“The Cannons can’t take much more!” Devi complained to General Sarja. “Their only experimental units!” Panicking how the cannons in question were slowly showing signs of cracks and other wear and tear after only just a few shots.

General Sarja ignored her and ordered another barrage of cannon fire. The mana pulse cannons built up their energy and let out a pulsating beam of red and blue that devastated the roach lines. Where the beam struck, a massive wave of energy rippled from, killing roaches in the thousands. The bugs didn’t even need to be directly hit by the beam, just being near where the beam traveled through was enough to essentially shut down the insects.

Devi couldn’t help but look on and analyze the situation. “Even if the beam doesn’t fully connect, the roaches stop moving as if they were struck. This only goes to show the theories that monsters that come through Cracks are more beings of pure energy than just regular monsters may hold more truth than previously thought. Almost as if they were your common everyday mana constructs that a regular summoner could produce…”

After another barrage the cannons began to overheat and were forced out of commission, at least temporarily. It was only then that general Sarja addressed Devi. “I have no time to concern myself with your worries about the condition of your toys. My only concern is if they work and how many lives I can save with them. How long before they become operable again?”

Devi frowned at the general, and looked back at the cannons in question. They were clearly overheating, and one had a crack running from the tip all the way down near the base. It wasn’t going to be firing again anytime soon…

“We’ll to me it looks like you just lost two cannons for good thanks to your constant barrages.” She said sourly. “As for the rest, even if you demand them to be put back in use right away it will take at least half an hour.” She raised a hand before Sarja could say anything. “And yes… I already cut down the time I would have preferred having spent to repair them. Normally it would take a few hours to a few days to fix them, but half an hour is the literal least! Necessary to fix them up enough to fire a few more shots before they're gone for good.” Giving a slight glare at the general at that part.

Sarja didn’t appreciate being looked at like that, but decided to at least concede this part to the expert, ordering her to do what she can in the time given to her. She looked back to the battle front, a slight tinge of worry in her eyes she did her best to repress lest someone look too closely and also start to fear for their situation. As a general, she couldn’t let her soldiers down by looking like she wasn’t sure of herself. Peering into the fog, she tried to assess the current status of the battlefield.

“Damn this thick fog! Even I can barely see anything…” Squinting and putting even more energy into her eyes. “Damn these roaches… Because of them we can’t even do our elastic defense tactics. They don’t seem to have any sense of fear or concern for their own lives, they just run ramshod over everything! With no rhyme or reason!” She then peered even further away at the giant lumbering beast slowly making its way towards them, then back at the mana pulse engines wondering if she should conserve them or not.

“General!” One of Sarja’s commanders yelled running from their position to her. “We have to pull back and order the evacuation of the city! Our girls can’t hold much longer!”

Sarja snapped at the women. “You don’t think we haven’t been doing that already! Since the sixth alarm we’ve been evacuating everyone we can! But we have only so many trains to get them out far enough into a safe distance!”

The commander looked back at her general solemnly. “General… The second line can’t hold much longer. They’re going to collapse.” Looking up at Sarja as if she could somehow pull a rabbit out of her hat.

“Tsk!” Sarja almost hissed at the expectation in her subordinate's eyes. But did her best to refrain herself. She looked back at the battle lines and what she saw she didn’t like. “Dammit all…” She raised her hand and started to give out the orders for a retreat of the second wall in an hour.

Within minutes small portions of the army began to pull back into the third wall as those one the third wall pulled back to the fourth, leaving behind the undead and other monster summons to deal with the brunt of the roach attacks. She then looked at her commander angrily and gave another order. “I want you to tell all the senior students that they are relieved of duty effective immediately! Any that stay will be dishonorably discharged if they somehow survive this battle…”

“General!?”

Sarja glared at her subordinate. “A few thousand students are not going to make much difference in this war… Best we give them a chance to grow and mature somewhere else. Only then can they decide to come back and avenge those who have fallen. Until then, they are a liability and an eye sore. Get them out of my sight now!” Hissing to make sure her stupid commander got the message.

“Y-Yes general!” The commander said and immediately fled to do just that.

“General Sarja! A message from General Alexia!” A messenger yelled, running as fast as she could.

Sarja turned with a frown wondering what other problem was she going to have to deal with and waited for the message, wondering if the communications team had finally brought some good news for once.

After taking a few quick breaths the messenger began to speak. “General Alexia has decided to leave half her force at Valdon to deal with and hunt down the straggler monsters while taking her most veteran units and most importantly her vampire knights to return to the city. She should be here in twenty eight hours!”

That was some good news…

The battle had been going on for over six hours now, and general Sarja hadn’t been expecting any help for at least two days. General Alexia had basically cut the time by twelve hours from what it would normally take to get back to the city.

“I have some more good news.” The messenger continued looking somewhat excited. “The surrounding towns are sending their trains to help with the evacuation, as well as ammunition and some of their troops as well!”

