The group moved quickly and quietly as they exited the thralls’ outpost. After they made sure that the hidden entrance was covered once more, they set off. By the time that they crested the hill that had allowed them to identify the ancient oaks, the forest had begun to awaken.

The sky remained dark, but the occasional songs of the few birds that retained their sanity intermingled with the chirping of crickets to break the unnatural silence of the mid-Emergence tutorial.

The entire team was in a contradictory state of both anxiety and relief. They had successfully completed their mission with only a single major injury and no deaths. Now, though, they had to return to the Sanctuary and help defend it against the Lord of Beasts. Although none of them said it aloud, they all knew that the danger that they would have to face that day was far from over.

After all, the Emergence had killed hundreds of people, but not the thousands that nightmare difficulty implied. That left the final day of the Emergence for it to justify its difficulty rating, and Octavius was sure that every remaining human within the tutorial was waiting for the hammer to drop.

The sky was beginning to brighten as they reached the river. The purple glow of the heavens cast long shadows from the east as they stepped onto the gently sloping riverbank. The group had only been attacked by a single beast on the way back to the Sanctuary, and somehow that made them even more on edge.

They could internally rationalize away the fact that they hadn’t been attacked during the night. After all, even the rabid creatures slept on their way to the Sanctuary, and they had been as quiet as they could. But now that the animals were waking up, the distinct lack of attacks was definitely off-putting.

All of this contributed to the celebratory mood of the party becoming more and more tense as they approached the Sanctuary. Not to mention that the effects of the compulsion started to work on the rest of the group, driving their thoughts away from the thralls and towards whatever else came to occupy their thoughts. The river was crossed with quick and efficient movements; the group barely spacing out their individual crossings.

Once they had all hauled themselves up the steeper bank of the north side of the river, they wasted no time in hurrying towards the Sanctuary. As they approached the guarded border, they slowed significantly. There was no need for them to surprise the guards into attacking them.

Octavius increased his speed so that he took the lead of the group.

Moving forward into the orange light of the fires that lined the border, his step didn’t falter.

“Who’s there?” shouted a voice, presumably one of the guards.

Octavius cupped a hand to his mouth and responded, “We are the guards Robert sent out to scout last night.”

He could just make out the dim figure of the guard nodding slightly. “Well, alright,” he said, waving them forward, “I would’ve thought that you guys would still be out scouting like most of the other parties, but whatever.”

Octavius frowned as he walked past the fires, his team not far behind. What did he mean ‘like most of the other parties’? he wondered, no matter, I’ll ask Robert when I get there.

He nodded to the three guards as he passed them. Once he was inside of the Sanctuary, he stopped and turned to his party.

“You eight did good work,” Octavius said, “I’d be glad to fight with you again in the future. Now, go get some sleep before the end of the Emergence. I’ll go talk to Robert.”

They nodded and split off from each other, each heading towards their lodgings. The sound of Finn cracking jokes to Jean as the two of them walked in the same general direction was loud in the stillness of the early morning.

Marcus stopped to shake Octavius’s hand.

He smirked slightly, “It’s been a pleasure workin’ with you, Captain.”

Octavius shook the proffered hand firmly, nodding at the two marines, “You too. Sergeant, Corporal.”

The two of them began to walk to the west, and Octavius turned north. Sighing slightly, he started to jog. I need to find out what’s going on.

As he moved quickly through the residential section of the Sanctuary, he noticed that it was as empty as he’d ever seen it. He could hear people in tents or clearings, but almost no one was walking on the dirt paths.

At his quick pace, it barely took him a handful of minutes to reach Robert’s clearing. As soon as it came into sight, he could see the largest group of people he’d seen that day moving around it. People rushed in and out of it at a constant rate. Some held weapons, while others appeared to be mostly unarmed.

Octavius stepped in front of a young man and calmly entered what had obviously been taken over as a COC, or Combat Operations Center. Robert stood along with David, Quinn, and four others Octavius didn’t recognize around the wooden table, which had been moved into the center of the clearing.

