Chapter 111

 

The battle continued…

“One down, six to go,” Svinn said, as we’d finished off this sacrificial ring of vile goblin shamans. After we’d taken down the weaker front line support shamans the main boss shaman wasn’t too hard to gang up on. It’s also ironic that it wasn’t hard to take him down precisely because he didn’t backup or use support magic on his own team members. He’d tried to at the last minute pull together some type of fire magic offense and defense maneuvers.

It was a pity I didn’t have a chance to study their techniques further. The goblins really seemed to like fire magic, which is curious since humans aren’t good with fire magic. Even their defensive shielding was either a variant of an earth skin or a fire shield that pulsed as a damage shield as well. He had been in the middle of trying to get off some kind of fire ray beam towards me, but it would have been hitting my shield anyway even if he hadn’t failed it.

Its amazing how the goblins can fight so well when all around them their people are dying. They seem to not even care about their own military losses!

By studying their simple spell structures I might get some free stuff maybe? Or it might just be wishful thinking.

Both Asakura and I look at each other with the palms of our hands on our knees, as we’re hunched over with our weapons hanging loosely from our fingers trying to get a second wind. We’re both heaving for air, while feeling how hot and hard it is too breathe. It’s like back home on our world when there was a forest fire and the smoke and ash were choking town over a hundred miles away.

This is scary.

It’s not a job we can quit or leave. It’s a full out invasion by goblins and that is way radically different from just running out to go hunt, where you’ll lucky if you’ll find one or two enemies.

“This is a lot of tough work,” I whispered hoarsely.

“Now we know what the wall of fire is for. It’s to choke us on smoke,” Asakura said trying to breathe and coughing hard.

Svinn is kicking the bodies roughly to make sure there are no survivors. At length, he’s finally satisified they are all dead, but still decapitates some of the shamans anyway. Then he spits on them muttering some dwarven curses, before walking back over to us.

“They shouldn’t have this level of magic!” Svinn cried out in protest. He is less affected than we are. It seems dwarves and their natural body toughness can weather the ash and smoke filled air better than we are.

“Do you think that has to do with the fourth great shaman being a necromancer?” I asked.

“I’m not sure yet,” he said, stroking his chin in thought.

“We better keep moving,” I urged.

“Those sparky clouds look like death flowers,” Asakura said in her eerie monotone again looking at the cavern ‘sky’ again. Somehow she’s smiling less lately and more jaded. Even if she’s stronger I can’t help but worry about her being this way.

The dwarves bark some more orders and Svinn signals for us to move finally after a long period of enduring fire from cover that was mostly inaccurate range. But he can’t wait any longer since the other dwarven groups are having a hard time.

“I just got a message coming in from our network. They’ve engaged the head goblin shaman. We need to move, now!” he said looking at us in the eye. He looks rough and wild but has an interesting flavor of courage that we find infectious. I seem to draw from it, and some of the other dwarves are too. The look in his eyes is like a survivor and you can feel he’s done this before.

The full measure of what he’s saying is sinking in.

We’re actually pretty scared.

The plan up till now has been for us to kill off the minor shamans and anything else we can while the two dwarven archmages fight the fourth great shaman, or whoever is the head here. He’s told us it will take both of them to take him on, but when he’d told us that earlier the look he gave me is that he’s worried if they can really pull it off.

Did those two archmages take on more than they can handle?

After Svinn spelled it out, suddenly the ground is shaking terribly.

“What was that?!” Asakura and I both fight to stay on our feet but are knocked prone as a massive earthquake hits the entire cavern. Every ten seconds feels like a full minute as we try to survive being shaken to death. We can also feel rubble and rock toppling everywhere, until even the dwarves are shaken from their feet.

“What happened?” I shouted to Svinn.

He and several other dwarves are clutching at holy symbols from the dwarven God. I’d not asked about them before, but it seems like most dwarves are very religious.

They look confused also.

“They’ve unleashed a massive shockwave against each other. Both sides are throwing out as much energy as they can. See look?” he points to a small lit up hill behind the keep.

“That’s where our two War Twins are fighting them,” he said solemnly.

“War Twins?” Asakura questioned.

“It’s what we have nicknamed the two you met before. They are some of our best and brightest and have the title of the War Twins, even though they aren’t actually twins. They are cousins though, but the nickname has stuck.”

