Milano sat at his desk as he scanned the map in front of him. The room was dimly lit, with a beige lamp as the only source of light in his office. He ran a pen over the area around Dresken, sighing. "It’s too open." He grumbled. He sat back in his chair, brushing aside his graying hair. Miher walked into the room, squinting his eyes.

"It’s dark. Don’t you want more light?"

Milano shook his head. "Sometimes, when I need to focus, this is how I do so. Especially after coming here."

Miher sat down, his blue eyes furrowed. "You’re looking at the map again."

Milano sighed.

"We all agreed that Dresken was a good target, but look at the topography. The space around it is too open, with mountainous terrain around the city."

Miher leaned forward. "I see. There are quite a few choke points that we may run into."

A soldier walked into the room. "General Milano, General Miher; Master Sergeant informed us that he is in position to conduct recon."

Milano nodded. "Initiate Strike plan one alpha."

In the administrative wing beside the Mumat testing grounds, Josh sat at his desk. Progress in building the new systems had been slowed by the storm, but now that it was over, production had resumed. He ignored the reports about the Mumat systems, instead combing through reports on the storm damage. "We lost Hoaz in the storm." He called over his shoulder. A tear fell down his face. Susan got up from her desk and walked over. She wrapped her arms around him.

"We made it through; that is all that matters. We can get our revenge for him, and punish them for tainting my father’s divine storm." She said gently, kissing the top of his head.

Josh shook his head. "I can’t believe they would do something so vile. The Justin I knew would never side with people who had such an evil plan."

Susan nodded, holding Josh tightly. "I still have hope that he can be saved. Maybe we can convince him that he is being brainwashed. Part of him might still be fighting that witch’s magic."

Suddenly, Susan looked outside. She looked up at the sky. A black dot was racing toward them. "What is that?!"

Josh looked out the window, his eyes wide, and his blood ran cold. "Get down!" He tackled Susan, and a barrier of mana surrounded them. "I love you." He whispered.

"Jo-"

An earth-shattering roar engulfed them, and the building they were in exploded. Susan lost all sense of direction as dust and debris smashed against Josh’s barrier. Susan collapsed against Josh, her own mana expanding around them as plumes of dust and debris rose into the sky. Susan’s eyes widened before she lost consciousness.

"What manner of beast did we rile up?"

She thought before passing out.

Eric sat against a hill as he ate from his MRE. He did his best to ignore the bartering going on around him. Soldiers from Alpha team were trying to convince Felicity that the asian beef stew MRE was the best, and Jessica was staring them down. "Would you morons shut up and eat!" Eric growled, finally having heard enough of the foolishness. "If you do not want to eat, I can put you on guard rotation hungry." The soldiers went silent, and Eric chuckled. "I thought so."

Justin stood against the hood of the command truck. He and Erica were studying the map. "We are five miles from Dresken. How far out do their summons go again?"

Erica shook her head, rubbing her face in her hands. "Three miles, babe. Did you not pay attention when I was teaching you about it?"

Justin rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "I might have been distracted."

She smacked him over the head with a rolled-up map. "Next time, pay attention!" She groaned.

Suddenly, the radio crackled. Michael ignored the couple as he picked up the Mic. "Chaos one, this is command. Strike package one Alpha was successful. I repeat, strike package one Alpha was successful."

Michael pressed the button on the mic to respond. "Command, this is Chaos one. Good copy. Dresken operation will proceed as planned."

Michael turned to Justin. "Justin, go tell Eric that the strike was a success. After he is done eating, we will discuss the next course of action."

Justin walked over to Eric. "Master Sergeant, the strike mission was successful."

Eric threw the remains of his MRE into the box and stood up, looking around. "You will police up your area. If there is so much as a single napkin left behind, everyone here will be forced to do area beautification when we get back."

He looked a Staff Sergeant in the eye. "No matter the rank."

Eric joined Michael, Erica, and Justin. No one spoke as they looked at the map. "This is the worst possible area to defend." Eric finally said, sighing. "When we take this city, we might need to have an additional two or three companies to hold it."

Michael nodded. "The original plan won’t work. ISR confirmed they have Llrathels on each side of the Dressia pass."

Eric tapped his finger against the map, looking for areas they could approach from. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

"Master Sergeant, should we take a small recon element and scope the city out?"

Eric and Michael turned to Justin. "Good suggestion, kid," Michael said, patting Justin on the back.

"I’ll take team Alpha and Justin. You stay back here in case anything unexpected happens." Eric said, turning to Michael. "We have air support on standby if needed. If ISR is right, we won’t need it, but it is better to be safe rather than sorry."

Eric walked back over to the area where Team Alpha was staged. "Team Alpha, with me. We are going to conduct recon on Dresken."

No one spoke as they moved towards Dresken. Sweat trickled down necks, and eyes jumped at every rustle of the branches in the wind. The sun hung high in the sky, leaving each soldier feeling naked out in the open. They arrived at a hill outside Dresken. "Low crawl to the crest of the hill. Maintain a three sixty perimeter." He said as he crawled to the top of the hill. He looked down at the city and groaned. "You have got to be fucking kidding me."

Justin stared at the city, his eyes wide. "It wasn’t like this when Josh and I visited."

Eric pulled out his phone, taking pictures with the zoom as close as he could get it. After taking a few pictures, he sat against the top of the hill, motioning for Justin to join him.

Black metal gates stood in front of brown ten-meter-tall walls, and a sprawling white castle stood in the middle of the town. Military equipment such as the Llrathels were parked along the perimeter, and ten Mumat systems stood near the front of the gates. Eric counted fifteen mana cannons on top of the walls, and he could see a few Sraiz launchers near the castle.

"They turned a city into a fortress."

"Master Sergeant," Justin said, not daring to look up from the phone.

"I know," Eric responded, zooming in on a picture of a Llrathel.

He pretended to still be interested in his phone while texting Michael. "We’re surrounded. Call air support."

"Contact left and rear!" Eric yelled.

All hell broke loose.

The hill they were on became a rain of gunfire. "Throw smoke! Try to get off this hill!"

They were cut off from the west and east, no longer able to return to Michael and the rest of the convoy. Bullets zipped by Eric’s ear as smoke rose into the sky. He looked behind him and then to his right. Behind him stood Dresken; to his right stood more hills.

"Bounding retreat! Use the sight lines of the hills!"

Two soldiers had already perished in the first engagement, and Eric clenched his jaw as he ran to the next hill. He held his weapon against the crest of the hill, aiming for the tree line. "Throw grenades at that treeline!"

Roars echoed throughout the forest as massive shadows fell over the hilltops. Suddenly, the front of the treeline became a raging inferno. Screams of men reached Eric’s ears as he watched the front of the forest. "Alright, keep falling back! We rally at the convoy."

Eric looked up, seeing Felicity’s dragon form and sighing. "Well, now they know we have Dragons."

The back of Eric’s hair stood up, and he looked around. "Get down!"

Reality seemed to tilt as whistles screamed overhead. Explosions rocked the hills, the concussive shockwaves of air pushing against Eric as he pushed Justin down. "Get back to the convoy! Take Alpha with you, and bring Michael back here!"

"What about you?"

Eric crested the hill again, taking a shot at the soldier manning the mana cannon. "Don’t worry about me! Just go!"

Justin ran to where the rest of the team was, doing his best not to look up at the Dragons. "Come on guys!" He yelled. "We need to get the convoy here, now!"