As the day faded and the blood-red sky slowly darkened,Ding, ding, ding-.Urgent bells rang out over the fortress on the beach."Everyone to your assigned positions! Non-combat personnel, stand by inside the fortress!""Archers, mages, and spiritists, up on the walls! Warriors, gather in front of the main gate!"The students moved in perfect order according to each squad leader’s commands.It was a sudden surprise attack, but thanks to the experience from the earlier Faction War, the students’ movements were systematic.Maybe because they had been inside the fortress all this time, tightly wound with tension, they actually seemed calmer now that something was really happening.Maybe it felt like what was coming had finally come."Hildegard, what’s the situation?"After Transmuting the sand to move the ships from the shoreline into the inner side of the fortress, I went straight to Hildegard and asked about the situation.Hildegard, who had been observing the enemies from the spire, reported with a thoroughly frightened expression."Th-the… monsters keep increasing. Just the ones we can currently confirm are at least over fifty."Using [Observation] to sweep her gaze across the beach, Hildegard spoke in a trembling voice."Fifty, huh.""Sixty… seventy, they’re coming up endlessly from the sea…"Hildegard’s body shook as she confirmed the steadily increasing enemies.I patted her trembling shoulder to reassure her."Don’t worry too much. As long as we don’t let them inside the fortress, we’re safe."The Deep Creatures’ physical abilities were extremely strong, but that didn’t mean they were strong enough to break through the walls of a fortress made of Cubes.You’d need at least someone on Elena’s level to break the Cube walls protected by the rites of Full Moon Island.On top of that, this was a Level 10 fortress wall. It wouldn’t even get scratched by a half-hearted attack, and even if it did get destroyed, it would be repaired quickly."We just have to stop them from climbing up the walls."I narrowed my eyes as I looked down at the things from atop the wall.'We didn’t get to fight a siege using the fortress in this Faction War.'Most of the time, the pattern had been open-field battles or suppressing enemies with surprise attacks.So it had felt a bit regretful… but I hadn’t wanted to experience a siege like this.[krrr,]Fishmen crawled up onto land, emitting bizarre cries.Seeing them emerge one by one through the sea fog was like watching a horde of zombies in a movie.It was hard to put into words how it felt to watch them gradually draw closer to the fortress.The way my breathing gradually tightened, that unpleasant sensation like a heavy stone had been set on my chest.If even I felt like this, how must the ordinary students feel?After confirming the creatures’ appearance, I spoke to Elena."Elena, a mental-type barrier.""Yes."Swoooosh-.As Elena brought her hands together, a refreshing wind blew and whipped her golden hair around.At the same time, golden particles scattered in every direction, and soon a vast mental-type barrier unfolded over each fortress.Watching the barrier spread over the fortresses, I thought,'Deep Creatures carry a debuff that gnaws at your mind just by letting their existence into your eyes.'On top of their horrific appearance, the aura radiating from them made their opponents tremble in fear and interfered with normal thought.That was because they had inherited a portion of the power and madness of their master, Kral.Fortunately, Union’s students had much higher stats than ordinary people, so they wouldn’t be heavily affected, but if they kept being exposed to the creatures, their minds would eventually be eroded.Hildegard trembling in fear after seeing one was probably because of this.Ordering Elena to deploy mental-type barriers had been precisely to guard against that.Meanwhile, fishmen continued to gather on the beach.[krrrr…….][krrr…….]The students, tense to the brim, readied arrows and magic.The tips of their arrows trembled. Their unstable mana wavered.The tautly drawn bowstrings seemed to reflect their taut, nervous hearts.I ordered each squad leader,"Don’t tense up already. Save your arrows and mana. Just knock off the ones that stick to the walls. Elena and the priests will be the ones killing them."My command was relayed to each fortress through commander-level people such as Hildegard, Tepes, Ciel, and the others.Before long, with the sun completely set and torches lighting up one by one along the fortress walls,The monsters, which had been slowly wandering along the beach, began to gather toward the fortress.And then—[krrrr?][krrrr!]The creatures that had been drifting aimlessly near the shore suddenly charged toward the fortress as if someone had pinged a coordinate.Fwap, fwap, fwap-.Just like that one that had rammed its head into Elena’s holy barrier, they crashed their heads straight into the Cube-made fortress walls.Thud-.Thud-.Every time the monsters slammed their heads, the sound of the wall shuddering under the darkness sent chills down one’s spine.When they were only hitting one by one, it was still fine.Thooom-.Thooom-.Thooom-.But as they began to slam their bodies into the fortress by the hundreds in a swarm, the entire steel fortress started to shake bit by bit.An unpleasant vibration traveled up from underfoot.