The sound of the hyena waves had been a mix of growls, yips, and millions of feet churning the earth. This new sound wasn't as loud, but I felt it through the ground and in my bones.

The distinctive thunder of hooves slamming into the packed dirt echoed throughout the trenches, and I knew instinctively that I was hearing the charge of cavalry.

I turned back to Jailen and Icalia across the way, the question evident in my face. Icalia paused wanding the hyenas, her eyes glazing over.

Icalia: Couldn’t warn you.

RayGun47: Horses? Heavy armor? What are we looking at?

She shook her head, then went back to dealing with the hyenas trying to breach the firewall.

Shit!

RayGun47: Jailen, swap your quicksand over to your side. I’ll hold this side while the two of you take care of your side.

He nodded, and the quicksand in front of me dissipated.

I turned back to my own trench. I vaguely remembered that poleaxes were excellent for dealing with cavalry, but I didn’t know the first damned thing about it. Stick the pole end in the ground, angle the blade up, I guess? Braveheart style. The hyena corpses in front of me were beginning to stack, creating an uneven trail that I imagined would be difficult for horses to traverse. That should work in my favor - though, how the horses would navigate the trenches at all, I had no clue.

The sound was growing louder now, but the onslaught of hyenas wasn’t waning. How the hell was this going to work for the mobs? It just didn’t make any sense - a trench system was about as conducive to horses as a castle wall.

The hyena wave grew even denser, the mobs packed shoulder-to-shoulder as they rushed towards me over the bodies of their fellows. I had taken to just waving my poleaxe in an arc in front of me, back and forth, cleaving three or four at a time. My enhanced strength let the weapon slice right through them.

Then I caught a glimpse of the first horse.

Holy fuckin’ shit!

The thing thundering towards me wasn’t actually a horse, but a centaur, nine-feet tall from head to hooves, and probably weighing about a thousand pounds.

And it had a god-damned lance and shield in its hands…

It charged through the trench with unnatural agility, taking the turn ahead of me like a fucking Formula 1 car. It had no regard for the hyena mobs in front of it, stampeding over them like they weren’t even there. The centaur thing killed a dozen of the hyena mobs in moments as it raced towards me.

Oh, shit, oh, shit, oh, shit!

I braced the butt of my weapon against the ground and angled it towards the oncoming centaur. My heart raced as it approached. Resisting the urge to close my eyes, I tensed.

The centaur leaped over my weapon, bashing it aside with its shield as it stabbed out with its lance. I was so stunned by the lack of impact that I didn’t even try to move as the lance pierced my shoulder. The shock hit immediately, but the pain took a moment to register. In the corner of my eye, I noted my health dip 10%.

He kept his momentum, yanking the lance from my shoulder with a quick jerk, causing the pain to redouble. He was behind me now, and I turned in a rush, ripping my own weapon from the ground. If he went for the mercs, they were done for!

Thankfully, he pranced around the open area, turning back to me. His eyes were literally smoldering, like two sinister candlelights, and he let out a war cry, banging his weapon against his shield. His nameplate read:

Name: [Feral Centaur Commander of the Scarlet Horde (Elite)]

Level: 48

Health Points: 1250/1250

A goddamn elite!? I didn’t know what exactly that entailed. Would he have an actor inside? The thought chilled me. An actor would realize the mercs were easier targets and would snipe them in moments. I couldn’t tell from our brief encounter, and the weird eyes made it impossible to determine if there was intelligence there, or just programming. I had to assume the worst and take this guy out quick. There could be more coming, and two of these guys would definitely be a problem.

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I faced off against him, my weapon held front of me. The elite reared up, slamming his two hooves into the mud, then charged me with a snort. The distance between us was probably only 10 meters, and he covered it in a blink.

I had no time to think. Instinctively, I dodged to his shield side, forcing him to stretch across his own body to hit me with his lance. My roll was sloppy, my weapon catching on the ground as I came to my feet, and I was suddenly caked in mud to go along with the hyena gore already drenching me.

The elite grunted in annoyance, rearing back on its hind legs again to perform an in-place turn. We were even closer now, and I charged into his space before he could get momentum on his side. He swung down with his lance, but it wasn’t bladed, and the shaft banged against my head, doing almost no damage.

