A few minutes before Scaly’s arrival at the small port city, a large man with a majestic beard looked on at the chaos that was playing out all around him with a frown on his face.
"Why in the world are those monsters starting to gather at Fish Stone City!? Couldn’t they just have stayed elsewhere- or did those other towns on the island perhaps already fall...?" The words barely leaving his lips before a loud explosion in the distance drew his attention towards an ongoing battle that was playing out between one of the stronger adventurers that had been placed in charge of guarding the city and a powerful monster that had recently emerged from the monster horde besieging the city.
"Huh!? That fool Kyle left the barrier to start a battle with that greater dire wolf lord! Really doesn’t listen to anything his elders tell him to do! Our job here is to ensure this city remains intact until reinforcements show up. Not hunting down the stronger monsters to show off.
Oh well, at least there shouldn’t be any monster too dangerous lurking inside the monster horde. If anything, really does end up happening, he should be able to retreat towards the barrier with relative ease where I can assist him." Grumbling to himself as he watched the human and monster clashing wildly with each other, the older adventurer, who was in fact also an A Rank Adventurer, silently decided to ignore the antics of his younger companion given the fact that he was confident that he wouldn’t end up in any real danger.
However, this sense of ease didn’t last long, as he soon noticed the massive horde of monsters already several times larger than the one currently besieging Fish Stone City.
Not just that, but the strength of this horde of monsters was also far above that of the monsters he had been facing so far, as he could clearly sense the presence of several powerful monsters glaring at him from a distance deep within that massive horde of monsters. Making him unconsciously swallow nervously. Feeling that there were some monsters hidden within the approaching horde that even he as an A Rank Adventurer wouldn’t be able to deal with.
In other words, he would soon enough find himself almost entirely reliant on the defensive barrier guarding Fish Stone City... And although the barrier guarding a city like Fish Stone City was stronger than that of the average town, it would still be far from enough to hold out in the face of such a large number of powerful monsters attacking at the same time. Especially considering that the overall strength of the monster in the approaching monster horde was far higher than that of the monster horde currently attacking the Fish Stone city.
For him to even survive for a few minutes in the face of such a terrifying monster horde, he would have to do everything in his power to maximize the forces at his disposal to drag out the inevitable fall of the barrier, something that made him feel grateful that he wasn’t the only A Rank Adventurer who had been dispatched to ensure the safety of Fish Stone City.
"Huh...? Where... Where did Kyle go...?" However, as he calmed himself a bit in the face of approaching horde of monster, the old adventurer froze on the spot. Realizing that his companion who should still be locked in a deadly battle with the greater dire wolf lord had seemingly disappeared into thin air during the short time, his attention focused on the approaching horde of monsters.
He did hear a sudden loud bang, but he hadn’t thought too much about it and merely thought it had been Kyle landing a deadly blow on the greater dire wolf lord. Not enough to draw his attention while he had been fully focused on the new and far deadlier monster horde that was now approaching Fish Stone City.
Because of this, the old man who should have served as a beacon of hope for the defense of Fish Stone City, ended up just staring blankly out at the sea of monsters for a good half minute. Only realizing the seriousness of the situation when the first few monsters from the new monster horde began to crash headfirst into the barrier guarding Fish Stone City. Forcing him to start burning through the guild’s remaining reserves still left in the city, while at the same time having those mages with mana left help supplement and assist the stability of the barrier so it could hold longer without leaving the few mages, who decided to join in on strengthening the barrier instead of fighting outside the barrier to hold off the monster themselves, in a half dead state when it was done.
A clear improvement, but one that left those unable to join the battle directly feeling more helpless and useless, as they began using the method of transferring their own mana to the barrier several times before fainting. Thinking that only this way could they prove to their peers that they weren’t slacking when it came to protecting their city.
In a way, this did end up having a significant impact on the state of the barrier guarding the Fish Stone City, as the people staying in the city were not only extremely numerous, but those who decided to avoid battle and hide away inside were by no means weak individual without any strength. Allowing the barrier to be almost entirely sustained by the sacrifice of those stronger mages still hidden away inside the city.
To some extent, the effectiveness of these mages might have been far more significant than those fighting on the front lines, as there were always a monster waiting to attack the barrier whenever an opportunity presented itself.
"Kyle... Did he really perish when I was looking the other way...?" At the same time the battle for survival officially began for the Fish Stone City, the only A Rank Adventurer still left lingering inside the city on his own, could not help silently muttering this to himself while silently praying for his friend who had ended up dying the second he had turned to look the other way because something important weas happening.
Of course, these thoughts didn’t last long, as the older adventurer soon enough found himself moving to the frontline to help stabilize the situation before the situation went completely off track.
The reason why he still had the ability to maintain his calm even in this kind of abysmal situation, being because he knew that the reinforcements that were about to show up not only included a senior S Rank Adventurer along with a group of A Rank Adventurers, a force more than strong enough to help stabilize the current troublesome situation that he found himself in.
After all, he was one of the Adventurers who had originally come along from the headquarters to help deal with the situation in the Howling Caverns Dungeon and the Great Sky Kingdom itself at large.
Originally a simple job that involved dealing with an overrun dungeon and one about to reach a similar state.
Unfortunately, things never went according to plan and only a fraction of the people that were originally planned for the Howling Caverns Dungeon ended up being redirected elsewhere throughout the Great Sky Kingdom, as the local main branch from the capital of the Great Sky Kingdom had mismanaged the situation of the Adventurers Guild in the Great Sky Kingdom far more than had originally been expected.
Even now, most of the Adventurer Guild’s forces found themselves caught up in an internal struggle in the capital city, with only a few of the original adventurers ever making their way to the Howling Caverns.
And...
Who would know, the situation in the Howling Caverns Dungeon also turned out to have grown far worse than expected over the past week, as the dungeon seemed to have undergone some kind of strange upheaval that brought up the more powerful monsters that remained hidden even during a normal monster stampede, up to the surface. Forcing the few S Rank Adventurers currently inside the Howling Caverns to restrain them together with most of the A Rank Adventurers, while the rest had been dispatched across the different important bottlenecks the rest of the monsters would have to pass through to reach the second floor of the dungeon.
Overall, the current situation of the Great Sky Kingdom could be described with a single word, chaotic.
Chaotic to the point where some neighboring kingdoms had begun to eye it. Thinking about expanding their own territories a bit, the second that the Adventurers Guild took care of the current unrest caused by the dungeon break and returned to the main headquarters of the guild.
Though some did want to start invading now, they also understood that doing so while the Adventures Guild was busy dealing with a large-scale dungeon-related situation in the kingdom might earn the ire of this global power, something that everyone involved wanted to avoid.