“What is that?” he demanded.
“It’s rust, sir!” the guard said in a panicked voice. His eyes darted around.
“They’re not going to save you! Is this their weapon?”
“No?”
“Well, is it or isn’t it?” Erik’s voice rose into a roar once more.
“It’s not!” The man shook now.
“Then it must be yours, is that correct?” Erik asked.
“Yes, sir!”
“Were you not taught to clean your weapon?”
“I was taught, sir!”
“Then I’d better never see this rust again in my life!” Erik yelled.
“Sir!” The man stood stiff, afraid to do anything.
Erik threw the sword to the side and moved down the line. All of the men were looking at Erik sideways out of the corner of their eyes, fear in their expression as he went through them, picking out the smallest flaw in their gear or the way that they were attired.
Erik finished and moved to the front once again. Their armor had been pulled apart, their weapons thrown, and they looked terrified and angry.
Erik restrained the smile that threatened to form on his face. I might be able to make something out of them yet.
“We have a week and a half until a beast horde arrives at Alva Village. The defense of this village, the defense of the people you care about, will be on your shoulders. There is nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. We will fight to defend this village with all that we have. There will be patrols out every night. There will be attacks on the animal hides in the area to reduce the number that can attack us and you will be a part of this. I hope to raise your levels and increase your fighting capabilities. Listen to me and I will turn you into soldiers.” Erik looked at each and every one of them.
“I ask but one thing: carry out my orders. If you don’t, then it might be your family, or your buddy, who will die and there is no room here for people who are not willing to follow my simple orders. If you do not think that you can be commanded by me or listen to my orders”—Erik waved to the door of the training courtyard—“there’s the door.”
The guards looked from the door to Erik.
“This will be the only chance I will give you. Leave now, or stay and fight.” Erik’s voice was no longer commanding, but calm.
Three of the guards moved for the door, taking off their leathers and gear, talking about the unfairness of it all and how Erik was overreacting.
Erik stopped Glosil, who was about to yell at them.
“Let them go,” Erik said.
Another couldn’t take it as they dropped their gear and rushed off.
“No one else?” Erik looked at them all.
Seeing none of them move, Erik clapped his hands. “All right, get your gear cleaned up and I want you to have all of your gear in order for tomorrow morning. Tomorrow we will assemble in the main courtyard outside of the village hall to speak to the people and tell them what is coming. During the day, you will be working with the farmers to help harvest the crops outside of the village. From there we will work on our defenses. Questions?”
“The crops haven’t been fully grown yet—how can we harvest them? Why would we need them?” a guard asked.
“I have something to improve the rate that the plants grow. In a siege, the biggest factor over time is not how big your walls are. Instead, it is how much food and water you have inside the walls,” Erik said and looked to another man with a question.
“I thought that the enemy was only coming in two weeks,” the guard asked.
“They’re supposed to be here in two weeks but the one thing you’ll learn is the enemy, even if it’s a damn beast, is never predictable,” Erik said.
There were no more immediate questions, so Erik dismissed the men, including Niemm, and pulled Glosil over to his side to have a quiet talk.
“Let’s take a tour of the walls,” Erik said.
“Sir, for the guards earlier, I can only submit myself for punishment. As you saw, their abilities were weak and they were not keeping with a unit that should be ready for battle.”
“This is a rural village and there are few threats around. It makes sense that things have slackened. We will have to make sure that they don’t degrade further,” Erik said seriously.
“Yes, sir.” Glosil looked relieved, but Erik could see the shame underneath at his guards not being the best he believed they could be.
Erik didn’t offer any more words. He needed someone else to push the guards as well.
“My plan is simple. We will look to pull the people into the village and I will be looking to the people in the village hall to organize that. You and your men will be focusing on training people on how to use crossbows, building new walls, creating layered defenses and traps in the farmlands. Each of your men will be in charge of five to ten of the villagers to create rotating defense teams when the actual fighting comes,” Erik said as they made it to the wall. It was a simple construction of mud and straw.
“I will not let you down, sir,” Glosil said, as the reality of the situation seemed to fall on his shoulders.
Erik knew that the true fear, the true weight wouldn’t become real until they saw the first enemy.
“I hope not.” Erik looked Glosil in the eyes before he looked over the wall. He smacked the wall in a few spots and pressed his hand on it.
Glosil frowned and winced as Erik moved down the wall toward the gates.
The guards stood taller and straighter as the two moved past them and to the outside of the wall, checking it over.
“I am sorry that the walls are not that thick, sir,” Glosil said in a faint voice.
“Mud walls shouldn’t be underestimated. I’ve seen them stand up to a Hellcat missile before,” Erik said. “Once we harvest the wheat, we can use some of the straw to toughen up the mud and thicken up the walls. We’ll need to thicken up any holes and have barriers to put behind the gates. Any modifications we make to the walls will have to depend on what Rugrat and the hunters find on their outing,” Erik said, looking to the forest that surrounded the city.
