It wasn’t long before the battlefield, which Midir had cleared with his light rain, was once again filled by the black tide. The tireless monsters trampled over the mangled remains of their own kind as they launched another charge toward the city of Loka.
However, those brief few minutes had given the exhausted garrison on the walls a much-needed moment to catch their breath.
As the monsters were drawn by the brilliant light magic and converged toward Midir’s side, the other sections of the wall felt an unprecedented relief. This sudden change bought the garrison precious time for strategic adjustments.
Soldiers who had been pushed to their limits by the long hours of combat were quickly rotated out, allowing them to receive medical treatment and recover their strength in the rear. A fresh batch of soldiers quickly filled the gaps and took over the defense line.
“I saw that your net earlier was actually quite effective. I want to try a method of my own. Come on, imbue this with some magic. It’ll definitely be more efficient than using a massive weapon like that.”
Aila’s eyes glinted with a calm light as she watched the monsters below beginning to stir again.
From the Arms Crafter at her waist, she pulled out a roll of metal wire that shimmered with a cold, sharp luster under the sunlight.
Midir glanced down at the wire held out to him and immediately understood her intent. He gathered the light element once more and infused it into the metal.
He didn’t know what material Aila had used to craft this particular roll of wire.
But when the wire came into contact with the light element, instead of becoming brilliant and dazzling, it seemed to be swallowed by darkness. Even its original metallic sheen vanished without a trace, making it look like a roll of ordinary, inconspicuous thread.
Aila weighed the wire in her hand with satisfaction. After nodding to Midir, she leaped down from the battlements once more.
By now, the monsters had begun to climb the slope from the valley floor. The nearest ones were barely a hundred meters from the wall.
Aila sprinted back and forth beneath the walls, tying the inconspicuous wire to surrounding trees and boulders, weaving a hazy, gray spider web outside the city’s defenses.
Having finished her preparations, Aila quickly returned to the wall and tied one end of the wire to the battlements in front of Midir.
“Let’s see how effective this is. If I’m not mistaken, this should be extremely effective against small targets. You just need to keep channeling the light element into the wire.”
Before Aila’s voice had even faded, the first wave of monsters reached the metal net she had laid out.
The monsters didn't even register the thin wires in their path, maintaining their charging speed as they slammed directly into them.
The element-infused wires displayed extraordinary resilience. Despite being struck by countless monsters, they didn't budge an inch. Meanwhile, the light element contained within them acted as the sharpest of blades, instantly slicing through anything the monsters brought into contact with them.
Aila knew that these monsters had incredibly tenacious vitality and that ordinary wounds were rarely fatal. She had cleverly exploited this by setting the metal net very low, making their limbs the most vulnerable targets.
The sharp metal wires swiftly severed the monsters' legs. As severed limbs tumbled to the ground, the falling monsters instantly piled up into bloody barricades of flesh, effectively obstructing the path for those following behind.
This highly effective trap only required Midir to spare a small portion of his focus to maintain the constant infusion of light element, an amount so small it had almost no impact on him.
Seeing her carefully prepared trap yield such significant results, Aila turned to Midir. A glint of pride flashed in her eyes, and her lips curled into a cute, charming smile.
Then, with a graceful leap, she landed on Kiteclaw’s broad back and ascended into the air, observing every detail of the battlefield from above.
After all, that trap was only particularly effective against the smaller prey leading the charge; it had little killing power against the black mantises that stood several meters tall.
Midir, still atop the wall, did not use any more large-scale magic to provoke the monsters below.
He had already achieved his goal of drawing their attention. Now, he only needed to hold his ground firmly until the units on both sides finished digging the firebreaks, at which point they could wipe out the monsters in the valley in one fell swoop.
With the two of them joined in the fray, the tide of battle shifted dramatically. Through their seamless cooperation and exquisite skill, the vast majority of the monsters were successfully held back below the walls, unable to advance another step.
