A forest of stone spears, twice as large as before, erupted underneath the mage’s legs, skewering his lower body.
I sent out my dagger to claim his rapidly declining health, and his body liquified as darkness claimed him, turning him into a level 1,800 void crystal and netting 270 faith points in the process. I let out a villainous chuckle. “Thanks for the harvest.”
Done with the combat, I took a moment to glance toward the other outposts. To my surprise, there was still some resistance in the devastated one, locking that force of bouldites in place. It looked like Sullivan had made the right call.
There were less than 40 bouldites left in the outpost near me, and the defenders seemed to have things well in hand. I even spotted Lirian jumping on the battlements, slicing thrown boulders apart.
Instead of teleporting to the third, still mostly intact, outpost, I ran toward it, directing the mana coursing through my body into my legs and giving myself an extra boost of speed while making the golem speed up beside me.
I arrived at the outpost a few moments later. There were around 60 attackers, and their backs were turned to me. I spotted a second mage standing alone farther back from their rear. This one was motioning toward the outpost and making pulling gestures with his arms, causing the metal-studded walls to come apart one at a time.
Like the rest of his kin, the mage hadn’t seen me coming, so he was taken completely by surprise when a giant Shadow Mastiff clamped its jaws around his shoulders and brought him down. This mage had no special wards in place, so using my cloned body, I cast Shadow Web at it and remained standing, constantly channeling more mana to keep the higher-level monster pinned down. The mana drain was substantial but far less than the amount I’d had to feed into the golem, and well within my ability to regenerate. With my physical body, using the bonus of my complete armor set, I peppered the pinned mage with double casts of Drilling Arrow and finally plucked out his life with another well-timed dagger strike, claiming yet another void crystal and a bunch of faith points.
By the time we’d cleared out the three enchanted outposts, the fourth one was destroyed, its defense force annihilated.
“Well done.” Sullivan came trotting toward me while keeping an eye on the final group of bouldites standing on the destroyed outposts. “Looks like there’s only around a hundred of them left.”
I nodded at him as I took out a spatial satchel and made the Viridium golem flow into it. The liquid golem was effective, though hard to control. I was going to have to work on that but now wasn’t the time. “We can link up our remaining forces,” I said. “Most of them have survived the assault. Then we can wipe out the last bouldite group. You made the right call to let that outpost fall.”
He winked at me. “That’s what you pay me for.”
“I’m paying you?”
“I’m keeping a list of my services and fees; I’ll hand over the bill once we win this war.”
I winked. “You got it. What about the other players?”
“Those who died should have respawned by now,” he said. “We still have around 3,000 soldiers left.”
“I like those odds.” I pointed at the last enemy force. “Are we going to draw them in?”
“No.” Sullivan shook his head. “With this much of an advantage, it would be best to bring our entire force against them. It’ll be over quicker than if we fight from a defensive position, and we can only deploy so many soldiers inside a single outpost. Also, there’s no need for us to hold back anymore. General?”
“Savol will do this,” the goblin said determinedly. He issued a few commands, and shortly, three waves consisting of a thousand soldiers each emerged from the outposts and circled the remaining bouldites.
“I can—” I began, but Sullivan shot me down.
“No. Let the soldiers handle this. They need the experience.” The strategist’s face contorted in concentration, and he waved his hand toward our forces. Their pace, already heightened by the barracks’ AWC’s Rapid Deployment speed bonus, instantly doubled as they stormed our enemies.
Swarm and Aidanriel led the charge, throwing the bouldites into disorganized ranks that were quickly swarmed under the combined weight of our soldiers. Ogre Mages blocked strikes with magic shields and flaming weapons, allowing their smaller comrades to swarm in. Hobs hacked at their legs with axes, kobolds slashed their throats, and goblin adepts healed the injured or launched drilling arrows.
The group of a hundred bouldites was soon reduced to a few isolated stragglers, which were quickly taken out. About a hundred of our soldiers lay dead among the enemy corpses, but compared to the casualties so far, it was a drop in the bucket.
I felt immensely proud of my clan. We’d grown beyond my wildest dreams from the time I took my first step as a fledgling, tier 1 goblin totem. And even though we initially outnumbered the force by roughly six to one, the immensely more powerful beasts would have still made short work of us if not for our superior equipment, training, and careful planning. It proved that unlikely victories could be won with logistics and preparation.
As the last bouldite fell, I was faced with a familiar notification.
Your forces have conquered a new settlement!
You may demolish the town and plunder its riches or take control over it.
Note: Taking control will not turn it into a new vassal settlement.
Demolish/Control?
I selected ‘Demolish,’ and the bouldite settlement was quickly converted into piles of resources.
Demolishing success: 75%
● 4,500 metal
● 6,000 stone
“Savol, resurrect the remaining casualties,” Sullivan said.
