Chapter Thirty-three. For whom the bell tolls.

Chapter Thirty-three. For whom the bell tolls.

Two more days had passed when Bob and Monroe were both woken from their slumber by the sound of a tolling bell ringing loudly through their room.

Monroe bolted off the bed and hid behind the bathtub, while Bob shot upright and swung his feet over and onto the floor.

He equipped his armor from his Inventory and then picked up Monroe.

"Do you want to come with me buddy, or would you rather stay here?"

Monroe's ears were laid back as the bell continued to toll, and then suddenly there was a strange sensation as Monroe suddenly disappeared.

Bob suffered from a brief flash of panic before he realized he could still feel the big cat's emotions. He checked his inventory and watched as a visible representation of Monroe stalked around the ten by ten grid, before curling up in a corner, and given the calming of Monroe's emotions, going back to sleep.

"So that's how that works," Bob muttered as he stumbled out of his room, one hand holding his staff while the other covered a long yawn.

As he entered the tavern he saw other Adventurers exiting in a steady trickle to the plaza, so he followed.

Thidwell was standing on a stone platform in front of the Dungeon, and hundreds of people crowded the plaza in front of him, the plaza being lit with glowing orbs of light strewn here and there, leaving a good portion of it heavily shadowed in the dark of night. He was holding a tiny bell in one massive hand, and as he steadily rang out, the impossibly loud and deep tones rang out across the town.

After another two minutes of ringing the bell, Thidwell finally stopped, much to Bob's relief. That noise was effective for getting people up and moving, but it also engendered a headache.

"Alright people, it's time!" Thidwell boomed out.

"We've got fifteen minutes until the wave hits," he bellowed, "so let's get moving - House Meer, House Crenshaw," Thidwell inclined his head in a short bow towards two large groups of people that Bob had never seen before.

"The Adventurers guild thanks you for your aid, as do I," Thidwell said, "Please proceed down to the twentieth level."

"Everyone else that is level ten or higher, head down to level ten," He said, his gravelly voice carrying over the crowd.

Bob watched as the two noble houses passed through the gatehouse that led to the Dungeon, followed by well over a hundred other Adventurers.

Thidwell called out again, "The rest of you, anyone level eight or higher, come up to the stand."

Bob watched as eight people detached themselves from the crowd and stood in front of Thidwell, who had them arrange themselves in a row in front of him, but facing the crowd.

"Level six or higher, step up!" Thidwell yelled and Bob walked up, noting nervously that there was only one other person joining him, a young woman who couldn't have been old enough to vote.

Bob could hear Thidwell quietly grumble to himself, although he couldn't make out what he was saying.

"Anyone under level five, step back to the edge of the plaza!" Thidwell said.

Bob turned and watched as roughly half the remaining crowd stepped back to the edge of the plaza, leaving a little over a hundred people standing in a now much more empty space.

"I want four groups," Thidwell boomed, "starting from my left to my right - The first group, ranged damage, second group, crowd control and utility, third group, melee damage/guardians, fourth group healers."

By Bob's count, there were about twenty each of the ranged, crowd control, and healing group, with the remaining forty being melee.

"Alright, I want one healer, one ranged, one crowd control, and two melees to step forward," Thidwell bellowed.

After a few seconds of hesitance, people stepped out of their groups as ordered.

"You're group one," Thidwell boomed, "move over to section leader one," he pointed towards the man on the far left of the row of level eight or higher people he'd had assemble in front of him.

Bob watched as groups were assembled, and assigned. It only took about five minutes and it ended with four section leaders having three groups, and four section leaders having two groups, the odd-numbered section leaders having the extra groups under them.

"Ok, section leaders one, three, five, and seven, you are responsible for the northern, eastern, southern, and western sections of the wall, respectively," Thidwell said loudly, "you're also responsible for overlap on the cross-sections."

"Section leaders two, four, six, and eight, you are taking the northeast, southeast, southwest, and northwest sections," he said.Follow current novels at novelhall.com)

The groups huddled around the appointed section leaders and conversed quietly, as they moved away from the podium.

