386 days until the Arkon Shield falls

In short order, I covered the fifty yards to the section of palisade the murluk chieftain had been making for. I was pleased to see that the commander had done as I asked and pulled back the nearby spearmen.

There was also no sign of disorder amongst the waiting defenders. Jolin must have moved swiftly to prevent the disruption experienced elsewhere from occurring here. With a nod to the commander in passing, I moved beyond the ready ranks of spearmen and into the open space left immediately in front of the wall.

I glanced up at the palisade. The chieftain’s blue-skinned head and shoulders were visible over its height. He had nearly reached the wall.

I exhaled a relieved breath. I was in time to stop the behemoth.

So instead I found myself waiting inside the palisade for the chieftain to come to me.

I was still not certain how the chieftain intended to breach the wall. Would he step over and attack those within? He was certainly large enough to try. Or would he attempt to bash a hole through for his minions?

A moment later I got my answer as first one, then another clawed hand appeared on the top of the palisade, followed by the chieftain’s scowling face.

The creature roared, revealing a gaping maw of shark-like teeth.

“It’s nice to meet you too,” I muttered. We must seem puny to him. Small and defenceless. Easy prey.

He would learn.

A nimbus of blue surrounded the murluk’s hands. He’s casting. I readied myself. Whatever the chieftain was doing, it couldn’t be good, but until he entered the Outpost there was little I could do.

Lines of white frost spread outwards from the murluk’s palms and through the wooden logs of the palisade until an entire twelve-foot span of the wall was encased in a glittering block of ice.

What is he doing? I wondered, perplexed.

The behemoth reached back and pulled out his seven-foot-long club. Raising it high in a two-handed grip, he slammed it down, shattering ice and palisade both in a single blow.

I gulped. The palisade had offered far less resistance than I’d expected.

If he hits me just once with that club, I’m dead.

The murluk rank and file spilled through the opening created by their chieftain and headed straight for me and the defenders waiting beyond. Behind me, at the shouted orders of Jolin and Petrov, I heard the spearmen shift into a U-shaped formation centred around me and the breach.

As for myself, I didn’t move. Ignoring the smaller murluks slurping and hopping towards me—they were still more than a dozen yards away and no danger just yet—I kept my eyes fixed on the chieftain. What was he going to do next?

The behemoth slung his club back over his shoulder and, instead of advancing into the breach as I’d expected, swung left and stomped along the outside of the palisade.

He was heading to the next section of the wall, I realised. To repeat his feat.

I couldn’t let that happen. I moved to act.

Holding my staff horizontally before me in a two-handed grip, I advanced on the approaching murluks. The spearmen behind me followed in my wake, moving to contain the breach.

As I closed to within a few yards of the murluks, I cast flare and sent jets of flames roaring upwards and downwards all along the length of my staff, forming an impenetrable shield of flame in front of me.

The murluks parted before me like a wave. But they did not flee as they normally did when faced by my dragonfire.

Instead, they turned aside to engage the surrounding defenders. It has to be the chieftain’s presence, I thought grimly. He had to the be the one responsible for the smaller creatures’ uncharacteristic display of courage.

I have to kill him fast.

I limped through the streaming flood of murluks—one and all, they retreated at the sight of my dragonfire—and closed with the behemoth. He was grabbing onto the next section of the wall when I reached him.

Hurrying as fast as I could, I broke through the shimmering field of blue surrounding him; I let out a small sigh of relief as I did. If the field had repelled me, I was not sure what I would have done.

You have engaged a creature champion on your own. You have been blessed with: slayer’s boon and tenacious.

Ignoring the Trials alert, I cast invincible and flare.

Dragonfire shot from my palms and into the murluk. Where my hands met naked flesh, pools of red blossomed, and the hungry flames ate into the behemoth.

The chieftain shrieked. Letting go of the wall, he arched upwards and slammed his leg into the palisade.

