The soldiers are relentless but we didn't back down either. It's either them or us.
"Fire! Don't let them enter Taifu City! Kill them all!"
The commanders of each battalion are all giving commands and the situation is chaotic now. I even saw a few civilians fleeing as the battle ensued but I don't have any kind of way to save them. In fact, I don't think I can even save them. I have to focus on our survival and fight till everyone is gone.
"Bladeheart! More enemies incoming!" Queen Tanya alerted me after finishing off one of the attacking soldiers.
"Leave them to me!"
I snap my fingers and summoned a few undead to stall the enemies a bit and we get enough time to deal with them. Once they are summoned, they immediately went feral and started attacking the soldiers, causing their main attention to redirect to the undead. As for me, I took this chance to eliminate a commander commanding the rifle squad by using [Snipe] and the rifle form of the Versatile Weapon. I got quick scope into the head of the commander and as soon as my eyes are set, I activated [Snipe].
BANG!
With the gunshot, comes the head of the commander I sniped, exploding like a melon before falling over, dead. The moment the commander who is giving them commands dies, the soldiers immediately went to panic and started to fire discriminately and even started killing each other, showing how the commanders give absolute control to their subordinates and make the battle much more organized with them. But once they died, everything falls apart.
Queen Tanya goes in for the kill and immediately eliminates the stragglers without even considering to even spare their lives. But there is no need to even spare their lives even. Since they are in berserk mode, it's only best to kill them before they become troublesome.
Even though there are only three of us, with just the addition of some summons helping in the fight, we are actually doing quite well and in a few minutes after the attack, even though we were crowded by enemies literally in the beginning, we managed to push through and break off their ranks and move into the city, past the big gates.
"Let's push through!" Queen Tanya shouted as she decimates a lot of enemies in one go using her scythe. I am also doing quite well in decimating the enemies as well, trying to charge through me. They might be armored but it was weak enough that the Versatile Weapon still cuts through them like butter in a hot knife.
Queen Tori is behind us, riding her shikigamis and letting some of her battle-oriented shikigamis do the killing while she actively gives buffs to us. As we are now getting a bit farther from the city's gates, we spotted another commander and compared to the commander that I just blasted the head with, this one is not the same.
She is leading a group of samurai soldiers, wielding katanas, except those katanas have already been embedded in their arms like they have replaced their normal arms with blades. Even the female commander had her left arm replaced with a katana blade while her other arm remains normal. They also have some body modifications but it's not so obvious in one look.
She pointed her blade arm at us with a stern look on her face.
"You all shall not pass here alive."
However, there is no need for us to stop. We continue charging forward while I ready my weapon.
"Sorry, but the answer to that is no."
We clashed swords and she tried to overpower me by using her other sword, but I am not that hopeless in terms of combat and since this is war, there's no need to show chivalry and respect if the enemy is ready to go in for the kill.
BANG!
Before the commander can even do any flashy moves or any kind of killing moves, I made my first move and pulled the trigger of my Pain Delivery gun, always locked and loaded.
One bullet is enough to put her out of her misery.
As she fell down, I used her body as a way to block the attacks of her squadmates as they stab her body using their katanas. Even if she didn't die from my gun, she is dead enough the moment countless blades pierced through her body.
Since they are all in stabbing together, it's also perfect timing to deal with them in one go.
"[Agni]!"
A blast of fire emerged beneath my feet as flames engulfed the soldiers who started screaming as the flames slowly consumes them. They can't even escape as the flames take hold of them as they slowly eat them like food and turn them into burned flesh. The pungent smell of burnt flesh is disgusting but unavoidable.
We continue forward and as we are about to reach the main street, cannonballs are raining down on us again and we are being bombarded again. We easily avoided the cannonball but the places where the cannonballs landed didn't come with safety nets that they would be spared.
BOOM!
Buildings after buildings collapsed and who knows how many NPCs were left there, hiding for their lives? I can only offer a silent prayer for those who died from the cannonballs but there's nothing I can do about it.
We continue running as we evade the cannonballs raining down on us. Not only the buildings are destroyed, even the soldiers who are fighting with us are not spared and if they didn't evade in time, they ended up being flattened to smithereens after the cannonball falls to the ground.
Death is everywhere and people are fleeing more and more now. Those people near the gate are lucky, but those who are not would be very unlucky.
We continue to move on our way but as we get closer to the city's square, something seems to have been muted in our ears and I can tell it as the sounds in the surroundings have been slightly lowered. Based on how the enemies are showing signs of getting enraged, this must mean the Anti-Bard Earbuds I made have kicked in and started blocking the music the bard is using.
"Queen Tanya, Queen Tori, be careful now. The bard is now using their music. Make sure the earbuds are carefully in place in your ear!"
"It's good. Although I didn't know the bard is now doing some work, hearing nothing from their music is enough to know that these works properly, and just like your prediction, Bladeheart, it seems the bard is doing something to mess up with the soldier's mind," Queen Tanya frowned on this as she clearly despises the way the bard is toying with the minds of the people around.
Aside from the soldiers, even the civilians who can hear the sound are also going insane, as they started clutching their ears and they are either doing some murder spree, creating violence, or doing self-harm on themselves while laughing like a maniac.
It looks really bad but we can only push on.
"Bladeheart, should we press on? Can't we save these people?" Queen Tanya seems getting guilty now seeing various deaths of the populace.
"There's nothing we can do. Instead of worrying about them, we should be worried about ourselves. We needed to deal with the bard and the shogun, end this battle, and retrieve the artifact. Once that is done, we can go home and worry less about the situation here."
"I agree with Bladeheart here, Sister. The sooner we are done, the lesser the victims will be."
We continue to make our way to reach the shogun's castle where the majority of the soldiers are present. We will be overwhelmed there, but we will have to continue the fight and defeat them.
The soldiers continue to swarm, different commanders appearing and trying to stop our advance but we plow through them. I don't even care about the style of kills anymore. As long as they die, then they die.
It didn't take us long enough to reach the destination. What awaits us is the army of the shogun, now deformed as monstrosities, feral and now drowned by their instincts, and are now using their primal force to fight.
I can see the shogun is currently observing us on the stage and beside him is the bard who continues to play the flute. Based on her actions, she is indeed playing some music but since it is not passing through our ears, she looked like she was just swaying around in the wind.
"Welcome, rebels who just entered our humble Taifu City. Your works of exploits have already reached our ears and we have already prepared to welcome you all with our valuable greetings to the likes of people like you! DEATH!" one of the commanders beside the Shogun greeted us with a threat as the soldiers starts to repeat shouting death.
But I hated provocations like that. If they wanted to care much, then they should immediately charge at us.
BANG!
One bullet and the commander who threatened us started grasping his heart as blood flows from his wound. It didn't take him long before he started gurgling blood and died, falling to the ground.
"You wish for our death? Well, there you are, we granted you a swift death," Queen Tanya grinned, mocking everyone.
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