63 Onslaught

The night had passed and the horde was upon them.

Standing back in the same location as he was the previous day, John once again gazed at the now not-so-distant wave of various monsters, this time, however, he was wearing armor and had a sword sheathed at his waist.

Laying eyes on the rolling masses, John couldn't help but think of the many unfortunate factors which culminated to produce this dire situation. Additionally, the weather wasn't ideal. With constant sheets of rain plummeting from the heavens, it gave the encroaching mob a hazy appearance, looking much too similar to the strange creatures from the mist for his liking. Still, it wasn't as if they could delay the battle in any way. All they could do was finish preparations and be ready to engage as soon as the beasts drew too close.

Before him was a line of two different combatants, whom his comrades were among the ranks of, half holding long spears which had their tips crafted from mystic ore, and the other half with large shields and a sword to protect the spearmen. Around him stood many others wielding swords, though they also held a buckler, and behind him, on specially constructed platforms, were the archers accompanied by a line of the latest magical artillery produced by the Mages Association. Basically rapidly assembled artillery with a vague semblance to a scaled-up mortar.

At present, the current plan was to wait until the beasts moved within the range of the magically modified cannons before beginning the battle with a bombardment, then the archers would start launching volleys. The spearmen were tasked with finishing off any creatures who attempt to damage or climb the walls once they got close enough, while the shield bearers were tasked with protecting the spearmen and knocking down any targets to reach the top of the wall. The purpose of the next line of swordsman was in case any flying creatures were amongst the assailants, since quite a few have been recorded in this area, and managed to evade the fire of the archers. Their secondary job was to replace the spearmen in case the wall was breached.

Annoyingly, there were a few flaws to this plan which seemed impossible to remedy with the time they had available. For starters, due to the current expenses of making the cannons, there were not many prepared in time for this battle, pre-built or otherwise, and the sheer cost of their ammunition was also nothing to scoff at. While the artillery was indeed worthy of its title, they were incredibly unrefined and wasteful. Every shell fired required a custom explosive composite of some undisclosed mystic ore along with many other materials, and they were all worth their weight in gold due to the mystic ore utilised in its construction. To make it even worse, only the mages could fire them as they needed to charge both the explosive composite and ordnance with a sufficient amount of mana within 10 seconds of firing, or else the energy would dissipate. Even though being alive was much better than being stingy, the sheer amount of raw materials, which would be gone by the end of this battle, would be felt.

Another problem to be listed would be the weather. To put simply, the pouring rain made seeing quite difficult and, while it wouldn't pose much of a problem for the melee combatants who would be fighting close to their targets, both the archers and the cannon crews would have a hard time utilising any sort of precision until the enemy came much closer. Luckily, everyone had been assured that the archers had some capability to prevent the rain from affecting their mystic ore-tipped arrows so they will be able to cause some damage.

"CANNONS READY!"

The call could be heard even over the rain, and with it, all of the sounds and unnecessary movement from the human force came to a stop.

"FIRE!"

Not 10 seconds later, the command came and half the cannons ignited at once. Multiple thunderous booms, with only a split-second interval between them, rang through the air, and John had to stop himself from whistling in admiration as he saw the many comet-like projectiles streaking into the distance before their image was distorted by the rain.

Only a few seconds after the volley was launched, it landed. Distant explosions, slightly muffled by the rain but still piercingly clear, could be heard, accompanied by a bright blue and orange light. The mages truly had created a grand weapon. Considering the amount of time they had, the results were quite optimal, at least if you only judged it from its destructive capabilities.

As if spurred on by the deaths of their compatriots, the members of the monster horde let out maddened cries of fury and rage, doubling their pace as they all started sprinting towards the human settlement. Judging by the speed at which they were covering ground, John assumed that they'd only be able to launch one more cannon volley before the archers started firing. This was well within expectations, that was, after all, why only half the cannons fired at the beginning; to leave the rest for one more concentrated volley since, after firing once, the cannons could not be fired again within a short span of time for fear of them breaking.

"CANNONS READY!"

John kept his gaze locked on the impending stampede, waiting for the next call.

"FIRE!"

An exact replica to the previous event played out before him, though the devastation caused within the monstrous horde was still a sight to behold.

"ARCHERS READY!"

The sound of strained bows went almost unheard amongst the downpour, and John had no idea how they expected their shots to do any particular damage, but it was not his job to judge the use of the various combatants and, with the appearance of the system, nothing made sense anymore.

"FIRE!"

The sound of many bows firing may as well have been perfect silence compared to the magnificent roar of the cannons but, while not holding the same glowing brilliance, the rain of arrows was still awe-inspiring.

Due to the rain obscuring the view and no obvious explosions generated from the arrow impacts, John wasn't certain on the exact effect of the arrows, but he was sure he saw a good number of the creatures collapse.

Now that the first volley of arrows had been launched, no more countdown was utilised and the bowmen kept on firing volleys every few seconds, causing the dying screams of many lesser leveled creatures to resonate in the air. The pained roars of the fallen were deafening, but none were perturbed and they all focused on their duty.