The Red Hand

Chapter 490 – Guard versus Bugs.

"We have little choice but to push onward. Ready our reserves for combat. The vanguard will need to rest soon, and we'll need them prepared for to spearhead the next push." Commander Bogram furrowed his brow as he watched the furious battle on the highway below from his elevated platform.

With the failure of the Dwarven special forces to stem the tide, the Dwarven Kingdom was left with no choice but to continue its grinding assault against the monster horde. Slowly but surely, its military muscle pushed the creatures back into the darkness, the Dwarven weapons proving effective against all but the most powerful creatures. However, that did not mean victory was assured, as if more Valukar appeared the Dwarven Army would quickly be routed, even if Camilla was readily available for support.

"The creatures abhor fire. It would behoove us to ready additional flame units to push them back." Commander Bogram said as he watched a heavily armored Dwarven flamethrower unit drench a large serpentine creature with flames shot from handheld launchers. It screeched in agony for a few seconds before collapsing to the ground, its body reduced to little more than a charred corpse.

{I've asked for more flame support, and if we could gather sufficient fire mages that would make things easier.} (Bogram)

"Stocks of promethium are running low, Commander." An engineering officer replied, confirming the Commander's fear. "Manufacturing has ramped up since the start of the war, but it will take time for enough to be refined. We're barely keeping up with the demand we have now, and that's with restricting civilan use."

"Yes, I know. I was given an earful at the last meeting from the Guilds." Commander Bogram sighed as a fresh unit of tanks thundered up the highway and unleashed a furious cannonade to break through the monster ranks, smashing some beneath their treads while obliterating others with their cannons. "Even still, we cannot let up. This road leads to Edur'al, and we cannot afford to falter now. Reaching Dol'Kitrun and putting just because of supply issues. An end to these hordes' unending reinforcements is a requirement if we're to win this war."

{But even if we do... No, I'll think about that once the immediate threat has passed. The Gods' machinations can wait.} (Bogram)

With the Fourth Armored Corps' arrival at the front, the fighting along the Dwarven highway turned fierce. Alice's monsters were tough and numerous, but the Dwarven technology and martial prowess proved more than a match. The creatures sent by the Demon Lord's Daughter were merely mindless summons, beasts dredged up from the abyss, and had little to no intelligence beyond the ability to follow simple orders. Originally, they'd had the element of surprise and momentum on their side; now it seemed that the Dwarves had successfully blunted the monster's offensive and slowly but surely turned the tide in their favor, something that aggravated Alice to no end.

*BOOM* *BANG* *WOOSH*

The Dwarven armored fist was more than capable of smashing through the seemingly unending tide of creatures, the technological advantage proving decisive. The Dwarven tanks, while crude looking and certainly having that Dwarven style of form over function, proved too much to handle for the beasts. One by one, they'd single out the most dangerous creatures, usually those with powerful, long-range attacks, and focus fire with their large caliber guns, turning them into mincemeat. This provided ample cover for their heavily armed and armored infantry escorts to move forward, cleaning out smaller monsters with massed gunfire and torrents of flame.

Dwarves were naturally at home in the enclosed spaces of the mountains, and the Highways, while large, were designed specifically for this kind of warfare. They were large enough to allow entire formations to pass through but still narrow enough to prevent an opponent from overwhelming Dwarven positions with sheer weight of numbers. In the past, there'd been an invasion by rat-like creatures from beneath the mountain. They overran other nations' armies in the fields of Enoris due to their unending tide of bodies, but every time they ventured into the mountains, they'd been stopped in their tracks by Dwarven shield walls and strong points once funneled into the tight spaces of the highways. Of course, being guided by a competent officer corps made things easier, helped by the fact that Dwarves valued intelligence gathering and planning.

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"Jesus. These guys are really making a mess out there, aren't they?" Elna whistled in suprise as she and Sabia observed the battle for the Highway from concealed positions just above the main line of contact. "At this rate, they might actually break through." She said as a much larger tank fired a shell that sailed right through one of the lanky and towering shadow creatures before exploding behind it and taking out several dozen monsters.

{Having tech like this is just cheating. Who thought it was okay to put a fucking steampunk faction in a fantasy world?!?} (Elna)

"Our intelligence about their capabilities was... off to say the least." Sabia said as she watched the battle through a pair of binoculars. "It's almost like watching Earth military fight monsters with the kind of tech they have."

"And now I'm wondering why the hell the Dwarves don't thunder out of the mountain and take over the whole damn world if they've got this much firepower." Elna figured that there was little the nations around them could do to stop such an invasion given the relatively low tech of their armies.

