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Chapter 141: Fighting an Army
🕑 Added 2023-11-12 21:00:02 +0000 UTC“It’s still unbelievable. They all kept this quiet? The entire Church? Somebody would have told us. Even just if they got drunk and let it slip,” Artemis said as they started making their way to the edge of town.
“I don’t think so.” Derek was huffing keeping up with the other two, but his recent stat gains meant it was much easier than before. He could even talk while doing running. “When we were at the Church, the lady said Alder sets each one of those plinths up himself. It could be nobody knows but him.”
“This is crazy,” Artemis said. “But at least that’s comforting. It’s just one man.”
Brennan shook his head. “I don’t think it’s as simple as all that. The Church trusts Alder. The people trust him. Even some reincarnators would come after us if he decreed such a command. Even if other people don’t know, he still wields a lot of power.”
“So what do we do?” Derek said. “We can’t take down the whole government by ourselves. I don’t even know if I’d want to if I could. Most of the guards I’ve talked to have been pretty nice.”
“That’s where I’m hoping Matt comes in. If anybody has an idea of how to fix this, it’s him.”
“How do you figure?” Artemis asked.
“Because if what he said is true, Alder is working with the system. And that means the system is desperate to kill him, too. Why would it care, if he wasn’t dangerous?” Suddenly, Brennan skidded to a near stop and ducked down an alley.
“Why did we change direction? I don’t sense anything.” Artemis looked around from side to side, trying to identify threats.
“We have to go to the old man’s house before we leave. It’s dangerous, but he made me promise I’d tell him what was going on before we left.”
—
Back in demon territory, Matt and Lucy were having an argument.
“That’s an army, Matt. We aren’t fighting an army.”
“It’s not an army. It’s more like… several troops. A battalion. Something like that.” Matt was standing in an observation trench he had set up next to a major road, hoping to find some soft targets to take out. This wasn’t that, exactly, but it was at least interesting. “I’m pretty sure I can take them.”
“Matt, there have to be dozens of them. Maybe hundreds.”
“Yeah. But, you know, armor.” He thunked his chest plate. “And most of the guys we’ve fought lately have been mooks. And they have that cart. I don’t like the look of that cart. I’m not sure there’s a demon heart in there, but if there is, I might be the only person that can disarm it. That’s potentially thousands of lives hanging in the balance.” In the center of the army, moving with them, was a large covered platform, floating off the ground in the same way the demon-heart-platforms had floated before.
“Maybe. But those guys are dicks.”
“Lucy!”
“I’m not sorry. They are slaver dicks. I’m not happy with the humans on this planet, Matt.”
“I get it, but… okay, think about the laundress. Do you think she knows? Do you think the kids playing in the streets know? I don’t think Artemis even knew, and she’s pretty high up. Most of those people? They don’t have anything to do with this. The Church kept it hush-hush.”
“Maybe.” She looked out at the cart. “You think they’d use it someplace that has kids?”
“I don’t think they could avoid it. From what Brennan told me, the settlements are all-purpose. They’re fortresses and towns, all at once.”
“Like the Enterprise, from Star Trek?”
“Something like that. Only they didn’t bring kids along randomly here. It’s the only way they can spread out.”
Suddenly, shouts rang out and the demon progression stopped, sharply. Light glinted from dozens of points as swords were unsheathed and claws were loosed.
“Uh oh. Looks like this might all be moot.” Matt picked up his shovel and checked to make sure the weights were in place before willing his mask to cover his face. “They seem to have realized something’s up.”
“Dammit. Dammit. I was still hoping to talk you out of fighting them. Do we run?”
Matt pointed to the sky, where some bird-demons had taken to wing and were now circling the assembly of demon warriors. “I don’t think there’s much point. Up there, they can see for miles, and I bet they have those communication stone things to call for reinforcements to intercept us. We either fight here or later, and I’d rather not let that heart get away.”
The demons were far enough away that Matt couldn’t see details, but broadly he could tell they were getting into formation. They organized themselves into lines, with the thickest concentration of troops around the wagon. And then, suddenly, the side closest to him began to glow.
“Lucy?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m not sure, but I think they have their backs to us. Survivor’s Reflexes hadn’t twigged on their formation before. Now the whole side facing us is lit up.”
“So they’re looking at something else? What?”
Matt’s hopes perked up at the same time his heart sunk with worry as the demons began to charge almost directly away from him. He hopped out of the trench and began sprinting towards the battlefield.
“There’s only one thing it could be, really.”
—
“How do they see us? How?” Derek was swinging his sword wildly, already engaging with the fastest of the demon troop. “We could barely see them.”
Artemis ducked a giant tiger claw before bending at an impossible angle and firing an arrow almost directly upwards into the cat-demon’s throat. “The demons have scouts too, Derek. Not as many as us, since they know where our settlements are already. But they do have some.”
“I think we can take them. But it’s gonna be close,” Brennan said, throwing four precise strikes into a much larger, bovine opponent. “And that’s if they don’t have any kings or better in their ranks.”
