Beast Tide (3)

"I can safely assume that this beast tide was out of your expectations," said Daren as he looked at the knight in front of him.

Even though Daren could not see Durant's expressions as the knight's helmet only revealed the old man's dreary eyes.

Durant did not take long to recover his calm and straighten his jaw which had dropped for a bit due to the arrival of a wyvern. Being a veteran helped him to adapt to situations very quickly.

"Yes. You are correct mister Frince. The strength and size of this beast horde are at a much higher level than this city has faced in over 2 decades." Durant then looked over to one of the brawnier soldiers and made a symbol with his hands.

He took one index finger and put it up vertically while he laid the other index finger on its middle, horizontally. This made it seem somewhat like a cross but as the horizontal finger moved a bit lower, it resembled more like an unbalanced sword.

The soldier who received the signal was still kneeling on the ground. Once he saw the hand signal, he got up and slightly bowed towards his captain and then Daren. After that, he took off running towards a set of stairs that would lead him to the bottom of this wall which was about 300 meters high.

"Seeing as to how I took your weapon and am also the strongest here, I'll personally take on or try to hold the wyvern back" suggested Daren as he stared intently at the eyes of Durant. Daren realized that Durant was getting much older as he saw the neat rows of wrinkles under the man's eyes.

Daren wanted to really push the limits of his new body's strength while learning how to operate and control it better. This is why he suggested that he fight the wyvern himself as that beats would be the best gauge of his current standings.

"That is all fine with me. My men and I will try our best to finish off the other beasts as fast as possible so. Then we will come and assist you in finishing off the wyvern." replied Durant as he kept on looking behind him.

He was eagerly awaiting the soldier he sent to come back with his task done.

"Take your time. Don't rush. I will feel very guilty if any one of you men losses their lives while taking unnecessary risks. "

"I hope your skills can hold up. As you can probably see, the wyvern is at Body Strengthening Level 9, Peak Grade. you are only at Level 7, Peak Grade." There was a small hint of jealousy and mocking in his voice.

Durant was thinking 'Hmph. You think you can take on beasts that are not only a full level above but also has 2 times tougher skin than a human at the same level." when he said those words.

Of course, Daren easily could tell what this guy was thinking. He had a lot of fun dealing with people with similar personalities in the past.

"You will see my skills when we get on the battlefield. I have one request though." said Daren as his eyes slowly shifted towards the man in leather armor who was walking up the long flight of stone stairs.

"Go ahead. Make your request. I will try my best to fulfill it as long as it's within my bounds." replied Durant. His voice was starting to get impatient as every second, the beats were getting closer to the wall.

"Can I use your sword?" asked Daren with a cheery tone and wide grin.

Durant sighed as he expected that this would be Daren's demand. After seeing how tightly Daren was holding onto the sword and how intensely he was scanning the designs on it, Durant was sure that he wasn't going to give back the sword anytime soon.

"That is fine. I believe my subordinate should be bringing back a weapon soon. I was planning on letting you use it to fight but it seems it will be me that will be using a substitute." Daren understood the meaning behind the man's words.

Behind these words of complaint, Durant was basically saying that Daren should be the one using a lower quality, backup sword while he would get to use his own precious sword.

He was conveying the idea that the only reason that he is letting Daren even touch his sword was because of the authority given by the Hendrix family.

"Hmm. I see that you are unhappy with me using it but a shall prove to all of you that I am worthy of this magnificent sword. I shall not only hold it back but rather I will slay that darn wyvern myself." declared Daren.

His voice was loud and enchanting. His words contained a coercive and entrusting aura as all of the men on the wall could feel that his presence was starting to feel like that of a domineering general.

This whole time, Daren kept on spewing out all sorts of random vibes towards the men. Sometimes he was mysterious and vicious, other times he was like a playful youngster.

The soldiers were confused as right now, he was displaying the aura of a fearsome and noble commander. To the leather-wearing and spear-carrying men, he seemed more warrior-like than the knight that they had fought alongside these past years.

Durant's aura of a strong and confident warrior was still there but it was suppressed by Daren's.

For a split second, Durant once again had a surprised look as he was not expecting the aura of this young man to rival those of the heroic men he had fought alongside during the wars.

Those men had slaughtered countless others and solidified themselves as some of the best generals and knights in current existence. Durant could feel that Daren was not only as domineering as those men but could even have a much stronger aura than them.

This surprised look was only there for a split second because his face turned instantly agitated as he realized that the only reason one would display their aura like this.

This was to boost the morale of the soldiers and gain their trust.

Even though most of the soldiers will not trust Daren as much as they did Durant, he had already made a strong, first impression.

Not only had the soldiers saw that Daren was stronger than their captain, but he had also displayed that he wanted to help them. The bonus from his eloquent words and heroic aura had led them to start forming a small amount of trust for Daren.

Daren's grin started to widen even more as he saw that his goal was accomplished and that the city guards had finally started to relax their vigilance towards him.

This didn't mean that they had let their guard down. In fact, they had done the opposite by increasing their resolve and wariness toward the fast approaching beasts.

They turned towards the Googoon Lagoon forests and the possible calamity it had thrown their ways. They tightened their grips on the metal spears while a valiant expression covered their faces.

Daren could sense the air getting somewhat heavier around him as the soldiers gazed at the beasts with ferocity. It could be said that the soldiers were now the hunters while the beats that were under them were nothing more than weak prey,

There were small amounts of killing intent leaking out from the soldiers as they had all done their fair share of beast tides in the past.

Given that they had survived many encounters with possible death, it was only natural that they had built up some killing intent.

