Burn It To the FUCKING GROUND

The group had found an abandoned building to hold up in. Mira had laid out the plan rather quickly, much to Mary’s concern. At the end of her description of things, Mary had to ask, “Okay, I need to know, are you an arsonist? Like, have you actually burned down stuff before?”

“I fucking LOVE setting stuff on fire, but no, I haven’t actually done anything that damn stupid. Tossed some stuff in a metal trash can a lit it on fire, but that’s it. Worried I’m a god damn psycho that doesn’t give a damn about consequences?”

“A little, yeah. You didn’t just come up with this plan. You clearly already had a lot of details in mind. Considering the way you talk and act, and why you are here, I feel like it isn’t unreasonable that you might be an arsonist. You wouldn’t be the first felon on this show.”

“Ain’t that the fucking truth. On my season, Fuck Bunny here was a **** dealer, not the licensed kind. She always implied that she had killed at least one person too, but that could have been her playing shit up.” Chloe’s expression turned to one of revulsion. “Hey, not my fault, alternative you is a crazy bitch. Honestly, I’m sort of fucking glad to learn you are very much against illicit ****. Because that cunt happily caused two eliminations on my season.”

“Thanks? I think.” Chloe said, a little confused.

Mira shrugged, “Whatever. So, everyone knows their part?”

Everyone nodded, and they went to work. Chloe started preparing some accelerants as requested, while Mary, Merigold, and Flora went to gather more supplies for Chloe to use. Mary and Merigold used charm and illusion to swipe a substantial amount of **** from various taverns, while Flora literally just snuck in and stole oil and pitch from various supply shops and even from the troop convoy. Merida and Aubrey stayed with Chloe, both for protection and so Merida could act as a communication hub. Hilde and Mira were going around the city together, locating target sites. Thirty minutes later, Chloe had finished enough concoctions to Mira’s satisfaction to begin, setting things into motion while Chloe used the newly delivered supplies to continue creating more fire starters.

Mary stayed with Chloe now as well. While Merigold, Mira, and Hilde went to one side of the city while Flora went to the other side alone. Flora found an alehouse and caused an 'accident' with a candle, igniting a curtain, and made sure that it got out of control before fleeing. She found a nearby alleyway to watch as people were shouting for help. Then a set of bells started to sound throughout the city. Dang, Mira was right, they are using the bells to summon a fire brigade. Mary might be on to something that she’s a bit of a firebug.

On the other side of the city, the others heard the bells ring out. Mira said, “Okay, so we give it five minutes, and then we burn this city to the fucking ground. Hilde, go place these like I told you before. Be discreet, and be careful with your damn speed.” Hilde took the various accelerants and zipped off. “She didn’t hear a fucking word I said about her speed, did she?”

“Aye, she probably didnae.”

They saw Hilde on a roof planting one of the containers. Two minutes later, she was back. “All done! Like you asked, I did every third building on this street and every fifth building two streets over. Why did we want them so spread out like that?”

“Makes it damn hard to contain that way. They likely won’t have the resources to contain it with their level of technology unless they have some fucking serious magic. Because a little water won’t be enough. Now go rejoin the group, Merigold and I will be there shortly, we have some things to light on fire.” Hilde left the two of them in the alleyway. “You got two streets over, right?”

“I think so. Are ye sure this is gaun tae go like ye think it will?”

“Fuck no! Now get going, I’m going to give you two minutes to get over there and start launching firebolts, before I light this fucking place up myself.” Merigold ran off.

Two minutes later, Merigold sent a message to both Mira and Merida, “Awe richt, we’re startin' ower here.” Both of them started launching firebolts at their targets. Merigold wasn’t super accurate, but thanks to the roofs being made of thatch, they still caught on fire. Mira, on the otherhand, hit with ease after the first two shots as she got a feel for the targeting. The two ran down the streets as fast as they could. Nearby civilians tried to stop them, but when they dove to tackle them, they flew right through them as if they weren’t really there. They, of course, weren’t there as both were using illusion magic to slightly obscure their real position. Merigold reached the last building on the street, setting it ablaze when she winked out of existence, returning to being Merida’s tail.

