Maria - Xicatarn Jungele, Northern Feldia
Riding on a luxury skyship was one thing. But flying on a futuristic gunship from the technologically rich cities of the west was another matter entirely. Surrounding her was a squad of Black Luster Soldiers from the famous High King's 301st Battalion. They all had brown cloaks covering their unique red and black armor, some had their hoods up to protect their helmets from the fierce Feldian rain, which hammered the walls of the gunship.
Accompanying them on another gunship were troopers from the King of Domino's private army, soldiers who replaced swords and shields with guns and rocket launchers.
So strange. On one side she had knights in shining armor from the days of old. And on the other modern soldiers who were already bringing the battlefield of tomorrow to the enemy's doorstep today. She was given an advanced combat rifle by a female soldier from the king's private army who admired her. It hung over her shoulders on a strap like some sort of decoration, for she had no intent on using it.
The only weapon she knew how to use was her sword. And she was going to stick to it.
"Your Majesty!" A Black Luster Soldier said. "We're approaching the battlefield. Request that you stay behind us for your own safety."
Maria looked at the soldier over her shoulder. "Sir, would you have said the same if Prince Stas or Prince Ryon were the ones on this ship?"
"I would have, yes. It doesn't matter who is on this ship. My job is to keep you all safe. You and the other heroes are Termnnia's last hope."
"And how can I be their last hope if I don't fight for them. If things get hairy, cover me. But let me go out and destroy the last remnants of my uncle's confederacy once and for all. They've caused too much damage and killed so many dinosaurs. It stops now."
She heard a roar outside making her smile. "Besides. I've got them watching my back."
She slammed the bay door with her fist, commanding another Black Luster Soldier to open it. He did, pulling the bay door back with all his might to reveal the jungle below. The three Evolzars or Evokaizers as they were called by the Black Luster Soldiers were flying on all sides of the her gunship.
It was a gloomy and cloudy day outside. Rain washed into the inside of the now open gunship. The jungle canopy below was shrouded in a thick, soupy, layer of mist and the mountains, stretching high into the sky, could barely be seen.
She could still see flames burning some parts of the jungle and black clouds from explosions popped up from beneath the trees. Purple lighting zapped out as well, stretching far into the sky, almost touching the fleet of gunships moving in.
"Swordsman to Fort Comona! Tell that summoner to keep her beast in check! It almost got us."
"Ah, Lady Raven de Los Dientes is here," said Maria. "Her Ultimate Conductor Tyranno and my dragons will change the tide of this battle.
"Hey, aren't you forgetting about me?" Mai Valentine shouted over the hum of the engines and wind blowing inside. She weaved around the Black Luster Soldiers to join Maria in front of the door. "You didn't bring me along just to be a party favor, did you?"
"Well, I would have included you in the fun had you not fallen asleep back there."
"Hey, it was a long trip!" Mai continued to yell.
The gunship dove into a foggy canyon with trees all around it. A herd of Bracchio-Raidus was up to their necks in water, feasting on the plants growing on the walls of the canyon. They honked curiously at the flying ships soaring above them. Soon the river got thinner and thinner until it was but a creek. They landed in a military camp set up inside an ancient Norman ruin by Maria's military commanders as a base of operations in the jungle.
Maria patted Mai on the shoulder when she noticed her dozing off. "You're going to fall off!"
Mai chuckled in embarrassment. She pushed her hair off her eyes, for it was flapping wildly in the wind. "Hey don't blame me for getting thirty winks. I didn't get any sleep after the last battle."
The gunship landed, dropping off Maria, Mai, and the Black Luster Soldiers. The gunships carrying the King of Domino's mercenaries glided to the other part of the camp, dropping off supplies and military jeeps suited to traverse through the dense and rough Feldian jungle terrain.
"So why didn't you head to the Citrus Islands for some R&R like Master Yugi requested?" Maria asked as they stepped inside the ruin.
The building shook from the explosions going on outside. A sheet of rain washed over the entrance of the ruin. Mai and Maria ducked their heads as a Black Luster Soldier came by and covered them with his cloak.
"Thank you, kind sir," Mai said, her voice reverberating in the empty halls. The Black Luster Soldier bowed and walked off. "I can't rest now. Not when things are getting good. And as soon as I heard you were going to be deployed, I just had to jump in. Except for Lady Avi and Princess Alexis, we don't have a lot of badass girls like you on the battlefield and I'd like to see you and those Evolzars in action. Avi told me so much about you."
