As Edward’s head struck the ground, a roar thundered across the battlefield.

  It came from near the advance units, a sound so deep and heavy that even seasoned soldiers felt it vibrate through stone and bone alike. Moments later, the source revealed itself.

  A Tier Four Shadow Cat.

  It was more than four times the size of a Tier Three, standing taller than a battle horse, its presence crushing. Unlike its lesser kin, it no longer needed darkness to hide. The shadows bent toward it instinctively, drawn in and reshaped by its will. Where it stood, darkness spread outward like a living thing, smothering the battlefield beneath a black blanket. This was not a reaction to Edward’s kill.

  It was a challenge.

  A declaration aimed at the entire fort.

  Edward’s squad had not been the only one still standing. Across the outer wall and funnel defenses, dozens of squads continued to fight, battered but unbroken. The instinctive hatred that drove lower-tier beasts to attack any living being on sight kept pressure on the wall uneven, but where multiple squads had been wiped out in succession, gaps formed. Gaps large enough that the beasts no longer searched for soldiers and instead turned their attention directly toward the walls.

  In two places, the wall failed.

  Stone collapsed inward under sustained assault as beasts surged forward, ignoring individual soldiers and throwing their weight directly against the fort itself. Yet the fort had been built for this. Trigger mechanisms embedded deep within the wall activated as structural integrity failed, rune arrays igniting in sequence. Massive explosions tore through the breach points, annihilating the beasts that pressed too close. Up to this point, no enemy had successfully entered the inner fort.

  That balance shattered as the Tier Four Shadow Cat acted.

  Shadows seeped through cracks, under gates, and along collapsed stone, flowing into the fort’s interior and converging toward its heart. The beast’s target was clear. The central vaults. The largest concentration of mana crystals. The fuel required for its next evolution.

  But it was not alone in its ambition.

  From the horizon, a majestic bird descended, wings formed entirely of fire, a blazing crown burning atop its head. The air warped around it as it flew toward the fort, heat rolling in waves. At the same time, the corpse of a Tier Four Venelion lay before the advance units, its fall a stark reminder that even the ancients of the forest could be brought down.

  Beneath the battlefield, another threat moved.

  A massive serpent, more than fifty meters long, erupted from the earth without warning, its scaled body flowing like liquid stone. Despite its size, it moved with terrifying speed, burrowing and resurfacing at will, striking from unexpected angles. Only three Tier Three earth-element mages from the Captain’s personal unit, working in coordination with the Captain himself, managed to contain it, reshaping the ground again and again to limit its movement. Each time the beast resurfaced, the Captain intercepted it, protecting the vanguard and preventing it from reaching the last line of fort defense. Even so, the serpent was a poor matchup for him, its earth affinity providing a natural counter to the Captain’s wind affinity.

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  As pressure from multiple Tier Fours mounted, Captain Alaric Darrow was already preparing to order a retreat and abandon the fort. Holding it any longer would have meant total annihilation. Before he could give the command, reassurance finally came.

  Thanks to his wind affinity, he had sensed it. Reinforcements were close.

  Close enough that he could already make out the signatures within the rushing currents of air, and satisfying enough that he knew exactly who led them. A four-man reinforcement unit. At its head was Tellus Petrae, the Count’s own grandson.

  “FINAL PUSH!” the Captain roared, his voice amplified by skill and will alike. “REINFORCEMENTS ARE HERE. HOLD FOR TWO MORE MINUTES!”

  The effect was immediate. Exhausted soldiers straightened. Broken lines stabilized. The Captain’s invigorating skill spread through those near him, forcing bodies past their limits and dragging wavering minds back from collapse.

  Two minutes later, the battlefield shifted again.

  A thunderous roar rolled across the plains and echoed off the shattered walls. Veterans and nobles who had fought in the north recognized it instantly. The guardian beast of House Petrae had entered the field.

  Tellus Petrae rode at the front atop a massive bipedal predator, its powerful hind legs driving it forward in crushing strides. Its forelimbs were short and functionally irrelevant. The true threat lay in its oversized skull and reinforced jaw, built for catastrophic bite force. Obsidian-like scales covered its body, dense and layered, radiating the same earth affinity that defined House Petrae. Every main family member was raised alongside such beasts, symbols of both power and lineage.

  Tellus stood tall upon its back, posture straight, hands encased in stone-like gauntlets as if carved from the mountain itself.

  Behind him followed three majestic war mounts, their coats glossy and immaculate despite the chaos. As the first of them entered the battlefield, the rider atop it made a precise hand motion before extending both arms. A stream of silvery liquid poured forth, scattering across the stone. Wherever it touched soldiers, faint healing effects flared, stabilizing wounds and pulling men back from the edge of death.

  The tide began to turn.

  Tellus Petrae replaced Captain Darrow as Captain Darrow surged upward to intercept the flaming bird circling overhead. The remaining two riders dismounted at full speed and charged straight toward the Shadow Cat, abandoning their beasts as they crossed the battlefield in blurs of motion. Their hands ignited with fire, one of the few elements capable of reliably countering darkness, the flames burning with refined intensity.

  As the balance of power on the battlefield shifted and more Tier Four forces stood on the fort’s side, the beasts began to retreat.

  Less than thirty minutes after the arrival of the four-man reinforcement unit, the Shadow Cat withdrew into the forest, retreating alongside the flaming bird. The pressure that had weighed on the defenders for nearly an entire day finally lifted. Across the walls and battle grounds, soldiers slumped where they stood, weapons lowering as the reality of survival settled in.

  On the battlefield, littered with the corpses of beasts and men, the guardian beast of House Petrae feasted.

  The massive serpent lay broken and unmoving, its enormous body torn open as the guardian dug into its core, tearing it free and consuming it without ceremony. Blood coated its obsidian scales and stained the ground beneath it, a brutal but unmistakable declaration of dominance.

  The Beast Tide was over.

  And the fort still stood.