-They are here! Send the news!
A solider, standing atop the tallest watchtower announced as soon as he saw the giant horde of monsters over the horizon heading towards them.
They were coming from the forest causing immense destruction as they trampled almost anything that was in their way, local vegetation, trees and any other animal or monster stood no chance against them as they all chose to wisely run away instead of standing in their way.
A monster horde in general was more of a force of nature then anything, rarely people could do anything about it, frontier towns such as Alimdal were the most susceptible to these monster hordes since they lived in unexplored areas where undiscovered dungeons could cause monster hordes at any minute.
It was all because of the towns governor, Tanner that they could still live in this town even after the previous low level monster hordes, but now mid-level monster horde had finally come knocking.
The town was previously not confident enough to believe that it could survive a monster horde of this level even with a capable leader like Tanner, but as of recently their hope had been redeemed with the arrival of the knight squadron send by this regions Countess, Veronica.
The knight squadron in question was the one specialized in killing monsters as well in total tallying for about 11 knights, very few, but all of them were at least Rank 1 while the leader was a Rank 2.
The knights weren’t alone either, with lots of soldiers and adventures who volunteered to protect the town which was their home, there was also an exceptional party of adventurers who were also going to participate the Silver Fang party.
Consisting of only 4 members, they were extremely powerful all because all 4 of them were Rank 2, with one of them being a [Wizard], unfortunately not everyone was present, Revan their main front liner was doing another quest to protect the town, but even then the [Wizard] was all they needed.
Finally, there was 1 more individual, the current master of the adventurer’s branch guild out here in the frontier, this old man, didn’t look very special at all, but as he stood on the wall of the town observing the monster horde quickly approaching their town with solemn air and cold calmness.
His leather trench coat was made out of some unknown material that seemed both stiff and malleable, but overall the old man had a militaristic air about him with how disciplined and calm her was, something normally adventurers didn’t exude.
Everyone present, which was Tanner the governor, behind which was Shalila his secretary, Melinda the leader of the dispatched knight squadron and Almira the current temporary leader of the Silver Fang party, was focused on this old man.
For the record, even though everyone called him the guild master, he did have a name which he told people to normally call him by.
Averos.
But naturally, no one would call someone as old, mysterious and objectively much stronger than them by their direct first name, the only people who did that were people who were equally as strong as him or plainly clueless newbies which either way Averos didn’t care for at all, but then again he was always very quiet and unassuming a quality that fit with his scarred face and battle hardened expression, stoic if you had to say it but also easy going.
Melinda the leader of knight squadron sent by her master the Countess was the only person who was seeing this guild master for the first time, but even so she recognized his invisible strength as she felt the amount of power in his body that made her feel prickly to the skin.
Melinda herself was a tall woman with a solid built wearing bulky plate armor just like that of a real knight, on her back was a great sword, while her hair was long, swayed like a river and blonde.
Her eyes were a bit unique as they were purple while her lips were white and skin tanned, making her look a bit strange as she didn’t look like a typical human.
But she was a genuine human being discovered from a nearby frontier tribe that was absorbed into the territory by Veronica, she was groomed to become a knight in her service and was also fiercely loyal to Veronica as she had helped her tribe and also not resorted to violence when absorbing them into her fold.
-(At the bare minimum, rank 3, but if he was rank 4 he would be able to fight a monster horde like this all by himself, but then again what is a Rank 3 individual like him doing out here in the sticks playing as a master for the adventurer’s branch guild in the first place? Master did say someone very capable and trustworthy was stationed here in the adventurer’s guild as a guild master, but I don’t know…)
Making such off-hand and suspicious observations, Melinda wasn’t sure what to think about this old man, but currently she really didn’t have any time to think about something like this as she could see beyond the forest the massive horde that was directly heading their way.
Even though it looked small from a distance, she knew they were quickly approaching and not small at all, at this point they only had a few more minutes before the monster horde would clash with the village walls.
Looking below those walls Melinda saw the local soldiers, adventurers and her subordinates getting into position with their weapons drawn which were mostly spears.
Furthermore, there were tons of traps set under the orders of Tanner who used to rely on these to combat the previous monster hordes quite aptly.
Pitfall traps with spikes, spiked trenches so and so forth they were all massively laid out and distributed very mindfully to make them the most effective, Melinda herself could see that these traps would be very important, she was glad that someone as competent as Tanner was here to lead this town, his presence alone made her job that much easier, though there were still a few displeasures she had not in particularly about Tanners ability but the town itself.
