"ARGH!!! Enemy attack! Help!" Soldiers screamed in the dead of night as golden flashes reaped their lives.
This was Altair's first time using guerrilla tactics. She didn't really know what she was doing—and that was what made it terrifying. Normally, in guerrilla warfare, soldiers caused disruptions, triggered alarms, and vanished without firing a single arrow. The purpose was to tire the enemy out.
Altair knew the basics, but she took it one step further—she assassinated soldiers in the dark of night and confronted their generals before fleeing.
"Running again? This is the third time tonight. You're more persistent than cockroaches," Sheena said, swords drawn as she faced Altair.
"Turns out I enjoy every problem you two have. See you tomorrow." Altair smirked and vanished into the night.
"Fucking coward! What's her deal?" Delghar roared, while Sheena bit her lip and thumb in irritation.
"General, we should retreat—at least until your wound has healed," a frightened soldier suggested. He wasn't a symbiote user and quickly realized Altair's goal: to kill their general and thin their ranks.
"She's aiming for your life, Delghar. If she kills you in one of these raids, it's over. I can't beat her alone," Sheena said. "In the worst case, we should fall back."
Sheena weighed their situation. Symbiote users were powerful, but they were still human. They needed rest.
"Shit! This stupid symbiote still won't get its act together!" Delghar cursed. His eye had regenerated, but the symbiote was still sluggish from drug abuse.
Sheena and Delghar stayed awake the entire night, standing guard. But Altair didn't attack again. She was human—she needed rest.
By dawn, she returned to Evesys Castle. The soldiers cheered as she landed, and she was soon tucked into a warm bed once owned by Rebecca's father.
Meanwhile, Sheena stood watch through the cold night beside the hateful general.
The soldiers, giddy with fear, were also exhausted. Even though Sheena had assigned them shifts, none of them could sleep when they weren't sure they would wake up tomorrow.
The advantage of guerrilla warfare is that the attacker can choose when to strike, while the defender cannot. All they can do is hold out in fear of ambushes. This age-old tactic was familiar to Hiro, but it wasn't often used here. After all, symbiote users were usually too proud to employ such methods, and there was little reason for ordinary soldiers to do it against enemies who had symbiote users.
Five days later, Delghar had recovered—though not fully.
"I'm healed now. I'll help you catch that cockroach!"
"Are you sure? I see some wiggling there," Sheena said as she examined Delghar's wings. The wings weren't their usual smooth brown; some of the feathers twitched, revealing the tentacles underneath.
"We need to crush that bug. Only then can I get a good night's sleep. You're annoyed at her too, right?"
"Well, as long as you don't hold me back, I'll welcome any help I can get." Sheena nodded. She was sick of staying up all night. Moreover, Delghar had lost most of his troops and had been forced to recruit Sicily's inhabitants to fill the gaps. Delghar might not have been fully healed, but Sheena assumed they could win as long as he showed even a little competence befitting a symbiote user. Now was the time to settle the score.
"The king said he'll send Delila as reinforcement," Sheena muttered. "With three symbiote users, he expects us to expel the invaders and conquer Litmus within two months."
"What about Rashick? Do you think he'll send him too?"
"Unlikely. The threat of parasitic tentacles in the north is constant. Ordinary soldiers stand no chance against them. They're unlike goblins—relentless. Once they detect weakness, they swarm before long. But… who knows…" Sheena said. She wanted to believe the king wasn't foolish enough to send all their symbiote users, but she couldn't be sure anymore.
The idea of simply killing the king and letting Litmus occupy Latvin sounded more appealing to her. This way, all symbiote users could be saved, and their powers could be used to exterminate the forest of tentacles in the north and the goblin kingdom in the south. But she knew it was only a pipe dream now.
Litmus might fancy the idea of negotiation, but Altair and Mutual were having none of it. Latvin had desecrated symbiotes, using them as nothing more than tools of war. Even if negotiations could take place, Litmus would surely demand that Latvin stop producing the drug. Without that drug, Sheena and Delghar would be hard-pressed to control their symbiotes.
"Shouldn't we wait for Delilah?" Delghar, who had tasted defeat, showed caution.
"Oh, are you afraid now?" Sheena smirked. She pondered for a second before answering, "Delilah was supposed to guard His Majesty. If she's been sent to the front line, that means His Majesty is putting his life at risk. We need to do this quickly."
"Understood."
