4 Days have passed since Al Maghrib made its first movement against Rundara, a territory entirely controlled by the armies of Esmalfania, and their armed forces reinforced with all the new armament from Jaeger Protocol were having their debut in the wastelands…

The first battalions reached the outskirt grounds of the castle, which was almost as big as Madanbelle, and maybe much more protected.

Esmalfania had mobilized its armed forces in command of the King Dullahan himself and one of his commanders, Aspen, who just reached the outskirts of Rundara almost at the same time Maghrib’s forces did.

Maghrib’s army didn’t stop until they reached the castle, but they were completely focused on Aspen’s forces that got there in time.

Dullahan on the other hand was moving but they decided to make a circle and to be as far as they could so they wouldn’t get traced by the Fürer’s army.

It was another clean day, and for the first time in weeks, or even months everyone could see the clean blue sky over the wastelands…

-A good day to die… -Aspen declared while in front of all his men.

Esmalfanian armies were mainly armed with bolt action fire arms, quite slow, but they always sacrificed speed in favor of a stronger stopping power and hence, much more damage capabilities.

Despite this, every single one of their soldiers was armed with a long sword, bullets were one of the most expensive wares all over the world, so ancient arms like spears, swords and others alike were still mandatory in the armies.

Aspen moved his army at a slow but steady pace and all of them placed themselves just between the castle’s main gate and Maghrib’s army that was ready to charge.

Despite such a hot weather that day, Aspen and his men were heavy armored and ready to counter, but they were waiting for the enemy army to be the first to attack.

-They will be who will start this war!!!... NOT US!!! –Aspen yelled to his men, who started cheering and raised their weapons in signal of their determination.

But this intimidation tactic had no effect at all against Maghrib’s army, whose leader was not at the front line as it usually happened.

Only one commissioned officer popped out the main formation and went to center of the battlefield, just like the old times.

And of course, as the leader, Aspen had to go to the center as well…

Both armies were expectant; they just saw their commanders there, in the center, trying to come into terms.

Aspen had his hand over his sword’s handle, just in case of any eventuality, while his counterpart was just standing there, with no weapons at sight, but he was completely covered with a black robe, and the only he could spot was that this man was wearing a heavy black glowing armor, but the only he could see were those huge gauntlets standing out of his robe.

He could hear no breathing coming from this man, and his horror exploded when the “black commander” raised his head and let Aspen see a huge smile carved in a white steel mask, which was not a human face, at least he could spot this mask-thing beneath the robe having a disgusting smile deeply carven on its surface.

-This cannot be… -Aspen thought.

-Yes, this can be… -The man said, while making a small bow to Aspen. –Allow me to introduce myself, Commander Aspen; I am Egmond Gerard, but you and those of your kind maybe know me by my other name… APB-0229 “The Smiling Man”…

Aspen’s expression changed from one of superiority to one of absolute fear.

-There is something we need to reach, Commander, and for that we request unconditional cooperation of Esmalfanian army and that you surrender Rundara to our army and leave this place quietly…

Aspen was furious, but beyond that, his intense fear was slowly forcing him to pull out his sword against that powerful foe.

He knew he could match him at all; The Smiling Man was a well known warrior, veteran of the Great Battle of The Sacred Field, the battle that devoured a whole world in one single day…

This creature was easily as powerful as the red eyed monster, but how could they know? How the hell could they know the Fürer of Al Maghrib could dominate such a powerful and fearsome creature?

-So… Commander, will you surrender this castle to our power? Or will you fight?

Aspen was heavy breathing.

-You damn monster know perfectly well you are breaking all the terms we had among all countries; what will you get from this slaughter in the end?

The Smiling Man didn’t hesitate to Aspen provocations, yet he answered calmly.

-It seems your King didn’t tell you why you all are about to die, Am I wrong?

-What do you mean with all that crap?! –He yelled.

-The Brionac, Commander; our researchers have found it in the deeps of Madanbelle, and rather than destroying it and take it by force, we decided to go the complicated way…

-And why us?!! Why are you launching this unprovoked attack to us?!!! –Aspen replied in anger.

-Down there… -He said while pointing to the castle. -…There is huge compound of underground passages that lead directly below the foundations of Madanbelle, I don’t care what else is hidden in there, we just will pick the Brionac and leave, that is of course; if you retreat peacefully…

Aspen couldn’t hold any longer and drew his sword out and pointed it to the Smiling Man’s face.

-You don’t dare to think this will be that easy!!! –His hand was shaking, sign that he was prey of horror.

-We will die before letting you scum getting close to our territories!! –Aspen yelled again.

And having no more to say, the Smiling Man just turned his back on Aspen and before he started walking back to his position, he said.

-Well then… But personally I want to let you know that I prefer that you face the whole power of Al Maghrib rather than the horrors held in Madanbelle, believe me; you, me and nobody else want that…

The Smiling Man stepped backwards and as soon as he got back to his position he ordered his army to get ready.

The first two lines of light artillery were deployed, one on their knees and the second one standing up and aiming their weapons to Esmalfanian Army.

