After crack appeared in barrier, beast reacted in instant, they quickly reposition themselves, in rush crawling on own allies.
They shifted, forming a wider arc, spacing themselves farther apart. The tall one withdrawal half a step.
Ela's eyes widened.
"They're recalculating," she whispered.
Ela quickly responding create a mud wall with fellow mages.
standing at a distance limbo saw and exhaled.
The world slowed, not in time, but in uncertain clarity he was analysing.
He started to decode the pattern immediately.
Angels.
Distances.
Which ones could reach him in a single burst.
Which ones replied on others to cover blind spots.
Which one is just one, was holding the group together.
He moved.
The first creature lunged.
Limbo stood.
Ela and others were busy holding smaller one which was a mass.
After seeing this, limbo stepped in to strike.
His hand rose, not fast, not slow, correct presise power was calculated.
Bammm...
He struck the joint, not the limb.
The creature folded.
Not thrown, he push back.
Second one come after witnessing them.
Sound a crash attracted the attention of Ela and Ronan.
"Limbo!" Ela shout. Out of motherly cautious.
"Don't overdo it, stay on guard!" Ronan warn, but didn't deny his presence.
Limbo hesitation vanished.
Limbo rush forward to intercept second beast, and caught the arm mid swing and twisted ,not hard gently.
That was enough, the limbo tore free with crack. The creature screamed.
The sound slows as limbo elbow found its throat and crush.
It dropped on ground dead.
The others hesitated, a mistake they made.
Limbo moved again cutting the beast in mass.
Strain on Ela's side reduce.
Each strike landed cleanly.
Not a single motion was wasted.
One creature tried to back out, which he let it be. He didn't need to massacre like maniac but to protect what he must.
The tall one stepped back fully now.
The presure vanished.
One by one, the remaining shapes take step back.
Eyes fixed on limbo until the last possible moment.
Very few where left as Ronan slaughter his side with others, while Ela and her side clean up along with limbo.
Ronan group together with Ela.
Ela walked up beside him.
Her gaze searched his face for injury.
"You're late," she said softly.
Limbo nodded. "I know."
Ronan exhaled, a breath he hadn't realised he was holding until, "you didn't hesitate."
Limbo looked at the forest edge.
"This isn't over," Ronan nodded.
"Yeah, it were just testing, if the line can be hold them back or not." He said at last.
Silence was remain after the beast widrawal.
But it was too clean and deliberate, Ela in her mind.
The barrier dimmed, and settled as if he also felt relieved. People exhaled slowly, lossing hand grips on the weapons which they were maintaining tightly.
"They're gone!" Some whispered.
No cheers followed.
Ronan didn't lower his stance.
Ela didn't step back.
Limbo was the only one whose head still locked at the forest direction.
"No, something's not right." He said.
The word was too quite to someone hear.
But i landed.
The ground trembles.
At first, it felt like aftershock, then the vibration return with heavier this time, uneven, layered.
Not just footsteps, movements.
From everywhere.
It felt like forest was erupted.
Branches snapped one by one, many at once as shapes emerged between the trees, not single figure were scout, but massive flood.
Few.
Then dozens. Then more...
They keep comming.
They arrive in waves, low, fast ones skating near mud ground, hulking masses crashing underground. Towering forms whose shoulders scraped branches aside like grass.
They were came prepared to charging.
The barrier which was reparing flared violently and people maintaining it, as the first beast slammed it's body.
CRACK!...
Luckily impact didn't fracture the barrier.
After first, here comes..
"SECOND WAVE!" Someone oh high location screamed.
Ronan roared quickly, voice tear through panic.
"AECHERS——NOW!
....MAGES, FULL OUTPUT!
HOLD THE LINE!"
The village moved together.
Arrows streaked into the mass, some pearcing, some deflecting uselessly off hides.
Fires and stone slammed into the front ranks, slowing them but not stopping them.
They kept coming, even crushing the dead allies without hesitation.
Some even eat them.
As the barrier groaned, a slight cold shiver passed through many.
Ela felt it first, the strain biting deeper than before.
"They're draining it," she said sharply. "Not breaking even in exhaustion."
Limbo stepped forward.
The heat in his chest surged, not by rage or the fear.
He was metal and physically ready.
"Open it," he said.
"OPEN THE GATE!" He said aloud.
Ronan snapped his head around. "Absolutely not—" Other nodded.
"Not fully," limbo said, eyes locked on the advancing mass, "just enough...to let pass few."
Faces of confusion.
"If we don't, then the whole barrier will fall."
"Look, they're on limit."
