Two Halves: Chapter 49

A Chapter by aaaa

They preceded cautiously, squads breaking off to check the buildings as they went. The groups from one through four had already broken off, so they were alone, save for the few squads from seven that were still going into the adjacent shop fronts. They were to large of a force to make their way under cover, but did the best they could staying close to the buildings to provide no obvious targets.

Zeckle was the first to see him, her demon eyes providing a sense beyond what any normal human posses. Her bolt flew into a window, from which tumbled a man, the bolt having pierced his skull. The windows all around them erupted with gun fire. They had known that they were obvious targets for an ambush, but there had been no other way to get there. Nicolas dived behind a butcher’s counter in one of the buildings before sliding a potion from the myriad of them on his arm holster.

He shoved the needle into his arm and squeezed the contents inside. The world slowed down around him as his own senses heightened. He glanced around the street, and counted a total of twenty-seven men hold up in the windows. They were far enough into the city that none of the Renma-jujaku had penetrated this far.

“Second rule of forging: Til-tor.” He aimed his fingers at the nearest window, the room around it began to melt, stone turning it putty and burring who ever was inside. Zeckle was doing far better than him though; she had already killed five or six ambushers. It was almost embarrassing standing next to her as she took pot shots at them as easily as if she had been having target practice.

“I know you enjoy it, but showing off now won’t help us w-“ Nicolas’s arms seared in agony as a bullet pierced his forearm. Chunks of flesh blew out onto the wall behind him. With his other hand he scrambled for a potion on his arm pouch. “D****t this hurts!” He felt arms grips him under each armpit, but couldn’t see them. Bestalel was pulling him farther back into the building out of the direct line of fire. Nicolas pulled a potion from the ball and injected it just above the wound. The flesh started to knit itself back together, and though a large chunk was still gone he was no longer in danger of bleeding out, and his hand was just as responsive as before. Though the ingredients for that particular potion were rare enough that there had only been enough in the entire Terrance to make two, so e would have to be careful not to pull any more stunts like that.

“Are you alright?” shouted Zeckle from the store entrance, she was shooting in the generally direction the shot had come from.

“Yes, I’ll be fine,” said Nicolas testing out the new flesh by pushing himself up. “Thank you for that Bestalel” The face of his chameleon suit flickered for a moment so that Nicolas caught a glimpse of him. He was smiling, and bronze light was leaking into his eye from under his sockets. Unlike before it didn’t seem to move upwards, it just sat they, waiting for the right time to take over.

“Come on, we need to keep moving,” he said getting up. Outside the gunfire had stopped, and the first of the soldiers were taking tentative steps back into the street. The buildings around them had been shredded by the magic explosions. Jento was much more cautious now, and the entire groups pace had slowed. Though it seemed that there wasn’t going to be any more ambushes. Around them they could hear the gunfire and explosions as the other guard squads met the enemy.

They neared the end of the road, the street finished in the large square that used to be used for a market. When Salex had moved in they used the space to build the ICO. Unlike the other stone buildings around them this one stuck out like a sore thumb with its metal plates.

“They’ve reinforced the building. We won’t be able to get in without a large confrontation,” said Jento from his position behind one of the stalls at the end of the street. When they had approached the end of the road they had spread out into the buildings and took up some relatively defensible positions. Salex had barricaded much of the building, and turrets covered the roof. The auto cannons swiveled looking for targets, waiting for one of them to stick their head above the fire line.

“It sounds like third squad is getting closer.” Jento had cupped his hand around his ear to listen to the distant firefight. They seemed to have taken a street with minimal resistance, but from the sounds of combat third squad was approaching the entrance to the square quickly.

“Well, it’s now or never. If we wait for the other squads they will have enough time to flank out position. ” Nicolas took the flute off his belt and blew into it. Instead of releasing a few of the demons the entire contents of the flute spilled out into the street. Nicolas had gathered as many demons into the flute as the binders had been willing to add, and now they were jetting towards the enemy.

