The Mulapin Bell Tower was an old tower that used to ring out the time in chimes. They wanted a more traditional clock tower but it was too expensive to implement immediately so they decided to build half of the desired clock tower with just the bell and use it as a tourist destination until they can afford the clock half. Now with Sirius in power, the tower has stopped its work and fallen into disrepair like the rest of the city. It was just a slightly creaky tower with a long staircase up to the bell platform that was practically a death trap more than an attraction. But it made for an ideal sniping location for Helena as proven by their skirmish with Kajou. And it was here that Roko, Helena and Roland were set up for one last test. Not really for any of their sake but to try and prove and inform the public of the gargoyle threat.
"Is this really necessary?" Roland frowned.
"People will question why we're attacking some inanimate gargoyles." Roko replied, "Trust is important to establish."
"Plus, if I can just snipe them down from here, we won't even need to fight." Helena added.
"Will it really be that easy though?" Roland asked.
"God, I hope not." Helena smirked as they arrived at the bell platform. The old rusty bell hung still from the small roof, indifferent to even the strong storm winds. There were balconies that could look out into the city below but they didn't need to go that far to get a clear sight of the gargoyles.
"Are you sure you got this?" Roko asked as Helena prepared her shot, "The winds are strong and the rain will buffer your shot."
"I think I got it."
"Well you're not Roland so I automatically trust you."
"Was that shot necessary?" Roland scowled.
"Just hope onto the rope." Roko replied.
Helena stood over the stairs. Taking an anxiety inducing amount of time to measure up her shot. But when she was ready, she raised her hand, summoning a small bead of ice that slowly rotated outwards, growing into a large ornate blade of circling ice. Helena held for spell for a moment longer…
"Ice."
The ice saw shot through the air at impressive speeds, it's flat edge flying through the rain without care, through the winds that had become still for this small moment. Helena's attack came within inches of the head of one of the gargoyles...until a wind barrier knocked the blade away and was immediately destroyed by lightning.
"Dra-"
Before Helena could bemoan her failed shot, the air around her sparked with electricity and the bell tower was immediately pelted with three simultaneous bolts of lightning, destroying the roof entirely and knocking the rusted bell away from the explosion before it crashed into the ground with a deep dong sound. The top of the bell tower had been completely annihilated with nary a shadow to be seen left on top. Roko and Roland breathed a sigh of relief as they held onto a rescued Helena, expertly pulling on the rope attached to her waist to pull her safely back into the stairwell.
"Nice job guys." Helena said, relieved.
"Well that was a bust." Roland said as he tiredly pet Helena's head on his lap.
"Well, at least the rest of the rebellion should be mobilizing." Roko said as he moved Helena's legs away from his head, "Though from this one attack I don't think they'll last long."
"Would we really change anything if we showed up?" Roland asked.
"Probably not but we have to try anyway." Roko said as he got up.
In the dark alleyways between the houses closest to the gargoyles, a small platoon of rebels huddled together, anxiously waiting for the sign to attack.
"Are we seriously attacking statues right now?" One rebel asked.
"Did you not get the memo?" Another rebel said irritated, "They're weather control devices! They're responsible for the on going storm for the past few days!"
"They're homonculi, technically." Momo corrected, "So expect them to fight back."
"That's assuming we can get up to them." The first rebel scoffed.
"Well with any luck, we don't have to."
"What do you mean?"
Before Momo could reply, Helena's ice saw flew through the air above them, cutting the air with a whistling noise before it got stuck in the winged gargoyle's wind barrier, deflecting off and shattering into tiny pieces with a bolt of lightning.
"Well there goes that idea." Momo winced.
"So was that our signal?"
Before Momo could reply the sounds of an excessive explosion and a loud gonging noise interrupted them.
"THAT was our signal." Momo said, "All hands move out!"
"Wait, are they okay?!" The rebel asked as everyone began to pick up their weapons.
"Roko's with them so I'm sure they're fine." Momo replied as she picked up a bow and jumped out of the shadows. Momo along with some of the rebellion's best archers all jumped out from the shadows and fired a volley of arrows at the gargoyles. No matter which one of the three they attacked though, every arrow met strong resistance in the wind barriers around the gargoyles before falling off to the ground below. Not even Momo's enhanced arrows could cut through them, though Momo didn't really have a lot of experience enhancing ranged attacks.
"Alright, hold onto this." Momo said, foisting her bow and arrows onto another confused rebel, "Lightning!"
With her hands free, Momo fired a bolt of lightning at the gargoyles but it was met with another bolt of lightning crashing down from the sky to cancel hers out.
"Wow, these things are tough." Momo frowned.
"Boss, the wind's getting too wild to continue firing shots at them!" One of the rebels reported.
"We move to take control of the wall then!" Momo called, "All hands assault the third gate!"
