Lock On

"What are your orders?" The police chief asked, turning to Helena.

Roko spoke up quickly, "I want four platoons of four to five fully armored soldiers armed with shields to surround the creature. It's power is rising but we can still repel it. Tell them that they need to be prepared to step in front of the monster's feet and attempt to push it back."

The chief turned to look at Helena again who just nodded with a smile. The chief turned to one of his men who nodded and ran off to gather the forces.

"Now, I need an understanding of how much people we have. What weapons do we have? Is anybody capable of magic?"

"We have about half the police officers and a fourth of the army here." The police chief explained, "There are a couple of magic users and a we have a collection of basic equipment. Swords and shields and spears. Most of us are armored though some of us were forced to sortie without it."

"How skilled are the mages?"

"Most of them are qualified Quadifarius or at least Trismegistus."

"What spells do they know?"

"That depends."

"Right. I'll get to scanning them." Roko sighed, "Back up the defense squad with some spear men. I have a feeling we'll need to use magic for this."

"W-What can we do, Roko?!" Helena cried, dragging Roland along as she followed Roko to the cart with the mages.

"Take five." Roko answered, "You've done enough."

"What?! But we want to help too!"

"Speak for yourself." Roland grumbled.

"You've barely got any mana left and Roland's taken the full brunt of the monster's footsteps a few times already. What's more, we've fought those smaller monsters as well."

"But you fought those things too and you're still active."

"That's because I'm only taking command." Roko said as he scanned the mages and began writing down the spells each of them had, "None of us has eaten lunch yet either so if you want to be helpful, secure some dinner for us at least."

"I can't just leave this situation behind..."

"Then take a break." Roko repeated as he finished scanning the mages and sat down to formulate a plan, "I'll make it quick."

"Hold steady!" The police chief as the monster raised its leg to take another step. The soldiers all huddled together, more than the four to five that Roko had ordered, below the foot and held strong against the monster's destructive attempt to move.

"Push!" The chief cried, calling for the soldiers to lift up and push the monster back into the grounds of the church.

"Seems to be going well then." Roko said as he walked up next to the chief.

"I have to really question all this." The chief scowled, "Who are you? What makes you think you can just order my men to stand in front of the monster's steps? That thing is getting stronger! It won't be long until it crushes us under its foot. Was this even necessary?"

"Taking this monster down while its rampaging in the city would just cause more destruction. This was necessary in order to keep the people safe. I appreciate you and your mens' efforts but the monster's power is still rising. Tell them to retreat for now. We'll begin our assault once everyone's secured."

"Who the hell are you?" The chief grumbled but gave the order to retreat all the same.

"All units to your places." Roko called.

The chief looked confused as the magic unit stepped up to face the monster with a pair of horses dragging a large rattling crate beside them.

"What's this?"

"We'll get there in due time." Roko said, "The monster is attempting to escape! Force it back with Ice magic!"

A few of the mages raised their staffs and called out Ice, throwing a volley of arctic bolts at lumbering mass of flesh. The ice spells crashed into their target, knocking it backwards and covering much of it's body in layers of ice.

"Now then." Roko turned to the crate and slid off the lid at the top. Curious, the chief came over to look as Roko pulled a bottle of beer.

"What? What are you doing with all this alcohol?" The chief asked.

"To kill the monster."

"You just appropriated a crate of alcohol? You need authorization to do that."

"It's okay!" Helena cried as she ran up to them, "I'm paying for them!"

"Must be convenient to have the princess with you." The chief grumbled.

"Jealously is unbecoming of you." Roko said as he popped open the bottle and the beer bubbled out, "Ah. Roland, drink some of this."

"You're just going to give a minor alcohol?"

"You're telling me you never drank before?"

"How would you even know that?"

"I'm just guessing this isn't the first time you've had alcohol."

"...Lucky guess." Roland grumbled as he took the bottle from Roko, "At least give me the good stuff."

"You drink?" Helena frowned, "I didn't know that."

"Don't drink all of it." Roko scowled as he pulled the bottle out of Roland's hands, "All units, use magic to lift the crate and drop it over the monster.

Using wind spells, the crate lifted off of the ground and floated over to the monster who was struggling to move with the ice covering its body. With a snap of his fingers, Roko signaled to the mages to drop the crate, destroying it and dousing the monster in it's dizzying contents.

"Man, I was drinking that." Roland said as Roko pulled out a piece of cloth and stuffed it into the opening of the bottle.

"You feel okay?" Helena asked.

