Chapter: Rapid Growth

Five boars had increased to ten, and then fifteen and twenty.

There wasn’t much space between the attacks and they seemed to be endless, the heavy infantry had wounded, eight were being tended to, and those that had been injured early on were back on the line.

There was no time for them to relax or take a break.

Storbon took a hit to the side, he felt something break inside his body as a spear shot out, killing the boar.

Storbon cut his side and put on a stick bandage with healing powder.

It started to fuse the bone back together as he got up and back on the line. He was in pain, but he didn’t want to let that take him out of the fight. As they had fought, walls, associations, all of it fell away, they were heavy infantry, it didn’t matter what they did before, or who they had been before. Even the sergeants were part of them.

They didn’t fight for themselves, they fought for one another. Storbon didn't’ even realize it, it came naturally.

“Second rank advance!” Blaze called out, Storbon stabbed out with the first rank and then went sideways, trusting the first rank completely as they charged forward, killing those in front of them.

“Hah!” Spears shot out, coming back bloody as the first line moved to the rear.

“Get some food and water into you!” Blaze yelled, he was holding down one of the flanks by himself, his spear was covered in blood as was his armor, each sweep and stab gravely injured the boars, directly clashing with them, he was some kind of war god.

Storbon numbly took out food from his pack, as he ate the dried beast meat or the prepared meals he felt his energy coming back quickly. The rations had been specially made to recover stamina.

The boars were their whetstone, all across the line the front was fighting, the second recovering as fast as possible to get back into the fight.

Now everyone was stuffing food into their faces, having none of the pride from before. They had hard eyes and looks, they were drained but now, their training, it showed results directly.

“Third rank! Move to the left flank, form up two lines, Sergeant Yi take command!” Blaze called out.

Storbon stuffed food into his face and put the rest away as he grabbed his spear, moving with the rest of the third rank.

If they were slow then the others might get hurt, there was no one out here to help them, they had to rely on themselves. They were all the same, it could be them on that line later.

They moved into two lines, Yi positioned them, calling the boars that came from the flank, directing them into the main body of the heavy infantry unit.

Storbon didn’t even notice as his levels continued to increase, with all of them working together the entire group was sharing experience gain.

***

The sergeants and the heavy infantry were using their storage items to recover the boars, but there was a thick smell of blood in the area.

“Wolves are on their way,” Roska informed Erik.

“Archers move out to the flanks of the heavy infantry, wear down the boars, main target are the wolves,” Erik said, this was no longer time for them to hold back.

He jumped from the tree and landed next to Blaze, firing his crossbow, it took a boar in the eye, dropping it to the ground, his marksman skills had increased rapidly to forty one, closing in on becoming a Journeyman marksman. When increasing his skill, it became easier to use his ranged weapons, he’d already passed the skill that Rugrat had as a trained sniper, Rugrat on the other hand was terrifying with anything ranged.

“Wolves are coming in,” Erik said to Blaze.

“Shit,” Blaze said, looking at the line. Erik reloaded his crossbow with ease and shot another Boar, taking it down before it speared someone on the line in the gut.

“Archers will assist, I’ll be in reserve if there’s a need, time we saw what they’re made of,” Erik said.

Blaze grit his teeth and cut down two more boars.

“We need close range weapons, spears are good at distance, but if there are enough numbers and they get in close we’re screwed,” Blaze said.

Erik studied the battlefield, Blaze was right.

“You’ll have them tomorrow and spears,” Erik promised, firing again and taking down another boar. “Form up ten across and four lines deep,” Erik said.

“Understood.” Blaze cleared his throat. “Blade section upfront, ten man across, second third and fourth section behind!”

With the archers the rush of the boars was stopped, they could hear the howls of wolves coming closer.

The heavy Infantry followed their orders, if they were slow then they would mess it up for everyone.

The four lines formed, the sergeants checking on everyone as powder was applied to minor wounds and people drank water and shoved food into their faces, they had been fighting for hours and it was already late afternoon.

Erik checked on the archers, making sure that they were in good positions. He let Glosil and Rugrat know what was going on as Blaze personally went through his lines, checking on people.

Erik moved to the badly wounded, he didn’t need long to heal them fully.

They looked at him in shock as if he was some wraith that had come out of nowhere. Their sergeants got them back on the line as the Heavy Infantry’s morale shot up, they had thought that they were alone, but Erik and the archers had been watching over them the entire time.

