Beast Horde (1)

Blake snapped out of his daze when he heard the united intimidation in the distance.

It seems the beast horde is about to make an appearance out of the cover of the forest, the collective growls from them already reach the ears of those who were taking a stance in front of the city and on the wall.

Even the ground began to shake harder, amplifying the tense situation.

More and more people from the city pour out and get into a barricade formation, clasping the shields provided by the city near the gate against each other to make a robust wall that would protect the city.

Clearly, the people were nervous judging from their trembling hands.

Aside from the adventurers and players that were accustomed to a situation such as this, the people of the city that decided to help defend the city were not as trained, and thus have a hard time keeping their composure.

But then again, this part of the Elven Kingdom should be relatively safe.

It didn't take long before the tip of the beast horde burst forth, showing all kinds of beasts.

Ready or not, their eyes bear witness to the vicious spectacles coughed forward from the dark corner of nature inside the Lunaris Game. Hundreds of robust beasts gallop forward relentlessly, trampling over anything that stood in their paths.

Not a neat charge, their bodies collided against each other as if they have lost their minds.

Almost as if they were trying to compete who gets to the city first.

Just the sight of the beast horde alone makes the civilians that decided to help to feel their blood run cold, the absence of mind in the beasts' eyes was enough to strike insurmountable fear to the weaker-willed.

Upon seeing this, Blake frowns as the situation is not good for them.

'If I need to contribute the most, then I'll have to protect the people, creates a strategic defense, and also landed the final strike. First of all, I think I could do something to slow them down and buy time for the city guards on the wall to deal as much damage with their arrows'

Scanning the situation clearly, he then dashed away, knowing what to do.

Meanwhile, the players standing at the very front have already drawn their weapons ready.

One player at the center is a muscular bearded Elf that is smiling wide at the incoming beast horde, he has a big staff in his hands, and his hands are visibly trembling in excitement to clash against the beast horde.

Feeling impatient, the man charged forward first, "Raarggh! I feel my blood pumping!"

[Lvl. 44 - PointyBrute]

Even though the beast horde is still quite far away, and hasn't even reached the shallow river yet, PointyBrute already sprints forward like a battle maniac. Stomping strongly when he reaches the shallow river, he then leaped high into the sky.

Under the gaze of the onlookers, the tip of his big brown staff glowed with green energy.

It was then, the green energy manifest into a double axe head.

"Whirlwind Crash!"

Reaching the beast horde that is already growling and baring their fangs, wanting to take a piece of PointyBrute, his axe glowed green even brighter before he spins forward and doing a heavy slash right at the beast horde.

Crash!!

A powerful blast was created followed by cutting-edge wind that exploded around the area.

Many beasts were slain by PointyBrute's powerful skill, a Bladesinger skill.

Upon seeing PointyBrute already farming the beast horde like a lunatic in heat, the other players also decided to join in as they were going to farm the beast horde until either it was finished or they died amongst the vicious beasts.

Since they were players, this absence of fear of death is one of their privileges.

Aside from PointyBrute, four players also charge forward and caused a ruckus amongst the beast horde while the city guards and the people watch them in surprise. It was shocking for them to see such reckless individuals.

For them to defend the city like this makes the city guards and the others felt touched.

Out of the four players that joined in with PointyBrute, two of them seem to have an advanced version of the Ranger class that excels at close combat, one of them is a mage, and the other seems to take the Assassin Class.

Each could defend their own, but the beast horde is too big for them to stop.

Despite killing beasts left and right, burning through their stamina and mana, most of the beasts pass through them and keep on charging toward the city wall. It was then, the captain announced for the archers to prepare to fire.

If the beast horde reach the shallow river, then they would instantly open fire.

Keeping a close eye on the foremost beast, the captains were about to put down their hands, signaling to fire but were stunned when a weird sight enters his vision. It was the first beast that managed to reach the shallow river.

"What's happening? Why did it stop?" One of the captains muttered in confusion.

Just when the first beast stepped into the shallow river, its body was instantly rooted on the spot, and it seems to be struggling to get out. But in the next second, the water around it started to turn crimson.

Something is happening inside the water, but the captains couldn't make sense of it.

A moment later, the beast howled in pain.

In the next second, the beast dropped down to the shallow river, dead.

Not aware of what the shallow water did to the first beast, the other beasts coming right behind also went through the shallow river before the same thing happened to them, rooted on the spot instantly.

More and more beasts got stuck until eventually, the beast horde catches up to this.

