The Lost Clerics

Job Details:

Job Sign-Up: Page 35, Post Number 872

-Lycan Woods, midnight-

Wearing her green, white, and gold outfit with black bike shorts underneath the skirt, Leona walked into Lycan Woods loaded for bear... or loaded for werewolf, rather. She was wearing her Adaptable Armor over her torso and had her Argent Gloves on her hands. She carried both her Scout Laser Pistol and her Silver Longsword plus Ses Revanche in her right boot. Leona knew what she was going up against and had armed herself accordingly.

The Order Of Lightbringers had contacted Leona with a request for help. A few of their clerics had gone missing in Lycan Woods while on a mission to search for a hidden base belonging to the cult Leona had encountered in Silent Cemetery and Fat Monsterland and the Order needed someone to find them. The Wizard Saint was instructed to meet up with Order Cleric Amberlin in Lycan Woods and the cleric would help Leona in the search for the others.

Leona walked down the path that led deeper into the woods while looking out for werewolves. It had been a year or two since she had last fought them, but she knew that they were faster and tougher than the average enemy she tended to fight. This was a good chance to prove to any detractors that Leona had not built her reputation by beating up bandits who were hopelessly outmatched against her. Tonight she would be going toe-to-toe with beasts straight out of legend.

She walked down the path for fifty meters until she saw a short pink-haired young woman standing in the middle of at least a dozen werewolf corpses. The young woman waved her left hand at Leona.

"LEONA! OVER HERE!" Amberlin called out and waved both hands left and right above her head. It was not like Leona needed instructions to find the pink-haired cleric wearing white and pink standing in the middle of the woods. Leona kept her mouth shut and walked over to the young cleric, who was happy to see the Wizard Saint. in fact Amberlin was so happy to see Leona that the former ran over and hugged her.

"Am I glad to see you, Leona! This place is crawling with werewolves! I know it's called Lycan Woods for a reason, but I didn't expect there to be this many of them!" Amberlin said after releasing Leona, motioning towards the werewolf corpses around her. Leona looked at the fallen lycanthropes and thought that the cleric had done well to defeat so many of the beasts by herself, but Amberlin did not seem too happy about her accomplishment. In fact she seemed like she.

"I'm in way over my head here, Leona. I can fight zombies and ghosts and other supernatural beings, but werewolves are another subject. I'm not so good against them. I don't have a silver weapon yet, not even a silver knife, so that only makes me even less effective against them. My magic's the only thing that allows me to fight them and win." Amberlin admitted to the Wizard Saint.

"Normally I'm paired with an Order Knight or Order Paladin to cover for my weak close combat skills, but since they're busy on other assignments right now I had to travel here alone." Amberlin said further. Leona drew her Silver Longsword.

"I''m with you now, Amberlin. I'll do everything I can to help you. Just be sure to watch my back while we're looking for the other clerics." Leona assured the diminutive cleric. Moments later they heard howling that was coming from somewhere close by and Amberlin began to look for its source. It sounded a second time and the sound was coming from a lot closer than they would have liked.

"There's more of them in the brush!" Amberlin exclaimed and pointed left. Leona stayed on the path and watched the tall brush that filled the area between some of the trees roughly four meters away from them. She heard rustling sounds and saw sections of the brush begin to move violently.

"They're getting closer!" Amberlin reported. Leona faced the brush and waited for whatever was in there to burst out of it and attack them. She did not have long to wait because five large werewolves leaped from the brush and landed on the path in front of the two mages. Each individual then stood up straight and reached their full height of six feet.

"Watch my back!" Leona instructed Amberlin before the blonde stepped forward to do battle with the werewolf quintet. Not wanting to leave the cleric unprotected, Leona assumed a defensive posture and waited for the lycanthropes to come to her.

[Post Word Count: 776]
[Total Word Count: 776/10,000]

Having decided to protect Amberlin the best she could since Amberlin did not have a silver weapon, Leona waited until the first werewolf approached her before engaging it. The first werewolf rushed towards her with both arms extended for a grab attempt and its jaws open. It was apparent that if it grabbed the Wizard Saint it was going to sink its teeth into her neck, so it would be best to avoid being grabbed. Leona took a single step forward and thrust the Silver Longsword at the charging beast's heart.

It was running so fast that it could not stop itself in time and impaled itself on the sword, letting out a pained howl before crumpling to the ground with her Silver Longsword lodged in its chest. As Leona struggled to pull the sword out of the dead werewolf she saw that she would have to hurry because the rest of the pack had decided to charge at her as a group instead of attacking one by one.

"Leona, they're going for a group attack!" Amberlin warned the Wizard Saint as the werewolves kept a tight formation until they got to her, then spread out to try and encircle her. She hurriedly retrieved her sword and thought about using a Storm Impact spell to keep herself from being surrounded. However, Amberlin was inside the radius and would get hit by the spell. Leona looked at her Silver Longsword and had another idea. She would use another means of escaping encirclement instead.

Leona held the Silver Longsword and the tip of the blade started glowing silver. She then held the sword out at her right side and waited until the werewolves moved in, then used the Silver Longsword's special ability Silver Revolution to spin in place for five full revolutions, cutting the werewolves across the abdomen and drawing four sharp howls of pain. Three of the beasts immediately disengaged from the Wizard Saint and retreated into the brush, but one of them remained behind.

It growled in defiance and lashed out at Leona with its right hand extended and its claws moving to cut into her flesh. She ducked under the slash and stood up, then slashed it across the chest with a one-handed diagonal right-to-left swing that cut it from its shoulder to its hip. It howled in pain and growled at her while making eye contact as if trying to decide whether or not to keep fighting, then suddenly turned right and sprinted for the brush to the right side of the path. When it disappeared into the dense foliage Leona took a deep breath and walked right, then stopped and bent down to wipe the blood off of her weapon on the nearby grass before moving on.

"You did it, Leona! You beat them!" Amberlin said triumphantly. Leona did not share her partner's joy. The werewolves would be back and next time they would bring a lot of friends. Leona stood up and walked towards her partner, then stopped in front of Amberlin.

