In truth, we are not sure if the hordes are made of mutated creatures from Earth, Caen, and Xiivet, or whether they are alien species from elsewhere who just so happen to look familiar to us. Either way, they aim to annihilate their assigned settlement’s inhabitants and destroy its hub crystal. Once they do so, it appears their reward is indefinite stay on Idroa as they become a part of the ecosystem.

Suko Ryo - Interspeciel Expert - Humanity and the Other Races

____

Silas gazed out from a balcony in the outskirts, watching for the horde: he was one of twenty experienced fighters waiting by the outer perimeter. Lazzaro’s flares were still somewhat effective despite the rain and wind, so their job was to run back and pass along the go signal to the aged mage on first notice of their enemies.

Suddenly, the distant landscape of dreary grey and brown was disturbed by a splash of cream. Silas gripped the wet railing and leaned out, wondering if his eyes were playing a trick on him, before realising that no, the horde truly was heading straight for him. Swearing under his breath, he sprinted out of the house and threw himself into an orange honda hatchback. Having learnt to drive over the last two days, his skills were rudimentary at best but they were enough for him to tear through the cobbled streets, arriving at the village hall some minutes later.

He pushed past the anxious crowd and found Lazzaro immediately. Iris was beside him, waiting on call as their resident healer. Clenching his fists, the aged mage tensed at Silas’s appearance. “So it is finally time. Which way?”

“Down the corner shop,” Silas said, wiping the rain off his face. “They look like mastiffs.”

“Do you mean the dog breed?” Lazzaro’s worry turned to confusion and finally relief. “We’re fighting dogs?”

“Big dogs,” Silas replied, lifting his hand in line with his chest. “At least this big and carrying considerable bulk. And lots of them.”

Lazzaro rushed outside but stopped as Elise - Bandana Dom’s friend - ran into the hall with panic painted on her face. Sabine followed her some steps behind.

“Monsters, a pack of dogs we think,” Elise forced out in between her gasps, leaning on her battle axe. “They’re heading for the church.”

Sabine tipped her bald head in Elise’s direction. “What she said but coming around the river instead.”

“Good heavens,” Lazzaro said, shaking his head in disbelief. He took a moment to think things through. “Okay, I’ll shoot out the flares now. In the meantime, you guys try and hold your positions.” He paused and looked at them again. “Do you think you can manage it? If not, I can tell everyone to retreat here.”

Punching her fists together with a manic grin, Sabine was the first to reply. “Only one way to find out.”

Silas raised an eyebrow and recalled his conversation with Grace - he had said then that this horde should be relatively easy to deal with and nothing went against this belief yet. “Should be able to.”

“Good, good,” Lazzaro said, urging them to leave. “I’ll see all of you here afterwards.”

Zipping back through the streets, Silas picked up a few fighters on the way, the strongest of them being Josh, and headed for the convenience store. The disused cars on the streets had already been moved into key points to form barricades, and the street leading to the store was one of those points.

As usual, Silas spotted the horde before the rest of them. Around thirty dogs raced across the nearby park, flinging clods of dirt with each frantic step. Their cacophonous barking seemed to be taken straight from a nightmare like a bloodcurdling shriek on loop, and it only got worse as the dogs neared. Tall and muscular, they had square heads and frenzied eyes with slobber and rainwater dribbling down their drooping jowls.

Bracing himself, Silas breathed out slowly, releasing some tension from his body. He simultaneously felt lighter and more solid as adrenaline contracted his outer blood vessels, unchaining his heart and lungs. His grip blurred and faded, the spear becoming an extension of his body.

His first thrust was quick, catching a leaping dog off-guard, and his follow-up was even quicker until he was stabbing and sweeping ferociously like a god of war. Although the mastiffs were easy to deal with, their numbers were overwhelming, even as he pushed his speed to its limit. Getting bashed over by a mastiff, he jumped to his feet and glanced around.

