The orcs attacked at night. To be honest, we saw it coming. Sara had warned us beforehand that the orcs will try to attack at night, from their pattern of movement.

So, we reverse-ambushed them. Sounds easy right?

Well, it’s bloody, and tough. Using traps that Sara made, we found ways to quickly disable small groups of orcs and kill them. And of course, help to thin the orc horde numbers before the rest of them catch up.

After using the traps to kill about 10 orcs, this draws the attention of the nearby 50 or so orcs, causing them to charge at us. And this is something we wanted, so we retreated to something resembling a choke point, where our archers, a few of them can shoot a few more arrows at the enemy.

And after a few more of the orcs fall, we descend into melee. We had chosen an easily defended slope as our battlefield, where we have the elevation.

As a level 5 prince, and healer, my role is to actively heal the soldiers, and defenders, and use my passive ability to boost them.

Of course, when facing about 50 or so orcs, we’re talking about a lot of fighting.

Blood, dirt, splatters everywhere, as the men, try their best to hold back the horde of 50 of so orcs. The orcs may be relatively easily to kill, but their numbers give them strength.

“Arghhh.” One of the men got stabbed in the chest, from the orc’s chipped axe. He falls. Ugh. The soldiers trained for this, and they try to help, but it’s too late. He’s dead.

We hack and slash away, trying to push the orcs back. From behind us, arrows kept flying towards the orcs, hitting one orc head every other shot.

A horn blows.

It’s our sign to fall back abit more. It means more orcs are coming.

Despite having to leave a few of our men out there, probably dying, or already dead, we somehow found the steel to retreat a bit more.

And I see Lani’s ability for the first time, as a thunderbolt flashes out of her hand, and chains through a few orcs, killing them instantly. A thunder-elementalist!

Realising that we could take advantage of our ranged units, we retreat, and let Lani and Sara bring down their numbers further.

A few more thunderbolts, and I think they are more like chain-thunderbolts, the odds are now in our favor. Which is good.

But as with all orc groups, there must be a boss. A giant orc.

Finally appeared at the end, he endured a few thunderbolts like they were nothing but little mosquito bites. Okay, I exaggerate, he took them, it probably hurt, but he’s alive and so he march towards us. It’s time for the new Adam-Marty combo attack.

Which is nothing more than Marty forming a defensive position, and “taunt” the giant orc’s attack, while Adam attacks the giant orc’s back. Marty has a “taunt” skill, which makes sense, since he is a defensive fighter.

One [Grand Slash] from Adam, and the giant orc’s head falls. It’s actually getting a bit easy at this point. Is this a tutorial? Anyway, I hope whatever comes at the end of my timer is this easy as well, That would be a much needed relief.

And when the giant orcs fall, the rest of the orcs didn’t stand much of a chance. Still, the orcs fought with great ferocity, and we didn’t leave unharmed. The orcs still injured some of the men, and a few of the villagers. Before we killed the rest of them.

The defense of the village is successful.

“It’s so horrible, to see death.” Anne says, helping with the funerals. In total, 5 villagers, and 1 of the soldiers died in defending the village from the orcs. A lot of the villagers cried, after all, in a small village like this, everyone knows everyone, so the loss of any one man is deeply felt.

For the soldier, we have a duty to send the body back to the family, so the villagers assist us with embalming the body for shipment. A wagon will come by a few days later to pick it up.

“Such is life, in a world of monsters.” I say to myself, such scenes will be common when the monsters increase in frequency.

“I always wish we can do a bit more to protect our people.” Anne sighs.

“Perhaps.”

“But so long there are monsters, such dreams may be hard to come by.” I see a small tear at the side of her eyes, she’s trying to keep it together.

When one of our own dies, it is still brutal. We’ve become desensitised to death of the monsters, but not our own, not yet. Perhaps in some places, death has lost meaning, and people just come and go whenever disaster strikes. I see it in some of the villager’s eyes, that emptiness. Some of them are used to it, this feeling of loss.

To build only to lose it. They’ve come to terms that this is how life is.

Fragility is the norm of a world where monsters roam, unlike the permanence I am so used to. It really gives meaning to the term, life is short.

But it should not be the norm.

If this is a world of magic, there should be golems, animated protectors, machine guardians to protect the citizens from the monsters. Then perhaps, we can bring some permanence into this fragile, magical world.

Even though my power boosts those around me, I hope to never have to use them.