Chương 65: Chapter Sixty-Five: The Wave Begins

"Fire!" Brian yells as the beasts finally get within range of the magical ordnance lining the Veil walls. A low thrum cuts through the deep moaning noise that had previously blanketed the entire field ahead. Mana seems to gather in almost nauseating amounts as the recruits activate their manned artillery to begin the opening salvo of the battle. And what an opening it is.

Thin lasers of pure mana shoot at speeds faster than the eye can track, resulting in booming explosions that signal the beginning of our war against the bugs. Before the smoke has the chance to clear, Brian and the other front-liners leap off of the towering wall to meet our aggressors. For a moment, I cannot believe their foolishness at diving blindly into the wave of bugs, but finally, the aftereffects of the mana cannons die off, revealing to me an empty stretch of cratered dust and stone.

The opening wave of Freylith has been completely wiped from the battlefield without even a shred of their remains being left on the ground. The extent at which the monsters had been erased is almost unbelievable, and for a moment, I find myself actually thinking that we may still have the upper hand in this fight. I'm not the only one either, and even before the next wave of creatures have arrived, I watch as the recruits begin to pepper the roiling mass of clambering bodies with all types of ranged attacks.

It finally dawns on me that the landscape and its Moon-like appearance might not be a result of the barren world beyond the Veil, but rather the ongoing battles that rampage through the area. With the wave occurring every six months for the last few centuries- or however long they have occurred- the badlands could very easily be a side effect of the ongoing struggle between the bugs and the humans.

It only takes me a moment to recognize the faults in the show of power brought about by the artillery, as I soon deduce that the initial attack was more of a moral booster than any real strategic maneuver. One look at the mana cannons tells me that it will take significant time for them to recover from the devastating salvo delivered. Their blasts were no more than an opening act in the certainly long-winded battle to follow.

This fact seems lost on the countless warriors, and a myriad of attacks are unleashed on the scrambling horde of bugs. Bolts of electricity, gouts of flame, water spears, luminous rays, and all sorts of skills are activated and used to their maximum effort while the recruits attempt to follow in the lead of the initial show of power blazed into their minds. Regardless of the now lacking support, I leave my thoughts about the currently useless artillery and fulfill my own role in this bloody fight.

Holding back no longer, I match the various bodies around me in their fervor for destruction and finally allow the bullets behind my back to come forth and assault the numerous black husks below my feet. Activating multiple skills at once, I let loose my own opening salvo filled with tiny darts of death and a metric shit ton of kinetic energy powering their speed. < You have defeated: Freylith - Lvl. 54 > < You have defeated: Freylith - Lvl. 52 > < You have defeated: Freylith - Lvl.

58 > < You have defeated: Freylith - Lvl. 60 > With my preparations complete and my full power allowed to be released at will, I pour every single ounce of concentration I can muster into targeting every bug-like creature beyond the wall. Bodies fall, showers of oily black fluid fill the air, and I relish in it all as I can feel tens of notifications begin to fill the back of my mind.

I hadn't checked beforehand, but luckily it seems the initial circle of high leveled Freylith are not actually the norm for this wave, and there are, in fact, monsters I can farm for the time being. Vince had said the average level of the monsters ranged from 50-80, and as I briefly audit my kill log, it would seem that the overall average matches his estimations.

The appearance of the 'elite' Freylith legion from earlier is still on my mind though, and I don't allow my vigilance to drop despite confirming the current level average of their buggy pawns. Even though I had dedicated a portion of my attention on the level 100+ bugs that stood waiting near the wall; the standalone figures have been drowned in the roiling mass of their brethren to where I have no clue of their current whereabouts.

This would be pretty worrying normally, but my job right now is not to track down enemies beyond my reach. For now, my current mission is as follows: Snowball off the small fish and leave the big ones for the commanders in the area to handle when they come up.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. I have no idea how much time has passed, and I truly don't care as I fully abuse the superior position and free kills brought forth by The Pillar. At some point, Kathryn yells over the noise of battle to tell me about the weaknesses of the Freylith revealed through her skills, and I say nothing in return while instead filing the new information in my mind and readjusting my fire.

The thrill of the battle is so intoxicating I can't stand it, and despite the relatively insane gains I am surely earning from the ongoing fight, I can't help but want for more. Numerous ranged attacks from the Freylith attempt to reach our position from the platform, yet not a single projectile can make it through the seemingly unyielding barrier known as the Veil.

No matter how many attacks it can stop, it is clear the barrier is not impenetrable, as I passively notice small holes left behind by the ceaseless onslaught of attacks layering the wall. It would seem this weakness in the Veil is well known amongst the commanders here though, and for every projectile that is able to penetrate the tiny holes is swiftly cleaned up by supportive barriers put up by dedicated mages also lining the walls.

