Outside of the domain art, the rest of the defenders included 15 mystics in total. One of them being the last third realm expert. He however was only in the initial stage of the realm, with a shallow foundation to boot.
His name was Tanaka. He was a young man with soft features who wore a brown tribal robe. Tanaka wasn't too impressive as far as those who reached the third realm went, but he did possess one skill that stood above the rest.
The earth tide had finally closed in to the edge of the small town as Tanaka finished a round of preparation.
["Formation Art: Earthly Denial!"]
He slammed both hands on the ground where a thin line had been marked on the edge of town.
This line emitted a dark brown glow that surrounded the whole town. This brown light shot up into the sky, creating a brown barrier in an instant.
It was truly an impressive formation all things considered. Especially since this town had no larger force behind it.
But even with the formation being successful, this only made the young man frown in deep pain.
'Dammit! There goes all of the Cash crops we were gonna sell this year! I know Madame Makoiri will have my head for this but... Fuck it!'
In the distance by the farm fields various crops like grains, Cassava, and groundnuts were quickly being shriveled up and died out of their life energy to act as fual for the formation.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
The earth tide crashes head first into the barrier. Producing huge points of collision that were quickly mended by the formation. However even with the protection this didn't stop some large hill sized chunks of earth from breaking through the formation.
The civilians including Sade and her brother were gathered in the middle of the town under multiple layers of hardened clay. The mystics used various arts and artifacts to hardened these dome layers as much as possible before looking up to face the falling earth.
Many split off in multiple directions while some stayed to protect the civilians.
The mystics soon began to employ every method possible to combat the land falling right on top of them.
Some mystics simply shot out a blast of fire, water, or wind. Some used their blood pact to summon various beasts or spirits to aid in their defense. Some simply augmented thier body with enough spiritual energy to destroy the debris with just their bodies.
One man was able to destroy an entire hill sized chunk with just one punch.
Another mystic summoned a group of Gaint Elands using a storage juju artifact. They stood over 4 meters in height. All 6 of them were early second realm level beasts. With a mental command they charged forward and lept into the sky to destroy parts of the earth tide with their long V shaped horns.
One mystic drew down a formation into the area around him. With a pained expression he took out from his pouch a few baobab leaves. They radiated a dense spiritual aura that would fetch a good price at most markets stalls.
'Dammit, I need to do this!' The mystic gritted his teeth as he placed an incense stick down in the center of the formation with the baobob leaves surrounding it.
Flick!
With a flick of his finger the incense stick was lit alight and the leaves soon slowly burned along with it.
"If anyone needs a spiritual replenishment formation I just set one up! It should help you gather up and even refine spiritual energy quickly!"
The man yelled loud enough for everyone to hear.
They were all either first or second realm practitioners, so after a few minutes of this intense barrage some of them were running low on spiritual energy.
"Shit, I'm low over here! Anyone got any refined spirit stones?!" One of the defenders yelled and after a moment someone responded.
"Yeah I got a couple, here!" Someone threw a couple of spirits stones towards the man who caught the grey stones with a slight smile.
He looked down at his hand to see two semi circuler stones. In the middle there was a blue spot that emitted a soft glow.
Hey! Open up that barrier I need just a few moments to gather this spiritual energy!" He quickly ran over to the 3 earth art users that were in charge of maintaining the dome layers over the civilians.
"I'm sorry brother but we can't afford to waste our energy for more mystics to enter the dome right now! Don't worry I'll keep you covered, just replenish your energy quickly!"
The man nodded as he sat down on the ground and held a spirit stone for each hand. Quickly the spiritual energy was gathering at his spiritual core.
'Thankfully whoever gave these spirit stones to me already refined the energy within. That ought to make this quick.' The man thought as he absorbed the energy quickly.
After a round of circulating the spiritual energy through his body, it would soon come under his proper control.
["Mystic Art: Ala Spear!"]
The earth user produced several large spears made of the soil itself. He then quickly used a juju artifact that was a bronze pot containing some lava. He quickly sprayed this lava over the spears. He then pulled out a pot of ice peddled delosperma. After of moment of deliberation he pulled out several petals by hand and quickly threw them at the lava covered spears. This quickly cooled the lava and hardened the spears at the price of this valuable pot of delosperma.
Soon there were several house sized rocks were crashing towards the direction of the dome layers. The earth user waved both arms forward and launched the hardened spears towards the heavens.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
The collisions produced many loud bangs and along with that other smaller chunks that were broken down further from attacks made by other mystics.
Yet even with the preparation and good display by everyone involved they couldn't protect everyone.
