The giant piles of resources disappeared in a storm of flying bricks, metal, and lumber – building up the walls, the inner keep, and the giant war machine in the blink of an eye, blocking the view of the charging enemy.
“To the walls!” Sullivan yelled.
Over a thousand bow-carrying hobs and a hundred crossbow-wielding Ogres rushed up the battlements and pointed their weapons downward.
I could hear the faraway battle cry of the charging bouldites. The first of them would be within attack distance in moments. Calling for my mana, I reached out to the Battle Fortress’s information.
Then my hand froze.
Everything went deathly quiet.
There was no movement, no sound. The soldiers on the walls and those still at ground level seemed frozen in place. Even the remote cries of the charging bouldites were gone.
Everything was still … as if the entire world held its breath in anticipation of something.
***
Sullivan’s eyes bulged as he realized the defenders were standing still.
Malkyr’s mouth hung half-open, frozen in the middle of letting out a battle cry.
Even Ragnar stood motionless, his vicelike claws reaching toward the distant enemies.
All everyone could do was wait.
***
Then someone moved.
A lone shape shifted among the soldiers on the battlements, its flailing pink tentacles instantly marking him as the unruly golem.
“Oh yes, mates,” Aidanriel said excitedly, flailing his limbs around. “Had to call in a bit of a divine favor to make it happen, but it’ll be worth it, promise. Now, all together!”
Moving as one, my entire army – thousands of soldiers – banged their feet on the ground twice followed by a single clap.
“I promised you an epic ode for the final battle,” Aidanriel's voice rose as the soldiers repeated the rhythm. “And you’re going to get it. Take it away, Panda!”
The berserker woman stepped forward and started singing.
“Bouldite you’re a bore, make a big noise
Strutting in the hills, like you own the whole arid waste
You got stone for a face, a fat carapace
Kicking goblin clan all over the place singing
We will, we will rock you
We will, we will rock you.”
The entire army joined in on the chorus.
The echoes of the tune faded, replaced with several muted ‘booms’ of crashing boulders that brought everyone back to their senses.
I let out a relieved sigh. “Oh thank god, they’re attacking.”
The sounds of crushing stone against our walls continued. Then our long-ranged soldiers, finally freed from the golem’s spell, retaliated, letting loose a deadly volley that was accompanied by a coordinated burst of dozens of mounted war machines. The sounds of crushing stone ended abruptly.
“They’ve almost reached the walls,” Sullivan shouted. “Oren!”
“On it!” I said.
I remained inside the internal keep while thousands of soldiers rushed around me. Lirian stayed with me as I sat cross-legged on the ground and accessed the Runecraft Design Mode. Everything I’d learned … all the skill points I’d earned … culminated to this moment. A huge area enchantment that would encapsulate the entire giant building.
I started spinning runes, etching the familiar blueprint on the walls around me while the sounds of battle grew louder. The first ranks of the bouldite army had reached the walls and were already smashing boulders and giant maces against them, trying to tear them down. I shut it all out and concentrated on my work. The enchantment was too small, I realized. It couldn’t cover the entirety of this massive fortress. I spun out more connector runes, chaining them together, extending them to cover each section of the wall. It worked. The holographic walls began to glow as the new runes spread over them, covering every surface.
When I saw the mana cost, I winced. I’d used 20 runes overall, and the mana required to finalize the enchantment was 18,000 – nearly 4,000 more than my entire mana pool. None of the golems were nearby, having already joined the defenders on the battlement, so I only had one option left. “Lirian, help me out.”
The goblinette instantly got my intention and linked her fingers with mine as I started letting my mana gush out of me in huge waves.
The walls around us came alive as real runes began to etch themselves over every surface, strengthening the fortifications, even closing some of the smaller cracks that had already formed over them.
I let go of my daughter’s hand and fell to my knees, gasping, barely holding myself up. Lirian looked pale, but she was at least able to remain standing.
“Is it done, Father?” she asked.
“Hold on,” I said.
I opened the Religion Interface and quickly moved on to the Zone Blessings section. I had 2,900 FP available, and now was no time to be stingy. I spent 1,000 points on the Eternal Night blessing. The deeper darkness on its own held little benefit as the nighttime had already invoked our Shadow-Touched perks, but the blessing added another layer of buffs on top of that, increasing my troops’ strength and resistances, and hindering our enemies. I spent another 800 points on an upgrade that reduced the damage of our enemies by ten percent, and another 1,000 on one that reduced all their resistances by ten percent, depleting my FP pool.
Next, I opened the Energy tab. I had just over one million EP. There was no sense in saving any of it; now was the time to pull out all the stops. I highlighted all my bosses – including the surviving Ogre Mages – and targeted their various combat skills. Energy poured out in huge quantities, nearly topping off every boss, making my most capable fighters even more deadly.
