“Your feet are too close together,” Leon noted, bringing down his wooden greatsword in an overhead swing that unbalanced his student and sent her tumbling onto the ground.

  “That’s cause you’ve got me pinned against the fence,” Lili growled while she picked herself off the ground.

  “How else will you learn to be conscientious of your surroundings?” he replied offhandedly, ignoring Lili in favor of looking out across the field to see the rest of his students sparring.

  Samara and Demetrius were busy trying to overwhelm each other with their greatswords, still assuming having a big blade meant that you could tear through everything. Jeoffery was fending off Benji with his spear, but still lacked confidence in direct attacks, which meant that the swordsmen was slowly getting closer, agonizingly slow if the man’s annoyed expression was anything to go off. Finally, Bob had pulled the short straw and seemed to be preparing for yet another match against Syra. Judging from the bruises and resigned expression, the fights were not going well.

  “Go help Bob, see if you two can hit Syra,” he told Lili.

  She groaned but did jog over, leaving him free to approach the duo stuck in a strength contest.

  Neither seemed to notice him, too busy glaring at each other and trying to burst every vein in their necks. Coughing, he managed to draw their attention, which incidentally caused Demetrius to falter and to be overwhelmed. Samara cheered as she placed the tip of her sword against the sprawled man’s chest.

  “No fair, Leon distracted me,” he decried.

  Samara stuck out her tongue while Leon could only roll his eyes.

  “I thought I have told you both numerous times, never let yourself get trapped,” he reprimanded.

  Demetrius picked himself off the ground with an abashed expression. Samara meanwhile maintained her cheerful mood despite the scolding.

  “Sorry, teach. Can’t help but wanna test myself when the chance presents itself,” she defended.

  “I understand the desire, but reserve that for outside of our spars. This is meant to simulate real combat; it will build bad habits,” he argued. His students nodded and he made to go resolve Benji and Jeoffery, sparing a glance to see Syra dismantling Lili and Bob.

  Before he could reach his next two pupils, however, three low bells sounded from the guildhall. The entire training field came to a standstill, every single one of them—from the newest initiates to the most grizzled veterans—knew what that meant. A mandatory mission was being called.

  Everyone rushed to the guildhall and anxiously waited as adventurers across the city made their way over. Rumors and speculation abounded, but he was sure he knew why the mission was being called: it was time to deal with the horde.

  Syra slid up to stand next to him as more and more adventurers came into the Guild. He had never seen the hall so full; every seat was taken, and people stood in whatever empty gaps they could find. When he spotted Rayne finally arriving, the man could not even make his way over to the two of them through the crowd.

  Eventually, someone shouted for everyone to quiet down. Standing atop the bar was Femari, the leader of one of only two silver-tier groups in Torid and by far the most respected.

  “Everyone, shut your mouths and listen up!” she commanded.

  It did not take long until everyone had either followed her command or shushed anyone else still talking.

  “Good. As I’m sure you are all aware, there is a large group of monsters running around outside the city.” She waited for their grunts of affirmation before continuing. “We’re being tasked with clearing them out. You’ll be led by my team, the Bannermen, along with the Executioners. We leave in an hour by the north gate. You don’t need me to remind you all that shirking a mandatory mission is a capital offense.”

  With those ominous final words, she jumped off the bar and grouped up with the rest of the silver-tiers, likely to plan out their strategy.

  It was a shame he was not among them. His stats were just on the cusp of qualifying for silver tier, his strength stat alone was already a high silver rank. Alas, for now, all he could use such a stat for was enduring the wave of adventurers leaving the Guild. Making his way outside, Syra and he grouped up with Rayne, the three of them heading to the north gate in mostly silence.

  ~

  From the north gate, they had headed into the Torid woods. The Bannermen informed them all that smoke had been spotted coming from around Sunsrest, a small logging village a few miles outside the walls.

  It was already too late for the village if they were chasing smoke columns, he knew. But the reality did not seem to set in for many of the adventurers until they arrived.

  Bodies lay everywhere: men, women, children, neither the pets nor the livestock were spared. By now, the fires had petered out and left most of the buildings nothing more than blackened wood and ash, barely identifiable.

  Leon had done missions for Sunsrest, minor things such as hunting some banivs that were attacking cattle. He did not know any of the people very well, and did not stay for drinks at the inn. Still, he could clearly see the village's former state if he closed his eyes, and indeed he could recognize a few of the bodies littering the ground. It was sickening.

