CC 9: Tenacity ~ Thirty-Seven

Five days, or more accurately one hundred twenty-eight hours, had passed since Joe had finished working on the initial chunks of wall. The Village had settled into a rhythm, and Joe in particular had dived deep into the peculiarities of defending this place.

He now had a devoted group of people that were charged with refilling the Mana Batteries at the end of each wave. They were paid in beast cores, an expense that Joe passed along to the city by simply holding on to the materials that were processed in his aspect tower. All of the Rare or better cores that he was able to obtain went right into his pocket, though he planned to use a boatload of them to recreate a huge chunk of the wall very shortly.

As the Beast wave counter ticked higher, they as a town had been getting more and more nervous. They had already defeated two additional sets of elite monsters, but the second boss of the challenge had not yet reared its ugly head. With wave twenty approaching, they knew that the boss that had been holding back would soon be forced to take the field. Joe was doing everything that he could to take advantage of the extra time that he had before all of his preparations would be tested to their utmost.

He’d been frantically creating as many wall-section rituals as possible, preparing for the inevitable moment that a supreme monster would start knocking on them. With the timer currently ticking down towards zero until the watershed wave started, Joe knew that the moment was ripe for them to topple the inner Trash-tier stone walls and replace them with Tier five, pristine protections. Double checking his aspects, he confirmed that he had everything he needed to finish off the inner circle of wall.

Joe had also been taking careful note of how many resources on average he was able to bring in for himself. Even though the number of monsters increased fairly drastically with each wave, having directly doubled from wave ten to wave eleven, he’d been seeing a fairly consistent increase of approximately eight percent Rare aspects per wave instead of the enormous jump he’d been hoping for, and secretly expecting. “In total from wave four to now, I've been able to capture about forty thousand Rare aspects… that’s the opposite of bad.”

It was a delightful number, and it had been very fun to see, even if he had been constantly siphoning from it to create the as-of-yet inert rituals. With that many resources, and a much larger bank of the lower-tier aspects, he’d be able to create forty one-hundred-foot sections, nearly four-fifths of a mile of dense, immensely durable partitions. Sucking in a deep breath, he threw open the door to his workshop and exited at a sprint.

Everyone was moving quickly, trying to prepare for what was coming. Most of them were doing things that were small in scale, yet personally important for success. For instance, he saw hundreds of people polishing armor, sharpening weapons, warming up, or just meditating in the cold. Joe wasted no time in standing around to observe them, knowing that every moment was extremely precious.

He ran to the first part of wall that he was going to be replacing, situating the ritual perfectly, then dropping a large stone block as a marker to announce the presence of the Ritual Tile that was laying there. He could only hope that no one would step on it, or walk away with the strange magical memento that he had left lying around.

Carefully positioning the rituals took time, a frustratingly large amount of time when he knew that he was on the clock. But eventually, he did finish, and found that with that amount of resources, he’d be able to replace just over two-thirds of the entire wall; since sections of it would be trimmed down to be turned from square to curved. That meant there’d be slightly less room to build in the city, and Joe hoped that he wasn't going to be messing up too many plans by making this adjustment.

Happily for himself, and everyone else involved, the Ritualist had shared his overall plan, and was assured that when he was ready to put it into action he’d have access to a large contingent of people ready and willing to change the walls over to the better version. As he rushed back to his starting point, Joe was greatly relieved to see that he wasn't the only one moving that direction. Dozens of Dwarves—accompanied by the odd human here and there—were running to the stone markers that he’d placed, forming up into ranks behind each of them.

Seeing so many people ready to participate, ready to be a part of things that he knew were important, nearly made a tear come to his eye. It was a beautiful event, something that he knew he’d have never been able to orchestrate on his own. Feeling a swell of gratitude for the council, as well as a brick of shame forming due to his resentment of them when he first arrived, the Ritualist hurried to the first of the wall-sections and started getting people into position. When everyone was ready, he gave a sharp nod to a group of brown-clad Dwarves standing just to the side.

