After having liberated Chieftain Karu from Karis's mind shackle, El Search party was still bearing the bruises of the tough battle against the Caluso Tribe. They were extremely tough and seasoned warriors, combined with their territorial advantages and mastery of wind magic. The hazardous terrain was one of the force multipliers in favor of the Caluso Tribal Warriors, and it was expected they would capitalize on that advantage when fighting a defensive battle.
El Search party consulted with Karu and making him realized Karis's grand scheme; the Caluso Tribe vowed to hunt her down and making her pay for the atrocities she commited.
After planning, at a moment's notice the warriors were gathering into offensive formations, ready to march to Mount Parugo – the latest lead which they had regarding Karis's whereabouts. El Search Party's plan was none beyond asking to join force with them in the upcoming decisive battle against Karis, similar to the situations in the past when they accompanied allies armies to repel the demon invaders.
But then Vegar – one of Karu's lieutenants – reported that Karis was already there and ready with the rituals to wake Behemoth from its slumber and even controlling it, they knew that it was already too late and having to go back to the drawing board with their plan...
Shortly later our heroes and Emirate planned with the Caluso in the tribe's war room for the upcoming offensive.
Emirate asked:
_ Caluso Great Battle Chieft Karu, granny Vapor mentioned Behemoth used to go rampage in the past, please tell us what we need to know about this creature.
Karu replied:
_ Sander Chief Emirate, Behemoth is an Ancient El Beast of the Wind-affiliated element. Us Caluso struggled against it when it was running amok and Sander region was on the brink of being levelled. Behemoth is unbelievable huge and tenacious, but belying its size, is also very fast at the same time. The raw strength of it is unrivaled, it can move extremely fast which we can't catch up with it on foot, and when we managed to catch up with it, at any time it could give births to the Trocks and then sending them to intercept anyone who wants to approach their "mother".
_ Then how did the Caluso managed to defeat it last time?
_ It was thanks to luck, the combined might of the selfless Caluso-Sander allied forces who fought tooth and nails with everything we had, some… archaic technological marvels and most importantly – as you already know – the self-sacrifice of a great Wind Priestess.
Chieftain Karu pointed at the papers and scrolls on the table:
_ These are records of the battle against Behemoth, you're free to research them.
Raven took the combat logs and quickly reading through it.
"[...]At hour twenty two of the campaign, we managed to catch up with Behemoth. Battle Chief Aryn initially commanded the first wave assaulting the dreaded Behemoth which soon met fierce resistances when coming into direct confrontation with the Trocks[...] Aryn was severely injured after hour twenty five of the campaign, forcing him to withdrawn, and his replacement Bashar Al'rahim was killed at hour twenty seven, and his replacement War Chief II-Ghazi was killed around hour thirty one… With II-Ghazi's replacement Chief Timur unable to get through to take command of the vanguard battlegroup, II-Ghazi's command fell to the most senior and surviving officer in his staff, Chief Vegar[…]"
Even though already expecting the worst, the number of casualties in combat logs still sent chills down Raven's spine. It was estimated that after that bloody battle, it took the Caluso tribe and Sander town a generation to replace their losses in combat. Normally this type of battle aftermath would most likely be similar to the result of a decisive battle which could mark the turning point of the whole war between nations. He only hoped that with the accumulated experiences and records after that first disastrous encounter, the second time would not be so costly in terms of casualties. Raven turned to the person beside him, intended to discuss it with…
Chung, who was staring down at the map of the full campaign and found that it was full of makeshift tactics and strategies because of the unpredictable orders of battle and the unintelligible enemy they had zero experience dealing with previously. The grand strategy for example, was discarded and remade in no less than six times because of the nature of the fog of war and situations arose, the commanders were forced to adapt and trying to make the most out of the situation at hands.
Suddenly Elesis's loud voice could be heard in the war room which was already noisy and crammed because of numerous and hurriedly working personnel, to catch the attentions of Great Battle Chief Karu:
_ Sir Karu, I found that we are still lacking the Caluso Air Division in the upcoming battle, which your forces employed in the last battle against Behemoth. I can't find them in the list of the deploying units.
Karu paused, he was in the middle of instructing Battle Chief Tariq, and briefly turned his attention to Elesis:
_ The Caluso Air Division are not deployed in the upcoming battle.
