The interior of the exaggeratedly Gothic pillar fortress is as exaggeratedly Gothic as its outside. The floor is made of ornate, dark brown and wine red square tiles while the walls and ceiling are made of bricks in a tasteful reddish dark brown, though the overly ornate arches and "ribs" make it seem like every surface has been hand-carved. It's simply overly ornate to a ridiculous degree, almost like it's a parody of the style.

"Kei konei nga kutukutu!" Alissa hears a muffled growl, then the lights go out, and heavy footsteps echo all around us. I recognize that they're speaking Reo even though I don't have the skill for the language right now, and the monster said something along the lines of "the (something) are here!" I just don't know what "kutukutu" is supposed to mean.

Anyway, it seems that I don't have the time to appreciate the architecture, so I cast [Spirit Light] and take a look at the cannon. It's a javelin-thrower, just like those that Dawn of Fire used when we faced them, just not supersonic. Still, I'm curious about its construction, so I [Equip] Patrono, slice off the cannon from its base, and store it in my "Items." Then I un[Equip] the Heavenly Weapon as I still believe that our possession of this sword must be kept a secret.

The girls have already moved into the corridors, which barely have any illumination as the monsters all seem to have good dark vision, allowing them to operate in this almost absolute darkness. It still strains the monsters' eyes if they have to do it for extended periods of time, which is why they only turn the lights off during an attack. And the purpose of that is to make our [Spirit Light]s become beacons that attract any monster that sees even the smallest glint of light.

I decide to put a few points in [Reo Language], and while I focus on my system, my tentacles kill two hobgoblins (human-sized goblins with a subtle elven air), an invisible bloodsucker (a feral, naked human straight out of STALKER with tentacles instead of lips), and a heavily armored… orc? It kind of looks like an Engineer from Alien, a bald, pale-blue-skinned Chad with rounder features instead of sharp like in the meme and a rather large nose but no tusk.

How curious.

His tin-can set of armor isn't too shabby, but it isn't at the level of the Lordsguard, though maybe it's similar to what's given to veteran Townsguard troops. And again, I don't get a chance to carefully examine it as the monsters continue to appear in increasing numbers. Alissa also senses that the bloodsuckers are making a beeline to our positions, likely because they have the monster equivalent of [Sense Presence].

Ah, yes, "kutukutu" means "worm" or "vermin" in Reo, with a side connotation of "inferior" or "undesirable," so that's lovely.

I casually slay my way through the fortress, and I find the interior layout rather interesting. It's very claustrophobic as the corridors are narrow, there's an endless number of rooms filled with unknown crates, and the doors are big and heavy, but the most concerning thing is that the murder holes are randomly scattered everywhere, which means this will be a nightmare to fully clear if the monsters decide to hunker down. Then I get the idea of spreading poison through the holes, but it makes me apprehensive because the monsters could do the same.

The crates have got me curious, so I enter a room, kill a random spirit monster that's so weak it isn't worth the word count to describe it, and open a few crates, but most seem empty, which is odd. The ones that aren't hold spare metal parts or ammo for the cannons, which grabs my attention as they have little lines and circles all over their surface.

Wait…

These have been machined, as in, fabricated by lathes and milling cutters! Now, this is too interesting to ignore, so I steal a few crates, and then I realize that the pivot mechanism of the cannons is also rather advanced. Sure, it could've been just a "dungeon summoning" that mimics humanoid (or Sky Lander, specifically) technology, but items like these aren't common anywhere in Rupegia.

Curious and curiouser.

Things are quickly becoming very concerning to me.

And now the Dragolites are starting to appear. Someone let the dragons out.

"Wolfy…" Alissa warns me through our connection.

Focus on your own battle!

Anyway, there were no Dragolites nearby until now, so they must've arrived here through the portal to the next level, and it's a good idea to go towards where they're coming from.

But it isn't, not really. In these claustrophobic tunnels, it isn't just a swarm. It's a flood.

