I cast an empowered Shadow Hound spell, loosing ten black mastiffs on our enemies. The shadowy creatures charged toward them, running through hurled rocks without taking any damage, and even the smashers’ swinging clubs were useless against them. For a moment, I thought I could simply maintain my position and unleash a steady stream of them on my enemies, but then a bouldite lieutenant intervened. A single mana-fueled blow was enough to shatter several of my mastiffs at once. The entire pack was dispatched within seconds, and more lieutenants moved forward to intercept any further attempts.
There was little else I could do. Unlike my units, my own spells’ range didn’t benefit from the high vantage points, so I summoned my clone, cast Mana Infusion, and watched helplessly as the hurlers decimated our numbers from a distance. I cast Dark Protection, spending more than 2,000 mana to extend over all my troops, but the extra protection was like adding a layer of paper against the powerful attacks aimed at us.
We just need to hold out a little longer, I thought. The plan was to draw the bouldites to converge around the outpost walls, then the rest of the army would circle them, then we could crush them from both sides. But it seemed that we severely underestimated the bouldites’ power. The level gap was simply too large.
I snarled as the enemy melee units wielding huge stone clubs charged toward our walls. That was my chance.
I launched two direballs at the enemy below me, but at the last second, a dome of power materialized around them, absorbing the two explosions.
My head snapped toward a single creature standing behind their lines, his arms outstretched toward the vanguard. He was too far away to analyze, but there was no question he was the one who had stopped my spells.
As I watched, the bouldite mage raised his fists high into the air then punched the ground. A wall of stone rose in front of the hurlers, protecting them from my remaining troops’ projectiles.
The charging smashers and lieutenants reached our wall and slammed their giant stone clubs on our foundations. But here at least, the outpost proved stronger. The first few meters of the wall were obsidian, and I saw several stone clubs shattered as they impacted it. Glancing around, I saw that about a third of my soldiers had been blown off the battlement. The remaining soldiers were desperately trying to shoot back while dodging giant stones.
“Try to protect against this,” I growled as I channeled my mana.
Next to me, my shadow clone cast Shadow Web on a group of smashers. It made them stop for a second as they struggled, then their overwhelming strength triumphed, and they ripped apart the dark tendrils and continued smashing our wall. Some parts of the black stone started cracking under their blows.
A sphere of condensed darkness began forming above the smashers 20 meters away from our wall. It was a calculated risk; if allowed to remain active for too long, the Singularity would destroy our fortification, but I was counting on the bouldites to buckle first.
Loose dirt and stones hurtled through the air, getting sucked in by the mounting gravitational pull, making the spell stronger by the second. Some of the cracked stone of our walls gave way and flew off as well, but the smashers slowed their attacks, bracing against the sucking force.
The faraway bouldite caster acted. He put both his fists in front of his face for a moment, shuddering as if struggling to contain some unseen force. Then he jumped high into the air and landed with both fists, cratering the ground. A giant spike made of opaque crystal rose from the ground among the smashers, rapidly extending toward the Singularity.
I snarled with glee, expecting the extra mass to boost the destructive spell, but to my surprise, the opposite happened. The crystal spear pierced the spinning Singularity, dissipating it into nothingness. My eyes widened as I realized what that crystal was. It was the same mana-absorbing material used in the Akzar arena to negate spellcasters.
“Shadow-crap!”
Half of the soldiers around me were down by now. If not for the Dark Protection spell I’d cast and the many buffs I’d purchased from the barracks, it would have been even worse. The battlements looked as if they’d been through a giant cheese grater. The obsidian foundations were faring better, but they were slowly crumbling under the assault. Where the hell is my army?
I rained spells down on the attackers while my shadow rushed to the backside of the outpost. My shadow-made eyes widened when I spotted the bulk of my army. My warriors were like a sea drowning the last remaining bouldites that charged them, but large swathes of destruction were visible in their ranks. Hundreds of my troops were down. They fought savagely, felling the enemy one by one, but more died every second, and I realized they would never win and get here in time before we were overrun.
A giant boulder clipped the mana shield around my physical body and was just barely deflected from caving in my face. Another boulder smashed the part of the battlement where I was standing, and I was forced to tumble away onto a more stable area.
He was right. I knew he was right, but the goblin in me raged at the idea of fleeing before my enemies.
I reined in my anger and hissed, “Lieutenant!”
One of the nearby hobs looked up. “Chief?”
“Call for retreat, get everyone out of here and rejoin the army.”
“But Chief, the enemy has surrounded us.”
I bared my teeth. “I’m going out first. I’ll buy you time to run. Get ready!”
“Yes, Chief!”
The surviving soldiers quickly abandoned the walls and assembled in the small courtyard below.
I recalled my shadow and remained standing above the gate, shooting hateful glances from two sets of eyes at the faraway spellcaster. He had proven capable of protecting his forces from afar, but I felt confident he wouldn’t be able to do much if I got closer.
A hundred soldiers, all that remained of my garrison, were grouped in front of the gate.
