The beastkin were a diverse group. Not only in the vast selection of subspecies that they brought to the battlefield, but also in their equipment and weaponry. There was no standardization among their ranks.
They didn’t know about that yet, as their knowledge about their society was still rather fragmentary but the beastkin weren’t actually given any equipment.
Everything that they would use in a battle, they earned. Some by earning enough money to buy it, others by stealing from their defeated enemies, and some by showing enough combat prowess to receive it as a form of investment by much wealthier or more experienced tribesmen.
An investment that they were expected to pay back for.
Except for the ‘stealing’ option, they usually ended up picking the stuff that they thought suited them most from a rather diverse pool of available equipment. Hence, the all around diversity of the beastkin forces, made even worse with their cultural and economic ties with both the elves of Vestiria and the Grand Empire as a whole.
This meant that every single type of protective equipment common on the continent could find their way into their hands. Gambesons and padded cloth. Leather armors and brigandines. Chainmail, scale and lamellar armors. And, finally, plate armors (although those were extremely rare).
Everything.
However, there were some rules to this chaos. The main one stated that the more skilled you were, the better the equipment you could obtain. The rough outline of the consequences of this rule went like this.
Novice infantry and novice skirmishers were usually wearing just their own clothes, although stacked quite thickly to absorb some blows if possible. Usually with an added leather or padded cap to protect the head, with holes cut out in them to make it possible to wear them in tandem with large animal ears.
The former usually got a round wooden shield and a spear, together with an ax, a mace, a club or a knife as a side weapon. The latter only got their ranged weapon and one of the side weapons from the list above.
The bulk of the warriors wore heavy cloth or leather armors, together with similar weapons but of typically better quality. Same with skirmishers, although this is where the improvement in their armors ended. They needed to be able to run around pretty quickly, so they preferred light armors that didn’t restrict their movement much.
The beastkin veterans were typically recognizable by access to protective equipment made of metal. Chainmails seemed to be the most common choice, but scale and lamellar armors were also pretty popular. They were all further customized by details such as bracers, boots, pauldrons and helmets.
It was also not uncommon for a beastkin veteran to wear a chainshirt or a scale armor over, say, a gambeson. Or a metal breastplate over a chainmail. Or a lamellar armor over a chainmail.
However, even the veteran beastkin usually stuck to a combination of shield and a spear as their primary weapon choice, although there were much more swords among their side weapons, with clubs largely replaced with either them or the axes.
In short, most of their warriors were spearmen. Coincidentally, so were the Rose Guardsmen, making the battle being waged mostly between two mutually hostile groups of spearmen, their flanks protected by their skirmishers.
However, aside from the warriors there were also the shocktroopers. Especially in a battle as small as this one, where both sides' ranks were only two to four people deep, those could decide the outcome of the battle right at the start, by shattering the enemy formation and exposing the remaining enemy soldiers to be swarmed and overwhelmed by their warriors.
Uraraka and Tokage found themselves in the third beastkin rank, close to the flank of the formation protected by the skirmishers. Relatively safe, all things considered, as they had two full lines of beastkin warriors between them and the advancing Ecstasy forces.
However, despite that, Uraraka had to admit that seeing a number of Brutes - each of them a towering, enraged giant with a body build reminding her of All Might - charging towards her through the forest was actually intimidating.
Right behind them were those blood frenzied flagellants. Each of them a rather grotesque sight, topless men and women wearing reddish masks shaped like a deformed skull, every bit of their exposed skins covered in self-inflicted injuries, their belts and pants completely soaked in their own blood.
In short, scary as fuck. And whoever told you otherwise was a liar.
However, many of the beastkin warriors expanded upon their equipment with something as simple as javelins. Two or three, to be thrown at the enemy before melee. In a way mimicking the usage of pilums by the Roman Legions.
The few voices among the beastkin ranks - usually belonging to veteran warriors or the champions - shouted at everyone to use them now. Uraraka, obviously, joined it.
The few dozens of javelins thrown at the incoming enemies lead to some kills. The flagellants saw it coming and could at least try to dodge it (even if they usually failed). The Brutes, though?
No way. They were blind to begin with.
Most of them that Uraraka could see from her position were hit by so many javelins that they began to resemble hedgehogs. Two of them dropped to the ground instantly - she actually hit one of those, although her javelin definitely wasn’t the one that killed it.
Some of the flagellants were hit too. But they were much less of a prime target than the Brutes.
Once that happened, there was only one thing left between the remaining shocktroopers of the Ecstasy and the beastkin ranks. Namely, the beastkin shocktroopers.
There were a handful of differently clothed beastkin standing in front of their ranks. Light equipment, very light - she could see a wolfkin woman wearing the same [Tribal Berserker’s Outfit] that Uraraka previously wore. But, to be honest, she was among the better equipped of those people.