Ciel is the one who encounters them first, so at least we know that her level is the nearest one to the portal, but we can't even get a glimpse of it because the flood pushes us back. One by one, I summon the girls. Then I open a [Gate] for all of us, and we return to the Carrier's bridge.

"Back so soon?" Urmeie questions teasingly, and the thunder from the Field Guns opening fire drowns out my chuckle.

We [Clean] our weapons, then un[Equip] them and return to our seats.

"Yeah, that swarm is impassable," Hana remarks as she sits.

And Lily promptly chimes in, "Well, you could create a wall of corpses, but then you'd be trapped in there and wouldn't progress further while they'd eventually start to come from behind you…"

I turn my eyes towards the battle, and we're all happy to see that Roxanne's new flare rounds are very effective at lighting up the fortress and the swarm as it comes out. We can see so well that we can easily spot the countless little dots falling down into the endless darkness as the proximity frag rounds hit their marks.

The best part about the flares is that they're very cheap. Other ways of lighting up the battlefield require powerful magic tools, which are expensive enough to sting if we end up losing them, and monsters are known to target those kinds of things.

"We have a few telescopes for those who want to see the swarm more closely," Hihiriwa kindly offers.

"There shouldn't be much to see, though. Frag grenades don't make a flashy explosion like in games," Thant remarks. It's rare for him to share knowledge, but I guess he doesn't know much that isn't related to the military.

"At most, you'll see the Dragolites writhe in pain, then go limp as they pass out and die from internal bleeding," Alissa casually remarks with an innocent smile after stealing a morsel of info from my mind.

"A bit too grim for me," Lily quietly states and gives my fox a concerned glance.

"Same. I prefer to just listen to the music played by our Field Guns," I follow up with a dreamy tone.

"Well, I'm still interested, so I'll take up the offer," Urmeie accepts and stands up.

Then we become quiet as we wait, only the booms from our Field Guns and the occasional comms chatter breaking the silence.

The Sky Landers also have a few long-range weapons, so we occasionally see a long beam of light or a lightning strike hit the swarm, but the lightning is cooler as it spreads out when it hits a monster. Unfortunately, both of those weapons have a very high mana cost, so they can't be used very often.

The fortress' cannons can't be fired yet as the Dragolites are clogging the exits, and since about half the exits have been closed off, we've likely created an extreme traffic jam in there. But that also means that the flow of monsters isn't as high as it could be, so the Field Guns are firing more slowly to allow for the swarm to build up a bit before culling them again, and that lets a small number of very lucky and very angry dragon-lites slip through.

"The winged soldiers report contact with the Dragolites," a communications officer relays.

"Alert the Trinity gunners again in case they've become distracted," Hihiriwa orders back.

Then the bridge becomes mostly silent again, but now there's also the occasional lightning strike coming from the Carrier's flank as a Trinity Cannon swats a stray Dragolite or two that comes too close to the Carrier. The [Wind Shield] enchantment protecting the airship is active, but it's cheaper mana-wise to kill the monster before it has a chance to collide with the magical barrier.

The battlefield is rather quiet and gloomy, considering the violence going on out there. The endless darkness, the flares slowly falling as they light up the sky, the floating, Gothic cylinder that is the fortress, the Carrier unleashing a continuous broadside, the kite-like airships floating around us, the winged soldiers waiting in a grid pattern, and the dark cloud that rains dead monsters. I don't know how to feel about this, though it'd make for quite a grim painting.

A minute passes, then two, then three, then ten, and we become rather relaxed and bored while the muffled boom of the Field Guns turns into background noise. It's actually so boring that I feel like meditating to pass the time.

"Starting switch of gunnery personnel," a communications officer reports.

I dread to think of the conditions inside the gun rooms. The cannon must be red-hot by now, to start, and thankfully, the Field Guns are so overengineered that the barrel melting isn't a concern. The smoke, the noise, and the constant reloading should be taking their toll on the men, though, which is why we stationed a Water mage, a Wind mage, and a healer to make things more comfortable for the gunner crews, but new problems could arise as we couldn't test what such a prolonged high rate of fire would do to the men.

