Chapter 49: War II
Chapter 49: War II
/Hm, this world sure is intriguing. An intriguing one, to be certain, especially because there is no division between mean and monsters. Be it demons, dragons, angels, humans, mice, eagles, even bacteria or mosquitos, all of them follow the same system.
Especially these evolutionary "tiers". Humans as tier 3 beings then? Interesting, yes. These tiers apparently also go into the negative, as mice seeming tier 0 and even insects share this system, and can, in fact, grow as strong as dragons with a lot of luck.
What a thought that is. A giant monster ant? Interesting, certainly. Could make for a good story, indeed, but this is not what I'm here for.
Right, I need to continue on my research. Apparently, in this world, there is much to explore. The flora is very unique, in that it can grow on some sort of essence called stamina from within itself, seemingly able to grow and regenerate even without photosynthesis, though this depends on the plant.
Some flora and fauna also appears completely independent from sustenance, able to exist purely by converting this "stamina" and "mana" into life force.
My own values have also been categorized as soon as I stepped foot here, and it would appear that this system is less one to follow, and more something that documents your progress. Curiously, the ability to simply increase one's power seems much more intrinsically linked to the world itself.
However, the system allows for great degrees of customization, where one can rearrange their "status" page, as it calls it, in whatever way they want, even to the point of showing other valuables than just Hp, Mp, and Sp. Somewhere on this world, it is said people also use Qi, another constant valuable in many worlds.
This is certainly an interesting place, and I believe I may stay here for quite a while. I shall be reporting back in a few pages, local time./
A report back to base by a worldwalker.
- - - - - -
Iris clearly saw Avery getting shot. She was a little surprised seeing the man fight. There was no elegance in his moves, no fancy footwork, none of the dancing many martial arts presented. Instead, his every step seemed to be optimized for... simply dealing damage.
It wasn't a dance of war, it was a crude, brutal fighting style, crushing bones and skulls. Clearly, it was developed not from training from elusive masters, but instead straight on the battlefield. Against... monsters, it seemed.
Regardless, for now she needed to focus. She had seen his gaze, the look in his eyes. She had seen his hunger first, but his message she had also read. Iris knew he needed her to take care of whoever was firing those arrows.
The attendant shot a quick glance back at her lady, safely on the wall, far away from the front and made up her mind. She took a moment to reload her crossbow and flintlock, before dashing away from the tree she was hiding on, and rushing deeper into the woods.
The archer she was looking for was clearly strong. Those arrows were fast, and if Avery were an ordinary soldier, they should have sunken deep into his flesh. Also, the shooter was moving, clearly. She had seen where the arrows came from, and it had been two very different directions.
So, instead, she would have to keep on lookout for any shots near her. Iris didn't like wasting stamina, but if Avery were overwhelmed because of this factor, it would cause her much trouble.
<Detection>!!
Iris felt a pulse of strength resonate out from her heart and rush through the leaves all around her. Then, the echo bounced back, and almost like a sonar, she became aware of all shapes near her.
But her Skill was quite evolved, so it even transmitted heat signals, yet she found nothing in the area. Further into the woods it was.
Once more Iris cast <Detection>, only to flinch and instantly make a small leap to the side.
With a hissing sound, the arrow blew closely by her face, cutting some hair out of her ponytail. Shit, she'd been spotted.
Iris' eyes hardened at this, as whoever had shot at her, she still couldn't sense them through her <Detection>. She clenched her jaw for a moment, before leaping off the tree into the undergrowth, dampening her fall with a roll, as another arrow impacted the bark just a little above her.
Without hesitation, she began to sprint, using her evolved form of <Dash> to cover as much distance as possible. First, she ran to her right, up north, only to quickly turn, making a few curves around the trees to hopefully shake the sharpshooter's aim. Whoever it was, they were good.
She had a few suspects in mind, simply off the leaderboards, which narrowed down their scope of abilities just a smidge, but she still didn't like this. But with her having moved another hundred metres closer, Iris activated <Detection> again, and finally, she caught a small heat signal, hidden in the bushes southwest.
Immediately, she dashed forward, drawing her shortsword and activating <Heightened Perception>, just as the bells from <Combat Sense> rang out.
After a tiny moment, time slowed down a little, and she could hear the now low hissing of the arrow coming closer to her, driving itself through the forest at insane speeds. Iris squinted to keep her eyes safe from the wind and focus them, until she could see the slight ripple in the air, just a tiny bit ahead of a sharp metal tip.
As she felt her stamina draining, Iris slashed out, hitting the tip of the arrow and deflecting it away. She disactivated <Heightened Senses>, only to bring it back up less than a second later, when her alarm bells rang once again.
