Homesteading in a fantasy world

While the proper melee began between both armies, the divide between Rich and the fighters of God’s chosen finally started to have some more movement. When everyone understood that Rich was trying to slowly drag the fighter into the forest, they immediately understood that they would be put at a disadvantage.

It was also obvious to them that a long-range fight was not bringing them the results they wanted, so a group of five rank-two fighters coordinated together and started closing in for close-range fighting. Their main goal was to disrupt Rich's movements so others would have a better chance at dealing range damage.

Rich didn’t want to fight in close range yet. Not only would this make the fight more brutal and be disadvantageous to him, but currently, he was actually winning the resource war. So, he put his impressive body to work without relying too much on abilities, continuing to dodge the never-ending ranged attacks and now the five people pursuing him. It was a deadly game of cat and mouse that continued for over 30 minutes before there was finally a change that was not beneficial for Rich.

The enemy finally understood that they needed to properly manage their resources, so the numerous attacks stopped, yet more deadly and precise ones replaced them. During this time, the confidence of those who fought against Rich continued to rise because even after all this time fighting, Rich had yet to deliver any real damage except for the opening move. That was a confidence Rich was about to shatter because he wasn’t the mouse; he was the cat.

While one of the main reasons why Rich had been battling the way he had was to bleed his opponents' resources, an even more important reason was so he could learn more about his opponents and hopefully find weaknesses.

For the rank two opponents, he had not been that successful as they were truly good. There was a lot more opportunity against the rank ones. However, there was one major problem: the leader of the enemy and the five rank 2 people around him protected the weaker rank ones incredibly well from range attacks, so he would need to close in.

There were three other groups of first ranks who were on the move, but they seemed to be quite solid. He doubted that a change of tactics would have much effect on them. He could try to go all out against them, but the leader of the enemy had still to act and was probably waiting for a moment just like that. Rich was not certain what he would do, but he was certain he wanted to be close to him whenever the fight changed.

It was at this moment that a sound disappeared from the battlefield that had been there from almost the start of the battle. The fight between the archers was finally over, with United Freehold claiming victory. The main reason for the Legion's archers winning was their ability to keep firing faster than their opponents.

What also helped a lot was that they were winning the defensive mage war much better than the Western army. As a result, the Western army's archers had been decimated, and finally, orders for them to retreat were given. The Legion archers were now given orders to rest and be ready for action.

This change did have an effect on the battle between God’s Chosen and Rich. For the first time during their battle, the former looked away from Rich. Immediately, Rich acted as he was in a good enough position and rushed towards God’s Chosen's position, but he was not aiming for him.

Instead, his target was the rank one mages, as they were real threats to him, especially because fighting off mana took a lot of energy. Everyone had gotten a bit too relaxed with the routine Rich had put them in, so their reactions were slowed by the change in approach.

Rich had stored his bow into his tattoo storage while pulling out the two-handed sword that allowed him to conquer a dungeon he shouldn't have been able to. The sword's proper form and its coloring were only seen for a moment before it was flooded with energy so intense it was visible, making it glow a slight reddish color.

His first step was using his movement ability, getting only a few meters away. He was already accelerating and swinging towards his first target, whose eyes widened. Yet, before he could finish his step, two of the first-rank people who had been using holy power-based spells the entire time finally used their true abilities.

They attacked Rich's mind with multiple of their abilities, which made him not only freeze in place but also forced Rich’s consciousness into his mind palace. That, of course, was a surprise, as the two attackers weren't expecting him to have defenses.

One of their abilities was supposed to create a small room where the target would be trapped, yet that didn’t work. When they walked out of the connection, they saw a large space, larger even than their own mind palaces, and a truly impressive fortress.

Their confidence immediately crumbled when they saw the walls and the seemingly endless amounts of golem warriors. On top of the gatehouse, Rich appeared at the same time as the two invaders, and Alan popped up next to him a moment later.

"Go back, I have this," Alan said as the gate started to open, and the seemingly endless amount of golem warriors waited to rush out. Rich was about to say that he was trapped here when he felt the ability that kept him here break, and he was immediately back in his own body.

The enemy leader had waited for this moment, but he didn’t put all his belief in those two succeeding. He had kind of hoped that he could use the second spell he had prepared, using his ability to keep two active and prepared spells, but unfortunately, this ability only allowed him to activate one of them.

He used the multi-teleport to pull all of the strongest melee fighters around Rich, watching how even while their weapons descended, they continued to be powered up by their abilities. The closest weapon was about 8 inches away from Rich's back when he regained control of his body.

It took him only a split moment to realize that there were more people around him and that he probably didn't have any time for a proper defense. He pulled on the kinetic energy he had stored up from all the arrow hits and, using his latest knowledge on kinetic energy, pushed and amplified it in a perfect circle around him to push everything away.

