Armed Water

Roko didn't feel himself hitting the group. Rather, he felt his stunned body being dragged away with only pieces of someone calling to him floating through his head.

 "Stay wit- me, Ro-! I've go- -ou"

 Roko recognized Helena's voice though he couldn't bring his senses to work properly yet. This hit wasn't nearly as bad as some hits that he's taken before. He didn't feel that much pain surprisingly though he couldn't really move his body yet either. For now, as his body began to revive itself, Roko could only listen to the screaming among the chaos.

 "I've got him!" Helena cried, "Did you get Varis? Holy shit, he's lost an arm and a leg! Eh? What do you mean he's always been missing those? Why did nobody tell me about this?!"

 "Alright." Roko grunted as he blinked the blindness out of his eyes and forced his body to move, "We need to go."

 "Roko! You good?" Helena gasped, "We could use a plan right now. I'll hold them off!"

 "Wait." Roko gripped the sword in his hands and pushed himself up, wraping wind enchantments around it as he turned to Helena and shoved the sword into her hands.

 "Take this. Run back to the entrance."

 "Entrance? We're escaping? What do I do?"

 "You'll know."

 Helena looked down at the sword in her hands, nodded and began to run off.

 Looking around, Roko took stock of the situation. Mikado, Kaguya and Roland were doing their best to hold off all the monsters. Varis has indeed lost an arm and a leg but given that he wasn't bleeding Roko was certain those were the limbs his armor were supplementing for him anyway. Normally they would instantly return to him but presumably the mawed monsters were gnawing on them, depleting the magic in them and preventing them from returning naturally.

 "Roko? What do we do?" Corissa asked nervously.

 "Varis."

 The black knight turned to him, not in the best state but with no less determination.

 "Can you blast apart the ceiling?"

 Varis nodded.

 "Alright. Do it. Guys, prepare yourselves!"

 Varis reached out with one hand towards the cave ceiling and fired an impressive blast of lightning. The bolt dug through the earth, raining small debris on the monsters before a torrent of water suddenly began flooding down from the hole. The orc cried out in surprise but the water quickly over took them. Roko's group took deep breaths and quickly grabbed onto each other. As the water began to lift them off the ground and escape through the various tunnels, Roko pulled them towards the entrance and allowed the water to push them down their escape route. Gripping Corissa's arm as hard as he could, all he could hope was that they get out soon and nobody gets dashed across the cave walls. It all depended on Helena now.

 Helena ran down the path they had come from. In the short time she escaped and collect her thoughts she began to understand what Roko meant in giving her his sword. But how were they going to escape? As she neared the entrance that was blocked off with rubble, Helena heard a sound that answered her question. A great rushing of water crashing down the hall afterward told her all she needed to know. And why she was sent ahead of everyone else. With the water growing ever closer to her, Helena pointed the sword forward as she ran up to the blocked entrance and shouted,

 "Fire!"

 Outside, Momo saw the entrance to the cave suddenly blow up and immediately drowned in water that spilled out onto the ground outside with an eclectic collection of bodies washing out around the exit. Rushing over, she found her friends that had dove into the cavern all coughing and gasping for air.

 "What happened?" She asked as she began to help everyone up.

 "Take a look." Roko coughed as he pulled himself up, "We got ambushed by more monsters."

 "Damn." Momo looked around at the orcs and tentacle monsters scattered around them, "Where'd all that water come from though?"

 "My guess is a small lake or pond that was filled by rain water." Roko said, "Not that it matters. We've still got problems to deal with."

 Momo looked up as the flooded orc bodies began to pick themselves up along with a couple of the eldritch monsters. What's more, the outside orcs had also run over to help their comrades up.

 "I can give you all a little boost." Momo said as she pulled Roko back onto his feet, "Can you still fight?"

 "Yes." Mikado coughed.

 "I'm fine." Kaguya said as she stood back up.

 "I'm alive." Corissa winced.

 "Everyone okay?" Drift called as the dark elf trio arrived as well, "We heard the explosion."

 "What's the situation out here?" Roko grimaced.

 "The rain of monsters has mostly subsided for now." Momo nodded, "There's still coming but it's more manageable right now."

 "Where's Romer and Brook?"

 "Romer's running a distraction over at the side of the camp with a small platoon. The rest of the army is fighting what remains or defending the caravan of refugees."

 "We got all of them out?"

 "Without a scratch." Ohm nodded.

 "What about Brook?"

 "She kind of just disappeared soon after the fighting began." Momo said, "Dunno where she is now."

 "Well I'm sure she'll be fine." Roko sighed.

 "What are you going to do now?" Reaumur asked.

 "Roko!" Helena rushed over to Roko, "I broke your sword!"

 "Oh." Roko looked down at the snapped blade in Helena's hands, "I guess that mix of magic was too much for it."

"My bad! I didn't think it would snap like that!"

 "It's fine. There's plenty of weapons lying on the ground." Roko looked around, "Go wake up Roland."

 "Roger!"

