PenguinKills
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Chapter 60 - Things to Come
🕑 Added 2024-06-21 20:19:11 +0000 UTC-AN-
We hit 100 members! Thank you to everyone who now supports me and my writing. As a thank you an extra chapter will come out tomorrow along with another to raise the total number of advanced chapters to 11. The rest of the Arc is planned out and I can't wait to see it come to fruition.
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As the waves increased in strength we had to adjust our strategy to fight them. There were too many foes to continue what we had been doing. In the past, Austin and I would blunt the wave by fighting in front of the wall so the monsters never had time to build up and damage the wall.
It was all in the effort of not letting them accrue damage on the wall, letting them through. The wall was the bulwark that people needed for safety. It was what kept the fighting somewhat organized and orderly.
No one wanted a repeat of the 4th wave where boars ran amuck through our lines and we were beset from all sides.
To keep the injuries and casualties to a minimum, we needed to limit the angles of approach. We could just stay huddled behind the wall and only use ranged attacks, but that had many faults.
One, it was slow. It gave the beasts a lot of time to scratch and claw at the gates doing a non insignificant amount of damage. With enough of them, they would make it through. With the increasing numbers, that was untenable.
Two, it didn't empower the warriors enough. There was no challenge, no threat that pushed you further. I equated it to the heat of battle. Fighting in the thick of it was like forging a weapon.
The fires of battle where emotions ran hot was when a warrior was made. I tried to get people to do as I had done, throw themselves into the crucible, but they didn't have the spark.
They didn't have the spirit for battle that I seemed to have. Every new wave brought with it an undertone of excitement for me that others didn't have. The feeling of a challenge, of a worthy foe.
It was almost euphoric if taken out of context. There were enough outside forces acting on me that the feeling never had time to take root for long. The waves brought worry and loss that drowned out any other feeling.
I couldn't get excited about a battle if I knew another family member wouldn't survive it. It was cruel. To take something that I was beginning to enjoy and taint it with the worry about my family.
It was most of the reason why I fought alone. I knew that others couldn't handle the same weight that I could.
When the wave started to come from two directions, Austin and I split. It also gave rise to the rest of the family and broke them out of their shell. The beliefs that they held onto were shattered.
The false notion of safety that the defenses and structures provided was broken. They knew that they couldn't continue as they had. Some lost hope, which was unfortunate, but some rose to the occasion.
Hal, Carrie, Rachel, and Jonathan were the main ones. Others followed suit after the changes I implemented. Conner and Allison for example.
With the change of wave 20, three directions would now be assaulted every wave. It didn't take a genius to conclude that it would soon be every direction.
Every new direction split our forces further. There were only 25 of us left after Jack died and stretched three ways was 8 a side with one left over.
Jack fell during the 18th wave. I couldn't bring myself to care all that much. He wasn't family for long and I wasn't overly familiar with him. I couldn't afford the distraction right now.
It sounded harsh, but that didn't make it true. Jack was a good man and deserved better than what happened. He died in battle and at least it was honorable.
Alice was devastated that her boyfriend died but I could tell that most others felt the way I did. It was a tragedy, but not one that overly concerned us.
I felt the loss the most during the subsequent waves. We had one less warrior at our disposal and it made all that much harder.
8 people to a side was not a lot. When all four directions were assaulted, it would be even less. 6 and change if our numbers held. Our group composition was getting worse as well.
The 5 deaths were predominantly warriors. Mark, Granddad, and Jack were all warriors. Dereck had been a rogue and Kyle a Ranger.
The group composition was now 9 Warriors, 3 Rogues, 2 Rangers, 4 Healers, and 7 Mages.
That looked fine on paper but when split out it left 3 warriors a side. One of the rogues evolved into a decent front-line warrior but they would never have the durability of a full-blown warrior. They got tired faster in the long drawn-out fights and weren't able to handle the constant fighting.
Their archetype was more suited for fast and quick battles. Another Rogue went a trapper route which left her near useless in a fight. She could still hold her own and had the skills to help, but it wasn't where she was most useful.
That wasn't even considering that not everyone was a fighter. After the changes I implemented, they could do it, but some were adamant about their professions. Connor and his poisons came to mind along with Vinny with forging.
They spent most of their free time working on their professions and they were getting damn good at it. Some of the poisons Connor made were downright nasty. Anywhere else it would probably be a war crime.
Vinny was an even better blacksmith than me. He leaned into that side of his build and bought many books about the subject. Getting around to reading them is something I had yet to do.
I knew I would when I pushed to evolve my profession, but I had been too busy and my attention was needed elsewhere.
Over half were what I would consider 'fighters' and focused mostly on combat. It was a necessity that couldn't be ignored. The only reason the rest weren't forced into it was because what they made was useful.
If not for that, I would have been a bit more demanding of them. For now, though, their efforts were better spent on what they were doing.
Split as we were, we had to make do with what we had. There wasn't enough firepower per side to stop them from reaching the walls and trying to was futile. It all came back to the same problem as the 10th wave.
