Chapter 394 - Swords Clash

Second Chapter coming later today!

Marcus

"Hold!" Marcus yelled over the din of battle.

"Hold!" He repeated.

[Tide of Battle] was churning in a way like it never had before. The swings back and forth resulted in waters that were quick, choppy, and violent. Not to mention incredibly hard to predict.

His glaive cut through another warrior trying to climb atop the wall, and he spun to cut down another. His mana was needed elsewhere, or he'd be slinging skills to clear a large section around him.

As it was, his dominion was a dozen feet to either side of him where he danced with his weapon.

His head turned just in time to see an enhanced fireball come screaming down on his position, giving him barely enough time to slice it apart with a [Water Blade] enhanced swing. The water coating the skill provided his weapon sizzled and steamed, but the spell collapsed on itself from the loss of heat.

"Clarissa!" He yelled.

"I'm on it!" The woman yelled back without having to be told. It was a wonderful thing to have your orders anticipated. The long, drawn-out battles versus the Swarm allowed them the experience they needed now, when it mattered.

One of his strongest Mages, and definitely the strongest Fire Mage he had, followed the spell's trajectory, and a large, concentrated mass of fire was launched in return.

The fire raged white, with a heat Marcus could feel from dozens of feet away, and shot out with a speed difficult to track. Shields were raised around to block it, and mana swirled in the air to disrupt or tear the spell apart, but all failed one after another. Clarissa's spell ripped through them and impacted the ground with an earthshaking explosion of force.

A circle with a diameter of nearly ten feet was left scorched black; the people once standing upon it were incinerated to ash. Those within twenty followed suit, or in the best case, were thrown violently into the air.

The woman took her explosions seriously.

Marcus turned back to cutting down the warriors in front of him. [Rhythm in the Rain] hummed inside his head as he stepped and swung to the beat. The revolving rivulets of water snapped out when his glaive wasn't fast enough.

[Water Whip] drained his mana, but it wasn't as intensive as his other skills. He'd worked hard with [Water Manipulation] to cut down on the cost required.

His hair stood on end, and he could feel a spike of danger coming his way. For a third time, he surrounded himself in water as a lightning bolt homed in on him, only to be shunted into the ground.

Some of the water under his control flash-boiled from the heat, but it had done its job.

That fucking mage! I swear I'm going to-

A thrown knife sliced through his leg as he was distracted trying to track down the annoying lightning mage. He once again had to leave the person alone and shift his attention elsewhere. The potshots of lightning bolts weren't only annoying, but they were powerful.

They disrupted his [Flow] and ripped some of his water away.

It didn't help that the collective [Mana Shields] of his assortment of mages had failed. While their main job was to sling spells of their own at the enemy, they also had the job of defending what they could and shielding the warriors.

After the shields failed, spells rained down on their fortified positions with abandon, only one in three getting stopped by an errant shield or countered in another way.

The Alliance’s numbers were killing them. For every Mage Marcus had, Mikayla had four. For every arrow in the sky launched at their foe, there were three arcing toward them. For every sword in defense, there were five pointed at them.

The only reason they hadn't been overridden already was of prior planning and the fortifications he had built ahead of time.

The same fortifications that were slowly crumbling under the assault.

"Gustav!" Marcus yelled, "Reinforce the wall!"

The Earth Mage had seen better days, as worn out didn't even begin to cover it. "We're trying, sir! We're losing ground!"

Fuck!

While the concealed tug-of-war going on underneath their feet wasn't flashy or bombastic as the fight overhead, it was a much more important one. Earth Mages on both sides were vying for control, and based on what he'd just heard, his side was losing.

When they did, the wall was as good as lost.

Marcus backed off from swinging his glaive around to search for Adrian among the back line. He found the man launching arrow after arrow from the raised guard tower that was teetering on collapse.

Vines were wrapping their way up the stone, burrowing in and ripping the structure apart.

"Adrian, focus on the Earth Mages!" Marcus ordered.

"They're all fucking underground!" The bowman screamed back.

"Some of them have to be above!" The reasoning was weak, but a man could hope.

While the ground under their feet had been prepared and warded against stone walking or stone swimming, that wasn't the case for the other side of the walls. Sure, they started out that way, but the wards and protections against such actions were broken during the fight.

It was one of the first things they did. The opposing Earth Mages did not want to be out in the open with their full attention on the wall where they could be shot at.

Sadly, the attempts to crush the burrowing enemy either failed or did more harm than good. Anyone with the strength to do so was better used defending the wall than going on the offensive.

