"Yo Dontrall, are you sure we can trust what the blind boy says? For all we know, the beast tide isn't even gonna get to us. I mean, they have the whole forest so why would they attack the town?"
Dontrall looked at the disciple standing next to him with solemness. They were part of the same faction and thus went on a lot of missions together. Due to the many life-and-death situations that they've been in together, a bond akin to brothers was formed.
"Don't underestimate him, Tyrell. His other senses have been honed to the limit and it's honestly scary. I tried sneaking up on him before, but he caught me almost instantly. Although I don't like him, there is no denying his talent."
"Haha, praising another man. Dontrall, don't tell me you've fallen for his looks?" Tyrell teased and playfully poked Dontrall with his elbow.
"Don't fuck with me. I'm still trying to get his three servants in my bed."
"Man, their legs are mmm…mmm, juicy. If you get them, you have to share them with me."
The 2 Chaos Predator members enjoyed a hearty laugh when Dontrall suddenly heard a whizzing sound come from his side.
*splat!*
Dontrall looked at Tyrell's face in absolute horror, or what should've been his face. Now it was just a neck without a head and blood gushing out like a geyser.
"TYRELL!!! Fuck! WE'RE UNDER ATTACK! WE'RE UNDER ATTACK, RING THE FUCKING BELL!"
Dontrall shouted the loudest he could and turned towards the forest in horror. There, he saw a large porcupine readied to shoot another quill towards Dontrall, but that's not what frightened him.
What scared him was the nearly 100 Beta-stage beasts walking out of the forest. Behind them, thousands of Adult-stage and Adolescent-stage beasts walked past them and made their way towards the walls of the town.
Dontrall glanced at the headless corpse of his brother-in-arms and clenched his teeth.
'Nows not the time to lose composure. Focus, Dontrall. You can mourn after you slaughter all these fuckers!' Dontrall promised and took out a long bow from his spatial ring.
The bow was a metre and a half long and made from some type of dark navy blue wood. Besides the bow, he also took out a quiver filled with a variety of arrows.
*DING!*
*DING!*
*DING!*
He ignored the ringing of the bells and focused on the beasts in front of him. Nocking an arrow into his bow, he pulled back and took aim.
"String of Shifting Worlds: Straight Shot!"
Dontrall shouted, and the air around him became chaotic. He released his hold on the bowstring, and the arrow shot towards its intended target.
The early rank Beta-stage porcupine's eyes widened as the feeling of death encompassed its body. It watched the ordinary arrowhead fly straight towards him, but its body was too slow to react even though it could see it clearly.
Fortunately, just before the arrow could reach it, a large ball rolled in front of the porcupine. When the arrow hit the ball, it harmlessly ricocheted away. Dontrall clicked his tongue in frustration when he saw a curled armadillo block his arrow.
"Dontrall!"
Dontrall turned his head to the side to see Chelsea and 22 individuals following behind her, approach him from the distance. Only Vasari and one of his servants were missing. The other 2, the Town Head and the head of the Grimdale Defence Team, were also behind Chelsea.
Chelsea noticed the dead body of Tyrell but chose to ignore it for now and focus on the objective at hand.
"What's the situation?" She asked from afar.
"Nearly a hundred Beta-stage beasts and thousands of weaker beasts! Hurry up! They're nearing the wall!" Dontrall shouted causing the disciples to speed up their movements. When Chelsea arrived next to Dontrall and looked towards the forest, her expression became deadly serious.
She did a quick head count and counted 94 beta-stage beasts. 70 was early rank, 24 was late rank with a range of different beasts ranging from deer, monkeys, rhinos, bulls and many others. Lurking a bit deeper in the forest, she felt two auras much stronger than all the others.
'Peak Beta-stage…'
"Everybody get into position! Glenn, start getting your formations ready! Mister Sunri, Mister Austin, get every single Nebula Realm cultivator in the town here now!" The Town Head and the Head of the Grimadale defence team nodded before they quickly left.
Members from the Grimdale Defence Team already situated around the wall, rushed towards the Cloud Haven Disciples.
Despite facing thousands of beasts in various shapes and sizes, the cultivators stood their ground on the wall with unwavering determination.
Those cultivators all had a medium-sized crossbow in their hands. Nocked in each crossbow was a large arrow shining in a deep red radiance.
"Aim! Fire!!" Chelsea gave the order and immediately, the sound of crossbow triggers being pulled was heard, followed by the whooshing of dozens of arrows. It was an amazing sight to see the once plain, dark red arrows light up the night sky as they went up in flames and hurtled towards the thousands of beasts.
Those on the wall watched as the arrows hit their targets, either the ground or an unlucky beast, and exploded in a brilliant display of light. The impact of each explosion was so powerful that it killed multiple beasts at once.
