1% Lifesteal

In the Fortress Dungeon, there was a thirty-minute waiting period before the waves of enemies arrived. This period was most likely so that the challengers could prepare themselves.

And indeed, Freddy spotted the weaker folk rushing into the towers and pulling out ammo. He followed them.

People respectfully moved around him as they grabbed the racks of ballista bolts and picked up the rope nets full of catapult ammo. There was even a two-star who was busy collecting the daggers and swords.

Once any of these resources were removed from where they stood, it took no more than a few seconds for them to just magically reappear out of thin air. Like this, the people present were quickly accumulating a massive pile of ammo and resources. Given that the dungeon challenge lasts for almost six hours, they would need a lot of resources.

Freddy took a look outside and glanced at the other towers. Two of the five towers had people on top. The one he was at was empty.

He cupped his helmet where his chin would be and eyed the javelin rack.

While he was going to practice his throwing combo, he didn’t really have much blood to work with.

His Lake of Blood was freshly upgraded, so it only just slightly more than doubled his total blood reserves. He was a big dude, and given that he passed Puddle of Blood, his body could hold quite a bit, probably a bit over 9 liters, closer to ten. With Lake of Blood, that meant his total blood reserves were around 20 liters, but he obviously couldn’t use all of it. He needed at least 5 liters in his body to avoid losing strength in combat.

It would take him around a liter of blood to make a single javelin, so he only had 15 projectiles at his disposal. That was very few.

Also, he hadn’t yet started on a marrow tempering technique, and he also did not have a blood absorption ability, so his ability to replenish his reserve of blood was barely better than any other two-star.

He walked over to the javelin rack and started taking them. There were quite a few different types present. Some were longer, some were shorter, some were heavier, some were lighter. Among them, the shape also varied, with different types of spearheads and shafts in different colors.

Some even had fletching on them, just like an arrow.

As he collected them, they respawned, and he quickly found himself holding a huge bundle. He walked up the stairs, simply threw the javelins on a pile, and went down to get more.

The surrounding people noticed this, and two of them started whispering. One of them was a short young man wearing a synthetic cap with a tuft of hair peeking out above his forehead. His buddy was a bit taller, bald, and wearing a metal helmet, but it was a bit silly and looked like it had seen quite a bit of action. It was either used or dug up from a pile of garbage.

The short one seemed to gather bravery for a second as he took a deep breath and approached Freddy. “Hey there!”

“Hi,” Freddy greeted back as he grabbed another javelin. “Do you need help with something?”

“Uh, yeah—I mean”—he coughed—”if you’d like, we can help you bring those javelins up to the second floor.”

“Sure thing,” Freddy said.

“But can you please just… uhm…” The man pointed outside. “If it’s possible, could you please bring one of the ballistas and a catapult up to the top of the tower?”

Freddy nearly burst out laughing. “I mean I can try,” he said, still chuckling. “But those catapults look damn heavy. The staircase is a bit tight, too. I’m not sure if I can pull that off.”

“Oh…” The young man deflated and paled slightly. “Sorry, I’m—”

“Hold on,” Freddy said, raising a hand. “I didn’t say I’m not gonna try.”

He walked outside and approached the nearest ballista. It wasn’t too heavy, but it was awkwardly shaped, making it challenging to maintain balance as he carried it. He had to go very slowly and cautiously, but after a few minutes, he managed to get it up to the top of the tower.

The catapult was considerably bigger than the ballista, and on top of that, it was much heavier. With its weight and shape, he wondered whether it was even possible to get it through the tower entrance and up the stairs.

Shrugging, he gave it a shot anyway.

He could just barely drag it. Eventually, he pulled it through the tower entrance and then, slowly dragged it up the stairs. For a moment, it looked like it couldn’t pass through the end of the staircase, but with the help of Hydraulic Flex, Freddy managed to turn it just enough to pull it through.

Once he finally put it in place, he had to pause for a minute to catch his breath.

“Holy shit, man,” the bald guy said, laughing and nodding in approval. “You’re a beast!”

