Chương 31: Joining the Lines

Sir Aldhelm dropped his Art, then pointed his sword to the southeast. We would have to cross back over a different bend of the stream, and then we'd have to lead the orcs east—like I did with the boar in the Labyrinth—we were kiting them around the battlefield. Once we brought them far enough east, we could turn back and rejoin our main force—and then we'd only have to fight on one front.

"Stay in formation!" Shave shouted, then raced off after Aldhelm's horse. We returned to the banks of the stream and splashed through a shallow crossing, then kept sprinting. I glanced back as we ran up the banks of the other side. The orcs were following us, unconcerned about Slowbend. We'd caught their attention, and they weren't going to back down now. The orcs were fast, but we were faster.

We knew we couldn't let them catch up, because our backs were exposed and we would crumble quickly if we gave them a chance to hit us. Arrows streaked through the air, but the orc-made arrows weren't particularly good. They wobbled as they flew. One bounced off Elf's back, having lost most of its momentum at this distance.

"Be careful!" Sir Aldhelm shouted.

"The arrows are poison-tipped."

"How is Sir Aldhelm still alive?" I hissed to my squadmates softly.

"His Vitality is probably high enough to fight it off for a short while," Ticks said.

"Sorcerers can increase their Vitality without the system?"

"They don't have ratings like we do," Shave replied, panting as he ran.

"But yes, it's possible. Most sorcerers don't focus on Vitality, and he's going to need to see Hild after the battle no matter what!" So the moral of the story: don't get hit by an arrow, and don't assume that Sir Aldhelm could tank anything the orcs threw at him. We sprinted up to the top of a nearby hill, our boots churning dirt. Two Dupes had fallen behind, but there was nothing we could do for them as the orcs swarmed them.

One of the archer squads under Finger turned to face the orcs, but Finger shouted, "Wait! We have to lure them farther east, then circle around to get them on the right side of us before we fall back to the rest of the army!" The archers kept running. We waited on the hilltop until most of the orcs had reached us. One on the lead tried to jump forward, but a Dupe cut it down with an axe.

"Fall back east again!" Finger called.

"With me!" We followed a shallower slope down the back of the hill, until we'd travelled even farther east than the battle lines of the other squads, then circled back, and approached our own lines at a diagonal.

"Sarge!" Ticks shouted.

"It's not going to work!" We were running toward our lines, trying to fit into position, but we couldn't make it. The orc wave from due east was curling around the side of our main battle line, trying to break the formation, and a troll was blocking our way. By my best guess, the trolls were all Steel-tier. But I'd dealt with Steel tier foes in the Labyrinth, and that was before I had any resonance skills. I wasn't going to waste a point of Presence on a troll, though.

I moved to the front of our formation on Shave's request, ready to skewer the beast with my spear. We had to go quickly, or the second army of orcs that we were kiting around the battlefield were going to catch us from behind, and then we'd be trapped. Sprinting forward, I ducked under the troll's club, then rammed my spear up into its gut. Its flesh was thick and it resisted, like I was trying to pierce through leather, but it didn't hold me back for long.

Even if I didn't look like it, I had three Strength, and that was equivalent to the strongest mortal man. My spear pierced through, and the troll staggered back. It reached for me with a meaty hand, but I pulled back, drawing out a spurt of black blood from the beast's stomach. It tried to slam its hand down on top of me, but I was already gone. The troll was too tall for me to reach its neck as it was, but I circled around to the side and aimed at its knee.

A regular orc rushed in, trying to stab me, but Romance bashed it with his shield. I struck the back of the troll's knee, slicing its tendons and bringing it low, then jumped and pierced the back of its neck. It died before it hit the ground. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

"Merge with the rest of the army!" Aldhelm shouted, trampling an orc with his horse and taking another's head off with his warbrand. We scrambled forward, cutting through the flanking orcs, then joined the rest of the 294th. Shave shouted, "Romance, Elf, you're up front! Ticks and Levi, get behind with me!" Romance and Elf merged with the rest of the front lines, and I fell in behind them, wary of Ticks at my side. We were in a true battle, now.

Any moment, he could make good on his promise to Scar and knife me in the back. We fell into position right as the second wave of orcs crashed against our lines. I stabbed one in the eye, and Romance used his resonance skill to knock a swath of foes away. As far as I could see, my plan had worked. We only had to worry about one front now. Finger raced behind us, calling out orders and forming up the rest of the squads, and Commander Galliard trotted behind us, holding up a shield to block a volley of arrows.

