--- Lily ---
Lily found that allowing for Appoline to setup her potions was well worth the ti. She’d learnt a lot even if most of it was more in a general theory sense. From what information she did gain, Lily was sure that she could make an attempt at alchemy... emphasis on ’attempt’. Without knowing exactly what you needed to do to any given ingredient she probably wouldn’t be able to make fast progress but that was fine. The control exercises that Appoline had devised for young apprentices were worth it all by themselves.
Of course, that was all from a ti cost perspective. That ti was being used by the guards nearly as well. They’d managed to build up a few layers of walls and made the initial ones higher. Lily could also spot a few ballistae ready to take them down if they tried to jump over, or fly away. Dodging them might not be too bad and getting hit won’t hurt but Kat wasn’t able to fly with too much weight and a giant wooden log shaped like an arrow was certainly too much.
Which was part of the reason Lily had volunteered herself to lead the charge. Kat had taken a lot of convincing... but it boiled down to the simple fact that she could dodge if she was by herself, but dodging out of the way and letting Appoline get hit would be a bad thing. Thus, sowhat forcing Kat to be the one to take hits for the crazy Alchemist. The only reason Lily was remotely okay with that particular detail was that Rank 2 things weren’t likely to hurt Kat much, if at all.
Now she had to be more worried about herself. The other reason Lily was going first was to open the door up, and Lily was planning to simply leave it open afterwards. There wasn’t much of a reason to allow for it to close again and it seed safer then having it cracked open for a few monts to let everyone back outside.
It was Lily’s job to go into the crowds and gather focus. If possible Kat was going to fly off with Appoline and Lily would try to follow afterwards... but the ballistae were going to make that hard. They’d be Lily’s main point of attack, both because they were useful for the enemy and you didn’t have to worry about accidentally killing soone when you shredded a ballista in half the sa way you did launching that sort of attack at a person.
Appoline had... sothing prepared? She’d done up a single batch of green goop that she’d then coated several pots in before creating more green goop alongside so sandy looking powder. From the explanation, it seed like adding the powder to the goop would cause it to rapidly expand and cover the area. Well thought out except for the fact Appoline didn’t have a great way to store them. She’d badgered Kat into using their storage bracelet to keep the pots inside while using what little remained of her clothes as a bag for the sand.
Kat had offered replacents but Appoline had scoffed at that. Apparently being half naked in dirty clothes that were liable to fall apart once they got into the fight... just wasn’t a problem. Why she didn’t want so of the spare clothing available was... well Lily didn’t like to think of the real reason. Better to pretend it was just because Appoline was too prideful. [Lily, I love you just the way you are. There’s no reason to be embarrassed about your clothes not fitting Appoline.]
*Actually, there IS a reason to be embarrassed and annoyed about it when Appoline’s two big ’reasons’ for not fitting into my clothes are quite visible at the mont.*
[Lily, I don’t care she has bigger tits then you.]
*But I do!*
[Lily you DESIGNED YOUR BODY. You could have tits as big as you want. We’ve also t a number of people with bigger boobs then you. I have bigger boobs then you.]
*That last part doesn’t count. You’re my girlfriend so technically, even if they’re not on my body they’re still ’my’ boobs by proxy.*
[Ok... and the other part? We hang out with Sue semi-regularly.]
*It’s just different ok? You’re right I don’t think I’d want to change my looks like that. I just prettied myself up a bit when I made this body... and that did include slightly larger boobs. The difference is that she specifically can’t fit in my clothes because of it. Sue’s never tried to put on my clothes.*
[I still don’t see how that changes anything... but alright. Now, are we ready to leave? You’ve been working on the door for a few minutes now.]
*Yeah I think I’ve got it. Is Appoline ready?*
[Yup.]
*Alright, get ready then.* In truth Lily had got the door ready to be opened a bit ago. She just had to find the sa stuff from before and prepare her shadows to crack it all open. She’d been nervous, and still was. Wasting a bit of extra ti was probably fine... and they hadn’t added any more ballistae in the ti she’d been working on the door. Still, Kat was right, it was ti to go.
Lily felt her shadows slot into place as she ripped the door open. Space seed to creak and Lily felt the glass screech as the door returned to being real. Lily threw it open and let two of her shadow hands slam into the wall in front of her. The impact was hard, her claws only managed to go in a few centitres.
Cursing, she dashed sideways to avoid the standard archer fire. Apparently she didn’t rate a ballista shot. Lily slipped between the arrows, weaving around them for a few monts as she build up speed. Just before reaching the left edge of the greenhouse, she bounced between the wall and the glass to rapidly gain height, faster then her wings could anyway. Lily used this to climb up to one of the holes in the wall and shoved a shadow drill through it.
The hole wasn’t originally large enough to fit through, her horns took up a bit too much space and the builders had been careful... but they were still a week point. A rapidly spinning shadow drill was enough to quickly widen the hole and scare away the archer using it if the scream was anything to go by.
As Lily was slipping inside the wall, she heard several heavy ’twangs’ as the ballistae went off, all heading in the direction of the door. Lily winced, not worried for Kat’s safety but for the doors. Her girlfriend was probably going to need to take or deflect those hits. Still, Lily knew she couldn’t focus on that as she started to attack the person that had started trying to shoot her again.
A quick shadow swipe found the bow in their hands snapped and Lily sprinted off before they could ready anything else. The nearest ballista had two guards around it that seed to also function as the reloading system if the nearby arrows were any indication of things. Lily sent her paper towards them and watched in shock as they bounced off the wooden construct. Growling, she dashed forward, weaving between the sword strikes from the guards to tear at the thing. Lily carefully coated her claws in shadow to extend their reach, hopping into the centre of the thing, and spun.
Lily shredded the structure cleanly, leaving her hovering in the air for a mont afterwards and nearly getting a dagger in her eye for the trouble. The ’archer’ manning the ballista apparently also had throwing knives and they were really accurate. Lily had to knock it off course with her shadow as she was unable to fully move out of the way in ti. Lily didn’t bother to fight them once her feet hit the ground, instead she took off to destroy more ballista if she could. The problem was the large number of guards started to converge on her location.
*Am I fast enough to just run through them all? There’s a lot of guards coming. Apparently I’m doing a good job at being the distraction... better job then I thought.* Lily summoned a paper shield to her side as three arrows tried to plough into her. Lily wasn’t sure any would’ve actually hit, but they were close enough she felt she had to react. At the sa ti, a few of the guards from the front row charged in. So had swords and others had spears but it looked like they were all gearing up to attack her.
Lily decided that speed was her friend... and threw up a large wave of shadow, it looked like it was about to crash into the front lines... but Lily didn’t have the mana to turn that much shadow into an attack nor could she use her own shadow for sothing like that. Instead... she just booked it in the other direction back towards where Kat was, sprinting through the loose cordon forming around behind her as she avoided all the attacks made against her.
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