The Curator
patreon
Chapter 16: The Attack (Part 1)
🕑 Added 2024-10-10 15:59:46 +0000 UTC
While waiting, Thalion allocated his free points, as it had been some time since he last spent them while in his human form. He put 50 points into agility, bringing it to a solid 80, 30 points into endurance, bringing it to a total of 38, and the remaining points into intelligence, making it his strongest stat with 113 points. With 80 Agility, he was confident he could outrun the orcs even in his human form.
As time passed, it grew darker and darker. About two hours after they arrived at the wall, with the sun nearly gone, the orcs appeared. On their side, there were roughly 50 orcs, and from the other sides of the wall, alarm signals sounded.
"This is bad," Kael muttered. "Last night, only 20 orcs attacked at once."
The orcs slowly formed up, with archers wielding heavy bows and spear-like arrows, healers and mages in the back, most of them heavy melee warriors with giant weapons in their hands. The defender’s biggest advantage was that not a single orc carried a shield, if they had one, it would probably have been game over from the start.
With a furious roar, the orcs began charging at the camp, splitting up as they ran. And with that, the disaster began.
Thalion channeled a fireball, making it as large as he could. With over 100 intelligence, the fireball looked quite powerful as he hurled it at the first group of orcs. The other mages followed his lead, launching fireballs, lightning bolts, ice shards, and even some rocks at the orcs. The first line of orcs was thrown back by the impact, bleeding from numerous wounds.
At first glance, the attack didn’t seem to be going well for the orcs, but Thalion noticed that the badly injured ones were engulfed by a white glow and were rapidly healing. Thalion conjured another fireball and aimed it at the mages in the backline, who were now within range of his abilities. He hit one of the mages hard, sending him crashing into a tree while still burning.
The orcs in the frontline now looked like pincushions, with arrows sticking out of their flesh, but then the orc archers joined the battle. Thalion blocked one of the arrows with his mana barrier, which instantly shattered after absorbing the energy. The archer on his right side was hit in the shoulder and flung from the wall, probably near death.
Thalion held himself back, only throwing a fireball when his mana recovered. With plans to engage in melee soon, he didn’t want to waste any mana that could save his life later. For the next few minutes, mages and archers bombarded the charging orcs until they drew close. Then, the gate opened, and light and medium warriors charged at the approaching orcs.
Among the orc archers, a giant orc with a broadsword stepped into the clearing—probably the leader of this clan. After a quick glance around, he also started running at the camp.
"Okay, let's go. We’ll circle around to the left and attack the healers and mages," Kael said, jumping off the wall, followed by Kai and Thalion. They were fast; Thalion had to activate his movement skill multiple times to keep up with the hunter and the light warrior.
The orcs either didn’t notice or didn’t care as the trio moved toward their healers, they all ignored them and continued charging for the wall. With all obstacles out of the way, Thalion conjured another fireball and threw it at the mage he had hit before, while Kael fired an arrow at a healer. The mage was struck in the chest and thrown to the side, clearly dead, he was only level 11 after all. One of the healers fell to the ground, an arrow sticking out of one eye.
The remaining two mages and four archers turned in their direction, channeling spells and nocking arrows. Fortunately, Thalion had already thrown another fireball at them and was conjuring a third one. Kael continued shooting arrows at the orcs, while Kai reached one of the mages, who tried to blast him with a lightning bolt. But at the last moment, Kai used his movement skill, appearing on the left side of the orc, completely dodging the attack.
Kai swung his two swords at the orc’s legs to bring him down, positioning himself so that the other mages and archers couldn’t get a clear shot at him because their own mage was in the way. This left the other two targets, Thalion and Kael.
Kael masterfully dodged the four arrows coming his way while shooting back and closing the distance. Thalion was completely ignored, so he used the opportunity to hurl more fireballs at the archers. Kai finished off his mage and turned to the next one, who also tried to strike him. But Kai was too fast and too skilled—the way he dodged was extraordinary. Not only did he evade every attack, but he also kept slicing the orc while simultaneously keeping the mage between him and the archers.
Not that the archers had time to deal with Kai, they had enough on their hands, like the fireball that hit the last archer, knocking him to the ground. The second threat was Kael, who was now in close range. Kael pulled out his dagger, dodged the arrow one of the orcs fired at him, and plunged the dagger into the orc’s eye. Before the orc hit the ground, Kael was already on to the next one. After a short exchange, he jumped to the side, took out his bow, and shot at the last living archer, who was completely preoccupied with dodging fireballs.
"This went pretty well," Thalion thought as the last archer fell, and he finished off the fleeing healer with a fireball. He then looked back at the camp and saw that the first orcs had reached the wall and broken through with little resistance, toppling everyone on it. Over 16 orcs had already entered the camp.
"Shit, they’ve broken through," Kael exclaimed, worry creeping into his voice.
They sprinted back toward the camp, watching as more orcs continued tearing down sections of the wall. As they drew closer, they had to weave through a line of corpses, at least 21 orcs and over 34 humans. Thalion, of course, swept all the fallen orcs into his spatial ring as he passed by.
Thalion veered slightly to the left, using his telekinetic dash to leap onto the wooden wall. He quickly summoned a fireball and hurled it at an orc trying to tear down the barrier. His next fireball was aimed at a group of orcs engaged with the warriors, blasting them aside.
At the same moment, Kai rushed through the breach in the wall, swiftly dispatching the orcs still struggling on the ground. Kael was right behind him, shooting arrows at the orcs attempting to advance toward the center of the camp, where the few children and non-combatants were taking refuge.
In a matter of moments, over a dozen orcs were killed in the surprise attack. The remaining orcs turned to face the new threat. The orc leader roared and charged at Kai and Kael, but a fireball struck his feet, sending him sprawling. By the time he regained his footing, all his comrades were dead.
He screamed in rage, releasing a shockwave that knocked all the melee fighters to the ground. He then spun around and ran toward the center of the camp, away from Kai and Kael, who were still struggling to stand. The massive orc killed the last two human fighters who were trying to rise with a single swipe of his broadsword.
However, he didn’t get far. A fireball struck the back of his head, sending him crashing to the ground. Another fireball hit him while he was down, ending his life.
"Where the hell is Thorwald?" Kael shouted angrily. "The defenders have all gathered on the east side!"
With that, they started moving. Thalion ran along the now mostly deserted wall, while Kai and Kael sprinted through the middle of the camp.