“Thanks,” Freddy said with a chuckle.

“No, thank you! It’s much safer up here!”

The two young men were part of a bigger group of five and had already collected quite an impressive pile of ammo. Most of them looked pretty tired before the battle even began, but given how they would contribute, that shouldn’t be a big issue.

There was a small problem with the ballista—the parapet on the tower was too high. That meant they could only aim the ballista way into the sky.

While the newbies discussed possible solutions, like improvising a platform to put the ballista on, Freddy simply shrugged and walked to the parapet.

With a single-star Flowing Strike, he kicked the wall, crushing it into bits that flew all across the grasslands and opening a hole through which they could fire the ballista.

The people behind him jumped in fright, and the stunt even attracted the attention of the surrounding delvers.

“There you go,” he said to the group of frightened one-stars. “That solves the problem.”

They simply nodded and remained quiet.

There were only a few minutes left until the start of the fighting, so while the newbies collected more ammo, Freddy scouted the fortress to see how the other groups had distributed.

As soon as he peeked across the parapet, he spotted the Lapis Clan group. They noticed that he was looking at them and eyed him strangely, with a slight dash of hostility in their gazes.

Freddy scoffed at that and looked over to the other side of the fortress. There, the Valhalla duo was chatting away on the wall. They also immediately noticed him looking at them, and Thor waved at him exaggeratedly. The Lapis people noticed this.

“Those motherfuckers,” Freddy muttered, sighing.

By approaching him like that in front of the crowd, Thor and Travis had complicated his life.

Given that he hadn’t been hiding his existence, people would sooner or later notice the peak two-star and realize that he didn’t belong to any of the local factions. As soon as that happened, he’d start getting offers, and people would no doubt attempt to get him on their side.

But after today, that was likely not going to happen.

Thor had planted a poison pill. As the rumor of Freddy’s existence spread, it would be inextricably tied to the possibility that he was already a member of Valhalla. Or at least an ally.

Usually, Freddy would be pissed at getting manipulated like that, but he understood the local politics well enough to know why Thor was practically forced to do that.

The only reason why Valhalla had survived so long was because of Thor’s incredible personal power. The local three-stars were either not confident in defeating him or scared of losing their lives while trying to take him out.

It was important to remember the status of a three-star in Repentawa. These people were practically kings. They could live in luxury and enjoy an untouchable position. Getting such people to risk their lives was hard.

But that didn’t mean that Thor was invincible.

Just as with any other three-star powerhouse, if he fought against a group of peak two-stars with specialized talents, it wasn’t guaranteed that he’d survive.

Interfering with the recruitment of such two-stars was the only right choice for the man unless he wanted to find himself suffocated.

Freddy stared across the bailey, watching the different groups strategizing and chatting. A gentle wind blew through the air, making the grasslands shimmer like a verdant sea of waves reflecting the light of the sky.

The sounds of the surrounding forest canopy just barely reached his ears, giving a pleasant backdrop that eased some of the tension in the air.

Once the time until the first wave reached only a few minutes, the groups quieted and got ready for action.

Freddy didn’t know how much time was left, but he could feel that something was about to happen in his bones. A strange tension bubbled within his gut.

Suddenly, on the balcony just above the gate standing in the middle of the bailey, an elderly man with a thick, white beard, wearing what looked like monk robes, walked out. He looked serene as he raised his arms and shouted. “Attention, defenders!”

Some people turned to face him while the more experienced crews didn’t even react.

The man took a deep breath as he screamed from the top of his lungs, “We are under attack!”

A rumbling sounded somewhere far away.

Freddy saw the figures slowly seep between the trees of the forest. What looked like mountain bandits walked out, wearing mostly fur and old leather clothing; some were shirtless, with little more than loincloths to protect their privates. There weren’t too many of them, and they were scattered.

Suddenly, they all raised their weapons and started shouting.

“Get the bastards!”

“Plunder their gold and capture their women!”

“Slit their throats and stab their heads upon yer pikes!”

