+++ Lieutenant Hans Hoffman +++

Nomosian Countryside

January 16, 1539 CE

Hans woke up early today.

Going straight to his mech, he immediately set out into the recon mission as the sun rose on the horizon. Through the calm Nomosian countryside, his mech seemed to be at home, traveling comfortably through the principality's rough roads and rolling fields. He kept his eyes on high alert, trying his best to scan for any demonic threats on the road to Asuncion.

There weren't. Instead, Hans passed through rows and rows of refugees who finally managed to flee the destroyed northeastern lands of Nomos. Briefly, he stopped in front of one of the civilian convoys, made up of run-down wagons and badly clothed peasants.

Their reaction was as he expected: fear, caution, and apprehension.

Suspicious stares were leveled at him after he opened his hatch and jumped down his mech. Holding only a pen and notepad, however, he seemed like an unarmed fellow that would never hurt them, so he tried to give the effect a boost by smiling at them.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Hans called out as he calmly walked towards them. "I am from the Imperial Army. I presume you are all refugees from the East, aren't you?"

Before anyone from the crowd could reply to him, an armored person appeared from one of the wagons, going straight in Hans' direction. He seemed to be of the Vanus race, his two horns shooting up from her fiery red hair. The man crossed her arms, clearly annoyed.

"If you have any questions, Imperial, then you are to ask me," he declared. "These people are under my protection."

"Ah, no need to be so hostile, Madame," Hans replied, awkwardly laughing a bit. "I'm just here to confirm a few things. Have you met any Imperial forces through your journey, for example?"

He nodded.

"Indeed we have. They have given us instructions about moving to the northwest, where the Viceroy's forces are held up," he frowned. "I hope that's true. These people have been traveling for hundreds of miles already. They are tired and suffering."

"I can see that," Hans sighed. "Have you…perhaps passed Asuncion?"

"...Yesterday, yes," the armed Vanus replied. "Why?"

"Is it destroyed?"

"It's been destroyed for months already. You Imperials simply took a piece of rubble, and lost it quickly."

"Then please do tell me, what have you noticed about the soldiers that were driven out? Were there any survivors? Was the retreat orderly? More importantly, are the demons that attacked it still present when you last passed by it—?"

"Of course, I don't know," he cut Hans off. "Why would I know? To get close to that place is a risky endeavor. When we heard that there was an ongoing battle, we moved out of the way."

Hans nodded, noting it on his notepad.

"I see. Thank you for this," he placed it back in one of his vest's pockets, alongside the pen that he used. "Lastly, who are you?"

"Me?" the man frowned. "Who are you first?"

"I am Lieutenant Hans Hoffman of the 1st Anti-Demon Unit," Hans grinned, pointing at his armor. "You seem like someone important, so I'd like to know who you are and how you're protecting these people."

"...I am a knight from a fallen house," the Vanus man muttered. "Now, I give my service to the people instead, for they are citizens of the republic. That's all you need to know."

"Not even a name?"

"Gilbert," the 'knight' replied. "That's all. Is that good enough?"

Hans nodded.

Whatever, it's not like he's harming them.

"Sure, just lead these people into safety, and we're golden. Have a safe journey."

He gave him a brief salute, before turning back to his mech.

After climbing it, he was back on the road—charging forward into Asuncion, as these people went in the opposite direction. Someone behind him was protecting dozens of innocent people.

He better make sure that the demons behind them wouldn't catch up on them then.

+++

Asuncion was empty. The city itself was quite the older one to Hans' estimates. Unlike most city fortresses, the walls of the city were older, less angular, and quite frankly, too tall to be practical against the threats of the gunpowder era. In other words, it was fairly medieval in construction, aside from the few obvious modernizations given to its bastions and edges.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

The walls themselves, however, were blown open. It was torn apart with great holes, clearly caused by either a powerful artillery or a powerful magical attack. Hans continued circling the city, noting the destroyed outskirts around it. Farms and villages near Asuncion were utterly empty and devoid of life.

Even the few houses and buildings he passed through were destroyed, probably due to a previous battle. Down beneath, on the roads, and even on the homes and structures he briefly inspected, corpses of long-dead people remained, either outside on the fields and roads, or inside.

He stood up and left one of the houses he was checking. Inside, were three rotting bodies, all brutally mauled, probably by goblins, monsters, or whatever other hostile elements that thrived here ever since order and security collapsed.

As he walked to his mech, he removed the handkerchief he had used to defend his nose from the vicious smell that polluted the air. He calmly climbed back on his mech, though not before giving the horizon a quick scan with his binoculars.

"Nothing," Hans muttered, lowering his binoculars and looking down at his hatch. "I guess those demons left this area already."

