Sonya had written several letters to send to the other heroes about what was going down. She explained in them what precautions needed to be taken and why. The entirety of what she had said to the king she was sharing with her fellow heroes. It wasn't long before they met up the day before the calamity began, in her room at the Adventure guild's inn.

"Wait. Are you saying-" Ishiku-San began but got smacked upside the head by Arashi-San.

"We don't have time for this. We are here to get a battle strategy." Arashi-San said. "Not waste time." Sonya nodded giving her thanks before she took a deep breath.

" If we can expect smaller minion based enemies from the Calamity, I think it is safe to assume what form they will take. That said, it would be wise to parry aside their weapon and go for the offensive attack afterwords. Uta-san, you only need your melee oriented comrades to do such while you and other ranged oriented comrades focus on shooting them down. Preferably in the head. I don't know how strong each will be, but if we are lucky, they won't be too difficult. So enemy types. We can expect the boss, which is something I can handle. The other units will defer." Sonya said.

"Take note how decrepit they look. How much armor they are wearing. Take very careful note on their behavior. Keep in mind that there are those who will charge head on and others who will hesitate or stay back. The ones who hesitate and have a more refined style of fighting are far more dangerous in the lower class small enemies. All of them, however should be taken serious. Otherwise you might get stabbed in the back and die. Small enemies have a tendency swarm. And the damage they do, however small it is will stack up very quickly."

"Other than that, there might be undead rats and they are poisonous. The poison is slow but constant and you will want to cure it quickly before engaging in combat again. Be careful, not carefree. The smallest amount of damage done to you can add up quickly if you aren't paying it attention." Sonya stated.

"Now that is it for now with the lower class enemies. Let's move on to the knight class. This class is by far, the most dangerous. It is mostly because they range between just above the lower class, to fighting bosses and then some. Likely, you might face knights with blackened armor and horned helms. They will often carry just as blackened weapons and a narrow pointed kite shield. These knights have very high fire resistance but low magic resistance. Getting them to focus on one person while another stabs them in the back might be the best way to take them down... But these knights vary upon what arms they carry. If they have a huge sword... Shields up. Arashi-san and Ishiku-san, don't try to fight these recklessly because they are VERY strong. They're damage output will likely be a tenth of your health per strike landed."

"As for any other knight class... I don't expect we will meet them but treat them twice as threatening as the black knights. Many have been known to one hit kill. So dodging and blocking and knowing when to do one or the other is the key to staying alive. They are vicious, they are relentless, and given the chance, they will end you. If you can't get a breather, and they will not give you a breather... Run. Cowardice is a better policy than fighting to the bitter end." Sonya said finishing up.

Ishiku-san glared at Sonya. " And why are you the one designated to fight the boss?" Ishiku-san yelled.

Sonya groaned. " Because I am the one who knows them the best. I need the three of you and your parties to try to contain and prevent as much damage as possible. Try to keep the enemies from reaching the populace. If we can defeat this calamity it may not be the end of the troubles if the curse spreads." Sonya said calmly.

Uta-san looked at Sonya with a hesitant look but she smacked the cheeks of her face, took a deep breath and looked Sonya dead in the eyes. " Is it really necessary to quarantine the people of this world Sonya-san? Wouldn't that cause alienation? Even if it is just the area the fissure opens up in?" Uta-San asked.

Sonya nodded sadly. " The Dark Sign renders the living into undead. If they go Hollow, they can go mad. If they go mad, they will kill their own loved ones out of hunger for souls and humanity. I hope it doesn't come to pass. I hope I am wrong. But it is a precaution we all have to take. I asked you all to check yourselves as well to make sure you don't have a black circle with a orange ring surrounding it. I hope it remains thus." Sonya said.

Ishiku-san glared at her even angrier. " How can you do this to people!?" He yelled. Sioc got in his way.

