Headed by a Snake

A river of stars, coursing through the dusky sky...

So brilliantly, did they glow.

But Coraline knew they were not stars.

She could almost feel them... not hot and bright like the sun, but as cold as the snowy tide.

The stars, they fell... to bless the dirt trodden upon by elf and man alike.

The explosion shook the earth.

The magic... brought fear.

Coraline's ⌈Bombardment Shell⌋ was rapidly being drained of mana. She was terrified it would fail-- terrified she'd be permanently blinded or deafened or worse...

Dessi was on her knees, adding her own power to the Formation. It also looked like she was yelling something.

It might have been 'What's going on?' Or maybe it was 'What does this Formation even do?'

Either phrase probably also came with a lot of expletives.

Squad Leader Yates-- she just stared at the sky, her mouth wide open.

The channeled magical overhead struck a cluster of buildings in the distance. Coraline couldn't be sure where exactly that was... but she had to trust the judgment of the eye in the sky.

After so many lifetimes in those brief seconds... all became silent once more.

"No... that's... insane..."

The first Making soldier to recover was the human Sergeant. He took off his helmet, revealing a mess of brown hair as he stared into what had become a newly flattened horizon.

"A single Spell..."

Yeah. Channel formations were... kinda crazy.

"With a... single Spell," The Sergeant said in a quiet voice, "you Witches just murdered... literally *thousands* of citizens sheltered in that bunker."

Coraline sucked in air through her teeth. Even though she wasn't the one who flicked the wand, hearing the outrageous assessment made her feel queasy.

"Hey, Red. RED!!" The Sergeant shouted. "Talk to me, big boy! You gonna make it?!"

A sudden flash of red moved from underneath a pile of rubble. From there, the scaled beast emerged, shaking the dust and rock off its body and serpentine neck.

"[I'll manage, Sergeant,]" the lizard replied, "[But it seems my--] GWOAAARRGGHHHH!!!!"

Coraline's eyes widened-- it took several seconds for her to realize why the beast was screaming.

In... an instant, something else had fallen from the sky.

And it wasn't a star or a Spell...

It was... a man.

And it looked like he had plunged a... spear into the lizard's back. The creature had been impaled below the neck, centered between its shoulders.

"It's *him,*" Zash said, sounding almost... angry?

Coraline glanced back to Squad Leader Yates.

What was going through that woman's mind?

A reasonably-attractive guy with green hair had just fallen from the sky. With a single strike, he crippled a giant, very scary, magical lizard.

And that man's name was Tycon.

Leader of Sol Invictus.

--her dead boyfriend's boss...

--and, also, the Commander of the multi-national offensive warring against the lizards...

"Isn't that..." Started Gilchrist-- "the... hot guy? The one that's always hanging around President Bella?"

That brought a frown to Coraline's face-- but Decemberleigh Gilchrist was not a woman that could be reasonably expected to know things.

"Tycon is *not* in a relationship with President Bella," Coraline insisted.

"Oho? Gilchrist sneered, "you two are on a first-name basis?"

"No f*cking way," Zash muttered in a high-pitched voice, "that... green-haired guy... is *your* boyfriend, Heartsong?"

"Stars and stoooones!" Gilchrist exclaimed, "That makes SO much sense!"

Coraline was going to correct them. They were both wrong. Inconceivably wrong. Maddeningly wrong!

However, a deep and low 'pomp' sound brought her attention back to their green-haired savior.

Tycon was brandishing a wand, having just activated ⌈Mana Bullet⌋ to put down one of the enemy soldiers. Then he began casting in rapid succession. He burned through the Spells on his first wand, then immediately swapped to a wand of ⌈Swirling Shards⌋, and shortly after, he drew a wand of ⌈Bone Lance⌋.

It was an awe-inspiring display of wand familiarity and technique. Going through different-element wands so quickly, at medium-to-max efficiency, and without *exploding* was a feat that took a dedicated Caster *epochs* of theory and practical application to perform.

And that guy did it in the field... and made it look *infuriatingly* easy.

Very few of the remaining soldiers were fighting back. Most of them were just stumbling around, unaware of their surroundings. All of them had blood streaming from their ears.

Coraline's eyes drifted back to Tycon... and the lizard.

That thing looked just about dead. It was lying on its belly with its long neck in an S-shape on the ground, its head partially buried by dirt and sand.

