[Luna POV]
We appeared in front of the guild master’s desk while he was in the middle of some paperwork. When he heard our sudden entry, he put himself on guard.
“Guild master we have a big problem.”
“Miss Luna, what happened?”
“We took a request to hunt in one of the forests and when we got there it reeked of death. We entered to find our quarry and found undead; we took care of them, but I heard large numbers of more undead everywhere. Somethings happening and we don’t have time to waste.”
Just then someone ran into the room.
“Guild master! Strange ominous light is coming from every forest around the capital. It’s a mix of black and purple and getting brighter as we speak.”
The guild master stood up suddenly and started walking to the door in a rush. We all followed him, and we ended up on the second floor of the guild.
“EVERYONE! I’M ISSUING AN EMERGENCY QUEST! REFUSAL IS NOT AN OPTION! HOARDS OF UNDEAD ARE ABOUT TO COME RUNNING TO OUR WALLS AND WE NEED TO STOP THEM! PREPARE AS MUCH AS YOU CAN AND HEAD TO ONE OF THE CITY GATES!”
All the adventurers present started to run and get what they needed. Most of them ran out of the guild while others grouped up and started talking strategy.
“Luna, any idea on the exact numbers?”
“No, but I feel like army is a better term to use than hoard.”
“I see, go and prepare then, I am going to contact the King and get him to issue orders to the knights and soldiers. Any idea which place will have the most trouble?”
“I think the south.”
“Any reason?”
“Intuition.”
“Good enough.”
After saying that he went back upstairs.
“The real reason, Luna?”
“Tamamo and Atmos.”
“OK.”
“Velvet, when we get to the gate let me give your sword a temporary enchantment with my fox fire.”
“You can do that?”
“I think so, fox fire feels like magic more than a skill, so I don’t see why not. Plus, your sword won’t be able to fully stop the undead efficiently.”
“What do you mean?”
“We’re facing large numbers here. We’re outnumbered, you won’t have the chance to fight one-on-one, the more you take out at a time, the better.”
“Fine then.”
We were finally reaching the south gate and saw a lot of adventurers gathering. A few of them were explaining the situation to the gate guards and they started to let the people who were trying to enter the city in quickly.
I could see the black-purple light coming from the forest and a scowl crossed my face.
“What’s up Luna?”
“I remember seeing ominous light like that before. When we were summoned, we were taught about fiend magic and shown an example with a captured fiend. It was the same colors.”
“Damn it. I think I know who is behind this then.”
“Who?”
“It’s a cult that worships fiends. Our organization is one of many that have tried to wipe them out, but its leader always managed to escape and rebuild his following.”
“Why didn’t you say anything earlier?”
“I didn’t know, every time they appear, they use different methods to try and fulfill their objectives. My mother faced them last time and she told me they tried to destroy a coastal city with sea monsters and tsunamis.”
Before we could continue our conversation, the light flashed brightly and disappeared. Everyone that was here noticed and started watching the forest. Several moments of silence passed when I started hearing the clanking of armor and weapons from behind us. I turned around and saw lots of knights coming this way.
“Report! Has anything changed?” The person I assumed was the leader aske to one of the adventurers.
“The light has gone out. Whatever is coming is about to show up.”
Those of us with good hearing heard it first. The rattling and footsteps. We all looked towards the forest and saw tons of undead running this way.
“Velvet, draw your sword.”
She did and I started trying to enchant it with my fox fire. It was easier than I thought it would be. Her sword was now covered in a blue haze that gave off no heat.
“That was surprisingly simple.”
“Let’s just hope it’s as effective as it needs to be.”
All of the knights and adventurers left the south gate and it was shut behind us.
“No backing out now, not that I would have.”
“You seem a bit excited, Luna.”
“I am a bit, two weeks of doing nothing and now we’re facing an army of undead. I have a chance to let loose with my magic and skills on full blast, plus who knows how much I’m going to level up with this.”
{Luna, calm down a bit, you’ll get distracted in battle.}
‘OK.’
After about an hour, we could finally feel the ground rumbling with the approaching army. I set up several balls of fox fire and surrounded myself with them.
“Those of you with magic, start preparing for a starting shot, archers do the same.” The knight leader called out.
I could feel the mages around me condensing their mana and archer drawing their bows.
“Release!”
All of the arrows were fired, and magic flew. I called down bolts of silver lightning that crashed into the undead with explosive sounds. I also shot out some ice spears that hit some skeletons and then started freezing groups once they made contact. I couldn’t help but grin.
“This is fun.”
“Mages, archers, back up, they’re getting too close to continue with bombardment, vanguards get ready!”
“Velvet, you’re up next.”
She didn’t answer, only nodded her head, and readied her sword. Once the undead entered her range, she extended her sword and swung horizontally. The blue haze from my enchantment leaving traces in the air as well as on the undead hit or scratched by Velvet’s sword. The let out silent screams as they were purified and turned to ash.
Several knights and adventurers glanced in our direction but quickly turned their attention back to the fight. I pulled out my new throwing knives and covered them with fox fire and started throwing. I was given about 20 knives and by the time I finished throwing 10 of them, they started to return to me.
My grin widened as I said; “Now this is convenient, they return after about a minute after striking their target.”
One ghoul made it through Velvet’s sword’s extended range, so I shot five fox fires at it.
“Thanks Luna it would have taken too long for my sword to retract.”
“No problem, heads up, a second wave of skeletons is coming.”
