Wandering Storm
Chapter 9: Leg

On a peaceful grassland, in the middle of nowhere. The vast expanse of the vivid green grass, along with some scattered colorful flowers here and there, together they create an amazingly breathtaking scenery. The evergreen prairie stretched endlessly in all directions and connected to the boundless bright blue sky above on the horizon. Here, one could only have the desire to lay down and mindlessly look at the sky, waiting for the day to pass.

Out of nowhere.

Pop!

A human figure simply appeared on the grassland, without any signs or disturbance, even the grass below was still gently swaying, as the figure seemed to be floating at a very low altitude. He was a tall guy, with a youthful looking face. His hair is black and simple, albeit a little bit unkempt. His eyes were grey-purple, with a hint of mysteriousness dwelt deep within.

He wore a simple brown robe, one that you could replace anywhere. This style was popular among the magic apprentices in most fantasy world. However, his robe looked worn, but not too much, and it was weirdly tidy and ironed.

As his lips curved into a relaxing smile, he said:

“ Hmmm, little horsey had such bizarre mobility for its size. Well, it’s not the first time I saw something like this anyway. That weird ball of meat and tentacles was far faster, despite its size of nearly a galaxy. I did calculated its speed of movement didn’t I? About the speed of light… Yeah, little horsey isn’t that scary if you compare it to a literal cosmic horror hehe.”

As he again casually strolled through the beautiful grassland while muttering stuff, he came to a fun yet highly applicable idea ‘What if they cripple Zergish? And they should do that fast enough before breaking its hazy state, given that its skull was ridiculously thick, its femur must be nigh-unbreakable too… Lrd Hidain was able to split its snout in the first loop, but it was too shallow to even mention… Hmmm, what if I guide them to aim there?’

Having reached the wall, this time Damian create 10 puppets, varied from orange to blue robed and spread them out. Some were female, others male, and young and old. Each of the puppet took its own route to get in the city. This way he could help the city’s defense even further without raising suspicion.

Needless to say, all the 10 puppets and Damian successfully got into the city, and each behaved like a distinguished individual. 3 puppets were rune stone sellers, after selling their stones, they just simply found restaurants to eat. 4 just aimlessly wandered around the city while secretly injecting ideas about breaking legs of horses. And the last 3 infiltrated the head quarter of the raid force, their task was to driven the commanders to recruit more mages who were good at attacking spells.

Damian himself, well, he was sitting on the wall, whistling a strange melody which sounded like It’s just a Burning Memory from the famous album Anywhere at the end of Time. His index and thumb formed a circle, and he looked through it. Through the weird method, he zoomed right into the knee of Zergish, who was thousands of kilometers away.

He was indeed studying and scanning the structure of the beast leg to replace a good spot to aim at ‘Even the tendons are ridiculously tough, well, at least not as tough as the bone so there may be a chance…’ He was looking at the weirdly positioned tendon on the side of the knee-cap, which could be targeted even from the front. Damian had found the spot.

After the scrutiny, he joined his ranks of puppets and also started spreading information about cutting horse’s tendon. The army had to relocate the stables the day after because people suddenly wanted to examine the sturdiness of horse legs…

Obviously, all the puppets and Damian naturally joined the recruitment. Some were placed in the same group, some were alone, but their jobs still continued without changing.

2 months passed, and the city already finished the preparation, it was 1 month faster than the previous loops. This allowed them to apply more measures to the raid, and offensive means were prioritized.

The last month flew by, and D-Day had come again. Just like last time, the first and second day were about defending against monsters who were fleeing away from the raging storm.

However, unlike last times where the melee force only stayed inside the wall and let the magic circles decimate the beasts, they were sent out right from the start. The meaning behind this was to preserve the wall’s mana as much as possible. Archers and artillery mages, the latter was twice the amount comparing to the last time, also positioned on top of the outer wall to rain down the monster tide below.

In the midst of the archers, a tall amazonian-like woman could be clearly seen towering among her peers. Her short wild black hair was flowing in the wind, and each arrow she shot out was incomparably more destructive than the oher archers'. It was Finea Ironclaw, the 26th ranker of Ergosia with the nickname Primal Bow, she was the student of Lord Gudan Silverhorn who was rank 6 and the most powerful archer of Ergosia!

The city of Derenal had successfully recruited her in the last few days of preparation, although she costed them a lot, money was nothing comparing to the City!

It didn’t stop there, among the mages, there was also a famous figure. He was another purple-robed mage beside Sir Cain and Dame Elveth. His gray hair was charring, and his face had been tanned so bad to the point he looked more like a demon from hell. On his purple robe, black and red flame patterns were weaved intricately. This was no other than Lord Avant of Infernal, who was the second most powerful purple robe mage!

