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23.09% Out of Space / Chapter 155: First Air to Air Dragon Combat

Chapter 155: First Air to Air Dragon Combat

*Recommended music Sabaton - Aces in exile*

Blue Thunder gave a grunt, as he lined his body straight at the approaching Empire dragons, "They are splitting up!" He roared over the wind as he noted the dragons had split into two groups.

"Yes! I see them!" Stamford yelled. "Two of the mid-weights are holding together with the single heavy and the other three are vectoring in for an attack!"

The single heavyweight dragon with silver trimmed blue banners and streamers beat its wings rapidly as it sought to gain altitude, together with its two escorts. Blue Thunder could just barely see dark figures clinging onto its back as it rose higher.

"They are going for a pincher attack!" Blue Thunder growled, "The heavy looks like its going for height advantage, while the other three distract and harass us!"

"Ignore the heavy, we take out the trio first!" Stamford yelled as he gauged the distance and speed between the enemy. "We do a high-speed fly pass, followed by a turn circle port side! All guns to fire as they bear!"

"We let the heavy come up from our aft, most likely they will do a swooping dive down at our tail," Stamford twisted in his seat as he looked to the rear, "Dek, make sure you give that heavy a good dose of lead!"

"With pleasure, chief!"

"Alright! Let's do it!" Stamford yelled, "Let's show them ground pounders what the Airforce can do!"

Blue Thunder accelerated, pulling his wings strongly, forcing more wind against its serpentine body and gliding through the air like a fish in the sea. The dotted figures in front of them quickly resolved into three silver-black scaled Razorback dragons with streamers tied to their legs and wing tips, boldly displaying the Empire colors.

They broke their formation and aimed for Blue Thunder in three different directions, aiming to rake their claws against his flanks with the lead Razorback distracted him head-on. "Dive down now!" Stamford yelled as he clutched his shotgun tightly against his chest.

A sense of gravity disappearing sent the men whooping, as Blue Thunder dived under the reaches of the dragons who tried to box him in, and the machine guns fired, raking the underside of the confused Razorbacks.

Stamford gave a wordless yell as he pumped shot after shot at the underbelly of the lead dragon who cried out in anger at the missed ploy and the rear machine gun fired, and Stamford caught sight of a line of tracers sparking off the underbelly of the dragon before it vanished from view.

"Did we get them?" Stamford yelled, checking left and right making sure everyone was still in place while digging into his pouches for shotgun shells.

"I think so?" Someone yelled back.

Blue Thunder craned his neck back as he turned a loop back towards the action, "I can't see the heavy and its escorts!" He yelled as he looked around in panic.

"7 o'clock high! Coming in fast!" Dek yelled as he spotted a shadow against the sun. "It's coming from the sun!"

"BREAK LEFT! BREAK BREAK BREAK!" Stamford yelled urgently, and Blue Thunder did a sharp tilt left, and a swooping shadow burst out from the skies, barely missing Blue Thunder, the force of its passage sent Blue Thunder struggling to keep balanced. "HOLY FUCK!"

"GOT NO LINE OF FIRE!"

"CAN'T SEE SHIT!"

"INCOMING LEFT FLANK!" Barkley yelled as he spotted a silvery shape darting in from the left side. He twisted his body, trying to bring his MG-1 to bear on the target, but the Razorwing cunningly stayed out of his line of sight, using the flapping wings of Blue Thunder as cover as it inched closer.

"I GOT HIM!" Dek yelled as he swung his gun over, his wire sights hovered over the dragon where three of its crew could be seen firing and loading crossbow bolts at them. He angled the gun slightly forward and fired, bright tracers ripping out from the barrel and into the path of the dragon making it swerved away in panic. But before it disappeared from sight underneath Blue Thunder, Dek saw his shots landing on the crew members, their body turning limp as the dragon dived away. "I got its crew!"

Stamford leaned over the back of Blue Thunder to peer at the disengaged dragon, "Damn, we need some guns at the bottom!"

Blue Thunder gave a dismissive snort and Stamford felt its body bellowing up, followed by a roar and a smoking ball of fire rained down towards the diving dragon, and surprisingly hitting it square on its back. "Ha! Take that!"

"What a lucky shot..." Stamford shooked his head, to which Blue Thunder snorted again.

"There is no such thing as luck!" Blue tilted his head up proudly. "I just good!"

"Watch your front you dumb beast!" Stamford yelled, "Praise yourself later, but we still got five dragons to go!"

