Defending Mel Faura.

"I'm giving you one last chance to surrender! Do so and I shall let you live."

The man floating atop the edge of the forest shouted. Though he's quite the distance away, all of us manning the walls can still clearly hear his voice.

Below him was a swarm of enraged looking monsters. I can see different types of E, D, and even a handful of C-Class monsters under his command and looking way scarier than usual.

Seems like he really can control monsters like those giant hawks, but still this is just plain old insane. What kind of person can control thousands of beasts like that.

I've heard some skilled monster tamers can control a couple of D and C-class but they're severely lacking compared to what this is.

Mostly due to this dangerous person making a public example of the 5 soldiers, along with the whole garrison in Mel-Faura mobilizing to defend the walls, some citizens decided to leave and evacuate to the nearest city Mel-Fina and Newa than try and test their luck in this precarious situation.

To combat this threat, Lord Andrew has employed the services of the adventurer guild within the city and even got the famous Mage Marthon Manylire to lend a helping hand.

The southern walls of Mel-Faura was fully manned. Packed to the brim of garrisoned soldiers and adventurers to help support.

A group of those adventurers who took on the job was our party Leafstalk.

Our group has 4 members, just barely requiring the quota to officially form an official party.

We have me and Stira as a warrior, Wana as our support mage, and our elven leader Hintara as a magic swordsman.

We formed our party 2 years ago and just last month, we achieved a B-rank title for our party.

"Hey Arnie, is that who I think it is?" Stira called to me, pointing at a group of adventurers from our far right.

We're just one of the dozens of party's to take the request for aid. The most famous one here is the A ranked party Immortal Swords.

They have 6 members with their leader being the famous newly ranked up AA adventurer, the demon kin archer Dwailan Tomi.

He has horns coming from the top of his head and the signature dark red eyes of the demon race.

You won't normally see a demon from this part of the continent and most of those that you will see are adventurers.

He got famous because of the quick rate of ascension up the ranks, with a few even starting to call him a cheater behind his back.

I mean, If my sources are correct, he did just become an adventurer around one and a half years ago, six months after we formed our Leafstalk party.

But the thing that made him even more famous is the rumored superior-grade bow he has on his back.

It was of a light green color with intricate carvings on the bow's limbs. The bow that was said to be crafted by the best forge master on Mirthala gave off an aura of awe and dominance just by looking at it.

"Yeah, yeah that's probably him Stira."

"That's so cool. Think I can ask for his bow?"

"That's probably not the smartest of idea."

"Really?"

"Yup, really."

They just got here in Mel-Faura for a quest but it looks like they stuck around for this one as well.

Together with Mage Marthon, the scary wave of monsters in front of us doesn't seem too frightening now at all.

And thinking logically here, taking control of that many beast will surely take a toll on your mana pool no matter how strong you are as a mage.

If we directly attack him when he decides to go through his dumb plan, we can easily take him out and finish up quickly.

The best move for him is to probably hide while his monster swarm attacks. But to this man's arrogance, he's still trying to show off by floating in the air exposed to ranged attacks.

"Hey you think you can shoot him from here Wana?"

"And have him make me the first target of that swarm? No way."

"Fair enough. How about you Hintara? Wanna take a pot shot at him?"

"Pass. can't really hit him from this distance, plus my ranged attacks really aren't that great anyways."

I try and ask them to start shooting him down while he's in the open but none of them looks like they want to give it a try.

I try to change the topic as we wait for our enemy to make a move. I remembered the thing he did a few minutes ago and decided bring it up.

"Aren't you guys curious about that thing he rang that suddenly brought a bunch of monsters below him."

I asked about what happened around 20 minutes ago where that man pulled out a bell like object from thin air and shook it lightly.

After that, a bunch of monsters came running out from the forest in a frenzy, we even thought he was going to start attacking us right then and there.

"It's probably some item that abled him to control so many monsters, I mean that would explain a lot wouldn't it?" Hintara answered.

