No longer were the adventurers able to hold the wraiths at bay without incurring any backlash. Their numbers were becoming too great, and those with ranged attacks could attack without interruption.

  A large fireball came crashing into one of the towers. Pieces of the hastily built wall were falling to the ground below. The people stationed there were a little worse for wear. Someone had summoned a shell of water to mitigate most of the blast.

  But not a moment later, a bolt of earth penetrated the water shell and lodged its way into someone's leg.

  The adventurer must have been a tough bastard because she immediately pulled the stone out and poured a healing potion into the gaping wound. All the while firing out a volley of ice shards toward the approaching wraiths.

  Guess I'm not going to have the luxury of optimization with these mana potions. Damian grabbed one and started to chug it while firing his fireballs at a much quicker pace. He barely needed to aim now. When he missed a wraith, it struck another down the line.

  The horizon thickened with wraiths. Explosions in all colors bloomed. The incessant howls of wraiths eroded their minds.

  The makeshift army fired volley after volley, but the monsters were about to cross a critical threshold where the melee fighters would need to engage. The soldiers and adventurers on either side of the wall were boosting morale by clashing their weapons against their shields.

  "Heeyaah!!! Aaargh!!! Kyaaah!!! "

  Battle cries roared out from the mortal fighters as they rounded the corners of the wall. If they wanted to survive, they'd need to prevent these wraiths from crossing and creating a rout.

  Far too many more people would die if they fled to the Spire and teleported away. Not only would these wraiths spread out into the city, but some would likely enter the Spire in chase—just more numbers in the tower for the Valkyrie to clear out.

  On the fortunate side, the wraiths they were facing were mainly tier four and below. Many adventurers died to the undead in the Earthen Spire, but the terrifying ones that were tier five and six were last seen in the dungeon, hopefully taken care of by the Valkyrie.

  Right before the two forces could clash, illusory spikes shot out of the ground and rammed into the wraiths leading the charge. These spikes only slowed the misty figures, shattering on contact, but this was enough for their vanguard to move in and take advantage of the stalled momentum.

  Damian was already on the ground in front of the wall when the clash happened. He had one of Alex's tethers on his back, ready to be pulled back to safety when he raised his stub arm or when Alex deemed he needed help.

  Charging forward toward the clashing figures, he raised his new sword and charged it with mana. But this time, it had the usual swirl of his wind blades dancing over it.

  He had wanted to test mixing the two mana types on the blade, but feared he'd get his allies caught in the result. Skill mixtures could be unpredictable.

  Like a fierce wind, he moved past the first wraith that was locked against the shield of a guard. Damian's blade plunged into its wispy arm. Swirls of red wind blades danced on the monster's body, rapidly eating away at its ethereal form.

  The wraith's form shrank rapidly, allowing the guard, locked in a standoff, to overpower his ethereal foe and strike the final blow.

  Damian dashed back behind the bulwark to avoid a scythe-like appendage aimed for his head. As the blade phased into the ground, he swung his arm back out to cut the appendage off. More blades of red energy danced up the insect-like wraith's arm, working their way toward its bulbous head.

  Combining the two mana types had a multiplicative effect. Damian was using double the mana for these attacks, but the results were three or four times as effective. Robby had chosen his sword well. It definitely wasn't just that he chose his own work. Surely.

  I'll need to thank Robby... if I live through this. Damian pushed the thought of the massive wraith at the royal castle out of his mind. He was running on wishful thinking that the behemoth wouldn't come his way.

  Either the castle's forces would have to be enough, or they would have to pray that the Valkyrie had had enough fun in the Earthen Spire.

  Huh?

  Funnily enough, although wraiths were ethereal, they could still crash into one another. Their forces at the back were being stalled by the slower ones ahead. Since they were being stalled, you'd expect them to fly up or dive into the ground to get to the living, but despite being ghosts, not all could fly.

