That Time an American was Reincarnated into Another World

Chapter 217: Just As Good

October 12th, 625

“One last time…”

I muttered and closed my eyes, letting my Aura concentrate before infusing Psyka into it. 

My advancement formation bloomed. 

Dozens of formations started to appear, two at a time, taking several seconds to form each one. I utilized my visualization ability to its fullest as the formation count rose to over 30. 

Soon, I had 8 clusters of 6 formations each, a total of 48 formations. Then, I started forming the connections between them, mediated by hundreds of arrays, each array sporting over a dozen connections each. 

There were well over ten thousand total connections I had to make. Without my visualization to keep track of everything, I felt like this would take another several months of constant practice to complete. 

But my power had reached a new height, and so after several minutes, I was able to string the last connection, intertwining all 48 formations into one cohesive whole. 

It flashed as soon as it completed. I faintly felt that the formation desired to finish itself in a way, the last connection falling into place with an almost magnetic pull. It instantly told me that not only had I completed the formation, but it was entirely correct. 

I focused on the formation, creating an image of it in my mind. Once memorized, I washed it away before reforming it. 

Instead of several minutes, I managed to shape the formation together in two this time. 

I smiled, satisfied. 

“Finally complete. Now I can start working on developing that Spark.”

My second Spark was still just a kernel of potential. This advancement formation would transform it as well as the rest of my mind once I advanced. 

It would be a big advancement too. Authority 7 was a threshold, obviously because I was making another Spark entirely. Once I got past it, not only would my sheer power take a huge jump, but my memory, computational ability, and visualization would undergo radical changes

That wasn’t even considering the 7th Star that I would be unlocking. I was excited to see the weapons beyond it. 

I opened my eyes, looking out the window of my plane and seeing the landscape outside of the Treehouse. We made our approach. 

The plane touched down and braked to a halt on the runway. Once we touched the ground I could feel the tremors from bombs being dropped in the distance. 

It hadn’t calmed at all since I left. The FOBs had fallen, but the Treehouse continued to resist. We had total air superiority, but there was a fine balance being struck that made victory an uncertainty. 

I disembarked and used my boots to glide across the ground and get to headquarters. Once inside I went to the war room and found Polly. 

I waited for her to delegate the last of her tasks before stepping forward. 

“Good to see you, John.”

“You too. How’s it looking?”

“Not great. We’re holding them off but I don’t know for how much longer. The Scourge overwhelmed the last of our forward bases 6 days ago and now we’re on the defensive again. I’m attempting to use the bombers to try and disrupt the construction of that intestine but it hasn’t hindered them at all it seems. They keep sending monsters by the thousand.”

I looked down at the map, memorizing it. There was far more detail but all that did was paint a worse picture. The Scourge was slowly encroaching on the battle lines we established with Operation Breakwater. Planes were coming in and being launched at every opportunity. Pilots were getting plenty of air time, doing as much damage to the Scourge since it was nothing but free kills. There hadn’t been a single downed plane since they arrived, though there had been damages. Thankfully there were few systems to destroy, so even with horrible damage, the planes were all able to make it back home. 

We would see how long that lasted. For now though, air superiority was giving us a hell of an advantage. Despite the pressure mounting, casualty rates had only gotten lower. Pound for pound, we were actually setting performance records, and it was only getting better as the troops adapted to their new weapons and support. 

I didn’t know if it would be enough though. 

I could see the wave of red on the map, getting closer and denser. In the distance the occasional bombing run was being made to destroy some of the intestine but there was so much that it seemed futile. What few bombs the Treehouse had in inventory needed to be spent killing monsters. 

We currently had a combat population of 130 thousand. The Treehouse had become a full blown stronghold and there were tens of thousands of troops beyond the wire at any given time. 

We had gotten reinforced with several Brigadiers and a couple Marshals, not to mentioned the Sovereign that had come during Polly’s promotion. That guy made himself scarce but he was here for a reason. 

There were Sovereign Class Royals not far away. Jasmine and I had already encountered them, had gotten attacked even in the XR-11. All that intel had already been passed up the chain, and so now everyone knew that the Scourge was conducting a full blown assault. 

There would be no rest. They were here to overwhelm us, and they had no issue using hundreds of thousands, if not millions of monsters to do it. 

I wondered if we’d be able to get out enough planes and bombs fast enough to circumvent them. 

“Where are the Snow Doves?”

“Reinforcing another battalion to the northwest.”

“Is there a helicopter that can get me out there?”

“Not at the moment. All aircraft are in the sky or refueling.”

“What about a group headed their way? Right here.”

I pointed down. There was a planned route for a company to take, one that would be coming close to where the Snow Doves were operating.

She frowned, “They would still be separated by a distance of 12 miles.”

“I can cover that.”

“By yourself? On a battlefield?”

“Haven’t you read my file? I’ve got a pretty good Aura.”

“You redacted your own file.”

“Oh yeah.”

