Slashing out towards us with his razor-sharp claws, Carver then practically bull rushed into Freya and me, using his comparatively larger bulk to force us backward into Abaddon and Helix arriving behind us, the damaged section of the ramparts here too precarious to allow us to fight three or more abreast.
Not that we even had a chance to, with Helix’s voice calling out a second later in warning.
“Heads up! More coming over the wall!” he called out, his voice suddenly increasing in urgency. “A dervish and three spirits!”
“Ah, isn’t that just perfect timing?” Carver exclaimed as he lunged forward, catching me with a feint that allowed him to plant a heavy fist squarely into my shoulder, the heavy blow sending me spinning towards the wall’s lip, its slightly-higher-than-waist-high height keeping me from tumbling straight over it. “I was almost worried I’d be all alone here.”
Feeling the wind partially leave my body from the impact, I saw Freya try and come to my rescue by thrusting out with her spear and landing a powerful strike on Carver’s shoulder. But to both hers and my dismay, her spear tip simply glanced off the black layer of corruption that armored him, the only sign of her attack even having landed being a slight shift in momentum from the weight behind the attack. Adjusting quickly, however, Carver batted away her weapon as if it were an annoying insect biting at him before delivering a powerful kick into her midsection that sent her sprawling backward into Abaddon’s back behind her.
Damn, he just shrugged off Freya’s attack like it was nothing! I exclaimed, struggling to catch my breath, recalling seeing a similar effect during our exchange against both the heralds and Zhul in my earlier fight on the siegebreaker.
Is it because they have damage reduction or a damage shield protecting them? I wondered, recalling that aside from being able to slice apart Zhul’s shadow tendrils, even my mana-draining touch hadn’t been able to pierce through the layer of magic armoring them. Or, at least, not easily since I did manage to land one attack on a herald, stabbing through its shadows and injuring it right before Carver had attacked me. But that was after I hit it a half dozen times and blasted it with magic. Did I end up weakening it enough to get through?
Realizing that I had a way to test that theory, I sent a blast of fire towards the shaman as I slid down the still-shaking wall away from him with what space I had, narrowly evading a claw that would have skewered me had I stayed put. The timely dodge allowed me to catch him full-on with the spell, Flameburst sending a wave of flames washing over his body, though to no visible effect. Undeterred, though, I followed up the magical burst with a pair of quick slashes against Carver’s arm, draining mana with the second strike and, earning me a barely noticeable flinch as he abruptly pulled the limb back. Satisfied with my initial test, I fought down the small amount of corruption that I’d absorbed from his strike and glanced towards my combat log, hoping to get an idea of how effective my attacks had been.
Your spell has encountered a protective barrier and has had its magic resisted!
Your [Flameburst] burns Carver’s [Form of Corruption] for 68 (-75%) points of fire damage!
Your weapon has encountered a protective barrier and has had it attack blunted!
You slash Carver’s [Form of Corruption] for 11 (-90%) points of damage!
You slash Carver’s [Form of Corruption] for 12 (-90%) points of damage!
Your [Mana Leech] drains 85 (+25%) mana from Carver’s [Form of Corruption]!
Your [Mana Leech] hits Carver’s [Form of Corruption] for 85 (+25%) points of damage!
Shit, he has everything! I realized with a curse as I skimmed over the log, the game helpfully highlighting the percentages with splashes of red and green so I could easily absorb their contents. He has both spell and damage resistance, plus a damage shield on top of it! The only thing not affected is my mana drain, but even then, it still gets absorbed, damaging his form and not him.
But that was about as far as I was able to get with my revelation before Amaranth’s voice filtered into my mind at the same time as Carver resumed his attack, the man pressing forward once again, looking to preserve his earlier his momentum.
my familiar said to me with sudden urgency as I blocked one of Carver’s claws, our link allowing me to sense that the cat was not only rapidly moving in my direction but was just seconds away from arriving.
Having traded places with Freya, the bulky lizardman lunged forward to meet Carver’s assault with his shield and slammed into him before he could react. Connecting solidly, the exchange not only stopped Carver’s advance cold, but it also gave Helix behind me the time he needed to plant his hand flat on my back and send a wave of healing energy through me, wiping away the worst of my injuries. Feeling a surge of gratitude at the lizardman’s efforts despite what I knew had to be a fierce battle behind me, I made the most of the healing by rushing to attack once again. Falling in beside Abaddon as I did so, I managed to take advantage of his assault on Carver to land another cut along his arm as the lizardman shoved him backward with enough force to temporarily lift him from his feet.
This had a convenient side effect of putting him in the perfect position for Amaranth, who suddenly blinked into existence just above and behind him.
Slamming into Carver with his claws outstretched, the cat hit him from behind high in the shoulders, his momentum combined with his weight causing the already off-balance shaman to fall to his knees, a clawed hand being the only thing saving him from falling completely prone.
