And (N)one Shall Remain

Tiesya wouldn’t say that she was bored. If anything, their assault on the monastery presented an unusual challenge, where it fell upon the [Progenies of Yore] to keep their enemies at bay while at the same time letting a reasonable amount slip past them, for the Zikealians to handle. Most of the monastery’s remaining warriors were on the lower end of the third tier, anyway, which made them near-useless for the higher-leveled Progenies. On the other hand, the lower-leveled trio from Zikeal could still get some experience out of them.

 

Fortunately neither of the three Zikealian youngsters – an odd term to call them by, when Tiesya herself was their junior by some years to over a decade – were unfamiliar with violence. While they mostly stayed in their hidden refuge, from time to time the youngsters from the tribe they belonged to would go out to hunt, partly to familiarize themselves with the process, and also because the identity of a wandering hunter was one of the easiest to assume when they went in for an infiltration.

 

After all, nobody knew how many hunters lived away from civilization, deep in the woods, so people rarely questioned such types when they sometimes visited towns or villages to trade some of their catch for other necessities that were harder to procure in the forests. It was one of the most reliable roles to assume, as only few could build a reputation as minor traders like Murad and Mora had done.

 

As such, Kurt, Leo, and Tiara all had some experience with both the bow and the spear, which were what they usually used when out on a hunt. Kurt and Leo made use of their bows as they loosed arrows at the temple guards being held back by the Progenies and Ani’s warriors. Neither side were worried about friendly fire since the latter group had enough skill to simply avoid any arrow that mistakenly flew their way anyway.

 

Mel-Ivas and a couple of Ani’s people – both fourth-tier ones – stayed close to the brothers to keep them safe, while Tiara was closer to the frontlines, fighting against a temple guard the others allowed to pass with her spear. The girl had quite a bit of interest in learning how to fight, something she probably got after hanging out with Resitia a lot, and Esperanza saw no reason to dissuade that desire of Tiara’s.

 

After all, it would be to everyone’s benefit if Tiara knew how to defend herself properly.

 

Fortunately due to their hunting activities, the classes that the three younger Zikealians had possessed some leaning towards the physical as well. As such, their physical attributes were by no means bad even when compared to a third tier combat-focused class at the same level. Due to the high quality of her class, Tiara’s was actually higher than what most would consider the average, even.

 

As was handily proven by how the girl took down a third tier temple guard on her own using just her spear and clever use of some illusion-based skills she had from her infiltrator-type class. Sure, Tiara might have a good five levels on the temple guard, but the latter had also spent their entire life learning how to fight and to make the most out of their attributes and skills, so it was still something rather praiseworthy.

 

In fact, most of the Progenies and Ani’s warriors thought that Tiara had a real talent for fighting, given how well she managed after only some lessons from Resitia and the others while they traveled and her meager hunting experience. Given that the girl was still around halfway up the third tier and had spent a good part of said third tier being in the presence of Esperanza and the Progenies, none of them would find it odd if Tiara was to be blessed with a special class on her next class change.

 

They looked forward to such an occurrence, even.

 

Resitia took a backwards glance and smiled at Tiara’s progress, before she allowed one of the third tier temple guards she was fighting to “slip” past her, only for Tiara to pounce on them a moment later. For the girl, it was an easy matter to take on several low to mid third tier enemies of middling class quality at once, and she was not even under any serious pressure to hold them back.

 

If anything, it was harder for Resitia to hold back from killing her opponents prematurely than to hold them back. Like the other progenies, she only killed those who were at the higher end of the middle of the third tier, or the rare few late third tier opponents, as only those would give them experience that were not negligible in amount.

 

Most of the rest, they allowed the Zikealians to use for honing their own skills and to gain some combat experience.

 

The temple guard Resitia allowed to slip past was actually the same level as Tiara herself, but Resitia had taken some precautions and injured the temple guard first, crippling one of their arms, which made it an easier match for Tiara. The temple guard in question used a pair of swords, so they were reduced to just a single sword with one of their arms crippled.

 

Tiara’s [One Who Swims in the Dark] class was based around infiltration, stealth, and disguises, but it also possessed some illusion-based skills she managed to finagle to use in combat. When she struck, her opponent would see two, sometimes three different strikes, all of which looked real, with no hint on which one was the real strike.

 

Those who had skills that gave them other methods of perception would not be fooled by such simple illusions, as such illusions lacked body to them, they had no true presence in the world, and thus could be detected by the absence of certain things that should have been present. The temple guard Tiara faced clearly had no such skills, however, and was fooled into attempting to parry one of the false strikes. 

