Numerous crude looking, wooden spears flew through the smoky and bloody air, their tips made of bones or stones, sometimes caught fire from the flames that consumed the fort; soon after, they reached their targets. The blood-red sky witnessed the death of almost a hundred people and half a thousand monsters, registering this merciless battlefield in history.

Between the flames and crumbling buildings, Lyrus, Cawton, and Vanessa were desperately trying to fight back, their failure, however, was imminent.

Cawton continuously fired from his longbow, killing numerous of the invading kobolds from an advantage point on top of a house. His gambeson - the only armor he wore - had cuts all over it, blood occasionally flowing from a cut on his left shoulder left by an enemy spear. But no matter how many arrows he shot out of his bow, the monsters seemed to never cease their assault.

Vanessa was uninjured, but her mage robes were dirty from the dust of the crumbling buildings, she kept chanting random words in order to remember the formula of her magic, but the sound of battle and death drowned the anxious mumbling voice, ice shards occasionally flew from the sky-blue crystal tip of her straight staff, on their way to the humanoid-looking, large sized rats.

Lyrus was the reason for Vanessa's safety, standing a few steps in front of her, his shield defended both of them from the threatening spears, but wouldn't hold for much longer, the bits and pieces of enemy weapons punctured it numerous times, damaging it. He was also in the worst condition since one single warrior couldn't slay close-quarters opponents and defend from the never-ending rain of spears at the same time, leaving his iron mail armor unbelievably damaged.

The kobold, having strong legs and thin arms, possessed incredible speed that increased the deadliness of their throwing spears. Fur covered their bodies from the feet to the ugly head that attacked a person's sanity. Thankfully, these monsters were shorter than humans and were easier to take head-on, but their numbers more than made up for it; in fact, most of them had been killed outside the stone walls before they managed to barge in.

"We're leaving, Cawton! Get back!" Shouted Lyrus to the furious, red-eyed Cawton.

"Damned rats, go fuck yourselves!" After he heard Lyrus, Cawton swore as much as he could while jumping from atop the house, rolling when hitting the ground and running to the back lines with top speed.

"Vanessa, let's go!" Ordered Lyrus to his tired and anxious friend.

Without wasting a single second, Vanessa ran towards the same direction as Cawton, Lyrus retreated a little slower, pinned down by the army of kobolds, he was forced to take a few hits before managing to run away.

Arriving in front of the dungeon, Lyrus released a sigh of relief seeing the fifty or so soldiers and hunters that survived. But fate gave him no time to rest, the fire, accompanied by the kobold army, caught up with the running survivors.

"Hunter! Join the line, we'll make sure that the rest of the group is not chased after!" Shouted an officer to Lyrus. Around 13 warriors and 5 archers that could fight readied their shields and bows to protect what was left of the fort.

"Understood!"

Lyrus gladly joined them, for him, this was better than everyone dying in complete chaos, and maybe he could get plenty of rewards in case he survived.

'What am I thinking. Winning? Like that's possible.' Lyrus scoffed at himself for these stupid thoughts and, along with the other warriors and archers, pressed his fingers against his weapon and steeled his heart for the incoming death while his companions shot worried glances at him, Cawton passed all half a dozen remaining arrows he had onto a random archer and wished him luck, Vanessa simply bowed and ran into the dungeon to escape through the tunnels underground.

The kobolds were a few dozen steps away from the last line of defense before being shot by the human-made arrows, their numbers, however, overwhelmed the few archers left, and soon, the archers shot all their remaining arrows and joined the close-quarters with short swords.

Luckily, few spears were thrown, allowing the line to focus on the close combatants. Lyrus kept his cracked shield in front of himself and let his sword slash a kobold that attacked him, the kobold tried to force through his shield but failed, his shield stood in the exact same place while his right hand suddenly showed itself beside it and attacked, thrusting through the enemy’s furry chest and forcing blood out of the wound.

When another came and stabbed its spear at his shield, he swiftly took a step forward and slashed at the monster before it could try to sweep at his feet. The kobold hurriedly tried to dodge but its small stature had forced it to come too close to the warrior's range, after a surprised shriek, it stumbled to the ground.

Sometimes, Lyrus would happily, albeit tiredly, kill his enemy and realize that the closest kobold was a long way from reaching him, he then would use the opportunity to help his remaining brothers with their enemies, taking some weight off their shoulders and they would do the same in kind right after. But alas, even this did not save all of them.