  Next to him, he heard Rayne hurl, a sentiment shared by many of the bronze-tier adventurers. Not that it did anything to mask the smell of burnt flesh. From the corner of his eye, he saw Syra tighten the grip upon her shortswords as she stared at the massacre, lost in its tragedy.

  Metal clanged against metal and brought all their attention back to the real world. One of Fermari’s companions—Yonz, Leon thought his name was—banged his mace against his shield a few more times until everyone was staring at Fermari.

  “Do not allow yourselves to be lost to your grief and anger. I understand some of you had loved ones in Sunsrest, but there is not a thing we can do for them anymore. We need to focus and track down the monsters before they reach their next target; this is not the only village in these woods,” Fermari shouted.

  Stolen story; please report.

  The army bristled under her words, regaining a semblance of discipline as they thought of preventing another slaughter. She grimaced before she continued.

  “It seems like they have split into two groups, one towards Haldon’s Rest and another towards Wildsbruck. As such, we will also be splitting up. The Bannermen will lead half of you, while the Executioners will take the others. Choose a side and get moving, time is of the essence here.”

  With her speech finished, she returned to discussion with who he assumed was the leader of the Executioners. The rest of the silver-tier party members made their way to their respective paths on the crossroads on the other side of Sunsrest.

  Syra and he followed Rayne as he made his way towards the side commanded by the Bannermen, only to be stopped by Fermari as she saw them pass.

  “Rayne, take your squad and follow Chereen. Her team is weaker than mine, and you guys are the best bronze ranks. Keep things in order,” she commanded.

  “We don’t need babysitters, Whitebanner,” Chereen argued from the side.

  Fermari cut her off with a stop motion of her hand. “I don’t want to hear it. Fact is you guys are weaker, his team will help supplement you. They’ll be silver soon enough—listen to them as if they are,” she ordered.

  Chereen stopped complaining, but did not look pleased with the command. Rayne did not either, and he simply nodded and brought them over to the path with the Executioners’ team.

  It was not long, considering the size of their company, until roughly one hundred bronze-ranked adventurers had grouped up at each road. Leon and his party stood near the head with the Executioners’ party as Chereen gave the order to move out.

  The next village, Wildsbruck, was a few miles out from Sunsrest. Given the recent nature of the attack, it seemed likely they would be able to catch up with the monsters so long as they were not rushing towards Wildsbruck.

  So it was that only an hour after they had left did they stumble across the first of the rear guard of the monsters’ horde—a small group of five goblins with a hobgoblin leading them. The Executioners swiftly dealt with them, so fast that not a single bronze adventurer could even assist.

  “C’mon, if this is the rearguard, then we’re closing in. No stopping for anything, let us deal with the smaller groups,” Chereen yelled as the adventurers resumed their march.

  As he walked by the slain monsters, the gleam of their weapons caught his eye. They were steel. Halting his march, he crouched down to examine the weapons. Monsters rarely used steel weapons and never of the quality that he was seeing now.

  “Rayne,” he called to his companion standing behind him, “may I see your sword?”

  Dutifully his companion brought out the sword he had ‘appropriated’ from the treasonous baron’s stash. Turning his head, he examined the blade, quickly recognizing the work to be the same as the weapons littering the ground. Evidently, Rayne came to a similar conclusion, a soft curse coming out from under his breath.

  They knew the monsters had appropriated weapons from the treasonous Baron Wilcoup, but they had believed—perhaps naively—that there had only been enough weapons to outfit a fraction of the horde they were to face. The fact that a few random monsters in the rear-guard were equipped with them, it was an ill omen.

  “We’ll need to tell Chereen,” Rayne said. Leon heard him murmur quietly, “For all the good it’ll do.”

  The duo ran past the marching adventurers, quickly approaching Chereen and her group. The silver-tier leader did not even try to mask her irritation as Rayne explained the situation.

  “So what? A sheep doesn’t suddenly become a wolf just ‘cause it got some steel claws.”

  “Goblins are not sheep! Steel weapons will allow them to cut through most of our number with ease,” Leon argued.

