Nate had been on the wall for several hours, shooting bolt after bolt into the mass of beasts below when Angie joined them.

Lindsay had been relegated to shuttle duty and was acting as one of the drivers. It was a position that had been given to most of the young close-range fighters as they came in. Their cultivation realms simply weren’t high enough to put them anywhere else, so they were made use of where they could.

Those who couldn’t drive were given the task of keeping everyone’s ammunition on the wall topped up. Arrows, bolts, spears, rocks, marbles, whatever it was they used were being provided at the moment.

Down below, the ground had turned into a swampy wasteland. The beasts trampled their dead without a care, pulping the remains into a fine paste that was slowly ground into the dirt.

Occasionally, one of the defenders would use an energy skill, but for the most part, everyone was saving their strength. They all knew this was going to be a long, hard battle.

As the day wore on, more people began using their energy skills on the beasts that drew close to the walls. The impact-hardened dirt had started to take on an increasing amount of damage all along the line. Something that they were all aware couldn’t continue if they were to survive this wave. It was only the first day of the attack and already the damage done to the wall had started to mount. It wasn’t serious by any means, but the entire point was to keep it from ever reaching that stage.

The downside to Angie’s choice of weapon quickly became apparent as she stood side by side with Nate and his mother. Her arm needed to be constantly in motion, which was fine for the occasional beast, or even short waves. However, doing it for hours on end was nearly impossible.

She was still in the first realm, and her body simply hadn’t been enhanced enough yet to work like that. As it was, Nate was beyond impressed that she managed to keep her arm moving constantly for a full thirty-minutes before taking her first break. After that, each subsequent break grew longer, while her attacking period gradually grew shorter.

Next to her, Nate was doing better, but his qi had started to dip from constantly cocking the crossbow. He was acting like he had an attachment that went on the back to pull back the bows. Really, it was just a block of metal he had pulled from his storage.

The act was a little grating in the beginning, but now felt normal. The issue was simply how many times he had fired the crossbow. He was getting faster, but no matter what, the horde below refused to thin.

Next to him, his mother was an absolute unit of a beast. Her arms moved almost mechanically as she smoothly and constantly drew back and released the metallic string of her new bow. The only time she stopped was when she needed to put on a pair of finger guards.

Over the years, and with her cultivation, her fingers had gained hard callouses that prevented the normal bowstrings from hurting her fingers. The metallic string on her new bow was hardly normal, not to mention how many times she was being forced to draw it. Her fingers had been rubbed raw by the time she put the finger guards on.

Even with the damage, she never faltered or slowed, and she was definitely one of the more effective archers on the wall. Each arrow she released was shot with great precision and always found a target.

Down by the gate, constant groups were being sent out and returning from harrying runs. They were doing their best to keep certain areas clear, but were gradually being pushed back and overwhelmed.

If there was one small blessing from all of this, it was that the smell the beasts were releasing a few hours after death no longer mattered. It couldn’t draw any more beasts to the city than what was already there.

Four hours, that was how long Nate and Angie’s shift on the wall lasted after she showed up. By the time it ended, her arm was practically useless, and Nate had fired his crossbow so many times that he had gone cross-eyed. He had hit thousands of beasts during that time, and well over half had died or been trampled to death as a result of his bolts. And yet, it all felt meaningless. There was no end in sight, only more of them for as far as his eyes could see.

Together they trudged wearily from the wall after Nate had discretely slipped a healing pill to his mother. She could use it later to heal her muscles, along with her torn fingers.

They followed a bunch of other tired long-range fighters that were leaving the wall at the same time as them. These were cultivators that had been there since early in the morning, and now their shift was just barely ending. At that rate, Nate didn’t expect his parents to get home until late that night.

At the bottom of the wall, there was a constant stream of shuttles, vans, carts, and whatever else they could find waiting to ferry people about. The city had not been properly maintaining its fleet of shuttles and found itself woefully short on transportation. They would have been short regardless, but it was even worse now.

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“Can I catch a ride back to my house from you?” Nate asked once they were in the shuttle. He was gently massaging her shoulder and upper arm with his own weak hands.

Angie was groaning and wincing as his fingers dug into the sensitive flesh. “Yeah, that shouldn’t be an issue. You know I’m always happy to give you a ride.”

“That doesn’t mean I want to automatically assume, not yet anyway. Maybe in a couple of months.”

She chuckled and then jerked as he touched an especially sensitive muscle. “I am regretting letting you all talk me into taking up the sling now, no matter how well it fits. This is a downside I didn’t even think about before now.”

“Me neither. If my crossbow hadn’t come with the auto-crank, it would have destroyed my shoulders and hands.”

