Chapter 189: Contained

    June 1, 624

    A week passed and the battle against the flanking Scourge forces rapidly escalated. Things were never meant to be drawn out, but we needed to find a balance between urgency and caution. Blindly rushing into any battle would just result in a loss far more devastating than taking our sweet time, but we were still on a timetable.

    One small mercy was that my performance during Snow Dove operations had reestablished my lethal efficiency to newcomers. Alongside my summoner smarts, training, and position beside the Major General, my role in this phase of Operation Breakwater became more pronounced. More importantly, I was able to have some fun.

    In total, we had six Brigadiers, a nigh-overwhelming concentration of force that let us approach most battlefields with relative ease. The outpost didn’t have to worry about daylight raids, and we could sally with strike teams to wipe out smaller Scourge concentrations.

    Every passing day marked even more battles, and, despite wanting to conclude the Operation’s first phase as soon as possible, Major General Quill and I were using the engagements to gauge the local Scourge threat. He still handled the brunt of the analysis work, but I was quickly picking up more and more of the load.

    I got a front row seat to watch a tactician exercise his wit in a very real battle in real time and intimate detail. It was an invaluable insight into this world: wars were fought differently. We were not up against a human enemy, but monstrous, demonic invaders. There was a delicate balance to be struck between implementing extensive tactics for specific Scourge tendencies, utilizing our unique intelligence, and gleaning a glimpse of the strategy that the Scourge hid behind the veil of mindlessness and madness.

    Thankfully, I never fell prey to underestimating them. I tended to do the opposite, always assuming that there was a mastermind behind every movement and monster. I had been taught that way by Polly, and my particularly unique perspective suited me toward such a thing. Battles on Earth were always against something intelligent. I still tended to think that way, while many people in this world either failed or didn’t care to see past the monsters in front of them, realizing that there was likely a much more nefarious entity orchestrating their demise.

    My studies and attention by the side of people like Polly, Major General Quill, and even the Brigadiers around me were all reassurances that kept me from falling into the same well of ignorance. It would be why I rose above others and how I survived.

    Another week passed. Official elimination missions dropped sharply, but our sallies only increased in number. Quill had started to arrange larger battles as well as surgical strikes, prepping the theater of operations for a decisive eradication battle.

    I “found” myself on one of these key strikes with the Snow Doves, linking up with another platoon, the Lancers, on our way to take out an Authority 10 Royal in the area. It had diverged off its path a little too far with an escort force, and we were taking advantage of its temporary vulnerability to end its threat for good.

    Well, saying the Royal diverged wasn’t entirely accurate. In reality, its escort split off to reinforce another group one of our companies was attacking. All we were doing was intercepting, effectively using that company as bait.

    We had to move fast.

    Next thing I knew, we were barreling down a trail in Steeds. I sat in the back hold with a group of Doves, three of them at Authority 9and four at 8. Brigadier Nonnen sat in the front seat with the driver.

    “Hey Envoy!”

    “Yes sir?”

    “Did you plan on using that company as bait from the beginning?”

    “No? It just worked out that way.”

    “Right.”

    Nonnen snickered a bit. I could only shrug in response. I really hadn’t planned that, but they would never believe me; that it worked out was evidence enough for them. We just had good intel and good timing, so we were able to grasp the opportunity.

    I flicked my eyes back to the map I had examined a hundred times by now. At some point though, the stifling Aura of an Authority 10 Royal intimately brought my attention back to the present.

    The others could feel it too. Their heads all turned as we cleared another hill and entered a gap. A bit away we saw the marching Scourge contingent. At its head was the Authority 10. However, my eyes quickly narrowed.

    “Brigadier, that’s not a normal Royal.”

    “No shit. Bail!”

    Nonnen shouted. One of the Authority 8 knights blew open the back door, not even bothering to disengage the latch and just slamming themselves clear out the back.

