A few moments earlier, the serpent dragon had unleashed a torrent of laser-like energy from its mouth. The energy blasted into the wall and the creature craned its head to the side, reducing a whole stretch of the wall to crackling rubble.
The only reason people hadn’t died yet was because of Marcus. The shield bearer made full use of his new class as a faint glow washed over every soldier and mercenary and left sparkles on their skin.
When the attack finally sputtered out, the defenders quickly picked themselves up from the fall. Marcus, on the other hand, swayed before almost toppling over. Rowan saved his friend from meeting the ground in such a way.
“Mana,” Marcus rasped. He coughed up a wad of blood and his face went bone-white. Rowan fumbled through his bag to procure a mana potion that Olivia had left behind and only stopped when Marcus began giggling. “I just bit down on my cheek. I’m not hurt.”
“Holy gods you scared me,” Rowan said.
“Have more faith in me. I’m of pretty tough stock,” Marcus laughed as he drank a mana potion procured from somewhere on him. The color returned to the wolf kin’s cheek as he got to his feet. “But that bastard isn’t a pushover either.”
Rowan looked back to the serpent monster. It was sagging in the air but its eyes still glowed just as bright as before. Almost immediately, Rowan felt a burning hatred for the creature. It had just taken away the village’s best defense and yet it simply floated. Its eyes looked calculating, patient. Almost like it was taunting them.
Rowan and Marcus were at the edge of the destroyed wall. Below them, the defenders were starting to reorganize and try to plug the massive hole in the wall.
But no matter how hard they tried, it was impossible. Thirty men, side by side, could march on top of the rubble and into the village. There was no way that the defenders would be able to stop the monsters now that they had lost the wall.
As Rowan watched, the giant monster finally turned its head and trained its gaze on the warrior that had just taken down its sibling. The female warrior looked up and returned the stare.
And then it dived toward the warriors.
“Rowan! Rowan, are you alright?” Olivia’s panicked voice rang out from below, and he leaned over the palisade to spot her rushing their way.
“We’re fine!” Rowan bellowed back over the rain. He glanced over the wall and found that the demonic army was moving forward again. Now that the urchins and eels were gone, they were facing the humanoid soldiers of the army. And the bulk of the army was marching.
“My warriors, they’re almost gone,” Milena cried out, rising from her ritual circle and swaying dangerously.
“Stay down,” Rowan yelled.
He swiveled in the direction of the second flying serpent. The female warrior was still in the battle, her shield and sword raised high. But she was alone. The serpent wasn’t in much better shape. Its bottom half had been sawed away, and green-blue blood stained the surrounding water.
As if encouraged by the attention on it, the serpent sent one of its tongues forward as quick as lightning and caught the warrior’s waist. With a triumphant hiss, it squeezed and the summon was split in half.
“Enemies incoming!” Marcus roared. A couple of the Mudclad Lures had apparently survived the battle and were now ambushing the still-recovering defenders on the ground. Without the wall to add height, the mercenaries quickly began taking lethal hits from the monsters.
Rowan ignored the chaos as he sought out Olivia’s eye. She noticed his glance and dipped her head. An unspoken conversation passed through the two of them.
Olivia’s rare now. That should help, Rowan thought. He nodded back at her and glanced over the wall one more time. There were at least two thousand in the demonic army, not including the wraiths that hovered at the back. It was going to be a tough fight.
“We can’t hold the wall,” Rowan hollered, shouting at the top of his lungs to be heard over all the mess. “And I won’t let innocents get slaughtered. Everyone, in front of the wall. We march out to meet them. Your hero will be with you. You’ll march alongside three rare classes. Together, we will bring victory back to Felton’s Mill!”
A cheer, as desperate as it was, went up from their troops. The ones still on the walls scrambled down the wooden steps, rushing to meet their enemies.
Rowan took the quicker way, jumping straight down into the water and finding Olivia waiting for him.
“Nice speech,” Olivia quipped.
“Tried my best,” Rowan responded. “So rare now huh? How’s your stock?”
