Chapter 311 - Dungeon War (Patreon)

Note : Chapters 312 and 313 has been written and added to the queue, completing book 8 !

Heya. Apologies for the late chapter, there was a warning on discord but I couldn't really make a patreon post about it (otherwise I'd have just put the chapter). Got distracted yesterday, finishing up book 8, and today hauling ass to get to my parents' place for my family birthday celebrations.

So yeah, the chapter is a bit late, but hey, book 8 is complete ! For a grand total of : 43 chapters, 97 252 words. Hot damn. And I wrote the first chapter, chapter 271, on the fifth of may. It took a total of two months and eight days to write this entire book. I know there are faster authors but for me ? That's quite the achievement. And it's done before book 6 has even released ! Needless to say, my publisher is ecstatic.

I hope you'll enjoy this chapter, and the whole of the finale of book 8 !

Chapter 311

Ytakan Scrublands, Archduchy of Rebirth

Darthar-Asaria trade route

Alexandra watched, in utter shock, as ranks of human soldiers marches forward. What the hell were those fools doing?!?

Manson you stupid-. Alexandra's thoughts skidded to a halt as she realized most of the human troops were immobile...and as confused as she was.

The ones marching forward bore specific flags. They were the Kaidani Free Companies, a surprisingly coherent bloc of veterans and volunteers, united in their desire to avenge their slaughtered homeland. They were also remarkably well equipped, received the old weapons of the units Alexandra had reequipped, though their armor still left a fair bit to be desired.

She watched as Manson and Philia rode out of their respective personal guards, and came to talk to the Kaidani commanders. The exchange was brief, heated...and ended with the duke embracing the Kaidani officer.

Signals were exchanged, and the army reformed around the holes the Kaidani had left.

Alexandra hesitated to order her troops to push the Kaidani away, or at least block their paths, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. She also noted in the back of her mind that the UDC's troops had stopped as well, observing the unfolding events.

The Kaidanis spread out, forming taunt, pathetically thin one to two rank deep lines...and stopped on her flanks.

Alexandra's breath caught in her throat. They weren't joining her.

They were deploying as human shields. With full knowledge that the enemy rising to the bait would mean certain death.

She looked back at the UDC...and saw no reaction for a full minute.

Then the Cataphracts tightened back in, the spread wings pulled back to hug the body, and she let out an almost hysteric laugh.

The cores of UDC weren't willing to risk it.

Still, they were assembling in a kind of lance formation. Intent on diving into the front lines instead of the sides to reach the heart. Just with a lot more depth than width this time, to absorb the greater losses.

They began marching forward again, and she waited.

And waited.

At long last, she brought her arm down.

The air exploded, as the whole plain vanished behind a wall of fire.

Hundreds of howitzers, field guns and the hybrids onboard the ships spoke as one.

The enemy came to a halt, the Naisens bracing for the incoming storm as the ships activated their point defence, lightning bolts and power beams leaping from tentacles and spikes of runed bone.

Three of the ships above them exploded. The light cruisers were though, but not 'take over a thousand shells in the span of half a second' tough.

One of them was completely annihilated, its own ammunition magazine and mana power supply roaring out in a hail of energy that engulfed nearby vessels, causing their wards to flicker, leaving nothing but a mist of vaporized blood.

Another simply disintegrated into a hail of burning flesh and blackened bone, creating a veritable rain of ichor onto the forces below.

The last one however...the last one crashed.

The Naisers were driven to their knees as the ship hit the shield like a homesick meteor.

Then its own magazines failed, and so did the creatures' power. The shields flickered, and died.

Despite being chosen for their ideology, the UDC's cores were anything but fools. The ships scattered...just in time for the second wave of howitzers shells to hit the Naisers, now deprived of the point defence coverage.

The beasts were massive, and incredibly resilient in their own right. But resilience meant nothing compared to that amount of firepower.

Alexandra smiled as they toppled. She hadn't dared hope to be this successful.

Still...this fight was far from won.

