Chapter 12: Chance Encounter
Abandoned Mine
In the few days that the Dwarves have arrived in the abandoned mines they cycled their manpower to continue mining around the clock alongside building defenses in the surrounding area such as walls and towers. The artisans also reinforced the mine shafts and turned them into proper expanded hallways with large stone pillars.
The towers were build to house Dwarven Canons, something the world has yet to fully expect. A force multiplier of a weapon that does not rely on any magic or magical materials but rather common ones, so common that technically even children can make use of this weapons.
This is one of the mechanical marvels the Dwarves has invented throughout the centuries of fighting the Eastern Immortals, their movements have alerted the enemy scouts but the Dwarven elites simply ambushed them before they could even make a report of what is truly happening here at the abandoned mines.
After another cycle of supplies and Dwarven manpower dropped by the airship armada the fortification of the abandoned mines are finished in just 7 days, the 5 meter thick walls are all engraved in runic magic further solidifying its defenses, the same goes for the canons each of the canon balls were also engraved with runic magic along with its core the control crystal loaded with various offensive spell models for different targets.
After all this fortification work was done the airships left and joined the armada up above the skies. Meanwhile the Lavant forces have begun to send five thousand strong army at the last known location the scouts have disappeared only to be met with another fortified location by a Dwarven army.
The Dwarves fired the canons the moment they Lavant forces entered their range, most canon balls missed their marks but due to its nature the canon balls just rolled over at high speed and eventually hit a line of enemy soldiers unprepared for the weapon.
Some canon balls just exploded midair and shredding the unfortunate soldiers to chunks. It was almost instantaneous that the retreat was called but regardless of their efforts the damage has already been done and soldiers charged forward without commands while the others ran away in panic. After the disastrous attack the Lavant soldiers managed to return with a measly amount of one thousand eight hundred soldiers some who were gravely injured that they died before reaching the medical tents.
South East of the newly entrenched army
Forest Area
Just 2 miles south east of the invading army Sera decided to visit and investigate the nearby villages. They were supposedly evacuated but even if they did she was hoping that some resources would have been left behind after all the village of Sarai is quite big for a village.
Within just thirty minutes of travel Sera saw the village through the eyes of Ashura, or rather the remains of the supposed village. By the looks of it the whole place has been robbed… nope. “I believe PICKED CLEAN would be the most appropriate word to describe this” she thought to herself as she laid her eyes of what little that remains of the former village.
The village of Sarai which had been inhabited by five thousand civilians has been picked clean of everything from supplies, materials and even the very walls and roofs of every household and establishment. If it wasn’t for the heavy stone pillars that act as the foundation of the establishments they would have been clean up too.
What remains of the village now is nothing more than a skeleton so to speak barely even if you can still call it that, if it was not for the map you would not notice that this was lively and blooming a village a few weeks ago.
Clearly the new army nearby got its materials and some of its supplies here perhaps also in the other villages as well. But regardless of its current situation Sera was still in the mood to investigate, after all there is literally nothing to do with that army blocking most of the convenient pathways other unsavory pathways are too steep to walk through or has been deemed dangerous because of its local wildlife.
But just as her golem army is inspecting the remains of the former village shadows from the tree line could be seen spying on her golems. They remained quiet in their hiding spots just 40 meters away from their prey.
As Sera Hawke’s golem army moved away from the village voices from the people on the tree line could be heard. “senior brother Rasso that should be the local puppeteer that we have heard so much rumors about, but what I don’t get is that all of the puppets are so low quality only a handful could even be barely considered foundation stage. I cannot believe that this is the rumored puppet army that gave the Lavants so much trouble and beat up those dunder heads from the Bone Forging Sect”
“for one I heard there were 200 of them keeping their distance and peppering them with projectiles and second there was an invisible puppet that used sonic attack flying from great heights at them. Even though they were battered fortunately however eventually won in the end otherwise it would be a huge disgrace to us cultivators”
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“hah! But still these are nothing compared to our Mystic Puppet Sect, I cant believe they even dare make comparisons to us”
Rasso then replied “ however there is one that is interesting among the puppets the one with nine sets of arms the big one” as he pointed out
“what about it senior brother I can’t even feel anything powerful from it what is so interesting about it?” one of the junior disciples said while tilting his head
“exactly! How can such a thing even happen? Everything can be sensed and this continent barely knew our cultivation methods how can they hide from us? Don’t you see? That big one is definitely suspicious”
“enough. Even though the sect master told us not to participate in grand battles this is hardly a grand one nor a battle to begin with, let’s check the rumored puppet army out to see its mysteries. Prepare your puppets we’re going to fight!” Rasso said as he pulled out several talismans out of his bag of holding.
“hehe now that’s what I’m talking about this scouting missions were really boring me to death for a while now at least we could blow some steam out!”
The disciples of the Mystic Puppet Sect ran towards the back of Sera’s golem army and struck without any warning. the first to fall were as expected over a dozen Skeleton Granite Golems which was destroyed with relative ease before the golems knew what hit them.
“what!?” was Sera Hawke’s only reaction before she noticed that her golems were actually under attack by a handful of strangely robed people no less. “they must be one of the Eastern Immortals” she thought
The Mystic Puppet Sect disciples led the charge with their own army of puppets most of them used monster animal based puppets made out of their corpses with the Sect’s secret methods. majority of the monster corpse that turned puppet managed to retain at least 70 percent of their strength and skills.
Starting from wolf packs, snakes, eagles, bears and other monster puppets newly acquired which has yet to have a name. On the other hand the lead disciple appointed to command the forces of the Mystic Puppet Sect here in the Continental Isle Rasso uses a different type of puppets.
