5:10 PM

"Commander Vola, I am Lieutenant Colonel Ava Keyes with the United States Army. I am the commanding officer of the American forces here."

Commander Vola raised an eyebrow, intrigued that this attractive blonde woman was not only in the army, but also served as an officer. He had many questions he wanted to ask her, and much judgement he wished to pa.s.s onto the Americans. However, considering that the Americans had far superior firepower, he decided to keep his mouth shut and just go along with it. Perhaps these foreigners saw something in their women that the natives of Gaerra couldn't. "What is your strategy, ma'am?"

Keyes pondered for a bit, with her hand on her chin, before answering. "I was thinking, we can use some of the debris as cover against arrows. Your footmen can help defend our ranged attackers using their s.h.i.+elds, while your mages cast wind spells to blow enemy arrows away. And make sure your troops don't stand directly in front of mine; our weapons require precise aiming."

"That will just delay the inevitable; we are outnumbered 150 to 1! Perhaps we must retreat?" Vola suggested.

"And let the n.o.bians slaughter the fine residents of this city?" Keyes asked.

Vola looked down, ashamed in himself that a woman could show more courage than him. He began to speak again but was promptly interrupted by Keyes.

"Look, we just need to hold for 10 minutes, until reinforcements arrive. Let my soldiers do their job, and make sure your soldiers do theirs. If everything goes according to plan, we won't lose a single man."

"Very well. I will direct my forces according to your strategy."

—

"We have a man down! We need a medic!"

"Don't pull out the arrow yet, we don't want to cause too much bleeding!"

The Sonaran soldier nodded, and allowed himself to be pulled back to safety.

"Davis, take his s.h.i.+eld just in case!"

The American soldiers fought ferociously, their weapons tearing through the armor of the n.o.bian infantry. The n.o.bians, learning from this, began to use the environment to their advantage; lying behind rocks for cover and using flare spells to create an opening to push through. The n.o.bians forgoed the implementation of large s.h.i.+eld spells and instead used speed spells in order to move to other pieces of cover more quickly, alongside making themselves harder targets to hit. Because of this, and the generous amount of cover that the ruined walls provided, the n.o.bians were able to close the distance without too many losses.

The defending forces countered this by pinning down the rus.h.i.+ng n.o.bians behind cover, then using projectiles with a parabolic trajectory in order to hit the n.o.bians. The Sonarans used their arrows to do this whereas the American soldiers cleared out groups of n.o.bians with their grenades, launchers, and XM-25 airburst systems.

—

"Run! They threw another exploding rock!"

BOOM!

5 n.o.bians were skewered by an M67 Fragmentation Grenade that landed by their piece of cover. A few meters away, the same scenario almost happened with another n.o.bian group but a mage there was able to cast a s.h.i.+eld, which the grenade bounced off. The resulting explosion in the air was able to slightly deplete the s.h.i.+elds, but not by much. In an attempt to conserve energy, the mage only casted his s.h.i.+eld spells whenever he saw an exploding rock thrown at him. However, he never antic.i.p.ated an exploding bullet.

The angle from which the XM-25 projectile arrived was low enough that it could not be detected by the mage's line of sight. By the time he saw the projectile, everyone below it was showered with the instruments of death. High explosive grenades detonated all over hiding n.o.bians, killing many. Despite their efforts in learning from the enemy, the technological difference was simply too vast for the enemies to truly understand the capabilities of the American weapons, thus leading to misunderstandings. They simply could not counter the sheer firepower and mind-shattering mechanics of the Otherworlders' weapons.

—

Despite their unrelenting fire, the n.o.bians pushed ever closer, forcing the American troops to pull back slightly as they performed a tactical retreat.

"We need air support!"

"Requesting close air support from Hunter 3, request confirmed."

A volley of Hydra 70 unguided rockets flew towards a large formation of n.o.bian infantry hiding behind some rubble. The onslaught resulted in the complete annihilation of this particular clump of troops, boosting the morale of the American and Sonaran defenders considerably. The Sonarans stood in awe at the marvelous sight, believing that G.o.ds have descended to aid them in their battle. Vola himself was speechless.

"This is Hunter 3, armaments depleted. We're RTB for resupply."

The last of the AH-64 Apache attack helicopters left the scene, all having expended their ammunition. The attack helicopters alone were able to decimate nearly a thousand enemy soldiers, but as they retreated to rearm, the n.o.bians pushed further.

"s.h.i.+t, are we all out of air support?"

"Command's bringing us some fighter support, but they're still about 20 minutes out!"

Amidst the shouts of combat, the sound of a vehicle pulling up could be heard.

"Hope we're not late to the party!" joked Alex.

The combatants from Alpha Team, Terra Squad, and Luna Squad disembarked from their vehicles, ready to join the fight. The Humvees in which they arrived were strategically spread out, in order to provide maximum coverage for the .50 Caliber turrets mounted on the vehicles. The other civilian scientists from Alpha Team were directed to the Chinooks earlier on, aside from Kelmithus and Jones since they were deemed to be important a.s.sets in the battlefield.

Seeing a Master wizard in their ranks now, the Sonaran defenders cheered. The American soldiers also cheered, seeing the arrival of highly experienced Special Forces members. The reinforcements joined the battle, pinning down some incoming n.o.bians using grenades and machine gun fire.

