Bastian took advantage of 13's fatigue to grab the cannon and smacked 13 away with it. "Ahahaha! You can't dodge THAT!!! Enough you pathetic whelp! You may have been in the Dark Beast wars but you're still but a kid compared to me!! This is not over, the ALF WILL NEVER DIE!!!!" He then backed off from 13 since he wanted to use the cannon for maximum damage. Swords were not his forte after all, only a backup weapon now.
The Commander sounded his horn one more time and then again in an attempt to signal more men. "MORE!!!! I know there are more survivors!!Join the fight as we liberate these poor fools!!! They are not worthy of the resources Arcadia has!"
Slowly, his horn reached the absolute last of the survivors. More armored troops came first, two of them and then four archers and one gunner. "YES! Now we can overwhelm them! We've still got numbers yet just don't under estimate them!!!! I will slay the Dark Beast herself and the rest will run scared without a leader!!!" He laughed confidently as the two armored troops protected the ranged ones and got in a formation with them, marching towards the ABC members. He then focused back on Carla.
He aimed at her. Yet he choreographed his attack with his words. She fired a beam off at the incoming cannon shot, blowing it up in the air before it could reach her. She turned her attention onto the new troops, their formation could protect the ranged troops but with them all together in one place, it made them all prime targets for her.
Carla charged up her energy for a bit. The commander had to finally reload his cannon before he could fire again, giving her ample time. She then lobbed an energy grenade towards the new troops in the formation, causing them to scramble as a small dark energy explosion struck the area.
The armored troops were unable to escape it, taking quite a bit of damage to their armor and one of the archers was easily killed by it. Carla's true goal was to cause them to split up, making it easier for the others to deal with them. Sadly, she had little time to pick them off as the Commander focused on her.
This time, he fired off three cannonballs at once, all at Carla. "I'm not with the OOA but your unit is guilty of ignorance. The sin of ignorance MUST be punished! An ignorant wench of a Dark Beast, unaware of my cannon's true power!!!!"
This time Carla could not dodge it, although she escaped major damage the explosions knocked her back painfully. "This is the power of science, the ALF! Now do you understand? There is always hope, even if you kill all my men, I can still fight with this cannon's power!! It's ingenious isn't it? Can you still rise or has my weapon blasted sense into your inferior brain?" He smirked with delight.
Cannon this, cannon that. Carla had grown sick of Bastian's obsession with his weapon. She did not struggle for long and got up, determined to wipe that smirk off his face and to destroy that damned cannon! She quickly fired off a series of four beams off at Bastian, aiming for his cannon.
The commander was blind-sided. He tossed his cannon down to protect it, realizing Carla meant to destroy it. However because of this, the beams hit his armor and created a few cracks in it.
"What will it be your armor or your precious cannon? You must make your choice. The Armor to protect your life or your precious cannon?" She called out to the Commander, amused at his predicament while reading to fire again at him. She was trying to hold back as much as possible for now though. Fatigue was beginning to set in. She had to end this soon and had to conserve her energy, she did not want to use it all in this battle...
"You think I would succumb to your tactics? Never!!! The myths of Dark Beasts bringing only misfortune and death are just myths; we'd have won the war if the bombs hadn't been dropped! I will prove it here and NOW! Watch this men, I will kill her before you all and show you they are not Demi-Gods! Just glorified monsters!!! We never needed the bombs to win the war!!" The Commander was still stubborn even given the facts. He just would not quit. Grasping his beloved cannon once more.
The remaining three archers and the gunner and the four armored troops began to set their sights on Bart and 13. They thought the Commander had Carla under control and in a way he did, with her attention focused on him she had to deal with the Commander first. This time however the armored units had the idea of surrounding 13 and they all aimed for him, realizing they could not hit Bart under normal circumstances with their swords.
Meanwhile, the escort party's ordeal continued....
In the sky, Sheena was there, thinking to herself, of past missions and of what she was about to do.
"Why'd it come to this, Shine? I don't wish to fight them but we've no choice, I just wish you were still with us.. These forces Lucia assigned to me, to change them. To show them the way, I need to show our people the right path!" Sheena reflected to herself as she charged her energy while up in the sky.
She looked down and aimed at the Professor, "I must make an example of her! Her act of aggression is one of the factors that started this conflict!!!" Sheena meditated for a bit longer before returning down, planning her moves out carefully.
Several Wind Beasts dived right for Lowe, noticing he was guarding the research team. The Wind Beasts saw them as the prime targets. Scientists were the enemies of the OOA, it would be doubtful they would ever give their ways to conform to the OOA's policies on technology.
One of the wind beasts created a cutting gust of wind aimed at the research team. Lowe used a good deal of energy to create an armor of earth around his body. He then intercepted the gust and absorbed it safely as it hit him and stopped.
He then encased both of his hands with stone fists and awaited the wind beast's next moves. There was no way he could catch them as they were too fast and he was slow but he had a chance of countering them if they moved in on him and the research team. He just had to wait for the right moment to counter.
A Wind Beast attempted to soar past Lowe but was knocked down by Lowe's right arm and punched directly in the head with his left, crushing his skull. Three Wind Beasts then collided with Lowe from separate directions and attempted to lift him into the air but struggled with the weight of his armor but finally managed to get him slightly off the ground. However, he broke free of one of the beasts and punched the other two away. This got them off him for now but they were ready to attack again.
