They would be lying if they said there was not a small sense of tension in the air. Their hands, clasping tightly onto bows and polearms just the same, were beginning to sweat even under the cold. Suits of armor that hadn't seen the face of carnage could be weaker than the farmers whose pitchforks battled the beasts away, or so an old saying said. It wasn't difficult to infer that the soldiers that resided in Pontya did not see much action even in times of crisis. Their sturdy walls and strategical position had been enough to fend off any attack against them for the past hundred years, and nobody thought that such a thing could change.

Miel, however, seemed troubled as he spoke of a sudden threat coming from the north. He had been criticized by the captains of the army for showing weakness and lowering the morale of his soldiers, but it was enough to speak of how dangerous this supposed threat could be. Unrest had grown slowly, and given the short timeline they had been given to prepare, not many of the soldiers managed to mentally prepare for battle. In a similar fashion, the counts and nearby lords had been surprised by the sudden request of aid by the city. A petition to allocate troops in standby surrounding the city was not something that the general of Pontya would normally do.

It had become the talk of the barracks. The soldiers kept talking about information that had been passed down by higher-ups as slips-of-tongue and mindless gossip, but that seemed true enough to frighten them slightly.

"Someone said they saw that man in th' farmland! Thom whatshisface, th'guy who was a lieutenant!" Chatter could be heard at the top of the walls.

"Shit, do ya think that criminal's the one attacking?"

"Well, bitch's harder to kill than a zombie cockroach, or so I heard. He's exchanged fisticuffs with the general twice and bastard's still alive!" A soldier imitated a fighting stance as he ducked to the side without anything to dodge.

"You dare call the sword-swinging of the general mere fisticuffs? Do you wanna get some of mine, ya runt?"

"No fighting." The chief of guard reminded them as he looked up from a book.

"Tsk, well whatever it is, we've got to stay here all morning and it's his fault. Gonna wreck him if I get my hands on 'im."

"Well, I heard he could fly!"

"Quit the booze, ya. If he could fly he would be either a grand mage or a fucking monster." A half-asleep soldier let out a yawn as he answered.

"Talking 'bout monsters... Seems like that's what's going to be."

"Monsters?"

"A handful, he." The other man chuckled. "Seems it could be a rough day. Bet they won't even know how to use a ladder."

"Huff. Cleaning duty's gonna be pain after this one then..." A woman said while accomodating her chainmail.

"Better than getting zombie monsters!"

"You're lying." Another soldier frowned. "You telling me monsters can go walk dead too?"

"Ohoho, you haven't been outside these walls, my friend. You bet your ass. Didn't ya know? Kulkus is damned! From the bay all the way up to the capital, it's a boiling pot to cook up all the undead shit you will need in your life!"

"... Well I don't remember particularly asking for that in my life."

"Did ye guys know people shit themselves after they die? Oh, and piss themselves too. So fighting undead is as pleasant as fighting a rattle of drunkards with their pants too heavy!" A man waved his polearm with a smile.

"Sounds like the asylum up the alley." Someone sighed in a low voice.

Light began to creep up in the sky followed by the blinding sun. From a dark orange to a soft blue, a few hours passed as the soldiers stood their watches and joked about the nuisances of life. A couple of cards were thrown and bets were placed, stories of other battlefields were told for the hundredth time as boredom became commonplace. Yawns could be heard after ten in the morning, and a few slaps from the captain too. It was a leisurely image that would not be expected to come from a place so endangered.

No one could deny they trusted their city firmly. Only a natural disaster could shake them, that phrase had been tossed around many times, and many soldiers put their blind trust in such remarks. Others, perhaps those who could be called fatalists, were sure of their demise as soon as they were put on top of that wall. Soldiers all had different points of view. They would react differently to the adversities of a siege. The only certain thing was that each of them would pray, saying that at the moment those walls came crashing down, their bodies would not be the ones below the rubble.

A certain feeling of unrest began to raise. There had been silence for a few minutes, but whispers had begun to surface quickly, lighting up the string of a cannon full of anxiety.

"Something's coming out of the forest." The men on the watchtowers began to speak. It was not a necessary thing to say. Soldiers all across the wall could see the shadows silently emerging from the forest, walking without formation nor poise. It was a line of red-colored beasts, hidden behind nothing but fur, sporting only a weapon in their right hand. They were a mile away, but their silhouette was already enough to count their numbers.

From lifeless trees and branches, an army began to emerge. There were close to five hundred of them. Half a thousand enemies had begun to walk towards them, and only then, uncertainty and terror became real. With a steady rhythm, the enemy began to walk towards them, no rush, and no running. Was it their tranquility that made the soldiers so impatient? Or was it that slight difference in the way they walked that made it impossible to mistake them for humans which terrified them?

"They're really coming..." Someone swallowed dry as they thought to whisper.

