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Chapter 37

Jace frowned at the idea of becoming a guard, there had to be trained royal guards that were better suited towards something like that. He was about to argue with Jisa when she shook her head, "You don't have much of a choice in this, the royal guards are spread thin as it is. There have to be a few present on each wall section to aid the soldiers stationed there, the ones most vulnerable to attack is where the royals and high ranking nobles will be placed. So some of the combatants that are stronger than average will be placed used as guards to protect the powerful spellcasters. The princess is one of the strongest spellcasters in the entire kingdom. I know how strong you are and I know you excel in defense. You are a knight of my family, act like it."

Jace clicked his heels and saluted, "As you command."

Jisa nodded and waved him outside, she returned to the conference. Jace stepped outside the tower and was just in time to see a intricately gilded carriage appear. A young woman stepped out, she had dark hair, green eyes and couldn't have been much older than fourteen. She was flanked by a young man in heavy plate armour. He was armed with a tower shield and had an axe strapped to his built. Jace recognised the crest and stepped toward her. He saluted, "My team and I have been assigned to your guard my lady."

The princess nodded and Jace briefly felt a wave of magic vibrate through his body, the girl nodded in approval. "You and the braided girl resonate with power, you might even be more powerful than Richard here."

The heavily armoured knight beside her blinked in surprise and eyed the two of them. Jace expected the man to frown at him or show some sign of jealousy, as people often did when called weaker than another. Instead the young man grinned and some tension left his shoulders. "It would be a great help if there were other powerful warriors to protect the princess. I was feeling outclassed without my seniors to guide me if I'm being honest."

Jace smiled at him, "Don't worry, if there is one thing we are proficient in its killing monsters. As for those who aren't officially part of my team." He glanced at Vivianna, Arian, Lily and Rury. "What are you guys going to do? The command given to me wasn't meant for you guys."

Vivianna nodded, "I was requested to aid my father on another wall section, I'll take the others with me and help out there."

Rury smiled, "As for myself my combat skills in this kind of battle are… lacking. Should you have need of me you will find me in the support lines."

Jace nodded and said his goodbyes to them while he walked over to the princess and Richard. "What would you have us do?"

The princess glanced at him and tilted her head, "For now there is nothing for us to do but prepare, we don't have much more than a minute of time. If there is something urgent I should know now is the time."

Jace looked at his team, "Other than myself they have not been in a battle of this scale before. They won't break, but mistakes might happen, if it would be alright with you I would personally prefer myself and Richard to stay close to you while giving the others some flexibility."

The princess smiled, "That would be fine."

The next minute was spent in silence, the tension in the air was near palpable. The wait before the battle was tough on those with little to no experience. Jace let his eyes wander over the nearby people. Plip was calm, his eyes focused. The boy had been through a lot and should be able to keep his cool. Jerald, Florian and Qyra were still relatively fresh. He was worried about them, but he knew if he asked them to stay away from the battle they would refuse. He glanced at Weira and smiled, she wasn't nervous at all. Not surprising from someone trained by gran for over a decade.

Richard was steel faced, the young man might be nervous but he wasn't showing it. The person who impressed him most however was the princess. She conjured a chair out of her ring and sat down on a small plateau that she created so she could have eyes over the entire wall section. Her blatant lack of nerves calmed the soldiers as they gazed at the princess. She smiled and waved at the soldiers who would hesitantly wave back.

Jace stepped closer to her and said softly, "An impressive control over your emotions my lady. Focus on protecting our soldiers if you can, We will make sure none of them come close to reaching you."

The princess smiled and folded her hands, "I would expect nothing else." Her eyes narrowed as she stared over the wall. "It seems they are here."

A bare second after she finished her sentence the bells sounded the alarm. Jace looked at the wall and grimaced as he saw the earth break open, a gap a near half kilometer wide opened a mere two kilometers from the wall. Out of it a horde of something crawled out of the gap. Jace couldn't make the creatures out from this distance, he could see they were a brownish colour. His heart clenched as wave upon wave of the things rushed through the gap. Other pieces of land burst open as similar gaps were created, more waves of the monsters rushed out and charged at the nearest section of wall.

"Fire at will!" A voice resounded through the city.

Archers immediately let a hail of arrows fly darkening the sky with their numbers. They reloaded and fired a second and a third volley before the first had even hit. By the time they had finished their third volley the mages finished their incantations and a rainbow of colour and energy set the sky ablaze. The air shimmered from power as all sorts of spells both elemental and otherwise smashed into the oncoming horde, creating explosions, freezing entire sections or simply causing a group of the things to disappear. Jace could more clearly see what the creatures were now they were closer, they looked similar to lizards except they had a chitinous exoskeleton and mandibles. They weren't as big as he had expected, about the size of a large dog.

