Stone Raiders' Return (Emerilia Book 6)

by Michael Chatfield

  Status:

  Level 9

  Effects:

  Greater understanding of Gravitational Anomalies.

  +90 to all stats

  Level 229

  You have reached level 229; you have 135 stat points to use.

  Dave looked at his new character sheet.

  Character Sheet

  Name:

  David Grahslagg

  Gender:

  Male

  Level:

  202

  Class:

  Dwarven Master Smith, Friend of the Grey God, Bleeder, Librarian, Aleph Engineer, Weapons Master, Champion Slayer, Skill Creator, Mine Manager, Master of Space and Time, Master of Gravitational Anomalies

  Race:

  Human/Dwarf

  Alignment:

  Chaotic Neutral

  Unspent points: 135

  Health:

  38,300

  Regen:

  21.56 /s

  Mana:

  14,180

  Regen:

  48.30 /s

  Stamina:

  4,440

  Regen:

  42.5 /s

  Vitality:

  383

  Endurance:

  1,078

  Intelligence:

  1,418

  Willpower:

  966

  Strength:

  444

  Agility:

  850

  With the loss of his Master Summoner class, he had lost 30 Willpower but with the stats from the Master of Space and Time as well as Gravitational Anomalies, it was easily replaced.

  He looked at a space in the room, conjuring a magically coded sphere.

  Conjuring now compared to before he leveled up and gained his classes was like night and day. He barely felt any strain. His higher Willpower made it easy to gain a clear picture of what he wanted to make; his higher Intelligence was like working with an AI. Instinctually, he added in and changed parts of the spell formation, making it easier and automatically linking the creation to his soul gem power sources instead of consciously having to think of it.

  “So, this is instantaneous casting,” Dave said. Around him dozens of spheres appeared, all floating in mid-air.

  Bob laughed, clapping his hands together in excitement and wonder at Dave’s newfound abilities. “Welcome to the big leagues, son! You’re now nearly as strong as Deia.” Bob grinned.

  “Thanks.” Dave looked at the spheres in interest. He changed some of their coding, his mind controlling each of them independently.

  They looked like simple metal orbs. They didn’t radiate any power but there was a solidness to them that would make many high-leveled people feel the hairs on their neck raise in alarm. The spheres started to rotate around Dave as if planets around a sun.

  “By my estimate, you should be beyond what the class system is willing to teach you. This means that as your class level goes up in the future, then you will not gain any more information but you will continue to gain stats,” Bob said.

  “That makes sense. It’s saying that I need to prove my own theories now to increase my class level,” Dave said thoughtfully.

  “Well, enough of that.” Bob stood. “Loughbreck and his forces have made it to Verlun. The rest of the guild is fighting out there. Esamael and the armies around Emaren have moved into the capital Haugr and are currently halfway through the city, fighting off the guards and local inhabitants as they make their way to the royal palace. They haven’t taken many losses, but they’re taking their time in making sure that no one gets in their lines. Deia is in Verlun.” Bob cocked his head to the side, as if seeing something else.

  “You should hurry. Loughbreck’s mages just activated a grand working that opens a portal to the shade realm, right between the Stone Raiders and their allies.”

  “Thank you, forwatching over me, Bob,” Dave said.

  “No worries. Now go and kick that idiot Esamael’s ass. We have much to talk about when you come back,” Bob said as Dave lifted up into the air, floating out of the room and then over the balcony toward the entrance of the laboratory.

  “No teleporting or higher gravity changes than point four or weapons more than three kilotons outside of the Aleph facilities unless it’s a spell! Otherwise, you’ll trip the AI hounds,” Bob said.

  “I’ll try my best.” Dave stepped on the ground and activated the door to open as he ran out of the laboratory and toward the teleport pad.

  His spheres continued to hover around him as he ran. His eyes glowed as the runes across his body became smaller, forming solid gray lines that traveled up his limbs, joining at the back of his neck in a circle. A single line traced over the back of his head and down his forehead to the bridge of his nose.

  Dave blinked and released his breath. Black lines stayed where the runes had been except for the line that traveled from the circle on his back to the bridge of his nose.

  With a thought and a surge of Mana, he activated the teleport pad in the power facility. The runes started to move. They finished their changes as Dave entered the teleport room. It powered up, the event horizon snapping into reality, as Dave stepped onto the teleport pad and exited into Verlun.

  He closed his eyes, using his Touch of the Land spell. A detailed image of the battlefield filled his mind. He once again called on his power. His spheres moved faster as he saw a distortion in the sky. He stared at it, quickly losing his interest as he saw a group of shades rushing toward Party Zero.

  “Well, time we sorted this mess out.” Dave took off into the air. He increased the gravity underneath him as well as his weight by activating two of his spheres. Keeping within Bob’s guidelines, he dropped to the ground, creating a crater as dust, dirt, and debris were thrown away.

  Dave’s spheres spread out as fast as bullets, slamming into those around his party, giving them room. Dave rolled his shoulders and grabbed his twin rods. One turned into a golden shield as the sword in his hand seemed to be made of pure Mana.

