"The eldest has laid claim on your head." One said.
"The rest are ours." The other said. "We will feast on their bones."
"Yes, we shall—"
Sarah didn't care for their conversation and flashed forward with her dashing Skill. The first that'd spoken attempted to escape and raised its claws to block her, but Sarah's axe struck true. With her Strength and Skills, she cut through its magically strengthened fingers and lopped the monologuing monster's skull from its shoulders.
"Suck it!" She shouted as she closed in on the other wendigo. Now that it was sufficiently prepared, though, it sent waves of frost wardingly at TJ and Sarah as it disengaged. It tried to flee, but Farid launched a pair of spears into its legs. It leaned down and grabbed an errant pukwudgie corpse into its arms. TJ and Sarah pushed forward, trying to kill it before it could make its escape.
It let out a wordless scream of fear and rage, causing ice to shoot out in every direction from the creature. TJ raised the Shroud in front of himself to cover and protect his face from the sharpened shards. As soon as he could see clearly again, he saw the wendigo fleeing. It leaned down and took a bite from the pukwudgie corpse, causing the spears lodged in its legs to fall free. The Elites on this side of the fort dealt with, TJ turned his attention to the rest of the mundane monsters.
Two of the walls had large holes broken in them. Pukwudgies swarmed over three struggling Participant bodies, and TJ whipped the Spear through the air to create a 20 foot-long scythe of wind. He threw it forward and bisected a dozen of the creatures. Every thought he'd had of holding back for the benefit of others was washed away as the three Participants buried in pukwudgies went limp. Elsewhere, the pukwudgies and wendigo-bred coyotes took note of how the battle's balance was shifting. Several of the weakest Participants had been swarmed, and TJ knew that there were deaths. But, as the strongest Participants killed the monsters occupying them, they turned to slaughter those harming their fellows.
The four intelligent types of monsters went to flee, including the two Elites that TJ could see. They retreated, leaving hundreds of monster corpses behind, and the Participants didn't let them leave without their pound of flesh. On the other hand, there were two types of genuinely stupid monsters that didn't care about the odds or how much support they got from the other monsters. Javelinas savaged whatever they could reach, but since their charge was long over, they were quickly dispatched. On the other hand were the Gila Monstrosities.
He hadn't noticed that there were several of the Monstrosities that had broken into the fort. Three lay dead and two more remained fighting. Before TJ could get there, Jeff threw himself from a dozen feet away on top of one. He stabbed repeatedly with a thick hunting knife, and the beast screamed in rage as one of its eyes was punctured. Its companion went to rip the weaker Zealot off but others came to his aid. Everywhere else, dead and dying monsters filled the fort, but so too were there heavily injured or even dead Participants.
As TJ watched, Stanton raised his pistol and it transformed to a rifle in his hands. He squeezed a single shot off and the Raven Mocker, trying to escape, exploded in a ball of feathers. Lailani did… something TJ couldn't understand, and a puff of mist exploded into wisps of smoke that disappeared. The Elites defeated, the rest of the rabble monsters tried to escape, rushing over and through the walls however they could.
"Kill as many as you can!" TJ commanded as he lunged out with his Spear. It cut easily through every monster it reached, but his inexperience and lack of any Skill to guide his strikes kept him from being nearly as effective as any Zealot or Acolyte. While he paced himself on slaughtering the creatures, he watched Molly go absolutely ballistic. As a Lightning Dog, she leapt out of the safety of the walls and ravaged everything she could reach. Her snarls were punctuated by claps of thunder, and TJ hoped she was safe as she slew everything she could reach.
While he worried what had set her off, TJ saw Tessie rise from the ground. She was covered in still dripping blood, but it was obvious she'd been assisted by a Disciple as she raised her hand and her Sacred Weapon bow appeared in her hands. Wiping blood from her eyes, the teenager started drawing and shooting with reckless abandon. Though she missed frequently, with dozens of pukwudgies fleeing as the Participants rallied, several of the goblins died to her attacks.
Groans of pain filled the air as the last of the attackers within the fort were slain. TJ decided he'd had enough of the monsters, and turning to Stanton, called out, "I'm going out, if you can keep people here safe for three minutes."
Stanton merely nodded, the brim of his cowboy hat darkening his face as he looked at the massacre around them. TJ leapt out of the cover of the fort and activated Divine Transformation and Divine Manifestation on Wind Manipulation. His MP dropped faster than ever, with the enhanced Silver tier Skill pairing with Manifestation, but the wind and skies screamed their rage in conjunction with TJ. A maelstrom descended from the heavens, surrounding the entire fort. The visibly whipping winds compressed for a moment before exploding outward in a blade two feet off the ground.
