End of the First Arc, of course.
Enjoy!
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I breathed in deeply and calmly waited for them to arrive.
I forgot everything around me and kept focusing on the thousand men regiment walking towards me.
I could see their eyes burning, their muscles flexing and their hatred overflowing as they inched ever closer.
There was no doubt about how much they hated me and the city I represent.
Thousands upon thousands of their brothers have already given their lives for this supposedly weak city and they knew who was responsible for it.
But, they kept their cool and slowly marched towards the gate, protecting themselves and the Mages within the square.
It took them minutes of walking across the open field while constantly barraged with arrows, bolts and spells until they finally arrived on the city’s doorstep.
The gatehouse had about a ten metre long entry before arriving at the actual gate, meaning there was an open space of ten metres with a stone ceiling where archers up on the walls couldn’t shoot them.
At first I thought this design was odd, seeing as during a defence like this you want as much time as possible to fire at the enemy.
But then I noticed there were many slits all across the walls and ceiling perfectly made for arrows and bolts to be fired through.
This ten metre strip was meant to be a deadly trap against the occasional battering ramps, but it works just as fine against Earth Mages trying to reach the gate.
At this moment there were many crossbowmen behind these holes, unseen by the enemy because of the darkness covering the walls and ceiling in this dimly lit place.
The pack stopped right before the entrance since it was impossible for them to enter all at once.
They were too many and if they decide to enter in tightly-packed lines of infantry, they wouldn’t be able to swing their swords around freely.
So they stopped, many of them staying outside to protect the Mages until every obstacle – in other words: until I was forced out of their way.
The howls of wolfs, hisses of lizards and cats, roars of lions unified into the war-cry of all these different races.
They were incredibly loud, echoing against the walls and ceiling endlessly and deafening those behind the arrow-slits as they awaited the charge.
And charge they did.
Screaming in rage, numerous people abandoned their pack and rushed into the 10-metre-long, 15-metre-wide hallway.
Pumping the Body Strengthening Magic through every muscle, bone, vein, nerve and organ, I prepared for their attack with my senses heightened to the utmost.
They were quick.
They were strong.
They were smart.
If it had been any other citizen of Kasten, they would have dropped dead before they knew what was going on.
But not me.
Even if I’m acting like a human now, my power outclassed them by far.
Not only that, I had far, far more experience in fighting against both individuals and groups than any of them could even dream off.
It isn’t that I’m particularly good at fighting.
In fact, I am actually very, very bad at using every weapon, be it swords, spears, bows, knives or with bare hands.
But if you give a man a thousand years to practice with a sword while constantly being chased and hunted by enemies, they would undoubtedly be better at it then everyone else.
Now give a man billions upon billions of years of being hunted down and chased by others in both groups and as individuals while also firmly believing their very existence depended on capturing said man, then he would able to anyone, big or small, strong or quick, numerous or alone.
I don’t have skill in using weapons, but I have infinite experience compared to them.
No matter how they moved I would be able to counter it instantly.
And so, the first victim arrived.
Although covered in heavy armour, I could still tell it was a woman, and seeing from how she used no weapon and only her clawed hands, I suspected she was from some Beastmen tribe or kingdom.
She wasn’t a fool; she didn’t blindly rushed me and hoped for the best.
She ran towards me, faster than anyone else, and stopped short in front of me.
She raised her hands and jabbed it outwards with incredible force, aiming tear my face apart with a single swipe.
It wasn’t one you would see in a bar fight or in the streets.
She didn’t pull her arm backwards, she didn’t do a clear wind-up of a punch like an amateur would.
It was quick, it was powerful, it was sharp and it was deadly.
Clearly an expert in her way of fighting.
But it wasn’t enough.
No matter how fast she moved, my eyes could see it, my brain could comprehend it and my body could react to it.
She was an elite, but not a monster like I am.
The sword in my hand, hung low in preparation, swung upward and without giving her even the time to blink, her arm was cut off from the elbow down before her palm could reach my face.
The glowing edge of my blade cut easily through the armour on her arm and cut it off cleanly.
On my left side was a draconian clad only in his serpent-like scales rushing past me, aiming to flank me and strike where I least expected it.
