Ruthless ~ 51!

~ 51 ~

Joe was running as hard as he could. He had given up on the ground, and was now taking his chances with much less stable footing: people’s heads. Even with all the death Joe had just caused, there were simply too many people packed together to make a huge commotion. It might have been a different story if his lightning had thunder that accompanied it, but the near-silent kills only caused people to shout after a short while. Nearly everyone was still facing the town, and his kills had been nearly unseen. 

Nearly.

The reason Joe was now running was that there were several Jesters bouncing along people’s heads just behind him. They were shouting, trying to get people to see Joe and help stop him, but the sheer amount of speaking, yelling, and detonations happening made that an unlikely possibility. As he was bounding along, Joe split his focus to cast Cone of Cold behind him; taking down a thirty-foot swath of people. The Jesters fell as their ‘ground’ gave way, and Joe was finally able to gain some distance.

Since his presence was known, Joe started alternating between Acid Spray, Cone of Cold, and Dark Lightning Strike every time they were off cooldown. As he rushed forward, he was able to kill literally thousands of attackers. Joe was planning to get to the walls and jump up, but the constant stream of arrows and spells going both ways made that mostly impossible. Still, he resolved to do it, and began picking up speed. He went back down to the ground as he got close to the wall; there was a large killing ground where people weren’t as densely packed.

Seeing Joe charging forward so recklessly, a huge wave of attackers cheered and madly followed his rush; wrongly thinking that he was spearheading an assault. As Joe got closer to the walls, rain started pattering off his bald head, and he looked up in surprise. There were no clouds, only water that was falling, and smoke that was rising. “Oh, no! The flammenwerfer!”

Joe used someone ahead of him as a springboard, jumping back the way he had come and sending the person sprawling with an ‘oof!’. Joe empowered his jump again as he landed, backflipping and sailing over the heads of a large group. They looked up in concern, why was he running? The water in the area suddenly vanished, and a torch was thrown over the wall. Joe jumped one more time, and just managed to get away as the huge flamethrower ritual came to life; incinerating thousands of people in a circle around the town and filling the air with the scent of burnt hair and roasting pork.

He dropped to the ground, gasping for air. His stamina and mana had taken a huge hit in the last few minutes, and Joe needed a full minute or two to be at maximum power. He felt a hand on his arm, and was pulled to his feet a moment later. Joe locked eyes with a purple-robed mage, who was grinning at him happily. “That was an epic escape! I could see so much mana coming off of you, I couldn’t believe it! With reserves like that, you should talk about joining The Silence when this is all over!”

“Oh, ah… thanks.” Joe muttered as the dust slid off his Exquisite Shell.

“One, um, thing.” The mage made a ‘mystical’ motion with his hands, and a set of neatly folded purple clothing appeared. Clearly he had pulled them from a spatial ring, and didn't expect Joe to know what that was. “Feel free to get dressed. You can have the clothes as a sign of good faith. Look for me at the Slithering Eel back in Ardania, and you can get tested for the group.”

“I’m sorry to say, I’m not sure what your group does…” Joe spoke without thinking as he pulled on the clothing. As much as it wasn't from a group he wanted to be associated with, he was showing off only a little less than a true Scotsman, and was jumping off people’s heads with surprising frequency. That was a little too much trauma for them, by his standards. Soon Joe was all geared up in his new clothes, and they stood and stared at the unending flames.

“Abyss, how long is this going to last?” the mage groaned.

“I’m guessing about three minutes and forty seconds longer.” Joe answered truthfully. He was trying not to look the man in the eye, he didn't want to remember his face going forward. Especially considering what was going to happen next. Joe was counting down, and when there was only forty seconds remaining, he scooted back another ten yards and prepared himself to run.

The mage looked around, and caught sight of Joe. “Hey, why did you-”

*Whoohff*.

Flames wrapped around the mage, and the entire group in front of Joe. He had almost misjudged that; the flames came within five feet of him. Just like when a grill or stovetop was being put out, there was a brief moment where the flames exploded outward. This was more dangerous than a small-scale stovetop, obviously, and the flames were at least twice as hot as they had been a short moment before. Then the fire receded over the next ten seconds, and Joe started running when there was only ten seconds remaining on the ritual.

