[Event] Grand Peregrine Hunt (Akeya)

Event Details:

Something interesting was happening.

Of course, this in itself wasn't new. Lots of interesting things happened all the time. The world was big, big enough that if statistically speaking only one percent of all events were interesting you'd still end up with thousands of interesting events each day. People might say that life is boring or that nothing was happening, but what that usually boiled down to was that nothing was interesting in their own direct vicinity. That or they were suffering from depression or lethargy and couldn't bring up the enthusiasm to be interested in anything.

The point being, the fact that something interesting was happening was not important. What was important was that something interesting was happening even by the standards of interesting things. Something of a larger scale than usual, with bigger stakes and bigger consequences down the line. Something that would most likely get written down in the annals of time to be taught to children for many years, as it would have a noticeable impact on the future they would be living in. That is, unless the entire thing just kind of fell apart and turned out to be a fart in a bag.

What was happening, was war.

High up in the skies, above the skies and in the realm where the atmosphere was almost non-existent and the stars shone brightly, Akeya floated through empty space and looked at the world below. Her iridescent scales reflected the light of the stars, the sun and the moon, but other than that she was practically invisible, especially from all the way down on the ground. Even if she'd been glowing they wouldn't have been able to see her from down there without some impressive technology. Or scrying magic.

From here she had a good view of the world (better than the people below had of her, thanks to her incredibly sharp eyes). She could see the shape of the continents and the lack of real borders beyond those engraved in the hearts of mortals. Nations were like territories, only for entire societies rather than individual dragons. But just like those territories their shape was uncertain and always open for reinterpretation, the primary factor being whether the nation in question could protect the area it claimed to own. And right now two nations were vying over which one would claim the other's territory. Well, not quite, but it was the next best thing.

The story of the enmity between Bellum and Pergrande was well known amongst learned individuals, among which Akeya counted herself. Pergrande had been ready to conquer the world when a mysterious disaster had blown a massive hole in the middle of the continent, turned Sin into a wasteland, dropped an eternal blizzard on Iceberg, and profoundly ruined Pergrande's dreams of conquest through lack of supplies and viable pathways to travel from their homeland in the northeast all the way down to the southwest. Pergrande, not taking kindly to this, decided that the appropriate response was to outlaw magic (as the disaster was believed to have been magical in nature) and hunt it down wherever possible.

It was inevitable that the magic users of Pergrande would then split off, occupy a piece of land Pergrande was no longer equipped to defend, and made their own country which was vehemently opposed to Pergrande in every way. The fact that they called it Bellum certainly solidified their hostile feelings. The fact that Bellum was basically in between Pergrande and the rest of the continent of Ishgar also meant that they'd probably never know true peace.

But now Pergrande was gearing up for another attempt at reclaiming Bellum's territory and putting all the magic users on pikes, and Bellum was gearing up to not let that happen. And because Pergrande was the greatest military power on the continent (at least, if you went by the size and equipment of their army) the other nations couldn't exactly just sit by and watch it unfold. So far the situation hadn't escalated beyond skirmishes on the imaginary border that both sides denied were their fault, but unless something was done to de-escalate the situation open conflict would be next. And while both nations denied blame in the skirmishes they were both hiring mercenaries to fight in the skirmishes, both to preserve their military strength and to improve their deniability.

Akeya was just one of many who had taken up this offer. Like most others she also had her personal reasons for doing it. While in general she wasn't that enchanted by mortal societies but Bellum was one of the most magically advanced nations in the entire world. As a magic researcher that meant Akeya had a soft spot for them, even if their devotion to the god of magic was not an interpretation she agreed with. Even if Arcanos was the one who had blessed Earthland with magic Akeya didn't feel obligated to praise him or blindly obey his commands. A gift was a gift, after all: you didn't need to feel beholden to someone who gave you something nice if they never gave you any conditions to agree to prior to receiving the gift.

But that didn't mean she didn't feel like there was value in preserving Bellum's magic-centric culture, religious additions aside. In comparison Pergrande... well, Pergrande also had interesting research and fields of development, which Akeya also found worthy of respect, but their zealous stance to annihilate magic wherever they encountered it meant they were natural enemies to her. Nothing for it but to restrict their sphere of influence and steal their research wherever possible to extract any useful data.