  “Well, it’s about time you woke up from your damned nap,” Steve said.

  “Ugh, think I got dirt down my back from yer landing!” Lox complained.

  “Your back? It’s down my feckin crack! Fucking mages!” Gurren yelled, taking out a soldier by slamming his shield into them so hard they flew back several feet into their allies.

  A flame-covered Elf zoomed into Dave, nearly tackling him to the ground. Deia crushed her lips against his.

  “Time and place, you two!” Suzy yelled.

  Deia quickly released him and the two of them looked at each other. They didn’t need to say anything, but Dave felt there would be plenty to talk about later.

  Deia floated upward, controlling her various spells that were causing havoc through Loughbreck’s formations.

  “Keep them off me for a few minutes. I think I can do something about the portals the shades are using!” Dave yelled over the fighting.

  “You heard him—cover Dave!” Deia yelled.

  Party Zero moved to cover their last member as Dave closed his eyes. The gray lines of compacted runes lit up under his armor and hood.

  Well, let’s hope I learned enough from those classes to make this work.

  Chapter 24: Game Changer

  Dave felt the portals. Understanding their creation, he felt the tears that bridged between Emerilia and the land where the shades had been pulled from.

  Power surged through him and his body shivered with power. He started to laugh. The ambient Mana he was drawing in filled the air as he looked to the spell formations that held the portals open.

  He recognized and compared runes, learning new ones as he held a hand up and pointed it at one of them. He fought with the spell formation, changing just a few runes. With the grand working, he wasn’t fighting against another Human mind that was liable to think of other things and fall into fear or pride.

  What he could accomplish by fighting against the mind of the caster, he could do with bringing more power to bear
on the spell formation in front of him. Mana shot out of his hand, connecting him to the doorway between realms.

  The runes slowly changed, painfully slow, taking seconds before switching to Dave’s form. The construct fell apart. There was no one to try to control the power output of the grand working.

  The doorway that was open one second snapped shut, cutting apart anything that was crossing through its abyssal event horizon.

  Dave focused on another portal. His armor drew in the power of the portal and a soul gem appeared in the air, holding the diverted energy as another doorway snapped closed.

  Dave got faster and faster. With different casters, there was sure to be different formations of spells, each one adding their own flair. It was like a piece of art: everyone had a different take and a different idea. This grand working was one idea repeated again and again and then stuffed with enough power to make it work.

  Taking down one meant that Dave knew how to take them all down.

  Mages seemed to understand what Dave was doing and targeted Party Zero.

  Malsour cast a barrier spell, grounding it around them and pulling from the Mana well.

  Hits flared overhead as they continued to fight the oncoming soldiers and shades.

  “Change the runes on the Mana barrier. Create Light runes—will give off an area of effect,” Dave said to Malsour.

  “I don’t know how to do that without breaking the current coding,” Malsour said.

  “Good thing you have me here!” Steve’s axe cut a mage nearly in two. He opened up his interface, using his left hand to type and his right hand to fight with an axe before sending it to Malsour. Spheres appeared around Dave as he enchanted them, linking them to the soul gem he had conjured and sending them on their way as soon as they had enough charge.

  Dave created a band around the soul gem, placing commands into it and the other spheres he was creating.

  “Got to love automation,” Dave said as he felt Malsour very carefully changing the spells on the Mana well’s casing. “Nothing like playing with nuclear waste to make a man nervous,” Dave commented.

  “What?” Malsour asked.

  “Nothing—nothing at all. Don’t worry about it!” Dave said innocently as the first of his flying spheres reached a portal. There was a flash of light and the portal collapsed in on itself. Bits of shades that had been walking through turned into wriggling limbs before they fell apart and dissolved into the air.

  Spheres stopped forming. There was a line waiting to touch the soul gem in the air to charge before they raced off.

  “Now, about those barriers.” Dave turned and looked at the barriers that were all over the place, covering Loughbreck’s soldiers and mages.

  “Okay, attacking them straight on is a no go. Though they do have that handy-dandy siphon feature, I don’t see too many safety features on it. Makes sense—less to stop a mage from charging it in the middle of battle,” Dave muttered.

  “Great—did you fall on your head while you were taking a nap?” Suzy said.

  “No?” Dave said.

  “Then, do something!” Suzy pushed him into action.

  “Okay.” Dave conjured carvers around the outer formations. They started cutting runes into the walls as he directed.

  “And, done!” Malsour shook a little bit as he wiped sweat from his forehead.

  The area under the Mana barrier started to glow slightly. The shades’ cries became louder as the power of Light within the Mana barrier counteracted their Dark Affinity and pulled apart their bodies. The stronger ones weren’t that heavily affected but the wounded and weaker ones were being pulled apart or forgetting about their prey completely as they were destroyed.

  “Remember to always have a power output rune on your coding, ladies and gents,” Dave said. Any loose Mana, souls, or weak spells within the octagonal fortress started to funnel together into a pure Mana vortex and poured into Dave’s armor, diverting out into soul gems that formed around him. New bands started to form around them.

