7:30 AT, Day Nineteen | Outside Castle Resolve

  I grip Ray’s hand tightly and run my fingers in small circles over the back of her hand, making her fidget as we sit and wait.

  The sun is just starting to rise over the horizon on this fine day, painting the sky a brilliant mixture of pink and orange.

  I can feel the warmth from Ray’s head leaning on my shoulder. It’s nice, knowing that she is right there, at my side. I wouldn't want it any other way. After all, she is my super duper ultra omega cute girlfriend who just so happens to be super cool and the cutest in the entire universe, also she is excellent at giving headrubs. Also known as, my favourite person in the whole universe. Or actually, all the universe in every reality.

  Did I mention she is really cute? Cause, she is like, really klacking cute.

  Ray shifts against me, leaning into me harder. Probably trying to give me all the discomfort from the hard metal surface of the truck below us. Why couldn't they have made these armored trucks more comfortable on the tops? They are so uncomfortable.

  I wrap my arm around Ray, pulling her even closer, to which she lets out a grumble of acceptance. We sit like that and silently watch the sunrise, taking comfort in the mere existence of each other. Meanwhile, our soldiers are busy moving into position around the castle, preparing for the grand assault. Being a boss sure is nice, all the prestige and not much of the work.

  It's a bit of an operation after all, we estimate that the Quartet have around five thousand troops inside their castle. Plus, we have to make it through their industrial cityscape that occupies the surrounding land. No doubt it's full of traps and hostiles, but hey, that sounds like a fun time. After all, nothing is better for bonding than running through a city that is actively trying to kill you every few seconds.

  Though, with our plan, it shouldn't be too bad. After all, we are the Moonlight Duo. A normal siege would be so boring.

  Ray shifts, wrapping her arms tightly around me. She whispers into my ear, “Darling, we are going to win.” The tone of her voice sends shivers up my spine and makes my hairs stand on end. Why is it that I seem to hang around so many devils? Oh well, at least one of them is super duper cute.

  *One Hour Later*

  I listen to the faint hum of the artillery cannon’s coils charging up. With a great woosh, the energy is injected into the shell and it goes flying towards the Quartet’s castle.

  It seems like the entire battlefield goes silent, everyone holds their breaths. Even the wind stops, creating a sense of dead silence.

  It impacts the plasma shield with a loud boom that resonates across the silent battlefield. The silence shatters as the air erupts into sounds of gunfire and artillery cannons lobbing shells back and forth.

  Fire rains from the sky, setting the ocean of grass ablaze. Our troops come under fire, taking several losses as we chip away at their shields.

  I turn to Emil, who actually joined us on the battlefield this time. “Is everything prepared?”

  “Ray (along with Itvak), Rigar, and Yuin’s squadrons are just about in position. It is time for us to get moving, milord.”

  “Alright then, let's go knock on their front door. Perhaps they will kindly invite us inside for some tea and a soak in the hot spring, for old times sake.” I say, letting out a laugh that some might describe as a bit evil.

  Our force consisting of Emil, myself and two great-levels moves in on hover-bikes. A relatively new addition granted by the production facilities.

  We race across the ocean of grass, our belts and backs laden with bombs.

  What, were you thinking we came up with a plan that didn't involve lots of explosives? All great plans must involve explosives, it's like, rule number one of military strategy.

  The other groups are doing the same, each of us taking a cardinal direction.

  We dodge around shells that try to hit us. I have a few close calls, heat from the explosion singing some of my armor. Which is really annoying, it's hard to get scorch marks out of metal.

  We make our way through the industrial city, dodging traps and soldiers firing rockets from open windows. Somehow, we don't lose a single person from any of the groups. Perhaps we are truly just that good.

  As we near the castle, soldiers stationed on the battlements start to rain fire down upon us. Emil and I activate {Lighting Barrier}, while the others rely on directional plasma shields to absorb most of it.

  Several soldiers charge out of the shield, trying to aim rocket launchers and such at us, but we quickly take them out with small arms fire. A few medium-levels with explosives aren't gonna stop four of the strongest fighters in the arena.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

  We reach the shields and begin our plan. We split into two, each group going a different direction around the shield.

  As we make our way, we drop explosive charges, specifically tuned to overloading extremely strong shields. I'm not quite sure how they work, something to do with discharging energy to create a feedback loop within the arrays. This phenomenon may have a few side effects, one of which we are hoping to make good use of.

  We each lay hundreds of charges around the shield. Eventually, we finish laying them and intercept one of the groups from the other directions. It just so happens that Emil and I join up with Ray and Itvak. We quickly ride away from the shields, to get outside the detonation range.

  [Over Comms] “Milord, All groups have completed their rounds and everyone is in position.” Emil says, a hint of excitement in his voice. The guy might seem all composed and responsible, but he likes cool things just the same. Must be something universal to soldiers or something, or perhaps people in general.

