Overwhelming Firepower

Robert Duskwell, the one many have called the mad alchemist. No matter the situation, he was always curious and only wanted to learn more. He believed more than anyone else that knowledge was true power.

He had never doubted himself, that no matter what came his way, as long as he had enough time, he would be able to understand it.

Robert had always believed that the world obeyed rules. Complex rules, hidden rules, cruel rules perhaps, but rules nonetheless.

Mana followed patterns. Reactions had causes. Effects could be traced, catalogued, and eventually reproduced.

Yet right now, he was watching something he could not begin to understand. He had seen a monster wave before, and he had read many of the old accounts of monster waves, but this was nothing like those.

The monsters before him were emitting a kind of mana that didn’t feel like it was part of this world, which should be impossible.

Since mana originates from the world itself. If it is a being that emits mana, no matter what kind of manat it was, it shouldn’t be emitting mana that feels like the world itself is rejecting it.

He had heard from Lucen before they arrived that these creatures were emitting demonic mana.

He had read a few things about that as well. Demonic mana is just what people from the past call the mana given by demons. An ancient race that was there in the first era when deities still roamed the land.

Still, even such ancient beings should not be able to give out mana that would be rejected by the world.

’The only way that would make sense is if the demons aren’t from this world...’ Robert was deep in thought as he was also chanting and firing spells at the incoming monsters.

’I need to somehow get a sample.’ Robert looked at the monster wave and licked his lips. ’Once this is done, I’m going to get as many samples as I want.’

Robert, who continued unleashing one spell after another, felt his mana draining faster than expected. He and a few other mages started drinking a few mana potions.

As he was drinking the mana potion, he looked at the endless wave of monsters being bombarded by bullets, rune-engraved metal balls, and spears.

’If this keeps on going, we’ll run out of ammunition, and will be forced to a melee. We have already killed thousands of them, but they just keep on coming. Not to mention the closer they get to us... I can actually feel the corruption that I had read about, that comes from demonic mana.’

Even though he was a little worried about the corruption and the never-ending monsters flooding towards them, Robert could not hide the excitement he was feeling about wanting to know what this so-called corruption would do to him.

***

In another part of the battlefield, Veronica was shooting down another monster. She was feeling pressured as she noticed the wave coming closer and closer to them.

Ever since coming to Ironhold and joining Thornefang, she had faced different kinds of monsters.

She had joined Thornefang not only to run away from her past, from her family, but to find fame, glory, and honor in battle.

Later, she made a vow to Erwin and was now fulfilling his dream as well. She helped those in need as much as she could.

She, alongside those in Thornefang, had gone to many different places within Norvaegard and had many adventures.

Right now, facing this monster wave, she felt something invading her body; her emotions were starting to flare up.

She and the others had been warned by their leader that this could happen as they came near this particular monster wave.

Veronica steeled herself as she gritted her teeth and continued shooting at the enemies ahead.

Veronica pulled the trigger again. The rifle kicked against her shoulder, familiar and grounding.

The monster’s head burst apart in a spray of blackened gore, its body collapsing into the snow only to be trampled seconds later. She exhaled slowly.

Her chest felt tight. Not from exhaustion, she had pushed herself harder than this countless times before, but from something coiling beneath her ribs, hot and restless.

Anger, it was sharp, sudden, and unreasonable. She clenched her jaw as another monster surged forward, its distorted limbs dragging it closer. For a brief moment, she didn’t just want to kill it. She wanted to tear it apart.

The realization sent a chill through her. She closed her eyes and allowed her aura mantle to envelop her. She calmed her mind and body as she focused on shooting.

’So this is the corruption, the madness, the leader told us about. I hope the others and I can withstand this. If we succumb to this anger, to this corruption, we might start attacking one another.’

When that thought passed through her mind, a smile appeared on Veronica’s face.

’What am I even thinking. Of course, they’ll be able to handle this. We have all trained for this. Our will is much stronger than ever before. And as long as the leader is with us, I’m sure that we will find that chance towards victory.’

”Yeah, this will just be another story I will tell Erwin when we meet again in Varkun’s hall of heroes,” Veronica spoke under her breath as she reloaded her rifle and started firing again.

***

A fast-moving monster was about to crash into one of the shields protecting the soldiers, but before it could reach, Thrall fell above its head and punched it to the ground.

Thrall, who wanted to charge forward and meet the enemy head-on, reluctantly retreated instead since he was in the line of fire.

Thrall and the other barbarians, who had no more spears to throw, decided to attack only when a monster was getting too near.

Thrall slammed his feet into the frozen ground, skidding back behind the shield line as bullets screamed past where his head had been a moment earlier.

He snarled, teeth bared, veins bulging beneath skin etched with glowing spirit tattoos.

Every instinct screamed at him to charge. To leap over the shields and drown in the enemy’s blood.

The demonic mana gnawed at that urge, twisting it, feeding it, whispering promises of endless battle and endless strength. But that feeling was fleeting as the spirit tattoos on his body helped him calm down.

”Hmph, you think a true warrior would succumb to such urges? My body and will that have been forged in battle will not be corrupted!” Thrall shouted at the monster wave in the distance.

Thrall’s shout echoed across the frozen field, raw and defiant. It made the other barbarians shout in defiance as well, which in turn gave courage to those who were slowly being infected by the corruption.

***

In another part of the battlefield, Daniel was using one of the ground-mounted Gatling Guns. He hated everything about this situation.

The noise, the cold, the endless, crawling mass of monsters that refused to die properly. The way everyone around him was shouting about courage, glory, and survival. What annoyed him most was that he had to stay awake.

’I guess the only good thing about this is that there’s a chance I’ll be able to get that eternal sleep in Velmira’s embrace.’

The demonic mana washed over him like a suffocating fog. It started with him feeling irritation, then anger, then other negative feelings.

It then started making him think that he was hearing whispering about telling him kill everything in sight.

It tried to dig into him, to pull reactions from places long exhausted. Anger slid off him. Fear found nothing to cling to. Even despair felt too energetic.

The whispers continued to urge him to kill, to rage, but all he felt was mild annoyance at the noise.

”That’s it?” Daniel was expecting something more from a corrupting force that was written practically in myth. Yet that was it? It just made him feel even more tired.

***

On the other side of the battlefield, Bram, unlike most of the people present, wasn’t really being affected by the corruption.

He just continued firing his rifle like the good soldier he was. There was not a single miss in the rhythm in which he fired all the shots in his rifle and then reloaded.

Bram fired another shot. The rifle kicked, the bolt slid back, the casing flew, and the next round was chambered.

A monster staggered as its chest exploded outward. Bram didn’t watch it fall. His sights had already shifted to the next target.

Around him, men shouted. Some cursed, some screamed as the pressure gnawed at their minds. On the other hand, Bram did none of that.

His breathing remained steady. His expression didn’t change. His eyes didn’t burn with fury, nor narrow with fear.

He simply kept on shooting at the enemies before him. The demonic mana seemed to be avoiding him as it affected others but not him.

***

The sun was setting, but the black wave continued onward, and now it was getting harder to see.

The soldiers took out mana lamps, and a few mages used lighting spells to light up the area. The ammunition that they had brought was already nearly depleted. The mana potions were almost gone as well.

Lucen had already sent a few men back to Ironhold to bring more supplies. Still, he didn’t know how long they would keep this up.

Unlike the others, Lucen had many skills that resisted the corruption of demonic mana, but he saw that a few of his men were already showing signs of madness.

Lucen couldn’t help but sigh in his mind. There was nothing else he and everyone else could do but endure for now, hoping that the wave would thin out eventually.