"Make it three!" Dek yelled from the back, "I just saw one crashing into the trees, and another limping away at five o'clock!"

Stamford grabbed his field glasses hanging on over his neck and quickly scanned the horizon, seeing a dragon laboring its way across the sky, with what appeared to be large drops of blood raining off its body. "That dragon won't make it, gauging by the amount of blood it's leaking!"

"Tally ho!" Luth yelled and pointed. "3 o'clock high!"

"Blue get us some attitude!" Stamford commanded as he turned his glasses over to the direction Luth yelled seeing the remaining dragons have regrouped and were coming back for another pass.

"Roger!" Blue Thunder flapped his wings mightily and swung his body towards the approaching Empire dragons, "Come get some!" He roared and spat out another fireball at the approaching group as the distance closed. The Empire heavy also spat a fireball out, which Blue Thunder dodged and the guns opened up.

-----

Dante stood on the crown of an ever blue tree watching the aerial dogfight in interest. He smiled and leaped off the tree easily and used the branches of the trees to navigate his way towards the battle. "I found you~"

-----

Blue Thunder gave a yelp of pain as a bolt of lightning gouged his flank, melting his dark blue scales and fusing them against his flesh. He roared and spat a ball of fire at the Empire heavy as it flew past him, missing the dragon as it bent its body away agilely from the fireball.

"RAWR! I AM PISSED OFF!" Blue Thunder roared as he chased the other heavy through the skies. "Stop running!"

Luth cursed as Blue Thunder's motions made him drop the fully loaded 75 rounds drum magazine off the side and into the sea of trees, he braced himself properly and dug another drum out and hugged on to it tightly as Blue Thunder went into another bout of aerobatics. "I am gonna be sick!" as he was thrown left and right in the sky.

"Watch your 4 o'clock!" Stamford yelled, as an enraged Razorback, which he recognized as the one with its crew decimated, swooped in with its jaws wide opened and its claws stretched out. Stamford raised his shotgun up and fired, while Dek swung the MG-1 around and fired, the short distance making it hard to miss, and the combined fire pounded the dragon into bloody meat.

Blue Thunder tried to swerve out of the falling dead dragon's way but was just a little too slow and the dead dragon clipped part of Blue's wing tip, making him scream as his wing tip bone fractured from the impact.

Also immediately, they went into a spiral, the men screaming as Blue Thunder fought back the pain and tears. He barely managed to recover from the spiraling dive but in the process, he had lost too much speed and attitude, desperately trying to limp his way in the skies above the canopy.

Seeing his weakened state, the remaining Razorback screamed in triumphant, and darted down from the skies, going for the kill. It swooped down, ready to latch onto the back of Blue Thunder and rake its claws into its spine, only to meet another barrage of machine gun and shotgun fire, its bullet riddled body crashing into the sea of trees behind Blue Thunder.

Stamford wiped the vomit stains off his side of his face, and with wobbly fingers, shoved shell after shell into his shotgun as he reloaded. "Oh my god, I thought we were dead there."

"There's still one more!" Blue Thunder growled, his right wing barely able to move, as they glided gently along the treetops. "I can't find any place to land!"

"Incoming!" Dek yelled as he saw a streaking ball of fire coming down from the Empire heavy. He swung his machine gun up and fired off a long stream of tracers, which the dragon dodged away, and the glow of a magic shield could be seen as a few lucky bullets impacted.

Blue Thunder tilted his body away from the fireball, which exploded, sending a small cloud of smoke upwards. He quickly leaned his body towards the explosion and used the hot air current to gain a bit of attitude, knowing that if he crashed into the trees, his crew will most likely die or suffer from serious injuries, even himself won't be spare. And landing on a hover into the trees will only trap him in the canopy, making him an open target as he needs time to break through the thick branches and into the cover of the trees.

Soon another fireball rained down on them and a bolt of lightning torn into his tail, making tears form on his eyes.

"Dragon One, come in over. This is Gold Leader!" The radio suddenly burst into life and Dek quickly reached to its receiver.

"This is Dragon One! We receive you, over!" Dek yelled excited as he craned his neck left and right looking into the horizon.

"Gold Leader, standby, I believe a big bad bully is on your tail," The welcoming voice sounded so sweet to the crew that they and even Blue Thunder gave a loud cheer.

Suddenly black dots dropped out of the sun, right on top of the unsuspecting Empire heavyweight. Four A/F - 1 Cobra appeared and the twin pylon mounted 20 mm autocannon gun pods fired, sending 129 grams projectiles at 670 meters per second screaming down at a rate of 520 rounds per minute. The 20 mm autocannon ammunition configuration was two high explosives shells followed by two armor-piercing shells and the fifth shell was a tracer.

