Rowan was beginning to learn that he really didn’t like rain.
The downpour kept coming over the next day and complicated just about everything. Unpaved ground had been whipped into mud, squelching and trying its best to suck everyone down in a mire of immobility.
It also made combat anywhere other than the wall an absolute nightmare, which wouldn’t have been as much of an issue if the enemies were using conventional siege tactics.
At some point over the night, the nightmarish eel monsters decided that they didn’t want to keep jumping up and losing their mobility. Instead, they dug down past the village’s walls and made their way behind the walls. They’d either lay in wait and ambush those who were alone, or make a straight beeline for the cottages containing civilians.
Given the rough and unrewarding nature of trying to fight the eels, Rowan had volunteered with the rest of his party on eel-fighting duty.
It wasn’t all bad news though. The constant infighting and grumbles that had plagued the village were mostly gone in the face of the monster threat. Along with the eels came small groups of corrupted beasts and the teamwork of villagers and mercenaries was surprisingly good for how they had been at each other’s throats just a week ago.
And the eels were now easier to fight than when they first encountered them. A single blast of cold air from the card that Olivia was rapidly growing to adore would catch the eels in place, freezing them into solid chunks.
Some died to that outright, while others had to be shattered into pieces, but it didn’t much matter. Once they were a popsicle, it was game over for them.
On the other hand, the rain was more than just a nightmare for their footing.
“Still having trouble?” Rowan directed the question at Milena, hoping the answer had changed since the last time he asked it.
The tired wolf kin just sighed and shook her head at him. “I’m sorry, but there’s nothing I can do. This rain isn’t normal.”
And she was right. The water was starting to come down with ever-increasing ferocity. Some of the villagers were already complaining that just standing under it hurt, simply because of how hard the water drops were landing.
“I can’t believe we’re blind again,” Olivia grumbled. By the way she glared at the sky, it was obvious that she wasn’t blaming their only [Shaman] for it.
“It’s literally bringing my birds down.” Milena looked, well, like a wet dog. “They can’t even fly around in this downpour, let alone actually scout. We still have some of the other critters to rely on.”
By some, Milena meant only a couple of animals positioned at far away points. Without the means to recast the ritual, the familiars rapidly dwindled as the corrupted beasts exterminated their normal variant counterparts from the forest.
“It doesn’t matter much. Nothing is going to change from the scout reports. Corrupted beasts massing, demonic creatures attacking, things looking more dire by the day,” Olivia said with a sigh.
Even with Bron waking up, he was months away from returning to duty. He was, other than occasional bits of advice on governance, entirely out of commission. Olivia was on her own, and there was very little Rowan could do to help her when it came to running the village.
“If we could get some food variety, I think it would help,” Marcus volunteered, even though he was honestly just as enthusiastic about their meals as he used to be.
“And how do we do that? It’s all same old problems. We can’t go out, and the stored vegetables are either going bad or eaten already. We’re down to meat, like it or not,” Olivia grunted.
Frankly, if it weren’t for the fact that monster meat was edible, they would be entirely out of luck. A small village wasn’t exactly the sort of place designed to house a bunch of soldiers and mercenaries throughout a long-term siege.
To make matters worse, even the monster meat they did have was starting to sour. The rain made it nearly impossible to smoke and cure properly. The warehouses were luckily still standing but quite a few homes had collapsed under the weight of all the water being dumped on them.
“We might need to organize some kind of foray into the forest,” Rowan admitted, turning the shaft of his spear to distract himself from what he was forced to say. “The villagers are running out of material to make repairs, to homes and the wall both.”
“And risk our lives? Even if we do get the wood, how should we treat and prepare it for use under these conditions?” Olivia snapped. “But while we’re on the topic of things, I’d like to get ingredients to replenish my mana potions. Assuming, of course, that the beasts haven’t eaten it.”
Olivia was right, of course. With the non-stop rain, it was impossible to make lumber without the use of magic.
It was just a bad situation all around.
