Chereads / Final Fantasy: Crisis and Tranquility / Chapter 20 - Chapter 20: Small Advancements

Chapter 20 - Chapter 20: Small Advancements

Ramiel and Alexandra were leading the Shinra troops. As well as the SOLDIER 2nd class against Wutai's tenacious army.

A couple of months have passed since the war and they were currently waiting in their camp for reinforcements.

"Hmmm, so this is the reason why the Shinra-Wutai war took multiple years... It takes tons of time for reinforcements to come. And Wutai is really efficient in whittling down their troops." Ramiel sighed, thinking that he didn't expect that months of constant fighting is quite tiring.

"Even with Sephiroth that was already 1st class in this time of canon. They still took 9 years to beat Wutai." Ramiel looked at Alexandra who was sleeping beside him.

"She's really bored here, I guess I haven't thought of keeping her entertained." Ramiel chuckled and patted her head. He then called Lazard to have a little update on how their projects have been doing.

"Hello, Ramiel. I assume you're going to ask about how the minings have been doing?" Lazard already had an idea.

"Yeah? You been having problems or anything? Did Shinra already send reinforcements too? This crap is getting really boring and repetitive." Ramiel sighed and Lazard chuckled.

"Yes, everything is fine. We've already gotten a couple of tons of the element we need for fuel. Shinra already sent reinforcement as well, they were just waiting for the ships to return. Shinra can't send them without ships after all." Lazard explained and Ramiel gave an annoyed snort.

"Damn, this is going to be troublesome. Okay, thanks. I have an idea on what I'll do with our free time. I'll send you what it is later, spread it to the phones that have been given already." Ramiel cut the call and he took out a couple of computers.

He started typing furiously and his ambidextrous hands were coding a game that he had the wonderful idea of working on. Pokemon, it was a very popular game back in his old world. The first games were also quite easy to make. And smartphones are overqualified to run them.

The rhythmic sounds of his typing woke up his sister and she groaned, annoyed by the typing. "Nii-san... What the hell are you doing?" Alexandra squinted her eyes at him and she saw that he was typing on two computers furiously fast.

"I'm making a game, it's a cute one. Where you enslave monsters that roam the world and train them to their maximum potential. Then the adults give it to 10 year olds so they could have duels for cash and prestige." Ramiel chuckled and Alex thought that was probably just one way you could interpret it.

"So... Isn't that really inappropriate for children? Even adults, that's messed up." Alex raised a brow at his decision and Ramiel laughed.

"If you look at it close enough, that's what's really happening. But of course, we mask it with a touching adventure where the tamers called trainers develop a bond with their slaves. Pretty nice no?" Ramiel smiled at her and Alex sighed.

"Okay, let me look on one of the designs." She sat on the bed and waited for him. Ramiel already drew a couple of pokemon designs and of course, the first starter Pokemons in the Kanto region, the OG.

"A lizard, a turtle, and a quadruped cabbage?" Alex looked at the weird, but cute creatures. She thought that it was pretty good designs and people liked cute things.

"What? They're pretty cute, right? Though these things could easily kill a normal person." Ramiel chuckled as he gave Alex a couple of Pokedex entries on what they could do.

"This is quite unique, I could already tell that this will have a ton of lore. How can you make this in our spare time? We have a lot of it, yes. But you don't create these with just a bit of inspiration." Alex was quite amazed and Ramiel gave a wry smile, not really able to say that he was just copying things.

"Whatever, I'll just go to sleep. Go and keep yourself busy with that, hmph." Alex huffed at him and he thought women were really troublesome.

"What, you want your onii-sama to sing you to sleep or something?" Ramiel teased her and she blushed heavily.

"N-no..." Alex stuttered and she began imagining him singing her to sleep. "Hah, come here then. You're lucky that I love you." Ramiel put her head on his lap and began patting her head with one of his hands. While his free one kept on coding for the game.

"Awawawa!" Alexandra panicked and she began to overheat. But seeing his focused eyes on the computer made her realize that he was tirelessly working. Almost 24/7 even, juggling work that would be impossible for most.

