"There's another pack coming on the east!"
"How!" Astrid more as an expletive than a question. As she spoke, she raised the hammer again and feinted high at the warg on her right. The two being precariously held back by her shield weren't her concern right now. They'd managed to kill most of the initial wave of six, but then another pack of four appeared, and there were still five left when another pack of four appeared. Over the fire of agony in her shoulders, chest, and forearms, Astrid continued fighting.
"KILL!" Svana shrieked, and Astrid disregarded her safety as she crushed bones and pulped enemies. She took a blow, the ward making the fangs scrape off her armor instead of sinking into her flesh. As her first attack struck true and the warg fell with two broken legs, Astrid turned her whole body and smashed her shield into the warg that failed its attack. Its breath was smashed from its body and it went sprawling. Behind her, Tobias lunged in, and with just a brief touch, reactivated the ward over her.
"Thanks!" She shouted as she returned the favor and crushed a warg that threatened Tobias.
"Just fight! I'm almost out of mana!" He yelled back as he jumped to the side and cowered beside Pursene while keeping his eyes open to see who needed his assistance most. Three down. Eight left. Wait, eight? How? There should be only six.
"There's more coming!" Astrid screamed, unable to keep the sobbing emotion from her voice.
"And that isn't a surprise so close your damned mouth and kill the goblin-loving monsters!" Svana replied. Astrid didn't see her, but that she was still standing was a miracle. The rest of the party was no better. Petr was beset by three wargs, but it seemed that he'd gained a level and was quicker and stronger with his shield. Beyond that, when blows did fall on him, he weathered them better. Even so, his blood was staining every inch of his armor, and it was obvious he stood on his last legs and Tobias's ministrations were the only thing that stood between the Shieldsman and death.
Svana had taken a couple glancing blows, but hearing her voice was enough to convince Astrid that the Scout was still alive, at least. Pursene and Tobias were doing their best, but it was obvious that Tobias didn't have much he could do against the monsters themselves while Pursene was trying her best to fire killing shots to limited effect.
Astrid was going to activate her Talisman to see if that would let her turn the tides enough to survive. They couldn't survive this encirclement! She tried to form the mana in her mind to activate the lifesaving item, but when a warg rushed into her shield and nearly knocked her flat on her arse. Too tired. That hit shouldn't have done anything to her. She refocused on keeping herself alive. Then, as she warded off the beasts as best as she could, she readied the item again, but then, the three wargs in front of her fell limply to the ground. Confused, Astrid watched as the barest flickers of light flew out of somewhere she couldn't see and buried themselves in the wargs' spines.
In less than a minute, over a dozen wargs lay dying on the ground in front of the beleaguered party. Stark bled out of the shadows from the trees as he said, "Kill them all. Your party needs the experience. Then, go around the Dungeon entrance, outside of the spawning area, and retreat to Schteld. There's two more parties I need to help get to safety. This surge isn't something you can deal with, and it's getting worse. Tobias, here."
Stark didn't care to have a conversation, and just blurred forward to hand over two other potions to the Healer while Astrid, Svana, and Petr dealt the killing blows to the suffering wargs. Astrid was amazed to see that there were so many higher leveled wargs here, with there being another level 4 and several level 3s. She stopped thinking about the experience, though, as Stark spoke.
"Your mana should be low by now. Use one of these now. Hold onto the other for when you need it."
"I—where are you going? Why don't you accompany us?" The Healer demanded, his voice breaking, but Stark didn't answer. Instead, he looked at the exhausted delvers.
"I'll pull out these arrows for you." Stark nodded and then, in another half a minute, he'd pulled every arrow as well as his knives free of the corpses of the wargs and placed them in Pursene's hands. "Now, get home safe. Grom will be there soon. Protect the villagers if you can. There should be stronger delvers coming to help us all before too long. Until then, your job is to survive. There's a pack coming this way, four of them. Shouldn't be higher than level 3."
Without another word, the taciturn Rogue-turned-innkeeper then rushed off to help the other parties he'd promised to.
"I know we want to rest," Svana said as she panted, "but we can't. Need to keep moving. Ready?"
Everyone nodded as they made their way running in the direction of Schteld. Before long, the howls of the crazed wargs carried through the air, and Svana called, "Ten seconds to contact!"
Astrid bellowed as she stepped forward, leapt, and smashed her shield into the attacking monsters. Her hammer swung, and before long, more dead bodies were left in their wake.
