The next few minutes were a slog. Every single ‘communication disruption’ bullet took a huge amount of effort to make. She was getting faster every time she did it, because she was getting used to the way the different types of mana needed to feed into each other… but it was a very concentration-intensive process that made Alice wonder if this was really the most efficient use of her time. After creating her third, Alice was starting to question if she was having a big impact on the battlefield at all.

The biggest benefit of her ‘disruption bullets,’ as far as she could tell, was that it created infighting in the monstrous horde. The monsters acting as an organized army created a big problem for the humans trying to fend them off. However, this wasn’t the ‘natural’ state of affairs for monsters. In normal cases, monsters just attacked anything with mana – including other monsters. If Alice could create widespread chaos, making all of the monsters attack each other, that probably would have ended the siege of monsters in a single attack.

But she couldn’t do that. Maybe it was possible, but it definitely wasn’t something she could accomplish right now. Right now, it took Alice almost ten seconds to craft a single disruption bullet.

Despite her worries, she kept working at it… and started to worry less as she observed the effects of her actions. She started to realize that she wasn’t just disrupting a monster or two. With the help of Ethan, Allira, and Jonathan, their group was already firmly wedged at the edge of the battlefield, taking pressure off of the defenders. With the help of Alice’s disruption bullets, if she aimed them at the right monsters, she could create small areas of disorder at exactly the right times in the monster horde. Perhaps more importantly… she could also target dangerous monsters. Specifically, those that had assimilated some System mana and had started creating Perks.

Alice had a massive number of advantages when it came to identifying some types of mana. She had a ridiculous number of Perks and Achievements dedicated explicitly to helping her identify magic abnormalities, after all. This made it easier for Alice to identify potential threats. Then, she could turn those problems into wildcards that attacked their allies.

After she started targeting Perk-wielding monsters, she started to really notice how impactful her actions were. The disruption a monster’s Perk could provide was much greater than simply killing a monster. Many monsters had more passive Perks, which meant that they didn’t display an overwhelming difference between them and their monstrous kin. However, there were also a good number of Monsters with active Perks, where they had some sort of major upside in exchange for a long cooldown. If Alice managed to get those monsters to turn on the others, and the monster’s Perk wasn’t on cooldown, the entire battle formation of monsters in the area would get thrown into chaos. It was an easy way to inflict the maximum amount of damage with the minimum amount of mana. She wasn’t eliminating threats anywhere near as quickly as Ethan or Allira, but she was spending far less mana and Perks to do so.

Alice started to lose herself in the flow of the fight, constantly sniping problematic monsters, and the group kept slowly moving forward as they cut down a larger and larger number of monsters.

Until finally, the group arrived at the wall itself.

Alice glanced at the defenders, and saw that most parts of the wall were still struggling to keep things completely under control. However, things hadn’t reached a breaking point. More importantly, it seemed like the monsters were starting to run out of steam.

While it hadn’t originally occurred to her, Alice realized that monsters actually had a major shortcoming in protracted battles. Monsters were utterly reliant on magic to keep functioning as effective combatants… and magic didn’t regenerate very quickly. They were enemies that could do a terrifying amount of damage quickly, but once they ran out of mana, the tables started to turn.

The group’s impact on the battlefield was also noticeable. The defenders on the wall nearest to them were actually having moments where they could take breaks, resupply things, and reinforce other sections of the wall. As Alice observed the rest of the wall, she smiled. The battle was winnable.

“@#*$()#@! @*#$(# @#*$(#@?” Called one of the defenders, from the top of the wall, startling Alice out of her thoughts.

“@#*$#@ @#(*$@#)(!# !@#()%#@$*(!” yelled Allira. “But Illvarian would be better!”

“Illvarian?” asked the defender. “I speak semi-fluently! I don’t know some complicated words though. Thank you for assisting us! Who are you?”

“We are Immortal Ethan, Immortal Allira, and Immortal Jonathan. Allira and I should have been expected to pass by here sometime this month!” yelled Ethan, as he sent another wave of shrapnel into the nearby monsters. “We’re also bringing along my apprentice and one of her friends. We also picked up Immortal Jonathan along the way, as well as his family.”

