Book 3: Chapter 153: Battle to Defend the City

The Cornflower Witch

Western Mountain Range, Purple Fern Rampart.

Beneath the ancient stone walls, strange creatures battered the defenses. Defenders on the battlements drew bows and loosed arrows continuously. From time to time, soldiers in City Alliance cloaks and battle armor raised their shields and moved forward, surrounding and killing the monsters that clambered up the walls.

“Hold on, Alliance reinforcements will be here soon!” a captain wearing a kettle helmet shouted, urging his fighters on. Torches and braziers were being lit, and many beastman warriors in the city were organized and thrown into the line to fill the gaps.

Although cities and tribes across the mountains were all under monster attacks, Purple Fern Rampart was the worst hit, because four corruption points had erupted not far from the city. Such dense, numerous monsters immediately exceeded the local garrison’s capacity to handle them.

Atop the towers above the walls, several mages stood summoning powerful lightning from the sky. The dazzling bolts struck the monster packs, bursting with blinding light. The shattered currents charred many monsters on the spot, and many more were paralyzed.

“This is bad.” A Third Tier mage watched the endless monsters below with worry; even though they had killed hundreds in one surge, the creatures still poured forward like a tide.

“Just bad luck for us,” a teammate said helplessly. He cast back-to-back large spells and was exhausted, needing to catch his breath and rest a moment.

“The Alliance told us to prepare a month in advance, but it still wasn’t enough.”

“Maybe the Shadow World in the western region was never cleared before, so things piled up like this. Other major powers send people into the Shadow World to both eliminate hidden dangers and harvest resources.”

“The western region never had a unified large power, so naturally no one did that. Most of the beastmen are ignorant; it’s still too hard to get them to master the means of traversing between the Shadow World and the surface continents.”

“This time the Alliance held ceremonies in both the surface and the Shadow World to develop the Shadow World in the west, building beacons for teleportation and movement.”

“Although the teleportation beacons were established, the spacetime fluctuations and reflected forces they caused also triggered a rapid outbreak of corruption.”

“To cope with such outbreaks, the Alliance also pulled many elites from the academies; they’ll assist us in battle this time.”

“Hold on a little longer. The distress signal has been sent, support will arrive soon,” the companion encouraged. After resting briefly, several mages regrouped to cast spells again.

A huge dark-red fireball gradually formed over the city. It began at only ten meters in diameter, then expanded little by little until it reached nearly a hundred meters across.

The massive fireball seared the ground, making dead grass emit bluish smoke. Not only did many monsters recoil in fear, even the soldiers and warriors on the walls felt the heat unbearably; their armor grew hot.

The blazing sphere lit up the area around Purple Fern Rampart like daytime. From above, it would look like a dam lined with dense black dots; the wall separated the clustered darkness outside from the orderly buildings and crowds within.

Though their hair and armor were scorching, under the fireball the soldiers’ morale rose, and their visibility was excellent—they suddenly had day-clear sight in the night.

Then one arrow volley after another flew true, pinning nearby monsters. Some First Tier and Second Tier Aspect-bearing monsters were singled out by elite guards and taken down.

The battle continued. They repelled the monster waves once more, and just as the soldiers on the wall were about to collapse from exhaustion, the high-hanging fireball exploded with a roar. Countless flames rained down like meteor showers, striking the wilderness outside the walls and burning swathes of monsters. Brilliant fires flared everywhere and the monsters under the wall thinned out immediately.

Only then did the mages on the wall towers let out a sigh of relief.

“That should buy us some safety for a while.”

Unfortunately, things rarely went smoothly. As the stationed mages prepared to rest and recover, a strange mottled white leopard dashed out from the pale darkness of the wasteland.

Agile in form, it dodged the crossbows aimed at the base of the wall with artful movements, then leapt from the battlement and ran down as if walking on level ground, descending at a perfect ninety-degree angle.

“Stop it!” the captain on guard hissed.

But the mottled white leopard nimbly avoided the attacks and at times its form dispersed, only to reappear elsewhere, leaving the defenders momentarily unsure how to respond.

Star-Shadow Panther (Eighth Tier · alien star)

An ordinary panther adapted to Distortion environments. It can briefly traverse space using the alien star Aspect, gaining weak mobility.

The panther, using flickering spatial jumps, quickly cut through the defensive lines built around Purple Fern Rampart. It ignored the beastmen and human soldiers behind and charged straight through the wall where archers stood, sweeping past slowly. Wherever its sharp claws brushed, volleys of archers fell in rows.

The alien star power seeping from its claws warped the bodies of nearby ordinary people, turning faces green. Even without deliberate attacks, the phase-level suppression of its presence inflicted grievous, irreparable injuries on many commoners.

After roughly dispatching those archers, it showed no lingering interest and turned its gaze inward toward the city. Because of the fighting, many residents had not slept, and people were moving about the streets transporting supplies for the defense and helping treat the wounded.

After a brief consideration, it ignored the Transcendents pursuing it from the walls and suddenly leapt into the defenseless crowd. Panic erupted as numerous civilians scrambled to flee from its assault.

“Clear the way!”

A roar echoed through the chaotic streets. A fully armored knight pushed through the crowd and rushed at the roughly three-meter-tall panther.

“I am a Knight of the Local Defense, an Enforcer of Order. I swear to drive out the Twilight Ones!”

He raised a broad-bladed cruciform greatsword clasped in both hands. A holy light bloomed from the blade. Then he planted the sword point-down into the paving stone, and a white ripple spread outward, sweeping across the city. The City Alliance badge on his armor flashed; wherever the ripple reached, the badges and emblems on the City Alliance soldiers responded in kind.

An invisible curtain of light seemed to blanket the entire city. The panther, which had been using spatial traversal to attack and teleport with impunity, found the space suddenly unbreakable. Its ghostly mobility was sealed. Before it could escape the area, the knight charged in.

Beneath his visor his expression burned. He swung his greatsword in a wide arc with no escape possible, the irresistible cleave striking the panther and killing it.

The immediate crisis was finally quelled. Soldiers on the walls and mages in the towers breathed easier, but beyond the walls even more monsters had already appeared.

The battle was far from over.