Wave 23

The 23rd of 30 waves started spawning around us and I could see smoke wafting in the air from where I stood on the wall. The monsters had some kind of fire affinity and I was in for a rough battle. I had practiced extensively against Rachel over the element but I wasn't sure how fighting the masses of flame users would go.

"Blaze Lions!" Hal shouted from his perch looking over the horizon. With his higher perception and skills, he could [Identify] things from further out taking on the role of his late brother.

Flaming Lions, lovely.

We had fought stone lizards, acid spiders, lightning tigers, and now blaze lions. Why couldn't it have been something ice-related like ice foxes or dire wolves? Granted we already faced dire wolves, but that was before monsters had affinities.

Fighting something ice-related would be so much easier. I was confident that I was the better manipulator of ice and there was no way monsters were going to take my element from me. The thought was absurd.

Still, this wave would be anything but easy. On the bright side, it would help tremendously with my control and maybe I would beat Rachel with the boost.

Before I could get too deep into those thoughts, I pushed them away. I didn't need to start thinking about after the wave when I wasn't certain everyone would survive it. It was a fact of life at this point and I wasn't too torn up about it anymore. At least, that was what I told myself.

I would have to rely on a lot of help from Alice this wave because even with my boosted mana pool, I wasn't sure if I would last the entire wave. My Law protected my ice from melting but I was looking at a lot of flaming creatures coming toward us. Over a hundred were charging my side alone.

This was what I made my Law for though, and was where it was strongest. Ice that would last through anything, even flames.

Looking to the side, I saw Vinny and Connor manning the catapults with a slight smile on their faces. This would be the first time they were to be used against the waves and they were excited to fire them off.

Vinny was focused almost entirely on blacksmithing and not combat so he got to operate one of them while Connor got the other for my side. His poisons were already placed and the traps Allison set were already functional with it. His part in the battle was over and that left him available to man the weapon. He could still throw out clouds of poison, but that was a last resort attack. His poison affected friend and foe alike.

The other side's catapults were the same. Manned by people who focused more on the profession side of things. Allison had one for the same reason Conner did. Her part was done. She could fight but it wasn't worth the risk of losing her, her traps were extremely useful.

Brayden manned the catapult next to Allison. He stopped trying with his warrior class and transitioned to focus entirely on his Builder profession. He could put up a building in less than a day and have it be strong. He and Scott built everything in our camp and they were the ones who built the defenses inside the wall.

Scott and Diana had the last two. Scott for the same reason as Brayden and Diana for a different one. Her grieving for her son left her too far behind to be of any real use during the fight. She tried to catch up but it was just too late, seeing that, she turned to her profession. She was a Tailor and made all of the clothes that our camp wore.

Sam and Ashley did decent jobs of making clothes with their leatherworker profession but it was nothing compared to what Diana could make. She wasn't consigned to only leather and could make clothes out of cloth and silk bought from the store.

She made all of the padded clothes that people put under the armor that they wore. She made the padded armor that I wore myself.

After Vinny and Conner, my side consisted of my Dad, Alice, and Sam. Only 7 of us were here making it one of the two sides of 7. With the way we were set up, only one side would get 8 people and it wasn't mine.

Austin's and Jonathan's sides had 7 and 8 respectively with more help going to Jonathan. The last member was Hal, who helped out every side from his perch high up in the air. Scott and Brayden built him a tower on top of the keep that he used to keep track of the battle and where the boss was.

With him not dedicated to a side we had to split 22 people 3 ways leaving the discrepancy.

Me and my Dad were the only warriors on my side and I did that on purpose. Austin and Jonathan needed the help more and I could handle the wave by myself if I had to. Vinny and Conner were ranged support on the catapults and Alice was ranged support on anything that made it through the wall.

She also helped create ice for me to use.

I tried not to think about the other sides and how well they would fare through the battle. It would only distract me from the task at hand.

Watching the charging wave I waited until the time was right.

"Fire!" I shouted.

It wasn't necessary to give out the order since everyone already knew what to do, but it was cool. I had nothing better to do as my prey closed the distance so I shouted for effect.

Vinny and Conner let loose at my order and two large stones sailed through the air. The range of the catapults was well over what we were used to, exceeding a few hundred yards. The only one who could match the distance was Hal using a full-powered shot. I had a feeling I could match it with a full-powered javelin throw but it would be nowhere near as accurate.

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Watching the projectiles touch down gave me no small amount of joy. Two big explosions rocked the leading monsters and sent bodies and dirt flying everywhere, leaving behind two big craters. The explosions killed or injured at least half a dozen of the charging beasts. After firing, both men worked expertly to reload before firing again for the same effect.

Every shot cost us a lot of points but we spent the previous day practicing and ranging them in. It was a waste to shoot at nothing but it was worth it to see them hit perfectly into the mass of bodies when it mattered.

Seeing my time come nearer, I left the top of the wall and settled into where I would hold the gate.

My new armor glistened in the sun from its fresh polish this morning and I loosened up for the coming exercise. Vinny offered to help make me a better set but I declined. One reason for declining was that his work was better used on the others who weren't as strong as me.

Another reason was my armor was personal. I liked being the one who made it. I knew the ins and outs, I knew how much it could take without breaking. I knew where the small faults in the metal were and where stresses from the hammer didn't get fully released.

