My (Monster?) Hero Life

Chapter 43: Rock And A Hard Place

Those words infuriated Lucas to a point that he had never been pushed to before. He began to tear chunks of stone from the wall using his mana and hurled them at Grugda.

Grugda responded in kind while creating stone snakes from the face of the wall to rise up over the edge and attack Lucas from both sides. Lucas stomped his foot to create stone barricades, protecting himself from the assault.

Their stone bullets had completely wiped each other's out. Grugda felt the formation of spears beginning beneath his feet. 'Child's play.' he thought as he interuppted the spell with his own mana. Firing off an entire boulder at Lucas in the same moment.

Lucas swiftly raised another wall and reinforced it. The boulder slammed into it creating a crater. He sighed with relief. If he had not reinforced the wall the boulder would have certainly broke through.

Collapsing the wall he retaliated by creating several stone swords that stuck out from the floor like shark fins. Urging them forward he combined it with with more stone bullets to cover the air above them.

Grugda created a tortoise shaped shell in front of himself. This would take care of the bullets. However he knew the swords would be able to go around it.

As such he expanded the size of the shell. Given enough height now he jumped up and created a foothold in the rear of it. Giving himself a perch out of reach of the sword fins. He watched as they rapidly swam around the side and behind his shell failing to find their target.

Lucas was so busy laughing over the sound of the bullets striking the shell that he had not realised the sword fins had not hurt Grugda at all. Shock exploded on his face as several parts of the top of the shell reformed into spears and launched towards him.

He was a moment too late as one of the spears barely grazed him before he got a new wall up. Panting behind the wall he was concerned about how much mana this fight was consuming. There was no guarantee he would have enough left to slay his true target if this kept up.

'I'll have to use that!' he thought bitterly.

Rapidly expending mana to create a large golem creature.

"Go! Crush him!" he bellowed.

The golem strode forward with heavy steps. Grugda who had revealed himself was amazed that a human could use this kind of spell. However he had a better one up his sleeves.

Using a spell like that would drain a lot of mana so the caster would become the weak point of this magic. However Grugda's had no such weakness.

With a clap of his hands tree roots exploded from the earth around the walls. Converging on Grugda's location. They rapidly wrapped around him. Taking the form of a walking tree with long limbs. The golem stood at roughly ten foot tall while with Grugda as the centre his treant armour stood at twelve foot.

The two giants clashed atop the walls. Causing chunks of stone to fall of to either side. It was an see inspiring moment in the battle. No matter how quickly the golem tore at the roots to reach Grugda, they would rapidly regenerate. Keeping him safe.

Lucas had no such protection however. Nor did he want it. The golem was merely there to distract Grugda while he ran for Kace. Intent on killing him off.

Kace noticed his approach as he slew another hero who had made it up the walls. So far he had killed more than ten of them. He just could not figure out why they were all after him though.

As he prepared to intercept Lucas a large stone arm suddenly landed between them. Forcing Lucas to look back. The arm had obviously come from his golem.

Roots were rushing towards him like hundreds of snakes. It seemed his golem was not able to take the Eljeins attention away from himself.

He stomped the wall and formed a large warhammer from the stone. Swinging it skilfully he proceeded to deflect the oncoming roots.

Before he could turn his attention back to Kace however Grugda had created a stone pillar behind him. Striking him in the back and launching him back to the fight between himself and the golem.

Lucas was beginning to regret sending Phillip away. He would have been the perfect support against all this wood. Possibly even enough of a distraction to leave Lucas free to kill the other creature.

This current match up was not favourable to him. When facing off against a magic user who focuses on the same element victory would usually go to the party who a greater range of spells and higher mana reservoir.

As it would have it Lucas was now beginning to suspect that Grugda outstripped him in both of these aspects. However with Grugda pinning him down he could no longer provide support to the monsters holding the walls.

As time passed more and more of the allied forces were breaching the top of the town walls. Overwhelming the orcs and goblins in various areas. The sun was beginning to set and the rain still had not stopped. Making the broken walls treacherous to fight on.

Lucas turned his full attention to the mass of roots before him. Deciding that he would have to let go of pursuing Kace for now. This battle would not end in just one day after all!

He began to throw even more mana into his golem. Allowing it to reform it's broken arm from another section of the wall. At the same time he launched stone spears towards it's centre. Fully aware that this was where Grugda was encased.

Sensing the newfound assault upon himself Grugda controlled a number of the roots to break off from the body. Creating multiple whips to lash out and block the spears before wrapping around the golem.

He was growing tired of dealing with this human. Not only that but keeping up this form was rapidly draining his own mana. While tying up the golem in his whips to pin it down he had several more bypass it to attack Lucas.

Seeing that his own body was in danger Lucas had to break off his assault and focus on defence. Knowing that if those while got a hold of him they could easily break him in two.

Another half hour passed of their brutal back and forth. This was when Lucas had reached his limit. His mana had run dry but Grugda's own was not far off from suffering the same.

With a last bit of effort Grugda's whip managed to lift the now weakened golem and toss it from the wall. Allowing it to plummet down onto the fields. He wanted to end the human that had given him so much trouble. Knowing that if he lived and got to Kace in peak condition then Kace would definitely fall.

His roots reached out to grab a hold of the now tired out Lucas who could only await his death.

Blades of air suddenly severed the whips before they could take hold. Looking to who had intruded upon the battle Grugda noticed that the walls were swarming with the allied forces. All of the other monsters apart from Kace who had been holding the wall were nothing more than corpses now.

It was official. They had lost the walls. Kace also seemed to be running on steam. Dead bodies were piled up around him.

Grugda amplified his voice with magic.

"FALL BACK!" he roared, mainly at the monsters who were trying to push up the stairs to reclaim the wall.

This was the signal to fall back to the secondary defensive line. It had been left up to Grugda to decide if and when this command was to be given.

Unfortunately Lucas had held his attention too long. He had been blinded to the situation around them. Missing the most opportune time to give the order.

The roots in his legs coiled like a spring. Before propelling him forward like a rocket. Knocking aside all of the mercenaries and heroes that got in his way. His target. Kace. He had to get him out of there.

He barreled through the troops that had surrounded him and scooped him up with one of his whips. As he slowed to a stop he brought Kace inside of the main body. Right before leaping off the wall and into the town below.

His hulking figure joining in with the surrounding monsters that were in full retreat. The allied forces cheered. Thinking that they had broken their enemies. Before they could give chase though Lucas yelled out.

"Halt!

From atop the walls he could see that the monster army had created a few layers of defence. They had only broken past the first and to push now would be suicide.

Instead he gave the command to start setting up a base within the first layer. They had lost a large amount of their force and many of them had to be running on empty. It was better to try and wait out the night and attempt another push in the morning.

This all made sense as the monsters would probably be tired as well. However Lucas mainly wanted his own power to recover incase he got the opportunity to come across Kace again.

'Tomorrow is always a new day.' he thought as he stared stubbornly at the retreating hulk of roots as it disappeared between the buildings.