My teeth rattled and my breath left me in a rush as I crashed into the wall, but otherwise I rode the force of the impact none the worse for wear. The palisade cracked under the impact and debris rained down on me. Yet my grip held and I remained clinging to the colossus like a leech.

Furious, the chieftain pulled back his leg and smashed it into the wall anew. But the move only gave me time to pull myself higher up his limb. In my wake, I left a trail of reddened and smoking skin.

The behemoth was wasting time. Good. Every moment longer I clung to him, the more damage I could inflict.

Realising he was not going to get rid of me by squashing me against the wall, the chieftain reached down with a huge hand and yanked.

Despite my white-knuckled grip, I came unstuck.

The murluk raised me high above his head… then promptly hurled me towards the wall.

I tumbled through the air with the world flashing by in a series of disjointed images. A split-second later, the crazy kaleidoscope stopped as I slammed into the palisade and slid down.

Damn it. I rose to my feet and shook off my daze. If only I had managed to cling onto behemoth a little longer I was sure that, given the murluks’ vulnerability to fire, the flames would have soon taken on a life of their own and transformed the chieftain into a raging inferno.

Well, let’s try that again. I heaved myself out the rubble and limped forward with my eyes fixed on the behemoth’s closest limb.

My single-mindedness caused me to miss the chieftain’s follow-up attack entirely. My world went black as I was flattened against the hard ground.

I blinked when light returned a moment later. Thank God for invincible, I thought. I would be dead without it.

Spread out flat against the ground, I watched—almost hypnotically—as the chieftain’s spiked club, wreathed in coils of ice, rose up into the air.

The club paused on the top of its arc. Then blurred forward again.

My eyes widened and, spurred into action by the sight, I rolled, barely evading the frozen chuck of wood and ice.

I was running out of time.

Being felled by the club had cost me more time on invincible than I liked, and somehow I didn’t think the behemoth was going to let up with his current tactic. Still prone on the ground, I glanced up. Sure enough, the chieftain was winding back his club again.

Damn it. Pausing for a split-second, I flicked my gaze inwards and checked my Trials core. Less than five seconds remained on invincible.

I could not repeat my earlier approach, I realised. Even if I managed to close with the colossus again, he would only pluck me off or smash me into the wall.

I accepted the inevitable: I would have to do this the hard way. I pushed my head back and looked behind me. The shimmering blue curtain was at my back. I expelled a relieved breath. I remained inside the chieftain’s shield.

I could still make this work.

I stole another glance at the murluk leader. His club had nearly reached the top of its arc again. I clambered to my knees and yanked my staff off my back. Drawing quickly on my mana and lifeblood, I cast fire ray.

Dragonfire burned a line of gold through the air and struck the chieftain in the forehead.

Aargh. I had been aiming for his eye.

The club came crashing down. I dropped to all fours and scampered away, dodging the falling mass more easily this time.

I can crawl faster than I can run, I thought wryly.

Turning onto my back, I raised my staff again. The chieftain, suspecting what was coming, flung up one arm to shield his face.

From the tip of my wizard’s staff, in a cone expanding outwards towards the behemoth, the ground underfoot rippled. A heartbeat later, the hard-packed dirt and grass around the murluk giant transformed into a bubbling, sucking mud.

I smiled as, near instantly, the behemoth sank up to his knees. Sadly, the mud was not deep enough to fully immerse the monster.

The chieftain was studying his feet, momentarily forgetting me. I could see the corded muscles on the gigantic creature strain as he tried to extricate his leg. The mud sucked at the appendage though, and it only came free by degrees at a time.

I left the murluk leader to his struggles and scampered around. Making sure not to fall prey to the mud myself, I cast fire ray again.

The behemoth roared as the dragonfire burned into his broad back. He tried swinging around, but with one leg half-raised and the other stuck in the mud, it was no easy feat. His arms windmilled before he regained his balance.

Realising he could not get to me easily, the chieftain turned his attention to his legion of minions milling outside his shield. He barked at them. Ordering them to attack me, I guessed.

