Starship Commander Trapped In A Fantasy World - 203 Imperial Knights 3

“Melissa sure overdid it again”

“Of course she did captain, that bastard killed 3 of us!”

“Knock it off Ahri! Remain calm and alert! We haven’t captured him yet.”

(This entire failure was due to my personal ineptitude. I imagine that I’ll be harshly reprimanded for this mission when we return to the capital.)

Ignoring his own advice all the imperial knight captain was concerned about was what would happen when he returned to the capital, after all, there’s no way the demonkin could fight all of them at the same time, especially so after he had been hit by one of Melissa’s arrows. In truth, they had no idea who they were facing and if wanting to prove exactly that Dax those that moment to walk out of the ruined building with a 2 meter long, spear like metal arrow stuck halfway into his gut.

“This is your last chance to surrender!”

Overcoming the slight shock of seeing that his target was still able to walk around, the imperial knight captain drew his one handed sword from its sheath which was hidden inside the tower shield he held in his dominant hand. Following his lead, the other imperial knights drew their weapons and started half encircling their target for capture, but in response, the demonkin only seemed to start smiling.

“I could extend that message to all of you as well, but it seems like that won’t stick Well then, I assume that’s all of you? Except for the marksman of course No more holding back then.”

Gripping the arrow stuck in his gut, the qiton’s hand started to heat up the metal at a rapid pace. Watching and wincing as the metal heated up bright red and the smell of burnt flesh spread out through the area as the metal arrow melted and fell apart.

“There we are~ ICI engage automatic repair, exit acoustic mode.”

[DIRECTIVE CONFIRMED, LEVEL ALPHA OPERATION MODE RESTORED. AUTOMATIC REPAIR ENGAGED, LOADING SCRIPT COMPLETE, TASKING BLACKMATTER.]

As if betraying the laws of physics the black blood which poured out from the demonkin’s wound returned to his body as the wound healed up.

“Sorry for the wait. ICI.”

[DIRECTIVE CONFIRMED, FORMULATING HIGH BANDWIDTH QUANTUM DATABRIDGE TO KINGSTEAD TACTICAL DATA CENTRE, CONNECTION ESTABLISHED OFFLOADING PROCESSING COMPLETE, FORMULATING SPELL ARCHITECTURE, SYSTEM ONLINE, INITIALIZING ASCENSION SCRIPT… ASCENSION ONLINE, AMBIENT MANA ABSORPTION AT MAX, MANA FORGE ONLINE, RUNNING AT 500% FACTORY DESIGNATED LIMIT.]

“Phase 3.”

With a single word mana flooded towards the demonkin with such intensity that the siege barrier flickered for a moment, as the ground shook with such intensity that all the citizens of the Greendale capital felt it, including one particular inhabitant of one of the largest church who was lazing around on the main altar.

“Oh?… Well, isn’t that interesting?~”

–

“What the fuck are you?”

Looking at the demonkin he was supposed to capture the imperial knight captain struggled to rationalize what he was seeing. Floating about 3 meters off the ground the demonkin he was supposed to capture were briefly surrounded by golden crystals that then turned a pure black before they became a single pair of 5 metres wide ‘wings’ while his eyes glowed in a soft golden light.

“You don’t need to know.”

Closing the range in the blink of a second the captain had a fraction of a second to react and he acted on instinct, abandoning his shield and stepping back as it was sliced apart.

“Nice reflexes. Howitzer.”

But sadly those fast reactions made him predictable and with a wave of Dax’s hand, he was sent flying. Still holding the advantage of surprise the qiton sliced through another knight before they managed to react, cleaving the knight in two as his sword’s aura flared.

(Thanks for the meal~)

While a certain overly sweet sounding voice rang out in his head Dax managed to close the distance to yet another imperial knight, this time aiming to cut the head clean off instead of cutting down along the entire body.

“FU!-“

But the imperial knight had barely managed to react in time and so Dax only managed to just slice into the knight’s neck he reacted fast by ducking under the return strike before clenching his free fist, stepping into range then uppercutting the knights head clean off his body. Just after he had dealt with that knight he was once more targeted by the hostile marksman, but this time Dax was prepared.

“Aegis.”

Watching her arrow harmlessly stopping right in front of her target, the imperial knight Melissa didn’t react in time when the demonkin repurposed her arrow and sent it back towards her with such force that it destroyed the tower she had been occupying.

(If you want to keep trying to snipe me from such a short range, then at least change up your position every now and then)

“DIE!”

But still, the marksman had briefly distracted Dax and the imperial knight Ahri used his lapse in judgment to the best of her ability as she charged into the demonkin’s range with her twin single edged swords.

(So no more capturing me?)

Blocking one of the single edged swords with his own sword and the other with his bare arm Dax easily pushed back the pesky knight, but by doing so he lost his momentum.

