By the time the thunderous noise from the distant hill reached the legion camp, it was barely audible, drowned out by gunfire and explosions. To the Black Castle students, however, the fluctuations of magic power were far more noticeable.
Within the camp, the enormous Ritual Array restricted the dark creatures, but it was far from perfect. It was only a temporary construct cobbled together through the students' coordinated efforts, and its magic power had been infused in two stages. The intensity of all its energy soon began to weaken.
The legion's ordinary soldiers had begun to adapt to fighting dark creatures. Werewolves were terrifying, certainly, but they were not invincible. Once the soldiers found their rhythm, courage completely overwhelmed fear, and the power of inspiration continued to build.
Gunfire never ceased along the camp's defensive lines. Some werewolves kept rampaging even after being burned into balls of fire, while others desperately fled.
"Aah!"
A werewolf sank its teeth into a soldier's shoulder, then hurled him into the air with a panting breath. Several bloody holes immediately appeared in its body, and two more soldiers charged with leveled bayonets. One stabbed it through the heart, the other through its ear and eye socket.
The werewolf crumpled. Several nearby soldiers caught the screaming man as he fell, and they all tumbled into a trench beside them.
"Roar! Roar!"
A werewolf charged, knocking two soldiers flying as it rushed toward a machine-gun position ahead that had briefly fallen silent.
"Ratatatatat!"
The machine gun finished reloading and spat flame again, sweeping the legs clean off three nearby werewolves.
"Move aside, move aside! Let these wolf pups taste our tracks!"
"Don't shoot them dead! Let them turn into mincemeat!"
The surrounding soldiers backed away as a Steam Tank approached amid the roar of machinery, glowing