The next morning, everyone woke up and cleaned up the corpses.

Only eight of the twelve remained, the other four missing.

They guessed that animals had taken them.

After the corpses had been thrown off the sides of the cliff, everyone went to the pond, which they had deepened, to wash off the blood.

Aaron, who had the most blood on him, was there first.

After he scrubbed off the dried blood, he worked on his hair.

Everyone, except for the children, starred as Aaron cleaned his head, revealing the whiteness of his hair. To them, the only ones with white hair was the Elderly and the Vermi.

A few were scared, but all starred.

Aaron didn’t need to look to know they were staring at him, “If you had life as stressful as mine, then you would have this white hair too.”

Sarah walked over to him and helped with his hair, while Aaron helped Saber with his. Soaen couldn’t help, but smile at the scene.

He knew that if they all survived long enough, Aaron and Sarah would get married.

It was in that moment that he and multiple other adults swore to make sure that day happened.

The shock of Aaron’s hair quickly wore off and everyone got to work.

The fire was rekindled with live plants to make it smoke.

George and some of the stronger adults grabbed axes and worked to cut down trees.

Adam and Grace worked with some of the factory workers to enhance their home.

Evelyn worked with some of the weaker adults to build more huts.

Sarah worked with some of the more nimble adults to build more defences.

Aaron, Saber, Soaen, and two other adults worked to make weapons and armor.

The armor was crude, but against blunt attacks, would work well enough.

They took multiple of the denser sticks and tied them together to form a mat like bundle.

They made two of those, then made two smaller ones.

They shoved the smaller ones through the larger ones and tied each stick to each other. Once they had a box of sticks, they made square mat bundles and tied them on top, leaving room for the head.

Soaen put it on.

One of the other adults bundled his hand up with cloth and punched Soaen’s armored chest.

They both grunted, but it held out well.

Soaen took it off and said, “Little loose and uncomfortable, but if we put Dark Moss inside, it will solve both.”

They called over some of the women for tips about how to sew the moss to the armor. However, it was Adam that solved the problem.

By noon, they had twelve chest plates and four helmets.

They all ate, during which five more survivors found their way to them.

By the end of the day, two more came. Before they all went to bed, they all held a meeting. They now numbered thirty three.

They gave the strongest, the armor, axes, and shields, the weakest the bows, and the average the spears.

Adam and Aaron were assigned spears.

George the armor and axes.

Sarah and the rest of the children were given the bows.

The plan was for the armored men to be the vanguard and be at the forefront, they numbered ten.

The spearmen would be right behind the vanguard and hold off the Vermi while the vanguard took them apart, they numbered fourteen.

The archers would be in the tower and behind the wall. The ones in the tower would keep a lookout for weak points while firing. The Archers behind the wall would fire blindly over the wall, they had the most arrows, and were assigned the fastest archers.

Sarah stood on top of the wall while Aaron sat beside her, legs dangling over the edge.

Everyone looked up at her from on the ground.

She took a moment to collect her thoughts, “My entire life, I have been scared of being banished from the city, of dying, of being cold and hungry. Most of that fear vanished the moment Aaron and I join with George, Adam, Grace, and Evelyn. Then we met Saber, he was a bright spot in my life. Then we were forced to escape the city. I thought that it was over, that we were going to die. But then I saw how hard we all worked to survive, and I thought we could survive. Surviving not only one, but two Vermi attacks only reinforced that idea. Now we face a Vermi attack that numbers in the thousands. We have prepared the most we could, and I know that we can survive. Help me prove to those assholes in the cities that we can survive, that we are stronger than they are!”

Everyone raised up their weapons and roared.

Aaron stood up and gave Sarah a friendly punch on the arm, whispering, “No swearing.”

He then turned to everyone else and shouted, “We will survive this! We will prove to those monsters that we are stronger! We will prove to those morons in the cities that we are stronger! We will prove to ourselves that we are stronger than we ever thought possible!”

Another wave of roaring.

“We will double the Watch tonight! Everyone else get some rest. We will survive this, but don't you want to be awake for the feast afterwards!”

From personal experience, Aaron knew that food always motivated boys.

Morale always transferred.

If Adam, George, and Saber were excited for the food afterwards, then the Men would expect to survive to see the party, and if the women saw that the men were excited, then they would be too.

Everyone kept their weapons close that night.

Six guards, at all times, were watching the forest.

Everyone woke up early.

They had a quick and bland breakfast of berries and meat.

Aaron helped the wall archers set up their quivers.

They all had two quivers and they set them up vertically and stuck them in the ground.

It was near noon when the Archers in the tower sounded the alarm.

