Origin ARS (Origin A.R.S. Book 2) (11 page)

He was surprised and excited to see that something else happened as well. The remaining bats heard the cries of their brethren. They turned on the spiders and began to attack them! The spiders were much stronger, but the bats had greater numbers.

Two of his most annoying foes were out of the picture for the moment. He returned to the rats and goblins. His mana was running low, so he opted to drink one of his tonics then focus on physical attacks. While his mana regenerated to a minor degree, he manned the entrance to the second platform.

A badly burned goblin struck out at him with its rusty machete, but he turned it aside and delivered a hard kick that knocked it back. It did not produce the same force as the explosive magical attack, but it did give him a little room. He continued his evade and kick tactic for several minutes before he was forced back by the sudden arrival of a creature that he had nearly forgotten about.

The slime did not do much damage when it wrapped around his leg but it did surprise him. The goblin that he was going to force back, took the chance presented and launched forward in a full-body tackle. Scott was knocked back and to the ground.

He bashed at the ugly bastard with everything he had and killed it quickly, but the real damage was done. Several rats and a goblin had made it to the next plat form. He fought them for a moment, kicking and punching for all he was worth. However, the momentum of the battle had changed. He was the one being forced back with every movement. Soon he was unable to hold position.

Scott fired off four consecutive freeze spells in order to slow the progress of the monsters, draining a large chunk of his remaining mana in the process. After the final freezing burst, he raced for the next ramp. Unfortunately, the strength of his freeze spell was such that it could do over one hundred points of damage if it hit for the maximum amount. His rapid-fire attacks had not slowed the monsters; they had outright killed over twenty of them.

Killing twenty monsters so quickly should have brought about an amazing feeling of pride and completion. However, monsters dissipated into the ether when they died. Scott had done nothing more than free up space for the hungry bastards behind the unfortunate creatures who had faced his power.

The tonic had only restored a small portion of his health and magical energy. He had recovered his mana to about the halfway point, but the Fairy’s Cure had run its course. He had two more doses, but he had to use them sparingly. He had no time to drink another at the moment, anyway.

Three goblins attacked at once. Scott managed to maneuver around the strikes but not cleanly. He took a hard hit to his left thigh that caused his knee to buckle. The temporary imbalance in his stance left him open for a flying tackle from an oncoming rat.

He was knocked to the ground, hard, and immediately received several powerful strikes to the legs and face that whittled away his health. Scott’s defense was a bit high for his level, but with so many attacks coming at once his hit points were being lost at a rapid pace.

He struggled with the oversized rodent, but he was unable to find any leverage. Out of physical options he used one of his little used spells. “Flash!”

The rat screeched in pain as lightning arced through its body. It was stunned long enough for Scott to wrestle his way free. There was no chance to catch his breath, however. His new found freedom from combat did not last long.

A hard leather-clad fist raced toward his face. He was rocked by the surprising power of the blow, and it took a second to properly right himself. It was a second too long. Skinny arms embraced him in a bear hug and held him tight. The goblin’s ugly brethren now had the chance to strike without impediment.

Scott was hit over a dozen times before he managed to twist and struggle his way free of the hold. His health was close to the critical stage now and there was no end to this battle in sight. For the first time, he had come upon a situation in his life that made him feel as though death was the only possible outcome. Even Gnarl Tooth, the Black Grass Rat Overlord, had not given him this sort of impression. He had made a serious miscalculation when he had run through the mine screaming.

There was no choice. He needed breathing room if he planned to stay alive. Scott called out, “Freeze!”

He only used the spell once this time, but several of the goblins and one rat still died from the power of his spell. Thankfully, the ones that had not died did slow down quite a bit.

His body felt sluggish, but he struggled past the pain and growing exhaustion. He hopped backward and moved toward the ramp as fast as he could go. He took a hard strike to his unprotected back in the process, but he reached the position that he desired.

Another freeze spell was unleashed in order to clog up the narrow entrance way with half-frozen bodies. While the horde attempted to crawl over their frozen compatriots Scott climbed the ramp and headed for the third platform, the one that contained the actual mine office.

The burn spell was employed to knock back a rat that came leaping after him. Luckily it caught fire and spread its burning love to the rest of the nearby rats. Soon rat and goblin alike were burning while running around screaming in agony. Scott took the chance to take out another Fairy’s Cure tonic and gulp it down. They did not heal much, but they cured many ailments and restored by a little health and mana over a short period of time.

He returned to his previous tactics of evade and attack to keep the monsters pressed back along the ramp. He was thankful that they were quite stupid. If they had a reasonable capacity to plan, he would already be dead.

Over time his health rose back to around the halfway point while his mana returned to about one-third full. He did not have much time to survey the battleground between attacks, but it looked like monsters were still trickling in to the area a few at the time. He did notice that the newcomers seemed to arrive in fewer numbers per incoming wave than they had before. It was possible that he was emptying out the entire mine right now.

The only time that he used a spell now was whenever a random slime popped up on his ramp. There seemed to be no more bats or spiders to deal with. Either they had grown bored of the battle or they had destroyed each other. Either way, good riddance!

Time passed.  He was forced to use his freeze spell five times due to the influx of slimes. He had opted for using it due to his low mana, and the overall range of its status afflicting power. Scott knew that he would not be able to hold here much longer. Yet, where would he go? He was backed into a corner now.

