Chapter 27: The Tide of Beasts
No one knew why.
No scout had returned with an explanation.
No hunter could identify the cause.
The only thing everyone agreed upon...
Was that the mountain itself had gone mad.
From the watchtowers came a single report.
Then another.
Then five more.
"Beast tide!"
"They're coming from the eastern forests!"
"The northern ridge too!"
"Thousands!"
The words spread through Mistforge faster than fire through dry grass.
The city's warning bells continued to ring.
Deep.
Heavy.
Relentless.
Each toll tightened the hearts of the people below.
The bustling marketplace emptied within minutes.
Doors slammed shut.
Windows were barred.
Children were hurried inside by frightened parents.
Only those capable of fighting remained outside.
Mistforge had always been a city of warriors.
Today...
It would prove it.
Captain Han stood atop the eastern wall.
His enormous frame overlooked the entire battlefield.
The old veteran did not shout.
He did not panic.
His voice remained calm.
Steady.
The kind of voice that reminded everyone exactly why he had commanded the city's soldiers for so many years.
"Formation One."
The officers immediately relayed the order.
"Archers!"
"Front wall!"
"Shield bearers!"
"Protect the firing line!"
"Healers!"
"Prepare behind the second wall!"
The city moved like a well-practiced machine.
Every person already knew where they belonged.
Rows of archers lined the battlements.
Beside each stood heavily armored shield bearers carrying tower shields large enough to protect several people at once.
Behind them...
Foundation Establishment warriors quietly gathered.
Some specialized in long-range Ki techniques.
Others prepared talismans.
Several held enormous jars filled with burning oil.
Healers unpacked medicine.
Bandages.
Spirit herbs.
Emergency antidotes.
Every corner of the wall became organized within minutes.
Years of living beside dangerous mountains had taught Mistforge one important lesson.
Preparation saved lives.
Captain Han's eyes swept across the assembled defenders.
"Mortal Realm warriors."
He paused.
"You will remain as archers."
No one objected.
Everyone understood.
Charging into a beast tide at Mortal Realm cultivation...
Would accomplish nothing except creating more corpses.
"The city needs your arrows."
"Not your deaths."
Several young warriors visibly relaxed.
Others clenched their fists in frustration.
They wanted to fight.
Captain Han wanted them alive.
Even ordinary professions had answered the call.
Blacksmiths arrived carrying war hammers.
Shopkeepers brought spears stored beneath their counters.
Carpenters held heavy axes.
Hunters carried bows nearly as large as themselves.
No one waited to be asked.
Mistforge belonged to them.
If the city fell...
Everyone lost their home.
Yun Che quickly spotted familiar faces.
His father stood among the blacksmiths, already wearing heavy combat armor.
His enormous forging hammer rested casually upon one shoulder.
His older brother carried his trusted spear.
His expression, usually carefree, had become surprisingly serious.
Not far away...
Yun Mie quietly checked the poison coating upon her arrows.
One quiver contained ordinary arrows.
The second...
Contained monsters.
Each shaft had been prepared to kill.
Yun Che suddenly realized something.
His entire family...
Was going to war.
He forced himself to stay calm.
Think.
Where am I most useful?
The answer came immediately.
Not beside his father.
Not with the spear formations.
His place...
Was elsewhere.
He climbed one of the tallest watchtowers overlooking the eastern approach.
Several guards looked toward him.
"The rifle?"
Yun Che nodded.
"Good."
One veteran pointed toward the distant tree line.
"Anything dangerous appears..."
"Shoot it."
Yun Che quietly settled into position.
The Mountain Piercer rested against the stone railing.
He opened the bolt.
Loaded a fresh rune-inscribed round.
Closed it.
Click.
The familiar sound steadied his breathing.
Far below...
The Frost Wolf Cavalry waited behind the city gates.
Dozens of magnificent wolves paced impatiently.
Their riders checked straps.
Sharpened weapons.
Adjusted armor.
No one spoke unnecessarily.
They would not be used immediately.
Not yet.
They represented the city's mobile force.
If deployed too early...
They would become trapped.
Captain Han intended to use them only when the battlefield demanded it.
