Healer Arc 2 -- Chapter 39

Chapter 39

The Human was insane.  

At least, that was what she thought when he said he was going out in the middle of the fight with only a few Fighters to keep him safe.  Now, though, Bat’la’hera had to admit that he was much stronger than she expected – impossibly so.  Then again, she should’ve gathered that much since she met him back in Purbooth.

He survived the attack on Felith, whereas everyone else in the town had died.

If that wasn’t enough, he was confirmed to be a Platinum+ Rank in the Adventurer’s Coalition.

Then he somehow made it to a city hundreds of miles away in the same day, and supposedly gained 12 Levels on the journey.

That was on top of the 19 more Levels he’d earned the next day with a Party of similarly Leveled Adventurers.

All of that was hard to believe, but what was even more impossible to believe was how he had not only managed to cast spells while drained of Mana, which ended up taking control of a Party of Local Legion 100+ Levels higher than his own Level.

Yet, she’d seen it happen with her own eyes, and experienced the loss of control over not just her mind, but her entire body.  What surprised her somewhat was how he hadn’t tried to hurt them, despite their attempts to kill him, including a stab to the chest that Loc’ra’toda managed to get off before he was controlled by the Human’s spell, and he walked away as if it was nothing more than a minor flesh wound. 

That all led to his accuracy when it came to the impending assault on the city, which was equally impossible because there was no way this many monsters were allowed to escape the Front Lines, and especially not these specific breed of monsters.  Gorams were typically only seen when the Adversary made a push to break a fortification that pushed too far into its territory, and she’d never seen anywhere near the numbers that had swept in to attack Teglir.

She still thought that the Human had something to do with it, despite his claim that he was sent to investigate why it was happening, but she also had absolutely no proof other than his mere presence at the sites where it happened.  Some more interrogation was needed to get the answers she needed, though this time they would be taking precautions with extra psychic resistances and immunities, similar to Darvo – as the Orbrion had been the only one that hadn’t been controlled like the others.  She had been tempted to immediately kill him once they located him after being freed from whatever spell they had been put under as he left, but the fact that he hadn’t taken the opportunity to actually harm them, as well as the sudden warning of the attack, had led to her changing her mind.

She was glad she had, too, after finding him on the wall and learning that he not only had a Competency that was extremely rare, to the point where she’d only heard of a handful of individuals possessing it, not just in the Faction, but through the whole world of Plangea, but had it an incredibly high Level.  The bonuses she gained from simply him being the Raid Party leader made her and the other Legionnaires even more powerful, but that was apparently nothing to what the Human could do.

She had to admit that she had been skeptical of his seemingly suicidal plan to jump down and head into the heart of the enemy, but she had also been curious if he was actually that confident – or simply insane.  What shocked her the most, however, was how – as soon as he touched the ground outside the walls – all of the attacking Gorams suddenly stopped and turned toward him.  It was almost as if they knew that he was a danger to them… or perhaps they suddenly located their objective in attacking the city in the first place.  It was yet another clue in why this was happening to Teglir, as well as why it had happened to Felith, but she couldn’t quite make out the connections between them all yet.

It was a question for later, however, because they had to survive the attack first – and she wasn’t sure they actually would, despite the Human’s initial successes.  She had nearly thought he’d died when he was overrun earlier, but somehow he’d added even more of the Charging Gorams to his control, which included what appeared to be the reanimated forms of those that had been killed earlier by their destructive defenses.  She wasn’t aware that he was also a Necromancer of some sort, though she supposed that reanimating corpses was similar enough to the control spells that he seemed to possess that it made sense.

Then again, he was also a Support Class, as evidenced by the fact that he’d shopped at Vital Support, which only catered to Support Classes – so there was no way he was a Necromancer, which was a Mage Class through and through.  In fact, his Class was such a mystery, as he had healing and buffing spells in addition to his controlling spells, the latter of which should’ve meant he was a Control Class similar to Darvo, but there were too many inconsistencies in her assumptions that she didn’t have any clue anymore.  The Human was an impossibility wrapped in an enigma, and she didn’t like what didn’t immediately make sense to her.  She’d been in the Local Legion for long enough that she thought she’d seen everything possible, but apparently she had been wrong.

Bat watched in reserved shock as the Human recovered from being overrun, before absolutely devastating everything that was heading toward him.  Around her, the defenders on the wall also stared in silence as the monsters no longer even paid attention to the city, as up and down the walls the Adventurers and higher-Level combat Classes stood and watched a single individual, who was only Level 34 in fact, defend himself from thousands of Charging Gorams attacking him every few seconds.  The 6 Fighters, including Zarin, who had shown off his skills earlier by slaughtering the Gorams with his typical ferocity, now simply stood next to the smaller figure amongst them, staying alert for any potential threats… but also appearing bored, of all things.  So too did the Human, as well as the strange large squirrel that appeared to be some sort of companion, as they vacantly stared at the dying Gorams that perished with a single touch against the Human’s controlled monsters.

