Zero's Noble Overlord
Chapter Twenty One - Live Free Or Fly Hard
Earlier today, a small fleet of Tristain airships, lead by the flagship 'Mercator,' were sitting above the skies of the port city Bourbon. They were awaiting the arrivals of the new Holy Republic of Albion's airships; as Tristain had officially extended an arm of friendship to them and decided to stupidly invite the new Albion government as guests to the wedding.
A small fleet of Albion airships lead by the Lexington descended from the skies above and greeted the Tristain Sky Navy with a cannon-fire salute. The Tristainnians returned the welcome but an Albion airship called the 'Hogard' had 'mysteriously' caught fire and exploded.
The Albion fleet was quick to blame the Tristain Sky Navy and claimed it as an act of war. A one-sided skirmish occurred as Albion's new long-range cannons decimated the Tristainnian fleet.
However, despite their air-dominance over Bourbon, the Albion fleet was forced to retreat from the city as the fortified ground forces could shoot them down and the Albians could not risk destroying the city due to its geographic importance as a supply route for the coming Albion Invasion of Tristain.
Quickly flying further into enemy territory while Tristain had yet to mount a proper defense, the Albion fleet greedily eyed the large fields of Tarbes as the perfect place to deploy their ground-troops.
By the time the news of the Battle of Bourbon arrived at the Palace of Tristain, the Nobles were still preparing for the wedding and were promptly thrown into mass confusion.
As the officials bumbled about, Princess Henrietta de Tristain quickly realized the situation: it was not the Holy Republic of Albion invading but rather it was truly Reconquista controlling the scenes from behind. The exiled Crowned Prince Wales Tudor de Albion, who was granted asylum, gave her a reaffirming nod.
The Princess took charge and stormed out of the palace, ripping off the dress of her wedding gown, the royal called upon her personal guards and rallied the troops to Tarbes. The uncalled for Imperial Guards also quickly mobilized and marched forward to meet their young royal.
The exiled Prince, and his sixty retainers that survived the Battle of Newcastle, were already marching right alongside Princess Henrietta.
The loyal Cardinal Bishop Mazarin, adviser to the previous King of Tristain and now his daughter the Princess of Tristain, slapped the indecisive Nobles silly and shamed them into following the Princess to war.
All the meanwhile, the small Tristain Force lead by the Lord of Tarbes, Marquis Pierre Gautier de Tarbes, were fighting a losing battle trying to prevent the Albion Forces from gaining ground.
...
"War, they've started. Invasion, this is," the old green confirmed. At this point of time, the Mercator was shot down. "Confused, Tristain is. Albion gaining ground, they are."
"A-Albion is attacking?'! They're invading?'!" Louise yelped, "C-Can we win?'!"
"Tristain alone, they cannot."
"W-What about Germania? Tristain has an alliance with them, so are they sending in reinforcement?'!"
"Alliance not set, it is. Certain, I cannot say, but wait it out, the Germanians most likely will."
"WHAT?'! They would leave Tristain to burn?'! Why in the Founder's name would they do that?'! Those barbarians!"
"Domination through salvation. Debts and favors, they can attain."
Louise grit her teeth at the underhanded ploy, "What... what can we do...?" she growled.
The elder minion chuckled, "Tristain alone, they cannot win. But Tristain alone? They are not."
"Who? Who is helping us?" the pink head pleaded to know.
"You, that would be."
"Wha?"
"Faithful servants, we are, Little Master. Command, you say, and follow, we do. Fight, we shall, but who to fight for, choice is yours, Little Master."
Louise slowly and frustratedly ponders her all options, all the scenarios, and all the consequences of getting involved into a direct war. Thus twenty minutes silently pass by.
"Quickly, you should choose. Precious Princess, marches to battle, she does. But beyond her grasp, victory is."
"W-What?'! The Princess is?'!"
"Almost to Tarbes, she heads."
