Volume 01: Start Again
Chapter 10: Ashes of Nil
Looking out at the town I could not help but freeze as well. The stone walls that protected the town almost entirely collapsed, and the inside of the town was in everyone's view now.
Looking down at the inner part of the town I watched as different creatures ran through the streets tearing what seemed like the town's guard into pieces.
Switching from the scene of the inner streets of the town I was pulled to the scene of an older man with green skin carrying a small girl in his arms running towards the southern gate. As I watched the man approach the torn-down gate, I could hear a couple of people around me cheer out as there seemed to be signs of people still alive in the town. This thought was short-lived as a pack of wolves came out from a hidden position under the bridge as if they were setting a trap for anyone that was able to escape giving them a small amount of hope and then tearing it away. Not being able to hold off the sudden appearance of the wolves quickly moved to surround the man and girl quickly attacking only the man forcing the little girl out of his hands.
'This town is done for. The beast tide's leader has to be at least at the diamond tier to set up such tactics such as an ambush.' My mind was completely taken aback as I watched on from the top of the hill as the green man was quickly shredded to pieces by the wolves causing his body to spasm in the mouths of the wolves squirting blood several meters away from their position covering the little girl beside the dead man.
Staring back over at the little girl I watched as one of the silver wolves used its mouth to pull the little girl back into the town gates. As if I was standing right beside the little girl her agonizing screams filled the inside of my ears being transmitted by my eyes. I could only watch on as she tried to struggle free but to no avail as she was easily dragged along by the large set wolf.
My mind began echoing with the screams of the little human girl.
Watching the little girl get dragged out of my line of vision woke me up to realize the current situation of the town and the dire straits it was in.
'I do not think this town is savable. No matter what mission or quest that can be given would not be enough for these players to risk dying.' This thought crossed my mind as I scanned the few streets, I could view over the town's crumbled walls.
Assuming the situation was as I thought I began to look around at the other players around me and I could see by their expressions that many of the players had come to the same possibility that I had.
A loud voice sounded out, "MISSION DEEMED IMPOSSIBLE. EVERYONE MAY RETREAT BACK TO THE TRAIN WE WILL SET OUT QUICKLY TO AVOID THE BEAST TIDE." Turning my head over to look at the familiar captain, I watched as she clenched her fists and bit down on her lip most probably in disappointment.
In my mind, I understood the reasoning and I am sure many competent players understand the reasoning as well, but this did not stop the captain from hating the situation. The town was already completely taken over and had set up ambushes to kill people trying to escape meaning there were not many people left alive in the town now. Drawing this conclusion, we would only be killing more people trying to through more bodies at the situation just to save the few NPCs or players who were probably already close to dying.
Hearing the orders, I watched as almost ninety-five percent of everyone on the hill retreated back towards the train. Now left standing on the hill were four people. The captain, the masked man, and I all still stood atop the hill. Noticing the fourth person off to the side of the hill I stared over at them. It was a young man definitely younger than my current self who was standing with us wearing his iron crest on his leather shirt.
Noticing the expression on the young man's face, I realized he had some tears rolling down his face while staring out at the town. Watching the young man, I knew this was probably his first time seeing someone die in such a gruesome manner, and was probably shocked by the entire thing, but this was until I watched the young man begin to walk down the hill toward the town.
'Where is he going?' From a walk, the young man broke out into an awkward run as his large wooden staff hindered his running speed.
'Rage.' This was the only thought I had as I watched the young man who was nothing, but an iron-tiered player run at the town filled with creatures throwing his life away.
As I thought about this I began to wonder when I had started thinking of myself as such a mighty figure as I had lived most of my life barely scraping by. 'I am nothing but a mere copper-tiered player.' Thinking this I could not help but look out at the town one more time.
'We are still level 1 so who cares right? We can't even be stat-locked and if we die, we will just be kicked out of the arches. At that point, we can just do a single arena battle to come back after a day.' Chucking to myself as I looked out at the town, I hit both my knuckles together before I looked over to the captain and the masked man.
"TELL MS. LOR THAT I WILL MEET YOU ALL ANOTHER TIME." Seeing that the two people heard me I nodded to them both before turning to run down the hill after the young man.
"Good luck." The deep voice of the masked man spoke out from behind me.
These were the only words I needed to hear as I continued downwards but this sudden action must have scared the captain because she began to yell warnings to the young man and me from on top of the hill. "IF YOU TWO DO NOT TURN BACK WE WILL LEAVE THE BOTH OF YOU!"
Hearing these words, I could not help but smirk to myself as I waved my hand over my head continuing forward.
I quickly caught up to the young man as his large weapon seemed to weigh him down. Coming up on the side of the young man I looked over his appearance and confirming the rage in his eyes I just smiled as we were probably running towards our deaths.
"What's your name?" Speaking these words out to the young boy I seemed to make him flinch as he turn to look at me, but his eyes still filled with hatred. As if he could not hear me, he just looked me over before he returned his gaze back forward again.
'Guess he is running on pure instincts right now. I wonder what made him this way.' Just shrugging my shoulders, I returned to just accompanying the young man as we quickly approached the town's gate.
"HELP US PLEASE ANYONE!" The high-pitched scream of the young girl could finally be heard in my ears.
