It was currently eleven-fifty in the morning and all of the people gathered on the walls or stood outside past the trench, were fighting off the snowstorm's cold as they waited for the attack to begin.
On top of the outer wall were twenty-five soldiers that were skilled in archery, each one powerful enough to rival a talented marksman with a rifle.
Ger and both of his daughters stood ready, Ger with his sniper rifle, Sarah with her nature magic grimoire, a new item she had purchased from the system that boosted all of her nature magic skills, and finally, Ellie who was holding Mini Daz as she controlled the M Destroyer which was with the frontal fighters.
"Girls," Ger said as he wiped away the snow that had collected on his head.
Ellie turned to look at him while Sarah replied, "Yeah, Dad?"
Ger smiled. "I wish your mother was here to see you girls like this. I'm so proud of you both. She'd have loved to have seen you two so focused and hardworking..."
"Dad..." Ellie mumbled as a melancholic expression filled her face.
"I'm sure she's watching us, Dad," Sarah said with a big cheesy grin on her expression.
Ger couldn't help but loosen his lips upon seeing his upbeat daughter always staying positive. "I wonder if she'd have been here with us, fighting as a family if I hadn't left her..."
"It wasn't your fault, Dad," Both Ellie and Sarah said at the same time, forcing them to look at each other and giggle a bit despite the serious subject.
"Seriously, you girls..." Ger sighed before he pulled his daughters in for a hug. "It's been a while, why don't we visit your mother after today's attack? I'm sure Daz can find some time to escort us to her grave."
Ellie stayed silent while Sarah beamed a smile. "That sounds nice."
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Below the walls, Daz had Hamson stabbed into the piled up snow as he leaned on the shovel's handle. Madison was on his left while Crusher was on his right.
Behind them stood the ten-foot tall Rimmy and he was surrounded by Dorian, the five-teenaged cosplayers, Jorden, Edward, twenty-one of the other soldiers and General Retford. The M1 Abrams was stationary with the remaining soldiers in it, fully prepared for the coming battle.
"Big Bro, what kind of monsters do think we'll get today?" Jorden asked as he adjusted his large coat slightly.
"I'm not sure, Jorden," Daz replied calmly, "But hopefully, the system has some mercy considering it's the first day of this cycle, huh?" he added with a short laugh to help reassure the young nine-year-old.
"I just wanna help you, Big Bro... Don't make me go on the wall again like last time, please, even if the monsters are tough. I'm still super fast even with the snow and all these clothes!" Jorden exclaimed as he skipped about to display his agility.
Madison's face lit up as she watched this. "Cute."
Edward glanced at Daz before he also asked a question. "Harriot will be safe in that 'dungeon' of yours, won't she?"
'Edward, huh? He surprisingly got over two-hundred loyalty in a single night... way more than I was expecting. Not quite two-fifty, but good enough,' Daz commented internally. "So long as we don't all get slaughtered, everyone down there will be fine."
"That's a relief to hear," Edward replied as he took out a cigar and lit it despite the heavy snow.
Crusher laughed when she saw that. "You're pretty relaxed all things considered, ain'tcha?"
Edward shrugged. "Getting stressed will only lower my focus and make me weaker, so what's the point? Look at that bomb over there that's about ready to explode," he said as he gestured towards Dorian who was shaking like a leaf.
Crusher walked up to the one-armed man and wrapped her own arm around his shoulder. "Hahaha! This idiot's not scared or stressed, he's just cold, aren't ya, Captain?"
Dorian looked uncomfortable, but he still forced a smile. "At least one of us has faith in me..."
"Ah, you're such a worrywart, Ahab. You'll be fine. I'll keep you safe if I have to, hahaha!" Crusher roared.
"Well, that's enough playing around. It's time," Daz said to the two of them as he noticed that there were only twenty seconds left until the attack began.
Those seconds crawled by and everyone's tension was building up as the snow got fiercer and fiercer. Finally, the long-dreaded and awaited notification filled every citizens' vision.
Day one's attack shall now begin Due to this being the second attack cycle, an additional factor has been added: Extreme Weather: Heavy Snow.
Due to the efficient use of your merit points, and at the request of several Gods, the difficulty of your attack has increased greatly.
The attack's difficulty has increased greatly due to the host's number of governed Citizens increasing.
Due to the base gaining a very powerful weapon, the difficulty of your attack has increased.
Due to the host evolving, the difficulty of your attack has increased greatly.
Good luck, Reaper.
Everyone stood around anxiously as they waited for today's monsters to appear, but oddly enough, they couldn't see anything in the thick snow. "This is weird..."
Daz tried using his Higher Identification on the thin air just in case their enemies were somehow invisible, but he got no results. "Where are the monsters?"
It was at that moment that a large cracking sound filled everyone's ears. Daz snapped his neck around only to see the lightning tower firing an arc of energy towards the sky. Following the stream of charged magical power, Daz's eyes fell onto what looked like a cyan-coloured bird of flames. He immediately used Higher Identification on it.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Talarthundatan's Status Basic Information Name: Talarthundatan Species: Phoenix Race: Frost Phoenix Age: 705 Sex: Female Class: Wielder of Frost Affinity: Lawful Good Description
A noble and honourable existence brought to the brink of extinction by the actions of the sapient species that shared her home planet.
Just like the rest of her clan, she was forced to serve the system in order to survive. After many centuries of such a life, and even despite her young age for her species, this Frost Phoenix wishes for nothing more than to be destroyed or freed from the system to prevent herself from killing more innocent lives at the behest of the system.
