Once more the ships lit up. Be it the rain of bullets from the machine and Gatlin guns, or the onslaught of the ballistae bolts with were Ordinance-Tipped, their retaliation was cruel and merciless.
In under a second, the entire defense of the western wall was shaved down by the invading force, carving a path for the ships into the city.
The ships were not going to touchdown, the men would be rappelling from the ships with ropes. While this novel idea was not entirely new to this army, to Kabras, this was going to be the highlight of the war.
Having never been in a building or a house with stairs or a story, Kabras had always wondered how it felt to be up there. After his home city joined the war, he had been pretty far removed, almost in the rear line as far as the ships were concerned.
Seeing the attack that had fallen on those at the lead, the following ships had not been so eager to suffer the same. They did get to see the second attack with better clarity, which enhanced their opinion of Barda all the more.
Kabras was afraid of Magic, but since this was their reality, this was not something he could avoid. As a soldier, he was well aware that mages were the most dangerous forces on the battlefield, but he now had a way to deal with them.
The 2 guns he had, an assault rifle and a handgun, gave him the power to protect himself from a mage, yet they were just his backup weapons. His main weapon weighed a lot more and was a lot heavier, but it put him on equal grounds with a fire mage.
Standing at 6 feet 5 inches, Kabras was a mountain of a man with bulging muscles. He was a woodcutter by profession, and his years of swinging an ax at trees were showing all over his body.
However, at that moment he was not standing but crouching, waiting his turn. He was the 7th in his unit to rappel, and already 5 had gone.
A jolt of shock hit his heart as he anticipated the drop, both scared and excited. In his heart, the man felt like kissing Barda, wherever he was, for giving him a chance to experience all this.
The rope almost snapped as the giant went down, causing the ship to bend slightly in the air. Despite his fears, Kabras performed excellently as he went down, and soon the entire squad was gathered.
They quickly took off running along the wall, where they had landed. They had their objectives. This team, and several others like it, were assigned to open the gates to let the ground forces in. They were also to provide cover for them until the ground forces made it into the city.
With 5 gunmen and 3 crossbow carriers, Kabras found that he barely had anything much to do as they ran. Before he could aim his weapon, the enemy had already been taken down.
The guns just made it all seem too easy. Like a game, one almost forgot they were taking lives. There was also almost no casualty since the enemy could not get close enough.
Some fell from the arrows coming at them, but these were the minority. The tough kevlar armor that covered their entire body, save for their faces, was more than capable of absorbing these attacks.
Barda had designed something close to Deadpool's suit. Nah, let's go with Captain America's suit. While thick and heavy, it still offered protection from arrows as well as providing mobility and flexibility that the metallic armor could not.
As they got closer to the gates, they got to the most dangerous part. The enemy was well protected from the fire of the enemy. The heavy armor that shielded the gate and the gatehouse was reinforced with magic. This was where the massive gates were controlled.
The gates and the walls were reinforced with the same type of magic, making them nigh indestructible even from the explosives that came their way. Therefore, humans had to go in and open the gates.
Just as they got close to the gates, a burst of gunfire sounded. Kabras was momentarily shocked, wondering why his own were firing at them. He did not have time to worry over that.
His weapon had been the flame thrower. It was how they were going to get into the gatehouse. This time, he extended the blast-shield as well as taking out the tank, but not to throw away but to serve as a shield.
Barda's design skills were off the charts. The tank was an immaculate design and the men who worked on them were superb. However, that did not mean their design was indestructible. It could only take so much lead before it as shredded into pieces.
More than 200 guns were shooting at them, so it couldn't hold for much longer. The ensuing explosion consumed the entire team in a glorious fireball.
Manga was momentarily shocked. The enemy had their weapons as well? Their advantage had been taken? Guns and bullets were their one advantage over Gumina and their magic? Now that Gumina had these, what chance did they stand?
Despite the shock, the first wave accomplished their task. They were able to clear the defenses, allowing the second wave to come in more smoothly.
The second wave was the remaining ships. Approaching from the flanks, they made their way into the city undeterred. The first wave had done their job perfectly in this regard.
The third wave consisted of the nearby ground forces waiting to charge at the gates. The gates had yet to be opened. That meant that the Ground forces could still not approach.
However, with 200 ships approaching from the left and another 200 from the right, the pressure on the defense of the city which had already been breached was strained even further.
***
"Good, now that they are in the city, its time they all died together. I am tired of this continent anyway," The prince muttered before commanding his guards to lead the way to the appointed place.
After everything was said and done, he still lost the city. Not that he had much hope in keeping it. The real war had been lost the moment he ran away from the battlefield.
Nevertheless, he had made this plan. If not for anything else, he would get to have all his enemies, everyone who saw him run, in one place.
This also included his people. They too were in the city, fighting for him. That thought never crossed his mind, they too had seen him tuck tail and run, if they spread what they saw, it could destroy Gumina's reputation.
He turned his attention towards the battlefield. The ships were in the city. He wondered which ship his enemy was on. No matter, not even these glorified ships could escape his trap.
He cast his eyes to the direction of the ocean. That was where the danger was going to come from. After giving the subtle signal, he made his escape. What he didn't count on was finding his nemesis waiting for him at his wyvern pit, his favorite wyvern dead.
This time, this fool was not going to get away, Barda had made sure of that. Hence, in his meticulous planning, he had made it such that he would descend with the first wave, and while pretending to be just an ordinary soldier, this assassin would slip in and do the deed.
He hadn't been phased at all by his enemy possessing his weapons. From the moment he shared the designs he knew they would eventually end up in the enemy's hands. However, he couldn't very well arm an entire army of millions with just himself, could he?
Suddenly, the ground underneath Barda shot up, pushing him away from the group. The Rock mage on the Prince's security detail had bought them some time.
However, what neither of them expected was that Barda would, not only have the strength of mind to concentrate and make a shot at the prince while in mid-air but also to hit the prince right between his eyebrows as he was looking up.
It had to be said that Barda was using a high-powered rifle. That was the only thing that could penetrate the hard hide of the wyverns. It was with this rifle that he shot at the Prince of Gumina. With this in mind, picture the carnage that happened after the shot. It's safe to say that there were little bits of the prince from the neck up.
However, just as Barda was about to celebrate his shot, he saw the shoreline of the beach of Reuze receding, as if the ocean was draining. A very ominous feeling settled in his heart.
He did not have an answer for what nature was about to throw at them. At that moment, his meteorological scanners were yelling at him one thing, a tsunami was forming.