Christopher immediately recognized what was happening, the city had tested this very system around a week ago. The high pitch of the giant soul alarm was meant as a quick way to alert the citizens that an attack was imminent. The hissing sounded like a giant steam train was signaling for departure.

The hissing was enough to make his heart beat faster. He sincerely hoped that they were dealing with a false alarm, or at least that this was not the full-scale attack that they had been preparing for. The thought of the Blight invading on such a pleasant day felt strange to him. He left the grassy hill, knowing that he would be expected at his assigned battlement as soon as possible.

“Boom!” ‘What the hell was that?’ He suddenly heard the sound of an explosion. It came from the South of the city, but it was impossible to tell the distance. Christopher wondered whether it was some device from the Lumen Forces or something created by the Blight?

He ran by the workshop of the Lumen Constructors which was on his route. He noticed that it was pandemonium surrounding the workshop. He was just in time to hear a loud bellow from Orello, who was magnifying his voice by using a Soul Force-powered portable horn.

“Silence, and listen up” The presence of the black-haired foreman almost instinctively brought back some order; all attention snapped in his direction.

“It seems that the Blight has finally come. You all know what to do. If you are contracted into the defense of Lumen, please make your way to your battle units. Others should be making their way to the nearest shelter. Jaro will lead the charge, please follow him in an orderly fashion.”

Christopher did not waste any more time listening, he already knew what was expected of him. He ran for battlement fourteen between the Northern and Eastern gates. He should be able to get there in only a few minutes, with the workshop already being close to his station. He actually felt some fear as he was running, but he pushed through it.

A piercing shriek suddenly reverberated around his eardrums. ‘Shit, what the hell was that?' His question was answered only moments later when a monstrous bat-like creature swooped effortlessly over the wall, completely ignoring Lumen’s defenses. He was pretty sure that he was looking at what the people called a Flesh Ripper. He heard some screams at the sudden appearance of the hellish creature. The size of the Flesh Ripper outmatched any flying creature of Earth. It was a leathery brown with blood-red fangs and claws. It was mostly the leathery wings that reminded him of a bat. He was told that it had tendrils sprouting from its head which somehow let it see its human prey.

Creatures like the Flesh Ripper posed some of the biggest problems to the Lumen Forces. It was one of the several creatures of the Blight that could circumvent the walls and traps that were meant to keep the Blight out of the City. From Sin’s descriptions, he knew that they were easily capable of tearing people apart in one swoop, both with their talons and teeth. They could even destroy buildings. One of their most unique weapons was their shriek, which could momentarily stun people from the sheer volume, the shrieks were even capable of bursting eardrums if you were to close and did not protect your ears quickly enough. They could pretty much only be shot down with Soul Force techniques, infused arrows and bolts, and Soul constructs and devices, making them a massive pain.

He continued towards the battlement in a run. He had learned all about the creatures of the Blight, so the thought of actually having to confront them so suddenly was horrifying. Seeing and hearing the Flesh Ripper made him want to turn around, but he pushed the feeling away. people in his platoon and in the city were counting on him to protect them and watch their back. He thought he had been better prepared to run into danger, but his instincts screamed at him to turn around.

His platoon was made up of forty-five people. Consisting out of lieutenant Cerra, four squads of ten soldiers, and four Soul Mages to power traps and constructs. His specific platoon was formed from members of the Adenium Church, all of them had received training at some point.

He arrived at the battlement in record time. Sergeant Coley stood waiting for arrivals at the entrance of battlement fourteen. He quickly ran up to the Sergeant, nodding his head in greeting.

“Christopher, it is good that you are here, we need Soul Heat infusions right now.”

“Sergeant, you want me to infuse the devices?”

He was only a reserve so he had not expected the task this early. At least he had been trained for such a contingency, so he should know what to do.

“There is little time, none of the other Soul Mages have arrived yet. Some Flesh Rippers and Razor Vultures have already passed through our defenses. Get a move on!”

There was one problem though. The official Soul Mages of the unit were expected to keep their Soul Force full at all times. But he was only a reserve and had been training and imbuing continuously. His Soul Force was only at 48% after the first half of his work shift. At least it should still be enough to power up a few of the devices. He also figured that this was a situation in which he would be allowed to use one of the Soul Potions that they had prepared on location. Not matter the expense, surely this would be considered a good time to use one of the bottles.

“Understood, heading up now.”

Christopher grabbed one of the bows and an arrow quiver, slinging both over his shoulder. There were other weapons available, but he already had his own two Daggers strapped to his belt.

He quickly ascended the stairs and entered the hollowed-out battlement. By now he was quite familiar with it, he and the others had been drilled often on all the different tactics, sergeant Coley had made sure of it.

After climbing the stairs to the halfway point in the Sternel tree, he entered the battlement half out of breath. He took the chance to gaze at the clearing below through one of the arrow slits. It actually took him a few moments to accept what he was seeing. ‘Shit, how many are there!’ The Blight was truly invading with full force, and his first thought was that they were screwed. They were already a third of the way from the forest edge to the Lumen wall, and the numbers were staggering. These were clearly not just Goblins, there were monsters of a size that he was pretty sure broke any law of nature. Most of the horde was only just making their way from the treetops into the kilometer-long clearing, but speeding at the front of the pack he could already recognize fearsome monsters.

Some hulking Faceless Giants were speeding up at the front of the pack, their long and giant footsteps thundering across the land. Their moniker of Giant was not exaggerated, these beings were probably ten meters tall. No creatures in the writhing mass behind them could match them in their height.

