Luke led a group of almost a hundred people on horseback. The group rode forward nervously as they made their way to war. The orc they had allied with would also be going in on warg back, but they would be going in a separate group from his.
"Nervous?" Sam asked.
Luke shrugged.
"A part of me feels like I'm leading the Rohirrim to battle," Luke admitted.
Sam rolled her eyes at him.
"Once the explosions start, we're riding in."
Luke nodded as he gripped his spear. Issac had built him a dozen cheap iron-tipped spears for [Molten Lead Lance] to burn through.
Fortunately, he didn't need to wait long. There was a definitive boom. From his position, Luke could already see flames rising from the university.
"Alright, charge!!" Luke called out as he activated [Glorious Charge], his newest skill.
DING!!!
He had considered picking up a new [Heir to Theseus] skill, but this skill seemed more appropriate for this battle.
Urging Hope forward, his horse broke into a gallop as he charged up 182 St towards the university. Sam, Gareth, and Travis were right behind him on their own horses.
Almost immediately, they slammed into groups of milling goblins. Luke didn't stop; instead, he plowed right into the goblin horde. The small goblins were trampled under their hooves. The goblins' bodies' crack and splatter echoed in his mind as Luke ran them down. The university was on fire, smoke wafting up into the air like a pillar of destruction.
Luke's spearhead glowed cherry red as he stabbed any goblin that tried to resist their charge. Gareth looked like he was having fun as he decapitated goblins one after another. Travis and Sam were unleashing projectile attacks behind the three, aiming to remove any magic user as they pushed towards the parking lot.
"We're looking good," Sam said as she fired off an infused arrow into the goblin horde.
The arrow exploded on impact, killing a goblin shaman.
"Don't jinx it," Luke said, stabbing another goblin in the chest.
More roaring and crashing sounds erupted from the university proper, though Luke couldn't see through all of the rising smoke. Luke's arms never stopped moving—stab, swing, stab.
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Things seemed to be going relatively well, as the skill notifications started coming in as they slaughtered the goblins. Then, all of the goblin's blood rose up into the air. Hope bucked in fear as the blood floated up.
"Dammit." Luke cursed as he tried to keep the goblins off when the horses freaked out.
Tom and the Major had warned them about this, but the horses weren't handling the blood under their hooves flying through the air very well. Luke tried his best to send calming thoughts to Hope as he stabbed any goblin that came close.
Just as he was getting Hope under control, Luke felt the [Third Labour] scream in the back of his mind louder than ever before. Swinging his spear around, he clumsily deflected an axe just before it hit him in the head. Luke turned to find the orc, cleaving him in two.
The Bonesplitter clan was bogged down fighting a different clan of orcs as they poured into the parking lot. All of a sudden, the goblins disappeared, and Luke was face to face with an obese Orc trying to decapitate him with one of those Egyptian curved swords.
DING!!!
"Orcs Incoming!!!" Luke screamed as he deflected Caza's attack
Luke swung his spear around, stabbing Caza in the arm. But the moment he pulled his spear back, the wound healed over as if it wasn't there.
"What the hell?" Luke muttered.
Caza smiled.
"Be grateful, human. You will be among the first to fall to the Abyssal Clan," Caza cheered as he swung at him, his … Kopesh glowing blue.
"[Multi-Strike]"
Luke felt [Second Labour], [Third Labour], and [Fourth Labour] kicked into overdrive as he was forced to rapidly parry what felt like a dozen attacks all at once. Each attack threatened to chop his spear in half, and minor cuts built upon his body. Every attack sucked up a little of his mana and inflicted him with [Bleed] and a [Hemotoxin], causing him to bleed even more.
"Puny pink skin," Caza cheered as Luke bled like a stuck pig.
Luke shoved his spear forward, and Caza casually leaned out of the way of his attack before catching his spear under his arm.
"Fool, now I will have your ---"
Caza was cut off when his spearhead turned into a chunk of pressurized molten lead. Less than a second later, it exploded, throwing molten lead everywhere. Fortunately for Luke, Caza and his warg were between him and the explosion, saving him as his enemy was blasted with Molten Lead, and bits of superheated lead painted their backs. The warg under him dropped to the ground, and half of its body was devastated.
Caza screamed as he slammed into the concrete bits of molten lead burning into his back muscle tissue.
Luke chucked the ruined spear shaft to the ground, pulling a new one from his [Storage]. Moving on from Caza, Luke threw his new spear into a group of goblins who were trying to pin them down. An explosion of molten lead scattered them.
Despite that, the goblins kept attacking him. Their weak attacks bounced off both his and Hope's armour. Luke pulled out another spear out of his inventory and stabbed at them. Goblin blood spilled everywhere, and the smell of blood and ash started to overwhelm his sense of smell.
