Looking towards the growling Chronos found the sun badger waiting for him with Lyla.
"Sorry for the wait. What are we doing?" Chronos said.
"We think we have a plan to kill a large number of the burrow drakes, but we think it would sound more convincing if it came from you." She said as she gestured at the earth mages in the plaza.
The earth mages were running around the plaza pushing through the crowds to reinforce the ground or collapse tunnels before they could reach the surface.
Slightly above the crowds the airship floated in the plaza with a long gangplank lowered to the ground. Around the gangplank the AA's were setting up tents for treating the injured while the ships guards were already on the walls supporting the defenders.
Some of the AA's had cleared a small space for casting ritual spells to find the source of the black beasts while another group was setting up a barrier ritual spell to protect the walls. But they were having difficulty with all of the commoners crowding the plaza and buildings in the plaza.
Seeing the constant activity Chronos motioned for them to follow him.
"Then you should explain directly to the earth mages. Let's find the senior disciple."
Jumping off the wall Chronos started pushing through the crowd while the sun badger and Lyla closely followed him. While moving through the crowd one of the earth mages ran in front of them.
Grabbing his shoulder Chronos asked, "Where's the senior disciple of you earth mages?"
He looked at Chronos's muzzle in shock, "Huh? What? Senior disciple? He's over there? Now let go."
He pointed at a tired looking older disciple talking to the AA's before brushing off Chronos's hand and running off again.
Pushing through the crowd Chronos slowly led the way.
This Village was a large one having nearly 10,000 people in it, with all of them squeezing into the inner fort there wasn't very much space to walk. Normally having this many people in a single village wouldn't be possible but with the large number of mages trained by Magar it wasn't hard to provide the services needed for them.
The huge amount of food needed for this many people could be grown by nature or earth mages. The sewer system and rain for farms could be managed by the water mages. Air mages would clear smoke or debris from household fires from the city's air while fire mages acted as protectors and guards.
Having even a single mage could increase the population of a normal village from a few hundred to a thousand. Having dozens of mages with different elements and magics would allow a skilled leader to build a city of tens of thousands.
Unfortunately for them, that meant that during an emergency the commoners were so tightly packed inside the inner walls that they had to force themselves inside the three buildings to make room for the airship guards and AA's to disembark.
Reaching the senior disciple Chronos tapped his shoulder.
Spinning around he loudly said, "What do you want? I'm busy. Oh, you're a large fellow."
"Greetings, my companions had an idea on how to deal with the burrow drakes. Do you have time to hear them out?"
"If it can really help me deal with the drakes then I'll make time. Now what did you have in mind?" He said as he looked at Lyla and the badger.
"Our plan is...
...We believe we can kill most of the drakes if we do it this way."
"It's risky but if we don't do something these drakes are going to overwhelm us. You two come with me to set it up, we'll do this in the bottom of the armory. You the werewolf, please go to the northern wall past the armory. The attack is strongest there, once we have everything set up, we'll call for you to help us." He said as he rushed off, dragging Lyla and the sun badger with him.
Following their trail Chronos started making his way to the northern wall. At first, he tried to go around the armory that was in the way but realized that he couldn't push his way through that many people quickly.
Jumping as high as he could he stuck his claws into the wood and hoisted himself on top of the armory. Gasps of surprise came from behind him when the commoners saw him jump.
Looking out over the northern wall he saw a large number of wolves and wild horses trying to turn the northern wall into a ramp and partially succeeding.
Running across the roof he jumped onto the wall and swung Echoforge at a wolf that had just crested the top of the wall.
Whack!
"Thank you for helping me." Said the young guard that was about to have his head bitten off.
Chronos helped him stand up while taking in his poorly made damaged equipment that looked like it might have belonged to his grandfather and the damaged spear, he had been trying to defend himself with.
He looked like he was 13 or 14, far too young to be fighting on a wall in a fierce battle
"No problem. Next time prop your spear against the wall so the wolf can't knock it aside so easily." Chronos said, showing him a stance for bracing his spear.
After making sure the young man knew what he was doing Chronos took out his bow. Aiming down into the horde of black beasts he found a horse nearly three times the size of the others. It seemed to be rallying the other horses and leading charges against the wall.
The wolves took advantage of each charge bouncing off the backs of the horses to try and pull someone down from the wall. There were a few unlucky individuals caught by them.
Releasing an aura arrow Chronos cleanly pierced the wild horse's throat, but it ignored the arrow and kept charging.
"That's a durable one." He muttered realizing he had misjudged its strength.
Being surrounded by so many enemies with no clear leadership he was trying to conserve his aura and bloodline power for the real fight. But with how many black beasts there were it wasn't going to be easy.
Creating another arrow, this one with an [Impact] embedded into it, he took aim once more. Sensing the danger the wild horse turned to run down the palisade's length trying to avoid the arrow.
Swish. Bang!
With an explosion the horse's head separated from its body.
The young man next to him sighed saying, "I'm going to miss that horse."
"You recognize it?" Chronos asked.
"Yeah, it used to run across the western plains every morning. Because of its size you couldn't miss it but now I guess I won't be seeing it anymore."
"Maybe you will see it again. Creatures taken by the black beasts are usually put to sleep and used as a base to create these shadows of them. If we can find the real body, we could rescue it." Chronos said.
"Really? I hope I get to see him again." The boy said hopefully. "His strong figure inspired a lot of us young men to train ourselves."
Having broken the wild horse's charge Chronos focused his attacks on the alpha wolves he glimpsed running between buildings howling orders to the others.
They were very clever and rarely showed themselves fully, but the power of Chronos's attacks pierced through the wood buildings forcing the alpha wolves to abandon their positions.
With the alpha wolves revealed the other archers were easily able to take them down, breaking the tide on this side of the village in the process.
Without leaders the threat of the beast tide was significantly reduced.
Just as Chronos was thinking about ordering a charge to end the tide a flash of light came from the center of the plaza. Runes spread over the walls as a thin film of spirit rose to cover the wall.
"Looks like the AA's have finished their ritual. Now we just need to find the tear and we can end this." While Chronos was thinking he received a message from Lyla.
{We've finished the preparations, come to the armory's basement.} It was short and to the point.
"I've got other business to handle; I'll leave the wall to you kid. Make sure you don't die."
"Don't curse me like that!" He shouted as Chronos laughed.
Jumping from the wall to the roof of the armory again Chronos made his way down the outside and swung into a window. Hanging from the roof he watched as people milled about below him until he saw a door guarded by two men.
That must be the basement door.
Swinging across the rafters Chronos dropped down in front of them.
"Is this the way to the basement?"
Both guards turned pale at Chronos's wolf-like appearance.
"Y-Yes sir. We were informed that you would be coming. Please go right ahead." They gestured for him to head down the stairs.