The One Luna

As Luna was looking at the defenses, he was deep in thought. Sura could sense he was deep in thought, as Apple was walking towards him from above the walls.

Apple was surprised, as he saw the defenses outside the gate, she recalled that initially Luna only planned on using wooden spikes to slow down the horde a bit. Looking at it now, she noticed that Luna used the much higher quality metal spikes. Instead of two gates, he now had three. Additionally, there were two extra <Intermediate Automated Turrets>.

The last detail bewildered her even more. Those turrets weren't exactly cheap, even without them, although this next operation was gonna test their stamina, it wasn't what they deemed as "hard" after setting up this choke point and with multiple lines to fall back on. He's someone who, due to his perfect balance of a sense of urgency and caution, has earned them a lot of benefits in this new world.

Apple decided to stop thinking about it for now, since everyone was starting to gather, he was about to start briefing them.

"Everyone is here. Good. I'll get straight to the point. This defense isn't going to be just the immediate territories surrounding us. I'm sure you've noticed that the defenses setup would be overkill for just that. That's exactly because along with those territories, I'm also challenging the medium territory behind us." Luna's serious expression was all they needed to see that he wasn't kidding at all.

"L-lord Luna. Isn't that too reckless? That means we'll probably be constantly fighting for around 20 hours probably. But of course, I give you my word, I'll still fight to the end if you ask me to." said one survivor.

"I'm glad to hear that. Know that your trust in me is not for naught. The game plan is simple, everybody else but myself and Sura, will stand back for as long as you all can hold. This is so you all can have some more combat experience and do well, even without my help. You will start behind the spikes and the barricades and kill zombies from behind it, with the turrets assisting you." Luna continued to share with them his game plan, after hearing his plan, the rest of the members couldn't help but admire their leader even more.

As soon as everyone was in their positions quickly ran from each territory to the next, and triggered the challenges. Then quickly sprinted back to base. Situating himself on top of the wall, beside Sura and Apple. Everybody else was on the ground, in their posts, including Apple's Lightning Elemental, whom she lovingly named Sparky.

To say that he wasn't a bit worried would be a lie, Luna knew that the reason why they got their territory and not ending up dead, was because of his caution. This risk was just based on his calculations from the first defense they pulled off. It was to test the limits of his members and his and Sura's own as well.

As soon as the zombies hit the spikes, the team proceeded to attack them from behind, Sparky was shooting lightning from both of it's arms as well, chaining it to multiple zombies per shot. Around this time, the zombies that spawned from the medium territory finally reached the barricades, some of them were shot down on the way since they ran along the western wall, to reach the area where the gates are, just as they were about to start going on the barricades, Apple finally acted.

"Lightning Cloud!" right away, a cloud start forming and flashes of lightning could be seen inside, the zombies that mindlessly went inside were massacred. The members who weren't level 20 yet from the previous challenge, started gaining levels, pumping their stats to VIT, so they could last as long as possible. Once the ones in front lost 20% of their stamina, the ones behind would sub in while they recovered back to 100%.

Apple during this time, could have released another cloud, but instead she meditated to try and regenerate back to max MP before she cast another spell. She continued to do this cycle over and over. The horde seemed never ending, the first wave alone was already more than all the waves of the first territory challenge was.

But it shouldn't be forgotten as well, that the original group reached level 20 from that last challenge, all the way from level 16.

Above the walls, Luna was observing everything, closely paying attention to everyone. Once he deemed that the members were starting to get tired, he and Sura would sub in.

In all honesty, he never would have even thought of attempting this had Boni and the rest not reached level 20. If they didn't have Adamantite walls, this plan would have been impossible. The metal walls, while sturdy in their own right, would have eventually fallen, and there would be a hole in their defenses that they did not have enough people to handle.

But with the Adamantite walls, the zombies that do futilely try to stick around and attack it, would eventually just be picked off by the turrets in place without leaving so much as a scratch.

This was also why Luna decided to go with this plan, because if he didn't, he would have lost the opportunity to do so. He would have needed to recruit more people, train them, and come up with a more complicated plan. Not to mention, he would risk having someone else beat him to conquering the first official medium sized <Territory>. With that in mind, Luna decisively took this risk.

As for what the risk was, it was the fact that he didn't know what the end-wave of a medium sized territory. A wave would spawn every hour, regardless if the previous waves were all killed or not.

As soon as they were 8 hours in, things were getting tough, despite the perfectly times subbing in of people, everybody besides the high VIT people like Boni were starting to get exhausted. The notable superstar of this line-up however was Hana. With her modernized Naginata, each swing took out multiple zombies, there were no wasted movements, thus spending her stamina efficiently.

Even then, it wouldn't be long until she started struggling like the rest. Luna decided to make his move, heading down along with Sura, he issued his first order during this whole operation, "Everyone, fall back! Go rest! We'll buy you 6 hours of respite." everybody listened without hesitation, they know they had to make use of this time to recover.

Everything was going a bit better than planned so far, initially the plan was for them to resist for 7 hours, but if they could go for longer, then they would go ahead and do that. So far the people who were level 20, hit level 22.

Luna and Sura were already infinitely close to 22 to begin with, were now level 23, in a few hours of non-stop grinding, they would hit level 24. The rest who weren't level 20 yet, were already level 19, not long after, they would hit level 20 as well.

With this in mind, Luna decided to sub in so they could rest for 6 hours. While the Luna-Sura duo could definitely go for much longer than this, they wanted to stay in top shape for the end-wave.

With the 16 small territories that would mean 48 of the variant zombie they had aptly named the <Tank Variant>. As for what the medium territory would bring, that was still a mystery.

Things went as planned, and before the 6 hours was up the duo flipped over the barricades, and started clearing the zombies in droves. As soon as the time was up, and noticing that Boni and the rest might get overwhelmed, Luna decided to have them wait behind the first gate instead.

With that command, the first line was destined to fall. All was still according to plan.

The moment the zombies were rushing to attack the first gate, Apple started casting Lightning Cloud on cooldown until she dropped down to 10% mana, before she sat down to recover again. Sparky, who wasn't limited by stamina, kept shooting at the zombies.

Hour 19.

All the waves have long spawned at this point, everybody at this point was level 20 or higher, which made the defense incredibly easier.

Everybody was happy, despite being pushed back to the innermost gate, and even with all the <Tank Variants>, they weren't too worried, as long as they had Luna and Sura on their side.

They were almost there, it took some kiting but eventually, they took everything down.

<CONGRATULATIONS! <Sovereign Nation> has officially conquered XXXX> the same notice rang out 16 times, congratulating them for conquering a small territory with the corresponding territory's name on it.

Luna received a total of 1,600,000 VIS.

<Sovereign Nation> received a total of 3,200,000 VIS

Everybody started cheering. Until Luna suddenly spoke up.

"Wait.. we got the notice for the small territories. We never got anything for the Medium one."

Everybody was surprised, not knowing what to say, when Apple suddenly spotted a little girl about to turn the corner towards the base from where the first gate used to be. Boni who had his back turned didn't notice her in time.

"BONI WATCH OUT!" Apple shouted out the moment she saw the little girl do a mad sprint towards Boni, but the girl was too fast.