Luke felt lightheaded, and he suddenly realized his HP was at a measly 25%. Shit, all of those bleed debuffs were going to kill him!! That's when someone rode up next to Luke, patting him on the arm.
"[Lay on Hands], [Cleansing Hand]," The man said
Immediately, Luke felt all of the small cuts start to close up, and the Hemotoix and bleed debuffs disappeared. The man used [Lay on Hands] another two times to bring him back to almost 80% HP.
"Thanks," Luke said.
That's when the tides changed. The Bonesplitter clan broke away from the fight as some of his own people were unable to distinguish between the two clans and had fired on both. The Bonesplitter clan didn't seem angry, but they clearly were steering away from his people and leaving Luke's cavalry alone with the Abyssal clan.
Over a hundred orcs on their right and over a thousand goblins on their left. And Luke's people in the middle. Luke made a snap decision.
"We need to break out. Get ready to charge through the Orcs," Luke ordered, pushing Hope towards the Orc line.
Although the orcs were more dangerous, they couldn't charge the Goblins because they had their backs to the burning remains of the university. But that wasn't even the immediate problem. Through the smoke and dust, Luke could see that Abaddon and a massive blood bat were battling each other like kaiju. Running through the university was death. They would need to smash through the orcs, or they would be dead.
The others followed his lead, pushing their horses towards the reforming orc line. Hope started moving faster, charging towards the orc line. Luke switched from holding his spear like a spear to holding it like a Javelin and immediately activated [Molten Lead Lance], [First Labor], and [Sixth Labor].
His spear changed into an overgrown missile as all of the attacks he blocked and parried combined to make his attack on the overgrown monstrosity. Roaring, Luke launched his spear forward, and the missile shot forward faster than it had ever before. The orcs barely had time to react before his missile impacted the centre of the orc line.
It exploded with enough force to launch Orcs and Wargs a good twenty feet into the air. Molten lead was flung everywhere, burning their enemies and knocking many of them to the ground.
"[Glorious Charge]," Luke roared as he kicked Hope with his spear, edging her on.
Hope charged at full tilt into the now broken line of orcs. The orcs, for their part, were trying to reorganize the line. But they had made a critical mistake: The center of the line was too thin, and Luke's skill was built for this opportunity. Luke led the charge like the point of a spear, crashing through the orcs' line.
The riders behind him crashed into the broken orc line. The few orcs that had managed to get back into the line were trampled underfoot as they smashed out of the encirclement. Luke urged Hope to move even faster, getting him out in front of the other riders so he could see what was happening behind them.
Breaking the enclosure hadn't been as difficult as he had hoped. All they had really done was punch through a narrow opening. If you ignored the dead ones, Most of the orcs weren't even that badly injured, and they were already regrouping and moving to run them down.
Luke tisked. He didn't know what to do. He was pretty sure the horses could outrun the wargs over distance. But the wargs had more explosive speed. They could always turn around and attack the orcs again.
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But that wasn't even the immediate problem. Through the smoke and dust, Luke could see that Abaddon had disappeared, and the massive blood bat was grabbing at something flying through the air like a red version of King Kong.
Luke was just about to order another charge when a flying flamethrower ripped through the orc lines. Dozens of orcs were engulfed in flames as Ignis did a fly-by. Alex flew by on her broomstick, unleashing blasts of lighting seemingly at random.
"Everyone move South. We need to move away from the goblins," Luke ordered. He moved towards Alex as she flew down close to him.
"Alex, what's going on? I thought you were dealing with the [Bloodmage]?!" Luke asked.
"Seraphel got away from Starkiller. He took down Abaddon. We need to find and contain him." Alex said.
Just then, his [Third Labor] screamed at him again. Luke looked upwards just in time to see hundreds of ice-made arrows raining down on them.
Luke tried to defend himself with a spear, but it was a spear. Three arrows stabbed into his body from above, and Luke felt a deep cold seep into his body as the arrows impacted it.
"Fuck" Luke cursed.
"Goddammit!!" Alex swore as she flew back into the air, blasting anything and everything.
"Wait," Luke cried out.
But it was too late. Alex was gone. Luke plucked the arrows out of his body and cast his lesser heal spell.
The magic fizzled around him weakly, but Luke just gritted his teeth as he searched back and forth for the source of the arrows. [Second Labor], [Third Labor], and [Forth Labor] all came together to locate Seraphel. He hadn't even realized how many of his perks were based on helping him perceive the world until now. But now that they were, his eyes were almost magically drawn to the road. Luke's eyes narrowed as he found Seraphel in Ice blue armour with his bow drawn, his figure hazy as [Second Labor] had to push through some kind of sneak perk.