"Do not cower." The chief raised his voice. "Team archer to the front. Remember, every two, one from the b team. B team, fire your arrows once the enemy is close."

There was no time for hesitation. Archers quickly stood forward and drew from their bows, holding their breaths as they did.

"Half an hour higher." The chief said. Bows tilted slightly upwards. "Keep those chins steady."

Watching others perform before you was a good way to foment your impatience. One of the soldiers saw his companion biting his nails, narrowing his eyes. Was he that nervous?

"Hey, Bill."

"Hm?" The soldier named Bill turned his head around a bit too quickly. "Ah... I'm sorry, did you need something?"

"Don't be so tense." The older soldier chuckled. "This is nothing. Five hundred soldiers maybe? Against a city? Even if they get through the gates they won't kill us. You think they'll just go up the wall and murder us one by one after they go in? For what?"

"Well..." Bill sighed and clutched his head with his hand. "It's just... I would rather be waiting inside the city. Here we can die even if they don't go in."

"Hey, you're young, Bill. If anything happens just run. No one's got time to hunt you down. What they want is the general's head, the caps'. Maybe Chief Chamgue's, too. We foot soldiers, conscripts, you think we have any value?"

"Hngh..."

Chatter was interrupted by the voice of the chief suddenly yelling.

"Fire!"

Arrows flew out of their strings at a terrifying speed, reaching an incredibly high point before suddenly raining back down. Monsters began to dodge and sway, but many of them were struck and they fell limp on the ground. Regardless, the rest kept advancing at the same slow pace, without any haste.

"Good shot. Draw once more." The chief exclaimed and the archers followed suit.

"Sigh..." Bill put his head between his legs. "This is going to be a terrible day..."

"Kek. Cheer up." The older soldier stood up and walked a bit closer to the row of archers. "He, it seems they took out quite the lot of them. At this rate we might not even need to engage in actual combat, they'll die before we—"

Those words stopped mid-sentence. Suddenly, the monsters that had been struck by arrows began to stand back up, as if they had just been dazed. They removed the arrows that had struck their bodies to reveal they had just penetrated their skin lightly, and began walking with only minor wounds.

"Hey hey..."

"Are you for real?"

"That's got to be some good leather they've got..."

"Was our aim always this bad?"

The chief got visibly irritated. He pressed on, however.

"Raise your elbows, pull your strings back! Don't let some measly monsters brace your arrows like they're feathers! Unless ya bunch of pansies want to be thrown off the wall and left to the monsters, give me a real shot this time!"

"Aye!"

Arrows flew up into the sky rather vigorously and landed on the skin of the fur-coated monsters, none of them missing their mark. Several fell to their feet and went limp this once, though many still rose back up. How were their arrows blunt enough to penetrate through the chest and still not dig a wound fatal enough?

On the back, the soldiers who had come with the hope that their only job would be to observe the archers defend the wall begun to panic slightly. Battlefields were always dominated by range, and arrows shot by the best marksmen would penetrate even sturdy plates. It was inconceivable that beasts who had nothing but fur as armor had resisted the assault of their arrows with such ease.

"They're still away!" The chief yelled with a wave of his hand. "Shoot again! Team B, as soon as they get close to the hill begin your operation!"

"Aye, sir!"

The sky was filled with arrows once more, raining down on the enemy. This time many of them raised their weapons to protect themselves, or pieces of wood they had attached to their own arms in advance. Maybe they had been intimidated by the few deaths in their ranks, but this time, the clacking sound of arrows being deflected and smashing against hard objects brought satisfaction to the monsters, together with courage. Malevolent grins could be seen appearing on the lips of the red devils, showing teeth that were sharp as knives and dirty like scrubs. Terror surfaced in the heart of the soldiers for a couple of seconds, accompanied by the laughter of the enemy.

"Hey hey. You've got to be kidding me, right?" The older soldier muttered under his breath.

"It... It's not that weird for an army to deflect arrows, you know?" Bill nervously laughed it off, a fake smile on his face. "They might be using plate under their cloaks. It's just a tactic to make us fear them!"

The soldiers around him looked at his face. Including the chief, they delved in that possibility for a second, and their hearts eased slightly.

"Don't cower!" Berated the chief. "Have you not heard me? How dare you lower your bows!"

"Yes sir!"

Bill sighed as he heard the strings go off again. It was a sound that assaulted the ears and was at the same time quite satisfying to hear, maybe because it had always inspired some trust in him.

He reviewed in his head what he had to do in case that the enemy managed to get to the wall. More precisely, in case that they somehow climbed up to where he was. As a mere conscript his skill with the spear wasn't much, and his courage left much to be desired of. He had practiced endless nights but was still not adept enough to the weapon on his hand. Wouldn't it be enough as long as he pierced his enemy? Even if he did, there was no simulation in his head about what to do afterward. His lack of creativity made him dull in a fight, even when he had managed to climb from a simple village guard to be part of the middle section of the army.

