I’m awakened in the middle of the night by a loud, low thud. I try to ignore it, but another one echoes through the walls and the substance of my bed straight up into my head and body. I turn to my phone: Three-thirty AM.

  Well, shit. I’m not getting back to sleep before I’m required to be awake and…

  The alarm on base blares out like a tornado siren. What vestiges of sleepiness remain are erased by the flood of adrenaline and other endorphins. Chloe wakes up in a panic, and the two of us rush to don our weapons and armor before we’re out the door within the span of five minutes.

  Soldiers are parading out of the hotel-turned-barracks at a hurried pace. Credit to their training and discipline, but it was also regimented and orderly. A double-time that never deviated into an outright run or jog. Everyone already knew what their role was, and so as soldiers marched into the common area to be briefed by the command staff, they were already standing at attention, in formation, shorter soldiers in the front, and ready to receive orders.

  Lindsey pulls the two of us aside, where most of the rest of our former team is gathered. Brent is standing like a medieval knight, fully armored from head to toe in polished full plate. He nods slightly and groans a low, breathy hello through his helmet. His sword is in front of him, gripped with both hands, jammed about an inch into the asphalt slab beneath us.

  Anna is a lot more cheery, and the warmth she naturally exudes is a welcome reprieve from the blustery chill that covers the base in the early morning. Jackie is standing beside her, but instead of her usual scowl when she sees me, instead, she just crosses her arms and gives me an aloof look. Some slight progress, I suppose, though I was expecting a bit more from Nicholas’s promises to smooth out the rocky relations between the two of us. As long as she’s not going to literally stab me in the back on the field of battle, I’ll ignore it.

  Nicholas, Colonel Wilson, and Alexey are all standing in front of the massed soldiers, the colonel in between the two others. And he begins speaking with all the force and muster I would expect of a senior officer who’s got at least fifteen or twenty years in the service.

  “Soldiers, heed my words!” I instinctively jump to full attention as though he just telekinetically jammed a rod straight up my backside. Considering Nicholas’s [Tactician] class, he probably has a similar [Commander] class with a similar skill set.

  “Your city and your country are about to be sieged.” The low, distant thud of a heavy step rumbling in the darkness highlights the urgency of his words. I flicker my [Ethersight] for a moment, forgetting briefly that its range-limited to about forty yards.

  “Let me stress: We are the last and only line of defense for the civilians living here. If we fail on this morning, there will be no reinforcements. There will be no second chances. If, by the grace of God or the System or whatever you choose to worship, the hordes see fit to grant us mercy, then some of us might survive and be able to resist. But the cost of life to the people we have sworn an oath to defend and protect will be unacceptable!

  “Soldiers, there are times that try our souls. Times that stress our bodies and minds and spirits to our breaking point. But it is in the crucible of combat, under the pressure of the highest stakes, that soldiers are shaped, that rough coal is molded into diamonds, and that the training and experience that each and every one of you has undergone will shine through. Now, let us march!”

  “Sir, Yes Sir!” the army cried out in unison.

  Alexey spoke next, his grizzled voice able to cut through the whispering wind and reverberate in everyone’s ears despite distance and the quiet tone in which he spoke.

  “Soldiers, we are under siege by an army of beasts empowered by the System, filled with rage that we have denied them the right to feast on our flesh. Some of these creatures are animals who see us as weak. Who see our food as their next meal, our homes as their next shelter, our bodies as their trophies. We will deny them!

  “Mankind has never been the biggest or strongest creature to walk these lands. But where beasts have strength and brutality, we have intelligence, preparation, training, and coordination. Alone, each of us may falter. But together, we will overcome! Soldiers, I will lead you into battle! Now, to arms!”

  “How many?” I whisper to Lindsey. “Approximate levels?”

  She doesn’t answer me. I’m not sure if she doesn’t know herself, or doesn’t want to damage morale as we walk headfirst into an unwinnable battle. I don’t press further. We’ve come this far. The three of us, Chloe included, were the first adventuring group to conquer a dungeon in this sector, and have the Experience to show for it.

  More importantly, each of us is nearly fully-equipped in System-registered gear, bolstering our offensive and defensive capabilities slightly. Some others, mostly sergeants and commissioned officers, also have System-registered gear, the telltale wisps of Ether giving it away. The others are clad in conventional body armor, Kevlar, and similar. I doubt it gives more than a point or two worth of [Defense], but even that tiny amount can mean the difference between life and death.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  We march into the darkness west of the city. It’s only a bit after four in the morning, meaning not even a trace of dawn’s light is yet visible against the eastern horizon. The city’s lights are still on, and the ever-ominous Tower Gauntlet downtown continues to loom over the downtown skylight, taking watch of our every battle. A reminder of just how insignificant each of us are against the System and its nigh-omnipotence.

  The ground rumbles. Trees shake, sending leaves and freshly grown buds falling down on the ground. Branches shudder. My heart palpitates, even though I can’t see exactly what’s about to bear down on us. I draw my sword, shining a light onto the battlefield. I’ve probably got the best slate of defensive armor in the entire unit, along with one of the highest levels and [Vitality] stats, so better that I take the brunt of the first attack.

