“Come on, Mikky, you can tell me. That got your lady bits all riled up, didn’t it?”
“...You are so weird, Myra.”
Mikella said, turning away from Myra’s lecherous gaze as she tried to eat the rations from her pack. The two were sitting together on a large log that they cut apart to make seats for them to rest and relax. All the while, on their laps were preserved bread and jerky cooked by the cooks at the town to be eaten along with some water. It was a simple meal, but Mikella was more than okay with it than eating fruits all the time like in the forest.
Zeke and the other men went off to relieve themselves, as this was the only chance to do so before moving onwards. The great part about not having as many women around is that it doesn’t cause trouble when relieving themselves, so they were already freshened up as they say.
Hence Mikella assumed that’s why Myra was doing some gossip as she figured it would be fine with neither Zeke or the twins around to hear.
“Oh come on, you can’t tell me that Zeke didn’t look impressive facing off against a man bigger than him,” Myra said, showing a smirk while taking a bite off of her jerky. She was more attentive to the conversation than eating, though. “Sure, in a fight, he would’ve gotten his ass royally kicked. But the way he tried despite that was pretty something, ain’t it?”
“I was more worried about the result than the action,” Mikella finally said. She’s been trying to avoid giving off any hint of romance towards Zeke at the insistent Myra, but she couldn't help but continue the topic to let it flow and hopefully die out soon.
“Would you rather Piker keep giving him shit all the time?” Myra asked.
“Well… no,” Mikella shook her head. “But… it’s not like that, okay?”
She was honest about that, yet the reason why she didn’t want to continue the conversation no matter how playful it was due to it being exactly the case. The way Zeke faced Piker despite having nothing to stand on, even going as far as to go against his orders and practically humiliating the veteran soldier in front of his peers, Mikella couldn’t help it.
He was pretty damn badass, and the sight of his determined glowing eyes still burned in her mind. But she wanted to leave it at that.
It wasn’t as though she didn’t consider him romantically before. It was just that it would be too complicated to delve further than that. Now that Myra knew that the two weren’t married like in their made up story, Myra seemed to want Mikella to admit she had feelings for him.
She also found it strange that despite Myra saying that having a support mage for a partner would be a good deal, she wanted Mikella to take him in despite his availability. Though she would feel a bit hesitant to let Myra have Zeke for herself.
After all, Clara liked him quite a bit. It wouldn’t do if Zeke went off on dates with other women and gave Clara a bad impression. Now that she thought of it in that way, she really did feel like she was clamping hard on Zeke’s love life.
Which is only making this conversation even worse to bear as Myra continued despite noticing her awkwardness.
“You know, I still think it’s weird how the two of you are so close, yet you don’t do anything with each other,” Myra said, adjusting her sitting to make herself comfortable. “If I were you, I’d be enjoying myself all the time.”
“Well, we got a lot of things to go through,” Mikella said, unable to keep her voice from sounding strained. “Like dealing with the horde attacks, and the dungeon we’re about to face.”
“I’m beginning to think you’re not a big fan of this topic,” Myra said, and Mikella really wasn’t sure whether Myra was fucking with her, or she was downright serious.
Just when Mikella was ready to deliver a slap to knock some sense, the other men came back with them laughing and cheering at the clearly awkward Zeke. It looked like he went through quite a bit of chatting with the guys about his demeanor from earlier.
That was good. Outside of making Zeke the awkward one instead of her, she was also happy to see Zeke given a good light. Of course, the night watch will still persist, but with the barrier in place, there was only a need for a few volunteers, with Zeke occasionally making sure the barrier was up to par.
Before long, everyone rested for the night. The tents were made up so that most of the men were grouped up together with Zeke sleeping with the twins while Mikella slept in the same tent with Myra and Lisa, the other girl in the group. While Mikella hasn’t talked to Lisa all that much, she seems like a good girl who prefers to stay quiet–something she can relate to since the other two girls were just meatheads with weapons while she was a mage.
As for the gender separation, even in this fantasy world, it’s only natural to separate the genders to not get distracted during this tough time.
Not that Mikella can imagine anyone getting frisky during camping before a raid… then again, Cloud and Val still rested together in their own tent, so she can’t help but think the two are having some sort of fun.
If Zeke and I were to rest at the same tent, would we…? Mikella shook her head. Fucking Myra getting into my head. Why does she have to make it so weird?
She closed her eyes as sleep finally took hold of her.
…..
Rampant sounds kept gnawing at her, almost as if dozens upon dozens of noises were clattering against each other for dominance. No matter how hard she tried, the sounds just kept getting louder and louder.
Finally, she opened her eyes. She instantly knew that it was approaching daylight as the studded star was giving off some measure of light. She slowly got up from her bedsack, rubbing at her eyes as she could hear Myra groaning loudly beside her.
“What’s making all this fucking noise…!?” Myra nearly shouted, getting up herself in a heartbeat with a nasty scowl. “I couldn’t sleep!”
“You too, huh?” Mikella asked in surprise. “What’s going on?”
