Free Web NovelChapter 201: The Battle for Herald City - Part 6
Hearing this howl, a sharp glint flashed across Celestina’s eyes. freēwēbnovel.com
This howl was very different from the previous ones.
First, it was singular, second, it was far more distant, and third, it was far more powerful. This could only mean one thing, the Beast Tide’s leader had finally appeared!
Releasing her Soul Sense in the general direction she heard the howl come from, Celestina tried to locate this elusive mastermind, but even extending her senses past the other side of the horde, she failed to find anything.
Whoever this leader was, they were clearly both cunning and cautious, only sending disposable subordinates into battle while monitoring the situation from a safe distance.
"Tch, a troublesome enemy," Celestina grumbled to herself as she thrust her spear out rapidly, re-focusing her attention on the problems before her rather than the ones she could do nothing about.
Eliminating the leader of the Beast Tide would likely bring the entire incident to an end, but since she couldn’t even locate this enemy, there was no point worrying about them.
Still, it hasn’t shown itself this entire time, so there must be a reason it suddenly decided to announce its presence, Celestina soon thought to herself, beginning to worry that some new twist was about to be introduced to the already tenuous battle.
Without even slowing her killing pace, Celestina swept her gaze around, looking for any change in behaviour of the horde, but as far as she could tell, nothing was different from a moment ago. Furrowing her brow, she was about to set aside her concerns for the time being when suddenly, something on the horizon caught her eye.
At first, Celestina couldn’t tell what she was seeing as it was too dark and too distant even for her, but by focusing her senses further, she was able to vaguely make out a number of objects which were rapidly approaching from the skies to the northwest.
Realizing what was about to happen, Celestina’s heart sank.
The city’s defence force was barely holding on, so if new enemies suddenly descend upon them from the sky, it was entirely possible the line would break.
That had to be prevented, no matter the cost.
With no time to hesitate, Celestina gave the order, "Incoming fliers! All Aerial Knights, move to intercept!"
Vanessa Clark, hearing this order, immediately frowned. She knew that if she and all her subordinates left their current positions, the defence around the main gate would collapse.
Had this been a couple minutes ago, that would probably not have been such a big deal, as only a couple hundred civilians and the 80 or so remaining defenders were left outside the walls. However, the first set of howls had not only affected the soldiers and adventurers, but also the civilians who were a fair bit weaker on average and were still trying to recover from the shock they had received.
The defence line had been breached in multiple places, and people were dying left and right, but despite her reluctance to leave, Vanessa understood that if the flying beasts weren’t stopped, the death and devastation here would spread to the entire city.
Gritting her teeth, Vanessa, in coordination with the other Spirit Initiates, made one last wide-sweeping attack, killing or knocking back as many beasts as possible before she sheathed her spear, grabbed hold of two of her subordinates, and leapt up onto the wall, bypassing the crowd at the gate altogether.
At the same time, Celestina took an even more ridiculous approach, literally darting around and throwing the 4 remaining Sea Establishment and Core Formation subordinates of Vanessa’s up to the latter before addressing those who were still on the ground with a Soul Qi infused shout, "Jensen, Rachel, with me! All other Spirit Initiates, scale the walls and stabilize the defence line! The rest of you, get the remaining civilians inside, now!"
Despite many of the defenders on the ground not being soldiers or subordinates of the General, none of them even thought to disobey her, so they swiftly began retreating, pushing, carrying, of even just dragging along the still dazed refugees.
At the same time, Celestina and the 2 Mid-Rank Spirit Initiates she had called out re-positioned themselves to block the ravenous beasts. They just had to hold out until the gates were closed, then they could fall back as well.
The crimson-haired General’s efforts were valiant, as were those of her subordinates, but ultimately, their abilities were limited.
Fighting to defend open space was naturally far easier than fighting to protect a crowd of people, and for every beast that slipped by them, someone would be wounded or die. It was simply the nature of the battle they were fighting.
