The Author's POV

As he was returning from the tavern, Waylen suddenly heard the sirens of the city ring out.

Without wasting any time, he hurriedly ran towards the outer walls of the city where an elderly figure stood. 

Deeply gazing into the distance on the top of the enormous wall outside of the mountain where Henolur resided; a terrifying wind blew from below the walls. 

Oddly enough, despite the strong winds blowing, the old man's clothes remained completely still and didn't flutter the slightest. 

Sensing something, the old man turned his head and greeted Waylen with a calm smile.

"Waylen, you're back."

"I just came back from a drink, what exactly is going on, Douglas?" 

"Haaa." 

Closing his eyes slightly, the old man, Douglas, looked towards the distance. 

Waving his hand, the strong winds around them completely disappeared and silence descended. 

He then pointed towards the distance, where a mass of black dots appeared in the distance. 

"As you can probably tell, the demons are once again attacking. This time, they are attacking with a large number of troops." 

Putting his hands on the battlements of the castle; The upright projections on the castle walls shaped to look like teeth, Waylen glared. 

"Those bastards. Have they sent the big shots?" 

"Not yet. It looks like they are still trying to gauge the defensive mechanism of the city." 

"So they've basically sent the cannon fodder." 

"Mhm, for now." 

Douglas calmly nodded his head. 

Stroking his long white beard, he softly reminded. 

"We should still be careful. We might never know what might happen." 

Nodding in agreement, Waylen suddenly thought of something. 

"...Right, what did the dwarves say?" 

"The dwarfs?" 

"Yeah, are they allowing us to help them?" 

Acting without permission could enrage the dwarves. 

This was because their interference might have adverse effects on the dwarves who were perhaps planning on activating a specific defensive measure that required no interference. 

If they wanted to act, they could only do so at the okay of the dwarves. 

After all, they were here to please the dwarves, not antagonize them. 

Understanding full well what Waylen was implying, Douglas shook his head before once again turning his attention towards the distance. 

"Nothing yet, but I've already told them that we will assist them if anything happens." 

"That's good enough for now." 

Also turning his attention towards the distance, Waylen's eyes squinted and tangible bloodlust started exuding from his body. 

"If they permit us to move, I'll slaughter each and every demon that comes my way." 

***

WHIIIIIII—! WHIIIIIII—! 

The sounds of the sirens rang out throughout the whole city as the dwarves quickly closed up shop and hid inside of their homes. 

From how unpanicked and organized this was, I could tell that this wasn't the first time that this had happened. 

"Ren, what's going on?" 

"Smallsnake?" 

Regrouping with the others back at the lodgings, the first one to approach me was Smallsnake. 

Glancing behind him and seeing everyone staring in my direction, my brows furrowed tightly. 

"I'm not too sure, but from what I've heard, it looks like the city will be under siege soon." 

"Under attack?" 

My words instantly caused Smallsnake and the others to panic. 

Everyone but Leopold, who listened attentively from the side. His experience was starting to show, as he remained coolheaded the whole time. 

"What do we do now? Should we take cover? Or should we just leave this place?" 

"I'm not sure myself, but leaving is not an option." 

As Waylen had told me beforehand, escaping this place was no longer an option. 

The end result would just be us against thousands of demons. 

Massaging my throbbing forehead and staring at the others who seemed well-rested, I cursed out loud. 

"Ah shit, I still didn't sleep yet." 

Unlike them, I still had not properly rested as I ran around the whole city ever since arriving here. 

Was my luck really that bad? 

But at the moment, Smallsnake tapped me on the shoulder disrupting me out of my thoughts. 

"...What is it?" 

"Ren, what do you suggest we do?" 

Lowering my head and looking at Smallsnake straight in the eyes and looking back at the others who were also waiting for my answer, I let out a groan. 

"Ugh, whatever, I don't care anymore." 

Once again taking out my sword from my dimensional space, I put it on my waist and tapped on my watch. 

A holographic map of the city appeared in front of me. 

Musing for a moment, I soon came up with a decision. 

"Let's just go help out. It'll be good training for us."

Not only that, but it would also raise our reputation amongst the dwarves. 

In any case, I needed this to distract my mind off of the things that Malvin had told me not too long ago. 

"Get ready, we're about to move " 

Before the others could respond, I had already run. 

*

Henolur was built inside of a large mountain within a massive mountain range. 

Blending with the environment; making it harder to spot from a distance, towering walls erected from outside of the mountain.

The walls were divided into two areas, the upper areas where the bigshots were, and the lower areas, where the weaker individuals were. 

In order to make up the disparity, built on the lower area were many different defensive structures and artifacts, with dwarves, elves, and orcs patrolling around the area.

In general, they only talked amongst their own races and kept to themselves, but the impending attack from the demons sobered everyone up as they all helped each other out. 

In contrast to the lower level, the higher level was more restricted for the stronger individuals. One could see from the level of security around the area that brought towards to the higher level, that highly classified meetings were being held there. 

"Oy you over there!" 

A buff dwarf yelled over to my side. Turning my head, I instantly recognized him. 

"Elluid." 

The dwarf that I had previously met at the entrance of the city. 

Without greeting me nor waiting for me to reply, Elluid shouted onto a small device in his hands. 

"Orimdus I've got some people here who be right for tha job. Quickly come ta pick them up."

—Quit shouting ye fucker, I'll be there in a minute.

Because Elluid didn't bother lowering the volume of the device, I could pretty much hear whatever they were saying. 

"The fuck did ye say ta me?"

—Pah, what be ye gonna do?"

Before long, the man called Orimdus arrived. Glaring at Elluid, he raised his middle finger and flipped him off.

