Chapter 74: The Mainland War – Chapter 38 (Battle of Broken Wing Mountain! Part 4)

Meanwhile…

Beastmen plains, A tree outside the canyon

 

What the Falcon King had seen in the valley could only be described with a single word to this beast king, it was a threat to him. When he arrived back at his nest after watching the advanced forces die without ever even getting to fight the enemy, he realized that the situation was bad. A beast king was the strongest one in his pack, which meant that threats often came for them from their pack members. The retirement for a beast king was usually being ripped apart by an opponent who came from within their pack to replace them.

 

If a beast king was brutal enough he would ensure that no challengers came for him, but the pack usually wouldn’t be able to survive without the leader after they died. This meant that another pack would come along and fight to replace them and the leader of the winning pack would become the new beast king. The last hyena king, Fourpaw, was known for using his large army to win battles this way, and it was how he became a beast king. This meant that individually he wasn’t as strong as many of the other beast kings.

 

The Falcon King was a proper beast king who defeated his predecessor who was an eagle with a white head of feathers. Since challenging someone who was below your station was seen as weak behavior, the previous beast king had sent the Falcon King on all kinds of missions trying to kill him. In the end, after the Falcon King learned the secret to using his mana to take on a beast king form, he was able to separate the head from the last leader's shoulders. Now he felt like there was a blade hanging over his neck, one he had been trying to avoid. 

 

“I need to destroy them now before they have time to build further!” The Falcon King muttered.

 

That was because the thousands of beavers inside of the fort were moving at breakneck speed to make changes to the landscape. Logs were constantly being pushed down the river from upstream and the entire valley was beginning to flood. The beavermen were experts at making tunnel entrances that didn’t flood even when underwater and he knew that the gophermen were joining them. It felt like the rodents were starting to copy the same strategy with combining with similar species that the birdmen had been using to great effect.

 

“There are so many of them... there are more of them than any other species... ” The Falcon King muttered in horror. “If they all carried such terrible weapons, wouldn’t they be able to destroy us all?”

 

This fear he felt when he returned to the mountain led him to try another attack, this time he was doing things much different than the last two attempts. Sitting on the same tree as last time, he kept the same cold and aloof expression. This time he did not take any of his women with him as he wanted a rare moment to be alone while he watched this battle. The same old vulture was leading the troops for him, but it was mostly owls and specialized birdmen with better vision in the darkness.

 

Refusing to go all out, he instead chose to take the approach of sending in a group of over 5000, but these were more seasoned troops that came from packs that were loyal. He was also taking this much more seriously this time, and he felt he had prepared plenty of good countermeasures to take care of the annoying rats in the holes.

 

***

Meanwhile… 

Beastmen Plains, The tunnels under the canyon

 

The sounds and smells had only slightly changed underground now that the canyon was beginning to flood. Since prisoners were something the beastmen were trying to use, they decided to give the birdmen a softer landing by flooding the canyon. For the beavers, this had been as simple as chewing through a few logs and surfing them down the river to build a dam. They had hoped that the birdmen would have waited a few days so that they could take more prisoners. 

 

 “Oh well, I usually aim for the head anyway.” Snow muttered. 

 

The Supreme Cheese said that negotiations cannot begin unless prisoners are presented, no one will negotiate with a side unless there are prisoners. With the elves, the mousemen had made an honest mistake by putting them in an area that only a rodent would find comfortable. Part of the reason for getting the beavers' assistance was to borrow their architectural skills to construct a prison. None of them ever expected that the groups would all work so well together for their first time working together.

 

It didn’t take long for Snow to finish her run through the tunnels following the perfume trails left by the gophermen who were able to create this labyrinth-like structure of tunnels. Coming to an opening she opened her mouth and dropped a plastic ball that she used to hold the bag containing her loaded magazines. She caught it in her hand before it touched the ground and flipped the ball inside of the bag to keep it clean, she then set up the second bag for all of her brass and spent magazines. Content with this arrangement, she laid down on her stomach ignoring what it did to her clothes, and pulled the rifle off her back. 

 

For a lot of beastmen clothes were a new concept, so they often made mistakes that led to stains on the fabric. That is why durable and stain-resistant materials like polyester were so popular among them. Using some pressure she popped open a plastic clamshell case that went over her gun's scope and body and set it to the side. Then using her claws and some pressure she moved some of the soil around to make a mound that she could set her rifle on to aim it towards the sky.