[krrrr…….]"……."The wall still held firm, but the accumulating shock made the faces of the students preparing for battle atop the walls gradually harden.Squish-.After mindlessly smashing their heads against the wall like brainless zombies for a while, the monsters must have decided this method wasn’t working anymore, because they began to climb over one another, slowly forming a mound.[krrrr…….]A mountain of fishmen made as their sticky secretions clumped together like adhesive.The wall was high, so we had some leeway, but if they kept tangling up and piling themselves like that, they’d soon reach the top of the wall.If that happened, close-quarters combat would likely break out, so we had to cut off the variables before that."Elena.""Yes, Holy Hammer!"As Elena thrust her hand forward, a gigantic hammer woven from holy power was summoned and smashed directly into the fishmen climbing over one another.Wham-!When the holy hammer struck hard, the mountain the fishmen had built from their bodies collapsed.[krrrr!]The fishmen crumbled helplessly and toppled onto the beach.Along with the central fortress where Elena and I were, the four fortresses on both sides also crushed the fishmen’s body-mounds that had been climbing over one another."Leaf Storm!"Rrrrumble-.The spiritists’ spells tore the monsters to pieces."Fire Wall!"Raging extreme flames scorched the creatures.[krrrr!!]Letting out ghastly screams, the mountains of Deep Creatures crumbled.Before the horde could clump together and climb the walls, flashes of magic struck them directly.Hands clasped behind my back, I watched the scene.'It’s an extremely favorable situation.'No matter how strong and numerous the creatures were, as long as we were protected by these high walls, we could block them without much difficulty.In a siege, the attackers normally needed several times more troops than the defenders.On top of that, the monsters couldn’t use siege engines or threatening magic, so the situation was even better.'However.'That was only the result of a quantitative analysis of both sides’ forces.There were plenty of other variables.First, the problem was that we didn’t know how long this battle would continue.No matter how much of an iron fortress it was, without food and water it would inevitably fall.Water could be handled somehow with spirit magic, but we only had five days’ worth of food left now.If the monsters continued their offensive for days using human-wave tactics, we might find it difficult to hold out because of food issues.No, honestly, we might not even last those few days.Because there was an even bigger problem than food.Looking at the students trembling atop the walls, I thought,'In this battle, not a single person can suffer a severe injury or die.'This wasn’t just because of post-battle follow-up or my personal feelings.It was because the students were not troops who had received regular military training.Even if Union, which aimed to cultivate future soldiers, had given them enough real combat experience to use them as combat forces right now, they were still just young students.They had never fought a battle where their lives were on the line, and they had never seen anyone’s death from up close.If even one person were to be severely wounded or fall into a combat-incapable state, fear would spread explosively.Then they’d all lose their will to fight and the formation would collapse in an instant, so I had to be most careful about that.If you didn’t want to fight, you were no longer a fighting force.Keeping that in mind, I gave my orders."Student safety takes the highest priority. If it looks like their concentration is slipping, send them to the rear. And each squad will rotate every hour.""Student safety is the highest priority—sounds kind of unlike you, Loen."At Elena’s words, I shrugged."It’s a strategic decision, that’s all. Do you not like it?""No, I feel the same way. Student safety is my highest priority as well. It’s a good decision, Loen."About an hour after the fishmen’s attack began—"Hey, they’re climbing the wall over there!""Blast them with magic!"The defense seemed to be proceeding smoothly.The monsters couldn’t get over the towering Cube fortress walls and just staggered below them.At first the students had trembled in fear, but once they realized the creatures couldn’t climb the high walls, they started launching attacks with enthusiasm."Take that!""You damn freak monsters!""Die, die!!"