by Dakota Krout
“Wow. I bet the guild will want these if I am able to make this shot.” Chad tested the weight, felt the wind, and got into position. “How many do you have?”
“One.” Alexis shook her head at his incredulous look. “It cost me about fifteen gold to design and make it.”
Chad looked at the arrow with a new respect. “Joe, can you touch my bow as I fire? Just near the blade. Very lightly, please; I want to see if your anti-mage title will help me. Who am I killin’?”
Joe stood closer and did as Chad had asked, pointing out the Shaman directing the spell. “That guy, and we need to do this fast. That spell is about ready to go.” The gray orb had condensed and was now pearlescent and shimmering ominously.
“Shhh…” Chad drew the bow and pointed it off into the distance, causing Joe’s eyes to widen in fright. Chad wasn’t even aiming at the right Shaman! Before he could call out, the string snapped forward and the arrow was away. It screamed like a burning man as it flew, arcing around a large swath of the battlefield as it flew much further than any arrow Joe had seen to this point. There was a shimmer in the air around the group of Shaman–reminiscent of the ripples in a pond after a rock was thrown–as the arrow punched through a mana shield. It penetrated directly into the chest of the lead Shaman, and multiple things happened at once.
The beast’s hands went to his new wound, his mouth silently screaming. He didn’t get a chance to even try to stabilize the spell before it fell on him and exploded outward. The power invested in the spell moved away from the impact site like a shockwave, decimating anything in its path. Dozens then hundreds of Wolfmen were cut in half before the power faded, leaving a huge gaping hole where the enemy had previously been most clustered.
Jaxon looked over the annihilated area and nodded approvingly. “Nice shot.”
~ Chapter Forty-seven ~
“Solid understatement there, Jaxon.” Joe rolled his eyes as he looked over the area. Trees had been felled and hundreds of Wolfmen had been caught in the blast. The area was already refilling with targets, but the human defenders had gained a much-needed reprieve.
“Actually…” Chad shook his head in disbelief as he looked at his combat log. “That shot did exactly one point two damage to him. Only the mana burn and silence actually made that happen. Also, physical damage was only done due to ‘Legend’ and ‘Anti-mage’ titular effects. Good lord, his protections must have been insane. If he wasn’t a high-ranked general at least… I’d eat his ridiculous hat.” Chad pointed at Poppy. No one had anything to say about the arrow, but Joe pretended to brag by throwing a fist in the air and kissing his bicep. It was best not to panic during combat.
The loss of the Shaman started a shift among the Wolfmen, who were probably forced to change tactics without the previous Shaman’s direction. Warriors became much more prevalent in their ranks, and their Scouts also began using their ranged weapons more heavily, attempting to block the humans from creating a counter to their next attack. Long and heavy ramps on wheels where being pushed forward; apparently, the Warriors didn’t have the same confidence in their ability to climb the walls as did their lighter brethren. Either way, they were coming, and the howling was reaching a fever pitch.
Joe chanced a glance over the wall and got an arrow to the face for his trouble. He cursed in shock, then smiled when he saw that his Shell had gained a rank from the life-threatening projectile. “Guys, I have no idea what I should be doing right now. Any suggestions would be really helpful.”
Chad spoke up before any of his team could. “I’d suggest either getting off the battlements–my personal preference–or providing support up here for the ranged guys that are stuck up here. Your team seems to be mainly close-quarters fighters, and you are a healer. Go heal people that have arrows sticking out of them. You guys go and beat up those Warriors when they crawl over the wall.”
Not having better instructions, Joe agreed with this plan, and his team got to work while Chad returned to his post. Far from being berated for dereliction of duty, his excellent shot was praised, and he was clapped on the back as the story spread from the people who had witnessed it. On the battlements, Joe’s team worked constantly to fend off the attacks, and Joe emptied his mana pool over and over to heal the people around him. Any time there was a lull, Joe would rehydrate people by using Cleanse. He made sure to stick close to his group, not wanting to be separated if anything went wrong.
