Chương 55: Chapter 55: The Flying Arrows
As our old home in ruins lay,
The Foe came across the plains.
Force oh so mighty, a tide of beasts,
They came to kill, to make a feast.
Arrows fell like rain their way,
As we fought to live just one more day.
-A tale told by a wandering storyteller, Western Eurah, 47 AA
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Though the sky was dark and clouded, being the earliest hours of the morning, the work that started in the evening of the previous day had not stopped for even a second. Sounds of hammers, saws, and various other tools could be heard throughout the whole encampment.
Motivated by the speeches of their leaders, nearly every resident of the settlement, young or old, as long as they were capable of helping in some way, took up arms. That is not to say that a fear of being devoured was not a good motivator, but thinking otherwise would help one stay optimistic.
"Hey! Where are you bringing that? Come back!"
"Shit! Do you want to kill me with that hammer?"
"Do you fuckers even know what you're doing? I don't have time for this!"
Of course, suddenly trying to make a group of mostly inexperienced strangers together for the purpose of completing a construction project didn't exactly proceed smoothly, but one would have to make do due to the time constraints caused by the obvious threat looming overhead.
Despite the occasional conflicts, the work was progressing. It was especially fast in the areas supervised by the Town's former leaders: Joseph and Matilda. Joseph was in charge of tactics and strategies that may be used during the defense, and having planned things out, he was working with a separate construction team to create various traps and defenses.
One might remember that Matilda was in charge of defense construction, and wonder what she had done. Well, being the researcher that she was, even a task crucial to the survival of many people was yet another place for her to experiment with Mana. Especially so when she came to know how so-called 'Nature Mana' was used to barricade the Tower back in Cypress Town.
As a result, the people who were assigned as a part of her construction team could watch with confusion at the bizarre actions of the Former Tower Master.
"...What exactly is she doing? How is twiddling with sticks supposed to help?"
"...Don't ask me..."
The sight they were commenting on was Matilda putting down various wooden branches in a row not far from the defensive wall. It looked like something that a child would do, but they knew better than to question her.
Seemingly finished after putting down the last stick, Matilda went a couple of steps backward, checked out the 'stick formation', nodded, and then put her hand to the ground.
A green glow surged from her palms, a signature look of Nature Mana usage, before surging through it, not settling. The target of it soon became obvious, the wooden branches. As the stream of Mana came closer to them, it split, being infused into the dozen or so pieces of wood simultaneously.
Soon after, the sticks embedded in the ground began to grow. With cracks and snaps, they grew and elongated, rooting themselves in even further, at the same time becoming a row of sharp wooden spikes.
As gasps of surprise and admiration could be heard Matilda merely nodded as if it was a result within her expectations and continued on with the work. She instructed the few Mages that absorbed Nature Crystals on what they had to do to speed up the process, though their efficiency and the resulting product left much to be desired compared to her.
The sun continued to rise and the work continued. Some workers went to rest, and some replaced them. The outside of the walls looked much more formidable than before. Rows of sharp, wooden spikes lined the plains west of the camp, a small trench being dug before some of them.
Within the camp itself, the various craftsmen worked to the best of their ability. Leatherworkers were making various kinds of armor with the leather they had, Blacksmiths forged arrowheads and fixed weapons, and Fletchers created arrows out of wood, attaching the heads and feathers.
The usually rather joyful and discordant camp now worked together as a grim, determined machine. No one wanted to die, after all.
Lan quietly observed the entire process too. Aside from Matilda's display of magical prowess, there weren't really that many things of interest to look at. Nevertheless, Lan didn't start another research project and go into seclusion once again during this time.
Though he wasn't exactly friendly with the humans, only having a relationship of give-and-take, he didn't want to abandon them to their fate either. From a practical standpoint, if they were gone then he would lose a massive amount of Mental Mana income, slowing down his progress immensely.
But among the humans, there was also Matilda: One who was certainly someone important to him in the past, with quite the high possibility of being his mother.
Because of all that, he silently watched over the camp which was at work.
When the sun had reached its zenith, a shout could be heard from one of the guards on the western watchtowers.
"Beasts on the horizon!"
These four words sent the camp into a frenzy once again, but Matilda, who was near the western walls at the moment, took control of the situation and began giving out orders.
"Don't panic! To your positions, prepare for battle!"
After the scrambling combatants acquired some semblance of order, the woman herself ascended to the top of the four-meter wall that was made out of wood, before staring out to the west, easily finding their foe and the source of this whole ordeal.
What could at first be easily mistaken as a blur of black dots for someone with deteriorated eyesight such as her, soon turned into countless figures. Beasts. Hundreds, maybe even thousands of them.
'It was a wonder that the guard could see them from that far.'
With such thoughts in mind, Matilda sighed. Hearing footsteps near her, she saw Joseph also observing what they would soon battle with. He then asked.
