9:00 AT, Day Fifteen | Arce Lunae / Command Room

  “So, the plan.” I say, motioning to the projected map behind me, full of drawings and combat plans. “Does anyone have any questions?”

  Ray, who is seated just in front of me raises her hand, “When will there be time for more headrubs?”

  The room erupts into fits of giggles, trying to stifle it but failing. I even let out a chuckle or two.

  “I'm sure we can find time for some headrubs in between decimating the Quartet’s forces.” I say, looking directly into Ray’s blue eyes. They almost suck me in, I barely manage to avoid getting lost in them, mid meeting.

  “Any other questions that are not pertaining to certain activities?”

  Ray raises her hand again, “Do I get to blow things up?” she asks, with a devilish smile on her face.

  “Im sure you'll get to blow at least one thing up.”

  “Yipee! Explosions are super cool and fun. So long as it's the enemy of course.” She exclaims. Maybe she isn't that hard to understand.

  The meeting ends and everyone filters out to do their various duties. Meanwhile, Ray drags me into an empty room and locks the door. A smile plastered on her face.

  21:00 AT, Day Fifteen | Near Fort Uri Liv

  Our assault force has gathered near our next target. Fort Uri Liv, the Quartet’s westernmost fort. Or rather, our soon to be new fort.

  Ray stands beside me, our heads poking out the top of a tree. Her hair is blowing in the faint breeze, it's very cute.

  In the distance, sits Fort Uri Liv. Shrouded in the darkness of night.

  Below us, our army awaits.

  Two dozen exo-mechs, three battle tanks, as well as dozens of artillery cannons.

  “Darling Ray, are you ready to cause some chaos?” I ask, though I already know what her response will be.

  “Of course, do you know who I am?”

  “Why, you're the cutest person in the universe.”

  “Correct! It is also commonly known that cute things are often very deadly, you know. So, naturally, these plebs are gonna go down, scorched earth style.” Ray says, I've got no clue where she picked up the gamer slang, but it's very attractive.

  “The Moonlight shall rise.”

  “And vi lunae lucis, omnia mutabimus.” Ray responds, earning a few pats on the head (I just wanted to pat her on the head).

  We climb down from the tree, hand in hand. Then we set off to our respective squads. Someone (it was me) had the genius idea of putting Ray in charge of the mech squad to cause chaos. What a genius idea.

  Meanwhile, I am in charge of the vanguard that will rush in to break through the shields and disable them.

  “All the recruits are ready, milord. Let's go shatter some fools, shall we?” Yuin, my current second in command asks. Their mouth tentacles arranged in a smile-like pose.

  “Shattering fools sounds like a good late night activity, I like that idea. Especially when those fools happen to be a bunch of Quartet Federation soldiers.” I say, smiling back.

  We make good progress and manage to breach the wall. However, we do lose some people to some well timed artillery fire. It seems the Quartet have gotten better recently.

  We rush into the center courtyard, en route to the various shielding arrays. But, we ran into a roadblock.

  Quite literally.

  In the middle of the road is a large table, piled high with food. On top of the table is a chair, and in it sits Uri Liv Tria.

  I asked Itvak about her earlier, apparently she is some psychotic chef from Venus. She took to the underground fighting scene a few years ago and made massive waves with her culinary displays. Dicing up her opponents and serving them as a dish.

  It's said that her blades can cut through bone like it is butter. From the last time I fought her, I am inclined to believe it.

  We expected to run into her, the fort is clearly named after her. But, I didn't quite expect a full buffet.

  “Welcome, little Kovon. Look at this nice feast I have prepared, doesn't it look absolutely delicious?”

  “It does indeed look delicious, though I have no doubt it is full of enough poison to kill the entire human population.”

  “*snicker* How sad, the little moon didn't fall for my trap. Oh well, I didn't really expect you to anyways.” She says as she brandishes her blade and clinks it against her teeth. She points the tip of her knife at me, “Oh well, I have always wanted to make a stew out of a genius, or a hero. Lucky for me, it seems you are both! How fortuitous that we should meet again. Such a shame that I had to lose last time, but orders are orders after all.”

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  It is at this point that I get a communication from Ray. However, the connection is very crackly and I can barely make out what she is saying. “Ko.. Careful.. Unexpected… Kill you.” Thanks to my intense knowledge of Rayese, I can guess she was trying to say something along the lines of ‘Be careful, she is far more dangerous than she appears.’

  I shall remember to give Ray lots of kisses and headrubs, it's nice to have a super cute girlfriend that cares about your wellbeing. Though, first it seems I have a mad chef that I must take care of.

  “Intresting, well then, how about we dance, Miss Mad Chef?” I taunt.

  “Ooo, Mad Chef, I like that nickname. Don't mind me if I use that from now on. I’d be honored to give you a dance in return. It's always good to get some exercise before a meal, after all.” She says, a murderous grin appearing on her face.

