Episode 46: Tragedy (1)

******* Rose's POV *******

"What are you doing!? Fire back! Don't be intimidated!" I shouted at everyone who is on top of the ramparts and towers.

The battle is going well at first but now we are getting overwhelmed.

There are too many phantoms attacking right now and this is the first time this kingdom has seen this scale of invasion.

Even with iron weapons and armors, we still can't kill them all or push them back.

The only thing we can do right now is to hold out until the sun arrives or wait for reinforcements. I already send a messenger to ask for help in the capital but I don't think they will get here in time.

I can see another soldier getting dragged by the phantoms and is now slowly getting carried towards east.

I fired multiple arrows and managed to hit all of the phantoms carrying the soldier. Even with the distance, I still managed to kill them all. I guess the gifts of the Goddess is starting to get useful.

The soldier is now falling in the ocean. All of the soldiers of the Aezeokar Kingdom is trained how to swim in cold water so he will probably fine along with other people who are now in the ocean but we still need to fish them out of there.

"Where are our battleships? I can't see them anywhere." I asked the general beside while still firing arrows at the enemies.

"All of them were sent to provide aid to the western border."

"Are you serious right now!?" I quickly shouted and stopped firing my bow.

I quickly turned to my side to face the general.

The general also stopped firing his bow and is now trying to calm me down.

"Look, my lady. The eastern territory hasn't seen an invasion for a long time since you were away so the king decided to reinforce the western border instead to defend against the Drowned King."

I quickly smacked my hands in the embrasure of the battlements in front of me. The tower shook a little bit because of my new tremendous strength.

All of the soldiers around me stopped firing their bows and crossbows and stared at me.

"What are you doing? Continue firing!" I said to them and they quickly followed my order.

My uncle knows how terrifying the phantoms so he is probably not the one who gave that order. It is most likely the prophet.

How am I going to save the people in the water?

"Send someone to find fishing vessels that we can borrow to save those soldiers in the water," I said to the general after thinking for a moment.

"Yes, my lady."

I can hear the general ordering people and they are now galloping away.

I hope they can make it in time before the people below got tired of swimming and drowned.

We tried throwing ropes from the top of the walls to save them but we only managed to save the ones who are close. Most of them are really far away.

I don't want to place wooden ladders in the wall since they might be drowned monsters waiting in the water and they might use it to climb up. Most of the soldiers are far away from the wall anyway so the ladders will not be useful.

Who decided to build this wall anyway? It is only blocking access to the ocean and the nearest port in the kingdom is located in the southeastern border to avoid getting attack by phantoms at sea so it will take time before the fishing ships arrive here.

This is becoming hopeless.

Even I save the people who are getting dragged by phantoms, they will still just drop on the ocean. This giant wall surrounding the kingdom that is built to protect us will be the reason for killing my people here.

A loud shriek suddenly roared in the sky.

The giant phantom finally makes a move and is now slowly flying downwards.

I ready my bow and opened my inventory to see what arrows I can use. King Carolus gave me a variety of arrows. I need to find out which one of this I can use to repel that giant monster.

I decided to use the arrow called 'Explosive Arrow'.

I nock the arrow on my bow and aim at the giant phantom.

The giant phantom is still relatively far away but I'm confident I can hit the monster using my 'Extreme Accuracy' gift.

After making sure that my aim is correct, I loosed the arrow and watched it fly in the sky.

The arrow managed to hit the giant phantom in the head and the arrow quickly exploded.

The giant phantom stopped flying and is now slowly falling in the ocean. The monster hit the water hard and got dragged deep so quick.

'It worked!' I cheered to myself and everyone around started shouting and celebrating.

"Don't celebrate yet! We still have a lot of phantoms to kill!" I shouted at them to make sure they don't get too overconfident.

The soldiers started firing arrows back and the favor of the battle is now on our side.

We managed to kill a couple hundred more phantoms when suddenly the water below started shaking.

The giant phantom suddenly emerged out of the water near the wall and landed on top of the tower I'm standing.

I quickly turned around to face the monster.

The soldiers here quickly ready their melee weapons and charged at the monster. They didn't get the chance to hit the giant phantom and they are quickly thrown in the water by the monster's wings.

It seems the giant phantom's plan is to gather the people in the water to be picked up by the other phantoms and dragged back to their island.

I can't fight this giant monster and save my people at the same time.

I decided to put away my bow and equipped the diamond dagger in my hand.

I'm not really an efficient melee fighter but I'm not going down without a fight.

I was about to charge at the giant phantom when suddenly I can see a green crystal ball flying towards here.

I remember that one. I believe it is called an ender pearl.

The ender pearl hits the giant phantom in the face and it quickly breaks into pieces.

King Carolus suddenly appeared wearing his diamond armor in the place where the ender pearl landed.

