Two babies slept carefreely over their cradles, as a mother looked at them with a gentle smile. Although she felt extremely exhausted of having to take of them all day, she felt rewarded each time she saw them sleeping soundly. Although they were really quite noisy despite having come to the world just a month ago.
"Sigh… I wish you could had been a bit like Blake, he was always so calm even as a baby." Sighed Marie, as she covered her two children, Anna, and Allan, with blankets so they could sleep well.
"Blake is one in a million. I would guess he was very intelligent even after being born." Said Marie's mother and Blake's grandmother.
"Yeah, you're right, mom." Sighed Marie. "Ugh, I am so tired… I want to rest and sleep as much as these two."
Maria quickly laid over the bed while sighing in relief, as she was thinking about how her husband's hunt was going and if her son was having fun in his little adventure with his friends. She already knew how strong Blake could be (although not its full extent) so she was fairly sure he could handle most of the wild creatures living around the village.
However, Marie's nap was quickly interrupted by someone desperately knocking the door. When she went to open it, she found Joan, covered in bruises, and sweat as if he had ran a marathon.
Joan quickly hugged her wife.
"We spotted hundreds of Undead coming to the village, you and the kids have to hide!"
"Hide?! Eh?! Undead?! Wh-What about Blake?!"
Maria quickly began to panic.
"I don't know but he might be coming this way, knowing him… For now, you and your mother and the twins hide in the underground safe room we built with Blake!"
There was a special and large underground room built exclusively for times like these. Blake had built it using his Earth Magic in conjunction with his father's assistance. Because running away from the village would be too tedious and dangerous, hiding underground and waiting for the problems to be solved in safety was more efficient.
"O-Okay, but where are you going now?!" Asked Marie panicking, her mother quickly walked downstairs.
"I have to go defend the village on my own… If things go awry and everything is overtaken, you can use that small cave we built recently to run into the lowlands, there is a shovel and other things, so you'll have to open up an entrance to the surface but it shouldn't be that difficult." Joan said desperately, already thinking about the worse.
"B-But!" Maria couldn't help but panic but also was growing more concerned about him. She didn't mind using a shovel to dig underground at all, as she was no longer pregnant and had more strength once more, but she didn't wanted her husband to risk his life a second time already.
"It's fine! I am alright, I won't sacrifice myself if things go to the worse, I'll escape and come to see you." Said Joan. "I'll try to look for Blake too, but the Undead are just getting here, we can't stay talking for more!"
"O-Okay, I get it! Mom!" Marie quickly asked for her mother's assistance, as she held Anna and her mother Allan, and the two quickly ran into the stairs built inside the house, closing the wooden door behind, as Joan quickly covered it with a carpet made of gray wolf fur.
Joan quickly closed his door and ran into the frontlines, as he noticed Lukas, the promoted knight leading the small squadron of knights that were left in the village, they were all running into the frontlines.
Thankfully, the wooden walls were halfway done where the undead were marching towards, leaving the unprotected area of the village behind them. The Undead might be able to get inside through there but would need to circle it around and would take a long time, so they might be more easily spotted and eliminated.
Alongside them, Musk, the Adventurer Guild Master quickly set a special request to all adventurers present, offering one small gold coin for every Undead slain. The Adventurers, who were all considering running away from the village immediately felt pumped up, their greediness quickly gave them a reason to help the village survive.
Meanwhile, all priests of the church were quickly brought outside, as their head priest, Ellergest, gathered them into a single squadron thar ran into the frontlines, as the majority of them were wielders of holy light magic or life magic, they were the natural nemesis of Undead and could cause the most damage to them, they were the most required and the ones every villager put their faith into.
Joan reached the frontlines the same time as he was called by Lukas and Ellergest at the same time. As the strongest Hunter of the village he was well known by everybody, and also trusted. They required his help to properly coordinate everyone.
"So Undead this time, huh?" Lukas sighed. "It hasn't even been a year since the demons and now this…"
"Hmph, strange. We have not seen any traces of necromancy around these areas. The only place that we were not able to properly investigate was the Miasma Swamp, mostly due to the dangerous poisonous smoke it has, but we have periodically purified the surrounding areas…" Ellergest.
"And where the heck is Elizabeth?!" Jack roared.
As of now, the entire group was gathered around a camp set up right behind the enormous wooden walls, as they were discussing everything.
"She went with Blake; I am fully responsible for that child's irresponsibility." Sighed Joan. "I apologize for this, but currently, we cannot go freely into the woods looking for them…"
"Your damn kid keeps putting our Elizabeth in danger! Where the heck are they?!" Jack roared furiously.
"Calm down, Jack. Bashing this at the kid's father won't really get us anywhere." Seth stopped Jack as he adjusted his glasses.
"I am just as worried as you two but… I know what's more important right now." Ellergest said. "Let's quickly erect a barrier before it is too late!"