For the rest of the day, their small portion of the line got much busier, with units passing by every hour and dozens of messengers running back and forth as everyone got set up for the new deployment.
According to the messages, this wide valley was one of the easiest spots for the Monster Tide to reach other than the main lines, so they would naturally send the most forces in this direction.
“All five barrier sections on this portion of the flank are ready for activation.” The scout team reported over the radio later that evening.
It was strange having four other teams within the range of the handheld radio, not nearly as peaceful as they had gotten used to, but the dust cloud of the monster tide was already visible in the sky past the horizon, so they didn’t have any time to wait, the barrier needed to go up and start charging with mana right now.
“Everyone focus your energies on the barrier poles. Once it has enough energy to activate, it will come online and spread between poles.
Even though they were rookies, two hundred Witches brought their barrier up in an instant, sending a glowing blue wall out as far as the eye could see.
[Did we get a Coven Elder on this wing?] A distant voice asked, crackling with interference from the radios, caused by something innate to the Frozen Wastes.
The radios still worked, but their range wasn’t nearly as good as it was near the back lines, supposedly due to the abundance of other energy in the air and insufficient transmission power from the handheld radios.
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[Lucky. I could use a man right about now.] The first voice joked before being reprimanded by a camp leader.
This section of the defensive barrier was fifty kilometres long in total, and every available Witch from all five camps was giving everything that they had to charge it to capacity before the monsters arrived.
[I swear, we’ve got a special forces team with us. This barrier is incredible.] Someone added, making every soldier in Wolfe’s camp smile.
Though they were not particularly strong individually, the two hundred enhanced soldiers of their team were putting out more mana flow than the twenty-five trained Sylvan officers along the line were, while Wolfe and his team could match what the rest of their camp combined was contributing.
“That mana output is insane, even if you are meditating to keep it up. Did you get the lead of the defence line?” Priya asked.
“Yeah, I’ve got it. I think it’s a lightning barrier as well since that is the only array I know.”
Priya frowned. “I didn’t think of that since we all learned the spell for the line defence barrier during officer training. But just do your best to hold it, and if it gets too bad, remove yourself from the loop, and someone else will take over and change it back to normal.
It’s not a big deal since it changes with every change of control. They’ll just assume you’re sleeping or injured, and the Array will have them automatically take over.”
The anticipation built for three hours, with the barrier absorbing as much energy as the Witches could pour into it. After the first two hours, Wolfe was beginning to suspect that it didn’t have an actual limit, but as the third hour approached, he could feel the change as the magical items reached their limits and the rate of mana transfer slowed to a fraction of what it could accept earlier.
[The barrier is nearly full. Slow the feed to a trickle, and have everyone get ready for the first impact.] An authoritative voice declared over the radio.
Monsters had started to come over the horizon now, and the unit had spread out, with every available ranged weapon in use, even the relatively weak short bows.
They didn’t have to shoot very far, only through the barrier, while their newfound ability to control their aura meant that they could keep their bows enchanted, so every arrow was as good as a cast spell with a bonus spear.
“At one hundred meters, the senior Witches will begin bombardment. Soldiers follow your squad leader’s orders. Wolfe, reserve as much mana as possible for when the line is hit.”
Vines suddenly burst from the ground at the engagement point and trapped the front rank of monsters while explosions detonated all through the monster horde. The fire scorched fur and scales while shards of ice and stone pierced into monstrous bodies, creating an obstacle course for the advancing tide to pass over.
Wolfe felt a pull from the barrier, and the radio crackled to life with joyful cheers.
[Any squad not in active combat, reinforce the shield. The controller from the special forces team has created a lightning barrier to stun the beasts.]
“That’s you, academy team. It’s a lot of barrier energy to refill when spread out over fifty kilometres of attacking monsters, but you’ve got help. Keep it as full as possible, and hopefully, we can weather the first surge of usage.”
The pull constantly grew worse over the next minute as the entire Monster Tide crashed into their barrier, but Wolfe’s suspicions during the undead bird attacks proved true.
The barrier only shocked each target once if it stayed in contact, and with the archers killing everything that hit the barrier, their corpses stayed in contact, and the tide piled up behind them and rushed over them to charge the barrier.
Wolfe vaguely heard Priya yell something, and then a gust of wind magic pushed the wall of dead monsters back so the next wave couldn’t use them to climb over the wall.
That meant another surge of mana drawn, but for now, the reserves in the barrier were holding, and a number of other Witches were helping replenish the capacity.
Soon they were back to two-thirds of the original charging rate, so the only ones who weren’t powering the barrier were the soldiers of their camp, who were too busy firing enchanted Arrows.
Still, it wasn’t going to be enough if the battle dragged on. They could hope for thirty minutes at best before the wall was breached, and before that, the Witches would have to back off to recover and prepare for the battle to come.
That gave them an optimistic twenty minutes while the first barrier held to kill as much as possible before they would have to retreat to their camp and set up the smaller barrier to begin the process all over again.
“Wolfe, save some mana for the second barrier. The other camps have their own defences.” Priya instructed at the fifteen-minute mark when it became clear that the already fading barrier was not going to last long.
But at the eighteen-minute mark, Wolfe had an epiphany. He realized how he could change the activation of the barrier to use Unholy energy and have the [Unholy Smite] cover the whole surface as long as something was in contact with some part of the barrier.
It would be far less draw than individual lightning bolts since it was only one area spell, but it would be constant for the duration of the attack.
With the amount of mana that was needed to keep even their camp-sized barrier active, it wouldn’t be possible to hold forever, but he could hold for most of the day and hope that was enough.
“Everyone, fall back into the camp. Hold the barrier as long as you can. I’ve already called the others to let them know they have one minute.” Lieutenant Priya ordered.