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An Otherworldly Scholar - 177
🕑 Added 2024-11-15 22:24:18 +0000 UTCIlya scanned the forest line from the top of the wooden platform. Although she looked minuscule next to the orc archers, her black armor and long enchanted rifle gave her a fierce look. Zaon remained seated, back against the parapet, and eyes closed. I couldn’t hear him, but his lips moved fast as he recited a litany. Hallas and Pyrrah channeled their spirit animals, following the track of the monster wave.
Firana stood next to me, humming a song. She had brought Ginz’s last-minute bullets. I enchanted them in silence. There were around two hundred bullets per rifle. It seemed a lot, but such an amount was next to nothing in an actual firefight.
The sun was about to set.
“Don’t waste ammo on small targets,” I said.
“I know. You already told me twice,” Firana replied.
Around us, the chieftains encouraged their warriors. Each tribe had unique pre-battle traditions. Some chanted battle songs and performed ritual dances similar to the Maori haka, while others had their shamans bless them. Some tribes remained in complete silence, in a state of meditation.
I put my hands on Firana’s shoulders and made her look at me. As usual, she was the one who worried me the most. I had come to accept that some kids gave more work than others. Zaon and Wolf had their gripes, but at least they were cautious. Firana blinked, curious.
“Follow Ilya’s command. If the wall gets overrun, don’t fight. Grab Ilya and retreat to the wall,” I said, worried.
The chaos of a broken formation was even more dangerous than the enemy itself if the stampede was made up of three-hundred-pound orcs.
Firana nodded.
“Don’t worry. I’m not going to charge on my own. My father managed to instill a tiny bit of martial discipline in me,” she said.
Firana rarely spoke about Garel Aias, but when she did, she sounded like she was talking about a distant figure, someone she barely knew. It had taken me a long time to realize some kids only needed attention. A person who said I recognize you, and I see you. Firana was one of those kids.
“If I need help down here, I will call you,” I said.
Firana seemed surprised hearing my words.
“Really?!”
“I wouldn't trust my back to anyone else,” I replied, giving her the bag with enchanted bullets.
Firana gave me a blissful smile and skipped toward the archer’s platform.
At least one of us was completely calm.
I walked to the center of the formation, where I expected most monsters to crash. My role in the battle was simple: mow down as many enemies as possible to lighten the load on the flanks. The triangular wooden structure before me awaited to break the monster waves. On top, a squad of orc archers looked into the forest. What worried me the most was the night. Unlike elves and beastfolk, orcs didn’t have good eyesight in darkness, and enemy vanguard would reach the camp by dusk.
The orcs greeted me as I walked through their ranks until I heard a familiar voice.
“Warchief Revered Robert Clarke?” Kara said.
“Yes, Kara?”
“I noticed you lack a proper escort,” she shyly said.
I signaled her to come with me. The safest place on the battlefield was on top of the platforms with the elves and the kids. The second safest place was probably by my side.
“Warchief Revered Robert Clarke is too long to say during a fight. Just call me Rob,” I said.
Kara nodded.
Before I could say anything else, Hallas’ voice rose above the camp, and the orcs closed ranks.
“Gloomstalker!”
From the forest, a sole Gloomstalker rushed the camp. It looked just as Pyrrah had described them—a lizard-like creature, the size of a horse, made from roots and bramble with teeth made of clean amber. Above the archer’s platform, Ilya raised her hand, and Zaon and Firana lowered their rifles. The Gloomstalker jumped over the ditch and got impaled on the spiked wall. Still, with the spikes piercing its body, the creature continued struggling until a group of orcs armed with axes finished it.
A moment later, more Gloomstalkers poured into the valley and rushed our fortification. Some ended up impaled in the spike wall, but they quickly realized that wasn’t the correct path. Without a sound, they simultaneously turned into the central bulwarks and slipped through the gaps one by one.
The frontline orcs were waiting for them.
The Gloomstalkers entered the camp, but the orcs overran them ten to one before they could run deep. My gambit was working. The half-siege allowed the orcs to use their swarm tactics on the monsters without getting surrounded.
Axes and cleavers tore the wood apart, but the Gloomstalkers countered with spiked tails and sharp teeth. The battle intensified. My enchanted armor withstood the attacks, minimizing the damage.
“Warchief Revered Robert Clarke!” Kara yelled.
A Gloomstalker ignored the orc taunts and rushed us.
Gloomstalker Lv.26. (Corrupted). [Identify] A spawn made of mana-loaded roots. It will attack any living being deemed an invader by the Forest Warden to protect the Warden’s Tree. Weakness: Fire, Drain.
