The Extra is a Genius!? Chapter 608 - 607: Against the Horde [I]

The initial onslaught secured them mere breathing room, not a definitive win.

Across the outer fringes of Thorne Territory, the residual effects of the first barrage ignited the landscape in fragmented pockets of inferno, splintered stone, and churned earth, yet the monstrous tide refused to halt. A dragon, one wing seared black by lightning, hovered just long enough to vomit a violent gust that sent men tumbling from the nearby ridge. One hulking beast, akin to an ogre, shed an arm under a combined assault of water and earth elements, continuing to charge until three spears and a secondary volley finally forced it to succumb.

Shadow wolves punched through the fading curtains of fire; their fur still smoldering, they moved with such terrifying velocity that soldiers barely managed to raise their shields before being crushed.

The defensive lines held, though the formation was ragged.

Barrier circles glimmered under sustained punishment, fissures spiderwebbing across edges where excessive force had penetrated too swiftly. Mages ceased their offensive efforts simply to reinforce the shields, allowing the next rank of soldiers to rotate into position. A skeletal war-beast dragged itself through a thicket of nature magic, its torso torn asunder, until a secondary vine-binding spell anchored it long enough for a hammer detachment to shatter its spine.

This was no simple culling. Even lesser fiends required significant effort to dispatch. The mightier ones demanded precise timing, coordination, and frequently the simultaneous application of two or three elements to finally bring them down.

From the central command platform, Daemar prevented the battlefield from descending into chaotic noise. "Reinforce the eastern barrier!"

"Retreat the second rank three paces and permit the dwarf unit to push forward."

"Do not squander ranged magic on the drakes unless they descend." His commands resonated through runners, signal flares, and vocal relays with practiced efficiency.

He maneuvered, adjusted, and repaired. Whenever a sector buckled under pressure, he shifted personnel before a breakthrough could manifest.

The directive reached Marcus’s unit exactly as the western flank began to cave. A runner roared over the din, gestured toward the breach, and vanished before the command fully settled.

Marcus perceived the crisis instantly. A grotesque ogre had breached the primary defensive stakes and was pushing toward the second line, while a pack of shadow wolves utilized the surrounding gaps, moving at a low, rapid crouch that threatened to collapse the entire section if they reached the casters in the rear.

He drew his blade and took the lead. "Garron, handle the behemoth. Laziel, suppress the wolves."

Garron merely cracked his neck and surged forward, mana saturating his muscles until the stone under his boots fractured beneath the intensity of his stride. He engaged the ogre directly, shoulder leading; the collision echoed less like organic impact and more like a siege ram striking a fortress gate. The creature staggered but remained upright. As it swung a swollen limb down, Garron met the blow with both forearms, his boots carving furrows into the ground as sheer physical power clashed against raw force.

Laziel raised a hand instantly. "Permafrost Halo." A wave of frigid air exploded in a pale azure circle, glazing the ground beneath the advancing shadow wolves and stifling their momentum just enough to break their rhythm. "Vine Fang." A jagged root-lance erupted from the soil, transfixing the lead wolf and flinging its carcass into another.

Marcus seized the opportunity. "Stoneburst." The earth beneath two more wolves ruptured into jagged masonry, annihilating one and launching the other into the air, where he sliced it down effortlessly. Upon landing, he immediately pivoted toward the skeletal war-beast barreling through the compromised flank.

A makeshift shield of bone and oxidized metal slammed at him. "Stoneguard." Rock surged upward, absorbing the brunt of the collision. The shield fragmented. So did most of the stone barrier. Marcus stepped through the rubble, drove his sword through the war-beast's exposed ribs, and snapped his hand toward the earth.

"Blazing Pillar."

Blue flames erupted in a vertical torrent, punched directly through the spinal column, and sent the upper half of the skeleton tumbling backward in smoking ruins.

To his left, Garron finally conquered the struggle of weight and leverage. He twisted his torso, yanked the ogre's arm off balance, and hammered an elbow into its throat—a blow so violent the creature choked on its own howl. Then, seizing its skull, he smashed its face into the splintered stakes repeatedly until the skull shattered and the body slumped.

Laziel was panting, yet he refused to retreat. "Containment Ring!" A radiant circle materialized beneath the last pair of shadow wolves that had veered wide. The cage held for a mere heartbeat; that was sufficient. Marcus crossed the distance in two bounds and executed both before the incantation dissipated.

For one fleeting moment, the line stabilized. Marcus exhaled sharply, surveying the carnage of blood, splintered bone, frost, roots, and smoldering azure fire strewn across the field.

The attrition reached the support ranks far sooner than anticipated.

Wounded soldiers were being dragged back in droves; some bled through their plate, others lingered at the edge of consciousness, and many convulsed from mana exhaustion and impact trauma. Charlotte and the healers from the Holy Capital attended to them tirelessly. She navigated the chaos with bloodied sleeves and daggers at her waist, pausing only to clasp her hands in brief prayer, allowing a gentle blessing to mend torn flesh and restore faltering breath. She rationed her energy with surgical precision, closing wounds and pulling soldiers back from oblivion without burning out.

Such restraint became precarious when the line fractured nearby. A warped skeletal horror battered through the weakened defenses, hurtling toward the rear with enough momentum to discard two wounded defenders. Charlotte stood instantly. A single dagger flashed, severing the monster's leg joint to destabilize it, and before it could stumble, she had bypassed its guard and buried the second blade into the base of its jaw. A nearby soldier finished it with a spear-thrust through the spine. Charlotte did not linger. As the beast collapsed, she returned to the wounded, her lips silently praying.

Further ahead, Elena fought in the thickest crucible of the conflict. When a wolf breached a gap, roots sprouted beneath it as "Snare Bloom" shackled its limbs, tethering the beast for a companion to finish. She whirled before the corpse struck the ground, a spinning shroud of leaves—"Flourish Veil"—deflecting a volley of bone shards from the flank. Within a heartbeat, she utilized "Sylvan Step" to bridge the distance, striking down another beast before grabbing a faltering fighter and steering him toward the healers.

Throughout this, Elyra maintained the structural integrity of the field. Lines of luminescence spread beneath the allied ranks as "Mana Grid" fortified casting formations, preventing strained spells from unraveling. When a compromised zone suffered under intense projectile fire, "Aegis Plate" generated layered, hovering shields to intercept the volley before fading into light. When the ground itself buckled under heavy stomping, "Reinforced Ground" bolstered the terrain, ensuring the soldiers kept their footing.

And this was but the prologue.

The skirmish had barely bared its fangs, yet already the battlefield was suffocating in cacophony, blood, shattered lines, and horrors exploiting every vulnerability. Fires burned in the trenches. Mutilated remains lay where the initial impacts struck. The mages were flagging. The healers were drowning. The barriers were splintering faster than they could be restored.

Any semblance of tactical control had evaporated.

That was the most chilling realization of all. If this was the temperament of the conflict in its initial moments, then the impending wave would transcend all they had steeled themselves to withstand.