Putting away their bows and crossbows, their forces turned to the gate nearby. There were booths where guards should have been they were empty, the ones who were meant to man them having abandoned them long ago to simply idle about in their main base inside the wall. These gates were a farce. An image of a path between the rich and the poor. Suggesting that anyone in Mulapin could cross over into Muldingirmus. But that was never the case. The doors may open to both sides but it only ever opened one way, for the rich to visit the poor. And under Sirius' watchful gaze even that quickly became rare, at least in any official manner. It was a false promise for relation's sake. But that didn't meant it wasn't well defended. The soldiers atop the walls had already mobilized, watching curiously as the rebels attacked these new statues but quickly reacted to the rebels approaching their fort. From the top of the gate, guards began firing their own arrows down at them. The rebels raised their shield to defend against the arrows but those were the least of their concerns.
"Get away from me!" One of the armored rebels shouted as electric static floated around him.
There was barely enough time for the people around him to retreat before the armored rebel was blasted with a terrifying amount of lightning. As Roko had predicted this, the man had been well insulated from the attack to prevent him from dying but the damage was still enough for him to quickly collapse onto the ground.
"Pull him back under cover!" One of the commanding rebels called.
Roko had predicted that using this armor in these conditions was dangerous as it made them lightning rods for the gargoyles' lightning magic. But they didn't really have a lot of choice. A lot of their leather armor was now locked away in the flooded base and the only leather armor remaining were just what people had managed to bring with them during their excavation. Roko didn't think his decision to buy better armor would backfire like this but there wasn't anything anyone could do now. The amount of people wearing the improved armor were kept to a minimum but they were quickly getting picked off with precision lightning strikes. Eventually, Momo had to call for all armored rebels to make a full retreat no matter their condition. That left less than half of their prepared forces left to take the wall and the gate guards were only getting started.
Kaguya had managed to lockpick the doors into the booth but the further stair up to the higher parts of the wall had already been blocked off with guards taking up the stairways with heavy shields and spears. The few rebels remaining tried to push through them but if anything, the guards began to advance out of the wall, pushing the rebels out of their home base entirely. Their only way through was to use magic but in terms of their magical abilities at the moment, Melia's earth magic could potentially deal with them but the stone around the gargoyles and the fort were made of a particularly heavy and dense kind which Melia reported to be having trouble moving. Their only remaining magic user was Momo who was torn between attacking the gargoyles directly and assisting the wall invasion. Without Roko there to call the shots, Momo fell back on her own military expertise. And her choice was to attack both directly.
With her enhancement magic, Momo was able to jump directly onto the wall and blast apart the archers chucking arrows down at her soldiers. The soldiers were now pincered, with Momo clearing the resistance behind the blockade as the remaining rebels continued to push against the front. But that meant she had become the main target of the gargoyles attack. Luckily there was a roof to block her from the lightning and rain overhead but the wind warped around the top of the wall to crash into Momo. Perhaps if it was only one or two wind mages, Momo could make headway. Slow but steady headway. But with the three gargoyles pushing against her, Momo was practically stuck in place while some rebels bounced some arrows off her enhanced defenses.
All the while, lightning continued to blast down on the remaining rebels. Less accurate than before with no giant plates of metal to guide them but it didn't need to be. The blasts were enough to scatter their forces even as they tried to reassemble. Just as Momo divided the wall guard's forces, the gargoyles were now dividing Momo's attention, keeping her in one place while attacking her army, forcing her to struggle to pick between pushing their invasion or redirecting the gargoyles' attention away from her army. If the army got back inside, away from the elements, they was a chance of a victory. The gargoyles would remain a threat but without their guards to back them up, even they would be more manageable. But the gargoyles were a threat NOW. They were managing to stall Momo and interfere with the rebel's advance with pinpoint attacks. They tore Momo's mind between the mission and her men. And if it was just that, they would be at a stalemate. Until one more factor came into play.
"Kajou!" The rebels started screaming, "Kajou's here!"
"Kajou?!" Momo gasped.
Sure enough, the Planetary Star had appeared in the middle of the advancing forces, scattering the rebels even further as the armor they had could no longer defend properly against her, making them easy targets for the experienced swordswoman. The rebels were now pushing out onto the streets to repel their forces. Their path to Minchir was gone. The invasion had failed. The problem now was gargoyles and Kajou. Yes, Momo wanted to fight Kajou again. But her men were still at risk and there was little chance the gargoyles would let her have the fair duel she wanted. There was only one option left. Momo jumped onto a flagpole, standing straight up as she raised her sword, becoming a lightning rod for all the gargoyles' lightning attacks, shrugging them off with her own lightning magic as she shouted,
"Retreat! Full retreat! Everyone escape!"