The only thing that she really needed to be careful about was their oblivium equipment. As a dragon she was highly magical in nature, so a metal which repulsed mana and unraveled any magic it came into contact with wasn't something she wanted to touch if she could avoid it. It wouldn't actually kill her or necessarily hurt her, but it wouldn't be pleasant in any way.

For now she was observing the situation at the border between Bellum and Pergrande. She was rather late to the party, but she'd decided to only get involved once there was plenty of data for the situation from both sides. She wanted to know what kind of soldiers both Bellum and Pergrande were willing and able to field, their nature and their numbers. The trick to maximizing your effectiveness was to obtain all the information you needed to make the optimal course of action before you acted.

WC: 1,096
PWC: 1,096/4,000

Acquiring Data

The member 'Akeya' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

---

'Monster Dice' :

Hmmm...

It looked like the majority of mercenaries were siding with Bellum. Which wasn't surprising: magic was such a valuable and commonly used resource on Ishgar that very few people would willingly side with the only nation which was actively trying to get rid of it. Even more so because mercenaries tended to use magic a lot themselves: swords and armour were all very well, but a sword combined with the ability to shoot firebolts was stronger than either sword or firebolt alone.

Because of this it also looked like Pergrande wasn't doing so hot. They had significantly more forces than Bellum, in theory, but since the skirmishes were small and contained such numbers were of less importance. Instead the deciding factor was the individual power of each participant, where on average mercenaries stood out a lot more than run of the mill soldiers. Using her magic to create several scrying screens Akeya watched as Pergrande forces were forced to give up ground and retreat. Some battlefields were stalemates and occasionally there was a victory for the anti-magic team, but on the whole Bellum was coming out on top. If Pergrande wanted to turn the tides they'd have to drop the subtlety and bring the might of their full army into play. Once they did that things would get a lot more hectic, especially since it wasn't certain just how big Pergrande's military might was compared to the rest of Ishgar.

In a way Bellum had been a buffer, keeping Pergrande from causing trouble for the other nations. But that also meant that information about that northern country was relatively scarce and limited. Worst case scenario Pergrande had done a pretty good job hiding its full might and the entirety of Ishgar would have to stand against them once they got serious. The fact that they had developed anti-magic technology meant that countries like Bellum and Fiore couldn't just rely on magical nukes and other deterrents to keep them at bay.

The good news was that this meant Akeya wouldn't have to move to the frontlines and make herself stand out. She could just contribute from the shadows in a nevertheless meaningful manner, keeping her presence a secret. Anyone who'd known Akeya for long enough (a limited number of people, to be sure) knew that she preferred to avoid the spotlight, as the spotlight just meant there were more crosshairs aimed at you and more opportunities for your secrets to be unearthed. The bad news was that it might be difficult to find a target of sufficient significance for her to earn the reward she was promised. She wasn't as greedy as most dragons but she still preferred to at least get something out of her hard work.

Shifting her scrying magic away from where conflicts were already occurring she tried to find a location which contained a good amount of Pergrande soldiers who hadn't engaged the enemy yet. Most of those were in Pergrande territory, which made them less appealing. Preferably they were isolated but doing something important... A squad of scouts would do the trick. Information was vital in warfare so if she could bring evidence that she'd prevented Pergrande obtaining valuable data Bellum would have to cough up the reward. And hopefully access to their best libraries: Akeya wished to see how far their magic theory had gotten.

At first she couldn't find anything decent, but after a couple of hours of patiently moving the focus of her scrying screens she found something: a sizeable group of Pergrande soldiers moving their way through Bellum territory. The group was small enough that they'd probably used their anti-magic technology to sneak past the border without being noticed. Bellum's territory was saturated in mana so it was pretty easy to hide even from active magic sensors if you knew what to do.

But why were they in that location and where were they heading towards... Akeya dropped the other screens and expanded the reach of the one showing the Pergrande squad. They were heading deeper into Bellum territory but hadn't left the area yet, and they were curving towards... a river. Why were they doing that? Dividing the screen into three Akeya had one follow the squad while one went up the stream and one went down the stream. Was there a village in the area that the soldiers wanted to attack? That seemed unlikely, given that this would only make Pergrande look even worse in the eyes of the other nations. There had to be some military objective.

