A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

Yet, despite the appearance of this new variable, the Enkarians didn't halt their charge. They couldn't. To flee meant death... because it soon became clear that this barrier didn't stop the Arcanists from raining down their spells on them. The only way to stop it was to break through that barrier.

Fortunately, their rain of destruction had dimmed a little because half the hunter's army was now maintaining the shield rather than launching spells.

Meanwhile, even while continuing to run forward and dodge spells, Erik's allies looked at the massive, kilometre-spanning shield with various expressions.

"Can we break through that?" Seraphina asked sceptically, while her gravity affinity allowed her to gracefully dance across the battlefield. By her side were Naeku, Runa, Alice, Nora, Anne, Ankhur's sister, and his wife, Amina. Nadia, his other wife, was an Arcanist and thus stayed in the backline.

Naeku answered sombrely, her werepanther form agilely jumping around as she moved forward, spear and shield in hand. "The enemy doesn't seem to think so. Their expressions are far too smug."

"My people!" she suddenly roared into the surroundings. "These monsters think they can use their magic to hold us back! Let us show them how wrong they are!"

Her words were met with boisterous enthusiasm as hundreds of thousands of men and women continued charging forward, their steps thundering, their weapons raised in the air, determination in their eyes.

Within moments, the front line crashed against the shield and started assaulting it with weapons and abilities alike. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to budge. The Arcanists on its other side simply looked at the flailing Runebounds smugly before launching more spells in their midst, causing more death and destruction.

But their determination wasn't diminished. There was no stopping now. There was no fear, no hesitation. All they had was determination and grit. For what else could they do? Running was not an option. Today, it was either them or us.

Naeku and her allies now reached the wall as well and started probing it. But they immediately noticed there was no way this was going down before too much of their army was wiped out.

"I guess this is as good a time as any then," Naeku suddenly muttered, surprising no one in her vicinity. They were all in on every plan and tactic they'd created for this battle, largely because they'd offered their own brains for the task as well.

"Quickly then, before more of our people die," Amina growled hatefully, her cold gaze flickering around the blood-stained battlefield.

Naeku nodded and spoke into her communication sigil. "It's time, do it now."

The answer was quick and full of excitement, "Yes, Princess! For our glorious kingdom!"

"For our people… death to our enemies," Naeku agreed, full of conviction.

For one second, nothing happened. Two seconds.

Then, mayhem. Suddenly, just behind the last line of enemy Arcanists, sand exploded upwardly like a geyser, and a hole appeared. Immediately, battle cries followed, and a massive force of Enkarian Runebound pushed straight into the unprepared Arcanists, unleashing their superior physical might in a feast of blood and gore.

Instantly, the Arcanists looked at what was happening in horror. Many of them stared at the rampaging Runebound, unable to formulate a proper response, all the way until a spear pierced their skulls. That's because, for many of them, there was no response.

Fighting a Runebound in close quarters as an Arcanist required a very specific set of skills that not many of them possessed, certainly not when most of them were mere first rankers. That's why Naeku, Erik, and Elora, the main strategists of today's battle, had always known they needed to close the distance.

Fortunately, with the third-rankers busy fighting Erik and his allies, these omnisenseless first- and second-rankers could not discover the tunnels rapidly being dug under them. This was the main reason she wanted to fight them here.

For the past few weeks, she'd been scouting the best locations to do this, and this was one of them, which was the main reason she'd decided to intercept them here. Then, she held about ten thousand troops, all with affinities like sand, ground, or rock, and had them dig begin to dig from a very far distance away.

But, despite the distance, as Runebound with the right affinities, it'd been extremely easy to dig all this way without letting the sand shift or giving away what they were doing to anyone who couldn't see through the sand with omnisense.

Naeku smiled cruelly at the carnage, delighting in her tactical victory as the shield already started flickering. Her warriors just had to push through to the front of the Arcanist lines, as that's where those maintaining this shield were.

Unfortunately, the Arcanists from the Humanitas Sangh were well-trained. Arrogant, yes, but not usually foolish. They were already starting to respond to the incursion, screaming orders at their fellows, knowing they had to stop these people from interrupting the shield.

"I guess you were right in holding them back after all," Leila smirked wryly. She'd been of the opinion they should have simply brought these people in from the start and had them disrupt the enemy lines immediately, but Naeku decided to hold them back for unforeseen circumstances.

"I understood the sentiment, Aunty," Naeku sighed softly. "But any possible lives we could have saved in between now and then by doing that would have been pointless if the enemy brought some unforeseen tactic to bear."

Meanwhile, the Arcanists were rapidly reorganising and putting up a defensive, but the flanking Runebound didn't let themselves get distracted. Some of their people finally started falling, but they had their objective: the shield.

Finally, after a few minutes of bloody carnage, the Runebound reached the front line and started hacking into the trembling hunters maintaining the shield.

They'd been stuck between a rock and a hard place. They realized the rapidly approaching threat from behind, even as they were confronted with the expectant grins of predators on the Enkarians standing just behind the shield.

Now, they were getting squished. Then, the shield started disintegrating. Roars of victory went up in the air, and hundreds of thousands Enkarians resumed their charge, instantly hitting the Arcanist line, before starting a slaughter the likes this desert had never seen before.

* * *

Meanwhile, over in the third-ranked battlefield, things had truly turned into Erik's favour now. He'd not been able to defeat Lilith on his own, but he hadn't needed to. After Astrid and Emily interfered in the side battles, they'd been quickly won, the once arrogant Arcanists now dead, feeding the desert with their blood.

Now, Enkai, Ankhur, Emily, Astrid, and Erik, were all started to surround a furious Lilith. Her head was on a swivel, as she snarled at her surroundings like a cornered wild animal.

"It's time to pay for everything you've done, Edda" Erik growled, a satisfied grin on his lips. With a howl of vengeance, he charged her again, his hammer flying straight for her head. At the same time, his allies attack as well, and Lilith could only roar in defiance.

Boom

All their attack landed, but silence reigned… because they'd landed on a shimmering blue shield.