Chapter 256 – The Battle for Frontier City Akela (4)

Chapter 256

The Battle for Frontier City Akela (4)

Date : Day 18 of Firstthaw 1024 Aethellgard Concord Year.

Hyoren's stomach dropped the moment he heard the word.

Emergency…

A cold wave of dread swept through him. Baron Guts had stayed calm through the entire bombardment and through the first charge. If the wall commander was shouting now, something had gone very wrong.

But Hyoren was the field commander. If his voice shook, the whole line would shake with it.

He forced the dread down, cut down the goblin in front of him and raised his voice over the noise.

"Fits! Jigor! I'm leaving the middle of the line to you two for a while!"

Fits flicked the blood from his golden blade and gave a sharp nod.

"Understood! Leave it to us!"

Jigor slammed his glowing shield into a goblin's face and sent it tumbling back over the corpse pile.

"Gyahaha! Go on, lad! We'll hold your spot!"

Hyoren's gaze slid left to the Beastkin duo. Jackey's axes swung in wide arcs. Killa's scythe swept in beside him, cutting off anything that tried to slip past. They moved together without a word.

Those two are fine…

Above them, the support from the wall hadn't let up. Arrows still streaked down from the watchtower. Spells still burst across the middle of the plain. Elise, Arianna, the other archers and the mages were all pouring everything they had into thinning the squads before they reached the line.

Hyoren guided Aethell into the communication tool and addressed the other two commanders first.

"Guild Master. Captain Yugold. I'm leaving frontline command to you for a while. Give me a few minutes."

On the left flank, Fiona drove her greatsword through a goblin's chest without looking up.

"Go! We've got this!"

On the right, Yugold's crisp voice cut through the earbud between the orders he was barking at his knights.

"Understood, commander. The right flank will hold."

Hyoren drew a slow breath and steadied his voice.

"What's the emergency, Baron Guts?"

There was a brief pause on the other end. When the wall commander's voice came back, it was tight.

"There's movement in the goblin army. The Chieftain is splitting its forces!"

Hyoren's head snapped up toward the hill.

"What? So the Chieftain is doing what we feared most!?"

He couldn't see it. From the frontline, his view was nothing but dust and smoke and a churning sea of green bodies stretching all the way to the hill.

He retreated several steps behind the line, out of the press, and climbed onto a low mound of churned earth.

Then he saw it.

The goblins were still sending squad after squad down the hill. But in the middle of the plain, the stream was dividing. One half kept charging straight at the second wall, the same as before. The other half was peeling away and veering north, toward the cliffs and the steep, broken hills beyond them. They hadn't reached the cliffs yet. But they were heading straight for them.

Hyoren's blood ran cold.

Damn it… If they climb those cliffs and go around to attack the north gate, we can't stop them!

No one was guarding the north gate. Every fighter in Akela had been gathered here, at Gate of Guts, on this plain, holding the second wall. If even a few hundred goblins slipped over those cliffs, there would be nothing between them and the city—nothing but the people the defenders were fighting to protect.

He gripped Étendard Sacré du Lys tighter.

The communication tool fell silent. Fiona, Yugold and Baron Guts were all waiting for his decision. Through the earbud, he could hear nothing but the clash of steel and ragged breathing.

I need to decide fast…

His eyes went to the city wall. A figure in a purple robe and wide-brimmed hat stood near the battlements.

I need to talk with Arianna…

He turned and ran.

"Strong Legs."

Power surged into his legs. Each stride kicked harder against the mud and launched him farther forward.

"Accel Zone."

A soft golden light wrapped around him, and his body sped up even more.

Every second mattered. Étendard Sacré du Lys only strengthened those who could see it. The moment he left the battlefield, every defender on the second wall would lose the banner's blessing. Each step he took toward the gate was draining it from the line behind him.

Defenders glanced back as the white banner streaked past them toward the gate. A few of them faltered. But none of them called out. For an hour they had watched Hyoren stand at the center of the line without retreating a single step. If he was leaving it now, something serious must be happening.