  The words fell on deaf ears as Chereen waved his concern off. “You’ll be fine, bronzey, you’ve got a big sword.” Glancing down his body she smirked. “Seems the balls don’t quite match, though.“

  Laughing, she and her team continued marching, leaving Rayne and Leon to stew in discontent.

  After the Executioners had cleared a third group of monsters, it seemed like the horde had taken notice. They awaited the adventurers on the road, at least two hundred goblins, kobolds, and their elites all standing around the road and in the nearby woods.

  Raising her battleax aloft, Chereen roared and charged into the battle. Leon felt himself grow just a little stronger as the battle cry washed over him, an effect that seemed to sweep over the army as the adventurers screamed in fury and charged the monsters.

  Faced with a hundred adventurers all charging recklessly towards them, the monsters made the only reasonable choice and fled. Their line managed to catch a good chunk of the weaker members of the horde, cutting down dozens of goblins and kobolds as the rest of the monsters managed to retreat into the forest.

  There was a cheer at their victory, that they had successfully scared the monsters away from Wildsbruck and prevented another razed village. Chereen also seemed pleased, directing an arrogant expression towards Rayne and their team, her battleax and face covered in monster blood.

  “Don’t celebrate yet, we’ve still gotta hunt the bastards down,” she called.

  This was met with another cheer from the adventurers, Leon included.

  As the adrenaline died down, however, he found himself with reservations about the decision. Rayne exchanged a concerned look with him and Syra before the trio approached Chereen as everyone prepared to trek into the forest.

  “Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Rayne asked. “Wasn’t that a little too easy?”

  Chereen scoffed. “What? Are you scared? They’ve turned tail and run away. This is our best chance to crush them before they can regroup,” she exclaimed.

  “It was a very quick retreat,” Leon cautioned.

  Chereen held a finger before his lips to silence him. “Enough! I won’t take commands from upstarts who’ve barely been holding swords a season. They ran because monsters are all cowards.” Turning back to the adventurers, she raised her battleax high. “Let’s go finish ‘em off!” she yelled, receiving yells of support in return.

  As the army moved out, they were forced to follow, the only other option being desertion. Leon felt an uncomfortable sensation settling into his stomach. He knew more than anyone how cunning monsters could truly be. Still, it was not as if they could lose an actual battle; even if the monsters pulled something off, it would only result in higher casualties on their side. They had the qualitative advantage, and with the trimming they had done so far, the numbers advantage was slowly tipping away from the monsters.

  So it was that they delved into the forest uneasily but not afraid. After every small group of goblins or kobolds was cut down, the elites who previously commanded such groups inconspicuously missing, Rayne would again try and convince Chereen to move more cautiously only to be dismissed offhandedly. Even if they were walking towards certain victory, their leader was entirely too confident. A good commander had a healthy skepticism even at the best of times.

  Finally, they came across a large gorge. From their position overlooking the canyon, they were presented with a disturbing sight: an ogre sitting among a few hobgoblins and elite kobolds, while a few scores of goblins and kobolds stood guard. An ogre was a gold-tier monster, and while a competent silver-tier team should be able to hunt one, that did not include having to fight hordes of silver and bronze-tier mobs as well, though. Far from the primary force of the horde, they were certainly the most dangerous. The ogre and its companions made an almost irresistible target, or more likely an irresistible bait. More of them were likely positioned upon the cliffside, ready to encircle them in the valley.

  Moving forward, he prepared to warn Chereen of the danger, only to be beaten by Rayne.

  “An ogre is too much for us to handle!” he warned. “Not to mention the obvious flank they’re trying to pull.” Rayne pointed to the cliff where the enemy was likely hiding for emphasis.

  “It’s a splinter force. They haven’t had enough time to properly encircle us,” she snarled. “My team can handle an ogre, you just focus on keeping your pants dry.” Turning away from Rayne and towards the army, she yelled. “Shield wall! Advance on them!”

  “Listen to me,” Rayne begged. “This is a planned ambush!”

  Chereen ignored him, pointing her battleax at the ogre. “Charge!”

  Once again Leon felt himself grow stronger, his concerns fading away. Those adventurers with shields grouped themselves up in front and advanced down the gorge, the ogre standing in preparation to meet them.

  Reluctantly, Rayne readied his own weapons and advanced. Keeping his wits about him as best he could. Leon advanced as well, keeping an eye on the cliffside as they walked blindly into the trap.