Stamping Destroy

"Take this!"

Borage sent his wolf spirit out against the soldiers, biting through the ranks with ease until it came up against Rhododendron. Dodging the wolf's lunge and with a tap of his staff against its neck, the mana construct dissipated like a ghost. Borage scowled and tried to close the distance in between him and the clear biggest threat but a small formation of soldiers barred his way with shields and spears. As Borage turned to deal with this phalanx, Scabius rushed up past them to make his own attack at Rhododendron. His poisonous dagger swung at him but was masterfully blocked by the experienced elf. As Scabius struggled to overcome the clear reach advantage between his knife and the staff, Rhododendron simply blocked his next attack and swung the lower half of his staff up, past Scabius' guard and smacking him clean in the ribs. Scabius was thrown up into the air, spinning over and over again as he was flung back several feet from his opponent.

With his surroundings cleared, Rhododendron flicked his staff up to hold it by the center and spun it around, deflecting the ice missiles being fired at him by Nasturtium from the side.

"You can do better than that, Nasturtium." Rhododendron smirked as he swatted away the last of the ice spells, "You've always underestimated people."

"And you've always overestimated yourself." Nasturtium shot back.

"Hoho, snippy." Rhododendron sneered, "Then why don't I teach you something about the difference between us?"

Raising his staff high, Rhododendron made a swipe in the air at Nasturtium's direction. The wave of wind that was sent at Nasturtium did little more that ruffle her clothes and force her to block against the gust but at the same time, the attack revealed the drone floating over her shoulder and dismantled it into particles.

With Nasturtium blinded once again, Rhododendron was left with the only remaining guard to fight. With a step back, he dodged Hyacinth's first surprise attack as it swiped down in front of his body. Swinging their staffs around, the two exchanged blocks and attacks with neither letting up any grounds or guard for the other. With one more clash, Hyacinth pushed against Rhododendron but she clearly wasn't going to overpower the adept soldier.

"Are you sure you want to challenge me in staff combat?" Rhododendron said, amused more than he was threatened, "Our staffs are not quite the same. Yours is meant for casting magic is it not?"

"What good would magic be against you?" Hyacinth replied, "You're clearly well learned against combating magic."

"Smart but if that's the case then how do you plan on fighting me? If magic won't work and you clearly aren't well versed in martial combat."

"Oh I never said I wasn't going to try." Hyacinth smirked as she summoned a gust of wind to whip around them. Not to attack her opponent but to lift the two up into the air.

"Ah yes." Rhododendron said, mainly unfazed as they floated into the air, "They call you Hyacinth the Fairy do they not? Your specialty is aerial combat."

"I never called myself that." Hyacinth replied, "For one, I've actually seen an actual fairy."

"True. You're not quite as small as one."

"And you'll find I'm more fierce than one too! Accel!"

Pushing herself away from Rhododendron, Hyacinth began flying around the elf at blinding speeds. The old elf still seemed stoic as he slowly began floating down on the remnants of the wind spell, his eyes lazily tracking the general directions Hyacinth was flying around him in. Then when Hyacinth went in to attack, Rhododendron swung his body around, pulling the staff close to block as Hyacinth rushed past Rhododendron with a strong swipe. She would swing back around and attack over and over again, attacking multiple times in midair but Rhododendron simply swung his body around, blocking each of her attempts with relative ease until at one point the soldier spun up over the royal guard and whacked her with his staff so hard that she crashed into the ground creating a small crater on impact.

"Is this what the strongest era of the Hyssop Circle has to show for themselves?" Rhododendron laughed as he slowly landed on the ground, "You're all just a confused bunch of kids right now. No cohesion, no alliance. Is this really what the guards of the greatest elven king should be like?"

Hyacinth coughed out a bit of blood as she pulled herself up, using her staff to prop herself up. Scabius scowled as his attempts at attacks were constantly getting blocked by the elven platoon's armors and shields. Borage continued breaking down the formations of soldiers in front of him but the soldiers were trained well enough to avoid major damage and quickly form back up to continue to hinder the giant elf. Hyacinth had formed a shell of ice around her to block the platoon of soldiers that were surrounding her, the soldiers themselves looking more uncomfortable to be surrounding a blind elf than actually concerned with anything else.

