The new wave of real Orukthyri tore through our disorganized front lines like lightning splitting a tree. I winced as I heard the meaty crunch of our soldiers dying. The front lines had already been a disorganized mess as they had worked to surround the Orukthyri and drag them to the ground, and our soldiers hadn’t been given any time at all to regroup. While the soldiers were doing their best to hold down the new threat and protect the spellcasters, they were struggling with this new group of more well-trained and organized Orukthyri. They were taking far more casualties per second than before, which was already causing the second rank of troops to become dangerously depopulated.

Worse, a few spellcasters had died to Orukthyri ranged enemies as well. Many spellcasters had emptied out their reserves on the wave of illusions, and plenty of others were down a spell or two, making it hard to protect themselves and kill the invaders. Boulders and massive logs whizzed through the air, and while our casters were quickly hiding behind the shields of nearby soldiers, the Orukthyri had temporarily thrown our ranged support into disarray.

“There! Do you see him?” Asked Sallia, pointing at something behind the Orukthyri throwers and breaking me out of my shock.

Had Sallia noticed something? I eyed our exhausted spellcasters, and felt a sliver of hope return to my heart. Even though things looked bad, perhaps there was still a way to turn this around.

I scanned the Orukthyri ranks and noticed that, standing a bit behind the new Orukthyri throwers and spellcasters was another Orukthyri. Unlike the other Orukthyri, who strongly resembled humanoid boulders, this Orukthyri was much smaller and slimmer. He was almost the same size as an adult Orthanoid, and had blue skin instead of chalk-gray skin. He held a large wooden staff in place of a warbow. It looked more like a walking stick than a proper weapon. However, far more dangerous was the gleam of intelligence in its eyes. It occasionally barked orders at the throwers and spellcasters, causing the warband to display a level of coordination Orukthyri shouldn’t have been capable of. Each barrage of boulders and spells targeted spots where our troops were managing to gather together and coordinate again, frying any attempts at making our front line effective as anything other than meat shields.

“I think he’s their commander,” said Sallia. “Or at the very least, he’s important. If we can kill him, maybe we can swing the battle back in our favor,” she said. Truthfully, Sallia didn’t sound that confident. It seemed as if the commander had been the one that created the illusion, but… he was probably nearly out of alteration essence now. His illusions wouldn’t be able to play another big role in the battle.

Even if his personal strength wasn’t very high, he was still the one giving orders to the other Orukthyri. Perhaps killing him could give us a chance. Our spellcasters were nearly exhausted, but they still had some magic left.

It was a chance. A slim one, but a chance.

I checked my alteration reserves, and cursed. I had less than a quarter of my essence left: nowhere near enough to kill the commander with an extinguish. I wished I had realized that the Orukthyri had a commander, and saved a proper extinguish for it. However, it was too late. I didn’t have enough alteration essence left to instantly kill it.

Then, I saw Sallia grinning at me, and felt a flash of realization.

I may not have enough alteration essence left to extinguish the commander, but I wasn’t fighting alone.

On my own, I couldn’t make a difference. But Sallia had access to stealth from her fourth rune ability, and could supercharge her physical abilities using her sixth rune ability, her attunement, and her spells. She definitely wouldn’t be able to fight for long: but she might be able to deliver a swift assassination and retreat safely. I could help by hitting it with an extinguish right beforehand.

“Let’s see if we can kill this thing. I plan to sneak my way over. After that, can the three of you coordinate with me and hit it with everything you can muster?” asked Sallia. “If Miria extinguishes it with the rest of her shaping essence, it should be weakened enough that the other attacks will get through its skin. Then Felix and Anise can hit it with a few distractions, and then I’ll try to finish it off. Can you do it?”

Felix paused for a moment, looking at the commander, and then nodded. “I’ll do my best. I only have an intermediate weapon skill, though. So I’m not sure if I’ll be able to hit a weak point.”

“Just do your best,” said Sallia. “What about you, Anise?”

“I’ll do my best to distract it!” said Anise, who had a strange mixture of fear and excitement in her voice as she looked at the Orukthyri leader. “I can at least hit it with a few third circle spells!”

“Stay safe!” Said Sallia. “I don’t want you guys to get hurt.”

