Chapter 18: City Under Siege (Part 3)
Kaladia City
The muscle bound cultivator took a deep breath and unleashed his own sonic attack by shouting “HAAH!” Sera’s own sonic attack have been negated and Banshee has been damaged while the rest of the sentinels had cracks on their bodies including the surrounding Skeleton Granite Golem and allied soldiers that bled through their ears.
“damn it! Banshee was never meant to be used in a full frontal assault”
She then called Riot as she switched sentinels now that the light armoured Banshee is too damaged to even be of use in this battlefield Sera ordered it to return to the underground laboratory to get itself repaired. The cutting edge technology inside the sentinels cannot be lost by any circumstance it just takes too much time and resources to remake even one of them.
Sera also recalled Gemini Doc from the hospital. After unveiling Gemini Doc to the soldiers she managed to get a hold of more rare and controlled substances necessary for advanced medicine and more complicated drugs. in exchange for this materials Gemini Doc has been operating and healing the injured soldiers wrestling them away from deaths door via cutting edge surgery and medical techniques as the mages were literally spent up in the battlefield that they can barely use any healing magic in the field hospital.
She also had Gemini Doc go to Marianne and tell her that the battle inside the City is becoming more and more intense and should prepare to evacuate now. During this time Sera activated her last group of Skeleton Granite Golem numbering 50,000 to charge at the breach and delay the invaders while the remaining 5,000 Knight Golem remained in the fortress underground to guard and be staff crew .
All this happening as she herself struggled to fend of a single Body Cultivator. According to her studies this Eastern Body Cultivator should be around the peak level of foundation establishment stage while she is currently at 9th layer of QI refinement, it is unfortunate that she hit a bottle neck for quite sometime now and the City has been breached before she managed a breakthrough.
Ashura struggled wrestling with the muscle cultivator even though the Ashura was being assisted by the Soul Statue inside of it. The Soul Statue has been loaded with different spell models starting from offensive, defensive and even utility spells and yet Ashura’s armoured body is creaking and cracking through the pressure of the fight with the muscle cultivator.
Vulcan has been shooting with Gatling Rail Gun but it only eased the pressure by a little bit as it made the muscle bound cultivator into defensive and yet Vulcan also need to shoot at the incoming enemy soldiers trying to assist the enemy.
Torch Light did the same suppressing fire Vulcan is doing when flaming sword and plasma cutter has been less effective and instead Torch Light has been using fireball spell models to create an effective covering fire as Ashura struggled in the fight.
Meanwhile Sera inside Riot has used maximum output of 100,000 volts of electricity directly towards the muscle bound cultivator but the addition of the high voltage electricity only enraged the enemy into charging towards Sera while Ashura is mounting him.
If it was any other day it would have looked hilarious as the muscle bound cultivator piggybacks a 4 meter tall and 20 ton Ashura but on the contrary within this bloody battlefield it only highlighted the ferocity of the Eastern Cultivators at he charged and throw a magically empowered punch towards Sera.
Fortunately with the recent upgrades Riot managed to react just in time to put up the bulletproof shield in between them. Although it did mitigate some damage the shield broke to pieces as soon as it made contact with the fist and throwing riot back 10 meters away.
At Riot tumbled 10 meters back Sera became dizzy as the powerful strike was quite unexpected. She in now bleeding from a broken nose as she shook like an egg inside a tin can with several gashes ion her body some parts of her are also bruised .
With her current strength and situation Sera decided to completely retreat and have the last 50,000 Skeleton Granite Golem to be her rear guard . in no less than seconds after that idea the surrounding Skeleton Granite Golems left their enemies and charged towards the muscle bound cultivator.
Some hanging to his body without letting go and most literally flinging themselves at him and obstruct him from attacking Sera, as she made her retreat the flying fortress already has its engines running and ready to take off at a moments notice.
With thousands of not tens of thousands of golems obstructing and swarming the muscled cultivator he can only shout with a “GRAAAHH!!!!” as his frustration mounts up. The the Lavant and Eastern Cultivators have managed to stabilize the breach point allowing a more steady stream of reinforcements on their side.
While the Wizards on the skies slowly but surely lost their advantage in the battle for air supremacy. Even though the Spirit Severing cultivators managed to gain the upper hand they are also quite drained and cannot fully make a final push.
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By all accounts the City of Kaladia has fallen and the resistance is only making the inevitable delayed. But in the minds of the defenders there is no escape and therefore they must fight to their deaths at leas they could take as many as they can or maybe perhaps an opportunity might present itself for salvation as long as they fight with all their strength.
In just a few minutes of the hasty retreat Sera managed to return to the tower and meet up with Marianne.
“you brought over 3 thousand”
“yes, but they are useful as long as we can escape alive their worth would be unimaginable”
Despite the limited food, water and medicine Sera could still accommodate this much people its just that with the scarcity of resources she would have liked it better to have some in reserve for herself during a rainy day.
Sera could just sigh inwardly and think “ I guess this IS the rainy day huh”
Most people on Marianne’s side are heavily injured including Marianne herself, Gemini Doc immediately help in treating their injuries due to the lack of healing mages they would have to endure their injuries as they naturally heal.
Sera went straight towards the center of the fortress directly in the laboratory where most if not all controls are, she fired up all the flight systems and in just a few seconds the entire structure both surface and underground shook as the engines roared up to lift capacity.
The entire fortress’ surface consists of Sera’s tower which she inherited from the Wizard Narud alongside some of the structure she made and some nearby mansions she purchased as the original owners moved out of Kaladia City before the siege, on the bottom half was a bowl shape metal dome where many of the engines are placed to kick start a lift off.
