Serenade of the Steadfast Sniper
A story from the front-lines of Cray
Flickering pits of flame dotted the charred and smoking battlefield. Trenches dug into the earth by streams of wrathful flame. Palm trees lay fallen and smoldering, slowly crumbling into charcoal as they burned. The white sands of the beach smeared with swathes of grey ash. While the sea still churned restlessly against the shore, it could do nothing to restore the tranquility that had existed here merely an hour ago. Prior to the arrival of Dragon Empire’s advance guard, which today was the duty overseen by the ace aerial assault division Kagero.
Having survived death itself, reborn anew, and taking the very power that revived him for his own; the warrior famed far and wide as Dragonic Overlord soared through the skies with the regal majesty of a king as he surveyed the battlefield below. He could feel the presence of a spirit within him. Yes, one of those beings from the world parallel to Cray was inhabiting his body, guiding his actions and lending him strength from beyond time and space. It was one he was familiar with. A spirit whose soul resonated with his own - eternally burning with the drive to get stronger. In his endless quest for might, always pursuing greater heights of power, Dragonic Overlord, now dubbing himself “The X” as a dare for others to challenge their prowess against his own, had come here with the intent of reclaiming these shores. They were connected to the landmass of Dragon Empire, and rightfully belonged to their territory.
Yet they bordered upon the ocean. They could never be truly considered safe.
Such arrogance! He seethed with fury, balefully glaring down upon the assembled ranks of the enemy below. Aqua Force… a clan from the ancient past, who should have kept to their place in myth and legend, were the threat to his nation today. Each day brought with it a new battle. But it was not an existence begrudged by any of Cray’s inhabitants. To fight and war among themselves was so ingrained in the pages of their history it had almost become their culture. It seemed that Aqua Force believed that they owned the oceans of Cray itself however. From the verdant mangroves infringing the continent of Zoo to the abyssal underwater trenches of the Dark Zone they extended their reach. Grasping, clinging, desperately seeking to secure their place in a world that had grown and changed without them in the many years following their sudden disappearance. Pathetic. Dragonic Overlord spurned their struggle for relevance. It was not that he felt anger towards them for being enemies alone. No, it was their moral insistence that they were fighting for some absurd notion of justice that made him take particular enjoyment in seeing their waterlogged ranks fizzle and evaporate. Cray had been better off without them and their half-baked righteousness.
Once he was done routing their forces from the shoreline, he was resolved that he would take the fight back to them. Maybe it would take the massacre of an armada to make them understand that Dragon Empire had outgrown them. But somehow he doubted it. It might take a return visit to near-extinction to teach Aqua Force the lesson of humility they lacked. Either way, so be it. He was not alone in this fight. To his left, a sentient echo of his former self loomed like a shadow. A disturbance made possible by the anomalies in time and space plaguing the region. Together they were Legion, and he could not have imagined it any other way. What better ally could he hope to match him than a reflection of himself?
Flanking him on his right were his comrades, Twilight Arrow to the front and Mahmit on the back row. There were no others. Losses had been heavy, many of them being required to sacrifice themselves guarding against the relentless assault of the invading Aqua Force. But for every casualty in Dragonic Overlord’s ranks he had snuffed out the lives of two hardened sailors to even the score. Tattered white uniforms and weapons littered the ground as makeshift grave markers to the number who had fallen to his furious retribution.
He counted over the number remaining who opposed them. Sensing that victory was near. There were only three of them in attendance; two sailors riding kelpies, and a single siren. Blinking, he turned his gaze towards her, finding her inclusion in the naval formation somewhat puzzling. She was sitting on the front row in plain reach. Too weak to do anything alone, yet brazenly exposing herself to danger while keeping a look upon her face of tranquil resolution. Staring right up at him and silently judging him for the devastation he had caused her clan. For a moment, he considered making her his victim for showing such defiance… but with their formation so weak, it seemed like there was a stronger chance of defeating them now if he pressed the assault against their Vanguard. The senior kelpie rider wielding a glowing green sword of pyroxene light. His name was Thavas, and he could sense that he too was being possessed by an otherworldly spirit, just like he was. No matter. That connection would be broken with this final barrage.
Gesturing for Twilight Arrow to commence their retaliation while the denizens of the sea rested from their last wave of attacks, he received a sharp nod in reply from the archer, who spread his wings as the dragon knight behind him lent him power. Conjuring a bow made of flickering orange fire; his ally took aim at the enemy Vanguard with a blazing bronze arrowhead. Pulling it back against a bowstring of heated compressed air and then letting it explode to send the projectile flying. It grazed the side of Thavas, wounding him, but continued on keeping momentum until it buried itself in the chest of the childlike kelpie rider behind. There was a scream as the sailor’s body, which was made up of 99% water, bubbled and boiled violently before finally evaporating and leaving behind just a few scraps of uniform. Yet another death in the enemy ranks for Twilight Arrow to mark on his scoreboard later.
Descending from above, plunging towards the ground below, the shadow of himself mirroring his movements as it followed by his side, he raised his brilliant flaming sword up high. Bringing it in for a decapitating stroke that would end the confrontation decidedly! Perhaps he’d take the Vanguard’s blade and give it to his past self as a souvenir...