The ruins shook again. Dust and pebbles sprinkled down from the ceiling, which was looking more and more unstable. Tech experts were stationed in the empty chambers, providing intel to the fire teams fighting out in the jungle. Garbled military com chatter rang everywhere they walked.
"And she's told me so much about you!" said Maria. "Pardon me if I'm blushing but I'm starstruck. You're my hero Lady Valentine. It's because of you that lots of girls are joining the fight, too."
"Aww, thank you, hon. But I can't take all the credit. You sure inspired the ladies of this country to take arms and join you. Not that I blame them. Your dad was a shitty ruler, no offense."
"None taken. Not only did my father make a lot of deals with terrible people like the Dragonhearts and the Naralian Royal Court, but he passed a lot of laws that restricted what the women of Feldia could or could not do. So saying he's a shitty ruler is no insult. That's a fact. And now he's dead. My terrible aunt is next for aligning with the Naralians just to take me out. Is it so hard to accept the change and move on already?"
"Something tells me your family never even liked you," said Mai.
"You can thank my father for that. He hated me and my sisters for the fact we even existed. I wouldn't be surprised if he was the one who killed Mother after baby Rosita was born. Ever since any of us were born, he's had it in for us. Always taunting us during dinner parties, forcing us to marry vassals to accumulate more riches. His foulness lives on with my aunts and uncles."
"You'd think Forrest would have gotten the point by now," said Mai. "You've got an army full of tough warriors riding dinosaurs and now three powerful True Dragons. And that cute little lady with the Ultimate Conductor Tyranno. I can't wait to meet her."
"You'll like her, but she's a girl of few words. She doesn't speak all that much after witnessing her parents getting killed when they refused to join my stupid cousin's confederacy. Thankfully the spirits of the earth took pity on her and blessed her with that powerful Eidolon to exact her revenge."
"I sure hope it can last," said the Black Luster Soldier following them. "Those CUIRASS mechs are giving it a hard time."
"Not for long they're not," Mai said, unsheathing her sword. Three arcane circles orbited over her left arm, ready to call upon an Eidolon. "I've always wanted to bag me one of those overgrown rust buckets."
A Black Luster Soldier in a black cloak walked up to them as they approached the battlefield. "My lady. Two mercenaries from Domino arrived here an hour ago. They said they work with you."
"Mercenaries?" Maria asked, looking at Mai in confusion.
Mai hiring mercenaries was unheard of. However, Mai's face wrinkled in disgust at the mere mention of the word.
"Humph! I know who you're talking about. And they're not mere mercenaries. These two young ladies are the fiercest duelists and warriors I have ever come across." She looked over Black Luster Soldier's shoulder and whistled, waving her arm in the air to get the attention of two young girls in silver armor and blue skirts. "Gloria! Grace! Hey, hons! Glad you could make it."
The two girls walked to Mai. They were twins and used their hair color to help people tell them apart. Gloria Tyler, the eldest twin, had golden blonde hair. Her sister, Grace, had white hair. When they saw Maria, they got on one knee.
"Your Highness," Gloria said.
"Hello," said Maria.
Mai walked towards the girls, laughing. She wrapped them both in her arms and planted kisses on their cheeks and foreheads over and over again. "I can't believe you got here before me!"
"Well, that's what Wayshrines are for, my lady," said Grace.
"I hope your fear of them dies down," Gloria croaked. "For our sakes."
Mai let them go and turned to face Maria. "Your Highness. These are the Tyler Sisters. Gloria and Grace. They came from out of the blue to help me and my grandmother rebuild our House."
"We originally stayed in the forbidden kingdom of Red Orchid," said Gloria. "But let's just say it's queen needs a stern reality check. We wanted to see some action and when we heard Mai was up to her neck with rebels, bandits, and dumbass suitors looking to go to war for her, we jumped ship and became the official champions of her House."
"And I couldn't be more proud to have them," said Mai. "With them on our side, we're going to beat back those filthy Naralian invaders."
"And not a moment too soon," the crimson-haired Lady Raven de Los Dientes said, joining them. She was covered in mud and blood, and her arms were sparking with purple electricity from summoning her Ultimate Conductor Tyranno all day."
