[Year 10 Month 9: Continued]
My furthest totem was approximately four miles from the village, and at the speed at which I saw spyiders rushing through the wooded area, the guards had only a few minutes until contact.
With the average level of the village guard slightly lower than level 20, I felt a little more positive, both for my own survival and for most of the villagers. There were only fourty combat capable people, so it was going to be rough against what seemed to be a swarm of spyiders, but it was doable.
A minute later, I heard the cries of the hunters, as some with perception boosting skills, were able to make out the arachnids in the distance.
Prepping their bows, I watched as almost all the hunters and a few of the guards used different skills. Some seemed to enhance the bow itself with various effects, while others enhanced their bodies, enabling either more damage or farther shots.
As I hadn’t been privy to the adventurer’s fight against the broodmother and only watched a few minor skirmishes, this was the first time I had seen real system-enhanced combat.
When the spyiders had entered the range of the bows, I watched as they quickly left my vision, unable to see if they actually hit any of their targets.
With the town guard doing their own thing, I quickly turned to the rest of the populace, most of whom were arming themselves for the eventual confrontation. I watched as anyone old enough to wield a weapon or tool was provided with one, and they were all willing ot take a stand for their community.
[2 Blessed have died]
The notification drew my attention back to the frontline where the spyiders had come into contact with the defenders.
Having arrived moments after the two people had died, I watched as the spyiders that killed them latched onto their corpses. With morbid fascination, I watched as the mana left their bodies, similarly to Inra, and instead of returning to the environment, it was absorbed by the Vexus.
Oh crap! The totems!
Having made a mistake, I quickly discarded the 4 totems left in the forest and resummoned them at the walls, the small black cubes appearing near injured defenders, their healing ability working overtime to repair any damage.
[1 Blessed has died]
Another defender was down, once again their mana being absorbed by the spyider. As I watched the little bugs skitter off, I couldn’t help but be filled with curiosity. Where are they taking it? Back to their broodmother to make more? Or is it something else?
[1 Blessed has died]
The death drew my attention back to the battle. While I couldn’t personally do much, I could still teleport the totems around where they would help the most.
For a while, it continued like this, defenders would try to crack or punch a hole through the spyiders tough exoskeletons, and while we lost a few, it seemed like a winnable fight. The horde of Vexus had slowed, and the number of defenders steadied after the first 4 had died.
Then, I noticed another spike in the ‘corrupted’ mana, something not quite as impactful as the broodmother, but still out of the village guards and hunter’s league. Something new had come.
Unlike its smaller brethren, the new Vexus creature was several times larger, with long antennas that looked more like razor wire than sensors. Its chitin plates were thinner, but I doubted they were weaker. It also had a pair of wings that looked way too small for its body, but would likely give it a boost when jumping.
This is bad.
With its arrival, the defenders faltered, their blades not strong enough nor sharp enough to pierce the new arrival. Honestly? Once the bows were thrown aside, most hunters were left almost cripled, as they used their long-range weapons more often and had fewer skills related to close combat.
One of the guards looked as if they were close to landing a powerful blow on the creature, but it whipped it’s antenne and cut through his body like a butcher's knife. Able to see the tiny barbs covering their edges, I doubted anyone here had armor that could save them from it.
This must be a considerably higher level to so easily wipe the floor with the villagers.
The surviving members were still fighting with everything they had, and several tried to take on the new variant together, but they just couldn’t do much to damage it. With there being fewer defenders, my totems were also being hunted down by the spyiders, who seemed to instinctively try to find and drain them.
I suspect that with enough totems, the anti-detection field would be sufficient to offset this, but the totems at the walls were too busy attempting to heal and didn’t have enough mana generation for both functions.
Worried, I looked back to the cave, making sure that all of the totems were focused on hiding the cave’s contents rather than pumping mana into the environment and attracting a spyider. While the village had spared one soldier to stay with the children and the two pregnant women, the soldier wouldn’t be able to take more than one on in such a tight space.
Eventually, all of the totems were being leached by the spyiders, and I was forced to recall them as I didn’t want to empower the invaders unintentionally.
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With the walls being out of my range and no longer having any influence granted by nearby totems, I reluctantly summoned the totems right next to me and cranked up the stealth field to its max. Hopefully, it would make it impossible to see me.
If they find me and use me as a battery, it wouldn’t just be my life on the line, but whoever managed to hide or escape.
Unable to see, but able to hear the faint cries and screams just out of my vision, I waited and watched the notifications roll in.
[35 Blessed have died]
That would be the guards.
[43 Blessed have died]
And here come the civilians.
[58 Blessed have died]
[43 Blessed have died]
The number of deaths began to slow, and so did the distant screams.
