking around... There doesn't seem to be any enemies visible." Kat answered.

"I see... Be careful when you approach the Peristylium and while you're inside. Certainly they won't just let Batillus soldiers walk right in and take whatever we want." Elva stated.

"Got it." Kat replied.

"Contact the others as well. Elva out." Elva said before her channel turned off.

Kat then proceeded to switch to another channel and see if she can contact Dual's channel.

"Dual are you there?" Kat asked.

"Sorry Kat, but I can't talk right now. My group is in the middle of a battle with Arma soldiers. I apologize, but I must go." Dual said urgently before shutting her channel down.

Kat then went on to contact Dis' channel. "Dis, are you there?" Kat asked.

"Umm, we're kinda busy at the moment." Dis replied.

"Well, tell Tolv for me that my group got to the Peristylium first and that just like our game tournaments, he once again has lost." Kat said.

-Meanwhile-

Dis got off his headset while he evaded a missile launched by the war mech. "Hey Tolv, your girlfriend Kat says that her group has gotten to the Peristylium first and that like your game tournaments, you once again lost." Dis relayed the message to Tolv. "(Wait girlfriend? That's not true is it?)" Eight thought to himself, becoming jealous at the fact that Kat may actually be Tolv's girlfriend.

-Meanwhile-

Back to Sei, Trece, and Kat, the three of them approached the Peristylium, cautiously watching their surroundings as they walked. Suddenly, a huge wall of flames came bursting up from the concrete ground in front of the three Unit 13 members. Instinctively, the three of them jumped back once they saw the wall of flames. "We got company." Kat said. Suddenly, fifteen cloaked figures walked out from the alleyways closed to the Peristylium. They wore the same cloaks as those that used magic to try and protect the Peristylium from Batillus warships earlier in the night. "Stop right there Batillus soldiers." one cloaked figure said. "T-They're members of Unit 13..." another cloaked figure said to the first one. "Huh? I see... They will be tough to defeat..." the first cloaked figure replied. "So if you know who we are then how about you stand aside?" Kat proposed. "We can't do that... It doesn't matter how fearsome of a reputation you three hold. We are duty-bound to kill those of the Grand Army. You will tremble under the might of Arma's Magic Brigade!" the cloaked figure stated before launching a fireball towards the three of them.

Kat quickly rolled to the side to avoid the incoming fireball while she removed her sawed-off shotgun, Rebellion, from the open compartment of her backpack. Rolling into a kneeling position, Kat took aim at the Magic Brigade leader and fired a shot at him. The Magic Brigade leader then countered by quickly summoning a transparent light blue barrier. Unfortunately for Kat, her basic ammunition was easily destroyed when they impacted with the barrier. "Damn." Kat cursed under her breath. Trece also rolled to the side to avoid the fireball and ended in a kneeling position as well before standing up and drawing his bow and a single arrow. With intense concentration, Trece aimed the arrow at the Magic Brigade leader's head, even though the barrier was still up. Trece then fired his arrow and the arrow, somehow, managed to impale about a foot through the barrier much to the Magic Brigade leaser's surprise. "What the- H-How?" the leader asked.

"Trece, don't start explaining!" Kat exclaimed with a comically angered expression. "Right." Trece responded before taking aim at the barrier again with another arrow. "Attack them!" the leader commanded, prompting the other Magic Brigade soldiers to launch a barrage of fireballs towards Sei, Trece, and Kat simultaneously. Trece quickly shifted his bow and arrow to the right and fired, landing a head shot on one of the soldiers, killing him in an instant and causing his fireball to disappear. All three Unit 13 members observed what had just happened and concluded that even if the Magic Brigade soldiers were to launch a magic attack, killing them would resolve the magic's effect. Kat stood up from off the ground and ran towards her left, avoiding an incoming fireball. She stopped moving and then motioned her shotgun to one of the soldiers and fired a Scatter Shot, one of her special techniques, which allowed her to successfully kill two Magic Brigade soldiers.

---

¹Machina (Ma-Kee-Na): By itself it is Latin for "machine". The name, however, is derived from "deus ex machina" or "god from the machine" which is, in literature, an expression commonly used to refer to a sudden and surprising situation-turning event.

²Narration: When there is a colored, italicized passage in a post, it is a narration by one of the main characters. This time, the narration is done by Ace.

[Kyng]

Nodding his head to Sheva's enthusiasm, and to Dual's sincere nature, Trey stood up, towering over the two, much more easily Sheva than Dual of course, and shaking his hammer's length to test if it was secure. Heading up north, and unfortunately a walk down Death Row, the path reminded Trey how much he disliked his duty-bound life. Causing pain to others, taking lives, robbing people of their loved ones; this wasn't a life to be envied, nor one to claim as heroic. Serving one's people? More like serving humanity's nature of violence with a little tag to justify the deaths of millions by. He could see, on Dual's face, she somewhat agreed with him, and saying "Peace can't exist without violence, but hopefully we can do our best to weigh the balance in peace's favour." he somewhat hoped to pick up her spirits; as for Sheva? Well, Trey turned his head her way asking "You need a lift?" offering her a piggyback ride, figuring she'd love to feel tall sitting up on the giant's shoulders.

As such, when they encountered a force of Arma Soldiers, and if applicable, Trey would've had Sheva back on the ground, before swiftly taking out his hammer. Before the female commanding officer went to speak, Trey whispered to Sheva "I wonder if we'll find a flower anywhere nearby." before turning his attention, and tuning in his ears to her confident rant; eventually, Dual managed to make quick work of the energy blast she lobbed their way, however the female officer focussed on Sheva whilst the forty soldiers went after Dual and Trey, the giant unsure if his thick skin could deal with the impending volley of bullets; however, he was covered by Dual who gave him an opportunity, having launched wind to send rifles, and soldiers, away from them. Nodding to Dual, in a grateful manner, Trey huffed as he slowly walked, but picked up his pace to sprinting towards the soldiers, hammer in hand, and he took a leap, the added momentum from Dual's technique very helpful.

The reason being was simple: in the leap, he had Achilles Quake charge compressed air into it's disc and, consequentially, having slammed it into an unfortunate fellow caused the air, alongside many soldiers, to be launched skywards, in hopes Dual could take out a few; borrowing a technique Cinque used, Trey swung his hammer in a spin to give him some room, before pulling it backwards, head in hand, as he threw Hammerhead, after Hammerhead, at soldiers coming his way. Even a few who jumped at him had the hammer crushing their ribs inwardly, and one the hammer smashing through completely. Following this, and letting out a roar, hopefully to scare some off, Trey threw his hammer skywards, before grabbing two soldiers' skulls and throwing them into Achilles Quake's oncoming head, needless to say causing a splash of red. However, this wouldn't last too long, and as such Trey had to bludgeon soldiers with his hammer, from overhead downwards, from side to side; there was an evident circle of space not one solider could enter without being smacked around like a ragdoll.

[6-Shot Finale]

Tolv kicked the gate in anger after realizing they had taken the wrong direction. "Fanf*ckingtastic! You guys saw the look on Sei's face, right? There's no way Kat could resist a competition. I bet those bastards are already there as we speak! I'll never hear the end of this. I still haven't even heard the end of that last video game tournament." It was clear to all of them that they'd need to head back but before Eight could give the order the ground underneath them began to shake. Tolv grabbed onto Cinque and quickly jumped back just in time to evade the warmechs bursting out of the ground. A wide grin appeared on Tolv's face as he looked at the enemy. "This completely makes up for it all."

One of the warmechs had picked Tolv and Cinque as its main target while the other one attempted to take on Dis and Eight. The mecha attacking them started off the fight by firing its machine gun but Cinque had managed to block it with her mace. After hearing Cinque's pleas for help Tolv placed a hand on Cinque's shoulder. It was basically his way of showing he was there for her. "I'll distract it. You make sure you pull off the finishing blow. You'll get one second to get out of the way. Use it wisely." He then held his hand out in front of the mace only for one of his small reflective barriers to appear before a bullet could touch him.

Tolv proceeded to spring into action avoiding bullets as he charged towards the mech. When he got close enough enough he hopped onto the mech's gatling gun and then onto the mech itself. Really he could have jumped right onto the mech's body but by jumping onto and off the gatling gun he was hoping he could cause the mech to lose it's aim and therefore make it less likely to hit Cinque. Tolv removed his two revolvers from their holsters and aimed down at the mech's head. It was then that Dis had relayed the message from Kat to him. The girlfriend comment certainly didn't help to cool down his imminent rage. "Great! See what I told you guys?! At least I get to take my anger out my new friend here." He fired three shots from each of his revolvers down at the head of the warmech. They weren't actually able to do much against the mech's armor but his real goal was to just take the attention of it. Tolv then jumped off the mech so he was placed a few feet behind it. "Yo, rust bucket! I'm behind you now!"

