Kowalski felt a slight shudder at the blowing cold.

It was unusually cold today. The temperature was low enough to inflict frostbite on some poor civilians still maintaining their jobs to hold on to whatever money they could get. Clouds danced over horizon amidst the flurry of thunder and amassed white mist. The peak of the Mountain Of Emperors hardly reached above the dense mass of mist and proved its magnificence as it would do every day. Though looking at the scenery on top of the city walls certainly had some effect on that, if not he didn’t think he could even see a piece of the mountain.

The enchanted robes under the small piece of armor comforted him a bit. They kept the cold at bay, at least from his torso and legs, and felt much more comfortable than the heavy bulk of metal on his shoulder. He snuck a peek at the black halberd. It gleamed under the few flashes of sunlight seeping from the crowded dark clouds and blinded his eye.

I wanted a sword...all old men are grumps!

‘’What are you thinking?’’ He heard the same line from the same person.

‘’Nothing.’’ He said without turning around. Two days of doing nothing but protecting the cannons and cannoneer on the wall would bore anyone, except him. Though the class president wasn’t an exception like him and her asking the same thing over and over again managed to bore him as well.

‘’Don’t lie to me,’’ She reprimanded while looking over the sight from the cannon. ‘’Why do you need to hide what you think so much?’’

‘’Because I don’t think anything.’’ He told the truth. ‘’Don’t underestimate my ability to think nothing.’’

‘’By the light, are you retarded?’’ She sounded pretty angry now. Well, not that he wanted to lie to her.

‘’Truth is bitter, pres.’’ He turned to look at her with a cheeky grin. She looked annoyed and didn’t answer him. As she turned around to look at the field, her eyes widened a bit.

‘’Hey, do you see that?’’ She said and pointed to the air.

‘’I see what-’’ A dark projectile passed through his cheek at the moment he opened his mouth. Then an explosion sent him off his feet. Splinters and rubble flew around like arrows and stabbed onto the ground. The fellow beside them started to shout at the same time while Kowalski tried to stand up.

‘’Attack! Enemy atta-’’ A huge number of the same black projectiles flew over again and stabbed through the man’s body, then exploded with him. Flesh and blood painted over the wall they stood upon. Kowalski shot up to his feet with great effort on his mind and looked over. A few dozen meters away from them the same thing happened. Shouts started to rise from every corner of the walls, from the further east to the farthest west, and a milky white barrier sprang up in front of them.

The strike continued without minding the new obstacle as the men started to realize the assailants. They were harpies, creatures with humanoid bodies with the extension of wings. Their feathers could pierce through simple metals and claws cut through them like a hot knife through butter. Kowalski, breathing erratic and beads of sweat on his forehead, gazed at the mangled corpse of the class president right beside him. He felt afraid, too afraid to lift his eyes off the corpse. But he didn’t have to keep looking too much, another squad of soldiers came with hurried steps and took back the remains. One of them struck his back with the hilt of their blade to awaken him from the stupor then mounted the cannon.

‘’Watch out for the land.’’ He quickly told as people started to fill the walls with practiced movements, among them some like him stepped out of the soldiers’ way with panicked expressions. ‘’Hey, did you hear me?’’

‘’I heard senior!’’ Kowalski nodded harder than ever he did in his life.

‘’Good,’’ The man replied and started to move the trajectory of the cannon. Kowalski tried to clear up his mind as the man pointed the artillery above towards the flying harpies. Their feathers still seemed endless, with no indication that they would deplete soon, while barrages of projectiles flew over and over again. At the place the man focused on, a large group of them flocked together like a big battalion. A hundred and twenty of them he could count. The feathers coming towards them, however, multiplied that number by another hundred it seemed. Kowalski gripped his halberd tighter this time, reeling in the fact that he was lucky enough to escape from a horrible fate as such while a flash of light beamed across the sky.

Looking over, he saw a bright laser strike at the middle of the harpies, turning the majority into charred corpses and mangled pieces of burnt flesh. ‘’Fuck, they acted faster.’’ The man on his side cursed and pulled the handle at the top. He didn’t wait long enough to gather more energy, as a few dozen harpies that survived scattered around to evade another such attack. That brief moment of sight without any raining feathers allowed Kowalski to see further, and he shuddered.