He is now holding a giant diamond hammer in his hands and quickly swing it towards the giant phantom.

The monster got hit in the face so hard and is now flying back towards the deep ocean.

I stared at King Carolus while he is slowly walking towards the edge of the tower and stand beside me.

******* Carolus' POV *******

"What took you so long?" I can hear Rose talking beside me while I'm staring at the water waiting for the giant phantom to appear.

"Your welcome." I just said to her while wondering what I'm doing with my life.

I actually ignored the sound of horns that I've been hearing in my room and just decided to lie in the bed and sleep.

I was quickly interrupted by the loud banging in my door and turns out it was Poppy.

Poppy begged me, pleaded me to help defend the kingdom and save Rose once again.

I can't really refuse a sweat and sincere lady who is kindly asking for my help so I quickly run outside the keep and look for my horse.

I was galloping my way towards the east past the civilian houses when suddenly I can see a lot of phantoms in the sky.

It seems the people on top of the wall can't handle the number of phantoms invading.

I was about to help the people on top of the wall when phantoms started attacking the houses around me.

I couldn't really ignore the monsters that were attacking the normal people's houses so I decided to start killing all of the phantoms with my bow.

I was suddenly interrupted by an explosion coming from the other side of the wall. There was also cheering and I really don't know what was happening there.

I just ignored for now and focused on wiping out the phantoms here.

I managed to kill all of the phantoms on this side of the wall all by myself.

I learned that the population of this kingdom was quite big so I wonder why there are only five hundred or so people fighting on top of walls right now? Where are the rest of them?

My thoughts were suddenly interrupted when I saw a giant phantom on top of a tower.

I equipped my diamond armor and giant hammer in my hand.

I threw an ender pearl on the general direction of the giant phantom and managed to teleport in front of the monster and whacked the monster away.

The giant phantom didn't emerge in the water for a while so it is safe to assume that I managed to deal huge damage.

Most of the regular phantoms in the sky suddenly flew downwards towards the people in the water. They started picking them up and are now flying away.

'Where are they taking them?' I asked myself while staring at the soldiers wearing iron armor getting carried towards east.

Rose started shooting arrows beside me to save the soldiers. I also switch my weapon into a bow and help her kill the phantoms.

The soldiers we saved still end up in the water but at least they are safe for now.

I asked Rose if they have ships or something to save them but she just said that they don't have any right now and she already send someone to borrow some from the fishermen.

Great. I guess we just have to watch people drown for now.

I can't really stomach watching people drown in front of me so I just said to Rose to just continue holding the wall while I save her people. I asked her if I can place ladders on the side of the wall but she quickly protested since they might be other monsters that might climb it and attack this place.

I just jumped off the tower and landed on the cold water.

My plan is to craft a ton of boats and threw them in the people who are now struggling to swim.

I crafted my first boat using the wooden planks in my inventory.

I quickly placed the boat in front of me and hop on it.

I crafted more wooden boats, place them in front of me, pick them up then throw them in the distance.

The soldiers saw the boats hurling in the air and land near them. They quickly ride the boats and is now slowly rowing their way towards the wall.

Well, you look at that. My plan actually works.

All of them are finally safe and is now being carried by a rope to the top of the wall.

I can still hear arrows being fired on top of the wall and towers.

There are still so many phantoms in the dark sky.

The giant phantom also decided to show up. The monster suddenly appeared out of the water and is now flying high in the sky.

I quickly threw an ender pearl to get back on top of the tower.

The giant monster suddenly shrieks so loud.

All of the people here covered their ears except for me and Rose.

Thousands of phantoms decided to ignore us completely and are now flying high past the wall and deeper in the kingdom.

The soldiers tried to fire arrows at them but they are so far away.

Damn. I could really use elytra right now to fly.

We are now helplessly watching thousands of monsters flying towards the castle. They also started to spread out in all directions.

"No. Poppy." I hear Rose talking beside me.

She tried to start running towards the stairs when I suddenly stopped her by holding on her shoulder.

"Let go of me! I need to save my..." Rose screamed at me and she suddenly stopped when she saw an ender pearl in my other hand.

I threw the ender pearl with all my strength towards the castle and waited for it to land.

After a moment, I and Rose are now in front of the castle about 15 or so blocks away. I guess I undershot my ender pearl throw.

It doesn't matter since we are close anyway.

I didn't bother to knock on the door to ask to open the gates and just threw another ender pearl while holding Rose on her hand.

The ender pearl landed on the battlements in front of the castle and there are now soldiers pointing their weapons at us.

"All of you better make sure that you killed me otherwise I will have all of you executed." Rose suddenly talked beside me and made everyone shrink back and lower their weapons.

Okay. Now back to the real problem, how will be able to defend this place with monsters that can fly in the sky?