C"Hey! Wake up!"
"Huh?!" The guard sputtered awake as he sat up on his seat, "Sorry, I fell asleep. The sound of the rain falling on the roof makes me real sleepy."
"I can see that." His fellow guard shook his head, "You're going to lose your job at this rate."
"Ah, it's been years since the last rebellion attack." The sleepy guard yawned, "Nothing ever happens here at this point."
"Yeah but the bigwigs have been doing some weird stuff to stomp the rebellion recently." The more attentive guard frowned, "A rebellion attack may very well happen."
"Ah it's fine." The other guard shrugged, "They're not very competent anyway."
"Haven't you heard? Rebellion's got some new blood that's been pumping the gas on their recent activities."
"Yeah but they can't beat Sirius." The lazy guard said flippantly, "He owns the entire city."
"They say the rebellion has recently acquired Corissa. You know, the princess of Cordis."
"Pfft. Don't tell me you believe those rumors. There's no reason an angel like her would descend into their sewers. She wouldn't even show up for Sirius."
"But you've seen everything the rebellion's been doing right? They took Fort M83!"
"They BOUGHT M83. It's not a big deal."
"Aren't you supposed to be more vigilant?"
"You're the only one who takes this so seriously."
"We have THREE figures we have to protect." The other guard said, pointing out to the gargoyles that sat perched on stony outcroppings, unmoving and looking completely inanimate, "Can you be a LITTLE more serious?"
"You saw how powerful those things are!" The lazy guard scoffed, "They can take care of themselves!"
"Whenever or not they can, it's our JOB to protect them regardless!"
"Stop being such a buzzkill." The lazy guard stood up from his chair atop the wall, "Nothing's going to ha-"
Out of nowhere, a sphere of ice smashed into the side of the lazy guard's head, putting a nasty dent in his helmet. The guard stumbled about for a moment before collapsing onto the ground unconscious.
"Guards!" The more vigilant guard cried out, "We're under-" But he was quickly met with another ball of ice that smashed right into his face, flattening his nose, drawing blood and knocking the poor man out.
"Damn." Helena whistled, watched from atop the slightly broken clock tower with her enhanced eyes, "Didn't expect him to turn around there. Poor guy. Hope he's still alive."
"It'll be fine." Roko replied over the phone, "Just keep watch over yourself and be prepared to retreat if they start attacking you."
"Hey, tell me to do my job too at least."
"I have confidence in your work ethic. It's Roland I'm worried about."
"Hey, is that guy talking shit about me?" Roland asked as he stood nearby Helena.
"No."
"Why don't I believe you?"
"Just focus." Helena sighed, "The fight's just beginning."
As the remaining guards all scrambled up the stairs to the top of the wall where they heard the cries, the manhole closest to the wall burst opened and Momo was flying out of it with enhanced speed. Looking at the three gargoyles mounted on the walls, she threw the manhole cover at the winged gargoyle. The stone monsters had not moved to even acknowledge her but the manhole cover was met with a strong wind barrier that held the cover in place until a bolt of lightning dislodged it from its trajectory. Momo landed on the ground safely as the gargoyles finally began moving, shaking off dust and dirt as they rose from their perches to defend themselves. But the rest of the revolutionaries were already coming out of the sewers, dressed in the leather armor that they had recovered from the cistern base. The gargoyles' lightning attacks were too powerful to risk using the upgraded armor so they had to resort to their leather armor. Even Roko was in leather armor, about the only one in actual full armor being Varis.
"Defend the gate!" The guard captain ordered as the soldiers scrambled to arm the ranged defenses the wall had built into its battlement. These defenses were dangerous but Momo's enchantments would protect them for the time being. Much more dangerous were the gargoyles with their monstrous claws and magic. Like before, there were three of them; one with wings, one with horns and one with a tail. Naturally the winged gargoyle was flying above them but even the horned and tailed one were flying with their powerful wind magic. That they'd use their magic to stay afloat instead of attacking was a mark of how confident they were in the coming battle. Crushing that confidence was their first step.
