Runeblade

It started with a long, drawn out howl. It was a piercing sound, cutting through some of the steel forged by the officers that dotted the walls.

Kaius drew his blade, feeling the roiling charge of his mana locked inside of Drakthar. He would need it soon.

The wolf’s cry stretched long, hammering at the anticipation within him until Kaius could barely stand it for a second longer. A single, final note echoed unnaturally — bolstered by some sort of Skill.

Silence.

Then a wall of noise hit him like a punch to the gut. Thousands of creatures, of every breed and type, screamed out in unthinking savagery. It was unending, so many voices smashed together that it became a sound without timbre — possessing only in fury.

The tide of beasts surged in.

A teeming cloud took flight.

Rieker’s booming voice cut over the screams, steadying the restless defenders. The guildmaster must have been close — Kaius heard others echoing his call further down the walls.

“Archers, ready!”

Arrows were drawn; the beasts drew closer. As fast as the ground forces were, the aerial beasts were faster. A flowing cloud of smoke, they surged across the sky, straight for Deadacre.

Rotten roots, there were so many. The simple scale of it rocked him. Even with all their power, him and his team would never stand a chance. Kaius rolled his shoulders; he would be fine. So what if he couldn’t fight an entire army by himself, he didn’t have to.

In the final approach the black cloud surged up, gaining altitude. Mana roiled within the teeming masses as thousands of skills were prepared at once.

They dived.

Kaius felt his stomach clench. Fuck, he really didn’t want to leave the fliers for the others.

“Archers, loose!”

A sea of projectiles surged into the sky, like an upwards rain. Backed by Skills, they burned — fire, roiling wind, hazy poison, and more. There were so many affinities backing the shots that Kaius could barely distinguish them. Spells were scattered through them — wind, light, earth, and steel. Each was visible only as spots of potency amongst the volley.

Uncaring, the beasts dived into the storm. They were densely packed — too dense for most to properly dodge. Arrows punched through breasts, wings broke; blood and bodies fell in a deluge.

Beasts, some as large as a man, crumpled as they hit the ground. Feathered and carapaced alike fell to the dead lands outside of the city. Dragon’s teeth were stained red with blood as skewered beasts squealed in pain.

Yet not all fell beyond the walls — wounded beasts rained onto the city. Kaius cursed. Even grievously injured, the beasts could heal. He hoped the roving teams of guards and delvers in the city were ready to put them down before they could harass their ranks from within.

The gods were not so gracious as to give him enough time to consider it further. A body slammed into the ground in front of him — a bird nearly as large as he was. Tumbling across the stone, he heard a wet snap as a wing folded the wrong direction. The beast let out a pained squawk, writhing as it tried to right itself.

Kaius refused to give it time.

Lunging forward, he fed stamina into his blade. The runes set within its crystal fuller burned as red light surged across its surface. Hellblade Investiture.

He thrust.

Its skull crunched beneath his sword point, and the beast stiffened.

Cloudracer Swallow - Level 134

Beast, Harrasser

Deactivating his skill, Kaius drew back, snapping his head up and down the wall to see if any of the weaker guards needed assistance.

He saw only men with hungry scowls crowding around fallen beasts, thrusting their spears again and again. With each death, their auras of strength surged.

Simply feeling someone's strength was an imprecise art. The difference between the first and second tier was easy — even a child who had barely awakened their system could notice that.

Within a single tier, the differences were more subtle. Even for Kaius, with sharp senses and high stats, it was only a vague sense. Yet when dozens of men were leveling up right in front of his nose, it was hard to miss.

Beasts rained from the sky, some crippled, some simply injured from the endless torrent of arrows that punched through breasts and wings.

A squawking thing of black and brown as big as a hound smashed into the midst of a squad just to his left, arrows peppering its wings. It barely had time to thrash, one soldier screaming out as its claws raked his leg.

Spears descended, burning with the light of enhancement Skills; Kaius focused his Truesight on one of the guards.

Human - Level 80

Bruiser

The beast stilled, a pool of red spreading from a dozen piercing wounds to its vitals. Kaius identified the man again.

Human - lvl 81

Bruiser

Kaius grinned at the sight of it — only to swing at a shape that blurred past him, about to clear the wall. A bat, struggling to right itself with holes burnt through its wing. Severing one, he ignored its piercing shriek as it fell into the city below. A clean up team would get it soon.

The growing levels of the defenders were vital. The sole benefit of the invading beasts being so much stronger was that it would grow their own forces commensurately. Even split between many, the experience would be enough.

