Back on the fallen floating island, the frontlines where a mess, a think stench of blood saturated the air as loud clashes and explosions deafened the soldiers. A large section of the mighty stone walls that defended the kingdom for centuries had been blasted apart, causing demonic beasts to flow through like a flood.
Soldiers were doing their best to fight of the incoming swarm but to no avail, blood curdling screams echoed around letting the fighters know yet another one of their comrades had fallen.
The king was on Horseback holding a large golden hammer, the scene in front of him broke his heart, he steeled his nerve and turned around to face the hundreds behind him.
"Today we laugh in the face of adversity. If we are fated to die then we stare fate in the eyes and tell it to piss off, we aren't going down without a fight. Prepare yourselves, now is the time we fight for are kingdom. CHARGE."
The king yelled and rode into battle, everyone behind him cheered and followed his lead, the king was like an unstoppable god of war, he swung his hammer and took out a beast in a single blow, every swing was followed another beast dying.
Spurred on by the king, colourful spells began to fly across the battle field, soldiers rushed in with their weapons prepped and arrows began to rain on the beasts.
Behind the front lines, doctors and nurses set up stations where they could treat the injured, very soon the blood of the beasts saturated into the ground, turning to mud, but with every beast that died, another five joined the battle. Their numbers seemed to be endless, unlike the brave soldiers fighting back.
However, what the beast didn't have, was the tenacious spirits of the soldiers who had put everything on the line to defend their nation, with every dead beast their morale only grew.
The weaker soldiers who couldn't hope to defeat an adult demonic beast alone, formed squads of five, each squad isolated a beast and worked together to slay it, the only saving grace was that the hole in the wall was small enough, that the massive demonic beasts were piling on top of each other to get through limiting how many could enter at once. Still the beast was entering at a faster rate than they were be killed off, if this continued then they would be overrun within the hour.
The breakers were making the most of their exhausted Aether supplies dispatching each opponent with the minimum amount of force. But it wasn't enough, the front line was slowly being pushed further back, as the number of beasts began to grow. Just as the frontlines where about to be breached, a swarm of multi-coloured spells where unleashed raining down on the beasts. Temporarily halting their advance.
"Heavenly sword sect present, how rude of you to start the fight without me."
"Flame god sect present, we elders can still put up a good fight you know."
"Jade temple present, it has been a while since I had a good stretch."
Wu Feng along with a middle-aged man and women made their presence known on the battle field around a hundred disciples of their respective sects gathered behind them, near the front of the group Yang Chen stood calmly his eyes scanned the battle field where he caught sight of Olivia and Tang Yue confronting a large snake type demonic beast.
Wu Feng noticed his prized disciple's worried gaze and smiled patting him on the back.
"Go, the battlefield is the best place to show off to the ladies."
Yang Chen nodded and rushed towards the battle field. When Yang Chen rushed off the middle-aged woman turned around to the other disciples.
"Don't let our sect be outdone, win glory for our Jade temple so we can hold are heads up high."
"As if we would let this cranky old coot get ahead of us, Sun god sect charge."
Like this all the disciples charged towards the battle field. Their presence on the battle field did not go unnoticed and soon enough, minister Wu rushed up to them.
"Unfortunately, the king couldn't than you personally, but on behalf of the kingdom I thank you all for coming."
Minister Wu gave them a deep bow, as someone who had no fighting power he would just get in the way, so he elected to help wherever he could. Wu Feng stopped him there.
"Nonsense, we sects are a part of this kingdom too, are presence here was pretty much guaranteed."
BOOOOM
Just as the Minister was about to reply a massive explosion sounded in the distance, A colossal beast that loosely resembled a gorilla stood on top of the wall, its aura alone made the soldiers unlucky enough to be close enough weak in the knees.
The colossal black gorilla that was half the height of the fifty-meter walls raised its lanky arms and pounded on the walls, the tremors could be felt all around the battle field, and the already heavily damaged wall could no longer put up a fight, causing a huge section of the wall to collapse revealing a terrifying view.
On the other wall countless beasts piled on top of each other, trying to force their way in. Among the horde one could count at least five other beasts as large as the gorilla that brought down the wall, their auras just as terrifying.
A ridiculously long green python slithered through the collapsed wall, seconds later a massive dark red bull that towered over the others, charged through the beasts in its past causing explosions of red mist as the unlucky beasts where pulverised, it crashed head first into the wall, demolishing it sending pieces of rubble out like bullets, that shot towards the unsuspecting soldiers, blasting apart humans and beasts a like, a fine mist of blood and dust coated the battle field.
