Shooting fish in a barrel was fitting description for what was happening. Pull the trigger, a bullet sings and finds its target, not a second later, I eject the spent casing and chamber a new round. Rinse and repeat. A pair of soldiers wielding shields protected me. Taking arrows with their stone shields like true champs. The simple wooden arrows clattered uselessly against their shields.

  In this moment, here and now, I was a god. My weapon was my judgement. Each pull of a trigger, a sentence. A bullet, which was death. Again and again, I fired and fired. I quickly racked up quite the kill count. The creatures… odd things they were, they looked like men, covered in pulsing red-black vines. Their faces covered in white masks that looked like they were made of white bark.

  They were made of flesh and blood, that much was obvious. Even shot in the head, their bodies would lurch forward. The vines that covered them would take control of the corpse, forcing it to move according to their whims. Seeking sustenance, the vines would dig in. Sucking the body dry for greater power. The vines coming alive into a true monstrosity.

  Their head was not their weakness. Their heart was, or where their heart was located. It was covered in a coating, not unlike a seed’s shell. From there, the vine took root, working throughout the body, strengthening them, feeding off them.

  The oddest part perhaps, was how they looked. The vines, though red-black and pulsing, gave them an appearance that I could only call, like a basket due to how the vines weaved and covered their bodies. Like they were wicker men. Perhaps that was a fitting name if any.

  As the sun began to set, the assault petered out. As we accounted for the damage and our losses, the results were not nearly as bad as they should have been.

  Diva had been hit with an arrow. They had targeted her after her first scream, showing that they had a semblance of intelligence. It wasn’t anywhere lethal, even if it had been, I imagine our empowered bodies could have handled it.

  To what extent, I didn’t want to find out.

  Both Terra and Ruth knew first aid. We also had a surplus of medical supplies, each of us having brought our own kits and the compound having its own supply of medical supplies. Wounds were swiftly bandaged and fixed up. Food was prepped.

  We shared what we saw, what we knew. It wasn’t beyond what I had already observed, though…

  “Why did it take over a week before they even attacked?” I asked the question that bothered me the most. Nobody had a direct answer.

  At best, Faust had a guess of his own. “Maybe they were making preparations?”

  Nobody saw fault in that, so, we accepted it. Also, we agreed that we would call them Wicker Men. If only because the other names were, not so great. That night, none of us slept all too well.

  No trouble came. Nor did it arrive when morning came. I went back to finishing the bamboo javelins and when Terra woke up…

  “I’m going to kick the corpses into the pit.” She looked at me like I was crazy but just shrugged. And said…

  “I got your back.”

  Knowing someone had my back, I left out the main gate, that the soldiers unbarred for me, and made my way out towards the battlefield. Rifle in hand, I went about stabbing or shooting the bodies, making sure they were truly dead.

  Terrifyingly, I wasn’t sure if they had been dead or not, even after shooting them or stabbing them. After all, they’d still twitch no matter how many times I finished them off. Expecting a jump scare of sorts, I was both incredibly relieved and a mite disappointed that none of them actually jumped me. After double tapping the bodies, sometimes even triple tapping if I still wasn’t sure with a satisfying series of stabs, I would proceed to kick them into the corpse pit that was our moat, and yet, nothing happened.

  This… this took a lot of time. Lunch came and went, and only when it was evening did, I finally get back. Outside, clothes had been set to sun dry, with us having been out here a full week, it was about time we began the process of cleaning our clothes. We helped bring in the articles of clothing and separate whose clothes belonged to whom. Then, dinner.

  That night, there was no trouble, though… In the middle of the night, Diva woke me up.

  “I hear something…” At her words, I followed her out to the rampart and in the distance, there was smoke. It was thick and choking smoke. Smoke that climbed into the sky and blotted out the stars and moon. I could smell it from here, the smell of blood and fire.