"Two tangoes behind the wooden cart, one o'clock!"

"Got 'em. Six hostiles neutralized to the left."

"Hey, what is that flickering coming from over there, behind those rocks?"

Kelmithus saw this, and immediately cast a s.h.i.+eld, blocking an incoming lightning strike from a pair of n.o.bian mages, who were promptly turned into headless bodies.

Jones took cover behind a Humvee, trying to navigate through Omnis' data in order to learn spells. Considering the large amount of debris in the area, Jones summoned golems from pieces of the ruined walls that the n.o.bians hiding behind. Five stone golems began to terrorize the n.o.bian lines, distracting the opposing mages from the offensive and forcing them to scramble to destroy the golems.

The battle raged on, but eventually the American soldiers began to run out of ammo. This was reflected in the decreasing frequency of weapons fire coming from the defenders, and the n.o.bians, having noticed this, seized the opportunity. They rushed into semi-automatic fire, hoping to overrun the defenders. The Sonaran footmen prepared for close quarters combat, and some of the Americans, now out of ammo on their primary weapons, pulled out their sidearms.

In an attempt to buy time, Jones used his scepter to fire blasts of energy at the n.o.bians, scoring a kill for each hit he landed. The approaching forces were unfazed by this, as it was only a matter of time before he became exhausted. Jones, being a famed adventurer, could easily outrun and outmaneuver the n.o.bians, who had to run with at least 40 pounds of equipment. However, not all of the American and Sonaran defenders had his talents. Additionally, there were a few injured who were currently being transferred to the Humvees.

The defenders slowly moved back east, toward a designated area. Almost halfway to the Academy, this area was the second to last line of defense. The gate to the inner city received minor damage in the initial a.s.sault on Sofius, and could be used as a key bottleneck. Before the defenders retreated to their fortifications behind the gate, they wanted to whittle down the enemy forces as much as possible.

Charging n.o.bians tanked small arms fire, shrugging off the pain due to the adrenaline from this battle. The Sonaran defenders protected the American infantry behind them the best they could, engaging the enemy in melee combat. Clashes of steel continued until the Americans finally depleted their 5.56 and .50 Cal ammunition stores. Jones and Kelmithus were also starting to get tired from casting so many spells.

It was clear at this point that the defenders would be overrun, so they began a tactical retreat, leading the n.o.bians into a more defensible position with makes.h.i.+ft barricades. As the last of the defenders jumped behind the barricades, a peculiar sound deafened the soldiers on the battlefield.

VVUUUOOOO!

The Americans looked up to the sky with smiles on their faces, while the Sonarans and n.o.bians looked up with confusion, as they had never seen a fighter jet before. The F-15E jets zoomed past, shattering the gla.s.s on nearby windows, before abruptly ascending and disappearing out of sight. The only trace of their presence was a scattering of objects that fell toward the n.o.bian lines.

—

"My friend was a communications mage in the Seventh Detachment. I heard that they were obliterated by flying swords in the sky."

VVUUUOOOO!

"Like those?!"

"Yes, and they dropped something on us that produced great explosions and tremors!"

The n.o.bians in this particular soldier's group looked up to the sky as the jets roared past, seeing dark objects getting larger as they came closer to the ground.

"Run! Those are the things my friend told me about! RUN!"

Six n.o.bian soldiers fled the battlefield, running away from the choke point their brethren had piled up around. They sprinted with all their might, getting about 40 meters from the blast zone before they finally landed and exploded, wiping out the large clump of n.o.bians gathered behind them.

These were the last of the n.o.bians, numbering about 300. The intense fighting culminated in this final moment as precision guided bombs rained down on the crowded n.o.bian formation, all of them trying to bust through the gate to the inner city. Consumed with bloodl.u.s.t, these unfortunate souls didn't even realize that they would soon be annihilated by a force they had never seen before.

Bodies flew through the air as the n.o.bian infantry was blown away by the bombs. The six n.o.bians who ran were showered with pieces of debris and charred body parts. To them, it seemed like a demonic occurrence.

"What the h.e.l.l?!" One of them yelled, panting from the quick sprint. "Are we the only ones left?"

His comrades could not respond, sh.e.l.l-shocked by the power of American jets.Fires raged around the six n.o.bians as black smoke filled the air. They looked toward the street that their brethren had been trying to pa.s.s through and saw only smoke. The staccato from the enemy weapons had ceased, signifying the deaths of their n.o.bian comrades. They looked at each other with worried faces, uncertain about their fate. If they ran, they would be unable to escape as the fields past the city walls were open ground. They could only surrender and accept their fate.

The smoke cleared as American and Sonaran troops emerged from the inner gate. A gust of wind put out all the fires around the area, pus.h.i.+ng the n.o.bians to the ground. Soon enough they were surrounded, and thus the six survivors dropped their weapons, putting their hands up.

—

"Secure the prisoners. The Sonarans are giving us jurisdiction because of our efforts here. Intel says there's no enemy movement around here for a hundred mile radius, so we're going to head back to Fort Was.h.i.+ngton. That was a h.e.l.luva mission, boys. Let's go home."