[Raven's POV!]
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-Tung! Tung! Tung!
And the town bell rang as we turned towards the stairs leading up on the town boundary walls. While players with close combat skill were to be prepared for a wall breach, ranged fighters like me had to go up there and fight alongside other archers, etc.
My weapons were throwing knives, and I had already secured a good number of them in the past 2 days. That should last me till the end of a couple of waves, before I switch to close combat again.
Running up to the high wall, I then stood beside one of the archers of the city. I think he was the assigned invigilator for overseeing the adventurer's exam of the players in the guild.
"We got about 3 minutes before they come close," the NPC said as he looked deeper into the forest. I couldn't see, but I held my breath before I prepared myself for the incoming wave.
[Hudson Lvl 62!]
"Is this a usual occurrence here? The wave, I mean," I asked, trying to get more information, wondering if I could trigger some sort of event.
"The wave? It's only happening because of the new duke," he sighed as he shook his head before he added,
"Previously, hell itself descended upon us. And now a monster wave… I mean, the conditions of the town weren't really as good before, but at least we didn't have to sightsee monsters every now and then."
He then turned to me before his eyes widened. As if he made a mistake, he shut up with his eyes widened before a slight sigh escaped his mouth and then he spoke.
"I said nothing."
I just looked at him with interest. I landed on some sort of gold mine, didn't I? I couldn't help but smile as I tried starting the conversation once more.
"The new duke? Hell?"
But then he chuckled as he looked from the corner of his eyes as he added," don't think I don't know what you are trying to do. I am not telling you anything anymore. Anyway… here they come."
I looked at him, amazed at the intelligence of the NPCs, before turning to the wave of monsters appearing in the forest.
The first ones were…
"Goblins!!" One of the NPCs shouted, informing the rest of the people down in the city.
"ARCHERS! READY!!" And the man beside me shouted with his hands raised, while the archers and other ranged units prepared their weapons.
"THREE!!"
"TWO!!!"
"ONE!!"
"SHOOT!!!"
And a barrage of arrows came, directed at the goblins, slaughtering them before they could even reach 100 meters of the town.
"More of them are coming," he added, reloading the arrows. I, too, picked another pair of knives as I prepared for another throw.
"GOBLINS!!"
And this time, there were more goblins.
The commands kept coming, as we all attacked the goblins, and then kobolds, a bunch of knolls, and a few other monsters. There was a variety but mostly were around lvl 7-10, which weren't that hard to deal with.
The first wave lasted about 10 minutes before the monsters stopped and we took a small break while keeping our eyes open.
And then the next wave came…
"What?!" I was a bit surprised as I looked at those new goblins, which looked stronger than the previous batch.
"HOBGOBLINS!!!" And the command came again.
Their level was around 20-25 and looked rather scary, even from a distance. But our archers were even scarier than them, killing them again even before they could come close to the city gates.
"We probably are gonna need our close combat unit out now," the guy beside me spoke and indeed he was right. This wave has just started, but if the monsters were already this strong, I don't know how long we can last.
[56 minutes!]
And there's still enough left for the quest to finish.
"SHOOT!!"
At his command, we shot again, killing most of the newer bunch. While they were stronger than before, they still weren't strong enough to penetrate our defenses. Some of them triggered a bunch of traps before succumbing.
[50 minutes!]
"The combat batch is moving outside now," spoke one of the guys as he saw the players and NPCs marching out to get their first taste of a battle. While others have hunted slimes and like, this would be the first time to fight against stronger monsters.
But the main question was…
'Will the level 10 player be strong enough to kill lvl 30 monsters and such?' I wondered about it before I saw those players taking out a bunch of arrays in their hands and cookies in another.
I focused on those cookies before my eyes widened as I realized they were the same cookies that Tinkerbella made. Ah! They got some buffs too.
Maybe, there was a chance?
"Minions!" The commander shouted, signaling the next wave of the monsters coming.
My heart skipped a beat as I looked down, trying to search for that idiot, Black Scythe. Though, not finding him down there, I sighed in relief.
'Why am I even worrying about that idiot?' I then shook my head before looking at the incoming monsters.
[Minion Lvl 47!]
"They are dead," I spoke with a baffled look as I observed the newer wave of monsters coming in, each level 45-50. There were at least 50 of those monsters this time.
"SHOOT!!!" the man beside me shouted as he looked at those monsters with a grave expression.
This time we could at most, injure about half of them, while they kept running towards the combatants.
"MAGES! FIRE!!"
Though as they reached about 20 meters away from the wall, a shout came and about half the archers dropped their bows before each of them chanted their own spell,
[FireBall!]
[Ice Spikes!]
[Flare!]
[Earth Spikes!]
The spells were chanted all over the city walls, before they took form and then reached those stronger monsters and…
-BOOM!!!!
Charring them into pieces.
"Beautiful," I just couldn't help but comment as I saw those spells taking form in those mages' hands over and over, showering on those monsters gradually coming towards us.
"WE GOT A BIGGER ONE COMING!!" One of the archers shouted, and Hudson chuckled before shouting,
"IT'S MINE!!!"
"Huh?" I turned to look at the archer guy, preparing his bow as he mumbled,
"[Art of the Bow Master: Love letters of Death!]"
And his arrow, which was plain wooden before, was now dark black with a reddish hue radiating from it.
-Bam! Bam! Bam!
On the other side, a giant rhinoceros was thrashing everything on its way, shattering all the trees as it reached closer to us.
[Rhiana Ostera Level 78!]
A level 78?!!!
I was shocked to see such a high level monster in a starter town. Can we survive-
-Whoosh!!
And that black arrow left the bow, trailing through the forest towards that giant rhino, hitting directly in the eye.
-KAAAAAAA!!!!!
The rhino shouted in agony as it kept running, stumbling with each step, before it emerged from the forest. And just after that, it slowed down a little 30 meters away from the town walls.
-Thud!
And it fell to the ground.
-BOOM!
And its body exploded into pieces, leaving the blackened inside in our view, while we barely held our breaths