  As for diving into the ground to surprise the living, they could do so, but not for long. Earlier, Damian saw some of the wraiths trying to be clever by tunneling under toward the wall, but for some reason, they were practically rejected from the ground. They could dive down, but were quickly forced back to the surface.

  Damian didn't know enough about the wraiths' nature. He only knew that wraiths could phase through materials that didn't hold enough mana. Today was his first time seeing one for longer than a few seconds.

  Parrying another scythe-like claw aiming to ensnare him from above, Damian's red wind blades continued to crawl up his foe's extended arm. It seemed that the insect wraith finally had enough and fizzled out of existence, only to be immediately replaced with another monstrosity.

  As Damian was bobbing and weaving around claws, blades, teeth, and spells, he saw a giant spectral mace come crashing down upon some unsuspecting wraiths. To his surprise, it was Lieutenant Higgins closing the gap between the left and right forces of the wall.

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  She wielded a similar energy to Isaac's. But instead of coating her shield with the energy, she applied it to her weapon, making it many times larger.

  As she was swinging her enlarged mace with ease, a wraith came crashing into her shield from her flank. She didn't flinch at all from the attack and took the hit as if it had no force behind it.

  No wonder it felt like a wall when I bumped into her...

  Feeling more comfortable in a familiar figure, Damian moved a little closer to Higgins's flank. The shielder he had been supporting so far would be fine without him... probably.

  Diving out from around the shielders' sides, Damian quickly delivered mana empowered attacks whenever an opportunity arose. He was like a swift wind that was breezing by the soldiers' sides, only to deliver devastating attacks to their enemies.

  The battle went on, and the fighters at the front grew tired of the ceaseless enemy. Higgins was prepared for this moment and roared, "SWITCH!!!" Several other illusory Higgins clones could be heard screaming the same across the battlefield.

  Another line of spikes shot out of the ground in front of the wraiths, knocking them back. During this brief respite, the guards swapped places with the front-line fighters. Adventurers who were unaware were pulled back forcefully and replaced.

  During this change of the line, Damian saw that Ms. Sanderson was defending the very ends of the shield wall. Any wraith that tried to go around was quickly filled with illusory weapons.

  For some reason, she liked to use a wide variety of tools for her illusions. Damian was pretty sure that he just saw a wraith get slapped back by a giant ruler...

  Taking a moment of rest, the makeshift army in the back started to gulp potions down. Stamina, strength, healing, and mana potions were taken in quick succession. Damian had only brought mana, healing, and stamina potions from up on the wall. They kept the strengthening ones on the sides.

  Higgins, the stalwart defender, decided not to take a rest and continued to hold the front line. She held steadfast in the face of overwhelming numbers. But her foolhardiness wouldn't get her through this alone.

  Sheathing his sword, Damian quickly moved behind her. "I'm going to feed you your potions, don't be alarmed!" "Mmm," Higgins grunted in agreement.

  Damian's hand grabbed some of the potions strapped into the pockets at Higgin's side, popped the corks, and brought them to her face one at a time.

  She practically snapped at the potions with her teeth and tilted her head back to down them in quick succession. From her perspective, with how quickly Damian was moving, the potions were materializing in front of her.

  Just as Damian was about to get back into the fight, he was rapidly reeled back up toward the wall.

  What happened for her to pull me back? Damian thought in confusion. The retreat seemed too preemptive.

  As he was twisting and turning in the air to get a read on what was happening, he could see that most of the wall's fighters on the left flank had redirected their firepower toward the Merchants Guild.

  "Ouff!"Damian landed in Alex's arms. "What's hap..." Damian didn't have to ask; it was blatantly obvious. Numerous Merchant Guild guards were fleeing in their direction with a very angry-looking two-story ape behind them. Mother Fuckers!!!

  The wraith's right arm was gone right at the shoulder blade; for some reason, it chose not to restore it, keeping it at its original size. Damian didn't even know that was an option for the ghostly enemies.

