Chapter 140 - Battle of Desham (2)

<---Chapter 139 - Battle of Desham (1) | Table of Contents | To Be Continued--->

"Ma'am, we have the city surrounded. Our breach into the outer ring is complete." A Versian lieutenant saluted in the midst of an abandoned house's living room, his body locked into a formal military posture while trying to avoid his gaze at the lady in front of him.

Unlike the standard uniform or armor worn by the rest of the troops, the lady donned what one could only describe as a strange artifact as if it were ancient armor handed down through the generations. The straps and flaps were yellowed and fraying at the seams as they held together the disparate pieces of armor woven from thread and twine, the emblem of Nest plastered on the chest.

"Have we secured the breach? We cannot let the enemy encircle us." The lady spoke with a smooth voice, calm as water, as she watched the rest of the soldiers around here reorganize the abandoned house into a new temporary command outpost. They fortified the windows and set up scouts in every direction while the flames of battle and war raged in the distance, illuminating the looming dark clouds above through the night.

"It has been secured. We have lookouts positioned along every inch of the outer perimeter, with regular ten-minute intervals of check-ins. We'll know as soon as anyone crosses that line."

"Reduce the interval to three minutes. Don't underestimate the Ghosts - they are a slippery bunch. Go."

"Yes, Madam Yona." The Versian lieutenant saluted her once again, taking his leave of the new temporary command post. Its rooms have been converted into centralized communication and planning hubs, with Yona taking the lead in an office room and overseeing the battle plans drawn on various maps on a table. She took in the state of the battle, calculating each and every move to precision as she continued to deliver orders to the four Versian divisions through messengers.

"Have the four divisions blockade the inner city in its entirety. Nothing gets in or out, check all the secret tunnels that was given to us by Vicorn before." Yona urged her troops. While she watched her orders be carried out, she took a slight breather, relaxing a little with a subconscious understanding that she had already won half the battle.

The Ghosts were clearly unprepared for our assault, otherwise they wouldn't have let us into the outer city at all. Yona was certain she had a strong foothold in the outer city rings, with Versian squads working on securing the various exit gates around the cardinal directions, the gatehouses having been abandoned by the Ghosts in their retreat.

However, she still had a sinking feeling in her stomach, as if she was falling into some trap. Kyle must have a backup plan. But what is it? The only possibility was if there was a hidden Ghost force from beyond Desham that came in to flank them and cut off their supplies in the entirety, putting them in a reverse siege. Yona would have done the same, but now that she knew it could happen, she, too, naturally had countermeasures prepared.

To this extent, she secured all of her logistical lines, bringing them into the outer city ring and mixing them into the abandoned houses as well. The command post that she was currently in was to the west of the outer ring instead of the north where the first breach was. While the fighting was fearsome and aggressive, the Ghosts didn't seem to attempt any concentrated push outwards. Yona watched over the map in the office room while her subordinates shifted markers on the reports of lookouts and the frontline.

"By the Goddess, how did Desham developed this fast? The number of houses is almost rivaling half of Tenar..." One of the soldiers remarked as they updated the maps with the information collected on the ground. Nobody else in the command post replied to him, many equally stunned at the sheer scale of the construction and infrastructure that had been laid in Desham. Just months ago, they had the idea that Desham was a simple rural backwater town on the verge of being a city surrounded by fields and farms. Now, it looked nothing like its formal self, a burgeoning industrial powerhouse with factories concentrated in the inner districts behind the towering inner city walls.

"Ma'am, it looks like they are sticking to the inner city walls and its vicinity for now." A soldier reported.

"Understood," Yona muttered to herself quietly, her mind racing to figure out what the next step was. As the battle raged through the night, ground was slowly gained by the Versian soldiers, who, despite their inferior individual weaponry, were able to overwhelm the Ghosts through quantity and scale of artillery, which far outnumbered what the Ghosts had in possession.

Just as Yona was struggling to predict what was going to happen next, a wave of excitement suddenly spread through the command post from a current report. "We've broken through the first line! We've broken through!"

The map's markers updated in real-time, the Versian platoons all moving up to move into the breach between the Ghosts defences. Yona squinted her eyes in suspicion at the obvious gap in the defensive ring around the inner city. "Are they moving to close the gap?" She questioned the soldiers around here.

