Crowned in Black: Ch 31

Karalti and I swooped in high over the fleet as Janos' ships encircled the troop carriers. They descended and dropped ramps to the ground, a black pour of hookwing cavalry surging free. As they took formation, infantry streamed out behind them. The clouds of dirt and the crush of airships obscured a lot, but I watched as the cavalry split into a reverse V-shape, letting the riflemen advance right toward the fake minefield.

"Ground troops down. Looks like Janos is testing the fortress from the back: still five miles out from Temeni, about... ooh, a quarter mile from the entry to Checkpoint One," I reported to the others. "We need to lure them in. Jacob, how is Temeni holding up?"

"Szonja says the shields are barely scratched," Jacob croaked back. He sounded wobbly. Anyone who'd endured artillery fire under electromagnetic shielding - such as yours truly - knew exactly how terrifying the first time was.

Suri made a sound of agreement over the line. "Good. Let 'em wear themselves out. Don't blink and stay turtled up, everyone. They'll advance."

"Ground forces moving toward Helmet Field."Karalti banked and wheeled high over the pass as the soldiers advanced... and then abruptly skidded to a halt in front of the strange terrain ahead. The entire column ground to a halt as officers rode forward to assess the bizarre, unknown obstacle in front of them.

The Destroyers and the Dreadnought seemed to realize they weren't doing enough or any damage to our fortress from afar. As one, they formed a triangle and steamed ahead, quazi dragoons flanking them in a protective cloud. Cautious but secure in their firepower, I watched as the Illuminata seemed to brighten all over, then discharged a crackling anti-magic sphere that swept the steep cliff walls of the pass as it sailed into the narrower neck of Vastil.

"Illuminata inside Checkpoint One." I felt my excitement build as the airships entered the first stage of the trap, big guns booming as they staggered covering fire front and back. "Get ready, Rin."

"They need to reach Checkpoint Two, right?" Rin squeaked. "J-Just tell me when we need to throw the switches."

"They're flying past you any second." I watched over Karalti's shoulder with bated breath. No one had spotted us - or if they had, they were expecting a lone dragon in the sky as a spotter and thought we were Violetta and Tempest shadowing them. No matter their color, most dragons looked the same from underneath, their scales and the undersides of their wings reflecting light like a mirage.

As the ships closed that last mile, the ground force - resplendent in Vlachian scarlet and black - began to advance over the helmet field. The hookwings didn't like them, prancing and screeching back from the slippery round domes as their metal-shod claws skidded and screeched. They liked it a lot less when the first mine went off. I didn't see who or what had triggered it, but suddenly, the whole column was in shambles: the orderly reverse arrow shattered as more mines went off, and the cavalry scattered back into the lines of charges placed in zig-zag rows on the sides of the minefield.

"I fucking hate mines, but damn, that's satisfying," I thought to Karalti. "I feel for those infantrymen. I was one of them, once."

"Janos shouldn't have sent them here to begin with. Now we have to scare them so bad they don't come back." Karalti replied matter-of-factly. As a territorial predator, she felt no remorse as explosions rocketed through the mountains. "Ooh! The ships have reached Checkpoint Two!"

"Hector! Suri! The fortress is taking a pounding!" Jacob's voice yelped over the group chat. "We're already at 65% and dropping!"

I followed Karalti's line of sight and felt a pulse of tension build in my stomach. The ships were in the bottleneck, slowing as they unleashed their full might on Fort Temeri, now only two miles from their position. The shields on the fort were wearing down faster than we’d expected. A LOT faster.

"Rin, light 'em up." I leaned with my dragon as she curved into a shallow dive toward the bulk of the fleet, now cruising through the first checkpoint as the ground forces panicked along behind them.

"Okay! We're doing it!"

Karalti was barely in position when the Ix'tamo went off. I'd kind of imagined the ships fritzing and breaking formation as their engines stuttered and their shields gave way, like the ground troops. What actually happened was that Rin gave the order, the Ix'tamo ignited and threw out their vampiric fields, and the dreadnought's shield turned blue, then white, then exploded with enough force to send the enormous airship careening into the side of the gorge. The battleships beside and just behind it faltered in the air, and were then thrown away like toys as the dreadnaught veered sharply into the black cliffs.

"Hooolllyyy fuuuuck." I gripped Karalti's saddle in open-mouthed disbelief.

A second explosion rocketed out as one of the Illuminata's mana-fueled engines ignited, then a third as one of the Destroyers caught fire from the blast... a chain reaction that rippled through the fleet and routed the Regent's ships.

"Rin! Turn the strippers off!” I barked. “Suri, Gar, advance! Jacob-"

No sooner had I said his name than the counter-shelling began, mortars whistling from the distant blocky gates of Temeri. As the engineers dropped the Ix'tamo deathtrap, the struggling Illuminata took one, two, three hits, mortars blowing chunks out of the behemoth as it plunged to the ground and exploded a third time. Blue-white fire roared up the sides of the pass. The engineers!

"Rin! Are you guys alright in there?" I urged Karalti to turn back toward the fleeing ships. Shells screamed through the air, impacting the flickering shields of the Dakhari warships straggling behind the rest. One hit an engine and sent a plume of emerald flames into the air. Belching smoke, the ship spun, clipping another on its way down... and plunged into the main minefield. The ground force hadn't even reached it yet, struggling with the terror induced by the intermittent mines in in the first gauntlet. As the ship activated the mines and tore apart, the shockwave blasted up and down the road, catching the vanguard of the ground forces in a massive toxic blast. As one, cavalry, infantry, dragoons and ground artillery turned tail and fled back toward the mouth of Vastil Pass, some ten miles from the killzone, even as our own fleet launched on cue, splitting out of the ravines where they'd been concealed and roaring toward the retreating ships.

