"Activate the defenses!" Isa shouted as the archers let their arrows fly. Fire twirled in the air as great gusts of wind had propelled it. The monsters died by the hundreds, but the tide simply walked over them. The ground gave way and water flooded the tide, killing even more. The path to the city transformed into a kill zone, mana flying in excess as the non-combatants worked their spells.

Nathan conjured his magic, trickling poison into the water. Isa did not know how effective his poisons were, but she did know they were not immediate.

System give a death tally please

There have been 373 casualties during this battle till moment

Isa doubted she would ever figure out what the System could and couldn't do. There was just so much randomness to it. As if it was supposed to do more, but for some reason most of its functions were lost.

But this was not the time to think about the mysteries of the System. There was a defense plan, and it needed to be executed.

"Commander!" she yelled, having forgotten his name.

"The catapults are ready!" he yelled back as the first catapult shot a burning wooden ball into the beast tide. The ball multiplied as more catapults shot, using the city's one high-level defense. Marile had walls, and those walls had arrow holes, but the city was still new.

Deadre had a huge protection formation centered around the palace that required a Grandmaster to fully power. But an Adept could activate a part of it, enough to defend against most enemies. Sentinal had the Fortress, and its own magical defenses.

Marile didn't have magical defenses at all. The city was supposed to be a trade city that would not come under severe threat. An army presence and mundane walls had been deemed enough to protect against beasts.

Looking at the tide, she questioned the wisdom of it.

System, kill count.

1569 beasts

Ok, that was good, more than she had expected. And certainly more than the plan had indicated. The monsters finally reached the wall, having passed the poisonous moat, the wall of fire and the falling fireballs. Now it was her turn.

The archers shot at the beasts, and Apprentice stage mages hurled stones at them as the beasts attempted to scale the walls. The poison was at least a little effective, a lot of beasts fell down without even prompting, dying to the stones.

A wall had been crafted from the dirt that had been removed to form the moat, an extra defense barrier that the beasts would think was the city wall, but actually only came u to half it's height. And at its peak, monsters were fresh for killing.

Isa conserved her mana, not using mana from her core, but instead calling on the mana in the air. The elemental mana ignored her, but the sword was very eager. Sword mana was rare, but there was a lot of it right now. Perhaps the abundance of swords on the battlefield had brought it here. The mana cut into the beasts, pushing the back down the walls.

System, kill count

2387 causalties

That was already more than they had, more than they had planned to face. The archers would run out of arrows in half an hour. That was alright, the arrows were barely making a contribution.

The problem would begin when people started running out of mana. Isa already saw people withdrawing, retreating to predetermined houses to recuperate. The average Apprentice took three hours to get their mana back.

Isa increased her push, cutting more and more of the beasts, as there was a sudden lack of people attacking using stones. The stone attackers had probably spent too much mana already.

The beasts let out screeches, hurtling towards the city wall as more of their brethren managed to climb to the top. The next beast, more powerful than the one before as the city ran out of people to defend it with.

The age-old cannon fodder tactic. Thankfully, most of the important defenses were meant to be permanent, at least for the duration of this battle, and only reinforced from time to time. Isa drew her sword, the normal one, and cut into a beast's flesh.

Now it was just a matter of holding on until the beast tide ran out of beasts.

sc

Althea walked through mud, trying not to cringe as a wet feeling sunk into her shoes. Magic was good for evaporating the water and extracting the mud, but she was trying to be conservative with its use. And that meant going slow enough with the drying that just the mana she could call on could do it.

There was a lot to say about the forest. The leaves were brownish-red, giving a certain air to it that she hadn't seen before. The US had forests like this, right? But there was also an eerie quiet to the place.

Not a single animal made sounds here, there was quiet in the forest. Not what one would expect of a place supposedly full of beast tides. Where had the beasts gone?

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

The Steward and Emperor's guards continued on as if it did not bother them, but Althea sensed how tightly mana stuck to each of them, ready to attack at any moment. An owl hooted, making her startle and look around, but by the time she had looked, the owl was dead.

Anthony's finger pointed to where the owl had probably been before, leaving a smoldering branch.

The group continued on without a word, not addressing the event. Althea kept mum too, keeping mana close to her, ready to attack just as her guards were. The trees grew wider as they walked, older and taller, too. The depths of the forest appeared increasingly mysterious.

The tall, and large canopy allowed barely a ray of sun inside, and she could already see the problem before it came. There would be difficulties seeing if the trees began having bigger canopies. But that did not happen.

The group must have walked at least ten kilometers by now, having spent who knows how much time in the forest. The canopy had remained nearly the same throughout. A little light came through, enough to form scary shadows and allow them to see, but not enough that they could put down their guard. Althea was feeling a little exhausted, walking at such a brisk pace for such a time. The Steward had noticed that.

