The team was charging down the now-familiar road that led from Corvale to Shawarma village. They’d needed to leave Savilar behind given the hurry, and were all mounted on oxsteeds as they raced to intercept the herd of monsters heading toward the village. Cara and Valanor had already been waiting at the city bridge, and the team had moved off the moment Corvale reached its next stop.

  “We think we know where they came from,” Selina said, shouting to be heard over the rush of the wind.

  “Is it a rift?” Ethan asked.

  “No, these are monsters, not demons. But they all appear to be displaced from their homes to the East.”

  “East?” Ethan shouted back. “What would–” suddenly fear shot through him as he considered what was to the East of the village. “Undead?” he asked, a touch of panic in his voice.

  “No,” Valanor called back definitively. “The herd was reported by a single Hunter, and he confirmed they weren’t infected. But…”

  “But what?” Ethan asked.

  “The undead we knocked over the side of the mountain,” Selina said, looking guilty. “They weren’t alive, but they were still hundreds of rotting bodies. Part of being undead means the bodies don’t disperse into the Astral as quickly.”

  “So we basically left a massive pile of toxic waste in the monster territory?”

  “Their remains definitely would have messed with the locals,” Cara said. “They know to avoid the undead; it’s an instinct all monsters and animals share. With the number we left, it would have forced a lot of them from their homes.”

  “Which caused a chain reaction,” Selina said. “One group pushes into another’s territory, which pushes another, and so on.”

  “Until we have something of a mass migration,” Ethan finished. “What about the village, can they hold out?” He paused, breathing through the flood of memories. “Is there even anyone left?” The village had been bloody and burning when last he saw it, and he’d tried to think of it as little as possible since.

  “The village is rebuilt,” Valanor said. “Only a few structures were lost, and Viridians are no strangers to being attacked, then reclaiming their lives. That said, their defenses were never intended to hold out against monster swarms, just individuals. They’re going to need us.”

  ***

  When Ethan finally laid eyes on the village again, it was with mixed feelings. He’d intentionally avoided returning to this place after the bandit attack, and was worried about how he’d react. Strangely, Thavin had helped him here more than he expected–or Tomo had, to be more accurate. That time he’d spent trapped in his own memories had been such an overwhelming and surreal experience that it had become dominant in his mind.

  When he saw the familiar buildings and fields, his mind went back to the catharsis of restoring his lost medical knowledge, and seeing Dean again. The trauma of having killed in this place wasn’t gone, but it was muted, feeling more like a scab than a wound. It also helped that the place was somewhat transformed.

  Valanor was right that the short wall surrounding the village was no true defense, but Carl and Bella had clearly been at work. The Bonded farmer had been barely alive when Ethan had last seen him, but he had clearly recovered based on what Ethan saw stretching out ahead.

  The fields that surrounded the village were changed, and drastically so. No longer a rainbow of colored fruits and vegetables, they were now dense, thorny brush and brambles that would be extremely challenging to navigate. The thicket was acting as a natural barrier to protect the buildings, many of which had been boarded up and sealed.

  “Shouldn’t they have evacuated?” Ethan asked.

  “Some did,” Valanor assured him. “The old and infirm have moved to a series of nearby caves, used for that purpose. The rest…”

  “We don’t like leaving our homes behind,” Cara said. “Monsters individually don’t act too differently from animals, just surviving and keeping to their territory. When they swarm together though, they lose all of that, and wind up in rage. They’d destroy this whole village without hesitation.”

  “How does staying change that? Are the villagers planning to fight?”

  Valanor sighed. “No. By staying, they ensure Hunters will be sent. An abandoned village might be sacrificed, abandoned villagers won’t.”

  “The Guild is far from perfect,” Cara continued. “They look at situations like this on paper. Numbers and costs. They might see a village with a low wall, being attacked from all sides, and decide it makes more sense to fight the herd somewhere else. More favorable terrain, for instance.”

  “So the people here are forcing the Guild’s hand,” Ethan said.

  “It’s a common practice, and I don’t blame them,” Valanor said. “Though it has cost lives before. They’re lucky we’re available, otherwise it would have been whoever happened to be at the Guild.”

