When I returned to the skies above the fortress, what I saw was a massive horde of zombies that easily exceeded ten thousand.
To call it a horde hardly did it justice—each zombie pressed against the next, making the whole mass look like a single, enormous creature.
The density was so extreme that, were it not for the eerie red glow in the zombies' eyes, you might not have even realized it was a swarm at all.
I froze for an instant, struck dumb, but quickly shook it off and began my descent.
"Dad, I'm back!"
I spotted my father and the others standing atop the gate, facing down the zombie horde, and called out to them.
"Tenma, you made it back safe! What did the Guild have to say?"
At his words, I told them everything that had happened in Russell City.
When they heard that reinforcements from the Guild and Russell City would take at least three days to arrive, everyone's spirits sank—but when I told them I had placed a request and that they should arrive well before three days, a glimmer of hope seemed to surface.
"Oh, right, Dad. On my way back I ran into the soldiers who had fled. I immobilized them with magic and took back all the supplies and weapons they'd stolen."
With that, I descended to the center of the square and began pulling items from my Magic Bag—goods that had been loaded into the carriage, armor and weapons the soldiers had been carrying, and more.
Seeing the sheer volume of food and weapons that emerged, one villager let out a loud shout.
Others followed suit, one after another raising their voices. Watching it all, I didn't quite know what to make of it.
My father, seeing this,
"Tenma, you came back at just the right time! The truth is, we'd almost run out of both weapons and food,"
he said, then leaned close to my ear and added in a low voice,
"On top of that, a lot of them were on the verge of losing heart because of that zombie horde. But when they saw the weapons and food you brought out, a little hope must have sparked. Now they're dragging themselves together by sheer force of will."
He said this with a grin, then added, "You can't fight on an empty stomach, as they say."
In just half a day, things had already gotten that desperate.
"If the zombies are going to attack, it'll be once it's completely dark. Until then, we finish positioning everyone and distributing weapons!"
This fortress, seen from above, sat on the side of the village across from the forest — a square enclosed by walls roughly 100 meters on each side, about 4 meters tall and 2 meters wide, with a gate at the center of each wall. The buildings like the barracks were clustered on the north side.
Right now, Tenma and the others were digging a moat — 1 meter deep, 2 meters wide, set about 2 meters away from the walls and wrapping around the entire perimeter except in front of the gates.
The forest surrounded the village and fortress in a half-moon shape, separated by at least 200 meters even from the closest point of the fortress. The village lay to the east, with the south side facing the forest. The zombies were primarily coming from the south.
"First, for the main front — the south gate — I want Celia and half of the mid-rank offensive magic users, twenty people total, on the wall. The warrior group will be twenty, including me. Warriors basically play at being archers — your main job is filling in during magic group rotations and such. Also, Tenma, how many Golems can you create?"
"Five large, twenty medium, and fifteen small — forty total. Their performance drops off the farther they get from me, but anything up to about double the range of this fortress is fine, and they'll follow simple commands, so don't worry, Dad."
He reported the number that could be used in combat and the effective range.
For reference, the large ones were about 3 meters, the medium ones about 2 meters, and the small ones about 1 meter.
"Then put one large Golem at the front of the south gate and ten medium ones inside the moat."
"Got it."
I gave a brief reply to my father's request.
"The east gate gets Merlin and Tenma, ten from the magic group, and ten from the warrior group. Golems: one large in front of the gate, five medium inside the moat, and ten small."
"West and north get twenty warriors each. Station one large Golem in front of each of those two gates as well. But if the zombies start increasing, let me know right away. The rest serve as rotation reserves and emergency reinforcements. Tenma, go deploy the Golems immediately. Anyone who can't fight handles treating the wounded and distributing food and water."
As the companions set off to follow my father's instructions, I tossed Magic Stones outside the moat to spawn Golems. I gave each Golem its directives — "Enemies are zombies or Monsters," "Attack any enemy that approaches," and "Obey human commands" — then sent them to their posts.
Whether it was because rock and stone were scarce, parts of their bodies were made from compressed earth, but structurally there seemed to be no problem.
About twenty to thirty minutes after deployment was complete, the sun set and darkness fell — and just as predicted, the zombies began their advance.
Charging headlong into that massive horde was out of the question, and arrow supplies were limited, so the main fighting force naturally fell to the magic users.
—— East Gate Side ——
The ones leading the east gate's defense and issuing orders were Grandpa and me.
