Chương 27: A fighting retreat

We're losing ground pretty steadily. It seems like every time I hit a skeleton, I take a step back. It also seems like every time I take one out, two come to take its place. I've already had to recast Shell once, and I'm not sure I'll get to the end of the cooldown before I need it again. I check on the others. El is down to about 600 hit points. Ashley is doing better, with close to 700, but Gigi has only about 500. Even still, hers is a larger percentage of her total health than El is.

I think El's total health is close to double what she's at. Actually, it looks like Gigi is at half health too. Her shield isn't helping as much as she'd probably like it to, and she's getting overrun. El at least can keep herself clear by swinging her axe back and forth, clearing a bit of breathing room for herself. I cast Healing Touch on Gigi, seeing her shoulders relax a little bit as I do. But in the time it took me to cast the spell, two skeletons have gotten past me and have engaged with Vinny.

He still has his sword, but he doesn't seem as competent with it as the rest of us. That makes sense. My sword skill is at sixteen. I imagine that Gigi's is higher, and that both El and Ashley have weapon skills around the same level. Vinny hasn't been practicing with his sword. He's been practicing mostly with magic. I wouldn't be surprised if his spellcraft skill was closer to twenty, but his sword can't be any higher than ten. Maybe not even that high.

I'm not sure he can take the two skeleton warriors at the same time. I move to help him, knowing that that means leaving the girls to fend for themselves, but I have to wait for the cooldown on Healing Touch anyway, so I'm not all that worried.

"Fall back!" I shout, moving back to help Vinny with his two skeleton warriors. I get a lucky swing and lop the head off one of them, then bash the other with the hilt of my sword. The hilt does 48 damage. More than the blade does. I need to keep that in mind. Fighting with the hilt of your sword is awkward and I probably won't be able to hit nearly as often if I use that as the main focus of my attacks, but it's good to make sure that I take the occasional opportunity to hit with my hilt when it presents itself.

And that I try to decapitate them more. That skeleton warrior went right down when I decapitated him. Everything dies when you cut off its head. I think. I hope. Anything that doesn't die when it's decapitated is automatically more dangerous and terrifying. Hopefully, I'll never run into anything like that.

"Try to take off their heads," I say to Vinny as I turn around to face the other skeletons, right in time to get stabbed in the stomach by another skeleton warrior. It's a nasty hit, and it does 28 points of damage. My Shell absorbs it, thankfully, but I don't think I can handle many more attacks like that. I can't keep track of how many hit points my Shell has left. I'll know it goes down when I start to feel the attacks.

The one that stabbed me bashes me with his shield, doing another five points of damage and making me stagger back a few steps, giving me the room to get my bearings before it can attack again. It tries to stab me a second time, and I swipe my sword around to knock its blade out of the way, then summon a ball of fire and throw it as hard as I can at the skeleton's face. It moves its head to the side and the ball flies harmlessly past it. That's why you don't always aim for the head.

It's too easy to dodge head shots. Aim for the body. So that's what I do. I swing my scimitar at the chest cavity, hoping to break a rib or three as I do. My sword gets tangled up in the ribs, and the creature steps forward and stabs me again, dealing 31 damage this time. Shell is still holding, but this is an untenable position for me. I punch the skeleton in the face, having no idea what good that will do, and use the momentum of it staggering back to try to pull my blade free.

I get free and slash at the leg as it hits me again, this time for 12 damage. We're moving steadily back towards the cars, where hopefully we'll be able to fight the skeletons just a few at a time. They aren't that hard to kill when we fight them one on one, not anymore. Which makes sense; I'm almost ten levels higher than they are. They should be easy to kill. But this many of them changes things. Numbers make a huge difference. It's been about thirty minutes since the battle started when we get to the cars.

I've used Shell three times, and have taken 31 damage to my health in the meantime, wanting to get every ounce of usefulness out of Shell that I possibly could, letting the damage pile up until it got through the spell before casting it again. I've lost count of how many skeleton warriors we've killed. It doesn't look like there are that many left, but I look up the hill towards the basilica and see that there is a line of more of them coming, spaced out apparently every thirty seconds.

We've been fighting thirty minutes, which means there are sixty more of them than there were when we first started fighting. This is going to be worth so much experience, assuming we survive. I use Healing Touch on El, and Vinny uses it on Ashley. I don't know how his MP is doing, but mine is down below half. I've got three more uses of the heal spell in me, and maybe one more use of Shell, but that's it. After that, I'll be relying on my own hit points to keep me alive.

Eventually, the swarm of skeletons slows down to a trickle. When they're coming at us one at a time, we start moving back towards them, the two girls with shields leading the way. El walks behind Ashley and Gigi, then I walk behind El and Vinny behind me. I've spent all my MP and my Shell is all but gone, but I don't think we're going to have any more trouble with these things. It's been a long battle, but it looks like we're on the winning side.

We're battered, we're beaten up, but I think we're going to be victorious. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. It really all comes down to how hard it is to kill the spawn point. Skeletal spawn point. Basic Legendary spawn point, level 15. HP: 3750/3750. Turns out, it's not that hard to kill at all. Not with five of us attacking it and everything it spawns as we hit it. You have destroyed skeletal spawn point. You gain (3750/5) 750 experience. That's good.

