The war between Eve Glade and the horde of monsters continued on much to Zeke’s dismay. As the hours passed, he could feel his entire being leaving him, his body yearning for that warmth again as each trickle of mana left his body.
What he learned throughout the next two hours of fighting is that the barrier, while strong and capable to last long, required heavy mana allocation each time it weakened. And each attack severely weakened it as the monsters continued their fervent attacks.
They switched from all out melee to focusing primarily on range attacks. The bulkier of the creatures, looking more like armored crocodiles thanks to their hard scales, were keeping the fighters at bay while the rest of the creatures continued to sling all sorts of projectiles, using what they have on hand to kill the mages, or in this case, him.
He did have a bit of a laugh when that same Big Boss Monkey threw a wolf at him, causing the wolf to land straight on the wall like a bird hitting the window. It slid down to the ground, only to get skewered by the surrounding soldiers.
It was a dry chuckle, though, as the situation seemed hopeless as the horde just kept coming.
“How long does this last?” Zeke eventually asked, his voice hoarse and his face turning pale at the times his mana pool kept decreasing and increasing. The mages around him gladly kept giving him their Mana potions, considering he had the most priority. He liked the potions at least, but this was becoming hard on his mental state.
“This is the first time the horde kept going for so long,” The mage that talked to him, named Phil, spoke. “I think the past weeks were just them preparing for this.”
“Can you keep up?” The female mage, Lisa, spoke to Zeke. “If you can’t, let us know. We can escape from here.”
“If we do that, won’t the monsters follow us?” Zeke said, already figuring out what would happen if they did that. “And won’t they go even crazier if the barrier is put down?”
“That’s…” Lisa’s eyes darted away, looking over at the situation herself. She didn’t look all that convinced of the plan now.
“Don’t worry!” Phil shouted, gripping his fist to show confidence, then pointed downwards. “We got the captain with us! Look, she’s already doing massive damage control!”
Zeke looked down his direction, only to find that not only was Val going in to reduce the numbers with her sword, but the other soldiers were following along.
And none other than Mikella was right in there, somehow even more active than ever before.
She really wants to fight, huh? Zeke thought, shaking his head. He should consider this as a way to get stronger like she is, rather than getting worried at his body decreasing mana consistently.
Swallowing some air and letting a big breath out, he kept his barrier up, making sure that at least the mages get properly protected, but in the back of his mind, he didn’t know just how long this was going to last.
…..
Mikella roared as she cut apart every monster around the bulky crocodiles. While Val was trying to keep the bigger monsters off, Mikella could at least take out the smaller creatures that were just an annoyance to Val at this rate.
Myra and the other soldiers followed along, taking out the other monsters that just seem to be increasing in numbers. This was by far the largest number of monsters she faced, and apparently everyone else figured that as well.
But what made Mikella riddled with anger were these damn monsters trying to kill Zeke. Who the hell do they think they are, actually capable of thought and trying to take down their support mage as their number one priority?
She didn’t care that Myra told her that even monsters could tell which is the real threat, often aiming for healers and buffers alike in a battlefield. She only cared to take down that bastard monkey that threw the first punch, or first log so to speak, which ended up making the horde focus entirely on the mages at the back.
Their entire formation changed as well now that the emergency shelter Zeke made disappeared the moment he was attacked. It made sense, as not only Zeke was distracted to try and save himself and the other mages, it was also a chance for the monsters to go after the injured soldiers.
Some of the monsters figured out that doing so would give them some sweet kills, but that’s when Val exploded into anger and ripped them apart.
She held back, wanting to try and let the soldiers gain XP, but this time she had no other choice but to intervene. However, Mikella noticed that Val wasn’t fighting at her best, despite her being at Journeyman stage.
She didn’t know why, but she figured that Val would have an easy time taking out the crocodile monsters that, despite trying to identify them, turned up with question marks like that stupid monkey.
But her strikes, while powerful, could only kill one crocodile at a time. Then another would come in seemingly out of nowhere, causing more distress for the soldiers.
These crocodile monsters weren’t focused on offense. Much like the beefed up monkey, these quadrupedal crocodiles were large like buses, and their scales were hard as steel. They didn't even bother attacking as they instead just chomped at everything that came close to them and stayed put.
It pissed Mikella off to no end, knowing full well that if this kept up, Zeke would run out of mana. Val already ordered ahead to go all out to protect the mages, but there was only so much mana Zeke could use. She kept killing one monster after another, not even caring just how many resources she was spending to do so.
> Hawk Eyes Level Up! It is now Level 3.
>
> You have gained +2 STR from your skill.
> You have gained +1 DEX from your skill.
