The next day was the day when the main battle was going to happen - at least for as long as the Ecstasy was going to pick up the glove that just got thrown in its face. As that’s what the last two days were all about.
Provocations. Nothing but provocations.
Whether it worked was going to be discovered today, when the forces of the beastkin would enter the valley one more time. Before that happened, though, there were last-minute decisions to be made in the Dungeon.
They technically started their final preparations by having Compress ask Anaya (in the most impersonal, empty and mechanical voice possible) whether tomorrow will be the time for the servants to join the beastkin.
Anaya said yes, and told them where to head once the day starts. But… that just opened up an additional subject.
They had two wolfkin warriors that were really raring to go, both Uraraka and Tokage really didn’t want to miss out on the battle. There was also Ay’zira, who wanted to be there just as much.
Two wolfkin warriors… and they just unlocked a lot of things for the wolfkin warriors. There was a field for quick last-minute improvements to them, to make them as strong as possible for the battle to come.
“I’m going to miss my current outfit, you know?” Uraraka says before sighing loudly. “It was pretty fun to wear.”
“You mean, it was pretty fun to wear it and see what sort of stares it drew out of Midoriya and Toga.” Tokage corrects her.
“Well… yes.” Uraraka decides not to sugarcoat it. “You should have seen their reaction when I wore it first!”
The two of them were in the Throne Room, which was still as bare as ever. It’s not as if they needed anything to be placed there, right?
…
Your gf’s really talkative about you when she’s with her new bestie I guess
How do you feel about this?
If you ever try to act like a therapist towards me, I’m going to show you something worse than everything you’ve seen thus far, combined.
Okay, okay, sheesh, chill
“Yeah, I can imagine.” Tokage shakes her head. “Toga is one thing, but Midoriya is very expressive when embarrassed.” Izuku doesn’t show that - he doesn’t have a body for a moment after all - but he knows that if he could, he would act in a way completely confirming Tokage’s words. Which just makes it more embarrassing.
Please focus on the refit, we don’t want Midoriya to drop dead out of embarrassment and pollute the insides of my body with his rotting corpse
“Alright, alright!” Uraraka decides to concede the point. “What can you offer us exactly?”
They quickly run into the first problem - the choice of a side weapon. Spears were useful - frankly, there was no reason not to use them. They offered you an advantage in reach and were good at stopping charges, not to mention being able to cause much more injuries to big enemies.
In short, pointy sticks were extremely useful as weapons.
However, unless they find an indestructible wood (ironwood seemed to be a good start), they could expect a sufficiently intelligent and strong enemy to try to separate the stabby part of the spear from the rest of it. Leaving them exposed.
This, for the record, was far from easy. However, it became much easier once the spear’s blade got stuck in something, or if your enemy was really powerful. And in the world of magic, it was entirely possible to encounter powerful enemies.
Worst of all, it was going to be an important decision, at least if they were going to settle down in their current bodies eventually. Once they’d get used to one type of such a weapon, it was possible that if they really liked it they’d stay with it forever.
In the end, following a period of intense deliberations that in Izuku and Tomura’s opinion was much longer than it should have been, Uraraka decides to dedicate herself to spear & sword combo, while Tokage decides to reclass herself slightly and focus on axe & spear combo.
In her own words, it’s the closest that she can get to her old quirk. As in, she’ll be splitting the bodies of others with her axe.
Izuku decides that it’s time to face the music and count Tokage into the ‘Gone Native’ category of their servants. She definitely found something that she likes in her new life. Good for her.
What followed then, were the obvious equipment upgrades. [Tribal Warrior’s Armor] was worth 0.5 ETL - meaning that, to put it bluntly, Uraraka was immediately disqualified from switching over to it right now.
As the maximum ETL that they could maintain on the 10th Level without changing their apartment into a Node Room was a still rather puny 28, while her current level was 24. And while Izuku was very open to changes in decor of their new home, adding a giant glowing crystal to his bedroom was going a bit too far.