"I don't mean to rain on your parade, Amberlin, but they'll be back and next time we'll have to deal with a lot more than just five of them." Leona cautioned the cleric to refrain from prematurely claiming victory over the lycanthropes. Amberlin looked embarrassed after hearing Leona's words and her face turned red.

"Oh, right. Sorry." Amberlin sheepishly apologized. Leona felt a little bad for making the cleric feel embarrassed, but the blonde felt it necessary to emphasize that the werewolves had only been driven away, not totally defeated.

"We'll make it through this, Amberlin. We just have to be careful because the werewolves have the home field advantage." Leona told Amberlin in an effort to cheer the deflated cleric up. Leona faced the path ahead of them for a moment before turning to face the pink-haired cleric.

"How do you want to do this, Amberlin? Do you want to take the lead or should I take the lead?" Leona asked her partner.

"You take the lead." Amberlin answered without hesitation. Having just been told to take the lead, Leona obliged and moved ahead of the waiting cleric.

"All right then. I'll lead us down the path." Leona said calmly. There was silence for a few moments.

"It's gonna be hard to find the clerics because I have no idea where they went. We haven't had contact with them in almost a week." Amberlin informed Leona that the missing Order Clerics had been out of contact with headquarters for almost a week.

"All right then. We'll go down the path and see what we can find. It's not the ideal way to conduct a search for missing people, but it's all we've got right now." Leona quickly said to Amberlin while looking down the path to watch for any werewolves that might be moving towards them.

"OK then, Leona. Lead the way." Amberlin said calmly. Leona began to follow the path slowly and carefully while the pink-haired cleric followed behind the Wizard Saint and glanced backwards to make sure they were not being followed by any clever lycanthropes who had managed to sneak through the brush and sneak up behind the two mages while they were preoccupied with watching for threats from the front. Ahead of the two mages lay a long path to follow and an unknown number of werewolves lurking in the brush on both sides of the path ready to ambush them.

[Post Word Count: 912]
[Total Word Count: 1,688/10,000]

-Lycan Woods, forty-five minutes and 300 meters down the path-

The going was slow because neither Leona nor Amberlin knew when more werewolves would leap out of the brush to attack them and they did not want to move too quickly and fall right into an ambush. Leona kept looking around while Amberlin watched their back. Eventually the pair came to a branch in the road... one path continued straight ahead while the other went left and led deeper into the woods.

"So, which way do you want to go?" Leona asked Amberlin. Silence prevailed for several moments.

"I'm not sure, Leona. I'm thinking left." Amberlin said with uncertainty.

"So you think the other clerics went deeper into the woods in search of that hidden cultist base that's supposed to be here?" Leona asked her partner.

"I think so. I'm not sure, but it stands to reason that they'd go that way." Amberlin said with uncertainty. Suddenly they saw someone running towards them coming down the left path. That person was wearing green clothing and had blonde hair.

"I NEED HELP!" The person called out and extended a hand towards them. Leona turned and faced Amberlin. Amberlin looked at the person approaching them and her eyes widened.

"That's Order Cleric Amanda!" Amberlin identified the person. That was all Leona needed to know. She turned to face Amberlin.

"Follow me!" Leona instructed Amberlin. Together the pair hurried towards Amanda, Leona moving much faster than her partner due to her longer legs. After a few moments of running the pair met up with the blonde cleric, who met up with them and stopped in place, then bent over while putting her hands on her knees for support.

"I... I am so glad to see you b-both." Amanda gasped to them in between deep breaths. She looked rough and so did her outfit. Parts of it such as the right sleeve and the left shoulder had been torn away, presumably by werewolf claws. She also had three parallel claw marks on the right side of her face and dried blood running down from the claw marks.

"Are you all right, Order Cleric Amanda?" Amberlin asked the green-clad cleric. The blonde shook her head.

"No. I am not... not all right." Amanda answered bluntly. She forced herself to stand up straight, where Leona could see that the green-clad cleric also had claw marks on her stomach where the outfit had been ripped away. Amanda faced Amberlin and spoke to the shorter cleric.

"This mission was a disaster. We went down this path in search of the cultist base that was supposed to be hidden somewhere deep in the woods. We were unable to find it." Amanda said to Amberlin directly as Leona looked all around them and kept a watchful eye out for werewolves.

"We found a large pack of werewolves during our search. We fought them off time and time again as we retreated and tried to find an area where we could mount a defense, but no matter how many of them we killed or wounded they just kept coming. The mission team started out with ten clerics. Over the past four days it was whittled down to four. Yesterday the other three clerics died giving me a chance to escape yet another attack. I am now the last survivor of the team." Amanda informed the pair and told them a grim story of loss and survival. Leona kept her mouth closed as Amanda continued to speak.

"But what about that hidden base? Isn't finding that more important?" Amberlin asked the blonde cleric.

"As the senior Cleric and sole survivor of the team, I am cancelling that mission because we just do not have the manpower to raid the cult's hidden base even if we find it. We should get out of this place. We should never have come here without a sizable escort of Knights." Amanda said to Amberlin.

"But what about Leona? We've got her with us now. She's a Wizard Saint and she's pretty strong. Do you think the three of us can push through and find the base?" Amberlin asked Amanda. Leona was flattered by the endorsement, but she was not sure if her presence would be enough to tip the scales in their favor should they choose to press on to try and complete the original mission.

"As strong as our helper is, I do not think that even she can fight through so many werewolves. There are only three of us against an untold number of those beasts. We should retreat for now... I must tell Father Morris of our losses." Amanda shot down the idea of the trio trying to complete the original mission.

"All right then, Order Cleric Amanda. I'll defer to your judgment." Amberlin said dejectedly.

"What do you say, Wizard Saint?" Amanda asked Leona. The Wizard Saint turned around to face the cleric.

"I'll defer to your judgment too, Order Cleric Amanda. This is an Order operation, after all. I don't have any authority here." Leona too deferred to the green-clad cleric.

