Eric laughed with mad, furious exultation. Because final days or no, he was REVELING in the sheer rush of growing in strength and power and sheer glorious HATE as he glared down at the countless nightmare swarm of locusts that had consumed an entire province in less than a day.
An entire province.
In less than 24 hours.
And just a few miles away, protected by the thinnest of barriers, an innocent girl had just fallen in love with the reborn dream of an elf. A girl desperate for peace and second chances, ready to embrace what she had no doubt hoped would be the start of a lifelong adventure of happiness, love, family, and sweet, sweet farming skill-ups, perks, boons, and enhancements that would have her making the tastiest rhubarb pies in a hundred miles.
Eric glared down with furious hate at the fuckers below. Because there was no way in HELL he was going to let any assholes horror special interfere with HIS people’s happy ending.
Fuck that.
“Surge Centuria, Boys! Rise and Shine!” He flashed a fierce smile as his golden ring flashed once, a hundred thousand sarissophoroi summoned forth in instant formation.
Eric flashed a wild smile as he DARED stretch his Speed Racer gifts in ways he somehow knew had never been dared before but was DESTINED to go.
The first allowed him to dash about free of unwanted air resistance, pivoting about on a dime.
Second tier Speed Racer allowed him to race through all terrain. Including the sky. Including stopping at any point, and racing at whatever angle he could imagine, effectively flying.
And Deathmarch II allowed his revenants to do the same. Even if air resistance was still a thing.
He had mastered air resistance and had become his own reference point.
So why not at any angle!
Heart racing, glaring down at his prey, he took one step… and then another.
The entire world seemed to torque and spin… before it all made sense. It all snapped into focus as South became down, North, toward the barrier became up, and the hundreds of thousands of swarming bugs were suddenly right in front of Eric and his phalanx… all conveniently pressed against the mile long wall that had once been barren wasteland.
Eric’s lips curled in a perfect grin.
The fuckers were in absolute perfect position to receive his charge.
And he wouldn’t even turn to see if his revenants were in position, defying reality as well as he.
For he already KNEW that they were.
And even if his bones had been cursed to be as brittle as glass… that had been 50 Legendary Class ascensions ago.
Still, mithril blade was traded for soul bound Shadow Mantis claw-tipped spear radiating so many runes of Impermeability that mithril would be hard pressed to cut it in twain.
“Ready boys? One… two… three… Charge!”
Eric howled with sweetest exhilaration as he raced straight for the pressed swarm of bugs at exactly 400 miles per hour, the maximum his troops could maintain without Eric streaking at Super sonic speeds because he wasn’t stupid after being cursed and he had a new trick he wanted to—
You have slammed into RAGING LOCUST SWARM!
347 Physical Resistance + Charge + Battletime EFFORTLESSLY absorbs all excess kinetic force.
Brittle Bones curse FAILS to activate!
Piercing Strike! Eric silently screamed, furiously lashing out and spending around 4 temporary Soul Reserves to plunge his spear effortlessly through multiple targets before pulling his weapon free, twisting around, and racing back the way he had come as his fish-hooked targets when flying, their bodies tumbling through the air in their new direction of down until regular physics took over, a long arc that Eric, much to his relief, saw repeated tens of thousands of times over.
But no more.
Even against the horrific din of hundreds of thousands of bugs chittering and screeching and rubbing their foul carapaces and limbs together… he could tell that his perk had failed to activate for his massive army as well.
“Why?” he dared to whisper aloud as he prepared for a second charge, cheeks flushing when he was forced to wonder if maybe he DID understand what had gone wrong… and how awful and cheesy would it be if it was as bad as he thought?
He grimaced. “It doesn’t fucking matter. All that matters is preventing that barrier from bursting!”
Even as he said the words aloud, he could feel the sudden awful pressure of the entire zone ratchet up to the point of bursting... like an overfilled balloon about to burst…
Sensing so exquisitely clearly the distant cry of dreamers and desperate souls who wanted only a peaceful life… an existence that Malice Bane would do all he could to tear free of every soul in this world and every other. That monster would gladly ascend upon the burning pyre of the galaxy itself.
And against an asshole that profoundly fucked up, Eric was willing to accept a little extra otaku cheese in his life.