The army then marched toward Evesys, tired and weary from Altair's harassment. On Earth, such an army would lose any battle they fought, but in this world, the heroes were the symbiote users. As long as they were healthy, even a weary army filled with peasants instead of knights could still win a battle.
"Shit. It was futile after all," Altair cursed as Latvin's army besieged them.
"Do you think we can repel them, Divine Host Altair? Their army looks weary. We can offer you full ground support," the general said.
"Do it. As long as we can hold out for one more week—no, four more days—we'll prevail. Vall Sabertooth's cavalry army is famous for its speed. They might arrive early," Altair said.
She looked back toward her own army, comparing it to Latvin's. Her soldiers were steadfast—their gait crisp, their eyes sharp. Unlike those from Latvin, whose steps were weak and lazy; some were yawning, others on the brink of collapse from exhaustion.
If there was something she believed she had gained from this war, it was that she appreciated her army even more. Most symbiote users looked at their soldiers as nothing more than butlers, not knights. While she was kinder and more forgiving to her knights than most, she had been no exception in the beginning. Altair took a few deep breaths before taking to the field.
"You finally came out, huh? Cowards!"
"I don't want to hear that from a guy who hides behind a woman. Why don't we duel again to prove your worth?" Altair scoffed. Despite how Delghar intimidated her, she knew he was far from healthy. Just one look at the wriggling tentacles wrapping his body told her enough. "What a poor symbiote—having to deal with that man's incompetence. You can't bring out your full strength because your host is an incompetent buffoon."
"Fuck you!" Delghar dashed forward, his battleaxe at the ready. Altair charged with her rapier and dagger. She thought Delghar would tank her hits like last time, but he didn't. He swerved to the side—unstable, with too much force behind his dodge—but Sheena closed the gap with her longsword. It was thanks to Sheena's expertise with a blade, something her symbiote could not provide, that she could parry Altair's quick thrust.
Altair hadn't come to the battlefield without a plan. Hiro had shown her his Sunbeam skill, and she intended to use it here to distract Sheena or Delghar.
After Hiro bloomed his flower on the girls' backs, motes of light gathered on them. Then Hiro bloomed another flower on their chests, using its stalk to rotate the bloom, aiming it at Sheena and Delghar. Hiro wanted it to rain, like when a squad fired their guns, but Altair said it would decrease the firepower—so Hiro stuck with one flower for each girl, four in total.
"Go on, run! You insects! Ahahahaha!" Delghar laughed maniacally as he rampaged with his axe, chasing down Altair as she swiveled around. Despite her speed, she couldn't counter, as Sheena guarded him tightly. Typical muskets had a range of about 100 meters. Sheena and Delghar flew higher than that. Whenever Altair dived down, they didn't follow. This frustrated her.
The general thought the battle would be easy, but it proved to be harder than expected. Latvin's soldiers were fueled by desperation. They knew they would not survive if they lost, so despite their exhaustion, they fought with everything they had. Even when they lost their hands, even when knights stabbed them in the heart, they kept fighting—holding their muskets to the knights' faces.
The battle had lasted for a while in the air. Thanks to the weakened Delghar, Altair had the leeway to glance at Elysia, who stood atop the gate. The glow on his flower indicated that his skill was fully charged. He aimed his flower at the dogfighting symbiotes, waiting for the opportune time.
Sheena and Delghar knew better than to be lured by Altair, so they kept their altitude. Similar to bullets, Hiro's Sunbeam grew weaker the farther the targets were. Altair had measured that he needed to get within 300 meters, or the beams would be ineffective. That was about three times the range of normal muskets. Altair wanted to lure them within 200 or even 150 meters so the skill could pack more punch, but Sheena and Delghar knew better than to fly low.
In the end, Altair gave a signal with a flick of her wing, despite the duo hovering over 250 meters in the air. She dived down, gaining distance. When the duo stopped chasing, Hiro fired his Sunbeam from his four girls toward Delghar.
Unlike bullets or arrows, lasers were not affected by gravity. The four beams drew straight lines toward Delghar, exploding right into his face. Altair shot herself toward him, intending to pierce his head amidst the smoke, only to be stopped by a flash of light from Sheena's sword.
She was about to follow up with another attack, but Delghar screamed. His symbiote rampaged again—it feared for its life, trying to defend its master in a frenzy. Instinct took over, and he lost control, dropping to the ground.
"Tch. Delghar, we are retreating," Sheena said before flying away with the wounded Delghar, picked up like a piece of trash.
The battle was won.