Dinner was just as good as the previous day's and went by quickly. We used the hours until sundown to make sure that everything was ready for the wave the coming morning. There would still be a few hours between sunrise and noon that we could use to finalize everything in the morning but it didn't hurt to be thorough.
We had more spikes than last time and added traps up the hill, we also made more javelins for if we needed them, all the while keeping up with the daily training. We usually did an hour of group combat and another hour for stat training. We also used this time to ask others for help with various topics. Some were unnaturally good with some of the weapons we were given although I knew for a fact that they had never used them before. Others were naturally gifted in the magic side of things, and that's where I spent the majority of my time.
The person who was the best with training mana skills was our only fire mage, Rachel. Brayden's wife was a natural when it came to the magical side of things, she claimed that she'd increased all three of her magical stats by at least three each. I hadn't even gotten a point in intelligence and she's already gotten three. I felt miffed.
I wasn't the only one struggling with the mana skills luckily and she would try to walk all of us through the way that she handled mana to help us improve. It wasn't the best mentorship, but it was better than nothing. Whenever I wouldn't get something she would just say, 'You just need to feel it, it feels like this...' she would then describe what it felt like to her, which wasn't helpful.
She kept saying that you had to guide the mana, you couldn't force it. I had no idea what she was talking about because I didn't feel like I was guiding my mana when I activated my skills. Others were equally as unhelpful, they would say that you asked the mana to do something and it would then do it.
I thought they were joking with me at first, but when they were straight-faced and didn't laugh I realized they were serious. I gave it a shot, because why not, and it worked even worse than trying to guide it. Everyone had their own way of going about it and I just hadn't found mine yet. I was holding out hope that I was just missing something and once I found it, it would come instinctively like with Rachel. If not, I was in for a long road of training. I was average with my axe and could use the shield pretty well at this point so at least I had that going for me.
When night fell and everyone was getting ready for bed, there was a nervousness in the air. Everyone knew what was in store for tomorrow, we've been through three of them so far. No matter how many times we faced a coming wave I didn't think I would ever not be nervous. It was worse for me because my mind kept coming back to the memory of the boss charging me before I went flying. I wasn't having nightmares about it or anything but there was no way I was going to forget that anytime soon.
I didn't get to join the rest of my family going off to blissful sleep for it was my turn for night watch. It wasn't the first time that I had done it but it was the first time before a wave. We had a rotating watch so you were on watch every other night and with the waves coming every three days, I got away with not being on watch the night before one.
I had my cousin Derek to keep me company so I wasn't by myself but he wasn't a very talkative person. He was younger than me by a few years and he was my Uncle Scott's only child. Being an only child made Derek have some ... quirks that you had to get used to. He was a nice enough guy but sometimes the way he acted made me want to throttle him.
He wasn't taking this whole tutorial very well. He had never been the most talkative before this whole thing, and after, you were lucky to get a few sentences. He was one of the foolish who picked rogue as their starting class but he at least had the wherewithal to pick dual short swords instead of daggers. They wouldn't give him a ton of extra reach but at that range, every little bit helps.
I didn't wish to sit here in awkward silence for the entire two hours so I decided to start up a conversation with him.
"How are you doing Derek?" I said.
"Fine. How about you?" He said back.
Sometimes I wonder why we even ask that question to the people we see because we are never going to get the real answer, and the times we do get the real answer we were just asking to be nice, not hear your life story.
"Oh you know, keeping on keeping on." I said back comically.
He snorted at that but didn't volunteer anything else. We sat in silence for a moment or two before he said something again.
"I feel like I should be waking up to go to school tomorrow, not to face down a horde of monsters. These were supposed to be my best years but I didn't even get to finish my freshman year of college." He said.
School. I hadn't thought much about it since the tutorial started, but he was right. If this had never happened I would be waking up to go to class tomorrow. I was most of the way through my degree and I would never get to finish. All of that money, wasted. College was a scam anyway but I still wanted to finish, if nothing else than to say that I did it.
I guess I won't have to pay back my student loans, take that UC. I know it's petty to think that after the world essentially ended but I'd take whatever I could when it comes to not paying money for college. The amount they nickel and dime you for every little thing was astronomical. Soon it would have cost millions to go to school.
I dismissed those thoughts as thinking about them wasn't relevant anymore, there wouldn't be any colleges by the time we got back and there wasn't a point, but if I ever saw my college president when we got back to Earth, I was going to smack him around a little for being a greedy little shit.
Derek and I continued to chat throughout our shift which made the time go by faster. We didn't talk about anything deep, just chit-chatting about various things, different college stories we had, and memories we were fond of.
The time came to wake up the next shift of people and Derek and I parted ways. I woke up my Uncle Mark for his shift before going back to my tent to sleep. My nerves kept me awake for a while but eventually exhaustion got the better of them.
