The fate of a soldier

I was not sure if I should watch, take part, or try my luck once more and try to hide from all of this. Even with the System working, I was helpless against someone like Balor. Only one direct hit and I might be dead on the spot.

None of them moved, Kali kept her smirk as she positioned her weapon in front of her. Balor's soldiers were readying themselves behind him assuming different positions. The archers were trying to get advantage points by getting on high spots, while the footmen were taking formations with their weapons in their hands.

Yet I could not see Kali's soldiers anywhere. The same with Dara and the orc from before. Only Kali, Nayleth, and I were in there. What was she thinking?

Running was the only option.

But as soon as I was about to start fleeing, I could hear a voice on my head.

"Human!" It was Kali's voice. I looked at her and saw she was not moving her lips. "You fought him for a few moments. Intel, now!"

"What the-? What is this?!" I thought at that moment.

"You are communicating with us through the System, human" Now that was Dara's voice wherever she was. "If you could provide us with whatever information you can, it would increase our chances of success."

If they can just communicate with me like that without requesting permission, I can see how it would be annoying pretty fast.

But I had a bigger problem, the soldiers were approaching us. Even if I could run, Balor was too fast.

"He has 50 STR. I managed to tie him on a check, and he still hurt me for 70!" I said, hoping that would be enough intel.

"That puts him at least on level 15" Dara explained "That is not good for us."

"5 more levels than us! Whatever, we can crush him!" Kali added.

"Wait, Kali, you are just level 10?!" I asked surprised. I saw the numbers of how much damage she can dish out. And they kept calling her the Demon Queen. Isn't that usually the main final boss? Shouldn't she be at least level 50?

"D-don't you dare call me by my name!" Kali stuttered, something I was not aware was possible telepathically. "And what of it?! I can still crush your head with one hand!"

And before I could say anything, Balor yelled "Attack!" and his soldiers started advancing towards us. That took me back to reality, I was almost forgetting the situation we were in.

The archers fired their arrows towards us. My first instinct was to find cover, but then I saw Nayleth cast a spell and a golden barrier appeared from the ground and covered us against the projectiles.

The majority of the arrows bounced against it, but some of them turned around and fired themselves back at their shooters, hitting them squarely before they could react. I saw varying damage numbers, that went from -20 to -50. None dropped, but they didn't seem eager to shoot again.

The foot soldiers were approaching us, and it was Kali who decided to take care of them. She smirked and stretched her hand aiming the palms towards the group of soldiers.

"Nether bolt" she cast, and from her hand came 5 black bolts that quickly fired toward random soldiers.

The attack pierced the air, went safely through Nayleth's barrier, and each hit a different soldier. Then it bounced to another random one on the back and another.

-253

-175

-106

-87

-51

The damage went down on every hit. Each bolt killed at least one of the soldiers, and some were left on their last legs. They stopped their charge once they saw their numbers quickly going down.

I was shocked at the display of power. She was not kidding, I was having trouble with only 1 of them, and she was managing to kill them like flies. Meanwhile, I had to put effort into getting important hits.

"They are all levels lower than 5" I managed to hear Kali say, her tone of voice, exasperated, made me feel she was complaining.

Some of the soldiers left alive stopped their charge and turned around, screaming for mercy and pleading for their lives, yelling something about the Demon Queen's Wrath.

And Balor had plans for them. Turned around as the soldiers ran beside him.

"No Mercy!" He announces his skill, the same one he tried to use against me. But this time, it went towards his soldiers.

His attack hits the ground and causes a shockwave that I managed to feel. I wonder how far the sound wave reached as I fell in the middle of an earthquake. I have never felt more powerless in my life, I could not bear to do anything to such a beast.

-350, several times I saw that number appear, once for each soldier that was in there, even the ones that were not trying to run. The only ones that got spared were the archers, who were at a safe distance and looking scared for their lives.

I almost got hit with that. I was about to get crushed. Once the cloud that the attack raised settled in, I could see the bodies of the soldiers, bloodied, the ones in the center mangled, with a terrified look on their faces. They died a brutal death, and I was about to join them a few moments ago.

"Those were your soldiers, you self-righteous bastard!" Kali yelled suddenly. My gaze went towards her, surprised that her expression was screaming murder, showing her teeth and I was sure I could hear her growling. Her tail was whipping against the floor, raising clouds of dirt and making a loud sound.

"Yes, they were. The Sacred Army needs no cowards. All I did was some cleaning of the ranks" Balor answered, turning to face Kali.

Kali grunted and started to walk towards the captain. She swung her weapon against the air, leaving a trail of dark energy as it passed that quickly disappeared.

"Now I cannot let you live after pissing me off like that," she said, preparing herself to attack.