Despite the creature’s speed, [Foresight] allowed me to see the world in slow motion. This would’ve been a challenge a week ago, but now, the monster wasn’t anything but a tiny pebble that I wouldn't feel even under the terrible footwear in this world. I channeled my mana into a sword and sliced the creature before it even reached us. I felt the root’s resistance, but the beast wasn’t near sturdy enough to withstand my attack.
Kara blabbed, unable to string a sentence together.
The Gloomstalkers attacked the center, and I cut each of them down before they could reach our frontline. I tried to keep my powers to the minimum in case the battle extended through the night. The monsters attacked the flanks, but our formation resisted. With the corner of my eye, I saw Firana using the Aias Sword to kill a rogue Gloomstalker who had tried to jump the ditch into the archer’s platform. The kids still hadn’t shot a single bullet.
The first wave of Gloomstalkers abated, and there was silence. The tension remained. The sun fell over the ridgeline, and the mountains cast a shadow over the valley.
A screech broke the silence. Gloomstalkers poured from the forest like a flash flood, sweeping away everything in its path. The creatures hit the bulwarks and gathered in the funnels, pushing and pressing to enter the camp. Orc archers dipped their arrows in a yellow liquid and used the torches to set them ablaze.
On the backs of the Gloomstalkers, a new type of enemy appeared. At first, I thought it was a Chrysalimorph, but my skill identified them as Spriggans. The Spriggans were humanoid monsters created from the same roots as the Saplings and Gloomstalkers. One of their arms was a broad wooden shield, and the other was a braided-root spear. Their lower body blended into the Gloomstalker's back.
“Shields!” the chieftains yelled, and a line of shielded orcs advanced to the front as the new monsters entered our trap.
The Spriggan’s spear gleamed with golden mana, and with a single swing, the thick board shields were reduced to splinters, and orcs were sent to the ground. Meanwhile, an orc attack force surrounded the Spriggan, but the Gloomstalker wiped them with its tail. Fighting a Spriggan and a Gloomstalker simultaneously was trickier. While the Spriggan raider attacked from the right, the Gloomstalker defended the left.
The orcs stuck to their tactics, attacking like a wave and rotating when the monster would try to counter. It was effective. Despite the Spriggan’s hardness, the root structures collapsed under the orc cleavers. There was a problem, however. The time they took to kill a single Spriggan allowed another two to enter the kill zone.
We were quickly getting overwhelmed. Our win condition was to maintain a low number of monsters engaged with our frontline at any time.
A Spriggan charged into the camp and attempted to skewer me, but I cut its lance with my blade. With a nimble movement, I turned the monster into wood chips. The center gap was the only section keeping the monsters' flow at bay. I grabbed Kara by the gap between her helmet and mail and pulled her close to me.
“Tell the archers to ignore the Gloomwalkers and focus on the Spriggans,” I yelled over the battle’s roar. “Burn them before they can enter the camp.”
Kara sheathed her sword and sprinted through the chaos toward the leftmost platform, ignoring friends and foes. The tail of a Gloomstalker almost hit her head, but she rolled, seemingly disregarding the weight of her armor. Not even the Spriggan’s attack slowed her down. She was swift.
A part of my brain added a bullet point to my to-do list: scold Kara and tell her to be more careful, but the idea was quickly buried by another Spriggan wanting to turn me into a skewered scholar.
While I mowed the monsters before me, [Foresight] helped me keep the half-orc girl on my radar. Kara climbed the stairs to the archer’s platform and pointed at the monster’s jam between the bulwarks. A moment later, Pyrrah jumped over the spike wall and through the gap to reach the next platform and spread the order. A Gloomstalker jumped, trying to catch her with its maw, but the creature missed by a few centimeters.
The orc archers changed their targets and focused on the Spriggans.
Everything was chaos.
Ilya, Zaon, and Firana shot their first rounds. Zaon and Firana shot the Spriggans going into the left gap, barely a few meters from their position, while Ilya shot the monsters entering the rightmost gap. I grinned. Ilya realized she had to ignore the monsters going through the center gap. Those were my prey.
With the archer's support, the tide of the battle turned. Burned Spriggans were more frail, while the ones hit by the MDBC bullets couldn’t use their golden mana to fortify their attacks, allowing the orcs to bring more cleavers than shields to the encounter. The orc warriors quickly dealt with the weakened Spriggans. The strategy was working. The monster's presence inside the camp couldn’t reach critical mass.
The sky darkened, and I felt a mana surge behind my back. Dozens of balls of light the size of eggs emerged from the ground and rose above our heads, illuminating the battlefield with a ghostly white glow. The orcs didn't seem surprised, so I assumed it was the work of their shamans.
