We marched with little to no break for five whole hours in standard marching formation. The Alphas and Dragoons were left at designated areas each closer to the other in case we needed them.

I traced my finger across the map from the city to our approximate location, we were almost there so I halted the formation. All that separated us from their base was the treeline and the meadow that the base was in. From what I could see, their base was gigantic and I knew it wasn't just perspective. According to what I could see with the help of the map, there were four outer sections and a middle one in the shape of a slanted square, so it was really more shaped like a diamond of sorts. One outer section in each corner of the diamond. While the outer sections were about the same size as the past fortresses, the middle one was at least twice as large.

"Alright boys," I started, "I think it's safe to say we're all pretty tired. We'll take an hour break and attack their base from there." I explained. As always: We broke formation and relaxed. While everyone else talked and laughed, I was sitting at the end of the tree-line, looking at their base; wondering how we were going to take it.

"So that's their HQ, huh?" Asked Spyro as he and Cynder came toward me.

I nodded "It's about time you show up." I joked "I really missed you guys…"

"Well, maybe you'll understand when you become an actual father" He laughed.

"Yeah, no offense but until you have a child of your own blood, you won't really understand. It's hard to leave our kids, but since this is probably the last battle, we thought it would be best for us to join back in"

"Actually, I think I can understand. It was a bit hard for me to leave Seiya at home before but I knew I had to do this, I can't just sit at home knowing my soldiers are potentially giving their lives." I began to heat up my food "You should probably eat, no one likes to fight on an empty stomach. Especially with your appetite… Cynder."

She blushed "W-what are you talking about? I'll let you know I eat like a proper dragoness."

I gave her a blank stare "Sure…"

"Spyro, say something!"

"I mean, I don't think most eat like how you do. I literally have to warn the people at the restaurant if we go to a buffet a day earlier. Dragons have big appetites to begin with but yours is especially large"

She sighed "I guess it's because I wasn't fed well when I was Malefor's captive, I was only given the bare minimum and I'd be lucky if it didn't have any mold on it."

John came walking with two mre bags in hand "So that's why… Well, you can definitely trust this to not have any mold; it's just seasoned properly. No need to thank me."

The packages read beef and lamb gyro bowl, for those who don't know what that is, first of all, the closest English pronunciation would be "gi-ro" with the roll of the tongue. It's a Mediterranean dish similar to the Mexican Taco except that it's flatbread instead of a corn tortilla, the filling would be mainly lamb, vegetables and cucumber sauce.

"What'll you eat, John?" I asked.

"Me? I'm having some pasta, nothing too fancy."

For the rest of the time, we joked and talked like always, them, eating their pasta and bowls while I eat my burrito.

"So, at the beginning of the attack, we go downhill and, no joke, John's boot flies up twenty feet in the air, and lands right on my hands!"

"We never could have done it again" Added John.

"And John looked at me and said 'well what do I do now?'"

"And he said 'Fight, you idiot!'" Exclaimed John

"Well, did you give him his boot back?" Asked Cynder.

"Give it back?" I asked "I used it! The smell of it alone probably slew half of our enemies!" We all laughed so much, our stomachs began to ache.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end.

An hour passed and I found myself in a testudo marching toward the base and I really didn't want to fight again so I had all units halt a few twenty feet away. I had the shields open up for me and was handed a megaphone.

"Carlos Luis! Your days were numbered and they've come to an end! You can obviously see our force, we can blow up your walls, storm in and kill every one of your soldiers or we can peacefully negotiate your surrender. Make your choice!"

I heard his voice "Those are some tough words, but can you back it up! What will you do!? I'm all the way up here and you're all the way down there! You think your puny shields and stolen technology will keep you safe? Come and get us!"

"Carlos, I no longer want to fight but if you're going to be as stubborn as a mule then I'll have no choice but to have my men storm your base!"

I heard another voice, it was trembling "Sir, I think we should surrender, you can't possibly expect us to fight them. Not after all we've tried! No matter how much we throw at them, we just bolster their resolve! I think he's serious! Be smart and-"

"SILENCE!" He shouted.

I heard a gasp and begged to be spared and to forgive him because he was out of line but soon his voice was choked out. A body was then hurled off of the wall and plummeted onto our shields.

"Make of that what you will!" Shouted Carlos.

The man was dead, several puncture wounds on his chest and throat slashed. I believe I had my final answer, unfortunately, we had to fight. We just barely covered ourselves before they started to fire on us! Snipers from the tree-line started to take down slayers from the top while we planted explosives and blew our way in. Walking through the hole, we were caught in a lead inferno from a whole line of miniguns in the very back of the section, it actually caused a bit of friendly fire among themselves. I wanted to call in air support to at least distract them but I knew that it would be a bad move at that moment, I didn't want a repeat of the eleventh fortress.

"It's too much firepower! I can't hold it up for long!" a soldier in my formation exclaimed.

"Don't you give up! Keep the formation! You drop that shield your whole row gets slaughtered!" I warned. I knew invading a section wasn't going to be easy but I didn't think they were going to have a whole row of machine guns! The piercing sound of a falling mortar shell began to ring in the air amongst the fire. The pelt of the shells along with the bullets proved too much for some of my men, the front shieldmen dropped it only a few inches and his head was riddled with bullets, causing a domino effect with everyone else behind him. This caused a panic in the formation but I told them to try to close the gap but that space was big enough for the slayers on the top to shoot at us along with the several machine gunners with them. My testudo was compromised and with no vehicles in front of us, I was at a dangerous disadvantage. I had the formation break and disperse, we couldn't have closed the formation, too many people were dying. I leaped into a building where unfortunately slayers were in, I turned into my dragon form and proceeded to clear it of all foes inside.