He reached the gate, darted into the gatehouse and took the stairs to the battlements two at a time.

When he burst out onto the wall, heads turned.

Elise on the watchtower. Arianna beside the battlements. Oria with her wand extended over the plain. Dennis and Reinora a little farther along. The mages and archers lining the wall. Every one of them noticed him.

But they only glanced at him, then turned back and kept bombarding the goblin army. Every spell and every arrow still mattered.

Baron Guts pushed himself upright against the battlements. His black-red robe was still soaked with sweat, and his breathing was still heavy, but his eyes were sharp.

Hyoren stopped in front of him and lowered his head.

"I'm sorry, Baron Guts."

Baron Guts gave a short nod.

"It's fine."

He turned his gaze north, toward the goblins veering for the cliffs. His brow creased.

"We need a new strategy. Should we send the cavalry now to chase down the ones heading north? They're still recovering, but they can ride out right away."

Hyoren shook his head.

"No, Baron Guts. It's not just that they're exhausted. Their strength comes from speed and explosive charges. Eighty riders can't hold back hundreds of goblins, let alone a thousand."

Baron Guts' face contorted. His knuckles whitened around his red-orb staff.

"Then what should we do?"

Hyoren gritted his teeth.

He looked north, at the goblins streaming toward the cliffs. Then east, at the endless squads still pouring down the hill. Then down at the second wall, where the defenders were bleeding and slipping in the gore with the banner gone from their center.

Strategies raced through his mind. He discarded them one after another. Too slow. Too few people. Too much risk to the line.

Then one remained.

His expression changed. The frustration drained from his face, leaving only grim determination. He turned back to Baron Guts.

"I have a plan… but it might not work."

He held the wall commander's gaze without wavering.

"Will you trust me with it?"

For a moment, Baron Guts simply looked at him.

Then he straightened against the battlements, and the corner of his mouth lifted into a determined smile.

"We came this far because of your five-phase strategy. Because of your 'Improvise. Adapt. Overcome.'"

He tapped the butt of his staff against the stone.

"We already trusted you with the mantle of field commander. We'll follow your plan."

Hyoren nodded once.

He turned toward the battlefield, toward the goblins heading for the cliffs below.

"Then… it's time to change the plan."

***

Hyoren turned back to Baron Guts.

"The five phases stay the same. But some of the details are going to change."

Baron Guts studied him for a moment, then nodded without a word.

Hyoren stepped past him to the battlements, where Arianna stood with Quadraflux Weaver lowered over the plain. Up close, he could see how much she had recovered. Her breathing was even again, and the pallor from her first Earth Fissure had faded from her cheeks. Noctynara's Lament rested against her chest, its pitch-black eye-shaped orb untouched.

"Arianna. You can cast another Earth Fissure now, and you still haven't used Noctynara's Lament's refill, right?"

The crimson-haired mage straightened and adjusted the brim of her hat. Her light-blue eyes were sharp and focused.

"That's correct, Leader."

Hyoren nodded.

"Good. Soon, I'll need you to cast Earth Fissure, and then use the refill right after."

He tapped his chin, eyes drifting north toward the goblins streaming across the plain.

"Can you adjust the size of the spell?"

Arianna nodded without hesitation.

"Yes. Usually I go for maximum coverage, so I set the width to thirty meters and the length to one hundred and fifty."

Hyoren's mind churned.

Thirty by a hundred and fifty… That's about four thousand five hundred square meters.

He looked at the gap between the battlefield and the northern cliffs and measured it with his eyes. Then he did the math again, the other way around.

If the area stays about the same, and I stretch it out instead…

His eyes snapped back to her.

"Can you make it a kilometer long, but only three or four meters wide? And make the chasm as deep as you possibly can, with jagged stone lining the edges."

Arianna blinked. Behind her, Baron Guts' brow furrowed, then slowly smoothed out. Both of them looked from Hyoren to the plain, to the goblins veering north, to the cliffs. Realization slowly dawned on their expressions.