“I really don’t like how limited our options are,” Rowan admitted, huddling a bit tighter into his frumpy, borrowed coat. He didn’t even care how wet it was.
Marcus was about to say something, but the shield bearer froze, his eyes snapping up to the sky. He scanned it carefully, an unusually serious frown clouding his features. “Did you see that?”
“See what?” Rowan asked, raising his eyes skyward along with the rest of the group. He had to lean forward and up, the eaves of the house they were huddled up next were blocking most of his vision.
He failed to spot anything. The curtain of rain blinded him.
“I’m pretty sure I saw something up there,” Marcus muttered, keeping his squinted eyes trained on the sky. “It was like some kind of shadow. No, wait, there it is!”
Olivia was faster to spot what Marcus had seen, though judging by the way she broke into quiet curses, it wasn’t anything good.
“Look at this,” she growled, pushing the status screen at them.
[Skyfin Seeker]
Level 38
STR: 8
VIT: 10
DEX: 24
PER: 46
INT: 20
WIS: 15
Deck (5/5):
* [Heart] Demonic Breeding (Rare)
* Minor Aerokinesis (Uncommon, Passive)
* Storm Lurker (Uncommon, Passive)
* Grasping Cage (Uncommon, Active)
* Amphibious Adaptation (Uncommon, Passive)
“A new kind of bomber?” Rowan asked. His own experience with flying monsters so far had been the type that picked a person up and dropped them from the sky.
“A scout. They have scouts now.” To say that Olivia sounded bitter would have been an understatement.
“That’s also the second water-based creature we’ve seen now,” Milena muttered, narrowing her eyes in thought. Her tail, wet as it was, had poofed out a little, shooting straight up into the air. “It could be nothing, just a result of this recent weather change, but what if the cause and effect are reversed?”
“You’re saying there’s something out there conjuring this storm?” Rowan’s voice was alarmed.
“A powerful demon could probably manage it. The problem is, if they’re really capable of something like that, we have no hope of stopping them,” Olivia said.
No one had an answer to that. The uncomfortable silence stretched between them, punctuated only by the rain and occasional eels that decided to take potshots at them.
“Forget about that,” Rowan said finally. “What we need to worry about is how we’re going to take those things out of the sky. We can’t just leave them be.”
“We need a ranged class. How we have a caster but no decent range is beyond me,” Olivia said.
Milena’s cheeks puffed up. “I’m sorry. All of my strongest spells and curses are either mid-range options or require like an hour of cast time.”
“Guys, focus,” Rowan interjected.
Finding their way to the top of the wall, the party found groups of close range fighters clustered around ranged classes, ready to protect them if the eels made another appearance and lunged out of the rapidly rising water.
It wasn’t a concern yet, but if the rain kept up, they’d eventually need to worry about flooding. Already, puddles were forming on the wall.
Olivia was in the lead of the group, walking confidently towards the nearest cluster of ranged attackers. Rowan and the twins were only a few steps behind.
So it was only by the barest of margins that he caught sight of a clawed hand rising out of a puddle and reaching for Olivia’s ankle.
Instinct took over completely, and Rowan’s spear blazed as he brought it down. He fueled the strike with as much mana as he could stuff into the relevant cards, and it nailed the wispy limb to the wood of the wall.
Immediately, a wail ripped through the air, and a creature shot out of the puddle.
The thing was floating, which unfortunately gave everyone a rather good view of its bare body. It was wrinkled, at once looking water-logged and too thin. The overall shape of it was feminine, but it was more long, flowing hair that gave that impression than any specific signs of gendered characteristics.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“Olivia, what the hell is this thing?” Rowan shouted. He felt a force tug on his spear as the spearhead ripped through the creature’s arm, leaving the limb connected only by thin strips of muscle.
Yet, it seemed to pay no mind to its injuries, and the wounds were healing before their eyes. The bone and muscle slithered back into place, reconnecting like snakes diving back into the burrow.
“Careful!” Marcus yelled as he positioned himself in front of Rowan.
