"Begin your incantations!"
The clocks in all of Orario showed the time when the monsters attack begun...eight p.m.
Lily stood on a box so that everyone could see her and yelled loud, her voice enhanced with a magic item. Thankfully, Shakti had given her the command over the southern part of the attack, so that Shakti would have to deal with the main wave. A few adventurers guarded Lily´s position and acted as messengers for her. The magic spells wouldn´t get finished before the first monsters arrived at the walls, but that wasn´t the plan.
To wipe out the first ranks would only mean that they arrived a few moments later, but unleashing the magic in the middle would mean a maximum of damage to the horde and the adventurers would get a moment to take their breath after the first wave.
As different as the magicians were, as different was their magic, which they had gained through level advancement. Some used fire, some used ice, and some used lightning. Some elves like Ryu had more exoteric magic with wind and light or the gravitational magic of Mikoto.
Lily had hoped that they could get the alpha monsters with the magic, but they remained in a line at the edge of the Miasma, acting as body guards for the monster inside. Some of the Ganesha Familia that had used field glasses, swore that it was something like a giant snake.
The only thing they could still see were the six eyes, three in a line on each side of the head...drifting about thirty meters in the air. The Miasma turtles moved slowly forward, bringing their own wave of Miasma with them, but the monster queen seemed to have her own cloud.
"Archers, get ready!"
An adventurer behind Lily ran to the edge of the wall and waved downwards. The area was filled with level one adventurer, the healer and some supporters. While arrows were only slightly effective the last time, they had thousands of them prepared...every dead monster mattered.
To her own surprise, Lily felt calm. A little nervous at first, she began to issue orders with greater self-confidence. The situation back then in Knossos was far more chaotic, but the attack right now was only about to start.
A flicker from the right caught her attention, Hedin Selland of the Freya Familia had begun to work his magic. Swirling balls of lightning surrounded him, hissing back and forth. The monsters that rushed towards him were torn to pieces or simply scattered to ashes. The members of his familia behind him didn't have much to do ... for now.
The closer the monsters got, the more details became clear. They had looked bigger when they were so close together, each of the smaller ones was more around four feet long.
Lily raised her hand, all adventurers with bows raised their weapons. She had enough experience to calculate the distance...the monsters came closer and closer...
And...
"Let loose!"
Lily waved her hand down.
It sounded like the hiss of hundreds of snakes at once, even those adventurers on the walls who fought with blades had simple bows in hand, themselves not well aimed ... every arrow that hit counted. The noise behind them sounded almost eerie, all level one adventurers and many citizens shooting arrows over the wall. While Orario's walls were huge, they could still shoot over them. It was still a strange feeling and noise that so many arrows were shot behind them and flew over their heads.
Like a moment of perfect peace...the monsters ran forward to the walls, the arrows that were fired from behind them, reached their highest point and leaned toward the earth. Those on the wall had shot in a more direct arc, so their arrows came from the front instead of from above, which also made it harder for the monsters to protect themselves. However ... not a monster was protecting itself ... they just ran into the colossal hail of arrows.
Roars of anger turned to that of pain, countless monsters stumbled and fell over, were trampled into the ground by the ones behind them. Along the whole front line monsters exploded to ashes and collapsed dead, the arrows piercing their scales like nothing, since their bodies were designed only for mass and offensive.
For a moment, the monsters got a bit slower, then they continued their charge.
"Second wave...let loose!"
More arrows rained down on the monsters, in just these two waves, hundreds were destroyed already.
"Open fire!"
The bows buzzed again, now all archers would fire at their own discretion, so that Lily could concentrate on other things. The constant whistle of the arrows and the buzz of the bows filled the air, along with the screeching of the monsters struck. It was the one great advantage of adventurers that these monsters had no long-range combat abilities.
Nearby and further away, magic user continued their chants.
The hail of arrows alone caused horrific losses to the monsters ... but so many more stormed ahead. But ... it was nothing compared to what was going to happen now. Ottar hadn't attacked yet, stood with his sword on his shoulder and waited for the monsters. The air on the wall felt like it was charging, the whisper of the magic mixed and created something like a squeak in the ear that shifted the tones ...
The first monsters were within fifty meters in front of the walls, the clack of crossbows joined the hum of the bows. Ottar took his enormous sword from his shoulder and readied himself, in front of him was a living wave of scales, shrieks and claws.
