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An Otherworldly Scholar - 178
🕑 Added 2024-11-20 17:14:33 +0000 UTCThe orbs cast light on the battlefield as the Mana Stingers poured from the hole in the ground. The black and orange insect wave marched into the camp, but a mass of Gloomstalkers, Spriggans, and Chrysalimorphs crowded the bulwarks as they tried to penetrate the barrier. The Mana Stingers spread out around the flanks. They reached the spiked wall in an instant and used their hooked legs to climb the wood.
Hundreds and hundreds of Mana Stingers climbed the eastern wall. My heart skipped a beat. I expected a few monsters capable of bypassing the wall, but not so many.
The Mature Mana Stingers were the size of mastiffs, with shiny black armor and stingers the size of swords, but they weren’t the worst news. Mana Stinger Soldiers rose above the mass of bees, thrice the size of a Mature Mana Stinger. The Soldiers were covered in a layer of protective silver mana and had huge mandibles capable of cutting wood like cotton candy.
We needed to reinforce the flank.
“Kara!” I yelled, but she was nowhere nearby.
I heard the sound of a blowgun and an orc dropped with a lancet buried in their chest. I cursed, turning around and scanning the battlefield for the Mana Stalker. Now, I was the proud owner of [Foresight], and the monster’s stealth skill wasn’t enough to hide it from me. Five Mana Stalkers hovered above the sea of bees. Five orcs had already been killed by their lancets.
Mana Stalkers were my priority target.
“Chieftain, take the lead!” I shouted over the sound of the battle.
The orc chieftain, a mature orc with a blue hand stamped on his chest, nodded and rallied his warriors.
I used Wind-Shot boots to jump to the rightmost archer’s platform. Before the Mana Stalkers could shoot again, I channeled my mana and used [Magical Ink]. It was a gamble. A high-pressure stream of bright yellow ink shot from my fingertips and smeared the flying monster.
“Flyers!” I yelled, pushing the orc’s arms toward the monsters.
The Mana Stalkers realized they had been detected too late. The crack of the bowstrings deafened me, and the next moment, Mana Stalkers dropped from the sky.
I glanced over the battlefield from the vantage position.
More and more Mana Stingers emerged from the ground. Faced with the sea of Gloomstalkers and Chrysalimorphs, the wave of Stingers turned to the east. Our killing zone was too small to contain so many monsters.
The left side of the camp was getting overwhelmed. Mana Stingers couldn’t fly, but their wings were strong enough to carry them several meters into the camp. Orc spearmen tried to halt the climbing stingers, but it was an exercise in futility. There were too many. Once the Stingers reached the top of the wall, it was impossible to stop them.
Not only were we getting flanked, but also surrounded. If the battle continued, the Stingers would reach the civilians and perform a pincer maneuver on our frontline, and the game would be over.
Ilya returned to the archer platform after clearing the Chrysalimorphs on the eastern flank. Firana shot the left gap, which was closest to the platform. Zaon shot the middle gap, and Ilya, who was the better marksman, shot the rightmost gap. Luckily, the crowd of monsters was so packed the Chrysalimorphs were practically static targets.
Ilya aimed at a stripped Chrysalimorph and took the shot. The enchanted bullets absorbed the monster’s mana, weakening it. Some shots exploded after the bullet overcharged, but it was a rarity. The Chrysalimorph skin was too hard, and the bullets were rarely embedded in their bodies.
With Ilya back, the frontline regained its precarious balance.
Using the Wind-Shoot Boots, I jumped to the center platform where most archers were stationed. The gap was about twenty meters.
“Focus on the front! Ignore the Mana Stingers!” I shouted before jumping over the gap.
A Gloomstalker tried to get me, but I was too high.
I landed on the left platform. The kids ignored me and continued shooting the high-level Chrysalimorphs.
“Pyrrah, Hallas, come with me. We need to reinforce the flank,” I said.