The man frowned, as if he was trying to scour his memory for any mention of their group, and his eyes settled on Jonathan for a particularly long period of time. It was rather unusual for a group of travelers to ‘pick up’ an Immortal. Finally, his eyes lit up.

“I remember now! A week ago, former [Commander] Hadlock mentioned an Illvarian Immortal might pass through our country, and that we needed to be alert. Sorry, with all of the chaos in the country, it has been hard to keep track of things recently.” The man tried to smile at the group, although he ended up looking more exhausted than happy. “It’s good to see friendly faces here. Especially Immortals! System knows that if there was ever a time we needed Immortals, it’s now.”

“Former [Commander]?” asked Alice.

“He died yesterday fighting on the wall. I got promoted this morning.” The man grimaced. “He was a good man.”

Ethan frowned as he glanced at the monsters again. “Sorry to hear that. Losing good people always feels bad.” He paused for a moment, giving the man a few seconds to school his expression back to normal. Then, Ethan continued. “Any information you can share about the horde of monsters here?”

“Not much beyond what you can see. We first caught sight of them three days ago. They attacked two days ago. Luckily, they get just as tired as we do during a fight, if not more so. They usually break off the attack whenever about half of them are running low on mana. That way they can still retaliate if we try to take advantage of their exhaustion. We still try every night. So during daytime, they attack us, and during night time, we attack them.” The man grimaced. “The last few days have been hell, Honored Immortals.”

“I can imagine,” said Ethan. “The three of us, as well as our travelling companions, will hold down this corner of the battlefield. Is there anything your troops need that we could help with?”

“Well, I don’t suppose you can find the actual alphas and assassinate them?” asked the man.

Allira laughed. “If we could track them down and assassinate them, we would have done so already. They seem to be hidden behind their other monsters, and they’re unlikely to be weak in combat themselves. We’re Immortals, not miracle workers.”

“Right, my apologies Honored Immortals.” The man sighed. “Well, if that’s the case, you’ve already helped out quite a bit by clearing out one corner of the battlefield. Just taking some of the pressure off of the walls is good enough in my books. If you have the spare Perks and mana for it, we wouldn’t mind it if you focus down the fliers. They’re the biggest problem. If we could just attack the stone ants freely, this battle would be a dozen times easier. The Vinebears aren’t much of a threat to the wall itself, and the stone ants don’t actually rip apart the wall very quickly. But the damn ice birds keep ripping apart the archers and Mages.”

“Got it. I’ll focus on the fliers, then,” said Ethan, as he eyed the other sections of the battlefield. “Allira, do you have anything that would work well in the air?” He asked, much more quietly this time.

Allira shook her head.

“It’s too far away from the shadows. I have a few Perks that could cover the distance, but I’d rather not spend them unless I need to. They’re more emergency skills than anything else.”

“Then don’t spend them. Helping out is fine, but don’t risk your life over it.”

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“Of course,” she said.

Before Allira could keep speaking, Ethan glanced at the skies again. “Keep Alice safe. I’m going to head up for a bit.” Then, Alice saw Kinetic mana spread over his body, before he lifted himself into the skies.

Alice watched her mentor start to transition to an aerial combatant, before she relaxed. Ethan was fine.

“Without Ethan, the rest of us will be much weaker,” said Allira, pulling Alice out of her thoughts. “I think that we shouldn’t advance further into the battlefield. We can keep picking off some monsters at this edge of the battlefield, but we should also remember that we’re only interfering so long as we remain largely safe. If Alice doesn’t finish her research, a lot more people than just this city’s civilians are going to die.”

Alice grimaced at that thought, but slowly nodded. Jonathan glanced at the monster horde again, and then grinned.

“That’s fine. I have to admit, I’m not that eager to keep fighting either. Even the Vinebears are a nasty threat for me if I get overwhelmed.” Jonathan grimaced. “Being able to take hits and survive doesn’t make up for my natural lack of actual, reliable Perks and experience. I love farming, but I do sometimes wish I had better combat options.”

