[Voidknight Ascension] Chapter 219 – Why Are There So Many Bars?

Blood thundering in his ears, Kale brutally chopped his dual axes into a monster that had sunk its hooked claws into his leg.

“How dare you try to take my leg! I just got them back, dammit!” Kale howled over the sounds of battle. Blasts of magic were going off, and weapons were bashing into monsters everywhere, but even he could see the tide could not be stemmed.

Not even if everybody on his Skyshard was able to take up a weapon and swing it. They were outnumbered at least four to one, and at least a full quarter of their people had levels in the single digits.

The pain was muted by [Berserk’s] ruddy haze of rage, almost like it was happening to someone else. Already, he could feel it beginning to slip away. He only had so many [Berserk] charges left.

And then he was as good as dead.

Until that point, however, Kale would take as many monsters down with him as he could. He was drowning in a sea of the things.

Kylie and Chris were somewhere nearby, judging by their taunts and shouts, but he couldn’t get to them. Whenever he tried to make an opening, more monsters flooded in.

Tall gargoyle creatures, short goblins, floating creatures that looked like demons that exploded into a roar of heat and force, and so many more.

His [Dual Wield] Skill Sphere was all that kept him alive. He could simultaneously attack with both weapons, rather than timing them one after another.

His Dexterity left something to be desired though. He needed more of that attribute to get full utility out of [Dual Wield]. That, and Agility.

After a couple more bloody hacks with his axes, the monster finally let go. He kicked it clear off the edge of the rumbling Skyshard.

When had he gotten so close to the edge? That wasn’t there just a few minutes ago. It was like the Skyshard was eroding away, shrinking like a sand castle before the pounding surf.

He glanced down. Blood was pooling in his boot. His HP was steadily dropping.

The momentary distraction cost Kale dearly. Another monster swooped in, and it was all he could do to brace against the blow with his axes.

His slick boot couldn’t find purchase on the crumbling dirt and grass. Kale went down as his knee buckled, but he refused to go out kneeling.

Raising his dual axes, he blocked the coming blow from a demonic creature. The large greatsword it wielded was like a piece of volcanic glass, all jagged edges and cruel black surfaces that reflected his sorry state.

Komachi (Level 31 Bard) casts [Regen Paeon] on you.

You gain the effect of Regen.

+Healing Over Time V (Stacking)

+Dark Mana Resistance I

Just as Kale’s arms were beginning to tremble beneath the assault of the demon’s attack, a wave of music washed over him. It was distant. Faint at first, but it grew in strength with a strange Dopplering effect.

He brushed aside the Shardscript. Whatever it was, he couldn’t do anything about it. He needed all his attention just to hold the demon’s cruel glassy blade back.

Out of Kale’s periphery, he saw something that he couldn’t comprehend. Not that he could think too much on it at any rate, but it looked like a shooting magical star arcing over his Skyshard and the battlefield that raged all around him.

Silvery musical notes danced and shimmered, lending strength to his tired muscles. With a surge of power he didn’t know he had, Kale threw back the demon’s assault and rose to full height.

Startled by the sudden aggression, the demon was caught on its back foot as Kale waded in with his axes. They blurred and chopped with wide sweeping attacks.

Any proper fighter would have gutted Kale for such reckless moves. Sam surely would have disparaged him, but the demon was caught by surprise and the surrounding monsters wanted nothing to do with the enraged Berserker.

Sliding one foot forward, using the blood to his advantage, Kale moved faster than the demon could backpedal. With the hooked edge on the underside of one axe, Kale snared the blade and swung it out wide to expose the demon’s chest.

Moving independently as if he were two warriors in one, Kale chopped with his other axe, embedding the half-moon blade in the demon’s chest.

It wailed and went down. The sight of such a powerful foe being vanquished gave the lesser monsters around Kale a newfound respect for their foe.

They had thought he was beaten.

No longer sensing weakness, the monsters fled his fiery rage and bellowing shouts. Unable to let them go, he called upon the dregs of his mana to use [Tomahawk].