Erik checked that the archers found good positions flanking or behind the heavy infantry, he shuffled them so that they would direct the battle and the wolves.

He left his two best scouts out ahead of the battle and Roska appeared beside him.

“Make sure every spell counts, stay behind the heavy infantry, cut off the wolves from flanking the heavy infantry. Only use mana bolt when I tell you to and never go below twenty percent mana unless it’s life or death,” Erik said.

“Understood,” she said simply, her hand picked at the side of her pants.

“Don’t worry, you’ve got this,” Erik said, seeing her nerves.

She gave him a small sheepish smile, he knew how rare a thing was and couldn’t help but smile back as a wolf charged out of the forest, arrows took it down, those that had fired reloaded with their new levers built into the butt of their crossbows. Three more wolves jumped over it’s corpse, they were cut down again, but more were coming, they moved in erratic patterns, they were much smarter than the boars with a wolf alpha leading them.

Crossbows fired again and again while they thinend and directed the wolves they weren’t able to stop them all.

Erik fired his modified crossbow, each arrow took down a wolf as he calmly looked over the battlefield.

“Brace!” Blaze yelled, taking direct command of the heavy infantry.

The first two lines met the wolves with spears, taking the full force.

“Huah!” Niem called out on the front line with his section.

“Hah!” The first and second line withdrew their spears and stabbed forwards again, the action no longer conscious at this time.

Wolves let out yells as they were stopped by the spears, their hides turning bloody.

The archers worked to reduce the pressure on the heavy infantry and guide the wolves.

“We’ve got two more wolf groups coming in,” one of the scouts that were still out in the forest said.

“Use the leopard scat that should deter the other wolf groups,” Erik said.

“Understood!”

“Second rank advance!” Blaze yelled out, the first line returned to the rear as the second pushed forwards, taking their place.

Wounded looked after themselves, or by other members of the heavy infantry. Erik healed up those in the worst condition.

The wolves weren’t dumb and they were trying to circle the heavy infantry, or get in low at their ankles.

Erik and the archers had to focus on driving the wolves away from the flanks.

I just can’t shoot fast enough with this. Erik thought. He put the crossbow back into his storage ring and threw up both of his hands, he circulated mana through his body faster and faster, compressing it into bullets. As he looked ahead, his vision zoomed in.

Looks like this counts as marksman skill in the ten realms.

Erik had only thought of this, he hadn’t tried it out before. Finally he direct the small mana bullets through his mana channels down his arms and out the tips of his forefingers.

Small mana bullets shot out of his hand, when they struck the wolves they went off like firecrackers, based on where they hit, they would kill the wolves instantly or leave them with serious injuries.

Quickly the situation changed as Erik stopped firing with both finger and concentrated on his right finger, increasing his accuracy.

Wolves died in droves, three full packs had been drawn in by the smell of blood, some fifty wolves.

The groups set into a rhythm the heavy infantry being changed out on the frontline and resting at the rear before they moved to the front again.

The archers trying to reduce the threat while Erik guided the wolves towards the heavy infantry and stopped them from flanking.

Erik put down his hands as he looked over the battlefield.

“Huah!

“Hah!” The last wolf’s pained howls were cut off abruptly.

The heavy infantry stood there, waiting for their next order as the archers reloaded and looked over the area for anything that was moving.

“Anything else coming?” Erik asked the two scouts quickly.

“Nothing it looks like the leopard scat worked.”

“Keep an eye out for more,” Erik said.

“Understood.

The channel was cut as Erik looked to Blaze.

“Gather up all of the corpses, we need to head back to the village,” Erik said.

“Yes sir!” Blaze got his people organized, they swept the battlefield, clearing away all of the animal corpses, Erik treated everyone that had bad injuries.

No one had died and the medical training made it so that anyone badly wounded had got back to Erik for him to heal.

Everything was cleared up and the archers tossed out leopard scat, even if the area smelled bloody, the lower level creatures would be scared back and the higher leveled creatures didn’t come this close to the village yet.

The heavy infantry was formed up and they quick marched back to the village.

They were dead tired, but their every action was completely different from how it had been in the morning, they reacted to every command as fast as possible, they looked out for one another as well.

