“What’s going on!? How can it fire that fast!?” Ktala asked the knight standing next to her.

“We have no idea, Madam. It just turned toward us and fired immediately after. Our shields are out!”

“Scatter the troops throughout the city and prepare for evacuation! Tell them to be wary of debris!”

“Yes, Madam!” The knight sprinted away as fast as he could. Soldiers ran all across the area, sprinting to their posts. Ktala then turned toward William.

“Get out of here!”

“But we accepted your quest!?”

“That doesn’t matter! It’s way too dangerous to take it on when it’s active! You may be adventurers, but we can’t afford civilian casualties!”

William turned toward Feodora and Lily. The two exchanged glances, and the three sprinted toward the truck.

“Who’s firing?” Lily asked. William was grateful she understood what he meant. Procedures be damned. He could use his truck again. If taking out the ballista meant saving lives, then that would probably be the best thing to do right now.

“You’re a bow user, right? You’ll shoot.”

“You sure!? This thing is something entirely different, you know!”

“Yeah!”

“I am sure you can do it, Lily!”

“Alright then!”

Lily opened the rear cargo door, her and Feodora jumping inside. William leaped into the driver’s seat. William turned the engine on and checked his mirrors. Once clear, he began reversing, getting the truck to the closest intersection. He pulled the handbrakes, planting the truck firmly into place.

“Lily!”

“I am on it!”

The railgun turned. William opened the door and got off, standing to the side.

“William, what’s going on!?” Ktala came running.

“Something awesome is going to happen!” He said with a wide grin, watching as the metal beast locked its sights on the distant ballista.

“You three need to go now!” Ktala yelled after realizing they weren’t budging, but William refused to move. The railgun let out a light zing, its sound intensifying as the seconds passed.

“Huh!?”

Purple sparks appeared from the cannon’s side, traveling from the turret’s side forward to the middle section of the railgun.

Then for a second, the world stopped. A loud roar followed as a single projectile soared through the skies. A sharp shell, loaded with fire magic, he assumed by the red trail it left behind as it sliced through the air.

Next second, it smashed the ballista's shield into pieces, continuing its path and slamming straight into the ballista’s underside.

An explosion rocked the air, sending a shockwave traveling through the mountaintops. A black pile of smoke pummeled from the distant fortress, before slowly dispersing into the sky. What was left was flames, remains of the once powerful weapon.

Or so they thought.

The ballista began moving forward from underneath the flames. It had lost its left limb, with a majority of its right limb destroyed. Its underside was burning brightly, fire obstructing their view.

“They’re going to use magic to fire their next shot!” A knight called out.

“Wait, it’s still active!?”

“It’s burning!”

William squinted his eyes. Indeed, the remains of the weapon were burning, fire licking through its structure. The weapon looked unstable, shaking harshly as it tried to aim. Wood parts of the structure turned into ash, falling off the weapon. Something else flickered in the distance. Something at its tip, at the end of the ballista’s body.

Then the ballista fired. Its shell cut through the smoke, flying straight to the south end of the city, some of the flames sticking for a brief moment as it passed, extinguishing the next second. The shell flew over their heads and disappeared from behind the walls.

The ground shook, throwing William to his feet.

“What’s going on!?” Ktala asked the other knight. The knight had his cat ears exposed above his helmet. He brought his hand to his ears.

“It destroyed the southern road!”

“Spread the troops! We can’t afford to be grouped up here!”

“William!” Lily came running, Feodora behind her.

“We need to go!”

“But you can’t use the southern route?” Ktala asked with concern.

“We’re not retreating! We still have one hour before we can shoot again.”

“But it’s too danger-”

An explosion came from the mountaintops. The remains of the once powerful weapon broke apart and fell down the mountainside, parts of it crashing into the rocks and burning as it tumbled down. Smaller explosions followed as some of them rested on the mountains, while others burnt into thousand smaller pieces, stuck in the fortress.

“It’s still too dangerous! They can attack at any time now!”

“Let’s think about that later, we should really get going now.”

“Lily, you used to be a receptionist, right? Can you use distant writing magic?”

“I can, a bit. How do you know?"

“I got info from Pakihana. I’ll relay more information later. Here, take this paper,” Ktala handed over a piece of paper.

“For now please get out of the operation area.”

This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

“Alright.” Lily jumped back onto the truck. Feodora ran and closed the rear cargo door before jumping in. William entered last, taking the driver’s seat and driving away from the camp.

* ••

“Phew…” William wiped a sweat off his head. They hid behind a damaged building, hiding beneath its shadow. The building’s top side had been destroyed, but most of the building itself remained intact.

“What do we do now?” Feodora asked from the passenger's seat. “Is there no other way out of here?”

“How am I supposed to know?” William shrugged.

William’s original plan was to take up position somewhere else and shoot at the ballista again, as he expected the demons to fix it up. As it turned out, the ballista used its last shot. The remains were still burning overhead, William doubted it would see action ever again.

You were a formidable foe, old friend.

"Why are you looking at it as if it's your wife?" Lily asked. William shook his head.

"You'll never understand."

With nothing else to do, it was time to head home. But, as the knights said, the southern road was destroyed. He probably wouldn’t be able to bring the truck back with him.

“The eastern and western gates both headed for different spots north. If those places aren't blocked, we can escape through those gates, then head south through the forest. That means abandoning the truck, though,” Lily said, looking at the map she brought. Feodora tilted her head, and Lily pushed the map her way.

“In that case, you two should go. I’ll stay behind.”

“You’re not coming?”

I came here for the railgun. If I lose it, I might as well die with it.

“Nope, the carriage is more important to me,” William stated honestly.

“It had that kind of sentimental value to you? Well, can’t blame you. Sorry for suggesting it in the first place.”

