Village Resistance

Zenos and a few Holy Knights were secretly watching the demise of one Holy Knight and two priests.

They had sent them out just in case, but they couldn’t even pass through the village’s main gate.

Zenos’s group sighed and returned to the church.

As soon as Zenos’s group arrived at the church, all the brothers of the church gathered in the dining hall for a serious discussion.

Zenos spoke on behalf of them.

“The brothers who tried to go outside were killed by the guard. We must assume that Winston and Edgar are already infected.”

Melissa said with a serious expression.

“The situation is more serious than I thought. Can the tentacles know each other’s life or death? How did they strengthen the guard from the day Amaris died and isolate the village the next day?”

“This place is a complete hell.”

“It’s too early to give up hope.”

“What do you mean?”

“Sending the outsiders away means they want to focus on this village. And they locked the village gate. But if only we are normal, would they need to do that?”

“Hmm….”

“You and I are strong, but frankly, the 30 or so people in the church won’t be able to withstand it if the guards and villagers all rush at us right now.”

“That’s true.”

“But they haven’t attacked us yet. These tentacles are very cunning and cautious, so they want to take over the village with minimal damage. There are probably normal people left inside the village, and our end will come when they are all taken over.”

“Then should we gather the normal people?”

“Yes. Don’t go alone, but go around the entire village in groups. And we have to go to each house and cast Scan Body magic to distinguish the normal people.”

“Aren’t there too many houses?”

“Yesterday, I stayed up all night with the priests and investigated the addresses of the people who stopped coming to the service. We can exclude those people.”

“I see. But this is too dangerous. What if we are attacked while we are all together?”

“We’re going to die anyway if we stay here. And the entire guard won’t attack us. “

“Why?”

“We are not weak. Winston can be stopped if you and I join forces. And the number of guards is not infinite, so if the guards attack us, the guard will inevitably weaken, and we will have a chance to go outside. The tentacles are most afraid of someone going outside and telling the outside world about this fact.”

“I see. They have to tie up a lot of troops on the village outer wall to prevent anyone from leaving.”

“Let’s go outside right now and gather people. If the tentacles know what we’re doing, they might attack even tonight. We need to gather as many as possible to resist.”

“What do we do after we gather them?”

“We’ll go back to the church. We need to arm the people mentally and physically. And we have to break through the weakest and least guarded wall and go outside.”

Priestess Melissa, Holy Knight Zenos, 4 Holy Knights, and 20 priests were fully armed and left the main gate of the church.

The priests wore priestly robes and light armor, and the Holy Knights wore chain mail that the Crusaders used to wear and carried maces.

They were holding pamphlets that the priests had stayed up all night making while drinking stamina potions, informing people of the current situation.

Melissa’s group visited each house that they thought was not infected, checked their heads with Scan Body magic, explained the situation, and gathered them into a group.

They also dropped pamphlets on the street as they walked.

Zenos asked Melissa in a worried tone.

“There are more infected people than I thought. Are we just going to pass by like this?”

“I want to kill them all and go around, but then all the tentacles in the village might rush at us in desperation. Let’s gather the normal people safely first. We’ll fight after we’re all armed.”

“Okay.”

Melissa’s group avoided the plaza and the main gate and went around the village as much as possible.

When the people of the church came and talked directly, the normal people had no choice but to believe them.

About 100 normal people gathered, creating a larger group than expected.

Some of them were wearing the armor they used to wear.

Melissa’s group also included Nikolai’s gang, Edgar’s youngest son.

Nikolai’s gang used to only hang out with each other and enjoyed bullying the weak, but they couldn’t bully them from some point on.

When they approached a village kid to bully him, everyone around them distorted their faces and created a wall around the kid.

Nikolai’s gang also felt something was wrong, and when they saw Melissa gathering people, they heard the situation and joined.

Nikolai was annoyed.

“What the fuck is this situation? Shit.”

One of Nikolai’s gang said.

“Are we all going to die? According to Melissa-nim, it seems like we’re all already infected.”

“Don’t say unlucky things. Ha. There’s no way that kid had that many friends. Fuck.”

Melissa clapped her hands to get attention.

“Okay, now let’s go back to the church. Avoid unnecessary conflicts and go quietly and quickly. We will distribute food and weapons at the church.”

Melissa’s group returned to the church.

