"This doesn't make any sense..." I remarked after smashing apart another one of these small airships.
"Don't think about that sort of stuff now!" Osses told me as she knocked another off course.
"They can't break past our shield... These machines are too weak even with all this magic." I explained to her whilst we were briefly near each other before we split off once more.
"Yeah, that explains why they run." she scoffs as I pull her back from pursuing them.
"We only broke off to scare them away, we need to join the others and figure out how to deal with that airship." I tell her as I begin to guide her back in the direction of the distant behemoth.
"Maybe someone should tell those lancers that their support is gone." she comments as we head back to support our wing. But, having said that, I couldn't help but look down at the thin line charging across the plains. They were just lancers and those were thick, stone walls.
For all their status, I had never seen or heard of any ryphurgok capable of such a feat. Only the exaggerated legend of their founder could likely ever accomplish that. But he was just that, an exaggerated legend. It was genuinely strange...
Yet, it was expected in a way. The soldiers for these heretics seemed to be reliant on faced-individuals to lead them. Their leader must've been killed by our guns on the charge. They weren't even going after the men in the plains!
They just went past them completely in a focused charge towards the walls...
"Wing-Tip?" Osses asked me confusedly as I suddenly stopped to watch the charging lancers. Something felt odd here...
"You go ahead, join up with the other two and assist Wing-Head Allyoceer and Wing-Tip Uala however you can. I'm going to..." I explained to her, although I never finished my explanation before I headed down.
"We need you to stop that airship!" she argued.
"Go and help them!" I told her once again as I dived down towards the mass of cavalry. And as I got closer, an object in the back became clearer. Infantry were keeping pace with the cavalry... Strong, able-bodied men with the help of magic were keeping up with them.
The men on the walls were shooting at them, but they were doing it half-heartedly. They were as likely confused as I was too. But, then, all of a sudden, the lancers began to turn away. And they raised their lances as if to honour something.
And I noticed all too late what the small band of infantry were doing.
"OFF THE WAL-" I started to scream before I was suddenly flung back by a massive explosion. I flipped and turned in the air and along the ground briefly. But with one sudden dash I was back in the sky with my sword at the ready. And I crashed into the nearest lancer as they circled back around.
I tried to get as many as I could, but as it was earlier in the day. I found myself panicking as things went awry. The men I was tasked with protecting were now being run down within the very fortress that was meant to protect them! So many had been trampled already and the explosion had only recently occurred...
"No... No! NO!" I began to repeat again and again as I went through with a frenzied slaughter of the ryphurgok cavalry. Yet, even then, some still made it through. With one even going all the way up the path to the upper fortress' gatehouse! And he charged right back down after leaving a large object at its gate.
The soldiers within the tunnel-like firing ports couldn't do anything against that armour. And he rode back down with a triumphant blast from his horn. But, having just seen what those objects do, I set aside my murderous efforts to stop it. I left my sword behind and leapt for it.
Reaching out for it desperately as I watched something change shape and glow brighter. I saw the metal casing heat up rapidly and I hissed as I picked it up. I threw it as far as I could. But was blown into the gatehouse as it suddenly detonated mere halfmans from me.
"VALKINVAR!?" a soldier cried as the sounds of pain and coughing filled my ringing ears. I blinked a few times and got up with their help. But I felt... Shallow...
Again I had failed and the consequences of it were dire. Our fortifications had been breached completely. Both gates were gone. A direct path to the main fortress lay wide open.
"You..." I started to say as I watched the remaining lancers gallop away as our guns fired at them erratically. Many were caught but they escaped with the aid of those small airships which had come back around.
"VALKINVAR, LOOK!" one of the men cried as a terrible noise shook the sky once more.
"N-No..." I struggled to get out as the mighty airship passed over the very rim of the plains. Its shadow already blacked out so much and the magic from its engines disturbed and flattened grass. A shimmering field beneath a potent, blinding power. The world in all its forms quaked before such a sight.
And the world knew only one mindset right now...
"MAN THE GUNS!" filled the fortress and the air around me. And within that steel giant, likely rang the same words. But whatever their silent, shadow-faced soldiers heard. I had to move...
I had to fight!
"Allyoceer..." I choked out as I saw what seemed like mere buzzards. My fellow Valkinvar had still accomplished nothing! So what good was it for me to join them...? I...
No, this was not a time to doubt myself. So I quickly forced myself into the sky and stretched my strength to its limit. All to put myself into the same danger that they were all facing right now. For the sake of everyone I had to.
