The Automated King

Skirmish

The density of a battlefield, in front of the compact form of human-shell, were heated up way before their arrival to the site. Clang of bucklers, clash of swords, a close contact of bludgeon and axe were carrying the air of bloodshed to the warrior on the canvas. They were in outrage of their blurry past, lay in fervor of avenging the hatred of their ancestors by trading blows of fury to their other side.

In the scorching warfare of the two distinctive kingdoms, a small party of human are rowing their boat in a straight line to the Fishman’s stronghold with their shield on the front of them. Their protective cover deflected so much of projectiles from the peak of the bastion, preventing the team from being inflicted by much harm from the ranged infantry of the two sides of battle. On the other hand, anytime a melee contender trying to immobilize the sailing ship in the center of the crowd, one of the active sailor from within would shot them down with their ranged weaponry to prevent such tragedy happened in advance.

“Come on, my fellow brethren of Titania!! We have to keep moving, or they’ll decimate us to pulp!”

“Really? Are we frail enough to hide like this? How much the shield could endure, Sera?”

“We are not frail.... We are strong!!”

“She won’t listen to you, Simon. Serafina is acting as the captain of this metal ship at this time.”

The visitors of Serafina’s main troops, Reginald and Simon, marched inside the cabin of the man-made tortoise alongside the other resting members of the team. They are in standby of any possible leak upon their impenetrable ranks, waiting to be deployed as the part of the plan.

“The dome above us.... I’m surprised of Merry’s eccentric ideas. The shield has extended too much of your casual plate of the day.”

“Yeah, I am kinda concerned over the durability of the shield, Regi. We might get ourselves a nasty injury in any moment if this shield breaking up.”

“Don’t worry, Mon-mon. She told me that the shield could withstand a damage equal to 10 tons of weight.”

“Okay, let’s shift the concern. Sera. What if a massive elephant soldier has fallen over the dome? Could our shield standing up over the weight?”

“We just have to prevent killing them, Simon. The executive order has given us no clearance on killing any contestants of this battle. They would avert their choice of attack upon us if we do.”

“Hoo, the bystander effect of a battlefield, huh. She’s too clever for petty scheme like this.”

All of sudden, one of the shield is falling down. One of the holders were fainted by the force of energy from the loads of projectiles that being hurled towards them. The adjacent defenders are holding their hands across the descending panel as the pillar to avoid any small holes to be seen up above.

“Man down, I repeat, man down, chieftain!”

“Take care of him, medic!! Reginald, go! It’s your turn to grab it and strengthen the defense!”

“Aye-aye, captain!!”

Reginald is moving to the vacant line, holding the garrison with his raw power. He got a little bit clumsy on his way, but slowly gaining back his posture to grasp the protruding shield intact with the formation that were being applied at the moment.

“Steady your pace, Reginald!! Follow the movement of the troopers beside you!”

“Hmm..... This is quite slim, but tough and sturdy at the same time.”

“Shut your mouth, private, and be in rhythm with the line!”

“I’m sorry, Captain!!”

By the order of his new supervisor, His muscle veins bulging up by a few degrees more than normal.

“Don’t be too tense partner, or you’ll end up like the one before you.”

“What happened to him, I wonder?”

“He got severely exhausted by exerting too much energy on the shield.”

“Alright. Say no more, or we’ll be punished.”

“No problem, amigo. Just give you some points of the thing.”

The war has gone to be more intense in every minute it passed away. The corpse of dying combatants piling up to various place, emanated gruesome panorama of death and decay.

“Captain, a cluster of enemies ahead!! We’re gonna crash!”

“Kino, Charge and banish them from this realm!!”

“Ruarrghh!!”

Kino Dunga is clearing out from his position on the spearhead of the defending ranks. In his charge towards the crowd, His skin turned into a rock-like structure and crushed a bunch of Fishman and Malia warriors that stand on their way.

“Wuoh, it’s insane!! How could he do that? I saw someone land a hit, and it just.... Amazing.”

“Told you so, Mon-Mon. Fuschia, breach their perimeter!”

“On my way!”

Rami Fuschia picked his way to the gate by evading any prompted s***h of the random bystander along the road.

“Sorry for breaking the law, fellow Fishman!!”

He grasped the parts of the main entryway with his gecko-like hands, then attaching the surface with loads of bomb to the both end-post of the gate.

“Kaboom! Bye-bye, Mr. great gate!”

Thirty seconds later, the bomb are exploding in consecutive order. The barrage of tremor loosen the hinge that holding the main entryway intact to the structure, made them collapsed to the city’s side and giving the squads a free pass to get into the city.

“Gunners, it’s your turn. Shower them with fire!”

The four medics, the team with the gun on their back, shifted their attention to the backside of the formation and shoving their long-range rifle to the defense’ tiny crevice. They proceed to shoot the incoming horde of Malia’s soldiers out from the gap to prevent them on getting across the wall before them.

“Hey, is that an actual gun, Sera?”

“No, darts as usual, Mon-Mon. We haven’t get any warrants to use any sort of real arms, remember?”

