The next morning, he opened his eyes to a huge noise. He heard a multitude of roars from different Magical Beasts. It was like a war cry. His expression became solemn. The Beast Wave had started.
He quickly left the waterfall to observe what was happening. He saw a huge trail of dust in the distance. All the Magical Beasts were charging toward Solhaven. The noise they were making was frightening him.
Meanwhile, at the gates of Solhaven, one of the guards felt the ground shaking. He looked up at the forest and saw some movement from the forest. The forest was not exactly right beside them, and the elevation allowed him to see everything in there even though there were trees. Even the Outer Forest was within sight.
He saw the massive dust cloud and the Magical Beasts charging toward them. He panicked and shouted out his observation.
“The Beast Wave is here!”
Everyone in earshot heard his shout and looked at the forest in the distance. They confirmed his words with their eyes. One of the guards quickly ran to a nearby bell and picked up the stick. He then hit the gong with all his strength once. A ring resounded throughout the city. He hit it another time. The ring added to the echoes of the first sound. He hit it a final time with the rest of his strength.
The people in the homes heard the three bell rings and became solemn. Three bells signified an attack. This meant that the Beast Wave had started. They couldn’t even do anything. They would just have to wait.
All of the Aura Knights in the Commoner’s District were already on the walls and on the fields, ready to fight. However, not all of the mages were doing that. Unlike Aura Knights, the conscription didn’t affect any of the nobles. They could even leave the city if they wanted. All of the nobles who were afraid had already left the city an entire week ago along with their family fortunes. They would return after the Beast Wave after everything was safe.
The only nobles who had stayed were nobles who were so deeply rooted in Solhaven that they had to guard their interests by defending the city. At the center of the wall, the magistrate stood in silence, observing the distant Beast Wave. Beside him were five mages, all in the 3rd Circle.
“Can you see the leader?” One of the mages asked. This was the same mage that bought the Purple Moon Wolf cub. He was the mage from the Silvershade family.
The Magistrate nodded. His expression was very solemn.
“There are 8 3rd Circle Magical Beasts and 3587 2nd Circle Magical Beasts. There are over 10000 1st Circle Magical Beasts,” he said.
“Last time there were only a tenth of these numbers. Why are there so many now?” The mage asked.
“The leader is a 4th Circle Magical Beast,” he said.
All of the mages turned to him with a shocked expression. They weren’t expecting the Valkyr’s Woods to be hiding a 4th Circle Magical Beast.
“Be prepared for a very gruesome battle. I expect you all to take care of all the 3rd Circle Magical Beasts. I can take a few 2nd Circle Magical Beasts and 1st Circle Magical Beasts out of the equation before their leader steps up,” he said.
He pulled out a staff from his dimensional ring. It was a long wooden staff with a blue crystal embedded at its top. He slammed the staff to the wall and a light beacon emerged from the staff and shot up to the sky.
Everyone saw the beacon and got ready. Everyone on the wall was ranged Aura Knights who could use a bow and arrow. Everyone who used close-range weapons was on the ground at the base of the wall.
The Magical Beasts were charging at them, so they closed the gap between the forest and the city very quickly. They were within visible distance within ten minutes and would be at the gate in another ten.
Everyone got ready. It was a lot of the people’s first Beast Wave. Even for the veterans, this was very stressful. The previous Beast Wave wasn’t nearly as big as this one. They were preparing for the chance that they wouldn’t be able to return back home.
The Beasts quickly got to the gate and started slowing down. The magistrate raised his staff and cast the first spell.
“Icy Rain!”
An array of arrows made of ice formed above the magistrate. He pointed his staff at the Magical Beasts and all of the arrows flew toward them. The arrows spread out quickly and lodged themselves into the 1st Circle Magical Beasts that were at the forefront of the wave. Since they were a lot weaker than him, the arrows instantly killed them.
The mages beside him also started acting. They also cast spells that targeted the 1st Circle Magical Beasts. Quickly, a layer of bodies formed around 300 meters away from the wall. The incoming Magical Beasts had to climb the bodies and cross them to get to them reducing their momentum greatly.
When they got closer, they quickly fell into a trench that was just after the newly formed wall of corpses. The Aura Knights had dug up the trench a week before in preparation for the Beast Wave. The trench only didn’t cover the route to the forest so it didn’t affect people who normally used that route. They only dug up that part the previous night.
Once a layer of Magical Beasts fell into the trench, the Aura Knights closest to them lit up torches and threw them into the trenches.
Once the torches contacted the Magical Beasts and the fire reached the bottom of the trench, it created an explosion. At the bottom of the trench was a special oil that was prepared for the Beast Wave. It would explode with great power if it was touched by fire and was perfect to defend sieges and Beast Waves.
Once the beasts got closer, the rest of the mages got into action along with the ranged Aura Knights. There were around 30 2nd Circle Mages and 100 1st Circle Mages who were alongside 2500 Ranged Aura Knights. Together they started a barrage of attacks on the incoming Magical Beasts.
A huge number of arrows flew at the Magical Beasts who were trying to get past the trench. The mages were only attacking the Magical Beasts who got past the trenches because their magic didn’t allow them to attack further than that yet. They could only attack targets who were within 300 meters away. Even that was so far away that it would decrease their spell’s strength, but their spells could impact more Magical Beasts at once so it didn’t matter.