CHAPTER 111: On Our Own, with Everyone Else

“I just need to delay them, then survive,” Nick told himself in his head.

Watching the Scyrric and those freaky mounts jump glide towards him at probably 90 miles per hour was definitely not on his bucket list. His adrenaline was rushing through his body and fear was trying to freeze his muscles and mind, if he let it.

The beasts only rose a few inches off the ground, but the way they were using their skills completely defied the laws of physics. If they didn’t have skills, Nick wasn’t even sure they would be able to walk carrying so much weight, let alone jump. He had also finally seen the head of the creatures. It was a small thing compared to the body, sagging down from the shoulders, resembling an orca whale head.

The first part of Nick’s plan to delay them was already strung across the road. He had gotten Garrett to make him several spools of wire crafted from Testudinate metal. The wire was so strong it could have cut through a tank. Nick hadn’t decided why he wanted it when he asked Garrett, he just decided to embrace his inner assassin. Wire for garroting or traps seemed good to have.

Now one of those spools of wire was strung across the highway, tied to railings and cement barriers. Since the wire could cut through Earth materials, Nick just hoped it would last long enough. Or kill the first few. That would be helpful too.

The second part of Nick’s plan was a lot less optimistic. It was him fighting. Alone. Against 40 of the bulky lizard men and their beasts. He didn’t think he’d be able to stab enough of the enemies to slow them from catching Lamar and Swan.

Nick watched with anticipation as the first row of beast riders approached his trip line. Three beasts hit it. The top of their front legs caught, and they stumbled forward. The next row ran into them. That was all.

A few were tangled in the wire as it ripped free from where it was tied and snapped towards them, thanks to the pull of the beasts colliding at speed. However, they barely even suffered cuts from it. Only small beads of green blood came from where they had hit the wire.

Nick frowned. Plan B it was. He wasn’t very confident in this plan. Moving into the path that the riders were taking, Nick readied his knives.

He let one go by, just to feel the timing of their speed. Unfortunately, his stealth wasn’t as strong as he thought. Before the first rider had even gone by, the Scyrric’s tail flicked out towards him and knocked him back ten feet to land painfully on his butt.

The Scyrric guided his mount into a u-turn, and five more riders broke off to follow. The rest of the riders continued onward, and the ones that had stumbled were already on their feet and leap-gliding forwards.

“You think that puny skill can stop the mighty Scyrric’s senses?” hissed the lizard man. “You cannot fool us, or hide from us, pathetic native.”

Laughing came from the other Scyrric that were now surrounding him. They weren’t jump-gliding anymore, just casually walking around in a circle.

“Pathetic.”

“No chance.”

“Surrender now.”

They all kept hissing at him in barely understandable English. For a second, Nick wanted to ponder how they had even learned English, but that distraction would just lead to death.

When one of the Scyrric steered his mount close to get a kick in on Nick, he was ready. [Target Weakness] would increase the power when hitting a vulnerable spot, and [Deep Cut] would allow him to drive his knife further in.

Instead of avoiding the beast moving towards him, Nick dashed towards it, sinking his knife into the armpit of its front limb. The beast bellowed a warbling cry and pitched forward onto its face, throwing the Scyrric off its back. The next beast had to dodge outside of the circle they were following to not run into it.

Nick took that opportunity and ran. He could pick up speed faster than the beasts, even if they could reach higher top speeds. Leaping over the highway barriers, Nick headed into the woods, using [Dim Presence] and [Mask Signs] as soon as he was out of their sight.

His heart beat so loudly that Nick thought they’d find him due to it. Calming down was way harder than when a game was on the line and they were counting on him. This was a level of stress that he couldn’t believe anyone would be calm in.

Then he thought of Adam. What would Adam do? Adam his friend would have stayed away from this situation. He wouldn’t have explored the invader base. That Adam would have felt nothing to prove and would have run with the kids as soon as he found them.

Adam The General, on the other hand, wouldn’t be scared of this situation. He’d be angry, and that anger would power him to crush this pack of invaders. That Adam would attack and end the invaders here with everything he had, ignoring any injuries he might take.