“Well, that kind of sucks.” Uraraka sighs when they come to that realization. “I’ll probably end up being killed because of my bad personal protection. I don’t think that changing my skills seriously right before the battle makes a lot of sense, so let’s stick to what I already know, but make it better, please.”
Sure!
So, [Mana Pathways II], [Wolf Fang School II], [Sword Proficiency II], [Lesser Thrust II], [Lesser Slash II], [Shield Bash II], [Barricade Shield II] and [Predator’s Advance II], which should make you a Barbarian Berserker, lvl 30.
How does that sound?
“I’m in!” Uraraka smiles. In a somewhat bloodthirsty way. “I’m looking forward to testing the differences between levels.”
And what about you, Tokage-san?
Do you want better armor?
“Hmmm, that’s a good question.” Tokage replies. “In general, I’m all for an armor improvement, but I get the feeling that I’m going to end up looking kind of dumb. I mean, I’m going to look like one of the beastkin veterans, but I’ll be lacking like two-thirds of their skills. On the other hand, I also think that wearing my current outfit will make me look out of place.”
I don’t think that the beastkin are this unified in equipment
I’ve definitely seen wolfkin fighters in that skirmisher armor through Compress’ eyes
So why is it called Tribal ‘Skirmisher’ Armor?
Because it’s probably worn by a significant number of their skirmishers
not all
Rest wears whatever they got their hands on
Mhm, makes sense
I wouldn’t be surprised if it changed its name once we’d get a few more sets of armor, our UI is adaptive and keeps evolving on us as our understanding of our situation and nature grows.
“All of those are very good points, but as I said, since my life isn’t really at risk, I’d prefer to surprise an enemy with how skillful I am rather than with how weak I am.” Tokage decides to join the talk again. “So I think that I’ll temporarily switch my armor for the regular clothes, and get more skills instead. But I’d speak to the familiar ones too.”
Alright. So…
[Axe Proficiency III], [Spear Proficiency III], [Shield Proficiency III], [Wolf Fang School III], [Mana Pathways III], [Lesser Thrust III], [Lesser Slash III], [Barricade Shield III] and [Predator’s Advance III].
Making you a level 30 Tribal Warrior.
Though we’ll have to remove [Temperate Forest Survival I] and [Tracking III] for it to fit.
“Fine with me.” Tokage replies, before letting a wry smile bloom on her face. “For as long as we don’t get hooked into doing kinky S/M stuff for life by the victorious Ecstasy army after this battle, we’re going to have so many things to choose from, you know? Really looking forward to it.”
“And so does Himiko, she’s really lagging behind.” Uraraka replies, quickly nodding a few times. “And doesn’t like it one bit.”
In Izuku’s opinion, the bigger problem was with their non-beastkin members, but that was for the future them to deal with.
***
After some considerations, Uraraka decided to switch over to a normal set of clothes as well, all in order to better blend into the crowd of the younger warriors of the beastkin tribe.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Izuku managed to squeeze in [Sword Proficiency III] and [Spear Proficiency III] in its place.
Interestingly enough, this change was going to have a major impact on the battle to come, but they were yet to find out.
The final step of their battle preparations was having Ay’zira manifest herself physically so that she could participate in the battle. They’ve given her an empty shell of a catkin body to make hers, with Ay’zira having enough of control over the process to make the ear, eyes and tail remain as it was.
Namely, she could blend in among the beastkin too. However, her eyes and ears weren’t really functional, at least not in the same way as they would be for a ‘real’ beastkin.
They’ve also finished preparing their Cynocephalii. The real problem with them was with deciding as to who would lead them outside if they turned out to be important.
In the end, Spinner volunteered to do so. A single person issuing orders to them, with the authority of the Dungeon Lord behind them was perfectly enough.
***
The situation progressed just as the beastkin suspected. On the third day, there was a battle. Although it was a bit bigger and much fiercer than anyone in the Dungeon expected. In big part because proficiency with numbers wasn’t exactly a beastkin’s strong point.
