Complacency Kills

Volvru Garzong

"You will pay!" said the enemy angrily, with his handsome human face turning ugly as he moved to defend against the attack of Julian.

Yes, defend.

Till a minute ago, it was us, who desperately defended against his attacks, but now, it is he, who is doing that.

All of them are Julian's, who had changed. His strength remained the same, but the way he was using that, had forced the enemy to defend against the attacks.

Leaf Blade. Heavy Slash. Wolf's Wound.

Seeing Julian, I decided to take a risk and activate my offensive skills, before attacking him.

He pushed away Julian's sword and whipped his sword at me. It is a powerful attack that is coming from my head.

I panicked for a moment, but I pushed that away and moved my sword forward, using every ounce of the strength I had.

Clang!

His saber clashed against my sword, and I felt like, I had been hit by a big hammer. I felt the power through the shield hundreds of times, but the shield was enchanted to absorb the blow, the sword was not, and it pushed me back.

It would have given the enemy the perfect opportunity to come at me and finish the job, and he took a step toward me to do just that.

"Bastard!"

Suddenly he stopped and cursed, before turning. Julian had come at him with another attack.

I quickly stabilized myself and launched another attack at him, which he quickly defended, before Julian attacked him again.

He defended against the attack, about to attack him again, when I went at him.

Clang Clang Clang

He attacked and defended against us, trying to kill us at every chance he could get. 

He is just as powerful as before, and there is not much change in our strength too, but now he was not able to carve our bodies bloody like he was doing before.

I have let go of my inhibitions. It is not like there is no fear in my heart; there is more than before, but I understand that there is no use, in letting that fear control my actions.

This had freed me; letting me fight at my full potential.

Clang! 

A few seconds passed, and he defended against another of Julian's attacks before I moved at him.

Rip!

He moved toward me when he dodged left fast, but not before the ripping around rang out. 

A bloody wound appeared on his back; it was not deep, and the blood stopped after a second, but it shocked me.

We have injured him, once again.

"You wretched bastard. I will kill you!" he screamed with anger. He is angrier than last time. A few seconds ago, it was the spell, that had hit him, but now it was a sword and that is much worse.

There is a bubbling in his eyes, and it is not because of the wound, but because of the pride. The one type of anger, my father had warned me to not have.

With that scream, he went for Julian, before appearing in front of him.

He attacked without wasting a second, and it was powerful. So, much, so that I feared, Julian might not be able to defend.

Hun!

I moved toward him, with all my speed, when something happened. 

Irony grey vines came out of the ground and moved toward his feet, trying to bind him to the ground.

For nearly a minute, the mage hadn't cast a spell. If I hadn't been seeing her standing, I would have thought she had died.

Sliceee!

The man reacted fast and moved his saber down to cut the vines. Cutting tens of them single attack, before moving away from the spot to avoid the vines and attack from Julian and me.

He was fast, as always, but before he could take two steps, something happened.

Julian disappeared and appeared right in front of the enemy, with his swords, moving toward him at incredible speed.

Seeing that, I couldn't help, but get surprised. That they reached inches away from the enemy.

It is not a skill; he had used before.

Clang!

The enemy wouldn't let them injure him again. He acted fast, repelling the first sword moving toward his chest with his saber, but the second of Julian's sword reached his thigh and pierced through it.

While it was happening, the iron vines had wrapped around his legs.

He seemed to realize the trouble he was in, but it was too late for him. 

Julian attacked again with his one free sword; there was a huge Earth Lance from Mage.

"Die!"

I screamed and swung my sword at him with everything I had.

He turned with struggle, and I saw all the fear vanish from his eyes. His lips curved in a smile as the sabers appeared around him.

It is similar to his own saber, which is moving, cutting the vines, but he isn't holding it. 

The one in front of me isn't the only saber that appeared. There is one that is moving toward the huge Earth Lance, while the other is moving to defend against the attack of Julian. 

Clang Clang Clang!

My sword clashed against the first saber and while the second saber began to cut through the Earth Lance. 

The third one moved to clash against Julian's attack.

Hun! 

They were about to clash when something happened. The speed of Julian's sword suddenly increased even more, avoiding the saber, and moved toward his neck.

The alarm returned in the eyes enemy and this time, it was more intense. He reacted immediately and moved the flying saber to stop the sword, while the one in his hand stopped cutting vines, and went for Julian.

First, he appeared in front of the enemy and now a sudden increase in the speed of his attack. If I didn't see the tiredness appearing in his eyes; I would have thought, he was hiding his strength.

Whatever skill he used; it cost him a lot. If he didn't succeed, there is no way, he would survive with that tiredness.

I had just thought that when the speed of his sword increased further, reaching the neck of the enemy.

Horror appeared in his eyes; as he realized he could die.

He wanted to retreat, but couldn't. He hadn't cut all the vines and now, they were stopping his retreat. He shouldn't have moved his saber toward Julian; cutting the vines would have given him a chance to retreat.

Julian's sword didn't stop as it touched the neck and began to cut through it. He didn't care about the saber of the enemy, reaching his stomach and tearing him apart.

It will be mutual destruction, but Julian doesn't seem to care as the sword moves through the neck of the enemy, who is trying everything to survive. Using every move and skill, he has, including a defensive one.

If not for Julian using a strange skill, that has increased his power. The enemy would have been able to get away.

Pachack!

The sword came out of the other side, decapitating the enemy.

Seeing that, a joy lit up in my eyes. If Julian hadn't killed him, he would have killed Julian and then me.

