Seventh Realm Part 1: A LitRPG Fantasy series (The Ten Realms Book 8)

by Michael Chatfield

  “What was that?”

  “That was the round hitting and the spell expanding. Explode.” Power once again filled his voice, commanding momentous mana.

  Formations died on the ship’s surface and explosions rocked it as it dropped several feet. Barriers were thrown up haphazardly, showing openings in its shields.

  “That was me detonating it. Come on, Erik, you slow army bastard.”

  Erik yelled as power coursed from the dungeon core, burning through his body and into the rail cannon.

  The world bloomed with fierce light from the mana discharge. A second rail cannon bucked, the round hurtling through the sky.

  Erik watched as it struck the side of the frigate, carving a silver scar in its blackened sides. An explosion tossed the ship to the side.

  Erik panted; his mana channels were burning. He could feel the limits of his body.

  The ship listed to the side. The impact made the multi-ton behemoth shudder.

  He heard the auto loader loading the next round.

  Just one more round should take them out of the sky and bring them down to our level.

  He braced himself against the gun, gritting his teeth with the pain, ready to take on the full power of the dungeon core to enhance the round again.

  He was aware of the state of his body, the state of his mana channels. It wouldn’t take much more to break them, to break him.

  His thoughts turned to Alva, and to the mana drill.

  His breath caught as he swallowed sharply, thinking thoughts he didn’t want, feeling his bone-deep fatigue.

  I can’t. And he knew it to be true. He could power up another round, buff it to do some massive damage, possibly strike a critical blow, but he could die in the attempt and he couldn’t—wouldn’t—let that happen. If he and Rugrat weren’t around, Alva could fall apart. Look at what happened with the dungeon and the drill. At all of this. If we die, Alva will die too.

  He cursed, releasing the cannon’s barrel. He balled his fist, wanting to punch it but grunted and turned away. His duty lay with Alva. Dying here, trying to take out the ship, maybe taking it out… If he was just a soldier, he would do it. But he was a Lord of Alva and Alva needed him.

  His life was not his own to throw away and that burned something fierce. He wanted to rage against it but deep down he believed that Alva, while they had developed, had not yet grown.

  “Sir?”

  Erik smacked the barrel with an open palm. “We’ll support the withdrawal. I want to make sure all Alvan’s return home.”

  Commander Glosil assessed the situation. Attacks were raining down a lot closer now. Black Phoenix’s aerial beasts, birds of red and black, breathed fire while their riders cast destructive spells.

  There were thousands of them, while only tens of the kestrel’s and sparrows remained, bringing a trail of undead mages with them. Having fought for the whole day, they were being torn apart.

  “We can’t hold on for much longer,” Kanoa said.

  “I need ten more minutes. Let our people get into cover and organized, then pull back your sparrows and kestrels,” Glosil said and opened a channel to Kanoa, Domonos, and Yui.

  “Yui, once the bunkers have collapsed, pull back to the inner wall. Peel back those in the towers with you. Domonos, defend the castle compound walls. Kanoa, organize the evacuation. Push people to the backup dungeons. Those with the lowest levels first—Adventurer’s Guild and reservists. Then the air forces, then the ground forces.”

  “Sir,” Yui started but Glosil talked over him.

  “We will not be able to hold Vuzgal, but we will do everything we can to make sure that the enemy pays to take it. I will not let our people die for a city filled only with our own fighters. Our people are gone. I am preparing plan Sunken City.”

  “Yes, sir,” the others reported.

  “We must buy time for our people to retreat. Every minute we hold means one more person we can get to safety.”

  Glosil cut the channel and opened four new ones.

  “Pull the lords out to the backup dungeons.”

  “Yes, sir,” the special team leaders reported.

  Rugrat looked over the sandbags that made a wall inside the castle’s side doors. Covered walkways reached out to different sections of the wall.

  “Let’s move.” He sprinted with the special team and ran under the covering toward the walls. Spells hit the ground around the barriers, throwing up sprays of dirt and stone.