  The group followed the path closer to the village, then found they needed to loop around as only the Eastern gate still had a road leading to it. They trotted their mounts down the narrow path, the low wooden doors opening to admit them without challenge.

  “Who’s in charge here?” Valanor asked in his deep, booming voice. A small group of farmers in hunting leathers shared glances. Finally Carl came jogging up. The young elf looked as Ethan remembered him, though with a few new scars. He had long brown hair, and he was caked with dirt from head to toe.

  “The mayor was killed recently,” he said in a surprisingly strong voice. Ethan remembered him as almost dangerously laid back, but this almost seemed like a man of action. “I’m Carl, and I’ve been in charge of our defenses. You’re here to stop the herd?”

  “We are,” Valanor said. “You’ve done well with the bramble, but I need you to widen that road.”

  “What?” Carl said in surprise. “You want more to get through?”

  “There’s several hundred in the swarm,” Cara said. Several villagers started whispering her name, clearly recognizing their sometimes protector. “They’re going to be enraged, and if they can’t take the easy way, they’ll make a new path.”

  Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

  Valanor nodded. “We’ll hold as many as we can here, on the outside of the gates. Get the rest of your people inside for now. I assume you have an evacuation plan?”

  Carl didn’t seem happy about the question, but nodded. “I can unseal the path on the West side of the village as a last resort. I have an enchanted bell everyone will be able to hear, and we can get there quickly. But if I’m fighting with you–”

  “You won’t be,” the knight said with finality. “Widen the path, then get to safety. There’s a good chance you’ll end up in battle whether we like it or not, but it won’t be on the front lines. Now get to work, they’ll be here soon.” Carl nodded, then began hurrying the villagers into the nearby inn, which had been rebuilt entirely.

  Valanor gathered the team around him. “Same general plan as at Fort Cathis,” he said. “I’ll be out in front, holding them back. Cara and Selina, they don’t have much of a palisade here, but there’s a raised platform behind those walls.” The two ranged Hunters nodded.

  “Ethan, we can’t leave you entirely to those who get behind us, not without Savilar here to hold the front. Some will get through, and we’ll count on you to take them out, but we’ll need your damage as long as you give it.”

  “Understood,” Ethan said, then looked at the fields. “About that bramble…how flammable do you think it is?”

  “As little as possible,” Carl called as he returned. “There are more than a few monsters out there with fire powers, so I grew these vines with as much water in them as I could manage. It’ll also make them harder to snap through if the monsters charge.”

  “When they charge,” Cara corrected. Carl nodded, then moved to widen the road, the plants and vine receding at his insistent gestures.

  “That’s good though,” Ethan said. “I should be a little more valuable against groups now, but not without using Flare. I’ll need to get right in the fray this time, though.”

  Valanor didn’t look happy about that, but nodded reluctantly. “Then we all know our roles. Get in position, get prepared. The Hunt begins.”

  ***

  They didn’t have long to wait, which Ethan was grateful for. He’d noticed a few of the villagers looking at him pointedly before Carl had sent them away, and didn’t want his mind going too far down that path. Surely they recognized him from the day the bandits had come, and he wanted to be focused on the battle in front of them, not the one long behind.

  When the herd finally appeared, it really was like a stampede. The group was assembled at the East Gate, with Valanor out in front, Cara with bow drawn, and Selina standing in one of a dozen Rune Circles. Tibby was with her, the white rabbit having become a core part of the Rune Mage’s fighting style.

  Ethan was waiting as well, crouched and hidden behind the thick brambles, waiting for his moment to attack. Peaking out, he could see the oncoming rush of feral beasts charging down the now wider path, kicking up a small dust storm as they went.

  The pack was diverse, though the monsters largely tried to stay with their own kind. Several types of wolf-like beasts were in the lead, though a surprising number of the boar-like monsters kept up, their several sets of sharp tusks now aimed directly at Valanor.

  As they approached, traps began to go off. Pillars of fire from Ethan, poisonous clouds from Cara, and a few rune-based explosions from Selina as well. They weren’t as concentrated as they had been at the Fort, however, as the party didn’t actually want to stop the charge. They needed the stampede to stay on this road, and the traps were placed to thin numbers where they could along the way.

