Chapter 92
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 92
Chapter Title: It's Here
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Messengers arrived one after another at the command post, carrying urgent news.
The adjutant compiled the reports and approached Kael with a hardened expression.
"Invisible monsters... have appeared."
"......"
So it's finally here.
Kael muttered softly to himself.
He'd rather it had just been some grand delusion from novice labyrinth explorers.
They could have stuck the guild with desk work to pay for the damages, dumped the headache of cleanup on them, and laughed it off.
Anything would have been better than the reality of such monsters actually existing.
Now there was nothing left to do but hope the contingency plan they'd prepared would hold up perfectly.
Kael stepped up to the map of Labyrinth City's districts.
"Sound the emergency alarm. Level 1 crisis."
Based on the messengers' intel, multiple monster markers appeared on the map. A horde of unknown size had infiltrated the northern district.
"Form a rear defensive line and send evacuation signals inside."
The outer districts near the walls had already been cleared, but residents still lingered in the rear areas farther from the walls.
They needed to set up a temporary defensive line to prevent the monsters from spreading there and evacuate the civilians.
An emergency signal rose into the skies over Labyrinth City.
"...It's here."
Chris looked up at the signal. Every other mercenary on standby stood up as well.
The emergency signal for a monster breach.
The waiting mercenaries burst out of their barracks in unison.
"This is actually happening?"
"Shut up! How many times do I have to explain?!"
Chris shouted back at the mercenaries following behind him.
"To your positions!"
The emergency response unit raced through the city toward their preassigned spots.
The sudden alarm had thrown the city into chaos.
A monster or two slipping over the walls or a flying beast diving in didn't qualify as an emergency.
An alarm meant the monsters had claimed enough territory to threaten the city.
Most soldiers had never seen an alert like this. They ran through the streets with confused faces.
The mercenaries sprinted alongside the frantic soldiers and reached their destination: the clock tower.
Clock towers, observation decks, and high-rises dotted the streets.
These facilities scattered throughout the city were equipped for emergencies, ready to station archers and serve as watchtowers.
Ian took position in the clock tower alongside Chris. The entire city sprawled out below them at a glance.
Chris gazed down at the chaotic city and murmured,
"It's finally here."
"The vice guildmaster doubted it right up to the end. But you believed, Chris."
Before the mercenaries reached their posts, during the brief wait, Ian glanced at Chris and asked.
Chris tapped the report Ian had compiled on the monster known as the 'Stalker.'
"The moment I saw this, my gut twisted. Knew it had to happen. Labyrinths are like that, right?"
Chris had sensed it would happen for real the instant he read the monster's intel. It came from the labyrinth, after all.
It was a shared intuition among those who'd braved the depths.
From the clock tower overlooking the city, adjutants unrolled maps and set up a makeshift command post.
Soon, a flag rose atop the clock tower.
One by one, flags went up on distant watchtowers where mercenaries arrived.
"Hand 'em out."
At Chris's order, the mercenaries cracked open prepared crates and pulled out potion bottles.
Ian grabbed one as well.
[Crisis Detection Potion]
- Consumable item
- Reveals auras of hostile monsters, traps, and items for the duration
Chris snatched a potion bottle and downed it.
"I can spot the monsters myself."
Chloe, the archer assigned to their post, called out to Chris as he drank.
"Quiet. I wanna see what these bastards look like with my own eyes."
Chris's eyes turned to the city below.
Red, smoky auras began rising one by one from spots all over the city.
"...It's really here."
Leona rose from her private tent.
The emergency signals blared everywhere, and the outside world buzzed with commotion.
"Let's begin."
Her prepared adjutants and soldiers sprang into action.
Leona, who had volunteered as commander for the emergency response unit during this invasion, stared at the unprecedented alarm she'd never seen in her military career.
The emergency response unit. Among officers, it was the most dreaded assignment.
During monster invasions ripe for earning merits big and small, it was just pointless standby duty.
Preparing for monsters breaching the walls and entering the city? No merits to be had there.
Usually, it was a dead-end post for officers nearing retirement to kill time.
But that didn't mean it lacked importance.
It just never got used. This role held vast authority for handling crises.
In a dire monster incursion into the city...
The commander could issue any order to swiftly eliminate the threat, no need to wait for central command approval.
Leona entered the army command tent with her soldiers.
"Emergency response commander, Major Leona."
Silence fell over the stunned command staff as all eyes turned to her.
"Per the emergency alarm, as of now, the emergency unit assumes command of all northern front forces."
Leona took over the map table, setting down the operations plan she'd brought.
The evacuation and combat plan she'd hammered out overnight with Ian.
Ian's 'street sweep' plan for urban extermination.
"Signal's up."
Lieutenant Mikhail turned while tending his horse.
Behind him, countless cavalry readied their mounts for deployment.
Mikhail mounted up and glanced back.
The cavalry following him seemed several times larger than his old platoon.
He was used to riding from his mobile patrol days, but who'd have thought he'd lead a mounted charge in Labyrinth City's streets?
...How the hell did it come to this?
A chance encounter with someone who knew his senior officer.
Got assigned to the city because of it.
Suddenly, a plan needing cavalry pops up.
And since he was ex-cavalry, tapped as lead.
This wasn't luck. Mikhail sensed a massive current sweeping through Labyrinth City.
He'd just luckily caught the wave. To avoid getting swept away, he had to cling on for dear life.
Evacuation began in the alarmed districts.
Wagons clogged the main roads as soldiers rushed out, shields forward, forming defensive lines.
The cavalry charged into the sealed streets.
Mikhail rode hard, shouting back at his troopers.
"Drink up!"
The cavalry pulled out their pre-issued small potion bottles.
The crisis detection potions.
Red auras.
After drinking, red smoky auras rose from spots across the city.
"Target on the right!"
A monster lurking silently against a nearby wall came into view.
Outnumbered, it wasn't attacking.
The Stalker watched the passing cavalry with unsettling eyes, biding its time.
"Fire!"
A few front riders aimed crossbows at the monster.
As the bolts flew, the Stalker let out a small cry and scampered back with startling speed.
The struck Stalker vanished up the wall in an instant, faster than any horse could chase.
Such monsters hid throughout the streets.
Red smoke filled the air everywhere.
A chill ran through every rider galloping the streets.
If these invisible things prowled unseen, ambushing people amid the chaos... could they have contained it?
Impossible to count their numbers.
With enemies out of sight, no way to confirm extermination.
They'd have had to lock down every street until they found a way.
The cavalry kept charging.
Any monster spotted got an immediate crossbow bolt, flushing it out.
Driving them off was simple.
These monsters were cautious, never charging head-on. They observed targets long-term, striking only at openings.
If spotted or attacked first, they fled like threatened insects.
A single bolt sent them scurrying the opposite way.
At intersections, the cavalry split, following planned routes and herding visible monsters.
"Drive 'em to the square!"
After sweeping the district's outskirts, the cavalry pushed all monsters toward the center as the defensive encirclement tightened.
"Incoming."
From the watchtowers, mercenaries nocked arrows, watching the red auras converge on the square.