Chapter 983 — The Initiative
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 4
The moment the order was formally issued, Jinna found that all her nervousness and unease had vanished; a soldier's instinct gradually took the helm. She drew a soft breath, and as she relayed the command to the entire dragoon squadron, her hands closed steadily around the control stick before her, feeling the power and the coldness the steel machine conveyed—and in her heart there was only calm.
One after another, the inverted-cone anti-gravity craft cut swift, elegant arcs through the clouds, leaving their previous cruising course behind and sweeping down toward that glittering battlefield on the ground.
Wind direction and speed calculated; altitude and velocity within expected values; the bombing angle and distance confirmed several times over. The bombardier rested his fingers above a rune trigger at the center of the console and counted silently.
"All crew, release the bomb safeties—unlock—drop!"
...
The Cecilians' night offensive showed no sign of abating; the deafening artillery thundered over the walls without pause. This was a trial Winterwolf Fortress had never endured since its founding—a spectacle of war unseen even since Typhon's establishment as a nation. Even the valiant imperial soldiers and the proud battle-mages were shaken before such overwhelming firepower—but the line held nonetheless. Winterwolf Fortress's sturdy shield and walls could take the test; at least for a short while, the Cecilians' "Skyfire" could not break through.
Palin Winterfort observed the flow of mana across the shield above the western wall and let out a small breath of relief: "The mana circulation has stabilized again... it looks like the focal point held."
"But holding on alone won't do," An Luo said. "Count Winterfort, you remember what we were discussing. We must find a way to break this deadlock and seize back the..."
She had barely spoken half the sentence when she stopped abruptly. Some faint humming—almost impossible to distinguish against the roar of the guns—had caught her attention. She raised her head and looked up at the somewhat murky night sky, her expression odd.
Palin Winterfort did not react at once: "An Luo, what is it?"
"Count Winterfort, did you hear... something up there in the sky?"
The Count started, then raised his head as well. At last, among the piled clouds and the dim starlight, his eyes caught shadows almost imperceptible to the naked eye.
Those shadows swept past at high altitude; even a legendary figure would likely have struggled to sense whether they carried mana or malice. Yet a vast sense of crisis still surged up in the Count's heart. In that instant he felt his own breathing falter; the next second, the powerful mage waved his hand to summon a message rune and bellowed at the top of his voice: "Attack from above!!!"
"Reset the mana flow—the enemy is coming from the air!" "All mages of echelons one through six, adjust resonance direction, prepare to intercept the aerial attack!" "There's no time!"
The orders went out at once. All the soldiers and battle-mages, bewildered as they were, began responding to their commanders' instructions as fast as they could—yet no matter how fast they reacted, it was already too late. Nearly all of the fortress's defensive strength and manpower were pinned down by the Cecilian ground assault, to say nothing of the fact that commanders at every level scarcely even had the notion that a fatal strike might come from the sky. In an age when the concept of "battlefield" still centered mainly on the ground, all of this became Winterwolf Fortress's most fatal missing link...
The bombs fell.
An Luo's eyes went wide. Gazing up at the sky, she saw the layered, piled clouds about to blot out all the starlight; she saw faint glimmers flicker among those shadows, and then one bright point after another detached itself from them, plunging down like meteors.
An explosion far more terrible than the blast of a magi-tech cannon burst above Winterwolf Fortress.