BXBX NOVEL Chapter 64: Clash
However, as more time passed, the number of these ghastly creatures with jagged teeth doubled, and soon, they were swarming out and struggling up the steep V-shaped valley, a struggle that saw the archers harvest their lives in droves.
With one of the hillslopes of the valley being a rocky hill so tall that it might as well be a mountain from down the valley, the only other exit routes from the valley floor were the two ends at its side and the scalable hillslope that had Hannah and her army at the top.
For the first waves of these underworld creatures, in a sort of frenzy they ignored the exits at the side and instead charged up the slope, running towards the army which looked down at them, but as time passed, they began spilling to the sides, rushing to exit the valley and possibly circle the enemy and attack from the back.
Though Hannah doubted this insane and primal beasts had the ability to think so complexly, she still looked to her left, peering at a figure who stood at the end of the hillslope, nodding to him and then focusing back on the screaming creature that had filed the valley, the woman unfazed when a bright fire suddenly appear on both of the valley ends a few monster screams accompanying its appearance.
The fire roared with vicious intentions, lightening up the darkening evening with its red and white flames, creating a firewall that made exiting from the side of the valley an impossibility, and if one thought, these flames were ordinary, then they needed to have a look at the 5 priests, wardens and runemasters who were behind each of the flame walls sitting cross-legged within a bright yellow rune that had a line that stretched to the flames.
"These flames were known as holy flames, and though the use of runemasters and warden due to the lack of sufficient priests and priestess to create and power the flames made it polluted and impure, it was more than enough to keep whatever creatures came out of the rift with no choice but to run up the hillslope and come towards Hannah and her army and meet their death.
"And now we have light," Hannah muttered as she taped Wisntrel's side, sending the horse moving forward a few steps and then turning to look back at the soldiers.
With the ever-increasing numbers and fearless nature of the four-legged creatures, they had been steadily climbing up the hillslope and approaching the top, the hard-working archer unit was unable to keep up with their rapidly increasing numbers, and it was at this moment that Hannah decided to speak to her soldier's one last time before they clashed with the enemy.
"Soldiers, I know this war came swiftly and mercilessly, I see the fear in your eyes and I understand, but remember that each of you fight not just for yourselves but for your country.
Your country is made up of you, your loved ones, women, men, innocent children, and people who have entrusted their protection to us.
Let the thought of the people who rely on us to stop the darkness of the world from consuming them be our fire.
Face this darkness with courage, knowing that every moment you fight, you secure their safety.
For them we fight, for them, we stand firm, for them we fight till victory is in our hands"
As Hannah spoke her, she marched around the army, her armour glowing a bright golden light and by the time she was done speaking a sort of peace full aggression had settled on the entire army.
No longer were they scared and filled with doubts, but instead they felt themselves be filled with a sort of adrenaline that propelled them to scream to the sky and smash their enemies to pieces.
This feeling wasn't new to the soldiers, but it was rare. It was an ability unique to their commander, an ability that made their brigade to be known as the golden lions and their commander as the unrelentless lioness.
Letting themselves be affected by this invigorating feeling, the entire army roared to the sky, and when Hannah finished speaking, with their spirits high and weapon in hand, she gave out an order from the back.
"Form rank," she said and the soldiers responded to her orders almost immediately.
Wide long shields and red glowing spears appeared, each unit turning themselves into separate blocks of iron and when the monsters collided with the solid shield that had been raised, the soldiers behind the men holding the shield raised the spears, pumping it with mana, making it glow and then thrusting it through the gaps between the shields, the spears drilling into the heads and bodies of the monsters like they were butter.
With this strategy, for the first 5 minutes, the army downed scores of monsters, making the top of the hillslope their graveyard.
With each unit being a block made of soldiers, it was easy to swap out a soldier for another when they got too tired from resisting the barrages, were injured or killed by the long and dangerous limbs of the underworld monsters, and by the fifth minute when various units were about to be broken through, several white explosions occurred in front of the units, these explosions resulting in blinding light that for some seconds sent the underworld monsters stopping in their tracks and retreating backwards, and it is during this that several sections of the units opened up and huge white balls that required two men to move were pushed out and sent rolling down the slopes, their round forms immediately being set on fire by a flaming arrow.
These balls had the various underworld creatures hissing and screaming as they came at them and when the balls touched them, they immediately let out shrieks as they were set on fire, this fire being highly infectious as it easily spread to the other monsters that touched the already burning ones.
"Purgatory flames" was what the knight of the holy sun who had brought the liquid that burned to create the flames had called it and it was rather unfortunate, that because of time constraints and other restrictions, they could not make a call for more of it and had to make do with the little he had on his person.
"If we had such resources in abundance, we would have been able to end this a lot faster."
The sight of several flame balls rolling down the slope and actually burning every creature in its path till it fell into the huge long crack at the valley floor had the soldier grinning and even letting out small cheers and then just as Hannah was thinking to herself that they were getting to lax and was about to scold them a sudden pressure which made her face go pale emanated from the rift.
"No, I was promised and sworn to that this wouldn't happen they told me a third order being would not appear, but this, this is the aura of a fourth order being."