Tilly felt a restraining touch against his forearm as he reached for the Microcosm, “Just wait, Commander's not done in yet.” Threstus said, watching the approach of the Amalgams with hard eyes, a javelin ready in his other hand.
Just as the Amalgams reached the shield wall, Tilly heard the commander's voice explode from down below, “BASTIONS, PUSH THEM BACK!” A concerted yell of effort followed and then the same concussive resulted, which looked even more spectacular from above. Once again bodies of Corrupted went flying back as if hit by a freight train.
“Third Rank, ON ME!” followed the shout of Commander Linus, before the bodies had even finished landing in the distance. The Amalgams had all been knocked down or at least put off balance. Tilly quickly counted nine laying supine or on all fours before the formation, barely out of reach of the first rank.
The first rank stood ready while the third rank leaped out from behind the first two, in an extraordinary feat of coordinated athleticism. Tilly saw that they were each suffused with the same unit magic that had empowered the other commands, their speed and grace having practically doubled.
The radiant warriors fell upon the twisted creatures still trying to get off the ground. The Amalgams’ builds heavily favored Strength and their ponderous movements to get their unnaturally formed bodies back off the ground were far too slow to avoid the countercharge.
The Satyrs flowed over the hulking downed forms, hacking at limbs until they were severed from the main body, and then quickly moving on to the next. The repelled group of regular Corrupted was already back on its feet and moving back into the fight, but not before the third rank had completely dismembered seven of the Amalgams.
“FALL BACK!” Linus shouted from the midst of the glowing squad. They all turned and ran, the tide of Corrupted close behind. Tilly saw the magic wink out one by one, as the soldiers fled back toward their lines and the shield wall.
Tilly had pulled his hands away from the Orb and was itching to throw his hatchets to support their retreat. Threstus and Gorock did their best to provide cover fire for the retreating unit as the first rank split neatly, every second shield turned on its axis to allow room for the incoming members of the unit to dive through the openings.
Even with all of this, Tilly saw one, then two soldiers taken down by the manic tide of Corrupted following at their hoofs. Gorock pinned one of the last two Amalgams to the ground with another ballista bolt and Threstus furiously rained down projectiles while the third rank made it back through the line and the shields crashed shut behind them.
At this point, Tilly was trying to crush the bone handles of his weapons in his grip, anger and frustration warring for supremacy in his mind. The desperate backward chops of the two who had been caught by the Corrupted's counter-charge, felt like they had hit Tilly in the guts. Should he have done something? Was he right to be saving his Mana like this?
Just then a bastion on the first rank was yanked forward by a particularly large Corrupted and was torn apart before his brothers could free him from the mob grabbing at the momentary weak point in the line.
“PUSH THEM BACK!” the command rang in response, and another explosion of supernatural force gave the line yards of breathing room to rotate ranks, putting the most rested second-rankers in front to take the next crashing charge. Tilly watched his Mana tick above 40% again and he enflamed and threw his hatchets at the last Amalgam, which was trying to regain its feet after receiving another blow of concussive force.
It and everything around it died in a blaze of hungry blue flame. Recalling the weapons brought him back down to 35% and he once again chafed at his pitiful Wisdom stat. Not that he could do anything about it now. Too much depended on him being able to overcharge Flame's Expulsion with [Resolute]. If he died before he could ramp up the power high enough, it would all be for nothing.
“Eyes up boys,” Threstus called, gesturing with a javelin back toward the middle of the horde. Another bubbling soup of conflict and grotesque creation was brewing.
“How many times can you guys push and countercharge like that?” Tilly asked through gritted teeth, each minute progressing tortuously as more soldiers fought and died below him at the gates.
“We probably have two or three push rotations left,” Threstus answered off to the side as he hunted for another pile of javelins.
“We will save them for high-value opportunities, otherwise we will keep the rotation piecemeal based on injuries or casualties. We will hold them for as long as possible. Every minute here is one more minute for our charges to escape,” he continued, unable to mask the grim note that had slipped into his light tone.