If this wasn't enough a piercing screech could be heard from the sky's, a massive brown vulture with a wingspan dozens of meters wide soared through the air, behind it was a flock of around fifty bird type beasts.
Auras in the direction of beast horde surged outwards making the soldiers on the front lines tremble, even though they couldn't be seen, their presence was definitely felt.
These were the demonic beasts commonly referred to as Beast Kings, they where rulers of their respective territories and without any competition, they only grew stronger with time.
In the face of complete adversity, the soldiers laughed, they carried the weight of the kingdom on their shoulders, they weren't allowed to falter. Soon the powerful voice of the royal army's commander boomed around the battlefield.
"Archers and those with ranged weapons fall back, target the birds, if we let them past, the kingdom is defenceless. Those who are exhausted fall back and rest, reserve troops go forward and take their place, keep rotating until all enemies are dead, I wish all of you the best, make our kingdom proud."
Cheers filled the battlefield, all of the blood shed had turned them into crazed demons, they hungered for blood and were focused on defeating the next opponent, still their stamina wasn't endless, the ones who had been fighting the longest headed back and the eager to fight reserve troops made their way onto the battle field.
Back at the medical cam the three sect leaders saw the colossal beasts rampaging on the battle field demolishing the weaker soldiers, the king was fighting against the bull, but the snake and the gorilla were about to corner him
"Flame god, take care of the oversized pigeon, me and the granny will help out the king."
Wu feng said calmly, the middle-aged Flame god stared at the bird and licked his lips.
"Fine by me, it's been a while since I roasted a bird. Just the thought makes me hungry."
"Who's a granny, I'm gonna beat your ass later."
***
"That's the third one"
Tang Yue said somewhat tiredly wiping blood of her face with her sleeve, her beautiful white robes had been stained with blood, something she shared in common with Olivia, Yang Chen and Li Hao who were beside her.
Their tactics in each fight so far had been using Li Hao and Yang Chen to tank, drawing the beast's aggro, while Olivia would use her strength to throw rocks, swords and anything she found on the battlefield at the beast's week points forcing the beast to defend itself, she seemed to have developed quite a knack for this and was now throwing stuff with a surgical precision that would embarrass even a doctor. While the beast was distracted and on the defensive, Tang Yue would sneak up and deal a finishing blow.
But after repeating this arduous process multiple times, they were left exhausted. At this point a soldier who had been tasked with keeping an eye on the princess's squad rushed up to them.
"Princess you should really head back and rest now."
He said with a pleading look in his eyes. The princess shook her head defiantly.
"You been saying that since we took down the first beast, as much as I hate it, I'm still the princess, I have a duty to fight."
She refuted the soldier's good intentions, but at this point she was approached by Li Hao who put a warm hand on her shoulder.
"Princess, I know you mean well, but the beasts are going nowhere, even if rest we can re-join the battle once we have recovered."
The princess was about to say something but then she noticed that the hand on her shoulder was shaking ever so slightly, she looked around and noticed her friends were at their limits. How foolish she had been, as a rank two breaker she was the strongest of the group, maybe she would last a few more fights but the others would not.
The screams continued to echo around the battle field, yet another member of the nation had lost their life, she felt useless, and she hated that feeling but there was no helping it.
"Two hours, after two hours I'm heading back to the battle field, even if I have to do it alone."
She said bitterly causing the soldiers eyes to light up, he sent a grateful look towards Li Hao and opened his mouth as if he was going to say something, but that something was left unsaid because in that instant his head separated from his body and a fountain of blood erupted from his neck.
Instantly the others jumped away from the headless soldier instinctively, with their minds struggling to process what had just happened. Yang Chen was the first to recover and he pointed to a space next to the soldier's corpse
"Over there"
He yelled, trying to alert the others, they followed the direction he was pointing at but failed to see anything, just as Olivia was about to ask what he meant, she noticed that right in the direction she was looking at, there was a floating bloodstain presumably a result of the soldier's execution.
"Whatever it is, its invisible… Stay on guard there could be more than one."
Tang Yue shouted to the others once she noticed the floating bloodstain herself, when she looked closer, she noticed a pair of claw-like foot prints leading up to where the bloodstain was, the ground which was softened by all the blood shed made them easy to spot.
"I'll keep an eye on this one, watch the ground to see if any foot prints appear."
She said, as the strongest one, naturally she took on the leadership role. The other formed a circle with their backs facing each other, allowing them to keep an eye on all directions. Under Tang Yue's command they slowly distanced themselves from the bloodstain.
Whatever the thing that attacked them was, it seemed to be cowardly by nature, it circled around them slowly apparently waiting for an opening.
"Any more footprints."
