46

The next day Pef poked the forest again, but not so deep, and rotated his crew for the lesser ranks. They fought hundreds of beasts, mostly at Core rank, and a few higher.

Lieutenant Merri got lucky, or maybe unlucky, and had a fight with an Earth ranked Green Eyes Lizard. Well, most of a lizard, lacking its tail and two left limbs, as Pef helped a little by chopping down extraneous advantages.

By the time the party returned, the man began healing his wounds and crossed over into Earth rank himself.

On the right side of the sector, the forest was flattened for 200 meters inward, and then stored into the glove compartment, which at the user's new rank was large enough to not even notice.

Across the canal, thousands of traders and merchants were happy to buy cheap wood from Commander Ren, and even magical beast corpses.

The Guard ate the delicious soup made by their Emperor with tears in their eyes, and felt a bit more confident. No more getting eaten by the forest beasts. This time, they were the ones eating.

It took a whole month until all the lower ranked crew were upgraded to a new rank, but in the end, the 413 fort had four more Earth ranks, with one of them incapacitated temporarily, growing back his right foot.

"Why did you think it was a good idea to kick a Blue Spiked Crocodile, Commander Dong?" Major Wu chidded the newest Earth rank with a flabbergasted expresion.

"But sir, it was going for Gian. I had to do something!" the man replied with a gasp of pain. His tiny right foot hurt when it grew back, much much worse than the Awakening. And he had to eat 6 times a day, for some reason.

"Damn you country bumpkin heroes. Plant the damn turtle shield down, and use the maul!" the Major exclaimed with a shiver and walked away.

It was in fact almost the same thing that he did, when he was a young and foolish lieutenant.

And that lion almost killed him.

Gian looked at the foolish hero and smiled a little. Dong might not be an Emperor, but he had a good heart. He will do.

Every woman wanted to be saved by a hero, and she found hers. "I'll stay back today, and massage your tiny foot, okay?

Make the pain go away..." she told Dong as the crew were leaving.

"Ah, Miss Gian...you're a goddess of kindness. I will repay you, one day!" the hurt hero sobbed, in even greater pain. The feeling of the woman's hands touching his tender foot was excruciating, yet...also exciting.

Gian gently swiped the baby red skin with medicinal lotions, her heart hurting every time Dong sobbed.

Pef turned and watched Pela, now herself a veteran of dozens of beasts fights.

"Pela, my lady. You will need a big weapon as well. You're close to peak of your Spirit rank, but to defeat an Earth ranked beast...your arrows won't pierce them. You need to crush, and spike." he told the black haired woman, who had cut her hair now, just along the jaw line.

Made her look strong, and Pef liked strong women.

"Yeah, I was thinking something like a wide sword, but with a spike going back from the tip. So I can slice or stab with a turn of my wrist" Pela replied looking thoughtful towards the forest.

For 5 kilometers deep and wide, the menacing forest was simply gone now, ground black after they burned it with oil, to fry any plant seeds.

Gin and Gen sat beside them, with Earth ranked axes with a spike going backwards as well.

They had just crossed into Nascent rank, and the new colors of the souls around them were overwhelming.

Pef planned to let them rest for a week, and get used to the new vision.

Commander Ren came to sit down beside the kid Emperor, once the new wood transports were loaded on barges and set away towards far destinations.

He looked at the crying Dong, with his tiny red foot, then glanced at his missing arm.

"I would not cry a single tear, to have my arm back. Damn this lucky Dong and whatever bloodline he has. Maybe he has a lizard ancestor" Ren whispered in a dejected manner.

Pef patted his back, with a gloved hand, and nodded to himself.

'He would do okay, I guess'

'The fort needs a strong commander. Well, maybe a Sky rank in a year'

"Come with me Ren. Lady Erin would like to see you" he said in a low voice.

And such, Ren kept his promise, and didn't cry at all. That day.

Five weeks laters, Ren would emerge from the holy basement a new man, whole and much stronger.

He praised and prayed to the General and her glove, and he was happy. Miracles could happen!

Pef was preparing for the next wave, changing the terrain subtly, and training the regiment every day.

A fort just five sectors away lost half its Guard in a night attack, and our young hero wondered when it would be his turn.

It took another month though, just in time for Dong to get back on his feet, and Pela to craft her spiked sword.

'Tonight I think. Get ready, Aspirant. You have drawn the ire of someone' the glove advised Pef, as he did his daily patrol rounds on the battlements.

The Guard seemed a bit more ready now, having Practiced the spear 10 hours every day.

Most of them had Core ranked armor now, and Earth ranked speartips. Pef hoped they would be enough.

The night approached with blinding speed, obliterating the last lights of the day.

Far in the distance, trees shook, and birds flew away in panic.

A low hum and thumping noise reverberated through the earth, like an armored division was approaching at breakneck speed.

Pef thought for a second then figured it out, being a genius of sorts.

"It's a wave!" he proclaimed excited.

His staff, and his wives, facepalmed, for some reason, but Pef didn't really understand what this face thing was about.

Everyone had a face, and many men had a beard over it. He decided to ignore such deep thoughts for another time.

"Regiment, get ready! Shield Guards first line. Spear Guard, second and third lines. Archers, left and right!" The young Emperor commanded in an imperial voice, even using a tiny bit of qi to keep volume low but the area wide.

The wave of beasts resolved itself in his nightvision, thousands of tiny critters, followed by larger ones.

'Raccoons? And beavers and badgers...I hate badgers' our hero muttered inward.

'You'll love the bears and the foxes then. The Forest Azure Ursas are all Earth ranks. And there's 6 Divines Foxes too ' the glove added, trying to help.

'Oh well, here comes the first ditch...' Pef answered unphased.

