[b][i]Chapter One, Desperation in Lingayen, Part Three[/i][/b]

[b]Lingayen Beach, Municipality of Lingayen, Lingayen Gulf[/b]

As the counterattack got underway, with the Arms Masters and ordinary troops being able to fire out of the Wall of Light while the enemy can't fire [i]in[/i], the foes on the beach began to die in droves, their advantage in firepower negated by Ari's defensive power, which made her the woman of the hour - Well, the literal current hour, as the others were starting to prove why they deserved a military rank; not just Noel, as Lucy supported Sophist by blowing up four dozen or so folk (some of them in a tank and amphibious assault vehicle); more of the enemy would have been killed if they weren't spread out (because they weren't stupid when confronted with Arms Masters). 

Sophist himself exacted a gruesome toll on the enemy armies, but the Chinese were learning how to fight him by directing [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_weapon]Sonic Weapons[/url] to try and break his concentration and thus bring him down; they can heal his hearing later if they capture him. They also began hurling flash-bang grenades just outside the range which he showed, hoping to blind the kid with bright flashes of light. If that didn't work, they'd just use their boats' floodlights and aim them at his eyes.

As for Ari, he'd find that the flanking force on Labrador Beach was barely being held back by the artillery from the east while the boats trying to go upstream were making good headway, having downed two Filipino Helicopters sent to intercept them. Princess Fukuyo, meanwhile, managed to bring down a tank and several scores of infantry, her kill count rising to a hundred enemy casualties in just a minute, especially with the help of her bodyguard, Rin, and her geysers of pure ice which caused additional havoc to the enemy.

Hanni's performance was unexpected, the young girl also bringing an additional source of cold to the Chinese forces that caused them to yearn for a warmer, swifter death. However, the consequences were that snipers, on several boats which were at least a hundred meters away, were firing at her now, and unless whatever entity was possessing her also gave her superhuman reflexes, she was going to be severely injured, and the only saving grace was that the Chinese [i]didn't want to kill her[/i] for some sinister reason, so the shots were aimed at nonlethal areas. If those failed, the enemy would shoot [i]giant nets[/i] from closer boats, giant nets which carried an electric charge that can stun most Arms Masters (never mind that electronics could be frozen, thus partly negating the nets' potency).

Nemo would suffer a similar focus; shot in the arm, the Chinese saw him as easy pickings, launching more giant nets at him, and if he was able to dodge or cut through them despite his wound, several bolas would be shot at him, also from boats. If [i]those[/i] didn't work, knockout gas shells would be launched at his position, and if no one moved to save him then, a battalion of infantry specially trained and equipped for capturing Arms Masters would land on the beach, their black armor (made of high-end polymers with little to no metal content) highlighting the stun rods/cattle prods they carried in their dominant hands, the ropes, cuffs, and zip ties on their belts and backs, and most ominously, the shock collars they had on their free hands.

Regil and Regina's inflicted carnage was expected despite being great, although Regina choosing to attack the aircraft with mundane weapons was a pleasant surprise which proved that said weapons were still deadly in the right hands. This was further proven by the Philippine Army, which joined in the counterattack, firing small arms and artillery from behind the Wall of Light and wreaking havoc amongst those who tried to outflank the barrier. Noel, his melee options exhausted, was even using a mundane weapon himself, a [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floro_MK-9]Floro MK-9[/url] produced in the Philippines itself by Filipinos.

But there was still some neglect of the enemy's airborne assets, part of which came from the Arms Masters being 'optimized' for ground combat, powers-wise. Another part came from the fact that the ground forces were [i]that much closer[/i], and many of them were losing heart due to the Wall of Light stymying their tactic of trying to fragment and isolate the Arms Masters, the tactic which seemed to be winning until Ari put up her barrier, which was able to withstand more Fuel Air Bombs and other forms of ordnance. However, fighters, fighter-bombers, and strategic bombers had already begun to just fly over the Wall of Light to try and bombard Lingayen City itself, whose air defenses were woefully inadequate to withstand a serious assault. 

