There was a dead silence on the city walls, and the soldiers clenched their weapons in their hands, restlessly waiting for the battle to come. The dark tide is getting closer, and by the not-so-bright moonlight, Stan can already see the hideous faces of the ghouls in the front row. The soldiers apparently saw it too, and there was a faint sound of prayer from the crowd, they had never seen ghost ghouls with their own eyes, these monsters only existed in their rumors.

"Archers ready!" Gunther's loud voice sounded, hundreds of archers within the city walls filled their crossbows, the bowstrings made a tense sound, most of them were not full-time archers, but in the case of insufficient troops, they could only temporarily recharge, when the enemy approached, they would put down their bows and arrows and raise their swords at their waists.

"Release!" Guntel commanded, and hundreds of bows and arrows came out of their strings, and the bows and arrows cut through graceful arcs, reaching the highest point, and began to fall, falling like a shower into the dark tide. The ghouls let out a terrible roar and fell one by one, but immediately got back to their feet and began to move forward again. Bows and arrows continue to fly into the formation, and only the ghouls who are shattered by a few shots will be truly eliminated, while the other ghouls who are shot in certain parts will at best move slowly.

The ghouls drew closer, the soldiers on the walls breathed more and more, and fear crept over them. Stan was much more calm, a ghoul of this size was nothing to him, and he feared that it was another dark tide, the Demon. So far, he hasn't felt palpitations or restricted movement, so the demons must not have appeared yet, but he knows that these ghouls will not attack on their own, and they must have the demons in command.

The ghouls have reached the bottom of the city walls and begin to climb up the rudimentary wooden ladder, and Stan realizes why the Dark Tide is taking more time in the rainforest than he expected, and it turns out that they have come prepared, cutting wood in the rainforest to make siege tools, these monsters are more intelligent than Stan knows about the dark tide.

The soldiers were so afraid that no one even dared to push the ladders. "Nerfi!" Stan yells, and the first one runs and pushes a ladder away from the wall, the ghouls on the ladder scream and fall off the ladder, but the ghouls who follow him pick it up and scramble to climb up.

Nerfi stood up, raised his wand in his hand, and quickly recited the incantation, a bright golden light shot into the air, and then burst into a dazzling golden bolt that shot at the ghouls beneath the walls. The lethality of light magic to ghouls is unmatched, and the arrows of light wail everywhere they go, and any ghouls that are touched will fall to the ground on the spot and never get up again, and will be reduced to ashes after a few seconds. The light in the air slowly sank and grew in size, until it became a web of light covering the city walls, and the soldiers on the walls were shrouded in a faint golden light, and their hearts were suddenly filled with courage again, and their fears were suppressed, although they still existed, they could no longer affect their actions.

The golden glow vanished, and Nerfi's body shook and sat back in her chair, the magic draining a lot of her mental energy. But there's no doubt that her light magic has changed the tide of battle. The soldiers mustered up their courage and pushed the ladders away from the walls, and the archers in the city also climbed the walls, pouring their bows and arrows at the ghouls on the ladders, slowing the ghouls' attack for a while.

But the ghouls did not know the pain, and the bow and arrow had little effect, and the ghouls under the city walls also saw the opportunity to shoot arrows at the soldiers who pushed the ladders on the city walls, and many soldiers were shot by the bows and arrows as soon as they pushed the ladders up, and fell from the walls with screams. Seeing that the ghouls on one of the ladders were almost at the top of the city wall, several ghouls climbed on the same ladder, making the wooden ladder so heavy that several soldiers could not push it away with all their strength.

A draugr emerges from the ladder, and the soldiers are so frightened that they take a few steps back, Stan rushes over and kicks the ghoul down, then slices the latter in half with a sword. "Push the ladder down!" Stan shouted, pushing the ladder up with all his strength, and the soldiers who had recovered from their senses rushed forward again, pushing the ladder down with their combined efforts, and the ghouls on the ladder fell like monkeys in a tree.

But more and more ghouls climbed the city walls, and Guntel led the soldiers to fight back, and for a time the shouts of killing shook the sky, and the two sides scuffled together.

Stan weaves around the city walls and easily kills the ghouls who slipped through the net, ordinary ghouls are no longer a threat to him, what he fears has not yet appeared, and he waits for that moment.

When Stan impaled a ghoul again and knocked him off the wall with his strong shoulders, a strange sensation flashed through him, and a motley of shouts rang out from the other end of the wall, dozens of yards away from him. "It's coming!" Stan said silently, and then took a step towards it, and Nerfi noticed something strange almost at the same time, and the mage, who had been sitting since the light magic, also stood up and quickly followed Stan.

