A sharp yell startled Eric awake, and he discovered a scene of chaos unraveling around him. The dim moonlight illuminated the camp with a soft glow, and he saw the troops around him waking up in alarm from the sounds of combat not far off in the distance.

“Wake up! The enemy is upon us!” someone yelled out.

Eric grabbed Shadowspark, strapped on his arm guards, and pulled on his boots without hesitation. He stood, and the sleepiness was quickly washed away by a wave of adrenaline. He noticed that the rest of the division was also arming themselves. He wasted no time and started barking commands to form up into ranks letting his instinct take over. He sprinted through the camp pulling soldiers to their feet before almost slamming into Clarke.

“What the hell is going on?” Eric shouted over the hysteria.

“The Valix flanked us and slipped through our scouts. They took us by surprise with our pants down, sir! They are tearing through the column behind us, they will be upon us in a matter of minutes,” Clarke exclaimed.

“Help form up the men, if we are going to die out here we better take some of those bastards with us!” Eric ordered.

Clarke nodded fiercely and dashed off to comply with the order. Eric gripped Shadowspark tightly and strengthened his mental resolve. He couldn’t believe the enemy could outsmart the Legion so easily; it seemed the Valix were more organized and intelligent than originally believed. Eric remembered the potions he acquired earlier and without a second thought pulled out the Greater Stamina Reduction potion and swallowed it in one gulp.

He turned back to look at the division, finding it in a rough formation. The sound of fighting was closing in from behind, and Eric drew an arrow from his quiver preparing for the worst. The sound of fighting was silenced by a shuttering roar in the distance, and his fears were met with the one thing he hoped not to face.

Eric slowly made out the silhouette of a Deastron as it obliterated a division of heavy infantry to the front of the column. He found his untested division was surrounded. The Valix army was at their backs, and a Deastron was charging the front, with no other options he started yelling commands to the division, “Fire at will! Bring down that monstrosity at all costs, aim for its front legs!”

He knew without immobilizing it they would have no chance at turning the tides, and they wouldn’t even get a chance to face off against the Valix if the Deastron tore through their ranks. The amount of death being caused by the Deastron was a staggering sight, and Eric had to mentally resist the urge to vomit at the site of the mutilation all around it. The troops in his division had all shifted to allow a firing lane for each person and arrows were flying toward the Deastron in waves, but it brushed them off unimpeded.

Eric rushed over to the edge of the formation pulling back his nocked arrow while in stride and put all the Lightning enchantment Shadowspark could muster into his arrow. He saw the Deastron was already bleeding on its right front leg and aimed toward the weakened area. His arrow flew true on release, and the results were impressive. The beast staggered and stopping its rampage for a moment, saving the life of a heavy swordsmen by preventing him from being crushed under the creature’s massive frame.

Unfortunately, the arrows from the division attracted the Deastron’s attention and it suddenly changed direction away from the infantry division and straight toward the line of bowman firing into its flank. It shuttered slightly as it began its charge, clearly impeded by the damage to its front leg, but it gained speed startlingly fast and was breaking through eight of the soldiers in the line in a matter of seconds. The two lucky enough to be on the outside of its charge were thrown across the ground with broken bones and heavy injuries, but all the others that took the brunt of its charge and met a gruesome and swift death.

Throughout the beast’s rampage, Eric continued releasing arrows into its side hoping to slow it down. It finished its charge and released another horrifying roar before turning directly towards Eric and his sparking weapon. Eric caught a glimpse of the creature’s dark black eyes that were sunk deep in its head wedged against its thick plated head. Its armored head looked close to impenetrable. Eric shuddered in fear but knew he had to try to do something to slow it down or face a similar fate of the downed soldiers all around the fierce monster. He nocked another arrow, adding a thick Shadow enchantment that swallowed it in a thick mist. Eric met the beast’s eyes just before it started its acceleration.

Eric froze as if time had stopped and let out a deep breath, releasing the arrow at the same moment. The arrow disappeared into the shadows of the night leaving a dark purplish mist in its trail. He knew if his arrow didn’t stop the monster he would be done for. It was less than twenty meters away and in an enraged charge. The arrow impacted a moment after release and unbelievably struck the Deastron in the center of its right eye, a true bullseye at less than the size of the arrow’s head. While the beast was moving at such incredible speed, the shot should have been impossible.

The Shadow magic engulfed the monster’s eye and pushed the arrow deep into its enormous head. The attack showed signs of real damage. The Deastron let off another roar, but it was one of pain and not anger. It veered off its charge and stumbled before falling hard into the ground. Its snout dug deep into the soft dirt and kicked up soil and debris into the air on impact.

It had made it to less than five meters away, and Eric saw the nostrils breathing deeply pushing against the loose soil. The creature’s weakened legs attempted to raise its oversized frame, but lacked the strength. Eric raced over to the Deastron’s mighty head and without hesitation brought down the sharp point of Shadowspark into the other eye while sending Lightning magic through the tip with all his remaining mana. The beast shook in pain, but after Eric dug another few inches into its skull through the thin eye socket, its breathing stopped.

Ting!

Level up.

Level up.

Achievement unlocked: Deastron Nemesis

Eric let loose a shallow breath and looked around to see a haggard group before him. Unfortunately for them, the reprieve was short as the Deastron was not their only enemy. Eric had to rapidly gather himself and began shouting orders to the remaining troops in the division to prepare for the incoming Valix force that was already breaking through the closest division in the column behind them.

He organized the remains of a couple melee infantry divisions that were mostly decimated by the Deastron and had them form a line in front of the ranged troops to help provide a shield against the enemy’s spearmen. By the time the troops were simply organized the engagement with the Valix began. The enemy soldiers went into a rage when they discovered the defeated Deastron lying on the ground and charged into the infantry in a wild frenzy.

