by TurtleMe
In the span of an hour, archers and conjurers were positioned on every floor of the Wall, staring warily out from the Wall’s many arrow slits. Melee troops—largely members of the Bulwark Division—were hurrying into formation just behind the gate to the Beast Glades. Work was not yet complete in the tunnels below, and many workers still toiled within them, rushing to finish the preparations; Trodius had tasked many of the adventurers to assist them. The Trailblazers had vanished, moving into position so quickly it was as if Jesmiya had teleported them all away.
As for myself, I waited inside the meeting tent with Sylvie. Trodius was pacing back and forth behind his desk, his hands clasped behind his back, his eyes darting back and forth as if he were reading an invisible text. Gavik and Callum stood nearby, quiet and tense. Taking advantage of the moment’s peace, I checked the contents of my dimension ring. The only useful item inside was Dawn’s Ballad. Even cracked and broken, the sword was still better than any other weapon I’d ever used.
I took it out, inspecting the translucent teal blade, the point of which had been melted away. A spiderweb of cracks spread down the blade from the ruined tip.
I really wish this damn weapon inside my hand would manifest already, I grumbled in my head.
‘Now would be as good a time as any,’ Sylvie agreed.
“General,” Gavik said suddenly, drawing my attention away from Dawn’s Ballad. “Please reconsider. Allow us to accompany you.”
I looked at the two mages and shook my head. “As I said before, your job will be to support the troops here.”
Callum answered, frustration bleeding into his voice. “Commander Virion has personally picked Gavik and me to assist you in battle. If something were to happen after sending you by yourself—”
“I’m not looking down on you two, but the chance of something happening to me or Sylvie only increases if you two come with us. I—”
The tent flap was pulled aside and a tall, muscular woman with bright red eyes and dark skin entered. Those starling red eyes moved quickly from face to face, stopping on mine.
“Please excuse the intrusion,” she said, bowing slightly before turning to Trodius. “Father, I brought the weapons you asked for.”
“Ah! Come in, Senyir.” Trodius waved the woman over, gracing her with a rare smile. “Arthur, this is Senyir Flamesworth, my daughter and the master blacksmith here at the Wall.”
Tess had referred to that little girl’s master as Senyir back when we were touring the Wall together. Tess had seemed to have a good relationship with her, but even so…
The very mention of the word “daughter” coming from Trodius’s lips annoyed me. Jasmine’s stories about her life, about how her family had practically thrown her away, were fresh in my mind. This wasn’t the time for such thoughts, however, so I pushed down my negative feelings toward the senior captain and introduced myself to his daughter.
“Arthur Leywin. Pleasure to meet you,” I said, sheathing Dawn’s Ballad.
Senyir opened her mouth to reply but was cut off by her father. “Senyir here is one of the finest blacksmiths in Sapin, on par with even the master smiths of Darv due to her excellent ability to manipulate fire-attribute mana during the forging process,” Trodius boasted.
“I heard from Tessia that you prefer thinner blades,” Senyir said, ignoring Trodius’s interruption and handing me the longer of the two swords. “I’m sure it’s nowhere near as well crafted as your weapon, but my father informed me that you’ll be in battle for an extended period of time. Having multiple backup weapons won’t do you any harm.”
“Thank you,” I replied, drawing the sword from its plain steel scabbard. The blade was a pale gold color, about three fingers in width, and slightly longer than Dawn’s Ballad. After testing its balance with a few swings, I began channeling mana into it.
The thin sword hummed as fire, wind, water, and earth magic all began to swirl around the blade in harmony. I continued injecting mana into the sword until I could see the blade beginning to deteriorate from the burden of being imbued with multiple elements.
Cutting off the flow of mana into the sword, I sheathed it and said, “Not bad. I think it’ll suffice.” The weak compliment was all I could muster; I was struggling to suppress my personal feelings toward the Flamesworth family despite myself.
Senyir couldn’t keep the disappointment from her face, but she accepted my words with a bow. “I’m honored.”
