“Crystal, you keep that big guy slowed down so he can’t reach Sheila. Sally, you keep our tank at full Health,” I said as they landed on the wall beside me.
They exchanged a quick glance with each other before turning their surprised eyes onto Sheila.
“How did you get someone with Defensive Aegis out here?” Sally asked before waving off the question. “Silly question. Okay, we’re on it.”
They jumped down from the wall and leaped into battle. Sally’s hands glowed with golden light before a wave of energy enveloped Sheila. The wounds on her arms and legs vanished in a flare of power, and I watched as her Health returned to full. Perfect.
Crystal sprang into action, spurred on by Agatha’s Blinding Blade technique. She darted forward, a palm full of what looked like caltrops in one hand. She flung them in front of the huge eye, and as they struck the ground, they began to glow with soft ethereal blue light. The creature, determined to catch Sheila, hovered right over them.
The traps exploded in a flare of light, sending vines of blue smoke snapping upward to wrap around it and bind it into place.
Agatha seized on the chance, slamming her swords into the back of the creature, while Crystal produced a pair of old-fashioned pistols from beneath her cloak. She unloaded the two weapons into the back of the creature, blowing huge chunks of blackened flesh across the battlefield. The creature snarled, writhing in pain as it tried to break free of the caltrops.
I wasn’t sure if the two of them could take it, but I was willing to bet we could keep it down and out until we dealt with the lizardmen.
“Agatha, Gwen! You two focus down the lizards. Everyone work together to take them down, burn them down one by one. Then we can focus down the eyeball,” I said, and while Gwen spun in midair to throw her next fireball at the lizardmen on Sheila, Agatha didn’t move.
“We need to take down the beholder before it breaks free. If it gets to Sheila, it can turn her to stone.” She shook her head at me and plunged her blades into it. “Trust me, even if we can keep it bound up, Sheila’s Defensive Aegis won’t keep it focused on her for much longer. We need to take it down first.”
“That’s an excellent point,” I murmured as the second wave of lizardmen hit the battlefield. They were swept up by Sheila’s Defensive Aegis and moved to intercept her. Worse, we’d only downed a few of the lizardmen.
Sally let loose with another healing wave, bringing Sheila back up to full before turning toward Crystal and flicking her wrist out. A band of sapphire energy wrapped around Crystal and the girl’s movements began to blur as she quickly reloaded and fired into the beholder.
“Sally, can you haste Gwen and Agatha as well?” I asked, glancing at the healer.
She nodded. “I can, but it will take a lot out of me.”
“Do it anyway,” I said, pissed I’d just spent all her Experience. If I hadn’t I could have increased her Regeneration Rate.
Instead, I turned my attention toward Sheila because she was just going to have to make do. She’d gained a ton of Experience since I’d last looked and had almost six thousand Experience to call upon. That seemed insane. Had it all been from defending the gates?
I wasn’t sure, but I didn’t care. I dumped another three thousand Experience into her Defensive Aegis so it could hold threat for an additional minute. Then I used the rest to give her two additional Abilities: Skin of Steel which reduced incoming damage by fifty percent for thirty seconds, and Leeching Blows, which let her convert a portion of her damage into Health.
Turning my eyes to Agatha, I quickly saw that, like Sheila, she had a bunch of Experience to spare. I upgraded her Blinding Blade Ability a little, but then I saw the Skill Flash in the Pan. It would increase her chance of dealing a critical hit by ten percent. Since her attacks were based on speed, that would add up to a lot more damage over the course of a battle. There was just one problem. She didn’t have the Stats.
I quickly dumped Experience into Agility, Special, and Strength to bring them up to the required levels of eighty, seventy-five, and seventy, and then had her learn Flash in the Pan.
As the blue light of my spell faded from around the women, the beholder broke free. It surged forward, more pissed off than ever. Gore leaked from its body. Only instead of pursuing Shelia, it shook itself, its skin undulating, and spun, lashing out at Crystal and Agatha. A blast of fire lit from its eyes, turning the dirt between them into slag.
