For just a moment, the knights were winning. The gate had opened over sea, and many of the beasts that stumbled through the way, flailed helplessly in the churning waves. Creatures that were scaled and had too-heavy limbs sank down into the depths, drowning before they even tasted blood.
Others were less deterred. Creatures with thick and powerful tails swam to the docks and dragged themselves onto the slippery wood, using terrible claws that made awful scraping sounds. The knights met these foes blade for blade, locking shields in tight phalanxes.
Then a low thrum of power filled the air, pulse of energy that made the waters tremble and seemed to make the sky itself hold its breath. Mana, with unfathomable power surged outward from the gate, forming into an undulating wall of raw energy that slammed into both knights and mages.
Ren was thrown back a step, creaking armor finally bracing. All about him men staggered, shields shivering in their hands. Some fell to their knees, the sheer weight of the pulse robbing their lungs of ability.
From the roiling dark of the gate, new shapes shield-like emerged--winged beasts with talons curled like hooks and beaks glinted black with cruel hunger. They spiraled into the air upon shrill cries diving dangerously towards the knights below.
One knight had been snatched from the rank, his scream following in the beast's wake as it carried him high into the air, then dropped him into the sea. Another was pulled from the ground, and the crack of bone could be heard through the roar of battle.
Ren raised his sword high and called out above the cacophony. "Hold! Hold the line!" he shouted and, "We cannot break now!"
Immediately upon his call, the mages arrived, Varin, clad in blue with his cloak flying, leading them. They raised their staffs, whirling with spells that erupted into the air, bolts of fire and lightning screeching and burning and flashing as they ripped across the sky and blasted another winged beast out of the air.
"Ren!" Varin called, his voice hoarse. "The Marquis is waiting for reinforcements from the Duke and in the capital. We must just hold until a Grand Knight or Grand Mage arrives!"
Ren bit down hard to tighten his jaw. "We will hold," he said grimly. "There is no alternative."
But Varin had not a moment to reply, as a young mage yelled, "Incoming! A huge mana wave—!"
The whole world seemed paralyzed. A rush of power - ancient and cold - gushed out from the gate. The mana in the atmosphere twisted and turned, siding towards the rift of dark energy like iron fillings to an unguarded magnet. The knights and mages swayed unsteady in forms of delusional fury, breathless under the pressure weighing them to the ground.
And then it came.
A figure larger than anything any of them fathom emerged from the shimming darkness as if a breach out of some portal. Its head was of a skull of a monstrous predator: long jaws with teeth shimmering with ethereal starlight, resting on a massive body one could only picture was the weight of a mountain covered in thick scales that shined like water on stone - a continuous weight fluid in motion, rippling glimmers erupting with force of raw power, expelling waves of energy churning the environment around as it trudged forward.
The oceans parted or them, waves crashing backwards, gathering momentum as it drew breath. Breath that sucked in the very mana of the world. The creature stood up with each inhalation - glows brightening on its scales until it stood a massive mountain of death.
Ren stared in astonishment, feeling horror growing in awe. Knights that stood before lesser beasts, ran. They dropped their swords, napping fingers seemed to now paralyze in existential contemplation.
But the winged beasts did not escape. The massive creature bit one out of the air with wet crunch of crushed bones and flesh. Another beast attempted to flee and was torn from the air with a lazy swipe of one of the beast's claws.
Varin raised his staff, white face betraying alarm frozen onto his features. "Ren—we have to fall back!" he shouted. "We can't fight that!"
Ren's mind raced, not a moment of hesitation passing before he dove forward and grabbed a young mage who found himself falling when the whole port started shaking and cracking under the weight of the beast.
"Get up!" Ren snapped, urging the mage to his feet. "We hold the line."
Just then, the beast turned its head; its burning eyes locking onto the minute forms of the humans below. It roared—a sound that was half hunger and half victory. Mana began pouring out of the jaws of the monster in a violent wave of destruction. The stone work of the port shattered instantaneously, splinters of wood erupted from the piers, wooden planks flying away, knights and mages flying as though they were without weight.
Ren rose, his sword still in hand, as the beast's gaze fell upon them. Around him, the air stank of blood and salt and the cold iron tang of fear.