Chapter 443: A Different Transformation

While Tisdale negotiated with other forces on Da Xue’s behalf, Attie flew over the undead army with her tricolored sword in tow, and sharp wind blades generated by her flight speed shredded a large group of golems below into pieces.

Her eyes were fixed on the spot where the largest concentration of undead was, and she dove straight at them.

A few seconds later, farther away from the undead, the soldiers guarding the city wall noticed a bright explosion erupt in the distance, where the undead were. A ring-like shock wave began to spread out from the point of impact, and soon reached the sturdy city wall, which was far away, causing it to shake.

The soldiers knew how devasting the impact must have been, as the effects of its tremor were felt so far away.

Attie stood at the center of a crater, alone, examining the marred landscape around her. In a low voice, she said, “Not good. It’s not enough… Their number is simply too much.”

To the east of the city was where the undead had its lowest numbers. This was because most of the undead were focused on the south, where the cities closest to Arfin City were situated. The reason why the enemy directed most of the undead there, was so that they could seal off the main route, preventing the humans from receiving reinforcements. As for the north, east, and west sides, the undead marching there did so just to contain the battle.

Attie’s attack had obliterated an entire troop of undead that had been standing guard to the east if the city. This opened a path for reinforcements to arrive, as well as clearing away a problem for the counterforce, allowing them to direct more effort to the South of the attack. However, this display of power did not come without a cost; when Attie called Tisdale to report her success, she did so with a shaky voice.

“Thank you so much, Attie. Are you alright?” Tisdale asked, concerned.

“I’m fine. I’m just a little sad that this strike contained many years worth of power,” Attie lamented, eying the broken dagger in her hand. It had returned to its original, mundane self.

“It’s dangerous out there! You have to hurry back here, as soon as possible!” Tisdale urged.

“I know, I will… But promise me that none of you will tease me!” Attie replied.

At first, Tisdale was perplexed by Attie’s odd display of concern. She did not understand this, however, until much later, when she spotted Attie flying towards her with the last of her power. Tisdale burst into laughter as she pulled Attie into a hug. “Hahaha. How did you become this size?!”

“Oh-my-god! Attie’s form has reverted to what it was ten years ago! It’s soadowable! C’mere, lemme huggie too, Big Sister Dale!” Mordred, who stood nearby, exclaimed in delight.

Baiyi paused the flashback at this point just so he could say, “C’mere, Attie, I wanna give you a huggie, too.”

It turned out that Attie’s strike from earlier had consumed so much of her power, she had reverted to her old Kitty Cat Maid appearance, in which she was around the same height as Mia, with a chest as flat as Mia’s.

“What’s the matter with all of you?” Attie pursed her lips in dismay, her cheeks puffing slightly. “I just spent all the power Lord War God gave me for us all, yet neither of you has attempted to comfort me… You guys just wanna tease me!”

“Oh no! None of that! I just think that Attie is way cuter when she looks like this!” Baiyi quickly explained himself, pulling Attie — who was, in the present, preparing desserts for everyone in the room — into a tight embrace. He ruffled the little cat-ear hairband atop her head and added, “Ha! I knew it; your younger self is much cuter.”

“Hmph, Master really does care only for young girls,” Attie, who was powerless to escape Baiyi’s arms, helplessly said. “I’m almost twenty years old, Master. I’m not a child anymore. I just look like one right now.”

“No, no, that’s fine. The point is ‘kawaii’, not ‘kiddie’… I mean, look at that forty-six-year-old white-haired loli war goddess-cum-Principal! Isn’t she also the cutest thing in the world?” A Voidwalker chimed in. Fortunately, the hubbub in the room masked the identity of the person who just spoke.

Baiyi considered it an ingenious example, though; as long as one’s appearance fit the bill, he would care not for their actual age! [1]

He finally understood why Attie’s appearance had, in ten years, changed into that of a stoic, distant, and tough big sister. It turned out that the War God, who was scared that Attie would get bullied, had given her powers, which she used to alter her appearance. Attie had also used her powers to show off to Mia and Mordred. Who would have known that she would so willingly throw her power away for the safety of Arfin City? Attie’s contribution was great, but it had cost her the mature appearance she once had, causing her to revert to how she was supposed to look.

