It’s Ti
It’s a widespread notion that ti moves faster whenever one does sothing they enjoy and slower when they do sothing they don’t like.
Many people have different ways of coping with the latter. For example, in school, students realize that constantly looking at the clock seems to make it tick slower, so they pretend not to care so that it passes by faster.
Others try to find a silver lining in the grueling task they are performing so that they start to enjoy it to make it flow faster. Others do it in the presence of those they are comfortable around. So listen to music or just so form of background noise in general.
The point is that everyone has ways of making the ti ’move faster’ when it seems to move slowly, and this beast tide was no different.
As the days passed, the citizens grew tenser. Every explosion, every salvo released by the turrets, every flash of orange caused by a fla turret activating, and so on. Every sound made them grow tenser.
People suddenly started taking the warnings to stay inside far more seriously, which was saying a lot as many didn’t dare break that warning in the first place.
People suddenly started to reinforce their hos. Beasts with ager strength that had just been turned into family pets were suddenly being prepared for battle. Tars who had retired for one reason or the other were picking up old weapons, readying up old armor, polishing old skills, and so on.
Most would expect there to be widespread panic. But to be frank, it had been ingrained into most citizens from a young age that there was always a chance of them dying from sothing related to a beast, whether they were inside a Citadel or not.
After all, as ntioned before, a Master rank beast had appeared and eviscerated an entire Citadel and all its inhabitants (Reference Chapter 7)
This ant that a lot of the ti, safety was never truly an option, or at the very least, it was only temporary.
As such, more than a few people had made peace with the fact that they’d probably die before any natural causes. Hence, no one ran.
It was poetic, in a sense. A group of people knowing that death always seed to lurk around the corner, and now that it reared its ugly head, they were prepared to face it head-on.
That is, if it reached them. After all, the beast tide had to break past the walls first.
___
Ellie was a pretty easygoing individual. Most would expect the daughter of arguably the wealthiest person in the entire Citadel to at least be a little bit snobbish or arrogant, but she was generally considered a sweetheart, if a little bit wilful.
So the reactions of her peers were quite valid when a soldier ca to their school saying that they needed to enlist the aid of both their teachers and prominent students and before the teacher in charge could reply, the girl walked up to the soldier and unleashed a barrage of words so colorful that even her guard who was lurking in the shadows silently cleared his throat as he blushed, though no one heard him.
But yes, the misery was drafting both teachers and children. Why?
Because they were short on manpower.
After just 6 days of fighting and Constant rotations, half the soldiers were either dead or heavily injured.
After the first day, the number of casualties began to rise significantly, to the point where one of the Expert rank beast tars had to be deployed every few rotations just to help reduce the casualties and even then there was only so much they could do.
It only got worse as the strength of the beasts in the tide increased. If before there were mostly Novice rank and Apprentice rank beasts with the occasional Adept rank and rare Expert rank, then now there were barely any novice ranks as it was primarily Apprentice and Adept ranks.
More than a few tis, the beasts actually reached the walls and started trying to claw their way through, but if nothing else, the things were truly too thick as a full-power charger from an Expert level beast only left a dent inside its surface.
But the creatures were persistent, if nothing else.
Moreover, many of the prefixed armants had been destroyed. The ones on the ground that is, and a few on the walls. Pretty much all the landmines had been used up, and only the ones ant to defend against burrowing creatures remained, yet even those were quickly running out.
There were only a few turrets, both normal and fla, on the ground. As a result, the number of corpses piling up was truly a lot which started causing problems on the chaotic battlefield that never seed to stop moving.
The ground was bathed with so much blood that there wasn’t even a hint of green or brown left. It was just red along with whatever strange color of blood so other beasts seed to possess.
In short, the situation was scuffed a hell, so the idea of sending in teenagers to fight appalled most, but it was simply necessary.
After all, they had stopped receiving volunteers, mostly because there weren’t a lot left, after all, most tars with decent fighting ability had joined the battle, and while their casualties weren’t as high as the soldiers, that didn’t an they weren’t a lot, though.
