Into the city, here we go.

Chapter 23

Inside the bag, there were two potions, specifically those made by him, and several magical artifacts. Whose specific effects he didn't know. Still, he could vaguely make out its value by the craftsmanship and the magical signature the artifact radiated and made the conclusion that they are quite strong artifacts, probably just a tier or two lower than what Rapim wore, specifically that bandana and gauntlet.

He splashed the potion onto himself as he didn't have a mouth. And the potion's contents disappeared just a second after it touched him. Filling up his holy energy reserve that was about two-fifths full to become three-fifths while also boosting his body's regeneration. Though that took a minute or two.

Click

Cuk

The bones of his wing made a cracking sound as it corrected itself, causing Moon to feel no insignificant amount of pain. But he endured it, without as much as a twitch.

The pain rippled through his body like a slow-moving fire, but it was distant—like a scream heard from the depths of a cave. His mind, altered to become beyond human limit, registered the agony without response. No flinch. No hesitation. Only awareness.

From the logical perspective, it was without that much flaw, as there was no ancestor to inherit that instinct from, if one doesn't count God.

While he was resting a bit, Katu and Kale, along with their bodyguards, emerged from the bushes beside him.

Katu's face was covered with splinters and dirt as if she had been dragged across the ground. While Kale's pants were covered in dirt, the rest of their body was clean, at least mostly clean if one doesn't count Katu.

"So you won," Kale sighed as she walked closer upon seeing him. Her footsteps were slow, and a smile adorned her face. However, that smile turned stiffer as she saw the state Rapim's body was in, specifically the husk of a being that was once called Rapim.

Katu, who was also beside her, also saw the corpses, but with a lesser variant of Kale's stiff smile, she crouched down and started poking his corpses. "Hey, are you dead? Say something if you are dead," she would quietly mutter as she sat beside it.

An act that he ignored. "Find a safe place and hide," Moon said, in his usual deep voice.

Kale nodded at him. "Yeah, I am thinking of doing that, though what are you planning on doing?"

"I am planning on taking what I was promised."

Kale's eyes widened in pleasant surprise upon the revelation that the artifact, though to be a lie, truly existed. "So, do they have the artifact?"

Moon's eye slowly shifts from Kale to the city. "No, but their clan's vault contains an artifact with the same function."

Kale nodded back at him as she slowly shifted her gaze to where Moon was looking, specifically toward the city. There she saw the city transforming into a well-oiled fortress akin to a war machine. With almost a hundred or so guards and soldiers on each side of the wall and almost a dozen in each massive watchtower. The bowman's hand clutched around their bow and the soldier's weapon drawn and ready to spill blood as they stood guard.

The soldiers were of various races: kobold, troll, orc, and mink. But the mink, orc was the majority while the lizardman was just behind them ranking third.

Their armor gleamed under the sunlight, and their weapons clanked against the wall itself as they stood ready. The steady sound of footsteps, the clanking of arrows, and the shouting of superior officers dimmed the atmosphere and conveyed to those civilians who were inside the city that a battle would take place soon.

Second after second

Minute after minute

Time continued to run as they got ready; some catapults were placed on the walls as they started loading it up. But none ventured out of the city, orcs, lizardmen, not even the minks.

Gazing at it, she started feeling worried for Moon. Her eyebrow furrowed in worry as she turned to Moon. "I'll follow you."

Moon turned to Kale, his gaze boring down on her as if saying, "No, you would not," thought his gaze. Kale understood it fully, but she stood firm and resolute as she endured the invisible pressure his gaze cast down on her shoulder.

It continued for a few seconds, her stubborn gaze against Moon's blinding gaze. But she remained steady and resolute against him. So, as if he accepted her determination, he turned back to the city. "Up to you." He said while doing so.

Kale nodded at him with determination, after which she turned around to Katu to tell her to go to safety. But she didn't see her. She should have been behind her, but she was gone. After turning left and right for a second, she saw her. She was following Moon with a big, full smile on her face. As if she noticed her gaze, Katu turned back to her. "Let's go and kick some ass!" she yelled as she shadow-boxed the air. Her eyes were glowing and glistering like gems and her mouth curved upwards. Her excitement and confidence were clear, though no one knew if she was confident in herself or Moon.

