Vastillo's base wasn't the only place where a battle was being waged.

Hammer's base was being attacked, and Liam was at the center of it.

'Well, it looks like we're going to be surrounded,' he thought, despite cutting through enemies like a man possessed.

His innate skill had given him quite the leg up on the average awakener, and thanks to Master Li's gifts and training, had blossomed into something beautiful and terrible.

Even Jake's hand-me-down Griefen had also given Liam a significant boost in power.

However, he was the only one making a sizable dent against Froad – the other awakeners from Evergreen were simply too far behind to be of any help.

Most of Evergreen's troops couldn't achieve anything of note in the tutorial, failed to make it to the preliminary evaluation, and ended up being unable to enhance what little talent they had.

The fact that Evergreen's skills were of lower level than that of other divisions in Nohas was a reason why Liam – someone who just finished the tutorial – was leaps and bounds ahead of the troops in power.

'Just a bit more, we're going to have to hold a little bit more..' Liam thought as he punted a Froad awakener into a wall, the other Froad awakeners in Hammer's unit getting their morale restored and moving to surround Liam and the Evergreen troops.

Liam noticed the advantage of surprise they had was quickly expended, and now it was a matter of making sure they weren't surrounded and overwhelmed.

He saw a strange stirring in the ranks of Hammer's unit, and saw that the signal he was expecting had finally come.

'That's it!' Liam thought as he saw a group of awakeners turn up and supplement the rear.. only for half of them to turn tail and go back the way they came.

'Jake did it! Knew he had it in him! All right, with his mission accomplished, time for me to give my own order!'

"Everyone, withdraw!" he ordered, and the Evergreen troops, despite their relative lack of power, made up for it with discipline by locking shields and backing away from the camp, Liam covering their retreat and picking off what enemies he could.

***

The most important part of Song's operation in taking down Vastillo isn't the takedown: it's making it out of that location in one piece.

Because of their hijinks, Song expected the retaliation to be fearsome, and planned accordingly in case of a heavy pursuit: eluding the awakeners of Froad would mean a successful operation.

As Liam was leading the troops of Evergreen in the retreat, he could see just how clever Song was – everything was going according to how Song said it would.

'Didn't expect to get out of Hammer's unit this easy,' Liam thought, worried that that Hammer's unit would pursue them, but given how they turned tail and returned to Vastillo's camp, Song's prediction was correct.

It was only a token force that was chasing Liam and the Evergreen troops as the rest of them went back to the other camp, all the while not realizing that their opponents were only doing a diversionary attack.

Even Liam was doing only superficial damage to Hammer's troops: if they did more damage than necessary to gain their attention, it would enrage the awakeners from Froad and make their retreat difficult.

'So far so good: all that's left is to head to the ambush point,' Liam thought as he followed the next step of the plan: Song marked a location where he and a few Evergreen awakeners would lie in wait and make sure Jake and Song would escape safely. 'All right, now comes the hard part. When you show up, man – I'll do what it takes to make sure we get out of here in one piece.'

***

The man looming before them looked like he came straight out of a period movie: haori and hakama, top knot, sheathed katana, everything including the sandals and the socks.

"Where do you think you're going?" he asked, and it was Song who gave the answer.

"What is a member of Musashi doing here?"

Song's confidence in his answer was as high as he could get, as the sheath tucked into his waist was embossed with the pattern representing their division.

"I was on my way to check if there was anything happening at Froad's," the man replied, "and it looks like the two of you just started some trouble over there."

'Does this mean that Musashi has been backing up Froad all this time?' Song asked himself as he realized just what the samurai's reply implied. 'Something had been going on with how they were trying to kill the people from the Grand Duelists and cover it up.. but Musashi being a part of it? That I didn't expect..'

The unprecedented aggression from Froad was quite different, and Song deduced that something under the table had happened – that something ended up being the division Musashi.

The force of revelation struck him like a gauntleted fist to his face.

'What should I do? How should we get out of this crisis?'

