Lucas woke up to the party already assembled in some deep discussion. In the horizon loomed their next challenge, a massive wall made out of wood and other plant material. Lucas could probably guess about what they spoke so intensely, so he decided to insert himself into the conversation.

“Has the Grand Council come to agreement? Us mortals are ready to be showered in your implacable wisdom.” Lucas asked, sarcasm dipping from his every word.

“Har, har. You actually want to be a part of planning. It contains some scary words” Michael responded to him.

“I survived your wall of text before the mission” Lucas responded.

The rest of party snickered at the exchange, and Lucas seated himself, chewing some plants found at the laboratory. What he gathered, they planned to use creatures in the lab as test subject, unleashing them at the wall to see what kind of defense awaits them. Losing interest in the details, he focused on the last battle. Losing “Lunge” hurt him more that he cared to admit, although he baited now-deceased Lady of the Darkgrowth pretty well into attacking, allowing him maneuverability with “Dodge”. But, that wasn’t a long-term strategy, as someone will wise up to it, and he will be stuck with just his running speed. Not negligible, mind you, but he was used to moving almost instantaneously in short distances. Seeing as their harder opponent actually have a mind to go after the Hannah, their weakest combat link, and yet invaluable as the party healer, and a dear friend to Lucas, maybe even something more if he could help it. It wasn’t like Lucas hasn’t had party members die on dungeon runs, but he bottled that and wrote it off as an occupational hazard. And never did he had a feeling he was direct cause of anyone’s death, as he felt now due to his decision to change battle style, thinking about a potential deaths of his current team, as much as they annoyed him due to their obstinacy to have fun and be less professional in their approach.

“Haven’t slept well?” he heard Hannah’s voice once again pulling him out of his thoughts.

“Just doing some thinking” he responded to her, realizing to late he opened himself for a burn.

“That’s a first one” inevitable burn came.

“Ha, ha. No, we were really outclassed last time, and we almost lost. I think we are out of McGuffins to bail us” Lucas continued.

“The great Lucas worried about someone else? I don’t buy it. Are we sure you weren’t replaced during the fight?” Hannah spoke.

“Yeah, some of you are pretty heavy to carry out when we achieve our inevitable victory. Not to mention, funerals are bad for eyelash – batting maidens”

Hannah responded with the eye roll, and after some more small talk between them, they moved to carry out their “creature testing the wall” plan. Utilizing his survival skills, John made some contraption that aimed to open the doors from afar, in hope that the creatures, in their blind rage, would charge the wall instead of them. Lucas once again found himself seated, ready to watch the spectacle. John fired a shot, severing one of the ropes and all of the cages opened. A myriad of sounds erupted, and a massive stampede rushed at the wall. When they reached the wall, a massacre ensued. Parts of the wall came to life, thick branches turned them to pulp, noxious fumes suffocating them, and whips choking them to death. Even so, biggest of them managed to get to the base, and they were followed by the most stubborn of smaller ones. They began pummeling back, severing branches and crushing whips. Some of them even begin to climb it, and there they notice a peculiar thing. Resistance began to wane, as if all of the defenses were massed at the base. To make thing more uncanny, wall was rather easy to climb, wood and lianas allowing a stable footholds. And finally, defenses flared once more. On the top of the wall, silhouettes began to appear, raining even more poison clouds down on unfortunate creatures, alongside more conventional weapons, such as arrows and spears, all wooden of course, on par with other weapons dryads used. Creatures rained down, bloodied and battered, and soon enough their test subjects were completely eradicated.

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Lucas let out a whistle, seeing the bloodbath that just occurred. They were in for a rough ride, but then John spotted something and waved to get the attention of others. He pointed to the siege engines that lay just a bit from the site of the massacre. Ladders that were reinforced in the front, looking more like a giant stairs, a giant siege tower, and massive hooks with thick ropes.

