Maria POV

The night during the monster horde.

Hearing numerous monster cries evoked fear in my mind; this was the first time I heard such a frightening and ominous sound. The surrounding atmosphere is quite tense; clearly, everyone involved in defending the town is nervous, not only for their lives but also for their loved ones, especially the awakeners that are currently living in Marchelle town.

Everyone in town was preparing for the imminent clash with the monsters. Many personnel from the adventurers guild and the local noble were preparing a trap for the monsters; they were burying black boxes in the ground. Soldiers and guards alike were outside the walls digging dirt and placing something inside the dug ground as per the instructions of the local noble.

While most of the awakeners in town were called by the guild leader himself to have a strategic meeting on how to approach this battle.

The meeting was led by the strongest in town, the adventurer's guild master of Marchelle.

Drake: "According to the scout information gathered, this battle would be a battle of endurance due to the number of monsters rather than strength since there were a lot of lower-level monsters from level 10–25, which comprise almost 70% of the monster wave."

Drake: "So, adjusting the strategy from the information gathered by the scouts, we, the adventurer's guild, and the local noble have formulated a plan. Most of the monsters will be coming from the east; thankfully, we only have to defend one front."

Drake: "We decided to drag out the battle as long as possible since we cannot win in a head-on battle with the number of monsters in the horde. With this in mind, we have already dug and placed explosives to reduce the number of monsters. Along with people capable of casting large-scale skills, casting their skills in an alternate pattern will save us a lot of time."

Drake: "In the meantime, four assault teams will be formed by me and the leader of the main assault team from the local noble. We will target and fight the high-level monsters. And after reducing the high-level monsters significantly, half of the team assault team will return to assist the defending awakeners in town and clear low-level monsters."

He continued allocating tasks and duties after that. The plan they created was pretty solid, assigning shifts in defense to allow some rest to tired awakeners.

They also prepared some emergency measures in case there was a monster breach in town. The only factor remaining is whether the awakened team will endure the monster wave.

After dismissing everyone, they went to their own positions. Likewise, Master, me, and Clarice also went to our designated positions.

Maria: "Master, why did you insist on fighting on the front line?"

I asked Master since, after the meeting was discussed, the guild leader asked Nicholas if he wanted to sit this one out. Obviously, because he was a noble, if anything happens to him in this emergency, the guild master will be at fault.

Nicholas: "Well, I know you guys are raring to fight... HAHA"

He scratched the back of his head as he was saying that.

Nicholas: "Actually, my blood is also boiling. Also, I didn't want all of our effort in leveling up just to stay in the back and do nothing."

While walking, I also asked Master if he was nervous for our safety. He, however, said to me that the plan of the guild master, if implemented perfectly and without unexpected screwups, would be enough not to hurt us.

He also reassured us that, even if plans went awry, he would be able to protect us. With that reassurance, my confidence in this battle grew exponentially.

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To be truthful, I was also excited about gaining a large number of experience points and leveling up quickly. It was as if I was already feeling the surge of power when my stats increased when leveling up.

However, after reassuring us, he went to scold us to not get too complacent since it will be a long battle and we should try to conserve mana as much as possible.

It's like he felt that I was being too cocky.

As we arrive at our position, we see four more teams stationed with us. They will be the ones who rotate shifts with us during the battle. Positioning at the back, since our team will be switching to the 4th batch, we went on to take a seat and continue chatting to ease some of the tension.

We also greeted and asked the other teams with us how they were feeling. Well, some don't feel like chatting when there is an impending battle. While some teams were brimming with hope and excitement, replying to our small talks.

Nicholas: "Let's have a bite later, okay!"

All: "OOOOUU!!"

Soon after, a signal horn was blown, which was heard by everyone in town. Long-range casters, including me, Nicholas, and three other people from our group, prepared our range and area skills.

We can already see the monster on the horizon slowly coming closer to our range of attack. We patiently waited for the monsters to finally cross that range; when they finally crossed our range, it was the beginning of the fight.

Torrent of flames, wind, earth, and water were fired at the enemy; some even had advanced elements like ice and lighting being fired at the fray. The first volley of skill has been thrown at the monster, reducing the front line by a large margin.

Then come the melee fighters to clean up the fight and delay the march of the monster as long as possible. This tactic was executed pretty decently, and the movement of the monster was halted a bit. This continued for 20 minutes until some of the awakeners were tired and were pushed back. Seeing that they had bought enough time for the long-range attackers to recover, they immediately retreated to allow the monster wave to march.

A few more back-and-forth attacks from the awakeners took several hours. Master and Claire also went to have a turn defending and halting the movement of the front-line monster. Seeing Claire's graceful but ruthless slashes really mesmerized me; she was like a performer, having the battlefield as her stage. While Master is always as precise and decisive in doing his task cleanly and effortlessly.

A small blush covered my face, seeing his young master's cool appearance on the battlefield, looking like an aloof executioner judging the lives of his enemies.

However, as time passed, the awakened intervals of switching were getting less and less due to casualties and injuries accumulated when defending. As the groups are slowly getting overwhelmed, pushing them to their limit, another horn is blown, indicating the retreat of awakeners.

Ours and several groups ran immediately and went inside the safety of the town; they carried the injured over. Many of the groups returning inside the town had casualties; our team also had one, but since there are three healers in our group, which can be considered very lucky.

As the monster slowly marched into the perimeter of the town, all the abled awakeners formed a singular group to finish the last battle.

*BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM*

Last of the explosives had been deployed which bought more time for the awakeners to rest for a few minutes.

Hope was slowly dwindling, awakeners seeing their comrades tattered and torn figuratively and literally.

But, when morale was at its lowest, the leader of the local noble squad had successfully returned, and they will be accompanying us on the final battle near the perimeter of the town.

As the monster drew closer and closer, the atmosphere became more tense, but there was still a horde of monsters pouring in. Some came to the conclusion that it would be a long and grueling last stand.

But contrary to their expectations, multiple explosions occurred in the vicinity of the town. Torn bits of a monster came flying through the air. With this sight, lots of awakeners were shocked by the explosion; their dread also diminished a lot, giving them hope they could eliminate that monster safely.

Nicholas: "The local noble really had ways to increase morale. He really hid more explosives than the initial plan. What a cunt."

As the final battle started, Master and Claire left for the front line, leaving me behind. As I saw them battling through multiple monsters, I gave them a supportive fire, killing nearby enemies to prevent them from interfering with their battle. The battle is still continuing even after an hour. I am currently using my reserved mana in my ring to cast a spell.

Master was still going strong, shouldering some of Clarice's burden since she was already exhausted from fighting non-stop. After a moment, a huge slash came from the backline, decimating tens of monsters. A lot of awakeners were astonished by the power of that skill.

It is also a sign of relief for some of the awakeners, which means that the guild master of the Marchelle town has succeeded in eliminating the high-level monsters and has come back to town to provide support. With such great news, some had renewed vigor to endure a bit more since the fight would be at its end.

I was, however, only focused on protecting my team, giving Master some support and Clarice some barriers if needed. The battle with the guild master included didn't last long and dawned the victory of the town.

Drake: "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUU!!!!"

All: "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!"