It was becoming apparent that Attie had the same weird morphology Mia did. Their bodies did not seem to want to grow out of their loli appearance.

After poking fun with his Kitty Cat Maid for a short while, Baiyi let go of her and resumed the flashback.

With her sacrifice, Attie had eliminated the threat from the east, which allowed the counterforce to notice that the enemies had focused most of their power on the south. A few capable people in the city volunteered to face the enemies approaching from the north. Although the undead coming from this direction were not as much those coming from the south, they were much faster than the latter.

This battle was fought by some professors from Da Xue, who had brought along their students and a magnificent white dragon, which attacked from up high. They had been accompanied by some private mercenaries hired by the more vigilant nobles in the city, making a total force of about two thousand people. Their skillsets, proficiency, and battle prowess varied, but it was more than enough to level a crowd of unintelligent undead soldiers.

Led by renowned professors from the Knights Faculty, such as Professor Halsey and Mr. Sorry, the group from Arfin City easily tore through the undead’s ranks. While the mercenaries provided cover, the students and professors from Da Xue’s faculty of Magic, who were led by Professor Joseph and Mr. Owl, bombard the undead with spells from afar. These fifty young magic experts — who were better than their peers — followed a highly-idealized battle plan and cleared away droves of enemies with large-scale spells. With support from the dragon lady in the sky, the group from Arfin City managed to annihilate the five thousand undead coming in from the north, despite the disparity they had in quantity.

The mercenaries suffered some casualties, though. Some had been unlucky to be shot dead by undead skeleton archers, and some, who panicked when they saw the undead, ran hysterically into the army of undead and were killed. A few suffered wounds from accidents, like getting caught in a stampede.

One could not ask any more from mercenaries hired by nobles, though.

Many found it puzzling why some undead approached in small groups, instead of joining larger groups. They also were perplexed at the fact that the approaching undead did not know retreat; they seemed only to know how to march forward, which made it easier from the group from Arfin City to kill them. The undead also did not, at any point, change their strategy.

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Nevertheless, one could not ask too much from working corpses.

After the armies of undead approaching from the east and the north were eliminated, the morales of the people defending Arfin City skyrocketed. The team from Da Xue dispatched to combat the undead approaching from the west, were super excited.

This group contained ‘weirdos’ — Fairy archers, some students from the Northern Continent, two unicorns, a bear, a fox, an owl, a cat, a wolf, and a leopard, who were all representatives of the animal-students. Also in this group was a sunflower, the Jawflower, a cactus, and some other mutated plants; this group represented the flora.

To Da Xue, “absolutely everyone deserves an education”, so they even accepted these sorts of students; however, some other students treated them as outcasts. Students of other ethnicities, especially the Northerners, and species, especially the flora and fauna, faced this discrimination.

Sometimes, the fairies were harassed by horny male students. The animal and plant students were far less welcomed than the fairies, by and even now, they were left alone, being deemed as outcasts. They had almost zero interaction with human students.

To prevent all forms of in-fighting, Tisdale had decided to group the ostracized students, dispatching them to the Western Wall. She appointed Nydore the leader and asked the Great Fox and Mr. Bear to assist her.

When Mr. Bear saw the incoming undead, its expression turned solemn, and it murmured, “What… what foul, vile filth! What sort of profane defilement are these things?!”

As a druid, beings that worshipped nature and its gnosis, Mr. Bear would not tolerate anything that went against nature, such as walking corpses. The sight of the marching undead agitated the bear so much, a nature it consciously suppressed for thousands of years began to resurface.

A Northern student noticed the change in the bear’s demeanor and hurriedly tried to calm it down. “Please, Professor. Calm doon.”