Raising his free hand, Kale conjured a tomahawk of mana in his palm. He snapped his muscular arm down and let the blade fly end-over-end as it blurred and mowed down not one, but two monsters in a shower of gore.

Kale didn’t pay much attention. He was already conjuring the next magical throwing axe and taking aim.

Monsters scattered, dragging others down in their bid to flee the Berserker, often dooming far more of their comrades to a grisly fate as a result.

The pain was ebbing, his wounds mending of their own accord. Only Kale’s mana stopped him from continuing the slaughter. He raised his hand to conjure another [Tomahawk] and nothing came but a twisting pain in his middle that told him he was out of mana.

In the span of just a few seconds, the tide had shifted. There were still far too many monsters to deal with, but they were no longer being overrun. People Kale was sure were on death’s door–much like himself–were fighting with renewed vigor.

For the first time since the main forces clashed, Kale could see Chris and Kylie. They were supporting each other, and a third member: Simon.

The Assassin limped forward, daggers poised to meet the assault of creatures that were in full flight.

Kale’s display of ferocity had caused a temporary panic among the monsters, but he knew it would not last. The ogre, with its stony, blue-tinged skin and towering size, would inspire more fear in them than Kale could ever hope to achieve.

The only reason the ogre wasn’t sending his minions back into battle was because he was engaged with a host of their strongest people, led by Xero.

Kale staggered over to his best friends after he ripped free his axe from the demon’s chest. Putting an arm around each, he used them for support as much as to hug them close to his blood-drenched and battered armor. “I thought I lost you guys!”

“We thought you went down half an hour ago!” Chris said, looking weary and drawn. He didn’t seem harmed, but he was clearly suffering from severe mana drain.

Those odd silvery notes continued to dance amongst the people fighting and gathered most upon those greatly wounded. He had never seen magic quite like that before.

The notes pulsed and the harp’s song raised in clarity, as if the musician was truly among them. The regen effect raised another stack.

“Could it be?” Kylie asked hoarsely. “Komachi healing us?”

Kale looked at the Shardscript he had previously swiped away. “How?”

Kale’s forces were spread throughout pockets of dead or fleeing monsters. As much as he wanted to believe that Komachi was here–and therefore Sam–he didn’t have time to think about it.

Shouting at the top of his lungs, Kale bellowed out orders to regroup. He pulled his fragmented people into a cohesive unit in front of Haman’s Isle and the huddled people sheltered behind the thin, icy barrier that Chris had erected earlier.

It was sublimating into thin streamers of gas and its once strong surface was spider-webbed with cracks, but it still held. The old, the young, the sick, and the cowardly were huddled together, awaiting their death.

Somewhere behind him, Haman was erecting another barrier beneath Chris’. One that resembled an oversized soap bubble.

Kale realized now that the barrier at his back would have only prolonged their suffering. If his fighters went down, the barrier would not hold back the monsters…and yet, what could he have done?

Putting a weapon in a child’s hands was out of the question.

“They’re not going to be scattered for long,” Chris said, taking out a blue potion and chugging it.

When he reached for an empty bottle at his hip, Simon handed him a full one from his own supply. “Here.”

It was a reflection of how dire things were that Chris didn’t blink once at the offer. Simon might be more of a team player than he was before, but he guarded his own supplies with something bordering on mental illness.

He rarely gave something away from his personal stock, and never without heavy complaint.

Even he must realize how badly we need each other, Kale thought to himself.

True to his beliefs, the ogre let out a mighty roar that filled the air and managed to blot out the sound of Komachi’s music. The health buffs lingered, but did not continue to raise as they had been.

“Get ready,” Kale said, setting himself and raising his axes. “Hold the line!” he bellowed to the others.

Up and down the rag-tag group of defenders weapons were raised, shields lifted, and magical spells were chanted.

Just in time too.

