Might as Well

They didn’t stay alone long, as in the next few seconds, several other teams, some bigger, some smaller than them began to show up around the area where the portal was.

For a long moment, the wyvern just looked at them in confusion, no doubt wondering how the food multiplied while the people simply stared at each other.

Then the realization set in and cries of anguish began to be heard.

“Oh, come on… We were so close!”

“Damn it! I almost had it!”

“What the hell?”

“What happened?”

“Who did it?”

“Who was faster than us?”

Thankfully, nobody seemed to realize that Sam’s team was the first out, but he was pretty sure some people took note of them.

He made eye contact with the others, but before he could try to convey his very convoluted plan of getting the fuck out of the wyvern nest, said wyvern decided that it was hungry and wanted to eat the food that showed up.

And it announced it with an awesome roar, shaking the ground and causing several people to collapse. Sam even saw a person simply collapse from the sonic attack. Though based on how much blood they were covered in, it wasn’t surprising.

Panic over the boss from the tree forgotten, everybody turned their eyes to the raging wyvern, realizing that there was an actual bag of experience and loot right in front of them. Sam saw how the people were eyeing each other, no doubt measuring the chances of getting a last hit on the boss, as well as the chances of picking up any loot.

Apparently, they still haven’t noticed that the monsters born from this Fracture don’t give loot, or maybe they hoped that this one was different. After all, it was clearly some kind of boss monster.

Sam knew better. While the guy in his memories started playing after the Fracture, the discussion about the event was still lively, and during his downtime, he liked to read them over and chortle about all the whining and crying people did.

Turning his head around casually, he saw that all the groups were ready to jump and tear not just the wyvern apart but the other teams.

Making use of the relative silence that was in the wyvern’s lair, he casually raised his hands, palm facing outward, and took a step backward. His team was confused, but they still followed his lead.

“There are not enough of us, so we’ll bow out! Good luck!”

He could hear the others fidget behind him, but his eyes were on the leaders of the groups near them. One big group was filled with people dressed in black with green accents, Abyss Viper, a middling guild specializing in poisons on their left. On their right was a group, mostly dressed in plate mail, though Sam could see several mages and such. ‘Steel Lions. Honorable, but foolish…’ he thought as he beheld their symbol, a roaring silver lion on a blue background.

The man in front of the Abyss Vipers scowled at him, then shrugged, and instantly his group scattered around the wyvern as it lowered its head, mouth opening for another roar.

The man leading the Steel Lions, a tall guy with aristocratic features that simply radiated wealth and privilege, slowed their charge and gave Sam a short nod before accelerating towards the monster, with his group behind him brandishing their weapons.

Sam and his team weren’t close to the other groups, but by his count, there were at least half a dozen, maybe even more groups arrayed around the wyvern, ready to pounce on any shiny object.

The wyvern, naturally, didn’t take this lying down.

It opened its maw and Sam felt the mana build up in its body before it transformed into something incredibly repugnant.

He did an about-face and roared.

“Run! And don’t stop!”

His teammates recoiled, but they trusted him enough to follow his command, and they simply began to run towards one of the walls made of roots and bones, while behind them they could hear the great monster inhale, and then exhale.

Sam instantly activated his Wind Blade Storm, surrounding the team in a small globe of wind, while behind him, he could hear the anguished scream of those who were affected by the putrid breath attack of the wyvern.

‘I have a feeling that the Abyss Vipers are going to win this fight…’ he mused as the green gas slammed into his protection. Thanks to the countless blades whirling around them, none of the gas reached them, but as he glanced back and saw how several people simply melted, he now understood why the nest was so empty…

With the wyvern occupied, their escape from the area was rather easy.

Sam simply used his Earth Wall spell to create a series of earth walls, each higher than the next one, and they simply ascended on it until they reached the barrier’s top, and from then they were on the other side with a simple jump.

Granted, Clarissa grumbled a little bit about being a healer and not an acrobat, but after another blood-curdling scream from the direction of the fight with the wyvern, she dutifully followed them without another comment.

As soon as they touched down on the ground covered in mud on who knows what, they were greeted by the sight of the monster horde, still trying feverishly to enter the city. And while the destruction of the core crystal up in the giant tree would guarantee that no more monsters would spawn, there were still enough of them to lay waste to Ironwood.

Sam looked at the others and quirked one eyebrow up in a questioning manner.

Dan simply nodded, gripping his club harder, Clarissa let out a tired sigh but nodded and Katie flapped the cover of her helmet up and gave him a grin, before slamming it down and brandishing her giant greatsword.

“Let’s go, boss! I want to kill everything!”

Sam gave her a deadpan look, but returned the nod.

“Good. This time, our goal is the gate. We need to make sure it holds!” He took a small breath and waited a moment for any resistance from his teammates, but they just waited for him to finish. “Everybody ready?”

“Hopefully, I can keep you crazies alive…”

“Let’s burn baby!”

“MASSACRE!”

Listening to the rather unsurprising responses, Sam turned around, unsheathed his sword, pointed it toward the city, and roared.

This was echoed by Lucky, who also surfaced from his shadow and stood next to him, his gigantic, yet sinfully fluffy body almost dwarfing Sam.

The way back to the city wasn’t as eventful as their journey toward the tree, as there weren’t any rival groups trying to hinder them, plus they were attacking the monsters from behind, so that increased the damage somewhat.

