Hello, dear readers! Since chapter 20 took a long while to write and thus kept you all waiting, I decided to double my efforts on chapter 21 to release it early!
Good reading!
"YANG, BLAKE; CHARGE ON THE RIGHT!" Ren screamed his orders to his teammates, redirecting their attack. "NORA, STICK WITH ME, WE'VE GOT THE CENTER!"
"YES, SIR!" Nora answered in a high-pitched scream.
Running elbow to elbow, the two partners crashed into the ever-growing mass of Grimm threatening to overwhelm the other trainees. The teens from Mistral were fighting courageously and effectively, but they were not able to cut down enough beasts to make it so they could disengage.
Nora crashed Magnhild in the chest of the first Grimm facing her and fired the weapon to create an explosion that sent the beast flying back into its brethren. Ren launched himself into the group of now disorganized monsters, swinging the dual blades of Stormflower in wild arcs before jumping back to examine the effects of his strikes.
The effects were disappointingly small, and Ren now had another element to add to his list of reasons for hating this rare breed of Grimm.
The Shriekers were amongst the ugliest and most frightening beasts that Ren had ever faced, and knowing that their skin was impervious to his rapid strikes only heightened his dismay.
These creatures stood taller than the usual Beowolf, perhaps up to 8 feet. Their skin was covered in black scales that almost glowed with the last rays of the setting sun. They stood on four long and slim legs, two of which bent backward at the knees. At the end of those legs were small feet sporting several claws each that dug into the ground for support. The torso of these beasts was covered by twin plates of white armor.
The monsters had a total of six arms, all of the same size and shape. They were similar to the creatures' legs, the only major difference being the singular claws in which they ended. Sharp and long as spears, these claws formed the entirety of the beasts' forearms and were able to move quickly to attack or deflect blows. Two arms sprouted from their midriffs, two from where human shoulders would be and at the same angle, and two vertically from the top of these shoulders.
The head of a Shrieker was by far the most frightening element. Roughly the size of a large melon, it was dangling from a thick neck and was flanked by the two vertical arms. The mouth was a deep vertical chasm splitting the head in two halves. White teeth of disconcerting proportions seemed to sprout at random from black gum, some pointing forward as tusks while others curved inwards. Two large mandibles pierced the skin to the right and left of the mouth, joining at the front. Over and under these mandibles, the four red eyes of the beast lacked pupils, somehow making the Grimm look even more terrifying.
The beasts were all screeching horribly, emitting a high-pitched sound unlike any other Ren had ever heard. The screams were continuous and unending, and they made it difficult for the leader to hear anything else.
Nora's hammer had collapsed one of the Shrieker's torso in on itself with her first strike, but Ren swings had simply scratched at armor and scales, doing no damage.
A few meters to the right, Yang and Blake made contact with another group of Shriekers that was about to encircle the trainees. A quick census told Ren that about two dozens of these beasts were near enough to cause problems.
Farther to the left, team SSSN was fighting off a few Boarbatusks as well as a large group of Beowolves coming from the forest, and team JWPR had just arrived to help team CFVY put down an extremely large Deathstalker. Team RYBN had been tasked to help two teams from Mistral to kill the group of Shriekers, but since more and more came from the forest without a stop, Ren couldn't imagine that they could stand here for long.
Nonna, the commander of the Pravda tank brigade, was apparently sending a platoon of light tanks to help the trainees disengage and move them back to the defensive lines, but Ren could not see them as of yet. They had to resist a while longer.
"Nora, try not to stay near these things for more than a few seconds at a time." Ren told his partner before she jumped back into the fray. "They have too many arms for you to possibly block all their attacks!"
"I'll do my best!" Nora replied before charging back into the group of Grimm.
Ren followed her in her attack, focusing on his aura as he ran at the Shriekers. There were six of these beasts in the duo's immediate vicinity, and they would have to be slain before falling back became a possibility.
Nora slammed Magnhild down on a Grimm, breaking four of its arms in a single blow. As the pink Huntress turned around to face another threat, Ren tucked Stormflower up his sleeves, engulfed his hands in aura, and moved in for the kill. The boy grabbed one of the spear-like claws of the Shrieker which was now hanging loosely from a broken limb, twisted it forcefully with help from his aura, and ripped it off with a groan of exertion.
