That night, the people of Hylm had huddled together within the sturdiest home in their mountain village, praying that the Wave that the messengers and given word of would miss them. That it would be another that was hit by this attack.
That prayer would go unanswered as swirling crimson red lights spread across the sky not far from their village, and through the limited light provided by the otherworldly glow, they could see small dots of black rain down towards the earth.
The people watched with fearful apprehension as, in the light of the bonfires, they started to see the shifting movement of dark skinned goblins approaching their hiding place.
The cruel cacklings of the otherworldly creatures for whom a sense of unmistakable wrongness seemed to flow off of their skin like the smell of death, sent shivers down the villagers spines as they huddled together in their barracked house. The crying of the children couldn't be stopped and felt as if it was drawing the monsters in.
The goblins reached the house and started to pound on its stone foundations with their clubs, laughing as they drew cries of panic from the people inside, before moving on to the boarded up windows.
Hearts somehow managed to sink even further and boards cracked under the strength of the invading monsters, and the people knew that it was only a matter of time before the creatures would get it.
Knowing that the time was fast approaching, the men and older boys walked forward with spades and pickaxes, ready to defend their families to their dying breaths.
But before the monsters could get in, a loud trumpeting pierces through the sounds of the beasts, startling them. Large and colorful forms came barreling into the village, trampling over the Shadow Assault Goblins as a wave of large, round Filolials arrived at the village, quickly followed by tiny rabbit people and professional soldiers.
An especially large Filolial, one the size of a small house with sky blue feathers crashed down into the middle of the invading monsters, a small figure on its back firing off water magic at the surrounding monsters before calling out to the villagers.
"People of Melromarc, we have come to offer you our assistance! You are safe now!" The little girl shouted as the light of the bonfire illuminated her ocean blue hair and shining armor, the jewel on the end of her staff shining like a beacon of hope.
Tears came to the eyes of those who saw her, as they realized that they might just make it through the night.
After the initial assault on the village was pushed back, the Library Rabbits set up magic tools to erect a barrier around their base of operations and the army got to work surrounding the space underneath the dimensional breach in the sky.
550 soldiers against the endless waves of monsters raining down from the heavens. Normally speaking, that wasn't even close to enough. Not without castle walls or any sort of military structures to depend on. But the magic tools created by the Library Rabbits in preparation for the Wave proved useful, as they could set up safe zones in key positions around the perimeter, and with earth magic, crude defenses could be made to funnel the enemy's movement somewhat.
Rozemyne's buffs would also make the battle far less painful.
"We've secured the main village, but there are still outlying farms." Melty said as Leafy pulled out the map for the region they had arrived in, having brought maps of ALL regions, since they didn't know where the Wave would hit.
"If there is anyone who could point them out to me, I could use Lessy to round up the people from the surrounding farms while I am doing my rounds." Rozemyne volunteered.
Her duty during the Wave was going to be to circle the surrounding area in Lessy, providing assistance where needed and recovery magic to make sure that the soldiers didn't become exhausted.
Meanwhile, the assault team, composed of the other three Heroes would move to secure the Wave Boss.
"Are there any villagers who would be willing to assist the Shield Hero!?" Melty called out to the villagers, getting a volunteer from a young farm girl who was just a bit older than Melty herself. Melty assumed that someone would object to their daughter risking their life, but no one did.
She was dirty, her clothes were torn and she was rather thin.
Rozemyne immediately guessed an orphan of the village. A slave in all but seal who would have to do whatever odd jobs that the village gave her in order to survive, and salvage whatever else was needed from the surrounding land.
Definitely an individual who would know the surrounding farms.
"I'll be counting on you." Rozemyne said with a kind smile before letting the wide eyed child climb into Lessy, probably the safest place in the entire world.
Rozemyne had a good view of the situation from up in the sky, and wasn't particularly happy with it.
The field of battle was too large, and their forces spread thin, as while Rozemyne and Melty had wanted to contain the damage done by the Wave, Rozemyne wouldn't force people who were afraid to fight, and Melty understood that her country could be invaded at any time. Most of the soldiers that were brought were city guards and reserve units, as those forces at the border couldn't be weakened for even a moment.
550 fighters sounded like a lot, and it was. Even Greater Duchies only had around 300 knights in total. But it wasn't nearly enough to contain an endless flow of monsters that spawned in the dozens a second in a giant open field spanning miles of mountainous terrain. They had plenty of squads set up at key positions with Earth magic to create choke points, but some monsters would still slip out.
The first Wave, which arguably had the weakest monsters, was enough to decimate a large portion of the country, since the monsters weren't properly contained.
It was why Ren and the rest of the offensively focused Heroes would target the Wave Boss first. They needed to end the Wave as quickly as humanly possible. But at the same time…
Rozemyne glanced towards the Ghost ship that was floating high up in the sky, glowing eerily in the darkness with the swirling red vortices behind it.
She could shoot it out of the sky with her water gun using the black weapon spell. If she tried, she could erase all of the magic power in it and send it crashing down to Earth. But how many levels would that grow her? How many levels could she grow before even the Cloak of the God of Darkness could no longer contain her mana?
Would she be a greater threat to the world than even the Waves of Calamity?
The idea of her own mana leaking out of her and spawning endless hordes of monsters scared her too much for her to risk it.
"Down there! Ol' man Kertz house be down that way!" The child shouted, pointing towards a small cleared area off to their left.
"Thank you." Rozemyne said, before guiding Lessy down towards the farm that was only just starting to come into view, letting them see the monsters that were approaching it.
