The creature roared, took a step back into the fog as if to disappear then returned with another fist towards the barrier.
Van gritted his teeth as he felt the shockwave of the strike channel itself from the shield and into the many mages who were risking their lives to prop up the barrier. But with his help, the cracks that formed recovered far quicker than before and with less damage, taking a large burden off his fellow mages.
“HOLD ON FOR A LITTLE LONGER!” Someone in the distance shouted.
Van wondered who it was and who they were waiting for. To him it didn't make much sense that a bunch of cadets such as themselves were up in the front line of things. It made him wonder where all the trained soldiers were.
His question was soon answered by the marching of many feet and the skittering of pointy legs. Taking a quick glance behind himself he saw a large cannon like object mounted on what appeared to be a boney centipede like vehicle being helped along by women in heavy battle gear. Looking far more professional and battle ready than the students who somehow made it to the fight first. They worked in unison, aiming the large cannon towards the colossus of meat and bone and prepared to fire.
“HERE IT COMES AGAIN!”
The monster sent another wave of cracks throughout the barrier. But sensing the danger that the cannon might pose to itself, it began to strike more often and with both arms. It roared in anger, putting its entire body into every strike.
Van and the other mages were beginning to gain nosebleeds, a few of his colleagues were even bleeding from their eyes and ears. Some outright collapsed…
But the cannon was ready, and not just the one behind them, but a row of cannon from different sections and battlements on the wall aimed their fire towards the colossus and sent waves of crackling energy the size of carriages towards the monstrosity.
The creature roared as meaty chunks were ripped from its body. But to many peoples horror, it would scoop up the pieces that had fallen and put them back in place, healing itself.
Then another wave of cannon fire struck it, and even more pieces fell off its body. To the relief of everyone, it could not heal itself faster than the damage it was taking.
With a final roar the creature, realizing that it wouldn’t be able to survive, turned tried to give one more blow the the barrier that denied it its rightful entry into the city, before turning back and trying to flee. A final volley into its back, it collapsed, its many corpsey parts writhing and undulating left and right. One last blast helped scatter those bits to pieces.
Van gave a sigh of relief, thinking it was over and started to listen in on the surrounding conversation.
“Gods damn corpse eater! That must have been the biggest one I ever saw!” Someone exclaimed.
“Must have fed well on the last few expeditions…” Someone else commented.
“Did you feel that too?” A third person said. “It was touch and go for a while until that last person arrived, do you know who they were?”
Their friend shook their head. “No, but whoever that was, that was Gods damn close… The corpse eater almost made its way in…”
Van then overheard a few other people begin to comment on the severity of the attack.
“This was the worst one yet. You don’t think the rumors are true…?”
“I don’t know… But with this kind of evidence… Maybe?”
“Damn… If it’s true we're screwed…”
“Yeah… That means we really may have no choice but to continue with these grand marches…”
Van’s ears perked up at that and listened in for a while. From what he could piece together, the fog storms and monster waves have been getting worse and worse over the course of the past few decades. Some believe that it was because of the marches into the depths of the old Nilfan empire. While others believed it was naturally getting this bad and doing the marches was what helped kept everything in check preventing things from getting worse.
There was a bit of back and forth in debate when all of a sudden a shout shut them up.
“SECOND WAVE! INCOMING!”
Immediately everyone including Van tensed up and began to prepare their spells. Then off in the distance a large swarm of what appeared to be giant bats and an army of death wolves began making a beeline towards the wall they were standing on.
“SOLDIERS FORWARD! ARCHERS IN THE MIDDLE! MAGES GET BACK! AND ENGINEERS FIRE AT WILL!”
The roar of cannon fire echoed throughout the area. Massive explosions created waves of destruction like large rocks being thrown into a pond. But like water the death wolves filled in the gaps and continued on their frenzy charge towards the wall. Bats were blown out of the skies, but there were so many of them and so far apart that cannon fire directed towards them was pointless and the engineers were forced to focus on the death wolves.
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The archers and mages then stepped forward and began to send arrows and fireballs into the air to strike down the giant bats while Van and a few others were kept in reserve to repair the barrier whenever it was struck or damaged.
Within half an hour the wolves had made it to the wall and began trying to clamber on up it. They died trying, but since they had no fear of death they continued their reckless charge, creating a small mound of corpses for those behind them to climb up, making it easier for those that followed.
It was not long after that the soldiers up front, a mix of troops from dorms gathered from all over and professional trained warriors from the school and city started fighting for their lives when the first dead eyed death wolf finally made it over the edges of the eighty foot tall wall, bashing their heads on the barrier and squeezing through the small gaps they made, which others of their kind quickly followed through before it could close.
The death wolves had no concept of pain or tiredness, and the more there was in a horde the more powerful they became. They literally feed off of death, so their dead comrades actually gave them a small boost of energy for a short while, which they used to quickly scale the wall. What’s worse, some gorged themselves on their former comrades, growing quickly in size and ferocity.
