BXBX NOVEL Chapter 267 266: The Real Assault Begins
"Looks like they won\'t be coming for a few more minutes now, so make sure your getting a little rest..."
Everyone nodded, and I instantly sat down and leaned my back against the parapet, closing my eyes as I began to try and suck some more mana from the air around us.
Sadly, since the plains we were residing on were sweltering hot and barely had any wind, not even a breeze, my mana regeneration was rather low, and the pros were heavily outweighed by the cons of creating my own artificial environment at the moment.
Retrieving the last of that focus potion, I swallowed down the tangy liquid before storing the vial away, only to open my eyes as I felt someone slide down to the ground beside me.
Jahi smiled down at me as she placed her hand on my head, ruffling my ears for a moment before pulling me closer to her side.
Snuggling against her armor, I sighed as her sweet scent washed over me, soothing my headache in an instant.
The Demoness remained quiet as we sat together, her arm around my shoulders as well as Leone\'s, while Anput sat on the wall and kept watch, her obsidian eyes focused on her objective.
The occasional squeeze let me know that Jahi was worried about this upcoming attack, but the Demoness\' connection to me told me more than she let on.
We were all worried, that much was obvious; after all, we were being told that we were surrounded on all sides by enemies, some hidden and others not.
Some were incredibly strong, while the others could strike with a hidden blade.
This was worse then being down in the Zhu\'Rong Caverns, where monsters lurked just out of sight; at least down there, I knew that whoever, or whatever I came across wanted to kill me.
Up here?
I had no such indicator, and everything was so much more complex.
Anything could happen, at any time during this upcoming battle, and there might be instances where we simply cannot go to help one another.
The enemy weren\'t strong individually, but as a collective they were rather dangerous.
That\'s what Jahi was worried about; not being able to help us yet again, to watch on as something might happen to someone while she can only watch.
Peeking up at her clenched jawline, I smiled softly as I pressed myself further against her, the Demoness\' hand squeezing my shoulder in response.
This quiet assurance between us softened and eased our worries, and each moment felt infinitely long as we basked in the others warmth and scent.
However, time doesn\'t slow down, no matter what you would like to think.
It ticks along at a steady pace, and Anput shattered our peace as she spoke, her voice excited as she informed us "The Western Army is on the march!"
Scrambling to our feet, we all looked out over the parapets and watched as the gathered army began to roar and charge towards us.
Both sides were exhausted, but the Elites of the Western Army had had a little longer to rest, so I wasn\'t looking forwards to this upcoming fight.
Waiting for them to draw closer, I held back on erecting the wind barrier for as long as I could, all while the others began to sling arrows and spells towards the enemy.
Just like before, the Praetor Squads had a giant, all encompassing barrier protecting them as they charged, and this one was much more solid then the previous ones, redirecting and breaking spells and arrows alike as they slammed into the barrier.
Their boots slammed into the earth, releasing thunderous undertones to their determined shouts for blood.
Metallic clangs joined the stomping and screaming, and the booms and cracks of spells erupting against the barrier creating this desperate battles overture.
My eyes were glued to the closest enemy, and I gauged the distance between us and them as they rushed forwards, the runes for my own barrier spell pulsing in the air around us.
When they got within two hundred and fifty feet of us, I cast the spell and began to join the others in their attack, continuing on with the same crescent blades of wind that I had been using previously.
The first scored a shallow cut in the enemies barrier, which was quickly patched up by an influx of magic.
However, that small cut let me know that, as long as I targeted the same spot over and over again in rapid succession, I could shatter a portion of the barrier.
With that in mind, I unleashed a dozen blades of wind, each one hurtling through the sky and slamming into the barrier.
The first scored another shallow gash, which was deepened and widened by the follow up cut.
Then the third and fourth splintered parts of the barrier, hair line fractures webbing out from the initial cut.
The fifth and sixth added more and more depth to the gash, while chunks of the barrier fell apart, the fractures steadily growing.
By the seventh blade, a small hole had been shattered into the barrier, and that gap was only widened as the remaining six blades swiftly, and brutally, tore through the barrier.
Panting slightly, I watched as a large chunk of the Praetors before us stumbled, the destruction of their part of the barrier whiplashing their cores and inflicting some internal damages.
