My eyes were filled with sorrow, not because I didn’t know the inevitable fate that awaited us, but because of the harsh reminder that the person I loved was going to die… and I wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. Powerlessness and anger filled my heart, but today I would not give in to despair.

  “I have to tell her. At least today… i have to tell her what we both know but I can’t bring myself to say.”

  But i couldn’t.

  I wanted to tell her I loved her, that no matter what happened, I would protect her, that I would escape with her and keep her safe.

  But i can’t.

  Enduring a pain deeper than any wound the monsters had ever inflicted…

  “That won’t happen. I won’t allow it to happen.”

  “It will certainly happen. However, I’m happy that I’ll spend my last moments with my friends, Midas.”

  “I would like to make one more request, Midas. We don’t have much time left, so… would you…?”

  Then, the sound of war trumpets reached us. Ariel looked sadder than ever, yet she immediately shifted her expression to her usual serious gaze.

  “It’s a shame forget it, we have work to do, Strategos Midas.”

  “Yes. it’s a shame… let’s go.”

  At the top of the wall, i took my combat position. Today, Hernan would command my legion.

  I was glad; after all, my Skutari would be in the hands of one of the three most capable commanders here. The rest of the commanders were already spread across the walls and the city’s perimeter, each guarding their assigned sector. Eithne, Ariel, and i stood at the main impact zone of the coming assault.

  The first to arrive were the harpies, thousands of them, seeking to pave the way for the corrupted dragons. I had always regretted how their species was wiped out so early.

  “How different would things have been if not all of them had died?”

  I lamented every loss we suffered because of our incompetence.

  “If the Hero could see us now… he would certainly be disappointed.”

  Fearing that despair would deepen within me, I clung to the closest thing I had: hatred. Besides those monsters, there were many other things to hate.

  The gods.

  Yes, they all vanished. They abandoned us to our fate.

  My rage, my hatred toward those who abandoned us, was a wonderful weapon against despair.

  The harpies were closing in.

  “Well… at least they left us blessings to fight with.”

  I gathered the power of the Lightning God’s blessing into my arm and took one of the Manemita spears. The blue glow intensified as lightning mana coursed through it. I got into position… and threw.

  A thunderclap split the sky. Where the swarm of harpies, numbered in the thousands, had stood, an enormous hole suddenly opened, lightning spreading outward and incinerating those miserable creatures. As they were reduced to nothing but ashes, Eithne ordered her legion to fire at will. The arrows flew farther than any normal archer could manage, partly thanks to Eithne’s blessing and partly to the natural martial prowess of the elves. And so, we continued decimating the horde.

  Unable to advance, the monstrous vampires began charging the walls. However, these fortifications were the pride of dwarven-gnome engineering; climbing them was simply impossible, without a single crack to cling to. I still had over sixteen spears left, but I needed to save them for the true monsters yet to come.

  The vampires couldn’t even dent the wall. They fell one after another, either to the cannon towers’ fire or to the arrows and spells of archers and mages when they grouped together. Their corpses exploded, splattering corrupted blood across the battlefield.

  But then, in the distance, those damn beasts appeared.

  The Behemoths.

  Gigantic creatures, a hundred meters tall, walking on four legs. If I had to describe them, I would say their bodies resembled elephants. But their faces… their faces were like that of a goat—monstrous, eyeless, crowned with six twisted horns. There was something disturbingly goat-like about them.

  “Is this all they’ve brought? It won’t be enough to break the wall…”

  I had entertained vague hopes that this day would be manageable, just another in a long line of slaughter. Those hopes were crushed when, kilometers away, i spotted the enemy commander. Our city stood no chance against him. He had once been a renowned mage, a disciple of the God of Knowledge and Magic.

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  “What a joke… taking someone without character as a disciple like him.”

  He was one of the first to succumb to despair.

  “Using my spear would be a waste… and dangerous. He could just open a portal… and redirect it here.”

  Ariel cannot venture outside the safety of the wall. No one of us could. We would die instantly. Eithne’s scouts had already proven that much, they died just to bring us scraps of information, They made it far only because they were too insignificant for the enemy to bother exterminating immediately.

  The dark mage began breaking the city’s magical defenses. With that, our anti-teleportation protection on the walls was gone. Hopefully, he would have to get a few meters closer to keep canceling our defenses. But if he does… Ariel will simply kill him again. He learned the lesson after dying a couple of times.

  Then, portals opened around us.

  From them emerged the corpses of the monstrous vampires we had slain minutes ago.

  “Quick! Destroy the bodies! Leave nothing!” Eithne shouted.

  However, the corpses quickly joined together… and abominations were formed from the parts of those beasts. They were so grotesque my stomach churned, we prepared to counterattack, it was the only thing we could do. We were powerless against teleportation magic, the greatest mages were in charge of magical defenses, and yet, none of them had the attack range that the dark mage had.