"Do you think we will live to see another day?"
Matilda merely snorted.
"If all of us put in some effort, then maybe some of us will."
"Optimistic as always, you old woman."
"Who are you calling old? Look at yourself. If the Beasts won't get you, your age will."
As the old man grumbled something in response, the walls had gone silent, tension enveloping every person standing on them. Crossbows were readied, and swords were sharpened.
Suddenly Joseph asked.
"Do you think we will need to use that?"
"Well, it looks like it. But only when they come close enough. Wouldn't want to waste it."
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As the humans prepared for battle, a couple of kilometers to the east a horde of various Beasts, mostly carnivorous, advanced towards the east with an unstoppable pace. They didn't rush like mad, preserving their strength and stamina. It looked... Unnatural.
In the center of the entire horde walked the leader of it all, the scarred tiger, Khan. He too saw the settlement in the distance and reacted accordingly.
He let out a resounding roar that caused the ones near him to cower, and within that sound was a command.
'Advance faster!'
Slowly, the Beasts turned their brisk pace into a run, which soon turned into a sprint. As Khan was among them, albeit with no Beast daring to get closer than a certain distance to him, he could also see some of his human servants on top of some Beasts in the back.
Khan knew from experience that the Beasts who advanced first would almost certainly die. So any Beast or servant of importance should at least be placed at the back, to help with the later half of an attack, when the enemy was softened up properly.
As the horde under his command ran, muddy ground somewhat hampered their feet, but they paid it no mind, only having the wooden wall made by humans ever closer in their sight. It was not comparable to the one that was within the Town. This caused Khan to relax his guard a little.
'Do they think these little things will hold me back? I could easily jump over them...'
His thoughts were interrupted by the whistling sound cutting through the air above. Upon raising his gaze to the sky, he noticed dozens, hundreds of objects flying in an arc across it, then falling onto the first rows of Beasts, which were around three hundred meters away from the walls.
'Arrows.' He recognized the object, almost every settlement used such a projectile.
'That's what the disposable Beasts are for.'
The first volley of arrows slammed into the advancing creatures from above. Yelps of pain could be heard, as many a Beast was sent tumbling to the ground, the ones behind them either tripping over them or simply trampling past.
Most of the wounded and not-yet-dead Beasts were killed in the stampede from behind.
By this point Khan had slowed down, retreating from the center and to the rear of the horde. He would observe before landing the devastating blow once the humans ran out of tricks that they liked so much. Just as he always did.
As the horde advanced forward, most among them didn't notice the pits the trenches that were dug out sporadically across the field in front of the walls.
Though a small amount reacted in time, jumping across, most didn't either tumbling over them or falling in. Those who fell in first were as good as dead, as the trenches too, were filled with spikes carved from wood.
And those who jumped over could not be considered lucky either, as not far from the trenches, at the spot where they would land, rows of 'grown' spikes were present. They were camouflaged, and resembled bushes or shrubbery, causing the simple-minded Beasts to disregard them.
But the deadly truth was revealed as soon as they tried to land and break through the seemingly fragile vegetation.
Shrieks of pain once again rang out as Beasts impaled themselves onto the human-grown defenses, sinking further on the spikes under their own weight, creating a gruesome scene.
Khan's expression contorted at such a sight, not expecting such a trap, but he was unable to do anything about it, with the Beasts being too far gone to receive a complex command, with their instincts mostly taking over.
As the smell of blood sent them further into the frenzy, another volley of arrows was launched and descended upon the seemingly unending amount of Beasts. More were hit, and more fell, only for an even greater amount to take their place.
The trenches that were dug were now filled with corpses, making it possible to simply walk over them, posing no threat. Almost every spike after the trenches had a body or two on them, many also breaking under the combined weight, causing one of the Beasts to charge forward with a part of the spike embedded in it.
It didn't take long for the first Beasts to reach the moat that was under the walls of the camp. Despite hundreds having died in the pits and spikes, things were not looking good for humans.
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"Damn it! They got past the traps!"
"Keep calm and keep shooting! It was expected and according to the plan!"
It was frankly terrifying to see a tide of claws and maws advancing towards oneself, and even when you tried to kill it, only more came. Such a thing was quite devastating for the overall morale, with many trembling in their boots.
A shout could then be heard. It was Joseph Larring.
"They're getting into the moat! Aim the crossbows and prepare to light it up!"
The crossbowmen that previously stood without shooting, following the order given, now turned their aim toward the Beasts that got close to the rather deep moat. The sharp bolts cut through the air with deadly accuracy, almost each finding its own target.
Despite the row of Beasts that fell dead to the ground, however, even more, surged past and into the moat, trying to climb up and scratching at the wooden walls.
Volleys of arrows continued to fly overhead, killing dozens each time, but as more Beasts got under the walls, they tried to climb using each other as steps, getting closer to their prey. A shout of Larring could then be heard.