The Shrieker, which had been stunned by Nora's blow, was sent into a fury as Ren tore off one of its many appendages. The boy had to duck under a blow and pirouette away from another, but he managed to keep hold of the claw in his hands. He charged into the flurry of limbs with his new weapon pointed forward.
Knocking away a weak strike from a broken arm and rolling under a horizontal slash, Ren found himself directly under the maw of the insectoid monster. Concentrating his aura on the very tip of his spear, the boy thrust upwards with all his force and the momentum of his fluid charge. The long spear of bone was plunged into the mouth of the beast, breaking dozens of teeth, and exited at the back of its throat. The screeching beast now choked on black blood and two feet of sharpened bone.
Ren jumped back from his dying prey and took hold of the twin blades of Stormflower once more. To his left, Nora was screaming with joy as her hammer knocked monsters aside. Ren ran to his partner's side and blocked the path of a Shrieker that was on its way to flanking her.
The beast wasted no time in charging this new prey and lunged forward in an attack with all of its six arms. Ren had no way to dodge so many strikes at once, so he called upon his aura to create a barrier in front of him. The claws skittered off Ren's pink creation and the beast carried its momentum into the ground and at the boy's feet.
Ren dissipated his aura shield and brought his life energy to the tip of his right boot. The boy took a boost, leaped into the air in a spin, and brought down his foot on the top of his foes' skull. Bones cracked as the beast's head was driven into the dirt and the remnants of snow. Ren moved his leg away and brought down both of Stormflower's blades into the crack in the monster's skull, slamming the metal past the broken plates of bone and piercing the brain. The beast died within the second, twitching as Ren ripped his weapons out of its skull.
The leader looked up at his partner and saw that she was in trouble. Nora was being driven back by a barrage of quick thrusts from an advancing Shrieker. Its six spear-like arms moved even faster than Ren could have imagined, and kept Nora on her backfoot as she did her best to survive. Ren was about to run to her help when the creature assaulting her was knocked away by a powerful kinetic blast.
"Here comes the rescue!" Yang exclaimed as she jumped into view followed shortly by Blake.
Ren couldn't help but smile at the timely arrival of his teammates. A quick glance behind him told him that the two teams from Mistral were still holding off the biggest portion of the wave of Shriekers and that they had changed their formation to stop any more attempts from the Grimm to flank them. Blake and Yang were now free to regroup with Ren's own duo.
Blake ran to Ren side while their partner's pushed back the Grimm with immense firepower.
"Ren, reinforcements are coming, we should be free to move back in less than a minute." The Faunus told her team leader, waiting for his nod of understanding before jumping back to the side of her partner.
The leader glanced back at the main line of tanks and guard infantry that formed the Western front's static defense. Every cannon in sight was firing to the right or left of the teens, upon the Grimm exiting the burned forest. The teens were still in the middle of the plain midway between this line and the edge of the trees, thus blocking the vision of the tank crews for the middle of the front, but this would be remedied as soon as they could disengage.
Ren could see a small group of light tanks making their way across the plain and towards them. There were only six of them, but they were accompanied by smaller vehicles on tracks or wheels.
They needed to kill as many Grimm as possible before these vehicles arrived to make for a smoother escape. Right now, about twenty Shriekers were engaged with the trainees' right flank where team RYBN was fighting, more than a dozen Beowolves were being held off by team SSSN, and the two other teams from Beacon were fighting a couple of Goliaths and a gravely injured Deathstalker on the left flank. More beasts were approaching, however.
Ren ran back to his team and the action. He fired a small spray of dust bullets at a Shrieker's face before slamming the blades of his weapons into two of its eyes. He brought his legs up to the creature's torso and used them to push himself away from its flailing anger. The beast launched itself at Ren but was struck half-jump by a grenade out of Nora's weapon. The pink blast threw the monster to the side and greatly damaged its midriff.
Ren moved in for the kill. He ran full speed toward the monster while it was trying to stand up and slammed both of Stormflower's blades into its side. The blades pierced the weakened scales and ripped their way into the internal organs of the monstrous insect. The boy fired his weapons directly from the interior of the Shrieker, effectively shredding its interior at point range.