Every once in a while, Joe would glance over at where the fighting was most vicious, the gate. There was a constant assault on that location that made the climbing hordes they were dealing with seem like a small scuffle. The air was thick with arrows flying in either direction, often colliding with each other and exploding into splinters. Spells were constantly humming through the air as well, and the land was becoming pockmarked and deformed. Somehow, the walls and gate were surviving the brutal battle, and that they still remained was a reminder that they were the only reason the humans had been able to entrench themselves here even this long.
Four hours into the battle, Joe’s team was replaced on the wall by the next shift of defenders. His group stumbled down to the rest area and attacked the prepared food with the same viciousness they had been attacking Wolfmen only a few minutes ago. Jaxon looked around with deep bags under his eyes and coughed. “So, uh, how’s everyone doing today? Getting plenty of experience? If you think you are going to level, please let me know so I can get close and use the light as a quick shower. It seems that I am covered in filth.”
Joe opened his notifications, noting with pleasure that he had increased Cleanse and Group Heal to Apprentice six, Mend to Apprentice eight, and Hidden Sense to Beginner eight. Then the experience began to flow in, and he moved closer to Jaxon to help the man out. He had asked nicely, after all.
Exp: 7,381 (Various activities. See full listing?) You have reached character level twelve!
Rituarchitect experience gained: 2,190 (Macro Micro ritual). See explanation?
Specialization Rituarchitect has reached level two! Your stats have increased due to class bonuses: +3 Wisdom and Intelligence, +2 Perception and Dexterity.
Perception has reached 50 points! Calculating… most focused sense: sight. You now have two vision modes: standard and zoom 2x! Find those tiny details that have always eluded you! All senses have increased drastically; be careful out there! Pain hurts! Smells are smelly! Brush your teeth because you can taste all the nasty in your mouth. Oh look, the howls are louder too! Good luck ever sleeping again!
“And hot water hot!” Joe mocked the snarky message. He chose not to see the listing for the first notice, but he did want to see the reasoning for the specialization experience. As a golden supernova washed out from him, he read over the notice and was intrigued. Apparently, a ‘Macro Micro’ was a type of ritual that let him enchant a lot of items with a single, small enchantment. So this was the experience for the enchanted arrows? Excellent. Next, he tried out the zoom mode of his vision, getting an unfortunate close up of Poppy’s mustache. It was nice and fluffy from a distance, but this close… and right after eating? Extra nasty.
Joe coughed and glanced around the table. “We have eight hours until we are back on duty, unless, of course, we are getting close to being overrun. Any thoughts on that? Should we be doing anything, or do you want to just go to sleep?”
The vote came back quickly. Sleep won by a landslide. They were finishing up when a messenger ran up. “Joe? Of the Wanderer’s guild?”
“Yes, that’s me. What’s up?” Joe was on alert right away; the man seemed deadly serious.
“Message for you from Aten, given to me via Daisy. ‘Joe, change the settings of your stupid-butt building so that the fudging Wolfmen stop benefitting from the deity-cursed boosted skill experience, you fudging poop-stain’.” The messenger coughed into his hand and looked around. “This part is from me, I censored a bit of the message, but… I can give it to you exactly if needed.”
“No, I got it. I appreciat
e your candor; no one needs to be insulted in the form that message would have been.” Joe tossed the man a silver coin to show exactly how much he appreciated the censoring, getting a nod in return as he hurried off. Opening his settings, Joe selected the building and changed the benefits to ‘allies only’. “Totally forgot that was a thing. Hope I didn’t screw us up too bad.”
The others didn’t seem to think there was going to be a large issue; at least, no one commented. That was when he noticed that Poppy and Alexis were asleep, their faces inches from the food they had been attacking only a minute ago. “Alright, let’s go get some sleep.”