Waking up I quickly checked for a training notification to see which stats I increased the only one I received an increase in was wisdom. I thought for sure that I would get an increase in strength after my workout yesterday but it wasn't there. I took a minute to look over my status sheet and see the improvements. I could only hope it was enough for the wave to come.
Name: Christopher Zalenski
Race: Human(H)
Class: Warrior: Level 4
Profession: None
Faction: Zalenski Family (Temporary)
Strength- 19
Agility- 9
Perception- 10
Fortitude- 13
Endurance- 13
Vitality - 15
Intelligence- 8
Wisdom- 9
Acumen- 7
Free Points: 0
Laws: None
Skills: Power Strike, Fortified Body, Throwing Weapon Proficiency(Beginner)
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Coins: 0
Points: 103
My strength had more than doubled since the beginning and my wisdom was one point shy of doubling as well. My endurance more than doubled from the measly 5 that it started at and vitality and fortitude both increased by 6. It was good progress I felt.
After breakfast, we spent most of our time making sure everything was ready and all our preparations were in place. A few more holes were dug for good measure but we didn't have the time to do anything big. We were as ready as we were going to be.
Time seemed to evaporate and it was soon a couple minutes before noon. All of my family were standing around the pylon with all their gear and weapons ready for what was to come. We all formed up facing the north, but we were ready to move on the off chance that we were wrong.
No one had the courage to start a conversation before the wave started so we stood in silence. The kids were already in the bunker since everything was already where it needed to be and they didn't have to help move anything. My javelin stack had grown so now there were five of them at my feet and one in my hand.
I was one of the only ones who took a throwing skill and it showed in the distance I could now reach. I could now easily clear the 100-foot marker with ease using a combination of my strength and the skill adding to the speed of the throw. Olympic athletes could throw a javelin over 300 feet and we couldn't get close to that yet. With practice, we extended our range but it wasn't close to 300.
Those athletes spent most of their lives training in the technique it takes to throw and growing muscles specifically to be able to throw further. Most of our would-be Olympians came from a regular 9 to 5 office job that required little in the ways of javelin throwing. We had also only practiced throwing one for about a week. The first marker was moved to around 150 feet with more filling in the distance back to us. If I gave it my all I could reach about 250 feet, but that was with a running start that would hinder my speed in reloading.
When we were practicing I could always tell which javelin was mine in the air because it flew the fastest and went the furthest. I had to keep adjusting how hard I threw to make sure that I landed with the rest of the grouping. Granddad saw how far I could throw and gave me the go-ahead to start when the monsters were further out than when the rest of them started. I would start with the mages, who had a range of about 200 feet(65 yards).
It wasn't much longer until we heard the notification chime.
Defend your claim!
Wave Start: 0:59
The wave started after the minute was up and we were right, it came from the north. Kyle shouted out the information and there were some grim faces when we heard the news. Boars. It was a herd of boars. There were fewer in number than the deer of the last wave but they were considerably more lethal. They had the normal increase in level so it was a mix of level 4's and 5's and the boss was a level 9 behemoth of a thing. It looked like the size of a pickup truck and was threaded with muscle. The monstrosity had tusks shooting out of its mouth to either side that extended 3 feet in either direction.
I could see based on the fidgeting that people were nervous. Heck, I was nervous. This was going to be difficult. It didn't help matters that when the boars started to charge there was a rhythmic thumping as they got closer. People's nerves got worse as the thumping got louder and louder so Granddad took the time to give us a motivational speech.
"There's no need to be worried, we've done this before. We practiced for this and have trained for this. Your body knows what to do you just need to let it and not let your mind make mistakes." He said. It wasn't the best speech but it was better than nothing.
The rangers fired, followed by the mages. I threw all of my javelins and so did the rest of the family. The results were disappointing. Where a javelin would hit a deer and make it fall over dead, it just wounded the boars. Where magic explosions would send deer tumbling about with grievous wounds, the boars were staggered. It took the collective effort of multiple volleys before the first casualty was made. This was not going well.
The obstacle that caused the most damage to the charging boars was the potholes. When one of them hit the potholes they went down hard. Limbs broke and they were slow to get back up, and that was if they could.
The only problem was we didn't have the time to dig that many. We didn't want to put all of our eggs in one basket so there were some traps facing the other directions and those wouldn't help us now. Most were still dug in the north but there could have been more.
The horde lost members but I could tell it wasn't enough. They were coming and all of our attacks wouldn't stop them. All I could do was watch as they got closer. All of my javelins were gone, used up already. I stood behind the spikes with my shield and axe at the ready. I was double the level since the last time I faced a boar and more experienced. I could only hope that it was enough.