Taking advantage of the momentary weakness, Leone grunted as she weaved runes together in a mere fraction of a second, her fingers blurring as she created a giant spear of sparking flames.
With a shout, she threw the spear forwards, and it almost instantly impacted the ground around the Praetors.
The spear exploded instantly, evaporating and killing dozens in the initial blast radius, before the wave of skin melting flames washed over more soldiers around it.
Screams and pops could be heard as a part of the battlefield saddlery became enveloped in flames; flames that spread as the affected soldiers ran around into others, allowing the hellfire to leap to a new target before eating away at them as well.
More and more died from Leone\'s spell, and her swift thinking and capitalization on the moment allowed us to widen that moment, going from a second to almost a minute.
Jahi and Anput\'s bows sang a deadly tune as they began to pick off the remaining Praetors, the stone and light arrows slicing through magic and armor alike.
Tinkering with my spells, I lowered the sharpness and focused more on the amount of wind, aiding the spread of the fire to more of the Western Army, hoping to cut down large swathes of them before they reached the gate.
With one side of their line now in flames, the Westerners redoubled their charge, but not before Matilda of Duurghaven displayed why she was given the title of Justiciar.
Stabbing her Zweihänder into the sky, the short human woman let out a shout as her deep blue mana swirled around the blade, before it shot into the air.
A giant Ritual Circle appeared above the battlefield, and moments later her water fell back to the ground.
Remaining stationary, the woman began to both put out the flames that devoured dozens, if not hundreds of troops, but also began to heal those with minor wounds.
Her face was twisted with determination and mild agony, but she maintained her spell as she combatted the flames from Leone.
Clicking her tongue, the Vampire began to weave another spell, all while the Demoness and Jackalkin continued their deluge of arrows, even taking shots at Matilda.
Yet, each arrow bounced off of a thin sphere of mana around her, keeping her uninjured as she fueled her spell.
Keeping up their sharpshooting, the two women slowly picked off the members of the Western Army, before cursing as bolts of elemental mana slammed against the wind barrier.
Gasping at the sudden impacts, I felt my mana begin to wane as I kept the barrier up, my teeth gritted as I protected us from a new onslaught of attacks.
"Shit! Alright, Leone, erect a second barrier; Anput, get ready to lower us to the ground. We\'ll go join Nirinia at the gate!"
Getting nods, the two women began to execute the Demoness\' orders, a wall of flames erupting before us before we began to sink into the tower, leaving the exposed spire behind.
Sadly, even as Leone wrapped us in a cocoon of flames, the enemies began to target the base of the tower, aiming to bring it down instead.
Cursing, Anput turned and opened the back of the tower, creating a slide down to the ground and gesturing for us to follow her.
Rushing outside, we dropped down into the castle, turning back to flinch as the tower began to tremble.
The sounds of rock being crushed, broken, and shattered echoed around us, and we watched as the top half of the tower began to lean forwards, collapsing into the moat.
Our eyes widened in surprise at that, before we cursed again as we realized something.
That tower had now become a bridge leading directly into our camp.
Forgoing Nirinia\'s warning, Jahi growled as her golden runes flickered to life around us, a large circle appearing on the earth below us as she muttered "Olympic Sanctuary", a warm, gentle influx of energy seeping into my body as she finished her spell.
Leone and Anput joined her, layering their own domain type spells over hers.
Anput raised pillars of earth and created a platform and some half walls for us, all while the towers stones began to liquify, turning to mud.
Leone cast a similar domain to Jahi, buffing each of us with enhanced regenerations and defenses.
They were simple spells, but...
Taking a deep breath, I felt my core slowly fill back up, gradually replenishing the mana I used throughout the day.
As I began to weave my own spells into existence with this new abundance of mana, we took in the sight of an army charging towards us, the soldiers of the Western Kingdoms filtering over the destroyed tower.
They roared as they saw us, though quite a few blanched as a shadow fell over us.
Peering over my shoulder, I smirked as I felt the familiar nauseating feeling of staring straight into a souls resting place.
Bolstered by the Banshee of House Asmodia, we all drew our weapons and prepared to face this charge, the shouts of the Empire\'s Legion behind us and the Western Army before us filling our ears.
This would be the start of the real assault on our home, and none of us planned on allowing them to gain an inch of the Empire\'s soil.