Everyone rushed into place.

As a rousing speech Aaron climbed up onto the battlements and faced everyone.

“They chose the worst time! As you all know, the animals feast at noon! We have weapons that will attract them! I can't wait to see them get ripped apart! And as an added bonus, the Vermi will kill the animals, meaning free meat!”

All the men roared which cause the women to roar as well.

“As a child I would always dream about being part of a heroic army defending the ones I love. Wait a minute, I still am a child and I still dream about it. I am now living my dream, but I have more dreams, so I must live! And you must Live! I will not forgive a single one of you if you die!”

This time everyone roared.

The Vermi, which were holding at the tree line, roared their challenge.

“Ha! They call that a battle cry! Let’s show them a true battle cry!”

They all roared. Somehow, the thirty six human voices outmatched one thousand voices that feel no pain.

Their cry forced fear into the hearts of the monsters.

“Spearmen! Grab the grenades!”

All the spearmen prepared to throw the mud balls. It became eerily quiet for a precious few moments, before all one thousand Vermi howled and charged.

“Prepare yourselves!” Shouted Aaron over the howling

“Watch as they are impaled by defences we made!”

Each spike was able to impale two or three before falling apart.

Hundreds were dead before they reached the firepit.

“Now Saber!” Exclaimed Aaron

At his words, Saber drew back his bow from the tower and fired his flaming arrow. It sailed over the wall, over the spikes, and right into the pit.

The entire trench burst into flames just as the first hundred fell in.

The howling intensified and the smell of burning flesh permeated the air.

The flames quickly consumed the leaves, but transferred to the Vermi.

The first few Vermi halted once they saw the flames, but were then trampled into the ground by those behind.

They charged into the trench, which had already filled completely with Vermi corpses.

Those that ran over the trench, had their feet burned, causing many to fall and be engulfed.

They climbed over each other to get over the wall, but were stopped by the spikes angled at them.

Many more were impaled. Before another wave could attempt to overcome the wall, the fire grew to many feet.

They howled in frustration at their halt in progress.

Their dinner would have to wait until the fire died down, which it did quickly.

Adam watched from the wall with interest.

“Apparently Vermi burn easily, but quickly.” Adam said to George in front of him

George turned around and said, “Seriously? There are hundreds of interesting things to see, and you choose to examine how quickly they burn? They die, so who cares?”

“Well, if they swarm to one point we could light the middle. The fire would quickly spread to the others and they would all be ash before any of the trees burn. That is very important info while we are in a forest.”

“Fine, keep watching and gathering info. Just make sure the info helps us kill them faster.” Said George as he turned back to watch.

Adam smiled and muttered, “Of course.”

Within a few minutes the fire was down to a foot height.

The Vermi surged forward once more.

They quickly scaled the wall, but lost many more to the small flames and spikes.

Those that made it over couldn’t land on their feet, due to them being burned beyond repair, and fell onto the spikes below.

This continued until the spikes were completely covered, then those that could use their feet were crushed by those that could.

They charged forward again, right into the spikes again.

“Throw them now!” Aaron shouted.

All the spearmen threw the mud grenades.

Not a single one reached the Vermi, but Aaron knew that would happen.

Just before the grenades burst on the ground, it turned noon.

All the animals went on a frenzy and due to the grenades, were drawn to that location.

Everyone noticed that some of the Vermi closest to the tree line turned around.

“Those Grenades make them run!” Shouted an adult

“Nope! They draw the animals here. They are turning around to deal with them, but trust me when I say that they won't be able to stop them before they reach the tree line.” Shouted Aaron.

“I’ve always wanted to see why the animals on the surface aren’t extinct!” Laughed one, causing the others near him to laugh as well.

The Vermi front line quickly got into reach of their bows.

The ones in the tower started to shoot.

Due to their numbers, they had no bone armor.

One arrow was all it took to take one down to be trampled by those behind it.

“Now!” Shouted Sarah to the Archers behind the wall.

They all released their arrows, and fire again.

Volley after volley of arrows rained down on the Vermi.

From the tower, it was amazing to watch wave after wave of Vermi go down.

All the archers had a combined total of two hundred forty eight arrows, and they fired until they ran out.

Not a single arrow missed, but it would be impossible to miss the large swarm of bodies.

The moment the people had been waiting for and dreading, had come.

“Spears forward!” Shouted Aaron. All the Spearmen rushed to the front and stabbed down at the Vermi at the base of the wall.

More slammed into those already there. Clawing their way to the top.

Slowly the Spearmen retreated, stabbing at any Vermi they could. Once they got back into their positions, they stabbed at any Vermi that started to climb over the Battlements.

