Regardless of my burning need to go and start ripping the beasts that assaulted my home to shreds, I held myself in reserve. There were now nearly a hundred Keel around who were on the front lines, and though not all of them were particularly magically capable, they were scattered around with plenty of the magical Khatif nearby to make sure that they could stand against the assault coming their way. At least, between the Keels' strength and the Khatif's magic, there would be plenty of people to hold strong.
As the nearly physical shadows pressed in against the walls, the fires that protected my people started to cast their light only half as far as before. The darkness, not just the shadows of the bodies of our enemies, grew deeper by the second.
I took the haft of my tisarite spear in my left hand and fastened the scales together on my right, creating the nearest thing approximating a mallet as I could. Then, planting my spear in the stone underfoot, I started to hammer my hand against the metal.
The reverberations of my battle bell echoed across my city, and I drew deep from my sonilphon to have the same sound at the same frequency reproduce itself on every available material throughout New Nievtra.
As before, I pumped vast reservoirs of the magic filling my sonilphon into repelling the magic reinforcing our enemies. Unlike the last time that I had pressed my presence over my entire city, the resistance from the Great Hunter's kin and spawn resisted strongly. For perhaps the first time, I was confronted with the exaggeration presented in the title "Perpetual" as it stood in connection with my magical reserves. A staunch defense went up in resistance to me. The few remaining Misti Hawar, though cowed by their reduced numbers, didn't hesitate to throw their hands up and summon shadows in defiance of me.
Even before the first fleshy fights began, the determining night of the siege began in the skies above. The moon and stars, hidden by magical shadow, flickered as my magic fought to drive away the pressing hostile influence. My sonilphon's reserves plummeted and I felt myself shudder as I recognized I wouldn't be able to drive off the first attack nearly so easily as I had the first time.
Then, as I considered what to do, if I should throw myself forward into the battle, the first wyrms reached the walls.
They slithered up, their claws sinking into the gaps between stones on the walls, their leathery back halves still melding with the shadows behind them. Wyrms threw themselves, hissing, at the defenders, and I watched as, despite the weapons and defenses we used to our greatest advantage, the melee began in earnest. Spears glanced off of thick hide, barely drawing blood as my people shredded every defense they could. The wyrms, in turn, didn't hold back, the pairs working together to create openings to throw themselves into. Their jaws still dripped with their magical venom and each person they managed to bite either fell to the ground, writhing in agony, or fell back to try to recover.
While the front lines tried to deal with the wyrms, the Misti Hawar's thrashing shadows started sapping at their disciplined lines. Instead of presenting only one or two to be struck by the beasts' attacks, nooses of solid shadow caught ankles and throats and dragged my people from where they stood. Firm defenses fell apart as small opportunities were presented to the charging enemies.
Though the wyrms weren't particularly intelligent, they were more than clever enough to avoid the places where the spears were appointed directly at them. With the thick shadow pressing down on the entire city, they could slip at least partially into shadows and get within the reach of the defenders. On every one of the walls, the wyrms swarmed against the people on defense. Their hissing cries filled the air as they fought to drive my people away from the edges of the walls. On the north, east, and west, the defenders were able to keep the attackers back, but on the south wall, where more of the enemies flooded forward, my people were forced to give away and open the walls up to the enemies or fall.
Through my affinity with sonic magic, I could hear the called commands echo towards me, voices tinged with desperation, but strengthened by internal steel. My people stood strong.
And then the spawn reached the walls.
Something about the beasts had changed since yesterday, and, with nothing else to indicate otherwise, I could only assume that, as my goddess had warned, the Great Hunter was stepping more fully into this fight. Going off of the reduced number of the Misti Hawar, I was willing to guess that the god had made a sacrifice of his believers to bring this greater force to bear. The thought that Nievtala may attempt the same thing made me grit my teeth in denial, but now wasn't the time.
The reason for the sacrifice didn't matter, because as the creatures drew themselves up the walls, the tenuous balance of battle there tipped in our enemies' favor. Instead of tough and mildly dangerous as the spawn had been until now, each one was enough to grab a Khatif in its tentacles and use its captive to smash apart a formation without any seeming difficulty. On the walls facing a weaker assault, the Keel could stand against the approaching enemies, with enough of their number to overcome the physical superiority of the spawn.
However, the southern wall was crumbling, and not just in morale. Two of the spawn had anchored themselves on the ground outside of the walls and were pulling the parapets towards the ground.
"Call for me if you need me," I said to Sybil. She spoke her confirmation, but I barely paid it any attention as I pulled my spear from the ground and threw myself at the southern wall. If the walls fell, the shadow dwelling monsters would be able to lose themselves in the darkness of the city, to shred into the small portion of our population incapable of manning the walls. I had every confidence we'd be able to destroy them still, but the victory would be pyrrhic at best if we lost our children and herds.
Drawing on Spear of the Many, I leapt from one roof to the next, closing in on the walls and seeing my people fight and die. I hesitated for one moment before making the decision to stop spreading my magical attention to the entire city, to attempt to bolster our defenses on the other walls. I'd have to trust in my people. Instead, I narrowed my focus to instead only reach the defenders on the southern walls.
"We are the peak that casts the long shadow! The shadow has attempted to rise against us! We will cut them down and remind them that their place is beneath us. Beneath us! Victory! Victory by fang and blood!"
I pushed a massive amount of my magic into my words, Overwhelming Address giving my people strength as they threw themselves with bestial fury at shadows and beasts that threatened them. My people's blood still splattered and covered the walls, but what little cowardice they had begun to show bled away as they screamed and tore through the feeble magics that bound them.
Then, I arrived, jumping into the sky and landing spear-first inside of the nearest spawn. Different from before, the blade didn't pierce easily through the flesh, giving the feeling of trying to push through thick leather. I screamed as I pushed further, pinning the beast to the ground. Three more were nearby, with others on the same wall, but I spread my arms, my claws and fangs ready to do the battle against those who would slaughter my people.
I've begun this life in a fight for my life. This was no different, and I've gotten this far. My claws ripped through the nearest shadow as I lost myself in Combatant's Bloodlust. Across the walls, the final battle against the Misti Hawar had begun for our survival.
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