Eventually, Tilly’s Mana ticked back up past 40% and he enflamed and sent his hatchets hurtling through the air again, hurling them to near the limit of his range, to disrupt some of the disturbing fusion happening at the center of the horde. He allowed himself a grim smile as the two Amalgams trying to fuse both caught fire and collapsed onto the crowd of creatures below.
“How close are you, little man?” Gorock's gravelly baritone interjected from nearest the ballista as he threw the last of the bolts over the wall horizontally to log roll and crush at least ten of the Corrupted.
“I need about two more of the big guys and then about three minutes to regen what I need for the ability,” Tilly snapped urgently as he watched his Mana tick back up slowly. His eyes flicked to the center of the Horde, where he saw the giant horror snatch a few more of the recently created Amalgams and pop them into its recently formed maw. The thing's mouth was the size of a full wagon, crammed with a mix of jagged bones and floppy flesh.
Level 55 Corrupted Colossus
“Yeah, I don't think we have that long…” Threstus snarled, then his eyes snapped away from the Colossus and focused in on Tilly with an almost feverish brightness, “Is the main problem mana conservation?”
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“Affirmative, I can take them out but not fast enough if I save Mana for the bomb. Or if I burn through to get the last level I need, I won't be able to overload and explode afterward.” Tilly answered quickly. Threstus blinked a couple of times at the wording before a death’s head grin broke out across his face.
“Melee it is! Gorock, make a hole buddy. If we are going to die, it's not going to be up here on a wall. We are soldiers of the Line after all!”
Tilly barely had time to compute that insane string of sentences when Gorock bellowed, “Finally, some action!” Before crouching down and leaping over the wall crenellations in a standing jump. Tilly watched his flight down slacked jawed. Mid-flight the warrior pulled his XL-sized spear from behind his back and unsheathed his short sword. He landed with a boom about ten yards in front of the gate entrance, and bellowed again, this time making a sound somewhat resembling a bleat… if it was about 5 octaves lower than a normal goat.
He crushed several Corrupted to paste with his landing, and his bellow did something to those around him, causing them to stagger. He followed up the effect with huge sweeping strikes with his spear that clearly was much heavier than it appeared in his hands. It mowed through the enemy like a scythe through grain.
Threstus jabbed him in the side with an elbow, having drawn two of the Roman-style short swords at some point, “You better hurry human, we have some Powerleveling to do and not much time to do it in.” Then he too leaped over the side of the wall, having the gall to actually add a swan dive into his fall, before landing on a few of the enemy crushing or stabbing several before rolling to his feet. Then the pair were back to back, sowing death and dismemberment in equal measures and somehow managing to not get swamped in the tide of battle.
Holy Shit…
It was one thing to recognize that his old human limits were meaningless. It was another to realize that pretty much the whole battle plan now hinged on him jumping down three stories from the top of the wall into a whole crowd of Corrupted.
Then a sound so deep it actually shook the wall blasted forth from almost formed Colossus, and Tilly’s mind blanked. That familiar switch flicked inside of him and he just decided to believe what he needed to keep moving. He had trusted his equipment a thousand times in roaring fires, even when every human instinct screamed at him that the few inches of treated fabric wouldn't be nearly enough to protect him.
He had decided his gear could take as much punishment as it needed to for him to get the job done. Now, in the same way, something in him snapped and he knew his body could take something like this fall and keep fighting. He had monstrous Endurance for his level, and while he understood he was probably going to die today, it wasn't going to be from falling.
He blanked, removing his conscious mind's control of his actions and suddenly, the wind was rushing past him and his stomach was up in his throat. He didn't remember jumping, but that was kind of the point. The best way to do something your rational mind refused to do was to turn it off. In the second he was in the air, he managed to be glad that he had at least kept his body feet first. An absurd image of him belly-flopping in the lake when he was fifteen almost caused him to smile, then the insane moment of mid-air suspension ended and he plummeted to the ground.