Tarbes again? Wait, isn't that where Siesta is staying?
"Y-You should have told me that sooner, Snarl!" the pink head shouted as she stormed out her room.
The Overlord stood outside in the hallway, having heard everything he was eager to rush into battle but stood patient; he awaited to hear his little master's decision.
"Sauthoth!" she called for his attention, "Albion is invading and the Princess is marching to Tarbes as we speak. Prepare yourself, my familiar, for we are going to her aid!"
The demi-god gave a nod and the master and familiar pair ran to the school entrance.
...
"Miss Longueville, what are you doing here?" Louise inquired as she saw the secretary preparing a single fire dragon.
"Oh, I was just paying my family a visit when Snarl needed me for something," the woman said with a final inspection, "I heard you were going to Tarbes, Miss Valliere, so I'm sure you would need a swift ride if you wanted to get there in time; an hour-and-a-half on dragon compared to the three on horse," she hopped up onto the saddle of the beast, "So come on, get on, we don't have all day."
"B-But I need to go and summon some mini-"
"Don't worry, Miss Valliere, your familiar can handle that," the woman said as she placed out a hand.
Louise turned to look at her familiar only to notice that he was already walking to the Tower Gate by himself. The strawberry blond huffed at being ignored and reached for her tutor's hand.
"I hope that means we have a plan," the little girl said, now realizing that she didn't have any real idea how to handle Albion's invading fleet. She didn't know if she could make a difference but she was going to damn well try.
"Of course we do," the ex-thief said with a grin, "Do you honestly think that we would rush into a battle without one?" and then her grin changed into a smirk, "And let me tell you, its going to be a crazy one, Miss Valliere."
...
The village of Tarbes was burning to the ground as the fierce Albian Fire Dragon Knight's swarmed the skies. The helpless villagers escaped into the nearby forest as they watched their homes turn to ash before being ushered by the Tristain Guards to take to the roadside and further evacuate from there.
The Lord of Tarbes' forces consisted of many crossbowmen, riflemen, and swordsmen, but hardly any mages. Thus, the crossbowmen and riflemen were unable to shoot down the flying invaders; as the mage riders chose to bombard with magic from high above, only going low to swoop down and scatter their formations or prey on lone troopers.
Worst yet, the Dragon Knights were supported by the warships raining cannon-fire onto the Tristainnian forces. The Albians had yet to deploy their ground troops until they had absolute air supremacy over Tarbes, therefore they had no fear of accidentally injuring their own forces.
"Protect the villagers!" Marquis Pierre Gautier shouted, standing at the front-lines to provide morale, "Lead them away to safety!"
As much as the man was a Marquis and as much as he was bound to duty, the man was a clear thinker. With his forces alone, it would not be possible to fight against the attacking Albian Sky Navy. There was no way for him to mount an offensive, he could only defend and hold out, hoping that the reinforcements would arrive soon.
"Swordsmen with your shields to the front! Raise them up and protect us against the flames!" the Lord Noble shouted more orders, "Bowmen and riflemen, stand attention! Shoot down anything approaching within range!"
He watched as the Dragon Knights circled the skies. He eyeballed and estimated the enemy forces: 400 Fire Dragon Knights, 8 small battle-airships, 6 medium carriers, and 1 large war-airship. Concerning the carriers, he approximated them carrying around 600-750 troopers each, for a total of 3600-4500 ground troopers ready to be deployed; most likely all veteran fighters from the Albion Civil War.
And this was only the vanguard fleet.
While the rest of the Albian Sky Navy were protecting their country, another small detachment force was probably well on its way to support the first fleet; it would be basic strategy to reinforce a strategic foothold afterall.
The Marquis could only hope that the Tristainnian Army could organize itself well enough to repel the second wave or stop this one.
"Maintain formation! BACKWARD MARCH, 50 PACES!" the man loudly shouted as he noticed that one of the carriers was landing in the outskirt of Tarbes, "SITUATION REPORT! Are the villagers safe?'!"