Over a hundred meters from the center an old couple were moving as fast as possible through the chaos. The man led the way but before long the old woman tripped and fell to her knees. The man turned around and.
Splat!
Like a watermelon he saw the head of his beloved get crushed into pieces by a large brown rock.
Blood and bone cover his figure as he stood still with a blank face. He still held onto her hand with a tight grip as he dragged her body behind him. Along the way he saw many more bodies, all crushed in horrific ways, dying with fear and hatred.
Their bodies emitted a piercing oder of blood. The scent entered into the old man's nostrils, flooding into his mind like a stampede.
The world around him became a sea of blood. He only tightened his grip to his wife as he trekked forward into this murky mirage. The world around him was silent like an old movie. All he could see were black figures that were running around in a panic. Some carried other figures while some figures were unmoving altogether, like granite stone.
"C'mon honey we're almost there." The man spoke but no response came.
To his left a group of young teens were running like cheetahs but.
Bam!
They weren't fast enough to avoid a large boulder that crashed down on all three of them. Two of the boys died instantly as they both pushed a young girl forward in an attempt to save her life. Yet even with the good intention, what they did was only save the upper half of her body, but not the lower half.
"Aaaaah!" The girl screeched out a pained howl of agony that could be heard across the whole town. She tried to crawl forward but this effort was in vain, and soon she stopped screaming and grew still. This morning she laid in the soil with her two friends only for all three of them to become a part of it once more.
The old man walked on by the scene in a trance, still dragging his headless wife behind him.
The center of town was only a couple dozen meters away now. The old man grew a small smile on his face at the sight ahead.
"Just a little further now and we'll be safe honey, the good mystics here will protect us, they'll protect everyone." The man muttered out.
He walked a couple more paces before tripping on someone. He looked down to see a dead younger man that resembled him somewhat. The dead man had the still image of horror captured on his face, but what was strange was that there no wounds on his body at all.
"Oh, my son. Why are you on the ground like this? Don't worry, your father will take you to where you need to go." The old man put a hand out and grabbed the body by its still warm hand and walked forward.
The mystic being covered by the earth user finally replenished all of his spiritual energy and got up to rejoin the defense. Meanwhile the earth user saw that a few meters up the street there was an old man covered in blood dragging two bodies on his left and right hands.
He had a calm expression on his face as he muttered to the dead bodies as though they were talking to him.
The earth user was perturbed by the eerie sight before him and cautiously approached the old man with his guard up.
"Old sir, you've reached the safe point, you can drop the bodies now."
"Bodies? Whatever do you mean young man? This is my wife and my young heir you're speaking on, and trust me they're very much alive." The old man dangled the bodies up to try to make this point.
"Umm... I'm sorry sir but I'm afraid that they're"
Bam!
"Hey now! What you doing little brother?! We don't have time to waste, just let the poor bastard in already!" One of the defenders shouted at the earth user while actually saving him from a rock that would've seriously injured him.
"R-right!" The earth user shouted while quickly carrying the old man and the dead bodies. He opened up an entrance into the dome layers that he quickly shoved the old man into.
Many faces looked over to see an old man with a iron grip on a headless body and a body with no visible wounds. People only looked for a moment before paying more attention to their own situations. Now was not the time for judging in the minds of most civilians.
"Hey, big brother? What's with that old man over there? He's got a weird look on his face, like everything's ok," Sade whispered while her brother Mari quickly hushed her and pull them both a distance of 50 meters.
The inner most dome had a space of at least 150 meters, but even with the large space, it wasn't enough room to fit hundreds of people.
The siblings had to squeeze through a myriad of panicked people that were starting to loss their calm. All the children could hear were a multitude of shouts, cries, pained groans, and screeches all around them.
Mari gritted his teeth as the bad feeling coming from the direction behind them grew dense and settled like weathered stone.
In the center there were three mystics sitting on the ground in a meditative pose with their eyes closed off from the world. But this did nothing to stop them from understanding the situation around them.
One of them let his peak second realm aura leak out and coil around in waves to form a azure red mist that seeped out killing intent.
This quickly quieted the crowd, but the fear in their hearts only deepened its roots in their bodily cores.
"Hey now, make sure you don't use up too much energy. We'll be back outside before long." One of the mystics advised the second realm practitioner.
The man snorted before retracting his energy.
"Useless they are. All of them would be feeding crows already if it weren't for us and Madame Makoiri protecting them."
"Hey now c'mon, don't you start talking like that. We need to get back out there and stop this madness, don't forget this is your home to." A young woman reminded the man who reluctantly put aside his frustrations and stood up.
