A beautiful morning.

The sun, having only risen a few hours before, was gently warming all below it.

Birds were singing from nearby orchard trees as the cool breeze swept over the fields of grass, spreading the pleasant scent of morning dew.

It was a day well suited for spending time in nature. A wonderful girl rolling around next to you in a colorful sundress and a big straw hat adorned with flowers.

She would be reading a book, and you would be teasing and interrupting her until you’d both start wrestling and rolling down the grassy hill, laughing all the way to the bottom.

I’ve had many such beautiful days.

Beyond the hill lay the forest.

A thick, bright green canopy stretching to the horizon. Silent and serene.

Not a single tweet of a bird, not an animal sound. Just empty, still silence.

Even the wind seemed to avoid the forest, like it didn’t want to flow into the darkness beneath the trees.

The shadows they cast were longer than they should have been. Blacker.

The whole forest looked… deeper.

And this thick, silent darkness in the woods…

It moved.

And then the ground shook.

The hill rumbled through its foundations.

And hundreds and hundreds of high-explosive rockets roared into the air to completely and utterly obliterate the forest out of existence.

 

“Reload!”

 

Another wave of rockets roared through the air and towards the woods.

Soon, the whole forest became a mass of smoke that rose high into the sky, completely hiding it from view.

This was the second stage of the attack, the one where we would carpet bomb the entire area blindly until out of ammo to make sure nothing was left standing.

Rocket after rocket flew high and down into the smoke.

I could feel every impact shake the ground slightly beneath my feet.

The ammunition ran out, but the smoke was still hiding the results.

So it was time for the optional stage two point five.

 

The pillars of smoke, like the forest behind them, seemed to grow darker.

They moved.

A wave of black seemed to form at the ground. Alive. Running.

It was heading right towards us.

As it drew closer, individuals could be made out.

Demons, hundreds of them, all roaring in anger and hate as they screamed their way over the grassy plain.

 

“Anyone without a severed demon cock to show for it will be an equipment mule, understood?!” Pyra roared.

The adventurers and guards lined up before our artillery raised their voices and clashed their weapons in a mixture of excitement, courage, fear and even competitiveness.

The wave of black, hellish creatures drew closer, their howls growing louder.

“Come on! Run faster you sons of bitches! We don’t have all day!” Pyra cried to our enemies as she took her position on the front line. Or rather, just ahead of it, as if taunting the enemy army to come at her all at once.

It had the intended effect of helping galvanize our own troops, whose voices were starting to waver as they stared down the demonic horde coming towards them.

The wave drew closer with every breath.

Soon they would be upon us and the battle would begin.

The Knight Captain cracked her knuckles, practically jumping from anticipation.

“Open fire!!” she roared.

 

 

“So that’s what you came here looking for. A long-dead adventurer’s recipe for dynamite?”

“Yes. An old friend of his told me it would be in Ratia, if at all.”

I was at the back behind the hill together with Violetta.

She was surprisingly talkative for one who was literally catatonic the night before.

The determined Violetta of the first time I met her was back. Determined meaning she was so absorbed into her work that she didn’t have time to get nervous.

Said work was inspecting the rocket launchers now that they’d all been spent.

“Hmmm… maybe some additional rings to increase strength. This one nearly exploded in the launcher’s face…” she said to no one in particular as she inspected a crack in one of the tubes.

She was awfully casual about something that could have killed us all.

“Shouldn’t we have kept some to take out the demons that were flushed out by the bombardment?” I asked as she continued to move from tube to tube.

“Not enough ammunition, too high yield. Firing these at close range could cause friendly fire. At close range it’s much safer to use pistols and magic.”

It was like talking to an entirely different person.

Every time I met this girl I desired harder and harder to know her.

“Where did yo – Get down!” I yelled and pulled the master engineer to the ground as a ball of flame came over the hill and exploded over our heads.

Violetta hit the grass on her back, and was looking up intently. “Level one demonic fireball. It posed no danger to us with that trajectory.”

Fireballs, demons over the hill, an entire forest blasted to bits.

