The ancient Vinleaf monster hunters did not divide the loot equally. Leaders took a triple share and the older, more experienced hunters could demand double or one and a half shares. Famous heroes who were acknowledged as the best were given the “hero’s share” of the loot, meaning they were given first pick and could take whatever they wanted.

―Excerpt from Dr. Noah Skaarup’s “Verden History: From the Ancient Vinleaf to the Fifth Great War”

Sariel

Seraph has been on cloud nine ever since the monster hunting expedition at the Ancient Temple. He and Asteria had gone off alone somewhere. Of course, Uriel and I had stayed well clear of them so we didn't know what they did.

If I didn’t know those two couldn’t touch each other, I’d have thought Seraph had gotten laid.

Nowadays, he has a spring in his step that had never been there before. He’s even been smiling at odd times of the day. Yesterday, my secretary dropped my coffee when Seraph smiled because a soldier asked him where he'd gotten the hair bead he’d taken to wearing.

Uriel and I are the only ones who know that this is going to end in disaster.

When I asked him what happened, Seraph told me that he’d proposed to Asteria and she’d accepted, but they could only get married after everything was over.

When I congratulated Asteria, she said they weren’t engaged and Seraph had never mentioned marriage.

Are those two idiots or do I just not understand their weird humor?

“What do you think is going on?” I asked Uriel.

I was still worried about Uriel. He and Seraph were on opposite trajectories. Seraph was acting more and more cheerful while Uriel was acting more and more morose.

Uriel had never been as fashion-forward as me but he’d never been as sloppy with his clothes as he was now. He’d lost weight and always looked unkempt. The women in the office thought it made him look more approachable, but I knew it was a bad sign whenever Uriel stopped caring about his appearance.

“Seraph must have proposed to her but failed to say the word ‘wedding’ or ‘marriage.’ Asteria probably refused by saying something like ‘not now’ or ‘later,’ but Seraph took that as acceptance,” said Uriel.

“What should we do?” I asked.

“Nothing. They’ll work it out,” said Uriel.

“Shouldn’t we tell Seraph something? He’ll be crushed. Asteria told me that she has absolutely no intention of marrying until she’s forty!” I said.

Uriel just chuckled. “I’m sure Seraph will be able to change her mind.”

“I’m not so sure,” I said. That little imp was a hard one to pin down.

“Don’t interfere in other people’s love affairs,” said Uriel. “We’ll just have to take Seraph out drinking if his heart gets broken. That’s how it works.”

“Poor Seraph.”

“You don’t know because you’ve never been madly in love, but I bet Seraph would rather be miserable with Asteria than happy with anyone else.”

“And Uriel the womanizer would know what that’s like?”

“As a matter of fact, yes I would. I think I’ve found the right woman for me.”

“Incredible! First Seraph, now you? Will wonders never cease? Is it that actress?”

“Her name’s Sidse. I’ll introduce you to her sometime.”

I could hardly believe it, but Uriel was seriously thinking of settling down, getting married, and having kids. He was the oldest of us three so, in a way, it made sense that he would be the first to marry. His parents' marriage had lasted for a hundred years, and they were still together. I remember that Uriel had always said he wanted a big family.

Then this whole monster wave disaster struck, and everyone’s plans were put on hold.

***

I was counting on Asteria to help the priestess cast the shield spell over the city. Without it, the number crunchers predicted that ninety percent of the city’s infrastructure would be destroyed and seventy-eight percent of the population would be lost.

The inhabitants of the city had been evacuated to hastily built fortified shelters that would be defended by armed militia, mostly monster hunters, drawn from the civilian population. The city’s mood was grim.

The military was spread out in a thin defensive line around the city. Our goal was to kill as many of the monsters as we could before they reached the populated areas.

The area in front of the city had been planted with mines and fenced in with barbed wire and barricades. The regular soldiers were in the trenches, but the EL units would be sent far ahead of the defensive line to take care of the monsters that were too much for the soldiers to handle.

I’d read up on the previous monster waves. Though it was said that all the monsters rushed to the sea, most of them never made it that far. The madness that was driving them to their deaths killed the weaker ones. Only the strongest and sturdiest survived to attack Kraej City.

On the first day of the attack, Seraph, Uriel, and I would be wherever the biggest and baddest monsters were. Then we’d rotate shifts so that each of us would have an eight-hour break every day while the other two held the line.

The EL units would be doing the same thing, but they were to leave the monsters they couldn’t handle to the three of us.

The Kraej had ordered us to leave if the situation turned hopeless. They had helicopters ready for us, but I had no intention of running away. Neither did Seraph and Uriel.

***

The scouts had reported that there were nine S-class monsters within three hours of the city. Seraph, Uriel, and I were going to kill them before they came too close.

