The general didn’t reply, his face scrunched with determination.
***
I finished enchanting the second outpost and moved on to the third. The sounds of battle beyond the walls were getting louder by the second. I began the new enchantment, but after spending 18,000 MP on two of those in a short time, even my prodigious, temple-boosted regeneration rate wasn’t enough to keep up with the demand.
“Lirian, help me out here?”
My daughter nodded and closed her eyes, and I felt a new surge of mana pouring into the enchantment, charging up the hungry runes.
The sounds of battle were growing nearer.
This was going to be close.
***
“Damn it, Nero’s troops are almost all gone. Savol, start diverting the reinforcements toward them,” Sullivan shouted.
The goblin nodded and a line of newly resurrected soldiers spewed out of the outpost closest to the half-dragon’s force. A small, shelled creature led the charge, jumping at a giant bouldite, its vice-like claws snapping like a crab’s. The powerful enemy ignored the shallow cuts and smashed the annoying drone like an actual ant. Sullivan winced at the player’s gruesome death, but his wasn’t the only one.
The bouldites gained the upper hand on all four fronts and were steadily closing in on the outposts. The strategist estimated they’d resurrected the entire army once already, while the enemy forces lost maybe a third of their numbers. They couldn’t keep up with this pressure for long, bleeding energy for every resurrected soldier.
Despite the severity of the situation, Sullivan couldn’t help but chuckle as Ragnar’s antlike form emerged amidst the resurrected fighters, having just respawned, to charge the enemy again. This time, he managed to land two hits before getting squashed like a bug.
“Alright, it’s time,” the strategist said. “Form a line in front of the outposts, send in the golems and kobolds to bolster it.
“Savol will do this.”
A heart-chilling screech tore through the sounds of battle as Swarm, the golem abomination, was unleashed. He ran headlong into the nearest group of bouldites who were hacking their way through GreenPiece soldiers. Screaming heads grew in and out of the golem’s form while a mass of writhing limbs batted away enemies. A disproportionate giant tentacle formed into a huge mallet and smashed three bouldites into paste.
On another front, Aidanriel made his appearance. At only level 150, the golem was weaker than Swarm, but despite his flippant personality, he was the more experienced fighter. His limbs lashed out, delivering a killing blow on an already injured bouldite, and holding down a raging lieutenant, buying the GreenPiece soldiers time to hack it apart.
A swarm of kobolds rushed out of the third outpost, stabbing their way up the stoney giants’ backs with their daggers, piercing them repeatedly like annoying mosquitoes.
A throng of goblin adepts emerged from the fourth outpost, hurling a concentrated volley of drilling arrows at the charging bouldites, killing several with each burst.
Ragnar appeared again, and the strategist had to admire his unwillingness to surrender against the impossible odds.
But despite the effectiveness of the last line of attackers, the death toll mounted quickly. Merely a hundred soldiers remained in front of each bouldite force, barely holding them back from the outposts. The one held by kobolds was rapidly disintegrating under the bouldites’ assault.
Sullivan’s eyes narrowed as he observed them, realizing the enemy would soon break through and attack the outpost, blocking the invaders’ ability to resurrect. That was too soon; they needed more time to resurrect everyone.
‘Oren,’ Sullivan typed frantically. ‘You’re up.’
***
“Be right there.” I had just finished enchanting the third outpost. “Let’s get to the battlement,” I said to my daughter, and then we both teleported away.
I stared down at the enemy force struggling to reach us. There were about 400 bouldites left – half their original number – but their huge bodies made their force look larger. Only a handful of soldiers had survived to block the incoming tides, and the kobolds positioned ahead of the outpost had nearly crumbled away. I pointed a finger just above the front of their group and cast an instantly empowered Singularity.
A wave of weakness and nausea ran through me. With a start, I realized I’d overextended myself. I didn’t have enough mana to provide the required 4,000 MP, so the spell was draining my pool as quickly as I was regenerating it.
Clenching my teeth at the feeling of vertigo, I reached into my inventory and drained one of my void crystals. My mana bar jumped up and the spell completed, forming a swirling blob of darkness.
The seconds ticked away as the bouldites crushed the last of the kobolds, ignoring the reversed rain of pebbles that was shooting upward between them.
The pull, already strong thanks to having cast the empowered version of the spell, was growing more powerful by the second.
The bouldites had fully disposed of the kobolds and charged on the nearby outpost with a triumphant roar. I cursed as I realized I couldn’t let the spell build up anymore and hurled a direball at it. The ensuing explosion was still powerful enough to kill the dozen or so bouldites that passed beneath it and throw the group’s remaining 100 enemies to their backs. But the surviving bouldites were quick to recover, shaking their heads as they rose.
I could see the three other enemy forces had already disposed of their own attackers – sending the golems on a retreat – and were now charging on the outposts. I hoped the short reprieve was enough for Savol to resurrect our army. It was going to be a difficult fight without them.
I summoned my shadow and flung a direball at the oncoming giants.
***
Sullivan sighed in relief when the Singularity exploded, halting the progress of the leading bouldite force. It lasted only for a moment, then the four enemy groups banded together and stormed the outposts, a hail of thrown boulders leading their charge.