"So it is decided. We leave for Holy Castle at once." Amanda announced. She took the lead while Amberlin put herself in the middle of the group. Leona brought up the rear and watched their backs as the trio began the long walk out of Lycan Woods and towards Holy Castle.

[Post Word Count: 902]
[Total Word Count: 2,590/10,000]

-Outside Holy Castle, eight hours later-

After a long walk from Lycan Woods to Holy Castle the trio at last made it to the Order Of Lightbringers headquarters. All three of the mages were tired and were glad to be out of Lycan Woods. They did not have to fight any more werewolves as they left the woods, but they certainly heard the lycanthropes howling all around them as they walked to safety. Now that the trio were safely out of the metaphorical and literal woods they rested for a few minutes before Order Cleric Amanda faced the unenviable task of reporting to Father Morris the failure of the mission she had been sent on.

"Leona, I would like for you to wait out here, if you would." Order Cleric Amanda requested of Leona. Leona made eye contact with the green-clad cleric.

"Certainly. I'll wait out here." Leona replied. She had wiped the blood off of her Silver Longsword on the grass back in Lycan Woods before leaving, so she put the weapon back in its scabbard now that it was no longer needed.

"Excellent." Amanda replied. The green-clad cleric then turned to face Amberlin.

"Please follow me, Amberlin." Amanda requested of the pink-haired cleric.

"Of course." Amberlin said. Without further delay the two clerics walked towards the doors to the Order Headquarters. The doors opened for the clerics and immediately shut behind them, leaving Leona standing outside.

Leona turned away from the doors and stretched her legs for a few moments, then began to stand and wait patiently for Amanda and Amberlin to return from the talk with Father Morris.

-Outside Holy Castle, six hours later-

Leona had waited patiently for the clerics to return, but the Wizard Saint had grown rather bored somewhere around three hours ago and finally sat on the grass at the beginning of this hour. Now she was sitting on the grass and waiting for something, anything to happen. She wondered how the Order was going to handle the news of losing nine clerics out of a force of ten. She had been told several times in the past that the Order was stretched pretty thin due to all of the operations it was carrying out against the cult, so the loss of nine clerics had to hurt them.

Leona took a deep breath and slowly exhaled.

She was getting really bored out here. Maybe the Order's leadership was still discussing what to do about the mission they had sent the clerics on. Leona wondered whether it was going to be scrapped as a failure or if the Order was going to try again and assemble a new task force to make a second attempt to find the cult base that was believed to be hidden in Lycan Woods.

Leona had no idea.

She wished that they would make a decision soon, though. She wanted to either be dismissed so that she could go back to Silver Wolf Guild Hall to do something else or to be attached to the new task force as extra muscle. Right now Leona could do nothing but wait, so wait she did. Not wanting to be caught sitting down by anyone, Leona stood up and stretched her legs, then began to slowly walk around outside of Holy Castle to keep active.

-Outside Holy Castle, two hours later-

Leona had been slowly walking about for the past two hours and had come to a halt to stretch her legs. She was starting to wonder if the Order had forgotten about her. The Wizard Saint kept her mouth shut to avoid making complaints that could get her in trouble if anyone overheard them and stretched her legs. Moments after she had completed stretching her legs the doors to Holy Castle opened and out walked Amanda. Leona turned to face the green-clad cleric.

"I apologize for the wait, Leona. I have some news for you." Amanda said to her.

"What kind of news?" Leona asked the cleric.

"The Order has just received some new information about the cult base believed to be hidden in Lycan Woods. In fact we now know its exact location." Amanda started. Leona kept quiet and listened with interest.

"We also have successfully concluded two operations against the cult, so we now have some Knights available to assist us in the work that lies ahead." Amanda added. Leona continued to keep quiet and listen to what she was being told.

"Father Morris wants you to accompany the task force. In the past you have been a great asset to the Order and we need all the help we can get for this mission." Amanda confirmed that Leona's assignment for the Order was not yet over. The boredom of waiting eight hours for news had suddenly been replaced by the excitement of receiving a new mission and Leona started to mentally prepare herself for another trip to Lycan Woods. She was ready to go whenever the Order's task force was ready.

"When do we set out for Lycan Woods?" Leona asked Amanda.

[Post Word Count: 844]
[Total Word Count: 3,434/10,000]

-Lycan Woods, twelve hours later-

It had taken some time to get the Order task force together because the force was going to feature a large amount of Knights, but when it had come together it was a fairly large one. The force consisted of sixteen Knights, six Clerics, and Leona. The mission was simple... find the cult base, apprehend or eliminate any cultists within, and retrieve any cult documents that could be found. The werewolves were to be dealt with using lethal force.

Having received those simple instructions, Leona walked at the head of the armored group and to the right of Order Knight Athena as she led the way. She was chosen to be the Knight in charge of the force since Order Knights Jessica, Diana, and Minerva Anderson were currently engaged elsewhere. Leona had no problem with that choice since Athena had been a big help during their job together in Silent Cemetery a few years ago.

Leona followed Athena to the fork in the road where she and Amberlin had encountered Order Cleric Amanda hours ago and the group turned left. The group had traveled roughly ten meters down the path when they heard howling and everyone stopped where they were.

"Prepare to fight!" Athena instructed everyone. The armored knights drew their silver swords and raised their shields, then made a circular defensive formation with the unarmored clerics in the middle. Leona drew her own Silver Longsword and watched the area around them. Within seconds the group was surrounded by over twenty werewolves that had leaped out of the brush.

Leona took a deep breath and steadied her grip on her Silver Longsword.

This was it.

A werewolf standing eight meters away charged at Leona and the Wizard Saint prepared an Air Pressure spell with her left hand, then aimed and cast it at the werewolf. The spell hit it in the face and dropped it when it reached within two meters of her, where its momentum made it slide along the ground until it reached the meter mark before stopping. Leona heard the sounds of battle going on all around her, but she did not have time to turn back because a pair of werewolves started charging at her from ten meters away.

