Fighting deep inside a jungle was a whole new ballpark compared to what Rowan was used to. In spite of the danger, he was actually enjoying the experience.
Putting his enhanced dexterity and strength to full use was sheer joy.
As he dodged the thorny vines of something that could only be described as a walking sunflower with an undulating jaw in place of its mouth, Rowan launched himself halfway up a tree’s trunk, pushed off that to somersault forward, and aimed his spear from midair straight down into the creature’s face.
This conveniently let him avoid the shower of plant matter and uncomfortably sticky juice that followed. Marcus was not that lucky, and the whine he made was heartbreaking.
“Why? Why must you do this to me? My poor tail. My poor, poor tail,” Marcus growled, looking at his formerly fluffy, now matted down, tail.
“Sorry. Next time, I’ll bring along a professional [Groomer],” Rowan teased. Predictably, it did nothing to improve the forlorn wolf kin’s mood, but it did provoke a reaction from his sister.
“We honestly should. Look at him, complaining when his tail is the only real point of contention for him. What about me? Do you know how hard it is keeping my fur spotlessly clean in these conditions?” Milena grumbled.
Unlike the two front liners, Milena and Olivia both looked spotless. Staying in the back and pelting enemies with curses and potions had its own benefits.
“Marcus, your aura defense didn’t stop things?” Rowan asked.
“No,” Marcus sighed. “It’s not like the aura is going to stop everything. Especially when what’s happening is thanks to my sister’s new card.”
Blood Boiling was a card perfect for Milena. She now had direct damage against enemies and even though it wasn’t as effective when she didn’t draw or taste the blood of her opponent, just regular use was more than enough to bring the combat power of the party up a notch.
“I didn’t know that was going to happen. No one said anything about the target exploding,” Milena said.
“You know, the card is very literal right? The blood is literally boiling. It’s really hot,” Marcus complained. “You’re buying my [Groomer] visits next time we’re in town.”
Rowan would have indulged in the friendly banter for longer but reality had other plans. One of their scouts, a man called Dale, a [Forest Wraith] if Rowan was remembering right, stumbled out of the tree line looking pale as a ghost.
The troops showed remarkable improvement, recruits and old guard alike, when all turned focused and battle ready in less than a second.
“Report!” Rowan barked, cutting through the man’s panic and dazed state.
Dale’s eyes found Rowan. “We-we did as you asked, sir. We went as far as we could last night, just to see if any powerful beasts or demons made a lair along our route. But, sir, there’s chaos out there.”
The man broke into coughs, sputtering and wheezing. Rowan realized just how drained he was. He looked ready to collapse, and even with all his levels and rare class, the man’s legs were quivering like jelly.
Rowan unclipped the emergency health potion from his belt, striding over and pushing it into the man’s hands. “Drink this. It’ll help.”
The potion did its job swiftly. The man’s complexion eased the second he’d finished drinking and he cleared his throat experimentally before giving his full report.
“There’s a monster, probably a demon, rampaging out there. It looks pretty badly hurt, but it’s still ripping right through all the local rare tier monsters that have claimed territories in the vicinity. It looks, well, it looks like some kind of flightless bird monstrosity,” Dale said. “The other scouts are keeping watch over it but I’m not too sure how long they can hold out.”
The news, Rowan realized, was both good and bad. On the one hand, the thing was clearing out the monsters and doing their job for them, even if it was ‘stealing’ their experience points. On the other, from what the man was saying, Rowan guessed the creature was epic tier. And so far, Rowan had only seen one epic tier non-human, a demon.
“How are the local monsters reacting?” Rowan asked.
Dale looked confused.
“Are they all defending their territory or pulling back?” Rowan clarified.
“I think only the first few monsters fought it. The fighting died down when I left,” Dale answered.
“Shit,” Rowan cursed.
“What’s wrong?” Marcus asked from the side.
“The monsters, they’ll either flock to the new creature’s side or they’ll flee. Some of them are going to be in the direction of Rest’s Remorse. If they hit the town while we’re out here, it’s going to mean trouble,” Rowan said. He held back the worst news of it all. The scout had reported that the monster was already badly hurt. There was something out there that was strong enough to badly wound an epic tier monster who, even weakened, could tear through local rare tier monsters?
“It’s also an opportunity,” Olivia pointed out. “It’s already wounded and we’re a lot stronger than we were before. It’ll be different this time.”
