465 Chapter 465: The solar dawn

Hamon donned a clear grimace as he stood at the head of the large war table. He ran the calculations multiple times but each time the result was less than fortuitous.

Reaching the fourth day alone with their current forces and the estimated increase in enemies seemed almost impossible. Hamon had been present in over half a dozen monster stampedes and was in charge of the last two not including this one yet never before had the situation been so dire.

Their supplies which had been horded well in advance for a predicted hard stampede were pretty much gone, Frost’s gift was but a drop in the ocean. Sure, their smiths were hard at work pumping out new ammunition, equipment and salves out of the innumerable corpses being supplied to them, but such work took time, and they were using them up far faster than they could make them even with their sparing measures.

The monsters enlisted were just stronger and far more numerous than predicated. The cost to survive the mid stages was not a small number. Hamon was struggling to feel optimistic about their current situation, already coming up with ideas on how to evacuate the citizens or at least protect as many as they could until the reinforcements arrived.

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He needed more men and woman that could fight but unfortunately there were practically none left. Was he supposed to forcibly enlist every man, woman and child that could hold a weapon and place them on the battlefield.... never, not while he and his officers still drew breath.

Hamon’s distress was evident on his face and created a dour atmosphere in the command centre. The young officers-Frost included- kept quiet, unsure in what to do and to be honest lacking in knowledge of the big picture. Their jobs were solely to work with their squads and kill as much as possible while ensuring the least number of casualties. Only Hamon, Douglas and those higher up in the food chain were aware of the serious complications affecting their mission here.

One of those said individuals let out a sigh and shook his head before smashing his fist down hard upon on the war table, drawing the gazes of everyone in the room, Hamon included.

“Hamon get that defeated look off that old face of yours its doing nothing to help the situation!” The man yelled in a gruff voice as his cheeks turned red from his sudden anger.

Hamon’s lips twitched in irritation before he lashed out in reply.

.....

“Shut up Halgrave you’re bloody older than I am!” The man or rather Halgrave was a stocky built man with greying hair and was the 2nd highest officer here in Furano, one of the frost wolf battalion’s vice leaders, Lt colonel Halgrave. And FYI he’s three years older than Hamon.

“Fire, good use it.” Halgrave nodded and smiled, happy with Hamon’s current expression. His little outburst successfully overturned the dour atmosphere, siphoning out the tension that was building up in the young officers who were oblivious to the situation.

A few of the older officers as well as Douglas, Ryuu and Bastion chuckled in response.

Hamon looked around the room silently before sighing and internally thanking Halgrave. He always did know how to get him back on his feet, a great rival.

Though his face was less tense, and the atmosphere was better the situation hadn’t changed thus some of the other veterans spoke up.

“Commander if the situation is dire then all we need to do is fight harder.”

“Yeah, we old bastards can just go all out.”

“Agreed it would be a glorious way to die instead of becoming a useless retiree hahahahahaha.”

Hamon felt a sharp pain in his heart as he heard the veterans’ words. His gaze drifted over each and every one of them revealing the determination in their eyes. These old soldiers and adventurers willingly offered up their lives, a noble sacrifice but unfortunately one which Hamon may have to use.

His fists were clenched as he struggled to accept this, but he was the commander after all. He replied with a fiery gaze and a curt nod, but he couldn’t smile. The veterans however were all smiles genuinely looking forward to the opportunity to let loose all they had until they had no more left to give.

The young officers however trembled as they heard this, completely not expecting the situation to be so extreme. Many of these veterans were their teacher’s, their senpais and in some cases even family members.

‘Such resolve is admirable.’ Frost nodded his head in respect towards these veterans before looking at Hamon.

“Why don’t you explain to the rest of us how dire our circumstances are.” He was technically an outsider but also someone with strength and friends with the local lord, he had the right to ask this question.

Hamon turned to Douglas, Ryuu as well as Halgrave who all nodded in response.

“Alright all of you listen up I won’t repeat this a second time.” Hamon then proceeded to unveil the current situation. How their supplies were nearly all but spent and their forces were dwindling much to quickly and that at their current rate the northern wall would likely be overrun before the 4th day. By the time the reinforcements arrive the town would already be lost.

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An impactful set of news that obviously filled the listeners with a sense of dread but for the majority their hearts were set ablaze, refusing to succumb to defeat.

Hamon saw the fire in the eyes of these officers and couldn’t help but lament his earlier feelings. These men and woman were soldiers and adventurers, the moment they signed up for such professions they were already prepared to lose their lives. Morale would not be lost due to danger but instead be reenergised.

