NOVEL FROG Chapter 126: Always Forward
Running into the battlefield, Crisis quickly realized their chances of getting to the base were close to zero, as it became apparent how grave the situation was for their allies the closer they got. The ongoing fight was already enough to deter them from approaching head-on, even though the ravagers didn’t pose much of a threat. The omen army was their biggest concern since they had already breached the Cloudstar base, surrounded the entire wall on the west wing, and even broken a section of the south wall. Despite the heavily reinforced walls, the base's main gate on the south wing couldn’t endure much more, and with the omens having drilled a hole in it, the base’s entrance was overcrowded before the Cloudstars could reposition themselves to defend it. And as omens flowed inside seemingly endlessly, the ravagers couldn’t get close and had to stay in formation to come up with a new strategy.
–We’re late…– Panda muttered disheartenedly, losing all vitality gained after beating up the omens from earlier once he saw the Cloudstars’ futile attempts to save their base. The squad couldn’t see much past the mass of omens formed outside the south wall, as the enemy was now climbing to the top from the inside, where they began spreading out and covering more area.
While Frost continued to lead Crisis, he slowed down to assess their options, and even though everyone else was too apprehensive to continue going forward, he never once looked back and only kept running straight into the danger as they were getting closer to the backlines of the omen army. Once he saw the ravagers starting to retreat to take on the north wall, Frost glanced back at the team and realized they were refusing to run in without a plan. He still didn’t trace one single step back and only urged his teammates to hurry up without any consideration of their worries.
–Yes, it might be a lost cause, but we can’t know for sure. Even if we are, we still must avenge them, so let’s go…– Frost replied nonchalantly while standing in the middle of the battlefield, only a few meters away from the center of the battle. His orders were met with mixed reactions from the squad, with Kiwy and Nitro remaining excited to go into the battle, but Panda not so much. He turned back to Candy and Saint, who stayed behind and were visibly worried. While prioritizing their safety by covering the front with his shield, he began picking up the pace to run alongside Frost. Everyone else followed in formation, but as Saint’s worries were unanswered, he moved from the very back to the front to get Frost’s attention.
–How are we going to get there? They’ll shoot us as soon as they spot us…– Saint asked with a mix of skepticism and fear, but looked more eager to receive orders as he poked his head between Frost and Panda. Only the latter turned around, and even though he acknowledged his concern, he didn’t say anything and gently pushed him back into position to let Frost respond.
–We just won’t let them spot us. Stay close together. We’ll cut through their men, but keep moving. Don’t stray a single step away from the line. There’s only one direction, and it’s always forward, got it?…– Frost assured firmly before gesturing for Panda to take the lead as the squad formed a line. Frost stayed glued to his back, acting as his armed shadow, while Kiwy and Nitro kept eyes on the sides, and at the back, Candy and Saint stayed close together. They were at the very back, which was the current safest spot, but as they made the mistake of looking back, they grew frightened of what they were getting themselves into.
With Panda protecting the whole squad, he held tight to his shield and focused solely on keeping it steady to cover as much area as possible, effectively blocking his view but helping him sprint. The squad was now approaching the battle fast, but the closer they got, the more the odds were stacked against them. Not only did the omens dominate most of the battlefield, but they also had little to no resistance from their enemies, and many were left without a fight. They had stepped into ravager territory as they had crossed the halfway line, now starting to surround the base from both north and south, while the backlines covered the west side they had secured. However, since they had eliminated any opponent on their way to the base, the omens became vigilant and sought after any threat they could neutralize.
Frost noticed they would be targeted immediately if they stepped into the line of sight. But instead of ordering Panda to back down, he allowed him to keep charging at the enemy, even when they were just about to intercept the backlines. Right before they could breach the massive outer circle of omens surrounding the base, both the enemy and Crisis were startled by an echoing battle cry coming from the east. The collective roars of the ravager army grew louder as the reinforcements from the mountains behind began charging through the lengthy battlefield to reach the omens.
