Chapter 83 - Party Coordination!… Or Not

"Termi!"

I narrowly dodge three arrows, rolling to the side to avoid the last one before turning to glare at the Tank. "I said, Termi!!"

She stands stoically, her shield taller than herself planted in the ground next to her. A hand rests on it, but otherwise she seems to have no intention of moving. 'What is her problem?!'

Standing protectively in front of our two non-combatants, Eniyala sighs. "Termi! Listen to Klum during fights! He knows what he's doing!"

As if the azure magician had simply switched the On button for the little lady, she springs into action, grabbing her shield and leaping forward to protect me from the barrage of arrows raining down.

"What, so she'll only listen to Eni then? I bet it's cuz she's the party leader. Goddammit."

"What was that?" Termi asks as the last arrow bounces off her rectangular shield, and I smile sarcastically. "Thanks for the assist."

"Hmph." Tilting the end of the shield back, it expands, the silver bordering the plain orange piece of metal stretching until it was more a squarish shape easily large enough to protect us from any flying arrows until we got closer.

It was much like my Reform Skill on my blade, but moreso just changed the three dimensions of the shield. She had demonstrated earlier, showing that she could extend or retract it horizontally, vertically or both, and also make it more or less dense. She said the thinner it was, the stronger the magic defense was, and the weaker the physical, and vice versa for denser. I wasn't completely sure how the specifics of that worked, so I simply accepted it at face value.

As we near the Archer Hobgoblins, I peek back to ensure the other three are still okay. Eniyala is controlling three different elements of chains that easily swat away any arrows headed for them. One of them is fire, and the strongest of them, obviously. Another is connected blocks of rocks, and much slower and clunkier, but blocks more arrows due to being thicker. The third is concentrated air, swirling in heavy whirls that barely make up the shape of a chain. The most they can do defensively is either snap the arrow by catching it or deflect it, but it's faster than the other two.

"Alright, Scrawny Sword! Go!" Termi yells, lifting her shield up high and blocking one last barrage.

"Scrawny Sword? That's just an insult, not a nickname," I murmur to myself as I dash out, closing the distance to the closest Hobgoblin on the small rampart. It yelps, quickly aiming an arrow at me, and it multiplies into a transparent bundle, as well as two more groups of the poorly made weapons appearing over each shoulder. It releases the first arrow, and they all fly at me. "But at this distance…"

I plant my foot securely on the ground, pushing my body forward at higher speed and lowering my posture to accommodate wind resistance. I easily shoot past the arrows, swiping my blade up and then down diagonally to create an almost V-shaped slash, beheading the monster as my blade flies towards the ground. Without losing any momentum, I dash along the roughly 6 foot wall.

[Skill Heavy Thrust has been activated.]

Three more Hobgoblins squeal as I impale all of them on my extended sword like a goblin kebab. I'm still driving myself forward with enough speed and force to keep them up in the air. I block several more arrows using their bodies, which soon go limp, and then slash the blade sideways to clear up my sword as I continue to decimate the small camp.

The other four members of the party stare blankly as spurts and clouds of blood fly over the wall occasionally, an empty smile on their faces as they can only imagine the absolute massacre happening on the other side of the rampart.

Finally, a large stone door slides open slowly, and I lean up against it with a perfectly white smile, which is an opposite contrast to the dark red covering the majority of my body. "Yo."

They stare at me for a while, before simply walking past me, stepping carefully to try to avoid the large pools of blood. I'm already drenched, so I have no problem walking straight through the red puddles as I search the small huts towards the back.

It's already been three days, and we're less than a day away from our destination. I had managed to hit Level 20 from the mobs we had come across, and Eniyala gained another Level too. Termi hadn't been so lucky yet, but seeing her EXP Level through the party screen showed me she was close to it.

As I enter the last house, a rattled screech fills my ears, and I easily flit to the side of the child Hobgoblin as it tries to stab me in the side. I grab its wrist, squeezing just hard enough to cause it to let go of the knife it's holding. Tears stream down its face as it pounds weakly on my arm with its free hand, yelling and crying out. And yet, I can hear the grief in its voice.

"Ah… Shit."

"What are you doing??"

As I'm about to let the Hobgoblin go, Termi walks in through the doorway and spots it. She calmly walks over, pulling out her mace. The Hobgoblin wails, eyeing the spikes on her weapon, which quickly cuts off its cries as its head and shoulder are smashed in with a sickening crunch.

"Took you that long to kill a sprout? Are you spacing out again or something?" she scoffs, checking the house for anything valuable and throwing it in a storage cube. "Hurry up, Scatterbrain. Group's ready to move out, and you need a bath."

She walks back out just like that, leaving me holding a detached child's arm, and staring into space at where the head of the monster used to be.

"I never thought that watching a head get smashed to bits in slow motion would suck that much… actually, why did I just assume I would ever see a head get smashed in?"

Trying to shake the lingering guilt off, I place the arm next to the body, sending a quick… thought? Prayer? To Luzieni, before jogging to catch up with the group.

Eniyala thoroughly enjoys swirling me in a large ball of water to wash the blood off, until my lungs nearly combust, and she drops the water. 'But, it leaves me clean of any blood, so I guess it works out?'

As if hearing my thoughts, Eniyala gives me a smug smirk. "If you ever want the Express Eniyala Body Wash again, just let me know. I'll be happy to help you out… anytime."

"Body Wash? But you didn't use your bod— mmrf!"

"Sorry, I think I see a spot, actually, so let me give you one more scrub!"

No one dares interrupt, lest they become subject to an Express Wash of their own.

Finally, after resting for a bit (and allowing me to recover after passing out for half an hour), we make our way on the final foot of our journey again, and not even a full hour of walking passes before the land around us begins to get unexpectedly barren.

"Uh… are we already in Rockend? I thought we weren't supposed to cross over," I ask, looking around.

Lynsel shakes his head. "We're still in Puria. Somethin' is wrong here."

We unsteadily carry on, and it's several more hours, including breaks, before we see the reason for the lack of life.

Waves upon waves of skeletons, zombies, and skinny, gray-skinned vampires all surge forward, towards and over a wall of dead bodies piling around a large hill. We can't see the top of the hill from our position, but—

"That must be where he is," Yorun states, pointing up the hill. We all nod, venturing forward toward the large number of enemies.

We barely take two steps before half of the horde freezes, turning to face us. "Fuck," Termi states, and mentally we all agree with the simple phrase.

"Well, let's test our party coordination, then," Eniyala says confidently, taking her place in front of Lynsel and Yorun.

I barely hear her as I dash forward, the prospect of this much EXP too much to resist.

"Or… not," she sighs, and Termi shrugs as she pulls her mace out of its sheath — a simple piece of hard leather holding it on her hip — and pulling a small square from the top of her shoulder, which extends into her shield.

As I cut down huge rows of enemies at once, Termi notes, "if he wants to do all the work for us, he can go right ahead."