I wasn’t sure how long they’d last, but judging by the fact I’d started the wave with six abominations and was down to two, I was going with not long enough for it to matter.
Worse, I had no idea how Dark Heart and Crash were doing. I hadn’t seen either of them show up, and what’s more, I couldn’t even see their health bars because they were too far away. All I knew was they were alive.
Still, I had to finish taking down the skeletal archers. They were keeping my own archers pinned down. They had to go before I could focus on the wyvern.
“George, Nantucket on me!” I cried, glancing at my rabbit and the spear-wielding guard. While Roy had been leading the archers, I’d kept Nantucket behind the wall despite his insistence on joining the fight. Sure, the guard was strong, but I hadn’t wanted to lose him.
Fuck, we were about to be overrun. I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself. If I freaked out, it wouldn’t help anything. No I had to focus. There was no other way.
“Finally!” Nantucket cried, dropping his bow and grabbing his spear, which was good because every time he’d shot the bow, I’d half expected him to put out his own eye. “Prepare to taste cold steel!”
With that the guard leapt from the gate as George finished blasting the wyvern before turning his attention to me. He was lower on mana than I’d have liked but there was nothing for it. In twenty seconds, the next wave was going to begin, and we had to have the archers down by then.
“What’s the plan, boss?” George asked as Rotgut’s fierce cry shattered my hearing.
“It gonna blow!” the abomination cried as I spun in time to see the abomination summon a huge ball of living slime and fling it at the wyvern. Green ooze covered the creature as it screamed in pain, and while I had half a mind to help them, I decided against it. I had to focus. If the archers went down, Roy’s men would be able to light these mothers up.
“We burn them down. I’ll hit first, George you freeze them while I move to the next one. Nantucket, you finish them off, okay?” I said, aiming my new scythe at the closest of the six archers and initiating Blade Rush.
Energy wrapped around my weapon as I surged forward and smashed the scythe into the archer who was too focused on shooting up at the archers on the wall to properly block the blow. As my energy-fueled blade smashed into the thing’s neck, knocking it to the ground, I pivoted on my heel to face the next one and whipped up my scythe.
“Skull Shatter,” I called, cracking the second one in the side of the head and dropping it to the ground as a blast of cold air hit my back.
“Die!” Nantucket screamed as I aimed my scythe at the next pair of archers and used Blade Rush.
As I surged across the battlefield, Nantucket drove his spear deep into the back of the frozen archer, shattering him into crystalline shards.
Unfortunately, as my scythe came around to get the third archer, Rotgut cried “Bad news!” before punctuating it with a scream of pure agony. My head whipped around in time to see the wyvern drive its bony claws into the abomination’s stomach and tear them outward, rending it into unusable hunks of flesh and bone.
“Fun time,” Festerface shrieked, his body turning red with anger. “Over!” Then he launched himself at the wyvern.
“Fuck,” I said as I forced myself back to the archer next to me and used Stun Shock.
System Message: Your skill has failed.
“Goddammit!” I said as the archer turned toward me and blasted me in the face with a bone arrow. The blow snapped my head back, and I staggered backward as my health dropped by fifty.
“You have been critically hit,” Elizabeth informed me helpfully as I tried to shake off the effects of being shot in the face.
Behind me, another burst of cold indicated George had frozen the archer I’d Blade Rushed. Soon Nantucket would take the guy down, and I had to have this guy dropped by then because I’d learned something during this siege. Monsters that were stunned or knocked down took more damage from attacks. To be fair, I wasn’t sure if that was true per se, but I’d tested it on a skeleton earlier. The one I’d stunned took six hits to kill as did the one I’d knocked down, while the one I hadn’t stunned or knocked down took twelve. I mean, okay, maybe that wasn’t the greatest scientific tests to be sure, but it was good enough for me.
“Is that all you’ve got?” I cried, leaping forward and slashing the creature across the chest. It staggered back, dropping the arrow it had been about to blast me with, and then before it could recover, I swept its legs out from under it with my scythe.
