Chapter 350 - 343 — Under Fire

The next explosion knocked the grin off Nesk’s face.

Stone fragments rattled down the trench. His helper ducked beneath the instructor’s arm, and Nesk struck the wall shoulder first as another cloud of dust rolled out of their ruined firing bay.

The instructor dragged him toward the next bend.

"Celebrate farther away."

Nesk needed no encouragement.

They stumbled through the passage toward the tollhouse, passing two soldiers carrying a wounded shieldman between them. Blood dripped from the man’s boot. Behind them, the Warhound’s engine continued to roar against its broken track.

Its cannon fired again.

BOOM!

A section of parapet(A low uneven wall) vanished ahead. The three launcher crewmen dropped until the falling earth stopped, then hurried beneath the broken tollhouse.

Halven was there, shouting over the machine guns.

"Where’s your weapon?"

Nesk spat grit onto the ground.

"Under the roof."

"You lost the launcher?"

"I know exactly where it is."

"That doesn’t help at all."

Halven looked past him. One of the beams covering the firing bay now stood almost upright, its splintered end pointing into the smoke.

"Can you reach it?"

"After someone stops that cannon."

Across the damaged crossing, the immobilized Warhound turned its turret toward the surviving gun shelters.

Lesser demons scrambled around its tracks. Some crouched behind the burning wreck beside it; others ran past with knives and clubs raised, driven forward by officers who stayed several paces behind them.

The cannon flashed.

A blue ward sprang up before the rifle trench.

WHUMM!

The impact lit up the shield. Halven felt the pressure through his teeth. The mage holding it staggered against the trench wall, and the shell burst above the parapet, showering the defenders with hot fragments.

A rifleman fell from the firing step, clutching his forearm.

"Get him below!" Halven shouted. "Tavin, take his place!"

Tavin stepped over the fallen rifle, planted his boots and fired.

CRACK!

A demon running toward the damaged parapet pitched forward. Another tripped across it, recovered and kept coming until the next rifleman shot it through the chest.

Beyond the tollhouse, alliance artillery thundered. White fire burst along the quarry wall, but the tracked Warhound remained untouched.

Lieutenant Senn crouched beside the field communicator in the adjoining command recess. A voice crackled from its glowing crystal.

"The eastern gun is still firing on the quarry approach."

"Redirect it to the road crossing," Senn said. "One Warhound immobilized beside the burning wreck. Its cannon is hitting our forward positions."

"Stand by. We’re changing aim."

Senn glanced toward the exhausted ward mage.

"How many more can you catch?"

The mage swallowed the blood.

"One."

Senn pulled a runner close and sent him for another caster.

Then he turned to Halven.

"Keep the infantry off the shelters. The battery is moving onto that machine."

Halven climbed back onto the firing step.

A fresh mass of demons had reached the foot of the slope.

He raised his rifle.

"Let them come."

CRACK!

The line answered him.

Inside the nearest machine-gun shelter, Borr watched the cooling runes lose their steady blue light.

They had begun to flicker.

The human gunner released the trigger to drag his sleeve across his eyes. Smoke and powdered stone had turned his sweat into grey streaks almost blinding him.

"Barrel?"

The instructor leaned close, checked the runes and nodded.

"Now."

Borr looked at the ammunition still feeding from the tenth box.

Ten thousand rounds had sounded absurd when the runesmiths promised it. He could see most of the empty boxes from where he knelt.

"Tell Halven!"

The runner at the entrance bent into the trench.

"First gun changing barrel!"

Halven heard him.

"Rifles, cover that approach!"

The machine gun stopped.

Its absence was immediate. The second gun continued hammering farther along the line, but the demons in front of Borr’s shelter no longer died beneath a continuous stream of fire.

Several reached the shallow ditch below the emplacement.

Tavin cocked his bolt and fired at a horned head rising above its edge. Beside him, another soldier emptied his rifle into the creatures crowding behind it, ducked and pressed in a fresh clip.

"More on the right!"

Halven shifted his aim.

A demon carrying a bent iron mace pulled itself out of the ditch. A bullet struck its shoulder. It screamed, stumbled and came on until Halven’s next shot knocked it backward.

Inside the shelter, the instructor and gunner worked over the weapon. The spare barrel had been waiting beside them; now the hot one lay in its rack.

Borr held the ammunition belt clear, watching the opening.

A clawed hand appeared against the stone beneath it.

The shield warrior stationed behind the crew stepped forward. His sword struck through the opening, and the hand disappeared with a shriek.

"Ready," the instructor said.

Borr guided the belt back into place.

The gunner settled behind the weapon.

