It was finally the day. The day that if Almati lost here, Gaon would be doomed.

  Naro's armor was a strange compromise between protection and speed. Steel guarded his chest and back, ran along his shins and knees, and sheathed his right arm in plates, yet his left volcanic arm remained uncovered, which contrasted with the polished metal. The design let him move as freely as if he wore no armor at all. He left his head bare. Against the enemy he awaited, a helmet would make no difference, and it was much better to see with your eyes uncovered by a visor.

  He also had a strange device in his ear, it was the thing Rami and Agir worked on in the background.

  'Communicator..was it? What a strange device...'

  He was in the far south of the city, far enough so that the Magi could provide fire support, and far enough so that he didn't trigger the Rune-mines by accident.

  'Rami and Astor are on the North ramparts, Agir, in the West, and Yidra on the East. Despite what the Council tells us, we cannot afford to be on one side.'

  Naro also had Khiel next to him...well at least he tried being next to him, because myriads of floating blades swirled around the Ascendant in a spiral.

  Each one of them had different spells put into their very edge, Fire, Lightning, Explosions, and many other ones. Meanwhile Naro just had only one blade, and some special daggers that Agir had made, the Sky-Fell Sword was much sharper and durable than Khiel's individually but he still wished he had other ways to deal damage to that thing.

  He had recently found out he could heat up the Sky-Fell Sword so much it became a sharp molting blade, the problem is that it consumed a lot of Authority energy. It wasn't much of a problem, though, because his Authority abilities were pretty much useless in midair.

  Eventually Naro spoke to Khiel. "Run the plan by me again!"

  He couldn't really see his expression, but he knew Khiel wore a scowl. "We had so many meetings about this..." Khiel exhaled, "I act as a lure since I have the highest Authority-presence and can fly by just controlling the metal on my armor, while you act as a poacher and try to target the thing's weak points since your blade's sharper."

  He continued. "You probably look like some weak creature and it won't pay attention to you, that's the basis of it."

  Naro stretched his limbs "'Kay, but what if it targets me instead because I still carry corrupted Authority?"

  For a moment Khiel didn't answer.

  When he spoke however his rage could very much be felt.

  "You...fucking...Why couldn't you have said that in the meeti-"

  Khiel stiffened.

  The blades around him shuddered, their rotation losing its perfect rhythm as if something had dragged a hand across his senses.

  Naro felt it a breath later.

  Khiel looked up and the knight next to him followed his gaze.

  Far ahead, beyond the land and the rune-marked kill zone, the sky had begun to darken even more somehow, in a way that had nothing to do with clouds. The night itself seemed to fold inward, pulled toward a moving point that devoured light as it advanced.

  A pair of wings spread wide across the sky, vast membranes stretched between thick draconic bones. Each wingbeat displaced the air like a storm front, the movement carrying the weight of something built for both overwhelming strength and speed.

  As it drew closer, its body became clear.

  The Shade was enormous.

  "That's it," Khiel said, his voice low, stripped of irritation and anger alike. "That's the Shade..."

  The name did not feel large enough, however.

  From beneath the distant hills and the plains between the city and the horizon, shapes burst forward in a tide of motion. Wolf-like Dusk-creatures — too many to count — surged toward Almati in a wide arc, their bodies stretched and twisted by the corruption, eyes glowing with warped instinct. Their paws tore at the earth as they ran, howls ripping through the night in overlapping waves.

  He frowned. 'They're not charging blindly...Guardians I'm sick of smart monsters!'

  First it had been the Magma-knights, then, surprisingly Paro's shadow.

  Naro exhaled slowly, forcing his breathing to steady as his grip tightened around the Sky-Fell Sword. "Well this changes nothing, doesn't it?"

  Khiel's blades rose higher, spreading outward like a metal storm being drawn into formation. "The pack's here to overwhelm the city's defenses, looks like we won't get fire support," he said, already calculating. "The Shade stays high and lets them thin us out first, it seems."

  He continued, "Yeah, you're gonna have to take care of the pack while I deal with that thing."

  Naro gulped. "...Khiel, we're gonna have a problem."

  "Yeah I just listed them to you!"

  "No, I mean...that thing's looking at me."

  Naro could feel it, a faint pull inside his chest, the corrupted Authority answering the Shade's presence like a wound recognizing a blade. Whatever that thing was, it did not mistake him for weak prey.

  Naro had always been able to sense the intent of intelligent living beings. This feeling only increased when he became something close to an Ascendant. That is why he could tell it.

  That the draconic being recognized him as something...unfinished.

  Khiel's eyes widened as he stared at the Shade. "...Plan change, good luck. You're the lure now."

  'Damnation!''

  The first howls grew louder and the dark mass in the sky crept closer, blotting out stars in its wake.