"Sir! All villagers have been evacuated to Bourbon!"
A sole eager Albian Dragon Knight came rushing in only to be filled with arrows and bullets.
"Good!" the Lord of Tarbes stated, "Hold the line! Let them push us back no further!"
Valiantly, Marquis Pierre Gautier stood and fought. His arm was destroyed by cannon-fire and he had two swords in guts, he laid on the floor as his eyes flickered and viewed the smoke cover skies. In the corner of his eyes, he spotted an incoming flock of dragons coming from the direction of the capital.
The man grinned, 'Long live, Tristain...!' he said with his final breath.
...
Princess Henrietta marched with nearly the whole of the Tristain Royal Army at 2500 soldiers strong.
The National Army, at whole, was about 25,000 men strong, however she could not expect their aid because the Marquis were all expected to protect their own borders from further invasion. Furthermore, Germania had already said that it would take three weeks to mobilize their own forces.
So there was no help coming to their aid.
Problematically, according to her scouts that were further ahead, the enemy forces was nearly double her own current army and the types of troops deployed were also completely in the enemy's favor. While her forces could boast about 600 Riders, 600 battle-capable Imperial Guards, 300 Royal Officials, and 1100 Commoners; the Albion Forces were at around 400 Riders, 3600 Commoners, and 15 warships.
Though the Tristain Forces could overwhelm the commoner ground-forces through mage-craft, air superiority in this battle was far more important; as Albion's new long-range cannon-fire had already proven itself to be absolutely fatal when it had decimated Tristain's Sky Navy, it was naturally just as deadly against grounded troops.
Even if the Princess hadn't rush out and instead gave her army enough time to organize a proper aerial fleet, their Sky Navy wouldn't be able to approach under the enemy's flagship 108 long-distance cannon-fire.
In other words, with or without airships, Tristain still wouldn't be able to even touch the Albion Fleet.
Not only that, because the young royal wanted to intervene as quickly as possible, she was marching her troops too quickly and whittling down their stamina; further lowering her army's effectiveness against the ground forces and losing what slight advantages she might have originally had.
The kind but naive Princess Henrietta was simply unfit to be a commander in war and it would take a miracle of a god for Tristain to win.
But the Gods have always been fickle, uncaring, and unreliable jerks. You can't count on those divinity to help.
So how about a demi-god instead?
...
Louise was at the far outskirts of the field of Tarbes when she had spotted the Princess' coming army. Urging the secretary to meet with the soldiers, Miss Longueville landed a ways further and had the dragon walked from there.
"Louise Francoise?'! What are you doing out here?'!" the Princess said shocked at seeing her best friend so close to the front-lines.
"I'm here to help you, of course!" our heroine said as she hopped off the dragon and walked forward.
The royal shook her head, "I appreciate your sentiments, Louise, but this is a war. You should not be here; you could get yourself killed."
"I cannot retreat, Your Highness," the strawberry blond said adamantly, "I could not call myself a Valliere or a Noble if I abandoned the Crown here, nor could I myself your best friend if I ran away doing nothing!"
The Princess daintily frowned at the fact that she had nothing to say back to the other girl.
"We have a plan, Your Highness," said Miss Longueville going into Fouquet Mode, "It is a drastic plan but it's the best chance you have at beating Albion with your current forces."
The Exiled Prince moved forward, "Your plan involves the Black Knight, I presume?" he was informed by his retainers of the events that had transpired when he was knocked out at Newcastle. So he was aware of just how effective the demi-god was.
The ex-thief smiled savagely, "The Black Knight."
On cue, the Overlord's mighty stomps are heard as he runs while empowered by his runes and makes a full-stop behind Louise. His intimidating presence scaring those who have yet to personally see him before now and the guards nervously tighten their formation to shield their princess from the new frightening guest.
A scout moves in to inform the the Princess of something. She blinks at the news before turning back to her friend.