But thanks to the wind-edge on my blade, a powerful gust of wind was created and he was smashed into the wall.
No matter how powerful the scales, the wall was solid and he was easily killed by the blunt force.
One movement, two hits.
I used it multiple times in the past when fighting in caves, although the jagged rock usually caused impalement rather than inducing blunt force trauma.
The blood from the catwoman’s stump sprayed over me and I could see the surprise on her face, arriving before the pain.
My sword still held high after cutting her arm off, I didn’t give her the time to feel it and immediately sliced down vertically, the glowing-hot edge of the sword easily cleaving through her skull, bones and armour, all the way down until she was split in two.
Seeing two dead within the scope of two-tenths of a second, the other warriors didn’t even flinch.
However, they did speed up.
There was no doubt that before they were trying to safe their power somewhat until after rushing through the gates, but seeing me so easily wipe two of them out made them realise this wasn’t the time to hold back.
I didn’t hold back either.
I dashed left wall, stopped, and swiped horizontally.
I dashed to the middle of the hall, stopped, and stabbed.
I dashed to the right wall, stopped, and cut.
The first one never saw it coming; a male elf with blond hair and bright-green eyes was cut in half, the force of the air going through him and blew the two other elves behind him back from whence they came, into the pack.
The second one still had its eyes fixed on the location where the elf fell; he, a dog- or wolf-man with yellow eyes and brown hair, too didn’t see it coming.
I stabbed the tip of my blade through his throat, easily going through the mail throat-protector and sending another blast of air into the man behind him, although since it wasn’t horizontally it was much more precise, smashing into his chest and breaking his ribs before sending him back into the pack.
The third one, an elven woman with, again, blond hair and bright-green eyes, was more perceptive.
She saw me dashing towards her and raised her shield.
Although I easily cut through it, melting it as my blade went against its steel, but it temporarily blocked part of my vision, allowing her to slightly dodge back without me noticing.
My blade went across her chest, through her armour and digging into her flesh.
But the force of the wind blew her away, back into the pack.
Although severely wounded, she still lived and would undoubtedly be quickly healed by the Mages in the square and sent back again.
While watching her being blown back, a man and woman of elven descent had flanked me, preparing to cut me while distracted.
The both raised their swords and prepared to cut me down as quickly as possible, but, once again, they were to slow.
Since I cut the now-gone elf from right to left horizontally, my sword was in perfect position to parry both of theirs.
Raising my sword with a lot of force, I parried the guy on the left with the flat of my blade, while pivoting on right foot and parrying the woman on the right within the same motion.
Both their swords were forced out of their hands and thrown against the nearby wall.
Fluidly switching from defence to attack, I cut downwards against the woman, not giving her the time to raise her shield and instantly separating her body from right shoulder to left hip.
The man on the left tried to tackle me, perhaps in an attempt to save the woman or perhaps to force me on the ground for the others to arrive and easily kill me.
But I saw it coming from the corner of my eye and grabbed him by the throat with my free left hand.
I snapped his neck easily and without hesitation and threw the corpse against a one-horned demon-like man coming from the right.
The force of the throw smashed him against the wall, knocking him either unconscious or killing him.
At least, he didn’t move anymore.
Even though not even a second had passed, the now Body Magic-using enemies kept rushing in, some trying to reach the gates as quickly as possible while others focusing on me.
With as much speed as I could muster, I dashed backwards until I reached the gate, outrunning those already closer to it with ease.
I saw twelve soldiers from every angle had already nearly reached the gate, so this time I dashed towards each of them without stopping before cutting them.
Although it took a bit more concentration, since keeping track of your location while running so fast confuses the shit out of your brain, it was successful.
Ten of the twelve soldiers were either cut apart or run through by my blade, while the other two narrowly managed to dodge the lethal blow.
This time, however, the others behind them knew of the wind-force that came with each thrust or swipe of my sword, and they were prepared.
Having their shields at a slight angle, the force dispersed upwards against the ceiling, forcing the wind to harmlessly get past them and roll off the ceiling into the open air.
Now that they saw that simply dashing towards me wasn’t an answer, those with sword and shield quickly formed a shield-wall formation, restricting their free use of the sword and forcing those using claws or other weapons back in exchange for slowly pushing forward.
