An entire week had passed since the incident with the nudist demon assassin.

In that time, the defenders of the fort found themselves wrung ragged like a piece of cloth that had been used to clean the place one too many times. Over the past four days, the demons had further intensified their assault, all the way to the night, without any pause or rest. As a result, the fort’s defenders were forced to fight through the night as well, with very few being able to get any proper rest.

The demons had apparently gotten more reinforcements, which gave them enough soldiers to harry the fort through the day and night in multiple shifts. Even though the fort’s defenders employed a similar system to stave off fatigue, as their numbers slowly decreased due to the casualties they had taken, people were forced to fight for longer and rest for less as time went on.

Due to the numerical disparity – by that point of time there must be at least three to five times as many demons swarming around the fort as there were defenders in it – it was not like the defenders could afford to spare their best either. Alissa and the rest were on the walls for more than half of the day, every day, even in rotating shifts.

They mostly slept through the rest of the time they had, in fitful, often disturbed sleep. The fighting never stopped all that while, and the sounds of battle haunted them even in their sleep.

Despite the lack of experience with such conditions, Alissa actually held out the best out of the group, likely thanks to her [Weather the Storm] skill which helped her mind stay calm. Ethan and Joshua had dark circles beneath their eyes after only a couple days of the constant, unceasing battle, and even the Royal and Temple guards amongst their party started to look the same by the current point of time.

Everybody was getting tired, though the older soldiers seemed to be able to handle the situation in stride. The same unfortunately had not applied to the younger soldiers amongst the defenders, however, which formed the majority of the soldiers they had. People got sloppy due to fatigue, made mistakes they normally wouldn’t, and all too often a price was paid for those mistakes, either by themselves or by those around them.

The fort’s healers were fully occupied by the ever-increasing number of casualties by that point, to the point that Leda was often tapped in to help there instead of on the fort’s walls. Fortunately for healers like her, experience gain was plentiful regardless of whether she was helping out with the battle directly or indirectly, as a person healed was a person healed no matter what.

Even the healers were run ragged by the constant work, however, even with high level individuals like Leda, Cerilla, and Vesta pitching in to help. There were simply always more people to heal than there were healers to take care of them, and as the battle continued, the number kept increasing faster than the healers could handle.

Several had died simply because there were more badly injured people at the time than there were healers to treat them.

So far, most of the injuries and deaths happened primarily to the soldiers who were lower in level, as they had less stats to support them in the continuous fighting. The stronger, higher-leveled defenders managed to hold their own for the most part still, relying on their more robust bodies and minds to persevere through the grueling battle.

Even they weren’t immune to fatigue, however.

Slowly but surely, those higher in the third tiers grew more tired and made more mistakes. Thanks to their higher stats – and the fact that most of the enemies they faced were weaker than them – they usually managed to recover from the mistake in time to prevent anything undesirable from taking place. However, that was not always the case.

On that day one of the third tiers who was close to his maximum level made a fatal mistake which led to him being pulled bodily off the wall, where he fell into the throng of waiting demons below. The third tier warrior still did his utmost and slew dozens of the weaker demons around him, but he was eventually overwhelmed and torn to pieces by the horde.

In a way, that soldier’s death served as a wake-up call for the rest who were still fighting on the walls, to not lose their concentration lest a similar fate happen to them as well. Even then it only managed to keep the fighting soldiers more alert on a temporary basis, as even though their minds knew that they had to do their best, sometimes their bodies failed them.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

So it was that near the evening, another high leveled third tier defender perished due to a mistake that could have been avoided.

That day, Alissa fought on the wall from roughly six in the morning until well into the night. If she had a watch she would be able to tell better, but she guessed that it would probably be around nine to ten in the night. Even with intermittent rests every now and then during the fighting, and despite how she had one of the strongest physical bodies amongst the people defending the fort, she felt exhausted by the end.

Her other party members – even those who had stronger physiques as they focused on their Body stats more like Ethan – looked just about as exhausted as she was, though surprisingly enough, some old soldiers, who were mostly in the latter levels of their third tiers, looked less tired than they were. On the other hand, younger soldiers around that level range looked so exhausted like they might drop to the ground at any moment.

“Here, get something in your stomachs before you sleep. You’ll feel better when you wake up that way,” said Sir Inolet – whose shift had ended earlier since he was fighting since before Alissa even woke up – to them as he handed bowls of hot stew over. “If you’re wondering how those old bastards could keep up with this pace even though they got less stats then you do, it’s because they’re used to something like this.”

