I cursed under my breath seeing the army on the move towards the settlement. We were doing alright there, but we weren’t ready to fight an army this big yet. The man I’d just rescued was calmer now that we were on the ground, but I could still feel him shaking within my aura.
“Wh-who are you?” He stuttered out nervously.
“Mr. Green nice to meet you. Now come on, we need to get moving and I need to ask you some questions. Oh, firstly what’s your name?” I responded flatly. He told me that his name was Derek and I nodded and then pointed to my back. “Get on.” He couldn’t see my face, but my tone said all it needed to. Brooking no argument from Derek he shakily wrapped his arms around my neck and climbed onto my back. I shot into the air and began flying toward the Settlement to warn the others.
The added weight from carrying someone made flying a little more difficult, but it didn’t take too much time until I’d gotten used to it. Not wanting to waste any time I decided to start asking questions while we were flying. Using my aura, I blocked out the sound of the wind as we flew so that he could hear me.
“How were you fighting off the aura that was controlling you?” I began. The man trembled a little bit on my back but after a moment he nervously began his answer.
“I was a water purification engineer before all this system stuff happened. When I learned about cultivation from my wife, it only made sense for me to make a water core cause I knew the most about it. Once I finished that she told me about the second stage, and I started on the concept of purification. She was better at that stuff than I was, but my wife taught me how to cycle without thinking about it. So now every time I cycle it tries to pull in more of the same essence type. My second layer purifies it and spits out the waste.” It was an interesting way of defending himself, but I couldn’t spend too much time thinking about it. I had more questions to ask.
“What does Samael do to keep control over the cultivators?”
“He brings us into his house and touches our foreheads together and injects more aura directly into us.” I shuddered at the thought of having to touch the man, but I continued with my interrogation as I flew.
“Why do the cultivators need to have that done to them?” He gave a slight shrug that I could feel.
“I don’t know for sure, but it seems like our cores recognize what doesn’t belong. Mine does a better job of getting rid of it than others, but all of the cultivators fight it in some way.” It was the same thing that I’d been thinking. After all, even when I’ve suppressed someone’s aura, I can still feel it trying to push mine away.
“Why didn’t Samael just kill you then? It must have annoyed him that you needed to have that done every day.” I started feeling just a little paranoia and regret pulling at my brain because I hadn’t thought of that sooner.
“Well, I’m a healer, Samael needs the healers. I’m especially good with venoms and poisons, so he would have me sit in for autumn sometimes when he wanted her to watch him torture one of the members of the inner circle.” I bristled when he mentioned Samael torturing my friends immediately wanting to turn around right then and just destroy everyone in my way to kill him. I calmed myself down by remembering my goal. My friends were better people than me and while they might forgive me for accidentally killing a few people, they would think I was a monster if I massacred thousands.
The settlement was in view now and I redoubled my speed to get there faster. As I landed in the center of the settlement Brighton the man who I’d left in charge of the settlement came running up to me.
“Mr. Green you’re back! Any news from the city?” He then noticed the other man standing behind me and nodded to him. “Who’s he?” I explained everything that I’d learned so far and who the man was ending with the impending attack. Bracing myself for the freak out I was sure would be coming I was surprised to find out that it didn’t. Almost immediately Brighton turned to a woman close by and started rattling off orders preparing for the attack.
Within minutes the entire settlement was bustling with movement. The water mage had expected something like this to happen when I came back so as I was gone, he came up with a plan for the defense of the settlement. A team of earth mages began raising walls with parapets and stairs. Guns, spears, and bows were all moved to the tops of the wall. There weren’t any Bardic Archers in the settlement, but plenty of people had gone bow hunting or fishing before the system.
Mages with shielding spells stood at the forward position around the wall, while mages with ranged spells stood a little farther back in the middle. The warriors left the walls and stood facing the direction that the army would come from, and fighters stood behind the walls in preparation for a breach. Meanwhile, I went to the system store and bought myself a nice heavy wooden club.
