Chapter 274 Abandoning The North Pt.III
The war for the cyclops village kicked off with the opponent taking the first blow swiftly. This caused a bit of shock on the enemy side as they weren't expecting the attack to be so powerful and fast.
"Lightning Spear!"
The chief of wall commanded and the cyclops soldier next to him took out a spear much like the first one, except it had several spikes sticking out and facing the tip of the spear. The chief grabbed it and performed the same actions from before – planting his feet, twisting his body and flinging with intense speed and precision.
At the 300-metre mark, the spear started to sparkle with yellow lightning, then transformed into a raging beast of lightning that hit a bunch of griffins and manticores, knocking them out cold and sending them plummeting.
"What are you waiting for wall guard!? Fire!"
He commanded, realising that his subordinates were wasting time just staring at him in awe. They all took out their spears and started to fling them at the opponents too, some spears hit and some missed.
But now the opponents had had enough of losing their forces so they begun their counter attack. The griffins and manticores dodged most of the spears when possible and tried to swoop in to cause some sort of chaos.
The cloud spirits shot water bullets, missiles and cannons as well wind magic attacks in order to send the spears off target and keep their allies safe. Most of their magic was ineffective on the cyclops whose tough skin had a really high defence. The best they could do was use their missiles and cannons to push the wall guard back or knock them down, but little to no damage was being caused.
And their way of helping their allies using wind magic was useless in the face of the chief of wall and some high-level spear men whose spears wouldn't falter even in a storm.
While the aerial battle ensued, the enemy ground troops started to flood the entrance to the gates. The chief of military grinned and swung his halberd to rally his troops. He then led a charge outside where they were met by seemingly countless numbers of mountain goblins, war trolls, some minotaurs and Dire wolves.
"Hahaha! Show them no mercy!"
The chief of military's enthusiasm was more than enough to make his troops confident. He had been drilling them mercilessly and now was the time to show their efforts. The ground troops clashed with their opponents and the result was honestly unsurprising.
The chief of military alone was a force to be reckoned with. The way he moved about cutting down opponents and tanking attacks made him appear as a force of nature with no match. With his merciless slashes, barbaric rams and excessively destructive skills, the chief of military lived up to his title as The Bloody Warhead.
***
While the battle for the village was occurring at the Eastern gate, the king of cyclopes sat on a chair while looking at the sky. Where he currently sat was once where his tent was, but that had been packed up.
In fact, all around him, all that could be seen where empty buildings. The entire village was cleared of any life or object. The only one there was his secretary.
"Honestly, the West are a bunch of scum."
His secretary spoke, but the king couldn't help but laugh. This startled the secretary.
"How are they scum, huh? I would have done the same in their shoes."
He said with a very pleased smile. The secretary was still clearly upset even after hearing his master's approval. The king cleared his throat, realising that he was the only one amused.
"Stop thinking about it so much. We got everyone out either way."
"To think that mountain goblins managed to sneak in past the walls. The chosen one's lightning attack really messed up the wall... this wouldn't have even happened if the West wasn't just filled with a bunch of-"
"You know, we can still hear you, right?"
A deep hoarse voice said. The secretary looked from the corner of his eye and there he saw a human sized rat in a green robe glaring at them. The rat man had introduced himself as Reiman.
The secretary clicked his tongue then looked at the ground before him. More specifically, the massive hole that had been dug up and acted as an escape route for all the cyclops villagers.
Reiman tapped on the ground twice and from the buildings, dozens of shadow rats popped up with their arms behind them and standing in an attentive form.
"Cyclopes evacuation mission… complete!"
He yelled.
"You are excused."
He commanded and the shadow rats dissolved into the shadows. Reiman himself started to walk towards the hole.
"Hey, you're sure the aerial assault guys can't see what we've done right?"
The secretary asked with a glare. The king sighed and face palmed, but didn't do anything to stop it.
"Of course, our magic experts currently have an illusion dome set up so no one outside would know that there's something different happening."
He answered quickly and started walking again.
"What about those fighting on the frontlines?"
"Oi, brat-!"
The king this time, tried to silence his secretary, but Reiman found it amusing. A grin stretched up on his face as he responded.
"Some of our captains are taking care of it. Don't doubt the West's capabilities!"
