HC: Handyman | Ch. 221 - Knocked Back

Rob was the first to make contact.

He slipped into stealth just before closing in—his outline blurring, then vanishing altogether. The sabertooths didn’t notice a thing. From Jack’s point of view, it looked almost as if Rob had teleported to the back of one of them. Of course, that wasn’t the case. He was just using stealth.

Not until he reappeared behind one of them, blades already in motion.

A blur of motion. A flash of steel.

Rob unleashed his strongest combo, each strike sharp with precision and force. A cascade of damage numbers rippled up the tiger’s side, flaring bright and fast. Chunk after chunk of health peeled away in seconds. The beast recoiled, snarling in pain.

But Rob wasn’t alone.

A dozen goat knights followed close behind. Cloaked in stack upon stack of charge skills, they moved with unnatural speed and ferocity. So many effects layered over them, they resembled comets streaking forward, their trails glowing pale blue.

And just as the first horn met fur—

The final phrase of Into the Breach rang out, crisp and bold.

Jack’s ocarina glowed white-hot in his hand—then burst apart with a sharp pop of steam and splinters. He flinched, blinking down at his stinging fingers. Overheated and overworked. The melody had pushed it past its limit.

The blue comet suddenly flared with a streak of emerald green, and in that instant, the cavalry slammed into the sabertooths.

Twelve goat knights. Five sabertooths. Some tigers were rammed by two goats, others by three—and when they struck, the impact cracked like thunder against stone.

WHAM. WHAM. WHAM.

The sabertooths went flying.

Massive elite predators launched clean off the ground, flailing helplessly mid-air. One tiger tumbled head over tail. Another spun sideways, legs kicking like a startled housecat. Two collided mid-flight with startled hrrrks!, stunned disbelief written across their wide, feline eyes.

“Oh my goodness!” Jack blurted.

“That was incredible!” Horace shouted.

What Jack knew about knights could fill a short pamphlet, but he did know this—they were all about momentum. Stack the right skills, time them just right, and you could land one of the strongest hits in the game. Rangers still led in total DPS, but knights came close, even with fewer strikes.

Knights were meant to break enemy lines—smash through a shield wall so the berserkers, rogues, and beastmasters could pour in. They had some knockback, sure. But this?

This looked busted. Overpowered.

The One-Eyes barely reached the tigers’ waists, and the goats? Compared to the sabertooths, they were like terriers taking on lions. If the goat knights were really this strong, where were they when they had to fight off the short-faced bears?

BOOOOM!

Jack whipped his head left. Marie’s bombs burst with the same emerald fire, detonating in the faces of the sabertooths on the left flank. The explosions sent them skidding across the snow in long, ragged trails.

A moment ago, the beasts had charged without hesitation. Now, they were scrambling to recover.

Jack stared, slack-jawed. It wasn’t just the knights. That had to be his melody.

“Jack? Did you do that?” Horace called, breath fogging in the cold.

“I—I think so,” Jack said, still staring down at the ruined ocarina in his hand. “I was so caught off guard when the goats hit… I didn’t even read the system message.”

Horace opened his own log. “Well, I got it. It was definitely your song.”

He read aloud:

You’ve played [Into the Breach].

8,500 XP in Bard

Audience bonus: 4,500 XP in Bard

Performance grade: B–

All your allies have +10 knockback for (1+2) seconds.

“Ten knockback!” Horace blinked. “Ten!”

Jack nodded. “Uh. Yeah. Is that a big deal?”

“It is! No wonder they went flying. Man, what an incredible buff!”

“If you say so,” Jack said, scratching the back of his head.

Noticing that Jack had no idea how impressive that really was, Horace pressed on. “A knight at our level usually has maybe two or three. They’ve got to build for damage and crits or they’re useless. But you can just hand out knockback? To everyone?”

As Horace explained, eyes gleaming, the second tiger collapsed under a barrage from the ranged unit. The ranged team was already focusing fire on the next.

“Jack? More buffs, please?” Amari called out.

“Right, right. Sorry,” Jack said as he grabbed a fresh ocarina from his inventory and started playing March of the Embers to boost the team’s DPS.

Meanwhile, the goat knights were already circling back, lining up to charge the tigers again.