Right at the start, Momo jumped back into the air to attack the horned gargoyle. Her blade scratched the monster's stone skin but didn't seem to damage them too badly. Momo pressed her attack, pushing the gargoyle downward as she assaulted it with what little time she had left in the air with her jump. The other gargoyles tried to cut into the fight but the rebels began taking their attention instead with their own ranged weapons. Crossbows and bolts were not the strongest weapons against them but they also were mostly made of wood, making them less likely to attract lightning. Which were being fired off all over the place as the gargoyle slipped out of Momo's assault. Several blasts from the sky with barely a hint to their attack. Mixed in with this dangerous lightning were shots from the wall. The Minchir guards had taken up bows and arrow to rain down a volley at the rebels all while slowly positioning their cannons to blast craters into their formation. If the cannons got set up, there was no chance of them winning even with Momo and Varis on their side. Thankfully, Roko already had a plan.
Pulling out the Sealith clawshot from his bag, Roko equipped it over his arm before reaching back in to pull out a large glass jar. Said jar was full to bursting with water and a single blue stone rattled about at its bottom. Setting the top of the jar into his claws, Roko fired off the clawshot up at the top of the wall. Swinging through all the arrowfire, the claw smashed the jar against the wooden supports under their roof, splashing water everywhere and dropping the everflowing Sealith onto their roof.
"What's going on?!" The guards said as their little battlement was suddenly flooded with water.
"It's the stone! Someone grab it!"
"Dammit, all the cannonballs are too wet to be used now!"
As the guards all scrambled about in the water, Roko turned to Momo and called out, "Do it!"
Momo nodded and jumped back up into the air, right towards one of the gargoyles. The creature backed away as Momo flew at it with a lightning spell charged in her hands. Momo pointed it at the gargoyle and shouted out the castphrase only for the gargoyle to move out of the way at the last moment. Only for the "stray" lightning bolt to hit the flooded rampart, blasting all the guards there with intense lightning until they all fell unconscious.
"That'll buy us some time." Roko muttered as he heard shouting from the walls' internal barracks calling out for support.
"Now it's just us and you three!" Momo grinned as she landed on the ground and jumped off again, rebounding off the wall to attack a gargoyle from behind.
Unfortunately, Momo was the only one who could challenge the gargoyles in the sky. Varis certainly had the enhancements to challenge the monsters in the air as well but with his heavy armor, he would only be able to do so for such short moments of time, it was practically not worth it. For now he served as their most powerful artillery, firing off blasts of lightning, trying to corner the gargoyles in midair. Along with these two challengers, there was also Helena, firing off far away shots that were their closest attacks to hitting the gargoyles.
Unfortunately, these homonculus monsters were too attentive of the battlefield, dodging the most dangerous attacks while manipulating their wind barriers to block the majority of projectiles, including Helena's. All while continuously launching lightning attacks that struck from the sky with almost no warning. They looked like they were barely trying. Hardly moving and only using their claws to defend from Momo's blade. For any uninformed onlooker, the rebellion might be putting such an unreal amount of pressure on these three monsters, but the nonchalance of said monsters would tip even uninformed predictions towards the monsters' favor. And Roko wasn't inclined to disagree.
The majority of their pressure, their crossbows, were patently useless aside from harrying the monsters. If they wanted to challenge the monsters, they needed to get them on the ground where the vast majority of their forces can gang up on them, cutting through their wind barriers with their swords. That wasn't to say that they would necessary win if that happened but it would be the genuine start of their battle. If they just stayed in the air and fired their lightning bolts down at them, it would end up being a fight of endurance. Either they ran the gargoyles' magical supplies dry or they ran out of steam and would have to retreat before too many of them got picked off by the gargoyles' relentless attacks. And given that the gargoyles didn't seem to be worried about running out of magic, it was pretty clear that they probably wouldn't be able to outlast them. That's not even considering that any number of events could happen to make their situation worse, the least worst of which was the Minchir guards recovering from their initial disruption.
