"General, all assigned personnel have boarded the ship and we are ready to depart," Vanessa made her final report.
Nodding back, General Balfour swept her eyes over the assembled troops briefly before giving the final command, "Remember your priorities. Land our advanced force, secure the supplies we need, and then return as soon as possible."
"Yes, General!" Several soldiers, including Commander Clark, saluted before taking off.
…..
Soaring through the sky, Vanessa Clark rode Starlight, her trusted Golden Hawk, through the heavy rain. The downpour had begun late last night and had not let up even with the dawning of the next day.
Flying through such weather was quite uncomfortable as water kept splashing onto her face despite her specially designed armour, but Vanessa was a veteran soldier and did not let something so minor affect her vision or sense of direction.
Just as was discussed the day before, Vanessa was leading a group of roughly 120 soldiers and volunteer defenders from Redwood Town to Herald City.
Steward Warren, Sasha Balfour, and a number of craftsmen were also aboard the Sunchaser today, each tasked with a different mission.
This was a small force, but with a dozen Sea Establishment and Core Formation Realm soldiers among them, it was by no means weak. Additionally, once on the ground, they would meet up with the Spirit Initiate that Celestina had deployed to Harold City in advance.
Ideally, Vanessa Clark, a Peak-Rank Spirit Initiate, would have remained with this advanced force as their overall commander, but with the threat of the Saberclaw Raptors still looming over Redwood Town, she couldn't afford to be away for too long.
With any luck, this should all be over within an hour or two, Vanessa thought to herself, going over the plan in her head once more.
Turning her head back, she confirmed that a flight of 12 Tartans, each carrying two fully armed and armoured soldiers, were still with her, while the Sunchaser was keeping pace with them, holding steady right in the centre of their formation.
Mid-flight, it was normal to communicate with each other using complex hand-signals, but in this kind of heavy rain and moving at such high speeds, that became quite difficult beyond the simplest of commands.
For now, Vanessa just had to hope that everyone stuck close and remembered the plan. Once they hit the ground, they all had their own roles to play, and there was no time for screw-ups.
In order to conserve World Qi, the team Commander Clark was leading was limited to the Sunchaser's ideal cruising speed, which was roughly 100 kph, but with Herald City being less than 75 km from Redwood Town by air, it wasn't long after they had departed that Vanessa spotted the cityscape up ahead through the rain.
Herald City was home to some 30,000 people, so despite the downpour, it was impossible to miss the vast fields and high stone walls which surrounded the myriad of wood and brick buildings. However, as Vanessa swept her eyes around, searching for the location of the local garrison, she couldn't help frowning when she saw what could only be described as a chaotic mess.
She had received the same reports as everyone else about how poorly the local nobles and authority figures were handling this crisis, but it was a whole other story seeing it in person.
Although she couldn't 'see' the situation clearly with her own eyes, through her powerful Soul Sense, Vanessa noted many people crowding the streets of the outer part of city.
These people weren't going about daily routines though; rather, from what Vanessa could tell, they seemed to be destitute and simply languishing in the roads.
While the outer parts of the city were in disarray, it was outside the city walls where the real tragedy was taking place. If there were thousand of refugees squatting inside the city, then there were tens of thousands living in what could at best be called 'harsh conditions' just outside of it.
For all intents and purposes, a massive slum had been formed, one where squaller, disease, and death ran rampant.
Now, given the situation, even Vanessa would admit it was unreasonable to expect Herald City to be able to accommodate its population and the population of all the surrounding towns and villages without strain. However, large swaths of the city, especially the inner sections where the wealthiest surely lived, were completely devoid of anything resembling refugees.
There were also no soldiers patrolling outside the city walls or even attempting to provide aid or maintain order.
Clearly, those in charge of the city had shut out everyone they could and just left the civilians to fend for themselves.
Frowning deeply, Vanessa raised her right arm high before swinging it down in a slow, exaggerated manner repeatedly, signaling for her unit to descend.
As the flight got closer, Vanessa was able to spot a number of what seemed to be adventures and civilians engaged in fights with Wild Beasts in several locations outside the city.
As a compassionate soul and a Commander who took her duty to the protect the people extremely seriously, Vanessa very much wanted to land and provide assistance, especially when she saw just how weak and uncoordinated these defenders were.
Quite frankly, she even felt the defences set up by Charles and Sasha in Redwood Town were better organized than this mob, which was really saying something given how hastily those arrangements had been made.
However, Vanessa was a soldier first, and she had a mission to accomplish, so with great difficulty she turned her eyes away from these skirmishes and continued flying forward.
Just as Vanessa was approaching the western edge of the city, though, she spotted a particularly large battle occurring just 500 metres outside one of the city's main gates.
This fight involved at least 200 people and beasts, with the human defenders clearly on the back-foot while behind them were thousands of refugees scattering about in panic, trying to escape.
500 metres was a distance a well-trained unit of soldiers could cross in less than 2 minutes, even if they were wearing heavy armour, so Vanessa couldn't understand how the guards who were posted at the gates could be taking so long to respond.
If these beasts broke through the civilian defenders, they would surely tear into the refugee camps and wreak havoc before assaulting the walls.
Shifting her gaze to the gate, Vanessa was stunned to discover that even in this dire situation, they remained firmly shut, with only a few dozen soldiers simply watching on as the battle unfolded.
There were no signs of them preparing to sortie at all, making it obvious they had no intention of leaving the walls.
Down below, Vanessa spotted several hundred refugees swarming around the gates, banging on them with their bare hands, but even facing the cries of these helpless people, the soldiers above remained unmoved.
In fact, some of the soldiers were even pointing their weapons at the crowd, seemingly preparing to fire on them.
Vanessa was immediately outraged.
The soldiers, charged with defending the kingdom, were actually using civilians as meat-shields in order to hold back the rampaging beasts, all while refusing to provide the slightest assistance. It was utterly intolerable to her and caused her blood to boil.
Unable to pretend she had seen nothing anymore, Vanessa kicked her mount, urging Starlight to descend further and approach the ongoing battle. She couldn't save everyone, and she had an important, time-sensitive mission to accomplish, but she refused to let people die in front of her when it cost her literally nothing to save them.
Approaching from the west, Vanessa was still about 1,500 metres away and 100 metres above the ongoing battle, which was a bit too far outside her effective engagement range. She was flying fast, though, so it wouldn't be long before she was close enough to attack.
Retrieving her bow from her saddle and an arrow from her Space Bag, Vanessa enhanced her physical strength with her Martial Qi, channeled her Spirit Qi into her weapon to increase its toughness, and focused her Soul Qi on her targets to steady her aim, waiting for the moment she was confident in landing a hit.
The seconds ticked by agonizingly slowly, but soon, Vanessa closed to within 1,000 metres of the battle and let loose her attack with a loud bang. Not pausing for an instant, she drew another arrow and shifted her aim, firing again.
In 20 seconds, Vanessa sent out 22 arrows, striking and killing all the strongest Wild Beasts below. She then urged Starlight to let out a fierce cry which sent the surviving beasts scattering.
Lowering her bow, Vanessa exhaled slowly as she shifted her focus to her ultimately destination, a large open field in the western quarter of the city where the local garrison was located.
As Vanessa crossed the city walls, however, she had to avert her eyes from the cowering soldiers below, afraid that if she looked at them for too long, she might just lose her temper and wind up shooting them too for their incompetence.