This situation that occurred at this moment as a group of 20 enemy were eyeing the army. They sneered at the lack of vigilance.

  “He dies today!” one of them growled.

  As soon as he said this, an arrow nocked in a very crude bow was pulled back and shot out high in the air.

  It arched and flew in a perfect angle at an imp aiming for the head, but unexpectedly, it stumbled forward and instead of the head, the arrow pierced behind the knee completely ripping off the lower section of the leg.

  “GRAHHHHHHH!” a pained wale came from the imp.

  The scream pierced the dusk sky causing Akor’s blood to chill as his eyes flung open at the sudden cry.

  He jumped up, but the already sleeping imps were far less willing.

  Akor turned pale when he saw this and breathed in deeply before shouting, “GET UP AND READY!”

  His voice seem to resonate in the air and seemed to make ripples in the air.

  Unlike the imps scream, Akor’s bellow worked directly at the main system of the master and minions. What is more, this shout used the command skill further spurring the imps making all their eyes flung open.

  That said, at the same time, the enemy did not keep silent.

  Twenty figures surrounding the small raid party of imps jumped out. In the air, their shadowy figures fell in Akor’s eyes..

  “Devils!” Akor shouted.

  At that moment, arrows rained down and the devils spread their wings and flew down.

  Before the imps could organize themselves, the attackers hit.

  Instantly twenty imps were heavily injured and thrown on others.

  Chaos ensued as they flew through causing damage before flying up, once they crossed the army.

  Akor felt incredibly depressed.

  “Pull out your tools already!” he shouted.

  The command range through the air like an imperial decree to their ears.

  At once, forty imps pulled out Bolas and ropes. They all began to twirl them, but the devils just looked down on these crappy tools.

  They dove all together this time, but as they enter the range of the fires light, dozens of bolas and lasso were suddenly flung up.

  Where skill lacked, numbers would eventually succeed.

  They sneered, but suddenly eight of the twenty were entangled by the first wave.

  Those who collapsed were the second wave, which tossed their capture tools soon after.

  It was a 3:1 in tool count. The imps were all using capture tools and with the second wave catching six more, the third wave left the devil's desperate, but gripped the remaining devils.

  The injured ones could barely move, so the imps worked together to hold the lassoed devils while those caught by the bolas were piled on and tied up in humiliating positions.

  After they were caught, the others tossed the tools on the trapped devils and they were forced down.

  At the end of it all, the twenty devils were caught and Akor had already destined them to be sacrificed.

  The death count was 5 imps, but 17 were injured. Of these injured, 7 were serious with 2 maimings.

  The remaining 10 were ranging from minor to major injuries. This could be seen from their Hp.

  The two who were maimed had bleeding status, which reduced 3 hp every 10 seconds.

  Akor had the imps gather wood and he made it into cloth and some thin rope.

  First, he had the limb tied with the rope and then, used the cloth as bandages.

  The bleeding stopped when they were at 5 hp, meaning they would survive, but they would have a hard time being of use in combat.

  Akor looked at the devils angry, “Watch them well, tomorrow we will catch the mana spring and bring them back.” Akor said. Then he put the imps on high alert in case of more danger and all of those remaining had their tools and weapons out. The injured were left to rest to regain their hp, while the rest were put to watch the camp.

  This could be considered a lesson to Akor. He increased his vigilance and he also kept the forged knife near him.

  He tried to get some rest after checking the notifications.

  His command skill had actually leveled up and he actually gained a skill.

  Lord’s Shout

  Level 1

  An emergency shout of the lord. When this skill is used, all minions within earshot will instantly follow the order despite all other tasks or personality traits.

  Status effects like drowsiness, sleep and confuse are instantly dispelled with the shout.

  10 mp per use

  The effect grows weaker with each use of the skill within a limited time-frame.

  It was a type of command skill used to organize disordered battle forces. It was made to salvage a situation, such as being ambushed, weakling and dumb forces can’t find order.

  It was a good skill for sure and was probably what caused the vibrations in the air, which is probably what also caused the removal of the debuff status effects. If one thought about this skill properly, as long as Akor trained his voice, so that it resound further, it would be a massive boost during large scale wars.

  After he saw them, he closed it and tried to get some rest. The short battle was mentally exhausting. The movement in the camp did not help, since most of the demons were now awake and he didn’t have proper tents and beds to get to bed quickly.

  Slowly the sun fully set and night set over the land at last. Just some far off sunlight could be seen in the sky, but that was also vanishing by the second. It was already impossible to see if anything was in the air and stars were appearing in the sky, but the camp fires reduced the visible number.

  Akor was slowly calming down and was close to falling asleep. The imps were still on alert, but as before, they cannot maintain extended periods of time on high alert, it was actually a mentally taxing thing to do.

  Slowly, the number of guards for the devils began to decrease, after all of them were fully restrained with their arms, legs and wings were bound behind their back.

  Sadly, the night was not meant to be peaceful.

  The fires were slowly burning and the imps were getting sleepier. Without a good maintenance, the light slowly dulled and shadows began to spread.

