World's Last Hope-Chapter 99: The Battle for the Gates

"We are under attack!"

As soon as they heard the words of the soldier, everybody stopped what they were doing and rushed outside.

"We need more spears!"

"Quick, the archers need more arrows!"

Outside the building was pure chaos as soldiers were trying to organize themselves as quickly as possible.

Eric noted that pretty much every awakened in the vicinity was carrying a weapon made of silver, even the arrows the archers used looked to be made from the same material.

’I guess having weapons for a miracle isn’t something common here, or at least when it comes to the awakened,’ he thought as everybody rushed to the gates.

They quickly opened, and as soon as Eric stepped outside, he grimaced as he felt the air becoming heavier.

He didn’t miss the feeling of the corruption in the air, here outside the city, they were far from the cathedrals, and the protection of the gods didn’t extend to them.

"They are coming!"

A soldier shouted from up ahead, and everyone rushed forward.

A moment later, Eric’s eyes widened as he halted his steps. He wasn’t expecting them to come so soon, and even if he had, they should have been a dozen or a hundred at most. But...

"God, how many are there? Thousands? Tens of thousands?" he muttered under his breath.

The horizon was completely hidden from view. It looked like some scene from an apocalypse... well, it was an apocalypse in this world, after all.

Thankfully, it was still just the small brown spiders, as there wasn’t a white spider anywhere in view. They were pretty colossal, after all, so it wouldn’t have been possible to miss them if they were there.

’But forget about the assault plan. Would we be able to hold them off?’ he asked himself for a moment, but then shook his head, disregarding the thought and remembering Aria’s words.

If the Masters were afraid, then what about the citizens behind them, past the walls?

Seeing the view in front of them, a few Masters had begun to tremble, as well as most of the awakened around the area.

’No, the morale is the most important thing. If we lose it, then we are doomed no matter what.’

Before he even realized it, he had begun to shout.

"MEN!"

His shout seemed to break the trance that most of the fighters around the area were in.

"Do not be afraid! Do not forget that we have two Grandmasters with us! Nothing will get past us today!"

A second later, Olivia summoned her weapon—something akin to a bow, but much larger, two or three times the size of a normal one. She gripped it tightly and drew the string. A black bolt materialized, ready to be fired.

Despite having to pull the string, which weighed hundreds, if not thousands, of kilograms, it seemed that she didn’t struggle in the slightest.

Eric had seen her use this weapon before, it was the thing that she used to hurt the guardian, allowing him to climb upon it. But that was before when she was a Master. Now, she was not only a Grandmaster but had also gone through training that made her more familiar with her new powers.

The moment she let go of the string, it snapped back, shattering the ground. The bolt broke through the sound barrier and reached the spiders in a fraction of a second.

Then a blinding light erupted, and a loud sound similar to a thunderclap exploded.

An explosion of pure energy was created where the arrow struck, killing dozens—hundreds of spiders in one shot and leaving an empty crater in the field.

Olivia was already drawing her weapon again, while Aria had summoned her weapon as well.

She slashed at the air, and a massive arc of pure light was created, traveling forward. The more it traveled, the more power it seemed to gather, and the bigger its area of effect.

The arc of light collided with the first row of spiders, cutting through them like paper, but the arc didn’t stop there. It traveled forward, killing hundreds of monsters in its path.

And this was just one arc of light. Meanwhile, Aria was slashing dozens of times per second, slaughtering the spiders left and right.

Olivia let go of another bolt, and another explosion of blinding light erupted, vaporizing everything in sight for a moment.

Eric trembled for a moment. He hadn’t been told what kind of training the girls had gone through, as it could have been fatal for him, so he could only imagine how brutal the act of meditation would have been.

But even with the explosions happening around them that had turned the field into a battlefield in seconds, the spiders were still coming. There were just that many of them.

Without missing a beat, Eric summoned his cursed sword, gripping it firmly. He felt his desires amplifying.

Stop the siege at all costs.

When facing so many enemies with no preparation, there was no time for a plan—not that anything he could have thought of would have worked anyway.

Raising his sword in the air, he shouted.

"To arms!"

He wasn’t able to look at his status at the moment, so he didn’t know that his trait ’Brave’ was working overtime at the moment, inspiring everybody in the vicinity.

"We will not fall!" a man shouted as he dashed forward.

"To arms, brothers!" an archer, positioned on top of the wall, took aim and let go.

He wasn’t alone, as there were hundreds of archers on the wall. The next second, the sky became invincible, hidden by the hundreds of arrows.

The melee fighters steeled their resolve as they rushed forward. Among them was Eric, at the very front.

In seconds, he was in front of the spiders, raising his sword, ready for battle.

All hell had broken loose, and the fight had begun.

Now, it was up to them whether they would survive the siege of the city.