As he was removing his arms from the corpse of the Grimm, grimacing at the black goo now covering his hands and forearms, Ren saw another beast pierced by the shell of a tank just a few meters away from him. He turned his head to see that the tank platoon and the other escort vehicles were now only a few meters away and had started firing at the Grimm to clean them out.
Soldiers wielding odd-looking rifles jumped down from off-track vehicles and started delivering automatic fire to the Grimm. At such close range, the bullets pierced the scales of Shriekers and ripped through their bodies in seconds.
A duo of T-40 light tanks, the Big Bertha and the Deinonychus, stopped behind team RYBN and a team from Mistral while the others spread out to the other teams. The red-headed commander of the Deinonychus yelled down at Ren and his team.
"Hey, kids, you might want to climb up here quickly." The woman yelled over the sound of bullets and explosions. "The Sturmoviks are coming in, and we should leave them a clear shot."
"The what are coming?" Yang yelled back, confused.
"The planes!" The commander of the tank replied, looking annoyed. "Now get up on the tank so we can get the hell out of here!"
Ren looked up at the sky with wide eyes. It took him only a few seconds to spot the approaching planes. They were still far away, so he could not easily determine their sizes, but Ren counted at least twenty different planes. They would most likely get here in the next few minutes.
Turning his head back to the battle around him, Ren saw that all Shriekers and Beowolves were now dead or dying. They had been dealt with efficiently by the infantry soldiers and their automatic rifles. The three teams from Mistral were already climbing on the tanks.
The other teams from Beacon weren't doing so great, however, as Ren realized quickly.
Weiss cartwheeled out of the way of the massive stinger, sending a blast of ice Dust towards it as she got back her balance. The Dust was launched from Myrtenaster and engulfed the stinger in a thick sheet of ice, but for the fourth time in a few minutes, the Deathstalker ripped its weapon free. Weiss cursed under her breath.
How are we supposed to kill that thing if it won't stay immobilized?
This gigantic Deathstalker was at least twice the size of the great beast that had pursued the teens during their initiation, and while Jaune and Yatsuhashi had managed to maim a few of its legs with powerful strikes, the downed giant refused to stay still.
Snapping its claws the size of cars at anyone daring to attack it from the front and sending its stinger in the direction of those who tried to move around, the beast was making the teens' job quite difficult.
And these two stupid mammoths are not making it any easier!
The Goliaths were smaller in stature than some others Weiss had seen from a distance earlier in the battle, but they were still a grave threat. Staying near enough to the Deathstalker as to make any approach extremely dangerous and protecting the massive scorpion's flanks, these Goliaths were nullifying the high mobility on which team JWPR most often based their strategies.
To Weiss' side, Jaune was frowning in annoyance at the surprising cleverness of the Grimm's defense. This was not something they had ever encountered, and thus they had no premade plan to counter it.
As Coco and Velvet were firing hundreds of rounds with their Gatling guns to try to coax the Goliaths into moving, a powerful explosion knocked one of the beasts to the ground.
Weiss turned around in confusion and saw that finally, the tank platoon had arrived. A BT-7 and a T-26 rode flank to flank up to the teens, followed by half a dozen small vehicles on tracks.
The heiress let a smile build on her lips as she knew that their relief was finally here, but that smile broke down immediately.
The BT-7 turned towards the Deathstalker and started firing its machine gun at its face, the commander of the tank halfway out of the tank and yelling orders. The gigantic Grimm protected its eyes with one massive claw and thrust its stinger downwards in a lightning-fast move.
The stinger punched through the armor of the BT-7's turret in one quick strike, piercing the flesh and bones of the commander as easily as the steel of the tank. The massive needle had so much strength behind it that it went through the top and the bottom of the tank before getting stuck in the ground.
A chorus of horrified screams went up from everybody around. Ruby's high pitched screech and Jaune's guttural wail mixed with the shrieks of fear or pure empathic pain of the teens and soldiers.
The Deathstalker removed its stinger from the ground in a sudden jerk, bringing the tank with it into the air in front of it. The scorpion brought its claws upwards in a slow and deliberate motion, and to the renewed horror of anyone watching crushed the front and back of the tank. The monster then pulled on each side of the destroyed vehicle with its claws and ripped it apart as easily as a child would rip the wings off a fly.