    I spun around to look through the front windscreen for just a moment, storing away the massive spell formation still unfolding above its head. It was aimed right at our exit, just like it had been expecting us.

    So much for our ambush. After other people got out of the way, I activated my boots and shot out of the Steed, gliding on the air magic. Almost like I was surfing on land.

    The other Steeds started to scatter too, shedding their troops like a dog shedding fur.

    I wrapped my Aura around me and forced it inward, diving a good distance away before turning just as the Royal completed its spell.

    A massive fireball started growing, starting out at only 20 feet wide but quickly growing until it surpassed 200 feet.

    It only stopped when it reached about 300 feet in diameter, and then it launched. It traveled rather leisurely in all honesty, but the heat coming off it from almost an entire mile away forebode a not-good time.

    Before I could panic, I was suddenly grabbed. Nonnen hoisted my body like a wet rag and then shot off to the top of a hill while the fireball came down behind us. I turned my head to speak to him, only to see the driver staring back at me on his other shoulder.

    He set us down just in time for it to land. I had to deploy my hood and put on my Owlykat mask just to block off the heat and see the devastation.

    A literal sea of fire flooded the gap between hills, setting all nearby flora ablaze. The fungal biomat had yet to spread so this area still had some plant life. Or, used to.

    My eyes were glued to the area at the bottom of the hill where our troops used to be.

    Did I just lose two critical platoons? Just like that?

    “Don’t get so anxious. This is why I told you to bring the Lancers.”

    Nonnen patted my back, making me wheeze as the impact forced some air out of my lungs.

    The best part was how nobody could even challenge me. I only had to maintain light stealth and nothing would spot me. This battle was perfectly in my favor, essentially target practice. I felt no danger whatsoever.

    And so, I killed a few dozen, picking them off with one or two shots. Some of them were just minding their own business when I sent a round through their head. The confusion and fear I sowed was palpable. I was a hidden but very tangible presence, each explosion of my gun yet another reminder that I was here. Each sound became synonymous with death, another monster falling with every projectile. Nobody knew who it would be next.

    The Doves and Lancers were emboldened when they noticed the faltering wills of the monsters. They pressed harder and their momentum grew, resulting in greater combat effectiveness. However, the most substantial presence on the field was Nonnen and the Royal. Their clashes couldn’t help but affect the rest of the armies, especially the Royal’s.

    Those spells couldn’t completely fend Nonnen off, but they were still potent. Worse even was that it was still occasionally flung a high powered spell at the advancing battle line, shaving away at its momentum. It knew how to utilize its strengths, and if it couldn’t win the one on one battle, it wouldn’t try.

    I sensed the battle shiftIng just before it happened. Perhaps it was the intent of the Royal, but my focus shifted just as it changed tactics.

    It gathered its hands together, veins pulsing, scrunched in concentration as it summoned up another spell to launch at Nonnen. Curiously, it had stopped hurling spells at the main formation, and they were taking full advantage of that.

    I dropped my gun, barely registering it flicker out of existence as I slapped at my Aerial, even then knowing it was too late. It was preparing a kill shot, willing to sacrifice itself to take out Nonnen as well.

    It hurled the spell.

    I watched the fireball wash over Nonnen’s braced arms, singing his hair and charring his skin, but it wasn’t as strong as it should’ve been.

    The flames disappeared, and the Royal wasn’t there anymore. Its presence was still intimately here, but it was no longer facing Nonnen.

    I flicked my eyes over to the main concentration of our forces, the Snow Doves and Lancers, as it popped back into existence right above them. The Lancer Brigadier desperately forced out a unfurling flower of a shield but that was exactly what the Royal wanted.

    A spark flickering within the ranks of the Doves and Lancers, underneath the shield, was the only brief foreshadowing of what was to come.

    Flames, bright blue against the blinding snow of the hills, manifested from the spark as if the very atmosphere had ignited. Liquid fire surged and cascaded within the barrier, the shield only serving to concentrate an already devastating explosion. A few cracks appeared from within before the shield finally vanished, flares of rapidly-dissipating fire streaking out, no longer contained.

