Steel and Mana

I remember being a kid, watching as my parents built the city, following the lead of our Sovereign. I remember being taught by our Prime Minister, the Great Merlin, who was younger than me... Yet, I never felt inferior because of it. Why? I asked myself the question once, and I think the answer is simple... Because they shared all their knowledge with us and continued to do so. Now, my own son, back home, was safe, enjoying the warmth of our house, even in this harsh winter.

And that was worthy of fighting for. Even worthy of dying for... That was why I didn't feel fear when my squadron and I were launched from the Eagle's Nest, and the world turned into a writhing hellscape.

"Wings Three, follow me and break left!" I barked into the comm built into my piloting helmet, rolling hard to avoid a diving monster.

I saw the glint, a flash of claws sweeping past where I had been just a heartbeat ago, followed by a burst of gunfire from my wingmate, Brask, coming up on my left side. I didn't see it, but I heard how the beast shrieked, probably split open by his fire, and then promptly fell down from the sky.

I gritted my teeth, fighting the feeling that I learned was called g-force, and pulled hard on the stick, lining my plane back into formation. Dogfighting monsters wasn't like dueling against a training aircraft. This was real... The actual baptism, and after this, we could be true Avalonian warriors. No wonder that it was nothing like the simulated fights could describe. These... things didn't follow predictable lines. They twisted, stalled, and dove at impossible angles, something that only a monster would be capable of doing. One was already on my six, weaving through the air like it had rubber for bones while I was trying to get away from it in my more rigid plane.

"Eagle Lead, this is Wings Three," I heard Brask's voice, calling out to me, "You've got one trailing!"

"I know. Tag him if you can!"

My voice was clipped, but not from fear. Surprisingly, that still was nowhere in me. What I was feeling was a combination of sheer focus and tension in my muscles. The kind you get when a mistake means an early and probably very fiery grave, and you know that you will only live if you make no mistakes. And a bit of spice on top of it, called the thrill of the fight.

From the mirror in my cockpit, I saw Brask peeling behind me, coming in from an angle with a short burst, making sure it hit the bastard and not me. The monster let out a cloud of blood as I watched, bursting into chunks of gore. Then, as it disappeared, a second later, Brask's laughter came through.

"One more for the tally!"

"Save the laughs for after," I snapped at him; he was taking this way too lightly. "We still have a hundred more to go!"

"I can see that."

Yeah... me too. The sky was in absolute chaos. Our warriors, my brothers and sisters, we were weaving alongside our own bullets, trails of blood from the monsters, and the cannon fire from below. Looking down, I saw the bursts from our modified artillery hammering the swarm ahead of us, forcing them to stay within our kill zone.

After a sharp turn, we cut through the second wave. I saw one of ours get clipped to my left. I think it was Reesha, noting the markings on her plane... A monster larger than a train wagon rammed into her plane with reckless abandon. The plane spiraled and twisted like it was made of wood, the wings cutting the bastard deeply, but the impact also broke it off, fire exploding outwards as our fuel was in the wings after all...

"Bail, bail, bail!" someone screamed in the open channel.

Banking my plane, I watched as her figure ejected just before the craft exploded against the snowy forest below us, along with the creature... but I didn't know if she made it. Just like the ground troops, our clothing was capable of allowing us to jump from any height and land safely... but for that, we needed to be precise and able to activate our tattoos in a timely manner.

"We'll get him later!" Brask growled, "Eyes forward, Eagle Lead!"

He was right... Another group of beasts broke through the flak's fire and was heading towards us. Fast ones... Twitchy. Clearly, they were not even interested in us but were trying to get through us and head towards the city. Realizing it, I pushed the yoke forward, and I dove after them. The first twisted away as I fired, the tracers barely nicking its wing, but it was enough to unbalance it, slow it down, and make it tumble in the air for Brask, following me closely to finish it off.

"Shit... These are way too fast!"

"I see it," Brask commented, "Going wide, cover me!"

"On it!"

We fell into a practiced pattern as we switched places. He looped wide; I became the bait. One of the monsters fell for it and went for me... It was a big mistake because the next moment, he vanished in a burst of bone and fire as Brask hit it broadside, coming down from above with full throttle and whizzing past me... damn you, hot shot, that was way too close!

"That's another one! Still not enough," he whistled through the radio, pulling his plane out from the insane dive.

"Well," I banked my own, seeing that most of these variants were already through, leaving them to the ground troops to deal with the issue, turning back towards the meat of the horde, "Take your pickings; we have all day to hunt!"

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The moment they broke past the outer rings, I was already moving. It was... routine. I have followed my Sovereign since the early days, going on a mission with him personally to save his future wife, Lady Yuri. It was still one of the greatest honors and... I would do it again. I would always do as he asked. So, my brothers and I will protect our allies just as if they were our own.

"Group Three, fall back to position gamma! They are coming!" I shouted, but thanks to the seal of my armor and helmet, nobody outside could hear it, only my brothers, who were tuned to the same magical wave as I was.

When outsiders saw us fighting, they always saw us as silent warriors. The truth is, we weren't. I couldn't tell how many times I had to bark at the others in our comms to stop joking and drop the bad puns... laughing to myself.

"Acknowledged." Came back the answer, "I already smell some sweet fried chicken... Yum."

"I don't think these will taste like chicken. More like fish." Someone added.

"Fish is good, too." Another joined while I let them discuss their plans for dinner.

