A glowing arrow whizzed past her ear and buried itself into the worm’s flesh and a moment later there was a muffled explosion from inside the wound, followed by a large amount of yellowish blood leaking out onto the walls.

Her mother followed it up with a few spears of ice, not letting loose with her most powerful skill just yet as they still needed to get a feel for the strength of the worms. And with two days left to go in the event, this would be a marathon and not a sprint. Conserving their resources would be key.

Kayla and her father rushed in, the latter hacking and slashing away at the beast while the former leapt off the wall and on top of the worm, before pulling back her fist and smashing it down like a jackhammer.

The petite woman’s strikes tore through its flesh and with the combined efforts of the entire group, they made quick work of the first monster. Leaking copious amounts of yellow blood and the clear, sticky fluid, it fell from the battlements to the ground below where it started to fade into nothing. Evelyn had just enough time to glance at her menu and see how much it had rewarded her before the next worm arrived, ignoring the corpse of its brethren in favour of living and breathing prey.

Essence: 261049『+3985420 / 5:56:08 hours』

~~ Stars ~~

Grey: 13

White: 22

** Inventory **

**Skill Synthesis**

**Class**

**Crafting**

**Guilds**

**Property**

【OVERCOME】

The way that white stars boosted the income of grey stars was by far the greatest effect of Galactic Expansion. Right now each grey star gave her around 170,000 essence every six hours, which was absurd. When she unlocked the next tier of stars, just how much essence would she be earning? The numbers terrified her.

With the second worm Evelyn went for a different approach. Rather than sit and wait for it to strike her, she jumped up and plunged her hands into its flesh. The pink skin was far tougher than she had expected and it took a lot of force to break through, but once she had a firm grip she tugged it down and slammed its head into the floor, stunning it.

The others pounced on the immobile monster and made quick work of it. The difference it made having a well balanced team of individuals who were all powerful in their own right was huge.