A horde. A big, huge mass of beasts trampled over the remnant grass and piled up snow while coming. He identified one type among many of them, leading at the front with faint ecstatic laughter he heard from the walls, quick yellow streaks of lights. Lightning imps. Behind them came huge bulky gorillas with two huge tusks sprouting out of their mouths, the size of a two or three-story building. They matched with the goliaths he heard before, creatures devouring natural environment and flesh to stay alive. They left their bigger allies behind, walking and waving trees at least twice the size of goliaths.

A natural fear embraced his soul, Kowalski felt it clearly. With a blinding and deafening boom, the man beside him fired the cannon and shot the leftover harpies from the sky. They were far too mobile, however, to get rid of with heavy artillery. Most survived, only a few fell down to the ground and the others started to get back. As they retreated to the beast horde, amidst them flying more than ten thousand of their kinds above, Kowalski gripped his halberd tighter than ever.

Battle was incoming.

*********

Ubel stood in front of the huge tent assigned to the corpsman with many colleagues, all standing with some kind of nervous expression. He was no exception. The first wave of attack didn’t leave any injured, the few handfuls of bodies taken back from the walls were all broken or shattered corpses. A few also fell down behind the walls before the barrier activated and struck some buildings. Perhaps because of the light’s blessing, none of them struck any important place or person. Ubel decided to sit down at last, standing on his feet wouldn’t help much to ease his small anxiety. This garnered some unapproving glances, but he didn’t care. He would save his energy for a later time.

At the same time, more people began to move towards the other walls. Gaobun and the other path opener Russell guarded the eastern and western walls of the city. They didn’t actively try to participate in the battle, for only light knows why. They might also intended to conserve theirs for a future time. Ubel hoped for that time to never come for a moment, but he shook his head at last. He had to be careful of what he wished for. The light was merciful, light led the way and helped them raise the civilization to this point, but it still acted on a mysterious whim. Mentioning raising civilization, Ubel remembered the voice from his necklace. He didn’t want to think about that further, it gave him chills and he didn’t need another reason to tire his mentality faster. Yet he somewhat couldn’t shake off that thing from his mind.

His worries about the matter didn’t last any longer, a few shouts and calls from the aidmen gathered everyone’s attention. A few rushed over first to inspect, Ubel waited. These people knew what they were doing and he wouldn’t doubt that at least. Crowding over a gravely wounded man was, however, something he would frown upon. It didn’t matter much. Soon, more wounded followed the first one and overwhelmed the nervous staff. Ubel no longer stood at the sides and also participated in tending the wounded.

He felt worried over the incoming.

*********

Inside the castle of city lord, at the throne room, a three-layered circular formation laid down. At the center of the formation was the throne of the lord itself, around it the empty first circle. The other two circles held soft mats for the people that now sat upon them. At the eye was the city lord himself, enveloped in the same white light of the barrier. Around him was a miniature one as well, separating him from the others. At the first circle was the four figures in the third path establishment, experts that fueled the barrier with their Qi. At the last circle were the same, with some occasional at the second path establishment. Among them was the blacksmith that provided the disciples and many others with weapons but in this setup, his presence was negligible.

Surges of Qi rotated around them to create another barrier, and this spread around the area including the castle itself. When looked from afar, a few lines that sprang outwards to the center of the barrier was visible from there. No one had the time to inspect that yet. Everyone focused on their duty without distraction. Sid himself, while keeping the barrier up with his power, inspected the battlefield through his third eye. Some kind of force cloaked up the flying harpies before he could sense their arrival. They acted fast, true, and only a few lost their lives but the fall of moral at the start would surely affect the new recruits and the dozen hundred college students. That was an outcome he didn’t want to see. They only had the moral to cling on for now.

Sid, however, didn’t know whether they could keep up long enough to see Quan back.

*********

It had been ten minutes since the horde came in sight.

Kowalski only stood in his place with no motion. His eyes darted from one place to another, reeling in the fact that the beasts would take at least fifteen or twenty minutes to reach the range to attack them. And to people beside him, and perhaps for him too, this was a long break. By now the southern walls filled to the brim with squads of four and without realizing, he too seemed to be a part of the squad with the man cannoning and his acquaintances beside him. Their outfit did not differ much from his, with some small adjustments on the plates here and there. They started to talk some incomprehensible things and cursed a bit, then turned to look at him. Although Kowalski got past the initial shock his senses were still dulled.

’’Understood?’’

’’Uh- I’m a bit-’’

’’Just take this,’’ the man said and pushed a circular talisman to his chest. It clung to his armor and a faint light strand escaped from its center, the other and ending at the back of the man. ’’When you see me in a dire situation or I call for it, pull me back to the walls. Got it?’’