Once I was done, I took a small peek outside the window and saw that while the vehicles were starting to advance ahead of the formations, there were still machine gunners on top. I had no choice but to call air support but to primarily focus on the top gunners. Almost immediately, they dropped some serious firepower, their newly upgraded armor keeping them safe from the lead hail. Once the top gunners were taken out, the dragons then landed on the ground behind the vehicles and testudos, unleashing their breath weapons; I followed their lead and saw that the slayers were attempting to surround us. Unfortunately for them, the soldiers that were no longer in their testudos were guarding our flanks and intercepted them; long story short, their attempt to surround us failed. Once we reached a suitable range the testudos that survived went in front and created a massive shield wall that extended from each end. We fired, advanced a bit, fired, and advanced a bit; this repeated for several hours until the evening so we had to finish the battle quickly, it was nearing the Sabbath. We made a final push, soldiers died on both ends but we finally managed to take the first section and were able to rest at last. The victory did not come without a price though, we lost a bit over a thousand soldiers during the whole battle, and I knew that we would lose several more.

We put our dead in their caskets so that they could finally rest peacefully, burned the slayer bodies to ashes and proceeded to bury them underground. Some went to bed early but the four of us stayed up and gathered together near the campfire.

"Glad you guys made it…" I sighed

"Yeah, same here" Agreed Spyro "I almost forgot what battle was like after all this time, more intense than I remember."

"Well," Started John "they did change things up: They never used mortars before."

"I guess that goes to show that one should expect the unexpected." Thought Spyro.

I chuckled.

"What's so funny?" Asked Cynder.

"Nothing, nothing, it's just that… this somewhat reminds me of old times…" I looked into the fire "I remember that we always talked like this before or after a battle, the good old days…"

"It did keep our spirits up…" reminisced Spyro "Hey Enoch?"

"Yeah?"

"If you could choose to reverse time and never end up with dragon powers, would you?"

I thought about it "Well, even after all that happened and what I was put through, knowing what could have happened… no. I mean, yeah, I lost many good friends and… Master Aquarius… but if I wasn't shot down that morning, I never would have met you guys. Who knows what would have happened to the dragonkin. I suppose it's like the story of Joseph, his own brothers sold him to Egypt where he became a slave, he was jailed for being falsely accused of rape. However, the pharaoh had a dream that no one but he with the help of God could have interpreted. He predicted seven years of plenty but after that, seven years of famine that Egypt would not have survived with Joseph's help, who was soon made chief governor."

"Well, I guess you're the Joseph of the dragonkin" John chuckled "And a bit of a Moses too."

"Yeah" I laughed "Maybe a bit", we talked more for an hour but eventually, we rolled into our sleeping bags and fell asleep.

The next morning I had all of our ammo rounded up for the next day along with our weapons but what I saw, shocked me. Nearly all of our ammo shrunk to almost nothing! On a scale of one to ten, it would be a two or three, the first section took more than I thought. I couldn't send soldiers to get more ammo during the day, so I only kept it to myself and the generals so the rest didn't panic. The day continued as normal, we had worship, praised God, etc. Thankfully, there weren't any slayers trying to take back their section. Eventually, the sun had set and I had several dragoon squads to New Warfang for more ammo which took about 8 hours. During that time, however, John wanted to speak to me in the tent that stood as the war room.

"Enoch" Started John "I'm taking half the army with me to take the third section, you'll take the second"

First of all, I don't believe he had the authority to order me around but also "Wait, this is a bit last minute, isn't it? At least let the men know beforehand" I interjected.

"They already know, it's you who doesn't."

While it was an idea, I didn't like how he was giving orders behind my back. I mean, I thought we were a team, we informed each other of everything when it came to the lives of our men.

"I purposely told them while you were napping. If I told them while you were awake, you would have objected and proposed something that would take more time than necessary."

"We could take each section one by one, you know."

"Thanks for proving my point. If we did that, not only will it take too long but the sections we took could already have been reclaimed, making our efforts and lives lost in vain. Knowing you, we would keep fighting until the very last man. If you take the second and I the third, we would have killed two birds with one stone."

"Okay, you're right about that but what if your half is decimated? When we attack the fourth, we'll have no support or backup from you. For all we know, they'll have more than us, and while a good formation and strategy can be made, that's not always going to guarantee a victory. If we go into the first section and we're crushed, I may have to call off the assault making all those lives in vain also and retreat back to New Warfang, allowing them to do whatever they want."

"We have to finish this, the sooner the better and I think my plan will be faster."

"Do you even know how many casualties we took in this first battle? Over a thousand!"

"And who came up with the idea to put the medics in the vehicles and not with the regular infantry, that was yours. I could have probably done a better job and we may have taken fewer casualties just by putting them inside the testudo."

I shot a cold glare at him "I admit it, it was a bad move, but I can learn from my mistakes. I'll have the medics be put in the formation, happy?"

"I would've been happier if you had put them there in the first place…"

I slammed my fist on the table "Do whatever you want! But let me tell you this: These soldiers trust you with their lives. If you take half the army and get them all killed, it's all on you. Take the third section and we'll take the second. Once that's done, we'll rejoin and take the fourth, after that we'll take the main one. Got it?"

John gave no answer but just stared at me.

"Got. It?"

"Alright, alright, I got it!"

"Good, now if you'll excuse me, I have to get some shuteye."

I went outside, got in my sleeping bag and slept the night away.