The walls were over twenty meters tall so he wondered how they would manage to reach to top or breach the wall. That was when something breached through the gap that was much larger than the smaller specimens. First a head appeared that was similar to a stag beetle, then a pair of thick clawed reptilian feet pressed down on the earth and a creature the size of an inn breached the surface. It was covered in thick dark brown chitin and it screeched towards the wall. Others of its kind appeared from the other tunnels and together with the smaller Dravu they charged. The mages were ordered to target the big ones while the archers did their best to whittle down the numbers of the smaller ones.

Jace remained on his spot, he glanced at the princess but she had yet to move, she was eyeing the bigger ones but made no move towards them. Jace was about to ask why when the earth rumbled, the two of the gaps collapse inwards and a giant maw broke through the earth. Jace's eyes widened, this thing was abnormally huge, it had to be at least fifty meters in height. The thing could possibly step over the wall if reached here. He heard the soldiers curse, one of them shouted, "In the name of the seven gods we are doomed!"

The princess stood up, "Keep firing!" The soldiers paused but resumed with pale faces, the girl started mumbling below her breath. Jace picked up the words, "By the power of my royal blood, I command the elements, heed my call."

She spread her arms and light gathered in front of her, with a sudden swirl of power a small snowflake appeared in front of her. She flicked her finger and the eyes of everyone followed the seemingly harmless snowflake as it traveled through the sky. The snowflake drifted and landed on the gigantic dravu. A shockwave erupted and buffeted Jace, he was forced a step back, some of the less prepared soldiers tumbled backwards. Jace blinked as the air rushed past his face, once it cleared up he stared in awe at the sight before him, the gigantic creature had been frozen, everything in half a kilometer radius from it had turned to ice. Jace stared at the princess with wide eyes, the soldiers paused for a second before they erupted into cheers.

Weira who stood next to Jace cursed, "I thought we were strong, she is younger than us and in an entirely different league. She must have killed thousands of them with just that spell, she doesn't even seem tired!"

Jace nodded, "How the hell will warriors ever compete with something like that."

The princess smiled, "Each class has its own perks, My spells take a while to cast, in this time i am extremely vulnerable, by myself I am week. Give me a few competent protectors and I am much more powerful than most. Some warriors are even more powerful than I am. I am at the level of an adamantium adventurer at best. The S ranks are something else entirely. Wait till you see my mother use one of her spells, she won't take action until something class 4 pops up."

"Class 4?" Jace asked.

Richard nodded, "The dravu are split into different power classes, the small ones are first class and have the strength of around level eighty. The second class are the building sized ones and have a strength of around two hundred. The third class is the one you just saw, they have a strength nearing three hundred and fifty. The fourth class is actually smaller than the third but is more powerful and has a strength of about four hundred. The fifth class also known as destroyers are twice the size of a third class and have a strength of around five hundred fifty. Finally you have the Matriarch, which has a strength level of eight hundred."

"EIGHT HUNDRED?!" Florian shouted as he turned to Richard."

Richard nodded but made a placating gesture with his hands, "It's not nearly as dangerous as the destroyers, its defense however is enourmous that's why it was classed this way. Its biggest strength is birthing a near endless wave of the smaller and second class dravu. Dravu that survive for longer periods of time can become third class and above. Ones that live for over a century may eventually grow to become destroyers."

Jace cursed, "I wish gran was here, I'd feel a lot more comfortable." Weira nodded in silent agreement. The princess and Richard raised an eyebrow but both of them didn't notice as their eyes were focused on the hordes. The magical bombardment and the rain of arrows continued to press back the wave of monsters. So far none of them seemed to be able to get closer than five hundred meters from the wall.

Jace watched the horde flow forward in never ending numbers, "It seems we are in a stalemate till people run out of mana or arrows, or until something more powerful appears."

Richard grunted in agreement. Meanwhile the princess looked at Weira, "May I ask you something?"

Weira blinked, "Of course my lady."

"You have one of your stats unlocked correct?"

Weira nodded, "I have unlocked my wisdom stat."

The princess nodded gracefully, "Would you permit me to have access to your mana pool? With enhanced regeneration I can be of more use."

Weira nodded and walked over to the princess, the girl placed a hand on her hand and gasped as her eyes flashed a brilliant blue. "You have ancient mana, it seems connecting to you will be of more use than I thought. You might want to take a meditative pose. By converting my own mana regeneration through you and changing everything to ancient mana I will be able to do more than I expected, It will be taxing on you however."

Weira shrugged, "Whatever can help, I'll just get the rest to watch over me as well."

The princess nodded and closed her eyes, a dark glow spreading out from her. Jace looked at Richard and shrugged, they both turned to the horde and kept their eyes on the monsters.

