PenguinKills
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Chapter 33 - So It Begins
🕑 Added 2024-05-29 19:48:18 +0000 UTC-AN-
This is my first time righting a huge battle like this, let me know how I did.
~~
"Ready?" Granddad shouted.
All of the warriors were standing at the ready right behind the gate in anticipation of what was to come. We were about to open the gate.
Jack, a sword and shield warrior, was in charge of lifting the brace while the rest of us held the line. There was so much weight against the gate that as soon as that brace was up, it would fail. It would be moments before the tide crashed through.
Jack was the only one with the skill Extended Blade and he was chosen to lift the brace. He could use the skill to extend his blade and lever the brace out of place from a farther distance away than the rest of us.
I saw as he nervously got closer and closer to the gate and his sword started shaking in his hand. It was understandable. The gate seemed like it would break at any minute now and he would be trampled.
Without us bracing against it, there was more give in the system and it was violently rocking back and forth with loud knocking sounds coming from it. It sounded like giants were pounding at the door.
He has the easy part. It's Austin and I who have the hard part. The gate was only 6 feet wide and if we stood in the gateway we would surely be knocked over. We planned to stand a few feet back and hack and slash at anything that came through.
We both knew the consequences of failure. We also both knew the likelihood of something going wrong.
Jack activated his skill and I saw his blade start to glow before extending past the tip of the metal. At first, he tried to slice through the brace to open it that way, but his phantom blade barely left a scratch.
One had to remember that every part of the wall had hidden enchantments on it that increased its durability past normal wood. Jack wasn't strong enough to cut through the brace with his level of strength. The enchantments were probably the only reason that the wolves hadn't gotten through already.
After failing to slice through it, he switched tactics and placed his blade under the brace and made to lift it out of the brackets holding it steady. He failed the first few times but got the hang of it.
He had to time it when there wasn't pressure on the brace pinning it in place. He slowly worked the brace upward out of its fasteners and we all watched with growing nerves as it got closer to coming loose.
I heard a few mumble silent prayers and others cursing this madness. I didn't know who they were praying to, but hopefully, it would help.
As the brace was teetering on the edge of coming free Austin and I looked at each other. Do or die.
The brace popped loose and Jack ran back as fast as he could. He had a scant few moments to get back and join the line before they made it through. The only thing that saved him was that the doors opened outward. It took just enough time for the wolves to break the door by pushing it against the way it was supposed to open.
I stepped up and hefted my axe to face the horde with Austin on my right. My axe glowed a piercing blue as I pumped mana into Heavy Blow. I was going to start it off with a bang.
Austin's own spear started glowing as he started powering his own skill.
Pale blue and vibrant yellow were the first to greet the unwelcome guests as they broke through.
Heavy Blow carved straight through the leading wolf, leaving its body in two separate pieces. Its squishy insides exploded in a mist of gore as if to christen my new axe.
I had fought with it before but this would be the first time being so intense.
My swing continued through the first wolf and buried itself into the ribs of a second. The majority of the energy of the swing spent blowing up the first wolf.
I don't think the wolves were ready for the gate to suddenly give out, so the first few through were the unlucky few. It only took them a moment to compose themselves and begin their charge in earnest.
The intensity quickly increased and there were more enemies than I knew what to do with. Heavy Blow was constantly activated followed by a shower of gore. Every swing killed at least one and injured another.
Even with how effective the skill was, more were getting through. I could only swing so fast and I was losing against the tide of wolves. Austin was faring better with his lightning-quick stabs of his spear. Each stab penetrated vulnerable spots, killing immediately or delivering fatal wounds.
He had Flurry going as fast as he could trying to keep up with the numbers.
Heavy Blow isn't working. I was letting too many through and could already hear the sounds of battle behind me.
I switched over to using Sweeping Slash instead of the upgraded skill. I pumped mana into the blade and extended it out a few extra feet. I couldn't go too far or it would only break against the wolf's tough fur.
The skill had decreased damage than my normal swings, but my greatly improved strength from Body of a Barbarian more than made up for it. My swings went from obliterating one and injuring another, to crippling two or three at a time.
It wasn't an instant kill if I couldn't hit the right spots and I was going more for maximum damage over easy kills. It would take too long to line my swings up with all the wolves moving at different speeds and different heights.
For all my manic axe swings dealt devastating damage, it left me open to counterattack. It was like standing in front of a firehose trying to block all the water. Except the water clawed and bit you as it went by.
My new armor was mitigating most of the damage and claws were scraping off of metal instead of flesh, but still, the sheer number of attacks made it so some got through.
I was still a novice blacksmith and joints were the hardest part of any armor to make. I did my best, but there were still gaps in the metal.
Claws got through and sliced through my elbows and knees, even more, protected areas weren't safe. The powerful jaws of the wolves clamped down on my limbs causing crushing pain. The wounds weren't very deep and if I was fighting a pack of 5 or 10 it would be fine. I wasn't fighting a pack of 5 or 10 though.
The wave spawned well over 150 wolves and that number was getting less and less accurate the more I saw. It seemed to be more than 150 and closer to 200.
I couldn't get a good count from where I was but we knew the monsters in the waves were increasing in number. The last wave had around 150 monsters spawned and this wave had to have more.
I put all of that out of my head though. I had one job and I had to make sure I did it to the best of my ability.
Tightening my grip on my axe, I redoubled my effort. My mana blade sliced through almost all of the wolves who tried to get by but the damage wasn't enough.
I had two skills active and that was currently my limit. Fortified Body and Sweeping Slash being active was the only thing that I could handle. If I wanted more damage I would have to drop Fortified Body.
