James' concern got higher and higher the longer Lachlan and his group took. Although they could hold for a while they weren't sure for how long. After all, there are intelligent beasts on the other side, some of which could slaughter their soldiers.
His concern shot through the roof when he heard the rumbling of footsteps, large footsteps. He then heard something that gave him hope.
*Screech*
He looked up expecting Lachlan and his group riding their birds but was greeted by hundreds of large birds, all of them hovering in the sky as they waited for commands.
"Fire the cannons!" James heard May's order and looked towards the battleships. The barrels of the cannons were facing the sky, aiming towards the flock of birds as they would be the most troublesome.
*Bang*Bang*Bang*
They went off, going straight through the flock. Piercing and even causing some of the birds to explode into bits and pieces. The blood rained down on the soldiers, but they didn't mind, there was something more concerning to them.
*Thump*Thump*Thump*Thump*
It was more large beasts. They burst through the walls creating even larger entrances. The machine guns were rapidly firing at them, some managing to hit weak points. They all aimed for the eyes, hoping to get a headshot.
The bullets were bouncing off and killing the weaker beast near them, which at least meant they weren't wasting ammo.
'Devour them!' His shadow quickly split and shot towards the hoard. But this time the beasts were conscious of the sharks and prepared themselves.
One of the sharks leapt from its shadow and went for an enemy head. But it was intercepted and rammed by a horned lizard, the horn pierced far into the shark's organs and James felt his mind shook.
'Work together!' He gritted his teeth from the pain. He needed the sharks to work together now. If one of them dies he realised that he'll also feel it.
James held out his rifle and fired towards the smaller beasts. He tried to reduce the stress placed on his sharks. But he didn't account for those small beasts to flank them. Coming from the side they overwhelmed the soldiers.
James took out his grenade and through them towards larger gatherings of beasts.
*Bang*
The beasts were blown to bits. Soldiers followed the lead and threw everything they had, pushing back the hoard as much as they could. They managed to give themselves some breathing time, but all that time was just used to throw more explosives.
'Come back' James felt worse now, his mind was in so much pain. He needed the sharks to return to him, fortunately, May planned for this to happen.
His sharks came back quickly and although injured, the shark that was pierced by the horn was still alive. Only just.
"Light em up!" James ordered. The soldiers were also informed about it and retreated back to the boat. The beasts took thought of this as an advantage, the military saw this as their trump card.
*Boom*Boom*Boom*Boom*Boom*
containers that were left around the placed all began to blow up. The ground was quickly lit on fire, the beasts were quickly pushed back to the wall. The intelligent beasts at the back were in shock, they didn't plan for this.
During all that preparing they set up plenty of traps. They drenched the ground in gasoline and planted explosives around the area to set them all off. It was something that May planned. James had to give it to the old hag, she's still managed to keep her wits and quick thinking.
*Screech*
Unfortunately, the explosives and fire don't affect the birds. But something else does.
As the birds went to swoop down and attack the ground soldiers they were quickly tangled up by some thin but strong wire. The birds quickly went mad and flailed around like crazy in an attempt to break free.
"Do it," May ordered from the boat. All those wires were connected to multiple batteries. They have all turned on automatically and an electric charge went through the wires, zapping the birds to death.
The beasts' forces were quickly dwindling, the soldiers saw hope. But then they saw a problem, one that didn't fully expect to see. Some of the birds that didn't fall for it began to flap their wings heavily.
Before long, blades of wind shot down towards the wires, breaking them apart in seconds and even going down further and slicing up soldiers. James could do anything about it, aside from shoot the birds there wasn't much else he could do.
*Thump*Thump*Thump*
And on the other side, the fire has calmed down, leaving a path wide open for the beasts to follow. They had a strategy now though, the larger beasts were close together, leaving the soldiers no room to shoot through and kill the small beasts following behind them.
'Going to need some help here' James could only clench his fist and grit his teeth as he summoned his sharks.
'You're already at your limit, you need to retreat and rest' The giant shark calmly said to him. Just as he could feel the damage done to them on him, they could feel the same. The giant shark has concerns about her master pushing himself.
'Don't worry, I just need to spray towards the beasts, it doesn't do much to me' He was glad that his sharks were concerned but he was more concerned at the direction the battle was going.
In the control room on the battleship, even May was left frustrated. The intelligent beasts were able to learn from their mistakes and fix them, causing more problems for them.
"Need a hand?" A voice cockily said through the communicator. They heard a glass shake a bit as a jet flew past at the speed of sound, mowing down the birds as it flew by.
May rushed to the other side of the control room and looked outside the window facing the ocean. She noticed a lot of ships nearby, not battleships but carrier ships. Full of fighter jets. May could only think of one person that could control so much, Air Chief Marshal Jack.
"Oh boy, James is going to love to see you," May commented through the communicator. She heard a laugh from the other end and returned to her duty, quickly organising the troops.
"Fall back to ship, get ready to dock and keep your eyes towards the battlefield," May gave everyone the command.
James, on the other hand, was extremely busy, he was getting pushed by more and more beasts. He attempted to fall back but almost tripped in the process.
"Need a hand mate," James recognised that voice and realised why May issued the command. Turning around he saw the man that was and still is his rival.
Air Chief Marshal Jack, one of his mates he competed with during the academy days. He felt a bit annoyed that Jack managed to get that position before him.
"We have a lot to catch up on," James responded while continuing to shoot.
"You should probably get back and recover, we'll need you to survive. Just like that group I was informed about, you also have that value," Jack said as he pushed James back.
Jack gave a thumbs up to James, "No to mention the air force is here now, we'll take care of this in no time at all."
James knew what he meant as he looked up. There were dozens of fighter jets, some of them fighting against the birds. Other were dropping bombs across the battlefield, quickly cleaning it up.
*Screech*
Finally, they saw one of the bosses. It was a bird person, it was also enraged at the sight of the hundreds of bird corpses scattered across the ground.
it opened its wings wide before closing them faster then their eyes could see. Jack got a bad premonition about this, that was completely right. A wind blade went across the battlefield quickly, slicing up a unit of fighter jets swiftly and cleanly.
"What the hell was that?" Jack was deeply shocked. He saw one of his entire units get wiped out in mere seconds.
"Fire!" May shouted at the top of her lungs when she saw that.
*Bang*Bang*Bang*
The battleship fired towards the intelligent beast and it noticed it immediately. But at the simple flap of its wings, a gust of wind strong enough blew apart cannon rounds in seconds. Leaving it unscathed.
'Come out you four, I'm going to need your help' Jack had four beasts, all of which were colourful birds that flew around him gracefully.