“Oof—what?” the transformed orc grunted with surprised anger as he fell, his head abruptly snapping to the side as Amaranth took advantage of his position to send a powerful paw strike towards the pale elk skull on his shoulders. But that single strike was all that the cat had time for before he promptly leapt off the shaman, clearing not only him but our entire group in a single pounce, a loud yelp of surprise from Freya signaling that he’d joined the battle there.
“We have more incoming!” I shouted as soon I saw my familiar arrive, seeing a pair of heralds leap over the siegebreaker’s head towards us as it pulled itself free of the palisade, causing the entire length of the wall beneath us to violently shake once again. I’d purposefully held off from passing along Amaranth’s warning about their arrival until now, lest it tip off Carver, hoping to take advantage of the surprise it offered—which is precisely what Abaddon and I did, sending a barrage of attacks towards the stunned man, hoping that despite their apparent ineffectiveness, they would steadily chip away at the magic that protected him.
We need to wear him down as best we can, I told myself as I felt a wave of corruption flow up my arm and into my stomach as I struck Carver twice across the neck and shoulder, Savagery just sliding off his onyx skin without even leaving a mark. I got through on that other herald after beating on it for a while. We can do the same again for him.
But, of course, Carver wasn’t about to simply lie down and take the beating that we sent his way, despite how little it apparently hurt him, the man rising to his feet at the same instant the other heralds landed behind him.
“Rah, enough of this!” he growled in an angry tone, his eyes suddenly glowing a bright red as he exploded upwards, slashing out with his claws to send us retreating back a step. “You want to play rough? Let’s play rough!”
With his eyes continuing to grow in intensity as h
e spoke, the next thing I knew, Carver was sharply breathing out a thick cloud of rancid-smelling smoke from his mouth, sending it billowing towards Abaddon and me. Immediately flinching at the magic, my first instinct was to try and blast it away from me with Cone of Cold, hoping that the intense winds conjured by the spell would either keep it at bay, or if not, somehow disrupt it. Casting the spell as quickly as I could, I managed to partially succeed in my attempt, sending a portion of the foul gas back directly towards Carver and the heralds behind him as well as bathing the former of the trio with a blast of frost.
But that still left a substantial amount of shaman’s rotting breath to wash over us, causing all five of us to retch and cough with nausea as the corruption it carried afflicted our bodies, followed by our skin and eyes burning as if scalded by acid from its touch. It also had the side effect of blinding us, the black gas obscuring everything from sight. Or rather it did for everyone other than me, my still-active True Sight managing to slice through it, despite my watering eyes. It was that advantage that allowed me to see the siegebreaker’s head in the process of turning, its attention drawn by the heralds that had leapt over towards us.
Oh, damn, please don’t be doing what I think you’re about to be doing! I thought urgently as I was forced to take my eyes partially away from the monstrous creature to focus on Carver, who lunged forward to attack through the smoke, the two heralds using his distraction to leap on the wall’s edge and charge forward beside him. Forcing down a cough from the rancid smoke, I managed to block Carver’s leading claw swipe with Savagery before quickly shifting the blade to deflect a similar attack from a herald, using the opportunity to drain a surge of mana from each of them in the process. But that came at the cost of a follow-up slashing kick from Carver that I never saw, my attention having remained high in order to track both siegebreaker and the two heralds.
Which in the case of the former, I saw was still turning in our direction, the massive beast’s maw opening wide as its body coiled in preparation to lunge.
Ugh, it’s definitely doing what I think it’s doing! I exclaimed with sudden urgency, gritting my teeth against the searing pain that erupted across my calf and shin as I blocked another swipe from the second herald rushing along the wall, the first abruptly leaping straight past me as it moved to attack the others. Realizing that our situation was rapidly deteriorating across multiple fronts, I forced myself to suck in a lungful of the corrupted air that Carver had spat forth to shout a warning for others, knowing that we only had seconds to react.
“We need to move!” I called out as loudly as I could manage, my throat burning more and more with every word I spoke. “The siegebreaker is coming in again right on top of us!”
Moving as I shouted, I pushed away from the wall to my right, dodging another claw from Carver as he continued to press his attack. Needing to buy some space from the man, I sent a Flameburst in his direction, the flames burning through the haze around us and sending them swirling. That had the side effect of clearing Abaddon’s vision, allowing the large lizardman to resume his attack, which, in turn, gave me the opportunity to twist and glance behind us, where Freya and the others were in hopes of finding an escape route. Unfortunately, those hopes were promptly dashed as I saw that not only were they still engaged with now a pair of dervishes in addition to the herald that had escaped me, but the ramparts past them were completely packed with more adventurers fighting against the invaders. Enough so that we would have little chance of forcing our way past them in time.
So that left us with only one option.
“Everybody off the ramparts! Jump if you have to!” I shouted as I turned back towards Carver and the other herald, only to see them beginning to turn to flee themselves, both either having heard my warning or sensed the massive creature readying itself to attack.
