CHAPTER 94: Alliances
Adam hit the forest like a thunderstrike. Trees in his way were either dodged or punched out of the way with [Kinetic Impact]. Any Pellician that passed him was skewered or cut in half by his sword. Adam’s river was raging. His thoughts were blank other than the need to get to the scouting troops.
As he rocketed through the woods, all the trees suddenly shook. Leaves were displaced and Adam heard the sound of bird wings flapping, but Adam didn’t have time to care about the cause. Just before he reached where Captain Krysti had been, the trees opened up and there was a rather small clearing.
Standing at the other end of the clearing was one of the Pellician, but this one was different. A tag of “Organ Grinder [32]” was above its head. While the ones Adam had passed were around five and a half feet tall, this one would have been seven feet tall if it wasn’t so hunched. It also had a wide girth, with a rotund belly rolling out from the bottom of sturdy looking chest armor.
Adam didn’t slow or stop for the grinning beast man. The point of his sword flew at the organ grinder’s eye. There was a red flash.
PING!
Adam planted his feet on the chest piece and jumped backwards as his sword was deflected by metal wrist guards that the Pellician wore. Its smile got even wider, showing off the jagged teeth that filled its mouth.
“Tier 3 strength. You are him,” the amused invader spoke.
Adam ignored the words, leveling his sword at the beast. He stepped forward and swung at him with more strength. The sword was once more deflected after some skill was used, but the organ grinder was thrown off balance. Before Adam could take advantage of it, he felt something slash through his right calf, and another slash through his back.
“Tss tss tss,” the organ grinder laughed. Adam turned to each side and saw two more Pellicians licking his blood off their long claws. “Spine Slasher [8]” and “Bloody Cutter [12]” were their classes. They were Agility base and much smaller than the big one in front of him. All three were Tier 3.
Adam breathed heavily. Then he snarled more feral that the beast-like invaders, “Out of my way.”
That caused all three to do their laugh.
“Tier 3 strength in native no known,” the organ grinder said in broken speech. “No worrying. We not kill. Bounty alive too good.”
“Bounty?” Adam asked, slowing down as he realized he would be at a disadvantage against all three.
“You no even know. Tss Tss Tss. Bounty much generous. Worth alliance with birds. Red Clan and lizards pay big reward. Sacrificing young to make strength worth bounty.”
“You allied with the birds? We saw you killing each other,” Adam stated.
“Yes. Alliance make both get stronger. Work as one for reward. Tricked ignorant natives. No war, killing gains levels. Now we Tier 3 to catch you. Planet part be ours.”
Adam couldn’t stop his river from flowing as rapids. He had to draw on the coolness to keep from losing his consciousness into the fury of the river. The idea of someone claiming his planet triggered all the anger of his soul. The voice to conquer wasn’t even speaking, it was growling on its own.
“This…planet…is MINE!” Adam shouted as he dove forward again.
The faster Pellicians came at his sides, but he was expecting that. Instead of thrusting his large sword, he turned it like a two-handed staff, aiming for where they would appear. One had to drop to the ground to dodge the weight on the bottom of the hilt, while the other dodged but still took a gash to its arm.
Adam then punched the counter weight towards the one that fell, but the organ grinder was suddenly there and blocked the attack. Then a flapping caught Adam’s attention. When he looked over his shoulder, two of the Arripions were descending from the trees.
They were five feet tall and looked like how Brittney described harpies. They were covered in feathers, though they had a human shape and head. Large chicken legs stuck out from there bottom with sharp talons on them. Instead of arms they had wings with hands attached at the end. Their face muzzle was a bit elongated, and their eyes looked nothing like a human’s.
The voice they spoke with was shrill and screechy, thoroughly unpleasant to hear.
“This the one?” screeched one.
They both had tags of “Sense Snatcher,” one with a level of 24 and the other was 28. Adam could tell that they were also at Tier 3.
“You two created that illusion,” stated Adam. It needed no answer for him to know it was true.
“Natives are dumb, easily fooled,” shrieked the other sense snatcher. “She said you would come here for the water, so we accepted bounty and prepared. Illusions our specialty.”
“She?” asked Adam, pretty sure he already knew who it was. He needed to find that damn mind witch and end her. Part of him was confident in facing her, but another part of him wondered if he would be able to fight her head on. She had been influencing his encounters with the invaders since the goblins’ defeat.
