…
Sasha stood close to Victor, her father, waiting for her chance to contribute.
At the front, Adults with their higher levels battled against the encroaching horde. Their weapons flashed with mana as they sank their blades into the heads or hearts of the kobolds, kicking them back down from the top of the wall.
‘Come on,’ she gritted her teeth in impatience. ‘Let me kill those bastards too.’ She wasn’t the type to sit back and relax. Earlier, when her father needed to recover his mana, he’d let her take his position on the wall for a short while.
It had left her wanting more. Every slash, thrust, and stab was a step toward advancement. Something that she wanted more than anything.
If the villagers survived this battle, it would work wonders in increasing their levels, opening the path to higher-ranked classes for their Tier Two advancement.
She still needed to unlock plenty of skills to improve her build in Tier One, but those would be easy compared to the final hurdle she had to cross to advance. This battle would make that hurdle easier for anyone who survived.
The sound of steel clashing and human voices shouting reached her ears, and all it did was make her heartbeat quicken in excitement. Sasha gripped her beloved weapon tightly, watching for an opening. The anticipation was killing her.
She wasn’t afraid - how could she be? She wouldn’t have chosen the Warrior class in the first place if she were afraid of dying. She’d had the opportunity to become a Scholar. Gods, of all things....
Living inside the walls of a library, safe and distant from danger, it wasn’t meant for her. Noelle could have that sense of security.
Every Warrior, in her opinion, had to be a little insane. The path of advancement was never simple.
In thousands of years of human history, only three had ever ascended to godhood…yet people still threw themselves into duels with death every day. If that wasn’t insanity, then what was?
Their makeshift defences were effectively neutralising the kobolds’ numerical advantage, for now. But that wouldn’t last.
These greedy little bastards might not have been the smartest of beasts - canine, reptilian, or whatever mix they were - but they wouldn’t keep walking into a meat grinder forever. Already, they’d realised it, focusing their attacks on smaller, weaker spots in the wall instead of spreading out evenly.
Sooner or later, they’d pile enough dead bodies in those places to climb the wall with ease.
And when that happened...
Things were going to go sideways for villagers - fast.
The only thing holding all the non-combat classes together was the wall. Once it was breached, once the monsters were inside the village, everyone would stop thinking about the battle.
Everyone would start thinking about protecting themselves. As her mother used to say, humans were selfish creatures.
And in moments like this... That was truer than ever.
Suddenly, a spot opened up.
Uncle John wasn’t quick enough to push the kobold back. The creature slipped past his guard and landed a blow before he managed to kill it, forcing a pained hiss from his lips. But just as quickly as it happened, he was pulled back… Sasha surged forward to take his place.
He muttered a quick word of gratitude before walking back to get healed by Aunt Amelia, even as his health points slowly depleted, to start healing him on their own.
One moment, Sasha was standing behind the protective wall of her father’s broad back, and the next, she was facing down a snarling, bloodthirsty kobold. It was a head shorter than her, but easily matched her in weight.
The creature swiped at her with its left claw while its other hand clung to the wooden log of the wall, keeping itself latched there.
Sasha leaned back fluidly, like a phantom, easily dodging the attack before thrusting the tip of her beloved naginata toward the mutt’s skull. Her weapon pierced clean through, shattering bone and brain alike, draining the last of its health points in an instant.
A charged kick from her boot sent the dead kobold’s body crashing backwards into the mass of its brethren, knocking two more from the wall as they scrambled to avoid the falling corpse.
From the side, another kobold lunged at her, but Sasha was not alone. Her father was already there, his sword in motion before the creature even got close.
Steel bit into its neck, cleaving it clean through. The kobold's body toppled over the wall, its head barely hanging on by a thread of flesh. It might have survived for a few moments longer, but in their frenzy, its brethren crushed its throat beneath their clawed feet.
A fight of this scale was rare, especially in a place as remote as Simon Village. The village lay within the territory of a count of the kingdom. A monster tide happening here, under the safety of the kingdom’s inner walls, was unheard of.
This was the sort of chaos reserved for the border territories, the wild frontiers that separated the kingdom from the untamed lands beyond.
Every wasted second here was worth days of training. There was a world of difference between sparring and a real battle. The unpredictability. The ferocity. The weight of a life-or-death kill.
In a spar, the chance of true injury was next to nothing…but here? Every exchange could be her last. And the System knew that.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
Which was why it would count this battle as a feat.
Sasha refocused on her task, shoving aside all thoughts except two: kill her enemies, and live. She thrust, slashed, and counterattacked after every parry, as agile as her body would allow. And then even swiftly.
She felt the telltale signs, that distinct response from her skills, answering her call. Skill Immersion. It washed over her like slipping into cold, clear water… sharp, bracing, but invigorating.
It let her go above and beyond what flesh alone could manage. Her level fourteen Spearmanship {Naginata} and level six Phantom Stride worked together in perfect tandem, pushing her past the limits she thought bound her.
They dug deeper into her mastery, wrenching power and precision from her body, whether it could keep up or not. Every muscle tensed. Every tendon pulled tight like drawn wires.
Her naginata flashed, separating a dog-faced bastard’s head from its shoulders with terrifying speed, and before the corpse could fall, she tore the arm from another kobold mid-swing.
In that moment, Sasha and her skills moved as one.
And then, she felt it. A presence.
Not the overwhelming, all-consuming force most felt during a Skill High…but something subtler. Feather-light guidance. Like a trusted friend’s hand at her back, steering her just so.
Sasha grinned. And through her, her skills grinned.
Across the chaos, her father caught her eye, his brow creased with a quick flash of worry, before turning back to the slaughter. They fought like that for a while longer. Weapons delivering death with every arc, every step, every breath. Until a sharp shout from behind cut through the din, snapping their attention backwards.