“Tch, buckshot.”

Realizing that he was on the back foot Dax switched up his tactics to speed over damage as he settled for maiming another approaching knight while ignoring those who fruitlessly targeted him with ranged spells.

“XMA, arms.”

“What!?-“

All of a sudden Dax’s ‘wings’ which housed the ascension spell formation changed their shape, turning into a pair of extra arms that stabbed straight through the knight.

“Time to clean up this shitshow.”

Creating a blastwave to knock away the imperial knights, Dax started to gather up mana while ignoring all but the most serious spells against him.

“Fuck!”

Realizing what her opponent was trying to do, Ahri used the last of her mana to compress the blood that was flowing down her arms at the blades of her swords, enhancing their sharpness as she charged the demonkin.

But it was too late.

“Air pressure control: Annihilation.”

Having completed his spell Dax turned to a truly cruel spell, creating a high pressure thermal pulse which immediately ignited wood, fabric and skin within a 10 meter radius. In truth, the only humane thing about the spell was that it forced extremely high temperature air down into the lungs of the imperial knight caught within the range, that way they didn’t have to suffer that much from being burned alive before dying.

“Urg!- W-what happened?”

Waking up and immediately puking up a pool of blood the imperial knight captain struggled to get back on his feet as he realized that most of his left side ribs were cracked and the lung behind them was mostly gone. Finally getting back on his feet after some struggling what the imperial knight captain saw terrified him, to the very core. Burned copes with nothing but the signature armour worn by an imperial knight to identify them.

“Any last words?”

“… Why do all of this?”

Looking up at the creature he had until now believed to be a mere demonkin, the imperial knight captain now looked like something way more terrible. Truly this creature was out for the Empire’s blood, the question the imperial knight captain had to know before dying was why.

“To make a statement.”

Stabbing the imperial knight captain with his cursed sword Dax confirmed he had killed all 20 imperial knights before relaxing slightly. Looking at his free hand the qiton clenched it to check on its level of function.

(How’s the heat looking?)

(WASTE HEAT FROM MANA FORGE @ 426%, MULTIPLE CLASS 4 INTERNAL BURNS DETECTED, MOBILITY LIMITED TO 65%.)

(Well, that’s to be expected with the strain I’m putting on mostly prototype equipment Still, the waste heat sure is an issue, I guess I’ll have to make further fights shorter for the sake of keeping my mobility to an acceptable level. It really does suck that any cooling spell devised thus far generates more heat than it neutralizes Guess I’ll have Iris look into applying some kind of mana fueled resonant frequency cooling when I get back.)

(PROXIMITY ALERT, CONTACT REAR. LARGE CLASS MANA SIGNATURE IDENTIFIED.)

Snapping Dax out of his train of thought ICI made him aware of the observer who had been witnessing his fight with the imperial knights since just after it started.

(Yeah I’m aware, ready callout beta.)

Turning to face the observer which had now closed in on him, Dax felt a slight chill run down his back.

(Shit)

“Hello there, what can I do to help the true leaders of the Empire?”

The creature’s 10 pairs of golden brown wings proved Dax couldn’t win a straight up fight in his current state and judging by her vastly superior attitude with the addition of no weapons in her hands, the archangel was also aware of that fact. She had the same look in her eyes like Solaris did when she first met Dax, with her brownish green eyes she was looking at a bug or some simple beast to be dissected, but unlike Solaris, there was something else Dax couldn’t quite put his finger on.

“My~ You sure have some fine manners, I just came here today to say hello and find out your intentions for wrecking my favourite vacation home.”

“I sincerely apologize for causing damage to your dear vacation home, while it is no excuse I had no prior way of knowing this place held such importance.”

Offering a deep bow and an apology. Dax held his breath until he heard a quiet laugher from the archangel.

“It was just a joke, don’t worry about it, I really just came to say hello. My name is Eos, archangel of the 22nd sanctuary.”

“The 22nd? So a guardian of the Empire… You don’t mind me killing off the imperial knights?”

Noticing what the archangel omitted Dax found himself unable to simply let that issue go, finding it to be a valuable chance at gaining more intelligence.

“Why would I do that? I do not care for simple pawns of that emperor, I care for something else. I will have you promise right here and now: No matter what your intentions may be no harm shall fall on the 22nd sanctuary.”

“… Sure, I can promise that. My problem is not with you, but the shadow organization who produced the half alive creatures which attacked me first.”

“Ah, those old wrinkled men? Then search the imperial capital for the same kind of mana you felt for their creatures. I’ll see you again at some point, bye Dax~”

Leaving Dax with that message the archangel set to the sky as the siege barrier around the capital of Greendale dissipated, leaving only Dax with two questions.

“Now to find my property, I wonder where she’s at? Wait, did I ever tell her my name?”