"What the hell?! What are you... Guards! Arrest her for she is a dangerous criminal," their beloved sugar princess in her usual pink dress screamed on top of her voice.
"Another one of your nonsensical tantrums, Ramulie?" The question came from one of the soldiers overseeing the healing she was performing.
"Moron! Mongrel! I'm saying she is a wanted criminal for a long time now, and you have probably seen her posters many times. If you are too dumb to keep doubting me, then check her tag."
Despite the growing disturbance from the battle raging outside, the room became quiet, and several pairs of eyes were staring at Orisa with a mixture of doubt and growing wariness. After a long and dramatic pause, Orisa let out the friendliest and most harmless chuckle in the universe.
"She isn't entirely wrong, guys, don't be too harsh on the poor girl. There was a bit of a misunderstanding that we cleared out, so I was acquitted by the Supreme Commander himself. I even have a paper on me."
"A misunderstanding?!" Ramulie yelled, deafening everyone present. "Nonsense!"
"Be quiet and keep healing," the same soldier said and took the paper that Orisa handed over.
"I came here today to get the tag back, but then..." Orisa nodded towards the exit, where Beasts were roaring and magic was flying in all directions. "So, well, we rushed here to help since we are from The Hounds, and it's our job to hunt these things."
"If she was a criminal, why would she even be here? This assumption is beyond madness. But if you are still doubting us, the Supreme Commander's daughter will be here soon and can confirm everything," Kanai added angrily.
"They are lying! There is no way these scrabbles could be genuine, and his daughter was long since..."
Realizing what she was about to say, Ramulie shut her mouth and glared daggers at Orisa and Kanai. Even she wouldn't blurt out strictly confidential information about the Supreme Commander's family matters.
"Let's send someone to verify the paper and clarify the situation," she kept going, not willing to let go of such an opportunity.
"Are you completely empty-headed? We don't have enough personnel to man the defense line, and you..." The soldier, apparently one of the officers responsible for this segment of the wall, shook his head tiredly and concluded: "Anyway, keep doing your job of damn healing. We don't have more time to waste."
The assault had started not that long ago, but the defenders were already quite tired and ragged. Orisa dreaded to think what would happen if or when more Beasts would switch their attention to the walls instead of the tunnel. Remembering a piece of good news, she decided to cheer them up:
"On our way here, we met people from the Paladins and Crusaders. They agreed on sending more people to the walls, so you should expect reinforcements."
"Took those goats long enough to realize it. Who knows, maybe some of us will even live to see another day," another soldier grumbled, showing anxiety and resentment on his face.
"Is it that bad?" Kanai asked with a concerned voice.
"Right now, it's somewhat bad. What will happen to us all in an hour, though, is a tricky question."
"Let's not waste time then?"
Orisa moved towards the exit. A barely audible grumble followed her move, but she ignored it and stepped outside. Instead, Kanai turned around and gave Ramulie a long appraising look. Coming to a conclusion of his own, he then silently left the room.
---
---
The situation on the wall was growing worse with each passing minute, and the arrival of the reinforcements from two elite squads had eased the burden only just briefly. As the commanders predicted, more enemies came at the walls instead of the tunnel, and now almost one-fourth of the wall, an entire southern segment, had become a battlefield. Beasts were spreading over a wider area and forcing defenders to thin themselves, trying to cover more space. It was the first assault on the capital of such scale, and defenders were not ready to meet thousands of Beasts.
Including Orisa and Kanai, only a handful of people were left to guard the elevators, and most of them were either dead or missing. Since she had finished with the last batch of injured, Ramulie was also present among the defenders and regretfully for some people, intact.
"Don't expect me to lend you a hand, criminal scum!"
"I'd rather cut my hand off," Orisa answered after launching another Beast into the air.
"Why, you..!"
"Ramulie, shut your trap right now, and help me!"
Among the remaining few, Seiya was the most promising and reliable of the soldiers stationed on the wall. He was in charge of one of the local defense squads and a “fortunate” superior of Ramulie vi Durek. His experience became evident rather quickly, and Orisa was subtly guarding him against especially eager foes.
