~ Evelyn POV ~

She was able to spare a moment to observe Anthea and her new pet monster, aptly named Antoinette, before another armoured mole flung itself at her. The two seemed to be getting along brilliantly and the ant had even slaughtered one of its own to defend the girl. Maybe she would try to tame one herself. Though she didn’t have the same love for the creatures that Anthea did, so her efforts may not bear the same fruit.

Spinebreaker sang as it sailed through the air and buried itself into the mole’s skull. Evelyn was getting used to the warhammer and now that she had adapted to the movement and attack patterns of the monsters it was a simple matter to bring them down.

One of the ants bit down on her ankle, drawing blood before she pulverised it. Her fatigue was mounting with every wound she suffered.

If I knew we would be entering a two day long war of attrition I might have considered investing a few points into stamina. My fortitude and regeneration will let me keep up for quite a while longer but my mind is struggling.

“We need to find a way to take some rest. This isn’t a sustainable battle anymore. Can someone check on Kayla and see if she’s healed enough to step back in?”

“I can do it but you’re going to have to deal with a lot more monsters while I stop casting,” said her mother.

Evelyn smacked an ant as it leapt towards her, sending it flying back over the walls to the dirt below using a lethal swing reminiscent of a professional baseball player. “No problem, I could deal with double this number if necessary.”

“Don’t tempt fate, little menace.”

“I’m not sure fate has much say where the tower is involved,” said Evelyn, furiously stomping on an ant that was doing its utmost to chop her foot off at the ankle.

Mei abandoned her constant onslaught of glacial magic that had been keeping a bulk of the ants at bay and slowing the worms and moles in their advance. The effects of her most recent Glacial Storm lingered for a few seconds as she rushed over to Kayla but thawed rapidly without the constant injection of mana.

There was a brief moment where the monsters adjusted to the fact they were no longer bound by the chains of frost during which Evelyn and her father did their best to beat back their current foes. Then the frenzied horde surged forth.

There was no room to think. Few moments to catch a breath in between swings of her hammer. All Evelyn had was the dull thud when Spinebreaker connected with another enemy to keep her focused.

Blood splattered across her, painting her face in shades of red with a glossy overcoat of worm mucus. A heavy impact blew her to the side and cracked a rib, knocking the wind from her chest. An armoured mole stood before her, leering triumphantly. It couldn’t maintain the grin when she cleaved its jaw from its head.

She didn’t know how long the furious melee continued, but it gave her a renewed appreciation for the strength of magic. Her mother hadn’t seemed to be making as much of an impact as the rest of them because she wasn’t finishing many of the monsters off or delivering any flashy finishing blows, but without her frost spells in play the endless waves of monsters were nigh impossible to stave off.

You never knew quite how impactful something was until it was gone.

It felt as though she had been swinging Spinebreaker for eternity. Her arms felt as though they were filled with lead and each time she had to raise the warhammer up for another swing she worried they would give out.

Then a warm hand gripped her shoulder from behind, squeezing it and then letting go. Suddenly there were no ants nipping at her calves, no worms throwing their over bloated mass onto her head or metallic moles charging towards her.

“I’ll take it from here darlin’, have a little rest. Lord knows you need it.”

More on instinct than from conscientious awareness, Evelyn staggered to the back of the walls after keeping Spinebreaker in her inventory. There she collapsed into a messy, groaning heap.

All the pain from the various minor wounds she had accumulated and only half healed crescendoed as the adrenaline and narrow minded focus of battle faded. Her legs burned, her breaths came shallow and scant and there was a pounding in her head like a little person was doing renovations on her skull.

It was only because of this orchestra of overwhelming feelings that Evelyn didn’t succumb to sleep immediately, but it did take her just a moment after she had processed everything. There was no time to dwell on it with their lives at stake.

Time Remaining: 23:12:46

Death Toll: 6,509

***

Evelyn was startled awake by a cascade of messages from the tower that disoriented her and thrust her into action before she even had a chance to gather her bearings.

Your defences in your claimed property [Haven’s Wall - Section 14] have been damaged and need repair.Your defences in your claimed property [Haven’s Wall - Section 12] have been damaged and need repair.Flamethrower [HWS10] has run out of ammunition. Auto reload has been enabled, but your essence is insufficient.Your defences in your claimed property [Haven’s Wall - Section 11] have been damaged and need repair.Your defences in your claimed property [Haven’s Wall - Section 13] have been damaged and need repair.

Flamethrower [HWS12] has run out of ammunition. Auto reload has been enabled, but your essence is insufficient.Cannon [HWS10] has run out of ammunition. Auto reload has been enabled, but your essence is insufficient.