He swept his spear out over the plain, tracing a line from the battlefield toward the cliffs.

"This time, I don't want your Earth Fissure to be aimed at the goblin army."

Arianna's gaze followed the line he'd drawn. Her lips moved silently for a moment, as if she were already rearranging runes in her head. Width, Length, Depth.

Then she nodded.

"That's possible, Leader."

Baron Guts let out a low breath, and the corner of his mouth curved into a smile.

"So you're going to use Arianna's Terraforma magic to stop the goblins from reaching our northern gate."

Hyoren nodded.

"Exactly."

Terraforma's changes were permanent. A chasm a kilometer long, too wide to jump, too deep to climb, and lined with jagged stone, would be a wall the goblins couldn't break, cross or wait out. Every squad heading north would be forced back into the funnel in front of Gate of Guts.

But Arianna's eyebrows had drawn together.

"But that means… I'll be spending one of my precious Branch Magic not to wipe out the enemy, but just to create a barricade."

Hyoren met her gaze steadily.

"Yes. That's why I'm going to explain two things that weren't in our original plan."

He held up one finger.

"First, I'll use Berserker earlier. One of our Branch Magic is going to stop goblins instead of killing them, so I'll try to make up for the difference myself."

Baron Guts raised an eyebrow. He knew Hyoren had a skill called Berserker, and he'd heard the stories from those who had fought at Riverville Town. But he didn't know much more than that, so he said nothing.

Arianna knew. Her fingers tightened around Quadraflux Weaver, and for a heartbeat her lips pressed into a thin line. But she didn't object either. This was the battlefield, and her party leader had already made up his mind.

Hyoren turned back to Arianna.

"Second. After you refill your Aethell with Noctynara's Lament, I don't want you to use Earth Fissure again."

Arianna tilted her head, and her crimson hair slipped over her shoulder.

"But why, Leader? Earth Fissure is my most devastating spell."

Hyoren tightened his grip on the spear.

"Because I need you to cast two Branch Magic in quick succession. Earth Fissure isn't suited for that. You need to wait an hour for your Aethell to regenerate after each cast, right?"

Arianna nodded slowly.

"Yes."

Hyoren leaned in slightly.

"But you can cast your other two Branch Magic back to back, can't you?"

Arianna touched a gloved finger to her chin. She was quiet for a moment, running the numbers.

"Yes. Thanks to my level-ups, I now have enough reserves to cast two Lava Surges back to back, even if I'd be completely dry afterward. And theoretically, I could cast three Earth Hammers in a row."

Then her expression clouded, and she shook her head.

"But Lava Surge's area isn't wide. And Earth Hammer is only good against a single large enemy…"

A small smile crept onto Hyoren's face.

"Then here's what I want you to do, Arianna."

He stepped closer and lowered his voice. Down on the plain, the clash of steel and the screams of goblins roared on. On the wall, the mages kept firing and the archers kept loosing. But for a few moments, Hyoren spoke only to her—quickly, quietly, gesturing once toward the hill, then toward the plain, then toward the staff in her hands.

Arianna's light-blue eyes widened, little by little.

"Why… why didn't I ever think of that…?"

She stared at the plain for a long moment. Then a smile spread across her face—not her composed noble smile, but the bright, hungry one that only magic could pull out of her.

"Ohoho… You truly are something, Leader…"

Her grip tightened around Quadraflux Weaver. The orb at its tip flickered faintly in response.

"It's theoretically possible. And I can't wait to try it."

Hyoren nodded.

"Good. I'm heading back to the frontline. The second wall needs my banner."

Baron Guts pushed himself off the battlements and clapped a heavy hand on Hyoren's shoulder.

"Go, Field Commander. Leave the wall to us.”

Hyoren gave him a short nod and turned toward the stairs.

Something made him stop and look up.

On the watchtower above, Elise had lowered Moonveil Bow. The watchtower stood barely a few meters above them, and she had heard enough. Her emerald eyes were already fixed on him.

Neither of them spoke.