Some of the excitement that I felt last wave was coming back but it was mixed with nervousness seeing that amount of mass charging towards me. The boars got closer and closer before ramming into the spikes in some kind of suicidal death charge. It was like they could see the enemy and it didn't matter what was in between it and them, it was going straight for them. The leading boars skewered themselves on the spikes and the ones behind followed suit a moment later.
It was baffling to watch. They were running headlong into spikes, I had no idea what they were doing. There was no intelligence being shown, just madness. It happened when a third boar hit one section of spikes. A creaking sound followed by cracking. The spikes were not designed for this. They were designed to stop the leading charge of the wave, not take the collective charge of three or four boars. It was also not designed to hold the weight of three or four boars. The sections of spikes broke. Our defenses failed.
The boars got through and all hell broke out. The spikes had done their job and stopped the charge but they didn't provide cover anymore. Boars squeezed through the gaps where the broken sections were and started going to town.
I couldn't focus on anything else at the moment, all I could do was focus on what was coming at me. I had to dodge in between boars and could only get a swing in occasionally when there was time. Boars were everywhere. People were everywhere. I had no idea what was going on and I could only try to keep myself alive. We outnumbered the boars who were left but it didn't much matter when they were already behind our lines.
Cut a leg here, fend off a tusk there, spin around and dodge a boar coming from behind me. What made it so hard was that the boars didn't pick someone and target them, they ran in loops and whether they hit someone or missed they continued on to the person behind them.
Throughout the fighting, I got so turned around I didn't know which way was north anymore. I was bleeding from some wounds that grazed me when I either got caught off-guard or when I couldn't dodge fast enough. The only hope I held onto was the fact that the boars were thinning out. The numbers were declining.
I had [Fortified Body] on for as long as I could and at this point, I was running on fumes. I always had to keep track of the boss to make sure that I wouldn't get trampled but that was easy as the thing towered over the rest of the boars. Another thing that made it easy to track was that it caused havoc wherever it went. I caught sight of one of the healers dragging someone out of the carnage and could only pray that they would be ok.
It took what felt like forever to whittle it down so that only the boss was left. There were only a handful of people that were still in fighting shape. There were bodies of boars everywhere and some people with them. Healers were going around to the downed people and pulling them away from the boss, healing them as much as they could.
My Grandfather, my Dad, Jonathan, and I, with a few other family members, surrounded the boss and started wearing it down. One of the rangers was still up because an arrow would thud into the beast occasionally. We couldn't face it head-on so we had to skirt around it to keep it from charging us.
We were taking turns swiping at it when someone said, "Step back from it!"
We all complied quickly before a fire bolt bigger than any I had seen smashed right into its mouth. It exploded with more force than I thought possible and half of the boar's head was blown off resulting in the boss falling to the ground dead. The chimes rolled in now that we were out of combat but I ignored them to turn around to see four of the mages huffing and puffing in exertion. It must have taken all their mana to do that.
"What was that? How did you do that?!" I don't know who said it but I was asking myself the same thing.
Rachel, the fire mage, held up a finger to give her a minute before speaking, "When I was practicing mana control I found out that mages could work together to cast spells. With all the rest of my mana, I cast [Fire Bolt]and combined it with their [Mana Bolts], together it created that." She said gesturing the the point of explosion.
The notifications were still waiting to be read but I ignored them, there were things to do that were more important.
"Alright, everyone who can still move bring the injured to the hospital, and if it looks like you shouldn't move them call a healer over." Granddad yelled out. People didn't need to be told twice and started going around to the injured.
It took a while to get to everyone but we didn't stop. Even though my body was screaming at me that it needed rest, I pushed through it. There were extensive injuries and everyone had at least something that needed healing. I was bleeding from a few wounds and I was one of the better off. I had learned my lesson and was a lot more careful this wave.
It took hours to get everyone stable and there were a few close calls when the healers ran out of mana, but they did it. They rationed it better this wave but there were still too many injuries. Since we knew that this wave was going to be worse than last time, some of the points were used to buy healing potions from the store. They were expensive at over 100 points each, but they were worth it. Some of us would have died without them. We had to dip into our personal points to afford it but we felt it was worth it. Watching them take effect was fascinating. It worked so much faster than the Healer's skills did and closed wounds in the blink of an eye.
All of us finally sat down to catch our breath when my Uncle Scott said, "Where's Derek?"
Oh, no. All of us looked around and couldn't find him anywhere. After we couldn't find him in camp we all went to search the battlefield. I was looking everywhere around the battlefield when I heard a scream.
"NOO!"
Everyone rushed to the noise. I came running to the scene to find Scott rolling a boar off of Derek's body. He wasn't moving.
"Heal him! Give me a potion!" Scott started screaming as he frantically tried to save his son.
Ashley pressed her glowing hands to Derek's body but nothing happened. The healing energy just dissipated. The potion didn't do anything either.
Derek was dead.