Fuck no! They're Orcs!

"No," Both Mub and Rugga barked in unison. Their hard piercing stares glared daggers at John as he pulled on the reins of his own brown steed and then went to untie the extra horse that his dead pack member had been riding on. He hated the idea of running and leaving the raid unfinished, but he had played more than enough video games to know how something like that went. If they went in, and John didn't have any other kind of plan or back up, then they were going to lose. He didn't want to leave or spend the time it took dragging an extra horse back to camp without a rider, but he didn't have any choice.

"We are not cowards," Mub stated, and Rugga nodded his head vigorously in agreement. "We stay."

"We can't stay, we don't have the numbers," John tried explaining it to them, but they didn't listen. As soon as John went to try and get up into his saddle, Mub sharply tugged the horse away to stop him. John's foot slipped, and he crashed hard and painfully into the horse's side. It whinnied and kicked, but thankfully John had the foresight to move out of the way before it could hurt him. "We can't fight them!" John snapped and ripped the reins out of Mub's hands. The Orc snarled back at him, but neither one of them raised fists at the other.

"Just... do what you did last time!" Mub snapped back at John and then waved a hand at John like he was casting a spell. His eyes narrowed sharply at Mub as he continued that for a moment, and then he sighed.

"I can't do what I did last time. There are more zombi-" he paused when the Orcs looked at him confused. "There are more of the Hallowed in Eldham than there were in Bleakfield." He paused just long enough for Mub to open his mouth as if to say something, but he didn't let him argue with him more. "Last time I barely destroyed the Beacon, and that one was much weaker than this one is! Last time I dropped a church on the fucking thing!" Both Orcs blinked at him, confused slightly but not because they didn't understand what he was saying. They didn't understand how something like that might have happened. "There are no churches here! No buildings! No archers like Urga!" The two Orcs looked proud of that for a moment, and it only made John angrier. He could feel his teeth grinding painfully together and his chest starting to burn as they shrugged off the lack of arrows like it was a good thing.

"Unless you guys are planning to pick up a bow and shoot at the dead?!" he snapped, and again, Mub and Putt shook their heads. They spat at the idea of fighting from a distance, and John felt ready to smack one of them. He considered it for a moment, just because it was their Orcish way, and then he would have had the right to order them to fight with the bow, but he held back. He didn't like the idea of fighting with his own pack and forcing them into doing something that they didn't want to do. "...Then we have to leave!"

"No." They both echoed the same sentiment. "We can beat them."

"With what?!" John growled, and this time, he did raise his fists. He stepped forward into Mub's personal space, and with a sharp shove, he sent the Orc stumbling backwards into Rugga's arms. The new recruit caught Mub before he could fall and then steadied him on his feet while John continued to bark at them. "There is nothing out here! Nothing but hills, ash, and the dead! The only things out here that are even remotely useful are the-" he stopped. His voice died off in his throat, and both the growling, flexing, angry members of his pack froze to watch John as he turned...

...and looked right at the horses.

"Oh."

"Tell me again," Mub said while John finished strapping another piece of metal onto their last horse. The gamer was completely out of mana by now, but he was proud of what he had done with it. He took a large step back to admire his handiwork and then watched as the steeds stomped nervously at the ashen ground beneath them. Rugga reached out to touch one of them, and the horse recoiled when it felt his fingers... mostly because it hadn't seen them first.

Each and every last one of the four horses that John's pack had brought out with them had been decorated and strapped with a new piece of equipment that had been made from John's Craft ability. It was essentially just a small sheet of metal and designed to fit over just one part of the animals' heads, but even though it was small, the horses didn't like it anyways. He didn't blame them, it covered their eyes and **** them to try and trust the rider with their lack of vision. For a while, John couldn't remember what the name of the original piece of equipment was, he just knew that riders had used it sometimes to help keep their rides from spooking, and most of the time it only blocked one part of their vision.

The blinders that John had made from the daggers in his inventory blocked all vision from the horses. He didn't want to take any risks, and as far as he was concerned, letting them see what was actually happening would have scared them far more than any makeshift blindfold he could have made. The real problem came after covering the horses’ eyes up as they had to try to get the steeds to trust them again. His Born to Ride ability helped in small amounts, though not by much at such a low level. They were lucky enough to have rented out horses that had already been broken and trained.

