Chapter 81: The beginning of the Siege.

Drake rolled his arms stretching out the muscles that were becoming more and more fatigued from the constant fighting he had done over the past two days, preparing himself for yet another. But was stopped as he looked to his status.

Shit, I'm still running low… Drake thought embarrassedly.

"Yes, well that certainly happens when you go on a rampage of killing absolutely nothing. Maybe you will learn to vent in a\ more productive manner next time," Natto chidded.

Drake couldn't argue with her on that. He had certainly lost his cool, resulting in the situation. Thankfully he did have a small contingent of mana left, and with his Water Endowment he was slowly ticking up. But it would still take him quite a while to fully recover his pool.

"Bad news, I blew my loa- mana pool so we are going to have to rely on everyone else for the time being! Hudson, how many of your boys do you have ready?" Drake asked, coughing his near slip.

A snicker and cough came from Amir. It would seem the young man had caught Drake's freudian mishap, but didn't bring it up and continued to listen.

"Got none of the Big Guys made since they take a long time to build 'n all. The stationary ones, I got two made, and can set the rest of them up but it will take a spell," Hudson said, his mouth moving side to side as he eyed the Outpost walls, chewing on the side of his mouth while he gauged it.

"That's going to be a problem… How much damage output can your sentries deal to those Lieutenants you think?" Drake asked.

Hudson mulled over the question for a minute but reluctantly sighed and answered after thinking.

"Son, I'm sorry but I haven't had to go against one yet. These boys will take care of the average Kobold, no sweat, and with how high up we are I don't think them normal Goblins will be a problem, long as they don't get a hit on them. Thing is…" Hudson grumbled, looking out at the massive sea of monsters, "I only got so many to go around. Damn near endless bullets don't help much when you only got four guns to pepper them with," he finished shrugging his shoulders.

Drake nodded in understanding.

"Right well that helps enough to give us some time if they get close enough. Set up what you can, and start churning out the little guys. We can worry about making the bigger ones when we have some time to spare. Tom!" Drake said pointing, the man jerking at his name being called.

"Y-yeah?" Tom answered, doing his best to stand up and not shirk away like before.

"Time to show your guts! Your job is to block anything coming in that wants to break those little ones, got it?"

"Y-yep!" Tom shouted back.

Drake then looked at Sherry, Amir and Claire.

"You three, back to the box or you can go down behind the wall, we don't need more targets on the wall."

Sherry just waved her arm, Amir nodding reluctantly, but Claire grumbled and spoke up.

"I don't want to hide! I want to help!" she shouted.

"And you will, I know what your buff does and I will need it when I can use a larger spell. But until then I need you safe and out of the way. If I have to pay attention to protect you I can't focus on recovering. I understand your hate and need for revenge, believe me. But you are no help to me until I can cast something large enough to deal with them," Drake said evenly, looking at her in her blue eyes.

Claire wanted to say something, but bit her lip in frustration, turning to walk back to the makeshift earthen room with the other two.

"I'm going to make them pay… I promised…!" she mumbled under her breath.

"Strong hearted that one. She will need help to recover her mind in time though… She is hurt in a way only time will heal," Natto said, with sympathy in her voice.

Wow that was actually very kind of you. I'm proud of you. Drake thought, smiling at the back of the woman.

"Silence you ape, it is plain to see she is the most hurt among them. Even a blind man could see such," she snapped back.

I know. I just hope I can give her what she needs to grieve and come to terms with herself. When there is time I'd like to hear what happened.. Drake replied.

"Pain recognizes pain as they say."

Who says that?

"I do. Now shut up and get to it, those little green boogers in their toy cars are getting closer," Natto pointed out.

Drake turned over his shoulder and sure enough, the line of Goblins began marching closer.

"Hudson hurry and set up. Tom, protection. Theo!" Drake yelled.

"Yes my liege!" he answered, clanking his cane to the floor.

"Set up your illusions to distract them while Hudson sets up what he can, we just need to buy some time for me to recover."

"It would be this one's utmost pleasure!" Theodore shouted back in reply as he moved to the side and began chanting his 'Stage Play of Illusion' a black magic circle forming below him.

On the edge of the Outpost's wall a myriad of monsters began spilling over and charging towards the oncoming horde, but they would only buy so much time.

"Thankfully we still have that other skill Theo has, the AOE fear right?" Drake mused, "Alright now for you three.." Drake said, looking at Jacqueline, Chelsea and Harley.

Chelsea and Harley both had a bow in hand, and quivers strapped to their back. The only difference was the jewelry adorning Harley, small gleans of green here and there.

Drake popped another two rings and earrings into his hand, handing them out to Chelsea.

"Here," Drake offered.

Chelsea cocked an eyebrow, "What are these for?"

"They're Dexterity rings. Or would you rather have strength ones?" he asked.

Chelsea and Jacqueline's eyes went wide. Chelsea's hands hesitating to grab the jewelry, but paused as she inspected them.

"May I have two strength based ones as well? My skills do scale off dexterity, but my base damage will increase on strength so an extra 20 points will do a whole lot in the long run," she asked pensively.

Drake looked over to Harley, her eyes meeting him as she shied away.

"Ah, so you need them as well Harley? You know you can just ask. I don't bite…" Drake chuckled, popping four more strength based accessories into his hand.

Jacqueline looked as well expectantly.

"Sorry, unfortunately I don't have anything other than strength and dexterity," Drake said, putting up his left hand, showing two green rings, "If I did I'd be wearing them. But they are on the list."

She quickly deflated, but Drake couldn't do anything about that at the moment, instead he addressed her again.

