VOLUME 7: CHAPTER 2

VOLUME 7: CHAPTER 2

“Commander, we’ve opened the southern gates as you’ve ordered.”

Commander Daltos, the so-called protector of Lion City, nodded his head upon hearing the report of his men. He’s currently on the battlements, his eyes gazing at the approaching monster horde.

“Good work. You may go back to your post,” said the commander.

The soldier hesitated for a moment then said, “Sir, is this… alright? We’re going against the Lord’s command.”

Without turning around to face the soldier, Commander Daltos, his face grim, uttered, “I will take full responsibility. Let those who wish to leave the city flee through the southern gate. I’m uncertain if we’ll be able to protect everyone this time. This is the right choice to make, even if we have to go against the orders of Lord Valcres. Do you understand?”

The soldier clenched his fists upon hearing this. He saluted, “As you command!”

Commander Daltos couldn’t shake off ominous feeling in his chest. Although they were protected by the towers created by the Lord of Blackstone Town, for some reason, he felt that they wouldn’t be enough to defend against the monsters this time.

That creature at the back…

Commander Daltos felt uneasy whenever he looked at the creature at the rear of the approaching horde. It looked like a giant wasp with a disproportionately large belly occupying almost its entire body.

“Commander, that monster at the rear of the horde…” said one of the soldiers next to Daltos.

“We’ll need to kill that one at all costs,” said the commander.

The soldiers around him all agreed. They also felt uneasy whenever they looked at that creature. Their instincts were telling them that that one was extremely dangerous.

“They’re almost within range,” said the commander. “Sound the horn.”

One of the soldiers blew the horn. Upon hearing this, those assigned to operate the towers scattered all throughout the city started moving the blocks located at their base, and placed the kalrane stones inside. The towers sucked in the energy from the kalrane stones, activating the sigils, and gathering the energy into their tips.

“Ready.” Commander Daltos raised his hand into the air and abruptly pulled it down. He roared, “Fire!”

The gong was struck, and the towers started firing bolts of lightning at the monster horde, one after another. Although the number of bolts was few, each of them was powerful enough to kill a monster with a single attack.

But it wasn’t enough to deter the horde from advancing toward the city. The gorilla-frog monsters in particular started running toward the walls upon seeing the humans on top of the battlement. The archers started shooting them the moment they were in range, but their muscular bodies proved to be strong enough to repel the arrows. Using their webbed hands, and sharp claws, the gorilla-frog monsters started climbing the walls.

Commander Daltos pulled out his sword and ordered his men to activate the simple devices they’d invested just for these monsters. The large logs sitting on top of the merlons were pushed out of the walls, their ends tied to a previously erected pole. The logs struck the monsters climbing the walls, crushing their bodies in an instant.

“Pull out the logs!” shouted the commander. “Crush their skulls! Beat them into a pulp! Keep hitting these disgusting bastards!”

The soldiers immediately pulled the thick ropes tied to the logs, lifting it back to the place it was before, then pushed it off the walls again, crushing the next wave of monsters.

The soldiers’ morale rose upon seeing that their simple device was this effective. Maybe, they would be able to survive this monster horde without suffering a single casualty? Such thoughts went through their minds as they repeatedly crush the climbing monsters using the logs.

But they soon realized that they were too naïve.

After repeating the same tactic over and over again, the ropes tied to the logs started to break. Soon, the gorilla-frog monsters managed to reach the battlements.

“Archers, fire! Spearmen, protect the archers! Use your spears to push these monsters off the walls!” said commander Daltos.

The commander swung his blade and beheaded the monster to his right, before immediately leaping back to evade the claws of the monster to his left. In a mere second, he retaliated and stabbed the monster right in the eyes. Commander Daltos twisted his blade, pulled it out, and kicked the monster off the wall. But before the commander could even catch his breath, several more monsters jumped right at him, their maws opened wide.

Knowing that it was impossible to dodge this, Daltos immediately activated his magic – his trump card. Flames quickly covered his body, forming a shield that rendered him impervious to swords and arrows. The monsters that tried to bite his arms off were engulfed by the flames, took several steps back in panic, and fell down the walls.

Commander Daltos quickly looked around him. Unlike him, the other soldiers weren’t capable of holding their ground against these monsters. The archers were immediately ripped into shreds by their claws, and the other soldiers could hardly penetrate the monster’s hide with their spears.

Even the towers, that were now firing short-range, wide-area spells, couldn’t suppress the monster horde. The number of monsters that had managed to climb the walls had already surpassed a hundred.

Commander Daltos knew that at this rate, the soldiers stationed at the battlements would all be dead before the day even ended.

The commander channeled more mana into his spells. He roared, attracting the attention of most of the monsters. “Over here, damn monkeys! Come at me! I’ll take on all of you!”

The taunt was surprisingly effective. The gorilla-frog monsters roared, started ignoring the other soldiers, and went straight at him. Commander Daltos soon found himself surrounded by enemies at all sides.

“That’s it! Come at me, hairy bastards!”

Although the monsters held enough strength to tear the limbs off of the body of an ordinary soldier, they still weren’t powerful enough to penetrate the flames protecting the body of the so-called Fire Golem.

Like a cornered rabid beast, the commander fought his way through the encirclement. When his sword broke, he punched and kicked at the monsters, throwing them off the walls whenever the opportunity arose.

After the commander successfully taunted most of the monsters, the burden was lifted off the soldiers’ soldiers. With the help of the towers, they eventually managed to cut down the enemies’ numbers.