“Men, charge!”

They started running.

Most of the powerful two-stars didn’t even move. They simply stood and waited. They likely wouldn’t even start fighting until a serious challenge arrived. Otherwise, they’d just be wasting their energy for no reason.

Many of the weaker fighters had picked up bows from the racks and fired arrows. Most of them had absolutely no skill. Many of their arrows flew in loopy trajectories before tumbling uselessly to the ground, but to be fair, a few of them did fly straight, even though they ultimately missed or didn’t have enough force behind them to do much damage.

The scattered group of weak delvers used almost no visible abilities, and their talents were in the ordinary category, with only a few people having visible physical indications of their talent.

The ballistae, though, those were doing some work.

The two young men he had talked to before aimed their loaded ballista and fired. The bolt shot with a loud whistle and… missed by several meters. But, a bit further away, another group managed to land a bolt right through one of the invader’s forehead, bursting his entire head apart.

“Damn!” the bald guy cussed. “Get your shit together, man!”

“Yeah, yeah, shut up, you can’t aim either! Now help me load another bolt!”

Among the options of catapult ammo, there were boulders, jars of flammable liquid, and just a pile of spiky metal shards.

As for the people next to Freddy, they opted for the flammable jars. The jars were plugged closed by a wet rag, looking like a big Molotov cocktail, and as a beginner fire-affinity arch lit the cloth on fire, a woman pulled a latch and sent the projectile flying.

It completely missed the invading warriors, and this time, by like twenty meters; it wasn’t even remotely close.

Freddy couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow. “Man, do you guys even know how to aim this stuff?”

They groaned and hung their heads. “This is our first time here,” the bald guy said. “We’ll get the hang of it eventually.”

Other than the two men on the ballista and the man and woman operating the catapult, there was another young girl with them. She, however, was busy bringing more ammo.

She looked sweaty as hell and was breathing heavily as he hauled another large boulder up the stairs. Her strength was quite impressive though, most like coming from a talent.

Freddy, having no reason to wait, picked up his first javelin. It was long, with a thin spearhead and no fletching—its weight was a bit of the lighter side.

He walked over to the parapet and took aim.

He focused purely on the Hydraulic Throw. He was already quite familiar with which muscles he needed to use for throwing, and the water in his body moved through them. The water suddenly compressed and his muscles tightened with it; he threw the javelin.

While he wasn’t particularly skilled at this, he was still a peak two-star. His natural perception and ability to manipulate his essence was way above where it used to be.

But he still fucking missed.

The damn javelin landed just a bit to the side of one of the invaders.

He awkwardly glanced at the people beside him and coughed. "Man, this wind is a little annoying..."

Sighing, he picked up another javelin and got ready to throw again.

While the bandits didn’t have any bows, that didn’t mean they came without ranged options. He saw a few of them clutch strips of dirty cloth. One of them suddenly started swinging it through the air, and a moment later, he flung a chicken egg-sized rock at the defenders on the lower wall.

It flew with impressive accuracy and clocked one of the one-stars in his head. The rock bounced off the helmet but left a visible dent.

“God damn!” Freddy shouted in admiration. “Now that’s a fuckin’ throw; we’re a bunch of chumps compared to that guy!”

A few of the people beside him chuckled nervously at that.

The two young men in the front aimed another bolt and fired. This time, they struck a man’s leg.

“Gods damn it!” the man wailed miserably as he fell to the ground. “I’ll flay you scum!” he yelled.

Seeing their member injured, a few of the surrounding warriors flung rocks their way, and Freddy had to admit, the sounds of them bouncing off the parapet was quite intimidating.

It had to be mentioned that these invaders weren’t even archhumans yet. These were simply mortal men. If this reflected the true fighting power of such people from mankind's history… well… humanity had fallen off pretty hard.

Baldy and Shorty were visibly sweating, and Shorty looked like he was going to throw up. Freddy could hear their hearts beating in their chest, and Baldy’s hand slipped as he loaded another bolt.