"I've already told you a dozen times. It's actually pretty simple... at least in concept," he muttered the last part under a heavy breath, but Mub heard it anyways. He considered trying to see if he could add the members of his pack into a party for a moment, before he decided against it. Even if it was possible, the Orcs abhorred magic... giving them a giant, magical, pop-up screen to play with just seemed like a bad idea.

"No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy," Mub grunted, and John shook his head.

"It's not the battle plan that needs to survive." Still, it took them nearly an hour just to get the horses under control again. Every little touch, every breeze, breath, or sound that they noticed around them sent the horses into a stir. They couldn't be calmed for the longest time until, finally, John got a couple more levels in his Born to Ride ability and his mount and the spare one that Putt had been riding adjusted to his constant soothing touch. They nervously let him start to pull them this way and that. Their hearts beat a little easier, and while they still exhaled at a rapid, dangerous rate when he tried to speak to them, they did eventually calm. Rugga and Mub, on the other hand, simply **** their own steeds into submission. The horses whinnied and kicked with the heavy warriors on top of them, struggling to throw them off for a while, before both men gave the reins a sharp jerk and soundlessly showed how futile it was to try and fight against their immense strength. They pulled the horses in the direction that they wanted them to go and kept pulling again and again until the steeds finally relented.

"If you don't think the plan will work, then why-" Mub was persistent, even after he had started to go along with John's idea.

"The plan will work!" John snapped and pointed back in the direction of Eldham. "Just... go do your part. I can't get involved until you've done it." The two men stared hard at one another for a long couple of minutes. Mub's mount went silent and still, huffing nervously with each passing second, but it seemed too scared to fight back against the man controlling it now. Rugga had to constantly correct his own mount; he sat and watched while the two waited for the other to back down... but when it didn't happen, both of John's pack members turned to ride for Eldham.

John didn't move. He thought about turning back to Bleakfield without his pack members and leaving the conquering of Eldham for another day, but... it was a good plan. He just hated what it might do. He watched the men as they crested over the hill that they had been hiding behind and then swallowed as they both pushed their horses into a trot. They were careful not to make the steeds run without their vision, to try and help avoid mishaps, but a wrong step or finding a rock to trip over was the least of their worries.

The second that both men moved up into Eldham's line of sight, a low shuffling noise could be heard. The dragging footsteps of almost a hundred dead men echoed over the hill that John was still standing behind and then was almost immediately drowned out by the horrible moaning noises that the undead made when they parted to chase after John's pack member. They followed Mub and Rugga as John's pack split up and ran off on either side of the village. One went to the east, and forty dead men lurched after him, while the other went west and took the other forty Hallowed soldiers. They were careful not to leave or move far enough away so that the village was out of eyesight. They quickly learned that when they did that, the Hallowed stopped following them, and they had to move the army away.

Unfortunately, not all of the dead moved. As soon as the majority had split away from the village, John peaked his head over the hill and found half of a dozen more standing guard by the crystal. They swayed as if moved by unseen wind, shifting the weight of their bodies back and forth between each foot, while the crystal continued to glow and grow, but they didn't move. Even when John began to ride forward and they saw him, the dead didn't move to meet him.

If anything, the crystal flashed and the dead merely huddled tighter around it. Putt's green, tusked, slashed visage was one of the bodies that the crystal kept close, John realized and pushed his horse to ride harder. Its hooves beat and thundered against the ground as he took the steed into a steady dash and then watched as the army of dead men on both sides of Eldham stopped in their tracks. They slowly turned and spun around to face towards John as his horse stepped into purple light and then they began to move again...

...back towards the crystal.

Beacon of Ruin used Blind! (30s remaining)
Beacon of Ruin Drains you for -13 HP! Pack Leader applied!
Beacon of Ruin Drains you for -13 HP! Pack Leader applied!
Beacon of Ruin used Answer The Call!
Beacon of Ruin used Summoning-ERR- Summoned Zombies is already at max!