"Alright I got at least half of my energy back, this'll have to do." The man spoke with confidence as the other two mystics stood up as well.
The man turned to leave until he saw the old man with the dead bodies out of the corner of his eye.
"Hey! Old man those are corpses you're clutching."
The man approached the old man and tried to drag him away from the dead bodies. The old man struggled and muttered out softly in clear protest.
What both of them failed to perceive was the body of the alleged son's left hand was moving ever so slightly.
If the mystic was looking closely he would recognize the hand movement to be hand signs for art casting.
Only at the periphery did he see the movement.
But it was already too late.
["Formation Art: Hear No Evil."]
It was like this that in the moment that chant was spoken, it would be the last thing anyone inside that dome would hear before a deafening silence.
The mystic moved his mouth to talk but no words would come out. While he was stunned the figure on the ground stood up with a casual demeanor, as though he were rising after a long rest. He stretched his arms up and let out a yawn.
The mystic jumped back at least 50 meters away from the enemy mystic. The two other mystics soon ran up to stand beside the second realm mystic after a moment of still rigidity.
The surrounding people began to panic once more with the only difference being that no noise of their panic could be heard.
"Wait, this must be one of the enemy attackers, but since when did he infiltrate the town?"
The mystic's mind was spinning every gear to understand what was happening until.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
A round of clapping could be heard by all inside the earth dome, this froze all in their place as they stared wide eyed at the one who sealed all sound.
All hundreds of these young and old souls stood silent and upright, like a bunch of mahogany mannequins being lead by the strings of fate.
"To all of those living or otherwise in this lovely scene, there is something that you must know before what happens next."
The man spoke like a true spokesman with a kind of levity that could guide the wicked hearted to rest easy under that bright smile.
"What you've experienced so far from the attack made by my brother men, is nothing compared to what I shall do to you, but first."
He stopped speaking as he reached a hand into his shadow and started pulling something out. It was a large Kaskura that had various golden engravings along the sword that was shining brightly.
The mystics had been trying to move all the while but found themselves stuck to their spot like stone.
The peak second realm practitioner circulated his spiritual energy repeatedly in order to counter act the formation art's power. His muscles bulged intensely as veins looked as though they were moments away from popping.
The enemy mystic seeing this bent his leg back slightly, infused some spiritual energy into said leg, and dissappeared from sight. In his place the ground formed a small crater with dust flying around like a mini haboob.
"Peak second realm! Dammit, and he's got a juju weapon with him to!"
He managed to free himself but the enemy mystic had crossed 50 meters in less than the blink of an eye and was already upon him with the sword thrusting forward at his neck.
"No time to dodge or reinforce, shit!"
Even with this his body acted faster than the mind could follow, and before he knew it he grabbed one of the mystics that were beside him and used them like a shield to block the attack.
Swish!
A visceral wet noise of pierced flesh was what everyone heard. And what they saw was a young woman being stabbed through the chest in place of an older burly man. His face dawned a look of horror and shame.
Meanwhile the perpetrator of this violence for a moment was genuinely surprised before he shifted to a fiercely malevolent smile.
"Ggrrgl!"
The sword pieced deeper into the woman's body as she let out a ghastly series of cries and gurgles. Blood seeped down her brown skin in waves as she turned her head around to look at the one who offered up her life in exchange for his own.
Her eyes were wide and white with a bloodshot tint along the edges.
The man gritted his teeth as he looked deep into that gaze with a growing frustration.
She moved her lips to speak but no words came out. The attacking mystic performed a handsign and took away the restriction on her.
"You may speak your final words," the mystic said with a most terrible glee in his tone.
She turned her head to face her killer eye to eye.
In her spiritual core she gathered not only all of her remaining spiritual energy, but also her dwindling life energy as well.
She said only one word,"bang."
A sudden blast of energy burst out from the woman who turned into a bloody mist instantly. The force had the power of a mid second realm art, blasting back everyone within a 25 meter radius.
At that moment the formation was broken, unsealing sound and movement.
Scores of people were sent flying, tumbling, and crashing into other people like a barrage of coconuts falling from the palm tree. Only these were frail helpless humans who screamed in terror and horror as they broke bones, twisted limbs, and gored themselves against the jagged walls.
One woman clutching her baby was killed on impact as her skull was cracked open like a grape against the stone walls. Her baby fell down into the panicking mob, crying louder than any day in its short life. But these cries would be short lived as its small and tiny body was stomped into the soil as people were running about all over in their desperate flight for survival.