A quick swipe of her claw made one screen stop moving and zoom in instead. The river led to an encampment of Bellum soldiers who were guarding the border. While the river flowed away from the border and into Bellum it would still serve as a way to transport goods and people relatively easily. Which meant that these Pergrande soldiers had been sent to try and disrupt the supply chain. Given the size of the squad it was probably not meant to be a permanent occupation of the river: they just had to cause trouble for long enough that a bigger Pergrande force could seize the advantage and crush the Bellum encampment.

Someone in the Pergrande command chain was at least taking this situation seriously. That was good, since otherwise this would be nothing more than blowing away hordes of cannon fodder blindly charging forward.

On the other hand it also meant that Akeya now had a perfectly valid reason to make sure these soldiers never saw the sun rise again. For her that wasn't really important, but she suspected the soldiers themselves wouldn't be happy to hear it. If they had the opportunity to find out.

Dismissing the scrying screens Akeya turned invisible as she shifted from drifting through the heavens to diving towards the world below, forming a very wide spiral as she homed in on the current location of the squad which would turn into her prey. None of them looked like they were very strong, so while she had to stay on guard for tricks initial estimations were that this would be a relatively easy mission.

WC: 1,029
PWC: 2,125/4,000

Weak - Imperial Army Recruit: 6/6
Normal - Imperial Army Officer: 16/16

It was night, and the squad had set up camp. The terrain wasn't as generous for staying hidden as a dense forest would have been, but even the foothills that rested on the edge of the mountain range that determined the border between Pergrande and Bellum still had some trees and other features that made hiding a bit easier. Given that Pergrande relied on less easily detectable forces than the magic most other countries used they also had a natural advantage: as long as they didn't create any loud noises or lights or smoke the only way to find them would be through happenstance or a lot of skill.

To be assigned an infiltration mission, going deep behind enemy lines to deal damage to their supply chain, was something which would burden a person. If everything went well you might not have to fight any significant enemies at all, but you would constantly be on edge, paranoid, and alert for any sign of trouble. If you were discovered there was little chance for a safe retreat and little chance that you could take on the forces that would come bearing down upon you. It was a job for soldiers who already had plenty of experience with the horrors of war and who didn't get spooked too easily. Skill and strategy were required.

These soldiers, while not the strongest, certainly weren't green or foolish. Their camp had a solid perimeter, guarded by wary individuals who frequently changed shifts to avoid them losing concentration or becoming drowsy while on watch. They even had a second outer layer, in sight of the inner layer but far enough out that if something tried to attack from a distance they would be able to spot it ahead of time. The technology of Pergrande helped with that, the screens of their helmets granting them enhanced vision through the use of various gizmos.

The only unfortunate part was that, due to the fact that the outer perimeter was more of a hassle than the inner perimeter, the lower-ranked soldiers were the ones who got roped into standing watch there. While all of these soldiers were veterans that didn't mean all of them had made it as high up the ranks. Some of them, while capable in their own right, had never gotten past the position of recruit due to various circumstances. Maybe they were just too rebellious. Maybe they failed to stand out. Maybe some other political factor was involved. Whatever the reason, these recruits weren't wet behind the ears but they were definitely less fortunate than the officers who remained within the camp and the inner perimeter.

But that wasn't an excuse for them to slack off. When one of the three outer perimeter guards heard some rustling he promptly reported it through his headpiece back to the officers on the inner perimeter. Nothing threatening had been detected yet, but in the land of Bellum, where dangerous beasts roamed, even rustling in the foliage could be cause for concern.

The outer perimeter guard kept his gun at the ready as he focused on where the rustling had come from. His headpiece provided him with night vision so at least he wasn't blind even if it wasn't as good as the light of day. He didn't move, didn't betray his position, hiding behind some rocks from where he could see outwards but his grey uniform would easily be overlooked by anyone trying to approach the camp. The moment he saw something move there he'd know whether to shoot or not. For now, though... he'd have to wait several minutes before lowering his weapon according to protocol.