"I'm not some kind of lightweight." Roland scoffed.

"Light this for me." Roko pushed his bottle towards one of the mages with lit it with a small fire spell.

"You think you can make that throw way over here?" The chief asked.

"No. That's why the mages are going to help me with a bit of wind magic again. Along with a bit of fire." Roko said as he threw his molotov cocktail into the air. Wind spells lifted the small bottle up and over the monster again, dropping it on top of its head as fire spells flew through the air and lit up the monster's body, spreading all over the monster's body. The monster began screaming, as he began to burn to death, though from where the scream would be coming from on the monster's faceless body was a mystery.

"Oh." Roland covered his mouth as the stench of burning flesh began to fill the air, "I think I'm going to throw up."

"I thought you said you weren't a lightweight." Helena said as she pinched her nose.

"This is completely different."

Roko watched as the monster thrashed about, unable to put out the fire, "All units, use wind. Stoke the fire higher. Make sure not to let the fire spread to the city."

Starting to get a bit sick of his constant orders, the mages nonetheless did as they were told, surrounding the burning monster with a steady breeze, stoking the fire more, cover its body in flames and inadvertently melting the ice that was over its body.

"That fire's spreading really well." The chief whistled as he covered his nose.

"Actually isn't it starting to drop a little?" Roland squinted his eyes, "Is that the ice turning into water? Are you sure that was a good idea?"

"Absolutely." Roko said as he continued to monitor the monster's health, "Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to do this. All units bombard it with lightning!"

The mages took to their latest order with an excited energy as they all fired bolts of lightning at the giant creature. The electricity spread out faster than the fire though with lesser intensity. But as the ice melted into water, further thinning out the alcohol and fire, the more water there was to conduct the electricity, making their lightning bolts more and more effective until finally the smoldering monster collapsed on the ground, unmoving.

A cheer rose from their small army at the sight of the downed monster. Loud shouting ensued and the soldiers began to pass around bottles of alcohol that Roko had no idea where they got them from but felt partially responsible for. Despite everyone's celebration, Roko kept watch on the monster's status as it stalled at 5% Health.

"All units!" Roko shouted over the noisy festivities, "Bolt it again."

"Wait what? But-"

"I said bolt it again!"

The magicians scrambled to put down their bottles of beer and scrambled back to the frontlines and cast lightning bolts again. The spells blasted the monster's electrified body, causing it to screech again before Roko watched the assault finally deplete the last of its health and the giant monster began to disappear into dust.

"Are you sure killing it was the right idea?" The chief asked as the crowd returned to their festivities, now much less enthusiastic, "Wouldn't it have been good to capture it and study it?"

"If you have room to study a monster that big then sure, maybe." Roko sighed, "But I don't think you'd be able to keep it contained for long."

"I suppose so." The chief nodded.

"I can't believe this is over." Helena collapse on the ground, "I thought we were dead when the giant monster showed up."

"Man, I really could use something to eat." Roland rubbed his stomach, "That beer only made me more hungry."

"It's definitely past time for dinner at the castle now." Helena sighed as she turned to look at one of the city's public clocks, "Guess we're eating out tonight. Know any good places, chief?"

"M-Me, princess?" The chief looked startled, unsure of how to handle talking to his city's royalty, "M-My wife makes some good chicken alfredo."

"We couldn't possible impose on you and your wife so suddenly," Helena smiled, "Well, we'll figure something out. Hey Roko what do you-"

"How the hell do none of your know any water or earth magic?" Roko said very crossly as the mage unit sat down in front of him looking apologetic, "There are a dozen of you, all skilled mages who mastered at least three different elements and NONE of them were water or earth magic?! You are the premier mages in service to the city of Aporia and not one of you can conjure a stream or throw a boulder. What's going on here? Did you all go to the same school? Did that school not have any earth or water teachers? Did your teachers just not like water and earth magic? Did anybody in your school even know water or earth magic?"

"Hey now, give them a break." Helena chuckled as she patted Roko on the shoulder, "Water and earth are usually the least popular elements to learn. Everyone just thinks the other four elements are cooler. It's hard enough to learn a spell, much less three to four of them so don't be too hard on them."

"How many of you have learned intentional casting?" Roko turned back to the mages.

No hands went up.

"You see what I have to deal with?" Roko sighed, "Nevermind. I'm too hungry to keep this up. Let's just grab dinner and go to sleep."

Roko woke up late the following morning and still felt the weariness of last night stuck in his bones. Despite that, he dragged himself up and out into the castle. He met Helena and Roland at the cafeteria who didn't seem much better off.

