BOOOOOO~!
The sound of a horn suddenly echoed across the city, disrupting Gerald's concentration and ruining the figurine. At the same time, the bells of a watchtower also started ringing.
The sleeping warriors were immediately woken from their slumber and jumped up, turning in the direction of the sound. From their vantage point on the platform, they could see something happening in the distance, and many city soldiers suddenly ran in that direction.
"What's going on?"
Everybody gathered near the edge, stretching their necks to see farther. Some of the warriors below also quickly picked up their stuff and ran towards the south where the commotion was coming from.
"Should we check it out?" Gerald queried.
"Sure!"
"Let's go!"
The rest simply nodded, expressing their agreement.
"Alright then, hold on to something!" Gerald said, and his lips curled into a smile.
Rumble!
The ground beneath their feet trembled, and the stone pillar they stood on sank into the earth. Weirdly though, the ground on which they stood remained floating in the air.
"Huh? We are flying?!" a few exclaimed. They were at least ten meters in the air at that point. A few loud gulps were heard as countless eyes turned to Gerald who was standing near the edge with his hands behind his back, acting cool and aloof.
The hood of his cloak covered his head so nobody could see his face, giving him an even more mystical aura.
'Damn this shit is heavy!' Gerald screamed in his mind as his eyes bulged out and his teeth were clenched together. He underestimated the difficulty of his action, but now it was too late to turn back.
"Don't fall," he calmly said while his face was becoming increasingly redder from the strain. Warping space around a bigger object, as it turned out, was exponentially more difficult! Simply making it weightless required more of his attention and Mana than anything else before.
'Don't drop them, don't drop them!' he kept repeating in his mind as the circular stone platform leaned forward and started moving towards the south.
***
"What the heck is that?!" a guy shouted wide-eyed and pointed at the flying stone platform.
"Hmm?"
People on the ground all turned to look, and soon exclamations of shock and surprise drowned out any rational discussions going on.
After the effects of shock and surprise wore off, and the platform flew closer, a few people recognized the magnificent cloaks fluttering in the wind.
"Wait, isn't that the Black Onyx?!"
"Black Onyx? What's that?"
"It's a warrior group, they came to light just recently," a third person joined the conversation.
"That guy is probably their leader, the crazy bastard." Someone added. "I have seen him fight against Orcs. He was just flying around the battlefield and blowing them to pieces with magic."
"He can fly?! Is he a god?!"
"Bah! Probably just some rich Mage with too much time on his hands. Look, he clearly likes to show off!"
"He doesn't look like a Mage though, just look at those muscles!"
"And his hand, it's made out of metal. Wait, is that silver?!"
"I told you he must be rich."
"Maybe he is the illegitimate son of The King? How else can he use such advanced magic?"
"Or maybe he is a Demon in disguise! I heard my friend talking about how some people are working with Demons!"
While the crowd continued speculating wildly, in a completely wrong direction, of course, the group landed not far from the southern wall and disembarked.
"Phew, I have barely made it," Gerald wiped the sweat off his brow. "Crazy how such a short flight wore me out." After taking a breather and cooling off his brain, he finally came to learn what all the commotion was about.
It turned out that the reinforcements from the north have finally arrived, and with general Ulric Aust as their leader, they were going to try and battle their way into the city. A crazy plan, that's for sure.
The defenders gathering at the southern wall were here to give them a hand and form an attacking army to push the monsters back.
As minutes passed, more hearty and battle-hardened men arrived to participate in the battle. The great majority of Guild's forces that made their money by fighting, were those without anything to lose.
They were, in a sense, victims of circumstances. Many of them were orphans from a young age, or have lost their families later in life. Some met with accidents, bandit raids, or straight-up monster attacks.
In either case, they were mostly men, both young and old, putting their lives on the line for a better life. They were either going to strike it rich in battle, or they will die trying. Both cases were, in their minds, better than living in misery for the rest of their lives.
Of course, some treated joining the Warrior's Guild as some sort of a rite of passage, where young boys would be forced to join and then turned into men.
The Iron Hawk group was one of those in the beginning, but when they experienced the gradual increase in fame and earned gold, it sort of became their job. Helping those in need was also a great motivator for some as selfless acts were often repaid in kind.
Being a member of the Guild young men also had better chances with women as they already proved themselves to be strong, reliable, and capable of protecting and providing for a family. It was a part of the society that was deeply ingrained in everyone's hearts.
And now many of these people came to a bloody battlefield, each with their own wishes and desires, ready to sacrifice their flesh and blood for the good of everyone… And for personal gain, of course.
"Alright!" A commander shouted from the wall at a few thousand soldiers below him. "The enemy is just outside these walls! On my mark, we'll charge over the wall and drown them in their own blood! Are you ready?!"
"WOOOO!" the army responded in unison.
The everlasting Flame Barrier suddenly shimmered and stopped replenishing itself. In just a short minute, it was gone.
Approximately five thousand city soldiers, and at least as many independent warriors, gathered below the wall, stepping on rubble and corpses of the slain monsters, weapons in hand.
"On my mark!" the commander shouted again, observing the sky with all his attention.
Suddenly a bright pillar of light shone through the clouds and the sounds of explosions traveled into everyone's ears from the other side of the monster horde.
"Now! CHARGE!"