Chapter 2 - Souls and monsters

The creature harassing Wyn was quickly shot down by an archer who stood guard on a nearby rooftop. It was similar to a lynx or maybe a big cat, but its fur was dark gray and his eyes were cold.

The cries of fear quickly spread among the civilians who hurriedly entered any nearby building to take shelter.

Seeing how Wyn left him alone, Alaric didn't mind and searched for the nearest gate, he wanted to take a look at the situation.

The Northgate was one of the places where the beast horde was currently attacking, despite the wooden gate having been lowered, the beasts still tried to step inside, they attacked in between the holes with their claws using terrifying strength, had the gate not been several dozens of centimeters thick, it might have given in to their bestial strength and mentality in just a few moments.

Luckily those mindless creatures were also hurting themselves in the process, some were bleeding so much from attacking the gate that they would surely die of blood loss very soon.

"Men! Prepare your bows and crossbows! Fire at will and don't let them pile up on the entrance, I want swords and lances at the gate!"

A thunderous voice echoed in the surrounding area, a man wearing steel armor approached quickly followed by a regiment of more than a hundred men. His armor was one that he could quickly recognize as the Elite Knight armor set.

Was he a noble? With such thoughts in mind, he went to the side of the road and gave way to the troops. None of them seemed to care about his presence, some were even snickering as if they were looking at a dead man, they clearly thought that this stupid guy would die for daring to stay here just to watch.

As if they were used to such a situation, a group of thirty knights stepped forward and queued up in front of the gate, they trusted with either a sword or a lance, and their actions were quick and powerful. A single thrust was enough to pierce through a beast's head, killing it on the spot, their killing efficiency was so high that the pressure on the gate lowered considerably and all it took was about a minute.

The others climbed up the city walls and took a position in either the watchtowers or the walkway, with bows and crossbows in hand they were quick to start volleys of fire, causing a rain of wooden arrows on the beasts.

Although he wasn't doing anything, Alaric was quick to notice a peculiar situation, every time a beast died, a white mist rose from their bodies and rushed towards him, it would then either pass through him or disappear inside him, with the highest probability being that it went inside him.

How did he know? The bottom right corner of his field of views was now showing an increasing number.

First two hundred, then five hundred, then a thousand, and so on.

Speechless, he couldn't help but think of the currency of Dark Souls, the souls themselves. However... how come he was the one getting the souls and not them? Why is this happening? Or... could it be that this is not the case?

Thinking for a moment a few bits of memory resurfaced in his mind, back when he used to play this game, people he summoned would also get souls from the hollows he killed, could it be that this is the case here?

As he thought about the matter, the situation quickly escalated, the men hurriedly retreated from the gates, and a loud crashing sound came.

A six meters tall large bear took down the gates with a single headbutt, although his head was now bleeding, it didn't seem like there was any substantial damage, this behemoth of a monster only had a superficial injury.

"Everyone, focus fire!" Although the beasts outside were still approaching, they had no choice but to focus on the big guy.

While the archers fired at him, the soldiers all gathered around him and started poking him with their sticks...

Even with all that, the creature was tough enough to counter-attack, throwing some knights away like they weighed nothing and killing them in the process. Coincidently, one of them was smashed like a bug as he hit the wall beside Alaric.

Seeing the man with his head crushed on his side, he thought for a moment before grabbing his sword, shield, and armor, while not all pieces could be worn, some of them like the gauntlets, greaves, and pauldrons were very easy to wear it was a pity that the chest plate and some other things required the help of two or more people to wear it, otherwise, he would have gladly looted this unlucky man...

Having slightly prepared himself, he partially hid his figure behind the shield and mentally prepared for what was about to come.

While the soldiers were occupied with the giant Bear, they couldn't stop the other beasts from wreaking havoc and coming inside the city. The beasts came like a tide, sweeping past everyone and randomly choosing a direction to go, some of them quickly approached Alaric and directly jumped at him.

As brave as he was, he couldn't help but feel like his legs were shaking, his strategy at this time was simple, so long as he could survive, there was no need to be flashy. As such, his movements were simple but effective, with the shield raised and his eyes focused, he poked and slashed as the opportunity appeared, but the priority was always to defend himself.

A soldier slowly approached from behind, every wave of his hands was accompanied by the flash of a silver sword drawing blood from the beasts and reaping their lives.

"Hey, you! What are you doing here? Get back and take refuge!"

Seeing how someone had the time to speak with him in these endless waves of beasts, he couldn't help but snort. Now that he was trapped here, how the hell did he expect him to retreat and take refuge? Wasn't he asking him to die by telling him to turn his back to the enemy and try to escape?

In a moment of rest where the beasts avoided him, he had enough time to catch a glimpse of the man behind him, he wore a variation of the standard hard leather armor, rather than light brown, the leather in his armor was painted blue, and the design was slightly different, clearly reminding him of Astora.

The number of beasts pouncing at him was far greater than the amount Alaric had to deal with, even so, the man's ability and skill were outstanding enough to make this situation barely enough to pressure him.

Alaric was stunned seeing how the man could reap lives effortlessly, each move of his hands would kill a beast, it was like he couldn't afford to waste even the tiniest bit of energy.

It wasn't just him, every single soldier of Astora was surprisingly skillful, they dealt with enemies as if they were just harvesting cabbages, amazing.

As if that wasn't enough, Alaric heard a trumpet and blue light shone above their heads, he thought that something dangerous was about to happen, but contrary to his expectations, he suddenly felt like the sword and shield in his hands had become lighter and his fatigue was instantly washed away!

Turning around he was quick to notice a woman in white and blue robes standing on top of the church's bell tower, she held a trumpet in her hand which shone with a light blue aura, whenever she pointed at a battlefield and blew it, the sky above that area would shine in a similar fashion.

Alaric couldn't help but feel like butterflies were flying in his stomach, to think that the world of Dark Souls had such an interesting kind of spell! Wasn't she practically the definition of a bard?!

With this newfound strength, Alaric became daring, and more proactive in battle, instead of retreating more and more, he finally had the opportunity to try and force his way against those beasts, with superior raw strength, he made up for the lack of skills and started a kill sequence.

In less than a minute he somehow managed to kill what took him ten minutes to do so before.

But that wasn't the last surprise, before Alaric could even delight himself in this feeling, the Elite Knight managed to kill the Bear and suddenly shouted.

"Everyone, get back! Don't attack the beasts!"

What? Why?

Although he was confused, Alaric didn't dare disobey, this was the world of Dark Souls, after all, he wasn't ready to experience death. Stepping back, it only took a few moments, a streak of blue and white light flew up to the sky and exploded, causing a powerful shockwave to sweep everyone on the ground, but that was just the beginning before he could even catch his breath, the entire sky shone with countless blue dots of light, suddenly, a rain of beams of light descended and poked holes in every beast in the battlefield, soon, every creature that had invaded the city, and the ones outside died without even having the opportunity to complain about this cheat spell that someone had cast.

Blinking his eyes, Alaric fell on his butt, he could only stare in wonder at the gory scene in front of him... was this what meant to live in a world where gods were real and magic ruled? How frightening...

The only thing that comforted him was the staggering number on the Souls-like interface he acquired earlier, 125 thousand souls... Such an efficient farming!