Air Raid (2): The Night Sky Ablaze
In an instant, the night turned as bright as day. And against a sky illuminated like high noon, there was no target easier to spot than a black knight.
"Massive wave of hostile flyers! Bearing zero-one-five! All guns, fire when ready!"
The moment the battery commander's roar echoed, twenty anti-aircraft guns stationed on the rooftops of the high-rise buildings spat fire in unison.
Thud-thud-thud-thud!
A relentless barrage shattered the silence of Albion's harbor. Black clouds of flak burst directly in the middle of the wyvern swarm.
"Hostiles, range three thousand!"
However, the tactical landscape differed from the Battle of Sarsen, which had been fought under the glare of the sun. Because they were fighting in the dead of night, relying on the artificial brilliance of flares, the distance between the Wyvern Knights and the anti-aircraft batteries was dangerously narrow.
"Hostiles are closing in!"
"Hey, you idiot! Stop firing at the same spot! Where the hell is the fire control officer?!"
"We're running low on proximity fuzes!"
The forces gathered at Albion's District 5 harbor were not the seasoned elites of the Sarsen air defense unit. Hastily assembled in just a single month, this air defense unit consisted of soldiers who had received only the most basic training. To them, anti-air combat was entirely foreign.
To make matters worse, two additional battalions and sixty anti-aircraft guns had been rushed into the area. Chaos was inevitable.
"Adjust the firing angles! Autocannon gunners, find your own positions! There's no time to hand down individual orders!"
"Enemy wyvern unit! Closing in at range two thousand!"
"Hurry up! They'll be within autocannon range any second! Where are the gunners?!"
Untrained, green soldiers trying to execute an air defense mission in unfamiliar terrain—it was a recipe for disaster. Three minutes into the battle, despite having a total of ninety anti-aircraft guns assembled, their actual effective firepower was less than half of that.
Yet, the air defense gunners were not the only ones drowning in confusion.
"Ah! My eyes...!"
"Aaargh!"
"Shit! Everyone, turn off your night-vision spells!"
A knight's vision far surpassed that of an ordinary human. On top of that, several knights had activated night-vision magic to aid their flight through the dark. When a light source as blindingly intense as the sun suddenly erupted in their faces, they were instantly blinded.
Of course, knights were living weapons capable of slaughtering men even with their eyes closed. However, this was a chaotic battlefield teeming with three hundred wyverns. The deafening screeches and wingbeats of the beasts paralyzed the knights' senses, leaving them unable to orient themselves.
And into this disarray, the anti-aircraft fire poured. Unable to see their surroundings, the knights began to fall one by one. No matter how legendary they were, panic was unavoidable.
"Fall back! Regroup first, then we strike!"
"What nonsense are you spouting?! If we retreat now, we're all dead! Charge!"
"Ah! Not that way, you idiot!"
Knights who had lost all sense of direction collided in midair, while anti-aircraft shells rained down relentlessly. Companions flying alongside them vanished in flashes of fire. With no proper casualty reports and conflicting orders sowing discord, the chaos only deepened.
Both the Southern air defense gunners and the Western knights had devolved into utter messes. In a chaotic brawl like this, the side with the longer range held the absolute advantage. After all, the gunners only had to spray their shells into the dense cluster of hostiles to hit something.
"The enemy is slowing down at range eighteen hundred!"
Four minutes into the battle, the disparity became stark. The Southern army kept up a relentless barrage of anti-aircraft fire, even if their accuracy was lacking, while the Western knights remained clumped together in the sky, flailing in confusion.
"All autocannons, fire!"
"The range is too far! We won't get clean hits from here!"
"It doesn't matter. Just fuel their panic."
By the time the knights finally managed to regain some semblance of sanity amidst the chaos, the autocannons lined up along the coast opened fire simultaneously. Thousands of 20mm rounds filled the sky like a torrential downpour, blinding the knights' vision.
This was a terror entirely different from the heavy anti-aircraft artillery. Faced with an inescapable, unstoppable deluge of lead, the knights' morale shattered completely.
Morale is half the battle. Having lost the fierce momentum they started with, continuing the assault was out of the question. In the chaotic sky, where neither casualties nor survivors could be verified, even Charles Raymonds had to admit that this raid was a failure.
But it wasn't over yet. The enemy's forces had surely all gathered here. If they retreated now and utilized the Wyvern Knights' superior mobility to strike elsewhere, they could still inflict damage that far outweighed their losses.
Calculating his options, Charles glared at his surroundings and barked, "Tsk! Retreat! Fall back and regroup!"
Charles's command rippled through the ranks, echoed by his commanders. The knights finally began to turn back... but by then, it was already too late.
Behind the wyvern swarm, in the open waters illuminated by flares, artillery fire, and the streaks of tracer rounds, five destroyers had already taken up positions.
The South had never intended to let the invading Wyvern Knights escape unscathed. The commander of the destroyer squadron stared up at the sky and ordered:
"All ships, prepare for anti-air combat!"
