B4 Chapter 493: Defending the Wall, pt. 2

It started with a long, drawn out howl. It was a piercing sound, cutting through some of the steel forged by the officers that dotted the walls.

Kaius drew his blade, feeling the roiling charge of his mana locked inside of Drakthar. He would need it soon.

The wolf’s cry stretched long, hammering at the anticipation within him until Kaius could barely stand it for a second longer. A single, final note echoed unnaturally — bolstered by some sort of Skill.

Silence.

Then a wall of noise hit him like a punch to the gut. Thousands of creatures, of every breed and type, screamed out in unthinking savagery. It was unending, so many voices smashed together that it became a sound without timbre — possessing only in fury.

The tide of beasts surged in.

A teeming cloud took flight.

Rieker’s booming voice cut over the screams, steadying the restless defenders. The guildmaster must have been close — Kaius heard others echoing his call further down the walls.

“Archers, ready!”

Arrows were drawn; the beasts drew closer. As fast as the ground forces were, the aerial beasts were faster. A flowing cloud of smoke, they surged across the sky, straight for Deadacre.

Rotten roots, there were so many. The simple scale of it rocked him. Even with all their power, him and his team would never stand a chance. Kaius rolled his shoulders; he would be fine. So what if he couldn’t fight an entire army by himself, he didn’t have to.

In the final approach the black cloud surged up, gaining altitude. Mana roiled within the teeming masses as thousands of skills were prepared at once.

They dived.

Kaius felt his stomach clench. Fuck, he really didn’t want to leave the fliers for the others.

“Archers, loose!”

A sea of projectiles surged into the sky, like an upwards rain. Backed by Skills, they burned — fire, roiling wind, hazy poison, and more. There were so many affinities backing the shots that Kaius could barely distinguish them. Spells were scattered through them — wind, light, earth, and steel. Each was visible only as spots of potency amongst the volley.

Uncaring, the beasts dived into the storm. They were densely packed — too dense for most to properly dodge. Arrows punched through breasts, wings broke; blood and bodies fell in a deluge.

Beasts, some as large as a man, crumpled as they hit the ground. Feathered and carapaced alike fell to the dead lands outside of the city. Dragon’s teeth were stained red with blood as skewered beasts squealed in pain.

Yet not all fell beyond the walls — wounded beasts rained onto the city. Kaius cursed. Even grievously injured, the beasts could heal. He hoped the roving teams of guards and delvers in the city were ready to put them down before they could harass their ranks from within.

The gods were not so gracious as to give him enough time to consider it further. A body slammed into the ground in front of him — a bird nearly as large as he was. Tumbling across the stone, he heard a wet snap as a wing folded the wrong direction. The beast let out a pained squawk, writhing as it tried to right itself.

Kaius refused to give it time.

Lunging forward, he fed stamina into his blade. The runes set within its crystal fuller burned as red light surged across its surface. Hellblade Investiture.

He thrust.

Its skull crunched beneath his sword point, and the beast stiffened.

Cloudracer Swallow – Level 134

Beast, Harrasser

Deactivating his skill, Kaius drew back, snapping his head up and down the wall to see if any of the weaker guards needed assistance.

He saw only men with hungry scowls crowding around fallen beasts, thrusting their spears again and again. With each death, their auras of strength surged.

Simply feeling someone’s strength was an imprecise art. The difference between the first and second tier was easy — even a child who had barely awakened their system could notice that.

Within a single tier, the differences were more subtle. Even for Kaius, with sharp senses and high stats, it was only a vague sense. Yet when dozens of men were leveling up right in front of his nose, it was hard to miss.

Beasts rained from the sky, some crippled, some simply injured from the endless torrent of arrows that punched through breasts and wings.

A squawking thing of black and brown as big as a hound smashed into the midst of a squad just to his left, arrows peppering its wings. It barely had time to thrash, one soldier screaming out as its claws raked his leg.

Spears descended, burning with the light of enhancement Skills; Kaius focused his Truesight on one of the guards.

Human – Level 80

Bruiser

The beast stilled, a pool of red spreading from a dozen piercing wounds to its vitals. Kaius identified the man again.

Human – lvl 81

Bruiser

Kaius grinned at the sight of it — only to swing at a shape that blurred past him, about to clear the wall. A bat, struggling to right itself with holes burnt through its wing. Severing one, he ignored its piercing shriek as it fell into the city below. A clean up team would get it soon.

The growing levels of the defenders were vital. The sole benefit of the invading beasts being so much stronger was that it would grow their own forces commensurately. Even split between many, the experience would be enough.

Far above, the flock of beasts surged. They pulled away from the city, out of range of the archers. Kaius eyed the force with a frown. A brief respite, nothing more.

The men around him looked dazed, eyes wide in shock. They must have just noticed their gains. Such rapid growth would have been totally foreign to them — hells, he doubted many of them were used to unlocking another skill in the middle of battle.

The flock would return in moments; if they got distracted by their status sheets, it could get them killed. It would be the same if they picked a new skill. The unknown limits and low levels of the fresh abilities would be lethal if they tried to test them out on the wallt.

“Focus!” Kaius roared, his voice carrying across the line. “Spend your free points only if you have a set allocation you can follow without thought, and save any skills you might have gained! Save them for when you are rotated off the walls, relying on fresh abilities will only see you gutted!”

At his words, half a dozen of the nearby guards snapped out of it, blinking rapidly as they looked from him to the milling beasts overhead. Including one of the officers. The man gave him a nod, before he set off down the wall at a sprint, relaying his words again and again.

The cloud hanging in the eastern sky heaved and contracted, while below the distant beasts continued their rumbling charge. Kaius could feel it now, the reverberation from their footfalls resonating up through the stone fortifications.

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It wouldn’t be long now.

Deep within the flock, Kaius watched beasts shift position to the forefront as the cloud stretched into a loose approximation of the head of a bodkin arrow. One pointed right at the heart of the city.

They flew as one, an unnatural formation.

“Archers, loose!” Rieker’s enhanced voice carried over the city once more.

A single twang erupted, and beasts fell in waves.

Kaius shifted his grip on his blade, the surging heat of the bloodsong in his veins making him impatient.

Overhead, splinters erupted from the flock as groups of beasts broke ranks and swooped across the lines of the defenders. There were dozens of them — most targeting the siege towers that were peppering them so severely with spells and arrows.

But not all. One swirled overhead, as if searching for a target. Barely a second later, the smaller flock scattered, revealing an owl.

It dived. Straight for him.

Rotten roots, it was huge! Dusty grey and speckled brown, it had to be as large as a horse, with a skill already burning on its outstretched claws. Six feathers rose from the top of its head, curling into a crown.