I would be standing with the warriors. Many of them had a base aura of their own, but they could use my help in battling off Samael’s thralls. The club would be my weapon for this battle as I wanted to break as many of them as I could without killing them. Once someone was removed from Samael’s army my people with secondary auras would free them and healers would do their thing. We only had about three healers for a little over a thousand people though, so they would most likely be in high demand.
In the distance, I could hear the fall of thousands of footsteps as the army finally made its way out of the mountains. Brighton walked up to me asking how far out they were. I told him and he shook his head sadly.
“Say something to the troops? They are following you, Mr. Green.” Under my mask, I paled at the idea of public speaking. You put a guitar in my hands, and I’d play for a crowd of millions, but talking was different. Even so, I understood the importance of Brighton’s request. I stood atop the parapets and Ballad’s Bow responded to my wishes floating out of the armory and playing a few chords using amplify to get everyone’s attention.
“Hey everyone.” I started awkwardly raising my hand in a wave. Taking a deep breath, I continued. “I know these people on the way are not at fault for what they’re doing. Just like I knew you all were blameless when I helped free you! During this battle remember that they are your friends and family as well, but if it’s between your life and theirs I want you to choose your own! When we win this battle, the survivors will be free of Samael and his tyranny. They would not give you the same privilege. Fight hard and keep your freedom!” A roar erupted from the crowd as they cheered for Mr. Green.
Brighton nodded his head at me, and I set my shoulders with more confidence than I felt. The army would be here within the hour if they kept up the speed that I could hear them moving at. Looking out toward the direction that they were coming from I could see a dust cloud forming in the distance. Thirty minutes later I could see the first line of enemy warriors. I could hear the people on my side shifting nervously, but I quickly tuned them out.
Putting myself in a bubble of silence I calmed my shaking nerves then I pulsed into the air. I would be making a probing attack first. Slamming to the ground within the center of the army I let out a strong pulse sending people flying in several directions. Ballads Bow played above me as I went to work. Waves of aura pounded at my defenses, but I held strong. Lifting my club, I swung it at a nearby fighter’s leg. The leg shattered and I just hoped that a healer would be able to fix it.
That wasn’t the thing that drew my attention the most though. While the fighter screamed in pain Samael’s Crown disappeared and I remembered something that I’d learned a while back. The victims would snap out of his control given enough trauma. With a thought, Ballad’s Bow began playing Tonal Torture targeting the people around me. Many of them snapped out of it, but as soon as the person stopped being targeted everyone around them would attack that person with the aura and place them back under control. “I’ll have to make the trauma lasting then.” I thought to myself as I went to my brutal task. The army didn’t completely stop fighting me, though about a hundred did. The others blew past me and continued toward the settlement.
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They still hadn’t made it to the line of warriors yet, but they had started blasting out spells of their own. After breaking the bones of the group around me and making sure that they couldn’t rejoin the rest of the army I took off and rejoined the line of warriors. My bow followed me loyally and began buffing the warriors as I called for my people to get ready.
When the first wave of enemies arrived, I covered the warriors in my aura; along with their auras I’d helped them develop it should be enough to fight off Samael’s Crown. Still, the blue and white aura bore down on us. The warriors stepped back probably fearing going back to being zombies under Samael. I called for them to stand their ground though and they steadied themselves. I continued thrashing people with my club and as people fell, I would throw them across the wall to the group that would free them.
There was a small worry about that unit not being able to handle it, but every so often I would hear Brighton call out the sentence we’d agreed on when coming up with this plan. Every time someone new was freed he would say “Freedom is never granted: it is won,” which was a quote he remembered from one of his college classes back in the day. I happened to like it so we agreed that if everyone was still themselves, he would call out every minute to let me know.
The enemy forces kept advancing and from up on the wall the mages began firing. Mixtures of earth, fire, lightning, and other elemental magic struck out at the enemies’ backline. Arrows fired from overhead, and I could see the people falling in the background. I hoped that by the time we won at least some of those people would be alive. “We’ll need numbers if we hope to have a chance at taking the city.” I thought pragmatically.
