A week passed and we managed to find a few places that somewhat match the description of a well. There was a horseshoe bend with a nearly dried out river near a canyon, a large crater rich with minerals and natural resources and a meadow surrounded by tree covered mountains. While all the places were pretty far, the crater was the closest of them all. We figured that the slayers would be located there but we still needed to make sure.

Days later I received word that the slayers had tried to attack a village three hundred miles south of New Warfang. The village was surrounded by forests (like most of the other settlements) but some trees were cut down. In the place of the trees paths and roads were built, there was also room for the wall that was being built around it. Several flowers were also planted around it.

According to an officer stationed there, a soldier was patrolling but was shot in the arm. The alarm was raised and all villagers (except militia) were escorted into safe houses. As the militia armed themselves, it didn't take long to locate our attackers. After the shot was fired almost all slayers came out of their hiding places and just stood there like idiots and started firing, that and they still wore crimson fatigues.

As the slayers attempted to surround the place, they were cut down by machine gun fire. Just like how samurai castles were made, the walls had holes cut out in shapes of triangles and squares, allowing soldiers to poke out weapons like firearms and spears.

My forces were about three hundred and with the village militia (which were about five hundred) we were at seven hundred strong. The wall (while it was still under construction) was holding, there was a small problem, however, the height of the wall was about five feet tall so my soldiers would be very exposed if they stood up completely. While the walls were very thick (six feet), slayers could have vaulted over and then they would have had a bigger problem to deal with.

Hours passed and when slayers were cut down, they were being replaced by the hundreds. While my soldier's still had good morale and the dragon's armor was resistant to high caliber rounds, ammo was running incredibly low and were receiving a few casualties.

Pike formations started to form around the wall's borders to make it less likely for slayers to vault over. As the firing came to a stop, the machine guns were quickly taken down and spears were put in place. The slayers must have noticed that they were out of ammo so they attempted to jump and climb over the wall, but we're immediately skewered by the spears and pikes. Apparently, this was going on for half an hour and the slayers lost half of their force… not the smartest are they?

When they got tired of being poked to death, they grabbed rocket launchers and started to blow a few holes in the wall. Spearmen immediately started to form around the holes in a way that left them protected but we're still able to fight.

After an hour of relentless fighting, the Skyforce successfully defended the village with 20 casualties and fifty wounded. The slayers suffered one thousand nine hundred ninety-nine casualties. Only one prisoner was taken.

While my men were licking their wounds (some literally) and repairing the wall, he was being interrogated. The man refused to talk so more… drastic measures took place… eventually, he did talk and our suspicions were confirmed that their location was indeed the crater. After confessing though, he immediately grabbed my officer's pistol and shot himself in the head.

I thanked him for the information and had a meeting with my officers which included the siblings and discussed how we would engage the slayers.

"We could surround them." I suggested.

"But that's too obvious, they would probably want us to surround them so we can be lured into a trap." Countered John.

"Well, what else do you have in mind?" I asked "I'm open to suggestions"

"We could probably dig underground and attack were they would least expect us" suggested Azureth

"Which would be…?"

He shrugged "Since the place is full of resources maybe they created a mine or something."

"A mine? They were there for at least a week or so, what gives you the idea that they could have built something like that so quick?" Argued Styx.

"Frick, I don't know!" Azureth shouted, "I'm just spit-ballin' here!"

"Okay, okay, calm down there. That's actually an interesting idea but I do see a few problems with it. One, like Styx inferred, mines take a long time to make so it's unlikely they would have built one and two, digging a hole would be very effective but also time-consuming, we could be ambushed during that time."

Ideas were tossed back and forth, dragon bombing raids, railgun salvos but I didn't think we could do much without knowing what it exactly looks like. I had several soldiers, one equipped with a yellow teleportation crystal. Funny thing about those things, those only worked if you saw the place with your own eyes but luckily someone had seen it before.

Anyways, the whole process took about nine hours and by the time I came back, I was sleeping. Now Unitatis Terra has had quite a few technological advancements and that included cell phones. So you can imagine the rude awakening I had at two in the morning when electronic music blasted out of my phone! I growled as I picked it up. "What!?" I whisper yelled.

"Sorry sir, did I wake you?" Asked one of my officers.

"What? No." I said with a sarcastic tone "I was simply just eating a cheeseburger and watching TV. Of course, you did, you idiot! Now tell me what you need or I'll hang up!"

"Right, sorry about that, it was the fastest way to reach you. The scouts are back with the information, I feel that it's best if you come to see it for yourself."

I sighed "Alright, fine. I'll be there in a bit…" I growled and hung up. I was still extremely annoyed so when I came into the room I immediately with "This better be good!"

The scouts indeed came back with info. To our surprise, the slayers have made a few mines, a campsite and everything in the crater. But there was a horrible reason why they made so much in so little time…

"We have grave news though…" sighed a scout "Just like Warfang used to be before your army stopped them, the slayers are using dragons to do their dirty work. In other words, the slayers enslaved the dragons once more."

My eyes were still heavy but as soon as I heard that, I slammed my fist against the table, I think I almost cracked it.

"... Can you please elaborate?" Asked an officer.

"Dragons that can devour earth were used to create the mines so that materials like lead and iron could be refined and made into weapons and armor. In the center of the crater, there was also an incredibly large building and had a slight glow from the windows, we think it could be a type of crystal. We obviously couldn't investigate further as the security there was extremely high; we even almost got spotted near the rim! We did manage to take a few pictures, however." They laid out the pictures and I took a look. There was a pretty large campsite, three hundred tents at least, slayers with pickaxes and such seeming to be coming in and out of the mine, some carrying wheelbarrow filled with objects. "Good work. Now go home and get some rest, dismissed." They saluted, I have it back and we all went home.

The next day we continued to discuss strategies and we finally came up with one. For the next week, we trained our soldiers to no end.