Rowan knew what she was referring to. The epic tier demon at Felton’s Mill was like a massive, unassailable rock that hung over everyone’s head. They would have all been corrupted or died if it wasn’t for Kayla coming to help. As Rowan looked at each of his party members, he saw their fighting spirit. They wanted to prove themselves.
“We also know it’s there,” Milena added. “We’re not going to be the ones surprised this time. If we ambush the monster just right, we’ll have a shot.”
“And it’s not just us anymore,” Marcus said. “We have a whole army to kill the damn thing.”
Rowan considered their words. The stated goal of the expedition was to just venture out into the demonic wastes, cull the local monster population, and return to the town at the end of the month. They were only eight days out. Could they go back earlier if they defeated the epic monster? Probably. But was it worth taking that risk when they already finished a third of the expedition already?
“It’s a risk,” Rowan said slowly. He glanced over at the soldiers huddled around Dale and watched as their expression changed as the scout relayed his story. Their faces went from hopeful to fearful. As Rowan watched, Dale struggled free of their care and came back to Rowan.
“Sir, I’m sorry. The monster. It came from deeper in the wastes.” Dale paused and did a dry gulp. “This is my theory. I think the monster is coming in our direction.”
Rowan digested the scout’s words. “Does that mean it’s going towards Rest’s Remorse?”
The scout hesitated before giving a slight nod.
“Okay,” Rowan said, showing outward calm when his inner thoughts were anything but. The risk pendulum just swung in favor of fighting the monster. With his decision made, Rowan went on to his next task, convincing the army to follow him. “Men. I’ve just received news that in our path is an epic tier monster. The good news is that it’s hurt. The bad news is that it’s coming toward us and likely our home, Rest’s Remorse. Now, we could turn tail and run back to the town, praying that the monster changes course. Or we can strike, deal damage, and kill the monster before it ever threatens our families.”
Even as Rowan spoke, his mind was spinning with alternate possibilities. There were two epic classes in both the baroness and Mercenary King back at Rest’s Remorse. There were also mercenary companies that would be forced to help the defense. But he shoved all of these thoughts aside. They came with their downsides. What he needed right now was faith.
“Even if we don’t succeed in taking the monster down, we will persist. The monster is reported to already be hurt. Every bit of damage we deal on top of that will make life back home a bit safer,” Rowan called out. “For now, bunk down and rest. Tomorrow, we’ll bring the monster down together.”
Rowan could see some soldiers still unsure of things. The newer recruits were, on average, in the later half of the uncommon tier. Impressive, for sure, but insufficient to fight an epic monster. He needed to find a way to make the monster seem mortal, to bring faith to the rest of the army, to make it easier to fight than desert.
A thought occurred to Rowan as he turned to his party.
“I have a plan.”
—
Rowan’s first order was to send someone towards Rest’s Remorse to give them warning and time for preparations. Strong enough to trek through the demonic wastes alone but also with good organizational skills, Rayne proved perfect for the task.
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The second task was sending Dale back to coordinate with the other scouts and keep information flowing.
Dale’s words still echoed in Rowan’s mind. The scout had described the monster as a ‘flightless bird’ which meant two possibilities. Either the bird had been injured and couldn’t take flight anymore or that it never had the ability to do so in the first place. Both cases meant Rowan could start the much less glamorous third part of his plan, digging.
The army didn’t have too many shovels but with enhanced stats and surprisingly soft ground, they were able to make do with their weapons.
“Olivia, different task for you,” Rowan said. “What’s the biggest potion you ever brewed?”
“Biggest in terms of effect?”
“Yeah, like if you made ten potions and poured them together, does that create a bigger effect?”
“I think so?” Olivia said slowly. “It should work in theory, but only for combat potions. Usually, if I needed a better potion, I’d usually just make an upgraded version of it.”
“We don’t need the best potions you can make, just a whole lot of them,” Rowan said and gestured at the water barrels that the army had brought with them. “Can you fill them with combat potions?”
“All of them?”
“All of them,” Rowan confirmed.
As Rowan went to grunting and using his spear to dig a giant moat in the ground with the rest of the army, Olivia poured one potion after another into the empty water barrels, dropping an occasional herb in as well while doing plenty of weird stirring motions and incantations.
About half an hour later, Rowan’s curiosity got the better of him. It definitely wasn’t because his vitality stat was lagging behind his strength stat, making blisters an actual possibility due to the mismatch.
“So what potion are you making?” Rowan asked as he straightened his sore lower back.
“Lightning potions,” Olivia answered without looking up.