In the moment before Ottar jumped into the monsters, the magic user on top of the walls unleashed their magic. In these first moments of the battle, every adventurer got aware of one simple thing...the pure destructive power of Orario.
Various magic spells in different elements smashed down or exploded inside the horde. The captain of the Astrea Familia fired a hail of wind and light orbs, each of them piercing a monster or two, until they exploded in a third one, she alone killed over a hundred monsters.
Mikoto hammered down her gravity magic, it didn´t killed monsters directly, but generated a pillar of enormous gravity, pressing monsters down on the ground, getting trampled by the ones followed. In this specific spot stopped the wave as long as she could maintain her magic.
The sight of this destruction let many adventurers swallow.
But many magic spells were nothing compared to what happened when Ottar charged forward.
"You dare disturb her peaceful days?!"
The monsters jumped at him, but not one managed to hurt him. It got clear when the first claw hit his skin and didn´t pierced it, his defence was too high. One swing of his giant sword cleaved a dozen monsters in half, turning them into ash.
.
.
For the first minutes, the adventurers of Orario managed to hold back the monsters from the walls, but their number was sheer endless. Eventually the first ones jumped against the wall and started to climb upwards, most of them got shot down.
.
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The ranks in the hall of the gods in Babel were filled, only a few gods were in other parts of the city. Ganesha, Astrea and the goddess Anubis were in the colloseum, she ruled over the big gaveyard of Orario and was brought to safety by her small Familia.
Everyone felt very uneasy, sitting there and watching their children fight. Hermes got special permission from Ouranos to use his powers, he had created magical mirrors so the gods could watch what happened. In the beginning it looked good, but was also a bit disturbing.
The monsters were nearly mindless killing machines, but to see the capability for destruction of their children...
"Damn...Freya´s children really are something else..."
Loki had leaned forward in her seat, elbows on her knees, and made a sinister look.
"It´s not like your children are weak, Loki."
Hestia sat next to her and looked more worried. Various gods talked to each other, watching how the battle continued. The first monsters had reached the top of the walls, but only a few and they were destroyed quickly. Hestia had noticed that Lily was organising the southern part of the attack like she was born for it.
After the first wave of monsters broke, Lily changed the frontline with adventurers that were still fit, so that the ones from the front could take a breath.
"It really is a grim situation."
Hermes chewed on the thumb piece of his leather glove.
"Oy Hermes, why aren´t all of your children at the front?"
"As I told you they have jobs to do, important jobs."
Hermes had sent a few of his children into the dungeon, their destination was the 18th Floor. The adventurers in Rivira didn´t knew about this new attack and they could need every help possible. He had high hopes that they would come, after all...if they wouldn´t stop the monsters, they would flood into the dungeon and crack open the seal that was Babel.
Another child with a low level ran to the Hostess of Fertility. While Mia would surely be worried about her pub and especially her girls, they needed every strong adventurer possible.
"Welf...Tsubaki...be careful..."
Hephaistos looked very uneasy, only a few of her smiths were strong enough to fight at the front line. Tsubaki had brought her enormous arsenal of weapons and joined at the side of the Hestia Familia. A lower leveled Familia member waited with Tsubaki´s weapon nearby and threw them to her when she yelled to him which one.
The sun was about to set, it let the scenery look even more grotesque. Many gods watched in awe how Ottar decimated the monsters ranks by the dozen. Many mirrors showed different scenes.
One showed two cat people...siblings with a golden and a silver spear...defeating every monster that charged through the newly destroyed gate. It looked almost easy how they mowed them down...but when they saw the ocean of monsters that waited outside...also pointless.
"Ouka...Chigusa...Mikoto..."
Takemikazuchi continued to call out to his children, he was worried sick.
"Alright."
Hermes got up to his feet.
"My dear friends, fellow gods! Let's not lose hope and despair! Our children fight like lions and will protect this city and all of its people! Our time will not end today and neither will tomorrow! Let us not despair, our salvation is on the way! Our children just have to hold out long enough! So let's not sit here and grumble, let's cheer them on as they deserve!"
He's always been a good speaker, mortals just got carried away with him, and even the other gods sat more upright. All eyes wandered from Hermes to a special mirror ..