Behind them I saw others arriving, this time with long spears, allowing those behind them to cover for those up front.
They decided to take it slow and walked forward at the same pace they did outside.
Since they now had a shield-wall up front anyway, many others decided to join this ‘cave’ as well, since they had abandoned the idea of free movement and a quick charge.
It was what I hoped for.
Since the darkness was still present, and my glowing sword being the only source of light, there was almost no way they had noticed the arrow-slits in the walls and ceiling.
Unless you knew they were there they were basically impossible to see.
And now that the cave was filled with enemies, it was impossible to miss.
“FIRE AT WILL!!”
On my command, a hundred or so bolts came out of nowhere.
Since they didn’t expect it, none of them had the time to raise their shields or position themselves better to receive the bolts.
None of them missed, although some of them arrived in the same person.
With the first barrage, a third of the people in the cave collapsed due to either poison or simple being shot through the head or heart.
But this wasn’t all.
Maxwell and I made sure that for every hole were three crossbows, allowing for a rotation system, aiming for an unstoppable barrage of bolts, if the soldiers reloaded quick enough.
The second barrage came quickly after.
Still unable to raise their shields, about half of the remaining people dropped dead.
The third barrage was slightly less deathly.
This time, the enemy knew what to expect and positioned themselves with their shields to deflect the bolts, but since it came from all sides and even from above, it was impossible to stop every one of them.
Another third of the remaining people lost their life.
Only 1/5th of the original force in the cave was alive.
Before a fourth barrage could be fired, a sudden shock ran through the gatehouse.
It was to be expected.
Since they couldn’t easily force their way through to the gates, they decided to instead attack the entire gatehouse itself, just like they are probably attacking the walls at this very moment.
Another shock went through, rippling over the stone, trying to tear them apart.
But the entire wall was well built and reinforced with my Earth Magic.
It may not make the wall indestructible, but it made it a hell of a lot harder to break.
Because of the shaking, the fourth barrage came, but those inside the gatehouse had formed into a circle, their shields protecting every angle from which they could attack.
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Only three of the men died, simply because their shields were round and didn’t protect their ankles or feet.
The three heaps of shields tried moving out of the hall, making sure they wouldn’t be inside when the thing collapsed.
A fourth shock went across the stones, and since these Earth Mages were protected by the elite of the army, they were undoubtedly the most powerful among their peers.
Cracks began appearing on the ceiling and the walls.
“EVERYONE, LEAVE THE GATE AND STAND READY FOR BREACH!”
I ordered.
I heard the quick shuffling of footsteps as the men tried to get out of the gatehouse when a fourth shock came.
The cracks began to grow wider and branch off.
Sand fell from the ceiling, indicating it was ready to fall at any moment.
I dashed forward, forcing a path through one of the shield formations, pushing them aside and cutting left and right multiple times as I made my way out of this cave.
The fifth wave of Earth Magic ran through the stone and finally my enchantment gave way.
If normal Earth Mages had tried to do this, it would have collapsed into a heap of bricks over which they needed to climb.
However, as soon as my enchantment over it was broken, the elite Earth Mages sent an incredibly powerful shockwave through, reducing the gatehouse to nothing more but a large heap of sand.
Even the metal gate was reduced to fine-grained grains of steel.
I exited the hall just in time, only to see twelve people clad in armour and white robe, all of different races, standing ready.
Immediately, I deactivated the burning edge on my blade and stabbed it firmly into the ground, not a moment too late.
I heard twelve different kinds of chants and instantly, a storm arrived.
Using Air Magic, the twelve Mages summoned a storm with the force of a hurricane, blowing the large heaps of sand, along with the remaining man inside them, into the city, blinding and blowing away the soldiers standing ready behind it.
My body was lifted from the ground, but my grip was firm.
Using my sword as the pole, I waved like a flag under the enormous force of wind washing over me, while patches of sand, dirt and grass was flung into my eyes.
Once the wind had died down, I opened my eyes and prepared to fight again, only to find out that all the soldiers and Mages of the enemy had already retreated.
I quickly found the reason why.