"WING-TIP VAPOOLIAR! WE'VE HAD NO LUCK!" she screamed to me as I joined up with her as she made another pointless carving run. Her blade showered the sky with sparks but she did nothing. A superficial effort that had hammered hopelessness into all of us.
"THE LOWER FORTRESS HAS BEEN BREACHED! BOTH GATEHOUSES ARE GONE!"
"WHAT!?"
"RYPHURGOKS!" I answered as we found a safe spot right against the hull of the airship.
"No... No... Dammit..." she growled as she violently slammed her free fist against the impenetrable hull.
"What do we do...?"
"Find Dannatili, find Lavauroas, pull them back to the fortress, we need them to join the defence to buy us more time so we can figure out how to stop this thing!" she explained to me as she shoved me back into the air.
"The fortress won't survive!" I cried back to her as I tried to resist looking down. The shadow was only a prelude, but it measured just how far the airship had gotten...
"AND TELL THE GUN CREWS TO FOCUS ON THIS MACHINE!" she screamed at me, ignoring everything I had said so she could have another go at uselessly flailing at it. And, swearing under my breath as I felt water in my eyes, I did as I was told.
"DANNATILI! LAVAUROAS!" I cried again and again as I shot and dashed around the airship. Ironically, however, I could not look for them because of the danger I was in. Shot flew past me with distorted sounds and sensations. Strange magic nets tried to slam against me.
The infantry on board were even still firing from the deck! Even as my sisters went through them like thin glass. They cut them down as a farmer did his crop. So very easily, so very casually with minimal effort.
But they still focused on me and tried to fire, their reckless dismissal... As I panicked and became stressed about the idea of dying. They held their ground even as they died. But, I was still alive and so were the others, so I had to keep going for their sake.
"STAGUIFFMANI! AMMIMPAURST!" I cried out differently before I caught sight of a large blast of wind magic. That very moment, I then burst over to my sister and chaotically halted by her. Finding myself in her care for that brief moment of incompetence.
She had saved my life from one of those cannonballs...
"Where's Lavauroas!?" I asked her as she was meant to be paired with him last I checked.
"ASK HIM!" she shouts before she takes out another gun with a well-timed, well-placed shot. But one out of thousands meant little... Yet, I had not forgotten her words and looked down.
"MAYBE A LITTLE MORE WEIGHT!?" Lavauroas asked the machine as he came rocketing up with a whole train of linked-up boulders brimming with magic. He brought them up and over and slammed them right at the tower on the airship's top. Yet for all the showiness, he had just clogged up their deck with shattered stone.
"Wing-Head Allyoceer has ordered you both back to the fortress. She wants you to focus on stopping the shots from this thing hitting it!"
"Why me!?" Lavauroas demanded to know as he adjusted his position to avoid enemy shot.
"You can throw up interceptors! She wants you to pass on that as well to the gun crews! Have them focus on stopping this thing's shots! Do you hear!?"
"O-Okay..." Dannatili breathed in relief before she left. Lavauroas, however, lingered, seemingly angered by the change of events.
"GAH! IF THIS THING WAS AN ANIMAL THEN I COULD JUST SMASH ITS LEGS AND CRIPPLE IT!" he roared in anger before he explosively shot away from me.
"Oh, we all wish how it was easier..." I groaned fearfully before I joined up with Uala's group. Just as they were making more passes against the topside crew.
"I HOPE YOU CAME TO ME WITH A PLAN!" she roared at me just as she suddenly fell out of the sky and crashed at the end of the prow.
"UALA!" I let out as I dropped down before her to keep her safe from incoming bolts.
"Help me by figuring something out..." she panted in exhaustion before she went into the sky again. Leaving me on my own to face the troops as more and more poured out to meet us. Seeing that, I considered maybe trying to make a sudden dash to the doors. But, it was clear that the others had already tried it.
The signs of battle were there... They had failed to get past the defences of the airship and its crew. Yet, despite this, I still made an enraged sprint for the head of the airship. Its glass windows must've been a weak point!
"DAMMIT!" I cried in fury as my blade bounced away from the magic-dense material. A dull thud shook me and I quickly dove over the airship's edge.
"Wing-Tip!" Cetrepe called out from a safe spot carved from the hull. So I joined her to catch my breath and maybe get her assistance in at least something.
"It's stopping..." I let out as I suddenly snapped my grip on the hull.
"The airship is preparing a broadside!" Cetrepe explained whilst I was confused about why all the guns had stopped. And as we found ourselves presented before the Long Battery Fort. I prayed to all I could. That the gun crews would hit their marks and that the mountain cracker was ready.
