The World of Tactics

Chapter Twenty-Two V: Dire Homecoming

"Everyone knows that an undead monster like the flesh walkers had two ways to come into being. One, the artificial method, was due to a dark magic user casting a turning spell on a dead body. The next was naturally made with time. Even then, it would take decades for such natural flesh walkers to take form.

Huh, you guys want to change the topic? Okay, then.

Flesh walkers, ah, how memorable. I had at one point in time been surrounded by such undead monsters. Their bodies are as strong as metal. I swung my iron sword and barely cut. Now, that does not mean that it was hopeless. Even though my iron sword is not as effective. A lightsaber does the job nicely. My lightsaber easily tears through the undead bodies that are as tough as metal, like a knife cutting into butter.

See this! This is my lightsaber! It's a sword that was imbued with light magic enchantments on it. Any undead monster would easily be sliced like butter! Other than undead monsters, they can shoot out light magic at a distance.

Swishes, slashes, squashes, pew pew, and all dead. Again.

Against undead, I'm unrivaled! Noah-Ha-ha-ha!" said an adventurer who was famed for being the biggest bragger in town.

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[Ally's Turn][2]. Lawrence follows through with his command and attacks the flesh walker. At first, Lawrence had quite a confident face. After the bout and suffering four damage while only dealing one damage to the third flesh walker Lawrence has come to a realization. The changes in Lawrence's expression had already said everything. It was because Lawrence could not see nor tell how high the defense stats of the flesh walkers and that made the difference. However, he felt happy that Lawrence could still deal one damage to the flesh walker because this allowed Lawrence to gain a substantial amount of experience (Lawrence, EXP +25). Normally, what Lawrence could only get was just twenty experience points, but with the necklace of experience. It had become twenty-five experience points and those five extra experience points made the difference.

As Lawrence's turn ended, it was [Neutral's Turn], specifically Dork's turn. Dork easily follows his command, seeing that the third flesh walker was boxed inside the square and the remaining flesh walkers could not reach Dork if Dork were to attack. So, Dork confidently moves to the square adjacent to Lawrence and launches a fireball at the third flesh walker. Lawrence was shocked to see a fireball being launched from behind. However, Lawrence's shock did not end there, as Dork’s fireball exploded upon being in contact with the third flesh walker. That was the dead-end for the third flesh walker and Dork hew-haws with happiness (Dork, EXP +60). Dork was only left with only five more experience points before Dork levels up. He was happy for Dork getting this kill.

He was happy with the result and waited for the [Enemy's Turn][2] and their action. The first flesh walker was the one to move and he frowned as their intended target was neither Goon nor Uzi. The first flesh walker's target was him specifically. This puzzled him, but the lance of the first flesh walker had already neared him. He tried to parry with his bronze lance but failed miserably. Luckily, his defense stat is so high that there the rusty lance could not pierce through it. A 'tink' follows along with a slight screech from metal scraping against metal. Once the attack of the first flesh walker was done, he counterattacked. Each deals four damages with a total of eight damage (John Smith, EXP +20x2).

Looking from the map, the first flesh walker was directly south of him. Due to the movement and position of the first flesh walker, his west side was still exposed to the second flesh walker, since he was in the attack range of the second flesh walker. He did not without doubt know that he would be attacked next and everything went as expected. The second flesh walker did target him. He readied himself for another bout. He received no damage and dealt ten damage total in return. Each of his counterattacks deals five damage (John Smith, EXP +20x2, Level Up).

At first, he had wanted to save the remaining three unallocated points, but he decided against it because he remembered that there were still a dozen other monsters roaming within the village. This was not the time to save up unallocated points. It is better to use it now and save it later after everything calms down. So, he allocated one point to the defense stat to ensure that it is now maxed out. As for the remaining two, he allocated two points to his strength stat. He now needs the strength stat to be higher, since he can only deal four damage with each attack and the flesh walker's health points are extremely high. He did not want to risk having Lawrence or Dork dead just because of missing one strength stat.

Thinking so, he was surprised that there was something new on the battlefield. On the map, the very top north and within three squares. Three shadowed pixelated figures slowly came into being. Visually, he saw that the mist on the edge converged into three shadows. As the three misty figures cleared up, it was another three flesh walkers. This is the undead monster's reinforcement. He was shocked by this revelation because that meant that more undead monsters would be reinforced later on. Lawrence and Dork were no better, but Lawrence fared better because Lawrence had seen such occurrences before.

