"They're coming!!"

  The shout from Jeff, who was keeping watch from above, sent a wave of tension through our waiting faces.

  Gulping down my saliva, I grinned and turned around.

  "Don’t worry!! As long as we follow the steps properly, we’ll be safe!!""I ain’t so senile that a brat like you needs to worry about me!! Right?!""Yeah!"

  We barely managed to finish our preparations in time.

  Golems are the best.They’re more useful than any clumsy heavy machinery.

  We repurposed the dug-up dirt into barricades, behind which the men from the shopping district stood ready with spears in hand.

  Normally, shoppers would be walking through these streets.But now, the only ones marching in were those damnable monsters.

  Goblins with pale blue skin, their eyes darting around restlessly.

  Their crimson-bck pupils flickered as they searched for prey.

  "Amina, it's up to you!"

  One of the men from the shopping district gasped at the sight of them.Before the tension could overwhelm everyone, I shouted—and in response, the area behind me lit up.

  "Leave it to me!!"

  A makeshift stage.

  Just some wooden crates piled together as a base, with pnks nailed on top—a simple, crude ptform.

  It felt too shabby for Amina’s debut stage, but we couldn’t afford to be picky.

  Now then, listen up, you goblins.

  You’re about to hear the luxurious voice of a songstress.

  ?～

  Amina’s voice transformed into song.

  When I first saw the skill she had bought—on top of her Singing Arts—my eyes widened in surprise.

  "I feel strength surging through me!!""The kid was right!! With this, we can fight!"

  "Cheer Song."A must-have among singing arts, it provided regeneration effects and attack buffs for both physical and magical attacks.

  I wondered how she even got her hands on something like this, but singing skills were inherently ineffective unless the user’s singing ability was high.

  Singing Arts itself was just a passive skill—it didn’t make you a better singer, only enhanced the effects of singing skills and allowed for longer performances.

  "She’s pushing the limits of what a low-tier skill can do."

  And from personal experience, Amina’s singing was maximizing Cheer Song’s effects.

  Not only that—

  "The goblins have noticed us!!""No, they’re looking at Amina!!"

  The goblins’ attention was now fully locked onto her, further amplifying the skill’s effects.

  Singing skills were unique—whether they affected allies or enemies depended entirely on the singer.They were characterized by wide-area buffs and an increased aggro-drawing effect.

  For us, they granted buffs.For the enemy goblins, they forced their attention onto Amina.

  To the goblins, nothing existed except her.

  "Band!! Start pying!!""Got it!!"

  In sync with Amina’s singing, the musically inclined members of the shopping district joined in.Though, it was only a trio.

  A flute, a cajón, and a lute.

  Their accompaniment further boosted the singing skill’s effects.

  Smirking at the absurdity of having live battle music, I turned my gaze forward.

  "Alright, Nel, stick to the pn!""Yeah, leave Amina to me!!"

  Then, the goblin zombies stepped into the brightly lit pathway—everywhere except the stage.

  !?

  Oh? They’re panicking, panicking!

  But you’ll keep coming anyway, won’t you?

  "Now then—let’s fight on the water!"

  As the goblin zombies waded into the water, I too charged into the shopping district’s streets—now transformed into a "muddy swamp."

  For bipedal, short-statured goblins, the swamp created by water flowing in from the surrounding buildings was incredibly difficult to move through.

  But for me—an Angler with a tall frame, multiple legs, and the ability to anchor myself firmly—navigating the swamp was effortless.

  "That head’s mine!!"

  Swinging the axe gripped in my Angler’s hand, I effortlessly lopped off a goblin zombie’s head.

  With their lower bodies mostly submerged, the goblins had no way to evade my strikes.

  "We Anglers evolved multiple legs specifically to stabilize ourselves in unstable terrain like this!"

  Clicking my six legs lightly, I slid sideways and decapitated another goblin.

  "This is where I shine!"

  And thanks to Amina’s song keeping the goblins’ attention fixated on her, my aggro was practically zero.

  Which meant I always got the first strike.

  Even as I rampaged wildly alongside my Angler form, Amina’s singing kept the goblins entranced.

  But—

  "Still can’t take them all out!! Backup, now!!""Leave it to me!!"

  No matter how much I sughtered, wiping out every enemy was impossible.

  Even with superior mobility and power, the sheer numbers were overwhelming.

  Seriously, just how many had infiltrated the capital?

  The swamp was littered with magic stones—proof that goblin zombies were packed so densely that swinging my axe at random would still hit something.

  For now, I’d charge ahead and thin their numbers, while the men behind the barricades speared any goblin zombies that tried to climb out of the swamp.

  Thanks to the attack buff from Amina’s Cheer Song, even the higher-HP goblin zombies were dying in one hit.

  "Tch, there are hobgoblins mixed in too."

  And among them, rger specimens were starting to appear.The arrows embedded in their bodies suggested the soldiers hadn’t just let them through.

  But even hobgoblin zombies had their skin seared by the light and were too fixated on Amina’s song to notice us.

  Even in her incomplete "busy idol" build—

  My Angler’s axe still cleaved through a hobgoblin zombie’s neck with ease.

  "But this numbers problem is something else..."

  Since the battle in the shopping district began, the horde of goblin zombies had been streaming toward us, completely ignoring the people inside the buildings—a small mercy.

