Tyrier snapped his head back when the distant rumble of thunder rolled across the barren landscape. Princess Sherene looked up to the cloudless skies and asked hopefully, "It is going to rain?"
"No," Tyrier replied grimly. "That's not thunder..."
Sherene's expression as she understood the unsaid words. She glanced over to the direction where the rumbles of thunder came from and vaguely spotted dark clouds lingering over the horizon. "Will they be alright?"
"It's up to their skills and training now," Tyrier said. "And luck... Lots of luck..."
"Come on, we need to hurry!" Tyrier turned back and pointed to a cluster of ruins visible in the distance. "We are nearly there!"
It took them another twenty minutes before they came to the outskirts of the ancient ruins. What used to be a thriving village in its prime were now just crumbling walls and forgotten memories. Desolated buildings with just their foundations remaining were aligned to faded roads and the only church in the centre of the village had its roof long worn down by nature and stone walls fallen from age.
"There's no one here!" Hitsu said as he scanned the gloomy ruins. "Where the fark is our reinforcements?"
"Fark!" Altied cursed as he climbed up a partial wall to look around. "Where's the damn Army when you need them?"
"Alright! Enough chatter!" Tyrier growled. "Clear out the ruins and dig in!"
The rest of the Claymore One operatives grumbled as they quickly cleared the ruins, ensuring that it was free of any threats before Tyrier allowed the Princess and the Grand Prince into the ruins. They entered the ruins of the church and Tyrier ordered Young to watch over them.
The interior of the church had long been emptied by either the migrating villagers or time. The place where the altar and stature of Ramuh were usually placed, was empty, most likely removed by the priests. Remains of rotting pews were shattered all over and stone tiles were cracked and covered with sand. Young removed his foldable stretcher on his backpack and deployed it, allowing the Princess and the Grand Prince a place to sit and rest while he peeked out from a gap in the crumbling stone walls.
Tyrier had stepped out of the ruined church and looked up to the skies. "Beholder, Beholder, this is Claymore One, where are our reinforcements? Over."
"Beholder, stand by."
"Beholder to Claymore One, please be informed reinforcements are still on their way. You boys are early to the RP. ETA two five mikes. How copy?"
"Claymore One, situation is not good here, under heavy enemy pursuit! Requesting immediate support! Over!" Tyrier snapped unhappily.
"Beholder, we copy that, seeing the action from up here. Over."
Tyrier looked up to the skies again and flash his finger at the skies before he sighed and changed the radio channel, "Two, this is One, how's your situation?"
"Two, not g- good! Everyone from their brothers to third cousins is chasing us!"
"One, what's your ETA?" Tyrier frowned worriedly as he headed to the perimeter of the ruins.
"Two, t- two zero mikes out!"
"Roger," Tyrier acknowledged the reply before he turned to the rest of Claymore One that was prepping the area for defence. "Alright, boys! We got incoming in two zero mikes! Claymore Two is bringing a party with them!"
"We are going to hold the area for at least five, ten mikes before the Army arrives!" Tyrier shouted out to his men. "It's going to be a big party!"
Hitsu cursed as he dumped out everything he had stored into his bag of holding. Belts of ammunition, magazines, explosives, snacks and even a pillow littered the area around him. He had picked a position on the roof of a half collapsed house that provided a nice view of the direction where Claymore Two was coming from with a whole bunch of targets to shoot.
Below him, the rest were either digging a shell scrape or fortifying their positions with dug earth and spells. The two ASAGs were running about, their carried equipment and ammunition being collected and deployed by the defenders.
Princess Sherene and her son watched silently as Loke came running into the ruined church and started climbing a part of the wall still relatively intact as he sought for high ground to deploy his sniper rifle. Young, on the other hand, hailed one of the ASAGs over and rummaged through its contents before coming out with two spare sets of protective vests and he handed the armour to the Princess and the Grand Prince.
"Your Highness, put this on!" Young helped the Grand Prince into the oversized vest. The boy gave a bright grin toothless grin and Young smiled back before he unbuckled his helmet and put it over his head. "Wear this, little one!"
He handed over a couple of spare sets of earplugs that he kept in his medical bag to the Princess. "To protect your hearing."
Sherene nodded and helped her son wear the earplugs. The boy giggled as sounds seemed to become muffled and Sherene smiled at his antics. Young continued to dig into his bag and handed over a small pager like object after fuddling it for a moment. "Attach this to your body. This is a personnel magic shield generator."
"It can stop any ranged or magic attack up to a certain degree," Young explained as he took out another small pouch filled with mana stones. "Press here to activate it. Once activated, it draws energy from this mana stone located here."
He showed the Princess how the device worked and how to replace the mana stone powering the personnel shield. "I have set it to the highest setting. It will create a protective shield large enough to cover both of you. Just remember to feed it mana stones once it starts beeping."
Finally, he handed over a gun belt loaded with a pistol and spare ammo. "Do you remember how to use a gun?"
Sherene drew the pistol out and frowned, in her memory, she did not have the chance to come in contact with the semi automatic, only familiar with revolvers. Young quickly demonstrated how to operate the slide, safety and magazine release. As she was practising with the pistol, the comms suddenly blared, "One Three to Claymore One! Claymore Two in sight!"
