Successor of Kukulkan

TJ hopped onto the nearest to one of the breaches. He looked out over the plains, the killing fields. Hundreds of twisted pukwudgie corpses remained outside of the walls, but they’d been brought in much closer to the walls to serve as an additional bulwark to break any heavy cavalry charges as they came in. Stacks of monster corpses nearly two feet high surrounded the perimeter of the walls, a couple feet outside of the reaches of the branches. Maybe it would facilitate a few pukwudgies’ attacks, but their approach was less devastating than some of the larger monsters’ ability to destroy defences. 

As he watched, nothing moved. He wasn’t deceived though, as there would be thousands of pukwudgies ready to attack the walls at any time. He kept the winds focused, as well as he could, on letting him know where the first pukwudgies to attack were coming from. TJ’s attention strained, trying to make sure he didn’t miss whatever was coming for the fort. He’d made plans, and he’d stand by them, dammit. Looking back and forth with every sense he had, though, there was nothing. No monster of any kind, unless it was a Chindi, which he had difficulty sensing. 

Five minutes passed, and still, there was nothing. 

Ten minutes passed, and still, there was nothing.

Thirty minutes passed, and still, there was nothing.

When an hour had passed without anything approaching the fort, frayed nerves had fallen apart so much that people were grumbling at each other so fiercely that TJ suspected there was some sort of foul play. When he checked his Status for any afflictions, though, there was nothing. 

“Has anyone seen anything?” Someone shouted, opening the floodgates for dozens of voices to chime in. Stanton shouted in a way that cracked through the rest of the rabble. They went silent as he speculated, “They’re up to something.

“Not only are they holding back, they know what the consequences are for failing to attack, so they’re planning something. The only thing I can think of is that they’re going to charge us with all their numbers near the end of the six hours we have.”

TJ thought about it as well and realized he couldn’t think of any other options for what they would be doing either. 

“We don’t know what happens if monsters are in the act of attacking the fort when the extermination period begins, but I’m willing to bet the System has no problem with it. So, we might be in for a brutal night. The sun will be down, and if we have 7,500 monsters attacking us all at once, then I don’t know what we’re going to be able to do.”

“We’ll need to whittle down their numbers somehow.” TJ said. “Is anyone willing to accompany me on ranged, strafing runs on the monsters? I’m not willing to go into the forest and get swarmed, but from the edge, we might be able to pick some off.”

“I’m in!”

“We’ve gotta, don’t we?”

“I’ll kill every last one of the fuckers!”’

“This is for everyone they murdered!”

“Hell yes I’m doing it!”

Every Acolyte raised their hands and answered that question while at least half of the Zealots also chimed in. 

“We’ll go in rotations, then.” Stanton said. “We can’t leave the fort undefended. TJ, you with three Zealots and six Acolytes. Throw everything you have at the first thing you see, then retreat. Farid, do you need to go with them to make sure they don’t trigger any traps?”

“I probably should.” Farid answered. “I’ll be on each, but not spend any resources as I go to ensure I can keep going.”

“Sounds good.” TJ answered as he started to pick out who would be the first group to strike back.

—-

Less than 15 minutes later, the first strike team was ready. Farid, Connor, and Seth were the strongest three to accompany them, except for TJ himself. As soon as they left the bounds of the fort, TJ activated Divine Transformation as he warned them, “I’m not going to be focused on killing when we approach. My focus will be on ensuring that I can protect us all from any ambush. As soon as we begin pulling back, that’s when I’ll deal a final blow to cover our retreat. Got it?”

A chorus of agreement rose up as he spoke. The assurance from the strongest in the Tutorial that he’d focus on keeping them safe was one of the primary reasons why many of them had come. As the ten people made their way to the edge of the forest, TJ continued talking to the wind, listening to what it had to say about where he could find some monsters. Most of them were holding still, so the winds couldn't feel them very well. On the other hand, Seth’s eyes were focused on one thing in particular and TJ was more than willing to follow the Avenger’s sense of where his enemies were. Farid gave two quick instructions on where not to step, and nobody else did anything but follow Seth’s steps forward.

As soon as they were within 50 feet of the trees, Seth muttered under his breath, just loud enough for the rest of the Participants to hear him, “Maybe 20 feet back from the closest trees. There’s a pack of coyotes with pukwudgies overhead. I’ll focus on the pukwudgies, you all go for the coyotes. They’re just behind that thick patch of bushes. On my call. Seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, fire.”