It was the most bizarre battle she’d ever participated in, and she had been in quite a few strange battles throughout the years.  Never before had she seen a single person so completely dominate the field like this, except for when some of the elite Champions took the field against hordes of monsters on the Front Lines – though it was usually against monsters that were hundreds of Levels lower than them.  This Human was accomplishing this against literally hundreds of thousands of monsters that were a Level higher than his own. 

That complete domination continued as the Charging Goram dwindled in numbers, and the first of the Assault Goram, all of them Level 60, hit the perimeter of his controlled monsters, dying without a fight as soon as they ran into their smaller brethren.

“Alright, how does any of that make sense?  What in the world gives him this kind of power?  He’s a Support, for System’s sake!” Narden complained next to her, witnessing the same thing she was watching.  “He shouldn’t be able to kill any monsters, let alone an entire horde of them!” 

While he was complaining about what the Human was doing, Bat could hear the envy in the Legionnaire’s voice.  As a Support Class himself, the Charee had a plethora of different traits and spells that made him quite versatile and incredibly useful to the Party, but he would struggle to kill even a single one of the Charging Gorams by himself – just like pretty much any Support Class.  They weren’t there to fight the monsters themselves; they were meant to support those who do.

“I don’t know, Narden, but there’s definitely something strange about his entire existence,” she responded, folding her arms across her chest.  “Every moment there’s something new about him that doesn’t make sense, and I’m determined to find out what it’s all about.  He needs to survive before I can do that, and I’m greatly worried that he won’t with what’s coming up.”

She didn’t need to expand upon that statement, as everyone could see the danger heading toward the curious Support Class wiping out thousands of Gorams out on the battlefield like it was nothing. 

“Do you think he knows what those Behemoth Gorams can do?” Loc’ra’toda asked from her other side. 

Bat nodded.  “Most likely, as he seems quite confident.  We’ll find out in a few minutes, at least.”

Over the next few minutes, as thousands of Assault Gorams flung themselves at the Human in the middle of a perimeter of controlled monsters, some of them attempting to leap over the outer ranks of Goram blockers, only to fall far short of making it even halfway before they landed on one of the defenders and somehow dying instantly.  It was incredible to watch, even if it made no sense whatsoever, but the real test was only starting to arrive.

Hundreds of Behemoth Gorams began to converge on the Human’s defenses, arriving after the last few thousand of the Assault Gorams went to their deaths.  When the Behemoths were within 300 feet of the defenders, they came to a stop in synchronicity, before the reddish aura surrounding them began to intensify.  Even from a distance, Bat could feel the energy being condensed and amplified like an itch along her skin.  The Human could obviously feel the same, though when she saw the way he jerked in surprise, she gasped in shock.

“He doesn’t know!” she half-shouted, before she raised her voice.  “Be prepared to counterattack!  Ready defensive spells in case—”

It was too late to do anything to help him, unfortunately, as even as she was speaking, the Behemoth’s released their attacks all within a split-second of each other.  The condensed and amplified energy that each of the large Gorams had been charging was released in a powerful beam of destructive force from the top of their heads that was capable of punching through stone fortifications.  At a foot wide, the Behemoth Gorams typically used their beam attack to make a hole in the defenses that they were about to slam into, like a pilot hole for a hand-drill, and there was very little that mundane or even lightly enchanted stone could do to stop it.  This time, though, it wasn’t directed toward the walls, but was instead targeting a single Human standing with his mouth open in surprise or shock.  If the way they deliberately focused on just the single individual rather than any of the other Fighters near him gave Bat yet another hint that they had come here for him – though the why of it still eluded her.

He’s dead.  Even with a higher maximum Health, he can’t stand up to that many beams, she thought, even as every single long-range attack converged on him, having passed over the forms of the Assault Gorams ahead of them and the defending controlled monsters without touching any of them.  The Human was so frozen in fear that he didn’t even try to dodge or move, and they all hit him within a split-second of each other, with the convergence of energy creating a blinding explosion of force that sent a shockwave that pushed those on the walls back a little, eliciting a series of shocked screams that was only emphasized by the fact that everyone who had been watching was at least slightly blinded from the flare of explosive energy.

