Early the next morning, the Shadow foxes went to the wagons and moved with the rest to the south. Few hours later, the expedition arrived at Fever Flats. The guilds went up ahead of them to learn about the situation. Later, they went back, informing the teams and telling them what are they’re going to do.
“Rayos, I guess we stumbled against a Goliath class witch” Alex said.
“That means we need a lot of firepower to defeat him” Zack added.
“What do you guys think we should do first?” Nya asked.
“Building weapons for the battle; we’re fine with the melee, but we need more range and some protection” Alex decided.
“Before that, we have to tell Farius about it to hear his recommendations” Jaina suggested.
“You’re right, we better be sure to plan our strategy and combine it with the plan of the guilds, and we don’t have to get too over confident; if what they say is right, we have to hammer Gilgamarsh like there’s no tomorrow” Jack said.
“This will be the first anti-witch squad action out of Savitaran; you have to be careful” Jaina said.
“Don’t we always?” Zack asked.
They headed to where the guilds established the weaponsmithing. On arrival, they saw Menthe approaching to them.
“I’m glad to see you here” Menthe said.
“Us too” Alex said.
“I guess we were right about our suspect” Jaina commented.
“Yeah, now we need to prepare to confront him” She said a little quiet.
“Is something wrong?”
“Yes… I… normally wouldn’t talk about it; but I need your help this time; I need your knowledge as a witch”
“What happened?”
Menthe explained what happened to her in Ywaru canyon and about her sister. Jaina frowned from what Menthe was saying.
“I didn’t know Morgan was capable of that” Jaina said.
“You know if there’s a way to return her to normal?” Menthe asked.
“Regretfully no; some of our witches tried to find the solution of that problem a long time ago, but they were unsuccessful; the only real solution was to forbid the methods”
“*Sigh*I guess there’s nothing we could do”
“I’m sorry, but what about that Madeline? Did she steal all your notes?”
“Only some outdated theories, nothing important”
“I’m glad about it; is there something else I could help?”
“Yes; I have some of the tablets we made with me; as you explained in your notes, you enchanted them to increase its proprieties in the purification; I need you to do it again so we can use them against Gilgamarsh”
“I can do it, but before that I need your help”
“What do you need?”
“Water, a big bowl and some privacy with you and the team”
Jaina chanted the spell again to make contact with Farius. Menthe was surprised when she explained of that way of long range communication between the Savitaran witches and a little worried of seeing another one. The image of Farius appeared in the water.
“Hello guys, how are you doing?” Farius greeted.
“We’re fine for now” Alex answered.
“I guess Nya is already with you”
“That’s true; they were ‘shocked’ of my arrival” Nya said showing herself.
“Heh, good to hear it; you need something?”
“Yeah, we need your council” Zack said.
Jaina made a gesture to Menthe to come. “She’s Menthe, a member of the scholar guild”
“Nice to meet you miss Menthe”
“M-me too” Menthe said a little nervous.
“Menthe, could you explain Farius our current situation?” Jaina asked.
“O-okay” And she explained what is happening in the Fever flats.
“Mmm; you have to deal with a Goliath class and a Shadow class witches” Farius said.
“A what?” Menthe asked in confusion.
“Those are some of the categories of the witches we made; Goliath class is a big witch with powerful attacks, good resistance and a lot of magic; you need a lot of people, speed and firepower to beat it, and you have to attack its weak points first or concentrate in one single point; Shadow class rarely fight and it always uses tricks to escape, usually called them infiltrators in the army; the only way to beat it is to provoke it to attack by using insults, mockery, anything to enrage it and then hit it when it doesn’t expect it; Gilgamarsh and Madeline fall in the general description of those classes”
“That’s a lot of details” Menthe recognized.
“You said Madeline was the former Scholars leader and she’s stealing those totems, right?”
“Yeah?”
“Shadow foxes, with that information, how do you think you can catch her?”
They thought for a moment, before getting to the answer.
“We can say she’s stealing false totems, by replacing one of them when she’s not looking and mock her intelligence for not seeing that; and while she’s distracted, we can close her escape routes” Zack proposed.
“Bingo, you have your way and as for the illusions, just make sure she hear your conversation loud and clear with enough details so she can transform into what you want”
“Okay; one other thing, we need the schematics of a crossbow so we can build some of them” Alex said.
“Remember, we don’t have much materials to do it” Menthe pointed.
“Do you have the inventory by any chance?” Farius asked.