The ramparts became slick with blood rather quickly, both from those who died to the death wolves and those who killed the death wolves spilling their black blood all over the floor. The bats, while not particularly in cahoots with the wolves, make use of each other to gang up on the soldiers whenever they could from both ground and air. They then feasted on the downed prey and returned to swarm the rest of the living.
Orders were yelled and the engineers manning the cannons started to pull away. The enemy was just too close to make use of them and instead they were ordered to man the weaponry, such as a repeating ballista that fired large arrows at a rapid rate into whatever large crowd of monsters.
More orders were issued and half the archers put away their bows to take up swords while the other half fled and took positions on higher elevations to fire down into the horde of monsters. Mages like Van were also split into two groups, one that fired magic and another that healed and casted support on the troops below.
He was of the latter, using his spells to heal up anyone in his range while at the same time enhancing their battle prowess through spells. Making the soldiers fight harder and for longer.
Necromancers would raise the bodies of the dead that were still in one piece to act as a buffer for those who were still living. And great mages sent vortexes of fire and lightning into large swathes of wolves and bats alike. Archers fired arrows that spun and whirled around, killing many before falling down.
The battle raged for what felt like an hour, but was more likely just ten minutes. The screams of the dying and the roars and snarls of the monsters was deafening.
At first people were getting worried that this was the end, when cheering was heard from behind as another wave of soldiers, reinforcements, rushed in to join battle, temporarily pushing the death wolves back off the walls. And to make things even better, the vampire knights arrived in all their glory, wearing their battle armor and killing entire chunks of the enemy with a single swipe.
It was awe inspiring, and made Van realize why so many people aspired to be one.
“Sorry we were late.” One of the vampire knights said to the commander in charge of section two of the wall. “We were held up by multiple corpse eaters in section one and three as well as four. The largest damn buggers we ever seen as well…”
The commander didn’t seem to enjoy hearing the excuse, but knew there wasn’t much she could do about it and just accepted it for what it was. “How is it on the other fronts?” She instead asked.
The knight shook her head. “Not good. But better now. Yours is the last one we-”
“ROACH STAMPEDE!!!”
Everyone froze, almost as if time stood still. Even the wolves and bats seemed to understand what the shout indicated and hesitated. Soon a massive wave of transparent fish and other creatures blinded everyone for the next few minutes, all of them fleeing.
The death wolves and the bats also began to flee, ignoring the soldiers in front of them in the hopes of escape.
“SHIT! DON’T LET THEM INTO THE CITY!” The commander yelled.
A series of confused fighting took place as the wolves and bats began to run all over and in all directions. Some pretending to be dead only to rise once the soldier's back was turned and run again.
In the confusion, lines were broken and a few wolves and bats even made their way to the mages in the back where Van was. He quickly raised his hands and began to dowse the incoming enemy with blue fire and create small mana shields to protect himself and his fellow mages.
“DAMNIT!” The commander yelled, her eyes no longer on the monsters around her. “FORGET THE WOLVES AND BATS! EVERYONE RETREAT TO THE SECOND WALL!” More shouting was heard from the sub commanders as they relayed the orders, forcing everyone to form up and abandon the first layer of wall.
Necromancers worked double time to raise as many corpses as they could to take their place, in the hopes of slowing down or buffering the enemy. Engineers and artificers worked together to automate their ballista to randomly fire outward from the wall. High ranking mages entered into the spiked towers that lined the wall and started overcharging the mana orbs that feed the barrier, making it more opaque. Traps were set, mines were placed, spikes pointed outward, and everyone began to flee.
Van wondered if it was wise to just ignore the wolves and bats, but they seemed to be fleeing alongside the soldiers and knights. “What the hell? Death wolves afraid of death? What is going on!?” He couldn’t help but think that, it just was too uncharacteristic of them.
He turned to look back and enhanced his eyes to see further and clearer, and what he saw tied his stomach into knots…
A literal wave of what appeared to be the same monster that attacked them during their expedition came barreling down on them. There must have been millions of them, some swarming on the ground, others flying so densely packed they bloated the sky. And all of them were heading straight for the wall Van was standing on.
The alarm began to ring once more, but this time ringing a completely different sound. It was the sixth alarm type, the one that gave every easterner nightmares.
And what’s worse, as Van squinted, he couldn’t help but see a large silhouette of something even large plodding along behind the swarm. Bigger than any corpse eater they had fought so far.
“Oh Holy Hells…”
Van remembered back so many years ago when he was a child. When a crack formed above their home and horrific monsters spilled out. A time where even man and beast put aside their differences to work together for survival.
Now a lumbering giant with six legs and a massive torse with a long neck appeared. On its massive back was what appeared to be a hive of sorts for the roaches flying towards them. Its size was more than two hundred feet tall, and seemed to be twice as long. It raised its head and stared at them with its large multiple eyes and roared. The shockwave of which reached them even from the miles of distance between them.
“Were so fucked…”