CHAPTER 116: Impatient Assault
“No one will survive!” Nick shouted at the man in front of him. “Not even those weak captives we’re trying to rescue! I doubt they have the strength to even run, let along get away after we’re all killed.”
General’s Guard Captain Kabir glared at him. He had a disgusted expression on his face, aimed at Nick. They had been arguing in an isolated room, with three additional people. Lamar was here too, as was Sargeant Friedman from the US Army, and another from the General’s Guard Amerally, who organized the support classes.
“The General could do it!” snapped Kabir, unwilling to be dissuaded.
“Of course The General could. The General can regrow his body parts. Last I heard the rest of us can’t do that!”
Kabir’s eyes held a manic intensity to them. It was as if he couldn’t even hear Nick’s words or wouldn’t acknowledge their meaning.
“The General has given everything to protect humanity,” Kabir said while looking upwards, with a reverent expression replacing his disgust. That only lasted a moment as he turned back to Nick, his disgust returning. “Who would think that those who fought closest to The General would become cowards! Were you just coasting on The General’s greatness?”
Nick turned from this Adam worshiping fanatic to the Sergeant. “Back me up, Friedman. It won’t help those people if we get massacred before rescuing them.”
Friedman drew himself to attention, arms behind his back. He looked straight forward, away from Nick’s eyes. “Without our intervention those people will be executed anyway. We can’t wait for reinforcements. We’ll do what we can. I already had a message sent to Jackson. The Sentinels will find some way to get more people here, Lord willing.”
“Yes, General willing,” Amerally said quietly while nodding her head.
Nick spun away from them, muffling aggravated swearing by biting his own arm. Kabir turned from him and headed towards the door with Amerally on his heels. Friedman followed more hesitantly. Before Kabir left the room he spoke one last time.
“The General sending you to the water plant allowed us to find these people to rescue, and yet you want to abandon them. Your belief in The General has been noted.”
Once they were gone, Nick waited a moment, then punched the wall. In his frustration he took out two layers of drywall and a wooden stud, while getting wall insulation tangled on his arm. He let the curses flow liberally as he tried to get the insulation off.
“Now Adam is omniscient?!” he spat, wishing there was stronger language to express his anger.
“It’s definitely weird,” agreed Lamar, though without emotion behind it. “He barely has the forethought to bring enough food with him.”
Nick let out a pathetic chuckle. “I know, right? No way Adam expected us to survive. They even told us he put our names on the death wall.”
“Wall of heroes,” corrected Lamar with emphasis. If they were going to play their roles, then they needed to do it consistently. Better not to let their true feelings slip in front of the General’s Guard.
Nick continued grumbling as he tightened his armor and checked all his weapons, sliding the blades in and out of their sheaths. He adjusted his pack and removed things unnecessary for combat from his pouches and pockets. Food and water pouches, along with some odds and ends came out to make moving easier.
“We’re going then?” asked Lamar, knowing Nick well enough to know the answer.
“We’ll focus on the base leader. No one else has a chance against them.”
“You think we can take out a Tier 3 who can see the stealthers in his base?” asked Lamar.
“Adam willing,” Nick said with a self-deprecating laugh as he exited the room.
***
“Then you will be joining us, Unseen Death?” Kabir asked in surprise when they came to the strategy meeting.
“Yeah, but we do this the way I say. You can’t just rush in there like a bunch of zealots swinging swords. Even The General sticks to plans,” Nick said, hoping the reference to Adam would keep them in line. “Stick close to the entrance gate and form up defensively. Melee and protectors just try to hold the line while the ranged take out anyone they can. A few protectors need to stay in the back in case some of their patrols return. We’ve already hunted the groups sent after us, but we don’t know if there are more out there.
“The base boss will see me coming, so I’ll try to gank as many of his adds as I can. Huntsman will be focusing on my targets from behind your formation since he has the most power and mobility of our attackers. Once the boss comes for me, I’ll switch to him and try to hit and run.
“If our barriers can’t protect the group then split into smaller groups with your backs to the wall. Do not approach the captives. That will endanger them more than leaving them there. Scouts and stealthers should try to find those ugly ass monster mounts and release or kill them. Hopefully that’ll cause some chaos, or at least prevent pursuit. Most importantly of all, if we’re losing, then sound the retreat. It only strengthens our enemies if we all fall here. We can try to pull some of them outside of the base territory and fight those that follow. Questions?”
Kabir put his hand on Nick’s shoulder and nodded. “I knew The General’s trust in you had to be well deserved. Even if we should become heroes, we’ll enforce The General’s will and take these blasted invaders with us! General protect us!”
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“General protect us,” the rest of the Guard repeated reverently.
Nick looked over to Lamar with a strained face on.
“He has so far,” Lamar whispered with a shrug.
All Nick could do was groan quietly. “Not you too.”
***
Nick waited outside of the Scyrric territory. The base commander could see infiltrators when they entered, so he was hoping that the rest of the army would distract the Scyrric leader enough that Nick could operate without being noticed. He slipped to the back of the troops walking in.
The gates were open and hundreds of Scyrric were standing ready inside their base. They just allowed the humans to walk right in and form up. While the base overseer spoke to them, Nick used his obscuring abilities and waited for his chance. He saw that Lamar already had an arrow notched.
“I see,” said the overseer, voice radiating from everywhere. “This is how you killed the glorious Scyrric, by overwhelming them with numbers. I wouldn’t put it past your despicable race to have ambushed them with dishonorable tactics. Nothing more than animals until the end. I don’t suppose you came to surrender and assume your place?”
