Chương 68: Chapter 69: We were supposed to retreat

I quickly pull my armor out of my bag and start putting it back on, listening to the sounds of the battle. I don't want to get involved if they're smart enough to run after my message, but I also don't want to leave them hanging if they decide to keep fighting or if they somehow can't get away. It only takes me about a minute to get my armor on, and I pull out my bow and start making my way around to the front gate, where the others should be attacking.

I have no MP, which means I have my current, fully charged Shell and nothing else to protect me. So I have to be at least somewhat careful. There's no waiting five minutes and casting it again. I move around until I can see my friends, and then I use Sniper Shot on one of the orcs. To my surprise, it kills the orc almost immediately. I use Rapid Shot to kill another, then begin shooting more generally into the group. As soon as the cooldown is over, I use Sniper Shot again. Again, I kill with a single shot.

Am I just kill stealing from the group, or are they all weakened enough that we can actually do this? I look at Ash and Gigi, to see where their health bars are at. They're both sitting at around three thousand hit points. That's still a lot, but it means they've lost a significant amount. El's Shell is down, but she's still above 5500 health, so she has more now than the rest of us have at maximum. The fight is going well, and there are a lot of orc corpses, but I don't know if we can do this.

We really should retreat. I've got what we came for. The orcs suddenly pull back into the fortress, and the major steps out with his glaive. It's like a huge sword on a huge spear, and he swings it with deadly efficiency. He steps forward and swings wide, somehow engaging all three girls at the same time. And I notice that the other orcs are regrouping behind him, spears coming out as they get ready to use the same level of tactics that they used against the bears against this small group of adventurers.

Apparently, they've figured out that it's just one small group, and we're only attacking one of the gates. That means they can focus their attention on us. That means the captains will be coming out to join the fight soon. It means we're going to be fighting a battle that isn't what we planned.

"Back!" Ash yells, slamming her shield against the glaive, forced back a few steps.

"El! Withdraw!" El doesn't seem to be hearing any of it. She chops at the orc major, sinking both of her axes into his meaty hide. He's about a foot taller than her, and he swats her away with the butt of his glaive, hitting her right across the temple. Probably rung her bell a bit. Hopefully, enough for her to be able to hear Ash's orders. Gigi grabs El with her shield hand, shaking her and pushing her back. El has a hard time running away, even from a battle she doesn't think she can win.

But she clearly thinks she can win this one, so she snarls and pulls her arm out of Gigi's grip. This is bad. Unlike El, I don't think we can win this. The orcs are wounded, but the wounds aren't that bad on the captains and the major. Those guys have hit points to spare. El doesn't. I mean, she's got a lot of them, almost as many as an orc lieutenant. But there are ten of those, three captains who still have more than eight thousand hit points, and one orc major who still has more than twenty thousand.

I don't know if we can make it through this fight without at least someone dying. If we leave her, it'll be El. But if we don't, it might be all of us. I take a breath, then fire a Sniper Shot at the major. I don't get a flanking bonus, but it's almost a thousand damage even before bleed, so I'll take what I can get. Maybe we can kill him if we all focus our fire. Then the rest of them will go down more easily. I have no more magic to spend, and only two bow abilities that help me deal more damage.

I could try Trick Shot to get the glaive out of the orc major's hands. Maybe that will work. But he's got a tight grip on it, with both hands, and I don't think something that does zero damage is going to be able to get it loose. Better to use Rapid Shot while I wait for Sniper Shot to cool down. Gigi steps forward and slashes at the orc major's arm, trying to wound it enough that the major won't be able to swing the glaive as effectively.

While she attacks in one direction, Ash hits the other arm with her glowing mace, trying to break the bone. And El just keeps slashing with her axes, not seeming to care about the consequences. Some spears poke past the orc major, stabbing into her, but they can't seem to get much of a purchase, like her skin is harder than wood, even where she doesn't have armor covering it. She grimaces in pain at the pokes from the spears, but it doesn't slow her whirling attacks on the orc major.