***
After a few more hours of fighting, the former advantage the cyclopes had was slowly waning. Their enemies, though weak, were seemingly infinite. With every griffin that fell, twenty more would appear out of nowhere to enact revenge for their fallen ally.
It wasn't as difficult as it was simply draining. And the cyclopes terrible stamina, this was not the type of battle they could be fighting. And the enemy had closed the gap in an honestly terrifying manner.
"Jump off the wall!"
The chief of wall commanded as fire breathing wyverns started to attack the walls. The reason they had to avoid this was because those fire breathing wyverns had fire power on the level of a dragon youngling and it would cause significant damage when they get hurt.
The wall was burnt through from the top. A majority of the cyclopes were able to avoid it, but those that were too late were running about wailing in pain because of the fire.
The chief of wall looked at the gate. From the outside all anyone would see was a giant metal wall. But the cyclopes knew it was more special than that. About a year ago, the king brought an interesting core to the village. This item made any creature that touched it, lose most of their strength and skills.
It was more than enough to ward off any stupid enough to try to invade, but what made it even more special was that whenever this core touched a metal it would spread an electric pulse that gave the metal this unique property. This was the secret behind the cyclops' impenetrable walls.
With this, they were very confident in their ability to protect the village. They didn't have much at the time, so they simply laced the front with metal so the core could spread this effect round and ward off any violent monsters, creating the perfect dome.
The only issue here, was the innards of the dome wasn't made of metal and was very volatile. Right now, the wyvern's fire breath was burning through the wooden structures that kept the core hidden.
Another key aspect of the core was that it reacted very violently to heat, which is another one of the reasons they still hadn't been able to transform it into something else.
As the chief started to realise how serious the issue really was, he gulped. A large 'Tok' sounded and a flash of red lightning spread across the entire wall.
'Red?'
But before he could process anything, there was a massive explosion that sent everyone next to the walls flying.
The sound of several screaming cyclopes was muted by the large explosion. The cyclopes once impenetrable walls were now shreds.
The chief of wall tried his best to recover, but just then, the ground started to shake. The sounds of felled trees a ways apart entered the cyclopes ears, causing them to pause. Truthfully, they wouldn't have even noticed such minor details, but their survival instincts were screaming at that moment.
All cyclopes looked eastward. There, they spotted 2 beings that towered over the giant trees of Larm. One had fiery red skin whereas the other had pale blue. Both had black horns protruding their heads and their dark onyx eyes glared at the cyclopes.
'W-Where did those come from?'
Larm was massive. A forest that took about a tenth of the entire continent. Understandably, it was impossible to know every single species that lived in it, but the cyclopes were very confident that they knew every creature in the North. And not once in their lives had they received word of creatures like those in the North.
Where on Krione could they have been hiding this entire time that they couldn't be seen?
Sadly, there was no time to divert attention at this moment. The adversary, who already knew about their allies, had not taken a single break like the cyclopes did. The attacks were merciless. Some were powerful; others hardly registered.
But one thing was clear. Most of the cyclopes had readied themselves for death on this battlefield.
It was truly an absurd thing when one thought about it in hindsight. The cyclopes weren't supposed to be thinkers and builders. They were a barbaric race that were once known for their brutality and their fiery hunger. But they learned to use weapons. They learned to use traps. Build safe homes and a large wall to protect themselves from enemies.
This was what some believed to be an evolution. But years later, some scholars would propose a theory. A theory that "Evolution" of a monster was not necessarily an improvement, but merely a change in form to suit the current environment.
In a case like this, in exchange for their upgraded standard of living, the cyclopes had lost their ability to fight to the very last breath that once made them one of the most feared creatures on the continent. Right now, as they looked at the two walking mountains, that instinct was not there to save them.
Some cyclopes just fell down on their knees and closed their eyes in anticipation of their death. Life was sweet while it lasted at least.
For the chief of wall, time seemed to have slowed down. Cyclopes blood spilled everywhere, dust was kicked up, the ground turned black from lightning blasts and the ground shaking heavily under the heavy steps of the two giants.
Three minotaurs charged at the weakened chief of wall. In this moment, he really thought 'I might actually die here.'
