Infinite Classes in the Apocalypse

Chapter 83: Siege of the Citadel 1

"I knew you’d see reason," Eve said suddenly, but Damon completely ignored her.

Nyla looked like she wanted to say something, her jaw clenched tight, but she swallowed it down. The other group members exchanged questioning looks, which Damon half answered.

"She’ll support from the back. Long range with her revolver, so she stays out of direct contact unless necessary." His tone made it sound less like an introduction and more like a warning.

As he spoke, he caught Torren staring at Eve with barely concealed displeasure — the kind that wasn’t performed for an audience. It was too instinctive, too personal.

’He’s not happy she’s joining.’

His reaction back in the meeting room and again just now made one thing clear: if Eve was running some kind of play, Torren wasn’t part of it. He hadn’t been let in.

Of course, there was always the possibility that even his reactions were planned, that the displeasure was just another layer of the performance. But before Damon’s thoughts could spiral any deeper into the conspiracy theories knotting in his head, a sudden movement at the top of the station stairs pulled everyone’s attention.

The first thing they noticed was the hair, its red, unmistakable colour was a stark contrast against the concrete wall.

Ivy ascended the steps with casual ease. Her group followed close behind her, their expressions set and certain, the kind worn by people who’d already made peace with where they were going.

As her whole body came into view, Damon instantly noticed that she was dressed differently than he’d seen her so far.

She was wearing a simple, black robe, but a simple glance would tell almost anyone that it wasn’t an ordinary item.

The fabric had a certain stillness to it that no material on Earth could match, and the way wind moved through it looked completely unnatural.

There was only one explanation as to why, it was a Relic.

Ivy’s eyes found Damon before she’d even crossed half the distance.

She didn’t scan the group or take in her surroundings the way most people would. She just looked directly at him, heeled boots clicking in a steady rhythm against the ground as she closed the gap between them.

"Damon." She started with a simple greeting, just a quick nod and a faint smile.

But behind that smile, Damon could see a weight, hidden in her stoic features yet visible in the tension in her posture and the tightness around her eyes.

As the leader of the human coalition at the Central Station, everyone looked up to her for answers, and now, everyone back in the station expected her to capture the citadel for their sakes.

’Cowards,’ he thought, thinking for a moment about those who simply waited at the station hoping for someone else to save them.

Then, he turned his attention toward Ivy. "You ready?"

She took a brief glance at the people behind them, doing a quiet headcount of their numbers before responding. "Yeah..."

A moment of silence passed between them, not uncomfortable, just the silence of two people who knew very well what they were about to do.

But that silence wouldn’t last long as Victor suddenly approached them.

"I guess it’s just Theodore left." He said as he appeared at Damon’s shoulder, scanning the streets behind Ivy’s group with mild impatience. "He should be here soon..."

Ivy opened her mouth to respond, but before she had a chance to, a sound of heavy footsteps suddenly reached them.

Theodore was the last to arrive.

Nearly thirty people followed in his wake, clearly more than he’d intended to bring. But knowing him, Damon figured he hadn’t exactly planned to bring any specific number. He’d probably just turned around at some point and told whoever was nearby to follow, and this was the result.

By the time Theodore’s group settled into place, midnight had come. And so the march toward the Citadel’s teleportation device began.

They moved through the streets like a slow tide, filling entire roads from one side to the other. The leaders walked at the front, each with their group trailing behind them in loose but purposeful formation.

The city around them was quiet, it was a silence they knew well and just like every time since the arrival of mana, it didn’t last long.

The first group of monsters that found them by scent were four Evolved Fire Hounds that broke from the shadows between buildings with the kind of confidence that came from never having encountered real resistance.

Unfortunately for them, the mindless creatures didn’t get a chance to learn from the mistakes, as the human army killed them in seconds. The second group of monsters to attack them was six Evolved Undead Humans. They were put down even faster than the hounds, shot down by arrows before they could pose any threat.

The human army never broke a stride, their march continuing even through the meaningless attacks from small groups of monsters.

Eventually, the teleportation device came into view.

For those seeing it for the first time, the reaction was almost always the same, a flicker of surprise, followed almost immediately by disappointment.

It was a small, circular podium that looked completely unremarkable. It could hold six people comfortably. Maybe seven, if they didn’t mind standing close.

That was exactly the main problem of the siege, the logistics of transporting the large number of humans up there.

A group of 70 humans had a chance to kill almost anything, but a group of six or seven people would be killed by enemy archers before the second group could arrive.

That’s exactly why Damon had gone out of his way to recruit the twins. Their barrier abilities would play the most important role in the first part of the siege, allowing everyone else to arrive.

A silence settled over the leaders as they stood before the teleportation device. No one spoke. Each of them had somewhere else in their head, running through whatever they needed to run through before something like this.

As he looked around, Damon saw doubt settle on the features of the other group leaders. Even Ivy, who had been a leader for the longest time, remained silent.

Damon quickly realised how dangerous that hesitation can be to the people charging into the battle behind them, and so he stepped forward, his voice filled with calm confidence as he spoke.

"The battle ahead of us is deadly. Many of you will die, and so if you wish to run... I don’t blame you..."

A low murmur spread through the crowd of people, some even taking a couple of hesitant steps as if truly debating leaving, but Damon quickly continued.

"Of course, those of you who do run... I will hunt you down myself."

Those who debated leaving stopped in their tracks. They all heard the rumours about the man who killed his best friend, and so through their heads a simple reasoning resounded: If he would kill his best friend, why wouldn’t he kill those who try to run away?

Any hesitation that was among the army of people vanished in an instant, and with it, the siege could now begin.