[Hotaru987]

Unlike Kat, who just wanted Trece to shut up, Sei always enjoyed listening to him talk. Mostly because she didn't really talk, as she never uttered a word. Kat suggested that he take a page from Sei's book and not talk, to which started Trece on talking about a picture that she had drew for him. Sei grinned and tapped him on the shoulder, "I can make you another one! Right now I'm in the process of drawing a picture for Elva, but once that's done I can make another one for you." She managed to stop when she notice Kat stopped, but Trece wasn't as lucky as he bumped into her. He asked why they stopped, but was answered by the emblem that he saw once looking up. Kat rejoiced, throwing her arms up shouting that they one. Sei did the same, "Yeah! Team Sei, Trece, Kat is awesome!" Kat took this time to contact the others, informing them that they made it to the Peristylium. Some of them ere in the middle of a battle so Kat couldn't talk to them for long.

The three Until 13 members walked towards the Peristylium, but before they could get much closer a fire wall appeared to which Sei avoided by jumping back with her fellow teammates. 15 hooded magicians appears to block their paths. Sei sighed, which meant, "Great more interference. I really don't want to fight any more people." Looking back up there were fire balls heading for her. Easily maneuvering out of the way, she frowned seeing the barrier that they put up to block Kat's bullets which weren't getting through, but Trece's arrow managed to get halfway in. Sei couldn't get close to them to start any of her chain attacks. With a sigh she was once again forced to dodge more fireballs. Trece was quick, notching an arrow getting a clean head shot. Sei gasped, and pointed a finger at the fireballs waving her arms animatedly which all meant, "Hey that guy's fireball vanished!" Sei tucked and rolled out of the way, just as Kat used one of her special moves killing two soldiers at the same time. Sei pouted, "Everyone is doing so well."

She twirled her staff, the two blades glowing a bright blue. With two quick slashes of both sides, a glowing blue 'X' shaped attack went towards one of the wizards. This attack was aptly named Dual Scissors. Hopefully that would get rid of one of them, but even so Sei just wasn't good with long distance. It put her at a severe disadvantage. Gripping her staff she decided to dash straight in, running in a zig zag pattern as to try and dodge any attempts to attack her. Meanwhile, Trece and Kat easily got the message her movement said, "Cover me! I'm going in!" Setting her sights on one of the soldiers, she attempted to get a first clean shot. If she hit, then she would continue for her special move Scythe Chain.

[Aisu]

As Sheva strolled northward with Trey and Dual, she couldn't help but look at the scenery as well and could only make one comment about it, "War is hell.." After she made that comment, the steel crown strapped to her belt at her back vibrated a little bit as a female voice chimed in Sheva's head, 'DAWWWWW~! I wanna play!' 'No.' 'B-B-But!' 'But nothing..' Sheva replied to the voice with her own though, 'Besides.. You know how much of a toll ya take on me, I need to save my strength for the rest of the mission.' 'Oh pooh..' The voice and crown settled down as Sheva finally took notice of what was going on. Hearing Trey's question, she looked back to him with a fierce annoyed face, "IS THAT A SHORT JOKE?!" Looking him dead in the eye for a moment, her face went to normal as she shrugged, "Might as well." Walking over to him, she hopped up into shoulder and sat there, bring her hand up and over her eyes as she scanned the horizon.

After a few minutes, the trio came across another platoon, but this time, lead by someone that looked like they'd give a challenge. Thanking Trey as he lowered her, she looked up for a moment when he made a comment about finding a flower. Whispering back, she said, "Well.. We'll look for one on our way back from the mission. If we don't find any, we could always come back once things have settled here and plant some, if you want. Hell, we could do a small memorial garden for all the lives lost from this war, if ya want." As she waited for Trey's answer, she heard the Soldier Commander say, "Well now, looks like I hit the jackpot when it comes to Batillus scum." "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU JUST SAY!?!" Sheva screamed out, pissed. Rolling up her sleeves, she didn't hear a single other word the Commander said as she began to stomp/waddle her way closer, "You're going to pay for calling us that and I'll make damn sure that you do!" Watching as the Commander launched her magical attack, Sheva came to a stop with plain face, standing only a foot or two before Dual and Trey. As predicted, Dual took care of the Commander's attack got one in herself. Unsheathing Septyni, she charged forth as the Commander jumoed through teh blue smoke.

As she ran towards the Commander, she felt a surge of speed and strength, thanks to Dual, "AWWWWWW YEAH!" Stabbing the tip of Septyni into the ground, Sheva continued to run forward as she fed magic into her sword. As Septyni was stretched out into 14 segments, Sheva came to a stop as she swung her right arm forward with all her weight. This caused the tip of her sword to pull out of the earth and sling-shot at great speeds towards to the Commander. However, the Commander dodged it and continued to run at her before getting close enough to launch her kicks and slashes. Temporarily impressed by the Commander's speed, Sheva smirked as she went on to dodging the Commanders slashes and kicks, while barely moving from her spot, as Septyni began to fly back towards the two. Giving it a quick tug, she adjusted it to where Septyni was traveling in a U-shape towards the Commander's back. Hoping to distract the Commander for a second longer as Septyni was only a few seconds away from hitting the Commander, Sheva sent a hard kick towards the Commander's gut, aiming to push her into the approaching whip sword.

[.:Blu:.]

The battle against the Magic Brigade continued for Sei, Trece, and Kat, with the battle so far leaning in their favor. Sei unleashed her "Dual Scissors" technique to fire off a glowing blue, x-shaped attack that managed to kill one Magic Brigade soldier. This allowed an opening to be created for Sei to close the distance and hopefully to enter an attack chain. As she dashed towards the soldiers in a zigzag movement, Trece and Kat knew they needed to cover their teammate. Two Magic Brigade soldiers attempted to intercept Sei, however, Trece, with his amazing precision, succeeded in killing one of them with an arrow through the unarmored chest of the soldier. Kat dealt with the second soldier by firing a "Power Slug", basically turning the soldier's torso to a bloody mush. Sei set her sights and her scythe on one nearby soldier and successfully delivered her attack which she now could turn that simple first attack into her "Scythe Chain" technique. It wasn't long after that until Sei had defeated the rest of the soldiers on her own. After every soldier was dispatched, the group moved forward into the Peristylium.

As the three of them headed inside the Peristylium, they noticed all the lights are either turned off or have been destroyed. Long electrical wires hung down from the ceiling, broken and with their wiring exposed, creating tiny sparks of blue electricity. Everything around them had been destroyed or damaged in some way. The walls are lined with bullet holes while many dead bodies of both Arma soldiers and the Grand Army soldiers lie motionless in individual pools of blood. "Well, it looks like we might not have to worry about enemy soldiers..." Trece said as he looked around at the motionless room. "If I do recall correctly, our commanding officer did say that Grand Army soldiers had invaded the Peristylium and failed to collect the data needed." Trece stated. "Right, that's why we were deployed." Kat added. "Well, no use standing around looking at dead bodies. Let's go get the data and get outta here." Kat suggested. "Agreed." Trece replied before the three of them headed deeper into the abandoned Peristylium.

Like Trey, Trece figured the Arma government would be hiding their central computers in an underground level, and it seems that both of them are right on the money. "Hey! You guys over here!" Kat called out to Sei and Trece who were looking around the halls to find an entrance to the basement of the building. Hearing Kat's call, Sei and Trece stopped what they were doing and headed over to her position. "Look! It's an elevator that leads to the Peristylium's underground." Kat said as she pointed to a plaque with a simple picture showing that this elevator would indeed lead to the basement of the Peristylium. "The only problem now is that the electricity's out. But I figured a staircase should be close by right?" Kat asked. "Actually Kat," Trece paused as he pressed the button for the elevator and suddenly a transparent, turquoise-colored panel with a number pad appeared in front of the elevator button, "these kinds of elevators run on concentrated Anima as their power source instead of electricity. It's useful for Peristylium operators in case of a situation like this." Trece explained. "However, the problem now has taken the form of a password. Furthermore, a single wrong entry will cause the elevator to completely shut down and must be manually fixed via a specialist trained only for this task of rebooting the elevator's computer system." Trece added to his explanation.

