SSSSS-Rank: Negative Leveling-Chapter 79: Return to Ashes

The settlement came into view three hours before sunset, smoke still rising from damaged buildings, the western wall showing gaps where stonework collapsed under A-Rank bombardment. Luthra felt his jaw tighten at the sight, he knew the Syndicate would retaliate for the raid but seeing the actual damage made it real in a way reports couldn’t.

Thalia’s twenty riders peeled off at the settlement boundary, their escort duty complete, the coalition leader sent them with strict orders to get Luthra back alive because apparently he was valuable enough to warrant protection. He waved them off and guided his horse through the gates, Rebecca and his exhausted escort team following behind.

The courtyard was organized chaos, civilians helping repair crews, wounded being treated in makeshift medical stations, defenders working double shifts because there weren’t enough healthy bodies to maintain proper rotations. Misha appeared within minutes, her face showing the strain of managing a crisis while Luthra was gone.

"Report," he said, dismounting and handing his horse to one of the stable workers.

"Two major assaults while you were evacuating civilians, the first was probing attacks testing weak points, the second was coordinated bombardment by their A-Rank mages," Misha’s voice was professional but exhaustion showed through, "western wall took critical damage, three buildings collapsed, we lost nine defenders and another twenty are wounded too badly to fight."

’Nine dead, twenty wounded, in less than two days.’ 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

[Acceptable casualty ratio given force disparity and mission success, evacuation saved eight hundred lives at cost of nine, strategic mathematics favor your decision.]

Luthra pushed the system’s cold logic aside and focused on immediate needs. "Where’s Khorvash?"

"Medical tent, dragon fire exhaustion, she held the western breach for six hours straight and nearly killed herself doing it," Misha led him through the settlement, pointing out damage as they walked, "Kane coordinated the defense and kept casualties lower than they should’ve been, Borris died holding a chokepoint so wounded could retreat."

Luthra stopped walking. "Borris is dead?"

"Took four Syndicate C-Ranks with him, bought enough time for medics to evacuate seventeen injured defenders," Misha’s tone carried respect for the sacrifice, "he knew what he was doing, stayed behind when the retreat order came."

The former Syndicate enforcer who switched sides because he got tired of enslaving people, dead because he chose to protect instead of exploit, Luthra filed that information away with all the other costs accumulating from this war.

They reached the medical tent where Khorvash was unconscious on a cot, her normally golden scales looking pale and cracked, burn marks covering her arms from her own fire pushing past safe limits. A healer explained she would recover but needed days of rest before combat readiness returned.

"That leaves us with how many effective fighters?" Luthra asked.

"Seventy-three including you, Rebecca, Kane, and Jako," Misha said, the number was brutally low for defending against three hundred Syndicate soldiers, "coalition scouts report Gareth’s reinforcements are forty-eight hours out, maybe less if they push hard, but we need to hold until then."

Two days, Luthra looked around the medical tent at wounded defenders who fought beyond their limits, saw the exhaustion written across every face, knew that morale was cracking under sustained pressure. "What’s our defensive capability?"

"Western wall is compromised but we’ve erected temporary barriers, Jako reset trap networks but we’re running low on materials for new ones, food supplies are adequate for a week, water is fine, ammunition for ranged fighters is down to maybe three major engagements worth," Misha rattled off the logistics with practiced efficiency, "if they hit us tonight with full force we’ll hold for maybe an hour before critical positions collapse."

"Then we make sure they don’t hit us with full force," Luthra said, formulating a plan even as exhaustion pulled at his awareness, "they think we’re broken, weakened from the evacuation and their bombardment, we use that assumption against them."

Kane appeared in the tent entrance, the older hunter’s armor showing new damage but his expression was alert despite obvious fatigue. "You made it back, good, we need you for the night shift, Syndicate’s been probing our defenses every few hours testing response times."

"Let them probe," Luthra said, "I want them confident, thinking one more push will break us, then when they commit we hit them with everything we’ve saved."

"Risky," Kane said, "if you miscalculate and they’re stronger than expected we won’t have reserves to fall back on."

"We don’t have reserves anyway," Luthra pointed out, "seventy-three defenders against three hundred attackers, the math doesn’t work for sustained defense, only for making them think twice about the cost."

Misha was nodding slowly, seeing his strategy. "You’re baiting them into overcommitting, make them think victory is one assault away, then demonstrate it’s going to cost more than they’re willing to pay."