Then, turning his attention towards me and the others, he began to size us up. 

"Mhh, nae bad. This will do for now."

Nudging me to follow him with his two fingers,  I, along with the others, followed Orimdus towards the northern gate. 

Walking along, he gave me and the others a brief overview of the walls defensive structure. The walls had four gates, which were named after the cardinal points. Northern, Southern, Eastern, and Western. 

The Northern gate, the gate that I was currently at, directly faced an expansive forest and was on the opposite side of where the main demon force was. As such, it was supposedly the easiest side to defend. 

Orimdus, the dwarf that was guiding me and the others, was the one that oversaw the operations on the northern side. 

On the other hand, the other two sides, the Eastern, and Western gates, directly faced the other mountain ranges. On normal occasions, those sides would've been the easiest to defend against, however, it had to be noted that demons could fly. 

Because of this, the geographical advantage was almost negligent. 

Lastly, there was the Southern gate, and that was where most of the demons were coming from. In short, that place was a living hell for whoever was there. 

It was also the place where most bigshots resided. 

"What do ye guys specialize in?"

Orimdus suddenly asked. 

Turning around, I briefly gave him a rundown of our capabilities. 

"I'm a swordsman, he's a tanker, she's a beast tamer, he's good at commanding, and these two can help with a utility such as scouting and paperwork." 

At my mentioning of Smallsnake's and Ryan's capabilities, Orimdus instantly became disinterested. 

From the looks of it, he didn't believe that the two of them could match the dwarven analytical abilities.

To that, I could only shake my head. 

He was soon going to see just what those two were capable of. 

"Mhhh, noted...I was hoping for a long-ranged damage dealer, but your composition be still good for when those bastards come near."

"Maybe I should get one..." 

"Did ye say something?"

"No, just thinking to myself." 

Orimdus previous words made me realize that I needed to get a long-ranged damage dealer in my group. 

This was a serious flaw that I had not taken into account before. 

"That reminds me, what be your ranks?"

Orimdus asked thoughtlessly to which I swiftly responded without hiding anything.

"I'm C- rank, and the others are D-/D rank with those two at around G rank." 

Aside from Ryan and Smallsnake, pretty much everyone was now <D> rank and above. Sort of shocking given that not too long ago, everyone was barely at the entry-level of <E> rank. 

"You guys be pretty strong for your age, I'll give ye that."

Orimdus pointed towards an area in the distance. 

"You guys see tha area over there, right where tha tower be? go there, an' one o' tha people shou' make arrangements for ye."

I looked towards the area he was pointing at. 

The tower he was pointing at was one of many that were along the walls and had windows and doors that individuals could use to either snipe or jump down from above to directly fight the enemies. 

It wasn't a terrible spot to snipe, but it was a pretty obvious place, giving away the location of the sniper quite easily.

Fortunately, we didn't have one with us, and so we soon arrived below the tower where we quickly informed another dwarf about Orimdus's words. 

Glancing at Smallsnake and Ryan with a disinterested look, the dwarf casually said. 

"I see, let tha two utility users come with me an' ye guys can go ta tha middle level o' tha building."

"Got it." 

Turning my attention towards Smallsnake and Ryan, I patted them on the shoulder and softly whispered. 

"Smallsnake, Ryan, they're looking down on you. I want you to let them know their place." 

To look down on the two geniuses that I had chosen, like hell I would let them. 

"Got it." 

"Yes." 

Solemnly nodding their heads, they both soon followed the dwarf towards the uppermost floor of the tower. 

From how serious their faces were, it seemed like they were fired up. 

A grinned at that. 

"You guys follow me up." 

Nudging Ava, Hein and Leopold with my head, we soon walked towards the middle level where a large group of different races stood. 

The group compromised of dwarves, elves, and orcs. 

"Humans" 

A tall male elf lazily eyed us. A trace of disdain flashed his eyes before speaking in a commanding tone. 

"Tell us your abilities and rank. " 

My brows knit. 

"Ren Dover, Rank C-, swordsman, Ava leafz, Rank D-, Beast tamer—" 

"What are humans doing here?" 

An orc at the back suddenly raised his voice, cutting me off. His tone sounded quite displeased. 

"We have no use for you weaklings over here. Go tell the dwarves that we can handle this side ourselves. You'll be a hindrance." 

"No can do." 

Ignoring the orc, I sat down on the ground and proceeded to ignore the orc. 

Leopold followed my example and also sat next to me. 

Out of all the people in my group, he was the only one that never appeared nervous in any situation. 

I guess this was due to all the experience he had. 

Eying Ava and Hein who was still standing, I patted the ground next to me. 

"What are you guys doing? Sit down as well." 

"Yes." 

"Okay." 

"Did you just ignore me?" 

My behaviour obviously did not sit well with the orc who stood up from his spot and glared in my direction.

Glancing at him from the side, a trace of disdain flashed across my eyes.

Having been to Immorra, a place filled with bloodthirsty orcs that fought with their lives on the line every day, the orc before me was a joke in my eyes. 

I couldn't even be bothered to argue with him. Let alone the elf that was too full of himself. 

He was most likely some low levelled warrior that put on airs on those he deemed weak. 

Aside from the two of them, there were more elves and orcs, however, they merely gave us a glance before going back to their own thing. It seemed as though their pride did not allow them to associate with us, a bunch of humans. 

"Human, are you deaf? Did you not hear what I said?" 

The orc slowly approached me. A strong aura exuded from his body. 

Ignoring him and taking out binoculars from my dimensional space, I tapped on my bracelet. A potion soon appeared in my hand. 

—Gulp! 

Downing the potion, I glanced towards the others and muttered. 

"Get ready, the bugs are coming."