Ray held the rag to the side of his head to staunch the bleeding. The cut refused to heal, not with abilities, Power, or medicinal items. It was incredibly annoying as it was above his right eye, leaking blood down into his face and obscuring his vision. With a frustrated growl, he tied the rag around his head like a kerchief and stormed back out into the fight.
The front line had been pushed back into the gate itself. Set into the wall, the huge gate was a feat of engineering that Derrick had been most proud of. It was System-reinforced, built from materials that were expensive to obtain from the Shop, and not native to Earth. Far stronger and denser than steel, they were nearly impervious to any kind of damage.
Which meant that the creatures that were attacking them simply climbed over the imposing forty-foot wall.
This had resulted them in simply opening the gate itself, preventing the wall from being overrun by the thousands of undead squirrel warriors. Ray felt bile rising in his throat even as he felt phantom pain from the tutorial event. Unlike that squirrel, these were dressed in everything from leather to heavy plate. There had been dozens of uncommon monsters mixed in so far, if not hundreds, and the fighting was getting intense.
Wave seven had, by their best estimates, around forty thousand enemies in it. Nearly a thousand of those would be uncommon, and they would encounter and fight their first rare enemy of the event. It was terrifying, truly terrifying and he didn’t know if they would survive. The only upside was that if they did survive the wave, they would have sixty-one days to reinforce their territory, and the time between waves only went up from there. Up to a year and a half.
Blade in hand, Ray threw himself into the defensive line, falling into place next to Dax as he cut through the undead squirrel legions with brutal efficiency. The two worked side by side as he lost all track of time. The steady and rhythmic chopping, the sounds and screams of the wounded being removed from the line, the press of undead bodies, and the stinking of decayed flesh wafting through the air.
Ray would rather be back in space.
With a suddenness that shocked him, the thick wall of undead ended abruptly. Nearly falling forward, Dax grabbed him and pulled him back upright.
“Gotcher Boss,” he grunted. “Oh. Dat ain’t good.”
Ray nodded his thanks and turned to look at what the giant Orkin warrior had fixated on. There, in front of them, stood a massive squirrel. Dressed in decadent plate armor and wielding a massive two-handed bastard sword, it radiated lethality. The fact that the undead behind it had ceased pressing forward was another indicator of just how dangerous the new arrival was.
Ray was, if nothing else, cautious. So, he did the only natural thing he could think of and focused his attention on the creature, hoping to gain some kind of insight into this new enemy. When the System stuttered back a reply he felt the cold sweat of fear roll down his back. This was not something that they could fight. This thing would end them all. There were not supposed to be any Legendary creatures in this event, only rares. This meant that either the System was wrong… or someone was fucking with them.
FOREST LORD
{LEGENDARY}
“I gots dis Boss,” Dax said, taking a step forward. But Ray immediately grabbed his arm, stopping the huge warrior through sheer willpower alone.
“No. No, you don’t. That thing out there is a Legendary monster. It would tear through you like an axe through cotton sheets,” he said with a calm that he didn’t feel.
Dax looked at the creature, then back at Ray. “Oh.” Truer and more accurate a word had never been spoken by an Orkin before. At least not on Earth.
“Oh,” Ray agreed. Swallowing, he watched the creature and realized that it had focused on a single person in their ragged battle line. Its eyes burned with a fury and malice that sent new sheets of cold sweat down his back. It was staring right at him, undisguised hatred rolling off of it in waves.
“I think I have to go fight it,” he said slowly, causing Dax to look at the much smaller human next to him. “I think it wants to fight me, and I don’t see a way around it. We let that thing get close to the gate and its going to carve through us like nothing.”
“Ya fight dat ting Boss, you gonna die,” Dax said pointedly.
Ray felt pressure on his leg and looked down to see Nyx. She had been moving in and out of the battle line assisting where she could. Her bark was excellent for pushing back waves of undead to give the fighters a brief rest and respite.
“Hey Nyx,” he said quietly, moving his eyes back up to the patiently waiting {FOREST LORD}. “What do you think?”
“I think if you go out there that thing is going to murder you with brutal efficiency,” Nyx said. “With that being said, we don’t have to fight fair. Go out there, fight that thing, and when you start losing we have Derrick and Rivea hit it from above with everything they have.”
