Warfang: (Sky Realms Online Book 5): A LitRPG Series

by Troy Osgood

  Giving the sword one final twist, Hall hopped off the dead demon. He grabbed his spear, using the sword to hack at the scraggly and thick fur around the spear head. Finally he freed it. Sword in one hand, spear in the other, he ran to the sounds of fighting.

  He grunted in pain, feeling the shield slam into his shoulder. Hall took the attack, which exposed the Bladeswinger to his spear. The tip plunged into the Expedition soldier’s side. The man cried out in pain, falling back. Hall twisted the spear as the man fell, making the wound bigger. Blood gushed out, the soldier dropping his sword.

  Roxhard’s axe cut him almost in half, shoulder to waist.

  Hall leaned on his spear, catching his breath. His Energy was nearly depleted. He’d come close to draining it, the in-combat regen so much slower. His Health wasn’t looking much better. That last blow had hurt, taking a large chunk. His arm felt stiff, nothing broken, but nothing wanting to work right either.

  With his good hand, he reached into the potion container on his belt. Fumbling with the clasp, he managed to get it open. By touch, he pulled out one of the Minor Healing Potions. Pulling the cork out with his teeth, spitting it into the woods, he downed the thick potion in one swallow.

  Heat spread through his body, starting from his throat, reaching to the tips of his fingers. He could feel the bleeding stop, wounds fusing themselves shut. Moving his arm, he had some range of motion back. It hurt to move; he could feel the muscles wanting to tighten, not wanting to move.

  “Are there more?” he asked Roxhard, looking around tiredly.

  Since the Mosic, he had fought two more Expedition soldiers and three Desmarik Wartalkers. Not including the one he’d just finished off with Roxhard’s help.

  “I think so,” the Dwarf said. “I hope so.”

  Hall nodded.

  He was exhausted.

  They’d only been fighting for fifteen, maybe twenty minutes, but it felt like days.

  Chaotic, frantic. One battle to another. Attacking, defending, hurting and being hurt. Hall had wounds he didn’t remember receiving.

  SLAIN: Red Storm Caste Wartalker

  +35 Experience (+35 Faction Enemy Bonus)

  SLAIN: Red Storm Caste Wartalker

  +35 Experience (+35 Faction Enemy Bonus)

  SLAIN: Red Storm Caste Wartalker

  +20 Experience (+20 Faction Enemy Bonus)

  SLAIN: Red Storm Caste Wartalker

  +20 Experience (+20 Faction Enemy Bonus)

  SLAIN: Red Storm Caste Wartalker

  +20 Experience (+20 Faction Enemy Bonus)

  SLAIN: Expedition Bladeswinger

  +35 Experience (+35 Faction Enemy Bonus)

  SLAIN: Expedition Bladeswinger

  +20 Experience (+20 Faction Enemy Bonus)

  SLAIN: Expedition Bladeswinger

  +20 Experience (+20 Faction Enemy Bonus)

  SLAIN: Expedition Bladeswinger

  +20 Experience (+20 Faction Enemy Bonus)

  SLAIN: Expedition Bladeswinger

  +10 Experience (+10 Faction Enemy Bonus)

  SLAIN: Expedition Bladeswinger

  +10 Experience (+10 Faction Enemy Bonus)

  SLAIN: Minor Viridian Mosic

  +40 Experience

  Skill Gain!

  Light Armor Rank Two +1.2

  Skill Gain!

  Polearms Rank Four +1.4

  Skill Gain!

  Shields Rank One +1.1

  Skill Gain!

  Small Blade Rank Two +.8

  Skill Gain!

  Thrown Rank Two +.5

  RETAKING THE NORTH I

  Kill members of the Expedition Lumber Company 116/150

  CULL THE DEMONS

  Kill demons in the Northern Territories 9/100

  None of his allies had died, but they were all hurt. Even Trello and Surri. Each had been forced into the fighting. Hall didn’t think they had killed any of the Expedition soldiers or Desmarik, but they had still fought. A Stontle had almost ended Trello’s life. Angus had saved the Wood Elf Druid, cracking the Stontle’s hard exterior, allowing arrows from the Rangers to finish it off.

  He watched the hill through the trees. There were still flashes of torchlight but nothing else. He couldn’t see anything moving. It looked like they’d gotten through the defenses around Warfang.

