"Block them! Block them sohow!"
"Even Joseph is down!"
"Get him out of here! He’s wearing a uniform, he can’t be dead!"
The west wall was in utter chaos. Of all things, a ’Guardian’ had leaped onto the wall, and the distraction had been fatal. In that mont of diverted attention, other Mimics slipped through the opening and sward the ramparts.
"They’re relentless."
Fitzgerald brought his two arms, held aloft like banners, together in the middle. The six-ard Siren next to him mimicked the motion and deployed a magic circle. Six different spells shot out, burning, slicing, and freezing the Mimics. His Siren Chira was doing the work of six mages, but...
’Dammit, my Jet-Black is running on fus.’
He was at his limit. Just as Fitzgerald was weighing the mission’s success against his own survival...
A chaotic shriek echoed as a giant worm-like monster erupted from the ground. Fitzgerald pushed up his glasses.
’Toto’s Death Worm! That ans...’
A dark figure leaped from the Death Worm’s maw onto the wall. Simultaneously, space tore open, and a massive subspace unfolded.
’Blade Storm’
A deafening shriek of tearing tal filled the air as four swirling vortexes of blades shot out, tearing across the ramparts and shredding every monster in their path.
"Are you okay, Fitzgerald?"
"Ah, yeah. Perfect timing."
His legs gave out, and Fitzgerald collapsed where he stood. Simon offered a playful smile.
"I never thought the sector you were assigned to would be breached," Fitzgerald remarked.
"We started the defense one person short, which put us at a disadvantage. The other student was taken out and is unconscious."
"Who was missing?"
"Serne Aindark."
"Ah..." Simon broke out in a cold sweat. "B-But I definitely sent her."
"She probably got distracted and wandered off again," Fitzgerald sighed. "Still, thanks to you, I made it out. So, thank you."
"Of course." Simon nodded, a troubled look on his face as he glanced behind them.
"What is it?" Fitzgerald asked.
"It’s just... when I was riding the Death Worm over here, I felt a strange vibration coming from underground."
Fitzgerald adjusted his glasses. "If it’s bothering you, perhaps you should investigate."
"Yeah. The wall seems to be mostly clear, so—"
’RUUUUMBLE!’
But it was too late.
A colossal explosion rocked the very foundations of the earth. Simon’s face tightened. ’Am I too late?!’
"The southern wall!"
With a deafening roar, the ground buckled and gave way, taking a massive section of the fortress wall down with it. The students who whirled around to witness the devastation stared in stunned silence.
"The wall...!"
"It collapsed!"
There was no way a perfectly sound wall could crumble so easily. As Simon’s mind raced, Fitzgerald stood beside him, tracing patterns in the air as if making a complex calculation.
"That direction... there’s no doubt," he murmured.
"Did you figure sothing out?"
"That’s where the fortress’s underground aqueduct runs."
Simon’s head snapped back around. "There’s an aqueduct?"
"A fortress this large would have to have one. I believe it’s guarded by a small contingent of Gahalic soldiers. However..."
"However?"
"It’s impossible for the Mimics to have made the tactical decision to infiltrate the fortress through the aqueduct on their own." Fitzgerald’s expression turned frigid as he added, "And it’s even more impossible for them to have planted and detonated a mana bomb inside it."
Simon imdiately raised his communication crystal. "Toto! I’m heading over now! Get there with a Death Worm!"
’S-Sorry, Simon!’ Toto’s panicked voice crackled through. ’My ntal link with the Death Worms has been severed!’
’What?’
Simon froze for a heartbeat before kicking off the crumbling rampart and breaking into a dead sprint. ’Damn it, what in the world is going on?’
---
For the students diligently guarding the wall, it was a catastrophe that had struck from a clear sky. The very bricks beneath their feet disintegrated, and the air filled with a choking cloud of gray dust.
’Ugh!’
A female student, having barely caught a protruding brick at the wall’s edge, grimaced as she peered down into the chaos. Through the swirling dust, she could see the flashing eyes of swarming Mimics. ’I-I have to climb up...! Huh?’
With a soft ’pop’, the brick she was clinging to pulled free. Despair flooded her eyes as her body plunged downward with the loose stone. She squeezed her eyes shut, but a sudden jolt made her open them again.
A crimson skeleton was right in front of her. It enveloped her in a suit of Bone Armor, as if in an embrace, and then soared into the sky. With a series of clicks and clacks, she was deposited safely on a stable section of the wall.
Red skeletons were darting through the air, rescuing every student who had fallen.
The rescued students looked up in astonishnt. From an imnse, bone-crafted battleship hanging in the sky, countless red skeletons were descending like paratroopers.
"It’s Professor Aaron! He’s here!"
"We’re saved!"
With synchronized thuds, the skeletons landed near the breach, swarming like fire ants and raising their bows.
’Kerrrrk! Keeeeh!’
The Mimics were flooding through the collapsed section. The skeletons released their bowstrings. A vicious volley of red streaks tore through the air, crashing into the monstrous wave and forcing it to recede.
Following that, more skeletons poured down from Aaron’s undead battleship, disassembling into individual parts to fill the gap in the wall.
"What’s the professor doing?"
"He’s making a fence! He’s linking the bones together!"
