Ch 81. Saving yourself
“Listen, kings and dukes of the mankind. I am Fuji, and I shall be the one who protects you from the demons. I will be benevolent ruler to those who obey me but those who refuse my guidance shall face the certain doom…” With this the dive bombers headed towards the demon army while my own army regrouped to fight.
“What is that supposed to be?!” The first king to raise his voice was the one that already fought me before.
I only glanced at him and returned to looking at the still-hesitating kings.
“Guards, kill that fraud!” Only after he took action I got the justification for the deterrence.
I sent a couple of flights to bomb the king’s army while I aimed my guns at him.
“If we all fight together, she will have no chances! She is not a goddess, she is a fake who proclaimed herself to be one!” He began to advocate for opposing me.
BOOM
A number of explosions occurred in the king’s camp.
“You chose death, then let me be your soul’s reaper.” I aimed the guns and fired.
Bu-bu-bum
The body fell down in a mist of blood. After this little show nobody else dared voicing their disagreement.
Meanwhile, the demon army was attacked by the main air force and took heavy loses.
I saw that the demons have a lot of monsters but that made them an easy target for heavy bombs, with their zero AA capabilities I got air supremacy and after the first bombing run I sent the fighters and dive bombers to gun the survivors.
The coalition of human rulers also was not standing still. They ran away from the place where the conference was and regrouped. I reunited with my own army and waited for their response.
I expected that the coalition will not be too happy to know about my plans but I did not expect that they will try to fight me when I am already prepared for that. The human armies gathered together within one hour after my declaration. The empire of Gru stayed out of this and withdrew their force away from the coalition army which gave me a clear way of punishing the ones who dared fighting against me.
The human armies have a lot of boots on the ground and also a few hundred wyverns that they tamed to fight the demon air support. Also, they have a lot of siege engines, for example ballistas which can be used as a super-inefficient AA artillery. In the direct contact my army will be evaporated and the aircraft will suffer casualties.
The enemy regrouped into defensive formations and was ready to fight against my own assault. I decided to make them an example of what happens to those who oppose me, which is why I opened fire with my main gun.
BANG BANG
Dual mounted 127mm guns have an acceptable firerate and power, thus I was both outside of their reach and dealt a large amounts of damage to the enemy infantry.
After a few minutes of firing the enemy formations began to waver. I was getting tired of waiting so I added 76mm guns to the gunnery. While it had some effect it was still not enough to make the enemy troops retreat. I prepared the maid flight for sortie. Their planes might not be too efficient when it comes down to bombing but they will only be there to make a fly-by and scare the enemy into running. After that I will return to the palace and prepare to accept the new vassals. Or so is the plan.
“Are we really going to participate in this war?” It will be our first fight and I was too nervous to concentrate on the take off.
“Calm down, it will be alright. Master only wants us to fly over the human army. It will be easy, Willow.” Benet is thinking that I am going to run away? I am eager to show Master what we achieved but…
“Will we perform as good as Master wants? What if we fail?”
“Willow, your catapult is the third. Stop whining and be ready. We trained exactly for this, it will be our baptism by fire and after this Master will finally make us a combat flight.” Rin motivated me much better.
“Yes! I am tired of being a pilot-in-training! I want to stop being a rookie who takes off and lands! More flying!”
“Oh no, Rin, what have you done? Now we need to calm her down from her excitement!” Grace also added her opinion, even if she was holding back her laugh.
'Ace maids sentai, close the canopies and be ready to start up the engines! This is not an exercise!' finally I heard my beloved Master’s voice, even when it is distorted by the magic, it is the most beautiful.
‘Huuuuuuuu’
A steady howling of the engine, a flat metallic surface of the deck, and a teethbreaking acceleration of the catapult… They became so familiar to me that I can’t imagine my life without it.
The plane slowly floated to the catapult and when it bumped I knew that it is connected.
“Take off in 3, 2, 1, GO!”
‘NEOOOOW’