While Nick was trying to calm himself, to get his breathing under control, a lizard foot came around the tree and kicked him in the side. Nick crumbled sideways from the strength of the blow and was knocked into a tree. His shoulder jammed as he struck it hard. The claws of the Scyrric had snagged on his armor, but the armor made of the feral behemoth didn’t rip and managed to absorb some of the impacts.

Nick glared at the lizard. Vitality was a low stat for Nick. Surviving hits like that wasn’t his focus. Agility was. Speed. He was at 194 Agility and no slouch with strength at 125. The lizard that kicked him had a higher strength but there was no way any of these invaders could match his speed.

Anger. Anger seemed like the way to go now. No stealth, no sneaking. It was time to fight like Adam. Anger rolled over Nick. He ignored the pain in his shoulder and pulled both his knives. Then he dove towards another tree.

The trees might have obscured him from view, but the Scyrric seemed to have other ways of finding him, like smell. Plus, the trees obscured them from his view as well.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Nick leaped and grabbed a branch. A Scyrric lunged from around a tree after him but missed. Nick came down on his neck, kicking the lizard into the ground. Then he dodged sideways as a sword swung at him. He pivoted his body, spinning around the tree and then rolled away from the tree and a clawed hand trying to grab him.

Then he was back on his feet. With his agility, before the Scyrric had pulled its arm back, Nick stabbed him, dragging a blade down the Scyrric’s forearm. The blade cut, but not as much as he hoped, finding the lizard skin and their small scales did a lot to protect them.

Then another Scyrric step out, blocking the path between trees. The large sword was impractical in this setting as there wasn’t much room to swing it. Nick feinted towards him as the strength-based Scyrric bit, swinging his sword right into the tree.

Nick had already avoided the swing, once more jumping up and grabbing higher branches. Then he came down, daggers first, driving them into the Scyrric’s neck. Green blood splattered out, but he didn’t have the time to finish the invader before he was body checked by another.

Making like he was going to jump into another tree, the Scyrric prepared for him to go up. Instead of pushing upwards from his squad, he kicked off forward, dashing between two of the invaders, trying to slice their legs as he went. His knives barely tore their clothes, but he was off, leading them on a chase through the trees.

He might not be able to overpower them, like Adam would, but he could hit and run. The Scyrric didn’t seem especially clever in their tactics or the terrain. Nick might still have a chance.

***

“Whatever you do, keep driving,” Lamar shouted over the wind tearing past them.

“What do you mean, keep driving?! There are hundreds of them,” yelled Swan in panic.

The mounted Scyrric hadn’t caught up to them yet, so Nick must have slowed them some, and he was quite worried for his friend. However, the vehicles packing the road and coming at them were the more immediate concern.

Lamar didn’t respond to Swan’s shouting since he had already climbed out the back of the truck and was holding himself up, even through the windshear. Swan had slowed down as she watched him in the rear-view mirror. Ignoring her terrified looks, Lamar leaned by the side of the truck and began waving his left arm.

Only a moment passed before the vehicles began shifting, even as they drove fast. Cars, trucks, and motorcycles moved around each other to make a truck sized path for Swan. Swan almost swerved as she went from watching Lamar to looking back ahead, making sure she didn’t hit the oncoming cars.

“Keep driving,” Lamar yelled one final time and then jumped off the back of the truck, shocking Swan again.

He landed roughly, but rolled to his feet, suffering only a few scrapes thanks to his leather armor. With a solid 76 Vitality and 150 in Agility that allowed him to manipulate his body in the air, Lamar had been confident of not becoming street pizza. The asphalt took more damage than he did.

As he rolled to his feet, the vehicles slowed down. Lamar held out an arm and a motorcycle in the lead of the motorcade came up beside him. The driver grabbed his arm and swung him to the back of the seat.

“What’s the situation, Huntsman?” asked the man. Lamar recognized him as one of Tom’s fanatics in the General’s Guard. The whole group was from the Sentinel Army, and he recognized many of the soldiers. Seeing so many here to support him filled Lamar with relief that Adam didn’t just leave them behind.

“It’s bad. Up to 40 mounted pursuers. The Unseen Death tried to slow them and probably needs support, but we’ll need to handle those coming at us first,” explained Lamar, feeling silly using Nick’s appointment title, but knowing these Guard would respond better to it.