"You all have become too self absorbed with your own achievements and forgotten how to work in a proper battalion!" Rhododendron declared, "Without proper teamwork you'll never be able to beat even the weakest army!"

Each of the guards could only scowl in response to Rhododendron's heavy handed evaluation.

"Or should I go after your leader next?" Rhododendron sneered as he turned this eyes towards the still reading Zinnia.

Zinnia's attention had not turned away from the papers, the attacking army apparently too short staffed to directly stop him or Lycoris. While Lycoris had been paying slight attention to the battle going on, enough to look worried, Zinnia continued to look unperturbed, continuing to read with an ever unreadable expression. It was unclear if Zinnia was even aware of what has been going on until Rhododendron took one step towards him.

"You're wrong about one thing." He said, "I'm not the leader of the Hyssop Circle."

"Oho? Then-"

"And neither is the king."

"Hm? Then who is responsible for your poor performance? Surely you can't say this was a satisfactory showing of the Hyssop Circle. Your ancestors would be offended. Hell, I'm offended."

"There is no leader of the Hyssop Circle. We're all responsible for our own selves. For our own powers and for our own fights. This era is made up of individuals, not a team."

"Your era, you mean." Rhododendron scoffed, "And what good does this buy you? You can't match up to me or my little platoon. And you call yourself one of the elites?"

"The best path to strength is one found for yourself. For none knows best what strength you seek than yourself."

"Amusing." Rhododendron replied with an unamused, almost sarcastic tone, "Then why don't you show me where your path has lead you?"

"I would but I have other things to do." Zinnia flipped the document he was reading to read what was written on the back, "And even one of the other members would be more than a match for you."

"Hmph. Just as arrogant as your peers yet I find I might just take you seriously. What is it that you know that I don't?

"That unlike me, your magic isn't true countermagic."

"Isn't..." Borage frowned.

"True..." The gears began to turn in Scabius' head.

"Countermagic..." Nasturtium thought to herself.

Hyacinth looked down at the ground as she processed this information. Then she smiled and stood back up, "Thanks Zinnia."

Zinnia didn't reply as he continued to flip through the papers.

Hyacinth floated her self up off the ground and flew at Rhododendron, flying low and parallel to the ground. Rhododendron raised his staff to swat Hyacinth back into the ground but Hyacinth masterfully rolled around, dodging the strike as she used the impact of the hit and a small gust of wind to throw herself upward, flipping around upside down. Pointing the end of her staff directly down at Rhododendron, Hyacinth threw it down at the elderly elf. Rhododendron took a few steps back as the staff shot down inches from his face and into the ground, releasing a burst of wind that threw him several feet back.

Rhododendron still didn't seem all that concerned as he sort of rode the wind backwards. But as he was about to right himself and land on his feet, Borage was suddenly upon him, read to slam his broadsword down over him. Flipping his staff around, Rhododendron poked his staff into the ground below him and with a push, leveraged himself away from the attack, flipping around to land on his feet again. But even then he had no time to relax as Borage's wolf was charging right at him. Prepping his staff, Rhododendron made a jab at the wolf but it jumped over his attack, now flying over the air at him. With a turn of his fingers, Rhododendron flipped the length of his staff back towards him and caught the end, holding it up to defend against the flying familiar. But the wolf suddenly changed it's trajectory, twisting its body to land right next to Rhododendron's exposed side before ramming it's body into the elven soldier. Rhododendron grunted as he was forced back and lost some of his breath from the impact but he managed to rebalance himself and stab his staff into the wolf familiar's body, dissipating it like he did before. But with one threat dealt with the other was always right behind him as Borage had already prepared his broadsword for a full swing. With a scowl, Rhododendron brought his staff around to block the attack and Borage took the attack gladly. He slammed his giant blade against what seemed like a much thinner rod but the staff refused to break or be cut. But with Borage's great strength, he pulled Rhododendron off from the ground and swung him around for a few circles like some sort of toy. Helpless to do anything, Rhododendron could only wait until Borage flung him off of his sword to another part of the room.

Tired of being flung around, Rhododendron stabbed his staff into the ground grinding himself to a halt before he could be ambushed again.

"Hey."