“Told you!” Agatha cried, leaping to the left to avoid a blast of cold that turned the spot where the guard had been standing into a winter wonderland.
“Sorry,” I said, glancing at Sheila. “Can you pull it back on you?”
“No!” the guard called right before a lizardman decked her in the chin, sending her spinning to the ground. As she struck the ground, more lizardmen attacked her.
“Fuck!” I cried as Gwen hit the ground beside Sheila, arms awash with fire. She plunged a flaming fist through the back of a lizardman’s skull and grabbed hold of Sheila by the breastplate. With a Herculean effort, she flung the girl into the air.
Sheila’s wings opened in midair. She hovered there as the lizards screamed and gnashed for a moment before whirling to attack the people nearest to them.
“Fuck, leaving the ground makes her lose agro on the monsters,” I cursed, pissed off.
Gwen seemed fine, backpedaling as she blasted them with flames, but the other guards were much less skilled and their gear was inferior. A quick glance at their Health stats let me know we were fucked.
“You have to get them back on you, Sheila!” I cried as Sally began throwing healing spells out left and right. Her chest was heaving, sweat dripping down her face, and I knew we didn’t have long.
“Dammit!” I cursed right before Sheila taunted the beholder, causing the creature to spin and face her. Then it shot a lance of flame through the air that hit Sheila in the chest, knocking her backward to the ground. Steam rose from her body as the smell of charred flesh filled my nose.
“No!” Agatha screamed, leaping on the beholder’s back and slamming her blades into the top of its skull. Their edges were covered with dark ichor, and as she continued to pound on it, Crystal threw a handful of powder into the monster’s maw.
It hissed and spat, shaking itself as its skin turned a motley shade of green. The eyes on the ends of its tentacles began to water, and I realized she’d blinded it somehow.
“I’m out, boss,” Sally said as she threw the last of her Power at Sheila. It was enough to get the guard on her feet but not much more.
“It’s okay,” I said, pissed at myself because it was my fault and we needed her healing now. “I shouldn’t have made you waste the power hasting them.”
“Defensive Aegis!” Sheila cried, slamming her spear into the ground. Blood leaked from her lips, her armor was scorched and melted to her flesh, but as she cried out, a wave of power swept out like a crashing wave. Once again, the lizardmen turned their attention toward her and rushed forward. Only, now she had way less Health.
“Crystal, use your caltrops to slow them. They can’t reach her until Sally recovers enough to heal her,” I yelled, and the girl turned to me and nodded. “Everyone else, don’t let them reach Sheila.” I glanced at Agatha. “You keep DPSing the boss.”
As Crystal raced forward, unloading her twin pistols as she went, she managed to take down two of the creatures closest to Sheila. Gwen was able to do the same, clearing a path for Sheila to backpedal away from the rest.
Crystal’s hand shot out as she flung more caltrops to the ground between Sheila and the horde of lizardmen. The trap sprung, slowing all but three down. Those that remained stuck were quickly taken down by the guards Agatha and Sheila had trained, but the rest continued forward.
“Gwen, Crystal! Focus fire left to right!” They followed suit, unloading on the left lizardman and bringing it down as the other two reached Sheila.
Another bolt of fire split the air, sizzling by her and causing her to le
ap forward. Her shield slammed into the right creature, knocking it on its ass as the other lunged forward. Its blade sank into Sheila’s arm, but she ignored it as she smashed her forehead into its snout. The sound of cracking bone filled the air as it staggered backward.
A barrage of bullets hit the lizardman on the side of the skull, turning its head into a fond memory, while a surge of fire from Gwen turned the one on the ground into toast. Just like that, all the lizards were down, leaving us with a very pissed off beholder.
Agatha was still pounding on it, but because the thing was all black, I couldn’t tell how hurt it was.
“I’m nearly out of Mana,” Gwen said, trying to call more fire and failing.
“Almost out of ammo too,” Crystal called as the beholder finally succeeded in slamming one of the mace-like tentacles into Agatha.
