The third wave had concluded. Puffles stayed on the field and kept gorging on the corpses of the abominations, while a team of magicians and soldiers ran out to reset the outer barrier.
Seth's bad feeling had not gone away, so it was not about the third wave. At least the power some the team members had revealed reassured him. There were great abilities during the last battle.
Still, he couldn't help but give the Merchant another visit.
"It's done." Hubert greeted him, by immediately telling him the answer to his question. Seth halted for a moment, but nodded seriously, before leaving again. If he approached the merchant too often, it might seem like they were scheming something.
Next, Seth wanted to convene with the saintess and Cade again, however, the alarm sounded before he could find them. The fourth wave was already at the horizon!
"Tsk."
He hurried back to the wall, where he met up with Ellie, Elza, Marcel, and Brock. The rumble of the stampede even shook the wall. In a reflex, he used the power of his amulet to get a glimpse at the enemy. The blacksmith instantly regretted his action.
When the first one was a wave, then this was a tsunami of yuckiness. On the tower above the old and young demon started their dance once again, to greet the mass of horror with lightning.
Puffles, who had satiated his hunger was sprawled out like a lazy dragon behind the reinstated outer barrier. The Ivicer was waiting for his victims. He wanted to get a good stockpile for the journey from here on.
For Puffles, this was just a food gathering quest.
...
Culus stared at the horizon grimly. This was worse than he expected, but not hopeless! If the foreigner put as much effort into it as they did on the last wave, they might be able to get through this one.
After three waves, his coordination with the young demon, Misto, had gotten a lot better. They directed the power of nature and blasted away many of the great amalgamations at ease. The wave had looked terrifying from afar. Upon entering the cloud cover, they turned out to be just looks and no essence.
They looked mighty but were far weaker than those of the third wave. Culus got his hopes up only for them to be crushed and the demon falling to the depths of despair but a moment later.
All big amalgamations had fallen, but the outer barrier popped like a bubble anyway! The moment the bard's giant monster met the charging enemy, it suddenly vaporized a fan-shaped porting in front of it, before taking off and seeking shelter in the sky.
What was happening? The demon only saw his worst nightmare, after the small fries were burned away from the centipede's beam attack. The freed field was dotted with small, black humanoids. From this distance, they were strikingly similar to the carbonized amalgamation. But they were smaller and more numerous!
They had hidden among the big hunks. Since when did the wave involve such a strategy? Where did all those enemies even come from? His mind fell in disarray, as he faced this unreasonable turn of events.
The current energy was not enough for the cloud furnace to burn all of those away. As for the foreigners? Culus looked down at the battlefield.
The man called Ben Harker had already descended from the wall and attacked the creatures that were currently banging at the centipede's golden barrier. However, it was obvious that the barrier would not hold long.
As they wiped away the amalgamations, only more carbonized humanoids were revealed between them. The other foreigners joined it, one by one revealing their hidden cards. The bard, the priestess, the slavemancer were showing their power in buffing the army to unknown heights.
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And just like this, they kept fighting. One hour, two hours...
Barriers would break, debuffs would be cast, barriers would be recast. Culus began to have hope again. Maybe! If they held up then-!
Three hours, four hours... the beasts finally stood at the secondary barrier and broke through. No matter how strong someone was, at some point, they would grow tired. Dismayed Culus found the frequency of the buffs lowering, their effects weakening.
The power stored within the cloud furnace was almost depleted. They could have done it if the wave had just ended! Why wouldn't it end? Was this the sun god's answer to their resistance? Had he assembled all his lowly forces to squash them once and for all?
No, he could accept it! They still had a chance. His gaze turned ruthless. Yes, there is still one last trump card. The old demon looked at the youngling at his side. He had to harden his heart, there was no other way from here on.
...
Suddenly, a bolt of lightning almost struck Puffles in the sky. The hero too only barely managed to dodge a lightning strike.
Seth looked up to the tower, only to see Culus stab Misto Pheles in the back. The mist demon was unable to scream, or even made a move as his body turned to particles and was sucked into the clouds above.
"Dodge!" Seth suddenly screamed. He immediately let go of the lyre and jumped aside himself. The lyre started floating beside him and changed its tune.
Having cautioned time and time again, the people in his immediate vicinity reacted by randomly charging away from the place they had just been standing at.
When he looked behind him, he saw at least three soldiers with a dagger in their hands and a driven look on their faces. Before he could do anything himself, someone else took action.
~Don't touch Mom! ~
The imugi jumped out from the pet space and hit the surrounding soldiers with a freezing wave The powerful ice magic he copied from Elza, froze everyone in place.
"Everyone, get over here!" Seth shouted with the
Ellie who was close by had also dodged the sneak attack. Before joining Seth she quickly commanded all her slimes to retreat, leaving the moat empty.
When the three stooges joined them, Seth brought out his Giant's Rod and cast the Desert Storm. A terrifying wall of sand and wind surrounded the group, blocking all views.
"What are we going to do now?" Brock asked disturbed. Seeing the people of Akhaz suddenly betray them had rattled him quite a bit.
"Don't worry, I was not the only one with a bad premonition. Hubert already prepared an escape route." Seth explained over hurriedly drawing a magic circle on the wall.
"What are you doing? Won't they get through this storm at some point?" Ellie asked also slightly panicked.
~ I will blast them if they do! ~ Tatzel proclaimed bravely.
"No worries, I have a plan," he said.
In the next moment, everyone saw him drop a ball of glinting lights on the wall, in the middle of the formation.
Seth also knew how to be ruthless.
...
The crazed Culus saw his plan fail in a fit of rage. How were they supposed to get enough energy for the cloud furnace now?! The young demon was far from enough. But as expected he was much better than the ordinary citizens.
If only they could have gotten the other in one shot, the cloud furnace might have completely filled! With a full cloud furnace, he could have-
Shit! Even that useless slavemancer managed to barely dodge the strike! No! Things were not over yet. They could still catch them. Right, right, even if some escaped, they could fill the rest with the commoners.
Just three or four more could fill the cloud furnace by half. They could make up the rest with the people. Just a third of the populace and- The lord wouldn't agree to sacrifice more of the populace. Would he? Faced with death, he would agree.
Why would he even ask for permission? This was also about his life. Yes, he would-
Culus was caught up in his spiral of thoughts as and about to do some horrible irreparable things when he was interrupted by someone else doing horrible irreparable things.
The rumble of thunder and the roaring of beasts joined a third sound. The breaking of stones and grinding of sand. Huge cracks ran all across the city wall, as a part of it, enveloped in a storm of sand, stood up.
A giant of stone, mortar, and sand rose from the rubble of the city wall. Incredulous the demon watched the being enveloped in a mantle of sand jump off into the city, leaving a great hole in the upper half of the city wall.
Culus could only watch until his attention was caught by a terrifying screech. Looking to the sky, he saw in horror, that the giant nightmare centipede was charging at him. Was it coming for revenge?
However, as he was still staring at the beast, he felt a stabbing pain in his chest. Looking down, he was a bloody claw emerging from his chest.
"I never had a demon." was the last thing he heard.
The old demon felt a pain in his neck for just a moment before the world went dark.