*Bark*
As we closed in on the position of the gate one of the outer-positioned wolves turned to look out the southern gate. At this moment the eyes of the wolf and my own met pushing a sense of dread into my senses for the upcoming battle as it would be two versus close to fifteen.
*AWOO*
The wolf that caught sight of our arrival began to howl out alerting the rest of the surrounding wolves who were off tearing away at the left-over skin of the green man.
Drawn by the change of sight by the wolves the little girl began to scream out even louder, "IS SOMEONE THERE! PLEASE COME AND SAVE US MY DAD IS HURT!"
Hearing these words, I could not help but feel my heart ache as I looked past the crouching wolves and saw clearly the remains of the man. It was a rather grotesque sight as all the limbs of the man were separated from his body and blood created a small red channel between the stones of the street.
Standing before the outside of the large gate to the city there were only a dozen meters between the wolves and our pair now as they slowly moved towards us.
Looking to my side I watched as the young man pulled from his back a large wooden white stick that resembled that of a mage's staff.
Seeing this I asked the young man a question as I was excited that I would be fighting with a mage class, "What class are you?"
"Healer."
'Fuck me.' Hearing this response, I felt my stomach turn upside down as I was fighting one versus fifteen basically as the healer usually had close to no offensive capabilities until at least their first-class advancements which I was more than sure this kid was nowhere near. Knowing this I took in a deep breath as I knew this fight was now going to be a battle to the death and there was no escaping unless one of our two sides did something unexpected.
'I need to get as many wolves away from the girl as possible.' Coming up with a quick plan I turned to the young man.
"Grab the girl once you see an opening then immediately run away as fast as you can until you reach a safe distance. There should be another town east of here try to make it there once you get out of here." Saying all of this quickly to the young man I began to make my way carefully toward the rightmost wall of the gate.
Splitting the group into thirds now five wolves began focusing in on me as the other groups flanked the young man and guarded the little girl respectively. Seeing this I knew I needed to draw at least half of the wolves to me.
Tapping my knuckles together I ran for the nearest wolf who had been the same wolf that had spotted me approaching the gate. As I ran up to the wolf it tactically dodged backward pulling me into the range of another wolf who was lying in wait as if expecting the actions of the lead wolf.
"Ah." The claw of the ambushing wolf barely caught the side of my stomach forcing me to dodge back a couple of steps.
[-8 Piercing Damage]
Being pushed slightly backward by the attack I watched as the movement of the wolves began to try and circle around me.
'This is good.' Holding my side, I noticed the side of my shirt was torn apart but thanks to me being undead I did not suffer any internal injuries and thus did not take that much damage as the sharp claw just scrapped against the chainmail armor and only tore the side of my shirt.
Knowing I did not have much time to set myself before all the wolves trapped me, I began my actual attack. Pushing forward once again I moved like I was going to only attack from the front once again but this time as I approached the lead wolf, I predicted the attack of the ambushing wolf.
*Pah*
[-7 Blunt Damage]
Punching the incoming wolf to the side I continued forward pushing past the initial line of wolves that were barring me in place. This pushed me past the front three wolves and allowed me to attack right away at the leftmost wolf.
*Pah*
[-24 Blunt Damage | Critical]
Not expecting my current suicidal actions, I caught the two back wolves off guard getting a single attack off, and with this single attack, I seemed to heavily injure the wolf.
Seeing the red letters pop up on a small notification I immediately understood why the wolf had fallen over onto the floor.
*AWOOOO*
'Oh, they did not like that.' The cry of the heavily injured wolf drew the immediate attention of all the wolves under the gate.
Hearing the cry and seeing the injured wolf beside my body all the other wolves began to growl and snarl at me. The wolves that were already around me became even more aggressive giving up their previously thought-out ambushes and now just trying to snap at me.
'Perfect.' As the wolves all around me began to close in on my location I began to smile. Dodging to the best of my ability I allowed the now ten wolves to surround me. They scratched and clawed at me to the best of their ability not breaking the circle so as to not let me escape. Seeing this I could not help but chuckle as I slowly shifted the circle to the edge of the gate area near the inside of the town.
Noticing the distance between me and the little girl's small group of wolves I called out, "Backtrack."
I could feel the energy inside of me begin to drain out of me as the wolves around me began to slowly freeze one by one. Their actions slowed down to a halt. Then within my body, I felt something suddenly go missing as a small golden stopwatch suddenly appeared in my hand.
*tick*
*tock*
'Wow.' As all the wolves disappeared from sight I quickly moved back towards where the other remaining wolves were as they slowly began encroaching on the position of the young man. The golden stopwatch disappeared from my hand and seemed to move into my body.
*tink* *tink*
Smashing my knuckles together I grabbed the attention of the remaining wolves. As the wolves saw me return, I could see a sudden sense of confusion being portrayed through their eyes.
*AWOOO*
Howling into the sky it seemed the wolves expected that I must have somehow trapped their wolf companions somewhere else as their bodies were nowhere to be seen.
*AWOOOO*
*AWOOO*
More howls continued to follow from the distant streets, and this showed me how little time I actually had as I previously thought that the five-minute reset would give me enough space to get out without any more injuries, but I was wrong.
Knowing this now I looked towards the young man and called out to him, "Get ready to take her." Sighing I began to run forward once again to the closest of the last five wolves.