CHAPTER 151: We’ll be Taking This

Sgolkr snarled as he watched his troops split into groups of 6 to 12. It was standard to use a defender, buffer, healer, and then two physical fighters and a caster. Knowing that the natives were behind a wall had led him to focus more heavily on ranged classes. It was also common for the higher Tiered combatants to allow time for others to get their kills and experience before engaging.

This battle felt wrong to Sgolkr even before full combat had commenced. Rage was building in the berserker. He had watched one of the defenders he had brought in die quickly. The Red Clan speaker had warned him that things were different here, but this was beyond different. This was violating the natural order.

Obviously, the aberration had altered things. It had started with the levels in the region being unnaturally high at this point in conquering this world. First the natives had grown strong, which was absurd to think of. Then the other races placed here by the [System] had to cooperate instead of battling amongst themselves just to bring them to the levels of the aberration’s people.

This should never happen. Never!

Never had natives grown strong enough to matter. Occasionally there would be a few who hid and found ways to gain personal strength, but even then, they were outpaced by the armies around them and never posed a threat. Did bases sometimes fall? Before being sent here to face the aberration, Sgolkr had read of only three times that bases had fallen to natives, and those times had been due to a combination of negligence and trickery.

The heat in Sgolkr increased his anger at these wasteful worms, thinking they were worthy of competing with an apex race, raining down projectiles and magic on the groups approaching their pathetic wall. Even the aberration had nearly died to a single blow from Sgolkr. Yet, these natives…these maggots, had already killed a strong Scyrric defender. They were able to break through his rare class skills and high vitality to bring fatal damage before the healers could even reach him. This was absurd!

Steam released from Sgolkr’s mouth as his fury grew. Even two of his brethren stepped further away from him. Not due to fear, no! For the mighty Scyrric do not feel fear! Simply to give him more space should he need to vent.

The anger was strong enough now that Sgolkr didn’t need to check his status to know that his strength was soaring while his intelligence was dropping. He needed to keep control if he expected to lead this small army. Due to his higher level and special status, he was firmly in charge here and no trained Scyrric would even doubt it, even with borrowed soldiers. His high level had made transferring him to this world too expensive to bring his own troops.

Yet, what Sgolkr watched now had him seething regardless of trying to maintain his calm.

The battle wasn’t a quick one, and against another quality race he might tolerate a few losses. Obviously, there was an advantage to the native’s numbers and staying out of physical reach of the Scyrric. However, the Scyrric had much stronger skills and weapons. That much was obvious. They should have been able to pick off those insects without wasting too many resources, regardless of the numbers that were there.

As he watched, the scene played out differently than that. The Scyrric couldn’t truly approach the wall. They tried to get close, but the density of spells they were being hit with, the sheer number of them, was depleting the more powerful barriers. Then occasionally an arrow or condensed lightning would tear through the barriers, leaving the group to take damage from the weaker spells that rained down in the dozens.

The spells besides the lightning weren’t enough to kill the Scyrric, but it kept them from approaching and would eventually deplete their resources until they couldn’t survive it any longer. This was NOT how fights with the Scyrric should go.

Sgolkr clenched his jaw as he saw two more Scyrric fall, taken down by that stronger archer. The emotions in Sgolkr weren’t fueled by a fear of failure or being blamed for the losses. Those could happen during world claiming, but this was due to the disrespect this was showing to their race.

He had genuinely thought that without the aberration, they would just be a group of rodents fleeing a sinking ship. Even with the Red Clan witch’s warnings he had thought this would have been a large enough attack force. That aberration had amounted to nothing. No great fight between them, no show of strength. Why would his pets be any different?

It was his greatest disappointment that he hadn’t had a real fight to make that unnatural native learn to regret his behaviors before falling.

Yet these natives were putting up more of a fight than the aberration had. And what made him the angriest, even more furious than losing soldiers, was that they didn’t seem scared at all. They didn’t tremble.

Sure, a few natives had when he had used his skill [Death Descends] while speaking to them through the projection crystal, but once the combat had begun, they behaved like an actual army. Like it was just another fight. Any race acting like the world was fine when a host of Scyrric was bearing down on them was delusional. These underdeveloped natives even more so.

Still, they held their own. They fought. They pushed the Scyrric back.

Sgolkr was just about fed up with this. It might be protocol to allow one’s subordinates to have the first chance, but could he even consider them living up to the Scyrric name?

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“Khtolk!” snapped Sgolkr to the Tier 3 with the “Immovable [52]” class nearby, after seeing a healer fall dead from the lightning. “Our troops are faltering too much. Go aid them.”

The heavily armored Scyrric, covered from head to toe in dense metal, began moving forward. He was wide as a car and carried a shield almost as big. His steps were very slow and plodding. The ground sank where the metal soles of his shoes were placed.

An order was sent to those in combat, and they reformed into two groups, with a lane between them for Khtolk. As the Scyrric solders moved to back up, a few of their barrier positions shifted enough for that archer to kill two more. Sgolkr wanted to roar, but he had assigned this task to Khtolk.

The strongest defense also came with massive strength. The shield attached to his armor was flat and large enough to easily cover a group of Scyrric completely. That level of strength could surely knock a hole in the natives’ wall. Khtolk was reliable enough to know what to do and durable enough that he would never fall to the likes of those standing against them.

