VOLUME 1
- CHAPTER 34 -
ONE HUNDRED TO ONE
I think that was it.
Part of me was still afraid of going near her body to retrieve my dagger, so I didn’t risk it and circled around it just to be safe.
But since she got decapitated, she hasn’t moved an inch.
So… Adiana really is dead. Our mission to kill their commander was a success.
Maybe our next target should be that white-cloaked girl, but where is she? Did she escape?
It doesn’t matter now, we need to retreat and heal ourselves. We can search later, then finally kill her too.
I walk over to Apaw.
“Nice one. Clean hit.”
Apaw nods, his face coming pale as his legs lose the strength to stand, I quickly manage to take his arm over my shoulder to catch him.
The healing potion I gave him didn’t grow his missing arm back, all it did was leave a closed scar as if it had happened years ago.
Looking at his health, it is full, so there’s no healing over that, it seems.
“Tasah! You awake?! You can lift the barrier, come here!”
The wet sheepkin trembles from cold in a protective fetal position over the grass, trying his best to hide his presence inside his egg-shaped barrier.
Tasah: “Is-Is it ov-over?”
“It’s phase two! Do you remember what you need to do?”
Tasah freezes for a second before nodding as fast as his trembling.
“Come closer then! I’ll signal it.”
Tasah makes his yellow magic barrier disappear and he crawls on his four limbs while quickly glancing at the enemies encircling us.
Tasah: “B-But wh-what about th-them? Wh-why are th-they all st-standing?”
I grab the firework sack off my inventory, half ignoring what Tasah just said, but after looking around, I halt with a doubtful frown.
The outnumbering demon soldiers encircling us weren’t advancing to an attack, nor retreating for that matter. They only stared at the head of their commander in shock, not a fear-type of shock but out of surprise, a mix of uncertainty and a lifting weight off their backs.
The rainfall decreases slightly.
Before closing my inventory, I take out a health potion as well. Something deep inside was telling me that I would need that.
That’s when it suddenly started.
A distant drum muffled by the rain, a slow-paced dull metallic sound. The first one I see doing it is a three-meter orc hitting his chest plate, the others don’t even flinch their stare forward to repeat that motion.
One by one, the unorganized beat increase in number, their speed becoming gradually faster, its sound growing stronger and stronger. So strong in fact, that their armor began to bend to their fists, some iron plates dropping to the ground and breaking apart. And with it, they began to giggle.
“What the hell is going on?”
I, Tasah, and Apaw look each other’s back, the sheepkin still sitting on the ground without being able to stand. The beating becomes more numerous than the raindrops falling from the sky and the surrounding giggles transform themselves into open-mouthed waves of laughter.
The only ones that aren’t in the commotion are the dark elves, all dark-clothed and human-looking with pointy ears. They retreat from the encirclement with fearful steps while nervously sweating below their hoods, hands gripping the dark metal collars at their necks, one which all invaders had.
I drink my health potion wary to not break visual contact with the enemy. Once I finish it, the cut in the middle of my chest regenerates completely, the cloth and skin going back to their normal state.
“Your commander is dead!” – I swing the empty flask at the descending raindrops. – “Will you keep fighting us, or surrender!?”
But instead of responding, their laughter only grew stronger, the soldiers that were marching near joining the racket from the background.
“Tsk. What the fuck is this?”
Apaw: “… I’ve read this before… I think it’s their culture.”
I look at the weary face of the wolfkin on my side.
“Culture?”
Apaw: “It’s just some old tale book I’ve read once, so I didn’t know if it was true but… the orcs… they beat on their chest and laugh as hard as they can when they are happy.”
“Happy? Why they are happy?”
I drop the empty flask and unsheathe one of my daggers, the confusing chaos going over my head as anger.
“What the fuck you are happy about!? Is this funny!? Do you think that your commander being killed by me is something to laugh at!? I want to see you guys try it then!! GO ON! STEP FORWARD! WHY DON’T YOU TRY ME FOR YOURSELVES!?!?”
Only by screaming louder than their mad laughter that they begin to control themselves, gradually going down to hidden giggles. Even though they don’t stop completely, the three-meter tall Orc I saw beating his chest first steps forward, breaking the stale encirclement.
My dagger points at him, to no effect whatsoever.
[Yokate Orc, Shadow Army’s Lieutenant (Level 102)]
The Orc halts at his own will, and in a trembling hum, he opens his mouth to speak.