They were talking animatedly while gesturing at the surface of the wooden table. Every few seconds, one of the runners would whisper something into the ears of one of the men, and they would nod along before returning to their conversation.

As Octavius got closer to the table, he saw that someone had drawn a map of the Sanctuary and the surrounding area directly onto the table’s surface. It was clear that it had been there for a while, even if it had been covered the last time Octavius had been close enough to see it. He was able to recognize many of the landmarks from his own survey of the surrounding terrain. What he didn’t recognize were the various labeled blocks of wood that were spread across the surface of the map.

People began to notice him as the pink light from the sky reflected sharply off his spear. Many seemed to recognize him despite the short time he’d been within the Sanctuary. The conversation at the table stopped as they turned to face him. David was the first to speak.

“Hey, Oct, you came at just the right time,” he said, “We were just trying to —”

Octavius cut him off. “The mission was a success,” he said, arching an eyebrow slightly.

David blinked a few times before nodding, “Ah yes. You got them all?”

When Octavius had mentioned the mission, Robert had squinted slightly before his eyes widened. As soon as Octavius nodded in affirmation to David’s question, he spoke. “Good. You’ll have to tell us the specifics later. Right now, we have a problem,” he said.

Octavius nodded. He knew that something was up the moment he’d entered the Sanctuary, and now seemed like the best time to find out what. “What is it?” he asked.

Robert waved him over to the table. “This is a map of the Sanctuary. Here is where we are now,” he pointed at a small dot within the thick black line that marked the boundaries of the Sanctuary, “Our problem is that we haven’t been attacked by a beast in two hours.”

“And?” Octavius replied.

“Well, we think that they are gathering with the Lord of Beasts for an all-out attack,” he stated.

Octavius blinked, “Ok, why do you think that?”

Robert looked at a middle-aged man to his left and gestured towards the table. “Because we’ve seen some of the rabid beasts here, here, and here,” each time pointing at a point to the north of the Sanctuary, “moving towards the northwest instead of towards us.”

Nodding along, Octavius spoke, “So then what are you doing right now?”

The evidence was hardly foolproof, but it made some amount of sense. Octavius figured that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to send out a few scouts toward the northwest to see what was going on if anything even was.

Robert was the one to answer his question. “We have hunters out trying to find out what they're doing,” he said, “In the meantime, we are trying to come up with a battle plan to face not only whatever the Beast Lord is, but also an army of beasts. I’m in charge of the defense of the northern section of the Sanctuary, so we’re all here planning.”

It was only then that Octavius realized that the men around Robert weren’t only his lieutenants, but also two of his fellow Captains of the Guard. He made a note to not accidentally antagonize them as he leaned over the table. Subtly, he used identify on each of the people around the table to learn their names, and was surprised to find that Ava’s friend, Oliver, was among them.

“Ok,” he trailed off as he studied the map. It was rather detailed, but not perfect. He saw labeled wooden blocks spaced every few inches along the border of the Sanctuary and guessed that they marked the locations of various teams of guards. There were also over a dozen wooden blocks strewn across the forest to the north and west of the Sanctuary, some even across the clearly marked stream. Those are the scouts, he noted. Looking to the side, he saw a pile of other wooden pieces that weren’t on the map. Maybe off duty teams? he guessed. The whole map was covered in light gridlines, but they weren’t labeled.

“So, what is your current plan?” he asked.

Robert nodded. “We have teams digging pits all along the most vulnerable sections of the northern border. Here and here,” he pointed at two thick black lines, “And we are setting up the burning log trap where we can. Our problem is that we don’t have enough time to set up specific defenses for a mass assault. Anything we put up might only slow them.”

“Assuming that they will attack en masse,” Octavius said, “Do you have the civilians making more weapons? Because I doubt that the cheap wooden clubs and hammers will survive any real amount of prolonged combat.”

Another man, who had been looking on curiously up to this point, nodded. “Yes,” he hummed, “The civilians that can’t make quality weapons are making wooden javelins. We are also moving up a few stockpiles of potions to the northern border.”