"We did it!" Rin's voice told me she was jumping up and down on the spot in her excitement. "They're running!"

"Let's hunt 'em down!" Gar called over the group chat. "Hector! The Vice-Admiral wants to know his orders!"

"We have to take this fleet out!" Suri added. "He'll just recoup and try again, otherwise!"

The pissed-off, trained killer agreed with them - but as I was about to give the order, I saw a black hookwing step on a mine and go down shrieking, throwing its red-and-black clad rider from the saddle. These were royal soldiers, Ignas and I's soldiers, fighting on behalf of a man who had convinced them the Volod was dead and I was some kind of monstrous usurper.

I ground my teeth. "No. We can't spare Janos' forces, but we can't hunt them down now they're in retreat. Spare the ground troops: we rout and destroy Dakhari ships ONLY. Tell the Vice-Admiral I want all crews to broadcast appeals to every 3rd Fleet ship still alive. Tell them the truth: Ignas is alive and under protection, Janos is a traitor to the crown, and Myszno does not respect the capitol's declaration of civil war. We WILL defend ourselves, but I'll be fucked if we slaughter our own people based on a lie!"

"Got it, boss. Stand by." Gar sounded mildly disappointed, but he had never called me 'boss' before. "Okay, he says the message is being beamed between their navigators and the enemy ships."

It was the best solution I could think of in the moment. Of all the scenarios we'd planned - Temeri being breached, the Ix'tamo failing - a perfect execution and a chaotic retreat had not been among the ones we'd expected. Karalti was hell-bent on catching up to the nearest Dakhari ship, wings pumping as she dived underneath the covering mortar fire and wheeled toward one of the vulnerable wooden hulls with its sputtering magical shields. She blasted it with fire as we streaked past, then under. My dragon's instinct was to carve a blazing line down among the fleeing soldiers, but I reined her in and urged her to rise back among the ships and use Shadow Copy instead.

“Urrgh, why!?” Karalti briefly resisted the order, spitting a petulant burst of flames against the nearest outcropping of rock instead. “They’re in our territory! Let’s kill ‘em!”

“We can’t. There’s more than one way to break an army. If it was Ilia, we’d be roasting them, one hundred percent. But they need to believe we’re the good guys if we want to win this war.” I focused my will, pressing against her natural aggression and redirecting it. With a roar, Karalti veered up into the sky and swelled with magic, boosting her attack power, then spliting herself into two with Shadow Copy. The mirror image split off from her as we flew at the back of one of the smaller ships, dodging mortar fire, and closed in on the blue-painted hull. I glimpsed the faces of terrified sailors as both Karalti and her clone craned their necks down and blasted the engines with thin lines of brilliant white flames. The glass cracked and the mana ignited instantly, pitching the ship nose-down and sending men tumbling from the decks. As the airship sunk, we pulled back up into the air.

Our fleet was closing, guns firing on the retreating ships. Karalti yelped as grapeshot blew through her copy’s leg, sending black shadow-matter spraying into the air and dropping her HP by 150 points. She ended the spell and desperately strove for height. The air was filling with ammunition from both sides: we were as likely to be killed by friendly fire as we were the enemy.

Janos’ force was firing back on the Vlachian ships, shells and cannons impacting and sparking off magical shields on both sides. The Dakhari ships simply couldn’t match our speed and firepower, though. One by one, they fell, tumbling to the ground in flames and smashing to pieces against the rocks, blocking the path of the terrified, retreating ground forces. By the time we had advanced to the mouth of the Pass, it was a full-blown rout. Like whipped dogs, Janos’ remaining assault force fled onto the plains with their tails between their legs, our ships hanging in a defensive semi-circle at the entry to Vastil. Karalti and I glided around in front… and as we did, the blare of victory horns echoed from the gorge and out across the prairie.

I threw my fist into the air and whooped. Karalti picked up on my elation and roared in triumph, turning around to roll mid-air past the ship at the front of the line. Cheers went up from the decks.

“How’s Temeri?” I patched through to Jacob.

“We uh…hang on… shields are at 40% but there’s no bombs falling now and…uh… uhh… is it over?” He stuttered back.

“For now,” Suri replied grimly. “Still a lot of fuckin’ ships out there.”

“Yeah, but not their dreadnaught,” Gar added. “That’s caput.”

Rin made a sound of relief. “Oh my god. I can’t believe that actually worked.”

“Wait: you didn’t think it WOULD work?” Jacob’s voice rose half an octave.

“We knew it would do SOMETHING,” Rin huffed back. “We just… didn’t know how much. Those dreadnaughts are pretty powerful, but Ix’tamo are Mercurion weapons and, um, our technology is just a bit more advanced than yours.”

“You mean Vlachia’s?” Gar sounded skeptical.

“I mean humankinds,” Rin replied. “I mean, we’re basically a race of sentient robots, right?”

“More like a race of homicidal giant Barbie dolls,” Gar muttered.

I laughed and pushed my visor up, grinning into the wind. It was blowing out of the Pass, which meant it didn’t smell… great. Let’s put it that way. But the stench of burning wood and mana was itself a sign of victory, and I breathed it in anyway. “Alright, everyone, let’s go round up any prisoners and sort this shit out. Tonight, we celebrate. We haven’t won yet, but we sure as fuck won today!”