“What? I told Sullivan to stay put until I return.”
The lieutenant’s face instantly hardened. “He disobeyed a direct order? We will execute the traitorous traveler immediately, Chief.”
I winced. “No, don’t do that. I just have to—”
New Era Online [Internal messaging service]:
From: Sullivan Tucker
Subject: Roll out the red carpet
Oren, we’ve defeated the first bouldite tribe. Wolrig has rushed the outpost restoration and the portal is open. Feel free to join us.
Sullivan,
Grand Army Strategist
“Well then,” I said, feeling a weight lift off my shoulders.
When did you ever say that? And since when does crawling through manaleech-infested tunnels constitute taking a break?
I gave an exasperated sigh.
Yeah, let’s check it out.
A single mental command connected the opened portal to the new outpost, and I stepped through.
There were signs of damage to the temple’s walls. And as I exited the room, I saw scorch marks staining the outpost’s walls and some debris was scattered, but aside from that, it was whole again.
Ogres and hobs were everywhere, dragging bouldite corpses outside the structure, even though the game cleanup function would get rid of them in a few hours.
“Where are the officers?” I asked an Ogre Mage.
He seemed to chew on his words as he answered. “Interrogating the prisoner.”
I arched an eyebrow. “Prisoner?”
“Yes, Chief. Down in the enemy’s settlement.”
I nodded my thanks and stepped outside the outpost, reaching the edge of the wide ravine that held the settlement. I noticed a thick ring of soldiers standing around several individuals and made my way toward them.
“What’s going on?” I asked as I approached. The soldiers, sensing my presence, parted to let me pass and I saw Sullivan, Savol, and a few others standing next to a shackled giant.
It was Cragest. The level 180 bouldite terramage was bound with thick metal chains. His body was covered with shallow cuts, and he was surrounded by a ring of chanting adepts holding bloody knives. He was also missing an arm.
“Hey, Chief!” Malkyr greeted me. He threw a worried glance at the adepts. “We caught their leader, and your goblins are helping to … ahem … keep him subdued.”
“This is dishonorable,” Nero declared, glaring at the chanting goblins.
“I don’t like it either,” Sullivan said, laying a placating arm on the half-dragon-man’s shoulder. “But there was no other way we could have kept a high-level boss contained.” He looked at me. “It took 20 Ogre Mages and all our higher-tiered bosses to catch this one. And even one-armed, he killed half of them in the process.”
“Did you get anything out of him?” I asked.
The strategist grimaced. “Not much. He mostly threatens us, though from what we gathered, there are numerous tribes spread all over the region. Each tribe seems to pay tribute in soldiers to their ‘cave spirits’ to prevent anyone from approaching.”
“Sounds like you got everything you need,” I said. “Why keep him then?”
“I want exact numbers,” the player said in frustration. “How can I plan a large campaign without knowing what we’re up against?”
“You won’t get more out of him without resorting to torture.” Nero crossed his arms over his glassteel chestplate. “And I will not allow this farce to continue much longer.”
“And just wha’ you think you gonna do abou’ tha’, boy?” Ragnar said threateningly.
Nero met the drone’s eyes unflinchingly. “I will challenge him to a duel.”
“Don’t do that!” I said. Nero’s unique ability to challenge foes in order to embrace his dragon heritage meant we couldn’t stop him.
“I will if it goes on much longer,” Nero said.
Sudden inspiration struck me. “I tell you what, give me five more minutes to question him. I will not hurt him. Then you can challenge him with my blessing. I’ll even reward you with something that will increase your chances.”
Nero paused to study my face. “Very well. Five minutes.”
I turned to Cragest. “Nice meeting you again.” I activated Sense Emotion. His brain was like a flat sheet of stone.
“Your victory means nothing,” he said. “The Sandstone is the smallest of the fringe tribes. Our king will grind your bones into a paste.”
“So how many tribes do you have?” I asked pleasantly.
He didn’t answer.
“Ten?”
His mind raised a small turbulence of rocks.
“Twenty?”
No response.
“Fifty?”
The rocks raged like a wave.
“A hundred?”
The waves calmed.
“There are around 50 tribes,” I said.
The terramage gasped.
“Damn it,” Sullivan said. “We can never defeat that many, especially if they’re bigger than this clan.”
I shook my head. “We don’t have to. There are only two more tribes between us and the cave, but I guess that means we can’t go around them; we’ll just encounter more tribes.”
“What about the force protecting the cave?” Hoshisu asked.
I looked back at the bouldite. “Two thousand?”
No response.
“Twenty?”
He apparently realized what I was doing since his responses were calmer than before, but after repeated questions and closely monitoring any fluctuations in his emotions, I finally had a rough idea of the opposition ahead of us.
“There are anywhere between five to ten thousand bouldites guarding the cave,” I said with a sigh.
Sullivan shook his head. “That means we’ll need anywhere from a hundred to two hundred thousand soldiers to beat them. I know I keep saying we need more soldiers, but this is ridiculous.”