In the blink of an eye, a makeshift barrier of bone sealed the breach. The skeletal archers repositioned themselves and unleashed another volley, beating back the tide of monsters once more. It was a flawless response, executed as if he had known the wall would collapse.
’I’ve taken temporary asures, but it won’t hold for long,’ Aaron’s voice echoed through the students’ communication crystals. Monsters that had pushed through the arrow-fire were already clawing at the bone fence. ’We need a necromancer with high firepower to defend the breach.’
’I alone am sufficient,’ a different voice bood.
A massive shadow fell across the battlefield. A pitch-black Corpse Dragon fixed its glaring eyes on the front line.
’Dragon Breath.’
A torrent of fire erupted from its maw with a deafening roar. The Mimics clinging to the fence were instantly incinerated, lting away in the blistering heat.
---
At the entrance to the aqueduct.
"Ðⴘⴇ!"
"ⳖØⴋⴠⴇ?"
The Gahalic guards exchanged worried glances. The thunderous explosions echoed even down here, but they had no idea what was happening outside, assuming only that a part of the aqueduct had collapsed.
"Hello, my Gahalic friends."
A man’s voice drifted out from the darkness. The guards flinched, raising their spears.
A flash of light, and a man wielding two massive, crossed cleavers was standing behind them.
"Too slow."
The guards’ heads flew into the air. Their bodies, deprived of command, crumpled like puppets with their strings cut.
"Ah, I said you’re too slow! C-Could you hurry it up a bit?" the Butcher snarled, resting a cleaver on his shoulder. "I know it takes ti to adapt to a monster’s body, but at this rate, the war will be over before we even get there!"
His colleague, the One-Eyed Gentleman, erged from the aqueduct, followed by a squad of assassins disguised as Mimics.
"Have you not considered that you are simply too fast?" the One-Eyed Gentleman said, adjusting his high-brimd hat. "Bear this in mind: we are here to quietly secure Simon Polentia amidst the chaos, not to commit a massacre. Avoid killing the students. It could complicate matters terribly."
"I’ve heard that at least three hundred tis!" The Butcher picked at his ear. "Well then, let’s get this party started!"
"Wait—!"
Splashing through the puddles on the floor, his work apron fluttering behind him, the Butcher shot out of the tunnel. The first thing he saw was...
"Huh?"
He had erged into a warehouse, where Gahalic soldiers were frantically moving arrows and weapons. They spotted the man who had suddenly appeared from the aqueduct and raised their weapons.
"Ðⴘⴇ!"
"ⴃ%ⴶⴀⴋ!"
"What’s all that gibberish?" A vicious grin split the Butcher’s lips.
The heads of the two soldiers who had aid their spears at him were sent flying.
"There was no rule against carving up the Gahalic, was there?"
The Butcher dropped into an unnaturally low stance and spun. His massive cleavers beca a whirlwind of glinting steel, and heads and limbs flew.
"Ke-hap!"
He caught a cleaver as it fell and brought it down with brutal force. A charging Gahalic warrior was split clean in two.
"Ðⴆŀº!"
The commotion drew warriors from outside. They imdiately drew their bows, infused their arrows with mana, and fired.
"Ho."
The Butcher crouched, crossing his cleavers. The two arrows slid harmlessly along the angled blades. With a sharp cry, he flicked his arms, and the deflected arrows changed course, embedding themselves in the chests of two warriors trying to ambush him from behind.
"Did you really think I wouldn’t notice you playing dead?!" the Butcher cackled, lunging forward.
"ⴘⴋÐⴘ!"
A muscular warrior charged, hurling a mana-infused spear. The Butcher just grinned and moved his cleaver in a blur. The tip of the blade danced, and the approaching spear was diced into neat chunks, like a finely chopped carrot.
The Butcher spun, catching the pieces on the flat of his other cleaver, and swung with all his might.
The spear fragnts shot out like shrapnel, ricocheting off the walls and burying themselves in the skulls of the remaining warriors. They collapsed, choking on their own blood.
"Whew."
The Butcher gave his cleaver a theatrical twirl and rested it on his shoulder out of habit. His gaze drifted to the window. Beyond the shattered fra, a massive creature was breathing fire, incinerating the monsters below.
"Wow, is that a dragon? These Kizen folks don’t ss around!"
"You’ve caused this much of a ruckus already?" the One-Eyed Gentleman said, appearing at his side and leaning on his staff. "I’ll say it again..."
"Secure the blue-haired one and kill the platinum-blonde one! I know, I know!" he snapped, already running off. "Guess I can play around until I find them, right?"
Watching the Butcher disappear, the One-Eyed Gentleman heaved a sigh. "I knew I shouldn’t have brought him along."
Muttering to himself, he traced a pattern in the air with his staff. A series of impossibly complex magic circles materialized before he lowered the staff and began to chant.
Space tore open, and from the rift, a flood of Mimics from outside the fortress began to pour in.
"Since it has co to this, we have no choice but to go all in. You all go as well."
The disguised assassins lted into the horde of monsters and charged out. The surprised cries of students and Gahalic warriors echoed from outside as monsters suddenly erupted from within their main base.
"Catastrophe is now unavoidable." He raised his staff. His body sank into a pool of Jet-Black and slithered forward, leaving a dark residue in its wake.
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