Chapter 35: Chapter 35: Killing Field

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

Killing Field

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Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win…

These words from the great Sun Tzu were the inspiration for my strategy to whittle down our enemies until they were nothing more than beaten prey that we could devour with ease. And, with the symphony of cannon fire resounding all around us, I believed that victory was already ours even as the battle was just beginning.

Now, rune cannons were different from those old cannons that Earth pirates used in one key component; each of these big guns was enchanted with runes corresponding to a specific element. Because of this, every cannonball launched by a cannon was imbued with the element they’d been enchanted with. So, if a cannon enchanted with the ‘Wind Rune’ launched a cannonball into a cluster of monsters, like what was happening right now, the result would be an explosion akin to a tornado coming to life for one brief moment just to shit on someone’s day—and that’s exactly what we were seeing.

With every cannonball that struck the earth, a tornado-like explosion sent scores of monsters flying in every direction—and it was kind of funny to watch.

Of course, the Red Pearl’s thirty cannons didn’t just spew out wind elemental shells. Its selections were far more diverse than that.

In one part of the battlefield, a cannonball slamming into a cluster of hobgoblins exploded into a torrent of water that was like a waterfall rising upward and then crashing down onto its targets, sweeping away hobgoblins too slow to run out of the line of fire.

In another area even further away, lizardmen and snake women were devoured in a pinpoint earthquake created by a cannonball that made the ground beneath them rumble. While over on the ogre side of the monster horde, trolls who’d been shocked by a shower of electrical sparks rampaged around their line, trampling the tiny sluagh and ghouls who’d been marching along with them.

I’d hope to also see a shell imbued with time magic turn monsters into decaying bones, or maybe even grapeshot that could summon darkness to devour our enemies like a black hole, but, sadly, Red Beard’s arsenal wasn’t that diverse.

As for fire elemental shells, well, I recommended they didn’t shoot those into the vicinity of a field that was already laden with blessed oil pits. That would ruin the surprise.

Soon enough, the Red Pearl’s bombardment ended, and we were left with a scene straight from a human World War II movie; Smoke and debris and corpses covering the far end of the battlefield. It was a gruesome sight. So, of course, we cheered. We cheered our lungs out and yelled, “Crimson Corsairs! Crimson Corsairs!” to the sky.

Our cheers quickly died out, however, once we noticed that a lot more of the horde had survived that first bombardment. These survivors resumed their march, and even from where I crouched, I could see the livid expressions on hobgoblin faces, hear the lizardmen’s cries for vengeance, and smell the stink of ogre cigars in the wind.

“Oh, you ain’t seen nothing yet,” I grinned.

During their march, several of these monsters discovered our traps by falling right into them, and this slowed the monster horde considerably as even hobgoblins with low IQs were smart enough to begin watching where they stepped.

“Now’s a good time for that surprise!” I yelled over my shoulder.

From somewhere behind me, I heard Mistress Lorelai yell, “bogmaðr!” which was elvish for bowmen, and “herǫr!”

I glanced over my shoulder and watched as Delphine notched a special kind of bolt onto her crossbow. It had a head made of twisted wires that acted as a basket for a round vial filled with gunpowder. It was the modern-day fire arrow.

“Don’t miss,” I said encouragingly.

“I don’t”—Delphine aimed her crossbow upward and then pulled the trigger—“miss.”

Hers was just one among dozens of fire arrows rising into the sky and then landing onto moss-covered ground that hid the ditches that were filled with blessed oil. Bonfires came to life across the battlefield, and with their crackling came the sound of innumerable screams which were followed by the scent of burning flesh and leather.

Monsters smart enough to evade the fire pits weren’t left alone either. Arrows struck these beasts in their vital parts, sending scores of lizardmen, snake women, and sluagh tumbling to the ground where they were crushed by the trampling of their fellows.