It was only natural that everyone accepted Grandpa's authority, since he was called the "Sage" — but I wondered if people might not take orders from a twelve-year-old like me. However, according to Grandpa,
"Adventuring is a field where results speak louder than words. Besides, everyone knows that Tenma's been getting an education you could call elite since he was three, and has actually taken down B-class Monsters. On top of that, I'll be the one calling the shots for the most part, so just relax."
Apparently that's what he said — if so, there shouldn't be a problem.
"More importantly, Tenma — the zombies are here. The count is... about 500, I'd say. Let's conserve Magic Power while we still have room to spare."
With that, he spotted the zombies and began issuing orders.
I tried using [Detection] to get a head count, but there were so many zombies that the radar in my head showed nothing but one massive red blip, like a fish-finder picking up a huge school of fish.
(At this rate, there's definitely got to be at least 20,000.)
Just as I was thinking that, Grandpa called out with his next order.
"Everyone, fire off five Fireballs each with a time delay between shots! Tenma and I will launch twenty Fire Bullets in rapid succession — they've got the penetration power for this! And you lot, stagger your landing zones! ...Now — fire!"
And with that, the attack began.
Ball-type magic spells consumed around 20 to 40 Magic Power per cast and were the most commonly used offensive magic, since they were among the easiest to perform. Bullet-type spells consumed roughly the same amount, but they had greater penetration power and faster projectile speed, making them a higher-tier spell than ball-type.
The struck zombies flailed about as parts of their bodies were blown away or as fire spread across them.
Among the first wave were several Ogre zombies, and I focused my aim on their heads. Each Ogre zombie took a clean hole straight through the center of its forehead, dying instantly — well, "instant death" for a zombie is a bit of an odd way to put it — and toppled over, crushing the zombies around them.
"Looks like we took out nearly half of them in one go."
The Fire Bullets' high penetration power and the zombies' weakness to fire meant that even the splash damage from the Fireball impacts had burned through quite a few of them, accounting for close to 250 kills. And there were still some that continued to burn and die.
"That barrage will have the rest of the zombies charging straight at us — now the real fight begins."
True to Grandpa's words, roughly 2,000 zombies came surging toward us.
"Grandpa — I think they learned from the last attack! They're spreading out, keeping space between each other as they advance!"
This was abnormal, even for zombies. For zombies to adapt and change tactics right after taking losses — that was something you'd normally never expect.
"Perhaps the ones commanding these zombies possess considerable intelligence... or maybe they're a high-ranking being."
Grandpa murmured.
"For now, Tenma and I shall each cast one Firestorm. After that, we'll assess the remaining enemies and decide our next move."
Following his instructions, Grandpa and I unleashed our magic. But the zombies had spread apart from one another, so the spells were less effective than we'd hoped.
"Counting the initial survivors, we've taken down perhaps five hundred. That's not nearly enough. Tenma, give it another round."
Even the second Firestorm only managed to bring down around five hundred more. In the meantime, the original survivors had closed in on the gate, only to be pummeled to death by the Golem.
"At this rate, we'll run dry on Magic Power before long,"
Grandpa was grumbling, when—
"Disaster! A massive horde of zombies has appeared at the North Gate!"
—the messenger from the North Gate came rushing in.
"What?! Since when did those wretches slip over there?!"
The zombies at the North Gate numbered roughly three thousand, and they were still growing in number.
"There's no helping it. Tenma, you'll have to go reinforce them. Messenger—find Ricardo and tell him Tenma is heading for the North Gate, so the remaining mages should—"
But before Grandpa could finish,
shouts rose from the direction of the West Gate as well.
"Don't tell me the zombies are making for the West Gate too..."
Grandpa couldn't conceal his shock at the sheer speed of the incursion.
Still, he quickly pulled himself together and
ordered, "Two mages from the north side will accompany Tenma!"
"But that will leave our defenses here even thinner!"
Another mage raised an objection, but—
"If zombies have shown up at the West Gate as well, we have no choice but to send every idle mage over there—otherwise the West Gate will be overrun. The North, South, and East Gates each have mages capable of high-level magic who can keep the zombies at bay, but the West Gate has no one of the sort. We'll simply have to make up the difference with numbers!"
was explaining. And then,
"If there's nothing flammable in front of the North Gate, we go in with everything we've got. You two—take up the defense of the North Gate!"
"Got it, Gramps!"
With that, he activated his flight magic.