Rasso threw the talismans forward and shouted “Joh!, Ymechaf!, Ight!” his puppets were only three floating segmented armours Joh is human sized armour each segment floating it carries a mace and a buckler. Out of precaution Rasso mentally ordered Joh to be suited up to his body strikingly almost similar to how Sera Hawke would fight.
Ymechaf is a three meter tall armour without hands but rather spiked fists in its stead, its floating segmented body is also filled with foot long spikes. It charged forward the wall of Skeleton Granite Golems with each strike sending them flying out damaged.
Ight on the other hand is a giant 6 meter tall floating segmented armour reminiscent of a samurai but it lacks its lower half ,Carrying a large broad sword and a shield laid with a giant talisman on top of it.
Sera Hawke retaliated with her Knight Golems the 10 gathered together and formed a united barrier blunting the Eastern Cultivators advance. This magical barrier managed to holdout from the relentless assault from the disciples of the Mystic Puppet Sect and their puppets.
But it was precious enough time that bought Sera to form her army in a combat formation that would face off with the puppets. The Knight Golems slammed their magical barrier towards their enemies sending their front lines flying out.
After the barrier dispersed the Skeleton Granite Golems went on a counter charge led at the front by the Knight Golems with activated spell on their weapons and armours. Surprisingly as Sera saw it her golem army is having trouble with the enemies in front of her.
“this must be one of the Eastern immortals techniques?” she thought to herself as she wondered if these beasts were even alive as a slave?, trained? Or even perhaps zombies. With a magical world like this her imagination is really flying to the skies right now, considering that she is controlling this fight from the safety of her underground laboratory Sera calmly managed this battle with her only worry is that for Ashura everything can be replaced but not Ashura at least not yet.
The enchanted blades of the Knight Golems had trouble cutting the puppets cleanly showing that their enemies are not pushovers like the ones in the past. When the front assault is proving to be a losing battle Sera ordered her golems to start attacking the Eastern Cultivators directly while thinking “this is the advantage of remotely fighting in a war from great distances”
Although Sera has also fought in close quarters inside the Sentinels it still made her body sore and despite the comfort of Gemini Doc she would rather not have a sore body in the first place. Her thoughts were broken and brought back to reality as Rasso’s puppets wreak havoc at her golems.
Rasso’s giant puppet Ight took down 20 Skeleton Granite Golems in a single swipe of its broad sword on the contrary however Ymechaf and Ight are being ignored by the golem army and noticeably changed its tactics and started attacking the disciples of the Mystic Puppet Sect.
This immediately put the Eastern Cultivators on the defensive. After all what good is a puppet without its puppeteer, the disciples of the Mystic Puppet Sect were actually quite vulnerable to close quarter combat something that Sera Hawke almost missed because she has been always fighting inside the safety of her sentinels.
Except for their senior brother Rasso the other 4 members of the sect have been put in a precarious situation although their puppets protected them there are still over five hundred Skeleton Granite Golems, and Rasso’s powerful puppets were being ignored like a plague its kill count declined sharply after the sudden change of strategy.
Unlike the Eastern Cultivators puppets which relied on their own puppeteers for energy Sera Hawke’s golem army relied on their mana stones embedded in their eye sockets, while the cultivators are drying up their energy reserves by the minute Sera’s golems on the other hand just charges straight ahead to their deaths if they are about to run out of energy by using wave tactics.
It was then that it finally happened. “aaahh!!!” a blood curling shriek of a woman could be heard the heads of all disciples turned at the source only to find their junior sister being ripped to shreds limb from limb being thrown deeper and deeper into the golem army.
Enraged they fought harder and harder than they ever fought before ever since stepping into this continent, but alas their struggles were in vain even their ferocity they knew all too well that they are fighting with an army whose concept of fear and death does not exist.
Unfortunate as it may Rasso made a painful decision to retreat as soon as possible with him holding the rear “we can’t hold for too long return to the camp… now!!” he shouted
“b-but junior sister is!” replied hesitantly by the fellow disciple
But before he could finish his sentence Rasso replied “IS DEAD!! now go back to camp if you don’t want to be next!!… MOVE!” he commanded
Despite the Eastern Cultivators overwhelming advantage in power their energy reserves however were tied to their cultivation base which is unfortunately only around mid foundation establishment stage.
Despite the brutal and bloody appearance of the death and dismemberment of the junior disciple of Mystic Puppet Sect Sera only torn her limbs apart and broke her lumbar back bone and her neck completely paralyzing the unfortunate disciple.
During the last encounter with the cultivators Sera wanted to take back a cultivators body for study although dead would be alright it would be better to have a living sample after brutalizing the unfortunate disciple Ashura opened its cockpit and took out what would look like a breast plate.
This device serves as a pace maker, iron lungs, defibrillator, and a pack of intravenous filled with essential vitamins and minerals a human body will ever need. The limbless and paralyzed body of the disciple was then stored inside Ashura which under Sera Hawke’s elated command made a 180 degrees turn and ran back towards Kaladia City to claim her prize.
The rest of the remaining 340 golems were still fighting and keeping pressure on the Eastern cultivators. While the surviving disciples fought desperately as they never imagined that they would tap out first before their enemy. They all thought one thing at this moment “our recklessness costed the life of our junior sister. We underestimated them”
But regret always come late and no one even noticed Ashura making a hasty retreat, the Eastern Cultivators were busy saving their own lives after all. But regardless they have now tasted defeat they have now tasted… war