“Let’s see that the Stone Raiders don’t get all of the battle. Let’s pick up the pace—make sure none of the Horde makes it through our ranks!” Lezar bellowed over his brigade’s party chat.
***
Deia watched the backs of Dave, Gurren, Lox, and Anna as they rushed through the forest. All around them, there were Air creations. Suzy’s staff glowed with Mana surging through it as Earth, lightning, and metal creations stomped along.
As they cut through the forest, it was obvious Gurren and Lox had increased their Agility in leaps and bounds. They jumped through the trees and treated it as if it were an obstacle course instead of cursing the non-smooth surfaces.
They came over a rise and looked down onto the Demon Horde, a red, black, and gray mass of seething anger. Their red eyes turned as one toward the party as their muscled bodies constricted in anticipation.
Deia didn’t need to say anything. Anna’s wind blades whistled through the air. Steve fired bolts from his hand as Dave seemed to punch Mana bolts from his hands.
Induca and Deia released a torrent of flames from their hands while Malsour waved his arm at the Demons, casting a wave of curses and hexes, followed by darklings rushing out of the forest’s shadows.
Suzy’s creations threw themselves forward. The Air creations tore into the Demon formation while the Earth and metal ones threw themselves forward into the Horde.
Lightning moved like a fish through the Demons, first hitting one group, and then spreading out from there farther and farther, leaving jittery and shaking creatures behind.
The metal creatures finished them off.
The front line of Party Zero slammed into what was left of the Demon Horde’s side.
Gurren and Lox used their shield and sword combinations as if they were born with them. Dave’s erratic fighting style changed from one weapon to another as he seemed to almost teleport between people. Steve bashed Demons away with his shield, sending them flying and turning more than one into pulp. The unarmored Demons were nothing to his axe, especially now that he had the Strength to wield it one-handed. Anna looked as if she were conducting a symphony of death, walking through her opponents with ease.
“Don’t get stuck in too much! Pull back!” Deia yelled, seeing that they were carving too deep into the Horde.
The front ranks turned and they started to carve their way out of the Demon Horde.
Deia and Anna were precise killing machines. Thin blue flames and shimmering Air blades followed the path of their blades, tearing whatever dared to move into their path. Malsour’s curses and hexes made Demons fall over, screaming in pain, as Suzy’s creatures worked together in terrible synchrony to destroy anything that was within their range.
They were once again out of the Horde. The front melee fighters rushed outward, parting, so that the ranged fighters could get in front of them.
Deia, Suzy, Induca, and Malsour charged ahead.
“We’ve got Demons following,” Dave said.
“I’ve got them,” Suzy said. Some of her Earth creations seemed to collapse to the ground, looking identical to the forest around them.
The party continued to run.
Screams reached them as the creations were tripped, tearing the unsuspecting and surprised Demons apart.
“We’re looking good for now,” Dave said.
“Okay, let’s get some rest and check how it’s looking and then get back in there,” Deia said. The midday was turning into afternoon.
With our high Endurance, it could be a couple of days before we need sleep. The weaker we make them out here, the less we have to fight at the walls.
“Damn, I didn’t think that they would be that,” Gurren started.
“Weak?” Suzy supplied.
“Yeah,” Gurren agreed.
“Means that your training has paid off.” Dave slapped Gurren’s back as they ran.
“We can’t get used to it. There are stronger Demons in their group and if we get too stuck into their formation like we nearly did, they’ve got the numbers to swarm us and make us have a very bad day,” Deia warned.
Party Zero nodded. They were pleased with their strength, but overconfidence could kill them as sure as being too weak.
***
They’d taken five minutes to down some water, chew on some food, and regenerate their lost Mana and Stamina.
Dave’s heart pumped in his chest as he ran. They saw the Demons in the distance, stomping through the forest. Dave formed a bow and fired arrows into the Demons.
The rest of the party opened up with their long-range attacks.
