Chương 32: Shaman

Before I could register what was happening, Shave leapt in front of the shaman's staff. The soul crystal screamed, the wood trembled, and before I could do anything, a beam of black ash speared out, cleaving through the air toward us. It smashed into Shave's chest, breaking the Dupe's chainmail. It was raw, primal magic, and it struck with a will to annihilate. Shave flew back, skidding along the ground, and tendrils of black ash rose from his chest like smoke. In an instant, he fell still, eyes glazing over.

My heart froze for a second. All my streams of Focus latched onto Shave's body. Was he dead?

"Levi!" Ticks shouted. The shaman was pointing its staff again, and it aimed toward me. It was going to do the exact same thing. There was no time to process, only to survive. Rushing forward, I slapped the shaman's staff upward with my spear, sending the bolt cleaving across the sky in a straight line, untouched by gravity. The shaman wasn't any larger than a regular orc, so I tried to stab it.

I doubted I could pierce a Steel's flesh without first poising myself properly, but I wasn't about to waste a point of Presence if I didn't have to. And it was a good thing I waited. The shaman was faster than I anticipated, faster than any other orc, and it darted to the side, aiming its staff again. An Iron had at least one point of Presence. A Steel, at least ten. If it was close to Titanium, it had to be closer to fifty.

I couldn't rely on it running out of points, even if Sir Aldhelm had implied that some Skills used more than one point of Presence. This time, I used a high lunge and knocked the shaman's staff down. The beast was stronger than I thought, and I didn't hit its staff nearly as hard as I'd hoped. It drifted down toward my leg, and I jumped to the side just in time to dodge the bolt as it cleaved past my thigh.

It ripped some of the fabric and left a tiny slice on the surface of my flesh, which quickly turned to a black rash. But it didn't spread too far. It hadn't hit me directly enough, and my body was containing it.

"Levi, duck!" Romance yelled. I dropped down, and a volley of arrows surged over my back. Some hit the orcs behind the shaman, and a few pierced through the shaman's outer garments. But they only seemed to make it more angry. More of the orcs around the shaman fell, and our lines were closing back up. But behind me, the pressure from Sir Aldhelm's burgeoning Art grew, and we didn't have much time left. If the Shaman was still alive, it could block Aldhelm's Art, then we'd be doomed. I just needed one good hit.

If I could pierce a boulder, then I could pierce the shaman—if it would just hold still.

"Everyone!" I shouted. Shave was gone. The squads were scattered, and our line was threatening to break. It didn't matter what squad they were part of, or where Finger was. We had to take out the shaman now, and we had to coordinate.

"Group up! Press the shaman from both sides! We can clean up the stragglers later."

"Yeti! Branch! With me!" Elf called, waving his axe. He charged from the side, triggering a resonance Skill to smash through a clump of orcs then press up against the shaman. The beast tilted its staff at them and blasted one of the Dupes through his chest, just like Shave. Another group charged from the other side, this time with Ticks. The shaman lifted its staff up and screeched.

"Samefaces rot!" Tendrils of black ash lifted up from the ground, and the grass turned to fungus. The mud boiled. One of the Dupes beside Ticks slipped, falling into the dirt with a scream and a crunch of bone, but his body decomposed into a puddle of brown liquid. Shouting in anger, I lunged forward. The shaman had killed Shave. He'd killed so many Dupes out here. Maybe I was just an Atoning, but these were still Lemming's brothers. I wanted revenge.

I triggered my resonance Skill, sharpening the spear, then plunged it through the shaman's chest. The beast had nowhere to run, and it didn't leap backward in time. With a pop, all of its in-progress Arts faded, and a burble of black blood leaked out its mouth. I pressed forward, shouting, then wrenched my spear up. A few other Dupes leapt in, activating resonance Skills, but they weren't nearly as effective. The shaman shook, and it tried to raise its staff again, tried to aim it at me.

I shouted and stabbed it again with my spear, this time without using Presence, then I stabbed again and again, focusing just enough to tilt my head to the side and avoid the shaman's final attack. As I rammed my spear into its chest one more time, a beam of black mist swirled past my head, grazing my ear. The shaman fell still after that, and Ticks pulled me back.

"Levi! Reform the line!" The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. We didn't have to. Sir Aldhelm swept his sword in front of him, and a surge of wind whipped up from behind us. It took all my strength to stay on my feet, especially considering I'd just used a point of Presence. My practice had evidently paid off.

A vortex of dirt and debris whipped up on one side of the battlefield, and it rushed across the orc cluster—I couldn't call them ranks, because they weren't that organized. Lightning flashed out, searing through some orcs, and others fell dead on the spot. The vortex drove a swath through their center, killing enough of them that their line crumbled.

