The Value Of A Man's Life

The camp in question was so large that its size rivaled Thirteenth Incorporated even after receiving reinforcements from the capital while I was away. There were dozens of work and leisure pavilions alone not even counting the small army of group tents centered around their command tent that was twice the size of my own. I was almost jealous.

Almost.

At the back of this camp were a trio of Thirteenth clansmen gathered around a large plague dragon simply sitting around playing cards and looking as if everything was A-okay. The fact that they were still there without being bothered meant that this clan either was not brave enough to make the first move or actually thought they had been sneaky. They were wrong.

Cweeper, Hermes, and I made our way calmly around the territory raid on foot, not even bothering to be secretive but instead proudly making our movements known. My familiars even made a point to smile and wave at the clans who had outwardly behaved themselves, letting them know we were only passing by.

Now, arriving at the back of the clan that had placed a target on their head and mistakenly wore it like a crown I find that the sentries on duty were only making a show of nonchalance while under the watchful gazes of almost fifty defensively arrayed players. This was much larger than the usual group of greeters that I would come across.

"All of your hands suck," I inform the group who were mostly blindly playing poker after walking up and looking around at the trio while mostly ignoring the defensive greeters whose leaders were now making an obvious huddle. "Put the cards away and give me some space. You're about to see why your people call me a bully."

Even though they were technically on my side the three sentries started looking sweaty and hurried to clean their small camp. This did not go unnoticed by the greeters who quickly responding with their small group of six leaders coming forward. The sentries were stationed fifty yards out from their camp, just outside of bulk skill range for most classes, so the greeters had a decent way to walk out to where I calmly waiting with my hands clasped behind my back.

Stopping more than ten yards away, the lead player in this small leading group calls out, "Is this about the raid?"

"For me it's just about orders," I reply simply, not giving them the chance to put on any kind of shows by letting them know I was just here to do what I was told. There was always a chance these people would be shameless and try to go public with events by trying to play the righteous side while turning public opinion against my alliance or I. I did not need to care about something like that, but Duality had a history as the righteous underdog that I appreciated fondly.

Two of the people in the lead group suddenly turned and gestured at my words, causing the other defenders to suddenly split up into distant groups behind a sparse front line. "So, are you going to set the zombies on us?" The lead figure in heavy armor asks while equipping a large shield straight from his inventory.

They were making space between their units to minimize infection! These guys obviously got inside information from the bygones clan but what kind of host would I be if I performed the same trick twice at one party? "No, nothing fancy like that," I assure them quickly while reaching for my own sword that signals my familiars to draw their demigod weapons.

Before my sword was even fully drawn the lead group was already casting spells and skills from relatively point blank range. The magic and weapon lights were so blinding that I could hardly differentiate the basic elements involved in their intermediate level attacks. However, Cweeper and Hermes at my left and right vanished as soon as the enemy took the preemptive.

As for myself who was left behind in the flurry of attacks, I simply channeled raw mana into my sword and chopped down into the oncoming skills with my weakest and most untrained skill. Slash. The effect from such a basic move, though, was for an unguided explosion of various diffused energies that swallowed the space between them and I.

I was briefly reminded of the first time I had attempted fighting magic in such a way but lost several tens of points despite cutting through a wave of fire. Now, I lost an estimated two hundred health from the loss of less than twenty percent of my health bar. I took a hell of a lot more damage. Considering the amount of skills I 'parried', though, the ratio of damage per skill was just a bit less than the imp queen's basic fire attack at the time.

By the time my vision cleared, the group of leaders were literally in pieces already and my familiars were already confronting the rest of the greeters. Hermes was front and center spinning back and forth across the first few lines of melee fighters while flipping in and out out their ranks. Blood flew and health bars drained away every time he moved and there were already a few bodies on the ground in his wake.

Cweeper was having a markedly easier time attacking the back rows, using a combination of dark magical attacks to break away magic defenses before physically cutting their mages down. Even when the healers tried to support each other she would simply lash out with one of her few physical attacks and the subject of healing would be no more. The back of the greeters was already becoming one big red puddle

I did not even bother trying to take part in this initial confrontation. Instead, I made my way forward at a leisurely pace with my giant sword resting back against my shoulder in one hand. Thanks to the strength of my familiars, none of the greeters could even afford to turn their attacks in my direction let alone spare the time to do so.

