Mars stood next to a magic cannon battery that fired at the formation rune enhanced walls of Irker, the town which the main force had laid siege to earlier on the same day before he let out a yawn

"...you sure look calm Mars"

Mars looked over and saw Karen looking at him with a weird expression on her face

"well what can I say... I'm just relaxed that's all"

as Mars and Karen were talking the magic canon battery finished their reloading and let lose another barrage of high level spells which lit up the surroundings more than the moon light ever could, Mars let lose another yawn as he watched the barrage of spells fly and eventually hit the walls which shock slightly under the force of the high level spells, Mars looked over at Karen again and asked

"do you need something?"

"it's the twins, the cannon fire woke them up and then they realized you were missing..."

"oh I see... let's head back then"

Mars and Karen left the magic cannon area and walked back to their carriage were Mars was jumped by the twins that were very much awake despite the time was almost midnight, Mars carrying the twins climbed into the carriage and sat them down just as another barrage was shot off from the magic cannons in the distance that briefly lit up the night sky outside the carriage, Mars disagreed with the higher ups decision to do a full 24 hours bombardment of Irker but what could he do? as far as they were concerned he was 'just' a member of the tactical cla.s.s of Destra's magic academy. After calming down the twins he laid down on the floor of the carriage and closed his eyes meanwhile Lee and Lily found their sleeping spots on top of him and also laid down and closed their eyes, Mars mentally counted down

'...3,2,1'

*BANG*

the magic cannons fired off another barrage like clockwork and the twins jumped slightly, Mars gave a wry smile and opened his eyes and spoke softly

"...there's nothing to be afraid off"

""but...""

the twins settled down again and Mars began lightly stroking them on the head to calm them down and closed his eyes again... after a few hours pa.s.sed the twins gradually got used to the magic cannons firing off in the distance and fell asleep, Mars also regulated his breathing and soon fell asleep himself...

The next morning Mars woke up late, when he opened his eyes the twins and Karen were already gone from the carriage Mars sat up and stretched then he noticed something strange

'...the magic cannons have gone silent'

Mars thought for a moment and remembered that the magic cannons specialized for breaking the enhancements on the walls and after they were done more traditional siege warfare would commence after the magic formations on the walls were broken

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'...guess I'm late then'

Mars began jogging towards the walls and soon saw the walls of Irker

'...now this is proper siege warfare'

giant magic enhanced siege engines flung rocks at the walls of Irker and a constant rain of arrows and spells filled the air as the troops form Destra attempted to storm the gates protected by magic spells, Mars stood and watched for some time until a pair of small hands tugged his clothes and he looked down and saw the twins, they carried nervous expressions on their faces, Mars gave a sigh and patted them on the head

"it will be fine"

"but..."

"we received some scary orders..."

Mars' expression hardened slightly before he kneeled down and Lee whispered the order they had received into his ear, Mars' expression continued to harden, if not for the fact that the twins were right next to him he would have let out an enormous amount of killing intent when Lee finished speaking he stood up again and let out a sigh before he patted them on the head and spoke

"don't worry, I'll come with and make sure to protect you guys"

strategically he did not disagree with the plan the higher ups had made but morally he disagreed with them, after all the twins were only 11 years old and building an operation around them were it was necessary for them to kill was frankly insane. nevertheless he was unable to take their place so he could only support them and make sure they were safe

'well I could always murder the higher ups and do a hostile takeover of the troops and command them though fear but that sounds like a pain...'

time pa.s.sed and soon it was time for the operation to begin, Mars showed up where the rest of the personnel were gathered for the operation and mingled with them for a bit until the twins showed up accompanied with an officer that had an emotionless look on his face, Mars lined up along with the troops and waited for the officer to declarer the start of the operation. The officer looked over the, some 50 troops that all were equipped with heavy s.h.i.+elds before his gaze stopped on Mars for a little while before he gave a sigh and spoke up

"we will now begin the operation... move to your a.s.signed positions and get ready to charge!"

the soldiers moved and formed a s.h.i.+eld dome around the twins, Mars moved behind the s.h.i.+eld dome and waited for the formation tom move towards the walls

"you... your name is Mars right?"

"yes"

the officer had walked over to Mars and looked him over with slight disdain on his face before he continued talking

"if you want to partic.i.p.ate in this operation I won't stop you, just know that I won't guarantee you life"

after saying that the officer turned and walked away and the s.h.i.+eld dome formation with the twins in the middle began moving forwards, Mars put a hand on the hilt of his sword and followed after in a light jog as the s.h.i.+eld dome formation moved out onto no mans land and began receiving an ever increasing amount of bombardment form spells and arrows, Mars also drew his sword and deflected the arrows and spells that came his way. After moving for some time the s.h.i.+eld dome formation reached the middle of the no mans land and stopped before the troops began spreading out and forming a s.h.i.+eld wall in front of the twins, Mars stepped up and gave them a rea.s.suring pat on their heads before he stood in front of them, protecting them as a last line of defense, the twins ignored the heavy bombardment the s.h.i.+eld wall in front of them took and hugged each other tight as the formation runes tattooed on their bodies began lightning up, at this moment the enemy began focusing their fire on the s.h.i.+eld wall they had clearly found out something was wrong and so the first casualties began appearing in the s.h.i.+eld wall formation. A painful 30 seconds later the twins both opened their eyes at the same time and let out a low shout, Mars felt the ground rumble and looked to the front were a giant earth spike shot out of the ground and rushed forwards at high speed before it collided with the tightly closed gate, when it did the entire walls of Irker trembled for a moment and a dull deafening sound spread across the battlefield and for a moment the entire battlefield seemed to turn silent before it quickly resumed its chaos again a moment later and soon the troops of the s.h.i.+eld wall formation began yelling

"no way, the gates held!?"

"you gotta do it again!"

"for our fallen comrades!"

'this is bad...'

at the moment the first attack on the gates failed the moral of the troops had fallen significantly, no doubt if the twins refused to attack the gates again they would be jumped by Destra's troops, Mars calmly turned around and asked in a soft voice

"can you do it again?"

"yes Mars but..."

"only one more time"

Mars gave a smile

"I'll count on you guys then"

the twins gave a nod and closed their eyes again as the formation runes on their bodies began lighting up again, this of course made even more fire from the walls consecrate on them and soon Mars also began deflecting arrows and spells that made their way through the holes in the s.h.i.+eld wall formation but just as everything seemed to be under control a giant fireball appeared over the walls of Irker and it quickly began descending on the s.h.i.+eld wall formation

's.h.i.+t..!'

time slowed down for Mars as he activated [Instant movement] and disappeared from view before he reappeared in the air in front of the giant fireball and swung his sword down with all his strength cutting the fireball in half before gravity took over and he landed on the ground again and quickly retreated behind the s.h.i.+eld wall formation again and mumbled

"I knew they would have tactical cla.s.s mages too but this is just..."

Mars looked up at the 3 giant fireb.a.l.l.s that slowly formed above the walls of Irker with an annoyed look on his face