The hordes of smaller critters encountered a dip in the ground, with thousands of sharped wooden spikes at the bottom.

Their advance stalled, as they nursed stubbed paws. However, they realized to late there were big, heavy beats coming behind them.

Hundreds of small beasts were squashed under the Earth ranked behemoths following them.

The survivors growled and scheeched, and sped up, hoping to reach the tasty humans.

But the ground had been sloped slightly to make a gentle V shape pointing at the Guard's fort.

Not noticeable at first, but as pits and downed trees covered with earth appeared on the edges of this V shaped funnel, the beasts instinctively avoided unneeded danger and took the safe middle path.

Then the ground dipped again, just half a meter,but the dip hid another round of wooden spikes.

Then another, and another.

At one kilometer away, Pef drew his bow and fired a couple of fire arrows. Not at the beasts, but at the last ditch, this time filled with tree resins and rice oil.

A V shaped corridor of flames appeared, illuminating the beasts and damaging their nightvision.

"Steady, steady!" the company lieutenants yelled towards their soldiers.

The shields of the first line had been forged from Earth ranked turtle carapaces. The strongest Guardsmen were selected to hold the shields, mostly Core and Nascent ranks.

The regiment had only 100 of these exalted ranks, but their weaker comrades in the lines behind depended on them.

Pef began shooting more arrows at the approaching wave, aiming for the front paws of the higher ranked beasts.

The glove helped sometimes, and Pef hit one in ten, which was amazing, considering all the obstacles, like night, moving targets and shoddy arrows.

Then the first miracle happened, a thousand low ranks beasts impacted the regiment on a very narrow front, and were received by a thousand spears.

Aided by archers and some magic spells, the beastly critters were stopped, and then died en masse without a single human dying.

However, a hundred angry Earth ranked beasts followed, and the regiment's elites jumped in front.

Pef focused his attacks on the Spirit ranked Divine foxes, and most of the smart beast returned the favor.

His Sky ranked lance stabbed rapidly, just as dozens of purple soul spikes hit his Spirit shield, and then his soul defenses.

Here, the difference between our hero some 6 months ago, a novice Sky rank, and the current Emperor Pef was seen clearly.

He took twenty attacks without dying, and killed 5 foxes in return. Then he took 15 more soul attacks, and nearly died, but still killed 5 more foxes. Then he flew up and to the side, gasping for breath and circulating his qi at speed.

He waved his gloved hand, ejecting ten huge trees on top of every remaining fox, and creating parallel kill corridors, for his higher ranks to hold.

Then the Emperor himself took the field and jumped between two fallen trees, and took out his sword. Bears were rumoured to taste great, if prepared correctly. Their paws even more. Many of the bears had arrows stuck in their paws, limiting their attacks to clumsy swipes or bites.

In a minute his corridor was clear, and Pef flew up to observe the overall situation.

Not completely lost, yet. Major Wu did fine, and same for Xie. He rushed to help the wounded staff, and callously threw them overhead towards the medical point in the stone fort.

As long they survived this night, the wounded Guards could be treated and repaired.

Then a voice was heard over the battlefield "Guard, advance by ranks, keep spears grounded after every step! One, two. One, two!" Commander Ren yelled while joining the advancing Guardsmen.

Rarely, a lucky arrow from the women archers hit a beastly eye or an open mouth, bypassing the sturdy defense of these Forest Ursas.

Pela jumped forward, her spiked sword targeting wounded bears. Pef smiled, and began crippling more and more bears, leaving their deaths to the brave Guard. Also the huge reward that was certain to follow.

Even if the Guard method wasn't the complete Legion method, the tenets of growing through Practice and direct kills remained.

Something the old Patriarch must have done intentionally, to reward true heroes guarding the Wall.

A beast wave like this could potentially provide a regular guard with a cultivation increase of two or even three ranks. If luck and skill held.

Gen, for example, finished off a wounded fox, and then assisted on a wounded bear. And now the young former woodcutter became a Spirit rank, 300 years too early.

His cousin Gin however...tried to copy his actions and took a soulspike to the face, from a Divine fox. Pef rushed next to Gin, in worry.

'Is he dead?' Pef asked a bit sad.

'Not yet. Still has 1 percent qi.' the gloved reported as Pef touched the fallen man.

Pef looked around, seeing Gian was free.

"Soul infusion fast!" he ordered her in desperation, pointing at the dying man. He might as well let a woman administer mouth-to-mouth to the man.

"Sure...how do I do that?" Gian asked in a confused whisper.

Pef leaned and whispered in her ear: "Draw qi in a water ball, concentrate it on your mouth, and inject it into his stomach."

Gian looked around, but everyone else was busy, fighting bears. She nodded and drew a deep breath, then kissed the young man, spitting water qi in his mouth.

After a minute of constant qi infusions, the man stabilized and began breathing again, and coughing water.

His cousin arrived and sped off with him to the medical point.

Xie stopped her onslaught for a moment and grinned with silver eyes, then drew a deep breath and jumped towards the next target.

After another hour of desperate and heroic actions, the beast wave was defeated.

'Well done, Aspirant. However, 76 of your subordinates are in critical condition. Make a decision!' the glove demanded sharply.

Our hero considered the situation for a few seconds.

He didn't know these men, or their stories. But they fought valiantly at the Wall and were gravely wounded. They gave their lives to protect humanity. It should be enough.

That morning, 76 Guardsmen were moved to the fort's basement, for 'experimental healing'.

At noon, Pef composed his report, and sent it higher up via the daily courier and via qi pulse transmission: "Post 413 repelled beast wave during night. No Guard casualties. 81 Earth ranked bear beasts killed."