“Done,” I said, taking out a handful of void crystals. Not long ago, I wouldn’t have managed this feat, but reaching the Master rank of Dark Mana held some extra benefits. I drained all the crystals at once, instantly reclaiming most of my mana pool. “Let’s get to the walls.”
I teleported both of us to the battlement, and despite knowing what I was about to see, I couldn’t help gasping.
The plateau around us was crawling with bouldites and still more were pouring in from the surrounding hills.
Our ranged forces kept discharging volleys of quarrels and arrows, while ballistae unleashed giant bolts and catapults bombarded our enemies with deadly payloads, throwing boulders larger than the bouldite hurlers could lift, or the occasional flaming concussion.
The battle fortress was spitting fire and death all around us, cutting down swaths of bouldites, felling dozens by the moment, but more just kept coming.
The first wave of enemies that reached the walls were spread thin, as the bulk of their forces was still rushing down the hills. But they didn’t hesitate to throw their lives away, clearing the path for those that came behind them. Smashers and lieutenants roared as they banged their oversized stone clubs against our fortifications. Some looked momentarily puzzled when their weapons bounced off the enchanted stone before the defenders picked them off. Hurlers amassed faster than we could kill them, and they were unleashing coordinated volleys of giant boulders strong enough to begin overwhelming our walls.
Cracks appeared on the enchanted stone, but even as I looked, the runes’ magic worked to close them up while our defenders once again thinned our attackers’ numbers, reaching some sort of equilibrium.
We were holding.
For now.
I noticed Savol and Sullivan peering out of a tall internal watchtower and teleported over to them. “Nice view you got here,” I said.
This vantage point was as high as the top of the hills around us, and I could see more bouldites coming over the hilltops, pouring into the caldera.
“They have q
uite a setup here,” the army strategist said calmly. “It’s an excellent kill zone, trapping invaders, forcing them to defend from all sides at once. Pretty much the perfect trap for an army.”
“Unless said army can instantly raise a giant fortress,” I countered. I could see that the bouldites’ casualties prevented them from amassing large enough groups to inflict serious damage to the walls, but at some point, their numbers would build up faster than we can kill them; then our fortifications would take a real beating.
“If our intel is correct, this is almost all of them,” Sullivan said. “You need to be ready when they finish descending the hillsides. Should be another minute or two.”
“Casualties?” I asked.
“Ninety so far, Chief,” Savol said. “A squad on the battlement was hit with a hurlers’ salvo.”
“And we killed around a hundred of them and injured hundreds of others,” Sullivan said. “Pretty amazing odds, though we won’t be able to keep it up for long.”
“Then I’ll go see if I can help,” I said.
“I’ll come too,” Lirian chimed in.
“Just make sure to keep an eye out for my signal,” the strategist said.
I nodded and glanced around the battle fortress. The most concentrated assault seemed to come from my left, where a group of pulverized hobs littered the battlement. I teleported there and looked down. A group of 20 hurlers made it past our bombardment and launched a concentrated volley that took out the soldiers next to me. Already, more of our soldiers were pouring in from the walkway to fill in the gap, but the short reprieve allowed the bouldites to join in greater numbers, where they could do more damage.
They presented a perfect target.
I channeled mana, sending it to coalesce over the enemy. A dot of pure blackness appeared in the air and instantly started pulling everything around it. Some of the hurlers staggered as the Singularity tugged at them, but they quickly found their footing. They were too big and heavy to be affected, but I wasn’t done yet. I continued channeling more mana, doubling, then tripling the mana cost, causing the pull to intensify. I had just spent 6,000 MP at once, bringing my total to 40 percent. It might have been a little too much – I still had a long battle ahead of me – but I had plenty of void crystals to spend and the proximity of the fortress’s church was already working double-time to replenish my reserves.
One of the hurlers saw me and threw a heavy boulder at me. Lirian jumped in front of me, her giant sword leading the way, cleaving the stone in half before it could hit home. I didn’t flinch, already weaving my next spell.
That was the only attack the hurlers made against me. The boulders the rest of the hurlers held flew out of their hands and got sucked into the growing Singularity. A hail of smaller stones and gravel flew up from the ground, pelting the bouldites as it went, but doing little actual damage. The dim-witted creatures had amassed in greater numbers, over 30 by now, thinking to overwhelm us with brute strength, but it acted against them. The Singularity’s pull kept growing as it ate more and more matter, then the first of the hurlers’ feet left the ground, and he soared, arms flailing, toward the howling black hole. The rest of his friends were quick to follow, leaving the ground in ones and twos, then the whole group flew up and got stuck midair.
A direball was already taking shape in my hand. I took my time feeding more power into the spell, using my tier 4 boss ability to quadruple the mana intake. The savage side of me took great pleasure in watching my enemies wiggling, suspended helplessly, waiting for me to deliver the finishing blow.
