Chapter 61 - Offensive

One and his two elite drones were walking through the forest on their side of the line. As the situation went on, the greenery of the forest has started to fade due to lack of sunlight and it was only a matter of time before they would stumble upon the scorched areas of the forest. The scorched areas were the place of battle, where man and machine fought against one another, where magic and science clashed.

One has decided to temporarily ignore the supposed evolution of his two elite drones, as long as he was always on alert, he was in no risk of being jumped on by his own drones. Along the way, however, he and his drones conversed as if a senior officer was talking to two other soldiers lower in rank.

As they walked through the forest, the sounds of war became ever more louder. This gave One the idea to inspect the front and how his army was doing.

"Splendid idea! Our master is ever so thoughtful," Micheal said, One decided to call the drones by names.

"Master, how shall the army behind us respond if a line near us is breached?" John asked as they strode through the forest.

"Simple, the army is to respond immediately, we can't risk breaches since it would threaten the integrity of the front," One answered.

"Master-"

One raised his right hand as a signal to stop moving. The three then knelt onto the floor and took their weapons.

"For One, please call me commander, it's more fitting and also you are not my slaves, don't call me master," One asked the drones, it was more of a direct order but One wanted them to feel that it was a simple request. But of course, he does not know how to make it sound like a simple request.

"Yes, commander"

"Aye, commander"

The drones were able to comply immediately, it seems like everything One says is an order to them regardless of the tone or the sarcasm if One was ever going to sarcasm at least.

"Now, stop talking and observe the trees in front of me,"

The drones followed One's order and scanned the foliage in front of them.

"Commander, we are near the middle line"

"Aye, Michael, we can see several of our own fighting in the distance,"

"Several?" One looked at John and asked. He was confused, the middle line should have the most concentrations of drones due to the fact that the middle line served as the backbone of the line.

"Yes, commander, we can only see several of our own, other forces are nowhere to be found," Micheal replied.

"Oh no," One whispered.

It was at this moment did One finally realize the threat that was upon them, he didn't really think it would happen but it seems like it has become a reality. The line has been spread too thin. The front has spread too thin for the Empire's mere tens of thousands of drones to cover, it was a miscalculation and a disaster.

But One didn't know that this was not the case, they had more than enough manpower to hold the lines regardless of how far the Theocracy stretched it since the Theocracy itself could not accomplish such a feat of covering a massive front line, let alone maintain a front line. In this medieval and magical world, front lines were not a thing, at least not as in the modern definition.

These kingdoms relied on huge army engagements and city sieges, One, however, was applying modern warfare of front lines to cause a war of attrition that would cause the enemy to back down or exhaust themselves faster.

The plan seemed fool-proof but there was divine intervention. One and Hailey devised this plan and accounted for the power of the mages but did not account for an external malevolent force to put their plans into disarray.

And then they heard it, an explosion blasted its way through the forest prompting the three to duck down in reflex.

"attack!" A voice rang in the distance followed by the shouts of hundreds of men. They appeared from the burnt foliage brimming in armour and fighting spirit. The few drones that were there to immediately respond to them raised their blasters and fired.

The battle took only a minute as the knights, although extremely weaker than the drones, outnumbered them with help from their divine blessings. With their stats enhanced and mages to back them, the Middle line has finally been breached.

"No," whispered under his breath.

"Commander! Orders!?" Micheal asked.

"Commander! The army is on stand-by, orders?" John added.

In this dire situation, One needed to be decisive, will he join his forces in combat or does he let the drones do the dirty work while he watches comfortably in the distance while barking orders? Seeing that there was obviously external intervention, he did not want to risk to lose more of his drones.

And so, he decided to launch a counter-attack at that very moment along with the one thousand drones that followed him there.

"Order an attack, now!" One barked his orders at Micheal and John.

"As you wish!" They both answered.

The calls were relayed to the nearest station and the order was soon routed to all other armies in the front. An all-out offensive was to ensue! They were to fight! To advance! The demise of the petty Theocracy that dared taint and halt the advance of the Machine Empire is nigh!

Or so the order was relayed, One merely wanted to secure the middle front and really had no intentions of launching a full-scale offensive into the Theocracy. He realized his mistake too late and the order was followed immediately by all commanding drones.