 "Watch out!"

 At Momo's call, everyone turned around to see the orcs throwing the drowned bodies of the tentacle monsters at them. Roko picked up a sword off the ground and swatted the monsters away from him. But above them, more cracks were starting to form again. Roko couldn't believe just how there were still yet more monsters to hound them.

 "Roland!" Helena began slapping Roland in the face, "Roland wake up!"

 "Mikado." Kaguya winced as she stood up.

 "I'm...quite drained, regretfully." Mikado said.

 "Orcs incoming!" Corissa yelped as the monsters began to rally together again to charge at them.

 Roko's mind was split between the monsters in front of them and the ones about to fall from the skies. Until a blast of electricity ran through the water in front of them to shock the orcs standing in front of them and ice pillars shot up to pierce the holes and kill the monsters before they could emerge. Everyone turned to Varis who was slowly pushing himself up again as his armor's arm and leg floated around him and reattached to his missing limbs.

 "Varis!" Corissa cried as her knight stood back up.

 Black smoke began to creep out of his armor around him to meet the remaining orcs charging at them. Upon touching the smoke, the orcs began to howl in pain and some even crumpled to the ground, clutching their arms and legs. A new wave of eldritch monsters dropped from the sky and began eating up the curse magic. Varis opened his hand, summoned his sword back to his hands and charged at the monsters.

 "Varis, MVP for real." Helena whistled, "Roland, WAKE THE FUCK UP!"

 Helena slapped Roland so hard that practically everyone in the camp could hear it. Roland jolted up as he finally woke up, "I'm awake! I'm awa-owwww..."

 "Fucking finally." Helena sighed as she stood up, "Get fighting! We're still at war!"

 "I thought this was a raid!" Roland replied.

 Roko sighed and turned to Momo, "Go find Brook. See if she needs support. Check on Romer as well. We'll handle things here."

 "Heh. Gotcha." Momo smiled, "Stay safe!"

 And with that, Momo virtually teleported away, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

 "She's getting a bit too fast." Roko muttered to himself as he turned to face the orcs stumbling towards him through the cursed mist. 

 The monsters' faces seemed to contort in pain but they pushed through with resilience alone. They swung at Roko but they were so weak that Roko could easily dodge them. Roko swung his sword at the orc and landed a strong cut into the monster's chest. A surprising feat as Roko could only make smaller shallower cuts earlier. Did curse have a debuffing effect? It would still take a few swings to kill an orc but it was feasible. And with how weak the orcs were, it wouldn't take much effort just a bit of time. The mawed monsters seemed preoccupied with getting rid of the cursed fog so all Roko had to do was make sure he didn't get swarmed too badly and keep an eye on how strong the curse was. Pretty simple all things considered. The others shouldn't have much trouble with them either.

 "Where's my sword?!" Roland cried, "Oh come on, I spent money on that!"

 "No, that was my money you used!" Helena cried as she continued to shoot at the monsters, "And what does it matter, you've used one sword before!"

 "But it's been so long, I'm used to two swords now!" Roland said, lazily deflecting any orc attacks with his one sword as he shifted through the fog, trying to find his other sword.

 "Just grab one of the orc ones!"

 "Ew, no!"

 "For god's sake Roland, get over yourself!"

 "Hey, I've got an image to uphold!"

 As Roland continued to search for his sword, he brought his sword to block another orc trying to attack him from behind only for him to suddenly switch and decide to dodge forward. The orc's club smashed into the ground where Roland was with a strong thud. A blow that would've floored him if he hadn't instinctively dodged.

 "What's going on?" Roland frowned.

 "Varis?" Helena turned briefly towards the black knight.

 Varis' curse spell hadn't gone away. It was still pouring out of his armor but the magic eating monsters had formed a perimeter around him. It was a very wide perimeter but it was enough to keep much of the curse contained. Varis was perfectly capable of breaking that perimeter if not for the heavily armored orcs keeping him at bay inside the quarantine. It wasn't just the orcs too, more of the tentacle monsters were free to attack now with the curse magic contained. Free to distract and attack the black knight and now free to begin attacking the elven army.

 "Eeep!" Corissa yelped as orcs and monsters began to surround her and the dark elves.

 "Corissa!" Roland cried as he began to run towards her.

 "Ah! Get off me!"

 Roland stopped as he realized that the tentacle monsters had begun to land around Helena and beginning to latch onto her.

 "Helena!" Roland gasped. He glanced once more towards Corissa before he turned and quickly began sprinting towards his princess, "Helena! I'm coming!"

 But Roland was quickly cut off by a big orc with a dozen more quickly surrounding him. They all raised their clubs and swung down at the cornered knight. Roland ducked and placed his sword across his back, blocking all of the orcs' attacks but their sheer strength was enough to force him to kneel as he struggled to free himself.

 "God...dammit!" Roland grunted, "If only I had another sword, you bastards would be dead!"

 "Roland!"

