An Expanding Threat

Damn, sometimes I really hate to not be able to extend the battles since even though this is a "Boss" fight, I couldn't
write more than 6000 words. It's a shame and it sucks that I can't do anything about it.

Anyway, I hope that you will like this battle. I must say beforehand that if it I hadn't already set this fafic for rating M
it would have been with this chapter.

I hope that you will like this chapter.

Enjoy!


Chapter 8: Overwhelming Battle

"Witches, take off!" The voice said in the intercom and the pack flew off to the skies and towards the depth of the hive. They could before see a swarm of neuroi before from this distance but it seems like the tank, artillery and the 88's squadrons had done significant damage to the outer line of the hive. But deeper inside they could see another bigger swarm wait for them, and even deeper they could see the giant core that was their target.

Along the way they could see a few destroyed tanks as well as a few dead soldiers on the road. They could even see 2 dead witches on the way as well. Gundula noticed that Fujita shed tears on the way and she didn't blame her. Anyone would be sad in this regard. Gundula of course thought it was sad that they died but she didn't know the witches, so she didn't take it as hard as the Fuso witches did.

Now they started to hear the echoing sound of the tanks and artillery. They could see shells exploding on neuroi that came against them. They flew past the tank squadron and they waved and cheered for them, even though many tanks beside them were destroyed or were currently burning. As that neuroi were destroyed the witches flew by in a perfect formation that now worked exactly as it should. Now they saw their first targets in front of them. A group of 10 neuroi's was waiting for them and they started to shoot at them as the witches approached.

The Fuso witches formed a perfect shield in front of the large group of witches. With a nice sweep they blasted through the neuroi and destroyed them as they passed. The next group of neuroi was in the beginning of the crowded part of the neuroi hive. The group of witches rode forth and the formation changed and they fell together to form a solid spike to blast through with. As they got into contact with the neuroi's that awaited them, a beam came out of nowhere and struck through one of the Fuso witches and totally vaporized her arm, chest and head. A lifeless body without all its body parts fell down to the ground.

By the time it struck the witches were all both frightened by the beam that they couldn't foresee at all, and also frightened by the sudden vision of gore they just witnessed. Even though Fujita usually did have an expression of steel it tore up pretty badly. They focused their defense from that direction the first beam came from. The beams from the nearby neuroi were like an everyday chore to all the witches, so they weren't very much of a problem but now they were near the center of a hive since they could shoot nearly in all directions and still hit something. But the biggest problem was the unknowns that they had no idea what they could do. The hidden sniper one was a huge threat right now so they had to be careful.

The witches moved on in a speedy pace but they had sharpened their senses and were on the watch for the sniper neuroi. While they did that they also had to deal with the smaller barricades of normal-sized neuroi. They kept their shields up and just broke through them with nearly no effort at all. And now they could see the ground artillery that had moved in a good bit into the hive and they had cleared many neuroi in the area that they now entered. They could also see the severity that they were in here. Most of the anti-air cannons were just burnt scrap metal. Luckily a lot of the soldiers had survived but most of the witches had fallen. They were not many left to protect the remaining artillery pieces.

Forgetting for a second the sniper, a second beam came from the black cloud above them and this time it struck and vaporized one of the legs along with the striker of another Fuso witch. With a scream of pain she fell down to the ground as well. The worry of all the witches could be sensed and the nervous mood that were before the operation had now been turned into fear. In the short time of 15 seconds two witches have been shot down and one of them died instantly and the other one is badly injured.

The flight continued since they couldn't stop now when so many lives had already been lost, and they couldn't afford to let this hive travel any further. Eila was glad that Tsubaki were still okay but right now she was crying to the ones that they lost yet. One minute later another beam struck down, and vaporized two witches dead on. The ones that held a guard for Sanya were now gone and a neuroi would have had a clear shot on her if they appeared right now from that direction.

They had now approximately cleared a third of their way to the core and they had lost 4 witches so far. If this were going to keep up in this speed there were at least 8 witches more that will die and there is no telling how many that will die on the way back, if they ever reached the core.