Allira nodded sagely. The group started shifting its position around, in order to wipe out a few smaller monster groups here and there, but they mostly sat at the corner of the battlefield and held their ground. As the defenders on the wall got more used to their presence, Alice noticed the defenders transferring more and more people away from their side of the wall and towards areas in more urgent need of help. It seemed that the defenders had decided to leave their corner of the wall to them.

Alice had no problems with that. The group might not be enough to tilt the scales of the battle on their own, but they were still a very powerful group of combatants, even with Ethan focused on the birds. The monsters also didn’t seem that interested in pushing their group. Perhaps they had been intimidated by Allira and Ethan’s show of force? With how much more intelligent monsters seemed these days, it was hard to guess what they were or weren’t capable of.

Alice continued to target Perk-wielding monsters with her portals and her anti-communication mana attacks, as well as the occasional burst of kinetic-magic empowered projectiles. It was harder to keep everything working, since the group was considerably farther away from the monster horde now, which increased the cost of each portal considerably. But even though the costs were higher, Alice was still determined to remove as many Perk-wielding monsters as she could.

It felt like hours passed as the group simply held their position… although in practice, it was probably half an hour or less. Finally, something started to change on the battlefield.

To Alice’s relief, it looked like some parts of the monster horde started to buckle. At first, it was harder to notice, since only a few monsters at the edges of the battlefield were retreating. Then, more and more monsters started to break off from the assault and move towards the woods. The defenders rained missiles on them as the monsters fled, but none of the melee combatants dared to follow the monsters outside of the safety of the walls. It certainly seemed like the monsters weren’t fleeing in total disarray. They had a certain organization they maintained, even as they retreated. Alice was both impressed and horrified by the level of coordination the monsters maintained as they retreated from the battlefield.

Fighting an enemy like this… wouldn’t be easy. The defenders were lucky they had held on for this long. However, that might not remain the case for long. Based on the newly appointed [Commander]’s words, the horde would be back tomorrow.

Ethan drifted down from the sky a few minutes later, while several of the defenders breathed relieved sighs as they saw the group of travelers. Another few minutes passed, as Alice saw [Soldiers] in urgent need of medical care get wheeled around and the defenders on the walls reorganized themselves. Then, the [Commander] reappeared at the top of the walls.

“I’ve passed along word of your arrival! The gate is broken right now, since a few stone ants seem to have ruined the opening mechanism for the gates. If you wait a few minutes, some of our [Masons] are repairing it right now. If you prefer, you can simply fly in instead. Normally we have a no-flying policy, but we’ve waived it for you,” the man yelled.

Ethan thought about it for a moment, before he sighed. “We’ll wait for the gate to open. It would be best to enter the city the normal way, I think.” He turned towards the rest of the group, and then spoke much more quietly. “I’m already below the amount of mana I prefer to keep reserved for emergencies, Let’s conserve mana and Perks as much as possible.” he said.

Alice didn’t have any objections, and neither did the other group members. A few minutes later, the gate was repaired enough to at least open properly, and it swung open with a wrenching sound. The group didn’t hesitate as they made their way inside. While they made their way inside, Alice tried to filter all of the class mana that she had acquired during the battle, before grimacing. She was nearly out of mana, and trying to fix her class mana only gave her a headache. She decided to look at the rewards from the fight later. Instead, she focused on the city as they started walking forward again.

After walking through the gate, Alice was appalled by what she saw.

Much like the capital of Cendaria, there were a few different signs directing people in different directions on they entered the capital. After Allira’s translation, Alice learned that one of them was a directive for those who were suffering from class poisoning. Another one was for reporting monster sightings and problems for nearby villages. A third sign indicated the way for refugees who were in need of immediate housing. The streets were also far more deserted than Cendaria’s capital had been – possibly because a monster horde had been attacking the city mere minutes ago.

As the group stepped into the city, the [Commander] who had been communicating with them from the top of the wall ran over to them. His sides heaved unsteadily as he ran closer, until he arrived in front of them.