Putting the longer sword into my ring and fastening the shorter one onto my hip beside Dawn’s Ballad, I turned to Trodius. “Have the ground troops ready to advance as soon as I leave.”
“I’m aware of the plan, General. Don’t worry about us, just come back in one piece,” Trodius replied. “We’ll be waiting for the signal.”
Without another word, I walked past Senyir Flamesworth and stepped out of the tent. I was met with a thunderous cheer; all around me were soldiers, merchants, and adventurers, all clapping and shouting my name.
“Your presence is what is holding this Wall together, General,” Trodius said from just behind me.
It was overwhelming, to say the least. Rather than feeling joy or pride, however, I was overcome with horror; within the crowd, I had just seen my father. He wasn’t supposed to be here, and if he was here, the rest of the Twin Horns must be as well.
No. They were supposed to be in Blackbend City, far away from this battle!
Sylvie squeezed my hand. ‘Arthur. Everyone is watching.’
I didn’t care. I wanted to run to my father right then and demand that he leave, that he take Mother and the Twin Horns and get away from the Wall.
But I couldn’t. One look from my father stopped me in my tracks. He had such a determined expression that, even as a general, I didn’t dare stop him. He would never forgive me.
If everything goes to plan, most of these soldiers will make it out alive—and Dad is one of the stronger soldiers, I thought, trying to calm myself down.
Swallowing the anxiety and the dread building up inside me, I saluted the crowd, locking eyes with my father. He saluted back, and, despite the fight that we had not long ago, he smiled at me.
Another wave of cheers rolled through the crowd as Sylvie shifted into her draconic form.
My bond reeled her head back and let out a deafening roar, shaking the ground. We ascended with a single beat from Sylvie’s broad wings, clearing the height of the Wall in just a few seconds and giving me a clear view of the approaching horde as well as the people below who we were responsible for protecting.
My hands trembled as I finally felt the true gravity of the situation. I had brought my sister here. My parents were here, as well as the Twin Horns. Their lives, the lives of every man and woman at the Wall, depended on me.
‘You’re not alone, Arthur,’ Sylvie said as she spread her obsidian wings. ‘Nothing has changed from when you made the decision to bring Ellie along.’
She was right. Despite the beast horde arriving a day early, the preparations had already been made. Both my mother and sister had the Phoenix Wyrm pendants to keep them safe, and I had even given Ellie a transmission scroll in case she needed to reach out to me. Still, I couldn’t help but feel uneasy.
Was it because of the promise I had made with Tess? The pendant hanging around my neck seemed to weigh down on me, but it wasn’t just that. The timing of everything happening seemed off. I still couldn’t shake the feeling that this attack was more than what it seemed. What were the Alacryans trying to accomplish?
Focus, Arthur. You’re going into battle.
‘Are you ready?’ Sylvie asked, her excitement flooding into me.
Not as ready as you are, I teased, bolstered by her confidence.
Sylvie’s laughter rang in my head as the world around us turned into a blur. With her seal released, every inch of her body was brimming with power. Each stroke of her wings made gales behind us, and we were soon approaching the army of beasts.
Scanning the churning sea of fang
s and claws with mana enhanced vision, I found each of the Alacryan mages spread throughout the horde, shepherding along the massive herd.
“How about we send them a little welcoming gift?” I suggested.
‘My thoughts exactly,’ Sylvie responded, her wings beating slowly to keep us aloft high above the mana beasts. Space began to distort around us as mana gathered into Sylvie’s open maw, forming into a golden-white sphere, which grew larger with every passing breath until it was even larger than me.
The sphere erupted into a beam of pure mana, which cut silently through the space between us and the enemy. A blinding flash forced me to turn away, but the sounds of shattering stone and shrieking mana beasts was carried on a draft of hot air that I could feel even from this distance.
So began the battle.
215
Two Versus an Army
I watched as the hole that had formed from Sylvie’s attack slowly disappeared—covered by the steady stream of mana beasts marching toward the Wall. Despite the devastation the blast had caused, the corrupted creatures hardly seemed to notice.
