Thirty seconds—and a Mana Potion✦—later, the first of the enemies arrived at the inner wall. The aliens didn’t have ladders, but they began to jump up and climb the earthen wall. The inner wall was quickly thrown together, not something with smooth sheer sides to prevent—or at least slow—ingress of the attackers. The first few to attempt the climb were knocked from the wall or killed outright. However, they came like a tide. There was no stopping all of them.

First a few clambered over the lip of the wall. They were followed by a stream that soon became a flood. Eva switched from throwing Fireballs★ to Charging★ into the aliens coming over the wall, knocking them back off. She sliced into any nearby enemies that weren’t close enough to the edge. She made a difference, but she was just a single rock trying to hold back a storm.

Soon, Eva was surrounded by three to four fighters at a time. Their levels were rather low—fourteen—but each one she killed would be replaced by another. Still, she had the advantage in tier and in stats. They fell like corn to the combine. Her biggest issue turned out to be the bodies of the dead. The corpses strewn this way and that got in her way and prevented her from being as efficient as she knew she could be. This was particularly true of the omyeskadi’s antlers acting like bramble patches on the ground.

The minutes wore on and the aliens kept coming. Eva stole a glance across the battlefield. The front line of forseli and human archers were mostly dead, with the survivors hiding behind a wall of shields in a crescent formation that was trying to hold back the surging aliens. She could see Sun in his shining golden armor rallying the troops and hacking into the omyeskadi menace. She was envious that the forseli didn’t have to deal with the antlers while fighting on account of their short stature.

Eva turned her attention back to her opponents. A quick Dodge★ followed by a Pierce★ elicited an experience notification from the System. Though some nearby enemies seemed reluctant to engage her in combat, they were forced into that position by the aliens pushing from behind. Another slash, another dead. They kept coming.

Though it felt like hours, within ten minutes, a gap opened up around her on the wall. She saw the attacking begin to lose strength. More forseli and humans had joined the fight to keep the attackers contained, but many of them had perished in the attempt. That said nothing of the omyeskadi and landwalkers, whose bodies were piles knee deep in places. The lull in fighting was enough for Eva to shift far enough away from where she had been fighting in order to escape the pile of corpses she’d amassed. As quickly as it had arrived, combat returned with a fresh wave of aliens into the meat grinder.

She threw off a handful of Fireballs★ into the tightly bunched aliens below the inner wall that were penned in by the forseli forces. The Fireballs★ were devastating due to how crushed together the combat was. She had to be careful to avoid her allies and make sure she didn’t blast apart the wall or set it alight. It meant she could only throw them towards the middle of the crowd.

The forseli were barely hanging on. The pressure from the monsters outside the walls and the omyeskadi on the other side was proving too much to handle. She could tell they would break through the lines shortly. She’d made a difference, but not enough to turn the tide on her own. It was time to clean up what she could before the remainder of the alien force was let loose to wreak havoc.

Suddenly, her instincts screamed at her. She Dodged★ back without thinking farther, seeing a spear embedded into the top of the wall where she had been standing moments before. Eva looked around to see where it came from before Dodging★ another spear. Finally, she caught a glimpse of the perpetrator.

The omyeskadi was covered in muted green armor. It looked hard, but she couldn’t tell whether it was leather or metal. It held a spear in one hand, ready to throw, and a single-edged sword in the other. Its antlers were wrapped in metals and stones. She guessed the alien was the leader or at least higher up in the hierarchy—the other omyeskadi had bare antlers or minimal decoration.

Eva Charged★ towards the enemy who had singled her out. She had to Dodge★ the incoming spear when she leaped from the top of the wall and into the no-man’s land. She Observed★ the alien as she approached. It was level 38! A wave of worry gripped her. That was a significant difference, and not something she had been mentally prepared to see. She shook her head. Ultimately, this was the troublemaker who had given the order to attack the dungeon. This was the asshole who she needed to take down. If she didn’t, she doubted there would be anyone else who could!

Eva bit down on her fears and cautiously approached the omyeskadi. She gripped one of her health potions in her shield hand, just in case. She lit a Fireball in front of her shield and stared down her opponent. She nodded to herself. She was as ready as she would be. Eva Charged★.

The omyeskadi leader eyed Eva and slashed at her when she got close. She was forced to Dodge★ the attack, aborting her own aggression in favor of defense. The alien had the stats to back up their apparent confidence, and that made her warrier than usual. Eva knew she needed to be cautious against such a strong foe. She waited for it to make a move while she watched the other omyeskadi charging the wall. None of them interfered with the battle.

Suddenly, the alien Charged towards her with its sword. Eva caught it against her shield, taking minimal damage. She struck back with an air Infused★ slash. Her blade cut into their armor, but did minimal damage as they were able to jump back to avoid the worst of it.

Eva switched her Infusion★ to earth just before their blades met. She was afraid that her sword wouldn’t stand up well against the omyeskadi’s longer and heavier sword. The extra mass of her shortsword stopped the alien’s sword in its tracks, even pushing them backwards a half step.

In a split second decision, Eva pressed her advantage. She pushed her foe back with three quick slashes, even though they were Blocked. The alien quickly beat her back with a flurry of blows that she caught on her shield, generating a system popup that she dismissed. She had a feeling she knew what it was, but her main focus was on the fight at hand.

Eva Charged★ towards the omyeskadi, wielding her shield as a battering ram. When they Dodged, she loosed her stored Fireball★. It was within range that then it impacted the alien, she was caught by the edge of the explosion. Though she suffered a little damage, the combined burning and blasting tore their armor to shreds.

