236 Dying Where they Stand

The battle raged on, and so did I.

"They are pushing back in a large group!" I snapped out, and the enemy Wizards attacked us with an onslaught of spells. Shards of ice and beams of fire blasted against shields as we pressed against the wall of steel. "Those in the front press hard!" I barked out, and the spells were in a slight parabola, and I finally found the disguised Wizards in the enemy group. 

The buildings around us pressed our fighters together, making a natural blockade against flanking maneuvers with many other pockets of Empire Soldiers fighting for their lives. I rifted high in the air directly above us and found the wizards. I started to turn my arm into the void. I needed to start ending these fights, and I needed to now. Who knew when reinforcements might come to the city?

Instead of my whole body, I was using much less of the mana-intensive power, and I drifted into the Empire's soldiers by their wizards just above their heads. I turned my body around and entered the rift with my arm out, and as I came back into reality among the enemy, my arm grabbed the head of a B-ranked wizard.

I could see only one of the eyes of an unnamed man in the wizard's clothing. I could feel the cold ice mana inside him as I grabbed onto his face. He was staring into the void, and I felt his mana gathering inside for a wide-range spell he was casting. There was no chance that he could cast the spell as I looked into his eye for that infinite moment before I crushed his skull with enhanced void-filled muscles. My momentum carried me forward and swung his body into another as I shot out at speed from the rift in reality.

The portal behind me closed as I exited fully, and my arm was already through another wizard's armor with realty claws breaking the way as I swiped. My momentum was too much, and the guts and gore rained on my body as I pushed through their ripped body, separating them as I moved through them. All of this in one second as I felt blood and guts in my silver fur, and I smashed into another wizard who collided with another couple of wizards. 

The middle of the formation faltered in their retreating advance, but I recovered faster than their people. My breath was hard to bring in, and my concentration was sapped by converting just my arm. But another B ranker was on their feet and at me, and it was no Wizard. A sword came down with all the ferociousness of a person of similar rank, and I felt my death if I left them to hit me.

My arm met the sword, and the Void collided somehow with reality as the sword stopped. I felt the cut into my arm was deep, but it still stopped the sword from cutting me. I could no longer conserve mana as a B-ranked Wizard started to charge an electrical spell somewhere in their formation, and I quickly converted my entire body, starting with my other arm, into the void. 

I did not have much time and felt people moving behind me. There was another B ranker in the midst, and this Formation was a powerful one to keep delaying our barbarians for this long. My other arm moved forward, and you could visually see it turn purple with the void. The silver fur turned to the dark purplish black of the void, and the swordsman swiped at my legs, attacking my mobility.

I abandoned my counterattack and leaped back, only to feel myself collide with steel as soldiers gathered behind me. I was completely surrounded, and they were responding better with more morale than I expected as they were in a suicidal battle as they tried to leave the city. More and more of these fights were over the city as commanders took control of the situation, and the Elders seemed to have gone to meditate and regain their strength after the battle.

My body smashing into their bodies behind me took me a second, and I felt electricity spark in the air as the Wizard was working with the swordsmen to deal with me. But I covered my arm into the void, and my legs were turning into the void visible to the eye, the swordsman was moving forward toward me at this moment, and I moved forward to clash with them. I could feel their mana, and my eyes widened as it came down toward me and attacked a spot that had not become one with the void.

Mana fuelled my body, and I roared as I attacked by opening a rift just before the man himself. I opened two opportunities to him, and I watched as he cut the rift, in reality, itself, buying me the half second I needed, and my hand reached out with claws of reality-bending mana.

The swordsman reacted instantly, clashing with my claws as my hand came up, and she parried me again. His sword moved and intercepted my claws repeatedly as I moved my body around, making him pay attention to my hands. I felt more coming up behind me, but now I was a part of the void entirely, and the spell from the wizard sparked and filled the area with their mana. 

Power and mana sparked and erupted through me as the lightning bolt clashed against my body and leaped into the air just before it clashed against me. My body erupted in pain, and the swordsmen swung their swords to take advantage of the moment.

I had only a second, and I was in the air. My arm reached out, and I felt the sword bite into my skin and into my void flesh. I could feel the damage, and my mana reinforced the bone as much as possible. The cry of pain erupted from me as the pain erupted through me for multiple reasons. But it all paid off as the lightning moved through me, seeking ground through the easiest means possible, which closed that circuit with the swordsman. 

Not even a fraction of a second passed as the Swordsman screamed a feminine scream of pain, and their body sparked with the lighting their wizard hit me with. They were frozen for a second, and I moved forward, taking advantage of that split second, and found my hand through where their heart used to be with the still-pumping organ in my hand. I could feel it as it tried to pump blood through ruptured arteries, and the body it was attached to realized that they were dead a moment later as I squeezed the heart to mush.