Tycon leapt off of it, landing on its snout, then stomped on it a second time for emphasis. Then, for whatever reason, He emptied the remaining charges of his ⌈Bone Lance⌋ wand-- another 6 casts, into the side of the lizard's golden underbelly.

That guy... he really didn't like lizards.

"He... he's not even saying anything," Gilchrist cooed. "He like-- literally saved us, too."

Tycon then... launched the lizard away with a kick? Logically, it was probably some sort of mana-strike... or a specialized spell that moved heavy objects. The big hunk of mana and meat-- something upwards of several hundred ponze crashed into a spot that a few soldiers were using as cover.

Those guys were almost certainly dead because of it.

"That..." Zash muttered, "That is... so f*cking cool..."

Coraline's ear twitched hearing a mix of familiar 'bloop' sounds, along with hurried footsteps and concerned voices.

-- "Hey, we came as soon as we saw the signal."

-- "Thank the heavens, you guys are okay!"

-- "Seven hecks, who is that?"

Relief flooded Coraline's heart. The rest of Zeta Squad had come back, armed and ready for battle-- not that much battling was left to be done.

And it looked like they entered the ⌈Bombardment Shell⌋ with the help of a certain Barrier Mage.

Barnes had regained consciousness and was standing with the help of two other girls.

"It looks like you didn't need us," She said with a soft shrug. "But who's that green-haired Witch fighting by herself? Is she from Alpha Squad?"

"He's not a Witch," Zash said, her voice half-part annoyance, half-part disbelief.

"Wait, that's a guy?!" Barnes exclaimed.

There was a round of 'oohs', 'aahs', and girlish squeaks.

Coraline should have chosen that point in time to rectify the narrative.

Instead, she stayed quiet and watched the spectacle that was Tycon. He had armed himself with a half-broken sword and a random brick and was in the process of embarrassing two professionally-trained men in mortal combat.

"Y'all wanna know the best part?" Gilchrist said as she bounced in front of the rest of the squad.

Of course, that was something none of the girls could refuse.

"That guy," she pointed, "is none other than Heartsong's boyfriend!"

There were squeals-- annoying, uber-girly squeals of excitement... and a bunch of weird comments like, 'stars and stones you're so lucky' and 'how far have you guys gotten?'

After that, Coraline obviously couldn't vilify Gilchrist. She had already become some sort of weird heroine to the other girls.

She did, however, absolutely need that line of thinking to stop.

"Look," Coraline growled. "Our relationship is-- it's complicated, okay? But Tycon and I--"

There were more squeals. The squeals of nine different 19 to 20-something-year-olds had long destroyed any urgency Coraline originally felt.

"We're not romantically involved, okay!?" She shouted.

The sound of thunking glass, someone knocking on the ⌈Bombardment Shell⌋, bid everyone to look towards its source.

Tycon stood just on the other side.

And for SOME REASON, UNDERNEATH HIS COAT, HIS SHIRT WAS UNDONE????

Barnes... poor sweet Barnes. That girl fainted.

Actually, since she was in a really bad spot, earlier, she might have literally died.

A wave-- no, a sea of panic rushed into Coraline's brain.

Tycon... Did he... literally *kill* a woman by showing off his abs????

"Coraline, to me."

Three words. Tycon said three, very simple words... that really should not have been as provocative as it was.

There were screams. There were stares of disbelief. Surely-- certainly-- abso-tively, poso-lutely, there were entire, full-on s being written in the girls' drama-loving brains.

The chaos stopped, however, when Zashleigh limped forward.

She took off her hat, standing almost equal height to Tycon... and she stood her ground.

"I wanted... to thank you," She began, "Your assistance... couldn't have come at a better time."

Coraline narrowed her eyes. The notorious confidence she was used to seeing in Zash was... absent.

There was a redness in Zash's face, too. It might have been from her injuries. It might be from the magical haze in the air. But, whatever the case... it looked like Zash was blushing.

Suddenly, though, Zash tried to reach out but was stopped by the magical barrier.

"Watch out!!"

Tycon didn't flinch.

Coraline saw the attack. It wasn't particularly fast-- and Tycon's reflexes were faster than hers!

It made no sense! Why didn't he move!?

The Sergeant from before, the one with the crossbow, had appeared after activating some kind of magic or movement technique.

And he was aiming right at the Commander's head.

​ "For the DRAGON KING!!!" He cried.

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