"Forward!" Lieutenant Finger shouted. A horn sounded, rising in pitch, and we pushed the orc lines. In a matter of seconds, what remained of them crumbled. Some raced backward, and others clung desperately to their attack, but we cut those ones down. The plains trolls put up a better fight, but now that we had the numbers on our side, we took down the trolls with ease. Instead of rushing east, back the way they came, the orcs turned to the woods, sprinting to the forest.

"Stop them!" Commander Galliard shouted, snapping his horse's reins.

"If we don't run them down, they'll scatter and cause us trouble for weeks to come!" His mount jumped over the front lines, and he galloped after an orc, trampling it with his mount's hooves. Lifting my spear up to my shoulder, I sprinted off after the fleeing orcs. I pushed myself as fast as I could, remembering the orcs in the first Labyrinth and not wanting to let them get a chance to do anything like that again. They'd pay for what they did to Shave.

When I got close enough to one, I swung my spear in an arc, slashing the back of a beast's neck with a technique I'd learned from Shave. It collapsed. We raced over the fields, but we weren't quite fast enough, and some of the orcs made it into the woods. So we followed them. At least, I did. I ran, jumping over bushes and racing through brambles. I followed the orcs' silhouettes, ending them where I could, until I couldn't find any anymore.

There were no other orcs in sight, but that didn't mean I'd gotten them all. But there were also no more Dupes— A hand clasped down on my shoulder. I whirled around to find Ticks standing behind me.

"Levi, it's over," he said. I blinked, realizing my predicament. I was alone in the woods with him. He carried a small axe still, and black orc blood stained his chainmail. He gave his axe a whirl, and I backed away. Looking down at his axe, he swallowed, then looked back up at me.

"Ticks, you don't—""Do it, Ticks!" a different voice called out from the woods.

"Now's your chance! Kill the soulstealer. Purify our battalion. He doesn't belong here." Scar emerged from the foliage, carrying a mace and a shield.

"He's not one of us." Ticks tightened his grip on his axe, but he didn't move. I grimaced, then lifted my spear.

"I'm not going down without a fight, and I'm sure as hell not abandoning these people to the useless, decaying whims of some Warlord!" All I had ever known was decay. A decaying family, a decaying city, a decaying life. Enough was enough. I spat, "There's a world worth fighting for and you guys refuse to get off your asses and do it. So what if I'm not a Dupe? I'm doing more than any of you." I glared at Scar.

"And maybe that's what makes you mad, huh? You want the uniform, the ability to do whatever you want, the power it gives you?" Scar chuckled.

"Yeah, just about. There's no saving Gate. All we can do is feast on its corpse—as scavenger brothers. And you're no brother of mine." He pressed the sharp tip of his mace up against Ticks' back, then poised himself to swing at Ticks' head. He was right behind the Dupe. Ticks couldn't escape if he wanted to.

"Do it, Ticks. Kill him." I pointed my spear at Ticks, because he was slightly closer. He glanced at me, then lowered his axe and said, "Levi, I'm sorry…" I gulped. Was he actually going to try to kill me? After all we'd been through?

"... I was wrong about you," he said.

"Run. Head east, and you'll find a dead orc archer. You can—" Before he finished, Scar slammed his mace down on Ticks' skull. Ticks crumpled, and his head collapsed like it was made of pottery. But I understood what Ticks was getting at. He'd bought me just enough time, and I sprinted off in the east, aiming toward a lump of bushes. I was faster, but for some reason, Scar wasn't putting in any effort. Were there more of his men out here?

"You've used your Presence, boy!" Scar yelled.

"You must be pretty exhausted, huh?" I'd only used one Presence. Either Scar didn't know I had two, or more likely, he had assumed I'd used both to take down the shaman.

"It's a good thing I haven't used mine!" he shouted. Of course he hadn't used any Presence in the battle. People like Scar were parasites, and if I had anything to say about it, I'd sure he never left these woods. But then he slammed his mace into the ground. A swell of dirt rose up, and a shockwave ran through the earth toward me, launching me off my feet. My back slammed into a tree, and I fell down onto my stomach. Gasping, I pushed myself up to my knees, but Scar was still approaching.

I staggered up all the way, continuing my original run.

"You think an orc bow will help you? You can't shoot a real bow, let alone one of theirs!" Scar picked up his pace as he approached, then swung his mace at my head. I stumbled to the side just in time, but the mace still struck hard enough to shatter bark and collapse the wood below, making the tree lean. I jumped back, dodging his shield strike, then kept running until I passed a collapsed orc body. It clutched its bow and a quiver of arrows in its hands.

Scar swung his mace again, but I spun to the side and jumped back, then triggered my Art.