The UDC's army swarmed forward. The cavalry kept pace with the infantry, Jakarls and Tishaks alike. Alexandra frowned as she saw the latter, still forming their skirmisher screen, scrabble the ground, before leaping to regain their advance on the lumbering monsters behind them. What were they doing? Did they know about-

It hit her. Tunnels. They were hunting tunnels. Everything the UDC had done so far told her they had studied her previous battles. They were trying to find tunnels, just like the ones she had dug for her fight against the Hammer of Eternity and its automated legion, to allow the adventurers to close the gap in safety.

Well, they were going to have one hell of a surprise soon.

One more among many. Her artillery was continuing to fire, all the different types letting loose with a different tempo. Howitzers were now hammering on the Cataphract, the shells crashing against the wards, crunching through them shell by shell. Meanwhile the field guns, thanks to their lack of clear lines of fire to the onrushing army, assisted her fleet in keeping the UDC's armada in disarray.

Her first volley had been meant to take out the ships directly above the Naisers, but now her guns hunted a new strategic target. One the dungeons on the other side were scrambling to hide.

She was aiming for their command ships. Focusing all of her fire on them, one by one, working her way down the list Glitch had made. It was amazing what one could do with an AI specialized in analysis, and a lot of surprises thrown the enemy's way, forcing them to react. They only had to watch which ships reacted first, the uniform speed of crew monsters and biological ships in accomplishing their tasks turning what would have been a muddled mess of different crews reacting on their best into a smoothly ordered machine...with the head moving slightly faster than the body as the orders rippled out. A simple test of command link delay, the ships moving as soon as they received the order.

If there was any sure sign that those on the other side had not been trained for a proper fight, it was this. Because these kinds of things were in the UDC's military manual Gift had given her all this time ago, after she had spat into her fellow dungeons' faces. In fact, Glarvistar was applying it, if she had to guess, as a couple of squadrons moved in perfect unity.

It was the most delicious of irony. The isolationists, who had rejected military training because their doctrine was to avoid wars, now failing in one of their own making because of their very philosophy.

Despite their crumbling command structure, as flagships were ripped apart and backups came online only to suffer the same fate, they engaged as one once they finally came into their own range, the ships forming into staggered ranks, forming a kind of giant pyramid face, ensuring the ships would not fall upon each other if hit. Alexandra whistled softly. Well, maybe they had some training after all.

The UDC's fleet opened fire.

Hundreds of projectiles, from simple fireballs to goblets of acid and harpoons of engraved bone, struck out. All towards one, single target.

They flew towards the So Much For Subtlety...and ran into the Tetsudos.

Projectile after projectile exploded under the power of the strongest tesla point defence arrays Alexandra had made yet, each escort ship's even more powerful than the battlecruiser's own. Harpoons flew apart, the energy that held fireballs together failed and the goblets of acid lost cohesion.

All told, less than half of the fired weaponry arrived in a state fit to deal damage. Only to crash against the light cruiser's unified shield, the feature that gave them their name. The energy barrier rippled, shining with every possible color, even devolving beyond the visible spectrum, bathing the surrounding area in ultraviolet and infrared light.

The shield wavered...but it held. And Alexandra smiled as the enemy waited, before unleashing another coordinated volley.

Another mistake. Facing wards, it might have been a good play. But they were facing fast recharging shields. That was why she hadn't tried a second coordinated volley on the Naisens, why she had immediately unleashed her fastest reloading weapons -that could aim at them anyway- on the creatures.

Against shields, you either overwhelmed them in a single broadside, or you constantly pounded them until they failed, never leaving them a chance to fully reform.

Their second volley came...and it came an absolute mess. A fourth of the fleet failed to fire in tandem, Alexandra's guns having finished a full set of command ships, including all of the backups. The manuals, and her allies within the UDC, had told her such forces were usually segregated into several units exclusively controlled by a dungeon core.

Cut the head off, and the others wouldn't be able to wrangle it back into line. It didn't work that way with dungeon monsters.

The ships broke off, and went back into automatic combat protocols, returning fire against her entrenched artillery, entering into a futile duel with well dug in guns.

Even for her ships against Sunrise's trebuchets and catapults, that would have been a losing proposition. Against howitzers and field guns? It was so pathetic her guns simply ignored them, and continued pounding at the true targets.