Stan is confronted with the bewildered soldiers, who are shaking, but not making any meaningful movements, and screams are heard from the crowd. "Get out of the way!" Stan yelled, charging towards the crowd, but no one could move his feet to make way for Stan, and the knight had to use his strong body to knock out a way, and at the other end of the crowd stood a monster with a mantle and empty eyes.

"It's finally here......" Stan held his sword in both hands, adjusting his breathing, he was surprised to find that the demon had a much smaller impact on him than before, after so many battles, his resistance to the demon's special abilities was getting higher and higher, and of course he clearly understood that there was also the effect of Nerfi's previous light magic.

A familiar voice rings in Stan's head. "Follow my arrow of light!" Stan knew whose voice it was, and then a golden light flashed from behind him, and flew forward quickly, and without hesitation, Stan leaped forward with all his might, pounced on the demon.

The demon didn't dare to catch the arrow of light, so he jumped to the left to avoid the magic, but before he could get to his feet, Stan was already in front of him. The knight swung a sword, and the unbalanced demon hurriedly raised his sword to resist, only to be knocked out by Stan's immense force. Stan didn't give his enemy a chance to breathe, and pressed it down again, slashing his sword through the body of the demon that was still in the air, and the hoarse wail of the demon was terrifying, and half of his body was slashed by Stan's obsidian sword, leaving only half of his body and right hand barely holding the broadsword.

"You go up this time, let's deal with him!" Nerfi's voice was again, and Stan leaped forward again, leaving only one hand to take Stan's blow with all his might, and could only symbolically push the sword away while continuing to retreat. Stan's offensive did not slow down, and the obsidian sword roared like a wind to force the demon all the way back, and seeing that the demon was already at the end of the wall, he had no way to retreat.

The arrow of light shoots at the ground in front of the demon, and the demon jumps to the side to dodge, and Stan sees the moment to swing a sword in the same direction, which the demon barely resists, but the façade is wide open. Stan certainly doesn't miss this opportunity, kicking the demon out of the wall, and the demon flies out of the wall, and in an instant, an arrow of light hits the demon in mid-air as Stan expected. The arrow of light pierced through the demon's body and flew backwards, smashing several more ghouls on the ground, reducing the demon to ashes in the air, leaving no trace.

The surrounding soldiers erupted in waves of cheers as they witnessed Stan and Nerfi defeat the demons, and their fears were swept away, and their hearts were filled with courage. Led by Gunther, the Thun began a counterattack, and the ghouls on the city walls were all wiped out, the city gates were opened, and the only hundred or so cavalry in the city charged, and the ghouls gathered at the city gates were scattered like leaves blown by the north wind under the onslaught of the cavalry. The ghouls who had lost their command of the demon lost their fighting spirit and began to rout, and it was not long before most of them were wiped out, and a small number fled the way they came, disappearing.

The soldiers cheered on the ramparts, this was their first battle against the Dark Tide, and with the help of Stan and Nerfi, they managed to repel the Dark Tide and hold Thun, which they could not have imagined before the battle. Although the battle was won, Stan knew that this was just the beginning, that they were only fighting off the Pathfinders of the Dark Tide, not even the official strikers, and that the real challenge was yet to come.

The sun rises again, and Stan takes the time to take a nap before arriving at the meeting room, where Guntel tells him about the losses in the battle, and that Thun originally had an army of about 1,200 men, and after this battle there were still more than 800 left, and the losses were not too heavy, but it was still a little too big for Thun, who was already overstretched.

Gunther paced back and forth with a furrowed brow. "In addition to the remaining more than 800 people in the city, there are hundreds of people in other towns in the territory, if they are transferred over, they may be able to resist for a while, but those towns are empty. ”

Stan rubs his sore arm. "The army of the Dark Tide is coming, and even the whole army of Thun has no chance of winning here, and now we can only hope that the reinforcements of Dorne and Gaiman will arrive soon. ”

Everyone was silent, no one spoke, and just then, the scout burst into the parlor to break the silence, and the news he brought sent the hearts of everyone present to the bottom again, and the enemy, several times larger than the previous wave, was dozens of miles away, and was marching towards Thun without stopping.

"Stan, Nerfi......" Gunther thought for a moment and said to the two of them, "you come with me, there are things I have to tell you. ”