A lot of the frontliners were down. He could still see Michael up and quite a few of the mages – those with high Mind attributes.

  He saw Allison run forward to stand over Anne, who was down, and transform into [Mother Bear] to tangle with one of the Drakniks.

  One was uncontested and tearing into humans that were stunned by the Mind attack. The only thing that kept them alive was that the five Drakniks who had launched that attack apparently needed some recovery time as well.

  As Michael moved to help Allison, Ben leaped at the other rampaging Draknik. He deliberately left himself open and went for the kill. The monster crossed their arms and then the appendages above it to block the slash.

  It proved that the new axe could cut through a lot but not everything. He managed to sever the two appendages but not the arms.

  The Draknik retaliated with a vicious strike on Ben’s shoulder but the True Iron held, and the armor triggered, pushing the monster a step back, creating an opening for Ben to strike with a full powered slice that almost cleaved the Draknik in two.

  Six.

  With a quick glance he saw that his mother, Michael, and a couple of mages had managed to slay the other Draknik.

  Five.

  Unfortunately, the five Drakniks had recovered, but the rest of their people hadn’t.

  Ben took a deep breath, took two steps, and leaped at the group of monsters.

  The Draknik closest to him was ready. All four upper-body limbs struck at him from different angles and Ben got ready for the inevitable pain.

  A golden shield appeared before him to block them all.

  He saw Jamal still hunkering on the ground, too weak to get up, but he had raised his shield arm and triggered [Bulwark Stance].

  Ben did not hesitate. This was the moment for [Unyielding Retribution].

  He sliced diagonally bottom to top. His axe took on a golden sheen and the Draknik almost disintegrated.

  Four.

  Ben didn’t acknowledge the feat, didn’t pause – he simply kept moving forward. He managed to cut one more appendage, but the Drakniks rallied and he felt the pressure. Felt the cuts landing on him despite his armor, despite his Constitution.

  Slowly the number of ranged attacks increased as people got back on their feet, even if unsteady.

  A huge, shaggy bear-like creature, bigger than any bear living on Earth a few months ago, appeared by his side. It looked similar to the silver bear that would envelope his mother when she triggered [Mother Bear], but it was real and it tore into the Drakniks.

  It didn’t last long, but it provided a moment of respite that Ben used to trade another blow for a decapitating slice against one of his enemies.

  Three.

  Anne appeared behind one of the Drakniks he had been battling. If not for [Perceptive Mind], he wouldn’t have been able to see the [Flurry of Blows] she unleased for a few seconds, her fists and feet and elbows glowing golden as she landed blow after blow.

  Her Tier 1 strength did not suffice to kill the monster, but it weakened and distracted it sufficiently for two other fighters to use the opening and down the Draknik with targeted attacks against its legs. Michael’s targeted attack was sufficient to end it. But not fast enough to prevent them from landing a devastating attack on one of the fighters.

  Two.

  A flame lance, an ice bolt, and an arrow that split itself into three golden glowing projectiles at the last moment, arrived simultaneously, carving open another opening that Ben could use.

  One.

  It did not seem to matter to the Draknik that they were the last – but it did rally the humans to give it their all.

  Surrounding the monster led to its quick downfall.

  Zero.

  At least in this camp.

  Ben dreaded tallying their losses, but it couldn’t be helped. They needed to get wounded to their healers as soon as possible.

  Fortunately, most of those on the ground were wounded or still suffering from the aftereffects of the mental attack. But most wasn’t all.

  With the help of his team and a few others, like the SEALs, they quickly identified those in need of quick help and those beyond. In the end, nine people had died, most from the single rampaging Draknik in the aftermath of the Mind attack, four of those were from the Protectorate.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  Ben needed a few deep breaths to have the mental strength to not delve into his grief now. He knew how hard it would be to tell Jane that one of her grandsons had died, but he also knew that if he lost it now, more would die.

  They directed those who were still mentally slightly impaired but physically fit to carry those most hurt down towards the healers.

  Once that was done, Ben stood to the side of the battlefield with his team and the three SEALs who had made it largely unscathed. One of them had been hurt during his failed backstab attempt and was on his way to Barry and the healers.

  “That could have gone a lot worse,” Joe said.

  Ben shrugged, unwilling to dig into the question as his natural inclination was to blame himself for any mistakes that might have led to the death of his people.

  “Where did you see the three conducting the ritual?”

  Joe pointed further to the right. “If you go that way, the caldera edge flattens so that you can see into it, but it’s just too hot, and the air is probably poisonous as well.”

  “Given what we saw at the beginning of the fight ranged is not going to do as much good,” Allison weighed in.

  Ben nodded, “we need to find a way in. I am reasonably sure that I can withstand the heat and air. But alone against three of them might be a bit too much…”

  “Let’s ask the group whether there are people that have heat resistances as perks – and maybe there are mages that can help with the air as well,” Allison advised.

