“Before we dive right into the monster horde, I need to tell you a few things first,” Belka said as we neared the back of the swarm of angry monsters trying to break into the village. “I need you to tone down your spells a bit. Whatever you did back there to take care of the wargs chasing you before you arrived to help me, don't do that when we start helping the village.”

I was surprised that Belka knew what happened during my battle with the wargs even though she was battling a troll herself. “Wait, are you telling me to hold back?”

“Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying,” Belka replied. “Taloress' speed is within the normal bounds of the human limits, albeit at the very peak, but your magic is too powerful. Your reputation in the village is already abysmal, and the last thing you want is to further make yourself look like a monster.”

As much as I liked hearing other people praise my magic, I was still confused. “Why would my magic make me look like a monster? Won't the people be rather impressed if I showed them I could easily defend them with my magic?”

“For such an intelligent person, you can be quite naive,” Belka said with a chuckle. “You really are just a kid.”

“I'd prefer it if you get to you're point, Belka,” I said annoyedly. I never liked being called a child, even if I was one.

“What I'm trying to say is the people of Wildpost are just that. People. They're ordinary people that couldn't control mana and use it to do crazy stuff as we do,” Belka began. “So when they encounter people like us, they fear us. It takes more than ten ordinary adult men just to fend off a warg, but what do you think they'll feel if they see a lone man kill more than five wargs with nothing but their will?”

Realization dawned on me. They wouldn't see me as someone who helped them. They'd see me as someone who could easily kill them with literally nothing but a thought.

“But the people of Wildpost don't fear you,” I said. “You've been living here for years and yet from what I see, your hunters respect you.”

“Oh, it took a lot more than a year before the villagers got used to me,” Belka chuckled, but behind her light-hearted tone, I detected sadness. “The villagers still have some semblance of fear towards me, but not as much as when they first met me. And I kept it that way by not showing off my power at every opportunity I have.”

I winced at the last part. As much as I try to deny it, I just love showing off to other people, but it seems it's starting to bite me in the ass. No wonder Selise looked so pale earlier.

“That's why you should be careful with the amount of power you show off,” Belka warned. “Spook the villagers too much and you'll never be truly welcome in Wildpost. It's pretty rough being alone in a village full of people, so I hope you heed my advice.”

There was a hint of melancholy to Belka's words, but they were gone as soon as she turned towards the monsters ahead. Her last words pretty much described my current standing in the village, but I have a feeling that it didn't only apply to me.

“Here's what we're gonna do,” Belka said as she eyed the horde. “Since we don't have much experience in fighting together, I'm gonna make our plan simple. We're going to slowly attract the monsters over to us to lighten the pressure on the villagers. I'm gonna take care of things from the front while you and Taloress stay at the back. You'll be supporting me with your spells while Taloress keeps any monster that manages to get past me from reaching you. We do this until the monster horde is completely wiped out. Is that okay with you?”

“That sounds like a good plan,” I said in agreement. There was no use thinking up a complicated plan when we didn't even know each other's abilities.

“Great. Let's get moving,” Belka said before marching up to the back of the monster horde.

As we approached, some of the monsters began noticing us and shifted their focus from the village to our small group. We didn't even have to do anything to attract the monsters before they started charging towards us.

Dozens of meters away in front of us, the first group of monsters were approaching fast, a small horde consisting of the large boar monsters I encountered during my travels in the Wild Woods and a new type of monster I've seen that looked like oversized lizards.

“First wave incoming!” Belka shouted over her shoulder. “Four stampede boars and five bosk lizards! Get ready!”

I quickly formed five magic circles made of thread, but I only channeled mana into one of them. I was going to follow Belka's advice and try to limit myself to one Force Blast every few seconds, but that didn't mean I wouldn't prepare for unexpected situations, hence the extra magic circles. My reputation in Wildpost was important, but I'm not going to risk my life for it.

The oversized lizards were faster than the boars, and so they were the first ones to arrive. The first two immediately pounced at Belka, their fangs bared. With her sword already broken during her battle with the troll, Belka didn't have a weapon, but that didn't mean she was any less deadly. Faster than even the lizards which were obviously built for speed, Belka snatched the two reptiles midair and held them by the throats, choking them.

