Rowan had expected things to immediately and horribly go wrong. They didn’t, which was a surprise, but a welcome one.
The beginning of the siege went exactly the way that Bron had planned. The corrupted beasts behaved no differently than rabid animals intent on slaughtering everything in front of them. They crashed into the moat, needlessly impaling themselves while the defenders on the wall kept raining down lethal projectiles.
To that end, the role Rowan played was exceedingly minor. He couldn’t exactly jump down from the walls and start spearing the monsters. That was suicide. Instead, he and all the other short-range fighters were relegated to support roles. They transported arrows, relayed orders, and generally tried to smooth things along without getting underfoot.
It sounded easy in theory, but lugging heavy containers up and down the stairs of the wall was pure torture. Like digging, the stats made Rowan superhuman, which meant that he was also doing much more work than before. He estimated that he had probably carried the equivalent of a small car’s worth of stuff up the wall each hour.
But the defenses held.
Briefly, Rowan swapped out his Nimble Body for Inspect, and confirmed what the scouts had said earlier. Most of the beasts in the wave were above level ten, some of them even at sixteen or seventeen.
The mindless attacks from the high level corrupted beasts were scary, but they were just that. There was very little danger.
Several times, a beast stronger than the rest would charge the wall, building momentum and nearly jumping high enough to reach the top of the wall. It was an impressive show of raw strength, but the defenders showed their appreciation with arrows and more esoteric attacks like fireballs and giant rocks.
No one in Felton’s Mill was celebrating.
The beast horde seemed endless. No matter how many arrows were shot or how many stones were thrown, the beasts kept coming.
“How are there this many beasts?” Rowan asked Olivia in one of their rotation breaks.
“I don’t know,” Olivia replied. She watched as every villager and mercenary who knew how to draw a bow, even improperly, was drafted by Bron for the shooting duty.
“What’s that?” Rowan was pointing to one of the mercenaries. The man was stepping on top of the protective front of the wall and swinging his sword down at the horde. The sword was glowing, and with every swing of their blades, projectiles of energy would rain down on the corrupted beasts. Wherever the crackling, blade-like projectiles passed, mangled flesh was the only thing that remained.
“Sword beams,” Olivia answered. “It’s one of the main reasons why swords are in fashion these days. Someone can be both melee and ranged with a sword. Granted, they can’t deal as much damage as a dedicated [Archer] or wreak as much havoc as a [Berserker]. But it’s a good generalist weapon.”
Before Rowan could ask his next question, Olivia was called away from her break. She ran forward and pulled out a string of potions from her pouch. As she went through the wall, she’d take a look at the defender, determine where they were flagging, and give most of them a blend of herbs. Every so often, she handed over one of the potions.
Rowan decided to end his break early. As he got to his feet, the ground seemed to shift underneath him.
This is ridiculous. I’m going to have to switch out one of my cards for Stable Footing at this rate. Rowan stomped his foot down, hoping to get the numbness out of his legs. When he still had trouble finding his balance, he looked down to find the ground shaking. Wait. This isn’t me. Are we having an earthquake in the middle of all this?
He spent a few moments wondering if the earthquake would mess up their wall, before shouting snapped him out of his reverie.
“Look out! Under us! Something’s —” One of the villagers tried to warn everyone but her scream was cut short when a spray of dirt shot up from the ground and consumed her.
A chitinous claw emerged from the ground, and new screams echoed around the village. By the time the owner of the claw emerged from the ground, a group of mercenaries were already in position against the threat.
As Rowan got a good look at the monster, he drew in a sharp breath. Where the corrupted boars and squirrels looked like normal animals that had been injected with some growth hormones, the new monster looked like it had been created in a lab run by a mad scientist. It was an unholy cross between a spider and a scorpion. Six legs, two tails, and two pincers. If that wasn’t enough, the fact that it was the size of a small car was enough to spell bad news.
