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"I got you pancakes!"
Sakitu jumped at Maka's shouting. When she spun around she saw Maka standing there, with tear filled eyes, holding a steaming plate of pancakes out in front of her. The sight of Maka so distraught melted Sakitu.
"Oh Maka, I'm so sorry that I just... well, like, I didn't handle what you said right. I'm sorry."
She stepped in closer to Maka and took the plate from her, the aroma of the freshly cooked pancakes filling her nose. Holding the plate in one hand she tried to hug Maka with the other.
"I know that you were just trying to be helpful. I mean, with what you were saying."
Sakitu didn't know what else to say so she kept trying to squeeze Maka's warm body.
"We'll take all those potions." affirms Quasit, as she makes the exchange for her items. "You're a very handy fellow to have around."
"May our relations continue to be mutually beneficial!" Zilvazaarat replies, with a booming laugh.
Maka wrapped her arms around Sakitu, squeezing her tightly. “I was just trying to explain and apologize, but I stuck my foot in my mouth as usual,” Maka's voice was soft and tinged with regret.
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"All right everyone, let's get some rest and then meet up out here mid-afternoon. Selena, you'll be responsible for two Wall of Ice spells and a Black Tentacles as well as a Teleport. Kalchine, you are responsible for a Stoneskin spell for Maka and a Humungous Elemental Summoning spell, and a Wall of Thorns as a back-up in case the Walls of Ice go down. If anybody is still wounded, see Kalchine before he goes and rests."
"Fin, you take that Fly potion, and one of the invisibility potions. Selena should get one of the invisibility potions too. We'll put the third one away in the bag of holding for now."
"Hey Zilvazaraat, before you go, you want some pancakes?"
"You got it, Quasit!" Maka replied as she began her nightly ritual of unbraiding and combing her hair. "Kal, make sure you a plant teleport as well."
"I appreciate the offer, but if our business is concluded for now I must be off," Zilvazaraat replies to Quasit. "If you think fighting for your life against all the monsters of the cosmos is hard, you should try fighting other merchants in the markets of the Brass City for good prices! I have to maintain *all* my contacts to bring you the good prices for what you want."
”Before you go Zilvazaraat, what is a good plane to escape to from battle? And how much for a tuning fork attuned to it, and a tuning fork attuned to the material plane? And do you have any such tuning forks for any plane on you now?” Selena asks with sudden interest, a thought clearly having occurred to her.
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Sakitu leaned into Maka's hug. "I know that you were just trying to apologize and I just made it worse. I'm sorry too."
After a good squeeze she let go of Maka feeling much better.
"Well, now we just have to go and keep saving the world. I heard of the plan that you guys made. I think it's going to work."
Sakitu chats with a few others before she goes to rest. Fin rests with her for a while and before long it is time for them to begin their next attack.
Zilvazaraat departs, leaving you to your preparations. The day passes by quietly, with no further attempts on your life before the time you'd determined for your attack.
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Quasit doesn't sleep during the morning and early afternoon. She wanders, circling the Hut or taking short walks off in various directions, occasionally stepping inside to warm herself and check on others silently as they rest. She plays a few hands of cards with the Coffin Man, mostly because she feels sorry for him, but her heart isn't really in it. Once it's time to go, she goes about gently waking people who were sleeping or rousing others from their meditations.
And then they were setting out, on foot this time, making a wide circuit of the clearing where the compound of the ruined church sat like a lonely black castle, always staying under the cover of the trees. She has little to say as they walk-- she seems nervous and distracted, going over things in her head. Or perhaps preparing herself for the worst.
Finally they reach the jumping off point, perhaps an hour before sunset. Moving up to the edge of the tree line, she peers across 1000 yards of open ground toward the objective, not really able to make out any details. She takes a deep breath and closes her eyes, trying to rein in her racing heart. All the failures and near misses were beginning to condition her to dread the sight of that place, and her worry rose in her throat.
But there was a job to do. She turns and faces the others.
"OK, you all know the plan, but let's go over it one more time."
"Kalchine, please put a stone-skin spell on Maka."
"Once that's done, Fin and Kal are going to make their way to the trench just outside the fence and make sure everything is the way we expect -- everyone is still in that front compound, no unsual activity. If it looks bad, watch to see what's happening and make a judgment, then report back. If it looks like we expect, Fin will signal back to us with the hand mirror off the setting sun. Or he can use an Animal Messenger spell or the Obsidian Raven. Fin, since there's no cover and it's daylight, if you want to use the invisibility potion to get up to the trench, it might be faster."
