Tides Of Protomis CXI

The Battle Of Castle Mu

The number of troops that engaged the enemy continued to mount as time went on. Both troops on the frontline, and those who were positioned elsewhere. In the very back, one of the commanders stood with an earpiece in, as well as a screen giving him a view of the battle in front of him, from high above. A direct result of the quicksilver drone flying overhead.

“There’s too much of them, Heavy ranged units, fire at the oncoming crowd, Melee Units, Pull back!”

Elsewhere, Mazurus continued to mow down the mass of demons, adding onto the commanders

orders with his own.

“Mid-range fighters, keep them at bay, and support their retreat!”

In the thick of battle itself, it was now being made clear that their campaign was not going to be an easy one. The lower level slayers found themselves up against a large horned quadruped creature, which fired downright gigantic arcs of electricity outward, frying anybody who was hit in short order.

“Nothing we’re doing is working!” One shouted.

“Dammit, we’ve already changed our tactics three times now. What’s left for us to do?!” Reinforcements came soon, in the form of a man wielding his holy arm, a Katana. He leaped forth, and attempted to cut the creature in half, but its instincts warned it of his appearance almost instantly, and it lept back with great speed. Before rebounding to attack him, attempting to carve through him with its claws. But the slayer eluded this attempt, and created distance between them. Three more came to join him, but clearly, they were not of the same class, as they were wiped away with a single swipe. He himself was striked as well, but his quick action kept the wound from being fatal. His sword stopped the attack, and allowed him to skid back, though, not unarmed.

The slayer held his chest a\s he fell to his knees. The effects of the force he didn’t stop getting to him. Regardless, he got to his feet once more, tightening his grip on its hilt, as he took his stance.

“We’re not doing anything to him. We won’t be able to follow orders like this.” The Katana-wielder commented. This much resulted in another demon chiming in, one who resembled a serpent.

“Damn right... You made a mistake in coming here, You won’t make it back to that realm of yours, Furless Ap-”

The denizen’s boast went unfinished, as he was split down the middle. The very same happened to the lightning manipulating creature, who formerly wrecked havoc upon the troops. Blood spurted from their bodies, as two halves fell away from each other, and subsequently, began to disintegrate into thin air. Before the demon finishes, however, His body suddenly stops moving. As blood spurts from the center, he falls into two halves. The origin of the attack was revealed to them soon afterward. There stood a second commander, a woman with silky blue hair, and a longsword in her hand. Some of the slayers looked upon this with awe, but she wouldn’t allow for this to continue for much longer. The last thing she needed is her troops getting distracted.

“You heard The orders, Move!” She barked. On her command, the slayers began to shape up, bringing their attention back to the ongoing ordeal.

“Y- Yes Ma’am!”

The orders sent down from above were now being followed, the battle lines changed rapidly, while the unnamed commander stayed, the other troops were replaced by wielders of polearms, and short-ranged guns. While the leader of the long-ranged troops carried out his part of the plan. A loud baritone voice was projected for all to hear, as he put his hand forward.

“Commence Bombardment!!”

A hail of projectiles began to shoot into the sky, dropping toward the demons in an arc. Something that caused havoc to be wreaked within their lines. Many demons had already begun to disintegrate as they reached their deaths. But it seemed that they wouldn’t let this continue for long. Closing in on the long-ranged units, were a group of about 2 demons, flying through the sky, apparently attempting to attack the humans unopposed. Something that did not go unnoticed, as the drone-using commander observed this with a look of surprise etched into his face. They were using tactics?

“Tch. Sir Mazurus, a wing of demons is coming toward us, we must focus our attention toward them, or it’s over for us!”

Mazurus snapped, as he began to turn his gaze upward, taking note of the flying denizens overhead. It was at this point that he decided to personally handle the situation.

“Damn. Alright, I’ll take care of it… Men, move back, I’m moving Ogun into pulse fire mode!”

That much was enough to get the commanders to act upon his orders. The blue-haired woman gestured backward, as she began her escape soon after, the other troops doing the very same. But to the demons who they battled, they didn’t see any sort of strategy taking place, simply, an army of scared invaders, who’d run from them twice now. A grotesque suit of armor, who had a feminine build. A chuckle came from her as she watched this.