"Great, we don't know the password. So I guess we'll have to go back to the original plan of finding some stairs." Kat stated. "There will be no need for that actually." Trece replied before removing a small, black USB from the pocket on his jacket. Removing the bottom cap, the USB was revealed to have four, small spike-like protrusions on the bottom of it. Trece then proceeded to stab the bottom of the USB into the transparent panel. Almost instantly, the panel began to fluctuate between dimming and turning back into its original lighting before a ten-digit code appeared on the panel. Immediately following that, the elevator doors opened. "What the-" Kat was shocked to see the elevator doors opening while Trece calmly removed the USB, placed the cap back onto the bottom end of it, and placed it back into his pocket. "Wait, since when can the USBs we were given able to do that???" Kat asked. "Since the day they were created I would believe. The commanding officer even told us it would have that feature." Trece answered. "So why didn't I hear about any of this???" Kat asked. "You were fast asleep during the whole briefing, remember?" Trece asked to which Kat stayed silent for a couple of seconds. "Oh yeah..." Kat responded, hanging her head down in shame and embarrassment.

The three of them entered into the elevator and down into the Peristylium underground basement. The trip there took about ten seconds or so, and just when Trece was about to open his mouth and talk, the elevator doors opened, which Kat thanked the heavens in her mind, revealing a large, darkly-lit room full of computers. Not the kind for personal use however as these computers looked more like video arcade machines stacked closely together to make them appeared bonded. Unlike the aforementioned arcade machines, these computers were connected to large circular, white chairs and they aren't as colorful. There was one computer in the very back of the room that stood out however, and like the others, it didn't look like an ordinary personal computer. The computer in the back of the room consisted of a lengthy curved, rectangular panel adorned with an unbelievable amount of computer keys and other things, and mounted onto the wall is a massive glass display. It quickly caught the eyes and attention of the three Unit 13 members who immediately concluded that it is the central computer unit the three are looking for.

They quickly made their way over, with Trece then taking the lead to attempt and retrieve the required data. With a few simple key presses, Trece was able to start the computer unit, which led then him to a password screen. Again, with just a single wrong entry, the computer would immediately shut down and can only be rebooted by a single trained specialist. Fortunately, with Batillus' advance technology, hacking into the central computer unit proved to be no problem thanks to the USB carried by Trece. Once he was able to enter into the computer, a massive list of documents appeared on the glass display. Manually finding the needed data would take months of searching if one does not know the needed data's number code. Luckily for the three of them, the USB has a complex search and retrieve function that would allow them to get the data in mere minutes. Trece uncapped the USB part of the device and plugged it into a port on the panel. Almost immediately, the massive list of documents began scrolling down on its own, well technically via being controlled by the USB's software. In a matter of thirty or so seconds, the correct data was found and began to download into the USB. The data itself is quite large, causing a download time of ten minutes; quite lengthy considering the USB is an advance military-grade piece of technology.

"This will take quite a while. I guess we should contact the others to let them know." Trece suggested to which Kat nodded in agreement. Kat turned on her channel to contact Elva's channel. "Elva, are you there?" Kat asked.

"Yes, status report." Elva instructed.

"We've reached the central computer unit and are currently retrieving the data. The room is located underground in the Peristylium's basement. We got here via an elevator that Trece was able to get operating again. It should still be active so you guys should be able to get to us. It's located down the left hall through the central area." Kat explained.

"Good to hear. We'll be arriving at your location in about a few minutes. How long will it take to finish retrieving the data?" Elva asked.

"About nine minutes." Kat replied as she took a quick glance at the glass display.

"Alright. And what is the status of the other groups?" Elva asked.

"Last time I contacted them, they were engaged in battle with enemy units, but I'll check on them right now." Kat explained.

"Alright then, Elva out." Elva said before turning off her channel.

Kat tried contacting Dual's channel next but it was completely turned off. "(I guess they're still in battle.)" Kat thought before attempting to contact Dis and ended up with no response either. Kat then turned to Sei and Trece, "It looks like both Group 3 and 4 are still battling with the enemy so pretty much we just have to wait here until Group 1 arrives." Kat explained. "I see... In the meantime, as I've mentioned before, balance of physical and mental attributes are key to achieving-" Kat quickly interrupted to stop Trece before he could continue any further. "No! Stop it! I don't want to hear your explanations!" Kat complained. "Oh no, I'm far from done. I still haven't even mention the inclusion of how other people's balance will affect your own. You see, when-" Trece's explanation was quickly cut short when a loud metallic noise suddenly filled the air. It sound alluded to two metal surfaces scraping against one another, creating a sharp, high-pitched tone that deafened the ears. "What is that?!" Trece wondered out loud. Trece's question was soon answered when the metallic wall near the elevator was suddenly and crudely slashed open.

Two robotic hands can then be seen gripping either side of the newly created slit before, with an immense showing of strength, ripping the slit and creating a large hole, big enough for whatever was behind it to step into the room. From their position and due to the poorly-lit room, the hole was nothing but darkness and so they could not guess what they would be facing until the enemy showed itself. Regardless, Sei, Trece, and Kat already have their respective weapon drawn and ready for a fight. Then, the sound of slow, metallic footsteps was heard as the enemy approached the room. Stepping into the room, the enemy was revealed to be a twenty or so-feet tall war mech brandishing quite the fearsome-looking weapon. Its one eye "blinked" as it locked onto Sei, Trece, and Kat followed by a computer-generated voice saying, "Target locked-on." "That's one big hunk of scrap metal it's lugging around. Too bad, it won't do it any good facing against us." Kat stated confidently. "This is bad..." Trece said. "Huh? What do you mean?" Kat asked. "That war mech can cause some serious damage to the environment, and if it is able to destroy the central computer unit before the data is finished downloading, then this whole mission will be a failure..." Trece explained.

"Damn it, you're right...!" Kat exclaimed before looking back at the war mech. "I guess to continue with my recent profession of being a 'bearer of bad news', that war mech is no ordinary war mech. It is an advance, heavy-powered model called 'B.E.L.U.A.' employed by Arma's military for purposes ranging from anti-tank defense to a weapon against small warships..." Trece explained. "Small warships?! Arrg, we just can't catch a break can we?!" Kat complained. "Its movement is slow but its attack is quite formidable. We'll have to have you, Sei, take the lead on this one while we'll be your cover. I'll have to stay back for better accuracy and to protect the central computer unit. Let's just hope the others arrive in time to assist us." Trece stated. With that, B.E.L.U.A. drew its gigantic axe and began swinging it around, destroying about a dozen computers in two rows. "Here we go." Trece stated.

Major Battle - B.E.L.U.A. Battle Music:

-Meanwhile-

Responding to Cinque's call for help, Tolv placed his hand onto Cinque's shoulder to reassure her, a very welcomed sign due to Cinque's fearful personality. Tolv then explained to her that he would distract the war mech allowing her to get away and deliver the finish blow to the mech. Cinque nodded once in agreement, regaining some lost bravery. Tolv then placed his hand onto Cinque's mace, using his magic "Reflection" to create a barrier for a second. Right away, Cinque moved from her position to get to a safer spot and to allow Tolv to continue his plan by being the distraction. Fortunately, the mech did not turn and attempt to fire at Cinque due to some of the bullets it fired bouncing off Tolv's Reflection and hitting it back in its face. Continuing his plan, Tolv dashed towards the mech, evading bullets along the way. Reaching the war mech, Tolv then jumped first onto the mech's gatling gun before jumping onto the mech itself in order to sway the bullets in another direction and away from Cinque. Luckily for Tolv, the plan worked as the mech fired its gatling gun into the ground instead of towards Cinque.

On the mech, Tolv removed his revolvers from their holsters and aimed it at the mech's head, but before he could fire however, Dis relayed Kat's message to Tolv, which he responded rather negatively to. Tolv then took out his anger on the mech by firing three bullets from each gun at the mech's head. The bullet's were able to graze the durable metal but besides doing that, didn't have any significant effects on the mech. Tolv then leaped down from behind the mech before taunting it to draw its attention away from Cinque. The mech, responding to the sound of Tolv's voice rather than the actual taunt, turned its body around and descended onto the ground. It then aimed its gatling gun straight at Tolv and was about to fire. However, Cinque suddenly appeared from behind the mech, swing her heavy mace towards the mech's gatling gun. With just one attack, Cinque was able to completely destroy half the gatling gun, rendering it useless.

The mech quickly switched to its shoulder missiles and aimed at Cinque. However, Cinque was able to get another swing in with her mace, destroying the mech's body and rendering them missiles useless as well. With one more swing of her mace, Cinque was able to separated half of the mech's body, essentially finishing off the mech. "I-I did it..." Cinque said to herself in relief. Back to Eight and Dis, Dis was now the one distracting the mech, being loud as possible to draw the mech's attention to him. "Yo, scrap metal! Over here! Yoohoo! I bet you can't hit me with one of those missiles!" Dis taunted while waving his arms in the air. The distraction worked as the mech turned its sights on Dis and locking on to him. "(Eight you better finish that thing right now.)" Dis thought to himself with a nervous sweat drop. Before the mech could fire its gatling gun or missiles, Eight appeared from behind it, having leaped up from the ground. Eight then twisted his body to cause himself to spin in the air and delivered a power kick to the mech's body, sending it spiraling towards Dis. "Dis!" Eight called out.

