"BOOM!"
Marcus shot awake startled from hearing a loud explosion and nearly fell out of the tree he was resting in.
"BOOM!"
Another large explosion brought Marcus out of his stupor as he looked around and saw what looked to be a blue tide assaulting the walls of River Landing.
However, upon closer inspection Marcus could tell that the tide was in fact thousands upon thousands of ice ants attacking the town.
Another large explosion went off along with a bright flash of red light as Marcus stared out in shock at the unending swarm of ice ants.
Finding the source of the loud and bright explosions Marcus could just barely make out three massive mana canons situated on the walls of River Landing.
'What the hell is going on, how long was I out.'
Looking out at the sea of ants Marcus could immediately tell that this was not like before where the ants were slowly chipping away at the defenses of River Landing but a full-on assault.
He even spotted the queen and her royal guard sitting in a formation around hundreds of other ants while shotting of attacks at the walls of River Landing.
For their part River Landing was doing a good job of defending itself shooting down any flying ants while also preventing any from coming over the wall.
But for every ant they killed it seemed that two more would take its place and slowly but surely the ants would overwhelm River Landing.
'Shit this is bad River Landing is done for. I hate to do it, but I need to get out of here, I already tried my best and lost.'
Marcus then stood up and prepared to float past River Landing and continue his way to the capital when he remembered something important.
'Fuck I cannot leave without Lilia and I do not know if I can protect her own my own while fleeing.'
While Marcus was frantically thinking about what he needed to do to get himself and Lilia out safely he watched as three dozen of the tank ants ran full steam towards the city gates.
The defenders on top of the wall fired magic and mana cannons at the charging ants, and while they did managed to kill a half dozen of them the others impacted the gate and tore it apart.
At that moment Marcus began to panic and floated directly for the city no longer trying to think but acting on instinct.
While floating towards the city gate Marcus watched as the ants began to funnel in ready to overrun the town, when a bright flash of green light blasted through the gates and sliced through every ant in its wake.
Standing in the gate's entrance Marcus saw a single old man holding a massive mithril sword and full plate armor facing down the swarm of ants.
The ants seemed to hesitate for just a moment as their instincts told them they had no chance against this man, but the orders of their queen were absolute and the ants advanced.
The man was soon joined by a unit of elite looking knights and they began defending the hole in the wall left by the destroyed gate.
Seeing this Marcus breathed a sigh of relief until just a few moments later he noticed the soft glow on one sections of the wall faded signaling it was out of mana to power its defenses.
With the barrier that protected the wall in that section no longer active the ants began climbing up unhindered ready to invade the city proper.
Of course, the defenders on the wall attempted to stop the ants, hurling spells, firing arrows, and some where even dropping large rocks, but the seemingly endless ants kept climbing.
'I have not fully recovered yet, but I will be damned if I let them kill my little sister.'
Floating over to the section of the wall that was about to be breached Marcus resolidified right above the wall and began falling.
While in the air Marcus charged up his tier four spell and when he impacted onto the top of the wall, he let loose the thunderbird strike shocking the already terrified defenders.
The spell flew forwards crackling with power, incenting, and electrocuting every ant that had currently been climbing on the exposed section of the wall.
It then crashed into the ground causing a grand explosion of electricity and blowing away the ants that had congregated at the bottom of the wall.
As Marcus stood up and looked out over the wall, he could see for a brief moment the ground around the wall before like the ocean tide the ants filled in and began climbing up the wall again.
Marcus looked around for support and saw that all of the soldiers were staring at him instead of preparing to fight the next wave of ants.
Angrily Marcus shouted at them, "Stop gawking and get ready I only pushed them back for a few seconds the next wave is already coming."
All of the soldiers and guards took a big gulp before getting back to their stations and preparing for the next swarm of ants.
Some of the soldiers wanted to complain that they did not take orders from him but seeing him unleash another massive thunderbird strike without chanting, not even the haughtiest soldier dared question Marcus' authority.
Marcus continued to defend the section of the wall that had lost its mana supply unloading rapid fire darkness bullets and fire shots on the ants trying to climb the wall along with what ever the soldiers could muster.
