Re: Jager [Mecha Isekai/LitRPG]

+++ Calamity of Hate +++

Cardinal Vittoria de Albe planted her sceptre on the cold parapet of Serenus' southern bastion. Her silky, light orange hair fluttered through the morning wind.

In the distance, Fort Patricia fell. The banners of the so-called 'YEF' were planted up high on its northern wall, which faced Serenus' southern wall.

As the last soldiers retreating from Fort Patricia reached Imperial Capital's southern wall, the fortified passageway was promptly detonated.

No more would the enemy be able to use it, but so would Vittoria's side. It was a calculated decision, she couldn't allow them to have free passageways to exploit.

But now, they're already at work moving their assault trenches.

Their sappers were deadly effective. While Fort Patricia was being assaulted, the earth mages leading their sapper units dug trenches rapidly forward.

Now, they were inching toward Serenus at a comfortable pace. The eastern and western forts could hardly even touch them. Only Serenus' main southern bastion and the two ravelins in front of its angled curtain wall faced this attack now.

"It's only a matter of time until they breach this place—"

Her words were rudely interrupted when flashes of light came from the intact northern bastion and ravelins of Fort Patricia. The enemy's barrage was quite heavy.

She saw at least thirty shots coming from the fortress, and due to their proximity and raised positions, the shots managed to rattle the hastily raised barrier spell to protect the Imperial Capital's southern wall.

She gritted her teeth.

"I see…" Her eyes locked into a 'mech' standing on the northern bastion of Fort Patricia. It was firing its gun incessantly in her direction. "It's you. The Grey Knight."

"It's just him for now," Cardinal Niccolo Zorzi spoke up behind Vittoria. "Perhaps we can launch an attack against him?"

"I doubt he'd be able to stop us. Indeed…"

The enemy, as of now, still hadn't fully prepared their lines. They were still digging forward, hardly enough guns placed on their trenches to actually protect the approaches to Fort Patricia.

Even the artillery they placed on the fortress's battlements was focused on firing at Serenus' southern wall.

"If we can kill him and retreat safely," hatred bubbled in Vittoria's beautiful face. "Yes…yes, Niccolo, you make good sense."

"I will soak up their artillery's attention," Niccolo declared. "You focus on that man."

"He'll be my kill then," excitement finally returned to Vittoria's voice. "After what he did, he needs to pay. He killed so much of our food that was supposed to be for His Holiness."

"He's trash. Cretins like him deserve to die," Niccolo nodded, before smiling wryly. "Or perhaps, he deserves to be eaten."

"He thinks he can do this much against us freely, when the angels he fights side-by-side with aren't nearby," Vittoria licked her lips, as she readied her stance. "Alright…let's do a quick raid, you and I."

Niccolo nodded, in a flash, Vittoria jumped from the southern wall's peak, bloodlust in her eyes as the sceptre in her hand turned into a black magical scythe.

+++

+++ Lieutenant Hans Hoffman +++

Just keep them off from our forward units.

Hans took a deep breath, as he found his targets, and opened fire with another MPAT round.

Keep them on their toes too. Don't let them counterattack.

After they broke through the defenses of Fort Patricia, the soldiers inside surrendered en masse after Hans' appearance.

His actions and the Peacemaker's presence were overwhelming. Annihilating the enemy's reinforcements meant the defenders had no choice. And so, they laid down their arms, and Hans immediately took that as reason to charge forward.

He positioned himself rather quickly on the bastion located at the northern wall of Fort Patricia, facing Serenus itself.

Using the battlements in the parapet, Hans kept himself in a comfortable hull-down position, his main gun firing incessantly at the retreating loyalist soldiers.

Within a few minutes, they detonated the fortified passageway connecting Serenus to Fort Patricia, signalling to Hans that they must have no plans for a counterattack at the moment.

It made sense.

They traded so many lives just to keep this fortress in their hands. Hans didn't know how many soldiers he killed, but the enemy's casualties must be truly beyond heavy. If they try a counterattack, they'll lose too much to hold Serenus itself.

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It was why he took it upon himself to kill as many soldiers who were retreating on his own. On the other hand, the soldiers who assaulted Fort Patricia got to work.

Nearly a quarter subdued and disarmed the surrendering soldier, many of them still erratically afraid of the fact that the YEF might be corrupted by demons.

Some loyalists even held out in the barracks on their own even after their officers surrendered, further disrupting their allies' movement.

But, in around twenty minutes, Ebert managed to get his men and the guns from other battalions into good position. They even managed to occupy the two northern ravelins of Fort Patricia, placing eight guns on each of them.

Hans briefly lowered his mech to reload his munitions, convinced that there was no chance in hell that the enemy would conduct a counterattack.

He grabbed his submachine gun, and went to the edge of the bastion's parapet, hiding behind its battlement as he observed what was happening in front of him.

"Fire!" one of the officers manning the guns near him bellowed, and another barrage from their guns struck Serenus' walls.