“Let me check” She found a paper with the remaining materials and named them.
“Then I think you can build this model” He went to take a paper, put it in a bottle, made a potion with it and dropped into the water to show another variant of the crossbow.
“Who did it?” Jack asked.
“This one is the design of Hector; it doesn’t require too many materials from the guilds inventory and since you know Psychic, you can reload it faster, matching the reload time of an archer, and without sacrificing its integrity and range; Nya, use a spell to copy in a paper what you are seeing”
Menthe gave a paper to Nya and she copied the schematics.
“I guess that’s all” Zack said.
“Guys, one last thing; even if you have the luck on cause a great damage to Gilgamarsh, you have to prioritize on covering the other teams and get them out of his reach if they’re in trouble; Goliath class is not to be taken lightly if you remember your final test and keep this in mind, the weak points are your first targets or in case he hasn’t, attack one single point”
“Understood” Alex said.
“Alright, I wish luck to you guys and your guilds miss Menthe in the battle ahead”
“I really appreciate sir” Menthe said.
“Just call me Farius; I’m not too old to call me sir”
Everyone smiled for the commentary and the water returned to normal.
“We better start now; as sooner we have those weapons, more time we’ll have to practice with them” Zack said.
“With some spells, we can finish those things much faster” Jaina said.
“Try to do them near to me, because… you know” Menthe suggested.
“You’re right; I almost forgot it”
“Then Alex and I will get the materials we need while you prepare the tools” Nya decided.
“And I’ll get my boys to get ready to work” Zack said.
“That’s a plan” Jack said.
With Menthe’s indications, Nya and Alex headed to where the materials were held. On the way, Alex saw Peach working and he sensed something really wrong in her. He told Nya to wait for a moment and headed to Peach.
“Peach?” He said when she reached to her.
“LEAVE ME ALONE!” She responded aggressively.
Alex waited for a moment. When Peach looked to who was talking to her, she said: “A-Alex; s-sorry, I d-didn’t…”
“Don’t worry; you’re stressed, that’s all; are you okay?”
“Y-Yeah”
He knows it wasn’t the truth, but if he tried to talk it with her, he would only stress her more than she already was, so he decided to leave it that way.
“That’s good; I’ll leave you to your work” He said and headed to Nya.
“It’s the Fennekin you spoke of?” Nya asked when they were heading to the materials.
“Si, I guess something happened to her to behaves in that way”
“You’re probably right”
They grabbed what they needed and headed back. On the way they saw Claudia from team Nox Aeterna flying to the right of them. Jaina came to help them in carrying some of the things with the team’s bag. They also saw Team Pathfinders and Alex decided to see how they were doing.
“Hey girls” Alex said.
No response.
“Sonya, Yang?” Jaina asked when they were closer.
Yang jumped and Sonya turned around instantaneously. When they saw it was only Jaina, Alex and Nya, they relaxed a bit.
“Oh, it’s you guys” Sonya said.
“Are you okay?” Alex asked.
“Yeah, it’s just… so many witches and the battle… I’m really nervous”
“M-me t-too” Yang said.
“No kidding, we’re going to build some crossbows, bows and shields if we can” Nya said.
Sonya and Yang remained silent. Jaina went to Sonya and placed a paw on her shoulder.
“We can get through it; just concentrate in the tasks for now, okay?”
Sonya nodded. When Alex, Nya and Jaina brought the materials, they started with the construction of the weapons. They started with the crossbows, since they were more complicated to build. With the help of Nya and Jaina, they could work with the iron to turn it to steel and to give the form of the parts for the mechanisms and mold them; only requiring a small amount. In parallel, they were giving form to the lumber to the big pieces with the exception of the part of the bow in which it was needed more iron.
When they were assembling the parts, they heard that a team was missing looking for the lost totems and Madeline.
“Suficiente; we have to catch Madeline now, before she can make more problems” Alex said.
“But we cannot leave the weapons yet; we still have to finish them and see if we can build the bows” Ryan said.
“Alex, go; we’ll stay here to finish them” Zack said.
“Then I’ll go with you; I’ll grab the false totem we made” Nya said.
“That’s okay, we don’t need to work with iron any longer; be fast to reach them” Jaina said.
“Entendido; let’s go Nya” Alex said and they went ahead.
“Zack, didn’t you have to accompany him?” Charles asked.
“No; in these cases, we have to separate to cover all the tasks; it’s the same thing we did when we trained the resistance members” Zack explained.
