*Date: 33,480 Second Quarter - Iron Confederacy, Safe Hollow*
The dawn broke red over Safe Hollow, painting the wooden palisade walls in shades of blood and fire.
Demir stood at the center of the town square, buckling the final strap of his newly crafted armor. The five-piece C-rank full plate gleamed in the morning light. Chest piece etched with intricate wolf motifs, pauldrons curved like fangs, gauntlets reinforced with layered steel, leg guards that sang with each movement, and a helm crowned with a subtle crest. Each piece had taken days of grinding, forging, tempering. Each strike of his hammer had been a prayer. And the biggest win was the system recognizing it as a set and granting ten percent bonus to each stat.
He flexed his fingers inside the gauntlets. Perfect fit. The weight distributed evenly across his shoulders, the articulation smooth enough for combat. He felt like a fortress wrapped in steel.
"Looking good, blacksmith," Thalia called from the wall, her crimson hair tied back tight. Staff already crackling with faint blue energy. "Almost makes you look dangerous."
Demir grinned despite the knot in his stomach. "Almost?"
Marven approached the two and smirked. "Don't let it go to your head. You're still the guy who got chased by a rabbit last week." The trio forced a laugh. Thalia left for her station, boots thudding on wooden stairs.
Marven lingered, expression shifting to something uncertain. "Demir, I hope we survive. I liked the little time we had. I..."
Demir saw the normally mischievous woman squirming with words she couldn't quite say. "Don't worry. After this, we'll go hunting and taming in the forest again."
"I hope so," Marven said softly.
Roderic limped over, his armor battered but functional, sword strapped to his hip. The commander's face was grim, eyes scanning the northern treeline. "Save the jokes for after. Scouts just returned. They're coming."
The square fell silent.
"How many?" Demir asked.
Roderic's jaw tightened. "First wave looks like a thousand. Maybe more."
A ripple of fear spread through the gathered defenders. One hundred and fifty fighters against a thousand goblins. The math was brutal.
Roderic turned to face the crowd. Miners clutching makeshift spears, hunters with bows, mages nervously gripping staffs, a handful of warriors in mismatched armor. These weren't soldiers. They were survivors. But they were his people.
"Listen up!" His voice cut through the murmurs. "I know you're scared. I am too. But we've built something here. We've turned dirt and desperation into a home. And today, we prove that we're not prey anymore."
Demir raised Wolf's Vow high, the orichalcum blade catching the light. "We hold the walls. We protect each other. And when this is done, we rebuild. Together."
A few voices cheered. Others gripped their weapons tighter. It wasn't much, but it was enough.
Roderic nodded approvingly. "Positions! Archers on the walls! Mages behind the barricades! Melee fighters at the gates!"
The defenders scattered like water, each finding their assigned position. Demir watched them move. Thalia climbing to the eastern tower, Elandra and Marven taking positions on opposite ends of the north wall, Marco nervously adjusting his glasses as he checked his spell components.
Near the southern gate, Sin and Timmy stood side by side, weapons drawn. Sin's face was carved from stone, dark and unreadable. Timmy looked pale but determined, knuckles white around his sword hilt.
Demir approached them. "You two ready?"
Sin spat into the dirt. "Does it matter?"
Timmy nodded quickly. "We'll hold our section. Don't worry about us."
Demir clasped Timmy's shoulder. "Watch each other's backs."
"Always," Timmy said quietly.
Marco approached, fumbling with the daggers at his belt. "I couldn't get far enough away to use these daggers' return skill."
"Can you swing when enemies get close?" Demir asked.
"Yeah."
"Then the daggers are doing their job." They laughed, the sound forced but necessary.
A low horn blast echoed from the forest. Deep, guttural, inhuman.
The goblins were here.
The treeline erupted with movement. Hundreds of green-skinned bodies poured from the shadows, shrieking and howling, brandishing crude weapons and makeshift shields. They moved like a wave of locusts, chaotic but relentless.
"HOLD!" Roderic bellowed from the center platform.
The goblins charged across the open field, a churning mass of muscle and malice. The ground trembled beneath their feet. Dust rose in clouds.
"ARCHERS!" Roderic roared. "LOOSE!"
Fifty bowstrings sang in unison. Arrows arced through the morning sky, black against the red dawn, and descended like rain. Goblins screamed as shafts found flesh, tumbling forward in tangled heaps. But the horde didn't slow.
