Leaf’s point of view
“We’re almost there! Keep it together for a few more moments everyone!”
We’ve reached the swamp a few moments ago but at this speed we’ll be passing over it fairly soon. I’m running on empty as it is.. I’ve reserved 90% of my mana on summons and if we get another break I don’t think I’ll be able to hold it until we get there let alone make it back. I hear Tok from the front of the dragon yell.
“I can see the army now! Oh… Oh no...”
Oh no what!? What is he upset about!? I rush forwards now. I can’t believe it. The scene before me is of utter devastation. Our men are torn apart, at least 300 of our men are killed or brutalized in the dead-zone between the hill and the enemies. The enemies army didn’t get away unscathed though.
A dozen, no about twenty mana cannon bunkers have been destroyed. Behind them is the main army and I see at least a hundred of their men stupid enough to get too close to the mana cannons dead as well. At the very edge I see him. Kite is destroying the last bunker in the first row… He’s not wearing much clothing and he’s covered in blood… I feel myself fill with rage as I see the second row of cannons fire at him.
“LINE UP OVER THE MANA CANNONS! WE’LL TAKE THEM OUT IN ONE PASS!”
My heart is beating out of my chest. We open up the hatch to drop bombs onto the first bunker. We don’t have enough. We’ve only brought enough for maybe ten so the other ten will be a problem. That’s if we hit all ten with perfect hits too. We weren’t prepared for them to be this ready! How did they get set up so quickly? I can’t think right now. I need to help guide the bombs.
We’re coming close to the first mana cannon bunker. They must have finally noticed us because it looks like they’re trying to aim the cannon upwards. It’s not nearly fast enough as we drop a bomb directly onto them. BOOM! It’s such a big explosion it obliterates the bunker entirely leaving behind a small crater. We need to keep going.
We get through four more before they finally have their cannons aimed upwards at us. How unlucky, this dragon wasn’t meant to fight with cannons, this is like the prototype of the prototype I would feel comfortable with bringing to actual combat. The dragon is already falling apart. We’ll be blasted out of the sky if we take cannon fire. The next one is aiming directly up waiting to attack when we fly over. It looks like they’re willing to sacrifice the bunker to try and take us out. Well, we have more than one type of attack in this dragon.
“Prepare for a breath attack! We need to get closer to the ground!”
We fly even closer. I rush to the front to help load the mana canisters into the firing mechanism. It clicks into place and the mana canister starts loading mana into the flamethrower scrolls in place. It fills about twenty flamethrower scrolls and unleashes a huge torrent of flames that flies towards the ground and melts everything in front of it. I try to redirect it to the next bunker but it’s too far away. We’re close enough to hear the screams of the men being burned alive. A little closer and we could smell them being cooked.
One of my men yells now.
“We need to get out of here and readjust or we’re going to be hit soon!”
I know that. We’re already getting pelted by hundreds of arrows, if we stay any longer we’ll be shot out of the sky by the cannons we still need to hit. We’re also running out of ammo. I make a split second decision and yell out.
“Tok you’re in charge! Don’t let this dragon fall here no matter what!”
“Aye captain!”
I jump out of dragon from the opening in the middle. I have to retain the summoned clamps still or the dragon will fall apart mid air. That leaves me with 10% of my mana. That’s just enough. I summon something I’ve been thinking of for awhile now. All this experience in engineering and automaton creation finally put into play. I summon a mechanical suit of armor to protect me.
Wham! I slam into the ground. The shock absorbers on the legs almost burst but they just barely hold. They’re too busy trying to aim at the black dragon. I’ll have another minute before they can aim at me and I’ll be another distraction for the cannons if they do. That’s what I think when I hear another of the bunkers exploding and the men from both armies rushing towards one another.
Zergnar’s point of view
We showed up to help Gobber’s men but half of the cannons were already aiming into the air when we arrived. Ten of my men have been shot down by cannon fire and arrows. They were too prepared for this attack. We managed to make a hole for Gobber’s men to attack from. We destroyed the middle cannons and he used that as an opportunity to attack the cannons on the left side. It wasn’t completely without loss though…
I’m not sure how many men we’ve lost to these attacks but it’s pissing me off. We should be embarrassing them like we have all of our enemies but they are putting up a good fight. If the number advantage wasn’t so skewed in their favor we would be ahead but every one of our lives needs to add up to about ten for it to be worth it. We’ve used most of our ammunition we’ve brought to throw.