The elves nodded, and we dropped to the ground. With Hallas to my left and Pyrrah to my right, we crossed the battlefield to support the flank. The flying Stingers had forced the orcs to retreat several meters into the camp. If the flank retreated a bit more, the backs of the frontline would be exposed.
I channeled a barrage of mana missiles, pushing back the Stingers and clearing the upper section of the spiked wall. I saw Pyrrah and Hallas reaching for their pouches from the corner of my eye. Thinking no one saw them, they brought the small red fruits to their mouths, and a faint red aura surrounded their bodies. Elves weren’t good at detecting magic, so they probably didn’t know I could detect the change.
“Not a Holone grape,” I thought.
We broke into the Stinger swarm.
Pyrrah and Hallas moved like arrows through the sea of insects, dodging lancets and mandibles alike. Suddenly, their blows were strong enough to pierce even the hardest chitinous armor. Whatever they had eaten, I needed a few.
[Foresight] forced me to focus on fighting. The Mana Stingers had low killing power but an extremely good matchup against me. A single sting and my whole mana pool would be useless. I pushed more mana into my flying blades and mowed the swarm.
Despite my lack of orders, Pyrrah and Hallas kept stray Stingers away from me. I understood why. I was their new Gilded, and their duty was to keep me safe until I reached a high enough level. They couldn’t get Classes, and they were forced to power-level others. I smiled bitterly as I shattered the Stinger’s armor.
Pyrrah overstepped, and a wave of Stingers fell from the wall over her head. [Foresight] predicted the movements of every monster and ally on the battlefield, so I was prepared. I jumped forward and pulled her from the cloak just as my mana blades mowed the low-level bees.
“T-thanks,” she muttered.
“Don’t get him killed too!” Hallas yelled from behind us, his armor covered in insect blood.
The ground trembled under my feet as a Mana Stinger Soldier rammed against the wall. The bee’s heavy cavalry had finally reached our defenses. The Soldier stepped back to gain momentum and headbutted the wall. The ground trembled, and the spikes cracked. I wasn’t expecting a living battering ram. I channeled my mana into a long blade and pierced the Soldier’s head through the gaps in the wall, but it wasn’t enough to stop the attack. More Soldiers tried to breach the wall in several spots.
I had to kill them before they could tear down the barricades.
I powered my Wind-Shot Boots, but before I could jump outside the camp, Pyrrah clung to my waist like a kid throwing a tantrum.
“Don’t. It’s dangerous,” she said, her eyes wide open.
A few meters away from us, the wall exploded into a rain of splinters, and the Soldiers flooded the camp.
“Breach!” an orc chieftain yelled.
The warriors formed a defensive perimeter around the hole in the wall, but the Stinger Soldiers were several times stronger than regular Mana Stingers. The orc’s cleavers bounced against the silvery mana layer, leaving minor marks on the chitin. I used [Stun Gaze], and the Soldier froze in place, but other Mana Stingers climbed its body and poured into the camp.
The Stingers breached the wall two more times. I cast [Stun Gaze] again to keep the Soldiers from moving. At least I could give the orcs a moment to kill the small fry first.
My mana blades mowed down the oncoming Stingers, but the orcs were being pushed back.
I couldn’t be everywhere.
“We have to bail, or we will get trapped in the chaos as soon as the flank collapses,” Hallas said.
“The flank will not collapse,” I replied, pushing increasing amounts of mana outside my body. However, my words were only wishful thinking. Due to the breaches, the wall lost integrity, and broad sections collapsed.
The ball of monsters pushed us into the camp.
Suddenly, the swarm parted, leaving a clearance around us, and a humanoid bee entered the hole in the wall.
Mana Stinger Overseer Lv.38. Magical Beast. [Identify]: Overseers are in the upper echelons of the colony, just below Nobles. These monsters can command armies of Mana Stinger to protect their territory from intruders and use their magic to defeat powerful opponents. Weakness: Shotgun.
I shot a mana blade as soon as the prompt disappeared, but the Overseer raised a barrier, and my blade burst into blue sparks. Then, with a single jump, the creature kicked Pyrrah out of the way like a ragdoll.