I fire another Sniper Shot and look carefully at the orc major. He's down below half health, and doesn't look as confident as he once did. Every time one of my arrows or one of Vincent's ice spears slams into him, he looks a little bit less confident. Then he turns the glaive over in his hand and slams the blade down on El's shoulder, like he's going to cut through her collarbone. There's a loud crack, and El screams in pain, but the blade doesn't go more than in inch or two into her flesh.

Even still, I see that the wound did a fuck load of damage to El. She's down below four thousand, meaning that one hit did almost fifteen hundred damage. I hope that's not something that the major can do often. Or again at all. The other orcs swarm around the major, trying to take on Gigi and Ash so that the major can focus all his concentration on El. The spear wielders go to the girls with the shields, keeping them from attacking as easily because they have to constantly be on guard for the stab of a spear.

I could go back to the orcs and take them out quickly. Maybe taking out minions is smarter than pounding on the boss. But I can't leave El alone to fight the major. She's a higher level than he is, but that doesn't mean he isn't going to get her on the ropes now that it's just the two of them. He has much longer reach with his weapon than she does with hers, and he's just proven that he can do a lot of damage with it. I don't want El to die, even if she is screwing up our plan to hit and run.

I'll keep fighting by her side until she dies. Then maybe we'll try to retreat again. But until then, or until she breaks and runs herself, I'm going to keep shooting at the major. I fire a Rapid Shot into his chest. He swipes the glaive down his chest, chopping the arrows in half and leaving most of the shafts still sticking out of his body. It gives him a bit more maneuverability, I think, but mostly I'm just annoyed that he destroyed five arrows.

That's five arrows I'm not going to be able to recover after this battle. Assuming I'm going to be able to recover anything after this battle, I mean. The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. I keep shooting, even when I just do 260 or so damage with each shot. Vincent and I keep shooting him, distracting him from his battle with El, helping her do well. Her hit points are still going down, though not as fast as Gigi's.

"Pull back!" I yell, trying to get through to El. I don't have the mana points to cast any healing spells on anyone. Gigi pushes an orc back with her shield, then casts a spell and heals herself. That makes me feel a little bit better, and pulls her pretty far away from death. But I'd still rather we run away if at all possible. Looking at the orc major, he's still got about fifteen thousand hit points, even after I hit him with another Rapid shot. It's a good thing I got the arrows from their supply cart.

I'm pretty sure I've run through all my original arrows and have dipped heavily into their arrow reserves. El's health has dropped below half, but the major is still above ten thousand. He's bleeding, but it isn't doing enough. We need to get out of here. We need to retreat. And El isn't listening. I see Ash cast a healing spell on herself, and she keeps smashing against the orcs as they come out. They aren't getting overwhelmed, but that might not last for much longer.

The two captains will arrive any second now, and that will probably change the ebb and flow of the battle. I have to do something. There's a chance that we'll be victorious, but I have my doubts. Even after healing, Ash's health is just barely above half. Gigi is doing a little bit better, with still about three thousand hit points after her heal. And El is down to about twenty five hundred. Their health is ridiculous.

El's base health is almost six thousand at this point, and she clearly isn't taking damage at a normal rate anyway. The fact that these orcs and even orc lieutenants barely have more hit points than she does is a bit on the ridiculous side of things. But no matter how many hit points she has, they are draining away. And I don't think the 260 damage that I keep doing is going to be enough to make the difference between her and the major.

On the other hand, maybe we could take out the major and that would be enough for El to be able to withdraw, because she wouldn't be running from anyone or whatever it is that's stopping her from drawing back. Vincent stops casting spells, needing some time for his mana to recover. I keep using Rapid Shot every minute, getting in another ten shots during the minute of cooldown. El's health drops down to one thousand about the same time that the major's health drops to five thousand.

The Rapid Fire does almost fifteen hundred damage even before it bleeds. The five arrows land in his thigh, and slow him down enough that El gets a double chop down on his arm, chopping deeply into muscle and bone. I shoot him again, she chops him again, and he finally goes down, a veritable pin cushion of crushed and shattered arrows. I rush forward and grab El, trying to snap her out of this. We killed the major, but the captains are both here, and they're going to push the other girls back soon. We need to run.