A Dark Lightning Strike finished off the people around him as he got moving, and soon Joe had already blown through a quarter of his mana. Ten feet… five… Joe jumped, blasting mana out of his feet and spinning uncontrollably through the air as the force sent his legs above his head. He was running on only the fumes of mana at this point, but the wall was speeding alongside him. The top came closer, closer… then Joe was above it.

The downside was that he was tumbling uncontrollably, and there was no easy way to course correct in midair. Just as he was about to slip below the crenelations, he was clipped by a ballista bolt and slammed into the wall. Joe managed to secure a grip, and pulled himself up… only for the tip of a sword to slide off his Exquisite Shell. “Guys! It's Joe! I’m in the guild!”

Another sword clattered against his head, and his shell was finished off. Then a strong hand gripped him, and Emjay the construction worker yanked him over. “Kid, you’re lucky I was bringing up some more bricks for them to throw. The abyss are you doing, jumping into the town in the middle of a war? Not a lick of sense in that shiny head of yours!”

“I’m doing something right, since you’re still around and I made it up here.” Joe smirked, then collapsed as resource deprivation hit him like a ton of bricks. “Ugh…”

“Well, come on then. You’re useless up here.” Emjay grabbed Joe by the arm and dragged him toward the stairs, forcing him to stand or bounce the whole way down.

Joe got to his feet and walked shakily down the stairs, hurrying to the command area of the Guild Hall. The raised voice of an unknown person met Joe as he approached, “We are getting overrun out there! The defensive magical crud is all used up, and we’re sitting ducks! Did you see how many of them there are?”

“Chauncey.” Aten’s voice was stern, and his eyes were hard. “They are on the other side of the wall right now. As far as we can see, they have no way over. Not a single attacker has made it in, so calm. Down.”

“It’s going to take some time before more defenses are ready, anyway.” Mike joined in. Joe could finally see what was happening. The doors to the war room were wide open, and thanks to the recent upgrade the room had excellent acoustics and stadium seating available. Joe slipped onto a bench, noticing that everyone present had a seat if they wanted it now. It seemed that the days of crowded meetings were over. “Activating the aegis now will only make it harder for us to hold out. It will give us a day, yes, but we need to use that when it is needed. Using it now is no different than wasting it!!”

Joe spoke up from his bench, as relaxed as if he had been here the entire time. “I think that it would be a good idea to have repair crews on standby at the outer wall. On my way back in here, I overheard a group that claimed to have found the weak points in our outer walls and passed them to sappers. If the magical defenses are down now, I think it is likely that there is about to be a breach.”

The room quieted, and Aten did a double take as Joe started speaking. “Joe, when did…? How did you get back in here?”

“Oh, you know.” Joe waved at the table. “On my way back here, I overheard some of what was going on, and I found out that there are totems set up out there where people are able to respawn. That means that one of our biggest advantages - respawning next to the battle - is now gone unless we can figure out a way to make that vanish.”

“Again, how did you get in here?” Aten pressed the issue, “If you built secret tunnels or something, we really need to know-”

“Aten, I would never.” Joe stopped him firmly. “Listen, I just wanted to warn you that nearly everyone that’s ever had an issue with the guild is showing up to throw their hat in the ring, and they are pulling out every trick that they can find. Is there anyone that we can go to and ask for help?”

“There’s no one.” Aten waved a hand at the distant walls. “Even if there was, who is going to break through that line to come help us? Do you know anyone else that can do the ridiculous things that you do? There’s hundreds of thousands of people out there. Mike, get someone on the lookout for those sappers. If the wall comes down, we’re done.”

“Yes, Commander!” Mike saluted and ran from the room. Joe had never seen the stern man act so… military.

“I’ve had your magical people working on defenses. You should check in on them.” Aten waved Joe off, turning back to the meeting at large.

“Noticed that.” Joe shook his head at his memory of avoiding the flames that had reduced hundreds of people to ashes. Now that he thought of it, he wasn’t sure how they would be dealing with creating that sort of massacure. Perhaps it would be best to check in. Joe slipped from the war room as quietly as he had arrived.