Chapter 180: Trap

April 27, 624. 

I saw a bird high in the sky, almost obscured by the shining sun. It had been getting a tad bit warmer, so the skies occasionally cleared from the dull gunmetal gray they nearly always were. This was one of those days. 

However, the odd thing about the presence of a bird was the fact that I hadn’t seen even a single wild creature in months. The Scourge was wreaking so much havoc that no wildlife could possibly survive in the area. They had either migrated south or had died. 

There was no way a bird would be here. 

My eyes narrowed, my vision zooming to get a better look. Soon, I had a detailed view, and found that this wasn’t some normal bird. 

It had feathers and wings. Bird characteristics. When I looked at its belly though, I found a huge eye that twitched around, taking in the details of the base below it. It looked like the eye of a Scout, like they had copy and pasted one onto the belly of an oversized crow. 

“It’s a fucking flying scout. Kinda genius in a way. Why haven’t they done that earlier though? Whatever.”

I shook my head before looking around. I could try my hand at shooting it but I wanted help just in case I couldn’t. 

“Hey! I need a warlock! Where’s a fire warlock?!”

I walked over to a large group of soldiers, most of them hanging out around a campfire. 

“It’s the Envoy…”

“Any fire warlocks?”

I asked again, one of the men raising his hand. 

I waved. 

“Come here. You see that bird up there?”

“… Yes?”

He squinted, trying to get a view of the bird without getting blinded by the sun. 

“Yeah, that’s a Scourge monster. It’s a Scout bird. I need you to blast it out of the sky.”

“Wait really?”

“Yes really, now hurry up! That thing’s a fucking enemy!”

“R-Right.”

He finally listened and brought out his Foci. Then, he started casting a spell, fire coalescing above the Foci before being flung out at high speeds. 

It blew up a fraction of the distance there, not even close to the bird, probably only alarming it. 

I looked at him disappointingly.

“Really?”

“I’m only Authority 5!”

“Excuses.”

“What’s going on?”

A few people ran over, the explosion spooking several. Some of them were powerful, so I explained. 

More people gathered as I did so, everyone’s attention being drawn to the bird. Thankfully it was still circling, but I had a feeling it wasn’t going to be here for long. I wanted to down it. 

“We need to get that damn bird! It’s a monster!”

“Go get some fire warlocks!”

“Air warlocks too! Hurry up and mobilize!”

“Go grab the 4th W Company! They’re nearby!”

Everyone started scrambling around, air and fire warlocks alike all gathering, some of them beginning to sling spells. Dozens of them soon flew into the sky, most not reaching the bird, but some getting close. Explosions of fire and gases went up around it. The bird got spooked. 

Soon enough, people from all over the base, prompted or not, started throwing spells into the sky, all of them trying to hit the bird. Hundreds of them filled the air, a vast majority doing nothing but making noise. 

The bird wasn’t getting downed though, so I quickly brought out the M28/30, the White Death’s rifle. I had been getting bogged down with so much desk work that it had been neglected for months now. 

“Sorry buddy. I need a favor right now though…”

I muttered while taking aim, aligning my sights with the bird. It was now close to 600 meters away. It was beginning to leave. 

I took some deep breaths, my heart slowing as I felt the rifle and its trajectory. 

I waited, the window of opportunity closing, but my aim closing with it. 

I would only pull the trigger when I knew it would hit. 

And that time came…

Now.

My finger twitched, the explosion startling everyone nearby. And I watched as my bullet tore through the bird, its eye nearly exploding and its body going limp, falling. 

“Fuck yeah…”

I smiled and got up, running while hugging the rifle. I didn’t have to go far; a lucky gust of wind hit the body and the bird splattered on the floor at my feet. 

I lifted my hand, preventing any blood from spraying into my face. 

The bird was deformed from both my bullet, the landing, and some stray spells that hit it on the way down. It was intact enough though, and clearly a monster. 

Yet another new species. I might have to start a collection. 

I grabbed the corpse with an outstretched hand, everyone watching as I carried it back to headquarters. 

I walked in with it, making my way around, intelligence agents all backing away like I had the plague. 

I arrived at our office, flinging the door open and catching Jasmine’s attention. 

