After running for a good while, I gave the signal and we stopped where we would no longer be caught or tracked quickly, even the boys were exhausted, all except Mason, who seemed unfazed by the miles we had covered.
Ashley fell to the ground as she desperately gasped for air, but she wasn't the only one who fell. Doc was also on the ground, hitting the ground with both hands, cutting himself with the small stones that embedded themselves in his skin. He hit again and again, red with rage while choking on his own tears. Even Ashley stopped panting and sat up. No one had the courage to touch him during those moments that seemed eternal. He had to let it out; it was his right, after all…
Just then we heard footsteps, but before we could fully raise our guard, her white hair gave her away. Frost and Clank arrived panting.
—Captain, we're in trouble… We were ambushed by a large group of mercenaries armed with artillery shells. We were trapped in the trench gaps and prevented them from approaching with the tanks, but Sambibi ordered us to crush them. The problem is that it was too much of an impact for the recruits; the troops don't want to move.
I nodded, I understood the situation perfectly, I had trusted myself... But wasn't it obvious? I started to tremble a little, I knew it was my fault, but this wasn't the time and at that I burst out laughing, everyone gave me a look of dismay.
I walked up to Doc and with all my strength I lifted him up, pressing my forehead against his like two male reindeer fighting with their antlers.
—Look at me! Look at me! You're a soldier! You're my soldier! And not just any soldier! So get up and move! I swear we'll make them pay dearly. —She held him tightly with both hands against his face.
He was devastated but there was no time for that, so I pushed him hard.
"What are you looking at?!" I yelled at them, signaling to start running at full speed.
At this distance, I estimated that, running, we'd arrive in about forty minutes. After all, we'd already completed a good part of the route, but in the meantime, all that could be heard were our panting; the silence was deadly, at least for me, as it bombarded me constantly. It was my fault, and I knew it.
I became so distracted that I forgot about the magical enhancement of my body, which immediately complained about the terrible pace we were having.
I looked to the side and Ashley was much worse. I walked over to pick her up; with magic, that wouldn't be a problem, but someone beat me to it. Jane took her arm and, with a single maneuver, flipped her onto her back, piggybacking. Ashley, too exhausted to respond, gasped for air.
"Don't worry... I'm a dragon, I can handle this and more," Jane told Ashley as she quickened her pace even more.
Thanks to that, we made the forty-minute trip of about ten kilometers at a terrifying speed of fifteen minutes, pushing our bodies to the limit. An impossible speed, one a human can't reach, but they don't abide by those same rules, and I'm even less so with magic.
The rumble of the shells and the smell of gunpowder became so familiar to me that I unconsciously looked to the sky for the warplanes that were supposed to cross the sky like metallic angels, seeking victory and supremacy for their allies on the ground.
We were going so fast that when we reached the trench they had dug and prepared precariously, we skidded. The tanks were acting as shields, firing with everything they had, halting the heavy enemy infantry attack. I'm sure that if it weren't for the tanks, the army would have been decimated. I pictured Sabimbi giving an order to a small, brown-haired woman.
I didn't even look at Sambibi, as he had been able to understand the scene without much difficulty. The army had dug the trenches, but they were too scared to leave them. Although we had the overwhelming advantage because of the tanks, which the enemy couldn't destroy with the archaic howitzers they carried, under these circumstances, despite the advantage, they would be doomed to defeat.
"It's too late. Frost, Clank, get a team ready right now, and I want you to move forward and take up positions on the hill. Mason, boys, you take the other side of the hill with smoke grenades. I want you to give the boys cover. Sabimbi, on my signal, have the tanks crush the enemy. You, child, are perfect." I cut my hand and splattered her face. She was no child. She was about to retort, but she was stunned. "I want you to yell at the soldiers to move, to stop being cowards. Do you understand?"
My plan was something I'd had to do in the past, comparing a bad example and then a good one to settle any doubts they might have had, but a glimmer in their eyes made me think it might not go the way I wanted. I chose her because not only would she have no real impact, but seeing her younger than the others and covered in blood would remind them of just how harsh it was. She might be an adult, but even I doubted she was over fourteen.
She climbed onto the top of the tank, so small that the turret itself covered her. She screamed with all her might.
