Arthur watched Abner prepare the Awakened for battle as he thought, 'It should be a close battle. It's a good thing those tyrants Olwen was talking about aren't coming; they are just lying in ambush in a different place.'
Thinking of the scheme to ambush his friend Nimbus, he couldn't help but feel as though his friend Nimbus was like a raid boss; every fight he saw him participating in was against multiple opponents, and all of them were of the same rank with a higher class, and he did not exactly lose any of them.
Having him here would have undoubtedly made a huge difference.
'Right, I should check up on him. I don't have anything else to do anyway' Arthur thought to himself as he made a divination.
He saw Nimbus getting treated by an Awakened who was not with the group before the man treating him slowly stopped and looked exactly at Arthur; he had a relieved look on his face and an easy smile as he said, "Just hold on; the City Lord will awaken at Dawn."
The man then looked at Kaelen and asked, "Now about my payment..."
The vision then ended.
Arthur was shocked!
This is the first time someone has talked to him in a vision. His heart beat wildly as he questioned out loud, "Just who is that Oracle!?"
He thought to himself, 'It wouldn't make sense if he were just an Awakened, but if he is a higher rank, then he should have been able to help the City Lord in the battle against those corrupted.'
Just what was this nightmare supposed to look like if he did not interfere?
Arthur concluded, 'That Oracle definitely wants to save the city, but he didn't manage that in the real past. Is it because of that Great Tyrant that's coming that he didn't even try? But what changed? How are we supposed to get rid of it?'
Arthur decided to leave that to his future self to figure out; he had enough to worry about now.
After telling Abner about the City Lord's condition, he went out of the Grey Fog and walked towards the distant water source he divined the location of.
A few hours Later
As Abner looked at the approaching Nightmare Creatures charging towards them he shouted, "Now!"
Soon enough arrows rained down on the Nightmare creatures, and the Awakened warriors soon charged towards them as well in a battle formation.
The battle had started.
Olwen the Marionette transformed into his dragon form, flying low close to the awakened army behind the front lines.
After all, he couldn't go too far from the hounds of Fulgrim, so he couldn't use the agility of a Transcendened and his air superiority to the fullest as a Marrionette.
He faced the Corrupted Beast behind the charging nightmare creatures and unleashed a Breath attack.
Pure white flames wildly descended on the sea of nightmare creatures, hungrily turning them to ash as it kept heading for the Corrupted Beast, who was already moving out of the way.
The corrupted beast easily dodged the breath attack by jumping high up in the air, its grotesque figure making the awakened uneasy.
The Corrupted Beast was just as Arthur had described to Abner: a creepy-looking elephant-spider mix with the eyes of a fly.
It sort of looked like a strange, fat mosquito, except it was almost 5 meters tall and didn't have any wings despite its large ears bearing a slight resemblance to wings.
Abner was looking at the Corrupted Beast, and his first thought was, 'That thing just looks stupid.'
Having already activated his Aspect, he was glowing intensely; thus, his expression was impossible to see as he then thought to himself, 'That flaw of his is quite troublesome.'
Although Olwen was a marionette, his flaw [uncontrollable] still applied; whether it was his strength or his emotions, they were hard to keep in check, so he could only use the breath attack where there aren't any Awakened close by.
Soon enough the Corrupted Beast landed on some other Nightmare creatures and immediately began charging towards Olwen, no longer trying to use the other Nightmare creatures as meat shields.
Abner immediately shouted a command to retreat as he also commanded the Hounds of Fulgrim to charge forward and use Olwen to block the Corrupted Beast.
After passing Abner, who was the last to retreat, Olwen's body ignited in white flames, his figure began to resemble a fire spirit as he roared towards the corrupted beast, and suddenly stopped his charge, letting his fire continue towards it.
He didn't just stay still, though; Olwen made sure that the nearby nightmare creatures were exterminated by his breath attack, letting the Awakened on the front lines have some respite.
The Corrupted Beast didn't jump high this time; instead, it changed directions to the side and barely dodged the flames, then it charged again at Olwen.
The other Nightmare Creatures were getting close to Olwen too, and some higher-class Fallen Nightmare Creatures did pose a threat to him; not all the Nightmare Creatures fell to his Breath attack, so there were a few nearby as well, although they were quickly killed by the Archers in the back afterward.
As a marionette, he couldn't fly too far from the hounds, after all, so his range was limited; if he was surrounded, it would be over for him.
But he was not alone either; soon another wave of arrows rained on the nightmare creatures, and while not many died, it injured enough to slow down their charge a bit.
Abner did not just wait for the Nightmare Creatures to come at them as he ordered the Awakened to switch battle positions.
This time the Awakened, led by Abner, would flank the Nightmare Creatures while Olwen, along with a smaller force, held the front.
The Awakened managed to get into their positions just in time as the Nightmare creatures soon attacked them.