So great was their speed that my familiars only had health bars for moments at a time, evading most attacks just by switching targets while only occasionally being grazed or fully struck. Despite this, I rarely say their health go below ninety percent thanks to the strength of their plagued bodies and growing equipment.

I was not entirely sure how their equipment worked because I had never had the chance to actually hold it, though their weapons were codependent on either them or me, but the armor itself that had the general appearance of simple light armor seemed to have the same functionality as heavy armor.

Before I had even crossed the distance my familiars had corralled the last handful of players between them but the rest of the camp was finally responding. I could literally FEEL the uneven ice and rock ground trembling from the pressure of multiple hundreds of people rushing toward a single direction. It was honestly a little intimidating.

"Don't forget to clean up after yourself and Devour all that mess," I scold my demigods playfully, point with my free hand around at all the loot and bodies lying around before the end of combat. Then, gripping the hilt of my sword in both hands as numerous players begin spilling out from among the tents and pavilions at the back of they camp, I call out, "Show time!"

Combining normal Slash with Spirit Slash along with three hundred mana, I send a blurred vertical line of cutting energy flying through the air over the ground. The ground itself was not left untouched by this attack but was instead torn open for a long, deep trench in the icy rock stretching from my position almost all of the way to the command tent.

Ten of bodies caught in my spiritual skill's path showed health bars that drained away twenty or thirty percent apiece while being tossed aside by the skill's knockback. Everybody else responded with all of the far reaching skills at their disposal but only a single volley was launched because my familiars soon stole all of the attention. They burst into shoals of spores and began corrupting all of the loot and bodies to Devour into themselves.

Left to my own devices under a barrage of various 'physical' skills and magical attacks, I could own form a literal cell wall of Hardened Hickory, chitin, ivory, and then ice mana scales over my body and armor. Single percents of health and large chunks of my defenses were torn away under the barrage of attacks. By the time it was over, my health was officially dropped to below sixty percent.

After that barrage of attacks, though, I responded with a spiritual barrage of my own as they switched their attention to attacking the massive spore clouds that were my familiars. Letting go of my sword with one hand, I pour out another few hundred mana into a Spirit Wave that sweeps out horizontally into the back of the enemy clan's camp.

My first slash attack had parted a few tents but this wave swept over the camp like a tsunami. People of all races and ages and genders who were once standing proudly were now swept off their feet and sent flying back into camp. However, this did little to diminish the actual numbers even though many attackers were no longer assaulting my feeding familiars.

Gripping my sword properly once again, I Quick Step right into the back of the camp so that I was only about ten yards away from the reorganizing front lines before casting a combination of an air and electric cutter. Even though I tried to size the crescent wave of enemy to match the back of the camp, my attack was only broad enough to scythe into the left side of the clansmen who were now returning their attention to me.

Dozens of voices cried out in pain and surprise as electrical arcs stripped control of their bodies from them and sent them once again staggering back into their comrades. The untouched side of the enemy numbers returned fire almost instantly, rushing in behind another barrage of blinding abilities. This time, I simply threw up a wall of stone and took the opportunity to drink both a mana regeneration potion and a normal mana potion before casting First-Aid on myself.

My rock wall crumbled away under the combined assault of dozens of players only seconds after I had finished drinking but seconds were all it took for me to put on new layers of defenses. Now, I guided multiple magics through my sword to release not only waves of spirit and elemental slashes but also create deep crevasses with earth magic or walls of fire or bulwarks of ice spears.

These field controlling skills tore through the enemy ranks as easily as my spiritual attacks by setting people aflame, trapping them in the ground, or impaling them on thick crystalline lances. Damages continually piled on to both the enemy clan and myself, but my magic either matched or exceeded my movement speed so they were a little bit harder to block or evade than their own skills.

Since my overall stats were higher than their selective stats even this early in the game, I really was bullying people.