“I would prefer if you let me choose the moment to strike next time,” said Jento, but his smile betrayed him. He hefted the pear again and tossed it towards the enemy. The spear shot at the nearest turret, which was mounted halfway up the wall. It went completely through it, rending the metal as easily as if it was paper, and burying itself a good three feet in the wall. The others stuck their heads above their cover and fired towards the building. The individual squad leaders roared orders at their subordinates to focus their fire at the fortified positions. A large man next to Nicolas stood up for a moment to shout an order at his men, and the front of his face blew up onto the ground. He slumped onto the ground in front of his men, who roared in fury and renewed their attack on the building.

Nicolas’s demons were doing their job. They had snuck over to the other side before turning into their true forms. The imps and fiends fell upon the enemy biting and clawing at the joints of the armor while shooting various small bolts of magic at them. The turrets opened fire on them, not only shredding the demons but destroying their own squad as well. The demons slipped back into the demonic plane as their physical presence became too disrupted. The Salex auditors slumped onto their battlements, enormous bloody craters covering their bodies.

One of the carts near Nicolas erupted into a ball of flames as a rocket impacted it. One of the auditors was carrying the bulk of a multi-barreled missile pod, and was firing it toward them. Only a few hit their targets, while most impacted the buildings around them. The upper floors of a shop near them collapsed threatening the burry the soldiers hiding in the storefront.

Across the square third squad entered the square. Unlike them their ranks had been bolstered by the Cloud Walker’s shamans and warriors who ran out into the no mans land immediately. The shamans performing the strange dances that constructed the barriers around them. The warriors hefted axes and ran inside the bubbles of protection. Though some of the bubbles burst most made it to Salex’s position. They attempted to chop through the force shields and power armor with their axes, which must have been made out of some magic metal for a few of them actually penetrated it. Though the entire side of the building was turning into a bloody mess as the turrets fired into every knot of enemies not caring if their own men happened to get in the way.

Fourth squad finally entered the fray as they rained down a hail of bullets from the roofs of the buildings on Nicolas’s right. They had taken both the high and low ground their men standing in the street as well as firing from the building. They had somehow carried with them a Renma-jujaku. Which several teams of shaman were protecting. The barrier was small, but for the amount of men around it extremely strong. The battle mages finalized the spell and began to shoot the dragon lances. They circled the building smashing into auditors and turrets alike. The bronze barrels spun at dizzying speeds from the sheer volume of shots fired. Unlike before when accuracy had been everything, now they simply blasted in as many shots as possible. Entire swaths of the wall turned to rubble from the weight of the fire, magic like that was out of the ordinary, more powerful than what most fully mature battle wizards could accomplish.

“She’s really amazing, isn’t she.” Jento pointed behind the Renma-jujaku to a woman who Nicolas recognized from before as the captain of squad four. She was producing flares of magic that far outstripped any of the mages chanting behind her. Now that the cannon had disrupted the Salex forces Jento signaled the charge. Now that most of the turrets were down and the remaining soldiers were focused on the other two squads they could make their way towards the enemy relatively unopposed. They attacked the remaining auditors in their dug out positions, and within five minutes had cleared out their side of the building. The Cloud Walker berserkers had already entered the building to fight any other resistance still present. By now all the squads had found their way into the town square and were advancing.

“Looks like we won.” Zeckle whipped her forehead and slung the crossbow onto her back. The battle mages were producing a flame to cut a hole in the building so they could enter, but the battle really did seem over. The sounds of gunfire had ceased when they had taken out the last auditor. The berserkers were exiting, looking almost crestfallen at not finding anyone inside.

“Yeah, it does, but why wouldn’t they leave anyone inside to defend the generators themselves?” asked Nicolas, now skeptical.

“Who cares, they probably just never thought we would make it this far. Arrogance is what they’re known for.”

“Either way it does not matter; if we are to keep on schedule we need to start moving troops into non-space as quickly as possible,” said Bestalel materializing behind them.

The inside was identical to the one that had been inside non-space. Nicolas walked into the main lobby and Zeckle followed close behind. The troops spaced themselves out preparing defensible positions, and Bestalel left them to go to the generators along with some of the senior engineers that had been apart of the rear echelon of the assault. If everything was going well on the other side Old Ernie’s alliance should have captured Salex’s ICO by now and would be readying for their arrival. Form there it would be strait to the Salex head quarters.

The air shimmered for a moment before tearing open. The portal stood at nearly thirty feet high, and just as big across. On the other side was the inside of a warehouse.

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