The spears were able to keep them at bay, but only for a few seconds.

The Vanguard advanced with their shields raised and axes ready to slice apart.

Once they reached the front, limbs started to fly.

Aaron rushed to the back of the wall and shouted, “Archers, grab spears and get up here! If there aren’t enough, quickly make one!”

Everyone rushed to grab or make a spear.

Everyone, but Sarah, Evelyn, and Saber, climbed down from the tower.

Sarah kept a lookout for any weak points.

Evelyn made arrows, and Saber shot them at any Vermi that got too close for comfort.

They managed to hold out until the Archers got there.

The Archers used their spears to give the original spearmen a brief breather.

Unfortunately for the Vanguard, there was no breather.

However, they didn’t need it.

Like George, they each got into a trance, and just hacked away what whatever was in front of them. George was the first to go into his trance, and was the most efficient when in it.

Whenever someone got the time to look at him, he was constantly swinging, never stopping.

They kept coming, and they kept dying.

Soon the bodies were piled so high, that they could just run up the wall.

The animals decided at that time, to charge through the tree line, sending Vermi flying.

From books, Adam learned all about animals.

He knew that the forefront animals were Rhinos, but in his book, it said that they were human height, but these were easily twice that.

The largest Rhino was painted red in Vermi Blood.

The animals that followed were very large lions, tigers, panthers, and other carnivorous cats.

They simply followed the Rhinos and killed those that got in their way, which was few.

After the Cats, came Wolves.

Each charged at the closest Vermi and ripped it apart.

After the wolves came a swarm of miscellaneous animals.

Most of all the animals were large enough to ride. Within a few moments, they had slammed through the Fire Pit wall.

“These monsters aren’t natural! Nature fights with us!” Shouted Aaron.

Everyone roared and pushed forward.

Saber dropped his bow and picked up Silver and placed him on his head.

“See that boy? Those are your cousins!”

Silver barked and Sarah smiled.

Evelyn made three arrows before Saber picked up his bow.

He took the arrows and fired them all at once.

“Slow retreat! Shields out spears in between!” Shouted Aaron.

The Vanguard quickly put their shields in front and the spear men stabbed out over and in between them.

Step by step, they retreated to the ladder.

The last row of spearmen dropped down the ladder.

They held up their spears as the next row came down, then the next.

As the Vanguard was coming down, some of the Vermi started to jump off the wall.

The first few broke limbs, but the next few landed softly on their comrades.

“Ten on me!” Aaron shouted.

Ten men charged at the Vermi with Aaron.

They stopped halfway, “Plant your spears in the ground!”

Everyone shoved their spears in the ground and held them out to face the incoming Vermi.

“The spears aren’t meant for this!” Shouted one

“I know, we just need to hold them off!” Within seconds of saying that, the Vermi slammed into the wall of spears.

Each was impaled.

Every single spearman in the wall was covered in the Vermi’s blood.

The entire wall was pushed back nearly a foot. Some of the spears started to splinter.

Aaron was about to order a retreat, but then the Vanguard arrived.

Aaron saw them and ordered for the middle of the wall was open, at the last second.

The Vermi charged into the opening, but only managed to take a step before they were cut into many pieces.

The Vanguard opened ripped open a path in the middle of the Vermi.

Sarah saw that the remaining Vermi outside the wall, were busy fighting the animals, so she ordered for the remaining spearmen on the wall to help eliminate the Vermi in the wall.

She counted only about fifty left standing.

The remaining spearmen numbered roughly eight, but they could help end this.

Even from her distance, she could easily see where George and Aaron were.

George was in the middle of all the Vermi, but any that got close was chopped to pieces.

Aaron was on the side, with all the spearmen working together to slowly, but carefully kill all Vermi.

Meanwhile the Vanguard was shoving their way into Vermi, attempting to get to George.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Saber stopped shooting and helped Evelyn quickly make more arrows.

They were really just sharp sticks, with no fletching or arrowhead.

Once they had made ten, Saber grabbed his bow again and shot again and again.

Saber used all ten before Evelyn made another one, not a single one hit a Human.

“Eve finish making that one then stop.” Said Sarah

“Ok.”

She made it, Saber shot it, and they all climbed down the tower, Silver on Saber’s head.

By the time they had descended the tower, there was only a few Vermi left, which were quickly taken care of.

“To the wall!” Shouted Aaron

They all rushed to the wall.

Slowly climbing the ladder, and stepping over every Vermi corpse, they looked over the wall to see that all the Vermi were taken out.