Bard picked up Alexis in a princess carry and walked toward the sleeping areas. Jaxon, seeing this and also seeing the sleeping Poppy, followed suit and carried Poppy in the same manner. Joe made sure to get a screenshot for future taunting and blackmail. Settling in for a few hours of sleep, they drifted off to dreamland with their backs against each other for protection.
Joe came to in pain, a strange man standing over him. This was becoming far too common for his liking. Why couldn’t he wake up feeling extra nice with a lady standing over him? His head was itching in an infuriating manner, and the leer on the man’s face seemed to suggest he knew exactly what was happening. He smirked and in a low voice, whispered, “A present from an admirer.” He vanished from sight, and even Joe’s high perception could only detect a faint shimmer as the man ran away.
Yelling in pain as the itching transformed into needle-sharp digging at his scalp, Joe grabbed at his head and tried to figure out why exactly it hurt so bad. Feeling at the foreign object, it seemed that he once again had luscious hair! He tried to yank it off, but whatever this was, it was not going to budge. His mana and stamina began to plummet, and he saw that his new total was now fixed at a maximum of one hundred! No! Joe stood on wobbly legs and fell over from the pain just as a notification appeared.
Item: ‘Narcissist’s folly (cursed)’ counts as a wig. Incinerating in three seconds (effect from cursed title: Baldy). Remove this rare and expensive item if you want to retain possession of it!
A new wave of pain hit Joe as the cursed item on his head burst into flames, badly scorching him before being completely consumed. He actually vomited from the pain before he finally generated enough mana to heal himself. Poppy was kneeling next to him as Joe regained focus, not getting too close thanks to the puddle of vomit covering his prone leader. “What in the world happened to you?”
Groaning, Joe slowly stood and rested his head against the wall. “*Hurk*, pretty sure an assassin just tried to curse me with a nasty item. Gotta start sleeping in *ugh* protected areas again.”
“Sorry, man. You good to go, though? We just got called over to assist some of the guys from the Mage’s College.” Poppy was edging away from him as watery bile crept down the slight slope they were on.
“Yeah, I’m good.” Joe wiped his mouth and stood, quickly using Cleanse to get the stomach acid out of his mouth. It also removed some tartar and plaque buildup; then a little healing fixed up his encroaching gingivitis. He could put dentists out of business if he wanted to… Joe shook off the intrusive thought and hurried to catch up with the rest of his party.
Getting back on the battlements revealed a wasteland around the town. Charred siege equipment, blood, bodies, and destroyed forest were the only things visible through the choking smoke that poured out of the remainder of the forest that was burning nearby. The only thing that had not changed from the start of the battle was the howling, and the cumulative bonuses on the Wolfmen were starting to become more apparent. The opponents that charged toward them were faster, stronger, and harder to tire than they had any right to be. Now, getting into melee range with them was something that only the hardiest Warriors could endure, and huge wolves were accompanying the Wolfmen. They had begun hunting humans in packs.
While refreshing Exquisite Shell, Joe realized that his team was now positioned above the gate, the place where the most serious fighting was happening and where the most injuries and deaths had occurred. A bit nervous, he steeled himself to fight all night if need be. Joe recognized a few of the Mages from his time at the College, especially the Silence Mage in a purple robe that had walked him into the trial.
“Listen up, if you are just getting on duty!” someone was yelling. Joe focused in on him, not wanting to miss any pertinent details. “We have a report that the enemy has a battering ram coming this way, and it is apparently designed to take down the gates of Ardania. These gates will not hold if the ram gets to have free reign at it! The Army is busy on the West side of town; a huge wave of Elites punched a hole in our defensive line. We are the last line of defense, and we have no reinforcements coming! We need to stay strong!”
Joe’s responsibilities didn’t change much with his new position; he was on healing duty. His shadow manipulation had a range of about ten feet right now, so taking out targets down on the ground wasn’t really an option. He could spray acid over the wall and likely would when the battering ram appeared, but until then, there were more effective countermeasures. The battle raged on just as it had previously, if a little more intensely. Then something changed in the air, and tension whipped through the defenders. The battering ram had appeared, and it was like nothing Joe had ever seen before.