Tang Yue asked, wanting to know if their where any other threats. The others all shook their heads in response but it was better to be safe than sorry.
"Alright, Olivia continues to keep an eye out for foot prints, if you see something no matter how small, make as much noise as possible. You two, judging from the size of its foot prints, it should be relatively large, about the twice size of the giant Yang Chen, but we need to make its whole body visible to know where to attack, any ideas on how to do so."
She asked, while constantly watching the bloodstain. The other two thought for a while before Yang Chen spoke up.
"The best idea would to probably covering it with something, since the blood didn't disappear, that means its camouflage is limited to its body. The ground is already quite muddy, if we had some way to water the ground further, maybe we could use that to paint it."
Yang Chen spoke, his plan was greeted with a good response, the only problem was how to water down the ground. It was at this point Li Hao stepped forward.
"This much I can manage, although as a citizen of the wind kingdom I prefer to use the wind attribute, The Lion family is famous for water magic, even I know a few spells."
Now they had plan in mind so they were feeling more confident, while Olivia and Tang Yue were keeping an eye on the unseen danger, Li Hao and Yang Chen got to work.
First Yang Chen put his palms on the ground, using true magic to make a large bowl-shaped cavity on the ground. After this was achieved Li Hao placed his palms on top of each other vertically and started to chant.
"Aquas"
With that droplets of water began to condense around his arms flowing into the cavity Yang Chen made. Once the cavity was adequately full, Yang Chen used his true magic to mix in dirt. The result was thick viscous mud, that closely resembled brown paint.
"Since this mixture is made with water do you think you will be able to launch it at the beast."
Yang Chen asked Li Hao who thought about it for a while.
"It should be possible."
He responded, although he had never tried something like this, he could still feel a weak connection with the water content in the mud.
"How's it going over there"
Tang Yue asked, her eyes still locked on to the beast, who seemed to slowly be getting closer, one step at a time.
"We're done here."
Yang Chen responded
"Olivia?"
Tang Yue asked, wanting to confirm everything was clear before the proceeded.
"no problems here."
Olivia replied, taking her role very seriously, Tang Yue was happy everything was proceeding according to plan.
"Alright keep watching the ground, I'm going to lure the beast in close enough so we have a good shot."
"How do you plan on doing that."
Li Hao asked, curious about what the princess had in mind. Tang Yue flashed him a smile before enlightening him.
"Beasts are dumb, if you show an opening, no matter how cowardly they are, they will go for it. So sorry in advance."
Tang Yue said, Li Hao was confused at why she was apologising, but then a realisation hit him, strictly speaking it wasn't a realisation that hit him but a fist. The princess sucker punched him right in the left cheek very nearly knocking him to the ground.
"What the hell was that for… wait not again…. OW"
Another one of the princess's fists slammed into his face. Just as he was about to demand an explanation for his mistreatment, he saw the princess's face turn serious.
"get ready."
Tang Yue said, the loud thud of footsteps could be heard, and they were getting closer. Although he would have preferred a warning, Li Hao understood the princess's intentions, if a beast saw its prey fighting amongst themselves, obviously it would take advantage of that.
"NOW"
The princess shouted once the footsteps were almost upon them. Li Hao immediately prepped him self
"Aquas Lorem"
He chanted, soon a thick stream of mud made its way towards the blood stain catching, the beast off guard and washing over it and covering it completely, letting the group lay eyes on its body for the first time.
The beast had the same body shape as a lizard, maybe it would be more accurate to call it a chameleon, its back was covered with spikes, and it had a long whip like tail, that sported an impressive spike making its tail look like a scythe, this was probably what it used to decapitate the soldier.
The group split up to confuse the beast and put some distance between it, the beast just stood there in shock about what had happened, but quickly recovered and snarled menacingly. Conveniently the mud attack had blinded it, so while the beast was desperately clawing at his face to regain its vision Tang Yue gave her next instructions.
"Li Hao take over Olivia's role, other than that proceed like usual."
Tang Yue said, she decided to swap out Olivia and have Li Hao keep watch because she noticed that the use of magic just now had completely drained him, although this put a heavy burden on Yang Chen who was already running on fumes as the sole tank. She had known him for quite a while. The boy was as tough as nails.
Yang Chen squeezed out the last of his energy and activated his trait, his muscles swelled like balloons and he now stood at a lofty two meters tall. Now that he was the sole tank he could only go all out and hope he lasted long enough.
Yang Chen charged at the beast making his presence as noticeable as possible, as a tank he would have to keep the beast distracted as long as possible, giving the others a chance to act.