The chimes of status bar notifications reached my ears, which I assumed from someone’s yell of, “Yes, I’ve leveled up!” meant a lot of people were enjoying the early spoils of our battle. Incidentally, I leveled up as well while Liara still hadn’t.

“Focus, novices!” Mistress Lorelai reproached. “This is only the beginning.”

Sheesh, that dark elf was good at doling out ominous vibes with just a few words. Still, people couldn’t help but cheer and feel giddy at how easy things seemed to be. Oh, if they only knew what was coming. The patchwork wolves had yet to make their appearance after all.

“By the spirits, you’ve outdone yourself this time, Will,” Dess whispered in awe. “I’m not at all surprised that Mistress Lorelai allowed you to make this plan for us.”

“Honestly, I think she just wants to turn this whole thing into a lesson,” I reasoned. “Why else would she allow her novices to take the lead in such an important battle?”

“Because she’s crazy?” Scaredy Cat spoke up from his spot beside Dess.

“Or because she wants to see what we’re made of,” I countered. “I’m confident that she’s already got a backup plan ready in case we get overrun.”

“We better win then. Could you imagine how embarrassing it’ll be if the Academy has to send reinforcements to help us?” Liara chimed in.

“The high rankers will lord our failure over us and keep us from challenging their seats for at least a semester,” Zen, who was crouching next to Liara, added. “Now’s our chance to secure our ticket to the next challenge day.”

“Will we even get a chance to fight?” Dess asked.

About two heads to her right, Lohgan’s surly face came into view, and I couldn’t believe I was glad to see that the wood elf wasn’t dead yet.

“We better get some action, Wisdom,” he growled at me. “I’m not sitting through another raid where only you get to show off.”

Alright, I take back that part about being glad to see him. Lohgan was still annoying.

Also, technically, this wasn’t a raid. Or if it was, then the roles were reversed, and we were the raid defenders this time.

“Cool your unicorns, Lohgan.” I pointed forward. “We’ll all get our chance to bloody our blades soon…”

Despite the success of the ditches and the sniper fire, there was still enough of the horde charging toward us to make it seem like we were far from winning this battle. I was particularly worried about the trolls and their ogre handlers who could sweep away our defenses with just pure strength.

“Salt grenades!” someone yelled, while another adventurer called for, “Iron shrapnel!”

Canisters of salt grenades and iron shrapnel were lobbed over the barricades to land in the middle of the first clusters of monsters to come within our range. Pressurized vapor burst out in all directions, spraying the horde in a liquid salt solution that burned their skin as it made contact. Likewise, iron shrapnel exploded over monster heads, embedding shards of cold iron into their hides and infecting their insides with iron poisoning effects.

“Are you ready, Will?” Zen asked.

Like me and Liara, the yeti was holding onto a polished round stone that we’d each decorated with runes painted in our blood.

“Hold on!” I called.

Then, while I recalled the lyrics to this awesome Billy Joel song, I raised my runestone to my lips and began to sing a tune.

“We didn’t start the fire. It was always burning since the world’s been turning,” I sang.

“What is it with you and eighties human pop songs?” Liara wondered aloud.

“Don’t cramp my style,” I complained, before resuming my song, “Hemingway, Eichmann, Stranger in a Strange Land—Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs invasion—Lawrence of Arabia, British Beatlemania—”

“Just throw it already!” Liara interrupted again.

Sheesh, everyone’s a critic.

I lobbed my runestone over the barricades and waited for it to drop on the ground between clusters of snake women and lizardmen before I called upon the power of the rune painted on the surface of the stone.

“Kenaz,” I whispered, and then I finished my song with, “We didn't start the fire…”

The ground rumbled where I’d cast my spell just before fire sparked to life underneath the monsters’ feet. It spread outward, blossoming like an orange flower that caused the earth below to explode upward, wrapping the snake women and lizardmen in a cloud of dust and smoke and billowing flames.