He looked at a group of dead soldiers right beside one of the houses. They seemed to have brutal slice marks on their bodies—in fact, two were dismembered. One sat silently, supported only by the wall on his back, his hands still on his musket. It was just another set of fresh bodies from the routed troops that held this place recently.

Hans scurried inside of his mech, turning his engine back on. Within a few moments, his mech was back on the road, driving past abandoned carriages and wagons. He sped out of the town, rushing straight through one of the roads south of Asuncion, but heading to the west.

Through the quick noon journey, Hans kept his sensors and alertness on heightened levels. It would be quite shameful after all if he reached General Ercole's forces empty-handed, without even any recon data about the locations of the two demons.

Hopefully, they're not some tough bastards, Hans casually thought as looked to his side, checking the verdant green fields where hordes of wild pigs grazed and ate. Must be from the abandoned farms, judging by the amount of them. Damn…local agriculture is going to be a mess even if these hostilities end.

Hans sighed, remembering the hordes of cows, chickens, and whatever animals that escaped their pens and farms, roaming through the countryside. He even sometimes would find flocks of sheep, their shepherds long gone. Sometimes, he'd even found nothing but corpses of them, mauled by the hordes of monsters that were running around untamed.

"These demons will cause long-term damage even to this continent's ecology," Hans thought. "They truly are an apocalyptic threat."

+++

By 13:00 hours, around twenty kilometers west of Asuncion, Hans finally met with the spearhead of the 14th and 15th Holy Nomosian Regiments. The first thing he encountered on the road were their cuirassiers and dragoons, their cavalry riding rapidly ahead of the pack.

He briefly conversed with the captain of one of their vanguard units, before they continued onwards. Afterward, Hans drove a little bit further westward to finally run through the core units of the 14th and 15th.

Lines of musketeers marched through the roads, all of them organized into dispersed platoons. With them were convoys of wagons and horse-drawn artillery. Hans drove quickly to the side of the road, passing by the blue-uniformed soldiers as he did.

Soon, he managed to get in touch with General Ercole's team. Stopping on the side of the road, he dismounted his mech right as the group of officers, alongside General Ercole, dismounted their war horses.

"Gentlemen," Hans called out as he walked toward them. "I have quite the bad news. Yes, I've confirmed that Asuncion has fallen. Unfortunately, I haven't made any sightings of the two demons."

"That's to be expected," the Virtus general replied, stopping. He then opened the map that he held. "Here's your new orders, Lieutenant Hoffman. You are to drive on this road and get to the northern sectors of Asuncion. You'll be supported by the cavalry force attached with the 15th. The 14th on the other hand will scour the southern and eastern outskirts of Asuncion."

Hans gave a brief look at the general's map, nodding as the man gave him his new set of orders.

"I see, I see. I can do that, I think," Hans said. He then took out a ballpen from his vest. "On the other hand, can I use this map to mark artillery positions? I think I'd like to have those things pre-set up on advantageous areas that I identified earlier. It should help once the battle commences."

"Sure," the general handed the map to Hans.

Going by his memories, Hans began marking the kill zones that he thought he could use to retreat into. He placed X marks on areas where the artillery would have a good line of sight, mostly on top of the various hills and elevated areas around Asuncion. Unfortunately, due to the towns and villages around it, it might not be perfect.

"I see, four firing positions, eh?" General Ercole curiously asked when Hans finished. "What's your big plan about this?"

"If I find the demons, I'll lure them into one of these firing positions," Hans handed it to the general. Then, he closed the cap on his pen. "I expect that you'll place at least a company or two of musketeers to protect the guns that will be set up in these areas. The rest will move out into better firing positions once the battle lines become defined."

"I know," the general nodded. "Good luck on the rest of the mission then. I'll be giving these orders to my men."

+++

It was already deep in the afternoon when Hans stopped his reconnaissance efforts north of Asuncion. The fields ahead of him remained calm, yet, he remained tense. Still, he needed a breather. He had been driving and searching for hours already. In fact, his fuel supplies were running low.

He activated his arcane fabricator to refuel his mech, taking another fifty AP off his reserves. As he did that, Hans decided to eat through his rations. While he only ate simple bread, which he had acquired earlier from the town he stayed at yesterday. As he mindlessly munched through his bread, he noticed something stirring from the forest ahead of him.

Hans didn't make any immediate reaction, thinking that it was merely a bunch of animals moving through the bushes. That was until two humanoid creatures emerged from the greenery.

It was two humanoid creatures, their faces masked by what appeared to be white calcified armor, that he at first struggled to identify their genders. That lasted until he looked down at their maid uniforms, alongside the oversized weapons they held: an axe and a broadsword.

Hans immediately pulled his mech out of the open, as one of them charged at him, the creature's sword glowing madly pink. She swung it in Hans' direction, sending a flash of light that sliced the grass on the fields.

Another battle for survival had begun for him.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.