'Embodiment of Darkness'
Staring down the swarm of ice ants coming for him Marcus decided to hold nothing back and activated one of his strongest unique skills.
He then took out his scythe which he had been carefully preserving since it was currently damaged, since he did not want worsen its condition.
However, Marcus planned on not allowing a single ant to get by him and knew that to achieve this he needed to use the weapon he was most skilled with.
Quickly casting his enchantment spells lightning strider and searing weapon, Marcus leaped towards the ants ready for a fierce battle.
Marcus swung his scythe around like a fiend cutting through multiple of the ice ants with each slash, while also firing off darkness bullets that were enhanced by his embodiment of darkness at any ant that tried to slip by him.
The smaller ants tried to fling their ice acid at Marcus while the much larger solider ants attempted to bite into him with their massive mandibles.
To counter this Marcus would cast his shield of light spell to block the ice acid while any ant that got close enough to bite him found itself cleaved into multiple pieces by Marcus's scythe, and whenever he was close to being overwhelmed by the hundreds of ants Marcus would quickly turn ethereal and slip back to a more advantageous position.
After about three minutes of intense fighting and being pushed back around a hundred feet, Marcus saw that a much larger ant around the size of a tank was coming his way.
Looking back at the gate of River Landing Marcus could see that the group he had been escorting were currently about to be let in as the guards raised the gate.
Seeing this Marcus turned his attention back towards the tank sized ant coming for him and giving it a quick appraisal found it to be many levels higher than the rest of the ants around at level twenty-four.
'You are not getting any closer.'
Marcus then cast a heightened darkness bullet which he then further charged with the energy coming off of him from his embodiment of darkness and fired the powerful projectile straight for the tank ant.
The ant's instincts sensed the incoming danger, and it tried to move out of the way, but the powerful darkness bullet shot straight into its side where it exploded with the strength of an average person's tier four spell.
Of course, even though this tank ant could be considered quite powerful, it was still blown apart by Marcus' powerful darkness bullet.
'That should do they managed to make it inside the city, and I am not going to be able to keep this up much longer. It is time for me to make my retreat.'
Having bought the people, he had been protecting enough time to enter River Landing Marcus deactivated his embodiment of Darkness and made a break for the city gate himself.
He thought about simply turning ethereal and slipping through the walls, but his one man stand against the army of ants had attracted him a good deal of attention from the guards on top of the wall and he did not want anyone to see him later and question him about a disappearing act.
Running for the gate into the city with a swarm of ants hot on his trail Marcus saw the guards on top of the wall manning the mana canons and begin to open fire on the ants closing in on the city.
In just a couple of seconds Marcus cleared the remaining distance between him and the gate and noticed that it had been left cracked open for him to slip under.
Diving under the gate the second he had crossed the threshold into River Landing the guards slammed the gate shut.
With the immediate crisis abated Marcus collapsed onto his knees feeling the exhaustion that came with using his embodiment of darkness.
'Ugh, it takes more of a toll on me than I thought, when I used it for the first time in my room at the inn it did not take this much out of me, but moving around while fighting puts more pressure on me than when I was stationary.'
Once the guards had finished assessing the situation and made sure that the ants would not break through the gate turned their attention towards the group of people that had miraculously made it to their gates.
"Miss are you okay do you have any injuries."
Looking up Marcus saw that one of the guards had come over to check on his condition.
Standing up despite his fatigue, Marcus replied saying, "Yeah I am fine, I managed to make it without getting a scratch on me, but could you tell me what happened, when I was here last just over a month ago, there was no swarm of ants patrolling the area around here."
The guard's face tuned sour at the thought of the ice ants that had appeared suddenly before saying to Marcus. "They appeared around two and a half weeks ago, at first it was just an ant here or there but now it has turned into a full-blown crisis. But enough about that I need to get back to my post, you should join up with your group over there and one of the guards will take you to the refugee camps"
The guard talking to Marcus then headed off back towards the gate leaving Marcus on his own.
However, as he was heading over to join the caravan he had been protecting, a man who had just come from the top of the wall came running towards Marcus.
"You there miss wait up."
Turning around to see someone in a different uniform than the guards approaching him Marcus looked confused wondering what this guy could want.
Once the man had caught up to Marcus, he took a few moments to huff and puff while he caught his breath.
"So, what was it that you needed from me."
"Ah yes, my commanding officer Lieutenant Thora Drevon of the northern army platoon number three, wishes to speak with you. If you would follow me, she is still at her post on top of the wall."
The solider then looked towards Marcus waiting for his conformation, and when he nodded his head yes, a look of relief filled the soldiers face since he new if he did not bring Marcus back with him, he was going to be royally chewed out.
The soldier turned around and lead the way to the station in which they could access the stairs that went to the top of the wall.
When they arrived there was one soldier posted outside the door who noticing the return of the messenger that had just come through, opened the door allowing Marcus entry.
Once inside Marcus noticed that the large room that would normally have a few people stationed in it was completely deserted.
Seeing the quisitive look on Marcus' face the soldier escorting him said, "Yeah, we do not currently have the manpower to house anyone in these stations, right now it is all hands-on deck. Now if you would not mind the stairs are over there and we can make it to the top of the wall."
Continuing to follow the soldier escorting him Marcus walked up the flight of stairs and emerged on top of the wall looking out over the vast area around River Landing.
Seeing Marcus, staring out at the landscape around River Landing the soldier escorting Marcus said, "It certainly is impressive, but we do not want to keep Lieutenant Drevon waiting, she can have a bit of a temper, especially when people are late."
Continuing across the top of the wall Marcus could see dozens of soldiers running around manning the mana cannons and restocking supplies.
Soon they came to a small station on top of the wall and walking inside Marcus saw a short woman no taller that five-feet tall in full plate armor and with a sword bigger than herself strapped on her back, yelling orders at some of the soldiers.
When she noticed Marcus and the soldier she had sent to retrieve him, she yelled, "Enio, I told you to be back with her in three minutes tops, it has already been over five, what did you do stop by the commissary on your way."
The other soldiers around looked at poor Enio who was getting chewed out with looks of sympathy and after around twenty seconds of berating Enio, Lieutenant Drevon turned her attrition towards Marcus and said, "Sorry about the sorry condition of my men, this lot is still green and need to be whipped into shape. However, the reason I called you here is because I saw your battle against those ice ants and was impressed. You stood your ground against over a thousand ants while you protected your group, that is no easy feat.. So, how about it would you like to join my platoon I can promise you the rank of sergeant right away with your level of strength."