As we… agreed that night: John took his part to the third and I took mine to the second section. As I said before, I learned from my mistake and not only did I have the medics in the formation but the vehicles in front of the testudo. It was a march of about thirty to forty minutes but as soon as we got there, we had our tanks blow several holes in their wall.
We went in, the main force stayed behind the vehicles while others began to split and took to the stairs. In those moments, it was difficult to get a shot off as not only would you risk getting a hit from the front but behind as well as the tiniest gap could be taken advantage of. We needed to get those machine gunners on our rear taken out which is also why I had to risk the dragons to do the job quicker.
Mortars began to pelt us over and over again, some were gas but most were shrapnel. Either way we put our gas masks on as quickly as we could but unfortunately for some of the shieldmen, fiddling around with a gas mask while keeping the shield up proved too difficult in which they suffocated. The formation broke slightly, there were a few gaps on the top and some on the sides which were quickly taken advantage of by the gunners and mortars. In a few minutes, the formation was completely shattered; we were forced to disperse and leave ourselves more vulnerable. Several dragons flew down and formed the old dragon wall formation in the rear. While the dragons and testudos were doing their best in eliminating the gunners, there were so many of them and the testudos had to march slowly to keep the formation together. Some, however, were eliminated by any frags that slipped under.
Once my formation was destroyed I managed to hide in a building and began helping out my comrades on the wall through the window. Shot after shot, the rear gunners were finally taken out. I came out and saw that the mortars managed to destroy the treads of the tanks and wheels of the over armored vehicles, we had no more advancing protection so we had to improvise. Some of the remaining testudos advanced and slowly formed a shield wall with the others putting theirs on top of the other, creating a somewhat shield canopy. While that was good protection in the front, it wasn't very good against most mortars. We were being pounded by field artillery left and right but even so, the dragons advanced and used their breath weapons over the shields,
Just like the first section, I had a good feeling that the mortars would stop soon after the firing was over. As I began to think of a plan, one of the shieldmen lost his strength which not only got him killed but the rest that were behind him. Oddly enough, that gave me an idea that helped me finish. It was a crazy idea but it just might work, I was already risking the lives of my men enough but if we did this right, I knew we could pull it off.
Once I informed my soldiers, even they thought it was crazy but we couldn't just rely on the dragons for firepower and advancing would be near impossible, it was already hard keeping a testudo and even harder trying to keep the shield wall in place. No one had any better ideas so, in the end, we went with mine. Several soldiers went down on an army crawl excluding the shield men and dragons who used smoke to hide us, either via grenade or combined breath weapons. The wall slowly began to open and let the bullets in, flying inches over our heads, unfortunately, a few panicked and stood up. Those who kept their composure followed my lead and we crawled through mud and blood while the shield wall began to close again while the dragons provided cover fire.
It was a long trek but we couldn't turn back, it was what we had to do. Once we were a few ten feet away from the line, I looked to a soldier to my right and immediately he was killed, but that only bolstered my resolve. A few minutes later we began to separate and sneak behind them and drew our knives. I held up three fingers and mouthed the words "One… Two… Three!". We plunged our knives deep into their chest until they went limp. The battle for the second section was won.
While we lost less than the first section, eight hundred is still a lot to me.
I received a transmission from John hours later.
"What's your report?" I asked.
"We took the third as planned but with a few thousand casualties, maybe about four or five."
I sighed "Not something you should take lightly… I'd say we have about forty-two to forty thousand left then…"
"Hey, at least we took it. Only two more to go."
"But at what!-" I took a breath and lowered my voice "But at what cost? Maybe it's because we never lost this many in one battle but I'm terrified of the battles to come. What if we lose more tomorrow? What if we're wiped out!? This stress, this anxiety, it's something that I don't think I've ever experienced. It may not affect you as much but I see each and every one of my people as my own children; for every dead soldier, my heart aches ten-fold! I don't know if I can take all this!"
"First of all, calm down. Matthew 6:34 says 'Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble' The Proverbs of Solomon also tells us 'Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths'. You also told us this before to 'remember what your fighting for'"
I sighed "Using Bible quotes and my own words against me, eh?"