Then, she ducked to the side, and with a surge of absorption essence, her body seemed to blend into the shadows of the cave wall. After a few moments, I completely lost track of her.

I grinned. With how chaotic the battlefield was, it was very easy to lose track of where one person was. If anyone could kill the Orukthyri commander in the middle of his own troops, it would be her.

I shuffled closer to Anise and Felix. Now that Sallia was gone, defending my friends was up to me. Luckily, as long as I was standing in front of my friends, I could use my dress to protect them.

Then, I glanced towards the front lines again, and winced.

Things were not looking good for the front lines. This group of Orukthyri was much smarter than the last batch. They weren’t just charging blindly. Instead, they had fallen into a formation. Ten Orukthyri stood side by side, filling up an entire row of the cave. They were carefully retreating whenever our soldiers got too close to them, and advancing whenever our soldiers retreated. This kept them just out of reach of our soldiers, making it hard for our soldiers to drag them down and swarm them. Instead of allowing our soldiers to leverage their numbers, they were simply smashing the front line over and over again with their tree-clubs. Due to the massive arm strength of the Orukthyri, the soldiers were quickly dying.

A scattered volley of fourth-circle spells hammered the Orukthyri troop wall, dropping several of them, but there were too many Orukthyri. Worse, some of the Orukthyri were smart enough to use their trees as shields. Even if that usually destroyed their tree club, the Orukthyri were almost as terrifying with just their bare fists. And many of our spellcasters were already exhausted.

More missiles rained on our back line, and I noticed that our spells were getting more and more sparse. Our final fourth-circle spellcasters were running out of essence.

I looked at the Overseer, hoping that he had another seventh-circle spell up his sleeves. Wasn’t it rumored that he was an eighth circle spellcaster? That should mean he had another two or three seventh circle spells up his sleeve. If he used just one more copy of that giant sun spell, we could remove the Orukthyri front lines and peel away the older ones. But he seemed just as worried as I felt, although it looked like he was desperately trying to coax his face into an impassive mask. However, he wasn’t doing a very good job of it.

Lauren yelled something I couldn’t quite make out, before he dodged to the side of the cave. But even though I couldn’t hear what Lauren had said, I did feel him start to gather manifestation essence, stringing together magic symbols like a precise machine.

In raw speed, I suspected that Lauren was actually faster than the overseer. I felt a glimmer of hope again.

We still had at least a few casters who could use sixth circle spells. Thus far, our sixth circle spellcasters hadn’t done much: it had mostly been the fifth and fourth circle spellcasters tossing volley after volley of spells into the Orukthyri front lines. Even though most of our spellcasters were exhausted, maybe if Sallia eliminated the Orukthyri general and then we followed up with a volley of sixth-circle spells, there was still a chance.

It would still be incredibly difficult. Without the support of most of our fourth-circle spellcasters, I doubted a few sixth-circle spells would change the course of the battle. But it was all the hope I had left.

Out of the corners of my eye, I saw several of the Orukthyri spellcasters look at Lauren, and then yell something at the Orukthyri commander. The commander barked out an order, and several of the ranged Orukthyri focused on Lauren moments later. Lauren paled, and dove to the side, before he swapped to casting a fifth circle spell I recognized.

Our few remaining spellcasters realized that they didn’t have enough mana to change the outcome of the battle. They barely had any essence left, and things were desperate. The few of them that still mana left tossed a few fourth-circle spells in front of Lauren, buying him just enough time to raise his own fifth-circle shield spell.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Immediately afterward, the other two sixth circle spellcasters moved next to Lauren. Even if three spellcasters probably couldn’t change the course of the battle, it was the last hope we had.

Then, Lauren and the two spellcasters began building their own spells. They didn’t look at the trembling fifth-circle spell protecting them, as if they were trying not to think about how thin the wall separating them from death truly was.

Meanwhile, the front lines continued to collapse like a house of cards.

The Orukthyri seemed to find a weakness, and gleefully charged into the the second rank of soldiers. Like a dam collapsing, the front lines seemed to fold into layers of screams and crashes. Most of our spellcasters were well and truly out of essence now, and there wasn’t much they could do anymore. Like a flood, the Orukthyri ripped apart the second rank and started flooding into the third, before they started to reform their formation. The Orukthyri warriors were getting closer.