The shaman’s light was far from being floodlights, but it was enough to keep fighting.
Kara returned to my side and drew her sword. Her bravery was commendable. The center gap was the most uneventful of the three, as I killed the monsters as soon as they entered. Eventually, a Spriggan fortified its body with mana and shielded my attacks, allowing Gloomstalkers to sneak inside. The orc vanguard swiftly engaged them.
The half-orc girl had barely touched a single enemy.
“Their numbers are dwindling!” Kara yelled.
[Foresight] told me no more monsters had emerged from the forest.
“Let’s take a break,” I panted.
It had been over an hour since the start of the battle, and my mana reserves were low. I signaled the chieftains I was going to retreat, and they quickly covered the gap I left on the formation. They seemed eager to put their warriors to use. Kara followed me into the rearguard, and an old orc offered us water and jerky. I dipped the ladle in the casket and drank. The water was cold and fresh. Kara drank after me. Then, we sat near a campfire. The temperature dropped quickly as soon as the sun set behind the mountain. I pulled my boots and socks off and put them near the fire. Soon, they started to steam.
I was covered in sweat.
Healers and shamans tended wounded orcs, but the casualties were minimal.
A flash of fire lit the sky, and [Foresight] told me Firana had incinerated a lone Gloomstalker that attempted to climb the pike wall. Despite being only forty meters from the battle, seeing what occurred in the frontline with a green wall of orcs in between was hard. Ilya raised her hand, and Zaon and Firana lifted their rifles. A moment later, the sounds of the battle subsided, and the warriors dealt with the last Gloomstalkers.
I silently hoped this was the end of the battle.
Pyrrah darted to the campfire, ignoring the water orc.
I waved my hand at her. “Good job with the bow up there.”
Pyrrah’s legs suddenly lost coordination, and she almost tripped over. I made a mental note not to compliment her near any fire source.
“I stepped on a hole,” she excused herself, but [Foresight] told me the terrain had been flattened for the tents. Pyrrah cleared her throat. “The first monster wave is over, but more monsters are coming, and they are fast.”
“More Gloomstalkers?” I asked.
“I don’t know, a strange mist is covering the forest, and my spirit animal can’t see through it,” she replied.
Strange. I hadn’t detected any disturbance in the environmental mana that pointed toward an area spell. I wondered if the mist was the Lich’s doing or the Forest Warden’s.
“Notify the chieftains. Tell them they should prepare for a long fight,” I said.
Pyrrah nodded and turned away.
As usual, I felt the System message before it appeared. The prompt rapidly scrolled through all the monsters I had killed before slowing down on the part I cared about.
Gloomstalker slain.
Gloomstalker slain.
Spriggan slain.
Gloomstalker slain.
Spriggan slain.
…
Level up!
Level up!
Level up!
You have obtained a new skill.
[Magical Ink]
I glanced at the prompt, puzzled. [Magical Ink] was one of the most basic Scribe and Scholar skills. According to the Book of Classes, it even came integrated into the Class on level one. I was at level twenty-four, counting the last three level-ups, far from ‘low levels’, so the skill caught me by surprise. I used [Identify].
Magical Ink: Allows the caster to conjure enchanted ink. [Identify]: Magical Ink provides the Scribe with a broad set of tools to perform its job. From invisible, permanent, or multicolored ink to magical signatures, Magical Ink allows the Scribe to prepare a variety of legal documents, swift transcripts, and flashy newsletters.
Not the most exciting description. Was the System running out of skills to give me? Was I supposed to squid-ink my way of sticky situations? Sighing, I closed my eyes and meditated to replenish my mana reserves. After a few minutes, I stood and returned to the frontline. I felt something coming. Luckily, orcs were still in position.
Kara escorted me in silence.
The moment of respite was short. A thick black smoke creeped out of the forest. Regardless of my keen mana sense, I couldn’t see through it. Still, I didn’t have to wait to see what awaited us. A Lupine Chrysalimorph with white bark skin and green crystal eyes dashed through the open ground between the treeline and the camp. This one was different from the animal form Chrysalimorph I had seen before. Green crystal shards had grown over its body, creating colored stripes brimming with mana. Archers shot a barrage, but the monster dodged. The few that managed to connect bounced off its hardened skin.
Adrenaline surged through my body, but [Foresight] forced me to focus.
“Don’t trust its size! They are stronger than a Gloomstalker!” I shouted.
The chieftains echoed my message.
