Chapter 72: Chapter 72: The First Wave

Already, a few households left on the night the announcement was made. The guards didn't even stop them, conducting the usual procedure. Still, these cases were but the minority. For the population understood how much riskier to move out than to stay with the people who had the ability to protect them.

During the following days, Oxdale was always on high alert. All services that did not directly aid the defense effort were put on hold, saving the manpower for more crucial tasks such as building additional towers, bastions, trenches, and bunkers around Oxdale’s perimeter. The most important job, however, was to help harvest any crops on the fields, for these areas were planned to be lit ablaze to hinder the monster.

Julia finally managed to pin down the illness that had been popping up around Oxdale. It had spread wide enough for her to ask the Mayor for more assistants, as well as make a treatment plan. She had also set up air sensors and figured out that the pathogen concentration was increasing by the hour. The reason for this, she claimed, was the rise in the intensity of the Plague Essence as the day of disaster drew closer. It was a little too late to completely purge it from the atmosphere; minimizing the damage would be the priority now.

The Artificer Guild performed its duty, sending its member to the gates on each side of the town to set up a mana barrier, much like the one in Lavia Garden. Other guilds also had their part to do, especially the Warrior, who contributed the largest amount of manpower, head and shoulder above the rest. The Adventure Guild was just as busy as its counterparts, earning and handling missions at an unprecedented rate.

Sword in The Forge was overloaded with orders. It was a rare sight to see Bastian without his usual cantankerous attitude but instead finishing one job after another with a serious and focused face.

As for Jack himself, he has been trying his best to assist Bastian and handle the Harper’s business at the same time. Around the town, the Harper was noticeably at ease, as if they had already made their preparation in advance. This made Jack unable to not suspect them of having some inside information. And perhaps, even information regarding the hooded man at Wildewatch. Still, it was but a theory. He reckoned he would need to dig deeper into this after he had dealt with the disaster to come.

One evening, Sophie was cooking a pot of potato and pork leg when she saw Jack return home.

“Oh, so you still remember where our house at!” She said without turning her head around.

“I’m so sorry,” Jack said in apology, sitting down at the table

“What fault are you sorry for!”

“Everything! Just assume I made all the fault in the world, mom!”

Then, Sophie puffed, turning around to take a look at her son with a gentle smile.

“You look a lot thinner, you know?”

“My weight said otherwise,” Jack said with a smile.

“Huh, if you don’t get any heavier while at a growing age isn’t a problem, what is?”

Jack answered by scratching his head with another smile, then reached for the plates to make the table.

Sophie finished the finishing touch, then started dividing the meal into portions for her family members.

“How is Robert’s family doing?” Jack asked.

“They will come here and stay with us soon, so don’t worry,” Sophie sat down next to Jack. “It's just that the son wanted to lend everyone a hand, so he refused to go to the shelter with his family.

“I’ll keep an eye on him.”

“Yeah, you do that. Alright, no more of these gloomy things. Say something else.”

“Okay.”

The two waited for Abraham while chatting and joking about the minor stuff that had been going around recently and Sophie’s wishes about Jack’s future aspirations, like studying higher, working at the Artificer Guild, and going back home to visit his parents as often as possible.

Jack stayed with his mother the rest of the night because, by tomorrow, everything had already begun.

 

The horns were sounded in every direction surrounding Oxdale around noon.

Everyone immediately stopped their work and looked up in terror. Squads of militia were dispatched to their defensive positions. The tip of the spear consisting of the Crusaders of the town gathered at a building that was occupied and made into a temporary headquarters.

“Where are they coming from?” The Mayor, Marvin, asked as his eyes scanned the hologram map on the table. He had put on a shiny set of armor enhanced with stripes of a hot red color that always seemed to be on the brink of bursting out into flame.

“From the west, sir,” a soldier in a worn and dirty leather strap reported.

“Number?”

“Couple of hundreds, sir.”

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Marvin focused on the map, realizing the beasts were still a distance away from the town, outside the detection range of the sensors set up around it.

“Let the Arcanists attack from range,” Meinhard said. “And a few more archers, too. Give the Arcanists the best transportation possible. Should the situation go south, they are the most likely to be left behind, and I'm sure none of you gentlemen here want that.”

