World Filter

When Mark arrived at the wall, he signed in. However, this time, he got more than he bargained for when a young woman stepped forward.

It looked like she had been waiting for him.

“Good evening Mark Young, my name is Captian Martina. I have been assigned by Major Grantwood to be your contact during your time on the wall. Do not hesitate to ask if there is anything you do not understand” She said.

Captian Martina had firey red hair and carried a sawed-off shotgun.

Her demeanor was one of strict discipline, even saluting Mark who held no rank in the military. He saw no emotion on her face. This was just another aspect of her job, even the greetings felt rehearsed and flat

“Alright Captian Martina, then I would appreciate a tour of the changes to the wall while we still have some time,” Mark said matching her energy.

“Understood!” she responded. Turning on her heels and marching away.

Mark followed at a leisurely pace.

When they got to the top of the wall Mark could see the alterations immediately. Large flat-roofed turrets sat on either side.

Moving towards the nearest one, they enter through an open doorway. Mark could see the entrance could be sealed off by two thick doors.

The room was circular and had an opening on the other side to allow passage through to other sections of the wall.

Another staircase inside the turret led up to the roof.

Mark also noticed several small vertical holes facing out into the road. Mark figured the gunman could sit here and rain fire down unobstructed.

Mark saw several people moving through this area.

As it turned out, some of the medics Mark had been working with earlier were here now. They were the medical team stationed here during the night.

Mark was impressed by the speed at which they had put this together. All in all, it had taken them around twenty-five hours. Which was long on the battlefield but also very short for this type of structure.

Magic had done in a day what would have taken weeks in the old world.

Still, the amount of casters this would have taken was probably massive and he noticed they were still adding the finishing touches at the eleventh hour.

Mark moved back out onto the wall when he had seen everything he needed to. Martina followed him.

He noticed a decent amount of the men were throwing salutes Martina’s way. To which she would respond by mirroring them.

“Okay, so she’s got their respect,” Mark thought.

As he was making his way to the front Mark noticed Jonathan was there.

Surrounded by SAGE he directed the men into neat formations while loading his personal weapons.

Mark changed his path toward them.

When Jonathan saw him he nodded.

“Yo Mark, hey Captain” he greeted them both in kind.

Mark realized the two were already familiar and he noticed for the first time since he met Martina, her cold mask cracked.

She actually smiled at Jonathan.

“Hey Jonathan, you ready for tonight?” Martina said.

“As ready as we can be Captain” Jonathan said in a level tone. Still loading his clips.

Mark looked between the two.

When neither of them said anything further he asked.

“So how are we going to work this”

“Ah yes. Well, my thoughts were to share this section. Half of SAGE and the infantry will make up the numbers to support this part of the wall. Mark, you will move between the two formations” Martina said.

Her tone took on a business-like quality, but whenever she made eye contact with Jonathan it faltered.

For Mark's part, he didn’t get it, as a whole SAGE’s average level of fighter was higher than the average soldier's. Who cared about making this fair to all departments? This was about putting forward the strongest defense.

Jonathan looked like he wanted to argue right away.

But there was suddenly the sound of churning wind coming from above them.

“Captain. It’s so good to see you again,” Sam said jovially as she landed on the wall beside Joanthan.

“Samantha,” Martina said, with considerably less mirth in her voice.

“Did I hear that right? Splitting our manpower on one of the most dangerous sections of the wall?” Sam asked calmly, though the warmth was gone from her voice.

“Yes. We are more than capable of making up the difference. Both majors approved the joint defense. The initial charge is to be shared. Half of your men will have to move to the adjacent section. During your outing to the dungeon, our losses were great.

It was determined that SAGE can no longer operate on the wall without permanent officers, since none have been appointed it falls to Samantha and Jonathan.

It is requested that one of you follow the other half of your forces. Looking purely at experience my suggestion is for Jonathan to stay here,” Martina said

Mark was not amused. It sounded like they were benching one of their strongest casters because of politics.

Worse still he realized his meeting with the major was more than it first seemed. Perhaps it had never been about reminding Mark of his neutrality. They were actually looking to apply pressure on SAGE. He just so happened to be their excuse.

Sam did not respond right away, so it looked like there was some truth to this.

“Captain Martina, it would be a mistake to send Sam away when we need her skills right now. She should stay-” Mark started to say.

“I’m sorry Mark but the major’s orders were clear. Someone will need to supervise SAGE’s forces” Martina responded quickly, cutting Mark off.

At the end of the day Mark was free of these politics, however, it also meant he couldn't really affect the outcomes of these types of disagreements.

“Thanks for trying Mark, but until we can promote someone to the position I’m going to have to play ball here. Jon, help me, we don’t have long” Sam said.

Martina looked happy until Sam dragged Jonathan away to go divide SAGE.

Mark’s eyes flickered up toward the skyline. The last rays of sun were falling, surrendering to the night. Already Mark imagined he could hear the shuffling bodies raising up from the underground and falling wings dropping from the air.

Mark had a bad feeling about tonight.

When Sam was done she directed a little less than half of SAGE’s numbers to the left-hand turrent.

Martina ushered in more soldiers that rushed in to fill the gaps.