BRRRRRRRRT!

Dirt jumped along the ditch. Demons attempting to climb out collapsed against those still sheltering inside it.

Borr let out a breath.

"After this, I’m requisitioning beer."

"You’ll complain about the weight," the gunner said.

"I complain about everything. You can confirm it when they ask why I deserve a barrel."

The gunner laughed once and fired another burst.

A heavy impact shook the shelter.

This time, the explosion came from behind them.

Nesk turned toward the supply passage as earth and broken planks blasted across its entrance.

A runner emerged from the dust on his hands and knees.

"The trench! It’s come down!"

Halven caught him by the shoulder.

"The ammunition shelter?"

"Still standing but the passage is blocked."

Nesk looked toward the machine guns.

Both were firing. Every few seconds, another empty case bounced out of Borr’s shelter.

He caught his helper’s sleeve.

"Come on."

The launcher instructor followed them into the rear passage.

A shell had torn away one side of the supply trench. Earth, broken supports and part of a stone wall filled the narrow route. On the far side, men were already trying to drag ammunition boxes over the obstruction.

A loose section of bank sagged above them.

"Stop climbing it!" the instructor shouted.

An earth mage pushed past Nesk and dropped to one knee.

She pressed both palms against the trench wall. Brown light spread through the loose soil. Stones ground together beneath it, rising into a rough rib that supported the damaged bank.

"Clear the middle," she said. "Leave what I’ve braced."

Nesk seized a broken plank.

His helper took the other end, and together they dragged it aside. Two soldiers attacked the loose earth with shovels while the instructor hauled a splintered support out of the passage.

Another shell burst somewhere beyond the tollhouse. Soil fell over their helmets.

The mage’s hands stayed against the wall.

"Keep moving."

They opened a gap wide enough to pass the boxes.

The ammo reserve beyond was intact. Ammunition stood in stacked crates beneath its reinforced roof, with rifle clips already packed into carrying bags.

Nesk and his helper took a machine-gun box between them.

The weight dragged their arms straight.

"You could help more," the helper grunted.

"I am trying"

They carried it through the cleared gap. Behind them, the replacements followed with rifle clips, and the instructor helped the next pair bring another belt box forward.

At the rifle trench, Tavin reached down without leaving the firing step. A carrier pushed loaded clips into his open pouch.

Three days earlier, he had needed to watch his hands.

Now his eyes stayed on the slope.

CRACK!

A demon with a butcher’s cleaver spun sideways and vanished beneath the feet of those behind it.

Farther uphill, Ilyra lay behind the ruined garden wall.

The alternate position gave her a clear view across the crossing. Her first shelter was hidden beneath a spreading cloud of dust; part of its roof had slid down the slope.

One assistant watched the road through a spy glass. The other waited beside the signal device linked to the section’s ward mage.

The elven instructor crouched below the wall.

"Movement beside the machine."

"I see it."

A tall demon had appeared behind the remains of a gateway near the immobilized Warhound. Two attendants dragged a black iron staff into position beside it.

The caster drove the staff against the ground.

Red light climbed its length.

A ward curved over the Warhound’s forward hull and turret just as an alliance shell struck the road nearby. Fragments flashed against the barrier and fell harmlessly beneath it.

The tank fired through the ward.

Its shell struck between the two machine-gun positions, tearing open an empty section near bunker.

Ilyra followed the red glow back to the ruined gateway.

From the rifle trench below, the surviving wall would hide the caster completely. From the higher garden position, she could see him through a break in the masonry.

One attendant knelt beside the staff. The other held a broad shield toward the alliance line.

Neither was watching the slope.

"Tell Senn there’s a caster shielding the Warhound," Ilyra said. "I can see him."

Her assistant bent over the signal device.

Below, Halven was shouting for a stretcher as another soldier was hit my fragments.

Nesk set the ammunition box beside Borr and straightened carefully.

The dwarf glanced at him.

"Thought you had your own hole."

"Someone objected to it."

"Loudly, from what I heard."

The human gunner kept firing while Borr brought the fresh ammunition closer.

Nesk looked through the opening.

Red light covered the Warhound shielding it while smoke drifted from its damaged track, but its turret moved smoothly.

He had stopped the machine directly in front of them.

Now it had all the time it needed to aim.

"Any word from the battery?"

"Ask the lieutenant," Borr said. "Then bring another box."

Nesk went.

He found Senn with one hand pressed against the communicator’s frame.

"The observer can remove the caster," the lieutenant was saying. "Have your gun ready."

"Calliberation complete. Finishing the charge."

Senn looked up as Nesk arrived.

"Supply route?"

