Chapter 158

“Fuck that,” Zea said. “You’re going to get yourself killed if you don’t retreat.”

“I’ll be alright,” Luke said.

Zea glanced pointedly at his hip, where blood was staining his pants and the armor that Wellind’s spear had pierced. The armor was digging into his skin now, but that was still better than what would have happened otherwise. It felt like the spear had stopped at the bone instead of shattering it and passing through, a fact that Luke was fully willing to attribute to the metal the spear had needed to punch through first.

It also meant that the damage was somewhat superficial, at least by his standards. It would be almost completely healed by the time the sun rose tomorrow if he did nothing but sit on his ass for the rest of the night. If he tried to fight on it, that might introduce complications, but he was confident those would only prolong his recovery time, not stop it.

There was one other option. Back-to-back uses of [Life Surge] kicked his ass hard, but he’d experimented and it was possible to do. The second one wouldn’t last as long and the side effects would be a lot like when he’d come down from using [Life Surge] before he’d upgraded it. With thirty seconds on the clock, he could finish off the rest of the guards, probably including the two still alive on horseback. Then Val could help Ruca with the guy he was dueling.

If it weren’t for the danger all the crossbowmen presented, Luke would have gone straight for the level 42 guy first. A single glance was all it took to convince him that those dozen or so remaining guards were the biggest problem. The only reason Ruca and Val were still alive was the guards hesitation to fire into the melee and risk hitting their own allies. Both of them were doing their best to control the positioning of the fight so they could maintain some cover from the guards.

“If you double up on a [Life Surge], you’re going to be completely at their mercy when it wears off,” Zea said. “Even if you manage to end the fight, we do not know these people. They might decide we’re loose ends and murder us both just to make sure there’s no possibility of us turning them in.”

“If I don’t do it, they’ll both be killed, probably that kid with the bow too, and all these slaves are staying in their torture wagons.”

Zea cursed quietly and looked around. “How can I help?”

Luke shook his head. The conversation had taken barely fifteen seconds, but that was long enough for at least one of the guards to grow a pair and inch around to get a good angle on Luke and Zea. In the next few seconds, he’d be getting shot at again, and so would she if she stayed. Zea could not take the kind of punishment Luke could, nor was she nearly as well protected.

“Hide,” he told her as he activated [Life Surge]again, not half a minute after it had expired. He was on his feet before she had a chance to reply and darting forward. The guard who’d been inching closer to get a better angle flinched at the sight of Luke barreling down on him and the bolt he reflexively fired went wide.

Luke took the man’s head off with a one-handed swing that struck the base of the guard’s skull. It exploded upwards in dozens of fragments and a fountain of blood, but by the time the remains splattered across the grass, he was already gone.

Bolts from three different crossbows slammed into him. Luke made no attempt to dodge, not now. The clock was too tight for that. There’d be time to heal after, but only if he killed every enemy still standing in the next twenty-eight seconds.

They weren’t willing to stand there and let him, of course. They ran, they hid, they shot blindly behind them in desperate hope that he’d be struck somewhere critical. Luke killed all but two of them. One got too close to where Zea had retreated back into the trees and he saw her whip snake out from between the branches to kill him. The other ran in the opposite direction after throwing down his weapon.

It was surprising to Luke that only one guard actually broke and fled the battle. He would have expected them to scatter much sooner, though he supposed that quite a few of them had tried to flee and been run down. It was very possible another ten or fifteen would have survived if he’d made no effort to chase them, but it was also possible they’d circle around and come back for more. The only reason he hadn’t chased the last one was because he left his weapon behind.

If he’d had the time, he’d have collected the weapons to keep the remaining drivers from picking them up, but killing the rest of the crossbow wielding guards had left him with only ten seconds left and two enemies still alive. Neither was retreating, and Luke couldn’t blame them. Ruca was on the rope and Val was barely keeping the horseman at bay.

Even now, if Luke did nothing, the way he saw things playing out was the level 42 killing Ruca, then both enemies ganging up on Val to kill her too. All the attack would have accomplished was killing a bunch of guards and freeing no one. If Luke could take out the big guy in the next ten seconds, he thought they had a good chance of winning still.

[Analyze] confirmed Luke’s memory of his level and also gave him a name for his next target: Fuhlan Sentros. He was pretty well-rounded with all his stats in the low 50s or high 40s, plus a wide assortment of dozens of skills, at least four of which were designed to empower his use of a shield and sword together.