  Trying to keep my excitement from overflowing into my voice, I give the order. “Well then, bring that shield down.”

  A few seconds later, I imagine someone in the backlines presses a big red button. It's probably clearly marked with a glass cover and big text that says ‘big boom’ or something similar.

  The world shakes as the charges detonate, creating a ring of fire around the shield. The energy creates the feedback loop and we watch as the energy flows into the shield, turning it from a mostly transparent blue to a bright white.

  In a process similar to how the portable fusion bombs work, the shield starts to intensify in its light. Fractions of a moment pass and the world explodes yet again. The overload causes the air molecules themselves to ignite in a very short-lived fusion reaction, making it look like we temporarily spawned a sun in the middle of the battlefield.

  The shockwave hits us moments later, uprooting our bikes from their stable hover and throwing us and everything nearby backwards several hundred meters. The blast flattened the grass for kilometers around, and set fires everywhere.

  I get thrown off the bike and crash into the ground, hard. My armor absorbed most of the actual damage, but it still hurts real klacking bad.

  I quickly stand up and take a look around. For kilometers around the castle, everything is on fire.

  Several giant holes have been opened up in the castle walls, as happens when what is essentially a fusion bomb is set off a few meters away. It's honestly a testament to the alien materials that the whole castle isn't just a leveled crater at this point. Any human defensive structure definitely wouldn't have stood against such a blast.

  As the fire starts to burn out, we quickly right our bikes and charge for the castle, dodging the gigantic wildfires that have encircled the castle. In a very unfortunate series of events, Ray’s bike was broken. Thus, she is riding behind me, holding on tightly to my waist.

  How totally unfortunate, I cannot believe such a tragedy occurred.

  We reach the main gate and get off of our bikes. I give Ray a hug and a kiss, as one does in the midst of a battle.

  “You ready darling?” Ray asks, a smile on her face.

  “So long as you're at my side, always.” I say, returning her smile.

  Naturally, we walk in through the main gate. Which has been utterly obliterated from the shockwave. All that remains is one half of the frame, looking like it is about to collapse at any second.

  The moment we walk inside, we are met with a horrific scene. In the main courtyard are hundreds of ruined vessels, nearly melted into piles of scrap by the detonation. Bunkhouses and other structures lie in ruins. The smell of burnt metal hangs in the air, luckily we can filter it out with our handy augmentation kits.

  As we move through the rubble and fields of scrap, I hold Ray’s hand. After all, there is no moment where holding your super duper cute girlfriend’s hand is not a valid action. It might be implausible, but that just means you need to change things around such that it is the only natural thing to do.

  We make our way to the only structure still standing, the keep. It must be made out of something special, as it doesn't have a single scratch mark or crack of damage on it. Which makes sense, it's supposed to be the core structure for any faction, and it houses a lot of important facilities like the recovery bay and flag room.

  I also think that the faction’s inventory system storage is also somewhere underneath, given the time it takes for resources to be retrieved at distance, it's the only logical place it could be.

  Unfortunately, it seems that they haven't left the front door open for us.

  How rude, it's generally polite to open the door for any guests that you have over, ideally with a polite attitude and pleasant demeanor.

  Oh well, we will just have to let ourselves inside.

  I turn to Yuin and ask, “Do you still have one of those extra charges your group was carrying?”

  “That I do, Milord. I take it we need to open the door for ourselves?”

  “Yep, it seems they forgot to send out a welcoming party. For klack's sake, they don’t even have a mat that says ‘welcome’. They really need to get their act together.”

  Our group of battle-hardened warriors with a combined experience of tens if not hundreds of millions of years breaks into laughter. I wonder what the Quartet and their friends are thinking, watching us stand outside their door, laughing. Right after we just detonated their defensive shield and took out most of their forces and crippled their defenses.

  Perhaps this day will go down in some history book. I can see it now, ‘The Day The Moon Ignited The Sun.’, I bet a headline like that would get a lot of clicks on the net.

  Yuin takes the spare charge and places it on the door. We all take shelter behind a nearby wall and detonate the charge.

  When the dust settles, we are greeted with a wide open door. Hopefully the Quartet can learn how to properly welcome people into their homes now that we have given them an example of proper door opening etiquette.

  Our group walks into the castle and I loudly shout to all those supposedly waiting inside. “Why hello there fellow people of this arena. We come bearing gifts! Though, we have no doubt you will take our actions as hostile, we come here peacefully.

  Alas, it seems peace is not on the cards for this day. Oh well, we can handle whatever you've got in here. So, bring it on.”

  End of Chapter 107

  Next: Chapter 108 | Burning Resolve

  If you are enjoying the book, you could follow, favorite, rate, or review it, I'd really appreciate it.

  Read Ahead of Royal Road on my

  Checkout the official