Chapter 33 Part 1 of 1 (Patreon)

Captain Wazny checked on the rest of his Sparrow wing, early morning had turned into midday as the fog was burned away and the land warmed, inviting new buds of growth from the spring-time forest.

“Follow me in!”

His Sparrow tilted downwards, the formations in his goggles activated to keep them clear of mist as he broke through the clouds. Below lay the forest, in their rush the sects had made it into the forests of Vuzgal Valley.

The confusion had made them spread out. Their convoys, a black snake filled with war beasts, fighters and supply wagons, were now a spread out rabble, clawing their way through the wilds.

In Wazny’s goggles the life detect formation lit up with the thousands of fighters just beneath the canopy. With that many trees and chaotic terrain there is no way they can use mana barriers.

He lined up his sights on the convoy and pulled on the trigger.

His wooden cockpit shook as the two modified heavy repeaters under his sparrow’s wings and along her body unleashed destruction.

Leaves and branches were torn apart, turned into splinters as the explosive bolts carved a path into the trees below.

His wing, seven strong, was spread out in an arrowhead formation. Their fire raked the canopy destroying the trees and  tearing apart the fighters hidden underneath.

“Leveling off!” Wazny looked through a looking glass, which had carved lines to range bomb drops.

“Bomb drop!”

He opened his storage ring, streams of bombs dropped from the sparrows.

Arrows and spells tried to respond, appearing randomly in the air.

“Break!” Wazny guided his beast and stopped dropping bombs.

The wing of seven split into two groups, four banking left and three banking right as their sparrows regained altitude.

The bombs struck the ground, explosions shook the sparrows even from their height of several hundred meters well past the dropzones. Fifty meter wide areas were cleared, trees turning into splinters that cut through fighters, carts, beasts and underbrush.

Fireballs spread across the ground as the incendiaries went off.

Wazny grunted against the forces of his sparrow as they banked back in the direction they had come from and banked back against along the line of spread out fighters.

He was at the lead, two other sparrows were with him,  moving into arrowhead formation once again. The four that had banked to the left were flying away from them. Also along the enemy lines of advance.

“Bombing only!” His voice cut into their communication devices.

He looked through the bombing sight, seeing the fighters through the thick tree cover.

“Release!”

He once again activated the storage ring. Bombs tumbled out one after another, their fins grabbed the air, positioning them as their formations glowed with destructive power, called down to exact vengeance upon the ground below.

Wazny saw the impacts before he heard them through the tearing wind that whistled through his cockpit.

The bombs started to become spread out, not impacting one after another.

“Cut speed!” They slowed, their blast radius nearly overlapping one another.

Wazny glanced at the path of destruction they had left, the forest turned into a broken trail with fires rapidly spreading throughout.

“Sparrow Wing One Three group up on wing leader. We’re heading north east.”

***

Marco Tolentino didn’t look over at the sound of another trap formation going off.

The rivers, the woods, the mountains and the roads are filled with trap formations and spell traps.

Not even Leonia was trying to crack jokes anymore.

The mana barriers covering the advancing Willful Institute army shuddered as Kestrels cut overhead. Marco bowed his head as meteor rain came screaming out of the air, crashing into the barriers, lighting them up with ripples as the world was filled with noise.

Metal weapons fell from the Kestrels. They added to the armageddon.

A few weakened mana barriers either didn’t have the power to support the barrier anymore or their formations were burned out from the force upon them.

Spells shifted targets slaughtering the unprotected fighters.

Ranged fighters turned to the sky firing off attack spells causing the Kestrels to split and weave, trying to escape.

“Push forward!” Marco had to use his sound transmission device to be heard by the commanders.

The melee fighters cut forward, clearing through the forest ahead as they advanced under their mana barriers.

Marco and the rest of the Willful Institute leadership had kept iron clad control of their fighters pulling them together; unlike the other sect groups that were spread across Vuzgal Valley.

The sects had pushed out of the paths, entering the forest valley itself. Still aerial beasts were attacking the paths into the valley, cutting down supply lines and reinforcements.

They have been attacking us all morning into the afternoon and we haven’t seen any of them other than their aerial beasts. Still we are days away before reaching Vuzgal.

A scream rang out with a flash of spell activation. Another melee fighter, on his mount, had found a trap formation.

We need to get there as fast as possible.

“Sir,” the aide was interrupted by a whistling sound.

“Push forward!” Marco yelled, the pace increased as the whistling ended and exploded.

The Willful Institute surged once again, people were claimed by the trap formations as another whistle filled the air, exploding in a different direction from the first one.

Those near the mana barriers were charging them with mana stones as fast as they could.

The pace increased as they cut a wide path through the forest, spread out to minimize the number of fighters that could be taken out in one attack.

The sky filled with chilling whistles.

Was it the deaths or was it the mental pressure of constant attacks that broke the Blood Demon Sect in the end?