Chương 43: War is Hell

Vin stared across the rapidly filling field of monsters, phantom pain throbbing in his missing hand as he tried to clench it. There had to be just as many monsters appearing as there were Earthers in the first wave, if not more. Doing his best not to lose hope, Vin took in the monsters closest to them. The first monster to fully manifest was a thick, scaly creature with eight stubby but powerful looking legs that stood close to the ground, looking around in confusion.

Its forked tongue flicked out of its mouth, seeming to inform it of their presence as it slowly turned their way, revealing its lack of eyes and the sizzling, acidic saliva dripping from its maw. Barely a dozen feet to its left popped in some sort of lanky monkey-like thing with blades extending from its wrists where hands should have been, screeching up at the sky as it jumped up and down in rage. Sparks flew as it scraped its blades together, and Vin had no doubt they would tear and rend flesh with little issue.

Just past the monkey appeared to be what Vin could only think of as an oversized armadillo; the monster nearly as tall as he was and able to curl up and fully shield itself using the dark blue armored plates growing up out of its body. Immediately after forming it began to roll around with ease, snapping branches and crushing rocks wherever it went.

Every single monster that Vin laid eyes on seemed totally different, and each one was equipped with an entirely unique way of killing him and his people should they break through their hastily built defenses.

"That's a lot of monsters," Shia whispered, her voice shaking despite her best efforts.

"You're telling me," Scule said, slowly pulling out his second dagger and carefully coating it in a sappy substance that smelled surprisingly like cherries.

"…I think I'm going to go into my tunnels now."

"Stay safe," Vin said, taking his eyes off the ever-growing field of monsters just long enough to see the petian give him a mocking salute before disappearing down a nearby hole. Taking another deep breath, he turned toward the only one of them that had a look of excitement instead of terror on their face.

"Ready to get started?"

"Does a borgal crap where it eats?" Not giving him a chance to respond, Alka grabbed the offered sword from Vin's hand, giving it a few practice swings before turning toward the rows of monsters. More and more of which were beginning to look in their direction, as though they could sense the camp's location. While a decent handful had thankfully begun fighting amongst themselves, it looked like most of them were far more interested in the squishy looking prey timidly hunkered behind the wooden barricades.

As the first few monsters finally began approaching with a horrific cacophony of growls, snarls, roars, and screams, Alka floated over the palisade and dashed out to meet them, yelling her own battle cry. Vin watched with bated breath as Alka reached the first line of monsters, the raging beasts lashing out at her with whatever they had available. They didn't stand a chance. Alka flowed like a whirlwind of blades, her sword cleaving limbs and heads from bodies wherever she went as she shot across the battlefield.

Vin could only look on in amazement as Alka showed them what her world's Slayers were capable of. A wolf with teeth the size of his fingers lunged at her midsection, only to blink in shock as it was decapitated before it could even close its mouth. A bird with wings sharper than any blade he'd ever seen attempted to swoop through her flickering form, only to let out a pained screech as it hit nothing and tried to lift back into the air with two thirds of its wing missing.

Some sort of burrowing monster launched itself out of the ground at her, only to meet Alka's twisting blade head on, sending each half of its body soaring past her in a gory display of skill.

"Ancient One's Sap!" Shia exclaimed, staring at Alka with wide eyes as the ghost carved her way across the battlefield.

"She's a monster! I knew she was skilled from when she used your body to take down the Trunkback, but this is insane!"

"Well her class was literally designed with the sole intention of fighting monsters," Vin said, wincing as Alka sliced a humanoid monster in half from the crotch upwards.

"Add her magic sword to the mix, and you've got quite the killing machine." But even as he watched, he began to notice where the one-woman killing machine struggled. Thanks to her enchanted sword and the petrified elder wood it was made from, Alka was able to slice through most things with ease. But stuck as a ghost, she didn't have any actual strength attribute.

That meant every attack relied almost entirely on the magic in the blade and the razor sharp edge, while the force of her strikes themselves were that of someone not even level 1. Whenever she encountered a monster capable of actually blocking her sword, or smart enough to stay away from it entirely, there was absolutely nothing she could do. Vin watched as her sword rebounded off the impressive carapace of the armadillo-like monster as it rolled past her, heading straight for their fortifications.

For her part, Alka showed her battle experience by immediately turning to the next monster she could fight rather than waste time trying to chase the armadillo down. Tearing his eyes off of Alka's slaughter, Vin watched the rolling monster barrel toward them like an out of control truck, completely ignoring the waves of wooden javelins and arrows bouncing off its shell as it sped across the empty plain. Gritting his teeth, Vin prepared himself for it to smash through their palisade.

Yet seconds away from smashing into their front line fighters, the ground suddenly erupted underneath the monster, and it let out a strangely high-pitched cry as it plummeted into the hidden spike-filled trap. Vin heard a chorus of cheers erupt from the line of defenders manning the wall, and saw a few people clap Alice on the back as the Trapper did her best to contain her proud grin.

Vin cheered right along with them, having heard from the lieutenant that Alice had even decided to forgo sleep in order to continue digging throughout the night. His elation only lasted so long however. Seemingly out of nowhere, the sounds of horrified screams and panicked cries erupted from the other side of camp, and Vin cursed his complacency as he took off toward the distressed cries with Shia right behind him.

He'd gotten so engrossed watching Alka hold an entire field of monsters at bay on her own that he'd forgotten she was only one person. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work! She couldn't defend every side of their camp at once. Darting past the handful of buildings the crafters had constructed before everything went to hell, Vin tried to check on the other sections as best he could as he ran toward the screaming.

