Alissa nearly jumped out from her bedroll late in the morning two days later when she heard – and felt – a particularly large explosion from the distance. To say that her sleep that night had been fitful at best was an understatement, as she kept finding herself at the edge of her bed from every loud noise that made its way to her ears, which was plenty of them.

Not to mention that she had barely rested for maybe three hours by that point, as it was not dawn yet. She and the rest of her shift, as well as pretty much everyone else amongst the fourth tiers, were up on the walls fighting off the first wave of the demon’s assault through the day of the assault, all the way to the next day, until well past midnight the day before. It was only very recently that things had calmed down enough to allow some of them to take a rest in shifts.

To say that she felt exhausted was similarly an understatement, after only brief moments to catch her breath in a battle that otherwise went on unabated for nearly two days straight and was still ongoing outside, as far as she could tell. If anything, a few hours of fitful sleep hadn’t helped her by much, as every ache she was feeling felt even worse instead.

It was similar to the feeling she used to experience a day after particularly rigorous exercise in her previous world, albeit amplified several times over.

By the time Alissa left, she had been fighting for nearly two days without any proper rest, and while she could take the chance to save her energy against the weaker foes, the opposing fourth tiers – and the [Mother of Monster]’s abominations – made incursions often enough that she had to fight seriously quite often as well.

Now she understood why old Sir Inolet had always drilled her to not expend more power than needed when dealing with her enemies. He was preparing her for this sort of scenario where she would be forced to fight continuously without any chance of proper rest. To say that she had not enjoyed the experience back then was an understatement, but now that she felt the real thing, she realized that the old knight was still taking it lightly on them in the past.

The demons on the other hand, did no such thing and came at them with every intent to kill. In the past two days alone, the fort’s defenders had taken more casualties than in the entirety of the siege up to that point put together. Clashes between fourth tiers atop the fort’s walls went from an occasional thing to something that kept happening, as every time the defenders managed to repel one incursion, another would take its place soon after.

It was only the fact that the demon fourth tiers were not fighting with the reckless abandon of their lower tiers that allowed the defenders to persevere. Then again, the demons likely understood that there was little point in a victory where they spent themselves to achieve it. It was far better for them to utilize their numerical advantage to keep the humans tired and fatigued until they eventually crumbled instead.

As much as Alissa hated to admit it, that approach was clearly working. The only reason they still managed to defend the fort to this point was the advantage the fortification gave them, which somewhat evened out the enemy’s greater numbers. Even though fourth tiers were mighty, they were not at the blow-up-the-wall level mighty, so the walls still served some deterrent even to them.

Unfortunately, despite their great power, one thing fourth tiers – even the toughest ones like Ethan – lacked in this world was inhuman durability. While a fourth tier was tougher and harder to injure, they were still very killable should someone hit the right spots where their armor didn’t cover them as much. Alissa herself had killed a couple that way, so she knew that for certain.

The same applied to the humans’ own fourth tiers, and already they had lost another the day before, while the demons had yet to lose any of theirs, even if Alissa managed to almost kill one, and Joshua reportedly managed to do the same to another whose life and death was unknown as they fell off the wall after taking his strike.

They did manage to destroy three of the undead abominations they fought against, as those fought with far more reckless abandon and the [Mother of Monsters] who controlled them at times failed to withdraw them in time. Unfortunately, they had also seen the woman create a new one to take up the place of the fallen ones on the spot, and she likely could create another by the next day.

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At that point, the only real hope the defenders had to win the battle was either to outlast the demons – a possibility that seemed to grow fainter by the day – or to make taking the fort a too costly affair for them to continue their assault. As such, their own fourth tiers had been attacking any demon fourth tiers – as well as the occasional [Champion’s Retainer], of which five had been identified so far – viciously in the hopes of crippling or killing them.

It was hard to catch the demons that way, though, as their fourth tiers were prone to bailing out of the fight when pressed hard like that, and they had others around to help them buy time if needed. Alissa and another assassin-type fourth tier amongst the humans had the best success as they managed to heavily injure a couple of demons by attacking them unawares, but they failed to go for the kill as the demons immediately pulled back.

In the end, Alissa found herself unable to get more sleep as she fidgeted under her blanket. She ended up choosing to just forgo the remaining half-hour or so of sleep she could still get as she got up and walked out to get some quick breakfast instead. While she was on the wall, fighting the demons, food and drink were things that were limited to a quick bite or gulp here and there during the rare downtimes where they managed to take a short break.

