GILF Hunter

Chapter 259: 259 Invasion

A night filled with thick clouds, where not even a sliver of moonlight could be seen.

On the walls of Labyrinth ahead of the battle, countless soldiers and mercenaries stood in long lines, keeping a vigilant watch on the outside.

The gazes of numerous sentries were fixed upon the labyrinth zones beyond the walls.

The labyrinth, exuding an ominous energy, evoked a sickening, chilling sensation just by looking at it.

According to the analysis of the Investigation Department, the monster raid would occur within the next few days.

Since the exact time of the onset was unknown, all soldiers remained on the walls without leaving, staying on standby to respond to an attack at any moment.

The expressions of every soldier moving along the walls were filled with tension.

The night passed, and the hour for dawn to break soon approached.

As the sky beyond the horizon began to be stained red, a soldier on sentry duty heard the sound of several soldiers coming up from beneath the wall.

It was the end of a watch that had felt like it would never conclude.

"Let’s swap. Anything happen?"

"No."

The moment the relief spoke from behind, the squinting soldier thought he saw something moving faintly in the distance.

The soldier rubbed his fatigue-rimmed eyes with his hand.

"What’s wrong? Go get some sleep already."

"Wait... there was something just now."

A stir spread among the other soldiers and mercenaries atop the wall as well.

As the sentry soldier looked to the side just in case, he locked eyes with a mercenary who had also turned his head.

"Hey! Did you see it too?"

The shout came from a mercenary sentry standing guard a short distance away.

Realizing that he hadn’t misseen it, the soldier quickly turned his gaze back to scan the labyrinth side.

The sentries currently standing on the wall were personnel specifically chosen for their excellent night vision for nocturnal watch.

To the eyes of a soldier with the [Owl’s Eye] trait, the shadows of monsters moving in the darkness were clearly visible.

His encroaching drowsiness vanished instantly as the soldier’s eyes snapped wide open.

"They’re here!"

"It’s really them, right? Sound the alarm!"

Confirming that he hadn’t seen a hallucination due to fatigue, the mercenary quickly rang the outpost’s bell.

Just before daybreak, the sharp ringing of the bell spread through the military camp inside the chaotic walls.

"Emergency! Enemy sighted!"

The shouts of the sentries poured toward the interior of the walls.

At the same time, the roars of monsters erupted from the horizon beyond the walls along with the dawn.

Messengers immediately sprinted through the streets, and every means of communication within the city began to relay the same information everywhere.

"Invasion starting! Invasion starting!"

Soon, the massive bells from the spires of Labyrinth began to toll.

An enemy invasion. It was the signal announcing battle.

"To your positions!"

Countless soldiers sprinted up onto the walls and took their places.

The soldiers atop the walls could see monsters pouring out from the numerous entrances of the labyrinth.

Soon the sun rose completely, and with the sunlight, monsters covered the plains.

It looked like a wave surging toward the city.

As they had practiced continuously, all forces took their positions in an instant and completed their preparations for attack.

"Fire!"

With the signal, arrows fired from the walls covered the sky, and magic that followed immediately after swept through the monster hordes.

The arrows and magic, falling upon the heads of monsters packed so tightly there was no room to step, hit their targets without a single shot being wasted.

However, trampling over the fallen monsters, the creatures swarming behind them immediately filled the gaps.

Several more volleys of arrows and magic followed, but the number of monsters surging like a tide didn’t seem to decrease at all.

Watching that sight, the rookies for whom this was their first invasion swallowed hard, their hands gripping their weapons trembling.

Only the veterans looked on with expressions as if seeing something tedious, silently preparing for battle.

A short while later, the wave of monsters momentarily halted as it encountered the obstacles constructed in front of the walls.

When obstructions made of rock piles, wooden walls, and stakes blocked their path, the smaller monsters stopped and looked for detours.

The ferocious monsters began to attack the obstacles blocking them first.

Confusion broke out briefly at the front, causing a slight stagnation in the monsters’ march.

While the regular monsters were held back.

The fast monsters capable of scaling walls leaped over the obstacles and began to climb the city walls first.

"Melee squads, prepare for combat!"

The forces lined up atop the wall gripped their weapons and prepared to fight the monsters.

One monster, uniquely larger and faster than the others, was the first to scramble up the wall.

That monster, the first to reach the top, leaped up with a roar.

"Ahhhhh!"

