220 Stomped

Over at the other main entrance, Song Chen had his hands full. To put it simply, he had the invading Skeletal Serpent by the tail.

"WHOAAAA!!!" While his grip was firm enough, Song Chen himself wasn't all that heavy. The Serpent was currently trying its utmost to throw him off and was flailing its tail every which way.

"Keep firing!" the gunners took a few shots, but most of them were afraid of hitting Song Chen by accident, so only the ones with confidence dared squeeze off a round. "Ballista?!"

"Almost ready!" the ballista crew yelled back. "Just hold on!"

"What else CAN I do?!" Song Chen shot back somewhat crossly while he was being flipped around like an old shoe in a puppy's mouth.

Behind him was the corpse of one Skeletal Serpent. On the left, mercenaries armed with heavy polearms were trying to get in a hit or two. On the right, four heaps of wrecked metal bore mute testimony to the demise of George's ME-Frame troopers. The most they managed to do before falling apart was buy Song Chen an opportunity to grab the Serpent himself.

Thinking back now, that… might not have been a good idea.

"OOF!" The tail whammed Song Chen into the cavern wall.

"OW!" The tail slammed Song Chen into the floor.

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"WHAAAAA…!" The tail twirled Song Chen around in circles like a propeller ten feet above the ground.

The tail swung him back and forth, left and right in rapid succession, barely leaving him a moment to gasp from one swing to the other. "Why… did… I… ever…"

BAM! The ballista fired, blasting the Serpent in the head. The Serpent dodged, or tried to, but the ballista scored a grazing hit on the side anyway. The bolt bounced off, but it left a jagged scar running up the side of the Serpent's face.

The Serpent hissed, snapped once, then keeled over.

"Is it… dead?" Song Chen asked, still suspended in mid-air.

Abruptly, the tail collapsed, bringing him along with it onto the floor. WHUMP!

For a moment afterward, the only sound to be heard in the cavern entrance was Song Chen's groan.

Then, cheers arose. "We did it!"

People high-fived, cleaned up the place, and barricaded the entrance. Then, upon new instructions, they started to rig the tunnel to collapse.

Then, they cleared out after setting a two minute timer.

Once again, silence fell, leaving only the unconscious Serpent and a prone figure still under its tail.

"Uh… guys?" Song Chen raised his voice. "A little help here? Hello? Guys?!

"GUYS!!"

***

At that time, George was at the maintenance entrance trying to dig Max and Markus out of a pile of rubble.

At that time, Remian and Darian were protecting Three Pines, picking stragglers of the Tide off whenever one of the Wilds decided to go rogue and try to grab a snack from the people there.

At that time, Eriane was on an airship sniping whatever Wild she decided to take out as it passed beneath.

At that time, Tim was sealing shut the Fal'Herim underground just as the first Wilds were fired upon by the guards on the city wall.

At that time, Mindy was ascending above the clouds with the Ravens, Raven's family, and Raven herself.

At that time, Mandy was at Ashdale setting up shipyards to duplicate Type-A Wasps.

At that time, the Deep Emperor was calmly watching off the coast of La Vive as thousands of Wilds poured onto the mainland to the north and tore anyone who stood in their way to pieces.

At that time, the Wildlands Colony of Bellas was completely obliterated. Actually, other than Three Pines and Kara-Goth, all the other human settlements in the Wildlands were done for.

At that time, the world war continued on heedless of the oncoming Tide. All they saw in the south was a storm. Germat's tanks exchanged fire with Bellas towers which fell like timber. Bulraki hordes were slaughtered on the open field by Ashdalian artillery. La Vive's forces were practically wiped out except for a contingent of cavalry led by Chevalier Du Pont.

As for how…

"You're running away?!" – Du Pont's aide.

"Of course!"

"But what about the war? What about the glory?!"

"What glory is there to be found in war?! It's more gory than glory!" – Du Pont's most famous quote for generations to come.

***

So there they were, over 400,000 humans spread across six different armies, all fighting in one form or the other across the neutral zone when the storm hit.

At the time, great generals were busy discussing other great generals in the company of their fellow great generals and considering move and countermove and the costs of each. They did in fact notice the rain and the wind, but simply considered it as weather that would affect each other's tactics.