"Well that would be an amazing item then."

"Yes it would."

Our party chit chated for a while as we properly position ourselves atop the walls, ensuring that we won't hinder the soldiers in front of us as we fight.

The walls are four and a half meters wide, allowing us to have a enough room to stand in behind the garrison.

The normal frontline soldiers were in front and us adventurers were placed behind to support them.

Mages and ballistas were prepped and ready at the tower's spaced along the walls. Archers were located on the ground behind the walls, receiving instructions on when to fire when the wave of monsters gets close.

Finally, there are the hundred or so soldiers mounted on giant hawks to combat flying foes and provide aerial spell bombardment.

The commanding officers ordered the final equipment checks as the two hour prep time he gave us draws to a close.

***

Two hours has passed since he gave his warning. everybody has their eyes locked at him, carefully studying his every move.

Suddenly, a massive spell circle appeared below him.

People all around us has shocked expressions written on their faces. All except for mages, their expression is that of fear.

"W-What the hell is that?"

Wana mumbled in shock as she looks at the same scene everybody's witnessing right now.

"Why? What's wrong?"

"The amount of mana that man is pouring into that spell is unbelievable! 'Spell Appraisal' can't detect what spell it is either! He's casting a high-tier spell or above, but just the sheer scale of it, that spell must be advanced, or even superior-tier!"

"Superior-tier?!"

As we were talking, the man finished casting his spell which affected the monsters below him.

The noises the monsters were making slowly grew quieter until no sound were heard from the hundreds, probably thousands of them bunched up and in close proximity together.

As we were looking at them, they too stared at us in a creepy coordinated matter.

"We should turn tail and run."

By the time Hintara said that, it was already too late.

The wave began to charge forward and another spell circle appeared before that man.

That person, Farhein as I recall, shot a small black projectile towards the wall we stood on.

The area where he shot at quickly turned to dust and the rest of the wall soon followed suit, causing everyone on the walls to fall in a pit of sand.

The 20 meter high wall in a blink of an eye, turned into a 5 meter mountain of dust. And just like that, the southern walls of Mel-Faura is no more.

Now a fall that high would normally kill a person or knock them out of business for a while.

Thankfully everybody there at that moment was trained in some way, having their body enhanced in ki, allowing them to at the very least, survive.

Still, some weren't very lucky. Although they're allive, a lot of them were injured by the fall, some even had bones sticking out of their skin while others crushed by the people falling on top of them.

"Is everyone okay?!" I shouted after we fell.

"Yeah I'm good."

"Same here."

"I think I sprained my wrist and broke my leg."

We look at Wana to notice the pained look on her face. We could tell that she wasn't as lucky like us.

Since Stira and I were warriors, we trained in ki and have it infused with our body, allowing us to fall scot free.

Hintara was a magic swordsman, the jack of all trades kind of guy that has both ki strengthening while being able to cast basic and low-tier spells.

Wana on the other hand was a full on mage. While everybody has ki and mana in their body, most mages don't train with ki at all, focusing solely on their mana.

the only reason Wana survived was because of the buff she casted on everyone of us before the battle called 'Enhance Toughness'.

All of the mages on the walls survived for the same reasons I guess, though a lot of them had the worst injuries from what I can see.

"Can you heal it?"

"My sprained wrist yes, but I think I broke a bone on my leg. My light magic isn't high enough to mend bones. The most I can do is use 'Numbess' to bear with the pain."

Stira went and checked to see if it was really broken. She carefully touched Wana's left calf to feel if everything's all right.

A glow came from her right hand, probing her leg with ki to see if anything is out of place.

"Yeah that's broken all right."

"Shit."

As we were organizing ourselves, a loud warning was made by a soldier atop the small sand dune that was formerly the southern wall.

"The monsters! They're attacking! everybody form up now!"

"Everyone let's go! Arnold, carry Wana and let's head back towards the northern wall!"

