“Ogre Mages, to the front. Other melee units, keep to the sides,” Hoshisu shouted out the orders, keeping to the tactic they’d agreed upon in advance.
Her group was more successful than the others. The scouts were able to kill five hurlers before the main group closed in on the melee.
The Ogre Mages’ glowing magical shields cracked and broke after the second or third hit, but they stopped the charge, and with Mana Infusion bolstering their already impressive strength, they pushed back. The bouldite lieutenants’ debilitating attacks triggered, catching only a few units in the area of effect, the other GreenPiece soldiers having kept their distance.
“Now, take them on!” Hoshisu shouted.
The ranks of hob tanks, light skirmishers, and mace-wielding Ogres charged in. They swept over the hurlers who comprised over half the enemy group, preventing them from launching their deadly payload.
The ones who targeted the smashers and lieutenants had a rougher time of it. Every stone club hit caved in an Ogre’s head or pulverized a hob, but the GreenPiece fighters streamed around them, slashing and moving, not stopping long enough to allow the lieutenants’ mental debuffs to target large groups.
A few more hurlers fell to the combined attack, though each one was surrounded by several corpses. Then more of them fell, quickly reducing the pursuing force, leaving behind only the more powerful melee units.
An injured bouldite lieutenant roared in anger and swung his mace with both hands, preparing to execute a swiping attack that would crush the annoying insects around him.
The surrounding soldiers melted away, and the raging bouldite suddenly found his club stopped by another figure nearly his own size. His opponent’s body was covered with bony spikes, and he exposed his teeth as he puffed out his chest in defiance. “I be The Champion!”
Rhyno’s retaliation strike wasn’t enough to kill the much higher-level lieutenant, but the tier 3 boss’s attack still packed a punch. His spiked mace smashed against the lieutenant’s chest, forcing him back into the open. Over 200 arrows found the suddenly exposed bouldite’s body, and he dropped to his knees before falling back, dead.
The body count among the smashers began to climb until the last one fell to the combined attacks of hobs and players.
Hoshisu looked around and winced. They’d won, but the ground was littered with several hundred corpses of her soldiers.
There was no time to rest though, as the next order arrived via a message. ‘Malkyr’s group in trouble. Go!’
***
Savol’s division was ready. The melee fighters charged forward in thin, spaced-out lines, engaging the smashers and lieutenant leading the charge, while the hob scouts rained their arrows on the hurlers at the back.
“What are you doing?” Julee shouted at the goblin general. “There’s over 50 of them! You heard Sullivan; we need a ratio of twice as many soldiers to win.”
“Savol can do it,” the goblin said insistently. “The princess will be proud!”
The Survivalist General raised his sword, pointing it at the soldiers at the front lines who started dropping like flies, and roared, “Hold the Line!”
Sparks of magic and authority accompanied the command, and the engaged soldiers suddenly stiffened, their muscles bulged, and their heels dug into the ground.
The giant bouldite maces that had previously claimed a life with every hit now bounced off raised shields, locked together, or were parried by their weaker opponents.
Their killing momentum halted, and their enemies began amassing around the weaker hurlers, using their superior numbers to prevent them from throwing their deadly payload.
Julee’s jaw dropped at the sight of a hob tank – who looked like a child holding a pot lid in front of an angry wrestler – stopping a mace strike that was probably heavier than he was.
The enemy was momentarily halted, yet they weren’t going down fast enough. Their overpowering dominance still gave them the advantage.
But the small general wasn’t finished. His sword swung through the air again, sending waves of invigorating energy to his troops. “Second Wind!”
The hobs and Ogres roared as one, and the speed of their attacks doubled. The damage they inflicted mounted rapidly, and the hurlers fell, one after the other, then the smashers went down next, followed lastly by the resilient lieutenants.
“Damn,” Julee whispered in awe. Their division had just killed 50 of the behemoths, but they hadn’t escaped unscathed. Roughly 200 soldiers’ corpses littered the ground.