Far above, the flock of beasts surged. They pulled away from the city, out of range of the archers. Kaius eyed the force with a frown. A brief respite, nothing more.

The men around him looked dazed, eyes wide in shock. They must have just noticed their gains. Such rapid growth would have been totally foreign to them — hells, he doubted many of them were used to unlocking another skill in the middle of battle.

The flock would return in moments; if they got distracted by their status sheets, it could get them killed. It would be the same if they picked a new skill. The unknown limits and low levels of the fresh abilities would be lethal if they tried to test them out on the wallt.

“Focus!” Kaius roared, his voice carrying across the line. “Spend your free points only if you have a set allocation you can follow without thought, and save any skills you might have gained! Save them for when you are rotated off the walls, relying on fresh abilities will only see you gutted!”

At his words, half a dozen of the nearby guards snapped out of it, blinking rapidly as they looked from him to the milling beasts overhead. Including one of the officers. The man gave him a nod, before he set off down the wall at a sprint, relaying his words again and again.

The cloud hanging in the eastern sky heaved and contracted, while below the distant beasts continued their rumbling charge. Kaius could feel it now, the reverberation from their footfalls resonating up through the stone fortifications.

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It wouldn’t be long now.

Deep within the flock, Kaius watched beasts shift position to the forefront as the cloud stretched into a loose approximation of the head of a bodkin arrow. One pointed right at the heart of the city.

They flew as one, an unnatural formation.

“Archers, loose!” Rieker's enhanced voice carried over the city once more.

A single twang erupted, and beasts fell in waves.

Kaius shifted his grip on his blade, the surging heat of the bloodsong in his veins making him impatient.

Overhead, splinters erupted from the flock as groups of beasts broke ranks and swooped across the lines of the defenders. There were dozens of them — most targeting the siege towers that were peppering them so severely with spells and arrows.

But not all. One swirled overhead, as if searching for a target. Barely a second later, the smaller flock scattered, revealing an owl.

It dived. Straight for him.

Rotten roots, it was huge! Dusty grey and speckled brown, it had to be as large as a horse, with a skill already burning on its outstretched claws. Six feathers rose from the top of its head, curling into a crown.

He had mere moments before it arrived.

Kaius grinned, raising his blade into an aggressive high guard as he took his stance. Finally he had something worthwhile to do!

For there was no mistaking the aura of the creature. It was Silver.

Ianmus’s voice suddenly sounded in his ear. The mage was flustered, and rushing through his words.

“Shit! It’s been hiding stronger beasts! One’s coming straight for you! There’s others — we wont be able to help.”

“I know!” Kaius replied, identifying the beast.

Duskcrowned Owl - Level 264

Beast, Stalker

He didn’t need help.

“Of course you get to have fun first.” Porkchop grumbled in his mind as he sensed Kaius’s flare of bloodlust.

Kaius just smiled and watched the beast approach, a shrill scream on its lips. Stamina coursed within him as he prepared to use Hellblade Investiture. Its stamina drain was prodigious, he saw no point in activating it longer than he had to.

Around him, his fellow men of the line noticed the approaching threat. Screams of alarm resounded as dozens of arrows shot toward the owl.

A single flap of its wings sent it into a tight spiral. The arrows went wide.

“Focus on the weaker beasts, leave this one to me!” Kaius yelled.

The men shot him nervous looks, but listened all the same. The closest squads shuffled further away, giving him as much room as they could.

Spiralling down, the dustcrowned owl snapped its wings out at the last possible moment. Mana surged, and a choking haze erupted. It blanketed the wall leaving the defenders spluttering and yelling in fear as the beast was obscured utterly.

Convinced of its hidden form, the owl surged towards him, a skill accelerating it. Kaius only grinned.

He could see just fine. A little dust wouldn’t stop Truesight.

Stamina flooded into his blade. The runes on his sword ignited with a demon's fury, spouting a red that coated the blade utterly. Far too sharp to be fire, it was the purest eruption of the latent energy that had grown within his sword. The desire of A Father’s Gift’s to reave the very life from his enemies.

A burning halo of red hung in the dust. Mana-packed claws plunged for his chest. He slashed down, aiming for a wing.

The dustcrowned owl reacted instantly — an explosion of powder rocketing it to the right. The burst took it away from his swing, but it didn’t abandon its attack. Kaius knew with a certainty it would rake his thigh.

A worthy sacrifice.

Kaius narrowed his eyes, levering against his pommel and twisting through his hips to rotate into a horizontal cleave.

