Chapter 2. The Mini Siege.
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First night in this city and I can say with full confidence that they don't know what they are doing, there are a lot of loud noises and shouting from the incompetent guards atop the walls. I understand now why they were at loss of words when they saw me slowly walk towards them without making any threatening gestures.
'They thought I was a Monster…yet they didn't stop me from entering?'He wondered as he watched the unskilled fools make a mockery of what defense is supposed to be with their fumbling usage of ballistae atop the towers. The undead aren't that much of a threat since one shot with a fire arrow and they will combust like an alcohol bottle but the Ogre and the trolls he has led here are the real trouble. Their brute strength far surpasses the durability limit of the wooden doors at the front. I can say without a doubt that a few more attacks and those logs in front of the doors will explode into splinters…
"Sigh..I will have to interfere if I want this city to exist for a little longer for me to collect some information…" he muttered under his breath.
Jumping down from the roof he had been observing from, he began jogging towards the front doors that were being slowly crushed by the onslaught of the trolls and the Ogre. He opened his inventory and equipped the new steel claymore he bought yesterday for 15 silver coins, it is enchanted with unbreaking level two and sharpness level four.
The doors exploded off the hinges and two large terrifying monsters barreled through the guards like they were tissue paper and began crushing anything in the vicinity of their clubs. He took that as his cue and jumped with all his power straight at the monsters and brought down his sword to cut one arm that was carrying the large stone Club.
The monster lost its awareness for a second as a ton of greenish fluorescent blood exploded from torn shoulder and sprayed the other troll on the eyes which made him swing blindly and hit his compatriot on the head which brought it down in front of his waiting strike,his downstrike cut through the skull of the troll and came out of his face in a shower of more blood that made the area around the corpse more visible for the rushing guards and knights to see.
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[Pov change: The knight.]
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The monsters and the undead have come again tonight to finish the job they started yesterday and we are lacking men and arms to push them back again tonight, the previous day we had an emergency call from the local Lord for a call at arms since the skeleton riders have been sighted close to the Lord's domain and he was paranoid that was a sign of the incoming Armageddon.
The Commander of this city isn't available to lead us and that it seems had spelled our doom as the front door are about to be breached from the constant barrages of the two trolls and the ogre leading them, the ogre and the undead are nothing new but the Trolls? They are city-buster class threats individually, two trolls being coordinated by an Ogre who by itself is existential threat just for his skill as a leader of monsters…we are doomed, DOOMED I SAY!
'I wish we had figurehead to rally, someone to tell us what to do, We are knights for fucks sake! We aren't meant to work as individuals but as the Whole!' He roared in his mind, hoping for some kind salvation against all odds that he knew were against them–
A rustling noise and a pressure of some kind that he had never felt before broke him from his mental cries, he opened his eyes to see the doors explode and the two trolls barrel towards the closest guards swinging their clubs to crush them into a bloody paste, armor be damned.
Then he saw Him, the New Guy who scared them shitless with his monstrous stature that rivaled a Zombie Warlord with how much he dwarfed them. He had a new sword on his hands that he didn't miss any time to use it and swung it down the shoulder of one the trolls and cut both the tough hide of the troll and the previously thought unbreakable bone in one Swing that caused blood to gush out like the fountains he had seen on the fortress city of the Lord.
The blood that came out of the chopped arm had blinded the other troll, he swung his club wildly around itself which hit the other troll right on the head, it sent the wounded monster face first to the swinging Giant who proceed to make a mockery of the monster's tough hide and skull by cutting the skull into two pieces and completely neutralizing one monster with two hits alone and cripple the other one by cutting the knees of the other which made it fall upon its brethren with a loud boom, this one also ended up just like his brother. The giant cut the head from the neck with one heavy swing.
"What the hell is going on?! How the hell did he kill those two monsters that easily?!" Roared One of the Knights close to him in astonishment.
"I don't know man…he just flew out of nowhere and a second later one arm fell down and…and that happened?" He replied confusedly at this situation.
"Knights take position and push back the undead, spearmen follow the knights and provide support with quick spear thrusts NOW!" The Commands that were uttered were followed unconsciously by the confused knights who simply took a V formation and started attacking stragglers that were able to push through the spear thrusts.