I chuckled a bit, getting the information for the company that was about to deploy. 

“Don’t worry about me. Just get me in the fight.”

“Fine. Watch your legs and stay in contact.”

“Roger.”

……

…

“Enemies left!”

“Warlocks, get fire on them! Raise barriers!”

“Pull those guys back now! They’re about to get surrounded!”

“Turrets face front! Someone get us some air support! We’ve got another wave incoming!”

Screams and explosions rang out over the battlefield as the sun set, the turrets on multiple Steeds firing without rest. Wounded troops were hauled through their open hatches, healers doing what they could to keep the critically wounded from dying so soon. 

Lines of knights with shields and spears surrounded the Steeds, keeping waves of monsters from reaching beyond them. Warlocks rained hell upon the clusters of enemies, area spells blowing apart dozens at a time. Yet there always seemed to be more bodies to replace the dead. 

Nonnen and Amira locked themselves in battle with two Authority 10 Royals. Nonnen had his on the back foot but this one was tenacious, while Amira was equal with hers. Nonnen knew he had this battle in hand but the longer he delayed, the worse off the rest of the troops would be. They would get swarmed while he was doing battle, and if that happened they would not only lose the remaining battalion they had come to reinforce, but lose a huge chunk of his Snow Doves. 

Thankfully his Chiefs were putting in good work. A few of them were recently arrived warlocks and while he had been worried about their abilities, the massive explosions of fire coming from their Foci dashed those away rather quickly. 

But they couldn’t last forever. Battles of attrition always worked in the favor of the Scourge. 

“Another wave incoming from the east!”

Nonnen grit his teeth as the Royal in front of him laughed. Another surge of enemies, at least a thousand, started surging from over a hill. Nonnen didn’t know where they were coming from but that didn’t matter right now. 

One of the Chiefs yelled.

“Where’s our air support?!”

“12 minutes out!”

“Tell them to hurry up, or they’ll be reinforcing a graveyard!”

“Sir, we have an incoming comm request!”

The Chief turned around after launching a spell, “Who is it?!”

“I-I don’t know! Clearance isn’t giving me a name!”

“Just fucking accept it! Send it to my Aerial!”

“Roger!”

The Chief lifted his wrist as the connection was established. 

“This is Chief Liam of the Snow Doves! Who am I speaking to?!”

“Chief Liam, you’re not supposed to send your name over Aerial traffic.”

“Who the…”

Chief Liam was confused for a second before recognizing the voice, his eyes widening. 

“Envoy?”

“Am I so recognizable? Tell me where you need more firepower.”

“Y-Yes sir! We’ve got an incoming horde approaching from our east!”

“Copy. Moving to reinforce. Envoy out.”

The connection went dark, the call record wiped from Chief Liam’s Aerial before he could even look at it. 

He yelled, “We have reinforcements on the east side!”

“Who?!”

Before Chief Liam could respond, they all heard it. 

The wonderfully familiar symphony of gunfire. 

Rattling explosions rang from the east, everyone’s heads turning to find a line of red streaks shooting through the air and drawing lines from the lone attacker toward the horde of incoming monsters. 

Dozens of them started dropping as they ran, those red streaks tearing through 3 or 4 bodies before stopping. The gunfire was unceasing, well over a dozen explosions ringing out every second, and despite the monsters of the horde being primarily composed of Authority 6 or 7 monsters, they fell all the same.

Nothing could stop the Envoy’s weapons except the most powerful Royals. Chief Liam was just one of many who could recall the Envoy’s exploits in intimate detail. His support could fend off thousands alone. He would kill hundreds by the time the monsters even got close enough to launch ranged attacks. With a little support from them, he could cut down entire armies through his lone firepower. 

Chief Liam grinned as the Envoy came gliding across the hill on magic boots. In each hand he held a long metal machine of death, both of them spitting fire and unleashing red lines of carnage. From each of them extended metal belts being fed by the large backpack on his back. 

In mere seconds over a hundred monsters had been cut down, being routed entirely as they diverted their charge toward him. The carnage only got worse as they lined up for the slaughter. Those monsters had little to no sense of self preservation but that only fed the Envoy’s wrath. 

Without having to worry about that horde, the rest of the troops could focus on what was in front of them. 

The battle raged, and the Envoy’s support boosted morale to an unprecedented level. Even those from the battalion the Doves were rescuing started stepping up with their war cries and pushing the Scourge back instead of merely defending. With the Envoy here, victory seemed assured. 

Everyone had heard rumors and tales of his battles after the planes made him famous. John Cooper was a legend among those at the Treehouse. Seeing his power like this though was entirely different from hearing those stories. 

After several minutes, the Scourge was cut down, the Brigadiers able to bring down their enemies after some Chiefs were freed up to help. Once that happened the rest of the monsters were slaughtered and added to the massive pile of corpses. 

The battle ended, just like that. 