"Exactly," Luthra looked at Kane, "can you hold the northern approach with thirty fighters if I take the rest to the western breach?"

"Depends how many they send north, but yeah, I can make them bleed for it," Kane’s grin was predatory despite the exhaustion, "you planning something stupid?"

"Always," Luthra turned to Misha, "I need you coordinating from command post, use your sovereign space barriers on critical structures not walls, if they breach we fall back to building-by-building defense, turn the whole settlement into a killzone."

"That’s a last resort strategy," Misha said carefully.

"Everything we’re doing is last resort, we’re just pretending it’s planned," Luthra walked out of the medical tent, his team following, the settlement defenders watching as he passed, seeing him back gave them something they desperately needed, the illusion that someone knew what they were doing.

Rebecca caught up to him near the western wall, the girl looked tired but determined. "What do you need me to do?"

"Rest for three hours, eat something, then report to the western breach, you’re with my team when the Syndicate makes their move," Luthra saw her about to protest the rest order and stopped her with a look, "that’s not optional, I need you functional not exhausted, go."

She went, and Luthra climbed what remained of the western wall to survey the Syndicate camp, their fires were visible in the distance, tents organized in military precision, he could see movement, soldiers preparing equipment, mages practicing techniques, commanders planning their next assault.

’They’re coming tonight, they know we’re weakened and they want to finish this before coalition reinforcements arrive.’

[Probability assessment: 87% chance of major assault within next six hours, recommend preparation of fallback positions and emergency evacuation routes.]

Luthra spent the next three hours doing exactly that, walking every defender through their positions, marking rally points, ensuring everyone knew where to retreat if positions became untenable. Jako rigged the remaining trap materials into concentrated kill zones rather than spread networks, better to guarantee devastation in specific areas than marginal damage across wide coverage.

The sun set, and Luthra stood at the western breach with forty defenders, Kane held the north with thirty, Misha coordinated from central command with the remaining three as runners. Seventy-three people preparing to face overwhelming force with nothing but tactics, terrain, and stubborn refusal to surrender.

Syndicate horns sounded at midnight, the signal for assault, Luthra saw torches moving in the darkness, hundreds of them, a coordinated push from multiple directions designed to overwhelm defenses simultaneously. The northern approach lit up with combat as Kane’s team engaged their attackers, sounds of war hammers and mana techniques echoing across the settlement.

The western breach received the main assault, two hundred soldiers charging the damaged fortifications with siege ladders and battering rams, five B-Rank hunters leading the charge, this was the Syndicate’s endgame push, commit everything and break the settlement before dawn.

"Hold fire," Luthra ordered quietly, watching the enemy close distance, counting meters until they hit the trap zones Jako prepared, "let them think the breach is undefended."

The Syndicate soldiers reached thirty meters, twenty meters, close enough to see individual faces now, confidence showing through as they saw minimal defenders and damaged walls. Fifteen meters, they broke into a run, weapons raised, victory within reach.

"Now."

Jako triggered the concentrated traps, the ground erupted with shaped explosives designed to channel force upward and forward, seventy soldiers caught in overlapping blast zones, bodies thrown backward or torn apart by shrapnel, the charge broke immediately as survivors scrambled to avoid secondary detonations.

"Fire!" Luthra’s team unleashed prepared volleys, arrows and mana bolts targeting the stunned survivors, Rebecca’s fire magic created walls of flame that funneled the Syndicate advance into narrower approaches where defenders could concentrate their attacks.

The five B-Rank hunters pushed through the chaos, recognizing that leadership presence was needed to rally the assault, they reached the breach and Luthra stepped forward to meet them, his Corruption Field expanding to maximum radius as he committed to the fight.

’Five B-Ranks, I can’t beat them all but I don’t need to, just need to hold them long enough for the defenders to massacre their soldiers.’

The lead B-Rank was a massive man with stone armor covering his torso and arms, earth enhancement giving him durability that made him a living battering ram. He charged Luthra directly, confident that overwhelming force would work, Luthra sidestepped and used Absorption Mimicry to copy the earth enhancement technique, then corrupted it deliberately, the stone armor cracked and fell away as negative mana twisted the mana pattern holding it together.

"That’s a dirty trick," the B-Rank said, already reforming his armor.

"I specialize in dirty tricks," Luthra responded, dodging attacks from the other four B-Ranks who were trying to surround him, this was going to be ugly.

