*Date: 33,480 Second Quarter - Iron Confederacy, Safe Hollow*
The second horn blast came too soon.
Demir had barely caught his breath when the forest erupted again. But this time, the goblins emerged in organized ranks. Shields locked, spears bristling forward, war drums pounding a steady rhythm that shook the earth.
Fifteen hundred strong. They hadn't lost anyone yet, but exhaustion from the first wave and minor wounds were taking their toll on the defenders.
"They learned," Roderic muttered, gripping his sword with white knuckles. "Damn it, they learned."
The defenders scrambled back to their positions. Healers moved frantically through the wounded, pouring potions, wrapping bandages. Priestess Neya's hands glowed with soft light as she closed a gash on a guard's shoulder, but her face was pale with exhaustion.
"Archers! Check your quivers!" Elandra shouted. "Mages! Conserve your mana!"
Demir surveyed the walls. Already cracks showed in the northern palisade. Bodies, both goblin and human, had been hastily pulled aside but the blood remained, slick and dark. The defenders looked haggard, eyes wide with the knowledge that this was only the beginning.
Marco stumbled over, robes singed, glasses askew. "I've got maybe five good spells left in me. After that, I'm throwing rocks."
"Then make those five count," Demir said, clapping the older man's shoulder.
Sin appeared, dragging Timmy behind him. The younger twin's ribs were wrapped in crude bandages, already spotted with red. "He needs rest."
"I'm fine," Timmy protested weakly.
"You're bleeding," Sin snapped. "Sit this one out."
"We need everyone," Demir said quietly. "But if you fall, Timmy, you're no good to anyone. Stay behind the second line. Support from there."
Timmy nodded reluctantly. Sin's jaw clenched, but he didn't argue.
The goblin drums grew louder. Closer.
This time, they didn't charge blindly. They marched. A disciplined advance, shields raised, spears angled. Behind them, crude siege ladders were carried forward by larger goblins, their muscles bulging with unnatural strength.
"Here they come!" Thalia's voice rang from the tower. "Brace!"
The first arrow volley struck the goblin shields with a sound like hail on tin roofs. Most deflected harmlessly. A few found gaps, throats, legs, unarmored shoulders. But the formation held.
"Damn," Elandra hissed. "They're actually using tactics."
"MAGES!" Roderic bellowed. "BREAK THEIR FORMATION!"
Thalia raised her staff, sweat beading on her forehead. "Meteor Shard!"
A chunk of flaming stone materialized above the goblin ranks and plummeted downward. It struck with devastating force, obliterating a wedge of shield-bearers and sending bodies flying. The formation wavered.
Ardrem stepped forward, hands weaving intricate patterns. "Chain Lightning!"
Blue-white electricity arced through the goblin front line, jumping from shield to spear to helmet. Goblins convulsed and collapsed, smoke rising from their charred flesh.
But the gaps closed immediately. More goblins surged forward, trampling their dead, maintaining the shield wall.
They reached the palisade.
Ladders slammed against the walls. Dozens of them, all at once. Goblins swarmed upward, shields protecting their ascent.
"MELEE! HOLD THE WALLS!" Roderic's voice cracked with desperation.
Demir met the first goblin cresting the wall with a brutal overhead strike. Wolf's Vow cleaved through the creature's shield and skull in one motion. He kicked the body backward, sending it crashing into the climbers below.
But three more replaced it immediately.
He fought with mechanical precision. Block, parry, strike, step. His armor absorbed blows that would have killed him. A spear scraped across his pauldron, another glanced off his helm. He barely felt them through the adrenaline and terror.
To his left, Killgor became death incarnate. The assassin moved through goblins like smoke through a candle flame. Appearing, killing, vanishing. Blood followed in his wake.
To his right, a section of wall began to buckle.
"NORTH WALL FAILING!" someone screamed.
Demir turned to see wood splintering, goblins pouring through the gap like water through a dam. Defenders fell back, overwhelmed.
"ASENA!" Demir roared.
The giant wolf was already moving. She hit the breach like a silver comet, jaws snapping, claws tearing. Goblins flew through the air, broken and screaming. She bought them seconds. Precious, bloody seconds.
Marco appeared at the gap, hands shaking, glasses cracked. "I've got this! I've got—"
He stumbled.
The spell went wild.
Instead of hitting the goblins, a massive fireball erupted directly in front of the breach. Engulfing three human defenders in flames.
"NO!" Marco's scream was raw with horror.
Sin was there in an instant, dragging one burning defender away from the fire. Timmy appeared despite his injuries, throwing water from a bucket. But it was too late for two of them.
