God-Horse had narrowed it down to a warehouse on the outskirts of the city. The lieutenant was a Minotaur, likely armoured in either gold or platinum. Seeing as we were in Bullgium, most of the cultists would likely be Minotaurs. It was possible that they would also have armour. If they did, it would be light (unless the cult was richer than we expected).

The warehouse was pretty big. At least, bigger than most of the buildings in Taureau Hommes. It wasn't decorated in any way and nothing seemed different than any of the other warehouses. The windows had been blacked out.

"Not a bad hiding spot," I observed.

"No," agreed Vesper. She turned to face me with a smirk on her face. "Let's buck it up."

"We should probably think of tactics first."

"Kill everything that moves." I facehoofed.

"Dammit, Vesper..."

"What?"

"We're not killing anypo- Anyone. Take them out without killing, then heal any huge injuries."

"Why?!"

"How's Celestia supposed to interrogate them when they're dead?!"

"Magic! It solves everything!"

"Don't kill them!"

"Ugh! Fine. I'll heal them after."

"We'll do it fifty fifty until the lieutenant shows up. Then I'll fight him while you take out the grunts."

"What?! Why do you get the big guy?!"

"You blue balled me with the Discord fight. I haven't had a proper fight since Nightmare."

"Oh! So I'm suddenly not a proper fight?!"

"I meant life threatening. We weren't trying to kill each other." Vesper grumbled something incoherent. I sighed. "You ready to fight?"

"It's not gonna be a fight, it's gonna be a massacre."

"Then let's go. And remember; the big guy's mine."

"Mm-hmm." We casually walked up to the door. I detonated it with a magic bolt and we rushed through.

I don't know what I expected, but it wasn't what we found. The interior was hollowed out into one big hall, and a mixture of Minotaurs, Griffons and Ponies made up about seventy to a hundred different creatures standing in a crowd. At the far end of the room was a stage of sorts with a big Minotaur in platinum armour and a gas mask standing in the center (presumably the lieutenant). He had some sort of weapon attached to his back. There was silence as everyone stared at us.

"Well," I said quietly, "there's the big guy."

"KILL THEM!" Screamed the lieutenant. The crowd charged towards us.

"Let's see which one of us finishes first," said Vesper before igniting her horn. I summoned a Support Circle and flew over the crowd to the stage where the lieutenant stood. He reached back for his weapon, revealing it to be a huge steel battleaxe. Compensating much? Platinum will reflect my usual attacks, so mainly use Arcane Circles. The gas mask will stop my sleeping gas but is a weak spot in his defense. If the battleaxe hits me even once, I'm a goner.

I landed on the stage and immediately ran towards him as he started his first swing of his axe. I summoned a Kinetic Circle around my horn and a Shield Circle above me to stop the axe. The Shield Circle stopped the axe with no problems, but my running KC horn ram barely knocked him back and instead sent me flying back across the stage. Bucking hell! I guess platinum does affect Arcane Circles! I quickly climbed to my hooves as the lieutenant charged at me with an overhead swing of the axe.

I ran towards him again, teleporting behind him at the last second. His heavy swing sliced through the stage like butter, getting the axe stuck in the floor. I threw myself into the air with a quick boost from a Support Circle, then KC punched the back of his head. The lieutenant cried out as his face slammed into the floor and the hilt of his weapon slammed into his chest.

I grabbed the side of the gas mask, powered up my hooves, then KC ripped it off of his head, revealing his face. I went to gas him but before I could he headbutted me, sending me to the floor. He yanked the axe from the ground and started swinging at me frantically, forcing me to quickly dodge. After a few swings, he used the momentum he'd built up to try another overhead swing, leaving an opening for an attack. I smashed him in the face with a Shield Bash, making him fall backwards. The axe fell forwards, barely missing his delicates.

I leapt onto his chest and gave him a face full of sleeping gas. Unfortunately, he was smarter than he seemed and held his breath long enough to punch me in the side of my head. I flew off of him sideways, falling off of the stage. As I climbed to my hooves again, he grabbed the axe and leapt off of the stage with yet another overhead swing. I barely managed to roll out of the way. His axe smashed into the stone flooring, but didn't get stuck again. I tried another cloud of gas, which he dived out of the way from. This guy's a decent fighter...

I summoned a Support Circle, flew high above him and drew power from the Circle. I focused my magic on the axe, transmuting it into a long baguette. The lieutenant screamed in anger, throwing the baguette to the floor. He started running back to the stage. I blasted another cloud of gas into where his face was heading, finally succeeding and knocking him out. I healed my face and swooped back to the ground. I looked towards Vesper just as she finished off the final fleeing cultist, grabbing him with magic and mashing his face into a wall. I trotted over to her.

"Have fun?" I asked. She wiped her brow and turned to me with a huge grin on her face.

"Buck yeah!" She exclaimed. Her grin faltered a little. "Damn, you finished first. How was he?"

"Surprisingly tough. How about them?" Vesper laughed.

"After I one-shot the twentieth one, the others tried to run. Then it was a matter of time." I returned the grin.

"That's my girl." We brohoofed.

Author's Notes:

Wow, that chapter came to me fast.