Part Ninety-Eight

Cameron’s axe ripped through another monster. His armor was encrusted with dried monster blood, and the crust got deeper with every new kill. He’d long ago dropped into a trance-like state to help him continue his violent rampage. Something about doing that just made it so much easier.

While Cameron knew roughly where Michael and Alicia were, he was also well aware that getting to them would be difficult. His fighting style was good at cutting down groups of weak enemies, but a greataxe wasn’t the ideal weapon when fighting amongst allies. He was too afraid of accidentally killing someone to move closer.

Which of course left him stranded. Not that he was totally unsupported.

Hm? Why do I feel so light? Where did this burst of strength come fro-? Kalia. I see now. She must’ve used that buffing spell again.

Exactly right. Kalia had just cast [Bless], giving the nearby defenders an edge over the monsters. She’d been too busy for awhile to cast it, but had finally gotten a break after Michael went on his rampage. With this, combined with the unrelenting assault from Alicia, it was possible that the defenders would push the monsters back from this wall segment, turning the tides of the battle.

Unless of course an unwanted visitor arrived.

“””“AWWWOOOOOOOOOOOO!””””

Cameron turned just in time to see several NPCs be blown off of the wall, and sent falling into the monster hordes below. Several large wolves had just climbed up the wall, each one the mirror image of the others. Despite the fact that Cameron had never seen such a beast, he knew instinctively that these monsters would be trouble.

“Grrrowl!”

One of the wolves locked eyes with him and charged straight at him. Just like nearly every other wolf he’d fought, this one was lightning quick to close the distance between them. Cameron barely had time to react before it was on him, scratching and biting at his armor. But obviously the poor wolf wouldn’t be able to bite through metal, and so was thrown backwards by a well placed punch to the snout.

Upon seeing their kin in trouble, the other wolves tried to assist it, but weren’t able to make it before Cameron beheaded it. That was where things got weird, for instead of attacking, the other wolves ran away. Cameron was momentarily perplexed by their odd behavior, until he took a closer look at the wolf he just killed.

Upon closer inspection, there were strange symbols in its eyes. Glyphs, to be exact. While Cameron didn’t know what they were, any Dark Mage worth their salt would know what they meant. These wolves weren’t real monsters, they were clones produced with the Void Magic Spell [Void Image]. Cameron was exceedingly lucky that he wore fully metal armor. Copies created through [Void Image] had the ability to apply Void Magic to whatever they touched. So while metal was somewhat resistant, unprotected flesh would’ve been utterly destroyed by the spell. In fact, closer observation of Cameron’s armor would reveal that some of the wear had disappeared from the spots where the copy had bitten it.

But again, Cameron didn’t know any of this. He just knew that this couldn’t be any ordinary monster, and was thus unsurprised when it vanished without a trace. He merely shrugged, and decided to keep an eye out for any more of those wolves, before heading back to the battle.

But the question Cameron should’ve had was why did the wolves run off?

***

[Edwin’s POV]

He had somehow miraculously survived his fight with those Kovis, managing to kill every last one. He’d been lucky though, as all of them were E-Rank. If even one of them had Evolved, he probably wouldn’t have won.

Haah…haaah, woo-hoo! It may have been close, but I pulled it off! Now, if I can just get away without anything else trying to eat me.

But alas, it would seem as if Edwin’s luck was as shitty as a certain other person's. Just before he could escape, an Orc Marauder came barreling towards him. Edwin tried to get out of the way, but he was caught by a back-handed blow from the Orc. The hit dislocated his shoulder, rendering the arm useless and preventing him from getting to his feet. And with him now wounded, the Orc prowled closer for the kill.

He tried to crawl away from it, but couldn’t get far with just one arm. The Orc stopped in front of him, sneering down at him as it lifted its sword above its head. He tried to use his spear to threaten it, but the Orc merely ripped it from his grasp before continuing its wind-up.

No! I don’t want to die! There’s still so much I’ve yet to do!

By using his good arm to push himself to the side, he was barely able to avoid the Orc’s downward thrust. But unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to help him escape the monster. The Orc simply prepared to attack him a second time, only he wouldn’t be able to dodge this time. His roll had further aggravated his injury, and it took all his willpower not to start screaming.

“REEEEEEEEEEEIIII!”

The Orc let out a battle scream as it swung the sword down again. But before the blade could cut into Edwin, a burning arrow plowed into its head, causing it to scream out as flames consumed it. Edwin watched in disbelief as the monster went up in flames, only to snap out of his stupor when a voice spoke up behind him.

“Are you just gonna sit there, or are you gonna keep fighting?”

“S-Sampson!? Wha, what did you do!?”

“Me? Heh, that wasn’t me brat. But you haven’t answered my question. Are you in, or are you out?”

“I, I, but my arm. I think it’s broken.”

“So? That’s still not an answer. What I want to know is whether you’re going to stay in fight, or if you want to run off to the infirmary like a dog with its tail between its legs.”

