12:00 AT, Day Forty Four | Fort Riker

  The first shell lands against Fort Riker’s brand new shielding system with a resounding crash. Then, silence.

  I stand on the battlements with Ray and watch Luna’s forces in the distance as they slowly approach. There are about two thousand of them, and they sure have a lot of guns.

  Luckily, we also have a lot of guns too. Oh, and did I mention explosives?

  “Alright fellas, you know what to do.” Ray commands. She looks really nice today, her armor just seems to highlight all of her good parts. Which is every part by the way.

  The ground starts to ripple around Luna’s army. Then, like corpses rising from the cold embrace of the snow, hundreds of soldiers explode out from the ground. The poor snowflakes descend into chaos as our troops, equipped with ghostsuits and many, many explosives wreak havoc in their ranks.

  I wrap my arm around Ray’s waist as we watch the chaos unfold. Being a leader is awesome. After all, what other profession would allow me to hug my girlfriend while others do all the hard work of winning a war?

  Surprisingly, they actually manage to not instantly fall to our ambush. It actually looks like our force might not be enough. So, to remedy that problem we do the fun thing.

  I jump down from the battlements and Ray follows me. Then, we stroll towards the enemy army. Once we get close enough, we are pelted by bullets and some of them actually manage to do damage. Scary.

  So we launch ourselves right into the fray. I fly up into the sky and spot the command post. I charge up my spear with an {Energy Surge} and crash down onto the large truck they are using.

  It crumples under the force of my impact. Then, it detonates into a nice fiery explosion. I emerge from the wreckage of the truck, and I imagine I look like some demon from the underworld.

  Good. Cause that's basically what I am, to these enemies at least.

  Several nearby soldiers turned to look at me, stunned for a few moments. Then the first one charges in, armed with very nasty looking poisoned daggers. So, I pull out my pistol and remove their ability to exist.

  As they say, the best way to win a knife fight is to bring a gun. Though such a strategy might not work on someone who also has a gun. As evidenced by the fact that my shields light up as people start firing on me.

  My spear shatters the confidence of the nearest soldier. Then, like clockwork, dozens of others fall. In the distance I can see explosions and hear screams of terror, must be where Ray is right now.

  An artillery shell lands right next to me and I get sent flying. My ears are ringing, but my shield absorbed most of the actual damage. I quickly inject a healthpack and then trace the trajectory.

  “Hey darling. We've got some more friends over the horizon. Shall we show them a bit of a party?” I burst out into a fit of laughter.

  Ray materializes out of thin air next to me. “Yep, lets go give em a nice invitation. Then we can get lots of time for headrubs, right darling?” Ray places her hand on my back, that last part wasn't really optional. Not that I have any objections of course.

  We take a short trip back to the fort to restock and acquire a few soldiers from the aerial corps. As much as we would like to dive right into the new army, that would be quite silly. We are strong, but not omnipotent.

  We pass by the first army, which is thoroughly dismantled by this point. We end up picking up our saboteurs and heading for the second army that is now firmly in view. There appears to be only seven hundred or so of them.

  But with the snowflake folks, numbers can be really deceiving.

  We crash into their front line, instantly causing chaos. It seems they weren't really expecting us to just charge into the firing line. Which is what makes this strategy the best.

  Ray and I fight almost back-to-back as we tear through the army towards its juicy core full of commanders. People always seem to forget that most battles end quite quickly if you just kill the officers in charge. Now, with modern communications, it isn't as devastating as I imagine it was before neural interfaces. But, it is still crippling to have no on-site officers to boost morale.

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  We reach the center of the army and I turn to Ray. She smiles and gives me a quick kiss on the cheek before ripping a hole in the side of the command vehicle.

  Unfortunately, the commander inside is someone we would rather not fight again.

  “It is I! Frank The Great! Back once again to serve our glorious Empress!”

  I turn to Ray and frown at her. “I would've preferred Vel. This guy is just so annoying to fight.”

  “Yeah. At least Vel had those cool scythes and stuff. This guy just has a shield.”

  “Foolish weaklings! How dare you insult the honor of Frank The Great so. You shall pay for your crimes.” Frank is really angry, and grabs his shield from where it is laying to the side.

