Primer for the Apocalypse

Zavira’s new ranged attack was actually a semi-flexible metal crossbow she’d crafted out of a new alloy of Tier Six metal. She’d always talked about enchanted projectile weapons with a hint of disdain, so I was a little surprised when she displayed it proudly at the start of the beast wave a week later.

A few semi-aquatic creatures and flyers had already attacked the walls, but the beast wave wouldn’t truly begin until the land bridges connecting the grasslands of each season to the safe zone finished manifesting.

As soon as that happened, the dungeon beasts on the other side would rush across, and the beast wave would start in earnest.

Getting a little bit of advanced notice was kinda nice, I thought.

“It isn’t even possible to make such an alloy before Tier Six,” Zavira said proudly as she held up her new weapon. “I was worried I’d have to wait until I returned to the sect to gain access to the recipe, but Great-Grandfather included it in my inheritance!”

“That’s great!” I replied enthusiastically. “Are your bolts enchanted?”

“Of course!” Zavira smirked. “Copy Enchantment works perfectly for items like this. Nobody expects a bolt to be reusable anyway.”

I narrowed my eyes at the Smith. “I’m pretty sure there are a lot of Archers who would disagree with that.”

Zavira shrugged. “What do I care about their opinions?”

“You should care about our opinions,” Ava interjected playfully from nearby. “Who’s going to buy your stuff if you offend all your customers?”

The Earthborn Archer and her group had joined us for the defense of Harbor instead of heading over to Hexaport for this wave. We’d all gotten stationed relatively close together since we’d effectively joined the effort as a single group.

The only exception was Jacob, Ava’s boyfriend. Since he was a frontline fighter only, he’d been placed with the largest group of melee fighters near a choke point that had been set up to funnel a manageable number of beasts to them.

Because most viewed the regular beast waves as a source of experience, nobody wanted the melee fighters to miss out. A few groups of fighters were held in reserve to handle any creatures that managed to get past the wall, but I was sure they would rotate occasionally to prevent anyone from missing out.

As an Archer, Ava was one of the fighters tasked with countering the flying mobs. There were already dozens of flying creatures crossing the water to attack, so she was busy shooting at targets while most of the defenders waited for the main assault to begin.

There were also hundreds of relatively weak, semi-aquatic creatures pulling themselves out of the water every few minutes, which allowed some of the youths armed with Tier Six ranged weaponry an opportunity to practice killing beasts before the actual beast wave hit.

“A real fighter should never value their feelings over quality. My work speaks for itself,” Zavira replied before shooting an exploding bolt toward a cluster of alligator-like creatures that were running toward the wall.

There were no youths in our immediate vicinity, so many of the fighters were taking potshots at the attacking creatures as a way to warm up.

“Spoken like a true dwarf,” I murmured, causing my companion to beam.

“Thanks!”

Our position on the wall was close to the land bridge manifesting between the city and the Spring zone. Most of the under-tiered fighters had been placed near the zone borders, away from where the bulk of the beasts would be spilling into the safe zone.

I had no plans to Teleport around the wall this time, nor had I gotten directly involved with selling my creations. Everything had been done through to kiosk to prevent drawing any unwanted attention, and it seemed my efforts had worked.

“The bridge is almost connected,” someone said just before a notification flashed across my interface.

[Quest: Defend your chosen city from the beast wave!]

It looked like those around me had just received similar notifications.

“Finally! Time to farm some XP!” said Riley, the Ice Mage in Ava’s party.

The beasts rushed over the thin bridge of manifested stone like a wave rushing toward the shore. Several creatures were trampled by larger dungeon beasts, but the assaulting mob barely seemed to notice.

Simultaneously, shadows darkened the artificial sky as large, winged creatures approached from a distance. Though the walls had already been peppered by a few flying creatures in the early stages of the beast wave, it was clear that the bulk of the flying creatures had hung back and waited for the real attack to begin.

“Shit! The wyverns are attacking early!” Ava cursed as she reached for a quiver of enchanted arrows.

Until now, she’d been using normal arrows to shoot down the flying mobs. Her shots had all seemed to be effective at injuring the creatures she targeted, but it was obvious the new additions were beyond basic weaponry.

Since I’d been given no orders regarding my targets, I decided to focus my attention on the wyverns as well. Of all the attacking creatures, they seemed to be the most dangerous. Because I knew to expect the wyverns from the records of the last beast wave, I’d prepared a weapon specifically for them.

It had been expensive to create, but I felt confident the combination of elements I used would work for most of the wyverns that might attack on this side of the floor.

Focusing on the closest one, I triggered the spell effect.

A brilliant, multicolored ball of glowing mana shot toward the creature. When it came within a few meters of the wyvern, the ball expanded into a large net and aggressively targeted the winged menace, interfering with its ability to fly.

The creation combined Lightning, Ice, Metal, and Nature magics, making it one of the most intricate binding effects I’d created to date.

Bound by multiple strands of interlocking elements, the massive creature fell from the sky, landing just a few dozen meters from the wall. Its incapacitation clearly upset the other wyverns, and they let out a synchronized shriek of outrage before heading toward our section of the wall.

