Turning the tide

The Prince of Gumina stood at the palace balcony overlooking the entire city. From his viewpoint, he could see most of Tristan, fading into the background. Despite the wounds inflicted by his wyverns, the city was still beautiful.

However, even he knew that buried beneath this facade of beauty were deep undercurrents of hatred. Even he felt it. While the Tristanites were kowtowing to his rule on the surface, The Prince had it on good authority that there was a very extensive network of spies.

It seemed as though the entire city was biding its time, waiting for the Queen to return. Furthermore, this feeling had been exacerbated when word went round about Barda's declaration.

The Prince found himself regretting his decision to put in place a puppet king. The decision had been pushed by the Reuzean prince in a bid to show his value to the invasion. The Prince had allowed it back then but he still had misgivings about it since it was the Gumina way.

His father and grandfather would have cut down entire kingdoms before seeking their surrender. This felt so cowardly to him. He found himself wishing for a reason to attack this city. To show it just how big of a threat he was and how much he had spared them.

There was no cause to attack or antagonize the city. Even with all the suspicion of espionage and the porous borders, he was powerless to do anything since Tristan was still run by Tristanite officials.

He had made a point of placing his personnel on all major resources such as the city gates, but they couldn't guard the entire wall. That was where Tristan warriors came in. However, they were more likely to allow intruders in than chase them away, or heaven forbid, kill the trespassers.

Another major source of the Prince's headache was Barda. That d*mn blacksmith had come out of nowhere and overturned all his plans. Had the Queen died as she was supposed to, or had her spirit broken, or been killed by the Hell legion, then the city would have no one to rally behind.

All these plans had been upturned by one man. The Prince had done extensive research on how each battle had been fought, and every report he received made him frown. He was very wary of this man.

There had been the case of unique steel that allowed Tristan to break the blockade before his arrival. There was also the fact that he took down 4 of his wyverns and his entire hell legion. Then there was the case of the dead legion with its commander missing. There was no proof of who did it, but the Prince had an inclination that Barda had something to do with it.

When the Prince heard of Barda's declaration to retake the city in a week with 5,000 men, he couldn't help feeling belittled. Just how insignificant did they seem that he would root them out in a week?

However, unlike many who scoffed at the idea, the prince was very wary. He had come to interact with such people, and he knew that there was a certain seriousness to their gambits. True experts should not be taken lightly, his father had said. If an enemy has earned your respect, give them, but show them no mercy.

Subsequent days had given substance to Barda's claim, and every new report they received was even more frightening than the last. However, The Prince was no pushover. He was going to show everyone on this continent just what it meant to fight Gumina.

The more he thought about it, the better he felt about this. Drawing this war out would have had dire consequences on everyone. Now, with a head-on-collision, they could finally determine who was the stronger of the 2 sides. If he allowed Tristanites more time to rebuild.

He understood one thing. Right now, Tristanites saw the invasion as though it was some disaster that had come to disrupt their lives. There was still hope for the restoration of normalcy, and that hope was in the Queen.

The longer she took away from the city, the weaker her claim to the throne would become. If Lord Branton had found a way to stabilize the city long-term, his rule would have been more stable. Right now it felt as though his rule was a house of cards, ready to crumble at any moment.

Watching the ships coming in from the horizon, he smiled. Seems that Hantil is doing quite well. The ships were engaged in a deathly throe with 3 massive tornadoes. Some ships had been caught in gales, spinning out of control.

While the capsules remained intact, some ships had begun to break under the might of the buffeting winds. Similarly, lightning strike after strike came at them, bombarding the capsules and the ships.

Suddenly, he heard the sound of the wyverns. His people were going all out it seemed. using the dark clouds and the buffeting winds as cover, the dragon-riders drew close enough to the ships unnoticed.

Now was their one chance. Swooping in at neck-break speeds, the wyverns would spit fire on a capsule and then ascend. They knew Barda had prepared a way to deal with them, so they didn't linger.

This sneak attack method went against the tyrannical nature of the beasts. Had they been left to their devices, Barda and crew would have already shot the beasts down by now. The prince applauded the tactics of his soldiers. He waited to see what answer the archer would have.

***

"This is wind! Can't you do something?" Barda shouted over the sound of the loud winds.

"This is storm magic - composite magic. I am sorry, I cannot intervene. I am purely a wind and air mage," Lady Arnea looked apologetic.

"I don't care what you are, if you can control the wind element then you can get us out of this. Find the exit!" Barda didn't dwell on this as he had more pressing matters to deal with. The wyverns had already taken out 2 ships by burning through the capsule.

The good this about this was that the fall was not hard due to the design of the capsule. It was more like a parachute, and the men would land ready to fight. Already he could hear the loud report of the rifles doing their thing.

At first, Barda's concern had been that mage. He was the biggest obstacle to them and it seemed that the mage on their side was no match. The wyverns, however, were proving to be an even bigger emergency.

He needed the ships to infiltrate the city as deep in the city as he could, which meant going over the first wall. He quickly cocked the sniper rifle which had been on his back the whole time. Loading the bunker buster rounds, Barda aimed.

The dragon-riders were employing very well-coordinated attacks. The sneak attacks were effective, rendering Catalina and her squad ineffective. However, Barda did not rely on sight alone.

One rider had decided to target the lead ship. Many were avoiding going anywhere near him as they didn't know how lethal he was, but this guy seemed self-confident.

Crack!

The loud boom of the rifle was muffled by the wind sounds, but the shrieks of the wyverns as it went down were not. Before the riders could react, another shot had been fired, followed by another.

Barda was firing at the rate of 1.2 rounds per second, and in under 5 seconds, there were no wyverns left. Barda hadn't given the five wyverns deployed by Gumina to meet them a chance to retreat.

All this time while Barda had been quarreling Lady Arnea, he was tracking the wyverns. He had noticed their approach long before they attacked. From the moment they struck first, they were within Barda's range of 2 miles, but he still bid his time.

He didn't want to give them a chance to retreat. They were feeling so smug, he would show them what smug felt like. Once they were within 1.1km from him, Barda calculated that they would not have time to escape his maximum effective range.

Seeing the wyverns fall from the sky, Lord Hantil was momentarily distraught, but he quickly recovered and intensified his pressure. There was no way he was going to let them get past him.

***

"Is everything ready?" One man asked.

"Yes," Answered the second as he looked out through the rafters. He could see the gate from where he was, and he acted as the lookout. The first man then threw his torch on a string. Watching as the little cord light up, the 2 exchanged glances before bolting out of there.

***

Barda was feeling frustrated by now. Instead of gaining ground, the tornado was taking them back from whence they came from, without any recourse. He knew Lady Arnea could do something, but she was holding back. Well, at least he had a plan B, but it seemed to be taking too long.

That was when it happened. A spectacular explosion engulfed the entire western gate. It had been so unexpected no one could prepare for it. Whatever pieces of the mage that were left had been thrown over 500 meters away.

"Finally!" Barda shouted, The Tristan crew finally came through.