the second I see the wolves start to pour in my heart drops. 'I'm on the 4th floor so I have a bit of a buffer time, but not long. the stairs don't have doors.
I immediately run out of my room, heading to the hallway. I grab one of my treasured swords I collected over the years, a standard straight sword. can't imagine it being useful as it's a collector item, designed after one of my favorite characters, but even still it's not a blade made for combat but who knows.
upon peaking my head out the door I see at least 3 different groups of people rushing upstairs. clogging up the hallways most of them are faster than me, I can only assume they are agility/strength builds, a terrible option in this situation, but undoubtedly better than my own.
trailing behind them I stop at the other mages room who was helping out before. knocking on his door as loud as I can before shouting "Come to the top floor if you haven't already, safety in numbers". then proceeding to run up the stairs myself. my heart grows ever colder as I hear the screams of residents below us getting torn apart in their maws.
quickly reaching the sixth floor I slip through to the rooftop along with 14 others, and the mage boy from before behind me, he invested into an agility-mage build from what I can gather.
"alright, everyone. we are going to have to make a final stand here we don't have much of a choice otherwise. The roof is pretty open and we don't have to worry about being flanked, spread out according to your classes. the more health you have the further front you go."
a bulky guy "Definitely a bodybuilder" I mutter to myself as I approach him, maybe around 21-23 years old has taken the lead. directing everyone to their spots.
taking out my sword and passing it to the guy I shout. "hey old man, take this. Can you use it?"
"Thanks, kid. your the mage from before right, the one killing all the goblins?"
To which I nod.
"good job wiping them all out, go take your spot at the very right back, almost flanking the door. just try to whittle them down as much as you can. we don't know how many there will be." to which I once again just nod.
walking over to my spot I take a glance over the area, "I'm too high to hurt anything but I can at least scout out the nearby roads". directly below me, I can see hundreds, if not thousands of those disgusting goblins cluttering the roads vandalizing cars and windows. no more wolves in sight though.
the incessant sound of gunfire shrouding every other noise in the environment. The military has taken action. England's under-developed army. I doubt they will be much help early on, but it's good to have hope.
gazing back at everyone I see their nerves drawn taut. same as mine, who wouldn't be when your about to die I guess. "hey the military is nearby, we just got to survive a little longer."
the adults among us seemed to heave a sigh of relief, putting too much hope in for our rescue. I idly wonder why the younger ones my age don't hold the same hope, however.
that small rekindling of the flame of hope was quickly smashed as the door to the roof broke down, and the dogs started flooding out at us.
the 16 of us were arranged as 3 mages. 6 warriors, 4 tanks, and 3 assassins. as best I can describe them. I guess the older generation likes close-range fighting.
I hid behind my assigned tank. whose name I learned as George. a 35-year-old man, his wife is up here beside us as well, she's one of the assassins. gives me a little confidence that he can't really flee if we get overwhelmed.
I immediately start casting spells. arcane shot after shot, soon half a minute passes and I receive my first notification.
[arcane shot: skill level up]
[arcane shot level 3: fires a bolt of pure mana at the target dealing 120% intelligence damage to the enemy within a range of 5x(intelligence) cooldown 8 seconds - intelligence cost 2mp]
[arcane shot level 3: exp 0/6250]
I gasp aloud at the staggering exp jump. "well I guess that's not leveling up any time soon" I mutter under my breath as I further accelerate my spell-slinging speed. decimating limb after limb of these giant creatures.
never realised it when looking down on the monsters, but these wolves are almost as tall as I am. estimates put them firmly around 1.5m tall.
the battle continues, the roof isn't large enough to hold too many of them, so around 10~ wolves are up here with us at any time.
'with how many of us there are. this has turned into more of an exp grinder than a life-or-death battle. but right as I think that we witness our first casualty,
a young girl who can't have been more than 14 years old. rushed out from behind the tanks. I guess she got excited thinking of getting some experience or something. trying to sneak attack one of the closest wolves and immediately got a one-shot.
glancing over at her lifeless corpse being stepped upon by one of the wolves. I can't help but feel pity for her, brainwashed by games and media, yet without the skill or ability to back up her dreams.
although seeing her die drained any happiness I gained from surviving so far. I will keep that scene etched into my mind. "don't get cocky. Try to keep myself grounded".
yet even with that reminder, I can't help but find my thoughts drifting away. surveying the rooftop. this battle has stopped being so thrilling.
I'm completely safe at the back. just stood still casting the same skill on repeat. I don't even need to aim, the wolves are so large and clustered, and my high damage stat explodes their relatively weak body parts with each shot.
[-12]
[killed wolf-mount level 2 creature: gained +20 exp]
[you have leveled up. level 3]
[exp: 10/500]
not even the level-up changes anything. The wolves still take 2 shots to die. my damage per shot only increased to ~18. 'I feel.. bored. after we finish clearing out these wolves and goblins. will anything change? am I still going to be able to easily clean out all the other monsters too?'
My thoughts start swirling and I pay less and less attention to the battlefield. the seconds tick one by one into a minute as I'm shooting into the cluster.
[+20 exp]
[+20 exp]
[+20..]
...
[-4. minor injury]
something flitters past my vision. green, multiple goblins have somehow appeared on the roof with us. another goblin gets ready to throw something and I dodge.
[-4. minor injury]
I glance down as I re-adjust myself. 2 knives one in my left arm, and the other in my thigh. "f*cking goblins. Die [arcane shot] " I'm angry. not only at them but at myself. injured by these 2 weaklings that I can easily one-shot.
[+10 exp]
[-4. minor injury]
I panic. glancing at my hp.
[hp: 3/15]
my face goes white. partially in panic, partially in shame. 'if only I paid more attention. if only I had kept my focus' I admonish myself as I watch another goblin prepare his throwing knife.