Central calendar year 1639, April 26, 10:18 PM
Kingdom of Louria, capital Jin Hark, royal palace
On that hot summer night the next steps to be taken were being decided, in the throne room were gathered 7 extremely important people, the high command of the army, navy and wyvern knights, along with the chancellor and 3 other archdukes.
"Your majesty, our invasion plan will begin in 3 days." One of the archdukes reported to him.
"Are you sure we can defeat two nations simultaneously?" Hark for some reason was afraid, it was as if something in his instincts was screaming at him not to go through with it.
"One of them is a bunch of farmers, while the other is just animals that have learned that talk." The chancellor said.
"All right, explain the plan, General Patajim." The king pushed these thoughts to the back of his mind and decided to accept reality.
"The first stage of the invasion is to take the border towns of Gim and Kayraorg, we will use them as a stepping stone, as well as using the spoils to supply our troops. The second stage consists of a march towards the capital city of Qua-Toyne and Lyones, we will continue capturing the cities on the way there. The last stage consists of the siege of the two capitals and their destruction. While the army is advancing, our wyverns will provide air support and ships will blockade the port of Mihark to cut off the trade route between Qua-Toyne and Quila which depends on trade for sufficient food." Old General Patajim explained.
"How big is our force?"
"About 500,000 knights, 600 wyverns and 4,400 ships." All this colossal strength was only possible thanks to the help of the Parpaldia Empire, Louria had an immense divided.
The spy report said that Qua-Toyne and Quila had only 300,000 soldiers, 400 wyverns and 2,000 ships. No one doubted Louria's victory.
"What about the nation that contacted us a few months ago?" Recently a country called Brazil had tried to establish relations with Louria, but they were found to have agreements with their enemies, so they were expelled.
"They reportedly do not possess any wyvern, I believe they are just a bunch of barbarians who banded together and formed a country on a continent to the east. Also, they are located a thousand kilometers to the east, even if they wanted to they couldn't interfere in time, that's the information we have."
A nation without wyverns was very weak, as it could not provide air support for its troops. Even if wyverns alone could not win wars, the lack of air superiority would not allow any kind of counterattack.
"Your Majesty, do not forget what you promised us." One of the archdukes, specifically the oldest of them, reminded him that he had said they could take as many slaves as they wanted.
"Of course I won't!" Hark answered them angrily, these men thought only of carnal pleasure and nothing else. "We are finally one step away from unifying the continent of Rodenius and eradicating the non-humans, this is the happiest day of my life, hahahahahahahahaha..." Everyone in the room laughed with joy and elation.
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Kingdom of Quila, capital Barrat, Royal Palace
A few hours earlier, during the afternoon of the same day
The beastmens, a hybrid race of human and animal with mixed characteristics of both types, this is what most people think, but nothing is as simple as it seems, in this world there are two types of beastmen; the sapiens have a body similar to humans with only the addition of a few animal-like characteristics, while the beastars have their structure almost entirely similar to animals with the difference that they are bipedal and have human intelligence. These genetic differences mean that beastmen from different families cannot have children, for example, a harpy could not get pregnant by a cat-man or chameleon, and could only beget children with someone from the bird genus.
The king of Quila was a man named Mereo Liones, a sapien with lion-like features such as a feline tail and ears, who had ruled the kingdom since the death of his predecessor and father. While going through some documents, a guard enters the office.
"Your Majesty Liones, the ambassador has come to your call." Announcing the woman's entrance, he left the room to leave them both alone.
"It is a pleasure to see you again King Liones, why have you summoned me?" The Brazilian ambassador in charge of Quila was a woman named Amelia Hearth, she was very experienced in the job, being in charge of the embassy in Afghanistan and more recently in Ukraine.
"I appreciate that you have answered my sudden call, Miss Ambassador. One of my agents reported that the Lourian activity has increased greatly, you can see huge camps set up around the border."
"We are already informed of that, your majesty." Amelia was the most experienced ambassador in dealing with nations at war, she knew very well how to play this game.
"I wish to know if Brazil will honor its word and come to our defense." King Mereo was trying to pressure them to hold up their end of the bargain.