“Savol will do this,” the goblin agreed.
“How many soldiers did we lose overall?”
Savol looked up. “Army was killed one and a half times.”
I winced, despite knowing it could have been worse. “How much energy did it cost to bring them back?”
The goblin scratched his chin. “Savol had to spend 1,397,000 points, 418,672 is left.”
Sullivan grimaced. “Ouch.”
“Yeah, that’s a lot,” I said with a sigh.
“We’ll need much more going forward.”
“It’ll be alright,” I said. “We just gained a huge number of new soldiers, which will increase our daily energy yield. We now generate …” I shot a glance at the rudimentary Settlement Interface available through the outpost. “Holy shit! That’s just over 200,000 EP every day!”
“I can tell you why,” Sullivan said, his eyes distant as he studied his interface. “The army’s average level had just jumped by three. Our soldiers gained over 16,000 levels between them.”
“Damn.” I was impressed. “Defeating bouldite tribes is rewarding.” It also meant the overall cost to resurrect everyone climbed by 160,000 points, but I wasn’t about to let that little bit of trivia bring me down.
“I’ll say,” Sullivan agreed. “But still, even with the current energy yield, it will now take roughly five days to accumulate enough to raise the entire army. We plucked a victory based on this very feature; we can’t afford to keep doing that too often.”
“We should take fewer casualties the higher the soldiers’ levels get.”
“I hope so,” the strategist said. “So, do we continue onward to the next tribe?”
“It’ll be morning soon,” I pointed out. “Better camp and rest. We have a long march ahead of us.”
17 - March On
I decided not to return to the valley to sleep.
We were waging a difficult campaign against a powerful enemy. I had to take the situation seriously, not treat it like some sort of road trip I could bounce in and out from.
“My scouts report the immediate area is safe,” Yulli said as she entered the command tent that a few other players and I used as temporary lodging.
“That’s good to know,” I said. I looked over at Sullivan. “You’re keeping in touch with David, rig
ht?”
“Yeah.” The strategist yawned. “He keeps a lookout ahead. The next tribe is three days’ march from here. He’ll let me know if there’s anything dangerous approaching us.”
“Good,” I said. “Well, good night.”
“G’night.”
***
Ragnar’s head snapped upward from the bowl-shaped hole he had dug out for himself to sleep in. Something wasn’t right. A shadow passed over his head.
Most of the army was sleeping, and he couldn’t hear anything over the Ogres’ snores, but his instincts screamed something was wrong.
The drone jumped to his feet and looked around, rubbing his eyes as the scorching rays of light made them water.
Another shadow passed over him, and Ragnar finally realized what was going on. Someone had forgotten to look up to the sky.
“Incoming!” he shouted but was already too late.
Scores of giant sandhawks swooped down from the sky and attacked the sleeping soldiers. The drone dove into a roll, narrowly escaping a sandhawk’s swooping talons. The giant bird of prey grabbed two hobs instead, crushing them into bloody pulps. More of the birds descended, splitting Ogres’ skulls with their powerful beaks, or flying up, carrying along screaming victims.
“Fight back, you lazy asshats,” Ragnar roared. He jumped on the back of one of the nearby sandhawks and started tearing out its scaly hide with his snapping claws.
***
I woke up with a start at the shouts coming from outside the tent. I grabbed my Demon Staff and rushed out with the others close behind me.
Sandhawks were attacking my army. There were at least a hundred of the flying beasts.
They were normally easier to handle than the bouldites; a few well-placed arrows were enough to rob them of their flight, making them easy – if still dangerous – targets. But they attacked during daylight. My army’s Shadow-Touched bonuses were gone, and the glaring sun made my soldiers groggy and slow to act.
Still, the seasoned warriors were already fighting back; lieutenants quickly gathering their squads, organizing the troops.
The players around me charged into battle and I loosed volleys of drilling arrows.
The initial death toll on our side was significant, and the dangerous birds used their wind magic to further throw my army into disarray, but once my army rallied, the battle was quickly decided. The formidable raptors could absorb a lot of hits from my lower-leveled troops, but even they couldn’t ignore sheer weight as the Ogres threw themselves onto their backs, pinning them down and raking at them with darkness-made claws while the rest of the soldiers hacked them apart.
The battle was won in less than five minutes, but the bodies of our soldiers painted the rocky terrain red.
“How the hell did that happen?” I shouted, looking around. “Where are our scouts?”
”Chief.” Yulli approached me, her head bowed. “They flew at us with the sun behind them. The scouts didn’t see them until they were right on top of us.”
I grunted in annoyance. Being Shadow-Touched was a boon when we could plan the field of battle, but we were at a disadvantage during the daylight. “What about David?” I demanded, turning to look for my strategist. “Why didn’t he warn us?”