  “I don’t want to touch those things… not even with my sword.”

  I didn’t bother hiding my disgust, just like the lightning, which spread through my body to my hand… and I released it with all its power, fired at the creatures. One by one, i pierced holes in their grotesque bodies. However, every time i destroyed them with my lightning, their bodies reassembled with astonishing speed.

  “So disgusting… I can hear their flesh joining again.”

  “Eithne, we have to deal with the dark mage if we want to get rid of this thing.”

  “Are you asking a poor Archon-level archer to face a legendary-level mage???”

  Eithne looked at me as if I were an executioner who had sentenced her to death today.

  “No, what I ask of you is to create a slight opportunity for my spear to pierce that bastard’s heart.”

  Eithne smiled.

  “I know, I’m just teasing you.”

  The bloody mass, made of monstrous vampires, grew larger. But Eithne’s legion did everything it could to contain it. Eithne manifested a hawk the size of a horse and soared to the top of one tower of the Last Bastion.

  There, she prepared to aim at the Dark Mage. However, he didn’t stay still. When he sensed Eithne’s murderous intent, he split his body into multiple clones while maintaining the spell on the flesh amalgam.

  For my part, I prepared to launch one of the Manemita spears. I materialized it in my hand, letting the mana flow through my body, letting the intoxicating feeling of power spread.

  I fixed my eyes on my target.

  “If Eithne bypasses his defenses, I’ll take care of him.”

  Eithne, atop the tower, materialized a massive bow, with golden branches elegantly entwined with green ones.

  Then Eithne spoke to the bow:

  “Father, it’s me, your daughter. Once again, I face those who destroyed our home.”

  The bow, seeming to react to Eithne’s words, extended its green branches along the small elf’s arm.

  “I need you, Father. Allow my aim to be precise and allow my aim to be deadly. Let my arrow fly to its target.”

  The roots extended past her arm and began creeping into the corners of her eyes.

  The pain was enough to make any veteran warrior scream.

  However, she had already fixed her gaze on her target.

  There was nothing else for her.

  There was no more Eithne. No more Dark Mage.

  She was simply a hunter… and her prey.

  Even from kilometers away, the hunter saw her prey focus on her.

  He finally considered the hunter as a threat; yet, at that moment, he fell into the trap.

  He revealed the scent of fear to his hunter.

  It no longer mattered how many illusions of him existed; the hunter wouldn’t lose the scent of her prey. The scent of fear.

  Finally, the roots stopped spreading across the hunter’s body.

  Once a small elf, she was now unrecognizable:

  Limbs elongated and curved to chase her prey. Eyes like a predator’s, glowing orange. Her ears lengthened, sharpening to catch even the faintest movement. A body protected by Mother Nature, much taller and intimidating, radiating a green aura from the ether, escaping her body.

  The hunter drew her bow the Dark Mage, in contrast, created ten barriers to protect himself from the fierce shot. Now, with his gaze fixed on the hunter, the prey could do nothing but watch every movement, preparing, giving everything to avoid the attack.

  They clashed eyes kilometers apart: with heightened senses; the prey saw the hunter’s eyes fixed, increasingly fearful of the attack. The prey didn’t miss a single movement, no matter how small.

  Then, a lightning bolt shot toward him.

  Midas’ Manemita spear struck the shield directly.

  The explosion sent lightning spreading across the barrier. The Dark Mage finally looked away and realized he had been tricked. He had expected her arrow to come first.

  However, now he understood. With eyes wide, feeling his mana drain from defending against the damage and the barrier explosion, Eithne’s transformation had hypnotic abilities that terrified him.

  His mind went blank. He couldn’t respond in time to Midas’ attack. He looked back at the hunter, no longer feeling the fear that had ruled him. The hunter looked at him with a radiant smile. Showing her teeth, now turned into fangs. A radiant and fierce gaze, because her little trick had worked.

  The hunter released the arrow, which shot with much more force than Midas’s own Manemita spear. Only five defense plates remained, but they were pierced like paper by the hunter’s great arrow. The attack was unstoppable, heading towards the Dark Mage’s true body.

  Then, as the second plate was pierced, almost instinctively, he prepared to teleport away.

  However… a seal appeared exactly where he stood. A golden seal of silence.

  The mage looked up and saw the woman who had killed him time and time again, staring at him as if he were an ant, and then, she stopped paying attention to him.

  The colossal arrow finally pierced the last layer and pulverized the entire lower half of the Dark Mage’s body. His form dissolved as the ether sustaining him finally ran dry.

  Eithne, exhausted, reversed her transformation. A sea of blood gushed from most of her orifices.