"As far as we know, no, they are not falling in. In fact, it seems like they have been routed - all of their squads are pulling away from the gap."

"It's a trap!" Yona's hand shot forward, slamming the table that the map was laid on and causing the markers to jostle a little. "Pull back the forces and reform the blockade lines, they are trying to lure us in with a false gap."

"But ma'am, with this breach, we can set an arcia explosive charge on the walls and -"

"Carry out my orders, or I will find someone else far more willing to take your position!" Yona glared at the soldiers, coercing them through force to relay the orders. While the Versian soldiers were clearly dissatisfied with the order, all of them complied loyally, moving in tandem.

The false gap somehow still remained, as if the Ghosts had truly abandoned that section of the defensive line. As such, the Ghosts were able to concentrate more of their main forces onto the rest of the defensive ring, having to protect less. Yona could already hear a few Versians and other Nest soldiers whispering behind her in the temporary command posts.

"Who the hell does she think she is? She already betrayed us once!" A Nest soldier grumbled about her. "I bet she's just too afraid to order a charge in. Maybe she's actually trying to let the Ghosts win."

Yona fumed at the accusation, but she didn't say anything, keeping her rage to herself. That false gap could be layered with mines, or it could cause an entire Versian division to be cut off the moment they entered. I must not let the soldiers rush me into battle. She took a deep breath, controlling her emotions and continuing to make preparations.

The minutes and hours passed, tension mounting and waning with each report of success and pushback, the frontline ever nebulous. Lives were lost for every inch of the street in the outer ring, the houses embroiled in brutal, violent urban fighting. Close-quarter combat claimed many lives, especially Versian soldiers who were far more inexperienced in urban combat. The Versians had traditionally trained for field combat instead of within a city setting, giving the Ghosts a clear advantage in guerrilla warfare.

Still, the Versian soldiers gradually gain ground, moving from house to house and clearing the rooms with caution. The layout of the houses and streets was confusing to them, a far cry from the haphazard building structure of Ocra and Tenar, where the streets were erratic and wildly placed. Here, it was grid-like formations with multiple roundabouts, allowing for wide open transportation, along with simple plumbing and sewer systems running through each house. Some of the soldiers were even envious of the amount of space Desham enjoyed, recalling their small, cramped public apartments in Tenar.

"Ma'am. It might be time to rotate the frontline. It has been eight hours since the battle began." One of the lieutenants offered his opinion.

"Do it. Incremental rotation shift, I don't want a single mass movement. Make sure we always have fresh bodies moving to the front from the reserves." Yona nodded in agreement.

However, midway through the night, as Versian soldiers anticipated their rotation back to the rear for a good night's rest, a sudden loud series of explosions erupted across a single part of the battlefield, rousing shouts and thunderous cheers accompanying it. The Versian soldiers peeked out from their defensive positions to see a large cohort of Ghosts charging down the streets in full armor, raiding the houses in a blitz attack.

The sudden concentrated force took the more sluggish Versian soldiers by surprise, many fighting back but without much effectiveness due to their exhaustion and lack of sleep. Reports began to slowly flood the command center of loss after loss of squads and platoons in large droves, Yona clenching her fist as she watched the Ghost markers multiply in a single direction.

"Ma'am, they are aiming for the breach in the north of the city! I think they want to seal it off!" A soldier frantically reported in again.

Yona didn't panic just yet, knowing that she had made the right choice to put her current command post in the west instead of the north right next to the breach. This was also the very reason that she did not allow the Versian troops to enter the false gap. "Concentrate our defenses! Let them proceed three-quarters of the way to the breach; then we shall pincer them entirely within and cut them off from the inner city!"

The Versian soldiers who were previously angry at Yona's reluctance to enter the false gap now saw the benefits of her orders, their hearts turning around and complying. "We'll encircle them within their outer ring!"

The Ghost force continued to charge ahead, destroying and killing Versian soldiers enmasse as they pressed on in a sharp arrow formation, not stopping for anything. Yona let out a small smirk as she watched her own Versian soldiers began to slowly encroach among the rear of the Ghost formation, slowly biting off their retreat route.

Sure enough, the Ghost force suddenly began to lose momentum, the arrow failing to reach the breach as fresh reserves in the north countered them, the battle devolving from a rapid blitz into an encircled siege. Within an hour, the Ghosts found themselves isolated and alone in the northern section of the outer ring, cut off on all sides as more and more Versian forces concentrated on them, trying to annihilate them bit by bit.