I cried out for Guareroisncer in desperation, begging for his strength so that our fortress might hold...
"Hold... Please, hold..." I sobbed as I made sure to stay away from the barrel at the centre of the crater. And then, in a single moment, beyond the green mist that now covered the fortress. I saw it light up orange, yellow and red. I heard a storm suddenly form on the other side.
A volley of stone and metal then washed over us and crashed against the unbreakable armour. The sound of smashing, shattering munitions and fireballs nearly deafened me. Some even struck me and shook me violently. Then it happened again and again!
"WE HAVE TO MOVE!" Cetrepe shouted as she flew over to grab me. Only to be struck right in the side by a large cannonball from our own side!
"Don't worry! I got you!" I told her as my nose flared with activity. Her loose grip contrasted my tight one. And her groans managed to reach me despite the shower of violence we had to endure. Then, with a single push, I pulled her close and shot down the length of the broadside.
Weaving past glowing barrels as they expunged oblivion. Those great engines below me were my target. I wanted to get Cetrepe past the guns and to the ground so she could at least recover! I kept my focus and weaved past the arcane and the physical.
Screaming as I made the final push past the great suction of the engines. Then, just as we neared the ground, I flipped Cetrepe over me and let my body take the force of the blow. I groaned in pain and cried as my body ached. I did not let go until she reacted in some way.
"Wing-Tip..." she let out quietly before I shoved her off.
"Stay here and recover, okay!? We need you..." I tell her as I shake her shoulder harshly. Even now, I could feel that she was stronger than me. They all were. I was just a...
"No, they need you." she corrected as she forced my arm off of her shoulder.
"You're all stronger than me..."
"None of us are stronger than the other! We are stronger together!" she snapped at me as I rose to my feet.
"No... Lavauroas is right, if this was just a living creature you could cripple it and I could watch uselessly from the walls..." I cried as I looked up at the engines struck down at the earth below.
"Yes... Cripple it! TARGET THE ENGINES!" she encourages me to do with enthusiastic fervour.
"My blade can't cut through that!" I tell her as she tries to get me back into the air.
"TOGETHER!" she reminds me with a scream as I am suddenly thrown into the air.
"Dannatili... Lavauroas..." I realize before I rocket towards the fortress. It was a struggle passing by the engines and all that magic. But, I squeezed by, and I did so by forcing myself into the dirt like it wanted me to be. And I popped out into the air the moment the pressure eased up.
I put all I could into my upwards flight and I switched direction the moment I aligned myself with the fortress. A forearm stayed ahead of me, blocking any munitions that might've hit me while my head kept turning back. So much danger was behind me that I didn't remember to look forward. And I crashed through the protective mist and into the fortress.
"GET UP!" Lavauroas demanded as he pulled me out of my mess.
"YOU TWO, WITH ME!" I screamed at them as I snatched up Lavauroas' hand, dragging him along.
"HUH!?" Dannatili squealed as I snatched her up. I brought both of them out into the crossfire and threw them out into the air.
"WHAT'S THE PLAN!?" Lavauroas roared excitedly as I did my best to guide the pair towards one of the forward engines.
"WE'RE GOING TO CRIPPLE IT!" I shout back at them just as Dannatili shoots a bolt of magic to preemptively detonate one of the orbs.
"YOU BEST HURRY!" Dannatili screams as I take painful notice of how many of these orbs were flying past us. Then, in a mere moment, we crashed collectively against the frontal corner of the airship.
"Tell me where!" the Ammimpaurst demanded to know as he prepped his war maul.
"Valkinvar-Staguiffmani Dannatili, lend me your power!" I ask of her as I notice somewhere where I could lodge my blade. I could not cut this steel, but that is what I was counting on. And as I asked, she lent me her power and I grit my teeth as my body burned under the strain.
"GO!" she roared as she funneled it towards me in spite of the engine that tried to steal it from her with its devouring maw.
"STRIKE HERE!" I declare to Lavauroas as he suddenly rose up with a glowing weapon.
"DOWN I COME!" he let out as he suddenly dropped faster than I could fly. He was above it one moment and the next a burst of fire filled my vision.
"We did it..." I let out in relief as the groan of metal drowned out all other noises. The engine was falling and all that magic was suddenly exploding outwards!
"HERE!" Dannatili called out as she shielded us from the blast as best she could as the airship we were pinned against suddenly buckled and moved.