Meanwhile, the Orukthyri throwers and spellcasters were almost solely focused on our spellcasters now. Our front lines stood no chance of surviving on their own, so the throwers and spellcasters were just focused on taking down the last spellcasters that still seemed to be active. In this case, Lauren and the other two sixth-circle spellcasters.

They were nearly through the shields, and I felt my anxiety deepen. Things looked very bad, and if Lauren and the other two didn’t finish their spells soon, they would die.

Moments later, Lauren completed his spell. Immediately, a large film of force spread throughout the area, and the Orukthyri warrior charge stopped dead in its tracks. About a third of the Orukthyri warriors had stopped: however, all of the frozen Orukthyri warriors were in the front of their group. With them blocking the way, the other Orukthyri couldn’t get to the fight, causing the entire front line to get stuck.

The boulders and spells sent by the Orukthyri ranged units clattered off of the film of magic energy. Right now, their ranged units could barely interfere with the fight, and our soldiers had a window of time where the Orukthyri warriors could barely move.

“The spell won’t hold for long! Make the most of the time you have!” Yelled Lauren, and I could hear echoes of strain in his voice. However, I could also hear a sense of pride.

Even though Lauren’s spell was mostly geared towards self-defence, it was could buy time for the other two spellcasters to finish their spells, and it might buy our warriors time to kill a few Orukthyri.

However, I could see that the manifestation Essence in Lauren’s spell was being rapidly depleted. It was a spell meant to hold off one or two major threats while the spellcaster escaped, or hold off a cave in until the user was rescued.

It was not meant to stop nearly forty magic-resistant Orukthyri dead in the middle of a charge while another thirty spellcasters and throwers hammered at the spell from afar.

Still, at least for now, it was holding out.

I glanced at the Orukthyri back line again, hoping to see Sallia. If she could assassinate the Orukthyri commander right now, maybe we could bluff the Orukthyri into retreating.

I felt a bit of impatience rise up, and after a moment of hesitation, I tossed a Crude Fireball at the eyeball of one of the Orukthyri in the front lines. Since they were fighting to move under Lauren’s spell, killing them would help his spell last longer. And as they were frozen, hitting their weak points wasn’t that hard.

My spell dug into the Orukthyri’s eyes, and it screeched in pain. Anise quickly added a few of her own spells. Even though she only had access to third circle spells, when the Orukthyri was a sitting duck, hitting its weak points was easier. Several archers picked up on what we were doing, and started shooting into the eyes of the same Orukthyri, or targeting a few others. While their accuracy wasn’t perfect, at least a few arrows managed to scratch the Orukthyri’s eyes instead of bouncing off of their skin. Anise followed up with three fireballs, and finally, our target’s eye started to deform under the constant attacks. I glanced at the Orukthyri front line, and, seeing that they were still stuck, I quickly ran forward. I took the opportunity to burn a huge amount of absorption essence, temporarily strengthening my body to its limit, and then stabbed it right in its ruined eye.

Since its rock-hard skin was already on the brink of collapse, I found that my blade didn’t struggle to sink into its skin. It felt almost as easy as cutting into regular human flesh, and my blade quickly sank all the way through its eye and into its brain.

The Orukthyri died.

I debated hitting another Orukthyri, but decided to keep the rest of my essence in case of an emergency. I had burned through nearly a third of my absorption essence with that attack, and I didn’t want to be distracted when Sallia made her move.

One of the other two sixth-circle spellcasters finished their spells, and a beam of blue light launched itself towards the Orukthyri spellcasters, before hitting the tunnel floor and exploding. Ice spikes sprayed in every direction, cutting through Orukthyri spellcasters and throwers like they were soggy paper.

Perhaps seven Orukthyri throwers and casters were killed by the spell, and another few were injured. However, the injured Orukthyri quickly got back up, ignoring their wounds.

I started to feel my tension ratchet up again. Killing seven Orukthyri with one spell was good, but it was also one of our last spells for the fight. And it had done nowhere near enough to win the battle for us. There were still too many Orukthyri left.

Before I could think more about that, I saw something flicker just behind the Orukthyri lines. I saw Sallia materialize out of thin air, and she locked eyes with me from across the battlefield. I grinned and nodded.

