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Chapter 239 - Force of Nature
🕑 Added 2025-02-07 22:51:35 +0000 UTCChris
"Are you sure about this, Christopher?" Abigail asked.
"It's perfectly safe, Abigail, everything will be fine," I answered.
She had been antsy about the fact I was allowing so many people to participate in what could potentially be a bloodbath. There was a discussion about not letting extras fight, but I shot that down quickly.
We knew this Wave would hold D-ranks, that much was assured. We also knew that these D-ranks would be much stronger than right out-of-the-box ones, which made them potentially threatening to the masses.
While I did agree that we needed to change our standing plans regarding waves, dismissing the extra people outright, even if they would be in danger, wasn't the way to go.
They would be able to stand atop the Walls and participate in whatever way they could. We built them thick enough to house thousands along its length and were well short of being overcrowded.
The siege weapon encampments would need to be kept clear, but I doubted anyone wanted to be near the moving parts of something so... robust.
Where she fought me more vigorously, was on letting people fight in front of the wall. She wanted to ban it outright, only leaving me, Jonathan, and Austin down there, like old times.
I fought back with an equal intensity. That was the crucible. The hottest and most deadly parts of a battlefield and the greatest opportunity for growth. It was why I grew as fast as I did and I wasn't going to take that opportunity away from others.
I warned them, and assured them of the dangers they would face by doing so, but in the end, I left it to them to decide.
Choosing when a fight was achievable or above their head was another valuable skill to learn.
Sure, I wouldn't be surprised coming out of this with a few deaths, but that was worth it in my opinion. It would be sad and unfortunate, but necessary.
If all people did was hide behind strong walls, they would never grow. I wouldn't have grown if I hadn't done what I had.
Obviously, Abigail and a few others didn't share my viewpoint. They claimed it was a useless waste of life to have people die when they didn't have to.
I claimed it was a useful opportunity that I wouldn't take away their choice for.
In the end, it took one of the rare times I used my authority to get them to back off. Their complaints were noted, and I made my decision against it anyway. In my head, I was in the right, and in theirs, they were, but that was the way of the world.
If everyone had been against it, and the entire council fought me over it, I may have caved, hell, probably would have caved, but only a few were. Most of the others were fine with it because it was a person's choice whether to participate or not.
"How helpful will they be? Some of them are barely E-rank." She said, looking over the large crowd.
"We shouldn't dismiss them strictly because of that. If they don't try, they will never grow. They'll be all kinds of things sent against us and not everything will be above them, they'll have things to fight." I assured her.
Not all of the beasts summoned were on the same level. There would be some lesser foes for the weaker to fight against, it would be up to them to find them. Even if they didn't, they'd be able to do what they could and at least participate with the stronger foes.
"Oh, hop off it you two, this'll be fun!" Austin interrupted. "I bet I'll kill more than you."
"Austin... you've seen how I fight. You don't stand a chance." I said.
He looked miffed, "You weren't the only one to get some fancy upgrades. You haven't seen what I can do."
"Alright, bud, you're on." I smiled.
"If you two could treat this as the dangerous situation that it is, that would be great."
"All work and no fun. You never change Abigail." Austin sang.
"Are Brayden and Vincent ready on the trebuchets?" I asked, ignoring Austin's comment.
Walls weren't the only thing built over the years. It wouldn't be a Castle without siege weapons of our own and we went all out for the ones we had.
My Uncle Brayden was the mastermind behind most of them, putting his Builder Profession to good use. Catapults didn't work well in the Cold, and we weren't sure how to make Cannons yet, so Trebuchets were the weapon of choice.
The ropes he tried to build Catapults out of split and frayed when under tension in extreme weather, which was a good portion of the year. There was a workaround, but it was easier to shift to something that would work instead of forcing something that didn't.
Dozens of the stone throwers were spaced out over the wall and even more were mounted to the inner wall. Their range was extreme, allowing them to shoot all the way from inside the city.
Coordinating such volleys was going to be difficult, but that was what practice was for. It was better to see what needed to be changed now than when we really needed it.
This would be the first time our entire defensive capabilities were being put in use and I couldn't wait to see how my City did.
After my speech, people sorted themselves accordingly and as the time drew nearer, I couldn't help but feel my heart beating faster. I'd spent the past week spending hours making sure the meld was finished.
I was ready to finally go all out and see what I could do with my new heart.
~~
Miles
His nerves were starting to get the best of him but he forcefully pushed them down. He'd been through worse and he wasn't about to chicken out now. His time in Toronto was much worse than whatever was about to happen.
This isn't your first battle, Miles, stop shaking like a schoolgirl.
He couldn't help it. He was far from the strongest and it felt like an errant wind would blow him away.
After following instructions, he found himself stationed near a few other Warriors with some Mages and Rangers behind him. All the Classes were well spread out along with various levels.
It would be bad to have all the lower-level people in one area.
The three gates were manned with the most people, along with the multiple towers along the Outer Wall, but he wasn't near those. Instead, he was next to one of the ginormous siege weapons spaced out over the wall.
It wasn't his first choice to be near one, but that was where he was placed.
The wooden monstrosity was tens of feet tall and by the creaking, he didn't want to know how much weight was being used as a counter. The size of the boulders lying in piles behind the weapon was enough of an indication.
As he fidgeted as time passed, the comfortable weight in the air changed.
It started with a few of the higher-level people near him, and not everyone's weight was the same, but it spread out over the entire crowd. Everyone started to give off an intense feeling like they were ready to face down death.
Only some carried the intense feeling, but it was enough to set him on edge.