"We'll be doomed, and can't protect every point, if that happens."
It was hard to swallow, but it's the current situation.
Ela hesitated, but after a half breath she understood. And had faith in her child.
Her hands struck the ground.
Bammm.
The barrier thinned.
Localized, controlled wide enough for one or two, three body to pass.
The beasts reacted instantly.
Three jumpes, Limbo was ready.
The first never reached him.
Lightning didn't explode.
It snapped by with shared force.
A tight arc wrapped around his forearm as he drove forward, first meeting corrupted flesh with a sound like stone walking. The creature folded inward, muscles seizing as current tore through it, body collapsing mid-lunge.
The second came from the side.
Limbo pivoted sharply, foot digging into earth, momentum flowing cleanly into a spinning strike.
Lightning traces his movements like an afterimage, flashing once as his elbow crashes into its skull.
Bones crashed and cracked.
The third hesitated.
A mistake.
Limbo closed the distance in a blink.
Palm strike covered in mana on chest.
The discharge was silent, but affect was devasting.
The creature dropped dead, smoke faintly erupted through the body.
For a moment, sliding fear and doubt, Ronan stared.
Ela forgot to breathe.
"He's not fighting like a mage," someone whispered.
"It's not even fighting stryke of warrior either."
"No one can do both, it's rare.."
The air around him cracked faintly, lightning threading through his muscles, not brushing outward but reinforcing, tightening every movement.
This was not the power borrowed by someone.
This was condition force earn through life and death situations, but none one can think about it, what he's gone through,
A child.
The next wave was ready to hit, harder and faster, even first wasn't cleared.
Limbo didn't hesitate or retreat, he stepped into it between the village and beast, a wall.
Lightning leapt from the ground to limb as he ran, each strike precise, knees, joints, spines.
He didn't waste energy tearing bodies apart. He disabled many, dropped bodyparts, moved on to next.
A hulking beast reared back, preparing to crush him with sheer mass.
Limbo slid beneath it, shoulder brushing earth, then drove upward - lightning detonating through his leg as he launched. His kick struck hard under the ribcage of beast.
The ground creature lifted off the ground.
It landed in pieces.
The barrier flared brighter as the pressured eased.
Hope and enthusiastic spirit ignite in everyone.
Archers found the openings.
Mages stabilize.
Ronan railed the line, voice echoes but unbroken.
Then—
The ground shook again, heavier and deeper. The beasts parted.
Something enormous forced it's way through.
A mountain of corrupted animal-beast flesh, plated hide streaked with veins of dark energy, rotting smell, burning eyes with unnatural focus, unclear as if it's blind or not.
Without roared like other it just advanced.
Limbo stopped.
The lightning around him stilled.
Not extingushed, but focused.
"This one's mine," He said quietly.
Ronan opend his mouth to argue.
Then saw Limbo's stance, balanced and rooted. Unyielding.
The massive creature swung, limbo met it head on.
The impact detonated the ground beneath them.
Lightning erupted, through the threading his arms, spines legs, reinforcing muscle and bone as he caught the blow instead of dodging.
The shockwave knocked nearby beasts flat.
Limbo slide back a single step, then pushed forward, he struck.
Once...twice.
Each impact sent controlled arcs of lightning into the creature's body, distrupting movements, seizing coruption channels, forcing it's mass to betray itself.
The creature staggered.
Limbo jumped.
The final blow was landed at the base of its skull. Lightning surged, clean and absolutely contained.
Then the giant collapsed. Silence followed.
Not like uneasy silence, but kind of heavy.
The remaining beasts didn't retreat slowly this time.
Steps stop and march back.
The barrier dimmed.
Smoke drifted
Limbo stood amid scorched earth fallen bodies, chest rising steadily, lightning fading from his skin like embers cooling.
Ela reached him first.
Her hands gripped his shoulders and hug tightly hard.
"You're hurt anywhere?" She asked.
"No," limbo replied.
Ronan joined them, eyes unreadable.
"...when did you learn to light like that?" He asked Quietly.
Limbo looked at his hands.
"At the forge," He said.
"By the river."
"Everyday. You thought I was working."
Ronan let out a slow breath.
The village stared.notnin fear, but in realisation.
The night was near.
The fire was about to burn to lit.
Not in celebration.
Far beyond the forest, something felt the loss.
And smiled....
And in a moment of loosing guard.
It happens in his own eyes.
An unimaginable, he work hard, take the lead to prevent.
Unthinkable.
Strike—
Blood slash on his face.
A moment — lost sense and ability to interpret.