"I will not abandon you, no matter what happens," Feodora said, her eyes observing the map, using her finger to trace some roads.

“I like the sentiment, Feo, but you’ll be much better without me.”

“I do not believe that to be the case. I shall stay with you until the very end.”

“Thanks.” William smiled wryly. He knew her words carried no hidden meaning. It was reassuring, yes, but somehow sad as well. Her reason for being with him was her sense of responsibility, nothing more and nothing less.

“You really do look like a married couple.” Lily sighed.

“What do you mean? Besides, you’re the one she thought of as my wife.”

“Well, no thank you.” Lily let out a second sigh. “So… what now?”

“Wait… I guess?”

If they couldn’t return, then their only route would be forward. He didn’t want to bring the two with him, but if they refused…

“I’m out of ideas, so can I hear your backstories?” Lily said all of a sudden.

“What? Why?”

“I knew about Feo’s, but I don’t know about yours.”

“Is this really the time, though?”

William looked up at the mountain. The shield was no more. Since Ktala's immediate reaction was to order the troops to scatter, William assumed that she couldn’t get another shield up in time. While scattering helped protect them from another ballista shell, said threat no longer existed. In theory, they should be the ones holding the upper hand, since they still had their railgun.

Their position was disadvantageous, however. While the ballista could be shot from the city, the same couldn’t be said for the rest of the fortress. Many parts of it were hidden by the rock formations surrounding it. The principality integrated it into the mountain and used the mountain itself as a natural barrier.

“We need to start firing at the mountain.”

“That isn’t what I’m asking?”

“Actually, you never explained how the magic works. The railgun, I mean.” William turned to Feodora. Feodora looked up from the map.

“She taught me some basics. Lightning magic means something like a lightning strike. Fire is for explosion, while ground magic could be used to strengthen the shell and turn it into something that can pierce thick walls.”

“I see. I should write it down.”

Lightning - EMP

Fire - High Explosive

Ground - Armor Piercing

There should be more types of shells they could play around with if they could fire as frequently. One hour for each strike was too little.

It would be another forty minutes or so before they could fire their next strike. It would be best if they knew where to hit and how to hit it.

“Umm… So your backstories?” Lily asked again.

“You’re still interested in that?”

“Well, yeah. You said it yourself, right? We can’t fire again.”

“Shouldn’t you be worried? Just so you know, I have no problem dying.”

He knew where he would end up, after all. Death was no longer something scary to him. Lily shook her head and let out a sigh.

“I thought I would be panicking, but it seems that my old adventurer’s blood is kicking in. Panicking is the first way to get you killed.”

“You’re probably too relaxed.”

“Is that so? Well, kindly provide me some, ‘suggestions’, then, on what I should do.”

“Well, here are your suggestions. Go south through the forest or something.”

“You want to get me killed? There’s no way I will risk going through the forest on my own. Monsters I can handle, but we’re in the front lines. There could be a demon spying next door.” Lily pointed her thumb at the ruined house behind them.

“Well, they are certainly smart for not jumping on us.”

“Oh, they sure are.”

“Umm… I think we should now focus on what we can do,” Feodora said, bringing their attention back on the matter.

“Right, sorry. But you owe me one.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll tell it later,” William waved her off, not that his story had any interesting things in it.

“Now, what are we facing?” he rested his back on the seat's backrest.

“The demons,” Lily quipped.

“Thanks, Miss Obvious,” William spat. Feodora stood in between them, letting out a little chuckle.

“The demons are like a normal army in some ways. When they come in large numbers, their attacks are obvious. They could use some magic techniques that would hide them from the naked eye, but anyone who can use magic could sense them. If this is a normal city, then it’ll be an effective weapon. But we’re not in one. Knights are everywhere, and they can use magic. It’ll be pointless.”

“I couldn’t use magic. It’s not pointless against me.”

“You can, William. You are far from mastering it, however.”

“Can I still sense the demons?”

Feodora paused for a moment, then turned to Lily

“Don’t look at me. Just because I’m an adventurer, doesn’t mean I can use it. I can use writing magic, though.”

“Well… even if I can, not like I can defeat them,” William let out a dry smile. He only had his dagger for self-defense. It couldn’t be used for war.

“Oh, yeah, you only have that tiny little dagger,” Lily teased.

“We still hadn’t answered the question of what to do now.”

“I’ll ask the general.” Lily took out the magic paper and laid it on the dashboard. She then pulled out a magic pen and wrote on it.

“... Where’s the magic?” William asked as Lily wrote the words.

“Here.” Lily tapped on the pen.

“... I can do that. You’re making it as if it’s some really cool technique.”

“Well, sorry for disappointing you, then. Ktala probably thought I didn’t bring one with me.”

Black trails of ink formed on top of the paper. Written on it was ‘What’s our plan? - Lily’.

A reply came immediately after.

‘No signs of enemy movements. - Scout Milauwke Isoto’

‘The other fortresses remained silent. - Scout Lusiana Loka’

Lily wiped off her response with her hand, replacing it with another. Surprisingly, the ink disappeared without a trace with little effort, with none left behind on her hand.

“How long before we can fire?” Lily asked.

“Thirty minutes,” Feodora answered.

“Didn’t you have a clock?”

“I think Feo’s magic is much more impressive.

‘Affirmative. We can fire in thirty minutes. - Adventurer Lily Atores.’

‘Do they have a second ballista? Should we regroup?’ - Colonel Ika Haju’

‘Split into three groups. The 4th regiment will hold up the west gate, the 5th hold east, and the 6th hold south. Any units not under either of this regiment, or located too far from their regiment, will join the closest unit. - Brigadier General Ktala Zarez’

‘Affirmative. - Colonel Ika Haju’

The writings were erased one by one, leaving a clean sheet of paper.

“Let’s go.”