He glared, orientation exactly what he needed it to be as his hundred thousand readied themselves to charge once more. “Okay boys, Keep spread out! I want a spear on every fucker you see. We do this as one!”
He then raced forward at a loping jog that everyone matched in perfect tandem… closing once more on the massive horror that pulsed and throbbed against the barrier, almost desperate in it’s desire to—
“PIERCING STRIKE!”
Eric roared, absolutely calling his shots, Super Punch man style.
And this time, as 40 Soul Reserves were wicked from his pool, the air rang with a hundred thousand spears striking in tandem.
Revenant Legion SUCCESSFULLY slaughters 50,000 Locusts in a single strike!
You have achieved Rank 27 in Spear!
“Surge Centuria! Imperator, Imperat, Tibi!” Eric gleefully roared as the massive swarm of agitated locusts turned their focus to their tormentors in the exact same instant that fifty thousand perfectly pierced locusts crumpled in ash and flame before reforming as bronze-clad undead champions, reborn with the souls of vital spirits EAGER to save their world.
All of them more than happy to fight by Eric’s side, no Spirit Mastery contests needed. And there hadn’t been in quite some time. Because this match was for all the marbles, and if Malice wasn’t stopped here and now, there would be no world for any of them to be reborn into… ever again.
Yet even with half the locusts now focused on them… the continuing screams of a boarder strained past all limits was a torment to Eric’s ears.
A torment such that he didn’t hold back… even if there was no time to line up the perfectly calibrated attack. Instead, it was 150,000 legions spread out to slam into their swarming foe, spears three men thick as Eric roared the words he still needed to say, accepting the cost and glorying in the return.
“Piercing Strike!”
“Piercing Strike!”
“Surge Centuria! Rise and shine, motherfuckers!”
Words he screamed repeatedly as his massive Soul Reserves began to plummet even as 150,000 soldiers became 200,000. Then 300,000. Then, after several more charges… 400,000.
And Eric had lost a finger, and an eye, daring to underestimate his foes for one precious second that had almost cost him everything… and no matter his 50 fucking earned levels… a certain malicious fuck’s bane was STILL preventing him from healing naturally!
So he’d do it the other way.
But not until this threat was stopped!
“Okay, boys, we have time for one more charge! Let’s be fucking heroes!” He screamed, this time spreading out his men, daring to take those extra precious seconds and making full use of Mixed Unit Tactics for his foes to line up and CHARGE and STRIKE at exactly 400 mph to break through his foes with a fucking shockwave of destruction that would end this, here and now!
“Piercing Strike!”
CONGRATULATIONS! Your revenants have successfully struck and killed 107,367 Bronze Tier opponent in a single charge!
OUTSTANDING!
Congratulations! You are the FIRST Terran to lead a charge obliterating 100,000+ Bronze-Tier foes in a single strike!
You have achieved the DEEP Bronze Title:
Charge of the Prismatic Light Brigade II!
Light Brigade Feats COMBINE! You and all those who march, sail, ride, or fly under your banner (including all your revenants!) shall enjoy a 60% damage bonus during and for a full minute after any and every charge that you, your familiar, or one of your Underlords or Champions directs, multiplicative with ALL other boons!)
You additionally enjoy a permanent 10% bonus to all earned attributes with yet another End-Of-World Title!
And no one even challenged you for it! It’s almost like they all know to FEAR the rapidly ascending Dreadlord! - THAT’S YOU!
Isn’t that EXCITING?
His ears rang with the message he had been so eager for, yet now it invoked nothing but a bitter scream as the barrier finally shattered with a horrifying world-ending crash and the swarm of locusts were free to flood a former paradise that would now never be the same.
The air rang with screams as Eric desperately changed tactics, belting out the words over and over again that compelled tens of thousands of freshly forged revenants to his eternal service. Dutifully marching BEFORE the locusts could devour them and replenish their numbers yet again.
Yet there was a terrible price to pay as Eric had sensed with a aching heart hurting even more than his gouged eye as he raced through the barrier as fast as he could, nis entire legion stored in his ring as he reoriented in a desperate bid to contain the vile infection.
But it was already too late.