With what appeared to be practically no exertion of effort at all, they ripped down fifty and a half feet of stone, dropping it to the ground in the killing corridors before leveling their hands out and directing the stone to sink into the earth. Joe watched that lack of effort with a great sense of unease. Most of the maze that they were relying on was that same material, and only the compulsion to walk around the barrier instead of destroying it was keeping the monsters from simply slapping their way into the meaty center of their Village.

He’d been told by a reliable source that the lowest-level Penguin they had seen was the approximate of level twenty, and that the strength of the elite monsters was closing in on the equivalent of a level twenty-five to twenty-eight human. People had been bandying those numbers about as if they didn't particularly mean much, though he’d heard plenty of betting going on that the Boss monster would be quite a bit stronger—likely topping in at the equivalent to level thirty-five.

As far as Joe knew, even Grandmaster Snow was only approaching level forty. If the Boss monsters were as strong as predicted, and were going to keep increasing in strength… the Ritualist was concerned that even if the Grand Master decided to step in, she would be fighting someone on an equal playing field instead of simply crushing them as he would otherwise expect.

“Don't borrow trouble from the future, Joe.” He told himself as he carefully recentered himself and channeled mana into the ritual circle. Mana and aspects flowed out of him as Dwarves all around him grunted in exertion, their mana pulled out of them at an exorbitant rate. Seeing their strain, Joe looked back on many of his previous challenges. He realized that although he’d been through many painful experiences, he’d gained equal if not greater rewards because of them.

For instance, back before he defeated the Archmage on Midgard, Joe had been captured by the Mage’s college and forced against the magical device that powered that building. At the time, the experience had sucked in more ways than one. Still, it also afforded him the capability to channel massive amounts of raw power without burning out his body. Having front-loaded the pain, even as extreme as it had been, he could now channel mana far beyond anyone at his own level or experience.

That was just one example among many, and now that he was looking at them with fresh eyes, it occurred to Joe that those deadly, challenging experiences had actually been precious moments that forged the tools he needed to succeed. “Back when I first entered Eternia, and I told the game I wished for power, I never thought it would look like pain, suffering, and needing to fight through that to gain the strength I wanted. Gotta remember to be careful what I wish for.”

The first section of wall for the day was completed, and Joe nodded at the group of exhausted Dwarves around him as he Omnivaulted over to the next one, his speed easily matched by the Earth Mages that were coming to drop the wall. It was the moment of truth, to see if he’d properly placed the ritual. If his calculations were off by too much, he would need to change every single ritual slightly as he moved along. Then, dependent on those changes, the others would be an even more extreme adjustment.

Joe touched his survey tool to the ritual, waiting with bated breath as the Trash stone was scattered, leaving behind a glowing framework generated by his tool. Grabbing a ruler out of his storage, he measured the distance, concerned for a moment before nodding slowly. “Good, that's within tolerance—only about a quarter of an inch off. Six inches was an arbitrary choice on my part anyway.”

Returning to the group, he lifted another section, another, three more, before finally the horn was blown and the attack on the city was announced to be underway.

The Boss monster of the second ten waves has joined the battle for the survival of the Village! As this is the 20th wave, it will be accompanied by a group of elite monsters! The Frozen Cyclops strides toward you!

“Oh no…” A Dwarf next to Joe muttered with great concern. The human glanced over as the Dwarves shared knowing looks amongst themselves, and apparently his confusion was evident. The same Legionnaire that had spoken originally recognized Joe's lack of knowledge and happily filled him in. “Bro, don't you know what the difference is between a named monster and one that isn't? The first boss wasn't a named monster, even though it's like, race and such had a name, if you know what I mean.”

“If it's named, it's intelligent… would be my guess.” Joe watched his conversation partner carefully until the bearded Dwarf bobbed his head.

“Yep. Pretty much that. Depending on the type, they can also use tools just like we can. You know. As force multipliers, bro.” The Dwarf shrugged, standing from his half-prone position, where he’d dropped from mana exhaustion after helping Joe complete the most recent ritual. “Strong, tough, and smart. If it wasn't a monster, sounds like my ideal girlfriend.”