"Do what you have to do right now, just, try to focus on the bright side, alright?"
"...I only promise to try…"
He chuckled "That's all I can ask for; talk to you later."
As I promised, I tried to stay positive but I needed a bit of support so I took the rest of the afternoon to pray.
I could barely concentrate in the morning, with so many thoughts flooding through my mind, I didn't even notice what I was doing.
"Enoch!" Shouted Spyro.
"Huh…?" I then noticed that I was about to pull the pin on a grenade.
"What's wrong with you today: You've been… off… this whole morning."
I sighed "Sorry, sorry. I've just been wrapped up in my own thoughts."
"Care to share?"
"Well… what if we don't win this battle… or even this war? Then all of these lives we lost through these four years were in vain. Sarah, Azureth, Jane, Jake, Stix" Though the guy was put in prison and betrayed us, he was executed at a later time. I never wanted him to die but he managed to break out a few times and most likely went nuts; he killed quite a few in the city. "Maria" I paused with a tear forming "...Aquarius…"
"Well, in that case, we'll win, I predict that we'll take over the base and end the dragonslayer menace once and for all. Yes, we've lost good friends in this war but that anger should be used to bolster our resolve. Cheer up, we need you, now more than ever, we need an excellent leader with a good head on his shoulders and that's you."
"John could disagree…"
"It doesn't matter what John thinks. If God thought John was better, then he would have chosen him; he didn't. He chose you, so you take your sword and lead your people! Lead the dragons to freedom, just like you did in Warfang, it doesn't matter if you have over a thousand, or even one hundred, I know you can do this."
"I guess you're right; alright, let's do this!" I stood and rose my fist.
"That's the spirit!"
With Spyro's little speech, I could finally clear my head and focus. Thirty minutes later, we were marching towards the fourth section… I honestly wish we hadn't.
"So… Enoch…" John scratched his head when we met up "I would like to apologize for giving orders behind your back. I knew you wouldn't like it but I felt that it had to be done."
I sighed "It's fine, it's fine… Let's just forgive and forget, okay?"
He nodded.
We got the army ready and followed the procedure to blow up a few holes; we were hit like crazy once we got in like usual but something was different, there seemed to be fewer slayers than before. I looked at the top of their walls and there were zero machine gunners, I got the best look I could have at the very back and there wasn't even a machine gun line either. Something was very wrong, it was easy compared to the last sections… to easy.
First came the testudos, then the armored vehicles and tanks, the dragons afterward. Since there were no machine gun lines, I had some dragon platoons and cavalry interrupt and distract the enemy while we set up our shield wall.
"All units" I ordered on my headset "Be on your guard; this looks too easy."
"High general?" Asked Spyro.
"What's on your mind, general Spyro?" He couldn't really call me by my name in that setting so he addressed me with my unique rank.
"I understand why you would think that way but maybe it's because we've thinned out their herd, so much that this is all they can send."
I thought about it "You could be right, but keep your guard up, just in case."
We advanced with our shield and spear wall, rifles behind them. Just five hundred feet away, there were fewer slayers still alive; I thought we actually had this, perhaps Spyro was right. I looked to my right and saw that the ground was consecutively blown up and the explosions were heading right for us. The dragons stopped what they were doing and tried to take us up but it was too late. The underground explosives had caught up to us; I was blown into what felt like thirty feet up in the air, surprisingly intact at least on the outside, I'm sure my eardrums were destroyed as my ears were ringing like crazy.
When I came down, the wind was knocked out of me and it took me a minute to stand up. I wish I hadn't. I was surrounded by bodies, some dismembered, others rolling in pain, others were calling out to their mothers in vain. What hit me the most is that when I crawled out of the crater, I saw more of my poor and helpless soldiers in the same condition. When I looked behind me, the slayers were so ruthless they blew up their own men; every single slayer inside was horrifically killed. I called out if there was anyone alive, while I got no answer, some managed to stand up (Though some had pieces of shrapnel sticking out of them). I walked throughout the valley of death and looked into the open eyes of one of my fallen comrades. I fell to my knees and cried out to the empty, dragonless sky.
