Encircled by its weaker brethren, the creature strode over the broken corpses strewn about on the battlefield. Sarah and I approached without hurrying towards it. Backpack girl following closely behind. The larger and healthier orc seemed in complete control of the dozen or so that surrounded it.

‘What was he planning to do with them? The creatures were weak and if hundreds didn’t do the job, how would that meager dozen make any difference?’

I was obviously suspicious of it, but that didn’t change the fact that I was going to kill it. I felt energized, my fatigue slowly fading to the background together with the pain. I could almost feel it as my body healed at an unbelievable speed. It wasn’t like I could see the pieces of flesh knitting themselves back together, it was more like a constant itch. Everywhere.

“Can you handle the followers while I fight the boss?” I asked Sarah.

“What? Nah dude, we are fighting this thing together. I am not going to handle the rabble while you have all the fun.”

“That works for me.”

Being first in the rankings was starting to affect me. I don’t remember being so cocky. This mentality had almost killed me, and I was doing it again. I had to keep this intoxicating feeling in check, somehow.

“Leo.”

I turned to look at backpack girl.

“You need to spend the other point in WIL.” Her soft voice mollified me.

Part of me wanted to rebuke, to tell her to back off. These were my stats and I alone would decide where to spend them. I was defensive, but I didn’t know why. Probably because she suddenly had so much sway over me. I wasn’t sure I liked it. I don’t know her.

“Why?” I wasn’t going to be convinced so easily.

“Oh god… Dude. You can ask later, just do it already. She knows her shit better than you do.”

“Miss Sarah…”

“What, Ani? It’s the truth. I don’t know why he keeps resisting your advice.” Sarah turned to me. The boss was still focused on the remaining battle happening in front of the main building

“You also resisted at first, Miss Sarah.”

“Yeah, but I came around.” She faced away at backpack girl’s, Ani’s, remark.

I really didn’t want to get between them, but Sarah had a point. Did I really have a reason to resist her so much?

‘Was I being petty?’

“I will spend it, but you will have to explain to me why later.” She smiled, but didn’t say anything. I did it, I increased WIL by one point, but didn’t feel any noticeable difference. Not that I expected.

The boss stood in front of the central building surrounded by its posse. The battle between the remnants of the wave and the defenders was over. A pile of orc bodies formed a small mound in front of the building. I recognized two of the people holding the entrance, John and Will. It was hard to see details from where I stood, but John seemed to have a nasty injury on his shoulder. The entire line seemed extremely fatigued.

John saw me and I held his stare. A few brief moments passed and something that I should have expected, but still surprised me happened. John barked an order and from the edges of the entrance, the makeshift gate was pushed into the entrance. He held my gaze the entire time, as the gate grated against the floor and slowly closed the entrance.

I tightened the grip on my spear. I stared daggers at the man, but his expression was unwavering. My boiling fury gained momentum and I felt like I was about to explode in rage. Twice they abandoned me today, twice!

“Leo, you are not alone.”

I felt a small, warm hand touch the skin on my back through the tatters of my clothes. It was Ani. I took a deep breath and focused on calming down for a few long breaths. I managed to.

“Good. You can’t fight if you lose your head. Now, how do we approach this?” I felt a little embarrassed at Sarah’s light reprimand, but I probably deserved it. Our lives were on the line, I couldn’t let anger take control, not yet.

“Straightforward? We whittle down their numbers until it's us and the big one.”

“I like straightforward.”

The boss had sent four of his underlings to bang at the closed gate, but it was sturdy enough they couldn’t break through. The creature was intelligent enough to not approach the defensive position by itself. Me and Sarah on the other hand, advanced on him. We walked in slow, sure steps. We kept our balance and tried to cover each other, but I had no experience fighting side by side with someone in an open field.

With a low growl, it recalled the four banging on the gate. The creatures tightened the encirclement around the boss, but otherwise stayed put. It glared at us with its beady eyes, shifting its feet and fidgeting with its battleaxe, rage barely suppressed by whatever intelligence inhabited its thick skull. We approached cautiously, it was going to be hard to pick them off if they were so tight together, but we had a considerable advantage in the reach of our weapons. I moved a step ahead of Sarah.

When the first orc was about to get in range of my spear, the boss roared. Its voice carried a pressure similar to the wave start, but a few levels of magnitude lower. I staggered back and watched in horror as all the creatures lunged at Sarah. She had fared much better than I did against the roar. She had her feet planted and her shoulders sagged slightly, but that was all.

Sarah managed to cut down the first one, and a well placed stab got the second one in the gut, but she was forced a step back by the creature’s momentum. The third, fourth, fifth were already upon her. She held ground as the creatures tried to bite through her armor. More were coming, but I had recovered my balance. I stabbed the one closest to me as it was trying to pile on her. I pierced it on the ribs and pulled it downwards. His innards spilled as he lost his momentum and fell on the ground flailing. But others had already piled on her.