Dis nodded before closing his eyes and letting out a calm breath as he gripped his katana with one hand and his scabbard with the other, all the while taking a stance. Once the mech got close enough to Dis, he, with extremely skilled timing and in a blindingly fast motion, drew his katana in a wide horizontal arc, cutting the mech cleanly in half. The two halves were sent flying passed Dis and landing several feet behind him. Dis then twirled his katana in his hand and sheathed it back into its scabbard, completing his special technique "One-Draw Kill". Eight had now landed onto the ground and regrouped with his teammates. "Well that takes care of that." Dis said with a smile. "That was really scary... But luckily you guys were here. Thanks Tolv." Cinque stated, giving a warm smile to Tolv in particular because he saved her from becoming a shooting target for the mech. "Alright, I guess we should turn the channels on our headsets on again." Eight said before turning his on, followed by the others. Almost immediately they were contacted by Group 1.

"What is your status Group 3?" Elva asked.

"Well we just defeated two war mechs." Eight replied.

"I see... Anyways, head back to the main area and take the western route. Just keep going and you'll soon find the Peristylium. We're heading there now to regroup with Sei, Trece, and Kat." Elva explained.

"Got it ma'am!" Dis replied.

"Who are you calling ma'am...?" Elva asked with a resentful and intimidating tone in her voice.

"Uhh, I meant Elva hehe..." Dis responded with a nervous chuckle.

Without even responding, Elva shut off the communication, leaving Dis' teammates to stare at him with annoyed expressions. "What did I do?" Dis asked. "You're an idiot Dis..." Eight stated before walking off towards the main area once again. "You know Elva hates being called 'ma'am'. It makes her sound old." Cinque scolded before following Eight. Before the group was able to leave the area however, the faces of the two war mechs suddenly opened up, revealing two cannons that were about to fire powerful energy beams at the group. "Crap!" Dis exclaimed as he turned back to see the mechs along with the others. The mechs were far away from the group members, meaning Eight, Dis, and Cinque wouldn't be able to do anything to stop the mechs before they could fire off their cannons, leaving the only ranged fighter, Tolv, to take care of things once and for all.

-Meanwhile-

Trey was easily able to make quick work of the numerous soldiers that focused all their attention on him due to his great stature. Dual, meanwhile, defended Trey's blind spots by taking out soldiers with her Flute techniques. Soon, most of the soldiers were either dead or critically injured. Seeing this, many of the soldiers retreated, or so it looked like. Suddenly, six soldiers appeared quite some distance away from Trey, holding up a magic-powered cannon aimed at the powerful giant. "This weapon will rip a hole right through that monster!" one soldier stated. Seeing this, Dual attempted to use her magic to destroy the cannon. Unfortunately however, three Arma soldiers charged towards her with their rifles in hand, attempting to attack the vulnerable girl with their bayonets. Dual stopped playing her flute and leaped out of the way, evading the soldiers attack. While this happened, the soldiers began charging the cannon up to fire at Trey. To prevent Trey from reaching the cannon in time to destroy it, Arma soldiers grouped up to block Trey's path, using themselves as sacrifice for the successful firing of their weapon.

There were only twenty seconds or so left before the cannon would be ready for firing, and due to the soldiers blocking his way, Trey wouldn't be able to get to the cannon in time to destroy it. "(I can't let them use their weapon...)" Dual thought to herself as she placed her flute near her lips and began playing a melody that sounded rather melancholy. Suddenly, a large monochromatic dome materialized, containing within it the cannon and the soldiers operating it. The soldiers within the dome's field quickly realized their physical actions have been slowed immensely as well as the cannon's charging. What Dual has just used is a powerful magic called "Grave" that allows her to significantly slow down the physical actions of people and objects within a monochromatic dome. Fortunately, her teammates will be unable to be affected by the dome's influence. "Trey hurry! I'm only able to use a small amount of magical energy for this variation of Grave and so it won't last for a long time!" Dual called out to him, essentially telling him to destroy the cannon before Grave vanishes and the cannon is able to charge completely.

Due to using this powerful magic however, Dual suddenly became weaker, causing her movements to become slower. One Arma soldier attempted to slash Dual with his bayonet which Dual responded by leaping away and evading the attack. Unfortunately because of Grave's strain on Dual's body, it caused her movements to slowed, allowing the soldier to graze her arm as she leaped away. "Dual winced at the pain that surged throughout her body when the warm steel cut her flesh. Blood dripped from her fresh wound and onto the concrete ground as Dual placed pressure on it. "I got her!" the soldier who wounded Dual rejoiced at his accomplishment.

Sheva fared better on her side of things as she continued dodging the swift attacks of the commander while barely moving from her position. The commander didn't want to admit it but she was quite impressed by Sheva's skills. "If only she was an ally," was the thought that ran through the commander's head. This kind of skill was expected by someone of Unit 13 and especially from Sheva, who is one of the stronger members of the entire Unit 13. Meanwhile, Sheva was secretly controlling Septyni's movements to get it into the right position to attack the commander from behind. The commander has a keen sense of hearing however, as she quickly heard the approaching whip sword. To distract her and to hopefully push her closer to Septyni, Sheva delivered a hard kick to the commander's gut which was successful in doing the latter of pushing her closer to Septyni. However, thanks to the commander's armor, the kick didn't cause any distracting pain, and the commander was able to bring her short sword back and push the tip of Septyni's blade upward and away from her. The commander then threw her other short sword towards Sheva, mostly as a distraction for her to get away and regain her composure but if it is able to wound the Unit 13 member then all the better for her.

While Sheva dealt with the incoming projectile, the commander acrobatically somersaulted her way out of Septyni's retracting range and enveloped her short sword in blue magic. Twirling it her hands to turn her short sword into a dagger, the commander stabbed the magically-imbued blade into the hard concrete ground, penetrating it but more impressively, sending a blue shock wave towards Sheva that would burst into a powerful blue explosion once it reached Sheva's position. Continuing her counter barrage, next, the commander once again enveloped her short sword in magic and ran around Sheva to intercept her from behind if she evades the explosion or to finish her off if she is caught in the explosion and is damaged.

[Hotaru987]

Sei followed closely behind her fellow Unit 13 members, surprised by the amount of dead bodies spread around. The building itself was damaged, with built holes and other battle scars all over the place. It was clear this building had seen better days. Having been so enthralled in looking around she was almost left behind, but she ran over to catch up with them, slowing to a jog when she got closer. Trece had a thought that the data would be underground, so the three of them had branched off to hopefully find a way downstairs. It was Kat who called them over having found an elevator. Sei smiled, "Awesome Kat! You're so amazing!" She praised, though it was a bit premature as Trece soon revealed that Kat was asleep during the briefing. To that Sei face-palmed, "It seems I had spoken too soon."

They entered the elevator, arriving at the Peristylium underground basement. There were a lot of computers, monitors and other tech stuff, but what caught their attention was could be non other than the central control unit. Trece quickly got to work booting the computer and jamming the usb into it. The usb did it's job, hacking into the computer, finding the file needed and began it's download. Seeing the time it would take Sei scratched her head, "A whole ten minutes? That's such a long time. Ugh, I wish I had some paper." Kat used this time to contact the others to let them know of their progress. Elva was first, and their group was already on their way. As for the other two teams they were still in battle so Kat couldn't contact them. With time to spare Trace decided to continue his earlier speech about being one with mind and body, but Kat was adamant about not wanting to hear it. Sei just giggled, happily watching the two of them. Just being close to the other Unit 13 members always made her extremely happy.

A sudden shrill screeching of metal halted the conversation. Sei slammed her hands over her ears, "W-what is that noise!?" Sadly the question was answered, when the elevator doors were violently slashed open. Two large, metal hands emerged through the slits and pulled against the opening making it large enough for it to fit through. Sei tensed, her eyes wide and they only got wider when Trece said that they would let her take the lead. "Me! You want me to fight that thing!?" She turned back to it, eyes scanning over the large robot. It already destroyed many computers, and if it got to the main computer before they could get the information they needed then the mission was a bust. Sei didn't think her normal attacks would be able to get through it's armor. Her attacks dealt with speed, and didn't focus on pure destructive might. Trey or Cinque were more geared for that kind of attack.

