It was their third night of keeping watch on the wall, and Phoenix groaned into the mental voice chat, apologizing for what felt like the hundredth time, “I’m sorry, you guys. I’m going to yell at Paul as soon as he gets back.”
When they had received their assignment for the start of the blood moon, they were given the dreaded wall Watch for three nights, followed by a night off, which would be the repeating rotation they kept until assigned elsewhere as their numbers and threats shifted during the coming months.
The Watch wasn’t dreaded due to its danger on the supposed frontline but because of its reputation of boredom since most monsters would be intercepted by the Wall Response parties long before they ever actually reached the walls. The ft pins of rock and ice surrounding the east, south, and west sides of the city acted as a natural early warning system that parties could respond to without draining the power reserves of the city’s wall defenses.
Dazien chuckled from his position a couple dozen meters further down the wall, “It’s not that bad. Gives us plenty of time to talk more about all your fun little secrets.”
Things had gotten more rexed between the trio as they fell into a comfortable routine together: training in the evening, having a te dinner, and then going on watch, with their shift ending at dawn. Phoenix groaned into the chat again, rubbing at her temples, “I think you’ve squeezed all of them out of me by this point.”
“Not true,” Dazien responded and started listing, “There’s still that divine quest, natural talents you refuse to divulge details on, your favorite flower–”
Phoenix ughed, “Favorite flower?”
“Sure, we don’t know it, so therefore, it’s technically a secret from us,” he said with a grin that she could barely make out at this distance.
“I don’t even know the names of any flowers in this world, let alone my favorite from among them,” she said in exasperation, “I can barely name the food I eat, remember? Is there a Knowledge Tome for just the Makera encyclopedia of stuff?”
Dazien ughed, and even Uriel’s chuckle could be heard through the mental link. “I’ll have to ask around,” he said, “Maybe we can stop by the temple of the Schor after our shift.”
“Oh, I’ve been meaning to go there and– What’s that?” Phoenix broke off mid-sentence as she spotted a dark shadow in the red light illuminating the sky over the snow-covered tundra. She pointed east, mainly so the others could gauge the direction.
Dazien’s voice answered a moment ter, “Monster swarm. Gods, there are dozens of them flying this way. Some sort of bird monster.”
Phoenix squinted at the dark cloud, “How can you tell from this distance?”
“My Perception passive,” he answered, then went silent in their party chat as he focused on reporting what he had seen to their commanding officer.
Dazien’s communication had the very convenient capability of being able to direct a member’s verbal thoughts to a specific person or subset of people. So, while they could talk amongst themselves, they could also include others, like the commander on duty with them, without having to worry about unwanted chatter.
According to the procedures and guidelines they had been given when getting assigned this mission, the monsters were still too far out to raise the arms and call for one of the Response teams.
A runeforged guard arrived a few moments ter and held up some sort of spygss to view the threat. The woman exchanged some words with Dazien that Phoenix couldn’t hear, and then he updated them, “We’re going on low alert. If they keep getting closer without veering off, we’ll increase it. They’ll send a Response party, but with how high in the sky they are, they’re not positive about whether anyone on duty can handle them before they reach us. So we should probably prepare for combat.”
Phoenix nodded and grinned, rubbing her hands together, and began to draw on the ground beneath her. Finally, she had enough time to prepare one of the new rituals that had been floating around in her mind before the combat would begin. She was hoping this ritual, from the Knowledge Tome that Schor had given her, would be perfect for this particur situation.
As she traced out the intricate lines with her trail of light from her [Beacon of Hope] Talent, she idly wondered if she could convince both Schor and Warrior to give her the next set of books sometime. They had all been beled as the first in the series, after all, and she was curious how many more there might be and if she could put them to use now.
She finished drawing out the ritual diagram but hadn’t activated it yet as she turned to see where the monsters were now in their unexpected migration. They were much closer than she had expected, and she briefly thought Dazien’s estimate of ‘dozens’ was actually a conservative guess. There must have been over a hundred of the rge eagle-sized birds making their way straight for the city.