Her Hawk Eyes were on full display, even giving her eyes an aching feeling, a headache nearly killing her each hour. The information overload along with the resources spent was causing her eyes to dry up considerably.
But she didn’t care. There were only two things that were on her mind right now. Zeke, who was trying his hardest to keep up with the protection, only having a limited amount of mana to keep himself alive.
Then there was Clara.
If Zeke fails, the monsters will come into town. The mages were still the ones doing population control, but if they died due to him losing his barriers, then the monsters would overwhelm the soldiers on the ground and head straight into the town.
If Zeke is down, then the townspeople are next. Then who will protect Clara?
With those two thoughts in mind, Mikella rushed ahead, more than ever before. She didn’t care if pain riddled her right leg as something sliced her thigh, blood smearing all over her left arm as something gored her arm. She didn’t care at all.
> You have gained +1 DEX from your actions.
>
> You have gained +2 VIT from your actions.
>
> You have gained +1 END from your actions.
…..
> Pain Resistance Level Up! It is now Level 5.
>
> You have gained +1 VIT from your skill.
> You have gained +1 END from your skill.
…..
> Kinetic Perception Level Up! It is now Level 3
>
> You have gained +1 DEX from your skill.
> You have gained +1 END from your skill.
…..
> Acrobatics Level Up! It is now Level 4.
>
> You have gained +1 STR from your skill.
> You have gained +2 DEX from your skill.
She only cared about one thing–she wanted to kill every monster around her. Her sword practically roared in in response to her will.
…..
Zeke’s mental energy focused as his headache only increased. He gritted his teeth when he saw another boulder coming after him, landing straight onto his enforced barrier. The shock was enough to cause it to crack in places, but Zeke repaired the damage instantly with his casting, causing the cracks on the wall to disappear instantly.
Another bountiful amount of mana wasted, and the closer his Mana pool reached to zero. At this point, he didn’t bother asking as he just took a potion near his side and drank the contents. The sudden rush of Mana entering his system was a bygone feeling now, and all he wished was to just end the fighting.
The mages were constantly under bombardment, and even their mana ran out at some point during the fight, with Zeke hogging all the Mana potions to himself. He felt guilty, but none of the mages complained as they instead picked up a bow to shoot arrows at the creatures outside of his barrier’s range. It was proven already that he was the only target as the mages turned archers weren’t even targeted anymore.
He also spared a bit of Mana to ensure that none of the monsters had the gall to enter through the entrance of the ramparts, with the wood barricading already destroyed some time ago.
But Zeke knew he was running out of time. That was the last mana potion he drank, and his mana pool was already reaching halfway. He knew he had to do something, but he had no idea what to do.
Mikella and the other soldiers were still fighting the droves of monsters that were going after them. There was a small number left, but the ones left over were the huge monsters that seemed enhanced somehow, at least to Phil’s eyes after making a comment about it. There were occasions where a powerful monster would come in, and those monsters would reach around level 40 and above.
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Zeke’s mind whirled at the idea that level 40 creatures came in, and more than a few at a time came by now. The only reason why they were alive is because Val was fighting them off while the rest were fighting the smallfries.
He thought harder on what to do, first relaying the facts. He was the target, and if he was the target, it made sense that they would attack him, causing untold damage to the ramparts in the meanwhile. He should move away then.
But where? That question only brought him to imagine running everywhere around the ramparts, causing all other sorts of damage to everything around him. Even worse, if he loses his focus even once, his barriers would break. His own death wouldn’t be the end–everyone would die thanks to his failure.
There was nowhere to run, but if he kept this up, the projectiles would just keep hammering away at the ramparts, causing more deaths. These two were his only options. Then… an idea struck him.
There were only two ways to go about this, but whoever said he only needed to be at the ramparts? Or on the ground for that matter?
He knew it was stupid, to say the least. However, the only possible outcome was that only he gets to be targeted, and if it worked–nobody else would get hurt. If he got lucky, perhaps he might take out a monster or two.
There was only one place he could go to do so… but does he have the guts to do it?
Looking down at Mikella, her body smeared in blood as she furiously sliced apart every monster in her wake. She wasn’t doing it for the fun and the levels–she was fighting to survive.
Not just for her sake, but for Zeke, and especially for Clara He made his decision then.
Besides, doesn’t he have the Trailblazer title for this exact reason?
So, he stepped over the rampart’s walls, causing Phil and Lisa to look at him in shock.
“Hey, Zeke! What do you think you’re doing?!” Phil shouted, ready to grab him by the arm to pull him back in.
“What I should’ve done a while ago!”
