A tree exploded next to Lewis.

Cursing, he moved further into the ditch, ducking as splinters blew overhead. The smell of gunpowder was overpowering, almost as bad as the smoke coming from deeper into the forest.

Those fires had chased them here. They’d tried wind attacks, only for whatever fueled the fire to grow larger in response. Alchemicals of some kind must have started the burning, and now the best they could do is evade it.

They’d come out of the forest right to find a company of Scales had infested the ruins of the train station and the outer edges of the village. Armored vehicles, artillery, and machine guns that immediately sent them back into the forest

It wasn’t necessarily if the Scales could hurt them this time, but if they could drain enough of their limited mana and resources to make the next group of Scales an actual threat.

They’d found a ditch to give them a moment to plan. Only for a moment. The fire still ate at the forest behind them, smoke pouring out from the forest fires.

Bullets whistled overhead, and the ground shook as shells hit the ground ahead, swiftly deforesting the strip between them and Halice.

A few feet down, another tree burst apart as a shell hit it, splinters sent flying as the explosive split it in twain.

“Wait till their barrels overheat? They can’t keep this kind of fire up forever!” Lewis yelled, trying to yell over the sounds of chaos. Not having Message available was more of a nuisance than expected.

Trevor shook his head before screaming back, “They’ll have replacement barrels. And probably guns in reserve for when they change them out. Besides, who knows what’s going on in the town itself? We push this, get inside the town. It’s just Scales, and if they had anyone of actual high level, they’d have shown themselves by now. Lisa wouldn’t be flying around otherwise!”

“Should I check?” Rebecca screamed, barely audible, as a tree burst, an artillery shell splitting it into two before the explosion sent wood splinters flying.

“My shields aren’t invisible!” Lewis yelled back. “You go to check, they either notice the shield and open up, or if you go without, you probably get hit anyway. We need to break this!”

Rebecca was the one at the most risk if she got hit. She’d built all of her defenses around evading being hit in the first place, but that could only help so much versus the sheer weight of fire.

Trevor shook his head. “I walk up there, and I attract their fire. They spend all their firepower trying to break this armor, and they fail.”

That…was doubtful. Trevor had always been tough, but not Jake's levels of toughness. The artillery fire had also eaten away at some of his armor’s durability. “There has to be a better option. Let me do the shields.”

“Well, then do them fast. I don’t want them pinning us down for any length of time.”

It had only been half a minute, but point taken. Lewis focused, allotting Mana to both of them, shields of light forming around each of them.

The earth jolted as a shell slammed into the earthen wall of the trench. Fragmentation blew through the thin barrier of dirt. Lewis dismissed a handful of notifications of MP lost from his shield as loose metal melted in its grip.

“Over the top. Now,” and with that, Trevor had leaped into the air.

***

Ferat cursed as a piece of tree trunk slammed into the rubble in front of him, the wooden splinters sent flying from a detonating tree.

Gretten next to him had already disappeared beneath their cover. “Get back up here! Nearing the end of this belt!” He yelled, then resumed firing.

The both of them had been taken from the center of town and sent here once the Juggernaut was dead, holding the outskirts of the town against the three Travelers trying to find their way inside. Every machine gun, every anti-tank or infantry gun, most of the other support equipment. Only a hundred meters back mortar squads were concentrated, sending their payloads skyward.

This wasn’t so bad, honestly. He’d expected the Travelers to be storming across their position and cutting their throat by now. But so far, it’d just been a lizard shoot, firing rounds into the forest and focusing on whatever might be them moving about. Sure, they weren’t dealing any damage, but they were keeping them out of the town at least. Hells, even pushing them back a little by stripping their cover away.

The belt finished, the chattering of their gun ending even as others continued. Gretten prepared another one to be loaded, but they wouldn’t be firing for a while. Firing the gun non-stop would eventually overheat it, warping the barrel.

The dangers of using an air-cooled machine gun. Still, with nearly thirty on the line, having ten not firing at any time didn’t decrease the fire appreciably. And besides, they weren’t the only weapons firing.

Beside him, the armored hulk of an assault gun opened fire, stubby barrel sending a shell flying into the woods where it sent a plume of dirt flying into the air.

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Waste of a perfectly good forest, he thought as another of the assault guns roared, and the shell hit a tree dead on. The old oak shattered into shreds, leaving only a mutilated stump. Still looked healthier than what forests were left on the Line.

A Traveler leapt, and armored figure with a spear that could only be the Lancer, but something closer to ground level caught Ferat’s attention.

Movement. Someone striding forward, a spherical shield of white bursting into existence as a shell landed nearby, shrapnel sent flying away. White robes embllazoned with a yellow sun. The Healer.

Gretten was already yapping in his ear, pointing at the Traveler. Malat ignored her, moving the machine gun as she fed another belt of ammo into the gun. Forget the heat, they needed to take this one down now.

That’s when the entire world exploded in light.

***

Lewis strode forward, arms outstretched even as bullets sparked off his shield, notifications flagging him for each Mana point lost per impact.

