Watching his squad attempting to move in step with pikes on their shoulders was the most painful thing he had experienced so far today. That included being stabbed in the heart and puncturing a lung. While not necessary since he had arranged for each squad member to have a dimensional bag. A steel chain for the neck to store all the equipment in, with the understanding that it belonged to Ambros, it would be handed out at the beginning of the shift and was to be handed in at the end of the shift. Every item was accounted for at each exchange. It had been Whisper's idea, and he wasn't about to ignore the advice of someone who had served as a slave soldier at the rift garrison for years.
“Ambros, I try not to question some of your stranger ideas too much. They somehow seem to work in the end, most of the time, but this seems a bit excessively cruel?” No, she just enjoyed rubbing it in when it didn't work. Ambros snorted. “It is called drilling. Teaching them to work as a unit. It's supposed to improve the unity as a squad… Despite a couple of instances, they seem to be doing better, right?” Waiting for her response, he stood trying to figure out why no one had come to drag him before the Castellan in chains yet. By now, it had been a long enough time for the uproar to reach full crescendo. “Jerry! Follow the steps of the person furthest to the right in front of you… No, that's. That's the wrong right.” At least he was learning to be heard across the field without shouting too loudly, even if he wanted to sometimes. Sadly, it would ruin the persona they were making for him. He had gotten seven more “volunteers” to his squad, so the squad was up to twenty-three, plus Whisper and him. Ten of who had survived a one-night patrol, and five had survived two nights. One had been with them for four nights now. That would be Grundan, the world's lankiest orc. He had proven himself to be a survivor, however. That was what Ambros wanted. A squad of survivors.
“Better to have them train to brace and shoot, however. You will not have the time to create a unified group for tomorrow night.” Damn it. She was right. He needed months to train a squad like he envisioned. His idea had been to gradually train a group of survivors. To do that, they needed to survive, but not only was there too little time to train them, but only two of them had taken any Steps at all. “Fine. I will concede the point. Will you take them through a double-line crouched and high arm brace for me? I see Harrum. Gonna see how Calvi's group are doing.” Whisper gave him a strange hand signal he had never seen before and said yes. “Yes, I can do that. Do not be long however. It is important that they see you in command.” Waving his thanks at Whisper, he beelined to Harrum, the pyromaniac dwarf.
“Ambros! You keep growing! Soon I can't even call you boy anymore. Need to start working on that beard though. Now I can't say Im too fond of your choice to have your entire face shaved, even if you missed a spot.” Ambros reached out and shook the dwarf's arm. “You're looking exceptionally chipper today. How have you been, and how's the group doing. I haven't seen you for what feels like months.” The dwarf grinned evilly. “We have been at the fifth tower holding them off with the Guards. Even started pushing them back towards the east gate. If we could only get the outer ring encampment taken care of. We could probably get a temporary wall up in time to keep them out for a good, while we rebuild. Just need to hold the east gate.” Ambros was still perplexed as to why a concerted effort hadn't been made to take back the first bastion and the east gate. They didn't need to destroy the frog men inside the outer ring to do that. Just stop them from getting reinforcements by clearing and fortifying the breach. It was something that had been on his mind for a while now. He expressed as much to Harrum, who surged and said, “Those in power will do what they wish. We can only follow in their footsteps.”
Waving their goodbyes and promising to meet up for celebration once the horde was kicked out of the settlement, no matter how unlikely that seemed at the moment.
Ambros made it back to take over the double line brace and start the squad on using the tower shields as anchors while holding the pikes in an overhead position. Whisper left to do Whisper things. The rest of the day was spent learning to use the arbalest. Reloading the fifteen bolt box, summoning the tripod, and then summoning the arbalest on the correct spot on top of the tripod. Switching between tripod and arbalest. Target selection. He had his doubts about how much of this would stick in an actual battle, but if only a tiny bit did, it could be the difference between a roaring success and a complete failure. He would have to be sure to be very explicit in his orders when they finally were ready to meet the frog men again. It would cost them a few moments of surprise, but in the right spot at the right time, his hope was that they would be devastating.
When the day finally started turning to night. Ambros had his people turn in and hand over the dimensional bags. They were tired but well-fed and seemed to enjoy shooting the arbalests at the least, if less enthusiastic about the pikes. He didn't really blame them. The arbalests were incredible.