Oddly enough, an hour after the rain started, reports came in of animals gone hostile. Thinking it as a few wild dogs going mad due to the blood everywhere (or equivalent), the great generals paid it no mind and focused on what the enemy great generals might do next…

Two hours afterwards, they started hearing the sounds of screaming. Perhaps some wounded soldier was going through amputation without anesthetic? No, there were too many voices. Why were so many people screaming? Nobody was under fire, the sounds of artillery and heavy cannon were far, far away…

There was neighing. Why was there neighing? Well, of course, an army had horses. Lots of horses, in fact. Lots of horsewhips too…

Nobody ever wondered if giant flying horses with the power to control the weather were to suddenly descend in the thousands. Nobody ever wondered if, perhaps, those flying horses might find the very idea of horsewhips to be offensive, regardless of how they were used. Very, very offensive.

BOOM! A blast of lightning thicker than a man blew the Ashdale/La Vive command center to bits.

POW! An explosion of thunder powerful enough to send out a visible shockwave detonated the entire Germat/Aurian command center.

"The command center!" an Ashdalian captain gasped. "All batteries, open fire! SHOOT THEM!"

Streams of firepower poured out from Ashdale's sky fleet. On the ground, their highly disciplined and thoroughly drilled infantry milled around for a bit, but then a voice began to issue orders, and formations began to shape up under its instructions.

That voice belonged to a Colonel D. Lloyd, off duty from the Command Information Center. It was usually his voice that relayed the orders of the four star generals onto the tactical arena, translating sometimes confusing instructions into clear standardized format. But there was no actual four star general giving orders right now; the entire command center was wiped out. Colonel Lloyd was, in fact, giving orders through the cafeteria radio station, which had been hastily modified by the also off-duty CIC technicians he'd been having lunch with.

Regardless of the authority (or lack thereof) behind the orders, the disciplined Ashdalian troops formed their powerful formations and fired orderly barrages at the oncoming Wilds.

Facing the quickly organized Ashdalian firepower, the Wilds temporarily held back and kept out of range, raiding the nearer Itarim camp, and the Nine Mountains fort. Gigantic flying horses surrounded by auras of thunder streaked down from high altitude and landed with explosive power on top of the fort's roof, piercing through momentarily and then unleashing sonic and shockwave explosions inside.

The fort was torn apart. The camp was in even worse shape. La Vive's commanding officer, the prudent survivalist Du Pont, saw the demise of their unfortunate allies and decided it was the perfect time to run an emergency recon mission in person… far, far away from here.

His staunch followers, being followers, naturally followed him.

Meanwhile, on their enemies' side, the army of the Ira Caliphate was scattering, half of them running in every direction for their lives, the other half running straight into the hordes of Wilds and facing death fearlessly, screaming religious war-cries as they were trampled in the stampede. Some of them had been carrying explosives that ignited as they fell. Some of them hadn't been carrying anyting at all.

Bulrak's forces were in worse shape; never mind the oncoming Wilds, their own bovines and equinines were going mad. The bulls and horses they were usually on top of were more often than not on top of them at this point, and unlike their usual mounts, Bulraki cavaliers did not do well when they were the ones being sat upon.

Among their armies' initial responses, the Otta men managed the greatest amount of damage to the Tide; a concerted salvo from three giant runic cannons blew holes twelve meters wide in the oncoming hordes. A dozen Tier 4 Wilds and a pair of Tier 5's died, dozens more were injured. The rest of the horde pounced onto the Otta positions in retaliation and those cannons never fired again.

Meanwhile, the Aurian infantry and the Germat armor columns were caught in mid-march as they were making their way toward the Ashdalian/La Vive line. The Aurian infantry decided to dig in, diving back into their defensive trenches to wait out the storm. The Germat armor columns made a quick turn and headed north. Both groups came under attack a minute after their initial responses, and began to suffer heavy casualties.

At first, the Aurians suffered worse, as more and more Wilds hammered down on them from above. But then, the Germat tanks, running north, moved into the range of the Sea People's fleet cannons. Seeing them present themselves so willingly for target practice, the Sea Peoples' battle cruisers immediately decided to seize the opportunity. This led to the Germat armor column being bombarded by Sea People cannon on one side, and Wilds' elemental powers on the other. Very soon, their casualty rates caught up and then surpassed the Aurian losses.

"We must withdraw to the East! We must head back…!" one panicked colonel shouted into his corps tactical communications net.

BOOM! A blast of lightning thicker than a man fell onto his tank, blowing a hole in it and killing everyone inside instantly. The tank's heavy metal armor began to melt to sludge under the sheer power of that lightning as the Storm Pegaus King snorted and moved on to the next tank.

Then, after blasting the column of tanks, he went on to the Sea Peoples' fleet.

The Sea People saw the tide coming straight for them and quickly made a decision for survival.

"Abandon ship!!"