They needed to change the situation in their favor soon. Perhaps if Roko had enough time to think of a countermeasure things would be different. Unfortunately, the sewer flood war took up the majority of his time. So the only countermeasure he came up with required the functional sacrifice of one of their most valuable pieces. And at this point, they had no better choice.
"Momo." Roko said as Momo landed next to him, "Scarecrow. Can you do it?"
"Haha. I can do it." Momo said, a tad disappointed.
"Sorry. Nobody else can do it but you."
"Don't worry about it. It'll make for good training."
With a reassuring nod, Momo jumped back into the air, past the gargoyles until she landed on top of Minchir's roofs. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes, collected her focus and raised her sword,
"Amp."
The lightning bolts suddenly blasted Momo's sword. In fact, every lightning bolt was suddenly drawn to Momo's sword. Momo had becoming a living lightning rod, something that no human would normally be able to do. Even with reinforcement magic, Momo would not last long collecting as much lightning bolts as she was. That's why amp was important. Sure, Varis could probably do better at attracting lighting with his full steel armor but that same armor would only amplify the lightning's effects on his own body. And Corissa's sanctuary lost more of its effectiveness the wider she made it's field of effect. They needed Momo's amp spell. To enter a state where Momo could manipulate her own lightning to cancel out the effects of all the lightning she was attracting. Without amp's thought acceleration, that would be a near impossible feat otherwise. The only downside was that now Momo could not move. A pinned queen to break a stalemate first so to say.
The gargoyles turned to look at Momo, emotionlessly observing her drawing their attacks. Some moved towards her to try and attack her but they were immediately met with a bolt of light so fierce that it dropped one of them, the horned one, to the ground. It was still alive, its stone body dispersing most of the damage but it was clear. Momo's lightning now ruled the skies.
The gargoyles seemed to understand this and quietly floated down next to their fallen comrade, the horned gargoyle picking itself up with little problem. The rebels had quietly stopped their crossbows, drawing their swords in anticipation of the close quarters combat they were promised. For a moment, the two forces stared at each other, too nervous to make the first move. And Roko knew fully well that the gargoyles would not make the first move so he drew his own sword and pointed it at the monsters, "Charge!"
At his command, the rebels let out a warcry and charged at the stone monsters. The gargoyles readied their claws and met the forces with their magically enhanced bodies. The gargoyles tore into their troops, scattering the first waves but they were quickly getting overwhelmed. The soldiers weren't quite strong enough to do solid damage on their stone skin but the multitude of blades were chipping away at their bodies. The gargoyles knew they were getting overwhelmed and some tried to get back into the air, but those that tried were immediately met with Varis' blade, the black knight smashing them back into the ground before they could even reach high enough to get blasted by Momo again. And when the black knight wasn't knocking these moles back down, he was at the front of the assault, slicing deep trenches into the gargoyle's body.
The gargoyles tried to use magic. Their wind barriers were useless now so they could switch to other magical attacks. The problem being that, as Roko had observed from the reports, the gargoyles' magic were tied to their weather manipulation. They could fire lightning from anywhere without moving but that came from the clouds they seeded which was why Momo could redirect them. Yet they continued to use lightning magic. They had to. Momo may be nullifying their lightning attacks but if they ever stopped using lightning, Momo would just join the fight again. And on the ground, they could not handle the full brunt of Roko's forces along with both Momo AND Varis, they would practically lose on the spot. So even if they no longer needed to fly, they needed to continue firing off lightning magic to keep Momo where she was.
The only magic they had that wasn't inherently tied to their weather manipulation was their wind magic. They could turn up the rain but that was the extent of their water magic. Their only option left was their wind magic that they used to blast entire waves of soldiers away from them. It was a problem but not nearly as bad as the lightning attacks. If that was all they could manage, then their victory was pretty insured. The gargoyles were on the ground, one type of their magic sealed and the Minchir guards were still scrambling to fix their situation on top of their wall. By the time they finished with that, they could slay the gargoyles. There was almost no way they could lose. Until the flash of a sword cut into the ground, scattering all the rebels away from the gargoyles. And a certain someone, a thorn in the Earthbounds' side, landed to join the battle. Momo watched from her position, blood pumping at the sight but she remained where she was to distract the lightning. Still, there was no mistaking the figure on the field.