Weiss could do nothing but stand in mute despair as the Deathstalker let fall to the ground the broken pieces of the tank and its three crew members. She wanted to scream, she wanted to weep, she wanted to crush the Deathstalker into bits for what it had done, but her brain managed to keep itself under control.
She looked around herself and saw that the T-26 tank and the other vehicles had moved out of the reach of the maimed gargantuan but were still firing at it and the two Goliaths.
We have to move back now, or else we might get overwhelmed.
"Hunter Platoon, get on the vehicles and fall back." Jaune's voice came through Weiss' earpiece and those of the other trainees. "CFVY, take the T-26. JWPR, we'll climb on the off-tracks! OVER!"
Weiss turned her head towards her partner and saw how determined he looked. She might have been wanting vengeance against the Deathstalker, but she knew Jaune was right.
"What? Are we supposed to let that fucker survive?" Weiss heard the voice of Sun Wukong answer her partner over the radio.
"That was an order, Sun, not a suggestion!" Jaune replied, his voice harsh. "I won't have you die because you stayed behind! OUT!"
Sun cursed softly over the radio but did not reply. Weiss could only assume that he had accepted the order.
All around, the trainees climbed on their vehicles, Weiss squeezing herself behind a soldier on a one-seater track vehicle. The heiress heard her partner call their Brigade Commander to tell her that they were falling back as ordered but had suffered a loss.
They rode past the evaporating corpse of the gigantic MehTeh that had been brought down only a few minutes past. The ice that had been engulfing its arm was gone, the Dust having lost its effect. Weiss saw Pyrrha use her semblance to bring to her the metallic scabbard of Jaune's sword from near the carcass.
Within two minutes, they were dismounting behind the line of heavy tanks. Further to the West were the medium tanks and the Brigade Commander Nonna. To the East was the main battle line where the infantry and their support were holding strong against the tidal wave of Grimm coming from the center. Further to the East were Division Commander Katyusha and the rest of the Brigade's tanks.
On the center front, the gigantic Spitter was now only two kilometers from the frontline. It was the slowest Grimm on this front, so most monsters that had exited the forest at the same time were now dead a few hundred meters in front of the soldiers, but more beasts were continuously rolling onto the open plain. Artillery was devastating their ranks at long distance, anti-tank weapons and mortars at closer distances, and thousands of rifles for the creatures that managed to get within a few hundred meters.
The Western front on which the trainees were situated was fairly stable as well. Grimm of small sizes were shredded at small distances by the machine guns of hundreds of tanks and the rifles of the Rifle Guard Reserve, and larger beasts were blown apart by the powerful guns of heavy and medium tanks. The HE shell of a KV-2 was destructive enough to engulf dozens of beasts in their explosions or to bring down a charging Goliath in one hit. Concentrated fire by the medium tanks brought down trees and Grimm alike in volleys of cataclysmic power. Weiss watched as the KV-1 nicknamed Carnotaurus brought down an entire column of Ursai in one precise shot.
The girl was taken out of her thoughts as she heard Yang curse loudly a few meters away.
"I can't believe we just left them to die back there!" The blonde brawler exclaimed, her voice full of anger. "We could at least have checked the wreckage!"
"That would just have put us in more danger." Jaune replied, looking defeated and angry with himself. "And we wouldn't have saved anybody, there is no way the crew could have survived."
"We could have tried!" Yang continued, her eyes red with fury.
"We would have died." Weiss intervened, agreeing with her partner.
Yang turned her eyes to Weiss, her rage trying to find something to focus on. The blonde girl turned around and let out a cry of wordless outrage directed at the sky.
She only stopped when her younger sister grasped her arm softly. Yang turned her head towards Ruby, and the anger left her eyes in an instant, only to be replaced by surprise and sorrow.
"Yang … please stop." Ruby's voice was strong enough that Weiss heard it, but it was almost interrupted by a loud sob. The heiress realized that her friend was weeping, and it sent a wave of pain through her chest.
Yang wrapped her arms around her sister's shoulders and brought her into a hug. For a few seconds, everything was almost silent. The sound of thousands of weapons firing still filled the air, but the calm that set upon the group made them forget that.