But in answer to his explanation, and while the earthquake is almost died out we see a fiery explosion rock the area of the crest of the hill he’s talking about. Both sides are in awe, seeing massive fire and earthquake like shockwaves coming from the hill, which is trembling beneath the might of the blasts.

“What the hell can withstand that Shun?” Asakura asked me in disbelief.

I didn’t answer but instead lifted her by the hand to her feet.

“Thanks,” she said.

“We need to keep moving. Let’s go,” I nodded to Svinn.

“You’re right. For the dwarves and our kingdom!” he cheered to the other dwarven survivors. They start to rally behind him and we’re already moving on to the next goblin shaman gathering point.

“But wasn’t there like eight of those total? We only killed off one circle of shamans, and you say there are six left?” Asakura asked Svinn as we keep fighting our way through.

It’s hard work. We have to keep our eyes on the goblins in front of us and trying to push them back, while at the same time watch for any shamans ready to toss flaming fireballs at us. Plus I also have to keep runic shielding up on each of the dwarves that are moving with us with frequent recasts. There are somewhere between a dozen and twenty of them now as we’ve picked up everyone we could along the way, most of which are terribly scratched up. But I don’t have the time or concentration to stop to count them.

We had to fall back and dodge to the side to avoid two fireballs coming at us in a row from different positions each.

“Shun, don’t they have better aim? How come it’s this easy to dodge?” Asakura.

“It’s not THAT easy,” Svinn said, giving her an odd look. He seemed offended briefly before masking it again. Maybe it’s because so many dwarves are suffering right now. I also think Asakura’s sped up instincts and augmented body might have temporarily misled her into thinking these are easy to dodge.

“It might be partly because they are borrowing power that doesn’t belong to them,” I said as another big shockwave knocked us all off our feet, centered from the hill where the bigger mages are fighting. The small shamans are getting their power from predatory sacrifice rather from earning it on their own. Thus their attacks are treacherously successful when they can hit…but because they didn’t earn it the right way they have trouble throwing the fireballs accurately. This was like how Fox’s mana sword was too heavy for me to lift much of the time, because I wasn’t quite ready for being able to use it yet.

But the goblins had another surprise for us.

“They brought orc guards,” Svinn spat.

Asakura and I both swore.

This was unexpected.

They must have recently arrived or were hanging in the back to go after whatever was left to mop up. The orcs are better fighters than the goblins in some ways. They are better at being tanky and bigger, and swing harder and stronger, but the goblins are better at evading and blocking and overall sneaky stuff.

Asakura clips two orcs, one lost its head to a full frontal warhammer splat and the next one had its knee wrecked with a sickening crunch.

While she’s doing that I’m also using melee attacks but want to save much of my power.

“I can’t get any closer!” Svinn cried out. The enemy fire is too heavy!”

Unfortunately he’s right.

We had to dodge another concentration of three fireballs in a row. Then right as we’re cowering behind a ruined stone building orc shock troops have been marching toward us to cut us off in a block row and column formation with armor and spears looking like they are mad with blood lust.

“Spears! I need throwing spears!” I called out.

Svinn tossed me a bundle of them that had been hanging from his back in a wrapped container.

We split it open spilling them to the ground while Svinn and Asakura are keeping the dwarves rallying together. Despite being normal dwarves the others are doing well. I’ll never even know half of their names but as a whole they are good at fighting and one dwarf is good enough to typically hold back two orcs and goblins.

I held the spear in my hand ready to throw it, while being anxious.

Just getting this spell ready my runic shielding spell is taking heavy fire, and small nips of missile fire are cracking streaks in it every two seconds in random directions and locations on the shield. That’s how many orcs there are compared to us, and without the combination of runic shielding and the protection from missiles spell our team would probably have been crushed already.

I then very carefully face to the side and activate the paladin holy light.

To be honest, since I’ve realized I’m part demon this is like trying to hold gasoline in my hand and light it with the other at the same time. In other words, its sheer desperation to survive. As I finished drawing the sigils in the air for the spell I ignited the spear’s point to glow with the spell. It’s a good spell, if I can stand the pain from it.

Already as the spell is activating it feels and looks like my arm is on fire. There’s also a gaping hole about two feet in diameter that I’m trying to keep pointed away from the enemy. It looks in appearance like someone melted a plastic gerbil cage the size of a human on a skillet.

Huh? That’s different.

