+++ Lieutenant Hans Hoffman +++

  Nomosian Countryside

  The redoubt wasn’t holding on well. Both the dugouts raised earthworks, and hasty wooden fortifications constructed recently by Captain Weibel’s earth mages collapsed as the Calamity of Recklessness unleashed her destruction. Hans, Adelyn, and Emilia all positioned themselves in areas where they could provide fire support. It was going awful.

  Even with musketry, spells, and artillery pummeling on her, she seemed fast and unstoppable. Leaves and vines flew out of the earth, slicing and swallowing entire swathes of retreating platoons. Others were cut down by the barrages of wooden spikes that she summoned and fired from thin air.

  Even Hans, who had been attempting to find opportunities to open fire against her, was struggling.

  “Shit! That was a close one,” Hans hissed as he pulled his mech back into the hull-down position offered by one of the manned earthworks. Beside him, lying flat on the berm that their earth mage engineers constructed, were musketeers that opened fire one by one. The Calamity of Recklessness noticed his presence and began charging in his direction. Hans pressed the button for his speakers. “Ay, run away now! Then reposition yourselves at the second and third line!”

  At once, the musketeers grabbed their muskets and bags. Then they immediately broke into a frenzied retreat out of the area as ordered. Across the battlefield, the entire first defense line was the same. Troopers and mages of the 1st Anti-Demon Unit, all of them running to their rear positions. The only ones that stayed were the Viceroy, Adelyn—and Hans.

  And he was now about to receive the main attack.

  Why are they always so focused on killing me specifically?

  But Hans had no time for a belly-aching session. He pulled his mech into a hard retreat after his last main gun’s shot missed. Readying his machine gun rounds, Hans took a quick scan of his surroundings. When he found a good route to escape on his left, he immediately turned his mech toward it and began running as best as he could.

  ADI MG24 rounds from his double coaxials began blaring out as the Calamity of Recklessness rushed to intercept him. Hans called in for some support on the radio, but it seemed that the Viceroy and Adelyn were preoccupied with the developing situation. The wolf demon had rejoined the fight, and it was causing casualties quite rapidly with its death beams.

  I’m on my own for now.

  He gritted his teeth.

  Alright. I need to figure out something to weaken her a bit without dying. Ah, crap! Here it comes!

  He pressed his feet harder on the pedal as the first vine attacks went straight to him. He began opening fire with his double coaxials on the bastards, burning them a bit. But it didn’t stop them from attempting to slice him to death. Hans was especially annoyed at how ridiculous it all was. The damned magical vines were, after all, slicing the occasional tree around him, and he knew it could slice his armor with ease.

  Come on! Come on!

  “You little pig!” the Calamity of Recklessness shouted as she locked in on him. Wooden spikes began flying in his direction as she aimed her staff at him. “I know what you did. You will pay for it!”

  “Oh yeah?!” Hans shouted as he replied with his speakers and main gun. The MPAT round nicked her at the right moment, exploding hard enough that she collapsed on the ground. “If you’re salty about your former calamity-mate dying, then I’m saltier about that city you destroyed over there.”

  Hans pulled his mech into a hard break as he aimed his coaxials at the downed demon. Then, he grinned.

  “So you’ll have to pay too!”

  Gunfire from him began peppering the woman’s body. She tried to block it by summoning vines, trees, and bushes that sort of acted as a barrier. But Hans’ eyes turned hollow, as he audaciously continued opening fire. Each round he sent downrange would ignite hard and fast, soon causing an inferno with the barriers she had created.

  He heard her scream painfully, before retreating again.

  “Damn you! Damn you!” she shouted, her skin wounded and half-charred. Her speed as she ran was incredible, but Hans chased him angrily. “Get off my back!”

  Hans however met that request with stone-cold silence. The only thing talking was his machine guns. And they weren’t talking with any hint of gentleness on the lady. She tried going into zigzags to dodge Hans’ bullets, but it mostly failed. His gunshots, while mostly scattered, were taking hits.

  “I said get off me!” She momentarily turned around to send another vine attack with her staff. Hans immediately pulled into a hard turn. Then, he lowered his mech as the greens tried to slice him in half. He even began conducting hard zigzag turns just to dodge the smaller vines that were about to hit him.

  Soon, they landed on the ground, plunging deep through the dirt by the dozens. More appeared and they began almost hitting Hans’ mech. But he dodged it all and exited the reach of the Calamity of Recklessness. Hans wiped off his sweat for a split second. It was far too close for comfort.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  But I did it.

  Now he only needed to refocus on the already badly injured and depleted wolf demon. It was still attacking the Viceroy and Adelyn hard.

  +++

  It was a constant back-and-forth. Due to the damage that the two demons sustained, they soon retreated fourteen minutes into the fighting. Hans and Adelyn had to retreat into the redoubt as well, as their mechs suffered further superficial damage, which Hans and Adelyn had to quickly fix preventatively.

  Especially since Hans’ fuel tank was nipped briefly by one of the wooden spikes. It was only through sheer luck that it hadn’t ignited.