As for the pair, Orisa and Kanai both were getting tired from the constant pressure but otherwise felt confident in their skills. It was hard to guess what helped them - the training they had undergone in AOG base or their trip to the wilds - but their individual skills and teamwork were on an entirely different level.
"Do cloud," Kanai said, positioning himself behind Orisa.
"Gotcha." - "Rain Support Set!"
Earlier, Orisa had found that external Seals not incorporated into her spells were adding considerably more power to her attacks. As a result, her combat style shifted to rely heavily on the external Seals, which made her overall tempo even lower. Together with Nowa, they had trained hard to overcome this issue, and it led to the technique she was using now - a Seal Set. It was similar to normal spells she was using with only one minor difference - the Sets were useless on their own since they only created several Seals without anything else to utilize them. The idea was to combine Sets with other spells in swift succession.
A beneficial side effect had been an increase in Orisa's supporting capabilities as it became easier to provide power-ups to other people. She had developed several Sets to support specific spells of Kanai, Tiana, and Iten, compiling Seals to draw the best out of their attacks.
"Corrosive Storm!"
A grayish-green stream spurted out Kanai's hand and passed through the Seal Set. It grew several times bigger, forming a cloud that began to drift away from the walls. Five seconds later, the corrosive mass started pulsating, sending lumps of acidic Mana in all directions. Originally, the spell had been designed to either clear rooms and other closed spaces or create a cordon to give a breather or time to escape. However, it appeared even more useful when used from higher ground, clearing both aerial and ground units with striking efficiency.
"Okay, now to the outer walls. Swarm," Kanai ordered and moved to the edge. The moment he stepped too close, a claw rose from the other side and grazed him. A moment later, a gray rat crawled onto the wall and buckled up for a jump.
"Block Rush!" - "Block Rush!"
Orisa sent the Beast flying and ran to help Kanai, but he was already done healing himself with the Lifespring. Similar to Orisa's, his gear was full of holes and covered in blood, but healing kept them both in good shape.
"Mana Transfer!"
"Thanks. Now, do the Swarm, hurry."
"Swarm Support Set!"
"Pestilence Swarm!"
Numerous tiny insects rushed down the wall when Kanai used his spell. Multiplied, empowered, and accelerated, they were falling onto the Beasts that were crawling up the walls. Each time the conjured creations collided with the foes, they exploded with corrosive magic, leaving marks of Decay that rapidly grew and killed the Beasts. Without Orisa's support, the spell couldn't summon enough units, and they were considerably weaker as well.
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Getting another short breather, Orisa went to recover Mana for herself and people around, but her mind was elsewhere. She was worried about Tiana. The girl hadn't shown up yet. There could have been many reasons for that, and not all of them were alarming, but her heart was heavy regardless.
"Phoenix Thrust!"
Orisa snapped out of her thoughts as a comet dashed past her. After blinking in confusion several times, she recognized the defense squad commander, Seiya, pulling his burning sword out of the Beast's corpse. The creature had been stopped a mere moment before it could sink its fangs into Orisa's back. Kanai was too occupied with his part and didn't spot the danger in time. It took her a few seconds to understand how she could make such a mistake. Orisa slapped her forehead in frustration upon discovering that her focused state had run out.
"Fury!" She chanted, using another unevolved crystal.
"Now now, don't get upset, miss, you are doing just fine," Seiya waved his hands jokingly.
"You better stay a good distance away from her, man. She is hella scary, I'm telling you," with a huge grin, Kanai stirred the pot.
"Say your prayers, louts," Orisa grumbled, threatening them with a fist.
---
---
The siege went on for another fifteen minutes, steadily growing in intensity and difficulty. Of the whole defense group stationed at the elevator, only Seiya and Ramulie were still present. The rest of the soldiers were either dead, moved to other parts of the wall, or were lying unconscious in the elevator room. Even Orisa and Kanai were getting exhausted.
Suddenly, Orisa felt a surge of Mana from the other side of the city, and another one a moment later. Despite such a great distance, she could sense those enormous explosions of energy and even discern them. One clearly belonged to Nowa, and the other was somewhat familiar as well. Orisa got goosebumps from trying to imagine how much Mana had been used there to make it reach the other side of the city.
