+++ Lieutenant Hans Hoffman +++

This is crazy.

Hans tried to steady his controls and keep his eyes peeled, as his mech rushed through the fields.

That's a lot of demons. But they all seem distracted at the moment, so it should be fine…

"Adelyn's absolutely going to be so red-faced if she finds out I'm doing this," Hans awkwardly muttered, as his mech stopped to hide behind a treeline. "I just hope she won't hate me for this…"

He began activating all of his mech's upgrades. [SMOOTH RESPONSE II] was first, then he activated [EYES OF PARANOIA I] next, as was standard. He made a mental note to upgrade 'Smooth Response II' to its third tier soon when he reached level 40, because with increasing demons around him, the requirements for blocking them were increasing.

He watched as another red signal smoke rose from one of the bastions of the fort. They must be expending so much munitions and AP at this point, that they'd barely hold the line. It was somewhat surprising however how well they were holding up, considering they had none of the doctrinal and technological developments of the West.

But, considering he saw so many runic circles appearing alongside energy bolts, he simply chalked it up to the presence of high-tiered individuals amongst their ranks.

"Alright…the window's open," he watched as multiple demons in the eastern entrance to the fort fled under heavy fire. "It's time to give it my all."

Engaging his mech's full engine power, his Wanderfalke zipped rapidly through the battlefield. Immediately, out of nowhere, spells from the fortress began to fly toward him, but Hans expertly dodged them and began opening fire on the retreating demons.

One of his targets was a humanoid one, and it was quickly struck by an MPAT round before being skewered by his forward leg razors. The spells and gunfire from the fort immediately stopped hitting in his direction, as he pushed onward.

I'm not letting any of you bastards close in on me.

Gunfire began to be rapidly spewed out of his double coaxials, glowing blue plasma rounds striking any demon that tried to attack his mech. He pushed harder on the gas pedal, soon reaching five hundred meters from one of the gates of the fort.

"Let me in!" Hans shouted using his speakers. "I'm friendly!"

Volleys of musketfire and spells flew high above him, preventing his pursuers from getting anywhere close, as his mech rushed straight into the opening gate, passing by musketeers and mages posted on the forts' ditch and ravelins outside.

Once inside, crowds of soldiers and mages gasped with fear and suspicion as his monstrous machine pulled into a hard break, plumes from the unpaved road rising high when he managed to stop.

Quickly, before misunderstandings happened, Hans opened his hatch and revealed himself with raised arms.

"I'm Lieutenant Hans Hoffman of the Lotharingian Armed Forces, attached to the Ygeian Expeditionary Corps!" Hans shouted on top of his lungs. "We are fighting demons in this area to relieve you. I would like to ask—is the Empress here?"

"W-who are you?" one of the officers asked, frantically aiming an outdated matchlock musket at him. "Foreigner? Devil? Gods have truly forsaken us—!"

"Stop aiming that at him!" a woman's voice broke the commotion. Hans turned to look at a woman in a fancy white dress who approached him. She had silver hair, and amethyst eyes, alongside that usual golden halo on top of his hair.

If the description about her is true, that should be the Empress.

"You," she stopped, staring up at him. "Who are you? Are you a part of the relief force?"

Hans nodded.

"...Yes, as I've said, I'm Lieutenant Hans Hoffman. If I may respectfully inquire, are you the Empress?" Hans cautiously asked.

"Yes," she replied. "So it seems. You're one of the foreigners rumoured to have saved the west of my Empire. Is that correct?"

"I am unsure about the hero part, but sure," Hans awkwardly replied, before his gaze hardened. "Your Majesty, I implore you. Fire a green signal smoke at once. That should confirm to the relief force that you are present here."

"You came all the way here, alone, through a swarm of demons, just to confirm my presence?"

"We had to make sure that the Empress is here, else we'd waste time and supplies. The mission given to us by General Kohler was to rescue you, nothing more, nothing less."

"I can't believe all officers of my Empire are turning this callous," she sighed. "Please, someone fire a green signal. You've heard this man. The relief force is here and they are ready to save us."

One of the officers pulled out a pistol from his holster, aiming it up high before firing a green smoke signal. Hans sighed deeply, as the Empress once again called him out.

"Lieutenant. I am not leaving this place until all of my men can depart safely," she demanded. "Can the relief force do that?"

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"Yes. We intend to break through the siege and force those demons out of this place. If not, we'll do our best to liquidate this area. That's the only way to ensure we can pull you out safely anyway."

"Preposterous!" one of the officers shouted—no, wait, he didn't have a standard military uniform. He looked more like those knight people. "Kill them? Make them retreat? Have you not seen how many of them have swarmed this fortress? It is impossible. With that machine of yours, we will ride out at once and run away."

"Sir Marco," the Empress glared at the knight. "Are you crossing your liege's words? I said I'm never leaving this place until all of my men are safe. How can you not look at the faces of these valiant young men and even think of leaving them? If they shall die here, then I'll die here myself!"