Most of the animals had left, the grenades wearing off, but the Wolves had stayed to eat the Vermi.

One of the Wolves looked up them.

Everyone tensed, ready to fight again, but the wolf simply looked at them and slowly bowed its head.

As if it was planned, all the wolves grabbed one Vermi and ran into the forest.

It was silent for several minutes, before Aaron shouted, “We are stronger!”

Everyone cheered, some cried, some fell to their knees.

“Vanguard, take a break, same with some of the more tired Spearmen. If you have energy left, then let's get these corpses off the cliff.”

Some of the spearmen, and all of the Vanguard headed for the two huts.

One was without a roof, but it they headed for it regardless.

Everyone else stepped over the battlements and onto the Vermi hill.

“Start here! We will leave the farthest for the animals, they earned their food. Sarah can you and the other women grab the animals bodies?” Asked Aaron

Sarah turned to face him and put her hands on her hips, “What, do you expect us to cook them too?”

“Well, that would be nice, but I was going to suggest putting them in the fort, then leave them for later.”

Some of the adults laughed as they worked.

There were many animal bodies, but the women quickly got them behind the wall and came out to help.

It took until dark to clear out the Vermi hill around the wall.

Some of the more talented cooks stopped working to cook, by dark the feast was ready.

Everyone went back behind the wall and cleaned off in the pond.

Everyone was soaked in blood, so the all the men went back out and continued to clear the bodies, as the women cleaned themselves.

It took a good hour before they called in the men.

The pond was light red, but the men bathed regardless, meanwhile the women was in the hut with the door closed.

By the time the men were done, the pond was deep red, nearly black, but by morning it would be lighter, because they added a stream that would clear it out.

They feasted on a pair of bears.

They had many more animals, but both of the bears had been very fat.

They went to bed early that night, only leaving two guards.

They woke up two hours later than usual, but had to get up, because the smell of the Vermi was horrible.

Before they all went to bed, they hung the animals upside down, to drain the blood.

After a quick breakfast, they all went out to continue to clean up.

It took that day and the next to clear it all out.

They set up the traps again, which most required just a few adjustments. They finished up by noon.

Most of the arrows they shot, broke, so mostly everyone worked on making more.

A few worked on making more armor. Aaron, George, and two others worked on the pond.

First they drained it, while they collected clay from the river.

Once it was drained, they dug out the drainage stream until it reached the bottom of the pond then kept digging for two feet.

They dug out the pond until it reached the drainage stream.

They build a bonfire in the middle to speed up the drying. Once the fire died, they took out all the ash and remains of the fire.

Using the clay, they covered the sides and bottom of the pond, essentially making a large pot.

They left space the intake two feet down and for the drainage at the bottom.

They held torches over it using rope and slowly dried it.

By the time it was done drying, it was nearing dark, so they set up torches around the well pond.

They made a clay square plate, with a hole at the top. While that dried, made a small clay box, with top open and bottom having holes.

Once the plate was dry, they tied a rope through the hole and placed it a few inches into the drainage stream.

Making sure it could move easily, they placed hollow bamboo at the bottom of the drainage stream.

Packing dirt on top, while making the clay plate still move easily up and down, they made it a pipe.

The drainage pipe let all the water off the side of the cliff.

By the time the pipe was done, the clay box was completely dried.

They shoved about a foot of coal at the bottom of the one feet by three feet by four feet box.

After the charcoal, they packed gravel for six inches.

They then shoved in sand for a foot then live leaves for another six inches.

For the remaining six inches they placed rocks.

After they had finished, they carefully placed the box in the input stream and placed eight by two hollow bamboo inside the open side and clayed it together and connected it to the box.

Sarah walked over and looked at the box, “What is that?”

“A primitive water filter.” Said one of the adults that worked at the recycling center in his city.

“This should prevent the majority of sicknesses we might get. We will need to replace it every week, but other then that, we should just be able to run water through it.” He continued

“How are you going to connect it to the water?”

“We will take these bamboo shoots and connect them directly to the river. Once we know that the well is getting water, we will bury the shoots. This will give us water and protect it at the same time.”

“Sweet. Let’s finish this tomorrow.” Said Sarah

“The day after tomorrow, another attack will most likely come. Tomorrow, I want Saber and four adults to go collect the flowers required to make more grenades. We need more arrows and armor. For this last attack, we only received bloody scratches, but the next one some of the Vermi might have weapons.”

Sarah agreed and everyone went to sleep.

The next morning, everyone woke up. Sarah ordered Saber and four of the Vanguard to take as many bags as possible and fill them with the flowers.

They put on their armor and grabbed their weapons, and headed out.