 

Clunk! Click-clack!

 

She slid a magazine into the well in the bottom of the gun and gave the bolt a pull straight back and forward. From taking apart the rifle she knew there were a lot of things this action did, like causing the bolt to turn and release the large lugs that acted to lock the bullet into the chamber. It was a surprise to her the first time she had taken the rifle apart and seen all of the various small pieces that allowed it to actuate so smoothly. When it came to weapons of war, nothing was better in her mind than the things that were bought from the succubi.

 

“Oh? They learned from last time. They are flying much lower to the ground this time and much faster.” Snow commented as she caught sight of the enemies through her scope.

 

All around in the valley from many gopher men holes, an eerie sight was seen as many eyes were reflected in the moonlight. For the first time in a while, Snow felt truly energized as she felt fully awake and all of her senses came alive. That is because the type of fox beastman that she was preferred to be nocturnal instead of awake during the day. Many fox beastmen felt the same way, and they had excellent vision in the darkness thanks to their eyes' ability to take in and reflect what little light was available.

 

“They are more spread out, we were already expecting that though.” Snow muttered as she made some final adjustments to her scopes zooming.

 

Boom!

 

The muzzle brake at the end of the gun was modified to be spade-shaped and it caused the pressure from the bullet to create a y-shape. They were designed to cause the gas from the bullet to break like this so that it would reduce recoil on the shooter. Most of the recoil came from the propellant pushing back on the shooter as it exited the barrel. That is why most rifles that were designed for firing large-caliber bullets usually had one equipped.

 

The barrel let out a bright flash as the bullet spun out of the barrel faster than the eye could see and made its flight to a large birdman who was in the front of the flock. She watched through her scope as the head of the target began to bloom like a flower before she moved the crosshairs to another flying birdman. Just as she pulled the trigger and felt the gun kick back into her shoulder she witnessed a change in the birdmen’s formation. They immediately began breaking into groups and moving swiftly towards any of the holes that the foxes fired from.

 

“What are you planning to do this time?” Snow wondered aloud.

 

This didn’t stop her from firing three bullets at the group of birdmen that began flying towards her. Reaching up she immediately dropped the mag onto the ground as she reached over and swiftly grabbed another one. Slapping it into the magazine well, she released the bolt which allowed it to slide a bullet forward into the chamber and started firing again. She could see the oil-soaked balls that the birdmen had brought each time but hadn’t used before.

 

“Only 9 more this time, that is disappointing…” She muttered as she swiftly packed up her belongings and rushed into the tunnel.

 

***

Meanwhile…

Beastmen plains, The sky above the canyon 

 

This time the birdmen had thoroughly prepared for this attack, last time the group that was sent was mostly people that the Falcon King felt had the potential to be rivals. Most beast kings often partook in purging attacks where they sent out forces that were the most likely to threaten their positions. That is also why the Falcon King had mostly old beastmen left to lead his troops, they no longer had the ambition to try to supplant him.

 

“Go! Ignore the losses and move forward!” The old vulture ordered the beastmen from the back.

 

This time they were moving with much greater purpose than in the last battle, while the Falcon King looked calm on the surface he would never allow a threat to grow at his doorstep. As the birdmen usually only had a single beast king the one who ruled had to be especially cold-blooded. The old vulture knew that this time if he failed then he was better off not returning to the mountain. Most of these troops were ones that were bound to the pack through his various marriages, it is why most beast kings took many spouses.

 

The birdmen were breaking into groups and rapidly making their way to the tunnels where they could see the shining light of beastmen eyes and the flash of gunfire. They were being led by birdmen species like owls, nightjars, and night-herons with other birdmen who didn’t have as weak of sight at night.  This was a special force that the Falcon King had created specifically to perform night raids on his enemies. The reason that the beavermen and gophermen were so happy to join this battle was due to how heavily they had been predated on.

 

While they lost 5 to 10 members of their groups they were successful in reaching the tunnels and immediately began releasing their payloads. The large sticky bundles of oil, sticks, and straw began to pelt the openings of the tunnels that had now been abandoned. The moment the groups finished dropping the bundles another birdman followed up by shooting torrents of flames at the bundles. This caused the oil to ignite and begin releasing thick black smoke that was slow to rise.