A controlled release of the pressure was the best solution rather than fighting the inevitable. Sure, we could probably fight it out for a few waves without resorting to opening the gates, but that created bad habits.
Opening the gates gave me the most control of the fight. I planted myself in the opening and killed as many as I could. Austin did the same on his side, and Jonathan the third.
With the three of us stemming the tide, it led to a kill box of sorts. Someone floated the idea of putting the traps inside the walls and it proved effective. They would still kill outside of the walls and would find victims either way, but the difference was it was before they faced me.
I killed or wounded more than half that made it through the gate and it made more sense statistically to concentrate our efforts on the ones who got through, rather than the ones who had yet to.
With the limited number of traps that we could make in the time between waves, they were most effective after getting through. It was the same in every other direction as well.
Austin had a better kill rate than me at the beginning of the waves on his side, but he wasn't able to sustain it over the entire wave. I caught up before the wave was over.
Jonathan had the hardest time. His class and skills were perfect in delaying the monster's entry but they weren't overly suited for killing as many as possible. We remedied that by placing Carrie on his side.
While he held them off and penned them against his skills, Carrie's attacks were most effective. Her [Arrow Rain] did a lot to make up for where Jonathan was lacking.
Hal was on boss duty. He could only shoot his full-powered arrows a handful of times and they were best used to delay the boss. He would make sure the boss was thoroughly distracted while we took care of the wave. Fighting them both at the same time was suicide.
Once the wave was manageable for the others, we left to take on the boss. The 'we' I speak of were the more powerful of the family. Me, Austin, Jonathan, Hal, and Rachel.
Carrie's skills weren't suited for the boss fight which left her in charge of the forces who stayed behind.
A party composition of 5 of our best. Jonathan was the dedicated tank which left Austin and me free to attack. There were times were we had to tank, but mostly it was Jonathan. With experience, he proved a reliable tank.
His class even came with some crowd control skills and taunting skills that worked to keep the boss's attention.
Hal and Rachel were left to combo their most powerful attacks freely. The boss rarely got through Jonathan, but if it did, it didn't get passed me. That left the two to build up substantial damage.
As the bosses got stronger, our party had to change slightly. After the last wave, they started having Laws of their own, and Jonathan's power waned. He didn't have a Law of his own to defend against it.
He only recently achieved his Law and it was only after facing a formidable badger-like creature. It used earth Laws to become near indestructible which Jonathan was able to gain inspiration from.
Without them, he would've died to the next boss. Finding the creature deep in the forest was an incredible boon but it was also a dire warning. If we lost our camp and were forced to travel the area, we would now have to deal with monsters with Laws.
The beasts in the forest weren't the low-level easy monsters they once were. I felt bad for any who had to make the wilderness their home.
For the wave coming at noon, I prepared myself for what was to come. I would stand in the gate and do my best to not let any by me. My father and Vinny were the warriors stationed behind me.
Having my Dad be the recipient of any that got by me pushed me to do my utmost.
Alice was on my side as well with another mage to help. Diana was a water mage and was middling in power. She had to be broken out of her funk which left her behind most of the others.
I had another mage behind me but he wasn't what I considered a 'fighter'. Connor was a great many things but a fighter he was not. Austin's Brother didn't carry the same skills as Austin himself.
The two weren't very close and their age gap was a big factor in that. Austin was the same age as me, 24, and Connor was just 18. When Austin was in High School, Connor was just getting out of elementary school. Austin moved out before they became close.
He was a nerd, through and through, and he focused on Chemistry. That was what made him such a good Alchemist. He had the base knowledge of Chemistry without the preconceptions of a more experienced Scientist.
He didn't have to unlearn most of what he had been taught. A High School level of Chemistry translated decently well to fantasy Alchemy. He had to learn a lot through the store but he was diligent.
Watching him make poisons that could kill a city from before was an experience. I had watched the kid grow up and now he was making foul poisons.
His class was mostly left to the wayside for his Alchemist profession but he still did what he could.
Most of his time was spent on the setup of the wave by poisoning all the traps that Allison made. Professions were different than classes and weren't suited in a way that seemed intended.
I could certainly swing a blacksmith's hammer around to fight off beasts, but it felt like the skills of a profession were designed to be unusable in combat. [Sense Metal] would be a good skill to locate hidden daggers if it could be used like that.
But sadly, it didn't. It felt like there was a line separating his skills so they couldn't be used in such a way. There had to be some way to push the boundaries but we hadn't found one yet.
My thoughts cleared from the memories of the past and focused on preparing for the coming wave. [Meditation] was great to clear my head before the battle. My hammer was in my lap going over the previous battles and what I needed to do differently.
The sun was reaching its apex and it would soon be time. I donned my armor and strode to my gate.
My anchor against the waves.
Come hell or high water, I would do my best.
Comments
Alexander C Hyde
The boss rarely got through Jonathan, but if it did, it didn't get (past)passed me.
Alexander C Hyde
There were times (where)were we had to tank, but mostly it was Jonathan.
Alexander C Hyde
It sounded harsh, but that didn't make it (untrue)true.