“Enough to last me through this fight at least,” Olivia grumbled, narrowing her eyes at the incoming frog men. “I suppose if we make it through this and more monsters show up, we might as well just serve ourselves up on a platter anyway.”
“That’s not very positive thinking,” Rowan teased. For some reason, he felt more alive than ever in the moment. Perhaps it was because the two giant flying serpents were now either dead or wounded. Or it was the fact he was finally going into battle after watching others do the fighting for him.
“Save it,” Olivia laughed. When the demonic army was close enough for the ranged classes, she turned to address the men assembled behind her. “Fire at will! Doesn’t matter where you shoot. There are so many out there, you’ll be hitting something.”
Rowan flashed his spear forward, striking out at the water. When he pulled it back a moment later, there was a wiggling eel on it. He used Empowered Thrust and the mana tore the monster into two.
Above him, the first arrows and glowing sword slashes flew forward.
Still smiling, Rowan rushed into the battle. The first enemies he slammed into were weak, even weaker than the eels or the urchins or even the skyfins. The massed army was full of uncommons, but they were at the very start of the tier.
Right behind him were the soldiers. They had out-sprinted even Marcus, which either spoke to their own improvements or the weaknesses in the wolf kin’s new class. But as they tore into the demonic ranks, Rowan was glad to have them at his back. The soldiers fell into lock step with each other, the product of countless hours of training, and speared anything that even dared to look their way. Their movements were slowed by the water but they somehow kept up with Rowan’s slaughter.
“Rowan!” Olivia yelled from somewhere behind him.
Rowan risked a glance back.
“Snake!” Olivia pointed a finger forward, at the flying monster that was now trying to wobble its way back into the sky. The thing was barely crawling upwards and its many wounds were still weeping black blood, its regeneration lagging as ropes of flesh unfurled sluggishly.
Rowan nodded. He waited a couple moments for Marcus and Olivia to reach him and together, the three of them began sprinting forward. The soldiers helped part the way, charging forward to attract the attention of the demonic army and drawing them away from the hero party.
When the soldiers were gone, Olivia dipped her hand into her potion bag and retrieved a light yellow potion. Rowan expected Olivia to lob the potion at the army and force them out of her way. Instead, she kept it in her left hand, and grasped at the air with her right. Instantly, yellow light bloomed and coalesced in midair, and she was soon holding a ghostly replica of the potion. It was almost like what Blake, Rowan’s classmate, had done when he summoned the solid arc of light back when they first came to this world.
But Olivia was no Blake. With a smile verging on manic, she lobbed her new potion forward and it exploded, sending a surge of electricity through the water. The ropes of lightning struck down the nearest demonic soldiers before traveling back to Rowan and lightly nipping him on the legs.
“There! Make me run out of potions now, why don’t you?” Olivia cackled, conjuring another lightning potion and repeating her assault.
The enemies faltered for the second time. Though they were corrupted beasts or demonic creatures, the attackers were made up of flesh and blood that could be cowed. And Olivia was leaning into that advantage, conjuring the potions two at a time and flinging them in every direction.
The path towards the wounded serpent opened up, and Rowan locked eyes with the beast. There was a surprising depth of emotions there, and he saw the serpent realize that it was about to die.
Before Rowan could make that understanding come true, the sky darkened with a flock of skyfins.
The flying nuisances dived towards the hero party, set on stopping them from taking the serpent out of commission. Rowan did his best to attack faster than he ever had in his life, but there was just no denying the absolute blanket of enemies trying to cling to their bodies. In fact, if it weren’t for Marcus’ aura, they likely would have been covered in minor wounds already.
“Marcus, protect us,” Olivia screamed, and Rowan could barely see her through the mass of leathery wings even though she stood right next to him.
Marcus got the message. The aura he was sharing with them flared, growing in power and intensity.
And then Olivia began unleashing her potions.
It didn’t really matter where she threw her potions. All she had to do was chuck them into the sky, and they were guaranteed to hit a monster.
