The hammer swung sideways while glowing from [Kinetic Impact], hitting the wide creature in their side, below where the ribs would be on a human. The invader was almost seven feet tall and wore stained grey leather. It was difficult to tell if they had armor at all, due to the similar coloring of their skin. The head of the creature was almost as wide as its shoulders and tilted down into its chest with a short neck. Two horns protruded from above the nose on its slanted face. Large black eyes grew larger at the impact, and it let out a deep mooing sound from the pain.

Adam had aimed the blow where the armor felt the lightest, forced to restrain his strength to ensure his hammer didn't bend against such durable opponents. The skin of the invader was so thick and tough that Adam's weapon would only last a short time against it. Instead of trying to crush the bones inside, Adam was focused on flinging the monster sideways and into another of its kind.

The heavy invader was lifted off the ground and slowly tilted right as it fell into the path of another of its kind. The second one stumbled to his right, impeding another charging member of their race.

A beam of condensed fire hit that third invader and dragged across their body and towards Adam. With precise movement, Adam ducked below the beam, turned his hammer and used the handle to further trip the third.

Then a bombardment of magic came from behind him and rained down on the nearly stampeding invaders that were charging them. Adam kicked off one of the fallen and rolled backwards just before a large number of earth spikes rose to block and damage the incoming invaders.

Taking a moment to check his weapon, Adam sighed is dismay. The weapon had been reforged from some of Sgolkr's stock, but it was still barely holding up. He would prefer a large sword that could cut creatures, but they had no materials that would keep its blade with all the fighting that Adam had done.

Fortunately, the Unklarn knew of a tool to make rune creation easier, which had allowed runes to increase durability. The tool was like a combination of a soldering iron, a wood burning tool, and a tattoo gun. It could heat and etch channels on almost any surface made of equal or weaker materials and then inject liquid mana into it.

Many crafters had trouble using it, even with their steady hands. Fortunately, the shape of the tool had led to the perfect pre-[System] occupation for working with it. Almost as a joke, a leather worker had a cousin who had been a tattoo artist. When the man tried the tool, it worked so naturally that they recruited a bunch of tattoo artists to aid the crafters in enchanting all the weapons they could. That was what had given the Sentinel Army a chance with their lack of high-quality materials.

Of course, putting the runes into the weapons wasn't the only thing they did as it quickly became a fad to tattoo runes into people's skin as well, using a traditional tattoo gun. Those tattoos didn't benefit the people, but it was like an announcement of what powers they favored. Although the most popular tattoo among the Sentinel Army was the logo of Adam's silhouette holding the hammer. Adam was certain Tom had a hand in causing that fad.

After the meeting about setting up defenses, there had been a week to prepare and get everything ready. That wouldn't have been enough time in the best-case scenario. Unfortunately, the week had only really been five and a half days, not a full seven, meaning that not enough work had been finished.

They had repurposed the weapons that Sgolkr had forced the Unklarn to forge, but there weren't enough weapons or blacksmiths to shape them to fit humans. Not enough towers or bullets were created. Even the propulsion on the floating island was only half finished, with its speed increased but maneuverability lacking.

Now, after days spent fighting, hundreds of the grey, horned creatures had slowed in front of Adam, their charge halted by the bombardment, as those in lines behind the ones Adam had tripped had stopped so as not to run into their fellows. Adam took advantage of that halt.

Dropping his hammer, Adam pulled out a short sword at his belt. He leapt over the spikes of rocks, and before he had even landed, he jabbed the closest enemy in its black eye. It didn't die immediately, telling Adam that it either had a very small brain, or that the location wasn't where he expected. Just for effect, he twisted and jiggled the sword around, until he felt something cut which caused the body to go limp.

Pivokepac "Belligerent Trampler [26]" slain. 8,923 shared XP gained.

There was no time for Adam to congratulate himself on his success. The sword came out easily, and even as the next invader in the line turned towards him, he once more jabbed the sword in its eye.

This was the fourth day of fighting and Adam knew he needed a rest. The rifles were only used against Tier 4 or high Tier 3 enemies. Almost every enemy was somewhere in Tier 3 now. The last time he had rested had been five hours of sleep on the night of the second day.

High vitality was allowing him to fight for longer, but the exhaustion was extreme. Using [Soul and Body Shaping] against enemies like this still wore down his muscles and caused a strain on his physique, even if he wasn't getting hot enough to burn away his own skin and muscles.

Things had begun easily. There were a few nearby invaders that were ambitious, and stupid, enough to try and take down the humans. Each wave had a break afterwards. Those types of enemies were still coming, but now there were also more unified and tougher armies.

What Adam fought now, these Pivokepac, looked like mere beasts, but they were extremely solid and organized. It was clear they came from a military society. They didn't use much for weapons, and all their armor was closer to leather, but their bodies made up the difference. The few that could use magic caused it to originate from the shorter of their two horns.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Dancing through the invaders, Adam stayed low, only to jump upwards to attack their eyes with his blade. It didn't even matter if it stayed sharp, since he avoided their skin. For all the Pivokepac were strong and durable, they were slow when swinging their limbs. Even if one punched or swatted at Adam, he had time to duck, dodge, or flip over top.

Adam wasn't the only human among the invaders either. An army of a thousand was fighting with Adam. The warriors were using their strength on the front lines to hold back the creatures or direct them into kill zones. The speed fighters were following Adam's example and aiming for the eyes, though it took more strikes for them to cut the brains than Adam.

That left mostly magic classes to keep the rest of the enemies honest, as those from the Sentinel Army worked their way through the Pivokepac's numbers. The human army was cautious and disciplined. They moved with experience, knowing that they all needed to survive.

