Sawtooth Mountain Airbase

Two military half-tracks rolled up to a stop next to the runway where two of the Valkyries were winding up their turbines on standby. The loaded troops at the rear hopped off one by one and formed up next to the birds for inspection. Newly minted First Lieutenant Joseph Tokin, formerly Lord General of the Kingdom of Goldrose, grinned in anticipation of upcoming mission and stood before the gathered platoon with a gleam of excitement in his eyes.

"Alright, men of 2nd Battalion, Eagle Company Platoon 1! Most of you know me before you joined the Marines, now I am also part of the Marines like you," Joesph roared over the sound of the engines. "Now we got a problem!"

He pointed to the far distance over the mountains, "We got our buddies trapped beyond the Pass, and we are going to save them. Slaves escaping from the hands of the Empire are being slaughtered."

"We all got our duty to do," Joesph clenched his fist, "Goldrose might be destroyed but now we have a new role to play, as protectors of the weak!"

"HORAAAH!" The platoon echoed out loudly. "HORAAAH!"

"Mount up!" Joesph gestured towards the Valkyries, "Section One and Two onboard Valkyrie One and Three and Four, Valkyrie Two is your ride! Go go go!"

The heavily armed Marines split up and dashed towards the waiting Valkyries which rear cargo bay ramps were down, and what appeared to be a goblin wearing dark green airforce overalls in a helmet and aviator glasses was waving them onboard, much to the surprise of the boarding Marines.

"What the fark?" The Marines were confused as they looked at the goblin, who screamed at them in a high pitched voice to sit down and buckle up.

"Buckly up you dumb Mar-nees!" The single goblin flight crew cried, "Dumb Mar-nees wanna die in pieces in this flying bucket of godly bolts?"

The stunned Marines onboard Valkyrie One sat obediently onto the buckle seats lined on the walls of the aircraft. A massive pallet of supplies was secured on the middle of the deck, with what appeared to be a vehicle of some sorts.

"Greg! All clear?" The elven crew chief hopped in from the side hatch and sealed the side hatches. "Check all cargo are secured?"

"Checking!" The goblin named Greg bounced happily from one seated Marine to another, tugging at their constraints and grinning evilly as he pulled the straps tightly, making the Marines groan, "Nice and tight tight, wrapped up all nicely! Hehehehehe!"

"Oh my god," The Marines prayed as the rear cargo ramp closed up, "Are we going to fly with this crazy goblin?"

"Hey! Green skin!" Some Marine yelled, "You want to lick clean my boots?"

"Dumb Mar-nees! Believe I dump you out of plane without a chu chu?"

And Flight Lieutenant Tommy grinned as he heard the commotion in the rear over the comms, "Cargo all green!" His crew chief said before cutting off the tirade between the Marines and Airforce as his crew chief ended the comms.

"Valkyrie One to Mother," Tommy radioed the flight control tower, "One is all green, standing by for take off, over."

"Valkyrie Two to Mother, All green. Ready for take off, over."

"Mother to Valkyrie Flight, mission is go, Godspeed gentlemen!"

"One, Roger!" Tommy applied power to the turbines and the heavy aircraft slowly rose as the powerful rotor turbines form an air effect under the craft and he gently tilts the Valkyrie's nose towards the Pass and with Valkyrie Two behind, the two rotorcraft flew off from the airbase.

-----

Uncharted Forest, 468 km from Sawtooth Mouth Pass

"Barrier Up!" Young barely managed to cast a magic protection spell just as the Hero slammed his sword just meters before him, causing an energy shockwave that slammed into his Barrier spell. He snapped fired his M2 at the glowing Hero who barely flinched from the impacts of the bullets as the aura of the Sun God melted the lead bullets before they impact him. "Fark!"

The Hero grinned and slashed down with his greatsword which smashed a crevice several meters long on the forest floor and splitting an ancient tree into two at the end of the slash. Each step of the Hero left the ground smoking and burning from the intense strength of his aura.

Young rolled flat on his tummy, managing to dodge the slash but the glancing force of the slash almost overloaded his magic protection spells. "Goddamnit! SOME HELP DOTH?"

Doth fired from the flanks, but the effects were the same, he barely dealt any damage to the Hero, "This son of a bitch is not taking damage!"

"Hahahaha, you dumb peasants," The Hero suddenly paused and smiled at the two men, "The first fight with your strange weapons, I have already known the secret behind them. So it is easy to counter it, as long as I encase myself with a burning aura strong enough to melt the stones that come out from your thundersticks."

"So why don't you stay still and die for me?" Dante gave a sunny smile at the two soldiers. He turned and look at the slumped body of Stab and sighed, "It's hard to find good help these days and you just have to go kill the good ones."

"Yeah, and yo mama so fat!" Doth sneered from behind the cover a tree as he reloaded. "That the monsters hide their food when they see her!"

Young quickly took the time to scampered away to a better position, "Seriously? Trash talk at this time?"

The aura from the Hero suddenly flared up, "What did you say?" The white glow turned pale blue, and the heat from his aura dropped.

"Well, it's working!" Doth yelled, "Hey, farker! Yo mama so stupid that I told her she lost her mind, she went on a quest looking for it!"

The temperature in the devastated forest dropped, and a sharp chill cut into both Doth and Young as the Hero glared at them. "You speak ill of my mother?"

"Damnit, now he's pissed," Young rolled his eyes and he readied a spell. "Well at least, its better than seeing that fake smile."