When the three other lizards arrived, Belka used the two she had in her hands as her weapons, swinging their reptilian bodies at their fellow brethren. One was unfortunate enough to get smacked down flat on the ground, an opportunity Belka didn't miss. With a loud squelching crunch, Belka crushed the downed lizard's head with her boot.

She didn't falter after brutally stomping on a lizard's head. Immediately after, she charged the two other lizards, swinging her living weapons at them. One of them dodged to the side and intended to bite Belka's foot, but before it even got close, I activated my Force Blast and sent it flying away like a ragdoll.

With no other distractions, Belka quickly rushed the last lizard and pummeled it to death with the two other lizards she held in her hands. When the last lizard stopped breathing, she let go of her weapons, which were now nothing more than a pair of bloody reptilian corpses. I'm starting to think of Belka less as a hunter and more like a barbarian.

Before I could comment on Belka's savage methods, the boars were already upon us. Each one was big, almost as tall as Belka's chest, and she wasn't a small woman. But even with their large sizes, Belka still met the first one's charge head-on, catching it by the tusks. Belka's feet made gouges on the ground as she was pushed back, but she eventually stopped. With a grunt, Belka lifted the boar from the ground, spun in place while still carrying the monster, and when she gathered enough momentum, threw the piggy at its oncoming brethren.

The first flying pig I've ever seen squealed loudly as it smashed into the other charging boars like a bowling ball, sending two of them going down on the ground. The last one managed to avoid the flying pig, but it wasn't able to dodge my Force Blast. The spell hit it right on its face, strong enough to significantly slow its charge. Belka followed up and punched it on the forehead, shattering its skull with a loud crunch and instantly killing it.

Belka proceeded to finish off the other boars that got hit by the flying pig earlier, easily killing them using only her fists. By the time she was done, Belka's breathing was only a little bit faster than usual.

“Do you even need me for this?” I asked dumbfoundedly as I looked at the pile of corpses surrounding the Head Hunter.

“No,” Belka said with a chuckle. “But it is a chance for you to let the villagers know that you're willing to help them in times like this.”

“I don't think I'll be able to do that if you steal all the kills,” I said blandly.

Before Belka could reply, another wave of monsters was already coming towards us from the distance, and it was bigger than the first. “Let's chitchat later. For now, focus on killing these overgrown farm animals.”

I didn't get to shoot back a witty reply before the second wave, far larger than the first, was upon us.

●●●

When Selise arrived at the village gate, the first thing she saw was the shield wall holding back the veritable tide of monsters trying to break their way in. The size of the horde terrified Selise, freezing her in place as she watched the villagers frantically try to push their weight to support the shield wall.

In all the years that Wildpost had existed in the Wild Woods, they had experienced dozens of monster attacks, all of which were easily repelled by their well-trained hunters. The number of times that the gate was breached because of larger monster attacks could be counted on one hand, and even then, they were easily taken care of once the villagers coordinated with the hunters to defend their homes.

But Selise knew this situation was different. There were far too many monsters for the villagers to handle. Add the fact that the Head Hunter, the strongest individual in the village, was nowhere to be found, Selise was starting to feel dread creep up inside her.

As if to prove her point, a section of the shield wall gave in, the men at the front finally crumbling after a long time of holding the line. The monsters didn't miss the opportunity and flooded through the gap like water finding its way through a crack, crushing the fallen shield-bearers under their feet.

The villagers tried to close the gap and reform the shield wall, but it was too late. Monsters had already breached the shield wall and were wreaking havoc in the back lines. I have to find Terence quick and get him out of here, Selise thought frantically.

Knowing Terence, Selise knew the boy would refuse to run away when he could help defend his home, so she decided that the most probable place she could find him was where the fighting was thickest.

But before she could start running around in the chaos looking for her friend, someone suddenly grabbed her arm, which made Selise jump and punch at the same time. Her fist landed perfectly on Ned's face, making him stagger back with a “Guh!”.