Whisper returned to the mustering grounds as he received the last dimensional bags. She had left when he came back to take over the training. Turning to her with a grin, he said, “A couple of months of this, and I almost think we will be ready to take on a few froggies.“ She gave him a piercing look and said. “So, when were you planning on telling me you ripped Stefan to pieces in front of a sizeable part of the local noble children and heirs?” Summoning the shirt he had been wearing at the time, he threw it at her and said, “In my defense, he did that to me first. Besides, I didn't rip him apart. I punched him in the face and maybe a bit through the head.” Looking at the shirt for a bit before she finally understood what the hole and blood around the hole meant. Ambros almost took a step back as he clamped down on the bond. She looked furious.”Good. How many witnessed him doing it?” Ambros lost himself in the memory for a moment and calculated how many on the fourth floor would have been able to see it happen. “Eighty-four, including the staff and the Vigintiviri, had a full view of where we were.” She looked shocked for a moment before she said, “It is almost unnerving when you do that. The law speaker being there is good. He can not tell lies in judgment, or the heavens will remove his mantle. The people that will be the most trouble will be those who you normally see hanging around him, and since his family is out of the rift, I can not imagine them doing anything but trying to have you challenged outside of the rift. Does Eku know?”
She had no idea. There was a reason he was learning new ways to seem more normal to other people. Eku had told him it would become less of a problem when he became an Adept, the people he would spend more time with were normally of the same rank and closer to his own Attributes. When he reached Master one day, “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.”… He quickly looked around to see if the mouse's lawyers were about to jump him and take his kidneys. Eku claimed his Attributes would be high enough that he automatically would adjust to the situation.
“Yeah, he was at the table with Stefan, so I'm not too happy with him. Well, we will see tomorrow, I guess, since they will be here to receive training before taking their own squads out for night patrol, so we will quickly see if any of them are problematic. Eku, is it? What happened with great lord Ekurzakir?” He said with a smirk. It was the first time he had heard her drop honorifics for Eku. She actually blushed. It was too cute. He almost felt bad for pointing it out. “He told me he preferred it if he was called so in private. He was sick of people mangling his name.” Then her eyes went to full-sized tin plates as she seemed to have remembered something else he had said because her next words were. “What! Have you lost your mind? They… This is not a good idea, Ambros.” He knew it wasn't, but it was something he considered necessary for his plans. “Yet they will, and they will learn, or they will have to face what is out there at night without knowing how to deal with it. They will, however, start helping with the settlement's defenses. One way or another. Don't worry. For the first few days, I'll be dealing with them while you handle our squad.” She still looked skeptical, but it would have to do.
“You will be hunting again tonight?” She asked, but he could tell she already knew the answer. It felt more like something said to give herself time for the real question. He nodded and asked, “What is it, Whisper. Either something is bothering you enough that you are unsure if you should say something, which I have trouble believing, or you don't know how to say what's on your mind, which I also have trouble believing. Im just gonna suggest you come out with it and let me deal with how to react to it. If you can't tell me, I stink by now…” It still took her a moment, but finally, “It's money. I don't have possessions that belong to me as a personal slave, unlike a contract slave. I am, in the eyes of the law, an item, and an item can't own anything. Eku took a look at the three steps I have taken and said they were unsatisfactory and would only hamper me as I grow if I would even be able to grow with them. It was the ones I could afford… I can't even exchange things like the Energy stone I showed you for money because it doesn't belong to me. I need to cleanse the steps I have taken and buy the six new ones that will let me break through to Adept, at least. I need money.”
She looked so ashamed. It was painful to watch. So he did the only thing he could think of and wrapped her in a big hug and held her until she started hitting him. Wait. “What have you been doing with the trophies? Of course, you have money, and the Energy stone is yours, as is any other you have found or will find. You lummox. Your half the team. Don't they have banks or something here where people have checking accounts or something similar?” She pretended not to wipe away tears, so he waited for her not to wipe away the tears. “I don't know what this lummox is, but I'm not one. You are. I have been saving them. Non-guilders do not get very good rates anyway. There is a guild bank in the inner ring, which will allow you to open an account. It is mostly merchants and nobles that use banks, however. I do not know much about how it works.”
