The Prince And The Fallen Dragon.

A couple of minutes before the attack.

"You should really take some time to rest a little, your highness!" Said a worried Gauss to Prince Felix.

After sending part of the fortress troops to help Baron Loufus, Felix took upon himself to make preparations for the imminent attack coming in their way.

"I can't allow myself to rest, not now, the enemy could strike at any moment" Felix knew that although their defensive position in the fortress gave them a great advantage, against an enemy cunning enough to plan a terrorist attack so they'll be forced to halve their own forces, Prince Felix wasn't willing to take any chances.

"How is it? Is there any suspicious movements?" Asked Felix, turning his face to his right, looking for Gauss.

"Nothing yet" said Gauss.

"If Dragon Pass is their objective, it'll be impossible for them to get pass with the wall in their way. Though old, the craftmen who designed and constructed these were incredible talented earth mages. Each block is denser and harder than iron, only a rank 4 spell cast by a master can inflict enough damage to destroy them. And not mention the fire breathing cannons, trying to approach tye fortress from a distance is a challenge in itself" claimed Gauss, in his attempt to reasure the prince. Of course, his claims weren't without merit, for a mage mana reserves were limited.

Due to the fact that independently of the complexity, all spells that are powered solely by a mage mana, are considered Rank 0 or tierless spells[1], these are the prefered method of fighting among magic users when they try to pass undetected. The same can't be said about higher level ones though, because from Rank 1 and onwards, to cast an spell, mages make use of the world elemental energy, and the amount of said energy needed to power a Rank 4 spell is already so high that even low level mages and magic warriors[2] can sense it at a distance with their mana field[3].

"I see. Please keep a close watch" Felix replied, a little more relieved.

"I've already, reorganized the troops, so in the unlikely scenario that the enemy somehow gets through the walls, we can still safely retreat to the upper sections, while the ones in the higher leves provide cover"

"You're tense your highness. You've done everything in your power, now we can only wait for the enemy and act accordingly based on their actions" this time it was Dom who spoke from across the room, never leaving his position right besides the door.

Feeling the terribly tired and hearing the advice from both of his guards, Felix felt that their words were reasonable, he did all that could be done.

" Yeah, you are righ-...." As prince Felix was in the midst of his sentence.

A bright flash of light coming from the window engulfed the whole room in an instant.

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

Soon after, a thounderous blast reached the from the exterior, completely destroying the crystal window behind the prince.

(What the hell happened?) Was what Felix thought as he found himself and Gauss surrounded by a dim, translucent shield.

"Gauss you bastard!" A yell came soon after from behind the prince.

"Only covering yourself and his highness!" Looking back, felix saw that the whole room was a mess, his desk that was behind him was now at the other side of the room in pieces, and Dom was amidst them, dusting his armor, clearly when the blast reached the room it sent the desk flying towards him, but he remained unscated.

"Was that an spell?" Asked Felix, completely ignoring the grumpy Dom.

"Absolutly not" replied Gauss.

"Then?..." Confused, Felix waited for an answer.

"I fear, they used a magic artifact, or maybe something simmilar. Although the probability of the later is higher, magic artifacts are expensive to craft and if one were to be used to create such explosion, indifferent of how usefull they'll be in wars, the cost would still be too much" said Gauss with uncertancy, such weapon was something completely new to him.

"For now let's head outside, we can't remain here like sitting ducks while the enemy is attacking us" Felix hurriedly made his way out of the building, followed by Gauss and Dom.

When he came outside, apart from some confusion in the faces of the soldiers and broken windows, there were no major traces of destruction, of course all of this changed when he approached the wall and climbed it to have a better view of the lower sections.

Once on top, he could finally see the extent of the destruction. Both, the middle (Dragon's heart) section and the lower (Dragon's head) section were bombarded, destroying both wall as well as part of the structures in them, leaving the upper (Dragon's tail) section as the only one intact.

The direness of the situation hit the prince, leaving him sweating cold, while in his head, countless thoughts flashed.

(This is bad, even with the upper wall intact, here our numbers only amount to 60).

(Clearly the enemy came prepared, i expect to be fighting some hundreds, under normal conditions, we could hold our ground making use of the cannons and elevated position. But the enemy probably sent elites, i don't imagine the Dynasty sending common foot soldiers in a mission where they have to infiltrate through a foreign nation undetected).

(Even worse, most of our number were deployed in the lower levels under mi instructions, with the strenght of the explosions, although the possibility of survival is low, and a good number should've died due to their proximity to the walls, there should be still a good amount of troops that survived).

(We need to go down and aid them right now and regroup back in here. If we want to have any possibility to make it out alive, we'll be in need of all the help we can get).

Having decided in an strategy, Prince Felix started to give out orders.

(Mmmn... The cannons of the Dragon's tail are still there, we should make use of them, they could be useful in case the enemy reach us as we make our retreat, best case scenario we can use them to destroy the enemy, but that would imply using ourselves as bait, if one of the volleys come close to us we all die. Hrrmnn... Highly risky, better leave it as our last resource, if we can manage to bring all the survivors, we only have to use the fortress wall to wear them down, by then it'll be a battle of attrition).

Taking with him 20 soldiers and also accounting his guards, Felix will be bringing 30 people, leaving the upper section with only 30 soldiers, after discussing his plans with everyone, they all agreed the numbers were just enough to to man up the cannons in conjuction with Felix signal.

The prince also brought with his group healing potions and medicine, along with some weapon crates containing melting bombs and armor piercing bolts directly from the armory, in the words of Felix, now it wasn't time to be cheap, even if they were to be rached by the enemy, with their bombs and crossbows, they could buy enough time for a retreat.

After almost an hour, as the prince's group was descending in direction to the Dragon's heart.

*BOOM* *BOOM*

*BOOM* *BOOM*

*BOOM* *BOOM*

Suddenly the sounds of explosions and flashes of light reached them from the lower section, even amidst the clouds of dust.

"The enemy have reached the lower section, we have to hurry" said Felix.

The sounds of explosions continued for another couple of minutes, stoping completely before the group entered the middle section.

When they finally reached the Dragon's heart, Prince Felix ordered his soldiers to help search for the injured and treat them with their potions and medicine.

What surprised Felix though was that he saw more people that he expected in the middle section, even if everyone survived the bombing, there should only be around 80 ish people, but right now there were around more than a hundred, as he questioned one of the survivors, he later learned that the majority were survivors from the lower section.

[1] the tiers of magic go from 0 to 7, the reason they are divide so is due to the special characteristics of each tier, adding something or changing in complexity.

[2] both mages and magic warriors are users of magic, but the way they employ it is different, as mages cast spells proyecting mana, while warriors do so by empowering their bodies. I'll be explaining it in more detail later in the novel.

[3] an ability that all magic users share, picture it like a domain surrounding the person in question, were they can sense the movement of elemental energy.