"I need you guys to buy me time. I'll kill the shaman!" Daisy's voice cut through the chaos the moment she realized what we were facing.
"Can you do it without it seeing you?" I asked, already knowing her answer.
"That's what assassins do," she replied with a smirk that didn't reach her eyes. "Just keep it looking this way. Make sure it's focused on the wall."
Before I could say anything else, another fireball arced through the night sky. It illuminated the field in a burst of orange light before smashing against Ria's barrier spell. The shockwave rippled across the top of the wall.
Ria grimaced. "I can block them, but I can't keep this up forever!"
Claire stepped forward beside her, hands glowing with holy light. "I'll share the load. Between the two of us, we'll hold it!"
"Got it!" Josey barked. "Daisy, go do what you do best, and come back alive!"
With that, Daisy vaulted over the parapet. The dark leather of her assassin's garb melted into the night as she vanished into the treeline. She moved opposite the direction of the main goblin charge; flanking the shaman from the side.
Josey turned back to us, her sword glinting faintly under the light of Claire's spell. "Alright everyone! Keep the pressure up! Once this next wave thins, we draw the shaman closer to the village walls!"
The third wave hit harder than anything before it. Over a hundred goblins poured from the treeline, shrieking like feral animals. Behind them lumbered five hulking hobgoblins, their scrap metal armor glinting red in the firelight.
Tuly had long since switched tactics, rather than waiting for orders, she allowed every defender to fire freely. Bolts snapped from crossbows all along the wall. The night was filled with the rhythmic twang of strings and the hiss of arrows cutting through the air.
My repeater crossbow hummed in my hands, each shot slamming into green flesh below. I lost count of how many I dropped, ten at least, but there were always more.
Then the real problem appeared.
The goblin shaman, a hunched, scarred creature wrapped in filthy rags and beads of bone, began moving forward. Two hobgoblins and a few smaller goblins clustered around it. Gone were the fireballs, it was chanting now, its gnarled staff raised high.
A translucent green barrier shimmered into existence around them. Every bolt we fired simply bounced away, sparks flying uselessly into the dark.
"Dammit!" Tuly cursed, slamming another bolt into her weapon. "They're shielded!"
"That thing's walking straight toward the wall!" someone shouted.
I leaned over the parapet. The goblins trudged forward with eerie calm, their eyes locked on us. The rest of the battlefield had fallen still, the goblins not protected were either dying or dead.
Then the first hobgoblin did something that made my stomach turn.
It grabbed one of the smaller goblins by the neck, lifted it overhead, and hurled it toward the wall.
The wretched creature screamed, flailing helplessly as it sailed through the air, then smashed against the stone with a sickening crunch. Its body slid down and impaled itself on the sharpened spikes below.
[Slain by trap: Goblin – 3 EXP]
The hobgoblins grinned, an awful, toothy expression, and picked up another.
"They're using them as ammo!" I shouted. "Get ready!"
Two more goblins were flung simultaneously. I took aim at the first, fired, and my bolt caught it clean through the chest. It hit the wall dead and tumbled down.
The second actually landed on its feet atop the battlement, snarling, but Josey was already there. With a single fluid motion, her sword flashed, and the creature's head went spinning into the night.
The hobgoblins roared in fury and threw more. Again and again, bodies flew through the air, each one shot down, sliced apart, or impaled before they could do any damage.
One by one, the lesser goblins fell until only the two hobgoblins and the shaman remained.
The shaman's chants grew louder, its cracked voice echoing across the field. The air shimmered with heat as it maintained the barrier, clearly struggling to keep it intact.
Josey's tone sharpened. "They're almost spent. Keep hitting the barrier—it'll crack!"
We unleashed another volley. Bolts hammered against the glowing surface, spiderwebs of light rippling across it.
Then, suddenly, the shaman screeched something guttural and began to retreat, hobgoblins flanking it as they backed toward the treeline.
"Hooman filth!" it spat, voice shrill and filled with hate. "We return! Take women! Women ours! Gobbos get revenge!"
The accent was broken, but the meaning was clear enough.
One of the hobgoblins snapped. Enraged, it broke formation and charged the wall.
It didn't make it far.
Before it had crossed half the distance, over a dozen bolts slammed into its body. It staggered, shrieked, then fell face-first into the dirt.
[Slain: Hobgoblin – 30 EXP]
"Oh, nice," I muttered, reloading. "That one must've been mine."
The other hobgoblin glanced between the corpse and the retreating shaman, then bolted after its master. In its panic, it stepped out from the protection of the barrier.
"Now!" Tuly ordered.
Every archer on the wall fired at once. The air turned into a storm of bolts. Most missed, but enough struck true to slow the creature's run. Still, it managed to limp away, disappearing into the forest shadows.
The shaman, thinking itself safe, dropped the shield, turned, and hurled one last fireball. The red orb streaked toward us, then abruptly stopped mid-flight.
A flash of silver cut through the air.
The fireball fizzled out as the shaman let out a strangled cry. A curved blade, glinting faintly in the moonlight, protruded from its chest.
Daisy.
She materialized behind it, her black cloak fluttering. With one smooth motion, she wrenched the dagger free, spun it in her hand, and drew it across the creature's throat. The shaman gurgled once and collapsed.
The final hobgoblin turned to flee, but she was already on it. A flick of her wrist, a flash of steel, and the beast's head rolled into the underbrush.
The forest went silent.
No more fireballs. No more screeches. Only the sound of distant crackling flames and the heavy breathing of exhausted defenders atop the wall.
For a long moment, no one spoke. Then, as Daisy approached the wall, bloodied but grinning, cheers erupted all along the battlements.
"We did it!" Tuly shouted, raising her crossbow.
Josey laughed, slapping my shoulder. "Told you she'd pull it off."
I exhaled for what felt like the first time in hours, lowering my crossbow. "Yeah. She really did."
At around midnight, the battle was done. The goblin army was shattered, their leader slain. Not a single villager had fallen.