"Your job is pretty obvious but if anyone gets hit we need you to heal them up. I haven't had a chance to go over your skills but do you have any bubbles or is it just red healing?" Drake asked.

"Bubbles?" she questioned back.

"Yeah.. Like shields or white health? You know what, just shields. Do you have any shielding skills?" Drake said, scratching his cheek.

"Dumb geek.." Natto giggled.

Drake stifled a sheepish laugh as Jacqueline answered.

"No, I'm just able to heal regular vitality."

"Still that's excellent. Then keep an eye on everyone. Ital be my job to watch you until I can go on the offensive alright? So stay close, but not too close, don't want you getting any funny ideas," Drake joked, grinning.

Jacqueline scoffed and crossed her arms, a cudgel appearing in one hand.

"Now," Drake looked back at Harley and Chelsea, "I don't think either one of you can deal with the catapults so leave that to me for now, it's going to hinder my recovery a bit but we don't have a choice. I want both of you to prioritize hitting anything coming too close that might break the gate," Drake explained, looking out and spotting large trees being brought up the middle of some of the squads of Goblins, "Things like those rams, or any of the Lieutenants that look extra nasty, I'll try to help where I can but don't count on it exclusively. This is something I need you two to do, you are the only ones who can right now."

Both of the women nodded and gripped their bows, then moved to guard towers where they had a better vantage point. They both began knocking their arrows and firing. Each arrow glowing a mix of green and red as they were loosed.

Drake smiled glad that they didn't argue with him.

The sound of the catapults letting loose their cargo into the air forced Drake to turn.

"They're starting kind of early with this?" Drake mumbled, snapping his mask into place with one hand.

Using his other hand to do the same, summoning two circles of crimson red in front of him.

The fireballs were smaller in size and did not turn blue due to Drake's lack of mana to fuel them. He wasted no time and fired off the balls of flame in the direction of the sparse first volley of boulders.

The fireballs collided and exploded with the boulders, but with their lack of power they did not fully disintegrate the rocks into dust, instead the boulders shattered into larger fragments.

With their momentum halted they fell downward on top of the Goblins below, squashing and rolling over the soldiers underneath them.

Drake winced.

"That is no way to go…"

"No more than they deserve, fuck those jackoffs," Jacqueline spat next to him.

"That's fair. War is war after all… How is the experience?" Drake asked, wanting to change the topic.

"It's not bad, nothing monumental though looks like, no levels just yet, but feels pretty brilliant. Think I'm just a tad bit off till I get my next level innit," Jacqueline said, looking into the distance slightly, most likely looking at some of her screens.

"Must be Amir's buff at work, I can't imagine ten people sharing experience and not having it be brought down significantly," Drake said, as he watched the line of monsters slowly encroach closer and closer.

Jacqueline nodded, but only looked out, her shoulders slightly shaking.

"Don't worry they will never get close enough," Drake said, cracking a grin behind his mask, "I'm going to try to speed up my recovery, every time they fire those catapults feel free to hit me to wake me up."

Jacqueline smiled, her small shiver evening out.

A second later she smacked him in the side with her cudgel.

"Fucking ow! I said wake me up with it, not just hit me!" Drake complained.

"I needed to make sure how hard I could hit, ya get me?" she said, keeping her sinister smile.

"I think I might have made a mistake, signing these contracts to not hit back…" Drake sighed, sitting down into a meditative position.

What felt like a second later he was abruptly woken up. Jacqueline pointing upwards with her free hand at the incoming boulders.

Drake glanced at his mana bar quickly, simultaneously snapping three red magic circles to life.

He had recovered slightly more to 20% but it was still slow going, and he had to increase his number of spells this time to match the increased number of projectiles in the air.

Drake took out the projectiles and eyed his mana dipping down a bit below 20%. He refocused on the catapults and needed to make a decision to expend his mana to take them out now, or let them slowly chip away, hindering his regeneration.

His eyes darted to the incoming line of Goblins getting closer and closer to the door, but Theodore's illusions soon stopped them as they clashed with the front of the squads, a second later the sound of gunfire rang out.

Drake turned to his right seeing the now erected turrets that looked like small sentry guns out of a sci-fi fiction peppering blue hued bullets into the side of the Goblins from above.

There were a total of 5 now and more being produced on the wall of the Outpost.

The steady influx of notifications showed the power of the turrets, but that soon stopped when the Lieutenants came to place their shields in the way of the hail of fire.

Drake looked down at the steady moving mob, but he was forced to ignore them.

The flood of monsters moving forward was slow, and he had time to spare if only barely for them. The bigger problem were the catapults in the back, acting like heavy artillery.

He needed to put a stop to them so he could focus on helping with the front.

Drake grit his teeth as he snapped changing to his Ice Endowment for the increase in spell damage. His earthen arm eroded and disappeared as he summoned five crimson red fireballs in front of himself, all trained for the backline of the Goblin army. Right where the catapults were.

He was forced to use his stores of mana in its entirety to send off enough fireballs to strike the catapults down, not being able to make use of his unique spell making skill. But even with that he was not able to get all of the catapults.

However, he was able to get enough of them that any further aid from the wooden monstrosities would not be too bothersome.

The barrage of spells had exhausted Drake's mana, forcing his spells to cancel, and his hair to go back to its jet black color. His tattoo receding as well.

Drake wasted no time and dropped to the floor getting into another meditative position, waiting only long enough for his mana to tick up so he could snap his Water spell to life and change to his Water Endowment, his hair cascading to blue once again, his eyes closing as he focused on recovering.

It's going to be a long night. He thought as he depend into his meditation.