Octavius nodded thoughtfully. “What about the other borders?” he inquired, “If the Lord of Beasts is intelligent, it might be trying to distract us.”

Robert pointed towards a group of wooden blocks at the southern boundary of the Sanctuary, “We have som—”

He was interrupted by a young man running wildly into the clearing. The man slammed into one of the message runners that was just exiting the clearing and fell to the ground. Picking himself up quickly, he ran up to the table and gave an extremely poor imitation of a salute.

The young man was still only a teenager and wore civilian clothes that offered little to no protection. Octavius used identify on the teen and saw that he was only level 3.

“Uh, Captain Robert, sir!” he said, looking deathly afraid.

Well, at least he has the enthusiasm down, Octavius commented to himself, I wonder why he looks so afraid. Is it stage fright? Or something more?

“What is it?” Robert asked.

“The guard, I mean hunter, I mean he said his name was Calvin,” the teen babbled.

“What is it, kid?” the man who had told Octavius about how they were making weapons, Adom, demanded, “What happened to Calvin?”

That didn’t seem to help the kid calm down, but he gathered himself and spoke again regardless, “He’s ok, but he went back into the woods. He said to tell Captain Robert that he found them. He said that they’re in C5 and that there are hundreds. What does that mean, sir? Hundreds?”

Quinn was the first to respond, “It’s fine; he was talking about a rare plant we were looking for. Thank you for telling us, you can return to what you were doing. Good work running all the way here.”

“Are you sure?” the kid asked, “I mean, he looked really scared, like he was—”

He was cut off by Robert’s glare and scurried away from the tent. Robert signed and looked down at the map. Octavius followed his gaze to a specific grid square that was to the northwest of the Sanctuary.

“This is bad,” Quinn stated.

“Yes, it is,” Robert muttered under his breath before speaking in a louder tone, “Ok! We have confirmation that the beasts are assembling to the northwest next to the river. Jim! Go wake up the council, they should know. Kaya, Friedrich, Arnold go to each of the guard stations on the northern border. Tell them to speed up the construction. They have my authority to order any civilians they need to work.”

The runners sprinted out of the clearing as Octavius studied the map. “We’ll need ranged fighters,” he said, “How much ammunition do we have left? How many javelin throwers and slingers?”

Robert looked to David, who answered. “We have a little less than three hundred rounds of small-caliber ammunition and a few dozen 5.56 and 7.62 rounds,” he explained, “We have a ton of javelins, but most of the people that are high enough level to deal damage with them will be on the front lines. Besides that, I think there are maybe fifty slingers in the Sanctuary.”

Robert nodded along. “Ok, we’ll set up the javelins with the gunners in the trees,” he ordered, “We can use them after we run out of ammo. Not many of us have much experience in close quarters combat. Also, Dylan, go order the guards to call the hunter teams back.”

A fifth and sixth runner sprinted out of the clearing to deliver the order, leaving only the command staff that were arrayed around the table as the only ones in the clearing besides Octavius himself.

Adom looked up from the map and spoke, “Well, this is going to be one to tell the grandkids.”

Octavius stood just inside of the Sanctuary. The bright morning sun shone down on the awe-inspiring sight in front of him. The vast majority of the people of the Sanctuary that could fight were arrayed along the border. The front ranks each had a wooden shield, along with their choice of weapon. He saw brass, iron, and steel glinting in the sunlight off the spears, axes, hammers, and knives of the small army in front of him.

He could see the treeline just beyond a series of pits and burning logs positioned to funnel attackers towards the strongest points of the Sanctuary’s defensive line. The occasional flash of sunlight reflecting off metal gave away the gunners in the trees all across the front line, ready to rain a brief hell down on the beasts.

Civilians ran down the disorganized ranks with water skins and snacks. Octavius never knew how horrible the waiting before combat could be. In the army, he was almost always the attacking force. Even on the few occasions that he was on the defense, he still had things to do.

