I'll be releasing three chapters of Twisted Nerves and then three of Phantasmagoria from now on.

Six days passed in a blink of an eye. During that time, the group got acquainted with the villagers and the other players participating in the event. They were also split up in the various groups of the militia: Electra would be part of the airborne group, Matagi was going to be part of the vanguard, followed by the militants to which Gaea was assigned. Atlas decided to focus on magic and thus was part of the attack mages’ group, and as Aisha was still trying to obtain the Bow Mastery skill, she requested to be assigned to the archers on guard on the wall-walk.

Everyone was ready for battle since dawn, as they only knew the date of the attack and not something more specific. It was still better than nothing. The tension in the air was palpable and with no one speaking aloud, only whispering and mumbling, it wasn’t getting any better as time passed. The first to notice something was an archer in Aisha’s group, who then quickly alarmed everyone else. Like that, the battle for the defence of Jeilou Village began.

What the lithe wood elf had noticed was a flock of black-skinned beings with similarly coloured wings. Once Aisha was able to see them clearly, she recognized them as Tengu. They were all around 1 meter tall, with human features apart from the wings and the abnormally long nose. Also, they had clothes resembling hakamas, kimonos and such. Below, preparations were made in a hurry as every soldier was called to attention. Deciding to not slack off, Aisha began preparing her bow and arrows.

The moment the flock of monsters was in the range of some archers (Aisha wasn’t one of them), was also the moment creatures began exiting the forest while running toward the wooden walls protecting the village. As the avian creatures were still too far for her, Aisha decided to calmly observe the land monsters.

She saw nimble weasel-like creatures running in the front, the only difference was that each of them had claws resembling a sickle, called Kamaitachi. These mobs were the first to enter in contact with Jeilou’s militia, which encountered the problem of their enemies being both too little and too agile. Of course some were still killed, but many made it through the vanguards and continued running toward the closed gate.

These were just temporary walls, even made of wood, so Reginald opted to not rely on them too much, positioning almost ¾ of the militia outside the walls. While Gaea and her companions dealt with the Kamaitachi, Aisha spotted black humanoids, pretty much like three dimensional gender-neutral shadows, called Yobuko that took on the appearance of the nearest soldiers of the militia, causing some to be confused as to who was the enemy and who was the friend.

Aisha was clearly able to distinguish them, so she took it upon herself to attack the imposters. After all, Matagi wanted to help this village. When only fifty or so Kamaitachi remained, large monsters arrived. They were called Waira and were simply horrendous: they had the head of a dog and the body of a spider, but each of their legs ended with sickle-like claws. Aisha wondered for a second if they were related to the Kamaitachi but quickly shrugged the thought off.

The Waira were visibly harder to defeat, and casualties in the militia’s ranks began to appear more frequently. Aisha though noted that Matagi was as lively as ever, not breaking a sweat even when confronting such opponents and also finding the time to help her comrades out. The attack mages began taking this seriously while the clerics and such stepped up their games.

Abura-sumashi, 120cm tall human-like creatures with straw-coat covered bodies and a potato-like head, came out and supported the other creatures using water magic. The attention of the attack mages was forcefully directed to them, leaving Matagi and Gaea’s groups to fend off the Wairas alone. The various archers on the wall-walk were mostly occupied with dealing with the Tengus, but Electra’s group was certainly helping.

A loud cry resounded in the air around an hour later. Aisha looked up to see Electra, three other players and five NPCs fighting a Daitengu, which was basically just a larger and bigger Tengu. His high level compared to the rest designated him as either the boss or mini-boss of this battle. All the archers began focusing on him, the healers paid more attention to Electra’s party and a few attack mages, all players, began launching their attacks at the giant creatures instead of attacking the Abura-sumashis.

More Tengus arrived, making it possible for some of them to break through the archers and the airborne militia’s defences and attack either the archers or Matagi or Gaea’s group. Still, the instant the Daitengu was killed, every single Tengu began retreating. The carcass of such a big creature damaged both enemies and allies alike after its fall.

With the disappearance of flying enemies, the archers and Electra’s group could concentrate on supporting their land allies.

‘The fact that only the airborne monsters retreated,’ thought Aisha, ‘probably means that the Daitengu was still a mini-boss. I guess this won’t be quick.’

And it indeed wasn’t quick, as several hours later they were still fighting against Wairas, Abura-sumashis and Yobukos. The soldiers began feeling tired, but it was then that another roar was heard, when the enemy monsters were down to only a few hundreds. A giant centipede crawled out of the forest with immense speed and began devouring the soldiers, not caring if they were already dead and on the ground or alive and trying to attack and hurt him. His level, 175, placed him as the boss and last enemy in this event.

Aisha watched how some players, which were probably warriors, lost their cool as they fought, or at least tried to, against the Ōmukade. The Ōmukade was entirely black, its antennae were thin and around 2m long. Its mandibles' black luster instilled fear as naturally as it was breathing. Each of his legs were 150cm long and each section of his body was four meters long and two meters wide. Even its flattened head felt intimidating and the occasional screeches it let out certainly didn't help. Aisha indifferently continued to do her job, shooting down Yobukos, as the group of players was skillfully getting slaughtered. Scanning the battlefield, she also noticed the absence of Gaea and Matagi, which meant that they were now probably dead.

Only a handful of Abura-sumashis remained when a paladin-like player began rallying the soldiers against the Ōmukade, causing all the soldiers and more than half of the attack mages to assist him. Atlas was one of the few still fighting the spirits, as someone had to keep them at bay to give the others enough time to kill the boss.

The battle against the giant centipede was a bit underwhelming as every soldier just mindlessly ganged up on the creature, not minding his life. The healers’ workload increased substantially and many more victims were made, but still, in the end, the monster died. It was then, when every single person relaxed, that a system message appeared before every player. Apart from Aisha, every single player's face paled.

First wave of the event ‘Village Defense’ completed!Next wave in: 3 days