V13 Chapter 80 – The Defense of Heaven’s Garden, Part 2

Sen grimaced as he observed the fighting happening at the wall from his qi platform. The spirit beasts had been rushing the wall like they didn’t care if they lived or died. It supported his belief that the lower-level spirit beasts could be controlled by the more powerful, sapient spirit beasts. It was the only explanation for what he was seeing. Nothing with any desire to preserve its own life would willingly throw itself into that churning mass of death. Especially when it had been so one-sided so far. Ever since he’d relented on his lightning spell, the cultivators on the wall had been raining down techniques and cracked cores. The sheer number of dead was appalling, and he could almost feel the negative karma building up around him. This wasn’t entirely on him, but he bore some indirect responsibility for everyone who was in this battle, on both sides. Shaking his head, he sent a flurry of small vermilion blades down into the mass of spirit beasts.

The only consolation he had in all of this was that the fight at this outer wall was truly nothing but a holding action. It had already served its intended function, which was to let the formation masters and talisman masters finish their preparations across the half mile between the outer wall and the true city wall. Not that Sen intended to relinquish the outer wall before he had to. The longer it held, the more spirit beasts died. The problem was that it was cultivators holding that wall. Even with the cracked cores, they were all burning through their qi at an alarming rate. He’d already cycled out the first batch with fresh cultivators just to try to preserve some of their qi reserves. Unless things went very differently than he expected, this siege wasn’t going to be over in a day.

He didn’t want the whole thing to descend into melee combat if that could be avoided. Melee favored the spirit beasts, especially against the mortal troops. If the cultivators ran themselves dry of qi, though, that’s what would happen. They weren’t there yet, fortunately, but he worried they might need to cede the wall if this kept up for a few more hours. He was about to order the cultivators on the wall to cycle out when Master Feng flew over to hover beside him. The elder cultivator was frowning down at the battlefield.

“You don’t look happy,” said Sen.

“I’m not. Does anything about this feel wrong to you?”

Sen considered what had happened so far and shrugged.

“They’re being more aggressive than I expected. Up until now, whoever is in charge of this spirit beast army seemed like they were running a plan. This just feels like them falling back on old tactics.”

“Exactly. That’s the part I don’t like. This is too blunt and wasteful even for them.”

“At the risk of being obvious, we’re killing a lot of spirit beasts. That’s a good thing.”

“We’re killing a lot of weaker spirit beasts. I suspect that they’d all flee if we could figure out which ones are actually in charge over there and kill them instead. That would be a good thing. This is just—” Master Feng’s expression twisted in distaste. “This is just the expected thing. They’re different.”

Sen studied the battle again. He hadn’t been thinking too hard about it, but it did feel wrong now that he was really looking at the situation. The problem was that he had no idea what was making him feel that way aside from the appalling number of dead spirit beasts. He did his best to force down any empathy for the enemy that tried to sneak its way into his heart. This was what the spirit beasts had wanted. He couldn’t allow himself the luxury of guilt until the war was over. He looked at everything. Then, he looked again. Nothing was happening that suggested the spirit beasts were about to change their tactics.

“I don’t see anything,” said Sen. “Honestly, I thought they’d try to throw a few more big qi techniques at us, if nothing else.”

“Well, after what we did with that first one, it’s hard to blame them. That doesn’t mean they aren’t planning something else.”

“If you can tell me what that thing is, I’ll try to stop it. But I can’t see—” Sen trailed off.

He couldn’t see anything, but that didn’t mean that nothing was happening where he couldn’t see.

“What is it?” demanded Master Feng.

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Before Sen could answer or even check his suspicion, the earth opened up at some very specific spots near the wall. Both Sen and Master Feng started hurling techniques at those spots, but Sen knew they were too late. The damage was done. Powerful presences erupted into his spiritual sense. They had been hidden by the sheer mass of spirit beasts on the surface. They immediately launched attacks on the weakened spots in the wall. Sen cursed a little internally as rock shattered and spirit beasts started to pour through the holes like maddened insects. He formed shadow spears that he fused with metal and sent those crashing down on the most powerful presences at the wall. At the very least, he wanted to wound them before he shaped a wind technique that carried his order to everyone manning the outer wall.