As it crashed to the ground, part of me wanted to hit it again as payback for shooting me in the face, but that would fuck up the plan, so I leapt over its sprawled body and aimed my scythe at the last pair.
“Blade Rush!” I cried as I sprinted across the battlefield. Unfortunately, they had already turned toward me and fired. Two arrows caught me in the shoulders, and while if this was real life, that would have been enough to knock me on my ass, all it did was cause me blinding pain and drop my health by a few percent.
Then my scythe came around and crashed into the first archer, staggering him back.
The one behind it was already firing again, and I took another arrow to the side, but they’d made a huge mistake. By targeting me, the archers on the wall were no longer pinned down.
“Get them!” Roy cried, unleashing death from above as arrows came flying down to hit the skeletal archers. They didn’t even have time to turn as arrows reduced them to glittering shards.
I had half a second to be happy as I wiped the sweat from my brow when undead skeletal knights pulled themselves from the ground all around me, indicating the next wave had begun.
“Jesus,” I said, attacking the first one before it had gotten halfway free from the earth. No sooner had I struck it when Nantucket was alongside me, stabbing it like he had gone absolutely insane with glee.
“Die, you son of an undead whore!” the guard cried as the skeletal knight exploded into shards. Unfortunately there were nine more where he’d come from, but you know what there wasn’t? More archers. No, there was something much worse.
As I saw three ballistas at the back end of the wave my gut clenched in horror. Those ballistas would be more than enough to shatter our walls and allow the rest of these bastards to run roughshod through the town. If that happened, there’d be no way to keep them at bay, especially since I had no idea how long it’d be until the Skeleton King showed up. What if there were twenty more waves?
That’s when an idea hit me. The ballistas still weren’t in range of our walls. If I could stop them, we might have a chance. They were being drawn forward by undead horses and were being armed by a swarm of skeletons.
“Focus the horses!” I said, waving my hands as Festerface’s cry of “Daddy!” let me know shit had gone from bad to worse.
I spun in time to see my last abomination turn into a cloud of yellow gas as it died. “Damn it Festerface! You were my favorite next to Rotgut.” I glared at the bone wyvern pissed as all hell as it stood on its hind legs and bellowed into the air.
System Message: You have been affected by the debuff: Wyvern’s Victory. All damage has been reduced by 10% for 30 seconds.
“Fuck!” I cried, anger surging toward me as I glared at the wyvern as it crashed back down to the ground with enough force to fissure the ground.
“Leave this guy to me,” Nantucket said, touching his spear to his head, and then before I could say anything, the guard charged the wyvern.
It seemed ridiculous because he was so much smaller, and worse the wisps I’d knocked away were nearly back now. Once they closed in around the dragon, its magic shield would go back up. Still, I could take care of that and at least give the guard a fighting chance.
“Go with God!” I cried, blasting the wisps away with another Water Wave before turning to the skeletal knight he’d killed. “Join me!” I said, using my Raise Undead skill to bring it and the five closest archers back to “life.” As the
ir bodies pulled themselves back together, I pointed them toward the wyvern. “Get ‘em!”
The archers turned their bony bows on the bone dragon as the knight charged forward, lance pointed at its former ally.
I didn’t wait to see what happened as I sprinted through the melee with George hot on my heels.
“So, uh, what’s the plan, boss?” George asked as I Sidestepped through a knight and Skull Shattered him. As he fell to the ground, I blew him apart with Turn Undead. I hated using the spell because it failed more often than not and cost a ton of mana, but it usually worked pretty well when the monster was stunned.
Still, I couldn’t rely on that for long because even with Roy’s archers driving the knights back, there were still seven more up because they’d pulled back to wait for the ballistas to get into position, and I had to keep that from happening.
“We’re gonna kill those horses so they can’t get close enough to kill us,” I said, pointing at the horses leading the ballistas. “As soon as you get in range, blast ‘em!”
“Will do!” George cried, his fur frosting over as he gathered energy.