As for the monsters that managed to climb down the walls and enter the city, they were taken care of by soldiers stationed below. Moreover, the mercenaries and the magicians from the tower of pollux actively took part in the defense of the city. With their help, no monster was able to break past the soldiers’ defenses. At the same time, those assigned to operate the towers relentlessly recharged it with new kalrane stones. The towers scattered throughout the city didn’t stop firing their spells at the monster horde.

“Just a little bit more,” huffed the commander as he continued to mow down the monsters using his bare fists. Although the flames protecting his body were strong enough to block arrows and swords, it consumed large amounts of mana upon activation.

Time ticked by.

They’d lost track of how much time had passed by now.

Commander Daltos looked around him. At the soldiers lying dead on the battlements, at the monster horde, and at the soldiers, magicians, and mercenaries below.

It felt like the number of monsters wasn’t decreasing at all.

No matter how many monsters they’d killed, several more would come out to replace them. They should have killed thousands of these monsters by now, but for some strange reason, the horde looked untouched.

And the commander realized the reason why.

He looked at the wasp-like creature at the rear of the army and was stunned upon seeing eggs coming out of its disproportionately large belly. The eggs immediately formed cracks, and from it, the same monsters they’d been fighting came out.

So, this was the reason for the uneasiness he’d felt back then.

That creature at the rear of the monster horde was capable of mass-producing these monsters!

“It’s eating the dead monsters?”

From the monster’s overly bloated belly, tentacles would shoot every now and then and grab the corpses of the nearby monsters. It would then throw it inside the large opening underneath its abdomen, before churning out several monster eggs.

“N-No way…”

Despair slowly loomed in on the commander. If that monster was capable of reabsorbing the monster corpses around it, then it could probably produce those eggs indefinitely.

Commander Daltos looked around him. The two hundred soldiers stationed on the battlements had been reduced to a few dozens. Even now, his men were dying pointless deaths. As long as that monster was alive, all of their efforts would be fruitless.

Sharp pain shot through the commander’s body. He looked at his shoulder and realized that a chunk of its had been bitten off by one of the monsters. Blood profusely gushed out of the wound. He was feeling even more lightheaded as time went by.

He was almost out of mana. The fire protecting his body had greatly weakened by now.

Unable to hold the monsters back, hundreds of them started descending the walls and entered the city. The soldiers, mercenaries, and magicians’ desperate attempt to stop them prove futile due to the monster’s sheer number.

Over a hundred of those monsters went deeper into the city and started attacking barricaded homes, massacring those who didn’t flee through the southern gates.

***

Lark whizzed through the sky as he flew toward the direction where he saw the portal. Now that he’d recovered almost a third of his previous life’s mana pool and obtained the sword of morpheus, using flight magic for several hours was no longer a problem.

Lark’s mind was filled with various thoughts as he flew toward the direction where he saw the portal. He wondered why a portal as gargantuan as that one suddenly appeared above the Kingdom of Lukas. Furthermore, there was also the question of how and why the portal suddenly closed and disappeared immediately afterward.

Closing a portal was no easy feat. Even a portal half the size of that one would require an astronomical amount of mana – enough to cast pinnacle-grade spells – just to suppress, moreover close.

For several hours, Lark continued flying northwest. Eventually, he arrived at Lion City. When he saw the people fleeing through the southern gate, Lark immediately realized the tragedy that befell the city.

Lark sped up and entered the city. He hovered in the sky as he looked at the battlefield below. He could see hundreds of monsters starting to spread out in all directions, scattering throughout the entire city, massacring everyone it saw.

Although the soldiers were desperately defending the western gate, it seemed that they’d been overwhelmed by the number of invading monsters. Even the towers proved useless this time, now that the monsters had managed to enter the city itself.

Lark looked up and furrowed his brows. It wasn’t a full moon tonight. The next one should be at least half a month from now.

“A low-ranking nest.”

Lark saw the wasp-like creature standing outside the city. Monster eggs were continuously churned out of its overly bloated belly. It was probably the reason why the soldiers failed to defend the city against the monsters this time.

Screams of terror and anguish reverberated throughout the entire city. The monsters didn’t discriminate against anyone. Young and old, male and female, were massacred on sight. The stench of blood filled the air as the monsters continued killing the citizens one after another.

Lark gnashed his teeth in anger. This city was like his second home. The city that helped Blackstone Town prosper the most.

“These monsters!” snarled Lark.

He channeled tremendous amounts of mana into the sky, forming overlapping runes, creating two fifty-meter large magic formations. Now that he had the sword of morpheus to act as a medium, Lark no longer feared for a backlash, no matter how many spells he’d concurrently cast.

In mere seconds, the magic formations were created and activated. They glowed brightly for a moment, before shattering into particles of light.

Grand Scale Magic. Wrath of the Sun God.

Grand Scale Magic. Pixies Dust.

As though they had lives of their own, thousands of fist-sized orbs of light shot toward the monsters in the city, piercing their heads and bodies, killing them in an instant. At the same time, particles of golden light fell down the heavens and healed the injuries of everyone it touched. Although it didn’t regrow lost limbs, even those on the verge of death were healed by the spell.

Everyone couldn’t believe what was happening.

The cries of anguish that filled the city disappeared in an instant.

The citizens of Lion City looked up in the sky.

The particles of golden light continuously falling down from the heavens was a breathtaking sight. It was as though the Sun God had descended to this realm and reached his hands out to the mortals.