The Final Wave

The royal knights' encampment stood in the middle of the plains serving as the tower defense battlefield.

"Bold! What do you mean we can't march out!"

"Sigh... Sebastian, you know this as well. Once His Majesty falls asleep, no one can wake him."

Even now, monsters were likely trampling his hometown. Sebastian pounded his frustrated chest and shouted.

"Then at least send the army ahead! You can report it afterward, can't you!"

"Sebastian. Do you want us all dead?"

Baron Bold, who shared a brotherly bond with Sebastian from their days together in the royal knights, had lost his usual easy smile. His face hardened like ice.

"His Majesty's nerves have grown sharp after the recent assassination attempt. No matter how righteous the cause, we cannot disobey his orders."

If they did, the one responsible would lose his head. Having said that, Baron Bold lowered his head.

"I'm sorry. There's no way for me to help even as your hometown is under attack. Take your father and flee while you still can."

Sebastian couldn't bring himself to blame him. Though his time in the royal knights had been short and he rarely saw the king, the ruler of the Wessex Kingdom was a tyrant without equal.

Ordering a march in defiance of that king's command was no different from sentencing Knight Commander Bold to death. Even if everything went perfectly, the cruel Tyrant King would execute Bold anyway, simply to avoid setting a precedent.

"I'll head back to the city first."

"I'm sorry."

Sebastian left the tent to return to the city atop Poppy. Had the king been sleeping nearby, he would have risked his own life to wake him. But the king slumbered peacefully in the distant capital, communicating with the royal knights through one of the kingdom's mere three communication crystals.

"Poppy, let's head back together... Poppy?"

Sebastian turned, scanning the area. The massive monster that had been sitting obediently in front of the encampment was gone.

In the distance across the plains, he spotted other monsters roaming freely. They had avoided those creatures on the way here by riding Poppy, but without her he would be nothing more than a single meal.

"Sebastian, the only things I can give you are this royal sword and some throwing knives..."

"Bold. We'll go together later."

"Hm? Now that you mention it, where did that beast go?"

The kingdom's finest royal knights could carve through those monsters easily, but Sebastian—a so-called half-knight—would never survive out there alone. With no other choice, he returned to the encampment and warmed himself beside the makeshift hearth. Baron Bold quietly pretended not to notice the tears Sebastian shed over his own helplessness.

The second wave had been much easier thanks to Poppy's arrival. The damage was nearly half of what it had been before. At this rate, they should be able to hold out until the Tyrant King woke up... or so it seemed.

"Poppy, you sit the next wave out."

"Woof woof woof!!!"

"You're the heart of our legion. If you can't perform when it matters most, we all die."

"Woof..."

The problem was that their stamina was finite. The numerous void hounds and void flowers could rotate in and out of combat, but Poppy was an irreplaceable asset that couldn't be wasted.

I can't keep fighting forever either...

His core role was command. During battle he stayed relatively safe in the center, but in urgent situations he had to join the fight himself.

On top of that, constantly watching for long-range attacks drained his mental energy. If his concentration slipped and he entered combat anyway, there was no telling what variables might arise.

"Let's take turns resting."

"Woof!"

Poppy was the only soldier in the legion capable of assessing situations and carrying out complex orders. It was less efficient than him issuing commands directly, but it worked if he stayed hidden on the ramparts and relayed orders through telepathy.

While the void hounds with stamina to spare carried the corpses of the abyssal army into the void pits and enjoyed a brief rest—

Once again, enemies surged from the sea.

More than half the time had passed. No matter how much they rotated, fatigue was accumulating and the legion was beginning to tire. As the enemy numbers grew, so did the losses. The ninth wave alone had cost them seven thousand troops—the heaviest damage yet.

He immediately left the front line and headed for the count waiting at the temporary command post.

"Count, please prepare the civilians."

"Understood."

After the first wave, he had judged that they could hold the line and had dismissed the conscripted soldiers who had been guarding the city streets. He hadn't fully released them; they remained on standby so they could be redeployed if needed. They would likely join the next wave.

New legion members were still being produced from the void pits, but the rate of creation could no longer keep up with consumption. At this point, even the help of those fragile conscripts was necessary to reduce losses.

"Woof!"

"Yeah, I'll leave the next wave to you."

Poppy, having finished her rest, returned to the front line. At least seven more waves remained until the Tyrant King woke and the royal knights arrived.

The real fight began now.

Monsters swarmed toward the people huddled behind one-meter-high barricades.

"S-save us!"

"Hold the line! Anyone who retreats dies by my hand!"