"Onward!" Svana shouted, and the party didn't have the energy to answer with anything but to follow the command.
***
Stark
It wasn't fair to hate the poor kid for her mistake, but he did. Dammit he did. Every one of those twisted, bloody faces screamed blame to Stark, and he couldn't refute them. A Dungeoneer didn't make mistakes. That was how humanity as a whole could survive! Now, a dozen delvers were dead because of her. Stark killed every single warg he came close to. The tier penalty meant he got a mere 2 experience for every one, but that didn't matter. He was killing the monsters not for growth, but to protect.
Iron Skills drove him. Every step he took was sure, and every movement was deadly. Grom was always a better talker than delver so he didn't regret walking away, but a part of Stark still longed for the Dungeon. His old friend needed support, though, and there were a couple pretty widows that appreciated a strong man nearby. That desire for the Dungen was a betrayer now. These kids were slaughtered. And the damned kid—!
Stark shook the thought from his head. Instead of hating the undeserving, he'd try to save those that still had a prayer of survival. One of the parties had been eradicated completely, and Stark had gathered small mementos of their lives to carry with him to remember their sacrifice. If only they'd known how likely the sacrifice of their lives would have been.
As a pack of three level 7 wargs wandered along, looking for some other innocent to slaughter, Stark threw himself forward to return the action in kind. They didn't deserve to continue existing.
***
Astrid panted as she used Quick Recovery. It wasn't to heal her this time, but to get herself back into the battle, metaphorically. Her lungs burned, her legs trembled, and her vision swam. She knew she wasn't the only one that felt this way, but she refused to slow herself down. If the others needed it, she would, until then… A cold rush flowed over her and the agony of exhaustion faded to a mere ache.
Even so, it was a mere 10% of her reserves that were restored. Her pained breaths remained agonizing, and her feet still begged to no longer be placed on the ground. Though comfortable and high quality, her greaves and armor weren't her nightdress and all she wanted right now was to sleep. The only reassurance she got was when she checked her Status.
Total Level: 2 (1,002/2,000)
Over halfway to level 3. Astrid scoffed. This wasn't why she was here. The people in Schteld needed to have someone protect them, and she would do it. Now, they just needed to get there, and then she could hold the line against the incoming monsters and do what she came here to do: be a hero to the people of the Bulwark!
Since parting from Stark, they'd fought another dozen times, though never anywhere so threatening as that seemingly endless flow of monsters that was nearly their deaths. The monsters continued getting stronger, though, even if their levels didn't climb, and the delvers were exhausted. There were no more level 1 wargs, and level 2s were getting scarce. Running paired with the closest thing to a break being a life and death fight led to all five being close to just giving up.
"I… can't…" Tobias was the first of the party to crack, and it was enough of a testament to everyone else's condition that there wasn't a single word said before all five slowed to a walk.
"There's no… monsters nearby." Svana said. "But we… need to… keep going."
Tobias grunted, but all five continued walking.
"There's something moving over here." Svana said, pointing off towards the Dungeon's entrance. Everyone present groaned, but they got themselves ready. "Pursene, you have them?"
"Yes." She replied, bow held high and ready to be drawn at the opportune time.
"Great. Fire when ready."
"Wait!" screamed another, slightly familiar voice. "It's us!"
Pursene immediately dropped her bow to her side, and called out, "Bjorn?"
"Yes it is!" the voice replied, and three people ran out of the forest as Pursene gestured for the rest of the party to wait. With no reason to fight, Astrid wasn't about to. Bjorn, one of the other two people in Pursene's party, ran with a heavy limp, and it was quickly obvious why that was. The front half of his foot was twisted to the side, and he continued to put weight on it, because what else could he do?
Bjorn's face twisted with hope as he saw Tobias. "I don't care how much it is," he said as he struggled forward, "I'll pay it. Please, heal me so I can get out of here!"
The Healer had the good grace to look ashamed. "I'm not going to charge you," he stammered out, "I'm just gonna get you moving. We'll see if we can all get out of here together."
Without another word, Tobias laid his hands on the struggling man, and a few seconds later, the mutilated foot was mostly better.
"It's still going to be agony to walk on." Tobias shrugged helplessly. "I can't spare any more mana right now, because it'll keep people alive."
"No, but it's worlds better!" Bjorn replied, but Pursene cut him off.