The fight became everything B-Rank combat should be, mana techniques clashing, ground cratering under impacts, defenders nearby forced to retreat to avoid collateral damage. Luthra couldn’t win this, five against one where everyone was roughly the same rank, the math didn’t work, but he could make them work for it, use terrain, stay mobile, drain their mana with his Corruption Field making every technique cost more than it should.

One B-Rank broke off to attack the defenders directly, recognizing that killing Luthra was less important than breaking the defensive line, Jako intercepted with trap detonations and hit-and-fade tactics, buying time for other defenders to mob the B-Rank with concentrated fire.

Rebecca burned another B-Rank’s weapon coating, the fire mana disrupting his technique long enough for three defenders to land solid hits, wounds accumulating as coordinated assault overwhelmed individual power. The Syndicate advance was stalling, their soldiers dying faster than they could push forward, the B-Rank leadership getting bogged down in individual fights instead of breaking through as a unified force.

Then Luthra felt it, the surge of A-Rank mana from the Syndicate camp, one of the commanders was done watching and preparing to intervene personally. He couldn’t tell if it was Vex or Kira but either one meant the battle dynamic was about to shift catastrophically.

"Retreat to secondary positions!" Luthra ordered, recognizing when the tactical situation changed, "fighting withdrawal, don’t let them surround you!"

The defenders pulled back in controlled chaos, giving ground but extracting casualties as they went, the Syndicate soldiers pressed forward but their momentum was broken, too many dead, too much resistance from what should’ve been an easy final push.

The A-Rank presence stopped advancing, staying at the camp perimeter, apparently unwilling to fully commit without understanding why the assault was failing. Luthra used the hesitation to complete the withdrawal, his team reaching secondary defensive positions where Misha’s barriers provided cover and chokepoints funneled approaches.

The fighting continued for another hour, back and forth exchanges as Syndicate forces tried to exploit the breach and defenders contested every meter. Kane’s northern defense was holding, barely, the sounds of combat suggesting his team was equally engaged in desperate close-quarters fighting.

Then the Syndicate horns sounded retreat, their commanders recognizing the assault was failing, soldiers pulled back with professional discipline, leaving their dead and taking their wounded when possible. The night raid was over, another Syndicate failure, another defensive victory bought with blood and luck.

Casualty count: seventeen defenders dead, twenty-three wounded, Luthra’s team exhausted but functional. Syndicate losses estimated at over a hundred dead, unknown wounded, five B-Rank hunters dead or captured.

Dawn broke over the settlement, smoke rising from burning corpses, defenders collapsing from exhaustion now that immediate danger passed, medics rushing to treat the wounded before they bled out. Luthra stood at the western breach watching the Syndicate camp retreat further from the settlement, their confidence shaken by another failed assault.

Kane appeared beside him, the older hunter’s armor cracked and bloody but his expression satisfied. "They expected an easy victory and got a meatgrinder instead, they’ll think twice before trying that again."

"We can’t hold many more nights like this," Luthra said honestly, looking at the seventeen new bodies being collected for funeral pyres, "morale is breaking, supplies are running low, one more major assault might be the one that does it."

"Good thing Gareth’s reinforcements are thirty-six hours away then," Kane said, "we just need to hold a day and a half, coalition arrives and the Syndicate retreats or gets crushed between our combined forces."

Thirty-six hours, Luthra felt every minute of those remaining hours like weight pressing down, knowing that the Syndicate would be making the same calculation, knowing they would push harder before reinforcements arrived, knowing the next assault would be worse than everything they faced so far.

Rebecca found him there, the girl’s face showing exhaustion and the thousand-yard stare that came from sustained combat, she’d killed more people tonight, probably lost count by now, growing up too fast in a world that didn’t spare children from war.

"We held," she said, needing confirmation that their sacrifice mattered.

"We held," Luthra agreed, "and if we can hold for thirty-six more hours we win, the siege ends and everyone still alive gets to rebuild."

She sat down against the damaged wall, and Luthra sat beside her, both too tired to move further, watching the sun rise over a battlefield that would see more fighting before this war concluded, knowing that survival was measured in hours now, that coalition reinforcements were their only hope of ending this before the settlement broke completely.

The Syndicate wouldn’t give them thirty-six hours without making them fight for every minute, and Luthra knew the next assault would bring everything the enemy had left, all their soldiers, both A-Rank commanders, a final overwhelming push to decide this siege one way or another.

But that was tomorrow’s problem, right now he could rest for a few hours and pretend everything would work out if they just held a little longer.