Something that was actually warm and recently cooked, one that she could take her time eating, would probably do her good, since it was not like she was going to be able to get more sleep at that point anyway.

She didn’t feel as mentally tired as two days without sleep ought to have rendered her, so that was probably her higher stats making her mind more resilient to the lack of rest. Her body still ached, but moving actually helped relieve the aches somewhat, so that was a relief, at the very least. After quickly washing her face to freshen herself and putting up her armor, Alissa walked out into the fort’s interior to see that the battle had indeed not stopped at all during the time she was resting.

Others who were given the opportunity to rest were also already up and about, some in the midst of preparing themselves for another jaunt at the walls, while most of the rest were eating. The snores coming from many tents told her that most of the rest were still catching up on their sleep and would likely remain that way until someone woke them up in a half hour.

Alissa went to where she could see a cloud of steam rising up from a cauldron. A middle-aged matron – part of the fort’s support staff who refused to evacuate to safety even with the impending demon attack – smiled and nodded at her before she ladled a large portion of the thick, gloopy soup into a wooden bowl and passed it to Alissa with a wooden spoon thrown in.

The soup reminded Alissa of some chinese soups she had before with the way it was so thick and almost slimy at times. Bits of meat and vegetables floated about the heavily thickened soup, which itself used a broth of bone as its base. It was pretty good, hearty and flavorful, though at that point she’d welcome anything warm and edible to eat after only being able to chew on bits of dried rations every now and then for two days.

Alissa finished the bowl quickly, and to her relief, the matron offered her second on the spot. Maybe a hot bowl of hearty soup wouldn’t make the demon problem they faced go away, but at least it helped her calm down and prepare to deal with it better.

With a grateful nod to the matron after she finished her second bowl of soup, Alissa got up and stretched her aching muscles a bit. By this point nobody really cared all that much that she was a summoned [Hero] or whatnot. Everybody was in the fight together, bound by the purpose of mutual survival and the implications of what might happen should they fail to hold.

Morale was a finicky thing, as was symbolisms. The fort represented the first minor victory the humans had over the last few wars against the demons, which in turn made it into a symbol of hope that was dangled before the soldiers to raise their morale. Conversely, however, should the fort fall, the effect that would have on the morale of the soldiers would be nothing short of disastrous.

And such an event would likely be followed by the demons pushing back just as hard if not harder, taking back the lands they had lost so far and then some.

By that time, it was nearing the end of the time people who were sent off the wall to rest along with her to wake up. A few of the people already awake took up the task of walking around to wake up the still-sleeping ones, while Alissa herself picked up her spear from where she laid it down while eating. She looked up once more towards the people still fighting at the wall.

The fighting was still intense, though it was not as bad as the worst it had been during the first two days. Even the demons needed rest as well, so their best fighters were not always leading the attack. It was the only reason some of the defenders could afford to rest briefly in shifts like Alissa just did. Already she saw another group of tired soldiers – including Ethan, who gave her a weak wave of his hand from afar when he noticed her – walk down from the walls to have their turn at resting.

As Alissa returned Ethan’s wave, she walked back towards the wall and climbed up the staircase towards where she spotted Sir Inolet. Sir Marsten had been resting with Alissa’s group and had not returned to the wall yet, so the one in command at the moment was Sir Inolet instead. The old knight spotted her arrival, gave her a tired but grateful smile, and quickly pointed out a section of the wall for her to look after.

They naturally kept the defenders of each section changed from time to time, as otherwise the demons would be able to arrange for a counter to the particular fourth tier in charge of a section. It was Sir Marsten’s and Sir Inolet’s jobs to make sure that the demons didn’t get such a chance by keeping things varied on the defense.

Alissa gave the old knight a military salute – a habit she had picked up from the other soldiers – before she left towards the region she was assigned to. Just as she arrived, a demon force managed to gain another foothold at the top of the wall, likely using a weakness that was left when the resting batch of soldiers left.

She tore into them mercilessly and stabilized the situation within moments, as she rushed from one point to another to handle the ever-changing situation atop the wall. The battle promised to be a long one, so it would be a question of whether the demons broke first, or if the humans did.