Her gaze held his, steady and unflinching, but beneath it was something he knew well. She had seen it three times already, every time it tore him apart from the inside and every time she couldn't do anything but watch. Now she would see it a fourth time.

Are you sure?

He held her gaze and didn't look away.

I'm sure.

For a long moment, the battlefield seemed to fall silent around them. Then Elise's lips pressed together, and something in her eyes settled. It wasn't acceptance, exactly, but trust. 

She gave him the smallest nod.

Then I'll take care of you afterward.

Hyoren's grip on Étendard Sacré du Lys tightened. 

He nodded back once.

Elise turned, raised Moonveil Bow and nocked an arrow. Her aim was already back on the plain.

Hyoren broke into a run.

He took the stairs down two at a time, burst out of the gatehouse and charged back across the mud toward the second wall. Toward the white banner's place at the center of the line, where the defenders were waiting for it.

***

Hyoren crossed the last stretch of mud and slipped back into his place at the center of the line.

The moment the white banner rose above the second wall again, he felt it. The defenders around him straightened. Swings grew heavier. Shields held a little firmer. Étendard Sacré du Lys's blessing was flowing back into everyone who could see it.

But the line wasn't where he'd left it.

In just those few minutes, the second wall had been pushed back by about a meter. The defenders' boots were planted in fresh mud now, behind the ruts where they had stood all morning. The corpse pile had crept forward with them. Goblins still poured over the top of it, squad after squad, and every squad pushed the line back a little further.

Slowly… but surely… They're going to push us back by sheer numbers…

He swept his eyes along the line.

Of the two hundred who had held the second wall at the start, only about a hundred and fifty were still on their feet now. On the right, the knights' square shields were still locked together. Only a handful of them had been carried to the medic tent. Their armor and discipline had kept them standing.

The gaps were almost all on the left and in the center. Adventurers. Copper ranks who had fought as hard as veterans and knights, without the steel plate or the experience to last.

His jaw tightened, and he cut down the goblin in front of him.

Fits parried a rusted blade, ran its owner through and spared him only a quick glance.

"Welcome back."

Jigor slammed his shield into a goblin's face and grinned through his braided beard.

"Gyahaha! You took your time, lad!"

On the left, Jackey flashed him a quick thumbs-up between two swings of the Bloody Axe.

None of them asked where he had gone. None of them asked why. Whatever had pulled the field commander off the line, they trusted that he had dealt with it. Whatever he ordered next, they would follow. So they kept their eyes on the goblins and their weapons moving.

Hyoren drove his spear through a Goblin Fighter's chest and kicked the body back onto the pile.

"Listen, everyone. I'll be using Berserker soon. And phase four might start earlier than planned."

Jackey's tabby cat ears shot straight up. His tail spiraled wildly behind him.

"Really, Big Bro!? HAHA! I can't wait to whack even more skulkers!"

Killa swept her scythe across the goblins on his flank and shot him a sharp look over her shoulder.

"Jackey. Calm down. Don't go charging in before the signal."

Jackey whacked a goblin on the left, then threw her a sideways grin.

"Says you! Your tail's been swishing since he said phase four. You're excited too!"

Killa froze for half a heartbeat. Her drooping ears turned pink at the tips. She whipped her face back toward the goblins and swung her scythe much harder than she needed to.

"S-shut up and fight!"

Jigor's laugh boomed out over the din.

"Gyahaha! Those two are lively!"

His grin settled into something more serious, and he hefted his hammer.

"But the lad's right to be eager. I've been itching to stop holding and start pushing."

Fits rolled his shoulders and lifted his thin greatsword. Golden light rekindled along its edge.

"Shining Force is ready to charge whenever you are, Hyoren."

Hyoren nodded and guided Aethell into the comm tool.

"Guild Master. Captain Yugold. Phase four will begin sooner than planned. Soon, I'll lose the ability to command directly. I'll still try to give simple orders. But from here, frontline command is yours."

Fiona's breathing was ragged when she answered, but her voice was steady.

