If Elfrieda had crossed into Zabruza and were on the verge of attacking Crochetown, then there was little anyone could do even while being on full alert. Reinforcements weren't due to arrive till the evening of the next day and even then things were probably going to be dire.
Still, there was one thing that was a remote possibility that could have saved both Crochetown and the rest of the country: a stalemate. That being said, it was going to be exceptionally hard to actually pull it off.
"Sir, there are some disturbances on the west cove," one of the soldiers said.
Lenora and the rest stood on the wall, eyeing the horizon. There was something about that horizon that caught their eyes. No, it wasn't anything apparent. But rather the opposite. As in, nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing at all.
Too plain.
"So, you're an elven mage, yes?" Monsor said, eying Drifus.
"Yes, my lord."
"Why don't you demonstrate some of that flare magic you guys are so famous for."
"I- uh… I can't use fire magic, sir."
"Shame. What can you use then? My men tell me you've been a pain to deal with earlier. And if you hadn't surrendered, they'd be dead."
"They overestimate me," he said. "I can use ice magic to some extent."
"Excellent. Why don't you fire, or launch a spear of ice, let's see… near that tree. Just bearing a little left." Although young, Monsur spoke like a veteran, or even an old man sometimes. "It's fine if you can't reach them."
"Okay," Drifus said. He closed his eyes, drew in a breath and paused. A few seconds later his eyes and fingers glowed with a chilling blue smog. "FRAN GLAS!"
Blue particles danced in the air as though competing for vibrance; some clashed and formed larger ones, while others just chucked into places and slowly melded into something, something big which just kept on growing and growing and eventually reached the size of an elephant with a sharp pointy head.
A second later it launched and boomed forward. The sonic boom nearly knocked away the soldiers and Lenora but they'd braced themselves just beforehand.
The spear spun violently and crashed into something just next to the tree resulting in an explosion of ice and sheer cold, which could be felt even from a kilometer away at the top of the wall. The swirl of ice and frost danced with the leaves and traces of crimson.
Hundreds of soldiers appeared out of nowhere and went flying with their guts and blood scattered all over the grasslands. Groans, grunts and shudder spread through both the attacking army and the men on top of the wall. Neither of the two warring forces, nay, no one was expecting the massive ice spear or rather rocket. No one except Lenora of course who had her poker face on and smiled intently.
Holy fuck, what the fuck. What in the fucking fuck. On second thought-
"That was amazing," Lenora said. "Brilliant." I didn't know you could do that! Why didn't you just do that the last time! What the hell, man!
"Thank you my- ahem, Lenora."
"Th-th-that was truly something," Monsor managed. He clicked his tongue a few times, trying to make sense of reality. On one hand he'd just confirmed Lenora's words and could see a massive army take shape right before his eyes. But on the other hand, he had a monster, a literal monster on his left. "Men, prepare to fire the cannons!"
"Sir! All cannons are ready to go!"
But the army was still outside of their range. The mage could hit them just fine, but the cannons still couldn't. And the army was no longer attempting to advance.
"But they have mages too, right?" Monsor said. "Surely they should have excellent mages as sir Marx here," he mumbled.
"His name is Drifus," Lenora said. "I lied."
"Of course, you did," the rugged soldier said. He too was here, and he sniffled once.
Is he like… hurt? Sighing aside, "Drifus is an Arc mage. He is quite capable. Most mages wouldn't, even the elven ones, can't create magic to appropriate level, let alone his level."
"Yes, I'm aware and I meant it as a joke," Monsor said. "But I never imagined we will be dealing with the Arc mage of Elfrieda… but what about you? Who're you? Another monster?"
"Rude." She rolled her eyes. "I'm a hero, I'll have you know."
"Hero? So, you're a boy after all?" Monsor asked.
"Are you people trying to piss me off, cause its certainly working. Anyway, what about the army. They're out there, and they outnumber this city's population two to one; do you have any plans?"
"Yes, but we have a wall and they don't have seize weapons," Monsor said, using binoculars. "They probably wanted to use the dead of night to sneak past our watches and crawl into the city and take over. We should be able to delay them for a while."
"No, I think they were going to come close and destroy the wall," Lenora said.
"How?"
"You saw what Drifus did with one spell, yes? Sure, most mages can't use their power at will, but some elves like Drifus can. And they can very well destroy this wall."
"I suppose I underestimated magic," Monsor mumbled.
And that was for good reason. Humans could hardly use magic. The few that could, couldn't properly utilize magic and it was even rarer for humans to be able to actually use spells. The odds increased if one was a mixed born or an elf. But as magic wasn't common among the general people, most people just assumed it to be theatrics and not of substance. Monsor knew that wasn't true in theory but he still subconsciously discredited magic to some extent.
"One of them is waving a white flag and is coming for us…" he mumbled. "It's a messenger."
"We should blow him up to set an example," Drifus said.
"Woah, calm down," Lenora said. "We can settle this," she said.
"My people will not settle without asking for me to be returned. And once you return me in exchange for them to withdraw, they will violate their terms and attack anyway."
"Yeah, I know," Lenora said.
"Then why?"
"You'll see." She winked.