“Roger, Huntsman,” said the man, who then pulled a radio and began giving orders. When he was done on the radio, he asked about the truck.

“The driver is with me. We’ll need to get her and the kids back to Jackson.”

“Yes, sir!”

***

When the Scyrric reached their position, instead of finding one truck to chase, they found an archer, standing in the middle of the road. His bow was drawn back, and he looked calm as could be. He stood there ready to make a last stand, alone.

The Scyrric would have laughed at him, except for the 200 other natives standing behind him. Shield bearers, warriors with weapons drawn, more archers, and plenty of mages. All were still and waiting.

Thoughts of retreating flashed through the Scyrric’s mind and were ignored. They were the mighty Scyrric! There was nothing to worry about a group of natives. No matter how many low level pawns the aberration had scraped together, they couldn’t stand against even one unit of groomed Scyrric fighters, let alone two. The Scyrric spurred on his mount, urging it to go faster.

Then the archer, the aberration’s servant, released his arrow. Even at this speed the arrow flew true and practically exploded the head of his mount. The body dropped and its great girth slid across the road. The Scyrric was pitched forward, painfully rolling on the hard ground, but one arrow wasn’t going to stop him. He rolled to his feet ready to enjoy the slaughter he would bring.

Then the slaughter came, but not as he expected. With the release of that arrow also came more arrows and magic. Earth spikes thrust from the ground. Fireballs and Wind Blades bit into his body and assaulted the others from his unit.

Bleeding and unable to move forward, the Scyrric looked up and saw the archer in the front. Their eyes locked. The Scyrric saw something in them that he couldn’t believe. These natives weren’t scared. They weren’t subservient, like they should be. This archer thought as little for the Scyrric as the Scyrric did for the natives.

Then the archer released another arrow and the Scyrric thought nothing at all.

***

Nick had led the Scyrric on a good chase. He had managed to kill four of the six, and two of their beasts. If an enemy bested four of his friends in a fight, then he would have considered the enemy strong. Unfortunately, now Nick was on his back, one of the Scyrric standing over him.

The Scyrric was bleeding from a few cuts, but unlike Adam, Nick couldn’t regenerate his own wounds from the dripping blood. One of his arms was broken, the other pinned by the lizard man’s foot. One of his sides felt like a giant bruise and the muscles on that side weren’t firing properly.

“This is why you should have surrendered to your betters to begin with,” snarled the Scyrric.

“Whatever. I took out way more of you before you got me. Which of us is better?” Nick quipped, though he didn’t really feel into it. The point of the sword hovering over him dampened any sense of victory he might have.

He took a deep breath, then wondered if he would have any last words even if the invader asked for them.

In the side of Nick’s vision, a dead leaf on the road twitched. He frowned at it. It was shaking gently. His whole body was hurting so he couldn’t feel much else, but it seemed like something was vibrating the leaf.

Nick tilted his head backwards, looking at the road upside down in the direction where his friend had escaped. He expected to see the Scyrric mounts returning from their hunt. Instead, he grew a great big grin and looked back up at the invader lording above him.

“Has your mind broken from despair?” hissed the Scyrric. “Death comes now.”

“It sure does,” said Nick with a laugh. “…for you.”

The Scyrric looked up in time to see the arrow that plunged into his eye and then out the back of his head. The force of the shot knocked him backwards, away from Nick. Nick rolled to the side as another arrow flew into the head of one of the mounts. He would swear those were getting more powerful.

“Took you long enough,” said Nick to Lamar, perched on top of the hood of the truck as it slowed to a stop next to him. It was certainly impressive to Nick that Lamar could shoot like that while on one knee riding a fast-moving truck.

“I needed more people if I was going to throw a party,” said Lamar, sliding off the hood and helping to support his injured friend.

“What happened? Why did they all come?” asked Nick as hundreds of vehicles showed up. People slid out of the cars, and many went on to look at the Scyrric and dissect the mounts for anything that might be valuable. Three healers came over to make sure Nick and Lamar got the treatment they needed.

“Adam was concerned for us. He didn’t abandon us,” Lamar said with a big grin, which was answered by Nick’s own smile.