“Oh, Ned! I'm so sorry!” Selise cried out once she realized who gripped her arm before her face twisted in anger. “What were you doing sneaking up on me like that?!”

“I should be the one asking you the questions!” Ned exclaimed as he massaged his cheek. “What are you doing here?! You're supposed to be grounded, aren't you?”

“You think I care about that while our village is being overrun by monsters?!” Selise shouted incredulously. “Besides, I need to find Terence, I know he's here somewhere.”

The mention of the blacksmith's apprentice's name put a scowl on Ned's face. “You mean Sootface? Forget about him, we gotta get you out of here right now!”

“Don't you call him that!” Selise snarled. “And you don't get to dictate my actions, Ned. I will do what I want. Now let go of me!”

Instead of letting go, Ned tightened his grip further. “Don't be stupid, Selise! We need to go now! Sir Dalton has already given the order to fall back to the secondary defensive line!”

Before Selise could tell Ned to leave her alone, one of the screaming bird monsters flying above, a shrieker, dove towards their location to take a nip at the young man. Ned inadvertently let go of Selise's arm, giving her the chance to escape him and run off to find Terence.

●●●

“Hold the line!” Dalton bellowed behind the ranks of men holding up shields against the tide of monsters. “Don't let a single one of those fuckers get past you!”

The men shouted in agreement and pushed back all at once, staggering the monsters on the other side of their shields. Terence would have shouted along with them if he could, but alas, fatigue was starting to overwhelm him. Their ranks were now thinner as the others had already begun to retreat to the second defensive line. Terence and the others left behind were staying to cover the retreat.

Ever since the battle began, Terence had already been laboring on the front, stabbing his long spear between the shields at the front along with the rest of the men to hold back the monsters. Already, there was a pile of monster corpses before the shield wall, but the horde never seemed to end as those that died were replaced by those behind it. Only his pride as a man and his love for his village were keeping him going.

From time to time, Terence would hear a faint boom beyond the wall, but he attributed it as some other monster trying to bash the wall, just like how the forest troll began the attack by obliterating the wall with its makeshift club.

Terence shuddered at the memory. If the Head Hunter hadn't turned herself into a distraction and led the troll away outside the village, this battle would have been a lost cause already.

“Step back five paces on my command!” Dalton shouted behind them, shaking Terence out from his reverie. “Step!”

All at once, the ranks of men stepped back, careful to coordinate their movements with each other to maintain their formation. They had already stepped back several times throughout the battle, and Terence knew this would likely be the last time. With the shield wall having three sides that were boxing in the monsters, if they stepped back too much, gaps between each shield would start widening, weakening their defense.

But they had no choice but to do so. If they stayed in place, the mounds of corpses in front of the shield wall would pile too high and the monsters would be able to use them as a ladder to go over them. Terence was always amazed by how the people of Wildpost were able to coordinate so well as they stepped back with precision, but as if to prove his point wrong, Dalton bellowed in anger behind them.

“Fourth segment!” Dalton shouted, referring to a section of the eastern flank. “What are you blokes waiting for?! I SAID STEP BACK FIVE PACES!”

Alas, the men must not have heard the order or must have been too tired to follow it. By the time they started moving, a herd of stampede boars had already climbed the small hill of corpses in front of the eastern flank and jumped over the shield wall with ear-splitting squeals. Long spears met the large monsters and stabbed them as the boars came down, but they were too heavy. The sound of snapping wood and screaming men echoed throughout the battlefield as the eastern flank was crushed beneath the weight of the stampede boars.

Before Terence could properly process the events happening on the eastern flank, he heard a pained cry in front of him. He was a part of the second rank, the line behind the first rank that held the shields. Which meant the cry he heard came from Semil, the large man directly in front of him. The man who was now lying on the ground screaming as a stampede boar stomped on his legs until they looked more like bloody chunks of meat, the stomps slowly moving up Semil's body.

“H-Help me!” Semil cried as he tried to slip the rectangular shield in his hands over his legs to shelter them from the boar's metal hooves.

“Semil!” Terence shouted as he tried to stab the boar again and again with the spear he held in his hands. “Get away from him, you fucking pig!”