The hole in the formation around Sanya was fixed shortly after from Fujita's order. They noticed after a while that the sniper had stopped shooting and they could sense a dark aura emitting from somewhere above. Sanya could definitely sense it now and she followed it over the clouds where no one else could see it. She wondered how it could go unnoticed by her antenna for the entire time she had been here. There were a few more small fry in the way that they easily plowed through and then they noticed something weird in the neuroi formation.

The neuroi stood perfectly still and waited for the witches but it was a large gap in the middle of their formation. Most of the witches guessed that it had something to do with the hidden sniper that had been shooting at them before. And they were not wrong, as Sanya could sense it close in slowly from above.

"It's coming." Sanya whispered and she followed its decent form before she could even see it.

With just a few breaths of relief they could see in front of them a large grim-dark creature drop down from the dark clouds above. The pressure it emitted could be felt by all witches who looked at it with fear in their eyes.

The shape was a large triangular object with wide wings that looked rather fragile. It also had a large and wide tail that looked somewhat like it was directly from a plane. On the outer tip of the wings was the usual red color that it had around the body, but it looked smaller and more concentrated than they usually look. On the main body it had the usual red marks that didn't look any different than usual.

Aleksandra reported in the transponder. "Be careful and watch its every move. It is possible that this is the sniper that was firing at us before." She said and the formation shaped up into a circle and they spread out and activated their shields in case of an attack. The large neuroi though were not moving and it was the same with the lesser neuroi. It looked like they waited for the witches to do something first.

Gundula shouted in the transponder. "We can't afford to wait for them to make something. The fuses are set and we can't change the timers now. We have to take it down to move on! Let's go!"

The witches took the given initiative and charged against the big leader in charge of the opposition. They took a dive and rose back at it from under it. The lesser neuroi started to move now as well and they charged against the witches in a head-on charge.

"Formation three!" Fujita ordered and took the lead of the group. The formation split in two, with Fujita in the lead of one and Aleksandra in the other. Aleksandra's group was the decoy to get it's full attention while Fujita finished it off from behind.

They could then see the small crystals lightening up and the witches put up their shields in protection. In their focus to protect themselves up front from the sniper one, they forgot to check their backs since the neuroi were everywhere around them. With two beams they got critical hits on the back of two Fuso witches in Fujita's group. That died instantly as well as they disappeared on the spot. As Naoe noticed the beams behind, she managed to dodge it for the most part, but it struck both of her strikers which made her fall down from about 1500 meters height.

"Sadako!" Naoe yelled as she threw her bag of clay to the 502nd's other Fuso witch. With a quick spin around Naoe dived against a neuroi that was positioned below her. As her speed down increased she loaded a fist with magic and was preparing and attack. With a clean dive she reached the neuroi and with great force she blew right through it and busted out the core in the process. She managed to damage a few other neuroi with her MG 42 before landing in a lake that was very conveniently placed right there. As she got up to the surface again she looked at her team that flew on and she could see another witch getting struck by the big neuroi in front of them.

As the other witch got hit the witches had no other choice than to have everyone to attack it or it would be very likely to shoot every witch in the back and wipe out the entire team. They had already lost 8 witches although 6 of them are confirmed as dead. Naoe were rather fine except for the loss of her striker unit and the witch that lost a leg was unknown if she were still alive after that fall. She still had one striker left but if she could focus on regaining flight while distracted with the lost leg, they were not sure.

Eila was chosen to take the lead in the new formation along with Minori behind her. And behind them followed Gundula, Fujita, Waltrud and two other Fuso witches. The rest were focused to keep the other neuroi away from the attack group.

The big neuroi were slow and could not keep up with the speed of the witches but it compensated with rather thick armor. "We would really need Naoe for this job." Eila said as she noticed that lots of bullets just bounced off with no damage.

"Commander Gundula, can we try to ram into it. It has worked a few times before on neuroi with thick armor." Aleksandra asked and had a smug look on her face.

"Why not? It has been a while and it seems like we need it this time. Fernandia and Luciana, I need you to protect our backs. Everyone follow me!" Gundula ordered and the designated witches followed as she ordered.

They flew away a bit from the neuroi and flew in a pattern to make it have problem to follow. The crystals lightened up and shot after them but he couldn't predict their pattern and couldn't hit them at all. As they had a good distance and a lot of fire against them they took to the dive and flew straight at the big neuroi in really high speed.

