Josh came back to find the village still under siege.

  Somewhere in the back of his mind, he had thought that his friends would have resolved everything by the time he got back. They were well prepared, after all, and some of the most dangerous opponents had been occupied with Josh himself. Ruth could handle the tanks, Darius could direct their soldiers to handle the mercenaries, and Mary could take out any particularly big and dangerous individual opponents.

  He had forgotten one simple rule: The Jungle was always hungry.

  No one knew if violence actually attracted monsters, but it sure felt that way sometimes. Maybe it wasn't anything supernatural, just the monsters hearing the sounds of battle and realizing there might be humans to eat. Either way, by the time Josh returned to San Juan Bautista, it was under siege by a small horde of giant boars, walking sharks, and multiple worms big enough to crash through the wall with their sheer bulk.

  If the mercenaries had been slow or stupid, they would have been a non-issue in this new battle. The monsters would have been the hammer to the anvil of the village's walls, and the mercenaries would have done nothing but cut down a chunk of the monsters before they were slaughtered. Maybe the sane ones would have sued for peace and joined in the defense. Darius would have accepted that, he was sure.

  Unfortunately, it seemed whoever was in charge of the mercenaries was both clever and cruel. They hadn't been able to escape the monsters, that was true. But they had been able to retreat down the wall, attacking from another angle. Not only did this force Darius to extend their forces farther along the wall, leaving them thinner, but it also left the breaches in the wall open for the monsters to attack.

  Monsters weren't exactly heavy thinkers, but they weren't completely mindless. By the time Josh arrived, on a small hill overlooking the battlefield, they had figured out that the hole in the wall was the best place to attack. Even as he watched, something that looked like a humanoid shark charged through the human lines trying to hold the gap. It bellowed as it scythed side to side with its arms, sending up sprays of blood, until it was finally brought down by the loud crack of a gunshot.

  Josh wondered if that had been Mary. It sounded like a rifle, not a pistol, so probably not.

  The field outside the walls was practically a forest of young saplings already. Every dead monster sprouted into a new tree, and when fed on the blood of humans, they grew rapidly. Some of the ones closest to the wall were already six feet tall. It was just one more dull, benign horror in the Jungle. Some of the most beautiful trees you would ever see were all that remained of a horrific slaughter.

  Josh stood there for a long moment, watching the fight. He was just so... tired. He had been attacked, beaten, kidnapped, talked at far too much, and escaped. All of which was before this battle started, which had been more fighting, more kidnapping, and then he had witnessed a murder, started a duel, cut a man's hand off, and then ran like a madman for what felt like hours. He felt as though he hadn't slept in weeks, and he was dripping enough sweat to drown Ruth.

  Part of him already felt as though this was yet another lost town. Just like Gilroy and Grant Lake and a thousand others in between. Maybe they'd eventually rebuild right here on this spot, but this town was dead. His best bet was to turn around and walk away. Just like he had at Gilroy.

  Except he hadn't lost everyone at Gilroy. His friends had survived, fled here.

  And this battle wasn't over yet.

  Josh looked at the battle again, searching for an opening. He couldn't fight an army by himself, at least not without a lot more preparation than he had time for. Thankfully, the armies weren't attacking the far side of the town, so he didn't have to fight through them. He ran down the hill and through the Jungle at top speed—keeping an eye on his stamina—until he came to the south gate of the town. It was still guarded, by a few men who looked like they didn't know if they should be thankful they were here or not. They let him through once they recognized him, and he ran back to the front lines. Just from inside the defenses instead of outside.

  Ruth spotted him first. She stood in the back for once, leaning on her hammer and only tracing sigils in the air to buff their people. She looked almost exhausted as he felt, clothes plastered to her body by sweat and unable to stand up without the hammer for support. He assumed she was resting her stamina while she waited for a healer. The fact that she hadn't jumped straight back into the fight implied that she had pulled something, which had impacted her stamina regen.

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  She smiled brightly when she saw him. “Josh! You're not dead!”

  “Last I checked,” he quipped, though it was less upbeat and more cynically weary. He couldn't help but smile a little at seeing her, though. He knew his friends were fine, but that was very different from actually seeing them alive. He nodded at the horde of monsters. At the moment, they were being held back by the village's defenders. “How are we doing here?”