Edwin had only stayed behind so he could continue to use the Dungeon to grow stronger. Running away now might wound his pride, but it would ensure that he could survive another day. He reached out and grabbed Sampson’s hand, allowing the bigger man to pull him to his feet.

“Haha, well if that’s your answer, then I’ll makes sure you can keep fighting.”

Just before he could ask what he meant, a burst of heat ran throughout his body. The red haze he’d experienced before came back with a vengeance, sending him into a tizzy.

“Clench your ass. This is going to hurt.”

“Huh? What do you-? GAAAAAAAAH!”

*Snap!*

Sudden agony shot through him as Sampson popped his arm back into the socket. Under normal conditions, this would never have allowed him to keep fighting, but since Sampson was putting him under the effects of Berserking, it was more than enough.

“Haaah…haaaah, what did, you, do?”

“Nothing much. Just gave you the push you’ll need to keep fighting. Heheh, have fun.”

“What are you talking about-? OhhhhhhhhhhhhhHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAA!”

Whatever Sampson had just done to him sent him into a blind frenzy. He grabbed his spear and charged back into the battle, lashing out at every monster he came near. He’d just received a full-on dose of Berserking. Whether he’d survive was no longer the question. It was now a question of whether he’d keep his sanity.

***

[Kalia’s POV]

“[Heal]! [Heal]! [Heal]! Haah…haaah. [Heal]!”

“Kalia, pace yourself. We can’t have you collapsing on us here. You can ignore the NPCs. They’ll just respawn anyway.

“Grant, that is a horrible way to talk. I don’t care if they’ll come back or not, they’re our allies! They’d help us if we needed it.”

“Still, it’s not like we need to go out of our way to help them. You’re already swaying on your feet. I don’t want you passing out on me here. It’s dangerous enough as it is. We don’t even know where Braddock got to. Besides, you already used that buffing spell, right? That’s more than enough help.”

“Haah, okay Grant. I’ll focus on the mercenaries from now on.”

“Good girl. Now, should we be worried about those Golems? The ones they’re using as ramps have been still ever since they transformed, and even the others have stopped moving.”

“I don’t really know. Golems are usually the result of Earth Magic, so they should have something commanding them. Maybe the monsters in charge of them died?”

Kalia’s magical knowledge was mostly due to experimentation and Arcane Grimoire. While she at least understood the basics of magic, she lacked a comprehensive understanding of how each school functioned. Only mages experienced in Earth Magic would have the answers to their questions, but there probably weren’t any conveniently around.

It should also be noted that Golems are not usually the result of Earth Magic. Far from it. Normal Golems come into existence when mana gathers in certain materials above a specific level. Earth Magic just replicates this phenomenon, creating artificial Golems. However, this also allows for far greater variance in the Golem's functionality, resulting in the War-Machines and Howitzers witnessed inside the Dungeon.

As for why the Golems had become inert, well, that was due to simple physics. Simply put, they’d exhausted all their energy. Golems created via Earth Magic are usually treated as disposable familiars since they’ll eventually run out of mana if it’s not replenished regularly. This is a trait shared by all artificially created Golems, regardless of Rank. The Howitzers that had stayed put still had energy to spare, but the rest had run dry.

Regardless, the mercenaries didn’t know that, and were thus still wary of the behemoths. It would take until after the battle before they’d learn that the now powerless Golems were nothing more than fancy statues.

Kalia and Grant decided to put the Golems out of their minds, at least until they became an active threat again. In the meantime, there were plenty of other, more active monsters to fight.

“Grant, over there! Isn’t that Braddock and Cameron!?”

“So it is. Stay close. I’ll cut us a path through to them.”

***

[Braddock’s POV]

“Is it just me, or are there less monsters than before?”

“No, they’re definitely starting to thin out. In fact, I believe the NPCs are starting to contain them to the Golem ramps. Though that does nothing for the ones that just climb up.”

The battle had only gotten so chaotic because of the monsters that ignored the ramps in favor of climbing the walls. While they were sitting ducks while doing so, the sheer number of monsters meant that some would inevitably make it, reducing the battle to this state. The fact that most of them were dead, at least on this segment, was a rather settling thought.

“Good. That means we’re one step closer to the end of this.”

“We’ll still need to kill the Void Wolf though. I haven’t seen hide nor hair of it since the battle began.”

“It’s gotta be hiding. Why else would it send out those clones instead of appearing on its own?”

“I don’t know. I feel like it might be up to something. Don’t forget that it somehow managed to sneak into the fort under everyone’s noses. It’s a cunning beast, if nothing else.”

“Aye. We should keep an eye out just in case. But still, I don’t think it’ll be able to do very much at this point. There’s too few monsters left.”

Despite the fact that he agreed with Cameron, Braddock couldn’t shake off a sense of dread. His instincts, honed over the years, told him that they were only in the eye of the storm.