A few minutes before the explosions David and his cohort was hiding in a small room in a factory. A window overlooked the large square that the self-propelled artilleries were going to use as a staging ground.


    There were dozens of the vehicles, and still more pouring in. By their intel they expected at least 50 to be sat up, with 25 more in reserve.


    The whole place was guarded by about thirty ascended and a hundred evolved, and that was with ignoring the five thousand regular soldiers. They were moving down there like ants.


    Some evolved went door-to-door, checking each building for any enemy troops. They were still a few minutes away from their large factory.


    David spent another few seconds watching everyone, then turned towards the woman standing close to him.


    Relma''s –the scout''s– eyes were glossy as she watched the square from a bird''s eye view. Her ears were projected to one of the ascended commanders on the ground, listening in on his conversation.


    After another minute her eyes focused on David and she became a bit wobbly. Some other member held her up, while she made the report.


    "They will start open fire in two minutes, but the stationary artilleries are going online in less than a minute!" She said, now standing on her own.


    David nodded and glanced outside for a moment. The evolved inspectors are about the enter their factory. It wouldn''t take long for them to find the cohort.


    David:


    After you hear the first barrage blow the three artillery sites!


    Frank:


    Got it! Kill all those mushrooms for me!


    He didn''t understand what the fuck Frank was talking about, but David knew not to think about it too much.


    Turning towards his cohort he summoned his own armor, which was different from the cohort''s.


    The armor slithered onto his body covering everything except his head. It looked very similar to his snake-form''s skin. It wasn''t an item, but something he gained with his heritage.


    From his vambraces one long fang-like blades protruded out on each arm. His shoulder plates had two snakeheads atop. He looked really scary in the armor.


    The cohort were already in their full kits with weapons, armor and everything else out.


    "We move out when the explosions will go off! Formation 3! Make sure to destroy as many artilleries as possible, don''t get stuck fighting with other ascended, and don''t get surrounded!"


    "I will enjoy showing your head to that fucking WHORE!" She cackled as she screamed the last word in pure rage.


    She was in the air in the next moment, her sword''s tip only a few centimeters away from David. There she floated in the air, stopped in time.


    David wasn''t stupid and didn''t try attacking her. Instead within the second of stopping her, he turned around and stabbed both of his vambrace-blades into the disoriented person behind him.


    The man screamed silently as he was tossed straight at the Empress. In that moment the freeze stopped and her swords pierced the confused man''s skull.


    The blades sizzled as they entered through the helmet. There was no resistance as they burned through the armor.


    She didn''t even care about killing a fellow soldier. Her blades moved upwards cutting a straight line out of the corpse''s head. She screamed in anger and was about to run after David, who used the distraction to get away, but at that moment she noticed two small balls about a meter away from her feet.


    With a grunt of annoyance she crouched low to the ground and placed both blades in front of her, making an ''x'' shape with them.


    The two alive ascended didn''t know even see the balls. Both died in the upcoming explosion.


    David continued to run without looking back. Behind him the Empress''s shriek echoed through the battlefield followed by a few more explosions, as more and more artilleries got destroyed.


    From the remnant stationary artilleries a barrage went off. The three explosives weren''t enough to fully destroy all of them, but they prepared for that as well.


    Each of his cohort''s group would make their way to one of the sites and take care of the remaining artilleries. David would also take one group and make his way to the place where Sera should already be massacring the enemies.


    He ran on while weaving between broken vehicles and thousands of corpses.


    In front of him an ascended appeared, but David didn''t even slow down. The man seemed a bit disoriented, but his eyes quickly focused when he saw David sprinting towards him.


    He raised a summoned polearm, but just as he raised it and was about to slam it down on David, his movements stopped. He couldn''t move a muscles as the blade on David''s vambrace entered his skull.


    The fight didn''t even start and it had already ended. His running speed didn''t decrease one bit, instead it increased.


    Behind him, he heard the wrathful shouts and angry screams of the Empress. He didn''t think the bomb would kill her, but he hoped that it would stun her longer.


    Suddenly the whole eastern part of the city got shaken. His head turned towards the wall between the northeastern and southeastern gate...


    The wallbreakers were in place...


    Without care for the Empress he ran faster while furiously typing to the group that was supposed to accompany him. Eventually he met up with the others and the four of them ran to the square to assist Sera!