Just Outside the Eastern Gate

Granite City

The hardest part about taking in the changed and elegant scenery around Granite City, for Jut and the other thousands of fighters behind him, wasn't the fact that many of them had never seen so many trees in one place before. Neither was it the fact that, somehow, Earth now had at least three moons. No. The hardest part was being ready for when the wave of monsters, now grown to reach well into the hundreds, would run into their front line.

Despite killing Monsters in the dungeon multiple times over the last two weeks, this very real, possible repeat of a disaster had Jut's heart thundering. Every awful situation he'd been in since the System arrived was flashing through his mind. The worry and panic he seemed to have let go proved to have been only buried under a two week rest.

Before the Initialization, Jut couldn't have told anyone how he'd react to a line of enemies, some with clubs but all were armed in one way or another, charging right at him. The closest example he could have given was when the grocer used to close around midnight and the doors would open the day before Thanksgiving. He used to joke that it was almost murder on those days.

He didn't want to be one of those that froze. One that stood by and let bad things happen. He couldn't bare the thought of losing more people he cared about. Sneaking a glance around him, he saw his team.

Brick held his shield up, equipped with a full set of partial plate armor and the roughest quality, yet coolest knight's helm Jut had seen in real life. It left his face exposed but had a visor he could shut. The ex-soldier was showing that you can take the man out of military but its hard to to take the military out of the man. He's gaze from helm was calm and collected. He was waiting to give the ranged fighters the go ahead.

Joy was standing next to Brick in the space between him and the next Guardian focused person over. Her leather armor was clean and fresh, as always, and her fists were already glowing. Her sunflower yellow hair was pulled into a tight tail that ran down her back. She was doing just about as well as Jut was in putting on a brave face. By that, he could read the concern she was holding back. Yet, she stood firm, waiting to do her part.

Diggy took up a spot right next to Brick on the other side. It would appear to others that the gaps around him were larger than needed and would likely let monsters through. It just meant they didn't watch the short Minotaur practice with his double bladed battle axe. He, unlike Brick, was wearing mostly leather armor with a chain mail chest piece. Jut nudged the man who gave him a nod as he settled into position.

The last was Isabelle. She had her wand out and ready. The healer's robes were dyed a light blue and her platinum blonde hair was pulled back into a braid, revealing her pointed ears under her tipped hat. She looked less nervous than he felt, her determined icy blue eyes seeming to pierce the charging Monsters. The slight glow around her other hand meant she was planning to lead her assault with a Magical Bolt.

These four, and the many other people he'd been forced to interact with daily, had grown on him tremendously. They were becoming his new family. It was a sensation he wasn't quite used to. Having had mostly neutral interactions with his real family for years before the falling out and only really associating with his freight crew and pets had made him forget the intensity of the emotions coursing through him.

A nudge to his leg had Jut looking down briefly. Gunther panted at him before looking forward, as if to say "we got this". Jut gave him one scratch before looking back out.

Lily and Nox were both mixed in with the team, the cat sitting at Isabelle's feet cleaning herself like they weren't about to be in a battle and the Shepard was next to Brick and Diggy looking ready for a fight.

Jut took it all in and used every bit of self control he had to funnel his fears, doubts, and concerns into something useful. He made it all fuel and zoned back in on the Monsters. He would not let them through.

When the Monsters were a handful of yards from the front line, their eyes red glow finally visible, Brick's voice flooded the battlefield.

"Fire!"

Subsequent "fire at will" and "fire"s followed from the other party leaders as Skills, Spells, wand blasts, arrows, and even some bullets flew into the on coming wave. The usual monsters, Minotaur, dogs, cats, scorpions, and even some cows fell, ripped apart, skewered or were trampled under the second line of beasts.

As Jut fired his wand over and over again, slivers of his Mana bar disappearing as he struck Monster after Monster, he noticed a few shapes he hadn't seen before. One beast that fell to Isabelle's Mana Bolt was a Lamia, or a half snake half person like creature. Some of the dogs were more like wolves and there were giant snakes slithering through the throng of beast. He even saw a handful of massive spiders with metal plated legs too.

When the Monsters actually made it to the line of Adventures, Jut fired into the crowd. The line braced the charge and held, pushing the attackers back. It was at this point that he determined a majority of the Monsters were Normal rank, not Stone. Even his wand blasts were tearing through them.

When Jut's Mana hit seventy-five percent, he started being more selective, aiming for the Stone Rankers who opposed his Guardians. He also made sure to aim for flyers whenever he could. It was when he hit fifty percent that Jut slide his wand away. He hesitated for only a moment before he pulled out his spear.

