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Chapter 193 Homesteading in a fantasy world
🕑 Added 2023-03-30 14:07:12 +0000 UTCLaia had never been in a battle before but now she was holding a shield and a spear. She was preparing herself and the person in front of her to take charge of the enemies. At this moment she regretted when having picked a combat class for one of her open class slots. She didn't have any family left to fight for, but she had made good friends, some of who were in the legion's lines with her while others were back at the GreenWave village.
When contact happened she didn't consciously do anything, but her body knew what to do and they managed to hold the enemy. She was afraid but she stood firm helping support the person in front. Time seemed to move slowly but every so often she would hear the command to move in her head. It was a practised move and because she was one of the best at this, she was on the side of the legion that was supposed to collapse.
It was so loud that she could barely hear herself think. Their commander had said that battle would be louder, but she never imagined it to be so piercing. When they moved again a bit backwards, she found that there was no one in front of her. Again, her body moved before she could think and she was now one step closer to the enemy.
Time passed and they continued to move backwards a bit. Then she saw the legionary in front take an axe to the shoulder. He started to collapse but she grabbed the back of his armour and pulled him backwards while she moved forward.
It was a practised move they had done hundreds of times. But now she could feel the weapons hitting her shield. Her arm soon started to hurt but she continued to keep her shield up. She gathered her courage and peeked atop her shield. She saw the enemy trying to break their shields. A weapon that was glowing from ability moved towards her, but her shield started to glow counteracting the attack.
She didn’t have any special abilities so one of the knights must have used his to protect her. The same person tried again but he had been pushed a bit closer and his throat was exposed. Before she understood what happened she was sprayed with blood when she pulled her spear back.
She had never killed before. This act started to freeze her up, but another target opened up and she struck again. This time a shield blocked her strike, but she forgot what made her panic just a moment ago.
Time passed again and her arm didn’t hurt anymore. She didn’t feel her arm at all, but the shield was still held, and the line held. To the right of her, she saw a big man holding a large hammer strike down. The legionary beside her was struck in the head and he collapsed with no life left in him.
The big man once again raised his hammer, but he exposed his armpit. Again, before she could think about anything her spear flashed out and buried itself deep into the man. When she pulled out so much blood came out that she thought that the inside of the man must only be made from blood.
She then heard an order to collapse inward. She took a step to her right, having to step on top of the legionnaire she had just watched die. She didn’t have to stand on top of him for long as another order came to take a step backwards. She was so tired she didn't understand how she could still be upright.
Then she saw a spear closing in. She was able to move her head just to the left. The spear crashed into her helmet, but the helmet’s armour held, and the spear was directed past her. Still, the hit rattled her brain. When she was able to think again, she saw the spear was coming for her again but before it could reach the man had been struck in the throat by another spear.
The legionary beside her had killed the man that was about to kill her. She once again lifted her shield up just an inch and once again struck out with her spear trying to kill whoever was in front of her or to the left or right.
Time passed and once again her shields started to tip. Then she heard the command that javelins will start to fall onto the enemies. That gave her more strength than she didn't know she had and once again her shield lifted, and her spear struck out.
Valker was gripping his sword tightly. He was pressed against a tree hiding in the camouflaged spot that someone else had made. He had seen a few of the enemy elites move past. He wanted to strike out, but he hadn’t received the command to attack. He knew that these elites were stronger than him and he barely made it into this ambush group but he was a lot stronger than the current Legionnaires so here he was waiting to launch a surprise attack.
He saw two men walking just by him. They were in the perfect spot, and he couldn’t believe his luck went the order to attack came. He rushed out and his sword found the throat of the enemy killing him on the spot. He tried to attack the other one as well, but he was not able to get past the shield the enemy had. He could barely react to the sword strikes that came for him, but he pushed his boost ability to be able to counterattack. The enemy shield proved to be too effective.
After three more quick exchanges, he received a cut to his left hand. He could see his enemy smirk at him, and he could also see the cruelness in his eyes. Valker knew people like this. He had been a guard in a large town and with his combat class at level 40 he had to deal with people like this. He also knew that he was going to die.
When the plague hit his home village, he rushed back abandoning his job in the town. But after a 2-week journey, all he had back home was a ransacked farmhouse and the graves of his family. He didn't know what to do and just aimlessly walked into the village.