“Demonic Stalker!” Bron’s yell floated over them. “Watch out for its tails, it can —”
One of the mercenaries threw himself to the side as a spray of dark liquid left the monster’s barbed tails.
“Spray acid, got it,” the mercenary yelled back as he blurred ahead with a shortsword and small buckler in hand. His weapon took on a faint yellow glow as he swung at one of the tails. “Let’s see how well it does with only one tail.”
Somehow, the sword cut away a chunk of the stalker’s tail. But it was like the monster couldn’t feel pain. It trained its eyes on the mercenary and lashed out with one of its feet. The man barely got the buckler in place before being thrown back by the weight of the blow.
The others began to swarm the monster, raining down blows on the spindly limbs of the abomination in an attempt to cripple it.
Rowan was about to help the fight when the entire village began trembling. Dozens of different stalkers emerged from the ground, some larger than others, but none as big as the first one.
Without giving himself a chance to overthink things, Rowan gripped his spear tight and charged into the fray. He targeted the closest available stalkers, triggering Relentless Advance.
In hindsight, that was a risky decision. Ever since equipping the card, Rowan had never once used it. He had no clue what to expect, besides whatever the description had been. In spite of that, the experience felt easy. Natural. It was like the world itself wanted to close the distance between him and his foe.
Rowan aimed right where the smaller stalker’s singular tail met the rest of its body, calling on Empowered Thrust and feeding it several points of his mana for extra oomph.
It worked. The spear piercing into and through the tail, leaving a dangling tail on the monster. It went into a frenzy and Rowan’s Nimble Body was the only thing that saved his life, letting him lean away from the blows in ways Rowan thought should have snapped his spine.
Rowan furiously backpedaled as he dodged, using his spear to mostly block the near random attacks from the monster. Then, spotting an opportunity, he leaned inwards and aimed at the inner side of a joint, figuring that it would be much easier to escape from a stalker without all six of its legs.
Bolstered by Empowered Thrust, Rowan succeeded. The spear sliced into the soft shell and the monster lost its balance. Almost by instinct, Rowan pushed forward, took a moment to channel more mana, and drove his spear through one of its eyes.
The monster gave one last struggle before falling limp to the ground. Rowan threw another thrust at the monster for good measure before looking up and taking in the situation. All around him, the mercenaries were wrapping up their own battles. Most of them had been held back from the wall due to their short-range combat styles, which meant that they were in the perfect position to intercept the stalker attack. Around thirty stalkers had emerged from the ground, and all of them were now lying dead.
It wasn’t a one sided victory. Rowan could see at least three mercenaries lying in growing puddles of blood while another half dozen were injured. Some were clutching at severed limbs which somehow seemed light compared to one of the female mercenaries who had taken a blast of acid to the face and was screaming as the acid bit deeper into her head.
Before Rowan could do anything, one of the more grizzled-looking mercenaries stepped forward, bringing his sword down. The downed woman stilled, and no one said a thing.
Rowan felt a hint of bile rising at the back of his throat. All he could think of was that people weren’t supposed to die like that. This should have been a fantasy world, where all the bloodshed and suffering was somewhere in the background. Instead, it was all around Rowan.
Things moved faster than he could process them. A hair-raising howl sounded right above him. He brought his spear up, only to find Bron bisecting a massive wolf into two. The blood splattered down and Rowan felt drops splash against his face.
This is real.
Rowan pulled his spear closer, and felt himself calm down slightly. Without new vibrations in the ground, he felt safe enough to run up the stairs, taking as many steps as he could at a time. Once up there, the picture wasn’t pretty. More and more of the beasts were successfully making leaps, landing on the wall outright.
He had no idea where Olivia was. Before panic could claw its way down his throat, Rowan remembered the party benefits and relied on the vague pull to find her. Forgetting his fear, he began fighting through the monsters that had made the leap. He used every bit of training from the baron in his attacks. Stab, thrust, shuffle, twist. The movements became a blur. His body was acting before his mind even realized what was going on.