Zeke said these last words before conjuring several small barriers forming like panels up above the bigger barrier protecting them. He stepped over them like stairs, just like how he did it to see the town from far away.
It was a definitely scary experience, but it brought so much fortune to them that Zeke knew this was his best bet. Once he got over his barrier, the monsters took notice, as well as every single person who saw a man actually walking up towards the air.
Zeke kept going up. He conjured barrier panel after barrier panel into the sky, not caring at all about the height. After each foot higher, he could feel all the eyes burning through him, making some of the soldiers below gasp in horror.
But that also meant that the monsters stopped launching attacks at the ramparts. Just as he predicted, the monsters changed direction to the sky to find him walking up into the air.
He soon stopped right at the very center of the clearing, or rather, right above the enemy lines. The monsters roared in defiance, trying to bring up more projectiles from around them.
That’s when Zeke opened up his Status page. Throughout the times he leveled up thanks to Mikella’s constant killing, he put all of his points into Spirit.
> You have gained +1 DEX from your actions.
>
> You have gained +2 INT from your actions.
>
> You have gained +2 SPI from your actions.
…..
> Mana Perception Level Up! It is now Level 6.
>
> You have gained +1 INT from your skill.
> You have gained +1 SPI from your skill.
…..
> Barrier Craft Level Up! It is now Level 6.
>
> You have gained +1 INT from your skill.
> You have gained +2 SPI from your skill.
…..
> Level up! You are now Level 13. You gain 6 free points (6 FP total).
>
> You have gained +3 DEX from your class.
> You have gained+3 INT from your class.
> You have gained +3 SPI from your class.
…..
> Name: Zeke Parlow (Death Swindler)
> Race: Human
> Runist: Level 13
> STR: 6
> DEX: 20
> INT: 30
> SPI: 46
> VIT: 16
> END: 17
> Free Points: 0
>
> General Skills:
> Mana Perception (U) Level 6
> Runecraft (U) Level 1
> Internal Senses (U) Level 1
> Pain Resistance (U) Level 4
> Meditation (C) Level 3
>
> Acquired Skills:
> Barrier Craft (R) Level 6
> Recovery (R) Level 2
>
> Class Skills:
> Runic Library Level 1
>
> Title Skill:
> Not Today (T), Level 1 (Maxed)
He wasn’t at all surprised at these skill notifications. Considering he spent nearly all his mana time and again using Barrier Craft, he would feel cheated if it hasn’t even leveled. Still, he thanked Mikella’s hard work as it helped alleviate his mana expenditure not just with his Spirit attribute, but also with the barrier skill itself and Mana Perception.
Which was a good thing because now the projectiles came right for him. Some were launched too low, and some were too far away to even hit him. And those that did hit him were stopped by his barrier the moment they came too close, breaking them and losing their momentum doing so.
With this, he didn’t have to spend so much Mana reinforcing his barrier, while at the same time, allowing his mana to tick slowly upwards thanks to his recent gains. His barrier protecting the town was also still there, but now they weren’t using a crazy amount of Mana like before. But that wasn’t the only thing he had in mind.
No, this is where his crazy plan of nearly making himself the bait comes into fruition. Those rocks, logs, and all kinds of forest debris thrown at him didn’t just miss their target–each projectile lost to the might of gravity, causing them to fall down straight at the monsters below him.
The big monsters that helped throw the debris didn’t give a shit about the smaller monsters getting bombarded with their own fallen projectiles, even outright killing an unlucky few. Zeke could only laugh in victory after seeing his crazy plan work–especially thanks to the notifications telling him of his own kills despite doing nothing but protecting against attacks.
He laughed maniacally at the poor monsters. But then he stopped when he finally noticed Mikella staring daggers at him. Now he wished he thought of a better plan.
…..
“What is that idiot doing?!”
That was the first question Mikella shouted when she saw Zeke, of all people, running towards the sky using his barriers as a staircase. At first, she feared that Zeke was actually crazy enough to join the fight.
Then, he kept going up, and up, and further up into the sky. She was totally confused as to the reasoning, and even feared that the constant mana usage was messing with his head, which was a very possible thing.
But then he stopped just above the enemy line, beyond the soldier’s fighting at the front. Each soldier looked up at him as though he lost his mind, and rightfully so as all the projectiles were now aiming for him.
But some of the projectiles missed entirely, and some that did hit were stopped by a sudden barrier that broke upon impact, but didn’t reach Zeke at all. Instead, those very same projectiles were now making the fights easy as each one landed right around the monsters, often landing and crushing the monsters underneath.