Mark had an idea while they had been busy. His earth magic was really efficient once created. So in addition to his improved [Force bolt] Mark summoned a large mass of stone. Which he shaped into a blade of rock. Taking inspiration from certain swords, he curved it slightly. So in the end, what he was left with was a crescent-shaped mass of floating rock.

Soon enough the Corrupted arrived, and almost as if summoned, they flooded the roads below. Mark noticed their number was climbing rapidly, faster than he had seen on the first night.

Ghasts seemed to appear earlier than expected too. Mark started off by joining in with the casters. Attempting to output some damage to cull their numbers.

Comfortably summoning a dozen [Force bolts] at a time. While sending the crescent piece of rock forward. The blade was made of stone so its cutting power was low, but that didn't help the Ghasts any. It flew amongst the clouds of Corrupted like a reaper, tearing through them with sheer weight.

Mark had to bring it back to himself every now and then to repair the cracks and reshape the edge once more.

Each time he did so he took time to take the battlefield in as a whole. Jonathan was right at the front grinning like a manic. Slashing through the climbing hordes, while shouting commands to his men.

Martina stood parallel to her frontline. All of which were equipt with shotguns. At her call, they would unleash slugs down toward the Corrupted.

The casters on both sides were unleashing torrents of spells. Mark saw even more magics rise into the air than he had the previous night.

In addition to the basic earth, water, air, and fire spells Mark also saw others. People were starting to experiment with different elements.

Lightning sparked through the air, while blades of darkness seemed to collect from the shadows on the wall and launch themselves.

Mark was even surprised to see two casters from SAGE working together to cast a spell. One collected a mass of rock not unlike how Mark was. Only the second caster would then superheat the stone. Turning it into a glowing ball of molten rock. Which they would then launch into the air as a massive buckshot of molten stone.

Though even with all of their new firepower the Corrupted seem ready to die on the blade.

Climbing over the bodies of their brethren to get to the wall.

Ghasts closed in from above, their fear effect slowly taking hold.

Eventually, when he could see the Ghasts were affecting their formation, Mark got to work.

Slowly he unfolded a shield to cover the center wall, pumping resources into [Shape Mana].

Mark could comfortably cover a good portion of the wall however with their two separate formations he could not protect everyone.

There were actually more people under his construct than last time. Using his resistance as feedback he began to weave a very weak [Invigorate] and [Cleansing surge] throughout the space.

The pressure from the Ghasts was manageable for Mark. The frontline was doing a good job at keeping the Corrupted at bay.

Mark realized this would be the perfect time to test [Bestowal].

“Jonathan! Martina! Buff incoming, get ready!” he shouted to them.

The spell was expensive, but he had some extra energy right now, he needed to make use of it.

Casting [Bestowal] he directed it to enhance their speed and sent it through the construct.

The change was immediately noticeable, their already blistering speed increased further and as a result, so did their killing speed.

If Mark had to guess it was still 30%, but in this case their Aura was just so much higher that an increase of this level was a huge boost to them.

Jonathan let out an excited shout and Martina had to purposefully slow herself down when giving orders.

Mark's original theory was right. This kind of buff worked best when the target had more for the spell to work with.

Mark held this state for a while and was about to try to use [Meditation] once more to recoup his losses when Jonathan shouted a warning.

Bracing, Mark looked around.

The single impact against his construct was barely worth noting, but it was what caused it that gave Mark reason to pause.

There, sliding down the pane of force was a bolt of acid that then landed against the stonework with a hiss.

Mark then realized what Jonathan had shouted.

Ghouls.

“Snipers focus those creatures they will do massive damage to the wall!” Jonathan shouted out.

Mark scanned the horizon for other Ghouls.

Their only saving grace was that their numbers were few, Mark struggled to pinpoint an exact number in amongst the horde, but it could not have been more than two dozen Ghouls.

Bolts of acid were launched at the top of the wall where they sat.

Mark felt several bolts pinging against his shield, but the remainder smacked into the stonework below.

Alone a single bolt was not worth much but the Ghouls had proven they could keep firing these things at breakneck speeds.

To her credit, Martina reacted rapidly.

“All marksmen direct your attention towards the new threat!”

Unfortunately, the increased numbers were already stretching this portion of the wall thin. The addition of returned fire put more pressure on them.

The Corrupted advanced.

“Where’s my support? Rotate!” Martina yelled.

Mark had noticed fewer and fewer spells being launched and clearly Martina had noticed the difference too.

“Maam, we need time! Other sectors of the wall are being hit! No rotations are available!”

Martina cursed.

Mark realized that tonight's wave must be so large that it was spilling over to neighboring sections. Which meant that for now, they were on their own.

“Alright! Casters and injured retreat to the turrets. Those that cannot use [Meditation] will provide suppressing gunfire from inside! Soldiers, we will not fall tonight” Martina shouted.

Jonathan had SAGE follow suit, instinctively the two groups merged.

"Mark you still good?" Martina

Mark had about two-thirds of his Prana left so he simply nodded.

See as the numbers on the wall shank by half, he brought his construct into a tighter shape. With the suppressing fire from the casters gone Corrupted streamed onto the wall only to be met with steel and gunpowder.

This was going to be a long night