Empire Burning (Emerilia Book 11)

by Michael Chatfield

  “Time to raise that damn weapons master skill,” Dave muttered to himself as he disappeared from his position. He appeared behind another attacker. His sword lashed out before they had time to attack. He disappeared before they were able to let out a cry of pain, appearing above another; his sword darted out, cutting down through the person’s neck at an angle, piercing their heart. Dave disappeared again.

  Dave’s scariest ability in an upfront fight was teleportation. Combining the orbs that were circling him even now, and the power that he had stored up in vault soul gems in his bags of holding, all he had to do was think of a location; power would surge into the orbs and he would teleport, with no strain on his Mana reserves.

  On Emerilia, he couldn’t use it for bringing more attention down on him and tripping the AI watchdogs and Jukal controllers. Now he didn’t have to care what they thought.

  Dave flitted about the battlefield. Weapons appeared in his hands, hitting the attackers where they were open. They didn’t even know how they had died before Dave flitted to the next victim.

  Party Zero battled in the sky.

  “Stone Raiders!” A voice carried through the skies as Esa and the Stone Raiders entered the battlefield. Spells shot into the sky and tore through the ground in front of the dwarves, relieving some of the pressure. More and more of the Emerilian forces charged into the slaves; the dwarves’ blades were covered in blood or something very like blood as they moved at a steady advance. Here and there, some dwarves were pulled out of their formation. That being said, these dwarves were all armored in Devastator armor. They were quickly able to clear a space around themselves and allowed the formation to reform before they leaped backward, flipping back over their fellow dwarves’ shields, the contracted beasts covering them.

  The losses were coming mostly from the other fighting forces on the ground and those in the sky. These groups were being bolstered by the reinforcements and were the center of the flying citadels’ support.

  “Advance at double time!” Lox bellowed. His voice carried over the battlefield. He had trained all of these people who were now using the Devastator armor. His words became their will. Drums sounded off as those in the lines let out new war cries. Baleful horns and trumpets sounded the advance.

  The Emerilian forces stepped forward over the bodies of the slave army, their eyes red and their weapons covered in their enemies’ blood.

  “Mounted! Clear us a path!” Gurren barked. There was no sense of playfulness in their voices. Instead, it was replaced with unstoppable iron will.

  Mounted forces that had organized themselves behind the advancing forces now kicked their beasts into action. They lifted themselves out of their saddles and seats; elves stood in their stirrups, their armor glinting with the light of spells as they drew back their bows and unleashed arrows over the front lines.

  Those with ranged abilities added in their attacks, while others pulled out their swords and spears. Their beasts frothed at the mouth as they rushed forward into battle, eager to rent and tear the enemy apart.

  The lines of the formations opened, just as the slaves were going to rush into the openings. Their eyes went wide as the mounted forces hit them like a train; bodies were thrown away with the force of impact.

  Spells opened up the slave army, allowing the mounted forces to keep up their pace as they dashed through their army, their speed terrifying.

  Dave let out a roar as he appeared among the slave army. Party Zero appeared around him. In their own ways, the slave army had a number of powerful experts but they were divided. If there was someone difficult to deal with, then Party Zero came together, overwhelming them. It wasn’t fair, but this wasn’t a game anymore.

  ***

  The battle on the ground had begun. The initial advance had been slowed, but they were still pushing farther into enemy territory—albeit slowly as they fought with the powerful slave army that was still rushing out from the ground.

  Several flying citadels now dotted the sky, moving in to support those on the ground. Underneath them, their drop runes flashed with light as they dropped off more reinforcements.

  The arks, under the protection of the destroyers, moved around the continent that was the emperor’s residence. Two arks stopped opposite to each other on either side of the continent that the emperor’s residence covered. The portals on either side opened as beams of power shot out, creating shields. These shields were comparable to the ones on the bastion. However, while the bastions were being hit with extremely powerful weapons, if the same weapons were used by the Jukal on the ground, then it could throw the entire planet’s atmosphere into chaos.

  This made the arks practically invincible as the two groups of destroyers and arks made their way around the Jukal emperor’s residence, arks stopping across from one another along the way.

  Frank’s eyes flickered to the main screens, where another station was knocked out of its orbit and sent spiraling down toward the Jukal home world, burning up in the atmosphere.

  They had defeated a total of fifteen stations already. Each of them was a hard-won battle, speaking to the abilities of the stations. It looked like a good start but there were still more orbiting the planet and the home world’s Jukal fleet was just arriving.

  Dozens of portal relays now dotted the skies above the Jukal home world.

  “Fire as you have targets! Cover the fighters as they move in,” Adams said.

  As the Jukal fleet appeared, the combined Emerilian fleets unleashed all that they had at them, with the Jukal replying in kind.

  The fighters, using the covering fire of the combined fleet, moved in to engage the Jukal. Meeting the drones, they split apart into smaller groups, killing drones as they could and getting among the Jukal home world fleet, laying fire into the ships and forcing them to divert some of their firepower to try to deal with the fighters.