Even the 2 Spirit Initiates, who were weaker than most of their fellow Commanders, began to suffer wounds as they abandoned all defence in favour of blocking more of the beasts. Fighting in such a reckless manner meant that even with their Mid-Rank Spirit Initiate strength, First Order Beasts could still harm them if the got in a lucky hit.
Celestina naturally noticed this, but while frustrated, there was nothing she could do about it. She was already stretched thin, guarding over half the space around the gate all by herself, so she had no spare energy to assist her subordinates.
Keeping more or stronger Spirit Initiates on the ground would have made her job easier, but as a General, Celestina knew what choices to make in the heat of battle. ƒreewebɳovel.com
Right now, what was most critical was securing the city walls and not allowing the entire defence line to collapse, if that meant sacrificing some civilians and soldiers on the ground, then so be it.
Just because she knew it was the right choice, however, didn’t make it any easier on Celestina, and her attacks unconsciously became more brutal and aggressive as a result, sending a rain of blood and flesh flying all around her as she stabbed, slashed, and smashed away at the seemingly unending avalanche of beasts.
Of course, as a veteran of many battles, and having lived through more than her fair share of tragedies, Celestina didn’t lose herself in her rage, and the moment she sensed the gates slam shut, she disengaged from the horde and shouted to her 2 remaining allies on the ground, "Withdraw!"
With those words, Celestina dashed back and leapt up, stowing her spear and whipping out her bow while drawing 2 specially made arrows and firing them to both her left and right before even landing atop the wall.
With a bang, these 2 arrows, which frankly looked more like heavy spears, flew down the length of the wall, piercing and knocking down a few dozen beasts that were attempting to climb up.
Landing at the highest battlement, directly over the main gate, Celestina swept her eyes over the entire battlefield, swiftly assessing the situation.
What she saw troubled her, to say the least, but in her opinion, things hadn’t become unsalvageable.
Now that the evacuation was complete and the gates had been closed, two major concerns for the humans had disappeared at once. No longer needing to focus on defending the open gate or the fleeing civilians, manpower could be redistributed more evenly along the wall, especially the archers.
However, before that could be done, the beasts which had managed to scale the walls had to be cleared out.
With that thought in mind, Celestina began giving orders, "Archers fall back and provide covering fire! Melee units forward! Push these damn beasts back!"
As she shouted, Celestina continued firing her bow, targeting the stronger Third and Fourth Order Beasts both on the ground and on the wall to alleviate some of the pressure the city defenders were facing.
The return of the General and the Spirit Initiates provided a huge boost to morale for the soldiers and militia, and whenever Celestina or one of the other masters struck down a powerful foe that whole teams of defenders were struggling to contend with, cheers spontaneously burst out.
If at all possible, Celestina wanted to remain where she was to continue solidifying the city wall’s defences, but she knew she couldn’t waste time here. A new threat was rapidly approaching, and if she didn’t deal with it promptly, all the sacrifices made tonight would be in vain.
"Sasha," Celestina used her Soul Qi to funnel her voice to her granddaughter who had fallen back with the rest of the archers and was now busy issuing commands, "Listen carefully and don’t panic."
When Sasha heard her grandmother’s voice in her ear, she knew she was being sent a message that wasn’t meant for anyone else to hear, so after a brief moment of surprise, she nodded in acknowledgement without saying a thing.
Seeing Sasha signal her back, Celestina continued, "There’s a group of flying beasts approaching from the north-west. Vanessa and her Aerial Cavalry are preparing to intercept them and I will be joining them shortly. If those beasts make it past us, though, it will be up to the archers here to take them down."
Hearing that new enemies were coming, airborne ones at that, Sasha nearly faltered, but she soon collected herself, realizing that whether she panicked or not, the beasts would still come.
Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, Sasha had little other option than to nod once more, signaling to the General that she understood.
"Good girl. I’ll leave the preparations and response up to you," Celestina concluded before firing off one last arrow and leaping off the wall.