“What are you pnning?” Dazien said from beside her rather than through the voice chat, and she jumped slightly in surprise.
“Stop doing that,” she scolded.
He gave her an impish grin, “Never. So what’s all this?” he asked, gesturing to the ritual diagram.
She smiled sweetly, “I guess you’re just going to have to wait and see,” she quipped, then gestured back to his spot, “Aren’t you supposed to be over there to man the cannon thingy when they call for a volley?”
He nodded at the identical device behind her, “As are you.”
“I will. I’m just pnning to follow it up with this,” she said, waving at the glowing ground. Then the arm began to sound, and Dazien nodded to her.
“Showtime,” he said before returning to his spot on the wall.
Her book suddenly appeared before her, blocking her view and being as helpful as ever.
New Quest: Bird Breaker
Flying monsters are attacking the city. Help do your part.
Objective: Help defeat twenty Fywings.
Reward: Rare Crystal Caste Spirit Gem.
Oh? A Spirit Gem? Yes! That means a new ability, she excitedly thought to herself before releasing her aura, adding it to the others nearby as they prepared for the monsters to reach the walls. Then she took her position at the magical armament, aiming it at the incoming swarm.
The wall-mounted weapon was a rather heavy ballista-like device that she had to grab the massive handles of and heave into position. She would get one shot, and then it would take a minute to charge back up. Within that time, they were told that they could cast ranged spells at their discretion but that they needed to be back in pce for the next volley. She pnned to add to the onsught during that brief window.
Phoenix could feel the adrenaline rise in her as the fywings got closer. When the signal went out, she fired. The concussive force from the sound alone whipped her curls loose from their braid as the cannons on the wall sent out massive bdes of ice towards the flock, slicing through many of the monsters that she could now sense were Crystal Caste.
She moved quickly to the center of her prepared ritual diagram and activated it, preparing to cast her [Lunar Dream] spell that she had been practicing like crazy in private to get a better hang of its uses after her embarrassing dispy with Paul against the Tundra Yeti.
“Let dreams become reality.”
As the ritual consumed the materials from her collection to fuel itself, she felt it activate, and the magic started coursing through her, making the area light up. It almost felt like she downed five shots of magical espresso with how much energy she felt buzzing through her.
Then, she formed the illusive construct in her mind and cast it through the ritual to amplify its scale and send it out to perform her commands.
A rge bird made of starlight appeared in the air in front of her outside of the walls, inspired by one of her favorite fictional heroes from Earth. It quickly grew to the size of a three-story building, its majestic wings outspread, before it fpped them once and then moved towards the swarm of monsters.
As it looked like it was about to consume a portion of them in its giant beak, it shattered into dozens of smaller versions to fly around the enemy forces and cause as much confusion and chaos as possible.
The small illusions spurred the fywings into chasing after, dodging, or colliding with their brethren. This distraction, in turn, caused them to take more damage from the array of area spells the other Watchers on the wall were casting.
For a moment, Phoenix thought she saw Uriel’s [Rain of Fire] spell go off in their midst before she colpsed to her knees. Feeling the majority of her mana drained by the ritual and a massive headache threatening her senses.
She dragged herself over to the cannon again, with only ten seconds to spare, as she aimed and triggered it again as it pulled from the city’s mana reserves. She was too spent to add to the next round of individual casts, but she was happy enough with how well her first one had gone and was still going.
Only two more rounds of cannon volleys ter, the arm ended, and Phoenix grinned at her book. She finally felt like she deserved the rewards for completing this quest, unlike the previous one with the wights.
Quest: Bird Breaker
Objective Complete: Helped defeat twenty Fywings.
Objective Reward:
[Wing Spirit Gem] has been added to your collection.
Completion Reward:
20 [Crystal Mana Bits] have been added to your collection.
Hidden Objective Complete: Helped defeat all of the Fywings.