Thankfully, Narden was easily able to heal her and everyone around her, clearing up her vision almost instantly, and she turned her attention to the devastated battlefield, saddened that Human had been killed—

Bat almost choked on her tongue as she saw the impossible Human standing there, completely unscathed with just his hair and clothing in slight disarray, looking around himself inside of a 10-foot-wide and 5-foot-deep crater with an annoyed and slightly sad expression on his face.  Somehow, he was still alive, and not only that, he was the only one still on his feet.  The explosion had sent Zarin and the other Fighters flying, tumbling away from the detonation of energy, but they had been standing far enough away that they appeared as if they were already recovering.  The Charging Gorams that the Human Controlled had also been flung away at least 100 feet, but they were already getting up and moving back to where they had been before.  The Assault Gorams that had been nearly at the perimeter of controlled monsters were flung away, though not quite as far; they were already back on their feet and were attempting to get to the Human before the defenses were reestablished.

Bat could see that dozens of them were within the perimeter and wouldn’t be stopped before they reached him.  “Fire!  Prevent them from reaching the center!” she shouted, and the recovering defenders upon the wall extended their longest-range spells to slow down and injure the Assault Gorams that were seconds away from reaching the defenseless Human in the center of the formation.  Zarin was also getting to his feet and was starting to slaughter those nearest him, but he was only one person and the other Fighters were still recovering.

Because the Assault Gorams were a higher Level compared to the Charging Gorams they’d been killing before, the deadly assault on them from the defenders wasn’t quite as deadly, but it still ended up being effective.  They killed a few of them, but the main intent was to slow them down so that the Human’s protectors could get back into place, and that was exactly what they did – and not a single one managed to reach him before his defenses were back in place.

“Ceasefire!  Hold!” she shouted, once she saw that he was going to be fine.

She still didn’t know how he hadn’t been obliterated by the convergence of red energy beams, as it seemed his squirrel companion that had been standing next to him had been; there was no trace of it, which he supposed might be the reason for the sad look on his face.  When she looked again, however, that expression was gone, only to be replaced by a narrowing of his eyes and a slight flaring of his nostrils.

Fortunately for him, the reddish aura around the Behemoth Gorams was gone, as all of the energy that powered their beams had been expended.  Bat had never learned how long it took for them to recover that energy, as either they didn’t live long enough for it to happen, or those fighting them were no longer around to see, but they wouldn’t be firing it again anytime soon.  Instead, they started running again, intent to smear the Human into paste when they reached him.

The controlled monsters recovered remarkably quickly, and despite the recent explosion, were reassembled into position to help eliminate the rest of the Assault Gorams that were still approaching.  Zarin and the rest spread out along the inner perimeter of the controlled monsters, their appearance showing that they had been injured but were now perfectly healthy and ready to defend against any other threats that might present themselves.

It was less than a minute before the first of the much-larger Behemoth Gorams arrived, each of their legs large enough to stomp the defending Charging Gorams into a pancake – and that was exactly what they did.  With one stomp, she watched as one of them flattened the controlled monsters underneath their powerful limbs until they disappeared from sight.  At the same time, the act of touching the defending monsters killed the Behemoth, causing it to tumble forward as its forward momentum wasn’t canceled along with its death, and it crushed at least a dozen more of them before it rolled to a stop. 

A second later, the stomped-on and crushed Charging Gorams popped back up, completely healed as if nothing had happened – just like the one who was controlling them.

Incredible.  Impossible.

Despite being able to crush the defending monsters, the Behemoth Gorams couldn’t get past the perimeter the Human had set up.  If they were able to sent out another destructive beam, they might have had a chance, but since they had already expended all of their energy, they weren’t able to get close to the Human, though a few of them got close enough that Zarin was within a dozen feet of them before they came to a stop.

But that wasn’t the threat that Bat’la’hera had been worrying about.  The wall shook under her feet as the Goram Colossi began closing the distance toward the ongoing battle, their size so intimidating that she could feel the pressure of their Level Compression even from so far away.  For those of a much lower Level than her, typically 100 Levels or so of a gap, the pressure was debilitating, and she could see it take effect on the people around her.  They grunted in pain as they dropped to their knees, attempting to stay upright, while some of the lowest Levels on the walls were already prone and couldn’t move from where they’d collapsed.

Level Compression was always intense, no how powerful one was, as the sheer presence and aura of a higher-Level monster pressed against the world around them, and for those who weren’t capable of standing up to it, the pressure was typically the death knell that signaled their demise.  It wasn’t necessarily the strength, speed, or even some special ability that a high-Level monster brought with it that led to so many Adventurers dying when facing powerful enemies; it was the fact that they were working at a disadvantage from the beginning in having to fight against the pressure of the monster’s simple presence that did them in.

Fortunately, constant exposure to it, as well as high stats, somewhat helped to alleviate some of the effects of Level Compression, though nothing was able to fully get rid of it.  Even for Bat’la’hera, she felt like a great weight had been placed upon her back, pushing down on her entire body, but she was able to ignore it for the most part.  In direct combat and proximity, she would be even more affected, but from this distance the pressure was more than manageable.