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And then he saw her.
Olivia was facing not one, but two beasts on her own, a wolf and a vaguely reptilian monster. Without a single moment of hesitation, Rowan engaged his Relentless Advance again and thundered right into the side of the nearest beast. Even though it was only the second time Rowan was using the card, he was beginning to get the hang of things. He activated Empowered Thrust while also using Nimble Body to aim for the wolf’s rib cage.
The attack was true. The spear bit into the wolf’s chest and plunged deep. That was when Rowan realized he had made a mistake. Anything that Olivia had trouble fighting was probably above the common rank, which meant that it was at least ten levels higher than Rowan, with all the extra stats that those ten levels brought.
His worst fears came true when the wolf stumbled sideways from the attack, but somehow remained standing. It cranked its head toward Rowan and then swiftly snapped out, its jaws closing around the hero’s right arm.
“Shit,” Rowan cursed, twisting around the spear with his left hand. The motions probably wreaked havoc on the wolf’s organs, but it also tightened the wolf’s bite. A couple moments later, the stalemate was finally broken as the wolf lost its strength. Unfortunately, its jaw was still clamped around Rowan’s arm when it crumpled to the ground, bringing Rowan down too.
Rowan cursed again, letting go of his spear to unhinge the animal’s jaws. That was a mistake. The moment Rowan’s hand left the spear, a spell of exhaustion washed over him. His vision went black as his breathing became shallow. Fumbling around, Rowan gripped the spear again and brought things under control.
On the other side, Olivia was much more at ease against a single opponent. She danced around the reptile’s claws and tail, her sword lighting up for the briefest of moments when she chose to retaliate. She was being a lot smarter about her mana usage, though even the smallest of strikes left impressive wounds on the animal.
Her opponent was obviously getting hurt. But it also seemed of a tougher variety than the enemies Rowan normally fought. Long after it should have fallen, it was still in the fight.
With gritted teeth, Olivia’s hand dipped into her potion pouch, producing a very small vial. The next time the beast tried to bite her, she chucked the potion into its mouth with expert precision.
It must have been some kind of poison because the next thing Rowan knew, the monster shuddered and fell over. It was almost anticlimactic how the fight ended.
“You okay? Let me see that.” Olivia was on Rowan a second later, helping him free his arm.
Rowan didn’t protest as she fussed over his wound, pouring an odd, fizzy potion on it and then following it up with a healing solution. It gave him plenty of time to finally get his spear back from the thieving carcass.
He did keep his eye on the rest of the wall, but the situation almost seemed to be calming down. The massive beast that Bron had personally slain was obviously a cut above the rest, and its lesser brethren had taken advantage of all the chaos to jump in. Now, they were getting beat back down the wall.
Before anyone could celebrate, one of the defenders pointed at the sky. “In the sky. Monsters!”
Rowan looked and found a whole flock of things that looked like prehistoric dinosaurs heading their way. To call them birds would have been a disservice to the avian kind. These monsters were essentially skeletons with a thin layer of skin on their wings. But the largest feature by far was their legs. At least two-thirds of their body was dedicated to the disturbingly hand-like appendages with long sickle claws.
“Bombers!” Bron bellowed. For the first time since Rowan knew him, the officer seemed genuinely worried. “Bombers! Mercs, get up here. I want every archer protected. Archers, shoot those damn things down. Focus on them!”
Rowan turned back to the baron’s daughter, still with her head bent and treating his wounds. “Hey, uh, are we okay? What are bombers?”
“It’s a shorthand,” Olivia said as she pulled out bandages from her magical pouch that seemed to have everything in it. “No one calls them by their proper name. They’re nasty little buggers that demons breed and keep around as disposable minions. The stalkers burrow underground, the bombers attack from the air. They’ll snatch you right up with their massive legs, take you as high as they can, and then drop you on your allies. If you’re not dead at the apex of the flight, you will be when you land. And you’ll probably take someone else out too.”
