Dragan suddenly reached out and slapped his companion's thigh, earning an angry glare from Noval, who was wiping down the barrels of the twin-mounted Laser Cannon. Dragan paid no attention. Instead, he raised his head and looked toward the sky, as if an invisible arc hung beneath the gloomy clouds. "Listen... do you hear that shriek, Uncle Noval?"
"What? I didn't hear anything... Wait, what's that sound?" Noval had just been about to scold Dragan for shirking his duties when he too heard the shrieking from the sky. At the horizon, the lead-gray, oppressive clouds seemed to sprout a straight white vein pointing directly at the royal city. Before Noval had even finished speaking, a thunderous explosion erupted from the direction of the royal city. Dense gray smoke, glowing with orange-red flames, surged upward in an instant. But that was not the end. Dozens of rockets streaked across the sky on white exhaust trails and, under precise calculations and mechanical guidance, plunged accurately into the hellish smoke.
The earth shook violently. Gale-force winds carrying Shockwaves spread outward from the castle. Noval, kneeling on the ground, swayed and fell onto the scorching gun barrel, but Dragan reacted quickly and pulled him inside, helping him evade the first storm of wind and flying gravel. Only after the storm had passed did Noval and Dragan crawl out from behind the shield and look toward the royal city through air thick with dust.
The smoke seemed solid, frozen in the posture it had taken as it rose.
"I'll buy you a drink later," Noval said between coughs. "What was that?"
"The offensive," Dragan replied. He blew his nose a few times, then patted his ears, trying to ease the faint ringing. Milos and his fiancée, stationed at the same outpost, lifted the camouflage tarp