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Arc and Nyx were both placed as ground troops.

Arc wasn't super religious, but she still said a silent prayer to Iridescence above for allowing them to stay together for this. They had been placed closer to the front of the army, but Arc wasn't complaining.

It was early afternoon of the next day that the army was called to gather around the castle. The ships were anchored in a ring close to the shore line around the island, about 30 feet apart.

There was no telling which direction the Dravern army would be coming from. They suspected the sides with the gates because it would be easiest to breach, but the enemy forces could circle around to any side they chose once past the outer wall.

But to encompass the entirety of the castle, the army was spread thin. They could circle around to any side of the island the enemy decided to attack, but if the Dravern forces came from multiple directions at once, things wouldn't go so well.

Arc and Nyx sat together on the grass, waiting. They both wore light leather armor, layered with metal underneath to help reinforce it. It was flexible, but durable enough to stop a stray arrow or a glancing blow from a blade. Underneath the armor, they also had chainmail with built in hoods for extra protection.

Arc took a glance around at the nervous faces of those she would be fighting alongside. The tension in the air was palpable, and no amount of pep talks or forced jokes could cut through it.

Arc could see that some of the Bounty Hunters looked like they wanted to run, get out while they still could. But there was nowhere to go. They had effectively trapped themselves on this island. If the battle went awry, it would be a slaughter.

She shook her head, trying to clear it of negative thoughts, to no avail. Reaching over, she took hold of Nyx's hand, giving it a squeeze more to help reassure herself. Nyx squeezed back, a small smile on her face.

Arc stood up to loosen her muscles, stretching as best she could next to so many beastmen. She bent backwards, arms above her head, and caught a glimpse of a messenger falcon gliding down toward the nearest army captain, coming from the direction of the outer wall.

Arc peaked over the shoulders of the beastmen in front of her, catching a glimpse of the falcon landed on the captain's gauntlet. He untied the note around the falcons leg and read it quickly, the falcon taking off again to return to where it came.

"Enemy approaching the gates!" The captain shouted.

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Cries to stand ready from the other captains echoed across the island and the sound of weapons being drawn rang out around them.

Nyx stood up, chainmail rattling as she did. She unsheathed two curved daggers strapped to her calves, holding them tightly.

Her scythe was resting in its holster on her back, but she wouldn't be able to swing it very well amongst the rest of the army. She'd have to wait until sometime after the initial charge, when the armies had thinned out, in order to use it.

"Don't leave my side." Nyx said to Arc.

"I vill do my best." The albino fox said, holding her broadsword in both hands, the red gem pommel gleaming in the light from Lestit above.

Nyx looked toward the outer wall to see smoke rising on the other side. She narrowed her eyes, curious, before the smoke started to fall on the archers and Bounty Hunters standing atop the wall.

"They wiped out an entire section of the wall with arrows," a Bounty Hunter to her left said.

Nyx glanced over to see a tall bird beastmen peering over the heads of the army. She didn't know what kind of bird species he was because of the armor he was wearing, but based on the curved beak, she knew he was a bird of prey, which meant he could see the wall better than most of them.

Another cloud of arrows rose and fell on the wall, and Nyx started to feel anxious, her shark-like tail sweeping back and forth in anticipation.

"They're scaling the wall with grappling hooks!" The bird beastman cried out. "The arrows are keeping our archers pinned so they can't do anything about it."

Nervous murmuring spread throughout the army.

They have to have some crossbow system firing the hooks. Nyx thought to herself. They can't be throwing them up themselves, the walls too high. Not unless they have Alchemicals.

She swallowed hard. If the Dravern army had Alchemicals mixed in with their overwhelming numbers, then the chances of winning just dropped a considerable margin.

"We've been breached!" The captain closest to them called out.

"By the Abyss..." Nyx muttered under her breath.

The large wooden gates were slowly opening, and hundreds of foreign ships started flooding through the gap in the wall. The majority of the ships appeared to be small rowboats with a dozen or so cloaked figures riding them, but there were much larger ships in the lead.

They must've sent their Alchemicals in first to get the gates open quickly, Nyx theorized. But they must have powerful abilities if they got the gate open so quickly.

The sound of cannon fire filled the air as the king's ships picked off some of the smaller enemy vessels, but the enemy ships were coming in faster than the cannons could shoot. The Dravern army would breach the naval defense and it would be left to the ground troops to defend.

The ground suddenly shook with a loud rumble and Nyx saw bodies being thrown up into the air somewhere near the front of the army.

"What was that!?" Someone yelled.

"The larger enemy ships are repelling our cannonballs!" the bird beastmen shouted. "Our cannon fire is being thrown right back at us!"

What kind of magic were the Dravern people using? Nyx knew of some Alchemicals who could create barriers around themselves, but nothing so extreme as repelling projectiles, especially not around something as large as a ship.

Off to the side, Nyx saw one of the king's naval ships start to sink, having been hit by it's own cannonball. The cannon fire slowed, as the ship's crew now had to find openings to hit the smaller enemy vessels, but with the larger ships leading in front it was becoming increasingly difficult the closer the enemy got.

Nyx watched the crew on the ships closest to the enemy throw the kegs of gunpowder overboard and abandoned ship. The Dravern forces now had nothing stopping them from progressing forward.

"Weapons ready!" The captain shouted as the enemy ships neared the shoreline. A couple of the Bounty Hunters Nyx could see started glowing as they readied whatever Alchemical ability they had.

Nyx turned and gave Arc one last kiss.

"Shall we?" She asked.

Arc smiled. "Ve shall."

The first enemy ship reached the shore.

"For the king!" The captain shouted, raising his halberd.