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-Gildian Forest, Day of the Beast Horde-
As John stood tall on the battlements, he thought about everyone who depended on him and looked up to him. The people of his lands, the soldiers who served under him, his household, his friends here, his family, his wife, and his son.
As John stood awaiting the battle, and thinking of his family. He swore that whatever it took, he would protect the people who relied on him. He would defend his nation and his people from whatever threatens them.
Right now, the threat was the incoming beast horde. When he heard the reports of over 40,000 beasts, John could hardly imagine it, but it was in front of him now. He could see the leading beasts through the trees.
As he appraised them, he was slightly relieved. The leading beasts tended to be around the middle of the pack in terms of strength with the most powerful ones at the back. So by looking at the leading beasts, you could get a good sense of how powerful the most powerful beasts were.
The beasts he saw were all around peak (Gold) and bottom (Yellow) meaning the alpha of the pack couldn't have been more than (Lime). This was nothing that they couldn't handle, and John was even confident of being able to take down a peak (Lime) with all the people here.
If it was a (Green) however, John doubted that anything would be left of his Marquess. The beasts were going to arrive at the city wall in a couple of minutes, so he went to warn the others and got the long-range soldiers into place.
Mary, who was an archer, would signal the start of the battle as soon as the beasts got in range.
"On your mark, Mother. We're ready." John said grimly.
"Alright, get ready... in 3, 2, 1!" Mary started shooting the stronger beasts coming near, but her skills weren't suited for AoE damage and couldn't thin out the numbers. As the beasts got into range of the other rangers, volleys of all types of magic and arrows whirred through the air.
In just the first volley alone, over 500 beasts had been killed and many more injured. Soon, after just 3, volleys the beasts were on top of the city walls as they met the ground troops and began engaging in a bloody battle with hundreds of casualties on both sides after barely half a minute. Multiple archers also switched to targeting the aerial beasts that were coming close.
John and Noah had yet to join the fray with Mary and Zahun, the earth mage from the beast kingdom. These two melee fighters were waiting for the strongest beasts to show themselves. And soon, 2 minutes after the fighting began, a (Lime) core finally showed itself.
It was a Storm Boar with lightning and dark elements. The boar was over a meter long and half a meter tall, with thick rippling muscles and tusks the size of human arms. Its pelt was jet black all around with the only other colors being the yellow of its eyes and the ivory of its tusk which was often stained red with blood.
Noah having the Light and Earth elements as his forte, matched up against the boar and flew over to the beast. John would have joined his father-in-law had it not been for the wind wolf that appeared.
The wind wolf was a later (Dark-Lime) and as its name suggested, mained the air element. John was a stage above the wolf and used the water element, so it would have been an even match-up had the wolf been just a stage higher.
The boar, Noah was fighting was a (Dull-Lime) whose cultivation was only slightly lacking to Noah. Noah still had the upper hand in this battle as he had many years of combat experience under his belt and had fought against storm boar before.
Noah used his light magic to blind and distract the boar while using his sword and earth magic to wear down the boar. John was doing slightly worse than Noah as he had a hard time competing with the wolf. Even though John had a higher cultivation the wolf was still physically stronger and John only could exploit the blind spots of the wolf to get damage in.
Suddenly, only a minute after the wind wolf had appeared, a Roc came into view over the trees. As the only one who could deal with it, Mary turned her attention from helping the army to shooting at the Roc.
At once the Roc took notice of her and a fierce battle began. The Roc would swoop in with its sharp talons trying to rip Mary to shreds, while Mary would constantly dodge and fire back hitting the wings of the monster. Zahun, the earth mage, would also occasionally help out the three fighters with earth bullets or destabilize the ground under the beasts to create an opening.
Even while fighting, the four lime fighters would keep an eye out for the Alpha that had yet to appear. Even after a whole 5 minutes of fighting, the alpha had yet to show itself.
During this time Noah had managed to inflict heavy damage on the storm boar and was preparing to end the fight. John was doing a little worse as both he and the wolf had sustained lots of injuries, but John's wounds were away from his vital organs, while the wolf had been punctured in its side.
The two battles would end soon. Mary on the other hand was having a tough time with the Roc. The Roc kept evading her arrows, and the constant dodging had tired her out. It was only with the help of Zahun, that she was still relatively unharmed.
The Roc hadn't come out unscathed either as its wings were riddled with arrows and some of its feathers had been shorn off by Zahun's earth bullets. One could visibly see it tiring from the constant attacks it performed and the time between its dives lengthened considerably.
Noah blinded the boar with a flash of light for the last time and lunged forward from the side intending to kill it with his final attack. That's when a terrifying aura descended upon the battlefield.
Everything stopped as if time was frozen. All the beasts stopped in their tracks and so did all the soldiers. Even the Roc that was plunging into a dive, stopped mid-way and hovered in the air.
The only noises on the battlefield were wind and the flapping of wings as the aerial beasts stayed afloat. Not even grass rustling could be heard as all the vegetation in the area had long been wiped out.
From the trees that still stood, came forth the source of the aura. A Chimera the size of a small house. If a modern person were to look at it, they could say that it was the animal incarnation of a tank.
The Chimera had a Lion's body with a snake tail. There was also a goat head growing out of its back for 360 vision, however, unlike the original Greek chimera, this one also had the lion's head replaced with a wolf one, but the mane remained.
Noah was the first to regain his wits and before his opponent could too, he killed the boar. Then it was Zahun who shook out of his stupor, once the mage cleared his head, he gathered his most powerful earth bullet yet and shot it at the Roc.
The Roc sensing the incoming danger, just barely moved in time and only got its wing blown off. Even though the Roc had dodged a fatal blow, having its wing ripped off was just as bad as it spiraled to the ground.
Mary, having also gotten out of her stupor at this point, killed the Roc before it even touched the ground. Next, both the wolf and John regained their sense, but before they reinitiated their battle, the wind wolf flew off its feet having been hit by one of Zahun's earth bullets.
John quickly took advantage and finished the wolf off. Immediately after he appraised the Chimera and paled. The Chimera was a peak (Perfect-Lime) who could be breaking into the (Green) realm any time now.
John grimaced and regrouped with Noah and Zahun who had gotten over. Mary stayed back to support them with her shots. She knew she would just be a liability if she got too close. They all knew that a hard fight was ahead of them and they were in mortal danger. Had they not been so worn out from fighting the other lime cores before, they would've been confident of being able to win without any deaths.
But as it stood they weren't so lucky. They recovered while waiting for the beast to make the first move. All of them had used a lot of mana that was going to be needed for this fight.
The Chimera studied the people in front of it for a solid minute. Then took a step foward.