The Ogre Strength Fairy and the Eldest 'Son'-Chapter 491 - Extortion With An Army Is A War Crime, Dear
Hopping from sphere to sphere without slipping, the young woman showed off her own acrobatic capabilities just a bit while explaining herself further to the group. However, she still sounded quite ’sweet’, for she was having fun and not just lecturing.
"The drones were always part of my plan. Fighters for the estate-fortress that someday my beloved will inhabit. Where I kept them, their number, and whether any of you knew about the scope of deployment hardly mattered before they could be used. Besides, it’s fun to see the looks on your face... like you expect me to invade the continent suddenly. However, that’s not why I made a point of appearing right now."
Most of the spheres lowered back down, all but the three she had last touched. Returning to dormant states while she addressed her willing experiment partner.
"The footsoldiers of the Voidlings don’t attack alone, either. Because they are individually weaker. They coordinate, overwhelm through numbers, exploit weaknesses with their collective intelligence. In the rare case this place is ever deemed a target for an invasion breach, one construct won’t be enough. The defense needs to handle swarms."
A pair of them unfolded into their active forms as she reached up and pat the man’s shoulder with a daring grin. She could feel the small tremor of ’terror’ and ’excitement’ in the warrior.
"All in all, I think you have proven you are skilled, not just lucky. I thank you for helping me improve them in single combat, though I think I’ve also done plenty to repay you. So... ready to try against two? Maybe work your way up to three?"
"...Yes. I’ll try two."
There was hesitation, but not much. Working with what could be defined well enough as ’battle maniacs’ was rather simple. You just gave them something to hit and something to hit them and all was well with the world. There were times that she understood the Void Divinity, if only for that point of it all. A common enemy that people could rally themselves against instead of against each other was a noble goal, but eighteen years between people getting to fight for their lives was too long for some.
"Maybe get a bit of rest and relaxation first. Besides, you’ve been fighting for weeks now. Perhaps its time to let a lazy father have a turn and show the younger generation how it is done, hm?"
"Am I starting with one or two?"
Asking not particularly because he wanted to do it, but because she had the same look as Yatrel that told him he WOULD do it... the former Hero who had taken on Leader class Voidlings stepped forward. While the meteor hammer fighter had been the one taking up arms this whole time, he had watched the majority of it all and learned quite a bit. All while meditating next to a Crystal larger than himself retrieved from pegmatite that felt like cheating somehow... a piece of tourmaline flush with essence and supposedly torn right out of a convergence zone of essence lines before being lashed and contained with sigils to keep it from dissipating.
While his daughter had been almost forced to teach her mother how to catalyze physical energy better, and had then went all in on the other energies as well, unfortunately there had been nothing so beneficial around for her in the Exclave. Much of the stone and earth was plenty saturated, so it was still quite a good experience for the Elementalist... but El had a feeling that by the end of the months he would be here he might surpass her at the rate he was going.
’Might even hit Peak Primalist if he doesn’t slow down. Maybe I should take it back from him before he becomes too much of an anomaly to send back home...’
"Well. Here’s the deal. I’ll send out one at a time, letting more in until you are just about overwhelmed. In exchange, I’ll be taking my pretty rock back - you’ll be fighting anyway, no need for it to be out in the open any longer."
"But I like-"
"Or... I’ll send five at once right now."
The man actually thought about it for a moment. He considered himself more effective of a fighter than Aleck, if only for years more experience and having been in more than one Descent by now. But ultimately, even he was not so foolhardy as to agree to be bullied by five at once while his daughter had that glint in her mint eyes!
"Dear, that’s extortion."
"You’re right. So what will it be?"
"...Send one, please. But we’ll be having a talk later."
"Agreed. I love our discussions, dad. They are usually so fruitful."
Waving her hand while sending a spiritual pulse to the command & control section of sigils in her silver dress, the automatons were quickly set to allow two for Aleck whenever he wanted. As well as up to a whole spiral squadron of eleven drones, depending on the threat expectations that the whip-blade wielder garnered for them. Not staying to watch him show off, mostly because she knew seeing her just *go back to other business* made him a little bitter and a harder fighter for her data gathering...
The last person in the Exclave that thought she would be approached widened her eyes as a smiling and skipping teenager approached her... with the absolutely gigantic piece of achroite rimmed with rubellite held overhead like it was a pillow about to be tossed. Twisting slightly and stopping on a sudden dime only a few inches away, shoulder to shoulder beside Dima, the heiress spoke in a sing-song tone.
"I’ve let you roam free because I had other things to attend to~ but since I’m switching gears... follow me or else."
If this was before, the branch manager may have frozen up. She would have been unclear whether it was wiser to obey or risk digging in her heels. But the Dima of today, just nodded and turned to follow. She could scream internally while doing that all she wanted, because her Clarity had told her that even if she was killed wherever they were going... the ’or else’ would have been worse!
