"Don't let them break past the walls!" The General who was in charge of the army ordered, "Fire!"
Several catapults that were inside Whitebridge city hurled the burning steel balls towards the Beast Tide that had broken past the first and second lines of defense.
Only the location around where Eternal was stationed wasn't completely broken through since they had Diablo on their side, using his Whirlwind Slash to eliminate all the enemies within his strike range.
The Demonic Flying Tiger had decided to ignore the Skeleton Rider and attacked the city alongside the horde of monsters that numbered in the hundreds of thousands.
Eternal, as well as the other guilds, had safely entered the city thanks to the coverfire of the Army of Gweliven. However, there were two guilds that suffered a great loss in this battle. The first one was Twisted Destiny, who lost more than half of its Elite Members due to the Demonic Flying Tiger that had rampaged in the location that they were guarding. Aside from that, their Guild Master was assassinated, which lowered the morale of the entire guild. The Vice Guild Master immediately rallied the survivors to return to the city to regroup with the main bulk of their forces.
The Arcadian Lords suffered a similar fate, but not as harsh as what happened to Twisted Destiny. They were faring quite well during the battle, but after their Guild Master was assassinated, the chain of command broke apart, allowing Rank 3 up to Rank 5 Alpha Monsters to wreak havoc on their forces.
Left with no other choice, the Vice Guild Master of the Arcadian Lords also ordered an immediate retreat.
Now that all the guilds had retreated behind the last defensive wall of the city, the atmosphere had turned tense.
Everyone knew that if the monsters managed to scale the city walls, the tide would spill into the city center, making the battlefield more chaotic. This was something they didn't want to happen, so everyone was gritting their teeth in preparation for the intense battle, including Garth, the mayor of Whitebridge City.
The flaming steel balls descended on the horde of monsters, annihilating everything in their path. They were one of the main defensive methods of the Dwarven cities, and each ball was created to inflict as much damage as possible, even to Deimos and Argonaut Ranked Monsters that couldn't be defeated by normal means.
Several Wind Blades descended from the sky as the Demonic Flying Tiger flew above the city and unleashed a barrage of attacks aimed at the catapults that were attacking its comrades.
"Not on my watch!"
A confident declaration echoed inside the city as Nikola blocked the Deimos' Monster's attack, using over a dozen Elemental Shields that hovered in front of the catapults, keeping them safe.
"Come down here!" Nikola shouted at the Flying Tiger in the sky. "I dare you!"
He was a ranker that specialized in land battles, and flying enemies weren't his forte. Even so, he still activated several Earth Spears and hurled them at the flying tiger, but the latter evaded them with ease.
Lux frowned when he saw this scene. He could tell with a glance that the middle-aged man who was shouting at the Flying Tiger was very strong. However, his strength was useless because his attack couldn't reach his target.
It was at that moment when a plan appeared inside his head.
"Colette, stay with your sister," Lux said with a serious expression on his face. "I'll help deal with the Flying Tiger."
"Okay!" Colette nodded her head in understanding. "Goodluck, Big Brother!"
The little girl had so much faith in Lux. If the Half-Elf told her that he would defeat an Argonaut Monster on his own, Colette would definitely believe it without fail.
Aina gave Lux a sidelong glance before shifting her attention to the Flying Tiger that was attacking them from the air. There were other flying monsters within the Beast Tide, but they were easily taken down by the Archers and the Mages who specialized in dealing with flying monsters.
The only problem was that the Alpha-Ranked Deimos Monster's movement was so erratic, that neither their arrows or magic spells could land on its body.
Two minutes later, Lux arrived at the location where the catapults were stationed.
"Sir, if I can bring that flying monster down from the sky, will you be able to do anything about it?" Lux asked as he looked at the middle-aged man whom he was seeing for the first time.
"Of course," Nikola flashed Lux a wide grin. "Rookie, we have high hopes for you. Do you have a plan in mind?"
"Rookie?"
"Ah. I forgot to tell you that we are on the same team."