“At the next water source, we will stop and reassess.” he said, not stopping. Althea followed, suppressing the growing pain in her leg. The guards had protected her for a while now, but she wasn't very familiar with them. Anthony was the only one whose name she knew. That was an error on her part, knowing their names was the least they could do.

A water source came soon enough, a tiny stream that ran parallel to the ground. ALthea frowned, she did not remember seeing streams running like that, they were usually on mountains. But she wasn't a stream scientist either. In fact, she had only ever seen streams through the bus when she was taken from one city to another.

The Emperor guards took on position as Althea relaxed against a tree, letting her weight rest on the large…oak? No? What the heck did she know? The tree had a brown trunk, reddish-brown leaves that looked circular, with branches like most trees and did not seem to have a single bird on it.

“The beasts went somewhere.” the Steward began.

“Could the beast tide have struck?” she asked, worried.

“There would have been signs if it had struck Deadre.” Anthony said.

“The ground is trampled.” another guard added.

"But not in the direction of Deadre or Sentinal." Anthony added. Althea just looked at the ground, seeing some faint marks that could be a bunch of paw prints merged on top of each other. If she let her imagination run wild a bit.

"The beasts went east." Anthony said, smelling the air.

"Marile." Althea added, frowning. "The beast tide must have gone to Marile."

"Not all of it." the Steward said. "I do not think this forest is abandoned. There is too much control here for it to be. The thing behind the tide is still here, it is the only reason I can think of for the forest to be abandoned like this.

"A trap, then." another guard chimed in.

"The question is, do we walk into it." The Steward said, looking towards her. ALthea frowned.

"Reinforcing Marile would probably help." Althea replied.

"But is it needed?" The Steward was back to his educational questionnaires.

"Perhaps not. Verest is an Adept, and has promised to protect the city." she said. "And if the beast tide has moved out, then whatever is behind it may be at its weakest."

The Steward nodded. "That is true. I would not trust that half-Elf too much, but I doubt he will go back on his words. Marile will likely be safe under his protection. I would recommend that you turn back, Countess, but that would leave you vulnerable to whatever is waiting for us here. And I still doubt it is something I can’t deal with."

"Then we move forward." Althea said. "Dealing with this beast means that we do not have to deal with the tide again."

The group was silent, a certain awkwardness spreading among their number.

"I don't know most of your names yet." Althea said, trying to make conversation.

"That is not needed for us to do our job." The only women on the squad said. The squad had ten people in total, and only one woman.

"I would still like to know." she asked, giving a hesitant smile.

"Ven Solerian, Steward of the Empire, orphan. Wind element." the Steward introduced himself.

"Anthony Leria, Viscount of Garnes, bastard son of Duke Leria. Scent and Fire" Anthony said. Althea tried to hide her surprise. Anthony was the Duchess' brother?

"Jeriss Merna, bastard daughter of Baron Hist. Poison" the woman introduced reluctantly. The lack of noble titles made it clear that she wasn't acknowledged.

"Merris Melustra, Baronet of Girriford. Ice."

"Jer, son of Kera and Furish. Lightning."

The introductions went quickly. The guards were either of noble descent, or had a rare element. The Empire's recruiting strategy was not hard to guess.

But this was bound to be a prelude. The Steward had them return to their journey once the introductions were done. Althea didn't even get to introduce herself.

The atmosphere was a bit more comfortable than before, but the guards still did not speak much.

"The trees are nearly five hundred years old."

"The tracks have grown rare, but have larger beasts."

"The impressions are deeper and clearer here."

There were just comments on things that they noticed. The picture they painted was clear. The trees were older, the beast more powerful, the tracks newer and clearer, they were getting close.

As if to make her point, the trees grew even larger around her, and she came across her first large footprint. A huge thing that seemed to have been made by a mammoth. Althea could not think of any other beast that could make impressions like this. An evolved version of an elephant, perhaps? The beast had gone towards the east too.

The Emperor's guards circled the print. Anthony sniffed it.

"At least Master stage. An elephant variation." he stated. The Steward frowned. That was unexpectedly powerful, more than they thought this tide had. But it was still something Verest could deal with.

The Steward looked at her, and then nodded. "I think we should continue."

Althea nodded, looking back at the print as they continued on, but one thing lay heavy on her mind. Was this really the peak of the tide's strength? Could the walls of Marile really handle the elephant?

The journey continued as before, and the trees grew increasingly farther away. And then they stopped. As if it were some kind of boundary, the trees simply stopped, and they emerged into a clearing. A clearing that had a huge hole in the middle of it, like someone had blasted its center. Or a meteorite had fallen there.

Althea called on her mana, as the entire group did the same. And then they walked, one step at a time, towards the crater, ready to deal with whatever awaited them inside.