  But that couldn’t be right, Hall thought. He hadn’t seen any Norns, and the Warreaver from the village wasn’t among the bodies. There had been two Runepriests but no Warreaver.

  Where was he? And where was the Norn Hall had seen in Cliff’s Walk?

  If they weren’t here, they had to still be on the hill.

  Which meant there would be more defenders.

  Hall sighed.

  “Heal up quickly,” he said quietly, motioning to Roxhard to spread the word. “No looting. We need to get to the hill.”

  Chapter 37

  There were no more ambushes, just the line of Desmarik, Expedition soldiers, and demons arrayed along the bottom of the hill. Torches were set on poles in the ground, evenly spaced. The trees stopped short of the steep slopes.

  The hill was more of a tall mound rising out of the ground, ending just above the trees. Not large, the sides were completely covered in shaggy grass, no rocks, nothing to climb, the top a bowl shape. Pike flew above, Hall looking through the dragonhawk’s eyes. There was nothing on top of the hill.

  He had expected standing stones, an altar, even a firepit. Something to indicate a way to harness the power that Warfang Hill sat over. But there was nothing. Just a rounded top covered in grass and flowers, a couple of low bushes. Without flying closer to the treetops, Pike couldn’t get an angle on the base of the hill; it was too steep. He could see the enemy forces encircling it.

  That and the strange flashing coming from the north side.

  Breaking off contact with Pike, Hall closed his eyes, waiting for the strange disassociation feeling to fade. Opening them, the world refocused.

  “I think there’s a cave on the north side,” he told Dain and Caryn, the two closest to him. “That’s where the strange lights are coming from.”

  “How many guards?”

  “Three dozen, mix of Desmarik, Expedition and a couple of demons. Looks like some Barghas and Mosics.”

  They were twenty feet away, still in the shadows of the trees. Not so far that they couldn’t be seen, but with the torches behind them, not letting their eyes adjust to the dark, Hall felt confident that the enemy wouldn’t see them. Not that it mattered. They knew Hall and the others were here. The fierce fighting minutes ago had been loud; the sound would have carried. Their one advantage was that the enemy didn’t know where they would approach from, which was why they had the small hill surrounded, covering all angles. They would converge when the attack happened, flanking and surrounding Hall’s group.

  How to prevent that?

  They didn’t have the numbers to spread out fully around the hill, that would leave them too exposed and too outnumbered. There were really only nine fighters, four of them primarily Archers, and three healers. Leigh could fight, but she’d be needed to heal. The more they spread out, the harder it would be for the healers to cover. Sharra was their only caster. That left just Hall, Jackoby, Roxhard and Caryn as melee. Along with Angus and Pike, but they were support only. Ganner and Dain could melee? Leaving only Avril and Lissie as ranged?

  Hall didn’t see any good options.

  “Thoughts?” he asked Dain.

  The elder Ranger shook his head.

  “If we can prevent them from surrounding us, we could take them,” Dain replied. He wasn’t boasting, just stating fact.

  Hall agreed.

  “Two-pronged attack,” Dain said after a couple of minutes. “Half from the north, half from the south. Force them to split up.”

  “Or converge on the north where the cave entrance is,” Hall reasoned, catching on to Dain’s plan. “Which allows us to attack from the rear.”

  The plan was risky. The Desmarik and Expe
dition could leave a small force at the southern end, pulling the rest to the north, surrounding the attackers there. Or they could do the same to the south, but Hall thought that unlikely. The cave was the important part, the thing that needed protecting.

  It was the only option though. But how to divide up their forces?

  Skill Gain!

  Strategy Rank Two +.2

  Hall dismissed the notification, getting annoyed with the Strategy skill now. Maybe it was affecting how he thought. He didn’t think so. Nothing they’d encountered was beyond what he had been able to do pre-Glitch. He was a gamer. Strategizing was part of what a gamer did. He’d encountered situations like this before.

  But that had always been when he could just respawn or go back to an old save point and start over.

  If he died now, he was dead. They all were. There was no coming back. That changed things.

  He almost laughed.

  It didn’t change anything.

  It had been months now since they had learned there was permadeath post-Glitch, and none of the players had changed their lives. None had quit being adventurers. They still risked their lives over and over.