At least for the village Eric raced past at desperate blinding speed… he was not looking... determined not to look as the air rang with the cries of children and the horrified scream of a young human girl just a heartbeat before her head was clipped off and she was consumed before her body had even dropped, her wild-eyed betrothed somehow gazing strait up at Eric, pleading with eyes that knew far too much, a heartbeat before locusts had chomped onto every flailing limb and tore him to pieces, devouring him entirely in seconds.
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And just as bad were the sounds of panicked mothers and shrieking children that just suddenly… stopped.
As a howling Eric did the only thing he could, so that their cries didn’t become the world’s cries.
OR so he gibbered and screamed to himself as Mach 2.6 brought him a full mile beyond the doomed village’s periphery, squeezing tight his ring as he summoned what were now over half a million revenants in a shockingly massive crescent formation.
“Alright you bloody bastards, here’s the deal!” He screamed. “We do this Hun style! We press forward and we ground them to fucking paste! We do not stop until the barrier is contained! Now press forward, you fucks! Press forward and charge!”
And charge they did, an insensate Eric taking to the skies with ten thousand serving as his overwatch and auxiliary troops, darting about the battlefield at shocking speeds. Though Eric was as ruthless and tactical as he was bitter and furious and screaming at a dream collapsed, because even with his shocking amount of outrageous gifts…
He had still dropped the fucking ball.
But if there was one thing he could do right, as the air lit with a thirty foot long crimson bar of blazing death… it was swing a sword.
Bloodfire Strike Bisects 12 Flying Locusts!
Experience Earned!
Bloodfire Strike is now Rank 26!
Finger has regenerated!
Eye has been restored!
Eric howled, surrendering to his own fury as his world became the deadly flash of fire, ice, and crimson retribution, roaring for tens of thousands of fresh troops to rise and fight in the stead of the hundreds that actually fell to the endless swarm as one hour bled into the next. He took fresh injuries and found himself contending with new threats, Evolved Locusts, Shadow Locusts, and so much worse.
Yet he found that 1,400 Quickness, Danger Sense, and his ultimate attack a satisfying counter to near any foe.
“Phoenix Strike!” Eric roared, and the shadowy creature of hissing curses, wildly sentient eyes, and venemous death, the farthest thing from a true locust… froze to bitter black ice before the golden streak bisecting it catalyzed a catastrophic eruption of frozen Shadow Locust that obliterated the host of devouring abominations right behind it.
Congratulations! You have stopped holding back and have finally begun to embrace your favorite killing art! An art you had mastered once before at your mother’s side, as WORLDS BURNED for your pleasure!
Phoenix Strike is now Rank 18!
Eric took a deep, ragged breath, now sensing scores more of especially potent foes pushing through the rupture, knowing what his rebuttal must be with the fresh contingent of revenants flying by his side. Including the original 10,000 strong overwatch, and all those he had risen from the dead since that moment.
Having held off on a certain attack both to conserve too rapidly depleting energy and, of course, to draw out their prey.
Now, however...
Eric snarled, flashing a fierce hot grin.
“It’s time, boys! Everyone CHARGE!”
In that instant, his entire force of Bronze-Tier elites blazed forward with everything the had… Eric doing all he could to judge the perfect moment as he charged right for the thick heart of the swarm, lashing out with everything he had.
“Piercing Strike, Motherfucker!” He screamed in hyperspeak, too fast for any mortal to hear.
Fast enough for his spear to lock on to the shadowy locust hissing and disappearing before his eyes before teleporting right behind him…
In perfect position for his own Shadow Mantis to show why locusts naturally feared the predator in their midst.
Eric flashed a fierce smile as his spear point aimed not for the locust but that which he had guarded. The massive bloated head of a fresh locust queen.
You have depleted 40 Soul Reserves!
Your revenant army strikes as one!
200,345 Locusts have perished!
74,534 Locusts have been injured!
Your Piercing Strike fails to kill your target!
You have been Struck by Sonic Shriek!
For a heartbeat, everything turned bone white as he felt his skull and spine suffer hairline fractures. His once more intact eyes came close to bursting as he choked back a scream of his own.
