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

by Michael Chatfield

  “Yes, sir!”

  He heard a buzz and switched channels.

  “Yui here. Go.”

  “Special teams are heading toward your position,” Zukal said.

  Fireballs rained down from the sky as Davin made his appearance. The little imp had body armor and a helmet on, looking like a kid playing dress-up. His attacks were anything but.

  The aerial beasts shied away, their instincts overriding their training.

  He trailed destruction and then shot off toward Domonos’ position to support them there.

  “Good! We’re going to need them.”

  “Cannon!”

  Yui ran toward the man that had yelled. “Where?”

  He pointed to the position. Yui put his head next to the man’s and looked down his arm, seeing the mana cannon.

  The cannon glowed and bellowed.

  The spell hit the barrier, and smoke filled the area ahead of the wall.

  “Ah, fuck!” He flicked channels. “Commander, Colonel, they’re shooting me up with smoke.”

  “I’ve got cannons over here doing it too,” Domonos said.

  “Pull back to the castle. We get stuck in melee range, we’re going to lose a lot more people and this gives us cover.”

  “Do it. We have just under two thousand people remaining in the under city and one of the modified teleportation formations is up and working. Push another three hundred from both of your units down into the under city. If you are getting cramped, move more people lower. Once the enemy reaches the wall, I’m hoping to give them a surprise.”

  “Sir,” the Silaz brothers repeated at the same time.

  “We getting any support from Egbert?” Domonos asked.

  “He’s working on something for me. He should be done soon,” Glosil said.

  “Yes, sir.”

  Yui changed channels. “All right, we’re going to pull back to the castle since the enemy gave us some cover! Major Quan, your Fourth Company will pull back first, followed by the Third and then the Second. Major Sun, First Company has the short straw. You will pull back last. When you reach the castle, shed your riflemen units, and send them below. We’ll be working our way up the ranks. Riflemen, then artillery, then support, then CPD. That gives us our strongest fighting units last.”

  “Sir, we’re really giving up Vuzgal?” Major Long asked.

  “It’s just a place on a map. Our soldiers are the sword and shield of Alva; the people are our lifeblood. Today we faced the armies of dozens of sects and we defeated them. Now we face a force from the highest reaches of the Eighth Realm. We have made them pay for every meter and we will make them bleed for every other meter they take this day! The Alva army has fought with honor, with discipline. You have shown your ability and proven yourselves. No other city in the Fourth Realm would have lasted as long as we have. We may lose this city, but it is not our true home! We will be back, and we will come for payment for the blood spilled.”

  “Yes, sir.” their voices were stronger than before.

  “Now, let’s do our jobs and get our people out of here. This is not our final battle!”

  Erik was feeling better after the shot Rugrat had given him. He locked away the losses, promising to deal with it later. He gritted his teeth, taking four stairs at a time.

  “Fuck these stairs!” Gong Jin yelled.

  “Too used to the teleportation formations,” Roska said.

  The special teams reached another landing with defensive walls and a barrier covering it.

  The stairs created a funnel down into the under-city.

  Rifle squads ran down the stairs, past them and through the defenses, down toward the teleportation formations.

  “We’re withdrawing to the castle. The enemy is using smoke spells to cover their advance,” Zukal reported as they reached the top of the stairs.

  They were between several armories filled with lockers in disarray. More soldiers streamed past them. They ran down the corridor and up another set of stairs, arriving on the castle’s main floor.

  The roof shook with impacts as a window was blown out with a spray of glass. Someone screamed.

  A soldier ran over through the glass. “I’ve got you. I’ve got you! Stretcher-bearers!” She threw her rifle to the side and secured it with a tie, grabbing the man’s medical kit and tearing it free.

  “Zukal, you head off to your regiment. We’re going to head to the fourth-floor offices.” Erik kept running down the hallway.

  “Sir!”

  They passed a doorway. Outside, soldiers were spread out, streaming from the wall down the spell-struck road to the castle, trying to not group up to present a good target.

  Machine gunners were set up in the doorway and the nearby windows, covering them as they shot up at the aerial fighters trying to cast their spells.

  A fireball struck the ground between two soldiers, throwing them into the air.

  No!

  Erik slowed his pace, ready to run out. The two men clambered to their feet.

  “Baines, you good?”

  “Yeah, get going, sir!”

  Erik recognized Bai Ping and his staff sergeant. They were covered in dirt. Bai grabbed onto Baines and hauled him to his feet. They ran for the doorway.

  Erik increased his speed, making it to the bottom of the stairs. “Clear a path!” he yelled at the people coming down.

  He launched himself up the stairs.

  “What you thinking for positions?” Rugrat asked.

  “Our office faces east. Team One and Two, with me on the offices to the left facing northwest. You, Team Three and Four take the offices northeast!”

  “Got it.”

  Erik opened a channel to Commander Glosil’s aides. “Command, this is West, message over.”

  “West, send message.”

  “Command, can we get an engineer to place explosives on the castle floors to make a way for our people to drop down to the main floor instead of taking the stairs?”

  “West, understood will pass on.”

  “Command, understood, out.”

  Fuck the stairs.