  The drones were practically sentient and they were on par with the human pilots, who were using mostly AI-controlled ships. Fierce fighting broke out among the Jukal home world fleet as they pounded on the combined fleet. Their speed was extremely slow as they were fighting their way out of a gravity well while the combined fleet were looking down upon it.

  As the Jukal rushed to engage them, their bows were pointed at the combined fleet’s broadsides; the Jukal unleashed salvo after salvo of missiles into the fleet.

  The fighting was chaotic but the combined fleet systematically defeated ship after ship, tearing them apart until there was nothing left but debris.

  It left them open to attack from the other ships, but every ship they targeted fell.

  They went for the weakest ships first. With the portal relays, their power was impressive, capable of taking only a few minutes of concentrated fire to take down the smaller ships.

  The Jukal focused their attacks on the older bastion, pouring everything into it. More of its portals shot out beams of power, reinforcing its Mana barrier.

  Still, it wasn’t able to hold up to that sort of punishment for so long. The Mana barriers started to wilt and fail as the fourth ships from the Jukal home world fleet was left broken and useless.

  As the Mana barrier of the bastion failed, it started to rotate, bringing fresh portals to bear as well as spreading the damage onto the fresh Mana barriers on the opposite side.

  It was not quick at moving and its thick armored hull made of compressed materials was left pitted and marred by the Jukal attacks. A number of the onos were destroyed, further reducing the bastion’s abilities. However, as soon as these onos were out of the line of fire, they started to repair themselves at a rate visible to the naked eye. It was as if time moved backward as they continued to reform.

  The BloodHawk rocked with explosions as more of the stations moved into view, adding in their attacks.

  Frank had no time to curse as he checked for damage. They were locked in combat and there was little that they could do but hope that their firepower was stronger than the enemy’s.

  �
��Fleet One, prepare to jump. We’re going to assist the fighters. Be prepared for close combat. Navigation, bring some of those formed portal relays with us,” Xiao said, having just received his orders from Admiral Forsyth.

  “Yes, sir!” Navigation called out as communications passed on the orders to the rest of Pandora Fleet One.

  The portal relays were powerful, but when they were simply facing an enemy, they could only fire so many surfaces at them. If they were in the middle of them, they could unleash attacks in every direction.

  “Ready all weapons for close-range combat! I say again, close-range combat. We are teleporting into the enemy’s formation!” Frank barked his orders down to the rest of the fleet and his own weapons techs.

  “Navigation, waypoint sent. Teleportation spell activating!” the navigation officer said.

  Three of the Pandora fleets started to show signs of a spell formation appearing around them. Within their fleets, there were multiple deployed portal relays.

  In a flash of light, the teleportation spell was activated. The runes became solid as they left the combined fleet.

  Frank sent commands into all of the weapons systems. The BloodHawk led the way. Both of their broadsides roared to life, the power from the Mana discharge making the massive battleship rock from the shots. All missile ports were open and firing. From the spines and bow, the portals ignited with power and missiles surged out into the void, hungry wolves searching for the Jukal.

  The missile boats were covered in swarms of missiles. Their runes glowed through the void above the planet as spell formations and arcane fire covered the ships in sharp light.

  Destroyers followed the BloodHawk’s example, holding nothing back. Spell formations appeared around the Jukal ships; powerful spells shot down on them as Frank selected two targets on either side of Pandora Fleet One.

  All of the weapons in the fleet operated as one, locking onto the targeted carriers and unleashing all they had. The portal relays were fountains of fire, being left in the wake of Pandora Fleet One. They were as powerful as the BloodHawk in terms of how much firepower they could lay down.

  Pandora Fleet Two and Three raced alongside Pandora Fleet One. The three forces gritted their teeth, charging right through the enemy. This was the power of the Pandora fleet! Their actions could only be called unwavering!

  The Jukal were thrown off by the sudden attack but quickly started to fire back as the ships were not just rocked by their own weapons and attacks, but the impacts of the Jukal fleet ships’ weaponry.

  They might be the Pandora fleet but they were in the middle of the Jukal home world fleet. Their ranks were filled with true fighters, leaving little time between them seeing the Pandora fleets to their gunners opening fire.

  A savage fight illuminated the void. Each side poured in as much fire as possible, their people pushed to their limits. These were not just ships and crew anymore; these were one creation, people and ships working together, pushing the limits of what the other was capable of and pulling out all potential left in them.

  “Come on!” Frank said. A battery was hit with incoming fire; it was blown out, reducing the fire support on his right side.

  The hull started to pull itself together as wounded were evacuated and those who were still able to got back to work. Weapon parts were pulled out and inserted into their positions. The soul gem-constructed walls quickly repaired the ship, using the parts as a framework to rebuild the batteries.

  Grand working lines jammed and people bashed them into working order as missile tubes were hit. People used their Dark magic to reform the hulls as techs reformed the runic lines.

  Frank felt pride from them all, moving from one screen to the next, never stopping as the carrier to the right shuddered. Under the combined fire of the Pandora fleet, its shields started to collapse; a lucky missile made it into an open hangar.

