Skies over Uncharted Forest

Gold Group leader Flight Sergeant Legos Waver, glanced at his flight instruments, giving a hard rap against the fuel gauge, and noted down the fuel level and flight time with a pencil stub against a notepad velcroed to his right trousers tight.

"Alright Gold Group," He triggered his throat mike, "Check your fuel levels, and report in, over."

"Gold Two, fuel at 47%, over."

"Gold Four, fuel down to 48%, over."

"Five here, fuel at 45%, over."

"Roger, Gold Group!" Legos did a quick calculation and keyed the mike again, "Alright, report in when fuel is at 35%, out." He gauged that they had roughly less than an hour of flight time in the area.

Commander Peter had ordered the flight of F/A- 1 Cobras off the runaway and positioned them to patrol around Rendevous Point Blue. They barely started their patrol when the word came in that an enemy flight of dragons had ambushed Dragon One, and Legos directed his men to make all haste over to provide support.

Two planes had to fall back and return to base after they developed engine problems, leaving four of them to come to support Dragon One, but as they arrived, they found that Dragon One had shot down six of the Empire Dragons and were under attack from the last dragon.

Using the sun as cover, and the element of surprise, he had two of his planes engage the unaware dragon, each making a high-side gun pass, their new 20 mm autocannons proofing very effective in tearing the shielded dragon to shreds.

"Gold Lead, Gold Four! Red Smoke spotted!" Suddenly his comms crackled, "Repeat, Red!"

"Shit," Legos craned his head around his cockpit, peering out from the glass, looking around for the smoke and cursed as he saw thin tendrils of red smoke drifting out from a patch in the sea of trees. Red smoke meant that the ground forces had encountered the hero while blue smoke indicated enemy troops.

"All Gold units, vector in over to the marked location and standby to provide close in air support!" Legos ordered as he tilted his flight stick, turning his A/F - 1 Cobra towards the red colored smoke drifting out from the sea of trees.

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Lt Joesph watched the red smoke from the smoke grenade clustered at the top of the forest canopy, wondering if the air support up there will be able to see it. Their comms were unable to get through the forest canopy and the bloody Hero had turned up while they were in the middle of setting up traps for him.

Barks of M1 Magelocks erupted all around him, as the platoon fired at the glowing target. The sheer amount of firepower kept the Hero at bay, as he raised his magic power to the maximum, making the surrounding trees and plant life smoking from the heat of his aura.

Out of the corner of his eye, Lt Joesph noted one of the two ASASG were dragging a wounded Marine back away into cover. He turned and yelled, "Medic! Tend to that wounded Marine!"

"RPG teams! Load thermobaric rockets!" Lt Joesph yelled, "Give that son of bitch hell!"

The rocket teams quickly reloaded with thermobaric rockets into their launchers, swapping out the HEAT (High Explosive Anti Tank) rockets with rockets coded with a red band on the warhead.

The Hero tossed a few high energy beams, which scorched the trees and any exposed flesh, making the Marines cry out in pain and anger. The tracers from the MG-1s were like lasers, following the Hero's frantic movements as he weaved in and out from the trees, using them as cover. But when the Hero exposed himself to attack, several lines of tracers converged on him, sending him tumbling backward as the force of the .338 (8.5 mm) rounds hammered him silly.

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Dante dodged another line of sparking thunderstones that were thrown his way. He panted and raised both his sore arms, seeing bruises forming, turning his arms blue-black. "What kind of demon sorcery is that?"

He sneaked a quick peek from behind the battered tree he was at, trying to pick out the individual spellcasters hiding in the undergrowth, but the demon cursed casters were like forest sprites, their bodies blending into the surroundings almost perfectly!

"Cursed mortals, think your demonic powers are strong?" Dante's ever-present smile changed, to an expression of pure seriousness. "Let me show you the difference between a god's power and a demon's!"

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"There! 100! Enemy behind the tree!" An RPG team crouched down, while the assistant pointed at where the Hero was hiding at. "Clear!"

"ONE ROUND AWAY!" The Marine with the RPG fired, sending a smoking dart flaming its way over to the tree where the Hero was behind and seconds later, a sharp crack resounded, and the tree tottered over, with smoke and splinters flying all over the place.

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Dante was praying to the Sun God when suddenly his heightened senses heard a WHOOOOOOSH, and the tree he was suddenly exploded, and a pressure wave slammed into him. His magic shield fluctuated and held, but he felt his insides were like a troll had hammered him. He rolled away and leaned against a massive tree root, and felt a raw sweetness in his throat and he vomited out a mouthful of dark blood.

"What?" He stared incredulously at the blood in his hand. "I was harmed by minor creatures?"

His aura changed as his temper changed, "Lowly lesser creatures dare to hurt my body?" He closed his eyes, ignoring the impacts of the thunderstones against the tree root he was under. "Sun God, hear me! Creatures bound to the dark arts have risen... Grant me the light to cast the darkness away!"

Almost immediately his the aura in his body glowed brighter, and the discomfort he felt in his body faded away and the pain in his arms disappeared. He turned both his arms and saw the bruises had all gone and he narrowed his eyes, "I shall not underestimate these lesser creature's power. Those thundersticks and stones of theirs are clearly way more powerful than I can imagine!"

"It is time to stop playing around!" Dante started praying again, calling upon the Sun God to grant him power, in exchange for offerings.