"Aww!" swooned Mai.
She couldn't believe how small she was. Despite being a girl of twenty-two, she resembled a child still twelve years old. The blue silk ribbons that adorned her hair also added a child-like innocence to her appearance as did her armor, resembling a lolita dress.
"She looks like a little doll."
"She's lucky I idolize her," said Raven. Electricity sparked on her arm once again.
"Raven," Maria said, "has your Eidolon been able to quell those terrible mechs?"
"For the time being, but they're tough, Your Highness. Very tough. I don't think Frost is going to hold out against them for long."
"Frost?" Gloria asked.
"It's what I named my Eidolon. Got a problem with that?"
"No, no, none whatsoever. It's just that we've seen that thing attacking the Naralian troops all day. It's hard to believe something so huge and so menacing can belong to something so sweet and small like you."
"Maria, I'm sorry, but the next person who calls me small is going to have their head mounted on a pike and their body eaten by Frost."
"All right, honey, all right," said Mai. "You're bad. You're bad. We get it. Just a quick question. Why did you name that monster Frost?"
"Because he's all-white if you haven't noticed," said Raven. "Sheesh, you Easterners. I swear all that technology is rotting your brains."
"Your Highness!" an intelligence officer called out frantically from his desk. "We've got trouble. Naralian battleships are sailing in from the coast. They've got boarding craft and lots of 'em!"
"They're going to swarm the jungle with their reinforcements," said Maria.
"Most likely they're trying to stall us while they get their mechs fully operational," said Raven. "If that happens, I fear for the Evolzars. I heard they gave even Lady Avi lots of trouble. They almost killed her three times.
"Can you still summon your Eidolon?" Mai asked.
"Not in my condition, I can't. I burned a lot of calories using all this magic and I'm getting weak. It's going to be a while before I can get my Mana Pool charged up to summon Frost in full power."
"You've done enough," said Maria. She patted Raven's head. "Go get something to eat. How much time do you need?"
"As long as you can give me. I'll do what I can. If we're going down, we're going down fighting."
Alarms began to wail across the ruins. Soldiers grabbed their weapons and stormed out the door.
Mai, however, stayed behind and looked at the holographic map projecting on the rotunda of the central chamber.
"Lady Mai, we cannot delay!" said Gloria.
Mai didn't say a thing and continued to stare at the map.
"What's wrong?" asked Grace.
"Something's not right. The army that attacked Ryon's kingdom the other day was fifty times this size. Either they're seriously underestimating Maria or they're up to something. We have to use extreme caution." Mai turned. "Girls. I know Maria acts like a tough cookie but see to it that she doesn't leave your sight. Take care of her. That's an order."
"Ma'am!" the twins said.
Maria, Mai, and the Tyler Sisters joined up at the entrance while Raven stayed behind to eat and recharge her Mana. As Maria walked outside, the soldiers from her army lined up and cheered, holding up their swords and maces.
Her Destroyersaurus was waiting for her, armored and ready for combat. Maria climbed on, then she reached down for her royal javelin, being handed to her by a Black Luster Soldier. She held it up high over her head to make the newly made banner of her House wave against the story winds. The Feldani troops cheered at the sight of their new colors.
"Let us continue our march to glorious salvation!" Maria shouted. "Prince Yuri returns in the coming days to reclaim his throne! Let us clear his realm of these dogs!"
"WAAAAAAARRRRR!" her soldiers shouted and followed her to the beach at the edge of the jungle where Naralian landing craft was coming to storm the battlefield and lend aid to the Confederate troops aiding Maria's aunt in conquering the ruins.
They were a great prize to be won. Not only were they of historical significance, but they were also said to hold a great power for Maria's Evolzars.
Also, it would offer Maria's aunt a tactical advantage and bring her forces closer to the capital of Santa Rosa, but it would sever trade routes to the southern Feldani territories. Silks, spices, precious metals, rare jungle wood known as Sauroscale, and Mastercraft weapons and armor made their way down these routes. Most importantly of all, a majority of Feldia's meat and crops came from the seventeen realms of the north. If Maria lost those routes of trade, not only would her economy crumble but her people would starve. If that happened, most likely they would lose faith in her ability to rule and seek her head in revolution.
If Feldia was lost to Naralia, it would be a severe blow to the Alliance. And for Yuri. He needed allies when he returned home, and Maria felt she would be damned if she failed to keep Feldia as one of his allied nations.