Aspen returned to his position and ordered the shielding squad to get ready.

They were not moving, and this made Maghrib’s army to go overconfident, and when they were given the order to fire, Esmalfanian army showed their small surprise all of a sudden.

And with that volley of firearms, Al Maghrib’s raising began.

Fast enough; Aspen’s men dropped some small disks that blew up onto a huge energy shield, it was enough to stop most of Maghrib’s first volley, but those new fire arms were far stronger, and the first volley was enough to break through the shield and cause hundreds of deaths in matter of seconds.

Those super powerful bullets were strong enough to tear apart armor, flesh, and bones and even to damage some pieces of artillery.

The Smiling Man ordered a second and a third volley that ended up causing much more deaths because Aspen’s men weren’t capable of deploying more shields.

That was the power of Jaeger Protocol.

Maghrib’s men were surprised and scared about those new stronger weapons, but deeply in them, they felt they now had the power to overcome anything.

They were ordered to advance some steps forward; meanwhile in the castle the fear was roaming around, everyone was absolutely terrified by the power of the enemy, but they had no choice, they were meant to resist.

The light sand curtain raised by their volleys vanished in seconds, allowing them to see a grotesque show. It was an entire massacre, and it looked like Esmalfanians could hold it.

The Smiling Man ordered a full march over their destroyed enemies, who started being buried in the sand, and they couldn’t believe their arms destroyed a complete army in matter of seconds.

-This was too easy…- Some mourned. The Smiling Man was also agreeing to that, but seeing the brutal panorama, there was no doubt that they died fast.

They were marching over their enemies and were seeing the castle closer by every step they had, it was astonishing, one of the few remaining magnificent structures over the entire wastelands.

A deadly silence roamed over the battlefield, but in that very moment, by total surprise, Aspen ordered his surprise attack, and in matter of a blink, all survivors fired their weapons from below, swords were drawn and all kind of explosives were tossed, causing a horrendous massacre on Maghrib’s men.

Aspen and his remaining men stood up and unleashed the battle all over the outskirts of the castle, the firearms kept being shot until they got empty, and their sounds were soon replaced with the heavy sound of swords and blades being wielded by anyone in the battlefield.

The snipers in the castle aimed and opened selective fire, caring no to wound their kin, their skill was spectacular, going 1 shot 1 kill every time, and even damaging the enemy artillery batteries and preventing them to fire at their comrades.

The battlefield grew in size, occupying all the front position of the castle; hundreds of men were fighting, dying while trying to reach the castle or to push them back to where they came from.

Esmalfanian heavy snipers manage to cause heavy damages on the super tanks, but could not prevent some of them to open fire or against their comrades in the battlefield or to the castle itself, dealing massive damage to its walls.

Deaths in both bands were rising, whether from sword, artillery, and gun shots or even while hand by hand fighting.

It was clearly that Maghrib’s army was far superior as in tactics as in strength, besides having a powerful APB on their side, who was only walking and slaying with his own hands every enemy soldier that tried to engage him.

The Smiling Man showed such a brutality that not everyone dared to stand on his way, his own hands were enough to tear apart human bodies like tissue paper, he had a couple of swords that he never pulled out.

This creature ordered his men to let the wounded in the ground and also ordered their advance over their enemies, and this way they started covering some terrain to let their artillery to advance slowly but steady.

Few super tanks remained, and they fired over the gates of the castle, which was reinforced previous enemy incoming, and thanks to this it managed to stand against these powerful weapons.

Aspen tried to advance along with his men, but they were overran and pushed back into the castle walls with no more to defend themselves but with their basic fire arms and their swords.

Maghrib soldiers were easy prey to the snipers in the higher walls, who had a deadly aiming and managed to exterminate quite many of them; Aspen managed to coordinate a small platoon that fired against the enemies, killing some at point blank, yet this didn’t stop their advance.

The Smiling Man was able to take all the shots without any damage, even the ones from the heavy snipers, this made Esmalfanians to run in total fear into the castle.

Aspen had no more choice but to retreat immediately and plan the inner defense.

Despite the enemy numbers decreased at least 40% during this battle, they still had quite a large force to start a siege on the castle until it was totally taken down.

Down there, in the sand grounds of the desert, the Smiling Man and his army reformed their lines and requested once more for Esmalfanians to surrender the entire castle, but got no answer from them.

Only by raising his hand, the Smiling Man ordered his super tanks to aim to the highest towers of the castle.

-We won’t care about the castle anymore; we only need access to the underground hallway…

The artillery pieces aimed their huge cannons to one of the largest towers, the one in the center of the castle, and fired at will.

Esmalfanian army inside the castle started running away from there as fast as they could.

The Smiling Man ordered that all the super tanks and remaining artillery pieces would start a raid over the castle. No matter if there were civilians, military or anything, he was willing to destroy everything on his way.

But what he didn’t know was that Dullahan; King of Esmalfania had already arrived to the opposite side of the castle, and along with his army, he entered through the back door.