“Uh, sounds nasty.” Rowan wasn’t sure what else he could say. “So don’t get grabbed?”
“Yeah, don’t get grabbed,” Olivia chuckled. She finished the bandaging of Rowan’s arm and tied it up, eliciting a hiss from Rowan. “Come on, it’s not that bad. I even used numbing bandages for you.”
“You try getting your arm bitten by a monster wolf,” Rowan retorted halfheartedly. His gaze was still in the sky.
Olivia noticed his gaze and turned to look at the flock flying closer. “Make sure you’re not in the way of that big guy at the head of the flock. That’s an uncommon. The others, you should be able to handle.”
“Should?” Rowan asked. “How? Throw my spear up in the air?”
“They dive to get you. Make sure to stab at their wings and damage them as much as you can. Their skin tears as easy as paper. But their brain and chest organs are behind a solid layer of bone, and those bones are tougher than steel,” Olivia said. “But don’t worry, this isn’t our fight. The bombers will focus the archers first because only the archers pose a threat to them. All we have to do is make sure the wall doesn’t fall.”
That sounded simple. In theory. Rowan tested his arm, and it moved just fine. He made a note to thank Olivia after the battle. The wonders of having a healer.
Soon, the bombers were upon them and like Olivia predicted, they aimed for the archers and left most of the melee fighters alone. Almost every archer had a soldier, mercenary, or villager as a bodyguard, but accidents still happened and Rowan could soon hear blood-curdling screams as unfortunate souls were dropped from the air.
He would have paid more attention to the bombers if it wasn’t for the fact that the rest of the horde was almost upon them. The earlier slaughter had killed hundreds, if not thousands of monsters. But at the same time, it produced a pile of corpses tall enough to both plug up the moat and make it easier for new enemies to launch themselves up the wall.
The first thing Rowan skewered was a godforsaken squirrel. The little guy came charging up with a mindless screech, and he managed to put it down with a basic thrust. The second thing he killed was a badger and, knowing the stories about those from his old world, he enhanced the strike with mana.
Soon, he lost count of his kills. It was set, thrust, shuffle, and the whole process over again. Beads of sweat rolled down his forehead and collected beneath his chin. Gradually, his vision narrowed to the threats in front of him and nothing else. He clobbered, skewered, and shoved. No monster got past him.
Until he came face to face with a bear. A corrupted bear.
The thing was huge. Rowan watched as it pulled itself up, the entire wall groaning under its weight. Its head alone, was almost as large as Rowan’s entire body. It was built like a juggernaut and not something that Rowan ever wanted to mess with.
Still, he had to try.
With a sputtering mana pool, Rowan used Reckless Advance, comboing the card with his other two cards for an enhanced stab at the monster’s eye. The beast tilted its head at the last second, and the blow landed on its cheek. The spear clashed with whatever natural defenses the beast had, and didn’t leave so much as a scratch.
Shit. Uncommon. The size of the beast was clue enough that it was something an entire tier higher than what Rowan could handle at the moment. The good news was that he had his own uncommon helper.
“Get out of the way!” Olivia yelled as she chucked a potion right as its face. The resulting explosion sent Rowan staggering back, but only blackened the bear’s fur.
It moved with speed that should not have been physically possible for something that was the size of a small house. But in the blink of an eye, Rowan was staring at one of its bear paws rumbling down at his head.
Before he could even close his eyes, the paw landed on a bloody shield face carved in the shape of a snarling wolf head. The displaced air produced a boom so loud that Rowan thought he was going to go deaf. But he was alive. And the rebound of the blow sent the bear staggering, its hateful eyes widening as it fought to regain its balance.
Then, two things happened in very short succession. First, a dark cloud of miasma descended on the bear, and seemed to have a life of its own as tendrils of smoke wiggled into the bear. And second, the shield that had intercepted the bear’s attack started to glow. The blink of an eye later, it rocketed out.