"One Lead to All. Get ready for action!"
"They are here!" Young said to the Princess as he took up a position next to the ruined wall. "Stay here and keep your magic shield up!"
-----
Roast, Team Leader of Claymore Two, panted as he ran. Slung over his shoulder was a wounded brother, who has currently had his body twisted at an angle as he covered their backs. The suppressed rifle in the wounded operative popped continuously as he fired at the chasing enemy. Behind them, loomed two giant crimson airships that appeared to be waiting for something as, after the initial bombardment, they had ceased their fire and instead followed the chase.
"Farking Beetle Heads want us alive!" The wounded operative growled as he swapped his emptied mag. "They are toying with us!"
"N- Nearly there!" Roast panted. Already the ruins where they were supposed to rendezvous with their reinforcements could be seen. He knew the Claymore One team has already set up some defences and were waiting for them to get clear.
His personnel magic shield suddenly flared up as a random bolt from a steam lance struck him. The damn Beetle Heads were firing their steam lances constantly and treating the chase like some kind of hunt, forcing them to use up their stamina and magic before pouncing on them.
As he approached the ruins, he saw a hand wave in his direction and he increased his pace, ignoring his burning leg muscles and strained lungs, pushing himself to cross the last few meters. And suddenly, he found himself within the ruined walls of the village. Putting his wounded man down, he took several deep breaths to feed his starving lungs.
"You good?" Tyrier yelled out from a hidden position nearby.
Roast gave a thumbs up before he dragged his tired body against a wall and did a quick check with his team members. Once everyone reported in, he let out a sigh of relief and peek over the wall to see what the Beetle Heads were up to.
-----
Protectorate Penal Class Cruiser Tenacious
"Lord Bishop Major," The Chief Paladin saluted the Bishop Major standing at the forward view gallery as he entered the bridge of the Tenacious. "As your holiness has seen, the lawless perpetrators has entered the ruins."
"Yes..." Bishop Major Zakhi's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Deploy your troops, Chief Paladin!"
"I want those hideous sinners in the Clergy's hands within a single turn of the sandglass!" Bishop Major Zakhi growled. "Try not to kill them all... We need live bodies to appease the anger of the Clergy!"
"And... also the Inquisition would love to know the secrets of their demonic witchcraft!"
-----
Row after row of Paladins clad in crimson red and silver armour marched forward towards the ruins. The second Protectorate airship, Promise, has taken up a flanking position behind and deployed its own contingent of shipboard Paladins and together, the Paladins created an encirclement of the ruins.
As they approached closer, loud thunderous rattles erupted from within the ruins, and instantly, the groups of approaching Paladins had their magical barriers flared up and popped. Cries of the wounded and dying came from those Paladins as streaks of fiery beams perforated their bodies and decimated magical barriers like wet scrolls.
An order came down for the Paladins to charge and singing praises of Ramuh, they charged without fear of the heretical magic. More and more bodies fell until there was nothing left to feed the death spells of the lawless heretics.
The Chief Paladin's face turned pale at the sight. They had lost over four companies of Paladins, a little over a hundred and fifty loyal and steadfast soldiers in barely even a quarter of the sandglass! Even the Bishop Major had an unpleasant expression on his face. The Chief Paladin turned to the Bishop Major and bowed, "Y- Your holiness... D- Do we deploy the remaining companies?"
"WHAT DO YOU THINK?" Bishop Major Zakhi shouted angrily. "T- Those lawless creatures! They must pay the ultimate price of desecrating our holy warriors and land!"
"Order the forward steam cannons to bomb them!" Bishop Major Zakhi changed his tactics. "Send down the War Jacks too!"
-----
"FAAAAARRKKKKK THISSSSSSSS!" Hitsu screamed as he hunkered down on the broken ground. When the bombardment began, it had collapsed the remaining portion of the already broken roof, sending him crashing down in a cloud of sand and dust. He quickly recovered from the bone jarring drop and scrambled against the wall as shock waves rolled over his position.
The shimmering bubble of the Defender MK I portable large scale magic shield managed to hold out against the steam projectiles. The ASAG equipped with the large cylinder shaped device squeaked nervously as did its best to tether itself to the ground, it's programming in its tiny mechanical smart brain chip telling it to obey its orders to keep the shield in place, overriding its sub programming of self preservation.
When the bombardment lifted, what remained was just a bubble of shimmering rainbows, shrouded by a layer of dust and smoke. A perfect circle encircled the remains of the ruins, while outside that ring, everything else had been pulverized.
"Ahahaha!" Hitsu coughed and laughed as he climbed up to his feet and flashed a middle finger at the crimson airships overhead. "Fark youuuu!"
"Oh..." He suddenly paused in his cussing as he felt the ground shake. He peered deep into the smoke and cursed. "Oh... Fark..."
The hulking shapes of two War Jacks lumbered through the smoke, both wielding massive tower shields and dragging their signature chained morning stars along the ground, heading straight for them.