[Voidknight Ascension] Chapter 222 – Joined

The lines of battle were shifting. Fighters, Mages, and Scouts were forming up behind the new arrivals from the giant Skyshard that had hooked theirs. Kale could only glimpse their Jobs from the monster slaying Shardscript that rolled past his vision. They killed so fast.

Each one was different. Second Order Jobs too, no doubt. They were few in number, but incredibly skilled.

Only Xero could compare.

The Poisonmind threw daggers into a slew of monsters, coating them in bubbling green toxins that slowed them down. The Shaman snared monsters in vines that emerged from the soil and spared healing for those that sported new wounds after Komachi’s healing faded away.

Beneath a wide-brimmed, conical hat much like Haman’s, a fire and lightning elemental scarf trailed behind the armored Chaos Sage like a banner of hope.

With illusory azure images swirling around her, absorbing blows and claws alike, she led the charge with a blade that cast magic.

Monsters were burned to electrified crisps from the waves of dual elemental magic cast from the Sage’s katana.

At first, it seemed like she was about to slaughter monsters and people, as if their misfortune could get any worse. But her magic harmlessly passed through people, crashing into the monsters that were trying to cut them down.

Regalruin dullahans, armored creatures with no heads that were somehow allied with these mysterious saviors, cleaved giant swords through the remaining monsters left in the Sage’s wake.

With a mighty roar, the ogre went down somewhere off to the side of the battle. Kale couldn’t spare a thought for Xero, but he hoped the man was okay. That ogre was no joke.

How it had found them and how it had become so strong from the creature he witnessed that first day, Kale would very much like to know.

He expected that he never would.

Either Xero would kill the ogre, or it would kill them. Kale knew his own limitations well enough to know that he wouldn’t stand a chance against the thing.

At first, Kale thought the ogre was rallying his troops. What he first thought were bellows of rage clarified into screams of pain.

Whatever was happening with the ogre, the blue-skinned bastard was definitely on the losing side.

With each scream, the monsters grew more panicky and disorganized. They sniped and pushed at each other, forgetting their alliance for a moment and giving Kale an opening to slice through their hide jerkins and simple ringed vests of armor–if they had any armor at all.

Together, with the Sil’marans, they were making solid progress towards the survivors protected on Haman’s Skyshard. The monsters were thinning, but the [Geomancy: Barrier Bubble] was showing cracks.

Chris’ icy barrier had long-since shattered, and in their disarray they had spread too thin and tried to link up with the Sil’marans, leaving Haman’s Skyshard largely defenseless.

With each wail of pain from the ogre, the monsters grew more disorganized and Kale was able to rally his group, moving it inexorably toward Haman’s Skyshard.

He liked to think that even without these newcomers, he would have been able to save the day and turn the tide of battle against the hordes of monsters.

Xero must be pulling out all the stops, Kale thought to himself.

With the help of the Sil’marans, there was no question. The dullahans alone squashed goblins underfoot, swatted foul casting imps with a meaty iron glove, and cracked the diamond-hard shell of the turtle-like creatures with their large weapons.

“I’m out!” Chris called, nursing a wound on his shoulder and pulling back behind Kylie and Kale. Simon stepped forward and cut through a pair of slimy creatures reaching for the Mage.

His twin sister fired off shots into the crowd of monsters, knowing that she didn’t need to worry about aiming with almost all of their forces arrayed on either side of her.

“Watch our new allies!” Kale cautioned. Though he didn’t think they needed to. The dullahans looked like they would shrug off arrows, and Raiko moved with such speed that he doubted anybody could actually hit her.

The Poisonmind and the Shaman, however, were another story. They moved with purpose, sheltering two members: a young mousy elf, and a red-skinned demon in fine robes.

If not for their entourage, Kale would have given the order to strike down the demon upon first seeing him.

In the heat of battle, it would be easy to mistake him for another monster, but after a few moments, he could see the stark differences.

Demons wore nothing but ragged armor they scavenged from the dead, and they bore numerous tattoos across their skin. This Sil’maran demon was clean, with opulent clothes, and a proud bearing as he cast spell after spell from his sheltered position.

That’s a good idea, Kale thought, watching how effectively their mage was able to cast spells while being defended by the Poisonmind, Shaman, and a pair of dullahans.

The pobul’s barrier popped, scattering motes of golden magic to the winds. What monsters were left began to scrabble over each other and climb up the edges of the tiny isle.

Kale cursed his earlier eagerness to join up with the Sil’marans.

Sensing weakness and a bountiful source of mana, the monsters forgot about their fear and charged by the hundreds.

Raiko screamed and rampaged through the monsters with incredible speed. An orange-tinged aura flared fitfully off her form as her blade burned with some kind of strange mana. That banner of hope shifted to a multicolored melding of elemental mana.

Kylie pointed to the sky. “What the hell is that?!”

It was hard to imagine a sight more captivating than Raiko’s wholesale slaughter of the enemy, but Kylie hadn’t been wrong.

Kale, Chris, and Simon followed her finger. The monsters were so thick they couldn’t see the ground, but what they saw didn’t illuminate matters at all.

