The Breaking Point

The flow of battle shifted. Crawling back from despair, the defenders surged into an act of defiance against the black tide, bought upon by Reiji's unyielding spirit. 

With the blazing of the new flame of hope, the dark night retaliated with a sinister crack, rippling through the beast tide.

A low groan.
Then another.
A dozen voices, warped and alien, rising into a cacophony of death and destruction.

The fallen stirred.

All over the fields, the fallen began rising. From the piles of broken adventurers, from the refugees trampled under foot, from knights dragged from the walls - figures arose once more. 

Cracks and snaps echo through out the field, as their beaten and broken body snap back into place, forced together by black tendrils that covered their bodies. Their muscles wriggled underneath their skin, moving them with deliberate and precise action, some beyond what they had previously been able to do. Eyes once pale and lightless, now burned with the same sickly alien violet, the same fire of hunger that burned within the beast tide.

With a resounding howl, a new wave of beast appeared, lead by fused monstrosites, all an amalgamation of beasts and men, their corpse perverted into one single being. Leading the reinforcement at the front was the biggest monstrosity, almost twice the size of the others, it's silhouette towering over the battlefield.

"Is- is that the main army? Gods... preserve us..." whispered a young Elf soldier atop the wall, as his fallen Beastkin comrade stood once more. Their armor was broken, their sword snapped in half, but the body moved with alarming alarcity, as it dove forwards, broken sword tip impaling the Elf soldier through his neck.

The remaining beasts pulled back, if only for a moment, forming a crude perimeter, escaping the chaos of the battlefield. As more and more fallen stood up, replenishing their numbers.

"No... It's started." The words echoed in Reiji's thoughts, colder than ever, dripping not with the usual coldness, but with fear.

"Don't be cryptic. What's started?" He questioned her, still moving through the battlefield, destorying as many beast as he could.

"The true terror of Vermundr's corruption is its ability to corrupt even the dead. The seal is weaker than I thought... Vermundr could awaken any moment now."

"Tch. Then we'd better hurry." 

The battlefield reogranized itself with ghastly precision. No longer a flood of claws and teeth, but a unending march of the dead. The corrupted corpse formed in ranks, hefting broken weapons, make-shift shields locking into place. Deploying tactics with unnatural discipline, no longer hindered by life.

Behind them came the true abominations, fused beings of men and beasts, corpses spliced together by Vermundr's aura, their twisted forms glowing with veins of sickly purple mana. Using the corpse of the strongest beast and men, their very presence warped the mana around them, almost as if rejecting it.

The defenders felt their hearts buckle, their flames of hope extinguished. The adventurer's who had leapt down, now found themselves pressed back, force to retreat by their former comrades. Their weapons glancing off the armored husks of the fused monstrosity before them.

Reiji and the others stood at the center of it all, bloodied and heaving from exhaustion. For every beast they sent sprawling, two more stepped in, each more relentless than the one before. 

Sweat and blood stung his eyes as he watched the unnatural formation tighten, closing around them, cutting off all paths of retreat.

"This isn't just a tide anymore." Nraltia gasped, besides Reiji, her voice trembling as she poured out healing magic to support the others. 

"They're fighting like an army." Souma answers.

The battle field had shrunken considerably, the beasts outnumbered them greatly, using tactics and number to fight against the stronger enemies on the battlefield. It doesn't matter how many beasts or people they sacrificed, upon felling one of the strong defenders, a new fused monstrosity would be created.

With the formation of the fused monstrosities, the black flood had been reformed into a corrupted army, with the fused monstrosities leading them. Every strike, every counter, every step perfectly coordinated. A mockery of discipline, one born not from training and hard work, but corrupted nightmares, made possible by an enemy that was no longer just hungry, but thinking.

The four of them now stood in a circle, back pointing inwards, as they defended one another from the onslaught of the corrupted army. Reiji, Nraltia, Souma and Lance, trapped within the enemies line, unable to fall back to the wall.

"I'm starting to regret following you out here." Joked Lance, sweat beading his forehead, yet his spear never halted, continuously piercing through enemy after enemy.

"Phew. Only idiots would willingly follow our leader out here." Souma sighs, as he dices up a corrupted adventurer, revealing its core, piercing it with his blades.

"You do know we followed him as well right?" Nraltia grinned as she let loose a wave of Frigid Blast, turning the beast into popsicle mid air.

"Who else is going to keep him alive?"

"Oi. I'm standing right here." Reiji protested, his fist and feet never stopping, flaring black and white. 

"Jokes aside. What's the plan?" Souma finally asks.

"We should fall back and regroup at the wall." The lieutenant answers. "There aren't that many others left standing. We should gather them and regroup."

"No." Interjected Reiji. "We should gather the survivors, regroup and push ahead towards the leader."

"But that's insane. It's a suicide mission." Protested Lieutenant Lance.

"It's the only way. Crushing the leader, these beast and corpse only started behaving differently after that guy showed up." He motioned to the first fused monstrosity, the largest one, with the upper body of a gold rank Elf adventurer, and the mish mash lower body of beasts.

Even in another world, somethings don't change, Reiji thinks to himself. Here he was in a war for survival, and the best tactic he could think was to crush the enemy leader.

"Unless we crush it, Tristan doesn't stand a chance."

Unable to argue, Lance could only look at the other two for confirmation, hoping that they would provide some kind of alternative. 

"Tristan is already at it's breaking point." Souma answers, dashing his hopes.

Nraltia nodded without hesitation. "Alright. If that's what you've decided. We'll support you Reiji."

Having no other choice, Lance could only sigh before agreeing to Reiji's proposal.

"Seems thats our only option."

"Now you're getting it." Reiji grins wolfishly, smiling at Lance's reluctance.

With a final nod, the four jump into action. Unleashing their strongest skill, Reiji, and Lance blast away the surrounding monsters, giving Souma the time to dash out, leading the charge, as they fall into an arrow position with Nraltia in the middle. 

Using the opening, Nraltia unleasehs Ice Wall, summoning a blockade to slow down the enemies at their backs as the group rushes to gather the remaining defenders on the field.