Chris

Fuck, this hurts.

I felt the knife in my back dig deeper every time I moved to swing my hammer or dodge a blow. Every twist of my torso aggravated it further.

Assassins weren't something I had anticipated and that failure was biting me in the ass. Rogue was one of the 5 main classes and dismissing the possibility of assassins was a rookie mistake.

It went to show how inexperienced we were at planning for war. We were lucky none of us had died from the attack. Jonathan and I were the worst off and he was already healed.

[Frozen Patchwork(R)] was keeping me going. The dagger nicked something important in my chest cavity but I had no idea what. I was no doctor and could only guess at what had happened.

The chill from the skill numbed most of the pain and worked to curtail the bleeding. It wasn't meant for important organs but I infused my Law into the skill to boost its strength.

We had severely underestimated our foe. I thought that his army would be weakened slightly from the battles he put them through but we were wrong.

The things I heard relayed to me from Kathy painted a grim picture.

We still had aces up our sleeves, but I wasn't sure it would be enough anymore. Already people were retreating to the second line of stone fortifications we had built.

The only way I thought to end it, was to kill the one controlling them. It wasn't guaranteed to stop the horde of monsters from attacking but it would certainly weaken them.

So I was going to do something stupid.

Like entering the lion's den alone.

I had fought an entire wave alone, I could take out one man.

Making Austin promise to take care of them was probably unnecessary, but it gave me peace of mind. I didn't think that he wouldn't, but on the off chance things went poorly, I needed to be sure.

After my decision was made, I began my march. Wading through the flowing thralls and against the current of their bodies. I marched into the belly of the beast.

Leaving as I had left an opening in the front line but the amount I was killing more than made up for it.

The closer I got to the gate, the more pressure was applied to stop me and the more bodies found themselves deformed.

Their resistance was futile and their efforts were in vain.

It didn't work.

I faced heavy resistance trying to enter the gate but it was nothing my hammer couldn't smash aside. I didn't even have to call on my bloodline to get through and was able to keep it in reserve for later.

I flattened the horde of thralls as I walked over them to enter the castle. They were even nice enough to hold the gates open for me.

Immediately, I felt the blazing heat from the fires in the camp and I had to work overtime to fight the hostile mana in the area. It was nothing compared to Rachel's skill with flames and it was easily dealt with.

The fires had no will of their own to give them strength, no one to fight me for control.

Where I walked, fires sputtered and went out before frosting over. There would be none of that near me.

My target was the only building still standing, the keep.

Trying to conserve my mana was hard with all of the bodies surrounding me and at certain points, massive expenditures were necessary.

A giant [Ice Fortress(Un)] combined with [Shatter(Un)] opened up holes in the bodies, giving me one more step toward the keep. This was the first time I was fighting to get somewhere rather than hold somewhere and the difficulty was much different.

It was a lot easier to hold an area against a force than it was to get to an area through a force.

Even so, my hammer swung ferociously and I made my way toward the keep.

While fighting to get here, I had been trying to come up with ideas on how to get into the keep. If the doors were barred and defended well enough I would have trouble getting in.

It wouldn't be a problem if I wasn't so pressed for time. I would eventually be able to get through, at least I thought I could, but the longer I took killing the Mindbreaker, the longer my family had to fight off the monsters he controlled.

That all changed when I saw the crowd of thralls part before a middle-aged man. Something about his face tugged at my memory but I couldn't place it. He didn't have the same listless expression as all the others and the army around him gave a wide berth. Like they weren't allowed to get any closer.

This was him. The man who had caused so many troubles for me. The one who attacked my family and sought to turn them into... this. Their will usurped and their bodies puppeted.

Just seeing him made me angry.

It was an unexpected boon that the man himself appeared before me and it was one I would capitalize on.

I didn't care to examine him closely or note down his features, they would be smashed into oblivion soon and it wouldn't matter. His body would be unrecognizable after I was done with it.

With the parting of bodies, I launched myself at him, reading my hammer.

