Chapter 307: Phase One

Chapter 307: Phase One

"Change of plan," Mason said, glancing towards the scream. "Everyone but Seamus and Becky on the ground. Roam and find tunnels, deal with anything coming out. If you're getting overwhelmed, fall back to Seamus on the temple."

King Aixa was yelling orders at his men. Mason heard him calling for the flyers to get to the skies, for the 'Great Guard' to fall back to the city. After he'd issued several commands he turned back to Mason.

"I can't abandon the gate. But I'll send my best to help in the city." He shrugged, clearly rattled by the surprise, and angry at himself. "Is there anything else you suggest we do? Anything else we prepare for?"

Mason shook his head. "We have to stop the tunnelers. But you're right, sooner or later, maybe with enough chaos, they're going to launch an attack at the wall. So we stop the chaos. We move and kill quickly. Hopefully we're ready when it comes."

The king nodded. "I'll go with my warriors." He handed Mason a small, silver horn. "If you need me, call with this. I will hear it."

Mason took the horn.

[Temporary item gained: Horn of the Nephalai king. Can be attuned to one individual at a time, who will hear its call when sounded from anywhere in the world.]

Well. That was incredibly useful. Mason hoped the game let him keep it when everything was over.

If they weren't all dead, of course.

But he blocked that line of thinking and buried it deep. They were going to succeed, and if they didn't, there really wasn't any point in worrying. Because you didn't get second chances in this game.

Mason nodded to Seamus and Becky, who started up the hundreds of stairs to the top of the temple. Becky gave a look back, and Mason did his best to give her a comforting smile. Then he turned to the others.

"Stick with Phuong, Alex. Do what you can. If you can't find anything for awhile just come back to the temple. Any questions?"

"See you shortly, Patron," Phuong said with a nod, and Mason clapped his arm.

"You good on your own, Carl? I can give you Streak."

"No need. The lone assassin works best, er, alone. Shit I didn't really think that through before I said it out loud. The lone killer works best in...fuck I don't know. I should really work on some one liners."

Mason shook his head. "You're surprisingly chipper for a man with hardly any defences, a pregnant woman at home, heading into a giant battle."

"And you're the worst inspirational speaker ever," Carl said.

"Thank you," Mason said. "That's all I ask. You take those ones still getting up on the right. I'll work my way around."

Streak growled and charged, loping across the ground with his tongue out, somewhere between terrifying giant war-wolf, and the bestest good boy.

Mason started cutting off limbs and heads. The zombie-like creatures came apart to his swords like their bones were soft, their flesh half liquid. They were slow, too, far too slow to really have a chance of grabbing him. Though they certainly tried.

Mason moved through the 'graveyard', then the surrounding streets, cutting down everything until he'd isolated the main focal point of the creature's entrance. Streak had sorted out his zombies and came to help dig.

In less than a minute they'd dug down to find some kind of mass burial, with a hundred graves lined up in perfect uniformity.

Mason didn't have the time to figure out what the hell he was looking at, but at least it wasn't tunnels. It definitely wasn't a graveyard because it had been placed basically in the middle of a street, and slightly under a few buildings. Did it mean betrayal? Sabotage? Some kind of local necromancer? A serial killer?

There just wasn't time to figure it out. Mason heard more sounds of fighting, more screams, more death.

He turned and ran another block over until he found hunched, huge-clawed creatures chasing citizens. Mason banished his sword and re-summoned his bow, leading his first target with a perfect shot that skewered its neck and took it down.

He launched Power Shot and Crippling Strike on cooldown, slowly walking the street as he loosed arrow after arrow into the strange, growling creatures. Streak soon got impatient and ran ahead, growling to announce himself and sending the smaller creatures into a screeching panic as they fled.

It didn't take long to clear them, though most escaped down other streets or into alleyways. The sounds of fighting and dying were increasing and coming from multiple directions now.

Mason saw birdmen swooping from the sky, at least, dropping down a dozen at a time to take on whatever enemies they found. Mason was about to ask himself where and what the hell the 'great guard' were before he heard thumping steps coming from the east. He turned and grinned when he saw them.

A good thirty armored 'ape' men were coming in loose formation, huge clubs and what looked like picks and hammers resting on their shoulders. King Aixa, it seemed, had taken Mason's advice to heart.

When they saw violence the creatures started showing their teeth and even thumping their chests. A few broke away from the main pack, running with two legs and one arm at rather incredible speed as they charged into the undead without a moment's pause or hesitation.

They smashed and knocked their enemies flying, soon obliterating zombies and the occasional skeleton with deadly efficiency.

If the enemy army didn't attack that gate, Mason expected the floating city was going to deal with this little surprise in record time.

He hoped Phuong and Alex were doing well, and he hoped Seamus and Becky were bored. But for now he had things to do, and turned his attention to his own killing.

'Phase one' of the battle, at least, seemed well in hand. He didn't look forward to phase two.