A thundering boom came from above. The entire area became hot as Demons were thrown everywhere.
“Babe, was that your fuel air bomb?” Dave looked to Deia, who looked tired.
“Yeah. Needs some minor fixes though!”
“You’re all damned insane!” Lox laughed as he fired his destruction staff.
A firestorm raged through the Demons’ ranks as the party paused, firing from a metal wall that rose up. Suzy’s lightning and Air creations raced into the Demons, adding to the severity of the firestorm.
“Move!” Deia yelled after a few minutes.
They rushed away again. The mages lay down spells and traps for anything that tried to follow them. They dodged between traps that had been put down by Efri’s forces.
“Let’s go for another one,” Deia said.
They had barely touched all of their Mana reserves, but they didn’t have much time before the Demons reached the keep. They altered their path, circling around wide to the Demon Horde’s flank.
“Hey, Mikal!” Dave yelled as they passed another party.
“Good hunting, Zero!” Mikal jumped through the trees.
Dave saw what they were fighting next.
“Okay, we’re going to come into a valley with the Demons right in front of us. We can lay waste to them, bottleneck them into the valley and really cut down their numbers. Soon as anything makes it up the sides or puts real pressure on us, we can leg it out the back,” Dave said, ready to lead the way.
“Okay,” Deia said.
Dave jumped. Dropping onto a slope, he rode it on his backside. When he got to his feet at the bottom of the slope, he was in a five-meter-wide valley with waist-high rocks dotting it. He charged toward the mouth of the valley. With his Touch of the Land, he didn’t need to look back to see the others behind him.
The valley turned into a narrow path between boulders before opening up to show the Demons. They let out screams as soon as they saw Dave.
“I need to go on a diet. I can’t make it through,” Steve complained.
“Don’t worry, we’ll bring them to you.” Dave strung and fired his bow. Every arrow dropped a Demon. The rest of the party filed out, adding their own long-ranged attacks.
Deia and Induca’s fire corralled the Demons, killing those who didn’t follow their created path. Malsour’s hexes and curses weakened them or dropped them to the ground in writhing pain.
Anna’s wind blades cut down dozens with each swing.
Gurren and Lox fired their destruction staffs, their Mana taking just a few seconds to tear through the Demons.
Dave dropped dozens in as many seconds.
The Demons just don’t have any ranged weapons. The only way they can get to us is just inundate us with targets where they’ve got more than enough of their fellows to kill us. Dave saw his notifications bar blinking at him once again.
Ah shit! I have to train up my other weapons as well. Dave accessed his hypercognition, checking the number that he had killed with his bow. Dave fired faster than any Human should be capable of, simply pulling and releasing on his bowstring as an arrow appeared between his fingers.
“Well, looks like I’ve got my archery kills.” Dave slowed back down out of hypercognition. He had a lot more fighting to do and overusing it gave him a wicked headache.
A vortex of Fire ran amok through the Demon’s lines. Again, another fuel ai
r bomb went off. This wasn’t like the last, which just tore apart a few dozen Demons. This tore hundreds apart in the blink of an eye.
“Looks like I’m getting a handle on it,” Deia said.
Lox and Dave shared a look. Lox’s eyes seemed to say well-she’s-your-problem-now. Gurren’s eyes said a different story: along the lines of holy-shit-is-that-the-Deia-we-know.
Dave continued to shoot his bow. The Demons had only been pushed back a few hundred feet.
“Shit.” Suzy covered her head as a rock slammed into her arm.
The Demons seemed to get the idea, and threw rocks at the party.
“Pull back!” Deia said. Another fuel air bomb, smaller than the last, tore apart the first ranks, putting them into chaos once again as Malsour and Induca cast area effect spells. Induca created what looked like a Chinese Dragon—from back on Earth—made of fire. Malsour’s dome of darkness emitted nothing but screams and fog pouring off it.
