“I do not know. He has… a weapon, no… maybe an artifact of great power enchanted to have no presence at all. The weapon attacks at great distance without any presence, intent, or mana. There is nothing to sense! It kills in a single strike.”
There was no reply after that. There was no need for a reply. Even as Toular prepared to add another reply, the eccentric tsked in annoyance as he stepped back, his presence began to fade in once again, but then disappeared just as rapidly as he picked up another miniature wooden spear and returned to the edge of the battle wall, raising his curved metal spear and wooden throwing spear.
Toular looked towards the monster tide, curious how the Eccentric would attack as he was obviously unhappy with killing a single monster each time. He kept his gaze at the middle distance, hoping to catch sight of the wooden spear. It streaked past his eyes all the same, but he was able to quickly follow its path. This time, the wooden spear struck the front leg of one of the larger monsters at the forefront, and Toular hid his frown. The eccentric is not perfect with his weapon then. He can still miss! His relief was palatable, but when he looked back at the eccentric, the eccentric was grinning in satisfaction.
Toular quickly returned his gaze to the line of monsters approaching, seeking out the monster struck in the leg. The monster had reacted to the wound, jerking within the line of monsters and holding its paw off the ground. As it jerked away from its wound, it had hit the monster on the opposite side from the wound and rebounded back in place. The monster it had hit did not respond at all, but the wounded monster limped along and was pressed from behind to keep walking. Most often, the monster attempted to hobble on three legs, but a few times it had to put its wounded leg down to catch itself before falling. It was during one of these moments that the monster had splayed its leg a bit too wide, and the monster next to it brushed against the miniature wooden spear. In so doing the wounded monster howled in rage and snapped at the monster that had brushed against the miniature wooden spear. Its teeth sank into the side of the monster, drawing blood.
This action immediately turned the monster on its wounded brethren in an unbridled display of savagery that had the monsters clawing at each other wildly. As they did so, their claws and strikes began to strike other monsters around them as more monsters joined the pile of ravaging monsters and were pushed into the fight by the rows behind. The monsters soon began ravaging each other, the wild destruction spreading amongst the ranks.
Toular breathed, a gasp that came ragged as he’d frozen, not breathing as he gaped at the monsters destroying each other. He looked at the eccentric and saw the satisfied smile turn vindictive. Soon, arrow after arrow struck paws, feet, and sensitive regions of many monsters, and his entire wall watched as the monsters across the length of this wall were now utterly destroying each other. The eccentric dropped his weapon and smiled, then walked back and retrieved his second stool to sit upon. His shock now almost normal, he knew his superior would be calling soon but did not wait.
Toular breathed. He breathed again. Then initiated Whisper of the Wind.
“The defense holds. The eccentric has stopped the tide on this wall. He has instigated the monsters to fight amongst themselves.”
There were no more replies from his superior and his ear remained blessedly silent and no longer blasted by bursts from the wind sylphs. He kept himself at attention, even though he had nothing to do, nothing to attack despite the fear and feeling of incredible danger. The danger of catching the attention of an eccentric. He should have known this. He should have always known this! Toular held his post at rigid discipline, even as he watched the eccentric sit silently appearing to do nothing but somehow bringing invisible death upon the enemies from across fields.
* * *
When Toular had called out the arrival of the monster tide, it had been a bit shocking and his worry spiked a bit. He’d stared out at the field of oncoming monsters with some trepidation, uncertainty of what to do radiating through his mind as he stared at the overwhelming amount of beasts coming towards them. Wait… monsters, not beasts, right? But… not acting like animals at all… He couldn’t understand it, as row after row appeared to march in military precision towards the city, predators marching beside prey, both assaulting the city. They look like predator and prey anyway. Why would rabbits march side by side with foxes… or … fox like things… wait… no, there’s a fox. That’s definitely a fox. That literally is a fox… how… on another freakin’ planet… like… evolutionary cousins… Joe shook off his distraction, shoving his curiosity away just as he stifled his worry. Right. It’s… just a hunt. A normal hunt… except with a very diverse target rich environment. I can do this.
