Chapter 37: Inside Attack

The port city of Neima was almost 300 years old and had originally been built near the sea to serve as a trading post for traders from the Central Continent and the Austra Continent. But for certain reasons, the city never progressed as planned and never reached its heyday.

But like many cities and settlements around the world, the city had been built with a huge defensive wall to protect against invasions from enemy nations and monster attacks.

At the time of its construction, the ruler of the kingdom at the time had decided to spare no expense and ordered that a protective array be installed in the wall so that it could withstand all attacks whether they were of normal siege weapons or magical nature.

The structure of the array was quite simple but effective.

13 meters (42.65ft) below the city walls was a corridor that connected to a square room, which was covered with inscriptions and runes. In the center of the room were three cylindrical pillars made of Ilectrum and each had a grade 4.5 Rehi crystal embedded right in the center.

These pillars were connected to the city wall through a series of energy-conducting runes so that the energy from the crystals would cover the wall with a layer of protection when the city was under attack. Once activated, the array would be able to withstand the constant attacks of at least a dozen wizards of the 4th realm and could remain active for 3 days or more.

However, if the pillars or crystals were destroyed the entire array would collapse and the wall would no longer be able to defend itself from magical attacks. For this reason, it was that both the corridor and the room were always guarded by 15 guards all with a strength comparable to that of a wizard of the 1st realm.

Thomas had always considered himself lucky to have been assigned to protect the array. To others, it might seem incredibly boring or a waste of time, but he liked it there. The hallway was quiet and had never been attacked in the last 300 years.

Plus, the place was awesome for napping and if he was bored he could always play cards with his buddies. Anything was better than standing guard on the wall and running the risk of getting hurt or killed during an attack.

In that place he was completely safe... or so he supposed.

Thomas's whole body ached, he could no longer feel his limbs and he didn't know why but he was very cold. His head was spinning and his vision was blurred. A few moments later, Thomas was able to regain consciousness and despite the poor lighting offered by the torches, he could see with horror the scene in front of his eyes.

The walls of the corridor were covered with blood and remains of gray matter, entrails, limbs and severed heads covered the floor along with the corpses of his fellow guards. At that moment, Thomas noticed the puddle of blood he was sitting in and finally saw the large hole in his chest.

Thomas wondered. At what point did it all go to hell?

Just two hours ago he and his companions were enjoying the night and a second later the city was under attack. Of course, Thomas wasn't worried. After all, he had complete confidence in the city's defenses and wasn't going to get involved in the battle. His job was to protect the core of the array and nothing else.

'Ulysses!" said Tomas in his mind. He had finally remembered what happened.

Almost an hour and fifty minutes after the array had been activated, his fellow guard, Ulysses, had started screaming and writhing on the floor, complaining about his excruciating headache and the stinging he felt in his body.

At that moment Thomas regretted not having paid attention to the ailments his companion had been suffering from two weeks earlier when they returned from inspecting the surrounding areas of the jungle.

Thomas did not know how, but while he and his partners were inspecting the jungle, Ulysses had complained of having swallowed an insect or a worm by accident. At the time everyone took it funny and Thomas remembered saying to his friend, "It's no big deal. Think of it as extra protein." and no one else worried about the matter.

A week later Ulysses was suffering from sudden headaches, itching in his body and proved to be hungrier than usual eating about three times the usual amount of food.

Within two minutes after his sudden headache began, Ulysses' eyes turned blood red, his skin turned black and the muscles in his body began to swell, destroying his armor in the process. In less than 30 seconds, Ulysses had grown to a height of 2.5 meters (8.2ft).

A few seconds later, Ulysses' head exploded and a dozen worms as thick as a human arm and over a meter (3.2ft) long began to emerge from his neck, his body was covered in thin black scales and where his fingernails used to be, there was a pair of sharp claws.