  “Missed, prick!” Rugrat yelled as they ran to the wall. Rugrat slowed as he reached the bottom of the stairs, breathing heavily. He coughed, grabbed onto the railing, and hauled himself up the stairs with a yell.

  He got to the third floor. Dragon Regiment was setting up across the wall. Machine guns were fired from the roof and others were shooting in the hallway. Rugrat moved to a firing slit and looked at Vuzgal.

  Towers fired into the sky with their machine guns. Blue airshot spells cris-crossed, taking a heavy toll from the Black Phoenix Clan, but the tower’s mana barriers were rapidly darkening.

  The Undead Legions moved to the rooftops or flew on their aerial beasts into the maelstrom, casting spells, hurling spears, and firing bows, or throwing debris.

  Rugrat looked at the map on the inside of his arm. The enemy was landing among the bunkers and in the city.

  “Shit, they’re going to cut off our front lines.”

  “Sir, you need to come with us,” Gong Jin said.

  Rugrat kept checking his map as Gong Jin guided him down the stairs. “Shit, we have no support. If they all go into the under city, the enemy will follow them down. And we don’t have the teleportation formations to move an entire regiment in one move.”

  Rugrat grabbed a potion and drank it. His strength was still coming back as his body healed from the stresses he had placed upon it.

  Thank shit I only used a few percent of the power stored in the mana storing formation. If I’d gone a little higher, I’d be popcorn.

  “Sir, we need to get you out of here,” Gong Jin said.

  “Wait, what?” Rugrat stopped, pulling up Gong Jin short as he asserted some power.

  “Sir, you are the dungeon lord,” Niemm said. “We need to evacuate you.”

  Rugrat glared at them both. “And you think I’m going to fucking abandon my people?” His voice grew deeper as the power in his mana channels gathered. His domain stabilized around them all as the two team leaders looked at one another and Rugrat.

  “Maybe you forgot, boys, but there is a plan if Erik or I die. I hate this dungeon lord this, city lord that,” Rugrat snarled and pulled his arm from around Gong Jin’s shoulders.

  He started toward the downstairs.

  “Sir, what are you doing?” Gong Jin asked, raising his voice.

  “My fucking job!” Rugrat pulled out his rail gun, staggering slightly. He stabbed out his foot to support himself. His hands moved faster than his brain, checking the modified rail gun before he slung it and kept walking. He made it to the bottom floor as spells still struck around the covering.

  George jumped from his shoulders and expanded.

  “Sir, Alva needs you!” Niemm yelled.

  “Alva has the council. My fucking troops need me. Erik and I are your nukes. Well, I say it’s about time we have a fucking atomic winter! These motherfuckers and their shiny fucking ship!” Rugrat’s face twisted, his teeth clenched as he pulled on his helmet activating his linked sound transmission device.

  “Doc!”

  “What?” Erik said.

  “‘Bout time we got into this motherfucker, you think?”

  “Yeah, yeah. I think you’re right. What you thinking?”

  “Draw a line in the sand and hold it.”

  “See you in the air.”

  Rugrat jumped on George’s back and looked back at the special teams. “Now, you going to baby me like some green fucking recruit, or are you going to get on your mother fucking mounts and do your fucking job?”

 
The team members behind Gong Jin and Niemm pulled out their mounts and got on.

  Gong Jin and Niemm did likewise.

  “Anymore of that shit and I’ll shove you through a teleportation formation myself. Am I understood, Captains?”

  “Yes, Sergeant Major,” Gong Jin and Niemm repeated.

  “You with me?”

  “Until the end,” Gong Jin said.

  “I’m not one for waiting in the rear. These fuckers knocked on our front door. We best give them an answer,” Niemm said.

  “All right, we’re going through the air to the outer wall. Keep it tight. Arrowhead formation. Make sure you have your railgun ready and check your spell scrolls. What’s our rule?”

  “Use your rounds, not your spells!”

  “Too fucking right!”

  “Fuck me.” Santos’ laugh was hollow.

  “Yeah.” Wazny’s throat was dry as he looked out from the secondary mana barrier tower on the inner wall.

