“Seth! Get everyone inside somewhere safe.” Calvin ordered.

“On it. Everyone! Come with me, we’ll get you settled in while we deal with this.” Seth called to the others.

Tank and Crash moved up near Calvin. “We’ll help. Lead the way, we’ll follow your orders.”

Calvin nodded his appreciation and hauled off toward the walls. He crested the steps two at a time.

The fight was completely one-sided. Five large armored beetles had anchored themselves in the ground roughly 60 feet from the walls. Their metallic chitin formed a large barricade that was nearly impervious to attacks. Behind them was an absolute monster. This beetle was essentially a walking fortress. It stood over 15 feet tall, each leg as wide as a tree trunk.

The creature’s mandibles were like razor-sharp scythes jutting out from the front of its face. Every surface of the colossal creature’s body featured an armored, metallic, chitinous shell resembling burnished steel. A single, large horn protruded from its head like some sort of mutant rhinoceros. This looked like it would be a nightmare to fight.

Calvin surveyed the scene as he looked for someone to get him a report. Arrows and spells pinged harmlessly off of the beetles’ armored barricades. They had stopped their advance on the walls just shy of Seth’s magical mines.

Below the walls, large piles of stone and rubble littered the area, sections of the wall had been broken off in some sort of impact. Calvin began to wonder what sort of attack could have caused that when the universe decided to answer for him.

Simultaneously, all five armored beetles arced over the top of their barricade, hurling large stones like cannonballs. These must have been nanite-constructed boulders since the terrain was not rocky whatsoever.

A series of booms rang out across Olympus as each of the five stones impacted the walls with terrible force. Stone shrapnel exploded from the points of impact as the soldiers on the wall dove for cover. They would not be able to withstand this siege like it was.

Calvin approached someone hunkering down behind the battlements. “Report!”

“Sir, it’s fucked. Less than an hour ago, all of the monsters charged at once. These damned bugs have just been slowly demolishing the walls. We can’t hurt them.”

“Where’s Liam?”

“He’s on the other side with the Alpha. It’s even more shit over that way.”

“Alright. Keep your heads down. Don’t waste energy and ammo on these. I’ll send somone over.”

Calvin sprinted toward the other wall where he met Tank and his crew.

“Calvin, you’ve got yourself a clusterfuck here.” Tank said.

Calvin had reached the top of the wall and saw the situation below. A singular, massive dinosaur, closer to a tyrannosaur was stomping around on the battlefield. Defenders were frantically trying to get strikes in at its feet while avoiding the fearsome maw.

Liam was on a partially destroyed section of the wall loosing arrow after arrow into the creature.

“Fall back! Behind the gates!” called Liam. He rushed over to Calvin, “Thank fucking God you’re back.”

Tank ordered Reaper to take position and begin targeting the fearsome reptile from a safe distance. In moments, powerful pulse blasts struck out at the creature.

“What’s the status Liam?” Calvin asked.

“We’ve got multiple wounded. We can’t hurt these things. We’ve tried everything. The beetles are practically invincible and this big bastard shrugs off everything we throw at it, dishing out even more in return.”

As if to punctuate the point, the massive, 15-foot-tall dinosaur slammed its body into the walls, shaking loose rubble and sending the defenders scrambling for balance. It leaped against the battlements, snaking its massive head over the top trying to snatch one of the defenders up in its jaws.

“Understood. We brought more people back from the settlement across the lake. Tank, Crash, and Reaper will help us bolster our defenses. Get the fighters ordered up inside the walls. Get any wounded to Marshall and get everyone back in fighting shape. I’ll be down shortly to work up a plan.”

With a salute, Liam began ordering people into formations in the town.

Crash and Tank were supplementing Reaper’s fire on the Glintscale Alpha. The damage was minimal, but it was still damage.

“Tank, let’s go work up a plan. You’re in charge of your team. Can you have them keep this thing distracted while we get things together?”

“Will do. You’ll be lucky if Reaper doesn’t kill this bastard before you’re done planning.”

“Let’s hope so. Get them settled, don’t have them take any risks, and you meet us down there.” Calvin said, pointing off toward where the soldiers were forming up.

Soon Calvin and the others gathered around at the base of the north wall.

“So, we’ve got two big problems. We have armored, rock-shooting bugs and a rampaging dinosaur, both trying to bring down our walls. Any ideas?” Calvin asked.