He dropped to the ground narrowly avoiding the scythe like tail that passed over head, not missing a beat he sprang upwards swinging his broadsword up vertically slicing up the lizard's rear leg.
Although it was little more than a flesh wound, he was surprised to see he had actually injured the beast, previously his attacks did nothing to the adult demonic beasts and they could only rely on Tang Yue's overwhelming strength to finish them off.
Sharing his surprise, Olivia was watching the fight closely, in her hand was a long spear that she had scavenged of the ground, although it was soiled with dirt and blood, it would get the job done.
She came to the conclusion that the beast relied too heavily on its camouflage so its defences weren't as high as the more visible beasts. This was only good news and meant that the fight should be over quickly.
Focusing her mind, she practiced the technique Roxy had taught her. Aether from her body began to flow into her muscles as she willed it, this was the same technique that Ren used to enhance his muscles, however unlike Ren she wasn't able to draw in aether from her surroundings. But this didn't matter, the aether in her body wasn't extremely dense like Ren's so she could do it without risk of blowing her arm off.
As aether filled the muscles in her arms, she took aim, the only weak spot on the lizard's body would probably be its eyes, so focusing her full attention on that, she threw the spear with all her might. She had already taken of her own Suffer-Ring Roxy had given her, so right now her might didn't lose out to Ren who was still wearing one.
The spear sailed through the air with great speeds and even greater accuracy, the beast who was busy fending of Yang Chens relentless attack didn't see the incoming spear until the spear was all it could see. The spear embedded itself into the lizard's eye causing a high-pitched screeching that sent shivers down their spines.
This window of opportunity did not get wasted, Tang Yue who was waiting patiently in the shadow, finally saw a chance to act, currents of wind spiralled around her body as she shot towards the beast at break neck speeds, this speed was unimaginable to rank one breaker like Ren, as was the huge difference between ranks.
A powerful and insanely compressed ball of air gathered in her hand. She raced towards the beast slamming her hand into the lizard's throat, the ball of air burst outwards completely demolishing the beast's neck, chunks of fouls smelling flesh where blasted sky high only to rain down seconds later. It was finally over.
Except for the fact that it wasn't. Before anyone could relish in their victory, Li Hao started yelling.
"Another set of footprints headed are way."
Shit. That was the collective response, any remaining energy they had was completely gone after that fight, the only thing they could do know was retreat. Just as Tang Yue was about to tell them to run a powerful voice came from the sky.
"WAIT… don't attack, that one's mine."
A slender black-haired youth dressed in black robed, who looked to be around nineteen years old was floating in the sky, in his and was a long thin sword, that glinted in the sunlight, he gave off a massive aura, but unlike the beasts it was quite comforting to those below.
Instantly he disappeared, only to reappear next to the rapidly advancing footprints, all that was heard was a loud thud and blood poured out from what looked to be thin air. Obviously, the others knew that he had just slain the beast that had given them so much trouble.
"With this my junior has been avenged, but still that invisible bastard was a bitch and a half to track down."
The black-haired youth was quite handsome, his features where sharp yet reserved. Although the others were shocked by his epic entrance, Yang Chen and Tang Yue were the most surprised.
"Senior brother Wutian is that you."
Yang Chen asked, surprised to see a familiar face on this vast battle field. His words made the black-haired youth look up and his eyes lit up.
"Junior fancy meeting you here… no way the princess as well. Oh, how I've longed to see you once more, did you get my letters, I didn't receive a reply so I wondered if they made it to you."
His cool and calm impression immediately change once he laid eyes on the princess.
"Ugh."
The princess grunted miserably she wasn't the least bit happy to see him, Fang Wutian was a well-known lady's man from the Heavenly sword sect. Countless ladies had fallen to his charm and Tang Yue was glad she wasn't one of them, despite rejecting him outright countless times. He still found the time to send her countless letters, at some point she had stopped reading them and burned them to a crisp. She hated this type of clingy guy the most.
Despite his problematic personality, his strength was the real deal, just a month ago he broke through and became a peak rank two breaker, two whole stages higher than the princess who had just entered Rank two herself, this was something that was extremely rare these days, especially for someone as young as him. It was as this point Fang Wutian noticed Olivia who had come over to see what was going on.
"Who, is this beauty and why don't I know her name, Miss it must have been fate that let us meet today, my name is Fang Wutian, why don't we skip this place and get some dinner."
Olivia was stumped for words, it wasn't every day you get hit on in the battle field, Tang Yue was fuming and stomped her feet.
"Skip what. We're putting are lives on the line to save our country and all you can think of is hitting on girls… Olivia, ignore anything that comes out of this bastards mouth."
Tang Yue shouted angrily, but Fang Wutian was already walking over to her.
