Vacation is over and BAM, immediately swamped with assignments.
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I didn’t need to look around to know people were shivering in fear.
I could hear it from the ragged breathing around me, all of whom belong to the veteran guards, the Commander and the most experienced Mages, including the Mages Guild leader Lloyd, Healer’s Leader Elyse and Bishop Patrick.
All of these men and women have lived here for numerous years, experienced the worst times of the city and staunchly endured them.
But now, they saw doom approaching.
Outnumbered.
Lower quality equipment.
Lower quality troops.
A Hero working against us.
All of these things smashed their moral, making defeat inevitable and quick.
These are the things that need fixing.
“Brave citizens, do not fear! This is our city! If anyone’s going to take it from us, they have to pay their price in blood!”
I said, once again strengthening my voice.
Normally, in such a situation, this would fall on deaf ears simply because they are broken by fear.
But, while speaking, I give our soldiers a little… motivation.
While speaking I invoked perhaps the ultimate spell of the Support Magic branch of Light Magic.
No doubt people did not have a name for this yet, seeing as it was undoubtedly never cast in millennia, but I don’t care for names.
I care for effects.
The spell was based of the ‘aura’ one could invoke with Energy.
I spread it spread across the entire city, seeping into the bodies, Souls and minds of every citizen here.
It wiped away their fear, their worries, their despair and everything else that hindered their actions.
Instead, it filled them with burning courage, fuelled their muscles, strengthened their Magic, alleviated their exhaustion, heightened their senses, steadied their hand and, above all, gave them hope in their darkest hour.
It made them feel like they ascended to a higher plane, one where they felt like no-one could stop them.
Basically, it turned amateur fighters into veterans, veterans into masters, and masters into unstoppable killing machines.
Truly the ultimate Support Magic, capable of turning the tide of every desperate battle.
This covered the quality and moral of my army.
It is not enough.
They outnumber even the population of this city, let alone those able to fight.
I need more to make this fight at least somewhat equal, so I cast some support using other kinds of Magic.
With Earth Magic I strengthened the walls to near impregnability, strengthened their weapons to be unbreakable and forever sharp, including the crossbows and bolts.
With Air Magic I enchanted every bolt and arrow, allowing them to be faster, more powerful and more accurate, as if they weren’t held by militia and simple soldiers, but by the greatest marksmen of the land.
And with Dark Magic – more specifically, Poison Magic – I enchanted every tip of every spear, arrow and bolt, and every edge of every blade with a thin sliver of deathly poison, unnoticeable to the naked eye and capable of downing enemies within seconds after a mere scratch.
With this not only the quality of the forces are about equal, the quality of weapons are now in our favour, making the difference in numbers slightly less felt.
Everything from spells and buffs was done within seconds after the speech.
All the men were staring at me, stunned by their newfound courage and hope, but remained silent.
They had still yet to believe what they felt was real, so I made it real.
With all eyes on me, both on as well as behind the walls, I stretched out my left arm, as if holding something that wasn’t there.
With a flash of red a bow of pure flames was conjured out of nowhere, perfectly fitted for me in my outstretched arm.
I moved my right arm and hand, as if nocking an arrow on its fiery strings, and as I did, the arrow appeared, as radiant and as powerful as the bow.
A bow made out of a powerful fire, radiating with power.
Since we are the defenders in this siege, we held the edge in terms of battlefield.
However, thanks to the Summoner Hero, they had about 5.000 dragons, griffins and other flying beasts, which were ridden by probably the most expert bowmen and offensive Mages of the enemy, making the advantage obsolete.
They needed to be dealt with, and what better way than do it with an impressive show of force, inspiring our side while demoralizing theirs.
So, I conjured up the most powerful and most visible bow I could think of.
Looking through my enhanced eyes, I could see the enemy clearly.
The bow was like a radiating mass of Magic, clearly visible and its power no doubt felt even from the distance of the open field between us.
I saw the enemy’s once-taunting demeanour shift slightly towards one of surprise and, in terms of their leaders, fear.