The breach widened.
Goblins poured through, spreading into the town square. Chaos erupted. Civilians fleeing, guards scrambling to form a new defensive line.
Demir leaped from the wall, landing hard, armor clanging. He charged into the goblin mass, blade singing. Each swing dropped an enemy, but more kept coming.
Asena fought beside him, a whirlwind of fur and fangs. Together they held the square, a two-creature wall of violence.
Marven appeared on a rooftop, arrows flying faster than thought. Each shot found a goblin eye, throat, or heart. "FALL BACK TO SECONDARY POSITIONS!"
The defenders retreated in controlled panic, abandoning the outer walls to reinforce the inner perimeter. The town was shrinking, compressed by the goblin tide.
Thalia unleashed another Meteor Shard, this one landing directly in the breach. The explosion bought them minutes to regroup.
Demir found himself back-to-back with Roderic. Both men were drenched in blood. Whose, they couldn't say.
"We can't hold like this," Roderic gasped. "They'll grind us down."
"We don't have a choice."
Ardrem appeared, face gray with exhaustion. "I'm out. No mana left. I can only use basic spells."
Killgor staggered up, a deep gash across his shoulder. "I'm slowing down. Can't keep this pace."
Sin and Timmy fought nearby, covering each other's blind spots. Timmy's movements were sluggish, his bandages soaked through. Sin kept glancing at his brother, fear cracking through his dark facade.
Then, slowly, the pressure began to ease.
The goblin advance faltered. Their numbers thinned. The coordinated shield wall dissolved into scattered skirmishers.
Demir cut down another goblin and realized there were no more behind it.
The second wave was breaking.
"PUSH!" Roderic roared one final time. "DRIVE THEM OUT!"
The defenders surged forward, desperation fueling a final burst of violence. Goblins turned and fled, streaming back toward the forest.
Asena pursued them for a hundred yards, killing stragglers, before returning to the town. Panting, limping slightly, her silver fur matted with dark blood.
Silence fell like a hammer.
Demir collapsed against a half-destroyed barricade, every muscle screaming. Around him, defenders dropped where they stood. Some wept. Others stared blankly at the carnage.
The cost was written in bodies.
Twenty-three defenders dead. Forty more wounded. The northern wall was rubble. The palisade was shattered in three places. Fires smoldered where Marco's miscast spell had struck. What made them think they could hold palisades with one hundred fifty fighters against a goblin horde?
Priestess Neya moved through the wounded like a ghost, her healing magic flickering weakly. "I can't... I don't have enough..."
Thalia sat on a pile of rubble, head in her hands. "Three more waves. We took twenty percent casualties from two waves."
Roderic didn't respond. He was staring at the forest.
Demir followed his gaze.
Through the trees, shadows moved. Massive shadows. And the sound that reached them wasn't drums this time.
It was howling.
Hundreds of goblin voices raised in a hunting cry.
"They're not giving us time to recover," Demir whispered.
Timmy slumped against Sin, barely conscious. The cheerful twin's breathing was shallow, his skin pale.
Sin looked up, eyes hollow. "He can't fight again. He'll die."
"Then he stays back," Demir said.
"There is no 'back' anymore," Sin replied, gesturing at the collapsed walls. "There's just here."
Marco knelt nearby, staring at his hands. "I killed them. I killed our own people."
"It was an accident," Demir said.
"That doesn't bring them back."
"Marco, get it together. We will mourn later."
Marco bowed his head. "I am not a... not a..."
Asena padded over to Demir and sat, her massive head level with his shoulder. She was bleeding from a dozen wounds, but her eyes remained fierce.
"You feel it too, don't you?" Demir murmured, scratching behind her ear. "We're running out of miracles."
The wolf huffed once, as if in agreement.
On the horizon, the sun climbed higher. Indifferent to the slaughter below.
And from the forest, the third horn blast echoed.
Louder. Closer.
Roderic stood, legs shaking. "Everyone up. NOW."
Nobody moved.
"I SAID UP!" His voice cracked. "We don't get to quit! We die standing or we live kneeling! CHOOSE!"
Slowly, agonizingly, the defenders rose. Battered. Broken. But standing.
Demir gripped Wolf's Vow, the blade gleaming with goblin blood. His armor was dented, straps loosened, but it still held.
Sin pulled Timmy to his feet, half-carrying his brother. "Together," he whispered. "Like always."
Timmy nodded weakly. "Together."
The third wave emerged from the treeline.
Fifteen hundred more goblins.
And this time, they brought battering rams.