What do we get for the skeletons themselves? You have defeated Skeleton Warrior x130. You gain (65000/5) 13000 experience. You have gained a level. You are now level 20. You have 8 stat points to distribute. This is good. I'm almost at level 21, too. I put two points into agility, as usual. I decide to put three more into strength, just to qualify for that other class, and I put the other three points into willpower, matching it to my presence at 23. You have one talent point. Another talent.

This time, I'm going polyglot. It's too good to pass up. I don't even look at the list to see what else is possible. I may regret that, but I've decided what I want, and I'm going to stick with it. Better that than tempt fate. I mean, what if I found something else that I wanted more, and then when we get to the new world I can't understand what anyone is saying? That would suck.

And it's going to be a while before I get to level twenty five and get another talent, assuming I get one every five levels, which I have so far. There are other notifications I get as well. My bow increased to 18, my dodge to 16, my spellcraft to 12, and my sword to 18. Flame Ball increased to level 5, now dealing 400% of my awareness in damage. That's 80 damage, which is nothing to sneeze at.

Shell also increased in level, now giving me a buffer of 80% of my hit points, and Healing Touch increased to level 2, now healing 40% of their base hit points when I cast it. Once again, now that we've defeated the monsters, and regathered the arrows that I fired, it's time to find the spoils. And the spoils are going to to be inside the basilica, I'm almost certain. The basilica of St Mary is like any other church, but bigger.

I mean, don't get me wrong; it's beautiful and imposing and and all that good holy stuff, but it's not my religion. I don't feel any awe walking through the darkness among the pews, even with the big archways and the statues of Jesus and friends and all that. The stained glass windows are probably really pretty when there is light shining through them, but right now, it's just a darkened space. It feels big.

Maybe it's because of the torches that Ashley and Gigi are carrying, the light shed from those torches flickering over the pews and the sculpture work throughout, but it has a very cavernous feel. At the front of the church, where all the pews are pointing, there sits a treasure chest. And in front of that chest, wielding one of those pews as a club, is a giant. Giant. Elite uncommon monster, level 14. HP 1400/1400. I draw a Sniper Shot at the giant, shooting it for 281 damage.

With the bleed, that'll eventually do 560 damage. El throws a javelin at it, and Gigi shoots it with her own bow, while Vinny throws a spear of ice at it. I'm starting to worry that Ashley won't get time to attack it; we've reduced it by more than half with our first volley of attacks. But as I shoot again, this time only for 85 damage, Ashley charges forward into the range of the pew that the giant is swinging around, splintered wood flying through the air as it swings.

She stops short as the makeshift club slams into the marble floor in front of her, then darts forward again as the giant raises the club up for a second attack. I shoot the giant in the hand, hoping to make it drop the club, but I'm not sure another 80 damage is going to be enough to make it do that. It clearly stings, but not enough to make it drop the weapon, and the pew comes crashing down again, shattering to pieces off of Ashley's shield.

She somehow is not knocked across the room, and brings her mace across with a loud crack, shattering the giant's kneecap. The giant screams and starts to fall. As it does, Ashley whips her mace around and smashes the giant in the thigh, then in the chest, and finally in the head as it lands heavily among the other pews. The giant does not get back up. By my count, that means that Ashley did somewhere in the realm of 400 points of damage to the giant during that series of attacks.

Even if that took her all four of the blows, that's super impressive. You have defeated giant. You gain (1400/5) 280 experience. Not enough for a level. But again, it makes sense. One of these monsters from the tutorial period really isn't a threat for the five of us. Not anymore. I walk around the giant to where the treasure chest waits and pull out all of my lock picks. I'm not sure I have enough kits left to get this chest open.

It's another silver chest, which promises a lot of riches, but also promises a lot of difficulty to get it open. I may need stronger picks. I start looking around for any thin pieces of metal, figuring I can use one of them as a brace while I tickle the tumblers. I eventually find a few promising things that probably had religious significance, and set to the chest, ready to pick the lock open and get enough experience to level up again.

Without the piece of metal that I found, I'm sure I would've broken every one of my lock picks, and I'm not sure I would've gotten the chest open. So I'm not surprised that my scrounge goes up to 8. But it still takes me a good half an hour to get the chest open. Which also increases my pick lock to level 8. You have opened a silver chest! You gain 1000 XP. You find 25 gold. Footman Lance (recipe), chain mail gloves (recipe), studded leather armor (recipe). Scout bow. Magic staff. Spellbook: heal.

Spellbook: fire storm. Spellbook: Shell. Bracer of might, Steel cuirass. Scout Bow. Rare weapon 10/20. Damage: 34-42. +10% armor piercing. Magic staff. Rare weapon 8/20. Damage: 8-14+Spellcraft. I definitely want the scout bow, and give Gigi my Hunter's Bow so she has a better bow to be shooting with. Gigi also takes the steel cuirass, adding it to her armored sleeves to look like more of knight than she has the past several days.

El goes for the Shell spell, as well she should, and Vince claims the fire storm spell. Ashley takes the heal spell, and we of course split the gold five ways. I claim all three of the recipes, Gigi takes the bracer of might, and Vinny takes the magic staff. I don't think it will be worth using just yet, but it's a weapon that will grow with him. I kind of wish I had a weapon like that. Maybe I can make one eventually. We're about to head back to the sculpture garden, but I have to find something else to fight.

I'm less than one hundred points away from level twenty one, and I can taste the level. I need it.