Eventually the mages began to run out of mana and the monsters got closer to the wall, arrows rained down on the creatures and killed them by the hundreds, it did nothing to slow down the horde. They pushed up against each other and started climbing on top of each other like a growing lump they got closer and closer to the top of the wall. Jace looked down and saw they had already reached halfway. Jace looked over at the princess, who still had her eyes closed. Richard spoke up, "She can't act for anything below the third class, or her mana won't last. She will use some mana to protect the soldiers but she can't afford to use her spells on the smaller ones."

Jace nodded, he stepped closer to the front line, putting himself between the soldiers preparing for melee. Richard stayed on his spot next to the princess, Jace with his nearly unlimited stamina would be better suited for the frontlines, preventing the numbers from growing. He motioned the rest of his group to guard Weira and the princess. He breathed in deeply as he saw the crawling creatures come ever closer, the blood in his armour started floating up one drop at a time.

It took awhile but the first of the creatures reached the top of the battlements only to be pushed of a second later. More and more of the creatures started crawling over the edge, only to be cut down the moment they showed their faces, Jace did nothing to attack the creatures. The blood that was splitspilt from each chop however, attacked the nearest Dravu and caused an extra casualty. Once the soldiers noticed this they started making attacks that would cause more blood to spill instead of simply pushing them back.

The soldiers next to Jace stared at him in awe, the floating blood around him made it clear who was behind the strange phenomenon. Taking heart in having a powerful soldier beside them they started fighting harder, they had to. The endless waves became harder and harder to push back, eventually they burst over the battlements and the soldiers had to take a step back. Jace stepped forward and his sword shot forward, piercing one of the creatures skull, another swing and he beheaded two of the things. His blade danced from one to the next and a dravu died from each swing. The blood started swirling around him, finding their own opponents and drawing more blood with each kill.

The soldiers spread out and reinforced the sides, they left a twenty meter long piece of wall for Jace. Which he kept clear with ease, the section they were defending was a total of two hundred meters long. With Jace defending a tenth of it the soldiers could thicken the protection of the rest, making the defense easier on all of them. The blood swirling around Jace grew as he slew one after the other, the piece of wall he could defend increased accordingly. Jace immediately noticed the effect of his new skill Inexhaustible, swinging his sword and controlling the blood did not tire him at all. He even felt more and more invigorated with each kill.

----------------------------------------- Richard POV----------------------------------------------------------------

Richard watched with awe as Jace tore through the creatures with ease, he killed more of the things per second than fifty other soldiers combined. That blood that swirled around him like an angry snake bit and tore through the monsters. It had taken the form of an actual snake and was constricting, crushing and biting. The area he was covering had grown to thirty meters, what was even more fearsome was the fact that the Dravu did not care that their brethren were being torn apart with ease in front of them, the creatures kept charging at him. Everytime one of them got even remotely close the blood around Jace would crush the creature.

Jace had to actively look for a dravu to sink his sword into, the blood was doing most of the work and keeping everything at bay. It was a slaughter and the blood would have become a thick layer on top of the wall if not all if it fell under Jace's control and attacked more of the creatures before disappearing. Richard looked around and noticed that any blood further than fifty meters on either side of him did not fall under his control and merely lay there on the ground, dripping down the wall and down into the street below.

Richard shook his head but kept his tower shield and axe ready, he had a job to do and he would do it right. The princess would live through this catastrophe unharmed, even if it cost him everything.

--------------------------------------------------- Back to Jace---------------------------------------------

Jace frowned at his lack of opponents, the blood was savagely tearing through anything within range and created more of itself with every passing second. It had taken the form of a live snake and was growing more and more with each kill. It was already as thick as his thigh and nearly ten meters long. That was his own semi-sentient blood, the semi-sentient blood that did not fall under his control merely turned into small spears and pierced the nearest hostile they sensed before disappearing. A notification popped up but Jace ignored it, for the blood under his own control he formed them into small discs and gave them semi-sentience and assigned them to soldiers. He kept creating more and more of the things, the small discs protecting the soldiers from attacks or severing a mandible before it could reach the soldier.

Jace was by himself fortifying the entire section. Instead of continuing to dive into the melee he started focusing on his control of blood. He made more of the discs as fast as he could to protect the soldiers, half of the soldiers on the wall currently had a disc of their own. Increasing their survival chance by a good deal. He saw a shimmering layer of golden light covering their armour and flesh. He assumed that it was a protective skill made by the princess. It seemed to only flash brightly when struck, so Jace assumed that it only really consumed mana when it was hit.

His Blood Shields could protect the soldiers and make sure they weren't hit as often, lessening the amount of mana the princess had to spend on protecting the troops so she could use more of her spells to destroy the more powerful Dravu. Two more of those class 3 Dravu had appeared and had been quickly taking care of. He had heard a heavy rumble and the wall had shaken when someone on another section had used an extremely powerful spell to take care of a slightly smaller dravu, most likely a class 4.