Just like druids, Northerners also believed in the laws of nature and detested things that went against it, like soul armatures and undead. These existences functioned outside the natural cycle of life and death. This much could be seen from the way they cultivate and train their elemental fighting styles, as well as the way they control their combat chi.

When Da Xue became steady, Baiyi had tried to recruit students from the Northern Continent with a little help from Undine. However, his identity as a Soul Armature caused him a lot of setbacks. A few years later, Da Xue cemented its position as the best academy in the world, and a few open-minded forces in the Northern Continent finally decided to exchange a few of their students with Da Xue.

However, the exchange students from the North were unable to mingle with the Southern students, despite being in the academy for over two years. The problem was not only because quite a lot of people in charge of the faculties and administration were Soul Armatures, but also because of cultural differences. It was common for the Northern students to get into fights with others.

In the end, the Northerners felt more at home with the fairies and the non-human students. Some of them went on the learn the language of the fairies, as well as sign language, which they used to communicate with the non-human students.

The Northern students were not a cooperative bunch, though. When asked to fight for the city, their leader — a bald, muscular student, who loves to move around with a shirt on — said, “We aren’t daein’ this fur those Southern scunners… We’re fightin’ fur ourselves ‘n’ oor school!”

They did not need to be persuaded further. The northern students quickly took up arms and joined the battle. Baiyi was quite touched when he saw this!

Even the non-humans were very willing. They had been subjected to bullying at Da Xue, and only the Jawflower could fight back against the oppressors; however, when they were called upon, the non-human students joined the Jawflower on the battlefield.

Could this be Da Xue’s charm at work?

One could not underestimate the powers of these oddballs. Although they lacked social skills, they were not the slightest bit inferior to normal Southern humans. This was also true for the Northern exchange students. Every one of them outshone their peers back at the Northern continent. They were chosen for the exchange because the Northern continent wanted to present boast-worthy students. Every one of them was slightly stronger than their Southern peers, which made them the perfect cover and defense for the fragile fairy archers.

The mutated plants were hard to control or communicate with, but they were incredibly crafty and versatile. They were also unable to become undead creatures, and this allowed them to defend their allies without much risk.

The animal students were simple and effective. They boasted strength far superior to that of humans, and they were sentient. In the battle, they were like tanks!

This group of oddballs could be considered one of Tisdale’s trump cards. They were stronger than the troops deployed to the north. It was as though they were born to battle.

However, one of their commanders had become emotionally unstable. Facing undead had caused Mr. Bear to lose itself. Despite being comforted by the students, Mr. Bear grew more livid, and soon, it snapped, shoving the students close to it aside.

The bear climbed to the top of the city wall. Nydore, who was looking at it, tried one more time to calm it down. “Please, Mr. Bear! Please calm down! If you do this, thousands of years worth of your cultivation will go to waste”

“No!” The bear shook its head sideways, and with a hoarse voice, it bellowed, “If I remain unperturbed by the defilement of the laws of nature, then  all of my cultivation will have been for naught!”

The students standing close by lowered their heads in sadness.

An earth-shattering bellow tore through the sky, from the western side of Arfin City. It did not sound like the cry of a beast, but more like the bellow of an ancient behemoth that was finally freed from its shackles. The roar contained its bloodlust and fury.

Arfin City trembled under the cry. Even little children, who knew little, could sense the primal violence in the roar, and it caused their hearts to lurch in terror.

On the west side of the wall, a large black bear stood as tall as the fortress itself. Its eyes were blood-red, and its paws were as large as the city gate. It looked nothing like Mr.Bear’s teddy-bear like appearance.

This was the druid’s true form. [2]

“Keep… up…” Mr. Bear mustered the last of its rationality and growled. With that, it charged into the army of undead. The ground below trembled underneath its heavy feet.

The students, who had long since gone pale, exchanged glances and spotted similar looks of terror on the faces of their peers. They had no choice but to leap down from the wall and follow Mr. Bear into battle. The group was being led by Nydore.