[hr]

((Section written by Lewascan2))

[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/LUFLku0.png?2[/img][/center]
[b]Location:[/b] Lingayen Beach, Municipality of Lingayen, Lingayen Gulf
[b]Interactions:[/b] [@Senhara][@Double]

There was something rising, a strange feeling in the air of one portion of the beach battlefield. As Regil's Queen bestowed its empowerment upon the battlefield at large, simultaneously, it seemed to trip upon something, which flared in response. As several squads of mundane soldiers scrambled through the trenches to achieve a more ideal position to support the Austrian siblings (and Ari in particular), they moved with unnatural alacrity, rifles occasionally barking over the tops of the trenches with a focus and accuracy. One extraordinarily well-timed grenade chucked by Corporal Castro's squad plunked down into the top of one of the aquatic assault vehicles flanking Ari, eviscerating the gunner and the driver alike with a sharp boom. The driver seemed to have been moving to avoid it the split second it was thrown, but the angle the grenade bounced off the flat top of the vehicle only ensured the gunners had even less cover before it detonated mid-air. The treaded vehicle stuttered to a stop, smoking furiously.

And the allied mundanes weren't alone in their abruptly heightened performance.

Whatever was happening was most certainly not Regil's doing, as even the nearby enemies seemed swept up in the fervor. It was like suddenly everyone was simultaneously granted access to mild bullet time... but without the speed to keep up with it. Laser-focused troops on both sides exchanged ammo with accuracy that would have made range masters shed tears of joy, and casualties began to rack up with alarming acceleration. But for nearly every casualty... there was an odd survivor. Soldiers took incapacitating shots, wounds that would have stunned or shell-shocked from the shock, trauma, and pain, and simply... [i]kept fighting[/i]. There was a wild-eyed determination infusing every warm body, energy, and stamina that could only be compared to a full-throttle constant injection of adrenaline.

And it was this shot of energy, endurance, focus, and broadly heightened senses that swept through the Lucy and the Justis siblings.

Lucy, having just unleashed a massive Burst of force, would find that her stamina had not been taxed nearly as much as she might have braced for. Ari, in turn, would find that the ongoing bombardment upon her shield didn't seem to carry as much recoil as it had moments prior. Maintaining her Wall of Light became nearly as easy as breathing, a second wind injected straight into her veins.

Whatever was occurring was clearly far more indiscriminate than Regil's Queen. And moreover, it was clearly widespread. Unfortunately, given the barely organized chaos of the battle and the distances between many skirmishes, it was difficult to tell exactly where the effect began and ended for those within it. If there was a source to be pinpointed, they weren't obvious. All that could really be said was that it had rolled in out of nowhere, absent one moment and [i]there[/i] the next.

No, the only question to be answered was: Who would take advantage of this mysterious enhancement best to gain the upper hand?
[hr]
Meanwhile, the skies over Lingayen were filled with fire and ash.

Missiles from jets, drones, and warships alike screamed overhead, pounding firepower into countless beachfronts across the breadth of the gulf and sending helicopters hurtling down from the sky in deadly balls of flaming debris to crush the unwary and set the city alight. Not every front had a magical shield to ward off the worst of the Chinese assault, and the effects were being felt. Other groups of Arms Masters, mercenaries, and Philippine soldiers alike fought valiantly, but the fact of the matter was that China, having undergone rapid and militaristic advancement on top of already having a far greater capacity to arm and train vastly superior amounts of manpower, was far and away beyond what they could hope to truly contest. And worse...

The enemy hadn't even deigned to deploy their own Arms Masters.

Whether that was because they simply had the gall not to even bring any or because said Arms Masters didn't think the current conflicts were worth their time was unclear. Or worse, the enemy may have simply been conserving their strength, looking to wear down the defenders through attrition before crushing them in an abrupt and final blow with overwhelming firepower. At the least, all across every front of the gulf, something strange was occurring. All around, defenders gradually began to notice enemies disappearing. Specifically, the wounded. The dead. Destroyed weaponry and vehicles of war. The roar of battle prevented them from being overheard, but many an incapacitated Chinese troop would bark into the radio in their native language or make an odd gesture, only to suddenly disappear without so much as a displacement of air, as they had never been there, to begin with.

And despite this, the constant whittling at the enemy's resources, it seemed as though there was no end to them. Wave upon wave of enemy forces broke upon the Philippine defense, an unending stream of aquatic and aerial transport craft flowing into the gulf from the direction the Chinese warships loomed, unleashing their own unending bombardment against the shores.

[@SkyHresvelg][@The World][@Chiro][@Aisede][@Senhara][@Renny][@MagusDream][@Lewascan2][@Vergil][@Sniblet][@Silverstein][@Stern Algorithm][@Double]