Silence settled over the mountain.
Even the wind seemed hesitant.
Then...
The trees began moving.
Not swaying.
Moving.
The forest itself appeared alive.
Snow exploded upward.
Branches snapped.
Birds burst screaming into the sky.
The ground trembled faintly beneath countless approaching feet.
One guard swallowed.
"I've never seen this many..."
Another whispered,
"...neither have I."
Captain Han slowly raised one hand.
"Steady."
No one fired.
Not yet.
The shaking grew stronger.
Closer.
Closer still.
Finally...
The first beasts emerged from the tree line.
Horned Rabbits.
Dozens.
Hundreds.
Behind them came Ice Foxes.
Snow Wolves.
Mountain Boars.
Frost Lizards.
Creatures that normally hunted one another now charged side by side.
Their eyes glowed with unnatural madness.
Foam dripped from their mouths.
Some crashed into trees without slowing.
Others trampled their own kind beneath their feet.
None behaved naturally.
None even looked afraid.
They simply ran.
Toward the city.
Toward the walls.
Toward death.
Captain Han's gaze hardened.
"...Something is driving them."
This wasn't hunger.
It wasn't migration.
It wasn't instinct.
It was...
Compulsion.
As though an invisible hand had seized every beast upon the mountain and pointed them toward Mistforge.
Captain Han lowered his raised hand.
His voice rolled across the walls like thunder.
"Archers."
Thousands of bowstrings tightened together.
"Prepare."
Yun Che rested his eye behind the scope of the Mountain Piercer.
Searching.
Not for the beasts.
For whatever was commanding them.
Because somewhere...
Beyond the tide...
Someone had started this war.
-----------------------------
The mountain roared.
Not with thunder.
Not with wind.
But with countless beasts charging together.
The sound rolled across the valley like an avalanche, making even the ancient walls of Mistforge seem to tremble.
Captain Han watched without blinking.
Formation One
His command echoed across the battlements.
The formation masters standing atop the towers immediately pressed both palms onto the ancient control pillars embedded within the walls.
Blue runes awakened.
Then silver.
Then emerald.
Thousands of symbols hidden throughout the stone fortress lit one after another until the entire wall resembled a sleeping dragon opening its eyes.
The air began to hum.
The defenders instinctively stepped back.
Captain Han lowered his arm.
"Release."
The city answered.
A colossal crescent of compressed wind erupted from the walls.
It was not a simple gust.
It was a blade stretching hundreds of meters.
It swept across the battlefield.
The first wave of charging monsters disappeared.
Bodies split apart.
Trees behind them were sliced cleanly in half.
Snow exploded into the sky.
The earth itself was carved open by the attack.
For one glorious moment...
The battlefield became empty.
Then...
More beasts poured from the forest.
They climbed over the corpses of their own kind without hesitation.
The dead became bridges for the living.
Captain Han's jaw tightened.
"...Again."
"Loose!"
Thousands of bowstrings snapped together.
The sky darkened beneath a rain of arrows.
Some burned.
Some exploded.
Some carried poison.
Others shattered into dozens of smaller projectiles.
The charging beasts collapsed one after another.
Yet...
The gaps they left were filled immediately.
There was no hesitation.
No fear.
Only endless movement.
Like waves striking a cliff.
Mistforge remained the cliff.
Captain Han turned toward one of his officers.
"Send patrols."
"Inside the city?"
"Every district."
"If this beast tide has a source..."
"It could be outside."
His expression hardened.
"...Or already inside our walls."
The officer immediately saluted.
"Frost Wolf Cavalry!"
"Ten riders with me!"
The city gates opened only enough for the wolves to slip through.
Moments later...
The riders scattered through Mistforge itself.
Searching.
Watching.
Looking for anything unusual.
Captain Han trusted nothing.
Not today.
The battlefield slowly changed.
The tiny horned rabbits disappeared first.
Then the snow foxes.
The weaker beasts had already died by the hundreds.
Now...
Larger shadows emerged.
Mountain bears.
Ice leopards.
Frost boars.
Massive horned elk covered in crystalline ice.
Mid-stage Mortal Realm.