“Can you do that a few more times?” one of the defense captains tasked to observe the battle asked from behind me.

I winced at my obvious failure to not draw attention.

“Yes. I should have another fifteen shots before I need to change the mana cores, and I have enough to change them twice,” I replied.

“What kind of cores do you need?” he asked. “I can probably get you a few if they aren’t anything too rare.”

I answered, and he nodded resolutely.

“That should be no problem. Will you focus on restraining the wyverns and any other large threats so others can take them out? I’ll ensure you are granted a fair portion of every beast you restrain.”

I nodded. It seemed like a fair enough exchange. And if the city representatives did cheat me, I could always offer my assistance to Hexaport exclusively for the rest of our time on the floor.

Not having time to discuss the matter further, I focused on the angry wyverns attacking. A few managed to avoid being wrapped up by the mana nets, but most of the ones I targeted were brought down with little effort.

That didn’t mean they didn’t cause a ton of damage in the interim.

Even those disabled by my nets still managed to cause a significant amount of damage if they fell close enough to the wall. One actually fell directly on top of the wall, crushing nearby defenders and damaging the structure.

I almost Teleported to their location to heal the injured fighters who had not already succumbed to their injuries, but I saw a few Healers rushing toward the broken wall and decided to let them handle it.

It didn’t take long for the smart beasts to figure out exactly who was sending the immobilizing attacks, and I soon found myself the focus of a handful of angry wyverns of various elemental persuasions.

Several nearby Mages shifted their attention to the approaching threat, making it unnecessary for me to entangle the majority of the attacking wyverns.

A red wyvern slipped past my net and unleashed what would have been a devastating blast of Fire had one of the nearby Mages not thrown up a Stone Shield between me and the wyvern.

I would have been fine, as would Zavira and anyone else who had one of my [Barrier] talismans or a Barrier of their own. Still, the effort was appreciated.

Wanting to take advantage of the opportunity presented, I shot the creature again. This time, the net entangled one of the wyvern’s wings and caused it to crash.

Unfortunately, the beast’s momentum caused it to land inside the walls. Several fighters were quick to attack the downed, angry, flame-breathing creature, but it still managed to cause a lot of damage before finally succumbing to its wounds.

The rest of the beast wave continued in much the same way.

With the help of those targeting the bound wyverns, I managed to thin their number by a significant amount. I still received a decent chunk of experience for each kill, which was nice. I doubted I would have earned as much overall if I had focused on a single creature until it died.

But targeting the wyverns wasn’t all I did during the fight.

It took hardly any effort to toss a few talismans over the wall and into the densest clusters of attacking beasts, but the experience gains were significant.

Eventually, the beast wave ended. We were on the wall for hours, but at Tier Six, that hardly felt like any time at all.

When the last of the major threats was neutralized, I looked at my depleted scepters and sighed.

The one designed to cast a multi-element net was on the verge of failing due to how heavily it had been used in a short amount of time. It was a design issue I’d need to remedy when I made the next set.

I could also just make multiple and swap out part of the way through the fight. Depending on how difficult it was to improve the enchantment design, it might be cheaper and easier to just make a few extras.

“Is it damaged?” Zavira asked.

“A little. I’ll have to redo the enchantments before it can be used again. I’ll probably need to make a backup one as well, just in case.”

Zavira chuckled. “You’ll probably be asked to make dozens of them after that showing.”

I glanced behind me and noted the captain waiting to speak with me. Making a name for myself was probably a good thing. It was what Master Kairos wanted me to do, right?

As long as I didn’t flaunt the whole ‘brain removal’ thing, that was. I didn’t think he’d want me to make a name for myself with something like that.

“Disciple Epikairos,” the defense captain said, addressing me. “The city of Harbor would be interested in purchasing several of the devices you used to restrain the wyverns before the next beast wave. They are always a problem, and your weapon proved more effective than our best alternative.”

I didn’t think it would be very hard for their resident Enchanters to figure out how to copy the effects of the weapon. The design was actually pretty simple as long as the Enchanter could Enchant in three dimensions.

I’d learned the technique during the previous tier through Master Kairos’s inheritance, and I’d found it worked amazingly for using multiple mana types in a single enchantment.

“I’m sure we can work something out,” I told the man with a tired smile before having Lisa send him my interface contact information.

“Excellent,” the captain said before taking a step back. “I will let you get some rest. Have a good evening.”

We’d already been briefed that the city’s Harvesters would take care of processing the defeated beasts, and compensation would be available in no more than three days. Keeping track of each person’s contribution was part of the reason several non-combatants had lined the top of the walls behind the fighters.

Their purpose was to watch and document everything through their interfaces. Anyone who contested their compensation could submit their own recordings if they wanted, but I doubted anyone bothered.

I honestly would have preferred if they would have let me just harvest a few of the wyverns instead of bothering with the rest of it. But I did need the funds, especially if I wanted to gain access to the Hot Spring before I reached peak-Tier Six.

Besides, with my ability to Teleport, it wasn’t like I couldn’t sneak into the peak areas of the floor and take out a few of the creatures if I needed something specific.