But just as they began to move—

A deep rumble echoed through the canyon. Not thunder. Not drums. Heavier. Closer.

ROOOOOAAAAAR!

The sound froze the knights in their tracks. Even the tigers faltered.

Then they appeared—one by one, the short-faced bears squeezed through the narrow gap between the dandelion tree and the canyon wall. Massive, shaggy, and late as usual.

The moment they saw their natural predators from the mountains, the goat knights reared back. Then, without hesitation, they turned and bolted.

Jack blinked, watching them sprint toward his position. “Wait. Are they running away?”

The bears stood on their hind legs, roared fiercely, then charged.

Jack squinted at the mayhem. Were the bears chasing the goats? Or were they all charging the tigers? For a second, it wasn’t clear. He wasn’t even sure the bears or goats knew either. The tigers were caught between the ditch, the cavalry, and the oncoming bears.

Then came the answer.

The tigers snarled at the bears, baring their fangs. Their fur puffed out, making them look even bigger. The bears roared back without flinching.

Jack sighed in relief. They were here for the tigers.

The bears had missed the opening clash—they always did. And these tigers were fast. If it weren’t for the knockback fiesta just now, they would’ve outrun them completely.

The cavalry had bought just enough time for the heavies to join the fight.

Amari’s shout cut through the chaos. “Cavalry! Focus your DPS—one tiger at a time! Thin their numbers! The bears can each handle the rest!”

Rob surged ahead, targeting the tiger he’d struck earlier. Another combo—fluid, practiced, brutal. The beast’s health dipped below half. It tried to recover, but the goat knights were already moving, forming up behind Rob—not in a line, but staggered for maximum impact.

One by one, the goats struck.

Each charge landed with crushing force. A rhythm of impacts. A twelve-hit chain. There was no room to breathe. The tiger never stood a chance. It collapsed mid-step, skidding to a stop in a snow-stained heap.

The bears caught up seconds later.

They barreled into the sabertooths with thunderous roars. The tigers were faster, more agile, and carried the aura of elite predators—but the bears were ten levels higher and nearly twice their size.

For every elegant slash or dodge from a tiger, the bears answered with raw, brutal strength. A sweeping paw. A crushing bite. Claws like machetes. They didn’t win every exchange, but they won enough.

On the left flank, the three remaining tigers had just reached the first ditch. One dropped just before its jump—legs buckling under a barrage of ranged fire.

The other two, undeterred, leapt with grace, jaws wide, aiming straight for Marie.

What they met instead was a wall.

Led by Horace, the soldiers braced behind their shields, forming a tight line in front of her. The impact landed like a boulder. Shields shuddered. Rope sandals scraped across frozen ground. But the wall held. The tigers were knocked back, tumbling into the ditch.

Hell followed.

Arrows rained. Bombs burst. Blowdarts whistled. Trapped with nowhere to run, the tigers were ripped apart by the onslaught. Another fell, twitching beneath a pile of rubble and steel.

Across the canyon, Rob and the goat knights struck again—this time catching a tiger mid-duel with a bear. The cat never saw it coming. Bear claws slashed from the front. Goat horns slammed in from the side. The elite went down hard.

That was the tipping point.

The sabertooths broke. What had begun as a coordinated charge dissolved into panic. The rest of the fight was a slaughter.

And then came the chime.

Wave 41 cleared.

The wind died down, and without missing a beat. Jack took off. There were ten elites—there had to be some good loot out there.

The first two carcasses were down at the ditch. Jack approached the nearest one and touched it.

You’ve looted [Mountain Sabertooth].

+600 XP in [Butchering]

+2 gold and 11 silver.

You’ve looted:

3x [Tiger Meat]

4x [Tiger Fat]

[Mountain Sabertooth Pelt]

[Mountain Sabertooth Fang]

This was an elite, after all. The loot wasn’t as juicy as a boss drop, but the fangs made excellent bone-carving material, and with how many mouths he had to feed, every piece of meat would help.

He took the pelt from his inventory and gave it a once-over. The sabertooth tigers had been able to shrug off the Tramontane. Feeling the fabric now, it was no wonder.

The fur was dense and layered, yet soft to the touch—like touching packed snow lined with velvet. The outer layer was coarse and windproof; the undercoat, fine and insulating.