I quickly grabbed Wana in a princess carry and we try to sprint towards the northern wall in a hurry.

They were way to quick to arrive. The monster wave broke past the disorganized line and began their attack.

We manage to run for only for a small distance until we were stopped on our tracks when a horned wolf attacked Hintara out of nowhere.

He quickly blocked it with his sword and attempted to stab in in its head as a follow up counter, but to our surprise, it doged the blow by retreating backwards.

"What?"

"Do horned wolves do that?"

Horned wolves were D-class monsters known for their aggressiveness. They would normally just charge in and maul their enemy no matter the cost.

But this one not only retreated, but is even observing us carefully.

"Flame Shot!"

Wana casted a spell from her staff while I was carrying her.

The wolf doged it once more and even headed towards us, noticing I won't be able to fight back because of Wana.

It was blocked by Stira while Hintara went in for the kill.

He managed to stab in in the side but two more wolves came in to bite him back in his thigh and waist.

Stira managed to help him by stabbing the head of one of them while the other retreated.

"That hurts. what is up with these monsters they're too coordinated."

We got close to him as Wana began to cast 'Heal' on his wounds.

Eight more wolves join in to encircle us and now we're completely surrounded.

We look around to see that everybody is now fighting some sort of monster, it's too late to fall back now.

There were fighting from the ground and skies. Some soldiers mounted on giant hawks even tried to charge at the person that was the cause of this all.

Of course, it ended the way you'd expect, with them plummeting straight to the ground.

I gently dropped Wana behind me and prepare to fight. The three of us encircle our injured mage while we fight up front.

The horned wolves charge in once more and attacked us on all sides. We brace ourselves as Hintara and Wana fire off spells at the charging enemies.

We kept at them, slicing and stabbing as Wana healed and buffed us while we fight.

The wolves would come in to bite and retreat. They kept using this hit and run tactic over and over again while we remain cautious and maintain our formation.

A few grueling minutes pass and we eventually killed them all. Of course there are still hundreds of monsters around us l, but we managed to finished off those in front of us.

We were all slightly injured after the fight. Thanks to our support mage, we didn't suffer any major damage but still.

Not only are these horned wolves smarter, they're stronger too.

"W-what is up with these bunch?" asked Stira, still panting from exhaustion.

"That's not a just a D-class monster that's for sure!"

We could normally take on a whole pack of horned wolves that's on average sixteen, or even twenty and barely be injured, but now we're struggling against nine?!

Even as we just finished the wolves, we can already see a few more different types of monsters scouting us out, waiting for a chance to pounce at us.

There's other people you can target you know?!

"What do we do now?" I asked Hintara.

He thought about it for a bit before giving us orders.

"Stira, grab Wana and run, Arnold and I will stay and fight. Are you alright with that Arnold?"

"That's fine by me."

"Bullshit! you expect us to turn tail and run?"

"Look here, out of all of us, you're the strongest warrior in our party. Wana is injured and running low on mana, we need you to evacuate her and run."

Kinda hurts my feelings a bit since Stira and I share the same role, but what he said was true and I don't plan on saying otherwise.

Stira looks like she wants to say something but realizes Hintara's point.

"What are you saying? I can still fight!" rebutted Wana.

"No. If you run out of mana, you'll nothing be nothing more but an injured dead weight."

Harsh. But that's one of the reason he's our leader. He's blunt and firm when he needs to be, always making sure to think logically and always prioritizing our party's safety first.

Wana realizes this and begrudgingly accepts his conclusion.

"Fine, just don't die, both of you."

"We won't." I answered.

"Retreat up north, we'll meet back there."

"Got it."

Before they could leave Wana buffed us with 'Enhance Toughness' and 'Enhance Stamina' once more while healing us one last time before leaving.

Her mana pool is now running low, causing her to grow slightly lethargic.

"Good luck you two."

Stira gave Wana a piggyback ride and they both ran off to escape.