Rowan watched all of this in a daze. He desperately wanted to help, but none of his muscles responded.
Luckily, he wasn’t needed. Whereas Rowan's full-power thrust had been ineffective, the shield bash was not. There was a loud, echoing crunch, and the bear was shot back into the horde, crushing more than a few of the monsters with its bulk.
It didn’t move again.
“Good job out here! Do be careful not to overdraw your mana reserves,” the shield-bearer quipped, turning around to give a brief smirk.
Rowan just blinked, staring blankly. The man who had saved his life had animal ears. They were pristine white, extremely fluffy, and twitching as the man tilted his head. Behind the man, a tail lazily waved from side to side, and Rowan dared think it was even more luxuriously fluffy than the man’s ears.
“Th… thanks.” Rowan finally managed, pulling himself together. He realized how stupid it had been to assume that there were only humans in this world, especially when he had seen Kayden’s wife, the Lady Sutton. And with that realization, he knew that losing his mind on a life-or-death battlefield was a very bad idea.
“Don’t mention it. Happy to help.” The response didn’t come from the shield-bearer. Rowan blinked as he tried to find the speaker. When he finally did, he wondered if perhaps he had hit his head.
Next to the shield-bearer was a humanoid dog. Or that’s how Rowan’s mind chose to interpret things. Where the shield-bearer still looked human, the new miasma-producer was fully canine. Its head was one that looked exactly like a wolf, covered in fur and ending in a short muzzle. More than that, this was a tall wolf-person who was some kind of magic user. Their paw, not a hand, held on to something between a staff and a walking stick, but much more unpleasant-looking. The body of the staff was crafted out of some black, gnarled wood, but it was inlaid with strips of white that formed odd symbols and glyphs. Rowan strongly suspected it was bone, especially because the head of the staff was a grinning, horned skull.
For a second, Rowan wondered if these were the demons that were plaguing the lands. Then, he remembered the fight he saw when first arriving at Felton’s Mill. The shield-bearer had launched himself from the wall to support Bron’s men. And the black miasma was part of how the monster horde had been beaten back.
And then they were gone. The shield-bearer had short stumpy legs that pumped with incredible strength as he bounced to the battle. The wolf-mage gave Rowan a smile, or maybe a snarl, and then calmly walked to join its companion.
Once they were a safe distance away, Rowan turned to Olivia. “Those were, humans?”
“Humans?” Olivia choked. “What part of that was human to you? Those are beast folk. They’re our allies. I didn’t think we’d see them so close to the frontier.”
Rowan grabbed his spear and got into a fighting stance. Beast folk or not, the two of them were responsible for that part of the wall. And the monsters were still coming. The only good news was that flying bombers had disappeared from the sky, and the ranks of the monsters seemed to be thinning.
Rowan glanced at his mana, a pitiful four out of fifty. Shit. That’s not good.
Olivia must have noticed because she tossed him a mana potion that he immediately downed. It helped, but as he began using his cards again, it felt like someone was squeezing his head in a vise. His vision became so blurry he was occasionally uncertain whether he was looking at one enemy or two, or even how many limbs he had.
He kept fighting. Spearing wolves, foxes, and even squirrels. Each time a monster poked its head over the wall, Rowan was there with his spear.
And then it was over.
“Victory!” Bron’s voice boomed over the village. Even though the volume was there, Rowan noticed that there were undertones of exhaustion in the words. “They’re retreating. We won!”
Cheers went up all along the wall, followed by a louder echo from lower in the village.
“It’s over? Really?” Rowan staggered back and bumped into Olivia. Somehow, she looked worse than he felt. Her armor was covered in soot and blood, mixing into a nasty combination.
“It’s done,” Olivia said as she slipped her hand in his and began tugging him down the stairs.
The trip down the stairs and off the wall was tricky, and they almost pitched over the side of the stairs. Rowan had no clue what happened next. All he remembered was seeing a bed and dreaming of a single thought that brought a smile to his face.
They were still alive.