Chapter 35 Part 2 of 3 (Patreon)

Master Sergeant Sirel, her second in command, smacked her on the shoulder.

"Command says that there is a group of aerial beasts headed for our location. Four minutes."

"Shit!"

"Aerial forces incoming! Defensive positions!" In the same breath she used the platoon wide channel.

The last rounds went off and the gun units covered their weapons. Mages gathered their power, remaining on their enhancing formations. Close Protection forces ran to their ready position at the four cardinal points of the ring of mortar pits. Artillery gunners moved to the front of their pits pulling out their repeaters and aiming at the heavens.

"Use flak spells!" Squad leaders were reminding them all of their anti-air drills.

As they rushed to their positions Acosta grabbed her own repeater, her head snapping to Sirel.

"Direction?"

"North east."

"Be ready on the north east!" Acosta repeated on the platoon channel.

The silence of the artillery position only added to the tension.

The aerial mounts came in all different forms, grouped together by sect as they cleared the trees.

"Fire!" Acosta's platoon fired their repeaters, their arrows shot into the sky, their spells activated generating air blades that blasted out along the path they were heading, shredding what lay in their path. Personal mana barriers stopped many.

Spells ignited in the sky, spears and blades of air became red lines as they cut through unprotected beasts and fighters.

They were a half second faster than the sects who attacked, spears of flame, water and air crashed into the mana barrier covering the artillery position. Meteors roared, creating ripples.

A group of fighters worked together their hands shining with runes that created a spell formation between them. The land seemed to darken, drawing all the sunlight into the formation before it was released.

Acosta ducked as the formation created a second sun, a pillar of light as bright as the sun and lightning struck the mana barrier, drawing a line across its surface and passing over.

Stone melted and burned while trees were turned to charcoal without time to catch aflame.

Acosta blinked the light out of her eyes, seeing movement in the sky she aimed and fired.

They paid the reapers bill for their attacks.

Dozens had fallen from the skies. Repeaters left lines of spell enhanced bolts. Their unnerving aim that came from Rugrat and had been honed through years of training, plucked riders from the sky.

They broke and fled.

Acosta turned, leading her target as she fired, their barrier appeared, several other repeaters added their attacks, the barrier cracked as a red spray and tombstone filled the air.

The beast and rider dropped from sight as Acosta looked for targets.

She scanned looking for more.

"Sirel?" She turned and yelled.

"Don't see anything coming in." He looked over to her from the covered command center.

Acosta changed to the platoon channel.

"Pack it up! Moving out in Ten! CPD watch the skies."

She reloaded her repeater as she walked into the command center again.

"We're moving position, advise higher. I want our CPD's on aerial protection. Fuck that sunlight spell was a bitch." She stored her repeater. "Sirel you head to the next location with the first squad that's ready, start prepping the position."

"Yes ma'am, I'll hurry them along." Sirel ran out of the command post.

***

“I thought you said that the Vuzgal fighters were only for show, that they had no actual fighting abilities!” One sect elder, a woman covered in fine jewelry yelled at another bearded elder. Two days ago they had been congratulating one another for seeing the coming victory.

“Have they engaged us directly yet? Their true fighting ability is weak. They are just using these crafted items to increase their fighting ability! They’re nothing but paper tigers. Once we fight them directly, they’ll crumble!” The bearded elder said.

“What do we know? All of our informants have stopped reporting to us, no one knows what is happening within Vuzgal!” Another elder hit the table.

“The Associations are still there,” the bejeweled woman stabbed the table with her finger.

“You think that they will give us information? They might not be part of this conflict but they do not tip the balance in either party’s favor unless they are personally involved!” Oskar Elsi said.

“It is good that you know at least something! Did you not say that these paths would be safe? They have turned into death traps! With nowhere to go we have lost thousands of fighters! Your people inside the city were able to do a lot!” A woman with vibrant blue hair glared across the table.

“We have just reached the first hurdle. Have we not entered the Vuzgal Valley? Are we not only a few days away from reaching their walls?” Willful Institute Elder Kostic said.

“What secrets are the Willful Institute hiding? Your leader had his barrier up before anyone else!”

“Because he has a keen sense of what is happening. Is he in the wrong? I think that is another reason why he is leading this campaign! Did he not pass orders for people to use their mana barriers as well? Is he not leading the charge against the enemy?”

“If your army can hold together! Already your commanders are fighting!”

“That has been dealt with! Rivalry is perfectly normal.”

“Now our people are retreating to the rear leaving just thirty thousand inside the valley! What do they think they will be able to do? To siege a city, even one that is alone and without support, the siege force needs to overwhelm the defenders in numbers!”

“Too right!”

The elders all grumbled looking at Elder Kostic.

They are all fishing for information but now is not the time.

“The head of my sect is already impressed, and is eager to take Vuzgal and ready it for the day it reopens for trade. The Willful Institute will pledge another fifty thousand fighters to this fight.”

The other sect elders bit their cheeks and held their tongues, glaring at Kostic.

None of us are here to support one another. We only want to make sure that the others don’t get enough to overpower us and turn on us in the future. Want to know the trump cards I hold? Already Vuzgal shows that they have eyes and ears everywhere. Right up until we use them, the teleportation formations should be kept a secret.

“I agree with Master Tolentino’s actions. The faster we get to the entrance of Vuzgal, the fewer of our fighters we have to waste. Are we just going to give up on the first attack? We know that Vuzgal has done this in the past with the Blood Demon Sect. And we also know that once they reached the city they were able to gain access and drive into the heart of the city. The Blood Demon Sect was only defeated because of the Blue Lotus reinforcements!” A large elder wearing casters robes plucked fruit from a bowl to his side.

The room seemed to have chilled, the elders looked sour but they didn’t talk out.

Now they’re calculating if it is better to support us and become closer or to back off in case this backfires. A pit of vipers indeed. Elder Kostic felt a thrill.He wasn’t a fighter. But the hidden attacks and feints of words and meetings, that excited him.

Elder Kostic opened his hands. “Already, there are plenty of crafters that are interested in the terms that we will offer when we have taken over the city. Once we take the city the few losses we have taken will quickly be replaced with what we can gain!”

Kostic felt the room shift.

None of you care about the losses unless it is your clan that is supplying the bodies. Why would we do that when there are so many unaffiliated that join the sects. They can gain position for their feats or they can use their blood to help the sects grow. This is the cycle.

***