The men beside Terence spotted the fallen Semil and helped kill the boar, but by the time they did, the boar's stomps had already reached Semil's abdomen. What was left of the large man was a corpse with his abdomen burst open and his innards scattered everywhere while his legs were twisted in every direction.

Semil's wife was supposed to give birth this spring, Terence thought in horror as he stared at the ravaged corpse in front of him. But before he could throw up, the loud cries of men echoed out again, this time from the western flank. The shield wall's crumbling.

Terence's thoughts were interrupted as a bosk lizard replaced the large boar that killed Semil. With the shield-bearer dead, Terence was now the one at the very front. As much as he wanted to turn back and run, he suppressed his fear, dropped his spear, and picked up Semil's battered shield from his fingers.

“Stay, BACK!” Terence shouted as he bashed the snarling lizard. He braced his feet on the ground, ready to receive the next attack that would come. In a corner of his mind, Terence knew he was probably going to die today. The fear from that simple thought almost froze him, but when the person behind him slipped his spear over Terence's shoulder and gave him a reassuring tap, Terence calmed down. I'm not alone.

With his resolve strengthened, Terence braced his shield, ready to defend Wildpost to his last breath.

But just as the entire shield wall was starting to crumble, the monsters' push began to abate. All over the line, Terence heard sounds of confusion as the monsters started retreating.

“Reform the wall!” Dalton barked. His order shot through the confusion and soon, the men were rapidly recovering and going back to their positions. But this time, there were no more monsters to push back against. “Advance to the breach!”

The line started advancing towards the broken gate. The men had to traverse the mounds of monster corpses that piled up over the battle, and as the one on the front carrying a shield, Terence had a hard time climbing it while making sure he didn't break the formation.

As he tried to pull out his foot that sunk in a warg's belly, he heard a string of muttered curses behind him. When he looked over his shoulder, it turned out someone was pushing her way through the ranks of men. When she finally arrived behind him, Terence's eyes widened in shock. “Selise?! What are you doing here?!”

“I should be the one asking that! What's a boy with zero battle experience doing on the very front?!”

“I'm not a boy!” Terence whispered harshly, consciously looking at the men beside him to see if they heard. If they did, they showed no signs of it as they continued traversing the mounds of corpses. “I can help defend our village, so I did. I don't need battle experience to defend my home.”

Selise looked apoplectic as she considered strangling the boy in front of her, but in the end, she just picked up a spear lying on the ground and positioned herself behind him.

“What are you doing?” Terence asked incredulously.

“Accompanying you. Duh,” Selise said with a roll of her eyes. “There's no way I'm letting you go to battle alone. At least if I'm here, I can watch over you.”

Terence felt a warm, giddy feeling in his chest at Selise's words, but he stamped it down. “It's dangerous here! We could die!”

“I'd rather die with you than live without you,” Selise said angrily without thinking. When she realized what she just said, she quickly looked down on the ground, avoiding Terence's embarrassed gaze.

Terence decided to stay quiet after that and continued walking. As much as he liked to send Selise back to keep her safe, he couldn't help but admit that her presence was reassuring.

Once the front line arrived at the breach, all murmurs of confusion died down immediately. Terence arrived last, confused as to why everybody turned quiet, but when he looked at the clearing beyond, he realized why.

In the distance were three people. Terence recognized the Head Hunter, but he couldn't recognize the other two. They wore dark clothing and masks that fully covered their faces, an unusual getup that easily told Terence they were outsiders. And they were going to fight the remaining horde of monsters by themselves.

Terence watched in horror as the horde descended on the trio. The Head Hunter might be an augmenter, but there was no way she could fight all those monsters alone. Even if the outsiders helped, there's nothing they could do against—

A loud boom echoed throughout the clearing, shocking the watching villagers. It was the same constant booming noise they'd been hearing throughout the battle earlier, and now they knew where it came from. The air in front of the masked man shimmered and shot through the air, throwing up dust and snow as it flew. When it hit the charging boar it was targeting, the monster stopped dead in its tracks, disoriented. The Head Hunter followed up and punched its head, and even from the far distance, Terence heard a faint cracking noise as the boar's skull shattered. Did she just kill that boar with her bare hands?!

