They fought as valiantly as they could with whatever they had.
Those with weapons were naturally the vanguards, and the rest tried to damage the monsters as they could.
However, the few weapons they had had very low durability remaining. One by one, they gave way, leaving many vulnerable again.
The first to give way was Tom's. He was fighting a monster when his weapon finally broke.
Fortunately, Badjau was right beside him, stabbing the monster before it could eat him. Only Juno's, which was an unused spare, as well as Badjau's, were showing no signs of degeneration as of yet.
Unfortunately, without proper weapons, it was impossible to cause damage to such monsters and soon a handful of people perished and more became unable to fight.
Micheal and the others who had weapons did their best to protect everyone else, regardless of their own wounds. This was especially true for Micheal who still felt guilty.
Although intellectually, he knew it was not his fault, his heart clenched at the recollection of all those citizens—people who had trusted him as their lord—perished because of his shortcomings.
This made his attacks grander and defenses stronger, saving many lives.
Until his weapon also lost its remaining durability, that was.
He gaped as his sword disintegrated into nothingness.
His heart probably stopped then, and he could only stare as the massive mouth of a monster gestured to bite off his head.
"Oh no!!!" his teammates yelled, but they were too busy with monsters in front of them to even move elsewhere.
They sobbed a bit. They did respect Micheal to some point, and his death would be one of the biggest blows in their already-dwindling momentum!
Just as they were about to lose hope though, a massive fire sword appeared like a flash, beheading the level 6 monster with its head dropping on the ground in front of him.
Similarly, another monster was about to eat Lily—who was promptly shielded by Tom with his body—when a shield appeared in front of them. It seemed to have a life on its own, pushing the monsters back, and leaving a trail of soil.
It pushed the monsters away from the two. After a few meters, the beast was taken care of by the same fire slash that killed Micheal's.
They looked at the fights in amazement. Even Juno, who was an aborigine, was impressed.
Tom's protective arm around the little girl loosened and he raised his head to see the soldiers from Altera.
They watched as the newcomers easily took care of the monsters that had been haunting them for so long.
To their surprise though, even Althea and Ansel were using elements.
Ansel's was still a very small spark, but he was going against a hairy monster. Added with oil from space, he managed to give it a burning damage while dealing with it.
Althea was even more impressive. Under the watchful eye of her husband, she created craters on the ground, destroying the balance and momentum of the monsters. She then used her katana to end the monsters with a couple of slashes.
The mob was cleared in no time and the people could finally breathe. Everyone lost the feeling of their legs, finally succumbing to the debilitating exhaustion they had been keeping at bay the past few hours.
"What happened to you guys?" Ansel asked with a sigh, ending up in front of Tom and little Lily. The others immediately fed healing potions to the refugees with a breathe, even if it seemed hopeless.
Seeing an old friend, all the tears Tom had been holding back exploded. "ANSEL!!!" He sobbed making the man step back for fear of getting saliva and snot on him.
The others who knew them also sobbed, "Ms. Althea!"
"Sir Garan! Sir Luis!"
Among them, only Badjau wasn't familiar and he could only gape as one of the soldiers—a man they called Sir Luis—handed him a potion to drink. "Can you drink by yourself?"
"I…"
Luis' eyebrows rose. "Should I feed you?"
Badjau flinched and shook his head, shakily taking the bottle into his hand.
He knew this as a ceramic bottle, something he had seen back in Bright, and he knew that they weren't cheap enough to just hand over to anyone. Badjau looked at it with a complicated expression and looked around, seeing the others received the same.
Seeing them drink it, he did the same. He didn't have much expectations, thinking it was something to help ease the pain or his hunger.
But he realized his wounds were healing and how much lighter his body felt.
"!!!"
He had heard of this potion, but it was always out of stock!
They just gave it? How much would he owe?
He raised his head to thank the man and ask him how much he needed to pay (maybe even beg for a partial payment for now), but Luis was already feeding someone else.
He blinked, putting the issue aside for now. Instead, he observed his team and the renewed atmosphere around them.
All of the tension seemed to have disappeared as if they were certain that everything was going to be alright.
His team now looked dependent on these newcomers, like kids finally with their parents.
He had often heard of Altera and the various words of admiration to them. He had also looked forward to seeing what such a good territory like Bright couldn't compare to, but—
These people had a lot more impact than he thought.
…
On another side, Garan also handed some potion to Micheal, who looked at him with a complicated expression.
"Thanks," Micheal said, but he handed it over to Juno instead.
This made the man flinch, not daring to take it. "Milord…"
"Call me Micheal, Juno. I'm no lord anymore."
"But—"
"You deserve it more," he said, "Just take it."
His tone was that of an order and Juno leaned down, trying to hold back tears. "Thank you."
Micheal nodded and looked around his party and saw there was only half of them left. He closed his eyes in pain.
"You take one, too," Garan said, releasing another potion as if it was nothing.
Micheal's lips twitched. They… really brought a lot of these.
He then thought of how they went here on such short notice. He knew a lot of these potions were meant for them in Bright and his heart warmed.
"I'm sorry…" he said, but there were plenty of unspoken words both men somehow understood.
'I'm sorry for the trouble' he thought, and 'I'm sorry for being a useless ally.'
Garan sighed, "Some things are unavoidable," he said, shaking his head.
"You did your best."