Day 28. Today was the day.
There were clouds in the sky providing an overcast that looked like it would later turn into rain. A strong wind blew through the camp to add to the somber atmosphere. It seemed the weather was going to add to our troubles along with the wave.
We all ate breakfast together and the conversation was kept light. Some of the nerves were coming back from previous waves and I was glad that it seemed people were heeding my warnings.
I didn't want to unnecessarily worry people but I didn't think I was going to be wrong. Today's wave was going to be hard.
We had been through enough waves by now that we all knew what to do. Everything was set up and ready to go well before noon when the wave would come.
It was decided that standing in front of the wall would be too dangerous this wave so we would stick to being inside. With all the practice of previous waves, we could now throw the javelins accurately from behind the wall without having to see what we were aiming at.
Someone in the guard tower would shout out the marker and we would throw it the appropriate distance. It was usually one of the rangers that did it. The number of javelins that I put metal spearheads on was fewer than I would have liked but there was nothing that I could do about it now.
I spent the hours from breakfast to noon pounding out the last of the breastplates that I could make. I felt that those were more important than the spearheads right now.
My father found me in the forge an hour before the wave.
"Chris, everything's going to be fine. You don't need to keep worrying so much." He said trying to get me to calm down. I knew he was trying to help but I couldn't stop.
It would be a waste of time to argue with him now so I kept silent. He didn't know everything was going to be fine and it would accomplish nothing pointing that out.
"The wall will hold and we'll get through this wave just like all of the others." He said while patting me on the shoulder.
One can only hope.
He walked away soon after saying his piece, and I was left with the sounds of my hammer. I hoped he was right.
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"It looks like rain on the horizon. It's gonna make the fighting tough." Austin said from where he stood next to me.
He was right. The clouds had darkened since the morning and they looked like they were about ready to unleash. You could almost smell it in the air that rain was coming. The humidity in the air had risen to match and it left me in a sticky sweat under all of my gear.
My new armor was great and all, but ventilation was not what it was designed for.
"There's nothing we can do about it," I said back. It wasn't like we could stop it from raining.
"I know, I'm just saying," He muttered, "Do you think it's going to hold off till after the wave?"
"With our luck, probably not. It'll start right at noon." I was being extra cynical but the feeling I had meant nothing was going to go right for us today.
"Well, if that's the case it should start soon. It's almost noon now." He was checking over the new spear I had made for him while we were talking.
His old spear was chipped and warped from all the fighting he had done. This new one should last him a little longer and be a little better. My new skill Create Weapon should make it better than his last one.
Defend your claim!
Wave Start: 0:59
"And so it begins." I heard Austin mutter.
The rain chose that exact time to start its descent as if to mock us. If I knew better I would think that it was planned.
Everyone was already standing at the ready and we could only watch as the timer ticked down.
It hit zero and we were greeted by the sounds of our foe. Loud howls filled the air with an undertone of barks.
Wolves.
Our defense was a well-oiled machine by this point. Arrows and magic were launched out followed by javelins when they got in range. The wolves seemed undeterred and shrugged them off.
Evolved monsters were a different beast altogether. The attacks of H-rank mages were less effective against them, same with the rangers. It was the sheer number of projectiles that did anything.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
The rain of javelins was the most effective, but even that was diminished.
"They're not charging in the trench!" Hal shouted from the guard tower.
"What do you mean? Every other wave just charges into it blindly." Granddad shouted back.
The rain combined with the howls from the wolves and the sounds of magic made it hard to hear what they were talking about, but I could make it out.
"I don't know, it seems like something is directing them," Hal shouted back.
If something was directing them then this was going to be harder than I thought it would be. None of the other waves showed any bit of intelligence. They all charged straight at us like mindless brutes.
It seemed like this wave was going to be different.
"What are they doing then?" Granddad shouted back.
We couldn't see from where we were behind the wall. The only people with a clear view of the enemy were the ones in the guard tower.
"They're... t-they're sacrificing themselves to build a bridge!" Hal shouted.
They're what? Did he say they were building a bridge? I could scarcely believe it. Granddad must have matched my disbelief because he hurriedly scrambled up the ladder of the guard tower to see for himself.
"Dear God," He muttered as soon as he got to the top of the guard tower and could see what they were doing.
Their reaction was making me want to climb up there and see for myself what was going on. I held myself back and had to settle for their description.
The wolves were throwing themselves into the trench. It wasn't the chaotic way that happened during the other waves. No, they were piling on top of each other to create a way across.