A moment later, a rather large rock flew right above Shorty’s head, and the young man tumbled and tripped, falling on his back as he shouted miserably. He was hyperventilating.

“Chill out, man,” Freddy said as he gave him a hand. The man could barely hold his grip.

Frankly, this guy just didn’t seem to be cut out for this kind of life. But he still forced himself and got back to aiming the ballista.

Freddy simply sighed and walked over to pick up another javelin.

The few bandits that managed to approach the walls flung ropes with counterweights and hooks on them over the wall and climbed up. They were frighteningly fast, and some of the more powerful delvers had to get involved to push them back and prevent them from climbing up.

As the battle raged, the numbers of the invaders kept dwindling, and soon enough, there were only a handful of them left.

One of them looked around at his impaled and beaten comrades as he loaded another rock into this sling. He shouted angrily, but before he could throw the stone, a javelin pierced through his shoulder, and he dropped to the ground.

“Nice, I got one!” Freddy cheered, pumping his fist while the man wailed miserably.

In the next moment, a flaming jug of oil fell right next to the man and splattered him with some of the burning liquid. The man was set on fire. He rolled to the side as he tried to extinguish it, just barely getting out of the way of a ballista bolt that would have cut his suffering short. In the next moment, another javelin by Freddy finished the job.

It was quite a disturbing sight.

Freddy, who was already quite used to killing actual people, still had to remind himself that these invaders were merely constructs conjured by the dungeon. But frankly, he wasn’t sure whether that reminder made him more or less disturbed.

In the next few moments, the last of the first wave was snuffed out, and the second wave started flooding out of the forest.

It was the mortal bandits again, but there were around four to five times as many of them.

“Send them to hell!”

“Tear down their walls!”

“Set their homes aflame!”

“Men, give ‘em pain!”

“Charge!”

Freddy grabbed another javelin.

The forest was quite far, and at that distance, he was basically just throwing randomly and praying something hit. He got a few lucky strikes every now and then, but that wasn’t really the point. He needed to rely on his aim.

During his attempts he got quite familiar with the different types of javelins. So far, he liked the ones on the heavier side—they were less affected by wind. The fletching made somewhat of a difference, but it was hard to tell. As far as he discerned, the length was more important.

He had to limit the power of his throws quite drastically to maximize his accuracy. Still, his throws were quite powerful; they could almost compare to the impact of a ballista bolt.

The second wave was a lot more bloody. The fire jugs were quite effective at halting charges and stalling the men, while most of the kills went to the ballista boys and the melee delvers who were pushing the invaders off the walls.

Freddy was broken out of his concentration by the sound of the group behind him screaming. He turned around and spotted a man quickly vaulting the parapet and pulling out a saber. The sneaky motherfucker actually somehow managed to climb up the tower!

He shot them a sinister grin as he readied his weapon. However, before he could attack anyone, Freddy simply walked up to him, casually grabbed him by his arm, and then proceeded to fling him off the edge, sending the man flying another ten meters into the air before he started his descent.

The sound of his fall was quite loud. He even landed on another invader.

Freddy ignored the stares of the people around him as he picked up another javelin and got back to work.

Relatively quickly, the second wave came to an end.

Now, the more powerful delvers started readying their weapons.

As soon as the last invader died, Freddy heard the sound of war drums beating from within the forest.

In the same number as the barbarians of the last wave, soldiers in full armor marched. These weren’t mortals, either—they were one-stars, albeit on the weaker side.

Behind them was a knight on an armored horse, equipped with a massive spear on his back. He wasn’t too powerful, only around the peak of the first star.

Freddy decided to challenge himself.

He completely ignored the javelins and reached for one of the ballista bolts. It was made of pure metal and weighed quite a bit more than the wooden javelins.

Freddy got into position and focused. The entire world seemed to slow down as he focused his entire being on the origin of that peak one-star aura.

His eyes were wide open as he grabbed the massive bolt with all his might and flung it, sending it flying straight toward the mounted general.