The chief of wall suddenly realised something once his life flashed before his eyes. The seemingly tiny and useless waves of attacks from before at only a single gate. The sudden appearance of a dragon that could kill the blessed one and never appear again. That odd red lightning that the Blessed one alone had ever displayed showing up on the gates.
Nothing was a coincidence.
"Tch. These bastards have been controlling our movements."
The chief of wall scoffed then removed the spear he had stabbed his abdomen. The wound under normal circumstances would have been healing up, but these spears were affected by the core's rampant power, so at this moment, he was as vulnerable as anything that couldn't regenerate.
That didn't matter though, he ran at the minotaurs that were coming for his life and grabbed the centre bull by the horns. The bull pushed him back, but once the chief of wall planted his feet firmly into the ground, the bull lost. He spun the bull around threw it into one of the others.
He gave a powerful head-splitting punch to the last bull that was still charging. Seeing as the others were still alive, he grabbed the dead minotaur by the horns and broke them off after adding a considerable amount of force. Quickly, he shot both horns at both minotaurs, piercing their skulls and killing them.
Afterwards, he looked far in the distance where the chief of military was still going at it with his halberd, causing immense damage and grinning ear-to-ear like a mad man. Truly, this was the best place for him. The only cyclops to retain that undying battle spirit. It was almost as if he didn't notice what was going around him. Or maybe, he really did know and was having as much fun as possible before this ended.
'I can't allow that bastard to beat me.'
Thinking this, he got off the ground and took out a little rock. It was a green rock which could be found when digging through the mines. A wind elemental stone. Give this to an object and it automatically acquires the wind attribute.
Even better, this was a Grand Wind Elemental Gem. Refined with several wind elemental stones to create this beautiful item.
"Kind of a waste." ƒ𝑟𝙚e𝔀𝗲𝒃n𝒐𝘷𝗲Ɩ.c𝗼𝚖
He muttered then cracked the gem. It started to glow violently – a sign of an impending explosion. Quickly, he threw it at a random swarm of enemies, hoping for the worst to be done. Nothing happened.
"Huh… it didn't wor-"
As if to mock his disbelief, a powerful shockwave blasted the surroundings from where he threw it. The chief resisted it and he was almost disappointed that that was all the explosion could muster.
But just then, there was a second shockwave, even more powerful than the former. This time it managed to push him back by a considerable distance. The weaker opponents were actually sent flying.
Again, another more powerful shockwave was sent, this time actually throwing the chief of wall back. Even the chief of military who had been fighting without any sort of inconvenience was thrown back.
Everyone's eyes immediately fell to the gem that was still glowing violently and now humming like a hungry brat throwing a tantrum.
'Oh shi-'
Another shockwave, easily the strongest by a large margin, exploded killing the weaker creatures on this battle and causing the cyclopes to cough out blood from internal damage.
And as if to announce that this was merely the beginning, all the air in the surroundings was being sucked up into crystal, creating a mini cyclone around it. This cyclone grew larger and larger till there was a raging tornado that spun around carelessly.
The chief of wall expected a violent explosion, but for that one gem to have been so strong he was surprised. In that moment, he could only now understand why the chief of smithy hadn't tried using these grand gems for weapons.
The chief thought this could cause significant damage to the opponent, but then the sky started to fall down.
He could swear on his life that the sky was falling. Or at least, one of the stars that always hung up in the sky was falling down. This star slammed right into the tornado, turning it into a tornado of fire.
Everyone witnessing this was dumbfounded and the cyclopes that saw him throw it just stared at him with shock. He didn't know how to respond to their gazes either as this was a first for him.
"That idiot, he's just going to burn the forest down."
A cold, confident voice said. The chief of wall was surprised and he turned back to see who it was.
"Sorry, he was just really insistent on me throwing him up there."
Another seductive voice spoke, causing the chief of wall to turn around again. He was confused since he wasn't able to see the source, but then a duo appeared out of thing air.
"More enemies?"
The chief of wall scoffed and balled his fists.
"No, we're allies from the West."
The blue skinned creature spoke.
"The West?"
'They came?'
"You can sleep now."
"Just leave this to us. I've been meaning to test out how powerful my magic is now."
They said amusedly and for some reason, their words actually caused his vision to dim. All sense left his body as he collapsed to the ground and his eye lids slowly shut.
Before he knew it, he was asleep.