The river did not wait long.
Caio wasn't sure when sleep finally took him. He only knew that when he woke up, it was to the sound of paddles hitting water too fast and too hard, and the sharp, metallic clatter of spearheads banging against wood.
He rolled out of the hammock before his brain caught up, feet hitting the cool floor, hands already reaching for the loincloth and belt where he'd hung his bone knife.
Shouts cut through the night.
"Moonfish, up!"
"Outer platforms! Move, move!"
"Jara! To me!"
He sighed, closing his eyes for a moment before opening them up again and taking his spear that was resting on the wall.
That's it. A new turn began, and the surge is here.
He opened the ledger to check some things, then closed it and ran.
***
Caio saw the village as a blur of moving bodies and swaying glow-jars. It was still dark, and the mist made seeing even more difficult.
He darted along the planks, hands brushing the rope guide-lines they had set during the day. He was already becoming familiar with the layout, and some of these ropes were planned by him the day before.
Screams came from ahead.
He reached the edge of the inner platforms just as Suma leaped past him, spear in hand, her silhouette a dark wedge against the pale river.
"Back lines stay. Teeth-path only. Far-Eyes, with me or behind me. Not in my way."
He nodded and got out of the way.
"Behind, for now."
She grunted approval and kept going.
***
The outer platform beyond her was in a state of complete chaos.
Dark, hulking shapes charged, jumping from one platform to the other. Caio could see beasts with too many jointed limbs and ridged backs, scales glinting with a faint unhealthy sheen.
Some had already impaled themselves on the stakes that they had prepared, thrashing and splattering blackened blood across the water. But most had not.
The village floated in the middle of the river, which was its main strength and its main weakness.
While normal land monsters wouldn't be able to do anything to them, any intelligent invader could just cut the ropes that tied it to the margins. Without those anchors, the village would be dragged by the current into the narrow passage with corrupted water.
And monsters in surges were smarter than their normal counterparts.
Smart enough to cut ropes out of frustration if they couldn't reach the village… Not smart enough to see a path to the village as a trap. With a clear path, their killing instincts took hold.
They surged in clumps, jumping and biting. Water bunched and rolled under them in bulges like something behind them was shoving, but none of them lost their balance even once.
Suma stepped onto the narrow fighting ledge they had designated as a kill zone that afternoon. Two warriors flanked her, spears ready.
Caio's mind worked like it had split into two.
While one part catalogued everything (numbers, behavior, attack patterns), the other part was simply panicking.
Too many. Too fast. And this is just 'minor → moderate'?
Jara was already on one of the adjacent platforms, a small watchtower Caio had instructed them to build. She was barefoot, with rope tied around her waist, spear in hand. She shouted positions to the Moonfish boats below.
"Not that channel! Safe path to your left! Don't cut across the spikes!"
Her voice was sharp enough to slice through panic.
A twisted thing with a frog's body and a jaw that opened too wide lunged up at the platform edge near her. Her spear flashed, hitting it on the space right below the neck. The beast went back down into the water with a crack.
Mairi stood further back, white-knuckled hands gripping a spare spear, eyes glued to Jara's silhouette.
"Far-Eyes!"
Rana's voice snapped from behind him, making him turn like a trained soldier.
The Reed-Queen stood on the inner platform, bare-armed, hair half-braided as if she'd been interrupted mid-preparation. Beside her, Saori's expression was distant, eyes unfocused, as if listening to something only she could hear.
"Is this the main surge? Or a test?"
Caio opened the main map screen, checking the full information.
The beasts pressed against the defenses, but only in two main channels. The third, wilder side current remained almost empty. The spike-rafts forced them into the teeth-paths like they'd intended. Good. That was good.
But the density…
"I don't think this is all of it. But if we break here, the rest won't matter."
Rana's mouth tightened.
"Then we don't break."
Yeah, that simple.
***
Suma led the warriors, throwing spears against the beasts. The narrow passages were perfect ambush spots, and the beasts that fell to the water drowned or were carried away by the current.
Each warrior carried three spears. After they threw them, they would retreat to pick more, and other warriors would take their place with three more spears. There were always three groups: one throwing spears, other resupplying, and a third resting and waiting their turn.
