Rushing through the woods at maximum speed while multiple corrupted beings chase after you is not fun. I'd never felt so exhausted in my life, and I honestly had no clue what we were going to do even after we made it back to the Village. There were at least 3 of them on our tail, with slower ones following along behind us. The village couldn't even deal with a single one without our help, maybe we should've lead them elsewhere but we had no where else to go.
All of us had used our abilities to the limit over the last couple of hours, Matt and I where completely dry of Elemental Energy, Gunthar's tattoos had dimmed, no longer able to come out of his body. The heartforce cultivators were a bit better off due to the nature of the heartforce, and Connor seemed to never tire. Whatever had happened to him in the legacy zone, it had turned him into a killing machine who fought with the absolute minimum use of Elemental Energy yet could take down monsters in droves with a flick of his blade.
In the end, the only reason we managed to make it to the village was Alexandra's potions. I have no idea what they are, but she keeps pulling more and more out.
"Where in the world did you get all of those?" I asked her about hallway through the sprint, unable to believe the sheer number of them and how strong they were.
"That creepy guy from the Alchemist Guild gave them too me, he said that I needed to be able to defend myself and this is how an alchemist fights." She chucked another one, it exploded into a blue haze that caused the monsters chasing behind us to collapse to the ground twitching.
"Remind me to thank him." Connor said, a look of fear on his face as he watched the monsters twitch, "And to never piss off an alchemist."
Alexandra smiled brilliantly, making Connor and I lose our breath for a moment. Ever since she threw the first bottle and it killed all those Goblin Archers she'd been more and more confident. I'd overheard her talking to Beth and Sarah not long after her first kill about how it made her realize that she didn't have to be scared anymore. It just made me want to kill her father even more, butnshe can do that herself now.
We burst through a clearing, Alexandra throwing a final bottle of poison behind her as we finally saw the village. I despaired when I realized that the gates where thrown wide open, with no one patrolling the wall. Running through the gates, there was no one in sight. Even ghost towns had more activity then this place.
The scenery changed as we continued into the village. Nearly all of the buildings had been knocked down except for the Blackmith, Alchemist, and Formation Guild which was surrounded by their defenses from earlier in the day.
Where the towns largest well used to be, a massive fort had been constructed out of the logs that we'd gathered. Formations covered it, and as we approached I could make out formation masters putting more work into it as the used ropes to hang down the walls like window cleaners in New York. On the ground, clear signs were in place to warn people from stepping off of the path of wooden planks leading to draw-bridge over a moat of bubbling green liquid.
"OPEN UP!" Gunthar's voice echoed as he yelled, surprising the gate guard.
Luckily, Captain Evelyn recognized us and the bridge lowered quickly as we sprinted towards it. It closed behind us quickly, and I got one last glimpse of a massive pack of hyena's that'd been nipping at our heels for the last 15 minutes.
"That was cutting it close." Captain Evelyn said as she walked down a rough set of stairs.
"Yeah." I said, in between pants as I examined the surroundings. The fort was obviously built in a hurry. They'd cut off all the limbs of the tree's and used the logs like they were building a log house. At 20 tall and 120 feet long per log 200 logs makes for an enormous edifice.
Obviously rushed and sloppy formations covered every inch of the place and Matt walked up to take a look at them before saying, "These aren't very powerful, I don't know if they'll hold up."
Evelyn nodded in agreement, "Yes, they were just a rush job to strengthen their resilience and create a small barrier. The master's are working on more powerful formations now, we're relying on the Alchemist's Guild to hold off whatever comes tonight. I wish we'd known they were going to attack so soon, we might not have lost the entire village then."
"I was wondering about that, why where you caught so off guard?" Connor asked.
"A group of adventurer's came and accepted a mission to scout the corrupted's stronghold. They were weaker than you though, unable to survive their onslaught they wound up leading a group to the village before we were ready for them, and we couldn't get the gate's closed in time to keep them out." Evelyn had a look of pure hatred on her face as she spoke, and I felt bad for whatever group it was that had to deal with her after they recovered from the soul damage.
