149 years ago there were still some who questioned the five species’ claim over the empire’s territory. The corrupted had always considered themselves superior, so the number of those who tried to attack despite the five species’ alliance was not few.
In the middle of the night, a grand army of almost a million monsters invaded from the west. It was led by the centaur alliance at the helm of their grand general, The Trembling Zagan.
Giant, horned spiders, wolves the size of houses and goblins riding two headed tigers were just a few of the creatures that charged the western plain on that day. Blocking their way and sandwiched between the forests of dawn and dusk, were five ancient fortresses connected by a long, reinforced wall.
Almost the entire beast people race had gathered within these fortresses to protect themselves and the empire. Their General and his second in command had fallen in a previous battle, so the situation was dire. The elves and humans had sent reinforcements, but the generals themselves were detained on other fronts.
With Zagan expected to lead this invasion, everyone’s chances of survival looked bleak. The beastpeople’s backs were tense and sweaty, the elves' palms trembled while holding their bows, everyone frowned and prayed to Loki, all except for a single person which did not seem to belong.
On the wall in front of the middle fortress, a tall elven woman watched the approaching army with a carefree grin. She was slim, tanned, and blessed with a huge chest which she showed plenty of through a crop top that might as well have been a bikini. Behind her, a group of 74 elven teens were sweating buckets while staring at the approaching army. Beastpeople and various soldiers walked by them as if they didn’t even exist, oftentimes stumbling into the teens and then looking confused before eventually moving on.
On the edge of the wall, towards the inner part of the fortress, there was a normal wooden door floating midair, with two crossed arrows embedded into it. Suddenly, the door opened and a student by the name of Andrew Finn walked out.
Miss Olivia shot an arrow three inches above his head. “You're late. The next time this happens, you can consider yourself expelled.”
“Yes, mam.”
Finn gulped loudly while Olivia jumped on the edge of the parapet and clapped her hands. Behind her, giant spiders were trying to scale the walls while elves and beastpeople were struggling to stop them.
“Everyone, say the word bow.”
“Bow.”
The weapons materialized out of nowhere and dropped in each student’s hands. They were short, made out of light brown wood, and had a small orange gem embedded in the middle.
“Every time you pull the string, the crystal will summon a flame arrow. Inside this dimension, the crystal will not run out of energy, but it will limit the strength of your shots. Any questions?”
“Couldn’t we have done this in the daytime?” asked Legolas.
“No. I want you all to work on your aim and senses. For every 10000 monsters you kill, your weapons will upgrade into something better.”
“Like in an RPG?” asked Finn.
“What’s that?”
Suddenly, thunder could be heard in the distance, and all five fortresses started shaking. From beyond the horizon, a large black crystal illuminated the night. As it drew closer, Finn noticed it was the tip of a huge spear. Its wielder was a centaur, taller than a two story house and covered in red, shiny scales like a dragon.
Whenever he took a step, the land shook around him. Whenever he tapped his spear on the ground, the land cracked and withered, as if death had touched it.
“That is The Trembling Zagan, general and prime specimen of the mutated centaurs.” Miss Olivia gave the students a wink. “If you kill it, you win.”
"That thing can die!?"
Finn recognized a familiar voice but soon refocused on the task at hand. Thousands of giant spiders were reaching the top of the walls. Further back, giant wolves and the goblin riders were waiting for their turn.
“What are you standing there for? Anyone who dies during training loses 100 points.”
The teens pulled the strings of their bows, and magic flame arrows materialized out of nowhere. They sent a volley of these arrows at the climbing spiders but only a quarter managed to do any damage.
“Aim for their eyes!” shouted Finn.
Unfortunately, a mere 75 kids couldn’t possibly put a dent in an army of this size. All they could hope to achieve was reinforce the troops and stay alive for as long as possible.
Despite the beastpeople’s best efforts, one out of 10 spiders made it past their defenses. It was up to the elven/human archers and mages to take care of those which got through, while the teens focused on stacking up numbers.
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For the better part of an hour, they managed to fight the spiders to a stalemate, but their arms were starting to get sore.
“Miss teacher, when is the class over?”
Suddenly, a spider pierced the spine of the teen who had asked this question. The creature killed several more teens until the others managed to shoot it down.
“I suggest you focus,” said Miss Olivia. “The sun won’t rise anytime soon.”
Since everyone was getting sloppy, Finn took position near the teacher. Miss Olivia was not actively helping with the fight, but she did kill anything which tried to attack her.
With a bit of leeway and time to breathe, he took in the situation on the battlefield. 'What a nightmare. Can training even prepare us for something like this?' The monster army was advancing in waves, and they hadn't even defeated the first half of the first one. Zagan was stomping his hooves, making the land shake and messing with everyone’s balance.