"Strengthen your shields and put them in front of me! And be prepared to shoot inside of it when we pass right through it." Gundula said and she put up her own shield and she saw the others put their shield in front of hers. She readied her MG 42 and prepared for impact.

The neuroi fired a few shots at them but the amount of 5 concentrated shields it had no chance of penetrating it. Realizing that, it tried to move away to dodge but since it was slow and big, it had no chance to dodge since the witches came in to fast. With a violent crash they broke through the hard armor of the neuroi and as they passed through they sprayed its huge body with a huge amount of bullets. Aleksandra saw a small shimmering light deep inside the neuroi and shot her way into the light and found the core.

"Sayonara, sucker!" She said quietly and fired the final rounds and shattered the core. With a final roar of the neuroi they saw the inside turning white and then exploded into beautiful crystals. Usually they took their sweet time enjoying over taking down something like this and enjoying the view but this time it was entirely different. "There is no time to lose. Move on!" Aleksandra commanded in the transponder and the entire team took flight again.

They were now half-ways through and it had taken them 15 minutes to get here. The fuses to the clay had already been set and there were approximately 25 minutes left until they would go off. They needed to conserve the energy to manage to escape later so they couldn't advance at full battle speed. Even so they held a rather high speed, and they had to protect themselves from neuroi as well so it was much to think about this time around. Eila didn't have much problem as she could see everything that came at her. She managed to save two Fuso witches from getting shot 2 times by dragging them away or give them a push to successfully dodge a beam. Sanya had rather experienced witches that flew to protect her side. She still held her shield up all the time just in case but it was rarely needed.

They encountered two additional V1 neuroi's but this time the witches had much more firepower with more witches so this time they weren't that much of a problem. Waltrud showed an additional excellent performance of her real skills once again. A few of the Fuso witches also showed the 502nd what they were made of. One of them nearly rivaled Waltrud with her skills but her moves were rougher and not as well polished. With 2 beautifully placed rounds Waltrud finished one of them off with a wonderful performance. The other Fuso witch finished the other V1-neuroi of but it paled in comparison to Waltrud. 5 additional minutes passed and they charged in on the core once again. The neuroi in the way were quickly dealt with and they moved on.

Sanya felt a more powerful entity in front of them. "Commander Gundula, I sense a strong presence in front of us. I suspect that it is a neuroi but it feels different than the others somehow. It seems like the other neuroi's are staying away from it." She said through the transponder.

"You heard her, everyone! Be prepared and stay alert. If this is different it might be similar to the big one or even more dangerous. Reload your guns to a full magazine if you have one left. Borrow from another one if they have one left." Gundula then said though the transponder as well as she changed her magazine as well.

They fought through some low level neuroi and they saw a big hole in the neuroi messy formation and saw a neuroi core-like thing. It was black and red as the neuroi usually were but it was pretty small. It was roughly 2x2 meters and had sides exactly like a core.

As they closed in it started to shake and the witches readied their weapons. It then rose higher and its red sides started to glow. "Here it comes!" Gundula screamed in the transponder and everyone put up their shields in defense.

It shot out a beam that looked like any other neuroi and it was easily dodged by all the witches but a moment after it passed them the beam turned back and struck a witch by surprise and vaporized her upper body. Everybody followed the beam it shot and once more it turned and turned in to Sanya. With not much time to think she didn't have much time to move but was saved by a kick in her side by one of the Fuso witches who was at her side. The beam burned away the bottom part of her striker unit, and luckily no body part was hit.

Realizing she won't be doing more good with only one working striker unit, she saluted the rest of the force and fell down to the ground and dodged the neuroi on her way down. Sanya was holding her hand were she got kicked but she had to thank the witch that saved her. Eila breathed out as Sanya were saved. Then their focus turned back on the neuroi in front of them. It didn't seem like the beam could turn more than two times. They had to settle this quick or this would take as much time as the big one or more, and they really didn't have the time for that.