He kicked, punched, and shoulder blocked his enemies away due to the narrow confines of the ramp and his greater combat skill. Yet, his death was inevitable if he was forced to continue in this manner. What he needed was more breathing room. He had done incredibly well up until this point if you considered the sheer number of opponents that he had faced. He had taken the high ground and forced his opponents to fight in a location of his choosing. It was a location choice that eliminated the greatest strength of the monster horde, their numbers. Still, he was but one man, one exhausted man. His body ached in places that he had not known to exist. He believed that even his hair hurt at this point. His limbs shook and his mind had lost some of its sharpness. He was losing his coherence of thought, and his strength was dwindling away.

This was not a battle like the combat action he was forced into with Gnarl Tooth and the grass rats. They had only come at him a few at a time, like in this battle, but the grass rat swarms had come at intervals. These bastards never relented. They continued to attack and did not seem to have grown tired to any great degree. Their numbers were starting to thin, but there were still far too many of them.

Scott continued to push them back whenever they reached his position, but it was a hard thing to accomplish. The rats were actually the most difficult opponent that he could face in this way due to their body shape. He could not just kick them in the chest. He was forced to lift and push them, or something similar. It was always a struggle to keep them back. More than once he had used his freeze spell just to be able to get his hands on a particularly insolent rodent.

Why were these damned things so persistent anyway? They just kept coming! It really was like an old school role playing game. The monsters kept fighting till they died, no matter what. It made no sense in real life, but in a game it was perfect logic. The monsters were designed to be obstacles and to kill the player. Was that all these things were? Did they exist solely to kill him, to eat his sweet meats?

What could he do, though? There had to be another sixty or seventy of the things, and more trickled in over time. The battle would never end at this rate. If he’d had more tonics he could have spammed his spells and killed them all. As it was, even if he drank his final tonic he could use freeze four times or his other spells three times.

Scott rammed his knee upward into a goblin’s chin before slamming his hands forward to knock it back. It fell over the top of a rat and rolled down further to knock over a few other monsters. The other goblins slapped the fallen one around a little without doing much damage then they all got back in place and continued to mill around like they were waiting for their turn.

The sorcerer caught a rat that leapt toward him, it was a smaller one, and tossed it back. It knocked several goblins over and they began to stab at it with more force than they had done with their comrade.

If only he could coax them into all-out war with each other like he had done with the spiders and bats! They had refused to do that, though. He had tossed, burned, flashed, and frozen them in all manner of ways. Yet, they would not turn on each other for long. Was that he effect of higher intelligence in specific monsters, or just bad luck on his part? He was uncertain, but desperate to find some method of ending the battle that did not include his untimely death. Thankfully, it would not be long before he was granted the chance that he desired.

A noise caught his attention, a hard thing to do among the cacophony of the current combat scenario. It was the sound of metal straining, groaning. Scott stabbed a goblin in the chest then sent it flying back to knock over a few more monsters. His attack caused the ramp to groan loudly once more.

Scott spared a quick glance to the side. He saw that the moorings for the ramp were no longer connected to the rock face that it had acted as an anchor. It was just a metal ramp designed for a handful of people to cross at any given time. It was only supported by the rock wall and the bracing that had held it in place.

Scott slammed his fist forward and impaled an overly large rat through its beady little eye. It dissipated into motes of light and he was forced to immediately fight the next monster. The aggressive movements of the monsters as they tried to pile over each other to get to him caused the unanchored ramp to groan and sway.

Somehow, he felt that this was a chance! If the ramp gave out, the bastards could not get to him and he could rest for a while. Sure, it was a long way down to the bottom, but that was fine. He did not care about that as much as a normal person would. If he was careful, he might even make it to the bottom without taking a serious injury. His agility, health, and armor would mitigate some of the damage. He would certainly be hurt, but if he was lucky he would survive.

The current level of destruction was not enough for his needs, however. More force, more damage, needed to be inflicted to the metal ramp. It was not until a rat managed to crawl over the top of all the other monsters and come close to reaching him that he realized what he needed to do. Over the top, he needed to be over the top.

Scott delivered a rising elbow strike to the jaw of the closest goblin. When it fell back he jumped as high as he could and thrust out his palm toward the center of the ramp. “Burn!”

The explosive force rocked the ramp and sent several monsters hurtling toward their deaths. It was not long before a loud groan erupted from the over-stressed structure and it started to buckle. Scott had thought that it would simply come loose from its connection to the two platforms, thus causing it to sway and become too dangerous to cross easily. But to his surprise and delight it broke near the center at the point of impact.

The ramp was attached via a linchpin system so that it could be taken up later, though the company that ran the mine had never bothered to do so for unknown reasons. When the ramp broke, both of the newly formed sides instantly fell straight down at great speed. Dozens of monsters had piled onto the bridge between platforms and the hapless creatures plummeted to the earth below. Most were so badly injured from the constant fighting that they exploded in a shower of light the moment that they hit the ground.

A loud outcry from the remaining creatures reached him, but they could not come for him. There were no more bats, slimes, or spiders in the area and neither the rats nor goblins could scale the walls. The rats were too big despite the typically agile nature of rodents in general. The goblins were either not smart enough, or not skillful enough to climb all of the way to his current location. Had either of them had that capacity he would have been dead already.

Scott breathed in and out for a moment catching that long desired breath that he had wanted. He looked at the frustrated monsters on the other side of the gap. An absurd thought occurred to him. He brought his feet together and raised his hand to his brow in a smart salute. The monsters across the way did not seem amused by his action. They were strangely aware of the fact that he had just mocked them.