41 Book 3 Chapter 37 (2/2)

Ricky gagged as everyone turned to give him a strange look. Amongst them all, Peter was outraged. How many resources and gold went into making just a single sigil? Peter's heart bled just thinking about it. Ricky saw Peter glaring daggers at him, so he made a 'hehe' sound, then found somewhere to hide.

As everyone was in between crying and laughter, Sam's voice rang out. ”More incoming!”

Due to the sigils clearing out the surroundings, it took some time for the monster horde to reach the walls again. Peter knew there was a ten-minute cooldown between each use of the sigils, and as only a few moments had passed, they had to defend via other means. Peter raised an arm and swung it forward. ”Fire at will!”

As the second wave of demons exited the miasma, a barrage of projectiles and magic greeted them. The frontline collapsed as blood dyed the ground. The monsters behind them cared not; they continued their charge without fear.

Even as archers and mages fired without end, the horde reached the walls, albeit with heavy casualties. With their stats, the wall was nothing a jump couldn't solve, but first, they had to break the haven's barrier.

”Die, you bastards!” Hundreds of ascenders jumped off the wall. All of them specialized in close combat, and with the barrier blocking the demons, they didn't have to worry about defense.

”Back to the wall!” Peter shouted from above. Unfortunately, the barrier was of the lowest grade and could only withstand a million damage. That was nothing to thousands of demons. In only a few minutes, even under the ascender's assault, the barrier was broken.

With the barrier gone, the demons on the frontline jumped. They soared over the wall, far beyond the reach of close combat ascenders. Just then, thousands of red dots landed on their bodies. On the other side of the wall sat thousands of auto-turrets, purchased using reputation from the robot floors. They locked on and fired, riddling the demons with holes in an instant. They died almost instantly.

It was a strange sight – many demons continued to think it was best to skip the wall. They didn't know they were jumping to their deaths.

On the watchtower, Peter had the best view of the battlefield. He saw the endless horde outside the haven and knew he couldn't hold anything back. ”Activate the artillery! Fire at will!”

The bombardment of artillery, both magical and conventional, decimated the horde of monsters. With the auto-turrets, artillery, sigils, and ascenders combined, thousands of demons died every minute.

With the power of their contraptions, the ascenders were able to save on stamina and mana. Every time the demons overwhelmed them, the sigils would reactivate, giving them a brief break. The monster horde would end soon, they thought.

After an hour, they thought the same.

After two, they began to doubt.

After three, they were confused.

Why did it seem like the horde was endless? It almost looked like they would attack all night, but that was impossible, right?

As there was no boss monster for Shenlong's team to hunt, they had long ago joined the fight, quickly killing one demon after another. Only Peter and Lavos remained on the watchtower. Seeing the situation, Peter couldn't help but ask the experienced minotaur. ”Does the monster horde last all night?”

Peter cussed upon receiving a nod. Worse, he noticed several auto-turrets run out of ammo. Helpless, he joined the battle as well.

Two hours later, the artillery and auto-turrets ran out of bullets. Shortly after, a human scream came from the walls. Unfortunately, the inevitable happened. A shadow panther had ripped through the throat of a spear-wielding ascender.

With over half of the sigils broken, and the auto-turrets and artillery useless, the monster horde finally overwhelmed the ascenders. Demons ran rampant inside the haven, while many parts of the wall crumbled. It was chaos.

Still on the watchtower, Lavos overlooked the battlefield while deep in thought. Honestly, he didn't expect these humans to have so much strength with only a single rune. They possessed such power by relying on their abilities. If one day they had as many runes as he, would they threaten the demon king?

Lavos activated two of his runes. A gnarled wooden longstaff appeared in his hand while a crown hovered above his head. Fire, Water, Earth, and Wind in a tangible form made up the crown's material.

Lavos' feet lifted off the watchtower as he rose into the sky. Using his free hand to point down, lightning coursed around him, before being guided by his finger. Moving at the speed of light, it hit a demon in the middle of the haven, killing it in one blow. The lightning split into two before finding two more targets. It split again and again, and in just a second, all of the demons in the haven were dead.

Letting out a breath, Lavos glanced outside and waved his staff. Twenty tornados, each hundreds of feet wide, were conjured into existence around the haven. Thousands upon thousands of demons were picked up and chopped into pieces. Astonishingly, the tornados continued to rampage across the battlefield, even after several minutes. They wouldn't run out as long as there was enough ambient mana in the air, all thanks to Lavos' crown.

Two moves were all he needed to turn the battle around, and with the demons mindlessly dying to the tornados, two moves were all he needed to defeat the monster horde.

Lavos was on another level.

He alone was a calamity.