17 - From the frying pan into the fire

The tanks gradually got whittled down by the 3 mages as they accumulated various damages from the spells that the mages threw, inside the Panther tank named Vier Merlin was having a full mental breakdown, Jane suddenly let go of him and spoke in a gentle voice

"I'll be right back Merlin"

Then she looked over at Geo that seemed to be very much regretting signing up with Merlin and Jane as he muttered

"I should never have joined the two of you, now I am going to get killed by mages from the tower… AS IF I WOULD SAY SOMETHING LIKE THAT!"

Jane was a little surprised by Geo's sudden roar before she showed a smile and spoke

"There's the Geo I know, what's the plan?"

Geo quickly thought it through before he spoke

"It's going to be tough, we only have one sword and the mages can fly, we could wait for the Spoil to take effect, how long can these tanks take this level of punishment?"

"Not sure, if they keep peppering the strongest parts of the armor they could take a few hours to get through, though in the worst-case scenario…"

Jane gazed at the ammunition storage and muttered

"If they get one fire spell in on that we'll die before we notice"

Geo nodded before he suddenly remembered something and muttered 

"The way you dodged that bolt yesterday… Dragon parts… Dragon blood! Are the legends true!?"

Jane nodded and showed a smile before she raised 4 fingers as she spoke

"My strength has increased about 4 times, though if I use that strength…"

"They'll focus you down, I know… I have an idea, a bad one"

Jane showed a fearless smile

"I'm all ears"

"Senior brothers, we are making a dent in them, let's keep it up!"

""Yes!""

At that moment the hatch of the Panther named Vier stealthy opened and then 'something' was hurled through the air, there was nothing elegant to it, it was simply a mass of steel that flew through the air and hit one of the mages' in the chest, the impact simply squashed his heart with the sound of a watermelon hitting the ground from the 3rd floor, it was a poorly maintained sword, the very same sword that Merlin had been swinging around every morning, the two other mages yelled at once with deep sorrow

"Junior brother!"

"Brother Maks!"

The body of the mage hit the ground a few seconds later, he was dead the two mages yelled out in sorrow before they turned their gazes filled with anger and hatred to the tank where the sword had been flung from and saw Geo standing on the top of the tank with a smile on his face as he spoke

"That's one!"

He jumped from the tank at once dodging a water spear by the skin of his teeth, he landed surprisingly light on the ground and rolled dodging another spell he didn't have time to identify, then he ducked behind another tank and the next long 30 seconds he dodged, ducked and rolled out of the way of the Mage's furious spells, finally, a rock lance glanced his shoulder, then a fire arrow nicked his leg the old man Geo couldn't take any more as he yelled tauntingly

"I'll kill you both, don't you worry about that!"

Before the mages could respond with their spells a broken spear whizzed through the air and hit one of the two remaining mages in the neck, he clutched his neck at once as he turned in the air and saw Jane stand on the field of gore with a broken sword blade in her hand with which she quickly took a stance and threw towards the final mage, the mage with the spear in the neck quickly used his remaining blood to interface with the world's laws, as a large amount of Spoil built up in his veins a poorly crafted spell blew his lifetime friend and fellow disciple out of the way of the broken sword blade before the veins on his face rapidly turned green as the Spoil sheathed through his body and quickly stopped his heart, the last mage just managed to turn around to see his friend fall from the sky, tears fell from his eyes as he turned his eyes of hatred and grief towards the culprit, Jane, then he let out a sorrowful roar as he overdrew the Odd in the atmosphere as his blood gradually turned green from Spoil a giant fireball formed above his head, though before he could cast it at Jane something in the spell structure collapsed and so the giant fireball went critical and exploded violently consuming the mage completely as it rocked the tanks below and blew away the old man Geo, Jane heaved a sigh of relief before her gaze hardened and she ran over towards old man Geo to check whether or not he was okay

"Geo!"

She quickly found him, he raised a thumbs up at Jane as he praised

"Well done Jane, you've grown into a fine lady"

Jane showed a smile and reached out a hand to help up the old man just then a roar was heard from the forest as a few soldiers stumbled out of the forest of death in panic as they fled towards the tanks, this was Almus' elite soldiers, or what's left of them anyway, a grizzly bear the size of a minivan which fur glinted with a metallic luster came running after them out of the forest, Jane and Geo exchanged glances before both of them ran towards the city walls, the metal grizzly tore through the rest of the soldiers that fled towards the city walls one of them that pulled ahead was mentally celebrating his fortune as a broken piece of armor came flying and hit him in the leg making him stumble as he drew a scream, this drew the metal grizzly that charged past the other 'elite' soldiers and pounced on the poor soldier ripping him to shreds in a few seconds, it was Jane that had thrown the armor piece, not out of any particular spite towards the soldier, more as to follow the golden rule of benign chased by a bear

"You don't have to outrun the bear, just your slower friends!"

Geo showed a proud smile and praised

"That's the ranger Jane I know!"

Jane was currently helping Geo run as he had injured his leg as he played decoy for Jane while she had found something to throw at the mages, the metal grizzly quickly turned around and chased the remaining soldiers down one by one before it stood up on its hind legs and looked towards the city where its bloodthirsty eyes spotted Jane and Geo a few hundred meters from the gate, it let out a beastly howl before it began charging towards them, it quickly passed the tanks and quickly neared the pair, Geo seemed to have made up his mind on something and then he pushed Jane ahead as he yelled'

"Go on Jane!"

"GEO!"

Jane turned and continued running after a split second, Geo showed a smile as he watched Jane run before he turned to face his death, he stood still as he looked at the charging metal bear and showed a slight smile on his face before he began walking towards the metal grizzly, then he quickly picked up speed as he showed a ferocious smile and roared out loud, not to be outmatched by the grizzly, just as the grizzly was about to chew Geo to pieces something flew through the air, it was a broken shield, it hit the metal grizzly right on the snout and caused it to trip over its relatively short legs as it slid to a halt in front of Geo that looked at the metal grizzly stunned, then he felt his arm benign pulled as Jane deftly pulled him onto her shoulder and began running towards the city walls again, it was her that had thrown the broken shield at the metal grizzly old man Geo showed a grateful expression as he spoke

"Darn it, girl, you took away my glory moment!"

"Shut your mouth or you'll bite your tongue!"

Jane proceeded to run towards the gate carrying Geo, she had not taken more than ten steps before a roar sounded out behind the two of them, the cashing footsteps sounded like thunder as the metal grizzly closed in on the two of them, just then Jane's ears picked up the sound of sudden machine-gun fire and then without hesitating she jumped into the air with Geo on her shoulder as a 88mm, 75mm and several other rounds hit the metal grizzly from behind, the shots were APCR and penetrated right through the metal grizzly and hit the closed city gate behind it, Jane and Geo landed heavily on the ground and after a bit the two of them rolled over on their backs and heaved for air, a few moments later a figure approached the two of them, his face was covered in tears and his eye was red from crying and there was snot on the sleeves of his else-so-magnificent tank commanders' jacket, but to Jane, it was the manliest face she had ever seen, she spoke in between heaved breaths

"I...Knew… You... Would… Pull… Through…"

Merlin showed a slightly embarrassed smile as he scratched the back of his head