STORM
“What in the world?!”
“That was above the command station!”
“Enemy fire! Get to your stations!”
“Which direction are they?!”
The sky exploded once again. This time, above one of the watchtowers. Blue sparks showered down, but once again, the structure was untouched. The soldiers were in a frenzy, rushing around the camp and yelling instructions to each other. Naoki was running down one of the roads as fast as she could. She headed towards the center of camp, where the officer of her squad was.
“Orders, sir?!” said one of the men.
“Still awaiting them!” the officer replied. “Once we know where they are coming from—”
Another explosion rocked the camp. Though they weren’t reaching the ground, the shockwaves still swept through. The group instinctively ducked down.
“Warning shots?!” Another soldier looked to the skies.
“I don’t think—”
“No, you idiot!” Naoki joined them. “That’s my sister’s work!”
“There you are!” the officer was relieved. “Do you know where they are coming from?!”
“I don’t know. Judging from Haruna’s reaction, they appear to be coming from directly above.”
The officer nodded. “That’s a pretty extreme angle.” He turned to the rest of the group. “Keep an eye out, boys! We should see them long before they’ve landed!”
Another officer joined the group. “Abe! Where are they?!”
“I don’t know yet! Is the lieutenant okay?!”
“Yes! It didn’t leave a dent!”
“That good-for-nothing lieutenant better be grateful!” Naoki griped. She got a few surprised looks, but they weren’t in the position to question her.
Yet another explosion, above nowhere important.
“They sure do have a lot of ammunition to waste,” Officer Abe remarked.
“I wouldn’t take them for fools,” said his cohort. “They may be covering for something.”
“Or weaken the shield,” Naoki added. “Haruna can only block for so long.”
“All the reason to get our act together then,” said Officer Abe. “We’re to stay here until one of the watchmen spot them! But see if you can help spot where the artillery is coming from!” He waved out his hand, dismissing them. “Climb a building or whatever you need to do! Don’t get out of earshot from this spot, though!”
“Yes, sir!” and they dispersed. Only Naoki and the two officers remained.
“Any update?”
“Still not sure,” Naoki gathered. “Haruna thinks it’s a little strange, though.” She concentrated for a moment. “The composition of the explosion isn’t natural.”
“What’s that mean?”
Naoki looked despondent.
“What’s she doing?” the other officer inquired.
“Hold on, they’re communicating.”
“Huh?”
One more explosion. This time, above the quarters where Haruna was still at, and much more powerful than the ones before. Its brilliant blue blinded the camp, and its embers continued to crackle long after its detonation.
Officer Abe cursed. “What kind of ammunition is that supposed to be?!”
“That confirms it.” Naoki seemingly woke up. “Those are energy bombs.”
“What?”
“Magic,” she clarified.
“Really?”
“She thinks so. It would explain why we can’t spot where they’re coming from.” Naoki abruptly whipped around and stared up at Haruna’s tower. The two officers did the same, and they saw the nest was ablaze. It was an unnaturally blue fire.
“The tower!” Officer Abe shouted.
“…! That’s right! We blocked it up with wood!” Naoki started to run back, but then stopped. She saw an invisible blast violently knock out the planks of wood from the nest. They crashed onto the ground below and continued to burn, but did not ignite anything else, as the other buildings were made of stone. Shortly after, another blast detonated above the command station once again. This time, a second, bigger explosion followed quickly after, in the same spot.
“God help us!” Officer Abe cursed again, turning to one of the men on standby. “Get that lieutenant out of there before one of those actually lands!”
The officer acknowledged his order and ran off. Naoki continued to monitor her sister’s feelings.
Up at the tower, Haruna was crouched in the middle of the nest as she usually was. Now without her cover, her eyes were open. She was painfully aware she was exposed and waddled towards the stairway.
“That was a dirty trick,” she thought. “Igniting my position to distract me before aiming for the head several times.” Haruna hopped down a few of the steps to conceal herself a little better. “They must know this camp well, then, if they know where the lieutenant is.”
Her hair rose a little bit once again and her body tensed up. From the south, she blocked another strike. This one was significantly angled lower and felt harder in composition when it collided with her energy. But the impact it had was a few degrees lesser than the ones before. A conventional high explosive cannonball.
“They’ve finally given up, huh?” Haruna sensed several more projectiles enter her field and concentrated her energy to block them all. “I guess those energy bombs take quite a lot to generate.”
She telepathically reported their direction to her sib. There was not much time to communicate anything else, as the enemy began to step up the frequency of its salvos onto the camp. Haruna had to focus most of her attention on distinguishing each individual round and their direction, especially since her comrades were now firing back. At the same time, she had to be careful. Having established a sense of the enemy’s bag of tricks, she was expecting a surprise flank on her position.
And it came. Haruna detected a projectile dropping in from directly above her tower and quickly moved to block it. It produced a massive explosion like the previous attempt on her position. This time, there was no wood to ignite, but the open nest allowed some of the embers to fall in and crackle inside. “Retreating into the stairway was a good idea,” she thought.
From the other side, Naoki checked in to make sure Haruna was fine. “I’m defending,” was all she allowed herself to communicate before refocusing. Her sib confirmed the response and told her she was moving to the front with the other soldiers. Haruna could hear the chorus of the barrage echoing through the mountains and returning to her tower.
Another energy bomb dropped on Haruna’s position. Though she was expecting it at that point, she was surprised at the enemy’s tenacity. “He’s got to be running out of energy eventually.” Then she had another thought. “But, what if they have several different mages taking turns to strike? Then it is me who will tire out faster.”
Her silent concerns unintentionally reached Naoki down on the ground. She started to dash faster, getting ahead of her group. “We’ve got to take out those cannons as fast as possible!”
“I’m sure the boys are working on it,” Officer Abe reassured. “Keep in mind we’re just a ground unit. We’re to hold our position at the wall just in case ground units sneak up. Or if the cannoneers need our assistance.”
Naoki grit her teeth. As much as she wanted them to sneak out and ambush the assaultants, she knew it would be incredibly dangerous to the point where it would not be worth the risk. They could run into a vanguard out in the field, plus risk friendly-fire once they reached the other side.
Up above them, the night was brightening up now that there was smoke in the air, reflecting light back down. The conventional explosives left much more residue compared to the energy bombs. As they ran, the men stared up in amazement, watching every single round seemingly hit an invisible dome in the sky.
“I’ve never seen anything like this!” the cohort officer shouted above the thunder as they ran closer to the fire.
“Neither have I!” returned Officer Abe. “I’ve only seen her block a shot or two, but never a full-on assault like this!”
“She can’t keep this up forever!” Naoki retorted.
“I assumed just as much! Tell her to hang in there as our men crack down on it!”
Once they were close to the walls, Naoki sensed a new emotion from her sister. It did not take her long to discern it, but she needed some time to believe it. Her face turned pale and she stopped running.
“Wait! There’s someone there!”
“Wha—?” one of the soldiers replied. “Who?! Where?!”
The others heard him and stopped. “What’s the matter?!” Officer Abe did not pick up what was going on amidst the roar of cannon fire.
“Someone’s at the tower!”
“…?! Haruna’s?!”
“Yes! We have to go back!”