WW Chapter 99: Dangerous Situations (Patreon)

“I can’t find anything,” Telemachus shook his head as he jumped across a small dry creek. “Nothing nearly big enough to deal with what we have coming.”

“You haven’t found ‘nothing’, you haven’t found exactly what we’re looking for,” Ezra snapped back as he glanced behind his friend. The Dragonkin wolf was close, no more than fifty meters away now, and though it was outpacing the rest of the creatures pursuing them, it wasn’t getting close enough to actually engage. Just watching. Waiting. Stalking. “We don’t have time to find something perfect. What’s the best thing you can see?”

“Another forty meters up this wash,” Telemachus answered. “It’s a place where there used to be a pond, I think. The wash leads down, but there’s a tree growing over the hole. Not full cover, but we should be able to limit how many of the fuckers are coming at us at a time there.”

“That’s the best we’re gonna get,” Ezra nodded. “Lead the way.”

As he said it, he looked around to find Jormun. The old ghost had immediately gone off on reconnaissance as soon as Ezra had stated what the squad’s plans would be, and that he hadn’t returned yet. That meant Jormun hadn’t found anything better. Now, they could only do whatever they could to make sure that they could fight and pace themselves enough to survive this attack, as well as whatever other others continued to pursue them.

“How close are you to being able to cast Divine Vigor?” Dirk asked Luna.

“About as close as you are to being a Knight,” she answered.

“Shit. Would’ve been awesome if you could suddenly break through and give us another casting as soon as this ran out.”

“I agree,” she shook her head. “However, I can only barely move mana, I’m not even close to becoming a Cleric, much less a Deacon that has second level spells. Maybe, if something happened, I’d be able to use a light healing spell or bless a weapon.”

“Enough talking,” Ezra cut in. “I would say save your breath, but we don’t need to. But let’s be focused.”

Everybody did as he said, and Ezra noted that Dirk wasn’t limping anymore. He couldn’t help but shake his head in an emotion he couldn’t quite place. The single spell was making a massive difference for the soldiers, and it would still be going for something like three quarters of an hour, so far as Ezra could tell. The wounds they had also sustained continued to heal quickly, and they weren’t getting tired.

“Jhas said this was a second level spell?” Ezra confirmed. “So it’s the equivalent of somebody who becomes an Adept? This seems unfair to try to compare it to what any of us can do.”

“Not listening to your own command,” Telemachus laughed as he came around the corner and into the dried-out pond bed. The creek bed was covered with soft sand here, and curved gently down to make a two or three meter wide battlefield. Ezra grunted as he stepped forward and got into position. He took the place as the front and center fighter as Luna settled in at his right and answered the question.

“Yes, second level spells become available to Deacons. Basically, an Adept in terms of Knighthood. However, a new Deacon would have to learn the spell after they ascend, there’s no spells that they’re simply able to cast as soon as they deepen their connection to the gods. In addition, this spell is doing so much for us because it’s condensed to affect only four people instead of twenty, as well as how strong we all are already. If we were only four regular soldiers, we wouldn’t be getting tired, but we wouldn’t be as strong and would certainly have died in the last fight.”

Clinking metal distracted any further conversation. There was no more time to get distracted as Ezra saw a chained one for the first time.

The names were immediately obvious, as, instead of armor, equipment, or even clothes, each of the chained ones was draped in thick links of chain, as if they’ve been wrapped up in them. However, the chains were seared into their flesh, growing out in various different places and then reconnecting somewhere else. What he could see of their faces looked like they'd been burned. The chains were just as thick around the head as they were on the body, and the skin was necrotized and tight against the somewhat human-like skull, and hollow eye sockets seemed to be able to see anyways.

Their steps were heavy and consistent as they jogged up the dry, rocky wash towards the soldiers. The rattling of chains was loud as all four of the soldiers involuntarily cursed upon seeing the demons. The one that took us by surprise, however, was what Luna said.

“Jibahia, give me ferocity. Let me rend my foes to pieces.”

“That seems like a good prayer,” Ezra chuckled.

Then, all of the goblins came up behind the chained ones and rushed towards the battle line with screeches of challenge.

“Come at me!” Ezra shouted as he hefted his axe and looked forward. The first two chained ones would be the first to enter, with the other two too large to fit through the narrow mouth without scrambling up the slope. Since they were coming from above, Ezra raised his shield to take their first hits as his own attack was at the perfect height to slam into the outside of one thigh. He swung, and the head of his axe was turned from a crippling blow into a glancing one by the chains.