"Understood. Leave it to us."

Yugold's crisp voice followed.

"Understood, commander. The right flank will hold."

Hyoren glanced back toward the city wall.

Arianna stood at the battlements with Quadraflux Weaver raised, her eyes closed. A brown runic circle hung before the staff's tip, every rune already traced and burning bright. The orb at the top of her staff glowed the same deep earthen brown.

She had already finished her chant.

Hyoren turned toward the cliffs.

The goblin squads that had split off toward the north had already reached the foot of the cliffs. The first goblins were clawing their way up the broken rock, scrambling over one another, hundreds more pressing in behind them.

Above the strip of plain between the battlefield and the cliffs, a second brown circle appeared. It was enormous—stretched long and thin like a scar drawn across the sky, so long that its far end faded into the haze.

On the wall, Arianna opened her eyes.

"Earth Fissure!"

The duplicate array flared.

CRAAACKKK!

The ground split open.

A thin line tore across the plain from end to end, racing outward in both directions faster than any goblin could run. Then it widened. Earth and stone crumbled into the dark beneath. The tremor rolled across the whole plain, and even the defenders on the second wall staggered.

The rumbling went on and on. When it finally stopped, a chasm stretched across the plain, cutting the cliffs off completely from the battlefield. It was a kilometer and a half long and only a few meters wide, so deep that the bottom was lost in shadow. Jagged stone lined both its edges like rows of broken teeth.

The goblins caught on the line were simply gone, swallowed whole as the earth opened beneath their feet.

At the cliffs, the tremor shook the climbers loose. They peeled away from the rock face one after another, tumbling down in a rain of green bodies, slamming into the stone below or vanishing into the chasm.

And the goblins still running north skidded to a stop at the edge.

They stared down into the darkness. A few tried to jump and didn't make it. The rest milled along the edge, snarling, searching for a way across. There was none. Terraforma magic had changed the land, and it would stay changed.

On the hill, the Goblin Chieftain's horn blared, long and angry.

The goblins along the chasm turned. Slowly at first, then all at once, they streamed back south toward the plain. The Chieftain had abandoned its flanking plan. Every goblin it had was now being sent at the only target left.

The second wall.

Hyoren let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.

It worked…

The city's flank was sealed, and every goblin on this plain would now have to come through them. That was what he had wanted. It also meant the pressure on the line was about to grow heavier than ever.

He lifted his voice over the noise.

"Jackey! Fits! Jigor! I'm using Berserker now! Wait for my signal before phase four begins!"

Jackey grinned and twirled the Blackmaw Tomahawk.

"Roger, Big Bro!"

Fits gave a single sharp nod.

"Understood."

Jigor slammed his hammer against his shield.

"Gyahaha! We'll be waiting!"

Killa tightened her grip on her scythe.

"Got it."

Hyoren planted his feet in the mud. He gripped Dawn Breaker in his right hand and Étendard Sacré du Lys in his left. He drew a slow breath, and for a heartbeat his eyes flicked toward the watchtower.

Then he activated his Unique Skill.

"BERSERKER!"

Aethell erupted violently from his body.

The force of it rolled outward in a wave. The goblins nearest him flinched back, and the defenders beside him felt it slam into their armor like a gust of hot wind. 

Hyoren's vision flooded crimson as a red haze bled across everything he saw. His muscles visibly swelled. Veins rose beneath his skin. Crimson markings raced across his face, his neck, his arms, spreading over his entire body in a heartbeat.

Steam poured from his skin. It mingled with the dark mist of Mist Dispersion still clinging to him, and the two twisted together around his body in a shroud of gray and black, pierced by crimson.

Strength surged through every muscle, every bone, every fiber of his being.

Jackey only grinned wider. He had seen this at Riverville Town. He knew exactly what was standing beside him.

But everyone else stared.

Killa's black eyes went wide, and her scythe halted mid-swing. Fits' golden blade dipped for half a heartbeat. 

Even Jigor's jaw went slack beneath his braided beard.