Some, for as far as Uraraka and Tokage could see, weren’t wearing anything at all. Which was… really odd.
Actually, it was totally insane, and neither of them had any idea as to why someone would show up completely naked to a battle, carrying nothing but a round wooden shield and their weapon of choice. Seriously, who does that?!
They realize the answer to that the moment the enemy shocktroopers get close… and blood begins to rain down on those naked or almost naked beastkin.
Yeah. That immediately explains everything to them. And it also seems that the more exposed you are, the more of the blood gets on your skin and the more enraged you become. Which also means that the resulting boost to strength and speed gets bigger.
The berserkers charge forward to meet the Ecstasy’s own shocktroopers, accompanied by loud cheers from the warriors that began to advance after them.
The clash between the berserkers and the incoming brutes was brief but incredibly brutal. The best picture of it was that it ended with a catkin berserker having her arms torn off, except it happened right after she sank her teeth into the throat of the brute responsible for it.
It was the last one of those in front of their formation. There were still some berserkers left (most of them, in fact) who immediately proceeded to continue their rage-fuelled charge by going after the flagellants. Who responded by trying to bleed them dry.
The amount of blood being spilled or just covering people up right in front of them was enough to make Himiko uncomfortably horny if she was there to see it, that much Uraraka is absolutely certain of.
A moment later the two forces clash, letting Uraraka and Tokage participate in their first ever true battle.
***
Himiko Toga was definitely not enjoying the battle very much. Oh, make no mistake, fighting was cool, she was fine with spilling blood, and it was a great way of getting to stretch her body a little.
But she’s far enough from Ochako-chan that she doesn’t get to see her getting all bloody and excited by being able to crush her enemies! That just sucks!
She’s also really outmatched in terms of her combat skills. Seriously, why is she even here? She isn’t really good with any ranged combat skills, so what sort of a skirmisher is she really?
After this battle, Izuku should give her a slingshot skill as a gift. Being able to blow someone’s head off their neck at range would be sooo cute!
The ghouls might have been somewhat bloodied by the initial clash of skirmishers, but they were still raring to go. They charged at the beastkin - including Toga! - and that was bad enough on its own.
As Toga sees another catwoman like herself speared in the guts by one of the ghouls before he and his pal topple her onto the ground and proceed to tear her to shreds with their claws and teeth, messily devouring entire chunks of flesh straight out of her body as she screams and desperately thrashes around, Himiko has to correct herself.
That was very bad on its own.
And then there were also those damn dancers, who moved extremely fast and were as proficient in slicing limbs off and gutting people as they were pretty. And they were super pretty.
Himiko spent most of the early fight just dodging attacks and watching their skirmishers getting absolutely butchered. There were some deaths on the other side, but… yeah, it kind of sucks.
They’re also constantly losing ground. That also kind of sucks.
What is Ochako doing right now? She can only wonder.
***
The blade of Tokage’s axe hits the top of the enemy shield, forcefully pulling it down, exposing the Rose Guard and allowing Uraraka to thrust her spear right into the woman’s throat, piercing the armor and allowing her to officially score her first kill for the day.
The triumphant howl leaves her mouth on her own. She sees no problem with that, though. The enemy she killed isn’t really dead, they’ll be dragged into the Dungeon later and thus imprisoned. And they’re definitely a bad guy, right?
It took them a while to actually get close enough to the enemy to see some action. Earlier they were mostly focused on pushing forward, the two formations practically merging with each other.
The flagellant creatures, lacking space to maneuver in, were mostly wiped out quickly, at least except for those that managed to escape the closing space between ranks in time. Contrary to them, the few remaining berserkers were doing much better.
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The main problem was with the giant, slowly moving and heavily armored guys that Uraraka didn’t know the name for. Those guys seemed to be hard to bite even for the beastkin champions!
And one of them was pretty close to them right now, Uraraka having to finish her howl early to dodge the gigantic maul that was about to pancake her.
The impact was still strong enough to shake the ground under her feet, making her stumble. Goddamnit, those things were strong as hell! And worst of all, she didn’t have enough space in the formation to really dodge such blows for long!
Thankfully, before the enemy juggernaut had the time to raise their maul again, a bearkin champion finally waddles through the beastkin formation and manages to hit it in the shoulder with their two-handed battle axe.
It doesn’t seem to have fully pierced the armor, despite the bearkin’s prodigious strength. It’s stuck in there, the bearkin proceeding to try to wrestle his armored opponent, something that Uraraka is rather happy she’s not taking part in.
She’s not quite ready to throw hands in that particular weight class. But she is looking forward to changing that.
The battle continues.
***
Ay’zira headbutts the ghoul that was trying to take a bite from her, before sinking the tip of her javelin into the daemons guts. Toga doesn’t get to see that, because at that very same time she jumps at the ghoul from behind and slits his throat, the blood gushing from the wound and practically showering the amazon.