“Oh-ho-ho-ho! It looks like the humans are turning tail… Looks like they're finally learning their place.”

While this line of gloating continued, elsewhere, the true reason for the retreat continued to prepare his own technique. As golden light covered the Ogun’s barrels, and radiated outward for all to see. He shortly began moving, adjusting it, to make sure his first shot would hit its intended target.

“It’s over. Raze, OGUN!”

No sooner did a large sphere of Holy energy barrel toward the crowd of demons, promptly exploding upon contact with the ground, the blast wave expanded outward, consuming the demons that were caught within it. This came to the surprise of Xiliv, who watched this from the building itself, with widened eyes.

“That’s impossible!” Mazurus did not stop there, a second shot came afterward, flying past the devastated armies, and even nearly touched Xiliv. While he did not get off unscathed, having lost an arm in the process, he was still alive Eventually, the attack reached the Castle Mu… While the demons within looked upon this, many of which began their attempts to escape, strangely enough, the general himself sat there with a blank expression, not even bothering to move out of the way. The stone building was soon reduced to what looked to be an empty crater, with almost no evidence of its existence left, aside from the memories of those who inhabited it, perhaps. As for the slayer himself, he was exhausted. The amount of holy energy he used in such a small time was by no means easy. But, what mattered, was that he’d cut down the enemy forces, as well as destroyed their stronghold.

“I should be able to recover soon enough, and I’m confident none of our troops were there when I fired those off…”

Eventually, Mazurus laid on his back, wiping his forehead of sweat. All the while, the leaders of the opposition gathered in one place, their eyes moving across the scarred earth that formerly contained their army.

“Dammit, Where was that bastard Muso during all this! He could’ve taken him out long before he fired that!!” Xiliv shouted in his anger. The rage at the apparent foolishness continued to build within him, while, all the while, Vurias moved forward, opting to cut off this line of thought as soon as it began to form, and make him focus upon the current situation.

“Forget it, we’ll have to handle it ourselves. It’ll be better for us in the long run if Mu stops putting so much emphasis on putting his son on top of the food chain…” Xiliv visibly calmed as the demon explained his reasoning. After all, his statements were not something he disagreed with, quite the opposite, in fact.

“Everyone remaining, Full power, no more holding back, we’re bringing them down here!!” The Demon barked.

Part B - Formerly CXII

As the demon’s orders came, there was very little hesitation to follow, with any of those there. If anything, they were happy to cut loose, to show what they were truly capable of. Xiliv himself was cloaked in a red glow, with the ground under him cracking, and shearing. Sharpened spines began to sprout from his body, as his head took a more angular shape .Vurias’ change did not come in the form of a bodily transformation, rather a ring of displaced rubble from the ground below. This was shortly followed by his counterattack upon the holy order, a veritable rain of meteors began to fall from the sky at high speed, something that made their eyes turn upward, as they quickly began to make maneuvers, attempting to avoid the downright gigantic blast wave that each object projected. It seemed that even the demon’s own troops, who he paid no mind to, were caught within the bursts of heat. The katana wielding Bluenette was one of those with their eyes to the sky. A frown made its way onto her face as she observed this.

“Tch.”

She did not plan on letting the attack decimate her dear subordinates. Soon, one could see bent knees, and a twisted waist, as the end of her sword now faced behind her. It did not take long for her to bound upward, ready to stp the attack. But she didn’t get far, as Xiliv was there to prevent this from taking place. A fist slamming into her stomach like a sledgehammer sent her bounding toward the ground, creating a crater as she made impact… The strike was not easy to take, as the pain in her torso was by no means a gentle one, but she was ready to press on regardless. The woman slowly got to her feet, and prepared herself for any atack to come next.

Meanwhile, the leader of the organization himself watched. Volker glanced over his shoulder, eyeing the situation with a frown. This was apparently enough to make the leader of the incursion halt his pursuit, even if for a short time. Apparently, his other second in command, Bui, had noted this and decided to do the same. As Volker saw it, he couldn’t very well leave the creature to its own devices, but he could not allow the slaughter of his troops to continue. To him, only one solution was available.

“Bui, I’ll take care of the long-ranged one, help Mazurus and the other commanders with the troops.”

“Alright.”

