Chapter 15: Duty Calls
"Kid, you good?"
Maxim hauled the now empty rocket launcher over his shoulder. He had arrived just on time to see the absolute carnage that the monsters had caused in his absence.
Smashed trees, carriages, and injured people lay scattered across the area. The most prominent thing, however, was the pile of monster carcasses that littered the ground. A great deal of wasps, just like the ones right in front of their base, were covered with giant bullet holes that were caused by the .50 caliber guns ripping through their hard outer shells.
Other monsters that Maxim didn't know were also on the ground, which included the big flesh golem that had nearly made its way to the humvee that Ben was in.
He turned back and handed the launcher to someone behind him before walking towards the group of scattered mercenaries and soldiers. The mercenaries were absolutely shaking after that fight, though they tried their best they were more of a burden than a help in that fight. The soldiers had to check their fire since there was a higher chance of friendly fire because of the melee fighting style of the mercenaries.
Fortunately, the moment gunfire sounded the mercenaries immediately retreated backwards. They had no idea if the sound was friend or foe and it was an absolutely terrifying, ear piercing sound even if they knew they were allies.
From the start, guild leader Francis was carried away from danger and was hidden behind one of the carriages as the fight was going on. He was a guild leader in the end, not an adventurer, he didn't have much of a fighting chance if he was put on the front lines.
Maxim looked back at the humvee that was retreating from the area and repeated what he said before, to which he got a weak hand wave from the passenger window.
The kid'll be fine, it's combat experience after all.
However, it seemed that it was quite obvious that they couldn't just blindly shoot at an enemy to neutralize them in this world. If the flesh golem served as anything, they needed clear planning and tactics to deal with unfamiliar enemies which especially included monsters.
Maxim looked over his shoulder, Zhang and his troops were making their way towards them as well. Luckily, the ones that were injured were fine and were only slightly scratched up.
However, he really couldn't say the same for the troops of the mercenary group. At least one of them was dead and others were heavily injured, venom of the wasps had inflicted them with paralysis on top of their injuries.
"Jesus christ, this is the worst timing I have ever seen. We're gonna have to treat them back at our place, it's the closest base. Do you mind helping?"
"Of course"
Zhang gave a curt response to the request, though the other Chinese soldiers had already started to pick the injured up and move them towards their own vehicles before Zhang had even said anything.
Some of them managed to get by with just scrapes on their armor, but others weren't so lucky. There wasn't much Maxim could do, however, other than direct all of them back to their base to get proper treatment.
Maxim grimaced
"I really need to take a break one of these days"
King Morkath P.O.V
"What do you mean Lateran is falling!?"
King Morkath had been woken up deep into his slumber and dragged to the throne room, he never thought it was feasible to drag their own king to their throne but it happened.
However, all doubts were gone as he looked at the downtrodden expressions of his generals and advisors.
Through the flickering candlelight, he could see the seriousness clouding General Jeanne's features. Almost ominously so.
"The heretics of the dark gods have finally made their move. They are besieging Lateran as we speak, their defenses estimate that they have less than four hours before they will fall and are requesting backup."
Lateran was a semi-autonomous region of their empire. Blessed by a holy god, they were allowed to govern themselves but still heavily relied on the Lunama empire for most goods and the empire relied on them for holy water and other artifacts. Without them, demons and undead would run rampant so if they were to fall, the empire could lay in ruins very soon.
"What about our armies!? Do we really have none left!?"
Jeanne sighed
"All of our armies other than the royal guards have already been deployed but we have no feasible way to reach them before they will fall. We might have to attempt a siege by the time we get there."
At this, King Morkath slammed his fist on the armrest of his throne. He was absolutely brimming hatred and anger, however he couldn't act on those thoughts.
"So what do we do? Do we just watch them fall!?"
"We...cannot help them in time. The wyvern battalion can provide a degree of air support but cannot last too long as the heretics have magical weapons on the ground so the wyverns are too exposed."
Is there really nothing we can do? We really are unprepared. Despite being a strong empire, we aren't even equipped or prepared to defend our own territory...wait.
"What...if we ask those foreign soldiers?"
The throne room was silenced in an instant. The crackling of fire from the nearby fireplace was the only sound that was being made.
"Sir...you understand we are not in a military alliance with them? They have zero obligation to help us, we would need to give them good reason to-"
"We'll give them the emblem of the dwarves"
"What!? That emblem that the king of dwarves gave us!? I understand that we have multiple but each one of them calls a dwarven master craftsmen to them, isn't this too much!?"