The destroyers, armed with 76mm naval guns and autocannons, formed a line. Moments later, they unleashed a barrage targeting the rear of the wyvern formation. With every thunderous roar that echoed across the sea, retreating wyvern knights plummeted into the waves.
Only after losing more than twenty more knights in the frantic retreat did Charles finally grasp the reality of their situation. There was no escape route.
"Damn it! Maintain an orderly retreat! Break through their anti-air net and head north!"
Boom!
Charles's shout was swallowed by the detonation of a proximity fuze, rendered utterly meaningless. In its place, only chaos reigned.
Wheeeeeee—
A sharp whistling sound sliced through the chaotic battlefield. Flares launched by the five destroyers burst in the sky, once again blinding the retreating knights.
Bullets flew from all directions. Commands were drowned out by explosions, and fellow knights continued to die. Rage over their fallen comrades, coupled with judgment clouded by the blinding flares—under these conditions, the majority of the wyvern knights arrived at a single conclusion.
If they were going to die anyway, they would take as many enemies with them as possible.
"Aaaaargh!"
Most of the remaining knights began charging toward the city, which was barely visible through their blurred vision. Five minutes had passed since the start of the battle. Already, over a hundred wyverns had plunged into the sea.
Boom! Thud! Boom-boom!
The knights threw themselves toward the harbor, where the coastal batteries spat fire relentlessly. Five minutes into the battle, with the initial chaos somewhat managed, the ninety deployed anti-aircraft guns began to unleash their full, devastating firepower.
Every few seconds, the guns lined along the coast flashed. The torrent of 20mm autocannon fire battered the aura shielding the knights, while the wyverns—unable to wield aura—were shredded into chunks of meat and sent plummeting.
"Charge...! Argh!"
Bang!
A knight let out a mournful shriek as he fell, his body riddled by hundreds of bullets. Those of lower ranks had already been turned into Swiss cheese, sinking deep into the ocean.
With every comrade who fell in the dark, with every bullet that chipped away at their aura, and with every knight—trained by the West for decades—slain by the hands of a freshly conscripted youth, a profound dread took root in their hearts.
The realization that the age of knights was drawing to a close.
Thud!
An unfortunate knight took a direct hit from an anti-aircraft shell, his upper torso instantly vaporized. He was a renowned veteran who had fought in over a hundred battles.
The sight of a warrior worth a hundred men vanishing to a blind shell served as a grim wake-up call to the trailing knights. It was the terrifying realization that the commoners they so thoroughly despised could effortlessly slaughter the most noble of knights.
An ordinary human would have succumbed to terror in such a situation. But for the knights, the emotion that surfaced first was slightly different.
"This cannot be."
Joseph, Commander of the 3rd Wyvern Knights Division, grit his teeth. Ever since the First Emperor founded the Empire a thousand years ago, knights had always been noble. Since the Empire's inception, the Wyvern Knights had served as its sharpest sword, annihilating any foe that dared stand in their path.
In his worldview, the notion of a commoner daring to kill a knight was an absolute absurdity. Those who stood against the Empire's finest sword were undoubtedly the true enemies of the Empire.
"How dare these lowly commoners!!!"
Joseph gripped his lance tightly, channeling his aura. Though several 20mm shells shattered his aura shield and rattled his bones amidst the rain of bullets, he charged forward, heedless of the danger. He would wipe these pests out right here, clearing the obstacle that dared oppose the Imperial Knights. Lowly commoners who dared look up at the sky deserved nothing less than divine retribution.
Drawing upon a massive surge of moonlight aura, Joseph leaped into the air and roared, "For the Empire!!!"
Meteor Spear
The knight suspended in the air transformed into a streak of light and plunged downward. As the moonlight aura slammed into the position where three anti-aircraft batteries were clustered, the ammunition detonated, triggering a massive explosion. The uncivilized commoners defending the air defense battery were instantly vaporized in the blast.
"Cough, cough..."
Joseph had also sustained heavy injuries from the blast, but he was a member of the 3rd Wyvern Knights Division, one of the most elite orders. Even if he couldn't use his aura right now, he would be able to fight properly again once a little time passed.
"Foolish bastards. How dare you covet the skies..."
Joseph kicked away a corpse caught under his foot like trash, using his lance to sweep aside the smoke—
"...Huh?"
And found himself staring directly into the eyes of a squad of infantry.
There were ten of them, their appearances completely concealed by heavy coats, steel helmets, and masks, all wielding heavy machine guns. The mana radiating from them was clearly not very strong. Yet, an inexplicable dread clawing at his instincts made him take an involuntary step back.
"Do you value your life, knight?"
The voice, distorted by a mechanical modulator, belonged to the elite unit guarding the Archduke of the South, Kyle Leopold, at the closest range.
"Royal Guard, First Platoon. Commencing extermination of the relic of the old era."
The Royal Guard had joined the fray to sweep up the battlefield.