"Well, hel-"

Both [Frostbite(Un)] and [Mighty Blow(R)] slotted onto it and I brought it down as hard as I could, not giving him a chance to speak.

Clang

The sound of metal meeting something hard rang out and it wasn't the dull thud of my hammer hitting flesh.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

"Did you really think that would work?" The man said from behind a massive metallic ant that blocked my blow. An ant that was in my recent memory and not for good reasons.

It was the Ant Boss from the last wave and it fully absorbed my blow without showing any signs of wear.

Shit.

As the words flowed out of his mouth, I felt an influence settle over my mind. It was looking for a way in, a way to control me. Whisps of fog surrounding and threatening to come in. I had activated [Mental Walls(C)] the second I got into the camp but I double-checked it was active for good measure.

The skill worked to rebuff the influence and I saw the man grimace at his failure.

"It seems you'll be a difficult one." He added but otherwise looked unpreturbed.

I held zero intentions of holding a conversation and even less for holding a conversation with a mind manipulator. My best course of action was to kill him where he stood and to do that, I had to get through the Ant Queen.

"Oh, I can tell this will be fun. You fighting to kill me while the rest of your family dies and I get to slowly pick your mind apart. What was your goal I wonder? Did you think you could win?"

His words couldn't be tuned out, it was like they were burrowing into my ears, forcing me to listen to his monologue.

There was no reason to hold back any longer and I activated everything I had.

[Momentum of the Avalanche(R)] was already going at full blast and [Barbarian's Fury(Un)] boosted my stats further.

I called on the power of my bloodline and I felt the cold spread from my core into every inch of my body. Strength flowed through me and my ice felt smoother.[Permafrost(Un)] worked to chill the area even faster and as more frost built up and the air dropped below zero, [Glacial Presence(R)] boosted my stats even further.

"I see you intend to fight anyway. I -"

I leaned on the fury coursing through me and the words finally got out of my head. The man seemed to be doing something, but I threw myself at the Ant Queen to kill it quickly. It was blocking my way to my real target.

I had already killed it once, I would do so again.

Smashing it around with my hammer, while cathartic, didn't go as well this time around. Other monsters were hampering me and clawing at me and one giant one made itself known entering the battle.

"ROAR!"

A massive vine bear charged at me from behind and knocked me to the ground while I was swinging at the Ant Queen. The attack pushed the knife lodged in my back deeper in and it hindered my movement even more than it already was.

I felt it intimately as it pushed deeper in. The pain was excruciating but I pushed it out of my mind. I had a mission to complete and a little pain wasn't going to stop me from that.

Turning to look around me, I watched as previous bosses made themselves known and for the first time in a long time, I felt despair.

I felt the presence of one of them before I saw it. My control over my ice began to waver and something was fighting back against it. It was nowhere near Rachel's level but it was an annoyance I didn't need right now facing down three massive bosses.

The massive Vine Bear, roaring and pawing at the ground. The metal Ant Queen with metal pincers that could chomp through my armor. And the burning Blaze Lion to mitigate some of my ice.

Three of the hardest bosses that I had fought recently. Something told me that wasn't a coincidence. If he had these bosses, he most likely had others and my mind had no trouble coming up with where they might be.

It would seem he held these three back specifically for me.

How much of what happened was his plan? Did he know we were coming to attack? Did he know I would charge in alone if I felt it was necessary? Did he plan this?

The despair I felt only grew as my speculations continued. Something was nudging my mind along that line of thought but I couldn't feel it. If even the smallest of what I thought was true, it did not bode well for my family and I needed to end this as quickly as possible.

"You didn't think it was only one boss, did you?"

As I looked at what was arrayed against me, his words started to cut through again. My fury sputtered slightly, letting the words in.

Even pushing all of my will into [Mental Walls(C)] wasn't enough to keep them out of my head.

"Since it seems you have gone all out, I shall do the same."

Even though I didn't want to focus on him or his words, I couldn't help but look as his body began changing. Even as amateur as I was at sensing auras, the change occurring was easy to spot.