I raised both sets of arms and channeled my mana. Shadows rose around a group of smashers, drowning them in darkness, while lumps of denser blackness formed between them. The hurlers shouted in alarm as ten, level 43 mastiffs rose directly between them, biting and clawing at their legs. Without any bouldite lieutenants in the immediate vicinity to stop them, the mastiffs were free to attack. The hounds’ level was double that of the average soldier in my army, so they managed to inflict some light damage on the level 80 enemies while their shadowy bodies harmlessly withstood the occasional swiping strike.
“Open the gate – go, go, go!” I shouted. Then I teleported both bodies down into the shrouded group. We had to hurry; it wouldn’t take the bouldites long to deal with the distraction.
I raised a shield around my physical body while my clone swam further away and sent an instantly empowered direball against the group around me. This time, the direball detonated successfully.
Direball hit for 852 damage.
[(base 852 - 50% spell resistance) X 2 empowered]
The level 100 smashers cried in pain as the volatile energy ripped at their bodies, but their heightened spell resistance and superior levels proved strong enough to withstand the first impact, leaving them with roughly 40 percent health. I had also sustained some damage – my mana shield was only able to block a portion of it – but I ignored the meager injury and fought on.
My soldiers streamed out of the gate behind me, running through the distracted enemy toward the bulk of my army.
I stabbed forward with my spear-staff, my mana-enhanced muscles snatching away half the remaining health of one of the injured bouldites next to me. A mental nudge sent my dagger flying from my belt to smash into the creature’s neck, plucking out the rest of his health and claiming his soul. Then I followed through with a volley of drilling arrows, dropping another monster.
My physical fo
rm was fully engaged, but my shadow was free to roam around. I locked my eyes on the hated bouldite spellcaster and moved toward his position. That was the last thing I saw through the clone’s eyes as crystal spears rose from the ground, dissipating the darkness and shadow hounds around me and tugging at my shield.
The jig was up. I was in plain view surrounded by at least a dozen hulking smashers with more of them running toward me. My soldiers were revealed, running away, and the hurlers started targeting them, killing several more before they sped out of range.
We had lost this battle. But the war was far from over.
The smashers converged on me, resolute to squash the tiny goblin who dared to challenge them. They were all injured from the earlier direball, and I vowed to take as many of them down with me as possible. The presence of the mana-siphoning crystal pillars made hurling spells ineffective, so I concentrated on melee strikes. I continually fed mana into my muscles and my shield to keep them up. The smashers’ giant clubs impacted against my shield, which, at Master rank, diverted some of the damage back to them. But the powerful blows still caused damage, the shield blunting the brunt of their attacks, but not stopping them completely. I clenched my teeth, snarled, and made my spear blur, my Master-ranked Mana Infusion making each strike more deadly than ever. Three quick stabs pierced the thick skin of another smasher, and my dagger plucked out the remainder of his life. Two enemies were now being consumed by darkness, but more converged around me.
Despite my high mental resistance, a direct hit to my shield from a lieutenant sent shivers of uncertainty screaming through my mind, making my attacks stutter. More strikes and more mental intrusion followed, and my health started falling.
I was fighting a losing battle and I knew it, but a glance at my escaping soldiers showed that most of them made it through unharmed. A direct blow to my spear nearly caused the weapon to fly out of my hand, but the magic in my gloves clenched down, negating the disarm attempt. My health and mana bars were plummeting steadily, and my retaliation strikes were now being parried by the higher-leveled lieutenants.
Maybe 20 percent of my health was remaining when a commanding voice spoke. “Enough. Move aside.”
The rain of blows stopped and the enemies surrounding me parted to make room for an especially large bouldite. His shoulders were higher than the others’ heads, and he walked with the confidence and assurance only true power could claim.
I wiped the blood off my face and focused on his information.
Cragest, Bouldite Terramage [Boss, Tier 1]
Level: 180
HP: 5,800
Resistances: Armor 280, Magic 50%
Skills: Club 110
Traits: Rock Affinity, Magicless Body
Description: As one of the few bouldite elites, Cragest learned to fuse his body with the earth and utilize that connection to command it to do his bidding.
The damn spellcaster didn’t even have a mana bar. His entire repertoire stemmed from his connection to the earth which had also, apparently, lent him a crazy amount of health instead of mana.
“Why attack us?” Cragest demanded, moving closer to my shield. He seemed completely oblivious to the proximity of the magic-nullifying pillars.
“You know why,” I said, glancing at my mana and health bars which were steadily ticking upward. “We need to get through, and you weren’t about to let us do that.” With a flick of my will, I made the two void crystals that were left behind by my victims soar into my hand.
“The cave’s divine spirits decreed none should pass through our territory,” the bouldite boss declared.
I snorted. “They’re no spirits. They’re goddamn Outriders. Powerful, yes, but no divine spirits.”
“They make our tribe strong,” Cragest insisted. “We killed your soldiers, made your army run away.”
