The first roar was still echoing among the trees when the entire settlement began to transform. The people who only seconds earlier had been watching Lilith with distrust abandoned the streets and rushed toward positions they seemed to have practiced taking dozens of times.
Merchants closed their stalls, several families entered the strongest buildings, and groups of armed men and women climbed onto the wall platforms. The magical symbols carved into the enormous logs began to light up one after another with a yellowish glow.
Lilith remained still for a few seconds, watching the organization, before Evelyn passed beside her with her sword drawn. "Are you planning to just stand there and watch?" Lilith reacted and placed a hand on her own weapon. "I was admiring the efficiency." Claire appeared from the other side while tying her hair back more securely. "You can admire it while running." Evelyn was already heading toward the eastern wall.
"For once, I agree with her." Lilith sighed and followed them. They were definitely starting to get along.
Mara was standing on the main platform giving orders when they arrived. From that height, Lilith could see a wide stretch of forest and immediately understood why everyone was worried.
The treetops were moving in different places as if something enormous were advancing beneath them. It was not a single creature. There were many. Evelyn approached one of the archers and took a longbow that the man handed her without needing to say anything.
Lilith raised an eyebrow. "I thought you preferred the sword." Evelyn quickly checked the string before nocking an arrow. "I prefer not letting them get close enough for me to need the sword." Claire smiled slightly as she drew her weapon. "I'm starting to like her." Evelyn raised the bow. "I thought you already liked me." Claire opened her mouth, but a tree fell in the distance and both of them immediately stopped joking.
The first creature appeared seconds later. It was roughly the size of a horse, with six legs covered in dark plates and an elongated head topped by two small horns. It ran between the trees at surprising speed, and Lilith expected it to turn toward the walls. It did not. It passed in front of the settlement and continued directly south. Another creature appeared behind it. Then a third.
The archers remained tense, but Mara raised a hand, ordering them not to fire. "Let them pass." For almost a minute, they watched animals of different species cross the forest without showing the slightest interest in them. Some looked like predators. Others were clearly prey. None attacked. Lilith frowned. "This doesn't look like a normal stampede." Evelyn kept an arrow ready. "Because it isn't."
Then a creature appeared that could not easily go around the settlement. A heavy animal covered in thick bone plates emerged from between the trees and found a section of the outer defenses directly in front of it.
The inhabitants began striking metal plates and lit several magical torches, trying to force it to change direction. For a few seconds, it worked. The creature slowed down and turned east, but other animals appeared behind it and blocked its escape.
Trapped between the crowd and the walls, it roared and charged. "Now!" Mara shouted. A rain of arrows descended from the platforms. Some bounced off the plates, but others found the joints. Evelyn fired almost at the same time, and her arrow passed precisely through the gap between the neck and one of the plates.
The creature lost its balance for a moment. Claire looked at the distance to the ground. "Nice shot." Evelyn was already preparing another arrow. "It's not dead yet."
Lilith extended one hand. She immediately felt the blood responding inside her body, and a small crimson sphere appeared above her fingertips. During the attack on the Eternal Bastion, she would have tried to form an enormous spear. Now she knew that would be a waste. She compressed the blood until it became a needle barely longer than a finger and waited for the creature to raise its head.
Evelyn fired again. The arrow struck near the eye and caused the animal to turn. Lilith took advantage of the movement. The red needle crossed the space between them and disappeared into the exposed eye. The creature took two more steps before collapsing in front of the wall. Lilith closed her hand and checked how she felt. She had barely used any energy. Much better.
They had no time to celebrate. New movements shook the forest, and this time several creatures crashed into the outer defenses almost simultaneously. Some tried to retreat as soon as they encountered resistance. Others, trapped by the animals arriving behind them, attacked desperately.
Claire descended a ladder toward a lower platform when a creature resembling an enormous feline managed to leap over the stakes. Evelyn exchanged her bow for her sword and followed. Lilith went down behind them just as the animal reached the platform.
Claire met the first attack with her sword and deflected a claw that could have torn her head off. Evelyn did not rush in immediately. She waited until the creature focused its attention on Claire, slipped to one side, and made two quick cuts behind one of its legs.
Lilith immediately understood how Evelyn fought.
She did not have the physical strength of a vampire or Claire's refined technique. She fought like someone who had spent her entire life facing creatures stronger than herself.
She wasted no movement, attacked joints, and used absolutely everything she could find around her.
When the monster tried to turn, Evelyn kicked a small wooden crate into its legs. The creature stumbled for a fraction of a second. Claire used the opening to drive her sword into its side. Lilith raised two fingers and fired a blood needle into its neck. The animal fell before it could recover.
"That one was mine," Claire protested as she pulled out her sword.
Lilith looked at the corpse. "Seemed pretty shared to me."
Evelyn wiped her blade against the fur. "I did the hard part."
Claire slowly turned toward her. "Excuse me?"
Another roar prevented the argument from continuing.
For the next several minutes, the three of them fought almost without rest. Lilith used small amounts of blood to target eyes, joints, and unprotected areas.
When one creature managed to knock down part of a barricade, she temporarily reinforced her legs and jumped toward it before it could reach the defenders. One enhanced strike was enough to force it backward, allowing Evelyn to pierce a joint and Claire to finish the fight.
Lilith was beginning to feel tired, but nothing close to the exhaustion she had suffered after creating the enormous spear. She was finally learning that possessing a great amount of power did not mean using as much of it as possible in every attack.
Then something changed.
Lilith noticed it when a small creature passed less than three meters from her.
It did not attack.
It did not even look at her.
It simply ran.
Lilith slowly lowered her sword.
Another did exactly the same thing.
Then another.
"Claire."
The knight had just raised her weapon to attack a creature passing through a damaged section of the defenses. She stopped when she heard Lilith. The animal ran past her and continued toward the other side of the settlement.
Evelyn saw it too.
"They're not coming in to attack us."
Lilith watched several creatures run between buildings, completely ignoring the inhabitants as they searched for any way out toward the south.
"No," she replied.
She looked toward the forest.
"We're just in the way."
A sound much deeper than all the others suddenly tore through the trees.
The platform vibrated beneath their feet.
The creatures that were still fighting stopped.
One after another, they began running desperately.
Evelyn slowly raised her gaze.
"That's new."
Lilith felt something enormous approaching through the trees.
"I'm guessing it won't be small."
Claire gripped her sword with both hands.
"Are any of them?"