Sei smirked, "Well then lets start this thing with a bang." Hoping to stop the machine's forward motion, she started off with her Dual Scissors, using that as a cover as she ran in right behind it. However, before she was in it's range of attack - which was quite large - she jumped impressively high, performing a front flip up and over the mech. While doing so, she attempted to hook her scythe onto the the back of it's top and pull it down onto it's back. Hopefully it would work out as planned. If not, Sei would rush back to create some distance from her and the machine. Even if her second half of her attack didn't work, if her Dual scissors manage to get it's attention solely on her then that was good enough. She was smaller, and much faster than it so if she was forced to just dodge it's attacks that shouldn't be much of a problem.

[6-Shot Finale]

Tolv was merely whislting to himself when the robot turned its attention to him only for a moment later to be smashed in by Cinque's mace. After Cinque finished the robot off Tolv gave her a thumbs up after, of course, rehoslering his revolvers. He then turned to Dis and Eight who were just finishing off the robot using a similar distraction technique. "These Arma A.I.s are real dumbasses. I'm amazed they didn't just run into bombs." He looked over at Cinque who thanked and smiled at him in particular but he just let out a sigh before replying. "Why the hell are you thanking me? We're already even. There's no way I'd have been able to kill that thing by myself. Geez, isn't this stuff obvious to you?"

Dis took it in his own hands to contact Elva with their status. Unlike the other two Tolv wasn't really phased by what Dis had called Elva. "I don't get the big deal. I've called her way worse. In fact, I still think I have the scar from that. Totally worth it." They were about to head towards the Peristylium when Dis suddenly yelled out. Tolv quickly spun around to see the remainder of the two mechas were charging plasma cannons. It was too late for all of them to get out of the way, especially Cinque, and they were now too far for the others to do anything. Tolv quickly pulled out his revolvers and shot his remaining bullets at the cannons. Due to the range and the lack of concentration he put into his shots he was relying somewhat on luck to be able to hit this target.

[Aisu]

A wide grin appeared on Sheva's face as the Commander swiftly dodged her sneak attack, but her grin quickly disappeared as she heard the scenario for Trey and Dual. Letting out a loud growl as she caught the Commander's short sword as it flew at her, she threw up a king chess piece into the air that was split down the middle between black and white. Using the short sword, she made quick work of slicing the said piece into black and white diamonds that began to glow softly as the Commander launched her shock wave at Sheva. As the pieces formed together while the Commander made for a back attack, limbs and a head appeared out of the diamonds. Giving the newly summoned demon familiar a stern look, he simply nodded as Sheva jumped high into the air, passing through a dimensional hole, leaving the Commander to deal with her own attack.

Meanwhile, Sheva appeared out of another hole near Dual, still moving through the air as if she just jumped, as she made quick work of the men around Dual using the Commander's short sword. With that dealt with, Sheva then moved on to throwing the short sword at the Commander after she had swiftly taken care of her own sonic attack with a dodge. While the short sword was in the air, another dimensional hole appeared under her feet as she fell in. As the Commander took care of her short sword by either block, grabbing it, etc, Sheva appeared out of another hole by the Commander as she quickly moved past her, Septyni tapping against the Commander's armor as Sheva toyed with her. Just as quickly as she appeared, she disappeared into another hole.

Sheva then proceeded to enter and exit more holes as she tapped the Commender's armor from random directions on the ground. This happened for a total of 5 times before Sheva then appeared out of a hole above the Commander, hoping her random taps disorientated the Commander and made her think she'd strike from ground level rather than from above. When Sheva was almost on top of the Commander, she swung Septyni downwards with all her might.

[Kyng]

At the sight of the soldiers feeling, Trey sighed softly in hopes that the battle had ended, giving his hammer's head another wiping to clean it of the dust and blood it had, unfortunately, gathered as a result of recent events. Another soft sigh, relief in his voice, he didn't need to cause any more hurt than what had already taken place. One can imagine the distaste in the sight of soldiers bringing up a very large, magically powered cannon designed, probably, to rip through tanks, and it was directed at him nonetheless: quickly equipped with his hammer again, scowled, his teeth which of course where white little pearls being the rather cleanly person he was snarling at the cannon as he watched soldiers block his path, yelling to them "Don't be heroes and go home! Leave, and we can end this without any more casualties!" but, as expected, they wouldn't budge. Trey, having to respect this brave act, found their attempts feeble, and rather stupid to sacrifice their own lives, their lives probably with so many people depending upon them which they would give up just to kill one soldier. Sure, one of the bests, but one life for three?

The eerie sound of that machine's charge was chilling to Trey, but fortunately Dual had slowed down the cannon in order to buy Trey time to deal with it, and as such he intended to keep the promise, by charging towards the three soldiers in his way, and rather than smashing them with the hammer, Trey lobbed Achilles Quake from a distance as if it were a javelin, a task if not done by the behemoth would seem difficult, nigh impossible. With the hammer crashing into the middle, the soldiers believed he'd be much easier to deal with unarmed, and so prepared their rifles...if they had the time to do such a task: now without the heavy hammer, Trey utilized his efficient unarmed combat skills to dart at the men with a jolt of speed, extending both trunk-like arms as he smashed them into the skulls of the soldiers, the two men falling to the ground as soon as they were struck, with plenty of momentum to render them unconscious, and after picking up the hammerhead from the remainder of the skull of that third soldier, Trey made his way to the cannon, entering the monochromatic dome and easily making quick work of the men inside.

As for the cannon, well, charging the compressed air into the hammer, Trey bludgeoned the dense weapon thrice, each blow distorting the metal as it bent to the will of his hammer, the charge of magic aimed skywards 45^O to which, Trey signalling Dual to release the Grave spell, he left his hammer aside and, picking up the hammer in his arms, gave it one hell of a bear-hug, crushing the already pulverized centre of the cannon, rendering it a rather useless and moot attempt, before releasing it as it fell, as a pile of scrap metal, upon the ground: Trey's chest slightly brazed from the sharp metal being bent across his skin was brushed off with a tissue he drew from his trouser pocket, before gazing over back to the girls, noting that Sheva's summon had made quick work of the men and, to this, he regrouped with Dual and, taking a breath, spoke up to say "You'd best recon to other groups, I'll do my best to help out Sheva..." before chuckling, watching the unit scrap with all her might "...if I get the chance, that is." Dual herself would know that, if anything, she would be the best support for Sheva, seeing as her flute magic could easily turn the tables. She, herself would easily identify that it was Trey's shyness which made him suggest her to figure out the situation with other groups. How she would react? Well...

[.:Blu:.]

Once the battle began, Sei quickly attacked B.E.L.U.A. with Dual Scissors, all the while dashing towards the mech behind the cover of Dual Scissors. Once she was close enough to the mech itself, Sei leaped high into the air and over the mech, an impressive display of acrobatics, before attempting to hook her scythe onto the collar that surrounded the mech's head in an attempt to pull the mech onto its back. However, Sei was unsuccessful in doing so, managing to only cut through the thin metal that is the highest point of the collar before landing onto her feet. Dual Scissors didn't have much of an impact either as it merely grazed the thick metal of B.E.L.U.A.'s leg. Not being the one to waste any time, B.E.L.U.A. rotated its upper body around and attempted a downward swing with its massive axe. Fortunately, Trece's decision of letting Sei take the lead in this battle proved to be a smart one as Sei's quickness easily allowed her to dash through the space between the mech's leg and evading the attack completely. Despite her quickness, Sei, and her two teammates, needed to find a way to deal enough damage to the mech's thick, durable metal exterior that would distract the mech long enough until the data finished downloading. They had no intention of destroying the mech if they see no benefits in doing so. They needed a tactical retreat instead of the possibility of someone dying if they continued battling any longer than the time needed.

Just like it did before, B.E.L.U.A. rotated its upper body back around and into its normal position. Fortunately for Sei, Trece, and Kat, B.E.L.U.A. would have to move closer to attack because it carried an axe instead of any artillery weapons, or at least that is how it seemed at first. From its collar, B.E.L.U.A. suddenly fired a missile towards the unsuspecting Sei. Just then, an arrow fired from Trece's longbow collided with the missile, at a distance away far away from Sei, causing an explosion that destroyed many of the computers in the room and since the explosion was close enough to B.E.L.U.A., it sent the mech tumbling back a little. "Crap, I didn't know that big scrap heap had missiles." Kat said. "Exactly. That is why I chose to stay in the very back so I can shoot down those missiles when they're fired to protect you guys and the central computer unit. You see, being back here provides me with a tactical standpoint to see any and all incoming projectiles. Furthermore, my accuracy improves-" Trece was soon cut off by Kat. "Trece shut up! We're in a battle!" Kat exclaimed. "Right, I understand." Trece replied. Trece then fired another arrow at the stumbling mech, however, the arrow easily bounced off the mech. "Looks like my arrows aren't strong enough to penetrate it." Trece stated.