The ravagers had lost a lot of ground, so even when they were in an effective formation, splitting up into staggered groups in the shape of spears, with their stronger units as front liners, the omens could easily target them and pick them off one by one with their rifles. However, they were caught off guard by the remaining soldiers from the army that gathered right outside the base’s west wall to wait for the counter-offensive to start. The reinforcements created a distraction to lure in the omens close enough for the main army to take on the flanks and swarm both north and south.
The surprise factor was enough to make the omens scatter and lose focus, though they still had the chance to overpower the ravagers as they had the advantage in numbers. This factor wouldn’t be in their favor for long, though, and with the ravagers' sheer will to push forward and attack like feral beasts, they quickly regained the eastern section of the battlefield and began massacring anyone who couldn’t back away in time. Despite only counting with melee weapons, such as swords, spears, and axes, their protection being leather gear, and only having primitive equipment to deal with the tactical omens, their savagery couldn’t be stopped. There was no competition in a fight at close combat with them, and the only way to avoid getting torn apart by the omens was to retreat, giving up the south wall momentarily to be able to fight back from a distance.
While the omens tried creating a gap to let their armed teammates provide cover fire at a safe distance, the ravagers leveled the playing field by stealing their opponents’ guns and using them to shoot back. It was a quick and effective charge, allowing a few ravagers to sneak into the crowded path to the base and begin wreaking havoc around the gate. During the conflict, the omens began to adapt and tried to concentrate their forces on the opening of the wall to prevent any more ravagers from coming in. Most of the omen units up north moved down to the south wall to provide support, but all it took for the ravagers to even the game was to disperse once again to regain the ground they had lost now that the reinforcements were joining in. They disrupted the omens’ defensive formation now that the ravagers had reclaimed an entire flank, getting a chance to fight fairly by causing enough commotion to force the entire omen army to step back to survive.
Crisis was closing in on the omens’ army. To avoid being caught in the crossfire, they switched lanes to align themselves with the south gate and began running straight to it as the ravagers cleared a path. The charge ended shortly after the omens retreated and left the opening completely unguarded, but the ravagers got too eager and ran in without a second thought, failing to apply more pressure on their enemy to buy themselves a bit more time. Crisis noticed the grave mistake almost immediately, and as they were almost about to give in to the impatience, they stopped just before they could step into the omens’ line of fire, as they had now come up with a defensive measure that the ravagers couldn’t see coming.
With the omens having seemingly invaded the entire Cloudstar base, they finally took over control of their walls, setting up soldiers on top to not only get the higher ground and fire down on the ravagers but also bring out the big guns to deal with the incoming attackers. Instead of using their rifles, they set up some of the heavy weaponry found in the small watchtowers littered across the walls. These provided great cover, but they also housed some of the strongest defensive systems in the Cloudstar arsenal. It appeared that they were more than equipped with enough firepower to defend their base, but unfortunately, they were caught off guard and couldn’t put it to use. And now, that very same equipment was seized by the enemy and used against the ravagers. They gained access to a few high-caliber machine gun turrets set up on all watchtowers, which didn’t take long for the omens to figure out how to handle.
As soon as the omens got a hold of the turrets set up in the outer wall, they loaded them up with everything they had, and before the ravagers knew it, they were being decimated in masses. They couldn’t even react to the first line being wiped out in a short burst, and once they spotted the turrets, the ravagers dropped dead one after the other in a fusillade so intense that the walls and ground trembled. The ravagers had no chance of dodging or running back to cover, and without any way out, they kept pushing forward out of desperation, having to use their teammates as meat shields to not be ripped apart by the heavy bullets. The few lucky ones that stuck close to the wall stayed petrified as they couldn’t move or they would risk getting shot, so they were left watching as their teammates ran to reach the safety of the wall, only to perish without even making a sound.
Anyone who was on the open field was exposed to the turrets, and with plenty of ammo to spare, the omens opened fire to everything that moved on the right flank, though some of the sentries at the south wall focused solely on shooting down the path from the gorge, forcing Crisis to move closer to the west on the omen’s side as they purposefully fell back to watch the bloodshed unfold. The ravager army tried to blend in with the omens to save themselves from the barrage of bullets, but their size quickly diminished to a small fraction that had no other option than to wait for someone to save or help them. Unfortunately for them, no one was running to aid them, and in fact, they inadvertently helped someone else.