Though a few dozen stray monsters managed to scramble onto the battlements, they were quickly dispatched by the garrison soldiers who stood ready, posing no further threat to the wall.
“Remember to leave a few intact! It’ll be easier to study them later!” Aila shouted to Midir from Kiteclaw’s back as the griffin swept past him.
Midir, who had been getting caught up in the thrill of the slaughter, finally remembered their earlier discussion about needing samples. He nodded to her to show he understood.
In the time that followed, Midir demonstrated his staggering combat technique and multitasking ability.
While raining down brilliant light arrows on the monsters surging from outside the city, he shifted his attention to the creatures that had managed to climb onto the wall.
With a casual wave of his hand, those monsters were frozen into translucent blocks of ice, unable to move a single muscle.
Soon, thirty minutes had passed—the duration of the original plan. Aila received good news through her goggles from the adventuring group led by Rosal.
Midir looked toward his right and saw that the forest several kilometers away had been silently cleared by the adventurers using Earth-type magic, leaving behind a trench dozens of meters wide.
Now, they only needed to wait for the Guards Legion led by Ferdinand to complete their task before they could close the net.
However, after waiting anxiously for another ten minutes, there was still no word from Blake.
The towering trees within the valley completely obstructed their line of sight, and both of them began to feel a sense of unease.
“Hold the front line for now, I’m going over to see what’s happening!”
Aila cast a worried glance toward the left side of the valley. After informing Midir, she immediately urged her griffin to fly toward the direction where the Guards Legion was supposed to appear.
Looking down from the air, she saw that a portion of the trees had been felled and cleared away. Judging by the length, the construction of this firebreak was more than halfway complete, but the Guards Legion had run into trouble.
Unlike the adventurers who had used magic to silently dig a trench, the Guards Legion relied entirely on their numerical advantage to clear the trees.
The sound of over ten thousand men marching and working in the woods had quickly attracted the monsters on the flank.
Soon, a medium-sized beast tide suddenly broke away from the main force deep in the valley, rushing like a black torrent toward the Guards Legion engaged in logging operations at the valley’s edge.
Although the number of monsters attracted wasn't massive—ordinarily, ten thousand well-trained Guards could handle them with ease—the circumstances were different now.
Deep within the dense forest, the Guards, whose primary weapons were greatswords and spears, were unable to exert their full power. They were forced into a passive defense against the monsters' repeated assaults.
Coupled with the monsters' rabid, dog-like charges, the progress on the firebreak had slowed significantly.
Ferdinand used his greatsword to cleave through several leaping monsters along with the trees they were using for cover. He glanced back at the progress of the firebreak, his bearded face etched with frustration.
His original plan had been to limit the use of Battle Skills to minimize the noise they made.
However, he had underestimated the commotion ten thousand men could cause. In less than ten minutes, the monsters had latched onto them like sticky plaster.
A series of small-scale, close-quarters skirmishes broke out. The Guards didn't dare to be too reckless for fear of attracting the main body of the monster horde, but without using large-scale Battle Skills, these incredibly resilient opponents proved to be exceptionally difficult to handle.
From the air, Aila saw the predicament Ferdinand and his men were in, but she hesitated over whether she should descend to support them.
Currently, nearly ninety percent of the monsters were being drawn toward the section of the wall where Midir stood. The monsters here were merely a nuisance and hadn't caused any substantial losses to the Guards yet.
Just as she was feeling conflicted, Ronald Ironheart’s voice suddenly came through her ear.
“I’m coming to support you. I’ve already grasped the general situation through the goggles! Aila, you just head back to the main battlefield!”
At that moment, Aila heard a low, rumbling sound coming from the distant sky. She quickly looked up toward the source of the noise.
In the distance, a layer of thick clouds was slowly shifting, and within those clouds, something massive seemed to be moving.
In the next second, a massive figure trailing fire appeared in her field of vision, rapidly approaching the battlefield.
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