Sometimes accidents happened and those who were too fatigued lost their edge, getting injured or outright killed due to a careless mistake. Against these enemies, that didn't happen often. The Pivokepac seemed to have trouble adapting once their battle formations were disrupted, but no one could fight forever, and the humans still had to rotate through their members to ensure that there were enough rest, mana, and food.

Adam kept moving, kept killing, whittling down the numbers slowly, as time went on. The rest of the soldiers had their leaders calling out the battle orders, but they all adjusted their commands around whatever Adam was doing. They also stayed together more than Adam did, who ignored the friendly fire that occasionally fell around him and the danger of being isolated among the enemies. If Adam took too much damage, a swig of the Pivokepac's purple/black blood healed him right up.

He was in a daze, moving on autopilot, when the radio installed in Adam's helmet crackled to life.

"Sorry to interrupt whatever you're doing, Adam, but we have a couple of Tier 4s southeast of Sweetwater," said Elias.

There was an unusual edge to the typically calm voice. Adam sighed. This fight was near Williamsburg, Kentucky, so the travel distance wasn't too far at the speeds he could drive.

"Understood," he said while triggering the mic, even as he ducked below a Pivokepac's punch. "I think it's safe for me to disengage here. No big bad guy with this army, just a lot of little big bads."

"Are you doing alright, darling?" asked Andrea through the coms. "You sound tired."

"I'm sure everyone is tired," growled Adam. "Other than that, I'm just feeling angry."

"Oh, boss!" screeched Tom through the radio. "I like it when you're angry."

"We know, Tom," said Nick with annoyance. "Is everyone else doing alright? We only have cleanup to do at our location, so Carlos, Lamar, Ed, and I are free to move if anyone else needs support."

A bunch of voices updated the status of their various battle fronts. Everyone was tired and would prefer for the entire group to gather and stomp their invaders, but splitting up was the only way to handle all the directions that invaders were attacking from.

Adam didn't want to think about what would happen when the higher power races came in. Possibly at the same time.

Slipping through the bodies of the Pivokepac, both alive and dead ones, Adam got to the vanguard of this battle. The lines opened so he could walk through them. Orders were barked from a man on a raised platform about halfway through their forces. He had three displays in front of him where he was monitoring different angles of the battle. Three tanks and three mages surrounded him for protection, with their own displays to make sure attacks weren't targeting the battle commander.

Without looking away from his displays, the commander saluted in the Sentinel Army's way and addressed Adam.

"Anything wrong, General?"

"Multiple high difficulty targets south of here. Can you guys manage without me?"

"We should be fine," responded the man, even as he adjusted the displays to show other areas of the battle.

"Good. If you do get into trouble, the Unseen Death and Huntsman should be free. They can handle these guys as well as I can."

"Thanks, General. Give those invaders a swift kick from us too," said the commander loudly, making sure those around him heard. A cheer went up from the soldiers, and a bit more energy boosted their steps.

Adam nodded and headed for his motorcycle.

***

It was almost 100 miles from where Adam had been to where he was going. It wasn't worth calling the floating base to transport him. With clear roads, and a little off-roading, Adam covered the distance in just under 40 minutes.

During his drive he tried to relax, though he had trouble since the radio kept updating him on the five areas that were currently under assault. Eating was difficult while driving at high speeds, so he just sucked down some packs of quick calories.

Once he got near his destination, he saw all kinds of evidence of where to go. There was smoke rising, visible winds swirling, bursts of many kinds of magic popping out. The loud sounds of fighting didn't reach him before he saw a curved wall rising 15 feet from the ground in uneven segments that covered 20 yards of distance. It had been hastily erected by the mages near a sniper tower.

To Adam's surprise, while some from the Sentinel Army were standing on crude steps leading to the top of the wall, they weren't fighting. All the spell effects were happening a good distance from the wall.

"Elias," Adam shouted into his radio, through the windshear from his driving, "I'm almost there. What the heck is going on?"

"Things are both better and worse than when I called before," answered Elias. "It seems a second army showed up, and they aren't very friendly with the first."

"It's nice the [System] at least made the reward so that the races wouldn't share the benefits. What kinds of enemy are we looking at?"

"Wood elves," started Elias, causing Adam to scowl at the memories of fighting them before. He wasn't in a rush to be hit with more of those poison barb arrows. "And a different kind of elves. They're dressed in white and blue and have more types of magic."

"Position of the Tier 4s?"

"They're fighting in the back. Though, it's more like arguing than fighting," complained Elias. "The common soldiers are full on fighting."

"I'll swing around the back to face the Tier 4s. Split your mobile forces and attack from the far side of each type of elves. That way both sides will feel pressured. Keep enough casters on the walls to keep them looking forward as well."

"Got it," acknowledged Elias, who immediately turned to give orders to the unit leaders.

Adam changed his direction. He swung out wide, pulling up a display to see the armies he was skirting. The change of route also gave Elias time to organize the Sentinels, although since they all knew the stakes and had plenty of experience, they moved with certainty and swiftness.

It took Adam another 15 minutes to go around. He coordinated with Elias through the radio so that the Sentinels would strike before Adam arrived. That even required Adam to wait a few extra minutes, until magic exploded on both sides of the invading armies.

At the appropriate time, when two better dressed elves turned towards the armies with surprise, away from the approaching Adam, to see additional fighting beginning on the outside of their forces, Adam rode his motorcycle straight at them.

From the wood elf side, he saw a tag of "Bloomer Boomer [42]" while the other elf had a tag of "Chromatic Herald [39]".

For this fight he wanted cutting more than crushing force. Adam drew his long sword from its place on his motorcycle. He momentarily stood on the seat, leapt into the air, and then used [Gladiator's Approach].

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.