Monroe

Chapter Thirty-three. For whom the bell tolls.

Two more days had passed when Bob and Monroe were both woken from their slumber by the sound of a tolling bell ringing loudly through their room.

Monroe bolted off the bed and hid behind the bathtub, while Bob shot upright and swung his feet over and onto the floor.

He equipped his armor from his Inventory and then picked up Monroe.

"Do you want to come with me buddy, or would you rather stay here?"

Monroe's ears were laid back as the bell continued to toll, and then suddenly there was a strange sensation as Monroe suddenly disappeared.

Bob suffered from a brief flash of panic before he realized he could still feel the big cat's emotions. He checked his inventory and watched as a visible representation of Monroe stalked around the ten by ten grid, before curling up in a corner, and given the calming of Monroe's emotions, going back to sleep.

"So that's how that works," Bob muttered as he stumbled out of his room, one hand holding his staff while the other covered a long yawn.

As he entered the tavern he saw other Adventurers exiting in a steady trickle to the plaza, so he followed.

Thidwell was standing on a stone platform in front of the Dungeon, and hundreds of people crowded the plaza in front of him, the plaza being lit with glowing orbs of light strewn here and there, leaving a good portion of it heavily shadowed in the dark of night. He was holding a tiny bell in one massive hand, and as he steadily rang out, the impossibly loud and deep tones rang out across the town.

After another two minutes of ringing the bell, Thidwell finally stopped, much to Bob's relief. That noise was effective for getting people up and moving, but it also engendered a headache.

"Alright people, it's time!" Thidwell boomed out.

"We've got fifteen minutes until the wave hits," he bellowed, "so let's get moving - House Meer, House Crenshaw," Thidwell inclined his head in a short bow towards two large groups of people that Bob had never seen before.

"The Adventurers guild thanks you for your aid, as do I," Thidwell said, "Please proceed down to the twentieth level."

"Everyone else that is level ten or higher, head down to level ten," He said, his gravelly voice carrying over the crowd.

Bob watched as the two noble houses passed through the gatehouse that led to the Dungeon, followed by well over a hundred other Adventurers.

Thidwell called out again, "The rest of you, anyone level eight or higher, come up to the stand."

Bob watched as eight people detached themselves from the crowd and stood in front of Thidwell, who had them arrange themselves in a row in front of him, but facing the crowd.

"Level six or higher, step up!" Thidwell yelled and Bob walked up, noting nervously that there was only one other person joining him, a young woman who couldn't have been old enough to vote.

Bob could hear Thidwell quietly grumble to himself, although he couldn't make out what he was saying.

"Anyone under level five, step back to the edge of the plaza!" Thidwell said.

Bob turned and watched as roughly half the remaining crowd stepped back to the edge of the plaza, leaving a little over a hundred people standing in a now much more empty space.

"I want four groups," Thidwell boomed, "starting from my left to my right - The first group, ranged damage, second group, crowd control and utility, third group, melee damage/guardians, fourth group healers."

By Bob's count, there were about twenty each of the ranged, crowd control, and healing group, with the remaining forty being melee.

"Alright, I want one healer, one ranged, one crowd control, and two melees to step forward," Thidwell bellowed.

After a few seconds of hesitance, people stepped out of their groups as ordered.

"You're group one," Thidwell boomed, "move over to section leader one," he pointed towards the man on the far left of the row of level eight or higher people he'd had assemble in front of him.

Bob watched as groups were assembled, and assigned. It only took about five minutes and it ended with four section leaders having three groups, and four section leaders having two groups, the odd-numbered section leaders having the extra groups under them.

"Ok, section leaders one, three, five, and seven, you are responsible for the northern, eastern, southern, and western sections of the wall, respectively," Thidwell said loudly, "you're also responsible for overlap on the cross-sections."

"Section leaders two, four, six, and eight, you are taking the northeast, southeast, southwest, and northwest sections," he said.

The groups huddled around the appointed section leaders and conversed quietly, as they moved away from the podium.