The creature took a deep breath, parting its rotted lips and revealing rows of sharp, pointed teeth. It screamed and its mouth cavity did a disturbing thing that made its teeth seem like they were spinning. Rowan was suddenly glad that he didn’t give the creature a chance to hurt Olivia.
The scream was mostly for intimidation. Just high-pitched and loud. Marcus relaxed slightly and behind the shield, Rowan got a good look at the thing’s face.
It looked like a rotting corpse of a person who died by drowning. Its eyes bulged and were on the verge of popping out of the eye sockets.
Disgusting.
Rowan circled around Marcus’ shield and launched another attack. This time, the creature was on the lookout and drifted out of the way faster than Rowan thought it could move while floating.
His spear still sheared through a couple strands of its hair, proving he could indeed hurt it.
One of the mercenaries charged forward with a curved sword. The blade slashed effortlessly through the body of the creature, but it was like the man had tried to cut water. It was unharmed.
“Use mana! Regular attacks don’t work!” Olivia shouted over the din of the rain and the rising chaos of battle. She sent over the results of an Inspect she had somehow found time do perform.
[Waterlogged Wraith]
Level 41
STR: 12
VIT: 5
DEX: 41
PER: 60
INT: 50
WIS: 38
Deck (6/6):
* [Heart] Demonic Origin (Epic)
* Aquakinesis (Rare, Passive)
* Water Veil (Rare, Passive)
* Chill Touch (Rare, Active)
* Waterlogged Gasp (Rare, Active)
* Mirror Image (Rare, Active)
From what Rowan could tell, the Waterlogged Wraith was either some kind of undead or outright a water demon. He didn’t quite get the same feeling as he did when facing the Rotflower Cambion.
“Swarm it!” Rowan yelled. Behind the wraith, Olivia let loose a flood of mana that quickly crystallized into ice. Her attack frosted over parts of the monster’s body and it turned with a shriek.
The wraith’s arms had wisps of cold air curled around them as it rushed straight for Olivia. Marcus got in its path before it could reach her, but when the wraith’s claws struck the glowing shield barriers, ice erupted all over it, causing fractures to form. A second strike collapsed the barrier entirely, and the creature was soon reaching for the wolfkin directly.
Marcus tried to put his physical shield between them, but the thing’s arms phased through it.
Milena’s eyes erupted with black flames as miasma poured forward toward the wraith. The attack intensified when the skull on top of her staff also lit up in flames.
The creature ignored the threat, but flagged when the miasma was sucked into its ethereal form.
Meanwhile, Rowan rushed forward again, all thought of defense abandoned as he aimed to deal a blow as crippling as he could manage. His spear, enhanced by Empowered Thrust, found purchase in the wraith’s shoulder, and when he wrenched it up, it almost took the entire limb.
The wraith erupted into shrieks again, only made louder when several ranged sword slashes impacted its form and confirmed that mana was definitely effective.
Rowan wasn’t sure that would be enough. Even as he watched, its arms started to reconnect to the rest of its body. Judging by the way the wound seemed to be absorbing water straight out of the air, he was guessing that its healing factor had something to do with moisture.
With the nonstop downpour, it was like the wraith had an infinite healing potion.
There’s got to be a limit somewhere.
Rowan struck out again, this time aiming for the creature’s face. Unfortunately, it had determined that he was a threat, and it did its oddly swift drifting maneuver, getting just out of reach of his spear.
The wraith’s eyes were positively shimmering with mana as it glared at Rowan, and the arm he’d almost taken off snapped up to point straight at him. A wave of mana surged out of the wraith and slammed into him. But for a moment, it seemed not to do anything.
Then Rowan choked, eyes widening in panic as he realized he couldn’t breathe.
He stumbled forward, struggling to raise his spear. The panic and crushing realization that he was drowning crowded out any other thoughts from his mind. He collapsed to his knees, water spewing out of his mouth.