  They reached the fourth floor and ran for the offices.

  Rugrat and his group peeled off as they ran past the northeast offices. They kicked open doors and pushed in.

  Erik looked into his office. Three grenade launcher teams were prepping their weapons as they watched the grounds. “We’ve got a grenade launcher crew in the office. Rugrat make sure you knuckle onto them.”

  “You got it, West.”

  Erik turned to the group around him. “Okay, Niemm, I want you on my left. Roska on my right.”

  “Got it. Team Two, start pushing in. Um ...” Roska cleared her throat. “Tully, I want you up against the boss’ offices Everyone take a window.”

  They rolled down the hallway, crashing through office doors and clearing a path to the windows.

  Erik shoulder checked through a door. His feet crunched on glass as he moved through the area of cubicles. The windows went from hip height to just under his chin.

  Erik looked through the different windows, searching for the best spot.

  Smoke billowed up along the wall as people streamed across the three hundred meters of open ground toward the castle. Guns on the different floors opened up on the aerial forces, mages applying their spells to the rounds, reinforcing the other’s power.

  The aerial beasts, black birds with red markings, raced by.

  The castle’s barrier shook with impacts.

  Good thing it’s the strongest barrier we have.

  He picked a window and stuck his barrel along the frame and ran it around the side, clearing out the remaining glass.

  He turned off the lights in the room, cloaking it in darkness. He secured his rifle to the side with a tie and flipped a desk, pushing it into place against the window.

  Erik drew on his power. Stone from the walls and floor acted like mud as it flowed over the desk, using it as a form. It thickened as Erik released th
e spell. He staggered, feeling the drain upon his body as his new leg shook.

  Still needs time to heal.

  Erik grabbed a chair and put it behind his barrier. He unlimbered his railgun and checked the wall, sitting down heavily on the chair.

  He made to rub his face, but hit his mask instead. “Come on, work to do.” He laid out magazines in reach.

  He pulled out a stamina needle and stabbed it into his left leg.

  “That’s the good shit. Better than coffee sludge.”

  Smoke shot inwards with a flash of light.

  “They’ve breached the outer wall!” Domonos reported.

  Erik aimed at the breach. The walls were already starting to rebuild-pumped full of mana.

  Soldiers dropped to the ground, watching the breach. Others ran past as fast as possible.

  Good luck. This is the heart of our domain.

  Another flash opened a hole in the wall. Several others expanded as the smoke pushed through.

  “Mages, get some air spells into that shit,” Yui ordered.

  Air spells met the smoke, rolling it back to the wall and pushing through.

  Erik saw movement between the walls and fired. The movement stopped, and the smoke kept rolling back.

  Aerial attacks hit the barrier.

  Erik ducked as spells ran down his length of wall. Wind ran over him.

  That was close. He looked at the nearest breach again.

  The smoke rolled back past the breach.

  “Fire!” Erik said, shooting at the human forms climbing over the remains of the wall.

  Tracers shot down into the breaches as grenade launchers fired past them. Sections of wall exploded with the Black Phoenix’s attacks. The aerial forces were coming in hot and heavy now.

  Fuck off!

  Erik fired at passing aerial mounts. His rounds exploded, spraying shards of metal through the sky, tearing them apart.

  He aimed back at his breach. The remaining bunkers were opening up on them now.

  Spells activated right in the enemy’s teeth, cutting through their ranks.

  Then the rate of fire went down as there weren’t any more targets. Even the aerial force backed off.

  Erik looked for the frigate. He sighed when he saw it was still a distance away and its cannon was sealed.

  “Anyone else get the feeling they’re testing us,” Yao Meng asked.

  “It’s what I’d do,” Erik replied. He frowned, feeling like he was missing something. “Rugrat, check our flanks!”

  “Shit! Yeah, they’re moving around to the east and west.”

  The leadership channel flared to life. “Dragon Regiment, link up with the groups facing north and create an all-round defense along the west to the south. Tiger, do the same for the east. Send your mortar teams down. Prepare secondary fallback positions within the castle. We will activate Sunken City once they commit. We’re making a central space for personnel to drop through to the main floor. Once Sunken City is activated, all forces from the higher floors are to fall back to the secondary defenses. Command out!” Glosil closed the channel as Erik looked out over Vuzgal. Towers had collapsed, smashing apart homes and businesses. Buildings were no more than piles of broken stone and belongings strewn across the streets.

  Night was coming in.

  Sky Reaching Restaurants’ glass had been shattered, leaving them as skeletal pyres, their glass catching the red rays of sunlight.

  Some lights flared to life; others flickered weakly.

  Light formations came on around the castle. The academy lit up, the gardens and park lights giving off a low light as the creeping darkness hid the tombstones, divots and craters.

  Erik opened up a channel to Rugrat.

  “What’s up?”

  “Just, you know.” Erik surveyed the destruction. “Wish we weren’t leaving it how we found it.”

  “Yeah.” Rugrat’s voice softened. “How you holding up?”

  “New limbs are a pain, but I’m working through it, and my stamina potions.”

  “Gotcha.”