Back at the license bureau building, they found Lindsay waiting for them. As more cultivators had gotten called up, all the parking lots in the area had rapidly filled to the maximum capacity. As a result, the shuttle drivers had been forced to start ferrying people from the farther out parking lots to the bureau office first. She had been driving back and forth for hours and was mentally exhausted.

This was just one of the dozens of offices and gates spread across the wall, and yet it was constantly in motion.

She dragged herself to their sides and plopped down on the short retaining wall they had collapsed on.

“You two look as though you have been having fun up there.” She carefully pulled the hem of Angie’s shirt away from her neck and looked down at her shoulder and upper arm. “There is some swelling around the joint in your shoulder, and your arm is red.” She clicked her tongue and shook her head. “You really overworked yourself up there. How about you?” Her eyes flicked to Nate.

He shook his head. “I’m tired, but that is mostly it. My crossbow came with an auto-crank unit.”

Angie rolled her eyes at that explanation but didn’t say anything.

Lindsay took over massaging Angie’s shoulder and arm from Nate, giving his tired fingers a much-needed rest.

They only needed to wait a couple of minutes for Angie’s driver to show up.

“Were you able to hear anything interesting driving everyone about?” Nate asked once they were inside the car.

Lindsay nodded but didn’t seem happy. “What your dad said earlier at your house was right. They got confirmation from a few of the expedition teams that were still out there. Natural safe havens, treasure spots, places that are meant to be sacred to everyone, beasts, animals, and us, have been destroyed. They don’t have an exact count just yet, but from what I overheard, the last reported number was five.”

“How many are there even in the region?” Angie wondered.

Lindsay shrugged. “We live close to the mountains, so who can say? More than other areas have, on average, probably.”

“We’re not super close to the mountains,” Nate protested. “We live in the foothills; the mountains are still…” He trailed off, suddenly unsure.

On his Old Earth, it had been a simple thing to drive down the highway and then up into the mountains. He wasn’t sure if that was the case here. Sure, Denver still existed, sort of, but the state capital was a fraction of the size it should have been. But he hadn’t been there since arriving in this world. He had no idea what condition the roads would even be like.

“The foothills, what?” Angie prompted.

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“Nothing, I was just thinking about the condition of the roads and that there are places closer to them, like Denver. Then I remembered where the dimensional zone was and realized it didn’t matter anyway. The mountains may have more truly natural treasure spots, but us, we were forgetting that everything revolves around the dimensional zones. There are more spots in this area simply because we are close to the zone, nothing more.”

They slowly nodded at that. It was indeed something they had forgotten in the heat of the moment.

“Whatever, it’s not like we can do something about it in any case,” Lindsay said after a moment. “I just hope they don’t call us back to the wall for our next shift too soon. Did either of you hear when our next turn would be?”

Angie and Nate shared a look as they shook their heads. It had been the last thing on their minds at the time. All they had been thinking about was leaving.

“Make sure you get your arm and shoulder looked at, Angie. Lindsay, stay safe, it’ll be hectic out there.” He told them both as he got out at his house.

Aura leaped out of his chest as soon as they were safely out of sight inside. She had been keeping up a running commentary on various things throughout the day in an effort to keep him somewhat entertained. It had mostly worked, though the effort of holding a one-sided conversation for hours on end had worn at her.

“Thanks for doing that all-day, it definitely helped.” He said, reaching out to scratch her behind the ears. “This is definitely not what we were expecting to happen.” His eyes flashed angrily. “Perhaps I have been too nice with my traps when it comes to the ones aimed at the cultivators.”

Aura nudged his hand, urging him to continue scratching her ears. “I think it is more likely that there are other factors at play. You don’t find it the least suspicious that your parent’s old boss would go crawling to another city, and get protection just before all of this goes down?”

His fingers scratched at her ear on autopilot. “I hadn’t really considered it. The man, Donovan? Rarely enters my thoughts as it is. He was a passing curiosity for the most part. One who tried and failed to hurt my parents. I would get revenge against him if I could, but that is as far as my thoughts about him have really gone since my parents told me where he went. I basically dismissed and then forgot about him.”

Nate frowned, his free hand tapping on his knee as he relaxed on the couch next to Aura. “Do you think all of this was because of him?”

She shook her head. “No, I doubt it. I think they merely took advantage of the information he had to make their move and enhance plans already in place.”

It was an interesting theory and one that he would need to think about some more for sure. The only issue he had with it was that it all hinged on the cities wanting to destroy another city. Whether it was for knowledge, access to the dungeon or another unknown reason was immaterial. That was a lot to swallow.

A few deaths were normal in this world, but the loss of an entire city…

That was something else entirely.