Such a big structure flying off would have been scientifically impossible back on earth if we are talking about weight, fuel, power of thrusters etc. But with the help of magic it was almost all too easy. First each material was enchanted with lightness which lessens the weight by half and durability so that this large flying fortress do not break apart.
Despite the fabrication of modern engines it was in fact magic that made all this possible the unknown but natural resource of magic in which is ever present made this flying fortress very much possible and today have become their salvation as the City of Kaladia falls.
It only took 10 minutes for the fortress to take off all the while Narud’s wizard tower stick out like a sore thumb, of course this event did not escape the notice of both allies and enemies alike some allied mages flew towards Sera’s flying fortress in hopes of survival while the Magic Knights and ordinary soldiers could only lament that they could not use flight magic, although Magic Knights could fly they do not have the same specialty to it as the mages does it was more like a fast levitate if anything.
On the other hand the Wizards could not care less as they could fly away to safety in relative ease should they choose to run away. It was not like the Wizards did not want to retreat it was just their own fores would be left behind that they could not swallow such a loss and have been forced to be rear guards as they delay the opponents advance.
Marianne and the lucky survivors who managed to reach the safety of the flying fortress could only be awed at the marvel they are at right now. Meanwhile Sera Hawke is far from being relaxed inside the control room as she ordered her “super soldier” employees which were former test subjects alongside the golems to settle and guard the “guests” in her flying fortress as to protect them but also to prevent them from wandering around critical places.
After 5,000 meters in the air Sera stayed vigilant as many cultivators still eyed her flying fortress as the allied forces made their retreat. And true to her fears when the allied forces made their retreat out of the City and when the combined forces of Lavant and the Eastern Cultivators have been stretched too thin they were ordered to retreat to the City and aside from the small pockets of resistance from the left behind soldiers from the allied forces the Nascent level Cultivators started to attack Sera Hawke’s flying fortress as their new target.
Lucky for her that Spirit Severing Elders were too injured to give chase to her otherwise it would truly be a catastrophe. It was then that Sera unveiled her defensive countermeasures of over 5,000 Rail Guns all over the flying fortress of varying sizes and designs all of which are now bombarding downwards the incoming Nascent Soul level cultivators.
“Wizards and Mages what are you waiting for!? rain fire at them!!!” Sera then ordered all Mages and Wizards alike despite their injuries to continue bombarding the Eastern Cultivators with hails upon hails of magic spells.
Some of them collapsed to the ground passed out after only unleashing a handful of spells due to their injuries and mana depletion but it did hold the would be assailants at bay.
“a-are we finally safe?” asked one of the injured Magic Knight
Once they’ve heard the question those who have the strength to move stood up and peered to the windows and examined the area. All of them could only have a big sigh of relief and fell down on their buttocks after all the tension in their bodies left.
“unbelievable, to think we actually survived the onslaught” one of the mages could only wipe his sweat as he slowly calms down
“heard the Elves and the Dwarves have it more complicated than us according to the news unlike our forces the Elves and the Dwarves met the Elite Force of the Eastern Cultivators.
After hearing that they blanched at the thought of meeting the Elite forces of the Eastern Cultivators when they were almost decimated by this combined force of Lavant soldiers whom only recently started cultivating their secrets.
Most of them are still in shocked of being able to survive but some have become more relaxed after knowing that they are finally safe from any dangers as they stayed at 10,000 meters above the skies.
After placing security measures and having active defenses Sera finally relaxed. She used the speakers to tell the people that they would be escorted in their rooms by the golems while the more severely injured patients are brought to the laboratory as Gemini Doc performs First Aid and surgeries.
While those who can still move are allowed to explore and wander around the flying fortress while the golems guard the restricted areas.
“this place is incredible I have long heard of the amazing things Lady Sera has been capable of but this is beyond surprising this is a miracle in itself to think she built this from the ground up I am totally speechless”
As they are flying in the sky the fortress itself is surrounded by active barriers to protect them from razor winds that may just cut them up to pieces. Although only theorized by Sera Hawke, she also took into account that this world is magic and made precautions for such instances.
Despite being happy that they survived a massacre they also felt sad and aggrieved as they see the City of Kaladia slowly getting smaller and smaller into the distance in smoldering ruins as they move farther into the nearest fortified territory of their allied forces.
Ruins Of Kaladia City
It was almost high noon after they squashed all of opposing resistance and yet it was a victory they simply cannot celebrate, they have lost too much soldiers and this victory barely breaks even at their losses.
The former central hub of this region has been put to the flames, black smokes rise up to mark the grim figure of the once glorious City of Kaladia.
Spirit Severing Elders gather around at the huge hole on the ground.
“hmm, so this is the place where the flying fortress came from? Who would have thought that the mortals still managed to keep a functioning flying fortress of old”
“it was quite unexpected and took us by surprise, otherwise we could have reacted better at the time”
“Forget it. We are still injured what would happen is we would only aggravate our injuries if not tended properly, remember we are still at war this is still far from over fix this City while we await orders from the main force”
Everybody just nodded their heads and went away on their separate tasks.
On the other hand the rest of Continental Isle have heard about the fall of Kaladia City the monarchs have felt deep regret about not sending reinforcements in time. As a matter of fact they were bickering on the merits of sending soldiers to aid Kaladia City but long days of debate and politicking took too much precious time and by the time they were about to send reinforcements they received the news that Kaladia City has been taken by the Lavant Kingdom and the Eastern Cultivators.
It was even more tragic that there were no prisoners taken the ones who could not escape from the City in time were Killed and their blood sucked dry, bodies harvested and has been sent to the Eastern Continent via teleportation Circle .
The allied forces of the Human Kingdoms has also received another bad news and that is the Elves and Dwarves has been put on a defensive position, with the recent sacking of Kaladia City this news does not bode well for the people of Continental Isle .