  It rankled my nose, but I didn’t know exactly what to do with it. Nor did I want to wake everyone over this. Instead, I stayed awake throughout the night. As shifts changed, I informed them what I knew and carried on. As morning came…

  It felt like night; the sky above was blotted out by dark clouds. For once, perhaps the first time since it had come into existence, I was actually enjoying the presence of the eerie flaming eye floating above our compound. The light it gave us kept the compound lit and us out of the darkness.

  With the sun blotted out, it was difficult telling what time it was. Still, our biological clocks worked to an extent. Plus, I still had my watch, which still worked.

  At some point, the smoke had stopped rising from the distance, but that didn’t make me, or anyone else, feel better. The air smelled of smoke and blood. The black clouds above had an ominous crimson tinge to them. Not just that, but a wind picked up, signifying a coming storm.

  Still, instead of twiddling my thumbs in worry, I began to work on the next unit of soldiers. Another group of swordsmen was in the cards. Equipped with square shaped stone shields, and short swords reminiscent of a gladius, they were more roman legionnaire then proper eastern. But it worked.

  Throughout the day, the oni would oversee drills and marches. Which was curious, but I noticed, they did serve a purpose. Which made me wonder, it had been a month since I had last seen Cobalt. Was he practicing on his own? Swinging his blade a thousand times a day? Or just idling, waiting for a command?

  And of my ice soldiers, should I do more to train them? Especially if I do upgrade to mannequin or doll type soldiers? Does it matter?

  Time would tell, and… there was no better time than now. The day rode on without much issue, though, the wind did pick up. With it, came the rumble of thunder, and flashes of crimson lightning. By the time we entered the house for the evening, it began to rain. It began to rain blood.

  The blood was corrosive and hot. It ate away at everything. The stone soldiers huddled under eaves and cover. With the oni creating simple shelters to protect them. The building and walls were more or less fine under the onslaught. Though, the very building hummed with power as it flowed along the channels Faust had made and Terra had reinforced.

  The night wore on. Crimson lightning crackled, often striking the tower and the flaming eye. Faust had a sleepless night, constantly worrying over the work he had done to get the eye going. The rest of us struggled to sleep as the rain fell like bricks, the sound of rushing water in our ears, broken up by the cracks of thunder.

  Looking out a window, I witnessed crimson lightning flash against the wall and building multiple times. Leaving worrying blackened marks, yet, the wall and structures held in the end.

  With morning, the storm abated to all of our relief. The damage was taken in as we went over the compound. There were worrying scars, but oddly…

  “Huh…” Faust was the first to figure it out. “I don’t know what that was, but whatever it did strengthened our defenses.”

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  Indeed, somehow, after surviving the tribulation, the fortifications had actually grown stronger. The ley line with it. Though, marginally at best. Most of the damage had been slowly healed, and what hadn’t healed, was swiftly healed over the day.

  The stone soldiers I had made had been set aside, and protected from the rain at some point, to which I made sure to send my gratitude to the oni, both verbally and mentally.

  Nobody appeared worse for wear, if anything, everyone seemed chipper, better, stronger in some fundamental way, well, except for us.

  Was that intentional? I don’t think it was supposed to be. Even the corpse pit had a new bloody element to it, in the form of an ankle high pool of blood sitting inside. The blood was frigid, due to my own magic inhabiting the pit, frigid and still very corrosive.

  I checked it over, but… I don’t think there was an issue.

  The clouds above persisted, giving way to a slight drizzling of rain. The surroundings were made into a bloody marsh, a not so pleasant sight to see. Not just, but hopefully the rain would wash away the smell. But if anything, it just made the blood hiss and sizzle, creating a bloody fog.

  The last casualty, or addition, was the eye. The flaming eye hovering above our tower. It now had strands of crimson inside it. Which, really, just made it even creepier.

  Really… it just felt like whatever they did empowered us, was there another reason for doing this? I couldn’t tell. It really did feel like a massive miss.

  After our meal we shared what we learned, each of us were equally stumped. Faust posited that what we faced was some kind of large-scale ritual, to what end he wasn’t sure, though, if we hadn’t fortified our base, the walls would have been corroded away.

