The first light of dawn found the City of Beginning alive with hope—our first taste of victory, the knowledge that our training and walls had held against the tide. But hope is a fragile thing, and dusk came with new terrors. I felt it in the air: a heaviness, a trembling in the spirit energy that threaded through earth, stone, and sky. The beasts had learned. Tonight, they would strike harder, and they would not come alone.
I toured the ramparts as sunset bled over the land, checking in with every captain and hall leader. Spirits were high but tense. The air smelled of oil and stone dust. Children who had fought as messengers by day now worked beside mothers and elders, preparing food and water for the coming siege. Academy students—flushed with pride, still trembling from the day's battles—looked to the wall, their eyes steely with new purpose.
Everywhere, teams double-checked defenses:
Builders and earth evolvers reinforced weak spots, raising new barricades.
Fire evolvers readied pitch and oil cauldrons, their flames hovering in disciplined hands.
Water users stationed at key towers, ready to heal, cool, or flood choke points.
Air users stood by the great horns and signal flags, prepared to carry orders and confuse flying attackers.
I found myself beside Lian, the commander, as she surveyed the north wall. "Tonight will be harder," she murmured. "They saw our strength today. Now they'll look for our weakness."
I nodded, scanning the forest. "Let them come. Tonight, humanity shows them what we're made of."
Night fell like a black curtain, and for a moment, silence. Then—howls. The earth shook. Shadows poured from the trees—wave after wave of beasts, more coordinated, more ferocious. Among them, I sensed several Second Realm signatures. And above them all, a hungry intelligence.
The first shock came from below.
Burrowing beasts tunneled beneath the wall, emerging in sudden eruptions.
Earth evolvers responded at once, raising stone and sealing breaches, crushing tunnels with seismic blows.
Then the sky darkened as flocks of spirit birds descended—sharp-beaked, claws glinting in torchlight. But we were ready.
"Archers! Elementalists—now!"
Along the parapets, huge ballistae—massive arrow shooters designed by the Academy—were cranked and fired. With a thunder of twanging sinew and creaking wood, iron-tipped bolts streaked into the sky.
Dozens of spirit birds fell, their cries muffled by the cheers of defenders.
Fire users hurled lances of flame, air users created vortexes to scatter enemy formations.
Water users cooled hot arrowheads, keeping them from burning the woodwork.
On the southern wall, a squad of first-year students spotted a massive centipede climbing the stone. Working together, they poured buckets of oil, then ignited it—sending the beast tumbling in flames to the ground below.
All along the walls, our traps went to work:
Falling nets captured leaping wolves, which earth evolvers then buried in pits.
Collapsing bridges over ditches sent whole packs plunging to their doom.
Rotating blade traps, powered by elemental spirit energy, scythed down clusters of attackers.
From the central tower, I coordinated the city's response. Air users relayed orders, their voices carrying through the tumult. I watched, heart in my throat, as two teams of defenders, one led by an elder merchant and another by a boy barely into his teens, managed to push back a breach at the western gate. The merchant used water to slick the stones, the boy hardened mud into bricks, and together, they sealed the opening before disaster could strike.
Above, the ballistae continued to roar. Each shot was the work of a team—loaders, winders, fire users for ignition, air users for aim. Arrow after arrow streaked through the night, downing flying beasts before they could reach the wall.
The battle was chaos—a tapestry of light, shadow, fear, and courage. I saw Tie Lao herself, hammer in hand, bashing the skull of a spirit boar that had climbed atop a supply cart. I saw a healer throw herself in front of an injured guard, using water to freeze the very blood in a charging wolf's veins. I saw three tailors, out of thread but not out of fight, wield sharpened needles and boiling dye to blind a massive wildcat that breached the southern parapet.
Everywhere, the city's unity held.
I moved where I was needed most—sometimes to reinforce a flagging squad, sometimes to heal the wounded, sometimes to draw attention from a weak point. When a trio of Second Realm bats broke through, swooping low, I combined fire and air, creating a whip of searing wind that sent them spinning into the darkness. When earth-shaking boars threatened the eastern gate, I called on water and earth, turning the approach into a marsh and trapping them in place.
But I held back, as much as I could. This was their fight, their moment to prove that humanity was more than a single hero.
Near midnight, the beasts surged again, this time coordinating a multi-pronged assault. The north gate shuddered as a massive bull rammed it again and again, cracks spiderwebbing through the stone.
"Brace!" I shouted, leaping down.Fire users sent jets of heat at the bull's face, air users amplified the sound of drums to confuse its senses, and water users slicked the ground to rob it of traction.
With a final crash, the bull was brought low, pinned beneath a shower of falling stones as earth evolvers collapsed a section of the wall atop it. Cheers echoed through the city, but I knew we were only just holding.
As the first hint of light crept over the horizon, the beast wave receded, leaving behind a battered wall, exhausted defenders, and fields strewn with the fallen. Healers tended the wounded. Teams repaired breaches and cleared corpses. For a moment, there was a hush—a quiet born of both victory and fear.
We had survived the night. The walls had held. The traps, the ballistae, the teamwork—they had all bought us precious time.
But in my heart, I felt the truth: the real challenge was yet to come. Somewhere in the forest, stronger foes were gathering. I could sense them—Third Realm auras, dark and immense, circling in the shadows.
And as the sun rose, painting the City of Beginning gold, I readied myself and my people for the true storm to come.