Maria headed for a Sword Arm of Dragon that was armored in red and gold plating and bore both the Feldian flag and the banner of the House on both its sides. Her sister, Estrella, was riding it, suited in her new armor of silver steel with a hood trimmed with mammoth fur for the sake of style. Her jet-black hair was tied into a massive ponytail that went past even her leg.
"Glad you could make it," said Estrella. "We were beginning to lose the momentum."
"I heard it was getting really bad," said Maria. "Even with the Black Luster Soldiers the High Council gave us, we can't be in better standing?"
"They send very few," said Estrella. "Six thousand was all they could muster. Even if they are Black Luster Soldiers, that number is just too low. The technological terrors the Naralians constructed have kept us against the wall. They have snipers with advanced rifles equipped with telescopes or something that can help them see for miles. They take out troops one by one as we march across the jungle. The 34th Legion lost fifty soldiers just yesterday because of them. To say nothing of those CUIRASS monstrosities they bring to battle. Not even Lady Raven's Ultimate Conductor Tyranno was enough to even the odds. Their technology is — I'm sorry to say — far more advanced than we could ever imagine."
The sisters heard a humming noise coming from the lagoon nearby. A mechanical plesiosaur glided across the water and stopped right next to her. Then a mechanical triceratops and a pteranodon flew above.
"The Dinomist Pilots are here!?" said Maria.
Estrella gave a nod. "Yeah, they've been here for the past several weeks. They've done a good job in keeping the lagoon and the rivers safe from the Naralians and keeping them away from the base."
"Didn't think we'd let you tackle this alone, did you, you?" said the pilot of the mechanical plesiosaur. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Ser Raul de Santcliment. Pilot of the Dinomist Plesios. It is a great honor to fight for Feldia's new and…beautiful queen. And her sister is here, too. A sisterhood of warriors. What a blessing, indeed."
"Don't leave me out, amigos!" said the carefree pilot of the pteranodon mech. He soared over the battlefield, doing all sorts of fancy flips to try and impress the queen. "I am Ser Medina de Santcliment. The pilot of the Dinomist Pteran! I'll single-handedly win this battle — you just watch, your majesty! Hey, Princess Estrella. Can you hear me?"
Estrella reared her head back and groaned. She picked up the orb that allowed her to communicate with her troops. "Yes, I can," she answered. "I really wish I didn't."
"Sorry to hear about your breakup with the Baron of Diegovilla. If you're still up for dating, I'm available. Hit me up on Binder."
"What the hell's Binder?"
"A social media app," answered Gloria.
"What is a social media app?" Estrella asked again.
"You don't know?" asked Grace. "We use it to communicate with our friends and show off pictures we take with our phones."
"What's a phone?"
Raul laughed at her ignorance of Termnnia's new technology. He found it rather adorable and it also gave him a sense of superiority over the princess and her sister the Queen. "Man, you girls really need to visit the eastern cities. You should get to know us really well anyway. High Chancellor Pegasus is really impressed by our legend."
"Your legend?" Mai asked.
"Damn right. We've made a name for ourselves out here. If we continue to impress him, he said he'll turn our mechs into a card archetype for the game. Talk about cool, huh? Bet you wish your Evolzards could be made into cards, too, huh, Queen Maria?"
"Ignore him," said Argus, the pilot of the Dinomist Ceratops.
"Are all your brothers like this, Ser Argus?" Maria asked.
"And Phillipe!" said the pilot's little brother. "Reporting for duty! It's great to see you again, Maria! Is Rosita here with you? I have a gift I bought for her."
Maria giggled at the boy's infatuation with her little sister. "Sorry, little knight, but she is back in the capitol. But if you will give me her present after the battle, I'll be sure to give it to her right away."
"Uh…actually, I'll wait until I can give it to her myself when we go on leave. No disrespect, your majesty."
"Of course."
"But I do have something for you, your majesty!" A hatch under the Dinomist Ceratop's belly opened. Little Phillipe came running out holding a sort of tablet, which he gave to Maria. "Use this if you ever need Raul to provide you with close air support. The tablet is giving you a view of the battlefield. Those blue dots are us and the red ones are the enemy. If things get hairy and you need some help, use this to mark the spot where you want him to go. He'll come right by and hit the enemy with an airstrike. Cool, huh?"
