16:00 AT, Day Forty Five | Near Fort Amazon (Eastern Floodplains)
Ray snuggles up next to me as we wait for the troops to get into position. She has been really in need of many cuddles lately, which is good. She looks up at me, “Ko, stop thinking and more cuddling.”
I oblige her request and wrap my arms around her, dragging her even closer. I plant a gentle kiss on her forehead, which earns me a grumble of satisfaction.
If only we could figure out a way to harness Ray’s cuteness, we would have an infinite source of energy. The universe would kneel before the overwhelming power that we would possess.
Alas, it seems only I will be subjected to the full brunt of her cuteness. Which is probably a good thing, as it could easily destroy entire empires. Heck, even just the bit that comes across on screens has definitely caused a few revolutions already.
A while passes and I end up having to pry Ray off me – to much resistance of course. Eventually she relents when I promise her extra headrubs if we manage to take the fort, and I see a fire ignite in her eyes.
Those snowflakes don't stand a chance, heck I am tempted to let her solo the entire fort.
But that would be no fun for me, and the troops are itching for a fight too. So I hold her back a bit, she can go wild another time – perhaps when curled up in my arms later.
In typical fashion, Ray and I rush right in towards the fort, which is placed right in the middle of a truly massive river. Which isn't a problem, since we can fly. We gracefully leap over the water and embed our patented shield overloading spikes into the thick barrier of plasma.
We are immediately met with two dozen defenders, armed with lots and lots of poison weaponry. They actually manage to land a few hits on us, but it’s nothing a few healthpacks can't solve of course.
We look over the battlements as our troops begin splashing through the water, heavy mechs making veritable tsunamis with every step. We continue on without waiting, after all, we are basically a two person army.
We push into the fort, which is actually fairly well defended. We meet quite a bit of resistance and end up running through many health packs. Perhaps I shouldn't have held Ray back so much, these snowflakes have grown far too arrogant.
“Ha, take that you overgrown ice crystals!” Ray slices a group of three in half with one flick of her blades, my girlfriend is so awesome. “No one is allowed to prevent headrubs!” She is also really cute and cuddly.
We make quick work of the riffraff and make it into the center of the fort, where we find a truly beautiful sight. A lone old man is sitting amidst a field of beautiful white flowers that look like they were sculpted from ice. He is tending ever so carefully to one of them in particular and humming a jolly tune.
My boots crunch against the soil and his head whips around to look at us. He sighs. “Damn ye whippersnappers, can’t an old man ever just tend to his garden? Alas it seems ye won’t allow that.”
Ray turns to me, “ooo its Vel, I love this guy.” She grabs a hold of my arm, “Koooo darling, can we keep him?”
I look into her pleading eyes and then take a look at Vel who has picked up his very deadly looking scythe. “I don’t think that's gonna work out darling.”
Ray deflates momentarily, then a large grin spreads over her face. “So that means violence then, right darling?”
I pat her on the head a few times, “of course.” She practically jumps for joy at that. My girlfriend is super cute, and I love her. After all, who wouldn’t love such an awesome girlfriend?
Vel sighs and stands up slowly, leaning his scythe on his shoulder. “Are you sure we can’t reschedule this? My lovely flowers were just starting to bloom.” He complains.
I turn to Ray and she seems to be thinking about it. “Hmm, sure, they are quite pretty after all.”
Vel laughs loudly, “My my, you whippershnappers do have some tact at least.” He reaches down and grabs one of the flowers. “These are my signature specialty, icedelions! Here, a pretty lady such as yourself must have one.” He proffers the flower to Ray.
She takes a bold step forward and reaches for the flower, but she jumps back at the last possible instant as it explodes. In fact, all of the flowers explode simultaneously into a shower of razor sharp ice spikes. Several embed themselves in my leg, and one manages to get Ray in the arm.
Vel bursts into a legendary fit of laughter. “To think you fell for such a trick, you will stand no chance against our glorious empress.”
I feel strangely tired all of a sudden, the klacking flowers were poisoned. As if exploding ice flowers wasn't enough, he added poison. “Touche, a legendary gardner indeed. However, you are forgetting one fact.”
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“Oho, and what might that be, boy?”
I smile. “The prettiest flowers have thorns.”
Ray appears behind him, having gone invisible while he was distracted laughing. She cackles as she relieves him of an arm and the respawn barrier is triggered.
