Chapter 625

They were halfway to the gate when Harold started talking, low enough that the nearby trainees couldn’t easily catch every word, but not so low that it looked like a secret.

It was Harold’s way of keeping people calm: facts first, fear later.

“According to the survivors who made it in,” Harold said, “it wasn’t just a raid. It was… a push.”

Ludger’s eyes stayed forward. His pace didn’t change.

Harold kept going. “They came in a large wave. Not scattered. Not trickling out like beasts testing a fence. A full wave, all at once.”

Selene clicked her tongue. “That’s bad.”

“It gets worse,” Harold replied. “They didn’t come out of nowhere. They came up right under the lord’s manor.”

Ludger’s gaze sharpened. His jaw flexed once.

Harold nodded grimly. “Yeah. Right under it. Like the ground opened and the city’s heart got bitten out first.”

Aleia’s fingers brushed her bowstring, a quiet habit.

Harold’s voice stayed steady, but his eyes were hard. “The assumption is that the noble family’s decimated. If not by the first wave, then by whatever came out with it. The survivors said the manor went dark fast. Just screaming.”

Cor’s staff tapped once, a quiet, unhappy sound.

“Some guards tried to form a line,” Harold said. “Tried to hold the streets, buy time for evacuations.”

His mouth tightened like he didn’t want to finish.

“They didn’t stand a chance.”

Ludger squinted, the expression small but sharp. Organized wave. Underground emergence. Manor strike first. Guard collapse. There was no “accident” in that.

Ludger’s thoughts slid into place, cold and clean.

Sealed labyrinths didn’t behave like fresh emergences. They didn’t spit out mindless packs that wandered until someone killed them. They had structure. They had an intelligent

guardian

.

And if the monsters were organized… If they moved with purpose, hit command points, used a wave instead of a scatter… Then the guardian definitely wasn’t a dumb beast.

It was

sapient

.

Like the Spider Queen. A thing that could think, plan, learn, and adapt. A thing that could look at a city and understand it the same way a human commander would, just with different priorities and fewer moral limitations. Ludger’s fingers tightened around the strap of his pouch for a moment, then relaxed. He glanced back over his shoulder.

Behind them, a handful of new members were following, young, wide-eyed, trying to look brave. Trainees who’d seen drills and sparring and maybe a few small delves, but not the kind of enemy that made “battle” feel like a bad joke.

They were watching Harold, watching Ludger, watching the veterans like their backs were the only wall that mattered. Ludger felt a familiar calculation rise.

Do I tell them?

If he said it out loud,

the monsters can speak, and they’ll use human tactics

, it could go two ways.

Some of the kids would freeze. Because it was easier to fight an animal. Easier to tell yourself it was just hunger and instinct.

A thinking enemy was different. A thinking enemy meant deception, feints, traps. It meant being hunted by something that could choose patience. But if he didn’t tell them… They’d learn the hard way, eventually. And the hard way usually cost blood.

Ludger’s eyes narrowed slightly as he weighed it. There was a time for truths that steadied you. And a time for truths that shattered you. He looked forward again, toward the gate, toward the road where survivors were still coming and monsters were probably already tasting their scent on the wind.

He didn’t speak yet. But the thought stayed with him, heavy and sharp:

If the guardian is sapient…

…then this wasn’t just a defense. It was a war against something that could look them in the eye and understand exactly how to hurt them.

Selene waited until the conversation hit that familiar lull, right after the grim facts, right before everyone’s thoughts started chewing on them too hard.

Then she did what she always did. She stabbed the tension in the ribs.

“So,” she said, turning her head slightly as they walked, eyes glittering with mischief, “how are things in Lionfang?”

Ludger gave her a sidelong look. “Standing.”

Selene scoffed. “Wow. Inspirational. I’m tearing up.”

Harold let out a low chuckle. Aleia’s mouth twitched. Even Cor’s eyes shifted in that way that meant he was listening despite pretending not to.

Selene bumped Ludger lightly with her shoulder. “I mean it. The town’s good? Wolves everywhere? Viola still acting like she owns everything?”

“Wolves, yes,” Ludger said. “Viola is… Viola.”

Selene grinned, then leaned in a little closer like she was about to ask something truly important.

“And,” she added, voice dropping conspiratorially, “did you finally find a girlfriend now that I’m not around to scare them off?”

Ludger’s frown was immediate and genuine, like she’d just suggested he take up juggling knives for stress relief. He looked at her. Really looked at her. The same way he looked at a bad plan before he tore it apart.

“I wasn’t waiting my pugilist master to leave,” he said slowly, “just to look for a girlfriend.”

Selene’s grin widened. “It’s a critical tactical question.”

Ludger’s eyes narrowed. “Is your combat style now flirting until the enemy surrenders?”

Harold barked a laugh. One of the younger recruits behind them snorted despite trying to look serious. Ludger kept going, because Selene had opened the door and he was already stepping through it with boots on.

