42 - Battlefield

Even after my speech, I struggled to sleep. Katie and I both tossed and turned, getting little rest. 

Morning finally arrived. As people gathered under the pavilion, it was clear we weren't the only ones who struggled sleeping. Rather than having someone prepare breakfast, we had prepared bundles of jerky. 

A stampeding ruckus carried on the wind. When I stepped into the air, I could clearly see trees shaking, with shadows flying overhead. 

I directed people to their places on the wall. Chiyo was in the center, and she stood in front of the wall, watching the forest. Jack and Tim held the right flank, and I held the left with Thomas. Katie flew overhead to provide support. Juliana, Celine, Sophie and Cameron waited just inside the Temple of Swords' entrance.

We didn't wait long before the ground started shaking. The wall stood firm, though some of the people standing on top shifted their balance to avoid falling. 

With a scream, giant eagle-like creatures flew overhead, completely ignoring us. Chiyo raised the Frost Dragon, and icy blue scales appeared, covering her. She slashed the air in front of her. White energy flowed from her sword tip, exploding into a sharp icy barricade. The first monsters on the ground ran headlong into the spikes, coloring the ice red. Raptor-like creatures climbed the bodies, appearing at the top of the wall of ice. They charged down, and were met with Chiyo's blade.

I tore my attention away from her battle as a cat-snake hybrid, taller than I was at the top of the wall, slithered toward the wall in front of me. I charged toward it, stepping through the air. It blocked my first strike, and counterattacked. I set a barrier in its jaws, and it stopped, confused. I used the opportunity to behead it and drop to the ground. A beaver-like monster didn't give me time to think. I pushed it away, cutting a deep gash in its side, and it continued running northward.

A pair of giant rodents that shared a tail came at me next. With barrier-assisted acrobatics, I dodged right and kicked the nearer rodent. It tumbled into its partner, and the two were trampled by a deer-like creature as it charged with the herd. We were in the thick of the monster wave. Thankfully, the flow of monsters parted at Silence's frozen barricade.

I conjured a barrier between Chiyo's ice wall and the corner of our fort, and used the chance to look around. We were holding up well. 

Smaller monsters had still come over the barrier, or were pushed out of the stream. Silence was already surrounded by corpses. I cut down a few stragglers myself. Several got past me, and I heard their dying screams as they were impaled. 

A giant made of stone emerged from the trees, stomping toward us with no indication of turning. Other monsters died under each colossal footfall. I expanded my barrier to its height, nearly three stories tall. It slammed into the transparent blue energy, stopped by my wall. Surprised, it smashed an arm into the barrier, which refused to give. The giant slammed its other arm into the barrier, and it held. It tried to smash the barrier one more time before looking behind it - southward - and following the barrier's angle to escape northward. 

The other side of our wedge seemed to be struggling. I created a barrier cutting off the reinforcements. That gave them time to finish the monsters they were engaging and take a breather.

I let my barriers down. The battle was going to be long, and I couldn't just hold my barrier up for very long with all the monsters slamming into it.

We fought for over an hour. I helped pace the flow with a wedge-shaped barrier, and Katie told me when the others needed it. Thomas suggested I step out of the conflict and just watch from the wall. I resisted, obviously. What leader would ask others to do what they would not? But he made a good point: Silence was our champion. My role was our general. 

So, reluctantly, I took a place on the wall, watching the battle flow and using my barrier power to protect my people from being exhausted.

A scream burst out above the din of combat. Except - I didn't hear it with my ears. I put up another barrier. From my vantage, the monster horde was thinning. Chiyo had dropped her sword, clutching her head. 

Katie dropped, her wings stopped functioning. I caught her with a barrier, and used a chain of barriers to move her to the ground safely. She stood up, and looked at me. But her eyes... crimson. Crimson beads of light. 

Chiyo stood up, turning to us. She had the same red eyes. I cursed.

"Abandon posts! Retreat!" I shouted. 

Jack and Tim turned on the people in line with them. They cut down two people before I blocked an attack on a third person. 

Katie lunged at me, diving in the air. I put up a barrier, and she slammed into it. 

Non-Soulblade-wielders and Thomas - who didn't have the red eyes for some reason - funneled off the wall, and gathered just inside the west wall, as our escape plan dictated. 

My barrier holding the monsters back shattered under the force of a beast's body slam. I contained the red-eyed carriers in cube-shaped barriers to stop them from attacking the others, and I created a basic bridge over the wall, and to the treetops. 

It consumed more mana as people started using my bridge, escaping to the west. 

A fire ignited in town. Juliana emerged from the barrack she had been waiting in, her eyes glowing red like the others. Celine followed behind her. Cameron and two copies of him made of red energy charged towards my bridge, but I blocked them off until everyone was past. 

A monster slammed into the wall I still stood on, making me nearly fall. I stepped into the air with foot-sized barriers, and extended my bridge past the monsters, and back to the ground. To conserve energy, I unblocked Jack and Tim, though I left Katie in a box. I looked down at seven pairs of furious, glowing red eyes.