  At this time, four bright red eyes appeared glowing in the darkness. Only the eyes were visible, since their bodies were fully black with leathery skin and some fur.

  With a deformed and disgusting half bat face mixed with a devilish human face, this demon group glared at the far off came. “The God of Night bless us!” one of them said before the shadows around them seem to meld with their bodies and they vanish like fog.

  At the camp, the devils would occasionally let out a curse in pain, but because many of them were beaten up by the imps after being caught, they were just trying to recover. Some of them reluctantly fell asleep. The number of imps watching them was drastically decreased with the coming of the night. Within the piled bodies of devils, a fog appeared and a deformed figure appeared before the devil’s eyes. They looked at the creature, their eyes opened wide and saw the grin appearing on its deformed bat face.

  It raised its claws which had a faint glow, and slashed down.

  The slash was aimed at the rope and sliced right through one of the ropes.

  It jumped and escaped into the darkness as soon as that single rope was cut. That was because there was no need for it to remain. The devil that had the rope cut growled and felt its hand get released, and with its clawed hand, it ripped the ropes apart. It remained in the group of devils and glared at the darkness narrowing his eyes. “The Strigoi have come. Vampires have sent their people. We cannot falter, or they will take our glory.” He said for the devils to hear.

  It growled and swung its claws and clawed the ropes of another.

  He did that to four of them, “You release them!” he shouted at the last one and with the three previous released ones, he shouted and jumped out.

  His attack landed in the head of one of the imps. The others killed them in even more savage manners by hand after their weapons were taken and piled up away.

  The shout began to wake the imps and Akor’s eyes shot open once more, but this time it was even more dangerous of a situation. He grabbed his knife and looked to see what was happening, only to see several devils escape their bindings and help others.

  Akor was shocked that they got out, because he knew how they were tied up. He quickly activated his Lord’s Shout and command skill “WAKE UP!” he roared.

  The eyes of all the imps opened once more and they all were startled by the shouts and screams and had looks of confusing as they saw the devils loose once more.

  “Take your tools again and properly catch them!” Akor shouted.

  That said, just as he was about to start guiding them, several large rocks came falling and slammed into the camp fires suddenly dispersing the light in the camp.

  Staying in the light and suddenly getting thrown into the darkness would leave people momentarily blinded.

  Akor himself was blinded, but because of some kind of danger he felt coming from behind, he jumped to the left one step and spun with his knife only to feel something grip it.

  HISS!

  An enraged hiss was heard and Akor looked at the source, his eyes were quickly adjusting to the darkness, and that was when he saw the disgusting disfigured being that was a mix of a Devil and a Bat. Like the Minogida that was an Imp and a goat, this creature is known as a Strigoi, which is actually a Devil and Bat hybrid. How it happened though isn’t common, because devils are way more intelligent and find themselves far better and don’t mate with animals regularly. Such a case is the ‘other’ way, in which a bat monster subdued the devil resulting in the Tier 1 Striogi, the tier 1 race, which most often matures into vampires.

  “Weakling little lord. You expect to go against the god of the night with this pitiful strength.” It hissed at Akor before suddenly pulling the knife. Akor didn’t let it go and was thrown with one arm by the Strigoi towards a half lit pile of cinders.

  Akor looked at the creature in the darkness before taking out the Bolas and quickly tossing at it.

  He grinned and didn’t even move as it was wrapped by the bolas. “Your pitiful tricks work only on weaklings.” He said as his body turned into black smoke, the bolas fell down and he reformed. “The god of the night protects us!” he said and rushed at him.

  Akor was getting ready to fight.

  The Strigoi swung its claw at Akor, who swung his knife at it to block and stopped it. Thankfully, the buff he gained recently had evened out Akor’s own stats with the one of these invading creatures, but he didn’t have combat experience. He was never the one to look for a fight, so he was sorely lacking in fighting ability.

  That said, the most unexpected thing happened. Out of nowhere, an imp appeared behind the bat demon with a large club. The most distinct feature of this Imp was the lack of its leg from the knee down. It was the crippled imp that had nearly died in the first attack.

  Its eyes were shining with a savage light and it moved with an eerie silence as it swung the hammer.

  “AHHHHHHH!” it roared as its body muscles suddenly doubled in size and steam came out of its body, before it swung its club.

  BANG! CRACK!

  [Strigoi Level 4 0/140] Fatal hit!

  [Imp Level 3 1/40] Berserk backlash

  The head of the Strigoi completely broke at the neck, with half the head caved in and it was sent flying close to 4 meters away.

  Fatal hits were as their name said, fatal. Depending on the kind of fatal hit, it could instantly kill a creature, but there were conditions. First it needs to be an attack on a vital part, it needed to have enough power and it had to be a weak point.