_ I don't understand, didn't the unit played an instrumental role in Caluso's victory against Behemoth? How are we going to manage without them? Did it mean something happended to them?
Overhearing Karu and Elesis's conversation which sounded very critical, some El Search party members joined with Karu to querry him about that new discovery.
Karu sighed and looked across the intense facial expressions of Elsword, Ain and Raven before answering them:
_ Well lads, the problems were not with the Caluso Air Division. We still retain and recruiting the crews for the Air Division even though it had been a long time they haven't been called upon for combat. Not a single time since the last battle against Behemoth.
_ Then mister Battle Chief, what's the problems with them?
Ain asked in a hurry.
_ The problems are not with our crews, it is because of the airships. They were critically damaged and we couldn't repair them. They were retired and mothballed.
_ Great Battle Chief Karu, can we examine them? Some of us may be able to do something about it.
Requested Raven.
Karu replied with eyes wide open:
_ You are suggesting that you can fix them, making them operational again? Very well, go with Vegar, he knew where we hid them. I admit that we are already hard-pressed even if we could employ the Air Division in the upcoming battle, so...
Later the El Search Party went with Karu's right hand man – Vegar to the site where the airships were kept. Wasting no time, Eve started to examine the airships and attempting to fix it with. She declared it was an easy task, and requested spare parts from the Caluso's armories, directing the airship restoration efforts.
The Caluso tribesmen were amazed because they had slowly, but steadily over the generations, losing the knowledge needed for repairing and maintaining the archaic machines, the relics from ancient time unmemorable. The machines were gradually declining in quality until the battle with Behemoth proved too much for even these mighty airships, and they were incapable to make them take off any longer. The Caluso Air Division's last notable achievement was to safely flying them to the retirement site without crashing them in process.
They hurriedly restoring the airships, with Eve directly fixing them and most other El Gang members gathering Wind Stones from hunting monsters together with Sander Chieftain Emirate showing them the way. The Wind Stones were critical components and fuel for the airships to operate.
After returning from Wind Stone Ruins full with Wind Stone trophies, El Search Party found that the airships were already showing signs of being resurrected. The engineers were roaring and the light bulbs were flashing with the launching test. Everyone briefly celebrating that initial victory, they felt more hopeful when witnessing the sleeping machines being awakened after so many years…
Meanwhile at Mt Parugo, Karis was finally performing the last of her rituals to control Behemoth. She was using her demonic witchcraft to undo the seal cast upon Behemoth by the predecessor of current Caluso's Wind Priestess Anduran. Everything she did was to achieve this moment.
Karis received reports that Karu already escaped her mental control and it was none other than thanks to El Search Party. She also already having back up plans when her ultimate agenda was finally discovered. The El Search Party was the nemesis of the demon invasions, she already knew from the defeat of Berthe at Feita and Ran at Hamel. However she was still confident in her trump card which no other demon armies she knew possessing – the Ancient El Beast Behemoth. This time it would be different – she thought. Karis turned her back to look at Anduran, who was helplessly unconscious inside Behemoth, serving as an irreplaceable component to undo the seal established by the sacrifice of a great Wind Priestess… So long as the Wind Priestess was in her hands, they wouldn't be able to do jack to stop Behemoth like what they did last time.
After eating dinner, El Search Party began to rest after a long day of hard work and fighting, except Eve who was a Nasod and had no need for sleep, she was still fixing the airships. Raven was also still awake, he addressed the Caluso Air Division and found that they hadn't practiced flying since the last time the airships were used in combat. Many of the crews were greenhorn crews who were just taught in theory how to operate the airships, while the number of veterans who actually saw combats was already dwindling.
_ Let's get straight to the problem, you're telling me many of you had little experiences in air combat?
_ It was a shame, but yes. Lately Great Battle Chief Karu even intended to dismantle the Air Division because up until now, we thought the Sandtilus and other airships were already FUBAR.
One young crew told Raven. He already knew exactly what FUBAR was and intended to ignore it, noticing the mildly disappointed facial expressions of them and wondered were they expecting him to ask them the meaning of that word so they could explain it to him, but Raven was having none of it. "Brats" - Raven thought and had a brief moment of nostalgic memories remembering his younger days, when he was also just a rookie joining the military.
