Zensuon: Crystal Age

As long as You Aren't Seen, It never happened

Where we see what our group of infiltrating grey elves are up to, and up against.

Unfortunately, for the pillbox defence area, Kar'ila had no information. And even if there is a long, bloody battle going on a few kilometres down, it doesn't mean time is not of the essence. The patrol probably reports to several stations, and they likely have some means of alarm with the communication baetylus they have next to them. So the best option to remain unseen was to split up, stay low, snuff out lights, and get out of there as soon as the shard is acquired.

All forces would have to make it to the shard with no way of communication or die trying. They couldn't drop down then because there is an entire unit underneath the pillbox, or else they would've just ascended from there. This means they would have to run across the treetop path, sought after both above and below even when they get their hands on the shard.

The sergeant leading her own group knew the shard was important, but nevertheless, she debated just running away now before the alarm was raised.

She got a tap from behind. The sergeant glanced back at her second. Who was making a 'What's up?' Hand-sign at her. Then pointed toward the torch-lit bridge ahead.

Right, there was no time. She's already in the middle of an enemy camp. There was no time for doubt if she wanted to live. She should have done so before ever wanting to join Kar'ila's special operations. She could've been a stealth-forager, like her mother, but no- she had to be a special operative.

On the edge of the lit area, she signalled a stop, took out a rock from her vest, and threw it. It clanged on the bridge. She waited- no one. Another rock- this time she managed to hit the torch around fifteen metres away, causing it to be knocked down. She ran forward and quickly stumped on it, then kicked it off to prevent the bridge from catching fire.

She glanced back at her group. Signalling them to follow-

She realised why her second was looking strangely to the side. A huge creature landed, not unlike a large ball of fire, onto the bridge. Under its massive weight, the sturdy bridge snapped like a twig.

She could hear her soldier's screams and the roar of something big.

She grabbed onto half of the bridge on her end and braced her legs for the Crrrllaaakkk as one side of the broken bridge hit the trunk of the huge tree on one side, while all of her soldiers were on the other side, holding onto the other half of the broken bridge.

She glanced to find where the noises came from. That large figure, as if fuming out steam from its body, also latched onto the tree on the other side- clawing its way upward as the rest of her soldiers were trying to climb the remnants of the bridge on their side. Luckily, even though the bridge was made by those fucking Edelosians, it seemed to hold on well enough under all of their combined weight.

What worried her more was that fiery figu- wait. The sergeant blinked quickly a few times and shook her head. Her perspective snapped back into place after that sudden shock from the toss against the trunk.

As the pain in her legs from the rebound dulled, thus did her realisation sharpen- it's not that the figure was on fire, it looked like that for the same reason she could see her soldiers so clearly- it was magical, very magical. While greys like her have more magic than those Edelosian elves and thus are easier to see with this sight, this creature was radiating magic to a point she had issues seeing its form. She narrowed her eyes, trying to concentrate on the creature once she braced her feet and hands on the dangling bridge she was holding onto.

It was a lion, but... it was also climbing like a person? Its fur seemed this deeply burned yellow, and its body filled with fur. She couldn't see much better but it seemed to be moving up at an amazing speed after it recovered from the f-grRAAAHHHHHHH!