This one showed the Loki Familia running, with Bell and Ais at the front, they couldn´t see where exactly they were, only that they ran with all the speed they were capable off. And what a speed that was! For the first time in their long life, many gods saw just what their children could do.
"You dan do it!"
"Run rabbit! Run!
"The sword princess!"
The gods found hope again, the children just had to hold their stand until the Loki Familia returned. Which didn't mean the other's contribution was nothing. Every monster defeated counted, each meant one less that could attack citizens.
They cheered for their children, there wasn´t much else they could do, but a few left the council room and went down, spending the people inside Babel comfort, like Demeter already did.
One mirror showed the inside of the colloseum, the situation was pretty calm. Guards of the Ganesha Familia were there to ensure that no panic came up, but the true reason for that were the three gods. Ganesha talked loud to the people, repeating many times that he was Ganesha...so as always..and cheered them up.
Diverted their minds to nicer things, like the celebration of the gods, which was soon to come. Many other people drew hope by the sight of Astrea. The goddess of Justice talked to many people, gently hugged them or did other things like she did in the dark times. She helped wherever she could and the people loved to help her too.
Astrea didn´t showed any of her own worries about her beloved children.
The last one, Anubis, looked like she felt a bit unwell. She wasn´t used to so many people around her. The goddess was quite small, only a bit taller than Hestia, she wore clothes fitting for the far south, so much of her skin was free but it didn´t looked lewd. She had long purple hair, shakal ears on her head and a long tail.
Especially the children loved to play with her, she felt pure joy whenever she saw one. While she was the guardian of the dead, she cheered for every new life. The gods of death, like Hades, Anubis and Osiris, Hel, Ereshkigal or Shinigami knew that death wasn´t the end. Each soul that returned to heaven or the underworlds had a chance to be reborn again.
It was rare that the gods of death came down to earth, but Osiris had told Anubis to take a long vacation on the surface...she still cared for the death, that was what she loved to do...to make sure they went on safely. That was why she loved children very much, when she wasn´t at the graveyard, she strolled through the city and sometimes played with children...she was really similar to a certain busty, small goddess.
But compared to Hestia, Anubis had a significantly smaller chest area.
.
The fight raged now for two hours.
.
"Hey, why are Hermes´ children just standing there, without fighting?"
"I can just guess, Hestia´s child the little Lily has ordered them to wait."
"Why wait?!"
"Again I can just guess, at some point the front line will get tired, then my cute, little Asfi and the others will take over that spot...see? Astrea´s children are also falling back to take a breath."
Lily and Shakti gestured to various adventurers to change positions. Whole parties fell back and went down the stairs. The tide of battle billowed up and down, sometimes it looked like the monsters would be able to break through, than the adventurers pushed them back again. One time Hestia gasped loud, two adventurers were pulled over the parapet and monsters jumped into the gap. Before the situation could escalate, the heavily armored child of Astrea jumped in and drove them back, then she returned to her resting spot.
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Hestia sighed and looked at another mirror, it showed the in- and outside of the pub, many people were there and were taken care off by the waitresses. In the absence of Mia, Syr was the manager of the pub, her friendly and cheerful manner helped many people and prevented fights among the people.
She even started to sing again, Hestia was amazed how much the people were enchanted by her singing, almost as if they fell under her charm. What the gods that watched the pub didn´t knew, Freya used her charm...but not her divine charm. It was the natural charm of the cheerful, always happy Syr that was an anchor for the people.
Some of the magical mirrors had to be closed, even with the permission of Ouranous could Hermes only use his powers to a certain extent. Hestia saw how two of the waitresses of the pub joined the fight at the gate. One of them wore black clothes, fitting her black cat ears and tail, wielding dual daggers, the other had a more risky outfit and fought with special knuckles.
Ahnya was all too happy to see her two friends, but they only fought shortly with them, before Allen chased them away. He could fight with Ahnya at his side, but not them, it was distracting. Mia had joined the fight at the top, moving to wherever it was needed. Lunor and Chloe joined Ryu and her Familia. .
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Six hours into the fight.
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Night had fallen over the intense battle, more than just a few adventurers had found death. It was hard to count the monsters in this darkness, but Hestia was sure the adventurers had slain thousands at this point. From time to time light flashed over the battlefield when a magic user unleashed a spell into the horde again.
