39 Surge
Heading over to the barracks, there were already hundreds of hunters standing around. Most of them nervous, they were doing their best to pump each other up. Jim had a full set of leather armor on and an iron sword on his waist. A couple of hours passed before a soldier came over.
"Alright everyone, let's get moving!" The soldier lead the hunters to a series of carriages drawn by Barosca. Climbing in, they headed east out the city gate. Three days passed before reaching a sizeable fort. Thousands of soldiers crowded the place. They seemed to be in a far better mental state than the hunters.
The fort overlooked vast plains to the east, the land looked blackened and dead, it gave an ominous feeling that Jim couldn't quite place. Not even withered weeds could be spotted growing in that cursed place.
Hearing the chatter between soldiers, many of them seemed to be veterans of past Surge events. The key to survival seemed to be staying within the walls and firing arrows or protecting the mages. Looking around, Jim couldn't find anyone with a particularly high Magic stat.
An entire day passed, 50 hooded men showed up. 'That's it? Why are there so few mages participating?' Using Detection he found this wasn't the only fort along the border, seems the available mages had to be spread out. Scanning each of them, none of the ones at this fort were particularly strong, everyone was under level 10 with less than 1,000 in their magic stat.
Of course, not everyone could train like Jim. Firstly was the skill assist, normal mage apprentices spent years painstakingly memorizing spell components and then learning how to effectively cast them. Secondly was Improved Rest, Jim's Mana and Qi were completely refilled each time he took a nap. Mages could spend days fully recovering their Mana, they could alternatively drink Mana recovery potions, but those were expensive and too much in a short span damaged the body.
The Northern fort was in more or less the same situation. The Southern fort had a powerful mage at level 34. 'An Elf, huh? This guy's magic stat is in the tens of thousands.' Stretching his mind out, he found the enemy approaching.
Jim's heart nearly stopped, the sheer number of enemies was startling. Apes, Ostriches, Spiders, and a plethora of creatures he had never seen before were swarming in the hundreds of thousands. On top of that, there were three massive creatures mixed in. They looked like high-rise buildings had sprouted arms and legs and hit the gym, then got covered in pitch-black scales.
'Whew.' Checking their stats, the huge enemies only had stats reaching the 500-600 range. In the time he spent checking everything, the horde of creatures had come in to sight of the fort. He saw the soldiers start panicking. "I-is that a Behemoth?" "No way! Three of them?"
'So this is outside the norm? I figured those things could be taken down by siege equipment though. Well, whatever, let's get to work.' Casting Hail Storm which he learned from the Royal Library, Jim targeted larger congregations of the small creatures.
A blanket of white appeared in the air, small chunks of ice shot downwards at high speeds. The ice pierced through hundreds of creatures effortlessly and got embedded in the ground.
[Level Up]
'Oh? Great!' Jim got pumped up and circulated Surging Thunder Steps. Shooting out from the fort walls, he landed in front of the first huge critter. 'How about I practice Lower Light Fist?' His right hand was shrouded in a shining white. Punching upward, his fist struck the creature's abdomen. A brilliant light erupted forth and drilled through the creature from below, evenly splitting it apart.
[Level Up]
'Haha, this is great!', Jim darted to the next behemoth. It aimed for the right timing and sent a claw swipe at him, but was shocked when the attack was effortlessly repelled. "Gruh?" Before having the time to consider its next action, it too was torn apart. 'Alright, next one!'
[Level Up]
With the third behemoth turned into a gory mess, Jim was surrounded by creatures that wanted to attack but instinctively felt like they had to keep distance. 'Not coming to me? Don't worry, i'll come to you!' Jim used a combination of Wind Warrior Footwork and Minor Teleport to dart between the creatures.
"Beast!" A blue light emitted from his body, taking the form of a large angry Wolf head biting outwards. Dozens of creatures were shredded in its maw. 'Beast Assault is pretty good, huh?'
A fist hammering down on a Metal-Covered Rhino's head, a kick slicing apart an oversized Tiger, Jim was like an unstoppable demon slaughtering his way through the noisy crowd of monsters.
A barrage of needles heading towards his back, an Ox breathing fire on him, his clothes were shredded and burnt until only the armor remained. He wasn't quite sure how long had passed, the soil wet with blood, Jim couldn't find any enemies nearby.
Looking at the fort, several hundred enemies had slipped by him and reached it but were being taken down by archers and mages safely from the walls. Jim took a minute to calm down, several rounds of Clean magic got him into good shape. He pulled clothing out of the inventory and quickly got changed, then walked over to the fort.
Right when he arrived, a wounded soldier riding a Barosca came in from the north. "Fort Hawkle has fallen!" Jim applied multiple Minor Heals on the guy as he sent Detection up north. The fort was ruined, a few dozen monsters were picking over the corpses on site.
Scanning around, several hundred soldiers seem to have made it out, they were scattered around trying to deliver news of the fallen fort. The south fort seems to be in good condition, they were still fighting but that elf mage had already taken down the behemoths.
Jim scanned along the clear tracks the monsters had left, his heart sunk when he saw two villages had already been destroyed in their path. They had reached the capital, five behemoths had torn down the city walls. The remaining guards were helpless against the tide of monsters.
"The capital is under attack!" Immediately after shouting this Jim circulated Surging Thunder Steps and took off.