Rhododendron swung his staff around but Scabius took a few steps back, casually dodging the attack as he kept his hands behind his back, clearly holding something secret. But Rhododendron was already tired of the sudden competent resistance and took the lead against this sneering opponent, throwing out slashes and jabs at a length that Scabius couldn't counterattack from. But this was exactly what Borage was expecting as he tossed up a vial of liquid into the path of one of Rhododendron's slashes, the staff easily smashing through the vial and coating it in what was becoming a thick sort of adhesive slime.

"Good luck getting rid of that." Scabius smirked.

Rhododendron scowled and swung his slime tipped staff at Scabius. Scabius held up one arm and easily blocked the attack with just his arm. Rhododendron looked shocked as Scabius just sneered him with the most excessively smug look on his face.

"How-"

"You want to know? You really want to know right?"

Rhododendron growled as Scabius leaned in with the most annoying stuck-up face he's ever seen. Instead of pressing for an answer, Rhododendron just swung the other end of his staff at Scabius' head. Scabius just leaned back and limbo dodged the staff attack all while tossing up another vial from his hip into the path of the weapon, smashing it and coating the other end in the exact same slime.

"Hahaha! Serves you right!" Scabius laughed and clapped as Rhododendron tried to wipe off the slime with his hands.

"Move it."

Scabius quickly jumped back as a shower of icicles rained down on Rhododendron. Surprised, Rhododendron spun the staff in front of him, deflecting most of the icicles that would've hit him but also getting a ton of them stuck to the ends of his staff due to the slime.

"Now that we know how you work, I don't even need drone anymore." Nasturtium said as she stepped towards the seasoned soldier.

"Your little platoon has been cleaned up too, Rhododendron." Borage grinned as he dusted his hands.

"You're all alone now." Hyacinth floated back down right next to Borage, "Don't worry. Borage and I only knocked them out."

"..." Rhododendron looked around, confirming that his troops have all been knocked out as the royal guards surrounded him, "Perhaps you all are worthy of your positions after all..."

"Doubting us means doubting the king." Borage crossed his arms, "And that means you're doubting all of elvenkind!"

"That's a bit of an exaggeration." Nasturtium sighed, "But whatever."

"If you want to give up now, I'll give you the chance now." Hyacinth offered.

"I won't." Scabius scoffed.

"As much as I also want to beat your face in, I also would like to see you surrender so I could go with either." Nasturtium shrugged.

"...You all seem confident that you've figured me out." Rhododendron said, holding his staff closeto him, "So do tell. What have your figured out?"

"Uhh...is it wise to just tell him like that?" Hyacinth asked.

"It's vibrations." Borage, Scabius and Nasturtium all said at the same time.

"Okay, I guess we can just tell him." Hyacinth sighed.

"At first we were cautious around you having countermagic." Borage nodded, "After all, we know perfectly well how dangerous countermagic can be."

"But you've just been using vibrating magic to destabilize our spells." Nasturtium scoffed, "You just made it look like countermagic."

"And once I figured that out, I picked out the perfect counter to you!" Scabius gloated, "That slime stifles vibrations by up to 90%! And it sticks to you like a shadow! We've sealed off your method of fighting!"

"So again, if you want to surrender, now's the time." Hyacinth repeated.

"Hmph. Hehe..." Rhododendron sneered, "You've got it all wrong. If I no longer have to pretend like I'm using countermagic, I can go ALL OUT!"

The staff in his hands began to shake wildly, shattering the ice and flinging off all the slime. With his weapon free, Rhododendron slammed it's tip into the ground, creating vibration violent enough to start shaking the room and throwing it's inhabitants off balance.

"Dammit, Nasturtium, you froze the slime!" Scabius shouted.

"Make better slime!" Nasturtium retorted.

"I am Rhododendron! And in the past, I was known as The Quake!"

And in the middle of the ground shaking, Rhododendron charged at Nasturtium, staff leveled to bash her head in. Immediately, Hyacinth flew into Rhododendron and picked him up off the ground.

"Your quakes means nothing in the air." Hyacinth said.

But then Rhododendron grabbed her by the head, "But do they mean nothing to you?"

And with that, Hyacinth's head started vibrating. Hyacinth tried her best to hold on but it wasn't long before she was screaming in pain as she let go of Rhododendron and they began falling to the ground.