…
“EVERYONE!” Vice-Captain Tom’s voice cut through the noise of battle.“DO NOT RETREAT - REINFORCE IT! WE CAN STILL HOLD THEM DOWN!”
Victor sighed, causing Sasha to glance at him.
“We’re retreating,” he told her, helping to create an opening for both of them.
“But he just said not to do exactly that,” Sasha said, confused. She could still fight.
“Look around, Sasha,” Victor replied, grabbing her arm and pulling her back with him.
She did as her father instructed, and quickly realised what he meant. All around her, others were already starting to fall back, step by step. It didn’t take long for her to understand why.
Sasha’s eyes widened. Her jaw clenched. Her grip on her spear tightened until it nearly hurt. The kobolds had finally broken past the wall and opened the gate for the rest of their kin to pour through.
The non-combat classers, without the safety of the wall at their backs, couldn’t hold them off like before.
She watched them scatter, fleeing from the beasts the moment they realised the defence had failed, leaving the kobolds free to hunt targets of their choosing. She couldn’t blame them. Life was precious.
They’re going for Aunt Amelia, she realised, retreating alongside her father. This was why sentient monsters were so terrifying. They knew exactly who to kill first. Twenty-something kobolds rushed at her as one.
Sasha watched as Vice-Captain Tom tried to stop them from harming the Priestess of Avaris. But he wasn’t Captain Joseph.
He might have been a good fighter, skilled enough to train the kids, but he didn’t have the kind of skills that focused on killing. He was more of a leader, best at commanding a group from behind, not someone built to fight twenty kobolds at once. They overwhelmed him in moments. The joint attack drove him to the ground, five kobolds piling on him… biting, clawing, tearing.
The rest charged forward, aiming to do the same to the priestess, but then her familiar jumped in between them. A fireball formed in her mouth, shooting across the distance and blasting apart the kobolds in front of her.
Magic bought them only a few more seconds. Every kobold froze, their attention shifting. And then they rushed, all of them, toward the cat and the tamer.
Tina snarled, her fur standing on end as she fired another fireball at a large cluster of dog-faced abominations, but the others had already closed the distance in that brief opening.
Sasha watched in abject horror as the two-legged beasts tore both the familiar and the tamer apart, ripping them into pieces, devouring them in savage bites.
Victor’s face mirrored her own, a mixture of shock and disbelief, but it didn’t last. That look quickly hardened into grim determination.
“Come with me. We must hide in a house and lock ourselves inside,” He urged her, pushing her deeper into the village.
“The more divided we are, the more chances for some of us to survive,” He said, taking her to a nearby house even as they heard screams filled with terror and despair mixed with pain from all around them.
…
David ran forward, huffing and puffing. His battle axe was long lost somewhere during the escape from the wall. He couldn’t bring himself to look back, putting everything he had into running as fast as he could.
Five kobolds chased behind him, unable to close the distance, but unwilling to give up the hunt.
David sniffed, fighting back tears, remembering how his father had sacrificed himself to give him a chance to find relative safety. His body felt sluggish and heavy, but he kept running.
He had been unlucky enough to run into this group of monsters after turning into an alley, searching desperately for a place to hide. Their mouths and parts of their bodies were still covered in human blood…leftovers from their last feast.
His body screamed for rest, but the fear of what had happened to Aunt Amelia, and to his father, happening to him... That fear kept his legs moving. He turned left, spotting a house with its door left open.
Hope sparked inside him when he saw who was there.
James.
And Paul.
"WAIT! LET ME IN TOO!" he shouted, desperate to get their attention… and attention was exactly what he got. But their reaction… It was nothing like what he expected.
They recognised him immediately, but then their eyes shifted to the monsters chasing behind him. And that was when David saw it. Their eyes widened in terror.
A dark, grim look overtook their faces, a mixture of pity... and shame, as they looked at him one last time. Then they shut the door on his approaching figure.
"NOOO! PLEASE! JAMES!!! PAUL!!! PLEASE LET ME IN!" David screamed, begging, tears streaming down his face. Eyes full of betrayal. Full of despair. His body shook, trembling in fear for what was about to come.
He rushed to the door, slamming his fists against the wooden surface… begging, pleading, calling out their names in growing desperation. But the door never opened.
Instead, he heard the unmistakable sound of furniture being dragged, wedged up against it from the other side. That was when David gave up.
Slowly, he turned, only to see the kobolds standing barely a meter away from him, watching the whole scene unfold with savage grins stretched across their twisted faces.
And David realised…they knew. They understood exactly what had just happened. And it only made them hungrier.
"PLEASE LET ME GO! PLEASE! DON’T KILL ME!" he cried, dropping to his knees, begging them like a child begging gods that wouldn’t listen. Fear made him do it.
The terrifying knowledge that they were far more intelligent than their crude appearances suggested made him do it.
The kobolds laughed in a high-pitched, nasal, almost mocking screech, hissing at him, sometimes chattering among themselves like they were enjoying a sick joke.
And then… they moved. Closing the distance. Intent on devouring him alive.
Panic ignited a long-buried survival instinct deep inside David, his frantic eyes darting, searching for anything, any possible escape.
In a last desperate bid, David bolted to the left. But the kobolds were faster. Stronger. More of them.
Clawed hands grabbed his shoulders, pulling him back, causing his balance to collapse, and he fell hard in front of the door that had betrayed him. The kobolds howled with laughter as he screamed, thrashing, even trying to bite one of them in blind terror.
But their thick, scaly hides shrugged it off like nothing.
One of them snarled, grabbing him by the neck, and began to drag him across the blood-stained pavement. It dragged him as close to the door as possible.
What happened next made James and Paul shiver, even from behind the relative safety of the barricaded door.