The hail of arrows had stopped, Six hours in and they had used every arrow they got their hands on. Hestia had noticed Nahza, who took all her courage to deliver potions to the rear guard, but not getting too close to the walls. Only one magical mirror was still there, the one over the battle. She saw exhausted adventurers behind the main line, drinking a bit of water and trying to regain as much strength as possible.
Some even slept where they sat, Hestia was more and more amazed about what adventurers could do.
Bell...where are you...please...hurry up...
The only other thing visible in the darkness were the eyes of the monsters outside, especially these six purple eyes in the cloud. The gods had wondered why the leader of the monsters didn´t attacked so far, the reason was how they hoped...Ottar.
He proved why he was the strongest adventurer in all of Orario, it wasn´t like he held the monsters away from his part in front of the walls...it was more that the monsters threw everything at him to just hold him in place.
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Seven hours into the fight.
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"What is this?!"
"What by the heavens just happened there?!"
"Is this for real?"
"Do my eyes deceive me?!"
Hestia was as perplexed as the other gods.
Something strange occured during the battle...it looked almost like a wonder. Eventually the line of Miasma turtles moved forward to the walls, the adventurers had no arrows or bolts left and the most magic user had to recover at the moment.
Even Ottar had to fall back due to the Miasma. If they would reach the walls it would be over. But the turtles never reached the walls. Something flickered in front of the walls...and moved forward.
The gods couldn´t explain what they saw...if they had to give it a name...it looked like...blocks of sound...monsters got crushed and exploded when these blocks hit them. Six Miasma turtles in total moved forward...each of them exploded at the same time, evaporated by the invisible blocks.
For the tiniest part of a second...Hestia could have sworn she saw a figure in front of the walls...almost transparent. It looked like a young woman, with long hair of a very familiar white tone, wearing a black dress. Maybe it was an unknown adventurer or something like that, but as soon as that magic was finished, the figure simply dissolved into particles of light.
Was it an adventurer?
A skill?
Was it a wonder?
Divine intervention?
.
Or a last act of an loving aunt in heaven to buy her nephew more time to save the day?
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No one knew it...since the only people who would have recognized this figure weren´t seeing her. Hermes was downstairs to take a short break, Freya in the pub which didn´t had magical mirrors, Ganesha and Astrea in the colloseum, Ryu was behind the wall.
Maybe it was better that they didn´t saw this short phenomenon.
.
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Bell...where are you...me sweet, little Bell...we need you...where are you?!
Ten...hours...into...the fight...
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The gods cried openly...their children had fought during the whole night and did not step back a meter. Dozens of adventurers had found death, many more were heavily wounded. The line on top of the walls started to thin out as the sky started to become brighter again in the east.
Only a few adventurers didn´t took a rest during all this. The "Warlord" Ottar moved still back and forth in front of the wall, never taking a step back, cleaving monsters in half in a dozen. Hogni Ragnar and Hedin Selland still fought, supported by Familia members and even now...even after ten hours...prevented the monsters from circling around the city.
Allen Fromel growled as he pierced another monster, he had lost count how many he slew already. One alone wasn´t much and tiring for him...but there was no end in sight. Still...Allen Fromel wouldn´t move away from his spot, his little sister got lightly hurt during the fight and was healed in a save place. Now she had to rest before she could join him again and he let out his anger about her injury at the monsters.
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Twelf hours in...still no sign from the Loki Familia.
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"Pff...pff...pff...pff..."
Daphne gasped and groaned, every muscle in her body hurt. She could barely raise her sword again, but she couldn´t fall back anymore to relax. Every adventurer was on the wall now and fought, she didn´t even knew how long they were hear.
She had seen adventurers dying or getting pulled over the parapet because they were too exhausted to notice the danger. Daphne blinked again, in the last hours Cassandra had healed her again and again. Behind the wall, only healer and injured adventurers remained, everyone else was here. Ouka and Chigusa had to fall back, injured and too exhausted to even raise their weapons anymore. Haruhime took care of them, she wasn´t allowed to use her magic or fight with the others.
Lily forbid Haruhime to enhance the strength of anyone, she had the feeling they would need her powers.
"My wrists hurts..."
Lunor leaned next to Daphne against the parapet, rubbing her hands.
"Unya...so tired..."