Fouquet grinned knowingly, "Don't worry, Princess, those Fire Dragons are on our side."
"What? How did you know?" Henrietta blinked, "Whose dragons are they? Are they secret reinforcements from Germania? Gallia? Perhaps Romalia?"
"No, none of those," the woman chuckled, "That's because they're the army of the Black Knight."
BA-BANG! How do you like them apples?'!
The Overlord punching dragons instead of killing them? Bringing an army of Reds that rode rodeo on them?
This was totally foreshadowed, dear readers.
...
There, in the skies above Tarbes, were 120 Fire Dragons flying into the heat of battle.
On their backs were four Red Minions; one rider and three gunners.
While the the Fang Claw Mountain's Fire Dragons were much weaker than Albion's Fire Dragon in all aspect, from strength to speed, there was one extreme advantage that this minion-controlled army had over the invading army...
And that was Fire Power.
Literally.
Fire Dragons had a fiery breath but the glaring flaw was that they were not projectiles like the Fireball spell but a stream of fire like the Flamethrower spell. Thus, in battle, the breath attack was strongly a short-ranged weapon that couldn't be use whilst moving. This was compensated by having mages as riders, however that also had a problem where the rider had to learn how to cast their magic and control their dragon at the same time, which generally decreased their speed at casting spells even with Quick Spelling.
The Red Minions didn't have such a problem. They were naturally instant experts at riding fire-typed beasts and, what's more, they could throw fireballs without the need to chant. For added bonus, their flames were quick to burn and extremely difficult to put out.
After the first dozen Dragon Knights spontaneously combusted and fell off their beast to suffer a agonizing death, the Albion Riders were quickly forced to retreat or risk being pelted by the rain of fire.
An extreme aerial dogfight began as the Reds gleefully hunted down their flammable targets while avoiding getting too close to the Albion Warships and risk being riddled with pointy arrows.
...
"So what exactly would this plan be of yours, Miss Longueville?" the Prince said as he watched the blackened and dragon-swarmed skies.
"Oh, you remember my name? It's an honor, Prince," she gave a mocking bow, "As for the plan, I believe that's up to the Princess to decide."
"If you would, please, I would like to make my decision after I hear what this plan of yours is," at the very least she was willing to listen. While Albion was pushed back for now, it would not last. They needed to strike while the iron was hot.
"Of course," the secretary said before giving a nod to Louise, "It's all yours, Miss Valliere."
The strawberry blond stepped up, "Our plan requires several Triangle Class Earth Mages," her explanation began.
'This plan is insane,' one of the female guards was noted to say with a chuckle.
...
The Overlord stared up upon the Albion Flagship, the Lexington. He remembered the warship from his trip to Albion and it was massively impressive as ever with both its size and the 108 cannons that it was equipped with. It was high above in the sky, taking advantage of its long-range cannons, and firing death of pure blunt force trauma all over the battlefield.
While the Minions were safe on their speedier flying dragons, the Tristain Army couldn't be said to be quite as lucky; 2500 people isn't something you miss in a wide open field like Tarbes, thus the cannons were aimed their way.
The demi-god was expending the most mana he has ever done in his entire life; it was a trickle in the massive reserves of Infernal Energy he stored from his time in the Abyss, but still far more than he had ever used. In fact, he hasn't used this much since his fight with the weakened Forgotten God.
He was creating a thick layer of protective Combustion against the cannonballs. It was an equally shocking sight for both sides to see; for Tristain it was a single entity performing magic that would probably be on par with the mythical Ancient Magic, and for Albion it was giant wall of flames as though hell itself erupted onto the mortal plains.
The Overlord continued to watch as he waited for the plan to come to fruition. For now he was playing the defensive but soon he would be on the offensive.
"Sauthoth!" his little master called, "We're ready!"
The demi-god turned around to face a towering Earth Golem that was even larger than the one Fouquet had used during her raid for the Staff of Destruction.