Maria looked at the tablet the way a child would if it examined something it has never seen before. "It's a tad unorthodox, but I guess I could give it a try. Thank you, Phillipe."
The little boy bowed. "You're welcome, your majesty. May the Goddess of War bless our troops and the Saurian Goddess grant you and your sister's dinosaurs with strength!"
He ran back to the Dinomist Ceratops and ran up the hatch, which closed shortly after.
Mai patted Maria's thigh to get her attention. "If you guys are all done with the pleasantries, can we focus on what's at hand? Here comes their landing craft. It's going to get messy."
"I'll take care of them!" said Ser Raul. The turbines on his Dinomist Plesios turned on, creating fierce wakes behind him. The trees hanging by the water swayed from the fierce wind they made. He took off toward the ocean to confront the landing craft.
"Not if I take care of them first!" boasted Medina.
As they took off toward the ocean, the cannons of the Naralian Navy's flagship fired a salvo of mortars at the beach. They smashed against the sand, maiming and killing soldiers.
"Hold! Hold!" Maria shouted, trying to keep her Destroyersaurs under control.
"I've never seen weaponry like this!" said Gloria. "Naralia has become so technically advanced."
"I wouldn't get too cocky if I were you, brother," said Raul. "We took a lot of damage during the last battle. Our energy cubes are in orange right now, so we don't have a lot of time before we head back to base and recharge. I want to be on the beach to help Maria."
"I can handle this. I'm still on yellow." He looked at the camera feed on his cockpit, sniggering cruelly at the boarding craft sailing across the water to the beach. "All right, the little ducks are all lined up."
He pushed a button so that two vulcans hidden in the Pteran's shoulders would rise out to be used. He fired them at the enemies relentlessly, taking down any boat that got in his sights.
"Too easy! It's like playing a video game!"
"Don't waste your energy or your remaining ammunition on those boats," commanded Argus. "Take out as many as you can and head back to the beach so we can defend the queen. Don't underestimate them. Those aren't like any vessels I've seen before. They're completely made of iron and are equipped with all those cannons. You focus on taking them out while Raul deals with the landing craft."
"Got ya! Man, you guys never let me have any fun."
Boom! Boom! The cannons from the iron warships fired, trying to shoot him down. He just laughed at their feeble attempts to end him.
"Maybe I don't have the firepower you guys have, but I'll warn you not to underestimate my speed."
He switched for the mechanical pterosaur's photon cannons.
"Time to bring down some ships!"
He fired with everything he had, but all his cannons did was create char marks on the side of the ship. "What in the world!? My photon cannons aren't doing any damage!"
"It's just as I feared," said Argus. "It's no use. We'll just have to deal with their landing craft."
"Got it!"
"No! Let Raul deal with them. You get back in the air and stay out of sight until Queen Maria calls you for air support."
"Ro-ger that," Medina groaned. His mech spun then rocketed into the clouds and out of sight.
Another salvo of missiles fired from the flagship. Maria called on her troops to get back and take cover. For many of them, it was too late. They vanished under columns of smoke, fire, and sand. The earth trembled as though a violent earthquake was taking place.
"We can't fight like this!" said Gloria. "They're going to destroy us before their forces can even land on the beach."
The landing boats finally made it to shore. The hatches opened and then thousands of Naralian swordsmen and knights charged onto the beach slaughtering injured troops or those who got lost in the cloud of sand and smoke.
"Here they come!" shouted Mai. "Get ready, girls!"
"Hold!" Maria shouted. She spoke into her own magic sphere to communicate with Raul. "Raul! I'm going to need your help asap!"
"Yeah, I hear ya. Mark the spot you want me to hit and I'll let the sparks fly."
Maria tried to understand the tablet for a moment. Each time she made a mistake, Raul corrected it. It took a few tries, but Maria finally got it. She saw a mess of red dots on one part of the beach and tapped on it.
"Two more, your majesty!" said Argus. "Tap two more locations."
Maria did just that. Then the world Locked appeared on the screen.
"Yeehaw! Here we go!" Raul jeered. They could hear the scream of his mechanical monster's jets thundering in the clouds and mist. Finally, the green neon, and orange lights that accented it pierced through the clouds. He swooped over the places Maria selected to be hit and dropped bombs on the enemy forces.