"Glad you could make it! It was a good plan!"

"But now we have eight hundred orcs to deal with!" Aldhelm shouted. An arrow raced toward him, but he cut it out of the air with deadly precision.

"Cover me! I'll use my best Art to kill as many of them as I can at once! But it needs time to charge!" Aldhelm fell in behind us, and I sensed another wave of pressure rolling off him. His horse reared up. None of the horses had any armour—or barding, I suppose it was called—and they were more vulnerable than their riders. Still, Aldhelm protected his mount with a shield, even as the orcs targeted him. Galliard whistled to a different lieutenant, who called back a squad of Dupes to help shield Aldhelm.

Now, it was just a matter of waiting for Aldhelm's art to trigger. We had to hold the line.

"Aldhelm's [Silver Storm Wake] Art takes three minutes to charge!" Finger yelled.

"That's how long you have to hold the line!" A Dupe somewhere to my right, whose name I didn't know, fell backward with an arrow in his eye, screaming for a few seconds before falling still. Another bounced off my helmet with a clang, and I kept my head down, guarding my eyes as best I could. We pressed forward, filling the gaps in the line as best we could, and the orcs rammed themselves up against the shields of the front lines.

Elf struck with an axe, cleaving an orc's head in half, and Romance, though exhausted from his Presence use, kept himself alive with broad swipes of his sword.

"Almost there…" Shave intoned.

"Hold just a little longer…" I monitored Ticks. The longer this went on, the more wary I grew of him, but he was just as focused on killing orcs as any other Dupe. A squad of archers formed up behind us and fired a volley into the battle. Without my Focus, I wouldn't have seen where they landed. Or, more appropriately, I wouldn't have been able to split my attention. But they didn't land. A swell of black mist rose up from the orc army and blocked them, taking them out of the air before they could kill anything.

"Shave!" I shouted.

"There's something else out there! Something did something magical!"

"I've used my Presence!" Shave replied.

"Be more descriptive!"

"What orcs have magic?"

"Shamans and Black Captains!"

"There's something like that out there!" Ticks pointed out over the front lines.

"There! A shaman!"

"Can it block Aldhelm's Art?" I shouted.

"We can't wait and find out!" Lieutenant Finger called.

"Shave, pull our squad back," I said.

"Ours and a few others. We have to let the orcs through, enough to lure the shaman closer! Then we kill it!"

"A false break!" Shave said, nodding.

"Lieutenant, permission?"

"Do it!" Finger yelled. Our squad pulled back, and Finger commanded two others to do so as well. Orcs streamed through our battle line, racing toward us, trying to catch up to what they thought was a crumbling line. There was a distant shriek, something deeply unsettling, like it was speaking in two octaves at once. Orcs spilled forward, packing into the gap in our line. I went up on my tip-toes, leveraging the way my helmet enhanced my Perception.

Between the swinging weapons and spears, I spotted a staff with a soul crystal attached to its top. The very same type of crystal I'd rescued from the mud wraith. And it was inside our gap.

"It's in!" I yelled, and a few other shouts confirmed.

"Close the gap!" Finger yelled.

"Forward, men! Fight for your lives!" We'd exposed all the orcs' flanks, and now, they fell like dominos. I pushed forward, moving to the front of our strained and stretched line. A Dupe fell beside me, and it gave me more room to swing my spear. I pushed toward the shaman. We had to kill it before Aldhelm began his Art. The orcs thinned, exposing the shaman. A Dupe raced toward it, but the beast swung its staff. It swished through the air with a screech of trapped souls, and the impact sent the Dupe flying.

"It's a Steel!" someone shouted.

"And it's almost reached Titanium!" Like the mud wraith—the beast that had almost killed me. It could wreak havoc on our lines. But together, we might just stand a chance.

"Attack! Now!" I called.

"Together! If it lives, we'll all die!" Sir Aldhelm would only have one chance to use his Art. If it didn't work, we were done for. Besides, I had to test my resonance Skill on something living. We pushed, cleaving through the last of the lesser orcs, and revealing the shaman. It wore skins, and they were awfully human-skin-shaded. There was no fur on them—and I didn't want to know. A necklace with a human skull hung from around its neck, and it bared a mouthful of glistening red teeth.

Then it pointed its staff at me.