The massive arthropod continued to wail, lashing out with an endless psionic screem that had Eric’s head spiking with an awful headache despite his dense neurons, feeling a tooth crack and his malefactor’s curse caused him spikes of agony even here, as his enemy embraced both Psionics and vibration in what was, for Eric, a particularly deadly attack.
Or what would have been… should have been… a profoundly perilous blow.
If Eric hadn’t had impossibly dense neuronal defenses or a physical resistance almost 50 points beyond artillery stopping power.
Because of course Malificent Bane knew the weaknesses of the Sylvan creature he had summoned, bound, and come so close to destroying, who knew how many thousands of years ago.
And was now so damned eager to destroy every last trace of her presence on this plane, even as he wheezed with every gurgling breath for a few seconds more of life… fueled on by bitter spite alone.
As, Eric, suspected, had been the case for countless years.
Then Eric gave as good as he got.
“FRAGOR!” Eric roared as he lashed out with his deadliest attack.
Phoenix Strike!
His shout cut off the shriek of his foe even as she bulged with the weight of Eric’s obliterating attack. Yet by some awful miracle, she remained intact!
As if channeling stabilizing essences herself.
Or at least she was… a heartbeat before the air erupted in a blinding flash of pristine heat and roaring cold emanating from his blade. The night rang with a fresh crack and boom that obliterated the twelve locust sentinels that had been to the rear of the past-tense queen.
Eric then screamed the words that brought every fallen locust back into his eternal service, the 4000 Mana already spent that he had yet to fully recover just a fraction of the 13,000 he now had access to at his prime. Such a shockingly high number, and he was just grateful as hell that he had enough reserves to do what he needed to do as his troops ascended to 800,000 and he rose his entire force once more, glaring down at the 300,000 or so locusts that remained.
Before spinning back around and slamming down their now spread out and rapidly fleeing targets at full speed, along with his entire army, Mixed Unit Tactics assured that multiple revenants aiming their spears for each one, so that no abomination that had witnessed the death of hundreds of innocents would be permitted to enjoy even a heartbeat of existence beyond what they had already claimed.
Then they roared as one mighty beast.
The lion of Terra, defending their home.
“Piercing Strike!"
4O Additional Soul Reserves spent!
You and your revenants have successfully slain 300,235 fleeing Enemy locusts!
Spear is now Rank 28!
No matter that Eric was momentarily speechless, shuddering with so much power flooding into his revenants and himself, his 3rd Tier Core Saturation shooting all the way up to 32.6%, his revenants needed no coaxing, sensing his desperate urgency, immediately knowing what needed to be done, pouring through the rift and establishing a massive bulwark twenty revenants deep and over a hundred thousand strong that the swarming assholes wouldn’t be getting through before Eric obliterated the regrowing swarm on the other side.
But first thing’s first.
He glared down at the devastated battlefield, shuddering with the aftermath of a desperately fought battle, and felt absolutely furious at the thought of losing out on 250,000 of the 300,000 locust corpses that would infect the land and were HIS to claim.
As well as losing the entire village he had been so desperate to save.
He didn’t hesitate to slam all 3 of the perks he had earned into Undead Legion, and suddenly it was no problem at all to claim each and every last monstrous corpse on the battlefield with the shockingly powerful draw of his will, foul locusts turning into noble bronze defenders as his troop count soared to over one million.
He took a shuddering breath, dazed with exhaustion and despair that he quickly shook away,
You have risen 300,235 additional revenants into your eternal Service.
Congratulations! Master Necromancer is now Level 61!
You have temporarily stemmed ONE Surge Point!
CONGRATULATIONS! YOU ARE THE FIRST CONTENDER TO RAISE OVER 1,000,000 BRONZE OPPONENTS TO FIGHT IN YOUR ETERNAL ARMY!
You have earned the SILVER-TIER Title: LORD OF THE DEAD IV! - NOTE! Your shell is UNABLE to contain the potency of a Silver-Tier boon! Boon deferred until you have saturated your core as far as you dare and finally ascend to Bronze!
He choked back a sob as he commanded his revenants to rise… rise and allow him the chance to use every last flicker of Perception to search for the final threads tying panicked souls to the tales of survivors in desperate need of a happy ending…
A family shuddering in a collapsed corner of their farm.