“I think something’s happening…” Lisa spoke up, also having a hardened look in her eyes from being awakened like this.
The girls got themselves dressed as they each got out of the tent, realizing that some of the other soldiers were also awake, including the three leaders.
Zeke was also up, looking incredibly concerned.
“Zeke, what’s going on?” Mikella walked up to him, realizing that something was clearly amiss as everyone seemed ready for… something. “Are we getting attacked?”
“Well…” Zeke slowly turned to her, his face twisting into a scared frown. “You could say that.”
Zeke then pointed at the opposite side of them, getting the girls to look back.
Each of their mouths gaped at the sight.
A rising number of creatures were heading their way, the light of the studded star making it clear. A whole crowd, practically a horde by itself, were approaching the campsight, and some even managed to get right up to them.
Up to the barrier at least. Thanks to the giant dome of light in place, the creatures that ran up to try to attack the camp were stopped in their tracks. However, the ones that did approach faster than the others were furiously clawing and biting at the dome, trying to get in to feast on the prey that was just beyond their reach.
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It was quite a sight to see, and they were sure that there were more incoming. Without really thinking, Myra already pulled up her spear, but then she lost whatever drove her to take action. There wasn’t much she could do.
“What is…?” Mikella asked, but then someone approached them with rapid steps.
“Mage!”
The three flinched as they turned around to find the clearly upset Piker marching over to them, to Zeke in particular. Without even responding, Piker grabbed Zeke by the collar, pulling him up close to his face.
“What have you done?” Piker shouted, his face the image of rage incarnate. “Did your barrier cause all this? Explain yourself!”
“It didn’t!” Zeke shouted, trying his hardest to get Piker’s hand off to no avail. Realizing the difference in their Strength stat, he kept talking through his throat getting throttled. “My barrier doesn’t have anything like calling monsters over.”
“Lies!”
Piker shouted before raising a fist aiming for Zeke’s face. At this point, Mikella had enough of his shit as she summoned her enchanted sword from her inventory. It felt right in her hands as she was ready to pounce.
But just as quickly as Piker raised his fist and she summoned her sword, a hand grasped Piker’s raised wrist. The two boys looked back to see none other than the giant figure Zacharia holding Piker’s fist in place.
“Hold, Piker,” Zacharia’s deep voice somehow beat out the rampant sounds outside. “Steady your hand. You don’t want to mess up the mage and cause the barrier to fall, do you?”
Piker’s eyes grew wide in realization, and just as easily, he lessened the grip on his fist. While the general let go of his wrist, Piker shoved Zeke with the other hand, nearly toppling over as he held his throat while coughing a few times.
“Yes, general,” Piker said, nodding his head to his superior.
“Ass…!” Mikella hissed as she went over to Zeke, rubbing his back as he tried to recover his air. Myra stepped over in front of Zeke, between Piker in case he tried something else.
However, despite starting the fight, Piker still glared at Zeke. “But General, his barrier has clearly caused the monsters to go insane. He might have done this on purpose for all we know!”
“What kind of idiot does that?!” Zeke shouted. Rather than being demure as usual, he had enough of Piker as he shouted back. “Do you think I’m actually gonna try and kill all of you, including people that’s way stronger than me? Think for just a damn second, man!”
“What’d you say?!” Piker raged, his teeth bare. “You got a lot of balls for a mage within sword distance!”
Mikella wasn’t sure whether Piker realized he just used a rather famous line from their old world, but he proved his words as he unsheathed his sword by his hip. Unlike a regular longsword, it was longer and wider, almost reaching a two-handed status. A bastard sword, Mikella assumed. Heavier to hit with, but also lighter to handle.
Zeke prepared himself with a growl. He raised his hands in preparation for a barrier. Myra easily took over, pointing her spear now at Piker entering into a fighting stance.
“Enough!”
The captain shouted to everyone around, getting all of them to look back at her. Val stepped over, clearly not amused this early in the morning as she walked over to the scene where a fight is about to take place. She looked over at Piker, who immediately stiffened from her gaze before doing the same to Myra, mimicking Piker.
“Before we start blaming each other for the situation, how about we handle the problem first?” Val said, not as a question, but as a demand. The two fighters quickly sheathed their weapons at her words.
Val then turned her gaze at Zeke, who immediately stiffened up at her. Despite not being responsible for what’s happening, there was a guilty look on his face as though he might have caused this.
“I…” Zeke tried to say, but Val raised her hand.
“Zeke, I know you’re not responsible for this,” Val said, getting everyone to relax. Apparently, while they didn’t show it, they all thought they had a traitor on their hands, something that Mikella disliked. “We’ve seen your skill many times to not notice any effect to call attention. Piker, before you start hurling accusations, it’s always best to study the situation first before making any assumptions. Asking others who have seen the skill first is always the better solution.”
“Y-Yes, Captain…”
Piker said almost as demure as Zeke would be. It looked like despite being part of different retinues, Piker knew not to mess with the captain.
