# Chapter 22: Reinforcements 2
Frenzied beasts had no intelligence. They only used brute force to climb walls and breathe their attacks with no technical skill whatsoever, but even so, it was already terrifying enough. If not for the fact that the city wall beneath Verdani had been blessed with a legendary-grade steel-hardening enchantment, it would likely have been shattered long ago by the tidal wave of magical breath attacks.
Turning her head to look at the city guards nearby who were busy debugging various defensive equipment and the soldiers rapidly deploying for battle, the purple-haired mage knew that all available troops in Moldavia were gathered here. Even civilians capable of fighting had been fully utilized, yet compared to the still-increasing army of frenzied beasts, it was like trying to put out a blazing cart with a cup of water—utterly insignificant.
"The request for aid was sent out three days ago... No reply, no assistance."
After venting her frustration for a moment, the mage knew it was useless, so she regained her composure. Shaking her head, the Countess watched the approaching beast tide, frowning in deep thought.
Tap. Tap.
Footsteps sounded behind the purple-haired mage.
Turning around, Verdani saw a swordsman with golden hair and red eyes.
"You're here."
Facing this swordsman dressed in simple brown leather armor with two longswords hanging at his waist, the mage let out a soft sigh and said nothing more. The swordsman walked up to her, silently embraced her, then spoke calmly and directly: "I came from the Imperial Capital, Danny... Come with me."
Releasing his hold, he looked directly into the purple-haired mage's eyes, and before she could reply, continued: "This beast tide has exceeded normal scale. I can see traces of Chaos behind it. This is no longer a matter that a single Count or a single territory can handle. I will report to His Majesty the Emperor and request that he dispatch the Five Great Legions to help you annihilate the beast tide... But before that, you absolutely cannot remain in this danger."
As he spoke, the golden-haired, red-eyed swordsman's gaze was as firm as a rock, revealing his unshakable will.
"Brandon Kaos..."
Shaking her head, the Countess smiled bitterly and refused: "Let's not even mention that the Five Great Legions are already overwhelmed dealing with the chaotic beast tides in the central region of the Empire... Do you mean for me to abandon my territory and my people and flee alone to survive? That's impossible. I understand your good intentions, but I'm sorry, I cannot agree."
"Facing two hundred thousand frenzied magical beasts carrying the aura of Chaos, you cannot hold out."
The swordsman named Brandon did not directly respond; he simply pointed out a fact: "As a Gold-rank mage, your sacrifice here has no value."
At this point, his tone shifted, even carrying a hint of pleading: "Danny, if it were before, I would definitely stay and defend this fortress with you. As long as I'm with you, even death would be sweet to me... But now you are already the mother of our children. Even if you won't think of yourself, you must think of our daughters. They cannot lose their mother."
The purple-haired mage fell silent. In her mind appeared the figures of two young girls. The elder had inherited her mother's violet hair, while the younger had golden hair like her father.
The Countess's gaze softened slightly, but she still refused: "Brandon, I admit I am not a qualified mother... You can take our daughters away. I will live and die with my territory. This is my fate."
"Do you mean for me, also a Gold-rank, to watch my own woman die in the mouths of magical beasts and then flee like a coward alone?"
And this is not your fate at all!
The purple-haired mage quietly shook her head, not answering this question.
Not knowing how to persuade the woman before him, the golden-haired swordsman was filled with irritation but could not reveal the information he knew.
As a direct descendant of the legendary mage Kabala Kaos, who had sealed the dimensional rift between worlds hundreds of years ago, Brandon Kaos naturally knew the truth behind this land. Of the Four Great Families of the Northern Lands, three were descendants of heroes who had originally explored other worlds and sealed dimensional passages. But now, apart from the Radcliffe Family, which had recently experienced internal turmoil and whose new Count had only just taken office, the other families had abandoned this duty and chosen to become ordinary nobles.
And this beast tide contained a few Wild Gods, clearly bearing the traces of Chaos believers, or even the personal intervention of Evil Gods. Those who should be confronting them were him and that new Chaos Warden of the Radcliffe Family, not this stubborn female mage before him!
Faced with the persistence of his beloved, the Gold-rank swordsman truly did not know what to do. He could only stand by her side, watching the distant beast tide draw ever closer.
(If worst comes to worst, at the most dangerous moment, I'll knock her out and take her away by force!)
Just as Brandon was secretly thinking this, the formation of frenzied beasts had already crossed the nearest hill and was about to reach the city wall. All the defending soldiers were on high alert. Though exhausted from the continuous battles, they had also gained rich experience. Various alchemical cannons and enchanted ballistae were fully loaded, and war mages and elemental archers were ready.
Patrol squads composed of Silver-rank warriors were on constant alert. If any magical beast charged onto the wall, they would knock it down. As long as the wall didn't collapse, no matter how many magical beasts there were, they would only have to deal with one or two thousand at a time. If it were just that number, these soldiers had full confidence.
