I gave the Knights a nod before checking the comms for one piece of information I needed before I began.

"Castellans, have your scans of the base located the giant mech I reported? I am unsure why it has yet to engage."

It took a few moments, but then I heard an almost broken voice reply.

"Negat-ve Sentinel. Our Sc-nners report nothing that size. We will await your o-ders"

I frowned upon hearing that. I know what I saw ’Where the fuck is it?’

I didn’t have any longer to linger over this point. Turning to the knights, I raised Zircon. "Let us go, brothers."

We fought through the battlefield with unbridled fury. With my new shield, It afforded me to be more offensive, as I could withstand Drakoshi blows while attacking simultaneously.

Sticking to my flanks like glue, Nerissa and Gabrielle were like whirlwinds of death. Nerissa used her spear and her hundreds of thousands of years of experience with such elegance. She was akin to a dance of death against the Drakoshi.

Gabrielle was similar. Her two hook swords disabled and then dealt death to countless Drakoshi, though I felt like she kept checking between every kill that I was still ok which slowed down her killing compared to Nerissa and I considerably.

Sithrik was acting as my cloak, killing anything that got behind me and before reaching the knights, as Onyx was ahead of us, thinning the herd. Even in her smaller state. Onyx’s reflexes and ability to kill was miles ahead of mine. She was an apex predator condensed down into an itty bitty thing. She was death.

Our spearhead towards the ramp naturally brought in more reinforcements from both sides. Phalanx began supporting. Firing between knights. Rhea and Willow also joined us. Tamara too had finally made her way to my side. Having been sent in during the second wave to act as a shock troop.

I had given Willow my Deimos rifle after a squire handed it back to me and she was using it with deadly efficiency.

I saw a lot of Valerica in Rhea though. In one hand she carried a plasma pistol that bore molten holes into the larger Drakoshi with triviality and she used her fists to deal devastating blows to Drakoshi that got too close, proving her Hyllus strength.

Tamara was in her element. Close quarters. She had claimed a Drakoshi’s axe and was swinging the two handed weapon back and forth cutting waves of Drakoshi into chunks while laughing like she was possessed.

Though a gruelling slog, the spearpoint reached the bottom of the ramp. There were dead on both sides here in piles already. I didn’t let it deter me. I charged forward into the ramp. I dodged an axe strike aimed for my head and sliced Zircon deeply behind its knee. I rushed past and shield tackled another with my Gyrokinesis applied, sending it hurling into a pack like a tank shell.

I heard a sickening crunch behind me as a knight used a two handed Morningstar to pop that Drakoshi’s head open and I kept moving. I had to. The guns above us on the third wall were still under heavy fire and were currently inoperable.

So the current goal was to get up the first ramp and hopefully the second ramp before those guns became active again. However, before my goal. was a four hundred meter long incline up the next section of the fort, filled to the brim with Drakoshi.

The advantage we had, however, was their lack of ammunition. It had begun to be funnelled to the top of the fort by the looks of things. as I noticed. While taking down another Drakoshi that the majority of the Drakoshi I could see ahead were only wielding melee weapons.

This would be to our extreme advantage. As we pushed forward, more and more phalanx would be able to get onto the ramp. More Drakoshi below would die without reinforcements barrelling down the ramp and more fire would be localised onto the ramp.

We would make the kill box our own. For now though, the only tactical thing we could do was fight as we stormed the ramp!

...

The battle was gruelling. Time to think was a luxury. Kill, parry. Kill. Block. Evade. Kill. Fire Psionic bullets. Kill. Defend ally. Kill. Kill. Kill.

We were down to a stalemate halfway up the ramp. It looked like we had gone through all the meat shields so far. Nothing but unarmoured, strong Drakoshi warriors remained. But I was not deterred. The knights were starting to take damage, but the rest of the spear point was still going strong with the occasional nick here or there.

I ,however, had not taken a hit since the start of the battle. My new shield was... Worthy of the name. Damatrium absorbed impact so even the mightiest of blows from a Drakoshi was significantly dampened. And with my already incredible strength. I was holding my own. My armour was caked in gore from head to foot. The only colour not red on me at this moment was the purple orbs in the centre of my chest that the Drakoshi have clearly fallen for the trap of thinking it was my weak spot as they kept trying to attack me there.

Their lack of surprise made it trivial for me to protect myself and my allies who were all holding their own.

However, something broke the repetition.

A large group of Drakoshi with Flame throwers suddenly broke through their own lines and aimed their weapons towards us.

Behind me the Phalanx were like packed sardines with how narrow the ramp was. If fire got through... It wasn’t getting through.

Pyrokinesis usually was one person’s control over their fire. But I was different. Thanks to Sol, I had authority over non-Psionic fire as well. SO as these fiery fuckers unleashed their streams of flames. I exerted my will over the fire .

The torrents stopped mid-air. The Drakoshi were shocked at what they were seeing. They became even more shocked as the fire began to change its trajectory back at them. Cooking hundreds of them alive in a wall.

Pushing through the fire and the flames, we carried on our assault. The wave of cleansing fire killed close to eighty Drakoshi, allowing a massive gap to form.

And a gap I charged right into it and unleashed rage and carnage abundant. I stopped holding back my reserves for a moment. The air was still hot and the corpses were still sizzling. So I took in a great deal of Pyrokinesis from the surrounding air and let out an untamed torrent of inner flames.

"Hahahaha!" I let out a roaring laugh as I felt the flames course out of my being. I felt Sol’s influence within every inch of my being, empowering me, my flames. Allowing me to Purge my enemies to a crisp until the Knights and my friends caught up. My attack was devastating. I then immediately restrained myself in the presence of my allies, not allowing the Pyrokinesis to take hold any longer. And once I did. I smiled.

My outburst had achieved the main result.

We were at the top of the ramp.

We began to fan out immediately. Going from a group to a shield so the Phalanx could get up here and provide fire support. Skaja then descended from the sky, having been pulled away in the fight earlier and landed at my side as we continued to push. The phalanx began pouring up in mass from the ramp and the firing lanes opened up once more. They would have to clear the entirety of this level of the fortress, bringing the battle back into a slog as the Drakoshi numbers were still massive.

At this point the knights had to withdraw. The damage they were taking in the open without their order support was getting too much. One knight had already had both its arms damaged and had to retreat. The others then pulled out with Knight Theolan declaring.

"My lord! it was an honour, we must regroup and rearm."

I opened comms. "Of course, do what you must." I said simply and efficiently, however a problem arose as soon as we made it to the top of the ramp. The guns above began to fire again.

Phalanx began to drop like flies and I looked up desperately. They needed to go, they couldn’t remain and keep up firing like that. I felt a pit in my stomach, I had to take a gamble again. So I did.

"Castellans. Destroy those emplacements on the ramp side. We cannot allow them to butcher our men further. If the mech turns up... We will have to improvise."

A moment lingered before I got a reply.

"C-nfirmed Sentinel. Beginning. Assault."

Outside the walls, the Castellans began heating up their main weapons and aimed them towards the walls. After charging for a few seconds they fired at the third and fourth wall respectively.

*Buoooooom!*

They concentrated their fire towards the western walls, destroying emplacement after emplacement and destroying the top of the walls in the process.

The impact was massive. Not only were the guns destroyed, but by the mass amount of explosions continuing after, it seemed the beams had hit a great deal of ammunition.

"Targets h-t Sentinel. Beginning heavy assault on the south with new engagement parameters."