The offensive has begun.

Across the entire front between the Empire and the Theocracy, bombings raid began and mass ȧssaults of infantry, motorized and tanks ensued with what could be called as the bloodiest engagement in this peninsula's history.

One stood from the soft ground and stepped on the dead stick that crunched under his weight.

"Attack!" He shouted in full force and behind him emerged one thousand drones than stormed out of the foliage and into the scorched plains to meet the enemy. Hovercrafts flew overhead as the drones ran at blazing speeds towards the knights and mages who stared in shock.

They fired as they ran, their blasters streaking through the air in dazzling balls of light that either killed or incapacitated their targets, none of them missed.

In the sight of such an enemy, some knights routed while others stood their round and readied themselves for the inevitable battle! They went and formed a shield wall composed of hundreds of knights with mages firing spell after spell at the drones from behind the defence.

But the hovercrafts would place them into much disarray, they swept low towards the ground shrieking in terror and defiance of the wills of men before unloading package after package of death and destruction upon the enemy that cowered under their weak shields and cried for their puny deities to save them.

Who would survive and tell?

That men were defeated in battle.

Riders pushed from their saddles.

Lo, the heavens opened and they came.

Nothing shall ever be the same.

At this day and hour.

There shall be a new power.

The two sides met and clashed, sword versus gun, metal versus flesh, magic versus science, and man versus machine.

And the machines were victorious. With each hack of the sword, three knights would fall, with each cast of a spell, a mage is shot. It was not a battle, to begin with, it was a strategic victory. One joined in the battle and fought, taking on hundreds of the enemy at once and emerging unscathed. While doing so he coordinated the army in the attack barking order after order at Micheal and John that relayed the orders to their fellow drones.

One did not really count how many they killed during the initial engagement but an estimated 3,000 knights and 500 mages were killed and hundreds more routed in a panic into the scorching blazes.

One walked through the battlefield with his skin tainted with the blood of his enemies, the dirt of the soul and the ashes of the forest. His drones were no different, they too were covered in the remains of their enemies. They walked over their corpses, burned them, killed those who thought they could sleep and pretend. There was no escape.

The other fronts were no different, for long they were only there just to hold the enemy off. Their main objective was to make them exhaust their manpower and the overall war effort, a long but ensured victory. But the circumstances have since changed and the war has begun to take a sharp turn.

Across the entire front, battles were fought and the machines would emerge as the victors, they were ruthless, cunning and downright terrifying in the eyes of their enemy.

"This deserves a celebration!" Micheal was enthusiastic.

"Agreed, comrade!"

'This is unheard of, my drones are slowly becoming more human,' One thought with an unease, sure his drones becoming more human was making him uneasy but what made him more terrified was the fact that.

"Wait, why are my drones developing more into becoming like humans while I myself can't achieve it?" The words escaped his mouth.

"eh?" His drones stared at him.

"..."

The sky was still covered by the clouds of ash and smoke, One longed to see the sunshine once more upon the forest. He looked up towards the sky and saw flashes of light, red, white, yellow, all three colours flashed in what could only be a battle in the sky.

"The hovercrafts seem to be engaging the enemy air force," Micheal commented.

"It's quite an insult to call flying beasts as an air force, they're merely abusing wild-life because they don't have the brain to even figure out simple physics," John replied to Micheal.

'Woah' One thought. That was one hell of a roast.

And the roast was somewhat factual, even when they captured supposed scholars from the fortress city there was no mention of any advanced science, not even simple physics! All of their knowledge revolved around magic and how magic does this and that.

It could be said that magic was somehow an inhibitor to the world's progress in technology, that or the brilliant minds of this world were not as brilliant as he thought.

Albert Einstein said, "If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree then the fish would forever think that it's stupid,"

Though, it's true in a sense, in this world One thought of it as..

"Fish thinking they can do anything with magic so they decide to try and use to climb the tree, it works! And then they forget how to swim,"

As such, One's expectation of any sort of advancement in this world that does not involve magic was once again dashed and he was forced to endure the apparent intellectual disability of this world's humans.

With this initial victory, One wanted to rest but the victories at the northern and southern fronts would make him postpone this much-needed rest. The war has finally turned in his favour, how could he not exploit it?