There’s no doubt they never expected something like this.
After all, the capital was by far the main hub of the Kingdom of Asra.
It had a population of over four million.
Compare that to the second largest city, with its 350.000 citizens, and Kasten, with 200.000, it is clear they thought this war pretty much over with the destruction of the capital.
And not only was it the most populous city of Asra, it was also by far the strongest in terms of fighting power.
And they had killed every one of those expert.
Not only that, since it was the coronation of the new King, all the powerful men and women came from every corner of the Kingdom to attend, meaning all the power was located at the capital when it was destroyed.
Even the most powerful of Kasten were there, brought along by the mayor.
The only powerful people who remained here were those with too important positions to leave vacant, meaning the Bishop Patrick, Mage Lloyd, Healer Elyse, Commander Maxwell and even Lady Melissa, who, despite being a noble and merchant, was extremely capable in combat, both in the use of spells as well as weapons.
They undoubtedly knew this, hence they chose that specific day to invade.
Quickly killing everyone capable of stopping them, including the four Heroes capable of rivalling an army on their own, they only thing on their minds was taking revenge.
And what better way to take revenge than by genocide, just like Asra did years ago?
From the distance, I saw their expert Mages quickly conjure barriers of every kind, while the most experienced soldiers quickly used Body Enhancement to strengthen themselves.
I purposefully allowed this and waited, making it clear to both the enemy as well as those under my command that their efforts are wasted.
Ten seconds since my speech had passed, seven after conjuring up the bow and five after conjuring the arrow.
It was time to strike.
I pulled back the arrow…
“FOR THE GLORY OF KASTEN!”
I shouted, making sure it was heard even by the enemy.
…and let fly the arrow.
The battlefield was silent.
None dared to move as the arrow climbed higher and flew father towards the enemy.
Counter-spells weren’t even attempted, as it was clear that nothing would’ve worked.
Fleeing wasn’t attempted; they were too stunned, too entranced by it to move.
For our soldiers, the bright light, turning spherical the farther it went, turned into a beacon of hope with the soldiers longingly waiting for its effect.
For the enemy, it was a magnificently shining ball of destruction, soaring through the air and aimed at their flying beasts.
The effect was without a doubt greater than any had expected.
In utter silence, the ball went into the middle of the enemy’s flying regiment.
Feeling the pressure so close to them, they instinctively fled.
But it was already too late.
The silence was broken by the sounds of howling winds as the fire grew and grew, turning from a small ball into a veritable inferno, seemingly covering the world in a blanket of deadly red fire.
Strong winds began pulling everyone currently in the air into the red sea of death.
Those trying to fly away were easily pulled back in, without allowing any chance of escape.
The fire grew and grew, drowning out every colour visible on the battlefield, turning the world temporarily into a fiery shade of red.
The first unlucky few began falling victim to its ferocious flames.
With both loud and not-so-loud sounds of shattered glass and horrifying screams, the dragon-riders and their ilk were swallowed whole, their hastened defences instantly shattering by the all-consuming power of the sea of flame.
None could resist the tempest of wind caused by the inferno’s greed for oxygen; all airborne troops were lost.
Everyone on the ground stared in awe as the fire spread across the sky.
I purposefully made sure that it would not expand radially, seeing as I merely wanted their flying troops dead, not everyone of the enemy army.
I was trying to make the battle relatively fair, not make it a one-sided slaughter.
Not for their side, nor for mine.
After all, they both needed to be punished for their crimes.
As the fire faded and the wind calmed down, all eyes of both sides were fixed on me, so I decided to initiate phase two.
I made sure all the leaders of the enemy as well as those on my side were watching me before I purposefully tumbled down the edge of the gatehouse, feigning exhaustion after using this last-resort amount of power.
“Marcus!”
Maxwell yelled beside me.
He tried to grab me, but, with the help of Illusion Magic, was unable to grab me.
If I had not shown any exhaustion the other side might have thought to retreat, seeing as I might be able to do it again, and this time against their ground forces.