Pyrrah landed on her back, several meters away, gasping for air.
“Stay away,” I said as Hallas stood between the overseer and me.
The Overseer drew a sword and entered the camp. The weapon gleamed with a red hue of mana. [Foresight] warned me about the danger. That wasn’t a normal blade. The Overseer turned into a shadow and lunged at me.
I blocked, but as soon as our weapons collided, the mana surrounding my blade lost shape and turned into a blue mist.
“Anti-magic?” I muttered.
I was pushed back. The Overseer’s sword felt like a concrete block while I couldn’t fortify mine. [Swordsmanship] and [Foresight] kept me in the fight, but going on the offensive was impossible. I tried channeling mana missiles, but the Overseer’s barrier shattered them. Not even my flying blades were effective against it.
The fight was a stalemate, but as we were entangled in combat, more Mana Stingers breached the camp. I needed to end the fight quickly.
I sidestepped and aimed at the Overseer’s neck. The creature’s reflexes were almost instant, and it blocked my attack. Even with [Foresight], I couldn’t land a killing blow. It wasn’t a matter of skill but raw physical capabilities.
The Overseer stepped forward and stretched out its sword, trying to stab my face, but, to my surprise, the blade fell short of my prediction. Pyrrah clung to the Overseer’s heel, her dagger barely scratching the gaps on the chitinous plates. The Overseer screeched and got rid of her with a backhand blow.
Pyrrah spat blood and pounced on the Overseer's ankle, clinging as her life depended on it. I read her lips—for the frogs. The Overseer raised its hand, but Hallas jumped on the monster and performed a flying cross armbar, the red aura raging around his body. [Swordsmanship] pushed me forward. The Overseer raised its free arm in a last attempt to block, but my blade pierced its palm and neck. My muscles bulged, and my jaw clenched. I pushed mana into my blade and fought the anti-magic spell, and with a single swing, I beheaded the monster.
I panted as a shiver ran down my spine. I didn’t expect a Stinger to give me such a hard time, but anti-magic was my weakness. Without my magic, I was just a swordsman with cat-like reflexes. I helped Pyrrah to get up, but her body felt like a stringless puppet. Her red aura was dissipating.
Hallas wasn’t in a better shape.
“We have to go, Robert,” he said. “The field is lost.”
I scanned the battlefield. The Mana Stingers had breached deep in our defenses and the backline was divided between the Gloomstalkers and Chrysalimorphs sieging the front and the Stingers pushing the flank. Our line stretched to the point where laborers began engaging in combat. The right flank was also bleeding warriors to the frontline.
“Robert, please, we have to go,” Pyrrah begged.
“No,” I muttered, my brain working in overdrive. “Not yet.”
I channeled my mana blades and walked toward the nearest opening in the wall. We might have a chance to hold if I closed the bug hole. There were three hundred meters behind enemy lines and a thousand monsters in between, but there was a chance.
“I’ll go with you,” Pyrrah said.
“No, you won't,” I replied, grabbing the Overseer’s sword.
It was enchanted with just the right enchantment to counter my skills.
Hallas interrupted my train of thought.
“Don’t get us wrong, human. We don’t care about these orcs. We just need you alive to kill the Forest Warden,” Hallas added, reaching for his pouch. He pulled another of the cranberry-like fruits and ate it. Red mana surged through his body again. “Let’s close the bug hole.”
I nodded and summoned ten mana blades. It was above the amount I could control comfortably, but I wasn’t looking for precision. I jumped into the sea of monsters, my blades spinning around my body like a blender. Despite Pyrrah’s intention, I needed space to use my skills. My blades cut monstrous bees by the dozens. Mature Mana Stingers didn’t pose a problem, but the Soldiers had mana barriers, and their heads had thick chitinous armor.
Another Overseer screeched, and the Soldier changed paths to intercept me.