Ruby finally moved out of her sister's arms. Her eyes were red from crying, but she managed to smile as she looked at her friends around her. Even Weiss managed to reciprocate that smile.
"So, what are we supposed to do now?" Ruby asked to no one in particular.
"Oh, I almost forgot!" Jaune exclaimed before grabbing his radio. "Nonna gave me our next orders." He explained to those surrounding him before bringing the radio to his mouth.
"Hunter Platoon, we have new orders." The leader started. "We are to stay put until the aerial bombardment is over and Commander Nonna gives us the signal, then we'll jump back on our tanks and perform a sweeping maneuver to mow down the rest of the Grimm of the Western flank. We may have to wait a while, but it'll give time to our medium tank to come pick us up. I want everybody to stay focused and ready for action. OVER."
A chorus of 'Yes sir' and other affirmations came from the other leaders, and Jaune tucked the hand-held device back in its holster.
"Soooo, we've got some time for a break?" Yang asked with a hopeful and tired smile.
"We need to be focused and ready for action." Jaune repeated with an annoyed look at the other blonde. "You can sit down and eat a ration bar, but you'll need to jump to your feet as soon as I need you."
"Yes, sir!" Yang performed a caricature of a military salute before sitting down directly in the snow.
Weiss walked to her partner's side just as Pyrrha was giving him back the scabbard of his sword which she had grabbed from the carcass of the MehTeh. The two exchanged a tired nod and a weak smile. Ruby also moved to their side after a few seconds.
"So, did the Commander say what kind of planes are coming?" Ruby asked Jaune, most likely wanting to take her mind off what had just happened by thinking of weapons.
"A dozen Stur… Stur something," Jaune hesitated, "two Lancasters, and a handful of fighter planes. LaGGs or something."
"Sturmoviks, Lancasters and LaGG 3s?" Ruby asked with a knowing smile.
"Yup, that's it." Jaune confirmed. "A combined effort of the aviation of Vale and the airforce of Mistral. And they should be here soon."
Weiss looked upwards, shielding her eyes from the setting sun, and saw that the planes were indeed getting close. They were in a compact formation, and Weiss had no idea which planes were bombers and which were fighters.
The teens were standing on a small incline, thus being able to look over the tanks of the main line and onto the field where they had fought earlier. From there, Weiss could see the corpse of the MehTeh still not decomposed and the injured Deathstalker still immobile in the dirt and snow. The gigantic scorpion was too heavily armored for the tanks to perform killing blows on it, but any uninjured legs that it had had when the teens fell back had now been ripped off by explosions. Weiss was eager to see this beast blown apart by attack planes.
The teens watched as the formation of planes split off into two groups headed for the center and the Western front. As they passed overhead, Weiss could tell by the rockets under their wings that most of these aircraft were Sturmoviks. From the eight planes moving to their flank, five were Sturmoviks, two LaGG 3 fighter planes, and one was a Lancaster heavy bomber from Vale.
The fighters and heavy bomber stayed rather high in the sky, but the Sturmoviks descended to around fifty meters in altitude by the time they passed over the teens.
"Witness the power of the Flying Tanks!" Ruby exclaimed as the roar of the Ilyushin Il-2 Sturmoviks filled their ears.
The five aircraft flew in a tilted formation as they approached the Western field slightly from the right. They were incredibly close to the ground, moved at great speeds, and were charging directly at the downed Deathstalker.
Just as Weiss thought that they were about to crash into the gigantic scorpion, they all spread out away from the beast, leaving their payload of heavy bombs to collide with the monster instead.
The series of explosions was so powerful that Weiss thought she could feel the impact. The bombs dug deep holes into the dorsal and side armor of the Deathstalker, delivering such immense destructive power that bits of armor flew in all directions like bone shrapnel. The creature was thrown onto its side by the humongous shockwave of the bombs, and it fell back down with a loud crash. The beast's side and back were ripped apart and torn off by the tons of bombs, and it no doubts died within the minute. It had lost several tons of skin, flesh, blood, and armor. Nothing could survive such a blow.
The Sturmoviks were not done yet, however. They were only getting started.