“I barely have time to sleep seven hours a night,” he said, deadpan. “I don’t have time to fool around at my age.”

He paused just long enough to make the next part land.

“…Like my dad did.”

There was a beat of silence. Then Harold laughed like he’d been punched in the gut, in a good way. Selene doubled over, wheezing. Aleia’s shoulders shook once, controlled but undeniable. Even Cor made a sound that was suspiciously close to a cough hiding amusement.

From the back, a couple of trainees laughed too, half shocked, half relieved that someone had finally said something human in the middle of all this.

Selene pointed at Ludger, still laughing. “Oh, that’s

vicious.

”

Harold slapped his own thigh, grinning. “Kid’s got teeth. Elaine’s blood is strong in this one, as usual.”

Cor’s eyes slid toward Ludger, warm for a fraction of a second. “Good,” the old sage murmured.

Ludger just kept walking, expression returning to calm as if he hadn’t just committed a perfectly timed verbal assassination. The laughter didn’t erase the danger waiting beyond the walls. But it loosened the grip of it.

And that was a good sign, because going into a fight like this too tense was how people made mistakes. Better to move with steady hands. Better to breathe. Better to remember you were still alive before you had to prove it.

They hadn’t gone far beyond the walls before the world started whispering to Ludger again.

The road dipped through hard-packed earth and scattered stone, a stretch of open terrain that offered bad cover and good sightlines, if you had the eyes for it.

Ludger did.

He let his breathing settle, let his mana sink down, down, down, past muscle and bone, until it brushed the ground the way his Seismic Sense liked it. The earth answered like it always did: indifferent, honest, and full of information if you knew how to listen.

At first it was normal. Wind vibrations. Wagon wheels. The steady rhythm of boots from the group around him.

Then… A second rhythm. Far ahead. Fast. Not one or two steps. Not a patrol. Not a merchant cart. A mess of footfalls, overlapping, uneven, panicked. A lot of them. And they were moving in a hurry. Ludger’s head lifted slightly, eyes narrowing as the sensation sharpened into clarity.

“Contact,” he said, voice flat.

Harold’s head turned immediately. Selene’s grin vanished. Aleia’s hand slid closer to her bowstring. Cor’s staff stopped tapping.

Ludger pointed down the road. “Refugees. Ahead. Running.”

He paused, listening one more heartbeat.

“Many,” he added. “And they’re not slowing down.”

Harold didn’t ask how Ludger knew. He’d learned a long time ago that when Ludger said something like that, it wasn’t a guess. It was a measurement.

“All right,” Harold said, voice snapping into command. “Positions.”

He pointed with two fingers like he was placing pieces on a board.

“Selene, left flank, keep them moving and cut anything that breaks through. Aleia, high ground if you can get it, start picking the fast ones first, whatever looks like it’s directing. Cor, rear anchor, if this turns into a stand, I want a wall behind us.”

His eyes flicked to Ludger. “You’re with me.”

Ludger nodded once. The trainees behind them swallowed hard but tightened up, doing their best to copy what competence looked like. Spears angled forward. Shields lifted. Feet spreading for balance.

Harold’s voice carried back, hard and steady. “No one breaks formation. No hero charges. You fight smart or you die tired.”

That last part landed like a nail. They crested a slight rise, and the road ahead opened like a scar across the landscape. For a second, it was just dust. Then movement appeared within it.

A ragged line of people spilling down the road, men, women, a few children dragged half-limp by adults who looked like they’d been running since their lungs turned to fire. Some had injuries wrapped in dirty cloth. Some had blood dried black on their faces. A wagon clattered behind them with a broken wheel, two men literally pushing it while it bounced and screamed.

And the sound… Their screams began to echo under the setting sun, sharp and raw and desperate enough to make the hairs on the back of the neck stand up. Not battle cries. Not even coherent words.

Just panic made audible. They saw the Lionsguard ahead and tried to speed up. As if speed would save them. As if speed was something they still had. Then the world behind them shifted.

The dust cloud thickened, deeper, darker, moving like a living thing.

And in that brown haze, shapes emerged. Too many. A large wave of monsters, packed tight, chasing like a tide had decided it wanted to eat.The refugees surged, stumbling as they hit the last stretch, screams breaking into sobs.

Harold’s voice snapped like a whip. “Hold!”

Selene planted her feet, shoulders rolling, grin gone and replaced by something eager and violent.

Aleia had already moved, halfway up a small rock outcrop, bow in hand, eyes narrowing as she searched for anything that looked like a leader.

Cor’s staff converted mana into presence, the air around him tightening like the world was bracing.

Ludger stared at the oncoming wave, face calm and eyes cold. A tide of monsters. Exhausted people.

A sunset painting everything red like the sky was already practicing for blood. He felt the ground trembling under the weight of the chase. And he thought, very clearly:

This is where Fittar starts to live… or starts to die.

Thank you for reading!

Don't forget to follow, favorite, and rate. If you want to read 400 chapters ahead, you can check my patreon: /Comedian0