Before the boar's corpse could even fall to the ground, there was another boom as the masked man targeted another monster in the approaching horde. The Head Hunter moved as well, killing monsters left and right as they arrived with her bare fists.

Some of the monsters went for the masked man, but their advance was halted by his companion, the masked woman. She moved quickly in-between the charging monsters, stabbing here and there with a short blade she held in her hand. She moved so quickly that Terence thought she sometimes even floated through the air, but he attributed it to his imagination.

But despite their impressive display of power, there were still too many monsters left. If things continued on as they are, the monsters would eventually overrun the trio.

“Make way!” Dalton suddenly shouted behind the watching villagers. They immediately parted, making way for Dalton and the column of hunters following behind him. Once there was enough space for them to pass through, Dalton gave another order. “Hunters, let's move! The Head Hunter's not going to defeat all those monsters by herself!”

Dalton proceeded to lead the cheering hunters towards the battle to help, their morale high as they watched the Head hunter, their leader, fight valiantly. The hunters' high morale seemed to infect the watching villagers because soon, the others were also cheering on the Head Hunter. There were even a few who were cheering for the mage and the masked woman.

Even Terence felt his mood lift up as he watched the monsters that had been killing his fellow villagers a while ago dying one after another. But before he could cheer, he spotted one of the passing hunters staring at him. It was Ned, and the hunter did not look happy as he glared at Terence while shooting glances at Selise behind him. Terence glared back.

It was a well-known fact in the village that Terence and Ned both liked Selise as a woman, which often resulted in both of them butting heads with each other. But in the end, Terence was the one who Selise liked back, which should have ended the two men's rivalry. Instead, Ned refused to give up and continued his pursuits, not caring whether Selise had already chosen a man.

When Ned was out of sight, Terence suddenly felt a warm hand grip his shoulder gently. When he looked over his shoulder, he saw Selise smiling at him with amusement. “A scowl doesn't suit you, Terence.”

The young man blushed and looked forward, not wanting Selise to see his embarrassment.

The tide of battle had completely turned around when the hunters arrived to help the Head Hunter and the outsiders. Using their hunting bows, the well-trained hunters shot at the monsters from a long distance with terrifying accuracy. Dalton stood behind the hunters and issued orders rapidly, shouting which target was a priority and coordinating the attacks.

Within minutes, the monster horde was finally depleted enough that the few remaining survivors decided to run back into the Wild Woods. When Dalton finally declared their victory, everybody, the hunters and villagers alike, cheered.

“We won,” Terence whispered to himself. “We finally won.”

Right after he said that, all the fatigue and stress that he'd been holding back since the beginning of the battle came crashing down at once. Terence unceremoniously collapsed on the ground as Selise cried out in concern.

●●●

“Is it… is it… finally… done?” I asked in between breaths as I heard what might have been cheering in the distance. In my current state, I couldn't even tell if those were cheers of victory or cries of despair.

“Yes, it's finally done,” Belka replied, her skin glistening with sweat. Even the large woman looked extremely tired as her bloody arms lay limp on both sides of her body. “I didn't expect the horde to be that large. This was probably the worst monster attack in all of Wildpost's history.”

“I'm glad this was the worst then,” I said tiredly as I lay flat on the ground, Taloress sitting beside me. “I don't know what I would do if this turned out to be a usual occurrence.”

“Monster attacks are a usual occurrence here, but not this big,” Belka said with a frown. “There's something wrong in the Wild Woods. Monster presence had been steadily increasing for the past few months, but this change was too sudden.”

“Let's save that discussion for later, shall we? I don't know about you, but I'm really craving for some food and rest right about now.”

The battle of attrition had been extremely taxing on my mana pool. Even though I was only using Force Blasts one at a time, the number of spells I cast throughout the battle numbered in the dozens. The mana cost for operating Taloress and Mr. Marion also increased several-fold when I used them in combat. Add all those costs together and the mana I was left with right now was a measly ten percent.

