Common enemy

Having heard the words 'beast tide', Alex started to feel suspicious. Ever since he first entered the Primordial Expanse nothing good had ever come his way. 

He had always been thrown straight into situations that he would either die in or live due to some miraculous luck.

First it was the attack on the refugees by the Galephant, followed by the huge rabbit, the Sleeper, Raymond and now it had come full circle with the Galephant attacking again, bringing an entire beast tide with it this time.

The only silver lining was the fact that the Galephant was currently preoccupied with that B rank outsider, so he only had the weaker beasts to worry about.

He didn't realise why everyone was panicking so much. The unawakened people who stood closest to the thousands of charging beasts, he understood why they were scared. But for the people and adventurers at the front he didn't understand.

'The guards are right there, with their strength they can handle this beast tide.'

Other people had the same idea as Alex and were also calm when facing this predicament.

However the mood quickly shifted when the guard on the other side of the barrier said a short sentence that implied a heavy meaning.

"No-one comes in, or out, of this barrier."

One would need a single digit IQ to not understand what the guard was implying.

The barrier not only blocked the group of travellers from entering the city, but also blocked the guards from coming out and eradicating the beast tide.

Immediately, every adventurer in the crowd, no matter how weak or strong they were, entered battle mode as they realised they only had themselves to rely on.

But the odds were stacked against them.

There were more humans than beasts, but out of around 3000 people gathered at the gates, only 500 of them were adventurers, in other words there were 2500 ordinary people who were the most vulnerable and would only be a hindrance to the adventurers.

But on the beast's side, every beast had the strength of an awakened, and there were 2000 of them!

The worst thing was, while there were three humans with D rank strength, there were over a dozen such beasts of equal strength on the opposite side.

The strongest human there, a D+ rank adventurer who went by the pseudonym 'Wildblade' spoke up amongst the chaos. His wide gait and the huge broadsword on the old man's back only spoke levels of his strength and experience.

He may be old, but age mattered little to adventurers like him and it wouldn't stop him from slaughtering any beast he came across.

"All awakened listen up! We are outnumbered but we still have an advantage these beasts don't! Each of these beasts are like mindless idiots who go for the first piece of meat they lie their eyes on. But with our combined strength and intelligence we can work together in teams. Weaker adventurers can band together to take on stronger beasts and individually strong adventurers can take on whichever opponent they wish." 

Wildblade commanded authority with his tone as he was a very well known and respected adventurer in Valentis city. As soon as he started speaking and mentioned their advantage over the beasts, the chaos amidst the adventurers died down.

Among the merchants and normal people though, there was still panic and chaos all around.

The panther that first attacked had long been dealt with, and at the beast tide's current pace they would meet the large group of people in less than 15 minutes.

The lucky thing for this group was that the stretch of barren land between the wilderness and the city was quite wide, over five times that of the other city entrance where the two higher life forms were currently battling it out.

With over 10 kilometres between the two sides, Wildblade and the other adventurers had ample time to organise their plan of attack for when the beasts arrived.

In less than 10 minutes, the various adventurers were gathered into teams depending on their strength. 

The three D ranks, Wildblade included, would each work alone against the weaker D rank beasts as their strength allowed them to, while against the strongest beasts in the tide they would come together and attack as a trio.

With 50 teams in total, each one was headed by an E rank captain, with some teams having two or even three E ranks filling the ranks due to the uneven split of strength among the ragtag group of adventurers.

Alex's team was headed by an E rank, whose strength was in the middle level in terms of the total number of E ranks, with Alex himself being the strongest member of the team apart from the leader.

The other eight spots were filled with a range of F+ and F ranks, with a single F- rank 12 year old boy who seemed too timid to take part in any fights.

Others weren't as lucky as Alex as there were teams headed by E- ranks with not a single F+ rank among them.

But there wasn't much that could be done about it with the little amount of time they had before the beasts arrived.

It seemed that the original estimation of 15 minutes before the beasts arrived was wrong though as just as the time passed hit the 11 minute mark, the foremost beasts of the tide made contact with the group.

"Attack! Remember to work together, we are all fucked if we don't!" Wildblade shouted and the 50 teams of adventurers all gave out war cry's of their own to steel their own resolve before they darted towards the incoming army of beasts.

'Humans really are so united when it comes to facing a common enemy.'

Alex, running along with his team, thought about how just a few hours earlier he was learning about just how rotten the society run by awakened was.

And yet here he was, on the frontlines alongside every other unwilling awakened fighting for his life.

It was moments like this that made him think there may still be some hope for the human race.