Moonlight provided little illumination as Victor walked along the perimeter of the village, clad in leather armour with a spear in hand.Once in a while, he would pass other guards patrolling the wall. They would exchange glances before continuing on their way.
He couldn’t wait to be done with his shift and return to the barracks to continue playing cards with the others. What bad luck for his turn to come just when he started winning!
The village was unusually quiet, as it was the middle of the night, with morning still a few hours away. Victor glanced toward the forest every so often, scanning for any signs of movement. He might grumble about his duties, but when it came to fulfilling them, he was diligent.
Despite the darkness, his Night Vision skill allowed him to see as clearly as in daylight. So, when kobolds burst from the forest, sprinting across the grasslands toward the village, he immediately knew something was wrong.
He shouted, “Sound the alarms! Monsters—an army of them!” before sprinting toward the village walls.
The wooden barrier, barely two and a half meters high, wasn’t much, but it was still better than facing hundreds of bloodthirsty, dog-faced monsters out in the open.
As he ran, he heard the tell-tale clang of bells ringing from the outposts, likely waking every last villager. He reached the gates ahead of the kobolds and rushed inside with the other guards, retreating to the relative safety of the village.
The doors slammed shut behind him.
“I want every single one of you on the walls this instant!” Victor heard Tom’s voice cut through the night, already taking command. His words carried a flood of determination, resolve, and the sheer will to protect.
He must have empowered his command with a Leadership skill, Victor thought, rushing to take his place on the wall.
…
Peter woke up to the sound of bells ringing and people shouting. A burst of Undying Vitality cleared away any trace of sleep fatigue as he climbed out of bed.
He spread his Mana Sense through Aunt Amelia’s house and immediately picked up a fast-approaching female figure, moving swiftly toward his room. He didn’t have to wait long. Mariah opened the door and rushed inside.
“What’s happening?” he asked, catching the grim look on her face.
“The village is under attack,” Mariah said, handing him his leather armour. Sensing the urgency, Peter asked no further questions and focused on putting on the armour.
“Meet me outside once you’re done changing. And keep your sword in hand,” she instructed before turning to leave, likely heading off to gear up herself. Worry itched on her face.
…
Peter followed his mother downstairs, finding Aunt Amelia anxiously waiting for them. She immediately turned toward them as they approached.
“It’s the kobolds. I must join the others right away to help the guards protect the walls—they’ll need my healing,” she said hurriedly. It was the first time Peter had seen the priestess look genuinely worried.
Her familiar sat two steps away, poised to defend her if needed.
“I know you’re not much of a fighter, Mariah,” Amelia said while heading for the door, with the pair following closely behind.
It was true. Unlike the village, cities had knights, adventurers, and large numbers of guards to protect their citizens behind solid stone walls.
“Everyone must play a part. I may not be able to fight, but someone has to watch the kids,” Mariah reasoned, volunteering for the task while others went to face the monsters and defend their home. She must stay strong. Especially with Joseph’s absence.
“Very well. I must take my leave, then,” the priestess of Avaris nodded, moving swiftly toward the village walls.
Peter glanced around and saw others emerging from their homes, donning similar leather armour and having similar discussions.
“Everyone! The guards need us on the walls. If kobolds get inside, no one will be safe!” Amelia roared, her soul flaring with supernatural intensity, magnifying her presence. She was no ordinary woman. As an unusual-grade class holder with a high Spirit stat, her soul was strong enough to affect reality when she imposed her will.
“Mariah has offered to take care of the children. Let us fight to protect them from these bloodthirsty lowlifes!” Her words had an immediate effect. Almost everyone with a class moved to join her, rushing to reinforce the village defences. Some mothers stayed behind, bringing their small children to Mariah for safety.
Peter stepped forward to follow his aunt, but Mariah gently rested her palm on his shoulder, stopping him. “You’ve only just gotten your class. Stay with me,” she pleaded, her voice almost breaking.This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
“But even David went. I can fight too,” Peter protested weakly.
“David is the youngest, and still three years older than you, Peter. Your father is already out there, fighting for both of us. You don’t need to do anything foolish. Stay with me.” The fate of her husband was unknown, she would not allow the same with her son.
…
Amelia patiently watched as Tom directed people to different posts based on their weapons and expertise, while kobolds constantly tried to scale the wall. Things were bad. The wall wouldn’t hold for much longer, despite them killing the hungry mutts.
The monsters kept coming from the forest, climbing atop the bodies of their dead brethren in a relentless effort to reach the humans above.
“Where is Joseph?” she asked, once Tom was done giving orders. The only reply she got was a dark look on his face. She could piece it together.
“So, he was in the woods?” she sighed, murmuring a prayer to the Trinity, hoping for a miracle.
Tom nodded, looking a decade older in just a few seconds. “With nineteen others. The chances of them surviving something like this…such a large gathering of sentient monsters, are next to nothing.”
Amelia sighed. “To think an undiscovered dungeon was hidden deep in the forest for so long and no one knew…”
“A dungeon, you say?” Tom probed, latching onto the word, hoping she could offer more information they could use to protect the village. Common folk might not be so aware, but as a priestess of the Church, she was far more educated on such matters.