Yokate: “Funny human. Funny wolfy. Funny sheepy.”
The orc stops, trying to remember what he was going to say. He looks at the dead body of his commander and a grin comes to his face.
Yokate: “Funny. That is funny.” – He points at the decapitated head. – “Adiana, dead. Very funny.”
“What’s your point? Are you going to stop attacking us!?”
He looks at me with empty eyes.
Yokate: “Stop… no. No stop. I came to thank you.” – The Orc straightens his helmet.
“Hah?”
Yokate: “Adiana bad, always ordering us. Now Adiana dead. Now Yokate and his family is free to kill. Thank you.”
Tasah’s face turns into despair and mine closes to seriousness.
“What do you mean?”
Yokate: “Adiana ordered to kill fast. I not want kill fast. I want fun. I want kill, not fast.”
He starts drooling.
“Tsk, no diplomacy, huh?”
Yokate: “Now Yokate finish thank you. Now Yokate have fun. You die slow now, be very funny.”
“Alright, I’m sick of listening to you.”
I lift my arm and squeeze the sack until it pops into my grip, and the silent trail of dust rises to the cloudy sky. The Orc takes his big axe off the makeshift sheath on his hip and holds it tightly with both hands as he strolls forward.
The firework explodes above us, the Orc’s attention is drawn to dumbfoundedly observe the boom of colors, spreading like a magical flower just below the raining clouds.
“Tasah!... Activate it right now!”
But he doesn’t listen to a word I’m saying, his eyes looking without focus at the giant Orc.
“The shield! Tasah! Shield!!”
Tasah looks at me lost in thought and despair, then his mind clicks as he remembers his part in the plan. He extends both hands upwards, lifting its staff’s enormous blue gem at the sky, and like a liquid pouring over an invisible dome, a yellow semitransparent barrier solidifies around us.
The Orc gazes for a couple more seconds at the sky, but once the last sparkles disappear he quickly gets bored of it and shifts his attention back to us. His expression shows confusion as if he had just forgotten what he was doing in the first place. He looks at his axe, then at Adiana’s corpse, then at us again, and that’s when it comes to him.
Yokate: “Oh, I kill now—”
In a flash, all our surroundings light up and explode in bright yellow. Dozens of projectiles rain from the sky, a show of red flames and dark smoke engulf us from all directions. Consecutive bangs ring in my ear as some of the explosions hit our shield directly.
After almost a full ten seconds, the last meteor explodes.
The smoke quiets down into a thick fog, each raindrop making it disperse little by little. The yellow barrier surrounding us collapses and the smoke invades my nostrils.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
I cough hard before I have the chance to cover my face with my arm. Yellow and green lights from the background around us pierce through the grey fog as the view clears. On the ground, many crates carve the dirt, and right in front, the same big orc appeared sunk in the mud.
“Now we make our way out!” – I walk forth to take my dagger off Adiana’s burnt grip.
As soon as I take it, its fabric tail heals back to its normal size, the symbols in its black cloth shining red before quieting down. The blade is a little dirty, but I think it’s still usable.
The ground to my side trembles, I activate my vision and turn to it as I step back, the name “Yokate” hovers above the standing body.
Yokate: “That’s fun. Fire very fun,” – he says groggily.
The yellow lights in the fog collapse all around me and the green lights shine brighter. A hooded demon comes floating out of the dusty background and extends its dark bony arms to make Yokate’s body highlight in green magic.
[Yokate Orc {HP: ~60%+}] his health slowly rises while he looks down searching for his lost weapon.
As the smoke from the explosions settle down, I can see their army better, the yellow lights they had were barriers just like Tasah’s, but all made by the many scattered floating hooded skeletons with charred bones. Below them, there are no craters. And all soldiers are around fifty percent health and rising.
“They… blocked the attack.”
Tasah: “What now?! I can make another shield.”
I go another step back.
“…that’s not going to work. I told them to use everything. We would need to wait for the cooldown…” – I think aloud. – “About two hundred seconds.”
Apaw raises his sword, readying himself to fight.
“The original plan was to leave their army outside of it while we fought the commander, I’m sure it can buy us a minute or so. But would it hold until the second barrage ends…? Besides, if they too can use shields and heal it’s all useless.”
Tasah stands up, trembling as he looks desperately around.
“Only if our mount hadn’t died on the get-go, we might’ve had a chance, but…”
I cover my face with the palm of my hand, my anxiety increasing by the second.