The guard was flung to the ground but managed to somehow roll through it, coming up on her feet just in time to meet a bruising charge. The blow flung her backward across the sand.
The beholder howled in triumph, ignoring Crystal’s shots as the bullets sank into its flesh. It raised its tentacles, aiming the flame and ice eyes at Agatha.
Before it could strike, Sheila was there in a blur of motion, her wings flapping with all their might. Her spear slammed downward into the thing’s open mouth, piercing straight through the back of its throat and bursting out the back, splattering black goo everywhere. The tip of the spear sank into the dark earth as the beholder convulsed before collapsing to the ground in a twitching heap.
19
As I stood there staring at the corpse of the beholder, I realized how crazy my current situation was. Numbers were flashing above the heads of my girls, and the corpses of the other monsters had already dissolved into Dark Blood, but it was the twisted, oozing body of the lifeless beholder that really brought it home for me.
A few days ago, I’d been just a Seven Eleven Slurpee Monkey with delusions of landing an IT job in a burned-out husk of an industrial city. Now… Now, I was in charge of a town and all its inhabitants. It was crazy to think it had happened to me of all people. Not only that, but thanks to me, we were winning. We’d even taken down a beholder of all things.
It was crazy and unreal and, if I was being completely honest, a little bit frightening. Only, as I gripped the hilt of Clarent, I realized how lucky I truly was. I’d been given a chance no person had ever been given in the history of the universe.
I would defeat the Darkness if it was the last thing I did. Not because I was the chosen one or anything like that. No, I’d do it because deep down, I wanted to protect my girls. They’d fought hard and trusted me even when my decisions had been bad. I’d been so preoccupied with everything that had been going on and all that recruitment that I’d forgotten we were in the middle of a war zone and because of it, Sheila had nearly died.
That would not happen again.
I jumped down off the wall and moved toward the beholder as its body began to bubble and slough away into the ether. Each step I took caused my compatriots to look over at me, and while none approached as I knelt down by the fallen monster, I knew some of them wanted to. They didn’t, and I was glad for it.
As the last of the beholder dissolved away, revealing a mass of Dark Blood the size of a football, I reached out and took it into my hand. It felt both hot and cold, and as I stood, lifting it into the air, Clarent began to glow with blue fire.
“We won,” I said, turning toward my team. “Thanks to all of you, we won. I know it was tough, and we nearly lost, but we’ll continue to stand. We’ll continue to win. That is my promise.” I turned to look at Sheila and moved toward her. “I should have never let you get as hurt as you did.”
“What are you talking about?” Sheila asked, confusion playing across her face as she looked me over. “I’ve never seen any border town survive a beholder attack before. When they come, it’s almost always the end of the line. Those creatures would take down the ward over the town in ten seconds flat if they could. The only reason it didn’t was because of the Skills you gave me, gave to us.” Sheila put a hand on my shoulder. “That we won and didn’t lose anyone at all is a win so massive you don’t even understand.”
“Maybe,” I said, turning to look at the crackling horizon of the Darkness, “but that’s not good enough. We should have taken them down before they got to us, but we didn’t.” I shook my head. “And what if I wasn’t here—”
“Then we’d all be dead right now,” Gwen said, coming toward me. Agatha, Crystal, and Sally followed in her wake. They all nodded. “We’d all just be dead, and there’d be a smoking crater where Lustnor once stood. Only that didn’t happen thanks to what you did here.”
“Believe me when I say that I hear you. I just,” I sighed, turning to look at our town with its too low walls and shoddy gate, “I just want you all to be safe.” I handed the Dark Blood from the beholder to Sally. “We’ll need to work on that but first thing’s first. We need to get our asses in gear because I know what I’d be doing now if I was the Darkness.”
“What’s that?” Gwen asked as we all moved back toward the gates.
“I’d send ten beholders.” I glanced over my shoulder as the lightning arced through the sky and the thunder boomed. “And something a lot worse than beholders along just to make sure.” I smacked my hand against the pommel of Clarent. “We have to be ready for that.”
