The Cast Die

Vac fidgeted nervously as he waited for the battle to begin on top of the hill he and a few others were waiting on. The ones who'd managed to pick up gliding fairly well were with Vac, as their path to the airships would be tougher to navigate, while the others were crammed aboard Medea's dragons. Medea herself was with him, though she'd chosen to play second fiddle to him for this portion of the battle.

So far they hadn't faced many issues. The main force had managed to draw out a number of the enemy forces, though a messenger from Pyrrhus had expressed concern at the number being lesser than expected. They made up for the lesser number through the use of strange weapons and tactics. Like some underground explosives that triggered when stepped on, effectively bypassing the moving earth walls used by the army to defend against the bullets fired by the enemies.

‘I wonder how it works. Maybe stepping on it triggers some sort of fuse, like flicking a flint? But I wonder how they managed to set it up and bury it without triggering it in the first place. I'd like to get my hands on that thing, but I guess that's not possible right now, maybe later though.’

But the commanders were quick-witted enough to use the sort of technique Medea had used to sense the locations of the hidden bombs.

The other main “trick” the Romans used was even more terrifying. They drowned pigs in crude oil, set them on fire and sent them out. The large animals charged blindly towards the soldiers, a terrifying sight that was amplified by the cacophony of high-pitched squealing released by the pigs. Not only did it cause discontent among the men, it enabled the Romans to hold them back without having to use as many men in battle.

The Romans were also using various hit and run and guerrilla tactics, which was strange. It was as though they were simply stalling for time rather than trying to make any real attempt at defense. In order to change the flow, Pyrrhus had his trumpeter release two loud and long bellows in quick succession, the signal for those in the Labyrinth to attack.

It was an effective maneuver, creating an assault from multiple directions in an instant. The Romans couldn't defend against all of them, but continued to use the same sort of tactics, allowing a number of the troops to enter the city with ease.

‘Everything is going smoothly. Maybe even...’

Next to him, Medea muttered, “It’s time for the troops to hold while we go in.”

Before he could react, Pyrrhus acted as though on cue, as the trumpeter released three short and loud bellows in quick succession. It was their signal to fly. He gave out a command for those with him to take up the formation, did one last check of the gliders and setup, and then they leapt off the mountain.

It was a tough flight, as they had to accurately navigate through the air to near the center of Civitavecchia, where the airships were located, while evading the archers on the watchtowers and on the walls of the city. The guns had limited range and thus generally weren't used up there, which was something to be grateful for.

But they made it through while losing a single soldier, who ended up spiraling down after having his glider pierced. Vac cursed, but knew they couldn't turn back.

‘I wanted to do this without any losses, but I guess that was naive.’

The other troops who'd glided down from Medea's dragons went to other key points of the city to take them. As Vac’s group approached the aerodrome, however, he noticed something strange. There weren't nearly as many airships there as there were supposed to be. There were only a handful, when there were supposed to be dozens.

As they landed on one of the few ones that were actually present, Vac noticed a few stray parts on the ground.

‘Could it be…’

Medea then called out, “Vac, look there!”

He turned there and cursed, as he saw a number of men hauling away parts on carts in various directions. As they'd decided ahead of time, Medea took over and barked out the orders, quickly splitting up the troops, sending some to seize control of the few airships that were available and the rest in groups to chase down the escaping men.

Their enemies ran into carefully hidden trapdoors that seemed to be part of underground tunnels.

‘When did they dig those? Or did they have that prepared for a while before? And those things they're carting away, look like various technologies, and parts of airships. Could it be that they ripped them apart and carted them away? Is something like that even possible to do this quickly?’

They still managed to capture a fair number of them. Right as Vac was about to pursue one man, he noticed a figure charging incredibly quickly towards him. His eyes widened as he relaxed his feet and rolled away. He felt a sharp point prick his back before slashing to the side as he rolled away. As he got back up on his feet with a groan, he realized who the figure was.

It was the swordsman who'd chased him like a single minded beast back on Aeolia, the one who'd gone up against his grandmother.

“Seriously, you again! Won't you just freaking give up already!”

He readied himself for the fight as he tried to come up with a plan. First, he used some smoke bombs along with some dust manipulation to buy time to maneuver around, but the man unflinchingly ran into it and chased after Vac, dodging or knocking away the small stones Vac sent his way almost casually while following Vac with uncanny precision.

‘Is he sensing the moment in the air or the sound of my footsteps? Okay then, let's try something different.’

He began to raise up rocks around the areas the swordsman stepped on, forcing the man to zigzag, which at least bought Vac some time to catch his breath. He tried to launch an attack with wind, but they either didn't faze the swordsman much or he just straight up dodged them.

Vac tried to release a ball of fire at him, but as soon as the first flicker of the flame was visible the man kicked dirt in Vac's face. As he stumbled back, breaking his concentration, the swordsman quickly knocked him to the ground and pinned him cleanly. Vac felt the man press something against his hand and felt the disconcerting feeling of something sinking into his body through his skin. It was strange, it should've caused him unimaginable pain, but there was only an eerie discomfort that he couldn't place.

‘What the hell was that?’

As the man raised his sword to pierce him through, he was forced to dodge the large rock sent his way.

“Vac, roll towards me now and get up!”

He did just that, looking up to see that the source of the voice had been Medea. The swordsman regarded the new arrival with a simple tilt of the head as he said in a bored voice, “Princess of Sicily, back away. I have no interest in killing you, for we do not seek to exacerbate the conflict with your kingdom. Simply give me the boy and his artifact.”