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Joe calmed his heart, and settled himself, stilling to prepare for the hunt as he and his dad had always done. The key to any hunt was always stillness, to fade into the surroundings so as to not spook the animals, although Joe didn’t think that would be important at all for today as the monsters seemed to be quite willing to march upon the city. He’d long trained himself to do so and it was habit so simply fell into it, ready for the hunt. It harmed nothing, and Joe simply returned to his preparation. Right. A target rich environment for hunting. That’s all it is… and I got lots of backup!
Joe glanced around and noticed the Matriarch preparing herself for the fight, and Joe found his curiosity piqued at what she would do. But all she did was seem to stand there. Then suddenly, Joe noticed the mana being disturbed around her. Joe frowned and found his focus growing. The mana points remained chaotic, and mostly unaffected, but the mana itself seemed to flow erratically around her and he found himself curious, turning more of his attention towards her. Suddenly, something clicked, and Joe noticed a web, or framework of mana coruscating out from the center of her chest, most of it seeming to follow what Joe would assume was the skeletal structure. For a perfect, clear moment, Joe saw mana flowing outward from the heart area and into the bones. That faded and was immediately replaced by a web erupting outward following something like the arteries, although none looped back to the heart but instead all ended in a spread of dendrites mostly seeming to target musculature. Finally, a flash of mana erupted outward and spread more like a sphere this time, ending at her skin in a coruscation of mana lights, slamming against all the skin of her body. Then nothing, she simply stood at the edge of the wall, prepared and ready. Joe frowned, and focused a bit more, thoughtful, and for a bare moment, he saw the mana structures returned, three distinct but also somehow intertwined systems. He flinched when the imagery shattered like glass and a shot of pain slammed him between his brows and he took a deep breath, trying to deal with the pain. Right… ouch… So… painful.
He took another deep breath and then opened his eyes, a slight twinge of a headache still fading at the back of his skull. He almost tried again, but a roar drew his attention back to the monsters out in the field and he reconsidered. Right… headache right at the beginning. Probably a bad idea. Joe turned back to his responsibility.
He picked up an arrow and surveyed the approaching wave of monsters before picking out a good candidate; one of the more ferocious and terrifying ones that might actually take out a wall. After a bit, instead of waiting, he picked out a few more to make it easy since waiting seemed like a waste of time. They were still too far, but their slow steady approach gave him time, and he made sure to prioritize the closest. When they came into range, he began.
Joe took two shots and easily downed two of the monsters. They were excellent shots, something his sister would have found a bit easy, but Joe took pride in them. He pulled another arrow and prepared, but then stopped as he realized that taking potshots like this would be very irritating let alone too slow to take out the massive number of monsters on the field.
He took a moment to reconsider his actions then he smiled. Well, if they are monsters… or just animals… then wouldn’t they act like them… But then Joe frowned when he realized they weren’t acting like normal animals at all. Maybe I can try anyway?
Joe took careful aim at another rather large cat like creature and aimed for its front paw. Pissing off a cat seems like a good idea… they never take pain well. Joe’s arrow flew true, spikeing directly into the top of its paw and piercing through down into its pads. Joe winced. That’s not cool… that’s really not cool. This isn’t… Joe felt an unpleasant twist in his gut at the pain the cat creature now felt. His thoughts spiraled as the wounding of the animal went against everything he’d been taught by his father and now personally believed. He grimaced and almost rethought his actions when the cat finally reacted to the pain by attacking the animal next to it. A massive fight spread across the area and began affecting many of the other animals and Joe felt deeply conflicted.
It was then that he heard a shout of joy coming from down below the walls. Joe felt his brows knit, confusion slipping across him quickly as he stepped forward and looked down over the edge, this time stepping far enough forward to see the base of the wall. Down at the base of the wall, Joe found the city guard, neatly lined up and well armored. In front of them stood a line of poorly dressed variety of people all holding short knives. Cannon fodder?
Joe felt his anger spike and he flicked his eyes up, surveying the field of monsters. He immediately stepped back and pulled an arrow from the bucket. The next few moments had arrow after arrow strike feet, sides, ears, and haunches, driving all the monsters within reach of his bow wild in anger. When the front line had collapsed into a wild rage of interspecies fighting amongst the monsters, Joe returned and sat on his stool, anger simmering. What is going ON!?