“Shit,” Belmont swore. “So the Howlers have influence on the Adventurer’s guild. But what did they want with my magic?”

“Magus answered that, actually,” Malissa said, scanning through the letter and putting her finger on a line of text. “Your shield spell is unique. It blocks both magical and physical attacks, which is apparently atypical. Most shield spells can only block one or the other.”

“That’s good to know,” Belmont said, frowning. “But that hardly seems like a reason to cause such a scene. We’re missing something.”

“Magus said something along the same lines,” Malissa admitted, handing Belmont the letter. “But he doesn’t know what it is yet.”

Belmont grunted, his eyes flickering as he read through the message. “Well, at least there’s some good news.”

“What is it?” Arek asked.

“Magus figured out some more information on the Blessed One business. It’s some sort of curse or blessing – Magus says it can be both – that enhances its owner’s powers. However, anyone that has it is drawn to fight other people with it. The winner of the fights gets a portion of the loser’s powers.”

“So we’ll have people tracking us,” Arek said, massaging his forehead. “But at least we know what it is. Did Magus mention if this Blessed One status is malicious? What’s its purpose?”

“He doesn’t know,” Belmont said after a few more moments of reading. “He said he only found it in an old book, and it barely had any information. Maybe we should try to apprehend the next person that comes after you and Ming instead of killing them.”

“It might be worth a shot,” Arek agreed. “Is there anything else of worth in the letter?”

Belmont shrugged, handing it to Arek. The orc scanned it, but just about everything Magus wrote had already been covered. Arek offered it to Ming, who shook her head. Malissa took it and placed the letter in her extradimensional bag.

“Assuming we manage to fend off the horde, what do we do next?” Arek asked. “It’s not like we can go back to Riverfall anytime soon, especially not with the Howlers hunting us.”

“If we survive, we should head to a nearby city immediately,” Belmont said. “We’d be more than due for another promotion. After that….” He shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s too far in the future. Our own demise seems a little more eminent.”

“Fair enough,” Arek agreed. The orc didn’t seem particularly bothered by the oncoming monster horde. “I’ve dealt with these things a few too many times. After you survive a few calamitous events, they start to get old.”

“I hope we’ll get to see that for ourselves,” Malissa said, pressing her lips together. “Belmont, you’ve put the most thought into this out of all of us. What kind of traps should we be setting up?”

“Explosives,” Belmont replied. “Anything that slows the monsters should work well, but explosions will be the most effective. Most monsters don’t have enough innate defense to completely withstand flying rock, especially when it’s right next to them. We don’t actually need to kill all the monsters – we just have to slow their initial swarm down.”

“We’re putting a lot of weight on this B ranked team,” Arek observed. “Are we sure that they’re actually as capable as we think? This isn’t an F ranked dungeon after all. A horde of Wyrms and Wyverns might be too much for them.”

“I suppose we should probably find that out,” Malissa said. Her words were calm, but the stress locked up behind her face was starting to show. “But will that really help? If they’re too weak to stop the horde, we’re all just dead.”

“Information is always useful,” Arek said. “If you can control your emotions, it can only help you. The more we know about the situation, the better we can react to it.”

As they spoke, Valea broke away from the other two council members to approach them.

“You should be able to start your work in a little less than an hour,” she said. “The outer city won’t be completely vacated, but it should be enough to begin. Is there anything you’ll need?”

“There is,” Belmont said. “Do you have a detailed map of the city? Preferably one with all the roads?”

“We can get one,” Valea said, giving the armored man a curt nod.

“Good,” Belmont said. “As soon as my group has that, we’ll get to work. You can’t spare any guards to help us, can you?”

Valea grimaced. “Not if you can do without them. Many of the guards are already outside the walls, trying to thin out the monsters’ ranks before they can attack in full. The remainder are stationed on the walls. If we don’t have anyone there, we won’t be able to properly route the horde’s initial attack.”

“That’s fine,” Belmont said after several moments of thought. “We only really have to trap one side of the city, since the other side has a cliff behind it. We can use the tight roads to try and pick off more monsters, although we can’t do much against Wyverns or anything that can fly.”

“Whatever you can do will be helpful,” Valea said, her wrinkled skin pallid. Arek could practically smell the fear wafting off the woman, but she didn’t let the brave face slide for an instant.

“I’ve also got a quick question,” Arek said. “Who’s the B ranked team coming to help us? Are they going to be able to break a siege?”

“Almost certainly,” Valea replied. “If they arrive, we’ll be saved. The group is one of the top rated B rank teams in the kingdom – Avenguard.”

Arek’s eyebrows twitched upwards. He’d heard of them years ago – they were a competitor to Vell’s group. Evidently, they’d grown. “Do you know who’s on the team?”

“I can get you a list of their names as well, if you think it would help.”

“It would,” Arek said, inclining his head slightly.

“Then I’ll set off to get your map and the list,” Valea said, clenching her hands. “Anything to keep from sitting still. If I didn’t know better, I’d say the anticipation is the worst part.”

She darted away as quickly as her older body could carry her, leaving the Happy Sunflowers behind as a somber silence fell over all of them.