Even my mind was protesting. The headache I was having right now was ravaging me. I don't even know if I could still go home without passing out on the way. Not to mention the heat. All the spellcasting I did, even if I was very efficient, still accumulated a lot of heat, which was exacerbated by the fact that Mr. Marion's body was trapping the heat here inside with me. I need to get back to my wagon and exit Mr. Marion for a moment if I want to avoid a freaking heat stroke.

“Come on, Marion. Let's get back to the village. I'm sure the Chief and the others have prepared something for those that participated in the battle.”

“Give me a few minutes,” I said weakly.

“We can't stay here. There's still a chance that there'll be another monster attack, and the last place you want to be is out here in the open,” Belka said as she approached me. “If you're not standing by yourself, I'm going to carry you myself.”

“If it means I don't have to move, then by all means, you're welcome to carry my magnificent person,” I said while still splayed out on the ground.

Belka snorted and picked me up by the waist before carrying me on her shoulder like a sack of potatoes. “Don't complain if the ride's too uncomfortable.”

As a matter of fact, the ride was uncomfortable. Since I was located at the top portion of Mr. Marion's body, I was completely turned upside down while Belka carried me. Add in the up and down motion as Belka walked and I was forced to tell her to put me down so I could walk myself.

When we finally got back to the village, I already decided to sleep in my wagon rather than make the trip back to my cave. I was too tired to make the trip while staying vigilant against possible monster attacks, and traveling in the Wild Woods with an unfocused mind was a recipe for disaster.

When we entered through the remains of the village gate, the sight that greeted me was that of death and carnage. There were corpses everywhere and so much blood had pooled on the ground that the air was thick with a copper-like smell. Every step of ours was accompanied by a wet squelching sound that would have made me reel in disgust if I wasn't bone-tired.

But not everything turned out bad. When the villagers saw the three of us enter, they all started clapping and cheering happily. Most of it was targeted at Belka, but I noticed some of the people also shooting me and Taloress grateful looks. Granted, there were only a few of them, but at least nobody looked at me with the same hostility when I first came here.

“Look, Taloress. We're famous!” I whispered excitedly to my puppet walking beside me. I heard Belka snort from the front, but I ignored her. This was the first time people had cheered for me and I was going to relish every single moment of it.

While I was preening under the attention of the villagers, an old man broke off from the crowd of onlookers and approached us with quick and purposeful strides. “Head Hunter, Mr. Marion! Oh, and I see you have your companion with you, Mr. Marion. Welcome back and thank you all for your hard work,” Bran said when he joined up with us. “Thanks to the three of you, we managed to fight off the biggest monster attack in our village's history! But I'm afraid our problem doesn't stop at fending off the monsters. I hoped you could help us with other things aside from fighting, Mr. Marion.”

“I hope that could wait, Bran,” I said. “I'm exhausted and I don't think I'm in any shape to help anyone at the moment.”

“Of course, of course, the issue can wait. I was intending to seek your assistance in treating the wounded, but none of them have life-threatening wounds, and those that do… have already passed away,” Bran said with a somber tone.

“Ah, my condolences,” I said sincerely. “I could only imagine the casualties this attack had caused. I hope their families are alright.”

“Thank you, Mr. Marion. Eighteen good people died in valor today defending this village, and I swear upon my life that I will take care of the things they left behind until my last breath” Bran said with a deeply determined expression.

At this moment, the fragile-looking old man looked intimidating. His deep eyes shone fiercely, and one look was all it took me to realize that he had seen a lot of things. Bran may look like a fragile old man, but I knew that to him, the attack today was only one of many hurdles that he had surpassed in his life, and judging from his determination, probably far from the last.

But Bran's determined expression suddenly turned sheepish when he turned to me while scratching his beard. “I forgot to mention something important that concerns you, Mr. Marion.”

“What is it?” I asked with minimal concern. My exhaustion was pretty much numbing me from any feelings of concern I should have felt at the Chief's words.

“Before you left to fight against the monsters, you left your wagon in the village, right? Well, it kind of got… ransacked… during the attack,” Bran said with a nervous laugh.

Inside Mr. Marion, my jaw dropped.