  As if she hadn't heard him, she stepped forward and wrapped him in a big hug that lifted him up off the ground. Considering she was literally half his size, he couldn't help but be impressed.

  Josh squeezed her back. He was instinctively worried about crushing her, though that was a silly fear. For a moment, he just accepted the warmth of her presence.

  “We were worried about you,” she said quietly. She put him down, then took a step back and gave a weak smile. “Things are... survivable here. Not great, but survivable. I'm sure Mary and her girlfriend need more help on the other wall.”

  “Incorrect.” Darius walked up as if he had just been waiting for a cue. He looked Josh up and down, then nodded. “Glad you're back. Is that Hou Zheng's?”

  Josh looked down and realized he was still holding Hou Zheng's severed green hand. It had long since stopped dripping blood, and was a much paler shade than when it had been attached to the man.

  “Yeah,” he said. He pulled off the storage ring, wincing as some skin came off. “I haven't started putting mana into the ring yet, so I can't access the contents. But it should have a valuable bloodstone.”

  “Mine,” Ruth said. Both men looked at her, and she grinned. “What? I called dibs, remember?” She held out a hand, though Josh noticed she was still leaning on her hammer pretty heavily. “Give it here, I'll flush out his mana and claim it with my own.”

  With a shrug, Josh plopped the ring into Ruth's hand. He could have kept it for himself, of course, but he had barely reached the storage limit of his own ring. He didn't need another one when all of his friends were still going without.

  She put the ring on her left ring finger. He almost said something about that choice, before deciding not to bother. Though he did have a feeling that Ruth's father and aunt now had yet another reason to murder him. Eh, he was too tired to care, and it wasn't like they'd murder him less.

  Ruth took a deep breath—probably to replenish her mana—and the ring glowed for a moment. Her eyes went distant. “Nothing very interesting in here...” she murmured. “Besides the bloodstone, I mean.”

  “Yeah, Hou Zheng said as much.”

  Ruth blinked and gave him a tired grin. “I bet there's a story there, right? You managed to kill a Healer who was what, twice your level? That's pretty impressive!”

  “Well...”

  Before he could explain, there was an explosion outside the village. It wasn't huge, but they could see an orange fireball bloom higher than the walls, before it died down. At least it wasn't silver fire. Hou Zheng hadn't caught up to him quite yet.

  “I'll go see what that's about,” Josh said. He'd be most useful fighting monsters, anyway. “You said Mary and Anna are off fighting the mercenaries?”

  “They are,” Darius said. “Go. I will coordinate from here. Please be careful, however. We are still throwing firebombs, and Sarah is donating other elemental weapons when needed. Don't get hit.”

  “Sarah? Should she be on her feet already?”

  Darius gave him a level gaze. “Should you?”

  Josh made a face. All right, so they had both overdosed on potions, but Josh had been recovering for longer. He should be fine as long as he didn't try to drink any more potions. Which meant he had nothing to worry about. After all, everyone knew that no one ever needed to drink a health or mana potion in the middle of a fight. Perish the thought!

  “I'll be fine,” he said instead. He'd survived worse potion sickness before. God, he had actively fought while suffering from worse potion sickness before. Of course, that time he'd had a rather skilled Healer who was somewhat invested in his survival on hand to save him from his own mistakes...

  He pushed those thoughts aside. “See if you can drive the monsters towards the mercenaries,” he said, as he hefted his ax. “If either group tries to retreat, let them.”

  Josh ran up to the line of villagers trying to hold the gap in the wall. They were doing a reasonably good job. Everyone in the front was a Shielder or similar class, and it appeared that Darius had given every single one of them a shroud. There were Shrouders on the second line, boosting the first line. Between them, they could physically hold the monsters back, while the Archers and Gunners on the walls shot down into the horde.

  It was far from perfect, and even as he watched, Josh saw a Gunner receive a spike through the arm. She survived, but had to fall back, and there was no one to replace her on the wall.

  Josh climbed up the wall and scanned the monsters, looking for priority targets. The giant worms were the most obvious, and not just because they were the biggest things on the field.