"Would I be able to win...?" He peeked through the back of the archers and saw the moving army in front. "..."

His hand touched a single pouch on the left side of his waist, a gift he hadn't used even in the past three years. If he found himself in a dire situation, he would have to.

"They're advancing...!"

"They've gotten up to the hill in no time!"

"We've only taken out a dozen..."

"Team A go back! Team B walk forward! Remember not to hit the lever, aim towards the mark!"

Bill snapped back to the voices of the worried soldiers. In the few seconds in which he had zoned out, the monsters had already begun walking up the slope, unrelenting as before. Their march continued uninterrupted by the arrows, until finally, they got to the palisade. With hands and weapons they began pushing against the brittle fortifications, trying not to have them fall on top of them.

The archers who had been shooting up until now lowered their bows, and another team raised theirs. They dozed their arrowheads in oil and hit a flint against it, lightning it on fire. Without delay, they placed the arrow on the string and fired not towards the monsters, but towards the palisade.

Flames rose up from the wood as the arrowheads lodged into the intersections, turning the palisades into a blazing wall. The monsters slapped their coats and rustled their bodies to put themselves out, but the dry grass below their feet burned even more passionately than their own bodies, heating even the soil under their feet.

"Droppers!" After a single order men forcibly began to lower barrels filled with oil. Soldiers by their side cut down the roped that held the barrels, making them crash down towards the grass with enough force to rebound. They began rolling down the hill against the palisade, bouncing and throttling down towards the fire, terrifying like the noise they produced.

BAM!

Wood flew in the air as oil exploded against the palisades, drenching the monsters in its liquids. Screeches proliferated in the air as hundreds began to burn, taking off their coats in a hurry. Looks of relief and sadistic pleasure arose all the same from the soldiers on the wall. Bill let out a small chuckle with eyes agape, something proper of a lunatic, but that no one would dare frown upon at that moment.

"Looks like that got them..."

"Don't get your guard down! Team A, shoot ag—!'

Before his words could drop, one of the sections of the palisade suddenly flew back and crashed against the ground, crumbling into burning sticks. One of the monsters had smashed it into pieces with a swing of his greatsword, while still being engulfed in flames.

"What?!"

"How can that monster move?!"

A warcry erupted out of that single monster's mouth, which followed with the roar of every beast behind his back. They removed their coats with their bodies still engulfed in flames and tore what looked like a makeshift bag out of their waists simply to rip them apart with their teeth and devour its contents.

Their blazing bodies did not put out, but they seemed to regain their vitality as they gulped down the unknown substances inside the bags, then, they smashed their own bodies against the palisades, bringing them each time closer to crumble to ashes.

"By Periphia..." One of the archers mumbled.

"I've seen that herb before... Was it serizal? Serizal herb, was it?"

"Fuck! They weren't using plate! They weren't even using leather armor underneath their coats!"

Bill swallowed dry before muttering a few words. "Red... Hobgoblins...?"

Now that the humanoid bodies of the hobgoblins had been shown to the army, an even greater fear rose inside their hearts. Goblins would be easy to deal with for a trained soldier if they fought one against one, but hobgoblins often showed the same dexterity and strenght of a human, while still being as savage as beasts. Their unpredictability made them dangerous enough, but a resistance to arrows and fire on top of that?

Quickly, all that remained of the palisade was ashes, and an army that advanced up the slope with claws and fangs, still wrapped with the scars of the fire that had recently just died. The muscular monster at the front of the enemy army was smiling wryly as he held a greatsword between his crooked fingers, taunting them with his other hand.

"Fucking aberrations...!" The chief bit down on his lip. "They dare mock us?! Droppers, roll the stones!"

A group of soldiers lifted several stones to the ledge of the wall and pushed them off with haste. Seeing this, the hobs moved to the sides and grouped together to avoid them.

"Fire!"

The archers shot their arrows down as the enemy moved to avoid the danger, perfectly nailing the mark and riddling the monsters with wounds, although their advance did not halt. Clicking their tongues, the archers could only step back and look awkwardly at their leader.

"Did their ladders burn?"

"They don't seem to be carrying any."

"Were they not prepared for an actual siege...? They don't have a battering ram either..."

Confusion was the only emotion clouding their heads at the moment. Had they wasted their supplies needlessly when there was no real way in which the monsters could force their entry?

Then, together with the halt of the nearly five hundred hobgoblins climbing up the slope, the forest was suddenly enveloped by another shadow. Eyes opened wide, surprise took over the body of the present soldiers. They had been misled to think that only a measly army had been sent against them.

"This..." Bill quietly pronounced his disbelief. The sky seemed to grow darker as the enemy drew closer, like a bad omen over their heads.