At least, it was things that were easy to fix, except for having her registered as an adventurer. “Well, alright, so tomorrow morning, we go to the bank and see what they can offer. How much do you think it will cost to get you the catalysts and cleanser?” Whisper didn't need to think long on that, it seemed. “The ones Eku suggested after testing my bloodline cost two platinum and thirty-five gold, with the cleanser. I will need to take the cleanser and the first catalyst a week later at the earliest. Then a few weeks or months between the next one, depending on what we can afford. I know it is a lot, but… Eku said it's the best I can have.“ All he said was, “Oh.” He had thought it would be much more expensive considering how much Eku said his had cost. She seemed to have gotten the wrong impression. “I know. It's too much. I will ask the merchant if he has something that's not as expensive.” Waving away the words, Ambros answered, “What, no, it's alright. I have been out hunting every night since the invasion started. Not everything went to merit points. Besides, I may have liberated the dimensional bags of teams that got destroyed when I found them. That's just maybe. Don't go slandering my good name with vile and baseless accusations. Here, use the rest as personal money for your own needs until we can figure out the bank thing.” Handing her three platinum. “What is it, people always say. When you're an Adept, platinum becomes your gold. When you become a Master, it is as useful as copper. In the long run, this is not much money Whisper. Don't worry about it, and of course, you are getting the best you can have because we need you to be the best you can be. Anything else would be bad for your growth, and that's just stupid.” Giving her his best, I'm serious, look after that cheese line. It seemed to calm her down. She was helping. She would be more help if she was stronger, and so forth. Ambros couldn't really care less. He knew that he cared about her, he didn't fully understand it, but there it was. Having her stronger was just a way for him to protect himself from potential emotional harm or physical harm down the road.
Finally, having seemed to convince herself this was the right thing to do, she said, while holding his left hand with both of hers.“Thank you, Ambros. You are still a very strange man. I will go and buy what I need and start the cleansing. Eku said I should do it at the villa so the staff could help see me through it. Be careful out there. Please.” Then she was off.
She called him strange? The elfe was a constant rotation of emotions, often five or six different and sometimes opposing ones simultaneously. With a shake of his head, he headed towards Frank's new place and then to get some mana compressing done before the dark came.
Making his way over a barricade almost by the outer wall between Bastion Five and the east gate, he snuck past a gap in the lookouts. It didn't take much guessing to know where the missing sentries had gone from the grunts and moans coming from behind some rubble a little further down. He would have slapped them if he wasn't trying to get into the occupied part of the city, and by some of the other sounds coming from them, he wasn't sure they would have been against the idea.
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His biggest hurdle tonight was that he couldn't use his Arcane spells. They were too flashy, and with no other squads from the settlement around, it would be as if he turned on a lighthouse while screaming here I am at the top of his lungs. No, this night wasn't about mana. This night was for behemoth hunting.
Two blocks in, he quickly realized that avoiding the frog men's battle groups would be nearly impossible. With no other squads here, the entire area was swamped with them. He could hear a group making double time, trying to catch up to his scent. Both of the other roads in the fork had frogmen within them already. Before either of them noticed him, he turned around and and headed straight for the group following him.
They met each other around the corner of the block. Ambros summoned Ogre Slayer her full length and brought her up and around in a spin, taking the head of one and landing a long slash with the foot spike across the belly of the other one. His new Body attribute must be helping because he peeled through the armor of the things breastplate like it was a can of tuna. They almost seemed to be moving in slow motion to him too… Had his attributes hit some threshold he didn't know about?
Moving among them, he stabbed, bashed, and slashed past incoming strikes and parries before they could finish them. Throwing one into the air with the foot spike, he spun the Ogre slayer around and stabbed with the top spike. Twirling his body while pulling the Ogre Slayer out, he let the momentum carry the axe head around and managed to decapitate two more frogmen as the body he had thrown up in the air finally landed. Soon enough, there was only him, and the confused-looking battle leader left.
Moving his right leg forward, fainting a stab, made the battle leader take a step back and raise his maul across his body to block or hook the Ogre Slayer. Ambros unsummoned the poleaxe, and before the monster could react, he held onto the maul shaft with both hands. He brought his right knee up between the oversized frog's legs, lifting it a good hand off the ground as he took possession of the maul and, with a great overhand strike, crushed its hunkered over frogs head. Ambros was starting to realize what Eku meant that his attributes were ridiculous. He was stronger and faster than someone with a perfect foundation at twice his level and, for most people, three times his level. It was simply insurmountable for most neophytes to reach his Attribute levels. It would even take an Adept quite a while.
Battle Award
1780 Exp
1930 Sp.
Do you wish to loot the corpses?
Choosing yes, he ignored the next prompt as he heard the two other patrols would soon come around the corner, so he did the natural thing. He went around the corner to say hello.