With that, the slayer quickly flew in the opposite direction, making his way back to the troops. With that problem hopefully taken care of, he had other issues to worry about. Volker’s eyes began to dart around, as he searched for any attempted attacks, from any direction. flying toward the other direction, as Volker’s eyes begin to dart around. From here, we return to the troops. In the thick of the battle, the forces of both sides had acclimated to the change on the battlefield, and were once more meeting each other. One of those few who made use of holy arcs, unique abilities, activated his own, letting out a chant with the intention of enhancing his allies.

“De alis Lucem, Et Tolle Fuga Scios Meos!(Wings of light, Have my allies take flight).”

It took little time for his abilities to take effect. As wings appeared on the backs of a large number of troops surrounding him. They would move to attack Xiliv as well, attempting to support their comrades in stopping the creature. But regardless, it seemed as if they were doing very little, whether it be from the melee troops, who found their holy arms bouncing off their enemie’s skin, before they were promptly crushed when a retaliatory strike came, to the firing of arrows from further away, which similarly, ricocheted off of the demon. It didn’t take long for the troops to come to the Katana-wielding woman for orders.

“Commander Goda, what shall we do?”

“Arrow Formation, We’ll have to pierce through his defenses if we intend on doing anything!”

Goda flew forth, with the surrounding troops acting upon her orders, and getting into formation. This earned a dismissive look from the demon, who flew forth as well, three were killed in one attack, crushed between pieces of rubble, a direct result of Vurias’ attack. Another managed to avoid this strike, and attempted to go for the kill, but found himself piereced by the creature’s spines, dying soon afterward. With no hesitation, he flew toward Goda, ready to eliminate her, and the ranged troops that floated behind her.

“Now then, TIME FOR YOU TO DIE!!!!”

But he did not have a chance to do so, as a ring of metal flew through him, nearly carving into his shoulder. The demon rotated in his spot, looking at the origin of the attack. Behind him was Bui. The remaining troops looked upon him as well. He kept his focus upon them as he made his order.

“Get out of here, I’ll handle this one.” They did so with very little hesitation. Before long, Bui continued his assault, a Chakram appeared between his fingers, in his right hand turned into three. And then, six, as the same thing took place on his other hand. While he would take care of this one, there was another demonic leader that needed to be handled, Mazurus placed his focus on the demon known as Vurias.

“That one, considering how high his demon power is, He must be the one we need to gun for... Ranged Fighters, Aim for the small demon within the center of that rubble.” It seemed that his time of rest wouldn’t last for very long. He adjusted the Ogun’s position to aim for the small demon, ready to take advantage of his apparent focus of destroying Bui.

“Now, We wait…”

Above, Bui had no shortage of trouble, launching out the Chakrams and controlling the paths to which they moved out, while avoiding a pincer attack from both of the demon leaders. It certainly wasn’t easy, that was for sure. But if the others caught wind of what he was going for, they could very well eliminate the two soon… Those on the ground watched intently, for even a single instant to strike. Eventually, they took note of the main belt of debris surrounding Vurias moving.

“NOW!!!”

Mazurus fires, as do the rest of the ranged troops, which does not go unnoticed by Vurias, who moves his rubble to block the brunt of the attacks from the front. Unaware of the beam from Mazurus, That clashes with him, and as he is swallowed by the attack, he yells.

“Impossible, That’s impossible!! My defense field, Something got through it?! DANMITTTTT!”

Vurias is obliterated, as Mazurus lowers the barrel of his gun. On the battlefield, many of the pieces of rubble, formerly kept suspended by Vurias, begin to fall, prompting many of the troops to begin running. Though, not everyone escapes, as some are crushed underneath. As we return to Mazurus, he sighs.

“We may very well win here…But at what cost. We’ve lost at least 60 Men from this battle alone... Is this how the rest of the campaign will be?”

Bui himself was apparently not having such an easy time. His chakrams rapidly weaved through the air, attempting to cut off Xiliv’s quick approach. But it seemed that the demon himself was no slower than his weapons. A constant changing of angles kept his opponent guessing where he would appear next. Eventually, one of his launched weapons did make it close, but a spine seemingly fired out of the demon’s skin threw it off course, much to Bui’s chagrin.

“This one’s tough, as I expected, this isn’t gonna be easy for us…”

To Be Continued