Eodem: A Rifle and Sword Adventure (Complete)

Chapter 59: the Gold Arrow Express

A Gliesian Vampire, his loving wife and child carried along a roll of cloth, an assorted fare filled into a wicker basket and a few Sun Ray protecting enchantments on a clear cloudless day for today they shall have a family outing. Such an occasion was typically reserved for the Summer season but this humid autumn day was a most unexpected occasion. They set up their little picnic cloth upon a flat grassy field as they brought out maslin bread, cheeses, ale, nuts, butter-potted meat spreads and dried berries. Wife gently tethered their wild hearted offspring from running off as she juggled bring out the food with her husband. Once the meals were brought out, the Husband brought out one final piece to accompany this special day, a single telescope that he extended out its length that he may see the special occasion's show and pass the device along to his family when they wanted to take a look. Typically, such a seeing-eye device only had several niche purposes from sea-faring sailors looking to spot places of interests from afar, Legionnary Commanders wanting to peer across the battlefield and Astronomers who seek to read the portents that weaved above the heavens. Yet as the Vampire amusingly discovered, can be used to surveil any eventful happenings from a distance without the observed noticing.

Accompanying them were fellow Vampires, on their everyday cover clothing as they gathered upon the outskirts of the Duchy of Kalmte's capital, the city of Colobonne, specifically... the Battle of Colobonne.

"Annwyl, can you pass the Habafant Cheese?" the Dame requested softly.

The husband obliged. He turned around to the sizeable cut coagulated dairy. The pale golden cheese was hard at first to the touch thanks to its preservation method of placing the whey into a special skin sack to allow fermentation and solidification to occur. However, upon consumption, the Cheese mellows its rigid structure to a gum-like melt. Made by the domesticated bovine known as the Habafant, a rotund quadrupedal mammalian with features similar to rhinoceros and cows that favor the grassy plains habitat of which the Duchy being the ideal place to raise their herds on. It is used both as a beast of burden and as a source of food for the natives of continental Ysanigrad for centuries.

They maybe hardy creatures but the recent volcanic eruption of the Ostalrocs that only now had been swept away had tested their famed resiliency. Some died of respiratory complications whilst others starved due to the inedible grass the ashes had tainted. Before Operation Haymaker, the species was about to return to their normal grazing patterns before the Federation had arrived into their pastures. Most of the ranchers had already fled in the panic, yet a few stubbornly stayed with their herds all over Kalmte.

After passing the cheese, the Husband grabbed his telescope and began to peer over to the horizon. Already, he could see the strange yet great Iron Beasts advance towards Colobonne. Such an ending number of those otherworldly monstrosities bore feet made like the wheels of a cart yet their bodies of like an armored war steed galloping into battle. His family, mostly his curious son, took turns looking through the magnifying glass of the telescope as they continued to observe from several hundred meters away. As the battle progressed, the Iron Beasts began, for lack of a tactful means of describing, excreting out soldiers in green clothing from behind their bottoms. These 'Rye-fell men' as Sister Iris described to them formed the core of the Otherworlder's alien powers.

The iron beast had a sizeable trunk, similar to the length of a Habafant's that sprung itself to life as it adjusted its direction towards the city. The beast let out a blaring roar as it let loose pellets upon pellets of 20-millimeter rounds across the field towards two of Colobonne's city walls. Within a blink of an eye, the southern barbican of Colobonne's walls were pulverized into dust as the Otherworlder's soldiers broke through the gate like a flood.

Those Vampires who bared witness the theatrical carnage were left with their hearts beaten fitfully. To those who were on the fence of the Otherworlder Question or had marginally chosen to choose 'Nay' over approving of their offer back at the Tyhela were now convinced of the Federation's power after sipping a taste of this explosive demonstration. Not even their bravest of radicals would dare commit such an act of vandalism against the Duchy's Walls, let alone be a capable of destroying it so utterly and yet so quickly. Such is their first course demonstration of these strange Otherworlders, that Sister Iris had introduced to them. A divine-like power she now possesses over if not higher to her still above them.