“Oh, fuck! Not again!” I said, jumping to my feet.
Down the trench we had been resting in, the familiar figures of the orcs were starting to appear again. Their previously well-maintained lines were a little more roughshod now, and the evidence of our previous battle was evident in the soot-stained nature of their gear. But something about the sound of those goddamn centaurs emboldened them, and they began marching towards us again.
“What’s your cooldown on fire storm?” I asked, shouting to be heard over the combined cacophony of the centaurs and the orcs.
“Three minutes,” she shouted back, holding up three fingers in case I hadn’t heard properly.
Shit! We’d have to hold for at least that long!
I confirmed that I still had her burning coat skill on me, and turned to face the orcs marching towards us. There wasn’t time to formulate a strategy, I just had to kill the orcs as fast as I could, and pray the centaur elite took its time getting to us.
The orc line was about ten meters away, but I decided not to wait for them - every second counted.
I charged at them, my poleaxe reared back like a charging samurai. The two orcs in the front stopped as I approached, their shields at the ready. With a grunt of exertion, I brought my weapon down in an arc, cleaving through the orc on the left like he was made of soft butter. The other orc stabbed at me with his sword, and Icalia’s skill reflected fire damage at him, scorching his hand, and ticking his life down to half. He immediately panicked when the fire licked up his arm, and started backing away in terror.
A sudden thought hit me - was that the play? Just let them take swings at me until they killed themselves from the reflect damage. If I kept my stack of potions running, I’d recover 5% health over 15 seconds, which would hopefully keep me topped up, or close to it. And if it didn’t, I could always back away and reset my position.
Unfortunately, that plan immediately went to shit when the sounds of a centaur came from behind me. I swung around in a panic, wondering how the hell it had gotten past me, when I saw it jumping down from above the trench line. It had been running along the upper level, through the Scarlet Moon debuff area.
No fair!
Icalia was backed up against the trench wall, putting as much distance between her and the centaur as she could, even as she flung tiny fire projectiles at it from her wand.
RayGun47: Wand the orcs. And pray they’re afraid of the fire it launches. I got the elite.
Icalia: Okay!
I traded places with her, stepping up to meet the centaur elite. He saw me and reared up, banging his lance against his shield in challenge. I had expected the move, and raced to get inside the range of his lance. But his front hoof lashed out, clipping me in the shoulder and causing a tongue of flame to reflect towards him. The blow didn’t knock me down due to my high strength, but it did cause me to stumble, giving him time to regroup.
He ignored the reflect damage and shot his lance forward, trying to capitalize on my stumble. I narrowly managed to intercept the weapon with my poleaxe. The two weapons were locked together for a moment, and I shoved with all my strength against him, pushing him back. His hooves dragged in the mud as he struggled against me.
The deadlock was broken when he brought his shield across, slamming it against my poleaxe. I recovered quickly, bringing my weapon back against his lance-side arm. His weapon was too unwieldy to block with, and I managed to score a cut across his arm. He dropped the lance in pain, and I smiled. When he tried to bend to grab the lance, I slashed at his arm, forcing him back. He pranced about, trying to hit me with his hooves, or his shield, but I managed to keep him at a distance with the range of my weapon.
I was angling him towards Icalia’s still-burning firewall, when a second centaur leapt into the pit from above, his lance pointed directly at me.
Are you fucking kidding me!
I was forced to turn and intercept the attack with my poleaxe, and the first centaur used the distraction to run around me and scoop up his dropped lance.
I needed time to think!
I slammed down on my [Freezing Wave], the wave of ice slamming into their ankles. The Rooted debuff appeared over both of their heads. I tried to dart inside their range, but the two lances stabbed out lightning fast, and I narrowly avoided taking another wound to the shoulder.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
The rooted timer was counting down too fast!
RayGun47: Shit! What do I do?
Icalia: I can’t tell you!
Oh, for fuck’s sake!
But then I realized what she was implying - there was a trick to these guys.
The rooted timer hit zero, and I readied my weapon. The two of them faced me now, their weapons banging against their shields in unison, rattling my bones with the sound. Icalia looked back in horror, but I knew she couldn’t do anything. She was barely keeping the orc infantry at bay with her fire wand.
The two elites stopped their banging and spread out so that they were positioned about 45 degrees in front of me. Without warning, they both dug in their hooves, and raced towards me, lances aimed low.
For a single breath, I stood frozen. What was the damn trick!?
