This wasn’t the time or place I really wanted to be dealing with the fucking shaman. Not gonna lie though, getting ahold of his abilities and class core would be sweet. Right now, I was really missing out from not having access to Katnessa’s shooting.

  I started by having everyone put their vehicles in reverse, and at a mere 5mph go backwards. The orcs picked up on our change in direction almost immediately. I could see the shaman belting out orders in their language that I still didn’t understand. One of these days I’m going to learn it, but not today.

  The giant ogre topped drider creature moved very slowly at the back. It clearly had no problem letting orc grunts and meat shields soak up bullets. It may not be smart, but its survival instincts were top notch. Slow and steady may not win the race, but it sure was terrifying from this perspective. However, we couldn’t just flee as that would expose all the civilians fleeing towards the back end of the district. More people were coming out of the side streets near us and running away from the orcs.

  With us moving back so slowly the distance between us and the orcs shrank quickly. I was still out on foot exposed with my radio in hand. I decided that now was the time to ask for operational support. One good air strike, or some mini guns from a helicopter would do wonders to thin the orc’s numbers. “Command, Its Captain Cassland. Meeting heavy resistance. Over.”

  “This is Command. You need to punch through their numbers.”

  “Requesting air support. A drone or even heavy weapons on a helicopter.”

  “That’s a negative, Command can not spare the air support from other areas at the moment.” I could literally hear Jets going overhead not too far away. These guys were no help. Looks like we are on our own. I finally got in the back of the Humvee I had been in for a few days. I sat across from Nora. We needed to plan a way for this to work.

  The first step was cutting down on angles of attack from our enemy. Rick started using the wand of sticky webs on either side of the street anchoring it to vehicles houses and trees in the front yard. This narrowed the orcs down to two Humvees in width. I knew the wand would be empty soon, but I didn’t care, I still had more magic items that I hadn’t even bothered identifying yet, because there never seemed to be a good time to do so.

  Next up was handing the staff to Nora. She had strong scrolls available and now was the time start using them. “It’s scroll time. I’m sure you already have ideas.” She smiled at me and even I was a bit scared at that one. She jumped out of the vehicle and started using read magic from the staff to allow her to get her first spell off. I was sure I would see the upside of it soon enough. I got joe on radio, “Joe, have guys set explosives to detonate as soon as we get outside of their range.”

  No response from Joe, but that didn’t mean that he didn’t get the order. However, I did get a response from Brett, “Joe acknowledges the order. He didn’t want to deal with communication.”

  “Fair enough. Do you have an eye on your sister?”

  “She’s patching up an injured soldier. She’s like a combat medic, but with cookies.”

  “Remember, even the apocalypse is better with cookies.”

  He laughed super briefly over the radio before it cut off due to the now raging grease fire in front of us. I am guessing she used grease, as a grease fire is dirty and full smoke and fumes. The abyssal orcs might be fire resistant, but it doesn’t mean they can’t die or get sick from smoke inhalation. The whole approach was now covered. The advance of the orcs was stymied for a moment, only to be eventually broken by a strong bit of wind from the shaman. As the smoke cleared we could see the shaman closer to the front now blasting wind out of his outstretched right hand. He clearly leans into weather based magic. It is not fun watching an enemy spell caster when we really don’t have any of our own yet. At least none on par to be dangerous to him purely from magic.

  His wind ability got cut off when one of our guys got several shots into the hand. So clearly the wind was push smoke strong, but not block bullets strong. I am glad to know he has limitations. The spider-like creature was still lurking in the back, content to rip people out of buildings and eat them. Watching it eat adults and children with relative abandon made me want to vomit, but I couldn’t do that now. As we pulled back further I pulled out a pearl necklace from the pouch. I knew the item was magical, but never bothered to identify it. It was in the small stack of unidentified items in my pouch. I used Identify. The higher my effect level and caster level went didn’t do much to power this ability, but I could feel it going off just a little bit faster. Whether that was from repeated use or the other items above I didn’t know, nor was now the best time to explore that.

  Pearl Necklace of Water

  This Necklace has 15 pearls of different sizes remaining on it. A full necklace starts with 23 typically. Each pearl contains the embedded spell Water Ball. This is an elemental ball spell akin to fireball. Instead of fire it bursts into a large area of effect full of Scalding water from the elemental plane of water. Creatures made of fire or aligned with fire in some significant way take extra damage. The size of pearl determines the amount of damage done. All the pearls have the same radius of 9 meters. To use a pearl, pop it off the necklace and toss it. Please be sure to throw the pearl more than 9 meters as the necklace does not confer any protection to this damage. No affinities are required to use this or wear it. The user must have access to mana.

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  I was kind of hoping the necklace was something like this. There are a few other items in the pouch that hopefully have similar benefits. This one needed to go to someone outside, but I checked another piece of jewelry that I had hopes for. I used Identify really quickly on necklace with a diamond set in the center. Diamonds mean strong and powerful, so I was nearly willing to be it was something better.

  Necklace of Protection-Minor

  This Necklace provides a minor bit of protection in the form of a deflection bonus against incoming attacks. When it protects the wearer it will look like the attack simply slid off of them. However, this protection is very minor.

  Well, never mind. I guess I can give that to Frank for fun. The image of big Frank wearing a diamond necklace made me chuckle. So, this means that not all of the things I have been carting around waiting to utilize are exactly game changers. Well, at least one of the two would come in handy.

