As the afternoon sun dipped toward the horizon, marking the transition into evening, the front line climbers allowed themselves a moment of respite.


    Several shedyers of their heavy armor, seeking relief from its confining embrace, while others abandoned their posts in favor of an early dinner, eager for a brief escape from the tension that filled the air, while a few found solitude on the periphery, engaging in the humble task of digging holes in the earth to attend to nature''s call.


    Despite their preparations, the anticipated monster raid had yet to materialize, casting a shadow of uncertainty over the camp.


    Maybe the raid began tonight, maybe it did not, however, the wait was definitely taking its toll on everyone.


    "Alright, it''s already 6pm, we can make a quick rotation of everyone getting four hours of sleep if we start now. Who wants to go first?" Pdin Patrik asked, as he found two men within his party of twelve who were ready to sleep early and granted them the luxury to sleep early while the other 10 kept up.


    After two hours, Patrik Pdin was hoping to send two more of his party members to sleep, however, from 10pm onwards he was looking to cycle it out with the first two of the batch waking up.


    Rocky, not feeling sleepy, did not go to bed early, but instead soaked in the tense atmosphere and experienced the nervous wait before a fight.


    A lot of different questions ran through his mind, including the possibility of his death in the uing fight, however, somehow because he had already seen the vision of himself reaching Riva on floor 21, he felt like he wasn''t fated to die here.


    Of Course a vision was never a certainty and many things could change between now and then, however, somehow, he just knew deep down in his bones that he was going to make it out of this mess alive.


    Unlike other first time climbers who were praying to the Gemini Gods right now for their own survival, the only thing Rocky prayed for was the survival of Earth''s Strongest Climbers.


    It had been centuries now since Earth had a lesser god of its own, however, Karna and Neatwit had a real shot of reaching that realm and Rocky hoped that after this monster raid was concluded the two of them were alive and able to reach that zenith.


    *RUMBLE*


    Just as Rocky was wondering about how things could be, there was a loud rumble from within the tower of ascension as the entry point to the tower changed from looking like a gate into it to a portal out of it.


    Once again, a wave of chilly air passed through the battlefield causing all men to instantly return to their battle stations and prepare for war.


    *t t t*


    The sound of bones cracking could be heard as the first group of skeletal warrior''s wearing rag-tag armor walked out of the tower.


    "ENEMY SPOTTED….. ENEMY SPOTTED, UNDEAD SKELETON"


    The scouts responsible for seeing through illusion magic, confirmed that the monsters marching out were indeed skeletal warrior''s, confirming that this was going to be an undead themed raid just as Earth had presumed.


    "ALL MEN TO ARMS, PREPARE FOR BATTLE"


    *WAR HORN*


    The front line generals screamed at the top of their lungs, urging all men to quickly gather their wits and get to their positions, while the official war horn was blown, signaling the start of the monster raid.


    The time on the clock was 2 minutes past 7pm and the party members that had fallen asleep had been woken up and asked to get ready by Pdin Patrik.


    For a second, Rocky felt his heartbeat increase as he saw the horde of undead slowly pouring out of that tower, however, it returned to its usual calm pretty quickly.


    "So it begins….." Rocky murmured to himself as he tightened his grip on his two swords and put on his war helmet.


    **********


    ( Karna''s POV )


    Karna was leading the front line force that was directly in front of the emerging undead, in what was the most important spot for leading the defensive charge.


    This was his third monster raid on the front lines, having experienced two beast themed raids before this one.


    At his first raid, he was but a newbie who was mixed with another guilds party, but by his second he was the guildmaster of the elites.


    This time, he was still the guildmaster of the elites, however, he had also be one of the strongest warriors of Earth on whose shoulders the hopes of billions of Earthlings rested.


    "Tch…. Fucking undead-" he cursed as he felt a genuine sense of fear watching them march out of the tower in such a tight formation.


    Unlike beast waves which were haphazard andcking proper direction, this attack was on a whole another level as the emerging skeletal soldiers did not seem to be breaking rank for even a split second.


