PSA: Sorry I haven't uploaded for a while, I've been pretty busy recently with uni starting back up again. I still definitely plan to continue this though, and have ideas for the next several chapters at the very least.

Also, I'm sorry if I am unable to answer all of the reviews. I can only post one review myself on each chapter, so check your private messages. Unless you're a guest, in which case you don't have private messaging so I'll try to address you in the one review I get to write.

Steel and Sorcerers - Chapter 28

Itami's squad along with the other survivors stumbled across the narrow pathway through the land of molten magma, somehow avoiding falling in, and reached the other side, tumbling to the hard stone ground in a heap.

They had been running almost non-stop for the past two days as they desperately fled from the demons in the Dwarven capital, and were exhausted. They weren't even sure if they were being pursued or not, but didn't want to wait around to find out.

"Soldiers, what's going on?" A senior officer from the forces stationed to defend the lava region stepped forwards to address them.

"Ah, sir" gasped one of the men, still trying to catch his breath. "There's demons, coming, probably."

"What do you mean? Explain yourself!"

Itami, who was an expert at running away wasn't as tired as the others, so he answered. "When we got to Feo Berkana we saw that a massive crowd of thousands of Quagoa were being herded by what looked like demons."

"What happened next?"

"One of the demons, who looked like they might be the boss, accompanied by a couple of large flying demons introduced himself as 'Jaldabaoth', and said he was going to launch an invasion. They also killed a couple of our soldiers seemingly for their own amusement. They'll probably be coming here next so you need to run. Also, we tried firing off a few shots but they seemed to be immune to rifle rounds."

"Hmm, this is troubling indeed."

The officer used a wired telephone to make a quick call, before telling Itami's squad and the others "You'd better head back to Feo Jera to tell the higher-ups yourselves what you saw. We'll hold them off here in the meantime."

Kuribayashi spoke up. "What? You can't stay here, you'll be killed! Didn't we just say that they were immune to bullets?"

The officer gave a weak smile. "They may be immune to bullets, but they might not immune to 25mm chain gun or anti-tank guided missiles. Besides, this region is a strategic chokepoint. Most of their forces will have to cross the narrow bridge, where they'll be easy pickings."

Kuribayashi didn't look fully convinced, but reluctantly departed in an LAV with Itami's squad, the dwarves, and the other soldiers they had been to the capital with.

As soon after they left, the commander in charge of the garrison ordered his troops into defensive formations on high-alert, and requested additional backup from HQ. Currently under his command were two Bradley fighting vehicles and around 20 soldiers equipped with various anti-infantry and anti-armour weapons. He was well aware that he didn't have the ammunition or troops to repel a full scale invasion, but was hoping they might be able to hold out long enough for reinforcements to arrive.

However, those hopes were quickly dashed, as just a couple of hours after Itami's squad departed one of the lookouts reported that he had spotted something already.

"Tell me what you're seeing" ordered the commander.

The soldier peered through his binoculars. "Uhh, it's a bit hard to see because of the heat distortion, but it's some kind of bluish-white figure. Oh, what the hell?"

"What is it?"

"They're walking along the pathway, but it looks like the lava is solidifying and turning back into rock around and beneath them."

The commander grabbed his own pair of binoculars and looked at what the soldier was claiming to be seeing.

There indeed was a massive amount of distortion in the air around the figure, far more than usual, which made it almost impossible to properly make out what was going on. However, it looked like they were indeed creating a trail of rock, as the lava presumably cooled around them. That thing would have to be emanating a massive aura of freezing air to solidify the lava like that, which explained the huge distortion. It was probably some sort of ice demon.

As it got closer, they were able to discern its features better. It's skin was bluish-white and its hair black, wearing pure white garments.

"Huh, it looks like a lady?"

However, they soon noticed something else.

"That's not good."

Trailing behind the freezing entity was what looked to be a massive line of Quagoa, walking along the path of rock, about six metres across created in the lava.

"Shit… With a path that wide we might not be able to hold them off for long."

The commander put down his binoculars. "We'll just have to take out the lead demon then."

He brought out his radio. "Gandalf-commander to Staff-Alpha and Beta, do you have eyes on the enemy formation?"

A response crackled back through, "Staff-Alpha and Staff-Beta to Gandalf-commander, confirmed, we have the bogeys in view."

"Staff-Alpha and Beta, you may fire at will, try to aim for the white one at the front."

"Roger."

The Bradleys' 25mm chain guns opened up on the advancing column, rounds tearing through the exposed Quagoa. Many tripped and fell over the bodies of their comrades, some tumbling into the lava. However, the pale white figure at the front seemed unfazed, continuing to steadily pace along the narrow rock-bridge.

"Staff-Alpha and Beta, do you have rounds on the hostile at the front? It doesn't seem to be going down!" yelled the commander, struggling to be heard over the deafening gunfire.

"Affirmative. We're pretty sure we've hit the lady at the front several times, but it doesn't seem to be having any effect."

"Roger. You have authorisation to fire TOW missiles at the target."

"Confirmed."

The left Bradley fighting vehicle, designated Staff-Alpha, fired off a BGM-71D TOW anti-tank missile from one of its side-turret mounted launchers. With the Bradley operator centring his crosshair over the frost entity, the missile sped towards the target, propelled by a rocket motor. Upon hitting, there was an explosion as its shaped-charge warhead activated, launching a hypersonic jet of metal particles into the being.

