"WAAAAAAAH!"
The sound of a baby crying enveloped the stone walls of the medical room.
The mother was lying on the bed, visibly tired.
"Let me see her," she said meekly.
The doctor holding the baby gave her to her mother.
The woman held the baby in her arms and went to sleep, only to never open her eyes again.
16 Year Timeskip
That baby was me, 16 years ago.
My name is Nike and I have been living a good life.
When I was young, I was treated nicely, but that is probably thanks to my dad.
He is the current leader of our town
However, he is known as a tyrant and only does what benefits him and his family.
To me though, he is the best dad one can ask for.
Another reason I was treated well was because I help out around the town.
I help to do more physical things which can range from bringing an object to someone else or helping build whatever is needed.
I do this for a few reasons. The main one is to train my body.
When I was born, I had zero affinity for magic. I later found this out when my dad tried to teach me it.
However, when he trained me in the sword, he saw a massive amount of talent there so he made me focus on that.
So, in order to both train my body and help try and raise my families status from being tyrants, I started to help out around our village.
My father had instilled a massive amount of knowledge into me about the weak points of many different monsters and how to fight beings bigger than me.
He also taught me about the current happenings of the world.
Apparently, a demon lord has appeared.
They are beings that control the minds of monsters and bring them into a sort of hivemind.
Due to this, many different types of monsters band together in their attempts to run from its control.
When they do this, we call them waves; and according to dad, we live in an area that they happen often in, both in high numbers and massive strength.
We have been super lucky one hasn't happened yet, but that just makes the worries about it higher.
That's why dad was sent to this village as a way to protect it due to its importance in both trading and interactions with other nations.
The forest the village was made is is known to be super dangerous to even seasoned mercenaries.
The village was made to help both convoys and traveling mercenaries have rest on their travels through the forest. That's why everyone that lives here is someone who has put their name in history in many different areas.
Everyone is great in their own rights, but there is a reason dad is the chief even though there are so many strong people here.
He was acknowledged by many of the kingdoms in this world as a person who is strong in both swordsmanship and magic.
After Nike was done with her thoughts, she looked down at the sword in her hands which she had been polishing all this while.
"I think it's getting a bit dull..." She muttered to herself.
"Hey, dad!" She then yelled out.
"Yeah?" A voice responded in the same exact tone.
"Im gonna go down to the smithy to sharpen my blade!"
Her father then walks through the door to their training room and looks at her.
"You know you can sharpen it here." He says in a hurt tone.
"I know. I just like it there. Don't know why."
"Oh how I remember when you were so excited to watch me sharpen it to continue practicing. Now look at you, not even wanting to do it here anymore!" He exclaims in a reminiscing tone.
She just sighs at his response.
"You said you would respect my choices, and here you are trying to guilt me into staying here with you. I even told you my real reason to go there and yet you still try to stop me."
He then nods.
"To think my daughter would even want to learn how to use a smithy! You know what? Fine. You can go. As long as my daughter is happy."
She then gets up and says, "Well, ill be going then. See you soon."
He then waved her off as she left.
When she was out of view, he had a little pout on his face.
"Stupid Smith and getting her hooked on learning it. She wont spend as much time as she did with me." He mutters playfully.
After she left her house, she was greeted by many familiar faces and some new.
She soon saw a carriage pass her that was adorned with many jewels heading towards her house.
'Probably some kingdom trying to bribe him to join their ranks.'
She rolled her eyes quickly and continued on her path to see a familiar stone building.
It had a sign hanging above the door with the name of "The Smiths Shop" on it.
She quickly opened the door and saw a counter which she instantly went behind to find the owner.
She only knew him as Smith as that's what everyone called him and she had no problems with that.
"Hello Smith! I'm here for some more lessons!"
A man who was hammering a sword turned around and looked at her with a smile.
"Hello, Nike! Nice to see you again! Is suppose you are here to also sharpen your sword?"
She nodded.
He stood in thought for a second.
"You know what? How about you do it? I am sure you are able to, but I don't think you have used one from a true workshop. How about it?"
She quickly nodded and started to walk forward but was instantly stopped.
She looked up to him and saw that he had a really stern look on his face.
"What's wrong?" She asked.
"The signal for a wave appearing has been done. Quickly, help me gather the weapons on my walls and pass them out. Afterwards go back to your home as fast as possible."
She nodded and would carry out his orders easily.
She practically ran to the counter area and started to grab as many swords as she could.
She then walked out and saw a horde of people surround her, to which she would hand swords out to those in need of one, or if they need something better than what they currently have.
After finishing that, she made it back to her house as fast as she could.
You see, she has no arguments against not participating in this battle.
This is one where even her father would struggle, so how would she be able to help?
As much as she hates to admit it, she would only be dead weight in this battle, especially due to her being used to one vs ones with monsters and had no experience with hordes.
The moment she made it home, she started to sharpen her sword to pass the time and all she could do was hope everyone would be fine, though she knew that wouldn't be true.
'Shit!' Damien thought to himself.
'I was watching Nike walk to the blacksmith and then saw a carriage arrive. When they arrived, they had obvious fear in them and had trouble speaking. Due to that, I brought them in to help them calm down. After a few minutes, they finally told me that they saw a wave on its way.'
He then looked down from the wall he stood on to see everyone at the ready for battle.
"MEN!" He shouted to get everyone's attention.