Abner shined brightly as he fought this time, not sparing a glance at the Corrupted Beast.
He moved without stopping, blinding all of his enemies as he advanced towards the back of the horde of nightmare creatures.
Surrounding them would bring the Awakened Army an advantage, no doubt.
Soon Abner noticed something strange: the majority of Nightmare Creatures, the Awakened ranked ones, and the lower-class Fallen ranked ones stopped charging towards the front and focused on the Awakened at the flank.
Abner knew this level of coordination was impossible for beasts, so he soon realized
'There's a tyrant controlling them from afar! Since Arthur divined about the powerful Nightmare creatures attacking, he must not have been aware of this one!'
Abner wasn't expecting this, but he didn't lose heart.
Although outnumbered and outranked, they were on the defensive as long as they held out until sunset, when the city lord would arrive as reinforcements along with the Ascended who followed him.
The other Awakened weren't dumb; they also realized a tyrant was controlling the Nightmare creatures, and they knew their current strategy wouldn't work if Olwen fell, as the Nightmare creatures would start surrounding them instead.
So Abner quickly gave out the fallback order, feeling annoyed at the thought of losing ground to the nightmare creatures again; unlike the other flanking team, the one he was leading managed to make it to the middle of the nightmare creature horde, so falling back would be harder as well, adding to his annoyance.
As Abner retreated, he couldn't help but think to himself, 'Truly I hate these Nightmare creatures, all of them.'
He could already tell this fight would not be a quick one.
He glanced back at the front lines to his right. His group was already close to joining, so the other group had already made it back, and by a twist of irony, the nightmare creatures were now attempting to flank them to get to Olwen, who posed the biggest threat.
His own group was starting to get flanked as well, but due to his aspect blinding the nightmare creatures, along with his Charm, the Chaos Ring, making them slightly out of sync with each other, it was still somewhat manageable for the awakened led by him to handle.
Abner, having his own strategy turned against him, was infuriated as he cursed the Nightmare Creatures out loud: "Vile bastards! At least come up with your own strategies!"
He soon made it back to the front lines along with his group.
There the situation didn't look too good; Olwen was locked in close combat with the Corrupted Beast, and several Fallen Devils and Demons were attempting to join in but were held back by the awakened—not all of them, though; some had managed to infiltrate.
Abner cursed the nightmare creatures a little more as he took a few Awakened with him and followed those who had slipped past the defense around Olwen.
By now the entire Awakened army was completely surrounded except for the archers on the walls of the city, who were also being targeted by nightmare creatures attempting to scale up the walls.
If there was a silver lining to it all, the nightmare creatures had fallen much faster than the awakened, although they still held the advantage in numbers.
After Abner finished dealing with the nightmare creatures that slipped past the defense, he joined back with the others.
His feeling turned out to be right, as the battle lasted for a while, and after hours of nonstop combat, the Nightmare creatures started losing their numerical edge.
Along with that, by now the Corrupted Beast had fallen along with Olwen.
Neither of them was getting back up.
Abner listened closely, and the voice of the spell soon whispered into his ear.
[You have slain a corrupted beast: Fly Eater.]
He sighed in relief; at least the biggest threat was gone, even though Olwen had fallen too.
Olwen had taken with him many of the Fallen Devils and Demons who had shielded the Corrupted Beast before the Awakened arrived to keep them at bay while he battled the corrupted beast, so Abner considered that he had made good use of him.
He was exhausted; by now everyone was, and it showed as the rate Awakened died had increased as the battle went on.
The nightmare creatures didn't have it as bad, as they didn't have to fight multiple opponents for most of the siege.
But that wasn't the only advantage the nightmare creatures had, as the archers supporting the Awakened had all been killed, making the surrounded Awakened Army truly trapped by the nightmare creatures.
Abner doubted he would last until the city lord came back; although it was almost dawn, the exhaustion of fighting all night was evidently slowing him down.
So Abner decided to use his innate ability [Beguiling Light].
Those who soaked in his light for a longer time were more strongly affected, although it didn't work on unintelligent beings, from what he saw when he tested it on animals.
The ability let him convince anyone that he was something he was not, so he used it... on his fellow awakened to convince them he was their savior while he prayed to Arthur to escape.
However, that turned out to be pointless as soon as the City Lord arrived sooner than expected.
The Awakened, who were low on morale, having only lasted so long through sheer will, finally seemed to have regained their vigor as they shouted a battle cry and fought harder.
The battle was soon over; the city lord had not fought since he was too injured, but the Ascended he took with him along with the Cohort and the Oracle eliminated the remaining nightmare creatures with ease.
Although the city lord was still injured, he looked much better than before, even though the journey here had obviously taken its toll on him.
The city lord quickly counted the remaining awakened and grimly thought to himself, 'Less than a hundred are left now. If only I had woken up sooner...'