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Chapter 95: First Wave 2
Chapter 95: First Wave 2
Five hundred skeletons rose from the muck just when the soldiers and the acolytes reached the end of the lane for the gate.
The young men and women all came to a bumbling stop and watched the skeletons shed their useless flesh, pluck out left-over organs from inside their rib cages, and strip themselves of lingering muscles and tendons until they were all bone white, the rain washing away the blood.
“Finish off the survivors among the kobolds and help get the corpses to the dungeon!” Zarian ordered.
The skeletons nodded at once and turned to do their grim task.
At this point, even Naomi couldn’t bring herself to push the young people any harder. They needed time to recover after seeing Zarian’s mightiest work of spellcraft yet.
That was fine because it gave Zarian’s new skeletons time to stab to death the remaining kobolds with their own weapons. The skeletons even dove upon the survivors and strangled their former brethren with their bony hands. The empty eye sockets and rictus grins of the new skeletons gave no remorse to their former kin as they slaughtered them mercilessly.
When the skeletons finished, Zarian looked over at the total tally.
Still no level up. Zarian chuckled. He supposed that was fair or too many high-level monsters, intelligent or not, would run around and wipe out low-level civilizations just to grind up their levels easier.
With the enemy completely wiped out, everyone worked quickly to drag corpses through the gap in the entrance, right under the crook of Stony’s knee. There, the dungeon spiders took the corpses and passed them along a conveyor line with their insectoid hands.
While the dungeon could fully recover by absorbing ambient aura from the surrounding land outside of the fort, it was faster to throw in fresh material for it to feast on.
Zarian didn’t need to be a genius to figure that out, especially with how eagerly the dungeon spiders worked with the fresh bodies. He was sure Reiki would smile from the offering to her dungeon.
Zarian chuckled. “Nobody can’t say I’m a bad Dungeon Master.”
Finally, after some hours of bloody and gruesome logistics, they removed a majority of the corpses from the battlefield. The Dancing Librarian Dungeon was well fed, now able to produce even more supplies for the Ride-or-Die Fort along with greater comforts, such as easy-to-build pavilions and spacious tents and magic lamp posts that lit up the fort while running on only a small amount of aura.
As for the extra skeletons, Zarian left them out on the battlefield as piles of bones buried in the mud.
“Good job, everyone,” Naomi said to the formation of soldiers and acolytes. They were standing at the center of the nicely lit and refurbished fort. “Take the night off and enjoy your gains. Make sure to place your Free Points where you need them most. Eat as much food as you want and sleep well.”
The acolytes and soldiers looked at her wide-eyed, unable to believe that Lady Instructor Washington was being nice to them.
Naomi knew well enough when to dial it up and when to dial it down. They had no idea that she was actually very proud of them, almost like a mother.
“And if you’re going to sneak around, try to be subtle about it,” Gilbert said with a chuckle. “Then again, just know Lord Zarian over here will be watching. There’s an invisible spider somewhere near all of us.”
The wide-eyed stares only grew wider. Zarian didn’t say anything. He just stood coolly with his arms crossed. He did let the darkness under his wizard hat lighten so they could see his all-knowing smirk.
“We have another battle tomorrow, everyone. It’s going to be harder than today. But we’re doing great!” Bianca gave them all thumbs up and a bright smile, uplifting all of their spirits with her Shining Trust and her princess ways.
She was as peachy as anyone could be after seeing thousands of evil creatures die.
“If there are any issues you’ve found with the fortifications, let me know. I did make everything in a rush,” Hannah said, sounding well-rested. She had slept during most of the siege just like Stony.
Nobody had anything to say, so Hannah left it at that.
All attention fell on Zarian.
“Did anyone die?” he asked.
No response.
“Huh, funny that. Nobody’s dead. And it looks like everyone’s above Level 20 now and making way through the early Level 30s. I wonder how that happened.”
Still no response. But he caught a few soldiers and acolytes smiling or looking away in embarrassment. Zarian’s smirk grew into a grin.
“That’s what I thought. You’re dismissed. Let’s get back to it tomorrow.”