And the battle goes on for two more crew switches, but then we get a concerning report.

"The closed-off firing ports in the fortress are starting to open up again."

The kill zone will become less effective, allowing more Dragolites to reach us, which will clear the traffic jam and allow the bigger and more dangerous Stone Lancers to come out. But that much was expected.

"Ready the airplanes for launch," Hihiriwa calmly orders.

Then the battlefield quickly shifts. The cloud becomes much wider, and the Field Guns start to fire as fast as they can, now sounding almost like machine guns, but there aren't enough to fully cull the swarm, and the little angry shits start to hit the [Wind Shield].

"Lower the strength of the Shield; we'll deal with the monsters that slip through," I volunteer.

"Great idea!" Urmeie exclaims, absolutely bored because she's had nothing to do until now.

"Very well," Hihiriwa politely agrees with a nod. Then the old, dragon-headed man barks to his men, "Launch the airplanes, then lower the [Wind Shield] intensity by half, and alert the guards that they'll have invaders."

Now the battle becomes more intense and chaotic as the sky fills up with magic being thrown all around us. There's also a constant murmur from the distant shrieks of the Dragolites, and almost every second, we hear a close cry as one of them slips through and dives toward our group.

"Hah!" Urmeie laughs as she swats one down with a poleaxe. Then she looks up and [Taunt]s, "STUPID AND WEAK!" And the monsters answer with a furious cry as they focus on her.

"YOU HATCHLINGS CAN'T EVEN SCRATCH MY ARMOR!" Hana [Taunt]s, putting a bit more effort into her words.

Then the warrior Princess glances at her, and I see her eyes glint with the fire of competition from within her helmet. "LIZARDS WEAKER THAN A GOBLIN!"

And Hana takes up the challenge. "FLYING BUGS UNWORTHY OF YOUR DRACONIC HERITAGE!"

"GECKOS WITH WINGS THAT TASTE MIGHTY FINE BOILED OR FRIED!"

"HEINOUS SPAWNS OF DEFORMED DRAGONS, SO UGLY THAT MY PUSSY DRIES UP!"

"I'LL CRUSH YOU AND TURN YOU INTO FERTILIZER FOR MY FIELDS, GRINDING YOUR CORPSE AND MIXING IT WITH MY PROCESSED SHIT!"

Lina's Trivia: halflings and elves are among the few races who don't use feces as fertilizer, but of those who do, the feces are first processed with [Clean] to remove the disease-causing "impurities" and increase its effectiveness as fertilizer.

And the two female warriors spend more time screaming than actually fighting because we kill the enraged Dragolites from range before they can reach them. This is actually a pretty effective battle strategy; it's just a bit… crude as they become increasingly vulgar with their taunting.

A few minutes later, the first Stone Lancer appears. They're black mini Concorde planes, about twice the size of a horse. They're considerably more dangerous than the Dragolites as they're faster and much more massive, and they fight by stabbing things with their stone lance/nose, but they're still merely fodder to our OP hero party.

Suddenly, a shiny Celestial Horn lands on the Carrier, holding in his arms a very embarrassed pilot in a jumpsuit. He lets the poor dog-headed man down, who notices who's fighting right next to him, and the pilot promptly falls to his knees.

"Forgiveness, Your Highness, but I lost my Wasp," he begs, almost in tears.

"Your life is more important than the airplane," I magnanimously state as my tentacles work behind me.

"Thank you, Your Highness. I shall not distract you any longer," the pilot replies, sounding relieved, and quickly takes his leave. We are fighting, after all, even if we're barely putting any effort into it.

Then I nod at the Horn, and he takes off again. Oritiki and her men are responsible for saving the fallen, so this scene is likely to repeat itself a number of times as the battle progresses.

And it does.

For long minutes, I stare at the battle, and a frown slowly begins to form on my face. The tide is shifting against us.