The moment the monster leaped above the wall and showed its head, a spear flying from the rear pierced its head like a flash of light.

The monster, now a corpse, plummeted back down below the distant wall, and the thrown spear returned to Rebecca’s hand as if rewinding time.

"Attack!"

Following that, the weapons of the waiting mercenaries and soldiers flew toward the monsters leaping over the wall.

***

"Urgent news! The invasion has begun! Combat has started at the North Gate!"

Ian, who was waiting at the command post built in the rear of the underground sewers, heard the news of the invasion’s start from a messenger who had run down from the surface.

It was underground, where it was difficult to know the situation above, but everyone had vaguely anticipated it due to the noise and vibration echoing from the surface.

"Let us begin as well."

The officers who locked eyes with Ian also nodded.

Except for Ian, who had to remain at the command post, the members and soldiers moved toward their respective designated positions.

Rin took her place at the first outpost she was in charge of and silently watched the forward passage where the monsters would approach.

The faint sounds of the battle on the surface flowed into Rin’s ears.

And, a sound approaching from the other side of the sewer passage... familiar yet distinct.

It was the sound of slimes she had heard until she was sick of it while on missions in the sewers, but the sound approaching now had a much more massive presence.

Soon, what appeared before Rin were slimes.

...To describe them as just ’slimes’ was insufficient; it was a massive wave of slimes.

Seeing that sight from the front, Rin caught her breath.

Monster Wave.

Rin could feel firsthand why a monster invasion was called that.

What was approaching was not an exaggeration... it was truly a wave.

A wave of slimes, where an uncountable number of them were clumped together.

Because the floodgates had been narrowed, the waterway was exposed to the bottom, but enough slimes to fill it completely were crawling forward.

Thump!

The wave of slimes, approaching as if they were a single organism, collided with the obstacles piled in the middle of the sewer.

The simple wooden obstacles blocked the wave of slimes, but they immediately began to collapse with a creaking sound.

The slimes’ offensive, blocked by the obstacles, stagnated for just a moment.

...Now!

Exactly as Rin had practiced continuously, she threw an orb at that precise moment.

As the ob leaving Rin’s hand hit its mark, bright blue flames erupted and covered the floor.

The flames were soon covered by the underside of the slimes, but beneath them, the fire continued to flare up without stopping.

The slimes churned and surged as if the water were boiling over.

However, even with such methods, they couldn’t completely deter the massive swarm of slimes.

Before long, all the obstacles collapsed and the wave began to move again.

"Strongpoint 1 destroyed!"

Along with a soldier’s shout, Rin threw the last orb and turned to run back.

Sprinting through the passage, Rin spotted a soldier waiting at a designated point ahead.

The soldier, who was preparing after hearing the shout, confirmed Rin’s appearance and activated a trap on the floor.

Rin reached out her hand to a soldier hurriedly climbing up a ladder from the sewer floor and pulled him up.

"Next! To the next one!"

Whenever she had time, Rin had looked at the map and roamed the underground sewers, and now she ran through the waterway along the paths she had memorized so well they appeared in her dreams.

From behind, the sound of the device they had just installed activating was heard, and the passage was engulfed in fierce flames.

The sound of slimes burning drifted over along with a lukewarm heat.

Sprinting through the passage like that for a few minutes.

Arriving at a crossroads, Rin spotted Mika and Tanya, who had also run from different directions along with soldiers.

It was the scheduled rendezvous point.

Seeing that everyone met at exactly the same time, it seemed things had proceeded without issue on their ends as well.

"Haa... Everyone’s still alive..."

"Stop talking nonsense... let’s prepare the next thing."

There wasn’t even time to talk about how it had gone over there.

However, looking at their dazed expressions, it seemed they had all encountered something similar.

Rin, Mika, and Tanya took their places at the next strongpoint located at the rendezvous point.

Before the three waiting people, slimes slowly began to swarm again.

They must have caused significant damage while passing through the traps several times, but the slimes that merged from three directions seemed even larger in scale than at first.

"Are... are you sure we can block this?"

Hearing Mika’s unconsciously muttered murmur, neither Tanya nor Rin could give a proper answer.

Even when facing tasks that seemed impossible, Ian had always guaranteed that they were more than capable.

And things that seemed impossible at a glance eventually turned out exactly as Ian said once they were over...

...But, looking at the slimes pouring in from the distance.

This time, they truly felt like this wasn’t going to work.