A Helping Hand

After disembarking from the trains at the edge of the Misty Forest, the army began marching north toward the demon outpost. Although there were no sightings of the ground forces of the demons, they constantly experienced Devilbeast flybys. The demons had sight of their movements. They were out of range from the anti-aircraft guns so the only one able to hit the demons was Andrea who had received a large sniper rifle. She was able to kill a few Devilbeasts but eventually they were smart enough to stay out of range.

As the progressed, they occasionally encountered some groups of demons hidden underground, probably to ambush them if they set up camp on top of a cl.u.s.ter. Luckily, they were able to avoid disaster because Sylvie was able to spot them. Artillery bombardment followed by attacks from the accompanying God's Punishment Witches were able to eliminate them.

The soldiers from Neverwinter and Hermes all marched together, lived together, and talked together. While at first they had been somewhat wary of the men from another nation, they soon found that they weren't so different after all.

The witches from Neverwinter had a complicated reaction to the combat witches sent from Hermes. One one hand they were fellow witches but on the other hand they worked for the church which up until recently had been their enemy. The two groups had been separate at first and didn't know how to approach each other. Then, the Taquila witches went to talk with them and were quite friendly. After a few witches decided to cross over and mingle, the groups dropped their fears and were able to be together. Some even started becoming good friends.

The army was able to make good progress, and after several days they were approaching the demon outpost that was their objective.

"Alright everyone." Commander Iron Axe spoke to the army after a day of marching. "We will make camp here. We expect that we will be able to arrive at our destination tomorrow. We are almost there men. The sooner we can blow up that outpost the sooner we can all go home."

As everyone dispersed to set up tents, Iron Axe took Sylvie aside. "Make sure to scan the area, we don't want any surprises, even if we aren't at their outpost yet. The risk might not be as high but you should still check."

"Yes sir", replied Sylvie. She proceeded to do a comprehensive scan of their surroundings, making sure to look underground, in the sky, in every place. The day was coming to an end and Sylvie was exhausted.

She returned to Iron Axe and told him, "I looked around and didn't see anything. I wasn't able to look too far though."

Iron Axe grunted and said, "I suppose that will be alright for now."

The army went to sleep, leaving some guards to keep watch. The night was quiet, there was no demon attack and everyone was able to peacefully sleep.

In the morning, everyone woke up and started getting ready. As Sylvie did her examination of the area she was greatly alarmed.

Sylvie quickly ran to Iron Axe and told him, "the demons are here. They are five kilometers to the south of us!"

"What!" Iron Axe was shocked. "How is it possible for them to get so close? This is bad, everyone needs to get into position for battle now."

Iron Axe turned to Sylvie and yelled at her. "Watching the demons was supposed to be your job. Why didn't you see them!"

"I wasn't able to look underground too far. Even though I scanned the surface in the distance, they could have hidden underground outside of my search range and then emerged during the night to march on us." Sylvie seemed quite frantic.

"So you didn't do your damn job!" Iron Axe was infuriated. "You were supposed to make sure they weren't hiding underground."

Sylvie broke into tears. "I'm sorry. I was just so tired. There was so much to look for. I couldn't see enough." Her eyes were puffed up as she continued to cry. "I'm a failure and lots of good people are going to die because I couldn't do my job…"

Iron Axe blanched. He didn't mean to be so harsh to her. It seemed that he had gotten angry and lashed out at the poor girl. He quickly rushed to console Sylvie. "Its okay", he said to her softly. "We shouldn't have given you a task you couldn't complete. We were putting too much burden on you. It's not your fault, it's my fault for not thinking things through enough."

Iron Axe continued to pat Sylvie on the back as she cried. Soon her crying became quieter and eventually stopped. After Sylvie stopped crying Iron Axe spoke to her. "Now it is time for you to watch the demon's movements. The past doesn't matter anymore, just focus on the battle. You aren't going to do anyone any good standing around like this."

Sylvie nodded and then ran off with purpose to guide her. With the previous admonishment now pushed out of her mind, she began using her ability to continuously monitor the demon's position and relayed the information to the officers.

The army quickly began setting up their defenses, moving with efficiency borne from their training. The machine guns were set up as well as some sandbags. The anti-aircraft gunners quickly got to their positions and prepared to fire. The artillerymen began loading the cannons and calculating the angles for firing. Unfortunately they didn't have much time to prepare so they were unable to dig trenches. Despite their defenses not being optimized, it was solid enough and the soldiers prepared to hold back the demon's assault.

Half of the God's Punishment Warriors sent by Hermes were stationed at the front to block the demon assault. The other half were stationed among the artillery and anti-air guns to protect the vulnerable assets. The witches were arranged throughout the army to provide support and the God's Punishment Witches of Taquila were stationed in the center as a tactical reserve.

The enemy approached and the human forces braced themselves for the incoming assault.