Chapter 60: The Siege

I was transported to the courtyard of a medieval castle. The castle looked imposing, made entirely of rock, and around it were huge walls that seemed very thick and solid; I wondered how difficult it would be to tear them down. Little by little, the girls appeared. As soon as they arrived, they all raised their weapons, expecting an ambush, but nothing happened, which made them blush with embarrassment. "Jax, where are we? What is this place?" "I don’t know yet, Manaia, but it seems we’ll have a battle in this castle." "Do you think we have to defend it? If they wanted us to attack it, they would put us outside and not inside, right?" Just then, a notification appeared in front of us. [Welcome to the GRB, the event for this GRB will be "Treasure Hunt"] [The objective is simple, for the next 24 hours you will be besieged by an enemy army. You must resist for 24 hours defending the fort in your charge and find all the hidden treasures. To complete the GRB, 3 tasks must be completed] [First task: Do not allow any enemy to enter beyond the courtyard of the fortress.] [Second task: Find all the hidden treasures inside the castle] [Third task: Casualties in the Guild Party must be less than 50%] [Once the 3 tasks are completed, you will be sent back to your respective guilds and rewards will be calculated according to the results.] [The GRB will start in 5 minutes] "Jax, the situation looks pretty bad, what do you think we should do? I don’t think we can resist an army for 24 hours. Do you think it’s possible to abandon the castle and take refuge somewhere?" Manaia voiced everyone’s opinion. The battle seemed like a complete suicide, and I understood it very well, but the rules gave me an interesting idea. "We won’t run away. All of you will start searching the castle for the hidden treasures. I will hold off the army by myself, there’s no need for you to interfere." "But Jax, it will be impossible to face an army by yourself," Leila said. "Don’t worry about that, the structure only has one entrance. As long as they can’t get in through any other way, I’ll be able to hold them here. You all don’t waste time and look for the objectives. If you finish, come back to defend. I’ll set the experience distribution to equal parts, so you can level up while I take care of this place..." [GRB Starts 23:59:59 remaining] "Don’t waste time, run!" "I’ll stay to watch over you, at least I can be useful here. I won’t take no for an answer. Everyone else, go, finish quickly and come back." Manaia made a decision and ordered everyone to leave. Each of them ran to a different door, looking for the treasures. Meanwhile, Manaia and I stared at the main gate. The walls were high, and even the gate looked quite large. That would help us stop them, but I didn’t want them to fight and start looking for alternative routes. I wanted to create an attractive and easy bait to force them to come. I didn’t know how long it would take for the armies to arrive, so I ran to the gate. I saw the mechanism to open it; it was a drawbridge, so I released the lock and the large gate fell with great force. As it opened, I could see the outside: we were in the middle of a meadow, there was a large water moat and even battlements on top where archers could be placed to defend the area. "Why did you open it, Jax? Shouldn’t we take advantage of as much time as possible to keep them out?" "No, they would eventually get in or look for some random way to enter. Given that’s the case, it’s better to let them come in through this one place and take advantage of the space to our favor." I walked onto the drawbridge, drew my swords, and stared at the surroundings. I could feel the tension; it was like when I had faced the demon king. I couldn’t lose or let anyone die, so anyone who tried to cross this bridge would have to do so over my dead body. The first enemies appeared as if they had teleported 100 meters from the castle. I checked who they were and, seeing their level, I smiled. [Demon Fighter Lvl 25] [Demon Commander Lvl 35] Our enemies were demons. That would save me a lot of trouble, because demons are weak to blessings and now I had discovered their weaknesses. [Enemies remaining 11/11] The ten Demon Fighters lunged at us, followed by their demon commander. "It’s been a while since I’ve seen you, you deformed monsters! Manaia, fall back, reserve your mana. Don’t use it unless it’s necessary." The Demon Fighters were like black shadows with swords, and the Commander was the same, but twice as big and with a two-handed sword. The battle was brutal, but I swept the floor with them. I decapitated them one after another. As soon as I finished off the last one, a new announcement appeared. [Round 2] [Enemies remaining 22/22] Now there were twenty fighters and two commanders. The battle continued like this, with a constant increase of enemies. Notifications of experience gain were flooding in, but I was too busy to check them. [Exp Gain] [Lvl up] [HP, MP, SP regen] And then out of nowhere, I noticed that everyone was starting to level up. More than a challenge, this place seemed like the most beautiful place to be able to level up. "Damn, if this continues, I’d prefer them to let us defend this castle for a year, that way I’d recover my old level quickly." [Manaia Lvl Up] I kept fighting, ignoring the rain of notifications. In round nine, the screen showed: [Round 9] [Enemies remaining 99/99] There were ninety fighters and nine commanders. The battle was still brutal, but I decapitated them one after another. I received the occasional wound, but Manaia healed me immediately, and when she did, any demon that was nearby would take some burn damage. I glanced at the girls’ experience notifications, which kept coming in. [Lira Lvl Up] [Zyra Lvl Up] Time passed and I just kept fighting. When round ten was declared, things changed drastically. [Round 10] [1000 Fighters, 100 Commanders and 1 General] I was shocked to see the crowd of enemies. A black wave stretched as far as the eye could see. "Manaia, close the gate from the inside! There are too many of them to stop. If even one of them gets through, you’ll die!" "But what about you, Jax? I can’t... you have to..." "Don’t argue, Manaia, close the gate and lock yourself in. Don’t you trust me?"