Luckily, the three new flesh walkers were situated at the very edge of the north side. This also means that it would take the three new flesh walkers one turn to move before being in attack range. The three new flesh walkers' formation was straightforward and was directly adjacent to each other. A quick calculation and he was at more ease since he could clear out the first two flesh walkers. Then bait one or two of the three new flesh walkers. Later, he could easily clear out the three as well. He first [Command] Lawrence to attack the second flesh walker on the west side, then [Command] Dork to finish up the second flesh walker.

He knows for sure that Lawrence could deal two damage to the second flesh walker while Dork could also deal fifteen damage to the second flesh walker. Dork's fireball was able to directly kill either the first or second flesh walker right away. However, he had wanted Lawrence to gain experience while Dork does the final hit. Secondly, he would be able to easily kill the first flesh walker that was directly south of him. This would ensure that the first and second flesh walker would be dead by the time it was the enemies' turn.

He attacked the first flesh walker and directly killed it on his second thrust (John Smith, EXP+60x2 (100 Max), Level Up). At the first level that he got in this battle, he did hesitate a bit before allocating two points to his strength stat. But, after seeing that there were more enemy reinforcements, he did not hesitate in allocating the three points to his strength stat. It is more important to quickly finish off the flesh walkers here before fleeing because he did not know how strong the reinforcement would be if he was trapped in this battle situation. He needs to re-scout the other enemies first before making any decision to attack head-on. After all, he did not want to gamble Lawrence's and Dork's lives.

After he ended his turn, he moved Uzi directly south of the center of most flesh walkers. Six squares south of the center-most flesh walker and three squares to his west side. This time, however, he ensured that Uzi was within range of all of the three flesh walkers since the three flesh walkers would not be able to deal any damage to Uzi. As for Goon, he also moved Goon one straight away to the east side of Uzi. He also made sure that Goon was within range of the eastmost flesh walker, adjacent to his west side. Uzi and Goon are in the proper position for the incoming attack of the three newly reinforced enemies. Now it was [Ally's Turn][3] and Lawrence turned to take action.

Lawrence did as commanded and attacked the flesh walker without fear. As a result, Lawrence got another b****y hole in his chest and was barely able to deal two damage to the second flesh walker (Lawrence, EXP+25). Lawrence may not know it, but two more bouts and Lawrence will easily level up. [Neutral's Turn][3], Dork did not dare get close to the second flesh walker and stayed adjacent to Lawrence's south side. Lawrence was also adjacent to the south side of the flesh walker as well. It was only then did Dork launch a fireball toward the second flesh walker. It easily explodes the second flesh walker into pieces (Dork, EXP+60, Level Up). Dork only gains an increase in maximum health points and magic. It was not typical of Dork, but he knew Dork's growth rate and an increase of only two stat points was already not that bad.

[Enemy's Turn][3]. There were only three undead monsters left and those were the three newly reinforced flesh walkers. The first to move was the centermost flesh walker. The fourth flesh walker attacked Uzi from the north side as expected and the exchange within the bout was rewarding for Uzi. Uzi suffers no damage at all as expected from a flesh walker while dealing a total of sixteen damage back (Uzi, EXP +100, Level Up). He did not think before allocating two points to Uzi's strength stat and one to Uzi's maximum health point. It was obvious as to why he would do so and it was to be risk-free if there were to be any more undead monster reinforcements.

The fifth flesh walker to attack was the one that was on the eastmost side and the target was not Uzi, but rather Goon. The fifth flesh walker was now in between Uzi and Goon. The attack attempt of the fifth flesh walker had the same outcome as Uzi. Goon suffers no damage while dealing a total of sixteen damages (Goon, EXP +100, Level Up). Not only that, but Goon also gains a plentiful amount of experience to level up. He also diligently allocates one point to Goon's maximum health points and the remaining goes into Goon's defense stat to max it out. At this point, Goon's is closing to Goon's limit and it was evident that Uzi had outpaced Goon in terms of stat limitations.

The sixth flesh walker moves to the west side of Uzi to attack Uzi. Uzi was the prime target because Uzi was the only one to be within the attack range of the sixth flesh walker. However, the Uzi against the fourth flesh walker was not the same as now, since Uzi had leveled up. Uzi's defense was great and suffered no damage from the sixth flesh walker's attack. Uzi counterattacked twice, which dealt ten damage for each counterattack. That results in twenty damage in total (Uzi, EXP +100, Level Up). He directly allocated one point each to Uzi's maximum health points, strength stat, and defense stat respectively.