8 Defending Acrine (2)
Steve was nervous. After all, this was his first real fight with monsters.
His first few encounters with monsters didn't result in a fight. Running, getting mauled or watching Butch kill them easily couldn't exactly count as a fight.
This time, he wasn't alone though. He was assisted by hundreds of other men. The group mainly consisted of mages and brave male agents, holding weapons. Every now and then, a brave female agent could also be seen.
The town center was eerily quiet. This would be the fight deciding Acrine's fate. Unfortunately, no matter what the outcome of the fight would be, the town had already suffered a major blow.
"SKREEEEEEE!!" a screech could be heard once again. It seemed like the rank 2 monster was commanding the others.
Everyone quickly got a fierce look on their face. All mages were reaching dangerously high concentration levels. Most of the agents started gripping their weapons so hard, that their hands started hurting.
The monsters were starting to appear. A horde consisting of hundreds of rampaging monsters could already be seen. These monsters looked fearless and would surely be fighting to the death! Their red, fear-inducing eyes wouldn't leave their targets.
The monsters started speeding up, preparing to strike as hard as they could. They were only 200 meters away from the barrier!
...150 meters...
"Nervous?" A random guy asked Steve as he saw the latter was trembling on his legs.
"Mhmm" Was all that Steve managed to hum.
...120 meters...
"Just try not to die, let's have a beer after this!" he continued.
"Yes, let us do just that!" Steve replied, clearly more relaxed after hearing the man's words.
...80 meters...
"NOW!" the commander shouted as a couple of men pulled a rope. A trap got activated! In a circle around the barrier, hundreds of spikes raised from the ground!
Roars could be heard everywhere, as the monsters impaled themselves on these spikes... While it didn't stop many monsters, it still made them wary, which slowed down their attack.
They still advanced though, but wouldn't be charging into their defense like before. The trap had been set in the few hours between both fights.
'So battles could also be fought like this...' Steve was astonished as he saw some monsters dying, without having any losses on their side.
"Squad 2, NOW!" The commander shouted once more, as a lot of monsters came in the vicinity of the barrier.
A couple of mages launched fireballs towards the spikes from the previous trap. They had been covered in a highly flammable liquid, which allowed the spikes to quickly catch fire.
Not much later, a circle of fire surrounded them, effectively trapping themselves. The reason they did this, was to fight the first wave of monsters without them getting any reinforcements.
Steve was impressed by the tactics displayed. He thought it would've been a battle without many tactics.
Still, they were trapped inside the circle of fire together with hundreds of monsters. The monsters were so close, that they could only charge right into the guards. Fights started happening everywhere.
Spells could be seen flying everywhere, the most seen ones were beams of light, fireballs and freezing spells. The sound of people groaning with pain was omnipresent, and so was the sound of monsters roaring.
A monster had set its sights on Steve. The monster had already lost a lot of its pace, as it had to go through some layers of defense to reach Steve, who had shamelessly positioned himself in the back of the defense.
It seemed like the monster had already killed something, as blood was still dripping from its mouth.
The monster looked ferocious, hungry for blood. It resembled a coyote but was at least 1.5 meters tall. The usual shyness a coyote had, was not present in the monstrosity standing in front of Steve.
It ran towards Steve and pounced towards him, with its mouth opened wide.
Steve managed to dodge it slightly but still got bit in his left arm. Meanwhile, he only slightly managed to graze the monster with the dagger in his right hand...
"F**k!"
'If I didn't put those 2 points of dexterity, this might have just been the end already... These are the weakest kind of monsters, but I'm no match for them at all!' Steve thought.
As he looked down at his arm, he noticed a chunk of it was missing.
Seeing this wound, Steve quickly decided to spend his 2 remaining attribute points.
'System, add 2 more points to my dexterity!' Steve said in his mind. After all, saving up those 2 points wouldn't be worth anything if he died right now.
There wasn't much time to think about it though, as the coyote already came back for a second round.
The coyote pounced towards him again! This time, however, Steve let himself fall with his back towards the ground and managed to dodge it completely! In the process, he managed to rip open the monster's stomach from below!
The monster lost! Steve had won his first fight, although he got lucky that the monster wasn't very intelligent and had used the same move twice...
After it landed, it staggered forwards slowly. At this point, another agent came forward and decapitated the coyote!
"Quick bro, go to the barrier! you're going to faint with the amount of blood you're losing right now, quick! Quick! Thank me later!" he said as he smiled slightly, obviously proud of his heroic deed.
"...."
'My exp!' Steve cried, 'you stole my precious exp...'
Steve left without saying a word, he had no choice but to go into the barrier anyways. Staying here any longer would just be asking for death, after all... his left arm was rendered useless.
When he got into the barrier, an elderly woman quickly came to attend to his wounds.
"Good job, bro!" the little girl that forced him to fight earlier said, giving him a thumbs up.
When Steve saw that, he smiled. He was happy that he managed to help out a little bit. That's when Steve fainted...
---
The fight lasted for quite a while longer, thousands of monsters and men had already fallen. Unfortunately, the stream of monsters was endless.
The guards were starting to get outnumbered...
"Get into the barrier!" the commander shouted, "Retreat! Retreat! Everyone get in the barrier!"
As everyone rushed inside, the commander told all mages to support the barrier. The mages spent their last remaining mana into the barrier and hoped it would last until daytime... It was their last hope of survival.
The wounded got attended to, the others started resting.
Everyone tried to get some sleep as they couldn't do anything else. They tried to recover as much energy as possible. Not many managed to close an eye though, as death seemed as close as ever.
---
"SKREEEEEEEEEEEE!!!"
The screech was so loud, it woke everyone up.
There it was, the rank 2 monster... standing right next to the barrier.
It clawed towards the barrier, and it started to shake...
It clawed once more, and the barrier broke...
"This is the end..." everyone thought...
