The bolts streaked across the sky paralyzing and killing a thousand beasts who were trampled by the ones behind them.
The arcane crossbows on the aerial warships released their charges causing explosions of arcane energy in the middle of the tide while the ballista's released enchanted bolts into their rear. Blasts of fire swept over the rear of the tide as the bolts shattered releasing the magic they contained.
Chronos was both shocked and impressed. He had only seen this level of warfare once before when his family had defended their territory from a beast tide years ago.
He was forced to hold his arrow in reserve as his aura bow lacked the range that the crossbows possessed and watched as two more volleys were fired before the beasts entered his range.
While waiting he charged his arrow with more and more aura until it was the size of a ballista bolt and added two small runes to it. As they entered his range he released the arrow into their midst.
It crossed the kilometers in the blink of an eye and slammed into the front lines. When it hit the beasts, it exploded sending lightning everywhere as it tore through the black beast's bodies.
In no time the front lines were burned to a crisp, but they were constantly being replaced by those behind them.
"You brat! You went and stole our rune!" Magnus shouted at Chronos.
"It's too useful to not use it." Chronos yelled back.
The rune arrangement he had applied to the aura arrow was an elemental gathering rune. It would gather elemental power from the world around you to enchant whatever it was applied to and it was one of the basic rune arrangements of the crucible knights.
Magnus just laughed and shook his head.
Even if he knew one of the basic rune arrangements it wouldn't be enough to recreate what the crucible knights did or learn their deeper secrets. At most he could use the runes to enchant weapons or armor for a local area.
The arrows and bolts continued to rain down on the beasts, but it swiftly became clear that the number of enemies was wrong. They had already killed thousands, yet the army had barely shrunk.
"Captain Jacob, scout the rear of the army. I want to know where they're coming from." Magnus said into his communication magic.
"Yes, sir."
One of the aerial warships broke formation and began flying towards the back of the tide. Halfway there its barrier flashed as magic struck it from the rear of the army.
Magnus's communication magic crackled as a voice came through it, "Sir, there are cultists at the rear casting some kind of monster attracting magic. We're moving to engage now."
"Captain Joseph, assist Captain Jacob in dealing with the cultists."
"Yes, sir."
The second aerial warship rapidly crossed the army to back up the first. Arcane arrows and enchanted bolts crashed down on a barrier at the rear of the tide as the black beasts surged forward more strongly.
"So, they can direct the black beasts but not directly control them. We'll need to find a way to interfere with their magic." Magnus muttered.
"If it's mental magic, we can use the thought layer to block it but we're going to need someone experienced with mental magics." Chronos said as he released another bolt into the tide of beasts.
"Hm, I'll have someone brought from the capital to command this castle. If they have to fight these beasts regularly then the castle will need them." Magnus stated.
"Sir we're almost out of bolts for the arbalests." A knight shouted.
"Then have the engineers fall back and make more. Don't stop shooting until we've broken their charge." Magnus shouted.
Boom!
"Contact! The tide has reached the base of the plateau, preparing wave form magics to purge the base now."
Aiming down Chronos released another arrow into the monsters at the base of the plateau while seeing what was going on.
The buffaloes had slammed into the base but weren't able to climb up but the snakes, foxes and other small creatures were swarming from underneath them and climbing the wall.
The smaller beasts had used the larger more durable buffalo as a shield against the knight's arrows to get close to the wall.
"The large beasts aren't able to climb up, just small ones. Hold back on the power and increase the pushing force." He yelled towards the mages defending the wall.
"Got it." They yelled back.
When the beasts were halfway up the wall a wave of wind blades descended slamming the beasts back to the ground and killing nearly all of them.
Boom! Crash!
Chronos watched as a powerful spell penetrated one of the barriers on the aerial warships and tore into its bottom.
"Lords have entered the battle! I repeat, the Lords have entered the battle!" Captain Joseph yelled over the communication magic.
"Vice-Commanders move to the rear of the army and engage the enemy lords." Magnus shouted.
"Yes, sir."
Several men flew into the air and crossed the battlefield in a flash to join the two vice-commanders defending the airships. Several black cloaked men flew up to block them as four men attacked the ships defenders.
Perhaps they thought they could win if they brought down the ships, but Chronos didn't think it would be that easy to break the crucible knights. The black beasts hadn't even reached the top of the plateau yet and they didn't have infinite numbers either.
Gathering this many beasts must have taken them a month or more, assuming they knew where the tears were within the wasteland.
But they hadn't seen any abominations yet once those things joined the battle it would become much harder to defend the plateau.
As the battle continued Chronos suddenly felt the ground beneath him shaking. He looked down just in time to see a large black mouth open beneath him.
Punching downwards it shattered under his strength.
"Deep worms watch your feet!" Someone yelled as the worms latched onto several nearby knights and tried to drag them underground.
More worms erupted from the ground all over the plateau forcing the army to split into two parts. Those closest to the edge continued to attack the beasts below while many others turned to attack the deep worms emerging among their ranks.
Chronos watched as the knights drew their swords, empowering them with lightning and making a wind cloak appear around their shoulders defending them from attacks in their blindspots.
Their skills all seemed to be basic skills, but they were empowered with whatever element was around them at the time. It gave them a wide variety of attacks despite the simplicity of their skills, but lightning seemed to be a favorite or maybe they just didn't have many chances to use lightning as it could only be used during a storm.
Turning back to face the edge Chronos released more arrows at the beasts leaving the worms to the other knights.
At the back of the beast's army, he could see that both vice-commanders were managing to defend the airships despite being outnumbered. On the other hand, the barrier that was defending the cultists had already been broken and enchanted bolts were raining down on them.
Most of the bolts were being shot down in mid-air, apparently the cultists had a skilled mage or archer on their side.
Three more wave form attacks had been launched at the beasts below, but it looked like the mages were about to reach the end of their spirit.
"Mages save your spirit, let the trap magic deal with them. Knights draw your swords, prepare to descend the plateau." Magnus yelled.
Looking behind himself Chronos saw that the deep worms had easily been dealt with by the knights and the engineers were already closing the holes and reinforcing the plateau. Now that they knew the deep worms came this far out of the wasteland they wouldn't let them tunnel under the plateau again.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
"Jump now!" Magnus ordered.
A series of explosions rocked the edge of the plateau as the previously set trap magics went off. A cascade of rock fell onto the beasts below as the knights leapt from the edge of the plateau. Using levitation magic they safely descended towards the beasts below only to be horrified as a shocked werewolf rocketed past them.
"Don't kick me off the edge Lylaaaa!"
"It's a leap of faith! HAHAHA!"
Lyla's crazy laughter came from his back as they fell towards the beasts. If one thing was true about her it was that she was always ready for a fight.
Applying [Adhesion] to his hands and feet he cast [Axis Lock] on Lyla to bind her to his back then reached out for the wall and slowed them down just enough that it wouldn't hurt when they hit the bottom but not so slow that others would reach the battle before them.