Chapter 39: 39. Townguard Field

Autumn came and went, and as winter arrived the fellowship settled into a groove. Kalle was happy with the results of his training, the new version of [Wailing Bolt] hit like a blighted ox according to Brunner who agreed to help him out with testing it. It still wasn't as bad as facing all his past disappointments, to Brunner personally, but he assured Kalle that it would be tremendously effective on creatures who relied on confident aggression, such as the mosswolves that they faced.

Livia kept working on funding for their coming expedition in the spring, making deals where she could and having Harold try to make all kinds of funky apples. They tried some magic versions, but they didn't know enough about such fruits to make anything stable. Harold inquired about selling the psychadelic honey, but Livia assured him she had plans for that bit of funk later once spring had come and gone.

Livia got to celebrate something she hadn't expected, from home; Christmas. Albeit a weird scandinavian version where most things were the same, but they were served mulled apple-drink and spicy buns by a beautiful girl, wearing burning candles of all things, in her hair. It was a wondrous sight in the dark season, but the pain of thinking of home still made Livia's chest ache. She avoided it as much as possible.

In the week after christmas was when the unexpected happened.

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Harold, Oscar, Kalle and Livia together with Liam and Ella spent the late evening recovering from both training and the chores of running a farm with a giant, dimensionally enhanced, orchard. They shared a lovely meal consisting of body cakes filled with spicy venison that had been boiled in cream and layered over a big helping of grilled kohlrabies. Of course with a side of wild lingonberries, although these ones had been pickled to last the winter. Kalle was still on the road to recovery so, after the brief focused session of interacting, he went to lie back down.

A mere hour later, just as Liam and Ella were about to start to doze off, was when the Townguard field raised the alarm. The pillar held an enchantment that reached a diameter of two kilometers out from the outermost building that made up the cluster of Salcret proper. It set off a keening sound in every house that was part of the defense force. It wouldn't activate for something like a single wolf striking off with a lamb, but if enough individuals carrying some killing intent crossed the boundary, every house was alerted. There were Skills to fool such enchantments, but they were rare and especially ones covering more than the user.

Harold stood first. "Something is coming, they wouldn't sound off for a full minute if it was a false alarm," A thousand warrior wasps rose from the vicinity, and they'd all gone to grab their weapons and gear, but Kalle was already looking pale. Livia didn't have a combat Class, but if she could get to her guild hall there should be some ways for her to help out, by providing another set of pitchforks if nothing else.

Even Liam and Ella were part of the defense force, although their task-list included things such as protecting the children and putting out potential hazards like fires. They'd both seen a thing or two in their time. It was decided that Kalle would remain put, despite his vehement objections that he could atleast cast a few Spells. It was his physical state that was still at a breaking point after all, despite his weeks of rest, he wasn't ready to truly stress it, although his magic pool was greater than ever. But carrying him into combat was not an option and as long as the whole group was not gone for too long Kalle should be safer here.

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What attacked the town of Salcret in the dark was a seemingly endless sea of giant ant warriors, large as bulls, if not nearly so heavy, led by a single towering Mantis who carried a glowing circlet on its tiny head and seemed to be directing the various groups. It was a Mantis Hive faction, a race of insectoid warriors obsessed with gathering resources. Especially in winter they would range far and wide in search of materials to fulfill their quotas. The many warriors would have looked identical, if it wasn't for the strange, seemingly painted on, patterns that covered their shell in a dark, matted colour. Despite looking like over-sized ants they also had strangely expressive faces, if you could look past the mandibles.

The group from the orchard came into Salcret just as the charging raiders met the devastating Skills of the highest level humans. [Foresters] swung their axes and drew arcs in the air that tore through legs and torsos alike, while [Hammerers] found vital joints and struck a hundred strikes a minute. There wasn't an exoskeleton of this size strong enough to withstand such blows, but a dozen giant mandibles threatened each warrior who strayed from the line, and as soon as their major pair of combat-suited Skills were deployed they needed to back up and give room to someone else.

The warrior ants surrounded the town, but a lot of buildings were reinforced by Skills, even their highest level warriors couldn't penetrate the walls unless left alone to demolish, so the towns various [Hunters] just needed to stay on the roofs and keep the few buildings where true civilians gathered from being overwhelmed. The Skill boosted arrows were able to penetrate the tough creatures, but despite them being peppered and clearly feeling anguish, whatever force the commander exerted was greater and kept them struggling to kill unto death.

It took a lot of time, but eventually they got the situation under control. Harold and Oscar even arrived to help and struck one warrior down, with some quick thinking from Livia who saw that the smaller ant had gotten through to an inner section unnoticed. But the group felt largely useless surrounded by such high level fighters, the warrior wasps couldn't penetrate such large insects and despite how the seemingly endless supply of enemies had been able to surround the town at the start they were not really needed unless something unexpected reached the civilians.

What finally broke the raid in twain was the arrival of Brunner. The man lived quite a ways outside Salcret proper, but he had naturally started sprinting as soon as he heard the alarm. His twin hatchets carved through the ants as easily as he had the stationary tree back in summer. In fact, with the speed Brunner had charged in, the ant warriors actually reminded Harold of trees quite a bit.

When the battle was done it was estimated that roughly 500 ant warriors had struck the village, with only 150 or so managing to escape together with the Mantis commander. It was a good result, despite the senselessness of the attack. There were going to be funerals.

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