"By Gravok's beard…"

All along the line, adventurers turned their heads despite the goblins in front of them. Swords hesitated. Someone swore under his breath.

“What in the world is that…”

On the left flank, Ronald lowered his shield a bit and stared.

Fiona's greatsword stopped mid-arc. She had read the reports from Riverville Town’s guard. She had heard Ina describe it. 

But reading about it and seeing it were two completely different things.

At the center of the second wall stood something that barely looked human anymore. The white banner rose above a crimson-streaked, steam-shrouded figure, and goblins were already backing away from it.

***

Hyoren became a blur of motion.

He didn't wait for the line, and he didn't hold his place in it. He charged straight forward, over the corpse pile and into the goblins beyond.

Dawn Breaker swung. Étendard Sacré du Lys thrust.

He used no skill or technique. No Sweeping Slash, no Shadow Bloom, no careful parry and riposte. Just pure, brute force. 

Every swing of the sword cleaved through two or three goblins at once. Every thrust of the spear punched through one goblin and into the next behind it. 

Bodies flew apart. Heads spun away. Limbs scattered across the mud. 

He moved through the green mass the way a scythe moves through ripe wheat, cutting down everything in its path.

The goblins tried to fight back.

A Goblin Fighter's spear struck his ribs. A Goblin Warrior's axe slammed into his shoulder. A rusted blade raked across his back. Then another, and another.

Hyoren barely felt them.

His Berserker-enhanced body simply took the blows. The muscles beneath the crimson streaks were as dense as packed iron, and the cuts that did open were shallow. And with every hit, the dark mist of Mist Dispersion flared. A fifth of every blow's force was thrown back into the goblins around him. The Warrior who had struck his shoulder staggered. The two goblins closest to it crumpled as if an invisible hammer had smashed into them.

Against ordinary goblins, Fighters and Warriors, he was almost invincible.

Only the elites could truly wound him. A Goblin Lord's heavier blade, a Shaman's spell, an Archer's arrow aimed at his eye. But most of them were already gone. Elise had sniped them from the watchtower one after another, and the defenders on the line had cut down the rest.

The few that remained, Hyoren hunted down himself.

Even through the crimson haze, his mind was clear. He could see a Goblin Lord barking at its squad thirty meters ahead. A Shaman raising its crooked staff behind the front rank. 

He saw them, and he went straight for them.

The Lord didn't even get its cleaver raised before Dawn Breaker split it from shoulder to hip. The Shaman's chant died in its throat with a spearhead through its chest.

He wrenched the spear free and swept his gaze across the plain, past the squads still coming down the slope, all the way to the hill.

About eight thousand after the bombardment…

A thousand in the first hour... Those that fell into the chasm, and the ones we've cut down since… So around six thousand left…

His eyes narrowed at the mass still waiting on the hill.

No… The second chasm didn't swallow that many… More than that… Maybe six thousand five hundred…

He tightened his grip and charged at the next squad.

Behind him, the defenders watched in awe, even as they kept fighting.

A Bronze-rank swordsman cut down the goblin in front of him, then stared past it with his mouth hanging open.

"What… what is that? He's like a demon…"

Among the knights on the right, a Templar Knight lowered his glowing sword for a heartbeat. His voice was hushed, almost reverent.

"No. That's a blessing. A blessing from the goddess…"

Beside him, one of Yugold's knights shook his head inside his helmet, his spear still thrusting between the shields.

"Blessing or not, that's absurd!"

And through the crimson haze and the swirling steam and mist, they could all see his face.

Hyoren was grinning.

He laughed as he cut through another goblin. Then another. It was a wild, breathless laugh that carried over the clash of steel, and he kept laughing as goblins fell around him in heaps.

To the defenders, he looked possessed.

But behind the grin, Hyoren's mind was perfectly clear. Every swing went exactly where he meant it to. Every target he chose, he chose for a reason. 

The laughter was simply the overwhelming power roaring through his body, spilling out of him. It wasn't madness. 

It was the closest thing to relief he had felt all day: finally being able to stop holding the line and start breaking it.

