As an invisible battle of wills and natures was waged under the waves, something entirely different took place in the city of Argoush. All of the Units within the Sovereign Swarm went berserk with a ferocity that lacked any kind of self-preservation or reason. Where there were no Avatars or Settlement Collectives to maintain stability, the Swarm's various enslaved and spawned creatures went after the nearest enemies they could find.
In Argoush that meant that the previously expertly laid out siege camp that the monster horde had so skillfully set up, was abandoned in favor of a seemingly mindless charge at the city. Millions of flying insects revealed themselves as they erupted from portable hives and hidden nests. The sky darkened as bees, ants, wasps, flies, mosquitoes, and more exotic insects descended down on the already-pressed city to batter themselves against the magical defenses meant to keep out toxic fumes and spores, not millions of tiny bodies that, thanks to their heat and flame resistance, did not mind burning as they practically tried to rub themselves through the magical field.
The magic users who had been so ready to bombard the rushing Soldiers, Fungal Zombies, and Swarm Champions who were making their way towards the wall, had to instead try to protect the archers and sentry men from being coated in rabid insects attacking with enhanced stingers and mandibles. Gusts of wind, torrents of water, swaths of flame, and more exotic attacks were launched up into the sky along with improvised barriers to try and keep the aerial threat back, but who would actually specialize in something as menial as fighting pests and vermin?
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Hans Reclis and Michel of Hor were moving down the streets of Argoush towards the wall, the small-town Sorcerer had to almost support his compatriot as something the man had sensed right before the attack had shook him to his core. They had been friends back in Hor when things had been normal, Hans providing simple magical services and Michel ranging in the great forest. But the last months had forged them into true companions as they had survived the siege and been put to task inside of a Dungeon.
They both carried clothes, weapons, and other magical items along with the new powers both had developed in the days and nights they had fought in the Dungeon. So, now that the Swarm was attacking it was their duty to go out and add to it, but Hans had not expected his martial companion to suddenly become the weight rather than the one carrying it. But they both had to hurry, Hans saw the sky darkening with insects and other fliers who refused to stay down despite the many magical attacks launched up to drive them away from the city.
He could help, his magic, the magic inside of him since birth had shaped itself to fight vermin. It had only grown stronger since Hor fell and he was confident he could make a difference along with Michel who had developed powers from his distant ancestor. Not only powers of plant and earth, but also the ability to sense the Thrall-King's minions. As the fighting grew more heated up on the walls the two friends made their way to the staircase leading up, when a burning Soldier lept of the wall to maul one of the bystanders who had not been smart enough to flee as the attack took place.
Michel shook himself and got away from Hans.
"Continue up to the walls, I can do more for you here than up there. I will keep this monster occupied."
The ex-woodsman drew two glowing machetes and rushed at the metallic-giant insect and he began to do battle in earnest.
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Listig was sitting on the roof of one the taller houses near the wall, watching as the Swarm and the city defenders were facing off in a pitched battle. While the fungal zombies desperately tried to climb, the Soldiers and Swarm Champions effortlessly moved up the stone surface to engage the beleaguered defenders. Many of the monsters had been injured or felled by the onslaught of arrows, bolts, rocks, and other projectiles that had been launched down at the storming horde. But there were still thousands left to assail them all.
They had fled their team and left all of Hor behind after Listig had sensed the true driving force behind the Swarm. Someone from Earth like themselves. The moment Listig had touched the Swarm their two interfaces met, and Listig sensed something more beyond their shared origins and similar Soul Guidance Systems. Whoever this person had been, they were now far more powerful than Listig. So shameful and cowardly as it had been Listig had fled.
"Look where it took me...back to them."
A snort in derision was all Listig could do after contemplating the futility of fleeing. Now the battle was here once again and Listig could at least try to fight and die like a proper Adventurer rather than fleeing in the night. It did not take a genius to see that the city would not be able to withstand the wild onslaught for any prolonged period of time, but a few acid bombs and similar tricks could at least help.
