The group looked at each other, readied their bows, and started working their way towards the village outskirts. They crouched when they were about a hundred paces from it and surveyed the entrance.

The area outside was littered with dead bodies, all of them riddled with arrows. Dean slowly worked his way towards the nearest and rolled it over. An Orc.

The group looted the bodies as they went, taking turns on lookout as they moved forward. Several wagons and barrels had been stacked up between the first set of buildings, creating a makeshift wall, with several dead orcs creating a small mound in front of it. On the other side, more dead bodies littered the area, this time a combination of Orc and human.

Dean was about to loot the body of a villager when Ryan rested a hand on his shoulder. Ryan just shook his head. Dean nodded in understanding and moved on to an Orc.

It only took a few minutes to loot all of them, but Dean wished they hadn’t wasted the time once they turned the corner. The villagers had created a last-minute makeshift barricade in the center of the village made of carts, boxes and barrels stacked on top of each other. The villagers themselves were on top of the barricade using anything they had on hand, pitchforks and shovels, to defend themselves from the Orc attack. Dean started scanning the backs of the nearest ones, mostly level one and two, but there were so many that it wouldn’t matter, the villagers were incredibly. Outnumbered.

“Now this is what I’m talking about.” Ben said, “I’ll take support.”

Will drew his bow. “You two want point?”

Dean licked his lips as he stepped forward next to Ryan.

“Opening volley on three.” Will said.

Dean notched his arrow and sighted. They released the arrows as a group, then Ben immediately raised his hand to launch a series of fireball spells until his stamina ran out. The surprise attack earned an automatic critical hit, killing two of the level one orcs, and dropping the other two in the red. Ben’s fireball struck a second later a few feet down the line, splashing liquid fire across the group. Dean fired another round without bothering to target a specific orc, just aiming in their general direction.

The explosions got the Orcs’ attention. A large group near the back of the mob broke off from the main attack and turned to charge them. He continued firing arrows at them as they charged, hearing the twang of shots from his friends. He drew his sword as the nearest Orc came within a dozen steps of him and cast Warrior’s Aura on himself. He rushed forward and ducked under the first Orc’s sword as he used the Orc’s momentum to flip it over his body. He deflected the attack of the next one as he heard the first one grunt in pain behind him. Dean swung a counterattack across the second orc’s hamstring, forcing the orc to its knees. Another Orc smashed into him from the side, knocking him back and landing a glancing blow across his spaulder. Dean fell back into a defensive position as the rest of the Orcs joined the first. They spread out against him in a circle, forcing him to twist back and forth to keep them at bay. The one on his far-right feinted forward before pulling back as one of those on his left pounced. He fell for the feint, and couldn’t get his sword around in time to stop the real attack. The orc’s blow tore a large rent across his chest. Dean jumped backwards straight into a second attack. He cursed as it tore through his armor. His health dropped to less than a quarter.

He tried to grab a healing potion from his belt but couldn’t get away from the attackers long enough to look down. Desperation driving his actions, he went on the attack to push them off balance, hoping to gain himself a few precious seconds to grab the potion in the process. He took a few quick steps in one direction before immediately changing directions. It worked, though at a cost. Dean deflected the first orc’s attack and caught the second on his crossguard, but couldn’t stop the third from connecting across his thigh. His health dropped to the red as he twisted his sword with a hard jerk. It drove the Orc holding the sword to its knees. He twisted around it and gave the orc a hard shove. He was able to push his way out of the circle and take several steps away.

He glanced down long enough to grab one of the healing potions at his belt as arrow struck the nearest Orc. Dean downed the potion in two large gulps.

He glanced up in time to see another arrow strike an orc in the eye. The other two orcs fell back into a defensive posture and spotted Will a couple dozen paces away. One of the orcs rushed him as the second charged Dean. The orc was a lot weaker than Dean and didn’t stand a chance. It died with a guttural scream. Without any enemies around him, Dean pulled four healing potions from his inventory and downed two, bringing his health back up to a decent level. He stashed the others on his belt and adjusting their position until he knew where to reach without looking.

He took a quick glance around. Ben was fighting two orcs, Ryan finishing off a third, and Will had killed the one that attacked him.

He walked over to an Orc attacking Ben and stabbed it in the back. The surprise attack killed it, and he engaged the other one, allowing Ben to step back for a second and heal.

“We need to give the villagers relief. See if you can draw some more with a fireball or two.” He instructed as he switched spots with Ben.

“Got it.” Ben grinned wickedly. He downed a potion before casting as many fireballs as he could at the Orcs attacking the barricade until his mana depleted.

Dean charged into the back of one Orc, knocking it into several others that lost their balance. Two nearest the barricade were slammed into it and completely defenseless to the onslaught as five villagers stabbed them with pitchforks. A moment later, Ryan and Ben charged in on either side of him and started hacking at the orcs’ backs. Within seconds, five more orcs were dead and six others in the red.