I started to condense my magic and made a giant silver lightning bolt fall from the sky. It struck the group of approaching skeletons and ghouls causing them to explode into bits and pieces.
A few made it through but were shortly taken care of by Velvet and some other vanguard fighters. One of them got a bit overwhelmed and getting bit and scratched by a ghoul. I ran up, purified it, and dragged the guy to the backline. I used some healing magic on him.
“Thanks, miss.”
“You’re welcome, now let’s get back to it, we’re nowhere near done.”
“Alright.”
He stood back up and ran right back into the fray. I started throwing knives again and we continued to hold off the undead for several hours. When we hit a lull in combat, I asked Velvet a question.
“How many are there? This is way too much for that forest to have hidden.”
“Not if you think about how long it would take to prepare all of this. The ones who are the cause have been hiding for at least 60 years, so I think this is a reasonable number.”
It was then that a chilling howl sounded.
“Seems like a strong one has appeared.”
“That was a curse wolf, Luna. Those are bad news for normal people. You will be fine since curses don’t work on you, but it’ll be difficult for most others here.”
“Then I might as well go take it out.”
“Luna stop! You’re being reckless! You can’t just charge in like that!”
{She’s right Luna, you’re getting too heated.}
“Fine, but what should we do? Someone has to take it out before it causes a problem that can’t be fixed.”
The knight leader came up to us and started speaking.
“I overheard your conversation, is it true that curses don’t work on you lass?”
“Yeah.”
He was mulling over my words when the curse wolf howled again.
“Tch. Lass, this will be a difficult fight, we will cover you so you don’t get trampled by the rest of the hoard, if you and your friend here can take out that wolf, do it.”
I looked to Velvet to see if she agreed with his plan, and she nodded.
“Not really many options left at this point so let’s go with that. Luna, refresh those enchantments on my sword, we’re going to need them to be more than just a haze if we want to scratch that thing.”
I did as she said and we prepared for our toughest fight of the day.
Author's Note:
Here is a quick chapter for this morning. I don't like leaving you all on a cliffhanger, but I have life things to take care of so I have to. I'll try to write the next one when I'm done so hopefully it'll be done today. Thanks for reading.
Purifying fire + vampire friend seems dangerous
Vampires don't seem to be evil, cursed nor undead in this world so it should be fine... Probably?
Why fight outside the gate? Seems weird to not use the defensive position at hand.
Would you want a horde of undead running around inside a city and spreading out while you have to refrain from using more powerful magic so you don’t cause collateral damage
@Paytoechip I believe you misunderstood, I'll try to explain the way I understood it. Though I'll end with a reason for why they wouldn't want to fight like this in your world setting anyways.
When defending with a wall and gate you'd normally, historically on earth, have the archers and siege weapons up on the ramparts along the wall. With melee fighters ready to defend any breach. This way the horde would first have to reach the walls, while the ranged fighters can pick their targets at ease from an elevated position.
When the horde reaches the walls they have to break through or climb over to be able to hurt anyone. If they climb up you bring close quarter fighters to the ramparts and hit them before they can finish the climb. If they make a breach in the wall or gate you defend the breach.
Because the breach is much narrower than the open ground on either side of the wall the attackers will have to cluster around the narrow opening, making them excellent targets from the walls, and when they get out of the breach you can defend by having a semi-circle surrounding the breach so that the attackers are always outnumbered. Or if the breach is narrow enough you can defend while they are trying to get through the wall, while they can't move or defend properly.
But since there's magic in this scenario it changes things. Not only could you have them relying on healing to keep the guards and adventurers alive. But since the melee fighters also has wide range attacks, like Velvet's sweeping strikes, it would be less helpful to force the fight into such cramped quarters in the first place.
The combination of that makes it so it makes more sense to meet the horde outside the wall, that way if the fight goes poorly they can retreat inside the gates, and then defend the more traditional way. The only real question is why the ranged fighters weren't on the walls, but that could be explained with that the guards were already taking up all the room up there, so the adventurers had to go outside if they wanted to get any XP from this, even if they were mages or ranged fighters.
Another option is that the city walls simply don't have ramparts, it would be a weird option though if you make proper walls. Since if the walls are any decent thickness at all you'd have room on top to make ramparts for free.
Thanks for the chapter ~💗
Thanks for the chapter. I'm curious how many levels you'll give Luna for this
I was given about 20 knives and by the time I finished throwing 10 of them, they started to return to me.
So she can essentially keep throwing them indefinitely? Sweet!
The beginning part of the chapter could definitely have used a few more dialogue tags.
I'd love to see her teleporting and spamming her ice domain. The guild master seems like a slacker in this one.
Thanks for the chapter!
A most excellent Chapter!!
Thanks for the chapter
I gotta ask, why did she not offer to enchant other peoples weapons. Like say multiple arrows while their drawn, etc. Unless heat of battle she didn't think to offer.
She didn’t think of it. This is technically her first real battle cooperating with a lot of people so she has a kind of tunnel vision that only focuses on her, Velvet, and what she’s fighting. The reason she healed that guy was because he was right next to Velvet so she noticed he got injured if he was somewhere else she wouldn’t have noticed.
@Paytoechip I think that another reasonable explanation would be the cost. Her energy output to enchant tens of weapons and hundreds of arrows would reduce her own combat ability and have others view her as nothing more than a support-type, very much like mages who specialize in healing magic. By limiting the number of things she enchants, she really gets to show off her highly-trained abilities and make a name for herself without having to mention who her parents are in order to do something she feels she needs to do.