The new weapon he had just finished the day before was on the cusp of Stone Rank. It's long shaft and diamond shaped tip were made of Stone Metal and were his finest creations to date. As much as he wanted to focus on his sword fighting, this wasn't the time for it. He needed the reach.

With a flip of his thoughts, his spear glowed blue and had a green energy flowing to the tip. Once his Skills were fully active, Jut stepped in and aimed for Brick's shield shoulder. The tip sank heavily into the Dog Monster that was there, trying to use Brick as leverage to jump the line. Fur parted and blood sprayed over Jut and Brick as he pierced the monster's side. He pulled back quickly and jabbed forward into another opening, scoring a blow on a Minotaur's club shoulder.

Jut felt energy pass from him and into the beasts then returned to him as he recovered some Mana and gained a stack of Haste. It seemed his practice with his Skills had paid some dividends.

With Jut's increased movement speed, he moved from opening to opening, the green energy around the blood drenched tip fading for a few moments before reactivating, keeping him at around six stacks of the buff. His consistent use of the Windy Steps Skill was why he had upgraded it in the first place. It's new effect was paying off as his Stamina Bar remained nearly full, allowing him to keep moving.

Skill: Windy Steps Rank: Stone Level: 0 Type: Buff Cost: Extremely Low Mana per second Cast Time: Instant Cool Down: None Duration: Channeled Range: Self Normal Rank Effect: Special Attacks caused by you grant you a stack of the [Haste] status effect for 10 seconds while this Skill is active. Stone Rank Effect: While under the effect of Haste, restores an Extremely Low amount of Stamina per second per stack.

[Haste] Effect: Increase movement and attack speed by a very small amount. This effect is stack-able.

A loud bark echoed around the field and Jut turned. A large group of Cat Monsters had leaped over the line, scattering a few of the ranged Adventurer's. Gunther has used his skill, his bark carrying a hint of the same feeling Brick's shout gave off. All of the Monsters inside the line turned towards his pet.

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Jut was going to intervene, but the others around him fired at the beasts while Gunther fought one. Nox took another while Lily was on the back of the one Gunther fought. So, once it appeared the situation was handled, Jut turned back to the fight. He instantly found a spot where he could help and begin jabbing once more.

Despite the line holding, the Guardian's were taking damage. Some slower than others. Yet, even a small amount of consistent damage added up. Sooner than they would have liked, a few of the Guardians had to swap out or risk letting the line crumple. This began to make the group of defenders lose a bit of ground as they had to adjust.

Even that wasn't that bad. The real problems started when a pocket opened in the fighting, right next to where the Crusaders were. Three large scorpions that had to be Stone Rank, lined up. Just like their Normal Rank variants, they each had either a stinger tail with hammer arms or a spiked club tail with pincers. However, not only were their weapons deadlier looking, they also came with an upgraded feature.

The three insects fired their various tail tips forward at high velocity. The two stingers sank into a man with two swords and leather armor and went right through his chest. He flew backwards. His partner, a Guardian wearing chain mail armor, was struck by the spiked club tail. A loud cracking was heard and he had to fall back. This caused a rip in the front line. It was an opportunity the Monsters had been waiting for.

Just when it looked like their line would break, and a large amount of Monsters would spill into the gap, reinforcements arrived with Fredrick at the helm. He and multiple heavily armored soldiers arrived to push the beasts back and regain the ground they had lost. Once replacement Guardians were able to get back into the position, Fredrick and soldiers fell back again.

Jut saluted them briefly, getting a return salute and a nod from Fredrick.

Time passed and the fighting became more severe, with all the weaker Monsters having already died, leaving only Stone Rankers behind. It made Jut worry about the Southern gate. He almost pulled back to speak to Fredrick about it, but never found the opportunity. There was just too many and they kept coming. This cascades until a strategic retreat was called.

Falling back, the Adventurers made a reverse formation from before. Whereas they started as a balloon that spread out from the walls opening, they became a bottle-necked trap, letting the monsters funnel through the gate. It became a slaughtering ground with Monsters being torn to ribbons.

All the while, some fighters who were fresh from being behind the wall in the beginning, lined the top of the wall and fired their skills into the crowd. Spaced amongst the ranged fighters were close ranged ones who dealt with incoming climbers by knocking them off and back into the wave.

This change in tactic allowed the previous front line some reprieve and allowed the rested adventurers to take their turn in killing beasts, giving the defenders a boost and restoring their confidence.

During one of his short rests, Jut overheard one Adventurer crying over the death of friend. The friend had taken a stinger to the face. His comrade nudged his shoulder.

"It's okay. Once the run is over, he'll be as good as new."