This trick was his favorite, since it kept people alive, only inflicting a status debuff. Admittedly, it was a permanent one, but it was preferable to dying for its victims. Well, he assumed that, at least. Most of them ended up dying afterward anyway. And talking to Scales caught right after the battles had never been an enriching experience.

“Behold the power of the sun!”

With those words, a dozen points in the air glimmered, then swiftly spawned balls of light forming into near-suns. Intense light beamed across the battlefield, and Lewis kept his eyes tightly shut. Even with his eyelids closed, he could feel how intense it was, like looking at the sun with them open, heat and pressure pressing against them.

You have cast Resplendent Sun x 12. Twenty-three enemies have suffered Blindness Debuff. Duration: Permanent

Mana left: 480/1300

The machine guns fell silent as screams echoed across the clearing, barely audible over the din of the echoing explosions. Lewis counted to three, waiting for the miniature suns to burn themselves out. Blinking his eyes open, he could still see burning spots on the insides of his eyelids where they had been.

Ahead of him, the sound of explosions faded completely. The occasional burst of machine gun fire continued, but none of the rounds landed near him. Panicked gunners blind firing.

The edge of the town didn’t look too different. The only thing Lewis’ suns would do is blind, but it neutralized the defense line. Useful when he wanted to just be on the safe side when handling surrendered Scales. Killing them violated oaths made to his new goddess.

Most of them were out of sight, but he could see Scales grasping at their eyes, screaming. Only a few, though, and unaffected Scales were already re-manning the deserted weapons.

He wasn’t too shocked. He’d only cast small ones. Blanketing the entire town in this kind of light would drain much of his mana, but he could do it. The only issue was not knowing if the townspeople, or even Lisa and Jake, would be out of its reach or able to close their eyes in time.

There was a lull in the near-constant barrage, though, more than enough for Trevor and Rebecca to make their entrances.

Rebecca already had her shroud up, MP probably draining from the number of eyes on where she was as she ran in the open. She’d spent extra talent points to make it selective so Lewis could see her picking her path up one side. The Scales would have no idea, not with even those who’d closed their eyes blinking tears out of them.

Trevor had chosen the opposite path, putting his Lancer Talents to good use. He soared midway through a jump that would clear half of the wrecked train station. One more jump after that and he’d be onto the rooftops.

One of the tanks had turned to face him, and with a thunderous roar, a shell headed straight toward him. He smiled placidly as it smashed into his shield, the explosive force failing to do anything but make the ground he was on shudder slightly.

Outside the shield, explosions blasted away the earth fragmentation flew all over the place, but for him, it might as well have been a softball landing nearby.

Your Shield has lost 38 of it’s stored mana!

Okay, maybe not so placid, but he needed to be a distraction.

Yes, yes, keep your attention on me and off Trevor.

Not that all of them had made that mistake. One machine gun was sending bursts at the airborne fire, the unblinded crew trying to get an angle at the high-jumping Trevor. Failure, as he redirected to land on them instead, a Scale turned to a gory mess as five hundred pounds of steel-clad warrior landed right on their head. The other two died in swift spear stabs before Trevor leaped once again.

And then Trevor vanished from sight, bounding past into the town itself.

Rebecca was entirely out of sight, but he could feel the link to her shield inside Halice, a few streets in already. It vanished, probably dismissed by her. Likely so it wouldn’t reveal her position.

They had all agreed it was best to ensure Jake and Lisa were alright instead of trying to clear all the Scale positions out. It would take their enemies time to reposition most of them, and the artillery pieces were deeper into the town anyway.

That left him to make his own way. One that would be a lot slower and more frustrating, but he trusted that his friends could handle the Scales.

By now, most of the weapons were readied once again. Scales permanently blinded were moved or dragged away as ones who 'd been looking away took over. Impressive since it hadn’t even been a minute.

Already, streams of machine gun fire were splattering off of his shield. He’d turn it off, and let his natural regeneration tank it, but the limb damage system the System used meant letting the heavier shells hit him would be much more dangerous to his well-being.

Another shell hit the shield, and more ground was blasted away while he kept walking forward. The Shield was eating a fair bit of mana, but fuck it. It was easier than trying to lance them all and hope he killed each one.

More suns were probably the way to go. It would eat at his mana reserves even more, but keep the Scales unable to aim. Lewis reached for his mana reserves, preparing. Summoning more would cost more mana than he wanted to use this early, but less than annihilating everything for a few hundred meters.

The skies above him twisted, clouds beginning to appear. Wind howled as branches and leaves from the trees flew from the forest, ripped off.

At the line ahead, the gunfire stopped as the winds grew. The dumb ones tried to run, while the smart ones grasped onto anything in sight.

Wind blasted through a corridor centered on the defensive line. The wind ripped Scale from the ground then sent them hurtling dozens of feet before crashing to the ground or into walls.

Not enough to kill all of them, but as they tried to stumble to their feet, they were picked up again, sent flying once more. It would continue until they died.