  In the blink of an eye, she jumps off her chair and sinks her blade into my chestplate. Thank goodness for this thick armor, otherwise I might have instantly died. That’d be an embarrassment for sure.

  I quickly back away, preparing for how fast she is. It's still nothing compared to Initae’s blows, so I should be able to handle her. But, it's gonna be a pain to buff that mark out of my armor.

  I make use of inae to quickly move around her and land a solid blow onto her back. I think I even managed to break a bit of skin through the armor. It appears she has gone all in on speed at the cost of defense. What a rookie mistake.

  I spin and give her a good kick, sending her flying into the table of food. Scattering it everywhere and leaving a large dent in the table.

  She immediately recovers and launches herself at me again, blades aimed right for my throat. She really likes decapitation, huh? I guess it is a pretty simple way to hunt animals. Unfortunately for Uri Liv, Initae also liked to go for the neck. Something about it being a near universal weak spot.

  I easily manage to evade the blow, drawing my pistol and landing a shot point-blank into her side. She lets out a yelp of pain.

  “What's the matter, never had your prey fight like this before? We aren't in the Sol system anymore.” I say, tauntingly.

  Our eyes meet, and I watch as her pupils dilate in and out frantically. A look of madness is in her eyes. I don't even think she really knows how to fight, instead relying on some sort of berserk trance. Perhaps induced by some weird shrooms.

  She doesn't respond, instead, she moves low against the ground and tries to slice off my legs.

  One of her blades makes contact, leaving a large slice in my left thigh. I feel blood start to leak out before my armor seals the wound. It seems she still has a few tricks in her chef’s hat.

  She draws her blade, coated with my blood and licks it. Which is just plain disgusting. What's worse, the madness in her eyes almost seems to intensify, and she gains a bone-chilling smile.

  I guess my blood must taste good. Not that I ever wanted to know such information.

  One thing is for sure. She clearly let me defeat her during our first encounter. She was fighting nowhere close to this level before.

  I charge in with an inane-fueled leap.

  My spear makes contact, and nearly goes clean through her gut. How is that not a lethal blow? Seriously?

  I quickly try to retreat back, but before I manage to escape, I feel the all-too-familiar bite as her blade digs into my side.

  I quickly pull myself free with inae and jump onto a nearby roof.

  The gash in my side hurts, and is definitely leaking a lot of blood as my armor tries to seal the wound.

  I quickly grab a health pack from my belt and inject it. Immediately, the bliss of painkillers and accelerated healing sweeps through my body. Sealing and knitting up the wound.

  Though, it is to note that it cannot replace lost blood. So it seems for prolonged fights, blood loss might be the deciding factor.

  Uri Liv falls to the ground and curls up into a ball.

  Yet, she still lets out a loud manichal laugh, full of madness.

  After a few seconds, a green barrier appears and marks her as dead, sucking her down to be respawned.

  It seems I won. Though, it was far closer than I would've liked. I really should get some training in, even in the arena, it's important to be constantly improving.

  I jump down onto the ground, just as the plasma-shields overhead go down. It seems the rest of my unit managed to disable the arrays while I was occupied.

  Within short order, a giant hole opens up in the western wall and troops pour through. Led by of course, my super duper cute girlfriend, looking absolutely murderous.

  She rushes over to me and grabs onto me.

  “Kooo! Are you okay?” she says, worry filling her voice.

  “I am somehow fine. A bit bruised, a bit of pain, and quite tired. But I'll be fine.” I say, leaning into her embrace. I may be healthy, but I am quite exhausted. All that high speed inae movement really puts a strain on me.

  “You're a jerk, you know. You should've waited for me! Then we could’ve fought her together!”

  “Honestly, I don't think I want you anywhere near Uri Liv. She is really creepy.”

  “I don't know whether that is meant to be sweet or demeaning, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.” She says, leaning in to give me several long kisses.

  We stay like that for quite a while. I just sit there, wrapped tight in her embrace. All the while, soldiers are busy dealing with any leftover enemies in the fort. Being a leader sure is nice, people just do a lot of the boring work for you.

  Which is nice, means there is a lot of spare time to get cuddles and headrubs from my super duper ultra omega cute girlfriend.

  We finished the capture of the fortress and officially took control of Fort Uri Liv. Yet another conquest to add to the Moonlight Alliance’s tally.

  I'm sure there shall be many, many, more consequences in the future. Both in the arena, and beyond.

  However, if there is one thing that I am sure of, it's that we will reign victorious. We are the Moonlight Duo after all.

  As long as Ray and I are together, we will overcome any obstacle, conquer any opponent. Even if reality itself wants to pick a fight, we will find some way to win. After all, that's just what we do. So, bring it on.

  End of Chapter 102

  Next: Chapter 103 | Crackling Embers

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