It was my creation and I trusted it with my life. Literally. Sure, Vinny's might be a little better but I knew what worked for my fighting style. I had to thin out certain spots for [Frost Armor(R)] and leave some areas with less protection for movement reasons.

When [Heavy Armor Proficiency] went up to Novice, the boost increased my mobility while wearing it. It also had the added consequence of making me redesign my entire armor.

It evened out the kinks of wearing both armor and using [Frost Armor(R)] with the upgrade and it made me change my armor to accommodate, taking advantage of the new boost. Making the metal thicker and cover more areas now that the boost fixed the mobility problems that the thicker metal originally caused.

The sound of the catapults firing sounded out again and I started forming my armor. Practicing with [Frost Armor(R)], I could better control how the armor formed and I made sure that it linked with the metal perfectly. It took longer to freeze this way but it made it easier to move in and increased its protection.

With my armor prepared, I stood at the gate ready to face the wave. Hammer held with both hands and covered in ice to protect me. All the ice I wore created a wafting frost effect around me. The ice I wore and wielded decreased the temperature so much fog was visible coming off of it.

As the blaze lions got closer the temperature increased and I didn't fight to retake control, only to train against it. It would be a wasted effort and strain my mind unnecessarily but the effort it took to train wasn't much. The beasts looked like monetarized lions that had flaming manes of yellow and red that exuded heat with their very presence and usurped control from me as they got close. They lived up to their namesake.

Their fur was a matching color of orange and yellow to add to the effect. It seemed the name Blaze Lion was literal in this respect.

The leading lion got a hammer to the head as a prize for being first and [Momentum of the Avalanche] activated for the wave. My hammer swings were much more concise and accurate from the experience of 22 waves and I settled into the groove.

The waves weren't all that different from each other and I had found what worked best long ago. When to use skills, when to use [Ice Fortress(Un)] for a break. I wouldn't call myself a veteran of battle but I was close.

The heat from the flames was annoying but my ice held up without melting. It made using my skills all that much harder but it wasn't something that would hinder me too much. It was also good for training.

Alice was having trouble with the hostile mana but she was far enough away that it wasn't a big deal.

My rotating snowflakes were the worst off. They extended out, deep into the mass of bodies where the heat was greatest. I had to cut the number of them I had in half just to keep them all together.

With only 11 of the spinning projectiles, my killing speed was significantly reduced. The beasts still wouldn't get by me, but it made the melee I was engaged in more intense.

The drain from keeping my ice from melting was there, but with my increased mana pool, it was fine. I still had enough to spare to use my skills more liberally. [Frostbite(Un)] was almost completely useless against the lions and I stopped using it entirely.

The ice mana that [Frostbite(Un)] injected melted so fast that it didn't leave any lasting damage. It only left the flames the lions produced slightly less hot for a minute until the mana was burned out.

I didn't have as much control inside the bodies of others and the natural fire mana in the lions ate up the ice mana at an accelerated rate that there was nothing I could do about it. The beasts had a natural advantage over my affinity.

That did nothing to stop the blunt force that I used to kill them. [Heavy Blow(Un)] took the spotlight and I caved in chests and heads alike with my hammer. [Momentum(R)] built and the heat increased with it.

The longer the battle went the harder it was to control my ice.

Vinny and Conner kept firing the catapults until they were too close to the wall to fire and Alice and my Dad did their share during the battle but this was the first time I was pushed this hard. I wasn't losing, but I was under more stress now than ever before.

The temperature sparring that I did with Rachel was nothing like what I was experiencing now. With Rachel, it was like a gentle tug of war with our respective skills testing one another's control. Here, it was a raging battlefield where I had to rip control away from the monsters to keep my space cool.

Snow and ice without my Law melted. Alice's skills that weren't strong enough evaporated into steam on contact with the beasts. I was losing the fight for dominance.

Not physical dominance, I was waylaying the lions with my hammer, but the dominance for the terrain. Ever since I understood my Law, I worked to make the battlefield a land of ice and snow to empower me and make it easier to use my skills and for the first time, I couldn't do that.

I was back to before my Law, swinging my weapon at the masses without the home-field advantage I created every wave.

It made me angry. This was my camp and it was my battlefield. These monsters came to me and it angered me that they took over so easily.

Maybe if I had chosen Child of Winter as my class instead of Champion of Niflheim this would have been easier, but it was too late for that now. Plus, I had zero regrets about my class choice. My class had served me well and I loved it.

Looking for a way to cancel their effect or for a way to reinstate my own left me frustrated. I didn't have one.

I had no skills that altered the terrain like this and had no way to change it back without wasting a ton of mana. [Hail] could do it if I poured in enough mana but it wasn't what the skill was made for and wasn't worth the mana cost. It would empty me out and leave me without enough to face the boss.

Asking Alice to do it would be a similar bad idea. She was a mage and she needed to have enough mana to defend herself. Wasting it on that would leave her without mana to defend herself should the need arise. Plus, I didn't think that she could do it.

This was an issue that I would need to fix. A skill or something that would alleviate this problem. A part of me was glad that I noticed this now, instead of later. It was an easy enough fix and I already had a few ideas come to mind.

Runes were powerful things and I had a new one that I would need to purchase. I also would have another skill to get after this wave that I could maybe use to fix the problem.