She slightly smiled in response and shook her head upon seeing this picture, after which she also followed behind Moon. And behind her, the clanking of her bodyguard's boots was heard as they also followed after her. Widening her smile even further.

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Bernard, the simple bowman, took a deep breath as he clutched his bow tighter. His brow furrowed, casting deep shadows over his narrowed eyes as he gazed at some sort of monster who was fighting the Thunder Rabbit himself, without problem. Although it might just be his imagination, Thunder Rabbit seems to be losing.

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Thunder Rabbit launched into the sky—only to be intercepted mid-air. The monster moved too fast. A blur of tendrils and searing light.

Crash!

Thunder Rabbit slammed into the ground, rolling to his feet, breath ragged. He attacked. A counterstrike. A flash of steel and mana. But the monster was relentless. For every wound it took, it inflicted two more. And slowly but surely, the monster was grinding him. A little by little but without stopping or slowing down.

When the last explosion sounded, it suddenly stopped, and tranquility returned to the city.

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But the sky was cloudy and the air was damp, cueing to Bernard that rain might be coming. The distant sound of orc's bellows sounded from the distance, cursing unfortunate ones.

"Why the fuck are we not helping?" Beside him, his captain muttered through gritted teeth. His captain's knuckles were white, and a crease formed between his eyes, his jaw tightening as if biting back to prevent himself from doing a foolish thing.

He could understand him, as his leader was a mink, and to see their leader, the pillar of their clan, no, even beyond that. A living legend of their clan being slowly grinded to death must have been rage-inducing, if not maddening.

But he still couldn't understand why the head of the two clans had barred anyone from going out of the city. As normally the city should have sent every manpower it could muster to protect the Thunder rabbit, following the ancient agreement the three clan's ancestors made. At least from what he knows instead, the two clan's not doing anything confusing to quite a few people, including him. Nevertheless, because he doesn't have any authority or strength he decides to bury that doubt, deep into his heart.

Just as it seemed like the tranquility would continue on forever, the monster came out of the forest, followed by two goblin women. He identified one of them as the owner of the biggest alchemy shop in the city, the richest person in the city, and her daughter. Talented goblin who has immense talent and has reached late low class despite her young age.

Followed by her bodyguards who are all massive and of immense strength. Though nothing much compared to that monster who was at the front.

"STEADY YOUR AIM" His captain shouted beside him while also pulling the strings of his bow. And throughout the city, the other watchtowers and on the walls, archers and some mages started preparing just like them. But through the edge of his vision, he saw his captain's hand tremble and blood trickling down his fingers because of how hard he pulled.

Suddenly the monster started flying high into the sky, straight up towards the sky. Sending gusts of wind so strong that even he from this far distance heard the piercing and blowing sound of the wind.

Thirty meters above ground

Fifty

Eighty 

When the monster reached eighty meters. The monster suddenly stopped. The monster's eyes are akin to a sun pressing down on him, no, on everyone's shoulder. "Give me what is owed, and I shall leave." The monster said, its voice for some reason reaching every corner of the city, despite the absurdity of it.

The soldiers who stood on the ground and the pedestrians who were in their homes in fear all stayed quiet upon the question imposed upon them. For they did not want anything to do with it. In fact, for those soldiers that stood on the walls of the city, the soldiers who saw the monster rip apart massive trees like they were fragile branches, destroying hills like they were sandcastles during its fight against Thunder Rabbit, they wanted to just give in to its demand. But their superiors, uncertainty about what would happen to them if they did anything that might count as cowardliness or betrayal, prevented them from doing anything.

But while the quiet guards remained stationed and the frightened civilians hid in their homes, the city's elites strode specifically, people from the three clans marched through the streets, galloping on the ground, weighting down the very air itself as they strode forward.

Each of the elites was at least middle class with a hardened expression and scars of various sizes and depths that foretold the history of the thousand battles they had endured. Each time their legs touched the ground, they broke it and left their footprints on it as the ground beneath them gave in before their legs did. At their head were the two clan leaders of orcs and lizardmen, respectively. Both of them with a piercing deep gaze that sent shivers down anyone's back and monstrous pressure.