[krrr!!]Shouting heated battle cries, the students poured arrows and magic down below the walls.It almost looked like they were relieving all the stress they’d built up until now.Watching the students, their heads boiling with heat as they threw themselves into the fight, I narrowed my eyes."……."It was good that they were fighting hard, but if they got that worked up and burned through all their strength and mana, we’d be at a disadvantage in a long battle.And in an excited state, mistakes were bound to happen.If something went slightly wrong, it would be hard to respond properly to an unexpected enemy attack, and the chances of injuries and deaths would rise sharply.So I ordered Ciel to rein the students in to a reasonable degree."Ciel, go restrain the students who are getting too worked up. Order them to attack only the ones climbing the walls. Also, rotate out any students who are too excited with the rear-line forces.""Understood."Ciel nodded, then moved along the wall and began holding back the excited students.When Ciel tapped their shoulders and gave them a look that said to step back,"Ah, I got too worked up…""I’ll go get some rest."Most of them cooled their emotions and obediently stepped back.But there were definitely students who didn’t."What the hell, let go. I’m gonna kill those bastards.""……."Thud-.Some of the ones who resisted were simply knocked out by Ciel with a chop to the back of the neck.A male student collapsed on the spot after taking Ciel’s chop.Seeing that, a female student shouted at Ciel."Hey, who the hell do you think you are to stop us! Get out of the way!"No wonder she seemed familiar—she was the girl I’d seen back when we raided the Noble Alliance’s food stores… the noble Charlotte who used to bully Bell.'Didn’t she get eliminated?'I searched my memory, then shrugged.Well, I had left the elimination of the Noble Alliance students to Silphiette’s team, so they were outside my jurisdiction."Let go of me!"Watching Charlotte struggle against Ciel, I tried to guess her intentions.After I robbed the Noble Alliance’s food storage, Charlotte had probably gotten completely chewed out by Esetra, the Noble Alliance’s Host.So her stress must have piled up considerably, and she seemed to be venting that stress by firing off magic wildly in this battle.And then Ciel came over to stop her, so she got angry… that was about what I could infer."Please don’t be stubborn."Just as Ciel was about to subdue Charlotte, who was shouting and resisting—Shrrk-.From [N O V E L I G H T] the darkness below the wall, where the fishmen were swarming, some sort of tentacle suddenly shot out.Swish-.The tentacle split the darkness in an instant and pierced straight through Charlotte’s arm as she was scuffling with Ciel.Squelch-."Kyaaaaaaah!"A ripping scream echoed through the fortress."Tch."Ciel reacted a moment late, grabbed the tentacle skewering Charlotte’s arm, and forcibly yanked on it.Crrrk-.Even with Ciel’s monstrous strength, the tentacle wouldn’t come free easily."Sacred Cutter!"Slash-.Even when Elena fired a holy blade from afar, the tentacle didn’t get cleanly severed.As I hurried toward the site of the accident, I thought,'That tentacle is the tail of [Gon], a commander-class Deep Creature.'Normally, the spawn rate for [Gon] among Deep Creatures was less than 0.05 percent, so I hadn’t expected it to show up in this battle.Unlike ordinary Deep Creatures, it was a high-level monster that could use long-range attacks as well as its species’ unique magic.This battle might be harder than I’d thought."Hup!"Ciel tore off the tentacle of Gon, which had been half-severed and dangling from Elena’s blade, with brute force.Rip-."Kyaaaak!"When the tentacle stuck in her arm was pulled out, Charlotte collapsed with a scream.Since the tentacle had been pulled out quickly, as long as she was treated swiftly, her life didn’t seem to be in danger.There were no additional effects like deadly poison on Gon’s tentacle.Just as I was about to let out a sigh of relief—Ssshhk-.Another tentacle shot out of the darkness and wrapped around Ciel’s waist, yanking her downward."……!"'So there wasn’t just one Gon!'Before I had time to properly react, Ciel was wrapped in the tentacle and dragged down below the wall.Even for Ciel, if she fell right into the middle of that Deep Creature horde, it would be hard to survive.'Damn it.'Without thinking too deeply, I planted my shoe into the wall and kicked myself up."Loen! Wait!"Ignoring Elena’s voice shouting from far away, I leapt down below the wall.

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