His rank was even higher than Dame Finea, as he stood at the 16th floor of ranking. With a wave of his hands, black flames suddenly engulfed the entire battlefield below. Strangely, the flame only burned the monsters and left the paladins, knights and mercenaries untouched.

With these 2 new formidable figures, the defense was astronomically sturdier than the last 2 times. Without the constant restraints, the other 2 purple robes, Sir Cain the Graviton Lance and Dame Elveth the Lightning Fairy got a lot more time for their preparation.

All was set, and finally, the third day came as thunders and lightnings raged from afar.

Thoomp! Thoomp!

The thunderous muffled boom echoed as adamantine hooves hammered onto the ground. Zergish had once again, not really but this was the first time for the City, arrived.

“Come on little horsey, let’s have some fun this time, hehe.”

Having disregarded the idea to defeat the Unholy Beast, Damian now only sought fun and experimental results!

Noticing the arrival of the main actor of this disastrous stage of play, Lord Brutus shouted, his voice amplified by magic “Everyone! Fall back!” The melee force and the artillery rows on the wall wasted no time and immediately backed off to the inner wall, leaving only a few special mages and clerics for latter use.

And once again, the play started with Zergish launching its signature thunder beam from its coiled horn, and the city defended against it, albeit far more easily than before. The first loop took 50 orbs to negate the beam, the 2nd took 30 and this one only took 10. Moreover, the outer wall’s defend was even sturdier than the last 2 times combined. All these should buy enough time for them to launch the attack.

After the lightning exchange, while Zergish was recharging, again the assassins were sent out via teleporting circles. However, this time they all got an additional mountain-climbing axe and their clothes were enchanted with floating spells. As their target this time was the very tendon that Damian had found.

120 pikes, like last time, continuously plunged onto a tiny spot where the skin and flesh were weakest and where the tendon lied beneath. And yet, it took 112 pikes to reach the surface of the final layer above the tendon. The 113th pike punctured the thin piece of skin and reached the outer layer of the tendon. No electrocution occurred, which meant that the tendon hadn’t been poked yet. Until the 118th pike.

Bzzt!

The assassin who succeeded in plunging his poisonous pike into the tendon was electrocuted on spot! Despite the gruesome occurrence, the 119th and 120th assassins still stayed there and both of them sacrificed them self to plunge their pikes into the beast’s tendon.

Itched, the beast, predictably, raised its left leg and readied for the devastating kick. Just like last time, Sir Cain cast his signature spell Artificial Black Hole to pulled the leg downwards to prevent it from reaching higher before launching. Twice the amounts of magical aegis were activated in front of the wall, each of them were precisely the size of Zergish’s left hoof.

“Shouldn’t you kick with your other leg? Why would you use the itchy leg to kick, what a dumb horse.” Damian mused

The kicked was launched yet again, even with the deadly poison from the pikes, the force didn’t even decrease. Sir Cain’s Black Hole was once again destroyed, and the aegis were broken one by one. But this time, instead of zero, 4 aegis were still intact!

“Our chance! Now!” As Lord Brutus’ command echoed, countless attacks were launched from the city. With the guidance of magic, all the arrows, all the spells, all the aura slashes formed a torrent and targeted a singular spot where the pikes were embedded.

Dame Finea took her chance and shot a purely destructive arrow, it was her most powerful shot, the Primal Comet!

Like an actual comet, the arrow flew with blinding speed and struck the wound precisely.

Boom!

The arrow carried such insane destructive force although was no where near the most powerful attack of archery, Lord Gudan’s Meteoric Shot, but still it was already indescribably strong.

As soon as the Primal Comet hit, a ball of black flame swelled up and mercilessly burned the flesh. It was Infernal Orb, Sir Avant most destructive single-target spell! The spell was attached onto the arrow of Primal Comet and accurately landed onto the spot!

Sizzle! Sizzle!

The black ball of hell fire ate away the outer layer of the tendon. Suddenly, from the highest tower of the city, a pinkish-red beam shot out and hit squarely right onto the tendon!

The Cannon of The End had finished its charge and shot its beam of pure destruction without any cue!

Ziiiii!

The eerie sound of piercing lazer beam silently spread out the entire battlefield.

After a full 5 seconds, the red beam disappeared and revealed the result. There was a hole… yes, a tiny hole on the tendon! Electric blue blood trickled down, each drop was as big as a cannon ball. The beast had finally bled!

