Novel Full Chapter 590 - Taming the Swarm - 5
Chapter 590: Chapter 590 – Taming the Swarm – 5
Luna and the girls had already completed all their bureaucratic paperwork. The documents were sealed, signed, and technically legitimized by royal authority. Now they had to achieve something much more difficult:
Generate real achievements and demonstrate competence in the field.
Specifically, Luna had to support the Starweaver side in the northern perimeter of the defensive area. This way she could function as a representative leader in her territory, and no one could allege that the sector had been abandoned by her family faction. Additionally, if her uncles’ opposing faction wasn’t present on their side, she would have certain legal priority in any subsequent “Starweaver” claims.
Of course, for that to work, the important thing was that she didn’t let the crisis take many casualties under her command and that she could effectively coordinate the soldiers.
This would be particularly difficult because those present were mostly not her troops, but upon arriving she would realize that as long as there was an intact defensive wall and she contributed even minimally to maintaining it, it would be relatively easy to claim her participation as a leader… or so Larissa would say.
It was a calculated plan that depended more on political optics than genuine heroism. Luna wasn’t thrilled with this approach, but desperate circumstances required pragmatism over idealism.
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Meanwhile, in the center of the southernmost wall from where Luna and the girls were heading to provide support, Selphira remained strong, guiding troops with the experience of thirty-seven decades of military leadership.
The wall had already been restructured with small gaps and strategically organized so fire and wind tamers could easily launch their long-range attacks and control the constant flows of mutant beasts. The formation allowed efficient rotations, with fresh groups replacing those who became exhausted after intense periods of combat.
The fire cadence had to be high due to the enormous number of fast moving beasts, but if tamers quickly released their best attacks, they could last several minutes before needing replacement.
As long as they had enough decent tamers to rotate adequately, the wall would resist despite the seemingly endless flow of creatures.
It seemed the crisis wasn’t as insurmountable as they had initially feared, now that several thousand tamers had effectively organized under centralized command. The coordination was working, defenses remained stable even on Yino’s side, and casualties on that front had stopped at acceptable numbers.
Everything was going to be fine…
Or so it seemed, until in the distance, on the southern side of the perimeter, Selphira caught an energy signature several dozen kilometers away that made her blood freeze.
It wasn’t like the constant flow of small signatures from the lesser mutant creatures. This was much larger, more intense, more ominous. The magnitude of it sent instinctive warnings through every fiber of her experienced combat awareness.
No, it wasn’t just one. There were two massive signatures.
Selphira concentrated, extending her perception to the maximum trying to identify the signatures rapidly approaching. Soon she realized they were following smaller known energy signatures: Ren and Julius seemed to be fleeing from something, and what was pursuing them was exactly what she had sensed first.
Julius and Ren… Their normally enormous energies had been difficult to detect, so they must have been concealed or exhausted.
“Captain!” she shouted to her new second-in-command.
“Yes, matriarch!”
“Organize an elite group of flyers immediately. We have friendlies incoming with hostile pursuit. I need rescue and extraction right now.”
“Understood!”
Within minutes, a squadron of golden eagles and their riders rose from the wall, heading south at maximum speed.
♢♢♢♢
The flyers arrived just in time.
Ren, Julius, Zhao, Min, Taro, Shizu, and Mako were rescued easily but the creatures did not stop their advance. The rescue group carried them back to the main wall, where healer teams were already waiting with advanced healing techniques.
They received much more intensive healing than what an exhausted Min had been providing during their desperate escape. The younger ones, Min, Taro, Liu, Shizu, and Mako, were completely unconscious from accumulated exhaustion, their bodies finally succumbing to the strain they had been pushing through on adrenaline and determination alone.
But Julius and Zhao managed to stay awake thanks to advanced healing and the “Ashenway medicine” Selphira had available to stay ’awake and energized’ in emergencies…
Ren also wasn’t knocked out, though he would clearly benefit from some healing for his overcharged system. Still, from everyone, he was the most active and energetic. The semi-purified seed in his system and the new power he had developed kept him fueled by strong emotions that he controlled increasingly better.
His body appreciated the professional healing, but his mind remained sharp and alert even without it.
While they quickly explained the situation to Selphira, (multiple corrupted artifacts, massive abominations, the real magnitude of their threat) Ren took advantage of the moment to tend to his companions and himself.
He pulled out the small processed tentacles he kept in one of his backpacks within his wolverine’s dimensional space. Carefully, he cleaned the overcharged mana systems of Min, himself, and the others, eliminating crystallized residues they had accumulated during intense battles.
In a few moments, the large beasts that had been pursuing them would arrive. Everyone could sense them better now without needing Selphira’s elevated perception, simply due to their growing proximity.
“The main problem,” Julius explained while observing the horizon, “is that they constantly regenerate. We destroyed one’s cores, its full body, but the big organic structures repair themselves using the same small monsters… Eliminating them doesn’t seem to serve much purpose.”
Selphira processed this information quickly. If the creatures regenerated, traditional combat approaches would be ineffective in the long term.
When the abominations finally appeared on the horizon, two massive forms that made the earth tremble with each step, Selphira decided not to overthink the situation and test for herself.
“I’m going to freeze them,” she declared simply. “Maybe that way I can stop them for an acceptable time while we develop a more permanent plan.”
The powerful matriarch advanced with a small group of her most trusted advisors while Ren, Zhao, and Julius observed from atop the enormous wall.
Selphira extended her arms and released a portion of her power. The temperature dropped dramatically in a radius of several hundred meters while massive amounts of ice began forming around the approaching beasts.
In seconds, she had created a small mountain of ice that completely encased the abominations with their two artifacts. The creatures were left completely immobile, trapped in ice so thick and hard it seemed more like crystal than frozen water.
♢♢♢♢
Selphira returned, carried by a Gold 1 golden eagle from one of her soldiers, clearly drained but satisfied with her work.
From the tower, they watched her accomplishment while the flow of lesser creatures continued being repelled by high-rank fire and wind soldiers who rotated in shifts of a few minutes, pouring everything they had into maintaining the defenses.
The formation looked solid and stable. If the ice prison could last a few hours, Selphira could recharge completely and reform the barriers, potentially maintaining the massive threats blocked perpetually.
It was an elegant solution even if a simple one.
But unfortunately, within minutes, the giant hand and leg inside the ice mountain glowed with awoken energy.
The ice began cracking…
Not only that, from the central side where Selphira had been before coming to provide support, another massive signature could be sensed approaching. It seemed a third corrupted artifact was approaching.
“Damn,” Selphira murmured, watching her ice fortress begin to crack. “It’s not going to be that simple after all.”
Ren, already healed, observed the cracks expanding through the ice prison and felt emotions intensifying in his chest. The purified roots responded, but this time with more control and purpose.
“We need to find a way to cut them off from their energy source,” he said quietly.