A heavy black cloud filled the sky northwards, the screeching and Squawking of endless Squallors echoed up above.
Ray held steady with his Greatshield leaning across the back of his black-leather chestplate as he raised his two-meter-long spear and thrust it into a nearby Squallor.
*Screee-*
The beast's dying howl was barely audible in comparison to the never ending wave.
[You killed a common beast: Squallor]
'Still no experience that's the seventh I've taken out now' he thought whilst fighting off another creature.
As Squallor's are horde monsters their individual strength is limited at best with speed being their only benefit, their claws can't even penetrate the leather armor of a common foot soldier and have minimal impact with frames the size of a house-cat.
Against the 50 or so knights and 300 foot-soldiers fighting them off and 20+ archers shooting down stragglers the creatures could barely even make it up onto the wall, let alone try to threaten the townsmen.
"BROTHERS AND SISTERS! WE'VE AL-" even whilst shouting the commander could barely be heard. "TARGET THE SWARM MO-" although Ray didn't catch the whole command, he knew what they were told to do. as did everyone else. flying in circles around 200 meters away from the wall was a magnificent creature.
'Observe.'
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Name: Squallor swarm queen (griffin-ling)
Strength: 19
Vitality: 17
Agility: ???
Mind: ???
skills:
Commanding howl: You are a commander-type beast and the skies are your battlefield, command your brethren and rain hell from above +2 mind
Evolved being: you've stepped into a level beyond your race's constraints. +5 all stats
Higher intelligence: your mind has breached into the realm of the extraordinary +5 mind
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When Ray first laid eyes on it, he was mesmerised. Whilst regular Squallor's look like dirty cats with feathered skin and wings, The Squallor swarm queen was another level. Her feathers glistened in the sunlight, reflecting a cyan-green light that wrapped her like the wind itself.
Its body was well proportioned, more akin to a cheetah in stature with two pairs of meter long wings that jutted from its back like a beastly angel. She had no fur but the entire body was feathered not just the head and wings...
Ray was certain that anyone would want such a magnificent creature as a pet or mount or guardian beast if given the opportunity. Afterall it truly was to beautiful in its grace.
"ARCHERS, INCENDIARY ARROWS. HOLD! FIRE ON THREE!" Elana, was commanding the archer unit on this battlefield. and being much closer to her Ray could hear every word she said and every order she gave with absolute clarity.
"3, 2, 1! FIRE!!" a holy rain of red covered the sky behind Ray's back as dozens of greatarrow's and regular arrows flew out from behind him.
*Awoooool~* The Swarm queen emitted a sound reminiscent of strong wind in a deep cavern. echoing past the soldiers ears as the Squallor's stiffened up momentarily.
But they didn't stay stiffened like that for long, Like a swarm of ant's defending their queen they all turned tail and began to surround the Swarm queen. Using bodies to block the arrows whilst the Queen herself flew raggedly trying to dodge the sky blotting arrow volley.
Each arrow would take the life of a Squallor, whilst the great arrows could penetrate 2 before losing momentum. The mind-numbing army of Squallor's was quickly reduced to but a mere few stragglers that flew off chasing the fleeing queen.
"WE DID IT BROTHERS AND SISTERS!!" Ray didn't know who shouted that first, but the commander soon echoed it. and everyone started cheering and celebrating.
Elana walked up besides Ray, "Congrats. Your first fight went without casualties, how did it feel?" her eyes looked across the cheering soldiers, lingering gently on a few of them. 'Its always great to see my friends again after such a fight' she thought to herself.
"It-" Ray stopped to gather his thoughts, the crowd buzz was getting to him a bit. "It was great, we did it!"
The joy began to permeate the atmosphere, as the squadron of Exhausted combatants sat down to gather their breath and stamina after the tough fight.
Ray sat down besides Elana and a few other archers listening to them talk.
"Elana do you know what that beast was?" one of the other female knights asked.
Elana looked at her, 'who is this girl again?' she thought. not even a competent commander could remember all the soldiers under her command when they number into the thousands.
"We actually don't know much about it. We suspect its an elder or evolved version of a Squallor, but the difference is too drastic. It could be any one of a dozen aerial beast variants."
Ray blinked. 'They don't know?'
'Then how does my system know what it is?'
'The system always uses the same names the people here do, right? So shouldn't it have shown up as '???' or 'Unnamed'?'