The beast horde was getting closer.
Three thousand meters.
Two thousand meters.
One thousand meters.
It was almost here.
"Enemy! Five hundred meters ahead, prepare for battle!"
The horn for preparation sounded from the highest point of the tower. The sound was torn apart by the tearing north wind, yet it still reached everyone's ears. At this moment, everyone steeled themselves. Mages joined forces to connect their mana, constructing complex spell runes, while archers drew their bows fully. The city guards operating the cannons and ballistae also prepared to fire.
"Attack!"
With the command, in an instant, the glow of spells illuminated the night sky. Countless war spells of various types were cast in unison. Huge bolts of lightning crossed hundreds of meters to strike the frenzied beast horde. Silver-blue electric currents scattered everywhere, instantly killing or incapacitating at least over a hundred magical beasts of various kinds. Then came flames and ice that easily ignited and pierced them all, killing them completely.
Moldavia had always had the most mages among the four territories, and even its lord was a Gold-rank mage. After the first wave of spells came a torrential rain of arrows. They descended with a violent hum, piercing countless weaker frenzied beasts and pinning them to the ground. Some stronger magical beasts were also wounded by barbed and blood-grooved arrowheads, spouting thick, turbid purple-black blood as their strength gradually drained away.
Each firing of the alchemical cannons and enchanted ballistae created huge gaps in the dense beast horde. Violent explosions raised clouds of dust, mingling with the purple-black mist from the frenzied beasts, rising into the air before slowly dissipating. But this was only the first wave of the beast tide. Behind it, a vast army stretching to the horizon still roared forward. The gaps created by the bombardment were quickly filled, as if they had never existed.
The magical beasts retaliated with various breath attacks. Though frenzied prevented them from using more powerful innate spells, their simplest breath attacks had not only not weakened but had actually increased in power due to their growing mana.
Breath attacks like cannonballs struck the city wall. Stone fragments scattered, creating countless large craters. Some unlucky soldiers on the wall were hit—frozen, burned, or electrocuted black—dying instantly.
Protected by the towers, the mages did not suffer too many attacks. Their mana recovered quickly with the aid of the magic arrays, allowing them to continuously cast spell after spell. The archers also fired without pause, slowing the advance of the magical beasts. But the front of the beast tide still pushed forward step by step, reaching the base of the wall. Meanwhile, countless flying giant bats and wyverns arrived above the fortress.
Dizzying ultrasonic waves and freezing breath attacks descended from the sky, disrupting the rhythm of the alchemical cannons on the wall. The beast tide's advance speed increased further. The already pockmarked wall was now covered with the bodies of monsters, rapidly climbing upward.
"Troublesome insects."
Seeing this scene, the silent Countess snorted coldly. She raised her gray ironwood staff and aimed it at the sky.
The light between the fortresses seemed to brighten suddenly. The gloom was swept away. One after another, crimson lines formed under the will of the Gold-rank mage Verdani, creating complex patterns like gears in the atmosphere. They layered upon each other, forming a magnificent and beautiful giant six-pointed star array.
Gold-rank spell [Star of David].
In the next instant, countless crimson-gold beams shot out from the array as the center, striking the giant bats and wyverns in midair at the speed of light. Each time these beams hit a target, they caused a massive explosion, then changed direction to strike another magical beast.
Instantly, countless charred, foul-smelling corpses rained down. Seemingly frightened by this terrifying power, the flying beast horde immediately retreated and no longer dared to approach too close to the fortress. Instead, they harassed from a distance with breath attacks and innate abilities.
The battle fell into a stalemate, but the advantage was not on humanity's side. To guard against possible sneak attacks by Gold-rank monsters and the flying species circling in the air, the two Gold-rank experts, Verdani and Brandon, could only intervene occasionally, driving back magical beasts that were about to climb onto the wall. Though the mages in the towers, the archers, and the various alchemical equipment continued to inflict heavy casualties, for a beast tide that truly had no end, this was merely better than nothing.
As time passed, the pile of corpses at the base of the wall grew higher and higher. Some lower-rank mages could no longer sustain their mental energy. Archers had generally used more than ten quivers each. Most of the alchemical cannons had stopped firing. The gunners had already drawn their longswords and were following the patrol squads to clear monsters that had climbed to the edge of the wall.
After many days of battle, the supplies of Moldavia Fortress had long been mostly consumed. What remained was the last reserve.
"No! This can't go on."
Brandon swung his twin swords. Deep cyan battle qi swept across the wall, decapitating a row of frenzied beasts that were climbing. He frowned and said to Verdani, who had just released two Gold-rank spells to drive back the flying beast tide: "You could hold out before because supplies were sufficient, but that's no longer the case. These frenzied beasts seem determined to break through the fortress this time. They've already piled up a ramp with corpses. Without a large number of siege equipment, you cannot hold!"