  Hans exited the underbelly of his mech after recalibrating and checking his propulsion and engines. His face was grimy, and he was barely breathing. He tossed his tools back into his maintenance toolbox, then grabbed his canteen for a quick fix with his water. Checking for damage and fixing both of their mechs mid-combat wasn’t something Hans was used to.

  I miss those maintenance guys. Hans chugged the clear water in his canteen. It tasted beyond good. Then he stowed it back to his mech’s cockpit. When he emerged from it, he saw that Adelyn was already rushing straight to him. Hans wiped his dirty face with his towel one last time, then he jumped off his Wanderfalke.

  “What now?” Hans asked. “Did we reoccupy our forward dugouts?”

  “Yeah. We did. But casualties have now reached fifty-six dead and twenty-two wounded,” Adelyn said. She frowned. “They’re also speeding up the fortifications of our flanks.”

  “I wonder why they’re not attacking them. Then again, I suppose we are their priority. Hence why they attack the area that we are present in.”

  “Mhm, I can see that,” Adelyn sighed softly. “How’s my mech doing?”

  “She’s doing fine. I checked the propulsion. Seems like it’s still functional.”

  “Even after that heat?”

  “Yeah there were some overheated components but I just grabbed one of the available water mages nearby to cool it down,” Hans gave Adelyn a thumbs up. “We’re good. No need for any actual AP consumption for repairs.”

  Adelyn smiled.

  “That’s nice. I’ll place them on extra munitions then in that case.”

  “How much AP do you still have left?”

  “I have eight hundred out of nine hundred. I seem to have mostly regenerated my reserves. That…should be roughly enough for four of five special rounds. Though probably three if I try out my new ones. I’m not sure though.”

  “You meant the plasma APFSDS and the cryofreeze MPAT?” Hans asked. “Those new Tier III ones?”

  Adelyn nodded.

  “Yeah. I was thinking of perhaps using them. The system seems to imply that they’re strong. Especially the plasma APFSDS. Maybe it’ll burn through that woman badly? I don’t know. It’s kinda weird too. It says that the uranium dart will essentially convert into plasma midway. That’s kinda cool and possibly scary.”

  “Scary?” Hans laughed. “Come on. Just use it. Maybe it’ll do good.”

  Adelyn pouted.

  “No, I mean it’s scary in the way that it’s plasma.”

  “And?”

  “Like, would it dissolve the uranium penetrator and then just leak through my turret eventually—hey, don’t laugh! This is a serious matter.”

  “Look, it’s advanced magic bullcrap,” Hans said. “It’s enchanted to turn into plasma once it’s fired. Not before it’s fired. Besides, why worry now? You’ve been using special rounds for a while now, and they’re doing good.”

  “It just seems like the more I increase the tier of my ‘Wrath Against Sinners’ upgrade, my new special rounds get more and more scarier. I mean, cryofreeze? What if you get frozen too?”

  “Alright, alright I get it,” Hans sighed. “But we will probably need them. So I suggest you start producing them. I think you might have a good chance using a cryofreeze round on that wolf demon. Then you can use the plasma thing when the Calamity of Recklessness is further depleted.”

  “Alright…” Adelyn nodded. “I’ll produce it now.”

  At once, the horns that called everyone back into combat alert were sounded. Cavalry immediately rode forward, alongside the various mages on their camps that were trying to rest. Hans turned to Adelyn.

  “Rejoin me later. I’ll try to contain this one myself. She’ll bash her head again on our defenses, so that should weaken her further. Then…then we can launch the full brunt of our counterattack.”

  “Aren’t you already low on ammunition?” Adelyn asked. “I mean, I’m the same…”

  “Yeah, but you better place those APs on special ones. For me, I’ve already reloaded back to fifteen rounds readied for the battle. Alongside more machine gun rounds. I may be down to a hundred AP left, but I’ll manage.”

  Hans gave her a pat on her shoulder, then climbed back up on his mech.

  In seconds, he had already driven back into the fray.

  +++

  The two demons were now back on their assault. The musketeer platoons of the 1st Anti-Demon Unit that reoccupied their defensive lines had already begun opening fire. Cracks of musketry, mostly enhanced by their skills and enchantments, began pouring in at the two attackers. Four canister shots opened fire, releasing a hail of iron balls at the advancing demons.

  But the two demons had already reacted with their spells and attacks. The wolf demon charged ahead, overrunning the first line of dugouts and terrorizing the men underneath. Many were slashed by its massive claws or outright eaten. Those who ran were promptly vaporized by the beams fired by its two heads.

  Others were overwhelmed by the rain of wooden spikes that came from the Calamity of Recklessness. This time, they were now flying at a high angle, completely negating the dugouts used by the beleaguered musketeers. They only managed to delay the assault by a few minutes, before the platoons assigned to the frontal defenses once again broke and retreated.

  But it was just enough time for Hans to charge back into the combat zone. His mech jumped on one of the artificially elevated earthworks to gain a clear field of view on the ground ahead of them. And in just a split-second, he had his sights trained at the Calamity of Recklessness.

  He knew that these two were pushing themselves to their limits already. They were already visibly weakened, their wounds not even fully healed yet. Thus…

  “Have another welcome gift, asshole!”

  Hans pulled the trigger.

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