  I handed the necklace of pearls to Ted in the front passenger seat and said, “go outside, pluck one of the pearls off the necklace, and throw it far into the orcs. You need to clear well over 30 feet, probably 45 at least.”

  He gave me this doubtful look and rolled his eyes. “Yes, Captain.” He reluctantly opened the car door while it was still slowly moving. The driver stepped a little more onto the break stopping our movement just enough for Ted to step outside and be free of the vehicle. Meanwhile, I saw Nora finish another scroll and toss a baseball sized orb into the midst of the orcs. And I was able to witness a fireball for the first time. Nora tossed it overhand like she played baseball as a child. The little red orb hurtled towards the orcs right down the middle of the pathway. The red baseball was a thing of beauty as it collided with an orc in the third row. Fire blasted out from that point single point of impact perfectly and symmetrically. This damage was in complete three dimensional glory as fire shot in all directions engulfing several rows of orcs including a confused shaman. The ripple of fire only lasted for a few seconds but as the flames chased each other away there were a lot of injured orcs on the ground trying to pick themselves back up.

  This was chased moments later when Ted threw a pearl into nearly the same spot. Water blasted out at the speed of a hurricane. Orc bodies flew with it into cars, webs, and each other. I saw firsthand the most beautiful use of water in my life in that moment. Several the weaker orcs were shredded into multiple parts. Their blood spraying even further, nearly reaching us. I am not a fan of blood, but the sight of water tearing orcs apart and spraying blood across the whole street was glorious.

  We kept at it. We had them reeling. Ted kept popping off little pearls and chucking them into the orc lines. Nora used another scroll and lightning shot forth from her hands and for well over a hundred feet frying and cooking every orc in its path. Gunfire kept steady. We took head shots with non-enchanted ammo, and took any shot that presented itself with enchanted ammo.

  I lost track of the shaman amidst all the carnage we unleashed. I thought he died with his other troops right near the front, but I couldn’t place eyes on his body. In hindsight, that was my biggest tactical mistake. I knew he could offset anything we did if given time and opportunity.

  As if on cue, a trio of stone spears shot out from an obscured hand. The first one smashed through the grill and into the engine block. The second crashed through the front windshield impaling the driver through the steering wheel and his chest, and the third hit the gunner in the shoulder plastering him against the backrest behind him.

  The orcs near the front used the opportunity to down a different kind of potion. These were not healing potions as we soon found out. The orcs all bulged in size as their bodies gained thickness and scales. They rushed through the passage that had been just moments before filled with lightning and rammed our riot shield bearers.

  The wedge of shield holders were not prepared for enlarged and scaled orcs to barrel down on them. The formation broke, not through fearful people running, but like 7-10 split in bowling. Grown men with near full body shields flew back past my vehicle. They knocked over the gunners positioned behind them in a tangle of limbs, weapons, and shields. Our defensive front was a mess.

  We countered with more firepower. Brett hit the nearest orc with a blast of lightning bit so hard and deep into the orc that I could see his skeleton visible through his skin before he collapsed. Nora unleashed yet another scroll to watch tentacles rise out of the ground and grapple with the orcs.

  This was probably the strangest thing I had seen since the start of the apocalypse. Oversized, 8ft or larger, orcs were fighting off massive 2 foot diameter purple tentacles that would constrict around more than one orc at a time. I wasn’t sure if the orcs or the tentacles would win. Watching a tentacle smash an orc into the ground like a child slapping a toy into the living room carpet amidst some tantrum just boggled my mind.

  There were so many sights simultaneously demanding my attention, but I had eyes on the shaman. This bastard had killed some of my men. These were men that I had begun to trust with my very life. They had also put their trust in me to get them home to their families each and every night. I had broken that promise today, just like I did against the shit demon. Now, though, I had ways of fighting back that I didn’t possess during the shit demon encounter. I opened the back passenger door of the Humvee and jumped out, not quite sticking the landing, but close enough. I slammed the door shut and took aim with my rifle. I activated predictive aim and the images coalesced very quickly this time as the shaman was barely moving around. He looked to be trying to spot someone specific.

  It turns out that person was me. He looked right at me as I saw him through my scope and predictive aim. The target was outlined in green, so I pulled the trigger. His head snapped back from my hit directly into his forehead. However, he didn’t fall over, but locked his head back into position and spoke something. I didn’t understand the words, but the intent was clear so I dodged backwards to put the Humvee between us. He might trash the vehicle, but hopefully I survive. Unfortunately, my guess was right as 3 stone spears sprang forth in front of him. The first whistled right through where I was a moment before and struck a Humvee behind me. From the result wheezing sound it probably hit a tire, but I wasn’t wasting a glance back yet.

  The second spear took out the fender directly in front of me, but broke apart before it could damage me directly, but shrapnel from the fender did clip my forehead knocking me down flat on the ground. This caused the third spear to miss as well; it was aimed right in behind the second spear and had a clean shot on me. Thankfully, shrapnel saved me this time. It was probably the first time I had that thought. It probably wouldn’t be the last time either.

  Will used the opportunity to fire repeatedly into the shaman. Two arrows flew in rapid succession from the other side of the Humvee, and that was probably the result of Brittney, and lastly, Nora finally used her wand of force bolt to smack five little force darts rapidly into the creatures gut, ripping a nice little completely through him.

  The threat of the shaman was eliminated as he slumped over, blood spilling from his mouth, his gut wound and from numerous bullet holes and arrows. This rematch did not go to the shaman. But he made us pay in blood for the victory.