A long time later, Ambros sat resting on the corner on top of one of the buildings he had cleared. He hadn't found any people yet, but he looted anything that looked half valuable. He was in the middle of the former artisans' quarters, and if they hadn't taken what they could when the evacuation started, they never would. He actually found a limit to what one of his dimensional bags could hold while filling it with steel bars. Good thing he had several spares now. It was his fourth break for the night. His energy simply depleted too fast, but by his count, he had taken out twenty-eight battle group patrols so far. It was a good number, but he had refrained from using his aura on them. In case one of the frogs ran and brought in a new battle group before he was ready. His Mind simply couldn't keep up with his Body, and it was exhausting to go on for longer battles. There clearly was a jump in the attributes once they hit fifty. He wondered what other milestones there were to reach.
Despite all of that, Ambros knew he needed to find a new enemy soon, or he would stagnate. There was only so much he could learn from them. Still, it had brought him to level fifty-nine.
Leaning his head back against the wall, he munched on a piece of steak Frank had sent with him. He couldn't help but smile as he thought of the guy. He had turned the new place into an outback steakhouse, or as close to it as it could be here. No, more fine porcelain and waiters in dresses and suits. Now it was all about big portions, lots of carbs, and lots of meat. Ambros wasn't too unhappy about it, to be honest. He still ate a whole lot, and who didn't like steak, potato, onions, and sides, lots and lots of sides. Well, what he imagined those vegetables to be. They tasted similar enough.
He could hear it getting closer now. In a short while, it would reach the first part of his ambush area. Finishing off the steak he held in his hand, he cleaned himself on a rag and got going. Time to see how stupid he could be.
Standing up, he summoned an arbalest and checked that the bolt box was filled with ripper bolts. He didn't bother with the night vision crystal as he aimed down at a turn in the road where the behemoth was about to appear.
The thing walking into his sight was as massive as ever. This one had a grayish color to its skin. Its enormous legs stomped down the street. The bulbous head with a single large horn sticking straight out of its forehead, the protruding serrated teeth, and the gigantic arms. It was a thing to behold. Behold and grow sick off. He knew from previous encounters that those teeth continued in uneven rows far into its mouth. Having seen them lifting guards of the palisade in one hand and taking a bite, tearing the screaming person in two as it munched on its prize, armor, and all.
Aiming at the joint of its right forward leg, he held in the trigger and watched fifteen ripper bolts fire as fast as he could count out loud. They tore into the joint, part of the behemoth's upper leg, and lower stomach. The chunks of flesh hitting the walls and road sounded like wood against stone. The ripper bolts were designed to penetrate armor and explode, even though the damage he had done was worryingly small. The behemoth's roar was staggering. Before it finished, he could feel the foul breath hit him as far away as he was. If they didn't know something was going on out here in the invaded zone by now, they would have to be deaf.
Ambros loaded another box of ripper bolts and fired fifteen more shots before unsummoning the arbalest. He had to be sure he had the behemoth's attention. It still hadn't seen him, but it did seem to understand where it was being hit from. It was difficult to see through the massive helmet it wore, but he would put good money on it being pissed by now.
Faster than a thing that big should be allowed to move, it was making its way toward the building he was in. Even as it limped with its wounded front leg, it was gaining speed, and anything in its way would be crushed. Four clubs swinging at the ground and walls in wild abandon. Their swings made an unholy symphony tearing through the air, and destruction followed in their wake. It may not know what had hurt it, but it planned to hurt anything in that general direction. He watched its front legs closely and saw the left front leg hit the ice first. The behemoth went sprawling on the thick blank ice he had put down earlier. Taking a standing jump, he moved to the next building across the street and summoned the arbalest. He loaded another box of ripper bolts and emptied it into the closest leg joint as the monster slid across the ice. It crashed into the house Ambros had previously occupied.
The dust made it difficult for him to discern where the behemoth was inside the now freshly ruined building corner. Nevertheless, he loaded another box of ripper bolts on the arbalest and stood ready. The behemoth was clearly bellowing its indignation from within the wreckage. The moment he saw a hint of it, he fired center mass on the angry beast. Reloaded and fired another box into its left front leg again, watching in satisfaction as chunks of dense flesh exploded out of the behemoth's joint. Ambros realized he was smiling. He could see bone. His plan was somewhat working.
The behemoth was staggering out of the building. He couldn't see its face, but its body language told him it was confused. It still did not fully understand what was happening. Just that something was attacking and harming it.
Seeing it limp forward, one of its front legs not working, was the signal he had been waiting for to start part two of behemoth hunting for fun and profit. The profit part was still uncertain since he had no idea what it would be worth.
