Chapter 333: The Beast Tide

But soon, the chaos within the city quickly subsided as a brilliant light barrier formed, shielding them from the fiery rain that obscured the sky above. The city's defense array had been activated.

Seeing its attack blocked, the seven-colored feathered predator grew even more furious, flapping its wings and conjuring a massive gale towards the city below.

Crackles and snaps! Countless wind blades struck the radiant shield, causing ripples like those on the surface of water, which terrified the citizens watching from below. Yet, the shield held firm, unbreakable.

"Screech!" Seeing that its attacks still could not breach the city's defenses, the ferocious bird became even more enraged, crying out loudly.

Just when the city's humans thought the predator could do no more against their defense shield, another similar yet louder screech resounded, and with it, the ground itself began to tremble slightly.

A tide of beasts, composed of all sorts of monsters, appeared before the city's defending soldiers... Two soul-tier predatory birds were leading nearly ten thousand beasts and monsters in an assault on the city.

Clang! Clang! Clang... The urgent sound of alarm bells rang out across the city. Upon hearing these bells, all the ordinary humans began running towards their homes, taking their parents, spouses, and children to safety in their basements, or fleeing towards temples.

As the city's civilians started to seek refuge, one after another, cavalry bearing banners appeared in the streets, loudly proclaiming the lord's freshly issued command.

"By the lord's order, pursuant to the 'Human Pact,' all humans of Silver rank and above are to proceed to the city walls, follow arrangements, obey commands, and defend the city."

"By the lord's order..."

...The lord's conscription echoed throughout the city, heard by almost everyone. In a tavern that should have been noisy and bustling, silence now reigned, filled only with heavy breathing.

"Damn, unconditional conscription and obedience," a burly man cursed upon hearing the proclamation outside, "Anyone who responds to this call is a fool."

"This is the 'Human Pact'; all humans must comply unconditionally." A man with a beard lifted his cup, which was as large as a barrel, downed the murky liquid in one gulp, then grabbed his battle-axe and headed towards the door.

"What happens if you don't comply?"

"Nothing. No one will come to punish you."

"Hey, even if there were penalties, with so many people in the city, what can they do to me if I don't comply? Can they catch me?"

"No ruler would use the 'Human Pact' to summon their domain's fighters unless it's the most dangerous of times, only when there's a crisis can this pact be invoked."

"What kind of crisis are we talking about?"

"The city being destroyed."

"What?" Many adventurers, who were initially planning to shrink away, suddenly froze.

"According to the lord's judgment, there's a high probability the city will be breached by monsters, which is why he's summoning us to the walls."

"Damn, defending the city could get you killed, and if the city falls, you die just the same. Screw hiding, might as well play the hero for once."

Understanding what the lord's use of the 'Human Pact' meant, those of Silver rank and above in the tavern stepped out and made their way to the city walls.

...

"Muria, why did you agree to that old super dragon not to use teleportation and fly instead? Flying for so long is tiring."

"It doesn't matter, I'm not the one flying, so I'm not tired." Muria glanced at Auston, who was rapidly flying with him on its back, and responded with a brazen attitude.

Hearing Muria's painfully indifferent answer, Auston's mood fell, and the frequency of its wing flapping began to decrease, slowing its flying speed.

"Auston, if your speed stays this slow, you won't get today's elemental crystals," Muria said calmly, noting Auston's deliberate slacking.

"Muria, please don't, I'll speed up," Auston said, immediately accelerating upon hearing Muria might withhold its payment. As it sped up, it couldn't help but feel inwardly pained.

The gap between dragons could sometimes be despairing. Its sister, Renata, got three soul-tier elemental hearts for doing nothing, while it had to carry Muria all day just to get ten units of elemental crystals from him. The disparity in treatment between the two dragons was stark.

"Hey, Muria, look down there, there are two pretty big birds causing a beast tide to attack a human city."

"Hmm?" Half asleep, Muria perked up slightly at Auston's comment, shifted his gaze downward, and saw the vividly feathered predators Auston mentioned, quite conspicuous.

"Let's go, fly down and see what's happening." Muria stamped his foot, tired of long hours of flying above the clouds, and eager for a bit of action.

Roaring with excitement, Auston dove towards the human city below, where cries of battle filled the air.

...

"Kill!" On the city walls, a burly middle-aged man, covered in blood, wielding a battle-axe, charged at a Moonshadow Panther that had climbed the wall and was slaughtering the ordinary soldiers.

Under the onslaught of two soul-tier beasts and nearly ten thousand monsters, the human side could barely withstand the pressure, as defending was too taxing.

Reluctantly, the humans had adjusted the defense array to keep out only the gold-tier and above monsters outside the radiant shield, while allowing the most numerous bronze and silver-tier monsters through, letting them swarm over the walls to battle with the city's military and adventurers.

"Ah!" "Save me!" "Mom, I don't want to die!"... Initially, with the city walls and defending equipment, humans had an absolute advantage against the monsters that reached the walls, as the powerful beasts were all kept out by the defense shield.

But as the bodies of slain low-tier monsters piled up under the walls, forming a ramp for others to charge up, the walls lost their effectiveness. The humans were forced to fight hand-to-hand with the monsters climbing up the heaps of corpses.

"Get away, you beast!" The burly adventurer's axe struck the Moonshadow Panther tearing through the soldiers, cutting a bloody line across its body but not fatally wounding it.

If the weapon's strength level isn't high enough, it can't even breach the monster's natural armor. And the standard steel armor worn by ordinary soldiers was no different from butter cheese against the Moonshadow Panther's sharp claws.

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