And Jackey was right behind him.

The tabby Cat-clan Beastkin charged after his Big Bro with a howl of pure joy, both axes swinging far more aggressively than before.

"WOHOO! Follow Big Bro! Whack them all!"

Killa cut down the goblins on his flank and shouted after him.

"Jackey! Phase four hasn't started yet!"

Jigor slammed a goblin aside with his shield and bellowed after him too.

"Oi, cat! Wait for the signal!"

But it was too late. Jackey was already deep in Hyoren's wake, carving through whatever the Berserker left standing.

And yet the effect was real.

All along the second wall, something changed.

The adventurers who had been sagging under the weight of an hour's fighting straightened their backs. The Copper-ranks gripped their swords tighter. On the right, the knights' thrusts came faster and harder. Exhaustion was still there, and so were the wounds. But for the first time since the goblins had started climbing over their own dead, the defenders weren't looking at the endless green tide coming down the hill.

They were looking at the soaring Aetovacus, charging into the middle of it.

They were looking at someone who was going to lead them to victory.

Someone on the left flank raised his sword and roared. Then another. Then the whole line.

"FOR AKELA!"

"FOLLOW THE BANNER!"

"PUSH THEM BACK!"

The cheers swept along the second wall like wildfire, and for the first time that day, the line stopped giving ground.

It started pushing.

One step forward. Then another. Shields slammed into goblins and shoved them back over the corpse pile. Spears drove forward. Swords hacked. Little by little, the second wall began to advance.

On the left flank, Ronald slammed his dented shield into a goblin and shoved it back over the corpse pile. For the first time that morning, he took a step forward instead of back.

"Slow and steady, everyone! Forward!"

A few steps from him, Fiona tore her greatsword free of a goblin and let out a laugh that was half exhaustion, half fury. She swept the blade toward the white banner in the distance.

"You heard him! Don't let the field commander have all the fun! PUSH!"

Hyoren kept cutting.

He lost count of how many minutes passed. Five. Ten. Twenty. Maybe more. Then, through the crimson haze and the roar of battle, he heard it.

The Goblin Chieftain's horn.

It wasn't the low, measured call it had used all morning. It was a long, harsh, furious blast that rolled down from the hill and echoed off the cliffs.

Hyoren's head snapped up.

On the hill, the goblins that had waited all morning were finally moving.

Not squad by squad this time. The Chieftain had stopped holding back. Everything it had left was coming down the slope at once—a guttural snarl rising from thousands of throats, a sea of green pouring off the hill and rolling across the plain.

But even now, they were careful. They kept well away from the riverbank, out of Elsylua's reach, and spread themselves wide across the plain without clustering into a single mass. The Chieftain hadn't forgotten what Earth Fissure and Flash Flood had done to it.

But it was attacking in earnest.

The Goblin Chieftain knows…

Hyoren's grip tightened around his weapons. 

It knows we don't have many big spells left… So it's throwing everything at us now…

He bared his teeth in something between a grin and a snarl.

Then it's time…

He didn't bother with the communication tool. He turned toward the defenders, drew in a breath that filled his Berserker-swollen chest, and roared.

"EVERYONE! BEGIN PHASE FOUR!"

His voice thundered across the battlefield, louder than any horn. Every defender on the frontline heard it. Every mage and archer on the wall heard it. Even the goblins at the front faltered at the sound.

Hyoren raised Étendard Sacré du Lys high. The white banner snapped in the wind, Aetovacus soared once again. Then he turned and charged toward the oncoming tide.

"WE WILL DEFEND OUR HOME!"

The defenders answered with a roar of their own.

"YEAAAAAAHHH!"

"FOR AKELA!"

“FOR OUR HOME!”

"PHASE FOUR!"

In the middle of his charge, Hyoren glanced back over his shoulder toward the city wall.

"ARIANNA! NOW!"

On the wall, the crimson-haired mage met his gaze across the battlefield and nodded once.

She raised Quadraflux Weaver.