V2Ch53-Hopeless

Author's Note: I am still working on resolving some elements of the Mina Orientation plot, which is why Chapters 51 and 52 aren't here yet. I also took a week off writing for the Christmas holiday. But I don't want to keep you guys waiting without content, so here's the next chapter from James's Orientation.

In response to Moishe’s whistle, fourteen figures stormed toward the position of the Ghouls threatening their camp.

These were all the fighting-fit family members the Rodriguezes could muster, plus most of the remaining personnel from Damien Rousseau’s group and one of the Moloch prisoners who’d been left behind. Everyone else was either still recovering from their injuries or relatively lower level.

Sierra followed behind the fighters. She felt a tremor in her hands as she walked, but nevertheless, she made sure not to fall too far behind. And she made sure not to lose her grip on her staff.

The group had decided that their fighters should have a Healer nearby while they engaged the enemy, and she couldn’t deny the logic. Her presence might save lives. Or, by keeping their warriors in the fight for longer, she might turn the tide of battle. The undead seemed to be immune to exhaustion; the humans needed some advantage to stand a chance.

Just as important, she didn’t want to see Alan up there instead. The old man seemed to have used up nearly all his Mana earlier, healing as many people as he could.

Still, he tried to volunteer. But I rebuffed him. How fucking brave of me. She looked up the slight incline of the hill, at the monsters she was willingly approaching. Hopefully I won’t regret it. She had one small hope that she might be of some use to the group besides healing them after they fell. But she really didn’t want to become a combatant, and she was doubtful she even could.

At first, will and momentum seemed like it might carry the day for the human defenders.

Felicia Rodriguez sent a flurry of arrows up at the Ghouls, aiming to kill as many as she could and soften the rest up for the melee fighters. But the arrows weren’t very effective. Only one Ghoul fell to them, killed by an arrow in the eye. Others blocked the arrows with their arms, if the shaft looked to be heading for something important. And at least one Ghoul didn’t bother blocking, even though an arrow was going right for his head. He simply turned sideways and let it penetrate.

The sight of a Ghoul grinning with an arrow poking out of each cheek did more to demoralize the defenders than it did to soften the Ghouls. It was an image that communicated, We are not like you. We need not avoid injury or pain. Fear us and flee.

To their credit, the family’s close range fighters didn’t run from the implacable force that confronted them. They charged the rest of the way up the slope and crashed into the Ghoul bodies. Their slightly worn weapons struck at toughened undead flesh, as well as armor and shields held up by unwavering inhuman bodies.

A flurry of battle ensued. The humans were outnumbered by around two to one, Sierra observed. She mainly stood back, took in the fight, and looked for places where she could apply her healing to best effect. The defenders knocked down a Ghoul or two, but the monsters didn’t have the Stamina limitations of humans. They got back up, every time, except for when the rare fatal blow was landed.

The humans nevertheless fought with a fury that almost seemed to equal the Ghouls’ implacable determination. Ramon in particular fought with incredible rage and intensity, as if he was seeing the images of his family being slaughtered in his mind’s eye. Perhaps he was.

But there were more than two Ghouls to every human, and observing the exchanges, the monsters looked to be stronger on average. As the fight passed the first few minutes, and the initial adrenaline wore off, it became clearer and clearer that the Ghouls were playing with them.

They seemed to avoid inflicting fatal blows, instead trying to bludgeon the humans with their shields or the flats of their bladed weapons. They blocked attacks aimed at their vital points with very little effort, and the attacks that landed anywhere other than the head seemed to do little damage. In the back, Moishe would occasionally hurl his daggers into the Ghouls’ ranks, but because they outnumbered the humans, they had a couple of Ghouls with large shields blocking the daggers from striking anything deadly.

It began to look like an exercise in futility. The humans were fighting, unsuccessfully, to protect their family from the Ghouls, who outnumbered and would ultimately outlast them. The Ghouls seemed uninterested in a quick fight, knowing that they would win a battle of attrition. Their defensive fighting methods were also harder to get wrong than the human group’s furious attacks, so very little was happening other than the humans slowly tiring.

Sierra’s role seemed particularly useless. With no serious injuries happening on her side, she felt helpless to do anything. Rather than losing limbs or suffering serious head injuries, the fighters were wearing down, losing Stamina. Her staff wouldn’t do any damage unless she could crack one of these things over the head with a degree of super-strength that she didn’t have.

Damn it! she thought, and not for the first time, Why didn’t I choose a combat Class?!

Then she saw him in the back of the Ghouls’ ranks.

Kurt! He was still alive all this time! Well, maybe not alive per se, but he’s still been in this thing the whole time. In fact, given his Skills, he probably had something to do with the fact that we suffered a pincer attack from that wolf pack and these Ghouls.

She wondered if he was the leader of this group. He didn’t seem to be doing as much of the physical work. And if he was the one who could command the wolves’ assistance, it might make sense that he’d be in charge.

Then he turned his gaze on her. Their eyes met, and a cold tendril crept up her spine. She sucked in air and used all her willpower just to keep from fleeing.

What must he think, seeing her with James’s crew? Probably that she was some sort of traitor, which was debatably true.

But the cold look in his eyes gave her nothing. No hint of emotion. No rage. No blame. Nothing.

The moment of terror passed, and she saw an expression pass over his face. The corner of his lip tightened and rose on one side. She recognized the contemptuous sneer that she’d seen him give other people multiple times. Never her and her brother before. They were too valuable as assets. But she knew what the look meant nonetheless.

Her own lips tightened in impotent anger. How dare he look at her like that! She wished she could strike him down where he stood.