Chloe sat next to Lunor. They heard a light growl from the right, Bete Loga was the anchor of the defence up here, his level six let him overpower many monsters. He got wilder after Lena got hurt during the battle, Bete personally carried her down to the healers and demanded their oath that they would save her.
Daphne blinked a few times tired.
"Wait...what are we doing here?!"
The three jerked up alerted, they were so exhausted and tired that it just happened what they had done. All over the wall leaned adventurers exhausted and panting against the parapet or sat on the ground...no one fought.
"Nya?..."
Chloe followed Daphne´s gaze.
The monsters had stopped their attack and had fallen back. In front of the wall, Ottar lowered his sword when the monsters were out of range, taking the first small break in ten hours. The silence that fell over the wall was uneasy, one by one the adventurers noticed the changed situation. All of them got up, tattered, beaten, some even half naked since big parts of their armor was missing. Lunor had wrapped her scarf around her chest after a monster had ripped away her shirt, she had to fight topless for a while until she got the chance to cover herself again. Not that anyone stared at her during the intense fighting.
"What are...they doing?"
Mikoto looked as horrible as they did, not one adventurers was free from monsters blood, and all of them stank terribly.
The monsters waited, not one of them made a noise, except from hissing. Using the little time they got, healers came up to the walls and healed as fast as they could, and as many people possible. Cassandra had the same symptoms from a week before again, overuse of potions, but her healing magic had helped and saved so many people.
Adventurers sighed blissfully when the angel of Orario came up to the wall. Amid had commanded all healer behind the wall, right now she used her magic to help the people.
"Ge-" Shakti stopped and spat out to clear her mouth. "Get in position..."
She sounded as weak as every other adventurer.
But the monsters still didn´t moved. Slowly...it became brighter in the east.
The alpha monsters started to move forward, three of them were still alive. At some point two had charged forward and tried to kill Ottar, one in each direction of the wall. Freya´s children had defeated the alpha´s but at a high cost.
Ottar had dealt with two of them easily, he was incredibly strong. Hedin Selland had lost an eye during the fight...which actually wasn´t much since he had fought in front of the walls. Hogni Ragnar lost one half of his right ear and the upper third of his sword...the latter made him more furious.
"Here they come!"
Groaning exhausted, the adventurers readied their weapons again.
Suddenly, a loud scream came from behind the wall, it was the member of the Miach Familia, Cassandra.
"Many eyes in the darkness!"
Some adventurers turned around confused, then the screams started on top of the wall. All of them looked horrified to the black cloud of Miasma. So far, six purple eyes had hovered in the cloud, watching the fight and waiting...lurking.
Now two additional eyes appeared...a few meters next to the six. One by one, four additional eyes opened, two under and over the new eyes. Soon two times six eyes floated in the blackness. And it didn´t stopped. On the other side opened additional eyes...and between them.
The adventurers didn´t understood what they saw there.
Cassandra screamed again, caught in her vision.
"The heads! The heads! The heads!"
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"""""GROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"""""
.
The adventurers startled when they heard a thundering stomp, far louder than from any other monster so far. The thing inside the Miasma moved forward. Wet scales appeared, thirty meters above the ground slowly drifted an enormous head out of the blackness.
The head had similarities to a dragon...or a giant sea snake. There were no horn combs, only fins like the smaller monsters had, but enormous. The movement continued and the six eyes became now visible, the scales were black...not just black colored...but like the absence of light.
Eventual the head was outside of the Miasma and continued to growl and move forward. The body followed, thicker than a tree and covered in also wet looking, black scales. They thought it was an enormous black snake...until..
With a thundering stomp, a giant leg appeared and smashed onto the ground.
"Wawawawa..."
Lunor startled back by that sight.
"Nyanyanyanyanya..."
Chloe was the same.
The adventurers screamed again when a second head appeared left to the first...and a third on the other side. The monster moved out of the Miasma, supported by four legs as thick as a tree trunk.
What they had thought of being a snake or a alternate Leviathan...was something entirely else.
There were many monsters said to be the offsprings of the three big monsters. That the flying types of dragons were descendants of the One Eyed Black Dragon. Demi dragons, those without wings and giant beast like monsters were said to have descendet from the Behemoth.
The Leviathan, queen of the oceans was the first among the sea monsters.