“Do you think they can do it?” Sasha asked.
“We don’t have the training to fight against witches for nothing, any of us can” Jack answered.
“I hope you’re right” Darius said.
Remembering what Menthe said, they went to Holly to know what they have to do. They found her with Gemma.
“Alex? Nya?” Gemma asked.
“We heard a team has gone missing in the salt caves looking for the totems and Madeline” Alex said.
“Yeah, I guess it was team Pathfinders”
“Demonios, we have to find them”
“You’re team Shadow foxes?” Holly asked.
“Yeah, that’s us; you’re Holly? Menthe told us what happened to you” Nya said.
“It’s me; she also told me about you”
“That can skip us some parts; how long they went in?” Alex asked.
“Less than an hour ago, some of the teams that recovered some of the totems said there were no traces of them when they lost sight of them”
“Then we have to find them, fast”
“You need at least three teams to help you in this; we cannot allow letting one single team get inside”
“Can we join them?” Someone asked.
They saw an alolan Vulpix and a shiny Eevee, coming to them.
“Hi, who are you two?” Alex asked.
“My name is Kizu and he is Davin; we are team Silver Snow and we want to help you with your search” Kizu said.
“Are you sure?” Nya asked.
“Definitely” Kizu answered with conviction.
“That makes two teams, but we need one more” Alex said.
Then in silence, Peach approached to them. She looked to Alex. Alex nodded without saying a word, understanding she’ll accompany them.
“Well, that makes three teams; we’re ready to go”
“Okay; just be careful and remember: you have to find the remaining totems when you’re searching for the missing team and if possible, catch Madeline” Holly said.
“We’ll do it”
“Good luck” Gemma said.
The three teams went inside the salt caves to find team Pathfinders. Nya used a spell to protect them from the harmful effects of the poison gas, at least for a while. On the way, Davin asked:
“Uh, anyone knows how to catch Madeline?”
Alex stopped and answered: “Now that you mentioned, my team has a plan”
“How we’re going to do it?” Kizu asked.
“Listen carefully…” He started and explained the plan.
When they understood it, they proceeded further. After some time, when Alex felt the presence of Madeline near of them, he began to speak loud:
“So Nya, it’s been a long time since I saw Farius, do you still remember how he is?”
“Of course Alex; he is an old Mienshao with a moustache and without his arm whips; he stills being friendly as ever and he really wanted to see you again after all those months you’re been out” Nya continued.
“You know, I have some secrets of the guilds I want to tell him, especially from the scholars since we talked to them and they shared some of them to me; I know he can put them at better use”
“Alex! I found you at last” Someone said.
They all saw a Mienshao who fitted in the description given by Nya, with the exception of his shirt. ‘All right Madeline, que comienze el juego’ Alex thought. The others played along as if they know nothing about it.
“Farius! It’s good to see you again” Alex said.
“It’s good to see you, too” The fake Farius answered.
“You travelled all the way to come to us?” Nya asked.
“Yeah, it was a long journey, but I managed to reach you in this place”
“Well, I’m surprised that you do it, but now that you’re here, can you help us with our task? If we can finish this sooner, we have more time to catch up” Alex proposed.
“You want to find the lost totems and that Madeline?”
‘Second mistake Madeline’ Alex thought. “Por supuesto”
“A… what did you say?”
‘Third’ “It means of course, if you remember it”
“Oh… right”
“Well then, shall we get going?” Nya asked.
“Yeah, let’s move”
They resumed their course, still keeping the act to let Madeline believe they were buying her illusion. On the way, the fake Farius asked:
“So, what kind of secrets the Scholars told you?”
“Some of the new discoveries, ongoing researches, delicate information in general that can give enormous advantage if they’re completed” Alex answered.
“Wow, can you share some of them with me?”
“Not yet; I heard that Madeline is known from stealing those kinds of things; I don’t want them to fall in her hands”
“But I don’t think she’s near us at this point; there’s no imminent danger to tell me now”
“I’ll wait until we’re near to the exit; don’t worry, we’ll talk there, since we’ll be far from the camp”
“*Sigh* Okay, okay”
After some time, they reached a part where the cave is opened to the surface, with some trees and big rocks. For the looks of it, there’re some ways to get in an out, small enough to block all of them with the rocks and some spells from Nya. When they were walking in, they saw Yang and Sonya, who for some reason was lying on the ground and coughing.
“A-Alex!” Yang called.
“Yang; are you okay?” Alex asked.