Chief Liam watched the Envoy and Nonnen converge in the center, discussing a few things before bickering slightly and laughing. Nonnen was wounded but it wasn’t anything the tough Brigadier couldn’t shrug off. 

After that, the healers focused on healing while everyone else started gathering Scourge corpses. They were amassed into one giant pile before one of the warlocks tossed flames at it, letting the entire pile burn. 

The Envoy looked at that weirdly, “Why are you burning them?”

“So we can retrieve their crystals,” Nonnen responded, frowning toward the Envoy, “Your company is so desperate for more crystals that they offered to pay soldiers for retrieved crystals from out in the field where normal harvesting teams can’t reach. And since your cheap ass didn’t want to get us a new Steed, I’ve gotta make some money myself!”

“Hey, I’ve been working on other things! In fact, pretty soon we’re going to have something much better than Steeds on the ground. Stop nagging and maybe I’ll make sure you guys are the first ones in them.”

“What kind of death machine did you conjure up this time?”

“A tank. Imagine 20 tons of rolling metal with giant guns on them that shoot 2 foot long bullets similar to my guns. It would be so heavily armored that you could take on the army we just killed on a single tank alone and come out completely unscathed. So long as it didn’t take a pounding from those Authority 10s, of course.”

“Sounds excessive. I’ll need at least 6.”

“The intention is to make entire battalions of tanks. Who knows, maybe you’ll be the first armored battalion in the military.”

“Will I get a pay raise?”

“I don’t know about that, but you’ll get to blow shit up so…”

The Envoy shrugged, Nonnen rolling his eyes before going on with business. 

After the corpses burned they retrieved all the crystals and made haste back to base. Chief Liam made sure to call off the air support as well. 

Since apparently the Envoy was just as good as air support. All of the Snow Doves knew that they were going back to base with another story to tell.

……

Wielding two machine guns was a hell of an experience. I felt like Rambo, dumping thousands of rounds like dollar bills in a strip club. 

Unfortunately for my pool of Psyka, I would need to be a badass for a while longer. 

As we went back to base we encountered more Scourge forces and troops battling them. We moved to reinforce, attaining victory before moving on and encountering even more. From battle to battle we jumped across checkpoints on the way back to base, gathering more troops along the way. 

Then we made it back to base, seeing an incoming Scourge army in the distance numbering at least 60 thousand. The Treehouse was sending troops to intercept but it seemed like a siege wasn’t far off. Explosions lit up the night, bombers in the sky dropping their payloads on hordes that could do nothing but watch. 

Almost all of the bombs were high explosive firebombs that detonated on impact. However, there were also hellfire bombs that detonated a distance above the ground and spread other cluster bombs upon the enemy, scattering fire across a wide area and causing more chaos than damage. Either were good to break up enemy lines, but they meant that the night was filled with bright flashes of flame and small mushroom clouds. 

It was starting to look like a proper war zone. 

The Snow Doves were sent right back out as soon as I was contacted by Polly. We couldn’t even enter the base. We, along with two entire divisions of warlocks and knights, were turned right back around to intercept the incoming Scourge forces. 

I very quickly dropped the second M60 and stuck to one. 

Thousands of troops rode out over 5 miles before digging in, warlocks raising barriers and obstacles and knights raising shields just behind them. 

We were hit pretty hard as soon as the Scourge made contact. 

“Protect our flank! Don’t let them encircle!”

“Replant spikes! We need to slow their advance! Don’t let the barriers fall!”

“Envoy!”

Nonnen called, my head snapping in his direction. 

I saw him near the front, looking back at me. 

“We’re in this shit now! Let’s not get to the point where we need reinforcements! It’s time to show me how far you can go!”

“Roger.”

My voice came out, quiet compared to the nearby chaos, but the Psyka behind it carried my word into the minds of others like propagating sound. 

I had just under half of my Psyka remaining, but my brain was already sore with use. I was tired and if I drained my Psyka I’d get lethargic and want to pass out. 

That wasn’t an option now though. Nonnen was right. We were in this shit. We were the first ones they sent to intercept this force and they probably weren’t expecting any amazing results. They would continuously reinforce us, but chances were we’d be the first to die when shit went south. That’s what it meant to be first in. 

Even Polly was reluctant to send us, but chances were the orders didn’t come from her. We were just the closest and there was probably a Major General who saw that and made the call. 

In time, we’d get somewhat fresh forces from the base, but until then, we were five miles out and all alone.

I watched the massive horde make its way to us, charging with wild abandon, Royals scattered throughout looking for a target to focus on. 

Spells were raised on both sides, each one attempting to break apart defensive lines. 

I just sat back and fired by M60 in bursts, occasionally throwing a grenade into a massive group of Scourge, shrapnel tearing into several of them and incapacitating entire groups. 

I managed my Psyka, drawing it out, trying to maintain a balance of energy efficiency so that I didn’t exhaust myself but didn’t slow down too much. 

It would be a tough battle, but I wouldn’t allow it to end in any other way than victory.