We’re in trouble. They have too many cannons still up, if it was just my men I would have retreated already but if we do Gobber’s men will be decimated. I yell out as loud as I can now.
“WE NEED TO LAND AND TAKE OUT THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE CANNONS! USE THEIR OWN MEN AS SHIELDS FROM THE ARROWS!”
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
We land and I send one of my men back into the sky with our griffons until we’re ready to get back into the sky. Them being shot down by arrows would destroy our group. I spear through one of the men trying to load the cannon now and hear him scream in pain as I avoided a killing blow. I hoist him into the air and block about six arrows as some of my bigger men also do the same while the smaller ones hide behind some of the cover from the bunker to avoid the arrows. I can hear them writhing in agony from what they’ve been through. I take in a deep breath and scream now.
“These men aren’t dead! If you shoot at us you'll kill them!”
I stab the hilt of my spear into the ground and make a makeshift arrow catcher with the man still speared through. I grab one of the cannonballs and start loading it. The fear of killing their own only stops the majority of the arrows as I faintly hear one the their generals try to convince the men to keep firing. The more seasoned archers continue to fire. I yell out only loud enough for my men to hear.
“Aim at that other bunker over there. I’m going to go take out that general.”
I jump into the air about twenty feet to get a better shot at the man giving orders. I catch him still yelling and he must have noticed me out of the corner of his eye because he starts to turn his head towards me. I launch one of my mini spears at him and hit him right in the heart. He falls and is pinned to the ground dead. They finish aiming and fire at one of the close-by bunkers as I land but it isn’t good. I yell out.
“Get out of that bunker now! They’re going to be firing on it when they finally aim at us! Follow behind me!”
I land and pickup my spear still with the screaming man in tow and jump back out of the base. Most of my men get out of the bunker when it is hit by four shots from other cannons close by. Only one is caught by the fire. It’s unfortunate but I can’t think about the losses right now. I wish I could get some of his fur to give to his family but we can’t think about our traditions right now.
We need to finish this fight before we’re overwhelmed. Another volley of arrows is fired from the veteran archers now. I raise the speared man towards the arrows and my men follow suit in doing the same. Arrows pelt him and his screams finally stop. I'm going to need a new person when we get to the next bunker.
Leaf’s point of view
We managed to kill all the bunkers but… So many men lost their lives to do it. Half of Kite’s men are dead now. We managed to drag most of them back so we can properly bury them but I still can’t believe this. He doesn’t look good, we need to regroup and see how many men Gobber has lost. Almost all of Kite’s clothing has been ripped off his body from multiple attacks. His body is mostly fine, maybe a few more scars but he hasn’t spoken since we’ve retreated.
He seems like he’s deep in thought. He gets like that sometimes but it’s far worse than normal. Normally you would hear him muttering to himself but he’s completely silent. We killed more than double the men we lost even with them being prepared. My toughts fall to their being a spy in our army but with no proof I can't make accusations. Kite seems defeated by our losses.
I’m about to speak to him when Gobber, Zergnar and Green come walking into the meeting room. Gobber is missing an arm but doesn’t look too upset by it. He’s seen others with similar injuries get fully healed so that’s not a problem to him. Green is also missing both of her arms… What did they have to do to win their fight…
Gobber begins to speak.
“Master, it seems that the enemy knew what we were planning. They were prepared for us from both sides and we suffered heavy casualties because of it. We lost about one hundred and fifty men plus fifty percent of Zergnar’s air support was wiped out.”
That's good news, they took slightly less casualties then we did. Their side must have focused more heavily on taking out the air support so the ground troops could get more done with less casualties. That’s still a considerable amount. Being completely outnumbered and having the enemy prepared for us was too much of a disadvantage.
Each of the generals start explaining what they’ve seen and a few are moving around the enemy pieces to show the size of their army. Zergnar has made the most changes which makes sense. He did fly over a huge portion of their army. Kite remains very quiet on everything… I haven’t heard him speak since he’s come back.