Dave watched a tentacle. It seemed to be made of oil; smoke rose from where drops fell from it. The Demon in its grip yelled out and disappeared into Malsour’s dome.
Dave filed in after the rest of his party. Steve was on the other side.
The melee fighters spread out along the valley. Deia and Induca climbed one side of the valley to see over them. Malsour and Suzy did the same on the other side.
There was a silence and tension in the air. Everyone was focused on the path that led into their small valley.
Dave rolled his shoulders. His Touch of the Land let him see through the rocks and the Demons beyond. “They’ve made it to the entrance.”
The Demons scrambled through and pushed against the boulders. They must’ve weighed five hundred pounds each but the Demons had grown with fighting one another to survive.
Dave drew and loosed three arrows in the space of a second, cutting through three Demons and making them drop to the ground.
More clambered over them, rushing toward the party.
Dave’s bow dissolved, and then regrew into a sword and a shield.
Anna fired bolts in. Malsour laid down area of effect hexes and curses. Suzy’s creations made sure that they weren’t creeped up on and stopped the Demons from climbing over the boulders or rushing up the sides of the small crevasse they were in.
Deia rose above them; fire under her feet held her aloft as she let loose with a torrent of fire. It rushed through the path in the boulders and out the other side.
The Demons who had made it into the valley charged the melee fighters. Dave slammed his shield into a Demon’s nose. It cried out in pain, looking as if it was in shock at its own injury before Dave’s sword flicked out and cut through its neck.
Dave’s shield blocked another Demon’s claws that raked across it. Dave’s blade swung low, taking the Demon off at the knees, before a backhanded slash took off its head.
Creating a spike on its edge, Dave slammed his shield rim first into a Demon, piercing through the creature. It choked, falling back in death.
“Pull back!” Lox might not be the leader of a warband anymore, but he could easily read a situation.
They moved back as one. Steve’s attacks tore Demons apart or sent them flying. Anna took out her opponents with easy grace. Lox and Gurren were efficient machines.
Dave was the wild card, switching between varying blades and shields, augmenting them as his blades sunk home. Every time his weapon touched the Demons, another would die. Crushed windpipe, through the second rib just so, nicking the heart and lungs, main artery in the leg, the kidneys, through the ribcage, heart, lungs, temple, brain, eyes: every strike was a critical hit.
The Demons were simple anatomical designs to him. It was just a factor of working himself to end them. They were strong creatures, but the more Dave fought, the more he understood. He understood their bodies, his new power, his abilities and how to become better at fighting them.
They were taller than him, had more reach, but they didn’t have armor. Their claws were wickedly sharp but little use against his armor.
“Pull back,” Lox called.
Again, they stepped backward.
Dave relaxed. He was facing creatures at around the level 100 mark. It felt as though he could choreograph their movements. His apprehension from before fell away. It wasn’t hard to kill them. It wasn’t their skill, weapons, or level that scared him, but rather their sheer numbers.
When he was fighting them in controlled circumstances like this, he looked for the most economical way to kill the creatures, saving up his Stamina and Mana for what he really needed.
“Weapons master quest status,” Dave asked.
To the side of his screen, the quest showed.
Quest: Weapons Master Level 2
Kill one hundred enemies with every weapon type.
One handed and shield 67/100
Two handed 41/100
Dual wielding 81/100
Archery 100/100
Rewards: Unlock Level 3 Quest
Increase to stats
Dave dismissed the screen. It wouldn’t take long for him to get his One handed, then he could focus on his Two handed and Dual wielding.
Even with the obstacles in their way, the Demons were hell-bent on tearing them apart. They didn’t know the futility of their situation. The party was only backing up due to the number of corpses around them, making footing difficult.
“Damn, easier than Aleph,” Steve said.
“Make sure you don’t get cocky.” Anna tore a Demon in two with a wind blade. “There are nearly six thousand Demons for every Stone Raider here.”
