Draconia Offline vol. 1

64.1. The Battle of Prague - Part 1

"Ryuu," Erik clutches my hand and is trembling. He can see the urgency in my eyes, he can feel I'm ready for a battle. And he knows there's nothing he could say to make me reconsider.

"You're not going anywhere, Your Majesty," Vermiel and three other guards block my way.

"Are you serious? This is my home!" I hiss. "Combat units are barely forming and we can't rely on Draconians in the vicinity spontaneously showing up. Don't you feel it? Something much more sinister than a heligorr is coming through, we desperately need high levels. If you won't let me go, we might have hundreds of casualties."

The guards gulp. They do feel it and they're torn between anxiously protecting their Emperor and every fibre in their body urging them to find the source of this disturbance and subdue it.

"I promise not to join the first line, you can come up with any protective formation around me and I swear to respect it but we have to go NOW!" I shout urgently.

I also shout out in my mind to call for all high-level Celestials in the building. I make it clear that I want only those of level 8 and above as the rest would be a burden but I'll be glad if they help later with damage control and healing. The surge of eagerness is enough assurance that they heard me.

"You two stay here to guard my partner," I assign two Celestials from my personal guard.

"As you command, Your Majesty," they straighten up. They aren't being left behind, they know how much I treasure Erik and that I've just entrusted him to them which is just as big of an honour as going to battle with me.

"I love you and I'll return as soon as possible," I kiss Erik deeply. "Call Bauerova, try to calm the citizens."

"You won't lock me up in our apartment this time?" he tries to joke.

"I'm putting you in charge," I correct him. "With Liana gone and Gotrid coming with me, you're my deputy."

"I'll do my best then. Be careful," he kisses me again one last time before I let go of him and hurry to the balcony.

There's no time to change for a sporty robe so I just drop the top embroidered layer and take off immediately. Above the skyscraper, I stop for a while and hover. Even I'm not that crazy to go to a possibly fierce battle with just ten battle mages. Fortunately, I don't have to wait for long, Celestials start flying out of every available balcony.

"Love!" Gotrid joins me and I instantly feel much better with him by my side. With Gotrid supporting me and Erik taking care of politics in my absence, I have much less to worry about.

I'll give you commands through telepathy, I tell the Celestials to speed things up. Not even one of you is dying today. Those injured will get away from the battle immediately, that's an order. I'll allow no brainless heroism.

After that, we depart. I don't have to lead the flock because every Celestial feels where to head so I can be positioned right in the middle as always. I'm overjoyed that when we're almost at the site, we meet with Liana's party. She's with Soren and the last batch of American Celestials. Reinforcements will surely come in handy.

"They shouldn't have let you...," she starts to complain the moment she sees me but I don't let her finish.

"I'll command from above and prepare advance spells," I explain to calm her down. "I won't be in danger but I won't stay idle either. This is my home, Li."

"Okay," she sighs but nods in the end. "We'll listen to your orders but you have to let us protect you. You're not getting close to those monsters, understood?"

"Understood," I promise and I really mean it because I know for sure that if I didn't obey, they wouldn't allow me to join a battle ever again.

We fly to Vinohrady, the historical core of Prague, and then we see it—monsters appearing out of the rift in space itself. We came early this time, it seems we can sense these rifts a few minutes before they tear out completely. I look down and see a mass of panicking people trying to escape.

Vermiel, take at least ten others and navigate these people as far away from the monsters as possible, I order the Celestial captain. If someone isn't able to run, carry them with levitation.

Vermiel nods and flies off. Celestials might see humans as inferior but I don't think there's anybody in my flock who would want to see innocent people killed. If Celestials see themselves as protectors, even with a bit of hubris, I'm okay with it provided it gets the job done.

"Love, there are three heligorrs," Gotrid observes. "And that one... gods, is that a tripoderra?!"

I look left and it's indeed a tripoderra, a spider-like monster of a medium level. Its hairy body and many black eyes make it look especially terrifying. A tough enemy for a group in which an average level is about 10 at best. But we have an advantage—we're numerous! And I bet other races will join us sooner or later, we're just the first ones to get here.

"Your Majesty, up this instant!" Miruel insists and the royal guards push me upwards high above the buildings.

I want to object that this is too far but then I discover that I have a pretty good view of the whole battlefield. I can do it. I can command the whole flock from here and my guards can't complain afterwards that I was in danger.

Celestials are frantically flying all over the place, not knowing what they're supposed to do because most of them are newcomers. My first task is to organise them, efficiently allocate our forces and see to it that everyone has a clear objective.

I can't read their thoughts but I can roughly tell everyone's level based on their current mana capacity. I send those with lower levels to shield the civilians and use high levels to attack. It's surprisingly not difficult to command them telepathically and it saves precious time. I just hope it won't look suspicious how well coordinated we are.

I sigh out in relief when most humans are almost out or safely hiding inside buildings. With part of our forces keeping the monsters busy, the rest doesn't have much difficulty leading people to safety.

"Hon, what about me?" Gotrid asks because he's just hovering next to me. He knows I don't want him in the heat of the battle because then I wouldn't be able to focus on anything else than protecting him but he wants to contribute nonetheless. He's a battle mage at heart.

"Help me with spells," I say. "I think we should be able to cast advanced magic above our current skills if we synchronise."

"Synchronise how?" he doesn't understand. "That wasn't possible in the game."

"Then it's a good thing this isn't the game anymore," I quickly conjure a levitation platform and land on it. It's big enough to hold both of us so he lands as well.

"Love," he catches my hand and wobbles when he feels all that panic and fear coming from humans below us through me. "How can you feel all that and stay sane?!"

"I'm used to it," I shrug. "Do you remember a tripoderra's weakness?"

"Fire," he replies and knows I was just testing him since I'm basically a walking Draconia Online encyclopaedia.

We hear a loud thud so we both look down. The monsters are quickly adapting to a new environment and are starting to wreak real havoc. It somehow feels wrong to be so high in the air where the monsters can't reach us while the others are in danger but I have to obey my protectors and we'll need undisturbed time to prepare the spell anyway.

"A tripoderra was a level 20 monster in the game," I remind him. "Most of the royal guards are level 12 at best."

"W-which means?" Gotrid gulps.

"They will have to take care of heligorrs while I come up with a spell to defeat the tripoderra that's even above my current level," I say and chew my lip. It'll be very difficult even for me, the embodiment of magic. But I have to do it, there's no other way.