"Nice!" Gloria yelled. "Very nice!"
"That was amazing!" Grace cheered. "Do it again! Do it again!"
Raul bobbed his head up and down confidently in his cockpit. "Oh, yeah! Raul knows what the ladies like."
The charging Naralian troops lost their momentum in the airstrike. The Black Luster Soldiers and the Feldian soldiers and knights raised their arms and cheered, taking this opportunity to charge across the sands and meet their foes head-on while they were dazed and confused as a means of revenge for slaughtering their injured comrades so mercilessly when they landed on the beach.
"Yeehaw!" Phillipe called out as his brother's Dinomist Ceratops charged toward the landing craft sliding across shallow water. He rammed them, knocking them over before blasting the bottom of the boats with his ion cannons.
"These Dinomist guys are really turning things around!" said Mai.
"Nice job up there, Raul!" said Estrella. "We owe you big time."
"No problem, princess. You can just date me and we'll call it even."
The soldiers from Feldia and Naralia clashed on the beach. Gloria and Grace brandished their purple-colored swords and dashed across the sands to join them. Maria attempted to kick her Destroyersaurus into a gallop so she could be part of the battle, but Mai stopped her.
"Hold on!" she cried. "The missiles from those ships could still be active."
"I can't just leave my men out there."
"So call for help and get your boys to deal with those ships."
Maria suddenly formed a wide smile. "Ahhh," she said. "Yes. Yes."
Minutes later, the Evolzars then swooped over the beach. Those who survived the salvo cheered, waving their helmets and weapons in the air. Dolkka shot fireballs at the two ships on either side of it, causing enough damage to make the ship start dipping into the sea. Solga used the power of Helios to create a beam inside his mouth that cut a huge hole on the side of one ship.
The Feldian troops cheered even louder. Indeed, dragons made all the difference in battle. Finally, Laggia shot neon green flames from his mouth, melting the flagship's cannons.
"I love dragons," Maria said.
Laggia was suddenly struck by a salvo of glowing green missiles that came out of nowhere. The explosions caused by the missiles were tremendous and lit the cloudy morning with a flash of green. Through the pops of the explosions, Maria could hear Laggia letting out an agonizing roar. He fell backward into the ocean with a splash.
"NOOO!" she cried.
Two mechs soared from the clouds. A huge green and black one and another that was red and orange. They were two Naralian mercenaries from the elite Draxion Company, notorious for violently hunting wyverns and witches near the border. These two were a legendary duo named Weiss and Biggs. The mechs they piloted were called Emerald Fox and Crimson Racoon.
"Sending in knights against a foe like Queen Maria?" said Biggs, the pilot of the Crimson Racoon. "Look at those relics. You should have just sent me in from the start."
The pilot of Emerald Racoon agreed sarcastically with a long and dull, "Yeah." He just wanted to get this fight over with and go home to get some food.
"Look down they Weiss! Those dumbasses with the robot dinosaurs are here. Let's take them out first and show them that our machines are superior!"
"I'll cover you from the other Evolzar dragons. Looks like that's…two left. No sign of the one I shot down. Heh. Too easy."
Biggs steered his mech to the beach towards Dinomist Ceratops. "We're on our way to the top!" he said to Argus. "And you're just our stepping stone becoming one of the king's knights. Sorry. But we need to take you down."
"Oh yeah!" Philippe yelled.
"Don't encourage them!" Argus snapped. He knew how dangerous CUIRASSes were and his Dinomist Ceratops was in no condition to be fighting such things. Still, he knew he had to at least get them away from Maria and the troops. Dinomist Ceratops snarled and broke into a run, leading Crimson Racoon toward the lagoon.
"Running away?" sneered Biggs. "How sad." He launched missiles from his mech's back. They were heatseekers, chasing Ceratops all over the jungle.
Raul soared down from the clouds to challenge the CUIRASS pilots. As usual, he boasted about his skills, which agitated the pilots. Emerald Racoon aimed his giant rifle at Dinomist Pteran and blasted its wing with one clean shot.
"NO!" Raul cried. "No! No! Sorry, everyone, I'm pulling out!" He soared away, trailing smoke into the clouds where he disappeared.
"He's getting away!" shouted Biggs.