    Smoke bellowed out, the damage done. My heart dropped. The barrier had left the majority of the Scourge unscathed, but over half our forces were chars, merely ash resting in muddy, flaming piles. The ones still whole on the ground weren’t moving and the ones on their feet were wavering, barely upright.

    An audible crunch wrenched my attention back to the Royal’s head. All that was left on its face was a wretched mockery of a grin before Nonnen finished crushing it to bits, wrenching it away to leave a gory arc across the sky as he let the body tumble where it stood. It had left itself open, and Nonnen had seized what he could.

    The skittering and braying of the Scourge was shut up by a boom from my remanifested rifle. Silence pervaded the hills. I fired another shot into the crowd of monsters, injuring another one.

    With the Royal dead, Nonnen and the Lancer Brigadier were free to kill whatever they wanted. The two of them dispatched the rest within a minute, and my shots ceased.

    For a while I continued to look around, keeping watch as the two Brigadiers checked on their platoons. The Lancer Brigadier was a healer, the only solace in this situation.

    Ten minutes. Ten minutes was all I gave myself before I returned to my duties, finally leaving my spot and approaching. Mournful wails, repressed by the necessities of combat, had finally started to leak through, the friends of the dead grieving, the injured in agony.

    Several bodies had been haphazardly laid to the side, placed in a shaky line. Many were missing limbs. All of the warlocks had raised their barriers when they noticed the Royal trying to do something, so they at least weren’t outright obliterated. However, with the Lancer Brigadier inadvertently multiplying the power of that explosion, not many fared well.

    All of those at the origin of the explosion had been outright killed, that much I saw. Those on the outskirts of the formation all survived. Survivors in the middle varied. The Authority 9s survived, but 7s and 8s were either killed or fatally injured depending on their luck and relative resilience.

    I did a quick scan, counting 27 definite dead and 55 injured, many of which were critical. I didn’t know how many the Brigadier would be able to save. There were only 21 uninjured.

    I went and found Nonnen. He was standing in the center of all the bodies silently, his eyes flickering between all of them.

    I stood silently behind him. Out of 103 people, 27 had outright died. A 26% death rate was abysmal, and there would probably be more deaths among the injured given some more minutes. That would likely place the death rate between 30 and 40%. The only comfort was the fact that most who died were below Authority 9. Our reduction in combat power was thus much less severe than the death rate would entail.

    I hated thinking in those terms.

    Nonnen finally snapped out of it, opening his mouth.

    “We trust our soldiers. Doesn’t mean they don’t die.”

    “...”

    I didn’t respond. I felt like trusting them meant that I trusted them to not die. That was the greatest form of my trust in these situations, but to trust anyway, even when I knew these things would keep happening...

    I didn’t want to do it. Part of me wanted to cut off my relationships with these people. It was so much easier to sit behind a desk and crunch numbers. Each number represented a life, but at least you didn’t have to meet those people. You didn’t have to feel much responsibility. You could distance yourself from everything. It helped keep you logical...

    But this? How was I supposed to keep drawing up and sending out mission teams if they kept dying like this? Even skilled platoons like the Snow Doves were suffering catastrophic death rates. It wasn’t sustainable. I’d rather not send them out at all.

    I looked at Nonnen, watching him for a bit before he started giving out the commands to pack bodies and prepare the Steeds. We had to get back to the outpost.

    I went around and tried to help. There was nothing for me to do though. The Knights wanted to haul bodies and I wasn’t one of the drivers, so I couldn’t bring the Steeds around. In the end I just stood around, wondering.

    Then, just as we started packing bodies and wounded into the vehicles, I got a ring on my Aerial.

    It was from the outpost, and it was urgent.

    My eyes widened when I got the report. I turned to Nonnen, and he seemed to sense my urgency as he turned around and faced me.

    “The outpost is under attack.”