Crisis saw the opportunity to approach the base since there was little crossfire in the way, except for the storm of bullets raining down the path to the south gate. They took advantage of the omens’ amusement of watching the ravagers get slaughtered to keep running straight, infiltrating the backlines while carefully pushing their way closer without alerting any omens. They had already performed this strategy back at the entrance to the Pacific Pass, but Panda couldn’t help but grow terrified of being surrounded by so many omens. He peeked over the omens ahead to see that the squad was heading directly into the gunfire, but even with the turrets standing menacingly out of reach, they weren’t targeting them yet. Still, it was a matter of time for the omens to spot them, as the remaining ravagers couldn’t stick around and distract the enemy for longer, so Panda turned to Frost for some instructions.
–Keep going…– Frost whispered to Panda as they were getting close to the opening on the south gate. Panda didn’t waste his breath to argue and held it as he hurried up to reach the entrance as soon as possible. Not garnering any attention from the hundreds of oblivious omens, he kept his shield down and lowered his head. The rest of the squad didn’t have trouble blending in, though it was clear that Saint was too frightened to look at anyone as he stared down at the ground and pushed Nitro to hurry. Although just from hearing the omens’ laughs turn into murmurs, he began to notice some were turning heads and noticing the strange movement among their teammates.
The squad had cut through one of the first rows of omens next to the opening, meaning they were very near the front line. Luckily, the ones at the front were too busy joining in the ravager slaughter and didn’t check their backs. However, only a few seconds after infiltrating the crowd, some of the omens at the back started to notice Crisis, and even though the squad tried to stay low, they bumped into more and more enemies and inevitably drew enough attention to alert the omens in their vicinity. But just when the enemy began turning and reaching for their weapons, the whole army moved as a big mass towards the right flank of the base, pushing forward to block the opening on the south gate and sweeping both Crisis and any omens who had spotted them.
Despite having the ravagers pinned behind the east wall of the base, the omens executed a massive assault to clear the battlefield and secure the base once and for all. Even the omens posted on the left watchtowers had to run over to the opposite side to help, as it seemed they had to face a greater threat. At first, Crisis couldn’t see much as they were pushed around by the omens, but they stuck together and tried to press on despite the chaos around them. They tried their best to follow Frost’s order and ignored what was taking place right next to them, and while they couldn’t see it, it was the right choice since an inconceivable number of ravagers began charging into battle from the mountains.
With the boisterous thunder setting the tone for their dramatic entrance, the ravagers managed to carry out one last attempt to make a comeback, this time stronger than ever. From all corners of the eastern front, an army capable of filling every narrow corridor in the gorge emerged out of seemingly nowhere. Ravagers started to flow in through small cracks in the mountains up north, some coming from the open-east route at the end of the field. Most of the soldiers were coming down the mountain adjacent to the pass, as it looked like they had gained some leverage in the secondary battle found above. With most of their forces focused on the main battle, the storm incoming was of such a menacing scale for even the omens that they didn’t know whether to retreat again or commit to defending their position.
The ravagers showed up with all their best weaponry and soldiers, meaning heavier armor, proper shields, archers, horsemen with spears, wild boars, and even large artillery contraptions capable of holding dozens of arrows ready to shoot simultaneously. These hwacha-like machines were quite heavy, taking multiple ravagers to push forward slowly even with the help of wheels, mainly because there appeared to be severed heads of large beats adorning the base and front of the weapon. Their eccentric decoration slowed them down, but it significantly enhanced the fear factor, as even the omens were frightened to find out how effective the ravagers’ inventions could be. Regardless, the ravagers were approaching fast, and even with turrets and major control of the walls, the hundreds of armed troops at the omens’ disposal looked like they would still lack the strength to overpower the incoming ravager army.
In a desperate attempt to stop the heavy troops and horsemen from getting close, the omens focused fire on the center of the ravager army, trying to target the artillery to destroy it before they got in range. But even when they continued massacring ravagers on foot, their opponent just kept coming without signs of stopping. Unlike the omens, it looked like there was no strategy or games to play; the ravagers’ approach was mere brute force, and since they were all committed to the cause, it appeared enough to make the omens reconstruct their battle plan in haste. No matter how many of their teammates died, the ravagers kept pushing; in fact, it was as if with every casualty they suffered, they grew mightier and more motivated to fight.