The ghoul thrashes around, but the damage is definitely enough to take him down. They have maybe two seconds to celebrate their successful takedown when one of the sword dancers dances past them, long sabres in both of their hands, one of them severing half the fingers of Ay’zira's left hand in the passing.
The sword dancer finished her pirouette, turning around just to get a good look at them. She looks rather pretty, Himiko decides. Belly dancer outfit, the two aforementioned sabers, nothing but bracelets on her feet and a face veil, the sort that leaves eyes exposed.
All of that covered in blood splatters. And if the look in her eyes is anything to go by, she’s definitely enjoying the carnage in all manner of ways. And was looking forward to finishing off Ay’zira and killing Himiko.
Cute, but Himiko was taken and loyal to her two cuties. So, hard pass.
The sword dancer leaps towards them, weaving her sword around with a blinding speed that Toga can’t hope to match. Neither can Ay’zira, especially not with her earlier injury. Himiko doesn’t even bother trying to fight back, she instead [Cat Leaps] outside of the sword dancer’s reach.
Ay’zira swears loudly, before jumping away, performing a pretty decent combat roll despite her damaged hand, one that actually lets her narrowly dodge being sliced in half. The sword dancer prolongs her graceful dance, reaching a catkin skirmisher that was trying to run away from a charging ghoul, stopping right in front of him just to chop off both his arms at once, before performing a pirouette that resulted in the man’s head being sliced cleanly off.
Yeah.
That would be an incredibly hot sight to Himiko, except it’s not Ochako-chan wearing that outfit and spilling blood so efficiently and gracefully. This kind of sucks. Also, Himiko will likely die next, and that feels even worse.
She ended up missing the briefest moment of contact that Ay’zira had with someone behind them while the sword dancer was busy butchering that unfortunate skirmisher. The amazon meets the sword dancer’s dance head on, diving beneath her swords and wrapping her arms around her lower body, thus stopping her movement.
Before Himiko has the time to charge in, trying to save her ally from certain death that was brought by her own bad decisions, a shaman located somewhere behind her casts a blood magic spell that creates a short-lived projectile made of solidified blood which pierces the dancer’s throat, taking full advantage of the woman being stopped in place for a second to actually score a hit.
Oh. Ohhhh. So that’s what the plan was. Makes sense in hindsight.
“You alright?” She quickly asks Ay’zira as the blade dancer staggers backward, choking on her own blood.
“Are you kidding?!” Ay’zira looks back at her, her face partially covered in blood, the bloodthirsty smile behind it in full view. “This is the most fun that I had in my life!”
Huh. Well, Himiko is taken and committed, but she can definitely admire some sights, right? Right. This was really badass.
They’re still getting their butts kicked hard, the beastkin skirmishers were getting wasted all around them and being steadily pushed back. It was only a matter of time before the beastkin infantry was going to be flanked, and in fact it already began to suffer that, with some ghouls turning around to hit the side of their formation.
Unless something changes. Preferably right now.
***
Now?
Now.
Spinner, bro, it’s time to earn that bread
“Alright.” Spinner nods. He’s on the uppermost layer of the Dungeon, surrounded by a small army of Cynocephalii. They are loud and constantly trying to bite each other. Ugh. “LEAVE THE DUNGEON! ATTACK EVERYONE WHO ISN’T A BEASTKIN!”
And so, having received the orders from their Dungeon Lord through one of his representatives, the dog-headed man-eating monsters began to flood out of the Dungeon.
Right towards the flank of the Ecstasy’s skirmishers were just busy mopping up the leftover beastkin skirmishers.
If they were unleashed upon the disciplined line of Rose Guard warriors, such a formation would likely withstand their fury quite easily. It would be messy, they might have scored a few kills but that’s all. Here though, they weren’t facing such a force.
They were facing individuals scattered around, all of them either ghouls, sword dancers or the few surviving bloodletters. None of those were very proficient in dealing with the enemy while fighting in a formation.
As a result, most of them ended up being promptly swarmed by an entire group of opponents, managing to slay one or two of them before being overwhelmed and torn to shreds before having their meat heal the attackers that they injured without killing them.
Within a minute, the Ecstasy skirmishers began to give ground and rapidly break apart. And that’s when it happened.
…
Shigaraki, did that ghoul just yell at the sword dancers to stop enjoying being eaten alive and start fighting properly?
Yes
Oh.
Well, Rapturous Ecstasy truly is, errr, a state of mind.
I’d say they’re a meme, but considering how many people they killed today alone, they come off as scary more than funny.
They’re completely unhinged.