It was another innovation by Caio, the idea of taking rounds to rest the warriors.
Caio was looking at the flow, satisfied, when a new beast jumped to the platforms. It was big enough that Caio's instincts classified it automatically as a 'mini-boss.'
It looked like a crocodile with extra forelimbs sprouting from its sides, claws hooked backward like anchors, and its back was thick with woody mushrooms that provided a layer of armor.
It snarled, jaws wide.
Suma sprinted forward. She knew that this monster would need to be dealt with in the old way. She stepped in, thrust, and braced, sinking her spear into the thick muscle of its neck.
The creature convulsed, tail thrashing. The extra limbs scrabbled at the wood, claws gouging deep lines.
Two warriors were already flanking her, jamming their own spears down on the beast's head and shoulders, pinning it in place while Suma twisted her weapon.
There was a crunch. A spray of dark, foul-smelling liquid.
The beast went slack, then rolled back into the water, dragging the spearhead with it.
Suma didn't swear. She simply grabbed the shaft and jerked it once, and the head tore free with part of the beast's flesh still attached. She flipped it around and resumed her stance with a motion so smooth it looked like a cutscene in a gacha game.
What's with that aura farming? Now it's not the moment…
"Fall back! There are more coming!"
Caio's shout made her snap back to reality, right in time to dodge the attack from another beast. One of her warriors killed that one, and the three fell back into line.
"That was reckless."
She shrugged at his words, showing off the monster's head on her spear as if it were enough argument.
Jara's voice came from the watchtower overhead.
"They're not stopping!"
The organization of the line had been broken by the big beast, but Suma quickly put them back into shape.
Saori stepped to Caio's side.
"The river behind them is sick. It pushes wrong."
He looked at her, trying to make sense of her words.
"Corruption hunts us in our own waters. And we do not have enough songs to heal that tonight."
***
The first casualty came right after sunrise. It was not dramatic or heroic, but a simple misstep.
One of the younger warriors beside Suma lunged too far forward to stab a beast that had almost made it past the spikes. Her foot landed on a patch of plank still slick with blood. She slipped. Her spear went wide.
The beast's claws came up in a wild swipe.
Caio was looking in that direction at that exact moment and saw everything like the world was in slow motion.
His brain processed what was about to happen before he even understood consciously the movements. He shouted before thinking
"Rope!"
But she hadn't tied in.
Yet, Suma reacted faster than thought. She slammed her own body sideways, shoulder-checking the warrior back from the edge.
The claws raked across Suma's thigh instead of the girl's gut. Bone-deep, by the look of it.
Suma didn't scream.
Blood ran down her leg, dark against her skin. She drove her spear into the wooden planks just to keep herself upright for a breath.
Caio immediately yelled
"Aruá!"
"I know!"
Aruá was already moving, making way for her apprentices to reach Suma and carry her to the tent they had set up for treating wounds.
"Hold line! No one falls because of my leg!"
Suma shouted at the other warriors while being carried away. Her instincts of commander sharp as always.
Two other warriors stepped into tighter formation, spears crossing.
Rana and Saori didn't have a big reaction, but Caio saw the frown in their faces and the clenching in their jaws. They held the impersonal royalty of their positions, yet underneath they were shaken.
In mere moments, Suma was in the tent.
Aruá reached her, dropping to her knees on the blood-slick planks. She slapped a padded, herb-soaked cloth against the wound and wrapped it tight with practiced speed.
"Can you stand?"
"Standing."
Suma said, as if she already was.
"Can you fight?"
"Fighting."
Aruá's mouth pressed into a hard line, but she didn't argue.
She chanted a healing prayer, then finished the bandage, tied it off, and moved on to check the younger warrior's scraped arm.
Caio couldn't help but watch the way Aruá's hands moved. She was fast and precise. Even with beasts roaring and water thrashing below, her focus never slipped.
He also saw the determination in Suma's eyes, her will to keep fighting even in that condition.
These women are simply incredible. They are true survivors of the apocalypse. I can't let them die here.
His grip on his spear tightened, and he looked at the front lines, the so-called 'teeth-path.'
Maybe it's my time to join in the fray.