    *Thud*


    *Thud*


    *Thud*


    *Thud*


    The armies spread out into wide lines once emerging out of that tower and seemed to hold their ranks until more of their forces emerged outside.


    *Neighhh*


    Soon, undead horsemen began emerging out of the portal, joining the ranks of the foot soldiers as they cautiously marched onwards.


    "Come on suckers …..e to papa" Neatwit muttered under his breath as he saw how a concentrated chunk of their army slowly marched on the makeshift tform that the Earthlings had created to cover the big ditch.


    At the speed they were marching, they were sure to lose a 100,000 undead or more to the pits when Rocky''s n was eventually put into action.


    "Calm…. Stay calm boys. Let them approach us. Deep breaths…..


    Remember, these fuckers are already dead, we just burying them 6 feet under".


    "Nobody amongst team 16 is going to show fear today, this is a chance for us to attain evesting glory.


    Today we fight with such ferocity that all the other divisions within the True Elites Guild should say, we fought well, but those demons on team 16…. Those guys were simply unstoppable-


    DO YOU GUYS UNDERSTAND?"


    "YES SIR!"


    "NO FEAR-"


    "YES SIR!"


    "WHAT IS DEATH?"


    "OUR BITCH SIR-"


    Every team leader psyched up their units in their own ways as the undead armies slowly crossed over the ditch and entered the minefield.


    "Command room to front lines…. Command room to front lines, do you copy?" Cody said, as Karna picked up his walkie talkie and replied "Oh yeah, we copy"


    "Blowing up the explosives is your call guildmaster Karna….. give us themand and we will blow open the ditch" Cody reminded as Karna observed the weak skeletal soldiers that were marching out and decided to not kill them yet.


    "These are cannon fodders Cody. Undead having the strength less than that of a floor10 climber.


    The attack is wasted on them.


    Yes they march in formation, but we don''t need to take them seriously, let''s wait till a bigger threat emerges" Karna responded, as despite the tense atmosphere he maintained his sense of rity and cool judgment.


    The sight of hundreds of thousands of undead pouring out of the tower was an intimidating one, however, Karna was not a novicemander either.


    He knew that forces so weak were never going to make it past the artillery st zone in any case and hence he did not feel like wasting the ditch trap on them was a good idea.


    *BOOM*


    *BOOM*


    *BOOM*


    The mines nted in the minefield zone began to be triggered as the undead vanguard reached those areas, with the human climbers cheering every explosion and every death of the enemy.


    For a few minutes, without a single Earthling doing anything, the enemy front lines were decimated through traps alone as the undead vanguard lost a few thousand troops just to the minefield zone alone.


    *GAHHHHHH*


    A gluttoral roar tore through the battlefield as from within the tower emerged the undead giants and the undead champions.


    Troops that seemed like the main force of the undead army as their presence alone sent chills down the spine of first time climbers who quaked in their boots seeing them emerge.


    "Front line tomand station, front line tomand station-" Karna spoke in hismunication device, as Cody immediately responded with "Go ahead-"


    "Tell the artillery to be prepared for the volley, we will not activate the ditch trap until these undead giants cover the full area of the ditch trap" Karna informed, as he decided to activate their first line of defense superte and allow even more troops to pass through in the first wave.


    It was a risky move, since not blowing up the ditch was allowing the undead toe out of the tower way too quickly and March in tight formations that was minimizing loss of life.


    Once the ditch was blown apart, they were sure to struggle to do the same, however, Karna was sure in his mind to y itte.


    Trusting his judgment, Cody informed the artillery corps to be ready to rain fire upon the enemy once they crossed over into the artillery zone as within seconds the orders reached to Pdin Patrik and his corps as well, as Pdin Patrik informed the mages and archers within his party to be ready to engage.


    "Hahaha, this is fun…." Rocky murmured to himself, analyzing the situation, as while themon soldiers had no idea as to what the climber''s association had nned, Rocky knew about the ditch trap and was feeling fascinated on how guildmaster Karna was refraining from using it to cause maximum damage.