“We will be ready for that,” Gwen said, putting a hand on my shoulder as we stepped inside. “For now, we need everyone on the same page. Get some more people.”
“Yeah, more people.” I looked up at the sky for a second before shutting my eyes as I tried to ignore the punishing responsibility threatening to bury me. If more people came, I’d be responsible for them too. Every person here was trusting in me to win, but worse, everyone who died would be my fault. I sighed, and for a second, I almost wished I was back home. Sure, it hadn’t been much, but it had been safe. Only no one had counted on me. Now people did.
“Let me take care of some of the details. We still need to split up those we have appropriately.” Gwen squeezed my shoulder. “Maybe you can just take a break for a few minutes. All this must be new to you.” She leaned in and kissed me on the cheek, causing a rush of warmth and energy to sweep through my body. “Go on, you deserve it.”
“No,” I said, waving off the idea. “I’m going to go meet with Maribelle and Buffy. We need to do something about those walls.”
“Okay,” Gwen said, nodding to me, but as she turned to head back toward the assembled Stained-turned-guards, I stopped her. “Hmm?”
“I want long range people. Crystal seems to know a bit about that. Anyone who has the Skill for it becomes a priority, okay?”
“Understood,” Gwen said, a glimmer of humor flashing through her eyes as she looked me over. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” She gestured at me. “There’s definitely some more ‘oomph’ to you than when I first met you.” She licked her lips. “I like it.”
With that, she spun on her heels and moved back to the assembled townspeople, leaving me to go on my merry way.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. If by oomph she meant the weight of the world on my shoulders, then yeah, I was different. Now, I had a duty to my people, and I would succeed. She was right though. She could see to having the townsfolk associated accordingly. I’d leave her to that and see to the buildings.
A few minutes later, I found myself standing before both Maribelle and Buffy, which was convenient, if annoying because the two women were shouting at each other.
“Look, missy, we just don’t have the funds for what you’re proposing,” Buffy snarled, whipping a hand back toward the building where she’d set up shop. It looked like it was seconds from completely collapsing under the weight of the weird pigeon-like birds settled atop the roof. “We’re like seconds from being bankrupt as it is.”
“You can’t even be in that building. It’s so not to code that it might act
ually turn into a black hole and absorb the town. You need to release the funds to fix it.” Maribelle crossed her arms over her chest. “Unless you want to die.”
“We all have to die sometime. Money is forever,” Buffy said, taking a step forward and making a wringing motion with her hands. “It isn’t like I have a magic money tree I can shake to make all our dreams come true.”
“What’s the problem?” I asked, stepping between the two girls and holding out my hands. “Because we just killed a fucking beholder at the gate, so unless whatever this is” - I gestured to them - “is that important, I think we can figure out a solution.”
“The problem is that nearly every building here, even Sam’s, is dangerously unstable. We need to tear them down to the frame, in some cases to the foundation, and completely rebuild them, or we risk people dying.” As Buffy opened her mouth to interrupt, I held up a hand, silencing her. “And I’m not talking about stupid regulations, like you need at least four nails per foot of board, either. These are dangerously unsound problems.” She moved forward and pushed on the corner of the building, causing it to sway dangerously. “That shouldn’t happen.”
“I agree,” I said, turning to the goblin. “I can’t imagine you think it’s safe, so what’s the problem?”
“The problem is we can’t afford it.” Buffy threw up her hands in exasperation and stomped her foot. “We just can’t. I have some funds earmarked for the mill, but even if we take every penny I’ve earmarked for other important things, we cannot afford to remake even a single building, let alone that one.”
“Okay,” I said, turning to Maribelle. “And I’m assuming there are no quick fixes to the problem?”
“Not really,” Maribelle said, shaking her head. “Maybe if I was more skilled, but I’m just not.” She threw up her hands in frustration.
“Are you sure?” I gestured to the buildings, and as I did, I had a thought. “Um… why do we need them?”
The Builder's Sword (The Legendary Builder Book 1) Page 12