During his fight with another kobold, Lyrus suddenly noticed the disappearance of the battle cry coming from the warrior on his right. He wished - despite how crazy it sounded - that all this battle had just gone and made him deaf, this being the cause for the roars ending, but since he could still hear his sword almost severing his opponent's head and the blood spattering over the ground, followed by the corpse hitting the earth, he was forced to face the reality he thought he was ready for.

Lyrus's body started to feel tired, but his mind didn't register this fact, instead choosing to think about which way would the escaping group go through to reach the village. 'Would they just make a run for the fort through the main road? Perhaps afraid of meeting more monsters during this dangerous swarm, they would instead choose to stop by the checkpoints? A messenger has already been sent to ask for reinforcements, so it would make more sense to just wait for now.'

'They also took the exhausted mages and injured warriors and archers, both Vanessa and Cawton were in that group, they're probably cursing themselves for not being in a position to stay and help as well. I wonder, would Cawton get pissed off at these rats if I died by their filthy hands? Would Vanessa stay locked in her room for weeks in tears at the loss of a friend, or overwork herself again instead?'

These thoughts flew through his head while he parried another lance stab coming his way, and again his sword immediately stabbed through the enemy's chest, sticking at the lungs of the creature.

Lyrus suddenly felt like he was training, repeating the same move again and again for an eternity so that he could finally get some rest after exhausting himself. He already felt tired but still had to repeat the same movement non-stop, this time with kobolds instead of air and dummies, but it was the almost same thing in the end.

His left arm, which held his almost broken shield, felt numb by now, he barely felt his bursting wrist and almost broken bones. Another kobold appeared from the beyond to pull him into his grave, and another kobold's lifeless body fell to the ground.

More rat monsters came after that and much more right after. Lyrus and the last line stood their ground with all their might, receiving wound after wound, losing man after man.

And finally, after 20 minutes or so of continuous fighting, the line killed the last invader, having only 4 warriors and 2 archers left. Sitting in the middle of almost sixty kobold corpses, Lyrus and the other five desperately tried to catch their breaths for other several minutes, praying so that no more of those monsters arrived and inwardly mourning over the death of their fellow brothers.

Lyrus went over his injuries and was thankful that even though he lost his shield at the end of battle he had only strained his left leg and almost detonated his own wrist, so much that he could barely feel his left hand.

"Hah... Only one hunter? Huff... good, it seems like... huff... you survived this suicide squad, the guilds are sure to reward you well. Men! Back to the village!" The officer which called for Lyrus to stay before ignored a piece of a spear on his own left shoulder and ordered for everyone to return home while catching his breath, however, the dungeon couldn't hold against the onslaught and fell over, forcing the survivors to leave through the entrance of the fort.

Luckily, it seems that all the kobolds either died or retreated, allowing them to proceed without a hitch on their way to the village.

'This will be a story to tell.' Thought Lyrus, trying to suppress a smile while feeling proud of his survival and imagining his friends' future reaction. 'I wonder what Cawton and Vanessa will think when they see that I survived against an army of monsters!'

After a long and - thankfully - uneventful walk in the forest, the group finally caught sight of the Village of Austen, half of it protected by a wooden wall. It was not as efficient as the one made of stone on the fort, but if the hundreds of guards and hunters on duty inside the village couldn't handle whatever came after it, one would doubt that a stone wall would be of much more help. Besides, protecting the village was the reason for building the fort in the first place, it was unfortunate that it met defeat barely after the start of the swarm.

After approaching the gate of the wall, the officer ordered the guards on duty to open a huge gate 3 meters long and 5 meters tall, a bit larger than the wall. The worried guards immediately opened it and inquired about the situation while helping their friends.

The first question came from someone of the same authority as the officer that led Lyrus's line.

"You're from the troop dispatched to the Fort Baxter, right? What happened there?"

'What about our messenger? And we also didn't see anyone on the checkpoints closest to the roads.' Lyrus thought somberly, an uneasy breath entered his lungs through his dry throat but he decided that it was just his pessimistic thoughts resurfacing.

"Kobolds attacked it, their numbers were close to half a thousand! We covered the escape of a group of around thirty survivors, they didn't come back here? What about the messenger?" Came both the answer and the question from the officer of the line.

"No messenger arrived in our gates this day. But rest easy, we'll send people to find those missing! As for the other survivors, they probably stopped at the checkpoints, so finding them shouldn't be a problem for the hunters." The guarding commander assured the survivors, and Lyrus as well decided to leave this mission for the ones who are ready to accomplish it.

After that came the medical attention for what was left of the line and a good week of much-needed rest to the heroes.