_ We don't have much time, tomorrow we will conduct training when the airships are in better shape. I was already appointed by Great Chief Karu as non-commissioned officer in charge of the airships in the upcoming campaign, now dismiss.
The Air Division crews and Raven saluted, then they all left. Raven remembered when he was in charge of The Black Crow and other airships, the Nasods having facilities which providing VR training – he used a simulator computer which allowing him to practice air combat and operating airships before he was operating the real thing! That allowed a rapid pace of training and replacement than just training in persons. If only those crews were given a chance to train on the simulators, they would still gain much more experiences without even needing to practice operating the real airships…
In the morning, Raven and Caluso Air Division began the test run of the newly restored airships. He boarded the largest ship – the legendary Sandtilus. He was surprised to find that Eve was also there and instructing the Caluso Air Division crews.
_ Thank you very much for your help in restoring these steel birds, Eve.
Raven said in a somewhat stiff voice. It was rare for him to thank her, they didn't get along well at the beginning, to say the least.
_ You are welcome, Raven.
_ Do you happen to know a thing or two about operating and commanding airships in combat before...?
Raven tried to calm his building up anger. "If she already having experiences in air combats before, who could be she was fighting against, other than other humans, our ancestors…" - Raven gritted his teeth when thinking.
_ I have the basic knowledge of operating airships, thanks to a program integrated into my memory. I was created with the knowledge on how to executing the basis of that task without actually needing to experience it beforehand.
Eve replied with her usual monotone voice.
_ Oh great, I didn't think of that possibility before. Then would you mind helping us in our upcoming battle using these ships.
Raven sighed in relief, his face was visibly relaxed and felt somewhat guilty when suspecting her.
_ I'm already doing it, as you can see.
Eve politely replied.
The airships were far from complete restoration. But if it was just training then there should be no problem with it. They intended to conduct training to test the airships and then returning to complete repairing it.
Raven and Caluso Air Division began to launch the airships. The engines were roaring, then they accelerated, the hulls were shaking and kicking for a short amount of time, until they were steadily lifted up to the sky. The process went smoothly enough and everyone cheered. "Not too shabby" – Raven thought, then he communicated on the radio:
_ This is Sandy speaking, Vanguard Squadron - report! Can you hear me.
_ Red Hawk report - loud and clear, sir!
_ Rakis report - copy that!
Sandy, Red Hawk and Rakis were the code names for Sandtilus and two other vessels of the squadron, respectively.
After having tested the radio, they began the short range flight test. Up until that point no major human mistake were made, the veterans were overseeing and instructing the inexperienced juniors if they did something wrong.
_ This is Sandy, all ships rotating fifteen degree left in thirty seconds. Accelerating to eighty mph, forward!
Raven ordered when spinning the wheel and steadily steering the Sandtilus toward a new course. Soon after that, he could observe on the radar that Rakis was not following the formation and going off course instead.
Raven yelled into the radio:
_ Rakis, you're going off the ordered trajectory. I order you to return to the formation immediately. Any problem, report, over.
On board the Rakis, turned out that the crew was accelerating too fast and not only did they accelerated too rapidly ahead, they couldn't steer the ship toward the ordered degree. Hearing the replies from the radio, Raven concluded it was not because of technical problems, but rather the human factor.
"Oh no, if they made such a mistake in the real battle, we may not have a second chance. Commanding this flagship already occupied most of my attentions, how could I manage those other ships at the same time if they couldn't even carry out such a simple order. The ratio of inexperienced crews only making the situations more complicated." – Raven worriedly thought while thinking of a solution. Suddenly a voice spoke behind Raven's back, he looked back to see Eve speaking to the radio:
_ Rakis, first decelerate to sixty-three mph in twenty seconds, then rotating three degree right... There…there, now accelerating until you catch up with the rest of the squadron, parallel with Red Hawk, then decelerate to eighty mph...
Raven stared at the radar, and found that the dot representing Rakis was gradually able to catch up and joining with the rest of the squadron, back from the last… over yonder off course mistake. He forgot about Eve who was also on board of the ship, and since he was hesitated to communicate with her at the first place, they didn't coordinate and agreeing to split the workload between each other beforehand. Recognizing the helpfulness of Eve in solving the previous incident, Raven officially suggested her from that point onward to help navigating the smaller ships while he would concern mostly the Sandtilus itself and in combat scenarios.
