Knocking aside the wolves Chronos grabbed Lyla and began making his way towards the inner wall, the badger following close behind them.
Glancing back, Lyla asked, "Is it not an enemy?"
"Nope, just a sun badger with black fur. I think it's been fighting the black beasts for so long that they're afraid of it now."
"So that's why they refused to get close to it during the day."
Unfortunately for the badger the black beasts had learned that it was weaker at night and were trying to kill it now that the sun was setting.
Passing between several buildings Chronos suddenly found himself facing an army of horned rabbits, the inner wall just a few feet past them, was out of his reach.
Neither him or Lyla had an area attack spell that covered that large of an area and would struggle to push through this horde.
"Well, that's not good. I don't suppose you know any area attack spells badger."
He looked over at the badger who just shrugged in response before lighting his fur on fire.
"Right, get ready Lyla. We're doing this the hard way." Chronos sighed as he cast multiple [Isolate: Sheilds] around them.
Lyla cast [Blessed Flame] and prepared a [Wolf's Roar] while the badger pulled its flames close to its body creating a flame armor.
Seeing that they were ready Chronos led the charge using his own [Wolf's Roar] to kill dozens of them only to watch them be replaced by dozens more. Before they could fully fill the space he'd made Chronos swung echoforge killing even more.
Lyla stepped in front of him and unleashed her own [Wolf's Roar] further increasing the hole Chronos had made. To Chronos's shock the [Blessed Flames] attached themselves to the roar, giving Lyla's attack a far better result than his own.
As the horned rabbits retreated from the flames the sun badger leapt through them ripping apart anything that entered its range.
Seeing the commotion the archers on the wall wanted to help and started pouring hot oil on the rabbits closest to the walls.
"Hurry, there's a group of monsters coming up behind you!" One of them shouted.
Chronos pushed forward, swinging echoforge constantly, knocking aside or taking down any rabbit that entered his range. But no matter how well he fought, the overwhelming number of attacks allowed some strikes to slip past his guard.
Bit by bit the damage was slowly building up, concerned for Lyla he glanced back to find that she wasn't in as bad of a situation as he was.
She had covered herself in flames while the floating gavels spun around her at high speeds, for a moment he thought she looked like a spinning top as rabbits bounced off her gavels.
Unlike Chronos whose style focused on single combat, Lyla's summons could defend against multiple enemies with ease. The only reason Chronos was able to fight multiple enemies so easily up to this point was because of his mastery of his weapons and constantly changing fighting style that threw enemies off.
Against an overwhelming number of weaker enemies like right now his style showed clear gaps that the rabbits were taking full advantage of. Forcing him to rely on his healing power to fight his way through them.
On the other hand, Lyla was doing much better than him as her gavels blocked every rabbit they could while the [Isolate: Shield] stopped others but even with her gavels and barriers defending her Chronos saw blood seeping from small injuries accumulating on her body.
Focusing on clearing the path ahead again Chronos saw the badger leap in front of him. Before rabbits covered it completely flames gushed out as every rabbit on its body was turned to ash.
Taking advantage of the opening Chronos let out another [Wolf's Roar] clearing another portion of the rabbits before he reached behind himself and threw Lyla into the gap.
Spinning around Chronos extended the aura on his hammer sending dozens of rabbits flying with each swing. Chronos found himself wishing that he had a spatial attack for blunt weapons so that he could kill these pests more easily, but it was too late for regrets.
A few seconds later a hundred more rabbits replaced those that had died.
"Just how many of these damn rabbits are there?" He growled as he blocked several charging rabbits.
"Falling behind already?" Lyla laughed as she flattened a dozen with a [Verdict Pillar].
"Ha hardly. These things are too weak to be a threat but against so many of them it feels like we aren't even making a dent in their numbers." He grunted in annoyance as he slammed echoforge into the ground killing a dozen more with his extended aura.
"And we're only halfway to the palisade. Hahaha." Lyla laughed in glee.
For a woman trapped in the middle of a horde she was having way too much fun.
The sun badger suddenly let out a roar as a wall of flames shot from its mouth.
"Oi! You stole my roar!" Chronos snapped as he ran past it.
The badger gave him a smug grin as it licked the remnant flames from its lips.
Swinging his hammer Chronos secured the space before the rabbits could fill it in. Then Lyla rushed forward again dropping a [Verdict Pillar] in front of herself before rushing through the bodies.
"We're almost there! Just one more push!" She yelled in glee.
Chronos had always known she was crazy about fighting but he was really beginning to worry about her mental state.
"Stay where you are!" Came a strong voice from the palisade before fireballs began to pelt the rabbits around them.
Looking up Chronos saw an old mage on the wall throwing spells left and right. Next to him a ship's guard threw down a rope motioning for them to hurry.
Throwing Lyla over his shoulder Chronos rushed forward calling out to the badger, "Get on! We're going up!"
The badger jumped onto his back latching onto him as best it could. With both his companions secured Chronos put echoforge away and grabbed the rope with one hand. At the same time the guard above pulled them up while Chronos ran up the wall.
A moment later they were on the top as the old mage started casting a large spell next to them.
"How's the village holding up?" Chronos asked.
"They're holding on well, but the earth mages are exhausted from blocking the burrow drakes." The guard said.
Fwoosh! Boom!
Glancing behind him he saw that the old mage had cast a firestorm spell to kill as many of the rabbits as he could.
"You could have done that earlier." Chronos complained.
"The rabbits have stayed spread out all day. If it wasn't for you and your friends gathering them together like this, I couldn't have killed so many at once. I'm Magar, head of this village and I thank you and your friends for coming to our rescue." The old mage said with a bow.
"A pleasure to meet you Magar. Have you already sent word to the local lord?"
"Yes, this morning when the beast tide first began but I doubt that fat fool will do anything. He's a baron without any remarkable achievements or strong knights following him." Magar said crossly.
Great so the guy was useless.
"What about the landed knights or baronets around here?"
"My village has the greatest military strength in the region and we're already struggling so I doubt they'll be able to help." Magar sighed, today had been one of the most tiring he had experienced in recent memory.
Looking around the inner village Chronos saw more than a hundred mages casting spells at the black beasts and half a dozen walking around the inner village solidifying the ground to prevent the rabbits and burrow drakes from tunneling under the walls.
That was certainly a lot more mages than most barons had serving them. Magar must have been training the kids in the village for decades to have this many mages in one place.
"Then send them a message to search the countryside for tears. Black beasts come out of tears, if they can find the tear and surround it the ones here will retreat to defend the tear."
"Truly?" Chronos nodded. "I'll send a whisper bird immediately." Magar said as he walked towards a wind mage.
Looking around the inner village again Chronos saw that it was an open plaza with three large buildings.
At the back was a large longhouse type building that was raised on a foundation that clearly had a basement. It was well built and had a large elk beasts skull mounted above the door.
To the right was an armory and storehouse for food, weapons, pelts, or other materials they had gathered. It was mostly made of durable wood and had horizontal bands of metal reinforcing the whole structure.
And on the left was a stone apartment type building with scorch marks from fire magic on it, Chronos assumed that building was for young aspiring mages.
The three different styles made the plaza look very strange but if it worked for them then he couldn't say anything about it.
"Grr."