It didn't take long for the creature to start attacking and killing the guards in the hallway. Smashing their heads against the walls of the corridor, dismembering them or piercing their bodies with the worms coming out of its neck.

Although the guards reacted quickly and attacked the creature, all their attempts to kill it were futile. The creature's skin was so tough that normal weapons could not penetrate the scales of its skin.

These guards were considered the elite among the city's soldiers. Each of them could fight a wizard of the 1st realm on equal conditions and perhaps kill one. But in the face of this creature, they were nothing more than mere ants waiting to be trampled.

*Stomp, Stomp, Stomp!*

Thomas heard heavy footsteps approaching his position.

*Stomp, Stomp, Sto.*

The footsteps stopped and Thomas looked up only to find himself facing the horrifying creature staring at him with the worms on its body. The worms had no eyes, but he could still feel as if they were looking at him with strong killing intent.

"HuH? So YOU'RE still ALIVE? I HAVE to GIVE you credit FOR that." Said the worms at the same time. Their voices were very distorted and their pitch changed between a low and high pitched one."I GUESS there's a REASON why you're CALLED elite SOLDIERS. Let ME reward YOU with A quick DEATH for putting UP with SO much." [1]

*Whoosh Cruch*

One of the creature's worms moved and in what seemed like a split second pierced Thomas' skull staining the wall with another smear of blood and gray matter. The guard's limp body slid down the wall and finally collapsed on the floor.

The creature removed the worm from Thomas' skull and walked into the room where the core of the array was located.

'The power of this subspecies has indeed exceeded my expectations. It's almost on par with a wizard from the beginning of the 3rd realm! Hmm... Too bad I have to detonate it, with what it cost me to create this little guy. Well never mind, this worm is nothing compared to the honor of fulfilling Meiragas' will. Hahaha... Glory to the eternal plague.'

The Creature entered the core room and a few seconds later an explosion occurred causing both the room and the hallway to collapse. In less than a minute the entire hallway collapsed, crushing and burying the corpses of the soldiers 13 meters (42.65ft) underground.

****

[The city wall, South Zone. 5 minutes before the collapse of the protective array.]

*Slash*.

Hans swung his sword, as big as a door, creating an energy slash that severed 5 Arsenis ants on the spot.

"That's 177 with those! How are you doing over there old man?"

*Whoosh*

Edwin's ax traced a semicircle in the air and decapitated 2 praying mantises that were over 4 meters (13ft) tall and generated gusts of sharp wind just by moving their limbs. The ax made one last spin in the air decapitating another six monsters before returning to the mercenary's hand.

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"Hahaha, you're falling way behind baldy. I already killed 234! A nice number isn't it?"

"Tch, you f**king geezer! I'm not gonna lose!"

"Hahaha, that's the spirit! Huff, but I'm starting to get tired." Edwin said as he took a moment to catch his breath.

Although the battle had started over two hours ago, this one seemed far from over.

Shortly after Hans and some members of the Giant Clan joined the fight, the situation on the south side of the wall improved quite a bit. Members of the Gale Clan and reinforcements from the forest church did not take long to arrive either, and together they took control of the battle.

Thanks to the efforts of the Red Axe Clan, all the people who were outside the walls at the time of the attack were successfully evacuated and brought inside the city. This allowed the mercenaries and soldiers to fight freely.

The wizards of the Gale Clan positioned themselves at the top of the wall and together with the soldiers who were armed with bows and arrows specially made to penetrate the monsters' armor, unloaded a barrage of attacks on the battlefield.

Fireballs, lightning bolts, ice spears, giant rocks, and arrows of light pierced the sky and impacted against the horde of monsters who, unable to defend themselves from the attacks coming from the wall, had no choice but to be destroyed by the magic of the wizards.

While the mercenaries, with the help of the soldiers of the city and the knights of the church, were in charge of killing the monsters that were out of range of the magical attacks and the rain of arrows.