"Take that you stupid machine!" Lavauroas taunted as he bonked his weapon against the thick steel.
"It's still not going down..." I let out with worry. There were six of these engines and I doubted that we had the strength to handle it all. My blade hadn't even survived the moment intact. It had been shattered and bent...
Only the handle and the core remained in any real capacity...
"HOW'D YOU DO THAT!?" Allyoceer suddenly demanded to know as she appeared above us.
"I put my blade into the exposed..." I failed to explain before she caught on to how we did not have the power to do it again.
"Get everyone topside, I have an idea." she suddenly said as she went about gathering the dashing lines of emerald.
"Let's go." I tell the other two as help them up initially before I remembered Cetrepe.
"You did it!" she called out as we met in the air.
"Allyoceer wants us all up top now!" I explain as we instantly follow the order. And as if we had leapt up, we landed on the decking with the others as they gathered about. Some fought while others took the moment to catch their breath.
"They're coming at us in force!" one of Uala's lot pointed out as she gave ground to the horde.
"PUSH DOWN!" Allyoceer suddenly shouted as she went up and slammed straight down into the decking. An action that I only thought of as odd, I did not let it stop me. I joined up with her and exerted all I could. I had a feeling I knew what she was doing!
"THOSE THINGS ON THE EDGE WON'T LET YOU!" Uala pointed out as she broke away from the group to suddenly shear off what we had ignored previously.
"IT'S WORKING! THE AIRSHIP IS LOSING ALTITUDE!" someone called out as explosions began to litter the left side of the airship.
"JUST A LITTLE MORE!" Allyoceer roared as we all screamed to our heart's content. We forced all of our magic out and watched from the corner of our eyes as the view changed. The airship was going down! We were really doing it!
"Time to go!" Dannatili suddenly told us as she scooped us all up in her magic and took us away. And, thankfully, the gods had granted me a great view from this compact sphere. My face may have been shoved against brittle, fracturing magic. But I got a clear view of the airship as it crashed into the earth.
All that weight and power suddenly backfired on it and its engines crumbled as its carved a canyon! The guns slid right past the fortress and could be aimed no more! We had stopped it! I had managed to help stop it...
"I..." I was about to cry as I suddenly felt a huge burden lifted from me. But it ended the moment Dannatili's magic failed and we crashed against the roof as a group.
"Well done everyone..." Allyoceer struggled to say amidst the pile of groans and exhausted movements.
"I'm spent..." was a comment that was repeated in many ways over and over. Yet, despite all that had happened, I tried to force myself to my feet and perched myself against the nearest wall.
"The smaller craft, the ryphurgoks..." I realised as the troops we had largely ignored came back to protect their own fortress. But, those ryphurgoks, they were on an open plain and were headed right for the men left out in the fields.
"Rest, Vapooliar, the guns are facing away!" Osses laughed from the ground as I saw squares and lines form in the distance.
"They'll be slaughtered!" I realize as I once again found myself thinking of my past.
"There's nothing we can do! We're spent!" she told me as she came up to join me against the wall.
"NO! I CAN STILL FIGHT!" I shout in defiance as I got my adrenaline pumping once more. But, with my body being as spent as it was. Every step was agony and my legs trembled as I stepped onto the wall.
"What're you doing!?" someone called out to me as I began to fall over the edge.
"Saving my men..." I sneered back at them as I made one final sonic boom to launch myself into the distance. And while I came up short, the sheer force I threw myself out with sent me rolling towards the amassing ironcoats.
"Valkinvar!" one of them cried out as I struggled to get up.
"N-No! I'm fine..." I told them as I shoved them back to the formation.
"We're doomed... No shields... Nothing..." one of the men squealed as he trembled. Yet, despite this, he held his boom-pike out and braced himself for the oncoming charge. Their roars filled their ears and the field lit up with the magic of spiral-lances. But they all held their ground even as an armoured earthquake approached them.
"Hand me a weapon!" I hissed as I physically forced out a space in the line for myself.
"We're glad you're here, Valkinvar." an officer whispered to me as I adjusted my grip on the feeble weapon.
"Make sure to exploit the gap I make for you..." I tell him as my tiredness becomes even more apparent. I couldn't hold a line, I had to go about this differently...
"HOLD STEADY MEN!" the officers repeated as roars went through us. The terror of the Seven-Peak Union heavy cavalry was thundering closer. One galloping motion at a time. One drumming of the earth...
"HOLD!" I roared out to them as we lowered our weapons to meet the roaring beasts and their howling riders!