“What is it?” Briana asked, sounding puzzled.
“A monster swarm.” Kang guessed.
She looked worried at that answer. “Does that mean we should…? Should we go inside?”
Kang nodded immediately.
“There’s no need until the alarm goes.” Tom argued. “I want to see if they attack.”
That was enough for Briana, and they watched the dots get larger. They were a long way away, which just told Tom that. whatever they were; they were massive. The size-of-a-plane kind of large.
The massive war machine under them shifted slightly. All three of them clutched at the pinchers to stop themselves from falling. The previously immovable statue was vibrating slightly.
“Move! Get to the ground now.” Kang ordered in a panicked voice.
None of them hesitated. They slid off on their tummies.
By the time they reached the bottom, the vibrations had intensified. Their rush to abandon their perch proved unnecessary.
Half a minute passed with no change to the machine, but the dots in the sky continued to get closer.
The alarms started ringing, and, at the same time, there was a sound of slightly rusted gears moving. With a squeal of metal, the beetle shifted its position slightly. All the artillery pieces were doing the same.
“We need to go back.” Briana told them, reacting to the alarm.
“I want to see,” Tom told her.
“Don’t be stupid.” Kang snapped. “Your recklessness while climbing the beetle was bad enough.” The other boy was mad, and that anger was making him slip in his speech patterns more than he should have done. That made Tom feel bad. Risking himself was one thing, but putting another in danger was another. “The alarms are ringing. We need to go where it’s safe.”
Tom ignored Kang and instead looked for a better location. He knew, from his previous observations, that the grass around the beetle was often torn up. Staying where they were was sure to put them in danger and cause an adult to intervene, and he didn’t want that. He had overheard some older kids talking about watching these fights, so he wanted to see them firsthand, and it was clearly allowed, even if officially discouraged. The town seemed to suffer an attack once or twice a month. But given how rarely they were outside, this might be their last chance to see one for a couple of years, so he didn’t want to be forced to retreat.
He spotted artillery that looked like a radio telescope. He had noticed, before, that the lush grass went all the way up to the edges of the device, and it was never damaged post-engagement. That would be safe as a nearby shelter.
He took off at a run.
“Ta, that the wrong way.” Briana yelled at him.
He shook his head defiantly. “You go. I want to see.”
Briana appeared conflicted. “I want to see too.” She said finally and then ran over to him.
Kang, with a curse, joined him.
“If I die because of this… Bloody, stupid, stubborn heroes!” He finished, his voice lowered to no more than a muttering when it came to the final few words. Tom recognised that last bit, said under his breath, as a pointed dig at him, even if an outside observer was never going to be able to spot the relevance. They both knew what Kang had meant.
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The dots had resolved themselves into animals that looked like a cross between a jet engine and a blimp.
“It’s sapients. We have to go. We can’t stay out.” Kang insisted.
“We’ll be safe.” Tom assured him, waving at where Dimitri had appeared in the centre of the lawn. They were not the only group of children who were staying out to watch. The orphanage liked to prepare their kids for Existentia, and Tom suspected that allowing impressionable children to experience these attacks was part of that effort.
There were only a few other groups around. There were five-, ten-year-olds set up near a block-like device and a lone thirteen-year-old who rested against the orphanage wall near the door.
“We can’t stay.” Kang repeated.
He was stubbornly ignored.
The monsters had gotten very close, and the various pieces of artillery started to fire. The beetle shuddered; then, a moment later, an ethereal version of it shot off into the sky. Its wings beat as though it was a living insect, and it honed in on one of the massive living transports.
There were about fifty of them in all, and smaller figures were crowded on their backs.
The response of the town was inspiring.
All the unique artillery pieces - the ones on the hill, those surrounding the orphanage, and the dozens positioned in random parks - were firing at once. Some produced an ethereal beast like the beetle did; he saw wolves, a wyvern, and something that looked like a ghostly human, all launched and rushing the invaders. Those animalistic projectiles were intermingled amongst the more standard attacks. Some were like lasers, others just boring missiles of energy. Then there were bubbles that seemed to have a mind of their own. These would drift aimlessly for what felt like an eternity in combat until they locked onto a target. Then they would suddenly accelerate to be moving faster than an arrow.
“Non-Sapient,” Dimitri called out. “Vessels are whale birds. They won’t land, and don’t have their own attack. They’re just transport, and they’re being controlled by Goblin Elementas. As per their name, these focus on a single element and usually a single ability within the element. On average, they’ll have a rank range from forty to sixty-five, but, depending on the matchup, can hit well above that, or well below. They are a non-critical threat.”
With that extra information both calming him and providing context, Tom found it was easier to watch the battle. The whale birds were sturdy creatures, especially when supplemented by the shields their passengers were casting to protect them. They were able to weather multiple artillery shots. A lot of the magical missiles were being countered by the magical defences. But ultimately, the sheer variety of attacks that the humans were throwing up made the difference. Eventually, a mana attack type that none of the passengers could block would target the whale bird, and, if the shot got through, even if it didn’t immediately kill it, the subsequent follow-ups did.
The domination in the aerial battle by itself was not enough. Unfortunately, killing a whale bird did not guarantee the death of all their passengers, and that was a problem now that they were over the town. A whale bird would die, but, despite that, most of the goblin elementa would reach the ground uninjured.
Tom checked on Dimitri. The latter seemed completely unconcerned, so he returned to observing the fight.
A whale bird drifted to directly above the orphanage - and then died as a beetle slammed into it from close range. It used its pinchers to tear into the aerodynamic blimp like creature and without resistance each bite was devastating. In seconds, it was clear the accumulated wounds were lethal.
Goblins leapt from the dying carcass and fell towards where Tom crouched.
For a moment he thought he had made a mistake by choosing to stay outside; but the fear only raised its head for an instant, which was all the time that passed between the goblins leaping off their doomed craft and a shield crackling into existence to protect the orphanage. Depending on their levels and elemental affinity, some of the goblins bounced off the defence, but others died in a blaze of magical energy.
Despite the proximity of the monsters, Tom realised they were completely protected.
“Only dedicated shield-breakers have a chance of breaking through, and goblin elementas don’t have anything like that.” Dimitri said loudly, pretending to talk to himself, but really addressing the scattered children. “We’re perfectly safe.”
Outside the orphanage and its defensive shield, the rest of the town was not protected. A significant number of the monsters had made it to the ground. One of them waved a hand; a sickly yellow cloud zipped from it and slammed into a house. A person leapt clear of the structure, and the stone sizzled and melted, reducing the wall to nothing and revealing the now-empty insides.
Tom swallowed.