Amasia

by Kali Altsoba

It’s the biggest attack by Rikugun since it stalled out in Year One. Since the black walls first snaked up-and-down Lemuria, stretching pole-to-pole as the Diyu daemons of the Yue ming laid down the borders of their obscure lands. Since Gozu and Mezu, since Ox Head and Horse Face, made lists of dead souls and times of passing. Since they built Youdu the Dark Capital there and invited Death and King Yan to dwell with them in the middle of the black.

  Somewhere, an unknown someone on the Alliance side punches in a code and a string of big mines goes active all at once, killing troops on both sides as the last Blue infantry along the leading edge of the Yue ming struggle hand-to-hand with fierce women in green. The sequential explosions flatten whole sections, killing everything inside the blast zones. To sacrifice its own people like that, Alliance HQ must have decided Rikugun is about to break through. Pitiable groaning of wounded enemies doesn’t evoke mercy in ferocious women as they reach Alliance First Trench. Lust of battle at the sight of exposed squids drives a frenzy of cruel killing and merciless massacre. Tedi feels it, too, especially after seeing another girl she knows and likes erupt into flame. ‘Fucking tapas round. Filthy squids.’