Mira, on the other hand, kept going. When the guard ASTRIDs showed up, Mira shouted at them. “Oh, look, the fucking pigs have shown up. Come and get me if you can, piggies.” Mira ran from them as she launched fire bolts at anything she could find that was flammable. Unfortunately for Mira, she underestimated the guard presence as she rounded a corner and took a mace blow to the face, knocking her to the ground. “BLOODY FUCKING HELL! Guess that’s my queue to be done.” Mira discorporated, having fallen below ten percent health from that one blow. A moment later, Mira reappeared next to Merida and the others on the opposite side of town. “Ow, why does that still fucking hurt?”

Merida was reeling as well. “You tell me. I felt the aftereffects when you remerged with me.”

“Sorry. The fucking popo caught up with me and landed a solid blow. Are we ready for phase two?”

Chloe passed a set of arrows with pitch-soaked cloth at the end of them to Flora. She then distributed several Molotovs to the group. “Now you need to give us enough time to get out of the city. I couldn’t turn everything into something useful, so I had Mary douse the interior of this building as best she could with stuff while I was prepping. I want to make sure I understand the plan. Aubrey is going to the east gate and trying to prevent evacuation from that route. Merida, Mary, and I are going to the west gate. Hilde, Mira, and Merigold will join us at the west gate after they throw all the stuff they have and ignite it. Flora will join Aubrey at the east gate.”

Mira nodded, “Yeah, that about sums it up. Mary, could I get some healing?”

“Sure, but fuse with Merida first since the damage was split between you two.” Mira complied, and then Mary produced an ice cream sundae and spoon-fed it to Merida.

“OH! Brain freeze!” Merida exclaimed.

“Sorry, but now you should have fire resistance to go with the healing.”

The party set out except for Mira, who stayed to light the abandoned building on fire. Getting out of the city was harder than they expected it to be. Security was becoming tighter as the news that this was an attack was spreading, but also because people were panicking to flee the fires. Aubrey didn’t have much of an issue getting past her guards, because the fires were closer to that gate, the guards were more understanding about letting people flee, the increasing smoke and flames. Mary, Merida, and Chloe ran into an issue that, luckily, the other informed them about before it was too late.

Merigold said, “Dinnae go tae the gate! They are lookin' for fox-lassies. Word spread that any an' a' fox-lassies are suspects an' should be detained by **** if need be.”

As Merida relayed the message, Chloe said, “Shite. Whit dae we dae noo then?”

Flora sent Mary a message, “Mira just found me and told me the problem. Hold tight, we’ve already started lighting things. As soon as the cooldown resets on this ring, I’ll have Hilde come to you.”

The three of them hid in an alley near the gate when they were spotted. “What do we have here?” This wasn’t a guard or a common soldier, but seemed to be an officer, considering that it was Freya walking towards them. “Two fox-girls and a little rabbit skulking in an alley. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about these fires, would you?”

Chloe immediately said, “No, ma’am. Just trying to avoid the fires as best we can.”

Freya didn’t hesitate as she lunged towards Chloe, drawing her rapier. It struck Chloe in the shoulder as she stumbled back. Mary and Merida retreated, taking a defensive posture. “As if I would believe that when I can smell **** and other fumes on you from ten feet away. Surrender now. You’re surrounded.”

Mary looked over her shoulder and saw that there were indeed guards at the other end of the alleyway. Shit. Mary looked at Chloe sprawled out on the ground. This is bad. Mary saw two tails reappear on Merida the next second. “Okay, we surrender.” Mary held up her hands.

Chloe and Merida looked at her, confused. Mary muttered as quietly as possible, “Merida, I need five seconds.”

Merida quickly backed away, leaving Merigold and Mira in her place. Merida cast mirror image on Mary, while Merigold cast haste. Mira lunged at Freya, staff in hand, but was swiftly put down, taking her full health pool. Mira discorperated again, causing Merida to feel the backlash. It was enough time for Mary to pull out the wand of charming, and dumping as much mana as she could into the wand hit Freya with the charm. Freya was enraptured with Mary.

A second later, Freya had one arm around Mary’s waist and kissed her. Mary kissed her back, her heart fluttering, not expecting such a strong response. Freya’s lips parted, Mary’s and she said, “Mi’lady, I simply must have you. Do not worry, I’ll make sure you are protected.”

Mary decided to play it up. “Oh, my! So forward.” Mary looked Freya up and down. “And strong. I’m sure that a noble soldier like yourself would never let any harm befall me.”