In this type of war of attrition, anima efficiency was the name of the game. Big, flashy spells or special abilities should only be used sparingly because if you ran out of anima, you were dead.

Looking down at the sea of monsters, I picked a spot and sent a large fireball to clear an area for us. The three of us jumped down as soon as the pilot had flown the helicopter low enough. It would be dangerous to keep using the helicopter close to the ground since there were monsters big enough to threaten it. We’d start at the farthest S-class monster and kill the others as we made our way back to the city on foot.

“Fire!”

The weaker monsters were immediately incinerated and all of the other monsters except for our target fled the area around us.

The Koshesk, an S-class cave monster, was strong but out of its element. It thrived in the darkness underground where it would lay in wait for unwary prey which it would trap in its sticky webs. Seraph and Uriel dodged its thread attack and made their way closer to its body. Seraph launched ice missiles at it while Uriel destabilized the earth under the Koshesk.

My role was to watch their backs and keep the other monsters away with my fire spells, but I could join in if there were no other monsters nearby.

“Fire.”

I used a weaker fire spell to warn off the monsters that were running too close. The wave of monsters parted to either side of me, leaving the space clear for Seraph and Uriel.

There was a crash behind me. Uriel had punched the Koshesk so hard that one of its limbs had flown off, making the monster fall to one side. Seraph took the opportunity to leap up to the monster’s head to blind it.

A few more punches and cuts and it was dead. One down, eight more to go.

I cleared the way for us with my fire spells as we ran to intercept the next one, a Muchilirn bear. It was small for an S-class, only three feet taller than Uriel, but it was fast and had a diamond-hard body that regenerated itself.

We were still half a mile away when I spotted it. One fire spell to the face was enough to make it roar in outrage and barrel its way towards us, swatting away the monsters in its path. Good. I wouldn’t have to waste my time on the small fry.

“Vortex.”

The monster was swept up into the sky by a whirlwind of wind, fire, ice, earth, and lightning bolts before coming down with a crash. The damned Muchilirn bear barely paused before getting up and continuing its advance.

It was a tough one, but not tough enough.

Seraph’s blade only scratched it, but its diamond skin was no match for the blunt force of Uriel’s fists. Few things were. I’d seldom seen Uriel vent his full fury on a monster, but this time he didn’t hold anything back. The Muchilirn bear’s insides must have been turned to mush by the time Uriel was finished pounding it into the ground.

The next monster was quite a distance from this one, but we were still relatively fresh by the time we got to the Mavolog, a reptile whose body was protected by a bony shell. The poor thing was carrying its children on its back, but we couldn’t let that stop us. There were children back in the city who would die if we didn’t kill it.

Mavolog were normally gentle creatures who lived in lakes in small family units. They ate plants and small freshwater aquatic monsters. There was something very wrong with seeing a black-eyed, maddened Mavolog rampaging through the horde of monsters, crushing the smaller monsters with its huge webbed feet.

Seraph froze the entire monster and its kids then sent ice spears to impale them, killing them instantly. This was exactly the kind of anima-intensive spell we were supposed to avoid using, but I couldn’t blame him. The little Mavologs were so cute that he must have wanted to put them out of their misery as fast as possible. Poor things.

“Don’t cry, Sariel,” said Seraph.

“What? I’m not crying. I got some dust in my eyes.” I rubbed my eyes. “Six more to go.”

By the fifth S-class monster, I was starting to tire. I was a magician, not a martial artist like the other two.

By the seventh, I could barely cast any more spells. Uriel was also starting to flag.

By the ninth, only Seraph was still in good fighting condition. He did most of the killing on that one and he was the one who cleared a path for us back to the city’s frontlines. We were all dusty and bloodstained, but Seraph still looked impressive despite the filth. How the hell did he keep his long black hair from tangling in the wind? It must be magic.

The men in the trenches greeted us with wild cheering. We waved to the men before retreating to a tent for some rest.

“One hour before the first wave reaches the front line, sir,” said an A-class to us.

One hour to rest before going back to kill more monsters.

My secretary Gitte materialized with food, drinks, and wet towels for us.

“What are you doing here? Go to the shelters with your family,” I said.

“Sir, it’s safer here,” said Gitte.

That was probably true. The soldiers here were better trained than the militia.

“Besides, she’s going to save us from the monster wave,” said Gitte.

“I hope so,” I said. Then it struck me that Gitte shouldn’t know about Asteria. “Wait, what are you talking about? The goddess?”

“No, sir. The news said that the Parian priestess is going to raise a shield over the city just like they did last time,” said Gitte. She sounded a little uncertain.

So the Kraej had found a way to pacify the masses while covering their asses at the same time. If the city fell, they’d blame it on the priestess.

“Yes, I think she’ll be able to raise the shield,” I said, but I wasn’t talking about the priestess.

If she didn’t, then we were all dead.