“Don’t let me down!” I replied then pointed my scythe at the farthest horse and initiated Blade Rush. As I slipped through the hole I’d made in the line of skeletal knights, I hoped George could take one down without getting his bunny ass dead.
Behind me, the wyvern shattered the skeletal knight I’d sent after it as Nantucket dodged and weaved past the attacks while thrusting at the giant monster with his spear. I had no way of knowing how close it was to death since I couldn’t see its health bar, but I really hoped it was close because in addition to the five skeletal archers I’d raised, Roy had turned his men onto it as well.
Only, it was backing up to get out of range, and once that happened, we’d be in trouble because that’d give it time to let the wisps return while only dealing with Nantucket, at which point it’d besiege the walls again.
Part of me wished I had more golems to send at the creature, but unfortunately, even if I had the mana to spare on them, there were no more rock piles for me to use, and while I could turn these undead into a golem once they were dead, bone golems kind of sucked. No. I needed something substantial like a…
My eyes widened in realization as my scythe slammed into the horse, knocking it aside, but not really hurting it as much as I’d have liked. Only, I suddenly didn’t care.
“Raise Golem!” I cried, pointing at the ballista, which was made of metal and wood.
Mana drained out of my outstretched hand, enveloping the ballista as a horrific screech filled the air as the heavy weaponry was torn asunder and formed into a massive metal-studded wooden golem.
System Message: You have raised a wood golem. Health: 150 Mana: 0.
“Kill the last ballista!” I cried as the skeletons screeched, then I pointed at the middle ballista and used the spell again. My mana dropped to almost nothing, but I didn’t care because the second ballista rose to do my bidding as a golem.
System Message: You have raised a wood golem. Health: 150 Mana: 0.
My two golems charged toward the third ballista, trampling over skeletal peons like the Patriot’s defense over the Falcon’s offense in the second half of a Superbowl, and turning them into piles of broken bones.
As they arrived at the ballista and began to pound on it with wooden fists, I used the last of my mana to drop Reflecting Fog on top of the ballista.
The cloud of crimson death spread across the battlefield as the skeletal knights turned on my golems and attacked. Even with their damage reflected back, I knew they’d kill my wood golems long before they destroyed the ballista, and worse, I was out of mana, and my bone shield was gone.
Still, I had sixty percent health, and that was more than enough to do some damage to those fuckers.
“Nantucket!” Roy screamed as I took a step toward the knights, and I swear I’d never heard a cry with that much anguish ever. I spun toward it without thinking and saw the wyvern snap its jaws around the guard’s midsection and lift him up into the air. The dragon’s head shook the back and forth, and Nantucket’s spear went flying into the dirt.
I took a step toward the wyvern, and as I did, a blast of cold slammed into the dragon’s skull, causing its head to snap sideways. Nantucket fell bleeding and broken to the ground as the dragon staggered sideways, frost covering its glowing green eyes and blinding it.
A quick glance at the rabbit told me why George had broken off his attack on the ballista to attack the wyvern. The horse, like my two wood golems, was down. Unfortunately, the six knights that were around the structure weren’t. Only, I knew they wouldn’t do shit once they got in range of our archers. Had to hand it to George, he knew how to do what was needed.
I gritted my teeth and raced for Nantucket as the wisps reformed around the skeletal wyvern. I didn’t have the mana to blast them away, but I would soon. I just needed to get Nantucket out of there before—
System Message: Boss: The Skeleton King has been spotted at the north gate.
45
Horror shot through me as I stared at the message on my HUD. The Skeleton King was here, and worse, Two’ Manchu and Sabre weren’t back yet. Without the Ring and the Broach, we couldn’t use the sword. Hell, I hadn’t even checked to see if the sword was done. Fuck, we might be screwed right now because I had no idea how long we’d be able to hang on once the Skeleton King joined the assault on the town.
Annoyance filled me as I narrowed my gaze on the wyvern. That stupid thing was going to cost me valuable time. Part of me wanted to leave it for Roy and his merry band of archers to take on alone, but there was no way for them to break through his barrier of wisps.