“System once again to the rescue” Lucas thought, but quickly realized that they were in the siege scenario, and that siege weapons were to be expected. After a quick deliberations, they choose the ladders. All of them pitched in, and soon enough, they were at the base of the wall. At that moment, Maraya dropped siege engine and summoned her barrier, blocking initial attack of living plants. She continued to patrol, blocking with her normal shield, and sometimes with her body, attacks that managed to circle around her barrier. She smacked with her cudgel, smashing branches, looking like a shield maiden from old myths. The rest of them took their chance, aligning ladders and after making sure they are stable, they whistled for Maraya, and started climbing up. Even with armor in front of the ladder, some of the attacks managed to get trough, and Lucas hacked and slashed almost blindly, his room for maneuvering and pivoting limited. After some time, dryads from the top of the wall started pelting them, but Maraya once again endured, and they continued their trek through, one step at the time. And once again, fate conspired to make things harder for them. All around them, massive flowers appeared; their petals started spinning as some massive fans. Defying the laws of physics, a strong wind started blowing, threatening to make them fall. Another set of flowers appeared, shooting some slippery goo all around them, making everything slippery. Lucas’s party had to slow down, and that took its toll on Maraya. She started missing blocks, projectiles arriving at the rest of the party. Lucas did manage to use his new skill, “Punch Parry”, to block some of them, but more found purchase in his flesh.

“You took 93 points of damage”

“You took 88 points of damage”

“You took 91 points of damage”

Hannah, the most protected part of team, cast her healing spells left and right, trying to stay on top on everyone’s wounds. And they kept advancing, using their last reserves of strength. Lucas took a breather Maraya provided with her barrier to cast his buff, sensing that the last hurdle was a big battle to secure landing from the siege engine. After about five minutes of intense battle, were Lucas took two more arrows and one dose of healing, they came in sight of their harassers. A dozen or so dryads awaited them, massive wood shields slammed at the top of ladder. Michael shined at this segment, hurling three frag lookalikes over them, forcing shield bearers to retreat, and probably killing some of them. Meanwhile, Lucas activated his identification skill, discerning that enemies they were facing ranged in 33 to 36 level range.

“Doable” Lucas thought as he quickly activated “Infused piledriver” and slammed into the breach Michael opened with his grenades, obliterating the poor warrior who stood in his path. As soon as he landed, he activated “Dodge” and rolled to his left, his limited premonition informing him that there he was out of range. A hail of arrows landed where he stood a second ago, and he finally had the time to analyze the battlefield. One downed shield bearer left a gap that Maraya now tried to widen, only her cudgel seen as she swing wildly. Michaels frags continued flying, but due to poor line of sight, most of them missed their mark. Lucas decided to break the shield wall, and once again he started spinning, his skill once again allowing him to connect with the back of another shield bearer, downing him immediately. That left a gap wide for Maraya to activate her barrier skill, and the rest of shields were pushed back, and one unfortunate soul landed on the wrong side of the barrier where the rest of his party made short work of him. Lucas repositioned and ran to start a melee, activating his bleeding skill as needed. Blow by blow, they created a solid foothold at the wall, killing and bleeding their opponents. Just as Lucas noticed the tinning of their enemy, a loud voice echoed throughout the wall

“ENOUGH! I WILL DEAL WITH THIS PUNY CREATURES”

Massive dryad once again stood in front of Lucas, covered head from toe in heavy wooden armor. He carried a giant bastard sword, and his eyes were shinning with pure indigo light that accentuated the slit in his ornate helmet, especially a giant feather that stood at the top of it. He radiated malice and danger in equal measures, and when Lucas activated his “Eye for details”, he understood why was that.

Marton, General of the Ramparts, Sentinel level 44”

“ARE YOU AFRAID, INVADERS? YOU SHOULD BE, BEFORE YOU STANDS YOUR END”

Lucas braced himself for the toughest fight of his life, his teammates following suit. At the same time, General’s sword started his arc down.