Fortunately, the beastpeople were vastly superior to the monsters. Some were incredibly fast brawlers and swordsmen using skills Finn couldn’t begin to comprehend. The supporting elves and humans were also exquisite warriors and mages. A single wave of the staves from a team of mages was enough to set the lower parts of the fortress ablaze.
‘The empire is strong, but if two or more armies of this size attack at the same time, we're finished. If I'm to live a full life this time around, I need to figure out how to create another hero.’
From the very beginning, Finn did not use the warrior’s breath. He was trying to stay calm and bring out his strength gradually.
“Hmm, it’s about time,” Miss Olivia muttered. “30, 29, 28…”
“About time for what? Teacher?”
“19, 18, 17,...”
‘Shit, shit, shit.’
Finn's calm flew off the fortress, and he looked everywhere, trying to locate the danger. Eventually, he checked out the other fortresses and noticed they were packed full of monsters. Unlike the one in the middle, the fortresses near the edge of the formation were manned by significantly weaker warriors.
Out of the five strongholds, number three was holding out the best, numbers two and four were holding on by a thread, while numbers one and five were covered in spiders.
“10, 9, 8, …”
‘Is this how it ends? Didn’t the empire win this battle?’
Soon, Olivia’s countdown reached its inevitable conclusion. After being completely overtaken by monsters, a ball of black light rose from inside fortresses one and five. A second later, both strongholds, along with their walls and everything within a three hundred foot radius was eradicated as if hit by a nuke.
A cloud of dust and magic particles formed quickly and the shockwave almost rendered everyone deaf. The climbing spiders fell off the wall, the warriors above kneeled while covering their ears, and through it all, Miss Olivia’s carefree voice was heard saying “Ha, I was off by a second. This never happens.”
After the dust settled on top of everyone’s heads and the spiders resumed climbing, four more students ran towards the teacher. One of them was Legolas, one was unknown, and the last two were unmistakable.
“Long time no see, half breed.” Kyle grinned before coughing up blood.
“Why is it that every time we meet we’re up to our necks in shit?” said Luca. The elven boy was dressed in expensive, white, leather armor, with the symbol of a large, purple crystal drawn on the chest, and a long, weird mustache drawn on his right arm. “Well, if I’m to die in this hellhole, at least I get to share.”
“I don't want to die.”
“Shut your trap, Legolas. Finn, does any masterful plan come to mind?”
“This is your new team? No, never mind.”
The teen could barely see through the wall of dust and tiny, black magic particles that were mixed within it. The spiders were climbing again, and the next two fortresses would surely fall soon. Hell, Miss Olivia was already mumbling a countdown starting from 9:25.
In this situation, there was only one thing anyone could do. Finn tightened his grip on the bow and walked towards the edge of the wall.
“Miss Olivia, we’re not going to get radiation poisoning from this, are we?”
“What’s that?”
“Good. In that case, the plan is simple: We kill, we die, and we kill some more until we upgrade our bows and our abilities.”
The boy started shooting until he felt someone grab his shoulders.
“That’s it?” Legolas shook him. “That’s a terrible plan. Luca, why did you ask this half breed anyway? He’s gonna get us all killed.”
Suddenly, a spider jumped over the wall and tried to pierce the boys with its legs. Finn avoided the blow easily, but when Legolas tried to do the same, Luca grabbed his shirt and the boy was killed.
“Obstructing allies is forbidden! Minus fifty points.”
Miss Olivia dispatched the spider, and the orange crystal on Luca’s bow became slightly smaller. Seeing this, the boy shrugged and then shot a couple of arrows to verify their strength.
“What was that for?” asked Finn.
“He talks too much.”
“You talk too much.”
“He must learn his place.” The elf showed a bracelet with five glowing orbs embedded in it. “Also, if these still glow, then we know he’s still alive. Plus, if there’s a way to decrease the bow’s power, then we can assume there’s a way to increase it too.”
Miss Olivia raised an eyebrow. “I have already explained this. Don’t you trust your teacher?”
“With all do respect Miss Olivia, after losing half my team on a quest handed out by this very academy, the answer is no.”
Soon after this little talk, fortresses three and four went boom. The empire’s forces resisted a bit longer and the students did their very best to survive.
Still, the end was inevitable. The spiders overwhelmed the fortress with sheer numbers and killed almost everyone. Right after Luca died and Finn was cornered by three dozen huge, spear-like legs, he caught a glimpse of something round and black rising out of the ground in the middle of the fortress’ yard.
After reaching nine feet above the ground, the crystal shone brightly, and a moment later, it went boom. Finn closed his eyes and gritted his teeth as his body was pierced by the monsters and then obliterated a moment later.
Then, he heard Miss Olivia’s voice: “As expected, round one was a failure. Summon your bows and prepare for round two.”
The entire battlefield had been reset to the beginning. Zagan’s hooves made the earth tremble, and the army of spiders attacked once more.