It didn’t resemble anything that he remembered from his childhood. There used to be people talking to each other, trading produce and many children playing. Now there were barely any people left and the ones left were hard and would take anything valuable you had especially food.
It was at that moment that he saw a young girl sitting in the mud begging for food. The few people who walked by didn't even look towards her. She looked so starved. When he asked her where her family was. All she said was they are all gone. He picked her up from the mud. She weighed almost nothing. The next few years they spent living together in Valker’s farmhouse. He put his common farming class to use.
Then things got worse. There were rumours that a strong city-state in the area was practising slavery and that they were moving around conquering all. The village had come back to life during those years and after a quick meeting, almost every one of them decided to pack up and try to escape. After a lot of hardship, they finally reached the end of the map a village called GreenWave and the nation that ruled it, The United Freeholds.
But even this place wasn’t safe. The so-called slave king was still trying to get to him and his little girl. But he saw strength here and for his little girl, he would fight to the death. He prepared to at least take this bastard with him before he died.
Valker moved but the enemy never expected that he might sacrifice his left arm. That stopped the enemy's attack from killing him and he was able to pierce his chest with his sword. But he was too weak the blade didn’t go deep enough to kill that bastard.
Valker fell to the ground and looked up to see a sword poised to kill him. But before it could fall the enemy in front of him was taken to the ground by a wolf who proceeded to rip the elite’s throat out. The wolf didn't stop and ran past, and a few other wolves followed. Valker then received a heal. Something he had only experienced once before. His wound close up and a bit of strength returned to him.
He struggled up again and started to move towards the closest battle he could hear. He might not be able to do a lot but even as a distraction, he would be able to keep his little girl safer.
The slave king watched as one of his energies wears an extremely rare ability user died when the noble attacked. They quickly counterattacked but they were blocked by the big sword or dodged by the large Nobel who was nimbler than he should be.
The attacks that hit his armour barely left a scratch on the armour that was filled with energy. The slave king wasn't worried but he was annoyed. The amount of energy Rich was using had to run out and soon. Then they can finish him off.
A bit away from the fight with Rich and the slave king’s forces both the mages were fighting again. Glenn had launched a surprise attack at the same time Rich had struck and because of it, he was able to wound his former classmate. It would still take some time but he was confident that he could win. He tried to not watch how his commander fought but it was hard not to as he was basically glowing with energy, so much was he using.
Rich’s sword technique wasn't anything special, but he had practised the basics for as long as he knew what the basics had been. This wouldn't help him defeat any of his opponents he was currently facing as any one of them had decades more experience. But in terms of power and speed, none of them could match him, which gave him the upper hand.
Rich’s energy pool was larger than all of his current opponents combined, and he was not afraid to use it. Abilities and attacks that should have gone right through him were blocked or stopped by his armour. Still, he was being pushed back but even then, he guided his enemies where he wanted them. When Rich used his last-stand ability. The burst of strength allowed him to finish off another fighter while a brilliant dodge and then a thrown dagger right after finished another.
Those were the weakest of his enemies but Rich kept defending and counterattacking slowly accumulating wounds onto his enemies so he could finish them off when weakened sufficiently. The fight had gone on for almost 5 minutes when only the strong fighters of the slave king’s forces were still standing. For most of the fighters, including the slave king the only thing that kept them in the fight was their artefacts but those were quickly running out of juice.
The slave king could feel the tide turning against him. It was at that moment that he noticed movement on top of the hill. A moment later javelins flew out from the hill and fell on top of his army. His army was in a winning position before this interruption and he couldn't understand why goblins were here or why they were attacking his army.
Gorgina had heard a voice in her head. She knew that voice, it was the commander. He told her to attack and so she did. She ran over to the top of the hill, her javelin ready. She almost stumbled from the view she saw. So many were fighting in a place where she was supposed to throw her javelins, but it was hard not to look at everything that was happening.
A thin line of friendly fighters was holding off a larger group of enemies who all had their backs to her. This made Gorgina smile. She started to power up her javelin. The forest beyond was constantly flashing and burning in some spots. There were two shamans fighting with flames and then there was the commander the legend who held a pass against thousands.