Some of them started jumping over the shallow river.

But even though the captains doesn't know what was happening, they quickly signaled for the archers to open fire, sending volley after volley of arrows toward the beasts that managed to go past the shallow river.

Thanks to the shallow river, none of the beasts managed to get near the city wall.

Although everything is going smoothly right now as none of the beasts managed to reach close enough to clash against the barricade of people in front of the city wall, it didn't stay like that for long.

In a moment, three menacing figures came out of the forest.

Different beasts compared to the usual ones, these figures were stronger.

Roar!!!

A thunderous roar escaped their mouths as they assert their dominance over the others.

One is a mix of buffalo and a bear that has big vicious armored black horns, another one is a horse that is blazing with crimson flames to the teeth, and the last one is a weird mole monster that doesn't have eyes.

Despite being different, they have one thing in common. A golden moon-shaped mark.

Since the three of them have the same mark, it's clear that they were corrupted by the First Moon God. It explains the oddness of the beasts' behavior, gathering into a horde and attacking a novice city like Einora City.

Under the effect of their roars, the other beasts were rejuvenated with strength.

A subtle roar could be seen on the beasts' bodies which made them stronger. Some even managed to break free from the shallow river and started limping towards the city wall, disregarding their broken legs.

It was then, the ones that managed to go past the river clashed with the barricade.

Tara, Linthia, and Angel were amongst them.

After managing to regroup and stick together, the three decided that they would also need to help the city from the beast horde and joins the barricade. Of course, Tara wouldn't be so inclined in putting Linthia in danger.

So if things went wrong, then she wouldn't hesitate to bring Linthia away.

In addition, Angel is standing behind Linthia and Tara. Due to having mostly support skills, she was not adept in fighting close-quarter combat despite her high level, and she also don't have that much courage to fight against the beasts head-on.

While the battle continues, Tara was still trying to search for Blake around the area,

'Blake, I thought you told me that we should stick together. But where did you go? I know you're here somewhere. Well, he's not going to be in trouble anyway. I just need to keep an eye on Lady Linthia until he came back' Tara thought, shaking her head with a sigh.

But while fighting the beasts, she catches sight of a reddish spark in the distance.

Roar!

Ever since she's not a human anymore, her senses have become sensitive. Tara is certainly stronger now, and she smacked a big cat that was trying to bite her neck away with ease to gain a clear view of the shallow river.

Subtly, she could feel a familiar energy coming from the shallow river.

It's the same energy that Blake emitted sometimes.

Squinting her eyes, she finds the beasts that were stuck in the shallow river howling in pain.

Due to becoming a Shaded Walker, she always has this connection with Blake. No matter where he is, she could sense his energy roughly in an area. And thanks to that, she realized that the shallow river was infused with his energy.

The Shadowblood energy creeps inside the water of the shallow river.

'It seems like he's really motivated to defend Einora City, I guess he did said that he wanted to become stronger fast. Or maybe is he this motivated solely because he really likes to fight?' Tara wondered, the reason she thought that is because she occasionally saw Blake smiling while fighting.

From her perspective, Blake seems to really enjoy the thrill of a fight.

While she was thinking about this, her eyes then shifted to the players beyond the river.

"So those are Players, huh... all of them are fearless and quite a maniac in terms of getting stronger through any means necessary" Tara muttered inwardly, but then her eyes shifted to Angel. "No, it seems not all of them are like that"

Unlike other players, Angel was clearly afraid and likes to play it safe.

It was one of her traits that Tara and Linthia picks up almost instantly, Angel really like behind them inside a dungeon or a hunting ground, providing only support along the way and trying to hog Blake to herself.

Compared to Blake or the other Players, she's quite a scaredy cat.

But while the trio were dealing with the beasts that managed to reach them, Tara suddenly sensed Blake in the distance and gaze towards a direction. Her eyes then saw a shadow, tackling one of the players in the midst of the beast horde.

Tara frowns when she saw this, "What is he doing...?"

~

Meanwhile, the mage that was busy casting spells was surprised when he was tackled.

Gazing downwards, he finds Blake tackling him from the side.

"Are you a player too? What the fuck do you want?!" the mage exclaimed in surprise.

Upon saying that, his eyes then darted to Blake's information menu before he saw the game tag as well as the color of his game tag. "Screw you! You're the MoonDespoiler everyone is talking about! I didn't do anything! Let me go!"

"No, can't do. I'm a dedicated Player Killer you see..." Blake replied with a smirk.