Frostbound

Chapter 276 - Chaos of Nature

Why aren't they using skills?

I'd never fought Orcs before but I'd fought something close. Both Goblins and Hobgoblins were sent against us occasionally during the monthly waves. Or, bi-monthly now that we upgraded our pylon. The distance of time lengthened for some reason we still weren't sure about.

Goblins used skills. Hobgoblins used skills, but for some reason, these Orcs weren't.

Is it the Blight? Did getting infected take away the ability to use skills?

But that didn't make any sense. I could feel the mana moving in their bodies. It was disgusting, horrendous, distasteful mana that had been corrupted by the Blight, but it was still mana.

It moved through their bodies like any other kind of mana, but it just wasn't being used for skills.

I didn't get long to think about it before I was entrenched in battle. Our usual strategy of facing hordes was employed. Those willing stood in front of the wall to blunt the impact while everyone else held it.

I was in my usual position at the Vanguard and that meant I was the first person the wave broke against, which always made my job the hardest. But there was nowhere else I wanted to be.

The Orcs were at the peak of E-grade, only one level away from D-grade. Their fighting strength was significantly lower than that due to not using skills, but their numbers more than made up for it.

It didn't take long until I was drenched in brackish blood. The dark red, nearly black blood certainly didn't look healthy. It gave off a feeling of dread as well. The feeling reminded me of the unnaturalness that the Demons gave off but on an entirely new level.

This wasn't just unnaturalness, this was anathema.

After the first few went down to my hammer, their blood coated my weapon and my armor. It stuck to it and coagulated quickly from the cold, but not before eating away at it.

It burrowed in like acid. Wherever it landed on the ground began to sizzle as well, destroying anything living. Plants withered and died within seconds.

"Don't get the Blood on you!"

"The Blood is Acid!"

The call of alarm was from everyone currently facing the Orcs in battle. Some were already screaming from the splatter that coated bare skin. I was lucky my Ice kept it from my skin.

Instead, it was a constant drain on my mana to keep [Frost Armor] intact. The blood ate away at not only the Ice, but the mana used to make it.

I did not want to feel what it was like on bare skin if the screams were anything to go off of. Some were already retreating back to the wall seeking help from Healers.

I had to push the sounds of screaming away and focus on what was in front of me.

With the Orcs not using skills, it meant I could keep things in reserve for when the challenge increased. There was no way that this would be all that was thrown at us. No way.

[Righteous Fury] would be kept sheathed and so would my Bloodline. I had to use my Spirit to reinforce [Frost Armor], but other than that, I saved it.

We had no idea how long the obelisk would continue to disgorge the Blight.

Relying solely on strength of arm and the least amount of mana I could, I slaughtered as many as possible.

I trusted my weapon but the growing thickness of taint on the hammerhead was worrying. It was my Legendary skill, and it was powerful, but I had no way of knowing if the Blight was more powerful in the long run.

The ice the head was made of was fine, but I couldn't be sure it would continue to be.

Stop getting in your own head. Focus!

[Avalanche] was slowly building and I needed less and less strength to rend the Orcs limb from limb. It wasn't my intention to create such a gory sight, but my hammer swinging around as fast as it was made it impossible to hold back.

There was no slowing this train once it got in motion, and it was well and truly in motion.

To ration my mana, I stopped using skills other than [Frost Amor]. [Mighty Blow] wasn't necessary after my strength rose to over 2000. [Avalanche] and [Glacial Presence] pushed it above that rather quickly.

With my current stats, it would eventually rise to over 3000, but that wouldn't be for a while. Plus, I wouldn't be able to hold it for long. That kind of boost wrecked my body to maintain.

It was the reason that no boosts or blessings fell on me. Austin, Jonathan, Elliot, and every other warrior fighting were given a blessing. Either a large boost to one stat or a small boost to all of them depending on the Support.

Shields were also flickering in and out around them blocking damage that I didn't have. I didn't need it. Others did. Every Support or Healer with a blessing or Boost was told in no uncertain terms that I was not to be targeted.