 Roland's eyes turned towards the side where, between the orc bodies, he could see Ohm and Drift fighting away orcs with Klaus and Penny assisting them. Reaumur was leading Corissa away but stopped to hold up a sword towards Roland.

 "Use this!"

 "Isn't that the cursed sword?!"

 "It's fine! Just don't attune to it!"

 "What does that mean?!"

 "Just don't use it!"

 "How's that going to help?!"

 "Nevermind, just take it!"

 Roland roared in frustration as Reaumur threw the cursed sword at him. But with no other options left to him, he reached out and grabbed the sword out of the air, quickly making a sharp, complete spin to slash into the orc's stomachs. The orcs fell to the ground, all of them completely dead from an extremely large gash in their bodies. No, a gash was putting it lightly. The orc's bodies were almost bisected with their organs spilling out from the wound that was much bigger than the sword could possibly make. Looking down at the sword in his hand, Roland could see the faint outline of a serrated edge running across the sword's edge. He wasn't quite sure what it meant but the rumbling that seemed to emanate from the sword and into his arm was a clear indication of its sheer power.

 "Well hot damn, this sword's really strong!" Roland grinned, "Helena, I'm coming!"

 "And he immediately attuned to it." Reaumur sighed.

 "Well, we needed data on it anyway." Corissa smiled anxiously.

 Roko's tactics had changed. With the orcs regaining most of their strength and the eldritch monsters joining in, Roko had returned to a more reserved fighting style, less focused on landing direct attacks and more on keeping attacks away from him. Thankfully he seemed to be able to cut down the monsters with ease and even cut apart the orc's wooden weapons but the danger was only going to pile on the longer they waited. The raid was already starting to drag on too. The elves' stamina wasn't as well developed as most soldiers and even the humans weren't sure to last much longer. If it was only the orcs and their advanced physiology or the seemingly endless number of magic eating monsters, they might be able to pull through but combined, they were soundly out-advantaged. There had to be some way to win. The orcs were strong but lower in number while the eldritch monsters were weaker with seemingly endless numbers and a dangerous trait. The problem was clearly the eldritch monsters but what could Roko do? How could he get them to stop spawning? If he could eliminate their pets, Roko was sure they could easily clean up the remaining orcs. If there was-

 Roko's thoughts were suddenly interrupted by an orc who had sneaked a fist in while Roko was distracted and knocked Roko flying into the air for the second time that day. He heard his friends cry out and his body get caught by someone again but his mind was still running overtime trying to figure something out. Not even the pain from the orc's blow seemed to stop his mind from spinning thoughts after thoughts. He could feel and hear people distantly trying to revive him but between the pain rocking unchecked throughout his body and his head in more thoughts than he ever had before, Roko's recovery was sluggish. Groggily, he opened his eyes as he tried to return to his senses. He was lying on the ground still, the sounds of his friends now concentrated around him in their efforts to protect him. But as he laid on the ground, watching the sky crack open to drop more monsters on them, Roko took notice for the first time a strange green light that was glowing faintly behind the clouds that he was certain wasn't there before. Seeing it all thoughts in his head stopped in anticipation as he found a singular ray of hope.

 "Helena!"

 "Present!" Helena called back as she continued to fire spells off at orcs and monsters alike, "You okay, Roko?"

 "Fire at the light!" Roko said as he sat up and pointed at the green light in the sky.

 "Huh?!" Helena stopped and looked up, "...Huh. I never noticed that. Aight, Roland, cover me!"

 "Come on then you freaking cowards! Let me introduce you to my new friend!" Roland whooped as he raised his rumbling sword.

 "Does he know that sword doesn't belong to him?" Kaguya smirked.

 "Eh. Let him have this." Helena chuckled as she aimed a finger at the light in the sky, "Now let's see what's hiding in the sky."

 Helena fired a bolt of lightning that pierced the clouds where the green light was emanating from and...nothing happened.

 "...Roko!"

 "Varis, you give it a shot!"

 Varis nodded and jumped out of the encirclement, high into the air as he gathered fire in his fist. Thrusting his hand forward, he fired off a torrent of flames as big as Rivera's light spell into the sky. Humans and monsters alike, stopped and stood agape at the inferno tempest that punched a hole into the atmosphere and lit up the area in light and heat. The flames burned the sky for a short moment before they all dissipated and Varis landed back on the ground safely. Everyone's eyes remained locked at the sky as the clouds cleared away and the heavens above was revealed to them. And in the sky was a giant ghost like eye, larger than even the entire encampment. An ethereal emotionless eye gazing down at them with a sickeningly pulsating green glow.

 Looking at this eye Roko felt a deep rooted sickness well up in him. A primordial, existential nausea that bubbled out of nowhere. That Roko never knew he carried. He fought this illness for a brief moment, pushing himself to remain on a world that felt like it was spinning around him even as he looked away from the eye. And just as he managed to stabilize his condition, he heard screams of fear, disgust and outrage start from all over the camp and every orc and elf around them began to attack each other in a mad frenzy.