"Hyacinth!"

Borage ran forward and caught the girl as Rhododendron landed on the ground with a force that was far over the distance he had to travel, nearly flipping everyone else over.

"Come on then!" Rhododendron cried out, "Where are your skills now?!"

Ice fired out from out of nowhere but Rhododendron easily swatted them aside, destroying them with a touch.

"You're giving me a headache." Nasturtium scowled, forced to her knees and to use her drone spell again as the vibrations continued to knock her over.

"Dammit Nasturtium stop using ice magic!" Scabius cried as he threw a few more vials at Rhododendron.

The vials smashed closed to his feet and coated them in the deep purple slime he had used before and the quaking did lessen a degree or two but it was still difficult to stand up. The slime splashed and sloshed around the former royal guard but they were starting to be flung apart by the sheer force of the magic on display.

"Why you little!"

Borage charged through the quaking, his large build giving him more traction than most, as he swung his broadsword at his enemy. Rhododendron blocked the sword with his ever sturdy staff and like anything else that touched him, the sword began too vibrate violently in Borage's hand. But still, Borage held on and summoned his wolf spirit to his shoulder, the large beast appearing above the most of the vibration's source and lunged at Rhododendron. The elf didn't move as the wolf bit down on his shoulder and was instantly vibrated out of existence like before.

"Too naive, Borage!" Rhododendron crowed, "If you went for my head or neck, I might've actually had to done something!"

"That was not the intention." Borage answered.

"What?"

And then a dart clanged off of Rhododendron's armor.

"Shoot! Dammit, it's hard to get a clear shot with all this shaking!" Scabius scowled as put his blowpipe down to try and steady himself again.

"Trying poison this time?" Rhododendron called, "You know I can just vibrate the poison out of my body."

"That's bullshit! You can't just vibrate your way out of every problem!"

"Watch me."

Removing a hand from his staff, Rhododendron made a fist and punched into Borage, sending him flying back. With Borage gone, the earth around him began to shift and warp...I mean, more than usual. As the earth itself began to rise up to try and swallow him.

"It won't work Nasturtium!" Rhododendron poked one side of the earth and broke it apart with ease.

"I swear, I'm going to grab him by the dick and twist it." Nasturtium scowled as she continued to kneel there, struggling with her headache.

"Wait, hang on, keep doing that Nasturtium."

Nasturtium gave Scabius a weird look but went back to summoning up earth around Rhododendron. Scabius brought out a ton of slime vials and began to throw them at Rhododendron again. The vials cracked against the earthen walls and began to drop its contents on top of Rhododendron. The earth continued to roll around Rhododendron, splashing this slime over and over the solitary elf in a weird sort of mixing motion until the vibrations stopped and the earth receded, revealing a Rhododendron who was completely covered in slime.

"Nice. High five, Nasturtium!"

"I CAN'T SEE YOUR HAND!"

"I'm just going to make sure Rhododendron's completely incapacitated!" Scabius yelped and quickly ran away.

Rhododendron sat there, knocked off his balance for once and completely covered in purple, vibration dampening slime.

"Just how much of this thing did you have?!" Rhododendron scowled.

"I can just alchemize more you know."

"That's bullshit! You can't just alchemize out of all your problems!"

"Watch me." Scabius sneered as he held up another vial.

"Oooo..."

"You good Nasturtium?" Scabius called.

"I've still got a headache."

"I mean, you're doing better than Hyacinth."

"Oooooooo..." Hyacinth moaned as Borage helped her walk up to Rhododendron.

"You okay, Hyacinth?" Scabius asked.

"I'm fine." Hyacinth said weakly.

"You almost got your brain turned to mush inside your own skull. You can lay down if you want to."

"I'm fine." Hyacinth repeated with only a bit more strength, "More importantly, do you surrender now, Rhododendron?"

"You think I can't fight like this?" Rhododendron scowled.

"I mean, I wouldn't want to touch you right now." Borage smirked.

"I wouldn't recommend it." Scabius sneered.

"If you think you have me, you're dead wrong!" Rhododendron summoned a rift in space and pulled out-

"A bell?" Scabius frowned as he and Borage had pointed their weapons at Rhododendron in response.

"Wait-" Nasturtium said as she realized what was about to happen.