  And for what? A small amount of loot, magic items, and large amounts of excitement?

  Hall knew he was doing it for a larger cause, the village, but that was just a small part of it. He enjoyed being an adventurer and the excitement that came with it.

  He had the perfect excuse not to risk his life. He was the lord of a village now, had people to worry about. All the reason not to raid dungeons, explore ruins, and fight monsters. But he still did it.

  Discovering the Desmarik had changed things as well. They were trying to conquer Hankarth, which was now Hall’s home. That couldn’t be allowed.

  Hall pushed those thoughts away, wondering why they always seemed to keep coming back. He thought he’d made peace, but maybe he hadn’t. Not yet?

  “This is what I think we should do,” he said, leaning close to Dain.

  The cave wasn’t large. Maybe ten feet high, ten feet wide, set into the face of the hill on an angle. Easy to miss except for the strange light that flared every couple of seconds. A blue mixed with purple. Not bright, just there.

  Before the cave was a Stontle, flanked by a Desmarik Runepriest on one side, a Wartalker on the other. Expedition soldiers spread out to the sides. Behind the Stontle, in the shadows, Hall could see a Bargha. There might be more.

  In his head, Hall counted down. He’d started at one hundred, lost the rhythm a couple of times but picked it up again. He knew he was off a couple of seconds, but it didn’t matter. He wasn’t the one moving first.

  Shifting his feet, he reached zero and waited.

  There was a flash of light around the edges of the hill, the mound too tall for it to leak over the top. Followed by sounds of fighting, yelling. He tensed, hoping to see some of the enemy around the cave run to the south.

  None did.

  Hall cursed. He hoped that at the edges, where he couldn’t see, some had peeled away to the fighting on the other side. They had to, or his group would be in trouble.

  There was nothing he could do now. Dain in the south was engaged. Hall in the north had to engage.

  Raising his hand, he ran out of the trees, activating Leap. To the sides, he heard pounding feet. Heavy steps. Jackoby rushed past, heading for the Stontle. On the other side, the low and shaggy form of Angus ran, charging into the Expedition soldiers.

  Hall didn’t see it but could imagine the impact the heavy highland cow would make, the long horns ripping into their bodies as the heavy tread of the cow broke bones.

  For his part, Hall landed in front of the Runepriest. Feet touching hard ground, Hall lunged forward with the spear, slamming it into the Desmarik’s chest. He immediately activated Double Thrust, scoring two more solid hits. The Desmarik growled in pain, falling back. The thick robe was ripped, three gashes in the material. Hall knew he had struck flesh with all three hits. The Runepriest wasn’t wearing one of the robes that absorbed damage.

  Briefly Hall regretted using Double Thrust. He could have saved the mana for later. His thought had been to quickly overwhelm the robe. Rotating the shaft around his body, crouching lower, Hall angled the tip up as he thrust. It caught the recovering Runepriest under the chin, cutting through flesh, hitting bone and snapping the neck back. The Desmarik dropped to the ground.

  Immediately replaced with the Bargha.

  Spear out of position to defend, Hall twisted and brought the buckler up to intercept the sweeping claws. Sensing movement to the side, seeing a shadow shift, Hall stepped and twisted, feeling the wind of a sword passing inches from his body. The twist pushed the Bargha to the side, letting Hall snap the butt end of the spear up, catching the Expedition Bladeswinger under the chin.

  Head snapping back, the man came to a stop.

  Hall leaned forward, feeling claws rip down his back. Pain flared as he moved to the side, throwing his shoulder and knocking the Bargha aside. He pushed back with the spear, catching the demon in the shoulder. It growled. Hall stepped to the side, turning and throwing his full strength into pushing the spear in deeper. The Bargha stepped back, pulling the spear out. It shifted, taking weight off the shoulder, crouching to jump.

  He didn’t give it a chance.

  Hall rushed forward, driving the spear ahead of him. He aimed for the other shoulder, catching the creature by surprise. The spear bit deep, Hall pulling it out and activating Double Thrust. Once in the shoulder and the other in the neck, both attacks doing high damage. The Bargha went to rear up but fell to the ground, trying to push itself up. Reversing the spear quickly, Hall drove it down into the creature’s head. It gave one last shake and lay still.

