William woke up to a stirring Stacey, curled up into him. He opened his eyes and on seeing the black haired beauty, smiled. He turned to where Armine would have been and saw empty space. “She must have woke real early.” William thought, hand now resting on that empty space. Today was the day they had all been fearing. No chance for a lie in. Could they win? He didn’t know what to expect numbers wise for the bandits. He had killed dozens of them at this point and would have expected any force that was reportedly around forty or so people to not attack the settlement. William knew that there would be reinforcements, like those blue face painted guys he and John had encountered. If there were more than two groups of bandits, Greenwell was in serious danger of being overrun.

He would just have to ‘get good’ and kill them all regardless of number. Easier said than done though. He had confidence in everyone at the bare minimum taking out at least one person. The average level of the defenders was on par with the typical bandit’s level, at least from what William had encountered up to that point. Being defenders, they had the home field advantage too. The biggest concern for William was the leader and those directly beneath the still unknown enemy. If he could wade through the typical bandit now, William had no illusions that the strongest bandits they were going to face could do the same to the defenders.

If the stronger ones attacked or got through the wall, William was positioned to go and intercept them. The only drawback of the plan was that if the spot he would be guarding was breached a minute or so after William rushed to battle, Greenwell would get overrun. He shook his head, ridding himself of the various what ifs that ran through it. The motion caused Stacey to wake up.

William whispered an apology for waking her and she gave him a small smile. After a moment, he felt her grip on the covers tighten. She seemed to be lost in worry.

“You’ll be fine. Stay near our party. I’ll be seeing you all after the battle, once we win of course,” William said, kissing her on the forehead.

She gave a silent nod and got out of bed. William took a moment to take in the view, admiring it, before he himself rose and donned his gear. This time, William put the bed into his spatial ring. He didn’t want a stray [Fire-bolt] or similar torching the shed with his new bed inside. A couple of minutes passed and the two left the shed, hand in hand. A look at the morning sky told William it was about around two hours after first light. That gave them roughly five to six hours to prepare further if his estimates were correct.

Stacey parted with him after sharing a long and warm kiss. Wallace and everyone else would be meeting soon to cement the positions and functions of the teams defending Greenwell. William already knew the plan and knew what he had to do, so he was going to give the large social gathering a miss. His public speaking confidence had gotten considerably better, presumably from his charisma stat, but he still hated the idea of so many eyes on him. He also wasn’t going to give any special speeches or such. Best to leave that to Wallace. The old war veteran probably had experience doing that very thing.

William saw the free time he had as an opportunity. They had prepared the defenses as much as possible, but it was time for William to build some extra ones inside the village. Ones he could control.

Each hut had spear racks facing towards the Well in the center of the settlement. Five spears rested in holders on each of them. The purpose was for emergencies if any non-combatants needed to protect themselves. The spears were nothing more than long and whittled poles with a further whittled down tip. They didn’t have the capacity at the time for making spearheads, so made do with the most rudimentary option. They would still work to William’s advantage however, a spear was a spear after all. Engraving tools in hand, William got to work.

The work William had done took the better part of an hour, but was worth all the Mana used. He spent around three more hours in meditation to replenish his MP. The space that William was guarding had one small tower reaching about four foot below the top of the palisade. It was one of the few bits unfinished, like the section of wall he guarded. William climbed the hastily made ladder, cringing with every creak and groan of wood. The fall wouldn’t matter, given his stats, but the sound was like negative ASMR to William. If they lived past the day, he would ask Noctis to prioritize finishing the defense reinforcement as soon as the man could.

The day was dry, sunny with a pleasant southerly breeze. William had hoped for rain. The visibility would be an issue, but fire wouldn’t take hold on the buildings or palisade. That would have been a worthwhile trade, but it was not meant to be. William had glanced back into the center of Greenwell from his perch, and saw everyone grouped up, listening to what Wallace said.

“Rather you than me, my dude,” William said, relaxed and mentally prepared for what was to come. He turned around and looked out to the rolling hills. He had wondered why the area was so hilly. They were also large hills. Earth William would have been gasping for air after one or two of them. In the end, William summed it up with the technical term; Tectonic crap. The hills hide Greenwell from view of outsiders until the final hill before the settlement, but it was a two way issue. They wouldn’t be able to see numbers of an advancing force until they were upon the settlement. Exactly what was happening that day.