[4 Blessed have died]
[3 Blessed have died]
[2 Blessed have died]
[1 Blessed has died]
That was all of them, all 193 people left in the village, everyone but the 5 children and 3 adults that I had sequestered away into the small cave they were packed into.
Other notifications tried to bring themselves to my attention, but I ignored them. I was waiting for the bugs to reappear.
It was a half hour later when I could hear the skittering legs that would likely haunt me forever, if anything, the spyiders were certainly through, picking through the wreckage and turnt over debris.
Looking for survivors.
Eventually, it was my little hill's turn. For a few moments, I grew concerned that the field wouldn’t work with me, considering I wasn’t humanoid, but I watched as several spyiders hesitated to step foot nearby. Their antennae twitched oddly as if something was off, but they couldn’t quite place it.
After a few nail-biting moments, they moved on.
This same process had repeated for the cave. With the kids now understanding what had happened, they all were huddled together, with the two women doing their best to silently comfort them.
The older guard was anxiously gripping his weapon, a short sword in his left hand. If I remember correctly, his name was Osbert, and he was assigned to this group as he wasn’t the highest-level guard but had managed to achieve level 20, which put him in the top 5 guards.
While some villagers had argued he should be with the rest (Osbert himself even,) he had grown older and despite his levels, feeble, so while others said he should protect those he could. Something that strongly resonated with me.
I felt confident that he wouldn’t hesitate to defend the last survivors to his end.
This time around, the spyiders were far closer to actually finding the little cave, and took several minutes to dismiss whatever they were picking up as an error. I waited another half hour before telling them the Vexus had left, but wait before exiting the cave.
While Osbert and the two women knew I could talk, they still jerked momentarily when they heard my voice in their minds. The kids were already used to it, as I had spoken to all of them in the past few weeks.
Osbert recovered from his surprise the quickest, “Okay, just let us know when we can leave.” Now at least, the children could quietly talk to one another and begin to unpack the events of the day.
I doubted any of them would forget what had happened here.
Now that I had some time where I was pretty sure nothing would happen, I pulled up the notifications that had been buzzing at the edge of my attention for the last hour.
[You have 238 Blessed]
The majority of my remaining Blessed came from those who had fled before the attack went down. At least it meant that I still kept some of my bonuses, as heartless as that may sound.
[You have leveled 11 times]
[You are now level 17]
[Blessing of Warding has been upgraded]
[You have gained the skill Sanctuary Field]
[An ability has evolved]
[Totems of Protection -> Totem Pillars]
I should have checked my notifications.
I mentally sighed before pulling up the first of several upgrades. Upgrades that had been paid for in blood.
[Blessing of Warding has a greater effect, grants (moderate) resistance to evil spirits, magic, and ailment statuses. Previous Blessed do not gain the bonus until refreshed.]
Just the resistance to ailment statuses made the ability multiple times better than before. Being able to essentially boost immune systems would be great in a world still plagued by disease and fever. I’m going to have to reapply the blessing on the survivors; it would increase the chances of everyone’s survival, especially the future moms.
Pulling up the next on the list, I couldn’t help but feel anger toward the system. Hello? I could have used this yesterday! So many lives would have been saved.
[Sanctuary Field creates an impermeable barrier around your central pillar. This barrier gives all allies inside of it increased health regen. If permission is granted, the barrier can be maintained by the mana of those inside to either strengthen it or lengthen its duration. Skill costs mana to support.]
Having read the final line, I immediately activated the skill. Having no other ability that actively drew upon my mana, the sensation was new, but not the worst. Certainly felt better than when the broodmother forcefully extracted it.
I watched the mana leave my body and begin to take shape, interacting with the nearby surroundings and slowly weaving itself into a transparent dome. Approximately ten meters in diameter, it was perfectly centered on me.
Barely covering the hill I had stood upon for the last couple of years, I couldn’t help but think about the wasted lives. At the same time, it was possible that the swarm would have broken it and killed everyone anyway. There was no way of truly knowing until I saw it in action.
Satisfied with the test, I flipped it back off and waited for the mana to dissipate into the air.
Finally, I checked out the skill evolution.
[Totem Pillars allow the user to create specialized totems, able to take different roles. Current options include: Mineral Pillars, Protection Pillars, and Warding Pillars. You may have 5 pillars, and 10 portable totems.]
A direct upgrade to the ability while keeping the old functionality. I would still have the small cubes that increased health regen, and had small anti-detection fields. At the same time, there was no elaboration on what the pillars did; other than the Mineral Pillars, there was nothing that seemed too different, more than likely upgrades of the smaller totems. I would confirm what they did after I checked back in on the kids.
Having checked on the ambient mana between skill updates, I had noticed the corruption slowly decreasing until it outright vanished.
The Vexus were gone for now.
