“Holy shit, how is this possible?!” Meng Ruo wondered as he saw the immense crowd of new demon soldiers popping left, right and centre. “No wonder the cultivators are running away.”
“Look sharp. If there are this many, I believe the Demon Horde will be attacking all the island platforms simultaneously.” Sarge Rocher warned them to not lose focus. The others on the Land Hover squad agreed that such a possibility sounded quite likely given the intelligence level of their enemies.
“Sarge, there are magic signals incoming. It looks like they are indeed preparing for an enormous mass attack.” CPL Zhang Min, who was manning the radios reported to Rocher.
“Then let’s buckle up, it will be one hell of a ride in the Industry Sector.” Sarge Rocher said as he checked his rifle chamber once more before moving out.
——–
Meanwhile, the same scenario was happening to the other platforms which the Dragonlites had previously scouted. Duke Crocell had been able to use the Mages Telecommunication Centre to report his findings to Kiva who in turn had managed to isolate and pinpoint approximate coordinates of the island platforms.
“It is truly remarkable how that traitor has managed to find such a powerful sponsor. If their defences were any tighter, we might not be able to achieve any of this at all.” Kiva whispered to his King and Baal merely acknowledged that a multiple prong attack was necessary to overwhelm the enemy.
“Get the Royal Mages to teleport those troops in. I want to see our flags waving at each of their highest towers. Burn everything else down. Record the scenes so we can show everyone what awaits those who stand against us.” King Baal said, and Kiva hurried to relay the orders.
What King Baal wanted was total annihilation. The search for the Dungeon Core? That already seemed secondary compared to what he was going to do to Moloch. For what that Cotton Minotaur had done to his nobles and precious daughter, he was already fantasising the most painful of tortures he would do to Moloch. “As soon as you find him, tell me. I will personally go out and collect his head.”
“Yes, my sire.” Kiva bowed back and continued to give orders as per his liege’s will.
——–
The Royal Snake soldiers equipped with magic detectors had already begun shoring up their defences by returning to the posts they were given. Fortress Golems on every floating island platform had also been reactivated from standby mode and were ready for action, and the island’s defences had been switched on too.
As for the Orc Artillery Company, they had stopped firing after the Royal Mages had placed a high-density shield on their new temporary teleportation checkpoint. While it did some damage, it was not very effective in the long run, and most importantly, it just wasted their precious ammo.
Prince Stolas must have sent back the data from the hours of barrage against the safe zone allowing the Royal Mages to learn how much shielding was needed to protect them.
Thus, even as they suffered from this disadvantage of being set in the middle of the bridge, the only real threat for the time being seemed to be the Stalingrad. Fortunately, the Demon Fleet Leviathan was going to take care of it. (Or so they thought) So perhaps the mages believed all they had to do was to tolerate the first shot, and the infamous Demon Fleet Leviathan will handle the rest.
Well, Wolte planned to act in a way they expected him to… with a little exception.
——–
“Mdm, the defenders have successfully retreated to the defensive floating island. The Sherman Tanks have also placed down their mines as they moved back. Our only casualties were two Sherman Tanks that were rendered incapable of timely evading the mages’ attacks.” The goblin telecom operator reported. He added that the tanks were still doing a fair bit of damage from afar.
“Mdm, the Fortress Golems in the left behind watchtowers have ceased to function as expected. Thus they were set to detonate the moment any demon soldiers tried to take control of the watchtowers. The pilots inside already retreated with the aid of the System.”
“Other than that, the Stalingrad reported that the ship is ready for a full-on assault on the bridge and is awaiting further instructions.”
“Lord Wolte intends to not move just yet. He is waiting for the magic portals to be cast on every island before the soldiers on the bridge will move.”
The goblin telecoms operators were rambling on and on even though they were talking in a sequential manner and not interrupting each other at all. Qiu Yue managed to catch all of those, and the Sub System further helped her by listing them as bullet points in order of importance.
“Send the V2 Rockets out and tell Que Er that we are initiating phase two of the operation. After that, get Wolte to fire in unison with the impact of the V2 rockets.” Qiu Yue said, and the telecom operators relayed the information.
“Sandy, are you ready as well?” Qiu Yue asked, and Sandy, who was hiding near the end of the Sky Bridge chuckled.
“The Penguins have arrived and are more than ready to help me. So yeap, I am ready.” Sandy replied.
“Very good, let’s commence Operation Fire Glass.” Qiu Yue announced, and the entire telecoms crew knew what to do. While it might be more worthwhile to use it later in the day to reduce the influx of demon troops, Qiu Yue believed if Operation Fire Glass was used now, it would be a great shock and awe kind of tactic.
Moloch also concurred as this might potentially be impactful enough to lower the morale of the troops since the advent of their King must have made them feel invulnerable. Hence he gave the green light for the operation.
However, the most crucial part of the operation would not be the mass destruction of the temporary checkpoint nor about bringing their barriers down.
It was to buy time. Precious time which both tacticians needed to sort things out for the next phase. Doing it on the run was an option as well, but right now they need a sort of breather which might be hard to gain later.
So, as the V2 Rockets were being prepared for launch from the military base floating islands, Que Er already had multiple crows carrying a number of big fat looking bombs towards the Sky Bridge. And to protect these bombs, more crows were employed along with Odin’s ravens to ensure the safety of those bombs.
“Now!” The Red Panda Cultivator ordered when she saw the minimum distance left for the crows to reach the Sky Bridge and the V2 rockets were shot out into the skies, heading straight for the energy shield brought up by the mages. The demon soldiers heard booming noises and thought it was coming from the metal ship, but there was no movement from that end.
“Artilleries, fire now!” Qiu Yue added, and the Orc Artillery Companies did as commanded and the demon soldiers got even more nervous. Though this time, there was a visible impact on one side of the barrier and the mages urged them to calm down.
With the distraction of the artillery, the V2 rockets were able to fly from above with much success. Before the Dragon Devils, who were still in a lengthy dogfight against the Wyvern Goblin Knights, could report their findings, the rockets were already on their way to hitting the barrier.
With precision timing, Wolte had also fired all his main turrets at the bridge, and that was ironically the signal for the Lord Focalor to use his ability, The Fog that Steals. Yet, what they did not know was that the simultaneous shots from the Stalingrad and the V2 rockets had an impact and broke the shields with unprecedented effect.
That was where the almighty Royal Mages tried to scramble to rebuild the barriers with the second wave of mages, but the timing of the crows to come in was impeccable. The bombs were not released, and instead, the crows followed the bombs for the impact as they crashed landed at specific equal distances of the Sky Bridge for it to explode.
Also, those were no ordinary bombs.
Qiu Yue had purchased napalm bombs, causing soldiers to incinerate in a moment’s notice. The crows added the explosive powers to the bombs, causing massive destruction to the bridge’s integrity.
And as if that was not enough, Sandy was at the end of the Sky Bridge conjuring a tidal wave of sand filled with oil and water courtesy of the Penguin Ninjas as she unleashed it downwards to the bottom of the Sky Bridge.
With the napalm burning, the sand mixed with oil and water caused the fire to burn even fiercer and longer, bringing the temperature up by a ton, to the point where the sand was melting to become glass.
Hence the name Operation Fire Glass.
There was literally no hope for the soldiers on the bridge as another massacre occurred, dropping the numbers down. In the meantime, Qiu Yue took this solely needed time the fire had brought to reorganise the cultivators as planned into the defensive island platform.
She believed it would yet again be another protracted fight against all fronts. And this time once most or all of the cultivators were gone, they would have to rely on the monsters to take over their posts since it was already evening time in their world.