But it was too late as Rhododendron began ringing it and the sound of the bell reverberated through the air at a volume that was far beyond that of its size. The sound rattled their bones and shook the earth as Rhododendron continued ringing it so loud that the elves were once again forced to their knees.

"Oh goddammit Rhododendron you vibrating prick not again!" Nasturtium cried.

"You want to know what they called me before I was 'The Quake'?! I was Rhododendron the 'Ring of Dawn!'"

"Is he saying something?!" Scabius yelled, "I swear he's trying to say something but I can't hear anything!"

"Can't...move..." Borage grimaced as he held his hands over his ears.

"Hahahahahaha! You underestimate me! I was a royal guard too! I worked under a king too! I-"

And then the ringing suddenly stopped. The sound that was like the roaring of a kaiju was reduced to what was like the mewing of a kitten in comparison. Rhododendron continued to wave his bell around feebly as he tried to figure out what happened.

"It was getting noisy." Zinnia called from the table, still looking through the papers, "So I shut it off."

"Oh." Rhododendron's face grew pale, "Ummm..." He turned back to he guards standing around him, "Let's talk about this-"

Borage punched him in the face and knocked him out.

"Are you all okay?" Hyacinth asked.

"I-um...got a bit sick from all that vibrating." Lycoris replied, "Made it hard to continue reading."

"Motion sickness is a terrible thing to have while reading." Hyacinth pat the child in the head, "It's fine."

"Figure anything out yet?" Nasturtium asked Zinnia who placed down the last of the documents.

"Yeah." Zinnia said, his face and tone refusing to give any hints to what exactly he found out.

"Well then spill the beans." Scabius said, "What happened to the core?"

"It's been fused into the tree."

"It's been what?!"

"Actually it probably hasn't been fully incorporated in quite yet." Zinnia explained, "But we don't really have a way of accessing it to reverse the process so it might as well be gone."

"Why would the king do something like that?"

"Because he's not growing new bodies. He's just directly reviving elves from the dead the instant they die."

"Is there a difference?" Borage frowned.

"It means that you can't escape fighting." Nasturtium stated, "The way the King put it with the replacement body explanation, if there isn't a body ready to replace you, you just die. Now no matter what you do, you can't die even if you want to."

"Exactly. The core fused with the tree so the tree can more easily revive elves from its branches." Zinnia added.

"That's exceedingly cruel if the king expects all of elvenkind to throw themselves at the war over and over again without end." Hyacinth frowned, "Is becoming a black elf the better option then?"

"Not at all." Zinnia replied.

"Why? Lycoris asked, "What's wrong with the black elves?"

"Their lives are being used to power the entire system."

…

"What?" Lycoris said, her face pale.

"A life lost cannot be revived without an equal cost." Zinnia explained, "Not even another life can equal the energy needed to bring someone back. But a large group of people can provide enough energy while mitigating the worst of the effects."

"So the only people who truly die are those who don't fight?" Hyacinth gulped, "And those who fight are incapable of dying?"

"Fight and live or serve and die." Scabius mused, "That's...one hell of a system."

"So...if I fight...then Marigold will die?" Lycoris gasped.

"...This is insane." Hyacinth gripped her head, "Enslaving the living and sacrificing the unwilling...the king has gone insane!"

"If...if we can find the king maybe he can reverse all this." Borage gulped, "Or...maybe explain himself?"

"What's there to explain? He wants to end the war." Nasturtium replied casually, "I'm sure this is all a temporary system until the war is won."

"You say that like there's a way to turn back from becoming one of the sacrifices."

"Maybe we do. Zinnia, any news on that?"

"No such indication from what I've seen."

"Well, I'm sure the king will figure it out."

"And you think those who've been turned will just forgive and forget being used like that?" Hyacinth cried, "This is unconscionable!"

"This is pretty bad." Scabius said, "But give the king a chance. At the very least let us make our concerns known to him before condemning him."

"I...I..."

"I...can't..."

Everyone turned to Lycoris who was standing there clutching her chest and breathing heavily, "I...can't accept this. This is...I can't...not like this...I don't...I don't want..."

The royal guards all cried out as Lycoris suddenly collapsed on the ground. And to their horror, a dark brown pigment began spreading across her skin.