“Why lightning?” Rowan asked, genuinely curious. “Why not normal explosion or fire potions? Those would probably be pretty effective.”
Rowan noticed the twins were listening in on the conversation too, so at least he wasn’t the only one confused. But they were forced to wait for her answer a little while as Olivia finished another round of chanting over the potions.
“Two reasons. One, we have no idea what kind of monster we’re dealing with here. So I made something as general as possible. Lightning is pretty hard for most monsters to deal with. And second, most of the monsters in this area are plant-based. They’re not necessarily afraid or weak to it, but they all dislike fire. If we go around chucking fire potions, we’ll piss off more than just our target. Trust me, we don’t want that.”
“Indeed we don’t,” Rowan grunted as he went back to work. A part of him was genuinely impressed at the speed the army was excavating the clearing. The hole they were digging was already a couple yards deep and the officers were now leading men into felling trees and sharpening them into stakes.
Every couple minutes, one of the scouts would pop out of the woods and report the latest progress on the monster. It was still heading their way, still ripping through everything in its path, and still a threat.
Once the hole was big enough, Rowan ordered the stakes pounded into the sides of the pit. They were secured together by vines, tough enough to serve as very prickly rope.
By the time they were done, Rowan was looking at a pit large enough to temporarily inconvenience even a small dragon. It was less of a trap and more of a way to change the environment to one that was actively beneficial for the humans. The front of the pit facing the jungle was a bit higher than the rest, forming a slight funnel that would hopefully drive the monster into the uneven terrain where they could keep it down.
The trees, sharpened on both sides, were driven into the dirt and bound together in three rows along the side of the pit. Would they kill the monster on their own? Probably not. But if the monster was already hurt when it attempted to climb out or attack someone? Every little bit counted.
It was just in time. The explosions and cacophony rising from the jungle far ahead were doing a lot to keep everyone on edge, leaving everyone on edge. With most of the preparation done, it was Rowan’s turn to give his army one final edge.
As Rowan stood in front of the hole they’d dug, tired, dirty, and a little cranky, he first took the time to assess the state of his army.
They were, overall, in much the same state as him. Still, their spirits didn’t falter yet. They stared at him with quiet determination and not a single one of them looked like they were about to run for the proverbial hills.
Rowan felt proud.
“We have done as much as we can to prepare. Look at what you managed to build with the power you now wield.” Rowan motioned out to what was once a narrow field, and the change was stark. “Even without all of this, I would rate our chances against the monster highly. It is wounded. We are not. It has rampaged for days, whereas we are about to rest and recuperate for the fight ahead of us. We could face it head on and win. So, why did we work so hard, then?”
Rowan let the silence stretch and build until he noticed some unease finally appear on the faces arrayed before him. Finally, he smiled and decided to break the awkwardness.
“We worked hard so we can all get through this ordeal. If we fight it directly, we will win, but some of us will be lost. This way? This way, we can do our very best to eliminate casualties. This way, all of you get to go back home alive and well.”
That finally stirred their feelings up the way he’d intended, and the cheer that went up brought a sincere smile to Rowan’s features. These were his soldier, his responsibility. He really meant every word he said. He wasn’t the kind of man who would be content to waste days of his life helping people advance just to sacrifice them in one fell swoop.
Of course, even his hoping for the best would likely not be enough to prevent casualties. But, that was a reality he selfishly refused to acknowledge.
“Now, please, do your best to rest. Take the time to prepare any way you can so that we can all get through this together. I will, however, be calling out names. When you are summoned, please come up, so we can boost our chances of victory even further. When it’s time for formations, I’ll let you know.”
Rowan turned away and walked over to his party, letting out a huge breath of relief. From the latest scout report, they still had an hour or two before the monster would arrive. It was far too early to get into formation. The last thing Rowan wanted was an army half tired from waiting.
“Not much of a public speaker huh?” Marcus asked.
Rowan just grimaced and nodded. He was getting used to it, but if he was being honest, it was highly unlikely that he’d ever feel fully comfortable with that sort of thing. He preferred to just fight, rather than lead.
Olivia had somehow already set up a couple of collapsible chairs and even had a table in front of her. A small, relatively fragile table, but a table nonetheless.
The baroness was insistent that they take as many amenities as possible along that would make their life in the field more comfortable. At first, Rowan scoffed at that. Now, though? He was looking forward to giving the woman a hug when he got back to Rest’s Remorse.
Her suggestion of a half-decent bed was better than any divine blessing at the end of a long, tiring day. And the extra luggage was easily absorbed by the manpower in the army.