Before when I used this spell I got burned but there weren’t flames either. Now there are both burns and flames and I’ve almost bit my tongue off just trying to remain sane.

I chuck the spear into a horde of orcs just as the holy light explodes in an aura effect killing about twenty orcs instantly. I can’t believe I held onto it that long and my aim only didn’t fail because I was aiming for the middle of the orc formation block. Now I’m busy slapping out the flames.

“Holy crap! You can do a move like that?” Svinn cried out.

I’ve also got my mouth open in awe. It’s not supposed to be this powerful is it?

I managed to get the runic shielding renewed on myself just in time to receive a full volley of orcs return fire. They badly want revenge.

Crap, I hadn’t expected that either!

Wow!

The orcs reacted en masse to my attack in fear, and because of not wanting to die were now aiming at me personally as a whole.

I had to spam the runic shielding twice more, while Svinn screams for the dwarves to get shields up around me. Somehow they rally around us, protecting both me from missile fire and Asakura from being dragged off by orcs. Her appearance, this whole time had been attracting extra attention from the orcs and a brawl had ensued of who could drag her off first, on the orcs side.

The dwarves had placed some heavy armor units of those that have survived that are the new front right in front of us, giving us a little bit of breathing room.

In the next two minutes I had to focus entirely on keeping shields up and dodging more fireballs.

“We got lucky on the last one. Can you let me toss the next holy spear attack?” Svinn is acting and looking very fanatical just now. It actually looks kind of gross.

“Huh?”

“An attack like that has to be somehow a blessing from the Dwarven Creator! We can’t lose!” his eyes are feverishly mad. We don’t want to say anything, but we’re both thinking…if he’s that crazy that must be how he got the goblin killer of the year award. I’m a bit turned off by the fanaticism though.

“Uh, sure,” I said. “But you have to be careful. They’re so hot to handle that…I get burned,” I said, not wanting to tell him the demon genes didn’t mix with the light magic well. But unfortunately the holy light was the best thing for goblins and orcs.

“Yes!” Svinn acts like he just won the lottery while we dodge more arrows.

The two heavy armors in front of us are keeping the orcs at bay just barely, while dwarves pick the orcs off with their crossbow bolts. But what we hadn’t anticipated was that we were accidentally creating a line in the sand.

Both dwarves in the back and orcs in front of us were now digging fox holes for cover fire while trying to snipe at each other. They were digging furiously mad to get under cover before the other.

“Over there, aim for that one that is about to have a fireball ready!” I said pointing to a close goblin shaman sacrificial point.

Svinn holds the ‘holy spear of the dwarven god’ while I cast the spell. In less than a second I’m cursing and swearing as my other arm is now burnt and I’m rolling in the ground trying to put out the flames while some dwarves stare at me.

I casted heal on myself and then runic shielding unable to tell if Svinn has hit the target or not.

“Did he hit it?” I asked Asakura after pulling myself to my senses. I cast two more heals after that to be sure.

“We’re lucky. He got it right before the fireball was ready. The enemy just lost three goblin shamans. That circle is down. The orcs are now scared,” Asakura reported.

But we had to duck down after that, when two more fireballs exploded nearby.

Then our focus changed from defending to defending while I try to save two dwarves who are on fire and were hit directly in the fireball blast radius. I had runic shielding on them, but it had collapsed instantly under the heavy barrage of hits from several enemies working together. Of course I’ve been identified as a threat and they are trying to concentrate fire to take me out. I have to pull behind some rubble for extra cover.

I can only imagine how terrible it must be for the two dwarves I was trying to save as they are trying to roll in the ground and screaming while trying to put out the flames. I cast heal quickly on both of them and lost precious mana. They are both alive and somehow got back to their feet but their clothes are smoking still and they cough like a twenty year chain smoker. They will obviously need follow up care and probably have permanent damage.

Still…I can’t believe they are still alive.

But then I look forward.

While that’s been happening Asakura has killed about eleven orcs by herself, though not all at once and by picking them off when she can isolate them. Wow, this familiar spell concept is amazing. She’s turned into a solid defensive monster that I can absolutely rely on. There’s no way to conceive of how valuable she is. She’s even giving Svinn a run for his money.

I cast a renewal runic shielding on hers, which is now full of holes.

Several times they’d tried to carry her off but my buffs and shielding have helped her to fight fearlessly, not to mention the ghoul demon energy working her into a frenzy.

“Can I throw another holy spear?” Svinn whined.