"Those Ghosts won't live to see the morning, not with their entire supply line cut off." Yona grinned. Looks like Kyle is losing his grip. Guess he wasn't so good after all... wait...

A realization dawned upon her, her heart faltering slightly as she quickly grabbed the shoulder of a soldier next to her, shaking him violently. "Have we found the Aurtlas? The Aurtlas they stole from the runways?"

"What...? No, ma'am, we haven't seen anything of the sort..." The soldier was equally flustered, Yona frantically pouring over the maps. She cursed under her breath as she tried to see if there were any recent reports written down that matched a runway in their scouting of Desham. Unfortunately for Yona, she had no experience dealing with such airborne arctech, which caused her to forget about the stolen Aurtla completely.

There's no runway in the city itself... then the runway must be outside! "You two, grab three squads and two wagons and scout further around the region. Look for anything that sounds like an Aurtla-"

Just as she uttered the words, a distinct low whistling sound like a surging wind could be heard approaching the command post from above. Yona's face paled immediately. "Fortify this area, now! Get all the mounted repeaters and cannons to take out the plane!"

The soldiers were no slouches, immediately breaking out into action and scampering to defensive positions scattered all along the western section of the outer ring. Repeaters and spotlights on the wagon aimed upwards, scanning the skies for the unmistakable signs of the Aurtla plane.

Yet, while they could hear the approaching sound, they could not see it directly. The rumbling sound that caused the air to tremble got closer and closer as if the plane was right above. Still, the spotlights sweeping across them could barely see such an outline until one of the spotlights spotted a strange section of the cloud that didn't light up, no matter how much they shone on it. [That's strange, that part of the cloud isn't reflective at all! And it's moving!] A gunner exclaimed.

Yona roared into the arctech radio. "You idiot, it's the plane! Shoot it down now!"

A flurry of pellets shot high into the sky, but the unreflective part of the cloud suddenly twisted mid-air, diving and weaving between the streams of gunfire and cannonballs shot upwards at them. As it swooped towards the ground, it pulled up at the last moment, flying straight over the command post and causing the soldiers on the ground to instinctively cower.

As the stealth Aurtla plane began to climb again, the rear of the cargo hold opened to drop more than ten armored coffins, shooting right down to the ground. Versian soldiers jumped out of the way before it could slam into them, some of the coffins crashing through the house entirely.

One of the coffins burst through the roof of the fortified command post, the sheer weight and kinetic energy tearing through the rooms and flooring. Yona struggled to keep her balance as the impact destabilized the house, causing a section of it to collapse onto itself. A cloud of dust and wooden splinters was kicked up into the air, engulfing the soldiers who were nearly deaf.

A Versian soldier struggled to rise back up to his feet as he groaned, having fallen down with the coffin as well into the ground floor in a heap of wooden flooring and crushed furniture. Blood and flesh were splattered everywhere beneath the coffin, an unfortunate officer having been crushed to a paste by the weight.

Before the soldier could even stand up straight, the coffin's cover was brutally kicked from within, the hinges blowing straight off. The cover slammed into the confused soldier's arm, fracturing the bones within as he cried out in pain. The impact sent him sprawling once again, while other soldiers came to investigate the coffin. None of them had the chance to even take a proper look as a barrage of pellets was fired from within, the precision of each pellet neatly landing between their eyes and killing them on the spot.

Out from the coffin stepped a slender but fit lady, armored from neck to toe in a cobalt blue metal armor that seemed like it had been carved from the carapace of an insect. She rushed right over to the whimpering soldier still pinned down by the coffin's cover, using her own feet to stomp down on the cover as hard as she could. Despite her lightweight body, the force of her stomp was enough to squash the soldier's arm further into his body, his ribs cracking apart into splinters that punctured his lungs from within, his cries smothered with a gush of blood instead that filled his throat.

As the soldier choked to death, the armored lady stormed the half-demolished house, running into the still intact hallway only to face a squad of Versian arctech knights, equipped with rifles. She quickly ducked back out of the hallway into an adjacent room, avoiding the torrent of pellets threatening to rip her to shreds.