Rozemyne's guards jumped into action to take care of them as they rescued the first set of farmers, loading them into Lessy before taking off once again.
This was Rozemyne's job, to protect the people and buy time for the others. It was the best she could do to help.
"Lightning Thrust!" Motoyasu shouted, sending a bolt of electricity out of his spear at the monsters that were coming down the mountain side towards them, blasting them into bits.
Meanwhile, a few more monsters were approaching from either side of him, only for Schnee and Elena to jump into action, Schnee swiftly cutting down the six monsters on the right with his short sword, while Elena took care of the two of the left with her own sword.
Motoyasu was a little surprised to see Elena fighting up close and personal, and he wasn't the only one.
"Strange. According to my reports, you were more of a support caster." Schnee commented as the girl finished off her opponents and returned to them.
"I can use magic, but I'm not really good at it. Always end up biting my tongue if I try to chant while moving. So, it is better to use a sword when we are in a hurry like this." Elena said with a shrug. "Plus… It wasn't safe to stand out in this party, if you know what I mean."
Motoyasu didn't know what she meant by that, but before he could ask, Malty came running forward. "Wow Motoyasu! You're the best!" She shouted, giving him a hug before holding out a potion for him.
'I sure am!'
That's what he would have said before, but for some reason, the words didn't come to him. His ego had taken too much of a hit for that. Instead, he just gave an awkward 'thanks' as he took the potion. Not that he couldn't have brought one out of his inventory a lot easier.
"Just so you are aware, handing out potions to someone who is completely healthy doesn't count as contributing." Schnee said flatly. "And tell those lackeys of yours to hurry up. We have a lot of ground to cover."
Malty, Lesty and the six guards that accompanied them gave the little rabbit boy death glares. They had not done much to hide the fact that they hated him, and the way that they referred to the little guy as a dumb animal made Motoyasu uncomfortable. Elena did join them in insulting him, but she didn't jump to his defense either.
"He's right. We need to keep moving." Motoyasu said before a fight could break out. "There is a barrier around the ghost ship that won't drop until we destroy the anchors that hold it in the ground. Ren and his team are taking the north one, so we have to handle the south."
Motoyasu looked up at the ship in the sky, which was the size of a soccer stadium, with the tentacles of the mini-boss kraken growing out of the sides. That kraken would have to be defeated in order to draw out the main boss, but there were steps that had to be taken before that.
"It's amazing." Schnee said, also looking at the ship as they moved towards the anchor. "I can't wait to see what my siblings back at the lab can learn from it."
"The lab?" Motoyasu asked with interest.
"Of course. We Library Rabbits live for knowledge. Even the meat heads of our kind like Aqua study all they can about making top quality magic equipment." Schnee said with a bit of pride, before throwing Motoyasu a dirty look. "That ship is a relic from the other side of the dimensional rift. Who knows what we could learn by studying it and the Wave Boss. So don't go destroying them or absorbing them into our Spear. The knowledge they represent is more valuable than any power you could gain from them."
Right. Rozemyne had said something along those lines as well during the last Wave after finding out that Itsuki and Motoyasu had divided up the corpse of the Wave Boss right after the battle was finished.
Something about studying the Wave Boss maybe giving them an idea of why the Wave ended when they were killed, and perhaps letting them discover a method for closing the rift without having to first fight the Wave at all.
It seemed far-fetched, but in truth, Motoyasu didn't know much about the Wave, beyond its mechanics from the game. No explanation was given for why it was what it was.
"Wait, so are you guys responsible for all of this?" Elena said, gesturing towards her armor, accessories and weapon, all of which had been provided by Rozemyne to those on the strike teams.
The clothes had several defensive boosting charms, as did the bracelets and necklace, and the sword had a mana draining effect on it.
"That is just mass produced trash that we made at the last minute. Our best work can't be compared to it." Schnee huffed.
"Really?" Elena was perking up and smiling more than usual. "My family is one of the best connected merchant nobles in the country. If you would be willing to work together, I am sure we could all benefit greatly."
"Elena, what are you doing?" Malty hissed angrily.
"What I am doing is trying to make a connection with someone who could hook my family up with top quality merchandise." Elena said, so excited as to not care that she was back talking Malty. "Equipment like this is worth a lot more than those dresses you kept having made."
That's what she thought.
Equipped with their Lady's copy/paste magic, the Library Rabbits could replicate a completed magic circle onto any physical medium that contained its own magic energy.
While this wasn't good for long lasting tools, since the circles would eventually disappear, it did allow them to pump out twenty copies of some of the highest quality enchantments money could buy. Of course, in five days, when the magic energy in the items was used up and the circles disappeared, they would be basically worthless.
This was both a method of equipping a large number of soldiers, and of testing them. Would they run off with equipment they believed to be worth hundreds of gold coins? Lady Rozemyne was counting on it.
So when Schnee saw that look appear in the eyes of Malty and Lesty, he had to hide a grin. "We'll see, Ms. Haven. We'll see."
To whoever keeps spamming not to add Rozemyne to a harem, stop it.
As a character, Rozemyne is an asexual. While she appreciates physical beauty and cuteness and can love people as family, she doesn't experience romantic feelings towards anyone of any gender. She'd only marry some one if there would be enough benefits to it.
Hell, if it was possible, she'd probably end up married to Melty for political stability. Or even Eclair in order to resolve the issue of her taking the woman's land. Her ideal husband would probably be the leader of the Library Rabbits, since she would want his library.
Doesn't matter who falls for her, they are basically shit out of luck unless they can convince her that marrying them would give her loads of books.