It came up punishingly fast and struck the soles of his feet like the world's biggest sledgehammer. Thankfully, he didn't lock his legs, resisting as they collapsed, trying to capture as much of his momentum as possible, before slamming down into his shoulder and rolling several feet like a rag doll.
“Get up little man! Not the time for a nap.” Gorock shouted, somehow already standing over him warding back the enemy with wide-sweeping strikes. Tilly groaned but was already pushing up from the ground, finding nothing broken. In fact, the only pain he really had was a throbbing in the bottoms of both feet and his left shoulder.
Health: 89%
Before he could celebrate his first ‘almost superhero landing’ a Corrupted Satyr in guard’s armor was on him, trying to bite down on his neck. Before Tilly could even yell in shock, its weight was suddenly gone, and Threstus was above him pulling him up.
“Come on man, we are here to get you Experience. You need to get in the fight!” He shouted as if Tilly was confused about their purpose here in this endless sea of enemies.
“PUSH THEM BACK!” Came the shout from somewhere behind them, accompanied a second later by another huge boom and the flying of bodies. Tilly found his hatchets in his hand, not really sure how they got there, and he started hacking wildly at anything that came close. Gorok was everywhere, keeping most of the enemies on his side at bay with his spear and finishing any that came close with that huge meat cleaver of a sword that only looked normal in his hand due to his huge proportions.
Threstus was equally impressive, whirling around with incredible grace, somehow holding down most of his side without ever staying in one place. Not that they could cover all 360 degrees of the surrounding enemies. Tilly was almost immediately breathing extremely heavily as he did everything in his power to keep enemies from piling in on him. They didn't so much fight as throw their body weight at him, trying to bog him down. He was shoving back the ones who got through as much as he was hitting them with any sort of ax strike
“BASTIONS, ON ME!” Came the multi-octave shout from behind him. Then, the battered unit of satyrs were flowing all around him glowing with golden intensity as they mowed through the surrounding enemies like grass.
“Threstus, You better have a good reason for breaking formation.” Commander Linus’s voice cracked out like a whip as he pulled up next to the trio.
“That's almost the last of our Unit Magic.” He finished in a lower voice looking around at the men fighting all around him sadly. Then he called out in an authoritative, but unenhanced voice, “Bastion, Form Up. True square, Eight by Eight!”
The glow sputtered out all around them as the men suddenly broke off their charge and quickly formed a square with the commander at the center. Threstus saluted and reported in a much more businesslike voice than he had used atop the wall, “Sir, the human stated that he could not make the current time frame while using mana-burning abilities. So I made the call to go full melee and see if we could help him make time-”
His words were cut off by a deafening roar from the Colossus and the crash of a new tide of Corrupted against the new formation. The worn soldiers were still holding back the onslaught, though it was a close thing. Tilly noted, between gasping breaths, that the only men left in reserve in the third rank were his trio and the commander. The rest were needed for a thin second rank and a full first. There would be no more rotating out.
Linus just nodded, rolling with the shift in a battle that he could do nothing to change,
“You two, take the leading right edge. I'll take the left.” He commanded, moving to take his self-given position. Then he stopped and turned back around, finding Tilly's eyes with an intense look, “Tillman, get it done.” Then he turned and was in the midst of the soldiers on the left front.
Threstus’ eyes were flint as turned away from the commander to Tilly, “Time to learn what the Line is all about.”
Gorock simply bellowed before rushing to his assigned position, with Threstus behind. The flame at Tilly's center blazed in approval at the courage and honor the soldiers around him showed. None hesitated in following commands that would assuredly lead to their deaths. He found his fear quashed beneath the weight of expectation he had seen in Linus’ eyes. If he was going to die, he was going to make it count, shoulder to shoulder with brothers bent toward the same purpose.
He rushed into the second rank of soldiers and added his weight to the line trying to counter the unstoppable press of the Corrupted horde.
Not a single member of the unit expected to live out the next few minutes. But the formation would hold, and the enemy was coming to pay a bloody price for every step.