Instead of pushing back out into the hallway, the lady unsheathed a falchion made from the same metal as her armor, aiming it right at a structural wooden pillar that extended above the upper floors. With a single swing, she chopped deep into the wooden surface, hacking away a third of the way and already causing the remainder of the house to wobbly uncontrollably.

"She's trying to take down the whole house, kill her!" The Versian knights attempted to enter the room, but with the tight doorway, they could only enter one at a time. The lady's skill with the falchion was immaculate, with each strike and swing allowing the knights to pinpoint every weak point on the armor, some even having their heads entirely lobbed off.

The other Versian squads tried to respond to the new threat, but all over the western section was more and more armored coffins opening up, forcing the Versian squads to divert the attentions. With the rear in turmoil, the frontline of the western section also began to crumble, allowing reserve Ghost forces to push further in.

Yona wasn't dumb enough to continue to remain in the command post, immediately preparing to leave. Still, the moment she stepped out of the room, she could feel the entire structure begin to wobbly uncontrollably, causing her to almost lose her footing. She heard a loud chop, like the sound of an axe cutting wood, before the floor beneath her gave way. Shit!

Still, she wasn't entirely helpless, quickly channeling the engravings woven in her fabric armor to channel compressed air beneath her feet. The air cushioned her fall while the wooden framework of the entire house crumbled around her, the command post in complete smithereens, dust and smoke enveloping her entirely.

Before she could even regain her composure, a glint of a cobalt blue blade shot out from the cloud of dust towards her head in a deadly swing, Yona's battle instincts kicking in. A sudden rushing gust from her hand shot up, the force enough to deflect the blade upwards, causing the swing to miss the tip of her long black hair.

The armored lady who wielded the cobalt blue falchion didn't relent, bursting through the cloud in full in a lunging motion. Her sword wrist flicked about, swinging the sword back downwards in a frontal slash. Yona was far more prepared this time, swiveling her left armored arm and summoning a gust from the forearm bracelet to push the sword out. At the same time, Yona's right palm pushed forward toward the armored lady, and a devastating wind force knocked the armored lady back.

The armored lady tumbled backward onto the ground, flipping and recovering into a battle stance as the cloud of dust began to settle, the ruins and destruction of the house slowly visible. "So he sent you to kill me instead? And here I thought I had some respect." Yona taunted as she clasped her hands together, palms interlocking. The moment she clenched her arms, the armor shot forward two deadly wind slices toward the armored lady, catching her by surprise. The armored lady dodged one of the slices but took a direct hit from the other.

Yona grinned from the direct hit. That wind slice should have at least cut into her bone. "Looks like you haven't improved as much yet, Sasha." Yona smiled with confidence, but her arrogant expression faded as she watched Sasha stand up without so much as a dent in the armor. What the hell is that armor?

Sasha didn't reply, quickly leaping forward in multiple strides, her feet carefully balancing on the debris piled around them in the destroyed house as she dodged and spun in mid-air to avoid wind slices channeled from Yona's armor. With a devastating body spin from above, Sasha slashed downwards, only for the falchion to be blocked fully by a concentrated wind slice that had also manifested into a sword of sorts.

"Don't think I'm the same as before!" Yona roared, sending out a blast of air that sent Sasha flying. Sasha flipped her body, landing gracefully and recovering into a fighting position. She watched as Yona's palms formed a strange sequence as four wind slices were summoned from her armor, each manifesting as a continuously churning mini-wind tornado that swirled and surged toward Sasha along the ground.

The tornados began to grow in strength, each one picking up the wooden splinters, broken roof tiles, and cracked furniture into a deadly swirl of fragments that could provide a thousand cuts. Yona jabbed her fingers forward, the tornados converging on Sasha quicker than Sasha could move.

Sasha soon was engulfed in the combined tornado, Yona gritting her teeth as she focused her energy, increasing the speed of the tornado even more and sending a torrent of fragments slamming into Sasha's armor. The repeated strikes carved and dented into the armor, though Yona soon realized the armor was nearly impervious to the weak debris fragments even at high wind speeds.

Instead of wasting any more energy, Yona dispelled the tornado, expanding her palms apart to conjure a fully compressed staff of air that rotated rapidly with hurricane speeds, charging into melee combat. Sasha was still disorientated from the tornado strike, barely raising her armored arm to block the strike.

