Forbidden Constellation's Blade-Chapter 167: Battle For Khaz Vordun (2)

The frozen ocean loomed overhead, its immense crystalline mass trembling faintly as cracks traced along its lower edges.

Ryn swayed, his skin still a pale white.

Engineers rushed forward, but Amelia was already there, catching him before his knees fully gave out.

"...Phase two," he murmured. "I’ll leave the rest to you."

Amelia nodded softly.

Ryn had predicted this prior, that the beam would likely affect the monsters within the Dwarven seas and turn them wild as well.

So everything was a contingency. To take out the small hordes before going after Leviathan itself.

He exhaled slowly and allowed the engineers to guide him back toward the lower defensive line. Frost still traced his collarbone, but he no longer resisted being moved.

Amelia turned back.

The first creature had finally stepped up about halfway up the shore, with others quickly in step behind.

What had been awe along the harbor turned into silence. Dwarves who had just been striking steel in reverence now tightened their grips around shields and spears.

Amelia stepped toward the shoreline.

Fire gathered around her, coiling into currents that bent the air with rising heat. The crown made entirely of pure flames burnt bright and regal, casting red-gold light across the glassy frost beneath her feet.

The world seemed to hold its breath, waiting for the single line that Amelia was about to speak.

"It’s finally time."

Radiant wings unfurled from behind her as she soared into the sky, dazzling, almost like a second sun.

"Forward shields! Fend them off!"

The infantry shifted almost instinctively, heavy dwarven shields locking into a low, advancing wall at the base of the frozen sea.

"Hold the upper batteries!"

A few artillery crews hesitated mid-ignition, then stilled as they understood the intention. One misplaced volley would shatter the foundation of Ryn’s wall.

"Heat the sands!"

Runemasters imbued their Essence into the nearby machine, as conduits took them downward. Under her watch, the shoreline began to glow, frost melting as blistering heat turned the layers of sand into molten glass.

The first wave of corrupted creatures surged into it.

They slowed immediately, their distorted limbs sinking, crystalline growths hissing as steam erupted upward.

"Now!"

Ballistae fired through the rising haze.

Heavy arrows punched cleanly through the warped beings, some even pinning bodies in place.

Yet even with all this preparation, the number didn’t seem to dwindle much, as creatures continued to squeeze through the cracks.

"Tch," Amelia clicked her tongue, finally deciding this was the right moment.

"Advance!" she shouted. "For Khaz Vordun!"

RAAAAAAAAAAAH!

The dwarves answered with a roar.

The wall of shields slammed forward in unison, surging toward the shoreline. Spears thrust through narrow gaps, piercing flesh. Some with warhammers did devastating swings that completely tore monsters in half.

Above them, archers on the upper tiers shot their volleys, bolts arcing through the air and embedding themselves into the Evernight beasts.

Amelia hovered above it all only for a breath before she moved.

With a sweep of her arm, she sent a condensed sphere of fire plunging downward into the densest cluster of creatures. It struck the glass sand and detonated, collapsing into a vortex of heat that devoured everything caught at its center.

Before the vapor cleared, she was already blitzing to the next location.

With her arms outstretched, flames twisted into a spiraling column that descended. A fire tornado formed, tearing through a corridor of bodies. Crystalline armor cracked under the sustained heat, as the inferno carved a burning path across the shoreline.

Below, the dwarves pressed forward into the opening she created.

Another wave of beasts forced through the fractures in the frozen sea, but now they landed into flames.

Amelia descended slightly, hovering just above the frontline, her voice steady even as the battlefield roared beneath her.

"Do not break formation."

But it was then that the ocean shuddered.

From beneath it, something massive shifted under the sea, displacing ice from below rather than strike it head-on. The glassed sand near the shoreline trembled violently, cracks racing outward in jagged lines.

The infantry staggered as the fighting seemed to crawl to a pause.

Amelia’s gaze snapped toward the source.

The seabed bulged before it split right down the middle.

A colossal limb erupted upward through the fractured ice and shattered sand. A dark tendril whipped outward, smashing through an entire section of the shore, wiping out both dwarves and beasts alike.

Amelia knew what this monster was immediately, as their encounter before was one she’d never forget.

The Kraken.

However, something seemed wrong with it. Its body dragged itself onto the shore in grotesque, jerking motions, with massive limbs carving trenches through the sand.