“So this sort of fighting was common, Sir?” asked Alissa with a thankful nod as she plopped down and sipped the hot stew directly from the bowl. Nadine and Maribel, who shared her shift, did the same next to her.

“When they have the numbers to do it? This is how the Demons usually fought in the previous war. There were also many smaller scale conflicts after that war where they fought this hard, though it had petered out somewhat over the last thirty years or so,” explained the old knight. “Maybe they were just saving up their people for this war instead during that time. The idiots living in luxury in the rear thought that the demons were running low on manpower, hah! What a joke their guess turned out to be!”

“Sir Inolet and many of the other senior knights were of the opinion that the lull in demon attacks were just the calm before the storm and had called for training our newer soldiers in high intensity fighting, but were rejected,” said Nadine as she explained some bits Alissa had no idea about. “The main reason they were rejected was a petty power struggle by the nobles who felt threatened by the influence that the senior knights held. That turned out to bite all of us in the rear spectacularly now.”

“Some of those fools were better off drowned at birth. They can’t seem to get it in their skulls that all their power and influence would be pointless if the demons win and run over the Kingdom in the end,” spat out Sir Inolet with quite a bit of vehemence. “Honestly, I find even your father to be a weak-willed fool for always listening to them instead of trying to find his own opinion on matters, lass. I miss your grandpa. He was far more suited for ruling.”

“That’s technically insulting His Majesty the King, but you know what, Sir Inolet? I’m finding myself in agreement with you at this particular moment. Screw dad and his nobles for leaving us unprepared,” said Nadine – who was also the Fifth Royal Princess of the Kingdom – in a huff. They did talk quietly enough to not be overheard, and given their status, even if the King were to hear them, it was doubtful that he could do much at this point. “If the demons were known to fight this way we should have been prepared for it, not caught unprepared like idiots!”

“It’s how bureaucracy fucks things up, Princess,” replied the old knight with a sigh. “Training people takes money, since nothing in the world comes for free. The nobles around your father think that the money could be better used elsewhere, like probably lining their own pockets,” he spat out vehemently. “As if money would save their fat arses when the demons come for them, fucking idiots.”

“That’s also why us old timers do better when faced with this kind of warfare, Miss O’Connor,” said Sir Inolet as he turned to Alissa. “The old soldiers who served from the previous generation or the generation before that still remembered how the demons fought. Many had experienced it for themselves when they were young, so they are more used to this sort of fighting intensity. The youngsters had no such luck. Their training, yours included, are lacking, and now they’re tossed straight into the cauldron, where lady luck will probably decide who manages to swim out and who drowns in the stew.”

“The knights can’t do the training on their own?” asked Alissa with some curiosity.

“We tried, Miss O’Connor, we tried our best, but while we have some power in our hands due to our personal strength, we have little in terms of authority. We cannot make people come to be trained, even if we were willing to train them at our own expense,” said the old knight bitterly. “I did try to slip in what I could to improve your endurance while I was training the three of you, but just training like that pales before the real thing, wouldn’t you agree?”

“Perhaps I wouldn’t be able to answer that a week ago, but now, I would wholeheartedly agree with you. None of the training we have done back in the capital prepared us for… well… this,” said Alissa as she nodded in agreement with the old knight. “Also, Sir, I know you aren’t that worried due to the situation here and Nadine likely could get away with it since she’s a princess, but aren’t you worried that the King or nobles might act against you if they caught wind of you badmouthing them like this? I’m pretty sure they have ears in this army.”

“They don’t have the guts to plot against me while I’m still one of the strongest individuals in this kingdom, Miss, O’Connor, especially when they know that three of the other five strongest people in the kingdom would side with me, since we’re old friends who had waded through thick and thin together,” replied Sir Inolet with a shake of his head. “You didn’t think us old knights could be semi-independent just by reputation, now could you? No, we could somewhat ignore the throne because seven of the ten strongest people in this kingdom are part of our little group of old coots.”

“I guess power does speak for itself in a world like this,” noted Alissa. “You all still fight for the Kingdom, though? Even though you dislike the direction it was headed towards?”

“Just because I no longer give a shit about the mule wearing the crown and his stooges doesn’t mean I don’t care about the people that lived in this kingdom, Miss O’Connor,” said the old knight solemnly. “I fight on the behalf of those too weak to do so themselves. I became a knight in order to protect those who needed protection, and those oaths, I will follow as long as I draw breath.”