"El!" I shout, shaking her back and forth. She turns to me with a wild look in her eyes, but it fades quickly when she recognizes me.

"What?" she asks.

"We have to pull back!" I say.

"You're hurt. Look at your hit points."

"I'll be fine," she says.

"Let me recast Shell." Her health doesn't increase at all, but I see the subtle signs of the spell traced all over her.

"Come on!" she says, nudging me with an elbow. We were really supposed to pull back. But if she has another six thousand hit points she can rely on, I understand why she doesn't want to. Damn it, this is dangerous. I charge forward, coming blade to blade with one of the two captains that I saw earlier. He's wounded, but not by much, and he takes a wicked swing that's meant to take my head from my shoulders in a single swipe. I duck under it, stabbing under his arm for 230 damage.

He crosses back with his sword and hits me for 72. I can keep this up until he dies, I think. But I don't know how much use I'll be in dealing with the others. I can't keep track of how many orcs have died; I can only barely afford to check the health bars over my friends, and that's just because they appear in my HUD as part of my party. I hear Vincent casting a spell behind me, and taking his time to do so.

Sure enough, it's the fireball again, and he sends it over all of our shoulders and into the crowd of orcs still trying to get out of the fortress. We're a little bit too close for them to be able to shoot down at us without hitting their own side, so they're basically trying to overwhelm us. But Gigi and Ash aren't backing down, and El is just pushing further in. We're scattered among them, and the battle field is absolute chaos.

The perfect position for us, and the perfect time to fire a spell that does hundreds of damage to everyone in the area. I don't know if we're immune to it because we're in his party or if he just aimed it well enough to avoid us, but I don't feel more than a rush of heat from the fireball.

"Sorry, we were really supposed to pull back," I say to the captain as our swords clash again. He pushes back at me, and I manage to hold my ground, pushing him back with equal force. That doesn't usually happen. Usually, I'm not as strong as the monsters I fight. But I do have four levels and god knows how many extra stat points on this guy. And I've been putting points into strength. Bulking myself up a little bit.

"You will all die!" The orc captain says. He's apparently not one for witty repartee. Maybe I'll try one more time.

"Do you think your patrol will come back and reinforce you?" I ask him, slashing across his chest for another 232 damage.

"Because we took them out before we came."

"You? You weaklings ambushed our patrol!"

"Seems unfair to call us weaklings," I say, cutting a gash across his shoulder.

"Seeing as we're winning. I think."

"You'll all die!" he says again. Okay. I'll focus on just fighting him. He hits me for another 73 damage. I kick him back for 8 damage, then slash at him as he tries to come back in, doing another 234. I do a Bleeding Strike for 304 damage. He's got a lot of hit points, but they're going steadily downwards. He's hitting me about once every three times I hit him. He has about four times as many hit points as I do. If we were hitting each other for the same amount, I'd be in trouble. But we're not.

I'm hitting about three times as hard as he is. As we exchange blows, I see that Vincent is back to throwing spears of ice into the melee, nickel and dimeing away the health of the other orcs around us. This battle just keeps going, but it seems like he's recharged enough mana to be able to keep going without putting himself at too much risk. I understand why he isn't bothering to put too many points into vitality. He's got 40; that's probably good for a while. He'll hit twelve hundred hit points next level.

Twenty four if he takes toughness. How are the others doing? Ash casts her heal spell again, and is back up around three thousand hit points. Gigi is around the same. Hopefully she's got another heal spell in her. I can't tell how El is doing. She's only got about eight hundred hit points, but she's got her Shell up, and for all I know that's worth almost six thousand points. It probably is at this point, if she uses Shell as often as I do. It didn't take me more than a few days to max out that spell.

I do another Bleeding Strike and check to see how I'm doing. Looks like the captain has managed to do about 530 points of damage. My Shell still has thirteen hundred hit points. In that time, I've done almost five thousand points of damage to him. He's down below half, and I think he's starting to realize that this is not a winning fight.