Julian begins to fall down. The bastard had cut him so deep, that his innards had spilled out.

"Fuck!" I cursed, with all joy disappearing from my eyes.

I appeared beside him with Hare Step, catching him before he fell down.

"Is he dead?" asked Mage Osward, seeing the pale face of Julian and no breathing. "Alive, barely," I said, feeling faint breath, and quickly moved a hand toward his pouch.

The woman glared at me but didn't say anything.

He is nearly dead, every innards of his has been cut. It is a heavy injury, that kills within seconds. Normal potion is useless; a powerful healing spell requires, that only elf bishop is capable of casting, but she is on fighting on this gate.

"We will require taking him to a surgeon first," said the woman. "He will have to stay alive for that," I said and finally found the thing I had been looking for.

A small potion bottle with filled half with glittering healing potion.

I had said, the healing potion is useless, but not this one. 

It is a potion that even money couldn't buy. I have only heard about it in my life, but never got a chance to even see it, but a few hours ago, got a half bottle of it.

It healing potion crafted with emotional essence.

In the afternoon, the governor of Greltheaven, handed half a bottle to every pre-Lv. 30. He gave it to us orcs as he gave to the humans and mercenaries.

I opened the bottle and dropped a single drop on his tongue. Mixed another drop into an ordinary potion, and sprinkled it on his injuries.

I would have added more, but the purpose isn't to heal. Those injuries, especially his innards, would need to be stitched before using any healing spell or potion.

I only used the potion to keep him alive for longer.

The result was immediate and shocking. 

I had expected it, seeing the things I have heard about these, potions, but it still shocked me.

"Take him," I said to Mage Osward. 

She nodded and floated his body up. At the same time, three people, fighting against the horde, appeared beside the body and moved with it, while I drank ordinary healing potion and joined the battle.

….

Lich Savais

Blight Rays. Bone Lances. Hallow Screams.

Three spells materialized and moved toward the three coming at me. 

They reacted instantly, the paladin moved her shield forward, glowing in the divine power of dusk, while the spell blade created the defensive shield of five.

The Orc, on the other hand, dodged and defended. The bastard is too agile for his size; one rarely comes across, the orcs such as this.

'We have made a mistake,' I released a bit too late.

We should have brought more pre-Lv. 30s with us, but we had kept them in the cities we had conquered. We thought it wouldn't take us long for us to conquer this small city.

An hour or two at most, seeing this one had kept itself stable and was preparing to defend.

We have been too complacent. 

Too sure that we would raze through the cities of Renwell without much resistance and that happened with the two cities we have attacked.

We should have focused on intelligence as we do on the island. If we had done that, we would have known. There were a lot more powerhouses here than we had expected.

On top of that, the bastard had recruited the bloody orcs, that were in his prison.

There is nothing common in recruiting prisoners to fight. It is extremely common on Mayhurst, where our enemies use anyone who could fight. It didn't matter if they were criminals or saints.

It is just that, we didn't expect it from the harsothian city. We forgot that desperation could make even the enemy, a friend.

We have only brought fourteen pre-Level 30 with us, a quarter of the numbers, while the enemy has over thirty of them fighting across all three battlefields.

It is because of them; that they have kept us Level 30s engaged.

I wish I could blame Knight Bartram for oversight, but I agreed with the rest of Lv. 30 when Knight asked for our option.

I hate to admit it, but these bastards are good. They have contained me, despite my efforts to kill them.

It is the reason why; I couldn't go that wretched bastard to take my revenge.

"They killed him!" said the bitch with fire and for a moment, I was confused when I received the message.

It shocked me so much; that I had nearly missed the lance from the paladin, before activating the bone shield to stop.

'They have killed, heartpeak!' I thought in shock.

The bastard was Level 33 Fencer of Barren Field. He had fought against two-Level 30 and killed them, but now the message is telling me that a bunch of pre-Lv. The 30s have killed him.

Heartpeak was egoistical and had too much confidence in his abilities, but he wasn't weak, and now, he is dead.

'It seemed like; I would have to use them," I said and opened my bags. Immediately, pieces of bones came out; each piece was carefully crafted and belonged to a grade 4 monster.

The three seemed to realize what was happening and came toward me, but I stopped their charge with the bone walls and barrage of Acid Balls.

It gave me enough time, for three bone constructs to appear.

All three are humanoids over two meters tall with huge round thorny heads and bone hands holding swords, spears, and hammers as weapons.

They are dangerous and more than capable of killing anyone below Lv. 30.

Bone constructs aren't my specialty, nor have I created them, but these are all I could buy with the savings I had. Coming here, was as much for revenge as for the good bodies and money.

We have conquered two cities and while they were small. They had money and my share was quite good.

I will be able to buy enough resources with them to construct a group of powerful zombies and I will start with bodies of these three.

"Kill them," I ordered and activated the constructs.

They moved toward the three while assaulting them with the spells.

Within a few seconds, I suppressed them. They could do nothing but to defend. They are quite good, but I only need one spell to strike them, and it will be their end.

Once one is dead, killing the two wouldn't be much challenge.

I should have used these before; I might have finished them quickly and heartpeak wouldn't have died. It is such a regret, that his body is already claimed; I would have loved to get my hands on it.

I pushed those thoughts away and focused on controlling the bone constructs.

One had nearly hit the Orc, missing the head by less than an inch.

I cast another spell and was about to release at the orc, when I received another message, and it shook me.

Ford is dead.