I have firsthand experience with Ray’s thorns, and Vel stood absolutely no chance. Especially since she really hates being tricked. She rushes towards me and throws her arms around me, a fire still blazing in her eyes.
“Ko, ima shred those klackers into a billion pieces.” She whispers into my ear.
“Well then darling Ray, I will simply have to assist you with that.” I whisper back, leaning back a bit and plating my lips onto hers.
18:00 AT, Day Forty Five | Arce Lunae / Command Room
“Our first offensive stage has succeeded.” Emil announces and many cheers spread throughout the room. “We have successfully regained full control of the mesa and floodplains, with only an average 60% casualty rate. While still double our average on the Quartet front, it is a massive improvement over the previous 90%.” Another cheer goes out at that news.
By standard military metrics, I think 60% of your troops dying in every encounter would be bad. But here they simply respawn, so it is quite good. Especially considering we are the Moonlight Alliance after all, and we aren't known for being cautious.
Ray is contentedly sitting in my lap, a rose woven through her hair. She wanted one so bad that she dragged me all around the arena until we finally found a patch of them that was alive. If Ray wants something, it is simply not refused.
“The next stage of our offensive is ready. But we have recently detected a strange anomaly.” Emil motions and a closeup of the border between the mesa and desert appears. Shown there is a massive blob of enemy forces. “We estimate around six thousand troops have gathered in this spot, staying just on their side of the border.”
Ray turns around to look at me. “Darling, does that mean we get to blow things up?”
I trace my finger up her arm and cup her cheek in my hand. “That it does. It shall be a truly wonderful explosion too. Nothing but the best.”
“Ooo, that sounds nice.”
“Emil, we have one of the prototypes lying around, right?” I ask.
“That we do Milord, shall I have it prepared?” He gives me a knowing smile. It is really nice having people that know what you are thinking about doing, saves a lot of time speaking.
“Naturally, those klackers are going to learn why they don't intrude on our territory.”
Later that night
“Darrrling, more headpats.” Ray complains as she lays her head in my lap. The steam from the hot spring seems to make her even more in need of headrubs, it is strange.
“As you wish milady." I gently run my fingers through her hair, which is nice and silky smooth. She has decided to keep it around shoulder length, though I would rather it be a bit longer. After all, it is only natural to want more of a beautiful thing, is it not?
She squirms around as she tries to get comfortable. It isn't the easiest to lay on another’s lap with how it is configured. Especially if she wants a view of the pretty starry sky above – a fake one unfortunately.
“It’ll be nice to see the real stars in person again.” she says once she finds a cozy spot.
“You say that as if we haven't seen them in ages, it's been less than two months.”
Her beautiful eyes catch my own. “Well I am just having so much fun here with you that it seems to be stretching out forever. It is nice to take things slowly and relax, this trial has been super nice.”
“It has been fun indeed, but I am starting to wonder how things are getting along without us.”
“Initae has probably done a fine job, assuming she didn't just disappear.”
I boop her on the nose. “Your confidence in her far exceeds my own. She is Initae after all.”
“You do make a fair point, darling. But still, we have come a long way and she is a big part of that.” She grabs my free hand in both of her own and squeezes it tightly. I can smell her lovely scent all around me, overpowering even the perfumes in the water.
“I suppose so. For klacks sake, a lot has happened in the past few months, hasn’t it?” I squeeze back.
“Yep. To think not that long ago you were just a loser and I was in law school.”
“Well, together we have become rulers of an empire. Not to mention started that Idol company and all that other stuff.”
“Oh, and don't forget about that time when you were completely oblivious.”
“Wait, what time was that?” She kicks me in the shin for that comment. But she never does tell me when I was oblivious. Oh well, I am sure it wasn’t that important.
“Don’t forget about the others we have met. Like Emil, Linda and Rigar.”
“Yeah, we would be completely lost without Emil, and Linda is a big help. I doubt we would have a functional military without Rigar’s expertise either.”
Ray suddenly sits up and leans back next to me. “Alright darling, your turn now!” She pats her now open lap. I comply with her request promptly, after all the view is very nice. There are many stars, among other things. Her fingers running through my hair are also heavenly, truly the stuff of gods.
I am sure that we still have a lot to overcome. But I have no doubt that we will do it together. After all, we are the Moonlight Duo, and luce lunae per aspera ad astra et ultra. All who stand in our way are going to regret it very soon, for we have an empire to build.
So, bring it on.
End of Chapter 139
Next: Chapter 140 | Light of Life
