Captain Crane charged into the heart of the chaos, his squad fanning out behind him. "Kenzo! Troopers! Shield wall! Protect the civilians moving towards the old mill – that's our rally point! Ishikawa! Sato! Covering fire! Prioritize the flyers and those damned bugs!" His voice cut through the roar of battle, imposing order on the panicked scene.
His predictive eye was a storm of flickering, overlapping futures – a claw swipe from the left, a Goblin lunging from the right, fire raining from above. He processed it instantly, reacting microseconds ahead. His Storm-Forged sword crackled with lightning as he deflected a Grak's axe swing, the shock staggering the brute, before driving the blade through its thick hide. He spun, his sword a blur, cutting down two Goblins trying to flank Kenzo's shield line.
"Too many!" Ishikawa yelled, loosing arrows as fast as she could draw, dropping one of the leathery flyers from the sky. "Feels like the damned frontier all over again! Maybe worse!"
"Where are they even coming from?" Sato shouted, firing his own crossbow into the insectoid horrors crawling from the holes. "The borders are supposed to be secure! How did this horde get through?"
One of the troopers beside Kenzo screamed as a chitinous claw ripped through his shield and armor. He went down, gurgling. The second trooper moved to cover the gap but was incinerated by a blast of fire from another swooping flyer.
"Eyes front! Focus!" Kenzo bellowed, planting his shield firmly, absorbing a heavy blow from a Grak. "Talk later, fight now!" He shoved his shield forward, creating an opening for Sato to land a solid hit.
Elias moved like a whirlwind, his eye giving him the edge against the stronger Grak and the unpredictable insectoids. He saw the Grak swing before it happened, dodged, and used the lightning stored in his blade – a crackling discharge that left the creature spasming on the ground. He cut down another insectoid, its carapace surprisingly tough. The pressure was immense, relentless.
Suddenly, three streaks of dark energy slammed down from the sky, impacting the flyers. One exploded messily, another spiraled down trailing smoke. "What in the hells was that?" Elias muttered, glancing up, but seeing only clouds. Before he could process it, the smoking flyer plummeted directly towards a group of villagers Kenzo was trying to shield.
No time to think. Elias shouting, "Lightning Strike!" He poured his will into the Storm-Forged sword, unleashing its full stored charge. A brilliant fork of lightning erupted from the blade, striking the falling creature mid-air. There was a deafening crackle, and the flyer disintegrated into superheated dust and ash, raining harmlessly down instead of crushing the villagers below. Now his swords need time to cooldown. He used all of its mana.
The brief respite was shattered by Kenzo's grim voice. "Captain! They're still coming! Too many!"
Ishikawa added, her voice tight with strain as she nocked another arrow, "We can't hold them all, sir. At this rate... we'll all die here."