Beast tides.
Three times every year, on a three seemingly random days, for unknown reasons, beasts of unknown origins will rush towards illshard, they are always seen rushing from the Grand Mana Zone of Ice, (also known as the Illick Mountian Range) and there is no warning for the beginning of tide itself, but it takes a while for the manic beasts to reach town, so we have measures in place to give us our own warning, I'll go more in-depth about those measures later in this chapter.
A Beast Tide, is different from a single creature or a group of creatures, wandering near illshard in search of food, such events happen with semi regularity, and can be easily dissuaded with non lethal traps, and in some cases, mimicking the roars of a Dragon can scare most any sane animal off
Beast Tides, are -from what we have gathered- pinpoint, magically induced panic attacks, for lack of a better term.
The incursion does not come in small bursts, but rather, as a stampede more so a tsunami of terrified Mana-Born creatures running away from the Illick Mountian Range, and while in this state, they will not stop to eat you, they tend to trample you like a bug, or dig a hole into you if they're smaller.
What they are running from, and where such a thing is, are questions of some debate in illshard.
These Tides have been going on for about thirty three years at the time of writing this.
Expeditions have been attempted, to find the source of both the beasts and their fear, but all have been left on a wild goose chase, or much worse, lose their lives in the process.
One thing is certain, wherever the source is, the beasts are always first spotted rushing away from the Grand Mana Zone of Ice, also known as the Illick Mountain Range, for which this town was named after, it is, also been something of speculation, where exactly these creatures come from, as nearly none of the beasts could be considered native to Clover.
And often times, after the beast's fear subsides, they take up territory, some must be hunted down, due to their aggression, the imbalance they bring to an already very messy ecosystem, or simply because they had been infringing on Illshard itself too much.
This is predominantly why the Illshardian Guard exists, to protect the town, and stop the Tides in they're tracks, so these creatures cannot spill into Clover Kingdom proper.
A Tide will usually last anywhere from four to twelve hours, but there is no real telling when the fear will subside, and the real battle will begin.
If the beasts are too close to town after they're fear has abated, they tend to go into a near suicidal, murderous rage at the sight of any human, the reason for this fury, is also unknown, but what is known is that this reaction nearly always lessens over the course of about three days, if the animal in question does not come into contact with human beings in that time.
Any creature that breaches the walls of Illshard is to be killed on sight, because of the previously mentioned murderous rage the beasts are pushed to at the sight of any human.
The creatures range from stronger, larger variants of animals we have on record to spliced together abominations, more fit for the imagination of a disturbed child.
To keep up with the ever growing pile of monstrosities sent at us every few months, we extract as much as we can from these beasts, from turning claws into arrows and spear heads, to turning hides into armor, the bones into fertilizer, and of course, a whole slew of alchemical ingredients can be harvested from the organs.
For example, about one third of illshard's town wall had to be reconstructed with the shell of a massive steel-shelled tortoise that destroyed that part of the wall when it's tide came upon us.
A Tide's power is measured in two pairs of five difficulties, simply known as flames and classes, flames indicate how many beasts are in the tide, and classes determine the general strength of the hoard, these distinctions are listed below:
1. Red Flame: ten or less beasts.
2. Orange Flame: fifty or less beasts.
3. Yellow Flame: one hundred or less beasts.
4. White Flame: five hundred or less beasts.
And the classes are:
One horn: the majority of monsters are weak or should be of little issue but can still kill an unsuspecting person, don't let you're guard down.
Two horns : the majority of the monsters are of moderate strength, and are absolutely not be underestimated, remain inside until all beasts have been killed.
Three horns: the majority of the beasts are deadly, at this class, the town prepares to evacuate.
Four horns: majority of beasts are extremely deadly, multiple Titans likely, immediate evacuation required, Magic Knights notified.
Though, neither the Final flame, nor the Fifth horn, have ever been seen or sounded, so, they are both more a kin to doomsday scenarios that are simply used more as conjecture for the realm of impossible, nearly-guaranteed apocalyptic phenomena.