They couldn’t enlist children for obvious reasons, and the sa applied to the elderly. Hence, they began to slowly draft teenagers. Specifically, those that seed capable of fighting.
It sucked, but there truly wasn’t a whole lot they could do.
Which was why Ellie was continuously cursing in her heart as she, Kurt, Sam
m, and Irene fought a large and slightly familiar bear-like beast.
It was the sa one the group had docunted during their excursion, and it was currently trying to kill them.
Well, they were also trying to kill it.
It swiped its claws which were glowing brown and broke through a wall of crystals which sent Kurt, who the wall was protecting, scrambling backwards.
The bear tried to jump on him, but Clyde growled and opened his mouth, then a powerful sonic wave erupted and engulfed the bear.
The sound disoriented the creature, but its montum still carried it forward, forcing Kurt to grab Clyde and jump out of the way of the huge body of the creature.
Blackie wasted no ti jumping through the shadows and slashing at wounds which were already showing signs of necrosis. At the sa ti, Inagi and Sugil kept attacking, with Inagi constantly injecting the bear with poison while Sugil tried to hold it down by binding its limbs with crystals.
They were making progress, but they were simply too slow. Moreover, that bear wasn’t the only beast near them.
"Kurt!" Irene shouted and threw the boy a whistle as nurous beasts started to surround them. As soon as she did, the three girls did their best to cover the ears of their beasts while Kurt caught the whistle, but instead of blowing it himself, he brought it near Clyde.
The small fox understood the assignnt as it opened its mouth and let out a concentrated sonic blast. It moved the air into the whistle and an almost invisible sound spread out like a shockwave.
As soon as it did, the surrounding beasts all paused and more than a few collapsed on the spot, clawing at their ears in pain.
The group wasted no ti as they used the opportunity to retreat to the wall, Ellie creating a wall of crystal to buy them so ti.
However, sothing suddenly flashed past and struck Sam in the shoulder, causing the girl to cry out as she tumbled to the ground.
"Sam!" Kurt and Irene shouted, but Ellie was faster.
With a thought, she had Sugil create a half do, which was well tis as several more projectiles struck the protection.
She quickly ran to Sam who was cradling her shoulder with a few tears at the corner of her eyes. Ellie quickly inspected the wound and saw what looked like a long porcupine quill sticking through her shoulder. She clicked her tongue.
"Sorry Sam but we can’t take that thing out here, or you might bleed out." Hearing this, the already pale Sam seed to grow white, so she just nodded and got to her feet unsteadily.
They ushered her away as fast as possible, however, just as they were about to reach the wall, sothing changed.
An invisible wave passed over everyone, and by reflex, the humans wrinkled their noses.
Ellie looked up and her eyes grew wide.
The thunderclouds which seed to have beco a bit of a constant these past few days had grown significantly darker in just a few monts. Not just that, but the lightning started to flash a bit mo—
BOOM BOOM BOOM
Several lightning bolts started raining down all over the place with horrific power. Moreover, the battlefield wasn’t even the focus as most of the lightning bolts were concentrated deeper into the forest.
Then ca the shriek.
The horrid sound passed over everyone, humans and beasts alike, and for a brief mont, the battle grew still as sothing more terrifying had shown its face.
In the center of the beast tide, the Skyblight Harbinger let out a screech as it baptized itself with lightning. The last bits of foreign energy were purged from its body as it rose into the sky and spread its wings.
It no longer cared about holding back. Its rage filled eyes focused on the Citadel in the distance as it had only one goal in mind.
Kill them all.
anwhile in the Headquarters, Major Thompson watched this scene with a calm expression. He looked slightly haggard and tired, but his back was still straight as he stared.
"I trust all the preparations are complete?" He asked his handlers, all of whom were exhausted, yet their eyes were bright.
"Indeed. Everything is in place, and everyone is in position." Major Thompson nodded at the answer.
"Alright then. Without further ado." He raised a hand and clenched his fist.
"Initiate Operation SkyFall."
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