That morning they only had time for practice taking off from the ground, two formation which could be used in different phases of chasing Behemoth, another formation involving hovering around Behemoth after they had immobilized it, and landing.
They also practiced shooting with their weapons, the broadsides of Sandtilus's gun batteries weren't loaded with any ammo, they just practiced mock shooting at Behemoth by aiming then locking target at a mountainside and pressing buttons, the cannons crackling with visible power bolts and blinding glows, showing that they were fully operational, so in theory they should be operating just fine when being charged with ammunition.
Normally by standards of both Nasod forces and Caluso Air Division itself, the crews were needed to have reached many hours of fly before being considered combat ready. But this time they were left with little choices, Raven could only hope that the experiences from the veterans crew who formed the backbone of the force would rub off as much as possible to the junior airmen, as well as leading them.
After that practice, the airships went back to the hangar, continuing their restoration process. More Wind Crystals were also delivered by all other Search party member who killed more Trocks to get them. Having reunited with their comrades, El Search members shared brief exchanges about last experiences, and planning for the next steps of the campaign.
_ I will briefly explain the plan we have devised and agreed upon. The combat forces would be split into the ground force led by Great Battle Chief Karu himself, they would travel by foot and trying to reach whatever settlements or places needing protections if Behemoth happened to head there, evacuating the humans and combating the Trocks. The air force would be in charge with chasing and immobilizing Behemoth, then assaulting it with organic troops when it was down, entering its body and busting Wind Priestess out and finishing off Karis and her goons…
Chung stopped his long speech to catch a breath. Ain then continued from where Chung left off:
_ Because of limited load capacity of the vessels, our Search party members were all expected to be on board the airships, as the monsters will attempt to assault them by boarding and crippling them from inside. We are small in number but each is very powerful, so that what made us fit for this mission instead of loading it with extra number of Caluso troops for security purpose, as the ships couldn't load as many people on them as before, like in their prime.
_ I got it. We already have some experiences fighting on airships when we fought through Wally's and Raven's airships. This time we are doing the exact opposite of that, we need to defend it from assailants attempting to board it, right guys?
Aisha interpreted it in her own words and other Search party members could at that point fully grasp what they would be expected to do, although to be fair some of them actually joined later and had never participated in assaulting Wally's and Raven's airships.
_ To be honest, I don't think my experiences back in when I was working for the Nasods could later become useful in the future, like in this case…
Raven confessed, and Elsword patted his shoulder in agreement with him.
_ Yup, you don't have to feel sorry anymore, we now need you more than ever.
_ Thanks Elsword.
Raven replied and feeling grateful when being trusted.
The next day, intelligence from Vegar reported that Behemoth had finally fully woken and starting to run amok.
_ We have no choice but to launch now!
El Search party boarded the airships which were still not fully restored even though Eve and the Caluso personnel already hastening in their jobs. The airships should in theory be operational, but the risk of sudden malfunctions were not fully eliminated. The fuels and ammunition were loaded up for real this time.
The airships took off, then flying at high speed, in the formation they practiced previously. From above they could see Caluso ground forces were already heading toward Sander town to intercept Behemoth as anticipated by its current course.
Then finally Sandtilus's radar caught the signal representing Behemoth, and it didn't took too long until they could witness by their naked eyes the natural disaster created by it. The wind swept strongly and the sky was dark. Behemoth, as big as a moving mountain, roaring with deafening voice, the ground was plowed with big and deep holes wherever it ran through. Sandstorm was thickening and the visionary range was limited.
Normally according to Raven's experience, he would opt to "crossing the T" tactic when intercepting enemy's ship, by crossing in front of the enemy's ship which were moving straight forward at the time, so that the bow of enemy's ship would be at 90 degree to his ship's side, so that he could immediately firing his broadside in a pre-emptive strike before enemy's ship could rotate to bring their broadsides into action, otherwise their forward-pointed gun would still be far from enough to compete with his ship's broadside's firepower outputs.
But this time the Behemoth was too fast, and catching up with its speed was already a struggle for the airships' engines. Also Raven was not confident that they would be able to bring it down fast enough before the Behemoth could just ramming through them, as downing enemy's airships would take far less firepower than this moving mountain...