In short, their numbers were actually bigger than even the elder assumed. In big part because of how little the beastkin usually cared for organization. No one really cared to count their forces, for as long as you had a solid approximation (in the line of ‘a few hundred’ or ‘a few thousand’) it was fine enough for them.
After the battle there were some attempts made by Yaoyorozu and Monoma to establish just how many of them were there exactly, but despite having Mr. Compress as their inside man, they never really narrowed it down very much.
In the end, their estimations varied between seven hundred and one thousand three hundred. To go by the average, then, around a thousand people.
The bulk of those were the warriors. To go by the average of the estimations of beastkin total forces stated above, there were around six hundred of them. One in three was an experienced fighter with decent armor and weapons while the rest was made usually from hotheaded youngsters.
As for species, wolfkin were a majority, although boarkins made for a notable number. There was also a relatively small minority of catkin warriors.
From the remaining four hundreds, about fifty were the beastkin champions. Usually bearkins, but there were also more exotic morphs mixed among them, with Mr. Compress almost certain that he saw what looked like a tigerkin.
Then, there were about fifty shamans, most of them foxkin, but there were also some catkin and wolfkin among them, though both of them being a minority. Elder Anaya was counted among that category, obviously.
The remaining three hundred (again, approximately) were the more irregular combatants. The first notable group from that category was the skirmishers. Mostly catkin (but there were also wolfkin), armed with javelins, slings, throwing axes and so on, plus some light melee weapons for self-defense.
They made for the majority of the irregulars, but Yaoyorozu and Monoma weren’t sure how large of a majority they actually were. Two hundred, perhaps?
That left a final hundred beastkin, who were split between a very diverse group of berserkers (with examples from every subspecies present on the battlefield that day) and a few dozen lizardkin archers.
Whose existence made it clear that they weren’t the first ones to realize how much of an asset the lizardkin eyesight was. The other beastkin knew, and they were using it to their advantage.
The shamans have also prepared something special for the day, which meant that Ay’zira wasn’t going to be the only daemon of the Nine Hordes to be present on the battlefield that day.
All those forces were divided into three parts, two of which were on the opposite side of the river (as seen from the Dungeon), while the third one was supposed to march right by it, meaning that there was a river separating it from the rest of the beastkin forces.
All three parts were using a mostly similar formation. Skirmishers and archers ahead, expected to harass the enemy before the main clash. Then came the warriors, experienced and fresh recruits mixed together with the champions.
Berserkers were usually scattered around the front of the formation, supposed to act as formation breakers right before the clash. Shamans were mostly placed in the back, expected to support their allies from there.
So much about the beastkin. Now, over to the forces of the Rapturous Ecstasy. The first thing that has to be said about them, was that they’ve brought less fighters to the battle than the beastkin, but still more than the beastkin expected.
The total numbers of the Ecstasy army (if you could call it an ‘army’) were later on estimated to be around seven hundred. Around half of that were the Rose Guards and their significantly improved version, the Rose Knights.
Since they were the closest thing that the Ecstasy had to an actually disciplined combat force, they happened to play roughly the same role as the beastkin warriors. Namely, they were supposed to fight in melee while staying a part of a formation, forming the bulk of an army while having everything else support them (or harass their opponent).
Out of the remaining three-hundred fifty, they were dealing with about forty Rapturous Brutes, forty to fifty Moraverian Sword Dancers, thirty to forty Frenzied Bloodletters and at least a hundred Gore Munchers. These were the enemies that were previously known to the Dungeon.
The ones that they didn’t know about included about twenty Languid Juggernauts, ten Moraverian Alchemists and a large crowd of about eighty Ghouls.
The Languid Juggernauts were giant, ironclad servants of Decidius, that seemed to be perpetually high on some sort of fantasy opioids. They could feel no pain, and in return were, well, rather languid.
They were usually armed with two-handed weapons, giant warhammers usually. Their blows were very slow, but if they did hit you, you were likely going to turn into a blood smear on the ground.
When he saw them for the first time, Tomura Shigaraki compared their looks to some ‘ironclad soldiers’ from Dark Souls II, a comparison that Izuku had no way of confirming the validity of, for obvious reasons.