I presented the corpse with a smile. 

“Look what I found!”

“What the fuck is that?! Why would you bring it here?!”

“A new species! You wanna name it this time?”

“Ew no! Get it the hell out of here!”

“Hahaha!”

Jasmine started throwing books before I could approach, so I left with a smile. 

I ended up dropping the corpse off right outside headquarters. A new species still had to be studied and logged, so it wasn’t like I could trash it. I just wanted to mess with the little Colonel. 

After snapping a few pictures and logging some information for another inevitable report, I grabbed some intelligence agents lying around and had them take the corpse somewhere for storage. I went back into the building while they did that and went to find Polly in the war room. 

Before I could open the door though, I paused for a handful of seconds. 

I had a bad feeling. 

I flung the door open, staring inside from the doorway. People turned around, among them Polly, Major General Quill, even General Viskar. 

I spoke. 

“I think we might be getting attacked.”

“Right now?”

General Viskar asked, making me tilt my head. 

“Soon?”

“… John? Are you oka-”

An explosion interrupted Polly, one that sent a quick shockwave through the building. Everyone braced from the surprise. 

A few seconds later, an alarm sounded, the alarm for a Siege. 

We usually knew about those in advance though. Why was this one so sudden?

More importantly, what was causing those explosions? 

I had a feeling I knew exactly what. 

Everyone ran outside, looking off into the distance. 

I looked to the sky, finding a streak of red gas drawn through the air in an arc. 

Then, we all watched as three dozen more streaks of gas appeared, drawn from flying projectiles, launched from miles away. They curved through the sky, their targets clear as the daylight around us.

“Bombardos…”

Polly muttered, probably realizing exactly why I feared those things. 

Indirect fire. A simple yet effective concept. It rendered normal fortifications completely ineffective at a range impervious to halfhearted counterattacks, and easily sowed chaos. 

We were finally getting a taste of artillery, and I, for one, was not enjoying it. 

I thought we had been doing a good job, locating and striking Bombardo positions and killing them off. I was either wrong, or they were using everything they had right now to strike back. 

I remained still, watching as the three dozen shells landed all around us. They struck buildings and leveled them in one go, releasing massive plumes of red gas in the process. 

That was probably some kind of biological agent, definitely not something I wanted to breathe in. 

I tilted my head, looking at where the bird corpse once was.

“Now that I think about it, a bird would be the perfect designator for artillery. How coincidental.”

“John?!”

I heard Jasmine’s yell as she scrambled outside. 

“What’s going on?!”

“Bombardos! Doesn’t that look fun?”

I pointed just as another volley appeared over the horizon. Those Bombardos were probably three or four miles out. It was amazing how far a biological organism could launch a projectile so large. Stupid magic. 

Jasmine’s face fell. 

“Shit!”

“Hey, don’t panic.”

“Don’t panic?!”

She yelled back as the shells landed. More explosions, more gas. One got pretty close to us too. 

I shrugged. 

“Nothing you can do if you’re unlucky enough to get hit. Go to the basement in headquarters. It’ll be relatively safe there.”

“… What about you?”

“Well, I’m gonna guess that we’re getting sieged-”

“Brigadiers! To the walls!”

An ear-piercing shout ripped through the base. I looked over and found the Marshal bounding over buildings. Brigadiers soon followed, all of them lining up on the walls before quickly shooting off into the distance, probably to kill those Bombardos. 

He left some orders as they left. 

“Prepare for a siege!”

“Well that’s that.”

I slipped on my gloves.

“I’m gonna go fight.”

“Seriously? You should come back with us.”

“Hey now, I can fight just as well as everyone else. Besides, I’ve got some new toys to try out.”

I smiled a bit, reaching out into my Fifth Star, feeling the reassuring warmth of a few communed weapons. 

Jasmine glanced between me and yet another incoming volley. 

“Alright, fine. Stay with the Snow Doves though. Don’t go running off on your own.”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Then we’ll go.”

Jasmine and Polly left with that, retreating to the lower levels of the headquarters with the other generals. Unlike the rest of the base, the headquarters building was well established and enchanted with defensive formations, making it more resilient than any other structure around. It could take a few hits, even more considering that these projectiles weren’t bunker buster shells. If I was right, they were more akin to gas.