Leona held her ground and waited until they got close, then ducked down and thrust upwards with the Silver Longsword, impaling a werewolf through the heart with it. It yelped in pain and slid to the ground, where it was propped up by the handle of the sword touching the ground. Leona let go of the sword embedded in the beast and rolled to the right to avoid a claw swipe from the second werewolf, dodging the swipe by a matter of inches. She got to her feet and faced her attacker, then retaliated with a Silver Blade spell aimed at its body.

Leona's spell connected just as it turned to face her and sliced it deeply from the right shoulder to its left hip, killing it within seconds of Silver Blade's casting. When the beast fell onto its back and did not move the Wizard Saint turned to look at what was going on behind her and saw that the Order Knights were standing strong. They were standing their ground and keeping the lycanthropes at bay with their swords and shields. Since no enemies were currently confronting her Leona moved to assist the Knights by drawing some of the heat off of them.

Leona hurried to the left and flipped the werewolf she had impaled with her sword onto its back, then placed her hands on the grip and her right foot on the dead werewolf's chest. She pulled upwards and freed the sword, then hurried to help the Knights. She ran to the left and picked the closest werewolf she could find, then chopped into its right arm with a two-handed downward chop of her sword.

It suffered a deep gash in its arm and spun to face Leona, who was already winding up for another sword attack. She brought her sword down in a two-handed diagonal chop aimed at its chest and connected with a cut that cut it from its left shoulder to its right hip. It growled at her and lunged with a grab, but Leona was ready. She held the sword out and let it impale itself on the blade through the chest, then released the sword and drew her Scout Laser Pistol while ducking under a series of furious swipes with its claws. The impaled beast moved forward to swipe at Leona's face, but Athena intervened by jamming the tip of her spear through its head before it could reach its target.

The beast howled and fell to the ground and Athena withdrew the golden speartip from the side of its head. The werewolves began to back off away from the Knights and moments later turned and sprinted back into the underbrush, leaving the Knights victorious. Leona took a deep breath.

"Way to go, Leona! You killed three of those things by yourself!" Athena praised Leona. Leona put away her laser pistol and faced the Order Knight.

"Thanks for the praise, Athena. And thanks for helping me against that last werewolf." Leona thanked the orange-haired mage for the timely assistance against the werewolf that had just been killed. Athena waved the gratitude off with her free hand.

"Eh, it's nothing. I can see why the Order had you go with us. You're really handy in a fight!" Athena praised Leona again. Leona retrieved her sword from the chest of the werewolf the pair had just defeated. The Knight then turned towards the group of knights and clerics.

"Is everyone all right?" Athena asked the Order task force. All the answers were in the affirmative. Leona looked at the group and saw that all the knights and all the clerics had not been hurt and were still on their feet.

"All right then. Let's get moving again. There's no telling how long we have before the werewolves come back again!" Athena instructed everyone. The group immediately began to move down the path again, leaving five dead werewolves littering the ground behind them.

[Post Word Count: 1,036]
[Total Word Count: 4,470/10,000]

-Lycan Woods, 300 meters and one hour later-

The task force had been traveling for over an hour and were covering ground more slowly than they could have been covering ground, but they had been traveling slowly because of the ever-present threat of werewolves. The howling had been sporadic and the group had to move slowly because in this dangerous area maintaining group cohesion was much more important than moving at a fast pace. Werewolves would not hesitate to pick out slower-moving task force members who fell behind the group and tear them apart if given the chance.

"How much further is it to the cultist base?" Leona asked Athena.

"About 200 more meters." Athena replied with an estimate. Leona accepted that figure and let the matter drop because she did not want to sound like a child asking how far it was to her family's destination. She continued to walk at the head of the group along with Athena and kept an eye out for any lycanthropes that might be waiting for them nearby. The group heard howling sound from nearby but no enemies emerged to do battle with them. Leona was sure that the werewolves would eventually make an attack on the task force.

-100 meters and forty minutes later-

"Just 100 more meters to go, give or take a few." Athena said aloud to everyone. Leona did not say anything because she was busy keeping an eye out for trouble. The howling had ceased for some reason, but that did not bring the Wizard Saint any comfort. On the contrary she worried about the possibility of an impending ambush. It might be a good idea to bring up that concern with Athena.

"Is it just me or has the howling stopped?" Leona asked Athena. The Knight turned to look at her.

"No, I'm not hearing any howling either. Why?" Athena asked the Wizard Saint.

"I'm thinking we should watch out for trouble. For them to howl the entire time we've been in these woods and then suddenly go silent makes me worried." Leona voiced her concern to the Knight. Athena did not laugh or try to dismiss the Wizard Saint's concerns.

"I wonder if they've gone silent because we're coming up on a bigger threat." Athena put forth her own hypothesis as to why there was silence. Leona blinked.

"A bigger threat?" Leona asked the Knight. The Wizard Saint was at a loss as to what could be a bigger threat in these woods than werewolves.

"I'm not sure what we could be dealing with, Leona. I'm just guessing, that's all." Athena admitted. Leona shrugged her shoulders.

"That's fair, Athena. For all I know we could be perfectly safe and I'm just reading too much into the situation." Leona admitted that she could be wrong about there being am ambush waiting for them.

"Well, I wouldn't rule the possibility of an ambush out, but we'll deal with it when it comes." Athena said to Leona. The blonde got the point and let the matter drop so that everyone could focus on their surroundings. The task force continued to walk in silence as they proceeded deeper into Lycan Woods, turning left onto a path that would take them close to some hills.

-100 meters and forty minutes later-

"Well, we made it without being ambushed by werewolves. Now we've gotta worry about being ambushed by cultists." Athena commented. Leona remained silent and began looking for cultists who might be on patrol outside the base. Athena produced a scroll from thin air and began to read it while the task force waited for instructions.

"According to this captured document, the base is somewhere in this area. It's likely situated somewhere in the hills." Athena informed everyone. Leona looked towards said hills and was not sure where the hidden cult base could be. They were going to have to search high and low for it.

