The defenders froze. There were extremely few cases of waves with a 10 rating, and most of them had ended with a disaster. Slowly coming to their senses, the high-ranked teams started giving orders again. One of the silver squads made their way toward Lev’s group.

“Any healers among you?” The lead warrior with a huge black sword strapped to his back asked them. Kayla nodded at his question.

“The western wall needs all the healers they can get. Make your way there. The rest of you, make sure she gets there post-haste.” He moved ahead after relaying the orders, ensuring nobody remained inactive on the wall.

Lev and his group immediately started escorting Kayla, worried about the sudden change of plans. The walls were wide enough to move without any problem, allowing them to cover the distance quickly by jogging. They were stopped twice by silver squads to be questioned about where they were going but were left to their task after clarification.

The western side of the wall was much less crowded, mostly occupied by Hunters at or above silver rank. Lev asked one of them for directions to where healers were required, guiding Kayla to the small camp where the injured were being healed.

Kayla was immediately redirected to the other side of the camp, where the less critical injuries were treated. Lev looked around as they walked, noticing the grave injuries sustained by the hunters. The most common injury was missing hands or legs, roughly bitten off. Some of the people were burnt really badly, their armor and weapons melted and dented. Kayla’s healing skill was rarely used and low level. Every evolution made the body of a hunter go through drastic changes, requiring much more effort to heal them.

Unable to do anything about the heavily injured patients, they passed through that part of the camp without stopping. As soon as the healers noticed Kayla, she was swept up by them and soon started healing the hunters. Despite silver-ranked teams being rare and much less numerous than the previous two ranks, there were still dozens of people in this area. Some of them had wounds that should’ve been fatal, but their high Constitution kept them alive and running.

Lev, Jack, and Amelia had nothing to do in the medic camp, so they moved to the edge of the wall. For the first time, Lev saw what this side of the wall had to face.

Panthers, Bears, Gorillas, Meaner and larger looking Trolls and Orcs, Treants, and many other monsters. He was just guessing based on what he had read about the Dreadwoods. The monsters were also larger and bulkier overall, a far cry from the frail goblins and wolves his group had to fight. The wall borders were also damaged in places, sometimes completely rebuilt with a different colored stone instead of repaired. Far into the distance, he could see a treeline. Even from this far away, he could tell the color of the wood and leaves was dark, and the trees were massive.

Done with the inspection, he sat down next to his friends and closed his eyes. Kayla was going to be tired and out of mana, so they had to recover as much as they could. There were no preset instructions for what the hunters were supposed to do in case of a 10-rated wave, so Lev wanted to be as ready as he could possibly be. The rest continued for only a few minutes before someone blew a horn atop the southern gate. It was probably enchanted, seeing how the sound traveled to them without issue.

Immediately, all of the silver ranks who could move scrambled to get up and started strapping the injured fighters to the beds. Within seconds, the first of them were slowly descending toward the city, gently carried by the winds, along with a few healers. As Lev watched, runners approached the healers below and left after getting their orders. Someone lightly pulled him back, and he came face-to-face with one of the healers.

“Start moving to the gate already, boy. The horn was a signal to defend the city. Move!”

Kayla was already next to him, and they started running southward. It would take five minutes of running to get there, but they were interrupted when a massive explosion in the woods rocked the walls. Despite the great distance, Lev barely managed to keep his footing from the resulting quake. The wall was getting more and more crowded, with squads being pulled back up and new stairs being created to get down to the city. Another explosion went off seconds after the first, making Amelia carry Kayla in her arms so they could cover distance faster. Before long, the reason behind the explosions jumped out of the woods and started running toward the wall.

The feline monster was massive, easily over 10 meters tall. It moved so fast that its steps seemingly teleported it forward. Half the ground between the woods and the wall was covered in seconds, and Lev had an instant to get a good look at the monster. It was the color of mud, visible clearly on the grass. It had two tusks jutting out of each jaw, and its slitted eyes shone a mixture of red and brown. Lev could not observe anything further as the first attacks reached it.

Massive lances of lightning rained from above, aiming to skewer the monster. Impossibly, it dodged all of them. Just before the attacks could hit it, the monster’s speed increased manifold, dodging the attacks by turning into a blur. Mercifully, the attacks were targeting the front half of the monster, making it dodge backward or to the side. The attacker was trying to keep it away from the wall.

Several squads that radiated immense pressure exited the gate and ran toward the monster, trying their best to not let it reach the still-crowded wall. By now, the lightning lances were falling close enough that Lev and his friends could not hope to run to the gate. They stood with their hands gripping the wall border for support, watching the grim spectacle.

Suddenly, two more figures caught up to the monster from behind. One of them had a gigantic silver sword, brimming with mana and shining with a multitude of enchantments. It strained Lev’s perception to notice those few details when the person slowed down. Everyone was moving far too fast. The sword wielder tried to slash at its back leg, but the monster once again dodged at the last moment. This time, however, spikes tore out of the ground and launched themselves at the assailants. The spikes were huge, around 5 meters long. The second figure cast a spell, and a wooden wall rose from the ground to block them. The few that pierced the wall were too slow to reach the humans, who were already attacking again.