Also, Lucky was out of Sam’s shadow, and the loyal wolf was relishing the chance to go wild. He and Katie seemed to race around, trying to kill more monsters than the others. Clarissa kept close to Sam, while Dan orbited around them, releasing great gouts of flames, burning whatever monster decided to get close to them.

Sam simply kept an eye and Mana Sense out for anything out of the ordinary, while bombarding anything within sight with enough Wind Blades that the resulting chunks of monsters would make a sashimi artist green with envy.

Then, as they were about halfway to the gates of the city, by his estimation, he saw a great light pulse from the same direction.

For a moment, he thought it was some random skill, but the light remained and pulsed for every second as he realized what it was. ‘Light of the Guardian! A last resort spell that uses life force! Fuck…’

He turned to Clarissa. “Got any speed buffs?”

She frowned, then nodded.

“Good. Cast all of them. Now!”

Instantly, all four of them were enveloped by red light, and Sam could feel himself becoming lighter. He grinned at Clarissa, then whistled slightly. “Lucky! Give the lady a ride!”

“Wha–“ She spoke up, but the healer was interrupted as Lucky simply emerged from under her. For a moment she looked dumbfounded, sitting on Lucky’s back, but then she calmed down and continued raining down healing light on Katie’s head.

“Guys!” he exclaimed. “Bullrush!”

Katie let out a demented cackle and instantly charged toward the gate, leaving nothing but chunks of meat in her wake that slowly turned into motes of light that flew upwards before dissipating.

Dan began to run, but as Lucky with Clarissa on his back began to overtake him, he simply shrugged and jumped up behind the surprised healer. Lucky let out a bark of excitement and continued to bound forward while Dan occasionally let loose some fire from his cavemen club.

Sam simply activated Shadow Grace first, letting the magic run its course, then Shadow Burst, feeling his body fizzing with energy, then he direct a good chunk of magic into his legs, and with the help of Wind Movement, he rocketed forward.

He left monsters alone, intending on reaching the gates before anything happened to the source of light. It could only be cast by high-leveled people, so it was most likely one of the guard captains that choose this method to protect the gates further. The spell was rather simple. It would at first take mana, then the life force of the individual to cast a protective light around the person, protecting everything from harm, so as long as the individual’s mana and life held up, they were safe.

There were naturally drawbacks to the skill. You could either go all in and run the spell until you died, which wasn’t possible for NPCs, or you could break the skill when close to death, which would leave you with a debilitating debuff that would lead to death if the individual didn’t have other people covering them.

He jumped among monsters, dodging breath attacks, claw swipes, and a few times lashing out with his sword, annihilating a monster that he didn’t really see, but his attention was fully focused on the pulsating white light and the gates of the city getting closer.

Jumping on top of another Rock Bear, Sam jumped forward before the monster could swipe at him with its stone claws onto the head of another monster. It was another bear, though this one was not covered in rock, instead it had scales that seemed to sparkle with silvery light.

He stood there for a moment and took a wide look around. The walls were still standing, but they were in shambles. In places where the parapets hadn’t crumbled, the defenders were faltering, and he could see that most guards were down, or attacking rather slowly, while the players were still continuing to rain attacks down on the monsters. However, as the guards were much higher leveled, the attacks were less effective.

And in front of the gate, Sam could see a very familiar guard captain, with their sword plunged into the ground as the man kneeled behind it, his hand gripping the handle as the white light of skill pulsed from him. Meanwhile, the surrounding monsters ineffectively threw themselves at the white wall, some of them even getting crushed in the process.

Sam took a quick stock of the rest of the team, with Katie heading in a straight line toward the gate, and Lucky leaping with Dan and Clarissa on his back, the tongue lolling out of his mouth, and Sam could see in his eyes that he was immensely enjoying himself. Not so much Clarissa, who looked rather queasy.

With a final burst of mana, he launched himself up into the air, and as he began to fall toward the area where it was clear of monsters as the remaining soldiers moved around with their backs to the gate, he yelled out.

“CAPTAIN!”

The guard captain’s head snapped up instantly, and when the man saw him, a weary smile appeared on his face.

Then a lot of things happened in a short while.

He landed with a gentle thud next to the captain, while at the same time, Katie arrived, throwing aside several wolves with her arrival, simply stepping through the spell keeping the monsters at bay, as the captain naturally only set it against monsters.

Another heartbeat later, Lucky landed next to him, with his two passengers looking a little shellshocked.

Then, from one moment to another, the pulse of white light vanished, with the other guards rushing forward, crying out in distress.

“Captain!”

“No!”

Sam simply stepped forward with his sword sheathed and raised both of his hands, channeling as much mana as possible, and let loose a Wind Blade Storm, making sure he enveloped all the guards and his teammates.

Instantly, the nearest monsters cried out as the spell cut into them, and next to him, the guard captain fell forward, almost landing on his face, but a fast guard rushing forward prevented that. Clarissa was instantly kneeling next to him, bathing him in a gentle healing light.

As Sam kept the rushing horde that seemed intent on becoming monster slushy at bay with the help of his spell, Dan stepped up next to him.

“Want me to light it up?”

Sam just grunted in the affirmative, all his attention and focus on maintaining the spell.

Dan raised his club in celebration, then took a stance, with his club pointing towards the monsters, and spoke a short chant.

“Blaze Pulse!”

Then the world was on fire.