“Absolutely, Mi’lady.”

“But, see these individuals.” Mary pointed at the guards. “I’m dreadfully afraid that they will just try to ravish me when they try to arrest me. I’m just a fair maiden, please won’t you do something about these terrible, terrible people?”

Freya did not remove her arm from around Mary, but positioned herself between Mary and the guards, her weapon raised. Mary pulled a vial out and gave it to Merida. “Here, a healing potion. Is Mira okay?”

“She’s pissed, but she’ll be fine.” Merida downed the potion.

Chloe stood while pulling out a potion of her own. “Shit, glad she’s on our side now.”

Freya scoffed, “Little rabbit, I will deal with you in a moment, but first I must protect this maiden’s virtue. Try to flee, and I will end you without hesitation.”

“Might I know the name of my dashing heroine?” Mary said, while batting her eyelashes.

“Lady Freyath, Knight Captain of the Empire. What is the name of my future bride?”

Well, shit. Freya is SO going to kill me later. “Call me Mary, Lady Freyath. Could I convince you to let my friends go? As a favor to me? A favor… a favor to your… your future bride?”

+1 CP Pretend to be a Fair Maiden

“Alas, I wish I could grant such a divine flower as yourself this favor, but my duty binds me, and I cannot.” Mary felt Freya tighten her grip around Mary’s waist. The guards were done trying to persuade Freya to stand aside and charged her. She deftly stopped those going for Mary, but anyone who ignored Mary, she did nothing to. Merigold and Merida launched firebolts, with Merigold taking the front. Chloe lobbed a few Molotovs, but things were not looking good.

Hilde slid to a stop at the end of the alleyway behind the guards as Merigold vanished, having been taken out of the fight. Hilde dashed forward and jump-kicked an ASTRID in the back of the head. Hilde glanced at Freya, but seeing that Freya wasn’t attacking her, let her be. Having a melee to stand behind helped Merida and Chloe immensely as Chloe started to fling flasks at the guards. She missed more often than she hit, not being used to fighting. Luckily, Hilde was able to finish off the guards before Chloe or Merida were incapacitated. Hilde paused and looked at Mary, “Is she going to be a problem?”

Freya replied, “Young Miss, I thank you for your aid in protecting my future bride. Might I ask for your assistance in dispatching these two criminal scum as well?”

Hilde gave Mary a deadpan look, “Seriously? Mistress, you know you are so dead right?” Mary gave a slight nod. “These two foxes? Yeah, sure, I can help you deal with them.”

“Thank you, miss.” Freya let go of Mary’s waist and moved towards Chloe and Merida. She raised her sword. “Since my future bride considers you friends, I will grant you one last chance to Sur—” Chloe saw Hilde dash back down the alleyway and then came back at speed to punch Freya in the back of the head. Chloe immediately flung two flasks at the now prone Freya as Merida simply hit her with her staff. Freya tried to stand up, but two swift punches to the head from Hilde finished her off.

Mary breathed out a sigh of relief, “Thank goodness you got here in time.”

“Mistress, I hope you know I was serious,” Hilde said. “Freya is going to be PISSED.”

“Nothing I can do about that now. If she’s an enemy in this challenge, I’m not going to stand by and not do what I can to help all of you. All three of us would likely be incapacitated if I hadn’t done that.” Mary reached down and picked up the rapier while also patting down Freya for anything else useful.

Hilde stopped her, “Let me do that. You’ll get in less trouble that way.” Mary let her search her sister while she put the rapier in her dimensional bag. “Merida, are you out of mana? I wanted to know why you just hit her with your staff.”

Merida nodded, “Yeah, between Mira and Merigold setting so much on fire, the few other spells here, and Mira and Merigold both getting taken out, I’m completely out of mana. Also, apparently, they can’t come back out today. It’s a penalty for being eliminated. They aren’t incapacitated, though, so they can help tomorrow, unless I get taken out. Speaking of, I need quite a bit of healing.”

Hilde found a bag similar to the one Flora had been given for the party’s supplies. After taking it, she stood up and said, “No time, give her a potion if you can, but we need to move now. More guards are surely on their way here. I don’t care about the plan anymore. We are getting the fuck out of here now.”

“How? Our horses are not at this gate.” Chloe complained.

