Free Web NovelChapter 200: The Battle for Herald City - Part 5
Celestina had been aware of the deteriorating situation behind her for some time, but there was nothing she could do about it. If she had retreated at the first signs of trouble, all the beasts she had been holding back would have flooded over and trampled the refugees outside the walls to death.
The only way she could return to stabilize the faltering defenders was to clear out the enemies around her first.
With that thought in mind, she began attacking more aggressively, pushing her strength harder as she began slaughtering as many beasts as possible instead of just trying to ward them off. At the same time, she used her Soul Sense to send a command to the Spirit Initiates fighting beside her to do the same.
Receiving this order, the Spirit Initiates promptly switched from defence to offence, shifting their focus from crowd control to killing. Instantaneously, the rate at which these 7 masters brought down the rampaging beasts around them more than doubled.
Within 5 minutes, all of the Spirit Initiates had pushed the beasts in front of them back 10 metres, while Celestina had opened up a shocking 40 metres radius around herself, once again demonstrating the enormous difference in combat capabilities between the Initiate and Adept Realms.
Satisfied with the destruction she had wrought, Celestina fired the signal to retreat and led her elite subordinates back towards the city. At the same time, she gave the order to keep the gates open, lest someone misinterpret her signal and try to close them.
When Celestina had first leapt off the walls to stem the Beast Tide, there had been several thousand civilians still left to evacuate. That number had shrunk to just over 500 now, so the perimeter that needed to be defended had shrunk enough that with her, the Spirit Initiates, and the 100 or so defenders from the city who had come down from the walls, they could form a solid defence line outside the gate.
As she approached the crowd of refugees, Celestina nodded to Captain Pierce, who immediately understood his General’s intent and shouted, "Close ranks! Open up space for the General and the Commanders!"
The elite Mortal Realm forces from the city had arranged themselves into a kind of loose human wall around the civilians, doing their best to block the beasts which had come charging over, but with a Spirit Adept and several Spirit Initiates joining them, they could now bunch up much tighter while leaving considerable parts of the line to these masters.
Thankfully, most of the men and women who had come down from the walls were veteran soldiers familiar with both formations and life-and-death battles, so it only took them a couple of seconds to re-organize themselves.
It was a good thing too, because without Celestina and the Spirit Initiates blocking the Beast Tide further out, the number of enemies these defenders had to face was about to jump significantly, increasing the pressure on each of them by several times.
Only seconds after the Spirit Realm masters joined the line, the torrent of beasts crashed down upon the newly shrunk formation, and when they did, the Mortal Realm soldiers and adventurers nearly buckled in several places.
It was only thanks to the prompt assistance of the nearby Spirit Initiates that the entire defence didn’t crack then and there.
Experiencing a taste of just what General Balfour and elite masters had been enduring this entire time, the Sea Establishment and Core Formation Practitioners were all left in awe at the difference in strength between those in the Grand Mortal Realm and those in the Grand Spirit Realm.
Still, with the gaping jaws of death literally biting down on them, these defenders didn’t remain dazed for long.
With many of them letting out war-cries, they struck back, bashing the beasts with their shields, stabbing them with their spears, and chopping at them with their swords. The previously scattered battle became a tangled melee as the humans slowly but surely retreated towards the safety of the gates.
500 refugees...
400...
300....
Just as the remaining number of civilians outside the walls dropped under 200, and the defenders were starting to feel confident in their ability to complete the evacuation with only minimal casualties, a series of gloomy howls sounded all across the Beast Tide. fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com
These howls had a particularly piercing quality to them, causing everyone below the Fourth Step Sea Establishment Realm to falter from a sudden pain they felt in their heads.
While the vast majority of the human defenders on the ground were dazed, the beasts, on the other hand, grew even fiercer, all of them leaping and clawing in a frenzied state.
The dizziness the Core Formation and weaker Sea Establishment Realm fighters experienced only lasted 2 or 3 seconds, but in that brief time, the defence line on the ground was ripped open in 6 separate places, with beasts smashing through shields, tearing off arms, and ripping open chests.
Pained cries immediately filled the air as more than 15 brave men and women who had jumped out from the safety of the walls to rescue the civilian refugees were mauled to death.
While this on its own was a tragic loss, a far greater calamity was taking place up on the walls.
When the piercing howls rang out, the defenders up above were struck much harder than their comrades on the ground because their average strength was much lower.
Instead of just becoming dazed, many in the Body Tempering and Vein Opening Realm collapsed in agony, feeling like their heads were being sawed open by a dull blade.
All but a handful of the archers stopped firing entirely, and almost every shield bearer collapsed.
As for those wielding swords, spears, axes, and other melee weapons, if they didn’t outright fall to their knees, they at least staggered and stopped defending themselves.
At the exact moment the human defences were disrupted, hundreds of rocks came flying towards the walls from all direction. While most of these projectiles still missed their mark, dozens still landed true, killing many and wounding many more.
In a clear act of coordination, the forwardmost beasts leapt wildly, climbing over each other and clawing their way up the walls where they were greeted by disoriented humans incapable of offering any form of resistance.
Hundreds of beasts pounced upon the vulnerable prey before them, inflicting serious casualties among the defenders.
It was nearly 15 seconds before the effects of the howl faded for the weakest human defenders, allowing them to rally and begin to fight back, but in that brief time, dozens were killed and hundreds more were seriously injured.
Once again, the momentum of the battle had shifted.
While the humans still had the advantage thanks to the limited number of beasts which actually made it up onto the walls, the casualties among them were beginning to mount.
Before that devastating howl, only about 30 humans in total, both civilians and soldiers, had been killed across the battlefield, with 300 or 400 having suffered more minor wounds.
Now, however, the dead among the humans had soared past the 100 mark, with the number of seriously wounded fast approaching 1,000.
It was a huge blow, and the entire defence line might have collapsed right then if not for the fact that there was nowhere for them to fall back to.
Atop the walls, the humans who suddenly found themselves caught in close combat had no choice but to hit back, for if they turned and tried to flee, they would surely be cut down from behind by the faster, more agile beasts.
There was also no chance of surrender, for they weren’t facing other humans, but animals.
Some still tried to escape despite all this, fear overwhelming their better judgement, but they were all quickly turned into corpses.
Witnessing this tragic scene, everyone realized there was only one option. They had to fight.
While trying to deal with the beasts which had mounted the walls, the human defenders also had to divert some of their attention to preventing more from climbing up. This often meant trusting one’s back to complete strangers who, forget fighting beside before, many of whom had never even met.
The city defence had transformed from a siege to an all-out melee, where blood was being shed on both sides and lives were constantly being snuffed out, yet neither the humans nor the beasts were willing to just lie down and die.
Seeing the city’s defence collapsing around her, Celestina and the other Spirit Initiates, who were the only ones completely unaffected by the disorienting howl, fought even harder to try to stabilize the situation, but there was little the few of them could do.
The damage was too widespread for just a few masters to easily reverse, and if they were to carelessly leave their current positions, it would only create more confusion and chaos.
Fortunately, the evacuation was nearly complete, so it wasn’t like there weren’t some options.
Swiftly assessing the situation around her, Celestina kept her spear swinging while trying to come up with a new plan; unfortunately, before she could devise a solution to the predicament they were in, another piercing howl echoed across the sky.