That really was some good news!

Sarja, even as she tried to look as stoically as possible, couldn't help but let her eyes brighten slightly at everything she heard. The only problem was that nagging feeling in her heart that said she still was going to have to somehow survive the next twenty eight hours before she could get any real help. While the more insidious thoughts inside her told her she wasn’t even going to survive the next twelve hours, let alone the next twenty eight.

The general gave a nod and dismissed the messenger and started to figure out a battle plan. At the moment it was clear, they couldn’t let the fourth and third wall fall. If the third wall fell, the roaches would be able to swarm into the city and maybe wrap around to the train station on the far side where it was protected. The same with the fourth wall, as there was an underground civilian train system that allowed you in and out of the city. If both fell, the military train system in the fifth wall would have to be used, and at the moment it was ferrying troops into the city as well as ammunition.

Having come to a sort of plan, Sarja called out for Devi and sent someone to get her. A few minutes later she was in front of the general looking very annoyed at being taken away from her duty.

“How are the experimental units you’ve been working on? The ones from your… Gompla club? Are they ready?”

If Devi didn’t look annoyed before she certainly did now. “Those aren’t ready! They can barely move! And they wouldn’t be much help with this swarm of roaches, they would just be overwhelmed.” Giving the general a crossed glare.

Sarja merely lifted an eyebrow. “Would you rather they just be destroyed without being used at all? From the way things are going… We may have to eventually retreat to the fifth wall, so whether or not you like it, we are going to have to make use of it eventually.” She said flatly.

Devi froze at that, understanding the implications of what Sarja just admitted to. With some hesitation and a deep sigh she nodded. “Alright… I’ll see what I can do.” Giving in fairly easily. “But, just so you know, it’s going to take at least two hours to prepare them. We weren’t expecting to use them anytime soon, and they haven’t been properly field tested either.”

The two had a staring contest, but in this case Devi was being fully honest. It really would take at least two hours, and that was being optimistic, to prepare the experimental units for battle.

Sarja gave a nod. “So be it. We’ll hold out for as long as we can until you arrive with the reinforcements.”

With their conversation done, Devi fled back to the foundry as fast as she could, bringing with her only the engineers she absolutely needed.

The general turned back to gaze at the wall. “We may have to use the reserve vampire knights. Make sure they are ready for battle at a moment's notice.” She said to one of her subordinates.

The subordinate nodded and went out to carry her general’s order.

Sarja watched the battlefield carefully.

Summoners kept trying to summon more summons to help the fight, but their stamina and mana reserves were running out. The necromancers were having just as hard of a time, the roaches, being beings from a Crack, were not easily susceptible to being turned into undead, and the few they raised were nowhere near strong or worth it to stem the tide of battle. Archers were beginning to run out of arrows, and even well-trained soldiers were slowly getting tired from the constant hacking and slashing.

“Pull back battalions eighty-three and eighty-four and replace them with forty-two and thirty-one.” Sarja ordered. “They deserve a rest for now. And have the vampire Knights move on section three of the wall. It looks like the troops there are buckling.”

The orders were relayed and the vampire knights moved out.

The vampire knights were the trump card of any good Alcraynian army. With their decades and usually centuries of training, amplified by the suits they wore, they easily cleaved through hundreds of roaches with every swing. Their armor protected them from even the worst of attacks, and increased their speed and power by many times their base strength.

Unfortunately the roaches were not intimidated by the knights. While most sane living creatures would flee or run from the presence of a vampire knight and the killing aura they could project onto the battlefield. The roaches didn’t seem to have the intelligence or wisdom to understand fighting against a knight was simple suicide. Because of that, even the armor of the knights were slowly scuffed and dented after hundreds and thousands of repeated blows by the roaches who simply couldn’t learn better.

Seeing this, Sarja gave another order. “Have those seeking shelter in walls two and three evacuate immediately.”

“Ma’am?”

“Just like the outer wall, we may have to completely destroy the second and third walls to slow down their advance.” Sarja continued. “I am also giving the order to conscript, bribe or coerce all able bodied people from the mercenary guild and adventure guild that you can. If they haven’t fled already that is. Our number one priority now is to make sure as many people evacuate the city as possible, is that understood.”

“Yes ma’am!”

Sarja sighed. “This is going to be a long battle…”

---

“Sir, reports keep flooding in. It’s not looking good…” Cali said, handing over the next series of reports to her master.

Malon sighed as he took the papers and gave them a quick read. “Give section three what they are asking for, reinforce section two, and I'm approving the retreat from the second wall to the third and fourth.”

Cali nodded. “Anything else sir?”

Malon steepled his fingers and bowed his head, almost as if he was praying as he went deep into thought. A war as fierce as the one outside was taking place in his mind.

“Yes…” His eyes turned cold. “Prepare the ceremony to awaken the sleeping ones…”