“Still, I won’t blame you for worrying,” Val continued, turning to Cloud who walked over next. “Cloud, any ideas as to what’s happening?”
“It’s not a surprise if one did try to call them over,” Zacharia added in, crossing his bulky forearms together. “There hasn’t been a sign of a horde incoming from the night watch. I spoke with some of them, and they all said that some monsters came in to try and attack the barrier, but the shield held true. Rather than alerting anyone, they instead continued to watch to see how long the barrier would last.”
Everyone turned to Zeke at Zacharia’s reveal. Apparently they all thought that the dome might not persist throughout the night. Clearly, they were wrong.
“And that’s when they noticed the horde coming in, right?” Cloud questioned what was next, getting Zacharia to give a solitary nod. “It might be possible that the monsters noticed the dome and called them out through some means. Or…”
“Or?” Val questioned.
“Or perhaps the ones making this whole mess realized our threat, and tried to call in as much of their numbers as possible.”
The other soldiers gasped quietly at the reveal. No matter how much Mikella wanted to believe that these monsters are just stupid, she can’t help but worry when she remembered the monsters aiming directly at Zeke at the past horde battle.
“The only way that these monsters would follow any type of command would mean that there is something stronger giving it. Am I right?” Zacharia asked.
“Yes,” Cloud nodded. “It’s possible that due to the dungeon, the entire monster ecology here has changed. Perhaps an evolution has occurred that caused the change in behavior.”
“Could it be a monster that’s higher than Expert Rank?” Val asked, her eyes turning sharp. “A leadership type monster?”
Mikella shivered at that. So far, even in Expert ranks, they were easy to deal with. However, it jumps up in difficulty if the monster was in Journeyman, right after Expert. And if what Val said is true, then facing an army of monsters while being commanded by a powerful monster wasn’t something she could handle, at least by herself.
“If that’s the case, then it wouldn’t matter if the night watch was up or not. We’d be swarming with monsters by the time anyone woke up. We’d have lost too many of our supplies in the defense, and in the worst case we would’ve suffered casualties by now.”
“Yes, after seeing this–it’s clear that I underestimated the power of this barrier,” Zacharia actually agreed, brushing against his black beard with a serious look on his face.
The others, once again, looked over at Zeke. Despite knowing now that the reason why they managed to survive was because of him, Zeke actually tried to step back from all the attention, lowering his head.
He probably figured that while he didn’t like to be blamed for something he didn’t do, he didn’t like the praise for what was supposed to be natural. Even Piker, the one who tried to assault him with false accusations, looked over at him with surprise in his eyes.
“General, that’s…” Piker turned back to Zacharia. “That couldn’t be it. Surely we would be fine even without the barrier in place. We have the three of you standing guard.”
“We may be able to protect ourselves,” Zacharia spoke simply. “But even we are limited to try and save everyone else should true danger come… and surely enough, it has.”
Zacharia stared at the distance, getting the other soldiers including Piker to turn to that direction. They were all left dumbstruck as the dozens turned into hundreds. The time they were taking to talk while in the safety of the barrier helped the monsters surround them faster and rise in numbers.
Even worse yet, they saw some of the monsters approaching reaching around 6 feet in height, reminding Mikella of the Dire variants that were in the upper tiers of Expert rank.
Now as the numbers were increasing, the damage done to the barrier was increasing as well. There were even small cracks showing up across the base of the barrier, to which Zeke undoubtedly raised his hand and cast his mana to repair the cracks immediately. And for good measure, he added in another layer to the barrier from the inside, assuring more protection.
“Zeke, how is your mana holding up?” Cloud walked over to the young mage, his face turning serious.
“I’ll be fine for another few hours,” Zeke turned back, speaking truthfully. “I had a lot of rest, so my Mana is up to full. But after this one, I spent around 10% of it to enforce it. If this keeps up, I might have to spend Mana gradually to keep up the barrier. I, uhh… I suggest decreasing the numbers as soon as we can.”
Zeke didn’t look like he wanted to give an order, but the others quickly realized the danger of it. Each and every one of the soldiers raised their weapons, the mages raising their hands to cast a spell.
Mikella already had her sword up, ready to fight along with Myra by her side. The twins held up their sword and shield, ready to fight. She even noticed Piker doing the same, this time not aiming his glare at Zeke, but at the monsters approaching them.
“A few hours, you say?” Cloud asked. He rubbed his chin, as though he was thinking deeply. Then, his eyes widened as an idea popped into his head. “Zeke, come here for a second. Val, Zacharia, gather up.”
Zeke looked back in surprise, but figured he had no other choice as he followed Cloud over to the other leaders. Then, they began speaking at length while the soldiers, unable to really get out thanks to the dome in place, stood still as the monsters kept increasing in numbers.
Mikella kept looking back at the leaders, keeping the barrier mage in place for some reason. Her hands were getting twitchy as the numbers just kept growing.
“Umm, what’s going on?” Myra asked her, figuring that she at least knew what was up. But Mikella only shook her head.
“Hell if I know,” Mikella finally said. “Hopefully they finish this as soon as possible.”