Now taking formations to prepare a massive raid, the omens found themselves overwhelmed as they were facing the true power of their enemy. They still had decent manpower to match theirs, though nothing could have prepared them for the ravagers’ aggression in their final onslaught. As harrowing and terrifying as it was, Crisis took advantage of the moment to continue advancing, pushing their way through the omen army without a care. Their enemies clearly had bigger things to worry about, so Panda dropped all subtlety and began bashing everyone in front to clear the way to the base.
The omens were growing hostile, but not towards them, though some did prefer to fight against the small squad rather than take on the entire ravager army, so they didn’t let Crisis slide so easily. They were a few feet off-center from the entrance, but with the army pushing them towards the opening, Crisis followed the wave and quickly found themselves in front of the broken gate. However, even though the omens were now more focused on stopping the ravagers than protecting the entrance, there was still a big mass huddled in their way. Without the stealth option to approach any farther, the squad was finally forced to engage and kill some omens, much to half of Crisis’ pleasure.
Reaching the broken gate, they began fighting their way into the base, with Panda instigating by jumping at the omens guarding it while they had their backs turned. He knocked them to the ground before Frost and Kiwy squeezed their way out of the wave of omens charging against the ravagers and helped Panda take down the omens ahead. The two barely got out before they were dragged into the front line with the rest, but Nitro, Candy, and Saint weren’t so lucky. Some omens had spotted them and weren’t letting them pass without a fight. They struggled to make room to attack as they were surrounded by all of their teammates, but even when going against the stream of soldiers charging into the battle at the center with the ravagers, a few omens caught up to the squad to stop them.
Before they could make it to the opening, Candy and Saint were pulled back by the omens, to which they immediately shoved them away and tried to stay close to Panda, but they couldn’t escape the enemy’s grasp. Saint was forced to act and pull Dominion out, slicing a few limbs in the process by accident, which only helped attract more attention to him. He froze in place, looking around to see that he had become the target of a good dozen omens. He wasn’t the only one, as a few omens attacked Nitro from the sides as well, tackling him to the ground, where the other omens started trampling them. His attackers shielded him from the stampede, although Nitro was now trapped under the enemy, only being able to scream for someone to notice and help.
Since Frost, Kiwy, and Panda were pushing forward to secure a way inside the base, they were leaving the others behind, with only Candy being able to help out as she noticed Nitro and Saint were attacked. The latter managed to stand his ground and defend himself from any omen that got close since they couldn’t fire their weapons in close range. Seeing this, Candy prioritized Nitro and ran to his aid, all while Frost slashed through any omens standing between him and the gate without giving them a chance to fight back. But as many bodies as he sliced, more omens gathered to protect the entrance, causing Panda and Kiwy to stay back and protect Frost until he made his way inside. While he was slowly getting a better view of the situation within the base, the rest of the squad was drawing more attention and being targeted, with Saint being in the most danger as he had lost track of his team.
–Get him up, quick!– Panda yelled at Candy after noticing Nitro and Saint struggling to defend themselves. With the gate opening secured, he urged Kiwy to follow Frost while he protected his position, dropping the machine gun and freely punching any omen who dared attack him. One after the other, Panda knocked everyone down with a hit to the face, either from his shield or his fists, though his fists seemed to be more effective. He couldn’t move but lured in more enemies to allow Candy to help out Nitro.
Not risking shooting Nitro, she began shoving the omens on top of him, but with the waves of omens charging into battle, she was also knocked down to the ground. It looked like many omens disregarded the small brawl breaking out within their own lines as the ravager army was dangerously close to the base. Since almost everyone was running without consideration for their fallen teammates, Saint hurried up to help Candy and Nitro. With a swift slash to clear some space, he used the stunned omens to get over the crowd of omens between him and his teammates. He surfed over the army momentarily before losing his balance and falling on top of a couple of enemies about to pounce on Candy. As a result, he made them trip and fall, consequently making others stumble and create a distraction for a few seconds, allowing him to get back to his teammates.