Melissa opened the church’s armory and armed the people with swords, spears, bludgeons, shields, bows, and plate armor.

And she generously gave out the remaining food so that they could eat their fill, except for the food they would use for survival.

Everyone gathered in the church’s rectangular chapel, which could accommodate more than 500 people.

In front of the chapel was a large main gate facing the village, and on the side walls were large windows.

All the chairs in the chapel were piled up on the window side and the main gate side to create barricades.

Melissa gave a speech to the people.

“Yesterday, our brother Amaris was controlled by the tentacles and tried to poison us. Dirty tentacles came out of Amaris’s brain. This village, including Village Chief Edgar and Guard Captain Winston, has been almost taken over by such parasitic tentacles. Our brothers tried to go to the Holy Kingdom, but they were shot dead before they could even leave the main gate. Tonight, we must do our best to break through the north wooden wall of the village and go outside!”

One person asked.

“Wouldn’t it be better to hold out here in the church?”

“We are trapped and the enemies are open to the outside. As time goes by, we will be at a disadvantage. We are only increasing our survival time. The outside world doesn’t know what’s going on in the village. No one will help us.”

“Is there a way to break through the wooden wall?”

“Our priests can cast buffs and the Holy Knights can break the wooden wall by hitting it with Holy Might.”

Another person said, trembling with fear.

“I, I shouldn’t have come here. I should have stayed quietly hidden at home.”

“That’s right! That’s right!”

Melissa retorted.

“The tentacles are very cunning. They are moving systematically, not by instinct. They will eventually find you even if you hide!”

With that, Melissa talked to the villagers and mentally armed them.

After the conversation progressed to some extent, everyone agreed to rush to the north wooden wall tonight.

Melissa was sitting down and resting when Zenos called her to the corner.

Zenos whispered in Melissa’s ear.

“Half of the people over there look like they’ll only be meat shields.”

“It’s an unavoidable sacrifice. Our goal is not to save them all and take them out. Our goal is for at least one of the church people to reach the Holy Kingdom and inform them of the situation.”

“I see. May Goddess Elia forgive my sins and the sins of my brothers. Amen.”

“Amen.”

Melissa and Zenos waited for the night to deepen.

———————

While the church people were diligently going outside and gathering people, I was sitting on Lucy-nuna’s thigh and listening to the report from my subordinate.

My subordinate, who was infected with the parasitic tentacles, reported to me.

“The priests and Holy Knights of the church are armed and coming out to gather humans.”

“Damn it. I understand.”

I immediately sent a communication to Edgar and Winston through the tentacle mental network.

– [Edgar, Winston. Did you hear what the church is doing?]

– [Yes. We also received a report.]

– [I know.]

Edgar suggested a plan.

– [I think it’s better to leave them alone for now.]

– [Why? They keep growing.]

– [The church guys are determined and armed. Melissa and Zenos, in particular, are strong. Even if our subordinates pour out of their houses and attack them now, only we will die. Even if we can win, the damage will be great, and some of them might take advantage of the weakened guard and go outside the village.]

– [So we just have to watch?]

– [First, we need to tell our subordinates to stay armed at home from now on. If I know Melissa, she will use the humans as meat shields and try to break through the village wall tonight. They don’t have time.]

– [Then should we strengthen the guard on the wall?]

– [No. They’re going back to the church anyway to arm the humans. What we’re better at than them is that we can give orders directly through the tentacle mental network, and our subordinates listen to orders without any questions. When they return to the church, we must lead all the troops except for the guard personnel and attack the church.]

– [I understand. Gather all the troops except for the guard personnel and attack the church. Edgar is in charge of arming and gathering the troops. Winston is in charge of leading the vanguard and the troops. And Lucy and I will also participate in the attack.]

– [Yes.]

– [I understand. My lord.]

“Eung! Kyle! I’m going to play an active role this time.”

———————-

The time is now about 8 p.m., and the sky is already completely dark.

The villagers were mentally and physically armed, had eaten their fill, and were resting for a while.

A Holy Knight who was watching from the roof of the chapel came down and shouted urgently.

“Enemies! A large number of infected people are armed and heading towards the church from all directions!”

The people who heard the sound screamed and lamented.

“Damn it!”

“How! Ugh!”

Melissa was also flustered.

‘It’s so fast! Usually, they can’t prepare this quickly. As expected, the tentacles can communicate quickly with each other through something like telepathy.’