Waving us into through a second, smaller gate we found ourselves in the middle of a clearing. Makeshift tents covered the area, with workers still putting up boarding houses.
"We started with the walls, but now that we've got all the wood we're going to begin filling it in. By the time it's done, it'll be a massive hideaway that'll last for hundreds of years. Ironmarsh village will be more safe than any other of it's kind." Evelyn was obviously happy with their plans, and I couldn't help but admit that the combined might of all the Guilds and the Guard had done a fantastic job. If the thousands of idiots from Earth would learn how to fight the village might just have a fighting chance.
"Is it alright if we go to the top of the walls?" I asked, as cool as the interior of the fort was I was worried about the corrupted that were chasing behind us.
Evelyn had a thoughtful look on her face for a while and then nodded to herself. Leading us towards some guards at the base of a staircase Evelyn said, "This group is allowed access to the walls, don't stop them in the future."
The guards obviously recognized us from the fight earlier and didn't argue, only snapping off a salute at Captain Evelyn's direction as we walked up the staircase. They were rough, a bit wobbly, and as Rick walked on one it groaned under the weight of his armor for a moment before it held.
"Reinforcing formations are being put in around the entirety of the walls, we haven't gotten to the stair's yet. Should be done by tomorrow, so you won't have to worry about them collapsing." Evelyn said, glancing back at the noise to see Rick's pale face.
Nodding, we followed along behind her silently. I was amazed at just how high we had to go before we reached the top of the walls. From the ground it looked gigantic, but it wasn't until I reached the top that I realized just how tall it was. Beth's face was looking green, the higher we went the worse she looked until I had to help steady her for the last 10 steps.
"The wall is 150 feet tall and 40 feet deep. We used two layers of logs with an extremely strong binding agent from the Alchemist's Guild to increase the depth, combined with formations by the time we're done with it it'll be impenetrable to anything at the Elemental Gathering Stage or below." Evelyn started talking as we reached the top, Beth had managed to find a place where she could lay down and pretend she was on the ground not far from us.
Looking around in awe, I noticed people wearing alchemist's robes were being lead by the man with gold framed glasses we'd met earlier as they carefully poured a concoction into the moat surrounding the wooden log fort. The foul green bubbling moat turned white, and an air of purification came off of it as the man nodded in happiness and they retreated back.
In the distance, I could see massive forms nearly 80 feet tall moving ponderously towards us. "What are those?" I asked Evelyn.
"Giant's." She paled slightly as she whispered, "They live in the center of the Ironmarsh, near the mothertree. They're incredibly tough and regenerate quickly, but are mostly peaceful creatures so long as you don't disturb their sleep. I hope the corrupted hasn't taken one over. We need at least a week to completely reinforce the fort, most corrupted we could hold off but a Giant would be able to rip it apart in minutes before we complete the formations."
Rick was standing behind us and started shaking his head, his face paling slightly as well. "I can feel a massive force of corruption coming from that direction, but it's slow. It won't reach here for a few days."
Taking a deep breath, the color returned to Evelyn's cheeks as a look of determination came over her face. "We need time, and the only way I can see of doing it is for you lot to get the giant's attention. Master Thompson said that he gave you an ingredients list for a purification potion that will help deal with corrupted beings. I need you to gather the ingredients and distract that giant for at least a week."
*Ding*
*Mission Update - Save the Ironmarsh*
*Description: Ironmarsh Fort needs a week to complete their defenses, distract any corrupted being strong enough to damage the fort while gathering ingredients for the Corruption Purification Potion.*
Two timers appeared in the top right corner of my vision, and I took a deep breath to ready myself for what was to come. Gathering the ingredients would be tough enough, but distracting a massive, nearly impervious to damage corrupted giant sounds like suicide to me.
*Current Estimated Time of Giant Corrupted's Arrival: 3 Days, 6 Hours, 1 Minute, 30 Seconds*
*Time remaining to completion of fort: 6 Days, 21 Hours, 8 Minutes, 48 Seconds*