Samuel holds the line, but without a real offensive weapon, he’s limited to slamming his attackers back with massive strikes from his tower shield. Unfortunately, the barricade in front of him limits the effectiveness of these attacks, and Marie quickly retrieves Tom to lend support to Samuel. Working in concert, they manage fairly well, but they aren’t practiced at fighting together and frequently get in each other’s way.

Lauren falters, barely managing to fend off a Lieutenant that sought to take advantage of her exhaustion, but she can’t keep the one that comes immediately after it from jumping to our side and knocking her to the ground. I fling Kaythe, but I don’t know how much help he can be. Carnines immediately start spilling through the gap, and although our ranged warriors harry them the entire way, they gain a small foothold past our defences.

A roar of unbridled fury shakes the air, and Lauren suddenly disappears from her place on the ground, reappearing as she strikes a Carnine. She looks as though she’s simply ignoring the fatigue her body is under, meaning she won’t last long, and this must be a last ditch effort to contain the breach. Even as I worry about its effectiveness, she disappears again, and again, and each time she comes back into focus, she’s already landing the killing blow on another enemy. They surge forward, but none can get past whatever Lauren is doing. She manages to buy a few valuable seconds before she collapses, and Lorian rushes to cover Marie while she drags Lauren back. Despite our best efforts, we now have both healers on the front line, and we’re playing a dangerous game.

We need to ensure that we can buy Lauren and Seth enough time to recover before we’re forced to retreat, and then ensure that our retreat is orderly enough to not lose anyone. Though defending the hallway will likely require fewer people, we don’t have the same platforms for Lynn and Amy to snipe through. My muscles strain, but I know I have a few minutes still before I’ll need to rest, and I plan to make use of every moment.

Kaythe fails to return to me, and I have no idea where he went. He’s no longer answering the mental link, so he must have… so what if I can bring him back, so what if you’re also fighting for your lives, you dared to harm my property. My blood boils as my fury mounts. Every single monster in front of me feels like a personal insult. I let the battle trance deepen immensely, only feeling the rage that fuels my every move. I make perfect cuts that end three or four lives at once, destroying my enemies in droves. Such is the impact that the unthinking garbage actually start to feel fear, shying away from the growing pile of corpses in favor of assaulting other locations.

“How dare you weak, pathetic creatures challenge us?! If this is all you have, give up and die. Save yourself a humiliating defeat, outnumbering us a thousand to one and still failing!”

I hear the words, and it sounds like my voice, but I’m too deep in my trance to be speaking. It doesn’t matter, my goading words are answered by a throaty bellow: “We shall see, filth!”

The wall of corpses I’ve amassed shifts suddenly, slamming against the earthen wall of the cave and splattering messily all over it.

A large, black haired creature towers where the corpses once were. It stands on two legs, but has decidedly beastial qualities: claws that look sharp as razors, a wolf-like snout with serrated teeth poking through, and a mane of hair around its neck. Its roar echoes throughout the cave, creating deafening reverberations in this tiny space. With a flick of my wrist, I lodge my Energy knife into its side. Even as its roar turns from defiance to pain, I rip the knife back out, using a small metal tether I had grown from the side of the blade that attaches to my wrist. Sensing my intentions, the blade flies back into my waiting grasp so I can throw it again, this time at its head.

In a feat of speed that causes its arm to blur, it slams the blade aside and sends it rocketing towards the wall where the corpses hit. Instead, the tether holds, and it starts to wrap around me. Where a tether would restrict my movements, the fact that I’ve partially bound this weird piece of equipment means that it flows easily over me as I ready my zweihander and set my stance.

Blood oozes from the wound in the werewolf’s side, but it makes no hostile moves, instead choosing to stare me down with a look of clear derision. “You are a coward. Attacking from a range? Unexpectedly? Pah, you are less than scum.”

“Showboating during a fight makes you an idiot. Come at me and die like a dog.”

It growls in seething fury, then slams the ground and roars. I flick my wrist again, and it twitches, anticipating another knife, but not the one that comes. With my off hand, I stab straight at its chest, but it fends the strike off, taking another wound to its forearm, and losing skin when it freezes to the sword. No complaints come forth this time, and it smashes the blade aside, losing some fur to the cold, but creating an opening in my guard. I take a step back, letting the force it put into my sword swing it around and over my head into an upper guard position. It dashes in low, underneath, but I lean into the attack, stabbing down from overhead. My right leg gives out as its claws sever my quad, but I manage to stab into its lower back, right around where its kidney would be.

A manic grin crosses my face, and not even the blinding pain radiating through my battle trance is enough to dampen it. My sword’s frozen core locks the blade in place despite it trying to jump back, and I pivot on my one good leg, and burn Energy at the maximum rate I can. My chest feels alight with the fires from the surface of a star, and I know that in this moment, I do not move within the world, but the world moves around me. Every fiber of muscle in my leg, back, and arms strains with a force only possible with the system’s assistance and the burning fuel of my own soul. Facing away from my opponent, I heave on the sword, lifting the creature bodily up and over my head, and slam it into the ground with enough force to crack the stone floor.

[Congratulations! Your actions have led to the creation of a rare Secondary Skill: Swordsman of the Great River: River’s End. Cost: 200. Learn? (Y/N)] [Swordsman of the Great River: River’s End - The finality and destructive force that accompanies the end of a legendary river. The user channels a small fraction of the river’s potential, and focusses it into the body of another. Increased skill levels will reduce the impact of using the skill on targets more massive than the user.]

The werewolf screams in agony as its legs turn to pulp against the ground, and the section of its back where my sword was embedded shatters under the force of the impact. Reverberations almost shake the hilt from my grasp, but I maintain my hold long enough to slice its head off.

I turn back to the front lines, prepared to take on a hundred more, but try to take a step on my damaged leg and crumple. Someone grabs me, and I hear shouts signalling to fall back. I drop my battle trance and cancel any Energy burning while I’m being dragged, and find that every one of my resource bars is nearing critical. Health, I only have a quarter left, and Stamina and Energy are blinking red. That fucking trance is so useful, but damn if it won’t get me killed.

I have a clear view of the organized chaos from my position on the floor: Lorian, Seth, Samuel, and Tom are all holding off the warily advancing attackers. Something changed between before and now, and what should have been a hectic retreat has become something much easier on our side. Fighting defensively, everyone makes it across the bridge, with Samuel bringing up the rear. As he steps off onto our side, he drops his shield against the bridge, shattering it and sending a few brave Carnines into the depths of the pit.

Round two.