Alarm Bells Ringing

The abnormal monster disappeared into a spell of it's own making, sending the humans up on the wall acting as archers into minor shock. This... This was almost unprecedented. A wild monster still weak enough to be pulled into fluxes... Learning... Magic? 

The ball of darkness that the tiny wolf had summoned quickly dispersed around the battlefield, where it touched other monsters turning their very flesh transparent on contact. After the entire thing had flowed away the wolf itself was nowhere to be seen. Or more likely, had reactivated whatever potent form of stealth it was using. Zack hadn't been here for long, but he figured this was the kind of monster that would have a very high priority for his skill. Smart, powerful, dangerous. Those on the wall panicked slightly at the disappearance of the monster, but knew they didn't have the precious time to do so, so instead continued to fire at the horde of monsters ever pressing down upon their defensive line.

Zack stared at where they'd last seen the monster. Taking a wild guess, he closed his eyes and took a shot. The arrow whistled through the air, then sunk into a whole lot of not that monster and instead a completely different monster. 

Level up!

+2 strength, +2 dexterity, +2 constitution, +2 wisdom, +1 capacity +1 intelligence, +1 charisma, +1 manipulation.

Nice, how many does that make now? I think six? I might just ask to do this anyways even if they find something for me to do during a wave. Cause these levels are so, so good. I don't think I've felt better... Ever. It's honestly crazy.

Zack lined up another shot and let loose, a clear miss. Kind of embarrassing, it's pretty difficult to miss in this environment. Or maybe he had been aiming at something? It was a suspiciously clear little patch of land now that he looked at it. This was exactly how he'd ended up finding that wolf in the first place... They looked at the clear spot in the chaos just a little more closely. Nocked another arrow, and fired again. This time, something moved, it moved fast.

A blur of movement blipped in and out of Zack's sight, the tiny monster zipping between larger yet weaker beasts with a terrifying grace. "Everybody!" Zack called out again. He'd since gotten into formation with the rest of the archers, and he was in position to communicate with them. "The wolf monster that slipped us, it's right over there!" He called out as he shot yet another arrow in it's direction, though he was running low. A resupply would be needed soon.

Most of the other archers confirmed that they did in fact see it, then they began to fire a volley targeted against it yet again. Arrows rained down upon it constantly, yet shockingly it managed to dodge all of them anyways. Though even if an arrow would've landed, it also managed to use other monsters as body blocks for the projectiles that threatened to skewer it with even a single contact. The monster was doing it's absolute utmost to utilize every ability it had to survive. Zack almost had to respect it's determination, but it was only a beast. It wasn't like it was doing any of this out of a sense of duty or determination, no. It was just following it's instinct, going with the flux and it's desire to live.

Regardless of that, what Zack really wanted to know, was whether it could cast another spell like the one it had already used. Because if he and the others managed to put it down before the flux was over, it'd save him a lot of effort tracking it down. Zack wasn't sure how well wanderlust would work against a target with such apparent stealth skills, but he wasn't keen to figure it out either. They'd much rather deal with it now instead. If it was able to throw stealth assisting spells like that out constantly there'd be no hope of dealing with it early.

Actually, I'm not even quite sure how magic works... He thought to himself while he loosed another arrow, he reached for another and- Oh. All out. "Out of arrows!" He called out before sprinting to resupply. Is magic usage like that even possible repeatedly? Or is it just a you have enough capacity and mental stats, then you can do anything kind of thing? I'd need to get the skills myself to figure that out... I suppose I am geared to use magic as well as be an up close fighter but... It's just a lot of points. Or so I've been told.

By the time Zack had gotten back to his position with a full quiver things were a little... Weird. A good chunk of the battlefield had gotten abnormally dark. Like, somebody had closed all the proverbial blinds and only a little sunlight was leaking in. Strangely enough, the borders of that field were also shifting, little fractures of light breaking into the field of darkness then quickly being swallowed up as the ground it covered changed. 

"What in the world is that?!" Zack asked incredulously as he nocked an arrow. He got his response shortly after from a comrade in arms. "Another spell! Bloody thing casted it just a few moments ago! Some sort of domain spell, I'm no expert on the subject but it seems somewhat rudimentary, should dissipate soon. Think you can find the thing again?" 

"I've got no idea Jaron, I've only been able to find it through what I think is my skill so far, it's probably gonna be on guard after this and the flux is nearing an end as well!" He yelled back as he shot another arrow. "It's on my head anyways, I'll probably be sent out after it with a group afterwards."

"Why?!"

"It's a whole story! Focus on the monsters not me!" 

Focus on the monsters they did, as shortly after being told that they'd gone right back to shooting down any unfortunate monster that caught his eye. Zack was about to take another shot, but he was a little mesmerized by the sudden dissipation of the field of darkness. The entire thing seemed to shimmer with a pale light, before the entirety of what it had covered suddenly shone with the light of day.

Zack had no idea where the caster was anymore, but he didn't think there'd be enough time to pin it down anymore. He nocked yet another arrow, though it almost went flying out into the sky when he heard the voice of who seemed to be the commander shouting maybe ten feet away from him. "AUXILARY PULL BACK IN! SECOND AND FIRST LINE HEAD BACK ONTO THE FIELD! FINAL PUSH!"

Christ! Almost fell off the wall there man! Zack realigned the arrow, then took another shot. A clean hit, but not a kill either. The arrow digging into the side of a bulky moose like monster. Which then went charging forward, but before it hit the fresh line of soldiers that had just arrived on the field it collapsed dead on the spot. It's throat cut out with one powerful blow. Yet no monster seemed to have made the attack. Zack stared hard at it, but there'd be time for it later. Picking off as many enemies as possible before the final wave of monsters was a higher priority then dealing with a monster that would probably just run away.

A almost literal tidal wave of monsters crashed into the already existing monsters, spilling copious amounts of blood and mixing fresh and tired monsters together in a proverbial blender. Revitalized soldiers stood to intercept against the immense horde, cutting through as many enemies as quickly as possible. Those that may take more then one cleave were often simply picked off by the archers above, leaving the soldiers below ample ability to defend themselves. 

Shortly after the initial crashing of the two separate hordes, very few new monsters began to show. Every monster slain finally thinned the horde for good. And a pressure that Zack had felt ever since around the half way point of the flux finally dissipated. After a few more minutes of vicious combat, the hours of fighting had finally come to a near stop. Leaving only the most vicious, yet stupidest, of monsters still standing around the town. The soldiers returned to the walls, the EGO users stepped out. The remaining monsters were taken care of very quickly, and none of them were notable cases. Despite their power they simply weren't a match for the many levels that the higher EGO class users had stacked up over time.

Zack already knew what he'd be doing this night. He just hoped stealth didn't make Wanderlust less effective.