A smile gradually grew on his lips before he started chuckling. So, what if death was on the table, if they were to die here, then they were going to die in the most glorious way. The monster stampede would have to pay a heavy price if it wished to take down Furano.

With everyone now on the same page and the current predicament out in the open a grand discussion took place with everyone trying to find solutions together.

An hour later the meeting was brought to a close and the officers split up, some checking up on their squads, several going for a quick bite while the rest found the closest place to get some sleep, recharging themselves for the night’s wave.

Frost was reassigned to the magic corps for the night wave which he initially thought would be a serious threat given the added ferocity of the monsters and the more nocturnal species being present as well as the near pitch blackness of the night. Back in the dungeon the latter part wasn’t an issue since Frost could control the light levels throughout.

When he brought up his query however Ryuu and Jessie tilted their heads in confusion.

“That’s not an issue in the slightest, in fact night-time is actually a far easier situation to deal with than the day waves.” Ryuu said while Jessie nodded in agreement leaving Frost quite perplexed.

‘Am I missing something?’ He remembered the difficulty his monsters had in facing the night-time waves, the ghosts, ethereal and often poisonous opponents wreaked havoc on his forces and their even more aggressive nature meant that it took far more to bring down the same monsters than during the day.

“Nocturnal monsters are usually more specified in their characteristics making them have clear weaknesses and strengths. We’ve got an entire contingent of magic users, another of ranged users and all manner of close combat chakra users and weapon masters so finding their antithesis is rather simple.” Jessie explained after seeing Frost’s confusion.

“Darkness is also something non-existent as long as you have certain devices and or mages like us. A simple light-based spell can brighten up the night sky revealing all that dwell beneath it. We even have a special magic device that not only creates a temporary sun in the sky allowing us to see around us but also weakness those of the darkness element such as undead.” Ryuu spoke the last part with a frown, he wasn’t fond of the undead, few were. Things that refused to rest once their time was up, were unnatural in many people’s views. The sight of such creatures can cause even the bravest of people to tremble in fear i.e. Maya.

Frost didn’t have that aversion probably because of his father as well as siblings Yami and Agar. Yami being the embodiment of darkness was quite well versed in dark magic and using monsters of that element such as the undead whereas his younger brother Agar was in the form of a lich and was proficient with skeletons and other undead monsters. To him undead were just another monster type and nothing to be scared of but everyone was different and had their own fears and trepidations.

Several hours later the warning alarm sounded once again, and the soldiers and adventurers quickly ushered to their assigned places. Their layout had changed slightly due to the night-time aspect. More mages were on call to deal with the more specified monster types and besides the archers were buckets filled with oil and nearby fire pits allowing them to light their arrows on fire. Another method to deal with darkness-based monsters if you lacked chakra or mana. The oil would also spread on contact, lighting the target up and in some cases create waves of fire across the battlefield.

Many of the soldiers and adventurers stationed beyond the wall replaced their weapons with massive shields focusing on preventing the advancement of the monsters while leaving their demise to the mages and archers.

Of course, that wasn’t all, special squads that contained soldiers and adventurers skilled in chakra and or with special weapons, perfect for cutting down those more physically resistant foes could be seen behind the shield wall.

A fierce fire could be felt from everyone, their morale was through the roof. Including every one of the officers in the situation seemed to work wonders, Frost felt that this wave would be a stark contrast to the earlier ones. Their loses should hopefully be minimal.

Hamon had calculated however that even under their most advantageous situations they’d barely make it to the morning of the fourth day let alone when everything was against them.

Luck, determination and hope were all they had to rely on but right now what they needed to focus on was the current wave. They survive this one and move onto the next, win enough and they might see the light at the end of the tunnel, miracles can happen, but you need to work your ass off first.

As the treeline rustled and the first lines of the monsters revealed themselves Hamon roared out his order.

“Light up the night sky!” With his yell dozens of people used 100s of magic crystals to active multiple special arrays. These arrays lit up with a golden majesty before linking to together before a large magic device.

One man was in charge of this device, the prime artificer of the Frost wolf battalion.

Sensing that the arrays were complete he removed a large high quality B-rank magic crystal that had been refined and placed it in the magic device.

With a low rumble the device swallowed the magic crystal, absorbing its entire essence in a couple seconds before glowing. Aided by the multiple arrays the magic device shot a ball of light into the air, like a mortar.

This ball of light fired up through the air, around 50 metres above the northern wall before exploding like a giant firework. Golden fragments stretched across the night sky in the shape of a massive runic diagram while a large sphere of light formed in the centre appearing like a miniature sun. This was the device Ryuu and Jessie were talking about.

The solar dawn.

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