"We search the hills as a group. No splitting up if it can be avoided. We need to stay together because we're in werewolf territory. I'm sure the cult's gonna be looking for us too, so stay alert." Athena ordered. Leona had no problem with that order. In this area staying together and staying alive had higher priority than covering more ground. The group immediately began walking towards the hills to begin the search for the cult base believed to be hidden in the hills.

[Post Word Count: 740]
[Total Word Count: 5,210/10,000]

-Lycan Woods, three hours later-

After receiving their orders from Order Knight Athena the task force had thoroughly searched every hill in the immediate area and after three hours of searching had come across a cave at the base of one of the hills. It had a large mouth and sloped diagonally down into the earth, presumably leading underground. It was hard to tell if the slope was natural or if it was man-made, but this cave was the most likely candidate to be the hidden cult base the Order was looking for. Now the task force was standing out in front of the cave and Athena was talking to everyone.

"I'm not sure if this cave's the cave we're looking for. Does anyone want to go in and check around?" Athena asked the task force for a volunteer to do some reconnaissance. Leona immediately raised her left hand. Athena made eye contact with her.

"All right Leona, you go in first. We'll stay out here and wait for your word before some of us go in to help you clean the place out." Athena said to the Wizard Saint. Leona immediately turned towards the cave and began walking forward. She had made it eight steps when Athena called to her again.

"Hey Leona, that cave looks pretty dark. Do you need a light to see by?" Athena asked the Wizard Saint. Leona stopped, turned around, and shook her head.

"No thank you, Athena. I've got natural night vision, so I don't need a light source." Leona replied.

"OK then. If you see anything in the cave, anything that marks it as a cult base, come back to me as soon as you can." Athena said to her.

"What if I'm spotted during the reconnaissance and the cult starts evacuating people and documents? Do you want me to try and stop them on my own?" Leona asked. Athena shook her head.

"No, Leona. Come back to me immediately. There's no telling how many cultists might be in the base. We can always track down the cult again if they escape, but we can't get you back if you're captured or killed." Athena replied firmly. Leona was not going to argue with that order.

"OK. If I see any cultists I'll come back immediately and let you know." Leona replied and turned to face the cave.

"OK then. I won't hold you up any longer. Good luck!" Athena bade Leona. Leona turned around and resumed walking towards the cave, soon entering it and being swallowed by the darkness.

-Inside the cave-

Leona's natural night vision activated within moments of entering the cave and she moved forward, slowing down and stepping carefully so that she did not fall down the sloped passage. After five meters of walking down the slope she finally reached level ground. She then moved slowly and carefully while watching out for traps set into the floor or cult sentries watching for intruders. Leona peered ahead and saw the entrance to a corridor less than five meters away... once she got to its entrance she stopped and examined the passageway more closely.

It was a straight corridor that was roughly twelve meters long. It was wide enough for just one person to walk through and it was just high enough for someone to walk through while standing up straight. Parts of the wall and ceiling were jagged and uneven, suggesting that it was natural "architecture" rather than man-made, but Leona was not going to assume anything. At the end of the corridor was what looked like a natural stone wall, but Leona was not sure whether it was really the end of the passageway or whether there were branches to the left and right. Determined to find out, Leona took a quiet breath and began walking down the passageway.

Leona moved slowly and carefully while watching for pressure plates located in the floor and watching for any cultists who might be moving about. Once she had traveled the length of the passageway she looked left and right and saw that there were indeed passages that split off from the main passageway. They were the same width and height as the one she had just traversed. Both passages looked to be roughly six meters long.

There were no distinguishing features like signs or anything carved into the walls to tell her which way to go, so the Wizard Saint was confronted with a conundrum.

Did she go left or did she go right?

Leona looked down both halls, then chose to go left. She went left and carefully walked down the hall while listening out for cultists who might be patrolling the area. She did not encounter any and when she reached the end of that hall she looked both ways. The left wall was just a wall, but there was a passage that led to the right. At the end of it was another lengthy hallway.

Leona took a quiet breath and looked behind her to be sure that she was not being followed by sneaky cultists, then when she was certain that she was not being followed moved down the left hallway. She needed to report back to Athena soon, but Leona was not going to go back to the leader of the Order task force until she had solid information to give them. Leona had better work fast... she was not sure how much time she had before the cult spotted the Order task force waiting outside the cave and began an evacuation of people and materials.

[Post Word Count: 930]
[Total Word Count: 6,140/10,000]

-Inside the cave-

Leona, having found another lengthy passageway, decided to go down it. She knew that every minute she delayed returning with her report was time that the cult had to spot the Order and begin moving people and materials to prevent their capture by the Order, but she had to make sure that she had solid information for the task force to act on before they moved in to raid the cult's base. Running outside now without solid information would only waste even more time than remaining here and exploring the tunnels.

Leona pressed ahead into the long passageway looming ahead of her.

-Inside the passageway, two minutes later-

Leona moved slowly and carefully down the passage while watching for trouble from in front of her or behind. The passage was exactly like the other passageways in width and height, meaning that Leona could not cut her way out of trouble with her Silver Longsword because she did not have enough room to swing it. At least she still had her magic and her Scout Laser Pistol. She kept moving towards the end of the passage and when she reached the end found that there were no branching paths off to the left and right.

She had reached a dead end.

Leona slowly and carefully turned around and started back the way she came. When she reached the branch in the path again she would take a right and see what she could find that way. She had wasted several minutes heading this way and wanted something to show for it, so she hoped that some evidence of a cult presence could be found at the end of the right passageway.

-At the branch in the path, four minutes later-

Leona stood at the branch in the path and took a moment to make sure that she was not being followed, then went right. She traveled slowly down the passage and listened out for cultists approaching from in front of her or from behind. She reached the end of the path without incident and found that the right wall was a solid rock wall, but there was a long passage going to the left. Leona turned left and headed down that passage.

