Frostbound

Jayla

"Ma'am, we need to retreat!"

"The Wall is lost!"

Stone reached out and crushed another Orc as she vented her anger. Her command structure was new and without Walter, it wasn't up to her standard. It didn't help that so many had died and new people had to slide in to replace them.

"The Wall will not fall!" She ground out in frustration. "We will not retreat!"

She'd spent days going over the Wall, fortifying the stone, joining the blocks together. It wasn't going to fall. Not when her two feet were still anchored to the ground.

Mana poured out of her at an alarming rate to keep the stone sturdy. The blood upon its surface was eating away at its integrity. Her Professional skills from creating the Wall were slowly getting washed away one stray drop of blood at a time.

She wasn't alone in her efforts to keep the Wall intact, and there were dozens of others fighting off the corruption, but if this didn't end soon, they were going to lose.

It didn't much matter if the Wall was lost at that point. They would all be dead anyway.

"Where's Travis!" She hadn't seen him in a while and he was supposed to be helping her. The last she'd felt the taint of fire was nearly an hour ago.

"Fighting deeper in, his skills wreck the area and he started to damage his own people!" She didn't know who answered.

"What about Devin!" She asked.

She hadn't known Devin long, but they'd come together with Travis. The three of them had an alliance of sorts to face this threat together. It helped they were all close enough together that traveling together was easier than separately.

His Winds were annoying, but they were powerful.

"Devin's Dead!"

He died?

He may not be as sturdy as her, but he was a Baron. There was a strength required to receive that title yet he had already fallen.

"What of his Faction?!" He was supposed to be defending the section to the south. Travis held the North and she was in the middle. If Devin had fallen, they didn't have anyone strong enough to defend their portion of the Wall.

"Getting pushed back. They'll lose the Wall in less than an hour without him!"

Jayla could change that. She had skills and abilities she hadn't taken out yet, but she had to weigh the worth. If she held his Wall, his Faction would have something to fight behind. They wouldn't continually lose ground.

But it would weaken hers. If she had to spread her protection further, her own Wall would suffer. It would drain her faster and it would cost her.

If she did, and the fight continued, she'd fall the same as Devin had.

I can't.

She wanted to. She desperately wanted to, but she couldn't. As much as the thought of leaving his Faction to their fates angered and saddened her, there was nothing she could do.

If Travis fell too, they would be screwed.

Instead, she started planning for the inevitable fall of Devin's Faction. Either through retreat or death, she had to be ready. The Earth rushed up through her feet and the ground started to shift.

Every other time she'd grasped its power, it had been reluctant. Hard to change and harder still to alter, but not this time. It was relatively eager compared to her efforts before.

She wove it through the Wall under her feet and spread it throughout its length. The Wall strengthened and spikes shot out from its bottom, skewering the Orcs trying to climb it or break it down. Jayla used the very Wall she stood upon to fight for her. It was both to push the bodies away and to kill anything too close.

When was the last time I had to do that?

The battle had gone on for hours at this point and her mind wasn't as sharp. Details started to mix together and exhaustion was rearing its head.

It feels like it's been longer than before.

"Garrett!" Without Walter, Garrett was the person she trusted most. Him being a Healer meant he was probably still alive. They weren't on the front lines holding the top of the Wall where the most casualties were.

"Yes!"

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"Is it just me, or are the Orcs slowing!"

The prattle in the beginning were easy enough to smash or crush. That got harder when the Champions started pounding on her Wall, but it was still easy enough for her power to deny them.

The Chieftains were when the difficulties arose. They hit like meteors upon the Wall. Heavy and quick with their weapons. Not even the beast she'd fought to get her Baroness title was as hard as defending against the Chieftains together.

Garrett ran up the Wall and looked out over the battlefield in front of them. Jayla had gazed out to confirm her theory, but she didn't want to be wrong. She didn't want to give herself hope.

Her words were heard by more than just Garrett and she saw more and more people came to the same realization as she had.

"The Orcs are breaking!"

"They're slowing!"

Any attempts to prevent false hope were thoroughly thrashed. Everyone picked up on what was said and it spread quicker than wildfire. It was the second Wind that some people needed. The small reassurance that the battle wasn't a lost cause.

Jayla knew better. This wasn't the end. She'd thought that during the Baron Wave and nearly died. This wasn't the end. The test wasn't over.

A massive wave of baleful aura crashed out from the obelisk. It washed over everything like a tsunami, smothering everything nearby and everything felt it.

"ROARRRRRRR" What followed was a bone-rattling roar. It put the rumbling thunder overhead to shame. It caused it to cower, as it seized the air and forced it to tremble.

"ROARR" It was mirrored a moment later by a roar matching its own.