The tip of his blade ripped through the owl's ankle, right as its other claws plunged into the meat of his left leg. His scalemail blunted the strike — preventing his quad from being ripped out. Metal still tore, and Kaius felt three bloody furrows cut a halfway into his leg.

Blood poured down his trousers.

In return, he took an entire limb. Severed by his blow, one claw sailed into the streets behind him as the duskcrowned owl screamed. It flared its wings, banking high.

As it left, the dust blanketing the wall faded, blown away in the cold night breeze.

“Sir!” one of the guards nearest to him yelled, looking at the deep cuts to the muscle of his leg in horror.

Kaius merely shifted in his stance, tracking the owl through the night as it swirled around. “I’m fine! Just focus on staying out of the way!”

With Greater Regeneration supporting his physiology, the wound wouldn’t even slow him. Besides, he could already feel his flesh boiling. It would seal before their next clash.

He intended to make it the last.

Screeching in fury, the owl summoned waves of dust to batter away arrow after arrow. The men on the wall were doing their best, but it was pointless. Even backed by skills, it was more than twice the average level of the men on the wall. The best they managed were momentary bright flashes as it crushed their attacks with its shadowy cloak.

Kaius watched it approach, judging how best to bring it down. He didn’t exactly have much room to maneuver up on the wall, even separated from the closest guards by ten longstrides. Nor could he waste his spells, not so early in the night.

It would be ready for him now, and wary of his blade.

A Nail would be worth it, but judging by the way its cloak of dust surged towards arrows like a prehensile limb, there was a good chance it would put up enough resistance that the beast would have time to dodge.

He narrowed his eyes — would simple bait be enough? It was a beast, but they were still capable of vicious cunning, and who knew what effect the Tyrant had on its instincts.

Still, in the current circumstances, luring it in with an ‘open’ guard was his best bet.

Kaius shifted his stance, holding his blade behind him at a downwards angle, his front utterly open — a tail guard. At his blatant provocation, the owl screeched again.

Its giant wings beat, surging with the potency of a skill as it swooped out over the city. In deadly silence, it turned — more powerful beats accelerating it into a sudden dive. The move took it behind him, visible only as the faintest blur of movement in the corner of his eye.

The men near him let out screams of alarm.

Kaius grinned as he kept his back to the creature — shifting just enough to catch a hint of its trajectory. Heat surged within him stoking his anticipation. Owls were common in the Sea. He’d spent many an hour watching them.

They always struck the same. A silent dive into a blindspot, followed by a flare of the wings.

The dustcrowned owl drew closer, whirling smog obscuring its form. Their one brush hadn’t been enough for it to confirm it was useless against him.

Kaius leaned into his Sergeant's Insight and Moment of Flow. He could feel the line that the owl was cutting through the air; feel the throbbing heat of where it would plunge its claws straight into the back of his neck, paralysing him. Its weaknesses practically sang to him. Hollow bones, fragile joints, and the exposed banding of flight muscles on its breast.

Now!

Wings flared; Kaius tensed. Time slowed as Moment of Flow sped up his thoughts.

Roaring, Kaius pivoted as he drove power through his good leg. His blade swept up and over — a savage cleave as he pulsed stamina through his sword.

Face to face, he saw the burning red of Investiture reflected in its wide black eyes. Its shining claw slammed into his pauldron, scratching the metal deeply.

The razor edge of A Father’s Gift butchered its left wing, severing the limb utterly. Unbalanced, the owl cartwheeled to the side — slamming into the edge of the wall with a crack before it spun off into the city streets below.

Staggering back from their collision, Kaius gasped at the flaring heat from his shoulder. He watched the owl descend — crashing through a tiled roof. It thrashed, unable to right itself with only one leg and one wing.

Bolts of dust shot through the roof a moment later.

Kaius lurched to throw himself towards the building. It was basically a bagged quail right now, it would barely take him a second.

“Don’t you dare!” Ro said, yelling through the communication artefact in his ear. “I’ll put Steel teams on it — we need you on that wall!”

Kaius scowled, staring at the plumes of dust that rose from the beasts landing spot, but he turned his back to it all the same.

As he did, guards stared at him with wide eyes. They were bloodied — more than one roughly wrapping dressings around wounds while they waited for their injuries to heal. A few were being dragged to the back of the lines, uncontrollably hacking up constant globs of congealed dust — wounded by the simple aftershocks of his battle.

The sight cut through a little of the heat in his veins. He breathed, forcing himself to focus on the horde that was about to hit the circle of dead ground around the city.

He had a job to do.