"I KNOW I AM NOT THE MOST TRUSTWORTHY OF PEOPLE FOR THIS, BUT I ASK YOU ALL TO LEND YOUR STRENGTH FOR OUR BATTLE! I AM NOT GOING TO PROMISE THAT WE WILL ALL SURVIVE, BUT I WILL PROMISE THAT ANYONE WHO DIES OUT IN THE BATTLEFIELD WILL HAVE FAIR COMPENSATION. THAT IS THE LEAST I CAN DO FOR YOU ALL."
He then looked over all the people in his ranks and started to divide them.
"NOW, ONTO HOW WE WILL DEFEND OUR HOME. FIRST OF ALL, I WANT AT LEAST SIX PEOPLE, TWO ON EACH WALL, TO DEFEND AGAINST ANY STRAGGLERS FROM THE MAIN HORDE! IF YOU ALL COME INTO TROUBLE, YOU KNOW THE SIGNALS! FOR EVERYONE ELSE, MAGES, COME UP HERE! IT IS THE BEST VANTAGE POINT, SWORDSMEN, WE WILL GO INTO THE FRONTLINES AND FIGHT THE HORDE HEAD ON!"
As soon as he gave out orders, the people started to do what was needed.
The Swordsmen started to rush out and take a semi defensive formation, while the mages rush up the walls and start to prepare their spells for the initial barrage.
As they were doing this, they delt the ground start to rumble which made them quicken they set ups.
Very soon after, multiple goblins appeared, then lizardmen, orcs, ogres, and many more started to flood out the trees.
Once enough left the forest, he yelled, "MAGES!"
As soon as they heard that, flashes of red, green, blue flew out of their hands, and the earth around the monsters began to change.
Thousands of monsters were killed in the volley, but it didn't seem to slow it down a bit.
After many more volleys, the horde made it to the swordsmen who took out many that got close.
Sadly however, the swordsmen slowly were being overwhelmed as they had to fight against ten monsters at once.
In a exponential decline, even with the mages help, the frontline began to heavily fall and the towns destruction was in sight.
Soon, Damien was the only one holding the line.
After a quick moment of respite, he looked around only to see the mages collapsing from exhaustion and the mass of bodies of the other swordsmen.
Knowing he was only running on adrenaline, he rushed back into the village to try and make sure at least Nike can escape alive.
When the monsters saw him run, they rushed after him to finish him off.
He was somehow able to loose them in the streets of the village while giving prayers to the mages as he heard their screams of despair.
He soon made it to their house and saw his daughter praying.
"We need to leave, NOW!"
She quickly looked at him and her eyes widened.
She didn't say anything however and started to follow him.
When she saw him, she didn't know what to say.
The strongest person she had known was now standing in front of her obviously running on fumes and nearing the point of collapse.
His body was covered with so much blood that it looked like a demon had appeared with their blood red skin free for all to see.
After collecting her thoughts, she decided that not talking about his current state was the best thing to do.
His eyes then instantly widened at that time.
"Shit..." he muttered.
"What is it?" she asked.
"Each side of the wall has a mana signal of a bigger force than thought had arrived... I was too focused on my own fight to notice..." he said to no one in particular.
He then quickly looked over to her.
"You need to get out of here by yourself! I can get everything's attention onto me which will let you sneak out." he says, trying to leave no room for argument.
"No!" she says aloud and grabs his hand to keep him from leaving.
Now the tears she had been holding back this entire time started to come out.
"There has to be a way we can both leave!"
He only gave her a sad smile.
"Look at me, it's obvious that I will die once my adrenaline dies down. I have lost too much blood and used too much mana. I wanna die fighting, especially if it can give you a chance to leave."
He then gave her a pendant.
"Once you escape, take this to the Ragnar kingdom. This is something that shows status so the guards will take you straight to the king. Once there tell them what happened and who you are and they will provide you lodging. You get all that?"
She nodded slowly, her tears starting to flow more intensely.
His smile turned into a comforting one, pat her on the head, and then left the house.
She watched as he left, and a few seconds later, a loud roar could be heard throughout the area, bringing all the monsters attention to that area.
With that, she starts to go out the backdoor and begins to move to a secret entrance to the village.
She sneaks through the village, noticing many monsters hiding in the shadows and either avoiding them or sneakily killing them.
She then saw the entrance the residents made years before in case something like this happens and goes through it.
Sadly for her, she makes way more noise than needed and that attracts a mass of monsters to he location.
When she exits the hole and starts to run, the wall is bust open by an Ogre and the monsters start to chase after her.
As she runs, she gains a burst of speed she never expected her to be able to have and quickly went into the forest in a hope to loose the monsters.
However, the moment she enters the forest, she trips on an exposed root and once she gets back up, she comes face to face with the initial horde of faster but weaker monsters.
She quickly readies her sword and strikes at a goblin coming her way, the swords sharpness cutting right through it.
She is then instantly assaulted by three lizardmen with weapons and multiple goblins going for her back.
A lizardman with a sword instantly struck at her, causing her to clash swords with it, letting the other two get easy hits on her.
The second one with a dagger stabbed her in the side, and the third one with a sword chopping of the arm holding her sword.
With the two sources of pain, and her lack of a pain tolerance, her body instantly shut down, making her faint.
However, before the monsters could do anything else, her body disappeared.