The Two Week Curse

by Michael Chatfield

He slowed down. The beast horde had made it to the third layer of defenses, the spike pits. Most fell to the sharpened sticks; although others were able to clear them, they broke their ankles in the final layer of defense, turning into easy targets.

  “Deploy all but two heavy infantry units to reinforce the eastern side,” Erik said. All of the archers were on the walls now. There were no breaks. Even with their constant arrow rain, the beasts were getting closer.

  The wolves fought well together, but they weren’t as powerful as the panthers, whose individual strength was the same as the elites of the wolves.

  They were able to evade some of the obstacles and traps but under the press of bodies, their movement was restricted.

  The panthers and wolves didn’t like one another, but their initial fighting had stopped as they went all out to try to defeat the humans.

  Erik reloaded and fired with easy movements.

  Rugrat stood in the middle watchtower. As targets were called out, he would drop them. Up there, he controlled the whole of Alva Village.

  Erik felt the Mana coursing through his veins as the beast horde broke through from the third line of defense and moved to the final.

  “Heavy infantry, prepare to defend!” Erik called out. “Blaze, use your people as you see fit.”

  “Sir!”

  The heavy infantry readied their spears, spacing out and ready to fend off the beasts.

  A spell formation appeared on Erik’s finger. He fired Mana bullets; with the beasts in so close, he didn’t need to rely on the AOE effects of the Mana bolt.

  Erik’s reaction speed had increased past human limitations with his increased Agility. Each bullet cost twelve Mana, just shy of his regeneration rate of 10.05 Mana per second.

  So he could fire a Mana bullet nearly every second, combining his Marksman skill and his high Agility.

  Erik wasn’t simply killing the beast horde; he started to push them back in his area. Blue rounds shot out from his right finger, one after another. Each bullet ended a beast’s life.

  The speed couldn’t be compared to the archers, who had to fight to reload between each shot. On average, they could fire eight to ten per minute. Over one hundred and twenty archers—that wasn’t anything simple. As the beasts got in close, they were tired and bloodied. Their speed usually wasn’t that good as most of them had broken their ankles or hurt themselves in some fashion.

  The archers started to fire by themselves. Just like with Erik, they didn’t need to saturate an area with arrows to try to kill a few. At less than one hundred meters, they picked out their own targets, their lethality and the number of deaths they caused only climbing.

  It won’t be enough. Erik knew that although tens of the beasts would die, they still didn’t have a high enough rate of fire.

  “Spears!” Sergeant Niemm yelled out. Other heavy infantry groups put their crossbows away and grabbed their spears.

  “Push them back!” Niemm yelled as the beast horde crashed into the walls of Alva Village.

  Erik’s heart tightened. The beasts didn’t have long-range attacks, so there was no threat with them far out. In close and at melee range, they were stronger than the people of Alva Village. This was where injuries and deaths could happen.

  A roar came off from the side. Erik looked over as he saw trees being uprooted.

  Several rhinos appeared, being chased by panther elites.

  If they charge forward, they’ll mess up our defenses and might even crack the wall!

  “On me!” Erik said, contacting the quick reaction force.

  They quickly gathered together and ran for the section of wall in front of the charging rhinos. Arrows stuck out of them, but it wasn’t enough to kill or slow them.

  Rugrat’s buffed bullet hit a rhino in the face, taking out its eyes. It turned to the side, its horn piercing the companion next to it.

  “Illusion spells! Get them to run into the other beasts!” Erik yelled.

  Two mages specializing in illusion spells started their incantations, power rushing toward them. Two magical circles appeared in the sky above the rhinos. They slowly solidified before a stream of ancient runes shot out of them, falling on three rhinos.

  The rhinos looked dazed as they turned away from the group. They hit others on the way out; they complained in pain before they charged into the other beasts that were trying to push through the defensive lines.

  The mages looked tired, their energy drained.