  He throws his shield at us, and we dodge out of the way. Unfortunately, the rest of his army just happened to be behind us, and the shield ends up flattening dozens of them. “Gah! Frank is The Greatest of all time!”

  I give a look to Ray, and she smiles at me. It's that smile of hers that makes me want to do anything she says. “Darling, how about we show him just how far greats can fall?”

  “Sounds good, darling.” I reply back. Then, without hesitation I leap forward and aim right for Frank’s now exposed side.

  He raises his arms just in the nick of time and manages to block. All of the force gets redirected into the ground somehow, and it dents massively where he stands. I jump back and Ray takes a few swings, cutting right into his legs and drawing a bit of blood.

  His armor seals it up immediately and his shield returns from massacring his comrades. I try attacking again, but the damn shield is like a wall. He swings at Ray, which simply cannot be allowed. So I use {Energy Surge} and hit his exposed flank. For being a tank, the guy isn't really good at handling multiple opponents.

  Which is fine for us, because we are multiple opponents. Thankfully it seems the other soldiers are terrified of getting close to our battle.

  Frank’s armor buckles under my charged attack and he gets sent flying. Ray is spared and I have definitely earned a few more headrubs.

  “Impossible! I am Frank The Great, those such as yourselves could not possibly defeat I! Not when I have the backing of the Empress!” Frank is currently laying on the ground, unable to move.

  Ray and I walk over to him. Then Ray leans down and speaks in a very deadly voice which sounds super hot. “Well then, why don't you tell that Empress of yours that she has made a fatal mistake. If she would've just surrendered, then we would not be required to do what comes next.”

  “What is this buffonery? You dare insult the Empress?!”

  “Just relay the message.” I say, then I pull out my pistol. The barrier appears and whisks Frank away to be respawned.

  The instant he disappears, Ray walks behind me and leans her head against my back. “My o so brave darling, you seem like you could use quite a few headrubs.” She whispers into my ear.

  Before I can take her up on that offer, a bullet impacts the ground next to us. Oh right, we are still in the middle of an active battlefield. “Hhm, I would love that, but perhaps we should clean up these visitors first? Wouldn't want any creepy observers.”

  Ray releases me reluctantly. “I suppose so, let's go show them the consequences of getting in the way of my cuddle time.”

  Suffice to say, we make quick work of the rest of the enemies and then Ray swoops me into her arms and carries me away to Arce Lunae, for many cuddles of course.

  Many cuddles and headrubs later

  “Emil, how is project ‘screw those klackers’ coming along?” I ask, reclining back in my chair and trying not to drop Ray from my lap.

  “It is coming along wonderfully, milord. All six should be ready in about five days, assuming all goes well. Those ‘klackers’ will indeed be screwed.” He smiles widely in a very scary way. I am not sure it is good for our enemies when the literal angel guy creepily smiles.

  “That is great news. I presume that our defensive lines have been making good headway?”

  “Indeed, we are almost at eighty percent completion across the board. Whatever you did, Milord, it sure has spurred the troops like never before. We have also begun preparations for our preliminary strike to retake most of our lost territory. On another note, that special ingredient that you asked for has been provided by the gamemasters finally.” He laughs slightly at the last part.

  “Oh that is excellent news indeed. You know what that means!” The special ingredient that I ordered weeks ago has finally been delivered, apparently they must've had trouble acquiring it from all the way back on Earth. I have special plans for that special ingredient.

  “More work for us of course, Milord. Though I can't wait to see what exactly you end up doing with it. I expect it to be grand indeed, as all of your projects are.”

  Ray turns around to look at me. “Ko, what is this special ingredient?” She asks, mindlessly running her hands through my hair.

  I boop her on the nose. “It's secret for a reason, you will have to wait to find out when it's ready.”

  She boops me back on the nose. “Buuuut daarrling!” I end up having to placate her with many headrubs and cuddles. Which I cannot complain one bit about having to do, after all, she is super cute.

  I am sure that what we have being prepared is going to shock not just Luna, but everyone else too. No matter what stands in our way, we will overcome it, together. After all, we are the Moonlight Duo.

  So, bring it on.

  End of Chapter 138

  Next: Chapter 139 | Icedelions

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