“Who are the strong ones?”

“A monster with huge claws and toenails is leading the infected people towards the front of the church! And the village guard and former adventurers are also participating!”

The church forces were calling the enemies ‘infected people’ instead of ‘humans’ to make the villagers clearly recognize the main enemy.

Melissa ordered the villagers.

“It’s a battle situation now! Everyone, go to your assigned places!”

People ran to the windows and the main gate.

The windows and the main gate of the church were all wide open.

Those with bows were preparing to shoot arrows from behind the barricades.

Melissa stood in the center of the chapel with the priests, and the Holy Knights went to the main gate.

People shouted.

“The infected people are climbing over the walls. They’re getting closer!”

At that time, the priests shared their divine power, and Melissa cast the highest-level divine defense magic.

“Great Holy Barrier!”

A hemispherical, translucent, thick barrier was created from the floor and covered the chapel.

This barrier could be exited from the inside but could not be entered from the outside.

Melissa and the priests sat down and took a breath to replenish the divine power they had used up.

The infected people shouted and wildly hit the barrier with the weapons they had brought.

Kwang chaeng chaechang pang kang

“Kua! Break it!”

Some of the infected people called out the names of the people inside the church.

“Karl! It’s me! Please let me in!”

“Soryu! Have you forgotten your aunt? Come out here quickly!”

Melissa shouted.

“Don’t be shaken! It’s just a mental attack! They only want to infect you with tentacles! Launch ranged attacks while the barrier is maintained!”

When the people hesitated, the Holy Knights first picked up their bows and shot arrows.

Piyung piyuyung

The arrows flew and hit the infected people.

“Aak!”

“Save me!”

Zenos shouted.

“That’s not a human! Attack quickly if you don’t want to die! Reduce their numbers!!!”

The other people in the chapel came to their senses and attacked.

A wizard who had been living as a recluse old man threw a Fireball, and the infected people who were hitting the barrier exploded with a bang and flew away burning.

When the arrows shot from inside hit the infected people, the infected people screamed and sobbed sadly.

“Kyaaaaak!”

“Sob sob!”

One chapel person couldn’t stand the mental attack of the infected people and got angry.

“This is crazy! We’re committing murder! Can’t you see them crying?”

Melissa answered firmly.

“If that’s a human, why would they come in droves with weapons like that! Don’t be shaken!”

The person who got angry suddenly jumped out of the window and ran to the infected people.

“I won’t fight!”

Some humans who were inspired by him also ran out.

“I can’t fight either! I’ll go out! I’m not an enemy!”

Melissa knew that their justification would disappear if they attacked a definite human, so she could only watch as some people left.

When the people who went outside passed through the barrier, the infected people welcomed them.

“You’ve come!”

“The guys in that church are the bad guys!”

“Come here!”

The people who went outside were buried by the infected people and disappeared from sight.

Melissa lamented.

“Damn it! The tentacles are more cunning than I thought! I should have caught a few infected people when I went outside. If they saw the actual tentacles, they wouldn’t be shaken like that. Damn it!”

As the infected people continued to hit the barrier, the barrier began to weaken.

Winston in monster form, with aura on his huge claws, hit the barrier from the front.

Kwaaaang

The barrier shook.

Every time Winston hit the barrier with his full strength, the barrier visibly thinned with a kuaang sound.

Zenos shouted.

“Melee combat is about to begin! Everyone, close the windows and the main gate!”

The people in the chapel closed the windows and the main gate.

Kkiiik tak, kwang

Zenos shouted to Melissa.

“Melissa! You and I will stop that monster!”

“Okay, Zenos!”

The priests cast buffs on those in the chapel to calm their minds and give them courage.

The panic and fear of the chapel people disappeared.

The chapel people regained their composure and were filled with courage.

The Holy Knights created auras that enhanced the speed and stamina of themselves and their surrounding comrades.

It was an aura to endure as much as possible because the chapel people were numerically and qualitatively inferior.

Even if there are multiple Holy Knight auras around, only one aura that touches an individual first is maintained and does not particularly overlap.

And the individual receiving the aura can also choose other auras around them.

Soon, the sound of the Great Holy Barrier completely breaking was heard.

Kuaang jjaenggeurang

Zenos muttered.

“It’s starting now. May Goddess Elia watch over me.”