This was a war. She needed <Combat Sense>, but <Heightened Perception> was just too costly to keep permanently active. Instead, she activated it in short bursts, when things flew close to her.
Moving with supernatural accuracy, she deflected another arrow, this one heading straight for her left eye, before doing a spinning jump out of another's way. Then, with another burst of <Detection>, she knew that the archer had moved.
Little rat. It was hard enough deflecting the arrows, not to mention keeping track of their trajectory, and then apparently there were crossbow traps set up to make her question where the shooter was. She could tell though, the bolts were much slower. Those she could dodge with her whole body, meanwhile with the arrows, she barely had time to deflect them.
But she was still clearly closer, and with one final burst of speed, she broke through the last bit of shrubbery to come face-to-face with the shooter.
Ah, the "northern sharpshooter", with an infamy of 532. Gortur Arroweater. Apparently, he once was shot in the face and stopped the attack just by biting down on it very, very hard.
"Ah, feck, ye got me, eh?" the man said with a grin on his face. Short green hair, beard stubbles, and a few wrinkles. Maybe mid 30s. Only armed with a bow, wearing camouflage for a forest, leaves and all on his back.
Iris was in no mood to talk, and seeing that he only carried a bow, she decided to engage carefully. He could still be hiding something in his inventory, after all.
But when she took a step forward, the alarm bells in her head rung loudly, and even when she activated heightened perception, she knew that the bolt was too close.
She had stepped on a tripwire, firing a crossbow bolt from concealment right at her face. And for a few moments, she could see Gortur talking.
"Well, lass, nice knowing ya. Shoulda seen thet 'on coming, 'eh? Bu' I really gotta get back ta' business, noting personel. See-"
Before he could finish, there was a flash of light, passing right by Iris' head, smashing the crossbow bolt into smithereens.
Iris knew who this was, and she had to give a smile. Hitting a small target at maybe 900 metres. It must have taken quite a bit out of her lady, but it was certainly worth it. She wouldn't waste this chance.
Instantly, Iris used <Detection>, keeping her <Heightened Perception> active. She made mental notes of all the tripwires before Gortur could even turn around, and then made a mad dash for the bowslinger.
Gortur could only swear under his breath as he pulled out a long dagger from his inventory. Poisoned, Iris noted, just like her own sword was.
"Oi, lass let's reconsider this, eh?" He asked hastily, parrying a swing or two from her, but she had the overwhelming advantage here.
Her attacks worked best when she had the drop on someone, but when it came to a simple one-on-one, she was confident she could hold her won against most opponents. After three clashes of swords, Iris managed to kick out, landing a solid hit on Gortur's thigh, as he at least got his crotch out of the way.
The man yelped in pain, but Iris was relentless. When he raised his hand for another swing, she parried it with one hand, and quickly drew her crossbow with the other, going for a shot in the chest, to make sure he coudn't avoid it.
Gortur wore armor, but since he was a bowman, it was rather light, and her bolt pierced through it, digging itself deep into his flesh, and lodging itself between two ribs of his. Possibly puncturing his lungs, too.
The bowslinger started to cough up blood at this for just a moment. "Ya got me good," he wheezed. "But not good enough."
And with that, he also drew a loaded crossbow from his inventory, and at this range, Iris's chance of dodging were slim. Instead, she decided to kick the weapon out of Gortur's hands, in retaliation to which he cursed, but also landed a nasty cut with his dagger on her calf.
She sharply sucked in some air, but quickly ended things with a stab in his face.
Her eyes were cold as she checked his dagger. Looked like crazroot poison, so she would be limping if she didn't manage to get it out quickly.
Iris drew in some air sharply, pulling out a small medicine satchel and looking around it for a minute, before she found some herbs. She quickly mixed some klomp powder with ridroot juice, before adding some finely cut lark needles.
As Iris smeared the mixture onto her leg, she quickly also swallowed some ridroot syrup, some of the more pure stuff, and even then she grit her teeth hard. The burn from lark needles was always incredibly unpleasant, but after a good thirty seconds it got a bit better and Iris huffed out some harsh breaths.
"Hugh! Argh, hah, hah... Fuck. Damn bastard," she grunted out to herself, before quickly bandaging her calf and raising to her feet. The whole chase had lasted three minutes or so, and she was quite sure Avery might be in trouble by now, so Iris immediately started hurrying back.
She had apparently been worrying for a reason, as when she came back after another few seconds, Avery was surrounded and covered with quite a few injuries. Small scratches on his face and hands, and one deep gash on his thigh, that kept on pulsing with blood.
Without hesitation, Iris plunged herself into the thick of it, now that she had the drop on things quickly incapacitating people with throwing knives, before smashing their cervical cords with the weight, or slashing their throats with her sickle.