Sylvie released another blast of mana, but this time several shields appeared, compounded upon one another and absorbing the brunt of the attack.
Looks like we won’t be able to just rain spells down on them from the comfort of the air, I mused.
‘After you,’ Sylvie thought, turning her long neck to give me a toothy grin.
Try to keep up.
Normally, falling head-first from several thousand feet in the air into an army of magical beasts should’ve caused some sort of fear or anxiety, but that wasn’t the case for me. My heart hammered against my ribcage not out of fear, but excitement.
Mana flooded through my body as wind gathered around me, swirling and condensing as I landed like a meteor in the center of the beast horde. The layers of wind surrounding me burst outward, shredding and flinging away hundreds of beasts caught in the blast.
Slowly, I rose to my feet, Dawn’s Ballad in my hand. The impact had made a crater at least ten feet deep, and dozens of sets of monstrous eyes glared down at me from above. The creatures snarled and snapped at the air, but, at least for a moment, the entire horde had come to a standstill.
A wild, manic war-cry suddenly burst out from a bipedal canine at least three times my height. That frenzied howl rippled through the other beasts surrounding me, as if waking them up from a stupor. The corrupted mana beasts, which moments ago had marched along in a drug induced state of apathy, all suddenly wakened in a concert of cries, roars, and jarring screeches.
But piercing through the cries of the corrupted mana beasts was the thunderous roar of my bond as she landed in their midst. Sylvie immediately ripped out the bipedal canine’s throat with her fangs and crushed four other mana beasts with a swipe of her tail.
‘Try to keep up,’ she thought to me, her challenge burning in my mind.
Eager to “keep up” with my bond, I leapt from the crater and slammed into a reptilian creature with three swirling tails. The force of the impact was enough to knock it flat, and Dawn’s Ballad finished it with a quick slash across its neck, cleanly separating head from body. Dozens of mana beasts swarmed around me, snarling and spitting, lashing out with claws, talons, and paws. I conjured a surge of churning air that threw the closest beasts backwards into the swarming beasts behind them.
So thick was the press that the creatures were crawling over each other to get closer to me. A wolf-like beast with sharp ridges of bone protruding from much of its body leapt from the back of another large three-tailed reptile but was immediately turned end-over-end by the force of my cyclone barrier. Dawn’s Ballad flashed, and the creature’s corpse landed beside me.
I held that position for several minutes, limiting my mana usage and relying instead on my battle prowess—accumulated through my two lifetimes—as I cut down one enemy after the next. For each beast I killed, two or three replaced it, but we had prepared for this. After all, Sylvie and I weren’t going to win this battle by ourselves. Our job was to do as much damage as possible.
‘Something is coming your way. Be careful,’ Sylvie said, her message of caution somewhat undercut by the jolt of excitement I felt as she faced off against an S-class mana beast somewhere nearby.
A pack of wolves, each the size of Boo and crackling with an aura of blue and white lightning, pushed their way through the ring of enemies, snapping and snarling until the other mana beasts fell back. The thunder-wolves—I counted thirteen in the pack—carefully circled around me, staying just outside of the rotating wall of wind.
These ones seem to have some brains, I thought. It was obvious by their murky black pelts that the wolves had been corrupted, but unlike the other beasts, which had marched mindlessly toward the Wall, these ones remained alert.
The pack leader—a larger wolf with a wild, spiky mane that reminded me of a lion—let out a short, sharp bark, and the others pounced, crackling lightning arcing out from their bodies, jumping from one wolf to the next and forming a snare intended to trap me within their circle.
Stomping my foot, I conjured a ring of stone spikes from the ground, skewering the thunder-wolves mid-leap. Only the leader escaped, dodging around the earthen spears and launching himself at me. I stepped to the side, easily avoiding the alpha’s snapping jaws, and brought Dawn’s Ballad up to lay open its stomach, but a bolt of lightning jumped from its spiky mane and struck me in the shoulder, throwing me off balance and forcing my blow off course.