"Morning." Helena yawned as she sipped the last of her orange juice, "Aahh, I could sleep for another eight hours."

"I could go for another meal." Roland nodded, "You want those hash browns?"

Helena pushed the rest of her plate towards Roland, "Take it. I'm not that hungry."

"Are you still eating properly?" Roko asked as he cut into his omelette.

"I guess?" Helena shrugged, "Honestly after seeing what happened to that woman, I haven't had much of an appetite."

"That's understandable." Roko nodded, "It's a shame we were too late to save her."

"Yeah..." Helena sighed, "The cult seems like they're onto us, seeing how they sent someone specifically to attack us during our stakeout."

"Come to think of it." Roland spoke up as he ate his hash browns, "Did we even get anything out of it?"

"Of course." Roko and Helena replied simultaneously.

"Wait really?" Roland blinked, "What was it?"

"You weren't paying attention were you?" Helena sighed, "Well, she only said it once so I guess I'm not surprised."

"What is it?"

"The name of their god." Roko explained, "Gnasci. It's not much but we can use it to search for them to a deeper degree."

"Will it?" Roland frowned, "It's not a lot to go on."

"It's a pretty important name." Helena said, "Whenever or not we'll get something out of it will depend on the investigators."

"Does this mean we're out of it now?" Roland asked hopefully, "Can we just leave it to the police then?"

"Why should we back down now?" Helena frowned.

"Because you saw what happened to that woman! That could be you next! They seem to be targeting women and you're a prime target! We don't have nearly enough power to take on a cult on our own!"

"Mmph...fine." Helena grumbled, "We'll leave it to the police."

"Thank you."

"That being said, we need to give our information to the police first." Helena said as she stood up, "I'm going to go make a report. You guys want to come?"

When Helena, Roland and Roko arrived at the police office, they could see some sort of crowd huddled around the cells.

"Something going on?" Helena asked as she walked up to the nearest police officer.

"Oh! Princess! Give me a moment. Hey chief!"

The police chief pushed his way out of the crowd and noticed the three of them, coming over with a grim expression on his face.

"Something happen?" Helena asked.

"You could say that." The chief sighed, "You remember those cult members you captured?"

"Yeah."

"They're all dead now."

"They're what?!"

Helena pushed her way past the chief and through the crowd. Roko and Roland followed behind her, making their way through the onlookers until they stood in front of one of the cells. On the floor was the mangled corpse of the cultist that they had interrogated, though he was barely recognizable. His body had virtually been turned inside out, seeming through an outside force. Half his face was missing and his limbs were twisted at soft angles, as if their bones had been melted. Blood caked half of the cell, covering the floor walls and ceilings with bits of unidentifiable organs strewn about. Helena covered her mouth but Roland was the one who retched.

"All of them were found like this at morning." The chief said grimly as he joined them in front of the cell, "We have no idea what happened. No one was detected coming in or out, though this isn't something any human can do."

"This is without a doubt the cult's fault." Roko nodded, "But if there's no sign that anything broke in or out then this must have happened magically. Is there any sign of magical tampering?"

"Our archeomancers couldn't find any sort of magical residue at all." The chief shook his head, "It's almost as if their bodies twisted and burst themselves."

"Or perhaps something reached them from beyond the bounds of reality." Roko mused.

"What?"

"It's nothing."

Helena sat down on a public bench outside the police office, still processing what had happened to the captured cultists.

"Well..." Roland sighed, "At least you don't have to cook for them now."

"Seriously?" Helena frowned.

"What?! It's true."

"Have some tact, Roland."

"Hey, I have no reason to feel sorry for them. They got themselves into the cult and paid the price for it. I don't know them. They aren't my friends. If anything they were enemies."

"You weren't the one who fought them." Roko said.

"Shut it." Roland growled, "At any rate, we don't have to think about this anymore. This is all on the police now so let's actually vacate on this vacation."

"That's not how words work." Helena sighed, "Hm? Is that Roswell?"

Turning around, Roko and Roland spotted Melia's knight, alone, in the middle of the square, looking around with a worried look on his face.

"What's he doing?" Roland said.

"Well lets ask him." Helena said as she stood up and walked over to the knight with her friends following behind her, "Hey, Roswell. What are you doing."

"Oh. Princess Helena." Roswell bowed slightly, "My apologies but...um...have you seen Melia?"

"No. Something happen to her?"

"I'm afraid that Melia has gone missing."