It was like fighting against the storm. What it usually meant was that the fighting was ruthless as Durante continued to unleash magazine after magazine into the monsters crossing over the minefields. Explosions erupted, but it didn't stop the tide compared to the anti-tank guns and the Sherman tanks brought to the front. he high-velocity shells screamed across the way and rammed into the Grimm. The sea of black continued to move in force as Durante watched Winter stand in front.
As the monsters got into range, the captain shouted his orders. "Everyone, stand to! We can't let them breach through!" Durante observed the specialist pull out her sword and carry a dagger in her other hand.
When the beasts reached into Winter's range, she immediately lunged forth and struck the first blow onto a leading beowolf. However, the specialist had surrounded herself in the sea of Grimm as one beast from behind had taken the chance to attack.
The beowolf lunged at her with its claws in first as it roared the bestial cry from within, but Winter spun as fast as a spinning dreidel with her sabre cutting her assailant down. Yet, she looked at the surrounding Grimm, bringing more of their number to face her as the rest continued to ignore such a small target. Then Winter was met with three ursas moving in a pack while dozens of beowolves began to join her in this dance of death.
While Captain Durante would have liked to watch the battle between Winter and the Grimm, he had more pressing matters to attend to when Derby was screaming to the top of his lungs. "Monte, I'm going to get support from the rear. Hold the fort until then!" He acknowledged the Great War veteran with a slight nod.
Durante look to the 17-pounders and their gun crew, only to fire their larger caliber shells into the large number of Grimm. However, those guns and the American anti-tank guns were really the only kind of guns which could simply harm the monsters since the regular bullets didn't do as much damage to the Grimm. He ran over to the British gun crew on the left and grabbed the attention of the commanding officer. "You guys, try and focus on the larger numbers. Don't focus on the scattered ones." The commander nodded before looking to his crew.
"Get that gun loaded, teach those sods how the British handle things."
Returning back from the gun crew, Durante joined the firing line of riflemen as everyone continued to suppress the monsters back from advancing upon their positions. Soon after, he heard the whistling of mortar shells coming down on the massive numbers coming their way. Explosions crashed down on the beasts in quick succession and knocking the beowolves and the ursas into one another due to the massive concussion of the ordnance. Then the Sherman tanks behind him had begun to open fire alongside with the anti-tank guns. This time, the tanks focused down on the creatures which deviated from the rest of their packs.
The Grimm were continuing to get close enough, but Durante almost forgot about the quick-firing British guns.
Clouds of shrapnel littered the ground before the frontline trenches as Captain Durante glanced over his shoulder to see the Bofor guns unleash clips of fragmentation shells into the ranks of the Grimm. At the same time, it was joined by the 17-pounders where the shells had begun to ram into multiple beowolves and ursas. However, this much firepower wasn't enough to stop the survivors from reaching the trenches.
Three beowolves pounced at those who occupied the trenches, their claws swiped through the small spaces and killed men who had little room to escape from their fates. Some tried to empty their ammunition upon the monsters, but it was all in vain as the Ranger captain watched in horror as the men were systematically being killed by the ruthless monsters.
Immediately, the tanks opened up on them and repulsed two of the attackers before their bodies had begun to dissipate from the scene. Yet, there was still one more trying to kill the survivors in the trenches.
The captain rose to the occasion as he begun to pull his Thompson to his side. "I must be an insane bastard." He whispered to himself before firing his sub-machine gun from his hip and began to pepper the Grimm with his weapon. Annoyed by the bullets, the beowolf looked up and snarled towards Monte before it begun to leave the defenseless trench defenders and onto the man who offered himself to be its victim. Then his weapon ran dry. "Shit, shit, shit!"
The beowolf lunged forward to take this opportunity to feed upon the brave soldier, only to have its chance snuffed out by a shell ripping through its body. Looking at where the original shot came from, Durante saw a sight he never thought he would actually see since the assault on Lorch.
A Soviet tank had joined the Sherman crews, but its armor and hull was larger than that of the normal tanks he had seen the Soviet Union is on those news reels. It's barrel was smoking from the detonation of the shell as he saw the lithe form of a tank commander taking a smoke. Surprised by such a sight of a woman commanding a tank, she managed to take the opportunity to intimidate him. "Do not fuck with an IS-2." She said.
From behind the tank, Derby jogged to him as Soviet soldiers started to flood in and fill in the gaps of the defenders. The old man was breathing hard before he dropped his hands to his legs. "God damn, I'm getting too old for this shit." He said to himself.