I lunged after the thunder-wolf, which was turning to circle around me again. Mana flared bright white at the melted tip of my teal blade as I focused it into a sharp point. I stomped down, exaggerating the motion, and conjured another spike of earth, just to the wolf’s left. The alpha took the bait, dodging right and preparing to leap again, but it was too late. Dawn’s Ballad impaled it through the chest, and the lightning coursing through its fur flickered and faded, and the beast slumped to the ground dead.
A piercing screech drew my attention to the sky; a flock of bat-winged birds was swooping down with their sharp metal beaks homed in on me.
I cast a net of lightning directly into the path of the birds. The metal beaks dropped like flies, their wings spasming from the shock. With the thunder-wolves dead, the surrounding horde’s restraint broke, and the monsters flooded back in to attack.
Sylvie’s voice rang in my mind. ‘Arthur, these beasts seem off. Most of them aren’t even retaliating; they just keep marching toward the Wall. Only some of the stronger ones and their packs are actually putting up a fight.’
I feel it too. I’m not sure what the Alacryans did. They must be controlling the beasts, directing them to get to the Wall no matter what, I replied. I think it’s time to turn up the heat, Sylv.
Looking to stem the constant flow of mana beasts, I began to rain down destructive spells on the horde. Spheres of fire, water, and lightning orbited around me, burning, slashing, and electrocuting any beasts that came near me while I focused on casting spell after spell.
The terrain became a strange, otherworldly patchwork of elemental domains; some parts of the ground were scorched and littered with burning corpses, while others transformed into gruesome gardens of stone spikes from which beasts’ corpses dangled like limp flowers. A storm of ice knives raged like a tornado through the battlefield, leaving behind a carpet of shredded flesh.
An odor of burning fur, fresh meat, and metallic blood settled over the battlefield like a fog. Even navigating became a challenge, as I had to maneuver around the lingering effects of my own spells, the corpses of fallen mana beasts, and the endless march of those still living.
‘It’s working, Arthur,’ Sylvie thought to me. ‘Some of the more powerful mana beasts are starting to break away from the horde. Where are the Alacryan mages, though? I haven’t seen one since they conjured those shields earlier.’
Me neither. Let’s see if we can’t thin out a few of these big ones before the horde reaches the wall.
Sylvie was right. Almost immediately after her warning, an S-class mana beast appeared, charging through the lesser creatures with reckless abandon. It was a humanoid feline, twice my height and all muscle, covered in dense crimson fur that acted as armor and wielding deadly claws.
It took me a second to remember its name: a razor grimalkin.
Its speed and agility were on par with Kordri, my martial arts master from Epheotus, and it would have torn most adventurers to shreds. However, it relied entirely on its thick fur for defense and focused on attacking aggressively at breakneck speed.
Its fur, however, wasn’t a problem for me.
“Come on!” I roared, dodging the razor grimalkin’s clawed kick and nicking its neck with the edge of my wind-imbued blade. Blood rushed to my head, drowning out everything other than the opponent in front of me. The beast, which had the ability to kill its victims long before they could even fear it, hissed and dashed toward me, its body blurring into a red streak.
I used Thunderclap Impulse to heighten my senses, and the charging beast came suddenly into focus again.
To the outside world, we must have seemed little more than two intangible blurs flashing around each other on the battlefield. Each swipe of the razor grimalkin’s mana-infused claws extended through the air and left deep gashes in the earth—and oftentimes the nearby mana beasts—while opening it up to another cut from Dawn’s Ballad.
My objective, the reason Sylvie and I threw ourselves into the path of twenty thousand murderous monsters, faded to the back of my mind as I dominated the S-class mana beast. Though my legs ached from old wounds, and the scratches left by those vicious claws stung, I was in much better shape than the panting, oversized cat.
Heaving for breath, its fur matted with blood, the razor grimalkin backed away, suddenly wary. Sensing that the fight had gone out of it, I charged. Just as the creature was about to bolt, I conjured a slab of condensed air behind it and pulled with all my strength. The wall of air struck it mid-stride, knocking it off balance and into the path of my blade.