As much as Brazil had signed a secret agreement that guaranteed the integrity of Qua-Toyne and Quila, they could not simply declare war on an invader without a justification that would convince the population to support it, even more so in times of crisis like they were going through.
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"Brazil takes its agreements very seriously, your majesty. But you must understand that with our politics, we have to be meticulous."
"How many innocent lives will your policy cost us?" One thing Mereo Liones hated was the bureaucracy of governments that always took too long to do simple things, he thought his country had too much bureaucracy, that was until he met Brazil.
"Listen your highness, letting your people be enslaved and massacred goes against everything we believe in, we experienced it ourselves a little more than a century ago. I also assure you that we do not tolerate tyrants." The diplomat assumed a serious expression, with an intimidating tone.
"So, how do you intend to act?" The king did not let himself be intimidated.
"Once the conflict begins we will need at least a week, in that time you will have to hold out as long as possible." Louria's slavery policy was already enough to create a natural hostility against Brazil, a country that abolished slavery 137 years ago and was quite fresh in memory.
"Can you mobilize your forces in just one week?" A force to counter Louria would require at least 200,000 soldiers in an optimistic view.
"I don't like to give spoilers, you will see for yourself." The diplomat had a sinister smile, Liones felt a chill run down his spine even though he didn't know what 'spoiler' meant.
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4 days later, skies west of Quila, 5:30 AM
The scouts positioned on the edge of the sacred mountains began reporting hundreds of sightings of wyverns that morning, in response Quila sent all of their 100 wyverns they possessed.
Mounted on a dragon was wyvern rider Carolus Rex, a sapien dog-man in his 20s, being the youngest of all the riders.
"Are you afraid, Rex?" One of his colleagues spoke to him through the manacom.
"Of being headed for death? No, imagine." He could hear the fellows who were flying nearby laugh, but it was a nervous laugh.
"I regret not spending more time with my daughter..." One of his companions spoke up and made the mood very heavy.
A minute of silence was seen with no one daring to speak.
"Instead of crying in the manacom, think on the other side, what will happen if the lourians pass us and get to your daughter." The sight of a little girl being abused and killed earned expressions of disgust from the knights.
"Captain! Why say that to him?" Rex thought the comment was wrong and clashed his leader, after all he would not be punished as they would not even see the next day.
"Idiot! What I'm saying is that we have to fight, every enemy wyvern that passes us will be a hundred of our dead, if you don't want your families killed then fight! Make our names go down in history!"
The others shouted in a roar of motivation inspired by the speech, this was their passage to paradise, fighting and dying for those they love will be their requiem.
A few minutes later the formation of a hundred wyvern passed the city of Kayraorg and spotted the sacred mountains, in the middle of the large rock formations they also noticed a large black spot slowly approaching, this was their enemy.
"Prepare to engage!" The captain who was commanding all the wyverns of Quila ordered, their blood was boiling and their adrenaline at maximum.
During the two months that had passed, they had received special training given by a human instructor, he wore a strange white uniform, but they noticed that the man was very experienced and knew what he was talking about.
The formation was composed of 20 wyverns escorted by another 80 that flew above them at an altitude of 5,200m, the strategy was based on hit and run, with the knights that flew lower being the bait to attract the enemies, when they were close the higher ones would attack in a swoop by launching fireballs and retreat to take altitude with the accumulated energy, this would allow them to attack and retreat with impunity since the enemy could not climb at this height, this was only possible with the oxygen mask provided to them.
The Lourians took the bait and advanced towards the 20 knights, when they had come close enough Rex directed his wyvern towards the ground quickly closing the distance between him and his opponent, when they were within 50m of each other, he prepared the fireball from his dragon and launched it at the enemy knight, hitting him precisely.
"I did it!" That was Rex's first kill in his entire career.
Rex immediately began to ramp up, the first attack taking out about 60 enemy wyverns who couldn't dodge and burned to death. It didn't take long for the rest of the Lourians to understand what happened and start chasing those who were trying to gain height, but they forgot something important, there were still the 20 knights who served as bait, they were the most experienced that Quila had and should not be underestimated.