The direball, having fed on more than 2,000 MP, grew larger than a wrecking ball. I flung it at the hovering group, and it was sucked into oblivion as soon as it neared them.
“One, two…”
I didn’t make it to three.
The ensuing explosion was so devastating, the shockwave knocked me, and everyone within 50 meters, onto their backs.
I was up again in a heartbeat and looked around to see the result of the destruction I’d wrought.
The group of 30 bouldites was gone. There was not enough remaining of them to even cover the ground in bloody body parts. Other bouldites, in over a hundred-meter radius from the center of the explosion, were also getting up, many of them injured.
Don’t go ratting me out, I warned. The odds are already stacked high enough against us; I don’t need to be nerfed again.
The reminder that the whole VI host watched our every move brought to mind the two guarding the cave. I had no doubt they could make our day a whole lot worse if they chose to participate, but a glance assured me they were still holding their posts outside the cave entrance.
Bouldite Hurler defeated! X 31
+37,200 XP
Level up! You have reached Character Level 82. You have 1 ability point to allocate.
“Thanks.” I quickly opened my character sheet and dropped the new point into Mental. My mana bar extended by a negligible 200 points, but every little bit helped.
The soldiers around me were already back on their feet and resumed shooting the enemies, and the deadly war machines kept raining death and destruction.
A glance at our perimeter showed a few more casualties along the wall, but it mostly looked like we were holding our own. The enchantment I’d put on the wall really made a difference.
A concentrated barrage hit a section of the wall behind me, slaughtering more defenders. I teleported over there. Another group of hurlers had banded together and were starting to dent our walls. They were also accompanied by some lieutenants that used their giant clubs to swat away some of the more deadly payloads our war machines launched at them. Another perfect target.
I drew out five, level 200 void crystals from my inventory and inhaled them, bringing back my mana reserves nearly to full, then started casting another Singularity.
The dot of concentrated darkness materialized above the attack group, spinning and sucking in air. It remained active for two whole seconds before a ray of fire shot out from amidst the enemy ranks and burned it away in an explosion of fire and darkness.
I knew what it meant.
The bouldite mages had arrived.
Surges of power and mana washed over the enemy forces, coating them with protective layers, erasing their injuries, or causing them to attack with renewed strength.
Fewer bouldites fell under our continued barrages, and more of them made it to the walls, pounding at them with enough force to send fractures spreading over the enchanted stone.
The true battle had just begun.
25 - Last Battle
“Sir!” a tech in a lab coat hurried over to his manager. “We’re reading increased cranial pressure. It’s getting higher by the second, almost in the red zone!”
“Damn it.” Jim clenched his fists. “He promised me he’d try to take it easy. I should have gone with my instincts and not allowed Oren back into the game.”
“Sir, you had no reason to believe this would escalate so quickly,” the technician protested. “I agree with your earlier evaluation that his situation was manageable for several more hours at least.”
“Will you give that as your expert opinion if you’re summoned to testify against me?” Jim let out a humorless chuckle. “I was wrong. I let Oren’s dangling bait of what’s at stake to influence me, and as a result, he might pay dearly for that. And it would be all my fault.”
“Sir—”
The head technician shook his head. “I should have pulled the plug as soon as we saw that spike after he logged in.”
�
�Sir, it lasted for barely two seconds, and his readings were steady for two and a half hours after that, there was no way—”
“Well, there is now.” Jim stood up. “Begin an unscheduled manual logout.”
“Of course. We’ll have Mr. Berman out of there in just a few minutes.”
A beeping sound followed by a blinking red light from the console next to the FIVR capsule drew their attention.”
“That’s not good,” the technician muttered.
Jim’s face clouded. “We’d better hurry.”
***
The bouldites finished descending from the surrounding hills and completely enveloped our battle fortress in a thick ring of bodies reaching back to the foothills. Our stronghold was like an island inside a sea of rock-skinned giants.
Our ranged attacks were making no discernible dent in our enemy’s forces by now, toppling only the singular bouldite now and then, and even the war machines’ deadly projectiles were inflicting mediocre damage at best.
In contrast, the damage we were taking was mounting. Fractures along the walls elongated and widened to actual cracks under the constant onslaught of club-wielding units and hundreds of boulders that smashed against them every few seconds. And it was only the closest ring of bouldites that were fighting; the rest of them were pressed at their backs, waiting for their turn to strike at us.
“There you are,” the army’s strategist said with obvious relief as Lirian and I teleported next to him. “It should be any moment now.”
“How long do you think the walls will hold?” I asked.
“Ten minutes? Fifteen? It’s hard to tell. Savol, that group over there looks like they need a boost.”
Life Reset: Salvation (Life Reset - Neo Book 6) Page 46