"Once we get the signal, Saki will begin casting our buffs -- Flying spells on me, Bulvi and herself, then Greater Invisibility on me, Bulvi and herself. Selena drinks her invisibility potion. Then the five of us teleport to the trench."
"Once we arrive, Maka goes into the air and draws attention and starts burning buildings. Saki casts greater invisibility on Kalchine and he summons his elemental, directing it to burn all the buildings. Selena uses her flight hex and begins casting wall of ice spells on the gates and a black tentacles in the middle of the compound. Under that cover, Bulvi and I fly invisibly to the near tower with the machine gun emplacement. Fin drinks his flying potion and Saki casts Greater Invisibility on him. He goes to work on the far tower with the machine gun and keeps an eye out for the General. If Headless appears, that becomes Fin's focus."
"Maka will keep an eye out for the smoke monster. It moves slow so we should see it coming if it's still active. She can intercept it if needed."
"Once all that is done, everyone is kinda on their own. The goal is maximum bodycount. Pen them in, keep them from escaping, kill them all. Magic is the big force multiplier that will give us an advantage, but only for a couple minutes. The strength and the vulnerability of this plan is that for the most part, we'll all be operating independently and separately, largely unseen -- if you get into trouble, it might be hard for you to call for help or get healing. Hopefully everyone has a healing potion for emergencies. If you're hurt, get out. This spot will be the rendezvous if we have to retreat."
"But if everything goes as planned, this might be where we finally even the odds or even get the upper hand. If we succeed in wiping out the barracks courtyard and its surrounding tower crews, we regroup outside the front gate, heal up, assess the situation, then hopefully deal with the remaining towers if we can."
"Is all that clear? Any questions before we go?"
Kalchine's forte is not exactly stealth so he keeps back from the edge of the edge of the woods. But he nods as Quasit begins the final briefing before the mission truly begins.
He nods then reaches out and grasps Maka's arm, which, except for being warm, already feels quite stone like. Nonetheless, he summons up the essence of the bedrock under the snow and dirt, infusing it into the monk's flesh.
He then does something similar for himself. His skin turns brown and gray, stony and grainy and he grows and grows until he is a massive man made out of stone and earth with only a vague resemblance to himself.
He stands for only a moment before looking to Fin then give a nod that rumbles faintly before he melts into the earth.
He glides through the earth toward the camp, coming just near enough to the surface to hear.
Maka shivered as the pleasant warmth of Kalchine's magic ran through her. It felt like the bullets would just bounce off of her now. "Thanks Kal!"
"Are you sure we should set the buildings on fire? I could take out soldiers or those fast shooting guns instead. That'd still get attention." Maka asked Quasit while moving to study the camp for any threats.
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Fin silently nods to Kal, takes his invisibility potion and quietly makes his way to the trench, still using available cover in case Rasputin is around somewhere…he’ll keeps his eyes on the lookout for any signs of danger or tracks, to avoid any nasty surprises…
When Fin reaches the trench, he’ll take look for the troop placements to see if things are still the same as when he searched earlier that morning…if so, he’ll signal his friends with Maka’s mirror whenever he deems it best for them to teleport to the trench…
Fin has no trouble getting close. The only active soldiers he sees are in the southern portion of the camp, mostly in the four towers at its corners with only a few in the new trenches inside. He sees no signs of anything other than the human soldiers.
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Quasit had been staring off toward the fort intently, like a dog at the table waiting for a scrap. She practically jumps when she sees the flash of the mirror.
"There! There's the signal!" she says, pointing off into the distance. Then she wheels around and steps over to Sakitu.
"OK Saki, now cast flying spells on me, you and Bulvi, and then invisibility spells on me, you and Bulvi. Selena you can either drink your invisibility potion or have one of Sakitu's invisibility spells. Once that's done, let's link up hands and we teleport in."
Maka continued to keep an eye out for any threats while Saki worked her magic. Once the spells had been slung, Maka stepped forward and held out her hands to teleport.
With a sharp motion, Maka slams her palms toward the ground, igniting a massive pillar of fire that roars skyward. Scattering soldiers and setting the building ablaze. Maka appeared amidst the flames, carried by the swirling fire and hovering at the apex of the pyre pillar.
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The moment is now. Sakitu feels the energy burbling up inside her. In some ways she's exhilarated. In other ways, she's anxious almost beyond control. But no matter, the moment is now.