By doing this and tumbling down from the gatehouse, I made sure that they would instead take this chance to advance, making them think I was now weak and thus making it their best shot to finish me off before I recovered.
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I smacked face first into the cobbled road leading towards the gate, of course making sure no actual harm was done.
As soon as I landed, I checked the enemy forces.
As expected, the enemy took this opportunity to charge.
After all, their numbers and quality, as far as they knew, were higher than ours.
They only needed some Earth Mages to knock down either part of the wall or the gate and they could easily swarm the city.
There was no need for complicated tactics on either side.
They need to charge and swarm the city to achieve victory.
We needed to stop them before they could.
Everyone knew this.
“Quickly! Open the gate!”
I head Maxwell shout.
“Don’t! They’ll be able to reach it before it closes again!”
I retorted, stating what the Commander undoubtedly knew already.
After all, he was not dumb.
Meanwhile, I stood up and looked and the anxious face of the Captain, looking down from the gatehouse.
“But…”
He still tried.
“If you do that, we’ll all be doomed! Trust me and let me defend the gate on my own! You take care of the rest!”
For a second longer the Commander looked down before turning around and walking away.
“Enchanters, focus on enchanting bolts and arrows! Light Mages, focus on barriers and healing! The rest of you lot, FIRE AT WILL! FOR THE GLORY OF KASTEN, LET NONE ENTER ALIVE!”
Maxwell ordered the troops, he too making sure the entire city heard his voice.
“FOR THE GLORY OF KASTEN! DEATH TO THE INVADERS!”
The overwhelming morale of our side was heard all over the field, but it stopped nothing.
Charging with incredible speed, the first line of enemies consisted entirely out of the 10.000 of the remaining summoned beasts.
Each of them was powerful enough to knock down the wall or force open the gate, so they send them in first.
I drew my simple arming sword, reinforced it to an unbreakable, ever-sharp blade and took a bracing position, waiting for those charging at the city.
Meanwhile, I also laid a simple trap, unnoticeable to even the well-trained eye of Earth Mages, as long as they didn’t get to close.
I infused the ground with Earth Magic, afterwards laying down a simple, almost unnoticeable rune on the ground underneath my feet, meaning that as soon as I stomped on it, the trap would activate.
Then, I simply waited.
Waited as the different beasts of the Hero charged towards the city while continuously being pelted by arrows, bolts and artillery-like spells from the walls.
Waited as many of them fell before even reaching me.
The distance became closer and closer.
500 metres.
300 metres.
200 metres.
100 metres.
50 metres.
30 metres. and then…
As soon as the first entered the 10 metre range, losing over half their number because of the powerful spells and poison-laced and incredibly accurate enchanted arrows and bolts, I raised my foot and stomped down on the rune, activating it in response.
Everywhere in a frontward radius of 50 metres, with my position as its starting points, massive stone spikes suddenly shot up from the grounds with an angle.
Many were instantly impaled by the earthen spikes rising suddenly from the ground.
Many more charged towards their death against any of the numerous spikes, unable to stop their rampaging charge in time to avoid them.
It was a simple trap, used in many battles even in the long gone world of the past, although they were simple wooden spikes raised from the grounds, aimed to impale and stop the enemy cavalry.
It worked splendidly.
I stomped again on the rune and made the spikes retract, the only evidence of them being there being the massive amounts of blood, seeing as summoned monsters disappear after death.
It was a mistake to send them charging so recklessly against me, but then again, they must have thought I was unconscious, or at the very least thoroughly exhausted.
Thanks to the fact that the projectiles from our side were able to break through the thick skin of the beasts, none of them survived.
Some of them did manage to make it to the wall, but their bodies were filled with the deadliest Poison Magic, so they were unable to do anything but simply wither away in front of their goal.
Although each of the beasts were powerful beyond belief, their defence is always low since they could only use their own skin and the meagre Magic skill each of them have.
Now that the beasts were gone from my sight, I saw the situation of the battlefield.
Not losing their cool, they decided to use the beasts as a distraction.