"Light up the fuckers!"
Following his command, a couple of archers on the walls took out arrows that had an end wrapped in cloth instead of an arrowhead, and that cloth was soaking with some kind of substance that caught on fire when it was brought close to a torch near them.
And those flaming arrows flew down, and into the moat where the bodies of Beasts were gradually piling up. When the arrows were still in midair, an explosive reaction occurred.
An explosion of fire appeared out of nowhere, which then spread out in a semicircle around the western wall of the camp. The ground ignited in flames, causing the beasts stuck within the moat to writhe in pain, but not getting out in time.
A smell of charred flesh and hide wafted across the battlefield, some guards with weaker stomachs gagging. Meanwhile, the mastermind behind this, old man Joseph, smiled at the sight.
"What was the saying? 'Nothing like a good smell of napalm in the morning?'"
He looked at the burning corpses and still living Beasts, before turning to many empty canisters not far away from the walls.
"Too bad it's only gasoline though. Such a waste, but it's rather good at doing what it's doing."
Matilda, who was not far away, spoke out in sarcasm.
"You better pray that our walls don't catch on fire."
The old man sighed heavily in response.
"Sometimes I miss your stoic persona. Could you bring it back please?"
"Keep on dreaming."
Thanks to the fire burning up the corpses in the moat, the makeshift ladder of bodies was gone too. The Beasts were also reluctant to jump into the fire however crazy they may be, remaining growling just at the edge of it, or trying to rush into the direction further along the side walls.
The human Rangers prioritized such Beasts, as such intelligence was unwelcome, and the last thing the camp needed was to be surrounded from all sides. They were not a castle, which could withstand siege for months. The walls were not that sturdy, and even one breach would quite probably be the end of them.
Lan observed the battle silently. He contemplated whether he needed to send out his own Beasts or not. The situation was looking up for the camp, with close to half of the Beast tide being wiped out.
'Maybe they will be able to handle it on their own?'
A presence on the very edge of his perception kept worrying him though. The Mental Mana signature surpassed Lorn, and was near that of The Huntress, signifying great intelligence, and even greater threat.
He wondered why the Beast, no, Mana Beast who was quite probably the leader was just quietly waiting while his force was slaughtered.
Just then, a loud roar could be heard across the field of battle, causing everyone to fall silent momentarily. Following the sound, the Beasts who were staying at the back joined the rushing tide, and among them, a giant tiger, covered in scars, came into his field of view.
'Ah, I jinxed it didn't I?'
To add insult to injury so to speak, the fire that was burning brightly in the moat began to fizzle out, the substance fueling it clearly having run out. This caused the humans, whose morale had risen previously, to panic once again.
"How are we supposed to fight against that?!"
"We're doomed!"
A harsh shout brought them back in line though.
"Get the fuck back if you truly want to not doom us all! Keep firing like you were and we will be fine!"
With trembling hands, the Rangers soon got back into the rhythm of shooting arrows and bolts again, thinning out the incoming horde little by little. Joseph, being the one to command, witnessed it too, but he didn't relax. He wanted to join the battle too, knowing that he could kill dozens by himself, but he conserved his mana for the worst-case scenario.
Matilda, who was standing near him suddenly spoke out loudly.
"Be careful! That tiger is preparing something!"
In the distance the big tiger was easily distinguishable from the rest of the Beasts, his very presence standing out. And what alarmed Matilda was the mana gathering towards him.
Those not attuned to mana also witnessed the threat, when within its opened jaws a sphere of fire appeared. Though not very big at first, it grew larger... And larger. By this point, one of the veterans of the Dungeon recognized what it was going to do.
"Shit! It's going to fire at us! Get away-"
He wasn't given a chance to finish, as a sphere of fire left the jaws of the tiger, flying towards the wall far faster than an arrow would. It took mere seconds for it to cross two hundred and fifty meters and slam into the wall where the defenders stood.
Without a moment for the humans to react, an explosion that deafened those who were close happened. Once the defenders got back on their feet, they witnessed a burning breach in the wall that was their greatest hope.
The ones who stood on top of that particular section were not present, though, after a moment of observation, burnt body parts could be seen scattered across the ground. Some of the bodies were still burning.
Matilda was the first to snap out of the stupor that came over the defenders. She spread out her Nature Mana, healing the wood and holding back the growth of fire, before shouting back.
"What the fuck are you waiting for?! Get back to positions and get ready for melee!"
Following her command, swords and other weapons were unsheathed, and Rangers continued to shoot into the horde.
It didn't take long for the first Beast to arrive through the gap, only to be crushed by a mace wielded by Johann, who was present along with his party. He grumbled quietly.
"This day can't get any worse."
As if to answer him, a shout was heard from the top of the walls to his sides.
"We're running out of arrows!"
"Ah fuck."
Johann, who didn't like to curse, couldn't help but do so.
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