He never learned what hit him. One moment he was crouched there, alert and with weapon at the ready, and the next moment something had pierced his throat. He tried to say something, but only a faint gurgle escaped as bloody foam formed at his lips. He tried to lift his weapon further to shoot at wherever the attack had come from, but his arms were too weak and wouldn't listen to him. Thoughts went to his family at home: they'd known that he might not come back. However he had hoped that, should the worst happen, they would at least known what had happened and why. Instead they might never known what had killed him. It must have been a sniper of some sort, in which case the rest of the camp should at least be able to handle it. It wasn't the first time they'd dealt with snipers, even if this one was even sneakier than usual.

From the inner perimeter the guard looked like he just slowly collapsed, folding in on himself and dropping to the ground, twitching once or twice before all movement halted. Attempts to call him through their headpiece yielded no results, which combined with the way he collapsed meant that he was most likely either fully incapacitated or dead. Either way, the camp immediately went on full alert. Soldiers were woken up, weapons were loaded and armed, and a group of three officers left the camp to retrieve the body and find signs of the assailant. If there was one.

The body for the most part looked fine, with no visible wounds or injuries beyond the small wound at the throat. Given that the strike had gone straight through it was little surprise how the recruit had died almost instantly. Yet at the same time there was no sign of any hostiles in the area. The previous rustling was a possible clue, but they only had the location, which was further out that the outer perimeter. Moving too far away from the camp when a guard had just been taken out without warning was dangerous. At the same time they couldn't just sit in the camp and hope it would go away.

With three officers they'd have to take the risk. Informing the rest of the camp of the situation the three of them moved towards where the recruit's latest response had indicated the rustling had come from. They were in the northwestern area of Bellum, so the foothills quickly gave away for dense forests. The rustling had come from a grove of trees with an unusual variation of colours in their foliage, no doubt from the abundance of mana Bellum enjoyed. However there was no sign of a potential enemy here either.

Once again there was no warning. The three officers were each looking in another direction with their backs turned towards each other so they couldn't be caught unawares. Nevertheless something struck them: three black spikes which shot up out of the ground (without even disturbing it!) and pierced the spine and heart of each officer. Unlike the recruit the three of them had several seconds to speak before collapsing, but the only thing they could report was: "From... nowhere..."

With one recruit and three officers dead the rest of the camp dropped all hesitation. One recruit could possibly still have been a freak accident, even if the circumstances made that unlikely. Three officers dropping soon after meant hostile action. All available soldiers took up positions behind rocks and trees, aiming their guns towards where the four deaths had occurred. They started out with twenty two, but now eighteen were left, five of which had to keep an eye on the other directions in case the enemy moved. That left eight officers and five recruits to perforate anything which might reveal itself.

Minutes passed. The soldiers didn't waver, periodically checking whether everyone was still alive. Due to the sudden method of death someone who was crouched against a boulder could have collapsed without changing position. Their breathing remained steady, their eyes occasionally shifting about but always returning to where the three officers had died. The recruit was already a loss, but three officers in one go?

Disaster struck a third time. A strangled yelp was heard from the officer watching the northeast. A different location than the first two attacks. The recruits all turned towards the sound along with six of the officers who'd been watching the direction of the original attack. The officer watching the northeast slowly toppled over, and at the same time the officer watching the southeast cried out. Aiming their guns the soldiers opened fire, careful to avoid hitting their companion but hoping to hit whatever it was that might have gotten him.

Instead, their bullets hit nothing but air, flying off into the night to land on the ground or in whatever rocks and trees happened to be in the way. Their enemy was invisible and wasn't leaving any traces on the ground either. No sound, no scent. A perfectly hidden assailant. Even for hardened veterans, this wasn't something they could just take in stride. How were they supposed to fight something that didn't show up even as it hit them? Even if it was a sniper this was unheard of. None of the scanning technology incorporated into their helmets was reporting anything.

Once again silence fell, the soldiers who'd tried to shoot the unseen enemy quickly reloading their guns. But in that brief moment, the assassin struck again. The officer watching the north yelled something about something touching his back before he collapsed, the same as the others. One of the recruits hurried over to his position and checked him. His throat had been cut open as cleanly as if a gutted fish. The recruit barely had time to report this before something struck him from behind, cutting through his armour and piercing his heart. Keeling over he tried to warn the others, but even as his mouth formed the words something hit his windpipe and no sound came out.