A lone ironwood tree towered over the hordes of monsters. It wobbled back and forth like somebody was carrying it, but they couldn’t see who could possibly be that strong through the screen of enemies.

Of course, nobody could lift something that big. That was insane.

Any less insane than a woman with a katana burning, freezing, slicing, and using torrents of water in turn to cleave through hordes of monsters? Kale’s thoughts came back at him.

All right, fair point.

Without warning, the tree blurred and launched itself through the air toward the rising ogre. They all watched, thunderstruck, as a tree nearly the size of a redwood was used like a club to smash the ogre’s blue knee.

The ogre’s joint–the size of a toolshed–bent backwards from the blow and shattered under the impact with a sickening CRUNCH! leaving Kale feeling slightly ill.

Kylie hissed at the devastation. The monsters stalled for a moment when the sounds of their patron’s agonized screams reached them, allowing the rampaging Raiko to cut even more of them down.

Kale motioned, and they took that as a sign to sow more chaos within the ranks of the enemy.

Volleys of fiery streaks of mana, arrows, bolts, and even thrown rocks pelted the stunned monsters. Kale did his best to reposition his forces near Haman’s Skyshard, but the monsters regrouped faster than he would have thought.

When they recovered, they found a furious Chaos Sage hellbent on defending the small Skyshard that the monsters were trying to gain access to.

More than a few people stopped fighting and watched as Raiko wielded the rolling elements as easily as breathing. A slash of Wind mana cleaved a diamond-shelled monster in two before it could rear up and spray her with its scouring breath.

A Rift twisted and rolled through a group of goblins, mangling them with a type of mana that he had never seen before and hoped never to again.

Goblins were turned inside out.

Kale shivered and resumed his march.

By the time his group was able to reach Raiko, the monsters were in full flight. Only a few idiotic creatures–mostly demons, it seemed–were left to challenge her. And they were found severely lacking.

Kale’s forces descended on them while Raiko battered them from the front.

Haman’s Skyshard was safe once more, and all the women, children, and those who could no longer fight could live to see another day.

The ogre’s screams of pain turned to screeches of terror that sent the remaining monsters into a full-blown panic. Raiko disappeared among the wounded, leaving Kale and the Sil’marans to defend the Skyshard from the few idiotic monsters that ran across their path.

Kale looked over and saw Xero limping toward him, using his sheathed katana as a cane and holding his ribs with his other hand.

From time to time, a monster or two would stop their flight to attack him, thinking he was an easy kill, separated from his allies.

Xero blurred into motion, unsheathing his katana and slicing the creatures before they even realized what was going on, then he resumed his slow limp toward them.

Kale motioned to the others and ran out to meet him. Looping an arm under his shoulder, he supported the Samurai’s broken leg and helped him back to the group.

“What happened?” Kale asked, looking toward the downed ogre now that most of the monsters were dead or fleeing as far away from them as possible.

He could make out a man in heavy armor on top of the ogre, bashing away with an all-too-familiar rage.

“If that’s not you doing that–” Kale began.

Xero shook his head. “I would not have stood a chance. Somebody else is taking on the ogre–” He shook his head as if he couldn’t believe it. “–and he’s winning.”

One of the dullahan marched towards them. It stopped and performed a series of hand gestures Kale couldn’t remotely decipher.

So, he did what he always did in these situations. Kale stuck out his free hand, balled it into a fist, extended his pinky and thumb, and wobbled the fist.

The dullahan looked at the gesture with recognition and surprise, repeating it back at him with animated gusto.

The fuck? Kale thought.

***

Haman collapsed as the barrier shattered. The last dregs of his MP were spent, and he could no longer keep up the [Geomancy: Barrier Bubble].

One of the injured young men caught him and eased the pobul down to the ground. There were frightful mutters going around. He had protected them when the Mage’s icy barrier was weakening, but geomancy took a lot out of him.

Haman’s primary strengths were in cultivating and farming. Geomancer had been a Second Order Job he received as a means of rewarding his deep connection with the Skyshard and the Tiles they possessed.

Despite being injured and weak, these people were kind.

Haman’s black nose twitched. He knew that smell. The pobul lifted his tired head and looked toward the shimmering lights of carnage, where he knew he would find his Raiko.

“She will come for me,” he intoned, just as he always said whenever he was asked why he stayed on his tiny Skyshard.

Some of the children looked uncertainly at him. A few reached out to comfort and pet him, thinking Haman was delirious.

His best friend in all the Worldshards obliterated the monsters with rift magics, using all sorts of curious mana types, and stepped onto his Skyshard to protect them all.

He instantly felt safe again.

Despite how exhausted Haman was, he struggled to get up.

Wriggling out from the safety of his charges, Haman gamboled toward the overpowering scent of Raiko.

“Haman!” Raiko cried out.

As soon as he saw her, he put everything into his stubby brown legs and leapt through the air, right into her waiting arms. He chirruped, squeaked, squonked, and sniffed intently to remind himself of the comfort he had once known. He was instantly transported back to the days when he was just a pobul pup.

She held him close. “I missed you so much, my sweet baby Haman.”

Holding onto her forearm with all four paws, Haman chirruped loudly and sweetly. “I knew you would come!”