Tomura Shigaraki was likely the only person in this universe that has ever played such an ancient game.
Moraverian Alchemists were men and women wearing robes that vaguely resembled that of stereotypical plague doctors, except for a mask that was replaced with somewhat more modern-looking gas masks. Very fancy ones, as expected from an inhabitant of Moraver. They were using some form of rock crystal instead of glass, the rest being made from metal encrusted with some jewels.
They were armed with gas grenades dotting their belts, each of which carrying some gaseous form of drugs. When they exploded nearby, you would usually overdose lethally - if you were lucky. If you weren’t, they would drive you into a violent frenzy, making you injure or hurt everyone nearby, especially your allies, before being put down by them.
The ghouls, in the meantime, were cannibals. Frenzied, forever-hungry cannibals, with unnaturally wide mouths filled with razor-sharp teeth and hands ending in really mean looking claws. They were playing the role of skirmishers, many of them bringing javelins and other thrown weapons onto the battlefield.
In the end, Rose Guard formed the backbone of their army, with Languid Juggernauts mixed into their ranks, Frenzied Bloodletters and Rapturous Brutes being placed right before them to play the role of the beastkin berserkers.
Gore Munchers were stationed behind the melee line, using their height to be able to fire crossbows above their allies’ heads. Unlike the lizardkin archers, they were way too slow to be placed up ahead. If the Rose Guard ranks began to break, they could also move ahead to reinforce them.
Finally, ghouls were playing the role of skirmishers alongside the Moraverian Alchemists and Sword Dancers. If Yaoyorozu’s post-battle suspicions were correct, the Ecstasy’s commanders hoped that the beastkin skirmishers would get overly excited about the battle and rush into melee with the ghouls, only to be absolutely butchered by the Sword Dancers and Alchemists.
Interestingly enough, both sides had the exact same plan for the day. Send ⅔ of their army up ahead on the opposite side of the river (looking from Dungeon) while making the rest advance beyond the river in order to then cross it back and flank the enemy forces. Resulting in the major clash right in front of the Dungeon.
Unfortunately for the Rapturous Ecstasy forces, the beastkin actually expected this to happen and had already planned to flank the enemy flanking attempt by involving the Cynocephalii swarm out of the Dungeon at just the right time.
Uraraka and Tokage joined the beastkin warrior ranks, while Ay’zira and Toga joined the skirmishers, naturally on ‘their’ side of the river. The beastkin didn’t seem to care about their arrival, aside from some veteran warrior growling at the two newly arriving youngsters and telling them to stick to formation.
Uraraka decided not to engage, and quickly realized that the warrior probably thought that they left earlier to take a leak or were late to leave their camp and only now caught up with the army.
The beastkin organization was really lacking.
***
The battle started on the other side of the river, as the skirmishers of both sides ended up encountering each other.
Fighting in the forest environment has given the beastkin an edge over their opponents, although in the end, most of it was evened out by the Ecstasy’s usually better equipment, making the result of the battle be decided by the clash between beastkin’s quantity and Ecstasy’s quality.
The first clashes happened between the skirmishers around the center formations of both sides, the both sides managing to see each other deep in the forest and immediately beginning to throw projectiles at each other.
Ghouls quickly proved to be better at throwing javelins, however slings that many beastkin were using ended up giving them an advantage.
Slings, after all, don’t sound like an extremely dangerous ranged weapon… unless you know that a trained slinger with a good sling can launch stone pellets at the speed up to 160km/h . And while that was a much lesser speed than that of a gun, the caliber of the sling projectiles was usually larger.
Meaning that a direct headshot from those could easily take off a solid part of one’s head in a single blow. Even when you were wearing a metal helmet, it could as well cave the helmet in and break your skull.
Those things came out of use on Earth because of how much time it took for someone to train a slinger into being combat-viable. Bows were simpler to use and had a larger range. Then crossbows showed up, which were even simpler to use than bows - and the cycle continued.