Seeing the signal from Fin, Quasit and Bulvi approach. She quickly applies the flying and invisibility spells on her friends and herself.
"We're all ready to be teleported," her voice echoes out of the thin air.
Somehow, one of the soldiers notices enough of something to cry out in alarm, and so the troop is already ducking for cover when Maka's fire blast hits. The smoke trickles upwards from under the roof of the building that was in the explosion.
It still burns quite a few of them, though.
The machine gunners in the towers react quickly to Maka's appearance and turn their guns on her.
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"Saki, cast invisibility on Kalchine so he can start summoning his elemental. Then hit Fin with the same spell. Then do whatever voodoo seems best to you."
"Selena--do you flying hex, then go wall off the gates and drop your black tentacles. We're counting on you-- preventing their escape is vital."
Quasit touches her invisible friend. "Bull, you there? Ready to take out that tower?
Kalchine rises up out of the ground, a towering creature made of earth and stone. He reaches out coaxing heat to rise and coalesce at a point in the distance. It takes all his concentration on his connection with the fundamental forces of nature and he doesn't even have enough attention to spare to nod thanks to Saki as she causes him to turn invisible.
Maka's lightning fast reflexes saved her once again as she dodged out of the way of a hail of gunfire. Her speed and maneuverability had only been increased by the recent magical upgrades they had purchased. Seeing smoke from the roof of the building, she decided it was on fire enough and focused on the troop of soldiers.
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With the weird sensation of hearing Sakitu, without seeing her, cast on Kal, Fin jumps a bit when he feels her familiar touch as she casts the improved invisibility on him. Unable to see her lips, he just murmurs, ”Thank you, m’Lady…see you later…”
Fin then launches himself into the air, 120’ towards the opposite tower…
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Sakitu reaches out to Fin and casts invisibility on him. As he fades from view she hears a flutter of cloth that moves away from her. "Good luck," she says in a whisper. "And be safe." She knows that Fin is more than willing to put himself in harm's way to save his friends. That is one of the things she loves about him. But still, she can't help but worry.
A sharp burst of gunfire from the nearby tower snaps her mind back to the present. Her view from the southern end of the trench is limited and she is going to need to see some of the open ground where they expect the headless guy to arrive. She moves north through the muddy trench until she has a view between the two long buildings. Then she waits.
Whatever luck the troops had last time deserts them now, as Maka's fire blast is dead-on. The remaining handful of soldiers desperately turn their rifles on her.
Quasit, meanwhile, assassinates the two soldiers manning the machine gun in tower F, leaving the remaining two in the tower terrified.
Maka's ability to freely change her direction and momentum allowed her to easily dodge the volley of gunfire from the troops.
Bulvi focused his attention on the remaining two guards before they could get to the machine gun.
Maka continued her fiery assault against the troop of soldiers.
Kalchine would be sweating if he was capable of it in this form. It is taking all of his concentration to condense all the heat he can into a single point almost smaller than he can conceive. Then, with a pop he can feel the energy pierces the veil between this reality and the one made entirely of flame and a massive fire appears.
At first, it just seems to be a raging inferno but then a pair of eyes and a mouth form in the flame before it goes swooping through the nearest building. Like a toddler in a candy shop, it touches everything it can.
He then takes the left over fire energy and merges it with energy from the divine to bring down a Flame Strike on the nearest (southwest) tower.
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Selena is invisible thanks to the potion she drank, but her little lips purse sourly as Quasit continues to bark orders at her.
"I understood the fourth time you told me." she growls at the rogue, though the impudent girl was already gone.
Still, there was some value in the endeavor, even if it was unlikely to turn out as neatly as everyone seemed to expect. Invisibly, she strokes her fox as it nestles under her arm and whispers to it in a strange tongue known only to the two of them, and lifts herself into the air. She glides out over the compound, looking down into the fires, the men racing about like ants under a lens of focused sunlight.
"Why do you run? You were powerless to change your fate from the moment you came here." she says under her breath, cool and remorseless as the night.
Maka finishes off the troop of soldiers. Bulvi kills one of the remaining two soldiers in the tower he and Quasit are in and wounds the other. The soldiers in the southwest tower fail to dodge the flame strike, but they're not dead. Kalchine's summoned elemental starts setting some fires.
The remaining soldier in the tower Bulvi and Quasit are in fires wildly at where he thinks Bulvi is.
The remaining soldiers in the towers continue firing on Maka for lack of other targets.