  The reason the imp was able to achieve was as the indicator said, he went berserk. Imps are the original demon race, but strangely, they are the race of demons who least go into berserk state, but they have the true berserk mode. For other races, they become enraged and get a buff of a certain increase’s amount during a time, but imps don’t. They literally burn their HP for a one time critical attack. The backlash can almost kill them, but it always leaves them with 1 hp. Depending on how much HP is consumed, the higher the damage. It previously had only 21 hp and used 20 hp to go berserk. It's added a x5 buff to its attack. It had a Forged Stone club, which gives 12 damage and it had 6 strength. The base attack is 18, but multiply that by five is 60.

  That would not normally make a fatal hit, but it also got Stealth attack bonus, which doubles damage if successfully attacking an unaware enemy pushing the damage to 120. The final 20 damage came from the fact that Akor chipped the hp of the Strigoi in the two collisions, and because there was a slightly higher damage attributed to the fact that it attacked the dead. All in all, it was a one hit kill.

  The imp fell limp, barely alive, but it absorbed all the exp for itself.

  Akor looked at it before quickly turning and deciding there, “KILL THEM ALL!”

  The imps all reacted and dropped their capture tools. All of them pulled out forged stone weapons and surged like an angry tide against all the enemy, especially the Strigoi, who appeared like a shadow and several imps activated their berserk to kill these pesky demons.

  Akor just helped the one legged imp to a safe spot and watched the battle conclude.

  Chapter 16

  Battle report

  Your nameless minion has killed a Devil Level 3 and gained 70 exp

  Your nameless minion has killed a Devil Level 3 and gained 70 exp

  Your nameless minion has killed a Devil Level 4 and gained 90 exp

  Your nameless minion has killed a Strigoi Level 4 and gained 100 exp

  …

  You have gained 475 exp

  You have leveled up

  Akor wasn’t happy in the least with leveling up or killing all his enemy. He was now level 3 and 2 levels from being kicked out of the Tutorial zone. He really wanted to use his time as best as possible, but looking at the number of enemy compared to the first time, he knew that it was going to be hard.

  He remembered that there were safeguards for new players, but he didn’t know all the facts. For one, the fact that the invasion rate was small and depending on his total population. That means the more villages he makes the more enemies that can enter.

  Another thing that left him distressed was the casualties. 30 imps died from that sneak attack and because the Strigoi were a magic user race. Although they were greatly limited by the level limit, they were a close range magic user race. Akor felt this close up, when it easily flung him while still using magic to blend into the night.

  Fighting was obviously his weakest point, he had no skill and was never into fighting. These two wave-like attacks made him keenly aware that it was very dangerous to remain outside of a village without a proper army.

  The imps were simply too undisciplined and he was no better with combat based management. He suddenly remembered the face of a certain someone and raised a brow.

  He decided that he would first capture and make the next village first.

  The rest of the night had no more attacks, while the 30 dead were buried. There were half of the survivors, who were majorly injured and had to rest a long time.

  By morning, most of them had fully healed besides the ones with missing limbs. Akor was very thankful to the one legged one. The injured were finally healed and Akor looked at the remaining 50 odd imps. A number of ropes were cut, but he had made many extra for such a case if it were to happen with the monster.

  He decided that he would continue to hunt. He successfully took one of the mana springs with fewer before and a lot less preparations, so how could he fail this time?

  He pushed the imps the next morning and they reached the mana spring. It was in a rare space of flatter land in the middle of the mountains. The mountains were a longer distance apart and the valley river crossed right next to it. The mana pool itself was only about 60 meters from the waters edge, making this a perfect place for food production, even more so than Sanity, but what really made this place interesting was that the first true trees could be seen nearby. The wild life was also more vibrant with many more monsters and animals as well as fish being available.

  The difficulty of this village would be that it was at the bottom of a valley. Anyone from a higher vantage point would definitely make defending rough, meaning he would have to set up the defense early. Thankfully, this area had a lot of wood, which would be slowly extracted as the foresters worked.

  As for the creatures inhabiting this area, it was actually a large pack of wolves. It had no alpha, but the average level was level 4, but they were all animals.

  Akor looked at them from far and thought a while before deciding to tame them. He would do this now, because the wolves weren’t common wolves. They were the famous Dire Wolves, they were twice as big as normal wolves, but they were considered animals by the system and not monsters. The distinct difference of animals and monsters is the ability to instinctively use magic. Animals have skills, but only by becoming a monster they gain mana, which is the main reason beast-men are powerful physical fighters, but they never have a magic user.

  These would actually be a great mount and would make the best ‘cavalry’ or at least the basic form of one. It was actually something Akor wanted to do to the goats, since they have their ‘rush’ skill, which would make a great cavalry charge skill. The difference could even be between heavy and light cavalry.

  There were 20 wolves and 53 capable imps, so without any waiting, Akor just ordered them to capture the wolves.

  Some imps worked as bait and the others ambushed the wolves coming after them. Akor obviously organized this plan and watched from higher up.

  The wolves were lead to the nearby woods and when they entered, the imps threw the bolas and dropped lasso on them.

  The wolves were suddenly pulled, scrambled and all rapidly collapsed with the trap.

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22