Settling in, I noticed how different the fight was. How often I was getting hit. How often I was having to change my approach.

These aren't beasts.

It wasn't claws and teeth reaching out to me. I didn't have to defend against sudden lunges from creatures with powerful hind legs. I didn't have to dance around beasts with thousands of pounds behind them.

I had to watch axe heads and sword edges. I had to judge the distance of how far they could reach. It wasn't something I was used to and I was suffering for it.

Cracks spread and chunks of Ice fell off. My Ice wasn't breached and my skin remained unmarred, but that didn't mean it would stay that way.

The habits I had formed were working against me. I had sparred and trained against other humans but it had been years since I'd fought seriously against one. Years since and it was against mindless thralls, not weapon masters or skilled combatants.

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Which these Orcs were not, but they still had enough skill to press me. One on one, it would be a slaughter but that wasn't because I out-skilled them. It was because I was stronger and had more stat points.

A certain amount of strength made skill meaningless.

But that didn't mean they couldn't wear me down.

I needed to be more efficient. Less wasted movement. I didn't need to exert 2000 points of strength to completely pulverize one Orc when a light tap would cave in its chest and kill it anyway.

Axe strikes didn't need to be avoided, but they needed to be spread out. One hit was fine and draining a minuscule amount of mana. Multiple hits were not.

Faster.

My swings became wider, more arcing. I didn't need short swings so I was ready to defend. I didn't need defense at all.

I would do what I had taught, trust my armor.

I felt myself become smoother. Felt as the changes brought by humanoid enemies were made nearly subconsciously. The death toll at my feet climbed. The piles of dead turned into mountains. Every once in a while, a spell or powerful arrow slammed down next to me and blew them apart, but it wasn't long until the pile started to build again.

Orcs died, lost their fight against my skills, and froze solid.

My feet trampled what was left into the ground or when the occasion arose, [Shattered] them. The bodies of the fallen turned into shrapnel to kill even more.

It was gruesome. Grotesque even, but I did it all the same.

I spoke the words earlier because I meant them. They would break upon our walls and they would break upon us.

I was so involved with making sure I killed as many as possible I didn't see the attack coming in. I'd been lulled into normalcy and maybe that was the point. The horde hadn't been charging at us for long, but it had been long enough.

An arrow. One I didn't see coming. One I didn't expect to see coming, shattered the ice around my leg. The bone tip didn't make it farther than that and the shaft exploded into splinters of wood, but it was enough to stagger me slightly.

I whipped my head up and saw an Orc much taller than the rest standing with a ruinous-looking bow. It looked like it was hewed from a full tree rather than a branch.

The Orc pulled out an identical arrow before nocking it. Its muscles bulged and strained to pull the massive string back, but its efforts were worth it as the arrow was launched.

It sped through the air faster than I could track before impacting the same spot. The Ice that had just begun growing back was shattered for the second time and the metal armor under it was dented.

"Austin! What is that!?"

I shouted the words and they intertwined with my aura. It was wild and flaring now that the battle was heated and they merged together seamlessly. I knew he heard me because I knew everyone in range heard me.

"[Orc Hunter]! Can't see its level!" His answer came swiftly, "I'll take care of it!"

He left out Blight-Touched because that much was obvious. Being unable to see its level almost certainly meant D-rank. The power packed into its arrow made that a certainty.

With his reassurance, I trusted him to take care of it. I couldn't spare to watch but the light show was hard to miss.

"Warriors! Be ready for Ranged attacks!" I called out in warning. If I was surprised, others would be too.

The light died down but exploded out again in another attack. "There's more! Some are [Orc Champions] instead!" Austin's voice shouted.

The mountains of dead Orcs were shock troops. They were sent to soften up our lines before the real threats came through. It made me wonder if this was the usual strategy for Orcs or if this was something the Blight did.

Send in the weak before the strong.

That strategy made something inside me angry. It went against being a Warrior, but I wasn't sure why I felt that way. These were monsters, it didn't matter what they did.

Still, if that was their strategy, and what we faced already were the weak, who were the strong? How high into D-rank would we face?

