The high tide was approaching near noon, and since morning, mercenaries had been arriving at the beach to scout the situation by the sea. As soon as the tide rose, the monsters climbing from the beach could reach the gates of the small town in just a moment.
As the time approached, both mercenaries and city defenders were in position.
The old duke appeared on the city wall behind the harbor with his magnificent magic staff. That area was the most vulnerable to monster attacks. The lord, clad in full heavy armor, appeared above the city gates. This allocation was clearly due to uncertainty about where the strongest monster would appear.
Due to the terrain, the city gates were not directly impacted by the tide, but the harbor area was. However, the experience of several monster attacks made it clear that the city gates were also a focal point of attack.
Although they were sea monsters, most could freely move on land. Monsters coming from the beach often gathered together and launched direct attacks on the city gates.
I leisurely wandered around, casually greeting the old duke.
For me, no matter where it appeared, it couldn't escape my spiritual awareness.
With my powerful spiritual awareness, as long as the monster appeared within a kilometer of me, I could immediately know its location, even if it hid among the ocean tides.
I have always been curious about the origin of my spiritual awareness. It's not about seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, or feeling, but I just know. It seems like there's a world inside my mind where every change is clearly reflected.
As noon approached, the tide finally arrived as scheduled. A deafening roar echoed continuously from the depths of the sea. As the roar approached, the sound gradually changed from deep to high-pitched.
Accompanying the roar were towering waves dozens of meters high. In the waves, various monsters were faintly visible. In just a short while, the waves had pushed hundreds of meters onto the shore, sweeping away any ships or buildings in their path.
Fortunately, the mercenaries by the sea had long since moved away from the beach when the roar began. Otherwise, faced with waves comparable to a forbidden curse, anyone would likely meet a tragic end.
Even so, the mercenaries who witnessed the mighty power of nature for the first time were still trembling with fear and deeply awed by such divine might.
However, experienced soldiers and mercenaries were too busy to feel the majestic atmosphere because they knew that real combat was about to begin. In battle, distraction meant misfortune.
Wave after wave of the tide finally reached its climax. At this point, the crude harbor had already been wiped away.
The huge waves crossed nearly a hundred meters, crashing heavily against the city wall. Just when I thought the wall would collapse, I realized, with the reinforcement of earth magic, the wall had endured countless heavy sea tides and still stood strong. Countless monsters crashed against the wall, ending up with broken bones and tendons, which made me couldn't help but applaud.
Under such high-speed collision, even mid-tier monsters could only end up seriously injured.
The tide slowly receded, leaving piles of monsters on the beach. Several inches high of corpses had already accumulated under the city wall near the harbor.
I carefully observed the monsters rushing towards the city gates and noticed that a large part of them looked no different from ordinary fish.
However, unlike typical fish, once they left the water and landed on the beach, they would normally struggle and slowly die. But these monsters were completely different. Each one moved forward like dolphins on Earth. The largest among them was nearly thirty meters long and weighed several thousand kilograms, while even the smallest was over a hundred kilograms.
Others included giant sea snakes tens of meters long, table-sized giant sea frogs, octopuses with tentacles over ten meters long, and crabs as tall as a person. Essentially, everything that existed or did not exist on Earth was here, magnified. Although their numbers were small, just a few of them, judging from their size, it was clear they were not easy to deal with.
I paid special attention to the giant sea frog. Although it wasn't very large, the dense energy aura emanating from it made me understand that it was my target this time. Also, the golden thread revealed each time it leaped caught my attention.
This was a very special monster. Its uniqueness lay in its potential for growth. Most monsters, even sacred beasts, were destined by their grade from birth. For instance, a newly born lower-level sacred beast might have inadequate strength, but its grade still defined it as a sacred beast. Even if its strength was equivalent to level seven or lower, no nine-level monster would dare provoke it lightly. Its magic core would also be of sacred beast grade.
But this frog was different. It started as only level three at birth, and as it continuously devoured other monsters' magic cores, its own core would grow. Moreover, depending on the attributes of the cores it consumed, its own attributes would change. There was a high chance it could become a multi-attribute monster, meaning it could generate additional attributes' magic cores.
The difference in levels was reflected in the color of its abdomen's lines.
The one before me had golden lines on its belly, indicating it had evolved through white, red, orange, green, blue, silver, and finally gold. It should have now reached the level of a sacred beast.