Everyone was split in half and given the job of either making arrows or armor, except for the people working on the well.

They were assigned two Vanguard to protect them as they worked the shoots to the river.

They had to dig into the ground, so it wasn’t until after noon when they reached the river.

As they were working on it, one of the Vanguard spotted a wolf. One of the Vanguard raised his axe. Aaron put his hand on it and forced it down, “Don’t. They know that we have marked this territory.”

“Then shouldn’t they keep off it?”

“No. We don’t patrol this area, this is the perfect feeding ground. As long as we don't attack, they won't either. At most we will just spot a few wolves hunting.”

They finished up the well and Aaron ran back to make sure water was running through correctly. He made sure, then ran back.

As they returned to their home, they buried the pipes.

They had placed the pipes collecting the water vertically in the bed of the river, getting soaked, but required for the river to dry up before they stopped getting water.

They were proud of their handiwork, but immediately got to work on the wall.

Aaron noticed that if they had to get off the wall, they would have to slowly climb down, but the Vermi could just jump off.

Aaron halted all other work to get as many workers on this project as possible.

They first built a back wall that reached higher than the tallest of the humans.

Using wooden supports, they built a roof and had it connect to the battlements.

They built up the gaps, which Aaron and George learned were called Crenels.

By the time they were done, it was getting dark, but they had made it so Vermi couldn’t scale the wall, unless they climbed on top of the entire wall.

To get on top, they would have to get past the constant spears stabbing out and climb up.

They quickly built three ladders leading up to the new top of the wall.

They built new battlements on top of the wall. By the time they were done, they were all covered in mud and exhausted.

They had made a place large enough for all the archers to shoot from. Made nearly three hundred arrows and enough armor to equip all, but ten survivors.

The spearmen had a safe place to see and stab from.

They all went to bed tired, but proud of themselves.

The next morning, they all put on the armor and carried all the arrows to the top of the wall.

Each archer wore a full quiver that they wouldn’t touch unless needed too.

The Spearmen got their spears and sharpened them.

Aaron was assigned, by Sarah, to the archers with Saber and Grace.

Adam was assigned to the spearmen with George.

Meanwhile Sarah was in the tower with Evelyn. The tower still had a better view point then the wall, but wasn’t stable enough to hold all the archers.

From the tower Sarah would see all weak points and would make sure no Vermi broke through.

While they waited for the Vermi to appear, they talked amongst themselves.

It was close to noon again when two teens came sprinting out of the forest. Sarah immediately ordered for the gate to be opened.

Multiple spearmen rushed down the wall and started to pull out the boulders placed behind the gate to prevent it from breaking open.

The two teens made it to the wall, weaving in between spikes and jumping over the trenches, just as the last boulder was being removed.

The gate was opened, they ran in and nearly all the spearmen shoved the boulders back into place. Aaron and George walked up to the teens.

“I have three questions.” Said Aaron

“One, who are you?”

“I’m Xyleo and this is Yeth.” Said the taller of the two

“Two, what did you do before you were thrown out?”

“We were both Gunsmiths.” Said Yeth, panting.

George raised an eyebrow. “How did you get thrown out?”

“We were caught sneaking guns to the rebels.”

“Do you know how to make the Guns from scratch?” Asked George

“kind of. I know how to make it, Yeth knows what is needed and how to make the parts.” Yeth nodded.

Sarah walked over, “Who cares? We can worry about that later! Both of you, grab a spear and get inside the wall. They have been spotted.”

One of the adults tossed two spears from the rack of spears at the newcomers. They caught them.

“Follow George.” Ordered Sarah

“That’s me.”

George ran back and climbed the ladder into the wall, both newcomers following him.

All the Spearmen quickly got back into the wall as Sarah ran back to the tower.

Aaron grabbed a spear and ran to the ladder leading to the top of the wall.

He grabbed the spear with his teeth and quickly climbed the ladder. Once he got on top, he looked out into the forest. Hordes of Vermi were just inside the tree cover, just waiting, silently.

Aaron placed his spear beside him and grabbed his bow.

Inside the wall, George stood there with a spear, looking out of his Murder Hole, waiting for the battle to begin.

It was already stifling hot inside causing everyone to sweat, and that didn’t help with the smell.

“Spears!” He yelled, making sure to keep his voice low enough in the room.

Everyone placed their spears inside their holes.

The Murder Holes were large enough to still allow for vision and stabbing room, but small enough to prevent any body part to reach through.

“Make sure to let go if they start to pull. Don't want to have your head pulled into the wall.” Yelled a man.