“Y-yeah, but we n-need to get b-back; Sonya is sick”
Alex approached to Sonya and asked: “Sonya, can you hear me?”
“…Y…Yeah” She answered with a weak voice.
“Yang, what happened?”
“T-the gas inside t-the caves” She said.
“Poisoning; let my try something” Nya said and headed to Sonya.
When Nya was helping Sonya, Alex looked around and saw a totem. For his luck, Madeline was paying more attention to what Nya was doing than the surroundings. Since he was on the back of the group in that moment, he, slowly and in silence, moved to the totem and replaced it with the false one. He returned, with only Davin and Peach looking to him, and using telepathy, he told Nya he found a totem and it has been replaced. Then, he waited.
“For now, I slowed the effect of the poison, but we need to return to the surface for medical treatment” Nya explained to Sonya when she finished.
“Thanks” Sonya said in the same tone.
“I guess we should head back now”
“But we didn’t find any totems yet” The fake Farius said.
“Actually, I saw one of them over there” Alex said and looked in the direction of the totem.
‘Why did I leave that one?’ Madeline thought.
Alex and the fake Farius headed to the totem. When Farius picked the totem, Alex said:
“Hold up a moment Farius; something is not right with the totem”
“What do you mean?”
“Give me that to check it”
Confounded, the fake Farius gave the totem to Alex. He inspected it, giving it some turns and looking closer in some parts.
“It’s one of the fakes”
“Huh!? H-How do you know!?”
“There are some details missing and the material is slightly different; besides, there’s an inscription if you open this cover”
He opened it an the inscription said: ‘Totem model; please do not use it for cleaning air from the tunnels’
“W-What?” The fake Farius said in disbelief.
“Bueno, I think Madeline is more naive than I suspected; taking false totems without even checking them; it give me some doubts about her “intelligence”” Alex said.
It was a direct hit to Madeline’s pride. “Do not say that from her; she’s smart, more than you think” The fake Farius said a little pissed.
“Really? If that is the case; why she stole some outdated theories from Menthe? Anyone with two fingers on the face won’t take those, because they’re now useless”
“Don't tell her what is useful or not! There might be useful in some way!” The tone of the voice was rising.
“I think not; and a proof that she doesn't know what she's doing; instead of creating her things, she has to steal the work of others; just copy, nothing original”
“I’M ALWAYS KNOW WHAT TO DO! My knowledge is superior to yours!” Madeline shouted, revealing her true form.
When Sonya and Yang saw that, they tried to warn the others, but Nya put her paws in both of them and in whispers, explained what Alex is doing. They remained silent while Alex was questioning Madeline.
“Well, that’s not what it looks like” Alex said.
“I can assure you I’m smarter than any of you!”
“Pfffffff; that's not a good argument; because you weren’t able to recognize a false totem when you had it in your hands, you base your experiments in obsolete knowledge and when I talked to you in another language, your didn't recognize it; you want any more proof?”
Madeline clenched her claws in fury. It was the first time someone questions her in that way. Meanwhile, Nya was blocking all the routes to keep Marinete in this part of the cave while she was distracted. Just in case, she used another spell to block the opening above them. When she was ready, she used telepathy to tell Alex that all the routes are sealed. ‘Now it’s time for the final act’ Alex thought.
“I have two final proofs that you don't see all the variables” Alex said.
“NOW WHAT?” Madeline asked really pissed.
“You’re trapped and you revealed yourself”
Madeline looked to herself and her surroundings. There was nowhere to escape this time. She looked back with awe to Alex, who was smiling.
“I guess I’m right” He said.
And using Thunder punch directly, he sent Madeline flying backwards. She stood up and faced Alex with rage.
“YOU… YOU TRICKED ME!” She shouted.
“Is not what are you always been doing?” Alex said.
She transformed into a Zoroark and headed to Alex to attack him, but she was grabbed with Psychic by Nya and sent her to crash with one of the trees.
“We're still here” Nya said.
Madeline headed to Nya this time, but she was hit with a Dark pulse and a Shadow Ball from Davin and Kizu, making her fall to the ground.
“That includes us” Kizu said.
Peach, Sonya and Yang stayed back from the fight. Alex, Nya, Davin and Kizu attacked with range moves at different turns line to keep her fighting. She snapped out when she realized she was been provoked and headed to one of the magical barriers to escape, only to crash with it.
“What did Alex said? You cannot escape” Nya said.