“Well, that sounds like a challenge,” Steve said.
“Experience farm,” Dave agreed, though the two of them understood that they had their limits. “Suzy must be pleased with the experience she gets off you.”
“Nope. Doesn’t take any of it. Makes leveling up a lot easier,” Steve said.
“Nice,” Dave said, the two of them having a casual conversation even as they killed Demon after Demon.
They took scratches here and there but they heavily outclassed the Demons. Dave counted as being nearly four times the Demons’ level.
“You’ve become strong, Dave, stronger than I thought possible in such a small amount of time. Though the Stone Raiders have certainly opened my eyes to a few things,” Lox said.
“Yeah, thought you’d be having a bit more difficulty with these guys,” Gurren quipped.
“Well, in open plains, then they’d probably tear me apart. However, with this setup, waiting for them one-on-one, it gets a bit easier.” Dave ducked and turned the blade pointing out the back of his fist, slamming under a Demon’s arm and into their chest before Dave threw them free. The life drained from their eyes.
Dave’s strength was incomparable to the Demons on a one-on-one basis. The Demons were just fighting practice that gave the Stone Raiders experience as they fought.
Deia, who had been hovering over the valley, was looking for any big groups of Demons and checked over the boulders and into the large area where the majority of the Demon Horde was. She rode her fire back to the side of the valley. Induca took her spot.
Deia started to chant to herself. It took but a few moments.
Another one of her fuel bombs went off. The shockwave ripped through the forest, throwing trees about, obliterating Demons that were too close, and turning those who were within the blast areas into pulp. Others, outside the blast radius, were tossed like rag dolls due to the extreme power of the explosion.
The sky rained dirt, parts of trees, the forest, and Demons. Thousands of Demons died in the blast.
The flow of Demons slowed through the valley as the melee fighters dispatched them with ease. Those Demons who made it through came through with bloody ears from having their eardrums ruptured, and coughed blood from their pulped insides.
Dave felt as though he was giving them a mercy as he ended them.
“Let’s move out—recover our Mana and Stamina and come ba
ck again,” Deia said.
In the distance, clouds could be seen; lightning rained down from the heavens and smote all who lay below.
The forest creaked and groaned as it followed the instructions of the Stone Raiders’ mages. After seeing Deia’s powerful magic, they were now showing off their larger attacks as well.
Induca turned the ground into lava, killing any Demon who made it through the valley. Their tombstones still remained, even if their bodies were destroyed.
Steve boosted Gurren, Lox, and Dave out of the valley. Anna called on her wind and glided out of it. Suzy used her Air creations to pull Steve out of the valley.
Once Steve’s feet touched the ground, the party started to run, leaving the Demon Horde behind.
Dave glanced at his quest.
Quest: Weapons Master Level 2
Kill one hundred enemies with every weapon type.
One handed and shield 100/100
Two handed 89/100
Dual wielding 100/100
Archery 100/100
Rewards: Unlock Level 3 Quest
Increase to stats
“Come on, I’ve got just eleven to go.” Dave sighed as he destroyed the sword and shield he was using and put them on his belt.
Dave checked his notifications.
Active Skill: One handed and Shield
Level: Master Level 2
Effect: Weapons damage increased by 42%. Defense increases by 21%; shield bash is 10% more likely to stun opponent.
Cost: 20 Stamina
Level 129
You have reached level 129; you have 466 stat points to use.
“What? How the hell are they that much experience?” Dave asked.
“The Demons?” Anna asked.
“Yeah. I gained five levels from killing them,” Dave said.
“All of them are Creatures of Power, things that the Pantheon themselves have made. They’re considered Legendary beasts. Killing them brings in a ton of experience. We’re just getting to them before they’ve really started to use magic or start flying. A flying Demon charge is pure nightmare fuel. If these suckers were in the air, then it would be hell,” Lox said.
This is Our Land (Emerilia Book 5) Page 6