Medea raised her voice in anger and spat out, “You Romans were the ones who attacked us first, you stole our land and resources and used them as you pleased! We're simply taking back what's ours.”

In the first show of emotion Vac had seen from the man, he shook his head in clear annoyance and spoke in a voice tinged with anger, “We simply took over a few destitute villages whose resources you weren't even using to their fullest extent. We were willing to broker a deal, but your people refused. We've settled into these places you're trying to take back. Several children blessed by Minerva have even been born here. What will you do to them, I wonder?”

‘What is he talking about? Kids who're blessed by Minerva shouldn’t be treated poorly for something that was out of their control.’

Medea's eyes hardened as she glared at the swordsman without uttering a word.

Vac frowned, but there was something in the man's words he wanted to pounce on right away.

“And what about Aeolia? What about my home? You guys certainly had no issues with messing that place up.”

The swordsman shrugged and returned to his apathetic voice and said, “I'm not the one in charge of those kinds of decisions, but from what I understand you were meant to be our garbage disposal, our trash can. Every prosperous civilization has its sacrifices. You guys were simply it, the collateral damage.”

As Vac shook in anger, holding back his impulse to charge, the swordsman said, “Now, enough talk. You're outmatched, princess. Tell me your decision, now.”

Medea sneered and responded, “Such arrogance. Even if you're right, who said it's just us two?”

With that she blew on her dragon whistle to call them down, the eerie sound making even the swordsman flinch. The dragons swooped down, and as she pointed at the man, released white-hot flames at him, which he dodged by rolling and weaving around.

Medea continued with a smirk, “Do you still think we're outmatched?”

In a voice that Vac could swear was tinged with dry amusement, the swordsman replied, “No, I suppose now this might be an even match.”

Vac nodded at Medea, and in unison they began to attack.

Vac had to admit he thought the swordsman's abilities were starting to feel a bit ridiculous. Despite having a clear numerical advantage, they couldn't break through the swordsman, who seemed ridiculously resilient. Even Medea with all her tricks couldn't do much. It wasn't that he was more strategic than her, he just used quick wits, instincts and above all incredible speed to deal with it all.

Vac knew he'd gotten stronger, but Medea still beat him seven out of ten times in their spars. So seeing even her moves fail made him wonder just how high a level this man existed at. Even the dragons couldn't do much.

The swordsman wove between the two reptiles while slashing at them, carefully staying in their blindspots. His swords could cut through even their hard scales with ease, which led Medea to command them to fly up and fire down from there. And then the swordsman immediately closed in on Vac, while carefully watching the location of the dragons to make sure they couldn't get a clear shot without hitting Vac.

Vac had already gotten cut several times, each cut making him wince in pain, and he might've been dead if Medea hadn't interrupted the swordsman several times by shifting the ground. The only positive sign for them was that the swordsman was beginning to slow down. Just then, Medea gave him a hand signal, indicating one of the plans she'd thrown around in their discussions before when he'd brought up the swordsman.

It was a bit risky, but he agreed with a nod. He first coated his right hand in a thick layer of stone. Then he began to charge head on, boosting his speed with wind, which Medea assisted by shifting the earth below with each step. The swordsman was caught off guard by the head on assault, but reacted in time, moving swiftly to strike out with one sword. It would've taken his head clean off, but Medea shifted the ground at the swordsman’s feet, and at the same time Vac released some wind to push the sword from the side. He then grabbed onto the sword. It still cut through the rock encasing his hand, but it was shallow enough that Vac could push through the pain.

With that, Vac used his grip on the sword to grab onto the hand of the swordsman holding it, and pushed it straight down. Caught off guard, the man couldn't react as it struck the ground and went straight through, all the way till the hilt. Before the man could let go or try to pull it out, Medea sent up some earth to grab onto the arm and bind it tightly to the sword and ground, pinning him down. While the swordsman was distracted by this, the dragons flew around to catch him from behind in a fiery pincer attack.

The man was quick to react. He kicked Vac away, used the other sword to cut his arm free, and then rolled backwards through the flames, and continued to do so till they were put out. His armor had protected him from the worst of it, but as he got up, they could see they'd left a mark. His hair was singed, his breath ragged.

Vac wasn't down just yet. He'd spent a while training for this spell, and he'd had some time to charge it up. Right as the swordsman got up, he intoned, “Fiat fulgur”.

A bolt of lightning flew out, though Vac knew it wasn't nearly as strong as he wanted it to be. It struck on target, making the man writhe in pain. But somehow, as though drawing on some otherworldly force, he got up. And then threw a smoke bomb. Vac quickly released some wind to dissipate the smoke, but the man was already gone.

The rest of the day flew by in a blur, as everything was accounted for. Pyrrhus seemed frustrated by the lackluster gains, especially when he learnt that the ore in the captured town was beginning to dry up.

When Pyrrhus learnt of the tunnels the Romans had used to escape, he ordered for search parties to be sent out to the villages and towns nearby. When Vac asked how they planned on finding those in disguise, Pyrrhus smiled and said, “We have tools for that. We call them the Gateways of Truth. It tells us which deity they are blessed by.”

Vac spent some time investigating the intact airships. It took some work, but eventually he was able to more or less figure out how it could be operated and a good amount of it's inner workings. He'd need about five people to operate the smallest one optimally. But then within the next hour a soldier excitedly ran up, bowed to Pyrrhus and said, “We've found some followers of Minerva, sir!”

As the soldier gestured, Vac took a look, only for his heart to sink when he saw who they were. It was Asclepius and some of the others he'd first met. The ones who saved his life.