Nikola showed the token of the Order of the Griffin to Lux, making the Half-Elf understand why the middle-aged Dwarf addressed him in a familiar manner.
"Sir, may I know your name?" Lux asked.
"Nikola," Nikola replied. "Nikola Einstein. I am a C-Ranker, and specialize in close combat and Earth Magic."
Nikola had a smug expression on his face as he looked at Lux. He thought that the Half-Elf would be surprised with his declaration, but the latter only said, "Oh", and gave a brief nod of understanding.
What Nikola didn't know was that Lux had been living with a C-Ranker for most of his life, so he wasn't too surprised about the middle-aged Dwarf's statement.
Although his Grandma Vera looked like a friendly old granny on the surface, she could be quite scary whenever someone crossed her bottom line. Lux had seen that side a few times during his childhood.
"Sir Nikola, I can bring that Monster down from the sky. However, you will only have one window of opportunity to deal it a devastating blow that will prevent it from flying ever again."
"Relax. As long as that little kitty comes within my strike range, it is as good as dead."
Lux could feel the confidence of a Ranker oozing from Nikola's words, so he decided to thicken his face and use this as an opportunity to get some benefits.
"I can do this for you, Sir Nikola, but it will not be for free," Lux commented. "I want the Monster's corpse as well as its Beast Core."
"That's it?" Nikola chuckled as he patted Lux's shoulder. "Such a trivial thing. Okay, you can have it. Consider it a gift from one of your seniors."
"Thank you very much!"
"Don't thank me yet. Let's bring down that kitty cat first."
Lux didn't expect the negotiations to go so smoothly. However, he didn't realize that the Beast Core of a Deimos Monster, as well as its corpse, although good, was no longer appealing to a Dwarf of Nikola's rank.
C-Rankers often hunted Argonaut-Ranked Monsters and even Dreadnaught-Ranked Beasts in order to increase their rank, gather monster parts, and gain Beast Cores.
Also, Nikolas specialized in land battles. None of the Flying Tiger's body parts or skills interested him.
"Let's go, Rookie!" Nikola pounded his two fists together activating his personal buffs to increase his defense, and attack to the next stage. "Show me what you're made of!"
None of the members of the Order of the Griffin were useless. Although not all of them were fighters like Nikola, each of them had a specialty that allowed them to rise above the others.
Although Nikola didn't know what Lux's specialty was, he believed that the King wouldn't recruit someone, especially not a Half-Elf, to his personal Elite Unit that safeguarded the peace of the Kingdom of Gweliven, if there wasn't some skill present.
"It's time to shine!" Lux shouted while pointing at the Flying Tiger in the air. "Bring it down, Orion!"
Lux's fourth Named Creature, the Rock Golem Orion, appeared behind the Half-Elf and roared towards the sky.
Immediately, as if a kite was being pulled towards the ground, the Flying Tiger's body made a sharp turn in the sky and descended towards the ground with a frustrated roar.
Nikola grinned evilly as he concentrated his strength in his right arm.
"Come to daddy!" Nikola shouted as he stomped his left foot forward, preparing to unleash his strongest attack. The moment the Flying Tiger appeared within his ability's strike range, the middle-aged Dwarf blinked in front of the Deimos-Ranked Alpha Monster and unleashed a deadly punch that could shatter boulders into hundreds of pieces.
"Earth Dragon Smash!"
Immediately, a cry of pain reverberated in the surroundings before the ground trembled violently.
The Flying Tiger that terrorized the Dwarven Army was smashed towards the ground, creating a hundred-wide crater.
"Amazing!" Lux stared in awe at the middle-aged Dwarf who was now standing on the body of the Deimos Monster that suffered from serious injuries with just a single punch from the C-Ranked Dwarf.
Although Nikola was less than five feet tall, the power that was radiating from his small body was the same power that Lux had coveted all his life.
The Half-Elf had always wanted to become a Ranker, like his Grandma Vera. Now that he was fighting alongside someone whom he had aspired to become, Lux felt that the dream that he had in the past, was slowly, but surely, becoming a reality.
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