Savol stepped forward, his face resolute. He raised his sword and cried out. “Soldiers not rest yet. Savol say fight! For the GreenPiece Clan!”
Julee blinked as a quarter of the slain soldiers rose to their feet, their crushed bodies and fatal injuries healing in front of her eyes. “I didn’t know he could do that.”
***
Savol and Hoshisu’s groups had both destroyed a portion of the enemy, reducing their tribe’s overall number by a third. Sullivan’s face clouded as he looked at the losing battle Malkyr’s group was waging. Without the general’s abilities to support them, the player’s force couldn’t hold out against the bouldites. He only hoped Malkyr’s sister would reach them in time.
But he had other, bigger issues to handle.
Kyth’s division had managed to evade his pursuers who were now returning to their settlement, their path leading them straight to the outpost. The strategist had only minutes before he and his forces would be attacked by the remaining majority of the bouldite force.
‘Kyth, Savol,’ he messaged, ‘rendezvous back at the outpost. We’re about to get attacked.’
He’d originally planned for all four divisions to converge to help get rid of the final force, but two of them were still engaged. That meant he had less than a thousand soldiers to stand against a force of 150 bouldites.
He hoped it would be enough.
***
“Damn it!” Malkyr hissed between clenched teeth. His giant two-handed axe flashed and bit into bouldite flesh, but he wasn’t causing enough damage to the massive lieutenant he was fighting.
Beside him, a hob tank traded his life to block a strike that was aimed at him, and on his other side, an Ogre Mage stumbled as his shield flickered out of existence, channeling the rest of his mana to release a stream of fire to charge up the player’s enchanted axe.
The division was in trouble. There were too many hurlers, and they quickly devastated the scouts’ ranks, even with their spaced-out formations. The hob fighters were simply unable to swarm enough to force them into melee. And even attempting it had cost them. The smasher and lieutenant strikes took down whole groups at once, despite Malkyr trying to keep them in the agreed-upon flowing hit-and-run formation.
“Will you die already!” Malkyr shouted in frustration, raising his now brilliantly glowing axe. But before he completed the move, the lieutenant in front of him crashed into another hob, sending out waves of debilitating mental energy that caused his muscles to seize up.
Malkyr watched desperately as the soldiers he commanded fell in droves while barely managing to take down four bouldites. A few rows ahead of him, a trio of lieutenants were engaged against his squad. The elite soldiers were coated with liquid drops of darkness that slowly restored their health, and their life forces were magically tied together to form one cohesive unit. To Malkyr’s horror, that incredible ability now worked against them. The three bouldites struck as one, and even though they only hit three of the 20 soldiers, the combined damage was high enough to instantly kill all 20.
The debuff ended, and Malkyr found himself able to move again, though the soldiers who supported him were almost all gone now. “Shit!” he cried. He pulled out his last remaining potion of Ogre’s Might and downed it.
His muscles bulged as he grew a head taller and his skin toughened. He roared, swinging his charged-up axe with the force and speed of a steam-powered guillotine, cleaving straight through his larger opponent’s leg wi
th an explosion of sonic energy, severing it at the knee.
He was going to take as many of them down with him as he could.
“Malkyr!” His sister’s voice was like an angel coming to him amidst the heat of battle.
Ranks of fresh soldiers streamed over the already injured bouldite force. Melee fighters broke through their ranks to engage the hurlers beyond and renewed arrow volleys filled the air.
Reinforcements had arrived.
The combined forces of Malkyr’s surviving soldiers and his sister’s fought tooth and nail, turning the tide of battle. Hurlers and smashers fell one after the other, and when the brother and sister soon joined forces, falling back to familiar tactics, their casualties mounted even quicker. Hoshisu darted in behind her larger brother as his powerful swipes kept a bouldite lieutenant at bay. Her enchanted daggers, one of them gifted to her by Oren, slashed through toughened skin, hitting vulnerable organs and causing devastating damage.