Then he opened his mouth, raised his voice.

“Hey, let’s hurry it up, guys, we probably only have a limited window!” Kurt said.

Confirmed, he’s in charge, Sierra thought.

More importantly, the tempo of the fight immediately changed.

Ghouls that had largely been defending themselves lashed out at their human opponents, who were just beginning to visibly tire.

One Ghoul grabbed Felicia, snapped her bow in two, and began choking her into unconsciousness. Sierra took a half-step toward the young woman, uncertain what she would even do if she made it to her.

But then Ramon staggered backward into Sierra, bleeding profusely from a savage blow to the head.

“Make sure you take them alive!” Kurt said. “These are probably the best humans they have. This should be enough to take to the Master.”

There is someone they’re all reporting to, then.

The other Ghouls were grabbing people, knocking them out and pulling them away. But for the moment, Javier had stepped in to block the Ghoul that had knocked Ramon out from reaching him.

Sierra knew there wasn’t much she could do for anyone else, but she immediately dropped her staff, knelt, and began applying Laying on Hands to Ramon’s head injury.

“Capture her, too,” Kurt said. Sierra noticed with her peripheral vision that he was looking and pointing to her. “She’s probably their last Healer. If Master Roscuro doesn’t think she’s good for anything, at least we can get some fresh meat!”

She shuddered but kept at her work. Slowly but surely, Ramon’s head mended itself. She was doing her share.

I’ll die alongside the rest of them if I have to, she thought, a thick queasiness seizing hold of her stomach. Even as she had the thought, she couldn’t help darting her eyes around, looking for an escape route that wasn’t there. An escape route that would somehow allow her to escape the Ghouls that never seemed to weaken or tire.

Well, at least it seems like you’re saving the rest of the camp, David’s voice chimed in gently. Kurt doesn’t seem to be interested in taking too many captives. The group of defenders all chose to sacrifice themselves to protect everyone else. Maybe you’ve accomplished the mission.

Sierra was trying to compose a biting response to her brother’s attempted reassurance, when suddenly, a Ghoul broke through the handful of the humans still fighting. He got past Javier and loomed menacingly over Sierra, reaching down to drag her away with the others on the front line.

Time to see if this idea can actually work, she thought. She abandoned Laying on Hands. As the Ghoul seized hold of her, she activated Purification and grabbed onto the Ghoul’s arm in turn.

Come on, remove impurities!

At first, there was no apparent change. The Ghoul was grinning stupidly down at her. It made a tiny motion as if to pull her forward.

And then the whole body began to unravel. The arms came off, though the fingers continued gripping Sierra’s body for a moment, until they too twitched and fell away. The legs slid off as if the bones had turned to sand. The torso tumbled to the ground, and the head rolled away.

Then the remains of the Ghoul disintegrated.

A horrendous smell of decay filled the air.

[You killed Ghoul Simon Rooker Lv. 18! You gained 800 exp!]

[Healer leveled up!]

[Healer leveled up!]

[System-Boosted Human leveled up!]

[A Class Evolution is available. Review? Y/N]

Sierra was dimly aware that Class Evolution was extremely important, but she swiped this away for now. It didn’t seem wise to take her eyes off the battle. Where before, she’d only had a couple of eyes on her along with Kurt’s, now every Ghoul present was paying attention. This was only their fourth or fifth casualty of the fight.

And Ghoul Simon Rooker had died in a particularly special way.

So whatever animates them does count as an impurity. Good to know. Probably could have used that earlier if I’d really believed it would work.

Sierra dropped back down to the ground without taking her eyes off of the Ghouls. She picked her staff back up and pushed the Purification Mana into it. Now, her staff glowed with the intense pale green aura of the Skill. And she had an attack with a little bit of range.

She was also the last person standing on her side. Besides Moishe, who was out of reach of the Ghouls high in a tree, but also didn’t seem to be able to help. None of his attempts to pick off Ghouls from above had worked since they came on guard.

The crowd of Ghouls inched toward Sierra, some caution slowing them. But their forward motion didn’t stop. They moved with the implicit awareness that she could not get all of them.

You should run, came David’s voice in her mind.

Shut up! was her response.

If you run, you can be part of the mission to go kill them later, he replied.

She didn’t engage any further. Her mind was on the Ghouls, fanning out into a semicircle around her, getting closer to surrounding her.

Sierra retreated, stepping back slowly. Getting further away from any potential help from Moishe, but she couldn’t avoid that. The monsters weren’t giving up, even though she’d proven she had a Skill that could destroy them on contact.

She realized dimly that she was almost out of Mana. She’d used up a lot, healing the wounded. Not as much as Alan. But enough.

She took a big, clumsy swing at the closest Ghoul with her staff. The Ghoul tried to dodge, but she stumbled backward into one of her comrades, and Sierra’s weapon found her unarmored neck.

The Ghoul swore quietly. “Damn it.”

Then she grinned and threw herself onto Sierra’s staff, grabbing it and holding it in place.

It took only a second for her to begin to fall apart. But in that second, the others were upon her.

They didn’t risk touching her with bare hands this time. One swung a heavy weapon at her head. She managed to dodge that with a step to the side that was almost a fall, if not for the Ghoul on her staff. An enemy from her other side took a swing at her with an axe.

The axe took her left arm off at the elbow, and with the searing, agonizing pain came a sharp realization.

I really should have run. Too late now.

With the final moments before she blacked out, she managed to slam her staff into one more Ghoul’s head.

The dying monster’s scowl was the last thing she saw.