The monsters were more afraid of the ogre than they would ever be of the inhabitants here. As fast as they had fled from the suddenly healed fighters, they were even faster to avoid the ogre’s wrath.

Even so, several of the monsters were scooped up and shoved into the ogre’s mouth. Those that were too slow or too stupid to heed his command were devoured even as the creature battled the Samurai and those who went to aid him.

***

With a casual slap, the ogre batted the drow aside, but Xero was hardly deterred. He twisted mid-air, snapping all his finely honed muscles in concert until he found his feet beneath him.

Despite the drow’s efforts, many of the ogre’s curving HP bars remained. Someone had let slip that his heinous creature once only had a few HP bars.

Now it had eight.

He had never seen a creature with so many bars! Even if he had the height of his power, he could not have hoped to kill this beast.

Not that it would have changed anything. Xero was not going to go down without a fight.

As the ogre raised a foot and slammed it on the Samurai, he poured on the speed and rolled out from beneath the crushing stone-like foot. Immediately reversing his direction, he slashed out with [Hamakure].

A raking magical attack rolled off the edge of his katana and slashed across the ogre’s ankle, drawing a thin line of blood. Looking up at the curving HP bars, barely 1% of a single bar had budged.

“Oi! Big Wheels!” Xero shouted up at the ogre to grab its attention.

Several mages who had come to help him were setting up powerful spells. They were idiots, but they were useful idiots. Provided he could create an opening for them.

The ogre, predictably, turned its ugly mug toward him, glaring with dismissive hatred.

That was perhaps the worst thing. The ogre didn’t want to fight them. Not really. It hardly cared, and it was still crushing everything they could throw at it.

Xero had the sneaking impression that it was looking for somebody. It did not allow them to attack it without reprisal, but he could tell it hardly cared about the creatures attacking them.

Even Xero’s most powerful attacks barely caused a trickle of blood to flow from the ogre’s wounds.

“Are we not good enough for you, mate?!” Xero bellowed, his arms spread out tauntingly. “You got a hot date with your mother or somethin’?”

The ogre could hardly understand–or care–what Xero was saying, but it could comprehend the challenge and tone issued to it.

Well, Xero, the Samurai thought to himself, you certainly have its attention now.

The ogre turned its full hateful glare on the Samurai.

Xero was too slow to realize the truth of the glow in the ogre’s eyes. A stream of light appeared faster than thought and lanced toward him. Xero’s lightning-quick reflexes stopped him from being vaporized on the spot, but the force of the explosion where he once stood still slammed into the drow. He was thrown across the battlefield like a rag doll, away from the hole where he had been standing. A hole that went straight through the center of the Skyshard.

He could scarcely believe his eyes. Was that the Sacred Tree’s golden leaves down there?

Undaunted, Xero rose woozily, realizing belatedly that his left arm was hanging dangerously low. A dispassionate part of himself looked at the dislocated limb with annoyance. His katana was still in his right hand, but without two hands to use, he couldn’t bring enough power to bear.

That hardly mattered, because he had at least bought enough time for the mages to work their spells.

A fusillade of brilliant lights and explosions lit up the unsuspecting ogre, forcing it to stagger back beneath the onslaught. A dozen mages let loose their strongest spells in concert, enshrouding the ogre in the remnants of their spells.

Xero wasn’t naïve enough to think that the ogre would be dead from such a display, but it had to have at least wiped out one bar.

A ragged cheer went up anyway.

Seeing the ogre fall was good for morale if nothing else, and it bought Xero time. Time enough that he found a sturdy ironwood tree that would do the trick.

He lined up, gritted his teeth, and slammed his shoulder into the rough iron-hard bark. He let loose a stream of curses that would have had him strapped to a sacrificial altar back home as the nauseating pain lanced through his body and sent him to his knees.

Have to have both arms, he thought to himself, working out the eye-watering pain of his shoulder.

Because Xero had seen what the others had not in their self-congratulatory cheering: the ogre was getting up. And it was mad.