Chương 101: Hidden

We took out three more clusters of orc archers hiding behind their mantlets before things got dicey. The rest of the orcs picked up on us. Some adjusted their little wooden palisades to face us, exposing them to the Dupe archers hidden in the old farm. They picked off the orcs who turned, but not all did. I took a jagged, zig-zagging route across the battlefield, making it harder for the orcs to anticipate our movements, but requiring expert precision from our horses.

Their hooves kicked up tufts of dirt and grass, and admittedly, Burr was doing most of the heavy lifting. I still wasn't the most skilled rider, but my ability to shift my weight was doing wonders to help her make the tight turns. Brawl and his horse fell back to support Anchor, guarding him and Sage, and he blocked a volley with his shield. I could only use an Art to take out one mantlet at a time, and it wasn't perfect, especially when the orcs were Irons and tougher than regular men.

My Art may have been able to make a regular, untrained man black out, but it'd need to be stronger to take out an orc. I leaned forward, then cut to the side at the very end, holding my shield down over Burr's flank to catch a pair of arrows, before turning back and galloping through the cluster of sheltering orcs. I took out one with a spear thrust, and Burr trampled another. Brawl caught the rest with a swipe of his flail. By now, we'd made it a quarter of the way around the circle.

The orcs' lines were breaking, but it wasn't good enough. There were still enough archers keeping the farmhouse pinned down. But more orcs were rushing to meet us. They picked up spears and roughly carved shields, then rushed between their mantlets, moving from cover to cover, getting closer to us.

"Don't let them form a shield wall!" I yelled. Their regular shields meant nothing to Anchor. If he used an Art, his arrow pierced right through and killed them with ease. But they were grouping up too quickly, and we were still ten seconds away. I pulled my crossbow off my back, loaded a bolt (but I didn't have to worry about charging it—I'd already pulled the string back) then triggered my archery Skill and fired.

The bolt coursed forward, smashing through an orc's shield, before catching it in the chest and flinging it backward into a pair of two other orcs. Their formation tried to adjust around it, but we were already too close. I switched back to my spear just in time. We reached the disorganized orc line, then smashed through it. I tore down a mantlet with my Art, then continued on our original circle around the farmhouse.

With the formation scattering and their cover gone, it exposed them to fire from the Dupes sheltering in the house. We continued past the orc line, racing toward the next clump of archers. Then a bell rang in the distance, and something jingled. It was a chime, like a set of tiny bells ringing at once. I couldn't tell how close or far away it was—the sound came from all around. Then a beam of black energy swirled over the hill. A shaman attack. I reacted just fast enough to get my shield in position to block it.

Instead of letting it hit Burr's flank, I reached down, intercepting the bolt. The wood rotted and dissolved into mulch. A stench rose up from the wood, like decay, but with a deathly rot mixed in. The impact pushed my arm back, slamming it into Burr's muscles. My bones rattled, and below the shield, my sleeve of chainmail melted away into flakes of rust. Pain lanced below my skin, too. I gave it another glance. The arcane bolt had pierced my shield and armour, and was going for the skin below? How strong was it?

This couldn't have just been a Steel-tier shaman.

"Anchor!" I yelled.

"Did you see where that came from?"

"Are you alright?" Sage asked. I glanced down at my forearm. Steam rose from the wound, but it stopped spreading after leaving a black scar, a few inches long.

"I could use a heal if you've got one." But I tensed my fingers. I could still grip something if I had to.

"It can wait, if you have more critical wounds to tend to."

"It's up on the hill!" Anchor shouted, pointing at the opposite side of the farmhouse from where we'd first charged. A thirty second ride.

"Brawl, I need you in front!" I said.

"It's going to fire again, and I need you to take the hits!" This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"Yes, brother!" Brawl said with glee, holding up his shield.

"Sage, worry about keeping him alive," I said.

"I'll live for now."

"If it spreads…" she warned.

"It won't matter if that shaman kills us." As we circled the farmhouse, I glanced back at the wall facing the shaman. The creature had been using its dark Arts to tear down the farmhouse's wall, and it had fired off nearly fifty attacks, if I had to guess. They melted holes in the stone, but the wall wasn't gone yet.

"It has to be low on Presence!" I shouted.

"Now's the time!" I slowed slightly to let Brawl and his horse get ahead, then kept up the pace, following right behind him. Fifty Presence, which this shaman surely had, made it at least a Titanium-tier foe. Not a Silver. We rode straight for the shaman, avoiding the remaining orc archer positions. Only a few remained now, given that most had tried to form a line to stop us. As we drew closer, I picked out the shaman. It hid at the top of a hill, surrounded by bushes and trees.