She sprang towards the Orukthyri leader, wielding her Market-made sword.

I spent all of my alteration essence, and felt my head start to pound as I suddenly ran out of my primary essence.

A drop of water appeared right above the Orukthyri commander, before hitting its head. Extinguish immediately robbed nearly a third of its life force.

It didn’t die on the spot. However, its body wobbled, and it very nearly faceplanted into the ground. Its commanding grunts stopped ringing through the cavern, and the commander looked weak for a moment.

Seeing their chance, Felix and Anise sent twin attacks at the Orukthyri leader. Felix’s arrow wasn’t quite on-target, but Anise’s fireball slammed directly into one of the Orukthyri Commander’s eyes. The creature winced in pain, and blinked a few times.

Ella seemed to have noticed what was happening, and she also turned her attention towards the Orukthyri leader. It doubled over for a moment, lost in a haze of pain as she pressured its mind with her attunement.

Felix’s arrow bounced off of its cheek a moment later, giving it the equivalent of a papercut.

And then Sallia’s sword sank its neck. Unlike the other times Sallia had tried stabbing an Orukthyri, this thing was already seriously weakened by my and Ella’s attack, and Anise’s fireball had fully dragged its attention towards us. Sallia’s sword sank into its neck, ripping into arteries and muscles.

The Orukthyri leader seemed shocked, and held its hands up to its neck. It gurgled wetly, and then, ignoring its fatal injuries, suddenly flickered. For a moment, its movement sped up, well beyond what I could track, and then I completely lost sight of it.

Sallia’s eyes widened as she was tossed into a cave wall by a dying Orukthyri commander, and I heard a few things snap. Sallia gasped in pain, before she activated her absorption essence rune and disappeared.

The Orukthyri commander was still gasping in pain, and it looked like it might die soon. However, it didn’t seem worried about its impending death. Its eyes scanned over our soldiers, and a savage rage seemed to set its eyes alight.

It pointed at the overseer and gurgled wetly a few times. However, its commands weren’t getting through very well. Its throat was just too damaged to enunciate its words clearly. None of the other Orukthyri seemed to be able to make out what it was saying.

But it didn’t matter.

Another Orukthyri hit Lauren’s already nearly-depleted spell with a boulder, followed up by a final wave of massive boulders and spells.

Lauren’s spell collapsed. The throwers and spellcasters immediately seized the opportunity, killing all three spellcasters, including the sixth-circle spellcaster that hadn’t completed their spell yet.

My eyes widened as Lauren turned into splattered gore in front of my eyes.

With a cracking sound, the Orukthyri on the front lines finished ripping into the third rank of soldiers. I felt a desperate sob build up in my throat.

It didn’t matter anymore. Even if the commander died right now, it wouldn’t change a thing. Over half of the trained Orukthyri were left, and all we had left were a bunch of exhausted troops and spellcasters. Even if the third sixth-circle spellcaster had finished his spell, it probably wouldn’t have changed anything.

We had no way to turn the battle around. We probably hadn’t had a chance the moment the overseer wasted his seventh-circle spell to kill a bunch of illusions.

Another wave of boulders and spells fell upon the area the Overseer had been overseeing the battle.

Moments later, I smelled burning Orthanoid. The Overseer and his retinue of exhausted spellcasters died too.

From a few meters away, I saw Ella’s eyes widen as she took in the corpse of Lauren and the two sixth-circle spellcasters.

She glanced at our front lines, who were still desperately trying to hold back the remaining Orukthyri warriors, and then looked at the relatively healthy Orukthyri backlines, and then looked at our devastated spellcasters. There weren’t many left alive, and almost nobody had any essence left.

It took a few moments before the first spellcaster on our side turned around and started running. Morale collapsed.

Sallia reappeared right next to me. Her arm was broken, but she looked better than I had feared

“Sallia! Grab Anise! Miria, grab Felix! We’re running!” Barked Ella, before she helped haul Anise to her feet. I hadn’t even noticed when Anise had been knocked down.

I immediately picked up Felix, using my powerful body to shoulder his weight, and Sallia picked up Anise with her good arm.

Then, we began running towards the city, fleeing the approaching Orukthyri horde.

We had lost the battle.