" Do you think she LIKES this happening? Do you think she WANTS this to be afflicted on innocent people? Do you think she doesn't feel how difficult it is to make these decisions? This isn't a game! She said it herself! You die once and that is it. Or worse if you have that curse and little by little you loose who you are! Do you think she wants that for anyone?" Sioc yelled.

Arashi-san leaned against the door sill. "I figure it must have been a mix of feelings for her. Her beloved game coming to real life and an adventure that awaits, but worse of all, the hell it brings on everyone else." Arashi-San said calmly " I'm sure she doesn't want anyone to suffer, but even she can't deny that she is looking forward to fighting and maybe having a little fun."

Siorradh was the one to counter him with her own retort. " Can you deny that going into battle doesn't have its own joy? Can you deny that you don't feel truly alive when you are fighting for your life?" She asked and watched the Sword Hero look away.

Uta-san stood up and sighed. " I guess this is just the best that can be done." Uta-San said.

Sonya shrugged. " If there IS any loot to take from the boss I'll hold up on claiming any of it. Unless there is some timer that will make the loot vanish if I don't.. No helping that... Sorry." She said intending it as a joke, knowing full well that that shouldn't be the case. But surprisingly the others just nodded understandingly.

" Even if it was meant to be a joke Sonya-san, that at least is not something we can fault anyone for." Arashi-san said then glared at Ishiku-san before waving farewell.

" See you on the battlefield." Uta-san simply bowed and left while Ishiku-san lingered.

" You really think things are going to turn seriously bad don't you?" He asked feeling like it was all her fault.

Sonya just sat down on her bed. " I really didn't want it to turn this bad. But life has always had a habit of throwing things at me that are not always so pleasant and sun shiny. So I had to find my own sun shine at times." She said simply and watched him leave before Sioc kicked the door closed.

Siorradh giggled and shook her head. " Sonya-san, do we really have to rely on those people?" The Snow cat girl asked.

Sonya smiled sourly. " Yes. We do. We can't be everywhere at once and I don't want to burden them with fighting an opponent I am more prepared for than they are." Sonya said. Sioc sighed and sat on his bed. There were three in the room.

" It is just that they seem so ungrateful." He grumbled. Sonya laughed a little.

" Who would be grateful for bad news?" She asked and shook her head. " I won't know what boss we will be fighting but stay behind me until we encounter it okay?" She asked looking at them both seriously.

"My shield and dagger are ours." Siorradh said smiling. Sioc nodded and gave a salute before plopping on his bed.

" Why did you two have to grow up so fast?" Sonya complained before giggling. " Good night." She said and went to sleep after blowing out the candle.

She heard Siorradh bar the door and murmur a death threat to Sioc about him staying in HIS bed. Before Siorradh went to hers. Sonya giggled one last time before falling asleep.

The next day Sonya was wearing her usual Chimera armor while Siorradh sat to her left and Sioc sat to the snow cat girl's left as usual. They all sat on a bench staring at the Dragon Hourglass as the other heroes and their parties arrived. Siorradh was busy doing maintenance on her dagger while checking on its balance while Sioc snoozed with his spear resting against his shoulder. Both of the two had their shields strapped to their backs.

Sonya smirked when she saw Ishiku-San eying Siorradh nervously. She would have made an effort to keep the Sneg-koshka around if she wasn't always shadowing her to begin with. The cat trying to monopolize her attention sometimes became annoying. But it wasn't like her and Sioc's rivalry caused them to be less productive. The exact opposite. She was just glad the girl wasn't outright cruel to the Volki boy.

She checked on the timer. They had five minutes. She contented herself with watching the numbers slowly tick by before her mind drifted on what they would be eating for dinner if they could. She wondered how big the invasion would be. Would it be practically endless? She wondered. She also wondered if this world had any form of pizza. She imagined what a slice of pizza would be like if she could get a hold of a slice... Or would she have to make it? Could she make it? She looked at her culinary level which was a 5. She sighed. She reminded herself that she NEEDED to practice using her shields so she could level their proficiency. But then her mind drifted back to pizza and the scent she missed so much... Even if she hadn't been able to afford it in a while.