"YOU DARE SPEAK ILL OF MY MOTHER?!" The Hero roared and a shockwave burst out from his body, the force smashing away the remaining trees and soil, sending both the soldiers back into cover from the flying debris.

"Fire!" Young and Doth yelled at the same time and they both leaned out from their cover and fired and threw spells at the Hero, "Lightning bolt! Magic Missile!"

The bullets and spells slammed into the Hero causing him to step back and for a moment, Doth and Young thought they finally manage to get some damage in, but the Hero suddenly spun to the side, dodging the rest of the bullets and charged towards Doth's position.

"What the?" Doth yelled in fright as he saw the crazily fast speed the Hero was going, almost another level faster than before! He quickly dropped down on his back as a whitish blue beam slammed into where he was under cover. The tree exploded and he felt his tactical vest ripping apart from the force of the Hero's passage.

"RUN!" Young yelled as he fired at the fleeting figure of the Hero. He led his target and fired, casting smoke and sparks to erupt on the body of the Hero. "We can't solo him! Back!"

Young reached into his pouch and ripped out a flashbang. He jerked the pin out and tossed it underhand at the path of the Hero and turned tail and ran. The sharp crunch and sudden burst of light sent the Hero screaming as his senses were all dialed up to over three times a normal person's sensitivity.

"Yea! Take that bitch!" Doth panted as he ran, holding on to the chest. "Goddamnit!"

"You alright?" Young came up next to Doth and gave him an arm for support.

"No, think that farker got me some," Doth panted, "My insides feel like shit now and the radio's trashed."

Young did not say anything else but just supported Doth as much as he can, as they ran deeper into the forest, leaving behind the cries and screams of pain and anger.

-----

Loke cursed as he dodged just in time as an arrow slammed into the spot he was against just a second ago. That damn archer is good! He quickly leaned out and lined his scope onto the moving shadow in the trees and fired.

The archer dropped just as the bullet was about to hit her with such grace that Loke was impressed. "Damn!" Loke worked his bolt on his M1 and the two of them continued to exchange fire between each other.

-----

"Crazy bitch girl!" Hitsu yelled as he dived into cover for the fifth time as the area he was hiding exploded from multiple Magic Missiles strikes. "IM GONNA TO SPANK YOU!"

He leopard crawled his way out from the tree roots and fired at the pissed looking mage girl hovering over half the destroyed terrain. "Eat lead!"

The bullets slammed into the shield of the girl mage who yipped in pain and started to weave left and right trying to dodge his shots. Sparks and smoke trailed the crying girl mage as she tried to dodge all the bullets.

"Hahaha! How do you like that now?" Hitsu yelled as he fired from prone and suddenly his weapon locked. He did a quick tilt check and found his bolt had jammed, most likely from over fouling in the barrel from the black powder ammunition. "Oh... shit..."

The girl mage stopped and glared at him laying in the edge of the destroyed forest. She panted and said, "You... you... evil man! Even cute little girls like me, you dare to bully?"

"Ahahaha..." Hitsu slowly backed off, trying to find some cover. "Well, you didn't get hurt did you?"

"You... you... EVIL MAN!" The girl mage tear stained face cried out angrily, "I shall punish you!" She raised her staff and five magic circle started to manifest in front of her, aimed directly at Hitsu. "Magic.... Mi..."

"Oh, come on," Hitsu lamented, and he quickly sprinted off to the side and dived down the slight depression of the forest floor, just as the spell was completed.

"...issle times... three... HUNDRED!!!!!!"

And Hitsu hugged himself and screamed like a little girl as the world around him exploded.

-----

Tyrier jerked his head up as the ground suddenly shook and saw a mushroom-like cloud appearing, followed by a rumbling sound that grew louder and louder. "BRACE YOURSELVES!"

A shockwave and dustcloud suddenly slammed into them, sending the weaker Empire soldiers and slaves tumbling away. Tyrier and the rest quickly took the opportunity to dispatch away the downed soldiers. "What was that?"

"Who's missing?" Tyrier asked, as finally there were no more enemy soldiers that remain standing. "Where's Loke and Hitsu?"

"Think they were that way," Altied pointed to the west where the smoke cloud came from. "Shit."

"Tavel, take charge of the slaves and head to the rendezvous point," Tyrier quickly ordered, "Altied with me. Let's go!"

With that both Tyrier and Altied sprint off towards the direction of the explosion. After a short distance, they found a large fan-like portion of the forest missing, the tree trunks were blown away, leaving behind jagged remains of roots and dozens of large craters on the forest ground.

"Spread out and keep alert," Tyrier ordered as they approached the center of destruction carefully.

The only area unaffected stood the girl mage leaning against her staff, her shoulders heaving up and down as she panted. Tyrier gave a look at Altied who nodded and crept up to the unsuspecting girl and smacked the back of her neck, knocking her out easily.

"What the hell happened here," Tyrier asked, "Where the hell is Loke and Hitsu?"

Suddenly a crack of a piece of wood spun the men around with their weapons aimed at the direction of the sound. "Hey guys," Loke walked into the destroyed land with a figure slung over his back, "All good?"

"You look like shit," Altied commented as he gestured to the wound on Loke's shoulder. A stub of broken off arrow was struck there, which Loke just dropped the body of the female archer down without any care to the ground.

"Hurts like fark... now, where's Hitsu?"