This was madness. They were really sacrificing themselves to build a bridge. Soon the trench filled up and the rest of the wolves had their way across. The trench was what killed most of the monsters during the waves and the wolves just made it obsolete.
The mages targeted the bridge trying to knock it over or disrupt the pile of bodies but nothing they did worked. Based on their shouting it seemed to do next to nothing.
It was hard to keep track of what was going on because of all of the shouting, but it didn't sound good. The wolves who made it over the trench started to claw at the wall, trying to get through which added to the cacophony of noise. They were smart enough to even focus on the gate which was the weakest point.
The sounds of their claws on the wood resonated through the air and it drowned out the sound of the rain. The gate was groaning under the collective weight of all its adversaries. What little give it had was being pushed to the limit as it rocked back and forth against its brace. Anyone not discussing what was going on was braced against the gate, trying to help in any way they could.
The banging at the gate was only dwarfed by the sound of scratching and tearing wood. The gate wasn't going to hold.
"It'll hold. Everything is going to be fine." I couldn't tell who said it, but I applauded their wishful thinking. There was no way it was going to hold.
There wasn't enough room for all of the wolves to attack the gate at the same time so they started branching out toward the other gates.
The wave originated from the south, but they veered off and headed toward the east and west gates after the south gate filled up. If we let them get through the other gates, we would be surrounded. We needed a way to relieve the pressure. We needed to open the gate.
It sounded like the worst idea possible, but it was the only way. If we opened the gate in the south it would create a path into the camp without having the other gates fall.
If they surrounded the camp and broke in from all four directions it was going to be a nightmare. There was no way we would be able to cover all four gates, we didn't have enough people. If we opened the gate, they would follow the path of least resistance and charge through the open gate rather than go around.
We only had a dozen warriors and spread out over 4 gates left us with 3 each. But if we concentrated on one gate we should be able to hold. Especially if we used the gate as a choke point and focused or ranged attacks there.
The only problem was I had to convince them to open the gate.
"We need to open the gate," I yelled at Granddad over all the sounds around us.
"What? Why would we do that?" It wasn't my Grandfather who answered, it was my Uncle Mark.
Granddad didn't say anything and seemed to be contemplating what I said.
"He's right. At this rate we'll be surrounded, we need to funnel them in where we can control it better." Granddad said. He quickly thought through the possibilities and agreed with what I said.
His sense of the battle was better than mine but he came to the same conclusion that I had.
"We are not opening the gate! It'll hold, we just need to pick them off from the towers like we always do." Mark's reply was followed by a snapping of wood from somewhere.
Granddad and I both gave him a look like, you were saying.
"If we don't open it soon it will be opened for us," I said.
I knew how strong evolved beasts were and there were over a hundred of them out there with one singular goal. To get inside our camp. All of them working together would make it through that gate one way or another.
It took a lot of yelling and frantic gestures but we managed to convince everyone that this was the best way forward.
During all of the chaos and shouting I left Granddad to corral the others into line to find Austin. He and the rest of my family who didn't have ranged skills were bracing against the gate, trying to give it that extra help.
I walked over next to him and helped push against the bulging gate so I could talk to him.
"They're going to get through," I said in an unnatural calm.
"I know." He said back, matching my calmness.
"We're going to open the gate," I said.
"To ease the pressure?" He inferred.
I nodded without saying anything more. He knew the reason and he also knew it needed to be done.
"Someone's not going to make it." He said after a moment of silence. There was a tone to his voice that showed he understood.
"I know." I mimicked his reply from earlier.
If we let the flow of monsters in, some were going to get past us. Austin and I would stand in front to try and kill as many as we could, but we weren't superhuman. At least not yet.
The ones who got through would be a lot stronger than the warriors we had to face them. People were going to get injured and this would probably be someone's last fight.
There was nothing I could do about it and I couldn't afford to think about it. I was about to stand at the gate facing down a horde of wolves. If I wasn't careful it would be MY last fight.
"You know what we have to do," I said making sure he knew where I stood. I was going to be the vanguard and I needed to make sure he was going to be with me.
"Always." He understood what I was getting at. It was a question of if he was going to join me.
I was three levels over the next highest level besides Austin. My new skill boosted my strength to nearly double everyone else's. I trained more than everyone else and had an evolution to top it off. Two points in every stat weren't a lot but I found there were more subtle improvements of the evolution.
My body felt better than ever and mana flowed through it faster. It was like getting a deep clean of my entire system and everything flowed better afterward.
If I wasn't at the front then who would be?