War, in this moment, had truly entered its most brutal stage—a meat-grinder of flesh and bone. Beneath the walls of Kagurem, countless lives were being reduced to cold, hollow statistics.

  Karl / Archer / Northwestern Ramparts

  Eighteen-year-old Karl, a recruit of the Iron Guard, gripped his longbow so tightly his knuckles turned white. He leaned his back against the freezing stone battlement, lost in a trance. He no longer knew how many arrows he had loosed.

  Draw, notch, aim, fire.

  His movements had become a mechanical instinct. The muscles in his arms were numbed by a searing ache, and his fingertips were raw, the bowstring having rubbed the skin away to leave trailings of blood. He felt none of it.

  In his vision, there was only that endless, undulating sea of darkness below. From this height, the monsters looked like a carpet of ants so dense it made his scalp crawl. Every arrow he fired seemed to find a mark, yet every arrow seemed... utterly meaningless. For every one he killed, ten more immediately surged forward to fill the void.

  "ARROWS!" he roared at the supplier behind him, his voice already raspy and broken.

  A new bundle of shafts was thrust into his hand. He began the monotonous, deadly cycle once more.

  He didn't dare think of his mother at home. He didn't dare think of the girl at the bakery who always smiled at him. He only knew one thing: if he stopped, that black ocean would swallow everything behind him.

  Helga / Mage / Northwestern Ramparts

  "Third wave! Prepare to chant!" the commander of the mage unit bellowed.

  Helga took a deep breath, tossed her backup shortbow to a nearby assistant, and snatched a vial of blue mana potion from a supplier. She downed it in one go. The liquid tasted of acrid metal, making her stomach churn, but she felt the parched mana veins in her body slowly begin to replenish.

  She watched her comrades ahead. They were deathly pale, foreheads drenched in sweat, every swing of their staves accompanied by ragged gasps. At their feet lay dozens of empty blue vials.

  "Helga! Our turn!" the commander barked.

  Helga stepped forward, replacing a comrade who had nearly collapsed from mana exhaustion. She raised her runic staff high and began to intone an ancient dwarven incantation.

  "In the name of the Mountain and the Forge..."

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  She could feel the mana elements in the air swirling toward her. But she also felt another force—a cold, malicious dark mana emanating from the Lich at the rear of the enemy army, clawing at their spells and interfering with their focus.

  "...Bring down the THUNDER!"

  A bolt of chain lightning erupted from the tip of her staff, exploding in the middle of the enemy ranks and instantly charring several Hobgoblins to cinders. But she paid the price—a sudden tightness in her chest as a metallic tang of blood rose in her throat.

  Bror / Iron Guard Regular / Outside the Walls

  "HOLD THE LINE—!!"

  Bror put every ounce of his strength into the shield braced before him. He could feel the heavy slab of forged steel, engraved with his family crest, groaning under the relentless impact of the monsters.

  He couldn't hear the commander’s orders on the wall, nor the whistle of arrows. In his ears, there was only the deafening roar of the beasts, the screeching of claws against the energy barrier, and the heavy, ragged breathing of his brothers-in-arms.

  Squelch!

  The spearman beside him thrust his long weapon through a gap in the shields once more, then yanked it back. Hot, foul-smelling green blood sprayed across Bror’s face.

  He didn't care.

  He stared through the barrier at the snarling face of a gnoll just inches away. The beast clawed frantically at the gold energy, snapping its jaws, its eyes filled with pure, unadulterated malice.

  Bror let out a guttural roar and slammed the edge of his shield forward. Even through the barrier, the sheer force caused the gnoll’s skull to cave in with a sickening crunch.

  He didn't know how long this would last. He only knew that behind him stood the gates of Kagurem. As long as he stood, this wall of sixteen thousand dwarves would not retreat a single step.

  "Twin-Blade Heart" / Rank C Elite Adventurers / Main Gate Assembly Area

  Inside the main gate, the atmosphere was so thick with tension it was nearly suffocating.

  The five members of the Rank C elite squad, "Twin-Blade Heart," leaned against the cold stone walls, making their final preparations.

  Grom, the squad’s dwarven shield-warrior, was mechanically rubbing a whetstone against the edge of his massive shield. The harsh, grating sound seemed to grind his own anxiety into the steel. Nearby, Pip, the young human rogue, nervously double-checked his daggers and tools, his face pale as he tried to hide his trembling fingers with constant movement. On their other side, Lina, the squad's healer, sat with her eyes closed, silently reciting prayers for divine protection.

  Their captain, the hot-headed human huntress Sarah, paced back and forth, her grip on her longbow creaking with frustration.

  "Dammit," she finally hissed, a low curse escaping her lips. "The boys out there are trading their lives for time, and here we are, locked up like dogs in a cage, smelling the blood!"

  Her partner, the soft-spoken human ranger Roric, knelt on one unintended knee, replenishing her quiver with specialized armor-piercing arrows. He didn't speak; he simply reached out and gently took her hand, whose knuckles were white from gripping her bow. The calm radiating from his palm slowly settled Sarah’s agitation.

  She took a sharp breath and roughly grabbed Roric by his collar. Her tone was fierce, but deep within her fiery eyes was a worry and love she couldn't hide.

  "Roric, promise me. When we charge out there, you are not allowed to be more than ten paces away from me! Your head is always full of missions and traps—if I’m not watching you, you’ll end up dead in some corner without even knowing it!"

  Roric looked up at her. He didn't argue. He simply reached out and tucked a stray strand of her red hair behind her ear, then spoke in a voice only she could hear—a voice full of quiet tenderness.

  "I promise. I will always stay where you can see me."

  "War is never about one hero; it's about the thousand small whispers of those standing on the line. In this chapter, we step away from Yggdrasil and Balin for a moment to see the sheer toll this siege is taking on the people of Kagurem.

  From the exhausted recruit Karl to the mana-parched Helga, the defense is holding—but for how long? I also wanted to introduce the crew of 'Twin-Blade Heart.' Sarah and Roric’s bond mirrors the stakes our main duo faces. Everyone has someone they want to return to.

  The gate is about to open. The 'War Hammer' is ready to strike. If you're moved by the courage of these dwarves (and humans!), please Follow and Rate to support the story! See you in the next chapter!"

  new update schedule: one chapter every 2 days.