“Need to split up the focus.” Tank said, “I suggest we concentrate damage dealers on the dinosaur and anyone that can break armor on the beetles. Has the big bug shown its cards yet?”

“No, and that worries me. It’s just sitting there, letting the others pound the walls.” Liam offered.

“Crash and I both have skills that might be able to crack the armor on those beetles. Maybe even Reaper with that big ass gun of his, but he’s better suited for the dino.” Tank said.

“Our Earth-attuned casters might be able to dislodge the beetles and force them to show their bodies. We should get anyone that has earth spells or area of effect damage to work on the beetles. If we get earth pillars under them and saturate the area with fire, that should get them to budge.” Calvin said, “Liam, you work on putting together a squad. Earth and Fire casters. Tank, can you take Crash and assist? Keep Reaper on the dino.”

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“Understood.” Tank said before heading off to relay the orders.

“Anyone that can draw blood, we need on the Alpha. Seth, we need barrier drones out there. They won’t stop its attacks, but hopefully they will limit its movement. Keep the fighters behind the gates. Myself, Amy and Freya will be on the ground. We need to put this thing down fast and get to the other group.”

They made their final preparations and headed to their positions. Calvin was fighting a war within himself right now. Knox was out there, hurting other people. These monsters were beating down their walls and Calvin let the doubt creep in and eat at his being. Were his decisions causing others to suffer? Was he responsible for the fate of Tank’s town? Did these monsters charge because he went out and tried to beat the system clock? He was on the very edge of breaking. What if he did something wrong out there and got someone killed?

Amy moved silently alongside him and placed her arm on his back. “Cal, I can see that look. You’re not responsible for any of this.”

“How can you say that?” he said, maybe with a little more anger than he intended.

“Because everyone here has choices to make. This is an unwinnable situation. If you want to feel responsible for something, look back at all of those people who are alive right now because of you. We have a job to do. The system is making these challenges near impossible. If we start to get ahead of them, it will throw more at us. People are going to die out here Cal. We might die out here. We need to take each problem as it comes and do our best, and that’s it.”

She was right. He knew it. Hell, he felt the same for the most part. But there was that small sensation eating away at him. He took a deep breath and shoved it down. He buried it as deeply as he could. They’d approached the gates.

“Alright. Let’s get it done.” he said to Amy, and the gates opened.

They charged out onto the battlefield and immediately fanned out. Reaper was shooting the ever-living hell out of this creature and it was livid. Calvin noted deep furrows carved into the wall all down its length. The dinosaur had been furiously trying to clamber up and over the walls, its claws had raked deep wounds throughout the stone.

The beast saw Calvin’s group erupt from the gates and immediately went to work on getting a yummy Calvin-sized snack.

CHOMP!

The gnashing teeth slammed down onto Calvin’s position but he was already somewhere else. A quick jab of his spear told the Alpha it had missed.

Barrier drones were filtering out from the gates now, setting up an obstacle course of nanite fields. The Alpha bit down towards a few of them, but was repelled by the barriers. With a frustrated snarl, it turned back toward Calvin.

Calvin was sprinting away toward the forest’s edge, looking to draw the creature further from the walls and give them some room to maneuver and for Seth to do his work.

Dust swirled up in a tumultuous haze, kicked up by the thundering footsteps of the monstrous beast. With each powerful stride, its sword-like claws dug deep trenches into the earth. Each step shook the ground with the force of a small earthquake.

Seth moved into the field, deploying Runic Snares strategically throughout the barricade maze.

The creature was closing in rapidly on Calvin who darted behind a tree to gain some cover. The reptilian titan slammed its body sideways into the tree, shattering it into thousands of wooden splinters as the dinosaur tumbled over in a rage. Calvin hadn’t stopped moving though, he was already ducking behind the next tree when the creature struck. Halting his progress, he immediately turned upon the dinosaur who was regaining its footing and he unleashed a full charge into its ribs.

With a furious roar, the monster chomped down at Calvin again, narrowly missing his head. Calvin issued two more frenzied jabs at the creature’s legs before darting back toward the walls.

Calvin passed Amy as he dashed back out into the field, sprinting for the barriers. As the enraged dinosaur passed, Amy delivered a deep slash across its leg, delivering a healthy dose of shadowthorn toxin. It was clearly extremely painful for the creature as it roared in agony. The slash and the toxins did nothing to slow its charge. She ducked under the cover of Static Cloak and repositioned for another opportunity to strike.

