Their faces are full of shock when I tell them we are just dealing with cannon fodder and the real battle is yet to start. I also tell them to join the fight, but conserve their energy for the big fight that will be upon us soon.
They are even more surprised to know we are here just as cannon fodder as the front line is comprised of F grade soldiers with a hand full of E grades. The rest of the E grade and the D grade soldiers from the Defense Corp and the town security are still on top of the defense wall.
Good thing my sister also got her upgrade to Low-E a month back, or she will also be fighting in the front line instead of standing on the wall. We are here mainly to reduce the number of monsters they will fight and they will join us when the real battle begins.
We continue fighting the beetle monsters that are coming close to us and start to see the soldiers from the front line start to come close to us bringing the real battle with them. There are still many cannon fodder left which my team can handle without any issue.
But I can sense many E grade beetle monsters in the mix and start to feel the wait of the leader's position. I am responsible for my team and can't let them loose their life like this. I give them an order to use the 5th formation and they start go back to back with each other fighting together keeping everyone safe.
I grip my sword in my hand and hold my shield steady to meet the beetle monsters in a head-on standing in from of my team ready to take the brunt of the attack and see a group of 3 beetle monsters coming towards us in which the 1 leading the attack is at Low-E grade.
I grit my teeth while I perform the 5th move of the Battle Exercise even faster than before trying to reach the 6th move to increase my battle power and vitality, but it looks vain as I am unable to break the wall that is blocking my path to reach it.
The group comes directly to me as I am the one close to them and 2 arrows pierce 2 monsters killing 1 instantly and the other is wounded. They have targeted the 2 F grade beetle monsters and left the Low-E grade alone.
TING.. BANG
It is coming faster than I expected and it shoots a projectile at me from it's mouth which I block with my shield. It uses it's speed and slams my shield following behind the projectile it fired.
I had to take 2 steps back to defuse the power of the attacks. I regain my footing and slash my sword at it and it jumps to the left using it's wings. It again shot the projectile at me when flying which I couldn't block.
SLUCH
It hit my thigh and stuck in it. Blood started to come out of it, but is slow as the projectile is still embedded in my thigh. I grit my teeth and use my shield to slam the monster sending it flying a few meters away.
The force of attack from the monster helped me in a way. I was able to breakthrough to the 6th move in the Battle Exercise. The pain increased a little, but it is not something I can't handle.
I pull the projectile that is embedded in my thigh to see it is part of the mandible. I feel like I am about to puke looking at it, but I control myself and use Ice element on the wound to freeze it to stop the bleeding.
I see the monster that is again coming at me shaking its head in a ferocious manner, anger could be seen in its eyes. This is what I want from it, the anger.
It wants nothing but kill me and disregarded it's survival instincts. It will be easy for me to kill it now. I just move to my right letting it brush my armor in a hair breath and swing my sword when it crosses me.
SLICE
The sword connected to it's body slicing it, but it is not a fatal wound. It is just a severe wound and it will be healed in less than a day if it is alive. I look around to see my team fending off a group of F grade monsters, I pierce the head of the monster killing it.
I circle around the team to check if there are any E grade monsters that needs to be handled. They are good at handling F grades together, but the E grades are a little too much for now, but they can handle it if they can level up to Mid-F.
We continue fighting for 3 hours with no changes in the number of monster coming through the front lines. I can see many groups of people fighting near the defense wall has copied our strategy and forming a circle fighting the beetle monsters.
HORN.. HORN..
I hear horn sound twice continuously, which means only one thing. The front line is ordered to retreat. They will be coming close to the wall so they will be backed up by the soldiers and the volunteers fighting there and standing on the wall. Now we will have to fing many E grade monsters which they were holding till now.
All of a sudden I sense the power level of 3 people in my team is increasing. It is from Sylas, Lucksonlay and Clevis. They are leveling up to Mid-F grade. I can see the happiness on their faces when they level-up and a resolve on others face to level-up soon. This makes them fight harder than they were fighting till now.
The front lines started to retreat slowly and steadily to avoid more casualties. It will take about 15 minutes for them to reach where we are and it will become an all-out battle for us and we need to be ready for that. I am concerned about the team as if it becomes an all-out battle, it will be impossible for me to stay close to them.