The Mimic in Monsterland

But there wasn’t any resounding approval or anything. Just some grunts resembling affirmations. And a sigh if I’m not wrong. Who could blame them, their hands were full enough as it is. New orders that sounded like an absolute pain were probably not on their wish lists.

Ghrond spoke up again. “Sete can you find me an exit plan.” He yelled at one of the other archers in the area. An elf man with small goat horns poking out of his hood turned to the sergeant. “Aye! Could use a boost though.”

Upon hearing the request, Ghrond moved to the archer’s position and hoisted him on his shoulders. I couldn’t help but giggle. It was just ridiculous seeing a grown man climb on another’s shoulders to get a better view. Yet even with the silly nature of the act, both wore serious expressions. Sete’s eyes glowed green, and then began moving around the discord of battle. A mooseborn missile was sent his way but they dodged it with unexpected ease. Not their first rodeo it seems.

“Left flank. Right between Dorris and Dorka. Their side has the fewest number of foes and your best chance of getting back out of the fray.”

He jumped off Ghrond’s back, sending out a few arrows midair in the direction he just described. Ghrond roared out some more orders to the soldiers. “Griph is in charge until I get back. Those lazy bastards from the Legions won’t be much longer so hold on. Keep those kids safe!”

Ghrond was on the move toward the two longsword wielders. I followed after him but Ghrond stopped me when he noticed.

“Where are you going?”

“Umm, my mission is to get you back to the tent.”

“And I can handle that business on my own. You need to fight here. Protecting civies is the priority. Didn’t you learn that in class?”

Nope, didn’t learn a damn thing. Just a Feral born by reincarnation into this world. Don’t know a damn thing about protocols here. Did not sound like an appropriate answer to his query. I gave a simple nod instead.

I turned back and looked at the giant doors. There are children on the other side of this door. Children that don’t stand a chance against this horde. A new kind of pressure rested on my shoulders. One I’d never felt before. A weight that was heavier than any other. The burden of protecting innocent lives.

But along with that pressure came a fresh wave of determination. I locked eyes with the sergeant. “Understood.”

“What's your fighting style?”

I unsheathed the broken spear and dagger and held them up.

He turned his head back to the fray and then pointed at a group of fighters. He raised his voice once more “Jomi! The kid’s with you.” He turned back to me. “Give ‘em hell.”

Ghrond ran to the twin longsword splicers. Once he arrived, they got to work, cutting through the monsters and advancing. The three disappeared quickly in the warfare.

“Oi rookie, get over here!” A booming feminine voice rumbled in my direction. I turned on a dime and followed it. The voice belonged to a woman with green skin, much darker than my own in my current form. She had a half shaved head of dark black hair and black eyes. She wore a very revealing monster hide outfit. I almost blushed looking at her. She held no weapons but had gnarly looking arms covered in thin spikes that jutted out toward her hands. She shouted out again.

“Looks like you’re mine now, runt.” She turned back to the fight. Her small group consisted of a single shield user, a small shield at that, almost a buckler but a step up, and a short sword. A heavily furred man fought beside him, raking out at a goat with blunt claws.

The ice mage I saw earlier was a part of this crew also, but she was sitting on the ground. A half elf was kneeling next to her, his hands glowing blue.

“Oi, do you need your mana for anything?” Jomi barked out.

I shook my head. “No.”

“Good, walk over to those two. Then get your ass back over here and fight.”

I found myself immediately obeying her orders. It was almost like they held a certain sway to them. I wondered if it was some weird Aura thing. Still didn’t have a good grasp on that particular concept. I got to the two quickly.

“Heard you could use some mana.” But instead of answering me, the half elf grabbed my arm. A strange draining sensation fell upon my arm, causing me to tense up. He looked up and I locked eyes with his eyes, his pupils were rectangular like that of a deer or goat.

“It's alright.” He said in a calm voice. “Just relax.”

His arm glowed blue now as he laid his other hand on the ice mage. After a mildly uncomfortable thirty seconds, the half elf let my arm go. I looked up at my status bar and saw that my MP was down to 5%. Geez that was quick. Could’ve bought me dinner first.

The woman rose to her feet. She nodded to the both of us without saying a word. She immediately rejoined the battle, launching an icicle spear right into the forehead of a charging boar. I noticed she was wearing bracelets that gleamed whenever she used an ability. Maybe that‘s what she needed MP for. Cool.

Right as I was going to make my way back to the large green woman, the half elf rested his hand on the back of my head.

“Health is good, could use a stamina boost though.” I felt another shot of stamina course through my body. I was up to 87% now. All this artificial healing and stamina regen can’t be good for you. It’s just too convenient.

“Thanks.” The half elf smiled, then left. It looks like he was heading to another group of soldiers.

I hurried back over to the scantily clad muscle woman. She had just shoved one of her spiked arms into the side of a wolf that was busy fighting buckler boy. But another red wolf was on her six, mouth agape and covered in drool. “Watch out!” But before my words reached her, dozens of quill-like spikes grew out of her back. The wolf ran right into them, covering the woman’s back in blood.

I now see why she doesn’t wear much clothing. It would get in the way of those.