Her sword clattered against the floor as she did her best to not fall down, but her knees buckled. I could see her hands moving, trying to break the neck of the one closest to her face. I stabbed another through the ear, relieving some pressure of her, but by this point she had almost nine of the orcs piling on her. Her strength was ridiculous. How could she stand? I prepared myself to stab another. I had to be careful, I didn’t want to hit her instead. As I thrust my spear forward something in my head clicked. I had forgotten something very important. The boss.

It came from the corner of my vision, silently rushing like an unstoppable force of nature. His battle axe was raised high above his head. I didn’t need more than an instant to realize what it was trying to do. It was going to cleave Sarah and whatever else was pinning her down.

I shouted something between duck and dodge. I lunged forward, trying to intercept the boss. It came at an angle that was hard for me to get to it, there were also two dead orcs between us, but I had to try. I managed to graze my shoulder against its ribs, but his weight and momentum were too much for me to knock it off completely, but I knew I had messed up its balance. I could only hope it was enough to give Sarah the edge she needed.

I let go of my spear as I tumbled on the floor. I rolled twice, chafing my skin against the pavement and flaring up all the wounds on my body. I tasted some blood in my mouth, but thankfully I hadn’t bitten my tongue. I anxiously turned to where I last saw Sarah. The boss had managed to swing down on her, but my last effort had made it trip and crash against the piling orcs. Sarah had a nasty gash on her left shoulder as she pushed herself from under two dead orcs. Two more lay dead beside her, knives sticking out of the back of their heads.

‘Who threw the knives?’

It didn’t take long for me to find the answer. Ani soon showed beside Sarah and helped her to her feet. I could glimpse a few knives sticking out of her belt. I was mildly surprised, but I didn’t have time to linger on it. The boss roared again, but there was no pressure this time, just animalistic fury. It swung its axe in blind rage and killed three orcs who were too slow to get out of its way. He sent the remaining three after Sarah and charged.

I hadn’t lazed around all this while. Spear recovered, I intercepted the boss’ charge. In its mindless bloodlust, it only saw me when my spear stabbed its shoulder. His skin was thick, extremely so. I tried to do the most damage when I pulled my spear, but it didn’t tear as much as I wanted. The boss faced me with another roar as he awkwardly shifted his momentum. I smiled.

Hideous and feral. None of that early intelligence inhabited those beady eyes anymore. It lunged at me at every moment, not taking a break. It reminded me of my first fight against the goblin warrior, fledgling goblin warrior, but this one didn’t take a break. But I had a different weapon this time. Although much more resilient than the last boss, it wasn’t as fast. In between side steps and dodges, I managed to stab and cut him. I wasn’t doing much, but I hoped to pile on enough damage to cripple it before I tired myself.

A grating noise coming from behind almost cost me an arm. It distracted me and I lost my timing. The blade of the axe made a shallow cut on my right arm, but I managed to react in time to save it from something worse. I took a few steps back, trying to put some distance between me and the boss, but the creature was relentless. I focused on dodging and deflecting his axe. Deflecting was extremely hard, but I was starting to get used to his predictable pattern. I shifted our position around and I put him between me and the entrance of the main building. It cost me every bit of willpower to not lose my cool when I saw John and a line of a dozen guys slowly advancing on the boss. They had opened the gate and now showed up to ‘help’.

“DON’T YOU FUCKING DARE GET CLOSE. HE IS FUCKING MINE.”

I roared at them. Most of the people on the line flinched, but John didn’t.

“We are here to help you, Leo. We will-”

“IF YOU GET CLOSE, I WILL FUCKING RUN THROUGH THE LOT OF YOU AND LET THIS ANIMAL WREAK HAVOC.”

John seemed to be taken back by my words. His expression crumbled and I saw the man getting angry for the first time. I didn’t care. He stepped back and the line accompanied him. They stood, arms ready, as they watched my battle play out. I spared a glance at Sarah and Ani. Sarah sat on the floor and Ani was taking care of her wound with some bandaging. Three orc corpses lay on the ground a few meters from them. They were fine, good. Now I could focus on the boss.

I had kept most of my focus on dodging it, but it was something I had become good enough to do it almost automatically. The creature didn’t stop though, he didn’t take a break to breathe, so neither did I. He swung that heavy looking battle axe like it was nothing. These creatures had such monstrous stamina, it was ridiculous.

Focusing on the enemy in front of me again, I started to pile on more wounds. I saw that my early strikes seemed to have been closed already, no longer bleeding. Shallow cuts wouldn’t do with this guy. I realized I would have to start taking some risks to inflict deeper cuts.