Oh no, you don’t! I thought with a scowl as they turned away from us, my immediate instinct being to thrust my free hand forward and throw a quick spell in their direction. One of you can just stay put right here.
Snapping into existence right as I finished my thought, I had just enough time to see a length of azure chain materialize between the pair right as I turned away, not daring to risk the time to watch which one of them it grabbed. Instead, I rushed to the edge of the ramparts and leapt off them and into the town below, following Abaddon’s trailing form down as he led the way ahead of me and sensing the others rush to follow. Managing to make the leap a second before I felt a dark shadow fall over me, I heard a loud crack of splintering wood echo out from behind, temporarily drowning out the sounds of battle. Throwing myself forward as I landed, I did my best to channel the energy of my fall into a somersault, rolling head over heels twice across the thankfully clear ground at the base of the palisade. Shedding my momentum quickly, I leapt back up to my feet the first instant that I was able to, my body twisting to look at what I already knew would be a horrific sight.
“Oh, fuck,” I cursed in a whisper the instant that the siegebreaker came into view, the massive war beast having done exactly what I’d feared and lunged forward with its open maw to take a gargantuan bite out of the palisade wall. Stunned by the sight, the next thing I knew was raid sense informing me of nearly a dozen deaths from the adventurers on the wall as the monster bit down even harder on the barrier, one of them, in particular, causing my heart to do a flip.
Damn, he got Helix! I realized, sensing the lizardman’s death among those who had been caught in the siegebreaker’s attack. Immediately fearing the worse, I searched for both Freya and Amaranth’s presence, relief coming to me quickly when I saw them rising to their feet a short distance away, having managed to escape in time. Phew, they’re both fine. Now, what are the odds that Carver was caught by my spell over the herald? It’d be great not to have to worry about him anymore.
But that fleeting thought was all that I was able to manage before my attention was stolen back by the siegebreaker as it began to pull on the wall, the already loud cacophony of splintering and cracking wood growing even louder. Staring onwards in horror, there was nothing for us to do but watch as the orc abomination’s powerful tug caused a large section of the palisade to abruptly give way, the damaged fortification having finally reached its limit. Peeling outward at first as the colossal war beast retreated a step with the wall in its maw, the siegebreaker then twisted its head, the savage motion tearing it away from the remainder of still-intact palisade with a loud splintering of wood. That then left the creature holding a two-dozen-foot-long length of wall in its jaws, which it continued to drag backward along with it, finally letting it fall free of its maw just when it was above the river. Falling flat with a loud clatter of breaking wood, the relatively still intact portion of wall then came to rest directly on top of the running channel of water, effectively forming a makeshift bridge that spanned the two sides on either side of it.
A bridge that the legion orcs in the distance immediately began to rush forward to.
“Oh no, the wall,” Freya whispered, the woman being the first to say anything at all as we stared at the newly formed breach in Aldford’s defenses. “Th-this is bad. Really, bad.”
“And it’s about to get worse! Look!” I exclaimed as a growing wave of spirits, shadows, and dervishes started to rush through the gap ahead of the oncoming orcs, the creatures having already been on the opposite side of the wall. “We need to go! Now! While we still have the time!"
Not needing any more prompting as the oncoming group of invaders charged towards us the four of us did the only thing that we could do in the situation that we found ourselves in.
We ran.
Chapter 70
Turning and fleeing before we could be overwhelmed by our attackers, we fled deeper into Aldford as fast as our feet could carry us. As we did, we sensed that we weren’t the only ones fleeing, several groups of defenders also abandoning the wall just behind us.
“We need to regroup with those we can!” Freya shouted as we ran. “As well as call fo
r reinforcements! If we can rally enough people, we can counterattack and try to stop the orcs at the breach before they all flood into the town!”
“That’s going to be hard to do with all of these creatures chasing us!” Abaddon shouted in response, the lizardman glancing over his shoulder as he spoke. “As soon as we slow down, they will catch and swarm us! We will be bogged down immediately!”
“Then let me split a chunk of them off!” I suggested as I took my own look at the trailing train of monsters behind us. “Amaranth and I can get their attention and let them chase us through the town. It should hopefully buy you both some time to rally everyone!”
“Shit, are you sure, Lyr?” Freya replied. “There are a lot of them!”
“You’re not wrong, but I don’t see anything else we can do!” I said as I reached into my belt pocket to check just how many vials I had left, a quick search telling me that I only had a pair of mana potions remaining. “If we don’t get people moving to seal that breach, we’re done for! Go sort everyone out, and I’ll regroup with you all when I can!”
With that, Amaranth and I abruptly broke away from the group and turned to face the wave of monsters chasing us, my heart fluttering when I realized just how many there were.
I asked Amaranth half-heartedly as we began a seemingly suicidal rush towards the group.
I replied, already having suspected that it would take something along those lines to garner their attention.
Glory to the Brave (Ascend Online Book 4) Page 91