“Tss tss tss. You see she soon. Other natives be us strength. Then you am given to she,” the organ grinder laughed.
Five Tier 3s. Five boss level monsters stronger than any he had fought. Adam was confident he could take out one or two, but five with this diversity of skills was asking a lot. Even still, the rage caused by the corruption in his soul was pushing him to fight.
Adam looked to each of the invaders, all standing confidently against him. Then he heard a scream from behind the organ grinder. It was the scream of a grown man suffering mightily. Adam remembered the soldiers that were trapped.
Pre-[System], gunshots and explosions were audible from miles around. Battles were easy to be aware of. Under the [System] that had changed. Swords, spells, and skills didn’t usually make extra sounds. His forces were far enough away than he would be unable to hear the combat, even without his blood pounding in his ears.
Adam gave another look towards the sound of the men he wanted to rescue, then to the invaders. They said they were going after his forces. He had to make a cold decision. One that would benefit more of his forces. Facing these high-level invaders would prevent him from helping anyone. Saving the men behind them would require a lengthy fight just to get back to the bulk of his forces as they were already under fire.
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The decision wasn’t easy. It was quite hard to do anything but attack those monsters in front of him, due to the soul corruption. Yet the decision had to be made. It required Adam to do something he hadn’t done since the [System] arrived. Something he probably never even did in his previous life.
Adam had to run away.
He raised his sword towards the organ grinder who was smiling a knowing grin, preparing to defend against the attack. A roar came from Adam. [Incapacitating Shout] had no effect on those here, as he expected.
Adam took a normal step, as if he was going to attack the Pellician. Instead, he used [Gladiator’s Approach] on the Arripion behind him. Adam appeared in front of her, mid swing. His sword sliced into her arm, not sharp enough to cut all the way through, but it tore through half of her wing, sending feathers flying.
The organ grinder’s eyes bulged as the strategy took him off guard. Adam spun, his sword flashing as he dropped low, cutting into the legs of the other Arripion, even if he didn’t sever them completely.
Then he ran. He tore down the path he had come from, trees already out of his way. He heard the two fast Pellicians scrambling after him, gaining on him. The big Pellician was screaming for them to catch him. Adam questioned whether he should turn to face them, but instead kept his speed up. He pulled harder from the river using [Body and Soul Shaping], increasing the power of his strides.
When he burst from the wooded area, hitting the bottom of the hill, he looked up and saw that his fears were justified. The Sentinels were being blocked from retreating by the swarms of Pellicians that were surrounding them. Those weren’t the issue though. The shield bearers were holding their positions as the warriors harassed any that got to close.
So many Tier 2s in the invaders and not nearly enough in his own army created a lot of weak points that were close to collapsing. That wasn’t the real problem though. The real problem was the aerial invaders coming by the hundreds and dropping rocks, tree trucks, and various other rubble on those defending.
Adam wanted to rush towards their aid, but he had to do something about the spine slasher and bloody cutter. It wouldn’t help them to bring Tier 3s to where his forces were defending.
Planting one foot, Adam juked to the side, close to the tree line.
The two Pellicians came running out of the trees. Both their heads turned as they saw Adam going in a different direction. Before they had a chance to change directions, Adam used [Gladiator’s Approach] to appear next to one of them. His elven knife, imbued with [Kinetic Impact], stabbed the bloody cutter in the chest.
A feeling of the knife barely breaking the skin and then stopping against its ribs made him wince. The wound wasn’t severe, and his knife was bent. The stats of these Tier 3s seemed plenty against the weapons he had gotten from Tier 1 enemies. Adam wondered where they could get materials that could stand up to this level of toughness as the Pellician went flying away from him, given his clear strength advantage over the smaller creature.
The spine slasher didn’t waste any time in speeding towards him. No sooner did it turn than Adam hit it with a soul spike, using [Gladiator’s Approach] and [Kinetic Impact] to get a solid strike to the creature’s nose. It also went flying away but was able to right itself.
The two Pellicians, one with a bleeding nose and the other with a bleeding chest, turned to each other.
“Skills not as her said. Hurt in way not told. Too small time after skill then next,” said the spine slasher through a blood clogged nose.
“Strength more. Need more against,” nodded the bloody cutter in agreement.
“Say to chief. No lose here.”
To Adam’s surprise, the two barely injured invaders went zipping back into the forest. Adam wasn’t about to complain. He waited a moment to make sure it wasn’t a trick, then dashed up the hill.
