Unlike the monsters around it, Aldebaran stood out like a sore thumb.
It's easily dozens of times bigger than the monsters around it. It looked like a moving hill. Even while it's still far away, the tremors it caused by galloping can stil be felt.
As for the Aldebaran's full appearance, it's hard to describe.
Since it's a Stage IV Gastrea, it had at least a dozen different strains of Gastrea virus in it, if not hundreds.
Empowered by so many different strains, the monster demonstrated traits from all the strains it had.
Aldebaran looked like a tiny hill made out of muscles, shell, and a long neck with gaping jaws.
Its alien-like appearance is enough to scare anyone and tell everyone it's a stage IV gastrea.
Roar
Howl
Hiss
The monster legion led by the Aldebaran marched onward, raising a dust storm that trailed the horde.
Bam
The soldiers started firing cannons at the incoming horde.
Self-propelled artillery, tanks, launchers, all sorts of bombs fell upon the monstrous horde.
Boom boom boom boom
The battlefield shook with incessant gunfire.
The first wave of the monsters were blown away.
The flames were like fiery snakes that hissed while flailing around.
Yet, the second wave burst out from behind the first wave, steadily charging forward.
Bang bang bang bang bang
The soldiers fired another salvo, the fight's in full-gear now.
Everything was red.
The sky burned red.
The civil defense officers in Fairy Tail watched with clenched teeth. Their expressions turned grave as they watched the fight proceed.
Excluding the children here, the civil defense officers who were around during the first Gastrea war could see striking resemblance between the scene in front of them and the one in the past.
It was hell on earth.
The streets are melting from the flames.
Farms went up in flames.
There are also people who got burned.
The dark skyline made a stark contrast with the bloody-red flames on the ground.
This scene, it definitely roused the memories of the veterans here.
Nonetheless, the sounds of cannon being fired, the tremor caused by the hulking monsters, the shrieks of the monsters, the rallying cry of the desperate soldiers, they could hear everything.
Noah watched in silence.
After a while, the noise slowly died down for both sides.
The two sides went quiet for some reason.
On the plains that burned with chemical fire, the dark night obscured everyone's vision. They exchanged nervous looks.
"What happened?"
"Did the soldiers prevail?"
"I think so?"
"The monsters aren't making any noise. The self defense force probably routed the Gastreas?"
The civil defense officers discussed with vigor. The tense mood revealed their underlying emotions.
Clearly, they were nervous too.
Noah declared neutrality but everyone's still curious about what will happen, the future hinged largely on the development of this defensive fight. That's why everyone's hooked.
While the officers whispered theories, Noah took a good look at the pitch-black screen and he took on a stern look.
Half a second later, he spoke up.
"The Self Defense force got wiped out."
The smoke slowly cleared as they can see waves of Gastreas rush out. It looked like a swarm of ants were rushing towards Tokyo Area.
Meanwhile, there's no sign of the soldiers.
They were struck with deathly silence, nobody said a word.
Indeed, it looked like Noah was right.
They were all gone.
The spectators here increased as everyone stared at the large display.
On the screen, hundreds of IP pairs stood against the Gastrea horde. It was immediately clear that the humans lacked numbers.
Ignoring the promoters who were in charge of leading and support duties. The Initiators had powers that rivalled if not surpassed the Gastrea monsters. The Gastrea horde suffered massive casualties too.
However, anyone astute enough can see the defensive line being pushed back steadily as the Gastrea pressed on despite mounting casualties.
At this rate, the monsters will get too close to the city and innocent deaths will start popping up as the monsters leak into the city.
Noah lost interest, he turned around to walk away.
Suddenly, something caught him in his steps. He looked at the screen.
"What's that?"
A hoarse voice came.
Nobody understood the phenomena they saw.
A pillar of light descended from the sky, dispersing the clouds and smoke. The pillar landed squarely on the battlefield.
Then, it moved across the battlefield.
Everything the light touched, humans or Gastrea disappeared without a trace.
The Adjuvants were caught by surprise as the civil defense officers started faltering rapidly.
The tide of the battle changed.
Gasp
The guild members held their breaths. Meanwhile, Noah furrowed his brows.
What's that?
Laser? From where? The gastreas?
The civil defense officers lost all hopes of victory.
As predicted, Noah's conjecture came true.
The tide of battle turned against the humans.
They desperately fought while falling back, they tried to hold the defensive line together.
Yet, this only delayed the inevitable, soon, the officers will be dead.
Aoooooo
The Aldebaran suddenly cried out in pain, it sounded like it got heavily injured.
The Gastreas stopped at once as they shifted positions.
The Gastreas on the ground and the air started concentrating near the Aldebaran, using themselves as meat shield for the Aldebaran.
The Aldebaran turned around as it retreated.
With the Gastrea in full retreat, the others started chattering.
It seems the Aldebaran got hurt so the Gastrea horded retreated.
Tokyo Area dodged a bullet this time.
Noah closed his eyes and he started heading for the door.
Hence, the Third Kanto battle ended with the Self Defense force all but eliminated and the Gastrea horde routed for now. The first act came to an end.