SockySake

  "Two wraiths incoming from the Healing Center! It's going to be starting!" One of Higgin's scouts announced.

  "Ah, we best get up to the wall. Thank you for your time, mister..."

  "Onrob, but everyone just calls me Robby in these parts."

  "Thanks, Robby."

  "Oi, wait a second before ye go." The dwarven man scurried over toward one of the barrels filled with swords and started to rummage around.

  "Hoho~ I remember smithing this beaut~ Hmm, I sold this thing some time ago, guess those bastards didn't know how to sell its true charm." He pulled up a sword and quickly unsheathed it. The bde was uncommon to say the least; it had a split down the middle, just wide enough for another sword to slip in between.

  It was much closer to two straight sabers fixed on a handle than one whole bde, but upon closer inspection, Damian couldn't see any hammer welding near the handle. When he was taking a closer look, he could see tiny runes throughout the bde, just slightly off color from the rest of the metal.

  "Why the unique shape?"

  "It's fer shooting off fire spells, d~ You point the end at the enemy and channel yer mana. A big ol ball of fire will shoot down the center. It may be structurally weaker when cshing bdes, but it'll be much stronger than that poor excuse of a bde you're using."

  Damian looked down at his trusty sword for the st couple of months.

  'sigh'

  "Thank you, I'll use it well."

  "Don't believe that there's a big enough sword for the tall ss." Robby was practically falling into the barrel with weapons. He shuffled some around and threw others out onto the dirt.

  "Oi! That was my apprentice's work you just tossed into the mud!"

  "Then your apprentice was a failure! Didn't you toss him out?"

  "Ah!" The other dwarf quickly shut up. Guess people hold a little bit of pride in works that they were even tangentially connected with.

  Robby quickly righted himself and held six knives and passed them around, keeping one for himself. "Nothing special, just a reliable backup. I'd pick staves for the magical folk, but I wouldn't know much difference between sticks of wood."

  "Hey!" Another dwarf yelled while rummaging through a barrel of staves. "You can't appreciate true craftsmanship! We, woodworkers, can't simply melt down a failed piece of work. We've got to be perfect the first time, every time!"

  "You can still whittle them down for chopsticks or use them fer kindling wood!"

  "!!!" The rivalry between craftsmen didn't simmer down even during an emergency. At least an emergency that wasn't breathing in their faces, just charging at them from a slight distance.

  The other dwarf popped back up with four wooden staves and shoved three of them at Fergus.

  "All the spell empowering ones were already taken; these two will let you control your spells more accurately from further away. This one here will produce an earth bolt spell."

  As Damian was fiddling with his sword holster with one hand, Frey appeared to help him. "You won't be abandoning me for that sword now, are you?" She teased.

  "If she's as good in bed, I very well might."

  "Pft! Do you want me to shove the handle of your rear?"

  That was dumb of me... Can't win against her.

  "Haa, better get up the wall, I can already hear them slinging spells."

  As the group made their way to the top of the stairs, they could see a couple of wraiths charging toward the wall from the healing center. One was in the form of a wolf, but this one emitted fire from its body. As it opened its maw, you could see a growing ball of fire filling its mouth.

  Before the creature could bellow it out, an archer's arrow accurately pierced the wolf, fire and all. The ball of fme combusted in its mouth, but didn't do any harm to it. Any construct created entirely from mana could never harm the user. If it did, you'd end up having a lot more injuries growing up.

  The wolf had shrunk slightly, but hadn't fizzled out. It chose a slower approach, zigzagging from side to side rather than charging straight for the wall. But this tactic didn't do much to stop expert archers, likely equipped with skills that aided aim or added homing functions.

  Still don't like archers... at least those that refuse to use anything other than a bow—damn bow purists.

  *Poke*

  Damian jolted upright. "Is now really the time?"

  "Is now the time to be lost in thought? Besides, we don't have to act yet; the wraiths are only starting to trickle out. This'll be our st moment to rest."

  'sigh'

  Damian looked to the rest of his team. Donna had just sent out a water bolt toward the dodging hellhound. It lept out of the way, but at the st moment, her bolt of water veered off to the side, smashing into the wraith's head. It didn't quite kill it, but it had significantly shrunk this time.

  Elemental advantages are going to be important here... not that they always worked out.

  If you came across a dungeon monster that was on fire, you'd likely think that water spells would be its weakness, and in most cases, you'd be correct. But there are always outliers. Your water spell may sizzle against the fire, but other than the impact of being hit by the bolt of water, the fire's sizzling wouldn't actually cause the beast harm.

  The same could be said for wraiths, although the outliers were more common given their strange skills. It's basically like rolling the die to see if they have a weakness or none at all.