Warily, I switched my attention to the smaller murluks. None advanced on me, and I couldn’t help but laugh. It seemed the little blighters were more afraid of my dragonfire than their oversized chief.

The behemoth hissed, seemingly furious.

Still chuckling, I unleashed another lance of dragonfire. Then another immediately after.

Both hits landed. The chieftain shrieked and looked over his shoulder to stare at me in helpless fury.

I met his eyes one last time. You should have left us alone, I thought. Then I resumed my attacks.

You have gained in experience and are now a: level 24 Trainee.

You have killed your second creature champion. Your Lone Slayer Feat has advanced to rank 2, evolving its Techniques.

Slayer’s boon: When fighting a creature champion on your own, you are blessed with an aura that increases your damage by: 4%.

Tenacious: When fighting a creature champion on your own, you are blessed with an aura that reduces the damage you take by: 4%.

✽✽✽

The chieftain’s death was felt across the battlefield. With the glacial majesty of a crumbling iceberg, the behemoth tumbled down the bank.

A single glance at their fallen champion was enough for the murluks to decide the battle was lost. They dropped their weapons and fled for the safety of the river as fast as a receding tide.

I slumped to the ground and wiped the beading sweat off my forehead. Even in their panicked route, the fleeing murluks stayed well clear of me. I let them go—I wanted nothing more to do with the creatures.

As the last of the murluks disappeared into the river, the commander sat down beside me. “What will we do without you, Jamie?”

I smiled. It was a roundabout way of broaching the topic of me staying again. “You have Lance now.”

She snorted.

I chuckled. “I want to stay,” I said, my amusement fading, “but I don’t think I can.”

“You still haven’t told me why you have to leave,” she said.

I sighed. “I am going to take the fight to the orcs before the Arkon Shield falls,” I replied, articulating for the first time the plans I had been formulating. “But to do that I need to get stronger quicker than I can while staying here.”

The commander did not scoff at my plans, for which I was grateful. She ruminated over my words, then asked, “Why?”

“Why do I want to take the fight to the orcs?”

She waved aside the question. “That I understand. A strong offense makes for a sound defence, assuming you can inflict more than token damage, of course. No, what I want to know is, why are you doing this? Why take up this fight at all?”

“Revenge, primarily,” I answered, not shying away from my motives. “The orcs must pay for what they did to my mum. But she is not their only victim. They slaughtered thousands on Earth. And many more will fall under their yoke if they are left to reign free in the Human Dominion. I do this for them too.”

Jolin scrutinised me with her iron-grey eyes. “And you think you can accomplish what you set out to do?”

“I do,” I replied simply.

“Then I will trust you, Jameson Sinclair.”

I swallowed painfully. The commander’s faith meant a lot. We both fell silent, staring out at the tranquil river.

She said this with such conviction, I wondered if the path she spoke of was not one she had walked herself.

Jolin continued, “You have potential for greatness in you, Jamie. I do not doubt it. And one day, all Overworld will realise it.” Her smile turned lopsided. “If you live long enough.”

I ducked my head, hiding my emotions.

I felt the commander’s gaze resting on me. “I hope you realise that what you attempt can’t be done alone. You will need others. You will need us.”

I lifted my head. “I know. It is why I have stayed as long as I have. The settlement must be established. That is crucial. But that is only the beginning of what we must do here. I will return—if I am welcome.”

“You will always be welcome, Jamie. On that, you have my word.”

“Thank you, Commander,” I replied, blinking glistening eyes dry.

Spying movement behind me, I looked over my shoulder. It was Soren and his builders. They were starting to repair the palisade. “Do you think we can still finish the wall in time?”

“As you said, Jamie, establishing the settlement is all-important. Earth is gone now. Those of us on Overworld are all that remains of humanity. We cannot fail. The settlement must be established. The palisade will be finished.” Jolin rose to her feet. “Come, let’s get back to work.”

“Aye, aye, ma’am,” I said, rising with her.