To minimize losses to the legion, he had deliberately drawn the enemy into the city. The beach had limited spots for void flowers aside from a few terrain features like palm trees and the lighthouse.

But inside the complicated urban layout, the flowers could devour enemies from unexpected places—rooftops, alley walls, and the like. With the conscripts now helping hold the line that he and the void hounds had been bearing alone, the legion's attrition slowed considerably.

By pure numbers, they were defending with remarkable efficiency, yet—

"The enemy is fleeing!"

"Haa... They'll just come back later anyway."

"The count said the knights ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠will arrive soon."

"When exactly?!"

The problem was that, unlike the legion, human minds were fragile. Because the legion took on the most dangerous roles, fewer than one percent of the city’s residents had died. Even so, the mental burden of fighting monsters was gradually breaking the conscripts.

"Woof!"

"Leave them. We can't catch them anyway."

"Grrrr..."

Unlike the beach, where encirclement and annihilation were possible, the city's complex layout made it impossible to wipe out fleeing remnants. Those survivors would join the next wave, adding to the burden.

"Count! The enemy is targeting the south gate!"

"What?"

The enemy had already breached the interior. There was no need to attack the walls, so that sector had been left undefended.

"They're suddenly heading outside the city? Why on earth..."

From his position atop the inner citadel watchtower, the count looked beyond the city. A massive void pit belonging to the legion sat outside the walls, continuously birthing new troops.

"Tsk. They couldn't attack the gates while we held the beach. Retreating into the city opened the path for them."

The abyssal army smashed through the gates, poured outside, and began slaughtering the void insects while filling in the void pit. They poured dirt faster than the pit could consume it, scooping out the acidic fluid within. Slowly, the void pit shrank.

"Even with Sir Haram and Poppy launching an interception, it's not enough. We need reinforcements..."

"If we can't hold them even inside a city we prepared in advance, heading out into the open plains will only get everyone killed. Move the inner citadel guards to the eastern wall."

"By your command!"

Fearing the enemy might target another gate, the count had dispatched troops to the walls. But the abyssal forces completed their mission and returned through the original southern gate. What was more, once back inside the city, they took up position on the beach and did not advance.

"Tsk. So they plan to hold out until reinforcements arrive. How do these monsters possess such intelligence..."

The count could not see the system messages, but after fighting since dawn he had noticed the enemies landing at regular intervals.

The current defense was only possible because the balance of power had been maintained. If over a hundred thousand abyssal troops charged at once, there would be no holding them.

"Pull the residents back to the final defensive line. Archers, ascend the inner citadel walls."

The count instinctively realized the enemy knew the exact timing of the royal knights' arrival. That meant the final battle would come in the last moments before reinforcements appeared. To calm the residents, he descended the stairs.

"So the sixteenth wave is the last."

"Woof!"

After seven long hours, the king had finally awakened, yet the enemy showed no sign of moving from the beach. During the fourteenth wave the void pit had been destroyed, halting legion reinforcements.

The enemy had clustered tightly on the beach, steadily building strength. Their numbers had swollen so massively that monsters now packed the shoreline. Some had even pushed back allied forces and entered the city.

"Rest well. There won't be any time to rest during the final thirty minutes."

"Woof!"

"You've already rested enough? Honestly, so have I."

Thanks to the enemy refraining from attack, both he and the legion ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had managed sufficient rest. They finished all preparations for the final battle. And then the last moment arrived.

Although the legion's numbers had dropped sharply with the death of all void insects, their actual combat strength remained unchanged from the thirteenth wave. If anything, the ample rest had made them even stronger.

"They're planning to crush us with overwhelming numbers... but we have a joker card too, you know?"

"Woof!"

Purple chitin armor grew across his body, covering him completely.

"It even covers my face? I look like a transforming hero. Or ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠should I say heroine?"

The translucent chitin ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠armor covered even his eyes, nose, and mouth. He could remove the faceplate if he wanted, but it didn't interfere with breathing or vision, so he left it.

Besides, the higher his mana, the harder the chitin armor created through Skill Share became, which was why he had deliberately left 100 mana.

Mental Barrier is probably affected by mana too...

The Mental Barrier skill grew stronger the more mana he possessed. The reason he had saved his skills until the very end was partly to prepare for the mental attack the evil god had used on the second floor. Yet the evil god had not appeared even as the fourth floor neared its end.

"Well, first I need to deal with what's in front of me."

"Grrraaawr!"

He mounted Poppy's back and gripped the sword Sebastian had given him. Thirty minutes remained. Their skill duration was also thirty minutes. The final battle that would conclude the fourth floor had begun.