The same couldn’t be said for those just about to face the wrath of the Goram Colossi heading toward them.  Zarin was just barely on his feet, hunched over as he felt the pressure pushing down on him, while the other Fighters were already on the ground, unable to withstand the Level Compression.  The controlled monsters appeared entirely unaffected, or they simply couldn’t feel it; whatever the reason, they seemed perfectly fine.

As for the Human that held their fate in his hands, he was also on the ground in the middle of the explosion crater, though he was struggling to push himself upright.  She could see him gritting his teeth, pushing through the pain and pressure bearing down on him, and he had his eyes closed as if to block everything else out around him so he could focus on simply getting to his feet.  Unfortunately for him, it was a losing fight, and as dozens of the Goram Colossi stomped closer in their efforts to kill the Human, he sank down lower and lower, until he was flat on the ground, his face buried in the dirt and unable to move any further.  His body was probably going to feel like it was being crushed by the world falling onto him, though she’d never heard of anyone actually dying from Level Compression; they typically died when the high-Level monster reached them and they couldn’t fight back.

“We need to do something, Bat,” Narden said from next to her, his back hunched over from the pressure, trembling lightly as he strived to keep himself upright.

She nodded, knowing he was right, but the more she looked over the battlefield, the more it became obvious that there was nothing they could do.  It was possible that, if they had the help of every single Adventurer and combat Class on the wall, they might be able to kill one or two of the enormous Colossi.  Unfortunately, with pretty much all but her Local Legion Party incapacitated, as the closer that the monsters got to the city, the more they all appeared similar to the Human as the pressure pushed them to a prone position, they didn’t have even a sliver of a chance.  She could only hope that the Human’s controlled monsters were able to do enough damage to them, though with the Level gap between them, she wasn’t sure how that was even possible.

No, there’s no walking away from this.

A second after she nodded at Narden’s words, she shook her head.  “There’s nothing we can do,” she said softly, just loud enough to be heard over the ground-shaking stomps by the Colossi.  “Begin a strategic retreat.”

“What?  We can’t—”

“We’re not allowed to die here, Narden.  We have a mission, and we need to complete it above all else.  The city of Teglir is lost, and we’re not going to be lost along with it.”  She sent a private signal toward Zarin, who was just barely able to stand upright from the building Level Compression.  The Heliothrope hesitated for a half-second before he started moving toward the wall, the pressure becoming less the closer he moved away from the Human, until he was able to move at a fairly impressive clip. 

Knowing that he would catch up, she turned away, leading Narden, Loc’ra’toda, and Darvo as they stepped over or on the prone bodies in their way, as there wasn’t a lot of open space left to walk without stepping on someone.  He could somewhat feel the disapproval coming from her Party members, but none of them said anything to change her mind, knowing that her word was final when it came to decisions concerning their mission.

She was nearly to the stairs leading downward when she looked back out at the battlefield, seeing that all of the smaller Goram had been eliminated, leaving only the larger Colossi – and the first of them had nearly reached the perimeter of the controlled monsters.  She began to turn away, already knowing that the inevitable would happen, when she saw something that she didn’t understand. 

Running at full speed, the first Goram Colossus was approximately 100 feet away from touching the monsters when it seemed to stumble, flipping onto its head, slamming into approximately 100 of the Charging Gorams under the Human’s control, before it went flying in a tumble over the heads of the rest.  As her mouth opened wide in shock at the absolutely ridiculous circumstances that led to the monster tripping just before it crushed the Human and the remaining Fighter Classes, she saw that Zarin had managed to jump up to the top of the wall and rejoined the Party.  His facial expression was blank, likely blaming her for taking him away from the fight, but her eyes were on the flying Goram Colossus as it was coming straight toward them at incredible speed.

Bat’la’hera could do nothing but stare as the what appeared to be a gigantic corpse slammed into her entire upright Party, sweeping them off the wall without touching a single other person, and as she felt nearly all of the bones in her body shatter upon the impact, she couldn’t believe what was happening.  Smashed up against the head of the Colossus, she was barely cognizant enough to see that her entire Party around her was suffering from the same fate—

—and then the body of the monster slammed into a building she couldn’t see inside the city, which caused it to ricochet high up into the air.  Bat could only stare in helplessness as the ground suddenly fell away from her and the Colossus she was smeared up against, as they sailed over the entire city lengthwise.  Unable to move, and with her Health so low and still dropping from the severe damage that had been done to her body, she could only watch in horror as the body began to fall, desperately trying to extract loot from it before they hit the ground.  Unfortunately, it was too big to disappear quickly even after loot extraction, and so when she hit the ground with incredible force, almost the entire weight of the Colossus drove her—and her Party—into the ground, leaving nothing but a stain upon the fields that spread out all around them, future fertilizer for the crops that would be grown to feed the city.