My body ached, and my brain felt like it was about to explode. I pushed my way through the gap on the wall. The monster corpses piled around me, making it hard to advance. On the front side, the orc archers were being sniped by Mana Stalkers. Without archer support and their fire arrows, the Spriggans ran rampant through the camp. I couldn’t advance any faster. There seemed to be no end to the flood of Mana Stinger Soldiers.
Our defense hung from a thread.
I prayed for Ilya to give the order to retreat.
Then, the gates of Umolo opened. I looked over my shoulder. Wolf stumbled onto the plains, clutching his stomach. Dry blood covered his face, and half his body was wrapped in his green healing mana. With his good arm, he used his longsword as a clutch. Slowly, he approached the battle.
The Mana Stingers seemed to detect the weakened target.
I cursed.
“Hallas, go for the kid!”
The elven warrior ignored my orders and continued shooting into the sea of monsters.
“Pyrrah!” I yelled.
Out of nowhere, Teal Moon warriors exited Umolo in droves, their flags and banners fluttering against the night sky. Battle cries engulfed the plains as the warriors ran past Wolf. Three hundred Teal Moon orcs clashed like a tidal wave against the swarm of monsters. They pushed the Stingers back, and a minute later, they formed along my sides.
“Situation?” Little One appeared from the orc crowd.
“We kill the monsters,” I said, gasping for oxygen.
“As you heard, slime brains! We kill the monsters!”
The Teal Moon warriors created a defensive wall while the flank troops cleared the camp. When the Teal Moon warriors stabilized the defense, I used the Wind-Shot Boots to climb the wall and ran back to the frontline. With the help of [Foresight], I showered the Mana Stalkers with bright, magical ink, and the orc archers that remained in their posts quickly shot them down.
I examined the battlefield, looking for the kids.
Ilya, Firana, and Zaon had abandoned the eastern platform as Mana Stingers had overrun it. I let [Foresight] guide my eyes, and I found them on the center platform with a squad of archers, still providing support against Chrysalimorphs.
Dozens of orc bodies with barbed lancets protruding from their bodies piled near the gaps in the bulwark.
I jumped to the eastern platform and cleaned it from Mana Stingers. Then, I regained my position as anchor in the center of the formation. I shot hundreds of mana missiles as my blades danced around me, purifying Fountain mana at the same time I used my skills.
I lost track of how long I fought, but the frontline finally stabilized.
My body ached, and the world around me seemed to fade away.
“Warchief Revered Robert Clarke? Are you okay?” Kara grabbed my shoulders and sat me down on the dead body of a Chrysalimorph.
“Situation?” I asked.
A warrior slammed into a Gloomstalker, and the creature collapsed a few centimeters from me. Kara was unfazed. I was too tired to care. The battle continued, but I could barely keep my back straight.
“The Teal Moon warriors pushed the monsters away from the flank, and no more Stingers are coming out of the ground. If nothing bad happens, the battle will be won,” she said.
“The kids?”
“They are fine.”
I closed my eyes and meditated to replenish my mana pool.
“Help me walk. I need to check on Wolf,” I said.
“As you please, Warchief Revered Robert Clarke,” Kara replied.
Despite looking as weary as I was, Kara put my arm over her shoulders and lifted me. I gave an unsightly view, but the orcs didn’t seem to care. Kara guided me to the eastern side of the camp, where the Mana Stingers had breached the spiked wall. The Teal Moon orcs were helping the wounded and retrieving the bodies of the fallen orcs.
“Wolf!” I shouted.
The boy tended to the wounds of the fallen, although he didn’t look much better.
“Mister Clarke, I’m sorry for the wait!”
Wolf came to meet us, but his escort closed ranks and blocked our path. They were Teal Moon orcs but weren’t Dassyra’s warriors.
“Move, you slime brains,” Wolf grunted.
“But, Warchief—” a muscular warrior almost as tall as Little One muttered but was cut short by Wolf’s order.
“When I say move, you move.”
I’ve never seen Wolf talking in such an authoritative manner, not even with the little ones.