The witches set off and charged it from separate directions. Due to its odd shape and fast movements it twisted its body so it made the bullets bounce off. On top of being small and fast it was also intelligent. No neuroi they had met before had used its body in a way like this. No matter how many bullets they fired at the same time it would move out of the way or just make it bounce. Not even Eila could make it hit since its flat sides were always present and with all witches around that flew past her didn't make it any easier.

Waltrud and Luciana co-operated to try to take it down. Even though they were in perfect sync as they always were during the practice they didn't make any progress to destroy the neuroi at all. They didn't got hit from its beam even though the neuroi saw them more of a threat and focused on them. Once again they could confirm that this neuroi were special and that it was far more intelligent than a normal neuroi.

Eila tried to come closer to the neuroi to a point blank range. But it was difficult since it was flying bullets everywhere so she didn't have much chance. Even though her foresight magic allowed her to see into the future she couldn't see an opening to get in close since the hail of bullets against it was too fierce.

Sanya did her best to get around it as well. Nipa followed her lead and was prepared to shield her if necessary. Aleksandra and Gundula were slightly behind them but they were on their own course but followed Sanya and Nipa for the moment. They were trying out several possibilities for blind spots but so far nothing seemed to work.

Georgette and Sadako were accompanying 3 other Fuso witches and fired away as good as they could. Fernandia and Martina followed Fujita and Minori and they did a rather advanced maneuver and they were the second closest to confuse it since it didn't seem to move according to how it did to the others since most of them had pretty obvious move pattern. But even this didn't do much good.

The hunt lasted for about 3 minutes and they made no progress at all. "All witches, stop hunting this thing. We will never catch it. The fuse for the clay won't hold for much longer and we are running low on ammo. We have a little less than 15 minutes left to place the clay, and I suggest that we rush at full speed at the core. Let's move!" Gundula ordered and took the lead once again.

They were on the move again and tried to keep a distance from the difficult neuroi. What made it more difficult was that it followed them and it fired its beams as much as it could. Luckily for the witches, its presence seemed to keep the other neuroi's away from the party of witches. The way ahead of them were clear from the weaker neuroi's but beams from further away did come after them. Two more witches fell due to confusing the special neuroi's beams with beams from normal neuroi's.

While being preoccupied with dodging the beams, Gundula estimated that in the speed they currently held they would reach the core in two minutes. And with a look at her watch they had about 10 minutes until the fuse would set off. "We have 10 minutes to go until the fuses will set. 502nd, check your clay and fuses." She ordered and did check her clay as well.

Behind her everyone did as they were told, and Sadako gave Naoe's bag of clay to Eila who accepted it. With everyone fully checked they reported back to Gundula. Roughly one minute and 20 seconds until they were there. Now the normal neuroi didn't seem to stay away from the special neuroi that followed and fired after them. The witches took up their weapons and were ready to clear the way. Their eyes were stretched wide open as they saw the amount of neuroi that was housing behind the core. It wasn't a good sign to attack it right now but they didn't have another choice but to charge right at it.

With a spray of bullets, and a violent dodging from beams and neuroi that seemed to perform a suicide attack at them, they got in close with the core and were as close so they could touch it. "Everyone spread out and place the clay all over the core and when you have placed your part, help out the others as much as you can to finish the deadline." Gundula ordered as she took away herself to play her portion of the clay.

"Cover the 502nd as good as you can, we can't let them fall here." Fujita said after Gundula to the Fuso witches. She herself went after Gundula to protect her. Tsubaki went after Eila and Minori went after Sanya.

The 502nd dodged the beams that came at them and flew all around the giant core and placed their portion of the clay. Sanya were the witch with the fewest amount of neuroi after her, and to cover her were only covered by Minori and another Fuso witch. She herself had to shield sometimes herself but most of it was taken care of by the Fuso witches.

Aleksandra flew close together with Nipa and they had a good amount of following neuroi after them. There were about 4 Fuso witches that were protecting them but it weren't enough since Aleksandra had to shield and help Nipa dodge a lot of times. They were close to being hit a lot as they could feel the heat of the neuroi beams but they got their clay all around the core. After they have planted the final piece of clay they heard an ominous sound from the other side of the core. But firstly they had to escape their own followers that hunted them.