The veterans attacked the enemy to allow their colleagues to gain altitude and launch another attack.
Two enemies were chasing him, trying to hit him at all costs, when they passed the 4,800m altitude mark, his pursuers felt the first effects of hypoxia and stopped, giving him the opportunity to charge in and launch a fireball between the two of them that didn't hit them, but did cause his wyverns to get scared and go backwards with everything, giving his tamers a fall to their deaths.
These victories made Rex think that they could win, he prepared for another attack with a colleague of his, but the moment he looked away his companion was hit hard by a fireball, killing the man on the spot. He looked startled and saw about three knights attacking them, this was not to be possible since at this point they must have been suffering from shortness of breath, the other thing that caught his attention was the golden details on their armor.
Those three managed to take out about 10 knights in a second, this broke their formation and allowed the lourians to pull themselves together and counter attack.
"This is not good." He cursed fate for giving them a thread of hope only to rip it out next.
Rex knew that this way they would all die and he needed to do something, without a second thought he advanced towards the trio who noticed him immediately.
He launched his fireball at the one in the middle, but to his surprise that guy didn't move and waited for the fireball to get close to then launch his own, canceling the attack. This shocked Rex, for a sane person would never attempt this, since it was difficult to aim at a wyvern.
The golden knight that repelled the attack began to come towards him and he flew as fast as possible to try to distance him from his companions, knowing that this man was very experienced, Rex decided to fly between the mountains to catch him, this was one of his worst decisions, because every turn he made to avoid colliding with a wall of rocks that man came closer, the knight made the turns almost perfectly and took the distance, at one point they got so close that Rex had to dodge a fireball per turn.
He was running out of way and had to come up with a plan, his salvation came after a sharp turn, in front of him was a huge cave that without thinking twice Rex entered it. From here on things became more difficult, he had to constantly dodge rocks to avoid crashing and crashing to the ground, the golden knight was still behind him dangerously close, preparing a fireball to kill him and end this fight, but Rex didn't enter the cave lightly, following one of the many tunnels he prepared a large fireball using everything his wyvern had of magic left and shot it when it passed a large stone pillar after a branch.
The fireball destroyed the pillar and soon after, everything was shaking, this was his plan, his father worked in these mines and once told him that these caves were extremely fragile, with a cave-in being easily caused.
The tunnel began to collapse on them both, Rex was flying as fast as he could and praying for a way out as he dodged falling rocks and his pursuer on his tail preparing a fireball, salvation came in a point of light in the distance that signaled an exit.
His life was up to luck and fate, when he finally reached the light the golden knight caught up with him and launched his fireball, but this time the gods smiled on him blocking the attack with a rock that plummeted and the man was buried before he could reach the exit.
Outside the cave, he was alive and whole after this thrill and even forgot about the battle until a voice came out of the manacom.
"Our mission has been accomplished, let's return to base!"
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The first day of the war was a strategic victory for Quila and Qua-Toyne, with the former managing to evacuate over 90,000 citizens from Kayraorg and inflicting heavy casualties on the invaders, with some 176 wyverns slaughtered including their best knight, with only 59 of theirs lost. On land the situation was even better, the mountainous terrain allowed Quila's army to have the upper hand over Louria, killing 80,000 enemies, and suffering only 15,000 casualties.
In Qua-Toyne there was no ground combat, because the Qua Tonians abandoned the city of Gin days ago, the decision was made because the terrain was a great pianice that put them at a disadvantage, retreating to the city of Ejey, which was 50 km from Gin and had a natural elevation that would make an attack difficult.
In the skies over Qua-Toyne the battle was intense, the Lourian attack force was 300 wyverns and the Qua Tonians were forced to use all of their 200 wyverns, which using tactics passed to them by Brazil, achieved temporary air superiority, while the enemy lost more than 200 of theirs, their casualties were around 130 to 140.
But it was not all roses, with 10,000 civilians unable to evacuate Kayraorg in time being massacred by the invasion force, but what no one knew was that above the city a drone filmed everything.