He tried it on to compare it with his current mantle.

Mountain Sabertooth Pelt (Rare)

Harvested from a predator that thrives in the highest reaches, this pelt is both a shield against the cold and a whisper in the snow.

Durability: 29

Item effects:

+10 stealth

+9 cold resistance

“Interesting.”

This pelt offered a serious boost to cold resistance. It even granted a bonus of 10 to stealth! He’d seen firsthand how powerful stealth could be back when he wore the moss equipment.

Even though he preferred the stats on his Flying Marmoset pelt, he wasn’t about to toss this one. Who knew—maybe he’d need more cold resistance to tackle some frosty quest or high-altitude map.

“Hi, Jack! Everything OK down there?” Amari called out.

“Yeah. I’m just looting,” he replied from the ditch.

“Cool. When you’re done, can you come here? We’ll have a quick debriefing.”

“Sure!”

Jack kept moving, collecting the rest of the loot.

On the third tiger he harvested, something new popped up among the spoils.

Sabertooth Fangblade (Uncommon)

Occasionally, a sabertooth fang forms in just the right shape and density to be wielded as a deadly blade. Smooth, curved, and viciously sharp.

Durability: 36

Attack: 23

Block: 5

Agility: +5

Crit. chance: +6%

Set effect – [Twin Fangs]: If two [Sabertooth Fangblades] are equipped, attack speed increases by 30%.

“A set effect? That’s a first.”

If he was reading this right, getting a second dagger would unlock a bonus for whoever equipped both. Amari used claws, though. And Rob’s dagger was level 30—way better than what a level 22 elite would drop.

Shrugging, he kept harvesting sabertooths.

Tiger number seven dropped something else worth noting—a skill book.

Feline Silence (Uncommon)

Cats do not announce their presence. Whether stalking prey or slipping through shadows, their steps leave no sound, no warning.

Skill effect:

Active.

+5 stealth while active.

Your footsteps become nearly silent, making it harder for enemies to detect your approach.

It was a self-buff skill for rogues. Jack sighed. Another thing for Amari or Rob. Why were the rogues getting all the good stuff?

That reminded him. He still had [Primate Agility] in his inventory. With everything that had happened after Horace provoked him, he’d completely forgotten to share it. Since they’d be rolling for some of this loot anyway, he might as well throw that in.

On tiger number nine, a second [Sabertooth Fangblade] dropped. And—funny enough—a third one on tiger number ten.

As Jack made his way back to the group, the battle replayed in his head. The [One-Eye Reinforcements] package had been a game-changer. The ranged units were instrumental in bringing down the last tigers, their damage impossible to ignore.

And the One-Eye knights? They were incredible. The way they’d held off half the wave and sent the tigers flying, opening up new angles on the battlefield, was mindblowing.

But the coolest part of the wave, by far, had been the effects of Into the Breach. Who would’ve guessed it boosted knockback? It really was the perfect song for a charging soldier—something to push through enemy lines and scatter the front.

The melody had three problems, though. 

First, it was hard. Easily the most demanding melody he’d learned so far. 

Second, it devoured durability. If he didn’t play Clay Dome beforehand, his ocarinas had a high chance of shattering.

And worst of all, the buff was short. One second of base duration. That was barely anything. He’d been lucky—he’d timed the finale perfectly, just as the goat knights were hitting their stride. If he’d been even a second late, the whole thing might have fizzled.

However, despite all, it was an incredible melody, and he’d be playing it a lot in future battles.

The soldiers had done well, too. Even when charged by two sabertooth tigers, they held their ground. Numbers played a part, sure—but so did their gear. 

A warm pride stirred in his chest. All that grinding, all the relentless practice at Into the Breach, all the hours crafting gear for the soldiers—it had mattered. It had helped his team.

They hadn’t even used all their aces. He hadn’t touched his crowd-control songs, nor served any mead. Amari hadn't done any fighting at all. Best of all, they didn’t have to use any of the six towers!

As Jack climbed out of the ditch to rejoin the others, he felt a flicker of hope

Maybe—just maybe—they really could handle whatever Piri was about to throw at them.

Ch. 220 - Goat Apnea

INDEX

Ch. 222 - Wave 43