Blood was already flowing down my legs and arms and here I was thinking about dropping my defensive skill. No, there had to be a way to have more skills activated.
Heavy Blow was strenuous to activate by itself, Penetrating Strike would be the easier choice.
No matter how many times I tried to activate it, it wouldn't start. Layering both Sweeping Slash and Penetrating Strike on top of each other was already difficult, and I was adding Fortified Body into the mix.
I heard someone cry out behind me and spared a look to see what it was. Mark had gone down hard with a wolf clamped down on his leg.
This wouldn't do.
We had to do better.
I had to do better.
That feeling from fighting the evolved boar came back. I wasn't going to lose. Losing meant my family was going to die and I wasn't going to allow that.
I felt the skill click into place on top of Sweeping Slash and the glow of my axe intensified.
The two skills layered on top of each other took a lot more mana to maintain, but it was well worth it.
My blade sliced through fur easier than before and what were once decent wounds turned into debilitating ones. No wolf was getting by me in good condition.
I took off legs, gouged deep gashes into torsos, and the lucky headshot spelled doom. Bodies were building up around me and Austin at a striking rate.
It wouldn't be able to continue like this. There was just too much stress on my armor. It was in the Crude tier and wasn't strong enough to hold up to the onslaught of natural weapons.
My greaves were the first to go. Powerful bites on my leg deformed them before claws tore through the straps.
My bracers were next.
My breastplate was still on solely because it was the thickest piece of metal in the entire suit.
The only reason I wasn't bleeding out right now was because of my fortitude and Fortified Body increasing it. If I didn't have as high of stats, I would be dead.
I could see Austin in the corner of my vision and he was worse off than me. He didn't have the plate armor that I had and was still in leather. New leather armor from the leatherworkers, but still leather.
What wasn't covered in blood had scratches and bite marks up and down his body. I couldn't tell which of the blood was his.
He had a wound to his face that caused blood to drip off his chin joining the pool at our feet.
The rain washed most of it away but there was so much it just got replaced. The ground was quickly becoming a sloshing mud pit with all the fighting and liquid.
I didn't know what my boots were covered more, body parts and blood, or mud.
In a distracted moment a wolf bit down hard on my leg.
"Ahhgg." It was half a grunt and half a scream that came out of my mouth from the pain.
It reminded me of the first wound I had taken from the horned rabbit in the first wave. Instead of shying away and cowering behind my shield like then, I retaliated, disproportionally.
The offending wolf's head was soon caved in from the butt of my axe with its brain leaking out. Some grey matter covered my hands but I couldn't spare a thought about it.
I kicked the body out of the way and went back to swinging at the next wolf in line.
I was starting to lose my footing from the rain and mud that caused my swings to lose power.
The rain had picked up and was following the crescendo of the battle, water splashed up with every step and I had to be conscious not to slip.
The next wolf that died at my feet gave me an idea. If the ground was becoming an obstacle, I would make new ground. I stepped up onto the wolf, which provided better footing than the mud pit of gore.
I had been kicking the bodies away from me before to create room to move, now I let them build up to give me something to stand on that wasn't mud.
Austin saw what I was doing and followed suit.
If I had time to stop and think about it, it would make me smile. We were standing on the bodies of our enemies as we faced down an army of more. If this wasn't being a warrior, I didn't know what was.
Since the start of the battle arrows and magic had been flying over my head into the mass of bodies coming through the gate, but that all stopped when a loud crack resounded through the air.
If I didn't know better I thought it might have been lightning. I hoped it was lightning.
It wasn't lightning.
The guard tower was right next to the gate and was an obstacle in the way of the wolves. An obstacle they took down.
One of the four support columns broke at the base and the remaining three weren't enough to balance the weight. It was coming down.
"LOOK OUT!"
"JUMP!"
Frantic yelling filled the air and distracted me long enough for a wolf to take a chunk out of my leg.
Shit. I can't be distracted right now. They will be fine, focus on your job.
I couldn't spare a thought for the people who were in the tower when it fell. I could only focus on fighting.
My blade dimmed over time and my mana was running out. I didn't even know how many wolves were left. There was rain mixed with blood in my eyes and covering my body. My clothes were soaked through and my boots had things in them I didn't want to think about.
My helmet was knocked off at some point in the fight but I didn't remember when.
My arms hurt to move and there was a stinging pain, well, everywhere.
My left leg was fighting my commands and I was barely upright. My body was tired, my mind was tired, and my mana was low.
It had been less than an hour and I was already drained.
"I can't hold on much longer!" Austin shouted over the noise.
"We have to!" I shouted back.
It was hard to even raise my voice.
"There's no end to them!" He shouted back.
"We have to!" I repeated.
It was the mantra that kept me going.
You have to keep going.
You have to keep going.
"Boss incoming!" Someone shouted.
I looked up from the carnage to see a wolf twice the size of all the rest standing in the broken gateway.
There were wolves behind it but they didn't dare to interfere with the boss. That must be what's controlling them.
I spared a quick Identify.
{Juvenile Direwolf Alpha – Level 16}
It looked pissed and it was staring directly at me. It didn't register to me that the reason it might be so angry was because I was standing on a pile of its dead pack members.
Fuck me.
Comments
Alexander C Hyde
I didn't know what my boots were covered (in) more, body parts and blood, or mud.
Alexander C Hyde
Claws got through and sliced through my elbows and knees, even more{,} protected areas weren't safe. Delete selected comma.
Daniel steele
Like the story so far and the fight scene was good also