  They asked those remaining and they found three people who volunteered based on their perks.

  The first was the mage with the staff, who had killed one Draknik at the beginning of the fight with a massive [Lightning Bolt]. His name was Akira, he was in his early thirties, and he said that he couldn’t cast the [Lightning Bolt] again soon, but that he had other perks that could deal significant damage.

  The other two were from the group that had approached Ben after they were allocated to group one. The leader with the large hammer as a weapon, Ashish, and the woman with the knives, Vaishali. They said that they had been in a burning building on Arrival Day and had both received [Fire Resistance] at the time, which also helped against heat and the associated pollution.

  Four wasn’t a lot. But if he could use [Unyielding Retribution] – assuming it was off cooldown again – and the lightning mage could at least stun one of the Drakniks, it should be doable. He hoped.

  Despite all that had happened, it was barely more than an hour since the last message from the systems, they should be on time.

  As they got closer to the caldera, it was not just the heat that was rising but also the Energy density. This was the level of the Grove of Silent Sentinels. Quite a bit higher than in the settlement.

  Ben felt his Body and Constitution hard at work. Not just dealing with the heat but also processing the pollution that he took in with every breath, despite the piece of cloth he had tied across his nose and mouth.

  Vents spouted hot air and gas and on the other side of the caldera he could see where the lava bombs must have had their origin. A small sea of red-amber lava blubbering.

  It looked like how one might imagine hell.

  The Drakniks were pretty much in the center of the caldera on a small hill of basalt stone.

  They were facing each other with their shoulder appendages touching in the middle. A shimmering distortion in the air made it hard to see what happened, if anything.

  They had discussed their simple strategy beforehand. Ben and Ashish would frontline and tank, Vaishali would jump in and out, dealing damage with her knives, and Akira would unleash whatever magic he still had in the tank.

  The path toward the Drakniks was a slog. The heat, the air, the Energy density. Fortunately, the Drakniks did not notice them or were too preoccupied with their ritual to shoot their force bolts at them.

  When they were about six meters from the group, Akira unleashed a storm of tiny lightning bolts that crackled from the sky in a circular area around the Drakniks.

  Gravel was kicked up and the air smelled full of static. The Drakniks were ripped out of their ritual and some wounds appeared on their blue skin, but unfortunately, none of them was taken out of the fight.

  Ben and Ashish sprinted forward, Vaishali close on their heels. The duo focused on the right most Draknik, while Ben focused on the middle one.

  He entered range and opened with a left-to-right attack. The Draknik managed to get one appendage between his chest and the axe and managed to stop the swing, but at the cost of his pincer on that secondary arm.

  Ben ducked a retaliatory attack from his opponent but almost cried out loudly as the Draknik to his left managed slice deep into his back. The pain was intense and he could feel blood streaming down his body.

  Whether it was his growing combat experience or his high Mind stat, he retained enough awareness to make use of the setback.

  He triggered [Unyielding Retribution] and used his whole body to turn towards the creature and swing from right to left, slicing through arm and chest.

  One fewer Draknik.

  However, his original opponent was not deterred and managed to slice deep into his armor and the underlying obliques.

  It was at this point that Akira, who had circled the hill they were fighting on, stepped forward and, despite the danger to himself, put his hand on the Draknik’s back and triggered an enormous electric shock that had the Draknik smoke and, more importantly, tense up.

  Despite his blood loss and increasing weakness, Ben did not let the opportunity pass by. He closed in and managed to place an attack on the creature’s neck.

  Two down.

  He desperately needed a breath of fresh air to recover from the wounds and during the fight [Resilient Body] did not help his body dealing with the poisonous and Energy-dense surroundings.

  But there was no time.

  Ashish and Vaishali were fighting against the remaining Draknik and things did not look good. Ashish was bleeding from a chest wound and Vaishali’s attacks seemed to do limited damage against the void-born creature.

  Ben staggered forward, pouring his last strength into a swing that cut out the Draknik’s leg. Ashish’s hammer ended the fight.

  The man yelled loudly in celebration of their victory and did a little dance, moving closer to Ben and Akira that stood close together.

  Ben looked down at his wounds and partially shredded armor. He felt lightheaded. For some reason, [Resilient Body] had not triggered yet.

  “Ben! Behind y…”

  The Drakniks were dead. Ben didn’t know what had prompted Akira’s yell.

  He felt a piercing pain between his shoulder blades and sank to his knees. He saw Ashish’s hammer land with a crushing blow on Akira’s chest.

  Another piercing pain close to the first, followed by a kick in the back that drove him crashing to the ground, without the strength to get back up.

  “Come on, quick. I just want the axe, that’s all.” Ben heard Ashish as he felt his axe being pulled from his hand and his body was losing the fight against unconsciousness.