We didn't have time to watch them out of sight as a white-eyed bear came to have a taste of us.

"So Stira's stronger than me huh?"

"...just a little bit."

"Ouch."

We both chuckled as the bear swiped it's huge paws towards us.

We dodged the blow by quickly moving sidewards. A massive crack appeared on the road where his paw hit. We definitely won't survive being hit by that.

"Yup, the mosters are definitely stronger, a normal white-eyed bear can't do that."

Hintara nodded as he began to cast a spell.

"Vines!"

As Hintara casted the spell a few vines sprouted from the ground to hinder the bear's movement.

I used this opportunity and I infused ki into my sword, using 'Sword Strike' on the bear's back.

I managed to hit it but it but only a quarter of my sword went through.

The bear freed his arms from the entangling vines and swung his paws towards me as I barely manage to doge the attack.

Hintara used this chance to use 'Flash' towards the bears face and momentarily make it close it's eyes due to the sudden brightness and slash it's face in.

The bear turned his head away from the light and Hintara used the weapon arts 'Sword Slash' at the bears neck.

Once again the bear was only grazed by the attack.

He retreated away to avoid a deadly counter from the bear.

What happened instead was it charged towards him and sent him flying a couple of meters back into the air, hitting a wall and momentarily knocking him unconscious.

"Hey are you ok?!" I shouted at the laying Hintara.

The bear looked at me and charged.

Shit! I focused my mind and used the strongest weapon arts that I manage. I got into my stance and focused my ki to my arms, legs, back, and sword.

"Two flow strike!"

I sent two quick and powerful ki infused stabs to the bear's face. I managed to hit one of it's eyes while the other grazed his cheek.

Still the white-eyed bear continued it's charge and snatched my right arm holding my sword.

It held my arm and violently flung me around. I dropped my sword as my body was smashed to the ground multiple times.

I tried to punch it with my fist, even hoping to gouge one of it's eyes out with my fingers. But because of the immense pain and panic I probably just annoyed the bear even more.

It reaffirmed its grip on my arm and bit even harder the second time.

My right arm, starting from my elbow was mauled clean off. Blood spurted all around us as I quickly stood up and grabbed my fallen sword with my left arm.

The pain I was feeling was immense, my face was getting pale and vision blurry. I stood my ground as the white-eyed bear walked closer.

"Aaahhhhhh!"

Hintara screamed to draw the monster's attention away from me. He stabbed the bear with his sword and struck deep in its belly.

"Ice arrow!"

He pulled out his sword and casted a spell aimed at the eye I struck earlier.

It pierced the bear's head, causing it to fall limply to the ground.

We looked at the fallen white-eyed bear. This normally low C-class monster probably ranks on the high C or even low B. Can't believe the two of us even managed to beat it.

"I'm sorry." Says Hintara while looking at the missing part on my right hand

"No worries, I can get it reattached if the severed arm isn't too banged up."

"I'll help you pay for it."

"I'll take you up in that offer."

He used 'Numbness' on the point where my arm was bitten off and used 'Freeze' to stop the bleeding. Since Hintara can't use healing magic, this is the best he can do.

"Let's retreat, we can't fight in this state anymore."

"Agreed."

He grabbed my severed arm on the ground and helped me stand up.

We look up at the sky to see the famous Mage Marthon taking down monsters left and right with spells flying all around him. Monsters fell before him as he rush towards the actual monster that started this all.

As much as we both would like to stay and and spectate the fight, we decided to quickly retreat to relative safety.

Then, a ginormous spell circle appeared in the air once more. The thing was, it wasn't Farhein or even Mage Marthon who made it, it was a different person.

A woman wearing a full body suit of golden armor that gleamed under the sun. Her platinum blonde hair, flowing with the wind.

She closed her raised hand that made the spell and a massive flaming boulder headed straight towards the northern wall, exploding in fiery mayhem.