Attacks frantically slammed into the wraith. But it didn’t care. Its arm was still pointed straight at Rowan and its face was screwed up in malicious glee.
It’s going to die soon. Its vitality is a measly five. Rowan though, Keen Spear giving him just enough presence of mind to realize he was wrong. Shit, the rain. It heals just as quickly as it gets damaged. They need to attack all at once.
Rowan tried to speak but only water came out of his mouth. As he tried to calm down, he heard shouting and screams in the distance, like a curtain call to his own demise. There was another battle raging on the wall, and he almost lost hope thinking that there was a whole host of wraiths devastating their defense lines.
Black spots began to dance in the corners of his vision, and he drew closer and closer to death. He was on the ground now and all his struggles to take in oxygen had just resulted in a deep puddle growing around him.
And then Olivia was there, looking angrier than ever before and shimmering with mana.
She practically hugged the wraith before mana exploded out of her.
The full force of Flash Freeze erupted, and the wraith transformed from the figure of his nightmares into an ice sculpture. Under any other circumstances, Rowan would have likely found the thing’s expression of shock amusing.
But as it was, he was a bit busy trying to cough the water out of his lungs. Olivia’s attack interrupted the card’s effects and a moment later, she was on the ground helping him into a better position.
When the first breath of air blessedly hit his empty lungs, Rowan felt like he had been reborn. He managed to shudder out a ‘thanks’, his hand finding and briefly squeezing Olivia’s own. Then, he was scrambling back onto his feet, shaky as they were.
In the meantime, the twins and the nearby soldiers had taken to breaking and hacking the ice sculpture of the wraith apart. A brief check of his system window told Rowan that the thing was dead, but he certainly wasn’t about to ask them to stop.
If anything, he stomped on one of its legs himself to a satisfyingly loud crack, before quickly scanning the wall to see what else had gone wrong.
Rowan found the defenders huddled behind the wall, and thuds echoing out from their wooden cover.
“What?” Rowan was about to move forward and check, only for Olivia to drag him down.
“Do you seriously want to die today?” Olivia hissed, staying crouched as they approached the palisade of the wall.
It quickly became apparent that she was right to be angry, especially with the odd, thin projectiles hissing through the air above their heads.
They were technically out of combat, however, so Rowan switched out his Persistent Regeneration for Inspect and, when the salvo of whatever was attacking them paused, he risked a quick glance.
He didn’t really have a name for what he saw. Groups of creatures that vaguely resembled a snail completely covered in at least twenty inch long spikes were parked right outside their defenses, firing their spikes at them.
If there was one thing that cheered him up a little, it was the fact that the things looked near completely bald. But as Rowan looked, his joy faded by how quickly the spikes were regrowing.
[Depthsworn Urchin]
Level 36
Mana: 34/50
STR: 25
VIT: 16
DEX: 8
PER: 40
INT: 10
WIS: 20
Deck (5/5):
* [Heart] Demonic Breeding (Rare)
* Rapid Regrowth (Uncommon, Passive)
* Quill Barrage (Uncommon, Active)
* Pin-point Accuracy (Uncommon, Passive)
* Threat Detection (Uncommon, Active)
That settled one thing. Each and every one of the enemies were aquatic in some way. That, more than anything, convinced Rowan the rain wasn’t natural.
“How, exactly, are we going to take those things out?” Rowan asked, sharing his Inspect results with everyone around him and replacing the card with Persistent Regeneration. He realized that removing the regeneration card was a bit of a mistake. It was probably much better to take out Empowered Thrust the next time he wanted to inspect something.
“I can summon an omnidirectional shield around me for a little while,” Marcus offered. “It wouldn’t last as long as a shield wall, but I could cover us for long enough to make it down there and start stabbing things. That should also give our ranged attackers a chance to strike.”
“That’s an idea,” Rowan said. He really didn’t like the idea of jumping down into a field with urchins, eels, and probably even more water enemies. “Any other ideas?”
