Harmony War

Chapter III - The Webs of Intrigue

The bloodkin dodged Stark's bullet faster than any train operating in the Solar Empire. His success rate did not falter, no matter how many bullets the captain shot - yet not once was Valtr able to land a hit with his blade.

Rather than not being able to, he was not even trying to.

The vibrations in the air told him the music he needed to play.

"Splendid footwork! Truly fantastic! I applaud thee greatly!" Valtr bowed as Stark seemingly ran out of bullets. "Now, let us have a group dance! A ball! "

Immediately, both Generals called for their armies to be summoned out of instinct.

In the next second, Valtr's neck was grabbed by a gigantic, humanoid machine.

Simultaneously, a giant greatsword pierced through the machine's armour from behind.

Valtr smirked as the grip of the machine wavered. "As you can see, my fellow gentleman... my allies are quite the handful."

Five shots were fired from the cockpit of the machine.

The glass broke, and Stark expertly weaved through the glass as fast as lightning as if he were made of butter, firing the last shot right at Valtr's grinning head.

But his shot missed. Valtr's music reached a crescendo, the vibrations in the air grinding to a halt as the bloodkin's rapier slid into its holster with a thud, followed by total silence. Stark's heart began to beat irregularly; the rhythm of its beat was now in tune and identical with the rapier's. With a groan, Stark started falling down - the fact that the sword that impaled his machine was now cutting the machine in half did not make things better for him.

'How...? How can a sword have such force?'

Valtr skillfully landed on two feet on the floor as Stark fell to the ground, and the machine disintegrated into mana; his comrade, Andal, stood silent over the body before preparing to swing a final blow with his greatsword.

The mistake of the two bloodkin was clear if one were to inspect the surrounding area.

The extremely loyal followers of Captain Stark's leader, and by proxy, Stark himself, had surrounded the perimeter, the human ethno-nationalists' collective resolve as strong as the iron of Stark's mech.

They all fired their pistols, sniper rifles and revolvers at the exact same time, precisely aiming for the two bloodkin, with no area for them to escape.

Soon after, Stark had risen from the ground, punching Valtr straight into his stomach, sending him flying into the trajectory of the bullets.

Both Valtr and Andal were gunned down instantly, but, unexpectedly, their Bloodkin Knight armour was too strong for the bullets to pierce.

Now that Valtr was far away, being attacked by Stark's army, Stark had to turn around and face the six foot four feet tall greatsword-using bloodkin.

It was merely by luck that Stark was used to opponents taller than himself.

As Andal brought the sword down, Stark activated the Water-aligned magecraft that had made his heartbeat not stop and end his life in his prior altercation - Water-aligned magecraft, rather than manipulating forces and energy to influence matter like Wind-aligned magecraft, or Earth-aligned magecraft which improved the quality and function of objects, or Fire-aligned magecraft which detached and projected magical energy, or Ether-aligned magecraft which altered one's soul, was magical energy which took on properties of non-magical things.

But rarely was the non-magical property ever water itself - fluidity incarnate. Fortunately for Stark, the magecraft he could use allowed his body itself to turn into mana, and the mana behaved exactly like water did.