The sobbing one looked up with a frustrated frown. "No, he won't Jerry. This isn't the dungeon. Darren is dead. Forever."

"Th- that can't be right. The last time..."

Jut had to turn away from the shocked reaction this Jerry made. The large man crumpled in on himself. All Jut could do was be thankful at least some people listened to the warning.

What could have been hours, or minutes, stretched until the numbers of attackers finally dwindled then stopped. The rush of Monsters ceased and the crowd was left panting and breathing heavily. A soldier in camo pulled up horn and played a long few notes. It was a sign the Eastern entrance was clear.

The Adventurers were tense the long few moments until they heard one and then a second return set of horn sounds, signaling the other gates were both clear as well.

Jut looked over to Brick. The soldier was sitting with his back to the wall. Isabelle was crouched over him, healing him. Despite wearing partial plate mail, the man's gear was dented and shredded. He had a few deep gashes that were closing slowly.

Diggy and Joy were standing nearby, taking with one another. Diggy was staring upward, hardcore. Their gear was no better off than Bricks. Joy's gear was so bad, Jut watched as the destroyed leather faded into a T-shirt in a puff of magic and her exposed breast was hidden once more. She punched Diggy in the arm gently and laughed as he turned pink as he looked down once more.

"There? Better? I thought all men were into boobs." Joy said loudly as Jut stepped closer.

Diggy rubbed the back of his neck as he too changed out of his heavily damaged chain mail. "We are. I just figured you didn't want people staring."

Joy chuckled, nudging Diggy. "Good lookin' out homie. Jut! We thought you were swallowed up." She said as she turned and greeted him.

"Nice work with that spear, bro." Diggy said, reaching in to begin their ritualistic handshake. "I saw that cow Monster's eye pop."

"Was that before or after the Dig man split that giant spider in half?" Brick said, standing up.

"Dude, I saw that too. Don't ever take a Minotaur club like that again, I thought your arm had broken." Jut jabbed as he gave Brick a high-five.

"That's what this awesome woman is for." Joy said, slapping Isabelle on the back gently. "Did you see her spear that Minotaur on her staff? It was sick!"

Isabelle turned a bight pink. "I don't know. It wasn't as cool as when you shoulder checked that snake woman thing off that guy before punching straight through that scorpion's body. Aren't their carapace like super tough?"

The Crusaders bantered for a few more minutes before Jut felt it was time for him to be the party pooper. "Okay, guys and gals. Let's see if there are any corpses to loot, gather up chips and see to the wounded."

Brick teased him with a put out look before grinning and following Diggy to a dead Minotaur pile. To Jut's surprise, Joy followed and began dragging a dead dog Monster.

Jut and Isabelle each crouched and etched a circle into the dirt.

"Is it always like this?" Isabelle asked, catching Jut off guard. He looked at her curiously and she elaborated. "The fighting and killing of Monsters? It feels like they just fed themselves to us, not caring if they died or not. It reminds me of the dungeon."

Jut looked at her, searching her face as they harvested their first corpses. It took him a long minutes to find the right words.

"Like this? Setting themselves up like animals to the slaughter yard? No. This felt different than before, and I don't expect it will be this easy going forward."

"Easy? People died, Jut. Lots of people. Maybe not as many as during the first wave. But it was many. Too many." Isabelle said, almost angrily.

Jut could tell she was having a hard time looting Monsters instead of seeing to the wounded, but she was out of Mana and had to wait.

"Yes. Isabelle. Easy. As you pointed out, they fed themselves into our waiting blades. Hunting in the city wasn't like that. We had to make sure we weren't walking into traps and had to scan every nook and cranny. It was much more dangerous. I suppose so many people having Skills helped, but this was almost a gimmie."

Jut was about to say more, when a familiar voice cut through their conversation.

"The casualties were surprising light, too." Fredrick said, standing at attention before Jut while looking at Isabelle.

They both rose to talk to him.

"Fredrick. Excellent job out there." Jut said, smiling and offering a hand to Fredrick. The man shook it but stayed at attention, so Jut asked "What's up?"

"Leader Jut. I've just received word from the other battle lines and I am here to report."

Jut blinked. "What? Why report to me? I'm glad to hear what happened at the other gates, but shouldn't you be taking that to someone with the Safe Zone?"

"With all due respect, Sir, the Safe Zone didn't lead this operation."

Jut shook his head. "Maybe not, but it was a group effort. We Adventurers just kind of got together and did our thing."

Fredrick fought back a smirk and continued. "Can I give you my report now, Sir?"

"Sure." Jut deadpanned. Apparently, Fredrick wasn't going to give up the act. All he could do now was go along with it. He had Monsters to loot.