Ray nodded. It wasn’t a bad plan. The only issue was if they had enough firepower to actually kill the damn thing. Nyx seemed confident in the plan, though he could feel her nervousness. She had to be confident to send him into harm's way, however, as she would perish with him if he died.
“That sounds about as good a plan as any,” he agreed slowly. Turning to Dax he said, “Don’t let anyone follow me. This is going to be a one-on-one fight, at least initially. I don’t know if anyone helping me will trigger the horde behind that thing. I won't be winning against the {FOREST LORD}, much less all of them piled on top of it.”
Dax nodded silently and gripped his axe. “You gots it Boss.”
“A man of eloquence and scholastic achievement you certainly are,” Ray chuckled as he began walking forward. It took a minute of slow walking to cross from under the reinforced gate and thick walls and another several minutes to stop a dozen feet from the monstrous presence in front of him.
Being this close Ray could hardly keep the waves of bloodlust emanating off the {FOREST LORD} from affecting him. Then he grit his teeth. He was a fucking Unique class, and while it seemed he was outside the hierarchy of ranks entirely, at a minimum he should be equal to the thing in front of him. Flexing his System abilities, he banished the aura of bloodlust, allowing him to breathe deeply for the first time since the monster had appeared.
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“Fascinating. Not many could have dispelled my {AURA OF PAIN},” the creature said, catching Ray off-guard. He had never met a monster that could speak. At least, not one other than Nyx.
Clearing his throat Ray said, “I… didn’t know that you could talk. I don’t suppose I could convince you to, you know, just go away?”
The heavily armored squirrel chuckled, his chain mail-covered tail whisking back and forth. “Unfortunately, the System does not allow for that. In fact, our conversation and duel will be stretching the bounds of my agreement with it. The concept is simple, you must die for my people to live.”
Ray looked at the line of gnashing undead behind him. “They, uh, don’t look alive to me. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.”
“They will be resurrected, as is proper under the System, should I emerge victorious,” the {FOREST LORD} stated calmly. “Nothing you have shown me is capable of stopping me. Not you. Not your… men. Not your weapons. Nothing. You will die, your territory will be claimed, and the Systems terms fulfilled.”
Without warning the massive blade he wielded swung towards Ray. He dove to the side, narrowly avoiding the crescent of black energy that sliced into the ground where he had been standing.
“Fucking asshole!” Ray yelled back. He pointed his own blade at the monster, unleashing a bolt of lightning. Using his Power, he quickly cycled to launch a fireball. The lightning was deflected upwards with a twist of the huge great sword. The fireball was ignored as it splashed off the thick armor of the creature as it rushed him.
The furry bastard was a blur and Ray could hardly keep up with it. The first half dozen strikes with the giant bastard sword left his hand numb and his shoulder hurting. But he had deflected them. The next two strikes saw his sword flung from his hand. He threw himself sideways, once again narrowly avoiding being bisected by the nasty weapon.
Coming to his feet he pointed a finger at the squirrel god of combat and yelled, causing it to freeze for a moment. “I fucking hate you furry fucking bastards!”
With that and a generous helping of Power, Ray unleashed a chest-thick bolt of red lightning. He could see the {FOREST LORD}’s eyes widen in surprise as it attempted to deflect the attack, much like it did the first one. However, the red lightning stuck to the sword and began to melt through the metal and hand guard.
The monster dropped the blade to the ground where it continued to dissolve. Reaching backward, it drew a short sword and knife. Holding them in either hand the damnable monstrosity.
“You are a walking furry armory,” Ray complained. He didn’t have a weapon in his hand any more but his System abilities would compensate for that. Long enough, he hoped, for Derrick and Rivea to get whatever they were going to do in place and fry this furry fucker.
With no answer, the armored squirrel charged him, a flurry of blade strikes leading the way. Ray narrowly dodged each one, his stamina and agility far lower than they had been Pre-Integration. Nevertheless, he managed to avoid being struck, although several close calls did result in shallow cuts on his arms and the side of his chest.
Breathing heavily Ray sought to give himself some distance, but the {FOREST LORD} stayed right on top of him. Dodging as quickly as he could was burning through his stamina, he wouldn’t be able to keep up his current pacing for long. Delivering a wicked straight kick to the monster's chest, an attack that pushed it back a half foot but did no real damage, he surged backward with his remaining energy, only to topple over backward.
“You were not the most fearsome opponent I have faced, but you will be by far the most important,” the squirrel said, lunging forward with blades aimed at his heart.