  He clicked the strange device in his left ear. "Astor, I'm gonna need support with Khiel soon, turns out that thing's targeting me. Rami, I'm gonna need you to do your plan for killing those bastards quickly! Slayer over."

  Khiel let out a humorless breath, metal screaming as the first blades ignited with spell-light. "What the hell's Rami planning?"

  Naro rolled his shoulders once, settling into his stance.

  "Showing off," he replied with a smirk.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Above them, the Shade descended.

  Meanwhile

  The cannons roared again.

  Runic barrels flared, glyphs burned white, and the recoil shuddered through the ramparts. Fire and force slammed into the advancing wolf pack, tearing craters into corrupted flesh and earth alike.

  And still they came.

  Bodies fell, but the gaps closed immediately. Wolves climbed over the dead without slowing, their jaws and eyes on the city walls. The kill zone was filled with smoke, steam, and the stench of burned corruption.

  On the ramparts, Sir Zoldyk stood rigid, one gauntleted hand raised. "Again!" he barked. "Maintain pressure! Do not let them breach the outer line!"

  A Magus at the firing array hesitated, sweat dripping down his temple. "Sir, the spell-output isn't enough! They're adapting!"

  "Then increase it!" Zoldyk snapped. "You are Magus of Zyr, not hedge-casters. Fire until they break!"

  "They're not breaking," someone muttered.

  Zoldyk rounded on the voice. "Who said that?"

  "I did."

  A scarred, slender and athletic woman wearing light armour stepped into view, her white hair fluttering in the wind.

  "Stop firing like that," she said calmly. "Fire spells consume too much in the long run, and they're not suitable for such dense packs"

  Zoldyk rounded on her. "You do not command here, you managed to get lucky because Earth-shifter defended you last time, but he's not here right now! Return to your post before I have you removed, desert-dweller."

  Rami did not look at him.

  She turned instead to the Magi. "I need some of you to cast the wind spell named Virun to make tornados to push them inward. Others, I want you to cast Walin to flood them."

  The Magi exchanged glances.

  Then Zoldyk let out a sharp and disbelieving laugh.

  "You will not countermand my orders," he said. "You hold no rank here. Guards!"

  No one moved.

  A magus swallowed and looked at Rami. "Should we start with wind first?"

  Rami nodded at them.

  "Yes, I want it to be in wide arcs. It doesn't have to be too powerful, the water will do the rest."

  Zoldyk stepped forward, voice rising. "What are you doing?! I am your commanding authority! Disobeying me is treason!"

  Bootsteps sounded behind him.

  He turned just in time to see two guards closing in, one of them had a scar on his nose. Their hands already on his arms.

  "What are you doing?" Zoldyk barked, trying to pull free. "Unhand me at once!"

  The guards did not answer.

  Astor emerged from the stairwell onto the rampart, He wore heavy armor that hid most of his features, his cloak snapped in the wind. his gaze swept the battlefield once, then settled on Zoldyk.

  "Sir Zoldyk," he said, voice steady and loud enough to carry. "You are relieved of command temporarily until the fight against the Shade is over."

  His eyes widened. "You can't do this to me...do you have any idea what you're ju-"

  Astor nodded. "You are powerful in times of governance, yes, I know that. But there is no such thing as that in a war."

  Earth-Shifter gestured toward the field, where the wolves were beginning to adapt, spreading wider with each failed volley.

  "Your orders are actively endangering Almati, which makes you unsuitable to be the commander at the moment."

  Zoldyk struggled again, panic creeping into his voice. "You are overstepping," He cast his gaze toward Rami. "You planned this, didn't you? This whole display is a power grab!"

  Rami did not deny it and smiled at the panicked man.

  Astor turned to the rampart crews. "All forces on the wall answer to me until this battle ends. You will follow Commander Rami's instructions without delay."

  The response was immediate.

  The Wind spells were fired at the approaching wolves, pressure waves slamming outward in controlled sheets. The wolf pack began to compress, their advance skewed in every direction as bodies collided and footing failed.

  Water spells followed.

  Waves slammed the Dusk-creatures, turning ash and soil into slick mud. Wolves stumbled, piled up, snarling as momentum betrayed them.

  The combination of those spells made a whirlpool on the battlefield that pulled the wolves in an unending spiral.

  Rami walked ahead at the edge of the rampart and put her left feet on it, her smile dimmed and a serious expression replaced it.

  Zoldyk watched in horror as the battlefield reshaped itself under someone else's control.

  "YOU FOOLS," he shouted as the guards dragged him back. "THIS ISN'T ENOUGH TO KILL THOSE WRETCHES!"

  Rami finally turned to face him. Her expression was calm and focused, her hair fluttering wildly from the wind and her eyes reflected the star light.

  She replied in an even tone. "Who said it would be those spells that kill them?"