The Valix lived up to their descriptions with thick scale armor for skin in various shades of green and brown. They were vicious and tore into the frontline at a rapid pace, only allowing the ranged bowman to take down a handful of them before being overrun. Eric managed to take out three enemies by the time the fighting became hand to hand combat, but the thick armor proved much more resistant to normal arrows and prevented heavy damage by most of the other ranged troops. Eric ordered the other ranged troops to try and maintain distance once the front line began to collapse. He hoped the close combatants could hold the line, but many were mauled by the quick moving Valix and the poison tips of their spears or sharp claws led to quick deaths.

Eric misjudged a side step and received a thick cut along his left bicep causing a numbing sensation to spread from the toxic poison entering his body. He retaliated against the creature responsible with a brutal strike across its face tearing into its skin with his high strength. The monster fell to its knees in front of him, and he forced it to the ground with a powerful kick to the face, snapping its neck back violently and ending its existence. Eric looked out and saw a depressing site. They were losing more troops than their enemy, and would shortly be overrun if they didn’t receive support.

As if answering his prayers, a division of mages and heavily armed melee troops entered the clearing with a battle cry, and he saw them engage the enemy on its left flank. It seemed the rest of the Legion was faring better and were sending support to the areas of highly concentrated enemies. Eric picked out his next target and dodged a quick thrust to his chest before forcing Shadowspark under the chin of his opponent, lifting him off his feet and finishing him in one blow.

The corpse crippled to the ground as he pulled Shadowspark out of its skull. This opened up a little bit more breathing room to take down a few more Valix from range. He nocked another arrow and saw a warrior struggling against two enemies nearby. He quickly evened the odds with an arrow to the back of the closest enemy’s head and pivoted his body to help other allies in need.

The battle seemed to only last a moment, but by the time the rest of the Legion was organized and came to aid the devastated divisions the sun was providing light and highlighted the disaster. The clearing used for the camp was covered in corpses, most being those of allies. The 5th ranged division was down to less than twenty and had fared better than most divisions with the average fatality rate over seventy five percent.

Eric was sad to see all the devastation, but fortunately, almost the entire Legion consisted of players that would resurrect after death. He imagined the cathedral workers were shocked when it started pouring out the players that were lost in the battle. The death toll was in the thousands and Eric learned that the Valix army managed to escape with a sizable portion of their force still intact.

He discovered Clarke, Kaden, and Finley gathering supplies around the camp after the battle had ended. He walked toward them with a sullen expression. “I’m glad all of you made it through the night. I wish I could say the same for many of our other allies,” Eric said gloomily.

They paused their work and returned his empty stare nodding their heads in agreement.

“I’m afraid there is more bad news. If the Valix have already traveled this far from the frontier, there must be a path of destruction in their wake. I know of a couple towns along this road that have likely been raided by the monsters,” Kaden replied with a drained voice.

“We severely underestimated our opponents and by the looks of it, the Legion is shattered. I have already heard rumors that the commander is thinking of disbanding to focus on defending the remaining settlements nearby,” Clarke added.

Eric gazed out across the clearing that had been turned into a bloody warzone and felt helpless at the thought of the creatures they had fought sweeping through undefended villages. The disheartened group received confirmation of the disbandment with the appearance of a new alert message.

Ting!

The Legion has suffered a devastating defeat. The surviving members are released from duty. All contribution rewards will be final and immediately received.

Ting!

+7900 Experience

+230 Fame

+12 Leadership

+4 gold

+45 silvers

+14 coppers

Ting!

Level up.

Ting!

At the king’s request, all survivors will receive double the contribution reward for retribution against the Valix army. Pursue the remaining monsters at your own risk.

The contribution reward results were bittersweet. Eric found himself saddened by the sudden disbandment after less than twenty-four hours, but with the experience and new levels he was better prepared to pursue the monsters. He knew of a few others that might join him on his hunt. His mind started turning as he checked out his new levels to decide on how to allocate his attribute points.

Eric was up to level 14 and also had a new achievement as a result of the battle: Deastron Nemesis - +10% damage against Deastron species. Deastron sense your presence more easily and are prone to pick you out of a group to attack.

The achievement was a mixed bag and Eric decided it could have positive or negative aspects depending on his situation. He dropped ten of his new attribute points into Strength and the rest evenly across Vitality, Dexterity, and Agility. He at least had something to show for the destruction of the battle which was more than most.

He immediately spoke up after all the notifications were cleared from his vision, “I am not going to let them get away that easily. I don’t know about you fellas, but I am going to go put a few more arrows through some Valix skulls before this is over with.”

Clarke responded firmly, “I am with you, Eric. I think with a smaller group we can hit the Valix when they least expect it and get some payback for the cheap shot they pulled on us last night.”

Kaden and Finley nodded in agreement, and Eric smiled happily finding his plan coming together.

“I think I know a few others that would be more than happy to get in on the action as well. I will go find out their status and meet you back here shortly. We should take the morning to rest and then move out before they gain too much ground on us,” Eric said confidently.

“Sounds good. We’ll finish gathering supplies and meet back up shortly,” Kaden replied.

Eric turned toward the rest of the devastated column and pulled up his social menu. He sent a group message to Cattie and her guild mates hoping they all survived the night and offered them the opportunity to join the hunt.

Cattie responded in short order and didn’t disappoint, “We are in!”

“Excellent! Meet us at the front of the column in two hours. We are going to gather supplies and recover for a bit before moving out,” Eric said in quick response.

“See you soon!” she sent back.

Eric smirked and was already getting excited to lead the small expedition. With any luck, they would be able to catch up to the Valix forces by the afternoon and show them how to really use hit and run tactics.