Unfortunately I didn’t trust my mask to really keep me safe. That meant I had to go find something of my own. Thankfully in recent days, with all this talk about biohazards and magical diseases, I had found myself some useful gear. 

Since I didn’t know about the reliability of WW2 era gas filters against biomagical agents, I decided to forgo the risk and find myself the M9 protective mask combined with the M15 compressed air breathing apparatus. 

Two large steel tanks appeared with a harness, which I threw onto my back and strapped down. Then I grabbed the M9 mask and slipped it over my head, adjusting the hose around my arm and setting everything in place. 

I then cracked everything open and took in a deep breath of air, breaking the seal. Sweet fresh air flowed through. 

The only downside was the narrow field of view. Ever since I got the Crown for my eyes I had enjoyed both better vision as well as a larger field of view. That was instantly cut down by the mask, not that I couldn’t work with it. 

Once all that was situated I threw on some snow gloves, tucked everything in with the sleeves of my coat, and made sure I was generally isolated from anything that might try to come in contact with my skin. I didn’t have any HAZMAT or MOPP suits so this would have to do. 

When everything was comfortable I started jogging over to the walls along with hundreds of other soldiers. 

Oddly enough though, as I approached, I noticed that nobody was slinging spells. I crossed through plumes of red gas and the occasional strikes of Bombardo shits before climbing the wall and getting a good look at what was out there. 

There was no siege, it seemed. 

The Bombardos had perched themselves on top of a huge hill about 3.6 miles away. I could see their bodies glowing, and some still launched projectiles. However, the Marshal and Brigadiers had all gone out to do battle, and several Bombardos had already been killed by large scale spells. 

Either way though, the escort armies were sticking with the Bombardos. There wasn’t a single monster for miles around. 

No siege, just a quick strike to spread something dangerous. We had only just started to implement prevention protocols as well. I really hoped that whatever this stuff was, it could be handled relatively easily. Otherwise this base was done for. 

“Well, I won’t be testing out my new toys… Unfortunate…”

I sighed before turning to leave. Before I did though, I felt a shockwave from the battle in the distance. 

I turned back and watched. I could see the Marshal and Brigadiers locked in battle. Then, I had a thought. 

The Scourge knew that these Bombardos would draw out only the most powerful. An army wouldn’t make it across that distance in time to stop the shelling. That’s why the Marshal, a knight, took the liberty to charge over there himself with a few strong individuals. They could quickly handle them. 

But why send the Bombardos to die? Why not make it a trap, given such an obvious reaction?

Sure enough, powerful Auras rose into the sky, the Brigadiers were thrown around for a bit, and the Marshal was occupied with one particularly strong monster. I recognized the dark body. 

A King Royal. 

Maybe it was the one I saw. Regardless, it was powerful enough to fight the Marshal to a standstill, at least for long enough to threaten the lives of the other Brigadiers. 

Not even half the Bombardos were killed either. Of the few dozen, only eight or nine were killed, the others scurrying away in time for the others to support. 

A few minutes passed, their strikes sending waves of power across the nearby land. Some of them drew trenches in the hillsides, kicking dirt and snow into the air. It was another level of battle that I couldn’t yet fathom. 

But when I felt one of the Authority 10 Auras, one of ours, wink out, I knew that it had taken a turn for the worst. 

Before long, I saw the Marshal retreating with one less Brigadier than he left with. 

“Shit…”

I let loose a curse before turning around and leaving for good this time. 

I went down the wall. Some air warlocks nearby had used their heads and started blowing the red gas up and away from the base. It helped a bit, but it wouldn’t be nearly enough to mitigate what was to come. 

I went back to headquarters, which was almost completely surrounded by the red gas. It was floating around and disappearing with the wind, thousands of people running through it without a care in the world. They knew it was probably dangerous, and it seemed to irritate the orifices of anybody who inhaled it, but they didn’t have any other measures against it. 

Like poison gases being introduced for the first time in WW1, there would be a period of shock before countermeasures could be developed. Unfortunately, I had to be in the middle of the debut. 