As she walked she thought she could hear voices coming from somewhere straight ahead. What was being said was hard to hear because of the distance and the acoustics of the passage, but it sounded like male voices. Leona was not sure if they were really human voices or if she was just imagining things, but she would press on and find out. Leona kept moving and followed the source of the voices while being careful not to make any noise that could give her away.

Leona proceeded down the passageway and at its end found another branching path. Again she was faced with the choice to go left or to go right. She listened carefully to try and determine where exactly the voices were coming from but could not get a fix on where they were, so she was going to have to take an educated guess.

Did she go left or did she go right?

Leona took a quiet breath, closed her eyes, and listened closely to her surroundings. She thought she heard talking coming from the right, so she chose to go that way. The Wizard Saint went right and began to follow that passage to its end.

-At the end of the right passage, five minutes later-

Leona had proceeded slowly and carefully, but at the end found herself peering into yet another passageway with branching paths. The Wizard Saint almost sighed in frustration but kept herself from doing so only at the last moment when she realized that she would give herself away with that stupid move. This search seemed like it was never going to end. Leona swallowed her frustration and pressed forward... she had come this far, so she might as well keep going.

Leona looked down the left passageway and saw nothing, but when she peered down the right passageway she spotted a humanoid shape in the distance. That sight prompted the Wizard Saint to slowly and carefully turn around and quietly begin the return trip to make her report to Athena. Leona had wanted to stay longer and listen in on the conversation to try and get some valuable information that could help the raid go a little smoother, but Leona was not going to disobey the orders she had been given earlier. She was going to go back and make her report while she was certain of having not been detected.

Quietly grabbing the scabbard of her Silver Longsword and holding it so that it did not scrape against the walls and make noise that would give her away, Leona quickly and quietly began her trip back to the surface.

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[Total Word Count: 6,954/10,000]

-Outside the cave, twenty-three minutes later-

Having spotted at least one humanoid shape that might have been a cultist, Leona chose to sneak back to the surface and make her report to Order Knight Athena so that the latter could plan the task force's next move. After a lengthy return trip the Wizard Saint was standing in front of the spear-wielding Knight.

"Hello, Leona. How did your scouting mission go? Did you find anything that indicated cult activity?" Athena asked Leona.

"I saw a humanoid figure in the tunnels before I began my return trip. I'm not entirely sure if the figure was a cultist because I didn't stick around to confirm it and risk giving my presence away, but I doubt that I found a friendly cave explorer." Leona said to the Knight.

"I don't think so either, Leona. We're in the location discussed in the captured document, so I doubt that we're going to run into friendly explorers." Athena replied.

"If we really are dealing with cultists I'm not sure how many of them we'll be up against." Leona warned Athena. The Knight made eye contact with the Wizard Saint.

"What are the tunnels like? Are they wide, narrow, or somewhere in between? Can we get through them easily?" Athena asked Leona, seemingly ignoring the warning about the number of people inside being a mystery to the Wizard Saint. Leona looked at the armored knights standing in a defensive formation facing the woods to guard against possible werewolf attack, then looked Athena in the eyes.

"They're wide enough for one person to walk through. A group of people can fit if they move in single-file and the tunnel ceiling's high enough for a person of average height to walk through without having to lean forward. I don't think the armored knights are gonna be able to fit in the tunnels, though." Leona warned Athena that the knights might have difficulty fitting in the narrow tunnels due to their bulky armor. The Order Knight looked at her men for a moment, then made eye contact with the Wizard Saint.

"All right then, Leona. Slight change of plan. I'll have the Knights remain outside with the Clerics to keep our escape route open in case things go south. We'll go in together and clean out the base the best we can. If we can't wipe out all the cultists this time, don't worry... we'll run into them again sooner or later." Athena informed Leona of a slight modification to the original plan. Leona had no problem with that.

"OK, I'm ready to go when you are. I take it we're going to go for a stealthy approach?" Leona asked Athena. The latter nodded.

"Only until we make sure that we're dealing with cultists. Once we know what we're dealing with we won't need to bother with stealth." Athena confirmed. Leona could live with that.

"All right, Leona. Lead the way." Athena ordered the Wizard Saint. She then gave out orders for the knights and clerics to keep the entrance to the cave clear and to be on the lookout for any cultists who might try to escape using the cave entrance. Their orders were to kill or apprehend any escaping cultists. Once all the orders were given out Leona went into the cave followed closely by the orange-haired Knight.

-Inside the cave, twenty-five minutes later-

Leona had guided Athena to the area where she had seen the humanoid figure and now the Wizard Saint and the Order Knight were heading down the right passageway with Athena taking the lead this time. Leona was worried that they would be spotted before they got to the end of the passage, but to her relief they had managed to slip by any patrols undetected. After a minute or two of walking they had reached the end of the passage and were making a right turn when they spotted a humanoid figure walking towards them. The figure spotted them first and turned to run, causing Athena to begin pursuit. Leona followed close behind the Knight and the two eventually reached a large circular chamber that the humanoid figure had retreated to.

-Inside the circular chamber-

Leona and Athena found themselves standing in a large circular chamber liberally festooned with brass braziers that were arranged in five-meter intervals at the base of the walls and glowing with red fire, black flags featuring crossed red axes hanging from the wall spaces in between the brass braziers, and a lot of black-robed people looking at them.

"Well, we found the cult base." Athena told Leona.

"We certainly did." Leona dryly remarked as some of the black-robed people began to move towards them as others hung back and raised hands that were glowing red. At least the two mages now knew for certain that they were dealing with cultists. However, there were at least thirty cultists in the room to contend with and an untold number of them waiting deeper in the cave. Athena and Leona needed to act quickly in order to eliminate as many cultists as they could before more arrived to make what was going to be a challenging fight even more difficult.

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Knowing that she would have to take the initiative if she wanted to survive a situation where she was badly outnumbered, Leona prepared to attack the closest enemy.