"Sam, I can see Seraphel," Luke said. "Take the cavalry and start pulling back."
"And what if you're just going to walk up to him and punch him?" Travis asked as she fired off another arrow. "You guys nearly lost to him earlier. Just call in Alex."
"There's no time," Luke grunted as he stabbed a goblin that was wandering closer. I'll do it myself if I have to."
"You think we're going to let you run off on your own and steal all the glory? Let's fuck him up," Sam painted.
"Yeah, what she said," Gareth called out. As he urged his own horse towards them.
Luke looked back at Sam.
"If you think I'm letting you guys run off on your own, you're insane," Travis said.
Luke immediately used his bloodline to talk to the rest of the group.
"Cavalry, fall back to Hopkins," Luke ordered as the five of them started to charge towards Seraphel.
"What is our plan of attack? Sam asked.
"Attack!" Luke said as he pulled a spear from his inventory and launched it at Seraphel.
The drow clearly wasn't expecting anyone to see him as Luke scored a hit, blasting him on his back.
"YES!" Luke cheered in jubilation, but no kill notification came.
Seraphel shot out of the smoking crater. Streaking across the university to one of the nearby buildings.
"After him," Gareth called out.
Sam and Travis opened fire after Seraphel, flames and arrows trailing after him as he raced into a building.
They raced after him, dismounting their horses and racing in after him. They ended up racing all the way up to the roof of the building.
Luke ran out onto the roof, his sword drawn. The first thing he noticed was a dichotomy. The ash overhead and the snow under his feet threatened to blind him.
Luke almost didn't see Seraphel standing on the roof. His bow raised, and an arrow had already been loosed. Luke's skills screamed at him as the arrow raced towards him, but he was too slow to react, and if he had been alone, Luke might have died. Fortunately, Gareth was still moving while Luke had been stunned. The man moved in front of him. His armoured arm raised as the arrow impacted with an echoing thunk.
"Gah," Gareth groaned out in pain as his left arm frosted over.
"Avoid the arrows!!" Luke ordered as he charged forward.
Sam Launched an arrow of her own. Seraphel didn't even bother to dodge; instead, he just casually leaned out of the way as he drew and fired another arrow directly at Sam. Luke raised his blade to try to deflect the arrow, but he was too slow. Sam didn't even get her arms up before the icicle impacted her throat. Sam didn't even get a chance to say anything before her entire head turned into a popsicle.
Luke swore as he closed the distance, bringing his sword around and striking at Seraphel. Luke's confidence chipped as Seraphel almost casually blocked his sword with his bow. Seraphel caught and parried his attack into the ground before slamming the bow into his stomach.
"Offf," Luke grunted as he knocked back.
He was still too slow. Luke activated [Rapid Water Steps], but this time, he spammed it, constantly using it to keep up with the drow. All of a sudden, he was racing forward like a stallion.
Gareth was right behind him, bringing his axe around. Seraphel dodged the axe and kicked Gareth away. Seraphel stashed away his bow in some kind of inventory. An icicle shot out of his armour, stabbing Gareth in the knee.
"Och," Gareth grumbled, not even bothering to remove the offending icicle as he pressed his attack.
Travis quickly joined in. His sword burst into flames as he swung for Seraphels head.
Seraphel drew two swords made out of ice from his armour as he went on the offensive. Even with all of his skills, Luke could do little more than defend himself as Seraphel turned into a whirlwind of frozen blades.
Gareths and Travis were quickly getting cut to bloody ribbons. Travis opened his mouth, and all of the ice around Serphel melted into mana and went down his gullet.
Seraphel lept backwards as he tried to reform his arms and armour. But he wasn't fast enough. Gareth's axe nicked his hip as he tried to leap over the blade.
Serphel stumbled but quickly regained himself, blocking Luke's follow-up attack before he ducked out of the way of a beam of pure magic that erupted from Travis's mouth.
Luke tried to swing at Seraphel, receiving a shallow cut across his stomach for his troubles. Luke cursed as he tried to block the follow-up attack. Except Seraphel didn't attack him. He feinted, and his blade aimed to bite into Gareth's neck. Gareth parried the blow, catching the frozen blade on his axe's handle as he kicked the Drow in the balls.
Luke and Travis didn't let the opportunity disappear. An [Elemental Strike] of Fire and Luke's [First Labor] crashed into Serphel's back. The drow was blasted across the roof, his armour nearly blown apart, his back a mess of blood and burned flesh. But then he didn't slow down. His armour reformed almost instantly as he turned to face them.
