Chapter 163: Bolster The Defence
The new heroes were still spreading out when the next wave of attackers arrived.
A group of massive bronze skinned Ogres appeared around the region, looking somewhat confused. But the second they appeared, the ones closest to the walls were bombarded by the turrets and the heroes, which gave the others a direction to face.
These enemies appeared to be a bit smarter than the swineherd demons were, but not by much.
They weren’t doing a great job of coordinating, and they had a tendency to stop and argue with each other when someone tried to give orders. But they were three metres tall, and one shot from the turrets was not enough to kill them, as it aimed for centre mass, not for any possible weak points they might have on their heads.
That was one of the drawbacks to the turrets. They prioritized hitting over critical damage, so they didn’t always aim for the most deadly possible shots.
However, to the new arrivals, they were the sort of miracle that every defender of a base hoped to one day see.
The Ogres shrugged off laser fire, even as it burnt craters in their bodies. They ignored lightning crackling over their skin, even skills like [Cleave] struggled to cut through their thick hide.
But with enough effort, they were still falling to the combined efforts of the heroes, and they weren’t as densely packed as the first few groups had been.
The only major issue was that they were large enough that they could actually climb up and over the wall if they made it that far.
Not easily or quickly, but they could do it without any tricks.
The new heroes watched as the Marimgar forces blasted through the monsters, while their own skills seemed to leave little more than a scratch.
"Sir, Temple, was it? What level are you at?" One of the warriors asked.
"I just made level ten. If you can do that this fight, it’s a huge break point, and you get a free skill option without paying points."
The newly arrived hero laughed. He was level four, there was no way that he was making level ten this fight. But the difference between those who had been doing their best aboard the ships, and those who had been fighting daily here in Marimgar was glaringly obvious.
If they had held off for the end of the third trial, or even chosen to go somewhere else to set up, they would have been relying on the ships forever.
They didn’t have the power to rely on themselves.
Still, none of the heroes here seemed to look down on them, and there were others even weaker than they were among the ranks. It was difficult to tell who was who, when everyone was wearing the same type of armour, but it was clear that many of them were level one or two.
"New heroes from the general population. They advanced last trial." Temple explained as he saw the warrior’s attention shift.
"That’s possible? We thought that they would be level zero forever."
"They just need the experience and the physical status to make it. Getting the body ready to be called a hero is the trick. But we’ve got another Ogre coming, get ready, and remember to moderate your mana usage."
Dropping unconscious from mana exhaustion was a fast way to end up dead.
That was a lesson that everyone had learned the hard way when things started to get dicey around Marimgar. But today it was extra important, as they were coming up on nine hours into what they hoped was a twelve hour invasion.
That was the timer that the quests had given them, so unless they were going to do them twice a day, there was hope that they would have a proper break soon.
With a stack of ammunition crates and bandages behind her counter to hand to the runners, Kalli started tapping into the satellite feeds of the Arks to see what she could find out about any other survivors on the surface.
What she found was disconcerting to say the least.
There were no modern cities left anywhere on the planet. Not even the hint of one.
But there were thousands of monster filled villages and small cities scattered around the world. Hundreds of different species, but only a few that built cities, or even organized villages.
She would remember those ones for later, as they might be intelligent enough to reason with.
And then, she noticed the strangest sight of them all.
There was an asteroid approaching the planet, which wasn’t all that remarkable on its own. But that asteroid was covered in glowing runes, and she could see the energy beams extending from it to various spots around the world.
That explained why things reset at midnight. It was when every spot on the planet was closest to the asteroid in its current position.
It was rolling out disasters as the world passed by.
Kalli also saw that she was not the first one to have noticed it, as the debris of dozens of military spacecraft littered its surface, a clear sign that others had tried to destroy it to stop the disaster.
But it was moving past the planet on an opposite trajectory.
Quick mental math said that with the asteroid currently directly opposite them, they should be halfway through the range of its effects. And if that was true, there should be a chance for them to survive the trials and continue on with their altered world.
But that would still be months away.
Still, a timeline was a timeline. If they could just hold on until the asteroid was out of range, things should stop getting worse.
However, there was a chance that the System would stop granting them new rewards once the asteroid was gone, and that would be a disaster for humanity. But that was something that they could worry about when the time came.
For now, it was better to focus on the chance that the trial was ending, and not about the chance the system would fade, or where this other world came from.
Those thoughts with no answers would only drive you crazy.