  Rami cast her cold glaze once more at the torrents on the battlefield, clasping her hand in front her:

  "E L E K T R A."

  Lightning ignited in her core and surged through her mana circuits, flooding her veins with blinding power. It rushed down her arms and gathered in her palm, where it crackled and writhed between her fingers like a caged storm.

  She spoke in an even voice:

  "Elektra's a spell that has a small area of affect, and generally low output in terms of fire power,"

  Rami unclasped her hands, the lightning coursing freely until she gave it the shape of a bow.

  "It is deemed useless by you, Zyr, and the majority of Magi. But do you know its strengths? It lasts for a while, targets the internal organs of the enemies,"

  She formed an arrow with the lightning, used another silent spell to enhance her eyesight and cover her ears. aimed at the spiral of the whirlpool, and pulled on the Lightning bow's strings, her arms stretched and her back muscles did the same.

  Astor copied her action and covered the ears of everyone around with the silent spell.

  Rami smiled coldly at the battlefield as she continued "And is highly conductable."

  Rami released the string.

  For the briefest instant the world went silent.

  The lightning arrow vanished from the bow with a violent crack that split the air open. It streaked downward in a jagged beam of blinding white, tearing through the night like a spear thrown by the sky itself.

  It struck the center of the spiral.

  The effect was immediate.

  The whirlpool of wind and water became a conductor.

  Electricity erupted outward in branching veins that raced through the storm the Magi had forced into existence. The spinning water carried the current through every layer of the compressed pack, the soaked earth beneath them completing the circuit.

  Branches of white-blue energy tore through the storm like living veins, snapping from body to body, racing across soaked fur and flooded ground. The spiral of wind became a rotating cage of electricity, trapping the entire quarter of the pack inside it.

  Even with Astor's spell muting the worst of it, the thunderclap still hammered the ramparts.

  The battlefield turned white.

  The Wolves screamed in wet choking shrieks, their bodies convulsed mid-stride, their muscles locked, jaws snapping uselessly at empty air as the lightning invaded their bodies, boiling through corrupted veins and organs alike.

  The chain reaction spread faster.

  Water surged through the mud, carrying the charge outward. Lightning crawled along the flooded ground like living roots, climbing through paws and up legs. Entire clusters of wolves seized at once, collapsing into smoking heaps.

  Some tried to leap free but were struck midair immediately.

  Others attempted to flee outward from the spiral, only to be pushed back by the wind walls and dragged into the electrified current.

  The vortex became a slaughterhouse.

  Bodies dropped by the dozens, then by the hundreds. The smell of burned corruption filled the night air as steam rose from the electrified mud.

  Within seconds the front quarter of the pack was gone.

  Where thousands of wolves had been charging moments before, there was now only a charred field of twitching corpses and smoking earth.

  After a moment, the whirlpool of lightning finally collapsed, its last flickers of lightning crawled across the ground before fading into darkness.

  Silence spread across the battlefield.

  On the ramparts, no one spoke.

  A black haired Magus slowly lowered her hands, staring wide-eyed at the devastation.

  "...Guardians."

  Another whispered, almost reverently,

  "She killed them all."

  Rami lowered her arms.

  The lightning bow dissolved into fading sparks around her fingers.

  She rolled her shoulders once, as if she had merely finished a routine exercise.

  Behind her, Zoldyk had stopped struggling entirely, his face in pure awe at what had transpired.

  He stared out at the battlefield, pale and shaking as the guards held his arms.

  'In a single spell...she killed them all in a single spell...'

  Rami didn't even look at him.

  Her eyes were already scanning the battlefield again, calculating the next move.

  "Don't stop," she said calmly.

  The Magi snapped out of their shock.

  "W-what?"

  Her gaze sharpened.

  "The rest of the pack is still coming."

  She turned back and gestured with her right arm.

  "Reform the wind lines, and keep the water pressure high! If they spread out, Elektra won't chain properly! Use Rean to cover your ears for the impact!"

  The Magi moved immediately at "Commander Rami's" orders.

  Astor watched the battlefield for a moment longer before glancing sideways at her.

  "...Remind me to never argue with you during a battle."

  Rami snorted softly. "Go, Naro and Khiel need you."

  The green-haired Ascendant nodded and ran toward the south of Almati.

  Then she leaned forward on the rampart again, eyes locked on the advancing darkness.

  'Round two's coming, it seems.'

  She triggered the rune of the communicator on her left ear with a bit of mana.

  "Agir, Yidra, continue the plan and do as I've just done on your battlefronts. Sorry Naro but it seems I'll continue being busy for a while. I've sent you Astor to help you guys however."

  Rami hesitated for a bit before speaking on comms again. "Love you."

  At the same time, far away in the south rampart, thousands of blades pierced through wolves and a knight was meeting a dragon head on.