A village elder cleverly leading half his panicked village to the underground root cellar his grandfather had built centuries ago in a past that never quite was.
A single infant, crying in the dark, destined to be saved by the monster in half-elf clothing… a hero that would one day help defend her world against threats Eric never even saw coming.
But there was no one.
No one alive at all in the devastated ruins that had been a beautiful little town glorying in their abundance of magically bountiful crops and blessed with a visiting hero who had found her heart here and was ready to embrace the greatest of adventures… only for her sweet love story, a story held sacred by the very fabric of this faerie region, to be overwhelmed by the bitter spite and Malice of a monster that had thrived on feasting upon the bitter tears of a fallen angel, a broken Sylvan Queen, for centuries.
Eric blinked back hot stinging tears as he glared at what had once been lush ripened crops gathered high and ready for morning market… and now there was nothing save for shattered buildings and soil stripped of all crops, husks, and nutrients of any sort.
The land was devastated for half a mile in all directions, and not a trace of a single crop or person remained.
And Eric had only been late by seconds.
SECONDS!
He howled in grief, his heart ACHING to swear and OATH to destroy Malice and all his twisted underlings for all time!
It was all he could do to choke back the words. Knowing, knowing all too well, that to utter such words would only strengthen whatever awful connection was between them… a connection that would give that slimy bastard even more power to infect Eric’s world and torment his life until he finally gave into his bitter grief when all was destroyed and he came after the cackling monster in his dying moon, long before he ascended to Gold… and ended up dying like every other fool he sensed being crushed by madness, treachery, despair and monstrous nightmare defenses built over thousands of years of savage paranoia as countless souls failed to do what his mother had done so fucking casually with him by her side.
How? How had they even… but no. None of that mattered right now.
What mattered was that he breathed deep of New Arcadia’s autumn air, so sweet with magic of wonder, and so bitter with the three lines of bitter regret, dismay, and horror, infecting her wondrous realm.
One awful taint that was growing like an abscessed tooth he understood all too well.
And he would be racing with desperate intensity to his revenants that were barely holding the line over a hundred miles away as soon as he was able to.
The second sent such a flare of desperate alarm spiking through him…
A threat within the city itself!
Clever and jaded enough to use warding magics even here… even now… as if well aware of the strings of fate, the power of story, and doing all it could to enact its own tragic twist, for the laughing enjoyment of a very select, very corrupt audience alone.
A final contingent of ugly spite and bitter tragic endings… waiting like a trap ready to spring shut.
And what taunting laughter it was, to sense the pustule about to give just as his sister approached her doom… and now suddenly he was grateful for a certain arrogant boy eager to ingratiate himself to the true powers of Terra that his centuries-old mind could sense.
DrdLrd Slvr – Prince Levalier! Your Revenants have EXPANDED Privileges! Should ANYONE attempt to bar your way or anyone’s way to the golden gate… or should anyone be within the palace or city that Elonia does not want to see… STRIKE AT WILL!
Pnc LV – Understood, General!
Eric, heart pounding, sucked the entirety of his revenants that weren’t the 100,000 defending the rift a territory away… just feet away… and there was only him.
Him and the screaming urgency of knowing that he needed to MOVE! That there was a reason why his revenants had been so reduced that he had gotten an actual Silver Tier title later than he should have… and that his remaining men were about to be overwhelmed.
“Fuck no… not when I sense… there!”
His lips curled in a feral grin as he released his Shadow Mantis to vindicate his own bitter sense of a single dark threat of a tale turning tragic. The only tell the rapidly fleeing Shadow Locust could not hide… seconds before Eric’s own Shadow Mantis hovered over the fleeing bug, Eric racing to the location in the blink of an eye.
Roaring his fury as his blade flashed many times faster than the speed of sound.
More than enough time for the air to light up with a golden flame… and the explosion of brilliantly flashing ice that followed, that particular prey destined never to hide in shadow again.
Save in Eric’s own cause alone.
“Surge Centuria, Motherfucker! It’s Payback time!”
You have successfully raised 1 Shadow Locust and have successfully DIFFUSED 1 additional Strand of Bitter Fate!
Story Perception Check made: 2 Malevolent strands Remain! You sense your bulwark about to—
