Chapter - 89

The woods were no longer quiet.

Leo heard growls and dozens of glowing red eyes opened in the dark, and they were moving forward towards them.

The tension did not just break but it exploded into a mess of noise and violence.

"CONTACT!" the Guardian Captain roared and his voice cut through the night like a loud whip.

Leo stood near the cart and he held his daggers loosely in his hands. He felt a sharp spark at the back of his head and the system made a loud noise in his brain.

DING!

[System Alert: Predator's Instincts Activated]

[Threat Detected: Multiple Hostiles]

[Type: Grave Stalkers (Moderate). Wild Boars (Low).]

And the first wave of monsters burst out of the black trees and they ran into the dim light of the clearing. They were Wild Boars and they were as big as a donkey from Earth. They were covered in thick brown fur. Their tusks were like jagged bone spears and their eyes glowed with a weird red light.

Spit was dripping from their mouths and it sizzled on the ground and they ran like they were being driven by bloodlust.

But they were not by themselves, there were grey humanoid shapes running behind them. These things were Grave Stalkers.

Their mouths were open wide and they looked like they were screaming but no sound came out.

This was a huge pack of them and they came out of the shadows like a bucket of rotting meat. Their claws scratched the rocks and their eyes had that hungry green light that Leo had seen before.

Leo looked at the lead boar and he frowned while he watched the monsters get closer.

"What the fuck is this?" he whispered to himself and he looked annoyed, "Why did it take so long for me to catch these bastards?"

"Gods and demons, boiy!" Grendel screamed and he was already trying to crawl under the cart, "We're all going to be fucking pig feed! Look at the size of those tusks!"

"Shut up, old man," Leo snapped and he didn't even look back. "Just stay under the wheels and try not to piss yourself on my supplies. I am busy."

"Busy? You are fucking standing there idle…" Grendel complained, but he knew nothing would fall in Leo's ears.

Leo was annoyed. The Temple Guardians had reacted seconds before he had. They had drawn their swords and formed a perimeter while Leo was still staring into the dark.

For a man who prided himself on having a cheat-code System, lagging behind a bunch of religious fanatics was a bruise to his gamer ego.

'Aiva,' Leo commanded internally, his mind working faster than the charging beasts, 'Why are you lagging? You usually spot them sooner. Did you fall asleep?'

[Negative, Master.]

[My scanning range is determined by your current strength.]

[At Level 3, my base sensory radius is approximately 50 meters.]

[Your 'Predator's Instincts' skill adds a variable bonus of roughly 20 meters based on killing intent.]

[The Temple Guardians are Level 30 elites. Their natural sensory perception likely extends beyond 300-400 meters. They felt the disturbance in the mana density long before the hostiles entered your effective range.]

Leo scoffs, watching the Captain brace his shield.

'So they knew something was coming,' Leo nodded, 'But the way they are acting, they didn't know what and how strong.'

'They were just guessing. Didn't you say the threat is moderate?'

[Yes, Master! With the 4 Temple Guardians by your side, this threat shouldn't be much to handle.]

He looked at the Captain. He held his ground, but his eyes darted frantically, trying to gauge the numbers in the dark. He knew danger was there, but he didn't have a clue on how big.

But Leo did. And at first, Leo thought it was a skirmish. A wandering pack.

"A few pigs and some zombies?" Leo thought, tightening his grip on his sword, "That's the threat? Even I can farm this."

But then the ground shook.

It wasn't just the vibration of the lead pack. It was a deep, resonant tremor that traveled up through the soles of his boots. The trees in the distance began to sway, birds taking flight in the dark sky, screeching in terror.

It didn't stop.

More eyes appeared. More bodies crashed through the brush. The initial wave of boars and grave stalkers was just the spray before the tsunami.

They kept coming.

It started with Ten. Twenty. Fifty. And before he knew it, there was more than anything he could count.

What started as a pack became a stream, and then a river of muscle and rot. They poured out of the forest like black water from a broken dam.

"Gods... Gods save us..."

Grendel, who had been peering over the edge of the driver's seat, scrambled backward. He curled into a ball under his wool shawl, hyperventilating.

"There's too many!" the old man wheezed, "They are going to eat us! Why did I come? Why did I listen to you? You cursed bastard! You Ironblood jinx! It's all because of you!"