“Honored Immortals and their travelling companions. It’s a pleasure to see you in the city, and…” he trailed off, and Alice got the distinct impression he was trying to remember what he was supposed to say. After pausing for an awkward period of silence, the man sighed, and rubbed his forehead. “The [King] would like to see you. If you’re interested in meeting him, he is available now. If you wish to rest for the day, you may instead see him tomorrow after breakfast.”

“Now is fine,” said Ethan.

The group moved towards the palace. The first few times Alice had been inside of a palace, she had been a lot more interested and intimidated, but this time, she found herself feeling oddly tired. There wasn’t much to Fendrallia’s capital that she hadn’t already seen elsewhere. The palace looked like it was styled after Illvaria’s palace, but with a considerably lower budget and less skilled [Enchanters] and [Architects]. The enchantments were weaker and lower in quantity, the building was supported by less System mana, and the decorations were simpler in design.

Alice found herself bemused by the fact that she was now comparing palace architecture between countries. Most people never entered even one palace, but Alice had now seen enough of them to start comparing them to each other.

When the group met the [King], Alice realized that the other party was a balding man who seemed to be in his late forties. He had a somewhat dignified appearance, despite the light reflecting off of his bald head, and he had a firm look in his eyes.

When the group entered, the man gave them a deep bow.

“Thank you for assisting the city during its siege, Immortals of Illvaria. You didn’t have any obligation to help, but you did anyway. I appreciate that.”

“It was no problem. Helping other humans fend off monster swarms is natural during times of crisis,” said Ethan.

The [King] simply sighed. “I wish that I had more information, but… well, things have been complicated recently. May I ask how long you intend to stay?”

Alice frowned. Why was the [King] asking how long the group could stay? That was an odd question. Based on the off-handed remarks Ethan had made while they travelled, the group was expected to stay a few days, at most, in each territory before moving on. Alice had honestly gotten the impression that Ethan intended to move on that night, or perhaps the next morning. The [King] had obviously communicated with them when he gave them permission to move through the country. Why was he…?

He’s hoping we’ll stay longer, so that we’ll work as a deterrent for the monster swarm, Alice realized, with a start. The [King] was hoping that the group would stay inside of his city and help him keep his subjects safe during this chaotic time.

That made Alice think.

The group needed to keep moving. If Alice was ever going to have any hope of defusing this crisis and fixing it at its root, she needed to have access to every scrap of teaching and information she could access. That meant getting to their original destination, so that she could learn how to make artificial magic seeds and thus finally learn how to make Class seeds.

But on the other hand… was it right to tell a [King] no when he was asking them to help preserve the lives of his people? At the very least, it seemed incredibly cold to do so. Sure, Alice’s actions might help save people later, and on a much larger scale – but at the same time, leaving now might doom the current inhabitants of this city. That made the decision far less clear-cut than she would have liked. It wasn’t a case with an obvious ‘no,’ the way it was for human experimentation. It also wasn’t an obvious ‘yes,’ the way healing the village on the way to Fendrallia’s capital had been. That had cost relatively little time, and the group had been preparing to rest for the night anyway.

This was… ambiguous.

Before Alice could continue to ponder the matter, however, Ethan sighed, and shook his head.

“My apologies, but we only intend to stay the night. We eliminated several hundred monsters already, and our mission is of utmost importance. However, we can fight again tomorrow as we’re heading out, and we can carry messages to any other nearby cities. Do you have a message you wish to give?”

The [King] hesitated for a few moments, as he looked at Ethan’s face. It looked as if he was searching for a way to change Ethan’s decision. However, he didn’t seem to find what he was searching for.

Finally, the [King] sighed. He looked disappointed, but he nodded his head.

“Very well. I will have someone deliver a message to you tomorrow morning, which I request you carry to the nearest city with a functioning garrison or military. Would that be possible?”

“Of course. After all, we’re all still humans. While we need to keep going, our group can at least help while we move along.”

Ethan smiled, while the [King]’s forehead creased in worry. Less than a minute later, the group was dismissed from the palace to return to their inn for the night.