"H-hey, wasn't that where Stira and Wana went?" I asked, my voice quaking in fear.

He looks visibly shocked as well, but managed to collect his thoughts and remain positive.

"I-I'm sure they're fine, don- ughf!"

"?!"

The white-eyed bear that we thought we killed, managed to sneak up on us and bite Hintara in the nape.

We both had shocked look on our faces as the bear did to him what he did to me earlier.

He shook Hintara around like a doll.

I grabbed my sword and swung at it as best I could with my left.

This went on for ten or so seconds that felt like an eternity to me.

A dear friend of mine is being flung around by a monster biting on his neck.

He can't even struggle and fight back, here I am expecting the worst.

I eventually managed to kill the white-eyed bear by repeatedly stabbing it in the body.

Hintara fell limp to the ground.

I quickly knelt down and checked to see if he's alright.

My heart sank as I checked up on him.

Blood was splattered on his blank and lifeless face. His arm bent the wrong way and his neck barely connected to his body.

I lightly tapped his cheek as I beg him to wake up.

"Hey. Hey! HEY! Wake up goddammit!"

I tried infusing his wound with ki. It's not as good as even a low-tier healing spell but I'll take anything that helps.

I tried to stop the bleeding with my remaining left arm but blood just kept pouring out of his neck.

"No, this can't be happening."

I'm on my knees, confused, weak, and not knowing what to do.

I look up to see the oh so famous Mage Marthon stabbed in the stomach with a blood red sword by the armored woman.

We didn't notice this before but I'm seeing a few faceless humanoid monsters wearing full plate fighting, no, massacring soldiers and adventurers.

What are those? Why do I even care? Oh, one of them is approaching me.

It stood at around 200 cm. It's gray colored metal armor has blood splattered on the surface, obscuring the metallic sheen it normally has.

It stopped in front and looked directly at me. Though it has no mouth, eyes, or nose, I can tell that somehow it's staring right at me.

It doesn't even have skin if you look close enough, it just looks like a shiny rock shaped man.

I stared back at it, at this point, I don't really care what happens anymore. I look at the similarly bloody longsword at its hand and hope it'll be quick and painless.

I close my eyes and expected to be struck down at any moment. I waited for a while and opened my eyes when I didn't feel anything slashing me.

The monster was walking away from me, killing other adventurers that tries to fight it instead.

I collapsed on the ground with my friend's blood around me. Exhaustion, blood loss, fear, grief, as soon as I let go, my body fell unconscious.

***

I wake up in a wagon, bandaged up along side a few other injured men and women.

I tried to prop myself up with my right hand, only to realize that I didn't have one anymore.

"I'd remain laying down if I were you. we found you collapsed and almost dead due to blood loss."

An elderly dwarf was tending to an injured man with missing legs as he spoke to me.

"My friend? Where's my friend?"

"Friend? Oh you meant that corpse we found you laying besides? Sorry to break it to you kid but he's gone."

"Oh."

I stare blankly in space as I heard what the man just said. I can't feel anything, somehow I just can't believe that everything that happened actually did.

"How long was I out?"

"Around a day or so."

So it happened yesterday huh? Why am i still alive?

"Where are we heading? Did we win?"

The man chuckled before shaking his head sideways.

"We got destroyed kid. We thought we could hold out the monster wave but then those faceless knights appeared and fucked us all from the be-hind. Even Mage Marthon died in battle by the blade of that fire devil."

"Fire devil?"

"It's that woman who blew up the northern wall with that stupidly incomprehensible spell."

I remembered about the explosion and hurriedly asked for any survivors.

"No kid. everyone within 500 meters of the gate died immediately."

"No."

Tears fell from my face as my amputated arm aches more and more.

"Fu fu, at the very least that devil managed to find it in his heart to spare those that surrendered and let those who want to evacuate leave, even if it's just for two hours."

I ignore the man and steeled my resolve.

I swear upon everyone of those that died here. I will kill that monster Farhein!