"Archers! Focus the Champions and Hunters!" My order resounded out to make sure it was heard.

Mages were told to fire for effect. Wide skills were better than single-target skills. Archers were more for precision and told to take down the elite targets, which the Hunters and Champions undoubtedly were.

Spells and arrows had continued to rain down since the start. It wasn't just our section either. Every section had mages launching spells deep into enemy ranks taking out Orcs by the dozens.

The way the Ringed Wall was set up made it so the deeper a spell was launched, the more overlap there was, but that worked in everyone's favor. It was like an unspoken agreement was reached and each section cycled through launching powerful spells and a rhythm was reached.

Boulders rained endlessly from siege weapons. The people who manned them scrambled to reload and fire as quickly as possible. The few Earth mages stationed nearby worked overtime to pull up and compact ammo as fast as it could be fired.

Those who stood upon the wall fired whatever they could into the chaos. Whether that be an arrow, javelin, or conjured weapon of a different origin.

Spells had been planned out in advance. Affinities accounted for to not interfere but those plans were beginning to break down.

So much magic had been used that it was all beginning to swirl together. Ice and Water reigned supreme where I stood and everything opposing that was weakened.

Water dominated to our south and Nature to our North. The Faction that was assigned the section was run by a Druid. A powerful one if the mana they were throwing around was anything to go off of.

Lightning rained down in such frequency that the rumbling thunder was endless. It was only accentuated by loud cracks by powerful bolts. The sound was loud enough to carry throughout the battlefield and I had a feeling I knew who was responsible for those that were loudest.

The weather that had already been worsening turned into something completely different. The clouds darkened and unleashed thick sheets of rain in some spots but the sun poked through in others.

Wind howled through as pressure changes were altered by the second. Temperature was blistering hot in some parts and devastatingly cold in others. Snow fell in one place while fire raged in others.

If my eyes were better, they would have picked up on one section in particular. I couldn't see it, but I could feel it. The energy of Death that permeated from far away.

Of the Dead that got up to fight again. Orcs reanimated to fight off more of their kind.

The skies above were fighting just as much as the people were down below. Nature itself wasn't sure how to respond and that only made the chaos build.

It got harder and harder to institute my sliver of Winter. It wasn't just the normal pushback from the ground and air. It was the pushback from everyone else.

Laws were thick in the air. I could feel them pressing against me and had to use my own to ward them off. Ice and Wind battled against everything else. It was impossible to pick out what I was fighting off and instead felt like I was fighting the tide.

A battle that had my domain shrinking by the minute. I gave ground instead of holding it to preserve my energy. My Wind law helped. The newly realized concept of Domination did its best, but it was up against a foe it couldn't beat. The weight of thousands against one.

It asserted dominance and created a bastion of winter, but I knew it wouldn't last. Not if I aimed to conserve it.

My heart pounded like a drum inside my chest. Each beat sent mana coursing through my veins urging to be used. It bled from my feet into the land under them. Feeding [Permafrost] to freeze and grow.

It escaped from my body into the air. [Desolate Blizzard] drank it in to impose itself upon the world.

Each beat invigorated my body and each beat brought power like nothing else.

Power to assert my will on the world. Power to stand tall and have the Orcs break against me.

There was something there. Something about the sensation that called to me but there wasn't enough to realize. It almost felt like a whisper. It's too soon. The feeling lingered, but I didn't gain anything else from it. I wasn't even sure what it was.

The Archers did what they could to stall the Champions but they advanced on my position and I couldn't afford any more distractions.

A primal roar resounded out of me as I looked upon my challengers. Challengers that aimed to assert their will over my own. To knock me down and stand victorious over me.

Ice ran through my veins as I had the thought. It brought clarity and rage in equal measure. Rage at the thought of losing and the clarity needed to keep a cool head.

Blood-soaked, weapon-charged, snow and frozen bodies coating the ground. It was something I couldn't hold in.

Any and all thoughts of those around me dulled as I stood at the Vanguard and gave those behind me the best chance I could.