With the addition of new refugees, the camp's population reached 163, excluding Axel, who wasn't present at the moment. This number was both a great asset and a great risk at the same time.

Among those new numbers, 75 were women, while the rest were men. And of those women, 44 joined the Valkyrie Knight Order without hesitation.

The men? They weren't allowed into the order...

It wasn't that they were too weak or that there was gender bias. Rather, it was simpler—they weren't worthy of being knighted.

Of the men that remained, most were drunkards, former bandits, or men who lived in the underworld. They were far from loyal or trustworthy, disqualifying them from entry.

It wasn't that all men were trash, though... however, most of the "good" ones already died in the first waves. Either on the frontlines, fighting for their cities, or later on while helping their families escape.

Thus, only untrustworthy men and weak women remained.

During the first two days, however... all the men were reduced to puppets.

One way or another, they tried to take advantage of the "peace" in the city and did whatever they liked. Of course, the leaders didn't condone their actions, leading to Teruria giving them a simple "Obedience Curse" course.

Thus, the number of obedient meat bags increased to 45!

With more knights and slaves, more hands to man the walls, the defense was still doing well.

Of course, it did get dangerous. With their numbers reaching past 100, every night they had to face a wave including two Pouncers and one Amalgam.

Pouncers were trouble, as they were smart. They could use other zombies, especially Giant Zombies, to gain extra height and reach the wall in one big jump.

Thus, the defense mainly focused on preventing the Pouncers from reaching them, and on killing the Amalgam—the zombie variant spawned upon reaching 100 heads in a group—as soon as possible.

An Amalgam was quite a peculiar existence.

They were like an aggregate of dozens of zombies, standing even taller than a Giant Zombie. With their bulk, their strength was off the scale, making them a dangerous opponent.

But that wasn't the biggest trouble they posed... their bodies released a toxic cloud that would poison anyone who inhaled it. That made them a tricky target to take down.

"Signal to the princess! The Amalgam is to the southwest! Bearing is 236 degrees! Distance, 750!"

Thus, at night, the defense mainly split into two tasks.

One was to identify and locate the Amalgam as soon as possible and inform Princess Eve, stationed at the highest spire—the sniper tower—of the castle. The other was to verify the Pouncers' locations and prevent them from jumping over the walls.

If they could take care of those three monsters, the camp would have no more problems defending. The walls alone could hold until sunrise, making their duty simple and easy!

As soon as they found the Amalgam, one of the female knights used a flashlight and sent a code toward the castle.

"Two... three... six... seven... five... zero..."

Eve read the code slowly but surely before turning to the compass in her hand.

Then, she turned in that direction and aimed at the predicted site—roughly 750 meters away from the walls, or about 1 kilometer from her position.

"Amalgam sighting confirmed," Eve whispered, removing her eye from the scope for a moment and loading the next bullet.

It was one of the expensive, special holy bullets that Axel left with her.

Loading it in and cocking the lever, she turned her sight to the scope once more. Then, she adjusted the reticles for distance and wind bearing, fixing her target...

Before holding her breath.

Time seemed to stop as her eye captured only the abomination's figure.

Her finger slowly pulled the trigger. So expertly that the gun didn't even move. The next moment, her PGM Hecate II spat bright flames, as a white line was drawn from her muzzle toward the distance.

Although confident she wouldn't miss, Eve still watched as the bullet traced a perfect parabolic trajectory and hit the giant monster in the middle of its chest.

The Holy Bullet worked immediately, purifying the undead and everything nearby in one go.

Eve confirmed the Amalgam's defeat and let out the breath she had been holding.

Then, she slowly stood up and signaled with her light to everyone.

Two short flashes.

A success!

"Alright!" Arianne, seeing the signal, grinned victoriously. "Let's take down the Pouncers, and we can all rest for tonight!"

"OOOOH!"

Of course, none of them lowered their guard just because the enemy's "Boss" died.

With their vigilance at maximum, and the moat slowing down the zombies' charge, the Pouncers were located and eliminated without problems. Turned into a porcupine by the crossbows.

It was another night of successful defense for the camp!

Peace was protected once more...

But somewhere in the distance, changes were underway.

In a certain laboratory, a tool suddenly came to life, ringing like crazy as light shone on the map below. The loud ringing woke up a sleepy man, making him look around in panic.

"Huh...? Weh... Ah...?"

The man wiped the drool off his lips and held the edge of the table, staring at the glowing map. He pushed his glasses up, fixing them, and spoke.

"I-It's the s-same spot as b-before..." the man stuttered. "I-I should re-report this to h-her mamamajesty...!"

A powerful spike in mana readings, happening twice within a week.

Given that the locations were the same, there was no way it was a coincidence. The researcher figured it was someone, or something, capable of wielding such massive mana in an attack... something he couldn't imagine at present.

With haste, he recorded the signal, grabbed a few scattered documents, and limped away while hugging them tight.

Along the way, he crossed paths with a few men in armor, but they barely paid him any attention. As if, to them, he didn't exist. Rico didn't really mind... he was already used to this treatment. As a researcher with no fighting potential, this was as good as it got.

After reaching a certain room, he knocked on the door and raised his voice while bowing his head.

"Y-Your mamamajesty... It's Ri-rico... I ha-have something to re-report..."

As he waited impatiently, roughly half a minute later, a flirtatious woman's voice echoed from within.

"Enter."

Rico did as told, pushed the door open slightly, and slipped inside, closing it behind him quickly.

As he fixed his gaze forward, he saw a beautiful woman sitting by the bedside.

Her body was half exposed, covered only by a nightgown that wasn't fully worn yet—revealing a portion of her perfect body, as if slung on in a rush.

"Rico, huh?" The woman's green eyes narrowed, her tone sharp despite its flirtatious lilt. "What's the rush for you to barge into my room this late?"

"T-That... I-I found it..."

Rico bowed respectfully while passing the map in his hands to her.

Upon hearing his report, the woman's eyes softened in joy. "Oh? So this is the place...?" she whispered, staring at the map.

Whether she'll be a threat or a blessing to Axel's camp, no one but her knows for now.

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