The effect was subtle, but sudden.

For those that were expecting it and paying attention, they could feel a concentration of Mana gradually growing in the center of the city. Merely being able to feel it at such a distance meant a significant amount of Mana had already been accumulated.

Many of the more knowledgeable Mages found themselves glancing back to the castle, running through all the Spells and Rituals they knew to see if they could figure out the reason for the high alert. Not one Mage knew of any Magic that would require this much Mana, and one Mage knew a Ritual that could teleport an entire village across the continent, and still the concentration of Mana grew.

One moment, the Demons were wondering around their camp, doing the necessary chores to keep it running or checking their gear, the next, their heads snapped in the direction of the city.

From atop the walls, Fenrir could hear the Demon Officers shouting their soldiers to attention.

"Here they come!" Fenrir shouted, calling all the soldiers to attention, "They will not hold back this time. Neither shall we! Whoever brings me the most heads gets a week of leave back in Galmore!"

The soldiers slammed the butts of their spears against the stone walkway, "Oohah!"

In moments, the Demons had formed into their units. It was clear to Fenrir that they were foregoing the previous waves and were instead attacking all at once. This would significantly increase their losses, but would also increase the pressure upon the defenders. A pressure that could quite possibly cause them to shatter.

With a solemn blast of a horn, the Demons marched forward and the trebuchets began their bombardment yet again.

Burning streaks of stone and smoke arched through the sky. Some sailed high overhead, others crashed into the walls with thunderous explosions of rubble and burning oil.

A single word sent hundreds of arrows whistling through the air to reap Demon lives before they even stepped into range. Magic blew chunks out of both flesh and earth.

Yet still the Demons charged forward. A seemingly unending flood, armed with steel and spell.

They reached the bottom of the wall, and the Archers were sent across the bridges before the ladders were raised.

Fenrir ordered the oil pots to be thrown. Dozens of small and very fragile clay pots of oil with a small flaming wick were thrown at the base of the wall, igniting small groups of Demons and sending them running and screaming.

As the first Demon reached the top of the battlements, the archers loosed a blind volley over the wall, and into the horde.

Fenrir counted over forty ladders, each one being climbed by two and sometimes even three Demons at a time. His pack dove into the chaos with glee. Their sharp claws tore their the Demon Chainmail and leathers. Their mighty fangs ripped chunks out of the Demons armored in plate.

None escaped their rampage.

But occasionally one would fall.

Fenrir joined the melee, using his mighty claymore to clear large swaths of space around him. His blade never stopped moving, even as it sliced through flesh and metal alike. In his wake, he left naught by the dead and dying.

Yet even as the ground was filled with death, the skies were no stranger to it.

Winged Argalon soared through the air, engaged in a vicious dogfight with Vivian and her Minions. The aerial battle took place in the skies above Onigas, and its victims crashed hard into the rubble and stone in a wet explosion of blood and sharp snap of bones.

The arrows never stopped being loosed. The blades never grew dry, even as their edges became dull. The air sizzled with energy from the endless stream of spells.

Demon dead filled the ground outside the city so heavily the living stomped them into the mud. A tall berm began to form at the base of the wall, especially taller around the ladders.

Yet still they charged forward.

They knew not what the Mana Concentration meant, all they knew was that such a spell could only mean doom to their forces. It must be stopped.

An explosion rocked the wall, breaking Fenrir out of his bloody trance. Cutting a few Demons down, he made his way to the edge of the battlements, looking over, he saw a group of especially shielded Argalon Mages preparing a powerful Fireball spell.

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The marks on the gate were evidence of the first explosion. The second splintered the gate around the impact.

Fenrir shouted for the attention of the Mages atop a nearby tower, even above the shouts and screams of the battle, one Mage heard their Giant Commander and looked. Fenrir pointed to the Argalon Mages.

Understanding immediately, the entire top of the tower redirected their spells, but it was too late. Before the Human spells impacted the Argalon Shields, a third fireball slammed into the gate, cracking it. By the time the Humans broke the shields, annihilating the Mages, they had already sent a fourth towards the gate.

It ripped through what remained of the gate. What little remained provided no obstacle for the flood of Demons that charged through.

Fenrir heard the two forces clash in the bailey below. A metallic and bloody tone that joined in with the rest. He gave the mental command to the Shadow accompanying Lezrum.

With it, Lezrum's horde of Undead began pushing over ten tons of boulders in front of the Inner Gate. It would take some time, even with the hundreds of disposable Minions pushing them, but the Soldiers below were determined to give them that time.