The reason I knew so much about it was because I had seen a magic core of this type of monster in Chief Carle's treasure trove. It was only a level nine magic core of a silver-lined sea frog, but even that was considered one of Chief Carle's proud collectibles because evolving to this extent from a starting point as a level three sea frog was extremely rare. To think I was fortunate enough to see a golden-lined sea frog here made me grateful to some potentially existing deity.
I originally thought there would be a siege defense battle, but unexpectedly, as the city gates opened, groups of mercenaries rushed out of the gates, taking positions on the left side of the gate. Soon after, under the leadership of the swordsman captain, the city's swordsmen also left the gate, aligning themselves on the right side of the gate.
Above the city wall, magicians and archers were already prepared, supported by the remaining swordsmen.
When the foremost monsters were about to reach the foot of the city wall, the old duke had already rushed over with the experts by his side. Although he didn't have my formidable spiritual awareness to see through the monsters' strength from afar, he could easily discern where their main attack would be from their numbers.
The monsters weren't rushing to attack immediately but were lined up in a single line less than a kilometer from the city wall, seemingly waiting for the monsters behind to catch up. Watching the old duke on the city wall and the lord frown in front of the city wall, and many mercenaries and soldiers beginning to pale, it was clear they hadn't encountered such a situation during previous monster attacks.
To me, however, this was not surprising at all. After all, on Dragon Island, I had met several sacred beasts that had complete control over the monsters in their territories. Not to mention simple formation, even conducting military drills was not an impossible task for sacred beasts, as their intelligence was not much inferior to humans.
After two sharp and ear-piercing "ribbits," the monsters began rushing madly toward the city wall, while the golden-lined giant frog and several high-level monsters near it remained behind.
Watching the monsters surge like a tide, I couldn't help but start boiling with excitement. Accustomed to using firearms and ammunition, I had rarely seen such a scene. Seeing those around me eagerly preparing, my fighting spirit also began to rise.
Soon, the monsters engaged the people below the city. Most mercenaries operated in small teams, many of which had various professions. Even if there were magicians or archers, they didn't stay on the city wall but chose to stay with their teammates. They cooperated seamlessly, with swordsmen or knights often directly confronting monster attacks, while magicians and archers behind them inflicted serious injuries on monsters. Thieves were responsible for diverting monster attention, and priests were responsible for assisting with enchantments or using healing magic to treat injuries.
It was then that I realized Roger's swordsmanship was not as poor as I had originally imagined. In such a mercenary squad, the role of a swordsman was to directly confront monster attacks, making frontal combat the only choice. It seemed I had misunderstood.
Now attacking monsters were only mid to low-tier monsters. With careful handling, they couldn't inflict much harm on mercenaries and soldiers. Moreover, the mercenaries included many experts, and with the support of magicians and archers on the city wall, after nearly four hours of battle, the monsters began to slowly falter.
Although the appearance of several level six monsters caused casualties among some mercenaries and soldiers, they too quickly fell under the feet of the experts.
The formidable strength of the mercenaries surprised even me. Just among the grandmasters alone, I discovered five. There were also three magicians at the wizard level.
Among them, there were two grandmasters and two magicians just in the Brave Mercenary Corps alone. Although I still didn't understand the situation on the mainland very well, just considering that Lord William, like other lords, only had two grandmasters by his side, such strength was already considered astonishing. Furthermore, their captain, Chevied the Sword Saint, was not even present.
The other three grandmasters belonged to three different mercenary groups. What surprised me was that among them was a girl. Although she wore heavy armor and a helmet on her head, making it impossible for me to see her appearance clearly, just the autumn water in her eyes could already evoke infinite imagination. The other grandmasters were middle-aged men, but she couldn't be more than 25 years old. She was a knight, and her mount turned out to be a young earth-walking dragon.
Although earth-walking dragons are not recognized by the dragon race, they still possess some dragon bloodline. When fully grown, an earth-walking dragon can reach over three meters in height, covered all over with thick scales, and is a formidable eighth-level advanced magical beast. Although unable to fly or use magic, its inherited dragon breath gives it powerful long-range attack capabilities. Its strong physical resistance allows it to fearlessly face any ninth-level magical beast in close combat, making it the ideal mount coveted by knights.
Even though her dragon was still young, it already possessed strength not inferior to a seventh-level advanced magical beast. Coupled with her own skills as a grandmaster, even facing a swordsman of Sword Saint level, she had the strength to compete.