"Where's Evalie?"
Bjorn's face fell as he shook his head. Before he could explain anything, Pursene just nodded and turned to continue walking away towards Schteld. Astrid followed suit, seeing that the other two delvers must have lost their other companion.
"We need to keep moving." Svana said as the rest of their party fell in line. "We want to travel with you and find what safety in numbers we can, but we also need to keep moving, and quickly."
"We're coming." another of the delvers answered instead of Bjorn, whose face was stricken.
"Great. Keep moving." Svana commanded. "There's no guarantee that we'll be able to make it far before our next fight, but every meter we get is a meter closer to safety. At this point, I think we're mostly outside of the spawn radius for the monsters, so we should be safe enough to slow down a little, make sure that we're as close to battle ready as possible when it inevitably happens."
The delvers all seemed to welcome the idea of slight rest, but Astrid felt something crawling on the back of her neck. It initially felt like it was sweat, but after wiping there and having nothing change, she nearly discounted the feeling. Instead of that, though, she spoke up.
"I think something's watching us."
"I… don't sense anything." Svana replied, but she did raise her weapon aloft in response. "No sounds or any—"
A basso growl low and loud enough to shake the leaves all around filled the air. As Astrid gathered herself, involuntary terror filled her. That was something that was far more than a mere weak warg. Stark and Grom could deal with this, but as the massive warg stepped out of the shadow, Astrid knew she couldn't. The beast was notably taller than the rest of its brethren, at least 150 at the shoulder. Its mane was thick and its eyes glowed with a sickly green light.
Then, two more wargs, unmanned and under level 6, stalked out behind it.
"We can't run!" Astrid screamed as several other voices raised in terror. "If we do, we'll all just die! We have another kilometer to run, and it'll chase us down! Brace yourselves! Frontlines, with me on the big one! FIGHT!"
Never one to disregard her own commands, Astrid roared and ran forward. Thankfully, Petr followed after, and they both lunged with their shields, trying to knock the beast back. As far as Astrid could think of it, this was effectively the Boss battle on the bottom floor. With the surge boosting its attributes, the beast would be as strong as the Boss. If it actually was the Boss, though, then they might all be about to die. Astrid pushed that thought out of her mind as she tried to crush the monster between herself and Petr.
It quickly wriggled out of the entrapment and sliced out with its paws at Petr's leg. He grunted and fell to his knee, the tendons cut. The warg pressed the attack, and Astrid screamed as she smashed her hammer into the monster's back. The strike did nothing, bouncing off the body and making her hand ache.
"C'mon! I'll take you!" Astrid shouted a challenge as she shoved the warg. Fortunately, even though she could tell it was significantly stronger than her, she outweighed it and managed to turn the slavering jaws away from Petr's throat. As soon as it came back to its feet, it whipped its head at her and howled back at her in challenge. Astrid tried to press the attack, but it leapt back and howled again, but differently. A wave of red burst from its mouth and the mist filtered into the other two wargs that had been barely held back by the other delvers.
Just as soon as the warg's Skill had been used, Astrid felt the difference. It threw itself at her shield and knocked her down. As its slavering jaws crunched through the metal rim of her shield, she tried to fight it off. With a twist of its jaws, it threw her shield to the side and then, with mouth wide open, lunged down and caught the front of her helmet in its jaws. Metal crumpled and the visor was smushed together so that she couldn't see anything. Astrid's face was crushed in the deformed helm, and she screamed in pain and absolute terror as the monster continued its ravenous attack.
Then, its presence was gone. She couldn't see anything, and fumbled with the chinstrap of her helmet in the hopes that she'd be able to see something. The deformed metal cut her chin, cheek, and forehead as she pulled it off and tossed it to the side, only to see all three wargs savaging Petr. The stalwart man was screaming as they ripped his arm off, but he fought to keep his shield between himself and the monsters to limited effect.
"Kill them!" Astrid screamed as she looked at the party. Pursene shot arrows while Svana tried to find an opening, but she was warded off by a target that left off killing the Shieldsman to terrorize the Scout instead. Bjorn and his party members scrambled to help, but everything was dire.
Then, as the leader warg managed to rip the shield away from Petr's chest, Astrid took a single centering breath, created the trail of mana required to activate her talisman, and then, she felt a massive surge of power.
"Not today!" she screamed as she rushed back to kill all three monsters in the next minute or die trying.