The reinforcements’ healers poured in through the gaps, bringing back soldiers from the brink of death who rose to fight again, hammering the final nail in the coffin of their enemy’s defeat.
“Thanks, sis.” Malkyr panted.
She rolled her eyes. “That’s what sisters are for – saving their over-eager brothers when they bite off more than they can chew.”
“Chewed out that one pretty well.” Malkyr pointed at the bouldite who was missing a leg.
Hoshisu was about to answer when a message appeared for them.
‘Outpost. Now.’
The two turned toward the restored building and winced.
“Déjà vu,” Malkyr said.
The building was surrounded by a horde of monsters who were already breaking it apart.
Hoshisu’s eyes flashed. “Let’s go.”
***
The rows of Ogre crossbowmen launched another volley of giant quarrels against the ring of bouldites surrounding the walls.
The bouldites numbered half the force that devastated the original outpost, but they were still doing a lot of damage. Giant boulders exploded against the thick wooden walls, eating away their durability points.
Ten of the 60 Ogres were already down, and the battlement was starting to assume the same grated shape it had before.
But this time was different. The bouldite numbers weren’t enough to quickly reduce the outpost to splinters, and the Ogre crossbowmen dropped over a dozen of the raging beasts.
Savol gave a toothy goblin grin as his division’s scouts rained arrows on the enemy’s back. The general and Kyth’s groups had made it back to the outpost, trapping over a hundred of the enemy warriors between them and the walls, peppering them with arrows.
Many of the hurlers turned back and started shooting at the ground forces instead of the wall, but every one of the GreenPiece soldiers was battle-seasoned now, and they were spread out too much for the hurlers to make a significant dent in their numbers.
Trapped between Ogre crossbows and scout bows, the bouldite casualties started to mount, but there were still too many enemies.
The melee smashers and lieutenants abandoned their attack on the walls and charged the approaching ground forces. Their charge was met by rows of the remaining Ogre Mages and some of the other bosses who could withstand them.
The adept healers sacrificed their mana by launching drilling arrows that punched through the tough skins. This was the final clash. It was time to pull out all the stops. They could heal the injured later – if they won.
The bouldites’ 50 remaining melee units smashed through the GreenPiece forces, trying to get to their archers. They were killing soldiers left and right, but even outclassed, waves of hobs and Ogres tenaciously fought till the end, blunting the charge.
Left unmolested, the hundreds of scouts and Ogres filled their enemies with arrows and giant quarrels, quickly dropping hurlers, but it was going to be a close call against the bouldite melee units.
“Do something!” Julee shouted. “Use your skills again!”
“Savol can’t.” The goblin shook his head. “Need more time to pass.”
“Damn,” the red-skinned player said. She drew out a long whip from her side and snapped it at an approaching lieutenant. The whip wrapped around one of his arms, breaking the aim of his next swing, causing him to narrowly miss the soldier he was fighting. “They’re getting closer.”
Savol said nothing. The goblin pulled out two swords and charged the same bouldite, his purple cape billowing behind him as he stabbed down both swords at the creature’s feet.
A booming sound erupted from the outpost as the massive gate banged open, letting out a huge, mechanized whirlwind of spinning blades.
***
This was the moment. The bouldites had turned to face the ground forces, putting their backs to the outpost. “Now!” Sullivan shouted.
The outpost’s gate chains were pulled, and the massive doors banged open. The Meat Grinder, a marvel of goblin engineering, came out of it, giant blades spinning as it hurtled toward the enemy’s back.
The rear ranks of the hurlers were oblivious until the giant contraption appeared between them, hacking and slashing. A single bouldite fell, and the other nearby hurlers looked up from their bleeding wounds to the dented blades that attacked them. Then a storm of boulders reduced the machine, and its Ogre operators, to rubble.