One aircraft flew back down with grace and sent a wave of rockets towards a cluster of Goliaths and smaller Grimm. The haunting sound of the rockets filled the air for a few seconds before hitting their targets. Two rockets struck the flank of the largest Goliath, piercing through bone and skin and organs and exploding in a firework of black blood. Two more rockets struck the ground near a group of Beowolves and blew them to smithereens. Two more flew off into the sky, only to crash and explode hundreds of meters away from the targets. Half a dozen Ursai and Shriekers were pierced full of holes by the machine guns and cannons of the IL-2.
Another aircraft sent his entire payload of rockets flying towards the forest, creating true fireworks as the fire Dust of the rockets ignited.
The others did much the same. Over and over again. The Sturmoviks ripped through dozens of charging Grimm with each fly-by, and then came back for more.
At some point, Weiss saw an entire portion of forest vaporized in a series of blinding explosions. She realized that the Lancaster bomber had delivered thousands of tons of bombs upon the forest and any Grimm unlucky enough to get caught in the massive blast.
Weiss was almost hypnotized by the carnage taking place before her eyes. It was horrible, disturbing to an incredible degree, simply horrendous, yet it was also beautiful in a way. It was the complete annihilation of the enemies of civilization, the perfect vengeance for the utmost cruelty shown by the Grimm over centuries, the most glorious symbol of humanity's utter dominance over nature and anything that would dare question its dominion.
"Hey, look at the center front!" Ruby exclaimed, capturing Weiss' attention. "A Lancaster is moving in to bombard the Spitter!"
Weiss saw that the gigantic Grimm Tortoise was now about five hundred meters away from the center front. Other Grimm were still getting slaughtered all around it, be it from the pounding of the artillery, the unrelenting firepower of the Sturmoviks, or the continuous fire from the first two lines of defense, but the Spitter was still advancing.
The massive creature made honor to its name a few seconds after Weiss turned her gaze to it. It moved its head back into its neck before launching it forward again and spitting a large ball of a black tar-like liquid in a parabolic arc aimed for the front lines.
Weiss could not see how this spit affected the troops on the frontline because of the curve of the hill blocking her view, but she had no time to wonder about it.
As she watched the gigantic Spitter, a payload of bombs from the Lancaster hit the top of its castle-like shell. The explosion that followed was so immensely powerful that the shockwave tugged at Weiss' coat and threw her off balance for an instant, even from more than a kilometer away. The light emitted by the explosion was so bright that Weiss had to protect her eyes with her arm.
When she looked back up, the heiress could do nothing more than stare wide-eyed at the scene of destruction now in front of her.
No trace of the Spitter was left where it had once been, only a large and shallow crater remained. Snow and grass were gone from the epicenter of the blast and for hundreds of meters around, the ground was blackened from the immense heat. Nothing was left in the general area of the explosion. No Grimm, alive or dead, was to be seen less than one hundred meters away. A dying Goliath about two hundred meters away was the closest surviving creature, its fur was completely gone, its armor was black with soot, and horrible burns covered the entirety of its body. Other beasts were dead or dying all around. On the Western side, Weiss could see that nearby trees had been toppled by the explosion or Grimm projected through the air like living shrapnel.
She could not believe what had just happened and was left stunned for several seconds. The rest of the Division seemed to recover quicker, however, and all cannons in range continued to fire.
"How in the world did that thing explode like that?" Jaune was the first to ask, his voice terrified and full of wonder all at once.
"Only a bunker-buster bomb could have pierced so much armor," Ruby said, furrowing her brow, "but it shouldn't have caused a blast like that."
The teens were left to wonder for a few more seconds until Ruby seemingly had an epiphany.
"I know! The spit must have served as fuel for the explosion!" Ruby exclaimed.
"What?" Weiss questioned. "How is that possible?"
"Well, we know that the bomber couldn't have carried enough bombs to make an explosion like that." Ruby gestured wildly in the direction of the epicenter. "So the rest of the power had to come from the Spitter itself!"
"So the spit stored under the beast's shell acted like Dust or fuel?" Pyrrha said, seeming half-convinced.
"That must be it!" Ruby confirmed.
"Imagine if it had exploded closer to the front." Jaune said with a grimace. "It could have wiped out half of the first line."
"That's horrifying." Weiss stated.
The teens were interrupted by the calm voice of Commander Nonna from Jaune's radio.