"Again!" Chelsea ordered.
The disciples and those from the Defence Team nocked another red arrow into their crossbow before firing it off again.
These explosive arrows were crafted by beginner blacksmiths who joined the sect at the same time as Vasari and the others. It was made specifically for dealing with Adolescent-stage beasts. Although it was still effective against adult-stage beasts, it wouldn't outright kill them, but their injuries wouldn't be light either. They cost Chelsea 1 cloud point for a batch of ten, so there was still plenty to spare.
Seeing that their numerical advantage was ineffective against these crafty cultivators, the Beta-stage beasts began to make their move.
Fifteen, 8-metre tall bulls charged towards Grimdale's walls. Mounting them was two early rank Beta-stage chimpanzees, who were taller than an average human male. With makeshift spears in their hands, the chimps threw them with all their strength towards the cultivators standing atop the walls.
"Watch out!" Chelsea warned, but some were still too slow to dodge the flying spears. Ten members of the Grimdale Defence Team were struck and died instantly.
"Baldy, Jaxon, fire 'those' arrows."
The boys nodded before picking up an arrow from the floor below them. Instead of the dark red colour like the other arrows, these arrows were light blue with the arrowheads being a shade darker.
DT and Jaxon aimed slightly ahead to where the beta-stage Bulls were running.
*Thwip* *Thwip*
The crossbows were fired, and the arrows hit the ground causing a thick layer of ice to spread across the surface. Each arrow created an ice ring with a radius of 100m centred around it.
The bulls charged forward but were unable to stop themselves on the slippery surface of the ice rink. The chimps riding on their backs were quick to jump off to avoid being crushed under the weight of the slipping bulls. Fortunately, some of the bulls suffered injuries such as broken bones and collisions with each other caused even more damage.
"Cloud Haven Disciples, follow me. Dontrall, you and the Grimadale Defence Team provide us cover. When Mister Sunri and Mister Austin return with reinforcements, tell them to come to help us."
Chelsea gave her orders, and Dontrall nodded in understanding. They were co-leaders in name, but Chelsea was many times more experienced than he was and he had no qualms about her taking the lead. His main objective was to complete the mission and live, Cloud Points and his pride was secondary.
Chelsea jumped off the wall followed by 18 others. DT, Jaxon and Kurumi were told to provide backup with the crossbows since their cultivation was still too weak to participate in such a battle. DT and Jaxon were still in the Qi Conversion Stage while Kurumi was in the Mana Body stage, they wouldn't be able to help in a battle an entire realm above them.
When Chelsea landed, she immediately put her fingers in her mouth and whistled.
–—–––
In a designated area near the town entrance for the mounts of the Cloud Haven Sect disciples, a large red and orange striped tiger was resting next to 4 wolf cubs not even half its size. The tiger's eyes suddenly shot open and without delay, it got up onto its legs and dashed away. The 4 wolf cubs looked at each other in confusion before chasing after the tiger.
Not far away, Otis flapped his lips in exhaustion. He was resting comfortably, but now he has to make sure those naughty cubs don't catch on to nonsense.
–––––
Back on the battlefield, Chelsea took a blazing red spear from her spatial ring. The shaft was 1.6m in length with unique engravings all along it. The spearhead is angular in design and with many hooks along the edges meant to deal maximum damage to her opponent.
Her spear was a Heaven-Grade weapon custom-made for her after entering the top 20 on the Outer Haven Disciple Rankings.
She turned her attention to the beasts approaching her. She wasn't interested in the early rank Beta-stage beasts, those were for the others. Her target was the late-rank beasts and the 2 peak rank beasts who were still hiding in the forest.
"Remember, fight in teams. Nobody fights alone. Our objective is defence, not offence. Hold your line until Glenn finishes setting up the formation." Chelsea reminded one last time, causing the others to nod in understanding.
Hozumi watched Chelsea run into battle with admiration, feeling like she was back in her disciple days on Planet Voxotis again.
"Miss Hozumi, don't blank out on the battlefield, you never know when an attack could be launched at you." Matheo Ressel tapped Hozumi's shoulder to wake her from her stupor. She shook her head and slapped her cheeks before thanking him.
"Thank you, Matheo. Let's go."
Hozumi, Matheo and 2 other disciples formed a small team as they fought against 2 early rank Beta-Stage chimpanzees.
------
As the conflict between the Beasts and cultivators intensified, Vasari and Hiromi joined a group of 10 Nebula Realm cultivators to head towards the town wall. They had encountered the Town Head on their way out of the hotel and decided to travel together.
The sounds of battle grew louder as they approached the wall, causing their hearts to race. Hiromi had already drawn her Heaven-Grade Yumi bow tightly in preparation.
"Don't be nervous. Remember what I told you."