Of course, that’s when something dropped out of the sky, engulfing the head of one of the soldiers hunkering down. It wrapped around their head completely, and muted cries erupted from the victim.
The people closest to the soldier were clearly stuck on what to do. Some had raised their swords, but couldn’t strike for fear of killing their own ally.
A moment later, the creature unfurled and lifted gently into the air, revealing itself to be a monster that looked nearly identical to a manta ray. And in a pattern that Rowan was coming to dislike very much, it had a massive mouth lined with teeth on the underside of its body.
The soldier’s head was brutally savaged, flesh scraped away to a nearly pristine skull.
In revenge, the ranged classes let loose a barrage, bringing down the monster to avenge their comrade’s death.
That was just the start of the swarm. All around Rowan, more and more of the airborne monsters were springing their own attacks.
In an ironic twist, the Skyfin Seekers had managed to sneak up on them in spite of the fact that they’d originally gone up the wall in search of someone who could snipe them down.
Fortunately, the things had pitiful amounts of strength and vitality, allowing the defenders to kill them quickly once they exposed themselves. Not as fortunately, this necessitated moving and fighting, which provided the urchins lurking below the chance to strike.
“We can’t let this go on,” Rowan cursed, biting down on his lip until he tasted blood. “It’s going to have to be the two of us, Marcus. Let’s go.”
Rowan waited just long enough to receive a determined nod, and then he was vaulting over the wall, letting the gravity do the rest. A glowing shield expanded from Marcus, mercifully sparing them the fate of turning into pincushions.
And just like that, they were in the thick of it.
Rowan’s spear blazed with mana, but he only used a carefully controlled amount. He had already reduced himself to a mere thirty-two points after the fight with the wraith, and he couldn’t run out before he was done.
So, when Rowan rushed forward, he drove his spear into the nearest urchin, and tore it out as a massive spray of blue blood shot into the air.
It was disgusting. It smelled fishy, and he danced away from it in case the urchins had some kind of corrosive blood. It was kind of glorious.
Rowan found that the spear perfectly countered the urchins. Their spikes were long, but his spear was even longer. Which meant that he could dig his spear deep into the monster’s body and and the spray of blood was directly proportional to the amount of damage he was able to deal.
Naturally, it was time for the hero to go on a slaughter.
A more-innocent Rowan didn’t think he would ever get used to fighting, but he was genuinely enjoying himself as he fought for his life by Marcus’ side. There was nothing phasing through the walls. Nothing trying to poison him with its blood. No soldiers immediately around him whose deaths he was dreading because they’d rather die than let him get badly hurt.
It was just him, a member of his party, and enemies susceptible to bleed damage.
But like all good things, the time quickly came to an end. The two of them caught the attention of enough urchins for most to change their targets to them. And the barrage of quills was enough to force them right up against the wall while Marcus struggled to keep mana exhaustion at bay.
However, that allowed the defenders to finally do their job too. They apparently cleared out the fliers and with so few monsters shooting their way, slashes of mana came down on the urchins, intermittently at first and then in massive groupings.
The death of their fellows sent the urchins into a frenzy, but that ironically made it easier to deal with them. Rather than concentrating their attacks properly, they started panicking and shooting their quills in every direction, occasionally even hitting each other.
That’s when Rowan decided to take a calculated risk. He rushed into combat again, leaving Marcus behind in the safety of his shield. It was time for him to let the monsters get a taste of their own medicine.
Rowan couldn’t dodge every quill sent his way but wasn’t worried so long as he could protect his face. Using the combination of Lavish Feasting and Persistent Regeneration, any quill that sunk into him was quickly pushed by his regenerating flesh. Meanwhile, any strike that Rowan made on the urchins left their ranks eternally diminished.
And so, Rowan did his best impression of a berserker, ripping through every urchin in his way and dyeing the ground in their blue blood. The ‘fullness’ of his Lavish Feasting energy plummeted, but there was more than enough of it to last the battle.
Finally, the last one fell, and a cheer erupted from the wall.
Rowan wholeheartedly smiled.