Monsters' wave

Some soldiers were positioning crossbows in front of the embrasures to shoot against the monsters.

"We’re assigned to the close combat division, this is not our place" said Alice.

In fact, Alice wore a sword hung on her belt. She gestured to follow her and the three guests did as they were told.

The four arrived in a large room that overlooked directly the courtyard. It was crowded with soldiers and a huge table took up the center. Everyone in the room carried a sword, they were clearly members of the close combat division.

"We’ll wait here until the silent monsters reach the main entrance" explained Alice. "Hopefully, the artillerymen will take out many of them."

Gregory sighed with a bored expression.

"How long will it take?"

Alice shuddered. "I don’t know, we’ll just wait for the alarm."

Natsuo observed the soldiers that were talking between them while preparing for the fight. They didn’t seem nervous.

"Why is everyone so calm? It doesn’t seem like they’re going to risk their life" he asked.

"Well, Unit 2 is known for having a lot of veterans. They fought for most of their lives, being nervous would just lower the performance and they know it. Besides, it’s the Anti-Silence Unit’s motto: no one shows if they’re nervous, otherwise they’ll make other soldiers worry" replied Alice. "But, in reality, everyone is afraid of going out there. Silent monsters are not a joke."

Natsuo nodded. Those soldiers dedicated their lives to fight against something that, sooner or later, will devour everything anyway; nevertheless, they never lost hope and kept on fighting, despite the risks. They were very strong.

"So you’re a veteran too?" asked Olive, curious.

"Oh, no, actually I’m from Unit 7" replied Alice.

Olive’s jaw dropped. Unit 7 was the most famous, because all the geniuses were sent there. In Roselond, everyone knew about it.

"What? That’s amazing! You must be very strong!" she exclaimed.

Alice chuckled, flattered. "I’m nothing special, actually. It’s just that I had the opportunity to train a lot. When I was a kid, my village was attacked by the silent monsters… They destroyed everything, my family was dead, but Captain More, at that time was still a soldier, saved me. After that event, he took me to the Anti-Silence Unit and I have trained since then. I’m the only soldier who is a girl."

Olive put a hand on her shoulder. "It must be tough."

"I’m used to it now. But I’m happy to talk with another girl, whenever I have the occasion." Alice smiled.

The soldiers waited patiently for their moment to go into battle. In the meantime, Natsuo opened his Rockstar System and put the attribute STRENGTH to more songs, to have a longer playlist to put as background during battle.

Suddenly, they heard the noise of catapults and arrows and, after a few moments, explosions started to be heard.

"The battle has begun" said Alice.

Natsuo looked out of a window to see outside, but the vision was covered by the fortification walls. They had no way to see how it was going, they could just hope that the artillery was doing its job. It was even more nerve wracking like this.

Gregory was slamming one foot on the floor at a constant rhythm, impatient, while Olive was playing nervously with her hair.

Natsuo, for his part, didn’t feel particularly anxious. Maybe because he already died once, or, perhaps, because he didn’t know the real danger of silent monsters and wasn’t particularly afraid of them. After all, he was a foreigner in Roselond: he didn’t grow up with the terror of Silence, like everyone else in that room.

But, seeing so many people ready to risk their lives had moved something in him.

Suddenly, the sound of a bell vibrated through the air.

Alice took a mask that was hanging from her belt and put it on. It was pitch black and had an elongated beak, her face was completely enveloped by it, only in front of the eyes there were two lenses to see through. She wore leather gloves and raised the hood of the short black cape of the uniform.

The other soldiers did the same, becoming indistinguishable from each other. Their skin was completely covered, probably to avoid direct contact with monsters.

"Let’s go!" one shouted, probably the captain.

They opened the doors and two soldiers were already outside, opening the gates.

Silent monsters were about to reach the walls, but there weren’t many like before. The artillery already got rid of the majority of them.

When the gates were fully opened, the soldiers rushed out with unsheathed swords, following their captain. Alice immediately sprinted and left the others behind, but no one questioned her actions because of the number seven embroidered in silver in the cape, indicating that she was part of Unit 7 and had complete freedom on what to do.

Many of white humanoids, the monsters that resembled a human body, survived the artillery attacks, while few amoebas were left. Amoebas were smaller and weaker monsters, but highly contagious.

Alice unsheathed her sword and, with lightning quick movements, she beheaded a row of humanoids. She developed the Battle Efficiency System that improved her physical performance, making her strong like a war machine.

She jumped on a humanoid, thrusted her sword into its core and made the monster fall on the ground under the weight of the push. She leaned on her sword with an arm, opened her legs and kicked two monsters next to her on the back of their neck, forcing them to bend their backs.

At that moment, she pulled her sword, unstucking it from the monster’s body on the ground, and performed a rotation in mid-air with the blade stretched forward to cut the monsters’ necks.

The humanoids’ heads rolled on the ground and Alice landed perfectly on her feet, already focusing on new monsters to defeat.

The other soldiers were amazed by her skill and immediately started supporting her.

All of a sudden, the ground started shaking. Alice looked around to find the source of the tremor and she went pale under her mask.

The wave’s giant had not been eliminated yet. That was very bad news.