The Pain of a Battlefield

Alec's smile tightened a little.

Not just the meteor shower, the monster horde was going to increase in difficulty as well.

Well, he supposed he'd been too hopeful, wishing for an easier time. Of course that wasn't possible for them. Of course.

What did he expect?

Originally, there would only have been two Main Characters here, Dietrich and Tatiana, but now, he'd added in Dominique as well, so he'd been needlessly dreaming!

Right now, it was still mainly rank two monsters, which were they were able to handle alone and even kill alone, but as time continued to pass, there would be more and more monsters that would be rank three and some even rank four.

While they would be able to handle rank three monsters if they worked together, it would be hard if they had to fend off fourth ranked monsters as well.

But… they had the fifth ranked King Vampiric Willow, Vi, who had come under Alec's care.

Could he just say… wasn't this a cheat? Would either Dietrich or Tatiana have originally made Vi their familiar instead of Alec?

Thinking up to this point, Alec felt bad. He felt like he was stealing away some of the natural benefits that the Main Characters under his care should originally have experienced.

Alec checked out the three Main Characters that were here with him, checking out their [Plot Route], and was more relieved when he saw that there was nothing that was written about Vi there.

However, this also meant that Alec had successfully changed the course of the [Plot Route]!

Now, Alec felt more relieved that he had rushed here for Dietrich and Tatiana. While they might not have died, he was sure that they would have at least been severely injured and on the verge of death.

From what he could tell, Tatiana, Dietrich and Dominique were all in good health, along with his Spectres.

Vi's leaves rustled gently, as if telling its master that it would be fine with it here.

It hadn't cared about the survival of the humans before this, but since its master wished it, Vi would protect them.

Now that Vi formed a bond with Alec, the original network between the Vampiric Willows had been re-established with just the slightest bit of difference.

Where before the trees had been an extension of Vi's consciousness, the trees that were in the network now had consciousness of their own, coming as both a surprise and a delight to the King Vampiric Willow.

Right now, a little over twelve hours of continuous fighting had passed, and the mercenaries that had been holding the fort down were starting to visibly lag.

Even switching between groups could no longer completely relieve them of their fatigue.

Each time they raised their arms, their muscles burned in protest, yet they continued without a word. There was no place for them to vent their complaints right now. If they had time to vent, then they had time for another slash.

Just opening their mouths took energy, let alone talking!

However, the most disgusting thing was that the monster horde was still as endless as before.

The monsters continued to trickle in without rest, at times trampling over other monsters, and others dragging away corpses to feast on.

The monsters showed no signs of higher intelligence at all, which was a blessing to the humans.

Each time a monster died, a new one took its place.

This was the true horror of a monster horde.

Let alone a small mercenary troop like theirs, even well-equipped cities and towns had been destroyed under the continuous assault of monsters.

A monster horde was a terrifying thing.

Humans had learnt from their past history and developed stringent checking methods to ensure that a monster horde did not appear within or around their territory.

When they did, the nearby cities would immediately send aid to rid themselves of the threat of a monster horde.

The fact that the mercenaries had lasted so long under these circumstances was already a feat that could not be said of many.

After all, they were attacking point blank and not behind safe walls.

Tatiana had trained her troops well.

Similarly, the Spectres were flagging a little, yet each time they killed a monster, their excitement caused them to flare up as if they couldn't feel the fatigue that went bone deep.

By now, Dominique and gang were fighting on top the large avian creature which dropped down and bombarded a large area of monsters before flying up and repeating the strategy around whenever they saw that a few mercenaries were lagging behind.

Instead of feeling weary and tired, most of the Spectres had a large grin on their faces as they killed and killed.

It was an eerie sight that the mercenaries saw when the Spectres killed without resting or taking turns. Each black-dressed individual shared the same characteristics of enjoying the battle even when they should be bone-dead tired.

By now, there was no one who hadn't caught on to the fact that they were Sins, the most detested Societype on Incantix, yet there wasn't a single mercenary here who thought about them as lesser or formed any discriminatory thoughts against them.

The Spectres had killed more than all of them combined, and that was enough to secure the mercenaries' respect and salutations.

Whatever that had previously existed as prejudice before had been broken down in these short twelve hours where they killed and fought alongside the Sins.

Many of the mercenaries thought that they would definitely have a drink with the Sins when they managed to get out of this hellhole.

However, before they took care of the second rank monsters that were as abundant as the stars in the night sky, they realized that there were a few third rank monsters that were trickling in, causing their backs to chill as the sight of them.

The second rank monsters weren't the ending. They were merely the prologue. The true battle started now.

This realization almost drove them to despair, which was broken by the sound of Tatiana's voice above the sounds of the monster's cries.

"Do not falter! Hit! Hit with all your might! Don't break formation! Maintain the formation like your life depends on it! Drinks on me after we go back! We are not dying here today! Even if the monsters kill me, I'll kill the monster that does before I go!"

Her words cleared up the despair that they'd been faced with, causing them to grit their teeth as they slashed out harder.

Fight!

The stench of blood and gore filled their nostrils.

They stripped cloth and tied their blades to their hands in case they slipped from their sweaty grip.

Each human that was still standing looked like they were on the verge of collapse, yet their eyes burned with unfaltering determination.

Tatiana killed without pause. Each movement that she made was now optimised for the least energy usage and most efficient killing.

She was tired. She was so tired, but she couldn't stop. Not when her comrades were all fighting with her!

Endless amounts of repetition and the quick change of foes caused her potential to bloom within battle as things that she hadn't understood before bloomed within her.

Everything that she'd learnt had been for this moment, where she was protecting her comrades and those around her.

Similarly, Dietrich had been honing his blade as he fought back to back with Tatiana, both of them trusting each other to watch their backs.

Dietrich had never been in a battle that had lasted as long as this before. He had always ended his battles quickly, whether it be him triumphing over his enemies through sheer power or ending it before anything could truly stick.

He was tired, yet he felt like his worldviews had expanded compared to before, allowing him to see the entire battlefield in its entirety.

They were already almost out of any magic, causing the two Main Characters to rely on their bladework in order to optimise their killing speed.

They were dead tired, but they continued to force themselves to fight even when they saw sweat dripping into their eyes.

Yet, not only did their lack of magic cause their skills using the blade to grow, so did their instincts. Not only did their instincts and reflexes not dull, they were sharper than ever.

They fought back to back; an unspoken trust had started to bloom between the two. There was no other reason than the fact that they trusted the other to watch their backs for them.

Tatiana was worried about her baby brother, yet Alec's familiars did not seem to be, so she put aside her worry.

Bunbun and Fenrir were taking turns to kill various monsters that approached them.

They exchanged positions whenever the other grew tired, allowing the other to rest atop their back.

Bunbun's white fur was no longer in its pristine condition, instead sporting blood, dirt and gore, dyeing the white fur bloody colours. There were parts of his fur that were singed, and others that were missing patches.

Similarly, Fenrir, who had forced himself to continue using magic before recharging and using his claws, was dirty and filthy, yet his eyes continued to shine as he remembered about the days that he had fought in the forest against other wolf tribes.

Twelve hours trickled into thirteen, then fourteen…

By now, the rank two monsters were all but gone, replaced with rank three. This caused the already slow-paced killing to stagger even more.

Just as they were almost unable to hold on, there was a change.