"The only reason the wilds have an endless supply of monsters to throw at us," she explained, "is because of the same dungeons we venture into to grow stronger."
Tom listened patiently, even as his eyes remained on the wall, tracking movement.
"If a dungeon is left unchallenged, its monsters not culled periodically, it reaches a saturation point and expels everything it holds into the world at once. We call it a dungeon break."
"Is that what you think happened?" Tom asked, frowning. "How many monsters does it expel at once?" He hoped the answer wasn't a lot.
Amelia shook her head. "No one knows for sure. It depends on the mana density around the dungeon. But the stronger the monsters are, the fewer it release."
"That would explain the presence of so many humanoid monsters this deep into the kingdom's territory," Tom nodded grimly as more kobolds poured from the forest.
"So far, we're holding," he continued, "but if they keep coming like this, we'll run out of things to throw at them to stop them." He didn't say it out loud, but Amelia heard the unspoken fear in his voice…he dreaded the moment they'd be forced to throw people instead.
"What are you implying?" Amelia enquired, turning her full attention to him.
"We must at least try to send our kids to safety if things don't get better. I want you to accompany them," Tom said, making it clear he didn't have much hope of turning the tide.
"Escape is not an option. Kobolds won't let anyone get far," she replied. "Do not fear. My eyes are my goddess's eyes. She sees what I see, if she wishes to. Help is likely already on the way from the nearby city."
Tom could tell she was more hopeful than certain, but he didn't have a better plan. "Then we hold on until that help reaches us," he said, choosing not to call her out.
He sighed. Eighteen warriors were likely dead or missing, including Joseph. The village had half the fighters it did that evening. Sure, most adult villagers were now fighting, and they still had the relative safety of the wall…but they weren't warriors. They were farmers, blacksmiths, and woodworkers. Most barely had a single combat-related skill.
Once the wall collapsed, it would be a massacre.
…
"Archers, fire at my command!" Tom shouted, his voice booming across the battlefield.
Victor's eyes narrowed as he looked out from his position on the wall, watching ranged attackers prepare another volley of arrows.
"Form up!" Tom commanded again, his voice unyielding.
The warrior classes acted first, Victor among them, firing mana-charged arrows into the fray. He watched as another volley followed behind, not as effective as their arrows, but still doing some damage to the tide of monsters hell-bent on killing them at any cost.
Tina, Amelia's tamed beast, stood on the wall a bit behind the humans. While the priestess focused on healing, her familiar also assisted by hurling fireballs at the kobolds to stop them from breaching the wall.
The fire cat had killed more of the dog-faced, two-legged beasts with her occasional blasts of fire magic than any single human so far.
"Another one!" Tom shouted again. Victor chose to ignore him this time, as he needed to recover enough mana first.
"Try to aim further! Kill as many as you can. We have to thin the herd before they join their brethren near the walls," Tom added. Victor couldn't fault the command.
While aiming further reduced their chances of killing, it at least minimised the risk of hitting their own. After all, most of them were amateurs without combat classes, let alone any marksmanship-related skills.
They were lucky the tribe only had regular kobolds to throw at them. Even a non-combat class human had enough physical stats to face one of them equally.
Maybe we can do this, Victor told himself. We're outnumbered ten to one, but maybe we can at least hold until help arrives.
Tina fired another fireball. It shot through the air, glowing deep red from the compressed fire it held, landed in the middle of the horde, and decompressed, blasting a dozen kobolds into the air.
Even with that, more than eight hundred kobolds remained, and more were joining, surging toward the wall for the close-ranged fighters to struggle against.
"Do not falter!" the priestess shouted, her voice firm and commanding as she raised her healing staff. "We are adults, sworn to shield our young and our land from the foes that threaten to destroy us!" She pointed toward the kobolds beyond the walls.
"There they are! Just waiting for us to falter…waiting for the chance to enter our village! We are the only line of defence for our children." Her gaze swept across the assembled men and women.
"Will we let them feast on our children as they desire?" she bellowed.
"NO!" Victor couldn't help but join the chorus of a hundred voices as they roared back in unison.
"WILL WE FIGHT?" Amelia cried out, her presence towering over all others as a radiant silver glow surrounded her.
"YES!" they roared together, even as more kobolds tried to claw their way up the wall, their fingers digging into the wood. Victor felt his heartbeat quicken, the dread that gripped him a moment ago retreating to the back of his mind. This wasn't a battle.
This was survival. It was going to be a slaughter…whether it ended with human corpses or kobold ones.
For now, it was the kobolds who were being mowed down. The villagers were fighting back hard. There were still injuries, and now and then, someone made a fatal mistake, and got pulled over the wall and into the waiting mob of monsters.
But for a while, the line held. Both sides pushed. Both sides bled.
Amelia healed all but the most minor wounds as quickly as she could. People still died, but that was unavoidable.
And then... things began to change.