He was once again surrounded by enemies and Gorgina wondered if he liked to fight like that. The humans around him tried to kill him but they could barely hit him. The commander was moving a lot and only a few of the enemies could attack at the same time. They were also in the way of each other and one by one the commander’s enemies fell. Gorgina then concentrated on her task and started to throw.
The slave king heard his elite force commander's voice yelling something. He turned towards the forest to see him, and hope returned. It was quickly crushed as he saw him bleeding and limping that hope was set aflame when a wolf attacked his commander from the back and started to tear into him. A few other wolves did the same. Before the slave king could do anything, the wolves started to pull the body back into the forest.
He knew he was about to lose but before he could think of a solution, he had taken his eyes off Rich for too long. Rich’s sword came for him but two of his supporters threw themselves before him, saving his life. But another two of his fighters dead Rich finally had the space to start pushing them back. The slave king needed to do something until he latched on to his remaining hope.
The legion had held firm, but he could see how tired they were, and they were close to the breaking point. His army was still mostly intact and if the legion was broken they could take care of the goblins and at least make a fighting retreat. He only needed to look at his party member of almost 40 years before she took off towards the legion to hopefully break them fast. Rich tried to stop her but had to defend against the slave king’s attacks.
The slave king was once again trying to keep his anger down. He knew that he couldn't lose control here. But his party member didn’t get far when someone appeared behind her driving a dagger into her kidney and neck. He didn’t understand what had happened. Sharp thumps broke him out of his stupor. He looked towards where the sound was coming from and saw artillery weapons firing at his army causing devastating damage.
He once again had to defend himself from Rich, but he could feel the rage burning making him stronger. He could see the moment of surprise on the noble’s face when his attack didn’t crash through his block. The noble pulled back again but when he looked towards his army again they were quickly being taken apart and he could feel the panic coming from them. He barely needed any upkeep to keep his buffs going.
Thanks to his surging strength the slave king was once again being to push Rich back. The slave king was barely holding on to his sanity. The periodical thumps that he could hear signalling his army’s end suddenly came to a stop and he took a moment to see what was happening. Then he saw an armoured bull racing towards his remaining army. Behind the beast was a long-spiked log that the bull was dragging behind him. The log was spinning fast and there were so many spikes.
He saw a glimmer of hope. A group of fighters with long spears had made a holding ground and were aiming their spear straight at the charging bull. Their spears were glowing with energy, and he hoped that they could pierce through the armour and kill the beast. Just before the bull crashed into the spears an eagle swooped down and launched a devastating wind attack that killed some, but it thoroughly disrupted the wall of spears allowing the bull to safely break through.
What followed finally broke any control the slave king had. His strength rose rapidly and for the first time, every attack he made against Rich made the two-handed sword Rich used almost fly out of his hands.
Rich adjusted quickly. He kept his distance, but his long-range attacks did nothing. Rich could see that his enemy didn't think anymore and just dodged his attacks while hiding behind the slave King’s own men. One by one the slave king killed his own men even his final party member without ever knowing what he had done.
The slave king’s army was still holding out, but barely and already some were starting to run. More and more of the slave king’s elites tried to run from the forest but they were quickly followed and hunted. The final mage of the slave king died from a simple fireball and with him the last of the strongest fighters the slave king had died.
Rich was still dodging but now with no one to counterattack his attacks the slave king started to receive severe wounds. Finally, the slave king started to slow down and Rich took the first opportunity to behead him. The final 200 warriors of the slave king’s army broke when they heard Rich yell while holding the slave king’s head for all to see. “Your king is dead, run. Legion stand ready.” Rich’s voice was heard by all. The slave king’s army finally broke completely and started to run hoping that they would be spared.
Rich let them run a bit before he yelled out. “Any fighters still capable hunt down and killing the slave king’s forces, move. Legion and dedicated medics tend to the wounded.” His voice carried for a long distance and all who were still capable started to hunt down the escaping army. Some of the stronger goblins started to also pursue while still throwing their javelins always hitting their targets.
Rich himself quickly ran towards the battlefield and started to direct and give first aid to anyone he could see and help. What Rich didn't expect was that the goblins had sent some of their healers as well who quickly moved to help. Every legionnaire having been trained in first aid quickly started to move around the battlefield either finishing off their enemies or finding fellow Legionnaires and helping if they can.