A giant of a man stood over me with a war hammer, as he swung it at my head, I raised my hand. I caught the blow, but the man continued bearing down on me. My strength stat was nothing to laugh at, but a warrior whose strength stat had risen by two since the beginning was no pushover. From what I could tell we were roughly even in strength, and it made me wish that I could see other humans’ levels. That was an upgrade I’d have to buy eventually.
The hammer wielder may match me in strength, but at this point, I was used to fighting boss monsters alone. With that experience in mind, I moved my hand letting the hammer slam into the ground. The big man stumbled forward as well and with the grace of a ballerina, I lifted my leg and brought my heel directly on the back of his head. His face hit the ground, and I heard a loud crack. Hoping he wasn’t dead I picked the man up with one hand and threw him over the wall. I heard Brighton say, “Holy shit he’s fucking huge!” But I didn’t have the time to laugh at it. My next enemy was already in front of me. This woman was fast, and I dodged out of the way only barely feeling the tip of her blade rake across my chest.
She was fast, but my entire body was built for speed. In a single step I was behind her, she wore her hair in a braid going down her back, so I grabbed that and pulled down quickly. It was as if she’d been running full force towards a wall and smacked into it. I then tossed her over the wall by her hair. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that some fighters had already made it passed our line and were scaling the outside of the wall.
Speeding over to the wall I took out thirty of them in the span of a couple seconds and tossed them over the walls, but it was too late. Some made it over the wall, and I realized we were already getting overrun.
“Fall back to the wall!” I yelled at the warriors. As they moved, I covered them as best I could but then someone jumped on me, then another. I felt the weight as person after person added their bodies to the pile attempting to crush me. I couldn’t move an inch no matter what my strength stat was it wouldn’t mean anything if I couldn’t get any momentum. I felt not just the weight of the bodies around me, but also the pressure of Samael’s aura bearing down as well.
Just when I thought I’d have to order Ballad’s Bow to fire on the people above me to save myself I felt the ground slip out from under me. In an instant, I fell through a hole in the ground that hadn’t been there earlier.
“Mr. Green, are you ok?” The same nature mage that had been my first clue to finding the city sat in a small tunnel with another man I didn’t recognize. After I nodded my assent, she sighed in relief. The tunnel was clearly made by a less talented earth mage since the dirt surrounding me was looser and less sturdy than some of the other earth mages in the settlement. It was fine though because there was a net of strong roots keeping the tunnel from collapsing on itself. We crawled along the tunnel route and came up on the other side of the wall.
Once we were up, I was greeted by Brighton who looked apprehensively at the wall. Our people on the walls were doing a good job of holding back the tide of enemies, but it would only be a matter of time before they would bypass our defenses and get inside. I could already see some of the fighters on the wall being taken over by the parasitic aura. The group that had been assigned to free new people with their auras were now assisting in defending the wall and snapping the fighters out of it.
I needed to do something, or we would be overrun in no time flat; but what could I do? None of my skills would help me do anything but slaughter the army outside. That was always an option, but not a good one. “I wish Josh was here, he could just put them all to sleep.” That was when I had an idea. Searching for the nature mage I found her on the wall. Vines spread out from where she was standing, and they were picking people off of the wall and throwing them as far away as they could.
I couldn’t stop myself from being impressed with the young woman, who just a few weeks ago was a sobbing mess stuck in the middle of the wilderness. Walking up I tapped her on the shoulder, which must have surprised her because one of her vines came speeding at me in order to defend her. I stopped the vine with one hand, and the woman looked at me in shock.
“Mr. Green I’m so sorry I didn’t mean to do that!” I waved her off and then went into explaining my idea to her. She agreed to it and then ran to find as many earth and nature mages as she could. Once the mages were assembled, I explained my plan again.
