Monster Wave
"What on earth is going on..."
"You're telling me. The Wave breaking a whole month early..."
"Everyone, please keep order!"
Once the bell rang to announce the emergency, people drifted back to their homes through a restless, uneasy hush.
When the bell first sounded and Arthur took off at a run, I'd thought something truly dire was underway. Looking around now, I wasn't so sure. The townsfolk reacted as if their cooldown had simply come off cooldown—oh, already?—and the only ones startled into a fluster were outsiders, and people as new to Silbaerin as I was.
"Doesn't look as urgent as I thought."
"Seems that way. Still, we won't be getting back, will we?"
"Ah. Right."
Familiar as this local WWE might be, it was still an all-out assault by monsters. Every gate in the city had been shut fast, and guards kept a meticulous watch inside and out. On the off chance, I asked one whether we could leave.
"You may not."
Refused, of course. The guard was so stubborn, and so thick with a sense of duty, that I felt like a professional nuisance for even having asked.
Which left the question of where we were supposed to stay. I'd been planning to head straight back and hadn't so much as looked for an inn. Iseria and I knocked on door after door in search of immediate shelter, and every answer was the same: no rooms left, or a price so absurd it might as well have been a joke.
One silver for a single night? Are they kidding?
I'd sooner sleep in the street than pay that. A cheap inn ran fifteen to twenty coppers a night. This was outright robbery.
"Profiteering even in a crisis like this. Humans really are vile."
"This once, I'll give you that..."
We drifted back to the square and stood there, at a loss. I couldn't feel any direct threat from the monsters, but according to Iseria a tremendous power was pressing in from the direction of the northern wall. Shock waves, most likely, where the knight order's mana crashed against the monsters'. I couldn't sense it myself, yet the noise of battle rolled in like a surf, and that was enough to put a measure of dread in me.
Before I knew it, not a single person remained in the central square. It was usually the most crowded place in the city, and the emptiness turned, paradoxically, eerie.
"You two. Why haven't you evacuated?"
A guard with a spear came over and addressed us. Perfect timing—I gave him a short account of our situation.
"Hmm. The knight order has prepared a shelter for people in your position. Come with me."
"Whoa. The benefits here are insane."
"Well, it's a disturbance we see often enough. Preparations are thorough, so that outsiders don't come to harm either."
We followed him quietly. He studied Iseria, hood pulled low, as if something about her didn't sit right, then seemed to decide it was nothing and lost interest.
She was drawing a lot of aggro. Then again, if she walked around with those pointed ears on display, she'd draw even more.
"Iseria. The hood isn't stuffy?"
"Hm? I'm fine. Could you not worry about me whenever you feel like it?"
"Oh, for—"
Thock.
I gave the crown of her head a light tap. She yelped and glared at me, but she didn't actually retaliate. The height difference was considerable, and if she resorted to magic the whole thing would blow up far past a squabble.
The knight order's shelter stood near the northern garrison. Inside, a mixed crowd had gathered—ordinary commoners, peddlers, drifters. It seemed that anyone without a shelter of their own, or anyone who happened to be near the knight order's shelter when the crisis began, was allowed in. The guard who had brought us delivered us and immediately sprinted off again.
"We're really collecting every kind of experience today, huh?"
"Hmph... I suppose. At least it isn't boring."
Trading idle nonsense, Iseria and I ducked under a suitable tent and sat. We perched on a low platform rigged up like a cot and watched the people at work.
"Is the evening meal run to the wall ready? When you take it up later, send the dry rations for dawn along with it."
"Hey, you! Set that crate down right there!"
The knight order's soldiers bustled about, sorting supplies. No wounded had come in yet, thankfully, and the priests and nuns on medical duty looked comparatively idle.
A meal run, though. That brought the old days back. Back in the army, training was one thing, but the moment combat rations showed up instead of bagged rice, it was pure despair. The ready-to-eat packs were decent enough. The japchae rice—sweet-potato noodles over rice—was provisional garbage.
I passed the time on old service memories. Iseria passed it watching humans go about their business.
Three days had already passed since the Monster Wave broke from the Kalian Mountain Range, far sooner than anyone had expected.
