Chapter 80: Colliding armies

Silk’s Point of View

I heaved for breath after taking the head off another lizardman. I had already lost count of how many we killed, but they just kept coming. Even though we hadn’t lost any of our own, more adventurers kept showing up as we retreated back toward the town, and they kept fighting back, then getting themselves injured or killed. Delilah had forgone fighting and was dragging five men, one in each hand and three on her back.

It was only six of us fighting right now. Danny rarely came with us, only when we were exploring a new area or doing something more than just killing the easy goblins or boss did he come. No Cherry or Olivia. Leaf, Roka, and Millicent rarely came with us, but Millicent did this time to get some levels in her class. Tems, Sophia, Sarah, Delilah, Millicent, and I were the ones who were fighting our way home.

It was endless, an endless wave of the strong lizardmen. If they had been designed with speed instead of power in mind, we’d have been wiped out by now. Thankfully, they were just big, dumb, strong, sturdy brutes. That’s why we could kill them; they knew nothing of fighting. Blocking their blows and parrying them freed you up to deal actual damage to them, and while I couldn’t kill them in one blow, every injury they acquired would make injuring them easier.

They attacked with no care for their injuries, acting like their bodies were whole, even with large wounds on them. It made them make even more mistakes as they expected muscles that were injured to still act even though they’d been destroyed, weakening their attacks or just outright making it impossible for them to do what they wanted.

A lizardman missing an arm still attacked like he had both, which let me knock the weapon out of his hand before poking him in the throat, which would kill him eventually as he bled out. It didn’t make sense to go all out; I was in energy conservation mode as I kept backing up, making sure my footing was steady before injuring or killing a few of the lizardmen.

My level was skyrocketing, soon I’d reach the chance to upgrade to the next rarity, and I doubted we’d run out of monsters before we did. I could see the edge of the forest now, through the trees, and I could barely make out the farm. I could see that a large group of men was already gathered, smiling at the sight. I made it almost to the treeline before I felt my body grow heavy, and I passed out.

…

“What happened to Tems and Silk!?” I blocked a blow as I felt my strength start to fail against the lizardman. I was just thankful my axe had been upgraded to gold; otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to push back and bury it into the lizardman as I got a response from Leaf. “They… What!? They’re going through status recalibration! They’ll be down for a few hours.”

Fuck, it was good in the long run, but terrible in the short run. Two of the town's strongest fighters were just taken out, and as the fighting dragged on, more of my women fell unconscious as they went through the same thing. Getting a status recalibration in the common tier was extremely difficult; it was very rare and would set a person up for being important in the future, but it also meant they had to survive falling unconscious at this terrible time.

My level rapidly rose. Non-combat classes only got half the experience from killing monsters, but the monsters were so strong, it didn’t matter. I was leveling so fast I’d hit level one-hundred by the end of the day. If we made it through this situation, this town wouldn’t need the weaker dungeon to protect it anymore. No, I doubted many of the adventurers would stick around after they grew strong from surviving this.

We’d see another influx of people leaving before it refilled with those weaker again. I cut the arm off a lizardman who’d have taken the head off an adventurer as I parried another blow that would have struck near his ribs. As the fighting went on, more and more of my wives fainted, each was a significant blow to our fighting capability.

We were being pushed back, even with double my stats, I was losing ground, in which case the worst would happen, I was a combatant on the same level as the sheriff right now, leaving this farm would lose me the bonus, and I’d become almost dead weight when it came to fighting these damn lizardmen.

Who knew I’d be using that skill so soon after purchasing it? All I knew was that it made almost no sense to pick it… Until it made all the sense to pick it, and that was what was happening right now. I moved on the battlefield, batting away weapons that would have dealt deathblows as I killed as many of them as even the sheriff.

Berry was in the back, healing those who were only injured enough to keep fighting as they did so, as I yelled out to Millicent. “Go get those salves and potions!” “What! We were building up a stock to sell!” “Yeah, but we can’t sell them if we die here. Let Maxwell buy them, and he can keep track of who drank what.” With that, Roka fell unconscious. It only left Cherry, Leaf, and Millicent, my wives, who were still awake, and they were in the uncommon tier for their class already.

Even I started to feel the fatigue of constantly fighting, as I saw most of the adventurers were hitting their limit if they hadn’t already. Millicent came rushing back and lobbed bottles at the enemy. She peppered the field with her poisons, and even the almost brain-dead lizardmen knew not to breathe it in instinctively. It left us a reprieve to recover as her, Maxwell, and I began to hand out the potions.

The color shifted like a kaleidoscope from the angle you viewed it. It could be blue, yellow, or red, but also purple, orange, or green. It could be a mixture of all three colors, or almost white in color, depending on how much light struck the bottle. It gave it a much more magical appearance than other potions. Marcus asked. “What are these?”

I finished downing one as I felt my health, mana, and stamina recover immediately. “Rejuvenation potions. They restore health, mana, and stamina. Drink one for every two endurance you have, any more than that and you risk potion sickness!” I yelled out the last part as I watched wounds knit on the adventurers or the foggy eyes of a magician near mana depletion disappear. Those who were on the verge of falling to the ground from exhaustion suddenly had a second wind.

The poison started to diffuse in the environment as I caught my breath. “Alright. It’s time for round two!” I was the first to meet the re-engaging lizardmen in battle, cleaving into the chest of one who raised their weapon high to strike me. Blood poured onto me from how high I struck its body. I backed away before getting a little of the blood in my mouth and spat it out. This was still going to be closer than I liked.