Chapter 51: CAS: Close Air Support

At Dragonsmourne, about slightly more than a thousand soldiers could be seen lined up in front of a small tent. Each and every one of the soldiers had wings of the sort. Those that don’t were at least capable of flying via flight magic or using a magical tool. Every single person within that camp were flyers and was ready to go at any moment. There were mostly Succours, but one could see a few Dragonicias within the mix.

The skies were dark and clouds were forming. The weather conditions were really bad and it was only about to get worse. It hadn’t exactly rained yet, but it wouldn’t be a surprise to the Ak’hims if it did. This was in a way, a good and a bad thing. A good thing as the ominous shroud that the Alliance used to constantly hinder the Ak’hims flight would be unusable within these strong winds and weather conditions. The bad thing is that the Ak’hims would be struggling to fight the winds as well.

Within the small tent was Leida who was looking at a map and was going through the plan again. Due to the Grand Bridge being destroyed by Klauna and the others about a month ago, the enemy had no other choice but to come at them from the north and the south side. Klauna had predicted that the enemy would definitely pass by two choke points. A small bridge crossing to the north and a small roadway to the south. Any other approach and it would only exhaust the Alliance and leave them open to pickings from the flyers within this camp. 

Entering the tent was Samiyadare, who looked over to her sister and gave her a bow. She wore full plated armour that covered her vitals, her short auburn hair tied into a bun. “Big Sister. Everything is prepared.” 

Hearing her voice, Leida burned the map in front of her. “And of Dragonsmourne?”

“Everyone has been evacuated. All resources have been picked clean and are on their way to Divinatus. There is nothing left in this camp other than the supplies we need to defend this place. Even that is rigged to explode at a moment's notice.”

Leida nodded to her and moved out of the small tent, Samiyadare followed in tow behind her.

“This is Doragon. Role call. Is everyone ready and prepared?” Leida said to the small book within her hand.

“Harbinger here. North defences are ready,” Harbin’s voice came out of the book.

“Spear here. The mobile assault squad is in position,” Klauna’s voice came out soon after.

“Lover and Besty here. We are ready on the south side,” Aberanis spoke out for himself and Parash.

“Assassination squad ready,” Kazakiel was the next to speak out.

The call was followed by the rest of the generals and officers who also notified that they were in position and ready.

“Looks like everyone’s ready. I’ll be assuming command for this operation and will also be the person in charge of air support so make sure to identify them high profile targets alright. I can’t be everywhere at once.”

“Spear here. What’s the enemy’s estimate?” Klauna asked.

“I can see scores of enemies moving in from the north side. They will reach your position in about an hour,” Medica replied.

“Got it. What about the south side?”

“I hear no reports as of this moment. I will keep you posted.”

“Noted. We will move to engage the enemy at the north side. Liliel, remember the plan. We hold these two chokepoints for as long as we can. I’ll leave the signal to retreat up to you,” Klauna said one more time.

Leida stretched out her body and wings before giving out her reply. “You don’t have to worry about me.”

Closing the book and placing it within her armour, Leida then spread her wings and flew up to the skies. Samiyadare and the rest of the soldiers followed suit. “We regroup with Medica’s wing. Battalion leaders, keep an ear out for the air support requests.”

The soldiers behind her gave a salute as they soar through the dark skies. Their first destination was north. The soldiers of the First Army stayed calm under the circumstances. The north and the south side were too far apart to be reinforced by each other. The other armies were counting on them to do that job for them.

Flying past her beloved village and its surroundings, Leida and her soldiers soon come into contact with Medica’s battalion who were already bombarding the enemies below. The sight of mini but deadly explosions could be seen as the Succours of the Seventh Army dropped their specially crafted bombs. Swooping in before swooping out of harm’s way. They then travelled back to a reload point led by Captain Lina who oversaw the Succours and where they strike.

“General Leida, this is Wingless. Reports of enemies coming east of our position. Require you to strike them down,” a soft female voice came out of the mini grimoire.

“Roger that. The big boys are on their way," Leida motioned her right hand to signal the soldiers behind her. She then rushed straight eastwards.

Following her signal was half of her soldiers. Samiyadare and the other half stayed behind in standby. Taking a deep breath, Leida gave out a roar before transforming into a large red dragon. The other Dragonica’s within the army that were able to transform did so as well. They soon descended onto the ground below and started laying waste to the enemies. The flying Ak’hims swoop downwards and breathe fire and magical bolts within a large straight line before dispersing towards the end. Once over, Leida transformed back into her humanoid form and the detachment reformed their battle group in order to make another run at the enemies. 

The First Army prepared their spells and chanted mid-flight as they made one big turn in the air. To the enemies that were still alive, all they saw was a dark red glowing swarm making a large turn before it started to get bigger. The last thing they saw was breaths of fire and shards of ice making its way towards their soft fleshy bones.