"AGAIN!" Elandra shouted, already nocking another arrow.
Another volley. More goblins fell. The front line wavered but surged forward, trampling their own dead without hesitation.
Thalia raised her staff, eyes blazing with power. "Flame Cascade!"
A torrent of fire erupted from her hands, sweeping across the charging mass. Goblins shrieked as flames consumed them, their crude armor melting, skin blistering and blackening. The smell of burning flesh filled the air, acrid and choking.
But still they came.
The first wave crashed into the palisade walls like a battering ram. Goblins clawed at the wood, hurling grappling hooks, stacking crude ladders. A section of the northern wall groaned under the weight.
"MELEE! ENGAGE!" Roderic commanded.
Demir surged forward, Wolf's Vow blazing with crackling energy. He met the first goblin scaling the wall with a downward cleave that split it from shoulder to hip. Lightning arced from the blade, the Thunder Edge skill expanding outward. Two more goblins behind the first convulsed and fell.
To his left, Killgor moved like a phantom. Blade flashing, throats opening, blood spraying in arterial arcs. The assassin's movements were surgical, efficient, terrifying.
To his right, Ardrem the mage unleashed bolts of arcane force, each one punching through goblin skulls with devastating precision. Purple energy crackled.
The wall became a slaughter line.
Demir's armor deflected a spear thrust, the crude weapon glancing off his chest plate with a metallic screech. He countered with a shield bash, caving in the goblin's face, bones crunching. Then spun and drove his sword through another's sternum.
His muscles burned. His breath came in ragged gasps. But the armor held. Every blow that should have cut him bounced away. Every strike he landed felt amplified by the crafted steel.
Above, Marven picked off climbers with deadly accuracy, each arrow a kill shot. "They just keep coming!"
"Then we keep killing!" Elandra shouted back, loosing three arrows in rapid succession.
Marco stumbled backward, his fireball going wide and scorching the side of a watchtower instead of the goblin horde. "Damn it! Sorry! Sorry!"
Sin appeared beside him, cutting down two goblins that had broken through. "Watch your aim, old man!"
"I'm trying!" Marco yelped, frantically preparing another spell.
Minutes blurred into an eternity of blood and steel. Demir lost count of how many goblins he killed. Ten? Twenty? His sword arm ached, his gauntlets slick with gore.
Then, a howl. Pure, wild, and ancient.
Asena burst from the treeline like a silver avalanche. The giant wolf tore into the goblin flank, jaws crushing bones, claws rending flesh. She moved with terrifying grace, each kill a symphony of violence.
The goblins' advance faltered. Panic spread through their ranks as the wolf carved a bloody path through them.
"PUSH!" Roderic roared. "DRIVE THEM BACK!"
The defenders surged forward with renewed vigor. Demir leaped from the wall, landing amid a cluster of goblins. His blade became a whirlwind. Cutting, stabbing, cleaving. Lightning danced between enemies, each arc dropping another foe.
Asena fought beside him, their movements almost synchronized. When goblins tried to flank Demir, the wolf was there. When the wolf was surrounded, Demir's sword cleared the way.
Slowly, impossibly, the first wave began to break.
Goblins turned and fled, scrambling back toward the forest, leaving hundreds of their dead littering the blood-soaked field.
A ragged cheer rose from the defenders.
Demir leaned against the wall, chest heaving, armor dented but intact. Around him, people collapsed in exhaustion, tending wounds, gulping water.
Thalia descended from her tower, face smudged with soot. "We did it. We actually did it."
Roderic limped over, blood dripping from a gash on his arm. "That was just the first wave."
The words hit like a hammer.
Sin staggered up, helping Timmy walk. The younger twin had a nasty cut across his ribs but was still standing. "How many more?"
Roderic looked toward the forest, where shadows moved in the distance. Shapes regrouping, reforming.
"Four more," he said quietly. "At least four more."
The cheers died. Reality settled over Safe Hollow like a burial shroud.
Demir gripped his sword tighter, meeting Roderic's eyes. "Then we hold. Again."
Asena padded over, blood matting her silver fur. She sat beside Demir, ears swiveling toward the forest. Waiting.
The red dawn deepened into crimson as the first bodies were dragged away from the walls.
And in the distance, another horn blast echoed through the trees.