  I regret my decision immediately as a foot appears just on the periphery of my vision’s range. Saurian in nature, one of the big ones. Brachiosaurus or some similar species, though even larger. Its leg is easily thrice as wide as my entire body, and stretches a good twelve to fourteen feet tall before rooting itself in a massive body that must weigh a solid eighty to a hundred tons. Its neck stretches beyond the edge of my [Ethersight], about a hundred feet above.

  I grit my teeth, unsure how to fight such a behemoth. And it gets worse. In addition to the deluxe brachiosaurus, there’s the shrill shrieks of waves of human-sized velociraptors sprinting toward us. They look like some strange hybrid of a giant turkey with a mouth and fangs similar to those of a viper. They flap their feathered arms as though they are about to take off toward us, but are unable to do more than hover a few inches off the ground for a few seconds before they drop down and continue their sprint.

  The first raptor attempts to savage me with the claws on the end of its wings. I step back and raise my buckler to intercept. It tries to feint past my defenses, but I’m able to twist my body in time to block the attack nonetheless. The other claw rakes across my chest. My [Brigandine] absorbs the attack, though I stagger from the small amount of bludgeoning force that penetrates the chestplate. Not enough to stop me from turning this raptor into a headless turkey with a single critical strike of my [Blessed Sword].

  [You have slain a Lesser Velociraptor (Level 19). You have gained a boosted 16 Experience.]

  Seeing me cut the raptor down in a single move emboldens the soldiers. A war cry echoes out from behind me, matching the intensity of the shrieking turkeys as the two sides engage in combat. Those with System-registered weapons— including [Bludgeoners] like Alexey and [Martial Monks] like Jackie whose fists are considered weapons— take positions at close range.

  Those who don’t resort to covering fire, shooting sidearms and launching rocket-propelled grenades into the fray. The attacks from conventional weaponry do some damage, which is more than I’d expected. But they don’t do enough to bring the creatures down before they bear down upon us.

  The [Mages] among the soldiers do a little better. Bolts of lightning, spears of ice, sickles of darkness, and other elemental evocations fly over the battlefield, some doing decent damage to the raptors, and others singeing the brachiosaur as it forces us to make a temporary retreat.

  The raptors’ titanic benefactor lumbers around without much purpose. Footsteps stagger the soldiers who rush around to dodge. One unlucky man is crumpled underfoot, leaving a mangled web of flesh as he’s broken instantly, his life expired before Chloe can wield her mending spells. Yet another victim of the System brought down, and yet, in the maelstrom of war, there is no time to properly grieve.

  All we can do is adapt, persevere, and survive.

  I cut another raptor down, and then another, but they keep coming. Hundreds of soldiers with physical classes coordinate their attacks in waves. Though the army has only limited equipment, not enough for every soldier, they utilize a tight phalanx formation and pass the gear around to those fighting on the front lines. Each soldier takes a sword and what equipment they can quickly don and spends a few minutes fighting on the front lines. Once their [Health] and [Ether] run low, they retreat, letting Chloe and the other [Healers] tend to their wounds.

  We have no choice and are unable to hold the line. We allow ourselves to be pushed back slowly as the massive dinosaur pushes forward without a care in the world, slowly lumbering toward the city and the civilian population that still sleeps without a care in the world.

  I hand my sword to a nearby soldier, entrusting him to hold the line and use my weapon well. I take out my [Modular Blowgun] and my pouch of [Ether Bullets] and I begin firing. I don’t use any glyphs on my weapon, as I feel I’ll need to [Glyphcast] a powerful spell against the titan. But I’ve got a steady supply of these projectiles and anything I can do to whittle these numbers down is good for our continued survival.

  I fire in succession. One shot, then two, then two more fired consecutively. Tiny spheres of teal-white light streak through the darkness, clipping legs and feathers and sending bits of smoldering chicken flopping on the ground. My attacks aren’t doing enough damage to kill our attackers, but they are slowing them down, giving us critical seconds to regroup and recenter ourselves. Lindsey’s [Shining Arrows] rain down a moment after my hellstorm finishes, and more long-range spells go flying.

  A giant [Fireball] drops about a hundred feet in front of our frontlines. Heat and golden flames radiate outward from the center of the blast, and dozens of the raptors are fried in the explosion.

  All around us are hundreds of raptor corpses, and yet, it seems they just keep coming. We’ve been fighting for nearly half an hour, and casualties are starting to mount, overwhelming our healers. But there’s no end to the hordes that have come after us.

  “Lindsey,” I shout through the fog of war. “There’s no end to them! We keep focusing on the chickens and we’ll be cooked long before they expire! We’ve gotta bring down the big one and hope that if we do, it’ll encourage the others to turn tail and flee.”

  She gulps. “Alright. I’ll alert command of the need to change strategy. You start trying to draw the big guy off its course, and I’ll meet up with you once we’ve got a plan in mind.”

  I take back my sword from the soldier; he’s severely injured, on the brink of consciousness, perhaps only minutes away from losing his life. I reach into my pouch and jam a potion down his throat, staving off his fate. Now to bring the big asshole down… Somehow.