We talk for a short while before I get reports that the black dragon has finally made it back. I’m going to have to work non-stop on repairs to get it back into shape before it’s needed again… After an exhausting fight I’ll likely have to pull a few all-nighters in a row.
Kite abruptly stands up. We all stare at him for a few seconds but it feels like time has stopped. He’s got a look I have never seen on his face before. It’s a mixture of sadness, of fear, of anger and finally of relief. I don’t understand it but he moves over to me and kisses me suddenly. He normally doesn’t like public displays of affection like this so it catches me off-guard. He lets go and says.
“I’m sorry for putting you all through this. Go ahead and head back to the fortress… I’ll let Wrath handle this.”
A chill runs down my spine. He lowers his head for a moment and when he raises it… Kite’s gone. The person standing in front of me now isn’t Kite anymore. He yells now.
“You heard him! Get out of here and let me handle this. Especially you, I don’t want you to be too close to the battle. No matter how I try Kite’s feeling for you still effect my judgment too much!”
He pulls the heirloom sword from his necklace and it looks like he swallows it… Then he starts to take off his remaining cloths. Before I know it he’s already gone out of the room so fast no one else can react.
Enemy Aghas’ point of view
I can’t believe this. All the information coming back seems to be insane for what’s happened. I ask again.
“So you’re sure both of the sides of our army were attacked and all of the bunkers I had them build to protect the mana cannons until we set up a forward base were destroyed.”
One of the scouts who’s kneeling in front of me speaks up.
“Y-yes Aghas… Both the left and right fortifications we’ve made to the army have been destroyed.”
Damnit… That was about half of our mana cannons… It would have taken an army of similar size to take that down but the reports say it was only a few hundred men for each side… I shudder when I think of how lucky we were that they didn’t attack from the rear. If they attacked the rear they would have torn through my men and might still be fighting right now instead of falling back… What outstanding luck that we happened to fortify the left and right sides of the army first.
It’s still unbelievable. Almost a miracle amount of luck that I've done this. My experience as a general really shows through in times like this. Something as routine as preparing fortifications before you reach your destination might seem foolish and a waste of time but you really regret getting caught without them. Such a small number put up that much of a fight though... I ask another question.
“How many casualties did we have compared to them?”
“We’ve suffered about a thousand on the right flank and fifteen hundred on the left. The biggest problems were even though we were setup to take out air support both sides had insane air support that was extremely difficult to deal with. One side even had a dragon assisting them.”
A dragon… That isn’t too far from the truth. I’ve heard rumors that the general managed to tame a dragon but who would have thought it was actually true. He only answered half the question though.
“What about their casualties?”
“...”
It seems he’s afraid of repercussions for what he’s about to say. I let him know that the information is too important to withhold.
“It… It’s hard to tell right now. Most of their men who died were either blown apart or their bodies have been recovered when the enemy retreated. The best guess we had was anywhere from fifty to a thousand for the left side and even less than that on the right side. If we’re counting bodies on both sides it is about one hundred that were left behind.”
This enemy is truly terrifying. It’ll be much harder to siege any castles we come across with half of our cannons destroyed. It’s still unbelievable… A small group like that should have been wiped out by cannon fire before they even came remotely close to the mana cannons. One of the scouts signals he wants to say something and I let him speak.
“The conscripts who were close to the fight have begun talking aghas… Many are afraid to fight such a fierce enemy...”
I can tell he is holding something else back so I order him to speak his mind.
“I was there as well aghas… The men that attacked us are unlike any we’ve ever seen before. If they spearhead the charge in an all out battle between both sides… I’m afraid we don’t have anything that can stop them. A woman jumped from the dragon and started destroying bases while taking a dozen volley’s of arrows without even flinching… The man who was destroying the cannons while he waited for the dragon also kept changing back and fourth from a dragon… I’m… I’m not sure if I was in their path if I could hold ranks with everyone else… If they were to attack my unit, i’m afraid I would run away.”
This scout is being extremely honest right now. I’ll have to commend his honesty later but that isn’t the biggest problem here. If the conscripts are afraid to fight and we force them to the entire army might revolt here. This war will end in a rebellion with our own citizens overthrowing the sultan. We can’t have that happen. I think that is as much as I’m going to get from the men and I’m about to send them away when one of the men outside yells.
“Aghas, some strange man is asking to speak with you.”