He never raised his voice. He didn’t shout fire. But the second the word left his mouth, he hoisted up his crossbow and fired one bolt. When it hit a tree, though, TJ suspected Seth had missed. The bolt exploded, sending fiery shrapnel in every direction. The Acolyte didn’t slow, drawing another bolt into position as he wrenched the crossbow’s action back into place. All of the other Acolytes sent their strongest attacks forward while the Zealots hefted their rocks and cinderblocks. Seth sent another shot into a different tree’s canopy and it burst with a deafening detonation while pukwudgie corpses fell from the skies.

TJ watched as the forest exploded with at least a dozen Skills’ rage. Pukwudgies screamed and coyotes cried out. Though he hadn’t killed them himself, at least 60 death notifications trailed up in the corner of his vision. The monsters weren’t going to take it lying down, though, and the winds excitedly warned him of hundreds of monsters approaching. 

“Pull back!” He commanded, but nobody needed the warning. They all retreated as the site of their attack was reduced to refuse. The smoldering heaps of bodies and branches were all that remained, and the attackers fled back the way they came. Hundreds of pukwudgies flowed out of the treeline, shrieking a challenge. Before TJ could send his own attack forward, Seth prepared his third shot. He staggered, much of his resources obviously spent on his previous attacks, but he sent his third and final attack into the center of a javelina cavalry.

For the first time, TJ saw the effect of whatever that Skill was without anything in the way. When the bolt lodged in the body of a javelina, the creature’s body erupted with fiery red light that coursed underneath its skin for less than a second. Then, with a wet boom, the body burst into meaty shrapnel, shredding through its rider and coating everything within 40 feet. A dozen javelinas stumbled in the shockwave, and most of the riders were knocked from their mounts and trampled under the feet of their allies. 

Zealots threw whatever they had ready at the attacking monsters, to limited effect. Their stones and blocks knocked the frontrunners into those behind them, to trip their fellows and be trampled themselves, but still, hundreds of enraged monsters rushed onward. 

“My turn.” TJ hissed as he made sure he was in the back of the line. Without empowering it further than its baseline Silver tier of Divinity, TJ sent a 100 foot-long scythe of wind towards their pursuers on the side that Seth hadn’t attacked. As the zephyr screamed into existence, it ripped through bodies, blood and viscera fountaining into the air. Pukwudgies screamed in terror as an implacable Skill far beyond their understanding slaughtered dozens and then a hundred. The Skill’s potency died before it ripped into the furthest ranks of the monsters, but it was more than enough to make them fear continuing to follow the Participants. TJ allowed himself a single, predatory smile. After all, this was necessary if they were going to survive the upcoming siege.

[Stanton POV]

As that damned wind explosion died down and the rain of monster parts ceased, Stanton finally let himself take a breath. He never regretted taking the Skills he had, and he knew that, for consistently wounding and killing larger, more dangerous things, he either already outclassed or soon would outclass TJ. The gun, Skills, and Class he had all guaranteed it. 

But when it came to these… for lack of a better way of putting it, godly displays of power, TJ was unmatched. Ever since that Tribulation, he’d been more than half a monster himself. It was both heartening to have a friend like that on his side as well as terrifying to think of so many of the power-obsessed assholes he’d known in his life. If they got to TJ’s position… They’d need to be put down. Fortunately, Stanton had already put himself in the position to be able to do that. The new Skills he had were built for just that kind of thing. 

Even so, as TJ followed behind the other hunters that’d gone out there to cull the monsters’ numbers, Stanton saw what this System was made to make. He himself had made the decision to be a soldier here. He’d be a damned good one. But TJ was becoming a god. The tornado that he’d made earlier… Stanton had seen what a squad with M60’s could do. TJ’s outburst there was just as gory, but done by one man in about seven seconds. That man was more tender-hearted than any other that Stanton had heard of engaging in those acts of slaughter, so Stanton supposed he counted himself lucky to consider TJ a friend. 

Of course, the other side of that was the terror that would be visited on the world if the System had actually taken Junior away, permanently. If there was nothing holding TJ back… Stanton looked at the carnage left behind. With his enhanced Perception, he could still see the red mist from the shredded bodies filtering down with the steady, soft rainfall. The echoes of the winds’ rage still resounded over the fort, and the remains from him doing the same thing mere hours before remained surrounding the fort. 

With a heavy breath, Stanton tore his attention away from the semi-trailer length snake, instead focusing on the other people who’d been selected to enter his team.

“We can’t let the scaly bastard out there get all the experience, can we?”

The response wasn’t quite as eager as he’d have liked, but it was enough, and Stanton began the organization of his own team to slaughter the monsters that wanted to hunt them to the last.

Thanks for reading! If you're dying to read more, join the Patreon, where you can read up to 28 chapters ahead!

Join the swarm! .gg/RqzsKj8hkD