***
“Yup, this is quite a mess,” said Carlos as he looked around. His face was a mask of concentration as he watched the skies.
Those damn bird people weren’t dropped things constantly. They came in waves, since they took up a lot of space. Large batches of them would fly over and drop all kinds of stuff. Some would be heavy, like rocks or metal barrels, while some were slower moving, like tree branches. Shards of glass and metal spikes would also come down quickly.
Not knowing what was going to fall made it too difficult to prepare the timing. Carlos had been identified as one of the leaders by the enemies since he was commanding the archers. He used his skills and high Agility to identify the most dangerous of the birds, then would direct the archers on who to attack.
They hadn’t killed many of the birds. When a lucky shot, or group of shots, made a bird unable to fly, that was when they got a kill. The invader would fall, becoming another dropping hazard, and they would then kill it on the ground.
One thing that quickly became apparent was that these birds were a higher tier than most of the archers, even if the levels on their tags were low. Carlos thought it was such a charade. Having your levels go low after getting a power increase just made things more confusing than they had to be. Why even display the tags to begin with? It felt to Carlos like a set up.
Most of the archers didn’t have the accuracy or penetration power to bring the birds down on their own. They didn’t have as many body levels as Lamar, and they usually had skills that split between archery, close range, and defense or hiding. Unlike warriors or some of the rogue builds that had a singular path, the archers were split between what they did.
The mages were also firing their spells upward, leaving those feral badger-like things to the protectors, warriors, and rogues. Elias was nearby, relying on Carlos’s vision skills [Clear Sight], [See Weakness], and [See Life]. Those allowed Carlos to know which were stronger or weaker, and to see them coming from further away. Elias didn’t shoot his spells upwards, instead using his earth spells [Raise Earth] and [Landslide] to shift people around on the battlefield.
With 5,000 people in the mix, there really wasn’t enough space to dodge and move around. Quite a few people had already been killed, most were supports in the deepest part of their formation. Colonel Davian had spent weeks drilling large groups on formations. These formations were more historical in nature since pre-[System] fights with guns were less about grouping and more about having cover.
This battle was pure chaos. Supports were casting buffs. Anyone with a barrier spell or skill was having to call it out, so people knew where and for how long it would be there. Elias’s group of mages were used to him shifting the ground under them, but the archers weren’t.
Carlos was pleased with how long they lasted, angry at being unable to really do anything from here, and nauseous thinking about those who died. He understood he couldn’t get out of it, but war was really, really, terrible.
“Isn’t it about time for super-Adam to come to the rescue?” asked Carlos, as he pointed to a group of 5 birds carrying a heavy looking metal basin. His archers took aim and mostly wasted arrows as they flew wide when one of the birds used a deflection skill. Other arrows just pinged off the basin. He was going to need a protector or strength class back here to catch the basin.
“I’d even welcome Tom and his unit of Adam loving nutjobs,” muttered Carlos.
“Quit expecting help. Find ways to be effective on your own,” snapped Elias.
“How is the retreating going?” Carlos asked, still pointing out the more dangerous items being carried and easily dodging the smaller things with his higher Agility.
“You’re the one who can see far. You tell me.”
“I can’t take my eyes from the skies. I hope Lucas and his dad get enough people away to give us more space,” Carlos said.
The retreat was planned to go in segments. They had groups of 40 trying to pull away from the back of the battle. The slower classes and groups were moved first, then the more physically capable and fast would try to last the longest. That also meant their highest levels were in the most danger.
“You do realize if enough retreat, then the rest of us have more to deal with?” pointed out Elias.
“Yeah, yeah. Such a complainer,” Carlos said ironically.
It was then that a terrible sound erupted in the sky. A group of 30 birds screeched and fell from the air. They weren’t injured, just unable to move for a few seconds. By the time they regained control, they were struggling to stop their falls and were close enough to the ground. Warriors jumped high enough to attack.
The mages and archers were still too far away to effectively attack them so kept focusing on the Arripions above the army. Yet even as the birds began falling, one person winked out of one place and appeared at another bird that had been far enough not to fall. Another roar echoed out and more of the birds fell.
“About freaking time he got here,” complained Carlos as he watched Adam slowly teleport from bird to bird, slashing some with that ridiculously big sword, and causing groups of them to fall.