studiobondurri Chapter 18: First Taste of War
Chapter 18: First Taste of War
Chapter 18: First Taste of War
The battlefield was chaotic. Screams of men and beasts echoes through the air alongside the thunderous clash of steel and the heavy lingering scent of blood.
The walls of the fortress were further marred with scorch marks while the ground in front was completely pockmarked with craters from spells and siege weapons.
Arrows and projectiles were still flying through the sky like deadly rain, forcing the people and beasts to constantly be on guard.
Amidst this chaos, Boy's moved like a shadow.
A towering reptilian summon, covered in overlapping obsidian scales, lunged at him with its razor-sharp fangs bared. Its elongated body moved with a serpentine grace as it used its muscular tail to propel itself forward by slamming it on the dirt.
Boy's muscles tensed as he leapt forward to meet the beast head-on as the marks on him suddenly glowed purple.
Spirit Dash!
His vision blurred for a split second as the world began to slow down as he moved impossibly fast, and he landed right in front of the lizard and sidestepped its initial bite.
His paws barely touched the dirt before he twisted his body mid-air, coiling his body in preparation for a counterattack.
The reptile hurriedly took a step back as it was thrown off by his sudden manoeuvre. It hissed in frustration as its glowing yellow eyes flicked with frustration.
At that moment, he saw the lizard suddenly charge forward and Boy barely had time to observe its movements as he dodged the oncoming bite but just as he did so, he saw another attack coming...
The lizard's tail was flying straight at him, about to slam right into him.
In that instant, Boy's instinct took over as his body glowed purple again.
Spirit Dash!
The reptile's attack whistled through where he had been just seconds before as it slammed itself right on the ground, creating a deep divot from the sheer momentum...
'Almost died...' Boy thought with relief but as he looked at the beast again, he saw that the previous attack had caused a large dust cloud to block the lizard's vision.
A chance!
Boy reappeared behind the beast, his eyes locking onto the vulnerable soft scales at the base of its skull. And before it could react, he lunged, jaws wide.
Shadow Bite!
As the soldier rushed forward, his sharp eyes flicked between the shifting shadows, his grip on his weapon tightening as he tried to determine which was the real one and in that instant, Boy charged.
One clone rushed to the soldier's right, forcing him to adjust his stance while the other lunged from the behind. The soldier reacted with inhuman speed, pivoting and slashing through the backline clone but in that instant, the blade met nothing but air.
In that instant, the man turned around to face the other two but as he did so, he was met with a hyena that was charging straight at him.
Suddenly, from behind that one, another hyena jumped forward, using the previous one to propel itself forward as it charged forward to bite him.
"Gotcha..." the man grinned, laughing at the thought that the hyena in front of him had thought that he would fall for such an obvious trick. With a smile, he slashed forward, his sword imbued with aether as he was completely committing to slicing this summon in half.
Slice!
As his sword swung downwards and struck the hyena, the sensation of slicing flesh and bone did not come...
"Huh?" The man was confused as he saw the clone disappear and he felt a sharp pain on the left side of his chest as a strong force suddenly yanked him down to the ground.
Boy had struck from behind him... The hyena that was used to propel the other forward was actually the real one.
And in the instant that it had propelled itself, Boy had used the chance to get behind the soldier and struck with Spirit Bite the moment the clone was eradicated.
He felt the soft sensation of flesh and he bit down hard and yanked the man down to the ground before tearing away at his flesh as blood began to pour out of his chest before he yanked out his skin, revealing his ribs that had been broken and a punctured heart.
[Ding! Killed an E+ Class Battle Guard. 300 exp gained. +40AP]
A sudden whistling sound cut through the battlefield...
Boom!
Before he could react, a massive artillery strike crashed into the ground not far from him.
The explosion sent dirt and body parts flying, the shockwave knocking over both humans and summons alike as screams of pain followed while some voices faded almost instantly.
Boy's ears were ringing as he pushed himself up, his vision blurred by the dust and debris. He blinked rapidly, trying to regain his bearings and refocusing his vision.
He then saw the devastation around him.
Several summons lay motionless, their bodies broken and lifeless while others were still barely clinging to life, whimpering in pain as blood soaked the dirt beneath them.
The first line of defense was barely holding on and was going to get defeated under constant bombardment. The terrain itself had changed- what was once somewhat stable footing was now a mess of uneven rubble and trenches. Bodies, both human and summon, littered the ground, creating obstacles mid-combat.