Christopher was worried to see that only two of the Faceless giants had fallen to the harpoons. The five Giants remaining continued onwards, closing quickly.

Just as he was wondering why the other battlements were not acting, more harpoons flew from what he assumed was defensive zone fifteen to their right. Two more Faceless Giants went down, once again sending many White Crescent Spiders skittering away before continuing towards the walls.

Only three left, maybe they would be able to halt the creatures after all, they were getting awfully close though. Hopefully, the traps would deal with the Spiders on the ground.

The writhing mass of creatures following in the Giant's wake had to be put out of their minds for now, although he was starting to see some details in the ranks behind. He thought he saw the familiar Orcs and Goblins, but there were also creatures that would be enough to fuel his nightmares for years to come. He once again wondered if similar scenes would be playing out along the entire Lumen wall.

The White Crescent Spiders had been flagged as a serious problem by both Sin and Sergeant Coley. Their eight razor-sharp legs were capable of penetrating Sternel wood. This allowed them to climb the wall and get right into their battlements. The spiders were a translucent white, with a black crescent shape on their bodies, giving them their name. They were very tough and had incredible speed and maneuverability, they reached around two meters in length. They were apparently also incredibly difficult to kill without using Soul Force. They had been described as rare, but looking down, there certainly was a worrying number of them on the Giant's back.

As he observed the Giants, he knew that the ones remaining were about to fall prey to some of the hidden traps that were placed in the clearing outside of Lumen. Some of these were simple spike pits, while others were more like mines that would blast the creatures with a Soul Effect when they stepped on the constructs. Most of his knowledge came from his time working at the Lumen Constructers. After a few more moments in which he watched with anticipation, he realized that something was wrong. ‘Why are none of the traps activating?’ The Giants in the front should have already entered the death zones. What the hell was going on. Had they somehow even learned the location of the different traps? He knew that some of those had been there for a long time.

Lieutenant Cerra cursed loudly. “They are circumventing our defenses, Adenium’s balls this is bad.”

One of the other Sergeants responded. “How could they possibly have learned so much about us, they are reacting to things that we only implemented in the last two weeks?”

“Blight if I know, but they seem to have given a lot of thought into circumventing our traps, this is clearly more than just some bad luck.”

Christopher had no trouble discerning the hidden meaning. The enemy had gained intel on them? He had never even considered such a possibility, and how had they managed such a thing? He really needed to know more. He knew that the Blight were not exactly known for possessing higher intelligence, let alone the aptitude for spying. The key might very well be with the Turned. He had learned that the Turned were people that had willingly thrown their lot behind the destruction of humanity in return for certain powers. He had kind of imagined them with features like black eyes, or something else to separate them from the common person. The information about them was conflicting. Had they moved among them all these weeks? There was something strange going on, that much he knew.

Lieutenant Cerra spoke to him, this time by name. “Christopher, the giants must be stopped at all costs. The White Crescent Spiders must not bypass the traps on the lower walls. Help me charge more of the ballistae!”

He agreed with her assessment and rushed with charging the second round of harpoons. By using the height of the Giants, they would be able to bypass the traps without issue. But the situation was quickly spiraling out of control, he was not that sure that they could get a good shot off from this angle with the giant Ballistae. The giants were too far away for pretty much all other weapons.

The fact that so few of the Battlements were shooting at the creatures suggested that they had a similar problem with a lack of Soul Mages. He wondered how things were going at the defense of the gates. Tamas and also the most powerful people of Lumen would be stationed there.

Looking at the horizon there were two Faceless Giants left, and they were closing in rapidly. They would be upon the walls in seconds. One looked to be targeting a spot some distance from their left, while the other was heading for a location very far to their right, which would be around the battlement that had also managed to take out two of the Giants. There were still no traps going off in the clearing ahead of them.

Christopher spent almost fifty percent of his Soul Force to charge another four ballistae. The Lieutenant charged another two, just like last time, before downing one of the Soul Force potions. Four soldiers, Lieutenant Cerra, and Sergeant Bedo took aim, but the angle was now very unfortunate. They could now even see some of the spiders hitching a ride on the Giant’s back. Soon all the harpoons raced out towards the Giant, and two managed to impact. One of the soldiers managed to spear the giant through its shoulder and looking at the notification also managed to impale one of the spiders on its back. The one fired by lieutenant Cerra punched all the way through the same Giants midsection.