I shook my head. “You’re right; there’s no way I can summon that many.” Especially given that my time here is running short, I didn’t add out loud. “But we don’t need to kill them all. We just need to break through their ranks and make it to the cave.”
“Where we’ll have to go through two Outriders, who’re basically demigods and can probably obliterate our entire force on their own,” Hoshisu said darkly.
“What’cha bunch of babies cryin’ ‘bout?” Ragnar said. “You oughta be friggin’ glad. Chunky enemies make for good XP. We’re gonna be the demigods once it’s all over.”
“You’re right,” Sullivan said, standing a little straighter. “The army’s average level jumped from 19 to 22 after this battle alone.”
“That’s not much,” Malkyr said.
The strategist raised an eyebrow at him. “Considering the fact that we have over 2,300 soldiers, that means a gain of over 6,000 levels in total.”
Malkyr’s eyes widened. “When you put it like that …”
I winced. That also meant that the cost to resurrect the entire army had just climbed by 60,000 energy points. Gaining levels was a mixed blessing. It would already take close to a million EP to bring back everyone, so as the army got stronger, I wouldn’t have to resurrect them as often.
“The five minutes are over,” Nero declared. “Heal and release him.”
“Heal? Oh hell, no – don’t be stupid, kid,” Kyth said in a surprisingly harsh tone. “You’re only level 32; this beast has 150 levels over you. Even wounded, fighting him is suicide. Last time you challenged a level 8 goblin boss, it didn’t end so well.”
“He’s right,” I said, looking over at
the bloodied, one-armed bouldite. “You once said you have to challenge a worthy foe. Fighting against someone disproportionally stronger than you isn’t worthy. Even with 20 percent of his health remaining, he still has three times your HP.”
The half-dragon’s face contorted. “You’re right.”
“I can bleed him a bit more for ya, to even up the odds,” Ragnar suggested, snapping his claws.
“Absolutely not,” Nero hissed.
“I have a better idea,” I said. I took out the Crystal Dragon Claws from my inventory and handed them to the player. Other players fought with their hands – like Aly, who used martial arts – but Nero was the only one whose monster features included claws as weapons.
His eyes widened as he inspected the weapon. “Epic?”
“As promised,” I said. “For your patience. May you both grow strong together.”
Vic chuckled in my mind.
It makes the most sense; he’ll be able to make the best use of it, I said.
Nero accepted the crystal claws almost reverently and put them on. They fit onto his hands like gloves and instantly started shifting. Everyone gasped in surprise as the crystal weapon extended to cover the player’s palms completely. The sharp, transparent claws grew over his black ones. The half-dragon made a testing swipe at the air and we could hear the air whistling. Clad in his greenish glassteel armor and wielding the magical claws, he cut an imposing figure.
“Release him,” I said, nodding toward the prisoner.
Two Ogres started pulling the chains off him. As the final loop fell, Cragest jumped to his feet with a roar, his single arm swiping back an Ogre with enough force to send him skidding on his back. He bent down, his arm sinking into the stoney ground, and drew out a giant club. He turned, whirling it around—
“I challenge you to a duel!” Nero shouted.
The bouldite’s arm froze as tendrils of magic tied him and Nero together. With a roar, he swung his club back and charged the awaiting dragon-man.
Nero barely dodged the powerful blow and swiped his new claws at the bouldite’s side, opening five deep gashes. The terramage roared in rage, though his already low health bar barely shifted. He stomped one leg, which sank into the ground, and the stone rapidly grew over his leg and up his body, covering him in thick armor. Before he could begin another attack, Nero was on him, slashing and hacking with his claws. The crystal-tempered weapon only drew thin lines on the bouldite’s encased body, but the giant’s slight grimace told me they did some damage. Cragest swung his club in retaliation, but his thick armor slowed his movements, and Nero had no trouble dodging back.
The dragon-man spread his wings and leaped. He reached the zenith near his opponent’s head, and his beating wings held him suspended for a second, enough for him to slash at the giant’s face. He was trying to go for the ears, but the thick stone protruding from Cragest’s head prevented the tips of the claws from sinking in. Then the bouldite swung. His next hit caught the hovering dragon across the chest, flinging him back like a golf ball.
Nero’s health instantly dropped to a third, then dropped by a few more percent as he skipped across the rocky ground. Not giving him time to recover, the terramage uttered a spell, and a cone of sand blasted over the fallen player with enough force to flay flesh from bone.
Everyone gasped, expecting Nero’s death.
But he didn’t die. As the magical sandblast hit his body, his enchanted glassteel armor shimmered, and the cone reversed, spraying over the mage instead. The bouldite’s health dipped visibly, and he staggered, buying the player a few precious seconds to recover.
“Come on Nero, you can do it!” Malkyr shouted.
“Yeah, Nero, come on!” Hoshisu, Kyth, and a few others cheered the downed player.