Worse if the wyvern broke through the gate, we’d get flanked. No. Crash would have to hold on long enough for me to kill this guy and see if the sword was done. Sure, Two’ Manchu and Sabre weren’t back yet, but if I at least brought it to the gate, we could use it on the Skeleton King as soon as our party members showed up with the Ring of Strife and Broach of the Fallen Hero.
Admittedly, it sounded like a horrible plan with a lot of ifs and even more uncertainty, but it was all I had. Either way, I had to stop this dragon. Fast.
As I came to a stop beside Nantucket’s bloody, battered body and grabbed the guard under the arms, the dragon turned its attention toward George and roared. The sound was so loud, my hearing shattered into a sharp ring that was nearly impossible to hear over.
“Come on, you walking lizard,” George said, flipping the dragon the bird as more arctic energy began to coalesce around him.
Only it wouldn’t matter because the wisps were back in place. Regardless of what George did, they’d shield the creature from his attack. I couldn’t let that happen. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough mana left in the tank to fire water wave again. There was nothing I could do.
“George, run!” I cried, trying to drag Nantucket back into range of the healers on the other side of the wall. Part of me wished they had stayed up there with the archers, but once the eleventh wave hit, I knew it was too risky to have them up there, especially since we had no ground troops. I’d moved them back out of harm’s way to stand with the musicians and now I was regretting it.
“Nah, boss, I’m good,” the rabbit said as snow began to fall, and the ground beneath him turned into a winter wonderland. “I’ve got this.”
“You can’t break his shield. It’ll absorb too much damage,” I said, my heart hammering in my chest as I watched arrows ping uselessly off the shield surrounding the dragon.
“Sure,” George replied, a grin creasing his lips as the dragon took a step forward, causing the frozen ground to shatter beneath his weight. “But how much damage will the cliff absorb?”
With those words, George let loose a blast unlike any I had seen before. Crystalline blue energy exploded from his body like comet, flew past the dragon’s head, and crashed into the rope holding the last ballista bolt. Then all hell broke loose a
s the frost-laden rope exploded into a billion shards and the bolt blasted into the air.
My mouth fell open in shock as it crashed into the cliff face that made up the East side of the town and detonated with enough force to make all our goblin explosives seem like party favors. As black smoke rose into the air, and the roar reduced my hearing to a sharp whine, the entire face of the cliff shattered into crystalline fragments that rained down on us, pelting us with razor sharp debris.
“Oh no,” I whispered, spinning on my heels and dragging Nantucket away as fast as I could because without the support of that rocky face, the entire upper side of the cliff that jutted out over the battlefield tore free from the rest of the rock and came crashing down onto the dragon, burying it, and the rest of the skeletal knights, beneath a billion tons of stone.
As I stared at the spot in amazement, George padded over to me, steam still curling off his body. “Can you believe a giant lizard thought he could beat a bunny?” He shook his head in disgust. “I mean, sure he brought friends, but really? Really?”
“I can hardly believe his audacity myself,” Nantucket coughed, his lips wet with blood as he spoke. I could already see the wounds he’d sustained starting to close, and as I propped him up into a sitting position, Roy leapt down from the walls and came running over.
“You idiot!” Roy cried, leaping past us and grabbing Nantucket into a tight hug. “What kind of fool takes on a dragon like that?”
“The bunny did it,” Nantucket said, pain flashing across his face.
“Well, you’re not a bunny!” Roy snapped, gesturing for them to open the gates and help him.
“Goddamn right!” George said as I knelt down beside him and scratched his head.
“George, I don’t say this enough, but you’re really clever. Only next time, maybe wait until I’m away from the blast zone before you try something like that,” I said, smiling as relief washed over me. I knew I needed to move it, needed to get the sword and head to the north gate, but that could wait for a moment. I had no idea how Dark Heart was doing, and something told me, we’d need her help to stop the Skeleton King. “Now do me a solid?”
Soulstone: The Skeleton King: A LitRPG Novel (World of Ruul Book 2) Page 29