Patryn wiped the sweat off his forehead, handed over his slingshot launcher to the reloading team and called, “Reload!”

  The command was self-evident, of course. The single job of the team behind him was to apply the enhancement string to missiles, and to safely reload Patryn’s launcher after he fired. Nonetheless, he shouted the command. Whenever dozens of monster auras coated the battlefield, like now, he found that his loud voice spread some of his confidence to those around him, even if the words he spoke were useless.

  The slingshot launcher was handed back to him. He placed a firm grip on the handle, pointed the barrel up, eyes lined up with the iron sights—behind which stood a four-handed mummy, ten feet tall, wielding four scimitars. The monster’s aura was concentrated, almost controlled, as if it could channel ether. By that measurement, it must have reached the second elevation at the very least.

  It also wielded an aura of over sixty thousand ether. Another calamity level monster that could easily wipe out a town, if not an unprepared city.

  Patryn pulled the trigger. The stretch ropes snapped, and a small shockwave blasted around Patryn, shaking his footing. The outside-carved missile exploded with force straight toward the monster.

  Its aura shifted as it sensed the threat coming its way. Even still, it was too slow to dodge. The monster slashed with one of its blades, meeting the missile head-on. The blade and missile collided.

  Both were crushed to bits. The sword shattered, and the missile blew to four chunks. The chunks, however, continued forward, two crashing straight into the mummy’s vitals. The missile ripped through, leaving gaping holes.

  The mummy stumbled a few steps forward before collapsing, a beacon of ether rising from its body. A skill wisp glowed within, though it looked like just a common skill.

  We might need to redefine the threshold for calamities, Patryn thought. Even the mass-produced missiles of the slingshot launcher could oneshot bosses that were normally considered impossible surge-hazards that only the Luminary herself could defeat.

  “More coming!” Patryn called, handing his weapon back to the reloading team.

  A monster fell as another missile launched beside him. Another one followed.

  This time, the monster jumped. It was a surgehound wielding at least twenty thousand ether, and with agility nothing else could match. It charged for the front lines.

  A runesword pierced its mouth as one of the Luminary’s Lights stepped forth, killing it. He nodded, then stepped back.

  Agility based monsters still gave them trouble. The slingshot launchers could only kill what they could hit. Every weapon had their weaknesses. Backup was crucial for that reason.

  Patryn’s weapon was handed back to him. He squinted into the distance, spotting a rather peculiar aura. Two of them. The auras weren’t misty white like typical monster auras. Ether oozed out of them, but the ether was panicked and mostly controlled.

  Ingar, the man next to him, aimed his launcher at the two. “Wait,” Patryn said, holding out his hand. “Lower your weapons.”

  As the two ran closer, Patryn spotted skin and faces. Those two were demons. A woman and a man in adventuring gear, running without weapons. They ran with panicked steps, though both were clearly practiced, at least having reached the second elevation.

  “Friendly!” the man called, running forward. “Help!”

  Patryn lifted a hand. “Over here!”

  The man heard his voice and ran to him. With ether-enhanced feet, sand dusted behind him, leaving light clouds. He ran to the front lines in under ten seconds.

  “It’s a be—” He gasped for air. “—hemoth! A fucking behemoth!”

  Patryn gave him a suspicious look. “And who are you?”

  “Fang Cromwell!” he said, speaking between panicked breaths. His eyes were wide. The look was close to crazy, though it seemed this man could still reason. “We were on our way to Zhelendor, when this giant, indescribable, gigantic, humongous… It has to be a behemoth!”

  “Calm down,” Patryn said.

  “It’s on its way to the city!” Fang said. “It’ll take a day at most. That thing will attack. We’re all dead!”

  ***

  “So, the evacuation has been canceled, thanks to Shivenar being left abandoned,” Coshi said. She was clad in a white regal cloak and a steel headband around her forehead as she stood by the end of the long rectangular table in her throne room that was not a throne room. The cloak made her look much more like a leader, though the headband, in Vivi’s opinion, looked silly.

  “Defence has gone well so far, mostly by virtue of Vivian’s new invention, the slingshot launcher,” Coshi said. “The ability to one-shot calamity level bosses from a range has offered the city far more protection than our walls ever could.”

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  The Luminary’s Lights listened silently, gathered around the table. Vivi, too, sat amongst them, having been called by the Luminary for an important meeting.

  It had been three hours since Vivi woke up from Paradise after her chat with Essi. The occurrence still distracted her. She felt guilty for not practicing, but even more than that, she felt a sense of anticipation, and a new determination to fight through storm season. Once the storms were all defeated, and after the new iteration of the slingshot launcher was built, she wanted to head to Paradise again to talk to Essi some more.

  Maybe, Vivi considered, she could even ask Essi to become her first friend amongst the hunters.

  “I have also been informed that a new artillery weapon is in the works—one that could possibly harm colossi,” Coshi was saying. “Vivian, what is the status of this weapon?”

  Vivi’s head perked up, attention shifting back to the meeting. “The second iteration will be more powerful,” she said. “It’s going to be a much more accurate improvement to the slingshot launcher, more easily operated, but I’m not sure if it’ll defeat a colossus. Not yet. I heard colossi are nearly as tough as levelstone. We still need time to research the enhancement strings and to build a more powerful design.”