“You got it, batboy!” Ragnar shouted as well
Nero labored to his feet unsteadily, holding his two clawed hands to the side. Then his expression turned to wonder. The crystal claws liquified, flowing down his palms, elongating their already sharp tips. Then they began to pulse with a menacing aura.
“They leveled up,” I said, realizing what was happening. The claws needed to inflict 200 points of damage to reach level 1, and it seemed Nero’s ferocious assault had granted him that.
Nero snarled at the bouldite and charged, his movements faster than before. Coupled with his enemy’s slower movements, he struck half a dozen times before easily dodging Cragest’s counterstrike. His now-elongated claws bit deeper than before, and soon the giant’s stonelike skin was covered with dozens of deep, bleeding gashes.
The terramage tried one last desperate swing before falling to his knees. Nero pounced, sailing through the air toward his enemy, and sank his claws on either side of the bouldite’s neck. He twisted and his muscles bulged as he flung his arms upward, sending Cragest’s head sailing through the air.
We stared in awe at the panting, bloody player. I could feel the information tendrils crawling around him like snakes. His level shot up by 10, reaching 42, and his short wings grew, becoming almost large enough for flight.
“Yeah!” I shouted as everyone around erupted in cheers.
“Congratulations, bro,” Malkyr shouted.
Your forces have conquered a new settlement!
You may demolish the town and plunder its riches or take control over it.
Note: Taking control will not turn it into a new vassal settlement.
Demolish/Control?
That was new. Since using Nihilator’s Gem of Darkness to take control over Novenguard – a non-monster town – I’d been able to turn conquered settlements into vassals.
It was a little disappointing, but still, I was more ecstatic about the victory. I was unsure how we’d done that, considering the result of our first skirmish.
“Sullivan.” I beckoned to the player as I walked away from the crowd. “What the hell happened? How did you defeat the entire tribe on your own?”
“I had a few thousand soldiers with me,” he pointed out.
I shook my head. “They nearly massacred us the first time around; what changed?”
“Perspective,” he said, his lips curling slightly. “I realized we did it all wrong. We needed to spread out our forces before engaging, preventing their hurlers from taking down whole groups at once. We also switched melee tactics; harassing their frontliners with quick and flowing attacks to reduce the spread of the mental debuff of their lieutenants while also forcing their hurlers into melee. The death ratio was much better the second time around.” He frowned. “We still lost over half the army.”
“Damn,” I said. “How many exactly?”
“On the first clash, before retreating, we lost over 600 soldiers while taking down 46 enemies. Which is a pretty bad trade-off. The second time we lost around 1,000 soldiers but killed all of their 280.”
“You should have waited for me,” I said darkly.
The player shook his head. “I already told you, I can’t lean on you every time. We need to learn how to do this on our own. We won, our soldiers leveled up, and I got a better feel for how to act in our next skirmish. Savol also rose in levels, and his skills can now affect larger parts of the army.”
“I gathered you resurrected everyone already,” I said. “How much did it cost?”
“Including the casualties from the first clash, 370,000 energy points.”
“Damn,” I said. This close to the outpost, I had access to the Settlement Interface, so I opened it to check the energy status. We had a bit over 1,200,000 EP in store. It was a respectable amount, but if we continued to lose soldiers at the rate we did,
it wouldn’t last for long.
“I’ve spoken to David,” Sullivan continued. “He used his sight to scout ahead. The next tribe is two days’ march from here, and they have more patrols than this one had.”
“The Flakestone tribe,” I said. “We killed one of their patrols on our way in.”
“The plan is to get close. Then we’ll raise another outpost before attacking.”
“The next tribe is larger. It would be better to use your earlier idea of building several outposts at once.”
The strategist nodded. “We should have enough resources for three or four by the time you make it there, though I’d prefer we had more.”
“I think I can help with that,” I said with the hint of a smile.
“How?”
“Like this.” I turned to face the nearest building cluster, concentrated on the still-hovering notification, and selected ‘Demolish.’
There was no grand pyrotechnics or awe-inspiring devastation. Instead, the buildings simply collapsed on themselves, leaving neat stacks of building materials behind.
Demolishing success: 70%
● 2,100 grade 1 metal
● 4,200 grade 1 stone
“Now that’s impressive,” Sullivan said approvingly. “We’ll be able to move those quickly through the portal.”
“That’s what I was thinking.”
The player squinted up at the sunny sky. “I better get some sleep. We’ll continue marching first thing after dusk. Will you be joining us?”
I shook my head. “I’ll head back to the valley. I’ve got some stuff to take care of.”
“Oh?”
I smiled at him. “I think it’s time I finally give you all the soldiers you asked for – along with some spares.”
***
“Father, you’re back!” Despite the ‘late’ hour, Lirian was awake and waiting for me when I exited the portal in Goblin’s Gorge’s cathedral. My daughter looked troubled, and it was clear she had been pacing impatiently.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
She scowled. “Savol banished me from the army. He said he can’t allow a princess on the front lines.”
Life Reset: Salvation (Life Reset - Neo Book 6) Page 28