“And even after we ascended, we were stuck in that perspective for thousands of years.”
By now, Deacon and the others had caught up, and they were shocked to see Alex standing alone in front of a wave of thirty or more Ulumou. Then they saw the corpses littering the ground.
Caitlyn’s mouth dropped wide open. “You did all of that?”
There was no time to respond, for the wave was upon him. This wave was slightly stronger, with an average level of about 5. The strongest one was a fierce-looking female, judging by the marsupial-like pouch that protruded from her gray bodysuit. She was level 9, and she was shouting orders to the rest of them — orders which, thanks to the System-provided translation, were completely intelligible to him.
“Surround him! The one with the sword is the greatest threat. He needs to be stopped. Kill the others from behind.”
They were simple orders, and knowing them didn’t really change anything. Instead of holding his ground, though, this time Alex charged forward. This threw the line of Ulumou encircling him into disarray. His sword whistled in the air, cutting through the bodies of two at once. A third stabbed at him with his spear, but he dodged, decapitating him in a ferocious swing. He angled towards the level 9 leader. The leader raised a sword of her own, but Alex’s swing knocked it out of her grip.
At that moment, several other Ulumou charged in, and Alex was forced to fend them off, cutting deep into the chest of one and pulling out his sword to block a blow from another. Taking advantage of the distraction, the leader backed up, popping several pills. Following her lead, most of the other Ulumou also took out pills from their Spatial Bracelets. The pills only gave a boost of +8, but it was enough to make a difference. Alex found himself hard-pressed as he fought off four at once, attacking from all sides. Cuts appeared on his arms and torso. He cut down several of the Ulumou, but each time he did, the others surrounding him had a chance to attack him.
At that moment, he heard a girl scream. He was worried, but he couldn’t afford to turn to face his companions. He finished off the Ulumou in front of him, and he turned around to intercept the swing of the one behind. But there was none incoming. Instead, Caitlyn stood over the dead body of a Ulumou, blood dripping from a small spear in her hand. Vishal was steps behind her, desperately trying to fend off the attacks of a Ulumou whose face was contorted into something that looked like a sneer. Further back, Deacon and Katrina were standing back to back, fighting against two at once on each side. A rush of emotions went through him. He didn’t want to get attached to these people, but they had come to help him.
Alex pushed off the three attacking him, his leg getting sliced in the process, and went to help Vishal. Caitlyn trailed close behind, and together, they made short work of the humanoids attacking their other three companions. By now, fewer than half of the thirty attackers remained, and the others were hesitant to attack. The leader stepped forward.
“We would like to negotiate. We did not know that your level of power was possible at this point in time, and it is humbling. However, I have seen you fight, and I know that you will eventually fall. You are wounded, and there are many of us on the way to help. But we do not want to treat our people like cannon fodder, so we propose a deal. Let us end this bloodshed. Walk away, and in exchange, we will give you 64 lucens.”
Indecision gnawed at him. It seemed that the System had unfairly pitted humans against Ulumou, most of whom were not necessarily antisocial or evil, and he was now just playing into it. As for the 64 lucens, it was not a large sum, but it would be equivalent to an easy 15 or 20 kills. On the other hand, there was a certain sense of loyalty to his own species that he could not ignore. He could not in good conscience walk away while humans remained trapped in the town.
“Where are the other humans?”
The leader engaged in low whispering with several of her subordinates. After a minute, she stepped up and called out again.
“The other humans have brought their own fate upon them. We had cooperated to some degree in the first few hours after the Integration, although we mostly kept to ourselves. Everything changed when one of us brought the Hirar shell back to the town. Shortly after the Challenge appeared, a human killed her. In retaliation, we punished the human using our standard method of punishment, and took the shell back. Soon afterwards, the humans torched our houses and attacked us.
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“It appears that they were unprepared for the ferocity of our people. We beat them back, and they are now holed up in the center of the town. Our troops have surrounded their building and will soon break in.”
It was a moral dilemma. If the Ulumou leader was speaking the truth, then it really seemed that it was two equally moral sides embroiled in an unfortunate conflict, where bad actors and, potentially, cultural differences caused otherwise resolvable fights to escalate out of proportion. Alex could not help but be curious as to what the standard method of punishment of the Ulumou was. It was probably something brutal if it elicited such a response from the human side. Maybe it was best not to know. If he had the choice, he didn’t want to get involved.
“What will you do with them once you have conquered them?”
“This is something that our council has not yet decided. The council has just formed, since we came from various regions of our planet, and there is still a lot of organizational work to be done.”
At this moment, Katrina came up and whispered in his ear. “Are you really considering walking away? These creatures are not human. There is no way you can let them take dozens or even hundreds of people hostage. Who knows what they will do?”
At this moment, though, the sounds of clashing echoed out from within the town walls, and a relatively small Ulumou dashed out from the gates. She whispered something to the leader, whose expression and stance shifted. It was hard to tell what the expression meant, but it became clear soon enough, as she directed the remainder of her troops into the town. Now, only she was left between them and the town gates.
“As you can probably tell, things have taken a turn for the worse. We were assaulted from within the town by a group of humans that we had not accounted for. I beg of you, please have mercy on my people.” With that, she turned and ran towards the sounds of battle.
Deacon, Vishal, and Katrina started running into the town. Meanwhile, Alex waited for a moment to consider the situation. He had hardly ever dealt with a moral dilemma larger than the question of what he should eat for dinner, let alone being a crucial part of deciding the fate of hundreds of members of a sentient alien species. He soon realized that he should at least be present within the town to determine the truth of the situation, though. Caitlyn trailed close behind, evidently looking up to him more than Vishal, whom she had previously spent most of her time with.
When they arrived inside the town, a full-on street battle was raging, species against species. Alex directed Caitlyn to stick with the others, then ran around town at top speed in order to get a sense of what was going on. There were at least a few hundred Ulumou, and perhaps more than a thousand humans. While vastly outnumbered, the Ulumou had much higher average levels — few humans were above level 2, while the average level of the Ulumou was around 4 or 5. This increased his respect for Deacon’s group, since they had managed to level up to around level 5 while most humans had barely made progress.
Both sides had suffered heavy casualties, but the humans could afford to lose more. In most places he went, the Ulumou were on the losing side, being outnumbered three or four to one in most places. And when he got to the center of the town, he saw the heart of the conflict. The street passing by the town hall was blocked off on both sides, and humans were pouring out of the town hall. The signs of a small siege were still in place, with makeshift barricades in the form of chairs and tables strewn around, and marks on the walls of the council building where it looked like the Ulumou had tried to enter.
But by now, the tide had turned. Surrounded from three sides by human fighters, bodies of Ulumou were strewn across the ground. And it was quickly turning into a wholesale massacre. Although the Ulumou were stronger than the humans, they were caught in a decidedly unstrategic position, wedged between two buildings and with nowhere to run.
Shortly after turning the corner to the center of the town and looking upon the chaos, he felt an intense stabbing pain in his back. The alleyways that crisscrossed the center of the city were tight, and he had been too shaken by the sight of the massacre to look behind him. Fortunately, his high Physical Resistance and reaction time paid off. He dove forward, and the spear stopped less than an inch into his skin without puncturing any vital organs. He quickly turned around and got up, preparing for an inevitable battle.
A group of five fierce-looking Ulumou males surrounded him. When he looked at them, he saw that their levels were much higher than the others he had fought, ranging from 8 to 11. But what really caught his eye was the one in the back.
Mark of the First Hirar Shell
Ulumou
Level: 14
Combat Rating: 89.20 (Tier 0-D)
Value: 32 - 55 Ł