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Tyrier and the rest of Claymore One had moved up in a textbook flanking maneuver, using the cover fire provided by the Marines and they crouched next to a tree root, roughly a couple of trees away from the Hero. Tyrier looked his team and wordlessly mimicked pulling a grenade out and throwing it. The rest of the team nodded and each dug out a black powder egg shaped grenade and held it ready.

Tyrier gave a nod and raised up his fingers, counting down from three to one. And everyone on the count of one pulled the grenade pins and lobbed it hard towards the area where the Hero was hiding. Six grenades flew out, the safety spoon spun away from the fuse and the protective covering for the fire runes was removed and the twin rune waffles touched each other and flared up, sending a large spark out which ignited the measured fuse, setting it burning down the thin tube.

The six grenades bounced against the semi-soft dirt forest floor and rolled in different directions, but most of it landed next to the Hero who was praying away. The slow-burning fuse smoked and finally reached the main explosive filler in just 4.7 seconds and the grenade exploded in the confined body of the cast iron grenade and cracked the casing, turning the serrated cast iron shell into hundreds of fragments, sending them flying at a spherical blast, throwing lethal shrapnel in its immediate vicinity.

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Dante just finished his invocations when suddenly heard several soft thumps and he opened his eyes and they widen in surprise as he recognized the egg-shaped olive green colored artifacts rolling around him. "BASTARDS!"

And the world exploded.

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"GO GO GO!" Tyrier yelled a second after the grenades exploded. They burst out of cover and pushed in towards the blasts, in two teams of three, their weapons up and ready as they charged.

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Hearing the grenade explosions, Lt Joesph yelled, "CEASE FIRE, CEASE FIRE! Section Three and Four, advance!"

And the Marines of Section Three and Four climbed to their feet and fanned out, advancing to where the Hero was.

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Tyrier stepped over the root of a tree and swung his weapon around, expecting to see the Hero, but what was left was just some smoking holes, caused by the grenade and a dark wet patch, that looked suspiciously like blood.

"Check your area!" Tyrier ordered and the rest quickly spun around, their weapons scanning their surroundings. He crouched over the dark patch and touched it, feeling the warmth from the dark liquid on his fingers. He sniffled the substance and nodded, "Blood. He's wounded alright."

"He's wounded! That means he will be pissed!" Tyrier warned, "Be on alert!"

Rapid footsteps could be heard and Tyrier yelled, "Marines! Watch it! The Hero is wounded and is hiding somewhere! Keep your eyes open!"

"CONTACT!" Some Marine yelled and he fired, followed by the rest who saw a fleeting figure up in the trees. "Up on the trees! He's running!"

"Go!" Tyrier yelled, chasing after the shadow. "Kill that mother farker!"

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Dante growled as he hugged his sides, his Sun Aura had vanished after tanking all that damage from the cursed demonic weapons. Something from those weapons had hurt his side, and as he hopped from tree to tree, he felt warm wetness forming at his side. Looking down, he saw he was bleeding and he cursed again.

"Damn low lives!" Dante screamed as the trees around him exploded from thunderstones cast by the demon worshippers. "SUN GOD! GIVE ME STRENGTH!"

"EYE OF THE SUN!"

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Suddenly as Tyrier and the Marines were chasing the Hero, the Hero suddenly flashed with an intense glaring brightness that brought them all to a halt and forcing them to cover their eyes.

As the brightness faded, a sudden shockwave, followed by a heat wave that slammed everyone backward, and the troops yelled and cursed as they painfully rolled and tumbled back along the forest floor.

When Tyrier recovered, he noted in horror that a huge expanse of the forest had literally been scorched away, leaving behind a large circular clearing of charred ground.

"Shit! Sarge!" He yelled at the Marine Sergeant. "Check your men!"

"Claymore One! Report!" Tyrier yelled as he pushed to the edge of the newly formed clearing, feeling waves of superheated air coming from the ground. He saw a glowing figure floating in the middle of the clearing and huge floating manifestation of divine power in the air, where a glowing eye was looking down at him.

"MORTALS! YOU WILL PAY FOR DAMAGING THIS BOB-!?!?" Dante's yelled was cut short when suddenly several buzzing roars thundered from the sky and streaks of yellowish red tracers hammered into him.

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"GUNS GUNS GUNS!" Legos yelled as he squeezed his gun trigger, and his whole plane shook wildly from the heavy thumping of the 20 mm gun pods. Twin streaks of tracers roared out and intersected directly at the floating figure with a huge ass eye in the sky. His 20 mm rounds causing smoke and sparks on the figure as he broke off his engagement, allowing the second Cobra lined up to make it firing run.

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Tyrier yelled out in excitement as he saw the Cobras swooped in from above, each firing a long burst before breaking away, and allowing the next plane in line to fire, sending the Hero tumbling in the air. "KILL THAT SON OF A BITCH!"

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Legos looped his fighter around, watching his flight wing engaging the Hero in turns, but suddenly as the last plane broke away, the Hero seems to pulse brightly, and a beam of eye-searing light ripped out and cut the last plane's left wings, Gold Five into two, sending the plane spiraling down.

"Mayday Mayday! We got a Cobra down, repeat Cobra down!"

g down.

"Mayday Mayday! We got a Cobra down, repeat Cobra down!"