When I came to, there were only a few rays of light in the sky. It seemed I was out of it until sunset.

I had been moved to our 'hospital' tent by somebody but I didn't remember that happening. Nor did I remember my clothes being cut off. I was left in just my underwear and it was modestly embarrassing.

I knew it's my family all here but it was still weird, I was a grown-ass man after all.

Attempting to get up resulted in a sharp pain... everywhere. I couldn't pinpoint which part of my body hurt the most, all of it hurt. I looked down over my body and there were numerous scabs.

The three lines down my chest were the most notable. They started on the upper right part of my chest and moved diagonally across. They were almost a foot in length and looked red and angry. I had to take off some bandages to get a good look at them.

They had mostly scabbed over and I couldn't help but wonder at how fast it was healing. The smaller scrapes on my arms and legs from the lesser wolves had already been replaced by new pink skin. The only signs that they happened were thin white scars marring my body.

As I was checking over my body Abigail walked into the tent and noticed I was awake.

"Oh, you're up. How do you feel?" She said coming over to check on me.

"Like shit. How else am I supposed to feel." I said. That was a stupid question.

"Well, you look like it too." She said back.

I had to stifle a laugh or it would hurt too much, but I didn't expect that retort so soon.

Now that my mind had come back into focus, it replayed all the events of the wave. All the monsters getting by me, Mark going down to a vicious bite, the guard tower falling. I couldn't help but focus on everything bad that had happened. The was only one question on my mind.

"How many?" I asked in a quiet voice.

She gave me a pitying look and shook her head. I could see some tears start to form before she answered.

"Two." She said.

A part of me was relieved. I thought it was going to be a lot more than that. Then it hit me that two of my family members were dead and that relief disappeared, replaced by grief.

"Who?" I asked. I needed to know who it was.

"Mark bled out from a nasty bite before we could get to him." She said shaking her head, "and we found Kyle in the rubble of the guard tower. He was in it when it went down."

I was speechless. I had done everything I could and I still lost. I gave it everything I had and people still died. Two more that we wouldn't see again. Kyle wouldn't get to reach adulthood. Mark left behind grandchildren who would hardly remember him.

I wondered how Hal was taking it. He might have been abrasive with his brother, but he still loved him. Or Sam for that matter. She and Mark had been married for decades. Or Ashley, her father now gone.

"Yesterday was rough," Abigail said.

Wait, yesterday?

"What time is it?" I asked. I thought the few rays of sunlight were dusk of the same day.

"Morning of the day after. You've been out of it for almost 17 hours." She said, "You really worried me."

Had it really been that long, I thought it had only been half a day since the battle, but it was almost a full day. There was so much I had missed. I had to help with the cleanup, I had to help with the funeral. Did they have it already?

I moved to get up again but Abigail firmly held me down. I was so weak even her meager strength overpowered me.

"No sir, you're staying right here. Your body needs time to heal." She said. She had this look in her eye that said not to test her.

"That's right. After the scare you gave me you better be good and stay in bed." She continued.

Austin took that moment to grace us with his presence. I saw him walk into the tent before Abigail noticed him coming up behind her.

I laughed a little and said, "How's my ray of sunshine doing?"

"Better than you," He said back, "You look like you tried to be intimate with a paper shredder."

That was colorful. He wasn't exactly wrong with all the scratches I had but I wouldn't have put it like that.

"Hey, how come he's not on bed rest? This isn't fair." He had to have been injured during the battle as well, yet he was up and walking around.

"That's because he wasn't unconscious for 17 hours with broken bones and severe blood loss." Abigail pointed out.

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"Yeah, I only had extreme blood loss. I guess I'm better than you." Austin said jokingly.

"Big words coming from a guy covered in the same amount of bandages as me," I said back. I could see bandages covering his body from under his clothes and he had the same amount that I did.

I saw how many wounds he had before I passed out and he had the same amount as I did. At least in number, the alpha's attacks went deeper than the lesser wolf's.

"Did you tell him?" Austin said looking at Abigail, who nodded.

"There was nothing we could have done," Austin said turning his attention to me, "We did everything we could. Hell, you almost died."

"I know that logically, just doesn't feel that way emotionally," I answered gruffly. My mind might know that we did everything we could, but it just didn't feel that way. I was supposed to be strong enough to protect them and I failed.

"It only means we need to try harder," Austin said. "Make with the magic Abigail, we have training to do."

"No, I'm not going to heal him just so you two can go off and get hurt again. He needs rest and so do you." Abigail said resolutely.

What she said brought up a question in my mind. How come my wounds weren't fully healed yet? My collarbone was fixed but wasn't fully healed yet either. They should have had enough time to heal me if I was out for the day.

I voiced my question to Abigail.