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Listig began moving their hands to activate their class abilities to mix, and create various improvised devices and concoctions for battle when a wheezing voice spoke up.
"So, do you know what is going on? It looks like a fucking monster horde."
Tim the Necromancer had somehow climbed up the side of the building and was now catching his breath as he asked the catkin Adventurer. His disheveled purple robes were almost twisting in the breeze as Listig replied.
"It is."
They stopped for a moment before they could continue speaking with their voice barely above a hushed whisper.
"...one of us. Or parts of the horde is that at least. I believ-well I am not sure."
Listig hesitated and swallowed before they replied to Tim who turned pale as he gazed at the carnage taking place on the walls.
"I faced this...horde back in a small town called Hor. I went with that team I told you about and when I met this thing, my system interfaced with theirs and I fled."
"And now this person has come looking for you with an army of monsters at their command?"
Tim asked with dawning horror on his face as the scope of the battle grew further and further below them.
"Dunno, the point is that I can't flee this time. So, Tim what do you say to actually be the heroes we dreamed about before we got to this world?"
A sardonic grin spread on the enby's face as they looked at the human Necromancer. Two silly children from a world with no magic, now seeds being put to the test as a true war came their way. Tim's reply was to lift his staff and point at a dead Soldier that had been sent off the wall along with several dead birds and said.
"Raise Zombie: Singular"
Magic passed through the Soldier but rather than a single zombie...several rose as the two Adventurers joined the fray.
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Silly children, they thought there were rules. They thought they understood what they faced, humans from Earth, pawns of the carnies, and Adventurers defending cities. Argoush believed that their protections from underground attacks and air raids were sufficient. That the Swarm had not overrun the city because they had skillfully held it off.
No.
The Swarm had not sacked the city because it had other priorities than mere destruction. Collecting Subjects over simple Units, seizing infrastructure that could be turned into new Blueprints for their own settlements, testing different strategies for when they had to actually combat a worthy threat. Even the Great General of the Swarm was testing itself rather than going for the kill. Mar was young and had a mind primed for games and long-term plans, in a lot of ways they were not the best for simple conquests. Their own proclivities were not there to spare the land now.
With all of Mar gone and no Avatars to take control over the loose armies, the Chilvalean lands turned into hell in moments. Villages disappeared under the hooves, claws, and wings of thousands of Fungal Zombies. Workers broke through the ground and up into the streets of Argoush and lesser towns they could reach, even if they had to break their legs and chitin against the enchanted rock above them. Millions of insects haunted forests and mountains as all life was touched wherever the Swarm could theoretically reach.
The best Adventurers met their match on the walls of Argoush as the Blood-Thorn Vampires leapt onto the walls, their predatory auras overlapped to strengthen the Units around them as they engaged the best and brightest of the city. Matching experience, magical gear, and numbers with their sheer nature. One of the vampires had conjured a rose-like buckler and a crimson thorn the length of a rapier, he fenced with the defenders on the walls and cut through them all like a scythe through wheat. The second was female and had hardened her body by taking on the properties of wood, her already dark skin had turned into an almost oak-like complexion with a tint of crimson. As she fought the mages on the wall like a bear taking on a pack of wolves, her body absorbed and tanked the spells launched at her while she returned the favor with mighty swipes of her taloned hands that sent people flying like ragdolls.
Last of all was the third of the original vampires. and he was the greatest of them all. He rose over the wall on tendrils of seaweed sticking out of his back in the form of six tentacles. He used them both as a means of transportation and as weapons as the tendrils darted down to slap, poke, and just touch everyone getting in his way. Paralytic venoms coated his limbs and he unleashed torrents of thorns from his palms out on the archers and unoccupied spellcasters trying to snipe him. And all the while the three auras wrapped around half of the city, cowing the citizens and emboldening the Units as they fought with wild abandon.
Stone and soil exploded out as Workers leading the way for Fungal Zombies broke through the streets of Argoush and soon enough the frenzied Swarm began to slaughter the innocent of the city. Without care or compromise...only rage, as four seeds fought and sprouted in the carnage.