"Oh god of fire!" she said in a child's voice, as if she were about to pray. That was enough to get everyone's attention. "Your fucking time has come to die, you damn bastard! Do you remember what you did to us, bastard?! We won't be as kind as you were to us! I swear we'll slit your throat and cut you apart piece by piece while you writhe and pay for every person you've taken from us! We'll use your body until there's nothing left but an empty shell of what you once were, you damn bastard!" She looked at her audience; she had fully returned the flame to them, but they were still missing the order.
Don't let the ball go, and I answered. I gave the signal to Sabimbi, and he started shouting at them.
—What are you waiting for? Isn't this what you asked me for? Welcome to the war! Move it and stop putting on such a disgraceful display! Now!
That boosted the morale of many who immediately followed the tanks as they moved forward at full speed. I got out of the tank and rejoined the stampede with Ashley at my side.
The tanks and the guys' cover were much better than I could have expected, so machine gun fire was minimal, and enemy casualties were not long in coming.
The tanks quickly caused so much fear that the mercenaries abandoned their positions; those damn metal monsters were too much for them.
There were not many enemies, and while they were running I did not count more than thirty thousand men, it is unfortunate that so few soldiers could have stopped the army.
But the march didn't end, because we chased them all the way to the city. On my orders, the tanks didn't stop; they advanced while we set up the mortars Tech had worked so hard to build.
The large walls prevented the enemy from getting off even a good shot, and by the time they reacted, the mortars had blown up their defenses.
With that, we entered the city. The boys were tasked with supporting Sabimbi with a system of colored smoke. Frost would advance through the entire city center like an arrow. Ashley and I would take the walls.
Shot after shot from the drum of my gun, the soldiers who stood in front of me fell, but unlike the last time, the mercenaries defended themselves tooth and nail, and it was sad to see so many soldiers from our side fall.
Our only cover on the wall was the ammunition crates scattered everywhere. As Ashley and I cleared the area, we noticed something odd. A man with a shield in his hand rushed toward us.
The man was using magic, and I could tell by how quickly he reached me. The bastard threw me over the wall, but I managed to stick to it, drawing on my previous training with Jane, who didn't take long to show up.
As I conjured up a katana to fight, it was already upon the warrior, who was only holding a long hunting knife for cover.
Jane's supremacy was quickly noted, but the warrior cracked a smile and a shot rang out, a shot that had made a hole too big for a 9mm. At that moment, I realized the bastard had done something with magic and his pistol.
Jane gasped and stepped back to my side.
—The god of fire himself hired me. I'm the best mage hunter in existence!
He was about to say his name but I lunged at him before he could finish his sentence.
"I don't need to know the name of someone so low." I gave him a look of disgust.
We barely clashed swords when he shot at me several times, but I managed to create an energy sphere, which I let explode uncontrollably and swallowed up the bullets he fired. With the cartridge empty, he was no longer a threat. Jane, also lunging, slashed in sync with me, but our opponent, showing his experience, dodged, slashed at Jane with the knife, and stabbed her in the abdomen.
Jane's lack of response made me wonder, but now was not the time. When she attacked the mercenary, he fought back, but the knife broke under my magic-infused katana, causing a cut from his eye to his abdomen. He made one last attempt to strike me with the knife's handle, but it was too late. I made another slash, this time piercing his heart. Soon, his dead body slid downward, and the warrior had fallen.
"Are you okay?" I asked Jane, who, although standing, was holding her wound.
She shook her head and replied.
—Keep fighting… I'll be fine… I'm going to rest.
She slid down to seek shelter, I climbed up, Ashley had already advanced much further, and the weight of using so much magic hit me again, but I kept moving forward.
With hands numb from so much shooting, one by one the bodies piled up, the city was a landscape of smoke and the sound of gunfire, and I'm honestly not sure how many hours had to pass until we managed to get around the wall, as it was already quite dark.
We had left sniper nests behind us, which facilitated Sabimbi and Frost's advance. Thanks to that, we had captured the key entrances to the walls, and it was only a matter of time before we won the battle. But the problem was obvious: this time it had been much more difficult.