"Kajou..."
The Planetary Star stood up, regarding the rebels coldly with her sword drawn. Her appearance was expected but it seemed to have a bigger effect on the rebel forces than Roko expected. They weren't exactly scared or surprised but it was a sort of generational trauma that made their force balk at the lone swordswoman's appearance. Kajou said nothing as the gargoyles recovered from being overwhelmed. From above the sound of the wall guards seemed to be taking over the roof again as water was thrown out from atop the wall. The Sealith that had been flooding the area was cut in half and its magic extinguished, letting the soldiers begin rebuilding their defenses. But Kajou wasn't going to wait for them to finish recovering. She lashed out with her sword and from a distance, she somehow cut through the rebel's frontline, sending the lightly armored rebels flying up into the air. Crossing the distance, however, was Varis, his sword clashing against Kajou's in what seemed to be an even match.
Seeing the Black Knight challenging the Planetary Star, the rebels rallied together to try and attack the gargoyles again. They mostly left Kajou alone for Varis to deal with her, their duel leaving holes in the battlefield as the rebels stayed away from the two. The gargoyles' condition has not changed but the brief reprieve was enough for them to reconsider their tactics, blasting the Earthbounds from afar with wind magic to scatter their forces before fending off the few that had made it through.
As it stood now, the two forces were back into a stalemate. Kajou's appearance was countered by Varis' strength and the gargoyles had figured out a better way of handling the Earthbounds' numbers. The tipping point this time were the Minchir guards. They finally retook the battlements and began attacking again. Their cannonballs were still rendered useless but they still had their bows and arrows which they used to rain volleys down on their enemies below. And this time, without their own ranged weapons to suppress their opponents, all the Earthbounds could do was retreat as they were battered by the battlements' support fire. The gargoyles were gaining ground against them and even Varis could be held back enough for Kajou to break away from their fight to assault their frontlines if only for a moment.
Some even had the gall to try and fire at Momo who was on their roof. Their attacks were met with small sparks of lightning that knocked their arrows away but she was still standing on their roof. A plot began to plant bombs underneath her feet and detonate them while she couldn't move. Though Momo heard the order, she could not do anything to stop them. All she could do was fire stray bolts to get those harassing her with arrows to retreat but only for a few seconds before they poked their head out and tried firing at her again. Even if Momo was perfectly able of stopping for a moment to deal with the entire wall situation, she could not. If she ever stopped, the lightning will fall on her allies which she couldn't afford to allow even if only briefly.
Once again, they were losing. Their only counter right now was Helena. She may have lost all her targets when the wall was unguarded and the gargoyles flew down behind the wall to confront the rebels but now the guards were back. And the guards knew of that, making sure to set up shields to try and block her sight. But Helena wasn't there. She was no longer at the clock tower, not that any of the guards were aware of that anyway. She had gone on to join up with the rest of Roko's plans.
"Hey everyone." Helena greeted as she and Roland arrived near the wall, "Am I late?"
"A little bit early I'd say." Melia snickered.
"Some of us are still climbing out." Kaguya explained, "I'd say give it a few more minutes for everyone to finish getting up."
"Got it." Helena gave a thumbs up, "Man, climbing up and down that clock tower's stairs is tiring."
"Did they ever fire any bolts at you?" Melia asked.
"A few but we managed to dodge most of it. When Momo started taking the lightning herself, we were already gone."
"You got here fast then." Melia remarked.
"Couldn't miss out on something like this." Helena grinned.
"Sir! Er, ma'ams?" One of the rebels spoke up, "Everyone's ready now."
"Then let's go." Kaguya nodded, "Time to end this battle."