  Hall was just past the opening, at the start of a tunnel angling steeply down. He could see the light shining up the tunnel, flashing, brighter inside. There was nothing else.

  Except the soldier charging at his back, who didn’t see Pike swooping into the cave. Hall heard the sound of Pike’s breath attack slamming into the soldier, heard the cry of pain. He twisted, thrusting forward with the spear, catching the soldier in the stomach. The man looked down in surprise, smoke rising from his back. Sword dropped to the ground, shield hanging useless off the arm. Hall pulled the spear back, the Expedition Bladeswinger dropping to the ground.

  Adjusting his grip on the spear, Hall rushed back outside.

  Jackoby fought the Stontle, shield blocking the heavy arms, his wooden hammer breaking cracks in the demon. Large shards already littered the ground. The body of a Bladeswinger sprawled a couple of feet away, arrows sticking out, one still quivering. To Hall’s right, Ganner, fighting with a sword in one hand and knife in the other, was facing off against three Expedition soldiers, angling his body to turn them, setting their backs to the forest. One cried out, an arrow in his shoulder, giving Ganner the opening to thrust his knife into the man’s throat. Left, past Jackoby and Angus, barely visible, Caryn was dancing around two Desmarik Wartalkers. Flashes of orange streaked past beyond Ganner, Sharra providing support.

  Hall couldn’t see where Leigh was, momentarily panicked. He heard a rumbling to the left, past Caryn and the Desmarik, the ground shaking as a wall of mud and rock rose up. Eight feet high and the same wide, it wouldn’t hold reinforcements for long. More arrows streaked out of the trees, striking Expedition soldiers and Desmarik. A fast-moving blue cloud, the edges tinged with white, flowed out of the woods, landing beyond Leigh’s wall of earth. Hearing heavy steps to the right, Hall made up his mind.

  Activating Leap, he jumped over Ganner and the Expedition soldiers. With Leaping Stab, his spear slashed down an Expedition Bladeswinger’s back. The man shifted, allowing Ganner to strike. Hall couldn’t see what happened. He landed beyond the fighting, facing a charging demon.

  It was something new. In a way it reminded him of Angus. Stocky, about five feet high at the shoulders, three feet wide. Large body, squat legs, smaller head with four horns coming
from the sides. A higher set that curved up before pointing straight, the tips sharp. The lower set, curving down with a sharp upward angle at the end. Shaggy fur hung off the creature, reaching to the ground, growing around bony plates at the shoulders and haunch. A long tail waved in the air, two spikes growing off the end.

  Skill Gain!

  Identify Rank Two +.3

  Minor Azure Bovir

  The creature was fast. Roaring, it barreled at Hall.

  He shifted to the side, avoiding the head, but not the thing’s tail. Whiplike, it smacked into Hall’s side, spikes slamming against his back. Grunting in pain, Hall turned as the Bovir turned. It snorted, bright red eyes staring at Hall with hatred. It did not want to be on this world, and it was blaming Hall.

  It didn’t charge, just stalked toward him.

  Hall set his feet, holding the spear in both hands, watching the slow movements. The large head twisted from side to side, shaking, constantly moving. Stopping a couple of feet away, just out of spear range, the Bovir reared up. The squat front legs kicked at the air, slamming back onto the ground. Hall could feel the shaking, localized, shooting straight out from where the Bovir’s feet impacted.

  He stumbled, the vibrations increasing. Losing his balance, he had to use a hand to steady himself, not holding the spear ready.

  The Bovir launched itself forward.

  Desperate, Hall activated Leap.

  Lunging up, the Bovir clipped Hall’s leg. Bone horn hit the side of the calf, sending shocks through Hall’s body, knocking his arc off. He couldn’t use Leaping Strike, just barely able to land on both feet. Pivoting on his good foot, not trusting the other, Hall faced the Bovir. It snorted, pawing at the ground, reminding Hall of a bull.

  With a growl it charged the last couple of feet. Hall shifted to the side, swinging his arm to get the buckler to block the tail, pushing the spear into the side of the Bovir. He felt it sink into flesh, avoiding the bony plates. Pulling it out, Hall activated Double Thrust. Once, twice, he slammed the spear into the side of the Bovir.