'That being said… how does the system know how to describe anything? His thoughts Spun as he stared into the empty sky. Military training makes sense as those terms exist in the real world. But monsters have skills too. Does the system… guess?'
Ray managed to rest for a few minutes. Barely recouping some lost stamina before a horn blared from the eastern walls.
'Two horns, from the east. that means either a mid-level monster or another large swarm. Remember ray what's at the east again'.
Half the squadron rushed over to the eastern walls and just as they got there a third horn blared even louder than the previous ones.
All the colour drained from the surrounding soldiers faces. everyone knew what that meant. a high-level beast had appeared.
…
Ray looked out from the wall and saw a vast expanse of golden sand in the distance, the verdant fields it connected to. But... "Where's the monster?" a loud, outspoken soldier besides him shouted.
As the soldier spoke the verdant field shifted, patches of grass and dirt started flying everywhere. "Watch the floor" the guard responsible for the watchtower shouted. "Its a Dune-fish."
The grass field exploded outwards, as if a land-mine went off as a massive scaly creature Burst out from the dirt beneath.
Its raspy-guttural hiss filled the air as the figure dived through the sky. Drawing a figure eight before drilling back underground heading for the walls.
"Observe," ray muttered with a grim look on his face seeing the thick scaly eel-like creature traversing Dirt as if its water.
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Name: Grand Dune-Fish
Strength: ???
Vitality: ???
Agility: ???
Mind: 8
skills:
Earth-blessed(swim-form): Your race was granted the blessing of earth elements. allowing you to manoeuvre through them with ease +20 Vit +20 Str (+15 Agi when within earth elements)
... (other skills hidden, unlock more stats to see more)
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The giant beast swam through the ground at a pace comparable to a truck. And the mass to outclass one.
Once the entire Dune-fish was back underground and Ray fully digested its stats he realized to his horror that this Grand Dune-fish was nearly 30 meters long, a length nearly identical to the height of the town walls.
The earth rumbled more and more as the beast came closer and closer to Ray, to the wall. To Ray's home.
The Wall started rumbling, cracks spreading sporadically up the base as the creature emerged yet again. But this time, right besides the wall.
"ARCHERS, FIRE AT THE BEAST" Elana shouted with urgency.
Very quickly a rain of arrows fell upon the dizzy Dune-Fish. as the close range fighters scaled down the outside of the wall.
Ray now understood why the knights fought the Zerran outside the wall before. 'High-level monsters can break the wall with their strength' he gulped.
200 soldiers and 50 knights quickly coalesced around the writhing beast. "SHIELDWALL, SECOND LINE SOLDERS SPEARS UP! CHARGE!!" Ray looked back to find Tactician, no Commander Alex Eartine joining the shield wall.
Ray snapped his magnetic Greatshield to the wall as well. 200+ soldiers with more arriving began to setup a encirclement on the great beast.
The Dune-fish finally shook of its daze, looked at the wall in dense anger as if the wall was its worst enemy when if felt pin-pricks raining down from above, The beast then looked around at the army of ants surrounding it.
*HISSSSSS*
An even louder painful screech emanated from the beast, as it howled in anger. "DON'T FALTER SOLDIERS, CONTAIN IT" Alex's voice brought Ray and the other soldiers great comfort in this time as the encirclement completed.
It thrashed, swinging both its head and tail at two different parts of the encirclement. Its tail smashing straight towards Rays location.
A weight akin to a meteor hit square on Ray's shield, he staggered back but the magnetic bulwark kept him steady. Most of the attacks force diffused into the floor and his allies.
Rey held steady the entire time, his palms blistered and cut, his legs quivering in pain. His allies besides him were in just as a bad a condition as they whittled the monster down slowly.
The Grand Dune-Fish's scales were dented, arrows lodged into every gap they could find, the great arrows packed an even greater punch than usual with the help of gravity.
Ray couldn't look around much but he heard the constant arrival of reinforcements as they set up layered walls of human meat to protect the wall, and their allies.
Abruptly soldier ran up to Ray from behind "here to take your place soldier, good job." Ray backed up and looked at the carnage, each scale was the size of a fist and hundreds were scattered around the creature.
He took in the sight of broken limb's and discarded crumpled metal scattered all around the encirclement.
"I wonder how many people will be lost in this fight" he mumbled under his breath.