"Let's see how it stands up to a shotgun!" Kat exclaimed before firing a Scatter Shot. Each bullet that impacted was successful in denting the metal exterior but other than that the bullets did not achieve much. "My Scatter Shot only dented the mech's armor???" Kat asked in disbelief. Things were looking bad for Sei, Trece, and Kat as so far, every attack they attempted has little to no effect on B.E.L.U.A.'s metal shell. To add to their problems, B.E.L.U.A.'s "eye" began to glow brightly, signaling it was charging up for an attack. The attack that B.E.L.U.A. was about to use is known as "Anima Beam", which fires a continuous destructive beam of Anima, capable of cutting through even the thickest of metals. Unfortunately for Sei, Trece, and Kat, they aren't made out of any metals at all. "It's going to attempt to destroy the central computer unit!" Trece exclaimed. "Can't you just shoot its eye with an arrow and blow up its head?!" Kat asked. "I can't... The power radiating from the increasing levels of Anima will literally turn my arrow into ashes before it even reaches the mech..." Trece explained. "What the hell are we supposed to do then?!" Kat asked. "As disappointed as it is for me to say... We will need to retreat..." Trece suggested.

In the midst of battle, Sei, Trece, and Kat did not notice the elevator had ascended, but now the elevator has once again descended to this level. The elevator suddenly opened before it reached the bottom and a figure suddenly leaped from the open elevator. With spear in hand, Nine leaped from the elevator towards B.E.L.U.A. and as got onto the mech's body, he jammed his spear straight into the mech's collar. "Nine!" Kat surprisingly exclaimed. "How dare you aim your weapon at my comrades..." Nine said to the mech as he kept it from pointing its "eye" at Sei, Trece, and Kat. As B.E.L.U.A. was about to fire its Anima Beam, Nine pulled the mech towards the ceiling, and as B.E.L.U.A. fired, the beam destroyed the ceiling above. Nine quickly removed his spear from the mech and jumped onto the ground while the rubble from the destroyed ceiling fell onto the mech below, crushing it. As the elevator reached the bottom, Ace and Elva quickly ran out and regrouped with the others. "Are you guys alright?" Ace asked, concerned. "We're fine." Trece responded. "It's about time you guys showed up, we almost had to abandon the mission!" Kat exclaimed. "Our apologies. There were more enemy soldiers that needed to be dealt with." Elva explained.

Trece looked back and noticed the data had finished downloading. "It's finished." Trece told the others as he took the USB out, placed the cap back on, and secured it into his pocket. "Finally... Now we can go home." Kat said. "Great job everybody. Now I'll need to contact the others to go back to the main area." Elva stated. "You guys, we've got trouble." Ace said with his sabre drawn as the mech began moving under the rubble.

-Meanwhile-

Relying on pure luck now, Tolv quickly reacted to the war mechs by firing one shot each at the individual mechs' cannons. Lady Luck seems to be smiling on Tolv today as both bullets managed to hit dead center at the openings of each cannon. This immediately caused the mech heads to burst in a medium-sized explosion of energy, fire, and metal, destroying them both for good. Cinque held her breath for the whole time and once she saw the mechs' heads exploding, she let out a breath of relief while placing her left hand on the middle of her chest. "T-That was cutting it a little close there buddy..." Dis said to Tolv in relief, knowing that his teammate merely fired on instinct and luck. "Well, at least it paid off..." Eight said, relieved as well. "Now that that's over with, let's go meet up with the groups at the Peristylium." Eight said. "Actually, I think we should go help out Sheva, Trey, and Dual. They're still in battle right? So we should help them out first." Cinque suggested. "Let's see if they are still actually in battle first." Eight said before tuning his headset to Sheva's, Trey's, and Dual's channel. "Eight here. What is your status?" Eight asked but received no answer whatsoever. "So?" Cinque asked.

"It looks like their still engage with the enemy. We'll go help them out." Eight replied to Cinque. "I hope they're not fighting mechs." Dis said. With that, the four of them left for the main area and then to the northern route.

-Meanwhile-

The commander had no idea what Sheva was attempting to do with the black and white king chess piece. However, the purpose of the object was soon made clear as Sheva severed the piece into two halves that transformed into black and white diamonds that soon had limbs protruding from the diamonds. Sheva had just used magic to summoned one of her demons that reside in objects. This demon in particular is named Haiiro and it is also the first demon Sheva has come across. Its predominant ability is the capability to create dimensional holes, a very useful ability for almost any battle. The commander was shocked to see the summoning of such a creature. In all of her years and experience dealing in magic, she never actually met someone who can use summonings; it was a mesmerizing experience for the commander to say the least. Unfortunately however, this was still a battle and just because her opponent had a power she has never seen before doesn't mean she will surrender. Her pride for Arma is to great for nonsense such as surrendering or retreating. The commander, unaware of Haiiro's ability, was about to attack both him and Sheva. Unfortunately for her, Sheva had no time at the moment to be dealing with her as Dual was in trouble.

Disappearing into a dimensional hole created by Haiiro, Sheva reappeared out of another hole near Dual. While she was still in the air, Sheva made quick work of the Arma soldiers that confronted Dual with the commander's own short sword before throwing it back towards the commander. "Thank you Sheva." Dual said softly. The commander, after regaining her composure from seeing Haiiro's ability, managed to leap over the incoming energy attack that she had created before the attack exploded. However, being off guard cost her as the commander's very own short sword that had been thrown back towards her by Sheva impaled her armored torso. "Ugh!" the commander blurted in pain as blood began dripping from her armor. Like any well-trained soldier, the commander quickly removed the blade from her torso, the tip stained with the commander's own blood. Luckily for the commander however, her armor stopped her short sword from going in any deeper and critically injuring her.

While Sheva continued to deal with the commander, Trey turned his sights on destroying the charging cannon that was luckily slowed by Dual's flute magic Grave. With the Arma soldiers not listening to Trey's plead, Trey had no choice but to dispatch them and then the cannon, seeing as how the soldiers will not budge from his path. Trey skillfully dispatched the soldiers blocking his path, utilizing his Achilles Quake as a javelin by throwing it at Arma soldiers standing far away before using his specialized unarmed combat skills to finish off the other soldiers. Once Trey had reached the cannon, he signaled for Dual to release Grave, to which she did, before charging his hammer with compressed air and began to bludgeon the cannon. With a single attack, Trey successfully rendered the cannon unusable as the energy that had already been charged dissipated from the cannon's barrel. However, Trey did not cease his assault with just that one attack. He wanted to make sure this particular object could no longer be used against others. Trey proceeded with a series of smashes, each time distorting the cannon until it was an unrecognizable piece of metal. To finish things off, Trey gave a powerful bear hug on the cannon, compressing it into nothing more but scrap-worthy material.

After destroying the cannon, Trey removed a tissue from his trouser pocket and wiped his massive chest before instructing Dual to contact the others while he helped Sheva with the commander. "Right." Dual nodded in agreement to Trey. However, Trey's plans for helping Sheva with the commander would have to be put off as Sheva, in a blinding flurry, combined Haiiro's dimensional ability with her prowess of wielding a whip sword. With her whip sword flying from pocket to pocket, the commander, who was still loosing blood, became confused of Septyni's movements. Sheva decided to finish things off when Septyni appeared from above the staggered commander and delivered a powerful downward swing. Septyni made impact with the commander's back, slamming her brutally into the ground and knocking her completely unconscious; that combined with her blood loss will proved to be fatal for the brave commander who dared to challenge a Unit 13 member. All of the enemies had now been defeated, leaving Sheva, Trey, and dual to continue with their mission. As Dual was about to contact the others, Tolv, Cinque, Eight, and Dis arrived at the battle scene. "You guys are here." Dual said with a surprised tone.

"Yeah, but it looks like you guys won't be needing help after all ehh?" Dis asked rhetorically. "Dual, you're hurt!" Cinque exclaimed, concerned about her friend. "It's nothing. It might've been a lot worse if it wasn't for Sheva's intervention." Dual said, smiling at Sheva in gratitude. "In any case, you'll need to get yourself healed up." Cinque replied. "You guys were busy..." Eight said to Sheva, Trey, and Dual as he looked around to see the amount of defeated soldiers lying around. "Trey, your chest..." Dual said worryingly as she saw a bit of dry blood on his scratched jacket due to Trey bear hugging the cannon. Suddenly, the sound of running footsteps was heard by the group emanating from behind the stone barricades. "More soldiers?" Eight asked. A large hole was then blown straight through the barricade, with the force of the blast being powerful enough to push the barricades aside. Quickly running through the opening was Ace, Elva, Nine, Sei, Trece, and Kat. "I-It's the others!" Cinque exclaimed. Just as those six ran through, the barricades exploded when a small missile impacted with them, much to the surprise of the others.

