It felt like mere minutes since he'd begun to Meditate when he was shaken awake. As soon as the thought crossed TJ's head, he couldn't help but laugh at himself. It had been mere minutes. The extermination period had a mere minute left. As TJ stepped onto the walkway of the walls, he couldn't help but notice how thrashed everything was. There weren't any more massive breaches in the barricades like had been made with the first wave, but all the branches that'd been left to stave off the attackers were almost all ripped free. Even with the rain and constant steps and combat over them, human and monster blood painted the walls and walkways.
Fifteen human bodies lay somewhere in the store behind them, and nobody was mourning for them. Nobody could afford to. They were all too exhausted. Looking at his basically full resources, TJ realized he needed to do more on this part of the siege, or else everyone would die.
"TJ." Stanton said as he jogged up. The timer for the wave was at a mere 14 seconds.
"Yeah?"
"We need you." Stanton gritted his teeth, nervously looking over the expanse to the forest.
"I was just thinking that." TJ replied. "But I can't go too far or else I won't be able to help on the Copper monster here."
"Do what you can. Focus on one side." Stanton replied as the System's notification appeared.
Wave 3 of 3 of assault on the Pine, Arizona general store, begin.
No sooner than had the notification appeared did shrieks of thousands of monsters on every side of the barricade fill the air. Participants shivered in fear and cold and rage. TJ shouted a rallying cry:
"This is the last one! I'm softening them up!"
Even though he said as much, he didn't immediately jump out into danger. Instead, he watched as the monsters came closer and closer. He'd only have one shot to do as much damage as possible, and he didn't want to allow the trees or brush or anything else to weaken this attack. After all, he was close to getting another level in his Class and Occupation. This might bring him over that threshold. It wouldn't heal him, but those extra Attributes might be necessary against the Copper tiered threat, whatever that was.
Once the wind told TJ that hundreds of monsters had exited the forest on his side of the fort, he leapt high into the sky and pushed himself forward with Wind Manipulation. Just like before, he activated Divine Transformation while still in the sky and glided forward to the attackers. Then, he condensed two blades of wind, one on his tongue, the other on his tail. As he fell from the sky, TJ watched as hundreds of javelinas, Gila Monstrosities, coyotes, and pukwudgies noticed his descent. That the damned beasts thought themselves capable of reacting to Kukulkan's champion was the height of hubris. Many tried to react. It was too late.
As he pulverized a dozen monsters, TJ let his real attack begin as he used Divine Manifestation on Divine Transformation. Hundreds of futile strikes reduced his HP, and he noticed three wendigos running towards him. Just as well. Instead of sending the blades forward to lose potency as they sliced through the enemy, TJ held the two attacks with a force of will, keeping them attached to him at the head and tail. He rolled and twisted like a propeller, slicing twice as quickly and wrathfully as the densely packed monsters were cut to ribbons. His Bloodline pushed him to slaughter more, and he indulged.
His HP fell somewhat, but with his every Attribute boosted by several Skills, he could continue his attack. As his MP continued to plummet, TJ continued wreaking as much damage as possible. As soon as his MP fell to 1,000, he stopped using Wind Manipulation, but still his jaws and body remained. He shredded through everything he could reach, blood and viscera coating his face and body. Dozens of attacks streaked towards him, some striking deeply. His blood mingled with that of his enemies, and he drew on an aspect of Storm Soul for the first time.
TJ used the part of Storm Soul that allowed him to replenish his own resources by sapping the strength of the Storm. With his ever-increasing use of the Storm's fury to fuel his Manifestation and now to recover, the Storm's duration was reduced drastically and would last a mere two more hours, now, but there was no need to worry now. If they survived the next two hours, TJ could deal with it then. Beyond that, several hundred monsters were dead and distracted by his opening salvo, though the three wendigos remained alive. Each one had borne multiple devastating attacks from TJ's Wind Manipulation. Their limbs hung limply from their bodies, ligaments fighting to keep them from being entirely dismembered. The skeletal monsters desperately shoved the flesh of their dead allies in their mouths and their twisted, mutilated bodies recovered.
The coatl roared a wordless challenge to the three Elites and leapt forward. They turned to escape, but TJ's focus wasn't on restraint, but the eradication of three Elites. As he lunged forward, a pair of jaws made of whipping winds extended past his own. Though the fangs lacked substance, the moment they made contact with the wendigos, flesh ripped like paper, and two wendigos died in that first attack. TJ caught the third and final one in his jaws as he turned to escape back to the fort. He slithered through the mud and corpses, his fangs working on the struggling Elite. As he took his time, not using any of his resources, the wendigo slowly succumbed to his grinding teeth. As soon as the death notification came, TJ dropped the corpse and sped up his return to the fort.
Before he arrived, he asked the System, "How many kill notifications have I gotten from monsters in this wave?"
You have killed 724 enemies during Wave 3 of the siege on the Pine, Arizona general store.
"Something like 15% of all the enemies in this wave, huh? Hope that's enough." TJ mused to himself as he noted that he'd gained a level in each his class, Occupation, and Race. With the increase to his current Attributes, he would hopefully be strong enough for the rest of the Tutorial. His body felt heavy, even though his resources were close to full. As he drew close to the fort, he evaluated everything that was happening.