"Let him go," said Weiss. "We've got bigger fish to fry. The Queen's Evolzars are coming to exact their revenge on us. Good. Hopefully, they'll prove more of a challenge than the one I shot down."
For ten agonizing minutes, the Evolzars and the mechs soared over the beach, dodging and weaving each other's moves in a dangerous game of cat and mouse. When the mechs ran out of missiles, they resorted to using their guns. When their guns ran out of ammo, they used their energy blades to combat them. Solga and Dolkka were getting tired. Maria noticed them slowing down and getting clipped by the energy blades every now and then. They were losing. It couldn't be. True Dragons were the ultimate weapon in war. Now they were being defeated before her very eyes.
Maria began to shiver with fear. She heard stories about the mechs. How they gave Avi and the Princes such a hard time. She didn't know if she could take them on in battle. That seemed impossible now, after having witnessed Evolzar Laggia getting decimated in just a few seconds. The Dinomist Pilots retreated as well. Her troops, witnessing their greatest allies being defeated, lost morale. The Naralians took advantage of this and retook the momentum. They climbed out of the craters made from the explosions earlier and ran across the sands to meet with their foes in combat once again.
Maria couldn't believe what was happening. It was unfair. Thousands of years of True Dragons brought glory to the battlefield, and now when she finally got to control some, the enemy created superpowered machines that could easily outmatch them. On the beach, she saw her injured troops crawling through the sands, some of them missing limbs. The Black Luster Soldiers, unphased by the blasts, were trying their best to combat the enemy and get the wounded out as fast as they could. The trees that surrounded the beach caught fire, lighting the world around them in a hellish orange glow. The beautiful white sands were now charred and muddy with rain and with the blood of her fallen soldiers.
She lost all control of her emotions and her body, witnessing all the chaos happening on the beach. Gloria and Grace came running back from the battle, their armor was cracked and dirty, and their faces were covered with blood.
"We tried," Gloria croaked. "I'm sorry. We tried."
"It's all right!" Mai said. She caught her before she slumped to the ground. She took her cantine from her belt and gave Gloria a well-deserved drink.
"Maria!" Mai called. "Maria!"
Maria looked at her.
"Don't be scared! They're tough but they're not invincible. We were able to take a lot of these jerks down. You can, too! I believe in you."
"Right. You're right. Solga! Dolkka! Fight them! Get them off my battlefield now!"
Briggs laughed, for he could hear Maria's voice on the comms. "Heh, heh. Here they come, Weiss. Time to finish this once and for all."
"Yeah," Weiss replied in his droll voice again.
Suddenly a green stream of fire shot out of the water. "LOOK OUT!" Biggs shouted. The mechs broke formation, dodging the flames. Evolzar Laggia flew out of the ocean. He was alive.
"YES!" Maria yelled. "YES! YES!"
"It can't be!" said Weiss. "I shot him with my most powerful missiles! There's no way he survived that!"
"Well…looks like he did," said Briggs.
The three Evolzars reunited over the battlefield, circling the sands happily. They were joyful to be reunited. They took formation in front of the two mechs. The odds were against them now.
"Hang on," said Weiss. There was a long pause. "Mission complete. RTB."
"What are you talking about? We can take them!"
"I said let's go."
"WHAT?!"
"We've done our jobs. Let the King and his Holiness do the rest."
Briggs was silent for a moment. He finally said: "Understood." They flew away into the mountains and were gone.
"What's going on?" said Grace. "They're leaving."
"Maybe they know better than to mess with my Evolzars," said Maria.
Out of the clouds a big, blue laser beam shot out and struck all three Evolzars. Maria could see fire burning around their wounds. All three of them collapsed to the ground. Laggia had three of his wings cut off, Solga lost his right claw, and Dolkka had a huge gash on his neck. All three of them splashed into the water, never to be seen again.
The laser beam let out an eerie hum as it traced through the ocean. It was so hot it made the water boil, creating huge columns of steam. It then struck the beach, creating massive explosions and killing Naralians and Feldani troops. The beam's heat turned the sand into glass. Gunships were blasted out of the sky. Even the Naralian ships in the ocean weren't safe from the beam. It was utter chaos. As if the Divines themselves were striking down everyone involved in this terrible battle.
"LOOK OUT!" Mai shouted. The beam struck the ground right in front of them.
Maria was tossed around the air and then succumbed to the darkness after smacking hard against a tree.