Edytha flew close together with Waltrud but they had a single witch each to protect them which meant that they had to dodge and shield a lot on their own. One of the witches that started out protecting Edytha was shot down almost as soon as they started planting the clay. They started to feel rather fatigued as they had to work a lot by themselves as they had a rather big crowd of neuroi behind them. One of the neuroi beams was as close so it blew away Waltrud's hat and a few strands of hair. After a fierce battle of firing back at the neuroi, dodging beams and placing the clay they were finished and went to assist the others. They saw a dark mass appear from the other side of the core as they could hear the song that echoed through the neuroi that followed them. But they had to worry of that when they had the time. Now they just had to finish their task and that came first.

Sadako and Georgette were totally disoriented of the amount of neuroi around them. And the song that could be heard from all around them didn't make it easier. It made them feel uneasy and unsure what was happening. They had protection from 4 Fuso witches but that didn't help one bit since they had too much beams flying around them. One of the witches that were protecting them were shot down by a beam that were supposed to hit Sadako that she dodged. Another one of the Fuso witches fell due to too many attacks from all directions. They also felt fatigued after a while but they couldn't get around placing all the clay. Georgette was able to place one piece of clay and Sadako has placed two, but the other ones they were unable to set. With a swift action Waltrud came in from behind and snatched Georgette's bag of clay and with a grin back at Georgette, she started placing it out herself. Edytha came to help to protect Sadako while she could place her part. When they were done they would have to get away from the core as it was very little time left.

Fernandia, Martina and Luciana had protection from 3 Fuso witches and they had a fair amount of neuroi after them but not as much as other had so they had not much problem placing the clay until the last bit as the special neuroi that hunted Eila spotted them as well and fired at them. One of the beams that missed them did hit one of the other witches behind them as it struck her from her blind spot and as she fell, the defense from the other diminished as well. The two witches that were left to protect them had problem taking on the neuroi of the fallen witch. They suddenly stopped as they heard a tune of a kind that they had never heard before which send a shiver down their spine. As they looked over to the direction where they think they heard it from they saw a black cloud of neuroi coming after Eila and more seemed to come. They even felt more uneasy as they supposed that the song was channeled through all the neuroi as they kept hearing it all through the force of neuroi that attacked them at the moment and carried on through the rest of the neuroi army. With another shot that was aimed at Fernandia from the special neuroi, they woke up again and had to keep doing their part, and it struck another one of the Fuso witches and blew away her upper body and they say her legs with the strikers fall down to the ground. Noticing behind them that their rear defense fell rapidly they had to work quickly. And with a little less than 5 minutes left until the fuses would set of they needed to set the clay now. Fernandia and Luciana flew in circles around Martina to protect her from the beams that came at her while she had to place the clay. Luckily the special neuroi had set her sight for Eila again and were now out of the way for the ones Martina had to set. After a few moments that could place the two remaining pieces of clay and get out of there.

From the building below where Naoe was hiding at the moment to avoid getting seen from above and she looked at the huge crowd of neuroi above her. She couldn't see who they were after but judging how good she could dodge Naoe supposed that it was Eila, if the Fuso witches didn't have some sort of super ace. Even from this distance she could make out some sort of song but she didn't hear it all too well. She was just stunned by the amount of neuroi that swarmed around her.