"Open. Narrow, but open."

"Keep it that way."

The Warhound fired again.

This time, two mages held the ward.

The shell burst against blue light above the trench, and both casters cried out. One fell to his knees. The other caught him by the robe and kept his free hand raised.

Senn leaned closer to the crystal.

"How long?"

A pause.

Then the battery’s answer came through.

"Ready."

On the slope, Ilyra’s assistant touched her shoulder.

"The gun is waiting."

She settled against the rifle.

Through the enchanted sight, the caster stood beside his iron staff, his mouth open as he shouted at an attendant. His ward pulsed whenever the Warhound’s cannon fired through it.

The machine began turning toward Borr’s shelter.

Ilyra followed the caster’s movement.

He stepped clear of the broken pillar.

Then she fired.

KRA-BOOM!

The blast rolled along the garden wall.

The caster’s upper body burst into fragments painting the stones behind him. His legs folded beneath the falling staff, and the attendant beside him also disappeared under the wreckage.

Across the road, the red ward broke into fading strips.

"Down!" Ilyra shouted.

Her assistant sent the signal.

At the command recess, Senn seized the communicator.

"Ward is down! Fire!"

A deep report sounded behind the tollhouse.

WHUMM!

The rune-cannon’s shot crossed above the defenders, trailing a white line through the smoke.

It struck the exposed Warhound.

The explosion swallowed its turret.

Halven dropped as a piece of armor screamed overhead and struck the tollhouse wall. Something heavy landed on the road beyond the trench, bounced once and rolled into the ditch.

When he looked again, flame was pouring from the machine’s open hull.

Its cannon had sagged against the shattered front armor.

Then something inside it detonated.

BOOM!

The turret lifted, twisted and crashed onto its side. Burning fragments swept through the demons sheltering around the tracks.

Nesk gripped the communicator.

For a moment, he watched the wreck burn.

Then he looked toward the remains of his firing bay.

The upright beam had fallen. Stone filled the opening beneath it, and smoke seeped through the gaps.

Halven caught his glance.

"Later."

Nesk nodded.

His helper was already waiting beside another ammunition box.

Together, they lifted it.

The guns never stopped.

Borr’s crew fired through the thinning smoke at demons streaming around the two wrecks. The second machine gun swept the slope farther right, forcing a cluster of attackers into the open in front of Halven’s riflemen.

The Mausers cracked along the trench.

Some demons tried to retreat toward the crossing. Those still coming forward collided with them, and the road filled with bodies struggling in opposite directions.

Alliance artillery struck the quarry approach.

A broad sheet of flame rose behind the crowd.

For the first time since the Warhound had found their firing positions, Halven could hear orders being passed without a cannon blast cutting across them.

"Fresh clips forward!"

"Wounded through the rear passage!"

"Keep that opening clear!"

The earth mage emerged from the supply trench with blood running from one nostril. She wiped it away and sat beneath the tollhouse steps, her hands shaking.

A carrier put a water flask beside her before returning for another load.

Halven checked the men nearest him. Tavin had a cut above one eye but kept working his rifle. Two soldiers had bandaged arms.

They still held the trench.

Senn gave the battery its report.

"Warhound destroyed. Two confirmed kills here."

Twelve of the machines remained elsewhere in the assault.

Beyond the burning crossing, fresh demon banners appeared through the dust.

Halven watched another mass descend from the quarry buildings.

"Reload while you can," he called.

Borr’s gun fell silent for a fresh belt. The neighboring weapon carried on, and the riflemen picked off creatures crawling from the ditch.

A runner came from the left.

He nearly collided with Nesk, caught himself against the trench wall and pushed past with one hand clamped to his helmet.

"Sergeant Halven!"

Halven turned.

"The next section has pulled back!"

"Which section?"

"Past the collapsed storehouse. The bombardment broke their trench. They’re rallying behind the second wall."

Halven looked left.

Smoke hid the neighboring firing positions. He could still hear fighting beyond it, but the steady line of rifle flashes he had seen earlier was gone.

"How far have the demons come?"

"They’re in the trench."

A scream carried through the smoke.

Then another.

The runner pointed toward the passage joining the two sections.

"They’re coming along it."

Halven climbed one step higher.

Through a break in the smoke, he saw a demon hauling itself over the side of the neighboring trench. Another followed, carrying a short sword. Farther back, more were dropping into the passage that led toward the tollhouse.

Borr’s gun hammered behind him.

The main advance was still climbing the slope.

Halven caught Tavin’s shoulder and pointed left. Then he turned, raising his voice above the firing.

"Keep the guns on the front! Rifles to the left!"