  “What is that for?” Induca yelled over the noise.

  “Overcharging!” Dave yelled back, a wide smile on his face. Even as the soldiers nearby were pushed back by the force of the pure Mana channeling through Dave’s armor, he floated above the ground with his orbiting spheres and soul gems without moving an inch.

  ***

  Loughbreck had finally made it to the fortress walls, but he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Spells were ripped apart as they came near the Mana vortex that had formed within the center, its power overriding the cast spell formations.

  Every bit of power was ripped out of the surrounding area, channeling down into a floating man. As Loughbreck watched, he realized that they were items of some kind.

  “Take that man out! Get our elites in there now!” Loughbreck yelled to his aide.

  The Mana poured out of the man like a fountain pouring water into a pond, reaching floating soul gems as big as a man’s head.

  Then, the soul gems stopped just taking in power but further diverted it out, reaching out toward the different mobile barriers that had been stored within mages’ and soldiers’ bags of holding to keep them hidden.

  “He’s charging them,” one of the aides said in disbelief.

  Why the hell would the enemy charge our Mana barriers? Loughbreck’s face went slack.

  In training, they warned to not overcharge barriers. In battle, however, soul gems and mages regulated the amount of power going into them. Even a soldier with a bit of Mana was good enough to charge them.

  The first mobile barrier disappeared in a flash of light and the sound of breaking glass. Its runes, fatigued from hours of fighting, overloaded with power that it couldn’t regulate.

  The group hiding underneath were open to ranged attacks that wouldn’t have made it in otherwise.

  Mana from the soul gems reached out like tentacles searching for the next Mana barrier and then the next.

  Aerial forces took to the skies in force. Dwarven artillery picked up its pace, finding soft targets in their range. Arrows and spells that the Stone Raiders and their allies had been holding onto lashed out at the now soft targets.

  Loughbreck could feel it—the fear that now passed through his people as barriers failed across his lines.

  The Warclans advanced, parting to allow the Beast Kin/Demon force as well as the Aleph automatons forward. Blue spearheads flew from their hands, exploding on impact with Loughbreck’s front line soldiers; there was nowhere for them to go and their defenses were failing.

  Shades were being hunted down by parties of people who had Light Affinity. Few remained within the barrier that surrounded the defenders.

  Loughbreck grabbed the mage beside him, pulling their ear to his mouth. “Use the mind working,” Loughbreck hissed.

  The mage looked at him with wide and alarmed eyes.

  Loughbreck held her eyes, his sword in hand.

  “Yes, sir.” The mage pulled out the grand working from her satchel. Few even knew of its existence.

  The crystal started to glow as she imbued it with her own Mana and commanded it into action. The grand working flared to life, passing outward and spreading through all of Loughbreck’s soldiers.

  Mind magic was powerful stuff. If done right, it could make people break down into nightmares, never to recover again, or it could put people into a hallucination for the rest of their lives. It was created by melding the effects of medical ingredients and magical understanding.

  This grand working was not made to strike fear into the enemy; it was to strengthen the resolve of Loughbreck’s soldiers. It was a hallucinogenic that would allow them to feel no pain and feel confident in themselves and their victory.

  Afterward, it might cause people to break down from what they remembered themselves doing.

  That was later. Right now, Loughbreck needed to win in order to drive through to Haugr and support Lord Esamael.

  His people surged forward, as if seeing a new weakness
in their enemy’s lines.

  “Activate the last grand working and have someone take it within their Mana barrier,” he said to the mage.

  “Yes, sir.” The mage’s face was grim as the grand working fell to dust and she sent orders to others holding their last remaining grand working.

  Loughbreck’s remaining one hundred and ninety thousand soldiers were dying in the hundreds with every passing second now that they had no protection. Their headlong charge forward was slowing. The ranged attackers were focused on their front lines for fear of being overrun and cut down in close quarters. It didn’t help with the Stone Raiders who were among the attacker’s formations; their melee fighters had a harder time but still easily cut down two or three against one. Their mages buffed them and wreaked havoc on the ranged forces. Even though they were getting mobbed from every direction among enemy territory, Loughbreck saw something that didn’t belong on a battlefield: smiles.

  The Stone Raiders, even in overwhelming odds, grinnedfrom ear to ear. Their POEs were, for the large part, staying back with the Stone Raiders’ allies, but others were standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the Players.

  As Loughbreck heard the sounds of thousands of unnatural cries, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. The cries weren’t coming from within the fortress. They came from the fields around it.

  ***

  Dwayne slammed his shield against a soldier’s, tossing them back as his sword darted out. A soldier screamed, going down under their fellows’ feet. Dwayne tore his blade from them and brought it across. The blade cut through his next attacker’s armor as if it weren’t there.

  Dwayne fought with everything he had, but he had to be careful to not overextend himself.

  “They’re in some kind of berserker rage; I don’t know what’s going on. Treat them like zombies. Unless they’re dead, they’re a threat,” Kim said.