All the while, the So Much For Subtlety remained silent, its missile launchers waiting.

The enemy fleet surged forward, at what had to be their top speed, and Alexandra's eyebrows rose. Alright, obsolete or not, these ships could move.

The ones remaining under control split into three columns. Alexandra took a quickly look at their trajectories, and she barked a laugh.

One was the primary wall of battle, angling to her right to try and engage her escorts and weasel their way out of the bunkers' line of fire.

The one on the left were swarmers. Light cruisers covered in spiked tentacles and other close combat, biological weaponry. Clearly intended to come to grips with the So Much For Subtlety, but would have to rip the Tetsudos out of the way first. The way their course gave a wide berth to her transports made her smile. Oh they knew all about her previous battles alright. Unfortunately, CQ hadn't made it back, so she couldn't lead another charge from the transports, riding her pet manticore.

The last column was punching straight through, and those actually worried her. These ships were armed...but not heavily. Marine assault transports. Like those the UIS had used on Alpha Centauri. They were ships meant to drop their marines as fast as possible, providing whatever support they could as they died. In theory they were supposed to withdraw, but everyone who had seen them in action knew it was usually a one way trip, the crew to soon join their former passengers via the escape pods.

The main army continued advancing, almost staggering as the artillery barrage stopped. And the transports began dying.

Having separated meant the ships could no longer support each other, and at last, the So Much For Subtletly spoke.

Ballistic missiles rose...and scores of power beams rose to contest them.

Ah. So they did have medium range point defence. Kept in reserve specifically for this.

She could almost taste the triumphant smiles on the other side. Smiles that died as the next missile volley launched...and the point defence fire missed. Small reaction thrusters jinked the missiles all over the skies, and the other side went crazy as they tried to intercept them.

Finally however, the assault transports neared her first defensive line, the other two columns slowly coming onto their own positions, delayed by the distance added from their curved path.

And the transports died. Too busy with the shells that had reaped a rich harvest among them already, their dungeon cores' attention taken by her missiles, they never saw the power beam shells and missile warheads she had put on makeshift aiming machines on the ground coming.

The ships came apart, shredded from the ground, spewing a cargo of burning wasp like creatures. Some of them were still alive, trying to regain their balance and take flight, only to be nailed by slow, measured rifle fire, the bolt action weapons more than sufficient to mop up the stragglers.

The remaining enemy columns altered their trajectories once again. Curving inward, straight towards her flagship. Reckless, but the only solution they had. They couldn't hope to out shoot her dirtside artillery, and both knew that this battle would be decided on the ground below. Her ballistic missiles were too dangerous to the infantry, especially in such a tight formation. And without each other's support, the two columns would be defeated in detail. So they tried to link up again, through her own ships.

The wall of battle retargeted, and Alexandra winced as her Raiders began to die. One by one, just like what she had done to them, every enemy ship that could focusing their fire on a single vessel to bring it down.

But they were coming closer, and did far less damage than they could, the remaining enemy attack ship, even the battleship that helmed them, forced to use their bow pursuit armaments, not their full broadsides as they hastened to close.

And the Raiders leapt forward to meet them.

The enemy hesitated, but only for a second. They met the smaller ships...and the So Much For Subtlety fired again. This time with interceptor missiles.

To Alexandra's amazement, they managed to shoot down most of the incredibly fast missiles. Only a single of the interceptors made it.

Its delicate warhead failed to activate however. And Alexandra could almost taste the confusion, and then horrified realization as the other side figured it out.

Null weapons were fragile, but she could mount them on interceptors. Or at least mount decoys in such a way that the other side would believe they were functional, just with a great chance of misfire, and not that the real ones would be damaged beyond any hope of detonation anyway by the insane acceleration of the missiles.

Her reputation for pulling off the impossible, and always having surprises up her sleeves, worked for her as the enemy ships pulled every point defence they had away from the shells coming towards them and to face the missiles.

As they did, the bridge of the Raiders and the army below swarmed with moving figures.

The skies filled with the glare of jetpacks, as over five thousand golems leapt into the skies.