Through the eyes of Frost Valdergarth
We had managed to make a line to attack the other side of the wall, the problem is that this was a complete lie, I had done it that way so that the strategy would be fulfilled as promised, but my main forces and I were stuck in the damn main square, but thanks to the smoke I was able to send quite a few reserves towards the wall, and I can hear Sabimbi's tanks getting closer and closer, I just had to hold the position a little longer.
If only it were as easy as that time. The hail of machine gun fire was brutal, and there wasn't a single window from which soldiers weren't pouring out. To top it all off, we couldn't use explosives because of the danger of killing people trapped in buildings, which made the task impossible. I couldn't look Clank in the eye; I felt like if I did so for even a moment, all the strength I'd built up to keep fighting would vanish; in seconds, I was losing too many soldiers, and even though I'd set off the smoke, Mason still hadn't arrived.
Damn it... We'll die here... But the moment I heard the monstrous war machines and saw them passing through the streets, it stunned me. Mason was in one of the tank's upper turrets, his group shielded behind the tanks, and as we broke through the machine gun lines, I was filled with courage.
—Come on, crush them!
My battalion led the assault, I looked around and saw how the horde of Sabimbi soldiers joined us and tackled the mercenary forces so hard it was as simple as swatting flies.
How quickly the tables had turned! Look back... We paid for the reversal in blood...
Sean Dorvin
The siege of the wall is proving too complicated; my troops are already tired, and we still have miles to advance. The normal thing would be to prepare to cross no man's land and rest.
But something reached my ears, something much louder than the gunfire. It was a hymn... I'd heard the lyrics before... The square had been taken, and the people had heard about it from their cells. Its song reached our ears.
"We are a noble people, we cry out against the yoke of the martyr and raise our voices against injustice, For the King!" they sang in unison; that was part of the ancient hymn.
As soon as my boys heard that, it seemed as if their energy was returning to their bodies completely, now with direct combat experience.
We advanced precariously along the wall, using snipers to fire from both sides, using the bodies of the fallen as shields.
I don't know how many clips I'd picked up from the ground, how many I'd spent, or how many I'd killed. By this point, the metal was hot against my cheekbones as I aimed, and my arm was numb and sore from firing so much.
A slow but effective march, fueled by determination, the determination to be free, to be happy, the hymn in the background perfectly decorated the scene.
I was shot directly in the shoulder, and the pain was immediate. Ashley, noticing, punished the perpetrator with a shot from her Dragunov, but in moving forward, she attracted too many people's attention and was shot several times in the shoulder and abdomen; she fell to her knees. The march caught up with her, and I helped her up.
"I'm fine, I can still go on," Ashley said, giving a look of determination.
Lombardi
I had dreamed of these moments for so long, that being able to carry out the task myself had been a reward, we were crushing the filthy mercenaries without problems, my divisions were clearing the streets one by one, the enemy barracks had been hunted down one by one, Mason and his boys had been of too much help, thanks to them I was able to guide the multiple enemy forces into ambushes.
Frost's forces had suffered heavy casualties, but thanks to their position, dividing the enemy was easy. The war machines called tanks were another dream that would be an abuse to even imagine. They had even withstood dynamite charges, though none of them had been directly exposed.
Our march gradually became faster and faster, as the streets to be cleared were increasingly clear, the enemy was retreating, and with their retreat, their last remaining stand, the last gate they had left, surrounded and in crossfire the division Frost ordered to carry out the attack on both sides. The problem was that the mercenaries, trying to flee, ran into them. As soon as we arrived, the terror was very obvious, as they preferred to run rather than even fight.
Raise your voice for my soldiers.
—Come on, my boys! Let's show these scumbags what happens when they mess with us!
In response my soldiers roared as they ran towards the enemy position.
I fired my machine gun, no longer afraid of wasting bullets. We even left the city while hunting down the remaining mercenaries. With that, I looked back. We were done... The city was ours. And even though we still have more to go, I couldn't help but cry.
Forgive me, darling... Dad couldn't do this alone...
Sean Dovin
Frost's division finally made a strong advance. In doing so, panic spread among the mercenaries so much that some chose to commit suicide by throwing themselves over the wall. Their weakened morale didn't allow them to continue fighting. We had won, and dawn was breaking, bathing the city in light as it slowly emerged from the dungeons liberated by my soldiers.