“Aghh, it’s too painful. I need a rest first,” I choked. That part is true. Both my arms still are tingling from using this move too much and the burning pain it causes. I risked another soothing heal but it’s too hard to use it again soon.

He is disappointed but humbled. He keeps fighting. Already there’s a lot of orc blood around him.

But the orcs keep coming.

“How can there be this many?!” Asakura cries out in frustration.

We managed to somehow survive without any losses but there’s been a change in tactics again. This change occurred when we realized they would only be able to aim their fireball tossing better if we stayed in the same area.

We’re now roaming from ruined stone building to ruined building in a leapfrog manner again to avoid the orcs and shoot them from distance. Over time we swapped between a fake advance to lure and eliminate and then pulling back to do the same thing, and going after a flanking position against the enemy again in several rotations. The stone walls help a bit in deflecting portions of the fireball’s blast effects.

But in return, the buildup of two hours more of fighting this way after that has made it so that almost every building in this town is completely ruined. The roofs have collapsed, and the doors are broken up and hanging on one hinge or none at all.

The decision to put the civilians in the mines was the right one. I sort of mourned for the loss of the noble’s keep that we’d been staying at. It had been a beautiful place to stay at. I think there’s no way Rina could have lived through this.

The orcs are still trying to push forward but the dwarven defense line has held.

Somehow I modified my shielding spell from this experience. When casting the shield spell, I had this idea in my head of chaining the spell near the end of the spell by inserting another string of runic syllables before the closing end statement part of the spell. I’d first gotten this idea when Fox and I fought the first imp spell caster awhile ago. I’d been trying to figure out how to use the stacking effect in a real spell modification but this is the first time it’s come to mind how to make it work.

It takes an extra second or two, but I’m in awe when I see it in effect.

Asakura now has my normal runic shielding spell, plus there’s like an extra ‘invisible or clear’ turret shield in the front impact area in front of the whole bubble shielding around her. The second shield doesn’t protect her over every direction, but I realize it will cut damage significantly.

“This is amazing,” I gasped in astonishment.

“Keep your eyes in front of you kid,” Svinn said, while cutting open an orc that had been sneaking up behind me.

“Oops.”

“Keep focused,” he warned again before slashing open more orcs.

What’s even more shocking was the increase in mana usage was only a small increment compared to the overall amount for the cost of the shield overall. The strength gain is also much better too because it seems that after recasting this new ‘upgraded’ type shield onto Asakura, I was then able to do the same for Svinn. Then each time a dwarf threatened to have his shield collapse I was able to add this new shield type.

“Hey this is cool Shun! The little mini shield in front of the main bubble follows wherever I’m facing towards,” Asakura said while hacking up two more now wounded orcs.

We keep working as the goblin shamans are unable to kill any more dwarves. It’s giving the dwarves a second wind, because even though we don’t have strong nuking power anymore, no dwarves are dying, but we now have a wall of bodies in front of us an hour later.

Every minute is a battle to avoid getting hit by goblin projectiles or hit up close.

The attackers are getting more sporadic now and it’s turned into ranged warfare. When the orcs saw that they weren’t able to kill any of us they thought they’d have a better chance at picking us off from range fire.

Over time also the battle lines have spread out and gotten more disorganized on both sides also, as people are struggling to live through this.

“Hey this is kind of fun, since they kill us anymore,” Svinn said. He’s got a wild and crazy look in his eyes.

“Is this a world of killing Shun? I’m thinking I don’t like it here, much,” Asakura said.

“Actually, I’m worried about our ammunition?” I responded to both of them.

“Oh right…well you know that saying, if you can’t say anything good don’t say anything at all?” Svinn said.

Jeez he’s weird. I wanted a straight answer and now he’s half crazy and mad but happy to kill orcs?

He wanted to chase off some orcs into the bushes and follow them but I verbally hold him back, “don’t let them bait you. They want to pull you away from our defense line so they can swarm you away from our protection and isolate you.”

“Shit, I almost fell for it,” Svinn realized. The madness in his eyes and lust for war is apparent.

After that we had to hold back other dwarves, who mistakenly thought we had an early victory wanted to run after them.

The orc and goblin commander is actually pretty good to think of a tactic like that. Later that night we’d confirmed it that the orc bait runners had a whole squad hiding around the back of nearby ruined buildings.

The fighting continued the rest of the night...