"Whoa, you guys take it easy. What's going on?" Dis asked the six of them. "A war mech is approaching." Ace replied. "Sh*t, another one?!" Dis complained. Flying towards the area was B.E.L.U.A., who had been chasing the six Unit 13 members firing missiles at them. However, the six did not run away because they were fearful of the mech, instead, it was a tactical game of cat and mouse in which the goal of the six of them was to rid B.E.L.U.A. of its powerful missiles and other ammunition. Fortunately, the plan worked as B.E.L.U.A. attempted to fire another missile at Unit 13 but had no more left to use. "Awesome plan Trece! That scrap heap's got nothing left expect for its eye cannon. But even then it won't be able to hit us in the open like this." Kat stated. "There are times when retreating is the best option. This was one of them." Trece stated. B.E.L.U.A., without any range attacks besides its Anima Beam, descended onto the ground below, deciding to fight with its axe. Suddenly, more Arma soldiers arrived from the area behind the Unit 13 members. By their duller-colored uniforms, it was easy to tell that these soldiers are mere amateurs being even worse than regular Arma foot soldiers. Unit 13 was closed in with B.E.L.U.A. on one side and about fifty extremely weak soldiers on the other.

"I guess the Arma government believes that war is won by numbers." Dis said, taking a kendo-esque stance.

"We'll show them different." Elva said, holding her longsword at her side.

"We'll show them the strength of Unit 13." Nine said, resting his spear on his shoulder.

"This mission ends now." Ace said, holding his sabre horizontally in front of him.

Without speaking, Dual began playing her flute, activating the magics Feroce and Brioso on her teammates, increasing their attack strength and speed.

[Kyng]

Smiling tenderly, Trey watched the return of Unit 13 coming up close as the small little group of Dual, Sheva, and himself were joined by Tolv, Cinque, Eight and Dis, sighing softly in relief that they had made their way to them without soldiers on their tail, a fortunate blessing for the titan as he continued to dab his chest lightly, soon ignoring the wound upon his chest from rendering the cannon utterly useless. It was certainly a lovely change, not having to fight on the battlefield, even though Trey never used to make much of an input regardless in the conversations what passed by the members of the unit, however so long as he didn't need to fight he wouldn't trade it for the world...except wrestling, he loved to wrestle: one time with the brave hearted little Kat warmed his heart how she openly challenged the giant after being dared by, of course, Dis, and though she didn't really content much, her kicks in his gut were quite effective. Ah, good times, times he'd adore forever.

Tracking back into reality as Dual expressed concern over his wound, Trey shook his head with modesty. "Don't fret, I've taken more and survived." with a wide smile, until of course the others showed up, in a rather fleeing like rush, to which soon followed that dreadful mech B.E.L.U.A. Discovering that, as Kat light-heartedly joyed over, the war machine had now been rendered projectile-less save his eye cannon. Eyes filled with worry, Trey muttered "All that metal...imagine how many homes they could've built with it..." as he swallowed his concerns, his attention turning quickly to the sudden, and evidently weaker soldiers coming over to the next side, Trece opting they retreat, however the rest eventually opted to end the mission with a scrap, and as such Trey, swiftly holding Achilles Quake in arms, decided to make his little quote...

"They're just rookies, let's end this swiftly."

As such, Trey roared loudly as he dashed towards the onslaught of soldiers, a section of 12 ready to strike Trey silly, knowing little other than the giant's physique as to what he was capable of: as such, he grunted and, as a foolish giddy soldier decided to charge at the man, using a bayonet upon his rifle to go in for the kill, Trey smashed the soldier's skull swiftly before continuing his march, others beginning to open fire upon Trey, most missing yet some hitting the unit's shoulders, one or two were possibly executed by a long ranged's weapon, and yet he continued his charge before, eventually, reaching and massacring the rest of them, soldiers divided by a single blow which flattened two, others launched afar from the launch-back from his hammer's strike. As such, Trey decided to simply swing and swat soldiers away, addressing the ten with one-hit finishes, always aiming for the head, always aiming to render them unconscious or deceased, having let enough bleed out already: after swinging his hammer's head sidewards into the last's face, him being flung like a rag, Trey gritted his teeth and cringed his eyes, clasping his shot shoulder before, whether healed or not, went to address the pressing issue of that enormous war mech.

It mattered not the size, Trey & Cinque shared something key in common: they were both, due to their heavy and brutal weapons, wrecking balls of sheer destructions, and though the others had not taken much effect to B.E.L.U.A. it was reasonable to presume that they simply hadn't hit hard enough: as such, identifying the already attacked armour, more so driven to a leg, Trey bellowed out "CINQUE! FOLLOW MY LEAD!" aware that she could have been busy addressing soldiers at the time, and thus charged at the mech, being weary of that dreadful Axe, as he decided to lob his hammer at the machine's left leg, Achilles Quake's density hopefully to do a major blow in the battle: if not, it was a means for Trey to use his Dash Grapple technique in order to dish out a quick blow, using Gullotine Clothesline without the grappling and, consequentially, weakening the attack significantly, seeing as the machine was far too heavy, upon the armour. However, that wasn't the purpose, at all, for the Dash Grapple: it was a means to grab hold of Achilles Quake as it feel, head first, for Trey.

The momentum allowed Trey to catch the perpendicularly falling mallet upon it's shaft, before thrusting it into the ground, him swirling around the mallet as a quick turn. Dashing alongside B.E.L.U.A. he leaped upwards, charging his hammer's air chamber, as he struck the knee with absolute force, Trey's evidently loud roar showing one his resonating rage imbued into the blow, as the mallet smacked into the knee of B.E.L.U.A. the air shuddering around the limb as his intention to, either smash the knee of entirely leaving the other to Cinque's devastating mace, Golden Dawn, or in turn weakening it enough for her to finish off the limb, was made profound; as he landed before B.E.L.U.A. panting for breath, sweat upon his brow dripping down his face, he would soon find out just how much he was made of, and soon to show Arma's forces, alongside the rest of the unit, the might of Unit 13: an anti-tank mech was an insult to their calibur.

[6-Shot Finale]

Tolv let out a deep breath after seeing the mechs blow up. "I ever mention how much I f*cking hate Arma mechs? Seriously, f*ck them and their secret f*cking cannons they have to put in everything. Damn panzies." He pretty much just ignored the other's comments as he began to reload his revolvers. "Let's just get going already. We've pretty much cleared this area and it seems like the other groups are still busy. If it's an enemy that's giving them problems then it should actually be entertaining." Tolv left the area with them to regroup with another group.

After walking for a little bit they finally arrived at the location where the group consisting of Trey, Sheva, and Dual was located. Tolv let out a whistle seeing the carnage that the group had left behind. "Looks like you guys were having fun. Probably more fun than I was having." After a little bit of chatting among the seven they could hear what sounded like more soldiers coming at them. Tolv took out his revolvers and pointed them at the barricades supposedly ready for just anything. Turns out he wasn't ready for the large explosion creating a large hole in the barricades that soon followed by the remainder of Unit 13 soon followed by a very large mech. "I swear to god this thing better not a have a secret pu**y cannon."

More footsteps could be heard...a lot more. "Let's see...one, two, three...blah blah blah...thirteen. Yeah, we're all here. This is going to get way more interesting." Turning around he could see the group of around 50 soldiers. "They're just a bunch of rookies. Even bigger noobs than those last foot soldiers we killed." Dual had begun to play songs that significanbtly boosted their stats and with that a grin appeared on his face. "And things just got even easier." His grin grew even wider seeing Trey charge into the battle. "Woo! The big guy knows how to get the party started!"

Tolv charged towards the group of rookie sioldiers. Rookies or not their existance in this fight would only be a hindrance especially if they got smart and realized they should try to surrond and close in on them so that Tolv and the twelve others wouldn't be able escape the slow yet still very powerful attacks of B.E.L.U.A. Their guns would also prove useful in doing so. Unfortunately not only were they not smart enough to try out such a tactic but they were pretty much doomed the moment they ran into Unit 13.

Tolv jumped onto the charging hulk whom probably didn't even notice his presence on him and then proceeded to jump off of him into the middle of the large crowd of enemy soldiers. One of the soldiers raised his gun up to fire at Tolv but before he could actually pull the trigger Tolv's feet slammed into his face which in turn soon smashed into the ground. As the Tolv had descended Tolv fired off a shot at a soldier on each side of him. Immediatly after reaching the ground Tolv kicked a guy in front of him into another guy and then fired two shots from each gun at the guy. With Dual's ehsancement his bullets easily pierced through the two soldiers yet stopped by the armor of a third. Tolv quickly chucked his revolver at the soldier as he himself dashed forward. The revolver hit the helmet odf the soldier nearly shattering the section it hit yet the soldier himself on seemed to stumble back. The revolver, having bounced back, was quickly caught by Tolv whom quickly slammed the barrel of the gun onto the now opened section. It's obvious to say that the soldier didn't make it.