Eila had the most amount of neuroi after her which put a horrific amount of stress to the 3 witches that protected her. With each and every moment Eila kept on dodging the beams it felt like the neuroi kept on coming. She was disturbed when she heard like some sort of song, much like a long time ago when the neuroi tried to copy Sanya back in Britannia. The problem was that she couldn't see which one it came from as she had a swarm around her. If she didn't had her foresight magic she would be toast since long. Even though she could evade most of the attacks using unnecessary movements, even she had to use her shield to protect her sometimes due to the vast amount of beams that came at her. She could also see that the three Fuso witches that were supposed to protect Eila get pushed back until they literally had their backs against their wall. She wished that she could help them out and especially Tsubaki that kept looking at Eila as she dodged beam after beam. Four portions of the clay were set and she had four left to place. With a look at the watch she got before the mission to keep track of time until the fuses set off, there were only four minutes until it would set off. From what she could see it was only three parts of the core that didn't have a piece of clay yet. As she looked at the witches that tried to desperately break free from the pressure against the core she could see a neuroi from their blind spot charging a shot. As Eila tried to warn them from the radio, the neuroi fired away and the three pressured witches were caught up in a thick red beam that killed them off and left no traces whatsoever. Seeing Tsubaki, the one that loved Eila and acted so cheerful and friendly even after Eila rejected her, disappear like that made her heart ache so bad. But she still had to complete her own mission just as Tsubaki tried to complete hers even after she was pushed into a corner. As tears left her eye she planted another piece of clay on the core. 3 minutes left and she managed to place the next to last piece. Now the song that she heard before from the neuroi started to echo through the crowd of red and black enemies around her. It started to become unbearable as it became really loud and just as before they just kept on increasing. The use of her shield continued and she don't think that she had been this pressured even once before. Her MG42 was emptied since long and she had already discarded it. A wall of neuroi stood in the way between her and the last corner of the core. With no other choice she put up her shield and braced for impact as she accelerated as much as she could and plowed right through the neuroi and ended up right above the last corner. She dived down to plant the last clay and then looked around her. It was then she realized that she didn't see anything else than neuroi around her. With a quick look at her watch she saw that she had 2 minutes left before the fuses would set off. 2 minutes left. As the neuroi moved she could grasp a glim of the gray cloud over the core. With the final piece of clay and fuse she had left in the bag, she put the fuse in the clay and threw it at the special neuroi. With a spin it tried to deflect it but being sticky clay, it stuck on its body and didn't come off. Eila accelerated and aimed at the small hole and planned to do a final breakthrough.

Gundula who only had Fujita and one additional witch with her did finish her part very quickly, and it was then from the other side of the core she heard a dark sound emit. She and Fujita rose above the core while lightly dodging and shielding against a few neuroi around them. As she saw this sight Gundula's eyes were stretched wide open and she saw the disaster around Eila. If anyone else besides Eila went in there it would mean certain death. And she then heard the song from the neuroi that circled around all the neuroi in the area. She did realize that it was some sort of message that went through as more and more neuroi gathered to the crowd around Eila who did ridiculous maneuvers to avoid getting hit. Fujita looked on with the same sort of eyes. She either couldn't believe that the neuroi would actually communicate in this sort of way. Gundula could see that most of the witches seemed to be done with their part and just looked at this mass of darkness around Eila. As she stood there and watched she noticed that Sanya seemed to charge in against the crowd. With a swift movement from Gundula, she grabbed Sanya's hand to prevent her from intervening.

"Even if you move in there what do you expect to do? Nobody of us, even the most successful witch would be able to be able to handle this except Eila. Her foresight magic makes her one of the most exceptional witch of our time but we must let her ride this out herself." Gundula said to Sanya in sad tone. Sanya could see that it hurt Gundula to say this as she herself would like to go in there and help out. But just as she said, it would mean death. Sanya was left with tears in her eyes as she could just look on as her beloved fought against an army by herself without a weapon.

The mass grew larger and larger by the second as it more and more took the shape of a sphere that locked Eila in and everyone in the 502nd and the Fuso withes looked on in disbelief as this was happening. Gundula took a quick look at her watch and saw that it was nearly was one and a half minute left to go. She bit her lip as she was about to speak into the transponder.

"All witches, we mu…" Was all that she was able to say as she heard the rest of the witches scream in happiness that the witch from Suomus blasted her way out from the nest of neurois. Gundula yelled into the radio "I command all witches to go full speed away from the core. It will blow in a minute!"

On this command everybody fled away from the giant red core as fast as they could fly while dodging the mass of neuroi that hunted them. They got a good while away when Gundula counted down. "5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0!"

As she was finished counting down they looked back and behind the black cloud of neuroi they could see a flicker by the core before they could see the core crystal make a huge explosion from the clay and as the explosion disappeared they could see the white crystals raining down over the ruined city. And just as the massive crowd the neuroi had completely surrounded up to the 502nd and the remaining Fuso witches, they as well gradually turned white before they as well exploded into a wall shining white crystals.

Chapter 8 End


I think this one was alright, and maybe I tried a little too hard with the Fuso witch Tsubaki to be worth anything.
Please review of what you think about this chapter and thank you all for reading this fanfiction!