“Report!” Sullivan barked.
“Savol brings back 90 percent of the army,” the general said proudly. “Not enough time to bring the last ones.”
“Good enough,” Sullivan said. The first goal had been achieved. Having 4,000 soldiers to face 400 bouldites was much better odds than before. Normally, even that wouldn’t be enough to prevent a high number of casualties, but that was what the outposts were for.
Already a barrage of arrows, magic, and giant crossbow quarrels was raining down on the high-level attackers, chewing away at their numbers.
The strategist’s smile widened when he noticed that the bouldites’ powerful stone clubs were bouncing off the enchanted walls or merely chipping away at them. Even the hurled boulders rebounded off the wooden part of the palisade, causing it to slowly fracture instead of shearing it right off. One of the outposts wasn’t doing as well as the others, but the strategist judged it would last long enough for the other three to get rid of their attackers.
Oren had done his part well.
***
More hobs rushed to the battlements from their resurrection spots. I kept hurling volleys of drilling arrows and direballs alongside the arrows of my troops while my clone concentrated on controlling the incoming enemies with Shadow Web and the occasionally summoned shadow hounds. We took some casualties, mostly from well-aimed boulders, but there was no question as to who held the upper hand. A few sandhawks, which were probably kept in reserve, swooped down on the battlements, their clawed feet dragging away screaming soldiers, but our scouts started shooting them down. A few arrows weren’t enough to kill, but it was hard to fly with wings full of arrows.
The number of bouldites attacking each of our outposts was rapidly dwindling, losing a quarter of their forces within moments. Our casualties continued to climb, but we found our pace. Every dead soldier was quickly replaced with a fres
h one, and our enemies’ numbers continued to plummet; there were now barely 50 bouldites per attacking force.
The wooden palisade I stood on began to crack and the wall curved dangerously, but it held long enough for us to pick off the last remaining bouldite.
The first of our outposts was victorious.
I allowed myself to relax. During the battle, I’d been constantly teetering on the edge of draining my mana pool, but I’d kept mostly to cheap volleys of drilling arrows and a few well-placed direballs. I was tapped out but was finally able to look at the other engagements.
“Shadow-crap,” I said. The other two outposts I’d enchanted were holding their own, though they were starting to look worse, but the one I hadn’t enchanted was already falling apart. The wooden palisade had crumbled away, and a group of tanks and Ogres was waging a desperate battle to hold the breached gate. The 100-plus bouldite force attacking them was also the largest.
Two lone bonetis riders came racing toward us, having apparently stayed out in the open away from the conflict zones.
“Oren!” Sullivan called out. “You’ve secured an outpost, well done!”
I stared down at him in incomprehension. Was he not aware one of our outposts was about to be taken over? “They’re getting overwhelmed!” I shouted down at him, pointing at the desperate battle. “I’m going to join—”
“No!” Sullivan yelled. “Go help the other two.”
“Are you crazy?” I yelled back. “They’re holding for now. If we lose that outpost—”
“They’re expendable,” the player barked. “There’s no time, Oren. You appointed me as the army’s strategist, and it’s my job to look at the bigger picture. Now do as I say – go help the other outposts!”
“Damn,” I muttered and reached for my daughter. “Let’s go.”
***
Sullivan shook his head when he finally made it through Oren’s thick skull, sending him running in the right direction. Their illustrious leader was as intelligent as he was powerful, but he was too impulsive sometimes. “Alright, General.” He turned to the mounted goblin next to him. “Do your thing.”
Savol faced the collapsing outpost. “Revival! Hold the Line! Second Wind!”
The quickly dwindling defense force suddenly bellowed with newfound energy and stopped giving up ground. They fought back against the bouldites with renewed vigor while scores of their fallen rose to rejoin the fight.
The strategist nodded. “This should be enough for now.”
***
Lirian, my clone, and I appeared on top of the battlement of one of the other enchanted outposts. I was furious at being ordered away from helping my losing soldiers, so I let anger fuel my actions.
I took out a handful of void crystals from my inventory, not stopping to examine their levels, and inhaled them all. My mana bar jumped back up to 80 percent. More than enough.
With no need to hold back, I hurled volley after volley of empowered direballs, each one costing over a thousand MP.
The first volley of three decimated the front ranks of bouldites, but the second volley was less effective. The powerful explosions dissipated around their bodies, inflicting almost no damage.
I narrowed my eyes at a bouldite mage holding back at a safe distance, casually working his magic. Unlike the terramage we’d captured, this one wasn’t affecting the ground around us and could cast actual spells. I could feel his mana at play, fortifying his soldiers. It explained why the numerous arrows my soldiers rained down was less effective than the first outpost.
The mage was far outside any of my spells’ reach, and it would be dangerous to hop through their ranks with several castings of short-range teleport. I looked around, searching for Rhyno. The powerful Ogre might be able to throw me all the way through, but I didn’t spot his spiky bulk.
A sandhawk swooped down at us unnoticed and latched onto a crossbow-wielding Ogre. I felt a feral grin spread over my face as I realized that was my chance.
