Chapter 13-374: Feel the Force (1/2)
-Why not?- Briggs /asked immediately. I knew they could handle the Dragonhearts; it wouldn’t even be a struggle with their mental Stats.
-For everything you’re doing, that Racial Class of yours is drawing on a lot of stuff, but NO dragonish genes. Do you think that’s a coincidence?-
They were silent for only a moment, going over the implications. -Huh,- /said Briggs, acknowledging the fact. -You’re right. Given how crazy the Stat raises are, I can’t see how the original Rantha who designed this would miss out on Template buffs. So, that has to mean...-
-...that we’ve got Templates waiting for us when we finish up!- Sama /finished for him gleefully. -And since they are built right into the Class...-
-Definitely the Advanced Template,- Briggs /nodded, and I /agreed. It was generic, but +4 to all Stats was still pretty nice. -That’s the same as Human/5, right? So we know a Template can be part of a Racial Progression of one sort or another.-
-Yes,- I /confirmed. -If there’s an advancement after that, you’re talking Lesser Exemplar.-
-Ohhhhhhh,- both of them /said together. -I ain’t giving up the chance at that for some silly Dragonheart!- Sama /exclaimed. Being a pure member of your species was kinda incompatible with taking in another race, unless it came from some outside source afterwards... and since the boosts didn’t stack, next to pointless.
ESPECIALLY if Exemplar was ultimately on the table! While you could get the Exemplar-path and THEN potentially get Templated, it didn’t work the other way, as you lost your purity.
It was why having a true racial progression was important. As a Template, half-dragons actually didn’t have one! They could borrow the one of their base species, but that wasn’t a progression that stood on its own merits.
In contrast, halvyr DID have a unique Racial Progression of their own. Magically, it made a difference...
Benefits of not being a product of magical lizards who could breed with anything under the sun, I guess...
“One more thing.” Legion looked at me inquiringly. “Tell me if your Strength goes up tomorrow. I want to know if you tied your Amazon Levels to your Racial Levels.”
They pursed their lips. “Ah. We had not noticed... but it is possible...” They looked down at their clawed hands, and a smile could not resist tugging at the corner of their lips. “Ah. That would mean... we would get very strong indeed, would it not?”
“Potentially an 85 Strength and a 92 Might. Slap a Giant Size on you, and that’s 93 and 100.”
They looked a little stunned, and partly lost. “We should have memorized the Strength tables,” they murmured, and I flicked it over to them.
At merely Size Large, twice normal size, double carrying capacity on top of +8 Strength.
Twenty-six thousand tons. That was lifting up and toting around the Statue of Liberty... or a good-sized aircraft carrier.
A ‘mere’ 92 baseline was 4200 tons. Only 40,000 times as strong as a normal athletic person. Treating a wrecking ball like a baseball... and you could probably throw it like a cannon. Bench-pressing a small destroyer, or a big frigate. Tossing around a locomotive.
Such strength was already far, far past normal physical limits, and was mostly direct kinetic control, as an organic body couldn’t possibly sustain such strength.
Maybe there was a god or a kaiju who had been that strong on the planet before, maybe not. It was just hellaciously, ridiculously strong.
“That’s going to be a very good thing.” Tattoo eyebrows rose as if alive. “The more sheer brute power we have for the end fight, the better, and Sama and Briggs are taking a lot of time to Level, since they have to pay for their Stats at a slower pace than you do.”
Legion inclined their head. “We have seen how fast you can annihilate undead... and Cultivators, if not quite so quickly. Your statement that they cannot stop you is most apt. We understand we will be facing the undead champions of the world the invaders came from, but still, the sheer amount of carnage you can wreak is literally difficult to believe. Yet you are talking as if you are... immaterial?”
I reached up to pinch the bridge of my nose. “Yes. I’m only good as a threat. If we are amazingly lucky, I’ll get to show off for twelve hours. More likely, it’ll be four or less, and if we are unlucky, it might never happen at all.”
It was Legion’s turn to grimace. “That...” they hissed, almost in disbelief. “How? A... dedicated Counterspelling strategy?” Really, it was all you needed, and enough Casters to pull it off. Double usage, as it would prevent me from recharging readily, and I’d run out of juice like anyone else.
“No. The standard tactic for dealing with overwhelming magical power is anti-magic. The intelligent tactic Shroudlords use for compensating against anti-undead magic is to apply the negative energy of their zone to the local manafield, and turn the entire place into a Dead Magic Zone, a Lesser Greyfield.”
-Oh, shit!- Briggs and Sama /exclaimed together.
“Yes. That means no active Casting, or external magic that isn’t tied to items. No flight, no dimension-hopping, no magical ranged attacks or effects.”
-That means... this is going to be a hacking and shooting-fest.- Briggs’ /voice was grim. -With anywhere from a hundred to two hundred million or more enhanced undead opponents!-
“Yes. And now you see why I was not emphasizing Caster mass-obliteration techniques.”
-FUUUUUUUCK!- Sama and Briggs /said together again. -Do you know how much harder that makes things?!?!-
“Yes.”