  Finally the group reached Valanor, and he activated an ability that apparently hadn’t worked when his arm was bound against his chest. His shield raised, and a wall of energy extended from it to either side, eight feet in either direction. The effect was immediate, as the wave of monsters crashed into it, but couldn’t surround him. The knight was effectively blocking the entire road, and the wave halted, those behind crushing those ahead.

  The rest of the group knew this was their cue, and they went to work. Cara fired a rain of arrows, while Selina sent weak arcs of lightning into the mass, stunning whoever it struck. Ethan was finally able to see the evolved Deevee fully unleashed, no longer favoring his Flare Affinity as he had been.

  The hydra burst from cover, its body safely behind Valanor’s shield wall, with its long necks reaching over. The five heads let out piercing roars as they opened their mouths, continuous beams of dimensional energy firing into the mass of colorful wolves and boars, annihilating the low Dawn rank monsters in waves.

  Ethan grinned at the sight. It wasn’t entirely fair for a Dusk rank Dimension Devourer to use its full power against the relatively weak monsters of the horde, but it was awesome. Ethan joined in by using the low-mana version of [Unstable Bleed] to supplement the attacks.

  He had gotten more used to the ability in the last couple of weeks, and learned that it often didn’t take much mana to make it effective. The extra cost just brought more unlikely outcomes, but likely outcomes were often more than enough, as he quickly proved again here.

  The first rift was to a possible dimension where Deevee was simply on the other side of the Valanor, and five more heads popped through to add their blasts to the true Familiar’s. The next two rifts were clearly tied to Carl’s contribution. First a new group of brambles appeared, tripping disrupting the charge, then something like a venus flytrap clamped down on a bewildered boar.

  The ability was still a gamble, however, and Ethan’s final two attempts actually brought more monsters into the horde. Thankfully they soon disappeared, but Ethan treated it as an indicator that it was time to cycle. He shifted to Flare, sending a series of daggers into the mass as Revan–his sole Dawn rank holdout–breathed first into the group from nearby.

  The team was making quick work of the lesser monsters all things considered, and soon they saw the larger ones catching up. Thankfully this didn’t include anything of Dusk rank, although there were several lutumstriders, at least one thunder drake, and something that looked a bit like a rounder hippo.

  It was perfect for Ethan, as it presented exactly the opportunity he needed. He called to Valanor to indicate what he was doing, then in the flash of a rift he was landing on the back of one of the dinosaur-like striders. As his team continued to hold the line, he began using the Dusk rank evolution of [Internal Combustion] with glee.

  The strider was perfect because its height actually kept him from being attacked by most of the other monsters nearby. This excluded the other striders, which kept trying to hit him with their massive heads. Revan did his best to leap back and forth between them to buy Ethan the time he needed, though there was still the occasional need to dodge, and even swap to other nearby monster backs.

  Through it all though, Ethan never stopped cutting with his twin short blades. Each hit brought another stack of the burning affliction, and the Dusk rank Evolution caused nearby monsters to suffer the same. The group was still a hundred paces from the wall when he finally took another rift back into the village, before turning to admire his handiwork.

  The swarm of monsters glowed. The striders each had dozens of stacks on them, and there weren’t many who hadn’t been afflicted by at least a few. Ethan grinned, knowing this meant their fire resistance was lowered, then happily chanted his new spell.

  “The progenitor of all flame, and the herald of destruction. The untamed radiance, and the death rattle of stars. Heed my call…nova.”

  He only had the mana to use the expensive skill on the heavily stacked striders, but five of them went up like small nuclear bombs. Waves of burning plasma erupted outward, tearing through the charging monsters hungrily. When the smoke and fire cleared, there were massive gaps in the stamped, and not a strider remained.

  “You’re an Assassin, right?” Cara said from beside him. “You sneak around and stab things with a knife?”

  “Don’t try to put me in a box,” Ethan replied with a grin.

  The celebration was interrupted though, when Tomo’s sober voice cut in. “Look, Ethan bishop,” he said, his spectral hand pointing to a section of wall in the distance. A group of a few dozen monsters had apparently forced their way through the brambles, as expected, and had now crashed through the small barricade to charge into the village.

  Ethan’s eyes widened as an uncomfortably large scorpion scuttled through. It glowed with an enticing light, and Ethan felt himself hunger.