Soon everything started to click in her mind. While his plan was the very definition of reckless, she had to agree that this was probably the best course of action. It was possible that even doing so would help his mana consumption. She remembered Zeke telling her that creating a powerful barrier to withstand a strong attack, then restoring it, takes more mana than simply making a barrier to stop an attack and breaking entirely.
That normally doesn’t stop the attack entirely, just lessens the impact. But gravity was playing its role well as once the projectiles were stopped by the barrier once, physics forced them to drop to the ground instead of continuing the force. It was a crazy, but incredibly effective plan.
Even so, she wants to throttle his neck the moment he comes down. That is a promise she made to herself as she glared at Zeke. She could tell that Zeke noticed it and quickly looked away like a little bitch.
“Your hubby’s crazy!” Myra shouted to her side, unable to keep her eyes off the air-borne mage despite stabbing her sword straight into a distracted monster. “But it looks like his plan is working!”
“I know!” Mikella groaned in either pride or reluctance. Even she couldn't tell. “If he doesn’t die up there, I’ll kill him when he gets down!”
Myra only laughed maniacally as now the soldiers were invigorated by Zeke’s plan. They kept going after the distracted monsters, finally turning the tide against the horde.
…..
This is what I get for underestimating the enemy forces. Now, Zeke has to take the lead…
Val chided herself for her lack of awareness of the battlefield as she dealt another deathblow to the Dire Crocobeast in front of her. The beast’s corpse fell, the captain following up with another strike to the next Crocobeast coming after her.
If she had to say something about this situation, it’s that the monsters sure know how to get under her skin. After two whole weeks of non-fighting, it brought their soldiers to an exhaustive state, not knowing when they would fight. Once they did, they went all out, even bringing intelligence Expert monsters into the mix.
She hated the fact even more after reducing her power to create the Sphere of Inheritance along with her husband. Thanks to that, her level and stats were reduced to the point where she can’t even beat these Crocobeasts in one hit whose only power is their tough scales and Endurance.
It wasn’t like she could read the future. She wasn’t a mage specializing in divining fate and neither was Cloud. How the hell she would’ve known a crazy amount of monsters would come to their town ready for slaughter? That certainly wasn’t what she signed up for nearly two decades ago. She knew she should’ve done it earlier, halving her power for Ana–but she was nervous about losing her power all of a sudden.
And now it finally happened–at the worst time in her life.
She gritted her teeth as she felt her pools decreasing faster than normal. Her body was acting slower than she wished, and her skills were lacking their usual depth. During training, this sort of thing was ignored, but in an intense battle, that’s where her lack of power truly showed.
She hated to admit it, but Zeke’s plan to become bait up in the air was a good one. Not only are the Expert-ranked monsters slaughtering their own comrades, it made defending the ramparts easier, even letting some of the injured soldiers who were caught unaware to return inside. The healers were also taken in, now that the emergency barrier was down.
But that was enough. As she killed another Dire Crocobeast, she turned her sight to the one in charge, the Big Boss Monkey. She also noticed that her protege, both Myra and even Mikella, were doing well in taking down the low rank monsters around her. She did notice that Mikella was doing rather well, but also feared that she was taking on a lot of things at once.
She shook her head–she can blame herself all she wants later. Right now, she aimed towards the monkey leader, hoping that would end the horde sooner.
But then something caught her eye, making her pale. Another array of monsters were coming out, and this time there were more Expert monsters in the distance.
She wasn’t sure whether the other provinces were instigating all this or it was just all bad luck on their part. But it wasn’t so shocking that in these wild areas not governed by the higher powers, monsters are a lot more rampant and can easily overpopulate if left alone for too long. However, the numbers were just too much.
And what’s worse–they spotted the barrier mage up top, as though they were told beforehand. She also noticed that some of the monsters were not the bulky types, but magical ones, capable of shooting powerful spells at them.
She cursed herself. She cursed her foolish mindset. She cursed this bad foresight of hers. But no matter how much she cursed, it won’t change the present.
She wasn’t sure whether the other side was in as bad of a shape as they were, but Val couldn’t care anymore. She opened up the tiny pack–not the storage bag that the two otherworlders had, but a normal one–and took out a small circular coin.
It shimmered under the Studded Star’s dimming light, riddled with ingrained runes meant to call someone–someone who made it in the first place and was given to her. It was a coin melted with a type of metal that made inscribing runes easier, but it’ll wither away once used.
“Cloud, I need your help,” Val said to the coin, infusing her will into the mana within. With that, the tiny lines that made up the coin evaporated, using up the magic within. Now it was just a useless coin whose only purpose is to look pretty.
She looked back at the horde, her frown deepening. Now she only had to wait.
Wait and hope that the soldiers would survive before then.