’Things are starting to ramp up now.’ Fredrick thought as he leaped back from the claws of an ape-like beast, but not before stabbing it twice in its arm with his spear.
While he was now an Expert rank beast tamer, he didn’t have the same strength as an expert rank beast. However, he was still much stronger than your average human, enough to put him on par with weaker beasts. So in situations like these, Hydro would serve as the main attack force, dealing with the big and bad enemies, while Fredrick would support it by killing the weaker ones and sending commands
At this point, landmines were going off almost constantly as the sheer number of beasts had finally broken past what seemed like an unbreakable defense set by the turrets. So now a melee had truly begun and entered its full swing.
Fredrick decided to let the other soldiers and tamers handle the weaker beasts while he set his sights on the stronger ones that could be a true threat. While he had no doubts that the wall could withstand their onslaught for a while, the point of mounting up a defense was to delay just that from happening for as long as possible.
Sure, the wall was durable, but not invincible.
Moreover, while Fredrick was the strongest person here at the moment, he still had to be careful. His and Hydro’s Mana pool had increased after the breakthrough, but it was very much limited, and a prolonged battle was bound to test their endurance. Not just their Mana pool, but also their stamina and mental energy.
Especially the latter, as Fredrick continuously had to use his Mana sense to pick out the strong presences in the mayhem and eliminate, while making a conscious effort to not get hit by any stray attacks. As unfortunate as it was, Fredrick didn’t have enough money to buy any equipment befitting his new rank, and while his body had also gotten more durable, it wasn’t like weaker attacks couldn’t do any damage. Otherwise, Mrs Jane wouldn’t have been able to so heavily injure the Skyblight Harbinger.
In short, while he had gotten stronger as a result of reaching a new rank, he still had to be careful.
That said, he was still a dreadful opponent on this battlefield.
If there was one thing that played to his advantage, it was the fact that the air had become a lot more humid as a result of the Harbinger’s presence changing the weather.
It was common knowledge that Mana allowed a beast to make use of its affinity in any environment, but the more of its affinity was in the surroundings, the lower the cost of Mana used to use said affinity, and the more effective said skills would be. This also applied to humans making use of their beast’s affinity.
So while it wasn’t perfect, Fredrick and Hydro weren’t expending as much Mana as they ordinarily would in such a situation, and their Mana-based skills were also significantly more effective.
So with his efforts, the pressure the Melee tamers faced was reduced by a large margin as most of them were only fighting things at a level they could handle, even if they were outnumbered.
Still, it was highly doubtful that the situation would remain this way. With such a chaotic battlefield, anything could happen at any moment, and the fickle balance that had been achieved could shatter with the slightest interference.
One that came much sooner than most would have liked.
Within the Control room, one of the Habdlers suddenly said with some urgency.
"Large swarm of Ant-type beasts detected! With multiple Expert rank commanders among them! There’s a few thousand at least!" Hearing this, the Handlers immediately started to rally said information to the soldiers while Major Thompson commanded.
"Activate the Flame turrets on maximum power and don’t turn them off. Send in the Napalm." Hearing this, the handlers swiftly carried out the order.
Back on the battlefield, there was a brief lull in the number of beasts coming in, allowing for the human combatants to take a brief breather.
Despite this, though, not a single person there felt a sense of relief, but only a growing sense of dread.
That’s because every single one of them, as well as their beasts, felt several gazes fall on them.
Fredrick narrowed his eyes as he used his helmet to zoom in, and he couldn’t help but shudder slightly. Ants. A large number of ants.
’Hell no.’ He said in his mind, at that moment, the flames turrets suddenly emerged from the ground. Their barrels glowed red as though something within them was building.
At the same time, the ants broke through the treeline and rushed forward. The ants were black with limbs that seemed to be made of a dark rock. Their mandibles were also uncomfortably sharp and glitter in the light.
As soon as they emerged from the trees, the flame turrets spewed out torrents of fire, but now it wasn’t like before when it looked like a normal Flamethrower. Instead, it was like several beams of orange flames were being ejected and instantly lit up whatever they came into contact with.
Large groups of ants caught on fire as soon as the flames landed, and the Turrets moved from side to side as the beams of fire bathed the first wave of creatures.
The heat was intense as the air started to turn an angry red as it warped from the heat, the blood on the ground turning into crimson vapor that floated upwards.
Despite this, though, the ants were relentless as they pushed against the flames to progress, not seeming to care that their bodies were literally being burned to crisps as they moved forward.
Fredrick frowned at this, but before they could make much headway, suddenly, several hatches in the wall opened. The spanned its length from within them, small tubes emerged, each of them at an angle to ensure that whenever was fired flew in an arc.
The angles adjusted slightly and a moment later, each tube shot out a cylindrical object that flew over the tamers and over the flame turrets until they were directly above the ants.
As soon as this happened, they suddenly righted themselves and became vertical, then the bottom of each one opened and large amounts of a sticky, gel like substance was suddenly ejected and rained on the ants.
They didn’t seem to do anything at first. However, that’s when some of the fire from the flame turrets touched the gel, and in an instant, several explosions rang out.
But these explosions weren’t normal. Usually, an explosion is packed with both kinetic energy and heat. If the kinetic energy didn’t kill the target, the heat will, and if the heat didn’t, the kinetic energy will.
However, these explosions did not seem to carry much kinetic energy, if any at all. Instead, it was as though their purpose was simply to spread. And spread they did.
The gel-like substance, AKA Napalm, was extremely volatile. Not only was it infused with Mana, making it burn far hotter than ordinary fire, but it also had the properties of burning the internals of whatever it touched. Meaning if one was set ablaze using it, their organs would burn just like their skin. Which was horrifying to think about.
It didn’t stop there, as each particle of the gel was created in a way that made them attractive to one another. In other words, they always wanted to congregate. So while each particle burned, they still wanted to join each other, setting everything in their wake on fire in the process.
Fredrick let out a low whistle as the tide of ants which looked daunting a moment ago were being engulfed by the inferno. It looked quite terrifying from here, and the heat had increased even more.
’But even with this, I doubt-’ Before Fredrick could finish his line of thought, another salvo of Napalm was released, causing the flames to rage even more.
’... Okay but that’s just buying ti-’ Suddenly, even more hatches opened up on the wall and several more rail hits emerged and shot out their destructive bolts of electricity.
The flames and electricity mingled as the fire burned while the electricity outright killed or stunned whatever ant was within the flames.
’... The Citadel is a lot better armed than I initially thought.’ He sighed.
However, he was glad. The ants would have been a huge issue if they managed to get close. However, this also made him frown.
What else did this Beast Tide have in store?
That’s when he realized, that they really needed to kill the Skyblight Harbinger. Who knew the types of unique beasts that were within the tide? Just farther back? That’s when the realization that the Citadel would fall if that creature wasn’t killed really hit him.
"... Annoying." He snarled.