Meanwhile, Liara cast “Īsaz!” into a cluster of hobgoblins, and with the ‘Ice Rune’ exploding out of her runestone, three-foot ice spikes spread out of the impact zone and pierced the flame-resistant bastards who could do nothing against their opposite element’s increased damage effects.

Interestingly, I didn’t get to finish my song. Zen had done that for me as he cast a “Hagalaz” rune on a group of ghouls and sent them flying away with gale-force winds.

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“…It was always burning since the world’s been turning,” he sang.

“Oh, gods, not you too,” Liara sighed.

“What do you have against singing?” I asked.

“I have nothing against singing,” she replied. “I used to date an Elemental, remember?”

There was no way my caveboy mind could forget that my pretty half-elven friend was the ex-girlfriend of my idol, Lisha of the Elementals.

“And yet?” I pressed.

Liara threw another runestone at the mob of incoming monsters before responding. “I’m not into pop… All elves are partial to classic hip-hop.”

“Okay-okay, want to do a rendition of ‘Alfheim Love’ or ‘Regulator Men’ with me then?”

“No.”

With Liara killing my groove, I became less enthused with lobbing runestones at our enemies. Fortunately—or maybe it was unfortunate—we’d reached a point in the proceedings where our enemies were now in range to lob things back at us. That made things exciting again.

“Watch out for maenad arrows!” someone warned. While another adventurer yelled, “Don’t let a snake woman’s acid spit get in your face!”

Hobgoblin fireballs were extra-annoying too as we had to make sure to snuff them out before any of the flames fell on the moss between the two iron barricades.

“Trolls are coming through on our right!” Delphine warned.

“Not if I can help it,” Brunhilde replied in her softly-spoken tone.

I’d seen the half-giant cast this particular conjuration spell before, and I remembered that the tornado she’d wrapped around our party had also led to her death. The thing is, I swore that if I could help it, no one from Team Six would die tonight.

“I should—”

Well, it wasn’t exactly as bad as the last time. For one, Brunhilde was up against two bloodthirsty cave trolls instead of a crowd of bloodthirsty hobgoblins—which I assumed was better overall. Two, the half-giant wasn’t wasting her low pool of magic protecting us, but harnessing her tornado to slam two cave trolls against each other, and forcing them to tumble.

Honestly, seeing how good she was with magic, I was beginning to think that Brunhilde was wasting her potential training with a pure rogue build in mine.

“Huh, maybe I don’t need—”

Lohgan was also much more proactive in his second chance. He’d yelled at Brunhilde not to leave the line while also moving to her side and protecting the half-giant’s flank from bloodthirsty hobgoblins who’d noticed the large target close by.

With each swish and flick of his wrists, the future bladeslinger cut down a hobgoblin. Each kill sent his blink daggers back to their holsters, allowing him to fire at nearby enemies indefinitely, and ensuring that Brunhilde wouldn’t die that same terrible death she’d met last time.

“I guess I’m not needed,” I shrugged.

Yep, things were different this time around, and I hoped we could keep our momentum until after I gutted the blue-eyed emissary with my glaive.

Unfortunately, things took a turn for the worst. An Irish ogre had appeared beyond the first barricade lying directly ahead of us to blow his cigar at me and my teammates.

A billowing cloud of ash spread out in a wide area—and barely singed the skin of those adventurers who didn’t pull back in time. Yep, we all smelled of fresh lavender, and its protection against evil shit lessened the burn wounds made by the Irish ogre’s area-of-effect spell.

Too bad the first barricade wasn’t as well protected or sturdy enough to endure the force of a second ogre’s spiked club. A single swing had nearly destroyed our side of the fence.

“Will someone get rid of that ogre already!” Mistress Lorelai commanded.

I felt like she was specifically ordering me to do it, and so I jumped out from behind the second barricade and aimed the butt end of my glaive at my new target.