TJ's vision flashed with dozens and hundreds of kill notifications as his hasty rage bisected everything in its way. Two tiers of Divinity lay between the rabble and TJ's Skill, and throwing everything that his Class, Skills, and Divine Authority had at the enemy shredded them mercilessly. The raging tempest of wind drowned out every other sound, whether it was the cries of the pukwudgies or the groans of pain from the Participants. Nearly as fast as it'd begun, though, the manifestation of a god's rage died and TJ collapsed to the ground.
He remained in his coatl form, laying on the ground. He'd gained another level in each his Class, Occupation, and Race, and more than ever, he missed the healing and refilling of his resources with a new level from outside of this damn siege. Looking at it, his MP had been entirely depleted by that move, and more than the headaches and discomfort that getting close to empty had been, this was agony. His head throbbed with each heartbeat and his whole body ached. More than merely being wrung out, he felt as if a giant had grabbed him by his head with one hand and, with the other, held him tight at the neck and squoze everything down his entire length.
"Shit." Sarah called from the fort. "I didn't know that was an option!"
She, Molly, and Stanton jogged over to TJ. "You gonna live, sensei?" Molly asked with a hopeful smile.
"I'll live. That took everything out of me and I need some real rest now."
Stanton merely grunted and bent down. After looking TJ up and down, the old man said, "You gonna change back or what, kid?"
It took a surprising amount of mental effort to deactivate Divine Transformation, and when he did, for the first time in weeks, TJ shifted back with his clothes all in a disarray, his Spear, Shroud, and Remnant on the ground beside him. Fortunately, he'd managed to keep his underwear on, but everything else needed to be rearranged. TJ groaned as he realized it.
"You must really be tired!" Molly said as she averted her gaze. "I haven't had that problem in a long time!"
"Me neither." TJ groaned and closed his eyes tight, even the muffled light from above the storming clouds hurting him. "Stanton, help me get my pants on? I can't really look."
"Sure, kid. Put your leg here?" TJ had almost thought his friend would give him a hard time, to tease or mock, but he got none of that. Instead, Stanton was kind, patient, and experienced in helping someone dress themselves. TJ remembered how Marva had died, and realized that Stanton must have been her primary caretaker to the end. Fortunately, the light rain hid any tears that might have wet his cheeks thinking of that.
A minute later, TJ had pants on and he didn't care about the rest for now. All that he needed to do was to get behind the walls and let himself recover much more than he could out here. As Sarah and Stanton supported his faltering steps back to within the bounds of the fort, TJ swallowed hard and asked the question that he needed to.
"How many?"
"Not sure." Stanton replied, his voice barely above a whisper. Without asking, he still knew what TJ was asking about. "At least five, but I'd guess ten. The Disciples are doing their best, though, and I'll help out however I can once we get you back to safety."
TJ took a shuddering breath. Then another. And a third.
"Should… I have done more? Should I have tried to kill them all like that as soon as they appeared?"
"Maybe." Sarah responded easily. "It could have helped save lives right now. Do you think you could have killed all of them when they appeared?"
"Maybe?" he replied, his head pounding in agony.
"Really? I thought you were smart enough for that to have been a no." Sarah looked down at TJ as he answered. "Maybe you're a little delusional, because you didn't kill all of them right now. You sure cut down most of them, but all? Not even. If you can't kill half of them when they're running away, why do you think you'd be able to get them all?"
"Slowing them down—"
"Wouldn't have done shit." Stanton interrupted. "People need to get stronger. We've been in a garden until now, but now, we're in the jungle, and it's trying to kill everyone. I'm sorry it got some people, but there's no way we'd all have survived this."
TJ forced himself to nod. Then, as he was helped through the shattered remains of the southern wall, TJ looked at the devastation that surrounded him. Walls were shattered, hundreds of dead monster bodies filled the space, and human injured and deceased filled the space. TJ witnessed the wounded, their suffering, but he forced himself to look at the seven dead. Flesh had been ripped from their bones, and pukwudgie spear puncture wounds filled their torsos. Faces screwed up in agony and terror haunted TJ, and he fought to keep himself from vomiting.
Weeping and cries of agony echoed around the fort and pulled him from his self-recrimination, and TJ wanted to run away. Despite the reassurances from his companions, he felt responsible for it, somehow, like he could have done more to help. Instead of accusing looks, though, Farid jogged up.
"Thank you, TJ. You've helped us so much, for guiding us and being here for us. Thank you."
TJ nodded, but Penny walked up and grabbed both his hands in her own before taking them up to her lips and kissing them.
"You saved me. Thank you." After kissing his hands, Penny reached up and pinched his cheek with one hand. Despite her teasing, tears of gratitude filled her eyes. Others walked up to him and extended hands and smiles of gratitude. It didn't take away from the suffering in his heart that spiked every time he turned and saw the line of mutilated human corpses, but it helped him calm down enough to sit in a comfortable position and get comfortable. He tried to let himself slip into Meditation, but instead, the oblivion of sleep claimed him.
"Wake up, TJ! It's time!" shouted someone in his ear, and he sat bolt upright with his heart thundering.