Josh put his previous practice to good use as he kept to small, glancing blows while focusing on his defence, swerving and sidestepping. It was impossible to duck or parry the bulky monsters who launched themselves, so it was rather surprising how well he dodged. The other fighters with them performed less impressively, and several of them were repeatedly thrown to the bloody ground like mistreated rag dolls.

Still, they all kept their lives, and although his makeshift team’s show of dominance did little to deter the beasts, they did begin to clear up the scene as the minutes passed. Silas chopped down the last dog and watched as it collided with a brick wall and fell.

“Fucking Christ, man,” Josh said, favouring his left leg as he limped up to Silas. The blond had a nasty grimace on his blood-streaked face.

Silas nodded mutely, finding himself lost for the right words to say. He felt relief it was all over - it had been as challenging as he had expected but unpleasant nonetheless. It was exactly as this thought drifted through his mind that he made out a silhouette in the distance. Rubbing his eyes, his vision cleared, and he paled at the sight. “Shit,” he said, “Second wave.”

Composed of the same mastiffs, the second wave passed as the one before it, albeit with more dogs. His team barely held through when another wave showed up around the corner. Too exhausted to run or fight now, fear polluted his mind like inky oil spilling in clear water. His legs were shaking unsteadily when he heard beeping from behind. Turning, tears of joy threatened to trickle down his face as he saw backup pulling up, just in time for the third wave.

Afterwards, despite the pain and fatigue, Silas refused to let his body collapse in fear of yet another wave. Fortunately, there were no more, and the news of their success quickly spread through the village. Finally drawing back his consciousness, Silas’s last sight was Iris standing over him, tending to his wounds. He had never been good at reading her expressions, but now he thought she looked oddly sad.

****

“That was very impressive, extremely impressive,” Lazzaro said for the hundredth time. “I don’t know how I can thank you.”

How about by getting lost? Silas thought in irritation, although the words failed to make it to his lips. While the worst of his wounds had been healed, his body and mind were still exhausted.

It turned out his group had taken the brunt of the horde; while the other groups had also fought off three waves, they had faced fewer foes overall. As such, out of the nine fighters who had died, four had been people he had called over while rushing back to the corner shop. Their deaths weighed down on him, but not as intensely as the guilty relief he felt at surviving. He could continue searching for his siblings, whereas those who had died were now lost forever to their families.

Seventeen other citizens had also died after being caught off-guard by a pack of dogs, and although Silas hadn’t seen the scene himself, he had heard it was a ghastly sight far more traumatising than even the street leading to the corner shop. While he, Josh, and the others had aimed to most efficiently kill the dogs, the dogs had in turn aimed to rend them apart and rip away their flesh.

“What did you want to talk to me about again?” Silas asked, trying to keep his voice as level as possible.

“The village has amassed quite the number of credits from beating back the horde. We held a discussion in the hall while you were recovering on how to spend them, but I was hoping to hear your thoughts on the matter,” Lazzaro answered.

Bringing up his status, Silas passed onto the village screen and checked through the buildings section. Only a few of them had been unlocked, primarily houses, weak monuments, and some industrial buildings. “What was said in the hall?” he asked, scrolling down to the eye-opening buildings still to be unlocked including communication towers, teleporters, and even alien embassies. He closed the screen and sighed out his surprise, breathing out with it some fanciful ideas that had popped up.

“Well, everyone agreed on a general tax on credits earned through hunting and such. We need a way to gain steady income without having to wait for the hordes, and this fits the bill.”

Silas nodded. He couldn’t care less about tax as he hadn’t paid a penny in his past life and didn’t see how it would affect him now. He currently had 328 System credits in his bank, undoubtedly from all his kills, but there was no point to it as there was nothing to spend it on.

Scratching his brow, Lazzaro continued, “Everyone disagrees on what to buy after that. Some want to use everything we have to buy a defensive monument. They’re scared the next horde will be even worse, and they believe this purchase could save us.”

Given how even Silas had barely held on despite being the highest-ranked fighter in Riverside, it made sense that other people were spooked as well. Still, the defensive monuments they could afford now were almost worthless in his view.