  Erik gritted his teeth and started to run. “Cover me! Use your monster cores!” Erik said these words as he jumped off the wall. He ran straight toward the beast horde. All of the beasts seemed to sense him, trying to catch him.

  Erik’s heart was in his chest but now he had made his decision, he would stick with it. He increased the speed that he fired his Mana bullets, allowing him to cut a path through the beasts.

  Rugrat, seeing his friend rushing into danger, opened up on the panther elites behind the rhinos.

  Erik could no longer support firing his Mana bullets or else he would run into Mana fatigue. He let out a yell as he sidestepped a wolf lunging at him. Erik hit the beast in the side with a sickening crunch, caving in their ribs and side.

  Holy shit!

  Erik didn’t have any time to think on his newfound strength before reactions took over. He pushed on, clearing a path with his fists and kicks.

  ***

  “By the gods.” Storbon fired his bow. It was faster to shoot than the crossbow and with his high Strength stat, he hit with enough force to kill the beasts in one or two hits.

  The quick reaction force thought that they would be like heroes, forging ahead in this fight, but it was unlike anything they had seen before. They were all terrified and they knew that it was their job to be in the worst of it.

  Right now, they only felt like side characters as Erik charged into the fight, leaving broken bodies behind him. His speed and strength were actually higher than the beasts’!

  It was like an adult dealing with children—they simply couldn’t fight back. It was only the numbers of the beasts that slowed Erik down.

  “Move!” Erik yelled out in frustration. His entire body glowed blue as Mana formed on his fist. The Mana on his fist exploded, throwing the beasts away.

  Storbon could see that Erik was injured but it cleared him a path as he jumped, clearing obstacles and getting into the areas that weren’t filled with beasts.

  He was getting out of the quick reaction force’s range; only the mages could support him now.

  Storbon saw Roska, who was waving her hand and muttering an incantation. Arrows drifted from the quiver at her side into a magical formation. They tore through the air, firing at a rate that was even higher than Erik’s Mana bullet.

  She attacked the rhinos and the panthers around them.

  An unlucky rhino had its mouth open when an arrow shot through it, killing it from the inside.

  I need to increase my strength! Storbon focused on what he was doing instead of what the others were up to.

  ***

  Erik jumped back into the fight. There were seven rhinos left. Two spell formations appeared in the skies, the illusion mages casting their magic once again.

  Two more rhinos charged into the surrounding panthers that had been attacking them. They didn’t seem to feel pain as they crashed into the beasts around the defenses.

  “Then there was five,” Erik muttered to himself as panthers that had been trying to charge the defenses now turned their eyes on him.

  They lunged toward him.

  Erik jumped between them, kicking one as he was in mid-air while infusing his body with Mana. The kick’s explosive power crushed the panther’s shoulder and side. Erik used the momentum to push him to the side, avoiding the other’s attack and moving him closer to the rhinos. They were nearly at the defenses.

  Erik channeled Mana into his body, increasing the power he could display. He was unsto
ppable. He hissed in pain as he took hit after hit, not willing to waste time fighting if it slowed him.

  The elites around the rhinos let out warning growls and looked to attack him.

  Erik pulled out his pistol and it barked. Normal rounds wouldn’t be able to kill these elites, but these were enchanted by Rugrat, greatly increasing their lethality.

  They were crude but with the natural strength of the bullet and with the enchantment, even a small increase was a big change.

  In his hands, the pistol was almost as fast as a machine gun. The surrounding panthers were left in shock as their elites dropped as if they had run into a wall.

  Erik didn’t have any faith in the bullets being able to end the rhinos.

  How to fight rhinos—stand right in front of their charge. This was a great idea.

  Regardless of his own realizations, he couldn’t just let them charge forward.

  Erik ran at the nearest rhino, coming in on an angle. The rhino, seeing him charging, let out a roar as it lowered its horned head to take on Erik.

  Erik pumped his body with power as he sidestepped. His body arched as he moved his body to get as much power into his attack.