I exchanged a glance with Kara. Finally, the warriors obeyed and formed a defensive perimeter around the three of us. I couldn’t help but notice them casting suspicious glances at the orcs of the outer camp. Despite the lack of monsters near the eastern flank, they stayed on their toes.
A closer inspection revealed the extent of Wolf’s wounds—an ugly cut on his scalp above the ear, a dislocated shoulder, and a gashed thigh, minor wounds aside. I pulled a Holone Grape and put it in Wolf’s hand. The Teal Moon warriors eyed the transaction with suspicious eyes.
Wolf ate the Holone grape without asking questions, and his face lit up.
“Wow, this is tasty,” he muttered.
Then, the healing effects hit him. The green mana was expelled from his body as the skin and tendons healed, and the bones returned to their original place. Unlike Elincia’s potions, the Holone Grape didn’t seem to sting. Wolf moved his arms in wide circles and jumped on his previously wounded feet.
“What—” Wolf asked.
“It’s your turn to answer,” I cut him out. “What happened?”
He tried to pull a Firana and avoided my eyes, but I wouldn’t let him go. Nothing made sense. Dassyra had around a hundred warriors at her disposal, not three hundred. Even if Wolf convinced her to help, that didn’t explain the wounds and the deference of the Teal Moon warriors.
“What happened? Why are those orcs calling you Warchief?”
Wolf cleared his throat.
“Warchief Callaid gave the order to remain inside the walls… so I challenged him to a duel and killed him.”
I was left speechless, and not even the mental boost of [Foresight] allowed me to form a coherent sentence.
“You killed the Warchief of the Teal Moon tribe,” I said.
“Yes,” Wolf replied. “Thanks to your training and guidance.”
“Do you understand that was stupidly risky?”
“I did what you would’ve done… but in an orc fashion. I’m an orc, Mister Clarke. I’m not upset. I did what had to be done to ensure the survival of my tribe.”
I massaged my temples. Maybe I wasn’t a very good role model after all.
“Elincia is going to kill me.”
“Not if she doesn’t find out,” Wolf grinned.
I laughed. She was going to find out whether we liked it or not. I rummaged through the pouch and pulled my last Energy Potion. I uncorked it and drank. Despite no more monsters coming from the forest, the battle still raged, and I wanted to avoid any more casualties.
“Let’s go,” I said. “And good job, Warchief.”
Wolf grabbed his rifle and followed.
“You too, Kara!”
The girl nodded.
The Teal Moon warriors pushed the flank and reinforced the frontline. There were only three hundred of them, but they fought like they were a thousand. With [Foresight]’s assistance, it was easy to detect the difference in skills and tactics among the warbands. Teal Moon warriors were way stronger and more skillful than the average orc of the outer camp.
Wolf climbed the archer’s platform and sniped the last Chrysalimorphs with Ilya and the kids.
His escort almost had an aneurism when Firana hit the back of Wolf’s head as a punishment for the delay.
As the number of monsters dwindled, and when only a few Gloomstalkers and Undead Wolves, the elders approached the frontline.
“Warchief Clarke,” the old orc who had given me his vote of confidence was the first to speak. I didn’t know his name. “What are we going to do with the Teal Moon tribe? We are not prepared to pay a tribute for their assistance. We abandoned our territories with only the things we could carry on our shoulders—”
I raised my hand, and the orc elder closed his mouth.
“The Teal Moon Warchief is my student. He will not ask for tribute,” I said.
The elders joined heads and whispered.
“Are you sure, Warchief? Some forms must be respected.”
I sighed.
“We will figure that out afterward. But trust me, no tribute will be paid,” I said. “Nothing that a sparkle of nepotism won’t solve.”
The elders exchanged confused glances but, in the end, seemed to trust my words.
I planned to renounce the Warchief title as soon as the battle ended. I wasn’t built for politics. At most, I could manage a dozen-kid orphanage as long as the Governess was cute. Leading a thousand-orc tribe was out of my reach.
I led Kara to battle. There were only a few monsters nearby, and not an hour later, there wasn’t a living monster left.
