It was a tense wait as the mission teams worked to complete the daily quests.

There were only three minutes left on the rescue mission, and Kalli could see that it was still active, so the team hadn’t made it to them yet.

That was cutting it very close.

With fifteen seconds left on the timer, the status changed.

{Emergency Quest Complete} Besieged Heroes have been successfully rescued from the Swineherd Demons. Mission completed with 14/20 members active.

{Secondary Quest Activated} Return to the Academy: Difficulty Hard. Members who completed the Emergency Quest must make their way back to the Academy with the rescued Heroes.

Kalli stared at the message in horror. They had definitely left with twenty. Unless someone had dropped out due to injury, this mission was a tragedy.

And, she didn’t think that would be the case. Even if they were injured and had to stay somewhere close, there was no reason to remove them from the quest team. They could just wait until they had recovered.

The rest of the team would push forward to do the rescue, and when the others had the ability, or another group found them, they could rejoin the team or head back home.

Kalli saw that tracking was active again, with fourteen blue dots and nearly fifty green dots.

There had been fifty students wherever they had gone?

And that wasn’t enough to break the siege?

Or perhaps they weren’t all students or heroes, but just people who had been where the mission was completed? She would find out when they got back, but the sight was making her nervous.

The sounds of battle reached her ears half an hour later, and Kalli ran for the tower on the side closest to the mission team.

The team was making their way down the main street in a fighting retreat, with pig faced demons chasing them.

Sanchez was at the back of the group, firing his military rifle one-handed, while his laser rifle was slung over his back.

The tank type warriors were on either side of him, and they all looked terrible.

There were also only fourteen of them, plus a lot of students who appeared to be from the grade school section. That explained a lot about what was going on. They had awakened, but they were still kids. They didn’t have the strength of an adult, or anything resembling combat experience, and definitely no weapons.

"Heroes, anyone who is still near the Academy, assist the rescue team. We need teams into the street to block the demonic advance." Kalli shouted, hoping that someone could hear her in the courtyard.

The few people who were nearby all rushed out, while the teams in the other towers sent one person to her position on the walls.

That gave her three mages on the walls, and ten people near the gates.

It might be enough.

The soldier in the tower opened fire, picking off the Swineherd Demons with precise shots. Then, the mages added their efforts as the retreating force came within range of their spells.

Unlike a rifle, most of the mages couldn’t cast a spell more than about fifty metres.

Kalli wanted to use her only magical skill to put a [Force Shield] on Sanchez and the others, but it only had a range of ten metres. Unless she ran out and joined the fight, all she could do was wait until they were within range.

No, she knew how to use a rifle.

{Item Purchased} Lasrifle

{Lasrifle} Stored energy weapon, requires 30 mana to recharge. Deals 30 damage per shot. 30 rounds per charge.

It worked well enough for Sanchez, and she had some mana.

It was painful to be entirely gear dependant, but given her class, it was better than nothing.

Streaks of red light slammed into the demons, giving the retreating fighters a moment to breathe. They weren’t moving fast, everyone was exhausted and injured.

But the other teams who had taken the Swineherd Demon extermination mission were converging on their position now.

The sound of battle was impossible to miss, as the Swineherd Demons screamed and squealed constantly. That must have been how the younger students got surrounded. They had injured one, and it had called all the others.

Kalli reloaded the laser rifle, and felt exhaustion hit her body hard.

She had barely enough mana to refill the rifle, leaving her with only three points, and apparently that level of mana usage all at once had a heavy mental toll.

Sanchez hadn’t mentioned that.

But after a moment, she stuffed a bite of pork sandwich in her mouth for energy and steadied the rifle using the castle wall’s crenelations.

Shot after shot found their mark, and the extra students attacking from the sides began to thin the horde of Swineherd Demons that had followed the rescue mission back.

Now, everything was in range of the walls, and Sanchez was pushing the rescued students through the gates.

"Everyone, focus fire on the centre! Create a breach and regroup. Get the injured into the walls. Someone come grab bandages from me. All healers to the gate!"

Kalli shouted orders which seemed to carry unnaturally well over the din of battle, and the others followed without question.

Then, a team came out of the dungeon and saw the chaos. They were immediately running for the gates, ready to pull the rescued students to safety, while their healer cast a wide area spell over the rescue team.

It was like the bandages, a low but steady amount of healing.

Just enough to keep them going.

Amber broke through the lines with her team, who formed a defensive wall for Sanchez to retreat and get his broken arm properly repaired.

Then, the Saint Class healer floated into the air as she cast a massive healing spell, allowing everyone in the area to surge with health and many injuries to close completely.

It left her very nearly exhausted, but it gave new life to the defenders, and with the help of the reinforcements, the Swineherd Demons were falling fast.

{Coordinator Kalli has completed a Hard Difficulty Quest} Uncommon Grade Mystery Box awarded.