The battle entered a new stage at the entrance of dozens of new citizens, all of whom had their various weapons out. It was led by a group of young men—one of whom even had one arm—and they started attacking their own guards from behind.
"AH!" A guard yelled as he was stabbed in the back. He kicked by instinct and the man managed to avoid it mostly. He was imbalanced but was helped out by the others.
"What are you doing?!" he yelled, looking at the familiar faces in anger and disbelief.
Instead of the usual suppressed facial expressions, they were now extremely aggressive. "We've had enough of your faces!"
The guards' eyes twitched, pushing them, trying to swing his sword but they all stepped back and avoided it. It didn't help he was bloodied and whoozy at this time.
Instead, he just yelled at the bastards. "IDIOTS! Don't you know you could become slaves?!"
"Anywhere is better than here!" Tacky yelled, spitting at him, and with his yell, the group started mobbing the few guards at the rear, lightening up the load on the Alterans.
The Alterans looked a bit surprised when the newcomers headed towards their own guards instead of them, and with such passion too. Sunny used this time to get to Dog, dragging him towards a wall, and burying her shield in front of them as cover.
She religiously fed him potions and wrapped his wound up with their bandages. Seeing her like this, the delirious Dog couldn't help but smile. Sunny raised her head, her eyes meeting his smile, and she almost cried.
She slapped him. "Don't die!"
"Ouch! What makes you think that!?"
"You got that dazed look on your face when people succumbed to death!"
"..."
Back to the battle, although the newcomers attacked only the outer layer, it successfully distracted the group of enemies.
The enemy forces were further divided to deal with them and soon more guards were heading to them. The differences in strength showed as many citizens were pushed back, and were about to be stabbed by angry guards.
"KYAA!"
Some of them could only close their eyes, knowing their reflexes wouldn't be able to do anything for them at this point.
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
The painful hit never came as the guards attacking them were injured or dead a few moments later. They looked over and saw a somber-looking man standing a few heads taller than the rest of them.
They realized it was an archer with a cool crossbow (where did the Alterans get those weapons?!) and he was probably standing on top of something.
Of course, the enemies were distracted only for a second before the nearby guards saw that those handling them had been taken down. They headed towards them instead.
Anyway, it was easier to kill them instead of the Alterans!
Tacky and the others also gathered themselves, adopting a similar stance to the Alterans—back-to-back—for efficiency and protection.
Of course, unlike in Altera, most people in Fargo—as with other territories—hadn't awakened even the basic fighting occupations.
It would take a longer time before most people could do it. After all, the monsters were too strong for the typical villager. They would have to work in big teams and thus the accompanying experience would be distributed, lowering the proficiency training.
Altera managed to do so only because of their system. If people didn't want to go to the Training Hall, they could hunt around outside with stronger individuals who could guard them from death.
Even the most 'budget-crunched' people could just camp around the walls near the sentries and lure monsters in. This way, as long as they got the final kill, then the experience and copper were theirs.
The popular 'golden spots' (the corner made by the level 5 main walls and the level 3 extra wall) were always filled, so people started positioning on the now-called 'silver spots' . The term was coined and popularized by Fred's team, referring to the spots where the scope of two sentries overlapped.
However, while the newcomers swung their swords without the advantages of skill, they were still decent considering everything. Crow, though targeting enemies attacking on both sides, decided to lighten up the load on the newcomers as well.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
The group soon headed closer to them and they placed themselves near the Alterans so the enemies would be attacked from two sides now, while minimizing their side's exposure.
Stab!
"AH!"
Slash!
"BASTARDS!"
While the Alterans didn't put down their guards against the newcomers, they cooperated decently enough. Attacking together, but at the same time not exposing their backs at them.
More and more Fargo guards fell and the others were tempted to run away again. It was humiliating to run from a group of kids without elements—but life first!
John saw several people on his side had ran away again and cursed. "BASTARDS!" he yelled going berserk at whatever opening he found, pushing someone in front of him as a shield to be stabbed by the formation.
Clack! Clack! Clack!
The guy was not weak and a spot indeed buckled.
"Ah!"
This was among the newcomers—to the one-handed guy. His eyes glinted in bloodlust and he gestured to at least get a kill.
"Baka!"
Swoosh!
An arrow buried into the man's neck and they turned to see it was that emo-guy, who then ignored them and continued to target other people.
Tacky and the other widened a bit. "T-Thank you…" He whispered though the man didn't seem to hear nor care.
But the admiration in their eyes didn't dissipate. And their admiration was not just to Crow, but also to everyone on their team!
Many of them had seen the 'enemies' even before, and they knew they were incredibly strong!
More importantly, they had seen how they interacted with each other: how strongmen protected the weak and how they didn't leave anyone behind!
How these people dealt with their companions in emergencies told a lot about what kind of territory they lived in.
It was a type of territory that encouraged camaraderie and a territory that valued lives.
So, even if they knew nothing of Altera, their hearts couldn't help but side with them!
…
As for the Fargo guards who ran away, they actually weren't able to in the end. They didn't even get far before another group of people arrived and mobbed on them!
First, no other Fargo guards went to this area of 'small' scuffles. After all, there was far more chaos happening elsewhere that needed their presence more. This meant that the guards nearby were already in this place.
On the contrary, more of the citizens around started joining in, exacting their own revenge. There weren't a lot of them, but they were consolidated in their desires for revenge.
Ironic how they didn't move when their lord was calling for help, but went out on their own to help the enemy!
At the time, they thought that since they had the option of not moving, why would they help these people who only knew to abuse them?
They were too afraid to get hurt, and they knew it wasn't worth getting hurt for the territory for a bit of silver. What was the use of that if they didn't have their lives?
Even if they didn't die, what if they got injured? Worse, got debilitated to work in the future? Fargo never sponsored healing the injured and they would certainly not care if they starved to death because they could no longer move!
Now, however, they fought for themselves, for their sanity, and for their pride.
They joined Tacky and the others and soon started pushing the enemies back—even without Altera's help.
Crow saw this and his dark eyes brightened a bit, the light of an idea coming straight to his head.
There must be thousands of citizens angry at Fargo and his guards, right?
What if they got even more of them to fight?