The magic shield barely held for three seconds when the explosives and armor-piercing shells detonated against the magic defenses of the unsuspecting Empire dragon. It shattered, and the magical backlash slammed into the mage who cast and maintained the spell. He jerked back and coughed out blood before the remaining shells that encountered no more resistance, turned the crew into steaming pieces of unidentified meat, and blowing large chunks of flesh off the screaming dragon.

As the Cobras pulled up from their attack, what was left of the dragon, rained over a large section of Uncharted Forest in bloody chunks of gore and blood.

"YESSSS!" Blue Thunder and his crew cheered as they saw the Empire Dragon literally exploded into pieces. "Airforce for the win!"

"Gold Leader to Dragon One, your wing doesn't look too good," The lead Cobra radioed over as they regroup and buzzed over Blue Thunder, checking them out.

"Dragon One, we took a beating! Need to touch down immediately!" Dek radioed back under Stamford's directions.

"Roger that Dragon One, divert to bearing 223 degrees, there's a river clearing approximately two kilometers away, over," Gold Leader radioed back, "Think Blue can make it?"

"Roger! Standby!" Dek replied, "Blue! You heard that?"

Blue panted heavily and barely gave a grunt in reply, his eyes half closed in pain. "Just... tell.. me... where... to... fly..."

"Got it!" Barkley checking his instruments yelled, "Blue turn to your left, 8 o'clock heading! You can do it!"

Blue grunted and beat his wings weakly, trying his best to keep afloat in the air, and soon the glitter of a snaking river could be seen among the sea of trees.

"We survived the first air to air dragon combat!"


CREATORS' THOUGHTS
Neobear Neobear

Advance chapters are available on Patreon (14 Chapters Ahead)

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B-17 Dragon styled ~ Stones plz~

Chapter 156: I FOUND YOU~!

Uncharted Forest - 292 km from Sawtooth Mountain Pass

Lt Joesph looked up as he heard a muffled rippling echo from the skies, but the thick canopy barely allowed any view into the sky. Even sound was muffled and suppressed by the thick cover, making it hard to gauge where it was coming from.

"Come on, move it guys," Lt Joesph encouraged the tired slaves as they pushed through the forest. "Tyrier!"

He gestured the Claymore One leader over, "Think you can lay some false trails and cover our movements?"

Tyrier paused and glanced around the forest before nodding, "Got it, you got any claymores or explosives?"

Lt Joesph nodded and pointed, "Get it from the Asagi," He gestured to a small quad pedial walker, climbing over a tree root with large baggage on its back, following a hulking Oerkin wearing a barely fitting helmet and a sleeveless uniform with a couple of ammo belts crisscrossed over his barrel chest. In his large muscular arms, he cradled a large machine gun that looked almost too small for him. "I will assign you some guys for support."

"Got it," Tyrier gave a low whistle, signaling the rest of Claymore One over, "Alright guys, got a shit job." He said to the rest of the team as they gathered around him.

"We gonna lay some surprises for any chance of pursuit at our rear and also spells to cover and mislead the enemy," Tyrier gave a quick brief. "Whatever we need, explosives or mines, we get it from the golem's supplies. Questions?"

"Why the fark are we doing this shit?" Hitsu grumbled, "Can't the Marines handle it? Why is it always Claymore One got to do all the shit jobs?"

"Shut it!" Tyrier growled, "Will you trust a brunch of FNGs (*Fucking New Guys) to wipe your ass?"

"Now I know you guys are feeling pissed and sad with Doth's incident," Tyrier lowered his tone, "That Hero who killed our friend and buddy is out there, and he is coming again," He pointed to the rear.

"And we are gonna give him a surprise party when he comes," Tyrier said while looking in the eyes of each of his team, "Now what say you?"

"Time for round two!" Altied growled, "Let's kill that son of a bitch once and for all!"

"Hell yea!" Tavel nodded, rubbing his bandaged arm. "He's got to pay for Doth!"

The rest nodded in agreement, "Okay, we are gonna split into three sectors, left, center and right flank." Tyrier pointed to three directions.

"Altied and Young, you cover the left flank, Hitsu, and Loke, on the center and Tavel with me on the right,' Tyrier ordered, "Mine it, trap it, lay your magic formations, or whatever shit you want, but do it quickly. Questions?"

"How much time?" Loke asked.