  Which really just came down too… they miscalculated. Having survived, our base had absorbed the excess energy, thus growing in power. It was the best explanation we had… and it did make some sense. Had my oni not made simple structures out of earth, my soldiers could have all been worn away as well. Now, now they were stronger for having survived, even containing a trace of crimson energy… though…

  Was that really all?

  None of us knew. Faust though, did have good news.

  “The eye should be fully charged tomorrow.”

  It was coming close to two weeks since we had been here. There were talks about cutting our food consumption, but nobody seemed to be in a hurry to do so. If anything, we would discuss it once two weeks had actually passed.

  That night, Diana sensed something on the periphery… We all exited out, it was still raining, the gentle rumble of thunder accompanying us, along with the howling wind.

  “There’s… something out there…” Diana said, Terra agreed. But… even as the lightning flashed, we couldn’t quite catch what it was. Eventually whatever it was that caught their attention left. Leaving us feeling concerned and worried as we went back to sleep.

  Morning arrived and with it, the sun. The eye above pulsed with power, the flames making up its form grew ever brighter as if branding itself upon creation. Announcing that the eye was now fully charged and ready.

  The moment it did, I had my new soldiers placed on the parade ground, which had survived the corrosion. Whatever energy in the rain that had bled in, hastened the creation of new soldiers. In a sense, it slightly had refilled the ley line’s reserves, just enough for another squad.

  The day came and went. Nothing alerted Diana or Terra, bt that didn’t ease our concerns.

  On the thirteenth day, it happened. I was awake and alert, doing my watch. The morning sun had peeked over the horizon, marking the start of a new day. Bathing the world in glorious gold. The air still smelled of blood, but it was slowly being worked away by the sunshine.

  Amidst all of this, the earth shook. A steady, low thrum. The kind of thrum that would announce the arrival of something big, like a dinosaur, had I a glass of water it would definitely be shaking with each thump. Sensing trouble, I rushed to the rampart and was greeted by everyone raring to go.

  What wounds had been accrued after the first assault, had long healed.

  The soldiers moved with purpose, my oni directing them. I conjured my rifle and began to conjure rounds and clips. I waited on the side where the sound was coming from. Setting the filled clips by my feet as I created a variety of rounds for a variety of purposes.

  Had there been birds, they would have flown en masse as the bamboo shook. The sound of something huge approaching reached our ears, the very ground shaking under our feet. Terra seemed unsure, though, she kept working to fortify our base, and she swore, at this point, if the world fell away, we alone would stand, such was the foundation she had built.

  Diva stood at the ready, though, she looked nervous, unsure. Ruth seemed unconcerned, but her hands gripped her metal bat. She was wearing gloves, and her letterman jacket. I could see the glimpse of weights on her body, the metal peeking out from underneath.

  Faust was inside the tower, coordinating the defenses and controlling the giant eye. And I… I was ready to shoot.

  The bamboo shook. The earth shook. The sound of leaves being moved aside reached our ears, along with the creaking of bamboo as something just pushed on through. The moment that thing breached past the tree line, we all, as one, froze.

  It was a titan. Rather, it was a monstrous creature that towered above even the compound walls. Its height alone nearly brought it on par with our four-story tower. A mini kaiju of sorts.

  It was a horrible thing. red-black pulsing vines, twisted into an entity. It bled with every step. Leaving weeping, corrosive blood in its wake. It walked, not like a man but a beast, or rather, almost like a kind of demonic stag. It had antlers made up of thick bark, only made up of white bone. In a way, it looked like a skinned stag with its skull exposed, its eye sockets carried inside a multitude of crimson flames that flickered and spat. It opened its mouth, revealing a bloody maw filled with bone white teeth and a tongue made up of countless writhing roots twined together.

  The scream that came out of its mouth shook us, one and all to the core. It didn’t sound like a single being, it sounded like countless souls all screaming out in a single, long, drawn out, tortured cry.