The Alliance soldiers weren’t just about to let the airbourne Ak’hims do as they please. The mages of the Alliance quickly regrouped and formed a defensive position. In the ground were large magic circles that rapidly shot out lightning bolts to the air. Any shots that missed the Ak’hims flew further into the dark cloudy skies before coming back down upon the Ak’hims as a huge lightning strike.

Seeing this, Leida and her soldiers did evasive manoeuvres in the air, splitting themselves into smaller strands. The swarm turned in every direction in order to avoid the bolts and the lightning strikes as they moved out of the range of the anti-air. Most of them were able to dodge the attacks before getting out, though some were unlucky enough to get hit. The humans were using the terrain to the best of their advantage. 

Now that the Airboune Ak’hims were scattered and unable to attack the enemies down below, the Alliance soldiers on the ground started to regroup and charged towards their original destination: the bridge where Klauna and the Seventh Army were protecting. Leida quickly ordered her soldiers to group up into a wing again as she thought up a way to get in the zone without getting hit by the anti-air.

Her decision was to overwhelm the anti-air defences in an all-out attack. They will no doubt receive some losses, but anything was better than letting the enemy have free reign. It was times like these, where Leida wished she had those bombs the Seventh Army has. Those bombs can be dropped on the enemies far away from the dangers of their devastating spells and effects. Taking another deep breath, Leida transformed herself into a dragon in order to spearhead the strafing strike on the human magicians.

Her effort and worries were unneeded as the ground below the magicians corp erupted. A big group of Saboteurs appeared and started to skewer the humans with their spiny tails. Their appearance caught the human mages by surprise and they started fighting back. It was then another huge eruption appeared. This time a large iron box appeared from below. Larger than a house. It had belts for wheels and small window openings all over its body. 

At the top of the iron box, was a large magic circle and a large floating glowing orb above it. The orb charged with an eerie glow, before shooting out a large red beam on the humans. Several smaller beams and projectiles then shot out of the windows as the Iron box moved over and crushed the humans underneath its large tracks.

“This is the Mobile Fortress. Proceed with the airstrike, we will handle things here,” Yuupiecca’s voice resounded over Leida’s left ear. It came together with the sound of a large laser beam in the background which coincided with the iron box shooting out a large red beam of doom at the enemies.

‘Those Analysts in the Seventh Army sure make some devastating weapons,’ Leida thought to herself as she changed her direction slightly, her soldiers followed after her. 

Their aim? The rows of humans below who were still unaware of their sudden loss of anti-air. Flying straight into their lines, breaths of fire and ice soon descended upon them, decimating the whole battalion below.

Leida transformed back into her humanoid form again and her wing regrouped. From the air, she viewed the battlefield. To the north were Klauna and the Seventh Army guarding a bridge, one of the choke points to Dragonsmourne. 

Cera and her group of Warriors stood right at the bridge like a brick wall. They were protected by rows of Analysts within their rank with their force fields, causing the enemy’s long-range attack to simply bounce off. Supplementing their forces were the minotaurs who stayed within formation and launched the humans into the air with their strong blows. The other half of the minotaurs charged at the enemies in a stampede, further blowing away the enemies. General Vargus himself was leading the charge.

The other soldiers threw long-range attacks at the upcoming enemies. This included Klauna who together with the other Analysts, launched powerful artillery strikes upon them. Grade sixes at the very least. In the air were Medica’s wings who came in and out at high speeds, dropping bombs on the enemies. Their movement was guided by Lina who was at the top of a tall hill overviewing the entire battlefield at the north. 

Leida couldn't help but feel amazed at their perfect teamwork. Klauna’s banner and figure on top of a very high watchtower gave morale to her soldiers and demoralised the enemy at the same time who seemed to be very vexed that they were unable to approach Klauna who was bombarding them.

Looking further along the river, Leida could see Saladis and Shieska, guarding the stretch against stranglers, while occasionally coming onto land to launch ambushes on the upcoming Alliance soldiers. Though they have fins instead of legs, the merpeople were rather agile on land. Not as agile as they are in the water but deceptively fast. Their large tridents strike the enemies with incredible precision. Their main aim was dwarves who proved to be less agile than the fishes.

General Shieska and the Lamias, on the other hand, were climbing trees and proved to be rather equal to the elves at navigating them. This was their battlefield. The forest rustled with noise as the snakes fought against the tree-dwellers in a skirmish within the woods.

“Lover here. Doragon! Enemies are coming from the south. We will be engaging them soon. We require air support,” Parash voice came out of the grimoire.

Nodding to his orders, Leida signalled her men and started moving south. “Samy, I’m moving south to assist them. You stay here.”

“I got it, Big Sister. I’ll do my best,” Samiyadare replied.

Moving as fast as they could through the dark skies, Leida then muttered to herself. “It’s going to rain soon…”

Kotohood

Thanks for reading! Next Chapter will be on Saturday 11th of April