His presence grew and it almost felt like he was growing physically. Like I had to look up to him now even though we were the same height. His aura spiked from whatever he was doing and it felt stronger than mine. Not in heaviness sense, but in size.

He was E-rank.

His arms and legs took on a scaly texture and his eyes started to change, unable to stick with a permanent color. It was slightly mesmerizing to look at.

"How do I look?"

His words changed completely. Where they were just annoying before and I was able to brush them off with [Mental Walls(C)] and a little willpower, they changed completely now. Like they could penetrate even the most stalwart of defenses. Whatever he just did made my defenses not possible anymore.

They became a sultry serenade that I couldn't help but want more of. It was highly distracting at a time when I needed it least. Three of the bosses from the previous five waves surrounded me and I couldn't afford any mistakes.

Instinctively, I used [Identify(C)] to confirm my suspicions.

[Human – Level ???]

He was E-rank. He had to have one of the three Paths of Power but I wasn't sure which. I also wasn't sure what kind of bloodline he had but I figured it made all of his mental skills stronger.

This wasn't going the way I thought it would.

I dug deeper, pulling everything I had within me and I charged at the Blaze Lion. It was the easiest of the three to deal with and getting rid of its hinderance on my ice would make things easier. I aimed to eliminate it first.

I didn't even make it two steps toward the Lion before both the Vine Bear and the Ant Queen started to harass me. The bear blocked my path to the lion and the Ant Queen attempted to pincer me and take chunks out of my body.

The first time I had fought the bear, it was a close fight that I almost lost, but that was after hours of fighting and when I was under level 45 without a bloodline.

Now, I was over 7 levels higher, 2 skills richer, and a bloodline to push myself further.

I was stronger than it.

The last time I fought it, I could somewhat tell what it was feeling during the fight. Nothing complex, only surface-level emotions like shock and surprise. Now, though, I couldn't even glean that.

It was like they were robots without a will of their own. I had expected to see shock in the bear at being pushed back but it revealed nothing.

My hammer pounded into it, trying to get through but it fought without any regard for pain. My massive blows rained down on it and it didn't do so much as flinch.

I could feel the force of the impacts up my arm and I knew they weren't as weak as the bear made them look. They were swings using all of my strength, that wasn't something it should have been able to ignore.

The Ant Queen nipped at me the entire time making an annoyance of herself. It tore off chunks of my armor and its mandibles savaged my skin underneath. The Blaze Lion was worse. Just its presence started to heat the area and I had to spend more mana to cool it back down.

It didn't help that the entire time sultry words were whispered in my ear about giving up and letting go.

"Give in. You're never going to win."

All of it added together drove my frustration through the roof. This wasn't a fight. This wasn't battle.

This was stalling.

He was stalling me while simultaneously attacking my family and trying to get in my head. The longer this battle took, the better his chances of winning got.

I was in a race against time and I was losing.

Even as I pulled out all the stops, I couldn't do anything. My hammer was rebuffed by either the Bear or the Ant and the Blaze Lion hindered my ice. Everything I was doing was accounted for and planned against.

The feeling of despair grew and I felt the possibility of me losing grow evermore.

I felt in my mind that this wasn't a natural feeling but there was nothing I could do about it. I was fighting back with everything I had but it just wasn't enough.

All the battle, all the killing, all the leveling, and I was going to lose when it mattered most.

"Just stop fighting. There's nothing for you to fight for anymore, your family is already dead."

Oh.

Oh, he shouldn't have said that. Those were the wrong words to say to me.

Something in me snapped and the mental fog broke, dispelling completely and gave me the clarity to see things clearly. The Vine Bear looked worse for wear and was limping from the blows that I had landed and the Ant Queen had dents in its exoskeleton and a bent mandible.

The only boss without injuries was the Blaze Lion but I never got close enough to land any in the first place.

The battle wasn't as one-sided as I had thought it was, it only appeared that way for some reason.

Fury took over but not the skill, raw, primal fury I felt about the whole situation.

He just made a mistake and I wasn't going to let this chance go by.

He should have never mentioned my family.