Once, twice, thrice… the lashes of lightning and the peal of thunder were dizzying and entirely too close. The residual energy snaked down, striking at the hero party, the water, and the surrounding monsters.
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
The party had the benefit of a rare tier class’ defense.
The monsters did not.
But Marcus’ protection wasn’t without cost. Rowan saw the shield bearer’s knuckles around his weapon go white as his face paled. The beast folk fumbled at his waist pouch with trembling fingers and barely managed to pull out a mana potion. Rowan bridged the gap and helped uncork the potion before unapologetically shoving it into his mouth.
I’m sure there’s a joke somewhere in there, Rowan thought a bit absentmindedly as another flash of lightning erupted above them.
Olivia didn’t even notice. She continued her assault, so taken by her newfound ability that she began to target clumps of monsters who were trying to march past them for the village. Rowan was willing to bet a good amount of cards that her class came with a sizable mana pool increase.
Rowan made sure that Marcus was okay. Then, forcing his body to move as quickly as it could through mild paralysis and continued attempted lightning damage, Rowan shot forward. Blessedly, he was out of the lightning pretty quickly. For all that Olivia’s potions were destructive, they were also fairly short-ranged.
The snake creature was still trying to take off higher. It was starting to make progress, and was now almost two yards off the ground.
Marcus’ aura disappeared from Rowan and a shred of doubt crept into Rowan’s mind. Maybe it was better to wait for the others before trying to fight a mythical serpent.
A wave of calm washed away that doubt and a plan began to form in Rowan’s mind. Steeling himself, he sprinted to the nearest demonic soldier. Instead of cutting it down, he leapt and landed straight on its shoulders. The creature flailed, starting to topple back, and its wild swings brushed across Rowan’s thigh. But the temporary stable and water-free foothold allowed Rowan to propel himself into the air once more.
Rowan’s jump pushed the poor demonic soldier firmly into the water, and the combination of strength and dexterity let him cover the final distance between himself and the flying serpent. Rowan landed heavily on the lower portion of the serpent and jammed the tip of the spear as deep into the creature’s flesh as he could.
The serpent thrashed and Rowan was almost buckled off. It even lit up in a weak corona of light. However, Rowan’s weight and its injuries were pulling it down to the ground again, and Rowan started climbing.
In movies and video games, heroes would often climb giants to bring them down. And for the first few seconds, Rowan thought that he was going to be one of those heroes. His grip strength was more than enough and he could create new ‘handholds’ with his spear.
And then the serpent twisted around and he came face to face with it.
Not even Keen Spear could hold back the fear Rowan felt when looking at the tongues and teeth. Its mouth began to glow, the same as when it collapsed the wall. And Rowan was definitely less sturdy than the wall.
Rowan did the only thing he could think of. He found a handhold on one of the monster’s wounds, pulled his spear out, and jammed it into the roof of the monster’s mouth.
Typically, the length of steel and wood would mean that his weapon would be very firmly jammed inside the brain of the thing. However, seeing that he wasn’t sure it had one, he ripped the blade to the side, tearing apart its soft insides.
A torrent of black blood drenched Rowan as the two of them tumbled out of the sky.
For a moment, Rowan experienced a very real moment of panic as he somehow ended up underneath the bulk of the monster. But then he landed in the water and even though the monster had collapsed on top of him, he barely felt the impact thanks to how deep the water was.
When Rowan emerged from the water, it was to the final peals of lightning behind him. After what felt like hours of the bombardment, the silence was deafening.
Even the demonic army seemed unbalanced for a moment. And then they surged towards Rowan and his companions. At least the skyfins were gone. Olivia’s rampage had reduced them to numbers that were now negligible.
As Rowan readied for another round of fighting, a sudden spike of cold made him whirl around and swipe out with his spear.
The body of the spear went right through the hand rising to point at him and the glowing spearhead tore a hole right through the rising wraith’s chest. The unearthly scream of its rage shook the water field, and even several of its own troops hunched away from it.