"You brought the Soviets with you! Why the hell did you do that?!" Monte demanded.
"Look kid, they have some neat shit we don't even have." Looking around the old veteran's shoulder, the Soviet heavy tank moved aside as Durante was even more shocked to see a tank carrying a giant gun. Derby turned around and took note of the gun's size before he planted his hands over his ears. "You might want to cover your ears." Taking notice of the elevation of the gun, Durante listened to his wisdom and copied his act before the gun fired and screamed over their heads.
Monte found himself kneeling in the snow as he looked up at the sky to see a flying machine in a size that he didn't expect to see. As it flew slowly in the cold skies, small machines flew down before unleashing gunfire onto the Grimm below. It was a sight to see and Durante would pity those on the other end of those guns before it began to open the ramps from the rear and drop machines in the shape of men.
Once they landed, the machines began to march past the Allied soldiers and begun to open fire upon the Grimm trying to charge through their defensive line. At the same time, Durante realized there was someone missing until he saw the Grimm fly away from a certain point among the black sea. Then he realized that Winter was still fighting the Grimm. "Shit, I can't radio in on her."
Suddenly, a familiar voice surprised him as he turned away from the fighting and saw Pyrrha Nikos standing before him. "Captain, I wish to help, but I need a weapon."
"Pyrrha, what the hell are you doing here?"
"I'm here to help and my semblance can prove it." She said before Durante witnessed her hands making some kind of movement he had never seen before, but he noticed her struggling as if she was carrying something.
"Holy shit!" Cried out one of the GIs behind his back.
Turning back to the frontline, Captain Durante saw a variety of shells floating in the air with a black outline around the edges. He was almost certain he was dreaming, but it was difficult to tell if there was some kind of science involved or if this was magic. The shells began to point in the general direction of the Grimm before all of the shells whistled down on the monsters like rain. Explosions erupted throughout the battlefield, smashing the Grimm into multiple craters entirely without any mercy. She almost destroyed everything where the Grimm, but Durante watched as the last shells killed all of the Grimm... except the ones Winter was fighting.
Amazed by the destructive power she wrought upon the monsters, the captain stood in shock before seeing Winter stab into a beowolf and pulling the blade out with surgical precision. The amount of bodies which lay there was surprising as he felt helpless that he didn't do much, but send his men into the slaughter. The bodies of the Grimm slowly dissipated from existence as Winter began to walk back.
However, Durante stepped forward and took the need to inform the specialist with his pistol. Three shots rang out from his Colt .45 whistled over her. He was immediately met with her cold glare and called him out. "Captain Durante, why are you trying to shoot me!" She called out. "I'm on your side and the Grimm are already dead!"
"Winter, you're in the middle of the minefield!" He shouted back at her.
"And how is shooting me somehow a good idea!?"
Captain Derby walked beside him with a chuckle. "Smooth move, Durante."
Monte grew flustered. "Shut up." Then he watched Winter create these circular runes as she leaped from one to the other like a leapfrog until she landed in front of him.
"I'll let you handle this one." The veteran said before he patted him in the back and left him to the woman who began to confront him.
There was anger and then there was cold anger that Winter brought on him. "Captain, you are a poor excuse for an officer. You could have informed me of the dangers that lay ahead of me and you decided to lay behind your defenses."
His expression immediately changed. "With all do respect you cold bitch, I'm not obligated to inform you shit." He began. "Its not my fault you decided to recklessly charge in there without asking. Besides, you got my men killed." Then he turned away from her as he walked away.
Winter folded her arms before she was met with a familiar person her sister had once shown her. Pyrrha Nikos watched Durante walk away before she began to turn her gaze towards the Ice Queen. "Pyrrha?" She whispered to herself before she was cut off by the crowd of soldiers getting in her way.
Colonel Strudwick watched the British engineers walk towards the area where the Grimm died. With their minesweepers in hand, the men began to refill the gaps once more with explosive ordnance. "Say general, I think we can come together with some sense of cooperation."
Standing beside him, General Ironwood looked out at where the fighting happened. "I was informed that some men were killed by the Grimm. My condolences."
"It's fine, it was to be expected." Ironwood turned his head towards him.
"How can you be so cold?"
"To be fair, this was not as bad as the trenches of the Great War." He said. "At least, their lives are not going to be wasted or forgotten in some blasted landscape where nothing lives. At least I can say they fought valiantly against monsters, this is a nature of a soldiers life. There is nothing wrong in it."
"Is this coming from your experience?"
"Yes, I've fought during that conflict long enough to know what a tragedy looks like."