The swordman channeled a massive amount of mana, observable from the top of the wall, and launched a similarly massive silver slash. It reached the monster in a blink, tearing a long gash on the ground as it flew. The monster, somehow, dodged even that. The mages were not idle, however, as flaming boulders flew toward it at the same time. The first hit the ground to its left, peppering it with red-hot debris but failing to do anything else. The next few attacks were also dodged with ease. After ten missed boulders, the monster jumped into the air and landed on top of one of the attacks.

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Then it started to run towards the mage on the flying blazing boulders.

Within moments, it was almost on top of the earth mage. Jumping from one boulder to another, it leaped forward when there were no more earthen platforms. An enormous wooden spike launched itself from behind the mage, going over the caster’s head. It was aimed to skewer the monster, not giving it room to dodge directly forward. It turned into a blur mid-air, dodging sideways, right into the path of a long spear of lightning.

The resulting explosion blinded Lev, and the titanic boom made him cover his ears. It took a precious few seconds to get his bearings back under control and look at the outcome of the attack. The battlefield was covered in dust and smoke, not letting him see anything. Suddenly, a massive gale swept the area, revealing what the move had accomplished.

The monster stood upright, and it looked very pissed off.

Instead of being skewered, its right side was charred from shoulder to belly. The rest of its body was covered in stone armor, completely unharmed. Despite the horrifying injuries, it slowly trotted forward with confident strides. Its movement did not seem to be impaired at all.

Its mouth was also chock full of mana.

Lev felt his perception slow down, then slow down again, this time far more. Gazing at the approaching shockwave that originated from the monster’s roar, his life was flashing before his eyes. But he refused to go down without giving it his all. Most of the battle had passed as a blur, but now he had time just enough time to act. He turned and ran toward Kayla. He felt her buff reach the whole team, and barrier armor covered his body. Jack activated all his skills, his shield glowing, before taking his spot in front of Kayla. Amelia’s enhancement was also running at an intensity high enough for Lev to hear sizzling sounds, but he paid them no mind. Lev stood back-to-back with Jack and wrapped his arms around Kayla. Amelia did the same from behind her, and they both covered the least physically protected member of their team.

The shockwave had already covered more than half the distance of the many kilometers. Lev put as much mana as he could into his barrier armor and started forming barrier domes around him. The first formed as close to him as he could make it, leaving no space for them to move. Another dome formed on top of it, making the layer even thicker. One by one, three more domes formed. Lev’s mind felt like it was going to split in two. There was no finesse involved. The domes were just thick barriers without any sharp edges or spinning. The final result was a dome as thick as two of his fingers, utilizing over half of his total mana. Vines started creeping up on the dome, too slow to completely cover it.

The shockwave reached them the instant the dome was complete. It obliterated the defense, only slowed down slightly for its trouble before Lev and his friends were launched backward. Luckily, none of them went over the wall borders and plummeted to a likely death. Unfortunately, all of them slammed into the wall border at high speed.

The next moments passed in flashes for Lev. He tried to open his eyes and move his limbs, but they wouldn’t respond. His vision went black before he could even lift a finger. The next time his eyes briefly opened, he felt himself slowly gliding off the wall. His friends were also following after him, all of them unconscious. That was the last thing he saw before darkness claimed him.

****

Lev opened his eyes and found a familiar ceiling. He was back in his room at the inn. He tried moving his fingers, finding them whole and functional. Slowly, he tasted all of his limbs before trying to sit up. As soon as he had accomplished that, Lev was tackled by Kayla, crying tears of relief. He caressed her back and tried to comfort her to no avail. Seeing how she wouldn’t calm down anytime soon, he looked around the room. Amelia and Jack were sitting on chairs around his bed. Their eyes were red and puffy from crying, and dark bags under them betrayed their exhaustion. They both perked up when Lev woke up, immense relief making them sag forward.

“What happened?” Lev asked in a raspy voice, suddenly realizing he was both hungry and thirsty. Jack poured him a glass of water from their refillable bottle, which Lev gratefully accepted. Lev looked at both of them, noticing how they were both on the brink of collapse. Eventually, Amelia answered him.

“After we hit the wall, I woke up not long after. When the mage deposited us on the ground, the impact jostled me awake. Your-” a sob wrecked through her body, “Your neck was broken, and your head was tilted at an angle that shouldn’t have been possible otherwise. Immediately, you were beset by a gaggle of healers who wouldn’t even let me get close to you…” she trailed off, her composure breaking down as tears started flowing freely. Jack was barely staying coherent, his inner turmoil betrayed by his trembling lips.

Lev took a moment to process what he had just heard, a part of him refusing to believe he had been so close to dying. “How many people died?” Lev asked Jack, still in shock.

“Over a thousand hunters died, most of them bronze or iron. More than a dozen silvers closest to the monster also perished. They are still counting.” Jack replied with gritted teeth, hurt and regret showing on his face. The guild, of course, would not disclose any information about the higher ranks lest they ruin the already damaged morale.

They fell silent, only Kayla’s wailing and Amelia’s sobs being heard in the room. Lev motioned for Jack and Amelia to come closer, grabbing them in a hug when they did. Time lost its meaning as the boys wept silent tears, holding the girls who cried their hearts out. They had not made any mistakes, only unfortunate enough to be hit by a weakened attack from some abomination. They were not even close to the fight, and the helplessness pained Lev even more.

Eventually, crying gave way to exhaustion, and that, to sleep.