The weapons descending were the first to feel this force, and it was like they hit a wall and started to be pushed backwards. The next moment, everything around him was clear, as everyone was pushed at least a few meters back.

Multiple ranged abilities and spells immediately started to be formed or were already headed towards him. He rushed forward to kill his original target, who was also on the ground from his push.

The kill was so easy that he was just using it so he would have time to properly empower his sword. He still took a few more serious attacks from ranged attacks, but they couldn’t break through his defenses completely. Immediately after he killed the weak mage, he headed back towards the others who had been pushed away.

He started with the fastest rank two fighter who had been chasing him. They were all already up but not completely ready to protect each other or attack him. That was the only reason he had the time to rush by his target and bisect his head.

It was a close thing, as the armor he had and his defensive abilities were quite excellent. Fortunately, this particular fighter had focused more on speed, allowing Rich's sword to cut even through his metal helmet, even while not being completely empowered because of the short time frame.

Now the god's chosen properly joined the battle. Unfortunately for Rich, he was using his holy power not to directly attack, but to either power his allies or fuel energy-based attacks. This immediately changed the dynamic, and where Rich was feeling confident before, now he was on the back foot.

Incredibly accurate spells aimed to cut off every avenue to keep the numerous fighters from catching up with him. Only about 30 seconds into this fight, the two people who mind-attacked Rich started to bleed from their nose and ears and the next moment collapsed dead.

He received a short package of information from Alan, informing him that they had pushed the invaders into their own mind, and that the golems followed them there, killing their minds. He immediately inquired of Alan if they could connect to other minds around him, but the answer was a firm no.

The battle continued, but one thing was clear: Rich had practiced his blade work enough that he no longer needed to rely on overwhelming attacks to push through other people’s weapons. He was now a lot deadlier, and while he continued to give as good as he got, damage started to build up, slowly starting to slow him down.

His defeat was now inevitable, so he changed the formula. Around him, a large bubble of energy formed, which he was completely in control of. It was an impressively large bubble, and while he couldn't directly control the energy of other people, any energy used in abilities or spells just fizzled out after only traveling a little bit away from their caster.

Now, fighters inside the bubble didn't just have to worry about Rich and what he could do, but also random spikes and obstacles of energy that Rich could create anywhere inside of it. This gave him plenty of breathing room, allowing him to exchange attacks not with at least three enemies at a time, but now sometimes he would only have one close opponent.

Every time that happened, he was able to leave a wound. Unfortunately, holy power was quite good at fixing bodies, so none of his enemies were wounded for long, but nobody could handle being healed endlessly.

Slowly, the tide of battle turned in Rich’s favor once again, especially when he was able to properly charge his attack and kill two first-rank opponents at the same time. The god's chosen, however, was calm as the scene in front of him started to resemble his vision of the future.

He began to prepare the spell and watched as Rich immediately sensed something was going on and started to make space so he would have room to counter whatever he was doing. He wanted to smirk but couldn't, as it would inform Rich too much.

It was an incredibly complex spell, something he shouldn’t have been able to even power, but for the first time in this battle, he pulled on the black threads to power this dangerous spell. He was only able to hold it for a few moments, but through the communication constantly happening through his leader ability, he directed his followers so Rich would be in a perfect position.

As soon as he released the spell, a circular golden beam with a diameter of 10 inches sped towards Rich. He immediately took action as he had waited and used his kinetic energy to help push him in another direction faster than the spell could move.

This was, however, the only way he could escape, and so his actions were already known ahead of time. The straight beam curved, and the way Rich had escaped meant that he was midair and unable to dodge.

The beam headed straight for his heart. All he could do was use energy control and kinetic energy to dodge the best he could. He was partially successful, yet the beam pierced through all his defenses and completely disintegrated the right side of his stomach, leaving more than half of a perfect circle cut out of Rich.

Rich screamed out in pain as the speed and the desperate dodge he performed made him tumble on the ground with blood flying everywhere. He landed on his back, yet he was not moving.

Immediately, commands were sent, and a few started to rush towards Rich, and some headed towards the army. Yet, the closest enemy to the army was a rank 2 range fighter, she only managed to take a step when her head exploded from a throwing knife.

Everyone once again froze. And while not everyone had seen, the ones headed towards Rich had. From his lying position, he had thrown that throwing knife that was disintegrating during the flight from the amount of energy inside of it.

The amount of energy around Rich was ridiculous, as it was pouring out like from floodgates, yet it wasn't dissipating as Rich didn't let it get away. They all watched as he slowly got up. Then, stretch, his bleeding had stopped, and people could even see blood moving from the missing piece of him that he replaced with pure energy. "Our fight isn't over yet," he said and rushed towards them.