Fenrir grabbed the wrist of the Devil swinging its sword at him, with a twist, the wrist was snapped in two.

The devil screamed as its sword clattered to the ground, yet Fenrir didn't let go.

Instead, he pulled, yanking the Devil off its feet. Fenrir swung the Devil over his head and threw it at a group of Demons, knocking them off their feet and allowing half a dozen Humans to swarm over them.

Fenrir spun around and kicked forward, caving in the chest of an Argalon and sending it crashing through the battlements and over the wall to crush a handful of Devils attempting to swarm through the gate.

A Devil conjured Fireball slammed into Fenrir, yet it barely stumbled him.

In retaliation, Fenrir conjured a spear of bone and threw it. The spear whistled through the air, impaling the Devil Mage and two more Devils behind it.

Fenrir ducked under a war hammer wielded by an Argalon and aimed at his head.

Before he could react, two Human Soldiers thrust their spears into the back of the Argalon. One of them pierced the heart, killing it instantly.

The next moment, a single Devil dove at the two, kicking one over the edge of the wall and cutting down the second.

Fenrir swung his great sword, crushing through the attempted block of the Devil, crushing its ribcage with the weight of the blow. In the same motion, he used his sharp claws to tear out the throat of a second Devil trying to step past him to attack a Human Healer.

That same Healer was then shot in the chest by an arrow of Devil that had just climbed over the wall.

Fenrir sent a Necrotic Bolt in its direction.

'Vivian, can you do a strafing run at the clump of Demons in front of the gate?' Fenrir mentally asked, parrying an Argalon sword thrust and crushing its face with a punch.

'One second, these Argalon Flyers are really annoying.'

A Moment later, after casting the Argalon back down to the earth, Vivian dove through the air faster than any arrow.

She only opened her wings when she was a hundred feet above the ground on the Demon side of the gate. With the speed she had gained from the dive, she sped towards the gate, unleashing hell upon the Demons in the form of a dozen Dead Bombs targeted at the large clumps of Demons all attempting to either climb the wall or enter through the gate.

A squadron of Flyers chased her back into the sky, four of which immediately fell back down again.

Despite the hundreds of lives reaped in just a mere moment, none gave it more than a glance, any more, and it would cost their own. For many, even that single glance proved to be their end.

Movement caught Fenrir's attention. He broke the neck of the Devil in front of him and looked at the source. A dozen Devils and a handful of Argalon had broken through the Human Defenders in the next Section over and were racing across the wooden bridge towards the weaker targets on the inner wall.

They never stood a chance.

With a quick spell, the fuse was lit, and the bridge ceased to be in a ball of fire and death.

The Argalon survived the explosion, but their roars of pain and fury were silenced by the dull thuds of their bodies turning into paste far below.

Seeing their supply line and route of escape vanish, the Human Defenders of that section screamed in defiance, forgoing their own defense as they tore into the abominations that would dare defile their land with their presence.

Fenrir was forced to turn his attention back to his own fight as a dozen Argalon charged at him.

Two were thrown back with bone spears through their chests, another was engaged by a trio of Humans.

The other nine launched a series of blows against the wolf man.

Fenrir would block one with the flat of his blade, caught another with his free hand, and kick a third away, only to feel the blades of four others slip through and chip away at his armor.

Fenrir conjured a Dead Bomb with himself serving as the focal point. The Argalon jumped back, all successfully avoiding it, except one. The bones of his forearm clattering to the stones below serving as punishment for his slowness. A punishment that was shortlived as Fenrir's greatsword removed his head from his body only a moment later.

Despite the momentary space, and loss of their comrade, the Argalon immediately pressed their attack, even as another caught a Necrotic Bolt to the side of the neck, dissolving the flesh around until it ate through the flesh of its cheek.

Fenrir deflected a sword, slapped away a spear, only to be forced to raise his sword to deflect a large maul away from crushing his skull.

Underestimating the force, it sent Fenrir to his knee, where a sneaky Devil slipped through and drove a dagger through the armor plates and into Fenrir's knee joint.

Fenrir grunted pushed up, repelling the maul user and elbowed the offending Devil in the face, causing the body to crumple like wet paper.

Now with a hand free, Fenrir, conjured two dozen Necrotic Bolts and sent them flying.

Fenrir pulled the dagger out of his knee and stood up with a limp as his attackers fell. Two of which fell over the side of the wall and into one of the baileys below.

An explosion rocked the wall, followed by a plume of dust three Wall Sections over. The Shadows reported a breach in the wall.

Fenrir mumbled to himself, "No rest for the wicked I suppose."

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