As predicted, the searing pain had caused the beast to wake up from its dazed state. Its eyes gained lucidity and the hazy electric blue curtain was no more. However, they have prepared for this.

As soon as the beast woke up and tried to ram into the wall again, not caring about the bleeding tendon at all. A ridiculously wide magic circle appeared under its frontal legs. With intricate patterns and purple hue, it was no doubt a magic circle of gravity domain. Sir Cain had already finished his chanting and activated this colossal spell. He poured everything he had in order to hinder the beast movement as much as possible.

Before Zergish even gained the inertia to back of and prepare for the ram, it was momentarily stopped!

With the swift dilation of its clear black eyes, the beast looked down its leg, its face now contained a hint of surprise.

Without wasting anymore time. Lord Hidain once again launched Angel’s Dive onto the bleeding tendon. Ivory wings and feathered, together with illusory hymns from far away appeared on the vast grassland, right above the titanic knee-cap.

As swift as an angel, Feathered Blade slashed his blade downwards and hit right at the grievous wound.

Bang!

Same as previous iterations, the loud holy noise permeated the entire battlefield, accompanied with the blinding golden ivory light. A few second passed, and Lord Hidain had finished his task. He once again free-fell onto the ground. However, this time, clerics and mages had been waiting for him, they teleported him to the area between 2 walls and immediately healed him.

The blinding light fade and the aftermath emerged slowly. The tendon… it was cut… cleanly… Unable to withstand the sudden loss of balance, Zergish had no choice but to collapse and knelt down!

Its colossal body, towering far above the already gargantuan outer wall, fell heavily into the area between 2 wall. With its legs on one side and the body and neck and head on the other side, the titanic beast looked like a horse who just failed its jump over a fence!

Thump! Boom!

As the kilometers long and massive body hit the ground, shockwaves and dust spread out like a storm. The impact even caused a minor earthquake.

With such epic spectacle, the entire erupted and cheered, yet they still tried there best to rain down onto the beast’s head. Without wasting the golden chance, the Cannon of The End had already recharged and shot another deadly beam. This time, its target was the beast’s eye, which was as dark as the universe.

Ziiiii!

The sound of eeriness echoed again, drowned everything in silence. Another eternally-long 5 second passed, and the final conclusion was revealed under everyone’s eyes.

What was seen wasn’t the damaged eyeball, but instead a milky white, hairy layer of skin. With its ridiculous reflex, Zergish had closed its eyelid on time before the red beam hit!

“That’s really fast, how did yo..” Before Damian could finish his monologue, a strange scene occurred.

The thunder storm above Zergish suddenly constricted and gathered into its coiled horn. Fast as lightning, the beast’s entire body was no longer milky white, but now covered in black and electric blue hue. Its majestic blue mane flared up as thunder started to spread out wildly.

“Ok…” That was the last thing Damian said before the absolute destruction descend.

With no roar, no movement, no nothing on its body flared up as a warning. Zergish suddenly exploded. The lightning explosion was so massive that in drowned not only the entire giant City of War, but also the vast grassland surrounding.

Right before the massive tsunami of pure lightning crashing onto the city, Damian had already manipulated all the lightning mages and Dame Elveth to activate everything the have. All the 100 orbs, all the energy Dame Elveth could muster, all poured into pure defense.

And yet, all was futile. The drowning dome of lightning was simply too strong, too destructive that even with all those measures activated, none could withstand longer than a second.

Even from space, an electric blue-white dome could be seen clearly. About 10 second had passed, and the lightning dome halted. What remained was a flat land with charred earth everywhere. The only discernible object was Lord Hidain’s armor and sword, his body had already become ash.

Floating above, Damian in his ghostly form observed the desolated remnant of the beast’s devastating hidden card “Hmmm, well at least this was just for fun. And yet we pushed little horsey to this. So a success I guess.” He didn’t fade away immediately but lingered back for a few minutes as he still sensed life-force from the ash field below.

From the sea of ash and cinder, a giant familiar milky white horse-frame figure emerged. It slowly stood up and finally reached the sky with the coiled horn. Its beautiful white fur had turned grayer and the majestic bright blue mane did not contain the iridescent glows. The dark eyes on its head had been covered in a layer of hazy blue again. From the tip of the horn, dense gray clouds swirled and formed another thunderstorm. The storm got bigger and bigger until it reached the original size.

Under Damian’s invisible gaze, Zergish had stood tall again and continued its path of ruination. Although this time, its left leg was limping weakly. “Well, that’s something… My time is almost up so better wrap thing up in the next loop.” Watching the towering titanic unicorn disappeared on the horizon, Damian could only chuckled and fade away.