Pulling back my hand, the body fell before me, and the wizard started to spark and sent spell after spell at me in rapid fire. Mana burned, and I moved through reality as a nonreality being. I killed around me, reaping the C rankers as another B-ranked swordsman finally broke into our part of the formation and joined the battle.

I was quickly lowering in mana, and I was hurt as I could only dodge around as a swordswoman. This time, it came up and started to clash with me. It was a three-on-one, and I could no longer keep myself in the fight as I felt a sword bite into my leg. As soon as I converted back to my real body, I would be gushing blood, and I clashed with the swordswoman one more time before I opened an opportunity to rift out and appear on a building not far away.

Rolling on the ground, I coughed and spilled blood on the ground and decided I needed to go back to my responsibility of commanding the army instead of helping. I watched the fight below, where Beast-kin Wizards blasted more spells into the formation now that I was no longer there, and the Empire's soldiers had even more pressure on them. I noticed more Mana signatures of B rankers from the Barbarian army joining the fray, and the Empire soldiers continued to try to retreat while fighting.

Many were dying where they stood. 

I could only thank that A ranker for sounding the Retreat as it allowed our barbarians to more easily enter the streets and fight with the empire. Commanders of the Empire were much more hearty than I thought as they clashed with the beast-kin, but more than half the city was ours, and the Nobility district was not a priority for the defense at the start of the battle for Border City.

Slowly, I allowed my body to turn back into its fleshy body as I limped to the new command center. The Elders took over the City Mansion before resting. We took control of the city, and I was already moving forces into the city with the Logistics Army slowly moving in with supplies.

The Elite army was in control of the Logistics army's defense and already fought with some of the retreating Empire as some patriotic soldiers with the Militia tried to sabotage our supplies. These were the most troubling signs of what was to come in the coming weeks. The Empire's soldiers were almost fanatic, if not complete fanatics, for dying for the cause. It was remarkable how cohesive they were; I had no idea how the Empire had done it. 

No army existed like this in my old world unless they knew they were dead either way. It was one of the reasons I wanted to keep POWs instead of mass slaughtering them, without the Elders to give them any hope, though they were fighting as they retreated. Many were staying to keep fighting and helping more escape. Only a couple of thousand have retreated successfully, but many more stayed to fight as they retreated back.

Some were giving up, and the Barbarians were told that I would love to have my hands on POWs in the future. I was already starting to gather them and defend them from the Beast-kin people with us.

I had to shake my head, and I opened a rift to where the new headquarters was and winced as I stepped out into a cluster of activity.

"Supreme Commander! I have a report of a cluster of Empire forces in the east fighting with our forces!" A bunny-kin ran up. 

"What are our reserve forces looking like, and what is the overall situation? Where is Isabelle?" I snapped back.

"Commander Isabelle is inside dispatching forces; as for our Reserve forces, many are out attacking other pockets of forces. Only the Elite Army is left in reserve, and they are defending against Militia and Empire Soldiers trying to get at our Supplies!" I nodded.

"Follow me; you seem to have a good head on your shoulders," I told the Bunny-kin, who smiled and started to follow me into the tent. "Actually, first get someone to help patch me up with some medical supplies, then come back and be ready to send messages under my name," I told the nameless bunny-kin, and they nodded.

I took a moment as they ran off and noticed all the signs of an Elite army private on them. It was time to get this battle under control as it was mayhem with battles all over the city.

------------

Announcement:

Thank you for Reading. Just a heads up, I have released two new short stories on Amazon Kindle Unlimited. If you are interested, you can look up the stories:

Stories of a Futanari S ranked Adventurer: Meeting a Pair

The Rich Girls Futanari Maid is a Masochist: Discovery

Check them out if you're interested. Thank you all again for enjoying my story. Please Comment, Rate, and Review the Story if you are interested in doing so

If you enjoy my works, you can support me by going to my Patreon.com/madjic Or purchasing my books at:

Week 1:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B096QTS87W?notRedirectToSDP=1&ref_=dbs_mng_calw_0&storeType=ebooks

Week 2:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09LT9S2G8?notRedirectToSDP=1&ref_=dbs_mng_calw_1&storeType=ebooks

Week 3:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B53S7SWT?ref_=dbs_p_pwh_rwt_anx_cl_1&storeType=ebooks

Week 4:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BT4Z73N5?ref_=dbs_p_pwh_rwt_anx_cl_1&storeType=ebooks

Week 5:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CD2DF3W3

Week 6:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CW1K1ZGD