But there was a special kind of monster family that was neither from the Behemoth nor the Leviathan. It was said to be of both families and yet non of them.
.
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"HYDRA!"
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The Hydra, there were various kinds of this monster in the dungeon...but not one of them was nearly as big as this one. Legends have grown up around these monsters, chop off one head and two grow back. They varied in strength and ability, depending on the number of heads they had. The smallest with only one head were weak, two-headed hydras were stronger. Three-headed hydras could be found significantly deeper in the dungeon. But this one ... had five heads.
It didn´t ended there, on the back of the enormous hydra were horn chimneys, similar to the ones from the Miasma turtles. This thing produced it´s own Miasma field as it´s absolute defense. With five heads it could nearly see everything around it...and some legends said that some hydras even could use breath attacks.
It had watched the whole fight so far, made sure the adventurers got tired. It´s intelligence was high enough to make it´s prey weak first, it had sacrificed thousands of lesser monsters to make sure that there was no danger, except for this one creature in the front.
The heads roared again...and the monsters moved forward.
Like a cloak of darkness, the chimneys produced new miasm that enveloped the hydra. Only the heads and front legs remained visible. At least...in exchange for it´s enormous body and intelligence...it moved slowly forward.
.
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Dear gods...
Ryu looked horrified at the titanic monster, her Familia, Lunor and Chloe were by her side.
"R-Ryu...what are mew going to do, Nya?"
Chloe looked like she wanted to run away...not that Ryu blamed her.
"What shall we do...Mama Mia?!"
Ryu looked up when a shadow fell over her...her heart got a bit lighter.
"Now that is a monster...geez...look at that battle maniac down there...Oy Ottar! Move your ass up here you dumbnut!"
Mia Grande shouted, surrounded by her "daughters".
Even Ottar had to admit that he had no chance against the Miasma. The monster was one thing, but the Miasma would kill him before he got the chance to defeat the monster. Hydras were known for their immense regeneration skills...or rather...these Monsters were the first known monsters to mortals that had regeneration skills.
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With a last roar from all five heads, the wave of monsters washed forward, the three alphas remained in front of the hydra.
Will this be our last fight? Lady Astr-...mother...Syr...Bell...
Ryu drew her two swords again, they had given their all...and the leader hadn´t even attacked so far. Faster and faster ran the smaller monsters to the walls, now accompanied by bigger ones.
There was no time for magic, the monsters dashed forward like mad. They screamed and screeched, threw themself against the walls to climb up. Most of the bigger ones charged into the gate, which was now the position of Ottar.
The elf´s eyes widened in shock about the sheer speed of the monsters.
"Here they come!"
The time for thoughts was over when the first monsters jumped over the parapet. Ryu thrusted Justice Lumina into the chest of the first one, chopping off the head of another with Sacred Oath. Mia roared like a cave bear and smashed the monsters away with her fists. Ciel and Viana, Lunor and Chloe formed pairs to fight together. Ryu needed to stay separate due to her swords.
Slash followed slash, thrust after thrust. The monsters were insanse and just threw themself onto the adventurers. Screams of desperately fighting adventurers echoed over the wall, the mass of monsters became so enormous that they threatened to simply roll over the wall. Ryu screamed in panic as a monster jumped on Lunor's back, but it exploded to ashes as she drove her sword into it without injuring Lunor.
"Thanks Ryu!"
The twin tip of a spear exploded out of the maw of another monster that had jumped at Ryu, her Familia members protected her back. Even Mia got into trouble, the insane monsters threw themselves on her in such a way that she had no chance to help the others.
"In the sky of a now distant forest. Infinite stars scattered in the endless night sky."
Ryu used her swords crosswise, she was as close to a panic as she could get, worried sick about her friends.
"Respond to my foolish voice, give me now divine protection of starfire."
Her voice got louder while she sung her chant, her arms moved like a windmill.
"Give the mercy of light to the one that abandoned you."
She fought as fast as she was capable, slaying monsters left and right. Many adventurers started to panic. Chloe and Lunor fought back to back, as did Viana and Ciel.
"Come, wandering wind, the wandering traveler."
Ryu had a massive headache from using her magic again and again over the night. The sky started to turn grey, unnoticed by them all, the tip of Babel got brighter in the first sunray of the day.