Around this time, the brawny man that had gone done to the city came back with another brilliant sword in his hand.

This was clearly evident from the sky blue scabbard that was decorated with hundreds of pebble-sized emeralds. The soldier kneeled while he presented the sword to Durant.

Durant took hold of the sky blue hilt that had a slightly larger emerald embedded into its center. He unsheathed the shiny blade with ease.

It was as if the well-crafted long-sword weighed nothing more than a feather.

Daren found that the sword had similar runs on its blade like the one he was holding but at the same time, he disliked the fact that it had too many gems.

Daren was not fond of swords with too many jewels as it made them look more like decorations rather than the tools of slaughter that they are meant to be.

Daren did not feel attracted to that sword and quickly took his eyes off the unsightly thing.

After Durant had taken the sword, the soldier who brought it to him went into a gap with the lines of soldiers. The 700 plus soldiers that were standing on top of the wall had formed into neat rows and had purposefully left a gap within their ranks.

This is the designated spot of the man. Daren still could not believe that during a medieval era like this, a military force could be organized neatly without the commander having to provide a single command.

'Then again, this world has been stuck in the medieval era for who knows how long. Some of the books talk about history from hundreds of thousands of years ago.

It's like no one thinks of any innovative technology or ideas. This world only gets odder.' Daren's research of this world's lengthy history had only confused him further.

The rate of progression when it came to technology and society was very slow but at the same time, the lengthy existence of large empires and kingdoms has made some very interesting cultural differences.

"Mister Frince. We will be now descending towards the battlefield. My 730 elite soldiers will head in first while another set of 1600 soldiers will follow suit. If they can't finish cleaning up, then another 15,000 thousand of the internal guards will do so."

Durant informed Daren of the number of soldiers on their side as it was the military protocol to let your allies know of your strength. This would help with the timing, coordination, and execution of the attack.

"Hmm. The numbers are pretty good but how will your men descend the walls? With so many of them, climbing down the stairs and out the gates would take too long and would also be dangerous. "

Daren said this because the stairs were built so only one or two regular-sized men could climb down the side. The 730 men that Durant was leading personally were all bigger in terms of width and height. They had large amounts of muscle mass all over.

"Oh. Haha. Take a look for yourself." said Durant as he lifting his entire right arm in the air and slashed downwards.

The soldiers then nodded in unison as they took out shiny green, palm-sized rocks that were hidden inside the leather armor's side pockets.

They broke the rock which then caused green circles of light with spinning numbers spinning within it. These were magic circles.

Each person took a look above their heads to confirm the existence of the magic circles and then the first 3 lines of men jumped off the wall.

Daren was was curious as to why they took such a leap so he sprinted towards the edge of the wall to see what was going on. It only took a couple of milliseconds to cross the 16 or so feet.

He looked down towards the falling men and saw that the speed they fell at was akin to a feather's speed.

The rocks had been enchanted with a spell that would make one fall like a feather for around 3 minutes. The men were not made as light as feathers though as that would make them fly away in the wind.

'There might be some truth to the sayings.' thought Daren as he remembered a quote he read recently.

The quote said "The applications for magic enchantments and spells are boundless. Magic itself is the medium through which we make the impossible, possible."

This was by the writer of a book called "The History of Magic: Volume 1" by Willamson Ventra Olokarcy. This 23 volume set of books was still being written to this day as volume 24 was in progress.

Daren was very excited when he thought that soon he could dapple in this sorcery as he had apparently awakened "Cellubus Corus". The organ needed to use magic spells and create enchantments.

"What do you think? I'm pretty sure you haven't seen such wonderous magic before" asked Durant. He was mocking Daren as his words indirectly meant that due to Daren's poor background, he probably never saw anything remotely close to true magic.

Durant had researched Daren and found the fake identity that the marquess had created for him. That identity of a village peasant was nothing compared to his real identity but he didn't care. It was safer this way.

Daren wanted to reinforce his background of being a peasant.

He said "Ohhhhhh my goooodo!!!! (is that a Jojo reference) I am truly glad to have seen such a beautiful sight. Now I am even more sure that with the help of this 'magic' and your soldier's skills. We can easily defeat the wyvern if no one interferes."

Daren said this with a naive expression and childish tone. He was smiling like an idiot as he jumped down behind the soldiers.

Thud! Crack!

The ground beneath Daren shattered as he landed with an earth-shattering force. The wet soil could not withstand the weight of his landing. It probably would have cracked even if the rain had not destroyed its integrity.

Daren unsheathed the classy log sword he 'borrowed from Durant and charged towards the imposing beast tide like a maniac. The lines of elite soldiers that had landed behind him, the soldiers that had just jumped and were falling slowly, and the soldiers preparing to jump off all saw him dash towards death itself.

The green wyvern narrowed its snake-like pupils as it locked onto the bloodlust emitting aura that Daren had leaked on purpose.

Screeeeeeeeech!

The wyvern let out its bloodcurdling yell as it commanded the horde in front of it split open a path for Daren. The wyvern was like a king commanding his subjects to let him take on the approaching enemy without hindrance.

'Wyvern are creatures with massive pride due to their dragon blood. Once it detected my killing and intent and bloodlust that I intently directed towards him or her, the wyvern would see at it a challenge.' Daren had learned to do this from the extensive knowledge of the marquess' books and Alex's profound wisdom.

"I wonder if Celina would like the taste of wyvern meat for dinner." Daren said this out loud while a sadistic, creepy smile appeared on his now scary face. Ice elemental force started to gather and condense with Daren's core as his speed skyrocketed.

"Let the blood of the beasts dye our bodies red."