"Maybe half a day? Or less?" Tyrier replied, "We have no idea, it could even be an hour."

"Won't it be a hazard in the long run if the traps and mines are not triggered?" Young asked in concern.

"We mark in on the maps if possible and have the Marines clear them in the future," Tyrier replied, "We don't have the luxury of worrying about hazards now. Any other questions?"

The men shook their heads as they pondered on what to set up on their assigned areas.

Tyrier nodded, "Good. Grab what you need, and who you need. The lieutenant had given us his okay on using his men."

"Sergeant Tyrier?" A Marine Sergeant appeared behind Tyrier, "The LT has sent us over to assist you."

Tyrier did a quick look and saw two sections worth of Marines had gathered up, half of what Lt Joesph had in his force. The golem called Asagi was curiously looking left and right at the ongoings as it stood at the edge of the crowd.

"Alright Sergeant... Emberstone," Tyrier read the nametag off his uniform, "Split the men up into three groups and also all the explosives and mines from the golem and do the same."

SGT Emberstone nodded and started directing the gathered Marines, pointing and gesturing at the golem while getting the men to form up in three groups. "Sergeant Tyrier? It's done."

"Good," Tyrier strolled up, "Alright, you guys are here to help us lay some surprises for the blue boys who is coming. We don't know how much time we have, it might be an hour or a day. So work fast and work safe!" He pointed to one group, "You guys follow Altied and Young. You with them and the rest with me. Now let's get to work!"

"OOO RAH!"

-----

Somewhere at the Uncharted Forest

Blue Thunder painfully stretched out his broken wing, allowing Luth and Dek to bind his broken wing bones with a piece of wood and duct tape. He chomped down on the unappetizing ration blocks and sighed, "I want meat..."

"Come on, Blue, soldier up!" Stamford patted Blue's ridged head. "Wait a while more, and I get the boys to hunt you something later."

"Promise?" Blue Thunder made a plate-sized puppies eyes at Stamford who shook his head at Blue Thunder's antics.

"Promise!" Stamford replied, "When it is all safe and clear!"

Blue Thunder gave a grunt, as Barkley pulled out another crossbow bolt stuck at Blue Thunder's left shoulder. "Damn, another few hands, and this would have skewered Luth."

"How is it?" Stamford climbed up next to Barkley who was stuffing the wound with anti clogging powder."

"Removed four crossbow bolts, applied burn cream on three lightning bolts strikes, patched several torn wing membranes on both wings with duct tape and..." Barkley gestured to the other two who were still splinting Blue Thunder broken wing bones. "that..."

Stamford nodded turned to watch Blue Thunder, swallowing the remaining ration blocks. "He should be fine with enough rest and calories," Barkley said, "But the wing at this condition, he might not be able to fly long distances and his speed will be greatly affected."

"Meat will heal me fast!" Blue Thunder snaked his serpentine head back to look at the both of them, "Meat makes it all good!"

"Yes yes, you glutton!" Stamford shooed his head away, "Go get some shut-eye, we might need you to move at any time!"

Blue Thunder gave a pout and lowered his head back on the ground and closed his eyes, and before long, a bubble appeared over his nostrils as he gave off a light snooze.

"The crew? And ammunition status?" Stamford asked as he watched the bubble of snort grew expand and contract following the rhythm of Blue Thunder's breathing.

"No injuries, just shaken," Barkley turned his attention to the other two who were packing up the first aid toolbox. "Ammunition is down a roughly 1.5 drum magazine per gun."

"Gold Squadron is providing as much cover for us as possible," Dek yelled, as he stowed away the first kit toolbox. "But they only have enough fuel to stay in the AO (Area of Operations) for roughly another two hours or less."

Stamford nodded, "Let's wash up and take a break for now, with Blue in this state, we can't do much either. But at least we cleared the skies."

"Oh, yea! I got puke all over my body!" Luth said, as he started stripping his uniform off and ran towards the river with Dek to wash up.

"I keep watch for now," Stamford said, "later we might need to do some hunting for Blue and our dinner before it gets dark."

"Got it."

-----

The Hero paused in his movements in the trees and he cocked his head, listening to the sounds in the forest. "Now, now, what do we have here?"

He closed his eyes and from his body, covering him in a warm yellow-white glow manifested, granting him an increase in his abilities. He could hear the clanking and clashes of metal against metal in his rear, where the rest of the Empire forces following him were making their clumsy way through the forest.