"If I can't hold, then I die!"
Due to mental exhaustion from continuously casting great spells, the Countess's face was deathly pale, and her voice was exceptionally cold. She seemed to be simply stubbornly enduring: "I cannot just abandon these soldiers who have fought alongside me and flee like this!"
"If you don't die, you can take revenge later. This persistence is meaningless now!"
Just as Brandon was about to give up on persuasion and prepare to knock the purple-haired mage unconscious, he suddenly noticed a crimson light shining at the edge of his vision.
The pitch-black, gloomy curtain of clouds was torn apart by a battle qi radiance condensed to the extreme. The northern night's stars and the violet-blue, magnificent sky appeared directly before everyone. As silver-white moonlight fell, a lance wrapped in black-red light flew across several thousand meters and landed in the center of the beast tide.
"Whoosh!"
There was no spectacular explosion, no dusty eruption. The black-red power erupted for an instant, then silently dissipated. But no one dared to ignore this strike, because where it had landed, only silence remained. All the frenzied beasts that touched the black-red light died silently. The frozen-for-a-thousand-years, rock-solid frozen tundra directly collapsed, as if directly melted and evaporated. Only the steel lance stood majestically in the center of the pit.
The Gold-rank swordsman stared in shock at the place where the light had originated.
Amidst swirling snow mist and flying dust, figures one after another crossed over the distant hills and appeared before the eyes of everyone on the wall.
"That's... that's the banner of the Radcliffe Family!"
An archer enhanced with Eagle Eye spell and carrying a telescope could clearly see the distant scene. He couldn't help but exclaim, shouting loudly: "It's reinforcements!"
"What?!"
# Chapter 23 & 24: Charge, Breakthrough 1 & 2 (Two Chapters Combined)
The crimson light shone like a star. The first to speak shook his head: "Don't say such useless things. Look, even the city gate is already blocked by the corpses of these monsters. Even if they can break through the beast tide, we can't open the gate to let them in!"
He was absolutely right. The frenzied beasts had left thousands of corpses at the base of the wall. With their massive size, if this were a small wall of ten-plus meters, the corpses would have already piled up a ramp, allowing other monsters to easily charge the wall. Even though Moldavia Fortress, a super-large wall carved from a stone mountain range, wouldn't be submerged so quickly, the city gate was already firmly blocked by corpses.
"Useless. Even if they come, so few people won't make a difference."
Letting out a deep sigh, the city guards who learned this news once again recognized the severity of the situation. Facing an attack of this scale, even reinforcements were useless. Forget fifty people—even a large army of thousands or tens of thousands would find it hard to claim certain victory.
The faint hope that had been kindled by the news of reinforcements was thus extinguished by reality. The morale that had been barely maintained through numbness plummeted sharply. The attack speed of the entire fortress visibly decreased.
The magical beasts didn't care about the enemy's morale. Long driven mad by the Mad Dragon Plague, they had only one thought: tear the enemy apart and devour their flesh and blood.
Some powerful monsters couldn't restrain their hunger. Unable to attack the humans on the wall, they simply picked up the corpses of other monsters on the ground and devoured them. Foul-smelling flesh mixed with purple-black blood splattered from their mouths. The violet-blue light in their eyes grew even more intense as they ingested more viral scale powder.
"ROOOOOAR!!"
After devouring the corpse of a fellow creature, a magical beast that was probably originally a white bear let out a furious roar. The muscles and bones all over its body bulged, making cracking sounds. Its eyes had now turned deep purple. With each breath, visible mana light particles mixed in. Black mist seeped from the fur of this frenzied beast, and then its entire form suddenly swelled a full circle. Its snow-white fur was stretched by frenzied veins and muscles until it stood like steel needles, pulsing with unimaginable power all over its body.
Deep Frenzy!
"WHOOSH!"
A violet-blue breath attack mixed with bone-piercing cold gathered in the mouth of this giant bear, now about eight meters tall. Then, a surging pillar of light rose high. The enhanced freezing breath struck the city wall.
BOOM!
The violent explosion shattered a corner of the gray-white wall. Fragments of rock wrapped in a layer of ice fell, crashing into the frenzied beast horde below, instantly crushing several weaker monsters to death. Flesh and blood flew everywhere. The other magical beasts were not afraid; instead, they became even more frenzied due to the smell of blood. They screeched and roared, climbing the wall faster than before.
One side had lost morale, while the other had become fiercer. As one rose and the other fell, several places on the wall were frequently in danger. In some weakly defended areas where the patrol squads couldn't arrive in time, magical beasts had already climbed onto the wall and were fighting the city guards.
"Damn it! This won't do!"