“Ayy!” A half-dozen of his squad mates fist-bumped the Legionnaire, but Joe only rolled his eyes and politely nodded before walking away.

Keeping his thoughts to himself, Joe subvocalized, “I swear… every time I talk to an active member of the Legion, my Intelligence drops by five points temporarily.”

Even with the imminent threat, Joe merely continued to focus on the rituals. They worked as fast as they could, pausing only when they were certain that monsters were in the mazes. Even the lowest-Intelligence private among the Legion realized it wouldn’t be prudent to open a giant hole in the walls while monsters were running along the other side of them. Deciding to test his assumptions, the human moved closer to the actual section that he’d just put in place, watching through the gap as the first of the monsters flashed by.

“Mmm. Too fast for me, but maybe Heartpiercer Mcshootypants could get a shot off.” Knowing that they wouldn’t be able to finish the project while the assault was ongoing, Joe and the remaining groups returned to the entrance of the Village, prepared to meet whatever enemies would be coming for them. In the distance, his ritual towers were flashing and monsters were howling. Joe's notifications were piling up, but as the minutes turned to nearly an hour, and not a single monster managed to enter through the gap, everyone began to shift nervously.

Double-checking his notifications, he saw that they were indeed monster kills and not some other accolade he had achieved. Joe was as stumped by the situation as everyone else… all the way until a deep, guttural bellow washed over the walls and into their ears, resolving into words when his brain processed that a noise this loud could actually be a creature speaking.

“It. Is. Time. To. Kowtow!” The words came from a creature so immensely large that there was space between each of them, and it still took a moment for Joe's perception to decode the noise that could’ve been mistaken simply as thunder in the distance. As the rumbling speech continued, Joe slowly became better able to translate the message coming in. “Destroy. Your. City center and. We will merely vent our wrath. On your walls and structures. Leaving your lives intact.”

“Yeah, enough of this. I'm going to go see what's going on.” Getting a running start, Joe leapt to the top of the walls and started running along his well-beaten path toward the entrance of the city. He slid to a halt on the icy surface instead of going further as he’d originally intended. There was a simple explanation: he could already see the monster from here.

‘Monster’ was truly an accurate title befitting this Cyclops. The only other descriptors Joe could possibly come up with were massive, mountainous, gargantuan, or even perhaps the rarely used and surprisingly simple to pronounce ‘brobdingnagian’. An avalanche’s worth of snow was kicked up with every single step it took forward, though it was covering ground at a snail's pace in comparison to what its size indicated it could achieve.

Nearly as concerning was the fact that the vast majority of the Beast wave was moving in tandem with the Cyclops. That was surprising, as it was apparent even from this distance that most of the monsters, especially the smaller and less intelligent varieties, had quite a bit of trouble reigning in their base instincts.

“If I need to humiliate myself by walking the path that you have laid out for the Children of Jörmungandr, I will reply with humiliation in kind. We will spare no life of those from the summer realms. We will leave no stone unbroken. I will feast upon the marrow of your warriors by the hundreds to sate my appetite for vengeance.”

Joe watched the glacially approaching hoard with confusion. It was obvious that this Boss monster had the means and intelligence to charge in and inflict a massive amount of damage on the Village even if it might not outright have the power to take it all down by itself. Joe clasped his hands behind his head and rubbed his shiny head as he tried to understand why it wouldn’t simply lead an all-out assault.

“Could it be that it’s just wanting to keep the entire horde together in order to smash against us with a united army? What is…?”

The Ritualist’s eyes went wide in horror as he recognized the truth of the matter. The Cyclops was still miles away, moving toward them at a slow pace, yes, but it was moving. Joe was almost certain that was enough to fulfill the compulsions that drew it in to attack the Village.

“It can apparently force the monsters to gather around it and move together…” Joe’s eyes flicked over to where a string of numbers were constantly flipping. “…and the countdown to the next Beast wave is already ticking down.”