“The specialized wagons are ready,” Lena, the master of the Artificer Guild said with a nod. “We haven’t received any reports from the other directions, so save the firewall for now.”

“Alright,” Marvin concluded. “A group of fifty Warriors will escort the Arcanists.”

After the specific tasks had been handed out, Meinhard quickly called for a team of twenty.

One hundred men were quickly loaded into the wagons brought by the Artificers. These vehicles had been custom-made from materials that were both extremely light and durable. Moreover, they were also augmented with the latest mana technology to reduce the total weight when there were people occupying the seats. The Maester Guild had also taken part in the creation of the horse reins which were equipped with needles of herbs and energy potions, rejuvenating the horse for the exhausting days to come.

Five wagons advanced in an arrow formation, heading toward the wave of monsters appearing on the horizon.

They came in numbers. Dozens, then hundreds. The wave was a disorderly horde of different shapes and species. Some were as big as a tree trunk, others as small as the palm of the hand. They attacked as much from the sky as they did under the defender’s feet. The ground trembled with every frantic stomp; the air thickened with every breath of bloodlust.

“Hold!” The Warrior captain raised his hand. He locked his eyes straightforward, seeing the nearest monster was still relatively far away, barely making out its appearance.

“Arcanists! Archer! Fire at will!”

The archers raised their bows and unleashed the first barrage of arrows. From this distance, one would have to utilize a substantial amount of mana to maintain the kinetic energy of the projectiles and subsequently, their piercing capability. The arrowheads impaled the charging beasts, making them roll over and screech in cower. Some of them, though, didn’t seem to be bothered at all, for the attack simply bounced off their thick skins.

It was then that the Arcanists finished channeling their mana. They raised their hands up and launched their elemental attacks. From fireballs, frost bolts, and wind slices to giant boulders flying full speed ahead, their devastation capability was far superior to mere arrows, for as tough as the monsters were, they couldn’t stand all the troubles raining down on them. Fire burned their flesh, frost froze their limbs, boulders crushed their body, and wind cleaved them in half.

The archers immediately took advantage, targeting the wounded prey to finish them off. Still, the wave simply refused to be slowed down.

They had already covered around a quarter of the distance.

The archers and Arcanists launched volley after volley, cracking mana crystal after mana crystal, always preparing for their next attack, saving no time to catch a breath. Despite the visually obvious effectiveness of the area damage, the horde of monsters didn’t seem to be less crowded at all. Hundreds of the initial attack wave had been taken down by the twenty Arcanists and thirty archers, only for it to go out of their control with hundreds more.

“Fall back!” The captain shouted with a wave of a hand when he realized how exhausted his squad had already been.

He knew the Mayor had managed to gather enough information to plan the next phase of the defense. Their mission here had been finished, and his next objective would be to make sure the archers and Arcanists here retreated in safety.

The trained horses quickly turned their heads around, dragging the wagons back toward the town. It was right at that moment that from the horde of unruly beasts, those with the shape of large felines, much like panthers, jumped forward, aiming straight at the prey of a formation ahead of them. Their speed was significantly higher than their buddies at the back, their strides powerful and deadly. 

“Damn it!” An archer exclaimed.

The captain gritted his teeth, thinking about a responsive action. After a brief moment, he made up his mind. He pulled the rein on his horse, slowing it down, ready to take on more than a dozen of incoming monsters.

“You know what to do, right boys?” The squad commander laughed.

“That’s all we’ve been waiting for!”

The other member shouted in unison, weapons ready in their hands for the melee. They needed to buy time for the wagons to return safely or delay as long as possible for the firewall to be set up.

 

“East, north, and south have also spotted the monsters, sir,” a scout quickly ran in with the news.

Marvin and the other commanders saw red dots appearing all over the screen. If this wasn't stopping anytime soon, the monster counts attacking Oxdale could reach as high as thousands.

“About time we set up the firewall, right?” Marvin asked.

All nodded in agreement.

“Alright, just a little longer,” Marvin said, seeing the swarm of red dots moving.

They need to wait for the right moment to deploy their game changer.

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