Ballista [HWS10] has run out of ammunition. Auto reload has been enabled, but your essence is insufficient.…

Rubbing sleep from her eyes she tried to digest the information being thrown at her as fast as she could, not wanting to delay if there was a problem that the guild needed her help with. She could hear shouts nearby. Some familiar voices but also many she didn’t recognise.

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The very first thing she did was open her menu to check her essence. She refused to believe she had run out, given that she had over fifty million the last time she checked.

Essence: 0『+8422162432 / 5:54:56 hours』

~~ Stars ~~

Grey: 112

White: 32

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What the fuck.

“Darlin’, I appreciate that you’ve only just woken up but we could use a little help here,” said Kayla.

The woman was locked in battle with two figures cloaked in darkness. Both wielded twin daggers and worked in perfect harmony to slice and slash at Kayla while she ducked and weaved between them and their blades.

Even with her incredible agility she struggled to find an opportunity to counter attack. Evelyn froze for a moment before leaping in to assist.

I thought the tower had a theme going with the whole underground monsters, but maybe it just decided to throw that out the window and send overpowered assassins after us.

“When did these guys start spawning?” she asked.

“What? Oh, this isn’t part of the event. I’m not sure who sent them but my money would be on Kyron or Alice. Trust those devious bastards to take advantage of this crap to wipe their competitors off the map.”

“I can’t blame them. It’s a perfect opportunity. They must have been biding their time and judging if they would be able to defend all of Haven without our assistance. It looks like they’re confident they can,” said her father, who was crossing swords with another of the shadowy would-be assassins.

“Well damn. Looks like I slept through one hell of a party.”

“You actually woke up at a perfect time darlin’. They only just started to attack.”

Evelyn pulled Spinebreaker from her inventory and for the first time in a while reached within what she was beginning to understand as her soul, pulling on the complex powers of the reality node that was buried inside her.

A burst of energy exploded through her mana pathways and out the base of her spine and she shot forwards, swinging her hammer as she went. All that was visible of the assassins under their dark cloaks was their eyes, which widened in shock at the speed of her charge.

Crunch. Spinebreaker slammed into the side of the nearest enemy’s head and caved it in. The shadows surrounding them fell away as they dropped to the ground, revealing a little more of the person beneath.

They were scarily thin, with grey skin that looked as though it hadn’t felt the kiss of the sun in years. However, there was little more detail on offer even with the shadows gone as they were wreathed head to toe in a black hooded robe.

It gave away little information about who they were and absolutely no leads on who sent them. It didn’t matter. They could figure that out after they crushed these new foes.

The assassins had split the members of Defiance up, cutting off the paths through which they might have reinforced each other. If they wanted to have any hope of survival against the combined threat of the monster hordes and their new foes they would first need to regroup.

With their partner dead, the tables had turned for the assassin facing off against Kayla. With the combined power of both Kayla and Evelyn, they stood no chance at victory. Kayla ducked under their blade and delivered a devastating short kick to their knee. They stumbled to the side and left themselves wide open for Evelyn, who brought her warhammer down hard and pasted the battlements with their brains.

“Let’s help the others, we need to stand together if we want to come out unscathed,” she said.

“Sounds like a great plan to me darlin’,” replied Kayla.

The closest of the other three to them was her father, who was still locked in a furious melee with an assassin wielding a longsword and had been holding his own until another joined the fray. Evelyn took a step towards him but found her path blocked by yet another opponent who seemed to appear from thin air and dived at her, thrusting outwards with a thick scimitar.

The assassin found no purchase however, because Kayla had jumped between them and parried the blow with a casual flick of the wrist before engaging the newcomer in battle.

“I’ll deal with this one, go and help your daddy. The more of us that group up the harder they’ll find it to pick us off one by one. They aren’t that strong on their own, which is why they’re relying on their numbers.”

Evelyn didn’t respond, instead charging past the two now locked in a furious duel. Her father was heavily armoured and could deal devastating damage with enough room to swing his sword, but that freedom was precisely what he lacked while trying his best to hold off two opponents at the same time.

After her brief rest she was the member of the group who had the most energy to spare, so what she needed to do was take charge and give her allies some breathing room. Evelyn couldn’t find an angle to strike at both foes together, so opted to dive in with a crushing strike. The shadowy assassin screamed out as her hammer tore through the bone and tendons in his thigh, crippling him.

Taking advantage of the chaos she had caused, her father was able to step back and swing with full range of motion at the remaining attacker. His blade cleaved soundlessly through their body and sliced them in two.

“Great save, little menace. You woke up at a great time.”

“Well, it was hard to stay asleep with all the messages from the tower. What on earth happened? I had fifty million essence when I passed out and now I have none.”