Lazzaro paused, then spoke with more passion. “I think we should build more houses: we are already near top-capacity, so there will be plenty of homeless living on the streets if we don’t do something about it. Also, a water pump and filter would go a long way as I’ve had many complaints about the water being dirty and difficult to access for the older sorts.” He frowned. “But a few of the fighters are adamant on buying a smithy and tannery and such. They badly want to spend their money and don’t care about the rest of our needs.”

Silas considered his own stance. Having lived on the streets, he empathised with building homes before people were forced into rough sleeping. Still, he tried to put what was pragmatic above his feelings. While Lazzaro certainly had helpful ideas, it was equally clear that he refused to give extra weight to the powerful fighters’ views. While this could be seen as honourable, Silas had learnt in his life never to ignore a more powerful person’s wants lest they lashed out at you. “Why can’t you pool together everyone’s money and buy both what you want and they want?”

“The System doesn’t enable it,” the mage said. “I can use my own money in addition to Riverside’s own account, but that’s it. I believe we need to buy one of the banks to get money transfers, but we can’t afford any of them either.”

“Okay, I see,” Silas replied, rubbing his chin. “Who would run the stuff the fighters want?”

“We have a handful of skilled craftsmen,” Lazzaro replied, “But as I’ve told the fighters already, there aren’t enough of them to lead to anything substantial.”

“Then we should increase their numbers,” Silas said. Besides the defensive monuments, there were also a few special ones, one of which halved the level required for non-combat classes. Another special monument provided considerable passive experience points to citizens of the village below level 5. While they couldn’t afford both right now, Silas felt they surely would be able to before the next horde rolled around.

At least this way the currently inactive would get 5 free attribute points which he hoped would encourage them to hunt and further raise their levels. If they still decided combat wasn’t for them, however, they could just take a non-combat class at level 10 and continue contributing to society.

Explaining this to Lazzaro, the aged mage gave him a puzzled look. “I have no doubt that would help in the long run, Silas, but do you honestly think that is the best thing to do right now while we face both a population boom and external threats?”

Frowning, Silas replied, “I’m sure the fighters would accept my suggestion, and it would also give a push on the back to those who currently feel life on Idroa is hopeless. We can kill two birds with one stone.”

“And what about the people growing sick off of the water? What about those who’ll be forced onto the streets? Imagine what they’ll go through.” Lazzaro’s thin and tired voice grew tense and loud.

Silas glared at Lazzaro, then sighed as he realised the mage couldn’t know of his past. “I know it’s hard on the streets, and I know how nasty dirty water can be but neither of these things really affect the fighters; they’re guaranteed homes and their raised constitutions makes the water harmless. I just don’t think you should ignore their requests simply because there’s fewer of them.”

Lazzaro’s face flushed, and he spoke in frustration. “I’m not ignoring them, Silas; I’m addressing our most pressing issues first, that’s all.”

There was a tense pause before Silas responded. “Well, you’re the mayor so do what you think is best, I guess.” He was too tired to argue now, and his head was already throbbing from the conversation.

“I will, for the best of everyone. Thank you for your service to Riverside - you are a good man for protecting the vulnerable - and I hope you rest well, friend,” Lazzaro said, regaining his composure. Later on, Silas would always remember how the mage clapped his shoulder and smiled warmly before leaving.

It would be the last time Silas saw him.

____

Giant mastiffs are, as their names suggests, giant dogs of the mastiff breed. They’re tall, muscular, and found in large groups going up to the thousands. They have brown coats, somewhat threatening teeth, and dull claws. All in all, they’re not powerful by themselves and are only dangerous because of their great numbers and considerable mass.

Many villages faced the giant mastiffs as their first horde. While most settlements managed, the mastiffs overran a few with their overwhelming numbers. Due to this, most of the giant mastiffs you find in the wild today will be survivors from back then.

Lavanya Sanghvi - the Monster Bane - Adventurer’s Guide to Surviving the Idroan Wilderness