66 Horde

Time passed, Jim and Suzuki chatted a lot about Earth during the breaks between crafting. The poor guy really missed his home, and he never had a chance to meet an American before.

Suzuki: "Do American girls really..." "Oh, you watched that anime too?" "How different is American Pizza?"

At one point during Suzuki's barrage of questions, Celes couldn't hold her curiosity anymore.

Celes: "What's anime?"

Suzuki: "Um..."

Jim: "Think of it like a picture book telling a story with sound. Here, I'll show you."

Suzuki: "How are you going to show anime...?"

Using Memory Playback, Jim displayed a fight scene from Dragon Ball Z.

Celes: "How are they doing that?" "He's so fast!" "Master, what's my power level!?"

Jim didn't know how to respond, he just wanted to show her enough so she would understand. 'How did she get hooked on it this fast?' Facepalming, Jim realized why. 'They don't have much entertainment here. On earth you've got tv, movies, pictures, an endless number of novels. It's easy to ignore just another form of entertainment, but here it's like water introduced to a dried sponge. Should I make money off of this? It'll help grow the city.'

Jim began wondering how he could distribute anime and tv here. 'Even if I import all sorts of tvs and dvd players, it's too complicated to set up and use for someone that grew up in this world. I also don't have the time or points to set up an electric grid across the land. How do I display videos without electricity though?'

After pondering on this matter for a while, Jim recalled a certain Formation. Smiling, he got to work on carving a new plate. Using memory playback while the plate was active, he tested how well it worked.

Suzuki: "Did he seriously just invent a portable video player with magic runes?"

Celes: "Master is amazing!"

Suzuki couldn't help but nod at the statement. Jim ignored the onlookers and started thinking about how to improve the plate. 'A basic monitor formation doesn't hold much video, and you can't seek to a certain part nor divide it into episodes. Looks like i'll be at this for a while.'

While pondering about ways to improve the plate, Jim carved other plates. These ones had killing formations inscribed, when activated they would send out destructive force. Jim made a variety of them with hundreds of each type over the next 2 days.

Jim gathered the city's workforce and had them dig up the soil to the north of the city, placing the plates inside and covering them with a light layer of dirt. Basically, they were setting landmines, he was unfortunately the only one who could trigger them. Celes and the foxes didn't have nearly enough qi control to trigger a formation plate remotely.

Jim was now confident in the city's defenses, he would continue carving puppets to ease the coming battle, but felt the monsters would not win the fight. 'There's a problem though, Amgula's capital is also going to face an attack from the east eventually. Can I make it in time?'

While pondering, he spotted movement with detection. Something had arrived at the monster horde. Many of the monsters shifted around to move out of the way. 'Appraise.'

[Lich Krasna]

[Level: 57]

[Strength: 2,000]

[Dexterity: 1,900]

[Vitality: 2,500]

[Agility: 2,000]

'What the hell? This thing is way too strong for its level!' Jim recalled the incomplete lich he had faced in verdana before, it wasn't particularly strong and was rather stupid. This one didn't have the incomplete prefix though, he wondered if this one was going to act similarly.

The lich indeed began summoning creatures. These ones were different, stronger, covered in rotting flesh and black armor atop that.

[Death Knight]

[Level: 1]

[Strength: 50]

[Dexterity: 40]

[Vitality: 60]

[Agility: 45]

'This is bad, if those things are allowed to level up then normal soldiers and hunters won't stand a chance. They would be able to swarm the newer puppets and take them down too. Alright, let's thin their numbers.'

Jim: "Celes, Suzuki, get everyone ready to defend the city."

Suzuki: "Huh?"

Celes immediately got up and began organizing everyone. Suzuki took a moment before getting up to help. Jim headed to the north gate and immediately went outside. Activating stealth, he approached the monster horde.

Jim cast fire storm, his mana was immediately drained completely. 'Damnit, this seal is such a pain.' Withdrawing some of the mana he had been storing these days, he cast another fire storm, then a third. The majority of the monster horde was now overcast with large balls of fire raining upon them. The lich reacted quickly and erected a barrier around itself. 'As expected, won't be so easy to kill.'

[Level Up]

'Huh, haven't heard that in a long time.' Flame enveloped countless monsters, wails and shrieks of pain filled the air. The smell of burnt flesh was nauseating. Jim pulled out his bow and began firing at the behemoths. Deep roars resounded as chunks of flesh were torn away, Jim's bow and arrow weren't enough to instantly kill them, but he could still injure them heavily.

Thousands of monsters rushed towards Jim, if he hadn't been in so many fights before he would have just crumbled in despair right now. Jim picked off all the death knights the lich had summoned and resumed chipping away at the behemoths. They were now a sorry sight, large areas of skin and muscle were missing while others were covered in heavy burns.

As the horde had almost reached him, Jim turned around and began running back to the city using wind warrior footwork. Reaching the gates, Jim simply jumped above the wall and landed on the battlements, to the surprise of the gathered soldiers and hunters. Blades and clubs were readied as they stared him down.

Celes: "Wait! He's on our side."

Jim: "Keep everyone inside the city, long range attacks on my mark."

Celes nodded, Suzuki approached and stood ready to help. Talia arrived at the wall with the able-bodied elves.

Suzuki: "What's the plan?"

Jim: "I've set traps which I'll trigger when the horde is over them. The leader is rather strong though, I doubt he'll die from just that."

The horde had arrived, although Jim had heavily decreased their numbers they were still an impressive crowd, kicking up a dust storm in their mad stampede.

Suzuki: "Aren't you going to trigger it? They're getting close."

Jim: "Wait for it...now."

Instantly, the scene became a hell of bloodshed. Qi blades shot around at high speeds, pillars of flame rose from the ground, thousands of electric arcs stretched out. Ogres exploded, Behemoths were torn apart. The gory display shocked everyone present.

[Host's Divinity Increased By 1]

Only a lucky few thousand monsters survived the trap, none particularly strong, save for the Lich. It stood there seemingly unscathed. Jim smiled at the repeated notifications. 'It seems a display of strength will also grant divinity. Now...this guy is going to be a problem.'

Jim: "Talia, you guys pick off the stragglers. Celes, Suzuki, we're fighting the Lich."

It began casting a spell which carried immense power, Jim could feel the surrounding mana gathering towards it. 'Not happening.'

Jim used Surging Thunder Step to quickly reach the lich's front, then slammed its chest with Lower Light Fist. The lich only suffered a slight crack on its ribcage, but the force caused it to stagger backwards, resulting in a failed spell. Jim coordinated the newer puppets towards the leftover monsters and the old ones to come help with the lich. 'I have enough Qi stored for...3 more light fists.'

Jim: "Alright, Come On!"