"It's me you want now, huh? Well I will take off this armor if you agree to cease all attacks on the civilians! What do you say to that? If you want a real fight, you can have it with me!" Lowe issued his challenge to the Wind Beasts. He thought they might agree to it but they had something else in mind.
The wind beasts were merely upset by this instead of backing down. Suddenly the Professor assisted Lowe up as she released her fire energy in the form of a side-winding flame, it shocked the Wind Beasts and set their wings ablaze rather quickly, they then fell to the ground in flames. She muttered to Lowe, "Hehehe, poor bastards didn't see it coming. I didn't feel anything when I set them ablaze! If they want to attack helpless people, I have no reason to show mercy towards them now do I?" She was as reckless as ever but effective in her surprise attack at least.
Without warning, Sheena suddenly descended upon the Professor holding a halberd made of wind energy. She created a tornado and manipulated it to suspend The Professor in the air. Sheena then moved so fast, Ruby saw after-images of her! She tried to release her fire energy at Sheena but missed her every time, it was impossible to aim while in such a state!
Sheena then stabbed The Professor several times with the halberd, not going too deep intending this to be a warning. She then dispelled the tornado and slammed The Professor down towards the ground with her halberd. "This is the Emerald Flash, usually meant for killing I held back to disable you and take you out of this fight! You're no ABC fighter, this is a joke! There's no honor in fighting someone who can't even hit me once! Don't start fights you can't win!"
Lowe barley managed to catch The Professor in time but succeeded. "Holy crap, what has she done to you!? You need some treatment now! Let's get moving Renault could help!" He looked at her wounds, noticing her knees were hit the hardest, she was bleeding badly from them. She had a few cuts elsewhere but those were the most serious. Sheena had intended to hamper Ruby's movement.
"I'll be fine! I could never hope to protect my children if I died that easily!" The Professor got up but struggled to stand, her knees bleeding, she then leaned on Lowe. "You're not in the right you mental midget! You got a cheap shot on me but that's it. I've got something that'll terrify even you! Watch me everyone, I'll make fried chicken out of her! We'll be eating good tonight!" She taunted, over-doing it greatly and getting Sheena's attention in the process.
Ruby held a small fireball in both her hands. She then poured energy into it for a good minute until it grew into a large flare. She hurled it into the skies at Sheena, Sheena easily dodged it but soon it exploded and knocked Sheena out of the sky. However, she did not fall to the ground as she regained her flight right before hitting the ground.
"Pray tell what that supposed to accomplish? Did I damage your brain with my attack? Just surrender and live with your family, you don't belong on the battlefield and the OOA won't allow you to build anymore horrific weapons like the bombs! If you would just surrender, we could all leave on good terms!!! No one else has to die here!" Sheena shouted at The Professor.
The Professor laughed manically ignoring her pain, "Oh, you're about to experience retribution! Your childish little world where the Gods will magically save us all is about to come crashing down in magnificent flames! You should be begging me. We're not naive so we won't forgive your little flock for the whole TRYING TO KILL US ALL thing you've got going on! You should have tried to eliminate the flare with your wind energy or something instead of dodging, but you fell for it instead! A fatal mistake!"
It was true. The flare could be seen easily from Arcadia and even beyond it. The explosion was loud as well, even if it didn't kill anyone, it served a better purpose. To beckon to reinforcements!
Dumbfounded Sheena realized what Ruby was getting at,"A signal flare? NO! That means. We cannot dawdle, Lucia will not accept failure in our mission! We have to defeat them before their help arrives!"
She then whispered to Lowe, "Let's get these people somewhere safer if we can. Keep moving forward! All of Arcadia saw that flare so help is on the way.. My husband for sure and whoever else saw it. We can just play it safe and stall until they get here. That should force them to retreat or suffer a loss here. One thing I know for sure is I have to fight again. I need to get better than this! I used to be stronger until I locked myself away in the lab to find a way to fix the world."
Sheena spoke to one of her soldiers,"Soldier,please deliver this message to the rest of them, we are to focus attacks on the actual ABC members, the attacking of civilians is a crime and not what we should be focusing on! Kill the ABC forces only if you have to but target them only! Once they are gone, the civilians will be a simple matter. We have to hurry as the enemy is going to receive reinforcements. Our ground forces may not come soon enough. The ALF must have found them. That is all!" Her soldier nodded and sped off to inform all of Sheena's forces.
This would change some of their strategy yet not all of the wind beasts would accept this. Wind being such a destructive element, if they used their energy civilians would still get caught in their attacks. They saw Sheena's words as just guidelines; after all she could not watch them all or know if it was on purpose or on accident. It meant their tactics would not change much, just no more direct attacks on the civilians.
"You don't look good at all, Professor! We're almost there and everyone is still accounted for. Just hang on!" Lowe said to The Professor, heading over to where Renault was. This treatment upset the Professor, hating how she was humiliated and became nothing more than a burden holding Lowe back from fighting. Yet the signal flare was a wise idea indeed.
Sheena scouted out the ABC members now. Lowe was in no shape to fight her with The Professor using him to move and the others did not personally threaten her too much. She found herself most interested in Noe." A demon..Now she seems strong, perhaps the others are holding back, she is not. If we could win this and then recruit her to our side she could be a great ally...But first I must see if she is worthy." Sheena flew above Noe, casting her shadow on her and then right back up into the sky once again.
Sheena targeted Noe next. She dispelled her halberd for now and instead began to speed up, swinging her talons rapidly at Noe in quick succession, finally she created her halberd and swung it at Noe, eager to see if she could dodge it.