“You haven’t won a thing,” I said. “We will come back, stronger than before, and kill you all. You can’t win; the GreenPiece Clan is powerful, our army immortal – you have no chance. We are inevitable.” I had my full attention on the bouldite boss, my muscles wound tight, waiting for my chance. His incredible amount of health made killing him in a surprise attack extremely unlikely, but if I could get his health below 60 percent, I had a shot to end his life with my staff’s Castigation ability. I used the few seconds my pronouncement had bought me to supercharge the mana coursing in my veins, bringing it up to the fourth multiplier. My eyes never left Cragest’s even as my entire body ceased moving for the few seconds it took to empower the spell.
“Then die!” the terramage roared, raising both of his arms.
That was my chance. My wound muscles sprang like a bear trap snapping shut, my spear leading the way. The Epic weapon sheared through the powerful boss’s muscles carving a deep hole through his chest.
Demon Staff hit Cragest for 150 damage.
(base 290 - 140)
The damage barely nudged my enemy’s health bar, but I wasn’t done yet. I raised a finger, aiming at his face, and activated Blood Wrath, channeling all the pent-up rage and pain into a tightly focused beam of piercing power. The beam of energy shot out of my finger, quadruply powered by the damage I’d sustained, but my opponent flinched back just in time, and the beam hit his shoulder instead of his face, carving straight through it like a hot knife through butter.
Piercing Attack hit Cragest for 1,054.
[(base 527 X 4) - 50% magic resistance]
The terramage let out a howl of rage and pain as he stumbled back, leaving behind his entire left arm on the ground. Damn! I seethed. His health hovered at 75 percent - not enough for me to trigger Castigation.
Before I could launch another attack, I was bombarded from all sides. Dozens of boulders, some of them almost as big as me, crashed against my shield, bringing it down in seconds, then pulverized my body, reducing my health down to zero.
I managed one last hateful glare at the terramage before my body evaporated into the shadows, and I suddenly found myself plummeting down into the earth.
***
“Are we clear?” the army’s strategist asked Ashlazaria.
The veteran tier 2 scout boss nodded. “The bouldites didn’t pursue us past the outpost. They stayed back to destroy the building.”
“Damn, that one stung.” Malkyr grimaced as the group of player-officers trudged behind the bulk of the army. “I was getting used to blazing through our opposition.”
“There’s no shame in losing to a more powerful force,” Nero said.
“Those assholes got a tough hide,” Panda said, wincing slightly as she glanced at her axe’s blunted edge.
“I can sharpen it for you if you’d like,” Malkyr said. “I brought my mobile anvil with me; it’s back at the camp. Ah, there we are.”
The army got within sight of their camp at the region’s border. Heaps of gray stone blocks were already stacked high near the many quarries they’d established only a day before.
“Savol, can you give me an accurate casualty count?” Sullivan asked.
“Yes,” the goblin said. He moved ahead to a lone altar at the center of the camp and put his hands on it. “Savol sees 728 dead. Will cost 185,000 energy to resurrect all.”
Sullivan frowned. “I guess we lost some of the higher-leveled soldiers as well.
“And most of the bonetises too,” Kyth said. “And you can’t resurrect those.”
“They were useful though,” Hoshisu said. “Without their speed, the bouldite hurlers would have been able to launch another volley before we reached them.”
“Oren’s not going to be pleased about the resurrection cost,” Sullivan said. “But I did warn him coming here was dangerous. Bring back the army, general.”
The goblin nodded. “Savol will do this.”
Sullivan turned to his fellow players. “Come on, back to the drawing board.”
14 - Rocky Beginning
Nihilator’s Sanction triggered.
Due to receiving a fatal amount of damage, you ha
ve transformed into a being of shadow for one minute. You are completely undetectable and invulnerable for the duration and may move freely. Once the duration is over, you will return to the material plane, fully healed. Mana regenerates at the normal rate. This ability will not be usable again for the next 24 hours.
I found myself in the shadow plane as my consciousness was whisked away to prevent my death.
But something was wrong. Instead of seeing a pale imitation of the physical world around me, all I saw was rough rock walls, glittering with the nefarious crystals.
It seemed that I had slipped into an underground tunnel. The explosion and shifting mass of earth had presumably transported my ethereal body through narrow fissures in the ground.
I had to get out of here. I had less than a minute to get as far away as I could from the bouldite force before I was forced back to the physical plane, but everywhere I looked was blocked with more walls.
I spotted a natural-looking tunnel and made my way through it, but all I saw were more walls and more crystals.
The seconds ticked away as I rushed through the tunnel, looking for a way out, but it was pointless. The minute elapsed and my body returned to the physical realm, still underground. The darkness was no obstacle to my Shadow-Touched eyes, but the eerie silence grated on my nerves.
Nihilator’s Sanction had a 24-hour cooldown, so my companion had a point. I was mildly intrigued to see what I might find under the bouldite territory, but I needed to get back to my army. “Maybe another time,” I said and cast teleport.
Life Reset: Salvation (Life Reset - Neo Book 6) Page 24