Chapter 39

Nobody has ever accused me of being smart. Tell the truth, I couldn’t find it in my heart to claim otherwise. Especially as the first rabid beasts started realizing that diner was ‘transportabling’ itself straight to them for free.

I leapt. That screwed up the plans for the few beasts who were readying themselves to take some nice, lovely bites out of me, and brought me straight into the milling ranks of the rest of the horde.

Animal communication is, apparently, a thing. Most species have some way of talking, whether audibly or through pheromones, manic twitching of the ears, or some other weird-ass ways. Some animals, like prairie dogs, have excellent communication and can describe complex details rapidly. Others, like wildebeest, are more known for the degree of their stupidity, and the way they’re able to forget what they’re doing mid-stampede.

The Ghastlings, praise whomever was watching out for me, resided somewhere on the ‘wuzzat?’ side of the spectrum. They were slow to catch up. I raced through their numbers to the growing sound of their roars as they slowly realized that; A: A target had just arrived and B: It was getting away!

Still, I was in trouble. The beasts were packed in tight, and I still had fifty meters to go, before I’d reach the precarious bridge leading up to the questionable safety of the walls.

Haddock’s voice rang out across the increasing fury of the roars and snarls. “Brace yourself!”

Brace myself? What did he…? Oh!

I barely noticed the new creation appearing on their side of the wall – another wall, this one tilted at the centre, and slanted at a steep angle toward me – when something else made its appearance.

A massive flood wave.

It appeared mid-air, thundering with supernatural power straight down onto the slanted wall, which redirected the entire wave straight at me. Me, and the surrounding numbers of the Ghastling horde.

I did as he shouted. I lowered my centre of gravity, hunkered down, even placed the tiny buckler ahead of me for all the good that would do. Then I braced for the tidal wave coming my way.

I nearly didn’t make it. Sure, I’d readied myself for the Flash Flood. Good thing, too. The massive wave carried enough momentum it would’ve swept me off my feet if I hadn’t been prepared. I was not prepared for the successive impact of several beasties who hadn’t managed the same level of footing before the wave hit.

The third Ghastling striking my left leg nearly carried me with it, its frantically snapping jaws clicking wildly inches from my leg. A hurried Deflect with my buckler slammed it back into the water, leaving me teetering awkwardly on one leg as the waves tried to carry me along.

My goal was in sight, though, and, as the wave hit its peak and slowly lessened, I grabbed my chance.

A few rapid steps had me hitting my stride. Then, I sped up even further. Moments later, I ran at full tilt, leaping onto the narrow bridge leading up to the walls.

The incline was tricky. It was a least a thirty degrees slope, the material was slickened with water, and it was barely wide enough for both of my feet next to each other.

I took it at a dead sprint, enjoying the fact that I had my Balance and Athletics skills on my side. The cacophony of snarls, yips and roars at my back made no secret of what would happen if I slowed down.

The first Ghastling didn’t even see me coming. That granted me a wonderful learning opportunity. My quirk didn’t allow me to attack anybody. Pushing, however? Absolutely on the table. Meaning, I could’ve actually pushed Cuilcis over the edge back then. You live and learn.

I tittered with satisfaction as the beast’s legs slid across the edge of the bridge. The look on its face as it tried to turn around to face me, pushing itself even farther away from safe footing, was downright hilarious.

There were two other beasts ahead of me on the bridge. The first one did manage to spot me. Only, it couldn’t turn around on the narrow bridge. Instead, it decided to try to claw me with its hind legs. Heh. Who could blame the poor thing? It wasn’t like it had any chance of knowing about Deflect. Watching it nearly flip over in the air and fall down on the ground was pretty hilarious, though.

The final beast, a Level 14 Ghastling, managed an impressively acrobatic stunt, leaping and performing a 180-degree turn in the air, leaving it ready for my charge. Unfortunately for it, the spear-wielder on the wall coldly took his spear and stabbed it right in the hindquarters. A second later, it was scrabbling for purchase before its claws scrabbled in the air in an impressive reimagining of Gollum’s volcano stunt.

I didn’t even slow down. Realizing that the bridge actually stopped a metre before the actual wall, I sped up for the final incline, then leapt onto the wall.

Haddock’s thick arm shot out, hanging onto me, and stopping me from stumbling down into the centre of their tiny castle. I hadn’t realized but, outside of the walkway running on top of the inside of the walls all around, as well as a waist-heigh protective battlements, there was nothing on the inside. Just a drop down to the ground some eight metres below.

I hung there for a second, cold sweat pouring down my neck as I realized I’d almost tossed myself head-first to the ground. Watching the trio stare at me wide-eyed, a huge grin plastered itself across my face. I croaked. “Somebody order take-away?”