From out the frying pan and into the fire, as Song and Jake's retreat ended up completely blocked by a horde of angry Froad awakeners, while the awakener from Musashi on the opposite end is a different order of magnitude stronger than the both of them.

'Even with the both of us working together won't be enough,' Song thought, and as he spared Jake a glance, he saw the Grand Duelist share the same sentiment.

He also heard Jake whispering to him, though his mouth was barely moving.

"I'll give you a spray of perfume. Once it hits, we're going right back where we came – use the members of Froad as human shields to keep that guy off our tail."

Song was about to say something, but the sudden scent stopped him from subsequently speaking.

***

The battlefield had become a comical sight that was a stark contrast to the harsh atmosphere of the battle.

"Get them, get those bastards!"

"I go within one step of them and suddenly I don't feel like hitting them anymore!"

"You bastard, what magic have you done?"

"I can't shoot them! Why?!"

"What's that smell? Never smelled something like that before.."

'This isn't an opportunity, it's called dire straits,' Jake thought as he finally got the opportunity to use the Icehammer Dark perfume.

To him, it was more like a life-threatening situation than a chance for him to use it.

"Why aren't they attacking us?" Song asked as he and Jake weaved through the Froad troops unmolested.

"I'm just that kind of guy," Jake replied jauntily, though his eyes were still hard.

"I'm not sure what you mean by that," Song replied.

"That was a joke," Jake replied. "It's the perfume's effect. We're not out of the woods yet – this thing only lasts 30 minutes, and we need to be well out of here by then."

"All right," Song answered in understanding, and then using his own footwork together with Jake's to move through the crowd of Froad troops and keep their heads down against the awakener from Musashi.

"Excuse me, move it, you're standing in the way," Jake said, and the Froad troopers couldn't do anything as Jake simply nudged them out of his and Song's way, making their trek through the crowd much faster.

A horde of them were arranged in formation in the middle of the throng, and Jake had had it.

"MOVE, BITCHES!"

The soldiers from Froad comically split up and stepped aside, making a path for Jake and Song to move through.

"Come on, there's no telling how soon that guy is going to catch up to.."

Jake and Song were halfway across the path created for them when they heard an explosive sound close by.

'He's here already?' Jake and Song thought, that Musashi awakener must have already caught up to them – 'that must have been some impressive footwork skill he used.'

Still, he's not going to have an easy time of it in pursuing us, what with the crowd of troops here stifling his momentum.

"No time to waste, we need to get out of h—"

The sound of a sword and screams echoed behind them, and Jake had to turn to see what was going on while they were fleeing.

"Get out of my way," the awakener from Musashi declared as he began cutting down the crowds blocking his way.

***

'Come on, man, what's taking so long?' Liam asked while hidden in the ambush spot, waiting for Jake and Song to arrive.

Several hours had passed, and he was already starting to get worried.

'Do I have to give up? Song told me to retreat if he and Jake failed to make it here on time. It's only a few more minutes.. and I have to return to Evergreen..'

He turned around and saw the scared faces of the other Evergreen awakeners: though he wanted to stay a bit longer, he's not responsible solely for himself anymore.

'I'm responsible for these people here; can't just think only of myself.

If I was in a situation where I was only depending on myself, I would have stuck around for Jake and Song, as long as it would take..

But.. but..

It's out of my hands now, if I mess this up, Evergreen is in trouble!'

'Come on.. come on.. show up, please!' Liam thought, waiting anxiously while having his eyes pointed at the direction which Jake and Song told him they'd come from.

However, the minutes passed by, and nobody showed up.

The time had come, and Liam was forced to make a choice.

'Fuck this!' Liam thought, feeling the weight of his responsibility all of a sudden, driving him to a decision he did not want to make.

Clenching his fists hard enough that blood was dripping from his hands and his spirit in agony, Liam finally made his decision.

"They're not showing up, let's pack up and go back home," he told the troops in a resigned voice.

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