  Erik breathed in through his nose and released it through his mouth. He stood to the crack of glass and scraping noise of pebbles under his boot against stone.

  “I’m going to check on the teams here.”

  “You sure? I can do a walk around.”

  “You do your people; I’ll do my side. Don’t need us holding their hands, just us telling them when to shoot or hold their fire.” Erik walked to the busted-up door and pushed it aside, part of the wood clattering on the floor.

  “Got it,” Rugrat grunted, shaking his legs.

  “Them knees?” He had a tired grin on his face.

  “Always the knees, brother.” Rugrat laughed. “Shit, even with all the healing, they creak like a mother.”

  Erik snorted half-heartedly. The events of the day were too fresh and raw. “Get me that sitrep. I feel that this might be a long one.”

  “On it.”

  Erik walked down the hall. The lights were off, the ones down the stairs or in the stairwells spilled out into hallways filled with dust and pieces of stone.

  “Housekeeping,” Erik said as he pushed through a door.

  “Sir.” Roska got up from where she was crouching next to the window. She had her magazines laid out with a few spell scrolls.

  “Just checking in.”

  “Good on ammo and supplies,” she said.

  “Good to hear. Why you right next to me instead of in the middle of your team?”

  “In case your stubborn streak shows and we have to drag you from this position.” Roska shrugged.

  “Ah, so I should expect Niemm on my left?”

  “Yup.”

  Erik snorted. “I’ll try not to make your job too hard. I’m gonna check on everyone before I head back.”

  “Yes, sir. I’ll let Niemm know.”

  “Ah, shit, yeah. Sorry. forgot.”

  “Been a day.” Roska’s words were heavy.

  She squatted, leaning against the side of the window, holding her railgun. Her eyes kept scanning the wall.

  Defending yet another wall.

  “We just need a few more hours and we can get everyone out of here.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Well, I’m off to do my rounds. Let me know if anything shows up.”

  “Will do.”

  63

  Abandon Vuzgal

  Egbert looked at the formation carved into the ground. He stored his supplies in a finger bone.

  The whole room was covered in mana stone dust. More dust floated down from the mana stones being consumed by the mana storing formation above. It fell on a fresh formation plate laid upon the carved formation surrounding the dungeon core that was feeding power into the mana gathering formation in a pillar of pure mana.

  Egbert locked onto Glosil in the command center and projected his voice. “Preparations are complete. Permission to rejoin the battle?”

  “Head to the castle main floor,” Glosil said without pause. “You will be covering our people’s retreat.”

  Egbert opened his jaw and then closed it. “Yes, sir.”

  He ran from where the dungeon core was housed and through the formation-covered entrances that activated as he passed.

  Soldiers marched onto teleportation formations and disappeared in a flash of light. The next group waited for the formation to clear and stepped forward. Vuzgal was quickly being evacuated.

  Formation masters from the engineering platoons were working on the formations that were getting deformed from repeated activations and heat accumulation.

  Egbert stopped on the stairs. “Commander, permission to assist the teleportation formation masters!”

  He saw through the walls as Glosil looked up. “Can you?”

  “Sir, I did help build Alva.”

  Glosil grimaced and hit his forehead. “Help them and destroy any formations we can’t use.”

  “You think they will try to trace where we went?” Egbert as
ked.

  “They’re from the upper realms. I’m not leaving anything to chance.”

  “Understood. I’ll get to work.”

  Egbert dropped toward the teleportation room. Four formations were laid out in front of two lines. As one formation cleared, groups of ten soldiers moved onto the formation as quickly as possible.

  Egbert could sense how hot the formations were from repeated activation. It was slowing down how fast they could be used.

  “Qin, I’ve been sent to help.” He didn’t look down at her missing legs. A quick healing spell would fix them, but it’d knock her out. She wore awkward-fitting armor and a helmet. She looked well past the point of exhaustion. A human automaton.

  “Egbert, good. We can use some help. Carve runes under the formation plates to dissipate heat. This is the formation design that’s working.” She spun in her wheelchair, waving at the formation. It took him a second to see through the design.

  Her legs were broken, a quick fuse and a wheelchair, and she was commanding the teleportation formations. She flat out refused to leave before she got everyone out.

  He accessed the dungeon core, inputting changes. The ground started to depress, revealing lines and runes cut into the stone surface behind the four teleportation formations. “We need to fill in those formations, but that should dissipate the heat nicely. I’ll get working on the new teleportation formations, as well. They won’t be as strong, and the dungeon core will need to fix them constantly, but they’ll help.”

  Qin lowered her voice. “Make sure they work for the last group. If they don’t get out, they’ll be stuck here.”

  Egbert looked at her face. Her eyes were sunken and dull. She was exhausted, both mentally and physically.

  “Don’t worry, I will be part of the rear guard and I’ll make sure they all get out,” Egbert promised.

  “Just, don’t die. Too many—” Qin choked and then sniffed. There were no more tears left to cry. It was only now Egbert could see the lines through the dust under her eyes.

  “I did that once before and I don’t plan on doing it again.” Egbert patted her on the back.

  Qin hugged him, shocking him slightly. “Tan Xue. Tanya. I-I… I couldn’t—”