"But Your Majesty—"

"Enough of this, we've already argued about this endlessly. I'm not hearing any more of it. Lieutenant, please, whatever plan you people have of saving this fortress, I approve of it. So long as it saves my men, that's all that matters."

Hans watched in awe after the Empress said those words. He was expecting that she'd demand to use him as a spearhead for her personal guards to flee to the lines of the Ygeian Expeditionary Corps.

After all, it wouldn't be a bad idea. With the fortress itself taking the attention of most demons, she can escape much, much easier. Though, of course, there was a chance of demons taking her anyway as they rode out on horseback, it still would be a faster way to exfiltrate her.

But, it seemed that she was someone who cared a bit too much to even her lowliest footsoldier. That was surprising. She seemed extremely frail after all. The way she walked, the way she spoke, it was almost like she was barely keeping up.

Yet the soldiers around them all looked at her as if her words struck a chord with them.

What the hell happened to you? Why were you absent for so long?

He supposed he'd get the full answers once this damned affair was done.

"I see," Hans nodded. "If that's what you wish for, then I'll return to the outside to begin the battle. We'll get you all out of here."

Just as he said that, multiple booms from the direction of the Ygeian Expeditionary Force thundered in the distance. The amount and loudness of the artillery made the Empress and even her officers go wide-eyed.

Then Hans began to hear the tell-tale shots from Adelyn's Wanderadler. It was fast, and it was very angry.

Yep, I'm screwed.

Better get back fast to their lines then. He'd get a mouthful later.

"I'll go now," Hans declared. "Please open the gates. Everyone, do your best to fight back! We'll get you all to safety, I swear on that!"

+++

[TWO HOSTILE DEMONIC ENTITIES DETECTED! FORTY-TWO METERS AWAY!]

"Damn it," Hans pulled hard on his control sticks, as his mech suddenly took a hard break.

Two beastly demons, resembling night wolves, passed by him, before being rattled by a barrage of plasma rounds. Their bodies were quickly torn open by it, causing them to howl in pain as Hans took the opportunity to move further out of their attack window.

Then, he was back driving straight into the relief forces' lines.

Above him, continuous barrages from the artillery kept their pressure on the demons, damaging and wounding many of them. In the meantime, Hans dodged demons trying to physically slash him, and some even fired spells and fireballs at him.

It was a difficult business, and his [UPG: SMOOTH RESPONSE II] shields were forced to activate once when a beam of light nearly sliced his mech dead, fired by what appeared to be a humanoid mage demon.

That was way too close!

As the blue field dissipated, the mage demon was struck by a canister shot from the relief force. Hans breathed a sigh of relief as his mech managed to get out of the danger zone, and he thanked Colonel Strobel, considering the shot came from the positions taken by the 1st Anti-Demon Unit.

It seemed like he wasn't going to use his revive by death ability this time, even with the density around them. Investing so much early on in the Imperial Army to make them better combatants sure was truly paying dividends for Hans.

"Hans! What in the goddess' name did you just pull over there?" an enraged voice reverberated in the comms. "Did you just charge to the fortress all alone, through all of that?"

"I had to confirm if the Empress was in there," Hans stopped his mech as the Diligence appeared in front of him. "Look, I did it so that we won't waste too much time. You were worried earlier about those men, right?"

"Yes, but—"

Her voice was cut off when two red smokes rose from the fortress's walls. It seemed like two defense ravelins fell to demons now. Hans observed it with his gunnery sight, watching as soldiers and mages, alongside a couple of those knights he saw earlier, valiantly tried to hold off the demons.

But it was to no avail. One of the ravelins even collapsed after a particularly nasty fireball spell from a land-dragon-like demon struck it. The stragglers retreating to the ditches behind said ravelin barely even survived, and many soldiers in the ditches near the fallen ravelins desperately ran to the closing walls as well.

"We'll talk later," Adelyn's voice remained icy. Hans knew he was definitely going to be chastised by this lady later. "For now, we'll focus on piercing through the left flank. The bombardment should soon be over."

"How deep are your ammunition reserves? I've eaten through nine shots already."

"I've fired five rounds already."

"I see. I say we allocate six more rounds together until the bombardment ends. Try to target the humanoid demons and focus on them."

"Alright."

Immediately, the two formed a firing line ahead of the main forces' line, and they began hurtling round after round at the demons assaulting the fortress.

But as Hans finished firing six MPAT rounds, not a single demon on the enemy side fell yet. Even Adelyn's powerful shots only badly injured two demons, both of whom were forced into hiding and possibly retreat.

Finally, the bombardment began to soften, and the Ygeian Expeditionary Corps' infantry began forming up into their scattered assault formations, supported by the cavalry on the flanks.

The demons, on the other hand, began to form their defense lines, equally scattered and hidden in the bush and treelines to avoid the ongoing artillery barrage.

This definitely isn't going to be a bloodless one in this case.

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