Time seemed to slow as Ray's mind went into overdrive with the realization that if he didn’t do anything, he was going to die. Derrick and Rivea weren’t here. There were no troops close enough to assist. There was no one to stop the fatal attack heading his way. He was going to lose everything.
And it pissed him off.
He had a Unique Class. He had a fortress, a territory, and an army of people relying on him. He was a gods be damned System Lord! Something that he didn’t even fully understand yet! But just by the title alone, he should never have been placed in this situation. A System screen popped up in front of him, but Ray was having none of it. With a roar of unbridled fury, he grabbed the blue screen in the air cracking it with his grip. With an incomprehensible scream of rage, he slapped the {SYTEM LORD}’s blades away from their intended target.
With more yelling, he jabbed monster in the face with the usually intangible object, the System screen cracking more as it shattered the heavy plate helm that covered the squirrel's face. Turning to look at him in shock, the furry monster received a backhanded strike from the opposite direction, knocking it into a semi-circle. It barely stayed on its feet.
Bringing the screen up for another strike, Ray squeezed too hard and the System message finally gave out. Shattering in his hand, it released a pulse of energy that knocked him, the {FOREST LORD}, and every undead within five hundred feet flat on their backs. The armored squirrel landed with a chittering scream as blue smoke came up from its face, having been burned by the explosion.
Dizzy, Ray scrambled to his feet only to catch a gauntlet-covered fist to his face. He staggered to the side as a steel-clad boot hit him in the stomach, driving the wind from his lungs. Unable to stay on his feet, he dropped to his knees.
“I don’t know what you did, but it wasn’t enough,” sneered the squirrel, somehow having retrieved the knife in hand. Looming over him it brought the blade down.
Tipping himself to the side just enough for the blade to sink into his shoulder, Ray sneered back as he grabbed the hilt and held both the squirrel's gauntlet-covered paw and the knife where it had struck. “Fuck. You,” he grunted, gathering every point of Power he had left in his fist and punching the Legendary Monster in the chest. The demonic undead squirrel saw it coming too late as his fist connected.
The raw mana Ray had gathered was unleashed into a devastating explosion, hurling the squirrel a dozen yards across the clearing. The undead army behind him roared their displeasure, but surprisingly stayed where they were at.
He very slowly got to his feet, only to be tackled to the ground once more. The {FOREST LORD}’s eyes were blazing with a deep green fury as he began pummeling Ray's face and chest with powerful blows. Each strike seemed to break something, his arms, his hands, his fingers. Eventually, everything below his shoulders was useless, and the creature pried them away to begin the process of killing him.
As soon as his face was visible Ray spat a wad of phlegm and blood into the monster’s eyes. Without a single complaint, it reached up to wipe the obstructing mass of gooey liquid away. As it did so, Ray rolled to the side, flinging the much lighter monster to the ground. With a chittering screech of anger, it jumped to its feet and charged back into Ray’s midsection.
Catching the blow he responded by headbutting downwards, cracking his forehead against the top of the squirrel's skull, successfully staggering it. Moving quickly, Ray kicked it in the chest and sent it flying away from him to land heavily on the ground. He knew it wasn’t dead, but it also wasn’t moving. He got to his feet slowly, arms hanging uselessly at his side, and stared at the nasty-furred monstrosity while waiting for it to get back up.
He heard a roar and saw Rivea depart from the top of the fortress. With a savage blood-smeared grin, Ray looked back down only to catch a punch in the gut. With a cold feeling of realization, he looked down and didn’t see a fist, but a half foot of enchanted steel that he had driven through his leather armor and into his chest.
“Aw… fuck,” he grunted, staggering backward.
Walking slowly over to the short sword it had dropped, the evil squirrel lord retrieved it and began making his way to Ray, who had fallen onto his side. “You were… a far more worthy opponent than I thought. Killing you will be an honor.”
With Rivea still, quite a way out, Ray resigned himself to having failed as the short sword fell to end him. There was no way he could stop the blade in time, his brain was still addled and his vision murky. Right before it met flesh, it was deflected to the side with such ferocity that it was sent flying far back into the lines of undead, only stopping when it lodged in the forehead of one of the many observing squirrel undead.
Stepping in front of him Josephine spoke with a voice that would have frozen ice.
“You will be the only one dying today.”