That was when she noticed Siorradh was staring at her. " You are drooling Sonya-Sama." The cat girl said before laughing and getting up so Sioc would fall over. Sonya looked at her with a blank expression when Siorradh used the sleeve of Sioc's tunic to wipe Sonya's mouth. When the Volki finally realized what the Sneg-koshka did Sonya was laughing as she watched Sioc chase after the Siorradh. It was thirty seconds to go before she waved them over. She was glad she had them to cheer her up.

Although their antics did not amuse the others.

Ten...Nine... Eight..Seven...

Sonya Hugged the two close, took a deep breath, closed her eyes. By the time she exhaled they had been warped to an empty field. It felt like a sudden jerk of her body and she managed to land on her feet. Then she heard a loud cracking when she wondered where the fissure would be.

The sky turned a dark red as she looked off to her right as cracks in the sky began to form. Then a hole opened up and the chaos began. Her and the others gave a nod. One of the gunners fired a flare into the air while the rest of them ran towards the fissure.

Luckily there were no villages near by so Sonya left the others to fight what looked like a bunch of hollow soldiers and and plain old hollows. It was hard to tell the difference because they both moved in a shambling manner, carried broken weapons. She guessed the only difference was those that had armor on also had broken shields. But that wasn't important. She switched to her Tall Wall Shield and with the help of Sioc and Siorradh, began to plow through the hordes of undead that came out of the fissure.

It was chaos. Despite the fact that the four parties formed up with their respected strategies. Uta-san stayed close to Sonya, her knights slowly moving in somewhat of a phalanx formation.

Ishiku-san was not so different however he took Sonya's other side as she spear headed the attack.

That left Arashi-san, who acted as cavalry... At first Sonya thought this was a bad idea, but it worked.

They had a clear line. The troops and knights that came from Melromark were not so organized. Sonya saw why.

The officers went down. It was because the enemies kept coming back, and this cut them down at their legs. Sonya regretted not having a similar strategy seminar with them. An oversight that had cost lives. But this was not the end. She managed to pull a knight close to her as she deflected a blow from an undead spearman. "You have a horn, rally everyone behind us!" She yelled over the clang of metal and yelling and dying.

The horn sounded... It was not exactly the best idea she had after all. Because the undead's attention was drawn to them.

Sonya grimaced. "Shield wall!" She yelled out desperately.

The undead swarmed her position, trying to cut down the knights who were rallying behind them. They at least knew to regroup at the line. Healers took care of the injured. There was no real room to breath though. But it was strange. The line held despite the fact that the undead came back not long after they died.

Sonya was glad that the skill 'Shield Wall' did not constantly take SP away from her. But she was tiring. That was when she was pulled away. What? No! She had to stay at the front, otherwise...
The line held and an invite was sent to her. The small squadron of knights that was left were temporarily apart of her party. Her shield wall skill was still active...

But how? She wasn't interlocked with the wall...

But she was still apart of the formation. She remembered something from world history class. The roman legions. They had a shield wall that marched forward against enemy armies. The front would hold for a certain duration of time and fall back to rest, only to be replaced by fresher soldiers. This is what was going on. Soon reinforcements came. Spearman with shields who helped hold the line. But more importantly, they immobilized the undead. So even when they did reraise, they were stuck at the end of a spear.

It was a slow march forward.

That was when they finally found IT. It took the form of a very fat draconic demon with a huge hammer made out of ancient blackened wood. The green scales only added to the sickeningly ugly look that the tall lumbering demon had. It spotted them. " Yeah, Shield Hero... You can have that thing." Ishiku-san said as he retreated to the rest of his comrades.

"Awww! Aren't you lovely! I am so happy to see you!" Sonya said as she raised her shield to receive the powerful blow that forced her sliding backwards. She only ended up charging forward while she ignored the weird looks her subordinates gave her. Yes, she was a little crazy. " Sioc, Siorradh! Go and attack it from behind! If it starts to fly, retreat a little ways and don't let it land on top of you! I'll keep it busy as best as I can!" She called out to them before receiving another blow for the huge creature's hammer.