Energies Lifeforce: 50,000/50,000 Stamina: 9,999/10,000 World Force: 20,000/20,000 Stats Intelligence: 2,000(2,500) Wisdom: 2,000(2,500) Regeneration: 10,000(12,500) Strength: 1,000 Agility: 1,500
Daz watched as the lightning bolt struck the majestic creature and stopped it momentarily, but within a fraction of a second, the Phoenix's body had recovered from all of the damage and it quickly descended towards the wall, obviously, it was trying to use its body to crush the people there.
"Maddy! Stop it and redirect it into the snow! Everyone else, get ready to receive it!" Daz yelled as he turned around and prepared himself.
Without answering him, Madison dashed towards the wall and within less than a second she was already upon it. With near-impossible agility, Madison ran along the wall vertically and used one of the rampart's parapets as a stepping stone that she jumped from it towards the still diving Phoenix.
She unsheathed her sword midair and muttered, "Flow Reversal."
Almost as if by magic, as soon as the tip of her longsword touched the head of the flaming creature, its entire body shifted and changed directions. Its attack was now heading straight towards the snowed-over plains outside the walls.
This was due to one of the few skills that Madison's class, Divine Swordsman, had granted her.
Flow Reversal [SS-Rank (Higher Tier)] Description
A skill unique to Divine Swordsmen that was given to the fourth Divine Swordsman in the system's history, Saint Frederick, as a gift by the lesser god, The God of Swords.
It allows the host to redirect any attack to the direction they choose.
Level 4 Abilities Redirect any attack. Cooldown is based on the strength of the redirected attack. Current cooldown: 10 minutes.
Madison's adorable face frowned as she fell towards Daz's group along with the Phoenix. 'Ten, minutes. Long.'
General Retford audibly groaned. "That monster took no damage from the lightning tower? It's tougher than a Lesser Dragon."
Daz shook his head as he watched the beast crash into the snow, wasting its diving attack. "It took damage, but it healed it immediately. That Phoenix has over twelve-thousand regeneration."
Crusher whistled. "That's seven times what I have. Can we even kill it if it'll just heal infinitely?"
"It can't regen forever. Healing the attack from the tower cost it one point of stamina," Daz informed everyone.
Edward laughed a bit hopelessly. "How much stamina does that thing have, by the way?"
"Ten-thousand," Daz answered as he gripped Hamson tightly and watched as the Phoenix crawled out of the hole it had made from the fall's impact.
Dorian was immediately taken over with fear. "We're supposed to force that thing to heal te-ten-thousand times?"
Before Daz could reply, an ear-piercing cry bellowed through the air and a stream of pure-blue flames flew out of the Frost Phoenix's mouth faster than anyone could react. Like a laser beam, it tore through the soldiers and only stopped once Rimmy threw himself in its way.
Unfortunately, even though Rimmy was now strong enough to withstand such an attack, the people hit by it weren't.
Seven soldiers had instantly died.
"B-Big Bro... I... It hurts..."
Daz turned to his left only to see Jorden with a massive gaping wound across his chest. It looked like the young boy was barely able to avoid being cut in half by moving out of the way in the last second. 'Damn it!'
"Crusher, save Jorden!" he yelled before he ran forwards to steal the creature's attention.
Crusher moved as fast as she could and held Jorden in her arms. She looked at him with a slightly annoyed gaze before she bit her finger and forced her blood into his mouth. "Blood of The Gods!" she roared, fully restoring the damage to Jorden's body.
"T-Thanks..." Jorden mumbled in a bit of a daze.
Crusher slapped him. "Pay attention, Kid. I'm not gonna waste that skill on you twice today, so don't get hit again!" After saying that, Crusher ran towards Daz and the Phoenix who were exchanging blows.
Daz grit his teeth and was forced to block the beast's wing that was slamming against him with Hamson who frosted over upon touching the Phoenix's flames. 'Dammit! This fucking snow is slowing me down too much! If only this was a humanoid, I'd be able to fight it more easily, but the thing's fucking huge!'
"Kiiiiii!" the Phoenix screeched as it opened its mouth to fire another blast of frost energy.
Just as it was about to launch, a powerful force sent the bird's head rocking back, making the attack fire into the sky, tearing open the snowstorm.
"Damn, really, that's it?" Crusher said as she jumped back. indeed, she had hit the Phoenix's chin with her hammer at full power, but even then, it only knocked its head back, so Crusher was naturally a bit surprised.
Arrows rained down from the wall onto the flaming creature of beauty as vines spouted up from beneath the snow and coiled around the creature, seemingly immune to the freezing effect of the frost flames on the monster's body.
The large and semi-repaired M Destroyer floated above the bound creature and fired the laser from its left arm, forcing the beast to scream out in pain.
A split-second later, the muffled sound of a gunshot rang through the air and the Phoenix's head was split open.
All of this damage was immediately healed, but Daz saw that the Phoenix's stamina had fallen by over five-hundred points in that brief moment.
A shout came from the wall. "Everyone! Surround it and hit it as much as you can! I'll keep holding it down!" Sarah was visibly sweating, but even as the Frost Phoenix broke the vines holding it, new ones sprouted out from the ground and covered it once more.
"Good... We can win like this," Daz mumbled before he gave out an order, "Everyone, do as Sarah said! Attack it carefully and don't touch its body or let it hit you or you'll freeze if you don't have enough Constitution!"