Looking down the walls, Evelyn saw that the scattered challengers without guilds were still struggling to take down the first wave of monsters. They would just have to hope that if the weaker citizens failed to hold back the enemies, they would travel along the walls in search of stronger prey rather than head deeper into the city.

~~~

The first three hours passed and all that changed was the frequency at which the giant worms appeared to attack the city. Their little group had done well at holding the monsters back from breaching the section of the wall they held, but others had suffered.

A few worms had spilled over the walls and made it into the outer districts of the city, but there were plenty of people waiting below to deal with them and the problem wasn’t too much to handle just yet. More worrying was the fact that the fluid the worms secreted was corrosive and the city walls were being eaten away.

However, the bigger guilds had figured out how to work the defences of the city from within the property system and that information had been passed down the line until it reached Defiance’s ears.

It was rather simple. The wall was broken up into even sections, which a person could claim using the property system - the same way they would purchase any other building in the city.

Once they had ownership of that section they could spend further essence to upgrade it, improving the strength of the material or adding features like anti-climb spikes and even a moat. The moat was rather ineffective though, given that it didn’t surround the entire city just yet. The most essential function was the ability to repair the walls by spending essence.

That had kept some of the at-risk sections from collapsing under the onslaught of the worms, though the challengers in those areas had to submit to the oversight of whichever guild provided the essence. It was rare for an individual to have enough to justify the spend.

Evelyn had been able to afford to purchase the section directly beneath them at the cost of 250,000 essence. It left her with dregs.

Her mother had bought a few more and so had the others. At first they hadn’t seen the point of it. They weren’t struggling to bring down the worms with their own power and spending essence for no benefit hadn’t appealed to any of the group.

It was then that her father had made a rather worrying observation about the timing of the World Event.

“Don’t you think it’s strange that an event where claiming territory in the city in the name of your guild started once a few dozen guilds had been founded? It's like the tower wants to force us into competition, even in the relative safety of Haven. Growth and challenge are the foundation of this place, after all.”

“I didn’t want to say anything because I know you don’t like the political side of all this, but Anthony’s right,” Kayla had replied.

After that the group pooled their essence and purchased as many sections of the wall as they could, only keeping a little in reserve to see what they could do to them after they claimed ownership. Which as it turned out, was quite a lot.

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To the left they had kept claiming sections until they ran into one which a solo challenger had purchased and was holding successfully against the tides of worms. While on the right they ran out of essence to keep going before that became an issue. In total, they claimed a section of the wall around six hundred metres in length.

Would you like to declare this area an outpost of the Guild ‘Defiance’? At your guild’s current rank you may declare 1 more outpost.

Y/N

Selecting yes had prompted everyone to offer their claimed sections to the guild’s shared ownership, which of course they had all consented to. The moment they did, flags appeared at each end of the new outpost bearing the logo of Defiance. Six banners unfurled down the walls at regular intervals of a hundred metres, each of them also bearing the golden phoenix.

Looking through the guild menu and the property system told Evelyn that there were a few interesting things she could do with the new outpost, but that would have to wait until there were less pressing matters.

Right at that moment another worm’s ugly head reared over the battlements, followed up by two more at once. She leapt up and repeated the process of grabbing and slamming the worm into the walls to stun it, but as soon as she did the second and third worms pounced on her together.

Explosions and the clang of steel echoed behind her as the rest of the group took down the immobilised worm, leaving her to tussle with the two monsters on her own, for now.

It was difficult to stay on her feet against their combined weight pushing against her. All of a sudden one of the worms pulled back and she staggered forward a little, the sudden lack of resistance taking her by surprise.

Then it struck down again, knocking her onto her ass. The worm then began to sway a little before smashing itself against the other worm and blasting it out of the way before leaping at Evelyn, mouth agape with the intent to swallow her up.

Darkness consumed her as its jaw closed around her, but it was stopped from eating her right away by the wall. She heard a disgusting gurgle and then moments later gasped when a shower of sticky fluid washed over her from head to toe.

Her vision was almost non-existent in the dark, but she could make an educated guess that it was the same fluid the worms had been secreting onto the wall.

It was thick and slowed her movement. Evelyn was noticing the effects of not having any attribute points invested into speed far more than during the earlier battles, but it wasn’t time to panic yet.

A blinding flash of light radiated through the darkness of the worm’s maw and through the new gap she saw her father, sword in hand as he slashed and sliced away at the beast. Freed from its clutches, she did her best to remove as much of the clear goop from her body as possible so she could rejoin the fray.

Even as she flung spears of frost at the other monsters, her mother spared Evelyn a glance and raised a hand while whispering.

The sticky worm fluid started to freeze and dry up and once it was completely solid, her mother clenched her fist and it all shattered into a sparkling mist. She was clean, but a little chilly. Evelyn waved her thanks towards her mother and then turned her attention back to the worms. With a roar of rage, she leapt at the monster which had tried to swallow her whole and began to pound it senseless while her father continued to slice off chunks of its flesh.

The pair made short work of the monster while the rest of the party obliterated the other worm. More were already approaching from the hills, though Evelyn noticed that the flow had stopped increasing. Steady numbers of them flowed against the walls. That didn’t mean the difficulty had stopped increasing though - the tower was never that kind.

Right on cue there was an ear splitting symphony of piercing squeals that shattered the dull rumble of the worms and a crevice opened in the plains right outside the city walls.

A moment of tension gripped the defenders of Haven as they all waited with bated breath to see what the World Event had in store for them next. Many of the challengers didn’t even have the attention to spare the new development as they were locked in battle with the colossal worms.

Three huge white claws covered in dirt and rock clamped down on the edge of the crevice, sharpened into deadly points at the tip and extending from a furry brown hand.

A second claw joined the first and then disturbing pink tentacles poked out from under the ground. A giant mole with hazy red eyes and steel plated flesh pulled itself out of the crevice and started to sniff the air with its disgusting tentacled snout.

Even as the group clashed with yet another worm they kept half an eye on the new invader, wondering what exactly it was going to do.

Attempt to kill them, of course - but that was a given. Rather, figuring out the specific way it intended to go about that purpose was at the front of everyone’s mind.

A glowing arrow buried itself deep in the worm’s flesh, before exploding in a shower of pink flesh, yellow blood and sticky stomach fluids. Responding to the kill the mole’s snout appendages swivelled in their direction and after writhing about they locked still, pointing straight at the five of them.

“That doesn’t seem like a good sign. I think we’re about to meet our new friend face to face,” quipped Kayla.

“That armoured flesh looks strong as hell, but I’m curious to see how I match up,” said Evelyn.

It was as though the monster had heard her challenge and sought to punish her for her arrogance. The mole dug its claws deep into the earth and started to barrel towards them like an oncoming train. Sunlight reflected off of the shiny steel plates which covered its body as it tore across the plains, throwing clumps of dirt and rock into the air behind it as it went.

Dust and brick went flying as the monster smashed into the wall beneath their feet and the whole structure shook violently. During the assault of the worms it had never felt as though they were in true danger, because while the corrosive fluids were dissolving the masonry it wasn’t fast enough to outpace the rate the property system allowed them to repair it.

When the moles followed up their charge by digging their claws into the stone and ripping out chunk after chunk as they raced up the walls in bold defiance of gravity, a new fear gripped the defenders of Haven.

They were just a few hours into a two day long battle and the first and greatest line of defence was already at risk of destruction.

Evelyn held back no longer and when the mole slashed at her with claws larger than her body, she finally took Spinebreaker from her inventory and met its blow with deadly force of her own. There was a deafening clang as the mole’s claws collided with her warhammer and despite feeling as though any lapse in her focus would be deadly, she broke into a smile.

She had been craving a fresh challenge ever since she had overcome Dazurmagon and if the World Event was already this intense, she couldn’t wait to see what else it had in store for them.