Calvin had evidently pissed this thing off. He couldn’t shake it if he wanted to. Fortunately for him, he didn’t want to. The Alpha trampled after him into the maze of barricades, stumbling as its foot caught one. The Alpha regained its footing and charged again, striking another barrier and stumbling again.

It unleashed a thunderous roar. The Alpha spun in a wild circle, whipping its tail down towards the barricades. The passage of the tail was filled with so much power it kicked up small dust devils in its wake. The tail struck the barriers surrounding the creature and they all exploded in a shower of sparks. The drones were destroyed.

Their brave little journey was not without its merits though, as the monster had been forced to step right onto a snare. This was an extremely powerful opponent and Calvin knew the snare would not hold more than a few seconds so he charged.

Techlancer’s Arsenal was active and the ghostly spears rose to surround the gargantuan creature. With each jab of Calvin’s spear, the duplicates responded in kind. Calvin desperately wished he had a better weapon right now. His spear had served him well, but it didn’t do anything particularly flashy. It was durable, that was it.

Regardless, with each stab, he damaged the dinosaur further. Blood seeped out of dozens of wounds tracing along the creature’s ribs, spine and legs. Calvin could see the shadowthorn toxin slowly making progress on the Alpha’s leg. Wicked, black, oozing thorns filled the wound. They stabbed at the edges of the deep laceration and with each movement, dug deeper into the creature’s flesh.

Calvin inched back, preparing for the creature to break free from its bonds.

BOOOOM!

A small supernova blinded Calvin momentarily as the Alpha in front of him roared in pain.

Calvin tracked the source and noted that Reaper must have used a particularly powerful skill. The shot had burned through the air with such intensity that Calvin suffered minor burns from its passage.

He nodded up to Reaper, whose pulse rifle was red and overheated, and looked back at the Alpha. Its body had a gaping hole burned into it, as if it had been targeted by a high-energy superweapon, similar to the ones Calvin imagined powerful Earth nations possessed but never acknowledged.

Even more surprising to Calvin at this moment, though, was that this horrific wound seemed to do little to temper the dinosaur’s fury. It burst forward with what could only have been primal attuned speed and slammed Calvin backward into the stone wall.

He smashed against the stone with a sickening crunch, only just barely keeping hold of his consciousness as the dinosaur barreled in on him for the final blow.

A golden arrow ripped through the air, striking the Alpha directly in the top of its snout. The arrow passed straight through the upper jaw, through its tongue, through its lower jaw, and right through its foot. The force of the blow drove the Alpha face-first into the ground.

Calvin slowly crawled away from the creature, trying to put distance away from himself and the rows of extremely dangerous and hungry teeth.

Freya and Amy arrived at nearly the same moment. Freya furiously slashed and ripped at the Alpha’s throat like a rabid wolf, while Amy plunged her daggers over and over into the body of the struggling creature. It was slowly getting its feet under it as the onslaught ripped apart its body. Each of Amy’s strikes had been infused with Toxic Load. Half of those strikes delivered even more shadowthorn toxin while the others exploded with the destructive waves of her sonic edge.

Nevertheless, the creature stood up. How much punishment could it take?

It swiped its tail in a horizontal arc, throwing Amy and Freya away from it before turning back toward Calvin.

He was on one knee now, resting his body weight against his spear. Blood dripped from his mouth and dozens of other wounds on his body. He suffered many broken ribs, that much he was sure of.

Each stomp brought the dinosaur closer to his meal. It reared its head back and with a roar, lunged with all of its remaining power, jaws wide open.

Calvin activated Phalanx. The barriers sprung to life and instead of a soft, human-flavored morsel, the dinosaur’s jaws slammed into the barriers. Calvin immediately ended the skill, reflecting all of that damage through a concussive blast directly into the monster’s wide-open mouth.

The dust from the blast began to settle, and to everyone’s amazement, Calvin was still there. The dinosaur was still there. The dinosaur’s head was not.

Dead on its feet, the headless dinosaur collapsed in a fleshy heap against the wall.

Calvin fell over, finally losing consciousness.

As Calvin’s battle with the Alpha concluded, the battle at the north wall began to take a new and devastating turn.

The Herculean Spinecharge Beetle decided enough was enough. It lowered its massive horn toward the wall and charged. In less than five seconds, the gargantuan beetle crossed the battlefield and slammed directly into… and through the wall.