James drew his B-rank sword and followed, but a goblin came at him faster than expected and he barely got his blade up in time to block. The impact sent pain shooting up his wrists and the goblin’s momentum drove him back three steps. He shoved it away and cut down on its exposed neck.

[GOBLIN DEFEATED]

[+50 XP]

Another goblin lunged from his blind spot. James tried to dodge but the blade caught his shoulder, cutting through the leather armor and into flesh. The pain was immediate and sharp, and warm blood soaked into his armor. He raised his left hand and fired Necro Blast at point-blank range, and the goblin’s chest exploded.

[GOBLIN DEFEATED]

[+50 XP]

Call of Souls activated and dark wisps flowed into him, but it wasn’t enough to offset the mana he was burning.

Timer: 04:15. Progress: 62/500.

They were barely making a dent in the numbers, and James could already feel his arms getting heavy.

Finn was still in the center of the breach, but he wasn’t dominating like before. A goblin spear caught him in the side where his armor plates overlapped, and the tip punched through the gap to scrape against his ribs. He roared and grabbed the spear shaft, yanking the goblin toward him before cleaving it in two, but the wound in his side burned with every breath. A dire wolf lunged at him and he raised his axe to block, but the wolf’s weight crashed into him and drove him to one knee. Its jaws snapped inches from his face and he could smell its rotten breath. He shoved the axe handle into its mouth and pushed with everything he had until the wolf’s jaw broke with a crack.

[DIRE WOLF DEFEATED]

[+75 XP]

He stood up gasping, his health at seventy-five percent already.

Kael’s totems were keeping people alive, but he couldn’t heal fast enough. An NPC soldier next to him took a wolf bite to the throat and died choking on his own blood despite Kael reaching for him. Three goblins rushed Kael together and he managed to blast two away with spiritual energy, but the third got through and stabbed him in the thigh. Kael screamed and brought his staff down on the goblin’s head repeatedly until it stopped moving, but he could barely stand on his wounded leg now.

[GOBLIN DEFEATED]

[+50 XP]

Aria’s dancer training was keeping her alive, but exhaustion was already creeping in. Her muscles burned from the constant movement and her lungs felt like they were on fire. She thrust at a goblin and miscalculated the distance, her spear tip grazing its shoulder instead of piercing its heart. It slashed her across the ribs before she could recover, and she felt ribs crack from the impact even through her armor. She finished it with a desperate upward thrust, then stumbled and nearly fell.

[GOBLIN DEFEATED]

[+50 XP]

Elliot was firing as fast as he could, but his arms were already shaking from drawing the bow repeatedly. A goblin climbed up the wall toward him and he fired an arrow at it in panic, but his aim was off and the arrow hit its shoulder instead of its head. The goblin kept climbing. Elliot dropped his bow and drew the knife at his belt with clumsy hands, and when the goblin reached the top he slashed wildly. The knife caught it across the face and it fell backward off the wall.

James was fighting alongside his four undead, but keeping them active while also casting Necro Blast was draining his mana faster than Call of Souls could restore it. One of his skeletons got torn apart by three goblins working together, and when he tried to raise a replacement, a goblin tackled him from the side. They hit the ground hard and the impact knocked the wind out of James’s lungs. The goblin’s clawed hand raked across his face, opening cuts from his forehead to his jaw. Blood ran into his left eye and he couldn’t see. He fired Necro Blast blindly and felt the goblin go limp on top of him.

[GOBLIN DEFEATED]

[+50 XP]

He shoved the body off and stood, wiping blood from his eye, but his vision was blurry.

Timer: 08:30. Progress: 134/500.

The NPC soldier count had dropped to maybe one hundred twenty. Bodies covered the ground and made footing treacherous.

Finn’s berserker rage was building, but so were his injuries. A goblin blade got under his arm where the armor was weakest and cut deep into the muscle. His left arm went partially numb and he could barely lift his axe. He switched to one-handed swings, but they were slower and weaker. A dire wolf crashed into him from behind and its claws raked down his back, tearing through armor and flesh. Finn spun and killed it, but he could feel blood running down his spine.