Chapter: The Horde
Rugrat moved through the forest easily. There weren’t too many creatures in the surrounding area. Most of them were just rabbits and foxes. Rugrat didn’t care as he moved through, killing them as they found them.
They disappeared off into his storage ring as he and the hunters moved deeper into the forest. Rugrat held up his hand, stopping the hunters from moving forward. They might know the area, but they weren’t that quiet.
They only hunted on the side when they didn’t have fields to look after in the day.
Rugrat moved off by himself, his bow down and ready.
There was a litter of boars. The creatures were grunting and making noises at one another as they rooted through the ground, trying to dig out some kind of food.
The farther Rugrat went into the forest, the less food he found.
Rugrat didn’t directly attack the boars and moved back into the forest. Once there, he pulled out all the daggers that he and Erik had salvaged in their travels.
He found a long depression with plants in it.
He took the blades, secured them into the ground and bound them to logs so that they wouldn’t move or be knocked over.
Rugrat hid them in the bushes.
“All right, I’m going to bring a bunch of boars through here. I’m going to position you. As soon as you see them cross this line,” Rugrat used his boot to make a line in the dirt, “I want you to start shooting them with arrows.”
The three hunters showed that they understood as Rugrat put them in hidden positions and then went off to where the litter of boars were.
He stood and drew on his arrow, sending it flying as it drilled through the front shoulder of one of the medium-sized boars.
The creature was only a level six, but its natural defense was really high. Still, they were just le
vel six and Rugrat was level twelve with a bow and arrow to augment his base attack power.
The boar squealed and moved a few steps before it collapsed on its side.
The other boars looked around in alarm.
Rugrat didn’t wait, drawing and firing his second arrow. It hit a boar, eliciting squeals, but not killing it outright.
The other boars were all gathering together.
“Hey, over here!” Rugrat yelled as he fired his third arrow, killing the boar.
The boars were tired and hungry, on the verge of losing their minds. Seeing Rugrat, they let out squeals and charged him.
Rugrat didn’t try to fire another arrow and took off. He watched behind him, making sure that they were following as the remainder of the litter charged through the forest after him.
Rugrat led them into the depression that he’d rigged and fired an arrow back at them, more to anger them than try to kill. It flew over their heads as their pace only quickened.
Rugrat saw the bushes where he had hidden the blades. He jumped, missing the daggers, and kept on running. The boars continued to follow before letting out high-pitched, pained squeals. The daggers had opened them up from below, using their momentum against them.
Some made it past the blades with wounds but they weren’t life-threatening. Arrows passed Rugrat, hitting the boars behind him, killing those that were still charging forward.
Rugrat jumped up the side of the defilade, turning and firing down at the boars. In just a few minutes, they killed the remainder of the litter.
The hunters came out from where they were hiding, looking at the boars with stunned looks. Then they opened their screens, letting out cheers as they had broken through bottlenecks in their levels.
They wouldn’t fight the boars if they were at their level usually; these wounded and maimed boars were easy to kill under Rugrat’s guidance.
“All right, collect the corpses. We’ll clean them up when we get back to the village. We aren’t done with scouting,” Rugrat said, focusing them and silencing them.
They were still wary but they were excited now. As one increased in levels, it would be possible for them to gain a better position in life and be able to determine their own future. They collected up the bodies into their storage rings. Rugrat found that not many of them actually had storage rings, so he took the majority for himself and cleaned the daggers off before storing them.
They moved forward and killed three more litters of boars, racking up some fifty boars before Rugrat started to ignore them and move forward.
The hunters listened. They were pleased with their gains and wanted to keep on hunting boars, though their gains were diminishing. Rugrat was getting a hundred points or less per kill while the hunters were getting thousands in one shot. All of them were now level six and reaching for level seven. Rugrat was pleased in their increase of power but he still needed to know everything that they were fighting. They could kill boars all day long but they would run out of ammunition at some point.
Seeing the rewards that they could gain in following Rugrat, they listened to his every word and did their best to try to aid him. They avoided the groups of boars to find groups of wolves that ranged from level six to level eight, and then there were the panthers that roamed in small packs.
Rugrat halted everyone as he heard the sounds of a fight. The hunters all dispersed under his command. He moved forward to get a better look.
Well, that’s not good.
***
Erik was staying at the City Hall, looking over the different reports he had got from Blaze, the village leader.
It wouldn’t be the easiest to defend Alva, but Erik felt that it was possible.
Erik was sitting out front of the village hall when he saw Rugrat dismissing his hunters and moving to Erik.
“What are we looking at?” Erik pushed forward a beer.
Rugrat took a long drink before wiping his face with the back of his hand. “Looks like the creatures in the area grew in massive numbers, to the point that they’ve eaten the other materials in the area.