  It was just Santos, Xia and Wazny now. The sparrow and kestrel wings had been dispersed over the towers so if one tower were knocked out, it wouldn’t take out all of Alva’s air force.

  “Not much for it,” Xia said.

  “No.” Wazny blinked, holding his eyes together to wet them. “How are you looking?”

  “Formations charged, bird fed. Armor at two hundred percent. Railguns are in and loaded,” Xia said.

  “Same here,” Santos confirmed.

  “Good to go here. Did you get resupp on spell scrolls?”

  “Yeah, got a full spread,” Santos said.

  “Barrier, buffs, and attacks,” Xia said.

  Wazny looked over to Xia, seeing her look through the different spell scrolls and pull tabs arranged around her cockpit as her sparrow moved around, scratching his wing.

  Wazny looked to the other side. Santos held beads in his hand, silently moving them between his fingers.

  “We all need some prayers right now,” Wazny muttered.

  “What was that, Cap?” Xia asked.

  “Time to do the day job.” Wazny’s mount moved forward to the flight line. Formations lined the walls, ceiling, and floor, humming with power that flickered randomly.

  “Looks like the rain is rather heavy.” Santos gave a tired laugh.

  Wazny looked out over the flight line and the formations. Aerial mounts rode the wind down in a wave of blacks and reds. Platforms dropped from the bottom of the ship. Alvan mana cannons and machine guns fired on them, striking mana barriers around each platform.

  Formations flared, throwing up mud and igniting spell traps in the ruined Scarecrow’s hill. Then they hit the ground; mounted fighters charged toward the bunkers.

  Spells darkened the mana barriers as attacks cut into the landing forces. They fell under the withering red fire of explosive shot, unable to use their barriers in the chaotic environment.

  More platforms dropped around the bunkers, offloading their forces, splitting the bunker’s fire.

  The towers opened up with their airshot as the Phoenix aerial forces got into range. Barriers took the impacts, and the riders responded with their own spells. The barriers flared.

  “Another round of who has the stronger weapons and the better barriers. Fuck,” Xia’s voice broke.

  “You good?”

  “Yeah, I’m good, Cap. Let’s get in this. Our people need us.”

  Wazny looked at Xia and then over to Santos. “It’s a fucking honor to lead you into battle.”

  “Same here, sir,” Santos said.

  “Wouldn’t trade it for anything,” Xia said.

  Wazny connected to the command channel. “Sparrow wing Alpha Three launching.”

  His mount ran forward, flapping her wings. She caught the formation, Santos and Xia right behind him. Undead aerial mounts and their mages unfolded from their standby positions and rushed out after them.

  Wazny checked Xia and Santos on his wings. “Okay, long range them with railguns and spell scrolls. Keep them from attacking the towers. Don’t try to get tangled. They have numbers and the towers can’t shoot.”

  “Copy.”

  “Understood.”

  Wazny took a breath. “Okay, target the group at our ten o’clock with spell scrolls. Santos, target left. Xia, right. Undead, attack after we use our spell scrolls. Only ranged attacks.”

  “Talkative group!” Santos said.

  “Follow me.” Wazny altered his heading. The group moved with him. He saw other groups of sparrows and kestrels shooting out from the airfields and inner barrier towers.

  “Targeting.” Wazny grabbed a pull tab. The area of effect appeared in front of him over a tower that the Black Phoenix aerial forces were strafing, then banking away and attacking again.

  “Watch for spell scroll.”

  Wazny ripped the pull tab. A spell formation snapped into existence right in the path of the Black Phoenix aerial forces. They couldn’t stop themselves as air blades flew out of the spell formation.

  Their barrier took a few hits before it passed over the formation and the spell was inside, right in the Phoenix’s beaks.

  Xia and Santos activated their spell scrolls. As the Phoenixes broke to the sides to get out of the path of the air blades, they ran right into their spells.

  The force was torn to ribbons. Their barrier carrier must have been killed as it disappeared.

  The tower and undead mages exacted vengeance on the remainder of the group.

  “Follow me, new—” Spells hit around Wazny.