“We have proved that we are stronger and yet they still want to fight! Shall we give them a fight?” Exclaimed George.

Everyone roared their response.

On top of the wall Aaron stood there, ready to release a volley of arrows at the hordes.

Wind blew from behind the Archers.

“Just like last time, Nature assists us! With this wind we will be able to shoot from farther away!”

The Archers roared, but the Vermi still kept silent.

Aaron frowned and called over an archer that had proven he was the fastest of everyone else.

“Go tell Sarah that we are facing a Vermi that is at least three hundred years old.”

He raised an eyebrow, but nodded and ran off.

Evelyn saw a man running from the wall to the tower and called over Sarah.

The man reached the foot of the tower and shouted up, “Aaron says that we are facing a Vermi that is at least three hundred years.”

After he had delivered his message, he ran back to the wall.

Evelyn looked at Sarah and asked, “What does that mean?”

“It means that some of the Vermi will have weapons and armor. It also means that they won't just charge at us, like last time. The Vermi that is leading this group will be smart enough to have some kind of strategy.”

“Enough to be worried?”

“You should always be worried when facing Vermi, but no. The strategies that it comes up with will be around the level of a two year old. Waves, and flanks.”

“What should we do?”

“Have some of the spearmen start to make more arrows.”

Evelyn mock saluted and climbed down the tower.

The Vermi leading all the others stood in the middle of the horde, on a hill, watching the Wall.

It was smart enough to know that it would lose a lot of comrades trying to break through. It was scared, but whenever a surge of fear hit it, it just imagined the juicy meat that was waiting if it could break through.

Besides, it feared the one that ordered it to attack this group of Humans, more than it feared the Humans.

It quickly checked its stone and copper chestplate and helmet.

Looking at its brothers that had been with it for hundreds of years, it saw that they were all looking at itself, having already checked their own armor and weapons.

Preparing itself, it raised its stone axe and roared. All the other Vermi roared, and the first wave charged.

Inside the wall, George only saw a lot of Vermi charge out of the trees and impale themselves on the spikes. When he looked closer he saw that they all had small angled shields.

For every three that got impaled, one spike got knocked down.

Last time, it was nearly seven for one spike, even though only three could fit on one spike.

Even though they were knocking them down, they still quickly died.

Behind the shields were plain Vermi just charging.

The Shield Vermi were only able to knock down about an eighth of the total spikes, then they had to deal with the trenches.

Aaron’s perspective atop the wall, was vastly different than George’s.

He saw that the plain Vermi were sent separately from the Shield Vermi.

“Smart. If it had sent the second wave with the first as one large wave, the second’s momentum would be slowed by the Shield Vermi.” Aaron muttered

“What?” Asked Saber.

“Nothing, but pay attention. The Vermi leading this horde is smarter than last time.”

Saber nodded and turned his attention to the charging Vermi.

The Vermi had been completely silent, except for when they were being impale, but all as one, they all started to howl.

A massive wave charged out of the trees.

“Get ready!” Shouted Grace

“Wait.” Said Aaron

“Why?”

“Because they are going to send another force on the left. Send half of the archers to the left.” Grace knew better than to question.

“Half to the left!”

They all got into position just in time for the expected force to break from tree cover.

“Draw!” Shouted Aaron

Two dozen bows were drawn back.

“Fire!” Two Dozen arrows flew from the bows. Two dozen Vermi fell.

“Fire at will!” Ordered Aaron as he drew his own bow.

George saw that the Vermi were past the halfway mark and quickly coming in.

“Get ready!” Within a minute, they were within a few yards.

“Stab!”

Everyone thrust forward. With the spear’s momentum and the Vermi’s opposing momentum, three rows of the Vermi were impaled with the spears.

All the Survivors withdrew their spears and thrust again. Row after row of Vermi were impaled.

The living Vermi forced their way to the front, dragging the dead to the Vermi behind them, who did the same. Because of this, the dead didn’t pile up.

Saber watched the rest of the battle as he shot his arrows.

He saw that a small group of Vermi in wooden armor was slowly making their way to the right.

Saber pointed it out to Aaron, who dispatched Saber and four of the better archers.

Saber and the other four, made quick work of the armored Vermi, with one arrow to each head.

They returned and continued to focus on the middle and left.

The right was completely unsupported by arrows, but that side had barely any Vermi.

The commanding Vermi watched as its armored unit was annihilated.

It looked at its brothers and decided that the best course of action was to charge at them with full force.

It howled and every Vermi on standby charged. The copper armored Vermi stayed in the middle as they charged.

Before it knew it, they were only a few Vermi between them and the wall.

