Steel and Mana

Watching through the Imaginary, I saw how the Guardian's maw split wide open, and for an instant, I thought the spell gathering in its body would fly straight for us as a single, aimed killing shot... But no.

The air warped before its jaws, the formation that swirled around the inside looking extremely complex, with other components that even distorted the Imaginary's feed. Then, as it left its mouth, the glow of the beam fractured, as if its light was shot through a prism. By the next millisecond, the beam was no longer white-hot, but a rainbow of color, split into a massive cone of superheated brilliance, tearing across the air, wide enough to scour a dozen square kilometers at once.

It didn't know where we were... Not precisely. That was my thought seeing its attack, probably thanks to Merlin's effort to mask us. It simply fired back from the same direction as the attack had come from, covering as much area as possible.

"Shields!" I yelled, although Merlin and Sasha were already casting a spell, over the ship's own magic.

Even then, the Camelot groaned as the barrier, reinforced by two mages, blinked into existence right before the violet-colored beam, along with a red one, hit us. My teeth tingled as the magic got close to us... Then the deck shuddered under the impact, throwing people out of their seats. Despite the shields holding, the heat from the attack invaded the ship, causing the Camelot's outer plating to begin glowing, and I suddenly felt as though we were being thrown into an oven.

"Hold it steady!" I yelled, though Kustov was already white-knuckled at the helm, keeping the Camelot balanced and straight.

"Shield integrity at seventy percent!" Sasha called, her voice strained from the effort as big beads of sweat rolled down her cheek.

"Shockwave!" Merlin gasped as the explosion of the other beams, destroying the forest, reached us, rocking us like we were on an angry ocean, bobbing from one side to the other.

"Shields are still holding!" Sasha exhaled, collapsing back against her station, as we were mostly out of it, heading away from the Guardian at a steady speed.

"Camelot is intact," Kustov added, eyes scanning the reports of the other stations, "for now."

"Enact the second phase!" I said as I leaned forward in my chair, my knuckles turning white on the armrests, watching the Imaginary's feed.

Of course, we had contingency plans prepared in case our surprise attack didn't work. In a way, we expected it. After regrouping, the other airships would join me as we combined our firepower with the bombardment that was already on the way, probably flying through the skies as I thought about it. Just then, a single flare arced across the clear sky from the trenches along the riverbank, followed by a shower of light in just a second.

Dozens, then hundreds of spells, concentrated and cluster-variants, all coming from our battlements, firing in a pre-determined sequence, had arrived. There were also those that weren't glowing, not made of magic, but actual, metal shells, propelled by the laws of physics. Whichever landed first, a moment later explosions in the form of bright, orange flowers bloomed across its body, magical fire and very real shrapnel cutting into those white scales. I watched it recoil and trash in surprise as the detonations hammering its torso hurt it. The bastards weren't expecting such a retaliation...

As it was a non-stop barrage, the Guardian didn't have a proper chance to react; instead, it staggered under the onslaught. But... it didn't fall.

As a reaction, the monster curled tighter around itself, its wings folding around its torso, transforming its body into a fortress wall, and then pulled its head back under it. Shells rained upon its defenses, like in an actual siege, and though each explosion left a mark, it kept enduring it. The bastard was a sturdy one, I had to give it to him.

"Come on... die already and do not be invulnerable," I muttered, my eyes fixed on the feed, "Do not let up!"

"Reaction!" Both Merlin and Sasha said at once, feeling something happening, and even I got a tingle going up my spine.

Sure enough... the demon did something that none of us expected.

The Guardian uncoiled slowly and deliberately, keeping its wings above his body like a steel-made umbrella, shielding him against the artillery fire. Then, its spidery legs, those nasty, long, jointed, grotesque needles stabbed downward, into the earth and ash... At first... nothing, but then all the CC dust swirling there began reacting, and following a draw, heading down... into the ground. What was it doing...? Without being able to interrupt it, we watched as the remaining suspended cores began pulsing in a weird pattern, their glow changing, and one by one, their threads snapped.

"What is it doing...?" Kustov asked, but I had no answer...

"What the hell is it—" I began repeating Kustov's question, but then the ground answered for me, and I wasn't ready for it.

The soil split open, forming uneven chasms that radiated from the point where the remaining core had disappeared. From every crack and fissure, moving skeletons clawed their way upward, and there were thousands of them, animated by the cores and most likely by the Guardian's magic. Some of the skeletal figures were dog-sized quadrupeds, while others were as tall as our mechs, with malformed figures featuring twisted spines and elongated claws... And then the truly big ones.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

All of them came out from under the charred soil, the runes on their bones glowing, probably being puppeteered by this abomination. No wonder it didn't have minions... It could just raise those that it killed before. Fuck.

"Undead?" Merlin's voice was both interested and horrified, "It's raising the... dead? Really?"

"Warn the troops!" I ordered, "We have enemies coming!"

The bone-made horde moved as one, a tide of rattling spookiness, rushing towards the west. As for the Guardian, that thing remained coiled in its nest, wings spread over itself, but it didn't move.

"What now?" Sasha asked, staring at the feed, then back at me.

"Get the planes into the air," I said calmly, "Get all of them here to keep up the harassment of the Guardian, along with the artillery. The bony bastards will be dealt with by the mechs and the soldiers. Order the Punisher and the Knight's Errand to stay back and lay hell on them! As for the other airships, including Mirian's, join us here. We will fight the main boss."

