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1274 Words
Yet another heavy s***h came at him, but Matt’s under armor withstood the blow this time.
“f**k! Why won’t you go down!?” The attacker howled with the swing of their third blow, but Matt prepared his own counterattack. He took the incoming hit on his armored forearm while cleaving down savagely into the attacker’s forward leg.
He didn’t cut through their armor, but it dented inwards, and he felt the bone crunch as the man toppled. Matt quickly pivoted, planted his weight on his left leg, and anchored it to the ground with his Concept. He raised his right leg for a stomp with all his weight and [Mage’s Retreat] empowering the attack.
His skill-clad boot cracked into the stone walkway as the remaining swordsman was whisked away.
With a few hacks, he started cutting down the charging queendom regulars who were marching behind the elite swordsmen duo. His reinforcement from QRF-Beta soon arrived and overtook his position. They surged forward and took hold of the area, again buying time for the kingdom’s standard troops to hurry up to the top of the wall.
Returning to his vantage point at the gate, Matt inspected the battlefield before revising his orders.
“Team Bucket, stop advancing on the third tower. Do not enter the tower.”
His team had pushed forward enough, he was worried they’d enter the tower, which was a monumentally bad idea.
They receded slightly, and Matt checked on the rest of the battlefield. “Get the long sticks to push off the ladders. Don’t just clear them of men. Push them over if you can. If you can break or burn them, even better.”
“Stop tossing their grappling hooks back over. They can just replace the severed rope. Toss them on to our side of the wall after you cut the rope off. Force them to buy new ones.”
He then took stock of his own condition. His AI reported gashes in his armor and flesh; surface-level wounds that he could quickly solve with [Endurance] running at full blast for a moment. He was more concerned about the unexpected damage that the swordsmen’s weapons had done to his armor. Their attacks had included an effect that had corroded it, both physically and spiritually. The affected portions of armor were only rags at this point. So, he stripped the ruined pieces from his arms, but left the chest armor in place, as it was only damaged on the left side.
His left bracer, which had broken bones, was mangled. It was irritating as could be, but there was nothing to be done, so he tried to stop dwelling on it. He still had the right bracer at least.
The assault lasted a full hour. Matt was forced to leave his command post two more times to personally take action and prevent breaches.
As he intervened for the third time, Matt resorted to using five consecutive [Mana Charge]s to break the ramp from the siege tower. Without the ability to march down, the attackers were forced to jump. Only a few tested the prospect before they decided to withdraw the crippled tower and reinforce the remaining two.
Matt dearly wished that he could have prevented them from pulling the tower back for repairs, but had no way to do so. The defenders did their best to damage it further with spells and mana cannons, and were able to give the queendom’s crafters more work. By the time it retreated beyond their range, the tower was smoking, and its top two floors were collapsing inwards.
The final exit of the broken siege tower seemed to signal a larger retreat, as well. The queendom forces started to pull back.
“Everyone, fire! Don’t let them retreat unscathed. Bombard them with everything you have left.”
Most of the retreating formations were frayed and disorganized compared to when they first advanced. However, some were retreating virtually unscathed, with shields raised and returning fire in perfect coordination.
Matt, breathing heavily, looked around from his lookout perch. The top of the wall was covered in blood and soot, but there weren’t as many wounded as he expected.
“Healers! Get the wounded to the healers!” Matt looked around then added, “Rotate in the second shift of teams. First teams, once they’re up here, get down, grab a meal, and recharge.”
Matt walked over to his team and clapped Conor on their shoulder, before sliding over to pull Liz and his panting bond into a bear hug.
“How were things?”
Liz was huffing between gulps from her canteen but wheezed out, “Fine. We held on with minimal help. Just a few nicks from stray arrows. We’re good.”
Matt checked their mana levels and activated his Concept. While he listened to them debrief and discuss what they could improve next time, he sent out orders and directed the new troops to their positions.
They had been in reserve under the wall, and unable to see anything, but they could hear the attacks and repelling of borders. The wide eyes of each person who cleared the top step and saw the c*****e was almost amusing. If Matt wasn’t struggling to keep from plopping down on his ass and passing out, he might’ve even found it funny.
Realizing how tired he was, he channeled [Endurance] and let the skill wash away his fatigue.
He barely had five minutes before the reports started to come in, and Matt checked their casualty numbers. The defenders had lost around four hundred people in his section, against an estimated two and a half thousand lost on the attacking side. It was a great ratio, but the battle had still taken its toll. They still had to account for the fact that the city was outnumbered to begin with and wouldn’t be getting any more reinforcements.
Once his team was topped off on mana, and their reserve stones were filled, he moved to the healer’s tent set up near their position.
A harried woman with a healer’s armband looked up at him and said, “We don’t have time for walking wounded. Is there something internal?”
Matt shook his hand. “I’m not here for that. Get me the healers on downtime.”
“We don’t…”
Matt lacked the patience to explain, so he flexed his Concept. As her eyes widened with understanding, he continued, “I can’t control the range, but the more people there are, the less each one gets. So, I want to prioritize the healers.”
The woman looked ready to kiss him, and eagerly pulled him into what seemed like a recovery room just for the healers. They were all strewn about and pressing cold packs to their heads. At the entrance, most apprehensively peeked up as if expecting terrible news.
Before anyone could ask, she nearly cheered, “Get up! This guy can refill our mana!” The sudden noise caused the spent healers to wince in unison.
That wasn’t a good sign. They must have all repeatedly drawn themselves dry to have mana headaches that serious.
Matt noticed the racks of personal mana stones, where a pale nurse seemed to be dumping regular mana stones into the charging base. The stones were quickly drained away into nothingness, and new ones quickly replaced them.
“I need proximity for this. The farther away anyone is, and the more people included, the less effective my Concept gets. It’s already mostly internal, so I need to get every bit of effectiveness out of it to help you out.”
- Writer