Rowan didn’t let up on the assault.
He leaned inwards for a second body strike. Pulling the spear back, he aimed for the wraith’s head next. There was no chance that he was going to let the wraith use its card to fill his lungs up with water from the inside again.
The wraith seemed to sense his determination and its entire body shimmered before nearly becoming one with the water that surrounded it. Having no better idea of what to do, Rowan raised his spear above his head.
Mana swirled around its tip, building to uncomfortable levels that he almost couldn’t control. Then he brought it down, detonating the blow against the fading body of the wraith.
The effect was as extreme as it was immediate.
The collection of mana shredded through the frail body of the undead water spirit, interfering with its attempt to flee. Instead, it caused globs and strings of ghost flesh to shoot in every which direction, absolutely covering Rowan in the stuff.
Oh god, it’s in my mouth. It’s in my mouth!
Rowan fought the urge to retch or wash out the taste with the water around him. The only thing that stropped the latter impulse was the knowledge that whatever was in that water was just as bad.
Still, that was one wraith down, and just four more to go.
Behind him, a shriek broke out, and he spun around to see another of the wraiths lit up by the thrashing lightning bolts.
A second potion silenced it, permanently.
Three to go.
Olivia’s [Combat Alchemist] class was living up to all of its promises and then some. Where the wraiths had taken the entire hero party before, they were now barely a threat.
Rowan tried his best to carve his way back to his companions. The demonic soldiers weren’t all that much of a threat individually. There were just too many of them.
They were ready to throw body after body just to slow him down. And their ability to cooperate with each other made them some of the most skilled demonic creatures Rowan had seen. Their relatively uniform skills allowed them to attack in unison, creating a far more devastating blow than should have otherwise been possible.
As Rowan fought them and carved a path forward, he realized the power of the humanoid creatures.
These things aren’t individual fighters. They’re like feints in a boxing match. They encircle their opponent, tire them, and then step aside for another to deliver the finishing blow.
Rowan slowed down and swung his spear around, eyeing every shadow to see if there was a wraith. The demonic soldiers used this chance to tighten their lines.
The fighting was hard and Rowan could feel his energy reserves plummeting. Only when he identified their card did the fight get easier.
First, they had some kind of card that made their bodies extremely sticky to everything and everyone other than their fellows. When some of the soldiers pulled for his spear, he had to use mana to unstick the weapon.
The second card was some sort of poison attack. Most of the time, the demonic soldiers used their weapons normally. But every so often, the attack would leave behind a sickly purple trail. It was some kind of a poison and when one of the demonic soldiers accidentally hit their comrade, the unfortunate creature’s veins turned black in seconds.
Don’t touch that, even if I have to get hit by something else. Got it. Better a pincushion than a puddle of melted organs.
The final detail that Rowan found was a surprising similar with the Rotflower demon he had fought before. When he sheared through the neck of one of the creatures, he spotted a thin, green root rapidly pulling back.
The creatures were somehow nurturing a plant inside them, likely a poisonous one. Or perhaps the plant was controlling them.
Rowan couldn’t be bothered to find out. By that point, he was close enough to Olivia and Marcus that he could bully his way forward and take the hits, counting on Persistent Regeneration to heal him back up. It took more energy than he would have liked, but grouping up with his team was worth adding a few wounds.
“Rowan, you okay?” Olivia said once Rowan was back in Marcus’ aura shield.
Before Rowan could respond, a trio of wraiths materialized around the three of them, choosing that moment to strike. They plunged their hands into the water and webs of ice shot forward.
Rowan tried to spear one of them, but they were too far and one of the soldiers stepped in front of the blow anyway. And then it was too late, the ice was close enough that he had to back up.
“Shit,” Rowan cursed. “Olivia?”
Olivia answered by lobbing her lightning potions. The electricity arced against the ice but because of the distance, it wasn’t enough to stop the wraiths. The ice gradually squeezed inward, forcing the hero party to bunch up.