Her order wasn't necessary. Everyone was already losing ground. But her order made it official. Kajou stopped attacking as she respectfully let the remaining survivors run away. From her high perch, Momo looked down at her rival who looked coldly up at her. There was no communication between them. The battle was over. So once the rebels had cleared the area, Momo jumped down onto the ground, the two giving the other one last look before they turned away from each other and walked off. The Earthbounds had lost this battle.
A few days passed and the mood among the survivors and remaining Earthbounds were in the dumps. Perhaps they thought they were doing better than they ever had with Roko in charge. Perhaps Roko did too good a job inspiring his men. But this defeat hit them like a deep depression. Roko was prepared to lose. Roko's companions were reasonable enough to accept losses. But the commonfolk they were militarizing were not. Even the most experienced were unable to lift their spirits. Unable to think of a way they could have won that battle.
"It's even worse than that." Azimuth reported, "They've moved the gargoyles. From the Mulapin side onto the Muldingirmus side of the wall. Now if we want to attack those weather controlling bots, we need to enter Muldingirmus and enter without using any of our normal sewer methods."
"Why didn't they do that before?" Roland scoffed.
"Part of the storm has now stretched into the Muldingirmus side." Kaguya explained, "The parts of Muldingirmus now closest to Minchir are under constant rain too."
"So you're telling me they put those gargoyles on OUR side, opening up our easiest chance of beating them solely so they wouldn't inconvenience a small part of their populace?!" Malus shouted.
"Seems to be the case."
"And now we've LOST it?!"
"Can you stop shouting, Malus?" Roko sighed.
"Shut it! You! It's all your fault!"
"Roko wasn't even there, Malus." Momo frowned.
"That doesn't matter! He's the leader of this operation, of the Earthbounds! This failure is on HIS head!"
"I have to take fault here too." Melia spoke up, "I didn't expect the stone around the guards would be so difficult to move. I'll start training to improve my earth magic but I'm sorry for not contributing in this fight."
"You don't need to apologize, this is all a part of the learning process." Roko nodded, "And Malus, nothing would have changed even if I was there. But it's not over yet. We still have a chance of beating them."
"How?" Malus scoffed, "Our usual methods into Muldingirmus are sealed with water. And our first attempt at taking the wall failing will now put them into higher alert for a second invasion."
"There's also the armor problem." Momo added, "If Kajou's going to be there, we're going to need the new armor but the new armor also makes our soldiers more susceptible to the gargoyles' lightning attacks."
"More importantly than that." Azimuth said, "Our men's morale are at an all time low. Of course, we're prepared to fail and die at any moment. I'm glad no one has died quite yet, hospitalized sure, but not die. But this is the biggest loss we've suffered since you arrived here and it's hitting everybody hard."
"And it's not something you can sweep under the rug with a speech this time." Malus said crossly, "You're going to have to actually do something!"
"...I don't suppose a pizza party will work..." Roko muttered.
"Roko...I know it's hard but you have to inspire the soldiers again." Momo said seriously but not without a slight smile at Roko's joke, "You're going to have to do something."
"The best thing I can do is come up with a good plan." Roko scowled, "No speech I can give will work at this point."
"It doesn't have to be a speech." Kaguya suggested, "Perhaps some sort of other change will raise their spirits."
"I already got everybody dental, what else can I do?"
"Wait, we have dental?" Malus blinked.
"This is news to me too." Azimuth frowned, "When did you do that?"
"When I first got here. It was among the changes I made after restructuring our finances."
"Wait, who's our dentist?"
"Is this really the time?"
"Right, well..." Azimuth grimaced, "Uhhhh…"
"No ideas, Azimuth?" Helena smirked.
"If I could inspire people I would've done so before you all arrived." Azimuth shook her head, "I'm afraid I don't have any ideas."
"Let me take over." Malus sneered, "With my leadership, I can-"
"Malus, have you done your reps for today?" Momo asked.
"Huh? Wait, you mean...but everything's flooded! There's no weights around!"
"I've got some in my room." Momo shook her head, "I'll bring them to you later. Be warned, they're much heavier than what you're used to."
"Even heavier?!" Malus cried, "W-we busy right now! We don't have time for muscle training!"
"Muscle training never stops!" Momo shouted sternly, "If you take even a day off, you won't even be ready for the final battle!"
"We're still stuck on THIS battle!"
"And you think you're strong enough to fight Kajou right now?"
"...No..."
"Then shut up and start doing some push ups!"
The ever rude and indomitable Malus was scowling in contempt but Momo's intensity was so forceful that he obediently ended up dropping and starting a few push-ups.
"That should shut him up." Momo nodded, "Now where were we?"
"It's fine." Roko sighed, "I know what we have to do."
"Do you now?" Azimuth said more curious than doubtful, "And how do you plan on inspiring our men? Do you have a speech planned?"
"No..."
"Why...do you seem pretty sad about this?"
"Because...it's something I didn't want to have to do..."