Then the communications officer assigned to us confirms it, "Your Highnesses, the Sky Landers report damage to their airships. The generals and Captain Hihiriwa predict that casualties will continue to increase in frequency while the Sky Landers will be completely out of the fight in thirty minutes."

We have to do something.

I nod at the officer, then turn around and shout, "Chesa! We need you!"

The mer girl jerks her head towards me and adorably tenses up, but Lily almost instantly appears at her side and puts a hand on the girl's waist, which seems to help her get her fear under control. Then the two approach me.

"What are we doing?" Lily asks in place of the girl.

I turn around and pull out our personal winged airship, then grin at them. "We're going to wipe out the monsters coming from the back of the fortress, and we need Chesa's lightning storm to fry them up."

"That… that I can do," she answers a bit eagerly.

"Good, my throat was starting to hurt," Urmeie grunts as she approaches, and everyone starts to gather up.

"Eager to abandon this place?" Hana teasingly asks the Princess, taking care to not make any mention of "competition" to "preserve" the "Imperial dignity."

Then I promptly continue to not let Urmeie reply as she certainly looks like she wants to, "We'll need to protect the airship's wings as they're too valuable to let the Dragolites tear them up, and we might attract the attention of the elite monsters, so prepare to delete them with extreme prejudice."

"What?" Urmeie grunts confusedly, but I just ignore her.

And Alissa turns to Kaatohe, then kindly questions, "Are you up for more fighting? This might be dangerous."

"I'll be alright. I can also pilot if you need me to," my bronze cat calmly answers.

"We can spare a [Gate] to take you back, so just ask if it becomes too much for you," my orange fox reassures her.

And she nods. "Understood."

Kaatohe may be experienced in melee fighting, but it isn't her forte, so it's just polite to confirm what she wants to do.

We fly up to get away from the main battle, but the Horns need to protect our backs as the Dragolites and Lancers start to turn towards us. But then we successfully get past their "aggro range," and now we're free to approach the fortress unmolested.

"Let us help you, Your Highness," Oritiki requests as she lands on the airship along with Paraaone, her personal-bodyguard/second-in-command.

She's responsible for saving the pilots, but her main role should be to serve us directly, so I guess taking only the two of them shouldn't hurt too much.

"Very well. We'll be happy to have you here," I politely accept.

"Thank you, Your Highness," she replies, seemingly bursting with motivation.

Then Paraaone and Lina share a friendly nod, which I find cute.

I'm thankful that monsters are so single-minded. They don't even notice our airship sneaking up, and we make sure to stay outside the flare's effective illumination range while our [Spirit Light]s are off, so we're effectively invisible.

That is, until Chesa starts to build up her little storm.

"Lights up! Here they come!" I shout and summon ten wind elemental-wives.

The wives and I can all fly, but Alissa, Roxanne, and Lina stay on the ship and deal with any that get past us because they just fight better with solid ground under their feet. We also have Caterina, two Punishers, and the Companions on the deck, so they have enough shields to be safe.

A good chunk of the swarm still isn't paying any attention to us, so we don't get buried in monsters straight away, but this shit is rough. My tentacles are getting constantly damaged even though I've made them as hard as leather, but at least my armor isn't even getting so much as a scratch, though getting knocked around by a stray Stone Lancer is very annoying.

"Master, the fortress is deploying cannons," Ted telepathically reports.

Alissa takes a look down from the airship and launches a few [Mana Arrow]s, which hit their marks and break the rather sensitive pivot mechanism of the cannons, so those won't be a threat to us for now. But then she notices a horse-sized Hippogryph coming out of the fortress, and it's carrying a robed hobgoblin rider.

There's a joke here, Gify; I'm just not a good enough comedian to make it.

"Gih!"

My personal Legolas fires a [Mana Arrow] perfectly at the hob's forehead, but a lightning bolt suddenly strikes the arrow. It seems like there's an electric equivalent of [Wind Shield] protecting the rider.