The moment the surge subsided, Beasts doubled their rush at the wall, and Orisa could no longer afford to get distracted. Together with Kanai, they downed their last Stamina Potions and dived into the battle.
When two evolved Beasts landed nearby a few minutes later, Orisa turned to Kanai with a worried expression:
"I can't use Asura or other destructive spells here, or I'll blast half the wall. Can you-."
"Yes-yes, so string me up," he quickly interrupted Orisa, grinning disgustingly.
"I didn't know you were into this stuff, dude." - "Mana Leash!"
One of Orisa's Mana layers stretched out towards Kanai and tied itself around him. This way, she could transfer Mana continuously without any additional spells or manipulation. It was less efficient than her Mana Transfer spell but much more convenient in tougher situations. After making sure he had what he wanted, Kanai proceeded to ready himself:
"Endless Regeneration!"
"Endless Cleanse!"
"Intense Flow!"
"Blood Stance!"
Due to Kanai's low Dexterity, he was limited in his arsenal. It was hard to manage complex spells similar to Orisa's, and even moderately difficult ones were almost impossible for him. Being frustrated with his power ceiling, Kanai had spared no effort looking for a way out. He found it in the form of Ririm vas Nava and her Bloodcasting. Despite being spell-oriented, this style was only usable in melee combat in the long run.
Bloodcasting relied on the usage of the user's own blood as a material to conjure attacks. Blood was extremely potent by itself and infused with Mana to the absolute maximum since it was circulating through or alongside Mana layers all the time, which made it the best material. But it was also the most sparse resource available in combat. There was only so much blood that one could lose, and projectiles or other one-use items made out of the blood would obviously make the user's body go dry in no time. Because of it, the only possible way to use Bloodcasting was to make short-ranged spells and then recycle the blood by taking it back into the body. And after coming back into the blood flow, it was necessary to cleanse it of anything and everything, and also recharge its potency by circulating Mana in a specific manner. Both things wore the user out and ate his Mana quickly, making Bloodcasting niche and almost useless in most circumstances. Kanai was forced to run regenerative and cleansing spells inside his body for the whole duration of the battle. While Orisa's Mana Leash solved the cost issue, the exhaustion was unavoidable. But the spells it provided were simple, easy to use, and usually required one Mana layer, which made it worthy for Kanai to use in extreme situations.
"Blood Hedge!"
Red meter-long spikes burst out of Kanai's body, several of them going into the stone behind him to reinforce his stance, but the majority went forward. They broke through the evolved Beasts' resistance with ease and impaled two of them a moment before they landed on Kanai. The last one passed by and ran towards Orisa.
"Blood Claw!"
Five spikes surged from Kanai's palm and almost tore off the Beast's head, pinning it to the wall. Immediately after that, his vision turned blurry, and he would have fallen on the floor from the sudden dizziness if not for the spikes supporting his posture.
"Retract!"
The blood got sucked back into his body, and Kanai fell on his knees, panting. He needed a moment to recover. Orisa spotted another evolved Beast on time and caught it mid-air, allowing herself to deal with it without worrying about the surroundings:
"Force Block!" - "Force Block!" - "Force Block!"
Orisa conjured an obstacle in front of the Beast and created a platform for it to land onto. The moment her target stopped, she enclosed the foe inside a Block Prison, halting its advance for a moment. She gripped an unevolved Mana core and attacked:
"Finisher Support Set!"
"Guillotine Fist!"
Orisa's signature attack, Asura Strike, was too destructive to use in a normal situation, but she desperately needed another killer move. After thinking for a while, she had decided to combine several ideas from her previous spells and came up with the new one. Guillotine Fist was a close-range strike made of a Mana blade that was meant to go through obstacles or defense and then transfer the core's contents right into the target's body. Combined with a specifically tailored Support Set, it could blow apart most Beasts in one strike. A clear downside was that Orisa needed to get within the arm's reach and spend some time to conjure Seals.