With nothing to do but watch the hills, he had time to think on things. He was still bummed out about the break up with Armine, but it had affected him much less than he had thought it would. The previous night had helped somewhat, he thought, a high note to end it on. He then thought about what John had said about William and Stacey not using protection during the deed. William had been cautious that night, fatherhood a genuine concern for him. He knew that if such a thing happened, he would need to stay and protect his progeny. He couldn’t go and adventure if so, something that was so close to grasping. All they had to do was win this battle.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

William shifted his focus to the palisade in front of him. He really hoped that the Duncans weren’t traitors. Things just seemed too convenient when it came to them. He would expect petty revenge from them but had always considered the attempt to be a slit throat in the night, or poison in food. If they were traitors, then he would kill the three of them swiftly. He was fine with being in danger, having fought from day one in GAEA. He was not fine with the idea of others he knew being put in danger for the Duncans’ pettiness. With limited ranged capability, and not wanting to waste his Vortex attacks on anyone on the other side of the wall, he would tip the two buckets of poisoned water down as an irritant to stall the enemy. This would be followed with him getting down from the mini tower and waiting on guard for them to break through. Ranged support would be amazing, but he was only there to cover a hypothetical concern, and everyone else needed to be guarding where the main enemy force would be likely to attack.

The plan...was shit, he couldn’t count it as anything else, but a risk even as small as the one he stood before couldn’t be left to screw them over. He had made the best out of a bad situation though, and took his precautions. All he was required to do was slaughter bandits. He felt like he could do that with a confidence that briefly surprised him. It pleased William how he had grown confident in his ability and newfound strength in such a short time. On the flip side, he was concerned at how he could kill so easily now. It was hard for the first couple of times and some dreams tormented him with that information since. This wasn’t a game, and the people he killed were not NPCs. No respawns, at least that he knew of. Maybe high level Medics or the eluded to Advanced Classes that people got on their first full rank up had resurrection spells like other MMOs. He wondered what he would get to choose for an Advanced Class and mentally willed his Fighter class selection prompt to mind, focusing on the section of text he wanted. It was an experiment to test the ‘notification menu’ for lack of a better word and his eyes widened with surprise as it worked:

Advanced Classes available on first full rank up. Depending on secondary classes, professions, and gained titles, advanced classes can vary in a myriad of ways. Some examples of Fighter progression include, Shield-Forge Guardian, Eldritch Soul-Sword, and Shadow Battle-Wraith.

The three listed on the example all sounded badass, but it hinted that there was more. Much more potentially. His titles and professions could also factor into it. He needed to add something to his mental list as he thought on it. William needed to get three professions before hitting the end of steel rank at level forty. He also needed to make sure he got lots of Titles. He brought up his current ones to reflect on:

Brutal Man-Slayer

Relentless Combatant

Fell the Mighty

Journeyman of the Arcane Sword

Dungeoneer I

Progenitor Delver

Wave Breaker

Enemy of Entropy

The Titles were an interesting mix. He doubted the dungeon related ones would make too much of a difference if the new world was like an MMO. All his other Titles were fierce sounding even his Arcane sword one. Would he get some Arcane Berserker class?

“Maybe more of an Arcane Bloodletter,” William said, unintentionally voicing his thoughts. The distraction had went on for a short while he knew as the sun had shifted position slightly, either at its zenith or near to it. He wasn’t sure of the exact time, but the bandits should be near. He really had to get better control of his attention. He then worried about if he had ADHD or something similar. William started to wonder about that further, but the sound of distant shouts echoed in the hills. They were here.

William looked back to the other side of Greenwell, anticipating a good sized enemy force. He was surprised when a healthy chunk of the hill opposite was covered in bandits. There had to be fifty or sixty, nearly, if not double Greenwell’s own number. Seeing the size brought William some comfort oddly, as that many people should imply that they were going to try a full on assault, head first. That meant no attack near his location. He could go and assist, decimate a good chunk of the enemy numbers to give his people an even bigger field advantage. William went to leave his spot, then stopped, noticing the distinct lack of blue on the bandits. The enemy force didn’t consist of the whole…Collective? Cacophony? Thuggery? He couldn’t think of the correct, collective term for bandits. He decided on Thuggery as it was amusing to him.

As if on cue, similar shouts came from the hill opposite William’s end. Figures started to crest it, stopping part way down the hill. William groaned, estimating the number to be around forty. That was a lot, even for him. He didn’t have much of a choice, however, and readied himself. He did notice the blue paint on the group, indicating that these ones were the other group, apparently going for a pincer attack on Greenwell. Having briefly seen the strength of these bandits, William did feel some sense of safety. He would just need to hold the breach, when they breached. If three hundred Spartans could do it against thousands, he could hold it against forty.

William had noticed that the leader of the little Thuggery was present and at the front of the group. A quick kill of the leadership would solidify a demoralizing of the enemy and hopefully a rout. A quick glance showed William that the bandits on the other side of Greenwell were beginning a slow advance on the village. It was going to be bloody, and he now knew even more blood would be spilled, including more of his people. All he could do was hold out the faintest hope that most would make it through. It didn’t take long for the Thuggery near William to point out the weak spot. William noticed the bandit point and where he pointed to.

William then had confirmation. They had all been betrayed. An arrow whizzed by his head, signaling the start of the battle.