 

Then the group of remaining birdmen moved above the smoke and flames and began to heavily flap their wings to blow smoke into the tunnels. Some of them landed and dug their claws into the ground, but it didn’t take long for the heavy smoke to start making its way into the tunnel network. 

 

“The best way to deal with rodents is to smoke them out!” An owl beastman said as he began laughing evilly.

 

Make sure you don’t breathe it in, it will make you sick!” An older heron responded as he flapped his large wings. 

 

All around the canyon the various groups of birdmen were making it to their various tunnel entrances and setting fire to them. Thick smoke was being pushed into the tunnels from various openings and this was causing smoke to start flowing out of entrances that weren’t being used.

 

“The rodents should start coming out soon! I bet we will see smoke come out of the beaver’s fort too!” The owl laughed.

 

“Yeah, I bet they never expected something like this!” This birdman had a large beak that made his mouth look abnormally large.

 

“How could they? There is no way they had any idea what the oil could be used for!” Bernie commented from the side.

“That’s right, what did you call it ag-” The owl began and turned towards the voice to the side of them.

 

He paused when he saw a mouse wearing a long gray coat that covered his body and blended into the smoke. On his face was a black plastic gas mask that was molded to the shape of his face and used a carbon filter to scrub the air. Smoke like this that didn’t contain toxins was something easy for this type of mask to handle. With how loud this group of birdmen was being, it attracted the mouse from his hole to say hello to them.

 

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

 

Instead of speaking to the group any further, he decided to let his shotgun say what he felt about these foolish enemies. The large lead balls tore through their bodies and sent blood and feathers flying out into the air to form bloody cones. It only took Bernie five shots to kill the group of 10 and leave several on the ground crying in misery. Instead of speaking further he grabbed a grenade from his coat and pulled out a metal pin before tossing it into the mouth of the burning tunnel.

 

A loud explosion sounded as the tunnel collapsed and stopped any more smoke from being able to enter. This was not done because the smoke was dangerous but because this tunnel was compromised with the roots that held the dirt back burning. It was safer to collapse it until a gopherman could come along and properly clear and open it back up. 

 

“Don’t want someone to stumble into it and get caught in a collapse,” Bernie muttered as dirt flew into the air and showered his coat.

 

A large owlman began swooping towards Bernie as he casually walked towards the mouth of the tunnel he came out of to ambush the group. There wasn’t any fear in his demeanor as he walked tall on two legs with his shotgun in his hands, he even took some time to reload it. Swapping for a fresh magazine, he didn’t seem to care about the owlman who was aiming its talons right for his head. That is because he knew that the foxes were watching everything that happened on the battlefield.

 

Boom!

 

An explosive shell buried its way into the head of the owl birdman before its payload detonated and the birdman’s head vanished. The body was like a kite that had its strings cut and it veered to the side and crashed into the ground. While this caused the birdmen to panic for a moment, they hardened their resolve and went after the exposed mouse. Another black and purple birdman with large eyes put the white mouse wearing a gas mask into his sights.

 

Just like the owlman who came before him, a bullet that traveled faster than the eye could see made its way to him and entered the back of his head, and exploded inside of his beak. This caused shards of bone and feathers to erupt into the air and blood to splatter all over the mouse who was walking towards the tunnel.

 

Turning towards a tunnel in the distance he began waving his white fist into the air angrily. “Damnit Snow, I even took my time to give you some more targets! Now I will need to bathe again before I go to-”

 

Boom!

 

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Another birdman who got close to him was blasted by a large caliber bullet. Now that he had a coating of blood on his coat it caused the dark gray feathers of its victim to stick to his coat and give him a nice coating. He looked so ridiculous that he stopped at the mouth of the tunnel leading to safety to inspect himself.

 

“I have been blood and feathered…” he muttered.

 

***

Meanwhile…

Beastmen Plains, One of the various tunnel entrances

 

Snow smiled as she watched her prank successfully play out, she wanted to tell the mouse who was showing off that he should get into cover. She didn’t know when things like this had become fun to her, probably since she was young and was raised to be sent to the strongest male her parents could find. For a long time, she had hated the idea that she had to bend herself to others' whims. That was why she was one of the first foxes to pick up a rifle when she was given a chance.

 

“There you go Bernie, back into the tunnels where you belong.” Snow said as she watched him walk angrily into a tunnel as he wiped the blood off the front of his mask.

 

"Snow, your legs are longer than mine! You should have waited for me!" A voice called from behind her down the tunnel.