If that thing doesn't want to move... then we have no choice but to hammer it!

...
....
......

The order came down the command channels, directly from the leading Knight, from the father of their Sovereign, Kalash.

"All Knights, move forward! We are to cross the river and intercept the bone horde before it reaches the line! Our priority targets are the giants and big ones!"

Inside his cockpit, Lancelot tightened his gauntlets around the controls as the view before him shifted, his mech's Imaginary eyes catching the glow from the distance, getting stronger and stronger as the forms of the beasts became visible. Thousands, if not more, skeletal shapes were pouring out of the treeline. It didn't take long for them to make all the big ones, ranging from the size of their mechs to double that height.

There were... a lot. But none of the mechs hesitated as they walked through the river, willing to meet death on the other end.

"Guess we don't get the honor of shooting the big guy yet," Lancelot muttered into his comms.

"The Guardian is for your Father to handle." Kalash responded, "We focus on the task at hand!"

While listening, beside Lancelot, Jila's mech strode forward, while her laugh came through, reminding him of his mother.

"Don't pout, Lancy. You'll get your turn! For now, we'll settle for chopping down his little friends."

"That's my girl!" Yuri's giggle answered as the Knight's Errand flew overhead, dropping the mechs, including the Princess, down to join the rest while it headed towards its position to fire at the horde.

"We will still need to stop this tide from breaking us." Mirian agreed, who was now also part of the line of warmachines, the Spear of Death in her grip, magically taking up a size that was easily handled by her machine.

"Split into two-mech groups!" Kalash ordered, "Expect anti-magic measures, protect each other if it comes into effect!"

While they took their position, the airships that had stayed behind began bombarding the horde, blowing up hundreds of the advancing tide, setting the world and forest ablaze. But... there were so many of them. By the time the skeletal figures were within a kilometer, the land was on fire, and thick, black smoke was rising into the air, transforming the sunny morning into something more otherworldly.

"Formation Theta," Lancelot sent to Jila, "Try not to exhaust yourself with the first one... this will be a long fight."

"Roger that!" She answered, this time seriously, and for a brief second, Lancelot could hear the nervousness in her. In the end... she was still... human. Just as he was... and he could understand the fear as he felt it too.

"Get this done," He whispered, on a private channel to Jila, "And I'll marry you."

"You bet!" She laughed, her anxiety suddenly subsiding significantly. "Target acquired," she added, as her voice snapped Lancelot's attention to the far right. A thirty-meter skeleton was heading straight their way, its ribs sharp, twisted outwards like a pincushion. Its hands were more like clubs of fused bone than anything else, swinging them wildly already as it smashed aside trees in its path. "He's mine."

"Ours," Lancelot replied, his mech flicking the attached blade to its hand into position, locking onto the same giant. "We drop it together. As usual."

By then, the rest of the Knights had also fallen into formation. Those that had it, their shoulder cannons swung forward, protective variants had their shields activate, while the sleeker-looking mechs readied to intercept their own targets.

And then, before Lancelot or Jila would be able to move, the world lit up around them.

A roar of released energy in the form of a blue beam flashed from behind the Avalonian lines, flying past directly between the formation of mechs, between Jila and Lancelot, aimed directly at the beast they were marking for their assault. When it landed, it struck the giant bonemonster square in the skull.

The impact was explosive. The monster's head shattered like it was made out of glass, fragments of bone flying across the field in an explosion of powder. The blastwave staggered even the body and the surrounding other beasts, kicking up a wind so violent that the trees around it were shattered just the same.

Lancelot, smiling, didn't even look back, knowing exactly where it came from... Right on the ridge behind the trenches, where the Excalibur was standing.

"Sorry," Galahad's voice came through the comms, "I became impatient, and Fila locked on the target perfectly.

"Damn, you took down my mark!" Jila moaned but also giggled, watching as the body of the giant staggered, collapsing to its knees… but, to their horror... it did not stop.

"It seems you will get to fight it still..." Fila murmured, every tiny hair standing up on her back.

Even headless, the bone-monster's massive frame pushed itself back to full height and resumed moving forward, swinging its clubbed hands with blind, murderous instinct.

"This is not going to be easy..." Kalash whispered, but then again, he returned to be the warrior who fought against monsters since he was a teenager. "Dismember the enemy! Aim for their limbs and break them! If they are turned into powder, they can't fight!"

"That, I am good at!" Tiburon declared, the chainsaws of CC, built into its Leviathan's gauntlets, whirring.

"I will mark your targets," Edrine, the pilot of the Thunder and Tiburon's partner, radioed, readying its weapon at the closest, twenty-meter-tall monster and blasting a shot through its spine.

Like a starter pistol, it was the opening of the battle as the mechs began firing their weapons. At the same time, the melee-oriented variants rushed forward, trampling dozens of small monsters in the process, attacking their prey... as the actual battle started.

It looked like chaos, and it felt like one... However, it was a battle that was inevitable, and the ground troops were aware of this, too.

"For the Sovereign! For Avalon!" Pion yelled as all the Avalonian elites raised their weapons, activating the magic in them, shouting the same way, this time on open comms, letting everyone hear it.

"FOR AVALON!"

They yelled back as many of the smaller undead creatures simply jumped over the river, their bodies almost weightless while doing so, landing in the trenches, meeting the bulk of the Avalonian elite troops in melee.