It was a shame that he wouldn't be fighting this one either.
The Gigantic Earth Golem plucks him off the ground with a grace and speed that one wouldn't have expected from a giant magical construction and throws the Overlord straight at the Lexington. The demi-god bursts through minions, dragons, and humans alike, turning them into exploding paste and morbidly raining their flesh upon the world as he speeds through the skies.
The armored titan plows through the underside of the flagship and emerges upon its topside.
Gathering more Infernal Energy stored in his Overcore, he creates a giant raging inferno and swallows up the entire Albion Fleet. The ball of fire falls to the blessed earth like a setting sun and the Albian Ground Forces are quick to scramble out of the way.
As the ball fire touches the ground, it disappears only to reveal that it held thousands of lightly burned Albion soldiers moaning or writhing in pain.
You see, the Princess was very adamant about causing the least amount of casualties possible, and only agreed with the plan if the Albian soldiers were taken in as prisoners rather than outright killed. Thus, the Overlord had to filter out living things from being turned to ashes when using his giant Combustion spell. Though, with such a oversimplification, it couldn't differentiate between ally or foe and so even the Reds were caught in the mighty magic.
And there, in the center of it all, stood an unmistakable figure: the Black Knight.
The Albian ground forces shook in fear as they realized and recognized that they stood in the presence, in the midst, of the infamous Black Knight. The very same one that forced an army of nearly 50,000 to retreat at the Battle of Newcastle.
When the Tristain Forces quickly arrived and surrounded them, the invading soldiers immediately put down their arms and surrendered.
The invasion came to a sudden end and the Tristain Troops cheered.
They won. They won and they were alive.
"LONG LIVE HER HIGHNESS! LONG LIVE THE PRINCESS! LONG LIVE PRINCESS HENRIETTA!"
"LONG LIVE HER MAJESTY! LONG LIVE THE QUEEN!"
"LONG LIVE TRISTAIN!"
...
In the background, a strawberry blond girl heads to the giant black knight.
She looked on with pride at the large figure, "I don't believe I ever said it before, Sauthoth... but you're the best familiar I could ever ask for. I, not for a single moment, ever regret summoning you," she said with her hands on her hips, "And I want to thank you for choosing to become my familiar."
The black knight stood silent.
The girl turned to look at the field to see the relief and joyous faces of her fellow countrymen before turning her gaze back upon the armored man, "You're a hero, Sauthoth. You're everybody's hero. And you're my hero too," she gave off a wide smile, "To become a master worthy of you, I can't be nothing less than a hero, can I? Jeez, you stupid familiar, always making trouble for me."
The demi-god gave himself a mental chuckle. He was her hero, was he? He reached out a hand and ruffled his little master's hair. She who freed him from his eternal prison of the Abyss. She who gave him hope when all he had left was despair. She who was like a daughter that he never had.
She too was a hero.
She was his hero.
Narrator Notes
Typical Germanian weddings in the Royal Family are very extravagant and are a nearly a two-week event. A week-long party is held in the Palace and Capital of Vindobon and the bride and groom are not technically sworn in until the end of the first week. The next three days are considered the after-party and is the time where the couple is expected to consummate their marriage and sire a heir.
Author Notes
Bourbon is French, and yeah, I just took another French name/word and slapped it onto a non-canon town/city.
In other news...
My Minecraft Fanfic has been posted, the name is 'World/Fate New' though the '/' didn't go through so it's actually 'WorldFate New.' Since its a side-project, and each chapter is relatively short, it won't interfere with Zero's Noble Overlord updates. Thank you, if you checked it out.
I also have a Neon Genesis Evangelion and a Sekirei fanfic from awhile back; and I want to make a 'One-Shot Fanfic' that contains, well, all of my trial ideas to display in 'one story.' Is there or is there not a category I can choose to do that? If at all? Thank you for answering.