"Quen..."
I moved my hand a little, and a few magic spells hit my shield, and at the same moment a shot rang out that literally blew Eredin's head apart. It was supposed to blow his head off, but his head was still intact, and the elf was just thrown aside, and he fell to the ground a couple times, rolling over and over.
"That's your courage?!"
Eredin slowly rose from the ground, but I was more interested in his angry outcry.
"And you're telling me this after your mages attacked me?"
"That's different!!!"
"Yeah, yeah..."
I nodded my head and turned around and walked back towards the gate.
"...and what was I even counting on?"
After shaking my head and catching a few more spells on the witch's shield, I finally entered the fortress, only this time the mages who had launched spells at me were immediately hit by snipers, and Eredin was also hit by a few new shots.
I climbed up the wall again, where they were already waiting for me.
"Well, what was that for?"
Naturally the creatures were not going to wait for my return, so behind my back there was already a new wall of fire, which did not allow the cold creatures to approach the fortress. And the elves themselves were somewhat afraid to approach, as the temperature in the separating strip was quite high.
The question was asked by Ian, who was next to me, glaring at me with a frown.
"I don't understand your complaint. You don't seem to be building a relationship with me, but you ask a question like a grumpy wife to her husband, who has done something wrong..."
"That's how you did it..."
Behind me was Triss and her voice was far from friendly.
"Well, maybe, but I couldn't pass up the chance to end it quickly. After all, if he came out to fight me, he could be killed and this pointless war would be over. Well, at least that was the hope."
"Foolish hope..."
Ciri, who had no thought of leaving and was standing next to Geralt shook her head at those words.
"Stupid..."
I nodded.
"...it would probably stop the battle temporarily, and then someone else would take Eredin's place, if he was here. Even so, there was still a chance that they'd leave you alone, and it was worth taking..."
Meanwhile, I noticed that the enemies did get too close to the fortress and realized that throwing grenades was pointless.
"Machine guns! Fire!"
Machine gun fire rang out all along the wall, raining down on the creatures and the Elves who were walking just behind them. And if the Elves had already learned from a few of their comrades, they were covered with massive shields... well, those who had shields, the creatures died en masse. But they were still appearing with great speed from the portals and there was no way to close these portals.
However, even so, we could not hold the advancing horde of creatures and elves for long, and they reached the gate. We could not hold off the advancing horde of creatures and elves for long, and they reached the gate.
So the wave just got to the walls and we started pelting them with small vials of alchemical mixtures that didn't hurt the stone as much and didn't have as much heat as the thermal grenades that could make the stone just melt from the heat. Still, they did have an increased power...
I also noticed that the main body of the Wild Hunt remained standing in the distance watching then as the creatures and elves stormed the fortress.
"Snipers, they're dragging a ladder towards us..."
A short phrase and the snipers are already shooting those who are carrying the ladder, and also begin to look not only at the mages, who occasionally managed to calculate by the place from which the spell came off, but also at the various representatives of the elven people, who were carrying ladders and even small hand rams.
I just don't know what the last one was for.
The snipers did not pay attention to one of these hand ram carriers, and he ran to the gate and hit it...
Yeah. a blow, not a light one, but the battering ram in his hands literally fell apart.
"What the hell was that?"
"Artifact..."
Triss squinted and shook her head and headed off towards her position, as did Ian. Ciri also chose to return to her seat.
"Reasonable ones with small hand rams get special attention."
The snipers started firing more often and now they were already hit by magic attacks, or rather, by the places where they were located, but we foresaw that despite all our tricks the locations of at least some snipers would be discovered, so they were well protected.
"П! Preparation..."
Watching what was happening I couldn't help but grin, and in the meantime Vesemir came up to me.
"Well, with the exception of your stupid act, I agree that things are more than working out well so far."
"How come. did you come here to judge me, too?"
I looked at him with a small amount of distaste.
"Not to be judgmental, but I'd like to ask you not to do anything stupid like that again. I've aged twenty years since I saw you go outside the walls."
"I'll think about it, but I had to take a chance. Because if that card had played."
"I understand...the temptation was great, but I doubt you'll be as lucky next time and come back in one piece."
"And I doubt Eredin has the nerve to suggest that I go out to fight him again."
"This one."
Vesemir looked toward the Eredin standing next to the portals and nodded to his thoughts, which he voiced with a second's hesitation.
"...him, that's enough."
I sighed.
"Okay, uh. I think it's time for phase two. don't you think?"
I turned to Vesemir, who shrugged at the question.
"It's up to you. But overall. I think you're right."
I activated the walkie-talkie.
"We're working with underbarrel grenades with fragmentation charges. And under the wall, only fragmentation grenades..."
And just three seconds after my order, the first explosions were heard. Explosions and screams of pain and whimpers from the creatures. It all blended into a cacophony of sounds. And the creatures against the walls became much smaller.
Living creatures to be exact, but the bodies... there were a lot of bodies.
"Ah well..."
Vesemir cleared his ears and grinned.
"...so many enemies killed... and it's only the second stage, and you've thought of two dozen of them..."
He shook his head.
"...It's still good to have you on our side."
I grinned.
"I'm not sure all the steps I've come up with will be as effective as this one."
Out of the corner of my eye I noticed the oddity, but I didn't have time to react, and the rifle that Eredin's subordinate had pulled from behind his back fired at us on top of the wall.
