The dark tide of nightmares covered the distance between them and the city with terrifying speed, a churning, shrieking mass of claws and teeth rushing toward the white walls of Nova.
Yet they were stopped cold, mere meters from the stone, slamming into something unseen and immovable.
The force of the collision was immense. Dozens of the creatures at the front of the horde were crushed instantly on impact, their bodies reduced to bloody pulp that smeared across the invisible surface in streaks of dark ichor, painting the face of the shield high above the ground.
The sight drew a fierce eruption of cheers from the soldiers standing atop the walls, raw and defiant, the sound of men and women who had been waiting to fight back.
In that same breath, the mighty cannons of the airships pulsed to life. Nearly a hundred shots fired in unison, white beams of blazing plasma screaming downward through the dawn sky toward the still-swelling horde below.