  Erik’s body let out a quiet but powerful roar that made one’s hair stand on end. It connected with the side of the rhino. Its power wasn’t in blunt force, but in the Mana he had injected into the rhino’s body.

  The rhino coughed out blood and went down in the dust. Its internals had been largely destroyed.

  Erik let out a yell. Channeling that much power through his body had led to him greatly injuring his leg. He could see the stress fractures as he used Focused Heal. He could only grit his teeth and run for the next rhino.

  He launched himself forward, holding a spear.

  He actually went past the level four rhino, making it half-turn to try to face him. Erik thrust his spear into the stomach of the rhino and up into its chest cavity.

  The spear was torn from Erik’s hands by the powerful rhino’s movements. The rhino was howling in pain as it tried to dislodge the spear; it would only drive it in further.

  Another dropped as Rugrat’s blunt round hit it in the side. The strength of the round was turned into blunt impact energy. As piercing enchantments focused the cutting power of the rounds, the blunt enchantments would convert all of the energy into kinetic force on impact, spreading it out laterally.

  Not knowing if this would be enough, Rugrat had also buffed the round with explosive shot.

  With the power of the round, it was as if a grenade had gone off.

  “Why didn’t you use those rounds earlier?” Erik demanded.

  “I only have three of them!” Rugrat said as the rhino closest to the defenses died.

  Erik rushed another. He jumped over one rhino and dove toward the one on the other side. Again he pulled all of the power within his body as he coated his fist in Mana.

  He struck out at the rhino’s side. Its head and shoulders were too strong to penetrate and the skin was as tough as armor. Erik’s only course of action was to do so much internal damage that it was fatal to his target.

  The Mana on his hand went off in an explosion before he struck the side of the rhino. It let out a mournful wail as Erik let out a muffled scream when his hand broke.

  He didn’t have time to stop as Rugrat took out another. Erik cried out as a panther came out from behind the rhinos and sliced at Erik’s back; his claws caught onto Erik’s neck, sticking in the top of his armor.

  Erik shook around, trying to get rid of the panther as others rushed at him. Erik jumped on the ground, trying to flatten it as he fired a Mana bolt at the three nearest, destroying them. He grabbed his pistol, putting it against the panther’s head and pulling the trigger.

  He yelled out as the recoil from the gun jarred his broken arm. He threw the body off as another lurched for his throat, its mouth open.

  Erik moved to the side, getting scratched on his face as he launched his uninjured arm into the panther. The panther went back in the direction it had come. Erik was using Minor Wounds Heal. His Mana was low and his body was beaten up from the fighting and channeling Mana through himself for so long.

  He couldn’t fight for much longer. The remaining rhino used his tusk, driving into the defenses and ripping open a new path.

  The horde followed it as everyone focused their fire on it.

  Erik started running for the wall. He drank down some healing solution to save his Mana. If I stay out here much longer, then the beasts will kill me.

  The rhino made it to the third layer of defenses, its body covered in cuts and scars before it impaled itself on one of the half-buried wooden spikes in the ground.

  The other rhinos, under the direction of the illusion mages, had caused mayhem in the beast horde. The numbers had thinned down and although there were still some beasts coming from the forest, it wasn’t a full-on sea of beasts like before.

  On the wall, the heavy infantry were using their spears to fend off the beasts. They were highly effective, not willing to back down in the slightest, but there just wasn’t enough for them to be everywhere.

  People fired their crossbows point-blank while others dropped rolling wood, basically logs that had been tied up on the wall, crushing anything that was below.

  Erik was now running back through the beasts. The healing potion was working but his body was in bad condition.

  He punched with his good arm as he shot Mana bullets with the busted-up one. Hurts like a mother fucker!

  He had to circulate the Mana in his body to fire the Mana bullets. The disturbance in his arm, even if it wasn’t recoil, was enough to make him wince in pain.