 

The rest of the mousemen chose much more destructive ways to close the entrances of their tunnels. That was her opinion as she moved her scope to a different direction where a tunnel was being closed. Next to her, a female fox beastman was standing using her massive ears to listen to the sounds of the battlefield. She was an adult but she was only the size of a child which was only slightly taller than a gnome.

 

Using her powerful ears she could hear the sounds of the weapon that the mousemen chose to close the tunnels.

 

Thunk! Thunk! Thunk! Thunk Thunk! Thunk!

 

The sound of grenades firing from the grenade launcher was easily picked out by her powerful ears. This was usually followed by the sounds of a string of explosions and the screaming of birdmen. Even with their increased numbers, they were dying rapidly by assaulting the tunnels as they were shot from various sides. This also caused them to circle the large beaverman fort in the middle of the swampy canyon.

 

“Snow, they are coming from 11 o’clock, 3 of them with those oil balls!” A little fox reported.

 

These foxmen were considered useless previously, but their powerful ears made them incredible spotters. Able to hear grass rustle almost a mile(~1.6KM) away, they were perfect allies for a sniper who needed to find targets at night. They also had good vision and a good sense of smell, they just couldn't run as fast.

 

Boom!

 

“Woah! Double kill! It went through his face and blew up the birdman behind him!” The little foxwomen yelled in excitement. 

 

Boom!

 

“Nice, you took out the entire group! 4 o’clock there is 1 of them that just got done breathing fire!” She reported.

 

Boom!

 

“Perfect! The little fox said with a giant grin.

 

“Nice catch on him, Beryl. We need to get rid of as many of the ones with abilities as we can.” Snow said as she continued to look around the sky with her scope.

 

Beryl’s massive ears were continuing to swivel around in the air from the mouth of the tunnel, a serious look on her face. The fennec foxmen all were the color of sand and tended to lie near areas that were deserts. With the invasion of the elves and them marching through part of the desert in the east, these foxmen were displaced from their home. 

 

“They keep coming into the valley! Are Lady Lunas and Kira going to enact phase 2?” Beryl asked with excitement.

 

“They haven’t sent enough troops until now for us to reveal one of our cards.” Snow said then pointed when she saw an old beaver. “Yeah, they are, there is Chief Flattail.”

 

***

Meanwhile…

Beastmen plains, Top of the beaverman’s fort

 

An old beaver with greying fur could be seen walking proudly as he carried his large tail behind him. On his body was a brown pair of robes that were rough spun by hand, they were made by his wife. Below his feet was the pride of the beavermen in the canyon, which was the large wooden shell that made up the top of the mound. The giant dome was carefully constructed from logs and clay to create a safe place for the beavermen to live and grow.

 

In the air around the canyon, thousands of birdmen could be seen swarming the skies around the fortress as they attacked the tunnel entrances in the walls of the canyon. It was clear that they feared attacking the main keep as long as the tunnels were usable. Dots of orange were budding around the canyon as more and more tunnels were either filled with flames or collapsed by the mousemen inside. With the birdmen avoiding getting close to the fortress the beavermen’s cannons were too inaccurate to use.

 

The original shape of the fortress had been like a giant turtle, now it was beginning to resemble a volcano with its large plume of smoke coming from the center.

 

“They have finally surrounded us, just like we wanted!” The old beaverman chief began laughing madly from on top of the fort’s roof. “I have served many beast kings and I know all about night raids and attacks. We often used them when I was a young beaver to take out enemies by surprise.”

 

His laughter stopped suddenly and he began tapping the roof of the fort with his tail, making a loud slapping noise that spread through the air. 

 

“I bet you thought that you were the only ones with good vision at night, weren’t you.” The old beaver called out to all the birdmen in the air. “Now I shall introduce you to our newest ally, the succubi!” 

 

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

 

A series of 20 explosions came from the shell of the beavermen’s fort and tore parts of the ceiling off the roof to reveal rooms that had machine guns mounted onto the floor. Each of these rooms was also equipped with teams of beavermen holding their cannons towards the air with glares on their faces. The machine guns were manned by a small team of succubi who were standing tall and proud among the beavermen. They had their rifles, shotguns, and a couple of them had even brought monsterfausts.