You might notice that in the center of town, there's a massive tower, it's the tallest building in illshard, and for good reason, we have a collection of towers just like it spreading from the town to the beginning of the Mountain Range's territory, this allows those posted at those towers to give the town advance warning of the flame and class of the Tide, via lighting the bonfire on each tower with the appropriate color, as well as sounding the appropriate number of horns, up to five horns to indicate the class of the Tide as well, so we typically have about an hour's worth of warning before the Tide reaches Illshard.
(Don't worry about anyone at those other outposts they're out of reach for most of the creatures, and the beasts will still be too fearful to heed anything like a loud noise, which is why we can't just use the dragon caller to stop the tides simply)
The ending of the Tide and the beginning of the true battle, when
And a third calling of the horns sound the end of that battle, and the true end to the ordeal.
But you aren't reading all of this conjecture just to follow the evacuation procedures or know some fun facts about Illshardian safety protocols, no, you think you're capable for the position of Hunter.
A Hunter's job is to kill beasts outside of the battlefield, and to then bring that carcass back to illshard, for the butcher to take care of, it's an extremely dangerous job in normal situations, but what about a Tide?
A hunter's job during a Tide is the same no matter the situation, trying to predict the path of the beasts, and turn that route into a trap ridden kill box, we also have the secondary job of resupplying the guard with ammo, food and also we bring wounded guards back to get them treated.
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- excerpt from the third chapter of 'Hunter's and Scout's Guidebook' by Allen Vale, and co-authored by Ravier Leato, on the Beast Tide phenomenon that occurs three times a year consistently to the border town of Illshard.
- - - -
I squeezed my eyes shut, they moisten as I rub at my eye lids, the stinging pain of keeping my eyes open so long had a headache starting up right behind my retinas.
Turning away from the pale blue light in front of me, I stretch out my arms above my head, the muscles in my arms and shoulders stretching in a most satisfying way, one that has me leaning back in my chair even more to get the most of the fleeting feeling.
I hear the door opening from behind me, and quickly lean forward and straighten my posture.
The clicking of heels on the cold metal flooring has my nerves on end, but as the sound grows closer, it suddenly stops, and my boss speaks at me in a commanding tone, "Talk to me." Her steely voice had a shiver go down my spine, as I knew she wouldn't like what I had to say next.
As I finally looked back at the collection of sky blue stasis pods, then down at the report on my desk… I take a shaky breath in, and try to soften the news. "T-the entire batch managed to get to tier two, b-but… the connection process failed, for all of them," my voice was unintentionally weak, I mentally cursed the tinge of fear there, but with what I knew of the consequences…
"So they're the same as usual…" She took a deep breath and sighed out, before growling out "how many more batches must be squandered before we get results?"
I remained silent, I could plead with her for more time, I could remind her how new this science is, but she already knew all of that.
"It doesn't matter, put this group with the others." A hand I knew all too well came to rest on my shoulder, as she leaned in and continued speaking in a menacing tone, "and let me remind you, the deadline has been shortened, you have one month to show the worth of this method, even one successful connection or a batch of anything higher than teir two, is enough, don't fail me." As she finished speaking, she squeezed my shoulder and let me go, then, she walked out of the room, slamming the door as she left.
I couldn't help but flinch at the clang of the door shutting.
Eyeing the permanently comatose test subjects in the tanks of raw mana, I took a deep breath, and sighed out as I stood up and pressed a button to my side.
How many times had I pressed that button?
How many more years would I?
If I don't get results soon, I won't be able to even think, let alone press a button like this…
The tanks opened in the bottom, and both the concentrated mana, and the test subjects collectively fall down the shoots, the ever present feeling of shame in my chest, got a little bit heavier.
One month…
- - - -
Within the furthest reaches of a seemingly limitless white void, hidden within the faint mist of ten million suppressed or discarded thoughts, stands a mirror like, faultess rectangular obelisk with no shadow or depth, more a kin to a painting.
But as this thing continues to exist, a soft knocking, echoes out from it, and a perfectly camouflaged door handle on it's surface, begins to rattle once more.
- - - -
That's it for this chapter, hope you had a good read.
Hopefully, arc two will be more coherent.