Everyone noticed the copper armored Vermi.

“Target their heads.” Aaron and George ordered their respective Survivors

Just as quickly as they got to the wall, they died.

The Vermi commander watched as his brothers’ skulls were punched through so easily.

One by one, all twenty of them died.

It gripped its axe harder and charged, in a rage.

George saw as the Vermi commander charged, he simply thrust his spear into its throat.

Even though it knew it was dying, and quickly, it forced itself to keep going.

George watched as it forced its own throat to travel further down the spear, its face contorted in rage and pain.

George withdrew his spear and simply thrust his spear into its skull.

It didn’t matter if it had a conscious, it was trying to kill him and his friends, that was a ‘go ahead’ to die.

After the copper armored Vermi died, it didn’t take long for the rest to be slaughtered.

The battle only lasted an hour.

Everyone opened up the gate and went out to clear away the corpses.

Most was shoved to the edges during the battle, so it only took close to three hours to clear away all the Vermi.

Afterward, everyone went back inside and prepared for the feast. The seven children grouped together. “This seems too easy.” Said Adam

“Of course it was. This commander had a good head on his shoulders, but it only thought as far as the shields.” Said George

“What do we do with the copper armor? The wooden one, if made well, is stronger, and less noticeable.” Said Evelyn

“We could use it as a mirror. At least until we find other uses for it.” Suggested Adam

“Might as well.”

So they cut the armor in half, front from back, and pressed it into place.

They punchered two holes at the top and tied rope through it. They hung it beside the hut.

Everyone celebrated.

Laughing and cheering filled the fort.

Some of the men were grumpy that there was no alcohol, but they knew it would be foolish to drink when at any moment they could be under attack.

So while they complained, they did so good naturedly.

George stood up and bellowed, “What shall we call this wonderous village of ours?”

Everyone quieted down as they thought.

“Good thinking George! I was getting tired of calling this place a fort, or the wall.”

One man, who rivaled George in volume, stood up and shouted, “Arecune!” “What does that mean?” Asked a woman. “It means many things. Strength, Freedom, Wisdom, and Safety.” He answered.

Everyone liked the name, and so, a village that would be known throughout history, was named Arecune.

Everyone feasted and partied without reservations.

The next morning, everyone got to work after a short breakfast.

After a few hours of work Aaron and George looked at each other and silently agreed.

They both pulled Sarah away from everyone else.

“What is it?” She asked

“Last battle would have been much harder if it wasn't for the taller wall. The Vermi leading all the others was smarter. It equipped its soldiers with shields and tried to flank us. We believe that this next attack will be lead by a four hundred year Vermi.” Explained George

“What do you think that means?” Asked Sarah

“We don't know, and that is what concerns us. For all we know they will have a catapult or guns. We have no idea.” Said Aaron

“What do you think we should do?”

“With only an hour left, we don't know if anything we do with change anything.” Said George

“We can only do what we have been doing. Fight our hardest. We should prepare to have casualties.”

“Could we drop fire unto them?”

“That might take one or two, but with hundreds, and without something to make the fire catch, it will be pointless.”

“Could we drop logs on them?”

“Sure, but we used all the logs to support the second floor of the wall. We would need to go chop down more trees and we don't have time. We barely have time to sharpen the axes and spears.”

“I don't want to lose anyone. I just learned everyone’s names!”

“We can all survive this, but we need to get ready. When we all survive this, we can find chickens. Saber and I saw some while we got the dyes. We can use them for fletching on our arrows, eggs for food, and even an alarm system!”

Over the centuries, the chicken evolved along with the other animals.

They grew to mid thigh height, had small teeth, razor sharp claws, and they were very territorial.

The roosters grew to hip height, and would gladly kill anything that looked at it funny.

They were dangerous, but not to an armed and prepared human.

As everyone was sharpening their weapons or making more arrows, Saber climbed to the top of the wall and looked out into the forest.

He studied the now bloody red mud that was the battlefield.

He watched the trees sway in the wind.

He felt the sun on his face.

Wait a minute, what wind?

Saber rushed to the edge of the wall and shouted down, “Enemy archers! Take cover.”

Everyone dropped what they were doing and ran for either the wall or the roofed hut.

The Vermi decided that exact moment to release their volley.

George ran over to the wall, “Saber jump!”

He didn't hesitate before doing so. George caught him, and rolled forward to avoid injury to either of them. He rolled into the wall and covered Saber with his body.

Dozens of arrows slammed into the ground where he was standing just a moment ago.

In the wall, they didn't have to worry about anything.

The Vermi archers had aimed over the wall not at it.