A young teen boy and his sister were both sent flying into the back of an elderly woman. The impact of the tremendous blow crushed the lady's spine and pushed her to the ground, never to stand again. The teens got up and quickly found themselves beset by the old woman's angry family. They were dragged around by their hair and kicked, stomped, and punched on until they to were left unable to stand.
The violence spread like an infection through the crowd of hundreds. Rampant and unstoppable it moved through the hordes of humans, turning them no better than the beasts.
Sade and her brother stood at the opposite end of the dome, absorbing the violence unfolding before their eyes. Friends, acquaintances, and figures they looked up to we're either dying in droves or descending into a violent crazed frenzy.
"Hahaha!
That's right, kill each other!
Kill each other you animals!
Kill him!
Bite him!
Cut out her tongue!
Eat their hearts!
Hahaha, ohhh goodness above the brothers would just love this!"
The enemy mystic was nearly embedded into the stone walls but he was mocking and laughing with the ferver of a hyena who caught a weak pray.
While laughing he was holding his stomach tightly in order to keep his guts from falling out. The blast had broken his concentration on maintaining the formation art. Yet even now
But after some scouting and divination, Akeem's group managed to predict a similar outcome to the present.
Kazi took it upon himself to infiltrate the town. Naturally this had to be done while Aye and the other third realm experts were preoccupied with the attack.
He waited until Aye and the other strong defenders were trapped inside Dakari's domain. then he quickly slipped inside the settlement and killed an unsuspecting young man secretly in order to assume his appearance.
Kazi then after could only wait for a chance to present itself and it did in the form of an old man who had lost his mind during the calamity.
"Hehehe! It was almost too perfect to be true. I'm glad that girl blew herself to bits, now I'm up."
He slowly stood up with one hand holding his grievous wound while the other held the Kaskura tightly. Around him was chaos and mayhem but Kazi knew better then to assume he was in the clear.
He took one step forward and swung his sword, cutting the head off a panicking teen. An angry man tried to stab him with a knife only to end up being stabbed himself through his neck. Even so the man would never know how he died for Kazi moved swiftly like a harsh wind as he cut down more and more people.
"Noooo!"
An enraged howl came from the opposite side of the dome as blood red energy coiled around to form the shape of an Ox. The battered and bloody second realm mystic stood up with his eyes covered by swaying shadows of his locks. His clothes were hanging on by single strands at this point but his body was is a better state than Kazi who looked over with an annoyed expression.
"Of course you have to be a damn strength art practitioner and have a manifestation to! But so what, it won't matter, you're all gonna die one way or another!"
["Mystic Art: Sinking Depths."]
Kazi sunk into the ground as he become the shadow of a nearby child who was running in the direction of the other first realm mystic. Who himself was being beset by an angry mob.
"Damn all of you! After everything we do for you, this is how you repay us?!" The young mystic was wounded horribly with a broken arm and deep cuts yet even so he was still beating the angry mob with his reminding hand and feet.
The second realm saw the shadow that Kazi assumed the shape of and gave chase. He sped past many people faster than what could be perceived by the naked eye. The ox hovered over the man to increase the speed of his charge further.
In a flash he crossed over 100 feet and reached the young child who looked back to see an enormous man with the shape of a red Ox hovering above, like a fallen deity.
Bam!
A fist came crashing down at the young boy's shadow. Said shadow quickly hopped itself into someone else's shadow. The dust and debris along with the timing of the escape made it so that for the moment the second realm mystic lost track of Kazi.
"Dammit where'd he go?!" He yelled as he shoved the frightened boy out of his way. A couple of moments passed as he tried to sense anything sign of Kasi but to no avail. With a wave of his arm the dust cloud was brushed aside as the surroundings revealed themselves once again.
The first realm mystic had beaten the angry mob to unconscious then quickly started running towards the second realm mystic.
"Stop!"
The older man flared his Ox manifestation, stopping the young mystic in his tracks. Not just him but everyone still alive inside the earth dome halted their movements.
"S-sir, what is this?! Why are you treating me with suspicion?!"
"You ought to have an idea young man.
That sick bastard can hop into shadows, that must have been how he got past our senses once Madame Makoiri and the others engaged the enemy."
The young man's eyes widened in realization of the situation. He looked around with eyes full of suspicion and weariness.
"Nobody move until I say so! I'll be damned a little bastard that hides from light gets away with his life!"
Everyone did as they were told as they all had a moment to take in the bloody scene around them. In just around a minute nearly a hundred people had been killed during the panic, and yet many more may die still.