Despite what I might have thought of the ignorance in the NPCs of this floor, it is clear that their experience with the waves is nothing to scoff at, and even with the significantly shorter time to prepare for the fight, the people of this floor are more than ready to handle the increased difficulty. Beyond the preparations put into place ahead of time, I find some of the commanders themselves are also much stronger than I would have expected.

I can barely see Brian through the thick smoke filling the battlefield, but every time I see him flitting around, it is in an entirely new form that bulldozes through each bug that dares to approach. His class is apparently much more versatile than I would have liked to admit, as it seems he is able to change various parts of his body and armor to adapt to the enemies that he comes across.

If there is a heavily armored Freylith ahead, the man's gauntleted hand becomes a sharp pike that pierces the reinforced husk in an instant. More nimble bugs are equally no match, as one his legs somehow becomes a sweeping guillotine that cleaves their frailer bodies in half. Tobias is equally, if not more impressive, as his draw fills with all sorts of projectiles that leave his weapon before I can even properly identify what they are.

Even with a part of my focus freed through the monotony of my rapid attacks, I can barely track the number of beasts he puts down throughout the field. Underneath his tyrannical presence, Freylith of all levels fall dead to randomly adaptive projectiles that always seem to find their mark. Even with the relatively ridiculous amount of bullets I can conjure and fire at all times, the men both probably out scale the number of kills I get multiple times over.

Not wanting to be outdone, I take a moment to allocate 10 attribute points directly into PWR and begin creating even more mana constructs than before. I have no idea how many free points I have now, or how many raw points in PWR I have gained simply through leveling up, but I abuse my rapidly growing mana pool to double my fire rate all the while continuing to fill the Flare Loop behind my back with any excess radiation that doesn't go into my bullets.

My ammunition is not all powerful unfortunately, and it takes multiple confirmed hits from me in order to put down even one bug. Luckily, there is a plethora of targets and my mana reserves aren't tapping out anytime soon. More time passes and at this point my ears are filled with all kinds of music ranging from the shrill squeals of the Freylith upon death, to the bloodcurdling shrieks of our front-liners and the occasional ranged recruit being killed.

The losses aren't truly one-sided, as the legitimately gargantuan number of bugs that have come to breach the Veil outnumber our troops several times over. With each twenty or so bugs taken out, one of our men are snuffed out too. The exchange sounds favorable until you realize that the Freylith wave still seemingly has no end, and our troops are not so easily replaced. Time drags on with our troops slowly losing out, but just as some of the first bugs finally reach the wall, another low thrum vibrates in my chest.

A tsunami of mana is released once again, and the entire front line is engulfed in devastating blasts of mana that the front-liners abruptly pull back to dodge. I had thought my level ups would provide me with a better sense of the sheer quantity of bugs taken out under the artillery's salvo, but as the second round comes and the cannons become inert once again, I still can't seem to create a worthy estimate.

It's surely in the hundreds, perhaps even thousands for just the zone our station covers, but the overwhelming might of the cannons remains a mystery still as the next wave of bugs comes crashing down on our troops. At some point, the entire scene in front of me becomes a blur, and my body and mind sync up in a superhuman display of muscle memory as I continue to pump out more and more mana to prevent the ground fighters from being overpowered.

I have no understanding of how long the battle has progressed, but every now and then the air vibrates with the activation of the mana cannons. My thoughts do not even extent toward my own teammates, as the current state of my consciousness is one completely focused on the labors at hand. The ebb and flow of the battle continues, and sometimes I can see bugs breach the Veil and take a few of our ranged support before being slaughtered at the hands of our other forces.

Bodies fall, both human and monster, yet the war rages on with neither side giving any more ground to the other. It's difficult to describe the simple indifference that begins to fester in my gut as I watch more and more life erased in an instant. There is no sense of loss, even when I numbly remind myself that every man lost is another small increase in the danger posed toward my own survival if the Freylith continue to rampage. The experience has become almost... boring.

I haven't even bothered checking my status at all either, and the constant dull pressure welling up in my cells from the stream of levels has become just another addition to the background noise of the fight. Sometimes I notice the ranged attacks around me lessen in number for brief stints before restarting shortly after. Perhaps the other troops are revolving shifts now?

I think it's a bit lazy of them given the circumstances, but the growing boredom and monotony of repeating my attacks justifies their actions in my mind. Is this really it? The endless horde of monsters that had previously struck fear into every man and woman here doesn't feel as serious as it used to. All the buildup, the horror stories woven around the bug-like creatures, all of it seems to have been significantly talked up for no reason. This war is... disappointing.