I teleported directly onto the flying monster’s back and stabbed into it with my Demon Staff. The giant bird instantly let go of the Ogre, flapped its wings, and dove straight down. I gripped the shaft with both hands, anchoring myself in place. The sandhawk flapped its wings before we hit the ground, using the momentum to soar up and away from the outpost. It wasn’t exactly flying toward the bouldite mage, but a tilt of my spear made the creature scream and adjust its trajectory. It was like flying using a giant, demonic-infused joystick.
As soon as we soared above the mage, I let loose one of the direballs stored in the staff. The volatile spell, many times more powerful than what I could cast on my own, exploded inside the bird’s body, causing it to burst apart into a chunky rain of meat and blood.
I landed a few meters from the mage, cushioning the impact with a pillow of tangible darkness, bloody bird parts raining all around me.
“Die, invader!” the bouldite snarled. I could feel the oppressive waves of magic his buffs gave off as he came for me with two giant fists.
I narrowly evaded one, but the second hit me full on the chest, throwing me back, shaving 20 percent of my health, despite my improved armor.
My shadow followed me from the outpost, easily swimming through the night’s darkness, hurling a direball straight at the mage. The spell exploded against his torso, the concussive force enough to halt his advance, but it was clear his powerful enchantments protected him from any damage.
I got to my feet, raised a mana shield, and hurled drilling arrows at him. To my surprise, the ten barrier-penetrating projectiles winked out of existence as they touched his skin.
The mage made a fist and strained as he raised it – as if lifting a heavy weight. Stone spears erupted under my feet, impacting my shield, and throwing me sideways, though none reached my skin.
I narrowed my eyes. So this support mage had some offensive magic after all. His wards were too powerful for me to easily win in a magical duel, but I had a new way of getting physical. I exposed my teeth in a feral snarl, feeling my pulse quicken in anticipation of the bloody challenge. I removed a spatial satchel from my inventory and poured out the 30 malleable Viridium beads it contained. With a mental flick and a burst of mana, the rigid metal spheres flowed into each other like water, erasing the seams, forming into a small mindless golem with four, meter-long tentacles. I instantly realized I couldn’t concentrate on the golem well enough to make any precision attacks, but for now, brute strength would be enough.
I had a bit less than half my mana remaining, which was still more than 6,000 MP, but this wasn’t the time to be stingy. I fueled my muscles with mana, and with my clone holding a readied Mana Drain spell for instant casting, I closed in on the three-meter tall bouldite with my spear leading the way, the golem flowing behind me.
The bouldite sneered at the puny goblin who barely reached his waist, but my sharp spear quickly made him rethink that attitude. Despite his protective enchantment, the Epic-ranked weapon tore straight through his knee. The giant monster wavered but didn’t fall. Instead, it started showering me with its own mana-fueled punches.
At least, it tried to.
Abandoning my attack, I refocused my attention on the golem beside me, making it lash out with two Viridium tentacles and grab the bouldite’s wrists, holding them at bay. I nearly buckled under the sudden strain of mana I had to channel into the golem to withstand the level 180 boss monster. But I stubbornly held on, the two free tentacles anchoring me in place.
The bouldite mage stared down at me, disbelief etched all over his eyeless face at the puny goblin that was somehow holding his fists at bay.
I clenched my teeth at the physical and mental effort but still managed a grin. “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”
I expanded more mana from my reserves to double and then triple the amount of mana coursing through my veins. With hundreds of points being drained every second just from making the golem hold him off, my mana bar shrank alarmingly fast. But I wasn’t done yet.
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With the newfound power, I started stabbing my gigantic foe with my spear again and again. The magical weapon pierced through his enchanted skin, inflicting deep wounds, taking chunks from his health bar with every hit. I snarled and hissed as I kept stabbing while struggling to maintain the mana flow into the golem to keep holding on. Blood sprayed on my face, but I didn’t care. I was winning.
Gradually, the mage’s strength waned, and I had to divert less mana to hold him off. I had him where I wanted. It was only a matter of time before I bled him dry.
I risked a glance back toward my entrenched forces in the outpost behind me. With their mage distracted, the bouldite group had lost its magical protection and fell in droves against my soldiers.
Taking advantage of my momentary distraction, the mage roared, somehow finding enough strength to raise a leg and kick me away. My shield rebounded some of the damage back at him, making him buckle in pain, but I was still sent flying backward. I kept my grip on my spear and punched it down, leaving a long furrow in the stone as it slowed my momentum, allowing me to get my feet under me.
The bouldite boss was breathing heavily, his blood running out like water, his health precariously low. But he wasn’t finished yet. I could feel it as he drew on every bit of mana he had left, going above and beyond the threshold, tapping into his own rapidly draining health to launch a desperate last-ditch spell.
But I was well prepared for that.
While the two of us were fighting, my clone had been biding his time. Using my shadowy body, I launched the readied Mana Drain spell. It manifested as a ray of void energy, hitting the mage’s center. The bouldite gasped in alarm as my Master-ranked spell made him lose control of his own. Making it backfire.
Life Reset: Salvation (Life Reset - Neo Book 6) Page 32