The wolf twitched and released itself from the spines. I took the chance to run up and slice the wolf's throat while it was still off balance. Jomi turned and then gave me a nod. I turned and looked out into the fight. We can do this.

A few minutes passed by in the heat of battle. And my inexperience of team based battling showed. I constantly ran out ahead of our front liners, the buckler boy yelled out at me at least a hundred times to get back. The clawed man just grunted for his communication. But what killed me was that the other three understood what the grunts meant. This team must have been fighting together for a while.

I tried to fight with the ice mage woman, but after a quick frostbite scare, I stopped. Jomi yelled out commands mid fight, but there was so much blood and battle in my ears I heard maybe half of them and followed even less.

Frustration filled my head. I had a decent grasp on the basic technique of the battle strategy. It was what you expected. Frontline tanks soak up aggro(buckler boy and grunty), then melee damage dealers(in this case me and Jomi), then Elsa over there sweeps up with her ice powers. But I just couldn’t follow their rhythm. My fighting instincts I forged out in the woods got the better of me. I kept going out and killing what I could on my own like I had during the raid. I used Fight and Flight whenever I got in a sticky situation. Which also landed me quite a few gashes and cuts from some monsters that I hadn’t seen.

I know they are basically heroin here, but damn I could use some gardenias right about now. I fought so much better with them. I rubbed my shoulder, I took a blow from a boar just a minute ago. Didn’t get hit as much either.

A barrage of magic missiles launched into the air above us. Jomi grabbed my shirt and tossed me back. Spikes spawned along her shoulder and braced for the assault. I rolled on the ground but shot back up. And saw her standing, blood trickling down the side of her face.

Even more frustration and guilt engulfed me. She’s hurt because of me. She never berated me once though, which felt even worse. The deer-eyed medic came around and patched her up, he gave me a health boost as well.

His weird eyes looked worn out, his whole countenance, haggard. He was having a rough time of it no doubt. Healers never get rest in these fights. He got up and rushed over to a different squad once he was done with us.

Jomi rose up and rejoined the fight. I tried to get up, but I was exhausted. My body wasn’t too tired on account of all the boosts. It was my mind that grew weary. All the fighting was making my hands shake. I stumbled getting back on my feet. I looked out onto the battle; alarm mounting in my chest. It didn’t seem like the monsters’ forces were shrinking at all. Fear started creeping in.

Where the hell are these reinforcements? This city has thousands of people. The raid forces consisted of a couple thousand too. It shouldn't take this long.

I gripped down on the broken spear and dagger. I heard a scream come from the other flank. I turned and saw a group of five boars charging straight for the door. They broke through the other squad.

FnF turned on as I bolted to the boar up front. I slammed into the side of the boar with both weapons drawn. One of them pierced the beast’s heart because it went down fast, its body fell to the ground with a thud. The boar behind it didn’t slow down and rammed its fallen kin, tripping on it. My spear punched through its temple before it got up.

But there were still more making a break for the door. I hadn’t turned FnF off yet so I ran up to another, slashing at his legs, just trying to stop it. It stumbled and I moved on. I threw the broken spear at the next, getting it lodged in its hind quarters. I ran up and took a chunk out of its other legs with the dagger.

But there was still one more and it was right before the doors. “NO!” I yelled out, dashing as fast as FnF would allow. There was no way I would get there in time, and something told me that the wooden doors wouldn’t stand a chance against the boar at full speed.

A wall of ice shot up just before the door. The monster rammed right into it, cracking the newly formed wall right down the middle. I shredded the beast’s throat before it had the chance to recover. I turned and saw the ice mage huffing with one hand raised. She smiled seeing that we protected the doors, before blood spewed from her mouth.

She dropped to the ground. I yelled for the medic as I ran up to her side. She was shivering like she had a deadly fever. She wasn’t very big, so I could manage to lift her in this form. I brought her behind the wall of ice. The medic found his way over to the new battlefield landmark soon after. I checked my stats, mana only rose up to 20% but I told him he could give it to her.

He did. The draining feeling only lasted a moment this time. She stopped shivering as the bracelet gleamed again. Her eyes stayed closed as her breathing slowed down.

She must have a power like Len’s but without nearly as much control over it. I’m betting those bracelets help her with that. And mana is the power source.

“She gonna be alright?” I asked the support. He nodded. “But she’s out of this fight now. She’s overtaxed; she burned health to power the bracelets. Probably to make this wall.”

Shit! That's bad. Our whole battle strategy revolved around her.

KABOOM!

A huge sound boomed in the air. Like an explosion. I ran to the other side of the ice wall. Smoke and flames billowed in the air. Len? But these flames weren’t his typical deep shades of red and orange. These flames shifted between blue and green. And didn’t feel like they held the same heat. Or much heat at all, they felt odd. And they didn’t flicker nearly as much as flames normally do. They looked more magical in nature, like what a witch’s cauldron would be filled with mid-spell.

Another explosion went off, this time, a giant thunder clap accompanied the explosion followed by bright blue arcs of electricity, frying another group of monsters.

Eventually, the source of the explosions walked toward the building, through the craters they just made. It was a smaller woman, with white furred arms and a mouse nose, whose white hair was no longer held in a tight bun, but quite the messy one.

“Daila?!”