Zombie Villager Yamar strikes you for -7 HP
Zombie Villager Yamar used Pack Mentality to strike you for -6 HP
Zombie Villager Yamar used Pack Mentality to strike you for -7 HP
Zombie Villager Garett strikes you for -7 HP
Zombie Villager Garett used Pack Mentality to strike you for -6 HP
Zombie Villager Garett used Pack Mentality to strike you for -6 HP
Zombie Raider Putt strikes you for -12 HP
Zombie Raider Putt used Pack Mentality to strike you for -13 HP
Zombie Raider Putt used Pack Mentality to strike you for -13 HP

Your mount has been blinded!

John didn't waste his chance. As soon as his horse started neighing and screaming, he pulled it back into the right direction. His jaw clenched and ground his teeth together while the crystal threw spell after spell at them. The beacon flashed once as he ripped the baseball bat out of his inventory... and then his vision went black. He could already feel the blood filling his eyes and dripping down his cheeks, but he tried to ignore it. John focused on trying to remember where he had last seen the crystal as the zombies’ weapons bit into him... and then with a heavy breath, he swung as soon as he thought the horse was close enough. His baseball bat couldn't add much more damage to his strikes than his own abilities. The bat was weak and likely to break in actual combat... but he didn't have enough Mana to fight with. He had used it trying to prepare the horses, and even if he had wanted to use his Infused Strike ability with the small amount that he had regained while preparing the horses, it wouldn't have done him any good while he was riding on one.

His arm lashed out at the nearby air, and he heard the weapon whistle with the speed of his swing, but that was it. There was no pop-up for damage or crack against the end of the bat, because he hadn't hit it. His weapon swung uselessly through the air, and then the horse continued charging on ahead and pulled him right back out of the crystal's horrible light. His steed whinnied and galloped away furiously, intent to run, and for the time being John was proud to let it do so. He gave the horse its head, even if it couldn't tell where it was going, and waited for his own vision to return. It took longer this time, thanks to the higher level of the Beacon involved, but when he finally got it back, he found himself disappearing over one of the hills surrounding Eldham. He vanished from the army's sight, as well as the Beacon's, and then balked at the amount of damage that the Beacon and its zombies had done to him.

"What the fuck?!" He was already missing over one hundred health points, and he hadn't even hurt the beacon yet! With a sharp twist, John yanked the horse to turn back around and felt it fight against him. He could feel it nervously shaking and twisting to move in the other direction, but he didn't have the time to try and soothe it again. As soon as he came back over the hill to look at the village, he saw the army still focused on returning to the beacon. His pack members were weaving in and out of the large groups, trying to pick off stragglers as they moved, but there were too many. If he waited any longer, the dead would have blocked him off from ever reaching the beacon.

Beacon Of Ruin
Level 9 Enchanted Essence
<Precious>
118/118 HP
RP: -200
Effects: BOSS!, Immobile, Mana Well, Truesight, Pack Leader, Growing.

With a sharp growl, John **** his steed into a gallop again and tried to ignore the way the animal whinnied at him. He took off in a mad dash for the crystal and, with a little bit of luck, slipped between the two enclosing sides of the zombie army just as the Beacon started to cast on him again. His horse screamed at him again as soon as they stepped into its light, but this time he had enough composure to knock one of the dead out of his way before it could hit him again. He couldn't stop all of them, especially after the Beacon had blinded him again, but moving that one obstacle was enough to help keep the horse in a straight line.

Beacon of Ruin used Blind! (30s remaining)
Beacon of Ruin Drains you for -13 HP! Pack Leader applied!
Beacon of Ruin Drains you for -13 HP! Pack Leader applied!

Zombie Villager Yamar strikes you for -7 HP
Zombie Villager Yamar used Pack Mentality to strike you for -6 HP
Zombie Villager Yamar used Pack Mentality to strike you for -6 HP
Zombie Raider Putt strikes you for -12 HP
Zombie Raider Putt used Pack Mentality to strike you for -13 HP
Zombie Raider Putt used Pack Mentality to strike you for -12 HP

CRITICAL! 23 Damage!

