Thunder continued to echo throughout the forsaken valley as ten of thousands of enemy…troops, if one could call them that, charged towards the long-established firing lines. These soldiers were red in colour.

Red in skin and bone, that is. A blazing fire burned at the top of their heads, the same flame that danced around their armour and weapons.

Captain Aziz glanced at the scene that even the legends never talked about. A few days ago, the Republic of Francois had received an urgent missive from the Assembly, which was surprising, given the hostile backstory the two shared. Warriors of flame were pouring out of the Central Circle, forming up into endless armies that cut through the Assembly’s defence forces like a hot knife through butter.

The details of the missive were never fully explored, but it was nothing short of a desperate cry for help. By the time the Republic had moved troops to reinforce the routed Assembly forces, one-third of the cities the Assembly controlled had been burned to ashes. In its place were tall towers of what looked like solid flame, fortresses that were nearly impervious to conventional attack due to how hot it got when one entered its vicinity.

“There,” Colonel Marie muttered. “Above the enemy ground troops. Fliers…”

Her finger was pointed at a small group of red, barely twenty strong, hovering above the armies of molten soldiers.

“It looks like Liamar intends to experiment,” said Aziz. “The Worldshaper, playing with mortal wars now. What on Orb is going on?”

“At least His soldiers still die when killed,” replied the Colonel. “Or we might have to flee to the Wildlands too.”

Beneath them, a ripple of fear took hold in the joint force of Republican and Assembly forces. The bulk of the Republic’s forces had arrived around four days ago, a timely arrival that had saved House Aquitaine’s forces from being routed to the last man. Unfortunately, said House had been all but destroyed, as its members had taken it upon themselves to fight a delaying action to let their soldiers flee.

Would we do that one day too? Marie and I, fighting to let Thunderbolt leave ahead of us. Aziz trembled. From what he heard at the canteen, House Aquitaine had numerous experts — over fifty Knights, six Lords, and even a Paragon had stayed behind to fight, while the younger generation led the troops to safety.

None of them had returned alive, naturally.

Similar stories abounded throughout the new defence line. Ragged troops, with barely any fighting strength left, had been saved by the mighty defences the brightest minds of the Republic and the Assembly had pieced together. Fleeing civilians — refugees now — had joined the unlikely alliance between the Republic and the Assembly, lending their specialities to create more weapons.

Aziz glanced at the sigils carved onto the back of his hands. Sigils, which when carved onto skin allowed their wearers to use what were called Arts, instant-cast mimicries of the functions of their parent sigil. The Assembly had released this information to every man and woman on the frontline, and in the same day, the Republic had created numerous stations to help engrave these lifesaving items on their skin.

The fact that the Assembly and the Republic were cooperating on this were a testament to how horrifying the enemy they faced were.

Thunderclaps roused Aziz from his contemplation, as the defenders below them began to fire. Limitless Shots had been placed at a regular interval along the Maginot Line, and as the Worldshaper’s soldiers entered the defensive line’s effective range, the thunderclaps increased in intensity rapidly.

“Let’s go,” said Colonel Marie. She picked up the radio, and after issuing a few orders, took the lead to engage the twenty odd fliers above the enemy lines.

A squad from First Company followed suit, and within minutes, they had begun to exchange fire with the enemy forces. Aziz, who was staying behind to command Thunderbolt Battalion, watched as Marie flew circles around her counterpart.

The Straight Shot in her hand jerked rapidly as Marie pulled the trigger over and over again, creating small craters in the enemy’s perfectly moulded carapace of flame.

Aziz frowned. The enemy had taken these hits on purpose, but before he could think of any reason why, Marie had abruptly flung herself to the side. A lance of flame pierced through the position she had been in previously, and the colonel, having predicted that attack, took the chance to close in. Her Straight Shot, which had been modified a few weeks ago, glinted dangerously in the afternoon sun as it stabbed towards the enemy.

What looked like lava spurted out of the enemy’s back, and Marie took the moment when it was off-balance to take out a small artefact with her free hand and blast the enemy with it at close range. The burning sword held in its hand trembled, and fell from the skies as the colonel pumped every shot she had into its body, and its vibrant red turned dull as it plummeted from the sky.

A flawless victory.

But the same couldn’t be said for the other fliers. Most of them had been injured by flames, or grazed by intense blasts of heat. One guy in particular — if Aziz was right, his name was Devon — had been too slow to dodge his enemy’s flaming blade. A fellow soldier had caught him before he fell into enemy territory, but the rescuer had been singed somewhat when the ground forces fired gouts of flame at him.

The captain felt his heart beat quickly as he watched Marie and the squad following her return to their positions. It wasn’t the first time they had taken on these enemies, but every encounter that they had were growing increasingly harder.

Are our enemies learning from us? The Worldshaper himself, personally moulding his forces to keep up with our advantages? Aziz shivered, a cold bead of sweat running down his spine. Below them, warriors of flame died by the thousands every second as they mindlessly charged into the killing fields, their bodies turning dull when they finally toppled over.

The battle on the ground was easy…for now.

But Aziz knew that it wasn’t going to be the case. The infantry had revealed that they too had ranged weapons when one of the fliers had dived down to save Devon, and although the range was lacking, the captain had the feeling that it would continue to grow as the war continued to escalate. Right now, they were winning the battle of range…

But would they continue to hold such an advantage? Aziz couldn’t say for certain. He flew to meet Marie as she returned to the lines, and his heart skipped a beat as he noticed that the colonel’s fists were balled tight, her arms trembling slightly.

“They grow with every fight,” the colonel murmured to Captain Aziz. “We have a few days before the next wave comes…we’ll need to train even harder before then.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Captain Aziz looked down at the battlefield below them. It was a massacre by the joint Republic and Assembly forces, but whether it would stay the same was another question. Would the tables eventually turn?

He sighed, and followed the colonel as they returned to reorganise.