Its staff, however, stuck out the top—adorned with a skull and a skin that was awfully human-shaded. Tiny bells hung off the tip of the staff, and when it pointed toward us, they chimed again. Another beam of rot flew toward us, but Brawl blocked it with his shield. It destroyed his shield as well, and left a deeper stain on his arm, but Sage used a healing Art to contain it.

"Anchor!" I shouted.

"I need you to fire an enhanced arrow at the tree beside the shaman's position." I couldn't tell exactly where the shaman was, and I doubted Anchor could either, but we could get it to expose itself. Anchor's arrow smashed through the trunk of the tree, creating an explosion of wooden shrapnel. Bark shards flew in all directions, and clumps of dirt and dust flew into the air. Screeching, the orc shaman jumped up, trying to flee its position.

It was a powerful ranged attacker, but like Anchor, if he was on his own, there wasn't much it could do against us. It realized this as it tried to flee—it turned around, holding its staff, and aiming it.

"Can you take another hit, Brawl?" I asked.

"I can, brother!"

"Sage, Anchor, don't let him die!" I called.

"I'll take out the shaman." It launched one last bolt, which caught Brawl in the chest. The impact flung him off his horse. His armour melted into iron and rusty dust, and the energy ate away at his chest muscles, but his Vitality was high enough to keep him alive, and Sage continued healing him. Anchor hung back, keeping his horse close. I rushed forward, following the shaman. Burr and I caught up in a matter of seconds, at which point I jumped off her back and thrust my spear forward.

I used my resonance Skill at the same time as a slightly angled but still downward gravity well, launching myself into the shaman. My spear pierced its back with ease, and it fell face-first into the ground, dead. I rolled out of the gravity well, then picked myself up. That was a Titanium? For a moment, I glanced down at my fingers. I curled them tight around the shaft of my spear. I was a Steel now, I'd gained attributes, and the shaman had been a ranged attacker. But something still felt off.

I searched the shaman's body. There wasn't anything too unusual, until the tip of my foot brushed a collar around its neck. A field of darkness swelled off it, like it was suppressing the shaman's aura. But we could deal with that once we'd figured out what was going on. I ran back to Burr, swung up onto the saddle, then trotted back to Brawl and the others.

"Is he alright?" I asked.

"Will he live?"

"He's fine," Sage replied.

"Once he coughs out the leftover rot from his lungs."

"Anchor, do you see any other massive threats?" I asked.

"Nothing up here," he replied.

"Pick off what you can from here, then. We'll hold this ground." I glanced back at the farmhouse.

"We should've cleared out enough of them to let the soldiers get free." Sure enough, the Dupes trapped inside the farmhouse were rallying. Some pushed toward the doorway, and others gathered their spears and equipment, then charged out the wall that the shaman had half disintegrated. They pushed forward, using their shields to shelter themselves from the sparse fire from the remaining orcs. They cleared out the orc positions one-by-one, suffering no losses.

A few tried to charge our position at the top of the hill, thinking we were an easy target, but Anchor picked them off before they could hit us. Within ten minutes, the rest of the hill was empty. Brawl vomited, then coughed a glob of black tar out of his lungs. Holding up his ruined chainmail, his face twisted into a dejected expression.

"Sorry about that," I told him.

"When we get back to Castle Urcia, we can use my scrap allowance to get you a new one."

"Perhaps it is a sign," Brawl said.

"The Pillar is telling me I need to improve my Vitality more, so that one day, I may be able to fight without a chainmail hauberk." I sighed, then patted him on the shoulder.

"One day. But not today." At the same time, a lieutenant who'd been leading the squads we saved rushed up the hill toward us, still armed, but relaxed.

"Lieutenant Finger?" I asked. My old lieutenant from the 294th. It was hard to tell, but he'd gotten his name from his missing middle finger on his left hand, and I doubted there were many other Dupes with an injury like that.

"I figured this was your work, Levi," Finger said.

"We owe you one."

"Thank the rider you sent out," I replied.

"Without him, we would've never found you." Finger paused, then narrowed his eyes.

"A rider? What rider? We sent out no one. The orcs pinned us down and trapped us. None of us got out—not until you arrived." I crossed my arms, trying to stay calm, but my heartbeat accellerated.

"We need to talk."