The scenery blurred past them, and with each passing second, they noticed a change. A sharp, acrid scent hung in the air, and as they crossed the final stretch, their destination came into view. Thick smoke rose into the air, spreading across the forest canopy and slowly trickling through the leaves. The green atmosphere was overcome and tinted a reddish orange, and the temperature spiked sharply. Embers flickered about like fireflies, carried by the roaring sound of the flames. The heat was so intense that Magnus's throat felt dry as he inhaled.
Freyborn, unlike Dimfield, was built within the Verdant Woods itself, blending with the terrain. From their vantage point, they could almost see it in its entirety. Trees rose behind the wooden walls, marking its borders. Wooden houses with thatched roofs stood not only on the ground but also in and atop the trees, connected by long rope bridges. From below, it looked like a spiderweb, with some of the bridges leading outside the village to nearby trees with lookout posts. It would have been quite the sight—if not for the fact that it was all burning.
"Holy shit..." Magnus muttered, eyes wide. Nearly half the village was engulfed in flames, with fire already overtaking the walls and spreading into the forest, igniting anything dry. But the fire wasn't the only problem. Monsters were swarming the village. There were hundreds—maybe even thousands. Along the walls, guards struggled to hold the beasts back, firing arrows and cutting down any that got too close to the top of the wall.
But they were hopelessly outnumbered.
Not only that, but the flames had already caused the western wall to collapse partway, giving the monsters easy access to the village itself. They were completely surrounded, under siege from every direction.
"We need to do something." Seraline's voice cut through the chaos in Magnus's mind, snapping him back to the moment.
She's right... Come on, Magnus, focus up.
"We... we should help wherever there are the fewest guards and the most monsters. Can you see where that is?" Magnus asked, turning to Seraline. She narrowed her eyes, using her aura to enhance her vision, focusing on the village, which was still rather far ahead. It wasn't easy—all the guards looked overwhelmed—but after a moment, she pointed to a section of the wall.
"There. Only eight guards, and three of them are injured. If nothing's done, they'll be overrun first," she said, her tone urgent. They both knew if one part of the wall fell, it wouldn't be long before the rest followed.
"Then that's where we go," he decided. Seraline nodded, urging their horse to charge full speed toward the village.
On the wall itself, the chaos was even worse than it looked from afar. The air was stifling and dry, and every breath felt like it was burning in your lungs. Each movement only made you sweat faster.
"Dammit, there's too many of them!" A female guard muttered, cocking an arrow into her bow and pulling it back as she glanced over the edge. One of the creatures climbing the wall was a strange, grotesque thing with a cone-shaped head and a bare, naked body. No fur, no scales—just skin stretched so tight you could see every muscle beneath, with its spine almost protruding from its back. Its four limbs ended in sharp, nail-like appendages that dug into the wooden wall, letting it scuttle upward.
Despite lacking eyes, it seemed to sense her. Its cone-shaped mouth opened like a blooming flower, revealing rows of jagged teeth, and with a hiss, it lashed out with a long, barbed, snake-like tongue.
The guard jerked her head to the side just in time while simultaneously releasing her arrow. It shot straight into the creature's open mouth, piercing through to the back of its head. The monster's body went limp, falling back and taking a few more creatures climbing up behind it down to the forest floor. But it didn't matter—more of them quickly took their place, swarming the wall.
"This'll never end at this rate..." She muttered, a sense of hopelessness creeping into her voice. Glancing behind her, she saw the flames devouring the other side of the village and villagers fleeing as monsters poured in. Without the wall, the guards on that side didn't stand a chance. Even amid the chaos of battle, she could hear the distant screams of those trying to escape.
They were all going to die if nothing changed. That thought distracted her for a split second, and in that moment, a noise behind her made her whip her head back around. Another cone-mouthed monster had pulled itself over the top of the wall.
Crap!
She reached for an arrow, but the moment her hand moved, the creature shot its tongue at her. Despite her leather and chainmail armor, the barbs on the tongue expanded mid-flight, resembling a spiked mace. They pierced right through the armor, stabbing into her flesh and knocking her to the ground as she let out a scream.
"Agh!" She groaned, trying to push herself up. She still had the arrow in her hand. If she could just nock it, she could kill the damn thing. But her right shoulder felt like it was seizing up, the pain quickly vanishing into numbness. Within seconds, she couldn't move it at all.
Shit, the paralysis is kicking in!
The cone-mouthed creature crawled fully onto the wall, its head twisting unnaturally, almost a full hundred and eighty degrees before its mouth unfolded again. Seeing the gaping black hole lined with teeth, the female guard felt a cold, paralyzing fear wash over her.
No, no, no! It's going to eat me alive! This isn't how I want to die!
