Beast-Tamer: Limitless Evolution
Chapter 63: Preparations

Chapter 63: Preparations

Preparations

The beast tide progressed, and the humans defended. The storm clouds still flashed ominously in the sky, and the Mana seemed to constantly be permeated by that ever-present wrongness that was the existence of the Skyblight Harbinger.

The humans within the Citadel, that is, the civilians, stayed inside their homes. No one tried to go outside, even those people who were too daring for their own good seemed content to stay within the safety of their homes, even though each of them was acutely aware of the fact that if the beasts truly managed to break into the Citadel, the walls of their homes would offer limited protection.

Military vehicles moved through the streets, most of them heading for the Eastern Wall. Some carried troops, and others carried arms.

There were loudspeakers with an automated voice constantly telling people to stay inside and fortify their homes. There weren’t any reassuring words, but a stern set of instructions given in case the worst possible scenario occurred.

All black market activities had also ceased. The elusive organizers deemed it the best choice to stop all operations for now.

The Citadel and everyone inside were tense, people occasionally looking towards the wall where the sounds of gunfire and explosions had turned into a morbidly melodious constant.

Everyone seemed to know without being told. Whatever was going on at the frontlines would determine whether or not they still had a future.

The Handlers and Soldiers were doing everything to ensure that such a future was set in stone, because while the tide had never stopped, neither had the humans and their ingenuity.

This is because their plan had started to be set in motion.

___

If the front of the beast tide looked like a tap had burst open, causing beasts to pour through uncontrollably, then the back looked like a water tank that was filled to almost bursting.

Beasts took up almost all available space, often bumping and pressing into each other as there wasn’t really anywhere to go except forward.

Under normal circumstances, such a safe number of beasts, each of different species and natures, would usually result in a bloody conflict where all participants ripped at each other’s throats with wild abandon.

But not this time. Instead, each one seemed docile, despite the constant enraged sounds and pure madness in their eyes, none of them made any move to disrupt the careful balance, though, each of them was incredibly tense, their muscles coiled like high-pressure springs ready to erupt forward. The balance was fickle, as though anything could cause the thick tension to snap.

Yet it held.

The beast slowly shuffled forward, their brethren at the front rushing forward and getting killed, allowing the ’traffic’ to move forward slowly but steadily.

However, there was a spot in the beast tide where the beasts give a wide berth, any beast close to this area, despite the madness in their eyes, trembled visibly, an instinctual fear within their bodies being awakened in the presence of a creature of a higher level, artificial or not.

The Skyblight Harbinger had spent its entire time recovering. After Mrs Jane’s final attack, it had been effectively immobilized.

That fact enraged it.

Under normal circumstances, it didn’t care all that much about being injured. When it engaged Mrs Jane the first time, it didn’t pay her much attention, even after she injured it first with the metal rods, it just felt slightly annoyed, so it decided to get her out of the way and complete its goal for speeding up in the first place. Sadly, it wasn’t able to kill her in one hit. Why was the weak human so durable?

Then, not only had it been suppressed by its target, she had dealt it a wound so debilitating that it couldn’t even move! And it truly was a horrific attack.

The feeling of white-hot metal constantly running through your veins, continuously cooking your insides, then you heal, only for it to happen again, was simply torturous.

The Skyblight Harbinger had a very high pain tolerance by default, but even it had to occasionally let out pained shrieks from such an attack.

What’s worse was that the metal seemed to have a mind of its own. Whenever the Harbinger tried to move, it would automatically solidify and lock up within the creature, forcing it to grow still.

All the while, its internals were constantly burning and healing over and over again. It was simply maddening.

Despite this, though, the Harbinger was still healing. Other than its natural regeneration, there was also the fact that Mrs. Jane’s Mana was external and harmful. It was an ironclad rule that for all creatures containing Mana within their bodies, if any harmful external Mana tried to invade their bodies, their natural Mana would work to purge the harmful substance out, like how the body fought against viruses, but it was a lot more effective.

Gradually, the hateful substance within its body was being broken down and ejected from it in the form of black vomit. It was arduous, but it was progress.

However, it would take forever for the Harbinger to leave its Mana to handle the process alone, so it also used its will to make the process faster. Not to mention, it would occasionally pluck out a beast from the tide and use one of its many skills to suck out its life force, further enhancing its own vitality to help it recover faster.

All in all, it was putting in all its effort into recovering as quickly as possible, which was only natural. However, that caused another issue.

Its usually sharp perception had been dulled. As such, it wasn’t as aware of its surroundings as it normally would be.

"E.E.S Team 1 is in position. We have a visual on the creature. As anticipated, it’s focusing all its energy on recovering." More than a kilometer away, on top of a large tree, a figure... couldn’t be seen. Their armor seemed to interact strangely with light, the result being that they were pretty much invisible.

They weren’t the only ones, as on different branches of the tree, similar invisible figures were also waiting, but they all seemed to be intentionally looking away from the Harbinger.

In fact, even the first figure wasn’t directly looking at it, and was merely looking around it and making their judgements based on the surrounding activity, not that they were guessing, it’s not like it’s the first time they’ve done something like this anyway.

After all, everyone knew that gazes could be felt, and the stronger a creature was, the easier it could sense when it was being stared at, especially when the gaze had nefarious intent.

But these guys were experts. After all, their name E.E.S stood for Elite Extermination Squad.

As their name implies, they specialize in the extermination of high-ranking beasts. A special task force that excelled at getting rid of things ordinary soldiers wouldn’t be able to get rid of normally.

Every Citadel had a squad like this, though, they weren’t the same and often had deviations, but the purpose usually overlapped.

This squad was just one of a few, and while they specialized in taking down powerful beasts, that wasn’t the purpose behind why they were here at the moment. Instead, it would tie into the rest of the plan that was to take place in the near future.

Sure, the Harbinger was immobilized, but it had many ways to attack without moving, like the storm clouds that constantly followed it.

As such, they all decided to proceed with the plan instead.

"E.E.S Team 2, in position."

"E.E.S Team 3, in position."

"E.E.S Team 4, in position." As soon as the figure from team one stated they had eyes on the target, the other three teams quickly affirmed their positioning.

If one were to look from above while also knowing where each team was located, they’d realize that each team was approximately the same distance away from the Harbinger in each of the cardinal directions, moreover, they each were on a high place of sorts. Team 1 was on the tall tree that seemed to tower over the rest. While the rest of the teams were either on hills or large rocks.

"Acknowledged." Once they all confirmed their positions, one of the Handlers Acknowledged saying.

"Begin setting up the suppression formation." As soon as the order was given out, the teams started to act.

Formations were Mana-filled constructs that could serve a myriad of purposes based on the one creating them. Like the various formations within the walls of the Citadel.

Unlike magical abilities or spells, they took longer to cast but often lasted far longer with a more potent effect, moreover, they could be created by multiple people at once.

There was a lot of intricacies and technicalities when it came to creating formations. Things such as runes, will, mediums, and a lot of other complexities were involved.

For now, such intricacies won’t be dwelt on, only their effect.

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