They pushed the orcs to either side and finally made it to the base of the barricade. The villagers cheered in relief as a couple jumped down beside them. Together, they pushed an ever-widening breach in the enemy line. Dean stepped back from the fight in order to recharge his stamina as they rounded the other side of the barricade.

There were twice as many orcs on the other side filling the rest of the square. The only reason the village hadn’t been overrun was that all them were pressing forward as hard as they could, knocking the orcs at the front into the barricade wall, but only a few dozen orcs could attack.

“Help me up.” Ben said beside him. He grinned at Dean’s confused look. “I’ll toss a few fireballs into the middle of them. It’ll wreak havoc.”

Dean laughed as knelt down and made a foothold with his hands. Ben placed a foot in it and put a hand on Dean’s shoulder. Dean stood up as Ben pushed off. Ben grabbed the edge of the wall and started hoisting himself onto it. A few villagers on the top grabbed his arms and lifted him the rest of the way up.

Ben ran along the edge of the wall as Dean’s stamina finished recharging.

Dean grabbed the arm of a nearby villager. “Tell the others to grab a sword from the dead and follow me.”

The villagers not on the front line raced to grab a sword. Dean led them down a nearby alley and around the orc’s main line. He encountered a couple orcs in the next road, but they were weak and severely wounded. After killing them, Dean pointed at the nearby side streets leading to the square.

“On the signal.” He said to them.

“What signal?” One of the villagers asked.

“You’ll know it when it happens.” Dean said, “And stay in the side street.”

“Why?” the same villager asked.

“They’ll overwhelm us in the open.” Dean explained. “We just need to make them think they’re surrounded.”

They nodded and tightened their grips on their swords.

A few seconds later, a series of explosions erupted in the midst of the orc army as Ben attacked with his fireballs.

At the first explosion, Dean charged. A couple orcs turned around, but not in time to stop the attacks that rained down on them. Led by Dean, they pushed the orcs back to the street’s entrance. The flank attack combined with the fireballs broke the enemy’s resolve. Orcs turned to run away, attacking their own in the retreat.

“They’re falling back!” someone called out.

“We did it!” The villagers started cheering.

Dean decided this was their best chance to completely break the enemy and not just push them back to outside the village.

“Press the attack. Kill them all.” He roared.

He then followed his own advice and charged. None of the orcs tried to fight him, instead trying to dodge out of his swings in their haste to escape. Dean lost track of the number of orcs he killed in the process.

“What the hell is that?” Ben yelled from atop the barricade.

Dean shoved the orc he was fighting before stepping back and letting a villager step in. “Look out, Will.” Ben yelled. “It’s heading straight for you.”

Dean ran over to the barricade and was helped up by a couple villagers. Once atop, Ben pointed at it. Dean scanned the creature.

Shadow Wraith

Level: 40

“We can’t beat that.” He breathed. The shadow wraith was taller than a normal human, at least eight feet tall and rail thin. It wore black metal armor that covered its entire body and carried a thin black blade that it used with deadly accuracy as it tore through the front line of villagers with one kill hits.

It broke through the front line of villagers in a matter of seconds and reached Will. He hesitated before realizing that he couldn’t escape the creature and decided to attack. Screaming at the top of his lungs, he charged. The creature deflected the blow with ease, casually flicking the sword aside and counterattacking. The blade stabbed Will in the stomach, embedding itself halfway to the hilt. Will stared at it for a brief second, a surprised look on his face, before collapsing to the ground. A glowing icon appeared above his body, with a timer counting down before his body vanished and he’d be respawned back in Torial.

The Wraith stared at the body for a moment, before turning its attention to the barricade. Ben growled beside him, and with a shout of rage and anger, threw a fireball at the creature. It vanished. Dean quickly glanced around, trying to find the creature, and yelped when he realized it had closed the distance by half, leaving the fireball to explode into the orcs behind it. A moment later, it vanished again and reappeared a dozen paces from the barricade. “We have to run.” Dean tried to say, but it caught on the lump forming in his throat. Instead, Ben threw a second fireball at the creature, still yelling at the top of his lungs. The creature jumped at them, clearing the top of the barricade with ease. Dean scrambled away, falling off the barricade in the process. Ben wasn’t so lucky. He was trying to cast a third fireball, but the Wraith reappeared niext him, sword buried in Ben’s chest. His health points dropped to zero and he collapsed, a countdown timer appearing above him.

Something grabbed Dean by the shoulders, and he struggled against it. “Get up!” Ryan screamed in his ear as he hauled Dean to his feet. Dean stared wide-eyed at Ryan, the words not registering as he shivered uncontrollably, “Move!” Ryan pushed him. The creature appeared beside them and drove its sword through Ryan’s stomach. He died before he touched the ground.

Dean ran.

Dean made it four steps before something tugged at his back and the world went black. Words appeared in front of him, along with a countdown timer.

You died. Respawn in 10 seconds