  “We’ve got beast kings entering the fight!” Glosil yelled out.

  “Fuck, that’s ugly! Got something that has the body of a lion, a scorpion tail, and a bird’s head,” Rugrat said.

  “Catarai—they’re nasty little bastards. They taunt with their tail and launch attacks with their paws and beak. Their stinger contains a powerful paralytic,” Blaze said.

  “Well, I hope that it’s allergic to lead,” Rugrat said as Erik heard his rifle firing.

  Three wolves stepped out of the forest. Their size was impressive, no smaller than a horse, and they gave off a powerful feel. They all had manes and the other creatures seemed to treat them as if they were royalty, moving around them so that they weren’t disturbed.

  The big wolves moved in a pack, the one with the longest mane in front as the other two moved beside it, ready to fight on his command.

  A massive gorilla charged out, smashing his fists into the ground as a group of other gorillas came behind him. They started hooting as they charged forward at the walls, in a group.

  Erik increased his speed, unleashing the full strength of his body. It was as though he flew across the ground; he didn’t have time to rest.

  He pulled out a monster core. “Time to party!” Erik yelled as the monster core broke in his hand.

  Chapter: Swords and Shields

  “Rugrat!” Erik yelled. His voice rose in alarm as he ran. A screen appeared in front of him as he gripped the Common Mortal grade monster core.

  ==========

  Monster Core

  ==========

  Do you wish to absorb this Common Mortal Grade monster core?

  YES/NO

  You will gain 10,000 EXP

  ==========

  “On my way to you! Quick reaction force, move to the eastern side and engage the beast elites there! All forces, move up to the walls! Blaze, I want the heavy infantry ready to fall back on the village square if needed. Elise, start putting the inter-village blockades up!” Rugrat yelled.

  Yes. Erik’s thoughts were rewarded with a golden light as the power around him was disturbed. Energies from all around increased their flow as Erik’s wounds healed at an accelerated rate. The pain from overusing Mana fell away as his Stamina and Mana regenerated quickly.

/>   Erik didn’t let it go to waste and he ran at full speed. A wolf rushed his side. Erik turned, punched it and sent it flying back. His hand came up to fire a Mana bolt into a group of panthers. He jumped into the sky to avoid a blockade. The ground underneath him lit up with Mana bolts that streamed from his hands, leaving a swathe of destruction below. He dropped to the ground, rolling and coming up. His two hands were covered in magic circles as he ran through the dust, firing Mana bullets as fast as a machine gun. The lines of Mana could be clearly seen in the daylight—twin streams cutting down anything in their path.

  “Shit!” Erik yelled as he saw the Mana bolts hit a post with a purple piece of cloth.

  A massive explosion went off and Erik was tossed to the side. He rolled and got back up. Getting his feet under him, he charged forward at the ape group. The smoke and dust around him was stirred up in his path as he jumped over the crater where the marker had been.

  “Did you just set off my explosive?” Rugrat asked.

  “I think so!” Erik yelled back.

  “Don’t do that!” Rugrat yelled. Erik saw Rugrat’s massive build on the top of the village’s walls. He was no longer using the M40 but had his personal rifle.

  The sound of shots rang out as Rugrat ran and shot at the same time, covering Erik and thinning out the beasts.

  Erik let out a yell as he jumped over spike pits. He saw the incoming gorillas. With their powerful forearms, they smashed the defenses away. They were much smarter and their strength was incredible.

  All around the village, it was a state of chaos. The walls were being attacked; the panthers and wolves there dug their claws into the walls and tried to climb up. Here and there, they topped the wall. There just weren’t enough defenders to cover the entire wall.

  The first casualties were being treated and rushed back from the front lines.

  “Blow the IEDs!” Erik yelled.

  They’d built the improvised explosive devices from the three-headed forest king snake gas sac and other compounds Rugrat had played with.

  The people of Alva Village on the wall reached down and grabbed onto seemingly simple ropes and pulled on them.