To make things easier on everyone they'd broken the camp into four sections for this battle. To his surprise, Vin had originally found himself placed in charge of Section A. He'd tried to push the responsibility onto someone else, but Phil had been strangely adamant that he take the role, the intense man explaining that they needed their heaviest hitters divided as evenly as possible if they wanted any chance at survival.

In the end, after a quick but devastating display of Alka's ability and revealing to the shocked group that he and Shia were capable of healing magic, Vin had gotten them to acknowledge Alka was a better choice for holding the line, while Vin and Shia would have the job of roaming between the sections to heal people as needed. The screaming was coming from Section C, the one furthest across from him, meaning he was able to get a good look at Sections B and D as he ran.

Section B was led by Phil himself, and the dangerous looking man showed exactly why he'd been put in charge of the combat classes as he fought off multiple monsters at once. Vin's step almost faltered as he finally got the chance to witness the man's blade in action. Unlike Alka, who seemed to naturally flow from one attack to the next almost like a dancer, Phil fought like a killing machine.

Every strike was calculated, every step carefully executed to just barely dodge an attack or put him in the optimal spot for a counter. There was nothing flashy or fancy about the man's fighting style, which made the fact that he was practically single handedly holding the line for Section B all the scarier. Section D on the other hand, while still hanging on, was doing so by but a thread.

Vin was surprised to find Bri- Shredder leading the defense, the man barely managing to keep the waves of monsters from overtaking the palisades thanks to the squad of combat classes backing him up. Vin had thought the military had somehow broken the wild man in while he was gone, but watching him fight, Vin realized he hadn't changed all that much after all.

Shredder had clearly chosen his new name for a reason, as the man used his twin blades to tear into every monster that came his way one after another with reckless abandon. Unlike Alka and Phil however, there was nothing beautiful or mechanical about his fighting style. In fact, Vin couldn't help but think it looked downright idiotic. Rather than waste energy dodging or blocking, Shredder seemed to be good at one thing and one thing only. Attacking.

In the few seconds Vin had to spare while running toward Section C, he witnessed Shredder take numerous blows and gashes all across his body; the man's blood already running in rivers down his chest and limbs after only a few minutes of combat. What was strange however, was that not a single one of his injuries seemed to hinder the man.

And in exchange for landing the blows on him, the monsters that had attacked him had in turn been torn to shreds, hacked apart by a snarling Shredder that seemed almost more beast than man at this point. Making a mental note not to make fun of the man's new name any more, Vin put the image of a blood drenched Shredder at the back of his mind as Section C finally came into view.

His heart sank as he took in the sight of the combat classes trying desperately to hold the line; the monsters already having pushed them back to where the support and crafter classes were holed up with their ranged weapons.

If it weren't for Shia's rows of magical thorns slowing down the larger monsters and Spur fighting like a man possessed, his attacks seemingly fueled with nothing but sheer rage that these monsters dared attack his people right in front of him, the monsters almost certainly would have broken into the camp by now. Thanks to the seemingly endless barrels of javelins and the pits and palisades funneling the monsters to attack at only a few spots, they'd managed to hold the line, but only barely.

While Shia ran over to heal the combat classes fighting beside Spur, Vin looked around, wondering where all the screams had originated from. He didn't have to wonder for long. New Elite Monster Discovered! 500 exp gained. Standing at the other end of Section C before a half dozen combat classes was a snake the size of a small bus with a long, bloody horn jutting out of its forehead.

Its gleaming silver scales were splattered with blood and gore, and if the pile of impaled and crushed bodies were any indication, the monster didn't have much interest in eating people. Even as he watched, the giant snake alternated between thrusting its head forward in an attempt to impale people, and using its muscular body as a freakishly large whip, trying to crush people into the dirt or send them flying.

Before Vin could decide what the best course of action was, the snake's tail shot out once more, slamming into one of the combat classes that was too slow to dodge and sending his body soaring through the air like a ragdoll. Vin watched in horror as the man's body impacted the ground only a few feet from him with a sickening crunch, rolling a few feet before coming to a stop against one of the buildings with a loud thud. Sprinting to his side, Vin's stomach lurched as he took in the fallen warrior.

Half of his chest had been completely caved in, and the man's face was so messed up he couldn't even tell if it was someone he knew. Trying his best to keep his breakfast down, Vin immediately began channeling Renewal, running his glowing hand over the man's many injuries. When nothing happened, he desperately tried dumping more mana into his spell with Runic Recalibration; first two, then three times as much. Yet no matter how much mana he poured into the spell, the man's body lay there, unchanging.

Before Vin could try anything else, a hand grabbed his shoulder, yanking him off the man and spinning him around.

"He's gone!" Lieutenant Myers cried, shouting to be heard over the nearby roars of the attacking monsters and snapping Vin out of the strange trance seeing a man killed in front of him had put him in. For the first time Vin could remember, the lieutenant looked frazzled, as though this was the first situation in her entire life that she didn't have completely under control.

Her uniform was ripped and covered in dirt and blood, and she held a bulky, strange looking crossbow in one hand that Vin had never seen before.

"Don't waste your time trying to do the impossible! We need you there!" Following her finger, Vin stared at the giant snake making its way through the last line of defenders with ease. Based on how quickly it struck, they had only seconds before it finally breached their camp and set upon the crafting and support classes desperately hurling javelins to no avail before it hit the other sections from behind. If that happened, everyone would die.

Trying to put the image of the man's crushed body out of his mind, Vin nodded, pushing himself to his feet. Seeing the understanding in his eyes, Myers finally released him, turning to glare at the snake herself.

"I'll support you the best I can, but I won't be able to do much directly unless you can pin it down. I haven't had a lot of time to level, and I'm not actually a combat class."

"Well, neither am I," Vin chuckled weakly as he came to terms with what he was about to do. Gritting his teeth, he leaned down and began running. Directly at the elite monster about to kill them all.