Rowan slammed his spear down on the ice and the weapon bounced back up. Trying again, he used Empowered Thrust against the ice layer and successfully pushed ice back in one direction. But the ice from the other two wraiths kept coming forward.
“We need to do something,” Rowan said as he retreated back to the others.
“That’s quite the observation,” Olivia quipped. “Marcus? You got any ideas?”
The wolf kin didn’t respond. Rowan swung back and found Marcus with a giant grin on his face.
“Marcus?” Rowan asked.
In response, the glow around the heroes changed colors to a strange yellow-brown. Marcus pointed at the wraiths. The ice they had been producing had touched the aura generated by the shield bearer. As he stepped forward, the ice began to retreat. It was like he had something to counter the cold. Rowan looked closer and saw that the ice closest to Marcus took on a yellow tint before disappearing.
“How is he…” Olivia asked.
“Rot Shield,” Rowan said as he sprinted forward, using Marcus’ momentum as a launching pad into one of the wraiths. The spear tip impacted right on the wraith’s head. And then Rowan was once again in water. He ran to the next two wraiths that were still locked in an invisible battle with Marcus and lopped off their heads as well.
And then the world went quiet.
The demonic army, or at least what was left after the wraith’s ice attack, retreated backwards. Only desperate gulps for breath and the thumping of rain were left on the battlefield. Rowan wasn’t one hundred percent sure, but if the previous demon’s behavior was anything to go by, then this new one could likely detect him too. And with the army now gone, that meant it was time for the demon itself to fight.
Right on cue, the massive shadow overhead slowly started to lower, heading directly in the direction of the hero party.
“Potions, now.” Olivia ordered in a hurry, drawing out only three mana potions. “I’m out after this.”
Behind them, Milena rejoined the group. Rowan had lost track of her after the wall had fallen and she still looked a bit more pale than before. But she was there. Rowan took one of the potions from Olivia and downed it.
“Take these too.” Olivia handed out potions that looked oddly familiar to Rowan. They were a stat booster, common level, just like the one he’d drank for the initial demon fight.
“No other variants? You could have at least done something about the taste,” Rowan joked as he watched the demon’s descent and slugged his potion back. The taste was about as foul as he remembered it to be.
“Really? We’ve been in a party together for how long, and you’re already complaining about my cooking?” Olivia’s voice was as strained as Rowan, but at least the twin’s chuckled at their banter.
“You sure you don’t have some final super special potion squirreled away?”
“Yes, I’m sure, Rowan.” Olivia sighed, eyes flashing with regret. “I didn’t exactly know I’d be coming here to fight not one but two demons. I turned almost everything I had over to my father. I thought he’d need it more.”
That was actually a bit of a scary thought. If this was Olivia at her poorest and least prepared, what in the world would she have been like if she was still the daughter of a duke and with full access to every potion she had?
“Well, we’ll manage, I guess,” Rowan muttered, just as they got his first proper look at the demon.
Surprisingly enough, the creature that revealed itself was not hideous, at all.
Its body was a pale, luminescent blue, and a sightless head with two horns jutted out of the front of its body. It had two pairs of wings, though they could just as well be called fins with long bones connected by faintly glowing membranes.
Its tail was long and sinuous, and all up its spine, blue, corral-like plants swayed and released a soothing glow.
Rowan quickly realized exactly what the demon reminded him of. A blue sea dragon slug. That, crossed with a crystalline coral reef.
Were he entirely honest, Rowan was entirely content to simply gaze at the creature. It swayed in the air like it was buoyed by invisible waves, and it was so beautiful and serene that he had difficulty imagining it as a demon.
Then lightning, hail and torrential winds started to pick up around it, and Rowan was rudely reminded of exactly what they were dealing with.
“It’s epic,” Olivia whispered. That shouldn’t have come as a surprise given everything that had happened so far but the confirmation still slapped Rowan like a brick. An epic tier demonic ruler of storm and sea there to drown them.
The time had finally come for the final confrontation.
Rowan was not at all sure they were ready.