[Tide of Battle] swung heavily in the opposite direction as an explosion of plant matter sprouted out from under the wall, throwing chunks into the air.

The giant vine ripped through the newly created opening, and Marcus knew the battle was lost. There was no coming back from this, and fighting to the last to do so would result poorly even if they won.

How did we not notice?

No, he thought, analyze later, act now.

They had to retreat to the second line of defense.

"Retreat!" He yelled.

"Retreat!"

The water inside Marcus frothed as he prepared his skill. [Water Wall] was generally a Mage's spell, but it was one he'd grown fond of years ago. Upgrading it into [Tsunami] made it difficult to use unless he was prepared. The mana needed was immense, but it would give them room to retreat.

Combining it with [Flash Flood] only made it more mana-intensive.

Conjured water combined with water from the nearby snowmelt gathered together into a wave over fifteen feet tall under his urging, taking all of his control. His Law bent under the strain, but he marshaled his will to send it down range.

The wall was already lost, so collapsing it further was no issue.

Seeing the giant wall of water, his army turned and fled as fast as they could. His order had been echoed while he'd prepared the spell, leaving only the extremely wounded yet to move.

He frowned at the sight of them.

There was nothing he could do. Any attempt to gather them would slow them down too much, and it was impossible to heal them in such a short time.

Mikayla isn't a savage. She won't execute them.

It was the only comforting thought in this situation, even if it was a poor one.

"Go! Move it!" He urged the slowest into motion. [Tsunami] wouldn't delay them forever, and the spell was already diminishing. His Intelligence wasn't high enough for a long-lasting spell like that, and he didn't have the mana pool to cast another.

Marcus brought up the rear and fought off any errant pursuer. The undisciplined made up the most of those who charged after them, and were easy to take down. It was the ones taking a shot at him that he had to look out for.

[Water Scythes] kept the weakest of them away while his glaive did the rest.

The retreat was brutal.

Spells continued to rain down on them for hundreds of yards with arrows even longer than that. Being in the rear, Marcus got to watch firsthand how the casualty list was expanded during their retreat.

A ball of anger was smoldering inside of him as he watched his people get picked off. An anger that wouldn't go away anytime soon. How many had he lost to her Faction?

This was by far the largest, but there had been other skirmishes. Border probes in the past were some had been lost.

After they had gotten far enough away and the pursuers had either been killed or dropped back, a deluge of notifications came ringing in his ear.

~~
You have slain [Human – Level 111]
You have slain [Human – Level 101]
You have slain [Human – Level 97]
You have slain [Human – Level 119]
You have slain...You have slain...You have slain... You have slain... You have slain... You have slain... You have slain... You have slain... You have slain... You have slain... You have slain... You have slain...You have slain...
...

Congratulations! You have leveled up.
Congratulations! You have leveled up.
Congratulations! You have leveled up.

Skills Available

~~

The rush as the essence coursed through him did little to assuage the fury he felt. It dulled it, but it didn't smother it completely. Marcus also saw everyone else receive their portion for contributing.

People who did well stood a little straighter or ran a little faster. Others, like him, now had a skill to choose, and what a choice that would be.

Holy shit...

Looking at how many levels he had gained confused him. This many, all at once, was something that hadn't happened in a long, long time. He hadn't even killed that many people, yet the amount of essence was off the charts.

Was this what they meant when they said gaining essence from people was better than from monsters?

He'd heard it said before. The essence transfer was less efficient, or something. Taking it from other humans resulted in getting more per level than from other beasts.

This was the first time the difference had been so stark.

Three levels, and he hadn't even fought to the death. He'd killed a few, held the wall for as long as possible, and slaughtered a few pursuers. He still had a bit in the tank to go another round, yet the gain was....

This is troubling.

The implications of such a thing were... not good. People had always taken the easy way out, and now, with such a gain... it wouldn't be good.

Was this why?

Marcus shook his head. He didn't want to think about this now. He was needed elsewhere, and to be doing something other than being in his head.

Their retreat was successful, and they reached the second line of fortifications before nightfall, but he wasn't sure how well they would be able to hold them. Mikayla could do the same thing she had before and rip a large hole in the wall.

He could vividly remember the gigantic plant rising from the ground and ripping the fortified wall they had spent weeks hardening apart like it had been paper.

If she could do it once, he had to plan that she could do it again.

Fuck...

This was already going worse than planned. He could only hope Christopher was having better luck in the West, because he had just gotten his ass handed to him in the South.