[Stone Fortress, West]

After the sacrifice had been made, a huge magic circle appeared before the blood colored orb which then soon shone brightly as a huge red magic circle appeared before  it. Following the appearance of the huge magic circle, a violent quake then erupted unto the camp, causing panic to spread out towards the surroundings, and forced everyone near the bead to evacuate at the end of their army campsite.

Once the western warriors took a considerable distance away from the magic circle, a howling scream vibrated towards the surface, as it strike fear towards anyone who heard the howl. The howl itself sounded demonic that came from the depths of the earth, no beast could even compare to such howl. that to itself was like a declaration of some beast in regards to the upcoming doom.

After the howl ended, a scary looking arm with claws appeared out from the orb as it tried to pull all of its body up to the surface worlds itself. After a few struggle the demonic beast then finally pulled itself out as it screamed towards the surrounding and brandished its claws.

The demonic itself was incomparable to anything Adriel have seen. Its skin was red like blood, its claws were as sharp as swords, its tongue was as long as a snake, its body was as thin as a malnutritioned person, and the way it move was like human crawling in all four. But the most noticeable characteristic of this demonic beast is that such a monster  have no eyes at all, it was like such creature mainly rely on sound, vibrations, and heat to detect its prey.

But since the Adriel had formed a contract with the albino demon, the demonic beast simply glanced at then stationed western army, before turning its head towards the sharp cliff of the stone fortress and begun charging towards it. Following the appearance of the demonic beast, the other of the same of its kind then climb out of the orb in quick succession as it rushes along the demonic beast in front of it

Soon after the cliff itself was filled with demonic beast climbing it with their sharp claws, as they bore their hostility towards the warriors stationed at the fortress. Since four warriors were sacrificed, it is then expected that the orb would produce about 400 of such creature to attack the stone fortress. With such staggering number, it will only be a matter of time before the fortress would then be sieged.

*********

At the same time Tetra was currently walking around the front port of the fortress, just right behind the wall facing the cliff, as she observed the warriors walking back and forth as they try to fix all the damage done to the fortress using any minimal materials. As she was watching such procedure, a person twice her height then stood beside her as its shadows completely covered her as a whole.

"What are you doing here? isn't your place somewhere else?" asked by Duncan, the 36th tribal chief, as he stood tall towering beside her

"... I'm here to observe everything, making sure that nothing is amiss" answered by Tetra

"Amiss? there cant possibly go wrong here now that I'm monitoring this place... just admit that your troubled by something"

"I wont say that I'm troubled... i just felt unease... its like something terrible might happen at any moment"

"... As i said, that is impossible... even though we suffered much in their sudden attack, we did somehow able to drive them back and kill a number of them when they are fleeing... it would take time before they can regroup and attack once more"

"I just hope your right"

For some reason Tetra felt unease ever since she heard the howling scream down below the cliff. The scream itself was too loud to the point that everyone in the fortress were alerted by such sound. In fact they even prepared themselves for a fight if such monster were to appear before them.

Unfortunately nothing came out even as time passes, it was like the scream just now was just a passing remark from some unknown creature. Since no danger appeared after the howl, the warriors on the fortress then regarded the creature who made such noise as a passing beast. And since the sound was heard below the cliff, they then concluded that their neighboring army might have dealt it on their own.

With such thoughts in mind, everything then went back to normal, as the warriors fixed all the damages that had been done unto the fortress. Even the warriors stationed on the wall were changed under the order of Einar.

Ever since the previous acting leader had died in the attack, Einar had taken up the position to be the acting leader of the western battlefront and begun assigning his trusted men towards some of the important areas. Right about now the person himself was currently overseeing some things within his office while Tetra handled the supervision on the front side of the fortress.

With no danger in sight, Tetra then begun to disregard her worry as she tu7rns around and plan to sharpen her weapons for the next battle, and if possible to find a new weapon. After all even if she adorned herself with her family's heirloom of armor and weapon, she prefer to use weapon that aren't enchanted by any frost aura.

At most she can only handle the frost armor on her body and a seeker armguard on her arms, just by the pressure of this two equipment alone greatly burdens Tetra, if she added her family's heirloom weapon the flail emitting a frosty aura, she was sure that her body wouldn't be able to handle it and in turn greatly hinder her from performing good on this situation.

Even thought her family utilizes the aura of frost just like some of the warriors present, her family's heirlooms frosty aura was a far beyond level than the ordinary frost aura that can be felt from the warriors around her. Despite not being not sure, she somehow felt that there is something sealed within the armor to make it produce such terrifying aura.

Every action as a reason, since her parents claimed such a suspicious thing as their heirloom, there must be a reason why they did such a thing. The moment she got a free time, Tetra assured that she will unlock the secret of this armor and find out the reason itself.

With all of those in her mind, she then took one last look on the people fixing the fortress, as she suddenly saw a red arm appear before the top of the wall. Following it, the eyeless head then popped out together with its thin red body, as the demonic beast appeared before the wall.