The easy solution was to hit Sentros hard enough that he wouldn’t get a chance to use a single one of those skills. In fact, it was really the only solution. The man’s build seemed designed to drag out fights using a hefty arsenal of defensive skills. Luke did not have time for that. He rushed in from behind, trying to keep in Sentros’s blind spot even though he knew the man’s perception was too high to be fully successful.

Maybe Sentros thought that Ruca was the bigger threat because Luke was the one who’d taken out the low level guards instead of fighting the power houses. Maybe it was the lack of XP coming off Luke that threw him. Or maybe Ruca just tied up his focus so much that he really didn’t see Luke coming.

Whatever the reason, Luke was already within striking distance before Sentros reacted, and as fast as the man was, he couldn’t get his shield square into place before Luke brought his mace down. [Power Strike] surged down the weapon and tore through the side of the shield, then cracked down on the man’s arm itself.

Squealing metal mixed with agonized screaming, and Ruca was quick to take advantage. Both of his blades slipped into Sentros, though not deep enough to kill. The guard slipped sideways utilizing one of his skills to create some distance, and Luke didn’t pursue. Hopefully the damage to his shield and the broken arm would weaken Sentros enough to give Ruca the advantage.

Six seconds remained.

One of the reasons Luke had chosen to go after Sentros first was that the other guy was on a horse, which meant he did a lot of moving around. If Luke went after him and he tried to run away, Luke would have to run down the horse. That was doable, but not under the time constraints he was operating with.

However, if the guy just happened to think it was a good idea to abandon his battle with Val to come help out his boss, well, it would be stupid not to take advantage of that. That was why when the guard rode over and attempted to get between Luke and Sentros, Luke leaped straight in the air and came down with a two-handed smash aimed right at the guard’s skull.

The man’s reaction was a good one. He leaped off his horse to get out of the way and Luke was forced to abort the attack or possibly rip an innocent animal into two pieces. Despite his best efforts to be gentle, Luke landed on the saddle with both feet and the horse’s legs shook trying to keep it upright.

Luke leaped off and moved to finish the guard, but Val beat him to it and stabbed him in the throat. There was no ding, but then again, Luke hadn’t actually hit him. The missed XP wasn’t a big deal to him, but he’d grown used to knowing, not guessing, that his enemy was dead. In a world with so many different skills, he couldn’t put it past someone to claw their way back to life even with a sword going through their throat.

Three seconds remained.

Sentros was now sixty feet away. Luke could get there in under three seconds. He could do it under one if no one interfered. Ruca was in the way, but Luke could go over top of him. His feet dug into the hard-packed dirt of the road as he sprinted forward and jumped over the two fighters. Luke swung his mace low, relative to himself, and even though he wasn’t in a good position to put a lot of strength behind the attack, it was aimed at Sentros’s face. The guard raised a shield to block.

The attack was deflected, spinning Luke in the air as his momentum was reversed. [Unarmed Martialist] had plenty to say about that, and Luke lashed out with a double kick to the back of Sentros’s head as he went by. Sentros staggered forward a step, somehow still in control enough to deflect an attack from Ruca.

One second remained.

Luke was going to pay for it in a moment, but he sent a [Power Strike] into his mace and jabbed forward with both hands to stab it into Sentros’s back. At the same time, Ruca came in from the left, leaving their opponent only one way to dodge. He leaped to the right, trying to keep ahead of Ruca’s blades, and found Val there to meet him.

Twin blades pierced joints in his armor, and Ruca followed up the attack to stab him elsewhere. Sentros tried to twist away, but the pair of them literally pinned him to the ground. With no one left alive to come to his rescue, he had just seconds of life left.

That was good, because [Life Surge] ran out right there. Luke’s mace hit the ground and it was all he could do to keep himself from dropping to his knees. He was barely conscious of Sentros’s final moments, and it wasn’t until he heard the ding in his head that he realized the fight was over.

As long as Ruca and Val didn’t betray him here, he was safe. They didn’t seem like the type, but he’d only known them for an hour or two. If they tried something, he would need Zea to keep him safe. Hopefully she had a few of those paralysis stones left. Even if she didn’t, Luke knew her pretty well. She was off making something with [Ghost Script] right now that would save his ass.

Whether he was about to be betrayed or not turned out to be a moot point. In all the chaos and confusion of the battle, with all the slaughter and blood, and with the deep, deep exhaustion using [Life Surge]twice in a row had left him with, Luke had forgotten one thing.

The door to the lead wagon opened with a slow creak and someone stepped out of it.