“I need you guys to grow as many sleep-inducing or paralyzing plants as you can. Preferably plants that work through inhalation.” The earth mages started digging tunnels under the enemy army, and I joined the defense of the wall. Doing my best not to kill the crazed people attempting to climb over the wall I would throw them as far as I could. For some people that meant 50 feet or so, and for others it meant they were going for a flight.
Spells crashed against our mage’s barriers from the enemy’s backline, but they seemed to be holding for now. We just needed to hold out for a little while longer until the mages got into position. I continued my strategy of throwing people, but every second more people died. The others just weren’t strong enough to defend themselves without putting everything they had into it. Just then I saw the mage team climb out of the ground behind the enemy line.
I watched as the aura bombarded them, and some of the army turned their way. It was too late though the nature mages had already begun casting. Plants that I couldn’t even recognize began sprouting out of the ground. Giant flowers with pink petals, completely black mushrooms, and bushes with blue thorns sprung up around the battlefield. Warning everyone around me to hold their breath, I watched as the enemies scratched themselves on the bushes, and different kinds of pollen and spores spread across the battlefield.
One by one the enemies fell into a state of paralysis or sleep. I watched as enemies who’d been climbing the wall fell asleep right then and released their hands and footholds crashing to the ground. Some of the people were able to resist the effects, but in total only around five or six hundred people stayed standing out of the army of thousands.
My people came streaming over the wall and without people attacking them constantly they were able to break bones and use skills to cause pain. The aura still attempted to attack people, but without the constant stream of praise for Samael, it was much weaker. The more people who were freed from it the weaker it got. I went to work with the people who were still awake across the battlefield.
Crushing elbows, knees, and shins, the people would cry out in pain, but then they would be free. The entire battlefield quickly turned into a mess of bleeding, broken, and sobbing people. Our healers immediately went to work, and even the enemy army had two healers assigned to them. As soon as they were freed, they also began moving across the battlefield to help. Some people succumbed to their wounds while waiting for healing, unfortunately.
We only had five healers to work with, but there were plenty of people who knew some basic first aid. I played the Song of Healing numerous times, bottoming out my mana and having to wait for it to refill before I was able to play It again. We worked for three days and nights just like that. No one slept, we barely ate. There was just far too much to do, and all of us worried that a follow-up attack would be coming any day now.
I wasn’t sure if there would be one though. We’d defeated everything that Samael had thrown at us so far, and I couldn’t see that coward wanting to do anything more that would cost him control over more people. With fewer people under his control, he was less powerful after all. “I’m coming for you.” I thought to myself as I helped set someone’s leg while I waited for my mana to refill again.
By the end of it, we’d lost a total of two thousand people. There was nothing that we could do about it though, and overall, it was a net gain to our forces. The people who survived were very grateful to us for helping to free them and did everything they could to help once they’d been healed. The next step was to find or build them places to stay.
The earth mages stayed busy for another week as we expanded the settlement and built housing for everyone. People were starting to feel more secure again as each day passed without another attack from Samael. The cultivation training continued; the classes were too big for me to handle on my own now, so I placed the more talented students in charge of teaching them.
I only had six students of my own, and each of them wanted to follow the path that I’d already laid out. It would be easier for them as well since I had a manual to help them out, but that would only last for a while longer. As people found more popular paths, they began pooling their money together to buy manuals for themselves. The settlement was turning into a thriving community. Teams of scouts would head to the city on a daily basis and bring back reports to me.
Cultivators in the city were now unable to get anywhere near their wall, and the mansion was almost finished. I knew that he would be moving into it soon and once he did it would open up an opportunity for me. With him living away from his main forces there would be no need for me to battle my way all the way through them.
Instead, my plan would be to sneak into the mansion in the dead of night and tear Samael’s core out of his body. From there I’d let my friends decide how to deal with their captor. I would only need to wait a few more days and the mansion would be complete. My army would come with me to attack the city while I was in the mansion. We were well outnumbered, but the people in my settlement were all leveling up steadily, and every one of them were cultivators now.
We would begin the attack in just a few days, and I couldn’t wait.