The soldiers and acolytes scrambled away as an excited rush of teens who were both tired and animated from today’s gruesome work. There was no real trauma to be found, not when they had levels, stats, and Free Points to distribute. Not when they had thought themselves dead and were still alive to face another day.
Zarian scrolled through his notifications where a declaration waited.
“Reiki and beer?” Zarian asked his fellow Floridians.
There were so many kobolds they couldn’t all rush down at the front of the fortress. Several thousand attacked from the sides as well, which was even more dangerous. The specialized kobolds could aim to infiltrate where there was the least resistance.
“Naomi, to the eastern wall,” Zarian ordered. “Bianca, to the western wall. I’ll keep watch on the southern wall, just in case. Kill them all.”
“ROLAND, take charge!” Naomi yelled.
“Yes, Lady Instructor Washington!”
Naomi nodded before she ran off to fight on the eastern wall. She wouldn’t be entirely alone, since Zarian directed a heavy presence of spectral spiders to stay close to her. While they weren’t fighters, the spectral spiders were great at tying up and slowing down enemy units.
They were suited for Naomi’s style, and with the help of her Earth-Sky Meditation skill, she could always stop and recover.
Granted, it was still risky to send her off like that, but it had to be done. At least she wouldn’t have to fight on the ground. They had other ways to wreck kobolds from a distance.
Bianca, on the other hand, would be perfectly fine. She beamed a bright and intense smile before she soared away in a flurry of sparkling lights. She had so much power packed into her as good +3, she could eradicate scores of kobolds without too many issues.
She had the high Wonder stat and abilities for it.
Zarian still sent half his skeletons as backup for her: Glowy, Hasty, Warper, Windy, and Flamer.
Zarian would rather be safe than sorry, although he was more likely to lose the skeletons than the Light Princess if they weren’t careful.
That shouldn’t be a problem as long as they stayed on the wall. As long as Bianca stayed good +3.
“I still don’t like the odds,” Zarian muttered.
Two thousand to the east.
Two thousand to the west.
Seven thousand barreling down at their front.
And there were kobolds in the Level 40s with special classes lurking in the horde.
Yeah, no, this was problematic. Zarian had reasons to be concerned, but he didn’t let that show.
Just like yesterday, he had his arms folded across his chest while the Parasite Cloak flapped dramatically in its biggest and most monstrous form. He exuded nothing but confidence on the outside, and that worked too well on the soldiers and acolytes.
“There’s no stopping us now! They can throw a hundred thousand at us and our Floridian Lords and Ladies won’t bat an eye!” a soldier shouted.
I don’t think we can take on a hundred thousand, Zarian thought.
“Can you imagine how much we’ll grow today? Maybe we’ll all be in the Level 30s and on our way to Level 40! I never thought such a thing was possible, but anything is possible in the Ride-or-Die Guild!” an acolyte cheered.
Hold it now, my excitable girl. The leveling speed slows down drastically as you go up, Zarian thought.
“We’ll never lose! We’ll defeat thousands and thousands more! We’ll even defeat millions if we have to!” a different soldier shouted.
Millions?! Zarian was struggling to keep his thoughts to himself.
“Lord Zarian Darkrun says we’ll live to be gray and old after this! All we must do is believe in him!” an acolyte cheered.
“Lord Zarian! Lord Zarian! Lord Zarian!” the young men and women cried out.
“Woo, Ride-or-Die!” someone screamed.
The Madness Wizard wanted to groan from embarrassment. This was his fault. He’d given them a little too much confidence.
They didn’t even care how the kobolds were laying down wooden bridges over the ditches to keep funneling forward in numerous streams. The pace the kobolds pushed, despite the larger size of today’s battle, was much faster than yesterday.
The wolf dragons are still holding back, but all these kobolds might actually threaten my side of the game.
Zarian shook his head before he glanced up at the suns with some mild disinterest.
“I would’ve preferred the weather from yesterday,” he said, “but fine, I’ll play big bad dark magician even when it’s bright out.”