They closed the distance shockingly fast, and I was forced to leap to the side, past the centaur on the right. I tried to slash his exposed side with my poleaxe as I did, but managed only a grazing strike. I got to my feet in a rush, and was surprised to see the elites struggling to turn and face me. Their simultaneous charge had forced them into close proximity, taking away a lot of their maneuvering space. There it was, I realized.
Instead of charging them, like my instinct told me to, I backed up against the trench wall. The two centaurs had untangled their positions, and moved into the exact same formation as before - positioned roughly 45 degrees in front of me. They charged again, and this time I was ready.
When they were nearly on top of me, I rolled to the right, dodging the lance that nearly impaled me. From behind me, the crash of their collision sounded like a car wreck. I turned back to see the two elites crunched into a writhing mass of hooves and lances. They had literally charged into the wall in order to get me. It was video game boss 101 - let the rampaging boss charge you, then step aside so they concussed themselves against the wall or pillar.
I didn’t give them time to recover. I walked right up and buried my poleaxe deep into the flank of the first elite, ripped it out without preamble, and did the same to the second.
In the corner of my eye, I noticed my bonus objective jump to over 900!
Almost done!
“Ray!” a voice shouted from behind me. I whipped around to see the orcs nearly on top of Icalia. “If you’re done playing chicken, I could use some help!”
Oh, shit!
I sprinted towards her, taking her place as the orcs pressed against her fire wand attack. I immediately began hammering the orcs with my weapon, but then remembered my plan from earlier. I preemptively popped one of my health potions, and let the orc in the front hit me with his sword.
The pain shocked me for a moment, but almost immediately began to dissipate as the health potion worked. The fire reflect damage jumped at the orc, and he recoiled in pain and fear. I used that moment to cleave him in half.
The other orcs didn’t seem to understand what was happening, and they filled his place in the battle formation instantly. I let another sword slash through my guard, and struck down the attacker a moment later.
“How much time on fire storm?” I called over my shoulder, stabbing another orc over their shield.
“Thirty seconds,” she called back. She started throwing wisps of fire from her wand at the orcs, causing those in the front to immediately start backing away.
“Hold off on that!” I shouted. “I wanna draw them in!”
The wisps of fire stopped, and I knew she had heard me.
I kept an eye on the event timer, using it to track the thirty seconds until her fire storm skill was back up. I killed a few more orcs with my reflect trick, but didn’t work too hard, instead biding my time.
When Icalia put her hand on my shoulder, I knew she was ready. I started backing up, letting the orcs filter in closer.
“Let’s draw them into the clearing,” I shouted. She nodded, standing just behind my shoulder as I slowly stepped back.
The orcs pressed in, spreading out as they entered the clearing. I didn’t want to get pushed back too far, otherwise I’d have nowhere to flee when Icalia’s fire storm was triggered.
When the orcs had pushed about halfway across the pit, I nodded at Icalia, who began whirring up her fire storm. The orcs in the front noticed the fire begin to swirl around the merc, and tried to flee. But their brothers had clogged the junction, and there was no escape now.
The skill ignited outwards, engulfing the packed mobs in moments. My bonus objective raced higher - 950, 975, 990, 1000!
A loud trumpet sound filled the clearing, and my event quest flashed, before marking itself as complete. The orcs were in full flight now, so I took the pause in the action to pull it up.
Quest Complete!
(Local Event)
Man Versus Beast
(Quest clipped for brevity)
.
.
.
Objective: Hold back the attacking horde for two hours during any nighttime hours.
Bonus Objective: Personally kill 1000/1000 beasts within this time frame.
Reward: See General Aldara for your reward!
Bonus Reward: See General Aldara for your reward!
A host of new achievements also flashed in my notification’s icon, but I ignored them for now. It seemed that finishing the bonus objective also marked the main objective as complete.
Thank God! That meant we could head back to the staging area once this wave was over!
I really didn’t want to see what the last wave was gonna throw at us.
With the orcs fleeing in terror, there wasn’t a mob in sight. I flashed Icalia a grin, and held out my fist for a fist bump. She looked at my outstretched fist for a moment, amusement on her face. I shrugged, my eyebrows raised in expectation. After a moment, she reached out and tentatively bumped her fist with mine. I let out a dramatic explosion sound, miming my hand like a detonating bomb. She laughed at the absurdity, shaking her head as if I was the biggest dweeb ever.
And then, she reluctantly mimicked me, her own fist half-heartedly exploding a half second later.
“That wasn’t so bad, was it?” I asked with a smirk.