Now, he, along with all the guards of the Sanctuary, had nothing to do but wait. Their scouts had relayed that the army of beasts was moving slowly towards the border, but they couldn’t get real-time updates without the technology they took for granted on Earth. The anticipation of knowing that at any moment, a powerful army would assault your position and that the best thing you could do was be ready was horrible.

Still, as Octavius looked over the incredible display of human tenacity, he wondered what the ancient armies of humanity would look like. The silver and red of a Roman legion stretching across the horizon.

Even then, the sight in front of him was quite honestly the most impressive thing that Octavius had ever seen. Most of these people weren’t soldiers or fighters before the tutorial. Still, they came together and rebuilt civilization from nothing but what they carried with them. Now that the home they had built was under threat, these people, accountants, farmers, and students that hailed from countries all across the globe, didn’t flee. They didn’t run and hide. Instead, they were standing here, waiting to face the Lord of Beasts and its army.

He was drawn from his idle reverie when he felt something he couldn’t place. People started shouting up and down the line. As the disturbance grew in magnitude, he realized what it was. The ground was quite literally shaking.

The line of defenders fell into near-complete silence as conversations died off and guards readied their weapons. The eerie silence stretched for only another second before it was shattered by a gunshot. The first was quickly followed by another and then another as muzzle flashes illuminated the gunners’ positions in the trees for an instant at a time.

Octavius stared intently at the treeline, waiting to catch sight of the army of beasts. Only a second later, a literal swarm of monsters emerged from the forests. Octavius inhaled sharply as he beheld their opponents. As he eyed the wave of beasts stampeding towards the defenders, he ran his thumb over the illusion ring on his finger. No, he internally decided, I’ll stay and fight until all hope for the Sanctuary is lost. I’ll only flee if that comes to pass.

As the first ranks of the army of beasts plowed into the pits of spikes, they fell in. Only, it didn’t seem to even slow the advancing horde as they charged over the bodies of their fallen brethren, pushing them further and further into the spikes. The tide of beasts split around the burning logs, with only the largest of them staying their course and leaping over them.

Octavius felt his fist clench as the beasts smashed into the front ranks of the defenders. For a single horrible moment, it seemed as though the beasts would tear through the defenders, but then their charge stalled. The various ranks of the beast army slammed into the backs of those in front of them that were slowed by the contact with the humans.

Octavius watched a large cat tear three defenders apart before a fourth defender caught it in the eye, and it collapsed. More defenders quickly filled the opening and engaged the enemy. Every few seconds a spell would fly over the battlefield to cut down a beast.

A frown formed on Octavius’s face as he watched the battle. He wanted to be on the front lines, or literally anywhere that he wouldn’t just be standing and waiting, but Robert had asked him if he would lead the QRF, or Quick Reaction Force. The answer he had given was yes, but that meant that it wasn’t his place to meet the beasts’ charge. Instead, it was the job of his team to deal with any especially strong beasts, and, likely, the Lord of Beasts itself.

He stood side by side with his party. When asked who he wanted, he chose the only group that he’d fought with before. While the party from his raid the night before wasn’t entirely available to him, he got Caster, Raj, Jean, Finn, and Toby. And so they stood on a slightly elevated platform and waited for something to appear that required a party of their level to deal with.

Their wait was short, as not three minutes later, the sound of cracking wood was heard of the screams of the fallen and roars of beasts. Looking at the trees, Octavius watched in astonishment as two thin birch trees were bent out of the way of a giant creature.

The beast was at least thirty feet tall. It slithered over the various beasts in its way with no regard for them, crushing them with its massive serpentine tail. The tail ended halfway up its body, where it turned into a bare human torso the size of a car. It snarled at them with a nearly human head that was only distinguished by its size, slit pupils, and hissing snakes for hair.

As it slithered into the sunlight, it pointed at the defenders with a clawed finger, and a swirl of red and black began to form in front of it. Octavius used Identify on it as he leapt from the raised platform, his party following close behind.

Mikrós, Lord of Beasts - (Son of Typhon) (E) (Lvl 35) (Pyromancer)