He heard that their skin was impervious to pretty much any normal attack and that you needed piercing weapons to take one of these down. The center of their chests were apparently their weak points. They were brawny humanoids in their build, but their faces were just covered in the same leathery grey skin, it being entirely featureless.

How had the Blight managed to get this close before the alarm was sounded? The scouts around the city should have warned them a long time ago of such a massive gathering at the border.

Christopher grimaced. ‘Thanks for the nightmare fuel, I guess.’ Christopher did not know if the walls would be able to withstand a charge by these Giants. He wondered if the attack of the Blight was only commencing from this location or if they were attacking from all directions. He sincerely hoped it was the former, but the earlier explosion to the south of the city made it very unlikely. They were thus unlikely to receive any reinforcements anytime soon.

Enough gawking, he was supposed to charge up the constructs before the Blight managed to get into range of their weapons. With some difficulty, he managed to draw his eyes away from the scenes below. The Lumen Forces had prepared countless surprises for the invaders, and a large number of them needed to be charged with the proper Soul Force effects.

When he entered deeper inside the Wall base, he quickly found out that it was still disturbingly empty. And indeed, he could see none of the Soul Mages, which was very worrying. They were not supposed to be caught this unaware, scouts should have alerted them much sooner to movements by the Blight. They would be very limited by only using his Soul Heat to power the weapons.

He took another look at the advance of the Blight, and he judged that the first enemies should get into range of the long-range ballistae in another minute or two. Powering those constructs was now solely up to Christopher, and that with a Soul Force reserve that was only half full. The constructs that worked on Soul Heat were never able to hold their charge for long, which was why they needed to be imbued on the spot. Only the Soul Effects that were less useful in combat held their charge for any significant amount of time.

Lieutenant Cerra spotted him entering immediately and started barking her order.

“You, heat up the Ballistae, quickly. Try to imbue as many as you can, you can drink a potion after.”

Christopher fully intentioned to comply. He was already rushing towards the giant ballistae. The pressurized ballistae were able to shoot giant harpoons with incredible speed and great range, but they needed to be imbued with Soul Heat. They were specially designed to take out enemies like the Faceless giants stomping towards them. Christopher immediately set to the task. His high-level ability with Soul Heat allowed him to charge one of the devices with only twelve percent of his Soul Force. He quickly imbued four of them, which kept him with only three percent remaining.

Lieutenant Cerra actually seemed somewhat startled that he managed as many as four, he was not one of the official Soul Mages after all. She would likely be more surprised if she learned that he had only half of his reserves. Christopher then noticed that Lieutenant Cerra started infusing two of the Ballistae on her own. Of course, it had slipped his mind that the lieutenant was capable of using the more advanced Soul Force techniques. The number of people in the battlement numbered around fifteen at this point, so less than half of their platoon. The few of them that were tasked with shooting the ballistae were already in position.

They immediately swiveled to take aim at some of the Faceless Giants. He kind of wanted to man one of the ballistae himself, but he had no skill at handling such constructs. He also did not want to ruin one of the precious charged shots. His task finished, he looked over to the army storming them below. He counted a total of seven Faceless Giant on the horizon. That was a lot, but they should not be the only battlement in this area. The Giants should get in range of the ballistae at any moment now.

Christopher had already walked over to the supply closet, fishing out one of the bluish Soul Force potions. He quickly gulped down the surprisingly sweet tasting potion, feeling a strange sensation wash over him. His body actually started prickling uncomfortably, but it was not painful. He was pleased when he noticed that his Soul Force was rapidly recharging.

“Fire when ready” Shouted Lieutenant Cerra, who was actually aiming one of the six charged ballistae herself.

The first to fire was a somewhat young-looking recruit, but the aim was far off. The Faceless Giant did not even have to dodge, the wicked-looking harpoon sailed with incredible speed into the grass some distance from the rapidly approaching figure. It was not even able to hit the writhing mass behind since the Faceless Giants had built quite the lead.

The second person to release the ballistae was one of the four Sergeants in their Unit, he believed the man was called Bedo. His attempt was a lot more successful; the harpoon was fast enough to leave the Faceless Giant incapable of dodging. the Harpoon sank deep into the Giant; however, it was closer to the creature’s shoulder than the Giant's chest. The Giant lost a lot of momentum but did not fall down. The third harpoon sailed about a meter past the neck of another Giant. It was Lieutenant Cerra that managed to earn the first kill, taking out one of the Giant with a perfect shot.

The fourth Harpoon that he had charged also finally hit home. After the shoulder hit, Sergeant Bedo had commandeered the fourth harpoon, and successfully pierced it straight through the center of the Giant’s chest. While the Faceless Giant thumped to the ground, they were shown a disturbing sight when dozens of white spiders skittered out of the way, apparently hitching a ride on the Giant’s back. The spiders immediately continued forward, making their way to the Lumen Walls. ‘Shit, those are White crescent Spiders!’ He had been told about the danger of those creepy things. Those insects could climb straight onto the Lumen walls with their eight sharp and powerful legs. Christopher could already guess that the other Giants would be delivering a similar payload, and he preferred to keep them at a distance. At least they now had a warning. After another ten seconds, Christopher received a notification.

[You have contributed in killing a creature of the Blight, 180 Soul Points have been earned.]

‘Yes, finally some good news.’ Christopher had been hoping for this, the Faceless Giant must have died from that perfect Harpoon shot from Sergeant Bedo. It seemed that being the one to power a construct that killed one of the Blight would earn him at least part of the rewards. If he kept earning points like this he would have [Soul Mark] in no time.