  But despite fighting nonstop, their numbers didn’t seem to be decreasing.

  From my vantage point atop the golem, I could see more and more goblin zombies flooding into the shopping district. At this rate, the capital must have been overrun.

  "If what Jeff saw is true, things might be really bad."

  Jeff had scouted the breached southern gate, and it was hell.A mixed force of dragon zombies and goblin zombies cshed with knights, soldiers, and adventurers, but the dragon zombies were too destructive—the gate had been widened significantly.

  As a result, the monsters kept pouring in, and the breach couldn’t be sealed.

  If this continued, the entire capital would be swarmed.Soldiers and adventurers were trying to hold defensive lines all over, but they were outnumbered.

  Ideally, a proper defensive line should’ve stopped the monsters before they reached us, but the sheer numbers had forced the defenders to fall back.

  Now, the residential areas between the defensive lines and the walls were flooded with monsters.

  And of course, not everyone had evacuated in time.

  "Should we push the defensive line forward? Or guide the refugees here?"

  The grim reality made me hesitate, but as I cut down another goblin, I dismissed both options as impractical.

  Either choice would require abandoning this position—a worst-case scenario—and the chances of success were near zero.

  I was already doing the best I could with the options avaible.

  "Well, no time to compin anyway!"

  As if to remind me, a new wave of hobs appeared.

  Clearly, we’d entered the second phase.

  If the enemies kept escating like this, would we eventually face a Goblin King?

  First, I checked that the water siphoned from Mochi Dungeon was still flowing into the swamp.

  Using siphon principles, we’d diverted water from the dungeon’s spring into the streets.Since it was light-attribute water, it acted like poison to the goblin zombies. As long as we held this position, we wouldn’t lose.

  But we might run out of stamina sooner than expected.

  Amina was still fine.

  But would the shopping district’s defenders st?

  I’d asked them to take shifts and allocate their level-up stats wisely, but would that be enough?

  Of course, these guys weren’t meeting the conditions for EXBP—they were only getting normal level-ups.

  If a mini-boss-level enemy showed up, we’d be in trouble.

  I’d asked Jeff and the others to warn me if any particurly dangerous monsters appeared.

  My Angler’s axe was starting to dull.

  Monsters turned to bck ash and vanished when killed, but the resistance when cutting through them still wore down weapons.

  Even if they were zombies, chopping through goblin necks—bones and all—took its toll.

  The durability wasn’t critical yet, but facing a horde of hobs made me consider swapping weapons.

  Just then, the hobgoblin group exploded.

  Or rather, a spell detonated in their midst.

  "Liberta!! You’re safe!!""Midy!! Don’t go so far ahead!!"

  A familiar voice, and a familiar spell.

  "Guess we should treat this as reinforcements?"

  They’d deliberately fought through the goblin zombie horde to get here.If they were enemies, they’d either be idiots or lunatics.

  Raising the golem’s right arm as a signal, I advanced it forward.

  Lady Esmeralda, her knight escort, and several dozen soldiers.

  They’d fought their way through the monster horde.

  Pulling my Angler form out of the swamp and onto the paved street, I began wiping out the goblins to clear a path for Esmeralda’s group.

  "Liberta! You’re unharmed!!""Yeah! Barely! For now, fall back to our position! No time to chat!!"

  Cutting a path through, I led Esmeralda and the soldiers back to our barricades.

  "Lady Esmeralda, this way. Soldiers, my apologies, but—""Don’t worry, kid! A ditch like this is nothing!"

  Loading Esmeralda onto the golem, I retreated across the moat to the barricade.

  "So this is the stronghold you built. But why is that girl singing?""Amina’s forcing all the goblins to focus on her, so we can attack freely. Right now, they don’t even register us."

  First, she was stunned that we’d held out with just civilians. Then, she was shocked by Amina’s singing on stage.

  The golem reached the barricade, and Esmeralda climbed over using it as a stepping stone.

  Meanwhile, the soldiers crossed the moat under goblin assault and were pulled behind the barricade.

  "You men, reinforce the defensive line!"

  At Esmeralda’s command, the soldiers joined the barricade’s defenders, giving me a brief respite.

  Scrambling up the barricade in my Angler form, I dropped behind it and dismounted from the golem.

  "Phew."

  Behind the barricade were rest tents, a food stall, and a medical station—all managed by Teresa and the other women.

  "An impressive camp, considering the chaos everywhere else."

  Esmeralda marveled at our organization as I accepted a waterskin from a passing woman and took a swig.

  "So, why’d you come all the way out here into danger?""I’m not so ungrateful as to ignore my life-saver in peril. I brought soldiers to escort you and your allies to my estate."

  Honorable. That was my first thought.

  "But from the looks of it, you’re managing food and defense just fine.""Depends on how long this sts. We got hit by a stampede out of nowhere, then a siege, then a breach—zero intel. Any chance of a counterattack?""That’s..."

  As a duke’s daughter, maybe she had inside info. But she hesitated, gncing around.

  "I see. The situation is worse than I thought."

  Either there was no pn, or the forces sent to break the siege had been wiped out.

  She probably didn’t want to demoralize our defenders.

  "Then, since you’ve got escorts, mind coming with me?"

  I needed information. Having it or not could mean life or death.

  "Very well."

  Apparently willing to share, Esmeralda followed me into a nearby building with her guards.