I doubted for a moment. Should I leave the camp and fight the Chrysalimorphs in the open? Before I could decide, the Lupine Chrysalimorph crossed the central gap and pounced at my neck. I instinctively summoned a mana barrier and pushed back. Then, I summoned two flying mana blades and attacked the creature. Its bark skin was stronger than I expected. My magic swords bounced, leaving small furrows on the creature’s surface.
“Back off, Kara!” I shouted.
Something wasn’t right.
Lupine Chrysalimorph Lv.41. Magical Abomination. [Identify] The Chrysalimorph is the grotesque culmination of the Forest Warden’s attempts to harness the perfect physical body. Weakness: Drain.
No wonder why I couldn’t cut it. The creature had three times the level of the previous Lupine Chrysalimorphs I’ve fought. After our brief clash, the Chrysalimorph seemed to lose interest in me and turned to the nearest orc warrior.
“No, you don’t,” I said, channeling my mana and casting [Stun Gaze].
As expected, the spell bounced but managed to enrage the monster.
I dispelled the flying blades and focused all my mana into my sword. With my left hand, I drew my dagger and wrote a simple Leechflame enchantment. [Foresight] pinged my brain. More monsters swarmed the plains—Gloomstalkers, animal Chrysalimorphs, and undead trailing the swarm.
The Lupine Chrysalimorph pounced at me. [Foresight] showed me the trajectory like I was watching the future. I stepped forward, drawing a gash on the monster's side. I sidestepped, the claws almost grazing my skin, and buried the Leechflame Dagger through the wound. Mana flowed from the Chrysalimorph’s body.
“Now!” I yelled, and the orcs near me pounced on the weakened Lupine Chrysalimorph.
As expected, a significant part of the creature’s resistance came from the magic within, and the orc axes and cleavers chopped it down.
“Kara, go tell Ilya to focus on the Chrysalimorphs with green stripes,” I panted, but I grabbed the edge of her chainmail before she could run away. “Don’t cross through the battlefield. Take a safer path.”
“Can do, Warchief Revered Robert Clarke,” Kara replied.
The new monster wave clashed against the bulwarks, but the structure resisted. Gloomstalkers and Lupine Chrysalimorphs poured into the camp. I pushed mana into my sword and focused on the high-level targets, but the creatures split through the gaps, and we were pushed back. The Chrysalimorphs were swift and smaller targets that orc tactics couldn’t quickly deal with. The area of engagement grew, and the ball of monsters approached critical mass.
A few Lupine Chrysalimorphs jumped the piked wall through the flanks, wreaking havoc in our formation. Before I could decide whether to remain on the frontline or retreat to help the flank, Ilya jumped down the platform and snuck through the sea of orcs. My heart skipped a beat. As soon as she had a clear sight of the monster, Ilya kneeled, shouldered her rifle, and took the shot. The bullet hit the Lupine Chrysalimorph in the side and shone brightly as it drained mana from the beast.
The battle stabilized as Zaon and Firana's shots weakened the high-level Lupine Chrysalimorphs. They had trouble getting clean shots into the further, rightmost gap. Only Ilya was proficient enough, and she was helping the left flank. I decided to rotate.
[Foresight] fed me information about my surroundings as I focused on the monster before me. Casualties increased, but reinforcement promptly filled the gaps in the formation. There was one problem. The reinforcements didn’t have enchanted armor. With each passing minute, the integrity of the frontline weakened. Over the forest line, more and more monsters poured into the valley.
If the battle didn’t end soon, our forces would be overwhelmed.
My thoughts seemed to invite bad luck.
Suddenly, the ground trembled, and a thick root emerged just a few meters away from the forest line. Hundreds of monstrous bees emerged from the depths. My heart seemed to freeze.
Mature Mana Stinger.
Mana Stinger Soldier.
Mana Stinger Overseer.
“Kara!” I yelled, but the girl was nowhere nearby.
The pike wall would be ineffective against Stingers.
With a single swing of my sword, I beheaded a low-level Chrysalimorph and looked around. I needed to warn the flanks. Orcs didn’t use mana, so that the Stinger venom would be less effective against them, but the sheer number of monsters worried me. If the archer platforms got overwhelmed, we would lose support against Spriggans and high-level Chrysalimorphs, and the formation would fall.
I grabbed a random orc by the shoulder, but before I could utter a word, a dented lancet pierced their chest.
“Mana Stalkers!” I shouted, but the chaos of the battle drowned out my voice.
Comments
Matt Bradock
Looks like the biowaste really hit the ventilation device this time.
Ben Bass
TYFTC! I love how Rob is living up to his warchief title and directing from the front lines. Little Kara is a great messenger, now all Rob needs to do is see how well the archers and rifles do against the stingers.