“I’m corresponding with him right now,” Sullivan said distractedly, his eyes looking distant. Then he paled. “Oh no.”
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“David says he didn’t see them coming. He doesn’t see anyone out here besides us.”
“What are you talking about?” I frowned. “Has he somehow lost his sight?”
Sullivan shook his head. “He says he can see the area all the way to the cave, but it's empty. No sandhawks or bouldites anywhere that he can see.”
“How the hell is that possible?” I asked. “They were just here. Unless …” I narrowed my eyes at a sudden sneaking suspicion. I looked at my left shoulder. It’s your people’s doing, isn’t it?
Vic! I seethed.
He had a point. I was looking at the bouldites as an obstacle blocking my way toward the final challenge. I should have known the VIs would act differently. So they decided to be proactive and come against us?
So it was them that blocked David’s clairvoyance ability?
Us, cheating? I felt ready to explode. They have at least double the number of forces we do, and every one of them is at least four times the level of our own troops.
It’s not so fun from my perspective, I said dryly.
I sneered. I’ll show them danger and drama. They should have sent out more than one flight of sandhawks. They won’t catch us off-guard a second time.
“Savol,” I said, turning to my army’s general. “Casualties?”
“Three hundred dead, Chief,” the goblin replied.
“Damn,” I muttered, accessing an outpost’s controls to bring up the Resurrection Interface.
Resurrect all for 63,012 EP?
I approved the prompt and the resurrected soldiers soon poured out of the building. I now had only 355,000 EP remaining. Not long ago, that would have seemed like plenty. Now it was barely enough to bring back a third of the army.
“On the bright side,” Sullivan said, seeing my expression, “several hundred soldiers leveled up from this encounter.”
I nodded at him. “They only make us stronger. But we need to be ready for more surprises. I don’t want to lose so many soldiers next time.”
“I’m already on it,” he said. “I’ll make sure to have a better lookout during the day. We’ll also have to send out more scouts now that we can’t rely on David’s sight.”
“Alright,” I said. It also meant that now I couldn’t go back to the valley. I had to be ready to counter any sudden threat. “Let’s finish sleeping. We’ll have more bouldites to butcher soon.”
***
We started preparing to march out at dusk the next day. We withdrew a bunch of building materials through the outposts’ portals before leaving, and I also got my allotment of ten enchanted Viridium beads from Hoker, bringing my total to 40.
While the soldiers broke camp for departure, I walked some distance away and took out the enchanted Viridium. The spatial satchel I used to carry them disintegrated from overuse, but I had several others to replace it.
I looked down at the single mass of what was previously a type of liquid metal golem, surrounded by the new spheres. Forty didn’t look all that much when they were lying on the ground.
I ignored him and passed my hand over the Viridium, channeling mana into them. They rolled into a larger mass, pressing together and shifting around, forming into a ro
ugh-looking cuirass. The golem proved to be effective but crude. So I resorted to my original idea of wearing it like armor.
I tried picking it up and wearing it. The thing felt like it weighed a ton. I had to use Mana Infusion to be able to put it over my head.
I stood there, the cumbersome pinkish armor covering my fine mithril vest. Moving wasn’t easy, and the armor didn’t fit me well. Another wave of mana reformed it tightly around my body, but it was still heavy and restricted my movements. Spellcasting often required delicate hand gestures, and I couldn’t perform them well enough in my current state. The whole point of this was to control my armor with my mind instead of my body. I tried making it shift along with my muscles, but I quickly realized I couldn’t keep up with the mental effort of controlling it while also casting spells. Even using only my weapon was taxing.
Vic, want to try giving me a hand here? I asked. And please, spare me the inevitable balls joke just this once.
Sure, I said. So, help me out?
My purple cloak disengaged, flowing into the cuirass covering my torso. The metal shifted along my body as Vic took control, but it was apparent this approach wasn’t going to work. Whenever I tried moving, Vic was either too slow to react or made the torso shift the wrong way.
Share a mind, eh? I pondered his words for a moment. Thanks, Vic.
Instead of answering, I summoned my shadow clone. I stood and stared for a moment at my physical self. I looked a bit comical wearing the bulky armor over my slim frame, especially with the pink color – though its hue was closer to purple. But looks didn’t matter. Utility did. I passed control over the armor to my shadow, and my bifurcated mind was easily able to coordinate its movements along with my own. That was much better. I could now move my physical body, fight, and cast spells without hindrance. Of course, that meant my clone was fully occupied with controlling the armor and wasn’t available to cast spells. Also, it was standing exposed as it concentrated; an easy target for enemy spellcasters.
Life Reset: Salvation (Life Reset - Neo Book 6) Page 33