Edge watched from the ramparts with his heart hammering in his chest.

  The horde was still a few hours away from entering the biome, but he had been keyed up from the moment he opened his eyes. Before the sun set, he would take part in a battle on a scale beyond anything he’d experienced before—a conflict that made the war with the Crimson Claws seem like a skirmish by comparison.

  He thought his people had a chance of coming out on top, but that didn’t still his racing pulse or quell the adrenaline sloshing through his veins.

  He was far from the only nervous face in the crowd. The murmur of voices was thick with tension as every cored resident who wasn’t already in the field assembled along the ring road running between the wall and the city’s districts.

  Trapper, Violet, and Blue had left before dawn, leading the hunters who would hit the horde before the other teams took their turn. In the distance, he could see dozens of uncored volunteers receiving their final briefing, serving as the wall-guard’s support staff under the supervision of the militia.

  Everyone in Edge’s kill team was somewhere nearby—a collection of powerhouses who were all middle stage-two or above.

  Earl and Able were speaking to Mel. She was commanding the peacekeepers defending the wall, since both men were heading out to bring down the bosses, followed by the kaiju itself. He was glad the sheriff was back in fighting shape, even though the warrior was still working out some kinks in his new limbs.

  While he waited for his team to head out, Edge inspected the defenses the town had installed over the last two weeks.

  The crafters had fortified both gates, and the earth specialists had raised a palisade all the way around the wall—thick spires of stone angled to catch a charging creature. They were bladed along one side to tear the beasts apart when they tried to pull free.

  The other additions followed a similar logic. Since the settlement was fighting walking corpses, the defenses needed to impede limbs, sever tendons, and break bones instead of causing wounds that would be fatal to living creatures.

  The town’s stage-one warriors were arranged along the ramparts—positioned between the devices the crafters had installed to supplement the remaining turrets, both of which had been installed above the southern gate.

  Edge ran his gaze across bolt throwers, rock chuckers, and an assortment of magitech machines that converted aether into elemental attacks. These weapons wouldn’t stop the strongest undead but would be effective against the rest.

  The defenders were backed up by squads of early stage-twos, who had been tasked to eliminate dangerous opponents en route by focusing their fire and dispatch any beasts that scaled the walls. Sasha was with them. When their gazes met, they shared a nervous smile before she turned back to her team.

  Together, they should be able to handle a few hundred undead, especially with the turrets backing them up. But if too many arrive at once, they’re going to suffer serious casualties. My team needs to cull any bosses that survive Trapper’s handiwork before battling the kaiju, and the wall team can handle the rest.

  Riller, Sakura, and Dialla were in one of the guard towers, along with a dozen other warriors with sensory-enhancing and communication skills. They were tracking the kaiju and its horde while relaying orders to the various elements of the defense in real time.

  At the moment, their reconnaissance was dependent on Sakura’s scrying, but Riller’s Drone would take over when the stampede came into range, since the scion of Lore-Weaver was needed on the front line.

  Momo was mirroring Remote Viewing’s feedback and projecting it onto the wall of a nearby building, letting the town’s strategically minded members analyze the evolving situation and offer what guidance they could.

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  Behind the wall waited crews of alchemists, healers, crafters, and runners, who would support the teams stationed atop the ramparts. A group of aura-wielders would position themselves where the fighting was thickest and their supportive magic would do the most good.

  Three specialists had been assigned pull people out of danger. One could use a short-range teleport, and the others had skills like Manifest Chain or Manipulate Water that could reach out and extract their endangered allies. To Edge’s surprise, Izzio the Butcher was one of the people guarding them. He must have bound a core since the last time we spoke.

  In the center of town, the uncored citizens who weren’t serving in supporting roles had taken shelter in the bunkers Dialla had built to weather the living storms, which had been expanded over the last few days to accommodate additional personnel.

  The shelters were shielded by magitech concealment devices, which would keep the undead from finding them if any stray beasts made it into town. The uncored militia were with them as a last line of defense, although if the situation reached a point where they needed to fight, matters would be grim indeed.

  On the subject of worst-case scenarios, a series of narrow walkways were positioned between the rooftops. They would let people withdraw from the ramparts and move from one building to another without exposing themselves to the enemies below. Even if the stampede broke through the gate, the defenders could attack from an elevated position where the undead couldn’t reach them.

  Edge watched as everyone wished each other luck, exchanging embraces, high-fives, and more than a few passionate kisses. The sight filled him with pride, and he was determined to save as many lives as he could. He memorized the faces around him and the settlement stretching out into the distance, knowing this might be his last chance to admire the town and the people who called it home.

  That was when Earl gave the signal.

  Everyone on the kill team and the group that would engage the stampede in a running battle met in front of the southern gate. As they crossed the threshold, a cheer arose. It started with the wall team and then spread to the people further back until it reached the shelters, and everyone in the settlement took up the cry.

  Edge joined his voice to the torrent of sound—buoyed by the passion reverberating across the city streets. He waved to his friends standing on the ramparts, praying that he would find them safe and sound on his return and they could celebrate their victory together.

  They saluted the wall guard and then turned away, sprinting across the biome on an intercept course for the army of the dead.

  He spotted buffalo in the distance as the kill team crossed the prairie. The gigantic beasts were bigger than ever now that concentrated magicytes were saturating the plains, and he’d never seen so many gathered in one place.

  It’s too bad they won’t lend us a hand in wiping out the stampede. A force like that would make all the difference.

  Edge turned away from the gigantic bovines and reviewed the next stage of the plan.

  Trapper’s team was fifteen miles out from where the kill team would make their stand—ready to make their move the moment the horde came into range. With any luck, the hunters would slaughter several hundred beasts when they caught the plains ablaze. The stampede would move into the trap fields next, killing some more while staggering their approach.

  Once the horde pushed through, it would arrive at Edge’s position, and his battle would begin. The kill team would focus on eliminating the stage-three elites while the weaker warriors battled the horde on the run, whittling down the first wave on their way back to town.

  The beast riders were guarding the trap team and would carry them back to the settlement before circling around to engage the stampede from the saddle, focusing on controlling their movement like they had during the battle two weeks ago. Once the fire was lit, Trapper would head over to join the kill team, adding one more elite to their ranks.

  If everything went according to plan, the undead should reach the settlement in staggered clumps, and the wall team could wipe them out before the next group arrived. That would prevent the creatures from breaching the wall, although every boss that broke through would press the defenders hard.

  Once the stampede was removed from the equation, every cored warrior in the settlement could focus on the kaiju, combining their firepower to breach its defenses and land a killing blow.

  This strategy is sound. But I have a funny feeling that winning this fight isn’t going to be that easy. Edge took a deep breath to steady his nerves as he devoured the miles beneath his boots. Despite the danger and the tension filling the air, he was filled with a feral excitement—anticipation of the cycles to come and the skills that would soon be his.

  Although he didn’t notice, the ravenous lord slumbering inside him opened one eye, as both man and core salivated over the feast to come.