However, with more omens dropping dead around the opening to the base, a good portion of the ground was blocked off, and with a target right in front of them, the rest of the soldiers began to focus on Crisis. Saint jumped to Nitro’s rescue, stabbing one omen who was trying to grapple Candy to the ground. She was able to defend herself by biting his arm before Saint punctured his chest and pushed his body away. With his help, Candy pulled out her pistols and stalled the incoming omens for long enough to let Nitro get up on his feet, but soon after, another wave of omens overwhelmed them. This time, they couldn’t see where their enemies were coming from nor even hear a thing from all the gunfire and screams.
Disoriented, Nitro just shoved everyone away and tried to defend himself with his grenade launcher, using it to bash omens in the face and prevent them from tackling him again. Candy began shooting indiscriminately, only being careful around Saint’s direction, though he seemed to be handling the situation well since his sharp blade chopped any hands placed on him. But despite their efforts, they were still being held back and couldn’t make their way to Panda, who had single-handedly cleared the entrance and formed a small barrier of unconscious omens to cover himself while making his way back to his teammates.
Nitro was finally able to advance and get close enough for Panda to reach out, but right as he extended his arm, another omen tried pulling him away. This time, Nitro merely hit him with the stock of his grenade launcher since he was about to steal it from him, but in turn, the omen fell and grabbed onto his waist instead. Nitro didn’t notice at first and continued pushing his way forward while Candy and Saint followed close behind. But since they were catching up, Candy noticed that the omen grabbing onto Nitro’s waist had snatched one of the grenades off his belt, and by accidentally pulling the pin without noticing until it was too late, he had sealed his fate.
–Watch out!– Candy warned Nitro, who didn't react in time, so Candy tried to push him away. Saint acted quickly and went a step further, jumping at Nitro’s back to shove him out of harm’s way, but with omens all around them, Saint and Candy couldn’t get far from the live grenade. The omen who had set it off could only scream as he faced the grenade before his eyes right before it exploded, with Candy and Saint flinching as he hugged her in a last resort to shield her from the blast.
With his back turned right next to the grenade on the ground, Saint didn’t utter a word, only letting out an exasperated sigh as he braced himself for an explosive death. Candy turned pale and seemingly fainted upon realizing these might have been the last moments of her life, but while they both felt the blast and the warmth of the intense heat from the explosion, they were both alive once they touched the ground. Saint kept holding Candy’s body tight, curling into a ball as they were both knocked back in Nitro’s direction, bumping into him outside the entrance, and barely sliding past the gate where Frost and Kiwy continued fighting.
All three of them were caught by surprise and had to stare at each other in disbelief as they checked to see if any of them were injured. The only damage found was on their clothes, as they were torn a little by the explosion, and since they couldn’t comprehend the possibility of surviving the explosion, they looked back to find what had saved them. Knocked down in front of them, still holding onto his shield to cover his body, Panda was lying in pain, grunting repeatedly as he tried to get up after blocking the explosion that would have certainly killed his teammates from the way every omen in a five-foot radius was blown to pieces.
He had jumped between his teammates and the grenade, covering it with his shield, which was still holding up but clearly damaged. Panda was mostly intact as well, though he was knocked back just as hard as Candy and the rest, if not more, as the blast was strong enough to send him up briefly. But apart from a hard fall, it looked like he was fine, at least better than the dead omens a single grenade took out. Surprisingly, the other omens around who witnessed the explosion distanced themselves from the area, and with a thin smoke cloud concealing them, Panda, Candy, Nitro, and Saint were no longer targets of the omen army.
Panda laughed the pain off, but Nitro and Saint had to help him get up, and since they weren’t going to stick around to draw the enemy’s attention again, they all hurried up to get inside the walls. Candy immediately checked on Panda’s injuries, but he brushed it all off by cracking his back bones and neck before standing once again as strong as ever. However, he stayed behind with Saint to defend the area from any omens. The latter was so impressed by his endurance that he grabbed Panda’s machine gun off the ground and handed it back to him carefully, as if he were his servant. But now that they were off the hook, at least for now, it seemed like there were still many more omens to take care of inside the base, and this was nothing but the beginning of their actual mission.