"Cross the sky and run through the wilderness, run faster than anything else."
It was her speciality, chanting during such a fast fight. She had no time to think, only act in the splitseconds she had. Evade, step forward, thrust, slash, chop off, step back, whirl around. Acting. Acting. Acting. No time to think.
"Imbue the light of stardust and destroy the enemy!"
Ryu slashed through the neck of another monster. The next stumbled backwards with Chloe´s thrown knife in it´s eye. Her hand hurt when the lashing tail of a monster ripped Sacred Oath from her hand and threw it down to the streets. Ryu took Justice Lumina with both hands and joined Chloe and Lunor in a small circle. Her Familia members fought next to Mia.
"Luminous Wi-!"
It happened right before she could unleash her magic. Three monsters at once jumped at her. The time seemed to come to a hold...went as slow as honey. She raised her sword and pierced the first one, dissolving it to ash. Her sword moved in slow motion to the side, but got stuck in the teeth of the second.
In the one second that Ryu needed to get her sword free, the last one jumped and opened it´s maw to bite off Ryu´s head.
It´s over...
Her eyes were wide in shock. Ryu knew what would happen now, there was no way she would get her sword up in time. She saw every detail of the monsters maw, the long, sharp teeth, the tongue...
Unluckily, the brain could work much, much faster than the time went. She noticed at the side that the hydra was only two hundred meters away from the walls...
Lady Astrea...
Syr...
Bell...
Ryu closed her eyes...to not see it coming. She just hoped it would go fast...
.
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"RAFAGAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
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A sudden gust of wind shot over the wall. Ryu´s eyes opened in shock, only barely noticing the figure that shot past her before her eyes, piercing the monster and ripping it away. Like a green arrow made out of wind and steel, a single, blond woman flew over the top of the wall and destroyed countless monsters with the one magic she was capable of using.
Unseen by Ryu, further away to her left smashed a golden fireball into the top of the wall and evaporated a dozen monsters...saving the life of Liliruca Arde.
In the early morning light and the remains of the fireball landed a warrior on top of the wall, wrapped in golden armor, with a burning sword and Knife in hands.
Lily yelled out in disbelief.
"MASTER BELL!"
.
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In the last moment before a catastrophe could happen...maybe it was fate or the will of the world that they came only now...returned Bell Cranel and Ais Wallenstein to Orario. Without losing time, these two charged into the monster and striked them down with a speed that even Ottar couldn´t reach.
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But they were only two people and the wall was long.
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In the south, the Modi and Magni Familia were saved in the last moment by a laughing amazon who wielded a giant, twin-sided sword. .
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In the north, adventurers from the Ganesha Familia were about to get overrun, when another amazoness with two long daggers jumped between them and roared fiercly while she slaughtered.
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Shakti Varna´s eyes widened, like Ryu couldn´t react in time, she was about to get devoured by a monster.
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"DIO THYRSOS!"
A golden ray of light pierced the monster and those behind it.
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All over the wall, right when the monsters were about to break through, jumped adventurers of enormous strength down on the wall. They came right in time to prevent doom.
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"Ankusha!"
A small figure with a long spear landed next to Shakti.
"Braver!"
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In the last possible moment...the Loki Familia had returned.
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And they cleaned up like bouncers in a bar fight.
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"Loki Familia, PUSH THEM BACK!"
At the sight of his Familia members, Bete cheered on the exhausted adventurers at his side. With renewed vigor, the Loki Familia charged at the monster, protected and supported by their strongest members.
Others joined them...
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Ryu raised her sword. "Astrea Familia!"
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"Ganesha Familia!" Shakti thrusted hers forward.
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Daphne got ready too. "Hestia Alliance!"
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"""PUSH FORWARD!"""
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Authors Note: Hey everyone, I tried something a bit else in this part. If I had wrote every detail of the wall fight, it would be as long as the whole arc so far. Our heroes have returned and the monster leader is on the way. I didn´t wanted to write every detail because there will be lots of fighting in the final of the arc.
But the next chapter will dropp next week, I don´t want to write too hasty, since I have many things planned for the arc final (not gore details again, I mean what each character will do.)
Try to guess who will fight the hydra. :P
Oh and about the hydra, sorry but I tried to keep the identity a secret as long as possible. This one was planned as the big one in this arc from, the start.