The big Scyrric chuckle-hissed as he passed those lined up and entered range of the rodents on the wall. As expected, coming into their spell range caused as sorts of spells to strike him, but his armor was impervious to them all. Not even a blemish was caused to the high quality armor. There was no reason to even bring his shield to bear. That would be used to smash the wall.

Sgolkr felt his smoldering rage normalize as glee entered him at what would soon come to pass.

***

“Uh, temp boss,” Tom said to Lucas, “I don’t like the look of that guy.”

The armored Scyrric resembled a robot as every motion was deliberate and planned. Each step was precisely completed before the next, presumably to prevent losing balance because of the weight. His march to the wall was unencumbered regardless of the number of attacks sent at him. It seemed inevitable that he would arrive through the falling attacks as if they were a breeze while on a casual stroll.

Lamar then released an arrow buffed with all his penetration skills. The arrow didn’t ping off the armor or get absorbed like all the spells hitting it. Instead, the arrowhead shattered, proving the material of the armor was a much higher quality than the arrowheads. In frustration, Lamar muttered curses but didn’t bother shooting another arrow. He did notch one though and just held the string pulled back, without looking like he intended to fire. His skill [Take Your Time] increasing the power of his attack the longer he held the bow drawn, watching for an opening to present itself.

“Yeah, temp boss. If we have to fight that guy, then I’ll generously let you have the first go at it.”

Lucas looked over at Tom, not even surprised by his shamelessness. There was a feeling of pressure and fear in Lucas, but not nearly enough for him to hesitate at this moment. Battles might be deadlier than a boxing match, but there was a similar back and forth between them. Time was spent feeling out each side to see what the most effective action would be.

Turning to a display connected to the defense towers, Lucas spoke into it.

“Those are supposed to be powerful, right? Can you take that guy down?”

“Sorry, commander, but I’ve no idea. I only test shot once into the ground. We won’t know until we try,” replied an army sniper. The man had been excited that he finally had a weapon he had been trained on, volunteering for the post immediately.

Lucas nodded. “Guess it’s time to try. We need to stop that guy.”

“Roger!” acknowledged the man, before putting on a helmet that looked to dampen sound all over. “Better cover your ears! This volume will be like a bomb going off!”

Lucas sent a message to display for everyone. “Loud sound incoming! Duck and cover! Healers be ready!”

The group held their breath, and their ears, as they waited and hoped.

***

Sgolkr watched in anticipation as Khtolk got within twenty feet of the wall. Then he stopped and bellowed, arms reaching out. He laughed and lorded it over the silly natives. Sgolkr looked forward to joining him in his revelry once they breached those walls. With the walls down, then he would be able to get involved, and all the natives in that base would be his for the taking.

Then something odd happened. All the natives in the wall dropped down beneath the battlements. They weren’t even looking at Khtholk.

Khtholk’s bellow petered out and he looked in confusion at where the natives had been standing. They wouldn’t have fallen in terror, and no one had used a skill on them. Once more their behavior was incomprehensible.

“What are you…” Khtholk went to say, but stopped as a crash of thunder, louder than any of them had ever heard, sounded out. At the same moment, Khtholk stumbled backwards.

The Scyrric looked down at his chest. Sgolkr couldn’t see what he was looking at, but whatever it was had forced the “Immoveable” to move backwards. The surprises of these natives were very much not welcome to Sgolkr.

Meanwhile, Khtholt was stunned at the dent in his armor containing a sharpened cone of bone. He easily pulled it out, since it hadn’t penetrated his armor, simply deformed the spot it had hit. He brought the item up to one of his eyes, turning his head so he could get a good look at it through his left eye hole.

“What is this?” he mumbled. Then loudly he spoke to the walls. “You pathetic insects think this is enough to…”

Another crack of thunder, just as loud as before sounded out. The next bullet entered the left eyehole that Khtholk had exposed to the wall. It didn’t come out the back, stopped by the back of the helmet after passing through the resistant scales and skull of Khtholk. Plenty of gore splattered and then poured out of both eye holes and down where the helmet met his neck.

The body, knocked off balance, toppled backwards and hit the ground. It lay there in silence, unmoving.

Sgolkr froze. He blinked. His eyes had to be deceiving him! They had a skill powerful enough to kill Khtholk through his armor?!

For the first time Sgolkr felt uncertain. He looked at his peers to either side, but they seemed as disbelieving as he was. No one spoke. Nor did they know what to do. Then he looked at the walls, where the natives were slowly standing up, though they seemed disoriented from whatever had just happened. He could see healers trying to heal everyone.

Was it possible they had a sacrificial skill that could take partial life from a group to inflict higher damage? He had never heard of one that wasn’t a single person sacrifice, let alone strong enough to kill a tier higher. This made no sense.

“We are withdrawing,” he said quietly.

Even more surprise showed on the faces of his troops as they looked at him. Scyrric didn’t retreat. They won. But everyone knew that something incomprehensible had just happened.

“Srgyst, retrieve Khtholk’s body,” he ordered. Sgolkr couldn’t bring himself to leave just yet. He needed to ensure the body and equipment weren’t left to these natives.

The support Srgyst, “Telemetrician [28]”, raised his hand with a flash of red. The body of Khtholk rose slightly off the ground. He grunted since the weight of the combined body and armor was a drain on his skill. Very slowly the body began moving towards him.

Once more the expectations of the Scyrric were threatened as a figure cloaked in black, hook pulled low over his face jumped from the top of the wall. He easily dropped and landed gently. Casually walking towards the levitating body, he spoke.

“We’ll be taking this.”