’’But why are you going out!? Isn’t that suicide?’’

’’Boy, barrier can’t go on forever. We also can’t use cannons too much else they deplete the Qi reserved for replenishing.’’ He did not mind Kowalski after that and stuck one of those talismans to another of his friend. Two were going out, two stood on the walls. The remaining man with him got on the cannon and adjusted it with nimble movements. This made Kowalski question whether everyone took some kind of education on how to operate the artillery. He observed the surroundings and saw other people do the same as well, all of them had two circular talismans connecting each other. There should be around thirty thousand men on the walls. How chaotic it will be if fifteen thousand people engaged in a brutal battle?

Kowalski took deep breaths and felt a chill travel inside him. His Qi was acting as a soothing element, calming down his nerves. He never felt an effect like this before. It, as it seemed, affected how his emotions flared or presented themselves. This kind of feeling was...relieving. Fifteen minutes passed in a flash as seven cannons on the southern walls gathered the Qi around them in a hurry, vortexes of Qi swirling around their slender and long tube, and men and women preparing their weapons. The man in front of him as well made one last check and started to channel his Qi to the longsword on his back. I wanted a sword like that too. Kowalski sighed. It surprised him that he could think of a measly sword when the trampling of the horde reached his ears and trembled the earth. Vibrations and the expanding sight of the monsters sent another shudder, not as strong as the first one. Kowalski closed his eyes for a moment. Took the last deep breath of the day, then opened his eyes.

A deep voice boomed inside his ears, inside every soul on the walls

’’TAKE DOWN THOSE FILTHY BEASTS!’’

Then thousands of shadows flew over the walls at the same time. Strands of blue lights trailing behind them, weapons unsheathed at the same time with a grand shrill scream, war cries amalgamated together into one big shout. Then the cannons fired.

The minimum of ten thousand harpies screamed in delight as their prey left the troublesome barrier, then screamed in terror as seven beams of light exploded right below and above their position. No matter how scattered they were, the aftermath did not show mercy to them. Clouds escaped from the sky together with the flying death bringers, sunlight shone on the warriors down the walls.

Cannons started to gather up another round of energy as hundreds of lightning flashes flew over towards the barrier, skipping the rushing thousands of soldiers. Kowalski took a step back as one lightning imp collided with the barrier and sent surges of thunder flying over its surface.

’’Kill the bastard! It is trying to cover our vision!’’ He was right. Soon, the lightning imps crowded around the areas where seven cannons fired from and covered their sight with their bodies and lightning. Kowalski, after that momentary stop, took a step forward and slashed his halberd downwards. Imp did not move and let out a devilish smile when the halberd connected with its body. Then a thunder cackled, traveled through the halberd and struck Kowalski. It wasn’t strong enough to knock him down, and he felt relieved at that fact, but something worse happened.

The imp used his body as a medium to enter the walls.

With the element of surprise, the imp slashed its small yet vicious claws to the cannoneer’s face, ripping out a few pieces of flesh. Tendrils of lightning shot out of the wound and paralysed the man, yet he didn’t seem dead. Kowalski felt a gush of pain coming from his knee as this time the imp struck him. This awoke him from the stupor and forced his body to act. Instantly, two ice mirrors appeared at either side of the imp, closing on him like moving boulders threatening to crush the monster. He slashed with the halberd again at the same time and the imp, its retreat ways blocked, tried to lunge towards Kowalski. To its surprise, another mirror sprang up in front of Kowalski and pushed the imp back. The halberd fell down at the same time and split the monster into two halves. Its innards fell down to the ground but Kowalski didn’t mind the gore. Instead he looked at the cannoneer, grimacing in pain and unmoving because of the lightning. He still held the handle of the cannon.

’’By the light-’’ He felt guilty for not expecting something as such, a doubt inside him told he couldn’t anyway, and rushed over to his side with two steps. He held him up and forced him to release the handle. The cannon fired up as the imps crowding the barrier lashed out in fear and anger. Yet they couldn’t survive such an attack from the distance. They thought, perhaps, that their side wouldn’t waste a shot like that on them and use something different to deal with. They were not wrong, but Kowalski didn’t think of that. All he thought of was getting some kind of help to the poor man and him not releasing the handle would be an obstacle on his way. No corpsmen came in sight as Kowalski looked around with frantic eyes. He couldn’t leave the walls too, he didn’t know what was currently happening in the field and the man there entrusted him with his life. The cannoneer, too, had done the same and he failed somehow. He didn’t want to fail again. After casting his Qi into the wound to stop the bleeding he tried to spot someone that could help him. With no tools or enough Qi to spare, he just couldn’t get the man to a better shape.