Hiromi nodded with determination and tried not to let her nerves get the better of her.
Soon they arrived on top of the 10-metre-tall Town wall.
The 12 arrived just in time to hear Dontrall shout the name of one of his techniques.
"String of Shifting Worlds: Silent Messager!"
3 Arrows shot out from Dontralls longbow. The arrows cut through the air effortlessly and without making a noise. Suddenly, the arrows disappeared, blending in with their surroundings. It only appeared again when it pierced the heads of three early Beta-stage chimpanzees.
"What are you lot standing around for!? Get down there and help out. Servant girl, come here and put that big-ass bow to good use! Oi Vasari, pick up a crossbow and start shooting! We have to delay the beasts long enough for Glenn to finish his dumb formation!"
Dontrall shouted at the 12 spectators causing them to jump in fright. They quickly followed his orders and got into positions. Vasari, however, was 'looking' in a specific direction. Dontrall was about to shout at him again but stopped when he heard an ear-shaking roar.
*ROAR!*
A large, red and orange striped tiger jumped over the wall like it was nothing and landed directly on two chimpanzees, killing them instantly.
The battle came to a screeching halt when Chelsea's mount entered the fray.
All the beasts moving towards the town wall stopped their movements. The presence of this tiger was just too overwhelming and their beastly instincts told them to retreat. However, just then…
*ROAR!!*
…a roar with equal intensity reverberated through the battlefield between the Wretched Forest and Grimdale.
A massive 10-meter-tall Gorilla jumped out of the forest and landed on the battlefield, squashing some lowly adolescent beasts in the process. In the gorilla's hand was a fully grown tree that it had pulled out of the ground. The peak Beta-stage Gorilla and the peak Beta-stage Tiger stared at each before the Gorilla beat on his chest with his free hand then charged at the red and orange striped tiger with the tree still in its grasp. The tiger didn't remain idle either and dashed towards the Gorilla. Adult-stage and Adolescent-stage beats didn't stand a chance against these two monsters and were ruthlessly trampled if they were unlucky enough to be in their way. The Gorilla swung the tree in its grasp horizontally towards the tiger but the tiger remained unfazed by the attack. Brandishing its 7-inch claws, the tiger swung down and easily obliterated the tree into shreds.
The gorilla expected that to happen and was already getting ready to punch the tiger with its free hand when it suddenly spotted a human female with fiery red hair dressed in a red leather one-piece outfit, jump from behind the tiger. In her hand was a beautiful red spear shining in a menacing light.
"Spear of the Crimson Cloud: Crimson Rain!"
Chelsea shouted and thrust her spear repeatedly, forming hundreds of crimson-red dots in the sky in a matter of seconds.
"Fall~" Her voice was like an angel of death subjecting her followers to eternal solitude.
The hundreds of crimson-red dots rapidly fell from the sky towards the wide-eyed gorilla, who felt death approaching.
*Roar!*
As the crimson rain fell, the gorilla let out a roar and crossed his arms above his head to shield his face. His hair hardened and gleamed in a silvery hue. Despite the impact of the rain, there was no explosion, only an eerie sizzling noise.
The beast growled in pain when it felt the crimson rain burning through its hardened hair and scorching its skin.
Using every ounce of willpower, he bent his knees and jumped back. He landed just before the entrance to the forest. Chelsea mounted her beast companion and they stared down the Gorilla glaring at them with pure hatred.
----
Still on the wall, Vasari stood in front of 4 wolves. He was unbothered by all the noise happening on the battlefield and kept his attention focused on the wolves.
He sternly reminded them to work as a team and to avoid any Beta-stage beasts when fighting on the battlefield. He then ordered Otis to fetch Zephyr and have the Flash Thunderbird watch over Hiromi and Kurumi.
After giving his orders, he turned to the battlefield where the battle between the Gorilla and Chelsea with her mount had reached a standstill. The other beasts regained themselves after their leader made an appearance and started attacking the cultivators again.
Dontrall was just about to shout at Vasari again when he saw him jump off the wall and run into battle. He ignored all the adult-stage beasts and ran straight towards the nearest beta-stage beast, a three-horned rhino.
Dontrall considered Vasari a dead man and was thinking about winning over Hiromi and Kurumi when his eyes widened at the sight of Vasari and the rhino entering a battle of raw strength.
Vasari had a massive smile stretched across his face as he tried to overpower the late Beta-stage beast, using nothing but his bare body.
'This guy's crazy.'
Dontrall's thoughts suddenly came to an abrupt halt when he heard a sound that made his blood run cold and his hair stand up on edge.
*SKSKSKSKSK!*
"Haha, we're fucked…"
He uttered in despair when he felt the wall begin to violently shake, and saw a huge creature slowly slither out from the forest.