Hans used his binoculars to check the effect. The shields of the Imperial Capital buckled under that attack, and many of the shots struck the magical wall of Serenus' southern bastion.

"Beautiful," Hans grinned. "They're fully suppressed now. If we can just keep this up—"

He scowled, noticing something. Two dark shadows fell from the bastion they were targeting, and the shadows began running with ridiculous speed toward Hans' direction.

"Wait…"

He had to do a double-take with his binoculars. There was no chance that the enemy could be so foolish as to attack brazenly under these conditions.

They had positional supremacy.

Which meant, there was only one possible explanation.

Those two…

Indeed. They must be the enemy's calamities.

Hans immediately retreated to his mech, rushing into its hatch before pressing the button for his speaker. He ordered the troops on the northern wall to brace for an attack by enemy demons.

The soldiers and artillerymen seemed confused, until one of them noticed the shadows speeding through them. Worse of all, a mist suddenly enveloped the battlefield, obscuring their vision.

But to Hans, as he activated his mech's targeting sights, which used thermals, he found himself looking at two humanoid figures rushing to them.

Hate and Avarice.

He growled, as he looked at his current munitions count. He was down to six MPAT rounds, with twenty MPAT rounds slowly loading in using his arcane autofabricator.

"Shit, I have no anti-demon equipment on me," he cursed himself. He had been too focused on breaking through, that he may have overextended himself. "No, calm down."

Even if they somehow catch me off guard here, I'll finally get to meet them.

He pushed his mech close to the battlement, switching half of those MPAT rounds queued for fabrication into straight APFSDS, his mainstay weapon against demons.

On the other hand, he also switched his double coaxials from regular ammo belts to his anti-demon plasma rounds. It only took barely fifteen seconds.

And finally, he aimed at his first target. She resembled that of a beautiful young nun, yet she was holding an oversized scythe. Her golden eyes were now looking straight at his mech with murderous intent.

She wanted to sadistically kill him. Another utter trash then.

I see. You don't seem pleased with my actions.

Hans pressed his speaker's button again.

"All of you! I'll focus on the first demon at the front, you all focus fire on the second demon!"

"Yes, sir!" the nervous defenders of Fort Patricia replied.

Then, Hans pulled the trigger for his main gun.

You're mine.

+++

+++ Calamity of Hate +++

Vittoria charged forward.

Using Niccolo's mist technique, alongside their demonic essence to create an obscuring shadow, they managed to gravely limit the ability of the fortress to counter their attack.

I see. With this, we should be free to wreak havoc.

It should be a brief hit-and-run attack. Take the northern wall, kill the operators of those guns, then kill the Grey Knight himself.

It was going to be the perfect opportunity to significantly weaken their attackers.

But something felt wrong.

Hm…

She felt as if that guy, that thing, was aiming at her.

But how? We shouldn't be—

A powerful whistling sound pierced her left ear, and in a second, an explosion struck her. Pain coursed through her body, as she was flung away a bit, her charge stopping.

"Vittoria!" Niccolo shouted, alarmed.

"I'm fine!" Vittoria panted, as she looked at the distant machine.

It was watching her with great interest, the bluish glow on its head brightening in intensity.

So that's how you work. You can see me even through all that.

A barrage of shots from the wall came at the duo, but they all missed due to the mist. Niccolo's ability was quite powerful, not even the most powerful scrying magecraft could penetrate said mist.

But somehow, that thing over there, that machine saw through it. She remembered Injustice's ability to summon such a thing a little bit more clearly now.

Yes, that was indeed one of the things those otherworldly 'mechs' could do.

"A most dangerous threat indeed," Vittoria scowled, her face turning red. "I'll kill you! I'll absolutely kill you. Niccolo, do your thing. I have my own business to attend to."

With a nod from her partner, the two zoomed toward the fortress. Rapid gunfire that emitted blue light came from the Grey Knight's guns.

It must have been his machine gun, and it was badly damaging Vittoria's body. Each shot that managed to nip her hurt, but her enhanced recovery managed to keep things nice and steady.

Then, as she closed in, she swung her scythe, sending a red flash of light diagonally, slicing a massive section of the fortress's crumbling walls.

Multiple guns and dozens of human soldiers immediately died from that sole attack, and it struck the Grey Knight's mech.

But somehow…a blue light, a barrier spell most likely, blocked her attack.

My…my ability.

To be able to perfectly cut everything with her scythe alone.

He denied it?

Rage filled her.

"Damn you! I'll kill you! I'll kill you!"

The Grey Knight moved his mech rapidly through the battlements, trying to dodge her next attack, but as she ran, she aimed her scythe at him.

Two dragons made out of flames appeared around her, their hellish bodies vaporizing everything that wasn't her with their flames. Then, they blasted forward into the fortress, and the inferno they generated began to consume her enemies.

The Grey Knight will soon die in her hands.