The front of it was a giant metal wedge, and the entire structure looked vaguely like an upside-down boat. He couldn’t see for certain, but he was almost positive that the bottom was filled with marching Wolfmen… who were now starting to run at the gate. Where he was defending. Oh boy.
“Countermeasures!” The man giving orders demanded. Chunks of earth started to rise from the land in front of the gate, creating an additional barrier for the ram. Though a good idea, the gesture was futile because the entire battering ram was a ruse. As the front wedge hit the stone in front of the gate, the boat-portion sprung forward and upward like a catapult, revealing dozens of Elite Wolfman Warriors that used the sudden stairway to launch a sneak attack at the unprepared ‘soft’ targets. The Mages and ranged fighters were cut through like a knife through hot butter as the Elites started their grizzly work. Only the melee fighters supporting the ranged group stopped the area from being completely overrun.
Joe activated Group Heal and latched his healing waters onto the most hard-pressed fighters, constantly healing the wounds they were accruing. It took ten minutes of intense fighting, but the Elites were almost cleared from the battlements. Defying expectations, one of them broke through. Ignoring the wounds he took and focusing on the Mages and healers, he was a whirlwind of rage and destruction. Three, four men died in as many seconds as the Elite tore through them. His sights were on Joe now, and as the man prepared to defend himself by collecting shadows around the Wolfman, two brutal attacks were absorbed by his now-splintering Shell.
Just as Joe started to invest the mana into his shadows to knock the Elite off the wall, his control failed him. He slammed both his palms into the unimpressed Wolfman’s chest, doing zero damage. There… there should have been giant shadow hands that threw the Elite backward and off the wall. Joe looked up and up and up… into the eyes of the enraged Wolfman as he swung his sword. In the periphery of his vision, Joe saw a purple-robed man smirking.
You have died! Calculating… you lose 2,400 experience! You have lost a character level! Time remaining until respawn… 18 in-game hours, or nine real-world hours. Time until respawn has been increased by 50% for being in an active war zone!
~ Chapter Forty-eight ~
Joe stood slack-jawed, staring at the walls of his respawn room. When he started to move again, he flew into a rage. “That Silence Mage! He murdered me! I’m going to hunt you down! I wanted that to go better! I wanted that to go better!” Joe shouted the last sentence, slamming his fists into the wall. There was no pain, no bloody knuckles, no damage to the wall. This made him even angrier for some reason, and he full-on threw a tantrum like a two-year-old.
When he was standing again, he
had calmed down, so he went over to the couch and pulled up information about what was going on in the game. To his shock and relief, there was a live broadcast of the battle that was happening right now! A few minutes in, he realized that watching it didn’t make him feel any better. The war was not going well for the humans, even though it looked really cool. Everyone in the game looked like they were sprinting around, but it was only the two-to-one time dilation. You had the option to watch at regular speed, but Joe wanted to stay current. Since he had just woken up in the game, he watched for five hours before deciding to take a two-hour nap.
For the final hour, before he was able to return, the battle was starting to rapidly worsen for the humans. The full might of the Wolfman nation was arrayed against them, and it seemed like nothing could help. Then… in a flash… the entire scope of the battle shifted. At first, the human side stiffened. Then the attacking Wolfmen within a certain range stuttered, swiftly going still as well. That was the only warning before the Wolfmen began to die. Joe had to rewind and watch the battle in slow motion to see what was happening, but when he saw it… he returned to the live feed and created a bowl of popcorn for himself. This was going to be good.
The human King had joined the battle without fanfare, and Joe now understood why he was called a Battle Tyrant. He exuded an aura of killing intent supplemented with mana that caused anything within the area he was fighting to simply… give up and die. He moved around the battlefield at such high speeds that it was impossible to watch him fight at regular speed, let alone the doubled speed that Joe was subject to. Joe could only follow the King’s movements by the trail of erupting gore that he left behind.