“I call on thee, oh ancient spirits of fire. Come forth and bring life—”

“Your chant’s too long!” Liara complained just as she jumped over our iron barricade with her spell-saber in hand, its blade gleaming with the telltale signs of enchantment.

“Hey”—She’d intentionally disrupted my chant by bumping her shoulder against mine—“that’s my—”

The she-elf was already swinging her glowing spell-saber at my target, and the powerful elemental coating she’d enchanted her weapon with cut the ogre’s hand off at the wrist, ridding it of the club that could have broken our defenses.

“I guess she’s more of a Luke than Chewy…” I sighed. “I’m still Han though.”

Liara didn’t claim the killing blow though as she was quick to run back to our side and get behind the barricade before she was swarmed by a mob of monsters. Instead, the ogre’s death came at the hands of other spells launched at close range by novices eager to steal Liara’s kill.

“We’ve got a breach!” One of the Grimm brothers warned.

Sure enough, the first barricade had fallen somewhere to my left, and monsters began pouring through it. Leading the charge were two patchwork wolves, one of which was the gray bastard that had killed Zen.

“Go, Wisdom!” Liara reminded me.

As part of this assignment—which we were all assuming must have at least counted as our midterm exam based on its difficulty—Mistress Lorelai had left it to me to spring our final trap. And, with one side of the barricade falling apart, more breaches appeared along our line, with cries of “Shield wall!” resounding around me. So, yeah, this was it.

I jumped over the second barricade just as the gray wolf ran forward. However, before the beast could tear open Zen’s jugular for a second time—as if the wolf was fated to kill my tower-mate in every life—I slammed my feet on the moss-covered ground and poured my magic into the earth.

Fire and brimstone and volcanic ash exploded around me while also igniting the blessed oil in the channel below, sending a wall of blessed flames to shoot upward and burn the monsters that were crowding the space between our two barricades.

A chime from my pocket and a quick inspection of my status bar told me I’d also activated Scorched Earth so that the monsters closest to me became weakened enough to be easily consumed in a combination of blessed flames and volcanic fire.

As for me, Liara had unceremoniously pulled me back over the second barricade so that I wouldn’t get caught in our trap as well. The she-elf was intuitive to my needs, for sure, but I wished she could be a little gentler.

All along our line, a wall of flames rose and kept our enemies at bay so that I imagined we’d get a little room to breathe before the next hurdle came. No such luck.

Proving yet again that it was more of a ‘Terminator’ than a simple beast, the horse-sized gray wolf charged through the flame barrier while ignoring the fire that burned its patchwork fur. It had abandoned its attempt to kill Zen and pounced on me instead—and that’s when something silver zipped past my ear and skewered the beast right between its open jaws.

“Gin!” I exclaimed. “Holy Hel… that was brutal.”

Believe it or not, the gray wolf survived Mistress Lorelai’s silver spear, although it seemed pretty useless now that it had been impaled through the mouth. Killing it wasn’t my job though. The task for dealing with the patchwork wolves belonged to the reinforcements who’d hung back and waited for these priority kills to appear.

Sure enough, the gray wolf would lose its life to a pair of black-edged scimitars wielded by my old pal, Red Beard.

“I thought you said these fucks would be difficult to kill, Will?” he asked.

“Don’t sound so proud of a kill”—Gin flew back into the hands of Mistress Lorelai who’d appeared at Red Beard’s side—“you didn’t earn. It was my spear and Mr. Wisdom’s plan that brought the beast low.”

“And yet the only thing that counts is who’s killed the beast, ain’t it?” Red Beard replied smugly. “That’s one for me, L.”

“One kill does not equal a victory… Besides,” Mistress Lorelai nodded forward, “I’ll be winning our bet soon enough.”

I followed her line of sight and was just in time to watch as five patchwork wolves jumped over the four-meter flame barrier we’d constructed to slam against the hastily constructed shield wall that barred their way.

We were in the thick of it now, and I was loving this development.