The fire at the base of the wall began to abate. The acrid sll of burning flesh perated the air, staunch enough to make even the strongest stomach queasy. The smoke hung thick along the battlent, temporarily cutting off the citadel from the sight of the plain.
The fire, however unpleasant, had been a necessary risk. As none of the snakes could breach the blaze, it had given the warriors ti to regroup. The injured and dead were removed from the wall, and those still able to fight ford into makeshift cohorts with assigned leaders.
Hamish had sohow fallen under Sarai's leadership while many of the others looked to Master Chip for guidance.
Even Awakened Harlow seed ready to fight. She had given up trying to dull the luster of the whole wall, probably due to essence exhaustion.
Only the uppermost surface was no longer as bright, allowing the warriors to more clearly view the battlefield when the smoke finally cleared.
Though many probably wished they couldn't.
Looking out across the plain, Sarai's heart sank. She had seen herself how many abominations had died in that fire, and the voice of the Spell had given her credit for many more kills than she could hope to count, yet at least ten tis that many were waiting for their turn to siege the citadel.
Nearby, Sarai heard Chip bark a laugh.
He wiped his brow with his arm and smiled darkly. "Finally, a little action. I wonder what grilled snake tastes like?"
The redhead furrowed her brow.
She had already heard him spout threats and now he was goading the enemy. What if the Spell could hear?!
'He must be crazy!'
Sarai wanted to look at Master Chip, but the repulsion she felt looking at his chiseled jaw kept her from peeking to see if he was being sarcastic. As long as he fought hard to keep everyone alive, he could spout any nonsense he liked.
Sarai turned her attention from the eccentric Master.
"Ready?" She asked Hamish and the three others with them.
The veteran of the Southern Campaign nodded to his companions.
"Ready, willing, and able," he confird with a determined nod.
"Good. You'll have to give it all you have." Sarai answered, trying to exude confidence.
Her flaw clawed at her emotions. The baker did her best to push away any of the feelings that might cripple her in battle. Otherwise, she would really be cooked.
'What would Noble do?'
Even as the first snakes slithered through the dying fire and toward the vertical wall, Sarai searched the horizon for her friend. The Titan was completely visible now and moving forward undaunted.
Did that an that Noble and Jet were dead?
A flash of blue amongst the yellow, red, and green gave the auburn-haired Master so hope. But she had no ti to focus on the scene.
Below, the first snake touched the wall and began to climb.
Lowering her polearm, Sarai pointed to the intruder. "There!"
The archer beside her was already on the case, letting two arrows loose with barely a whisper from her enchanted string.
An arrow shaft landed in each of the serpent's eyes, blinding it for a mont before piercing the creature's brain. The archer nodded to Sarai. The Spell had confird the kill.
All along the battlent, shouts rang out with orders to dislodge the growing number of Nightmare Creatures scaling the wall. The hissing of the fire was replaced with the hissing of the serpents as they t the onslaught of weapons from the warriors.
But the humans could not hold back the tide forever. When more and more of the crazed beasts braved the smoldering hill of death, the archers were suddenly overwheld. Sarai saw the first snake breach the wall next to her.
With a leap, it landed on the fan of the newly returned Coy. Without hesitation, the curly-haired warrior used the fan as a defensive shield to repel the monster before turning the sharp edge to disembowel it.
Chip shot him a glance of approval. "Do that a million more tis and you've really got sothing."
On the other side, Hamish and his companions were learning quickly how to coordinate their attacks. The young man's Bloodsword had a wide reach, and he had to be careful not to injure his teammates with friendly fire.
So they adopted a layered attack. Hamish took the front line, making as many broad sweeps as he could, but also letting those out of his reach pass without trying to engage. Behind him, the others cleaned up whatever filtered through, using various thods to hold the line.
Even though Sarai wanted to be the vanguard, she found herself playing sweeper. She was a Master! Her power and speed were far beyond what any of the Awakened could do.
But that is precisely how she ended up moving along the wall with no anchor point. The baker could move quickly to plug any holes and use her fire to push back the creatures before they could gain a foothold.
Her agility and precision made her hard to follow and even harder to fight. To drown out the voice of the Spell announcing each kill, she humd as she went about her work.
That was, until, an Awakened nad Markus tumbled from the wall. She had left him in good shape to defend himself only a mont before, but his unsteady footwork along with a divot in the stone sent him tumbling over the edge.
While the fall wouldn't kill him, the creatures below most certainly would. Unlike Noble, Sarai could not fly. There was nothing she could do to help the fallen soldier.
Suddenly, Sarai didn't feel like singing anymore.
Now, there was only murder and survival to fill her mind.
The top of the wall, which had almost dried during the fire, was once again slick with blood. While she and the others were pushing the dead monsters down to the depths below, the surface on which they fought continued to be dyed crimson.
The mark of death stained the armor of the warriors too, yet they could not stop.
They had to push through the fatigue or die.
A piece of the wall tumbled to the ground, taking many of the adders with it.
No, it wasn't a piece of the wall, simply a pink rock that looked like it.
Harlow had gained enough essence back to begin hurling boulders at the enemy. Those around her cheered as she single-handedly catapulted dozens of PTV-sized stones at the enemy.
"Help!" A young man nad Herb was trying and failing to push back an Awakened Demon lurking among the lesser creatures.
Sarai raced forward, forcing the searing tip of her polearm through the creature's eye and into its brain before it could register that it had been struck.
She turned back to the shell-shocked soldier.
"Fall back, find a healer!" she ordered him.
Herb grasped where his missing arm should have been and stared at her blankly. Only a shove from the baker seed to break him from his trance.
'These people need a break.'
Sarai needed a way to relieve the pressure from her troops as well. The fireline had been a good start, but she had no concept of how long ago that had been. They needed to change things up.
Finding a spot to hang over the battlent, Sarai aid the polearm and blasted a torch of fire down the side of the wall. Like uprooted ivy, over a hundred scorched adders released their grip, sending a small avalanche of corrupted creatures to the ground.
The action had significantly drained Sarai of essence, but it was worth the result. Those closest to her took a collective sigh, so dropping to their knees or looking for a small drink of water.
Even Sarai was sweating now. She wiped her brow.
The wall was looking more sparse. Awakened had been devoured, bitten, or had collapsed from envenomation. Although the wall had not yet been breached, things were looking grim.
'We cannot go on like this forever...'
She looked out at the horizon. The Titan was much closer now. At the rate that it was going, the monster would reach them within the next quarter of an hour, maybe less.
What would they do then?
'Co on Noble! Co on Jet!'
Before Sarai could offer any silent prayer for their safety, the horde of creatures suddenly shifted.
The earth opened up.
And swallowed the Titan whole.
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