The battlefield, once filled with the clash of steel and the roar of spiritual creatures, once again fell eerily silent as the new war machine emerged from the abyssal ranks. The memory of the destruction caused by the previous smaller ones was still fresh in the defenders' minds, and this one was unlike anything they had faced before.
Its massive limbs, adorned with glowing violet runes, moved with a mechanical precision that belied its monstrous size. The ground trembled with each step it took, the air around it crackling with an oppressive energy that made it hard to breathe.
The defenders, who had just begun to rally under the City-Lord's presence, now faltered once more. The sight of the behemoth was enough to crush their newfound hope, replacing it with a sense of dread that spread like wildfire through their ranks.
"We destroyed the previous ones we can destroy this one too!" One of Clara temporary teammates called out in an effort to rally their spirits.
A half-hearted chorus of agreement sounded out, but it was evident that there wasn't a huge improvement in morale.
This one was obviously a step up from the others. Its sheer size and the ominous violet energy coursing through it suggested that it was far more powerful—and far more dangerous. The only consolation was that as it was absorbing energy from its surroundings the increase in the glow of its core seemed to occur at a much slower rate.
The giant machine, surprisingly nimble despite its size, moved with an agility that the previous machines didn't have and approached the sole remaining warmachine that Kain's group had been unable to destroy due to the arrival of the demigod. After all, if they had lingered for even a second longer and didn't retreat to the city walls, they'd die without being able to resist.
Once it arrived next to the smaller machine, which originally looked massive but now appeared like a child next to an adult, a large crack opened down the center of the larger machine and it began to engulf the smaller one whole.
Almost immediately the glow of its core got several times greater.
"Thank god we had managed to destroy the others…" Kain murmured after watching this scene. If they hadn't that machine would have immediately had enough to charge to fire off a shot at the city. And considering the devastation caused by the smaller warmachines…
'Yeah, I definitely don't want to even think about that…'
The City-Lord, still locked in combat with the Demigod Abyssal, seemed to sense the shift in the battlefield. His amber eyes flicked toward the behemoth, and for the first time, a flicker of concern crossed his otherwise calm expression. He knew, just as Kain did, that this new threat could turn the tide of the battle in an instant.
"We need to stop that thing," Kain said, his voice tight with urgency. "If it fires at the city, it's probably game over for us."
Nadia nodded, her expression grim. "But how? We barely managed to take down the others, and this one's on a whole different level."
Before anyone could respond, the behemoth let out a deafening roar, its voice a cacophony of mechanical grinding and abyssal screeches. The sound reverberated through the battlefield, sending a chill down the spines of everyone who heard it. Then, with a slow, deliberate motion, it raised one of its massive limbs, the violet runes glowing brighter as it prepared to strike.
"Retreat!" Nadia shouted, directing those whose spiritual creatures who were still outside the city walls to return. But the warning was too late, reaching their ears just as the behemoth's limb came crashing down.
All over the ground where fighting guards or the contracts were standing, the ground exploded like a geyser in a shower of dirt and debris, the force of the impact sending shockwaves through the battlefield.
The defenders scrambled to regroup, their movements frantic as they tried to put distance between themselves and the behemoth. But the machine was relentless, its massive limbs hammering the ground with a steady, almost musical, rhythm. Each strike led to another explosion coming up from the ground. Since the explosions came from beneath the feet of the fleeing guards, they were nearly impossible for those who couldn't fly to defend against it.
More ominously, Kain noticed that as the death toll increased, so too did the brightness of the machine's core, almost as if this devastating attack was just a low-energy passive ability it possessed in order to harvest more lives and feed itself.
With this thought, Kain really hoped that he'd never have to see what a full-powered 'active' ability from this thing would look like.
Even the other non-Demigod contracts of the City Lord began to attack the massive machine, but even creatures as strong as them weren't even leaving a dent in its surface.
"Skreeeeeee!" One of the City Lord's violet-grade contracts that resembles a phoenix was struck in retaliation by the war machine, and now had its left wing bent at an unnatural angle. Unable to support itself, its body began to plummet from the skies towards the avaricious claws of the abyssal creatures waiting hungrily below.
Thankfully, with a swift motion, one of the flying spiritual creatures of a city guard, resembling a large pterodactyl, swooped down to rescue it from its predicament.
Kain's mind raced as he tried to come up with a plan. They couldn't fight this thing head-on—not without suffering catastrophic losses. They needed to find a weakness, something they could exploit. But what?
His eyes fell on Aegis, who stood nearby, his obsidian-like body shimmering faintly in the chaos. The golem had been instrumental in taking down the previous war machines, but this behemoth was on a completely different level. Could Aegis even affect something this powerful?
But looking at the increasing number of guards that would have the ground beneath them explode and then be dissolved into a blood mist…
"I guess we still have to try…" Kain murmured.
Benji looked at Kain, likely hearing what he said and understanding his intention. "Do it. We'll cover you."