"Archers, Focus on the ogre's eyes! If he becomes blind even temporarily, we will be able to hit him with the ballista!" He barked orders again, the Ogre that was previously trying to attack through the main doors became bombarded with continuous arrows to the face.
'Somehow the tables have turned in our favor…just from one man taking charge?' were the collective thoughts of the knights who were pushing the undead back or straight up killing them by ramming them to their spearmen Allies.
"The Ogre has been blinded! Quick fire the ballistae at him, aim for the legs and the neck!" The three meters tall ogre was hit by a barrage of iron tipped stakes that actually did some damage now that it was blinded as two stakes went through the things and one pierced the neck slightly showing a muscle tendon.
The Giant Man who had been for the past few minutes barking orders didn't wait for second when he saw the ogre fall in One knee while trying to block the blood on the neck wound, he jumped towards him and tried to cut the arm that had the giant Iron Hammer, this time the tough hid of the ogre proved far more durable than that of the troll and the sword was only able to slightly cut the flesh and shoulder muscle.
It seemed he also knew that it would be far more troublesome getting the sword out which he decided to abandon it for the short sword that he pulled out nowhere and then proceed to ram it at the back of skull with full power thrust from both hands which made the ogre roar out loudly in Pain as the skull tried to resist the piercing attack.
With both weapons stuck in different places he did what none expected and kicked the shortsword with his armored Boots.
The shortsword actually pierced right through the skull and came out of the left eye flying into the wall with a loud BANG.
"And that's how you kill giant monsters! Now to get my damn claymore out of this bastard's tough muscles…fucking ogres. They are lucky I didn't have a mithril sword around to turn it into a shish kebab." He proclaimed Victoriously at the downed body of the ogre as he tried to pull his sword out of the shoulder.
"He…he did it? HE DID IT!!! HE KILLED THE MONSTER!" Roared a knight, he was followed by others who began shouting in triumph when the undead began losing their previous coordination and started turning tail and run into comical situations.
"Archers fire at will! Don't leave any undead to run, kill them all Damn it!"
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[A few hours later.]
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'That was one eventful night. First time I have had to take charge of a city in such an unorthodox way.' he thought to himself as he finally sat down after having to go through so many Overhyped Men.
"Damn the durability of the claymore fell so fast?! Even with enchantments it fell to 75% already? Shit man, I will have to look for better resources if I want my equipment to last a while without needing to waste more money." He sighed, perhaps he should start thinking about using those levels to raise his individual skills…[blacksmithing and resource management] are far too low for his liking.
"I knew I should have put a couple of levels into those two and not max out [arms mastery] fuck." Well I did kill two trolls and a Mid-boss type monster, an ogre…perhaps i should go monster hunting once I collect enough information and get a mount…one of those fancy Nightmare steeds that I have seen being used by the high ranking paladin-looking bastards.
His mental rambling came to an abrupt end when he walked out of where he was staying for the night and came face to face with the whole garrison of Knights looking at him like he was some kind of savior…
'...Are those stars in their eyes? How the bloody hell is that possible? No like I thought these humans were normal?' The entire atmosphere was tense…in an uncomfortable way with these Men looking at you like that.
"Are you waiting for someone, knights?" He asked like he had no idea what they were up to.
"We the third garrison of the great fortress city of Laka have come to pay our respect O great Monster-Slayer, almighty Giant Lord Of War we humbly ask for you to train us Sir!" Shouted the familiar looking knight he came across when he first arrived here.
"Pardon?" What?! The hell are these nutjobs calling me those fancy titles, I barely showed any skill in front of them…except the part When… I gave them orders FUCK! FUCK, FUCK, FUCK!
'OH FUCK I MESSED UP! I INTENTIONALLY GAVE THEM ORDERS THAT FROM THEIR PERSPECTIVE ARE REVOLUTIONARY AND HAVEN'T BEEN INVENTED YET SHIT!' Calm down Steve we can still salvage this…fucked up mess, remember we already did this dance once in that one weird planet that was both backwards and had technology that could destroy planets…You just need to capitalize on the situation without adding more fire to the Burnt bridge…yes lets pull a Troyan Horse on them, Unknown Genius from a farway land that got destroyed.