 

Standing tall in the leading position behind a machine gunner was Kira herself, she had ditched the headdress for this battle and was wearing her standard red garb. In her arms was the rifle she had spent the most time shooting and at her side was the elf she often competed with. Lunas had one of the large-caliber sniping rifles and was using part of the roof to give her leverage as she shot into the sky. Greko also stood tall even though he was the shortest one among the bunch.

 

“Open fire!” Kira declared.

 

The machine guns that were being handled by eager succubi, heeded this call the moment she began to shout. She didn’t even get to finish what she was saying before bullets began flying towards the skies from the various guns. Since the birdmen were spread out around the fort, it allowed the machine guns to easily pick targets from the various birdmen. They created lines of fire as the bullets began streaming from the machine guns into the sky to find birdmen.

 

Kira watched as her sisters began knocking the birdmen out of the sky by carving bloody lines with the machine guns. They had carefully set these up to give the best level of coverage to knock the birdmen out of the sky. As fellow creatures that flew they were very familiar with the best use of anti-air after they began experimenting with them. They were able to easily see their opponent's mana signatures in the sky above the canyon, this made it even easier to shoot them down.

 

Watching her enemies falling as they were caught between a wall of machine-gun fire and sniper fire, her enemies were raining from the sky. With no cover and nowhere to hide, they could only fall one by one to the hail of gunfire.

 

“This is what it means to be a succubus!” Kira declared.

 

***

Meanwhile…

Beastmen Plains, Outside of the canyon

 

The falcon King watched as the beavermen’s fort erupt and reveal even more weapons pointing towards the sky. In his mind, he had always seen the place as a giant turtle that was nothing more than an eyesore. Now it was like that very same turtle was smashing open its shell to reveal weapons hidden underneath it. It felt like a volcano that was slowly building up pressure before it would erupt violently.

 

“They could tunnel through the ground of the mountain, or they could use the rivers to move around us.” The Falcon King muttered as he watched his people falling in droves.

 

While this was only a quarter of his forces, it was still a loss that was large enough that he might not be able to completely replace the losses within his lifetime. They had decided to close the tunnels and reduce their ability to fight from cover by using smoke and flames, but they just collapsed these tunnels after killing more enemies and the smoke didn’t seem to be doing anything to the occupants. They were just making themselves easier to kill for the new weapons that had revealed themselves.

 

Ever since he saw his first dwarven boomstick he had thought they were interesting at the time but they felt like they were lacking. These guns were completely different from the dwarven musket he owned, they didn’t even feel like they were from the same world. The part that caused him even more confusion was the creatures operating the weapons. 

 

“The demons have joined the rodents? Why are the succubi here?!” The Falcon King squealed in shock.

 

If they had presented a group of dwarves, then the Falcon King could understand what was happening. But when he saw a horned demon with a tail and horns, he wasn’t so sure what to believe anymore. Recently in all of the skirmishes they got in with the demons, they had noticed a lack of succubi on the battlefield. They were often referred to as the demon’s bait for ruining a battlefield, they were sometimes thrown right in the middle of the enemy ranks and made to use their charm to divert everyone’s attention.

 

Now he was watching these slow and clumsy creatures killing his people in droves from the holes made in the shell of beaver’s fort. The more he looked at the level of preparations his opponents had made to protect their home, he realized that this attack would fail unless he was willing to throw himself into the battle and sacrifice himself. He also realized that now that the gophermen had joined this coalition, they could attack the mountain from directly underground. 

 

“The weapons come from the succubi, they are no longer a part of the demon’s forces.” A voice called to him from the side.

 

This caused the Falcon King some shock when he realized he had been snuck up on while he was in distress. Violent anger began to surge up in him that he was forced to quash before he took in the speaker of the voice. What he saw was a man with long blonde hair and blood-red eyes, in his mouth, were many sharp fangs for sucking the blood out of victims. He also wore blood-red clothes that were in the fashion of the High Elves.

 

“You are the leader of the vampires!” The Falcon King screeched menacingly as he began to stand from the branch he was standing on.

 

“I am indeed, but I also have a mutual enemy in the succubi and I happen to know that their new leader is here right now.” The man said. “I can already tell you that this night raid is doomed to fail, however, if we work together we can both be rid of a nuisance once and for all.”

 

This caused the Falcon King to pause as he heard the words of the blonde-haired man, instead, he turned his attention back towards the skies where he could see his people getting mowed down by the incessant gunfire from the large machine guns.    

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