Travis [Blink Stepped] forwards, keeping up the pressure as he attacked Serephel with Luke right behind him.
Seraphel caught Travis's blade and, rolling with the attack, he threw the Lizardman off the Roof.
"NO!!" Luke called out as Travis sailed off the roof.
Seraphel turned to them, a creepy grin spreading across his face.
Luke and Gareth glanced at each other. They were both injured, Gareth more so. They already knew they had lost this fight. And the fact was, no one knew they were here. If they died and their bodies weren't picked up, that was it. Luke was scared. Part of him wished he hadn't sundered [Legacy of Misfortune].
"You can run away if you want, Luke. I know you're scared of dying. It's your first time. But don't worry; I've got this," Gareth said, huffing as he choked up on his axe.
Luke felt his eyebrow twitch as any thought of running vanished under his ego.
"You know," Luke began as he raised his sword. "The funny thing is, I know you're playing me."
Gareth grinned. "Can you give me an opening?"
"Yeah," Luke said. "Let's hurt this pale fucker"
Luke shot forwards [Rapid Water Steps], draining his mana pool as he kept his sword level with the ground. Gareths flew right behind him as Seraphel shot forward, stabbing forward with both blades as he intercepted Luke. This time, Luke let him. Dropping his sword, Luke allowed Seraphel to bury both his swords in his gut. Luke let out a strangled scream as he tried to grab Seraphel's wrists. But once again, he was too slow as Seraphel dropped his sword and tried to retreat.
Unfortunately for the drow, Gareths was already bringing his axe down. Seraphel twisted out of the way of the axe blow. Instead of Gareth splitting his head, the drow's right arm was cleaved off clean at the elbow.
"Fuck you!!" Luke gasped as he stumbled backwards, slumping to the ground, the ice swords melting into water, which allowed him to start bleeding out on the ground.
Gareth roared as he swung his axe around, aiming to finish the job. Seraphel parried Gareth's Axe with his left hand and then stabbed him through the heart with his right. Luke and Gareth both stared in stunned silence, looking between Seraphels amputated arm on the ground and the arm created out of pure ice that had appeared there to replace his lost one.
"Fool," Seraphel hissed as he viciously ripped his arm out of Gareth.
Seraphel's ice arm didn't have a fist; it was more like a spear point. But even that shifted and remoulded itself into a copy of the drow's hand. Seraphel walked over to his amputated arm, picked it up and stashed it in his inventory before he moved over to Luke. His steps were unhurried, almost lazy.
Luke tried to raise himself to his feet, but he couldn't because the pain radiating through his body was too much. He had failed.
"So this is how I die?" Luke asked, blood trickling down his lip as Seraphel stalked towards him.
"You know, it's funny. Now that I'm actually dying, I'm not afraid anymore." Luke chuckled, coughing up blood as he did. "I think Gareth was right. Sometimes, you just need to jump in head first and get it over with."
Luke's vision faded in and out of focus as Seraphel's pale face loomed over him. His blade of ice was slick with the blood of his friends. He watched as Travis quietly pulled himself back up onto the roof.
"Any last words?" Seraphel asked.
"Yippee kay ah," Luke said as he punched Seraphiel.
It wasn't a very impressive punch. It was weak and barely worth mentioning. Or it wouldn't have been if Luke hadn't just spent the last few minutes blocking so many attacks before returning the favour as [First & Sixth Labor] activated in tandem.
Luke smiled as Seraphels was launched with so much force that his chest caved in on impact. The drow was launched across the roof before he was impaled on Travis's flaming sword.
"That's for my friends," Luke whispered as darkness crept into his vision. "Travis, I leave the rest to you."
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<[Rapid Water Steps] has Reached Level 11>
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<[Rapid Water Steps] has Reached Level 19>
You may skip to the next chapter.
Base
Personal: +4 PER, +3 STR, +3 DEX, +2 CON, +2 CHA
Racial: +3 CON, +2 STR, +2 END, +2 SPIRIT, +2 CHA, +1 EGO
Bloodline: +5 STR, +5 INT
Level Bonus: +2 to all stats
Mini-Character List
Luke: The protagonist of the scene, leading the cavalry charge against goblins and orcs.
Sam: A close ally of Luke, engaging in ranged combat with infused arrows.
Gareth: A companion of Luke, enjoying the melee combat and decapitating goblins.
Travis: Another ally, aiding the group with projectile attacks.
Caza: A prominent enemy, an orc with the title "Faithful of Beelzebub," part of the Abyssal Clan.
Hope: Luke's horse
Seraphel: The Albino Drow
Abaddon: Involved in a massive fight with a blood bat, referenced indirectly as part of the chaotic battlefield.
AN:
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