Unfortunately, the ants steadily made their way up and Marcus once again had to use his tier four lightning spell to push them back.
Marcus knew he would not be able to keep this up forever since he would eventually run out of mana as more ants continued to congregate at the weaken section of the wall.
Fighting for another five minutes Marcus held the section of the wall he was protecting not allowing a single ant to come on top of the wall when he saw it.
One of the royal guard ants was flying directly for his section of the wall clad in a frosty armor.
Marcus could tell that the large royal guard ant intended to smash through the wall no longer waiting for the weaker ants to force their way up.
Seeing this Marcus gritted his teeth and jumped of the wall right towards the royal guard ant intent on stopping it.
'Embodiment of darkness.'
Cloaking himself in the power of his unique skill, Marcus took out his scythe and enveloped it with his darkness and mana.
He then brought out his spectral arm placed it behind his feet and leaped forward with all his might shooting towards the ant like a black rocket.
The ant seeing Marcus recognized him as the one that tried to kill its queen and met his charge planning to crush the being that dared to threaten its sovereign.
Just before impacting with the royal guard Marcus pulled his scythe back before swinging with everything he had.
When the two collided there was a massive explosion of darkness and ice creating a scene that grabbed the attention of every person defending River Landing.
A few moments later both the royal guard and Marcus began falling out of the sky like an icy black comet crashing into the ground below.
As the two of them smashed into the ground they left a deep crater and blew away all of the other ants in the area.
Forcing himself to his feet Marcus immediately realized something was wrong as he looked to his right and saw that his arm was missing along with his scythe.
However, he had no time to apply any first aid measures to his now stump of an arm as the royal guard ant lunged towards him.
Sensing the danger Marcus quickly turned ethereal as the massive ant tried to jump on him and tear him apart.
Floating above its head Marcus resolidified and took out the magic great sword he had and jammed it into the joint connecting the ant's head and torso.
The royal guard ant reeled back its head feeling the sharp pain of the sword imbedded in it and its body suddenly burst with ice forcing Marcus to jump off without his sword less he be frozen.
Landing back on the ground Marcus could finally get a good look at the ant and was able to see that his earlier attack had managed to deal significant damage as its right mandible was cut in half and the residual darkness was slowly corroding away its head.
After the royal guard had finished shacking loose the great sword it tuned its gaze towards Marcus with a hateful glare.
Fortunately, its glare could not kill and Marcus fired a powerful darkness bullet right at its head.
The ant moved with extreme speed unbecoming its size and managed to dodge the projectile while also letting loose a massive quantity of its ice acid towards Marcus.
Jumping into the air Marcus leaped over the deadly liquid and brought forth his iron golem which he right away ordered to attack.
The iron golem moved into action and slammed right into the ice ant royal guard causing it to stagger for a moment.
Unfortunately, the iron golem was quickly covered in ice due to the frosty aura the ice ant was producing.
It then battered the iron golem away with its legs and looked for Marcus. However, he was nowhere to be seen when suddenly the ice ant royal guard felt extreme danger coming from under it.
At that moment Marcus used the last dregs of his mana to fire off a heighten thunderbird strike that completely engulfed the ice ant royal guard.
Marcus then quickly ran out from under the colossus of an ant as its body collapsed under its weight now that it was dead.
Marcus looked at his work proud for a moment before he looked back towards the wall and saw that the ants were climbing over it.
He saw that the ants were swarming into the city as the defenses could no longer keep them at bay despite the best efforts of himself and everyone else.
Even though he had managed to defeat one of the strongest ants it still did not matter as the unending swarm of ants breached the city.
Marcus was about to fall into despair, he had done everything he could and was now out of strength, he had failed to protect the city and Lilia who was in it.
That was when he saw them, three people were floating above the battlefield an old women, with middle-aged man, and a young woman at either side of her.
The old lady then clapped her hands together and for just a moment the entire battlefield was silent before a loud boom like a jet breaking the sound barrier resounded through the entire area.
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