To my left, there was nothing.
To my right, the same sight was met.
The walls of the city had all been torn down and the rubble dispersed, albeit in most places still with piles of bricks.
On the ground in front of where the gates once stood, lay an innumerable amount of corpses, some even piled together.
The enemy had seen their only way to bring down the walls was to recklessly charge forward while guiding the Earth Mages, which they did.
Meanwhile, the crossbowmen lay fire on them again and again, killing thousands upon thousands with each passing minute.
But the enemy was simply too numerous; even with the incredible vigour and enormous buffs placed upon them, the enemy had outnumbered our entire army at least 6:1.
And since space was very limited on the walls, the numbers were even more in their favour.
Along with the fact that the enemy’s army were entirely made out of experts, in comparison to the army of Kasten, which had about 60.000 militia of the more or less 80.000 strong force, there was simply no way they could hold the walls indefinitely, even with the buffs given.
Although the enemy paid dearly to take down these walls, they still had many, many men on the horizon.
But that’s not all.
Since all of the mages had been on the walls, they were either now dead and buried underneath the rubble, or stunned by the strong winds thrown at them.
That means that no-one was holding up any form of defence against attacks.
And the enemy knew it.
From the enemy lines, I could see three lines of mages rushing forward, the first dressed in red, probably Fire Mages, the second in purple, usual for Lightning Mages, and the third yellow, Light Mages for protection.
I stood up, pulled out my sword and turned around.
“MAGES, PULL UP A BARRIER!”
I shouted, but all I saw was dust and already half-destroyed buildings.
And many, many corpses.
No-one shouted back, nor was there any sign of Magic being used.
I looked back towards the numerous Mages, more than I had ever seen in one place.
The Fire Mages chanted something and pointed up towards the sky, when suddenly the air was filled with red.
Thousands of giant fireballs, each the size of a horse-drawn carriage, were fired from their lines.
This Magic, although very powerful, is never used in an ongoing battle, because it’s easily defended against.
A low level Mage with a large, spread-out shield could take any one of these or even use a simple counter spell to make it disappear instantly.
But once there aren’t any Mages around to defend against it, this spell is used to clean up the enemy forces.
As the sky was blotted out by the immense numbers of fireballs, the red Mages and purple Mages shifted position.
Unlike the Fire Mages, they didn’t point towards the sky when they started chanting.
Instead, they aimed directly towards the city.
Just like the skies was dyed red with fire, the enormous amount of lightning cast a purple net just slightly above the ground.
A form of Lightning Magic often used in the same situation as the large fireballs, the spell synergized with those next to it.
Like a wave of powerful electricity, it shot towards the city with obvious lightning speed and covered it with a large network of branching thunder bolts all interconnected with each other.
Although the lightning was extremely quick, I still had time to cast a quick and easy shield over my person, protecting it from its grasp.
But even if I wanted to, which I don’t, I couldn’t have protected the city in this short amount of time.
Behind me, I head the only second-long cries of the remaining soldiers before they were being killed by the lightning.
In the distance, I head the fireballs strike every part of the city with amazing roars similar to the one I made in the beginning.
Turning around, I saw the entire city swallowed by fire and lightning, destroying every building and killing every man, woman and child left alive.
The undoubtedly loud screams were drowned out by the sound of hundreds of buildings collapsing and burning down to the ground.
Such was the power of Magic in a world where it is dominant.
It could kill a city within moments as long as its left unguarded.
While watching the city burn, I heard the sound of a stampede coming from behind, but I didn’t turn around.
The remaining monstrosities summoned by the Hero whizzed by with incredible speed, seeking out still-living prey in the dying city without sparing me a single glance.
Later, the minutes easily passing by as I kept staring into the living flames, the remaining soldiers slowly walked by.
Most of them gave me a dirty look, uttered curses or spat in my direction, but it was clear they, too, planned to ignore me.
I kept watching the city burn, remembering those I met during its time.
Innkeeper Ralf, his wife Ingrid and has daughters and sons-in-law, some of whom had volunteered as militia.
Elyse and Patrick, undoubtedly having tried their best at saving the lives of the soldiers, although obviously in vain.