"You my Lord pulled one of the fastest anti-siege plans ever conducted that we know off, even our Knight Commander could only keep them at bay by sacrificing many adventurers to cause havoc behind the enemy lines until the dawn rises. You thought…you killed two trolls–previously thought unbeatable and to top it off you outplanned the Ogre Leader who has been attacking this fortress city for uncountable months now and straight up killed him with his skull being hanged in the center of the City for all to see with your name an deeds carved in its skull by an Artificer!" Explained the knight excitedly with the other knights nodding along each time his voice rose an octave louder.
"Well…that's One way to give Credit but are you sure you want an outsider like me to Become some type of worship Center for the masses to pay tribute too?" He asked carefully while showing his appreciation at the gesture.
"OF COURSE SIR! Ahem sorry for yelling in your face I am still riding that glorious festival we did and the alcohol…But yes, a genuine Figure is much better than those bastards worshiping the hell's stone or the suspicious bastards who carve symbols of Evil spirits on their skin." The tone of the knight turned venomous at the mention of the worship and tribute.
"Hold on hold the damn On there, mind replying what You just said, hell's what and evil spirits?!" The previous pleasant expression on Steve's face completely evaporated at the mention of those two cursed names.
"Hell's stone worshipers, they are deranged lunatics praying to demonic monsters that appear once a few hundred years from the hellstone structures that are found deep into the forests or caves. The evil spirit cult is something new, we can deal with monsters but the small gremlin Spirits that appeared after Human Raiders began pillaging those neighboring towns are a different kind of problem and many weak or Dumb civilians in general have started paying tribute to worship them in their mind as a form of warding them off but i think they are stupid and should be beheaded for tampering with the forbidden arts."
The Expression on his face must be something scary because he saw the onlookers bow their heads and run away like they had committed a grave Crime, he didn't blame them.. he has never been this fucking angry since that time he had to deal with demons and their devil Overlords being a pain in the ass in that one shitty realm in the outermost layer. Fuck he had to do everything manually, find the center core leading the individual hell demon battalion kill him/her and convert the body into suitable weapon to kill the next one until he arrived to the four overblown bastards cosplaying as the Devil Kings But were in fact four interdimensional Squids that were to bored in their dimension and decided to make his Job more difficult then it was! He had to summon those winged pricks to seal the squids back where they came from and then pay a tribute to the winged pricks "Lord" by doing an act in his name in the next labor!
'Man was that guy fucking annoying with his schemes…trying to make me carve a Servitude Rune on my body and the unsubtle acts of breaching the contract of the Labours…Well I did pay him back a thousand fold when i siced those Weirdos who were trying to corrupt Reality.' he chuckled Sadistically internally, Making a note to find a way to implode that guy's domain should he ever find a way to mess with God-type curses.
"Well damn my shitty luck and whatever destiny this fucking world is using to make me part of its plot.. you know what knights? You can use me as a tribute at one condition, I want to be remembered as a Monster Slayer not a Hero, heros are many and have over exaggerated goals. I on the other hand am here just to kill monsters and perhaps as a result you will have an easier time as a result you catch my drift?" He asked pointedly, making a show that if they don't play along he will do something nobody wants."listen up you Bastards, tomorrow I Will go hunting for a wyvern, If I don't see you by sunrise tomorrow At the door I will take it as a sign of you having no honor and as such I will treat you like an honorless scum for the rest of my stay here so you better show up!"
At his words the Knights roared their resolutions higher than before, a Knight's word of Honor was his only proof of Pride before his lord. Those who didn't keep their word were seen by their fellow knights as scum and were shunned or outright kicked out of their order or groups as a result, truly a well thought manipulation by the Higher hierarchy that ruled in such eras to keep their Men from becoming a renegade or outright killing their lords to size Control.
'which is why I am gonna use their manipulation against them, these knights haven't sworn fealty to the ruling Body yet, they are still green at their job and are seen as a expandables in the grand scheme of things…imagine the surprise of the Lords when i turn these lads into killing machines by the end of the next month. Before we start doing that, Gotta make them swear then things will take their course.'