From the rooftops of Markoth, from where I stood, I had a clear view of the battlefield. I watched as the incoming, low-intelligence bastards splattered against the walls at first before their brethren finally managed to skim over their obstacles and corpses. Still, a few slammed into the stone, despite all that, and were crushed on impact. Again... Idiots. Heh... But those who weren't that idiotic, arced high, curling like javelins toward the city center.

They wouldn't make it, of course.

"Intercept!" I yelled, cutting through my comrades' idle chatter, and despite the interruption, my orders were executed without delay.

From the alleyways and the other rooftops, my troops rose as one, and the magic in our weapons flared to life with a snap hiss. Just as I activated my own weapon, coating it in flames, two of the 'birds' had landed in front of me.

I caught the one closest to me midair with my glaive, twisting my body and driving the hooked blade into its belly, opening it up like a can. The creature hissed, clawed at me, then exploded in a crackle of gore, its blood and intestines spilling out onto the rooftop. One down... And the second was going to follow it soon as it tried to flank me.

I let it come close, trying to claw at my armor. I defended myself with my glaive; still, one of its sharp claws reached me, but my armor was made from the scales of much bigger monsters. It only threw sparks around, leaving a groove in it while my foot swept its legs, breaking them, and my glaive came down, bisecting its head from crown to jaw. In the meantime, around me, my squadmates moved like clockwork, doing the same.

Then, I heard how the Princess had joined the battle from deeper in the city, giving us firepower against those who weren't coming down from the sky. They had no choice. Come and face us... or get blown apart by Lady Yuri. But... we can also join in on that fun, too!

"Kain!" I yelled.

My second-in-command was ready. He hurled his bone spear, lightning trailing behind it, cutting through from my left, two houses over. It hit the beast I was looking at, shocking it into paralysis, causing it to crash land on the streets. A second later, another of my soldiers stepped up and finished it off with an axe. Easy.

"Let them come," I chuckled, tightening my grip on my glaive. "We are the wall! Let none get to the people we swore to protect!"

"OOORAAAH!"

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From the basements and fortified halls of Markoth's castle, the people slowly began emerging. Doors creaked open across the city, and one by one, the hiding Markothians came back out, unsure in what shape they would find their city.

What they, deep down, thanks to their past experience, expected was devastation... But not this time.

Yes, blood stained the streets, along with chunks of monster meat lying sprawled across multiple houses. Some still had their claws twitching in the snow, but they weren't alive anymore. One of the first of the refugees to come out even saw a severed wing flapping lazily from where it hung, moving in the strong wind as it was speared onto the wall of the church.

But... Despite all of that, the city barely suffered any damage.

No homes were burned down, and no children lay crushed beneath the rubble of a house, trampled by a monster. There were no families who screamed for missing loved ones, trying to find any remains of their missing children. Today, there would be no funerals. Well... Only for the monsters.

A woman named Trinia fell to her knees in the street, weeping... She was among those who were rescued from the mines, not even that long ago. She was still weak, thin, looking older than she actually was. She didn't think that this was even possible, but now? She was more convinced than when her rescuers took her to fly above the clouds... yet even that experience was like a dream.

It seemed that it was not a one-time miracle.

Around her, others with the same past as her began to emerge, their eyes were wide, mouths agape, stunned more than those Markothians who were native to the city.

Those people... took it with pride this time around.

"Come," One hand touched her shoulders, gently pulling her back to her feet, "We have our own duty!"

From the rooftops, Avalonian soldiers stood to watch as they began to move, making space for others to emerge. Looking at them, the Avalonians' armor was smeared with blood; some even had deep scratches on them, but they could tell that most of the crimson liquid was not theirs. One of them, with a curved glaive, turned slightly and nodded to the civilians below as they watched him. That was all they needed...

And the people erupted into a cacophony of shouts.

Cheers rang out in the streets, accompanied by laughter that came from deep within, a mix of wildness and exhaustion. It didn't take long for children to climb over the fallen beasts, poking at their wings and fangs, while their parents scolded them, dragged them down, gave them buckets, and kept reminding them that monster blood was valuable. If they wanted to play, they should do it while collecting it.

It was how the work began.

Without waiting for orders, dozens of Markothians rolled up their sleeves and began to harvest. Those who had carts dragged them out, filling them with butchered meat. The cooks took up cleavers, preparing to salvage what was edible, igniting bonfires around the main square. While those who were marked as masons and smiths joined the Avalonian engineers to check the walls, where the most violent impacts had happened. Everyone worked like a well-oiled machine.

Some, mainly the rescued refugees, simply stared at the sky, at the massive shadow of Camelot, coming back from the east. It was like... It was like that of a god made of steel. It reminded them of the past... When prayers to the Six Gods went unanswered... When innocent families were torn apart, and the Gods offered no sanctuary, no help, no salvation...

Yet now, there were soldiers clad in black, capable of besting the beasts. Walking and flying fortresses, that remained unshaken and unbroken, killing all the evil in the world.

So... they couldn't help but think: The old Gods were dead. And a new one was rising.

One who created machines that could become the protectors of this world. Someone who taught his people how to fight and shared the gift of the Gods with them. He did their work when they wouldn't... If they were to worship someone, they wouldn't pray to the Old Gods.

They were unworthy.

By evening, the city had turned into a big festival. Fires were burning, the smell of cooked monster meat blended with the sharp scent of blood and smoke, but no one complained. It was time for a feast, after all.

And there were many cups that were raised, offered in honor of Avalon.