The sergeants didn’t have to yell much and they seemed to be part of the sections now, they’d gained every person’s respect.

The whole force moved away from the forest as night was coming in.

It wasn’t long until the had left the forest behind and they were walking through the cleared fields, Erik checked the different groups that were working in the fields, expanding the layered defenses. There were nearly no crews working on reinforcing the walls anymore, with the new shifts, work didn't’ stop in Alva village.

They didn’t have much time left until the beast horde was unleashed on the village. Erik could even see one watchtower had been built and another was underway.

The spear unit’s clothes were tattered, blood staining the cuts in their shirts and pants, they stood proud, not caring of their appearance as they moved forward.

“Two and three section, break for dinner and get cleaned up, Blade section, fourth section we will be assisting in building the defenses of the village.”

Erik and his archers moved toward the city as Blaze saw to the administration of the heavy infantry units.

Their day hadn’t ended yet. With their current ability, they didn’t need more than six hours of rest to recover fully.

Erik took the time to view the notifications that had appeared.

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Skill: Marksman

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Level: 43 (Apprentice)

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Long range weapons are familiar in your hands. When aiming you can zoom in x2.0

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Skill: Stealth

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Level: 25 (Apprentice)

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When in stealth, your senses are sharpened by 5%

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Upon advancing into the apprentice level of Stealth, you will be rewarded with one randomly selected item related to this skill.

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You have received the spell book: Silence

+10,000 EXP

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97,481/140,000 EXP till you reach level 14

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Nearly all of the heavy infantry had been raised up to become level nines. The Sergeants were closing in on level twelve. Erik was still behind, he had focused on increasing his mana system and his body cultivation but while they gave rewards, it wasn’t enough experience to become a level fourteen existence. Fighting creatures that were below his level was incredibly easy. The level eight boars only gave him some two hundred and fifty experience, to the level 6 heavy infantry they earned nearly seventeen thousand experience.

When they were all fighting as a group, the person that got the kill got the most experience but the overall group also got partial experience, allowing everyone to grow rapidly.

The archers he’d taken out were now all level eleven, it would be incredibly hard for them to make it much higher unless they directly fought only wolves.

Now they would become part of the village teams, helping to speed up the work on the defensive features, they would also take up patrols, easing the strain on the guards who had been turned into sergeants for the Alva defense force.

Also with their greater knowledge they could help to improve the general populations combat capabilities with crossbows.

Erik wanted to diffuse the effects as much as possible, the more that people talked and shared, the stronger they would be as a whole.

Erik made it back into the city, he dismissed the fighters with him and told them to report to Elise in the morning.

They understood, while they might like being fighters, they knew that Alva village needed builders as much as it needed fighters right now.

Erik went to go and find Glosil.

He was overseeing the second watchtower being erected.

They were simple structures, stairs led to a raised platform with a wooden wall facing out with a simple wood roof on top.

Storage bracelets were hung up on the post to the rear of the hut, in it people could find a whistle, arrows and spare bows as well as rations and healing powder.

Erik and Rugrat could take more of a back seat as the five pillars of Alva village took over running the day to day of the village.

“Looks like you’ve been busy since I was gone,” Erik said.

“I heard that you ran into some trouble,” Glosil said.

“Yeah, thankfully the archer team knew how to handle themselves because we’d been out hunting wolves this morning, but we separated them out from the pack and killed a few, not dealt with entire packs.

The Heavy Infantry did well, took a beating but they’ve got strength to them,” Erik said, looking out at the two sections who had put down their kit and were now working to dig out defensive potholes and traps in what were once fields.

A few of the heavy infantry were patrolling the area, looking for threats incase something came up on them.

Erik felt a disturbance in the air, he looked over towards the village headquarters.

“Did Rugrat go back to the village headquarters to rest?” Erik asked.

“Yes he did”: sorry for not reporting sooner,” Glosil said.

“No worries, he didn’t send me a message, he must’ve been wiped,” Erik said, his voice dropped lower so Glosil could barely hear.

“Little bastard reached level fifteen it looks like.”

Erik turned thoughtful, wondering just how much Rugrat had increased his blacksmithing. He had been out on more patrols than Erik, but with the small experience gain it must have been down to the increases in blacksmithing, his marksman or stealth.

Erik’s expression sobered as he rubbed his storage ring, as if sensing the snake poison sack that rested within.