A lot of the slingers recruited in Mediterranean Antiquity were shepherds, who decided to find some entertainment in their incredibly boring work composed almost entirely of minding a bunch of sheep that didn’t even belong to you by throwing rocks at things.
Before suddenly finding themself able to crack a wolf’s skull with a well aimed shot. Or, well, a bandit’s skull.
That clash has spread onto the other side of the river as well, happening a few hundred meters ahead of Uraraka and Tokage, whose formation was still advancing through the forest. Toga got to see it up close (and through her eyes, so did Midoriya and Shigaraki).
Ay’zira even got to throw some of her javelins, although she ended up not scoring a single hit, the loose formation of the ghoul skirmishers being far from a good target for such attacks. The same couldn’t be said about a catgirl slinger whose exploits they got to see through Toga’s eyes.
She managed to kill or severely injure four ghouls in a short order, each of her hits eliciting loud cheering from other beastkin and a rain of insults targeted at the victims.
Of course, the ghoul skills weren’t to be scoffed at, and they did score a few kills in return. However, a lot of their javelins ended up hitting the branches of the trees that they happened to be fighting amongst. Contrary to that, the beastkin seemed to be doing pretty well with aiming in such an environment.
Clash of the skirmishers was ultimately decided in the beastkin favor. Ecstasy lost at least twenty ghouls and a few sword dancers before pulling back. The beastkin would have gotten away with only five skirmishers lost if not for an enterprising alchemist who ended up sneaking close to the beastkin skirmishers at the exact opposite side of the battlefield.
This resulted in death or severe injuries of six beastkin, and the alchemist getting javelined to death in return.
What followed was the beastkin skirmishers’ attack on the Ecstasy’s main forces, which completely ignored the defeat of their skirmishers and continued advancing through the forest to meet and hopefully crush the enemy..
Despite the artistic beauty of the armors of the Rose Guard, they simply weren’t enough to stop a slingshot bullet. Javelins were also doing pretty well, something that Ay’zira proved by scoring a hit, her javelin piercing the armor of one of the Rose Guard and getting stuck in her shoulder, to a loud yell of bloodthirsty satisfaction from the amazon.
Shields ended up being much better protection from the skirmishers than the armors, managing to save most of the soldiers that got hit from suffering any injuries so early into the battle.
The situation seemed to be developing just right for the beastkin, except this changed very quickly when the Gore Munchers showed up behind the Ecstasy ranks and started firing their really big crossbows at the scattered skirmishers ahead of them.
Sure, the trees decreased the effective range of their crossbows, by whenever they had a straight shot, they took it. And began to rapidly bleed the beastkin dry. Even Ay’zira almost got shot, the bolt thankfully only grazing her side.
Despite that, the beastkin skirmishers refused to yield and kept throwing their ammunition at the advancing ranks of the Ecstasy forces, doing their best to attack while hiding behind the many obstacles that a forest could provide.
It was hard to exactly count it, but by later estimations, twenty to thirty of the Rose Guards got injured or killed, in exchange for a similar number of casualties on the beastkin side. Considering the greater numbers of the beastkin, it was definitely a good deal for them.
When the advancing lines of infantry began to get close to each other, the beastkin skirmishers retreated behind their allies. Toga, naturally, made sure to run past Uraraka to give her one last ‘good luck, Ochako-chan!’.
They didn’t run far away. They ran behind the infantry, staying about a dozen meters behind its last line. Likely planning to wait there until the infantry would break the enemy formation so that they could pursue the enemy.
Their equipment was significantly lighter and they were mobile enough to ignore a lot of terrain obstacles.
Then, however, it became clear that the Ecstasy’s skirmishers were advancing at the infantry’s flank, prolonging their battle line. With the beastkin’s right flank being protected by the river, they suddenly found themselves at a risk of being flanked on their left, forcing the skirmishers to relocate there to prevent that.
In the end, infantry was going to clash with the infantry, while the skirmishers would be doing the same right next to them, between the infantry… and the entrance to the Dungeon.
In the end, the opening clash of the battle ended in beastkin’s favor, but it was far from a one-sided victory.