“How many cards do we have? I wasn’t keeping track, beyond just checking if there were enough duplicates for fusion or if one of us could use the cards for something,” Rowan said.
Olivia instantly understood what Rowan wanted to do. “One hundred and forty-four. At least at the rare tier, which are the most useful right now.”
After the first day of the expedition, the hero party had further divided responsibilities. Rowan was in charge of talking to the soldiers and keeping their spirits up. Marcus worked with the officers, Milena helped the scouts, and Olivia snatched up the role of treasurer. She managed all of the army’s loot.
There were some benefits to being born to nobility. Olivia had a far keener sense of what should be kept, what counted as a ‘rare’ rare card, and what they should scrap as quickly as possible. Some of those cards she’d even set aside and labeled as rewards.
These were separated into what classes would find them useful and then she handed them off to Rowan. In her own words, it was up to him to reward, discipline, and generally manage the troops.
Judging by the increased interest in performing well and the way soldiers would puff up when handed a reward personally by their heroic mayor, Rowan figured her logic was sound.
Now, Olivia pulled out a sheet of parchment, unfurled it, and revealed a thorough list of all the soldiers and their classes, as well as their latest recorded level. She was meticulous about updating the list, too.
“Adam, [Scorchflame Swordsman],” Olivia said.
Rowan repeated the name, calling for the soldier. His voice carried across the army thanks to a very basic mana manipulation trick for addressing large crowds. Though it was called basic, Rowan went through twelve healing potions before learning how to pull the trick off without shredding his own vocal cords.
As the soldier approached, Olivia quickly shuffled stacks of cards in front of Rowan, then pretended to be absorbed in her list. Rowan sighed, knowing the message she was trying to send.
“Good, you’re here, Adam. We need everyone at their best, so we’re distributing additional cards for this coming battle. You know what you need most for your build, so go ahead and pick.” Rowan gestured at the cards laid on the table. “They’re free.”
The soldier obviously hadn’t expected that, but quickly did as he was directed, shuffling through the cards until he found the one he liked, thanked them for it, and then left.
The stacks of cards were separated into debuff, body enhancement, offense, defense’, movement’, healing, and, support categories. That being said, the healing, debuff, and support stacks were tiny. Adam picked his card out of the movement stack.
The mood in the camp visibly improved when they realized that cards were being distributed, and Rowan took the opportunity to ask a question that was bothering him while another soldier headed towards them.
“How are you picking people, exactly?” Rowan muttered quietly to Olivia so they wouldn’t be overheard.
“By tier, class rarity, and contribution. I want people with powerful classes, preferable at the rare tier, but who haven’t had much chance to distinguish themselves and earn cards on their own to get a bit stronger. We don’t even have enough cards to cover everyone,” Olivia said.
“And you’ve been keeping track of all that?”
“You haven’t?” The judgment in Olivia’s green orbs was obvious, so Rowan just shut up and looked away.
The process of handing out cards seemed to drag on forever, but it really didn’t take that long. It was only a bit over an hour and a half later that the final card was given away. The man who picked it up didn’t look all that thrilled, but he took it anyway.
The further along into the process they got, the more Olivia started gouging the leftover cards and guessing at who might want or need them. It wasn’t perfect, but Rowan was genuinely blown away by how she was planning everything out.
And then they had given away all their cards, which meant there was now nothing to do but fret.
The monster was still coming closer and closer. The latest report from the scouts said thirty minutes and Rowan made sure that when the scout went back to the team, he had a truly prodigious number of potions.
Their mission was simple, manipulate the route and progress speed of the epic monster. They were instructed to find and draw in every high level rare monster into its path they could, and even provoke it from time to time by throwing potions at it directly.
Wounded as the monster was, he had little doubt that it could overwhelm rare and uncommon tier humans who were trying to annoy it.
Higher tier monsters are smarter. It might have already realized what’s going on. Rowan suddenly thought perhaps he had made the wrong choice.
“It’ll be fine.” Olivia’s voice cut through his thoughts as her hand fell on his knee. He realized he was bouncing his leg, something he was instructed not to do during lessons with the baroness. It was apparently in poor taste to let his soldiers know he was terrified of the possibility that he was leading them all to death.
Rowan let out a long breath. He gathered himself and stood up. He had made his decision hours ago. This wasn’t the time to question things, it was time to act.
“Men, to your formations. We’re fighting this monster. And we’re going to win.”