  "Controlled Retreat Down The Right Flank!!!" Ethereal Higgins roared the order to the makeshift army. But with a mix of adventurers and trained guards, some began to panic.

  Holes in the defensive formation started to appear. The wraiths began to slip through and attack their open sides. Damian watched in horror as a cat-like wraith started to pounce in Higgins's direction.

  Before the beast could dig its fangs into the officer, an ethereal platform appeared under the army's feet. With a giant movement, the platform shot up at a rapid speed, pulling both soldiers and wraiths alike up into the air. As it was cresting the wall, it shattered in the air, flinging these helpless fools over the earthen wall.

  From that impressive display of power, Ms. Sanderson crumpled to the ground, like a puppet that had its strings cut. Not good.

  Taking one last look over the wall, Damian could see that everyone was pulled away, almost everyone...

  Lieutenant Higgins was still standing in the field. Whatever skill she had that made her immovable had prevented her from being pulled back with the rest of them.

  "Alex! Tether And Throw Me!"

  She knew exactly what to do. Like a cannonball, she hurled Damian straight for the lone soldier. Higgins had enlarged her mace many times over and was swinging it wildly, trying to ward off the encroaching wraiths. In a slam, Damian crashed into her backside, scaring the woman in an "Epp!"

  "Disable It!!!"

  "Huh?"

  "Disable Your Skill!!!"

  Damian felt the tether at his back tighten, but Higgins was anchored in place. Fire, earth, and water spells shot out at the wraiths surrounding them. All at once, Damian was pulled back at a rapid pace with the soldier in his arms. Flying high into the air once again, he felt like a fish caught on the line.

  He once again slammed into the Amazonian woman, but this time was sandwiched between another wall of armor.

  "Gaah!!"

  Alex dropped the two of them after stumbling back a step.

  "Ahh waa?" Higgins was jarred from the experience. After getting her immovable skill, she probably wasn't used to being tossed around.

  Damian quickly righted himself and caught a swiftness potion tossed by Donna. She was over by the makeshift potion shelf, storing everything in her skill.

  Downing it quickly, he took a quick assessment of his surroundings. The guards and adventurers were all already booking it to the Spire. Some wraiths who were tossed over the wall with them were in the mix, battling with unfortunates caught out.

  The Merchant Guild's guards are also quickly approaching the tower. They'd likely reach it first with the giant ape before everyone here made it in...

  "Everyone Ready!!!"

  Huh?

  Alex had her hands out, and Frey, Donna, and Fergus grouped up in front of her. She wrapped them in a big bear hug, then launched off the wall and toward the tower.

  Damian saw a tether anchor point just before the Spire entrance that she must have placed earlier. Instead of being pulled in a straight line, they crashed to the ground and then dragged along at a rapid pace. Alex, with her sword on her back, took the brunt of it.

  As they were being dragged further and further away, Damian could see that two more tethers were connected to him and Higgins.

  Ah shit, again?!

  "Higgins! Don't activate your immovable skill no matter what!"

  Before he'd get pulled away, Damian tried to find out where Ms. Sanderson was, just in case she needed a ride. He spotted her right away, being carried by an experienced-looking adventurer. He was fast, very fast.

  But the sight drew his attention to something in the distance; the illusion Ms. Sanderson had cast in the area to hide the castle had been undone.

  Damian could see a giant horned behemoth continuously getting assaulted with spells from all along the standing castle walls. Figures could barely be seen dashing in the air around the giant, trying to cut it down.

  Then, a giant beam shot out from the top of the Mage Tower. It struck the creature in the back, forcing it to stumble forward.

  It was just like one of the scenes in depictions of the Cataclysm. Hell had come for them.

  Damian shook his head. Can't do anything about that...

  Focusing back on Alex and the rest of his party, they slid right through the entrance of the Earthen Spire. But there was an unforeseen consequence, the act of crossing into the Spire seemed to cut off the tethers attached to himself and Higgins...

  Shit!