Then a beacon of hope appeared. No- it wasUbel.

A hope was still hope nonetheless. He leaped up to the ten meter long walls and came right beside him. ’’By the light-’’

’’Yes by the light, please hurry.’’ Ubel shot him a derisive gaze and he felt a tad bit better, but he knew both of them were not so good right now. He wanted to watch him treat the man but shouts from the sides gathered his attention more. With a turn of his head, he saw the people reaching the line of Goliaths. Other cannons somehow cleared away the imps on their way too but the price they paid seemed worse than his as he saw near to two hundred corpses along the walls. It pained him, then his eyes fell on the field again.

The fight over there was more intense. Flashes of divine abilities flew like arrows and javelins, trying to cut through the thick skin of the goliaths. He saw a squad performing some kind of chant together and they fused into one single avatar, pulsing with fleshly power and blood. One punch from the avatar stopped the incoming palm of the goliath, and even pushed it back. Another group sent seven blue-red orbs and exploded them near the head of another goliath. The monster screamed in pain as the liquid dropping from the orbs solidified, covering its all senses other than touch. They were the few of the successful ones, others’ situation was horrible.

A goliath slapped its both palms down and raised pillars of earth from the ground. Soldiers screamed in terror as they flew upwards, right towards the glinting tusks of the goliath. Waving down its head, it crushed the men between the pillars and its tusks, turned them into pastes of meat and flesh. Another group got smashed under the bottom of a jumping goliath, drowning under the filth dripping down its lower body. Some goliaths seemed sturdier than the others with slightly golden fur rather than pure white, their muscles were bigger and eyes fiercer, glinting with crimson red. They could cast divine abilities like immortals and outmaneuver, unlike the others who acted on instinct.

The man Kowalski connected with was dealing with one such with just four people.

Their coordination was good, better than others. Their stances as they evaded the incoming rush of fists showed that they were experts on fighting. In the cases they fell behind in speed and were almost hit, a forceful strike or two could save them from the death’s door by redirecting the attack to another place. The golden goliath seemed to understand what they were doing, too, and acted according to that as well. Kowalski watched the connected man slide under an incoming kick by an inch and slash the ankle of the beast. It didn’t do more than trailing off a yellowish blood line on its fur. He leaped back several times and distanced himself from the goliath then sped up towards it again.

Golden goliath welcomed him with another fist, this time covered in earthen spikes sprouting out of the wrist like slithering snakes towards the front. Kowalski almost touched the talisman to pull the man back but a falling down flash of light stopped him. The flash of light struck the golden goliath on the head and stopped its movements for a moment and the man used this well. Somehow, he released an outburst of Qi to maneuver in the air and landed on the elbow of the goliath. He seemed like a small insect compared to the monster but no bug could move like him. He ran over the arms towards the shoulder and golden goliath tried to shake him off. It didn’t work quite effective. The man, eyeing this opportunity, leaped towards the goliath’s head like a tiger and slashed his rippling sword.

Goliath then grinned.

A golden aura shot out of its body and pushed back everyone near it, including the man, and sent them flying. One of the unlucky ones fell right under the nose of the big trees and got pierced by tens of roots at the same time. Kowalski didn’t hesitate this time and pushed the talisman to pull him back. The connection of light between them instantly hardened and turned into a rope-like matter that whizzed. It revolved and flashed, then got sucked inside his talisman.

The man flew like a ragdoll in the air and steered back to the walls right beside him. The golden goliath seemed to hold a grudge. It started to run on four legs to catch up to the man and almost grasped him on the air as he stepped inside the barrier. The golden goliath battered the barrier with its fists, shouting and spitting everywhere its saliva. Then its eyes opened in shock as Kowalski, now holding the handle of the cannon that pointed at the beast, released it. It turned around to escape, but two seconds wasn’t enough to run away from the effect of the cannon. It pierced through the goliath’s steel like fur and exploded inside its chest like a bomb. The listless body fell down after twitching for a few seconds.

Kowalski and the man both let out a sigh and fell down on their knees as Ubel came beside them. He put his hands over their shoulders and sent surges of Qi to replenish their reserves. Then his eyes opened in shock for some reason and looked astonished at the man.

’’How are you in path finding!?’’