Fortunately, this side of the fort had been almost entirely left alone. That didn't mean that the defenders had nothing to do, as half had moved to the other sides to support the eastern and western bulwarks. The fighting there was bitter, but the Participants managed to fend off the worst of the monsters. Though there had been precious little time to rebuild after the deadly fight at the end of the second wave, the thousands of bodies surrounding the walls served as enough of a tripping hazard that the javelinas couldn't easily charge into the walls. That combined with the rapidly climbing levels of the defenders brought TJ enough hope to think that they'd be able to survive this final wave.
The wounded were getting pulled back only long enough for the Disciples to get them back on their feet, but it was enough. TJ didn't see any more dead than before, so that was heartening—
"Look out!" Someone screamed. It was too late for Granny Penny, who stood healing Tessie. Penny threw herself over Tessie as a Tezcatlipoca-blessed mountain lion jumped out of the shadows and onto the old woman's back. Its jaws savaged her, and TJ lunged to save her life. He was too slow, as it opened its jaws impossibly wide and decapitated her with one bite. As her head dropped onto Tessie, the teen screamed in terror. The cougar lunged forward, its jaws seeking Tessie's face. The Bloodied Wendigo Spear punched through its throat and drove the monster away.
As the creature rasped its final breath, TJ hauled up with the spear and severed its spine. It slumped to the ground, on top of Penny's body and pinning Tessie down. The teen continued sobbing as she pulled herself out from under Penny's corpse. What seemed like gallons of blood covered the girl as she shook with terror and her eyes darted in every direction. Screams of fear and cries for help filled the air.
"Nobody hold still! Panthers coming from everywhere and they'll ambush you!" TJ screamed as he pulled the shell-shocked girl into one of his arms. He held her up in one arm as she clung to his neck and shivered. The tezcatlipoca-blessed monsters continued to lunge out of the shadows and rip into Disciples. With Penny died three more Disciples, but Michelle rallied the survivors alongside Rebekkah. The fully armored Blacksmith hauled back a massive club and smashed a pair of the mountain lions away as the Flamekeeper flared with fire. The fire kept the deep shadows away from the center of the Disciples, so the cougars were kept back from shredding easily into the less-protected Disciples.
"Who's seen the Copper or Elites?" TJ shouted out as he fought to keep the Disciples safe. Tears pricked at his eyes whenever they crossed over the decapitated corpse of Granny Penny, but he couldn't think of that right now. A pack of three mountain lions bore Michelle to the ground and ripped sections of her armor off. She screamed in pain as the metal shredded her skin underneath. She couldn't move, one of the monsters on each arm while the third fought to rip off her head. TJ lunged forward and pierced through the center one's torso. He felt the Spear drinking deeply of its blood, and he let out a smaller burst of wind from inside of the creature.
It exploded in a shower of gore, but TJ wasn't done. Retaining his left hand's hold on the nearly catatonic Tessie, he leapt forward and stabbed through the one on Michelle's dominant arm, piercing the spear's head into the ground. As the creature tried to escape, TJ released his hold on his Spear before he pulled his Wendigo blade from his hip and buried it in the monster's head. Again, he forced a burst of wind out of the blade's tip, but with it plunged into the creature's skull, the wind scrambled its brains and almost effortlessly killed the monster.
As soon as her arm was free, Michelle tried to smash the third monster with her club, but it retreated into the shadows before she made contact. TJ continued to protect the Disciples, ensuring that the fort's support structure didn't all fall apart. As he did so, he looked to the walls where, without constant Disciple assistance, more and more casualties continued racking up.
"There's too many of them. We're all going to die. I'm sorry, I'm weak. I can't help. I–I–I–I can't." Tessie whimpered in TJ's arm. He shushed her as gently as he could manage as he tried to not feel the same way. The walls were filled with hundreds of dead monster bodies, but more continued to surge over the bulwarks to cut deep into the defenders. He desperately wanted to throw himself forward and slaughter them all, but he couldn't dare to. There were still so many Elites left, plus the Copper tier, whatever it was.
"Stanton, report!" TJ screamed as he stabbed one more mountain lion. It escaped and he growled in barely constrained rage.
"Three Elites killed here!" The old cowboy shouted back before two deafening blasts sounded off. "Make that five!"
"Two Chindis!" Leilani shouted before TJ could ask. "No visual on the Copper, or at least, nothing that stands out as Copper."
"We're looking for two Elites and the Copper, then." TJ counted up in his head. "What're the rank and file looking like?"
"Less than 1,000 left, but we're flagging." Stanton shouted as his gun shifted again to a pistol and he started taking measured shots, each one killing a monster.
"Ok. We can work with that. But where is the–" TJ's question was cut off as the ground underneath him dissolved to nothing and he was teleported outside of the fort. Tessie screamed, but he didn't hesitate to activate Divine Transformation, which was the only thing that saved their lives. A massive paw, at least two feet across, batted his head three times. As his head rang and TJ fought to see what was happening, his vision cleared long enough to see the biggest mountain lion he'd ever heard of.
"My prey." it said as it stalked forward with arrogance obvious in its eyes.