"Those of you under level five!" He bellowed out, his voice easily carrying to the far edges of the plaza, "If you can heal, move to my far left! If you can fight move to my far right! If you have any sort of crowd control, left of center! If you don't fall into those categories and you want to help, right of center!"

"Good," Thidwell rumbled, "the wave is due in five minutes or so - I'm going to head down to level thirty and start cleaning things up - I doubt much will come out of the Dungeon, but please convey my thanks to the Church for standing surety at the entrance."

Austan smiled and shook his head before offering his hand, "In this, we stand as one my friend," he said in a tone of voice that spoke of a fondness and familiarity that Bob hadn't heard anyone except Kelli use with Thidwell.

Thidwell shook Austan's hand before saying, "I'm sending Bob to hold the Northeast watchtower. Would you like to give him your blessing?"

Austan gave Thidwell a sidelong look before turning to face Bob.

Austan reached out and pressed his hand to Bob's chest and intoned, "May the light of Vi'Radia illuminate your path that you do not lose your way."

Bob felt something flow from Austan's hand and into his chest. It felt almost like mana moving through him, only... slightly different.

And then, suddenly, he could see. Whereas the plaza had been a mess of shadows before, he could now see as clearly as if it was noon on a cloudless day.

Austan dropped his hand and said, "You'll be able to see even in the deepest gloom until sunrise," then he turned and headed towards the Dungeon.

"Thank you," Bob said, to which Austan turned and flashed him a grin before continuing on.

"That'll help I'm sure," Thidwell said and then pointed to the northeast, "head out, they are coming, and you don't want to clear them from the tower, trust me," he said as he turned and headed for the Dungeon himself.

Bob swallowed, his throat suddenly tight.

Harv had said they wouldn't be very high level, between two and five. He was shredding the seventh level of the Dungeon.

He took a deep breath and started jogging down the northeast boulevard.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bob started casting portal five seconds later. Ten seconds after that, he was on top of the wall in the Northeast section, standing a few feet away from group two. He looked over the wall and saw the watchtower.

He turned to face the section leader who was walking over to him.

"Thidwell wants me to man the watchtower out there," Bob said, doing his best to keep his voice level and confident.

"If things get too hot, I might be portaling back here, so just be aware," Bob said as he looked towards the tower and plotted his portal points, thereby missing the look of surprise on the section leaders face.

Bob cast a portal at his feet and dropped out of sight, appearing eighty-five feet away and twenty feet above the height of the wall. He then fell thirty feet as he cursed and cast another portal under his feet, appearing eighty feet away, and thirty feet above his previous position. One more repetition was enough to see him standing atop the watchtower.

Upon closer inspection, the 'watchtower', was a solid plug of granite, with an overhanging border of crenelations and holes drilled, or probably created by magic, down to allow defenders to shoot arrows or spells or pour burning oil, etc down onto anything at the base of the tower.

Bob had never had any military experience outside of reading history books, but even he could see the tactical advantage of the position.

He turned to face the northeast and leaned on the crenelation.

'Just low-level monsters', he told himself. 'Jake will tear through them, and you can always portal back to the walls.'

He suddenly stiffened as he saw something move in the woods at the edge of the farmland a mile or so away. He couldn't make anything out, but something had moved.

He blinked and squinted his eyes, trying to see into the distance.

His eyes widened.

"So that's why they call it a wave," he muttered as he realized the movement he'd thought he'd seen was a veritable ocean of monsters carpeting the earth as they surged down out of the treeline.

He took a deep breath and tried to judge how quickly they'd arrive.

He had another minute maybe a bit more.

He went back over the math in his head. Two four second Jake's and then a three second Jake was the best he could do in terms of sustainability.

"Fucking matrix," he cursed as he gripped his staff tightly, and watched the ocean of monsters roll towards him.

As the wave neared his watchtower, he summoned his first UtahRaptor and mentally ordered it to attack the wave, then started to summon another.