Today was the day. The monster wave would arrive. People I knew and people I didn’t know would fight to save the city. They would put their lives on the line to ensure the city survived and the people had a tomorrow. It was dawn, and the sun was still half hidden by the horizon. Today was the day and I needed to be ready.

  I looked at my clothes. Two distinct sets caught my eye. The one I wore as a magical healer. The other was my battle armor. The armor I would wear when I knew I would be fighting. Fighting to protect my people. I much preferred the magical healer clothing, but today I was not Young Master Trevor the Magical Healer. Today, I would wear my battle armor, because today I was Trevor Harris, US Marine and I was going to war.

  Knowing this, I dressed in the battle armor slowly. As I put on each piece of armor, the healer inside myself fell away and the Marine came forth. It was more painful that I thought it would be. I had come to love being a healer, rather than a destroyer. I had bought some magical armor and jewelry since joining the Adventurers Guild. Leather pants of Agility, which increased my Dexterity by 2; compassion was the first thing to go. Rings of Spell Storage and Storage. Choker of Breathing to ensure I had oxygen rich air; kindness was gone. Earring of Control, which prevented magical influencing and Earring of Resistance to increase my base resistance to magic; mercy was a distant memory now. Leather Battle Armor provided by Arigulius, reducing cutting damage by 75% and blunt damage by 20%; attitude underwent a drastic transformation. Balmung and Mjolnir were placed in their scabbards; I reeked of danger. I placed Arem’s Defense on my shirt, under the Battle Armor; my face and demeanor were now of the warrior. When I equipped the Mask of True Sight, the healer was gone, only the Marine remained. I was ready for war.

  I walked out of my office to see four of the guards in their Adventurers gear, wearing the same mask. Of the eight guards, four were accompanying me to defend against the wave. The rest would stay and guard the people that lived in Covern House. The Death Merchants were still out there. The four guards looked as somber as I felt. Today was going to be hard, even if everything went right.

  As we gathered to leave, the staff came out to wish us well. A few tears were shed by the younger ladies, and even Ramram was reserved. I left Gabriel in charge and told him that our people were the top priority. If it was a choice between safety and Covern House, let Covern House burn. People were more important than things.

  We stepped outside and made our way to the city gate. Here the guards, now adventurer for the day, and I would go our separate ways.

  “Be brave, but be careful. Survival is your top priority. I can fix your bodies no matter what damage is done, but you must survive for me to do that. Remember, everything can be fixed except for death. I want to see everyone back at Covern House for dinner.” I smiled as I said the last line. With that the guards left for their post.

  I went to the gathering of Magic Healers. Our plans were already made, and it was a matter of implementing them. Each of the four fortifications would have two Magic Healers assigned. I would be called if Heaven’s Heal or Cure All were required but also would be responsible for fighting as required. After assuring all were present, the Magic Healers got into teams of two and headed to their assigned fortification.

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  The adventurers were responsible for the outer two funnel choke points. While the noble scions, sons and daughters of the nobles, and their guards were responsible for the inner choke points. This allowed those who were already familiar to work together. The noble scions were nearer to the gate in case something went wrong. This wasn’t exactly a good thing, since they would be responsible for holding the gate until the adventurers had retreated through it. It was an honor according to the nobles.

  Apprehension was the current state of most defenders. The enemy was unknown, both levels and numbers. We didn’t even know the type of monster we faced. A hue and cry went up on the front lines. People were pointing at a group running along the topside of one of the funneling walls. I looked and saw that it was Captain Willop and his crew. He stopped by one of the fortifications. Then he made his way to the gate, his guards separated going to each of the choke points. Captain Willop continued on to report to the Earl.

  The word has come down. Ghouls. Undead beings that were only concerned with killing living beings. They were slow moving threats, that could easily be handled in small groups. They sounded a lot like Zombies, but were called Ghouls on Tellus. There were also over 200 of them, ranging from level 5 to level 10. They manifested this morning, and were expected to arrive within the hour. Included in the group were several flavors of ghouls spotted, so everyone was warned. The main host would be ‘lesser’ ghouls. There were also ravenous ghouls, which were faster and more vicious than a lesser ghoul. Even some plague ghouls had been spotted. These ghouls could turn living beings into ghouls, unlike lesser ghouls who just killed everyone. Lastly, two Ghoul Lords (level 20) would be among them. The Ghoul Lords had all the powers of the other ghouls and could command ghouls. If a plague ghoul or Ghoul Lord was spotted, the defender should retreat and let the specialized teams handle them.

  The biggest danger was the plague ghouls. Their ability to turn others into more ghouls could increase their numbers quickly which would turn the battle into a rout. Luckily, they were easily identifiable and so as soon as they were spotted, specialize team would be dispatched to deal with them. These teams consisted of ranged attackers, mostly with fire-based attacks. The plague ghoul had to bite their victim to turn them. Even if they killed the victim, the victim would still turn. It took about 5 minutes to turn, if the victim was still alive. Because of the threat of ghouls, my responsibilities had changed. I was to prioritize curing plague ghouls bite victims before they turned. This meant that I would be in the middle of fighting the plague ghouls rather than assisting healing in the fortification.

  The Ghoul Lords were self-aware, unlike the lesser ghouls, and this made them a major threat, but we had plenty of higher-level teams to handle them. I would also need to be part of those teams, because of the plague spreading ability. It wasn’t just their level that called for high level teams, but their ability to command ghouls to come to their aid and attack the teams. A single Ghoul Lord could command a hundred ghouls to defend it. This could result in the teams being overwhelmed. The preferred way to overcome this was massive firepower. Hit the Ghoul Lord with everything you had at the start of the fight and kill it quickly. The other way was to kill all its minions first, but that hardly ever worked out, since the team would be tired and the Ghoul Lord itself could fight very well.

  They say waiting is the hardest thing to do. In this case, they were right. The tension was so thick, you could feel it. Hell, you could almost see it. It was like a soap bubble ready to burst at any moment.

  Then the first ghoul stepped out of the forest into view.