Their shell-shocked looks didn’t last. The very pressing fact that the Ghastlings were getting over the effect of Nix’s wave helped us all focus on what was important. I took in the situation, and immediately took the space straight in front of the bridge, ridiculous buckler and swordbreaker in hand, prepared to fend off any Ghastling ready to leap at us.

“Are you serious? Liam? What the hell are you doing here?” Nix looked me up and down like she couldn’t believe I was there.

“What ticked you off? The handsome threads? The glorious bod?” I grinned, enjoying the look of a Ghastling falling off the slippery bridge unassisted.

“We thought you were dead.” Haddock said softly.

I snorted. “Well. Right back atcha. Good job on somehow making it out alive. Now, somebody, please tell me your plan and why you waved at me to come join you.”

Turns out there was no brilliant escape plan. Their frantic waving had simply been sheer desperation and a desire for somebody to come save them. The fact that it’d been another human, let alone this particular human, hadn’t clicked for them until I got there.

In fact, most of their acts so far today had been ones of sheer desperation.

Their third group member was Steve Campbell. A naturally bald, ridiculous handsome Canadian with a glorious beard, he’d been the one to keep them alive, having earned himself an invisibility talent that allowed him to hide others as well.

Except that was worth squat when the monsters had sufficiently impressive senses of smell and they were already trapped. His half-torn leather armor proved beyond a doubt who’d been taking the brunt of the Ghastling assault.

Having been sniffed out, and consequently attacked by increasing numbers of Ghastlings, they’d decided to create their Fortress of Desperation, along with the narrow bridge that would allow them to slowly whittle down the numbers of beasts.

“Except,” Nix sniffed, sounding personally affronted. “Those ugly things just keep on coming. And my hubby’s walls are going to fade away sooner rather than later. That, or the beasts will wise up to the fact that the walls can be torn apart by their attacks.”

A Ghastling leapt at me. I met it halfway, buckler meeting snarling teeth right in mid-air. The upper teeth of the psychotic mutant badger actually managed to ease their way above the shield, and its mouth was almost big enough to fit all the way around the buckler.

Deflect hit it first, throwing it back and into thin air.

Wave of Reflection struck it perfectly mid-air. A second later, a lifeless body slammed into the soil below, nearly braining one of its kin.

I rolled my shoulders, taking in their wide-eyed stares. “I guess we’ll have to come up with something fun.”

A few minutes, and one heated discussion later, I was slowly realizing that ‘fun’ wasn’t really on the menu.

Typical. They’d gone through all of this trouble to create the perfect setup for somebody like me. Limited access. Highly defensible position. No ranged attackers. Free shots at enemies, who were forced to come at us one after the other. Yet, the one damn time that I was in my element, we wouldn’t be able to keep it going continually, because the walls would fade away before anything else, and Haddock didn’t have enough mana for a new defensive structure. And I’d given away my last damn mana coins just a few hours ago! Goddammit!

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After the fifth Ghastling fell dead on the ground, I had to do a bit of internal math. I came around to the point that, okay, maybe this wasn’t going to be tenable for me in the long run either. Five stamina per Deflect. A minimum of fifteen stamina per activation of Wave of Reflection. Add to that however much energy I’d have to use on dodging, blocking, or parrying with my swordbreaker. On top of that, there was the fact that, apparently, the hazy energy around the claws of the Ghastling was frost magic, capable of both freezing you and biting into the material of my buckler. All things combined with the piddly excuse for a shield I was wielding, things were adding up to a rather uncomfortable realization.

“We’re going to have to have to flee. According to the locals, these beasts are pretty much endless, and they’re dumb enough to keep coming, regardless of how many of them fall.”

“That was the same conclusion we reached earlier.” The Canadian agreed. “But my invisibility is no good when we’re surrounded. Without that, we’re fresh out of luck.”

Twin paws tore at me from either side of my buckler. I contorted myself, but couldn’t entirely avoid the thin lines that tore into my arm. The Ghastling fell back where it came from, head bouncing off the bridge with a satisfying thud. Still, the satisfaction didn’t make up for the cold sensation spreading through my forearm.

I grimaced, as I reached the inevitable conclusion. “You guys are going to need a distraction.” Bracing myself for the next beast, I grinned. “Good thing it’s your lucky day. According to several different teachers, I am one of the worst distractions alive!”

According to Haddock, we had about twenty minutes worth of juice left in the walls, before they’d dissipate into nothingness. He’d already been low on mana before the combined flood attack he created with Nix, and now was running just short of empty.

I had them lay out all their skills for me, to see what we had to work with. Unfortunately, I wasn’t hearing anything useful at all. Sure, they’d managed to level well, but there just wasn’t anything truly useful there. Right up until Nix mentioned her latest talent.

Tier 3

Delayed Firebomb

Active Talent. You summon a fiery primer at a specific point within your range, as well as a timeframe. Once that time has passed, a firebomb will emerge from the point, erupting into a ten-meter radius