So they flew in parallel with Behemoth, with the side effect of making it much more easier for the enemies boarding their ships, as the monsters wouldn't be scared of being trampled upon by Behemoth like if the airships forming a line before Behemoth's road.
_ Maximum power! Sandtilus, pursue the Behemoth in full speed! Red Hawk and Rakis, fire at will!
Eve ordered.
The smaller vessels with codenames Red Hawk and Rakis behind Sandtilus intercepting the monsters trying to assault the ships. Many of the shots hitting targets and taking them down, but some still managed to land on Sandtilus, the Trocks jumped from the body of Behemoth while the succubus, incubus and some suicide-bombing demons could fly with their wings.
_ Let's go! Cut them down!
Elsword shouted and Search Party members following him when they crashed into the lines of monsters. Because of limited spaces, they had to be extremely careful in not causing collateral damage to the ship's interiors through their attacks.
Elsword defeated waves after waves of Trocks, he charged and stabbed at them with extreme strength and skill. Other melee fighters of Search party also engaging in close combat, back to back, while the ranged fighters trying to shoot the monsters down before they could reach the board.
_ This is Red Hawk speaking. Our engines are being sabotaged by the boarding Trocks, we can't contain them anymore, please send help!
Raven received plea for help from Red Hawk's crews. He hurriedly spoke to the speaker:
_ Red Hawk was being overrun by monsters, they need some help from you, please send people to reinforce it!
Red Hawk was then flying just below Sandtilus and connected to it. It was safe to go from ship to ship that way. Rena and Ara quickly dropped down and running toward the Trocks swarming near the engine of Red Hawk and blew most of them out of the ship in their initial strike, then picking off the ones still remain.
Many succubus and incubus hovering on the air, then suddenly swooping up and down to strike at crews of the ships. The succubus and incubus even helped ferrying the Trocks to bolster the assaults on vessels since they could fly and hover, and not hesitating in using them as meat shields. Some Caluso crews were picked up by those demons and threw out of the flying vessels while them cackling savagely... Chung shot them rapidly with his accurate hand cannon and Aisha cast magic at them from a distance.
...They were already flying in parallel with the head of Behemoth and adjusting to keep up with the pace Behemoth were running. Beside that incident on Red Hawk, the threat of boarding monsters was keeping at bay thus far, but it wouldn't last forever, as the demons and Trocks still had numerical superiority.
_ We need to come a little closer, going faster... Lock the target, now! How is the weapon, is it ready to fire?
Raven asked in a hurry.
_ Magic power 98%, Control Device is good to go. Raven, your orders!
Eve answered.
Vegar suddenly reported:
_ The aerial demons are inbound! We must protect the Control Device!
Looking out of the windows, Raven found that a swarm of winged suicide bomber demons were clearly attempting to do a thing which couldn't be mistaken for anything else: rushing toward the weapons equipped with Control Device, for some reasons they seemed to already know of what the Sandtilus was up to. They could self detonate and destroying the weapons together with them. Many including Search party members tried to shoot them down, but there were too much this time.
Raven ordered:
_ Activate the Control Device! Fire at my command…
Raven lifted his right hand straight up, and then pointing it in front of him - the signal of the command to fire the main weapon - and at the same time shouted:
_ Fire!
Sandtilus's broadside was crackling with power bolts and blinding lights, this time vomiting streams after streams of magical beams, ramming into the left side of Behemoth's head, volleys after volleys. Many winged suicide bomber enemies were also caught in the crossfire and being annihilated by the destructive beams.
After a short time, Behemoth roared because of hurt, then slowed down and fell unconscious on its four legs.
_ Hurrah! We did it!
Everyone cheered when seeing the seemingly invincible beast finally being knocked down.
The airships lifted off and the monsters couldn't attempt to board them anymore. They retreated inside the body of Behemoth to save their hides and licking their wounds.
The airships were hovering above, and it was now up to the whole El Search party to descend down inside Behemoth, where Anduran was imprisoned and Karis hid.
_ Thank you all for your service! Mission accomplished! You will be remembered for your victory today!
Vegar said to the Search party members with a somewhat trembling voice and shook hands with them.
They exchanged hugs, before leaving, to the final battle!