I’ve seen enough of Pyra’s handiwork to know she would have it handled.

I had a whole different fight on my hands.

This was my first chance to actually talk to this girl, and I had to get somewhere with her before the battle was over and she returned to the shy girl 

“I know now isn’t the best time,” I said, standing up and extending a hand to help Violetta. “But how did you become a master engineer at such a young age?”

“My grandfather was the lead engineer at Republic University. He was the head of the army’s research and development,” she replied as I pulled her up.

The roars of battle were still raging over the hill, but we were supposed to stay put with the rear-guard, just in case.

“Was he a tough teacher or the type who’d help you a little on the journey up?”

Violetta narrowed her eyes. “I earned my rank and levels, if that’s what you’re asking.”

I touched a nerve?

Another fireball exploded above us.

And the master engineer continued down the line, checking her rocket tubes.

“You must have gotten a lot of grief over it from your colleagues,” I said. “I just wanted to know how close the two of you were.”

“The jealousy of others is of no consequence to me,” Violetta replied.

A very blatant lie if I’ve ever heard any.

“And yes. We were close.”

Past tense.

The body of a small imp crashed into the ground in front of us.

I probably didn’t have much time left.

More importantly, Violetta wasn’t investing in the conversation. Hadn’t asked me a single question. In fact, I didn’t have even half of her attention.

The girl was in cold, logic-professional mode.

I needed to somehow break her out of it.

“I have to say, you look far too lovely in that white dress to be some greased-up mechanic,” I said.

She gave me a sideways look. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I mean that a girl as pretty as you doesn’t need to get her hands dirty.”

Violetta was literally inspecting soot from one of the barrels as I made my remark. “Well, now I know why they call you the town sexist.”

“Ah, so you’ve heard stories.”

“I have.”

“Is that why you’re always so cold to me?”

“I’m not cold. Or warm. I just am.”

An explosion rocked the ground from the other side of the hill, body parts that were too charred to tell if they were human or demon rained around us.

Normally, this would faze me. If a little.

But I was getting somewhere.

And I was definitely running out of time.

“You are too lovely for this battlefield. We should just run off together, far and away where no demon can find us.”

Violetta stopped.

“Do you have no shame? People are dying over the hill and all you care about is running off with pretty girls?”

“I never lie,” I said. “I would prefer that to getting covered in demon blood.” A few stains of it were on my clothes from the flying organs. “Come with me.” I extended a hand to her.

Violetta looked at me with fire in her eyes that I have not yet seen. “I will never abandon these people, or anyone in need of Athena’s truth.”

Finally, I found it. Duty.

“Not even for love?” I asked, taking her hand in mine.

“I don’t love you,” Violetta said, giving me a look of anger, confusion and disbelief all at the same time.

Good. I finally got her to feel something for me.

“Yes you do,” I said, drawing closer to her, my hand still holding hers, and my eyes fixed on hers. “Can’t you feel this feeling between us?”

She looked back into my eyes, and finally, a glimpse of realization, emotions, were coming through her work-focused mind.

So focused was the girl, she did not even realize I was flirting with her. Did not even realize that she was now standing very close to a man, who was clearly interested in her, and was holding her hand.

“Finally, I have your attention,” I said, smiling. “I’m sorry for distracting you from your work, I just wanted to see what it is you really care about.”

“Yes, well… Um. You have,” she muttered, turning completely red.

Too red.

Focused Violetta was vanishing too quickly.

“Thank you for showing me that side of you,” I said, releasing her hand and taking a step back to release any pressure on her. “It was very interesting.”

I managed to get a sliver of sexual tension with her, a sliver of a connection, but even that was too much for her.

Violetta completely reverted to a blushing deer in headlights.

“You’re, uh, welcome. I… I need to check these launchers…” She mumbled as she quickly turned around and back to her weapons. Pretending to check them with nervous, shaky hands.

Yeah… there was no getting anything out of her in that state.

Fuck.

A triumphant roar came from the other side of the hill.

The battle was over.

Double Fuck.

It was time for stage three.