More Bodies Than Bullets (5/6)

Even still, this Aura is so much more than enough for his host of Wills. Maybe it's the fact that his Wills have been starved of Aura and had their strength stagnated for so long that makes this feast of Aura feel so good to Haalfrin.

With this amount of Aura coupled with his Dra Name, his physical body alone is likely as powerful as Kalkor was. He'd have gone down to challenge the Queen right now, but he knows that the Queen had grown much more powerful than Kalkor after she had slaughtered so many more cities and eaten their inhabitants.

If he fought her NOW, he'd probably die. "I mean," he thinks, "I don't care if I die… but not now. I have a job to do. I have to buy enough time for my comrades to escape through the Gate…" He grins. "Heh… once they're done evacuating, I can fight the Queen to my heart's content!"

As the army of Ants swarm over the walls and through the city, Haalfrin sees that given the smaller size of the inner wall, there are fewer cannons. With fewer cannons, the defenders aren't able to kill the Ants as quickly and stall them as long with their tar bombs.

So, Haalfrin summons his army of Wills and instructs them to rampage through the streets and slaughter the Ants. With this endless supply of Death Aura, his Wills should be more than strong enough to handle this much.

Plus… with Kaalhyme leading them, Haalfrin watches with a satisfied face as the thousands of floating weapons arrange themselves into tight-knit formations and plow through the city streets – killing everything in their path.

While the Wills are methodically patrolling the streets of the city's second layer, Haalfrin lets go of Dakka and lets him do his thing; it's more efficient that way. All alone now and without a weapon, Haalfrin starts grabbing the Ants with his bare hands and ripping them apart.

With so much Death Aura filling the air, the man nearly loses himself in the desire to kill… but he snaps awake after a few minutes and remembers what he's supposed to be doing. "Kaalhyme!" he shouts through his spiritual link, "Have half your forces on standby and only interfere in the places the Ants are about to break through."

He can't understand what Kaalhyme is saying back, but Haalfrin looks up and sees that a massive swarm of weapons had already flown into the air and started observing the battle from above.

"… Apparently," Haalfrin realizes, "I didn't even need to give the order. Kaalhyme knows this too."

Once again, Haalfrin feels grateful for having such a capable general's Will in his soul; with him around, he doesn't really have to worry about coordinating with his army, since they all make the best moves available even without his instructions.

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The battle enters a lull for several minutes as the Ants continue to charge through the city's second layer, and the Wills are coordinating with the wall cannons to halt them in their tracks.

The Queen doesn't do anything for a bit because she's hoping for her Ants to gain some ground so that she can sneak up without being focus fired on; her massive mana pool is the lynchpin keeping her alive and dangerous, after all; she can't waist mana like this!

The humans, on the other hand, are content with letting the battle go on like this because they want to buy enough time for the seal to be ready on the World Gate.

Thus, the battle seems to stagnate as the killing goes on senselessly.

After several minutes, the Queen notices that her Ants are actually being pushed back. Thus, she starts to take an active role in the fight.

Not wanting to attract the cannons' attention, the Queen sneaks around with her bodyguards and eliminates as many floating weapons as possible. Whenever the cannons spot her, she uses her bodyguards as meat shields and flees into the streets. Once she's hidden, she summons her bodyguards again and makes her way towards the wall once more.

Unfortunately for the Queen, each of these "enchanted weapons" have their own intelligence, and they don't die after their vessels are shattered. When the weapons are destroyed, the Wills just find General Kaalhyme and the report about the Queen's location.

Kaalhyme thinks about sending his reserve army (which are still observing from the sky) to attack the Queen, but he instead chooses to have them keep an eye on her, while some others lead Haalfrin to her.

Just after Kaalhyme gives this order to his men, he receives an order from the "Commander". "Kaalhyme," Haalfrin says, "have some of your reserve men keep an eye on the Queen. I can't afford to confront her right now, so I need to avoid accidentally running into her. I also need to keep the cannon masters updated so they know where to aim."