"We noticed a change when we tried to heal you. Our spells weren't working as well as they should have been. It took more mana than it should have to heal your wounds and it took a lot more to heal your broken bone. At first, we didn't know the reason, but we speculate it's because you're stronger than us." She said.

"My spells worked the best out of all of us and we figure it's because I'm the highest level. Austin had the same problem but he wasn't as bad as you. We figure it's how high your fortitude stat is or something along those lines. That says nothing about the state your body was in. It was bad, Chris." I avoided her eyes.

The banes of getting stronger I guess. Having a stronger body meant it took a stronger healer to fix me up. I out-leveled the rest of the healers by a good margin with Abigail being the closest. She had leveled during the last wave but she was a fresh level 10 when it started.

It was three levels under what I was at and that wasn't taking into account the increase from the wave. I had a lot of notifications to look at but I put off looking at them. I didn't want to look at my improvements right now when we had to put two more people in the ground.

The three of us continued to talk about odds and ends for a little bit before breakfast was ready. My stomach was desperately in need of some sustenance and voiced its displeasure. Healing was energy intensive and it needed some fuel.

Abigail wanted to bring the food to my bed but I firmly refused that idea. I was no invalid, I could get up and walk on my own. She attempted to voice her disagreement again but I was adamant.

Up and walking around would be good, loosen some of the tightness and give me some fresh air. She relented, but only if it was light walking around and nothing else.

Arriving at the campfire and eating was a stark reminder of what happened. The debris from the battle still demarked its intensity. The guard tower was in a pile of scraps and the gate was propped up against the wall in pieces. Scratch marks were everywhere and some of the tents had recent patches made to them.

Breakfast was a subdued affair and went by quickly. No one was feeling much like talking and even the little ones picked up on the mood. Some silently cried and others were staring at the destruction.

After breakfast, we all got together to do what needed to be done. Coffins were made, holes were dug, and goodbyes were said.

The adjacent hill had two new markers added to the one already there. Two more Zalenski's would forever rest there. Their lives cut short. Their journey ended. Their spirits extinguished or whatever that fucking alien had said.

I had a mixture of anger bubbling that mixed with sadness and grief. I was mad at the world and mad at myself. After Derek, I had promised to do better but I was once again back here. Back on this hill. Back here watching us put family in the ground.

The rest of the day went by quietly. Rubble was cleaned up, and bodies moved. The wall and gate could be repaired through the system but it cost more points. We weren't lacking in points after the wave, so with a flash it was fixed. The guard tower followed.

I investigated the pylon to see how much it was to upgrade the wall and nearly spit blood. It was ten times as expensive as getting the wall in the first place. 50,000 points to upgrade the wall.

We didn't have that much. After the wave we only had half. We would have to revise our current plan, there was no way we would be able to go another wave with our current wall.

As a family, we massively improved in power and now had more than a few break the level 10 barrier, but it wouldn't be enough. It was too big a risk to ignore and I didn't wish to be back on the hill in 3 days time.

It didn't take much convincing and everyone agreed to pitch in more. It took almost the entire wave of points, but we got enough.

Watching the wall upgrade brought the same feelings as before and I could only shake my head. Twice now, the novelty of seeing the magic work was brought down by the deaths that caused it.

We couldn't afford anything else with our current points but we upgraded the thing that mattered most. The wall expanded in both height and thickness and looked stronger than ever.

I didn't have the same confidence in it that I did the first time and could only wonder how long it would take for this one to break. How many would fall when it did?

I sat on the new wall and looked out over the horizon. The sun was setting and looked pristine, but I couldn't bring myself to care. I finally opened the notifications that had been bugging me all day.

You have contributed...

You have contributed...

You have contributed...

You have contributed...

...

You have contributed in slaying {Juvenile Alpha Direwolf – Level 16} 130 points earned.

You have successfully defended your claim! Extra experience awarded. 1,000 Points to all who participated.

Congratulations! You have leveled up.

Congratulations! You have leveled up.

Congratulations! You have leveled up.

Skills Available

I whistled at the deluge of kill notifications. It was the longest list I had seen with all the points adding up to a ridiculous number. I spent all of them on the wall anyway so I didn't feel like counting. I did it while everyone was contributing so no one could tell how much I actually spent.

My points meant nothing if my family didn't survive. I could always get more, I couldn't bring anyone back to life.

3 levels. The biggest jump I had received. I fought damn near the entire wave and held the boss off. Even though it was a lot, I wanted more. I gave it everything I had and got 3 levels to show for it.

Most of my kills were from wolves that were lower level than me but still, the amount should have had me level more. I would have to find out the reason later.

I looked at the end of the list.

Skills Available

It seemed I would be getting a new skill sooner than I thought.