The beast tide drew ever closer.
The trembling ground had turned into a continuous roar, as though millions of giant hammers were striking the earth at once.
Loose stones on the Gobi Desert bounced from the vibrations, tumbling through the air.
The walls of the Holy City trembled, not because they were poorly built, but because the earth was shaking.
The trap zone erupted first.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Explosions rang out without pause, flames shooting into the sky. The fierce beasts at the front triggered the traps and were blasted into flying flesh and blood.
Some traps spewed poison mist. Green smoke spread through the beast tide, and the fierce beasts that inhaled it let out agonized howls, collapsing and convulsing.
Some traps shot up ground spikes. Sharp stone pillars thrust out of the earth, skewering fierce beasts like candied fruit on sticks.
But there were too many fierce beasts!
Those in front fell, and those behind trampled over their companions' corpses and kept charging.
Gales scattered the poison mist, the ground spikes were trampled apart, and the blast craters were filled in.
The beast tide barely slowed.
"Open fire!"
At the guard commander's order from atop the wall, every ranged attack erupted at once.
Cannons boomed dully, their shells blasting patches of empty space into the beast tide.
Archers drew their bows and loosed, their arrows blanketing the sky like locusts. Spell Sequence users raised their hands and unleashed all kinds of elemental attacks. Fireballs, ice spikes, lightning, and Wind Blades wove together into a net of death.
The flying fierce beasts in the air were the primary targets.
They were the fastest and the first to reach the air above the walls.
Dense black shapes blotted out the moonlight, their beating wings sounding like howling gales.
But