“Fall back to the city.”

The cultivators all took a moment to direct one last attack at the milling mass of spirit beasts beyond the outer wall. Then, almost in unison, they lifted off the wall and raced toward the city. Too many of them didn’t make it. Unlike Sen, who hovered high above, they were much closer to ground level. He watched, mostly helpless, as they were brought down by spirit beast techniques or a few flying spirit beasts that had hidden among the spirit beasts on the ground. Sen simply didn’t dare to send powerful techniques down there for fear he’d trigger the formations or talismans. He’d known this was a possibility and that he might need to accept those sacrifices to maintain the secret. Knowing in advance did nothing to soothe his conscience. Worse still, every cultivator's death wasn’t just a loss, but a strategic loss. Something the spirit beast leadership had to know as well as he did.

“People die in war, Sen.”

“I know that!” he snapped before getting his temper under control and proceeding more calmly. “I know that, but it doesn’t make it any more palatable to me.”

“That’s fair,” conceded the elder cultivator.

We should get back to the city. This is going to turn very ugly as soon as enough of the spirit beasts make it inside the outer wall. I don’t need to see it all from here. I have enough bad memories as it is.”

The pair descended toward the city but made a point to send devastating techniques out into the horde beyond the outer wall. No reason to make it too easy on them, thought Sen. Despite their efforts, he was still shocked at how fast the spirit beast numbers were growing in the half-mile between the walls. It seemed the spirit beasts had widened those holes in the outer wall to make it easier to get through. Sen had to tamp down the urge to seal the holes immediately. He could do it, but it wasn’t time yet. He scanned the top of the wall until he found the person he was looking for. Splitting off from Master Feng, Sen landed next to Glimmer of Night. The spider-kin was wearing his human disguise, which almost made the utterly emotionless expression on his face worse.

“Tell me when you’re ready,” said Sen.

“Soon,” said Glimmer of Night.

Sen nodded. If he concentrated, he could sense the web qi that the spider-kin had spread out between the two walls.

“Will we eat soon?” asked Glimmer of Night.

The question was so unexpected that Sen just stared for a moment before he managed to ask, “What?”

The spider shrugged and said, “I’m hungry. Will we eat soon?”

Sen hadn’t spent much time with Glimmer of Night recently, so the spider’s very different priorities caught him off guard. With so much death in the air, food was the last thing on most people’s minds. It seemed that death on a grand scale wasn’t enough to make the spider think about postponing his meals. Maybe he has the right idea, thought Sen. That, however, wasn’t a notion he meant to spread around to anyone else.

“I’ll make sure someone brings you something to eat soon,” answered Sen out loud.

“That’s good. I don’t like being—” the spider cut himself off. “I’m ready.”

Sen stretched out with his qi and sealed the holes in the outer wall. The seals weren’t very thick. Just thick enough to hold the spirit beasts outside the walls for a minute or two. He wasn’t sure what the spider had planned until the massive web activated. The bloodthirsty mass of spirit beasts ground to a halt, caught both literally and figuratively in the spider-kin’s web. Sen steeled himself for what he suspected would come next. He hadn’t discussed it with Glimmer of Night. He’d only said that it couldn’t interfere with the formations and talismans. And it didn’t. The web simply ripped the life out of the spirit beasts. It happened pretty fast, but not so fast that they didn’t all let out howling wails of pain and bone-deep terror. A mass of noise that had to reach their brethren outside the walls.

The inhuman noise was so unsettling that even Sen shuddered. A quick glance around showed him faces that had gone chalk white. That was where people weren’t crouching in sympathetic fear. Meanwhile, Glimmer of Night started to sway on his feet even as his presence grew much brighter in Sen’s spiritual sense. The spider-kin had grown not just stronger, but exponentially stronger. So strong, in fact, that Sen had reservations about whether he could actually beat the spider in a fight anymore. The most chilling part was that the spider couldn’t have possibly consumed all of that life immediately. So, where had the rest gone? Part of him wanted to know, but something told him that the answer was best avoided.

Forcing himself to look out at the half-mile between where he stood and the outer wall, he watched as countless spirit beast corpses began to collapse into dust. Well, that should give them pause, he thought as he released the power that was keeping the outer wall sealed.