My (Monster?) Hero Life

Chapter 171: Human Wave

The sudden outburst and onslaught of Kace took the heroes by surprise. At the same time, Sophia was also taken aback by Kace's sudden display of what she perceived to be affection for her. This was now the second time that she felt like he was going above and beyond for her. The first being his duel with her mother in the arena.

The heroes had no chance to retaliate as their numbers were cut in half by the Ice Spears he launched. He followed up with a Stampede to close the distance right before spewing liquid fire from his mouth all over them. When his throat began to glow with the insidious red light, his new features were lit up, giving him the appearance of a demon. 

The heroes flinched in fear which was a fatal mistake. This was what allowed Kace to cover them in the liquid fire in the first place. As they melted down into nothing but unrecognisable corpses the other heroes who were on their way to reinforce them halted their advance. Fear was etched on all of their faces as they considered the thought of being put in the same situation. 

Not a single one of them had the courage to risk their lives in what was sure to be a futile struggle. Sophia took the lull in their situation to catch her breath. The new hole that she was sporting in her arm had already begun to heal. Her forehead was drenched in sweat from the exertion of the fight with her life on the line. However, seeing that Kace was safe and sound made it all worth it.

"I can still fight, you know!" Sophia exclaimed as Kace pushed her behind himself. She would never admit it, but it felt kind of good to have someone who wanted to protect her.

"Nothing's going to happen to you as long as I have a say in it," Kace growled causing yet another misunderstanding. 'I can't have her dying on me just yet! I still need her!' Kace was, of course, thinking about his quest and not the random feelings that had emerged. 

Sophia blushed at his words, making her look like some tomato from a horror movie. There was just a little too much red on her at the moment for it to be considered cute or endearing. The group of heroes before they seemed to be waiting for one of their companions to make the first move. None of them wanted to be the first to rush to their death.

Seeing the enemies were hesitating, Kace gently nudged Sophia, indicating that they should back off slowly. After what they had just been through, it would be better to disengage from the battle for a while to recover their strength. However, the subtle movement they both made was read with a different meaning by their opponents.

"They're scared! Kill them now!" One of the heroes roared. This cry to battle gave the heroes the backbone that they had been missing.

"Fuck! Run!" Kace yelled at Sophia, who was still behind his back. 

"What about you?" She panicked as she realised that Kace had no intention of following behind her.

"Forget me! Just go! I'll catch up!"

Sophia did not believe his statement for even the slightest fraction of a second. To her, it was obvious that he was trying to shield her escape. In her own delusion, she even believed that Kace might even be willing to go as far as to lay down his own life to ensure her survival. Her maiden's heart stirred with emotion at the thought. How could she abandon him now after this? 

She planted both of her feet firmly beside him and raised her sword. Ready to fight to the death at his side. The onrushing heroes grimaced as they realised their mistake. The enemy was not afraid of them! More like they had been giving them the chance to escape with their lives! What happened next could only be described as a bloodbath.

The pair of them were so in sync with each other that was frightening to even think about. They covered for each other's blind spots as they proceeded to massacre the group using only their physical prowess. Whenever Kace would go for a kill, Sophia would act as his shield and vice versa. Between the two of them, it took no more than four minutes to leave a mound of corpses in their wake.

"We have to fall back." Kace suddenly announced as he looked out to the heroes army that was still scaling the walls even now. 

At this rate, they would soon be drowned in a sea of flesh and blood. Overwhelming strength meant next to nothing in the face of sheer numbers. They were definitely going with human wave tactics. It was like the casualty rate meant absolutely nothing to the enemy commander. Kace looked to his left and right and saw that several heroes that were either wounded or too tired were now retreating from the front lines. 

Initially, Kace thought that this might herald the end of today's fighting, but he was soon proven to be wrong. As these heroes made their way back to the army below, a section of the heroes held in the reserves made their move to replace them. 'Oh, fuck me! They use a rotation method to stop us from having a chance to recover!'

Little did he know that Sonja had also noticed this little fact, but it was too late to do anything about it. After all, it was a tactic that had never been implemented before. Most commanders would just try to brute force their way through or settle for fast and overwhelming victories. However, this method would allow the heroes to take the greatest advantage of their numbers in this war.

To make matters even worse, neither of them could have possibly have known that the first wave of the heroes reinforcements was currently crossing the mountains