Just as panic overtook her, she heard the sound of rapid, heavy footsteps getting closer. In a blur of silver, the monster froze, and in the next second, its head slid clean off its body, the corpse collapsing at her feet. Struggling to catch her breath, the female guard looked up. Standing next to her was a man clad in old, weathered metal armor, with only his head bare, revealing long black hair tied into a ponytail. He swiped the creature's purplish blood from his blade, then turned to her, extending a hand.
"Are you alright?" He asked. Still in shock, the female guard grabbed his hand, using it to pull herself up. Her right arm remained completely numb and immobile.
"Captain Elip, what are you doing here? I thought you were stationed on the third section of the eastern wall," she asked, glancing at the few remaining guards still fighting on this side.
"This area looked like it needed the most help," Elip replied, his gaze scanning the chaos around them.
"But things aren't looking good anywhere," he added. The female guard couldn't argue with that.
"You should go help the villagers get to safety. You won't be able to use a bow with your arm like that. I'll cover your position here." Elip reached for the dagger strapped to his leg and handed it to her. She nodded, accepting the blade.
"Yes, sir!" She turned and headed for the stairs, making her way down to ground level. Once she was gone, Elip shifted his focus back to the wall. A few meters away, he heard a guard shout in panic as a giant, moss-covered centipede arched over the top of the wall, towering above two guards desperately trying to fend it off. Elip crouched and bolted toward them with inhuman speed—he was, after all, an Apprentice-level knight.
The guards barely saw him move before a deep gash appeared across the centipede's underbelly, slicing through its rock-hard exoskeleton. The creature writhed in pain, and although it didn't roar, its mandibles clicked together furiously. Looking down at the ones who had hurt it, it reared back while opening its mouth. Elip quickly grabbed one of the guards by the arm and hurled them out of the way, but he wasn't fast enough to reach the second.
A sickly, vomit-colored liquid sprayed from the centipede's mouth, covering the remaining guard and the ground around him.
"Aaaaugh!" The guard's blood-curdling scream pierced through the air as the liquid sizzled and bubbled, eating through his armor and searing into his skin. His cries turned into gurgles as the venom corroded his vocal cords, and he collapsed onto the melting ground around him. His body looked like it was made of molten plastic—skin, muscle, and blood all boiling away, exposing the bone underneath.
Yet, despite the grotesque damage, he was still alive. Paralyzed, his body twitched, and his eyes darted frantically.
Elip's expression darkened as he gestured for the remaining guard to retreat and help the others. They seemed to have no issues with that and wasted no time escaping. Then, Elip approached the fallen guard, who weakly turned his eyes toward him.
Staring down at him, a brief look of sorrow crossed Elip's face.
"I'm sorry." With a swift slash of his blade, he ended the guard's suffering.
"Now it's your turn," Elip growled, fury rumbling in his voice. He leaped through the air toward the centipede's head, aiming to sever it in a single strike. But the creature wasn't foolish enough to fall for another attack after the gash to its underbelly. It twisted its segmented body, trying to avoid the blow entirely. Just as it did, Elip caught one of its antennae, which had lagged behind the rest of its head. Using it as leverage, he yanked hard and landed directly on top of the centipede's head.
"You're not going anywhere!" He shouted, switching his grip on the blade before slamming it into one of the centipede's eyes. Blue blood sprayed like a fountain as he drove the sword deeper. The centipede thrashed wildly, its massive body whipping through the air with such force that even Elip couldn't hold on. His sword came loose as he was sent flying through the air by a powerful shake.
Seeing its prey helpless in the air above, the centipede clicked its mandibles and rushed upward, hoisting the rest of its body onto the wall to gain height. Elip, still midair with no foothold, braced himself. He raised his sword just in time to block as the centipede snapped its jaws, trying to bite him in half. When that failed, it switched tactics, turning its body downward in a nose dive. It slammed its head—and Elip—into the wall with crushing force. The entire wooden structure shuddered from the impact, cracking and splintering beneath them. Elip winced, feeling the blow rattle his willpower as his aura faltered for a moment.
But there was no time to recover. The centipede held him down with its mandibles, and Elip could see its mouth opening, ready to spit acid just like before.
Thinking fast, Elip let go of his sword, allowing the centipede's mandibles to close on him. His armor bent under the pressure, squeezing his chest and ribs. But with his hands-free, he took his chance. He aimed for the nearest weak spot—the centipede's remaining eye. With a hooked punch, he drove his fist into the eye, sending another burst of blue blood spraying out. As the creature reeled in pain, Elip slipped free from its grip and flipped onto his feet.
He didn't give it a moment to recover. Charging at its still-lowered head, he grabbed hold of it, his fingers digging into the exoskeleton, cracking it as he exerted all his strength. His face strained with effort. The wooden floor cracked beneath his feet, and for a second, the centipede lost its footing just enough for Elip to throw it. The massive creature, weighing at least four tons, crashed to the ground, flipping completely upside down and exposing its underbelly.