Arriving at lightning speed, Brandon swung his twin swords, easily slicing several magical beasts that had climbed onto the wall into pieces of flesh. He turned around and shouted loudly to Verdani and the defending soldiers: "Even without reinforcements, there's no reason to be this desperate. Danny, at least someone was willing to come and help you. And that warrior leading them is definitely at Gold-rank level. Leaving aside the others, he can definitely break through the beast tide and come to help!"
"Three Gold-rank experts—at the very least, we can hold off this attack!"
The Gold-rank swordsman's voice was deliberately amplified with battle qi, echoing between the wall and the towers. It immediately made everyone realize—even if fifty people weren't much use, at least there was one Gold-rank expert! No matter what, it was better than before. There was really no reason for morale to be this low.
"Right!"
The Countess also understood at this moment. She immediately encouraged her knights and subordinates loudly: "Everyone, at least hold off this wave of attack!"
Then, the Gold-rank mage said no more. Her expression solemn, she once again raised her gray ironwood staff, pouring all her mana into it, drawing upon the elemental forces in the atmosphere.
Although the surrounding area had been infected by the aura of Chaos, making mana and elements turbid and filthy, how could the full power of a Gold-rank mage be hindered by such a small matter?
Instantly, the howling north wind stopped. The blizzard also halted. The gloomy clouds in the sky were parted layer by layer by some mysterious force, retreating like ripples on water. The starry sky appeared above the fortress, which had not seen starlight for dozens of days. Faced with such a miraculous sight, all the soldiers' morale was boosted.
"..."
Silently, Verdani poured all her power into controlling her magic. As a Gold-rank war mage who commanded elements and mana, the spells she knew and created were all designed for large-scale warfare. This meant that while they were immensely powerful, they could absolutely not be used lightly.
The Countess knew that after fully unleashing her most powerful spell with all her strength, she would definitely fall into a long period of weakness, possibly even unconsciousness. Without protection, she would be a huge burden. That was why, in the previous attacks, no matter how critical the situation, she had not used her strongest spell.
But now, Brandon was by her side, and the situation had indeed reached its most dangerous point.
So...
"Witness the power of the stars!"
[Glory Force · Star Arc Shatter]
With a command, countless rays of light, originating from the twinkling stars, fell like rain!
Instantly, countless explosions and flashes appeared in the beast tide before the wall. Visible shockwaves spread like ripples when a stone is thrown into a calm lake, forming clear patterns. The purple-black mist was immediately dispersed by the intense light and heat. Accompanied by scorching hot winds and the smell of burnt meat, the dense beast horde suffered heavy casualties.
Verdani's Glory Force [Star Arc Shatter] could link the reflections of the stars across the heavens, using endless starlight as focal points to condense mana barrages at near-light speed, dealing massive damage to enemies within a wide range.
"Well done!"
The golden-haired swordsman seemed to be seeing his beloved unleash such a powerful spell for the first time. He immediately noticed that the pressure from the magical beasts had lightened, and the strain on the wall had greatly decreased.
But then, to his horror, the purple-haired mage, still gripping her gray staff tightly, slowly collapsed.
"Danny!"
Rushing immediately to Verdani's side, Brandon caught her and lifted her head. His brow furrowed. He placed his hand on the female mage's head, sensed her condition briefly, then breathed a sigh of relief: "It's just excessive fatigue causing unconsciousness. No serious injury..."
But this was no time for relief. He anxiously turned his head back to look at the beast tide.
Although at least several thousand frenzied beasts had been eliminated, without the Gold-rank mage's large-scale spell suppression and deterrence, the flying species in the air would press forward in full force. Combined with the endless beast tide following behind, the situation might be even worse than before!
This was precisely why Gold-rank experts couldn't act lightly. Sometimes, just staying still could effectively suppress the enemy's attack.
But in reality, when he turned back, the Gold-rank swordsman saw a scene that made him stop breathing in shock.
The huge gap created by Star Arc Shatter still remained. The magical beasts on the wall had been completely cleared. The soldiers had gained a rare opportunity to rest.
The beast tide... had stopped?!
Impossible! Brandon's heart shook violently. He knew clearly that no matter how powerful the attack, it couldn't scare these Chaos-infected, mindless monsters. They wouldn't feel fear and dare not advance. Just as countless alchemical cannons blasted huge holes in their ranks that were filled within seconds, although the hole created by the annihilation of several thousand magical beasts was unimaginably large, it wouldn't take ten seconds to be completely filled.
"Wait, it's not stopping!"
As a Gold-rank swordsman, Brandon keenly detected the strange movement of the beast tide: "They're converging somewhere else!"
Could it be...
Eyes wide with surprise, the Gold-rank swordsman raised his head to gaze at the distant hill.
That was exactly where the beast tide was converging. In that pitch-black sea of death, a dazzling crimson light flickered. It was charging forward at a speed like the wind, heading straight for the fortress—breaking through!