"Get ready, Leona. This is gonna be a tough fight!" Athena warned Leona. The Wizard Saint watched some of the enemies draw shortswords before continuing to close in on her and the Knight, but she was not worried. She was not some helpless victim waiting for the cultists to capture her and throw her in a prison cell until it was time to be used as a sacrifice in some unholy ritual. She was the Wizard Saint of Courage and she was about to show the black-robed men why it was a bad idea to fight her, especially at close range.

"I'm ready." Leona said calmly. One of the men made the fatal mistake of charging at her with his arms outstretched to try and grab her. That was the last mistake he would ever make.

"Stay with me!" Athena ordered Leona not to run off and do her own thing. Leona quickly drew her Silver Longsword, then stepped forward and thrust the sword at the man's chest, stabbing him in the heart and killing him instantly. She quickly withdrew the sword from his body and turned back to Athena, who had just killed an enemy who had made the mistake of rushing at her. One of the cultists in the back fired a glowing red fireball at Leona's head, but she saw it in time and ducked under it.

Leona saw a group of six men run at her with shortswords drawn, but she easily countered them with a Wind Blast spell cast with her left hand. They were hit with the concussive wave of air and knocked onto their backs, but she could not take advantage of that because a man standing a short distance behind the group cast a violet lightning bolt in her direction. Leona ducked under it and raised her left hand, then prepared and cast an Air Pressure spell at the opponent. The horizontal column of compressed air hit the target and he fell to the ground.

Leona heard Athena shout and spun left in time to see Athena take out a group of eight men surrounding her with an attack that involved her slamming the golden spearhead into the ground and causing a golden dome of light to emanate from it. All the men caught in the dome yelled in pain and collapsed to the ground. Leona heard yelling from her right and turned to see a cultist rushing at her from three meters away with his shortsword ready to plunge into her face or neck.

Leona turned to meet him and took advantage of her Silver Longsword's superior reach to stab him through the chest before he could reach her. He screamed and dropped his weapon, then fell onto his back and did not move again. Leona saw some of the cultists retreating towards a passageway set in the back of the chamber while other cultists remained to fight to the end. Leona would be happy to oblige them.

"Clean up these enemies before we move on!" Athena ordered. The Knight did not have to tell Leona twice. The Wizard Saint counted twelve cultists lying on the ground and ten more on their feet... it seemed like their mages had retreated, leaving the cultists with swords to do the fighting. Leona began the task of cleaning up the enemies who chose to engage her.

One of them rushed at her from five meters away with his weapon aimed at her throat and she waited until he drew close, then ducked down and held her sword out for him to run into. His momentum did the rest and he impaled himself on the sword. Leona dropped the weapon lodged in the dead cultist and drew her Ranger Laser Pistol, aiming at a sword-wielding cultist who was four meters away and firing three laser shots in rapid succession at his chest. All three shots hit the target and he groaned before falling forward onto the ground.

Athena was taking care of business on her side of the chamber. Two more men lay dead at her feet with gaping holes in their chests and she performed a lunging stab that punched a hole in the chest of a third cultist, killing him instantly. The rest of the surviving cultists lost their will to continue the fight and retreated while Leona holstered her laser pistol and took a moment to retrieve her Silver Longsword from the body of the fallen cultist. She pulled the sword out and wiped it clean on the body of the enemy, then turned to face Athena.

"Don't just stand there, Leona! We have to go after them!" The knight urged her to get moving again. Leona quickly sheathed the Silver Longsword, then began running towards the passageway the cultists had used to flee as Athena quickly followed to the blonde's left. They reached its entrance just in time to see the cultists who had fled from them still moving down the passageway. Athena entered just ahead of Leona and the two mages began their pursuit of the fleeing cultists.

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[Total Word Count: 8,698/10,000]

-In the passageway-

The passageway the two mages had entered was a long and straight one that was wide enough to accommodate two people walking side-by-side and was roughly fifty meters long. They were moving as fast as they could go to try and catch up with the cultists who had fled from them, but by the time they reached the halfway point the black-robed individuals had already vanished from sight.

"We've gotta be careful, Leona. We could be heading right into a trap!" Athena warned the Wizard Saint to be ready for anything once they entered the next chamber.

"I'll do my best to be careful, but we're probably gonna have to dodge a lot of spells and a lot of angry cultists with swords." Leona said to the Order Knight running at her left side. She kept running for a few seconds before she thought of a question for her partner as they drew to within fifteen meters of their destination.

"How are we gonna approach this fight? Do we stick together like we did last time?" Leona asked her partner.

"Yes, we stick together. There's no telling how many of those cultists are gonna be in the room up ahead, so we need to fight together." Athena replied. Leona thought that idea made sense, so she did not argue with it. After some more running the pair drew to within eight meters of the next room.

"OK Leona, we're almost there. If we stick together we can get through this!" Athena told her. Leona already had an idea. When she got through the door she would stop and summon Guardian Lion to make things a little easier on them.

"Got it." Leona said calmly as the pair came to within a meter of the next room. Leona rushed through the door first and Athena followed moments later.

-In the next room-

Leona and Athena found themselves in a large circular room exactly like the one they had left behind with the difference being three passageways that led out of the room. There was one to the left, one to the right, and one in the back of the room. However, there were roughly thirty more cultists spoiling for a fight and it looked like several more were hurrying towards the chamber from the passageway in the back of the room.

"This is gonna be tough, Leona. But I have something special for them." Athena said as she raised her spear. Most of the cultists drew longswords in response and Leona looked at Athena as the Knight held her spear out towards the enemy. The spearhead began to glow gold as the cultists charged at her and Leona.

Leona raised her left hand and aimed at a group of eight cultists charging towards Athena. She prepared and cast a Wind Blast spell that hit the men and knocked them over, buying the knight time to charge up whatever surprise she had in store for the cultists. Three of the men changed course and charged at Leona, who drew her Silver Longsword and faced them. The first rushed at Leona with his longsword held in both hands above his head, so Leona lunged at him and stabbed at his chest. He ran onto the blade and screamed before he fell to the ground.

