104 War (1/2)

The legion of soldiers thundered out. The roar of approval lasted for a full minute before I turned towards the barrier. Before we marched through it, I needed to finish off my speech with a bang. You see, Torix added a simple adjustment towards my own plan. It was centered around a show of strength. It was a simple set up really.

The monster density had increased over the last few days since the quarantine zone shrunk. By the time we reached them, the monsters begged for freedom. They collected near the outer barriers, so the legion’s progress stalled out. The density of monsters was too high. Many members of the legion where demoralized by the wall of monsters. Who could blame them?

They were running into a massive horde of monsters. They needed a reminder of what humans could do. These hordes of monsters were just fodder compared with what we had to face next. To demonstrate this, Torix and I discussed all kinds of different tactics from nukes to bombs to speeches. The best solution we found was abusing Event Horizon.

It drained health in a massive aoe. That meant I could take on throngs of enemies without suffering the consequences. So we added a speech and this slaughter as means of making the legion fight with all they had, even against Ajax.

With that in mind, Torix raised a hand, his own voice amplified, “Remember that he too was a human, just as many of you still are.” He turned to me, “Show them what we are capable off, Harbinger.”

I nodded, my armor grinning with a set of jagged armor teeth,

“Of course.”

I charged my runes before discharging them. I shot towards the barrier before drilling through it. I reached the other side, a swarm of monsters pouring towards me. I reached out with Event Horizon, feeding off them. Even as the abstractions clustered around me, it made no difference. I regenerated faster than they could kill me.

On the other side of the barrier, the soldiers stared in silence. They saw a horde of monsters tearing me apart. I would show them something different altogether. As I shot through the air, I dragged a horde of the abstractions with me using gravity wells. I crushed them into the pavement below me. As I landed, crags of pavement and dirt crushed upwards.

I grinned and laughed at the monsters. As they came, I crushed. As they swarmed, I slaughtered. With limitless health, I ripped and roared out. I punched and pulped the creatures. I maimed and murdered them by the dozen. With Force of Nature at full blast, I was a blur of movement among the abstractions and solar beetles.

I weaved between their endless strikes, my technique flawless. No number of them would phase me. I devoured their bodies, feasting on the energy as I crushed them to pulp. It was a bloodbath. Puddles of blood formed under my feet. These pudddles turned to streams than rivers. Before I finished, I created an ocean of their blood.

Everything else faded way. It was effortless destruction. I chained my skills and strikes, the usage of the skills pristine, like a symphony of movement. I reached for the apex of my potential, pushing past my own limits. I was a storm of death. I was a monster made of metal. The bodies piled beside me, becoming hills than mountains. They melted within my aura, turning to mush.

Within minutes, I decimated the crowd of monsters that collected along the barrier. I heaved for breath, breathing in a fine mist of orange blood. The coagulating liquid on me soaked into my metal skin as my armor gorged on the corpses. Once the area was clear, I walked out of the quarantine. My steps pounded on the earth, each step quaking the ground.

I leapt back onto the earthen pillar. I landed onto it before standing tall. Torix pointed towards the barrier. From his hands, several portals opened. From them, monsters crawled out. Dragons of fire, treants of light, swarms of hornets, ice elementals, and monsters of all kinds poured out. Torix put on the helmet I made him, the black accentuating the golden trim on his robe.

He opened a portal beside him, pulling out the staff. Mana gems encrusted both the helmet and the staff, extending his mana pool. He pointed it forwards,

“Come, legion. We fight them with their own kind.”

The monsters charged forwards, the soldiers marching behind them. Once they crashed through the barrier, they tore into the world tree’s roots. Fire spread out along with ice, mist forming where they met. I turned towards Hod and Althea,

“You guys ready?”

They nodded. I stepped into the ground, burrowing beneath them. Althea dissipated and Hod leapt up into the air. We needed to hurry. Our plan rested on catching Elijah by surprise. He wasn’t even a mile away, so we reached him in a minute. I burrowed deep beneath them while Hod and Althea closed in.

Once under them, I sensed Elijah and his followers above me. My gravitational sense and Tactile Cognition gave me a picture of the followers. Once there, I took a moment and prepared myself. The plan relied on a fast, hard burst of damage. We would cripple him before he could escape. Once he was downed, I would whittle him down.

During the fight, I would use his followers as free health regen, keeping me alive. Althea and Hod would sneak in attacks on him while I preoccupied him. The plan was solid, one I could follow.

With that resolve forming, I gritted my teeth and clasped my fists as I walked out of the ground. Elijah was preaching his sermon. A congregation of followers piled along the bank of the lake beneath the world tree. They took on all shapes and sizes. Somewhere like lions and tigers with fur made of steel. Others were crustaceans, covered in armored shells.

Most were humanoid though, with dark yellow skin and covered in robes of white or black. Elijah Joan’s voice boomed across the landscape as they stared at him. The world tree’s green glow was dimming, the energy sinking into Yawm. It was like staring at a ticking time bomb. When I looked at Elijah, I gulped at his title.

Elijah Joan, the Fallen Seraph(lvl 3204)

It reminded me why we were rushing in like this. Fighting several of these monsters at once was impossible. This particular monster seemed unconcerned, however.

He preached away even with me showing myself. Elijah’s face was hidden under a white hood on his white robe. Everything was cast in a shadow besides his teeth and eyes. Both were open too wide, making him look insane.

His words didn’t sound quite so unhinged,

“Yawm will come before the day ends. He gave you life with his plague. We protect him from the residents of this world. We have guarded his resting place. He let us come here after the last world was glassed by Schema. Now someone has stolen the core our lord created. We are no longer protected from the atomic fires that Schema will no doubt rain upon us.”

He spread his arms, “It matters not. Yawm will use their own fires against them. He will harness the energy that boils the blood of us mere mortals. He has done so before. He will do so again. We must hold faith in him. He will revive himself, and his might will smite those that kill your brothers and sisters.”

I speck of doubt formed in my head. If Schema planned on dropping nuclear bombs over our city, he should tell us that way we could get the fuck out. Even then, Elijah was talking about nuclear holocaust levels of destruction. Even with all my stats, I would be obliterated along with anything else in a mile radius of the explosion.

I didn’t have time to dwell on that though. After killing the crowd of monsters, I gained a few levels. I placed all my points into endurance as Elijah noticed me. I finished walking out of the the ground. The white of his eyes turned bloodshot in an instant, “We have a transgressor upon holy ground. Prepare yourselves. Those that die will be sent to an eternal afterlife, but Yawm wishes life for you all.”

I opened a palm towards him, shouting so my voice would be heard, “What did you mean by an atomic fire?”