The alien looked at her with shock and hatred in their eyes. She understood as the feeling was mutual. Eva gathered another Fireball★, ready to start blasting when the opportunity presented itself. She wouldn’t have too many chances as there was a limit to her mana, and she could tell that they would not let her get any more potions from her belt other than the Health Potion✦ she’d prepared in her shield hand.

The momentary pause ended when her opponent raised their sword and Slashed at her. Eva’s eyes grew wide as she Dodged★ the incoming wave of magical energy. If she had to place what it was, she would have guessed that it was air magic in some form; though exactly what it was, she was clueless.

She turned the increased stats from Dodge★ into another Charge★ towards them. Instead of slashing, she Pierced★ towards their chest. The alien’s sword reached up to Parry her blow, but she was fast enough that her shortsword cut through their armor and their ribs. Eva pulled the sword out to the side, creating a large bleeding slice. They clutched their side with their off hand and growled at her.

The growl became a roar as the omyeskadi gripped their sword with their second, bloodied hand. She knew something big was coming, and she tried to Dodge★ early, but even then, she got a long cut across her stomach from the air magic of their Slash. It came faster and stronger than it had the first time. It might have been the second hand, or it might have been something else like their injuries or simply more mana thrown into the skill.

Regardless of what it was, it hurt enough that Eva drank her potion and dropped the bottle to the ground. The alien tried to attack her while she drank the Health Potion✦, but she was able to Block▲ the attacks with her shield, undoing some of the healing. At the very least, the potion had been able to reduce her injury to an angry red path of raw skin.

Eva took a deep breath and centered herself. She could win if she calmed down and didn’t let the alien invader in front of her get into her mind. Even at fifteen levels—and a tier—above her, she still had a slight advantage with stats. Skills might be a different question as they might have something in reserve that she hadn’t yet seen, but the fight was definitely winnable if she put in the effort.

She Charged★ in again but stopped short of where she normally would have tried to batter her foe to the ground. Instead, she juked to the same side as the alien did. The Feint▲ was surprising enough that their Parry was a hair late. Though the cut was shallow—barely making it through their armor—it was enough to elicit another roar.

Two more air magic Slashes were sent her way. She Dodged★ the first, but was caught out by there being a second right behind it. Eva could taste the blood in her mouth. The damage from the attack had cut rather deep. She spit and grinned before roaring back in her own way. It wasn’t as deep as the omyeskadi’s had been, but it helped to bring her focus away from her injuries and back to the battle in front of her. The adrenaline also helped somewhat.

Blood dripped from her new wound and from the invader’s wounds as well. After a couple of attacks back and forth that were Parried or Blocked, she could tell that they were starting to get a little weaker—but so was she. Eva knew that she would have to end it in the next handful of seconds. Otherwise, she would be weak enough to be in danger after killing the alien from their living comrades.

She Charged★ her foe and they Dodged out of the way. Their next attack came quicker than she expected, but she was barely able to Block▲ it with her shield. At this close range, they were not able to avoid the Fireball★ exploding in their face. Eva knew she would be hit with the explosion, but it was better than taking another shot from their magic. This close, they wouldn’t be able to launch one into her.

The omyeskadi leader was on their last legs after the Fireball, but they were not quite dead yet. They smiled—or at least that was the impression that she got from their expression—and brought their blade down with a Slash. She had been wrong in her assumption! Eva was unable to get her shield up in time and the double attack of the sword itself and the air magic bit into her right shoulder, nearly severing her arm. It hung limply at her side, her shortsword falling to the floor.

Eva screamed in pain. Though the System notified her that the bastard had died from their wounds, she still kicked their corpse as hard as she could. She looked around and saw that the remaining aliens were starting to close in around her. She squatted down to grab her swortsword with her shield hand before Charging★ towards the wall where she hoped she could get the reprieve she needed to drink enough potions to not die from blood loss in the next minute.

While she ran, Eva fumbled with the sword until she was able to sheath the dirty blade. It would need cleaning later—if it didn’t rust shut—but that was the least of her worries. She grabbed for a Health Potion★ across her body when she landed on top of the wall after jumping up there with the enhanced stats of a Charge★. It took several tries to grip it with her non-dominant hand, but once she had it, she tore into it with her mouth and downed the red liquid.

Her bleeding stopped and her body mostly knit itself back together. However, it took two more Health Potions✦ before she regained feeling and movement in her arm enough that she was able to put off any other immediate lifesaving measures. Now that she was mostly healthy, she took a quick look around the battlefield. The forseli line was broken in the center where the omyeskadi were trying to break out. The enemy troops were now fighting the roaches to complete their escape.

Eve Charged★ through the escaping omyeskadi to the side of the inner wall where the emptied her mana raserves twice to throw as many Fireballs★ into their midst as she could. When that was no longer tenable, she moved to the outer wall to assist with the fight against the monsters. Instead of fighting up close with her sword, she stuck to throwing fire Infused★ debris for near the same effect. The allergy bit was something she was still not willing to test, even now that there was only the marginal danger from the monsters to worry about.

Ten minutes later, the System declared that all of the monsters had been slain. Eva came in second overall to someone called Sky, who she guessed was likely a forseli based on the lack of a surname. Her prize was a Chainmail Hauberk★, which she stuffed into her backpack to look at later. She sat down on the wall and dangled her legs off the side. Though her arm was functional, she could see a ropy scar where it had nearly been severed. It was the first time she could see a lasting physical reminder of the Tutorial’s brutality on herself. She sighed.