Chapter 275 — After the Battle
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 3
Though the final turn of events had somewhat exceeded Gao Yang's expectations, the overall outcome of the battle was still more or less as he had anticipated. A mere two or three thousand aberrations could no longer threaten Cecil Territory, which had established a complete defensive network—and even the appearance of never-before-seen mutant individuals among the aberrations had not changed that outcome.
But even having successfully repelled this wave of the enemy's assault, they could not simply let down their guard.
The emergence of never-before-seen mutant individuals among the aberrations was itself a rather bad sign, and the intelligent tendencies of those mutants were even more unsettling. What had caused their mutation? Was such mutation widespread? Would it continue to develop? The monsters that appeared this time had only limited intelligence and were few in number—but what about next time? And the time after that?
The soldiers began clearing the city wall. Since the enemy had never gained the wall top, there were no fatalities in this battle, but some soldiers had still been struck by the enemy's corrosive energy arrows and wounded. Enchanted armor, or armor bearing magical effects such as the Breeze Shield, could effectively resist the aberrations' corrosive energy—but such resistance was limited. Wounds inflicted by corrupted magic energy had to be treated promptly; otherwise, even a light injury could prove fatal.
Gao Yang stood at the edge of the wall, looking down at the battlefield below, still covered in flames and corrupting energy.
Thousands of aberrations lay fallen across the small plain that the thunderous explosions had plowed open. Their filthy, blasphemous flesh was rapidly dissipating and weathering away, turning into the most primal magical energy of nature, while their remaining enormous blood-red skeletons billowed thick smoke from the craters. The corrupting magic energy the aberrations carried had stained the soil an ominous dark brown, and even after the battle had ended, that dark brown had not yet faded.
This was only short-term contamination; the corrupting force would not remain in the land for long, but it would still take some time to dissipate. Based on the experience of the last monster siege (and on the memories of Gao Yang Cecil), the residual corrupting magic energy in the soil would need several days to break down to a level harmless to humans. Until then, the small plain outside the southern wall was clearly no longer suitable for human activity, and some engineering projects would inevitably be affected.
Just as Gao Yang was considering the territory's next steps for recovery and production adjustments, a faintly cool yet not biting breath, tinged with a slight dampness, suddenly appeared—and then a thread of rain fell upon his hair.
Rain? Rain in the Month of Mist?
Gao Yang looked up in astonishment and extended his palm. Threads of rain were indeed falling from the sky, and the rain seemed to brim with a shimmering blue radiance. Where these "raindrops" struck a person, far from bringing the discomfort of piercing cold, they swiftly restored the stamina of everyone on the wall, purified the residual corrupting magic in the air—and even the land beyond the wall, tainted by the breath of the magic tide, was recovering at a speed visible to the naked eye as the rain fell!
Rain falling in winter could never be a natural phenomenon. Gao Yang turned his head at once, sensing something, and sure enough saw a slender figure climbing onto the wall from there. Tire was like a water nymph shrouded in a dense, misty haze; she spread her arms wide, and powerful water elemental force formed long, faint threads behind her that rose straight toward the heavens. It was as if she were plucking the strings of heaven and earth, or as if a pair of breathtaking wings had unfolded behind her—and behind this siren was a tail, wriggling along in arches...