Now five officers and two recruits had died. The situation was quickly becoming worse and still they didn't know anything. The assailant was stealthy, appeared to be able to freely move about without betraying its position, and every attack so far had killed the victim nearly instantly by hitting a critical area. It was a surprise that nobody had been struck in the head yet: the assailant seemed to focus on the throat and the heart. Did that imply that they weren't confident about piercing the soldier's helmets?

But that didn't help them if the assassin could pick them off one by one. They had to do something and fast. Waiting for an opportunity to notice something was just going to get them killed. The two officers who'd been designated to watch the northwest and the south rejoined the rest and they formed a two-layered circle, close together with only small gaps for the inner circle to shoot past the outer circle. Like this they began to move to the north. They could use the craggy terrain there to better defend themselves. If there was only one direction from which they could be attacked even this unseen assailant would be left unable to do anything. At least, that was the plan.

This time all of them heard a whisper, soft and cold. It sounded like a creek in midwinter, clear and sharp. It was so faint that they couldn't tell where exactly it came from or whether it belonged to a man or a woman. All they knew is that for an instant they all froze.

"Tall Shades."

From each soldier's own shadow a spike shot upwards, piercing straight through their body armour and their insides. With perfect precision each spike struck a critical spot, whether that was the heart, the lungs, the throat, or the brain. Some soldiers had tried to quickly twist their bodies but either the spikes tracked them or the assailant had read them like a book. The spikes disappeared as quickly as they'd appeared, having only come into existence for long enough to deliver the fatal blow.

Within seconds each soldier was dead, blood slowly seeping from singular wounds that had left their bodies unable to function. Despite their best attempts not a single one of them had ever seen the enemy or figured out how their attacks worked. Two thoughts had managed to make it into their heads before death took them:

One, there hadn't been enough space in between them for someone to pass by. Yet it seemed like the attack had come from within the inner circle.

Two, in the end what appeared to have been the death of them had been their own shadows. How was one supposed to defend against that?

---

Akeya took on her Akemi appearance several kilometers from where the bodies of the soldiers remained on the ground. Enough distance that nobody would immediately link her to the ambush. She'd go to the Bellum encampment and report to them that to the south an infiltration squad from Pergrande had been eliminated. They'd be able to send people to recover the bodies and confirm that she'd done her part in helping Bellum.

From her perspective the ambush had been pretty straightforward: Pergrande might have impressive technology, but their anti-magic stance had left them with a glaring weakness. They had no real way to detect magic, which meant that if Akeya used her magic to hide they were left helpless.

The first recruit she'd struck down from a distance with a concentrated arrow of twilight. While the attack wasn't invisible it was pretty hard to see and moved fast enough that the recruit hadn't been able to notice it before it had already pierced his throat. Especially since before she shot it she'd taken control of some shadows in the trees to create a minor distraction. Nothing too blatant, but enough to keep the recruit focused on the wrong spot.

The three officers that came next had entered her range when they left to investigate the rustling. Tall Shades was very good for assassinations like that, as within a quickly expanding radius it would cause her enemy's shadows to rise up and strike at them. Especially against targets who couldn't sense the associated burst of magic it meant they basically got stabbed in the back without warning.

The three officers who'd been watching the north, northeast and southeast she'd taken down up close and personal. With most of their focus on where the first four had fallen she could take to the skies and invisible fly over their heads, then dart from one officer to the other while using her claws to slice open their throats. The recruit who'd gone to check one of the officers received the same treatment, with an additional twilight arrow through the throat when he tried to warn the others.

And then the final move. With the soldiers all forming a nice double-layered circle Akeya could easily fly up and land in the middle, hitting them from point blank with another dose of Tall Shades. With the amount of raw power she had at her disposal their armour couldn't stand up to such an attack.

Of course it was fortunate that this group didn't have any stronger soldiers. Akeya had read reports about and seen with her scrying magic powerful Pergrande soldiers, clad in oblivium and decimating mercenaries and Bellum elite alike. If those had been present this would have been a lot harder, as they might have been able to evade straightforward attacks even when given little to no warning. Instead she'd essentially ripped apart a group of normal, mortal humans with no special abilities or skills whatsoever.

Lucky indeed that she could say she contributed to the war effort in a significant manner without having to reveal herself.

WC: 2,600
PWC: 4,725/4,000

Weak - Imperial Army Recruit: 0/6
Normal - Imperial Army Officer: 0/16