[DIRE WOLF DEFEATED]

[+75 XP]

His health was at sixty percent and falling.

Kael pulled a mana potion and drank it with shaking hands, but maintaining the totems was exhausting him beyond what the potion could fix. His wounded thigh made it hard to stand, and when he tried to sidestep a goblin’s charge, his leg gave out and he fell. The goblin’s blade came down and Kael barely rolled aside before it would have taken his head. He blasted the goblin with spiritual energy from his prone position, then struggled to get back up.

[GOBLIN DEFEATED]

[+50 XP]

Aria was limping badly now. The cut on her thigh had been shallow at first, but repeated strain had torn it wider and it bled steadily down her leg. Her cracked ribs made breathing painful, and every thrust of her spear sent sharp pains through her chest. She tried to dodge a wolf’s lunge but her wounded leg betrayed her and she moved too slowly. The wolf’s paw caught her across the chest and sent her flying backward. She hit the ground hard enough to see stars.

Elliot had given up trying to aim for precision and was just firing into clusters of enemies. His fingers were bleeding from where the bowstring had cut them after hundreds of shots, and his shoulder burned from the constant strain. A venomous spider made it to the top of the wall and he fired an ice arrow at it, but his exhausted arms made the shot weak and the arrow bounced off its armored carapace. The spider lunged at him and its fangs sank into his shoulder. Fire exploded through his veins where the venom spread, and he screamed while stabbing at it frantically with his knife.

[VENOMOUS SPIDER DEFEATED]

[+60 XP]

The spider fell dead, but Elliot’s shoulder was already going numb and black veins spread from the bite.

James’s mana was at forty percent despite Call of Souls working constantly. His undead kept dying faster than he could replace them, and maintaining even three summons was draining him. A group of five goblins surrounded him and he tried to detonate a corpse to kill them all, but he miscalculated the distance and the explosion only caught two of them. The other three rushed in together. James killed one with his sword but took two blade wounds in return, one across his arm and one in his side. He fired Necro Blast at the second goblin but the third got its claws into his neck before he could react.

[GOBLIN DEFEATED]

[+50 XP]

[GOBLIN DEFEATED]

[+50 XP]

James grabbed the goblin’s wrist before it could rip his throat out, and they struggled while its claws dug deeper. He finally managed to force its hand away and cut its head off, but his neck was bleeding and he could feel the warm blood pulsing out with each heartbeat.

[GOBLIN DEFEATED]

[+50 XP]

Timer: 12:00. Progress: 219/500.

They weren’t even halfway through, and everyone was barely standing.

Finn’s health was at fifty percent. His back was shredded, his left arm was useless, and he could barely see through the blood running into his eyes from a head wound he didn’t remember taking. But he kept swinging his axe with his right arm because stopping meant dying.

Kael had used his last mana potion and his totems were flickering. The wound in his thigh had him crawling more than walking, and his robes were soaked with blood. An NPC soldier fell dead right in front of him and Kael didn’t even have the strength to feel guilty anymore.

Aria was on her hands and knees trying to stand, but her wounded leg wouldn’t support her weight and her cracked ribs made every breath agony. She’d dropped her spear somewhere and was holding a dead soldier’s sword in a shaking grip.

Elliot’s entire right arm was black from spider venom and he couldn’t feel it anymore. He was firing left-handed now with arrows that went wide more often than not, and blood from the gash across his forehead had crusted over his right eye.

James had no undead left because he didn’t have the mana to summon them. His neck wound had clotted but it had taken a health potion to stop the bleeding, and he only had one left. Cuts covered his arms and face, and his sword felt like it weighed a hundred pounds.

The remaining monsters charged forward. Two hundred eighty-one enemies left based on the System counter.

The NPC soldiers around them numbered maybe ninety now, and most of them were wounded.

The horde crashed into them like a living tsunami, and this time there was no strength left to push back.