Chapter 59: Horde
The horde looked and felt endless. There should have been a point where the arriving ranks thinned out the visible numbers behind them, but there wasn’t. Not yet.
Norm, Liam and the others moved closer, choosing to stay near Rohan and Elane now that all pretences of casual association had vanished.
Norm’s expression looked like it was carved from stone.
"If they fire, hit the ground immediately!" Somebody said.
"Don’t try to be clever. There’s no rational way to survive a fleet of spikes raining down on us if we don’t work together."
Everyone nodded in silence. Even Rohan, despite knowing he was the only one there who could guarantee he’d survive such an onslaught.
The spikes would just bounce off of his skin, after all. But there was a limit to how much he could take. One onslaught of spikes was tankable, but if they kept on coming, his Origin Energy would drain fast, to a point where he wouldn’t be able to sustain his Firestone Skin anymore.
That was what made the next few minutes so tense. Knowing that at any moment a rain of spikes could come flying down on them was terrifying — even worse that this was the real universe as well, not the Origin Realm.
The pain was the same, but death had a whole different meaning here.
However, something strange caught the attention of those most aware, even after coming well within striking distance, the Spike Beasts still hadn’t fired yet.
Nobody dared to believe it. They must have calculated their attack range wrongly, was what most people thought. Everyone was too tense, too convinced that the moment they finally let their guard down, the first volley would come.
Even as the Spike Beasts crossed into what should have been comfortable firing range, every Awakened present braced for the sky to darken with thousands of projectiles.
But the expected barrage never came.
Not one single Spike was launched by a Spike Beast. Ironically enough, the human side had launched more than the thousand strong army thanks to Elane’s Spike Beast Bow constantly firing.
Yet still, not a single beast in the front ranks raised its body or angled its shoulders in the familiar way Rohan and all the other Awakened came to recognise in their time inside the gate.
"...Why aren’t they firing?"
Nobody answered, they all had that same question on their minds.
They just kept moving forward, silently.
That was something else they’d noticed. Aside from the loud echoes of the constantly marching horde, no other sounds could be discerned.
Not a war cry from the Spike Beasts, crazed shouts etc. Just the sound of marching feet.
People other than Rohan were starting to realise that this huge horde of beasts was being controlled, just like others they’d encountered over the past few days.
...Just not on a scale like this.
Hundreds in front, hundreds more stretching behind — black-grey bodies and jutting spikes formed a tide of death that should have drowned the basin in a storm of projectiles already.
An uneasy silence spread quickly amongst the Awakened. The panic from earlier hadn’t vanished, but now it was being mixed with something worse. Something that acted like a catalyst to enhance their fear.
Confusion.
"What are they doing?"
"This doesn’t make any sense?"
"They’re... definitely in range."
"No shit they are! Dumbass!"
Rohan’s fingers tightened around his spear until his knuckles turned pale, which was an impressive feat now that they were made of hardened stone and chitin. His whole body was taut like a drawn bowstring, every muscle ready for that first impossible rain of spikes to descend.
By now, he could clearly make out the details of the front ranks. Their hunched backs, sharp shoulders, and ugly jaws hanging slightly open as they breathed. Some of them even turned their heads this way and that, looking over the gathered Awakened with an unsettling calm to them. But while those slight head movements did make it seem as if they still had some semblance of self control, it looked way too robot-like and ordered to be the natural instinct of the beasts.
Rohan was certain that whoever controlled the horde was currently watching them through the eyes of the beasts.
"Are they going to attack...?" Elane muttered her thoughts to the side.
"No, I don’t think they will."
Rohan swallowed, hard.
Before he could explain how he came to that conclusion, a change in the hordes movement caught his and everyone else’s eyes.
’Or are they actually!?’
The front of the horde veered off course. It started to spread, curve and adjust itself bit by bit. The outer edges peeled wider while the centre moved straighter, creating a shape that boxed the Awakened in from every angle but one — the lair behind them.
’We’re being herded.’
Rohan clocked his head back in dread.
The beasts, no, whoever was controlling the beasts was forcing the Awakened backwards in a direction it wanted them to go. Back toward the membrane covering the sealed entrance to the lair.
"Shit..." Rohan cursed.
They were playing right into the other side’s hands.
The Awakened around him had already started backing up without meaning to. Even his own legs started to move before his thoughts could compute. One small step first, then another.
The pressure coming from the horde made it impossible not to yield ground to them — no one wanted to be the poor bastard standing too far out in front and be made an example of.
The whole crowd compressed together. Shields bumped into shoulders, weapons and peoples stances were disturbed. People cursed and shoved each other for space without really meaning to.
There was even a case of someone’s sword accidentally piercing a woman’s shoulder.
It was chaos.
The membrane loomed closer and closer at their backs until those at the rear actually felt their bodies compress against it.
’If we keep going like this, we’ll end up crushing each other to death before the Spike Beasts have to do anything!’