However, it was a different story in the hut. Only four people had taken cover there, but only three punched through the roof, though dozens stick in the roof.

Only two people were injured and both with leg wounds.

When the rain of arrows stopped, the ground was littered with them.

The people in the hut quickly ran out carrying those that were injured.

The put the wounded next to George and Saber against the wall, and ran to get their spears and into the wall.

“You two, you all right?” Asked George

“Just a flesh wound, could you bring us the stuff to make armor or weapons? We can't fight like this, but we can certainly sit here and make something.”

“Good idea.”

And Saber was off. He collected all the ingredients and tools needed.

He dropped the stuff off and joined everyone else in the wall, with George close behind.

“Arrows? This is new. Considering they attacked before noon and attacked quietly and with arrows, this will be our toughest fight so far.”

“No duh, every battle has been our toughest so far.”

Everyone Was murmuring, when Aaron walked over.

“Quiet down.” He ordered, “We just have to fight smarter than them.”

“What about those archers? How are we going to use our own?”

“We'll put them in the wall.”

“But then what about the spearmen?”

“Well have the archers shoot through the Murder Holes and when the Vermi get close enough, the spearman will replace them. If they have archers, the commander might be smart enough to have them stop shooting to prevent friendly fire. If it is smart enough, then we’ll have the archers outside shooting, with cover nearby. With the arrows they shot at us, they should have enough to shoot throughout the whole battle.” Aaron explained

No one had anything to argue about.

“Archers! To your positions. Don't fire until ordered to! Spearman, get ready to replace them. Archers without a hole, go setup some cover in the yard for when you go out there.”

Everyone rushed to their positions and Saber watched as not a single person argued or hesitated to obey him.

George took a spear and readied himself in the middle of the wall.

Grace and Evelyn went to help set up cover.

Saber took a shield and climbed to the top of the wall again.

Sarah walked up to Aaron and offered her quiet support.

Saber saw a second volley fly from the trees again.

“Take cover!”

Luckily, everyone in the yard had built a single small crude log wall, and all of them got behind it in time.

The problem was that one of the last arrows hit a key rope, and the whole wall collapsed.

Once the rain of arrows halted, they rushed to rebuild the wall and to build more.

This happened four more times.

They had set up five small log walls, that could easily cover four archers each.

The ground was littered with arrows, both sticking out of the ground and laying there.

“How many bloody arrows do they have!” Shouted one of the archers.

This caused a few nervous chuckles, though Aaron didn't even smirk.

He turned to one of the nearby spearmen.

“Go get Saber.”

He saluted by placing a fist over his heart and ran out of the wall.

It was cramped, stuffy, and stifling hot, and the spearman was glad to be able to get out.

Aaron continued to observe the still quiet forest as he waited.

When Saber did finally walk up to him, Aaron didn't even look at him.

“Why do you think they aren't charging yet?”

“Who knows? I think it might because they aren't ready for melee combat. So they sent their archers to keep up pent up so we can't continue to build more?” Replied Saber

“Possible, but if that is the case, we have serious problems.”

“Why?”

“Have you seen the arrows they are shooting?”

“No.”

“They are better than ours, but not by much. They are straighter, sharper, and the fletching is properly placed.”

“That’s good for us. Our archers can shoot them back. Right?”

“Yeah, we can shoot them back, but if they are using tactics and weapons this advanced, then what about their armor and melee weapons? Will we see iron being used? Will we see a large number of Boned Vermi?”

“Than we just have to out think them.”

“How? What do we have that we can use against them? The commander of the Vermi is smart, and if we hadn't buried our water transport, I’m sure it would have tried to poison it.”

Saber thought for a moment.

“What if we cook them alive?”

Aaron turned to face him, “We don't have the wood.”

“Yeah, but like you said, we have the water. We can use the copper armor and bend it into pots, then we boil water in them and when they are at the wall we pour it on them. We know that they feel pain. Let's use that against them. Their advantage is in numbers and swarming us with them. If we can split them up, it will give us a few moments where we can cause major damage. As an added bonus, the boiling water might just kill a few of them. Because they are clumped up so tightly, the water should soak dozens.”

Aaron, Sarah, and a few of the closer Survivors just stared at him in shock.

“What?”

“I’m so glad you are on our side.” Sarah sighed

“You heard him! Go tell the yard archers. Get the copper plates and bend them into pots small enough to carry water in!” Shouted Aaron

Two different spearmen ran out. Another rain of arrows came before the pots were done.

The yard archers quickly built up multiple fires and placed the filled pots on top.

By the time they were boiling, the Vermi warriors were finally spotted.