"Olivia… Olivia. Such a sweet name truly suits you. Oh, how I would love to get to know you better but alas the princess is right. How cruel is fate it allowed us to meet yet at the same time tears us apart. Let us make the most of this time, your injuries bring pain to my heart allow me to escort you lovely ladies off the battle field so you can get some well-earned rest."
Fang Wutian put on a convincing pained expression. Yang Chen could only face palm, he had seen similar scenes play out countless times. Tang Yue's face only got redder and she looked like she was about to blow her cap. She stopped herself though, as insufferable as he was, the offer was appealing.
Everyone was exhausted and if they ran into a beast on the way it wouldn't end well for them, Fang Wutian was strong, this couldn't be refuted, and as desperate as his actions made him seem, he had a kind heart. Something not everybody possessed.
"Fine take us back, but that's all you will do."
Tang Yue said bitterly, but this was enough to put a huge smile on his face.
"Right this way ladies… I guess the other two can follow but make sure to give me and the girls some space."
He said happily walking alongside Olivia and Tang Yue, making the princess roll her eyes.
***
While the princess and friends had a happy ending not everyone was as lucky, everywhere around the battle field warriors dropped like flies. While they numbered a few thousand at the start, their number had dwindled to half, with no end in sight. Some might say this was a futile effort, but others believed in their king's words, a miracle wouldn't occur by just waiting around, it was something they had to fight for.
But this miracle was sure as hell taking its sweet time, the battle had lasted for well over three hours. if they hadn't taken up arms, the kingdom would have been razed to the ground by now, the soldiers didn't know if they were just delaying the inevitable but they chose to have hope in themselves and their king.
The king in question was standing over the gigantic corpse of a bull, it had been a long arduous fight and his already depleted aether was now basically a wisp. He was soon joined by the two sect leaders who had finished off their respective opponents.
"King, its time you head back, you should rest and recover your strength. Just as in chess once the king is captured its game over."
Wu Feng said his clothing was ruffled and torn, and he suffered minor injuries. The king replied calmly.
"If we're talking chess, then I would be the queen, the most powerful piece on the board. Unlike the cowardly king who hides at the back of the board, not all is lost when the queen is taken, sometimes sacrificing the queen can bring hope in a hopeless situation."
"what are you trying to say."
The sect leader of the jade temple questioned him but he didn't answer her, instead he handed her a crumpled letter that he took out of his robe.
"Make sure this letter gets to my daughter."
He said turning and walking toward the wall. Wu feng grabbed him firmly by the arm and stopped him.
"Wait you're not thinking straight, if you live you can always fight again. your death will be pointless now."
"Hasn't this battle been pointless from the start. It's just the stubborn last stand of an old man, but as a king I must fight... As a king how can I ask my subjects to lay down their lives if I can't do the same."
With that the king walked off, Wu feng didn't try to stop him this time after seeing that look in his eyes, a look that truly laughed in the face of adversity. He couldn't bring himself to stop him.
The lone king used the last of his strength to fly over the walls, he laid eyes on the massive hoard of beasts that stretched as far as the eye could see. The number of the beasts was not in the thousands, but the tens of thousands, of course he knew this, he had told the young soldier from the scout regiment to change his story. In the end he had manipulated his subjects, fed them lies and forced them into a battle more hopeless than anyone else realised.
"This should be far enough, a fitting end for such a foolish king"
At Rank two, breakers developed a solid aether core in their body's, at rank three that core becomes so dense it collapses in on itself becoming something of a black hole. The aether in the core is so dense that it easily becomes unstable when aether runs low, similar to a black hole, once the mass in it radiates away, an explosion ensues.
And that's exactly what happened, a flash of light, a devastating explosion as large as the capital itself, in that instant a thousands of the beasts approaching the wall were wiped of the map, buying the kingdom crucial time. The shockwave injured many of the others a truly valiant effort but alas the beasts that survived continued onwards.
So, the warriors fought on.
They kept fighting.
They kept praying.
They kept dying.
Soon the warriors where down to the last hundred, those that survived still fought, inspired by news of their kings sacrifice.
In that eleventh hour where the beasts broke through their final line of defence.
The heavens seemed to open and a rain of white light fell of the kingdom, when the rain of light hit the warriors, their wounds healed and their strength returned to them. When the rain of light hit the beasts, they cried in anguish melting away, returning to the earth.
On the battle field one warrior turned to the other.
"what's happening."
The warrior asked the other, who simply replied
"It's the miracle we've been waiting for"
The warriors looked at each other and burst into laughter cheers echoed around the battle field, today they had all truly laughed in the face of adversity.