She began to slowly lose consciousness from the warmth of her hands. His soft strokes on her hair making Alex calm and relaxed. After a few minutes, she finally went to sleep and clung to him by hugging his waist.

Ramiel gave a wry smile and patted her head one last time. But he has miscalculated. "Damn, I can't move her, my leg's gonna be dead later." Ramiel furrowed his brows and sighed. He just went on with coding some games and will endure the consequences of his actions.

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Later at dawn, Ramiel was having a hard time walking as he felt pins and needles every step he took with one of his legs.

"Why didn't you just move me away? Stupid." Alexandra rolled her eyes, but she has a slightly noticeable blush on her face. Happy that he didn't really want to bother her sleep.

"There's things that a man isn't able to back down on, Alex. You'd never understand." Ramiel nodded sagely and they waited for the new reinforcements of Shinra.

A couple of ships were en route to the island and they were noticeably bigger. The troops that landed were heavy infantry and Ramiel nodded in satisfaction on what he saw.

"Hmmm, heavy armor and shields like a tank eh? Pretty good, this will be enough for a siege." Ramiel commented and one of the SOLDIERs sighed.

"Captain, this would be much easier if they could have just sent some air support. Maybe a few choppers so we could scout the enemies in the sky." The SOLDIER grumbled and the other 2nd class nodded begrudgingly.

"Hah, minion-kun. Life is unfair, even if Shinra has nigh unlimited money. We will never receive support that we need, remember that. Both be grateful and keep a grudge." Ramiel patted him on the back.

"What are we waiting for, then? Let's go and get this started. You guys have been sitting on those ships for weeks, it's time to move." Alex gestured for them to move and the Elite SOLDIERs saluted. Making the heavy infantry quickly follow. As that signified that they were the supreme commanders of the war.

After a few hours of preparation, the army finally had the supplies needed for a push. They marched through the forests and it was a pretty smart move from Lazard to send heavy infantry instead of vehicles. Because they would instantly stall from the terrain.

The 2nd class were leading as vanguards to scout ahead. Looking for traps, mines, claymores. The relatively slow march went smoothly, except for a few bumps because of the hard to move in terrain.

After a couple of minutes, muzzle flashes lit up from behind the trees. "Everyone, hide behind the shields! SOLDIERs, protect the flank and sides!" Ramiel immediately ordered and the heavy infantry quickly did their jobs as their tanks and glorified cover.

Suppressive fire were being unloaded on them. But Shinra endured and their shields held true. There were openings on the shields and soldiers that had lmg's quickly smoked the trees in front where the muzzle flashes were from.

Wutai's troops didn't have any choice, but to retreat and reposition themselves else they will suffer large casualties.

Shinra's troops slowly advanced and they gained a lot of ground for the first time in months. It wasn't an exaggeration to call this expedition a major victory. Reaching a sizeable flat land that had signs of camping.

It was a place where Ramiel and Alexandra noted in the map of Wutai as possible checkpoints where the enemy troops camped safely in the protection of the forest. While they harass Shinra and whittle down their forces.

"Ohhh! We won, we're gaining ground!" A mook shouted out and the morale of the army was high. They didn't have a lot of wounded or casualties this time. Unlike when they first tried to lay siege on the forests.

"Don't celebrate yet, secure the perimeter. This is also a pretty dangerous area. Send a team to get all the supplies from our previous base so we can continue pushing to the mainland." Ramiel quickly ordered the troops and everybody saluted.

"Alex, Wutai can't stop our advances here as long as the heavy infantry protects the soft troops. Let's split from the main army later once we know that's really the case and let the 2nd class lead them." Ramiel told her, as they needed to give Wutai some information to prepare. Keep the battles at a stalemate in order to buy more time.

Alex nodded and they quickly barked their orders to secure the area. Resting there for now as the heavy infantry didn't really have a lot of available time for active movement due to their obviously heavy equipment.

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Thanks for reading, ciao.