Kailan, lord of Silbaerin, watched the state of the battle from atop the wall and felt that something was wrong. It wasn't that he or his people were numb to danger. No one in Silbaerin, Kailan included, had ever rated a Monster Wave as especially dangerous—and with good reason. A Wave had never dragged into a stalemate like this.
The monsters had not yet reached the wall, but the third defensive line was holding on by a thread. Last Wave, that same line had stopped them with room to spare. The knight order's soldiers were raised in the best conditions available, so it wasn't that their strength had slipped. Even to Kailan's eye, allied combat power was not the problem.
Faintly, but the monsters have grown stronger.
Only a little. If a monster had been a ten before, call it a twelve now. One might shrug and ask whether that was all—except monsters strengthened in just that way now numbered in the hundreds, past a thousand. Taken together, their combat power had to fall short of what the line could comfortably meet. And so far they had only been facing lesser monsters. That alone was enough to unsettle him.
Certain now that something had changed, Kailan gave the order to his adjutant, Ellak.
"Pass this to every squad leader. Shift from a defensive formation to an offensive one, and have the squad leaders join the fighting themselves."
"Yes, my lord."
The defensive formation had been left to rank-and-file knights and apprentices, a chance for the less experienced to blood themselves. But if the fight dragged on until intermediate monsters began to pour in, the third line could collapse in an instant. Better to turn to the attack while only lesser monsters remained, cut them down, and rebuild the line.
Kailan's judgment proved exact. The squad leaders burned with fighting spirit, glad at last to draw steel. Only one knight hesitated: Arthur, leader of the 1st Squad.
Master Jinwoo got to safety, didn't he?
Checking his cherished blade before the sortie, Arthur turned it over. Rotten luck. A rare trip into the city, and the Wave had to break. He hadn't known the man long, but seeing him often had piled up a fondness he hadn't quite noticed. The fact that Kang Jinwoo's food was delicious had something to do with it, too.
Ah, he'll be fine.
Arthur shook his head and cast the worry off. Kang Jinwoo's own martial ability looked about equal to a neighborhood child play-fighting with a stick, or worse. But there had been that mysterious elf at his side today. She'd worn a hood, clearly hoping to hide what she was, and it hadn't fooled Arthur's eyes—not when he already had one foot in the realm of the superhuman. The quantity of her mana, and the purity and refinement of its quality, marked her as someone of considerable skill. Whoever she was, with a person like that stuck to his side, Jinwoo would probably be all right.
Two more days passed.
"Kieeeek!!"
"Kergh, kerghk!"
"Graaaaah!! Die!!!"
A wet slash. Blood sprayed.
Rank-and-file knights roared and cut the monsters down. Everyone had done their part where they stood, and every threat in sight was gone.
"All forces, withdraw!"
The order fell, and those who had been in the fight pulled back inside to refit. The relief shift went in at once, inspected the line, and took up the watch.
Arthur, who had fought hard, returned to the garrison as well and cleaned his fouled gear. He wiped the blood and filth from armor and sword, then headed for the mess.
What mattered most in a battle that dragged on? Combat-ready numbers? Heavier firepower? Neither answer was wrong, but more important than either was logistics—supply, and food. A break in the flow of armor, blades, materials for fortifications, and expendable goods could halt an operation outright. And food? Nothing tied more directly to morale than meals and the small comforts that came with them. Mix stones into the rations, or serve up something even a beast wouldn't eat and call it food, and discontent would not stop at grumbling. At worst it became disobedience, even revolt.
In that light, the knight order's food situation was on shaky ground. The harsh winter had only just ended. They had been on the verge of buying and stockpiling provisions when the Monster Wave broke early, and now Silbaerin was critically short of ingredients. Arthur was not only a squad leader; Silbaerin was his home, and he knew that fact better than anyone.
If the fighting stretches any longer, we're going to start having trouble holding out...
He let out a quiet sigh and stepped into the mess.
And then—
"Have you ever, in your life, seen a traitor to the nation this foul?!"
"J-Jinwoo! Calm down!"
"Let go, Iseria! A bastard like this, I swear I'll just—"
The exhausted soldiers didn't spare a glance for the horrific porridge set before them. All their attention was on the uproar inside the kitchen. And the one at the center of it was none other than Kang Jinwoo.
Kang Jinwoo, the Cooking Master from the East—who was nothing of the sort—had the rations officer by the collar and was giving his rage a full airing.