At his side, Dirk defended as well, slamming his mace into the shin of the second chained one. It let out a moan of pain as its chains scraped against Dirk’s shield. The blunt weapon seemed to do better against the defenses of the creature, though Telemachus’s spear found a gap in the chains in the demon’s chest. Flames flickered from the weapon as he struck, but he didn’t have the reserves to kill the creature outright. Instead, the smell of burning flesh filled the air as it shrieked an unholy cry of agony.

A flurry of blows fell towards Ezra, heavy, but not even as strong as a bugbear’s attacks. He could fend them off easily enough, but the goblins were pushing through and starting to threaten Luna and Telemachus. Ezra spun his hold on his axe around to slam the back end into his enemy’s ribs. Bone crunched under the attack, and it bent over. Even misshapen, though, the chained one didn’t fall.

“Come on,” Ezra grunted, as he stepped forward and pushed the demon. It stumbled back only half a step, its chains starting to wrap around his shield. He twisted his arm to get it to slip off, but it was becoming increasingly obvious that, more than being a deadly threat by itself, the chained one was just a massive pain in the ass to deal with. The squad would be fine, because there was nothing that could do enough damage—

As soon as the thought crossed Ezra’s mind, the wolf Dragonkin jumped through the tree into the middle of their formation. It leapt over Luna to land on Dirk with both of its paws slamming into him. He fell down under the attack, and its howls filled the air as claw and fang looked to rip the life from his friend.

“Luna, hold the line,” Ezra commanded as he abandoned both of the chained ones to her. He waited for no answer as he swung with all of his might to slam his axe into the hindquarters of the wolf. The weapon cut through some of its scales, but didn’t manage to fully cripple the beast. Instead, he could only listen to Dirk grunt in pain and effort as he tried to keep himself from being torn to shreds.

The memory of being collapsed on the ground as monsters killed Helen right in front of him filled his mind. Ezra drew heavily on his inner world’s reserves as the wolf swung its thick, heavy tail at him. With his tempestuous aura guiding his movements, Ezra jumped with the strike of the tail, allowing it to throw him out of the squad’s formation for just a second. He landed with his legs against the steep wall of the dry pond, and jumped forward. The Adept flew towards the beast with his axe’s head bursting with wind and glowing from his aura.

Wind whipped around him as he slammed his weapon towards the base of the monster’s neck. It started to turn towards him, noticing that he hadn't been pushed out of the fight for long, but instead of decapitating the beast, he smashed his axe’s head right between its eyes. Its lower jaw cracked against the ground. The axe cut through bone. The beast died.

“Drop!” Ezra commanded as he choked his hold up on the axe and yanked it out of the corpse’s brains. Luna did just what he’d commanded and Ezra’s weapon, drawing on most of his remaining reserves, cut through defenses and limbs. The two closest chained ones went down in a tumble of limbs at that. They wailed as their legs failed them, and Luna worked to stab between their defenses as the demons tried to fight to their single remaining feet.

Ezra stopped focusing on them for now, leaving the other two to come into the blood-soaked battlefield as he rushed around to kill all the remaining goblins. Thick nearly purple blood flew from his weapon as he carved through the remainders, but he was exhausted as the four soldiers were left to fight against the two chained ones.

Well, only technically four, Dirk hadn’t stood up yet. Ezra didn’t allow himself to continue to think about that. Instead, exhausted as he was, he worked with Luna and Telemachus to batter the creatures around until his allies could make lasting wounds on the enemies.

“We need to hurry,” Ezra grunted as his vision swam. Fortunately, Telemachus took that moment to lodge his spear in the final chained one’s throat. “If we can actually kill these bastards.”

“If we can keep moving, we will,” Luna said, her tone even. Instead of working with the two men still on their feet, she rushed over to Dirk, whose gasping breaths Ezra could barely hear over the tumult of battle. The chained ones were damn loud as they rattled against metal armor and themselves.

In a handful more seconds, Ezra and Telemachus dispatched the final monster and turned their attention towards where Luna ministered to Dirk.

Ezra jogged around to see Dirk and felt his stomach twist. The other man’s face was pale, and his chest cut to ribbons. His breastplate had been torn under the Dragonkin wolf’s claws, and blood pumped constantly from the dozens of wounds there. 

“Fuuuuck,” Ezra breathed. He looked at Luna, who shrugged.

“I’d say keep from moving him and let him recover, but we can’t. We need to get to the village or this will all have been for nothing. Hopefully we can get there fast and let Divine Vigor heal him.”

“Then we move,” Ezra said, handing his shield to Telemachus and taking Dirk onto his back. The woozy feeling from largely exhausting his inner world had faded, so he was back to near perfect condition. He didn’t listen to any words as he stood and started to lead the way through the hills towards where the village was supposed to be.

They could only hope that they were going in the right direction and could get there before Dirk died.