High-stage Mortal Realm.
Each stronger than the last.
Each harder to kill.
High above the battlefield...
Yun Che remained perfectly still.
The Mountain Piercer rested against his shoulder.
He ignored the weaker monsters.
The archers could handle those.
Instead...
He searched for dangerous targets.
A giant ice wolf leapt toward a section of wall.
BOOM!
His rifle thundered.
The rune-inscribed bullet struck the creature's shoulder.
The explosion twisted its body sideways.
Before it landed...
Three exploding arrows pierced its chest.
Dead.
Another beast.
A Frost Bear.
It charged straight toward a damaged gate section.
Yun Che breathed once.
Squeezed the trigger.
The bullet entered one eye.
The explosion burst through the back of its skull.
The beast collapsed only meters from the walls.
Every shot mattered.
Every bullet had taken weeks to create.
He refused to waste even one.
The city had become a battlefield.
Explosions flashed constantly.
Wind blades carved through charging monsters.
Fire talismans erupted among the advancing tide.
Ice arrows.
Lightning techniques.
Burning oil.
Blood stained the snow crimson.
The smell of smoke mixed with frost.
The air itself carried the metallic scent of slaughter.
Mistforge fought like a veteran soldier.
Not beautifully.
Efficiently.
Captain Han watched the mountains.
Not the battlefield.
His concern lay elsewhere.
Not yet...
Please...
Not yet...
Because he knew.
If the true predators answered the call...
The situation would become far worse.
Thousands of Foundation Establishment beasts lived throughout these mountains.
If even a fraction joined the assault...
The city would drown.
Time slowed strangely during battle.
To Yun Che...
It felt as though hours had passed.
His shoulder ached from repeated recoil.
His breathing had become rough.
His fingers burned from loading rounds.
Yet...
When he glanced toward the great clock tower...
Only twenty minutes had passed.
Twenty minutes.
That was all.
Then...
Captain Han's expression changed.
"There."
Beyond the sea of corpses...
Larger figures finally emerged.
Foundation Establishment beasts.
One.
Then another.
Then six.
Then dozens.
The pressure radiating from them silenced many of the younger defenders.
Captain Han's voice immediately rang across the walls.
"Conserve the formation!"
"The barrier has consumed too much energy!"
The formation masters immediately reduced the defensive output.
The glowing runes dimmed.
The city could no longer afford to unleash massive attacks continuously.
Every remaining burst had to matter.
One massive Frost Leopard crouched low.
Its muscles tightened.
Then—
It disappeared.
Too fast.
The weakened barrier flared brilliantly.
Cracks spread across its surface.
The leopard broke through.
It slammed directly onto the battlements.
Archers scattered.
Several were thrown from the wall.
Among them...
Yun Ren.
The impact sent him crashing backward.
His bow rose instinctively.
Not to attack.
To survive.
The beast's jaws snapped shut.
CRACK!
The wooden bow broke in half inside its mouth.
Splinters flew.
For one heartbeat...
Man and beast stared into one another's eyes.
Most people would have panicked.
Yun Ren smiled.
"Got you."
His spare arrow shot upward.
Not from the bow.
From his hand.
He drove it straight into the creature's open mouth.
The sharpened steel disappeared deep into its throat.
The leopard recoiled violently.
At that exact instant—
A thunderous rifle shot echoed across the battlefield.
Yun Che.
The Mountain Piercer's bullet struck the wounded beast squarely in the neck.
The explosion tore flesh apart.
The monster staggered.
Still alive.
Still dangerous.
Yun Ren had already moved.
His spear flashed from behind his back.
Blue Ki surged along the shaft.
With one explosive step...
He thrust.
The spear entered through the damaged eye socket.
Straight into the brain.
The beast convulsed violently.
Yun Ren did not stop.
He released the spear...
Then drove both feet into its body with a powerful kick.
The weapon sank even deeper.
The monster collapsed.
Dead.
For one brief moment...
The brothers looked at one another across the battlefield.
Neither smiled.
Neither spoke.
They simply nodded.
Then both turned immediately toward the next enemy.
Because the battle...
Was only just beginning.