A Clash of Magic and Science

Chapter 13

She felt like she was flying, or was it floating? Moving aimlessly around the void, nothing but darkness, no signs of life nor light. Is this just an empty dream, or a nightmare that is about to occur? Should she try to force herself awake? Her hands push forward in an attempt to get a hold of something or someone, again, nothing. It seems this will be an eventless and boring night, she just relax, close her eyes and let herself float like a cloud carelessly floating high in the calm sky.

Without warning, a thunderous sound of boom is heard, she panicked, expecting to be awakened by the startling noise but didn't, still in the endless void, another boom shocked her, if this were to happen in the real world her ears would've burst and bleed, bracing herself for the next deafening noise to which it came but much louder, is she dreaming of a large thunderstorm? No, she find it unlikely, this sound is far different from a sound of a thunder.

Then came the warcry and shouting of a thousand men, a battle, but she did not heard the recognizable sound of steel clashing with another steel, instead she heard an unfamiliar sound, it's almost like a brief and loud cracking though it is going off in a thousand, accompanied by the same booming and some repeating bang, hearing closely to the voices she notice that is cries for help, moaning pain and horrified screams, she hears the words: "Run", "Retreat", "Save yourselves" and "All hope is lost".

She suddenly felt the cold ground on her feet, feeling the wet muddy soil on her sole and between her toes, she also felt something warm and wet, no doubt its blood, when she touched the ground a harsh odor of blood and smoke entered her nose, it is putrid, and rancid. What on earth is happening around her?

The answer came when she finally open her eyes, what she saw littered on the ground are hundreds of corpse, the dead and the dying, some looks like their limbs were blown off, some have holes in their armor and bodies that are the size of fist or grape, and other are burnt. Looking away from the ground and gaze around her, all she see are chaos and confusion, men fleeing the field of battle, men dying in terrible ways, some had his head blown off, another man was blown into small fragments when a large explosion landing near him, many small hole bursting on a man's chest, a men holding his severed arm, horror and gore of war, and while these men suffers she heard the same strange sounds, lights speeding pass her and whizzing sound can be heard all around, at the distance she can see where the source of the light and sound is coming from, many individuals of various shape and sizes, she couldn't see much, nothing but the victors ominous dark figures.

She closed her eyes, wishing herself awake, hoping to put an end to the violent nightmare, but when she opens then again she knew she's still dreaming, the scene she saw is a castle in flames, walls breached, towers destroyed, and battlements damaged. Another loud boom startled her again, but in a heartbeat the gate is blown to pieces leaving it wide open to be stormed by an invading soldiers. Turning to the source she saw the strangest thing of all, right in front of her is a giant metallic beast with a long snout like those of an elephant but longer, straight and perfect cylindrical shape, suddenly the snout retracted violently, a flashing light followed by that same thunderous boom, swiftly looking back at the castle she witnessed one of the intact tower explodes, obliterated by the creature's strange power, staring back at the beast she saw it going away, the way it moves is somewhat in a way similar to a cart only without a horse.

She blinks thinking that would be the end of it, but instead she's in a new place, the ground is hard and flat, looking around her new surroundings gazing at some strange structures, she don't know why but her inner intuition tells that this is a military base, she saw a flag pole and quickly tried to memorize the banner, then a loud roar is heard overhead, she looks around for the anything strange, what caught her attention is another strange beast, upon closer look it appears to be capable of flight, she doesn't understand anatomy of this creature, it looks like a broad arrowhead, metallic skin with a glass case on top and wheels for feet, then it moves, gaining haste at every second until its speed can outmatch the swiftest horse and bird, then flew with astonishing speed, a flash of light causes her to blink and the next thing she knew is she's flying next to the creature as if she's accompanying it, it just flew at heights that no living animal can hope to achieve, then it fired a fast projectile from its wings. Blinking again she's high above overlooking a massive army, upon close observation it consist of every demi-human and beast-men of the Southern Continent, orcs, minotaurs, werewolves, centaurs, and many other races, and out from the sky is the very same projectile that the flying beast casts, she thought the damage would be minimal until it landed, an absurdly large explosion has taken place decimating thousands of warriors, such devastation with just a small object and in just a mere second, gazing up at the sky she saw more of those projectiles coming down to rain death on the army, such an amazing and frightening weapon.