The other two cultists continued to charge and Leona took them on in hand-to-hand combat. She prepared and cast a Silver Blade spell that hit one of the cultists, cutting him from the left shoulder to his right hip and killing him almost instantly with a deep cut across the torso. He screamed and fell to the ground as the third cultist pressed the attack, aiming a thrust of his longsword at her chest.

Leona sidestepped it, then leaned down and drew Ses Revanche from her right boot. She closed with the man and punched him in the face with a Mach Straight delivered with her left hand, then closed in and slashed at his throat with Ses Revanche. His throat was cut and he fell to the ground to bleed out.

"GET DOWN!" Athena shouted. Leona quickly dropped Ses Revanche to her right and dropped to her stomach as a golden light burst from nearby and she heard a lot of screaming. A golden light passed overhead and about fifteen seconds later the light had faded.

"I need your help, Leona!" Athena called out. Leona got to her feet, picked up Ses Revanche, and hurried to Athena, who had dropped to her knees and was leaning on her spear for support. Twenty robed men were lying dead on the floor and had burn marks on their chests from whatever Athena had done.

"I'm... I'm OK, but I'm kinda drained. I won't be able to use any spells for a bit. I just need a moment before I can get back on my feet." Athena told Leona. The Wizard Saint looked around for any more enemies and saw some of them emerging from the passageway in the back of the room. Leona stayed next to Athena and raised her left hand to prepare and cast an Air Pressure spell.

One of the men ran at her and Leona cast the spell, hitting him in the chest with the horizontal column of compressed air and knocking him down for the count. The twelve other cultists spread out and began to approach the Wizard Saint at a slow pace and with weapons at the ready. Leona stood her ground and prepared to defend herself and Athena until the latter could get up to defend herself.

Hoping to catch her by surprise, one of the men broke ranks and rushed at Leona. Before he could close in to sword range she prepared and cast a Wind Bullet spell with her left hand that hit him in the chest, knocking him down and causing him to land on his back with a groan of pain. The other cultists continued to advance on the Wizard Saint and the Knight.

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Clutching Ses Revanche in her right hand, Leona stood her ground and waited for the eleven cultists to approach her. They approached with care and did not make any sudden moves. Leona did not make any sudden moves either and waited for them to draw close before she cast a Wind Blast spell. The cultists all focused on Leona and charged her at once.

Leona raised her left hand and prepared a Wind Blast spell. When it was ready she cast it and knocked ten of the cultists back and onto the ground, but one of them at the far right of the group kept charging. Leona waited for him to approach and when he closed in she dodged his sword thrust aimed at his torso, then slashed at his throat when he turned around to attack her again. His throat was cut and he fell to the ground to bleed out.

The Wizard Saint turned around to find the ten cultists she had knocked down with Wind Blast getting to their feet. Leona dropped Ses Revanche and drew her Scout Laser Pistol, then began firing at the men as they started to approach. Leona targeted the cultist on the far left and fired three shots at his chest, hitting him with all three and killing him. She moved down the row and targeted the next cultist, firing at his chest three times as he took a step forward. He yelled and fell forward, landing on the ground.

The other cultists hesitated for a moment and took a step back. Leona kept her eyes on the cultists and prepared for them to make one last attack on her and Athena. The cultists froze as if considering making an attack, but then they turned and retreated before Leona could take aim at another. Leona immediately looked around her for a threat that could have made them flee despite having the numerical advantage but did not see anything approaching from the passageway behind her and Athena.

Why had they disengaged from the fight despite having numerical superiority?

"Why did they suddenly turn around and run from us?" Leona asked Athena. The Knight looked up at Leona and shrugged.

"I don't know, Leona. Could you help me up?" Athena asked Leona. Leona walked over to the kneeling Knight, reached out with her left hand, and helped the young woman to her feet. Athena wobbled for a moment before standing up straight and staying upright.

"Thanks for the helping hand in more ways than one, Leona. While we can't claim a total success, I'd say that killing as many cultists as we did should slow them down a bit." Athena said to Leona. The Wizard Saint took a quiet breath and looked around her for any more enemies who might have taken advantage of their conversation to close in on them. No one had approached them, so Leona put her Scout Laser Pistol in its holster and began to gather up her dropped weapons as Athena kept an eye out for more cultists.

"Do you want to continue pursuing the cultists?" Leona asked Athena as the former picked up Ses Revanche and wiped the bloody weapon off on the robes of a dead cultist.

"No, Leona. They're likely long gone by now and we don't need to waste time chasing them when we've done our job. We'll likely meet them again somewhere else." Athena replied. Leona put Ses Revanche back in her right boot.

"OK." Leona said before walking over to her Silver Longsword, grabbing it by the grip, planting her right foot on the dead cultist's chest, and pulling up on the grip. The sword came out and Leona wiped the blade off on the cultist's robes, then put the sword back into its scabbard.

-Outside the cave, forty minutes later-

Athena and Leona emerged from the cave, where the Order task force was still standing guard outside the cave. Nine dead werewolves were lying on the ground in front of the knights and clerics. There were no dead cultists lying around, which meant that they had used other escape routes to flee the raid.

"Well Leona, we made it. It was a tough fight, but we managed to win. Thanks for helping us." Athena thanked Leona for her assistance during the raid.

"So, what do we do from here?" Leona asked Athena.

"We set out for Holy Castle right away. I've gotta make my report to Father Morris and tell him how the raid went." Athena replied.

"All right then. I'm with you." Leona replied. Athena faced away from Leona and towards the Order task force.

"All right everyone, nice work keeping the entrance clear of danger. Now let's get going back to Order Headquarters." Athena ordered the task force to prepare to move out. Athena led the way and Leona followed close behind. The knights and clerics followed behind the Wizard Saint and the task force began the long trip back to Holy Castle. Hopefully the local lycanthropes would leave the task force alone during the return trip, but Leona kept her right hand on the grip of her Silver Longsword just in case she had to fight at any point while on the way out of Lycan Woods.

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[Total Word Count: 10,584/10,000]