Avery himself gave her a big smile, as he pumped himself up, jumping into the sky to drink another potion. His veins bulged under his skin, and the steam around him grew quite a bit denser as he exhaled a white mist.
"Alright, motherfuckers. Time for some ass-kicking!"
And only a moment later, a thick wave of <Bloodlust> echoed out from Avery over many of the people close to him, and within only a moment of hesitation, he had dealt out three high kicks, smashing in visors and faces alike.
Iris thought that she would rather not be on the receiving end of those kicks, but luckily, the man was on her side. And so, with the cover that she got from guild master Beckham, and the now more frequent shots from her lady, Iris was quite confident plunging herself further into the fray.
After another minute, she also had a few cuts on her, when she had been a little slow, and after a second minute, her movements were growing slow. Avery's potion was also wearing off, and while the man was smiling, she could hear his panting.
Time of battle: 9 minutes. Casualties: 160
Both of them were growing sluggish, but the time the needed to stall for was running slow, and with a look between the two, they slowly started to retreat. Some soldiers attempted to block their path, but burning arrows of light quickly struck them down.
Avery shook his head at this. Seriously, the firepower of that bow was fucking nuts.
He still didn't dare to turn his back and run, but the further they got into the cleared fields, the more support they had. The entire enemy army was now pursuing them, but it seemed some of the archers had gotten their shit together by now, and even captain Rondo himself was pitching in, nocking what looked like small tree trunks onto a bow that was as long as the giant was tall.
Avery smiled to himself. Rondo was a little old, but he certainly hadn't lost hi- hey that arrow almost hit him?!! Was that old man fucking serious?!?
Still, after a little while, the retreat went smoothly, and after 11 minutes, Avery and Iris were back at the gates, and the two armies had entered a shootout.
Northerners, cowering behind their shields and shooting volley after volley, while arrows hailed down on them in waves.
But they didn't have no one with shots strong enough to burn through steel, meanwhile, they had Lucia.
This was where the head priestess truly shined. While the army slowly advanced, pushing up even a battering ram, Lucia made sure to shoot large holes into their defense, messing up their formation.
Every arrow of fire she nocked, another soldier fell, all of them cleanly pierced through as even some of the grass on the ground was lit aflame by her.
Avery and Iris were taking a short break to regain their stamina, both of them eating some rations and splashing the minimum required healing potions onto their wounds. It didn't heal them fully, but at least this way the pain wouldn't distract them enough to make a difference.
It was only a short break, maybe 5 minutes, until the ram was at the city gates, and with loud thumps, the entire construct shook.
"Hey, Rondo, how long is the gate holding?" Avery asked in between bites.
"Hmpf, maybe two minutes. They're swinging that thing with quite some force, but their windup is horrible."
"Better for us," Iris quickly added, "we should ambush them while we have the chance."
"Sure, you know who or where their general is?" Avery asked.
"Well, no-"
"Then who do you wanna ambush? Any targets?"
"The carriers of that thing, obviously!!" Iris raised her voice a little, only to have Avery respond with a smile.
"You're right, then. Let's show these fuckers what we're made of, boys!!"
And with that, from on the wall, a roar suddenly blew out.
"HU!"
And with it, a hundred spears, staffs, scabbards and bows hit the wall.
"FOR GLORY!" Avery shouted, raising himself up to his full height as he chugged another healing potion, before throwing the glass to the floor.
"WE SEEK IT!!" came the thundering reply, a hundred or so voices, and perhaps there was even a meow among them.
And for a moment, Avery shot a wild smile to Iris. "Looks like it's time we bring the fight to them again, eh? Keep a look out for high profile targets, we got these scrubs under control."
"WE SEEEEEEEK!!!"
And with that, a hundred sets of feet rushed down the walls, a few people even jumping off them. Archers nocked their bows, and with beams of light, their arrows pierced heads and chests.
Gunslingers aimed and pulled the trigger, their mana-coated ammunition smashing through protective gear, and some of it even exploding on impact, or, in a few gruesome cases, inside someone.
And then, their magicians began to rain down fire and ice, of course with the assistance of the mage's guild, and in a moment, the battlefield became a hailstorm. Soldiers jumped out of the way of sudden balls of flame, and some were knocked around by heavy gusts of wind. There were icicles and stones raining down, and a few moments later, the city guard truly activated their heavy machinery.
The ballistae rained fire down on the army, creating craters in the earth, as Rondo's laugh thundered forth.
"Let them come then!" he yelled. "Let them see what storms this city braves!"
"OOOOOHHHHHH!!!!"
And amongst all the chaos, there was a single mopaaw, heading down the staircase among his comrades in arms. He wore no heavy armor, and not too much special equipment, only a ring on his leg, and a cloak on his back, Mercury Rainfall Starlight was walking into his first large-scale battle.
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