This time, the staff of air was able to damage the armor, the compressed air molecules slowly eroding the upper layer through intense wind speed and ensuing friction. The heat from the friction also transmitted within the armor, causing Sasha to instantly recoil from the sharp stabbing pain.

Yona kept close to Sasha, her movements are strange and something Sasha had never dealt with before. The attack patterns were unlike anything Sasha had prepared for, as if it was like a traditional dance rather than a flustered attack. Sasha attempted to find the openings, but soon realized that the dance was nearly perfect, forcing her to block each and every attack.

Even as Sasha tried to leap away to create some distance, Yona channeled air beneath her legs, propelling her forward far faster than Sasha could move. "Don't think I don't know how to fight close!" Yona roared a battle cry, sending a flurry of blows that Sasha was forced to absorb. While the armor still remained intact, it did not fully shield Sasha from the acceleration of the impact, the damage transferring internally into her organs.

Yona swung the compressed staff of air with both hands, accelerating it with even more wind speed and slamming the breadth of it into Sasha's left arm and sending her sprawling onto the ground. Yona leaped forward, lifting the staff up over her head and swinging it down in a devastating smash, Sasha rolling out of the way beyond the ruins of the house at the last moment.

The staff kicked up yet another cloud of soil and dirt, but Yona immediately swung her stuff horizontally again, dispelling the cloud and charging headlong into Sasha. They exchanged blows, with Sasha parrying with the cobalt blue falchion against the staff. Sparks flew as the dirt caught in the compressed staff of air ignited from the high friction the moment they clashed with the blade of the falchion.

Despite Sasha being on the back foot, Yona was still cognizant of the battle's situation. All around them, the fighting was intense as more and more Ghosts began to push in, and Yona understood the nature of the plan. Sasha wants to cut off the head of the snake, but she bit off more than she could chew!

Yona swung the staff of air again as expected towards Sasha, but just as Sasha raised her falchion to block the blow again, the staff of air suddenly dispelled. The confused Sasha only caught a glimpse of Yona reaching forward with both hands, Yona's left hand grabbing Sasha's right sword wrist and tugging Sasha forward with force.

Sasha tried to shake off Yona's grip but it was far too late, the sudden tug tipping her off balance as Yona's right palm drove into her chestplate, smashing into the armor and denting it with the force of air. However, instead of letting go, Yona pushed her right palm even harder, channeling her energy in.

Before Sasha could react to the palm, she suddenly felt the air in her lungs churning, being suddenly expelled in its entirety through every orifice she had on her face, mucus and saliva bursting out from her nose and mouth. The sudden exhalation of air caused Sasha to reel forward, allowing Yona to land an upper right knee back into the chest, lifting Sasha slightly by the sheer force, followed by a downward elbow strike to the back of Sasha's head, knocking her straight to the ground in a catastrophic smash. The falchion scattered to the side, and Yona used a single wind gust to knock it out of reach.

"So I guess that's all you are without your fancy falchion." Yona kicked the still-struggling Sasha in the head, causing her face to bleed. But before Yona could deliver another kick to Sasha's face, Sasha suddenly twisted her body, lifting her legs up in a circular kick. Her heels nailed Yona right in the temple, sending her staggering backward while Sasha used the momentum of her circular kick to recover back upwards.

With a bloodied face and a fearsome glare, Sasha raised both her hands in a boxing posture, covering her head. Adrenaline pumped in her veins, the blood thumping in every heartbeat that resounded through her body as the purple veins arcing down her throat began to glow. <Shue, Yul, Uryag, Golus, Kiear, Samki Polwa Erix>

Yona was still clutching her head when she heard Sasha speak for the very first time. Wasn't she mute?! They told me she couldn't speak! Yona glanced up with a wince to see a brilliant red aura enveloping Sasha's right arm, the inside of her right palm glowing red hot in the shape of a ceremonial bracelet.

Sasha charged forward, closing the gap in two strides while sending a devastating right hook that felt like death to Yona; Yona frantically conjured the staff of air to block the fist. Instead of the hook being stopped by the staff, the fist went straight through, hitting Yona right in the face and sending her flying.

Still, Yona was able to channel the air to cushion her fall, propping herself back up into a fighting posture, but Sasha was already in front of her face, each punch fearsome as Yona felt the intensity of the red aura narrowly missing her.

