After her journey into the great unknown Lucretia was gifted with many things. A powerful boon of many sorts to her body. She could feel the energies of the verse deep within her chest and it only seemed to drive her focus to protecting that of what was here on the small pristine jewel away from everything else.

Today. She knew or rather sensed something was going to happen, that something was going to come and disturb the peace. She couldn’t explain it but she was stuck on this feeling. Standing outside on the balcony overlooking the city she stared out with determination to stop the beasts when they arrived. To see what their targets were and how long she could work against them.

The first scream of surprise cut through the morning like a knife and alerted the demi-human to the vast swath of beasts that crawled out of the sewers. Small and multiple in number it seemed to her that she would be dealing with a horde rather than a few large ones. Smart to spread it out given their last… ‘fight’.

She’d hop off of the balcony; at first not seeming in a rush. But as she neared the ground she grew impatient, Spinning and using her spear to launch herself away from the rune knight headquarters. A place that felt just as much as a guard post as a prison to her sometimes. Like she wasn’t free to do what she needed to.

Each scream told her of a life lost and spurned her on. She had already stationed her knights throughout the district and she knew they’d be hard at work protecting the civilians. Hopefully they wouldn’t get overwhelmed by the numbers she could sense…

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The first swath of beast look closer to humans than she’d like, but their snapping crab claws and over the top beastial heads made for poor cover. She could see some of them possessed some level of intelligence as when she arrived they started to panic. Snorting a bit as they moved against her, Lucretia brought her spear around in a brutal arc catching them out and sending them flying away from her. Some crashed against buildings and other’s practically just exploded on the spot showering her with blood.

Quantity over quality indeed. She’d roll her shoulders and keep up on slaughtering the beasts as they came. The various homuncoli were nothing compared to the chimeras from before. Was this a completely different tactic or was this just an experiment to see how they’d fair? Either way it was a sick twisted way of spending life and lucretia wanted very little from this other than to save the people that were in danger.

Her presence was enough to let the civilians be aware of where it was safe. The fact of the matter that she was here at all was a pleasant surprise to be sure for some. As of late she had been strangely absent from the city. Much due to her own failing health not but a week earlier.

Her new appearance also startled some people due to the ease of her garb and the weapon she wielded. She was well known for her heavy garments and her powerful sword but this seemed… Strange somehow. Another swath of beasts were destroyed before she realized that the blood of the creatures were flowing up hills and into the drains rather than just pooling.

Was everything that was getting killed fueling something else? That didn’t bode well…

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The more beasts fell, the quicker lucretia began to notice the strange energy underneath the city. She’d grit her teeth a little bit as she knew that this wasn’t going to be easy in the long run. If something was building underneath using the blood of the other beings that was likely going to create a larger beast for them to have to deal with. But they simply could not ignore the host of creatures slaughtering the countryside.

Fighting with them and for every one slain she felt that energy grow several times over. She directed her knights to evacuate the city and focus on getting the civilians away from the beasts. Time passed and the day started to wane into the night. They had successfully evacuated the major centers of the city and the only ones remaining were the stragglers.

Her and her knights made an intense yet valiant effort to reduce the amount of casualties but they were inevitable. Sometimes they weren’t fast enough and others it was just too many people to protect and not enough knights. Lucretia herself was responsible for saving an sizeable group of civilians on her own, cutting down the beasts like they were simply pests to be exterminated.

As the day came to a close she realized that the green glow that was throughout the city was simply that of the magic of all the beasts they killed. It was practically pouring out of the place and she’d bite the inside of her cheek as the city gave a rumble…

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The rumbling gave way to a beast made of nightmares, multiple tendrils, clacking claws, glowing green eyes. It looked like a mesh of all the creatures that made the damn thing and then more. Lucretia adjusted her spear in her hands and stared at the creature as it screamed and bellowed into the night. Destroying buildings and even toppling a wall without too much effort behind it.

Kind of frustrating to her that this was what they were leading up to; the beast could simply move and crush many things underneath it. Which created a quick host of problems lucretia herself wasn’t sure what to do with. Scratching her head as she stood at least three streets over the demi-human eventually figured out the best course of action in regards to this massive beast.

It’s spanning girth was more of a problem than the others that they had fought before because simply approaching it would be dangerous. So she got a bunch of the stronger rune knights that were on station in one place. Explaining that she wanted them to funnel their magics together and create a powerful shot that would pierce it’s hide after her own strike weakened it.

After that second shot a third would be fired by a magical host that would be directed by the first two. The rune knights looked baffled at this idea and she simply explained that they would be pouring their magic into one person who would act as a conduit. Someone that could handle that. Ergo. They would be funneling that mana and magic into her.

Given that she had no inherent weaknesses to magic as arcane was an all around magic type with no strengths but no weaknesses either she was at least able to convince them to let her do this. Her power as a mage would also add to this fact.

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The first thing she would do was to fire her own weapon at the beast’s side; a powerful blow that would leave it reeling and open for the other two attacks that they would launch. Setting her stance in with her fellows behind her the demi-human fired off her most powerful beam attack from the spear. It pierced through the heavens and slammed all about the creatures body; rending many of it’s limbs and causing it to screech in pain.

She felt her mana quickly drain and set herself against the railing, gripping the device that would make the next two parts possible. It was an experimental device that held little promise other than directing mana. But used like this it would be a potent weapon. Unfortunately the maker of this device was gone as well as the research associated with it. But rather than collect dust Lucretia opted to use it to help save the city.

Her lead rune knights gripped onto her shoulders with one hand each. The ones behind them doing the same to those knights and so on and so forth. Eventually they had enough magical power together to launch a second attack much more powerful that the initial one. The group of knights practically collapsed and were taken to the side by their squires. The bolt of magic that was a rolling ball of every conceivable element slammed into the side of the monster. Cracking it’s carapace and leaving it wide open for the next attack.

Something fifty or so knights couldn’t accomplish on their own several hundred would be needed for. Forming a great circle with Lucretia and the device at the center the woman held it aloft and affixed her spear to it. Staring at the beast she’d pull the mana that was freely given from the host and with this catalyst launch a massive beam made out of pure energy towards its location.

It looked like something made out of the very star stuff in the sky. It was enough energy that not only did it obliterate the monster, it rent the very area and even demolished the wall behind it. Standing there for a moment almost every knight save for a few with more stamina seemed to collapse on the ground. Panting herself; lucretia would watch the device slowly disintegrate into nothing and shook her head in abject thanks to the long gone researcher responsible for the device.

”Messenger… start getting the knights not part of this operation… to get the citizens back into the city and start.. Reconstructing efforts once locations have been deemed safe…”

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