"Those of you under level five!" He bellowed out, his voice easily carrying to the far edges of the plaza, "If you can heal, move to my far left! If you can fight move to my far right! If you have any sort of crowd control, left of center! If you don't fall into those categories and you want to help, right of center!"

Bob watched as the remaining people in the plaza broke into groups. These weren't Adventurers. Their ages spread from teenagers to retirees, and only a few wore any sort of armor or held a weapon.

There were thirteen healers, twenty-eight fighters, and only four with crowd control. The remaining forty-seven people all looked a trifle more nervous than the others, but none of them seemed inclined to leave the plaza.

Thidwell divided them up, four groups of three healers, guarded by six fighters, and one crowd controller. He assigned the remaining four fighters to the lone healer remaining, and then assigned five 'helpers' to each of the groups, save for the single healer who received seven. The remaining helpers were left to shift restlessly in a group.

"Alright, auxiliary healing groups one through four, you will station yourself fifty feet back from the wall at the non-cardinal sections, starting from the northeast and going clockwise," he yelled before addressing the group with the single healer, "I want you rotating counter-clockwise around the wall, help any of the auxiliary groups that need it."

He then addressed the remaining twenty helpers, who stood alone in the plaza save for Bob and the young woman who had stepped up with him.

"The rest of you are runners," Thidwell said, "Stay here, and if anyone comes back and reports they need something, you walk into that building," he pointed to the Adventurers Guild, "and you tell the man sitting at the table inside what you need, and if he tells you to take a message to a section, make all haste."

"The wave is rushing towards us," Thidwell shouted, his rough voice carrying.

"Monsters intent on destroying our homes and businesses, and killing the people we love!"

"But we are the levy on which the wave breaks!"

"We are the blocks of the wall, the bars across the doors!"

"When it's time to stand tall, we are the ones who answer the call!"

"As far as I'm concerned, everyone here tonight is an Adventurer!"

"Let's go prove, once again, why we deserve to be called Heroes!"

Thidwell thrust both his fists into the air, and the crowd in the plaza roared in response. He thrust a hand forward, and yelled, "To your sections Adventurers!"

The crowd surged out of the plaza, leaving only Thidwell, the young woman, and Bob.

The stone podium receded into the plaza's cobblestones, and Thidwell walked up to the remaining two.

"Lesli," Thidwell addressed the young woman first, "I'd like you in the sky - keep an eye out for anything bigger or stronger than the rest, and get word to the section it's going to hit."

The now named Lesli nodded and then lept into the air, her form flowing into that of a large hawk so quickly Bob hadn't been able to see how the change took place.

Thidwell watched her go and then turned to Bob.

"Glad to see you're willing to stand with us," said Thidwell, his voice rumbling.

Bob shrugged uncomfortably. He knew how much he owed the man. "With everything the Guild, and you personally, have done for me..." Bob shook his head and finished, "I'd probably be out here anyway, but make no mistake, I owe you." He took a deep breath and said, "And I'm a man who pays his debts."

Thidwell nodded and said, "You're out here, standing tall, and that is what matters," he clapped a hand on Bob's shoulder and pulled him to the right, facing the northeast wall.

"I've a hard task lined up for you tonight," Thidwell said, "The northeast is always the hardest hit in a wave, just the nature of how the mana flows and how much closer it is to the mountains."

"Before I came here, the Curator in charge had the foresight to place a watchtower to the northeast, outside of the walls by a few hundred feet," he said.

"It might not be within the range of your portal spell, but you can portal up at an angle, and then do so again before you fall to the ground and get back in range of the walls that way," Thidwell said, glancing away from Bob and towards a group of people streaming out of the Monastery on the far side of the plaza and heading towards the Dungeon.

Bob swallowed hard. Thidwell wanted him outside the walls during the wave?

He closed his eyes and steadied his breathing as he heard Thidwell call out to someone.

Portal up, and then put a portal under his feet. He could do that. Not for long, he didn't have the mana, but if the tower was two hundred feet from the wall then three portals would get him there without leaving him on the ground and vulnerable to the wave, or so basic geometry suggested.