Apaw: “Tasah! Transfer your attributes to Strider, I won’t be able to do much like this. He’s our best shot.”
Tasah: “Right.”
Their voices are but white noise to me, whatever they are saying is all but useless. The only thing I can do is mutter my dreadful thoughts.
“At our state, there’s no way we can force our way out of this. Even if we do manage to escape to the sides, there are the parallel marching streams of skeletons. Maybe without command, they won’t mobilize efficiently, but the three of us aren’t enough to fight all of it off until we get back. We are way too far. I don’t have much energy left; Apaw doesn’t have one of his arms anymore; and if we start moving, Tasah’s vampire ability will reset if he doesn’t stay nearby the “same enemies”. The retreat of our plan was bound to fail when our mount died, I should have thought of another way out before we arrived at this situation.”
All the emotions gradually leave my body, my logical brain going full thrust to think.
“What this plan served for…? Killing their head? breaking their chain of command? Why did I think any of that would matter? They clearly don’t need orders to kill us all. Hell, their morale even increased by it. Even without a leading actor, their raw numbers are enough to end it all. It’s all over, there’s no winning this. No matter how much I think about it, there’s no right answer. All paths lead to death, to everyone’s death.”
The sheepkin finishes his chanting, both hands having their palms facing my back.
“If we had just left… Huh, I guess this was a meaningless plan from the start…” – I say emotionless.
Tasah moves to be in front of me.
Tasah: “It’s done. Strider, we need to get out of here! I know you can make this work. I know you can do it somehow! I’m not the best one to be with in a fight, but I’ll do anything to help! I’ll do anything you tell me. So… if you say I need to fight, I’ll do my best. I trust you!”
He squeezes my right hand between his two palms, a directionless hope deep within his eyes as he stares at my fingers, waiting to follow my next heroic steps.
I slap his hands away.
Our eyes meet, his in shock and mine with subtle anger. Without thinking twice, I turn my head and blink away, quickly turning my speed boots on and turning invisible.
Well, that was a waste of my time.
I run over and between the demon’s lines. Stepping on some of their heads, then at the branches of the sparse trees of the plain field and back to the grass floor.
All because those stupid wolfkins didn’t want to leave the village. Willing to stay because some stupid girl got lost in the forest. Now everything is fucked.
Glancing back, I see the circle Tasah and Apaw are in, seeing only the backs of dozens of armored demons closing the encirclement. I quickly face forward to continue evading the demons on my path out.
“Sorry.”
It’s not like I can do anything.
I jump out of the main marching stream and run freely in the plain field.
“Tsk. Fucking hell.”
I grit my teeth.
“If they just had listened to me and got out of the village. Just that. They would’ve had a chance. I wasn’t expecting them to send this many at us, I thought there was hope. Tsk. I should have escaped when I saw it, what was I thinking? Trying to fight them off?”
It all comes back to my mind, like the wind whipping on my face with my inhuman speed.
The image of Apaw’s courageous eyes nodding to my plan reappears in my mind, then Tasah’s happy tears; Paruci’s smile while fishing; Nehen and Neduka talking with me about hunting; Nejeka politely volunteering to take notes by my side; the beastkin kids looking up at me with shining eyes; Vute slapping my shoulders, proud that I cured the sheepkins from the Decay; priestess Dilsu’s surprised eyes after I lifted the poison from that Nawaga sheep-kid; Guni’s wolf-face shedding tears through his only eye; Peje, Ave, and all the wolfkins eating in the commemoration feast like a big family; Willrus determined face, serious as ever; and even Nate’s glare challenging me.
“I guess, I just wanted to be a hero… what a fucking idiot. I’m such a fucking idiot.”
The line of summoned skeletons is just in front of me. I look at a thick dead tree’s branch just inside their marching stream, one I can jump over and pass through before my speed boots end. But suddenly, my leg refused to make the jump right in the nick of time and I fall directionless. My body rolls uncontrollably in the mud and slides to a stop just below the tree I wanted to be on.
I’m lost, did I trip over something? Or my feet got stuck in some roots? Maybe my speed boots ended, or the wind pushed me. But none of those makes sense.
I lift my face to get up, but my left leg weakens and I tumble down. My back hits the tree and my vision doubles. That’s when I see blood oozing below me, and as in queue, my knee starts burning. I touch it in a scare and the pain worsens.
