Defenders scrambled to reinforce the targeted section, spears thrusting outward, trying to present a wall of points. Ranged attackers shifted focus, pelting the beast with everything they had. Rocks bounced off its armored hide. Arrows lodged in thick fur without penetrating vitals. A mana bolt scorched its flank, and the creature didn't even slow.

  It hit the wall like a battering ram.

  Metal screamed. Support braces buckled. The entire section shuddered. Defenders were thrown from their feet by the impact. A gap appeared where reinforced debris had been welded together, the joints failing under the concentrated force.

  The wall held, but barely.

  Jonah marked the location mentally. The support brace was compromised. Another hit like that, maybe two, and the section would collapse entirely. He needed that beast dead before it could complete the job.

  "Justin! Miranda! Concentrated fire on the war beast! We can't let it break the walls down!"

  The lightning user was already moving, electricity arcing between his hands with barely contained violence. Miranda joined him on a platform overlooking the damaged section, fire building around her palms.

  "On three! One! Two!"

  Lightning and fire converged.

  Three?

  The combined blast struck the war beast's flank as it backed up for another charge. Justin's lightning found gaps in the armor, coursing through flesh and muscle. Miranda's fire followed the electrical paths, igniting the creature from within.

  The war beast screamed, a bellow of agony that echoed across the entire battlefield, making the goblin shrieks seem pleasant by comparison. It thrashed, killing goblins that had tried to take advantage of the opening it created, flames erupting from its mouth and eyes, then collapsed against the wall it had been trying to destroy.

  More damage to the already-weakened section.

  "Reinforce section seven! I need every spare hand shoring up that wall!"

  Defenders scrambled to comply, dragging debris and corpses to pack against the failing supports. It wasn't pretty, but it might hold long enough.

  Movement at the edge of Jonah's vision caught his attention.

  Derek's people, a cluster of maybe fifteen fighters, shifted position from the western perimeter toward his command platform.

  "Coming to support the center," Derek called, his voice carrying false camaraderie. "Figured you could use the backup."

  Jonah didn't look away from the battle. "Appreciated. Take positions along the secondary line."

  Sarah materialized at his elbow, voice pitched low enough that only he could hear. "They're spreading out around your platform. Four of them have clear angles on your back."

  "I noticed."

  "Want me to—"

  "Not yet. Stay close. Watch for coordinated movement." Jonah shifted his position subtly, angling so that the command platform's support beam blocked the clearest line of attack. "If they try something during the fighting, the chaos covers them. If they wait until after, witnesses become a problem."

  "You think they'll wait?"

  "Derek's not stupid. He'll want deniability. Keep watching. Let me know if they commit." Jonah tracked a shaman circle forming to the east, called out targeting coordinates for the suppression teams.

  The battle ground on.

  Goblin waves crashed against the walls in endless succession. The corpse ramps grew higher with each assault, making it progressively easier for attackers to reach the defenders. The first actual melee engagements began as goblins crested the barriers and met waiting spears.

  "Eastern ladder point under pressure!" The call came from a spotter near the playground structure. "They're climbing the bodies faster than we can knock them down!"

  Jonah found the section in question. A junction where two wall segments met at an awkward angle, creating a natural climbing route up the accumulated dead. Goblins were swarming the point, using crude ladders braced against corpse piles to accelerate their ascent.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Liam and Alexa held the position.

  The two youngest fighters on his roster, defending what had become the most critical chokepoint on the eastern line. Jonah watched them work, and something in his chest tightened.

  Liam moved like water.

  His Blade Sense at Master rank let him perceive attacks before they launched, intercept strikes that should have been impossible to block. Goblins reached the top of the corpse ramp and died on his daggers, their killing blows redirected and their openings exploited with surgical precision.

  But Liam wasn't killing fast enough. The volume of attackers exceeded what any single fighter could handle, no matter how skilled.

  That was where Alexa came in.

  The teenager's spear was a blur of motion, thrust after thrust that turned the ladder point into a slaughter ramp. Goblins that Liam didn't intercept ran directly into that spear, impaled before they could bring weapons to bear. The aggression that had almost gotten Alexa killed during the second wave now served a purpose, channeled into a killing efficiency that matched the threat.

  They covered each other's weaknesses.

  When Alexa overextended, Liam caught the angles her aggression exposed. When Liam's caution created hesitation, Alexa's hunger for blood filled the gap. Their movements synchronized without apparent communication, two fighters becoming something greater than the sum of their parts.

