A bizarre scene unfolded at Black Raven Stronghold and across the nearby Great Wasteland: the battlefield seemed frozen in place, with only a black tide slowly surging forward.
It was not only the human soldiers who had been distracted by the Beast Tide. Even the mindless Chaos monsters and the black smoke pillars scattered across the wasteland had slowed unnaturally, as if these thoughtless things had also been intimidated and were hesitating to advance. Only a handful of scholars vaguely realized what was happening: the suppressive effect of the Light of Order.
The light that had suddenly appeared on the horizon was pure Light of Order. It had swept across the entire battlefield and was now weakening the power of the Chaos Storm outside Black Raven Stronghold. Its range was so vast that even the Tower of Kindling above the stronghold seemed dimmed by comparison.
Yet within this bizarre, temporary "silence," the tide in the distance continued to surge forward.
The Tide of Magical Beasts advanced in a mighty procession, millions of demi-humans moving forward. It was an army unlike any in the mortal world—not as orderly as the humans, not as imposing as the orcs, not as dazzling as the elves, and not as majestic as the Winter Giants. It did not even look like an army, because it was a Beast Tide: a tide, a simple wave slowly rolling over the entire land. All kinds of strange and varied savage races shoved and jostled their way forward. There were no flags or formations to be seen. Only the beasts' instincts and the iron-fisted command of their tribal chieftains maintained its momentum. In such a "mighty army," all one could see was chaos and disorder, yet a chilling presence emanated from that chaos and disorder.
South of the Southern