As it struggled to right itself, Elip scrambled for his sword and then rushed over to its head. With a single motion, he plunged the blade into the base of its skull, driving it through until the tip passed out the other side. But even this didn't kill the creature. It thrashed harder, desperately trying to flip back over.
But then Elip muttered under his breath, "Grounded Arts: Resonate Edge."
His sword began to vibrate rapidly, emitting a high-pitched sound that cut through the air as if it could slice through anything. The vibrations churned the centipede's insides as Elip gripped the sword with both hands and dragged it along the length of the creature's body. Everywhere the sword passed, its internal organs turned to mush. He didn't need to cut the entire way through. After slicing only a quarter of the way down, Elip slashed upward, but the gash continued spreading along the centipede's body.
The vibrations did the rest, tearing it apart from the inside out and splitting the creature completely in half.
Standing over the centipede's corpse, Elip panted heavily. He had drained both his aura and stamina to pull that off. Nearby, the guards on this section of the wall, who had been watching the fight, couldn't help but smile and cheer at the sight of the giant monster's death.
"Captain Elip did it!"
"He slayed the giant centipede!"
For a brief moment, their morale soared. But reality quickly set back in, enveloping them like a cold bath. As they turned to look over the wall and the other sections under siege, they saw hundreds of monsters still swarming the battlefield. Despite all the ones they had killed, it wasn't enough. And in the distance, they saw more giant centipedes slithering over the forest floor in groups. The guards' cheers died in their throats, and their arms slowly fell to their sides.
Even Elip, surveying the scene, felt a wave of hopelessness wash over him as his eyes scanned the entire eastern wall.
We still haven't even handled half the monsters on this side.
He turned to look back at the raging flames in the distance, swallowing the village whole.
And even then, we'd have to deal with the monsters coming in from the rear... and the fire...
It felt impossible. With every clash, more of them were killed or injured, and too many were unable to keep fighting. Meanwhile, more and more monsters kept coming, seemingly driven by a single purpose—to destroy them. Even with there being multiple captains like himself, all Apprentice-level knights holding the walls, victory seemed out of reach. That reality weakened the captain's willpower and, in turn, diminished their Aura Intensity and abilities.
As Elip stood there, he watched more monsters climb the section of the wall he was defending. The archers around him who had been doing their best to suppress the beasts had run out of arrows. Now, they'd be forced into close combat—and it was only a matter of time.
"So, I guess this is the end," Elip muttered as he watched more monsters crest the wall, their grotesque forms looming over them—two more giant centipedes among them. The archers, who had picked up swords from their fallen comrades, trembled at the sight of the beasts. Fear was written across their faces. They wanted to run. Every instinct screamed at them to flee. But there was nowhere to go. This was their home. Their families lived here. If they ran, everyone would die. And so, fear, duty, and morality clashed within them, freezing them in place.
For Elip, it wasn't fear that rooted him where he stood as he stared down at the approaching monsters. Instead, it was the question turning over in his mind.
Would it be better if I just didn't resist and let them kill me?
For a moment, he truly considered it. But as his gaze flicked to the trembling guards around him, that thought quickly faded. They were weaker than him, yet despite their fear, despite their shaking hands, they were preparing to fight. Perhaps not for the noble reasons they had signed up for—perhaps just to live a few moments longer—but they would fight nonetheless. Even as their instincts screamed for them to run.
"A captain goes down with the ship... which means I can't fall until the last man draws his breath." His words weren't loud, but they resonated deep within him, igniting his willpower once again. His aura flared, burning even brighter than it had before he killed the centipede. This would be his final stand. He would die with his village.
"So come on then!" Elip shouted at the monsters, his voice seeming to trigger something. All at once, the creatures switched from observing their prey to launching an attack. Elip and the remaining guards around him roared as they braced for their final stand.
But before the battle could begin, a blaze flashed by them—so intense that, for a moment, they thought the flames from the western half of the village had reached them somehow. In the same instant, every monster in front of them was obliterated. The two giant centipedes lost their heads, and several of the cone-mouthed monsters had their torsos blown clean off. The same fate befell every other creature that had scaled this section of the wall.
All of them were dead.
The guards, who had been ready to face death, now stood frozen in shock, glancing around in disbelief. Elip, who had just resolved to fight to the end, was equally confused. Even with his abilities as an Apprentice-level knight, he couldn't grasp what had just happened.
But, before anyone could process the situation, another event erupted beyond the walls, right in the center of a group of monsters rushing toward the village. A massive explosion unfurled into the sky, towering over the walls, its shockwave rumbling through the ground beneath their feet like an earthquake. That's when Elip and the nearby guards saw them. As the flames and smoke from the explosion cleared, two figures emerged, standing just a few meters away from where the blast had struck.
The sight left only one question running through their minds.
Who the hell?