In answer, a single arrow shot out of the group towards the lizardman. One of the riot enforcers raised a shield and the arrow pinged harmlessly off it. The shield didn’t even quiver from the impact. Nick couldn’t help but shiver at the strength disparity.
“Cultureless heathens. I suppose you all follow the aberration. I don’t see him here, unless…no, I thought he’d be too craven to face us himself.”
“You take that back,” someone in their crowd yelled as others released more spells and arrows at the Scyrric leader. In response, the overseer bared his teeth in what Nick figured was a smile.
“These natives are of no concern. Kill them and show who the masters are.”
With that the Scyrric solders, in groups of 10, spaced out and approached the humans. They moved in unison while keeping their own tight formations. They probed the Sentinel protectors and warriors. Magic came from them at the humans but shields and barriers intercepted the attacks, though not as easily as the Scyrric barriers blocked the humans’ attacking.
The Scyrric groups also had rotations down. They didn’t waste mana firing at once, rotating between the casters in different groups, knowing their order without even needing it to be called out. The human group wasn’t nearly as organized or clear headed, practiced and planned out, as the Scyrric shifted and tested for weak points, never committing fully to attack.
The humans, on the other hand, were less coordinated and clearly more emotional. Every now and then a human scream would sound out over the noises as one of the captives would be wounded, causing the attacking humans to be distracted as they looked over, or to show flashes of anger, affecting their battle performance.
Nick took in a breath and let it out slowly. They were all going to die here. The Scyrric outnumbered, out matched, and out classed them, both in ability and the strength of their classes. He wished he knew at what point it was acceptable to leave these suicidal fools so he could survive, or if he was just destined to die alongside them. Would his friends blame him for retreating when faced with certain death? If only there was a clear answer. The guilt at his thoughts warred with the logic within his reasons.
Slipping to the side of the human formation, he saw the smiling overseer’s head turn following him. The smile stayed as the overseer, who could obviously see him, watched as he moved away from the group.
Nick cautiously sidled between the Scyrric warriors, who seemed oblivious to his presence, regardless of the overseer’s awareness. A frustration and sudden bout of anger struck Nick. He was the strongest human here, and he still felt so powerless in this situation. Those thoughts dug into him and twisted his gut.
Allowing his emotions to feed into his actions, he used [Deep Cut] to get more penetration and stabbed one of his daggers into the neck of one of the Scyrric defenders. They had a slight gap between their helmet and neck guard, and it was no effort for his dexterous hands to slide the knife right into place. That wiped the smile off the overseer’s face.
Nick’s action made his presence known to the other Scyrric, as the defender dropped its shield and fell to his knees. He grabbed the neck where the wound was. They turned to their fallen comrade and the human that appeared amongst them, but Nick was ready.
Before they had time to react, and making use of his high Agility, Nick dropped low and sliced the heel of a warrior where the Achilles tendon was on a human. Then he spun and did it to a second Scyrric. A healer rushing forward to help the defender when Nick’s dagger rose from under the chin.
Unfortunately, the attack only managed to surprise the healer, since another mage had cast a barrier that blocked his strike. Well, mostly blocked his strike since Nick’s high Strength was enough to push a few inches through the barrier and scratch the healer.
The change of focus by the Scyrric was enough for the humans nearby to surge forward and press the attack. This group of Scyrric were put back on the defensive as their armored shield bearer was repeatedly stabbed while ranged attacks flew at them through the gaps.
“Don’t advance too much,” yelled Nick as he slipped in with the humans. If this area of their formation got too far ahead of the others, then they would create too many gaps for the Scyrric to take advantage of.
Having moved back among the humans, Nick reactivated [Dim Presence] and [Mask Signs] so he could once more hunt another defender unseen. While doing this Nick watched the overseer, who was still following him. It was obviously getting angrier with every attack Nick made.
A few Scyrric groups were forced to retreat after losing a few of their people, but there were still more groups waiting to replace them. The Scyrric had almost three times as many soldiers as the attacking humans, so there was no illusion to Nick that these minor attacks and losses wouldn’t make much difference in this battle. The humans’ impatient attack just had too little punch to it.
After the fourth Scyrric group had to withdraw due to Nick’s sneak attacks, he saw the overseer shaking slightly. The lizard looked ready to blow his top. Nick couldn’t delay anymore.
Dodging around and through the waiting Scyrric without being seen by any but the overseer, Nick arrived at a large open space in front of their buildings. There were about two dozen riot enforcers spaced throughout the area around the overseer. They were keeping alert to their surroundings, only occasionally paying attention to the main fighting in the front of the base.
Riot enforcer seemed to be a class combining strength and vitality, a more tank-y upgrade to warriors. Nick knew he would have the advantage of speed, and just hoped he had enough strength to get meaningful hits on the enforcers.
Taking his time to come in from the side of the closest riot enforcer, Nick raised his dagger and jabbed it under the Scyrric’s chin. A breath of relief also came from Nick as his strike was strong enough to pierce through the scales and vitality of the riot enforcer. All eyes from the surroundings shifted to him quickly as the Scyrric he stabbed gurgled and fell.
Surprise almost caused Nick to jump as an arrow followed his appearance and embedded itself in the Scyrric’s eye.
Scyrric “Riot Enforcer [26]” slain. 3,551 shared XP gained.
With his obfuscation skills worn off and no place to obscure the enemy’s vision, Nick turned to face the rest. To his surprise only three left their positions and headed towards him, while the rest went back to watching the surroundings. Whether that was arrogance or discipline, Nick didn’t care. This would give him the chance to stay alive.