The enemy advanced their Mages, archers and crossbowmen into firing range, skirmishing with the troops on the walls.
Seeing as they had to aim from a downward angle, the enemy was at a disadvantage.
That, along with the barriers of our Mages, made a lot of fired spells, arrows and bolts harmless.
But despite this advantage for our side, the difference in number was clearly visible.
The enormous amount of returning fire from the enemy made up for the superior position of the troops atop the wall.
Still, the damage were about equal, relatively speaking.
However, this was bad news for the soldiers of Kasten.
While they were busy trying to make sure the exchange was fairly equal, the enemy was slowly moving forward with their infantry while protecting the Earth Mages needed for breaching the walls with the help of Light Mages.
With the fire drawn towards the enemy’s ranged regiments, the situation was now in their favour.
About a 100.000 people were on the move, leaving the rest behind as reinforcing waves.
They were packed together in small, easily defended and tightly packed squares of about a thousand people.
Most of these forces were headed for the walls, planning to breach them with Earth Magic and afterwards allowing for the remaining forces to enter and wreak havoc.
However, despite the clearly thought-out tactic of densely packed troops protected by dozens of powerful barriers, it proved to be a disadvantage to them.
They had underestimated the power of our forces.
Or rather, they underestimated the buffs and enchantments I gave them.
The Light Magic buff given to them made their hands steady, quick and tireless, allowing for extremely fast barrages of bolts and arrows, and the additional strength in Magic allowed for more spells to be cast repeatedly.
The Earth Magic made sure that the bolts and arrows wouldn’t simply break on contact with the shields, and made sure the bows and crossbows never broke down due to excessive firing.
The Air Magic made their projectiles fly fast and straight, allowing them together able to penetrate the layers of shield.
The Poison Magic allowed for even the slightest of scratches to become life-threatening.
Even if our side was distracted by the enemy’s skirmishers, once they noticed their arrows were able to penetrate their defences, all fire focused on these regiments of a thousand men.
Raining hell upon them, dozens upon dozens fell within each square in mere seconds.
Their forces depleted by the thousands with each volley.
However, they quickly understood this and broke up their packs.
Instead, they decided to split up and charge towards the walls as quickly as possible, aiming to destroy them without losing any more lives.
Although this did decrease their loses significantly, it didn’t change the fact that they were constantly being shot at by incredibly deadly arrows.
It was a slaughter.
But while I surveyed the battlefield from underneath the gate, I noticed a particular group approaching me.
The arrows and bolts bounced of their barriers like they were stones thrown against a mountain.
Even those that, by sheer luck, did manage to penetrate these defences, were quickly deflected by expert use of their shields, holding them at the perfect angle for each and every projectile aimed at them.
While being fired against, I clearly saw flashes of different coloured light emerging from within the heart of the pack.
Each of them shot upwards to the walls with amazing speed and even from underneath the gate, still a while away from them, I could feel the power emanating from it.
Carrying themselves with ease despite the enormous armours and shields they wore, they were without a doubt the elite of the elite.
When looking closely, I could see they were most likely the best from each of the different races and countries owned by them.
They were clearly walking towards the gate, aiming to dispose of me and win the battle.
The screams of the siege and the yelling of orders began to slowly escape my notice.
Instead, my attention was focused entirely on the group of soldiers aiming for me.
I raised my sword slightly and, while moving my hand alongside its edge, and enchanted it.
The edges on both side had a thin layer of air on it, allowing it to make sharp gusts of wind as I swing it.
The edges themselves glowed red with intense heat, allowing it to cleave through anything without trouble.
The metal had been hardened to be unbreakable, no matter how much pressure it endured.
The grip was firmly stuck to my hand, unable to leave its grasp even if every finger was cut off.
It had been billions of years since I last used a sword.
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Hopefully I have the next chapter done by tomorrow.
With an emphasis on hopefully.
Also, I have done this chapter in a total of three sittings, so if there are any strange leaps in logic or inconsistencies, please say and I'll fix it.
Hope you enjoyed!