  “Barrier! Barrier! Barrier!” He pulled a tab, and a barrier covered him and the others. They pulled their own spell scrolls. The barriers didn’t activate being under his own.

  The spells went wide but the undead mages were targeting and returning attacks.

  “Where the hell are the undead shooting?” Wazny looked for where their spells were going.

  “High and left! Good tracers.”

  Wazny saw what Santos saw; a group was diving toward them.

  “Break to the left and spell scroll them!”

  Wazny banked to the left and targeted the other group. Spells appeared in what would have been Wazny’s path. His spell skimmed over the top of their covering barrier as they changed their flight path.

  “Break! Break! Break!”

  Their formation came apart as Santos, Xia, and Wazny went in different directions. The undead broke, following each of them.

  Impacts dotted Wazny’s spell scroll barrier as he fought back with his spell scrolls. Santos raked their barrier with his rail guns, stitching lines up its side as Xia’s spell scroll missed.

  The Black Phoenixes dove in formation. They were slower, running right into Wazny’s forming spell as it exploded in a fireball.

  Burning birds and people were tossed out of the burst barrier, falling to the ground.

  “Okay, let’s head to the east!”

  Spells hit Santos. He dove to get away from them but one of his unprotected mages was hit.

  Their mount staggered, but they returned the attacks.

  Xia returned fire with her railguns. The group was unprotected, and her air shot rounds tore through several as the others dispersed. The undead mages targeted them, raking them with spells as they tried to flee.

  Their barriers fell away.

  “Barrier up! Don’t hold back. You run out of barrier spell scrolls RTB.” Wazny pulled on a barrier spell scroll.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Copy!”

  Wazny saw a flight of kestrels get hit with spells as they fought through, the gunners firing off spells and their repeaters in every direction.

  “Bank to the left. Moving in support!”

  They turned toward the kestrels, piling on the power. Wazny tore spell scrolls, getting it in the general area of the three aerial groups.

  Their spell scrolls hit the Black Phoenix aerial forces. They peeled away. Two of the kestrels were in a bad way; the third had lucked out. They were all turning and dropping back t
oward the nearest airbase.

  Spells overshot Wazny’s group.

  “High and right!”

  “Break away. They have the altitude!” Wazny yelled. They dove toward the city, coming in low over the buildings, and through the undead that dotted the roofs. The undead attacked those up high and below the towers, sending hundreds of blue tracers skyward.

  Spells hit the buildings around Wazny, the blast shaking his barrier.

  “Circle the tower!” Wazny yelled.

  A spell smashed into Santos’s barrier.

  “Shi—” He slammed into a building.

  His aerial mages kept attacking the Black Phoenix group that was harassing them, turning to follow Wazny and Xia.

  Wazny tightened his jaw as his sparrow jinked side to side, diving low into a street and then taking the air up and over a building.

  He banked with Xia around the tower.

  The gunners switched their aim, firing on their hangers.

  “Buff scroll!”

  Wazny tore the tab. The buff enveloped himself and his sparrow as his speed surged. “What about Santos?”

  “Command will send undead to check.”

  “We can’t leave him!”

  “Second Lieutenant!” Wazny snapped.

  “Sir,” Xia said tersely.

  “We need to gain altitude and—” Spells once again passed Wazny and Xia. Their mages responded to the attacks, hitting the enemy and making them break away.

  Wazny glanced at the chaos. “Push higher. We need to take some of the weight off the towers.”

  “Yes, sir.” Xia didn’t sound angry, just accepting.

  They pushed for higher altitude to get back into the fight.

  Corporal Landrith ducked as a spell hit before his machine gun, sending a spray of dirt through his bunker’s barrier and all over him.

  He didn’t have time to care about the dirt in his clothes as he aimed and fired.

  “Platform left, close!” Private Zhan yelled.

  “Stay on target!” Sergeant Cao yelled. “Let the cannons break their barrier then we switch fire!”

  Landrith watched his explosive shot trace land among the Black Phoenix fighters that ran forward.

  “Looks like they never learned about machine guns!” Private Basheer sneered as she switched targets.