  Coshi nodded. “Time is precisely what I’m hoping to gain. I’ve called everyone here to inform you of our next course of action. We are not evacuating, but huddling up before our walls, locked in defence, will only get us so far. Storms still brew in the desert. Monsters wander, and bosses grow stronger. Shamans or necromancers may have already spawned. If so, they must be destroyed swiftly while they are still growing.”

  She thumped her hands onto the table and faced everyone at once, a determined look on her face. “Prepare for an adventure, everyone. We’re venturing out into the desert to eradicate storms!”

  She let her words settle, then added, “I’ll be leading the operation personally. Half of the Lights will come with me, along with five slingshot launchers. The remainder of you will stay to defend the walls alongside Anthony. Vivi is free to choose, though I recommend staying within the safety of our walls.”

  Vivi was about to object and say that they should just defend instead of taking the flawed first iteration slingshot launchers into the desert, but then she recalled the twilight shaman from Zand. In just a month, the monster had grown strong enough to destroy an entire ether facility. The twilight shaman had been spawned by a single surge. What if a full storm spawned a shaman boss that would gather monsters for an attack? Venturing into the desert was definitely necessary.

  Coshi unrolled a scroll, revealing a map. She placed it on the middle of the table. “This is still the latest storm forecast, with all twenty-seven known storms marked. We’re going to move from location to location, killing as many monsters as we can. The bulk of the monsters should still be gathered near these locations. Given a few weeks, they’ll all scatter across the desert.”

  She pointed at another spot, twenty or so miles north of the city. The spot looked like a small town on the map. “There’s also another problem,” Coshi said. “Namely, food. Without trade, supplies are no longer flowing in. It’ll take until the end of storm seasons for merchants to return. Our nearest source of immediate food might be right here. Annswille. The town was evacuated for storm season, but crops were still left to grow. If we’re lucky, monsters have not trampled the fields.”

  “And how long will current rations feed the city?” Anthony asked.

  “A week at most,” Coshi said. “I hope Annswille’s crops will extend that by another week.”

  Anthony nodded. “Logistics ruining the fun again, huh? And your nobles are still feasting, I’m guessing?”

  “They have been ordered not to,” Coshi said. “For all the good that’s worth. A select few have ordered their mercenaries to assist in defending the walls. Mostly, our citizens are still merely complaining—which shows that the city has thankfully remained safe.

  “And I hope to keep it safe,” Coshi continued immediately. “Our plan going forward will be as simple as plans go. We will take the slingshot launchers through Annswille, and to the nearby storms. We will kill as many monsters as we can in hopes to make the fifth level safe again. In the meantime, Vivian’s team of scientists will continue to craft stronger weapons.”

  That sounded sensible to Vivi. She had no objections. The question was, would she be more useful in the fight or in the smithy? She was the only one who could craft inside-carved missiles. But it wasn’t like she was useless on the battlefield either. If she ascended fully, she could temporarily be stronger than Coshi herself.

  While she was thinking, a new presence arrived at the doors. Heads turned in the direction.

  “My deepest apologies for the interruption,” a woman, one of the Lights, said with a bow. Her outfit was roughed-up, taken straight from the battlefield. “A rumor has spread that a behemoth is currently on its way to Shivenar.”

  The room fell silent. Coshi stared at the woman as if she’d just announced that a meteor was falling down on the city. Lucius, too, perked up.

  “And… has this been confirmed?” Coshi asked.

  “No,” the woman said. “The information was delivered by a man called Fang Cromwell alongside his partner, Sara Synfonna. The two claim to have been on their way to Zhelendor, when the path was blocked by a… what they describe was a gigantic dirt mound, its tip reaching the facets, covered in gaping mouths, from which thorn spines shot out with enough power to pierce a mountain.”

  The table fell dead silent.

  “I know Fang,” Anthony said. “I shook hands with him. He’s a respectable hunter.”

  “He bought one of my swords,” Vivi said. “A two-runed sword.”

  Shadows formed underneath Coshi’s eyes as she leaned her chin on her fists.

  “The description would match a real behemoth,” Anthony said. His head was high, speaking sternly. “I doubt Fang has a reason to lie.”

  Coshi was lost in thought, expression only darkening. She took a deep breath. “I would announce that the city is a ruin…” she said. “A week ago, I would have, at least. Though I suppose a behemoth is better than a colossus.”

  What exactly is a behemoth? Vivi asked, her voice concerned.

  “It’s one of the three level-destroying monsters alongside leviathans and colossi,” Lucius said. “A behemoth is essentially an overgrown dirt mound. It devours anything that’s dead—from mountains to dead animals, and it reanimates them, just as a surge would.”

  And how much ether does one carry?

  “Probably a minimum or a hundred thousand,” Lucius said. “And that number grows the more it devours.”

  “Vivian,” Coshi said, making Vivi flinch. “It seems, then, that the next iteration of the slingshot launcher must be completed. Preferably right now.”

  Vivi’s throat felt dry. “Freyven estimated it would take another thirty hours.”

  “Then, that is how long we must stall its approach,” Coshi said. Her aura suddenly erupted, eyes glowing with ether. “Lights, prepare yourselves. I will offer you fifteen minutes to wish your families goodbye. Bring out the largest taunters the city has. For thirty hours, we will drag this monster away from the city.

  “And Vivian,” Coshi said, turning to her. “I will pray for one last miracle.”

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