Looking down, I see my lower leg limp and my kneecap out of its skin, the bone poking out of it.
“The hell--?”
Right beside me, a skeleton looks down at where I am, searching for something on the ground.
For a moment, I thought they were looking at me, but--
I’m still invisible, right?
I glance at my hands, to see the mud fading out of invisibility as it oozes down with the rain. Not only that, but the water droplets that hit me splatter all around the surface of my body, not once becoming invisible.
“Fuck…”
Six more skeletons stare at me, and the first steps forward drawing its sword like a puppet to a sudden swift strike.
I roll to the side. The sword pierces the trunk I was lying on, and its skeleton hazardly attempts to unstick it by twisting all its bones, but with no success.
The bony legs of another one trip over me and dismantle instantly. The problem was that it was still alive, desperately turning and trying to slash me with a sword that he had dropped on the fall.
I draw my daggers and manage to get up with only one leg, throwing the skeleton over me against the tree.
The invisibility and the speed boots were over by now.
I blink forward, the line of magic teleporting me a few steps away from a launching attack at my back.
But instead of reaching safety, I was only deeper into the enemy line. The skeletons don’t even look at me with their soulless eye sockets, they simply stop marching and the next thing they do is swing their sword with absurd agility.
My daggers leave my hands to parry two attacks, but five others find their marks.
“FUCK!!”
My teeth grind to hold the pain and the anger in.
I grip the tail ribbons of my daggers and start swinging them, magic amplifying its striking speed and breaking the bones of everything I see around me.
“FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU!!”
A sword strikes down at me, I sidestep to evade but unfortunately, I just used my bad leg. The next thing I see is a cut opening from my shoulder all the way down to my hip.
But that doesn’t stop me.
“I HATE ALL OF YOU! DAMN THIS GAME! FUCK YOU ALL!! WHY DID YOU SEND ME TO THIS FUCKING WORLD?!?”
Without being able to think straight anymore, I use my daggers like short spears, its ribbon becoming steel-hard to stabilize my thrust to explode two skulls at once, and afterward, to slash like a sword to kill three more.
“I’M GOING TO KILL ALL OF YOU! DO YOU THINK I CAN’T DO IT?!? THAT I’M NOT STRONG ENOUGH!? I’LL KILL YOU ALL, I PROMISE YOU!! WHEN I GET OUT OF HERE I WILL KILL ALL OF YOU BASTARDS!!!”
My muscles numb by the uncontrollable killing spree, it’s like I’m not even doing it anymore, it’s as if I’m only controlling my character from the other side of the monitor once again. One sword slices my legs, a spear pierces my side, four arrows strike my back, and a fireball explodes on my shoulder. I don’t feel any of it, it’s all happening with my character, not me.
On the corner of the screen, my health drops swiftly down to fifty percent, then to forty, thirty…
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!”
Twenty, ten, five, and then…
A rusty sword slashes in a blink of an eye, and the right side of my sight explodes. The pain burns from the top of my right cheek, all over through my left eyebrow to my temple, deep enough to have my skull cut, the blood quickly flowing warmly down half my face.
My health reaches zero.
Four more attacks slice my body, two on my back, one on my left arm, and then a trust right in the middle of my chest.
“I-I…”
I build up my anger and thrust my spear-like dagger into the one that took my eye out, exploding its skull and making it dismantle. I grab the sword in my chest, locking the next skeleton in place and I strike its cage rib, hammering it sideways and tumbling it to the ground.
I stand still for a few seconds, trying to find the strength to keep on attacking, but I inevitably fall to my knees.
The only warmth I feel is my pouring blood meshing with the cold rain.
My face hits the ground, the sword stuck in my chest tilting my body sideways and pressing my bones even further.
The skeleton I hit last slowly stands from the ground in front of me, but it’s weird, they all suddenly stopped attacking me, why was that? My mind, however, forgot that preoccupation the second after, all its focus went to reassembling the cogs of my brain back together, all my resolve fighting the heavy drag of my sleepy eyes to continue awake.
Everything is so chaotic, but at the same time, peaceful. Like drifting into a dream. It’s too inviting, but I don’t want to go yet…
Suddenly, all sounds muffle to silence.
All warm and cold leave my body.
The rainfall disappears midair.
Everything freezes in place.
My body pain vanishes.
Then my sight fades.
The only thing that remains is the liquid void. My shapeless body drifting into its empty darkness. And its quietness.
But then…
Not even that.
It was all gone.