“Simple, we’ll steal some. Follow me.” Hilde moved to the end of the alleyway, and after surveilling that there wasn’t an ambush, they moved to the gate, but the guards were screening everyone, which caused a massive crowd. “Chloe got any more? I’m out.”

Chloe looked at her pouch, “I have two flasks, why?”

“Give me one.” Hilde moved through the crowd to one side, and once in an alleyway, built up a bit of speed and threw the flask at a nearby roof, and then circled the crowd, rejoining the party from a different direction from where she threw the flask.” The roof caught fire, causing the crowd to panic and stampede the guards. The four of them used the opportunity to get out of the city following the stampede. Multiple people were trying to take horses from the stables, and Hilde swiftly secured four horses, and then they rode off a bit from the wall of the city.

“Hilde, did you meet up with the others?” Flora asked, with the ring.

“Just in time, I think if I were much later, at least one would be incapacitated. We aren’t going to be able to prevent evacuation from this gate.”

It took a little bit, but Flora sent a reply. “Fine. That was a long shot anyway. Aubrey and I had a bit more success. I’ll tell you about it later. Circle north of town to meet up.”

“Will do.”

Flora and Aubrey rode up to a large tree north of town where the others were arguing. They both dismounted at Flora asked, “Okay, what’s wrong?”

Hilde marched up to Flora, rather angry. “Do you realize just how bad things could have gone?”

“There was always going to be some risk. We’re fine, though.”

“We are not fine! Chloe is out of her flasks and most of her catalysts for the day. So she can’t do much until she harvests more or until tomorrow. Merida is out of mana and can’t bring out Mira or Merigold since they both took too much damage. Mistress has used quite a few of her healing abilities so far, too. Despite what it might look like, using my talent as much as I have been is taking it out of me. I’m physically exhausted and low on mana and ki. We are so lucky that Chloe, Merida, and Mistress weren’t incapacitated. Scratch that. It wasn’t luck; Mistress had to make a personal sacrifice to save this team.”

Flora glared at Hilde. “Outside of Mira, and Merigold not being available, all those are either expected and or fixable. So what’s the problem? Because it sounds like you have a problem with me. I would like to remind you it wasn’t me that decided to go two versus seven with the other team, nearly getting two of our team captured.”

Mary stepped forward and grabbed Hilde by the shoulder and pulled her back. “Flora, I think at least part of what has ticked off Hilde is what I did to save the team. I’m not pleased about it either, but I’m not going to be the reason that one team gets screwed if I can help it. I do think that what Ellen and Hilde did was dangerous, but they also contacted you. You could have told them no.”

“So it’s my fault, Ellen is incapacitated?”

“Partially, yeah.” Mary nodded her head. “We also keep having extremely close calls. It’s going to bite us in the ass hard if this continues.”

“So, what? You want someone else to be party leader?”

Mary shook her head. “No, I don’t. I think you have a generally good head on your shoulders and have made fairly sound decisions. Especially in the field. I do think you’ve been taking rather large risks on which tasks we do. You’re right that our mana will regenerate if we wait long enough. Aubrey’s aura can help cure our exhaustion and clear the small amount of damage we have left. We probably can do another task today, if it is well-suited, but I’m not sure splitting up is such a good idea without Ellen with us. At least then we could have somewhat balanced squads.”

“We can discuss how we proceed during lunch. Mary, do you mind telling me what you did that has ticked off Hilde so much?”

“I had to charm Freya using the wand at full power. Beyond her kissing me, she said some things, as did I, that Freya is not going to be pleased about.”

“Ah. Well, thank you for doing that to protect the team. Merida, Chloe, Aubrey, do you have anything to say about how I’ve handled things?”

Chloe nodded, “My thoughts land between where Mary and Hilde are. I think you’ve done a decent job, overall, but Hilde is right, this almost ended in a catastrophe when it really didn’t need to have that risk. You got greedy. Was there a quest bonus if we prevented the evacuation, or was that you thinking there was an incidental bonus?”

“The latter.”

“Then yeah, sending people to both gates was a mistake. I’m also not particularly a fan that you didn’t actually share the task sheets with us, and you unilaterally picked tasks for Aubrey and me to do later and tomorrow without even consulting us on them. I don’t think you’ve done anything that warrants replacement yet, but if this pattern continues, my opinion on that matter will change.”

Flora turned to Aubrey, who rolled her eyes, “Ba, baa’a baaa baaaa baa.”