“First, we’ve got boars stripping the ground clean of any vegetation. They’ve grown in massive numbers, allowing the wolves that hunt them to have plenty of food and grow as well. Then there are the panthers that eat both of the other creatures and finally, the king beasts of the area—level nine and ten bad boys: bears, sabre tooth, even a few cougars.” Rugrat sat in the seat opposite Erik.
“What do you think is going to happen?”
“Once the creatures get scared or hungry, then they’ll either charge from the rear, the smell of blood startling those that are weaker, or the weak are going to charge forward, get wounded, either by us or naturally, then the smell of blood will entice the higher-level creatures,” Rugrat said.
“Well, that sounds like a hell of a lot of fun,” Erik surmised.
“How’s things on the city side?” Rugrat asked.
“Guards are okay. Thinned them out some to get the ones who will stick around. I want you to take them out on patrol, get used to seeing the enemy, kill some, get them to a higher level.”
“Great, more training.” Rugrat shook his head. “The hunters are okay. They’ll be decent and they’re around level six, some level seven, so it’ll be possible to use them to bolster up the people in the village.”
“If possible, I want to get the guards ready to take out some villagers, get them to thin out the boars, increasing their level and confidence. You good taking over that side of things?” Erik asked.
“Shouldn’t be a problem. Defenses?”
Erik pulled out a piece of paper. “We’ve got the city here. It’s not big but lines of traps are going to be hard. Thankfully we’re dealing with beasts so we can modify accordingly.
“First, I want to have a series of traps set up over dug-out pits with fresh meat at the traps. The boars are aggressive but they’re not meat eaters. They’ll move away from these places, or they’ll go in the hole—doesn’t matter much really.
“The second ring, I want to make obstacles, funnel the creatures down more—thinking sharpened stakes tied together. The next line will be inside bow range. I want to have deep pits with sharpened stakes. The final defense, I want small potholes all over the ground meant to break the creatures’ ankles as they enter bow range. We hit them with bows and they have to amble forward, in too deep to get away easily.” Erik tapped on his picture that now had four circles surrounding it.
Erik and Rugrat spent the night going over their plan. As their Stamina had increased, they didn’t require much sleep. They grabbed a quick nap before the sun came up.
Chapter: Division of Tasks
Blaze reported that the people for Erik’s crossbow production were ready. Erik okayed the plan and they started working on crossbows that very morning.
Rugrat had also passed over his fine arrow blueprint reluctantly.
“Get this put into production as soon as possible,” Erik said to Blaze.
“This…” Blaze took the blueprint as if it were a newborn child.
“The crossbows by themselves won’t be that strong. Paired with arrows from this blueprint, we’ll be able to increase their lethality,” Erik said.
“This is too precious,” Blaze argued, prepared to give it back.
Erik pushed it back to him. “We need to defend this village. If we’re going to do so, we need to use everything at our disposal.”
Blaze finally relented, looking at the two men with new eyes.
Next, Erik went to the store and accessed the store interface once again. He purchased several sound talismans and their additional consumable message scrolls.
It cleared out his remaining liquid cash, as he bought the two most expensive ones he could afford.
==========
Sound Talisman
==========
Allows one to send and receive messages over long distances.
&nbs
p; Range: 1 km
For distances over 1km, you will need to use message scrolls in combination with the sound talisman.
==========
He met up with Rugrat in the main square as people were gathering from the surrounding farmlands. Erik passed him a sound talisman and a number of message scrolls.
“Well, looks like this will solve the whole communication issue,” Rugrat said. It looked like an armband and went on one’s wrist.
“There are spells to communicate with one another but they only have a range of one kilometer,” Erik said.
“What is with the damn metric system for everything?” Rugrat complained.
“Way of the world, and universe, I guess.” Erik shrugged. He was used to it.
The villagers and farmers were all looking at the small stage in the square where Blaze stood, ready to talk to them.
He let out a whistle, the entire square becoming quiet. “I have been keeping something from you all,” Blaze said. Everyone frowned and looked at him in question. “In a week and a half, a beast horde will descend on our village.”
The crowd turned chaotic, starting to talk over one another as they began to panic.
A piercing whistle made them hold their heads and look to the stage once again.
“The surrounding cities and villages are too far away. We will not be able to get to them in the time that we have left. Thankfully, we are not alone!” Blaze pointed to Erik and Rugrat, who were beside the stage. “Hearing our plight, Erik and Rugrat were sent to aid us in our time of need. They have a plan for our village and a way for us to remain safe.”
Blaze looked around the crowd. They had calmed down a bit.
“I have stepped down from my position as village leader and they have taken over to lead us through this time. Please let them explain their plan.”
Blaze moved to the side as Erik and Rugrat moved up to the stage.
“The days ahead will not be easy, but if we work together and everyone plays their part then we will be able to weather the beast horde. Already we have seen what we are facing. We are making crossbows for our defenses and later today we will begin harvesting your fields so that we might have enough supplies to hold us through the siege. Everyone who is able to wield a weapon will be taught to do so.
The Two Week Curse Page 26