  Donna swiftly followed up with another bolt of water. The wraith, feeling more cautious from the attack, started to run perpendicur to the wall.

  But it found no escape from Donna's wrath. The bolt continued to curve, following the running hellhound. It collided into the wraith's ribs, creating a hole clean through, causing it to completely fizzled out of existence.

  Satisfied with her kill, Donna looked back at everyone with a smile of contentment. The smile was too bright, and Damian nearly tumbled back off the wall from its blinding radiance.

  By the time he righted himself, Donna was already back to firing out bolts of water at the approaching wraiths with a determined look on her face.

  Looking toward Fergus, he was staring at Damian, no, past him. Following his line of sight, he could see that Ms. Sanderson was speaking into her communicator with Officer Higgins standing nearby.

  Would Fergus be able to read her lips, or would she put up an illusion even to the people fighting on the wall?

  "She got put on hold again..."

  "!"

  "What do you mean?"

  "Ever since you told us about the situation, I've been watching Ms. Sanderson. She's discussed her problems with Officer Higgins. She couldn't reach Dalen's communicator, and ever since then, she's been trying to contact the royal castle. Things seem hectic there, and no one's picking up."

  'sigh'

  "If they can't get their shit together, then I guess they get whatever's coming to them. Although the public will suffer for it..."

  Frey elbowed his side, trying to get him to break his habit of saying insolent things in public.

  "Oh! She got connected again. Let's see. She is speaking with...! The First Prince! And she's informing him of everything that we discovered."

  *Thud* *Thud* *Thud* *Thud* *Thud* *Thud*

  Betty screamed into her communicator, "Get Out Of There!"

  Chills went down Damian's back as he looked down from the wall and toward the area behind them. Over near the road, four bodies were convulsing up and down, looking as if they were trying to break free of their chains.

  The adventurers and guards standing by had looks of absolute dread. Their faces were scrunching up, exerting a lot of pressure in their cores as they raised their weapons above the dead. Damian could see their hands trembling and their knuckles turning white from the tightened grip.

  All of the idle adventurers on the wall took a moment to see the commotion from behind. It was awfully silent except for the occasional thwump of an arrow or the crash of a spell nding.

  Then, they all heard it. "RAAAAUUUHH!!!" A high-pitched screech radiated from the tied-up undead. Ghastly bck smoke was pouring from their eyes, ears, and mouths, shooting up in a column.

  *SPLAT* *SMASH* *SLICE* *SQUISH*

  Blunt and sharp weapons came crashing down onto the undead heads. Not a moment ter, those same weapons rose high into the air and came crashing down again and again.

  The heads of the foreign nationals had been decimated into smithereens. One of the executioners had even dropped their weapon and started to vomit into the grass.

  I wouldn't want to be so close to a tier 6 undead...

  Seeing that the rites, although quite a bit messy, had been completed without error, the adventurers started to face back toward the healing center.

  Damian didn't follow suit, but instead was looking at a panicked Betty. She was pacing back and forth, holding the communicator to her ear, not saying a word as she tried to listen to what was happening on the other end.

  Lieutenant Higgins was waving her arms toward her in some kind of attempt to calm her... and then it happened... again.

  Damian's face bnched at the scene he was witnessing, an explosion for the umpteenth time that day, but this one was different, much, much different. That reason y in its location and size. A colossal bck fireball that devoured all light could be seen at the royal castle, shooting into the sky.

  The castle walls were engulfed in the bck fme, burning away the long-standing stone. And in the midst of the bck fme, a faint figure could be seen moving just beyond sight. It had to be massive if it reached over the castle walls.

  Then all of a sudden, the distant sight that y before him winked out of existence, repced with the image of an untouched castle.

  Damian realized that he had heard and felt nothing from the massive explosion. He looked to his side, and Fergus was there staring wide-eyed toward the castle. Frey, Alex, and Donna were already focused on the battle in front of them, firing off spells and throwing javelins.

  They were utterly oblivious to the devastation he and Fergus had just witnessed.

  So did Ms. Sanderson cover the sound and shockwave bst so that the adventurers wouldn't panic? Or could she have summoned that horrific scene for those whose gaze lingered? Of course, it was the former; she had no reason to make a show in this disaster, thinking otherwise was just wishful thinking.

  Fortunately, the bck fme seemed to devour light; otherwise, all the adventurers would have turned back after seeing something shining from behind.

  'sigh'

  I just don't know anymore...

  It seemed that Damian's internal thoughts had summoned another disaster upon the makeshift army. As soon as he finished that thought, he bore witness to another explosion, this time, much closer.

  SockySake