  The ice crawled over my mind. Toughening it, chasing away the numbing fear and terror. With purpose, I reached down and grabbed a clip, a clip of explosive rounds. I slipped it in, loading up my rifle and discarding the clip after use. With a round chambered, I aimed just a bit high.

  As the creature loomed. A cloud of crimson haze hovered around it. Reaching forward, almost as if grasping for something, anything to consume. Inside, I saw figures moving, almost dancing.

  Wicker Men. Which meant, this would be a Wicker Beast, would it not?

  Calmly, I squeezed the trigger. The bullet sang its high tone, followed by the low baritone tone. The tone pitched up, then down as it hit its apex. Then, the bullet hit. Right in the eye.

  All at once, the horrible majesty of the beast before us shuddered. The explosion of ice and shrapnel immediately defaced the unholy icon, revealing white bone underneath the vined flesh. It let out a tortured scream, it reeled back… Then… It burned.

  The eye above, shifted at that moment. Its eyes focused on the entity. The pupil briefly dilated, expanding before focusing on the beast. Then, a beam of blinding blue and crimson energy shot out.

  If the beast had screamed before, now it truly sang. It burned under the eye. Vaporizing before our eyes. Incensed, the Wicker Men charged. Uncaring for life or limb. My shots fired and sang, high and low, impacting those it could. They did not dodge, nor did they hide. With undying zeal, with maddened fervor they charged across the field.

  With each shot fired, with each ejected spent casing, scores died. Clip after clip was fed into my rifle’s magazine. Round after round fired. At my feet, were dozens if not more. Yet, the Wicker Men showed no sign of abating. They climbed and clawed at the walls. Demanding all of our attention, but still, the oni and a few soldiers kept an eye on our rear.

  This couldn’t be it. This couldn’t be all. And it wasn’t.

  Near the tree line, figures stepped out. Rail thin, bodies covered in a black bark, with red lines running through. They wore white masks as if made of bone, their eyes glowed a malevolent red, like they were spirits, not men. They wielded effigies, totems of a sort, weaving an unknown magic.

  The magic gave new life to downed vines. With their Wicker Beast dead, scorched black to nothing, having expended all of the eye’s power in a single fit of righteous indignation, Faust had completely purged the unholy thing from creation.

  Yet, with their magic, the casters at the back moved and swayed, giving life to the downed Wicker Men, the vines covering their forms slowly gathered and converged, slowly flowing back to the burnt-out corpse of the beast.

  They were trying to revive it.

  No… what was more terrifying, was that they could.

  With a single mental command, I ordered their death. Every captain immediately shuddered. They reached for the bamboo spears they kept at their side. Their subordinates, fellow kin protected them as they cocked back their arms… and loosed.

  With a crack, a whistle, the bamboo javelins shot out. With precise aim, they struck. Gouging out the Wicker Shamans’ hearts, each javelin having found a home without fail. Unfortunately… there were more than just three.

  With three dead, the shaman’s efforts were stymied. All at once, they grew cautious. As another volley was sent over, one managed to dodge, another had their arm sheared off, and the third was struck and pinned to the ground, but didn’t die still.

  I followed up with a piercing round, the shot whistled its high-pitched tune. Being the longest range of all my bullets, its target the shaman’s heart and its aim, was true…

  Only…

  Just before the bullet could reach its destined fate, something stepped forward. A taller figure. Black skin covered in dark red lines. Eyes a bloody red. They wore a simple, white skull mask over their face. Leaving their mouth open. Their body covered in simple clothing and attire. In their hands was a white bone blade, a blade, that so easily slapped aside my bullet.

  Clicking my tongue, our eyes met. A flicker of recognition, a wide, smile on their lips told me all I needed to know.

  The man, the figure, brought his fingers to his lips and let out a harsh whistle. All at once, the enemy about faced. Scrambling in the dirt, and they fled. Leaving a field of corpses, leaving behind the body of their Wicker Beast, and… leaving us wholly shaken.

  After all, without a doubt, that man, that thing was Gold Ranked.