"You're not the only one with a hidden card!" Yona bellowed, suddenly emnating a strong gust of wind that even Sasha could not withstand, Sasha being pushed back as her feet drew lines in the ground as she clenched her eyes tight from the surging wind that erupted.

Alarm bells rang in Sasha's head as she heard a whizzing sound approaching her, the sound of metal cracking towards her. She instinctively ducked as the whizzing sound shot right over her head, before it circled back around like the edge of a tornado around Yona right back at her.

Sasha hurriedly raised her right aura-amplified arm to block the incoming hit, but instead, she felt a wire wrapped around her arm, entangling her forearm with multiple loops. She noticed that the source of the thread came from Yona's woven armor, which was starting to fray at the seams as the threads came alive.

Sasha tried to tug on the thread, thinking she could snap the fabric off, but she soon found out that it was a metallic wire - the entirety of Yona's armor had been fashioned out of a strange metal wire that began to surge forward like snakes, numbering in the dozens and extending in all directions. Yona clasped her palms again, her concentration on the threads as she used the air to control the direction and movement of the threads.

A sudden tug on the thread flung Sasha around across the street, slamming her into a nearby house where other Versian soldiers were desperately fighting against an airdropped squad of Ghosts internally, locked in a tough firefight. Before any of the Ghosts could react, the metal wires shot forward, the sharp tips entangling around their necks and dragging them out from behind their makeshift furniture covers out into the open, allowing the Versian soldiers to kill them.

As Sasha was slammed through house after house by the metal wires that were now tying her up fully, Yona continuously tightened the wires, incrementally crushing the armor bit by bit. The wires shredded the surface of the armor as it ground like a chainsaw by the swirling air as well, cutting deeper and deeper until it was beginning to reach Sasha's skin. Sasha could feel the sharp, hot metal wire sear through her flesh as she struggled to break free, but every movement she made only caused the wires to cut deeper.

"Don't bother," Yona stated as a matter of fact. "This battle is already over." She raised her arms, the threads lifting Sasha up high before slamming her down onto the ground, cracking the concrete and stone in the earth in a significant crater. Still clasping her palms together to keep Sasha tied up, Yona turned to a nearby Versian soldier who was finishing off a Ghost, giving out orders. "We'll move the command post back and continue the battle from beyond the outer ring. Make sure that the breaching force of Ghosts is still encircled!"

The soldier nodded and saluted quickly, rushing off before turning up to see the same stealth plane flying right over them. The soldier had no time to react when a large block of metal fell out from the low-flying plane and slammed right into him, crushing his entire skeleton apart into a bloody paste of meat and organs onto the floor.

The block of metal skidded onto the floor, the edges stretching out to reveal a humanoid exosuit, unlike anything Yona had ever seen during her time in Nest. The back of the armor hissed with force as crystals surged with strength, while the wielder of the armor twirled a dangerous spear in his right arm as he stood up to his full height, towering over Yona.

Yona's face paled, already knowing who it was. She quickly motioned to the surviving Versian soldiers still around. "Move the command post, now! The rest of you, kill him, kill him!" She shouted in a panic as she began to move back as quickly as she could, causing concentrated fire to erupt from all angles on the exosuit.

The pellets barely damaged the exosuit, none of them even leaving so much of a dent. Instead, the exosuit rushed forward to the nearest Versian soldier, using the tip of the spear to perfectly slice across his exposed neck. The shocked Versian soldier's head tilted over, blood spurting out from the stump and spine as the body collapsed in barely two seconds.

Yona didn't even turn around to see the ensuring massacre; instead, she ran as fast as she could, with the air propelling each step and the threads dragging Sasha along in tow. She ran for the outer ring wall, wanting to make it for the west gate, when the exosuit suddenly blasted past her in a sudden acceleration that caught even her off-guard, the trailing gust knocking her off-balance.

Yona spun her body mid-air and landed on the floor carefully instead of tumbling over. The exosuit skidded to a halt right in front of her, blocking her exit path entirely, the slits in its helmet showing the gaze of a predator that sent shivers down her spine, memories of her torture returning like a waterfall.

"You won't be going anywhere else this time, Yona. Not anymore."

<---Chapter 139 - Battle of Desham (1) | Table of Contents | To Be Continued--->