And it isn't alone, for a whole squad of about twenty of them quickly take to the skies, but there's one rider that's considerably larger.

Hmph, easy pickings.

"OH, I LOVE THIS IDEA!" Hana roars through [Bind] as she hears my command. Then she promptly charges forward and opens a path for me, so I follow and do as Lily said: become a fucking blender.

"Fucking knew it! He's a fucking blender!" the roasted cinnamon loli eagerly shouts, sounding triumphant for some reason.

The Hippogryph squad assumes a defensive formation to protect their leader, and Hana crashes right into them, taking and face-tanking a dozen electric attacks, but all they achieve is giving her a light buzz that makes her slightly horny.

Then I fly past the scattered birds and come face-to-face with the big tin can on a thick chicken. As I suspected, it's another one of those pseudo-orcs.

And now it's a dead pseudo-orc as I shove my sword through the eye-slit. But my cool and clean maneuver is interrupted as my [Rainbow Shield] flares and a bolt of weak lightning hits my back, which tickles me badly enough to make me twitch.

I turn around and launch a real [Lightning Bolt] at the bastard, but their [Electric Shield] (patent pending) reduces its power, so the monster survives and remains in his saddle, though he's pretty smokey. Then my [Battlefield Perception] triggers, and I twist my torso to doge a Stone Lancer.

But I don't have time to finish off either of the bastards because I'm now in the middle of the swarm and Hippogryph riders, so I skedaddle.

"Wolfy!" Alissa warns me, and I immediately turn around, then raise my shield.

"BRACE FOR IMPACT!" Alissa and I shout to warn everyone of the danger.

One of the robed hobs has unveiled a javelin that crackles with lightning, and the little shit is preparing to throw it, so we get ready to dodge. But then the javelin suddenly becomes a bolt of lightning and shoots forward faster than we can follow.

None of our [Battlefield Perception]s trigger, but then we hear an explosion, and I turn around in a panic. The javelin has hit the right side of the ship, creating a large patch of char and flames, right where the delicate wing is.

MOTHERFUCKER! I'LL FUCKING GUT YOU, YOU CUN-…!

Then a bolt of lightning suddenly jumps out of the javelin and hits the deck.

"CHESA!" Lily shouts in fear, but the mer girl is fine.

No, better than fine. She's being possessed by Storm from X-Men as she begins to float, arms open wide and eyes rolling up into her skull. Then she begins to crackle with lightning, creating little char marks on the deck.

Uh… wait, you're damaging t-…

Now a bolt jumps out of her and back to the javelin, coating it with a glowing mantle of lightning. But I immediately notice that the glow is quickly becoming brighter, and the crackling also grows so loud that it's hurting Alissa's ears.

Oh, fu-…

Then it reaches the tipping point and unleashes thousands of little bolts that split endlessly like roots. It looks like a dangerous, glowing bouquet, blooming in the direction of the Hippogryph squad. Then we hear the tell-tale sound of a Tesla coil.

BZZZZZT!

The bouquet recedes after a good four seconds, and the monsters have all turned into glowing-hot embers in the vague shapes of things that once lived. Then they fall limply into the endless darkness below.

"WOOOOO!" Samkelo cheers at the awesome sight as he puts out the fire on the side of the ship.

"GOOD ONE, CHESA!" I encourage her, feeling satisfied with her taking revenge for me.

But she isn't done.

It suddenly begins to rain, and then the boom of the Field Guns is drowned out by the roaring of thunder as her storm kicks up into high gear. Now the swarm will soon become her lightning rod.

Alright, I think we're do-…

Then lightning strikes a monster right next to me, making my ears ring.

GODSDAMMIT!

"W-WE'RE TOO CLOSE! MOVE THE SHIP! MOVE THE SHIIIP!" I order the golems through [Bind] as I skedaddle once again, now going as fast as I can.

It seems that it'll be a while before Chesa can control her Gift enough to avoid friendly fire.

But at least she can make roasts out of a whole army.

Manasong

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