A circle was made to stay as far away from the demon as possible while Sonya and her team dealt with it.

It was after this that the demi-humans both gave her a nod and pincered around the creature's reach to attack from behind. " Is that the best you can do?" She asked holding her arms up in the air mockingly before hiding back behind her shield again.

She laughed like a maniac as the creature wailed on her. She felt so alive and relieved. At least, she hoped this was the second wave's boss. It struck again and again, and each time it suffered damage from Sonya's thorn aura. She noticed it then. The health bar above its head. It was slowly depleting and once Sioc and Siorradh started attacking its hindquarters its Hp really started to drop down. But she had to keep its attention on her.

" Shield Rush!" She yelled after turning her Thorn Aura off. She plowed into it and bounced off doing very little damage but she got its attention.

" Shield Prison!" She yelled and caged herself while it wailed on her cage for the next minute. The battle lasted five minutes before she finally heard the gratifying wail of it finally dying. But it didn't burst into a punch of souls. It just simply died. Sioc had finished it off after it's legs had given out with a stab to the back of its neck. Sonya sighed. As she watched the fissure close. Until a black knight charged at her and hit her with the same amount of force that the demon before had. Siorradh leaped onto its back and started to stab it in the gaps of its armor over and over again until it turned around only for Sioc to stab it through the head, underneath its jaw.

She sighed. She thought it was over... Until it got back up. But it didn't get a chance to do more before Sioc wrenched its sword from the knight's grasp and beheaded it. Sonya shook her head. They were far tougher than she imagined. Siorradh hissed.

" What are these things!" She said glaring at the dead black knight.

" Undead." Sonya answered simply. The others did not fair as well as she had hoped. They looked ragged. But the undead were taken down. For now?

" So then. You have to behead them to kill them for good." She said calmly. The other heroes stared at her. She and her party were the only ones NOT covered in blood. But that was not the end. They were forced into one group when the 'undead' started to get right back up after a brief pause. They began to pull themselves up the spear shafts they were impaled on to get at their wielders. This was not good. The undead didn't even look as if they were damaged anymore. These things would not stay dead, would not stay damaged. It was an unending battle!

Sonya stared wide eyed. She saw one charging at her as everyone else was too stunned to do anything. Time just seemed to slow down for her though. She grabbed and wrenched the broken sword out of the hand of an undead warrior and stabbed it with its own sword. It hurt. It hurt like hell but it wasn't the shield's doing this time. It was because her hands had been engulfed in a white fire as the undead burned. She stared at it in fear as the fire spread from one undead to another. It engulfed everyone, in bright white flames. In flames that turned from white to blue before finally dying down. Sonya stared at her hands. They were burnt and bleeding as the weapon in her hand had disintegrated. A message popped up in front of her. 'Sword hilt recognized as spell ingredient. Sword hilt used for spell, Purge.'

Sonya looked around the area. It was covered in ash and bits of severely burnt bones.

Then the timer appeared on her screen as: 045:23:59:59 and started to count down by seconds. Sonya laughed painful before sitting down. " So, did anyone die?" She asked hoping the answer was no as she switched her shield to its vambrace form and hugged her hands close to her. They really did still hurt. Sioc and Siorradh eventually snapped out of their stupor to begin asking if Sonya was okay, which she was not.

It was found later on that the burns reached up to the middle of her forearms and the inside of her arms in that region were just as damaged. The spell 'Purge' was a nasty one that required a weapon from the enemy to preform. Sonya not knowing any better could have let go and avoided the damage she sustained. But otherwise she would be fine with a couple days recovery. The damage wasn't too deep. However, it would leave a scar.

Ishiku-sand spat on the ground. " And those bastards can stay down!" He muttered.


Well I hope the changes are a bit for the better. I might still need to do some editing, but there shouldn't be too many more changes. I hope you all enjoy!