 

To the man’s credit, he also tried to avoid the other two strikes, but only managed to do so halfway, as Tiara’s spear still left a bloody gash on the side of the man’s abdomen. She withdrew her spear before the man could react, and repeated her thrusts a couple more times. At times the temple guard managed to guess the right attack to parry, at other times he avoided her thrust, but every now and then, he made a mistake and took on more injuries.

 

As the temple guard bled from his wounds, his movements grew sluggish, and before long, Tiara managed to strike his sword out of position using the butt end of her spear before she jabbed the spearhead into the temple guard’s throat, ending the man’s life swiftly. Then she took a step back and waited for one of the Progenies to let another opponent through.

 

Other than a couple occasions where one of the Progenies had to step in and help one of the siblings or Tiara handle their opponents, the fighting in the monastery's yard was contained. It went according to how the Progenies wanted it to happen, their more numerous enemies powerless to dictate the course of the battle due to their lack of skill and power.

 

The only reason the fighting took longer than expected was because the Progenies were trying to give the Zikealian youths more chance to gain experience, while they themselves simply cut down enemies who were either too low in level for even the youths to gain meaningful experience from or were too dangerous for them to handle.

 

Together with Ani’s warriors who helped hold the line, the number of enemies dwindled rapidly, and before long, some of the temple guards began to rout. Indoctrination and training only went so far, and when faced with actual life and death, people might break, as the temple guards experienced at that moment. Some tried fighting the hopeless fight with a steadfast heart, but once one started to turn and run, several more broke and did the same, leaving only around half of the remaining hundred members to fight against the invaders.

 

As if to rub salt to their wounded pride, half their enemies took off and chased after the escapees that tried escaping by vaulting over the walls of the monastery and fleeing into the mountains. Those who stayed behind knew that the escapees stood little chance. Even together, they stood no chance against their much stronger opponents, much less when separated into smaller groups? 

 

For a fourth tier to wipe out a hundred third tiers would be a difficult fight, but for that same fourth tier to take on ten third tiers would more often than not be a one-sided slaughter, and every one of them knew the logic.

 

By the time Esperanza and Ani came out, there were only the last twenty or so temple left, who looked at the two women with despair in their eyes. Their last, faint hope had been the veteran trainer who was a fourth tier, and several other veterans inside the complex, all of whom had fallen to the two who went in instead. They knew that there was nothing more that awaited them other than to be toyed around by their far stronger opponents and to be killed one after another.

 

Some of the cursed, some of them showered Esperanza and the progenies with profanities, while one even screamed out loud, asking how they could do this act? How could they so brazenly go against the Gods? The temple guard in question even said that it was not too late to repent, that if they were to accept the grace of the gods they could still redeem their souls and spare themselves from hell.

 

Esperanza replied to the temple guard in question by way of extending one of her arms over and chomping down on the female temple guard’s head with one of her maws, before she publicly conjured the soul of the woman she just ate with [Soul Manifestation] so that the other temple guards that remained could see it too.

 

“I don’t see your pendejo gods coming over to help their oh so faithful believers. Haven’t seen them show up for that Bishop of yours either, for that matter,” stated Esperanza coldly to the soul that hovered before her. She could control the souls she manifested to some degree, so at the moment she used that part of the skill to hold the woman’s soul in place. “I wonder if it’s just because you don’t believe in them enough or if they were just taking a siesta and missed out on the fun?”

 

“That said, you can forget about your so-called promised afterlife as well. You’re not going there, in case my holding your soul right here, right now, haven’t clued you in on that,” she continued just as nonchalantly despite the horrified looks from the remaining temple guards. “Guess someone’s been lying to you, boys and girls.”

 

One remaining priest amongst the group of survivors screamed out that what Esperanza said was blasphemy, and for the others not to listen to her heresy, but Esperanza gave him the same treatment as the female temple guard. One of her maws directly bit off the priest’s head, and then she summoned his soul next to the still-dazed woman’s soul.

 

To underline her point, she also coated one of her maws with [Soul Armament] and used it to nibble on the priest’s soul, causing him to scream in agony, as the pain of having his soul slowly torn apart was something unimaginable for the living. The priest’s screams continued until Esperanza finally silenced him by devouring his soul completely.

 

By then, the remaining survivors had dropped their weapons or fell to their knees, their eyes glazed over and their expressions numb over what they had just witnessed. The revelation probably broke some of them mentally, not that it mattered for long, however, as Tiara walked over and put them out of their misery one by one using her spear.