She transformed into a Honchkrow and flew to the opening above, only to crash again with another magical barrier and crash to the ground.
“That’s not th way to escape” Alex said.
She turned back, but this time, she headed directly to Peach, since she was the closest. Before she could reach her, Peach chanted a strange language to a spell and hit Madeline in the head. When Peach was on top of her, Madeline shouted:
“Get off of me!” and with a black energy in her right hand, slashed Peach in her head.
“PEACH!” Alex shouted. “That’s it Madeline; you will suffer the same thing as Morgan”
The mere mention of something happened to Morgan by Alex put her nervous. But what she didn’t saw was Peach rising again and began speaking with the same language moments before. While she was heading to Madeline, her front paws were covered with magical claws.
“What the hell are you even saying!?” Madeline asked when she turned around.
‘Nothing good’ Alex thought.
In the moment Peach attacked Madeline, Alex felt another presence within her with the aura; someone who was pushing her to do it. When Madeline fainted and Peach fell, he rushed right to her.
“Peach, are you okay?” Alex asked.
“Y-yeah” She answered with pain.
When she looked to Marinete, she asked to Alex: “…who d-did this?”
“Nya did it; she used a spell to knock her out” He lied. The last thing to say was that she did it.
“That’s right” Nya said, keeping the idea of Alex.
“O-okay; I guess I’ll just- GH-!” And she fainted.
“This is definitely not bueno; we have to get both Peach and Sonya out of here” Alex decided.
“I’ll open the paths” Nya said and made disappear the barriers and removed the rocks.
“I’ll take them; you can search for the remaining totems and bring Madeline to the guilds; we still have to finish this mission”
“Okay; guys, you can help us with this?” Nya asked to Davin, Kizu and Yang.
“No problem with us” Kizu said.
“C-can I accompany you?” Yang asked to Alex.
“I prefer not this time; alone I can be faster; stay with Nya and the others and don’t worry; I’ll make it” He answered.
“O-okay”
When Alex was picking Peach, someone asked: “Can I help you?”
From above, they saw a Charizard coming right to them.
“Who are you?” Alex asked.
“I’m Ethan; you need help to take them fast?” Ethan said.
“Yeah, time is the essence now”
“Okay, I’ll guide you to the exit”
“Then I’ll see you later guys” And with Sonya on his neck and Peach on his arms, he followed Ethan through the caves.
He had to move slowly for Sonya and talked to her to check that she was still conscious. When he couldn’t bear it any longer, he asked to Ethan if he can carry Sonya until they reach the exit. He agreed with that and carried Sonya the rest of the way. Once they were out from the salt caves, they headed to Holly.
“Holly; we found the team, but we have a new problem” Alex said when they reached her.
When she looked at them, she asked: “What happened to them?”
“Sonya was poisoned for the gas in the cave and Peach was wounded from an attack of Madeline”
“I’ll bring her to her tent” Ethan said and exchanged Sonya for Peach with Alex.
“Okay; Alex, Sonya needs to go directly to the medics for immediate treatment” Holly explained.
“Just tell me where they are” Alex said.
Holly gave him the indications.
“Then I’m going; I’ll check how Peach is later”
Holly nodded and Alex went to the medics with Sonya in his arms now. Alex decided to rest and stay with her until the group return from the mission. After the treatment, the medic said to Alex she’ll have to rest for some time until the poison subsides. He headed inside the medical tent to see her.
“How are you doing?” Alex asked.
“I’ll be fine; thanks for rescuing us” Sonya said, still with a weak voice.
“No problem; but how did you got lost?”
“When we’re getting to one of the totems, we saw Madeline near it; we chased her for quite some time, leaving Yang behind, but at the end I lost her from sight; and when I got back with Yang and heading out, I started to feel bad; then I couldn’t move any longer”
“Phew; at least we found you in time”
“Yeah, but what happened to Peach? I didn’t saw anything”
“She’s wounded and she fainted when Madeline attacked her”
“Is she alright?”
“Holly is taking care of her; she’ll be fine”
Sometime later; Nya and Yang entered the tent. Sonya was sleeping in that moment.
“H-How is she?” Yang asked.
“She’s recovering; the medic said she needs to rest now” Alex answered.
“That’s a relief” Nya said.
“You finished the mission?”
“Yes, we brought Madeline and the remaining totems to the guilds”
“Okay; we’ll have to check how the guys are doing; Yang, you’ll stay here?”
“Y-Yeah” Yang answered.
“We’ll see you later then”