A chill blew over the gathered crowd, and the weight intensified.
The next thing he knew, a notification popped up with the normal chime.
'Defend your claim'
The sixty-second timer felt like hours as he watched the numbers tick away. Orders were shouted out from the people in charge and his body moved to obey, but he couldn't tear his eyes away from the timer.
Before it hit zero, he couldn't help but look over the insane people down below. When he heard that fighting in front of the wall was an option, he thought it was insane. Who would choose to do that?
It turned out, a good number of people would.
Nearly a hundred men and women milled about, reading themselves. Some were doing last checks on armor while others inspected their weapons.
The City Lord stood stoic at their head with his hammer planted in the ground at his feet chatting with the spearman, like it was just another Tuesday. The spearman donned a shining silver helmet while the City Lord remained without one, his face bare.
A helmet wasn't the only difference between the City Lord and the rest. The man had multiple places where he wasn't as armored as the rest.
A metal chest piece that covered his front and back and some plates fastened to his legs was all he wore. Metal greaves covered his feet and lower legs, but his knees were left bare. So were his arms. The metal pauldrons attached to the breastplate stopping at the shoulder.
It was odd.
Miles didn't get time to think on it more as the timer hit zero and everything leapt into motion.
Wood creaked as they unleashed their giant payloads and his eyes tracked dozens of boulders through the sky. Their arc carrying them from both beside him and from behind him.
They flew high in the air before slamming down in the distance, where he only barely could make out forms of something moving.
Ratcheting sounds signaled they were reloading but Miles wasn't concerned with that. Once he saw the mass of bodies, they were all he could look at.
Another woosh and more boulders, but they seemed to do nothing compared to the numbers running at them.
This was the first time he'd seen so many enemies. Usually, it was a few dozen beasts at the most that attacked them in Toronto. Never an organized horde like this.
His unfamiliarity was obvious, as everyone else leapt into motion following the siege weapons like they were used to it.
Wondering what the City Lord was doing, he peaked down below and saw him standing in the same spot, in the same pose, doing nothing.
The spearman next to him was hopping up and down as a glow started to luminate off him. Miles wasn't sure if the Sun was attracted to him, or if it was something else, as the man disappeared before he could look closer.
He felt like rubbing his eyes like he was in a cartoon. One second the man was there, the next he was gone.
Explosions of light were the only indicator of where he went, as rays of it started exploding out from where the boulders were landing.
Turning back to the famed fighter he'd come to witness was disappointing. He was only shaking his head slightly as he reached out and grasped his hammer. Miles had seen all kinds of weapons, but never one like that.
He knew what it looked like already from stories, but seeing it in the flesh was different. It was... something else.
Ice began to freeze over his entire body and it was then that Miles understood the stories. Even as bows twanged and hundreds of arrows joined the boulders in flying through the sky, he couldn't look away from the man slowly walking forward. The oddity of how many there were wasn't lost on him. Even if every person took up a bow and launched one, there was still more than what could be accounted for flying through the air now.
His magic senses whited out as a tremendous amount of mana was launched next but even that didn't take away from the feeling.
The weight, slightly reassuring even though no part of it felt that way initially, got ten times worse. Like being plunged to the bottom of a lake, it surrounded his every move.
Miles realized then that the man had started running, instead of walking.
Magic rained down, forcing him to squint as every light imaginable filled the horizon with a painful intensity. Blue was most dominant, but that wasn't important compared to the sheer size of the impact.
He looked back from the magical spectacle just in time to see something even better.
One man ran into a wall of thousands and exploded in snow. It was too far to make out clearly, but the aftereffects were clear. A Cold so intense exploded that he could feel it from hundreds of yards away rattled his bones.
The bone-chilling cold made Miles want to curl up and go to sleep. The feeling came and went quickly, but the feeling was hard to shake.
A large section of the battlefield turned into a Wintery Hell, as that was the only way to describe it. Snow, hail, icicles, and large chunks of ice swirled around like a miniature hurricane without the rain.
It wasn't long until the expanse of white was dyed a reddish pink.
Ah, I get it now, Miles thought. This is where the name Red Snow came from.
The stories didn't do it justice. Nothing could do it justice without seeing it for yourself.
Gavin and Louis were right.
The man was a force of nature.
Comments
Clothman
Awesome. Reminded me of the supersonic trebuchet. Not sure that could be thing in the cold. Or bundles of plumbata like weighted darts. Given range and momentum, they can be Scary. At best they add off balancing weight to your shield. so supersonic smaller ones dont matter so much. Still, cool, and crazy to think something like that is possible.
Thomas Issa
Ziburinis, burning skeleton monsters that use a type of mana that is a combination of fire and soul
Lucien Jay
Fantastic chapter.
Buck
Waiting for Monday for the battle to end is going to suck!
Buck
βRed Snowβ?! Perfect! TFTC! π
KipBR
Tftc!
PWeygandt
Red Snow is a great nickname
Alexander C Hyde
Wondering what the City Lord was doing, he (peeked)peaked down below and saw him standing in the same spot, in the same pose, doing nothing.
Demonlord
Also the nickname "Red Snow" is fitting and cool
Demonlord
Thanks for the awesome chapter π It made me giggle in delight π Chris is a force of nature and it's always fun to see others seeing him fight for the first time... I just wish it would be more detailed and longer the description of Miles feelings about Chris's fighting style
Thomas Issa
Also great nickname!
Thomas Issa
Awesome!
Penguin Glutton
Tftc!
Alexander C Hyde
(Thereβll)They'll be all kinds of things sent against us and not everything will be above them, they'll have things to fight." I assured her.
