Noara watched as Nando fought the dogs that were still pouring into the killing zone.
The lane had ceased functioning, as every single trap had already been triggered or covered. There was no 'tower defense' anymore.
From her position on the barricade, she could see ten dogs. The last ten.
Ten against one.
Velvet Snare.
This time, she didn't aim at a single dog but at the whole pack.
"Nando! Head back while I'm holding them! NOW!"
The MP won't be enough…
On the ground, Nando saw the opening, turned tail, and ran.
But the dogs weren't completely paralyzed. They were just slightly numbed, as Noara had stretched her skill's application on all of them. It made them a bit slower than before, but they still chased.
She felt her vision tunneling as her mana hit rock bottom.
One of the people at her side, a boy about seventeen years old, jumped down, carrying an axe.
"They are the last ones! Let's charge instead!"
He screamed, darting forward.
"No! Come back! FUCK!"
The last word escaped Noara's lips as she felt her MP nearing zero and the control over her skill wavering.
The last thing she saw before passing out was the boy being torn apart by three different dogs.
***
The silence fell heavily on the barricade, following the thump of Noara's body collapsing, drained of mana.
They had lost their command, their frontliner, and a friend. And the strongest of them was still fighting down there, keeping the monsters at bay.
The sight of him tearing the throat of a dog apart did nothing to improve their mood. He was still fighting six dogs alone, as the other three were busy feasting. It was a miracle he was still alive.
"Hey, hey! You'll really let our companions die like that? Take spears with me! The ones with axes, behind!"
Clara snapped them back with her shouting, holding Lu's spear high, like a relic.
"We can do it if we do it together!!! COME!!!"
She was screaming, trying to shake them off their defeatism.
It took a few seconds, but one of the people with a spear in hand rallied to her side. Soon, the other three joined. Then the axe wielders.
"Okay, we form a line of five! The spears in front, we pin the dogs in place so the axes finish the job!"
Somehow, the line moved without breaking, even though the hands were trembling.
It was one thing to fight dogs from the safety of the barricade. It was another altogether to challenge them face-to-face.
"Nando! Stay at the center! Don't try to step to the side, or they will flank us! Retreat between the spears! Daniel, steady those hands, or you'll hit Nando instead!"
"I'm sorry, Clara!"
"Understood!"
Nando saw them approaching and moved to a chokepoint in the lane that Davi had devised.
"I'm holding them in the lane! Pin them like porcupines!"
Davi's shout cut through the chaos of barks and blood, strengthening their sense of unity.
Then, the contact came.
The moment Nando saw the points of the 'spears' at his side, he walked backwards, without looking, trusting that the passage would be there.
Clara was shouting and thrusting her spear at the biggest of the pack.
"Don't just stay still! Move those spears!!! Hit their faces as strong as you can, but hold the line! Don't let them inside the range of the spears!"
Despite her orientation, soon one of the dogs skipped through, bypassing the point of the spear and getting a free lane into the spear line.
But before it could bite anyone, someone from behind stepped in and hit its face with an axe. A clean kill.
"Good one, Nando! How are you even still fighting? Go back to the barricades!"
"No, Clara. I stay here until the end. These are the stragglers."
There were still three dogs, barking at the spears, trying to bite them. The other three had retreated into the darkness after sating their hunger.
"Advance! Pin those guys in place with your spears! Axes, finish them! NOW!!!"
The lines advanced as one, as if they had rehearsed the movement.
Soon, a system message appeared in the vision of everyone from the camp that was awake.
[ SURVIVAL EVENT RESOLVED ]
Perimeter Breach Attempt repelled.
Hostile fauna routed.
+50 XP
"Fuck. We did it."
***
"The only silver lining is that every carnivorous and hungry animal of the surrounding area is in that pile of dead bodies. So we don't need to bury them right now. You all can rest for tonight. When dawn breaks, we take care of it."
Everyone was gathered together at the center of the camp. Even Lu and Noara, who had just woken up from her manaless stupor, were present.
"We lost one of us. Caetano's death won't be forgotten. But we don't have the luxury of mourning. We need to keep going so others don't follow him into the grave."
Caetano, the teenager who ran to death with an axe in hand, wasn't an acquaintance of any of the present before the apocalypse. But the two days of survival had knitted a sense of unity and belonging that wasn't comparable to anything they had experienced before.
To them, Caetano was a dear friend.
"I know what you all are thinking. 'It was my fault. If I had just…' Isn't that it? Well, you are wrong. Every single one of you here would have avoided his death if it was something possible to do. So forget those thoughts. Especially you, Noara. I know that little brain of yours better than you think."
Noara stiffened, being called out, her head still throbbing from the mana exhaustion..
"But it's true that I was too weak… If I just had managed to hold the skill a bit longer."
"You said the right words with the wrong feeling, Noara. If you were strong enough. That means that you didn't have the strength to do it. It had nothing to do with something you could have done. What you can do right now is to strengthen yourself so it doesn't happen again."
Noara closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She knew that Julia was right. She needed to get stronger.