Endless Horde: Through the Eyes of a Godking

Chapter 80: Black Sky Horde

The stench of Demons was all too familiar to Cedric. And because his home was near the outer edges of the city, his field of senses caught sight of them earlier than everybody else.

Just a reminder, these aren't Purgatory Demons. Killing them won't reward them with Demon Souls. These demons however are the real deal, and they're deadlier than their Purgatory counterparts.

Additionally, these demons will be under the influence of the Black Sky. They're bound to be in the 'Berserk State', making them more aggressive and irrational. The soldiers should be prepared to face them in this state.

In a surprising turn of events however, the moment the city scouts reported the sight of the first few demons of the horde, they sent a signal to their comrades, and all of a sudden, light emerged from the city.

"...ah! So that's why there's a Lighthouse there." Cedric was suddenly enlightened.

This Lighthouse was something had seen multiple times during his tour of the city. At first, he was puzzled about its functions since it was built in the middle of the city no less, but now that it shone a light that contested the darkness of the Black Sky, he understood its purpose.

The light of the Lighthouse illuminated the entire city, enough to not only restore visibility in everybody's surroundings but also to give hope to its citizens.

'Unfortunately, it doesn't contain the essence of Sunlight. If it did, then it would've helped immensely against Demons.' Cedric mused to himself.

Though thinking about it some more, it was unfortunately expected to be like this. After all, the majority of people who were born after the Cataclysm only knew about the fake Sun, which they still think was real. So it wasn't surprising that none of them knew how to replicate what true sunlight feels like.

He would've boasted about his ability to recognize True Sunlight, but that's only because of his Class, and lord knows that he was lucky to have encountered that so this wasn't something he could be proud of.

Still observing his surroundings, Cedric saw how the first wave of the horde arrived near the city.

They were met with open fire from the soldier stationed at the walls of course. The sound of the clash drowned the entire city, producing aftershocks all over the place.

Cedric saw mounted turrets and cannons installed on top of the walls, recklessly bombarding the incoming wave of threats. Each shell left a trail of fire that burned demons to crisp, spreading as far as the eye could see as well.

This would've been a decent strategy if it weren't for the fact that some Demons of the horde were highly resistant to fire. Still, the fires were enough to lessen the number of demons trying to scale the walls or knock them down.

Aside from bombardment, the soldiers also had to be wary of the flying units. To counter those, they hired several people who have long-range superiority to deal with them.

He had seen archers raining down arrows to pin down their targets, mages chucking elemental projectiles left and right hoping to hit at least a single target, and so on...

Overall, the initial response towards the horde was satisfactory. The defense was holding up well and strong under the assault. However, this is just the beginning...

"...you better pace yourselves people." Cedric sighed, "This is going to be a long fight, you better conserve your energy wisely. A Lv.3 intensity Black Sky might last for an entire week, and the horde it brings will be large. If you go all out now, you'll run out of gas pretty soon."

If he could think about this, naturally others would be able to. He didn't know how far the City Lord and his men planned to deal with this so all he could do was hope that they had a decent response for following developments at least.

Still, he continued observing the situation in the comfort of his home while also paying attention to other things, such as monitoring the gaps in the City's defenses and paying attention to the online broadcast of news channels.

The Black Sky was happening across the continent. Many cities and states are experiencing it at this current moment. The reporters were doing their best to relay real-time information coming from this place to inform their audience about it.

"...the casualties are piling up at other cities." Cedric clicked his tongue as he just received the news.

Unfortunately, other cities were unprepared for this disaster despite being informed a few days prior. As a result, they're having a difficult time defending against the horde that came with it.

The government was trying to send reinforcements to these cities but it was going to take time before they could arrive. By then, their casualties might climb up even higher.

At the same time as he learns of that, he also discovers that another wave from the horde arrived.

The following wave was larger and more resistant to the bombardment. With a quick scan, Cedric counted at least five thousand of them attacking the city from all sides.

It's also in this wave that the army of the city faced their first batch of casualties, and they were caused by Insect Demons.

Insect Demons are probably the most hated demon type ever. Not only were they disgusting to look at in general, but they were also extremely troublesome to deal with.

They took on the form of locusts, bugs, worms, etc. They also have varying sizes but the majority of them were bound to be on the smaller side. However, despite being small, they are not to underestimated.

As an example, a nest of Insect Demon type called: 'Hell Hornets' was more than enough to eliminate all life in this city if nothing they got in successfully. They are incredibly swift and their stings were so potent that they could easily kill any unsuspecting targets.

The pesky little buggers weren't just nasty in appearance, they're deadlier when biting too. He saw a few people dropping dead from sudden poisoning, screaming from excruciating pain, or downright exploding out of nowhere.

Due to the flashing lights and the hectic atmosphere on top of the walls, the Insect Demons were less noticeable, allowing them to weave through the projectiles being thrown around everywhere unscathed.

Of course, their first cause of action was to eliminate the humans who were trying to impede their way into the city. And they did just that.

Fortunately, the soldiers managed to discover them right after the first round of casualties occurred, so the amount of injured/dead people slowed down.

The soldiers were told to increase their vigilance without stopping the bombardment. As much as the Insect Demons were a threat to them, they just can't afford to stop firing at the rest who are still coming through from the thick black fog surrounding the city.

Cedric saw the City Lord watching all of this occur from a distance. He was surrounded by several people with the ability to monitor the situation from afar, sharing what they knew with him and making reports in real time. Arishem was also with him.

Both of them stayed here since it was not yet time for them to join the battle. Even with the casualties they had so far, the situation as a whole was still manageable so they weren't needed just yet.

So far, Cedric has only seen Tier 3 Demons from the horde and there are only a few of them that have shown up so far. Their current level of defense has been enough to deal with them so he agreed that both the City Lord and Arishem weren't needed just yet.

'Beast Demons, Insect Demons, and Avian Demons...' Cedric mused to himself, 'So far, it's these types of demons that I see the most. This tells me that the nearest Outer World from the Black Thread City should be a Great Jungle or Mountain Range.'

He could guess this much thanks to the added information he analyzed from the online broadcast. The types of Demons attacking them aren't the same from one city-state to the next.

Through the process of elimination, he deduced that the demon types they'd be facing must depend on what kind of Outer World was near their city.

'Not like knowing that helps...at the very least, this tells me that I should expect greater numbers of Demons coming this way because of that. After all, whether it's a Great Jungle/Rainforest or a Mountain Range, both are crawling with tons of Demons.'

This actually made him worried because the number of Demons appearing so far didn't match his expectations. Not that it's too much, it's the opposite—, there's too little.

Which made him assume that there must be more hiding at the very far back, or at least, making their way here. Unfortunately, his field of senses couldn't reach that far so he had no way of confirming this. Though he had a sneaking suspicion that he was right.

Speaking of his field of senses...he noticed a strange movement amidst all the chaos. After focusing on that, a grimace made its way to his face.

"I knew it...you pests wouldn't miss this chance to implant more chaos to this city." Cedric snarled as he abruptly stood up.