Re: Tales of the Rune-Tech Sage

Chapter 842: Defenders of the North-East

CH842 Defenders of the North-East

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“House Skywalker!” one of the soldiers roared.

As if on cue, Udara and Senu pulled back from the Vulture Bee Drones. She raised one sword into the air.

“Warriors of the North-East Fortress! Reinforcements have arrived! Do not falter! Push the beasts back to whence they came!”

“UUWWWAAA!!!”

The Stronghold soldiers let out a deafening battle cry and began fighting with renewed ferocity.

On the fort’s grounds, some of the soldiers formed a defensive wall that blocked the beasts’ rampage through the fortress.

Meanwhile, the Skywalker unit that had broken away to grind down the land beasts arrived at the breach, flanking the beasts.

With the brave Stronghold soldiers holding the front line and the Skywalker reinforcements attacking from the rear, both sides slowly but surely ground the beasts down.

At the same time, the main Skywalker force blasted through Mirador City’s gates, surging into the city and throwing themselves at the rampaging beasts.

The Skywalker soldiers cut down the beasts with single strikes, allowing the citizens to escape before being trampled.

Under the leadership of Kavakan, Mogal, Dalton, and the other army flag officers present, the Skywalker Army established a defensive line and a safe zone in Mirador’s southern district.

From there, they steadily pushed northwards—towards the Stronghold—clearing away the rampaging beasts, rescuing the citizens, and escorting them to the safety of the rear lines.

For the most part, the situation stabilised somewhat, becoming a brutal battle of attrition between the humans and the beasts.

The battle raged on from midnight until the first light of dawn.

The smell of blood, burnt flesh, and destruction hung heavily in the air. It was so pungent that anyone with a weak stomach would have emptied its contents at the mere smell permeating the city.

However, the people present couldn’t have cared less. All they cared about was that the battle was finally over and the beasts were retreating.

With the aid of the Skywalker Army, the Stronghold soldiers ground down the beasts that had made it through the breach and were prowling the Stronghold’s grounds.

Meanwhile, the archers and defensive weapon squads supported the armoured female knight in holding back the giant Vulture Bee Drones.

Eventually, perhaps because they realised they couldn’t get past the armoured female knight, or because the ground beasts had been decimated, the Vulture Bee Drones ceased their assault and began to withdraw.

However, not before carrying away the carcasses of the beasts that had fallen in battle.

Surprisingly, for the most part, the Vulture Bee Drones ignored the human corpses. Only the bodies of the stronger humans—namely the Commander, Vice Commanders, and Captains—were taken away.

As for the weaker rank-and-file soldiers, the beasts didn’t spare them another glance.

The soldiers wanted to stop them, but before they could act, another swarm of Vulture Bee Drones appeared from the horizon.

Fortunately, these bees didn’t engage the soldiers, instead simply descending, collecting the carcasses, and flying away.

Seeing this, the armoured female knight advised the Stronghold soldiers to let them continue. While the behaviour was undoubtedly strange, as long as the vulture bees limited themselves to taking away only the beast carcasses, it was better to allow it than risk another battle when everyone was already exhausted.

Besides, the Vulture Bee Drones were actually helping them clear the city. It would have taken a herculean effort to clear everything in their current state after such a Pyrrhic victory.

If the carcasses weren’t cleared quickly, they risked the outbreak of disease or plague, and the bee drones were, in effect, helping them prevent exactly that.

Still, the soldiers remained alert in case the drones’ behaviour changed—which, fortunately, it didn’t.

By the afternoon of the day after the battle had commenced, the beasts had all departed, leaving behind a fallen Frontier Stronghold and a devastated Mirador City.

The beacon of hope of the North-East, as well as one of its crown-jewel cities, had fallen in the span of a single night.

The news sent shockwaves throughout this region of the Empire, once again reminding everyone of the dangers posed by the berserk beasts and the ever-encroaching Great Berserk Beast Forest.

However, it wasn’t all gloom and doom. There was uplifting news as well.

The strength and expertise of House Skywalker’s soldiers spread alongside the rumours.

Stories circulated of how the Skywalker soldiers displayed remarkable familiarity with the beasts, dispatching each one with a single strike to its weak point, with no wasted movement.

From their strongest officers to the lowest-ranking soldiers, rumours spoke of how every Skywalker soldier slew a beast with a single strike, whereas the soldiers of the Stronghold—the so-called defenders of the North-East—needed three or more blows, if they could kill one at all.

With the fall of the Stronghold, especially following the tyranny of its former officers, the Stronghold lost its once-indomitable image in the eyes of the ordinary people.

Now, people dared to speak openly of the dirty deeds committed by the Stronghold’s higher-ups and openly criticise the Stronghold itself.

They no longer looked to the Stronghold and its army as the beacon of hope for the North-East. Instead, they turned their hopes towards the Frontier March and the domain of the powerful Count Skywalker.

When Fabien Ingram woke up, he found himself in an inn in what remained of Mirador City, completely unaware of how he had gotten there.

All he knew was that the battle was over, and he had survived.

But when he heard how they had survived the beast tide, a shudder ran down his spine.

‘Count Skywalker…’ he muttered inwardly.

‘The deaths—the assassinations—of the Stronghold’s officers, my own survival and removal from the most dangerous place on the battlefield to somewhere safe, and finally the timely arrival of the Skywalker Army…

‘None of these can be a coincidence!’

He couldn’t prove it, but his intuition told him there was far more at play.

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

A familiar voice sounded.

Fabien Ingram turned around and was stunned by who he saw.

“Sir Count!”

His eyes widened.

Unbeknownst to him, Count Skywalker, Alex Fury, had already arrived in Mirador City.

***