  They're developing combat synergy at Level 5, during their first major engagement. Talented bastards. I needed to come back from my life just to keep up with them.

  Jonah couldn't help but feel proud of their growth.

  The stronger they were, the better chance humanity had to survive.

  Yet, even they weren't enough. A goblin slipped past them.

  Small, fast, it exploited a momentary gap in their coverage and raised a crude knife, aiming for Alexa's exposed back.

  Liam's thrown dagger caught it in the eye.

  The kid was already drawing his backup blade before the body fell, returning to position without missing a beat.

  "Nice throw!" Alexa called.

  "Watch your left!"

  More goblins crested the ramp. The dance continued.

  Jonah forced himself to look away; he couldn't watch them forever. The battle demanded his attention across the entire line, and now he had Derek setting up behind him.

  "Suppression teams, rotate! Fresh mages to the platforms!"

  The magical duel intensified. Shaman circles were forming faster now, the goblin casters adapting to the suppression tactics by spreading their formations wider, making targeting individual members more difficult. Some circles used fodder goblins as living shields, forcing human mages to burn through expendable bodies before reaching the actual threats.

  But the concentrated fire approach was working. Every exchange cost the shamans more than it cost humanity. Dead casters couldn't cast, and dead circles couldn't form. The magical pressure on the defenders was heavy, but sustainable.

  Bodies accumulated on both sides.

  Human defenders fell to shaman attacks, to goblins that breached the walls, and to the grinding exhaustion of continuous combat. Medical runners dragged the wounded toward Rebecca's station while fresh fighters stepped up to fill the gaps.

  Goblin corpses piled higher. The walls were disappearing beneath mounds of dead, the fortifications becoming buried in their own success. Soon the height advantage would vanish entirely, the walls transformed into hills of flesh that both sides would fight across.

  The drums changed.

  Jonah's head snapped toward the goblin rear. The rhythm had shifted, the tempo accelerating into something sharper and more urgent—a commander's cadence, the signal for a new phase.

  Too soon. We haven't bled them enough. The Warboss is getting impatient.

  The fodder waves stopped advancing. Goblins that had been pressing toward the walls suddenly halted, pulling back despite the whips of their hobgoblin drivers. The battlefield fell into an eerie, momentary pause, both sides catching breath neither had realized they'd lost.

  Jonah counted heartbeats.

  One. Two. Three. Four. Five.

  A horn sounded from directly next to the Warboss.

  It rolled across the battlefield like thunder, shaking the corrupted ground beneath their feet. Augmented by mana and the system, it was designed to be as terrifying as possible.

  Jonah could feel it vibrating in his chest.

  The war beasts began to move.

  All of them.

  Almost a dozen of the massive creatures lurched forward in a coordinated advance, hobgoblin handlers struggling to maintain control as the beasts fought against the chains to get at their new enemy. They spread across the army's front, forming a line of armored nightmares that would hit the walls simultaneously.

  Roaring and snarling with maws filled with foam.

  Behind the beasts, hobgoblin regiments finally stirred. Elite units in actual armor, carrying actual weapons, moving with the discipline of trained soldiers instead of fodder rabble. They fell into formation behind the war beasts, ready to exploit whatever breaches the creatures created.

  The Warboss raised its massive club.

  Even from this distance, Jonah could see the creature's smile, satisfaction at the trap finally springing, confidence that the real battle was about to begin.

  His defenders had survived the first surge. The walls stood, battered and buried under corpses but fundamentally intact. Casualties had been heavy but sustainable.

  None of that would matter if the war beasts broke through.

  "Everyone hold position! This is where they expect us to break! They think humanity will run! Prove them wrong and send them back into the shadows they were born within!" Jonah shouted.

  The war beasts charged.

  The ground shook with their combined approach, rolling thunder that built with every stride. Defenders watched the wall of armored flesh bearing down on them, and Jonah saw the fear return to faces that had hardened through hours of combat.

  He drew his sword.

  Mana Blade ignited, its blue energy coating steel in a corona of killing light.

  "They want to break us," he called. "They want us running, screaming, afraid, and dying alone in the dark. Instead, we give them blood and fire. Carve it into their bones! Humanity does not kneel!"

  The war beasts hit the walls.

  And phase two truly began.

  BenGruesome | jonathan swinson | Tanner Andrew | Barry Zimmerman | KDR | Libertatemprimum | Inter Choi | Dec | Anthony | vdv9 | david weng ~~