Born to Ride has leveled up!
You have gained the Cavalier ability!

New Skill: Cavalier. Level 1, Passive.
Cavalier: Your skill with mounts has begun to transfer over and meld with your skill in fighting. For every 5 feet traveled while at top speed and in a straight line while on the back of a horse, you gain +1 damage added to your next attack. Additional damage applied from horseback is equal to level of this ability. If your mount slows or stops at any point, or deviates from a generally straight line, you lose momentum, and any and all stacking damage bonus is lost and then restarted. The maximum amount of ability damage that can be applied through this ability is determined through the steed's own level and Endurance score.
Requires a Horse.
Requires a melee weapon.

As soon as John thought he was close enough, he could already feel his bat smashing through the side of the Beacon's central structure. With his second attempt at swinging at the crystal, he realized that he had to lean way off to the side just to reach the thing, and when he finally hit it, pieces of the construct shattered off the main pillar just from the **** of his blow. A high-pitched wailing noise echoed off into the distance with that one hit and sent John's head ringing with pain, but it couldn't stop him from showing off the grin he got after a successful strike.

Once again, he and his horse rode off into the distance while his pack finally came to a stop outside of Eldham's boundaries. The army of the dead, which had neatly been stripped down of twenty lurching soldiers by his pack, came to a stop in the center of the village while John regained his eyesight. His pack paraded around the outskirts of the Beacon's purple light and waited...

When John's vision finally returned and he had read through his new ability, he took one look at the grouping of soldiers struggling to keep up with him and then **** his horse into a gallop. He circled Eldham's landscape of hills and ash, watching as the dead tried to move with him and form a wall around the town.

The Beacon was stronger this time and smarter too. It didn't take much for John to see that. Where the last one had tried to fight him head to head, this one used its abilities to help protect itself. Worse than that, there were still so many zombies that he couldn't see any way to get back into the village without dying. He pulled himself back out of sight from the village, disappearing over one of the nearby hills, and simply left the Beacon to guess which direction he chose to come from.

Nearly half a minute went by like that, with the dead lurching around to try and be ready to form some kind of defense. After a while, his pack even began to watch with them, and their horses began to lose whatever nerve had been **** into them as the crystal absorbed some of the dead to try and regenerate. Putt's recently deceased body dropped into the dust with a single purple flash... and then the image of a horse appeared from the south. It was tiny at first, and rode hard for Eldham in a single, focused line. The galloping of a blind mount echoed across the plains like an oncoming storm, and when the Beacon saw it, the army crossed south to form a wall. The dead blocked the steed off, but it did not stop. After all, Putt's horse had no rider left to tell it to halt.

It proved to be the perfect distraction as John's steed dashed in from the other side at an angry pace.

CRITICAL! 82 Damage!

Beacon of Ruin used Answer The Call!
Beacon of Ruin Drains you for -13 HP!
Beacon of Ruin Drains you for -13 HP!

The zombies were too far away by the time that John struck into the back of the Beacon's main pillar. He hit it so hard and so quickly that his baseball bat broke against the construct in an explosion of splinters and rock. The thickest piece of the Beacon practically disintegrated from the **** of his blow, and the wailing of what John assumed to be lost souls jumped into a painful screeching noise. His pack members slouched in their seats at the noise, dropping their weapons to cover their ears as John **** the crystal into a position where it shifted from its anchor in the ground. The Beacon groaned and then leaned away from where John had hit it and only stopped from falling when it tapped against one of the other crystalline pillars growing out of the ground. The zombies around him froze as he nearly mortally wounded the Beacon, and then John's horse began to turn and gallop back ou-

Beacon of Ruin used Distraught!
Gamer's Mind resists the emotional effect!
Mental Rite resists the emotional effect!

His horse jerked in place at the new spell, stumbled, and then froze for a moment as John ignored the horrible wailing in his ears. He kicked at the horse’s sides and felt it move a couple more feet before he was abruptly thrown from his saddle.

Beacon of Ruin strikes you for -20 HP!
Beacon of Ruin used Grow!
Beacon of Ruin has reached level 10!