"If a straight up fight, the Dwarves would crush them. But recall that this world has a pantehon of deities who fiercely guard it and its status quoe. If they actually tried to go all Mongol Empire on the surface the Gods would step in." Sabia replied. "There's no way they'd just stand by while the Dwarves roll everyone over, especially since the Dwarves don't worship them." She said as a group of monsters was run over by what looked like a large bulldozer and crushed under tread.

"At this rate, Alice actually might not be able to pull this whole invasion thing off." Elna hummed in thought. "Summoned beasts aren't really that strong, and if she's restricted from bringing that Wyvern out, I think the Dwarves might actually have this. Even if she can keep respawning them, there's still a cool down, and it looks to me like they've got more bullets than she does bodies."

"Perhaps, but I wouldn't be so certain of that assessment." Sabia replied as she lowered her binoculars. "Recall that Alice was more than capable of keeping up with Players far older and more experienced than she is. Counting her out this early seems premature to me, especially when I can almost guarantee you that she's got more advanced summons to call upon."

None of Black Company's members really knew just what kinds of creatures Alice could call forth, especially as the Demon Lord's Daughter didn't seem to play by the rules of her class given her ability to summon this many creatures at one. Sabia figured that there was likely more they didn't know about and she'd based her confidence on that unknown quantity. "She's frustrated, that's for sure, but at no point has she seemed dejected. Even now, she's commanding the battle from behind the lines and is keeping her calm, despite the seemingly dire circumstances."

"Commanding is a pretty generous term for telling monsters to go smash." Elna chuckled. "These things are basically lines of code that say if Dwarf then kill."

"Oh yeah? Then what would you call that?" Sabia tossed her binoculars to Elna and pointed to a spot just behind the line of contact.

"What? I don't see anything?" Elna said as she looked through the binoculars, her eyes focusing on a single tank. "It's just a tank-"

*BOOM* *WOOSH* *BANG*

"Holy hell!" Elna turned away as a series of blasts rocked the Highway, the light from the explosion nearly blinding her. "What the fuck was that?!?"

"Keep looking, I think you'll recognize these nasty little critters." Sabia laughed as Elna bitched about being blinded by the light.

"Are... Are those... Bugs?" Elna struggled to focus her eyes as she peered through the binoculars, seeing what looked like small armored six-legged insects pouring out of holes opened in the ground. "WAT JUST A GOD DAMMED MINUTE! Are those fucking Scuttlebugs?!?"

*BOOM*

"Yeah... They are..." Elna said as one charged a tank and leaped under the tracks before exploding and disabling it. "How did she even get those?!? They're not a summonable creature! And you couldn't tame them since they fucking suicide once you get too close!"

{That's so broken! Its like a fucking missile that respawns over and over again if she's got them as an actual summon! There was a fucking reason Summoners weren't allowed to capture them since that would be a load of bullshit!} (Elna)

Scuttlebugs were a low-level but annoying creature found in certain dungeons. They had no attack power, but their special ability allowed them to self-destruct and cause a large explosion that could harm even mid-ranking Players if they weren't careful. Summoners had tried to tame them to create an endless swarm of living mines, but capturing one and binding it proved impossible since it took more time to activate the taming ability than it would for the creature to blow up. This was almost certainly an intentional design choice since, as Elna said, having a respawning bio-missle was quite game breaking.

"I told you not to count Alice out." Sabia wagged her finger at the shocked Elna. "I've got no clue how she managed to tame them, but she did. And now the suicidal bugs are yeeting themselves into every armored vehicle they can find!" She laughed as more bugs turned themselves into martyrs for their Lady.

"Didn't their flavor text say something about their blast doing more damage to things like buildings and wagons too?" Elna recalled something she'd read years ago. “So... Does that...”

"Yep. I suppose tanks are close enough so the bonus applies." Sabia nodded. “And if memory serves it was something like a ten times boost.”

"Fucking hell maaaaaaan." Elna said before reciting a silent prayer for the Dwarves. "Just another reason why that girl creeps me out. Now she's got an unending swarm of bug bombs to throw at you. And I always hated these things in-game because of how fast they were."

{Fucking speedy bitches!} (Elna)

"Plus, punching kinda results in them blowing up in your face!" Sabia snickered as she recalled the comical scene of Elna hitting one for the first time and being sent flying across the room.

"Yeah, reeeal funny." Elna growled, not wanting to talk about that incident. "Whatever. Does this mean our little Princess has things handled now?" She asked as the bugs tore through the Dwarven ranks and forced a retreat. "Those things are going to tear them a new one."

"We shall see, but don't forget there's a certain annoying rabbit to be worried about." Sabia said as she pointed toward the Dwarven headquarters, where it seemed that Camilla had just arrived on scene. "As long as she's here, it's going to be almost impossible to do this with monsters alone."

“And let me guess, you think the Demon Princess has a plan?” Elna said as she slowly stood up and stretched.

“Call it a hunch.” Sabia laughed.