Flora looked at Merida, who looked awkward. “Merida, I would like you to be honest, please.”

“I think we’ve ta'en a lot o' risks. They hae paid aff, but no' enough tae justify the risks in my opinion. Like the dungeon, we still arenae clear o' a' the cursed items frae that. Which led tae us wastin' a lot o' time yestreen. Aubrey no' bein' able tae communicate well isnae helpin' either. I also think the fact that we got twa upgrades tae oor wirkshop an' that we arenae usin' it today is sort o' a waste.”

“I see… like I said, let's find somewhere we can have lunch and talk about things.” They headed further north to a nearby lake they saw on the map. Mary whipped out lunch and set out a picnic cloth on the ground. After everyone was seated and started in Flora handed over the quest sheet to Chloe. “Here, these are the ones I grabbed for us.”

Chloe read over the sheets.

Task: Raze Asherland City

• Risk: Very High
• Reward: 3500 XP and 35 CP split based upon contribution. Magic items based on destruction achieved.
• Asherland City is on a critical supply route. Raze it to the ground to disrupt the Empire’s logistics. Destruction of 50% or more of the city shall result in completion of the task, but greater destruction will grant greater rewards.

Immediately after reading the first sheet, Chloe glared at Flora. “Seriously, a Very High risk task? While we are down a party member?”

“I figured it would be fine. Look, there are nine risk levels. Trivial, very low, low, medium, high, very high, severe, ****, impossible. If we take trivial and impossible at face value, there are seven difficulty levels.”

“So?”

“So, we have seven team members. I was assuming that if we had one person per risk level, we were likely supposed to be able to do it. It doesn’t make sense for **** and impossible to both be levels unless **** was meant to be doable. Especially since the risk levels update as we level up. Might I remind you that we cleared a high-risk dungeon on the first day with little difficulty? Did I think there was a real risk, yeah, but the experience would also be enough to get all of us to level 5 and push us a good way to level 6.”

“We still haven’t gotten the experience. We haven’t completed the quest yet.” Chloe complained.

Merida interrupted. “Chloe, Mira says that it should be a matter o' time, frae whit she saw o' their firefighting efforts. Also, look tae the sooth. That plume o' reek is gettin' bigger, no' smaller.”

Chloe shook her head, “Fine, I’m not sure that you are right about the risk assessments, but at least your theory does have some level of logic behind it. I will say this: I think any group needs either Hilde, Ellen, or Aubrey in it. Mary, Merida, and I were overwhelmed almost instantly by Freya, but when Hilde showed up, things turned around.”

“Hmm, I’ll keep that in mind,” Flora responded. “But let's talk about what we do next.”

Chloe shuffled through the remaining tasks. “Well, no way in hell Aubrey and I are going north, based upon your assessment, these medium tasks should need three people.”

“Normally, I would agree, Chloe, but I actually specifically picked them with you two in mind, and you both have healing capabilities, but fine. What if Merida and I went north with Aubrey, and you went with Mary and Hilde to the south? You could just do one more task and then head back to craft.”

Chloe shook her head. “No. By the time I restock, it would be an either-or situation. Merida, I know that Meribelle doesn’t get your equipment, but does she have access to your class skills?”

Meribelle appeared next to Merida. Meribelle replied. “Oui, it appears zat I do get Maîtresse's class skills.”

“Then I think Meribelle should come back with Mary and me, while Hilde goes north with you three. We will head straight back to the lair. Meribelle can identify the collar on Ellen and then rejoin you.”

“Isn’t sending all four of us north overkill?” Flora asked.

“It means you will be able to clear things more easily. We don’t need to be in danger all the time. Heck, you might be able to clear two more of these tasks today instead of the one you had planned for Aubrey and me to clear. Then you can clear the other task you wanted to do in the south on your way back.”

“I agree with Chloe.” Mary said, “I would also like to check on Ellen.”

Chloe pulled out the various potions she had crafted and passed them to Flora. “Here you can take these. I know I’m supposed to be a ranged class, but I feel like I might be more effective as a crafter. That or I need to practice throwing things.”

As they finished lunch and packed up their things. They all received a notification that the quest was complete and received the experience rewards. Flora glanced at Chloe. Chloe just sighed, “You aren’t wrong, that was a lot of experience at once.” With that, they parted ways.