Bonus Reward:
[Crystal Eye] has been added to your collection.
Saiya Dewsong was clutching her twin sister’s paw in her own as they tried to make their way back towards the entrance to the Reality Rift they currently found themselves lost in. The rest of their party had already been torn to shreds by the Sapphire Caste monsters that seemed even stronger than normal for their Caste.
They should never have agreed to separate from the group of Adventurers that had arrived from Tulim. That party had an Emerald Caster at least, despite them being a crafting Css, while their party of Toivoan locals only had a single Sapphire as their party leader, who was now very dead.
“It’ll be okay,” her sister said over her shoulder, “We can wait outside for reinforcements.”
Saiya could sense the fear and anger in Rayna’s aura, a blessing of her own Perception power, and knew that her sister was trying to put on a brave front as her twin led them through the sweltering jungle that should have been composed of mostly Crystal Caste enemies, given the levels of ambient magic within the Rift.
She didn’t think the blood moon that had begun the night before would have affected the interiors of the Reality Rift, but perhaps she had been mistaken about the bleed effect the Rifts had being only one-way.
The voxen yelped as one of her two tails caught on a branch, and her fear made her worry that it was the grasp of a monster catching up to devour her as well. Her Familiar beside her looked over, and she could sense his worry as well. She patted the back of the furry sansprab and said with as much comfort as she could while being half-dragged by Rayna, “I’m okay. We’ll be safe soon.”
Saiya gnced back up at her twin and asked, “Are you angry at me for not being able to heal the others fast enough?”
Rayna snorted derisively, “No. I’m angry that they were idiots and thought we could fight above-Caste like that. The others refused to listen to your warnings about their strength, and now we’re running for our lives in this horribly humid pce.”
“At least we still have our lives,” she murmured and could sense the frustration as her sister turned to look at her again.
“For now. We should be grateful they died fighting in here instead of in the middle of the vilge where their cn would be at risk for their foolishness.” Her twin pced cwed hands on slim hips, sweat coating the smooth chestnut skin of an exposed midriff, as the pugilist continued berating the fallen, “We warned them about rash choices resulting in death. Our cn was a prime example of what happens when a leader is foolish and arrogant enough not to think long-term.”
Saiya shrunk in on herself a little, her long-furred ears falling to either side of her face, as she said, “Nobody could have predicted that swarm in the middle of the day within the camp.”
Rayna almost growled as the anger fred hotter, “No, but our dear leader didn’t need to be so distracted at the time.”
She looked away and simply nodded in agreement. She reached out to hold her sister’s paw once more for comfort when a rustle sounded from the trees behind them. Rayna grabbed her to throw her forward and act as her temporary Defender. As the Sapphire Caste pantu monster came into view, she yelled, “Run!”
Her twin nodded, the fear once more infusing their auras as the voxen spun and grabbed her paw to pull her along. Her Familiar made the choice not to follow, attempting to buy them time to flee.
“Sandy!” she screamed as the furry crab, about the size of a rge dog, raised its front two legs and swelled up to make itself look even bigger. Tears streamed down Saiya’s face as one of the spear-like legs of the heavily armored monster came down hard and pierced straight through her Familiar’s fuzzy shell, killing it almost instantly.
She closed her eyes tightly, not wanting to watch the monster continue to eat her Familiar and friend as she felt the bond between them snap. Rayna continued leading her, stumbling through the leafy underbrush and the towering trees dripping in vines.
They weren’t going to make it.
They were going to die here and finally join the rest of their cn in the great beyond. The realization caused her to trip and fall, her twin crying out and trying to pull her back as their inevitable death finished its meal and was looking at them as dessert.
Then, a beam of bright golden light ripped through the pantu like it was merely a stuffed animal, leaving a gaping hole through its center, and a man wearing glittering gold and white armor appeared between them and the corpse. His Emerald Caste aura made it clear that reinforcements had finally arrived to battle the Soul Reapers.