"..." Leo didn't know what he did wrong.

The Guardian Captain saw the wave. The fanaticism in his eyes flickering for a brief second before hardening back.

"DEFENSIVE RING!"

The Captain barked, his voice straining to be heard over the roar of the horde.

"PROTCT THE SACRED EVEN IF YOU DIE!"

"EVERY DROP OF YOUR BLOOD WILL BURN THE CANDLE OF LIGHT!"

"PURGE THE UNCLEAN!"

The four guards moved instantly. They slammed their heavy tower shields into the dirt, locking them together to form a tight semi-circle around the rear of the cart where the Palanquin sat. Their broadswords glowed with a faint, white holy light, illuminating the terror in the dark.

They were strong. They were elite.

But against this tide? They looked like pebbles trying to stop a landslide.

Leo stepped up onto the back of the cart, ignoring the Captain's order to stay down. He needed a vantage point.

He looked over the heads of the Guardians, staring deep into the mass of monsters.

He spotted something disturbing.

Amidst the chaotic, frothing rush of the low-level trash mobs, he saw movement in the back. Figures that weren't running mindlessly.

They were standing straight. They were watching.

They even wore tattered remnants of some sort of armour rusty chainmail, cracked leather. They held rusted weapons, spears, axes, and longswords.

They weren't stumbling like the average Grave Stalkers. It felt like they were commanding the fodder, pointing with rotted hands, directing the flow of the brainless zombie like Grave Stalkers.

Leo's pulse quickened. This wasn't a brainless pack. This was an army.

'Aiva,' Leo commanded, his voice cold, 'I need numbers. Now.'

[Scanning Hostile Force...]

[Processing biological signatures...]

A massive list began to scroll through Leo's vision, turning the world into a spreadsheet of death. The numbers rolled up faster than he could read them.

[Hostile Analysis:]

[Level 3: 316]

[Level 4: 249]

[Level 5: 199]

[Level 6: 177]

[Level 7: 150]

[Level 8: 149]

[Level 9: 103]

[Level 10: 89]

"What the Fuck!" Leo felt his blood go cold.

But the list kept going. Hundreds of mid-level mobs. Creatures that could tear a normal soldier apart were present in the dozens.

[Level 18: 26]

[Level 19: 12]

[Level 20: 7]

[Level 22: 4]

[Level 26: 1]

[Total Hostiles Detected: 1,482]

Leo stared at the final number. The glowing blue text hovered in the air, mocking him.

"What the fuck?" Leo whispered, "1,500!"

These weren't stray monsters diverting from their path.

"This is a fucking Monster Raid."

Leo looked at the horde, a sea of red eyes and gnashing teeth. Then he looked down at the four Temple Guardians standing in the mud.

Four men. Against fifteen hundred.

Leo wasn't confident any more. It didn't matter if they were Level 30. It didn't matter if they had holy swords and shiny shields. Their stamina will eventually run out.

They were going to be buried in bodies. They were going to be drowned in flesh.

Leo gripped his Iron Sword until his knuckles turned white. His expression shifted. The shock vanished, replaced by a cold, selfish calculation.

He wasn't going to fight this. He couldn't fight this. If he stepped out into that swarm, he would be dead in seconds.

He needed a wall.

He looked at the backs of the Guardians.

"Hey, Captain!" Leo shouted over the deafening roar of the approaching horde. His voice was cocky, arrogant, masking the racing of his heart, "Here take this."

He threw a piece of meat in his direction.

The Captain didn't turn, his shield braced against his shoulder.

"You better not die until I'm safe! If you drop that shield, I am complaining to Remus!" Leo yelled, "But if you do a good job, there is more from where it came from."

The Captain let out a growl of pure hatred, but he didn't break formation. He couldn't.

'That's right,' Leo thought, stepping back towards the Palanquin, 'You hate me. Good. Use that hate. Keep swinging.'

He looked at the massive black box behind him. The heartbeat inside seemed to be thumping faster, excited by the carnage to come.

'You guys better be the best damn meat shields in the history of this kingdom,' Leo thought grimly.

The roar of the horde reached a crescendo. The smell of rot became suffocating.

The first wave of Wild Boars lowered their heads, their glowing tusks aimed at the shield wall.

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