From his vantage point, Sullivan saw the battle unfold below him. He’d had a hunch that the Meat Grinder, a contraption designed to devastate ranks of weak opponents at once, wouldn’t perform as well against the tougher giants. He hated to be right.
The outlook wasn’t great. His soldiers were dying faster than the enemy. It was going to be a close call. The twins’ force was seriously depleted, but they still had around 600 soldiers between them. If he could only make them get here faster, those forces would be enough to turn the tide in their favor.
He felt the swirl of his emotions build up in his stomach, unwittingly making him raise his hand toward the faraway force, willing them to move faster.
A jolt of energy passed through his body like an electric shock, and a new message popped open in front of him. Sullivan’s eyes widened as he mouthed the words. ‘Strategist: Quick Feet skill gained.’
His bewilderment lasted only a second. The strategist pressed his lips together and activated his new skill.
Like a fleet of sails that suddenly caught wind, the faraway soldiers’ speed instantly doubled.
“Hold on!” Sullivan shouted down into the skirmish. Once the forces fully engaged, it would be time for the last surprise.
Then the entire outpost shuddered as a tremendous impact hit.
A single, gigantic bouldite was hammering his fist against the obsidian foundations, and cracks were spreading out in all directions.
The bouldite leader had come to play.
***
The twins led the charge, cutting into the ranks of the bouldites, making them stumble and break ranks. The reunited GreenPiece army fought tooth and nail, losing soldiers by the dozen, but also taking down their enemies with them. Their chief’s words echoed in their ears, promising them glory, as long as they gave their best.
And they did.
Reunited, the clan’s toughest warriors and bosses joined ranks, cutting bouldites down while the rest of the army supported them with their lives.
Two Ogres grabbed the arms of a smasher, subduing the bigger creature, as Blemtoff, a dual axe-wielding boss, finished him with a double chop to the neck.
Then the outpost gate opened again, and a stream of kobolds rushed out, attacking the rear of the bouldites. Kobold assassins jumped and climbed the giant monsters’ bodies, their weapons slashing throats and piercing vulnerable areas. Even though their blades had a hard time passing through the thick armor, every hit was a critical one, and it quickly depleted the enemies of their remaining health. The kobold assassins in particular were a whirlwind of death, weaving through the enemies’ legs, their scythe limbs s
lashing joints and severing tendons.
The battle would have been all but decided, if not for the especially large bouldite hammering at the outpost’s walls, magical bursts erupting from its fists with every bang.
“Now that one looks like a mean bugger,” Misa panted, wiping away the blood splatters on her face as she looked at the terramage who was tearing a hole through the outpost’s foundation.
She drew back her arm and snapped it forward, launching a chain that wrapped around his torso. The bouldite ignored the chain and kept on punching. Misa frowned, and her arm whipped back and forward half a dozen times, wrapping the bouldite with several more chains. The brute simply ignored the chains as his continued pummeling of the walls caused them to snap off.
“You’ll need bigger chains than those,” Fox said, coming to stand next to the half-goblin elf player.
“I don’t have anything bigger,” she said.
Raystia approached them and pointed at the thick chains connected to the outpost’s gate. “Those should do.”
A sharp-toothed grin spread over the half-elf woman’s face. “I like the way you think, Kitty. Alright Mob Squad, listen carefully to the Chainmaster on how it’s going to go down.”
***
Sullivan wiped his sweaty forehead.
The battle raged on, but it looked like the tide was turning in their favor.
They could do it.
15 - With Science!
I looked around our base camp, baffled at what I saw.
It was broad daylight, but the army was gone. They should have all been here, asleep, but all I could see were some faraway scattered soldiers, patrolling the compound.
I motioned one of the lieutenants over to me. “What’s going on? Where is everyone?”
The lieutenant looked at me strangely. “They have marched to do battle with the bouldites, Chief.”
Life Reset: Salvation (Life Reset - Neo Book 6) Page 27