The large village was now shrouded in chaos and blood, the air thick with tension, and the ground trembling nonstop from the weight of hundreds of monsters inside the walls.
Their hearts fell at the sight, and their feet immediately darted to the nearest monster to deal with it.
Desperate cries echoed through the territory, helpless against the onslaught of powerful monsters.
The soldiers immediately activated their elements so they could deal with them as quickly as they could, joining the advance team in their fights.
Turbo and the others were focusing on the most populous areas, trying to save as many people as they could. It was just that, with the number of people running about, and how many people a single monster could take down in a second, they simply weren't rescuing people fast enough.
It didn't help that they were all going in a direction and were thus actively hunted down.
While dealing with the nearest monsters, their sights followed the direction where they were running towards.
From a distance, they could see another level 3 wall deeper inside, likely built over the original wall. A lot of people were running desperately to its gates, thumping it, albeit to no avail.
Fortunately, there were a few sentries there, so even if people couldn't get inside its closed gates, they had some hope of survival through the sentries.
That was not within their concern at the moment, however, and everyone turned their attention to the monsters at hand.
There were about a dozen or so level 6 and 7 monsters roaming around and playing with their meals. The others were dealt with by their soldiers and some were handled by two locals.
The two were definitely aborigines. A few weaker monsters were also handled by dozens of guards and cannon fodders.
Unfortunately, they were too far and weren't able to save a lad from being mauled. But they did arrive soon enough to save everyone else.
Anyway, while Garan and the fighters handled the monsters, the rest tried to rescue who they could.
At this point, Vanessa and Turbo, the medical personnel, took the lead. Followed by Chris and Sammy, who joined in the logistics of rescuing people directly from the mouths of monsters.
There were hundreds, no, thousands of people to rescue, and only a few of them. It was naturally not easy.
There were points where Chris, carrying two grown men in his arms, was surrounded by monsters and almost had to let go of his rescues.
Fortunately, Gill sprinted in their direction, manifesting a fireball on his hand.
He also used his earth abilities to create walls and created chokepoints, to ensure the monster wouldn't go anywhere else.
"Thanks!" Chris yelled, disappearing to safety again.
On another side, one of the village's aborigines, yelled in pain as he felt a sharp tooth nick his arm.
Mogi's eyes narrowed when he was finally injured a bit by one of the monsters. Although they were several levels below him, he—a mere level 12—was handling at least three of them.
It was common knowledge that someone needed to be a few levels above a monster to defeat it one-on-one, but he was surrounded by them!
Who told this village to be filled with people weaker than his twelve-year-old niece!!
And who told him to be bound to protect the Hiring village as much as he could, at least until he was certain of death? It was only at this time that hired people like them could refuse.
It was even worse for Rona, a fifty-year-old chef, who was not even a fighter but happened to have a higher level than the residents.
She was only level 9 at her age, and it was enough indication that she couldn't handle these things well.
They didn't know why the guard team mobilized so late—already well after the monsters killed so many citizens—but they were contract-bound to do what they could within their abilities.
"AH!" Rona yelled beside him and he turned, looking at her shoulder already gushing.
Instead of crying and looking scared, Rona looked a bit relieved. She judged that it was time for her to run, already meeting the minimum requirement she was expected to meet.
"I did my part." She told Mogi, who nodded in understanding.
Unfortunately, he couldn't do the same. He applied and was hired to be a Guard. This meant that unless his health and life were below 30%, he could not run away.
However, as Rona turned to flee to safety, a monster who had already eaten the people nearby lunged toward her.
"ROAR!"
It was so loud and sudden that Rona lost her balance and fell down. It opened its mouth to glomp at her, and she peed her pants in shock.
"Rona!" Mogi yelled, barely dodging sharp teeth to the heart due to the distraction.
Rona's life passed by her head. She knew this village would kill her the moment she saw the average levels! What made everything worse was that she only had a few days of contract left!
But an inch before being mauled, a spike of earth appeared in front of her. It ended up right under the monster's chin and impaled it.
And then, from the same direction, three more earth spikes appeared, killing the barely-damaged monsters Mogi had been dealing with.
The two didn't even absorb what was happening until the monsters took their last breath.
An Elementalist!
What's more, to be able to one-shot a monster, an Elementalist had to be either five levels above the monster or have an extremely powerful weapon on hand.
The two aborigines looked around to see the other monsters were already dealt with, each with traces of element manifestation.
Not too far away, they saw a strange lad fighting a level 7 monster by himself. His sword was completely engulfed by flames and with a wave, he divided the monster in half.
That was a Swordsman's classic skill: Floating Slash!
Then a water whip splashed not too far, also dividing another monster into a few pieces.
Goodness Elves! So many elementalists!!!
Why were they in such a small place?