I barely had time to duck, but some of the others were not so lucky and could not avoid the hits of this sub-sniper, who was immediately hit by three shots from a sniper rifle...
Five minutes of such fighting and I notice how Eredin just turns around and hides in the portal, but only his jackals remain in their places. It means he's up to something, or he's gone to ask the elf king for reinforcements.
But something I don't believe that he'll just abandon the plot to capture Ciri during this encounter like that, which means...
"Fuck..."
That was all I could say as warriors armed with modern weapons and armor began to emerge from the portals.
"What the fuck?!"
Vesemir standing next to me also did not hold back, I could only look at the appearance of warriors with rifles, which had not only good modern by the standards of the world of cyberpunk weapons, but also high-quality armor.
"I think I realized what Eredin was doing in our world when he realized he wouldn't find Ciri, but she found allies..."
"You think you've found allies?"
Geralt, who had asked the question, frowned at the fighters appearing from the portal.
"More like, given the history of elves, slaves. I think they enslaved humans in some way, gave them weapons and armor, which they either stole or "bought"..."
I intonation emphasized the word bought to make it clear that I don't mean the usual purchase of equipment at all.
"And what do you mean by "bought"?"
Vesemir gave me a brief glance, then went back to watching the fighters who were still just coming out of the portals.
"Who knows? Maybe they were tricked, bewitched, paid with something not important to themselves, whatever. One thing I am almost completely sure of, however. They didn't pay the wrong price for this equipment and weapons."
"Meanwhile, the soldiers from the portals stopped appearing."
"Report..."
"Estimate one hundred and ten sentients in modern armor and weapons."
The report followed immediately, and I frowned. If he'd brought so many intelligent people here, there were only two possibilities as to why he'd done it. Eredin had put in another of his trump cards, and I'd succeed in grinding them down, or...
Or it's just a small part of his new powers and he brought her in so I could lay down another trump card. Except I have no choice. The Aldecaldos may be heavily armed, but against a force this strong with weapons. and they probably have chrome too. At the very least, there will be casualties if I don't use my next trump card...
"RPGs to engage. the first salvo with distribution of targets on the team, then on readiness."
I immediately received reports about readiness to use RPGs, and if the underbarrel grenades were not so powerful, then the charges in RPGs were so powerful that they could penetrate the armor of a military flyer.
"Take aim. fire!"
Twenty unguided missiles raced towards the enemy reinforcements, which naturally the mages tried to stop, but they were only a couple of moments too late and a translucent wall appeared behind the missiles, which in the next second crashed into the enemies and the ground they were standing on.
Their deployment site has turned into Hell...
And it didn't end with one volley.
The first explosion most likely caught the mage who created the wall that was supposed to stop the missiles and it disappeared, so that and the next unguided missiles reached their target continuing to wreak death and havoc.
Three minutes of continuous fire, during which my subordinates spent almost a hundred unguided missiles.
"We're done!"
My order sounded, followed by another series of explosions and silence...
Well, not quite silence, but cries of pain, groans and more echoed over the battlefield as I watched carefully and realized that Eredin had the upper hand. Though we could hurry him along...
Touching the walkie-talkie and summoning one of the sorceresses.
"Ian, give me a big gust of wind to blow all the dust and cinders away."
"Now..."
One word and ten seconds later a strong wind really picks up that literally blows away anything that obstructs the view and we see bodies... lots of bodies.
Among which lie several dozen bodies of elves, but I cannot find Eredin himself among the bodies, nor can I see the portals from which he and other members of the Wild Hunt came.
"Well... seems to have fought back this time... Casualty report."
And I got reports of one wounded and two dead. And we got all that when Aredin's handlers got their hands on modern weapons.
Unpleasant surprise...
I wrinkled my nose.
"Wizards take care of closing the portals where the creatures keep coming out. Cover... Vesemir, Lambert, Exel and Geralt next to them, sniper cover from the walls."
"Bingo!"
A thunderous chorus of snipers and some machine gunners took my order to execution.
"Okay..."
The witches, also agreed to this order.
"Vesemir, you're in command of the witches."
"Don't worry, we'll protect the magicians..."
He nodded to me, and then went to the stairs that led down to the courtyard of the fortress, where he went to the gate. And in five minutes a group of witches and wizards gathered in front of the gate and they opened the wicket, through which the witches came out first, and after them the wizards. And so they went to the nearest portal.
"You do realize this isn't over, right?"
Ciri ended up next to me.
"Of course I do."
I shrug.
"...but the important thing is that we were able to repel his attack and learned that he was not afraid to take some of the technology from our world. Unfortunately, most likely with the humans. This time we'll be better prepared and give him no chance to win."
"Do you think anything will change with his death?"
I shrugged again.
"We won't know until we try. In the meantime, I'm sorry, but I have to go to suzy's."
"Can I come with you?"
"Sure..."
I nodded at her request, and soon we were at the location of the SUZI facilities.
"What can I do for you?"
"SUZI, tell me, what can you suggest in the way of turret guns? Preferably one we can manufacture quickly and powerful enough to penetrate small spaceships. Military grade, of course."
"Well, uh. I have the technology. I think they'd be perfect for this situation."
And on the screen where the image of the SUZI had been displayed before, the image of the cannon appeared.
"Is that a camera?"
"Yeah. I'll be able to operate the guns myself, correcting fire and not wasting ammunition."
"Okay, let's call it a day..."