If Kaalhyme had eyes, he'd roll them and mutter, "But I'm already doing that…"

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"How do they know where I am all the time?!" the Queen screeches.

She's trying her best to keep herself hidden, but the evil humans seem to be able to see through walls; whenever she even gets in clear view of the walls, it's like the cannons are already aimed and waiting for her.

The feeling of actually expending mana instead of gobbling it up makes her heart bleed with hatred!

Despite losing mana with every turn, the Queen knows she has to push forward; there's an entire world to feast on, on the other side of the World Gate!

Feeling truly angry now, the Queen curses even louder while thinking, "AH! I can't make a mana barrier AND make a mana blast at the same time! If the cannons are hitting me, then I can't fire back!"

This is the biggest reason why she has to be hidden among her army before she strikes. This is why it's so annoying when they always know where she is.

In a last ditch effort, the Queen holds up her hand and scatters thousands of eggs on top of each other. They all start hatching so quickly that they quickly form a wall. Unfortunately for the humans, the Ants hatch quicker than they can be incinerated.

Thus, with some momentary cover, the Queen forms a mana blast and blows right through her children – sacrificing them for the opportunity to obliterate the wall cannons.

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The human defenders suddenly get a telepathic message from Commander Fisco. "We're about to purge the outermost layer. Every surviving soldier in the second city needs to immediately pack up and gets behind the wall. You have 30 seconds."

Of course, the only reason there ARE survivors in the city's behind the second wall is because Haalfrin's army of Wills discovered them and started protecting them after reporting to Kaalhyme.

30 seconds later, the houses on the outer section of the fortress all explode, killing every ant in this section.

Of course, the houses are all built with Time locked, indestructible stone. However there's a remote enchantment from Fisco's tower that activates a powerful fire enchantment built into all the houses and in the streets.

With the city suddenly clear of Ants (except for the Queen), this time would've normally been spent renewing the magic cannons on the wall.

…However, the Ants are surprisingly far to quick. Fisco seems to have underestimated the Queen here.

With the Queen being completely unharmed from the city around her exploding, she was free to run straight up to the wall and close some distance. With her being close enough now, she swipes her hands, and hundreds of thousands of eggs spawn in midair.

The eggs are so close together when they explode to full size that they push against each other and launch each other into the air.

Imagine it like this. You have thousands of grain sized pebbles that grow to thousands of times their size in an instant. If the pebbles are close enough together when this happens… the explosive force will be immense.

With the thousands of Ants spawning so close together, the force of their physical size expanding sends them flying through the air.

Of course, the impact of being birthed this way kills most of them, but a few manage to survive and land on the walls. This is enough to prevent the magic cannons from being revived.

After seeing what she's done, even the Queen is shocked. "I can use my powers like this?" she hisses. "I was desperate and I accidentally spawned too many close together…" Seeing the explosions she's made with her children, the Queen bursts out laughing, "Aha! I don't need to use energy blasts as often if I can use my children so directly as a weapon like this!"

Indeed, the Queen had spent her entire life underground, feasting on willing Ants who donate their flesh to her; she's never had to really struggle for anything, up until she discovered the surface.

The thing about hardship… is that it breeds creativity. There's a reason why most great inventions begin as war technology before being adapted for civilian use later on.

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The thing about the "purge" that Fisco did to the lower city, is that unlike the other defenses, this one only has 3 charges per city block. This is because the enchantments aren't placed in the city itself, for fear of invaders hacking the enchantments and blowing up the city's defenders. Thus, the "Purge" enchantment nodes are placed in a place only the Commander knows. In order to make the city explode this way, he has to take about half a minute to temporarily move the spell into the city below before activating it – hence the 30 second delay seen earlier.

Thus, knowing that the Purge spell isn't very useful here, Fisco chooses to save it for later.

Feeling anxious about the Ants the Queen somehow exploded onto the wall, he sighs with relief when he sees the reserve Wills in the sky zip through the sky and start clearing the walls just long enough for the cannons to knit themselves back together.