Chapter 653 (2/2)

Their bodily liquids dribbled out of the spear, and Acri waved its head back and forth in glee. Sighing, Randidly squeezed Acri to indicate the battle was over. For all that Acri dined on Experience to grow, it sometimes unnerved Randidly how little care it gave towards other lives. To Acri, only he mattered. The rest were simply walking bags of experience.

Which meant they couldn’t be that for Randidly, of course, But that didn’t mean he hadn’t benefitted. After two weeks of ambushing the Wight raiding parties that were running through the South of the Central Domain, Randidly had reached Level 32. A part of him still worried that people would begin to notice that his Level was beginning to rise above 25, but it soon became clear that it was anywhere but close to the front of these people’s minds.

Randidly had perhaps been fighting for so long that he didn’t notice, but these people were at risk of being wiped out. Or at least that seemed to be the air affecting the foot soldiers that Randidly met among Platton’s squad, and other groups operating nearby.

Villages were burned. All the regular people that Wights managed to catch were killed and their bodies dragged back to the boats to be shipped to the Propagator. That was the part that chilled Randidly the most. It made him have a bad feeling where this sea of Wight foot soldier came from.

After confirming that all the Wights in the surrounding area were dead, Randidly climbed up a nearby tree and surveyed the area. The defensive effort of the Central Domain was split into two parts: the first evacuated the civilians ahead of the Wights, while the second part actively moved to cut down the Wights before they could strike. Of course, Randidly was part of the latter group. To cover larger ground, Sergeant Platton had begrudgingly given Randidly, Skarch, and Azriel permission to act independently, as long as they returned each night.

It had taken a few days, but it soon became clear that against the common Wight soldiers, to have more than one of them was simply overkill. The enemies were dead faster than they could charge forward to be killed.

Plus… there was so much ground to cover.

Shaking his head, Randidly dropped off the tree and started heading back towards the rendezvous point. When the Wights came this time, their attack wasn’t just at Southpoint Beach. There were fully 7 points of attack on the Central Domain of the Spearman School, one of which was Niergem. Randidly wasn’t sure how he should feel when the news came that with its new iconic tower shield, Niergem had crushed the invasion in its area.

It had saved a lot of lives. But Randidly felt bitter at whose feet that victory was laid.

What the Wight invasion indicated was that numbers didn’t matter to the Wights; Randidly wasn’t keeping a count, but the number of Wights he had killed was up in the thousands. Days blended together as he swept across the area, cutting down the columns of Wights that moved forward. With the array of spells at his disposal, it was easy to burn them from afar and then move close to mop the remainder up.

Not that it seemed to matter. More Wights constantly poured forth. It was intimidating, in a way.

Exactly how many bodies had the Propagators gathered…? How long had they prepared for this…?

When he arrived at the agreed upon point, Azriel and Skarch were already there, talking quietly with Platton.

Grunting, Sergeant Platton stood as Randidly arrived. “I have news.”

“Good news?” Randidly asked, tilting his head. Without standing on ceremony he removed a rag and a bowl of water from his interspatial ring and began cleaning himself of blood. Face, hands, and of course feet were his primary targets.

“...Perhaps. Word filtered up that I brought four hours worth of warning about the attack and the presence of the Propagators, which was ultimately ignored. I have been promoted to Captain. The area of land for you sweepers to act in has just grown immensely. It probably won’t matter much, but I have no doubt that your Soulstones will be very full next month.”

Azriel’s mouth twisted. “At this rate, what will it matter? The Spear Forest will be a roost for the Wights at this rate. They are pushing as if lives don’t matter-”

“Then let’s make them matter.” Captain Platton with a show of teeth. He gestured, and a wooden crate appeared in front of him. Randidly’s eyes widened as he recognized what it was. “Randidly… what can you do with this many Mana Potions?”