Blinding emerald light barred his path, and Dragonic Overlord felt his sword’s force deflected as his slash rebounded, breath hissing through his teeth as he snarled in rage. So the enemy had been keeping some units in reserve after all. They were streaming onto the battlefield now, and the great dragon was forced to pull back towards his own forces to avoid being surrounded. The shallows behind the shoreline must have been where they were hiding. Once their Vanguard had been defeated he’d make sure to scour every mile of the coast for the stragglers that might remain. It would send a message to the next aquaroid who thought himself brave enough to come within a mile of their sands.
Scowling, he watched them replenish their rearguard lines. Assault, sniper, kelpie rider. How many of each had he already killed today? It mattered not, he would dispose of these just the same once he was done defending against their onslaught. Thavas looked weakened. Pushed to the very limits of his endurance, unlikely to last much longer. Certainly it seemed unlikely he would possess the strength to muster a powerful attack… and yet, his expression was not one of fear. Raising his arms into the air, the aquaroid implored an unseen force for aid. An action which made the Kagero commander grip his sword tightly in trepidation. He still had the resources left to do THAT? In the cloudless skies above the battlefield tinged pink and orange by the distant sunset, a vast gate manifested as a series of interlocking rings aglow with shining turquoise light.
It hadn’t been the first time he’d seen this during the fight.
Thavas’ form shimmered and merged with the light above. Reshaping and reforming as his space in existence merged with and was replaced by a force summoned from the distant future. It was the unique phenomenon that the Gear Chronicle who had recently emerged dubbed Stride. In the last several weeks it had become increasingly widespread. It was a mighty power, and it made Dragonic Overlord briefly consider that if the occurrence tapped into the future, perhaps there might be a version of himself that existed in that distant time. A sneak preview of the greater power he would continue to accumulate over centuries of conflict. The thought stoked the fires of his drive to succeed even further, and he braced himself against whatever was about to emerge.
Standing tall, a slender sailor with the bearing of a noble stood where Thavas once had. Taking a moment to orientate himself with the battlefield and ascertain the situation. He had just been plucked right out of another timeline after all. Looking up directly at Dragonic Overlord, he felt the Stride’s presence as a vast swell of mana before him. His mere arrival seeming to rally the other units assembled there. This was it… what Aqua Force might become in the future, if they were able to recover from the setback that had robbed them of their old legacy. He was the embodiment of everything they one day hoped to become. It was only natural that his mere existence should inspire the others to believe that their fight had some meaning beyond clinging to survival. However misguided that might prove be.
The sniper took aim first, steadying his rifle, aiming up at the easy target presented by the dragon as he drifted through the sky with nowhere to take cover. His piercing green beam of light was blocked as a long-bodied dragon clutching a healing orb flew to intercept the path of the shot. A successful guard. One attack down… but this was Aqua Force after all, and the second was soon incoming. The Assault unit approached and swiped at him with one of the two blades he held, but the attack was too weak. A feint and nothing more… intended to build momentum for the next strike, which came swinging with a backhanded blade empowered by a boost from the kelpie rider down on the ground below. He blocked it effortlessly too. These were just the small fry. He had no time to waste on them. Not when the ripe challenge of a much stronger foe existed for him to clash swords with.
Rising to the challenge was the sailor summoned by the Stride, leaping into the air in time to land with his feet resting on the crest of a colossal wave that was sweeping in over the battlefield. Smothering the fires and washing away the signs of the conflict that had taken place. The wall of water rose constantly in height as it swept over the ground, foamy white bubbles and roaring currents dragging behind flotsam and the remains of the fallen in the wake of the tide. The level of power impressed the dragon warrior, who made no effort to attempt to avoid it as it careened towards him. This was a more worthy opponent befitting his status. But all the same, it would not be enough to overcome him. Summoning forth another orb-bearing dragon, he wished upon it to protect him, and an impenetrable shield formed around his body. Like the proverbial Red Sea the waters parted as they reached him, unable to breach the dragon’s barrier. When the swell receded back down to the ground, the dragon who had protected him vanished.
But it wasn’t over, it seemed. With the field of battle now submerged by water, the Aqua Force were well camouflaged, and he had to strain his eyes to make out their new position. Sound carried clearly over large bodies of water. And he could definitely hear something…
It sounded just like singing.
Two units had risen back onto their feet. The commotion was coming from their direction. They were glowing with the same light as the Stride, which explained enough. This had to be his doing somehow. The sniper stood boldly looking in his direction, but it was the unit behind that who drew the great dragon’s attention.
The mermaid from earlier met his gaze, firm and unwavering, her eyes simultaneously as calm and cold as the oceans themselves. He’d had the chance to kill her before. An opportunity had existed to attack her instead of the Vanguard, but he had squandered it unknowingly. Now she was raising her trident, the weapon radiating power as it acted as a conductor for the soprano of her voice, the pure and sorrowful sound forming a bubble of swirling air currents around her and the sniper as they stood together in arms. Empowering the sailor’s weapon, which was already imbued with the power gifted to them by their future descendants - the Aqua Force who would come after them and inherit the new legacy they were creating. Directed by her requiem the sniper’s hand would remain steady, his keen eyes locking unblinkingly upon their target. This attack would not be blocked. For the sake of everything yet to come for their clan, it would not miss. Realizing the danger presented, Dragonic Overlord threw up his arms to defend, but by the time he started to move, it was already decided.
The sniper’s bullet pierced his chest. The siren’s song stilled his heart.
Then everything was silence.
No comments:
Post a Comment