The enormous beast carefully prodded the ground in front of it with one of its clubs as it made its way out of the mess it had created. One of its front legs was dragging on the ground and not moving at all. It had large chunks of its stomach and chest missing. There was a strange similarity between the clubs and the things lower legs ambros realized. They both ended in flat hard material, almost like a hoof. It would not do, he needed it angry at him, or they would be here all night, and he doubted they had that much time with all the noise that had been made.
Jumping off the building, he landed in the middle of the street of the inward-bound fork across from where the behemoth was making its way forward. It looked up at the sound his landing had made but was met with another barrage of ripper bolts to its arms. Ambros took out his signal crystal and, with a minuscule amount of mana, lit up his own grinning face as he fired another box into the behemoth's upper body. Then he turned tail and ran, making sure to stomp as much as possible. The sound of the beasts bellow reached him moments later, almost deafening him. Still, he ran. He knew that despite its injuries, it would still be fast, faster than him over long distances.
Jumping to the left, he anchored himself to the facade of a building and ran along it until he hit the next fork in the road. Ambros quickly checked other roads, but no more frogmen were on him yet. Turning back to the behemoth, he watched it enter the street at the same building block he was in. Its gait was off, but holy crap, it was still moving like a freight train.
Summoning the arbalest again, he made sure a fresh box was in place and waited. It didn't take long. The behemoth rushing towards him suddenly disappeared with a great splash. Ambros had not taken into account that part of his plan. He was now drenched in water and sand. Putting the arbalest he had been using back, it would definitely need some cleaning and drying. He summoned a new one with a new box of ripper rounds as he made his way toward the beast that was barely able to keep its head over the turbulent water its limbs were making worse by splashing around. Ambros reached out to the water and told its molecules to stop moving. It took a few moments, but he was forcing all of the water at the same time to freeze. Soon there was a layer of fog over the new ice he walked onto. The behemoth's neck and head were sticking out of the ice. From what little he saw of its face, he thought he saw terror, but he couldn't be sure.
Unsommoning the arbalest and summoning Ogre Slayer, he chopped at its neck with all of his power. The axe's head barely penetrated, so he hit again and again until he saw blood leaking from the thing's mouth. He kept hitting until chunks were flying. Like a woodcutter, he took out bigger and bigger parts of the great monster's neck. Somehow it was still alive, and he could feel a slight tremor through the ice from its struggling body. Ambros kept chopping until he suddenly was through, and the head and part of its massive neck rolled off. Its body finally stopped moving.
Battle Award
Skill grade increase: Giant Slayer
80 000 Exp
4 000 000 Sp.
Do you wish to loot the corpse?
He most definitely did. Unsurprisingly the first thing he got was the long straight horn of the behemoth. It screamed trophy, so he looked forward to how Auntie Jess would react to it. He was also given seven platinum coins and an Energy stone half the size of his fist. He knew there were some regulations around them when they reached sizes bigger than large marbles, so he would need to ask Eku about it later. Finally, there was something called a Fortyfying elixir. Using Analyze gave him the feeling of being extremely valuable but not any of its attributes.
All in all, it was a good haul, but he suspected it was not something someone at his rank was supposed to do. Pictures of his squad all shooting at a behemoth with ripper rounds made their way through his mind. It was a bit in the future. They would need to actually become combat effective first, but he would be ordering a whole lot more of the ripper rounds. Taking down one of these beasts every night may not be feasible just yet, but…
Looking down at where the behemoth had been, he walked off the ice. There was cleaning up to do, leaving a patch of quicksand in the middle of a large stretch of the street was bound to end in disaster when the other squads were out hunting again. His proof of concept had worked, however. The behemoth could be taken down by normal people too. Somewhat normal people, at least. It just took planning and time. When people started hearing about the payout, he imagined there were going to be a lot fewer of the hulking monsters around in a few weeks.
Hearing battle groups getting near to his position as he was done filling in the hole in the ground. He could hear them shouting at each other. “Clear! No fight!”, “Clear!”, “Clear! No fight! No Reaper!”, “Dumb dumb Reaper gone, Reaper dead!”. Well, that was ominous, considering he felt very much alive. Looking at the moon, he still had some time, so he felt like being a good samaritan and spreading the happy message.
Much later, as the sun was making its presence known on the horizon, Eku walked out of his villa. He saw a disheveled and rather filthy Ambros sitting and drinking tea on one of the benches by the entrance. With tired eyes, Ambros looked at Eku and said, “We need to talk. Tea?”