"You will get nothing, beast. Retreat now, or face the consequences." The lizardman leader shouted as he skillfully maneuvered his spears. Behind him, the elites of his clans stood.

Meanwhile, beside him, the orc clan leader, Bulgar, turned left towards the lizardman clan leader and huffed, as if mocking him for being cowardsly. After which he pulled out his massive hammer from his back, and bellowed. "IF YOU WANT IT, COME AND GET IT, YOU BEAST.". Sending a blast of air as the orc clan leader ran even faster towards the wall, no. Towards the beast in the sky.

The lizardman clan leader's expression hardened through the scales that adorned his face. But he didn't say anything as he also ran towards the wall.

"What a mess," Bernard muttered as he shifted his aim from the monster in the sky to the two goblins and the group of guards who were on the ground. Some of his team followed after him as well, as they weren't confident that they could hit anything that was so high up in the sky.

"So be it." He heard the monster say as the monster suddenly stopped fluttering its wings and started falling towards the ground at an even faster speed than before. The monster was akin to the fastest of arrows, as a sharp, screaming whoosh tore through the sky as it fell.

Just as it seemed like the monster would hit the ground, it suddenly spread its wing and did a ninety-degree change. Flying straight towards the city wall.

BOOOOM

PUUU

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He didn't remember what happened after that. Everything was a blend of darkness, confusion, the ringing noise that blared in his ear, and pain as he lay there under a thick wooden plank in the ruins of the tower he once stood. He tried pushing the big log that was stuck on top of his leg but to no avail. Instead, a train of pain flooded in as his brain finally registered the pain he was in. His breath was hitched, and it felt impossible to take a breath. With only the smallest and shallowest breath possible, barely enough for him to survive.

"Fuck." He cursed, as that was the only thing he could do at the moment.

The faint drops of water fell on top of him, cueing him that rain was coming.

He took a few deep breaths, at least trying to breathe through the barely functional throat that he could, and opened his eyes to inspect the surroundings.

The sight that greeted him was a grim and dark burning building, broken-apart houses, and shops. Crying and begging civilians and enraged and maddened soldiers marching towards a massive beast. Who, for some reason, became even bigger than previously. The beast was previously only about two meters in diameter; now it is almost four, and there were flames surrounding it.

"What happened?" he muttered. He looked around with his only functioning right eye as the other won't open and saw a civilian hiding in the rubble beside him. "Hey, Huff, what the hell happened?" He said it, but it came out as weak and shallow.

The civilian, as if hit by something, yelped and hid farther away from view and deeper into the shadow. Upon seeing it, a faint anger surged beneath him. Getting exhausted and half-dead didn't help much either, as it only fueled it even further. "YOU THERE, WHAT HAPPENED?" he screamed towards the civilian.

The civilian stopped yelping, looked around for a bit, and started sneaking closer to him. And when the civilian, whom he thought to be a weak civilian woman or child, turned out to be a big, burly orc. An orc, which he was familiar with, extremely surprised him. The orc was a bartender and owner of the biggest pub in the city and a man who wouldn't normally flinch under most circumstances. Ready to go hand in hand at any time.

But the orc was also peculiar, as the orc always wore that weird white shirt despite his massive muscles and took no insult from anyone towards his little mustache.

"Ya?" the orc quietly whispered while hiding right beside him, probably from the monster who was still fighting in the middle of the city.

"What happened?" Bernard asked while trying to hide the surprise he felt at how polite and quiet it sounded, in contrast to his burly frame.

"Umm." The orc stayed quiet for a few seconds, sounding unsure. Causing Bernard's breath to start rising again. But the orc didn't take long. "The thing, it, it entered the core part of the city."

Bernard stopped for a few seconds, after which he asked. "Start from the very beginning when that thing rammed into the wall. What happened?"

The orc scratched the back of his head quietly and nodded."Ummm, okay, but be quiet, okay? It might notice us."

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AU: plez throw stones.

i am sick

tummy hurt