The Beast exploded, showering the surroundings, and the battle continued. Several more evolved Beasts graced this segment of the wall with their presence, and the team dealt with them in the same way. As the fight went on, they became more and more exhausted, especially Kanai and Seiya. Ramulie was hiding inside the elevator's hall most of the time, throwing occasional healing spells at her superior officer. Orisa and Kanai were spared from her assistance, although Kanai was barely holding up due to the fatigue.
A razor-sharp feather came out of nowhere and hit Seiya right between his ribs, sending him rolling on the stone floor. He rammed into the outer guardrail of the wall and went limp. Cursing loudly, Orisa dashed to his aid but was thrown onto the ground by a wave of air. It was created by the landing of an evolved eagle as its massive body rammed into the stone floor, throwing rubble in all directions. Kanai was also thrown to the side and hit a stone wall of the elevator's hall with his back. The Beast made a sharp turn towards Seiya and waved his wings, conjuring sharp feathers to finish its prey.
"Safe!" - "Safe!" - "Safe!"
Orisa barely managed to block the projectiles with the last-moment walls. The surprisingly strong for his evolution stage eagle let out a high-pitched shrill, enraged by such an outcome. Orisa sensed how Mana gathered around the eagle's wings, so she put forward an anti-projectile Jack Field barrier.
An empowered hail of feathers assaulted Orisa's shield. It didn't break her barrier but pushed her a few steps back. Another volley of projectiles knocked on the Jack Field, driving Orisa further towards Seiya and the wall's edge. She felt another Mana surge, even stronger than the previous one, and decided to drop the Jack Field. Instead, she stretched her arms forward and chanted the strongest shield in her possession:
"Unbreakable!"
A multi-layered barrier formed in front of her palms and met a mighty barrage of feathers. She was forced a few steps back again, suffering from the impact. The Beast roared and immediately sent blades of compressed Mana, throwing more feathers afterward. Its attacks went on in quick succession, pushing Orisa farther. Even her strongest barrier began to crack despite the constant supply of Mana.
The eagle went all out and threw an enormous wave of projectiles. The shield broke, letting some of them through. One of them grazed Orisa's left temple, two more were stuck in her hands, and the rest were stopped by her body armor and shields. Orisa was barely standing on her feet, leaning on the wall's guardrail. Behind her was a long fall, Seiya's limp body was lying by her side, and her blood was slowly dripping on his figure. She was having a hard time trying to focus - the pain and exhaustion made it difficult even in her focused state.
Luckily, the Beast was also out of breath and Mana, so it paused for a moment. At that moment, Kanai finally rejoined the fight after being knocked out for several seconds:
"Blood Claw!"
"Retract!"
Five red spikes pierced the eagle's head, killing it on the spot, and returned back into Kanai's palm. On shaky legs, he slowly walked towards Orisa, who was still holding onto the guardrail. An angry shout from behind his back reached his ears:
"Greater Holy Wave!"
A blinding wave of Mana rushed past Kanai and rammed into Orisa's chest. Her body shields absorbed most of the damage, but the impact was enough to push her over the edge. As if in slow motion, she was observing Kanai's changing expression and a triumphant look on Ramulie's face until they both disappeared from her sight, replaced by an upside-down view of the approaching earth and numerous corpses of Beasts covering the ground.
"Blood Grab!"
"Blood Claw!"
Something thin and hard wrapped around her waist and pulled her up. As her body made it back to the wall's floor, the grip loosened and left her lying. Orisa saw blood strings coiled around her figure. They stretched a long distance from Kanai's left palm. With five spikes growing out, his right hand was facing a different direction.
Making a huge effort, Orisa focused her gaze on Kanai's right hand. Pieced by his Blood Claw, Ramulie's body was hanging in the air. Blood was raining down, and a red pool formed below her feet. Her gaze was blank.
"Kanai... what..." Orisa muttered in disbelief, trying to make sense of the picture in front of her eyes.
"She fell," Kanai answered in a quiet, tired voice.
"Why... how... no..."
"She fell," his exhausted but angered voice echoed. With a swing of his hand, he threw Ramulie's body over the edge of the wall.