  It appeared to be a two-stage as it opened up multiple decks of the ship with a light penetrator grand working, quickly following it up with a black cursing spell formation. The ship started to contort and decay, as the spell was rapidly shooting through the interior of the carrier.

  Grand working rounds hit the hull of the carrier, igniting into plasma and destroying entire armored sections. Like a wounded beast in the last throes of its life, the carrier continued to hurl out more drones and fire its few remaining guns against the onslaught of missiles and weapons fire.

  “Change targets!” Frank said, no mercy in his voice as he picked a Jukal destroyer that had been showing its crew to be much better at fire control and managing their shields than Frank liked.

  The entire crushing firepower of the right broadsides of the Pandora fleet inundated the destroyer’s defenses, leaving it no way to escape the oncoming fire.

  “New target!” Frank said for the left-hand side as their carrier started to break apart. A pillar of light ten meters wide cut through the bow of the ship, through its center line. Explosions rippled out from it as it started to float away, unable to move under its own power.

  The weapons on the left-hand side acted as those on the right side had, working in concert to bring the new target that Frank had selected under fire.

  “Destroyer three is heavily damaged!” Communications called out.

  “Any ships that are about to lose their shields are to regroup at rally point three,” Xiao said.

  Frank spared a glance for Pandora Fleet Two and Three. They had jumped into the midst of the Jukal home world fleet and were wreaking havoc on the Jukal.

  “We’ve got incoming drones!” an officer manning the readings from the sensor spells barked. “Fighters are coming in from the other direction!”

  After their first clash, the drones had sped off in one direction, having to turn around and fight the inertia they had built up in order to get back to the fleet. The same went for the attacking fighters of the combined fleet.

  “Support them as we can.” Xiao’s calm voice carried through the ship as another explosion rocked the BloodHawk.

  “Mana barrier is at seventy-three percent,” the shield and barrier mage said from their station.

  The destroyer under the concentrated fire of the left-hand side of Pandora Fleet One was broken as grand working shells made their way into the hull, hitting something important and causing it to explode.

  “They’re focusing fire!” Sensors called out.

  “Have all ships ready to teleport the moment their Mana barriers reach ten percent,” Xiao said.

  The hulls of the Pandora ships were tough, but the spell formations that were used within the light cannons the Jukal used were incredibly powerful. Powerful enough that they could cut through the ship’s hulls in just a few seconds of exposure.

  For any ship, whether they were part of the combined fleet or the Jukal fleet, if they didn’t have a Mana barrier up, they would incur serious damage or be wiped out. The power of the spells could only be stopped by the Mana barriers. Anything else was sure to suffer a bad fate.

  Frank continued to pull out everything possible from his weapons crews, the sides of the battleships covered in the Mana ejecta of the grand working cannons and lit with the light of the Jukal’s weapons fire and arcane flight spells of the missiles.

  “Fleet Two is teleporting out!” Communications stated.

  “We’ll fight till the end,” Xiao said, unperturbed by Pandora Fleet Two’s retreat. There was no support coming; it was only Pandora Fleet One and Three, in the midst of the Jukal fleet, fighting for their lives as they passed through the enemy formation.

  ***

  Dave didn’t have time to look to the sky as blood covered his clothes and stained the path that he had walked through the slaves.

  Roars reached to the heavens as Dave looked to see mounted slaves now coming from the holes in the ground. They moved in packs, their animals staring at the Emerilians with a cold light in their eyes. Each and every one of them were predators, and even accepting the slaves as their masters, their bloo
dlust had not been diminished in the slightest. In fact, it had only been increased and built upon, used to wage constant wars.

  “Earth mages!” Dave yelled out over the command channel, putting a waypoint on the oncoming creatures. Massive spell formations appeared on the ground that started to shake. The mounted beasts ran into quagmires before the ground solidified, leaving them buried underneath the ground. Slit trenches appeared right ahead of the creatures; pained howls could be heard as their legs dropped into the trench, breaking as their riders were tossed off.

  Dark mages, working closely with the Earth mages, raised their hands. Spikes rose from the ground; the moving creatures impaled themselves on the spikes as cursed ground appeared.

  Dave dodged to the side as the grass under his feet shot up at him, as hard as steel and capable of shredding flesh and bone.

  Gravity pushed down on the grass, giving time for Dave to escape it. He threw out his conjuration rod and turned in mid-air. It formed into a spear that shot through the heavens. A gravity spell formation appeared above it, making it pierce through the air before impaling the Earth mage from the slave army. There was a blank look on their face as they looked at the massive hole in their chest. Dave waved his hand; the spear dissolved and the conjuration rod shot toward Dave.

  With his Touch of the Land spell, he saw all of Party Zero and the fights going on around him. He kept constant updates on the party, appearing behind any enemy that they were having trouble with and supporting them.

  Dave wasn’t as powerful in upfront fights, but splitting the enemies’ concentration made it much easier for his allies to finish them off.

  Wind blades tore through the air. Dave had no time to break their spell formation. Bolstering his shields, he raised his conjuration rod, forming it into a dwarven shield that covered his body. His other conjuration rod appeared in his hand.