Dwarves. They were the epitome of inventors and smiths, though what they made was usually defensive or melee weapons as they could not use magic, much of what they built could stand up to magic just the same.
"We must build trust and mutual benefit, if this can save our kingdom and citizens then this is a small price to pay."
"I…understand. We will contact them right away."
What needed to be done, had to be done and they were the only ones who had the appropriate firepower at the moment to handle this.
Maxim P.O.V
"At this time?"
Maxim was in the hospital room checking up on the wounded mercenaries. They were mostly fine, with the effects of the venom disappearing quickly they could soon stand back up again.
After a long and lengthy discussion with guild leader Francis, they decided that the building would continue as planned.
He handed them one of the golem cores as compensation for the deaths and injuries that they had caused, though it wasn't exactly their fault this incident happened on their land and Maxim really wasn't in the mood to deal with vengeful families after their blood, though Francis assured him it was fine.
"They knew what they were getting themselves into, guards are usually the most vulnerable after all. I will compensate their families as stated in their contract."
After that reassurance, Maxim thought everything would start to settle down a bit as there were no more plans to re-engage with the monsters in the forest.
Despite some damage to the humvees, they were all completely operational and in perfect working order other than a few dents on the side caused by the flesh golem powerful punches. Both the Chinese and U.S forces had increased patrols near the forest, attempting to contain them the best they could for now. There was much too large of an unknown factor to face it head on, so for now they just had to make sure nothing else happened.
However, just as he thought everything was fine, Simon busted into the room.
"Sir, the King is requesting your presence"
Maxim groaned at this.
"Holy fuck, am I a soldier or a politician? Do you mind getting Zhang? I think he would want to be introduced as well."
"Understood"
Both Zhang and Maxim settled in the meeting room, with Simon, James and Ben sitting to the side before the communication crystal blared to life, signaling a successful connection.
"Sir Maxim, we're sorry to bother you so soon but we have a quickly deteriorating situation on our hands. We are requesting your assistance."
Everybody in the room looked at each other. They weren't aware of any conflicts that the empire had been a part of but anything could happen with how chaotic the world that they were in was.
"Unfortunately, we just had a small conflict of our own. We cannot unconditionally give you our military support whenever you ask us"
Maxim wanted to do something, but also knew that being a pushover was the most dangerous thing that he could do.
"We have a magical device that we are willing to reward you if you help us defend or take back the land that is being attacked."
On one hand, this would dramatically increase the relationship that they had with one of the strongest countries in the region, but Maxim wasn't willing to risk his soldiers' lives just for a device, that was a terrible ideology to trade off lives for items.
However, the goddess that had summoned them here had given them clear instructions on how they could return back to earth and, frankly, they really wanted to go back home.
"Please, there are civilians still there. Tens of thousands of people will die if the city falls, it is our only source of holy relics that keep manslaughtering demons at bay."
"I'm in support of helping them"
Though Zhang was quiet for most of the discussion, he suddenly spoke up.
"Assuming we are fighting human enemies, we will have a much easier time dealing with them than monsters. And, I have an idea to break the siege provided that we have air support. All you need to do is clear out the remaining enemies if there are any within the city."
"And who is speaking right now?"
"Captain Zhang, the makeshift leader of another country near the U.S that uses similar technology. I've heard from Maxim that you have Wyvern riders in the area, we're going to need to request a few"
"I see, well then we'll support you whatever way we can"
Though neither Maxim nor King Morkath knew what his plan was, Zhang's confidence was all he needed.
" The city is around eight hours to the south of us by horse. We wish you luck. Our troops are on their way but will not make it in time. All that is necessary is attempt to help them hold out, we are not requesting you to engage close up"
With that, the connection was severed.
"...Well, I think we're gonna need to hear that plan of yours Zhang."
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So….guess who's back?
I admit, I've been hesitant to continue this story after the whole Ukraine incident, so as of now I'll refrain from including the Russian military so there is no backlash and as to avoid the sensitive topic. However, I will include them as soon as this conflict ends so no one needs to panic.
With this being said, I've had a hectic time these months but I am back again!
And that's that, chapter 15 done. This is the first "official" battle they will have with many more to come in the future. This battle will most likely take 2-3 chapters to resolve.
And yes, updates might take a while but they'll get out. After I graduate, I will have much more time to deal with this.
Also, I am planning on releasing a new story that doesn't completely follow the Japanese fast paced type light novel story that I have been doing. There will still be aspects of it but it will be a lot slower and more detailed.
Anyways, see you then!
W.O.V