For the past day, they had airlifted every soldier into the forest closest to where the enemy is at as Dante's mental link with Evelyn was still unsevered. Dante himself personally destroyed a large swath of forest, enabling the dragons to land the men, before making return trips to pick up more. Only when the dragons had transported everyone, did he send them out to look for any traces of the rebels and the strange barbarians with the demonic thundersticks in the direction where he sensed Evelyn's lifeforce.

He judged that they were roughly half a day or less away when one of the dragons returned bearing news of discovering an unaffiliated dragon but matching the description of an Empire heavyweight dragon that was said to have turn traitor.

Dante left the soldiers behind to push forward, his mental link with Evelyn was telling him she was roughly in this direction. Now crouched in the trees, he closed his eyes and opened up his inner eye, groping for a sense of where Eveyln's lifeforce was at.

He opened his eyes with a smile, feeling the strength of the mental tug, knowing himself to be very close and he kicked off from the tree branch, the force of his leap shattering the branch as he flew for meters onto another tree branch, his magic barrier around him, negating the whipping branches and trees.

"Time for vengeance, mortals!"

-----

Private Slow grunted as he stretched his strained back, after spending half an hour digging around the forest floor and planting claymore mines and rigging them up to trip wires. He pointed harshly at Asagi who peered from next to him at the barely visible wire he set at knee length across two tree roots. "No no! Back! Dangerous!"

He shooed the curious spider golem away, "Danger! KA BOOM!" He gestured with his fingers opening up like an explosion and pointed to a corner of a tree. "Stay!"

Asagi seems downcasted as it lowered its head and trotted sadly to stand at where Slow pointed. Slow gave a sigh and gave it a pat, "Wait here, Me done soon!"

Asagi gave a sort of wag with its armored plated stone body and settled down at the tree, waiting patiently for Slow to finish up.

"Sarge! I am done here!" Slow yelled after he covered up the claymore aimed between the two ever blue trees with trunks wider than he could hug with his two hands. "Come on, Asagi, let's go!"

Suddenly a tree branch snapped loudly from above and a small shower of leaves fluttered down. Slow jerked his head up in surprise and saw a slightly glowing elf half kneeling on a tree branch that was snapped in half with one part dangling in the air.

"WHAT?" Slow roared out, "CONTACT!"

-----

Dante landed hard on to a tree branch and looked down, seeing a strange monster with bags and boxes on its back next to an Oerkin dressed in a strange manner. He gave a grinned at the Oerkin who yelled out an unknown language and seemed to fumbled for something on the body of the strange four legged creature.

Dante's eyes narrowed and his grin grew wider as he recognized the weapon the strange Oerkin was lifting up, it looked like one of those cursed thundersticks! "Found you!"

-----

Slow grabbed his MG-1 which he stacked on the back of Asagi, cursing at himself for leaving his weapon, and for a brief moment, his drill sergeant words came crashing into his mind, "NEVER LEAVE YOUR WEAPON FROM YOUR SIDE AT ALL TIMES!"

"Oh, I am gonna get drilled out!" Slow yelped as he remembered the painful memories of basic training. "CONTACT! HERO SIGHTED!" He roared again, and swung his MG-1 in hip fire stance, snapping off the safety and fired, sending a meter long muzzle flashing into the forest, and spent empty cartridges flying off into the forest ground.

-----

Dante smiled widely as he watched the slow-motion movements of the Oerkin and he leaped down, his arms reaching to the back of his waist where a pair of swords hung in their own scabbard sat.

A twin gleam of silvery light flashed out, and the Oerkin yelled in pain and rage, as twin fountain of blood erupted out from its body in an 'X' shape. It dropped the roaring thunderstick and fell against the weird looking four-legged creature which appeared to have arms that gripped onto the falling Oerkin and started to drag it away into the trees.

Dante laughed as he watched the antics of the creature seemingly trying to save the Oerkin. He took a step forward and slashed down at the Oerkin, wanting to finish it off as he knew the Oerkin were very tough and hard to kill. But to his amazement, the strange creature blocked his sword slash, sending a numbing sensation down his arm as a loud, "CLANK!!" reverberated from the body of the creature when his sword hit it.

"Huh? What manner of creature is this?"


CREATORS' THOUGHTS
Neobear Neobear

advance chapters are available on Patreon (14 Chapters Ahead)

https://www.patreon.com/neobear

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Join the discussion in Discord

https://discord.gg/A8Tm86V

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Donate/Support me via Paypal now!

https://paypal.me/neobear

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Samurai Xed ... =x

Stones and reviews plz! Help me stay below rank 40!!!

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