Yet there was one detail that was unmissable to all who’d seen it that night on the sea. A large, gaping hole was embedded in its head, the very same one Ryn had burned right through with the cannonball.

It remained there like a jagged void where flesh and bone should’ve been.

There was no exposed blood or even an exposed brain, only darkness that filled in.

Each of its limbs struck the ground with unnatural stiffness, as though animated by something pulling from deep beneath the sea.

Somewhere below, Amelia could hear Hadrik’s cracking voice ring out.

"How—? It should be dead!"

But the question went unanswered as everyone was focused on its fury. The Kraken’s limbs lashed outward, massive tentacles sweeping across the shoreline without discrimination.

Shields buckled, two dwarves were hurled aside like stones.

Another limb coiled around a soldier mid-charge, lifting him screaming into the air before dragging him toward the jagged void where its head had been pierced.

As soon as the man touched it, he completely vanished into the darkness...like he’d never been there in the first place.

The Kraken heaved forward, smashing through its own horde in blind momentum, crystalline beasts bursting beneath its mass as it carved a path straight through the shoreline defenses.

Ballista bolts struck its hide and snapped uselessly.

Amelia sent waves of flame forward, but it seemed to not do much damage. The flames licked across its limbs, but the blackened flesh didn’t burn the way it should have.

Another tentacle swept wide.

Five dwarves went down in a single attack.

Amelia’s eyes sharpened instantly.

"Pull back!" her voice cut through the chaos, amplified by flame. "Fall to second tier! Now!"

Some hesitated. A tentacle crashed down again, pulverizing molten glass and frozen sand alike.

"Retreat!" she commanded again, heat surging outward in a protective wave that forced the Kraken’s nearest limb to recoil.

The dwarves did not argue a second time.

Shields disengaged as infantry peeled backward toward the reinforced slope leading back into Khaz Vordun.

The Kraken did not pursue intelligently. It rampaged, like an undead siege engine thrashing through the area.

There’s no way I’m beating that thing alone.

The Kraken was a Legendary Class Beast, one that would require at least 2-3 Essence Masters to take down, and without injury as well.

She was only Mid-Knight in Essence level. Even if her Blessing was strong, a sustained fight would only lead to defeat.

There had to be another way.

The Kraken heaved forward again, a tentacle slamming into the slope and sending stone and soldiers scattering.

Amelia steadied herself mid-air, hand outreached, casting a spell before she saw it—

A massive bolt tore through the air and struck the Kraken’s upper limb, punching clean through the blackened flesh as it dropped the dwarf it had lifted up.

The monster convulsed, shrieking loudly in pain.

Another shot followed instantly. This one exploded against the creature’s side in a burst of shrapnel.

Amelia turned toward the source.

At the base of the second tier platform, what could only be described as a moving fortress had arrived.

Braum stood at its center.

Or rather—

He stood beneath it.

Cannons, ballistae, rotary bolt launchers, rune rifles, even automated turret hovered in a formation around him, suspended in a rotating ring of steel around him.

His Blessing thrummed visibly through the air, invisible threads connecting him to every weapon at once.

More dwarves rolled in additional artillery behind him, but they weren’t manning them.

He was.

Braum rolled his shoulder once, as if adjusting weight.

"Kept you waiting, haven’t I?"

Another barrage erupted.

Three ballistas fired in perfect harmony, bolts spiraling before speeding up midair and embedded themselves into the Kraken’s torso.

With a snap of his fingers, the arrows exploded once more, tearing gigantic chunks of flesh out of the monster.

Braum kept moving forward steadily, as volleys of smaller rifles peppered the monster at the newly formed wound, forcing the Kraken to recoil backward.

The Kraken turned its head slowly toward him.

When Braum had to stop to reload, it finally lunged.

Yet what happened next could be seen from a master at work. Every weapon disassembled itself.

Cannons split apart into rotating plates and reinforced barrels. Ballista frames fractured into sharpened rails and rifles separated into steel housings.

Hundreds of components tore free from their original forms and converged in midair, spiraling inward under Braum’s control.

The dwarves nearest him stared as steel reshaped itself above the platform, plates locking into place.

What had been an arsenal became a single construct.

A gargantuan siege cannon.

Braum braced one hand against the air as if in a control room.

His voice was calm.

"Amelia—"

"Let’s get to work."