“Uh, yeah, I do recall it as much.”

The sedated Mammals and Fishmans piling up in heap, sleeping safe and sound in front of the gate’s bridge.

“This would provide enough barrier for us. Move forward!!”

The snail slowly slithers once more. Nobody are capable to scratch the fortitude of tactical formation from their group, as they are left untouched with single to none of the evident casualties from their side.

“Great job, my fellow warrior!! Now is the turn for you, Arno. Knock the archers on the top of this wall.”

“Your wish is a command to me, My Queen.”

“You don’t want to come along, Mon-Mon? Your proximity in killing would be useful on this.”

“Nah, he can tackle this alone. Just look at his overbearing confidence! It’s irritating.”

“Much obliged, Arno. You showed him a reflection to his ignorant bubble-head attitude. Let’s see if he would repent on doing those flairs in the future.”

Reginald is mumbling about in his formation, created a spark of confusion to his new associates in the adjacent line of him.

 “Who is the ignorant bubble-head that you mean about, strange guy?”

“Oh, sorry, It’s for my partner right there.”

“He is not wearing any bubble.... where’s the trouble?”

“Ah, it’s too complicated to explain, my fellow acquaintances. Later, maybe, if we could conscious and well.”

The faint sound of slice and gouge reverberated on the top side of the wall. After a moment, the rowdy commotion drew back in silence, melds the great fort with the shine of sunset. Arno Tinpolen, with the face covered in blue and reddish substance, returned back to the ranks with his mischievous grin.

“How’s it goes, Arno?”

“All decimated, My queen.”

“Perfectly done. Let’s progress the mission to the next step, shall we? Disperse the ranks, men!”

The once-compacted set of fortification are disseminating into a different form of line. Reginald, as he is not estimated as the regulars, moving outward to regroup back with his partner out of the ranks.

“Well, Mr. wall, How’s it taste to be stationary?”

“Hmm, I don’t savor it so much, but it’s a novel experience nonetheless.”

“So, what now, Sera?”

Serafina turned her bracelet in active mode. She seemed happy with the ending of their colossal triumph, as she lies deep into her smirk every time she punches a key to the virtual board.

“Hmm, I must inform the headquarters for the successful infiltration. Rest of you, hold the perimeter for the upcoming enemies.”

“What do you mean, Miss Spectre?”

“Ahem....Warriors, hold the perimeters for the upcoming enemies at the gate!!! Stand by until I have the other orders to follow!”

“Yes, Ma’am!!”

“Miss Spectre, I wanna investigate the remnant of Maria’s outpost, Is that alright?”

Reginald is poking Serafina’s shoulders, as she doesn’t appear to fathom with Reginald’s intention.

“Eh? Ah, right, You don’t need my permission, Regi. It’s your loose ends after all.”

“Are you coming with me, Mr. Veteran?”

Simon nodded to Reginald’s invitation.

“Yeah, I am here to aid you, anyway.”

“Come on, then. We don’t have time to waste.”

---

The Fishman kingdom were in total isolation. No civilians under the radar of the two unwelcome guests as they ventured to scrutinize their colleagues' whereabouts.

“Hmm, This place was abandoned. They have knowledge of Malia’s visit, I guess.”

“Yeah, no one is in my field of vision, as well.”

The shack ahead of them was in a very bad state. The roof was partially broken, filled with a bunch of withering wooden planks. Its floor were on the similar state to the top, as the tile were tilted upwards on numerous section of the surface.

“This is their lair? We might be looking at a wrong house. Let’s find another.”

“Wait, Simon. We have to analyze this, emmm, rubble first before moving on to the next.”

Reginald lifted some of the items lying down by the corner of the shack. The speck of dust made their way to his nose, eventually brought him to an intense shock of sneezing right after.

“Achoo!! Ahchooo!!”

“Bless you.”

“Hmm? Who’s granted me the bless, Simon? You?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

They continued to loiter around until 10 minutes without an ample result of their search. As they slowly growing doubt over the place, Reginald found a small paper concealed underneath one of the floor apertures.

“Hmmmm...... Yep, this is the place, Simon. They were here before being detained by the officials of Fishman kingdom to the underwater prison.”

“How did you know? What’s inside the letter?”

“The insignia of our organization and a single word: Sea.”

“Interesting.... We don’t know a little about their water realm, right? How could we go there, then?”

“Browsing the big data of Mr. LORD might be the precise answer, Simon.”

Reginald averted his focus to the wrist and searching information related to Fishman kingdom by his device.

“There are only a single intelligence for this, and it’s written by our director.”

“She does have those kind of ability. You know that too, right?”

“Yeah, she divulged so much about it when I wander off the facility to exercise. Ellen is a good swimmer by day, but I don’t know a single bit of her last on the night.”

“Haha, typical of Ellen. She doesn’t like that ability, Regi.”

“So much as I do to myself. What’s the hassle?”

“She looked like a werewolf in the night. Could be a black dog, too, depends on your way of seeing it.”