"Hunter Platoon, Commander Nonna speaking, do you copy?" Nonna asked.
"We hear you." Jaune confirmed through his radio.
"I am sending Tank Platoon 7 to escort you. We charge in five minutes. Over." Nonna explained.
"Ok, we'll be ready. Arc out." Jaune confirmed.
Weiss turned her head to the left and saw that the medium tanks they had started this fight on were moving behind the main line and approaching the trainees.
"Hunter Platoon, regroup on my position!" Jaune said through the earpieces of all trainees. "Our tanks are coming to pick us up, we've got five minutes before charging. Out."
Weiss looked in front of her at the vast plain and the ruined forest. She had no trouble believing that the biggest portion of this Grimm incursion had now been wiped out and that a large counteroffensive could very well break apart the rest of the horde. The sun was now minutes away from setting, which meant that the battle had been going on for hours already. Thousands of Grimm had already been killed, and now only the remnants of this monstrous host were left.
We will fight in the dark, and we will finish this battle. Tomorrow morning, civilization will stand victorious once again.
And voilà! Once again, I want to thank everybody which took the time to leave a review or follow the story.
This chapter presented the incredible usefulness of air power in a modern war and the first signs of traumas caused to the teens by the sheer brutality of industrial warfare. These elements, as well as the effectiveness of Combined Arms operations, will be incredibly important for all future battles in this story.
I also presented in more details the Shriekers and Spitter, something that I hope you appreciated. The Shriekers were based on my own idea for a mantis-like Grimm and the suggestion by 'Enilk', a reviewer. His idea was for a more humanoid creature, but I grabbed the aspects of the black scales and bone-claws from him. I also received a great idea for a new Grimm from another reviewer and fellow writer, Matt Cyr. His Grimm should come into view soon enough.
I would love to get your opinions on these subjects as well as any others you can think of. Long conversations in PMs are something I greatly appreciate.
So, now that this is done, let's jump into the reviews!
1)war90: Impressively, you were the first person to leave a review on these last three chapters. I must thank you for your continued support! In any case, I do hope you appreciated my integration of air power! As for your interrogation on if anybody is trying to track down where the Grimm are coming from, let's just say that it is not an easy task. Not even a very small and elite task force could hope to treck through the hundreds of kilometers of territory conquered by the Grimm.
2)desdelor97: Once again, you have my thanks.
3)gdvp111: Another essay review, heh? I love it. Your argument that the artillery should fire before visual range is quite logical, and I very well might change how artillery is used in future chapters. The reactions of the teens to the horrendous nature of modern warfare will be developed once they get some time to think. As for your displeasure with how easily the MehTeh was killed, well I am sorry. Finally, I have tried to improve the radio lingo used in this chapter, so please tell me if it is more to your liking!
4)I Want To Die69: No, Mistral is not communist. They simply use Soviet weapons because it would have been a shame not to use such a great pool of impressive weaponry.
5)The Red Sun: I hope you liked this new chapter! I continued with my heavy description of weaponry and combat, so I must assume that you were sated. Weapons like the Nebelwerfer and the Stukas will most likely be a part of this story at some point, do not worry.
6)Adro-Sama: Well, something did go unexpected, but all in all this second portion of the battle went pretty well. Your idea for nicknames for the teens given by soldiers is quite funny, so I might introduce it at some point. The teens will have to spend more time with the soldiers before it happens, of course, but it'll also give me more time to think.
7)MrFox7189: I hope you liked this early chapter!
8)Matt Cyr: I introduced your two nicknames for tanks, so I hope you liked it! Commander Katyusha and the Katyusha rocket launchers were both named after the 1930s song; Katyusha. It's the song that I presented in chapter 19.
9)scottusa1: I hope you liked this chapter as well!
10)austinorlando422: Yes, the trainees could be compared with the Spartans in that they train for a large portion of their lives and are the elite troops of the kingdoms of Remnant. They could also be compared to British SAS, the Canadian special operations regiment, American special forces, etc. They are elite killers.
To finish this up, a quick addition to the list of named tanks:
The Deinonychus, a T-40 named by Matt Cyr.
The Carnotaurus, a KV-1 named by Matt Cyr.
And so it is done! I'll see you all in the next chapter!
Adios!