Casting Quick Step once again to blur into the enemy's crumbling formations, I unleash my first three-sixty skill with a 360 Arc Geist that soon leaves me standing alone in a thirty-yard circle surrounded by ruined and burning canvas structures. Despite all of this, only now did I manage to actually kill some of the players because of all the different bodies in the way of my attacks.

My level rose to seventy-eight and almost to seventy-nine just from the deaths of a little more than a dozen people, proving the worth of ten percent of their current levels. This was the value of a man's life. The experience!

Covering almost twenty yards in a single lunge, I swing my sword out to the side and turn my body into the attack to increase the force after striking the first person. More than a third of their otherwise untouched health bar suddenly depleted as they were thrown backward onto the ground from the hammering slash. Followed by a lady mage and two more fighters of either gender, none of whom could withstand the might of just my basic attack.

Cweeper and Hermes finished cleaning up their mess as I used Quick Step to appear among another group of attackers just as their skills were firing off toward where I had been previously. As they returned to their usual bodies I used Slash on a simply mage hiding in a triangle of shield bearing warriors and parted their upper body down the middle from their head inward.

That attack alone had to have dealt over six hundred damage after breaching the layered hood of their robe to score a critical hit.

My familiars used full-on Flash Steps to basically teleport into the middle of the camp at the back of the defenders where archery and heavy magic classes were clearing space and preparing formations. I used 360 Edge by itself to send the triangle of shield guardians staggering back despite having landed strikes only on their shields. Even the lowest health bar of the three only went down to ninety percent.

Shock waves from energy explosions shook even my own balance as attacks were exchanged among the back lines, causing me to take a few arrows and a staggering ball of fire that drained my recently filled health down to seventy percent. Luckily, my outer shell of ice mana scales put out the flames as they melted away and the six arrows barely even penetrated the quarter-inch of scale-like ivory underneath.

Regaining my balance, I could only afford to spare a brief glance in the direction of my familiars as I held my sword up and parried several more arrows with its broad angling flats. All I could see was a split instant of Cweeper casting a Spirit Slash from the opposite side of the field from a small cyclone of fire that probably came form Hermes. Both of them were doing well enough.

After having lost my momentum I was hard pressed to find it again, forcing the use of First-Aid as I sidestepped spells and parried skills because of the constant splash damage from AOE attacks. Luckily, I was able to quite simply combine my own AOE attacks of Quick Quake and Spirit Wave to literally level the field. Both attacks only traveled forward for one hundred and eighty degrees, leaving my back completely exposed, but this in itself was a trap.

Despite several arrows and skills chipping away my health and defenses, I simply whipped around on the heel of my back foot and backhand cast my own Spirit Slash. This crescent of Fast Travel colored energy ripped through the open air for one hundred and eighty degrees behind me and completed an offensive circle of skills that consumed over five hundred mana.

Now down to less than half of my mana despite the constant regen, I whip back around to continue expelling skills only for the ringing peel of metal on metal to ring out with a deafening volume. For the first time in a long time, my sword was actually STOPPED.

The entity that actually managed to cancel my attack entirely was a towering seven-foot female giant halfling that I had somehow never even knew existed until just now. The object forcefully holding back my sword was the crossed points of two massive kite shield like blades word on the backs of the woman's forearms and pointing forward passed their hands.

Their shield were crossed out to the side to black my sword that had been coming back around in backhand form. Not only did this leave their body open but it also left me in a somewhat off-balanced position. However, just as I was moving to take advantage of this two bodily blurs suddenly rushed up in about twice the time it took to blink.

Twin streaks of deep furrows in my outer defenses suddenly appeared as a boy and girl who looked to be my age or even younger lashed out with long and thick bladed sabers while passing me by. The perfect sync of their attacks carried enough force to throw be ten yards straight backward with my feet only an inch or two off of the ground. I did not feel much pain from the actual attacks and only lost about sixteen percent but I was still hit so hard that I could not catch myself and ended up flipping once onto the ground and rolling a few yards further.

If these guys had been up front and center from the beginning, I would have known to focus my attention on them. From that fact alone, I could already tell that these guys were held back out of sight somewhere among the tents and pavilions intentionally.

If they were that strong or that important, then these were this clan's elites and they finally showed their faces.

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