The soldiers waited anxiously to see the results of the attack. However, as the dust cleared, the figure strode forth, their pure-white garments seemingly unsullied by the blast.

"Staff-Alpha to Gandalf-commander, bad effect on target."

"Confirmed, fire again."

Staff-Alpha fired off another missile. However, this time the missile didn't even hit, abruptly swerving off to the side and hitting the cave wall off in the distance.

"Gandalf-commander, we seem to have missed. Also, we need to reload our missiles."

"What? How? They're barely moving. Staff-Beta, you fire one."

There was a bright flare as the missile burst out from the launch tube and raced towards the freezing entity, however once again the missile seemed to veer off course at the last moment, plummeting into the lava.

"Staff-Alpha and Beta, any idea what the problem is?"

"We're not sure. It could be the temperature, or maybe that thing has some kind of magic countermeasures?"

"Urgh…" the commander paused for thought.

"All right. Everyone, full retreat. We'll regroup with the others at Feo Jera."

3 days later, the first wave of Quagoa had been sighted at Feo Jera.

Itami's squad had arrived 2 days earlier to inform them of the incoming threat, so they had had some time to set up defences. However, adequate reinforcements were still yet to arrive. Despite this though, the commander of the Feo Jera garrison was confident that they could hold off the Quagoa. After all, the dwarves had managed it as long as they could remember with a comparatively weaker force. The suspension bridge and Great Rift were an ideal chokepoint for enemies that couldn't fly. That being said, Itami had indicated that flying demons were present, however they seemed to only be the elites, which should be few in number.

The frost demon he had heard about from the defence forces at the lava region was worrying, as it seemed impervious to cannon and missile fire. However, since it probably couldn't fly they could always cut the suspension bridge as a last resort.

Along the ridgeline facing the Great Rift, as well as in the dwarven fortress there, several tanks, IFVs, miscellaneous stationary defences and almost a hundred infantry were stationed, and this was in addition to the dwarven defenders. Unless powerful demons came in significant numbers the commander was sure of victory.

At around 2am, the first group of Quagoa launched an attack. Hundreds of them burst forth from various caves to charge across the bridge towards the human and dwarf defenders.

The human forces opened fire immediately, tank shells blasting apart groups of Quagoa and collapsing tunnels they were pouring out from. They made sure not to accidentally hit and destroy the suspension bridge though.

The amount of Quagoa was so great in number, so intense their drive to fight, that many were swept off the edge into the chasm below as they frantically pushed to get onto the bridge.

Upon seeing this, many of the dwarven defenders were grateful for the assistance of their human counterparts, as they weren't sure that even with the natural barrier of the Great Rift they would been able to repel an invasion of this magnitude by themselves.

A Type 74 tank had been positioned directly at the other end of the suspension bridge, and it fired armour piercing rounds into the mass of Quagoa racing across, taking down several in each shot as the high-velocity projectiles pierced through multiple at a time.

All seemed to be going well for the first hour or so, the bridge groaning under the weight of Quagoa corpses, as their brethren struggled to clamber over them and make any progress.

However, all of a sudden a huge wave of Quagoa burst forth from seemingly out of nowhere, charging forth along the ridgeline on the same side as the defending human and dwarf forces.

Such an attack was totally unprecedented and took the defenders completely by surprise, as they rushed to orient themselves towards the new threat. Many humans were slashed to pieces before enough firepower could be brought to bear to slow down their advance.

As more and more guns were being repositioned to focus on the new stream of Quagoa, they were steadily managing to push them back across the plateau. It seemed as if despite this unexpected attack they would still be able to endure.

However, it was not meant to be. Waves of winged demons, resembling flayed humans painted with slimy black liquid, began to emerge from a number of different caves, diving down onto the defenders.

Anticipating this possibility, anti-aircraft guns that had been held in reserve opened fire on the demons, knocking scores of them out of the sky in a hail of bullets and cannon shells.

There were too many of them though. Even with the infantry and machine-gunners assisting, the huge number of demons, the multiple approach angles and their evasive manoeuvres meant that many made it through the wall of gunfire, tacking soldiers to the ground and tearing them apart with their sharp claws and fanged jaws. There were only supposed to be a few flying demons, not an entire swarm.

Faced with this, as well as their dwindling ammo stockpiles, the commander made the tough decision to make a steady withdrawal into the city.

Itami's squad was also present during this desperate defence, shooting demons out of the air as his soldiers retreated back towards the gates of Feo Jera. Due to the sheer number of casualties and ferocity of the enemy attack, many of their comrades had to be left behind. Itami felt sick as he watched the bodies of his fellow soldiers be consumed by packs of ravenous demons, though was grateful that his own squad had all made it out safely.

The armoured gates of the city swung clanged shut on that hellscape with a reassuring finality, however the sounds of banging and hammering soon filtered through.

The garrison commander grasped his head with both hands in frustration. They had lost so many soldiers, and a great deal of equipment too. Not to mention the Quagoa and demons were now literally knocking on their front door. It was sturdy and well built, but who knew how long it would last against any powerful demons that decided to come along.

For now, their only option was to prepare a defence in case the gates were breached, and hopefully launch a counter-offensive from Feo Raizo to relieve the siege. That was, if Feo Raizo wasn't about to come under attack themselves.

All in all, it was a terrible situation. Another issue was that the current director of operations in the special region, Habiki Ito, seemed fairly inexperienced and easily manipulated. Hopefully he would be able to pull them through this, but the commander had his doubts.