Before she could even alert everyone in the surroundings regarding such monster, the demonic beast then howled once more, which completely took everyone's attention and killed the nearest person near it. With the first shed of blood, all of the warriors on the fortress then snapped back into reality as they tried to fend off the demonic beast itself.

However before the warriors on the wall could get close towards the red demonic beast, their body was then pierced by a sharp claws from behind as they realized that there was another red demonic beast in the area and a wave of monsters were climbing on top of the fortress walls. Before they could even utter a single alarm, they were then thrown off the cliff as the demonic beast roared in delight.

Even thought there were no warning given to them, the appearance of another red demonic beast greatly alerted everyone that this is not a simple random attack by a demonic beast. As if proving their thoughts right, more and more demonic beast emerges along the wall as such monsters attacked and massacred the warriors stationed along the wall.

Upon seeing this act, quickly picked up a weapon lying on the side in a shape of a hammer as he then alerted everyone for the incoming attack. At the same time, Tetra unsheathed her own sword and deemed that this battle would need something she can defend with. Due to that Tetra quickly seized the shield from another warrior and ran up towards Duncan who was prepared to fight.

"Everyone! to your battle stations! Monsters are attacking! push them out of the fortress!!!"

"Duncan!"

"....."

"What are they?"

"I have no idea, i never seen such creature in all my life... looks like in order to find out, we would need to venture in blind"

After Duncan said those words, the red demonic beast on the top of the wall, jumped down on the front part of the fortress and roared aggressively towards the warriors who took up a formation. Following that roar, more demonic beast jumped down from the top of the wall and stood opposite of the warriors in front of them.

Once both side had their few moments of face off in silence, the demonic beast the made its move first, as they charged towards the warriors without any hesitation. At the same time, Duncan let out his war cry for everyone to hear as he took the first step to engage in combat.

With a swing of his hammer, Duncan squashed the very first demonic beast he encountered, as he then begun parrying away the attacks from the other demonic beast that lounged at his openings. From his left, Tetra took a step forward as she swung her sword and blocked the attack of the demonic beast claws. But due to the sharpness of the demonic beast claws, her sword then begun to be chipped away, as she got slowly pushed back.

The same could be said towards Duncan. As a veteran warrior and a chief to a tribe, he naturally has his own prowess in terms of combat, so after the first clash of his hammer's handle and the demonic beast claws, he then quickly realized the sharpness of the said claws itself. Since continuous usage of the handle to block the attack, may lead towards the weapon's destruction, he then shifted to using the hammer itself to defend him from the demonic beast claws.

Since the hammer is made up of thick layered metal only native towards their land, it wouldn't be easy for the demonic beast claws to even destroy it despite all its sharpness. SO with that in mind, he smashed away his 4th demonic beast, before proceeding to attack the oncoming demonic beast on the front.

Unfortunately even though he has the means typo counter them, the same cant be said towards the other people around him. Upon taking a slight look to his surroundings, he then saw multiple warriors being killed on the spot in just one strike.

Their side were dying to fast, if this continuous on, everyone would then be annihilated.

Amidst the chaos, both Tetra and Duncan didn't even realize some of the demonic beast sneakily entered the fortress in those slight opening and begun their massacre inside the establishment itself. However not long after, such sneaky creature were made known towards everyone, when an explosion rung out of nowhere and blasted the demonic beast off the fortress itself.

From the hole on the wall, Einar then slowly walked out all bloodied all over his body while taking ahold of a demonic beast head on his hand. Even thought they don't know what happened inside the fortress establishment, Tetra can immediately imagine that a terrifying battle had just ensue indoors, just from how Einar was covered with wound all over his body.

On the other hand when Einar who just came out all injured from a certain part of the fortress establishment, saw the major disadvantage of the fortress warriors against the demonic beast that kept coming in non-stop, he then realized that they were slowly getting done in as the warriors quickly die on the battlefield.

They are completely at a disadvantage in this scene, they even had no idea where this monsters came from, they're just lacking evidence on how to deal with such creatures.  In that moment for the survivability of the warriors in the fortress, he then even considered retreating away from this place. But upon seeing the determined look from the warriors, he then push aside such thoughts as he plans to join the fray.

However his negative thought rose back up again as he saw Tetra slowly being surrounded by such demonic creature under her notice. For Einar, Tetra is something akin to his blood relative, meaning she is held as important within Einar's heart. Since he held her dear, he cant afford to see her die in this situation.

Einar already lost the people he cared about once, he cant afford to lose another. So for the safety of Tetra, he then issued a command towards everyone.

"The fortress is done for! retreat!!!"

Upon hearing his words, the other warriors present were slightly confused on why Einar ordered such a thing, even Tetra was confused. But upon looking at their surroundings, they then soon saw why such an order was given out. They were dying much faster than they could kill their opponents.

With such an obvious disadvantage, the rest of the warriors then followed Einar's command as they all quickly retreat out of the stone fortress.

The stone fortress is just a checkpoint place, it doesn't actually held any importance as a whole. Since the stone fortress is an easily detachable place, they didn't hesitate at all to retreat away from the stone fortress itself. With that the defenses in the stone fortress had then fallen.

***ReadAtWebnovel***