The screams of anger and pain were replaced with cheers and songs as the army gathered in the center of the arena. Out of the five hundred warriors of the free camp, there were almost ninety dead and twice the amount of wounded—not a terrible outcome considering the enemy numbers.
The orcs seemed to have the same opinion.
“We did it! We saved the camp!” Kara threw her hands in the air.
“Yes, we did,” I replied.
The kids waved at me from the eastern platform. Besides a few scratches and notches in the Ghoul-leather armor, they were safe and healthy.
Pyrrah touched my shoulder. Dry blood covered her nose, mouth, and chin. The Overseer had smacked her good.
“I don’t see more monsters. I think we are safe until dawn,” she smiled.
I nodded. That was good news.
“Thank you for having my back during the fight, Pyrrah. I couldn't have done it without you,” I smiled, glancing at the blood covering her face.
Pyrrah blushed, scrambling to find the right words. “And I thank you for thanking me. No! I mean—”
A commotion reached my ears. I scanned the camp but didn’t find the origin of the sound. The orcs didn’t seem to detect anything out of the ordinary. Despite the mistrust between tribes, Teal Moons and free orcs seemed to work together just fine.
“Did you hear that, Pyrrah?”
“Trouble in Umolo?”
Pyrrah summoned her spirit animal, but the bird barely took shape before disappearing in a white mist.
“I’m sorry. I’m out of magic,” she said, embarrassed.
I had to remind myself she wasn’t Elincia.
“Don’t worry. It must be a rogue monster. What happens inside isn’t our problem,” I reassured her.
Hallas, Pyrrah, and Kara escorted me to the central platform. The elders had the situation under control, and I didn't want to interfere with their orders. I sat on the edge of the platform and surveyed the camp. Half of our forces were out of action. We could reinforce our defenses, but if the Lich or the Forest Warden possessed the body of a Chrysalimorph, we would be in trouble. There was only so much orcs could do against high-level monsters.
The other option was to leave Umolo and hope the Lich would focus on me. If I destroyed the Lich’s true body, the battle would end once and for all. I counted on the kids to help me, but Wolf’s situation worried me. A war chief couldn’t just leave their tribe, and I didn’t think his position was temporary like mine.
Would the Teal Moon tribe siege the Lich’s lair with us?
The commotion inside Umolo walls continued.
The archers posted along the wall had disappeared.
I waved my hand to catch the kid’s attention. The platforms were only about twenty meters away. Firana waved back. Before I could tell her to peek over the wall, the gates opened, and a single figure sprinted towards the outer camp. Despite the darkness surrounding us, I could see as if it was noon. It was Ginz with a heavy backpack bouncing over his shoulders.
“Rob!” he yelled, out of breath. “We have to go! Like, right now!”
“What is he saying?” Hallas asked.
The spot of Corruption in my chest tightened, clutching my flesh with its tiny tentacles. My body temperature dropped, and my lungs collapsed. I couldn’t breathe. A cold voice like glaciers colliding, spoke into my ear words I couldn’t understand.
Suddenly, the Umolo citadel exploded, and a black spire rose into the night sky.
Comments
Matt Bradock
Not when you keep using raw Fountain mana over and over again, it doesn't.
I Dare Korval
You know, Rob has had a lot of levels and new skills but he still has corruption? Shouldn't it have been overwritten by now?
I Dare Korval
I forget, did Rob shut down that shard the orc's were abusing? I think the Lich had plans for that and if it's shutdown, I could see him being really upset.
Alistershade
Well the lich at least has a grasp on presentation, knowing when and how to make an entrance.
Ben Bass
TYFTC! Of course the Lich attacks when everyone is exhausted, he has lots of practice to know how and when to make an entrance. I am intrigued with Wolf, he has a class and is also a Warchief, which is a very interesting combination. Let’s see what comes next though!
Matthew
Definitely seems problematic. But who knows, maybe it's a friendly black tower of doom?
bcd051
Well that's not good