“Don’t jinx it like that!” Derek yelled. But it was too late. Behind their backs, on the opposite side of them from the charging teams, three mounds of dirt suddenly began to bulge from the ground, and a trio of large, mole-like burrowing animals popped free. “Shit. There they are. Artemis?”
“Kings. All three. This was a trap.” She confirmed as she fired another two arrows before ditching her bow entirely and going to work with a pair of knives she pulled from her belt. “But how could they have known we were coming?”
“No idea. Derek, Artemis, hold the front. I’ll be back.” Brennan killed his latest opponent, then wheeled around towards the approaching moles.
“You can’t fight all of them alone!” Artemis shrieked, as she pulled back to avoid a bite from a viper demon.
“There’s no choice. But I’ll be fine.” Brennan’s voice wasn’t very convincing. “Just make sure I have space.”
Battle ensued. More and more troops were pouring in, and while Derek and Artemis did their best to hold back the front, soon they had to abandon killing their opponents. Instead, they focused on moving to stop and slow as many opponents as possible. It was far from sustainable. Brennan was already taking wounds from the moles, who were slow but well coordinated. In seconds, the troops would break through, and it would be over.
Then they did. Artemis and Derek broke formation to rush back to Brennan, closing to cover his back as he continued to hold the moles off. Moments later, they were still alive. But they were also surrounded.
Just as they were sure it was over, the sun went dark. A massive shadow passed overhead, blotting out the sun, and then an impact hit the Ra’Zorian wasteland like a comet, crushing three or four weaker demons. When the dust cleared, a shockwave of steel swept around, injuring or knocking down a half-dozen others.
“Stay behind, ya said. Ya can’t sneak, ya said. What happened to being all stealthy?” The old man spun around, wielding two one-handed clubs more with the momentum of his body, precisely adjusting the level as they spun to catch as many skulls as possible. “Damn, but there’s a lot of them.”
“Old Man!” Derek yelled. “Brennan needs help!”
The old man looked over to see a bloody Brennan desperately dodging strikes from the moles, not even trying to strike back anymore and instead creating distance to make their attacks less likely to hit.
“Shit!” he yelled. Swinging both of his clubs at once, he began to cut a path through the demons towards the other three, tanking hits from the demons as he passed. “I’m coming. Hold on, ya idiots.”
He continued swinging, clearing his way towards them at a rapid pace, but was suddenly stopped in his tracks when a lucky swing of a demon’s claw caught his knee as he strode forward. It stole his balance and sent him crashing to the ground. One of the moles had apparently been watching his approach, and took advantage of this opportunity by flinging itself through the demon ranks and landing on top of him.
The old man was strong, but so were battle-kings, especially STR-heavy variations. He almost immediately abandoned his clubs to fight in a deadly grapple with the mole. Not only did he need to keep its claws from his neck, but he also had to wildly contort and thrash to keep the surrounding army from getting a clean shot at him while he was grounded.
Brennan was doing a little better now that he was only facing two of the moles, but he was still badly injured and extremely outmatched. The moles sensed this, pulling back slightly and moving shoulder to shoulder as they prepared to move in for the kill.
And then, just as everything was darkest, dust exploded into the air everywhere as the ground stopped being a thing.
—
Clearing the demons from around the wagon hadn’t been hard for Matt, and the army was so distracted by whatever was in front of it that he was able to do this and break open the wagon without actually being noticed. After using his shovel to crack the lock on the door to the big dome covering it, he had opened it up to see exactly what he expected: a large, evil-looking heart of mass destruction floating placidly and waiting for activation.
He also saw something he didn’t expect at all. There, strapped to one of the walls and alternating between staring in terror at Matt and the heart, was the bear.
“Oh, shit, this guy again. He’s not having a good week.” Lucy laughed. “Why do you think they tied him up here? Food for the heart, or something?”
“I don’t think so. Think about it. This bear has now been the sole survivor of two tower attacks. Some of the guys who died were pretty highly ranked. If you are the other demons, you are probably starting to ask some probing questions at this point.”
“Oooh, yeah. I wonder if the demons even have the concept of betrayal. Or going violently insane. I guess they must, or they wouldn’t suspect him.”
Meanwhile, the bear was breathing harder and harder, apparently having been pushed well past the limits of his stress endurance by this new combination of terrors.
“Shit, he’s having a panic attack. Calm him down, Matt.”
Comments
The Uub
I'm choking on laughter as I say this but bro, this dipshit bear, he's like a harbinger of doom for the demon army, but at the same time he's the only one who has seen Matt cause this chaos.
mathieu brassard
I wonder. are the demon under strick control or do they have the ability to revolt? If so, Matt could make a lot of chaos on both sides. His informations on guardians being held hostage for the humans and a spreading rebellion on the other could break the stalemate
Lyncher98
Tftc
Gunnar Crider
He truly is a gollum. I so hope he makes friends with him, just to piss the system off even more