He took a deep breath, and then released it. If Thidwell wanted to kill him, he simply would have done so already. The man had a reason for what he was doing, although Bob couldn't see it.

He opened his eyes to find Austan approaching them.

"Thidwell, Bob," Austan said in greeting.

"We're ready to hold the plaza," Austan said.

"Good," Thidwell rumbled, "the wave is due in five minutes or so - I'm going to head down to level thirty and start cleaning things up - I doubt much will come out of the Dungeon, but please convey my thanks to the Church for standing surety at the entrance."

Austan smiled and shook his head before offering his hand, "In this, we stand as one my friend," he said in a tone of voice that spoke of a fondness and familiarity that Bob hadn't heard anyone except Kelli use with Thidwell.

Thidwell shook Austan's hand before saying, "I'm sending Bob to hold the Northeast watchtower. Would you like to give him your blessing?"

Austan gave Thidwell a sidelong look before turning to face Bob.

Austan reached out and pressed his hand to Bob's chest and intoned, "May the light of Vi'Radia illuminate your path that you do not lose your way."

Bob felt something flow from Austan's hand and into his chest. It felt almost like mana moving through him, only... slightly different.

And then, suddenly, he could see. Whereas the plaza had been a mess of shadows before, he could now see as clearly as if it was noon on a cloudless day.

Austan dropped his hand and said, "You'll be able to see even in the deepest gloom until sunrise," then he turned and headed towards the Dungeon.

"Thank you," Bob said, to which Austan turned and flashed him a grin before continuing on.

"That'll help I'm sure," Thidwell said and then pointed to the northeast, "head out, they are coming, and you don't want to clear them from the tower, trust me," he said as he turned and headed for the Dungeon himself.

Bob swallowed, his throat suddenly tight.

Harv had said they wouldn't be very high level, between two and five. He was shredding the seventh level of the Dungeon.

He took a deep breath and started jogging down the northeast boulevard.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bob started casting portal five seconds later. Ten seconds after that, he was on top of the wall in the Northeast section, standing a few feet away from group two. He looked over the wall and saw the watchtower.

He turned to face the section leader who was walking over to him.

"Thidwell wants me to man the watchtower out there," Bob said, doing his best to keep his voice level and confident.

"If things get too hot, I might be portaling back here, so just be aware," Bob said as he looked towards the tower and plotted his portal points, thereby missing the look of surprise on the section leaders face.

Bob cast a portal at his feet and dropped out of sight, appearing eighty-five feet away and twenty feet above the height of the wall. He then fell thirty feet as he cursed and cast another portal under his feet, appearing eighty feet away, and thirty feet above his previous position. One more repetition was enough to see him standing atop the watchtower.

Upon closer inspection, the 'watchtower', was a solid plug of granite, with an overhanging border of crenelations and holes drilled, or probably created by magic, down to allow defenders to shoot arrows or spells or pour burning oil, etc down onto anything at the base of the tower.

Bob had never had any military experience outside of reading history books, but even he could see the tactical advantage of the position.

He turned to face the northeast and leaned on the crenelation.

'Just low-level monsters', he told himself. 'Jake will tear through them, and you can always portal back to the walls.'

He suddenly stiffened as he saw something move in the woods at the edge of the farmland a mile or so away. He couldn't make anything out, but something had moved.

He blinked and squinted his eyes, trying to see into the distance.

His eyes widened.

"So that's why they call it a wave," he muttered as he realized the movement he'd thought he'd seen was a veritable ocean of monsters carpeting the earth as they surged down out of the treeline.

He took a deep breath and tried to judge how quickly they'd arrive.

He had another minute maybe a bit more.

He went back over the math in his head. Two four second Jake's and then a three second Jake was the best he could do in terms of sustainability.

"Fucking matrix," he cursed as he gripped his staff tightly, and watched the ocean of monsters roll towards him.

As the wave neared his watchtower, he summoned his first UtahRaptor and mentally ordered it to attack the wave, then started to summon another.