Looking behind her, she saw the town folk either sitting outside their homes talking or hiding inside their houses barricaded, almost none of the original inhabitants of this town desired to leave when Melinda proposed to evacuated the towns people, something she really couldn’t understand.
It wasn’t as if Melinda didn’t know what kind of people lived in this town out here in the frontier, but she still figured that these people valued their lives enough to make sure they could flee if things went south, but even Tanner couldn’t convince these people who were here way before he even came to office making for a very head ache inducing situation.
-I can see it, the head of the monster horde, its marching at the very front!
Averos suddenly said, pulling everyone’s attention some more as they all looked at the front of the monster horde where sure enough a much bigger monster was leading the charge.
It looked nothing like any monster they had seen before, looking extremely grotesque the monster that was leading the charge looked like an insectoid monster walking on 6 limbs, but also having traits of a beast.
It exuded power, in a state of total psychotic rage it didn’t even think of restraint as it displayed the might of a Rank 3 monster, everyone knew that this unknown monster was the only Rank 3 and that everyone else was mostly unranked and Rank 1 with a few dozen being Rank 2.
-How does it look sir? Can you do it?
Tanner asked Averos, with the latter swiftly replying after seeing the insectoid monster and gauging its strength very easily.
-Its possible, but I need you to finish up quickly while I keep it busy, I can give you 10 to 15 minutes after that its anyone’s guess.
-…
Everyone was pretty quiet after hearing this, but most of them were now far more confident than before as they thought 10 to 15 minutes was more than enough.
No one here other than a single person which was Averos, had the power to stop this Rank 3 abomination, their plan was very simple, exterminate the rest of the monster horde while Averos kept the big boss occupied.
Everyone would only take on opponents they could realistically deal with and dispatch on their own while down from there to kill the weaker monsters before slaying the stronger monsters, of course in a chaotic environment like this they couldn’t expect expert level coordination, but this was all they could do.
Watching the monster horde approaching even more, Almira who was nearby suddenly spoke.
-The monster horde is getting into position, me and a few magic users are ready to commence bombardment.
Now came the most important part of their preparation, significantly hurting and reducing the number of monsters before they could even approach, with Almira and a few other magic users doing this for them, this battle was almost going to be impossible from the very beginning luckily this was not so as they had Almira with them.
-Do it.
With the approval given Almira including a few other magic users from either the knights or adventurers started to cast their magic.
All the magic being cast was long and strenuous as the magic users were preparing for their most powerful and widest area of effect spells they could muster.
Among them Almira was noticeably casting the strongest spell as she was the only Rank 2 [Wizard] here, the way she moved her hands, chanted her incantations while using material components of expensive qualities showed she wasn’t holding anything bag.
And soon enough the spells were done with the monster horde having very disturbingly come close accompanied by cries of destruction.
WRAGGGHHH!!!
HRYAAAAAAA!!!
CRAAAAAGGH!!!
The soldiers, adventurers and knights were all extremely tense as they gripped their weapons harder, an almost solid atmosphere enveloped them which was quickly broken the moment the saw what happened next.
A gigantic ball of fire appeared atop the town wall, its sweltering heat burning extremely hot for a moment as it floated above them like the sun before being immediately shot out and launched at the approaching horde.
Every single person witnessing this was wide eyed and amazed at what they were seeing, just like a falling meteor the gigantic fireball hit their target with razor sharp precision, not that the target was difficult to hit with a giant fireball like that, but no one said anything regarding that as they witnessed an enormous explosion of massive proportions enveloping half of the monster horde in a single hit.
Soon a few other magic spells followed this one as well causing more damage, but not quite as much as the first one as it quite literally had likely made the monster horde lose 1/3 of its strength.
The soldiers, adventures and even knights cheered as they saw the monsters burn, even the people atop the walls couldn’t help but be amazed and fee; glad, but for such devastating power came a big price as Almira was about to collapse before being suddenly caught by one of her party members.
It was a woman clad in religious white garbs who started to use her own magic to lessen the fatigue on Almira, they were as close as sisters making Almira smile at her as she silently thanked her.
The old man smiled something he rarely seemed to do while the others too wanted to say thank you.
But time was still short, and looking at the devastated area of impact they could see a monster not having died or suffered any sort of major injury as it continued to charge through the flames with a with the rest of the monsters who were still decently well.
Everyone man and woman outside the walls prepared themselves, Averos too had his eyes narrowed and as soon as they first trap sprung killing more monsters Averos cried out loudly to the men below.
-Slay them all! Protec the town!
AHHHHH!
The men and woman returned the cry with their own shout finally beginning the real battle.
A Place Of Legends 