“The only reason the wilds have an endless supply of monsters to throw at us,” she explained, “is because of the same dungeons we venture into to grow stronger.”
Tom listened patiently, even as his eyes remained on the wall, tracking movement.
“If a dungeon is left unchallenged, its monsters not culled periodically, it reaches a saturation point and expels everything it holds into the world at once. We call it a dungeon break.”
“Is that what you think happened?” Tom asked, frowning. “How many monsters does it expel at once?” He hoped the answer wasn’t a lot.
Amelia shook her head. “No one knows for sure. It depends on the mana density around the dungeon. But the stronger the monsters are, the fewer it release.”
“That would explain the presence of so many humanoid monsters this deep into the kingdom’s territory,” Tom nodded grimly as more kobolds poured from the forest.
“So far, we’re holding,” he continued, “but if they keep coming like this, we’ll run out of things to throw at them to stop them.” He didn’t say it out loud, but Amelia heard the unspoken fear in his voice…he dreaded the moment they’d be forced to throw people instead.
“What are you implying?” Amelia enquired, turning her full attention to him.
“We must at least try to send our kids to safety if things don’t get better. I want you to accompany them,” Tom said, making it clear he didn’t have much hope of turning the tide.
“Escape is not an option. Kobolds won’t let anyone get far,” she replied. “Do not fear. My eyes are my goddess’s eyes. She sees what I see, if she wishes to. Help is likely already on the way from the nearby city.”
Tom could tell she was more hopeful than certain, but he didn’t have a better plan. “Then we hold on until that help reaches us,” he said, choosing not to call her out.
He sighed. Twenty warriors were likely dead or missing, including Joseph. The village had half the fighters it did that evening. Sure, most adult villagers were now fighting, and they still had the relative safety of the wall…but they weren’t warriors. They were farmers, blacksmiths, and woodworkers. Most barely had a single combat-related skill.
Once the wall collapsed, it would be a massacre.
…
“Archers, fire at my command!” Tom shouted, his voice booming across the battlefield.
Victor’s eyes narrowed as he looked out from his position on the wall, watching ranged attackers prepare another volley of arrows.
“Form up!” Tom commanded again, his voice unyielding.
The warrior classes acted first, Victor among them, firing mana-charged arrows into the fray. He watched as another volley followed behind, not as effective as their arrows, but still doing some damage to the tide of monsters hell-bent on killing them at any cost.
Tina, Amelia’s tamed beast, stood on the wall a bit behind the humans. While the priestess focused on healing, her familiar also assisted by hurling fireballs at the kobolds to stop them from breaching the wall.
The fire cat had killed more of the dog-faced, two-legged beasts with her occasional blasts of fire magic than any single human so far.
“Another one!” Tom shouted again. Victor chose to ignore him this time, as he needed to recover enough mana first.
“Try to aim further! Kill as many as you can. We have to thin the herd before they join their brethren near the walls,” Tom added. Victor couldn’t fault the command.
While aiming further reduced their chances of killing, it at least minimised the risk of hitting their own. After all, most of them were amateurs without combat classes, let alone any marksmanship-related skills.
They were lucky the tribe only had regular kobolds to throw at them. Even a non-combat class human had enough physical stats to face one of them equally.
Maybe we can do this, Victor told himself. We’re outnumbered ten to one, but maybe we can at least hold until help arrives.
Tina fired another fireball. It shot through the air, glowing deep red from the compressed fire it held, landed in the middle of the horde, and decompressed, blasting a dozen kobolds into the air.
Even with that, more than eight hundred kobolds remained, and more were joining, surging toward the wall for the close-ranged fighters to struggle against.
“Do not falter!” the priestess shouted, her voice firm and commanding as she raised her healing staff. “We are adults, sworn to shield our young and our land from the foes that threaten to destroy us!” She pointed toward the kobolds beyond the walls.
“There they are! Just waiting for us to falter…waiting for the chance to enter our village! We are the only line of defence for our children.” Her gaze swept across the assembled men and women.
“Will we let them feast on our children as they desire?” she bellowed.
“NO!” Victor couldn’t help but join the chorus of a hundred voices as they roared back in unison.
“WILL WE FIGHT?” Amelia cried out, her presence towering over all others as a radiant silver glow surrounded her.
“YES!” they roared together, even as more kobolds tried to claw their way up the wall, their fingers digging into the wood. Victor felt his heartbeat quicken, the dread that gripped him a moment ago retreating to the back of his mind. This wasn’t a battle.
This was survival. It was going to be a slaughter…whether it ended with human corpses or kobold ones.
For now, it was the kobolds who were being mowed down. The villagers were fighting back hard. There were still injuries, and now and then, someone made a fatal mistake, and got pulled over the wall and into the waiting mob of monsters.
But for a while, the line held. Both sides pushed. Both sides bled.
Amelia healed all but the most minor wounds as quickly as she could. People still died, but that was unavoidable.
And then... things began to change.