"ROARR" Then another.

"ROARR" Then another.

Jayla should have seen that coming. There were four sides.

There were four of whatever was coming.

The Admiral

His halberd bit into the Chieftain and cleaved through its chest sheering it near in two. He leapt back and attacked the next Chieftain before its blood could rain down. He'd been caught too many times by it to make the error again.

The next Chieftain fell and he ripped his weapon free and did it again. And again.

His men were dying and that was all he had to think of to keep moving forward. So many had perished. So many that he felt breathe their last. It fueled him. Gave his muscles strength when all they wanted to do was falter. Sharpened his mind when all it wanted to do was turn to mush.

Of the teams he'd painstakingly hand-picked and trained, over most were shattered apart. Totaled together, nearly half were dead. There wasn't time to shuffle and accommodate. They fought with what they had.

Hendricks fought not far away eyes ablaze and sword deteriorating. Gonzalez at his side, muscles rippling and teeth bared. Leaning into the animalistic instincts of his Bloodline. The bear of a man was riddled with blackened wounds, but he stayed fighting.

Pricilla, a once dignified and decorated Staff Sergeant, stood covered in blood and gore over her fallen team. Her spear danced and brought death to those who had felled them.

His heart tore but that wasn't for the here and now. No, what would be grieved would be grieved later. They were at War and the battle had to be won. No matter the cost.

"Sir," A fighter shouted from the Wall behind him. "Reports state the Obelisk is slowing down!"

What?!

"Report Now!" He faced down two more Chieftains while listening to the information.

"Scouts say the rate disgorged is slowing! It's now a trickle compared to before."

"You have visual confirmation?!" He hoped they did. They wouldn't be bringing this to him if they didn't, but he had to ask.

"Yes, sir, but there's a problem!" The fighter shouted. "Reports say the Obelisk is building in strength!"

What? Why would it build in strength if the number of Orcs was decreasing?

His Tactical Skills quickly spit out a few reasons. The strength of the Obelisk had increased in sharp spikes twice already. When the Champions and Hunters started coming through and when the Chieftains started coming through.

The only difference those times was the number of Orcs wasn't affected. The strength of the Obelisk increased and the strength of the Orcs increased.

His Skill warned him. They shouted at him, but even they weren't prepared for the earth-shaking roar followed by three others.

The sky-splitting sound rattled through his body and brought a fear he'd long thought dead.

A second runner came flying in as fast as his feet could carry him. "Sir, four Orc War Leaders spotted!"

The Admiral didn't even ask for a level. Every single Orc spat out of the accursed Obelisk was exactly level 100. Even though the power between the regular Orcs and the Orc Chieftains was enormous, they were both the same level

If these War Leaders were any different, that would have been the first thing mentioned. The fact it hadn't meant they were similarly level 100. How something could be that powerful and still be in the same rank as them was mind-boggling, but it was fact.

He could feel them from here. The pressure was palpable and the fear was very real. He didn't need a report to know where they were, they broadcasted that like giant neon pillars.

The four War Leaders were all headed in different directions. One was headed South, right toward where he stood. It was closing in at a remarkable pace that could only mean it was actively seeking him out. Zuri and Liam were close by, but it felt like he was the one being targeted rather than them.

Another shot West, the third went North, and the last went East.

The War Leaders sprang out of all four sides of the Obelisk and rushed toward the strongest defenders they could locate.

He stuttered to remember who was all stationed in the line of the War Leaders. The entire sectioned map was out of reach as it was far too much to remember, but he dedicated time to know where the notables were.

He'd met Zuri and Liam before when they were liberating the coast so they'd chosen Sections close to him and he hoped they would be of aid.

Who defended the West were unknowns. They'd come from far away and they had no knowledge of them beforehand. They came as a trio and had all chosen sections next to each other in the West. Mountainside, Yellowstone, and Mile High.

The North was a mix of knowns and unknowns. They'd heard tale of The Stormbringer before, but the other two were mysteries. Especially the one they suspected, now confirmed, to be a Necromancer.

The East were two more unknowns. They were suspected to be from the Far North. One in Minnesota and the other even further than that. The Great Lakes Alliance was also in the East, but those two stood out more.

Other Factions were spread thoroughly around but those were the first to come to mind and the only ones he suspected had the strength to stand up to the War Leaders.

He couldn't think about the other directions, he had to focus on his own first.

"Hendricks, Gonzalez, Pricilla, we have incoming!" He ordered and turned back to the runners bringing him news, "Go get Zuri and Liam!"

"Liam's dead, sir!"

Fuck! "Get Zuri then!"

The aura thickened and he knew the fates were readying his thread.