By now the numbers of the soldiers were only a fraction of what they previously were. It was then that he heard Kat yell over to him that she had seven kills and was therefore beating him. He looked over at two soldiers who had their guns pointed at Trey and quickly shot at them with the remainder of his ammo before turning back to Kat with his tongue stuck out. By now most of the rookie soldiers had probably been killed. Some may have ran off. Tolv wasn't really paying that much attention though.

Tolv turned towards the B.E.L.U.A. which was being distracted by some of the other members as they had fought the rookie soldiers. Trey was also charging towards the B.E.L.U.A. now that the soldiers had been finished off. Tolv figured that this would give him the necessary time to reload. With Dual's speed buff still in effect he made quick work of reloading. Now that his guns were both fully loaded Tolv quickly chucked his revolver towards the B.E.L.U.A. The revolver managed to hit the top of its head but bounced off heading behind the large mech. Tolv smiled as he lifted his revolver up and fired off six shots. B.E.L.U.A. attempted to use one of its hands to block any shots to its eye but they merely whizzed past it. The bullets instead hit the trigger of the second revolver, which had bounced off the mech and was now pointed at the back of its head, six consecutive times.

[Hotaru987]

After having dodged the large axe which followed after her failed plan to put the machine on it's back she made a show of patting herself down, then sighing in relief. "That was a close one. I thought I would be cleaved in two." She looked up after hearing a strange noise, eyes widening when she saw it about to release a missile. Sei waved her hands rapidly, pointing at the machine wondering of the others saw what she did. "We're all going to die!!" She cried...Well, signed would be more accurate, but Kat and Trece understood her. Thankfully, Trece canceled out the missile with an arrow of his own, causing it to explode before it got close to them. Though the explosion did force Sei to move back even more. Some of the computers were damaged due to the explosion, but thankfully the central unit was still up. Just how much longer did we have to wait? Suddenly the B.E.L.U.A "eye" was charging up for an attack, obviously intending to destroy the main unit.

From behind her Sei heard Trece say that they may have to retreat. She whirled around, "What!? After all this work we did? No way!" She turned back to B.E.L.U.A, though she didn't want to admit it, she didn't have any ideas to stop it's attack. Not even Kat's scatter shot did anything to it. It was at this time that Sei saw Nin leap onto the machine's collar, stabbing his staff into it causing it's beam to shot towards the ceiling. Sei grinned, "Nine! Ace, Elva!" She launched herself at Nine latching herself to the man's waist, happily snuggling into his side. "I thought we were gonners! But Nine swooped down just in time like a superhero!" She looked up at him eyes sparkling as the next thought for a drawing popped up into her head. Trece and the others talked while Sei refused to let go of Nine, though she didn't think he minded. Trece then said that the USB had finished downloading so they were able to go. Unfortunately, Ace pointed out that the B.E.L.U.A. was starting to get back up. Without much of a choice Sei let go of Nine, and got ready for the next round.

B.E.L.U.A. set his eye back on them, but instead of charging another beam he took notice of the increase in targest and started to fire more missiles at them. In the midst of the chaos Trece suggested the plan to run until all of it's missiles were exhausted. Eventually they blasted their way back outside, where they almost immediately rendezvoused with the rest of the Unit 13. The situation was explained, and the B.E.L.U.A appeared and it was finally out of missiles. "Gah, finally!" Sei stomped her foot in annoyed exasperation. From behind them a group of Arma soldiers appeared, but from their uniforms it was obvious they were either fresh to the force or some type of trainees. There was about 50 of them, but that did faze any of them. Dual started by playing her flute, as beautiful as always, increasing everyone's attack, speed and strength. Trey was first to attack the group of soldiers, charging head first.

Sei followed his lead, charging in as well, but once close enough she jumped into the air showing off even more of her acrobatic skills before landing right in the middle of a group. All traces of the smile she wore when with the others was gone, leaving only an expression of cold indifference. Believing they could take advantage of her position, they all ran in together but Sei was ready. She swung her scythe effortlessly slicing through numerous limbs and body parts, her speed having increased thanks to Dual the soldiers stood no chance. Though she wasn't using her Scythe chain ability, she still continued through the enemy with continues chain attacks as per her specialty. She suddenly stopped, blood decorating her scythe and her dark her, red eyes and trench coat truly making her seem like a grim reaper. With a sudden smile at the soldiers, she leaped back, only for a hail of arrows to descend upon the remaining soldiers around her. Sei turned around facing Trece with a cheerful grin, "Thank you!" Between her and Trece another 16 soldiers were taken care of.

When Sei went to face the B.E.L.U.A. she saw Cinque and Trey already making a first move on it. With impressive teamwork they managed to destroy one/both of it's legs. Their destructive power was truly something to be feared, and with Dual's song further increasing their strength it was more of a barbaric type of power. Of course she would never say that out loud since it was rude. Besides Cinque might cry if Sei called her raw strength barbaric, and that was the last thing Sei wanted. With a shake of her head, she turned back to the still standing B.E.L.U.A. figuring that she should also help out. Tolv was also doing his part, actually managing to shot the machine in the back of it's head - how he was able to redirect his bullets like that was nothing short of amazing.

She held out her scythe perpendicular to her body and began spinning it, gradually getting faster until wind was actually being sliced by the blades on the end. Still spinning the scythe, she took it in one hand maneuvering it so it was behind her. Within the next second she slung it forward the scythe curving around the machine only to come back and aim for the joint of it's left arm from behind; This was her Heaven Destroyer. Right as her scythe was coming honing in, another arrow came flying out, this one having a dynamite stick on the end, heading right for the front of the same joint. With perfect timing, the the arrow hit and the scythe came right after it. Though whether it was enough to completely server it Sei didn't know, but it was sure as hell severely damaged after an attack like that.

Sei bounded over to Trece attacking him with a hug squeezing him tightly, "We are so amazing together! We didn't even have to communicate!" Suddenly right in front of them, Sei scythe aggressively spun towards them, embedding itself in the ground with the top blade only inches from their faces. Though they almost died Sei just laughed, "Haha! That was a close one! It might have actually hurt."

[Aisu]

With the commander now dealt with, Sheva stood over her, looking down at her opponent. Putting Septyni on her shoulder, she scuffed, "That's the best they had?" Looking up, she spotted the rest of Unit 13 meeting up with her, Trey and Dual. "Great.. Some of them are running.. That can't be goo-" she was cut off when she felt something thump on top of her head and dirt fell down, "Dafuq?" Lifting her hand up, she plucked whatever it was off her head as Haiiro popped up in front of her, "Hiya toots~ Hear that you and Trey were gonna look fer a flower~ So I saved yas' the time of lookin' fer it!" Sure enough, Sheva held a simple daisy in her hands, its roots still in some dirt. Pulling out a cloth, she wrapped it around the roots and dirt before sliding it into her jacket and dusting the dirt off of her head, "Where'd you find i- Never mind.. Mech. Shall we have some fun?" "Aye, sir!" With that, Sheva walked over to the rest of her teammates, more specifically, the destroyed cannon.

Grabbing a chunk of metal, she yanked it off and inspected it, "Yeah, this'll do. See you guys in a moment." Holding the piece of metal, Sheva fell forward into a hole, only to appear again high in the sky, free falling. As she watched the fighting from above, Haiiro was falling with her, "So.. We after da mech first? Or clean up?" "Hmm.. Best clean up the ones that are still daring the fight.. I think we're moving fast enough, lets go." Nodding, Haiiro opened up a pair of portals, on below her and another in front of the troops that were still willing to fight. Falling through the holes, Sheva quickly slide the metal under her feet, using it to slide across the ground and past the troops as Septyni's segments followed her, slicing through the remainder of the troops willing to fight. She then disappeared into another hole.

Popping out of one final hole above the mech, she was high enough just to reach her terminal velocity a few feet above the mech. Lining the metal vertically, she aimed for a sharp corner at the mech's head. Just before the metal made impact with the mech, she jumped off of it, narrowly avoiding crashing to her death. While in midair, she caught Tolv's gun just before she and the gun landed on the ground. Tossing the gun up and over the mech, she yelled, "Tolv, catch!" As she stood behind the mech, she readied Septyni for a strike should the mech somehow live through their barrage of attacks.