I threw the doors to headquarters open, marching through the mostly empty first floor and down to the basement. 

The doors were open, most of the intelligence agents hiding away within the archives, including the Generals. 

All eyes fell on me as I looked around, facing Polly and Jasmine. 

“Who the hell are you?”

Major General Quill asked, so I took off my mask, exposing my face. 

“Cooper?”

“Yes sir.”

“What’s going on out there?”

“The Marshal is retreating right now. One of our Brigadiers was killed.”

“What?!”

Several people stood up. The generals exchanged fearful looks. 

The Brigadiers and Marshals were the weapons that these Generals used to protect them. If they died, the powerless summoners would come next. 

It was rather pitiful in my eyes. Yet again I wondered how the smartest class of Magi could also turn out to be the most powerless. 

It made them cowards, not that I didn’t understand why. I’d be a coward too if I hadn’t the power to do anything in this freakish world of monsters, warlocks, and knights. Still, that affected how they did things. 

Polly approached. 

“What about that red gas? What is it?”

“Not sure. We won’t know until it affects the people breathing it in outside. It’s nothing I want to take my chances with, though.”

“Does that thing you’re wearing protect you?”

“It does. Unfortunately I can’t give it to others. It’s one of my summons.”

“I see…”

Polly sighed. I didn’t need people on my ass thinking I could give away protective gear. 

Still, countermeasures needed to be developed fast. 

“We need to figure out how to protect against that gas though. If we don’t, those Bombardos will be free to gas us from afar, especially if they protect them with King Royals. Remember that King Royal I saw in the ravine, Jasmine?”

“Yes?”

“Well, it showed up again. It fought the Marshal to a standstill.”

“Shit…”

She bit her thumb, Polly thinking for a second before turning her head back to me. 

“… Do you think you can help develop protections?”

“I’m not an enchanter, and I have no idea what that gas is, whether its just an irritant or some deadly disease. The only thing I can recommend is to keep the Bombardos from striking us in the first place.”

“Which means killing them first.”

General Viskar suddenly spoke up.

“Infections be damned, we need to kill those behemoths or risk losing thousands within the walls of this base. They will turn this place into a tomb.”

‘No shit, Sherlock.’

I mumbled inwardly. I had been saying that for months but nobody wanted to pay attention to my warnings until they were punched in the face. Sure, they were still carrying out raids to kill the Bombardos, and it had been working to some extent, but they hadn’t devoted nearly the amount of resources they should’ve been. We should’ve been hunting down every last one, but they were more concerned with fighting straight engagements with the hordes that descended down the hills. 

For some reason, they still thought they could salvage the value of this base. I didn’t care so long as they kept the really dangerous threats at bay, but it was obvious we hadn’t done enough. 

At least now they were properly scared. 

Suddenly, General Viskar looked at me. 

“Major Cooper, you seem to be good at weeding those Bombardos out. From now on, that’s your top priority. Leave the poison and disease stuff to us. You will work with Major General Quill and find every Bombardo from here to the eastern crossing. Pass that information to us and you’ll get the strike teams necessary to kill them all. Make sure nothing like this ever happens again.”

“… Can I file for a promotion?”

I raised my brows, taking a bit of a gamble.

General Viskar crossed his arms. 

“Show me results, Major, and then we’ll talk.”

“Understood, sir.”

I gave a sharp salute while smiling. Jasmine snickered. 

After that, since the bombardment stopped, everyone emerged and started damage control. 

The Marshal returned before long with the Brigadiers, most of whom were wounded in some way. The trap was effective, if not for the sole fact that it killed one of our highest combatants. Normally I wouldn’t blame the Marshal for the quick response, but this time he had fucked up royally. 

Unfortunately it wasn’t Alois that had died. Surprisingly, the death this time was Miron. I wasn’t too heartbroken over that, but he was also one of the Snow Doves, which meant that the forces directly related to me had been weakened massively. Nonnen wouldn’t be happy. 

The battle hadn’t even lasted 10 minutes. It was amazing how wrong things could go in that short amount of time. 

I emerged outside with the rest of headquarters, slipping on the mask as I slipped into crowds of despondence and chaos. 

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