[You have contributed in killing a minion of entropy; 80 Soul Points have been acquired]

It did not look to be enough. The Giant looked to be severely wounded and green blood poured out of the wound, nevertheless, it still continued onwards, the wall now getting very close.

“Brace for impact” screamed lieutenant Cerra. The words were hardly necessary, Christopher had already run to the far side of the wall, hoping that they would be able to withstand what was coming. The Giant collided and even the tree in which they were sheltered shook wildly, but nothing came splintering through or crashing down. He looked around and saw that most looked to be fine, a few people had been knocked to the ground but they were already getting up.

“Prepare for the Spiders, defensive formation four!” They all got their weapons ready, preparing for what was surely to come. They picked up the few available Force weapons that should be effective against the Blight, Christopher made sure to pick on up as well.

The force weapon reminded him somewhat of a crossbow, only much more unwieldy. A thick metal bolt was slotted into the weapon, while the weapon itself held one charge of Soul Push. Once the control was flipped, the imbued Soul Push would connect with the thick metal bolt which would be launched with quite some force, although the range was limited. It was one of the few weapons that could be used by the average person. Christopher was pretty sure that Soul Push was based on magnetism, even though the people here spoke of a magical phenomenon. The magnetic push was extremely strong though. A skilled user in Soul Push could add the magnetic push effect to any metal.

They had other weapons, but at the moment they did not have the people and the time to charge them, the ballistae had taken priority. Not having the Soul Mages had been a monumental blow to the defense and had limited their options. Their best chance was knocking off the spiders with the Soul Push constructs as they attempted to get into their battlement. They all held their breath, waiting for the spiders to show.

They heard the clacking of the legs first, slowly coming closer, the tension in the room could be cut with a knife. Suddenly the underside of the first spider could be seen moving over one of the arrow slits, moving towards the location that held the ballistae. As soon as they tried to enter his fellow soldiers fired the first Soul Push constructs, sending several spiders flying off the wall. Christopher kept cool and held his patience, which was rewarded by spearing one of the spiders straight of the wall. A few seconds later he received a notification that he assumed was correlated with the Spider hitting the ground.

[You have defeated a minion of entropy; 180 soul points have been acquired.]

They had managed to keep the first wave of spiders at bay with the weapons until unfortunately, all the weapons ran out of their single charges. The spiders still kept coming. Two of them charged in and went straight for the Constructs, while another went after a group of scared-looking soldiers now standing with the empty Soul Push weapons. They all looked at the charging spider with a look of horror. ‘Shit Bara is in that group.” Christopher spotted his fellow trainee with her two Daggers facing the White Crescent Spider. He did not like her chances, even with the Adeline dagger. She did not possess the Soul Force that was needed to take down these creatures.

Sergeant Bedo was just in time and managed to block the attack of the spider with his short sword. He then left a long gash in the spider’s flank; He wondered if it was from raw strength or a Soul Force technique. Christopher refused to just stand there doing nothing, he had wondered about the effect of his Soul Force on a creature of the Blight for a while now, and he decided to take this opportunity while the spider was distracted. Christopher was just too late, the spider managed to impale the Sergeant with one of its razor-sharp legs, blood sprayed from the Sergeant.

Christopher kept moving, the fight allowed him to get close and with a final burst of speed, he managed to touch the creature. He was ready, he decided that it was better to fall back on his strongest Soul Effect. He poured almost all of his remaining Soul Force into the White Crescent Spider as Soul Heat. The spider reacted immediately and managed to knock Christopher out of the way by bashing him with its lower body, sending Christopher flying, but it was already too late. He had trained constantly and he therefore only needed that one second to inject all of his remaining Soul Force into the Spider. The attack had only been possible due to the distraction of the now dying Sergeant.

The attack was super effective, the Spider started to glow from the inside out, which looked very strange since the creature was translucent. The spider stood still before its legs started violently twitching, a foul smell filled the battlement as the Spider was partially folding into itself.

A notification finally confirmed that the spider had truly died.

[You have defeated a minion of entropy; 220 soul points have been acquired.]