The mercenaries, soldiers, and knights would form groups of three to finish off a monster. One of them would distract the creature so that the other two could successfully attack from the sides. However, this tactic only worked on monsters below the 2nd realm.

The only exceptions were the High-rank mercenaries and the elite knights of the church whose abilities were enhanced by a spell of holy magic, courtesy of Catalin. As for the mercenary leaders, they were in charge of the strongest monsters of the 2nd and 3rd realms.

*WHOOSH*

At that moment, a large wind blade passed close to where the two men were standing, shattered a dozen monsters, and left a huge mark on the ground over 10 meters (32ft) long and 2 meters (6.5ft) deep.

"You two could stop playing and concentrate on what's in front of you! The battle is far from over yet."

The two men stopped and looked to where that voice they already knew had come from.

Hovering several meters above the ground, the leader of the Gale Clan Hawat Manur was throwing wind blades and creating small whirlwinds that sliced and shattered the monsters into pieces.

Hawat rummaged through his clothes, pulled out a small vial containing a blue liquid. The blond wizard popped the cork of the bottle with his teeth and proceeded to drink the blue liquid until the bottle was empty. Thereupon, the man recited a spell and created dozens of air bullets that pierced through half a dozen monsters, leaving them with as many holes as if they were Swiss cheese.

"Huff... That was my last mana option! I don't know how many the rest will have left, but they probably won't be able to keep conjuring attacks for much longer. If the battle drags on for another hour I'm afraid we'll start losing ground." said the wizard as he conjured multiple wind lances and threw them at the monsters.

Hans thought about what the blond wizard said and realized that he too didn't have many options left to recover the internal energy he had expended and had already used all the spells of his enchanted items. Edwin seemed to be doing a little better as his ax was a magical item and only required a small amount of the user's energy to function.

At the start of the battle, the city forces that were fighting the horde of monsters numbered about 11,000 people. There were also about 2,000 more men who were not participating in the battle because they were trying to keep the situation inside the city under control.

Although at first, it seemed that the mercenaries and soldiers had the advantage, as the battle dragged on things changed.

By Hawat's estimate, the horde consisted of at least 25,000 monsters. They were mostly monsters from the 1st realm. But there were also many creatures from the 2nd and 3rd realm that the common soldiers could not handle.

Two hours had passed since the battle began and the number of slain monsters amounted to almost 14,000. But the forces defending the city were not unscathed either. Potions, spell scrolls and normal ammunition were almost exhausted and the city had lost almost 3,000 troops during the confrontation.

If the situation continued like this, Hans and the rest of those still fighting would have no choice but to withdraw from the battle and wait for their forces to recover. All they could do was wait and pray that the protective array would keep the monsters at bay.

" Old man! I don't think we can hold out much longer!" said Hans as he cut down another giant beetle.

"What do you suggest?"

"Let's retreat to the walls and wait for us to recover!"

Although Edwin didn't seem to like the idea of a retreat very much he had to admit that they couldn't hold out for much longer and certainly not if they continued to lose soldiers.

"RETREAT! EVERYONE, GET INTO THE C-!"

*BOOM!*

Before Edwin could finish speaking, an explosion occurred just below the city gates and a few seconds later the energy layer covering the wall went out. The wall's protective array had collapsed.

"The arra-!"

*BOOM!*

Hearing the explosion, the leader of the Gale Clan couldn't help but turn in the direction of the city wall, only to see the array collapse. But before the wizard could even say a sentence, a powerful energy projectile hit him, turning him into a cloud of blood.

"HAWAT!!"

The collapse of the array and the sudden death of the wizard had caused Hans to lose focus of the battle for only a few seconds. And that was a fatal mistake

*Shik*

When the mercenary reacted, the first thing he noticed was a stabbing pain shooting through him from his back to his chest. When he looked down, Hans noticed the huge black sting coming out of his chest, which was covered with a purple liquid and his blood.

****

[1]: The paragraph is written in this way to represent the distorted voice of the worms .

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