It still hurt, but more like standing up and smacking your head on a cupboard.

Now I was in his blindspot, and I slashed my poleaxe at his front feet. He tried to bring his shield to bear, but the angle was wrong, and my axe cleaved through one of his legs with a spurt of blood. The centaur’s eyes opened wide in shock, and the sudden amputation caused him to stumble to the ground. He struggled to stand on his three legs, but I shoved him with the shaft of my weapon, sending him into the mud with an explosive grunt.

I really liked horses. Growing up, I had fantasized about being a cowboy, and had watched horse movies on repeat. The sound of a horse dying is one of the worst sounds I’ve ever heard.

But fuck this guy.

My poleaxe was fully extended over my head now. I paused a beat, looking down at the struggling centaur.

And then I cut his head off in a single swing.

The bonus objective jumped up by 50 kills.

Nice!

A slow trickle of hyenas were coming into the clearing now, and I barely paid them any attention as I killed them. In fact, I let my burning coat take out most of them, as they fruitlessly latched onto my limbs. My health was down about 25% by this point, so I toggled one of my [Good Enough Health Potions]. It restored 5% health over 15 seconds, and outpaced the damage I was receiving from the trickle of mobs.

When the event timer ticked down to 1 hour exactly, I was at full health with a bonus objective counter of 663 / 1000. Well on pace to hit the bonus objective before the hour was up.

Icalia and Jailen came over to me as the mobs starting disintegrating into the earth.

“Well done,” Icalia said, indicating the centaur elite fading into the ground.

I nodded thanks, then scanned around for the corpses of Git, Damien, and the others.

“You see anyone respawn?” I asked the mercs.

“Nope, nothing,” Jailen replied. Icalia shook her head.

“Okay, Jailen, switch your quicksand back over to my side,” I said. “I don’t want them sneaking away in between waves.”

They shared another look, and I was starting to get a read on those silent interactions.

“What? Don’t tell me you guys are having second thoughts? I thought we had all agreed that these assholes deserve this?”

Icalia waffled her head back and forth. “We did - but don’t you think once is enough? We don’t want to lose focus on the bonus obj-” A shout from behind me interrupted her.

“Fuck you, you slave piece-of-shit!” a familiar voice called.

I turned to see Git and all of his friends respawning as far away as they could get from Icalia. Or maybe me? Who’s to say?

“You player-killing son-of-a-bitch!” the other melee player shouted.

“We didn’t even touch you,” the third player added. “And now we won’t finish the bonus objective!”

Git raised his fist in the air and started chanting. “BigSword, BigSword, BigSword!” He looked to Damien and indicated for him to join in. Damien at least had the good sense to look embarrassed before joining in with some halfhearted shouts.

After a few moments, all four of them were chanting: “BigSword! BigSword! BigSword!”

I turned to Icalia and raised a single eyebrow.

She winced, her shoulders tensing. “Okay, forget what I just said.”

I beamed at her. “Thank you!”

I approached the four players, keeping my smile on my face. As one, they began to panic.

“Hey!” Damien said, pointing an accusatory finger at me. “You can’t kill us! You’ll be marked a traitor!”

I nodded along as I neared, like I was an attentive student. “Uh huh?”

Their backs were against the trench wall, and they seemed frozen in place, like a squirrel in the road. But some animalistic survival sense finally triggered, and they all bolted as fast as they could.

But I was faster.

I latched onto Git, grabbing his arm with a vice grip. He struggled to rip it free, but he was an order of magnitude weaker than me.

I kept my smile on, looking him in the face as I dragged him towards one of the trenches.

“Let me go, bitch!” he spat. He reared back and punched me in the face, a red aura outlining him. I knew from experience that he had just received the warning notification about killing members of your own faction. I just laughed through the pain. My health had gone down 1%.

Then I threw his ass into Icalia’s firewall.

He caught on fire immediately, his health dropping fast. He rushed to exit the AoE, but I bodily shoved him back into the fire when he did. In a few seconds, he was dead.

I turned back to the three other players who were looking on in horror, their flight temporarily forgotten.

With my big smile still plastered on my face, I said, “Here’s Johnny!”