Yeah, even I can’t disagree with that
Everything is just a night on the town for them
Other living beings are just things for them to play with and like the spoiled brats they are they usually destroy the toy by the end or even destroy it right away with about as much moral qualms as I’d have over breaking an All Might figurine
I’m not sure if your comparison to the night on town on Earth is particularly correct, but I agree with the general message.
How does it feel to help the slightly less bad guys defeat and imprison the slightly more bad guys?
Stop ruining the moment for me
***
They switch over from the scene of Ecstasy skirmishers being overwhelmed and the beastkin skirmishers gaining second wind at the scene back to Uraraka. And goddamn it, if the situation over there didn’t escalate.
Uraraka’s eyes were on a towering knight riding on an equally armored horse, armed with a kite shield and a long lance, with a sheathed sword on their belt. Said knight was currently busy effortlessly piercing through the beastkin’s lines a few meters away from Uraraka, impaling an unfortunate beastkin veteran through their chainmail and their shoulder.
The veteran warrior in question was the same one that earlier growled at Uraraka and Tokage when they appeared to join the beastkin ranks. A fact that Izuku noticed but didn’t even address because something else grabbed his attention.
Shigaraki, is the symbol on the knight’s shield what I think it is
What?
Wait
Oh you’ve gotta be kidding me
I needed to look at it for a few seconds before realizing that it’s a penis, I give them that much
Ugh, I need to take a shower after this battle and I don’t even have a body right now.
Ochako, what’s going on?
“Well, the knight showed up and started to beat the shit out of everyone, that’s what.” Uraraka replies, raising her shield to stop a spear thrust from a Rose Guard soldier. “It’s his second charge, he has killed like six people already, and I think that he plans to keep doing that.”
She then thrusts her own spear, the Rose Guard responding in kind and blocking it with her shield. The moment she lowered said shield to see what was going on in front of her, Tokage appeared out of nowhere and lodged the blade of her axe in the woman’s skull, splitting the helmet open.
Izuku got to see bits of her brain in the wound for a moment. Tokage lets out a triumphant howl that Uraraka immediately joins. Should he be concerned with their behavior? Nah, probably not.
They’re having fun fighting bad guys and while the injury was definitely a lethal one, daemons can’t exactly die, and considering their post-battle fate, they were all going to go to jail. Making it just pretty much an arrest, just a lot more grisly to witness.
The knight’s horse tramples another beastkin warrior while its rider spears not one but two newbie beastkin warriors at once, killing one and severely injuring the other, to loud (but muffled) cheer from the side of the Ecstasy soldiers.
It was muffled because of a reason that Izuku doesn’t want to remember right now.
You know what, considering it’s Ecstasy that we’re talking about, we should be happy that this dude’s riding on a horse, instead of on an another weirdo but in a pony suit
Pony suit?
…
Look, in my defense, Saints Row was a very good game series that let you go batshit crazy on society, and some of the things from the game were left in me.
???
Ugh, let’s just pretend I never opened my mouth right now, okay?
Yes.
The horse pulls back from the middle of melee, the knight shield bashing the beastkin champion that tried to engage her before they could retreat to prepare for another charge. Not enough to injure the champion, but enough to successfully disengage.
The knight then decides to deal the beastkin some morale damage by riding on the other side of the Ecstasy line (now in shambles and with Gore Munchers filling the gaps after slain Rose Guards), taunting them and telling them to come and do their best, all while the lethally impaled beastkin warriors was still hanging off their lance which was now pointing at the skies above.
I don’t think that the beastkin are doing so well, I can see a lot of them dead on the ground or injured and pulled back
Gore Munchers aren’t super strong, but their enemy is wavering, and the knight is actively making things worse
Yes, I noticed that as well
Do you think that they’ll hold the ground until the Cynocephalii and the skirmishers start rolling the Ecstasy’s flank?
No clue, but even if they do, it’s going to be a close call
What in the fucking fuck is this
The knight stops their parade instantly, looking at the same thing that attracted the attention of almost everyone in that section of the battlefield (Uraraka and Tokage included), the fight calming down for a second as all eyes dart towards the group of shamans that just finished casting something big.
The space in the middle of their small circle breaks, blood gushing from the resulting injury, flooding the ground surrounding it just as something pushes out of it.
A tall, muscular figure whose height and muscle-mass ratio is definitely rivaling that of All Might. Except, Izuku feels confident using the word ‘muscle’ twice in such a short description, because the creature lacks skin. Their muscle mass is completely exposed together with their teeth (all of them fangs).
It carries two axes, so large that Izuku is certain a human warrior would need two hands to wield them.
One of the shamans shouts something at it while pointing towards the mounted knight, the creature responding by grinning at the knight, the look on his face so bloodthirsty that it made Muscular in Izuku’s memories look peaceful and calm.
Looks like the beastkin shamans realized that the situation wasn’t going too well, and decided to take immediate steps to amend it.