Lady Melissa, Mage Lloyd, and the many other Guild-leaders had given their lives for this city.
And Maxwell had definitely fought until the bitter end, ordering his guard, the garrison and the militia to the best of his ability.
I felt a tinge of sadness and loss.
But despite the feelings of loss, I felt no regrets.
I had no reason to help.
They weren’t my friends.
They weren’t family.
They were merely acquaintances and, for a while, subjects.
I didn’t like them enough to save their lives when it was so obvious that, without my interference, their time had come.
But at the very least, I gave them a battle in which their heroism will be spoken off for centuries to come in the kingdoms of the humans, while dreaded by their enemies.
And besides they brought this upon themselves.
Every citizen of Asra was in favour of killing the other races, so their eradication is merely the result of their attempts.
I feel sad, yes, but I don’t pity them.
They deserved death as much as the enemy forces deserved decimation.
Everyone got what they deserved.
Everything went as intended.
More or less.
“Are you happy with what you see? To see your people burn away, just like they once burned my people? Are you as pleased as I am to watch them burn?”
It was a heavy voice, burdened with sadness, anger and grieve.
No joy, despite saying he was ‘pleased’.
Forced out of my thoughts, I turned around and saw twenty-two men standing there.
Four were in front as representatives – including the Hero – while the other eighteen stayed in the back.
Undoubtedly the rulers of the different kingdoms, tribes and such.
“Yes, very. Everything went according to plan.”
I said smilingly.
Everyone was stunned.
Of course they are.
Who would smile after seeing the city they fought to defend burn?
Then came the anger.
The man up front – a large, wolf like man with light-brown hair and very yellow eyes like a regular wolf – became furious.
But the Hero was the one who spoke first.
“How can you smile like that?! Your people are gone! Everyone you know and love are dead, gone for good thanks to your King! How can you say everything went ‘according to plan’?!”
The Hero spat and shouted.
“For the same reason you joined their side. An eye for an eye, is it not? Asra is gone, just like they made other kingdoms disappear.”
I stated, but this wasn’t good enough for the presumed Wolf-King.
His wrath died down hearing this.
Instead, his voice was filled with grieve and depression.
“Then why? Why did this battle even happen? Why didn’t you join our side? Why did so many of my subjects, so many of my brothers, so many of my sons have to die?”
He was clearly at a loss, and so where those behind him.
“I could forgive you for destroying Asra; it is only just. But would you have stopped after? Or would you have marched against the other kingdoms? I condone taking justice in one’s own hand. After all, power is meant to be used. But exterminating all of humanity? That, I won’t allow. You have your revenge, humanity still lives, Asra got their overdue punishment. With this, everyone’s happy. More or less.”
It was only partially true.
Although I do believe they were right to take down Asra, I normally wouldn’t have stopped them from killing off the rest of the human race.
After all, my policy is still let life do what life does.
But, I spend a decade in this city, so I felt it was right to give them a proper ending.
A bit selfish perhaps, but who cares?
Only half a million people or so have died here.
What is that compared to the entire universe of billions of inhabitable planets with billions of lives on each and every one of them that I created?
But, if I said that, I would probably sound like a maniac.
“Everyone’s happy? Are you mad? You planned for so many to die, and you say you are…”
Without being able to finish his words, the man on his side – presumably King of the Cat-like race, seeing as he looked like it – interrupted him.
By slicing of my head.
I could have avoided it, but I didn’t want to continue this conversation anymore.
It was fruitless anyway.
I left my body, left my Soul, and entered into my divine state, hovering over existence.
I was still focused on the battlefield, where everyone simply looked stunned at my body and the guy who cut off my head.
None uttered a word, neither in protest, nor voiced their contend.
They simply left it lying there and walked towards the city to finish the war and the Kingdom.
I noticed my Soul leaving the world and enter the furnace, soon to be send elsewhere to be born.
Before I left, I sensed the number of corpses through the Energy.
On Kasten’s side were 187.490, although still rapidly climbing as the monsters and soldiers tore through the city.
On the coalition of races side were 395.011, almost all of which were slaughtered trying to reach the wall.
It was as planned.
Not a one-sided massacre, but a massacre on both sides.