Bab 21: The Start Of War II

Standing in the sky the balancing was rather offputting and hard to pull off. And looking down at the ground seeing the tiny little humans running around made him feel rather weird at first.

'Crap, my stomach is fighting against my decision to fly...Need to concentrate...' Keeping himself in motion he saw from above that this war was really starting on a very bad note.

So many soldiers were charging straight at them. Some places were already overrun completely.

It was actually pointless to retreat now. He could see that his soldiers would be gatekept and could run straight into enemies.

So he had to do something fast. The first thing was getting rid of that annoying artillery. They were the most problematic in regards to keeping a good entrenchment going.

Energizing his body with his mana and charging forward with incredible speed soon showed him that those computation orbs were pretty unstable. It already seemed to buzz dangerously near its limit just after a short burst.

'Oh, come on...' Lowering his input he got it stable again but with the price of being a lot slower. 'Well, a handicap it is, then.'

Yuri approached the obvious artillery and started raining down explosive shells on them. Courtesy of the mage equipment being made so well that the guns could now fire many of those formulas without breaking so easily like his other rifle once did.

His hits soon caught attention from the ground infantry spotting him. But he also made some bombardments on them as well to decimate as many soldiers as he could.

In some sense taking lives was never easier than now. It had a bitter taste and Yuri soon lost nearly all emotions on his face.

The soldiers hit by his fire were either killed instantly or had the unfortunate fate of losing limbs and crying out in agony.

At first, Yuri did grind his teeth when he shot and killed humans. But that notion soon vanished with his drills back in the day. Only a solemn gaze was now seen that pulled the trigger and let hundreds of people die and vanish from this battlefield.

Obviously, after he did some damage the enemy started going harder at him and even tried to pull him down like his previous equipment owner was taken down. And that meant with an easy clean shot of an artillery gun.

But Yuri would be a fool if he stayed unmoving.

Like a mosquito, he kept changing flight patterns to annoy them so that they were not able to hit him at all. It also brought their attention away from the ground units.

And all that movement only to go up close and personal with the artilleries and anti-air guns firing at him and repeat his bombardment.

When flying over the ground he whirled a lot of dirt up with his bayonet that he also enhanced with his mana to keep itself sturdy.

Time flew slowly and his actions nearly got rid of most high-priority targets and even helped his soldiers fight back easier so they could start their retreat faster.

That efficient work got the attention of enemy mages at some point that rode on their mechanical horses straight at him. With only one goal and that was to kill him.

"Oh~ This is starting to become fun~" Yuri started smiling for the first time in a fight. With a happy expression again he gained altitude to engage the enemy mages.

It was the side-effects of mana that started to show themselves and his euphoric attitude skyrocketed. Making him look like a maniac smiling and laughing at the demise of so many humans.

The soldiers he thinned out would remember him with a deep grudge. The number of casualties he alone made the Francois suffer was unbelievable for just a small mage.

But what they did not know was that he alone was not the only factor. His well-trained soldiers followed his orders perfectly as if they were possessed by the devil suddenly.

Not even the soldiers that came on their flanks could stop their retreat after seeing their backs being protected so iron-willed.

And the fact that those people with their faces ornamented with hateful grimaces, wrathful burning eyes, and sorrowful aching tears started to shoot him with those normal useless calibers made him laugh even more hysterically.

Like a hyena that could not stop being amused by the chase play of its prey, he could only laugh at those bullets vanishing after being blocked by his passive mana shield.

"You damn monster!! We will kill you!" Some Francois started crying out shouts at him.

Now that Yuri had 7 mages on following his ass around and shooting at him while cursing, he started being a little bit more reckless. He flew over enemy lines more often and bombarded the hell out of them.

Not only from his attacks but from friendly fire as well. What glorious trigger discipline these idiots have.

And with most Anti-Air having been destroyed by him beforehand made it easy doing this up and down. It was not his fault that those guys came so late to the party.

And what a party it was. Those actions made the enemy mages furious. Their hate took what little reason these people still had.

"Stand still you rotten empire dog!!" The Francois mages were cursing him again and by the looks on their faces, it was a slight show of desperation.

Well, it was understandable because he was fast enough to keep avoiding their fire and still kill their comrades on the ground. Right. At. Their. Faces. Oh, and did he mention the friendly fire? Yes? They even seem to put that blame on him as well now. Hilarious.

But at some point, Yuri had to get rid of them. Even if it meant to sacrifice something. And that something was his health.

He managed to kill 2 of the 7 mages by firing back but 5 still remained. And he could feel himself tiring out.

With an instant stop midair that churned the insides of his body and let blood flow from the corners of the mouth, he reversed his flight instantly and charged right at those mages hunting him.

His rifle aimed straight shot four bullets that caught two mages off-guard. Not being prepared for his maneuver they paid with their lives after their shields got blown away and the second shots killed them.

But that was not all. While avoiding the retaliation fire from the other 3 that were further back, Yuri flew into the still residing smoke of the previous explosions and charged past the 3, and left a sweet potato near those guys.

That sweet potato was in the form of three mana overcharged grenades that Yuri had prepared inside the smoke.

Without them knowing that he had planned such a move Yuri instantly shot at them after aiming and pulling the trigger.

The explosion multiplied enormously together with the strongest explosion formula he could muster.

And that made it a beautiful mushroom explosion to be feared. One could see it from afar for miles to come.

Yuri's eyes were vibrating a crimson red and he groaned lightly and started charging away from the explosion in the direction of his own borders.

Beneath him, one could see many corpses lying on the dirty mud. It didn't matter if they were inside the trenches or above it. Dead people started accumulating like a pile of living flesh.

On his way, he even met a few enemy fighter planes which he dodged and sent to the ground after shooting them down.

It was rather easy taking down planes with the high mobility of a small flying child body. The fighters and planes just had too much of a limitation in their maneuverability to be a clear threat towards mages.

If you had to compare mages to modern weaponry they were a jet, attack helicopter and light tank all in one.

So after taking the fight towards the enemy airforce and clearing them out, he soon arrived at safer space.

It brought a small smile on his face after his eyes found his own soldiers being present there and having built up a much better defense chokepoint.

There were also more friendly air fighters in the air. That sure was light relief.

Just when his mood increased and the bad effects of the mana subsided a little bit something unexpected happened. Or should he say it was to be expected after bulldozing this equipment to its last breath?

The mana expenditure went far over the limit that his gear could safely handle and the computation orb started to buzz louder and louder and with a red glow, it soon went past what it could handle and blew up in his face.

Luckily he noticed it and still managed to put up a magic shield in front of himself but that also meant he was now straight falling down to the ground without any chance of stopping.

He had no parachute. Ironic that exactly that equipment is the one thing that he left on the dead mage's body.

The only solace was that he seemed to be falling into the direction of the empire camp and therefore on friendly ground.

The thing is. Death will probably still come from this height.

That is at least what he thought. He still hoped his shield could maybe save him.

But before he lost consciousness completely he heard someone talking in a familiar language and felt himself being lifted up by someone before darkness took over.